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

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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

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Copyright, 1917, by
Moffat, Yard and Company


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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.


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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
[Pg 8]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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

1/2 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.)

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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.

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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.

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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!!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 45838 ***