*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 54965 ***

                            MISS BEECHER’S

                        DOMESTIC RECEIPT BOOK:

                             DESIGNED AS A

                              SUPPLEMENT

                                TO HER

                     TREATISE ON DOMESTIC ECONOMY


                               NEW YORK:
                  HARPER & BROTHERS, 82 CLIFF STREET.

                                 1846.




      Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, by
                          HARPER & BROTHERS,
      In the Clerk’s Office of the Southern District of New-York.




PREFACE.


The following objects are aimed at in this work:

_First_, to furnish an _original_ collection of receipts, which shall
embrace a great variety of simple and well-cooked dishes, designed for
every-day comfort and enjoyment.

_Second_, to include in the collection only such receipts as have been
tested by superior housekeepers, and warranted to be _the best_. It is
not a book made up in _any_ department by copying from other books, but
entirely from the experience of the best practical housekeepers.

_Third_, to express every receipt in language which is short, simple,
and perspicuous, and yet to give all directions so minutely as that the
book can be kept in the kitchen, and be used by any domestic who can
read, as a guide in _every one_ of her employments in the kitchen.

_Fourth_, to furnish such directions in regard to small dinner-parties
and evening company as will enable any young housekeeper to perform her
part, on such occasions, with ease, comfort, and success.

_Fifth_, to present a good supply of the rich and elegant dishes
demanded at entertainments, and yet to set forth a large variety
of what is both healthful and good, in connexion with warnings and
suggestions which it is hoped may avail to promote a more healthful
fashion in regard both to entertainments and to daily table supplies.
No book of this kind will sell without receipts for the rich articles
which custom requires, and in furnishing them, the writer has aimed
to follow the example of Providence, which scatters profusely both
good and ill, and combines therewith the caution alike of experience,
revelation, and conscience, “choose ye that which is good, that ye and
your seed may live.”

_Sixth_, in the work on Domestic Economy, together with this, to which
it is a Supplement, the writer has attempted to secure in a cheap and
popular form, for American housekeepers, a work similar to an English
work which she has examined, entitled the _Encyclopædia of Domestic
Economy, by Thomas Webster and Mrs. Parkes_, containing over twelve
hundred octavo pages of closely-printed matter, treating on every
department of Domestic Economy; a work which will be found much more
useful to English women, who have a plenty of money and well-trained
servants, than to American housekeepers. It is believed that most,
in that work, which would be of any practical use to American
housekeepers, will be found in this work and the Domestic Economy.

_Lastly_, the writer has aimed to avoid the defects complained of
by most housekeepers in regard to works of this description, issued
in this country, or sent from England, such as that, in some cases,
the receipts are so rich as to be both expensive and unhealthful; in
others, that they are so vaguely expressed as to be very imperfect
guides; in others, that the processes are so elaborate and _fussing_ as
to make double the work that is needful; and in others, that the topics
are so limited that some departments are entirely omitted, and all are
incomplete.

In accomplishing these objects, the writer has received contributions
of the pen, and verbal communications, from some of the most judicious
and practical housekeepers, in almost every section of this country.




CONTENTS.


  CHAPTER I.

  ON SELECTING FOOD AND DRINKS WITH REFERENCE TO HEALTH.

  Nourishing and unstimulating Food. Nourishing and stimulating
  food. Food that stimulates without nourishing. Food that is entirely
  Undigestible. Food that is unhealthful in nature, or made
  so by cooking. Liquid aliments, or drinks. Other liquid aliments,
  or drinks,                                                           1


  CHAPTER II.

  MARKETING--CARE AND USES OF MEATS.

  Selection and uses of meats. Modes of cooking and using the different
  parts of animals. Beef. Veal. Mutton. Pork. Marketing.
  On the Cure of Meats. Directions for cutting up a Hog.
  To try out Lard. Directions for salting down Pork. Mr. H. H.’s
  Receipt for Curing Hams. To prepare Cases for Sausages.
  Sausage Meat. Bologna Sausages. Another Receipt for Sausage
  Meat. Pickle for Beef, Pork, Tongues, or Hung Beef. Another
  by measure, and with less trouble. To salt down Beef to keep the
  year round. To Cleanse Calf’s Head and Feet. To Prepare
  Rennet,                                                             26


  CHAPTER III.

  BOILED MEATS.

  To cook a Ham (very fine). Smoked Boiled Tongues. A la Mode
  Beef. Another à la Mode Beef. To Boil a Leg of Veal or Mutton.
  Pot Pie, of Beef, Veal, or Chicken. Calf’s Head. Curried
  Dishes. To Prepare Curry Powder. Veal Stew. Another Veal
  Stew (very fine). To Stew Birds. A fine Mutton Stew. A Sausage
  Stew. To Bake Beef. Beef, or Mutton and Potatoe Pie.
  To Cook Pigeons. Beef or Veal Stewed with Apples (very good).
  To Boil a Turkey. To Boil Corned Beef,                              36

  CHAPTER IV.

