Sauerkraut

“ Pigs' Knuckles and Sauerkraut Wash and scrape pigs' knuckles and simmer in water to cover for about 2 hours, or until tender. Then add sauerkraut to the broth and cook just long enough to make it tender. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and if available, celery or caraway seed.
GROUND MEAT IN SAVORY WAYS Grinding helps to make tough meat tender. Good cuts of beef for grinding grinding are lower round, fore part of the chuck, lean sections of brisket, and other small pieces of good flavor. There are also many small tidbits of tender lamb, pork, and veal that are best used as ground meat. ”

“ Now, when a deep dish is set before you wherein are chunks of pork reposing on stewed potatoes, and another wherein a fathomless depth of sauerkraut supports coils of boiled sausage, which, considering that you are a mortal and responsible being, and have a stomach, will you choose? Herein Munich, nearly all the bread is filled with anise or caraway seed; it is possible to get, however, the best wheat bread we have eaten in Europe, and we usually have it; but one must maintain a constant vigilance against the inroads of the fragrant seeds. ”

“ Parents who have no hesitation in cramming their children with salt pork, beer, and sauerkraut, would shudder at the idea of feeding them on fruit alone, yet the happiest of all visitors to the southern Rhineland are probably the patients of a Swabian Trauben-Kur, where dyspeptics, etc., are fed almost exclusively—often for days together quite exclusively—on ripe, sweet grapes. Combined with plenty of exercise in the bracing air of a highland region, the efficacy of the grape-cure surpasses all the miracles of the king's touch. ”

“ When a strong solution is desirable the pickles should first be given a preliminary treatment in a weaker solution. This difficulty is most often encountered in making sweet pickles. The presence of sugar in high concentrations is certain to cause shriveling unless
EFFECT OF TOO MUCH SALT ON SAUERKRAUT
Perhaps the most common cause of failure in making sauerkraut is the use of too much salt. The proper quantity is 2| per cent by weight of the cabbage packed. When cabbage is to be fermented in very warm weather it may be well to use a little more salt. ”

“ Roast the neck of pork and withdraw it from the oven a few minutes before it is done.
Keep it in the stove for an hour, that its cooking may be completed gently; but remember, that if a stove is not available, the cooking of the piece should be well finished in the oven; for pork is indigestible when it is not thoroughly well cooked.
Meanwhile, prepare a garnish of sauerkraut (No. 2097) , and, during the last hour of its cooking, sprinkle it frequently with the fat of the neck.
Dish the neck; clear the sauerkraut of any superfluous fat, and set it round the piece of meat in spoonfuls ”

“ Fill the cavity with sausage and top with bread crumbs. Place the squash halves in a baking pan, add about an inch of water to the pan. Cover and bake in hot oven (400-f) for 40 minutes. Remove cover and brown.
BAKED SPARERIBS AND SAUERKRAUT
with Dumplings Spareribs sauerkraut 2 cups flour 1 egg, beaten 1 tsp. baking powder 1 cup milk
Cut spareribs into serving portions and place in the bottom of roasting pan. Add the sauerkraut and a little liquid. Cover and bake in moderate oven (350-f) 11⁄2 hours. Make dumplings by combining flour, baking powder, milk and egg. ”

“ Sauerkraut is cabbage in the first stage of fermentation, which if completed yields quass, the above-mentioned Russian tonic. Chica, a whitish liquid which in Peru is handed around like coffee after meals, is prepared from maize or Indian corn, moistened and fermented by mastication.
How a fondness for such abominations is propagated can be explained by any boy who had to drink beer or eat strong cheese against his will, and by and by "rather liked it," but a question less easily answered is how such tastes ever could originate. ”

“ As rice is the national dish, we naturally expect to find various condiments to go with it. Red-peppers are grown everywhere, and a heavy kind of lettuce is used in making the favourite sauerkraut, or kimchi, whose proximity is detected without the aid of the eye. ”

