Cooking and Baking The Granny Flanagan Way!

Granny Flanagan has some interesting approaches to cooking and baking. Here you'll find some of her favorites. Some are a little involved,some are quite simple, but they're all old fashioned! The recipes included here are typed out just the way she has them written out on her recipe cards. Her traditional Irish recipes are on the following page. Just click on the link at the bottom of this page for her delicious Irish deserts, stews and breads!

FRENCH OMELETTE Take eight eggs, well beaten separately; add to the yolks eight tablespoonfuls of sweet milk, one tablespoonful of flour, one teaspoonful of good baking powder, salt and pepper pre mixed; beat well together, and then stir in lightly at the last the beaten whites.

Have ready a skillet with melted butter, smoking hot, and pour in mixture. Let cook on bottom; then put in oven from five to ten minutes. Serve at once.

TURNIPS Put one-half teacup of butter in your kettle (pot), and let it get hot; then add one tablespoon sugar. Have your turnips sliced fine; put them in your kettle and stir well; add enough water to stew tender; then sprinkle over them one tablespoon of flour and a little rich cream. Add salt, pepper and parsley. Stir well, and serve. Sweet potatoes are excellent cooked the same way.

POTATOES "AU GRATIN" Take one tablespoonful of butter, and three tablespoonfuls of flour; mix together on stove, and add two cups milk. Chop fine cold boiled potatoes; Mix in salt, pepper and a few drops vanilla essence, put in a baking dish; pour the dressing over, and add enough grated cheese to cover it; bake about thirty minutes.

BAKED BEANS Pick over and wash well one quart of small white beans; soak over night. In the morning, pour off the water and cover with cold water. After boiling one-half hour, drain them, and cover again with cold water. Boil until cooked, but not broken. Put them in a baking dish. In the center place one pound salt pork (which has been parboiled and well gashed), one tablespoonful of molasses, one dash of cayenne pepper, black pepper to taste, and, if necessary, a little salt. Ordinarily the pork should salt the beans. Cover with part of the liquor in which the pork has been parboiled, and bake three hours.

CUCUMBER PICKLES Pour enough boiling water over pickles to cover them, and let stand twenty-four hours; measure water so that you may know what quantity of vinegar to use. Take them out of water, wiping each one separately with dry towel; place in close layers in stone jar. To one gallon of vinegar, add one cup of salt, two tablespoons of pulverized alum, same of cloves, allspice, mustard, and cinnamon; put all in vinegar, and let come to boil; pour this over pickles. When cool, place plate over, and add a weight. Pickles prepared in this way will keep nicely a year.

BATTER PUDDING WITH BEEF ROAST Put roast in oven, and cook within an hour of being done; then place a grate across the pan and rest your roast upon it. Make a batter according to the following rule, and pour it right into the gravy in which the roast has been resting, cook an hour and serve: Batter - Four eggs, tablespoon of sugar, one quart of milk, six tablespoons of flour, and a piece of butter the size of a walnut.

BEEF LOAF Take three and one-half pounds of lean beef (raw), chopped; six crackers (bread crumbs if prefered), rolled fine; three well-beaten eggs, four tablespoonfuls of cream, butter the size of an egg; salt and pepper to taste, tablespoon of parsley, teaspoon paprika, one minced garlic clove; mix all together and make into a loaf. Bake one and one-half hours. Serve cold in thin slices.

DROP DUMPLINGS FOR STEWED CHICKEN Stew chicken and make a rich gravy with milk or cream. Pour off a part into a separate vessel and thin with water; let it boil, then drop in dumplings made with this proportion: One quart flour, a little salt, one egg, two teaspoonfuls baking powder, and milk to make a stiff batter. Stir, and drop from spoon into boiling gravy. Cover, and let boil gently for five minutes. Try them with a fork. They must be perfectly dry inside when done. Serve with the chicken.

ESCALOPED OYSTERS Two quarts of oysters; wash them and drain off the liquor, then sprinkle with hot sauce or cayenne pepper and parsley; roll some crackers (not too fine). Put in a pan a layer of crumbs, some bits of butter, a little pepper and salt; then a layer of oysters, and repeat until the dish is full. Have cracker crumbs on top; turn a cup of oyster liquor over it; add good sweet milk sufficient to thoroughly saturate it, and bake three-fourths of an hour.

BAKED FISH Take large white fish or pickerel, make a dressing (stuffing) as for turkey, with the addition of one egg and a little onion; fill the fish, wrap close with twine, lay in baking pan; put in one-half pint of water, small lumps of butter and dredge with flour. Bake from three-fourths to one hour, basting carefully.

