Home Haven Homemaking Lesson with Soups

It's been right at a year since I've posted from the book

THE ART OF COOKING AND SERVING

by Sarah Field Splint.

This book is nearly 86 years old and filled with wonderful information and recipes.

Some things are worth hanging onto.

Wish I had shared earlier when the weather was colder,

but soups are delicious anytime.

God Bless your meal times

when you're having fellowship with Family and Friends or alone.

Soups on,

d

~Soups and Salads~

Home Haven Homemaking Lesson Recipes

Part 3 of Chapter V

WELCOME to Home Haven!

 Homemaking Lesson Chapter V Recipes 

from my 1926 copy of

The ART OF COOKING AND SERVING

Deep Fat Frying

Before you turn your nose up at these recipes, please keep in mind that if these foods are properly prepared, the flavors will be locked in, resulting in a delicious dish.

If you cannot read the complete recipe and would like to be able, just leave me a comment and I'll type it up for you.

 

Hope this helps,

~Deanna~

Home Haven Homemaking Lesson with SECRETS

Part 2 of Chapter V

Before sharing SUCCESS SECRETS

found in Chapter V

of

The ART OF COOKING AND SERVING

by Sarah Field Splint

Some highlights from my March 4th lengthy post about Deep Fat Frying were:

1) there are two forms of frying, sauteing and frying in deep fat.

2) in both forms of frying, the French are past masters and is one of the reasons their food has such delicacy, flavor and variety.

3) a fact to be learned by heart is that when fat begins to smoke it begins to decompose.



SUCCESS SECRETS



1.  Never allow Crisco to get hot enough to smoke.

2.  Do not fill frying kettle more than two-thirds full of Crisco.

3.  Allow Crisco to heat gradually, starting it in a cold utensil.

4.  Use a wire basket, fitting loosely into the kettle, to lift food in and out of the hot fat.  A long handled slit spoon or skimmer will serve the purpose if you haven't a basket.

5.  Do not attempt to cook too much food in the fat at one time.

6.  When food is cooked remove it immediately and drain on unglazed paper to absorb any excess fat.

7.  Always strain Crisco after using; then cool it quickly.

8.  Be sure that all food to be fried, which has been previously washed or soaked in cold water, is thoroughly dried.

9.  When testing the temperature of hot fat with a thermometer hold it in the center of the kettle so that the mercury bulb is covered but does not touch the bottom.

10. If a thermometer for testing temperature of fat is not available, use the following tests with a cube of soft bread:

TEMPERATURE

340 degree F. - 375 degree F.

BREAD TEST

Cube of bread turns light brown in 50 to 60 seconds

KIND OF FOOD

Uncooked mixtures as doughnuts and fritters, also small pieces of raw foods, as oysters, clams, etc. 

TEMPERATURE

375 degree F. - 400 degree F.

BREAD TEST

Cube of bread turns light brown in 40 to 50 seconds

KIND OF FOOD

Previously cooked mixtures as croquettes, fish cakes, also French fried potatoes, potato chips

11.  Cook frequently in deep, hot Crisco.  It is an economical method of cooking, as well as a means of bringing delicious and tempting looking foods to your table.

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The sweetest lessons in Homemaking came to me as a child playing house and making mud pies in the backyard.  Rocking my Baby Dolls and teaching myself to sew by hand were high lights.  7th Grade Home Economics class and trying to make the grade just about soured me on being domestic.  My 7th Grade Home Ec. teacher was a very difficult woman to understand and I made a 'D' on my Report Card even though I made above average grades on the tests.  I completed my projects on time and they weren't graded under a C.  My attendance was good and I contributed to the classroom discussions. 

The only 'D' I ever made through out my academic career was given to me by this bitter person.  She didn't like my older sister.  My mother dared to visit with the teacher about my sister.  If you put two and two together, you'd figure this one out...I should have spoken up and heard the teacher's reasoning.  I was too shy to bark.  Wish I had.  I didn't like how it felt receiving a 'D' on a Report Card....so I made a huge effort to never get another one.

These days as a 55 year old...I bark...bow wow.

