Jewish Cook Book - Cereals

This is the Cereals section of this book

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Cereals
The cereals are the most valuable of the vegetable foods, including as they do the grains from which is made nearly all the bread of the world.

For family use, cereals should be bought in small quantities and kept in glass jars, tightly covered.

Variety is to be found in using the different cereals and preparing them in new ways. Many cereals are improved by adding a little milk during the latter part of the cooking. Boiling water and salt should always be added to cereals, one teaspoon salt to one cup of cereal. Long cooking improves the flavor and makes the cereal more digestible.

Cereals should be cooked the first five minutes over the fire and then over hot-water in a double boiler; if one cannot be procured, cook cereal in a saucepan set in a larger one holding the hot water.

Laws about cereals
To discover if cereals such as barley, wheat, oats, farina or cornmeal are kosher, place them on a hot plate, if no worms or other insects appear they are fit to be eaten, if not, they must be thrown away.

If flour is mildewed it must be destroyed.

Oatmeal porridge
As oatmeal is ground in different grades of coarseness, the time for cooking varies and it is best to follow the directions given on the packages. The meal should be cooked until soft, but should not be mushy. The ordinary rule is to put a cup of meal into two cups of salted boiling water (a teaspoon of salt), and let it cook in a double boiler the required time. Keep covered until done; then remove the cover and let the moisture escape.

Cold oatmeal
Oatmeal is very good cold, and in summer is better served in that way. It can be turned into fancy molds or into small cups to cool, and will then hold the form and make an ornamental dish.

Oatmeal with cheese
Cook one cup of oatmeal overnight and just before serving add one tablespoon of butter and one cup grated cheese. Stir until the cheese is melted and serve at once.

Baked apple with oatmeal
Pare and core the apples and fill the core space with left-over oatmeal mush. Put the apples in a baking dish; sprinkle with sugar; pour a little water into the bottom of the pan and bake in a moderate oven until the apples are tender. Serve warm with cream for breakfast or luncheon.

Wheat cereals
Wheat cereals, like oatmeal, are best cooked by following the directions on the package. Most of them are greatly improved by the addition of a little milk or by a few chopped dates or whole sultana raisins.

Cornmeal mush
Mix together one cup of cornmeal and one teaspoon of salt, and add one cup of cold water gradually, stirring until smooth. Pour this mixture into two cups of boiling; water in a double boiler and cook from three to five hours. Serve hot with cream and sugar.

Sautéd cornmeal mush
Put left-over mush into a dish and smooth it over the top. When cold cut into slices one-half inch thick. Dip each slice into flour. Melt one-half teaspoon of drippings in a frying-pan and be careful to let it get smoking hot. Brown the floured slices on each side. Drain if necessary and serve on a hot plate with syrup.

Farina
To one-half cup of farina take one teaspoon of salt; pour gradually into three cups of boiling water and cook the mixture in a double boiler for about one hour.

Hominy
Get the unbroken hominy and after careful washing soak it twenty-four hours in the water. Cook one cup of hominy slowly in the same water in a covered vessel for eight hours or until all the water has been absorbed by the hominy; add two tablespoons of butter, one teaspoon of salt and two tablespoons of cream and serve as a vegetable or as a cereal with sugar and cream.

Marmelitta
Take two cups of coarse cornmeal and four cups of cold water put on to boil; add one-half teaspoon of salt. Stir the cornmeal continually and when done place on platter, spread with butter, sharf cheese or any cheese such as pot or cream cheese. To be eaten warm.

Polenta
Place one cup of yellow cornmeal and three cups of cold water in a double boiler, add one teaspoon of salt, one-half teaspoon of pepper and cook for forty minutes. While still hot add one and one-half cups of grated cheese to the mixture and heat until it melts. Turn the mixture into a greased bowl and allow it to set. The meal may be sliced an inch thick or cut with a biscuit cutter and then fried in hot vegetable oil. Serve with white or tomato sauce as desired.

Barley, tapioca, sago, etc
Add one teaspoon of salt to one quart of boiling water and pour gradually on one-half cup of barley or other hard grain and boil until tender, from one to two or more hours, according to the grain, and have each kernel stand out distinct when done. Add more boiling water as it evaporates. Use as a vegetable or in soups. Pearl barley, tapioca and sago cook quicker than other large grains.