  ROASTED AND BAKED MEATS.

  General Remarks. Roast Beef. Roast Lamb. Roast Mutton.
  Roast Veal. To Roast a Fillet or Leg of Veal. Baked, or Roasted
  Pig. To Roast a Spare Rib. Roast Turkey. Roast Goose.
  Roast Chickens. Roast Ducks. Mutton and Beef Pie. Chicken
  Pie. Mutton Haricot. To Cook a Shoulder of Lamb. Rice
  Chicken Pie. Potatoe Pie,                                           43


  CHAPTER V.

  FRIED AND BROILED MEATS.

  General Remarks. A nice Way of Cooking Calf’s or Pig’s Liver.
  Fried Veal Cutlets. Fricassee Chickens. Meats Warmed over.
  A nice Way of Cooking Cold Meats. A Hash of Cold Meat for
  Dinner (very good). Cold Meat Turnovers. Head Cheese.
  Souse. Tripe. Force Meat Balls (another Hash.) To Prepare
  Cold Beef Steaks. A nice Way of Cooking Cold Boiled Ham.
  Another way of Cooking Cold Ham. A Veal Hash. Veal Balls
  (another Hash). Broiled Meats. General Remarks. Broiled Ham.
  Broiled Veal Cutlets. Broiled Mutton Chops. Broiled Pork
  Steaks. Beef Steaks. Beef Liver. To Poach Eggs. To Boil
  Eggs. A Salt Relish. Egg Frizzle (very good). Frizzled Beef.
  Veal Cheese. A Codfish Relish. Another Way. Salt Herrings,          50


  CHAPTER VI.

  SOUPS.

  French Vegetable Soup. Plain Calf’s Head Soup. An Excellent
  Simple Mutton Soup. Pea Soup. Portable Soup. A Rich Mock
  Turtle Soup. Another Dry Pea Soup. Clam Soup. Oyster
  Soup. Veal Soup. Macaroni Soup (Mrs. F.’s Receipt). Southern
  Gumbo (Mrs. L.’s Receipt). Giblet Soup,                             57


  CHAPTER VII.

  FISH.

  Directions for making Chowder. To Fry Fish. To Boil Fish.
  To Broil Fish. Baked Fish. Cod Sounds and Tongues. To
  Cook Salt Codfish. To Cook Cold Codfish. To Cook Oysters.
  Lobsters. Scolloped Oysters. Pickled Oysters. To Crimp Fresh
  Fish. To Cook Eels. To Cook Scollops. A Good Way of Using
  Cold Fresh Fish. To Cook Clams,                                     62


  CHAPTER VIII.

  ON THE PREPARATION OF HASHES, GRAVIES, AND SAUCES.

  To prepare Gravy for a Cold Beef Hash, or Steak Hash. Gravy
  for a Mutton Hash, or Venison Hash. To prepare a Veal Hash.
  Common Gravies. Drawn Butter, or Melted Butter. Another
  Mode of preparing Drawn Butter. Drawn Meat Gravies, or
  Brown Gravies. Nice Article to use for Gravy, or Soup. Burnt
  Butter for Fish, or Eggs. Sauce for Salad, or Fish. Wine Sauce
  for Mutton or Venison. Oyster Sauce. Lobster Sauce. Apple
  Sauce. Celery Sauce for Boiled Fowls. Celery Vinegar. Essence
  of Celery, to flavor Soup. Herb Spirit. Soup Powder.
  Soy. Tomato Catsup. Mushroom Catsup. Walnut Catsup,                 66


  CHAPTER IX.

  VEGETABLES.

  Potatoes. Boiled Potatoes. Other Modes of Cooking Potatoes.
  Turnips. Asparagus. Beets. Parsnips and Carrots. Onions.
  Jerusalem Artichokes. Squashes. Cabbage and Cauliflowers.
  Peas. Sweet Corn. Succatosh. Beans. Egg Plant. Baked
  Beans. Tomatoes. Greens. Cucumbers. Macaroni. Another
  Way. To Cook Hominy. Macaroni Pudding, to eat with Meat.
  Salad. Mode of Dressing Salad. Mushroom. Celeriac. Salsify,
  or Vegetable Oyster. Southern Mode of Cooking Rice.
  Common Mode of Cooking Rice. Best Mode of Cooking Tomatoes.
  Sweet Potatoes. Artichokes. Stewed Egg Plant,                       73


  CHAPTER X.

