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About The Omaha morning bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 1922-1927 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 27, 1924)
Clever Cranberry Combinations By AM!\E LEll IS PIERCE When pale-faced meals no longer appeal—remember that the Cranberry is Nature's “Rouge-Pot" for Color in the Menu. Before this season's Cranberries become "off-the-market"—better decide at once to fill up those sad, empty shelves in the preserve closet and enjoy these all-season berries while you may. HERE were you last summer when it was preserving time? At the seashore, perhaps, or there was sickness just at the height of currant time; or the heat was too great in the kitchen, or perhaps you did “put up” so successfully that the jars are all empty. And now there is a stretch until fresh fruits and vegetables are plentiful again, and if they are coming it is from afar and you must pay their traveling ex penses! Rut cranberries will fill up the empty shelves, provide jams and jellies, and color, health fnl acids and minerals to see you through the Dietary Desert that lies between January and March. They say we are coming more and more to eat with the eye instead of the palate. Foods must look just right or we wop’t even taste them. Now when wo want to put up a signal to “Stop! I.ook! and Listen!’’ we make it a red one. That’s just what Nature did when she made the cranberry and painted it red—the color of physical vitality. SCz she— Ston! For and Annetizine Flavor Look! For Your Eyes’ Pleasure Listen! To our Health Talk r.very woman Knows tnat she should not serve potatoes and turnips and mafaroni all at the same meal with white bread and a chicken pie, and a baked custard for de««ert! Wouldn’t that be a horrible meal to face? And they are all good foods, at that. Rut suppose von have cream of tomato soup, not roast with vegetables, macaroni and cheese (a golden brown) cranberry sauce to balance the richness, and far dessert, fruits (apples and grapes, iced Italian style), with cheese and coffee. If you find yourself committed to a palefaced meal by force of circumstance you can redeem it by a cran berry sauce with the dinner or acid jelly with blocks of cream cheese and lettuce for the salad. And how do you take your cranberry sauce? Some want it sweet, some want it sour, and some want it jellied clear and others thick and hearty. Personally, the day that we met cranberries, preserv ed, clear and whole and tender in a rich clear juice in stead of all mashed up in a general stew, we felt it marked an epoch in our acquaintance with this “winter ruby of the bogs.” You know the difference between just stewed apples and apples that are quartered and cooked clear in a sugar syrup? Well, there is all that difference and more between cranberries just stewed end cranberries tenderly coddled for five minutes in a hot sugar syrup. After all this, here are the two ways of “saucing” cranberries, and this being a free country we are obliged to let you take your choice! If it were a soviet we would shoot at dawn any one who cooked cranberries any way but according to Rule No. 1. That’s the way we fe<l about Rut t^re is no accounting for tastes! Paragon Cranberry Sauce. Dissolve two cups of sugar in two cups of boiling water and boil them together for five minutes. Skim, add a quart of cranberries and let them boil briskly, floured board and roll thin before lining the tins. This amount will make upper and lower crusts for one large pie. The By-Ways. Serve your cranberry sauce hot with roasts like the French compote (a few raisins in it will add to the oc casion.) Serve it cold with cold meats. / Serve it mixed with cream cheese for a sandwich fill ing, between thin slices of Boston brown bread. Serve it as a filling for criss cross pie by putting one uriu one-naiL laoiospoons ot Hour to tnree cups of sauce, and cooking in a plate lined with pastry and stripped across the top (10 minutes in a hot oven and for 15 more at a lower heat.) For a shortcake: Beat the whites of 4 eggs unlil stiff and slowly beat in -3 cup of sugar. Beat the four egg yolks until very thick, put in Ms teaspoon of salt and add to the sugar and whites. Gently' fold in *3 cup of flour and add Vi teaspoon of vanilla. Bake the cake in two layers in a moderate oven for half an hour. I’ut the cranberry sauce between the layers and on top, with bits of whipped cream. Remember these desserts spell wholesomeness, need ed minerals, acids that make the blood alkaline, strange as it may seem, and that they add to our daily quota of iron that we have such a time finding in our de vitalized, overcivilized ration. Those who are trying to lose weight may look on the pastry dessert when it is of sugar. Cook the cranberries and water until the skins of the fruit are all broken, then press through a sieve and cook this pulp until it becomes quite thick; add the sugar and cook for one-half hour over a very gentle fire, stirring constantly. When slightly cool turn into jars, and cover closely. This makes a delicious and healthful spread on hot biscuits, bread or cake. Cranberry and Raisin Marmalade. 