1883 Luncheon: Beet Salad, Apple Tea, Macaroni with Onion Sauce, Apple Scallop

1883 Luncheon
The Cottage Kitchen

Beet Salad
Apple Tea
Asparagus Biscuit
Macaroni with Onion Sauce
Apple Scallop

Beet Salad.
6 beets
Dressing:
1 tbs oil
2 tbs vinegar
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp mustard
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt
Boil half a dozen sweet beets until tender; scrape off the skins, and slice round. While still warm, pour over them a dressing made of one tablespoonful of oil, two of vinegar, a teaspoonful of sugar, half a teaspoonful each of mustard, pepper, and salt. "Work the oil well into these, beat light, and add the vinegar gradually. Cover the beets, and set away where the salad will get cold quickly. You can keep it two or three days.
Did we eat it? Yes
Would I make it again? Yes

Apple Tea.
2 finely flavored pippins.
1 quart of cold water.
As much ginger as will lie on a silver dime.
Sugar to taste.
Pare and slice the apples, leaving the seeds in. Pack with the ginger in a glass or stone jar, pour in the water, put on the top loosely, and set in a kettle of cold water. Let it boil until the apple is broken to pieces. Strain while hot, squeezing hard. Strain again through flannel without pressing, and let it get cold. Sweeten and ice. It is recommended for fever patients.
Did we drink it? Yes
Would I Make it again? Yes

Asparagus Biscuit.
Scrape the crumb from the inside of stale biscuits, leaving a thin wall on all sides, except the tops. These should be carefully cut off and set aside. Rub the inside of each biscuit with butter, also the under part of the crust-cover, and set them, open, the crusts beside them, in a moderate oven. Heat in a saucepan a cupful of boiled asparagus, chopped and prepared with drawn butter, see below. Do this when the biscuits are crisp and hot, and so soon as the asparagus-mixture is heated throughout, smoking as you stir it, fill the prepared cavities with it, fit on the tops, and send hot to the table.
Drawn Butter
1/2 cupful boiling water
1 tbs butter
1 heaping tsp flour
Make the drawn butter by putting half a cupful of boiling water in a saucepan, and stirring into it a tablespoonful of butter cut up and worked well into a heaping tea- spoonful of flour. Cook until smooth and thick, and beat in a bowl with the asparagus until you have a soft paste.
Did we eat it? Some of it.
Would I make it again? No, very bland.

Macaroni with Onion Sauce.
1/2 Ib. macaroni.
1 small onion, chopped.
1 cup of milk.
1 scant tablespoonful of butter.
3 tablespoonfuls grated cheese.
Pepper and salt.
Bit of soda no larger than a pea stirred in the milk. Break the macaroni into inch lengths. Boil twenty minutes in hot salted water. Simmer the milk in a saucepan with the onion ten minutes, then strain through a coarse cloth, pressing hard to get the full flavor of the onion. Return to the saucepan, stir in the butter rolled in a teaspoonful of flour, two tablespoonfuls of cheese, pepper and salt, lastly, the macaroni. Heat for two minutes; turn into a vegetable-dish, and sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top. It is very savory.
Did we eat it? Yes
Would I make it again? Yes

Apple Scallop.
3 cups of good apple-sauce.
Nearly a cupful of sugar.
1 tablespoonful of butter.
Nutmeg to taste.
1 beaten egg.
1/2 cupful of fine crumbs.
1 heaping teaspoonful of corn-starch rubbed into the butter.
Stir into the apple-sauce while hot the sugar, butter, corn-starch, and spice. Beat hard, boil up once, and let it get cold. If the apples are very juicy, drain off half the liquor before the sugar, etc., are added. Heap, when cold and firm, upon a buttered pie-plate, wash all over with beaten egg, coat with crumbs, and bake half an hour. Slip to a heated dish, or serve in the pie-plate, as most convenient. Eat hot with sauce, or milk and sugar.
Did we eat it? Yes
Would I make it again? Yes
Notes: I used crushed graham crackers for the crumb topping. I got the impression from the recipe that this was supposed to be pie like. It never became that firm. Perhaps if the egg had been mixed in instead of washed over the top?

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