  OVENS, YEAST, BREAD, AND BISCUIT.

  On Constructing and Heating an Oven. How to know when an
  Oven is at the right Heat. How to know when Bread is Sour,
  or Heavy. How to treat Bread when taken from the Oven.
  Yeast. Potatoe Yeast. Home-made Yeast, which will keep good
  a Month. Home-brewed Yeast more easily made. Hard Yeast.
  Rubs, or Flour Hard Yeast. Milk Yeast. Wheat Bread of Distillery,
  or Brewer’s Yeast. Wheat Bread of Home-brewed Yeast.
  Baker’s Bread. Wheat Bread of Potatoe Yeast. Potatoe Bread.
  Cream Tartar Bread. Eastern Brown Bread. Rye Bread. Rice
  Bread.--No. 1. Rice Bread.--No. 2. Apple Bread. Pumpkin
  Bread. Walnut Hill’s Brown Bread. French Rolls, or Twists.
  Raised Biscuit. Very Nice Rusk. Potatoe Biscuit. Crackers.
  Hard Biscuit. Sour Milk Biscuit. A good Way to use Sour Bread,      83


  CHAPTER XI.

  BREAKFAST AND TEA CAKES.

  General Directions for Griddle and other Breakfast Cakes. Buckwheat
  Cakes wet with Water. Extempore Buckwheat Cakes.
  Buckwheat Cakes wet with Milk. Griddle Cakes of Unbolted
  Wheat. Best Rice Griddle Cakes. A very delicate Omelet.
  Wheat Waffles. Miss B.’s Waffles (without yeast). Rice Waffles.
  Good Cakes for Tea, or Breakfast. Fried Rice for Breakfast.
  Fried Hominy. Rye Drop Cake (excellent). Wheat Drop
  Cake. Corn Griddle Cakes with Yeast. Pilgrim Cake. Sour
  Milk Corn Cake. Corn Muffins (from the South). Corn Griddle
  Cakes with Eggs. Sachem’s Head Corn Cake. Royal Crumpets.
  Bachelor’s Corn Cake. Mrs. W.’s Corn Cake. Corn Muffins.
  Savoy Biscuit. Cream Cakes. Wheat Muffins. Albany Breakfast
  Cakes. Sally Lunn. Cream Tea Cakes. Buttermilk Short
  Cakes. Wafers. Pennsylvania Flannel Cakes. Kentucky Corn
  Dodgers. Ohio Corn Cake. Scarborough Puffs. Cream Griddle
  Cakes. Crumpets. Fine Cottage Cheese,                               94


  CHAPTER XII.

  PLAIN PUDDINGS AND PIES.

  General Directions in regard to Puddings and Custards. Little
  Girl’s Pie. Little Boy’s Pudding. Children’s Fruit Dumpling.
  Birth-day Pudding. Children’s Boiled Fruit Pudding. English
  Curd Pie. Fruit Fritters. Common Apple Pie. Plain Custard.
  A Richer Custard. Another Custard. Mush, or Hasty Pudding.
  Stale Bread Fritters (fine). To prepare Rennet. Rennet Custard.
  Bird’s Nest Pudding. A Minute Pudding of Potatoe Starch.
  Tapioca Pudding. Sago Pudding. Cocoanut Pudding (Plain).
  New England Squash, or Pumpkin Pie. Ripe Fruit Pies. Batter
  Pudding. Mock Cream. Bread Pudding. Sunderland Pudding.
  An Excellent Apple Pie. Boiled Apple Pudding. Spiced
  Apple Tarts. Boiled Indian Pudding. Baked Indian Pudding.
  Rice Balls, or German Pudding. Apple Custard. Rhubarb Pie.
  Plain Macaroni or Vermacelli Puddings. Green Corn Pudding.
  Bread Pudding for Invalids, or Young Children. Plain Rice
  Pudding, without Eggs. Another Sago Pudding. Oat Meal
  Mush. Modes of Preparing Apples for the Table. Fruit Custards.
  Modes of Preparing Rice for the Dinner or Tea Table.
  Rice and Meat Pudding. Modes of preparing Dishes with Dry
  Bread, or Bread so old as to be not good for the table,            104

  CHAPTER XIII.

  RICH PUDDINGS AND PIES.

