cook delicious meals

Allow 1 large potato for each person. Wash and bake in a hot oven, then open and scoop into a heated bowl. Mash and for each potato, add ½ a teaspoonful of Gruyere (Swiss) cheese, grated, salt and pepper to taste, and the stiffly whipped whites of three eggs for ½ a dozen potatoes. Beat well, turn into a pastry bag and press out in heaps on a buttered pan. Brush with beaten egg yolk and brown in a quick oven.—From "Table Talk," Phila.

Water boiling slowly has the same temperature as when boiling rapidly, and will do just the same amount of work; there is, therefore, no object in wasting fuel to keep water boiling violently.
Stewing is the most economical method of cooking the cheaper and tougher cuts of meats, fowl, etc. This method consists in cooking the food a long time in sufficient water to cover it—at a temperature slightly below the boiling point.
Braising. In this method of cooking, drippings or fat salt pork are melted or tried out in the kettle and a bed of mixed vegetables, fine herbs and seasoning placed therein. The article being cooked is placed on this bed of vegetables, moisture is added and the meat cooked until tender at a low temperature. The last half hour of cooking the cover is removed, so that the meat may brown richly.
In broiling and grilling, the object is first to sear the surface over as quickly as possible, to retain the rich juices, then turn constantly until the food is richly browned. Pan-broiling is cooking the article in a greased, hissing-hot, cast-iron skillet, turning often and drawing off the fat as it dries out.
Sautéing is practically the same as pan-broiling, except that the fat is allowed to remain in the skillet. The article is cooked in a small amount of fat, browning the food on one side and then turning and browning on the other side.
Frying. While this term is sometimes used in the sense of sautéing it usually consists of cooking by means of immersion in deep, hot fat. When frying meats or fish it is best to keep them in a warm room a short time before cooking, then wipe dry as possible. As soon as the food has finished frying, it should be carefully removed from the fat and drained on brown paper.
Use for this dry bread crumbs, grated and sifted, crackers rolled and sifted, or soft stale bread broken in pieces and gently rubbed through croquette basket; the eggs should be broken into a shallow plate and slightly beaten with a fork to mix the white thoroughly. Dilute the eggs in the proportion of two tablespoons cold milk or water to every egg. The crumbs should be dusted on the board; the food to be fried should be lightly crumbed all over, then dipped into egg so as to cover the article entirely, then rolled again in bread crumbs. Sometimes, as in cooking fish, flour is used for the first coating in place of the crumbs, the article being then dipped into the egg mixture, then with crumbs and then fried.
Consists of introducing small strips of fat, salt pork or bacon through uncooked meat. To lard, introduce one end of the lardoon (the small strip of fat) into a larding needle and with the pointed end take up a stitch one-half inch deep and one-half inch wide. Draw the needle through carefully so that the ends of the lardoon may project evenly over the surface of the meat. Oftentimes, however, thin slices of fat, salt pork or bacon are placed over the meat as a substitute for larding, although it does not give quite the same delicious flavor or look so attractive.
Consists of adding a pickle, composed of vinegar and oil, to the ingredients of some combination used in salad making.
For washing dishes and cleaning pots and pans use a solution made by dissolving a teaspoonful or so of Gold Dust Washing Powder in a dish-pan full of water. If the cooking utensils have become charred or stained in cooking, sprinkle some Polly Prim Cleaner on a damp cloth and rub utensil thoroughly. After scouring, rinse the article well in hot water, and wipe dry. Use Polly Prim Cleaner also, for cleaning cutlery and for keeping the refrigerator clean and sweet.

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Stir up all packed materials, like mustard in its box, and sift flour before measuring. Fill cup without shaking down, and dip spoon in material, taking up a heaped measure, then with a knife scrape off toward the tip till you have level measure. Pack butter or Cottolene in cup so there will be no air spaces. A scant cup means one-eighth less and a heaped cup about one-eighth more than a level cup.
Divide a level spoon lengthwise for a half measure, and a half spoon crosswise for quarters or eighths. A pinch means about one-eighth, so does a saltspoon; less means a dash or a few grains.
A rounded tablespoon means filled above the rim as much as the spoon hollow below, and equals two of level measure. It also equals one ounce in weight, and two rounded tablespoons if put together would heap a tablespoon about as high as would an egg, giving us the old-time measure of "butter size of an egg," or two ounces, or one-fourth the cup.
Except in delicate cake, or where it is creamed with sugar, and in pastry—where it should be chilled to make a flaky crust, Cottolene or butter may be most quickly and economically measured after it is melted. Keep a small supply in a granite cup, and when needed, stand the cup in hot water, and when melted, pour the amount desired into the spoon or cup. For all kinds of breakfast cakes, it is especially helpful to measure it in this way.
Soda, baking powder, spices, etc., are generally measured with a teaspoon, level measure, for this gives the proportional amount needed for the cup measure of other materials.

