Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-09-24
Economy and DriDpinr,

written by an English lady, will pat
some Of our wasteful American house
keepers to the blush:
When economy becomes a strict ne
cessity in household, the first items
Of expenditure which are cut down are
usually those connected with the clti-
sine. Possibly this is as it should be,
for as nation we are proverbial for
taking more than is necessary to health
in the matter OF food and drink; there
fore the cutting off OF luxury here
and there can do no harm, while very
often cheaper yet quite as wholesome
substitutes may be found. Take as
example butter and eggs, for which
may be substituted dripping and bak-
ing powder Il mean, Of course, for
cooking purposes). If you do not know
how much dripping, your cook will
probably tell you that 1t is impossible
to use it for light pastry-it would be
detected at once by its unpleasant smell
or taste. Now, this is only the case
when it has been kept too long AMI al
lowed to become rancid. Nothing
makes lighter or more delicious pastry
than fresh beef dripping, if properly
haEdled. l have known house where
the cook was professional, receiving
high wages, where the cuisine was of
the choicest. Yet dripping to this
London cook was never allowed as a
perquisite. 1t was always used by her
in the making of pastry, both for tarts
and pies, and most delicious was her
pastry-like Chloe's, it melted in the
mouth, and one bit only made one long
for one more. Tue family consisted of
eight persons-two ladies'. one gentle
man and five servants. Each servant
was allowed half pound of butter
weekly; yet the average consumption
of the whole family amounted to three
and half pounds, thus showing that
for making cakes and pastry it was sell
dom if ever used. Of fatty substances,
which come under the head of drip
ping, there are more than mos. mis-
tresses have any idea of. Besides the
orthodox drippings from the meat which
is being roasted, there is fat which is
run down. !. e., ends of cooked beef
too fat to be eaten, but which, if cut in
pieces, put into jar with lid and
then paced in tolerably hot oven
for an hour, will subside into liquid
La WhASL CoiuO cAI4NSlCu pax
like Jumps are floating. This liquid
fat, when strained, is of pale yellow
color, about the consistency of butter,
and most valuable for the best kinds OF
pastry. 1t has no unpleasant smell or
taste. The Jumps of shriveled meat
need not be discarded; they will make
what are termed shell biscuits, nice
accompaniment to cheese. For this
purpose they should be allowed to cool,
then chop finely, add pinch of salt
and double the weight in -four, mix
into thick paste with water, roll out
the paste to about the thickness OF q
saucer, cut with tumbler, and bake in
a moderate oven till pale brown color.
Mutton dripping is not in any way so
valuable as beef or pork, it being only
fit for frying purposes; but bacon fat
should never be discarded, it being
equal to lard for cakes and pastry. A
great objection to it, however, is that
it looks so dark; but this, being the
fault OF the cook, can be remedied.
Bacon should be cooked in perfectly
clean frying pan, and the fat, when the
pan is emptied, be run through tin
strainer previously dipped in hot wa
ter; then little boiling water should
be poured with the fat itself into the
basin. This will take all remaining i'm
parties to the bottom, leaving the up
per crust white and pure. Not only
bacon fat. but all dripping should be
treated in this way while it is hot.
Strangely enough the idea OF utilizing
dripping seems to have been utterly
lost sight of by the compilers of cook
cry books, probably because, unfortu-
nately for employers, it has for go long
been looked upon as legitimate per-
quisite by the cooks and so tolerated, if
not sanctioned by those in authority.
Thus a.recipe for the simplest nursery
cake must have a certain quantity Of
butter and not unfrequently one or two
eggs. The notion is, of course, absurd,
as with these expensive ingredients it
can no longer be deemed plain cake.
I append recipe for nursery cake.
To two pounds of -four add half q pound
of beef dripping or bacon fat, half
pound of sultanas, four ounces of moist
sugar, one ounce of lemon. peel, little
salt. Let the flour be dried, then rub
it into the dripping, taking care that
both are we'll mixed and free from
Jumps, shred the lemon-peel finely and
add with the salt, sugar and sultanas,
these latter being thoroughly freed from
stalks and gritty matter. Rub all to-
gether, make hole in the center of the
mass and pour in a tablespoonful of
fresh brewers yeast, then with warm
water mix the whole we'll till it is of the
Conscience of moist dough; cover well,
and stand in warm place to rise, then
bake in tins. This quantity will make
two large cakes, each of which will take
an hour and half to bake in a mod
crate oven. If yeast is not procurable,
tablespoonful of Borwicks baking
poade may be substituted; when this
is the case the cake may be at once put
into the tins and consigned to the oven.
1t sometimes happens that brewers
yeast has very bitter taste; this should
be ascertained before its use by dipping
bit of bread into it and tasting. The
bitterness can be removed by mixing
with it little fresh bran and strainlng
through a horse-hair sieve, or by drop
ping into the yeast lump about the
size of walnut of red-hot charcoal,
then straining carefully as above. End