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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 45838 ***

                         THE A B C OF COOKING




                               The A B C

                                  of

                                Cooking


  For men with no experience of cooking on Small Boats, Patrol Boats, in
  Camps, on Marches, etc.


                               NEW YORK

                       MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY

                                 1917




                          Copyright, 1917, by
                       MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY




TO "FRED"


For the benefit of the Knitting Committee of THE AMERICAN DEFENSE
SOCIETY, which is knitting for American Soldiers and Sailors, and
it is hoped that both cook-book and knitted garments may help to make
more comfortable the men who are only too ready to do their bit.

                                 New York,
                                       May 26th, 1917.




CONTENTS


                                 PAGE

  Coffee                           11

  Tea                              11

  Cocoa                            11

  Oatmeal                          13

  Corn Meal                        13

  Hominy                           13

  Boiled Rice                      13

  Macaroni                         15

  Macaroni and Cheese              15

  Fried Potatoes and Onions        15

  Scrambled Eggs                   17

  Fried Eggs and Bacon             17

  Boiled Eggs                      17

  Baking Powder Biscuit            19

  Muffins                          19

  Fried Cracker or Hard Bread      21

  Fried Rice                       21

  Rice Griddle Cakes               21

  Fried Corn Meal Mush or Hominy   23

  Flap Jacks                       23

  Hoe Cake                         23

  Creamed Cod Fish                 25

  Baked Canned Salmon              25

  Fried Fish                       25

  Meat Stew                        27

  Canned Corned Beef Hash          27

  How to Fry Meats                 29

  Beef Steak and Onions            29

  How to Broil Meat                29

  Apple Sauce                      31

  Prunes                           31

  To Boil Fresh Potatoes           33

  To Boil Fresh String Beans       33

  To Boil Fresh Sweet Corn         33

  To Boil Fresh Peas               35

  How to Cook Canned Tomatoes      35

  How to Cook Canned Corn          35

  Rice Pudding                     35

  Peach Pie                        37

  Pastry                           37

  Fudge                            39




THE A B C OF COOKING




"_Unless the kettle boiling be, filling the tea pot spoils the tea._"


HOW TO MAKE COFFEE

  1 tablespoonful of coffee for each person
  and 1 for the pot
  1 cup of boiling water for each person
  and 1 for the pot

Put the coffee into the coffee pot, mix with cold water into a wet
paste. Pour on the boiling water and boil for five minutes slowly.

To make COFFEE WITH AN EGG, break an egg and mix it, shell and all,
with the paste, and make as above.


TEA

  1 teaspoonful of tea for a person, and
  1 for the pot
  1 cupful of boiling water, and 1  for
  the pot

Let it steep for three minutes.


COCOA

About 4 cups

  Heat 1 quart of milk
  2 teaspoonsful of cocoa

Mix the cocoa and a little of the warm milk to let it melt, and then
mix all together, keeping it on a slow fire.


OATMEAL FOR THREE PERSONS[1]

  ½ cup of oatmeal (Quaker Oats)
  1 quart of hot water.
  A pinch of salt

Boil fifteen minutes.


[1] Many of these recipes are given for three persons. For a smaller or
larger number decrease or increase ingredients in proper proportion.


CORN MEAL FOR THREE PERSONS

  ½ cup corn meal
  1 quart hot water
  Pinch of salt

Boil fifteen minutes.


HOMINY FOR THREE PERSONS

  ¼ of a cup of hominy, steeped in cold
  water over night

In the morning, boil fifteen or twenty minutes in a quart of hot water,
and a pinch of salt.


BOILED RICE FOR THREE PERSONS

  ½ cup of rice in two quarts of boiling
  water

Boil for fifteen minutes. Wash rice first.


MACARONI FOR THREE PERSONS

Break into inch pieces a cup full of macaroni, and cover with boiling
water in a saucepan. Add a little salt, and cook until soft (about an
hour). Keep covered with water while boiling.


MACARONI AND CHEESE

If you have an oven, take a pan or dish that can be put into the oven.
Put in a layer of boiled macaroni, some pieces of cheese, a little
mustard and salt, and a little butter. Then more macaroni and the other
things, until your dish is full. Fill the dish with milk, and bake in a
slow oven for half an hour. Put cheese on the top before baking.