STANDARD TABLE OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

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Take a 6 or 8 pound piece of round of beef. Heat a large skillet very hot, grease with a bit of fat from the meat and quickly sear and brown the meat on all sides. With a sharp knife cut gashes around the sides and sprinkle in each gash salt, pepper and a pinch of cloves. Place in a deep baking dish with 3 blades of mace, 1 cupful of capers or pickled nasturtium seeds, a bunch of parsley, 3 sliced lemons, and sufficient claret to almost cover the meat. Cover closely and bake in a moderate oven for 4 hours. Serve hot or cold. If hot slightly thicken the gravy, season to taste and serve.

HOW TO USE COTTOLENE

The General Care of Cottolene

Exercise the same care and judgment with Cottolene as you would with butter, lard or olive oil; keep it in a moderately cool place when not in use, just as you would butter—so that its best qualities may be preserved.
Moreover, just because you occasionally buy strong butter or rancid lard which your grocer has kept in too warm a place, you do not denounce all butter or lard and give up their use; neither would it be fair to condemn Cottolene simply because your grocer may not have kept it properly. No fat will keep sweet indefinitely without proper care.

The Use of Cottolene for Shortening

Of course, the recipes in this book indicate the exact amount of Cottolene to be used. In your other recipes, however, a general, and important, rule for the use of Cottolene is:
Use one-third less Cottolene than the amount of butter or lard given in your recipe.
For cake-baking, cream the Cottolene as you would butter, adding a little salt; Cottolene contains no salt. For other pastry handle exactly the same as directed for either butter or lard, using one-third less.

The Use of Cottolene in Frying

In sauntering, browning or "shallow frying" (as it is sometimes called) use only enough Cottolene to grease the pan. The Cottolene should be put into the pan while cold and, after the bottom of the pan is once covered with the melted Cottolene, more can be added as desired. Add more fat when you turn the food.
Cottolene can be heated to a much higher temperature without burning than either butter or lard, but—unless allowed to heat gradually—the Cottolene may burn and throw out an odor, just as would any other cooking-fat.

For deep frying, have Cottolene at least deep enough to cover, or float, the article being fried, heating slowly. For uncooked mixtures, such as doughnuts, fritters, etc., test with one-inch cubes of stale bread. The cubes of bread should brown a golden brown in one minute; or test with a bit of dough, which should rise at once to the top with some sputtering. Make this test always,—never trust your eye. The fat should be kept at an even temperature. For cooked mixtures, such as croquettes, fish balls, etc., the cube of bread should brown a golden brown in 40 seconds.
Uncooked fish and meat are better when covered with bread crumbs, to keep the crisp crust desired in frying food . The fat should be hot at first, that it may not penetrate; then reduce the heat, that the food may cook till done, without burning.
Crumbed food is usually arranged in a croquette basket before placing it in the hot fat. This prevents the food from moving about, which sometimes causes the crust to loosen from the food, allowing it to absorb the fat.
Never let the fat heat to smoking point, for then it is burning hot, and the food will burn on the outside while the inside remains raw and uncooked. Cook only three or four pieces at once, for more will chill the fat and prevent perfect frying.
After the food has been cooked by this frying method it should be carefully removed at once from the fat and drained on brown paper.

Care of Cottolene After Frying

After the frying is done, the fat should be allowed to stand in a cool place to permit any sediment to settle. When cool, pour the fat carefully through a double fold of cheesecloth, or through a fine strainer. It is then ready for use.
Cottolene does not retain the taste or odor from any article whatever that may be fried in it, and it may be used over and over again. You may from time to time, add fresh Cottolene to it as your quantity diminishes, but the frying qualities of the Cottolene are not affected by the shrinkage of the fat.

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What Noted Cooking Experts Think of Cottolene.

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These are but a few. Other well known authorities who have tested Cottolene and recommend its use are:

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Eminent Physicians Endorse the Wholesomeness of Cottolene

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Other eminent physicians who have endorsed and recommended Cottolene are: Henry Seffmann, M.D., Professor of Chemistry, Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Prof. Jesse P. Battershall, Ph.S., F.C.S., Chemist U.S. Laboratory, New York; Dr. Allen McLane Hamilton, New York, N.Y.; Dr. Edw. Smith, Analyst New York State Board of Health.

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