  Ellen’s Pudding, or Rhubarb Tart. Nottingham Pudding. Rice
  Plum Pudding. Eve’s Pudding (the best kind). Baked English
  Plum Pudding. A Boiled English Plum Pudding. Almond
  Cheese Cake. Cocoanut Pudding. Arrowroot Pudding. Ground
  Rice Pudding. Mrs. O.’s Pumpkin Pie. Cracker Plum Pudding
  (excellent). Minced Pie. Marlborough Pudding. Orange, or
  Lemon Pudding. Sweet Potatoe Pudding. Quince Pudding.
  Paste for Puddings and Pies. Healthful Pie Crusts. Paste made
  with Butter. Directions for making Paste. Puff Paste. Sauces
  for Puddings. Liquid Sauce. Hard Sauce. A Healthful Pudding
  Sauce. An excellent Sauce for Boiled Rice,                         121


  CHAPTER XIV.

  PLAIN CAKES.

  General Directions for Making Cake. Rose Butter. Directions for
  Cleansing Currants. Frosting for Cake. Cake Frosting (another,
  which is harder). Good Child’s Cake. Ginger Snaps.
  Child’s Feather Cake. Best Molasses Gingerbread. Sponge
  Gingerbread. Cider Cake. Cup Cake without Eggs. Cream
  Cake without Eggs. Cream Tartar Cake, without Eggs. Fruit
  Cake without Eggs. Drop Cake. Sugar Gingerbread (rich).
  Sugar Gingerbread (plainer). Sponge Cake. Bridget’s Bread
  Cake (excellent). Doughnuts. Cookies (plain). French Cake.
  Walnut Hill’s Doughnuts. Cocoanut Cup Cake. Cocoanut
  Sponge Cake. Lemon Cake.--No. 1. Gingernuts. Honey
  Cake. New Year’s Cookies. Boston Cream Cake. Almond,
  Hickory, or Cocoanut Cake. Caraway Cakes. Fruit Drop Cakes.
  Dr. B.’s Loaf Cake. Fancy Cakes. Fried Curd Cakes. Wine
  Cake. Egg Rusk. Citron Tea Cakes. French Biscuit (Mrs.
  Dr. C.),                                                           130


  CHAPTER XV.

  RICH CAKES.

  Old Hartford Election Cake (100 years old). Raised Loaf Cake.
  Mrs. H.’s Raised Wedding Cake (very fine). Yeast for the above
  Cake. Fruit Cake, or Black Cake. Pound Cake. French Loaf
  Cake. Portugal Cake. Golden Cake. Silver Cake. Shrewsbury
  Cake. Queen’s Cake. Crullars. Lemon Cake.--No. 2.
  Almond Cake. Lemon Drop Cakes. Jelly Cake. Cocoanut
  Drops. Sugar Drops,                                                146

  CHAPTER XVI.

  PRESERVES AND JELLIES.

  General Directions for making Preserves and Jellies. To Clarify
  Syrup for Sweetmeats. Brandy Peaches. Peaches (not very
  rich). Peaches (very elegant). To preserve Quinces Whole.
  Quince Jelly. Calf’s Foot Jelly. To preserve Apples. Pear.
  Pineapple (very fine). Purple Plum.--No. 1. To preserve
  Oranges. Purple Plum.--No. 2. White, or Green Plum. Citron
  Melon. Strawberries. Blackberry Jam. To preserve Currants
  to eat with Meat. Cherries. Currants. Raspberry Jam.--No.
  1. Raspberry Jam.--No. 2. Currant Jelly. Quince Marmalade.
  Preserved Watermelon Rinds. Preserved Pumpkin,                     153


  CHAPTER XVII.

  PICKLES.

  To Pickle Tomatoes. To Pickle Peaches. To Pickle Peppers. To
  Pickle Nasturtions. To Pickle Onions. To Pickle Gherkins.
  To Pickle Mushrooms. To Pickle Cucumbers. Pickled Walnuts.
  Mangoes. Fine Pickled Cabbage. An excellent Way of Preparing
  Tomatoes to eat with Meat. To Pickle Martinoes. A convenient
  Way to Pickle Cucumbers. Indiana Pickles. To Pickle
  Cauliflower, or Brocoli,                                           165


  CHAPTER XVIII.

  ARTICLES FOR DESSERTS AND EVENING PARTIES.

