01 - Preface -- Directions for Catering, or the procuring the best Viands, Fish, &c.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Part one of American Cookery by Amelia Simmons. This is
a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
Read by Betsy Bush in Marquette, Michigan, July two thousand ten.
American Cookery or the Art of Dressing Vian's fish, poultry

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and Vegetables, And the best modes of making pastes, puffs, pies, tarts, puddings,
custards and preserves, and all kinds of cakes from the
Imperial plum to plain cake. Adapted to this Country and
All Grades of Life. By Amelia Simmons, an American Orphan,
published according to Act of Congress, Hartford, Printed by Hudson

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and Goodwin for the author, seventeen ninety six. Preface. As
this treatise is calculated for the improvement of the rising
generation of females in America, the Lady of fashion and
forts will not be displeased if many hints are suggested
for the more general and universal knowledge of those females

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in this country who, by the loss of their parents
or other unfortunate circumstances, are reduced to the necessity of
going into families in the line of domestics, or taking
refuge with their friends or relations, and doing those things
which are really essential to the perfecting them as good
wives and useful numbers of society. The orphan, though left

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to the care of virtuous guardians, will find it essentially
necessary to have an opinion and determination of her own.
The world in the fashion thereof, is so variable that
old people cannot accommodate themselves to the various changes in
fashions which daily occur. They will adhere to the fashion
of their day, and will not surrender their attachments to

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the good old way, while the young and the gay
bend and conform readily to the taste of the times
and fancy of the hour. By having an opinion and determination,
I would not be under stood to mean an obstinate
perseverance in trifles which borders on obstinacy by no means,
but only in adherence to those rules and maxims which

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have flooded the test of ages and will forever establish
the female character a virtuous character, although they conform to
the ruling taste of the age. In cookery, dress, language, manners,
et cetera. It must ever, remain a check upon the poor,
solitary orphan, that while those females who have parents, or
brothers or riches to defend their indiscretions, that the orphan

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must depend solely upon character, how immensely important. Therefore, that
every action, every word, every thought be regulated by the
strictest purity, and that every movement meet the approbation of
the good and wise. The candor of the American ladies
is solicitously entreated by the authoress, as she is circumscribed

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in her knowledge. This being an original work in this country,
should any future adren appear, she hopes to render it
more valuable. Directions for catering or the procuring the best diands, fish,
et cetera. How to choose flesh beef. The large stall
fed ox beef is the best. It has a coarse,

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open grain and oily smoothness. Dent it with your finger
and it will immediately rise again. If old, it will
be rough and spongy, and the dent remain. Cow beef
is less boned and generally more tender and juicy than
the ox in America, which is used to labor of
almost every species of animals, birds and fishes, the female

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is the tenderest, the richest flavored, and among poultry the soonest.
Fattened mutton grass fed is good two or three years old.
Lamb if under six months, is rich and no danger
of imposition. It may be known by its size. In
distinguishing either veal is soon lost. Great care, therefore is

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necessary in purchasing. Veal brought to market in painniers or
in carriages is to be preferred to that brought in
bags and flouncing on a sweaty horse. Pork is known
by its size and weather, properly fattened by its appearance.
To make the best bacon. To each ham, put one
ounce saltpeter, one pint bay salt, one pint molasses. Shake

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together six or eight weeks, or when a large quantity
is together, baste them with the liquor every day. When
taken out to dry, smoke three weeks with cobs or
malt fumes. To every ham may be added a cheek
if you stow away a barrel and not alter the composition.
Some add a shoulder for transportation or exportation. Double the

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period of smoking fish. How to choose the best in
market salmon, The noblest and richest fish taken in fresh water,
the largest are the best. They are unlike almost every
other fish, are ameliorated by being three or four days
out of water if kept from heat in the moon,

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which has much more injurious effect than the sun. In
all great fish markets, great fishmongers strictly examine the gills.
If the bright redness is exchanged for a low brown,
they are stale. But when live fish are brought flauncing
into market, you have only to elect the kind most
agreeable to your palate in the season. Shad, contrary to

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the generally received opinion, are not so much richer flavored
as they are harder when first taken out of the water.
Opinions vary respecting them. I have tasted shad thirty or
forty miles from the place where caught, and really conceived
that they had a richness of flavor which did not
appertained those taken fresh and cooked immediately, and have proved

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both at the same table. And the truth may rest
here that a shad thirty six or forty eight hours
out of water may not cook so hard, solid, and
be esteemed so elegant, yet give a higher relished flavor
to the taste. Every species, generally of salt water fish
are best fresh from the water, though the hannah Hill

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black fish, lobster, oyster, flounder, bass, cod, haddock, and eel,
with many others, may be transported by land. Many miles
find a good market and retain a good relish, but
as generally live ones are bought first, deceits are used
to give them a freshness of appearance, such as peppering

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the gills, wetting the fins and tails, and even painting
the gills or wetting with animal blood. Experience and attention
will dictate the choice of the best fresh gills, full
bright eyes, moist fins and tails are denotements of their
being fresh caught. If they are soft, it's certain they
are stale. But if deceits are used, their smell must

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approve or denounce them, and be your safest guide. Of
all fresh water fish, there are none that require or
so well afford haste in cookery as the salmon trout.
They are best when caught under a fall or cataract.
From what philosophical circumstance is yet unsettled, yet true, it
is that at the foot of a fall, the waters

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are much colder, than at the head. Trout choose those waters.
If taken from them and hurried into dress, they are
genuinely good and take rank in point of superiority of
flavor of most other fish. Perch and roach are noble
pan fish. The deeper the water from whence taken, the
finer are their flavors. If taken from shallow water with

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muddy bottoms, they are impregnated therewith and are unsavory. Eels,
though taken from muddy bottoms, are best to jump in
the pan. Most white or soft fish are best bloated,
which is done by salting and peppering and drying in
the sun and in a chimney. After thirty or forty
hours drying, are best broiled and moistened with butter, et cetera.