OLD FASHIONED MINCE MEAT Chop fine four pounds of good boiled beef (one tongue is better. yummy!), one pound suet, and eight apples; add two pounds of raisins (seeded), two pounds of currants, two grated nutmegs, two ounces ground cloves, one pound citron (cut fine), two pounds brown sugar, two tablespoonfuls salt, one pint boiled cider. This may be canned like fruit. When ready to bake pies, add a glass of grape jelly, diluted with water, a little butter, a few raisins, and sugar if needed.

ANGEL CAKE Whites of nine large or ten small fresh eggs, one and one-fourth cups sifted granulated sugar, one cup sifted flour, one-half teaspoonful cream tartar; a pinch of salt added to eggs before beating. After sifting flour four or five times, measure and set aside one cup; then sift and measure one and one fourth cups granulated sugar; beat whites of eggs about half; add cream tartar and beat until very, very stiff. Stir in sugar, and then flour, very lightly. Put in pan in moderate oven at once, and bake from thirty-five to fifty minutes.

HICKORY NUT CAKE One and one-half cups sugar, one-half cup butter, three-fourths cup sweet milk, three cups flour, two teaspoonfuls baking powder, two eggs, vanilla, one cup hickory nut meats. Cream the butter and beat together with previously beaten eggs and sugar. Add milk and vanilla, mix, then add slowly the dry ingredients. Stir in nut meat and bake in moderate oven for 40-50 minutes.

DRIED APPLE FRUIT CAKE Take three cups of dried apples, and soak over night; then chop them fine, and cook slowly for three hours in three cups of baking molasses, stirring often; let cool over night. Then take two cups of sugar, one cup of butter, three eggs, four cups of flour, two teaspoons of baking powder, two teaspoons of ground cinnamon, two teaspoons of ground cloves, one grated nutmeg, two cups of raisins, one cup of citron (cut fine), and one pound of figs (chopped). Lastly, add the cooked apples. Stir all together, and bake as you would other fruit cake for two hours or longer in rather slow oven.

MOLASSES COOKIES Whites and yolks of two eggs (beaten separately), one cup brown sugar, one cup melted butter, one cup New Orleans molasses, one dessert spoon (teaspoon) of ginger, one dessert-spoon soda, four tablespoons boiling water, flour to stiffen. Beat together egg yolks, sugar, butter and molasses and water. form a dough and rollout,but not too thin. Cut to shape and bake in pre-heated oven 10-12 mins.

GINGERBREAD One and one-half cups molasses, one cup brown or granulated sugar, one-half cup lard, one cup boiling water, one teaspoon soda dissolved in the water, two teaspoons ginger, one teaspoon each of cloves and cinnamon, three cups flour, one egg. Put all in the vessel, excepting the water and egg; beat well; then add the water and soda; after stirring this well together, add the beaten egg. Bake in quick oven. Put greased paper in pan before pouring in the mixture. Let cool in the pans.

LEMON SPONGE OR SNOW PUDDING One-half box gelatine, juice of three lemons, one pint of cold water, one-half pint of hot water, two cups of sugar, whites of three eggs. Soak one-half box of gelatine in one pint of cold water ten minutes; then dissolve over the fire, adding the juice of the lemons with the hot water and sugar. Boil all together two or three minutes; pour into a dish, and let it remain until nearly cold and beginning to set; then add the whites of eggs, well beaten, and whisk ten minutes. When it becomes the consistency of sponge, wet the inside of cups with the white of egg, pour in the sponge, and set in a cold place. Serve with thin custard, made with the yolks of four eggs, one tablespoonful of corn starch, one-half teacup of sugar, one pint of milk, teaspoonful of vanilla. Boil until sufficiently thick, and serve cold over the sponge.

ORANGE CREAM Take half a box of gelatine, and cover with eight tablespoonfuls of cold water, and soak a half hour. Stand the gelatine over the teakettle for a few minutes to melt; then add it to a pint of orange juice, and a cup of sugar, and strain. Turn this mixture into a dish, and stand in a cool place, watching carefully, and stirring occasionally. Whip a pint of cream to a stiff froth. As soon as the orange gelatine begins to congeal, stir in the whipped cream; turn into a mold, and stand it over in a cold place. Served with angels food, it makes a most delicate dessert.

PEACH ICE-CREAM One pint new milk, one pint sweet cream, one cup sugar, one quart peach pulp (peeled ripe or canned peaches, and put through the colander). Let cream and milk come to a boil; add sugar, and cool; add peach pulp, and freeze.

RASPBERRY JAM Weigh equal parts of fruit and sugar. Put the fruit into a preserving pan, and mash with a silver or wooden spoon; let boil up; then add the sugar; stir all the time while cooking. Strawberry or blackberry jam is made the same way. Thirty or forty minutes is sufficient time for cooking.

Cick Here for Granny's Baking Instructions for Irish Soda Bread and Other Irish Recipes.