~Deanna~

Home Haven Homemaking Lesson

Part 1 of Chapter V

When I type up the Home Haven Homemaking Lessons,

the thoughts of what Sarah Field Splint shares in her book,

The 

ART OF 

COOKING 

AND 

SERVING 

seems to register a little deeper with me.  Because I'm not a typist, the amount of time and effort it takes to look at the words then transfer to the computer keyboard, check the body of the article, correct typing errors and faulty grammar compositions...the information I have read, typed and reread transpires into a healthier comprehension than what comes from a flippant skim over.

MY personal LIFE LESSON that comes from this technique helps me understand what I read and could possibly use in my personal space called HOME LIFE.  It helps.

I'm guilty of rushing through certain parts of life not acknowledging that I did not always savor the moment by operating in a relaxed state.

Guilty.  Thank God this state of life didn't rest with me.  I'd work at and/or make a conscience effort to make changes that were a better fit toward being a relaxed momma that was a homemaker, wife and child of God.

CHAPTER V of the book is a bit wordy for my typing abilities, so I'm going to split this up.  From what I have been exposed to in a World's Culture that SEARCHES for the Fountain of Youth and going GREENer.......deep fat frying has gained a bad reputation. 


I'm curious what Sarah has to say about it since this book went to print before I was even a twinkle in my momma's eye.

Here goes:

CHAPTER V

Deep Fat Frying

FRYING is the one phase of cooking of which the average housewife has still a lot to learn.  Either she fries food haphazardly, ignorant of the scientific principles back of the process, and with sad results to her family's digestions; or, believing all fried foods are indigestible, she veers to the other extreme and entirely avoids frying.

Of deep fat frying she oftens knows nothing.  And yet foods, properly fried, have a savor and delicacy which almost no other form of cooking can develop, and they hold no terrors for the digestion.  In that one word, "properly," lies the whole secret.

One cannot speak of frying without differentiating between the two forms of frying, sauteing and frying in deep fat.  They are two distinct methods, each with its fine points.  Sauteing is cooking in a small amount of hot fat; deep fat frying means cooking in a kettle of hot fat, in which the food is immersed.  In both of these forms of frying the French are past masters and this is one of the reasons why their food has such delicacy, flavor and variety.

The sauteing method is frequently used to sear over the outside of meat and poultry which are to be cooked in water, as for stews, fricassees and meat pies, the hot Crisco causing a coating to be formed over the surface which prevents loss of flavor in the process of stewing or simmering.  Fish cakes, hash and fried eggs are just a few of the familiar foods cooked by this method.  Fritters and croquettes may also be sauteed if preferred, but the appearance is not quite so perfect as when cooked in deep fat and the food is more likely to absorb Crisco, so the latter method is recommended in this book.

Certain fish cut in small pieces, such as fillets, and thin fish, like butter fish, are usually sauteed instead of cooked in deep Crisco.  Just as for deep frying the Crisco should be hot--but not smoking--when the food is put into it.

To wipe out that bugaboo of the indigestibility of anything that is fried, one must keep in mind two cautions, first--as to the kind of fat used for frying and the way it is used; second--as to the preparation of food to be fried.  A fact to be learned by heart is that  when fat begins to smoke it begins to decompose. 

It then tends to become less digestible and to lose some of its nutritive value.  A fat which decomposes at a comparatively low temperature, like butter, lard and some vegetable fats, has to be be used with much greater care than Crisco.

Crisco has the advantage of a very high smoking point.  There is no reason why, in frying, Crisco should be heated enough to reach the decomposition point.  Lard, an animal fat, smokes at a much lower temperature, thus demanding much greater vigilance on the part of a cook if decomposition and the resulting indigestible products are to be avoided.

Various fine points are worth remembering in preparing food to be fried in deep fat.  "Egging and crumbing," for instance, prevent fat from being absorbed by the food, because heat coagulates egg proteins and quickly forms a protective coating through which grease cannot penetrate.  Such foods as oysters, scallops, croquettes and cutlets are always dipped in egg and crumbs before frying.

The egg for this purpose should be beaten slightly and mixed with two tablespoons of water.  For the crumbs used dried bread, rolled out and sifted, or you can buy crumbs in a package if you have no stale bread on hand.  Roll the food to be fried in the crumbs, then dip it into the egg mixture and roll again in crumbs.  This makes a heavy coating and a crisp, tender outside crust is formed when the food comes in contact with hot Crisco.  A second important point is that foods for frying should be as dry as possible before they are put into the kettle.  If you soak French fried potatoes in cold water before frying-- as you should to remove some of the starch--dry them thoroughly in a clean towel before dropping them into the Crisco.  This makes them wonderfully crisp and tender.