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Poultry how to choose? Having before stated that the female
in almost every instance is preferable to the male, and
peculiarly so in the peacock, which, though beautifully plumaged, is tough, hard, stringy,
and untasted and even in delicious, while the pea hen
is exactly otherwise, and the queen of all birds so

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also in a degree turkey hen Turkey is higher and
richer flavored, easier, fattened, and plumper. They are no odds
in market. Dunghill fowls are from their frequent use a
tolerable proof of the former birds. Chickens of either kind
are good, and the yellow legged the best, and their
taste the sweetest. Capons, if young, are good, are known

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by short spurs and smooth legs. All birds are known,
whether fresh, killed, or stale, by a tight vent in
the former and a loose open vent. If old or stale,
Their smell denotes their goodness. Speckled rough legs denote age,
while smooth legs and combs prove them young. A goose,

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If young, the bill will be yellow and will have
but few hairs. The bones will crack easily, but if old,
the contrary, the bill will be red and the pads
still redder, the joints stiff and difficultly disjointed. If young. Otherwise,
choose one not very fleshy on the breast but fat
in the rump. Ducks are similar to geese. Wild ducks

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have redder pads and smaller than the tame ones otherwise
are like the goose or tame duck, or to be
chosen by the same rules. Woodcocks ought to be thick, fat,
and flesh firm, the nose dry, and throat clearer. Snipes,
if young and fat, have full veins under the wing,
and are small in the veins. Otherwise, like the woodcock. Partridges,

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if young, will have black bills, yellowish legs. If old,
the legs look bluish. If old or stale, it may
be perceived by smelling at their mouths. Pigeons young have
light red legs and the flesh of a color and
prick easily. Old have red legs, blackish in parts. More hairs,

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plumper and loose vents, so also of gray or green plover,
blade birds, thrash lark, and wild fowl. In general, hairs
are white, fleshed and flexible when new and fresh killed.
If stale, their flesh will have a blackish hue like
old pigeons, and if the cleft in their lips spread

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much is wide and ragged, she is old. The contrary,
when young, leverett is like the hair in every respect
that some are obliged to search for the knob or
small bone on the fore leg or foot to distinguish them.
Rabbits the wild are the best. Either are good and tender.
If old, there will be much yellowish fat about the kidneys,

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the claws long, wool, rough, and mixed with gray hairs.
If young, the reverse. As to their being fresh, judge
by the scent. They soon perish if trapped or shot
and left in pelt or undressed. Their taint is quicker
than veal and the most sickish in nature, and will not,
like beef or veal, be purged by fire. The cultivation

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of rabbits would be profitable in America if the best
methods were pursued. They are a very prolific and profitable animal.
They are easily cultivated if properly attended, but not otherwise.
A rabbit's burrow on which three thousand dollars may have
been expended might be very profitable. But on the small
scale they would be well near market towns. Easier bread

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and more valuable butter. Tight waxy yellow butter is better
than white or crumbly, which soon becomes rancid and frowy.
Go into the center of balls or rolls to proof
and judge it. If in ferkin, the middle is to
be preferred, as the sides are frequently distasted by the
wood of the furkin, although oak and used for years,

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new pine tubs are ruinous to the butter. To have
sweet butter in dog days and through the vegetable seasons,
send stone pots to honest meat and trusty dairy people
and procure it packed down in May, and let them
be brought in in the night or cool rainy morning,
covered with a clean cloth, wet in cold water, and

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partake of no heat from the horse. And set the
pots in the coldest part of your cellar or in
the ice house. Some say that may butter, thus preserved,
will go into the winter juice better than fall made butter. Cheese.
The red, smooth, moist coated, and tight pressed, square edged
cheese are better than white coat, hard, rinded, or bilged.

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The inside should be yellow and flavored to your taste.
Old shells, which have only been wiped down for years
are preferable to scoured and washed shelves. The seeds are
used by salt petering the outside or coloring with hemlock,
cocumberries or saffron infused into the milk. The taste of
either supersedes every possible evasion. Eggs clear, thin shelled, longest

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oval and sharp edges are best to ascertain whether new
or stale. Hold to the light. If the white is clear,
the yoke regularly in the center, they are good. But
if otherwise they are stale. The best possible method of
ascertaining is to put them into water. If they lie
on their bilge, they are good and fresh. If they

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bob up on an end, they are stale. And if
they rise they are addled, proved, and of no use.
End of Part one of American Cookery by Amelia Simmonds