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How We Cook in Tennessee

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

How We Cook in Tennessee

Ingredients

Directions

  1. one egg. Mix thoroughly. Fry slowly in hot fat. — Mrs. Isaac Tigrett.

  2. Pot Roast. — Take piece of beef weighing five or six pounds, not too fat. Wash it and put in a pot with just enough water to cover it. Set over a slow fire and after it has stewed one hour, salt and pepper it. Stew until tender, adding a little onion. Take meat from the pot and pour the gravy in a bowl. Put a large lump of butter in the bottom of pot, dredge the meat with flour and return it to the pot to brown, turning it often to pre- vent burning. Skim the fat off the gravy. Pour the gravy in with the meat, thicken with flour wet with water, and pour gravy into a gravy dish. Serve the meat on a platter.

  3. Beef Heart. — Open the heart sufficiently to remove the ven- tricles, then soak it in water until the blood is discharged. Par- boil the heart until nearly tender. Prepare a dressing of bread crumbs and salt fat pork chopped fine; season with pepper, salt and a little chopped onion ; stuff the heart with the dressing and secure the opening with small skewers; cut thin slices of fat ham or bacon and lay in the pan with about two tablespoonfuls of hot water. Place the heart in the pan and baste with the gravy until done ; serve hot. — Mrs. H. J. Vanden- brook.

  4. Beef Steak Rolls. — Prepare a good dressing as for chicken; take a round steak, pound it, salt and pepper and a few bits of butter ; roll the steak up tightly and tie closely ; spread two big spoons of butter over the steak after rolling, then wash it with a well beaten egg ; put water in a bakepan, lay in the steak so as not to touch the water and bake, basting often. If you have no rack to your bakingpan, you may easily make one by cutting a tin can up the side and laying it out flat ; then the roll may be taken out of the pan easily. A half-hour in a brisk oven will bake. Make a brown gravy and send to the table hot.

  5. Veal Cutlets. — Salt and pepper, then dip in beaten egg and cracker crumbs ; fry in hot lard.

  6. HOW WE COOK IN TENNESSEE. 43

  7. Veal Roast. — Select a thick roast ; salt and pepper it, sprinkle flour on top, put it in the bakingpan with sufficient water to roast it. Be careful not to put it in a very hot oven, and baste frequently ; make gravy to serve with it.

  8. Veal Stew. — Wash and cut up two pounds of veal; cut in pieces about three inches long; boil, taking off the scum as it rises ; salt and pepper to taste ; cut in quarters six Irish potatoes, but do not add them until the veal is almost done, as they must not cook mealy; add a heaping table spoon of butter, with a little flour rubbed in.

  9. Veal Loaf. — Three pounds raw veal chopped or ground very fine, butter size of egg (or more), three eggs, three tablespoons of milk, four pounded crackers, one teaspoon black pepper, tablespoon salt, mix well together and form into a loaf. Put in baking pan on a rack, add warm water ; bake two and one-half hours, basting frequently. Serve cut in thin slices.

  10. Veal Loaf. — Cover a knuckle of veal with cold water, boil quickly, skim and add one teaspoonful of salt, one onion and a little cayenne. Let simmer until very tender, and the liquor reduced to one-half pint. Eemove the meat, strain the liquor and season with salt, pepper and thyme. Put the meat through a meat cutter, add two or three tablespoonfuls of cracker meal and the meat liquor ; mix thoroughly and put into a meat pan. Stand in a cool place, serving it sliced cold, garnished with parsley and slices of lemon.

  11. Pressed Veal. — Chop veal fine, while hot, in meat cutter, re- moving bones; retain the gelatinous matter, season with pep- per, salt and curry powder, place in mold, press with weight. Cut in thin slices for lunch or tea.

  12. Veal or Meat Pie. — Cut veal into three inch pieces, put in saucepan with water to cover, and when tender, season with salt, pepper, a little flour and a generous amount of butter. Line a baking dish with good pastry; pour the stew in, cover with pastry, make an incision in the center; bake until the crust

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1321Calories
60 gProtein
43 gFat
169 gCarbs

Counts 12 of 14 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 12 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Beef100g cooked250
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cracker5 saltine crackers (15g)66
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Thyme1 tsp dried (1.4g)4
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Vealnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Jackson (Tenn.). First Baptist Church. The Silver Thimble Society. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Potato + thymetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,586 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, milk, pepper, egg, butter, potato, thyme):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, milk, pepper, egg, butter, potato, thyme. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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