1 quart cranberries 1 cup raisins 1 cup sugar 1 cup water I’our water over cranberries. Cover the saucepan and bring to a boil quickly. Mash w.th a wooden masher, a Boil for three minutes. .Mash through a strainer. Add^ sugar and raisins cut in pieces. Boil slowly 30 minutes, stirring often. This is an excellent marmalade for winter days, and especially for those whose preserve closet is not so well stocked as usual. The raisins blend in very well with a tartness of the cranberries and afford a decided change from plain cranberry sauce. This amount makes two tumblers of marmalade. • These may be made as reeded as emergency products or he put up by the provident housekeeper in half dozen lots at least (increase the quatities given three times) and stored to produce as needed. Cranberry Conaerve. To four cups of cranberries add one cup of cold wa ter and bring to the boiling point. When the berries “pop" rub them through a sieve. Add one cup of boil cranberries with less fear than on most last courses. And eaten halved, raw, in fruit cups, and salads they will give the eater real co-operation in his “flesh-losing” struggle. Here follows a conserve, a fruit butter; a jelly and a marmalade that will add distinction to your menu, color and flavor to the lunch box or the Sunday night tea; make a cake filling or a spread for hot toast or hot biscuit for breakfast. Spiced Cranberry Apple Jelly. This is a particularly good con serve to serve W'ith a rich dish like roast goose and it is very attrac tive for service owing to its bright color. Heat together two cups of strain ed apple juice and one cup of strain ed cranberry juice, adding a spice bag, containing six w’hole cloves, An Advance Spring Tonic. You won’t need ‘‘sulphur and molasses” in the spring if cran berries, apples and oranges, toma toes and raw cabbage have played a big part in your winter menu. And the cranberries are reason able in price and such a pleasant dose to take! A real sugar coated pink pill for pale people, put up by Dame Nature instead of Lydia I’inkham, and full of sound scien tific healthfulness. Happily, the raisrn with its iron and concern trated sweetness is just the thing to supplement the acid cranberry for a conserve and give you a perfect combination. ing water, one cup of seeded raisins (or the seedless variety,) 114 cups of black walnuts or pecans chopped; 3 cups of sugar and 3 oranges (in thin slices, quartered and the seeds removed.) Cook slowly over a low heat for 30 minutes. This will make a rich, thick conserve, most delicious for fowl or the afternoon tea sand wich and it will keep perfectly. Spiced Cranberries. Cook to a syrup 3*4 pounds of brown sugar, two cups of vinegar, two tablespoons each of allspice and cinnamon, and one tablespoon of j ground cloves. Add 5 pounds of^F cranberries and simmer slowly for two hours. Store in covered stone or glass jars. Good with all your cold meat* for supper? Well, rather. half a nutmeg, three blades of mace and a broken stick of cinnamon. Boil for 20 minutes, remove the spice bag and mea sure the juice. Add a cup of heated sugar for each cup of boiled juice and cook until a little jells when tried on a cold saucer. Pour into a large ornamental mold or individual molds. % Cranberry Butter. Three quarts cranberries, one pint water, two pounds When the Cranberry Jell*. Cranberry jelly is one of the cheapest and easiest of jellies to accomplish. Don’t make one little dab at a time it keeps. Make up half a dozen passes as you would of the more expensive grape or currant in their season, ami have it ready for meats, cheese salad, or tarts. An Improvement on Pink I.emonade. Always, apparently, we have longed to look on the drink when it is red in the cup. without stirring, for five minutes or until they are transparent. Standard Sewed Cranberries. Cook one quart of cran berries in two cups of water until the skins are all broken (about twenty minutes.) Add two cups of sugar and simmer for five minutes long . er. Chill well before serving —the juiae may partly jelly. If so mucn sugar is objection able try adding a scant quar ter teaspoon of salt for each cup of berries, decreasing the sugar one-quarter to one half, according to one’s taste. Especially is this a good sug gestion when the sauce is to be used for pies or puddings. m This sauce may be strained if desired, but skins and seeds add to wholesomeness and should preferably be re tained. Now having caught your sauce—what to do with it? Just as with the rabbit, you can make an admirable pie or tart, this time with mer ingue or lattice work top. You go to a hotel and ask for the pastry tray with plea surable anticipation, but you Olay seldom make a tart for home use and they are good. Less apt to have a soggy bottom crust than pie. Here is a hot water pie crust that provides quality and ease of making. Try it, “oh ye of little faith,” who have been reared on having all your pie-crust making materials ice cold and see what hap pens! Never Fail Hot-Water Pie Cruat. 2 Vz cups' flour ’i cup boiling water 'z cup shortening Vt teaspoon baking pow der '!» teaspoon salt i Preferably J/i cup butter and V* cup lard) Cream the shortening with the water by adding the lat ter only a bit at a time. Mix the salt and baking powder with the sifted flour, and stir this into the butter and water. Turn out upon a * Individuality for the Carrot By ADELAIDE I TTEH Separated From Their Affinities, (Ireen Peas and Cream Sauce, Carrots Shine in New Guises and Flavors. EARROTS, for some reason, are not Rooked on'with much fa vor and yet they are really de licious and very wholesome, and should be served much more fre quently than they are. There is a story of a woman who took her young daughter to a doctor. He looked her over and told the mother to see that she had carrots three times a day for a month and then to bring the girl back to him. At the end of the month