“ This is especially important in the production of sauerkraut, which is often made in the late fall or winter. The fermentation may be greatly retarded or even stopped by too low a temperature.
After the active stages of a fermentation have passed, store the food in a cool place. Low temperatures are always an aid in the preservation of food products.
COLORING AND HARDENING AGENTS
To make what is thought to be a better looking product, it is the practice in some households to "green" pickles by heating them with vinegar in a copper vessel. ”

“ Salt to taste. When done cut the meat and fat into small cubes. Cook barley so that proportions will be abut 2 parts barley to 1 part prepared meat. Mix the meat, barley, the beaten blood, 1⁄2 tsp. ground pepper, 1⁄4 tsp. ginger, 1⁄4 tsp. cloves and 1 medium onion which has been lightly fried in 2 tbsp. fat. If the mixture is too thick you may add some of the meat stock. Stuff into the casings and cook as you do liver sausage. These may be frozen. Heat in the oven and serve with fried potatoes, onions and sauerkraut.
Smazeny Ryby
FRIED FISH
Cut fish into serving pieces. ”

“ If sufficient liquor to cover the vegetables has not been extracted pour in enough strong brine—one pound of salt to two quarts of water—to cover the surface round the corner.
The top layer of vegetables should be kept under the brine to prevent molding. There will be some bubbling at first. As soon as this stops, set the container where it will not be disturbed until ready for use. Seal by pouring very hot paraffin over the surface.
String beans should be cut in two-inch pieces. Peas should be shelled. Cabbage should be shredded in the same way as for sauerkraut. ”

“ It should be raised in a pot stood in a saucer or some receptical for water, as no water should be applied over it. Keep the saucer filled,and it will draw up all the moisture it wants. It is very subject to the ravages of a small green grub, which will often destroy a healthy plant in a day or two. Fumigation with tobacco smoke is the best remedy, but as these little pests are easily found under the leaves they may be picked off and killed. When you notice that the leaves are eaten just lift them gently, and if you cannot find the grubs look in the earth round the roots. ”

“ It is principally from the white vegetable that the Germans make their sauer kraut—a dish held in such high estimation with the inhabitants of Germany, but which requires, generally speaking with strangers, a long acquaintance in order to become sufficiently impressed with its numerous merits. The large red Dutch is the kind generally recommended for pickling. ”

“ If a large quantity is required, proceed thus—well butter a sautépan, lay in 20 or more heads of large mushrooms just washed, season well with salt and pepper; let stew for twenty minutes gently in an oven, or till done; make your kidney sandwich as above, add a tablespoonful of the gravy over, and serve. The same may be served on thin toast; a tablespoonful of the Sultana Sauce to every half-dozen kidneys, make a dish worthy an Epicurean. The stems of the mushrooms may be stewed and served with the dish. ”

“ With garum, or oil and vinegar; [IX_214] or with pepper, cummin-seed, and lentiscus (leaves of the mastic-tree) . [IX_215]
The water-cress par excellence grows in springs, rivulets, and ditches, in Europe. Its piquant taste is rather agreeable; it is eaten as a salad or seasoning, with poultry and other roasted meat. This plant increases the appetite, fortifies the stomach, and possesses anti-scorbutic qualities.
A great consumption is made of it in certain countries. It is cultivated in running waters, either in gardens, or sown in the shade, where it is watered abundantly. ”

“ Choose them rather large and black underneath, peel the skin from the top, and broil over a sharp fire, seasoning with pepper and salt; when done, place a small piece of butter upon each and serve; ten minutes is sufficient time to broil good-sized ones.
No. 1102. Mushrooms farcis.
Procure twelve middling-sized mushrooms, scoop out part of the interior, make a good sauce aux fines herbes (No. 26) very thick, to which add the interior of the mushrooms, and a few bread-crumbs ”

“ As an article of diet, salep is supposed to contain the largest portion of nutriment, in an equal compass, of any known vegetable production: even arrow root (17) is, in this respect, inferior to it. The orchises from which it is manufactured flourish in great abundance in meadows and pastures of several parts of England, flowering about the months of May and June. As soon as the flower-stalks begin to decay, the roots should be dug up, and the newly-formed bulbs, which have then attained their perfect state, should be separated. ”

