The International Jewish Cook Book. Florence Kreisler Greenbaum
FOR SOUPS
Rub the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs to a smooth paste, add a little salt and grated nutmeg and one-half teaspoon of melted butter. Add the chopped whites of two eggs and a raw egg yolk to be able to mold the dough into little marbles, put in boiling soup one minute.
SCHWEM KLOESSE
Take three tablespoons of flour; stir with one egg and one-half cup of milk; pour this in a pan in which some butter was melted; stir until it loosens from the pan. When it is cold, add two more eggs and some salt, and shortly before needed form in little dumplings and put in boiling hot soup for five minutes.
DUMPLINGS FOR CREAM SOUPS
Scald some flour with milk or water, mix in a small piece of butter and salt, and boil until thick. When cool beat in yolk of an egg, if too stiff add the beaten white.
DROP DUMPLINGS
Break into a cup the whites of three eggs; fill the cup with milk; put it with a tablespoon of fresh butter and one cup of sifted flour in a spider and stir as it boils until it leaves the spider clean. Set aside until cool and stir in the yolks of three eggs. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg, mix thoroughly and drop by teaspoons in the boiling soup ten minutes before ready to be served.
LIVER KLOESSE (DUMPLINGS)
Brown a small onion minced in one tablespoon of chicken fat, add a small liver chopped fine, chopped parsley, two tablespoons of flour. Season with nutmeg, red and white pepper, and add two eggs. Drop with teaspoon in the boiling soup, let cook ten minutes—serve.
FRITTER BEANS
Beat one egg until light, add three-fourths teaspoon of salt, one-half cup of flour and two tablespoons of water. Put through colander into deep hot fat and fry until brown. Drain and pour hot broth over them.
SPONGE DUMPLINGS
Separate three eggs, beat the yolks, and add one cup of soup stock, one-fourth teaspoon of salt, then add the beaten whites. Pour into a greased cup and place in pan of hot water and steam until firm; cool, remove from cup and cut into small dumplings with a teaspoon; pour the boiling soup over and just before serving add chopped parsley.
*FISH*
Fish that is not fresh is a very dangerous food and great care should be taken in selecting only fish fit to eat. If the fish is hard in body and the eyes are clear and bright, the gills a bright red and slimy, the flesh so firm that when pressed the marks of the fingers do not remain, the scales not dry or easy to loosen, then the fish is fresh.
In the refrigerator fish will taint butter and other foods if placed in the same compartment, so that in most cases it is better to lay it on a plate on a pan of ice, or wrap it in parchment or waxed paper and put it in the ice box.
Pickerel weighing more than five pounds should not be bought. If belly is thick it is likely that there is another fish inside. This smaller fish or any found in any other fish may not be used as food.
Salt fish should be soaked in fresh water, skin side up, to draw out the salt.
Each fish is at its best in its season, for instance:—
Bluefish, Butterfish, Sea, Striped Bass, Porgies, Sea-trout or Weakfish are best from April to September.
Fluke and Flounders are good all year round, but the fluke is better than the flounder in summer. Carp may be had all year, but care must be taken that it has not been in polluted water.
Cod, Haddock, Halibut, Mackerel, Redsnapper, Salmon, Whitefish are good all year.
In the different states of the United States there are laws governing the fishing for trout, so the season for that fish differs in the various states.
Black Bass, Perch, Pickerel and Pike are in season from June 1st to
December 1st.
Shad, April to June.
Smelts, November 10th to April.
TO CLEAN FISH
The fish may be cleaned at the market, but needs to be looked over carefully before cooking.
To remove the scales hold the fish by the tail and scrape firmly toward the head with a small sharp knife, held with the blade slanting toward the tail. Scrape slowly so that the scales will not fly, and rinse the knife frequently in cold water. If the fish is to be served whole, leave the head and tail on and trim the fins; otherwise remove them.
TO OPEN FISH
To open small fish cut under the gills and squeeze out the contents by pressing upward from the middle with the thumb and finger. To open large fish split them from the gills halfway down the body toward the tail; remove the entrails and scrape and clean, opening far enough to remove all the blood from the backbone, and wiping the inside thoroughly with a cloth wrung out of cold, salted water.
TO SKIN FISH
To skin a fish remove the fins along the back and cut off a narrow strip of the skin the entire length of the back. Then slip the knife under the skin that lies over the bony part of the gills and work slowly toward the tail. Do the same with the other side.
TO BONE FISH
To bone a fish clean it first and remove the head. Then, beginning at the tail, run a sharp knife under the flesh close to the bone, scraping the flesh away clean from the bone. Work up one side toward the head; then repeat the same process on the other side of the bone. Lift the bone carefully and pull out any small bones that may be left in the flesh.
BOILED FISH
To cook fish properly is very important, as no food, perhaps, is so insipid as fish if carelessly cooked. It must be well done and properly salted. A good rule to cook fish by is the following: Allow ten minutes to the first pound and five minutes for each additional pound; for example: boil a fish weighing five pounds thirty minutes. By pulling out a fin you may ascertain whether your fish is done; if it comes out easily and the meat is an opaque white, your fish has boiled long enough. Always set your fish on to boil in hot water, hot from the teakettle, adding salt and a dash of vinegar to keep the meat firm; an onion, a head of celery and parsley roots are always an acceptable flavor to any kind of boiled fish, no matter what kind of sauce you intend to serve with the fish. If you wish to serve the fish whole, tie it in a napkin and lay it on an old plate at the bottom of the kettle; if you have a regular "fish kettle" this is not necessary. In boiling fish avoid using too much water.
To thicken sauces, where flour is used, take a level teaspoon of flour to a cup of sauce, or the yolk of an egg to a cup of sauce.
BAKED FISH
Wash and dry the fish, rubbing inside and outside with salt; stuff with a bread stuffing and sew. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and place in a hot oven without water. As soon as it begins to brown add hot water and butter and baste every ten minutes. Bake until done, allowing an hour or more for a large fish, twenty or thirty minutes for a small one. Remove to a hot platter; draw out the strings; garnish with slices of lemon well covered with chopped parsley and serve with Hollandaise sauce.
BROILED FISH
For broiling, large fish should be split down the back and head and tail removed; salmon and halibut should be cut into one-inch slices,