the mother and daugh ter returned; the daughter. In stead of being the bloodless, life less thing that she was, now blos somed like a rose. The doctor was pleased to see such good re sults come from his prescription. The mother said: “Yes, doctor, I did just as you said and gave her carrots three times a day, ^and they sure did bring her out.” Now, not many of us would care to have such a steady diet of carrots as that, but there are so many ways of preparing them that we can have them often and not tire of them. Of course, creamed carrots and carrots ancl peas are often brought to the table, but suppose now you try them in some of the following ways, always remembering that carrots should be cooked in as little water as possible and that they shotdd be boiled rapidly. Carrot Saute. Scrape and cook young carrots in boiling salted water till ten der. Cut in halves, lengthwise; roll in cracker crumbs, then in beaten egg and crumbs again, and fry in butter till a golden brown. Sprinkle with minced parsley and serve very hot. Caramel Carrot*. Scrape and boil in salted water until tender, cut in strips and roll in sugar to which a little salt has been added. Have butter very hot, drop in the strips of carrot, and as soon as the edges curl and brown sprinkle with parsley and serve. Carrot Custard. Scrape and clean half a dozen medium-sized carrots, just cover with salted water and boil till tender, and the water is nearly, all absorbed. Mash the carrots, sweeten to taste (about three tablespoons sugar), pour in about a half cup milk with a tablespoon of cornstarch to thicken, cook rapidly, two minutes arid add three well beaten eggs and a tablespoon of butter. Mix' well and flavor with one-quarter tea spoon orange extract. Hake in a slow oven until firm, turn on a dish and serve with powdered sugar and lemon. Cnrrot Pie. To two carrots boiled and mashed add two tablespoons each of cracker crumbs and butter, one-half cup milk and the yolks of three eggs, well beaten; sweet en to taste, season with nutmeg and bake in an open crust. Make a meringue of the whites of the eggs and three tablespoons of sugar, flavor with orange, spread on the pie and set in a cool oven until puffed and a light brown. Carrot Pudding. Cream one-half cup chopped suet; add one and one third cup stale bread crumbs. 1! >it the yolks of two eggs till very light, add two thirds cup of brown sugar; combine the mixture. Add one-half cup grated carrot, one half cup raisins, cut in pieces, one-third cup currants, three tablespoons flour mixed with one half teaspoon ground cloves, one fourth teaspoon grated nutmeg, half a teaspoon cinnamon and a little salt. Add grated rind of one lemon, a half tablespoon of vinegar and the whites of two eggs beaten stiff. Put in a mold and steam for two and a half hours. Serve with a sauce. (Editorial Note. The earrot is one of our neglected blessings; eat it when it is young and it is de licious as well as wholesome. N’ot only has it vitamine value hut it is the best source of lime, next to milk, and helps to preserve our ‘‘calcium balance,” which in these days of overrefined foods is apt to be a deficit. Its lime and its vitamine value are tin* two counts on which the preceding story rests. If young enough carrots are good raw, really spicy and sweet; try them. They may he grated and added to a salad with profit. If cooked you get the most benefit by steaming them and serving with hutler, pepper and salt; hut cooked, for variety, still give you benefit unless you boil them in much water and throw the water away. “Sell” your child on eating car rots. You can do it if you tell him it will help to keep him out of the dentist's chair and make his bones and teeth and nerves strong, provided you also buy the carrots young enough and serve them well.) whether it be sparkling bur gundy or circus lemonade. Cranberry juice gives color and flavor, both to beverages without adding any suspicion to them, and makes besides a delightful frozen punch to • serve with the meat or fowl course or for dessert. Try these recipes: Cranberry Ice. Co6k one quart of rran berl'ies with one quart of wa- , ter until the berries are tpn- ^ der; strain through a fine sieve; add two cups of sugar and cook until this is thor oughly dissolved. Cool, stir in the juice of two lemons, and freeze as you would a water ice. A dessert for six, is this, attractive in color and flavor, to serve in sher bet dishes with duck, fowl or mast pork or veal outlets, or for dessert, with a delicate white raisin cake, after a rather heavy dinner. Cranberry Ade. Cover cranberries with wa ter, boil until soft, then strain through a bag or fine sieve. To each quart of juice add one cup of sugar and just bring to a boil. Bottle (add ing pineapple juice to taste if desired) and use as an ad dition to fruit punehes of all sorts, or if the pineapple is added it may be served “just so,” poured over cracked ice. Cold Water Canning Perhaps the best way to get cranberry juice will be to “cold can” your berries at the time when they are best and cheapest, ns you do rhubarb. That is, sterilize a quart pre- I serve jar (i. e., submerge it in boiling water, open, for 6 minutes.) Wash the ber ries carefully, fill the jar with them, and then to over flowing with pure cold water (boil and cdol It If you are not sure of the water supply.) and seal as tightly as you would preserves. Then your fresh berries will be ready any time for making juice for drinks or for any other pur pose, For the cranberries, (t oniinurd on Page 111)