The vessel for deep fat frying should contain enough Crisco to float the food without being so full that it will bubble over.  Also it is essential to drain all fried foods as they are taken from the hot Crisco.  This is easily done by dropping them into a pan lined with unglazed paper.

With these few definite facts in mind a housewife can successfully add to her culinary program a number of dishes which lend a welcome variety to the family menus.  Not only does deep fat frying open up new and interesting avenues in cooking, but it offers ways for subtly disguising and utilizing leftovers which the family might otherwise reject.  It is a very economical process as well, because it means short cooking with a consequent saving of time and fuel.  And one more point in its favor--food immersed in hot fat has all of its juices closed in and so retains its full flavor.

Crisco which has been for frying is not discarded but may be used again and again without losing its sweetness.  It should be cooled rather rapidly, not left to simmer indefinitely on the back of the stove.  On the other hand it should not be plunged into the ice box, but merely set in some cool place.  When partly cooled, it should be strained through a fine sieve or cheesecloth to free it from any particles of food.

If later any taste or odor should be discerned in Crisco which has been used for frying, it is safe to prophesy that particles of food, which should have been carefully strained out, have been left in it to become stale and rancid.

Clarify Crisco more thoroughly by occasionally melting it over a gentile heat.  When melted drop in slices of raw potato, allowing them to cook slowly until brown.  The potato, being porous, will absorb small particles of food material.  The Crisco should then be strained through a double thickness of cheesecloth and allowed to cool quickly.  The fact that Crisco can be used many times makes it very economical.

One should not keep Crisco in the ice box.  It does not become rancid in average temperature.

To be continued with SUCCESS SECRETS.......

**************************************************************************

Hope you enjoyed this read.

Good 'ole Crisco.

~Deanna~

Home Haven Homemaking Lesson

Pleasant Greetings to you.

Hope your week is going well.

I'm revisiting my old 1926 book for my homemaking lesson to 
learn something new about something old concerning the details of running a HOME.

'How To Plan Your Meals' 

is covered in Chapter IV of

The

 ART OF COOKING and SERVING

by Sarah Field Splint

DON'T you sometimes wonder what you have to show for the time and thought you spend on the family meals?  Three meals a day, seven days a week - on and on, year after year!  No business man cares to "plod away" unless his work gains significance, and why should you, you may have thought resentfully.  Yet yours more than any other occupation has compensations to offer.

Look at your children's rosy cheeks and happy dispositions; your husband's good health, the general feeling of content and happiness that pervades your home.  All these are a result of your thought and planning, and surely they are worth all the energy they cost.

And you have accomplished all this in spite of the bewildering technical information hurled at your devoted head when all you needed to know were a few large embracing facts.

Here they are, then!

The body needs food for these purposes: 

(1) To build new bone and tissue,

(2) to supply energy,

(3) to regulate the processes of digestion, elimination, respiration and so forth.

Just which foods are best equipped to do this work are shown in the following table:

WHAT FOODS DO FOR YOU

These build Bone and Tissue

PROTEINS

Eggs

Milk

Cheese

Meat

Fish

Poultry

Legumes (peas, beans, and lentils)

Nuts

MINERALS

Fruits

Vegetables

Meats

Milk

Eggs

Cereals

These supply Energy

FATS

Crisco

Salad oil

Cream and Butter

Nuts

Fatty meats, bacon, sausage, etc.

CARBOHYDRATES (Starch and Sugar)

Cereal foods- breakfast cereal,

rice, hominy, macaroni, potatoes

Sweets- sugar, candy, sweet desserts, molasses, syrups, honey

These regulate Your Body's Processes

ROUGHAGE

Coarse breads and cereals

Vegetables

Fruit

Nuts

MINERAL MATTER

Fruits

Vegetables

Meats

Milk

Eggs

VITAMINS

Milk and eggs

Cooked green leafy vegetables (chard, spinach, beet tops, etc.)

Raw vegetables (celery, tomatoes, cabbage, etc.)

Fruits

WATER

Do you see how simple this chart makes menu planning?

Be sure to give your family a food from each of these classifications at least once a day if you want them to have a well balanced diet.