FRIED POTATOES AND ONIONS

Slice some cooked or uncooked potatoes and slice some onions. Put into
a hot frying pan with fat, salt pork or bacon, and cook till soft and
brown.


SCRAMBLED EGGS

2 eggs to a person

Put butter, or fat, or bacon or salt pork in the frying pan (about 1
teaspoonful of butter for 3 or 4 eggs, and other frying material in
proportion). When hot, stir in the eggs, which have been broken into
a bowl and beaten, adding a little milk (1 tablespoonful for 2 eggs),
salt and pepper.


FRIED EGGS AND BACON

Put on the frying pan. When it is hot, put in the bacon. Cook for about
3 minutes, and put on a dish.

Then break one egg at a time in a saucer and put into the hot frying
pan, with the grease in it. You can put in as many eggs as there is
room for. Cook for two or three minutes.


BOILED EGGS

Boil in boiling water for 3 minutes for soft boiled.

Boil in boiling water for 5 minutes for hard boiled.


BAKING POWDER BISCUIT

  2 cups of flour
  4 teaspoonsful of baking powder
  1 teaspoonful of salt
  1 tablespoonful of lard
  1 tablespoonful of butter
  ¾ cup of milk and water in equal
      parts

Mix the dry ingredients as well as you can with a spoon, then add the
milk and water. Roll out and cut into biscuits, and bake about ten
minutes in medium hot oven.


MUFFINS

  4 cups of flour
  2 heaping teaspoonsful of baking powder
  1 tablespoonful of melted butter
  1½ cups of milk
  1 heaping teaspoonful of salt
  1 egg

Mix and sift flour, baking powder and salt together. Beat the egg and
add to milk. Then add the flour and melted butter. Bake in a moderate
oven.


FRIED CRACKER OR HARD BREAD

Dip the hard bread into cold water for a minute or two, not to get too
soft. Then fry in a hot frying pan in butter or bacon.


FRIED RICE FOR THREE PERSONS

Soak a cupful of rice over night.

In the morning, put rice in the frying pan with some bacon and cook
till soft.


RICE GRIDDLE CAKES

  ½ cup boiled rice
  1/4 cup of flour
  1 egg
  A pinch of salt
  1½ teaspoonsful of baking powder
  Enough milk to make a thin batter

When the griddle or pan is hot, fry the cakes in salt pork dripping or
lard, drop a spoonful at the time. These are good rice cakes.


FRIED CORN MEAL MUSH OR HOMINY

When corn meal or hominy has been boiled and cooled, cut into slices
and fry in bacon, salt pork or lard. Only one of a kind is needed to
fry with.


FLAP JACKS

  6 tablespoonsful of flour
  1/3 tablespoonful of baking powder

Mix this thoroughly

Add enough water to make a batter that will drop freely from the spoon.
Add a pinch of salt and two pinches of sugar.

Cook in hot frying pan, well greased, for five or seven minutes and
then turn with a quick toss and cook the other side.

HOE CAKE can be made exactly the same as flap jacks by substituting
corn meal for flour.


CREAMED COD FISH FOR THREE PERSONS

Soak the fish over night--about a pound. In the morning, boil for ten
or fifteen minutes. Pour off the water and pick out the bones. Put on
and stew in some milk, a little butter and a teaspoonful of flour,
stirred in milk, and stir in the whole.


BAKED CANNED SALMON

Put a can of salmon in a dish to bake, a lump of butter the size of
a walnut, pepper and salt, and fill up the dish with milk. Put some
cracker crumbs and a little butter on the top, and bake in the oven for
10 minutes.

You can get cracker crumbs by rolling some hard tack with a
rolling-pin. Or a bottle makes a pretty good roller on a clean board if
you have no bread board.


FRIED FISH

Wash and clean the fish (split a whole fish), and cover with a little
flour and a little salt and pepper. Put into a hot frying-pan, with
some fat, salt pork or bacon, and cook one side till brown, and then
the other side.


MEAT STEW

  6 onions
  1 can tomatoes
  1 can corn
  1 dozen potatoes, washed and peeled
      and cut into pieces.
  Couple of pounds of any meat (either
      cooked or uncooked)
  Some salt and pepper, and then add
      2 quarts of water.

Let all this stew for an hour, slowly.


