The Rural cook book

Goose, Braised,— Braised goose is superior to a roast, in the taste of many, the bird acquiring flavor from the vegetables with it. The oven is the place for the cooking, and a porcelain -lined iron pot or earthen cooking crock (either having a tight-fitting cover) gives the best results. Prepare the goose as for roasting, but do not stuff. In the baking dish put a layer of chopped or sliced onions, celery, turnips, carrots and two apples. Sprinkle with a teaspoonful of salt, one of powdered sage and six shakes of pepper. Lay the goose upon them, pour over it two cupfuls of boiling water, dredge with salt, pepper, powdered sage and flour. Cover closely and cook slowly for at least four hours (allow 35 minutes lo the pound). Turn the goose every two hours. Add more water if necessary. Less time is required if a roaster is used. When tender, remove the goose. Rub the vegetables and gravy through a colander, return to the fire and stir in a tablespoonful of browned flour. Boil up once and serve in a boat. Garnish the goose with parsley. Gumbo. — This takes four hours to make. Put into a kettle two pounds of lean soup beef, one-half a chicken that has been jointed, a small ham bone, or a good-sized slice of lean bacon, a slice of green pepper and a square inch of onion. Add three quarts of water and boil or simmer gently, skimming often for two hours. At the end of this time add three pints of okra that has first been cut in slices and fried lightly in a very small amount of butter, also a large potato cut in pieces, which gradually breaks and thickens the soup. An hour later, after frequent skimmings, add a full quart of tomatoes and the corn cut from two large ears, also the cobs, and boil gently for another hour. Then remove the corncobs and what is left of the beef, and the chicken bones, leaving the chicken meat in the stew ; season with salt, cayenne pepper, a teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce and a teaspoonful of sugar, and it is ready to serve. Dry boiled rice is nice served with this gumbo, which is a stew rather than a soup. Many recipes for gumbo call for a small quantity of "fillet powder"; this is the tender young green leaves of sassafras powdered. Ham, Curing. — This is a Virginia method. For curing four hams, averaging IS pounds each, have ready one and a half gallons of the best salt, one pound of good brown sugar, one-eighth pound of powdered saltpeter, one ounce of black pepper and one-half ounce of cayenne. Cut the joints into proper shapes, without unnecessary bone and fat, and lay them on a board on table. First rub the skin well with salt and lay each joint aside, then begin over again, and into the fleshy side of each ham rub two teaspoonfuls of saltpeter and a tablespoonful of brown sugar mixed together. Rub the pepper, particularly, about the hock and under the bone and give to the whole ham a good application of salt. Now pack the hams, one upon another, the skin side downward, with a layer of salt between, into a tub or box, the bottom of which has also been covered "with salt. The process of salting will be complete in five weeks. At the end of that time have ready about a peck of hickory ashes ; clean the hams with a brush or dry cloth and rub them with the ashes. To smoke the hams the joints should be hung from joists beneath the ceiling and a slow, smothered fire kept up for five or six weeks, so as to smoke thoroughly, but not overheat the hams. Or, as an excellent substitute for this process, paint the hams with a coating of pyroligneous acid, let them dry and repeat the operation. Wrap each ham in paper and encase it in a canvas or strong cotton bag.