An even easier guide to complete nutrition is what is known as the "protective diet."  Leading physiological chemists have proven beyond a doubt that a quart of milk, a cooked leafy vegetable and some raw vegetable food in each person's diet each day are a complete protection against under-nourishment.

To make this statement a more practical guide to the planning of meals let's say that everyone should eat twice each day a salad of some uncooked fruits or vegetables, once each day a liberal serving of a cooked green vegetable, and in addition not less than a pint (if possible, a quart) of milk or its equivalent.

The reasons for this choice of foods are several.  In the first place, salads contain vitamins in considerable amounts.  Most of them also encourage chewing, which helps to keep the teeth in good condition.

The cooked leafy vegetables contain important vitamins, as well as necessary mineral elements.  

The milk supplies lime and calcium and other minerals constituents of the body and is rich in the 

health-producing vitamin A.  There are also proteins of high quality.  Milk is the only food which can adequately supply certain building material for the growing child.


And, so, if this protective scheme is followed, you can serve whatever other foods you choose.  It does not deprive your family of their favorite dishes.

The "protective diet" is not expensive because the most nutritious vegetables are often quite low priced.  Green cabbage, for instance, contains all three vitamins and the important mineral salts.  It is also valuable for its "roughage" qualities, which keep the intestines scoured out and in healthy condition.
Other cheap but nutritious vegetables are spinach, kale, tomatoes, yellow turnips, yellow squash and carrots.  These are all within the scope of every family's budget and one or another of them should not fail to appear on the menu every day.

If you have raw fruit for breakfast or serve it as dessert for luncheon or dinner you need not have two salads that day; one will be sufficient.  The point is to get some raw food into your diet, and salads seem a safe and popular way of getting it.

In some localities salad greens, such as lettuce and romaine, may not be obtainable at all seasons, but fortunately cabbage, one of the most nutritious and economical salad plants, can always be had.  It is delicious shredded and served very crisp and cold with cooked or mayonnaise dressing.  Or it can be used as the  foundation for other more hearty salads.

It may sound more difficult to carry out the "quart of milk" schedule, but when you consider the many ways other than drinking that milk can be included in the diet, it is  not so formidable as it sounds.  Cereals use lots of milk, as do cream soups.  Vegetables, meat, and fish served in white sauce are a means of getting a little into the diet and there are many desserts such as baked custards, blanc mange, ice creams, tapioca, rice and bread puddings, which are made almost entirely of milk.

Evaporated milk, diluted with water, or milk powder may be substituted for fresh milk in cooking if desired, but will not take the place of whole milk as a beverage for children.

Besides providing proper nourishment the ideal meal should furnish variety in flavor, texture, form and color.  Eye appeal is almost synonymous with appetite appeal, and a meal consisting of cream of celery soup, creamed chicken, mashed potatoes, cauliflower and baked custard might fulfill all nutrition requirements but would be so monotonous in appearance that it would completely fail in its mission.  Some sharp contrast in flavor, like currant jelly, and in texture, like crisp, green lettuce, would add much to the interest of this meal.

When there are left-overs to be used up, plan to disguise them.  Souffles and croquettes are not recognizable as Sunday's roast, and crisp fritters with cheese sauce will be spurned by no one even if they are the survivors of last night's vegetables.  And whenever your ingenuity fails look into this little book for friendly help.

********************************************************************************

I liked this chapter.  Wish it had been one of the earlier ones, but then I suppose Sarah had a very good reason to place the chapters in the order she desired.


Blessings to you and may you have a great week-end!
O HaPpY Day the week-end is on the way!
  
God bless you,
~Deanna~

Home Haven Homemaking Lesson

Mercy sakes...it has been a while since I typed up 

a chapter from my 1926 COPY of 

The 

ART OF 

COOKING and SERVING

by Sarah Field Splint

Christmas 2010 has come and gone.

I rang in the new year and then got a horrible head cold.

Celebrated a Grand Daughter's 4th Birthday.

Worked on stripping ancient wall paper off the family room walls...still working on it.

Started Spring Cleaning early.

Coffee Party.

In February we will celebrate 2 Grandsons and a Daughter-in-law's Birthdays!!!!!

A brother-n-law's birthday... and 2 nieces are expecting.

Valentine's Day is just a few days.