“ Jerusalem Artichokes.
Are very useful vegetables when judiciously employed, as my readers will perceive by many of the foregoing recipes; they are good five months in the year, from October till March, and some seasons much longer; when they become too rough they have lost their succulence, and are only fit to flavour stocks: take about thirty of the best shaped ones and as near as possible of the same size; turn them into the shape of pears, boil in salt and water, with which you have put a quarter of a pound of butter ”

“ The vine flourishes as far as the 51° N., but only yields good wine in the districts of the Rhine and Danube. Flax is grown in the north, and hemp more particularly in the central districts. Rape can be produced everywhere when the soil permits. Tobacco is cultivated on the upper Rhine and in the valley of the Oder. The northern plain, especially in the province of Saxony, produces beet (for sugar) , and hops are largely grown in Bavaria, Württemberg, Alsace, Baden and the Prussian province of Posen. ”

“ Cucumber and beet-root may be used instead of eggs. Then put into a basin a small teaspoonful of salt, quarter ditto of pepper, 2 tablespoonfuls of vinegar, 4 of oil, a little sugar, stir well together, pour over your salad, which mix gently with a spoon and fork, and serve; the addition of chopped parsley, tarragon, and chervil, or chopped shalot, is an improvement. ”

“ A small amount of flour can be added to many recipes (up to 2 T soybean flour to 14 T wheat flour) without altering the other ingredients, but above this amount a special recipe should always be used. The following recipes include directions for incorporating from 15 to 100 per cent soybean flour.
Soybean flour can be used as a meat extender, in gravies, soups, and sauces, and in a variety of baked products. When substituted for part of the wheat flour in a recipe, soybean flour has the advantage of giving a product which tends to brown more readily and will keep fresh for a longer time. ”

“ This rape is very extensively grown in the fields, the tips of the stems cut when tender and eaten, after being boiled or steamed, after the manner of cabbage. Very large quantities are also packed with salt in the proportion of about twenty pounds of salt to one hundred pounds of the rape. This, Fig. 68, and many other vegetables are sold thus pickled and used as relishes with rice, which invariably is cooked and served without salt or other seasoning.
Another field crop very extensively grown for human food, and partly as a source of soil nitrogen, is closely allied to our alfalfa. ”

“ Cauliflower, which Thackeray calls the "apotheosis of cabbage," is the most delicate of vegetables; and a purée of cauliflower shall close our chapter on soups.
Boil in salted water, using a small piece of butter, two heads of cauliflower, drain and pass them through a colander, dilute with two quarts of sauce and a quart of chicken broth, season with salt, white pepper, and grated nutmeg. Add a teaspoonful of fine white sugar, then pass the whole forcibly with a wooden presser through a fine sieve,—the finer the sieve the better the purée. ”

“ Since sainfoin is perennial in its habit of growth, and since, when once well set, it will retain its hold upon the soil for several years, it is not in the strict sense of the term a rotation plant. When it is grown, however, it should be followed by crops which require large quantities of nitrogen easily accessible, to enable them to complete their growth. If this plant should ever be grown to any considerable extent in the mountain States, much that has been said with reference to the place for alfalfa in the rotation will also apply to sainfoin. ”

“ As we are on this particular topic, however, and as the amateur window plant-grower may want to propagate some little stock as well, even if not on these "high-falutin" ways, it might not be amiss to say that beyond the methods of "slipping" here and there cuttings in and among others growing in pots, or, mayhap, in a pot all by themselves, they can readily root lots of plants in a water and sand bath, which is nothing more than taking a deep saucer, putting half an inch of sand in the bottom, filling up the saucer full of water, and keeping it full ”

“ Proceed with the larks as in the last, dress them on a border of forcemeat, and make the sauce the same; put a tablespoonful of chopped onions in a stewpan, with half a one of oil, fry a light yellow colour, keeping them stirred; add one of parsley and two of chopped mushrooms, with which mix a quarter of one of flour, and twelve of the sauce; stir it over the fire twenty minutes, season with a little pepper, salt, and nutmeg, take it off the fire, and stir in the yolk of an egg very quickly ”