Boiled rice
Put one-half cup of rice in a strainer; place the strainer over a bowl nearly full of cold water; rub the rice; lift the strainer from the bowl and change the water. Repeat this until the water in the bowl is clear. Have two quarts of water boiling briskly, add the rice and one tablespoon of salt gradually so as not to stop the boiling; boil twenty minutes or until soft, do not stir; drain through a colander and place the colander over boiling water for ten minutes to steam. Every grain will be distinct. Serve as a vegetable or as a cereal with cream and sugar.

Rice in milk
Clean the rice as for boiling in water; and cook one-half cup of rice with one and one-half cups of hot milk and one-half teaspoon of salt, adding a few seeded or sultana raisins if desired. Serve hot like boiled rice or press into small cups, cool and serve with cream and sugar.

Rice with grated chocolate
Cook one-half cup of rice, place in hot serving dish, sprinkle generously with grated sweet chocolate; set in oven one minute and serve.

Steamed rice
Wash two cups of rice carefully put in double boiler; add eight cups of cold water and a pinch of salt and steam for two hours; do not stir. Serve with any kind of stewed fruit or preserve.

Apples with rice
Boil one cup of rice in water or milk; rub the kettle all over with a piece of butter before putting in the rice, season with salt and add a lump of butter. When cooked, add about six apples, pared, quartered and cored, sugar and cinnamon. This makes a nice side dish, or dessert, served with cream.

Boiled rice with pineapple
Boil as much rice as desired and when done slice up the pineapple and add, with as much sugar as is required to sweeten to taste.

Baked rice
Arrange two cups of boiled rice in a baking dish in layers, covering each with grated cheese, a little milk, butter, salt and red pepper. Spread one cup of grated bread crumbs over all and bake in a moderate oven until the crumbs are browned.

Sweet rice
Clean and wash one cup of rice. Put on to boil with cold water, add a pinch of salt. When done drain off the water, if any; add two cups of milk, stir in and let boil for five minutes. Dish up, then sprinkle sugar and cinnamon generously over the top. The yolk of an egg can be added just before serving if desired.

Eggs baked in rice
Line a buttered dish with steamed rice. Break the eggs in the centre, dot with butter, sprinkle with salt, pepper and bake in a moderate oven.

Rice and nut loaf
Boil one-half cup of rice (brown preferred); drain and dry it. Mix with an equal quantity of bread crumbs. Add level teaspoon of salt and one-half saltspoon of black pepper. Stir in one cup of chopped nuts—pecans or peanuts. Add one tablespoon of chopped parsley and one egg. Mix thoroughly and pack in bread-pan to mold it. Turn it from pan into baking-pan and bake slowly three-quarters of an hour. Serve with cream sauce or purée of peas.

Pilaf
Put two cups of water on to boil, add juice of two tomatoes and a pinch of salt. When boiling, add one cup of rice and let cook until the water has evaporated. Then add melted butter, mix well, and keep in warm place, covered, until ready to serve.

Spanish rice
Put one cup of washed rice in frying-pan with four or five tablespoons of poultry fat; add three onions chopped and two cloves of garlic minced fine. Fry ten minutes; add one red pepper or one canned pimento chopped, or one teaspoon of paprika, and three ripe tomatoes or two cups of strained tomatoes and one teaspoon of salt. Cook slowly about one hour, and as the water evaporates, add more boiling water to keep from burning.

Left-over cereals
Oatmeal, hominy, cracked wheat, and other cereals which are left over can be added next day to the fresh stock, for they are improved by long boiling and do not injure the new supply, or such as is left can be molded in large or in small forms, and served cold with cream, or milk and sugar. In warm weather cereals are nicer cold than hot. Cold hominy and mush, cut into squares and fried, so that a crisp crust is formed on both sides,—also hominy or farina, rolled into balls and fried,—are good used in place of a vegetable or as a breakfast dish.

Any of the cereals make good pancakes, or a small amount added to the ordinary pancake batter improves it.