Which warms my soul.

It's been a while since I read anything in my book.

I've missed it.
Reading this material feeds my homemaking hunger.

Wanted to get back at it and thought this week would be a great time to do this.

So here goes as I enter into 

CHAPTER III

Helpful Cooking Equipment

AFTER you have the indispensable "pots and pans" for your kitchen and it's a question of what to add next, do you sometimes wonder what to buy?

Or perhaps you realize that the preparation of food is a lot more trouble than it should be.  When you begin to look around for ways and means to make it easier, do you know which of the up-to-date devices save labor?

Or possibly you're a thrifty housewife who doesn't like to see food wasted, and yet that old casserole has been so overworked the family sighs on seeing it.  What you need is a new baking dish or a few individual ones to give those unavoidable left-overs an appearance of exciting novelty.

On the other hand, you may have solved these particular difficulties and want to know just what equipment you will need to add attractive, original touches and tempting garnishes to your dishes.  A little "dressing-up" will often make the simplest food a delight to the eyes of your family and friends.  For instance, potatoes ~most prosaic of foods! - take on a new interest when you cut them with a fancy cutter before frying them; a plain pudding or molded dessert prepared in a fancy mold gains a prestige it never had before; and the most easily made vegetable, meat or fish salad becomes a party dish if a few fancy-cut garnishes of beet, pimento or green pepper are added.

Whatever your problem this chapter will help you.  It has many suggestions from the most efficient equipment for deep fat frying to the latest implements for making fancy cake icings and the vegetables garnishes.

This does not mean that you will need them all, but certain of them you will surely want, and a few minutes of "eye" shopping here will save you many hours of wearisome looking in the stores.

May you have all the cooking equipment you need in the Kitchen
as well as all the tools you will need in Life!

Have a great week and a sweet day,
~Deanna~

Home Haven Homemaking Lesson

December blessings to you with all the sweetness you can stand!

Today instead of the usual sharing from my 1926 copy of Sarah Field Splint's book 

THE ART OF Cooking and Serving 

with Chapter 3 Helpful Cooking Equipment, 

I'm jumping over to CHAPTER 25 

Menus for Special Occasions.

Sarah's menu for Christmas is as follows:

Christmas

Oysters on Half-Shell 
      Stuffed Celery ~ Ripe Olives                      

Cream of Mushroom Soup

Bread Sticks

Roast Goose or Duck ~ Fried Apples

Glace Sweet Potatoes                      Creamed Cauliflower

Dinner Rolls                                     Currant Jelly

Heart of Lettuce Salad

Mince Pie     French Ice Cream

Nuts and Mints

Coffee

This sounds delicious to me and helps me to relax a bit more about having a formal meal on Christmas Day.  I tend to get too worked up over entertaining.  

The way my small Dining~room is set up I will place the meat dish, dinner rolls with butter on the main dining~room table along with the relish items and salt/pepper.  The salads and cooked vegetables, nuts and mints will be placed on the sideboard/buffet.  Dishes will be stacked on the buffet and the silverware will be rolled in napkins placed in a basket.  Beverages will be passed out after everyone is seated.  More than likely it will be iced tea and water.

After we have ate the main meal, the buffet dishes will be removed and replaced with dessert.  The dessert dishes and silverware will be placed on the buffet along with a coffee urn, cups, saucers, stir spoons, creams and sugars.  Sodas will be in the kitchen.  It will be a Help Yourself Buffet.  

If my parents come for the day they will sit at the main table.  Children and Grandchildren will be seated in Family~room.

It looks like we will be purchasing a stainless steel coffee urn and fold up chairs with card table from Sam's.  I have been eye balling a urn for about 8 years...think it is overdue!

This week I will continue to clean the house for Christmas and decorating.  Next week, I'll be making the menu out for our holiday and doing the shopping for the goods.  I need God's peace on all of this.  Being ill has slowed me down and I get aggravated at how slow I move.

Even when you are good at planning or prepare way ahead of time, you gotta go with the punches.  Life.   Handle with prayer and preparations so your patience doesn't run out.

Me, myself, and I are in need of prayer.  I have been weaning myself off of some medicine I was put on when my heart was beating irregular.  My husband and daughter are witnesses as to how cranky this has made me.  I am hoping that within the week I will be cheerier.

~Deanna~