CANNED CORNED BEEF HASH

1 cup of chopped or cut-fine corned beef, to 2 cups of chopped or
cut-fine potatoes (either raw or cooked) with a little milk or water to
moisten it, and some butter to make it taste good. Cook in a hot frying
pan, with either bacon, or salt pork to keep from sticking.

You can make hash of any kind of cold meat and potatoes and a little
butter. If you have any fresh meat, chop or cut it up, add potatoes and
some onions, and a can of tomatoes, salt and pepper, and it will be
lovely mess.

(Onions or not, as you like.)


HOW TO FRY MEATS

Put a small amount of grease in the frying pan, or salt pork, and when
quite hot put in the steak. If the steak is about half inch thick, fry
for about 1 minute before turning. Salt and pepper to taste.

Beef, veal, pork and mutton can be done in the same way.


BEEF STEAK AND ONIONS

Follow the recipe for steak. Slice in some raw onions--about six to a
pound of steak--and have enough grease to cook without burning.


HOW TO BROIL MEAT

Put the broiler on, and when hot put on the meat for about two or three
minutes. Then turn and cook on the other side. Add a little salt,
pepper and butter.


APPLE SAUCE FOR THREE

  Pare and slice one quart of apples
  2 tablespoonsful of sugar

Cover all this with cold water, and boil for twenty minutes to a half
hour.

You can make nice apple sauce with evaporated apples, but they must be
soaked over night.


PRUNES

  Soak prunes over night.
  2 cups of prunes
  1½ tablespoonsful of sugar

Boil till soft--about thirty minutes.


TO BOIL FRESH POTATOES

Either peeled or in their jackets

Put into boiling water, with a little salt, and boil for 20 minutes to
half an hour.


TO BOIL FRESH STRING-BEANS

Pull the strings off, and cut into pieces into a bowl of cold water.
Drain water off, and cook in boiling water for 20 minutes. Pour off the
water, and add pepper, salt and a little butter.


TO BOIL FRESH SWEET CORN

Husk and remove the corn silk. Cook in boiling water for fifteen
minutes.

Use the corn silk for cigarettes!!


TO BOIL FRESH PEAS

Shell the peas, and put them into boiling water--enough to cover them.
Then cook for half an hour, or until soft. Drain off the water, and put
on a little butter, pepper and salt.


HOW TO COOK CANNED TOMATOES

Stew for five to ten minutes. Put in some cracker crumbs (to thicken),
a little butter, salt and pepper.


HOW TO COOK CANNED CORN

Stew for five or six minutes, and add a little salt, pepper and butter.


RICE PUDDING FOR FOUR PEOPLE

  1 quart of milk
  2 heaping tablespoonsful of rice
  A little salt
  1 tablespoonful of sugar

A little nutmeg grated if you have it

Mix this all together, and put in a slow oven. Give one stir after
about ten minutes, and then cook in a slow oven ¾ of an hour.


PEACH PIE FOR FOUR PEOPLE

To make peach pie from evaporated peaches, soak one cup of evaporated
peaches over night. In the morning, stew with 1½ tablespoonsful of
sugar about twenty minutes.


PASTRY

  2 cups of flour--sifted
  2 heaping tablespoonsful of lard (or half butter and half lard)
  A little salt

Mix flour, lard and salt well together, and then add enough cold water
to make the dough soft enough to roll out. If it sticks to the rolling
pin, use a little flour. Then grease the pie plate, and take half of
the dough, rolled out flat, and cover the pie plate. Cut off the edge
with a knife. Then put in your fruit. Take the other half of your
dough, rolled out for a top, and cut around the edge with a knife, and
then press all around the edge with a fork, to make the edges stick
together. Then you will have one grand pie.

This pie crust recipe will do for any kind of pie. Evaporated apples
should be cooked the same as peaches.

All dry fruit should be soaked over night.


IF STARVING FOR A TASTE OF CANDY MAKE FUDGE

  1 cake unsweetened Baker's Chocolate
  4 cups of sugar
  2 cups of milk, piece of butter about the size of an egg (little
    generous)

Boil for half to three-quarters of an hour, then take off the fire and
beat till it gets a little thick, and pour into a buttered tin. You can
tell if it is done by stirring a little in a saucer.




                          TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES

-Obvious print and punctuation errors fixed.

-Cover image has been produced by transcriber and placed in public domain.





End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The ABC of Cooking, by Adelin Balch Coit

*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 45838 ***