  Ice Cream. Directions for freezing Ice Cream. Philadelphia Ice
  Cream. Another Ice Cream. Strawberry Ice Cream. Ice Cream
  without Cream. Fruit Ice Cream. Rich Custards. Wine Cream
  Custard. Almond Custard. A Cream for Stewed Fruit. Currant,
  Raspberry, or Strawberry Whisk. Lemonade Ice, and other
  Ices. Lemon and Orange Cream. Vanilla Cream. A Charlotte
  Russe. A Plainer Charlotte Russe. A Superior Omelette Souflée.
  Almond Cheese Cake. Flummery. Chicken Salad. Gelatine,
  or American Isinglass Jelly. Oranges in Jelly. Jelly Tarts.
  Sweet Paste Jelly Tarts. An Apple Lemon Pudding. Buttermilk
  Pop. Wheat Flour Blanc Mange. Orange Marmalade. A simple
  Lemon Jelly (easily made). Cranberry. Fruits Preserved
  without Cooking. Apple Ice (very fine). Lemon, or Orange Ice
  Cream. Cream Tarts. Whip Syllabub. Trifles. Nothings.
  Apple Snow. Iced Fruit. Ornamental Froth. To Clarify Isinglass.
  Blanc Mange. Calf’s Foot Blanc Mange. Variegated
  Blanc Mange. Jaune Mange. Ivory Dust Jelly. Apple Jelly.
  Another Lemon Jelly. Orange Jelly. Floating Island. Another
  Syllabub. An Ornamental Dish. Carrageen Blanc Mange
  (Irish Moss). A Dish of Snow. To Clarify Sugar. To Prepare
  Sugar for Candies. Sugar Kisses. Almond Macaroons. Filbert
  Macaroons. Cocoanut Drops. Candied Fruits. Another Way.
  To make an Ornamental Pyramid for a Table,                         165


  CHAPTER XIX.

  TEMPERANCE DRINKS.

  Ginger Beer Powders, and Soda Powders. Currant Ice Water.
  Sarsaparilla Mead. Effervescing Fruit Drinks. Effervescing
  Jelly Drinks. Summer Beverage. Simple Ginger Beer. Orange,
  or Lemon Syrup. Acid Fruit Syrups. Imitation Lemon Syrup.
  Superior Ginger Beer. Lemon Sherbet. Orange Sherbet. Sham
  Champagne. Coffee. Fish Skin for Coffee. Chocolate. Cocoa
  and Shells. Tea. Ochra. Children’s Drinks. White Tea.
  Boy’s Coffee. Strawberry Vinegar. Royal Strawberry Acid.
  Delicious Milk Lemonade. Portable Lemonade,                        183


  CHAPTER XX.

  RECEIPTS FOR FOOD AND DRINKS FOR THE SICK.

  General Remarks on the Preparation of Articles for the Sick. An
  Excellent Relish for a Convalescent. Several Ways of Preparing
  Chickens for the Sick. Milk Porridge. Rice Gruel, and Oatmeal
  Gruel. Arrowroot and Tapioca Gruels. Dropped Egg. Wheat
  Gruel for Young Children with weak stomachs, or for Invalids.
  Another Panada. Herb Drinks. Other Simple Drinks. Cream
  Tartar Whey. Simple Wine Whey. A great Favorite with Invalids.
  A New Way of making Barley Water. Panada. Arrowroot
  Blanc Mange. Rice Flour Blanc Mange. Another Receipt
  for American Isinglass Jelly. Tapioca Jelly. Caudle. Sago
  Jelly. Spiced Chocolate. Barley Water. Water Gruel. Beef
  Tea. Tomato Syrup. Arrowroot Custard for Invalids. Sago for
  Invalids. Rice Jelly. Sassafras Jelly. Buttermilk Whey. Alum
  Whey. Another Wine Whey. Mulled Wine. Tamarind Whey.
  Egg Tea and Egg Coffee (very fine). Cranberry Tea. Apple
  Tea. Egg and Milk. Sago Milk. Tapioca Milk. Bread and
  Milk. Egg Gruel. Ground Rice Gruel. Oatmeal Gruel. Simple
  Barley Water. Compound Barley Water. Cream Tartar
  Beverage. Seidlitz Powders. Blackberry Syrup, for Cholera and
  Summer Complaint. Remarks on the Combinations of Cooking,          191


  CHAPTER XXI.

  ON MAKING BUTTER AND CHEESE.

  Articles used in Making Cheese. Mode of Preparing the Rennet.
  To Make Cheese. To Scald the Curd. Directions for making
  Butter,                                                            204

  CHAPTER XXII.

  ARTICLES AND CONVENIENCES FOR THE SICK,                            209


  CHAPTER XXIII.

  THE PROVIDING AND CARE OF FAMILY STORES,                           217


  CHAPTER XXIV.

  SUGGESTIONS IN REFERENCE TO PROVIDING A SUCCESSIVE
  VARIETY OF FOOD.

  Directions for Preserving Fruits and Vegetables,                   223


  CHAPTER XXV.

  ON BREAD MAKING,                                                   227


  CHAPTER XXVI.

  DIRECTIONS FOR DINNER AND EVENING PARTIES.

  Setting the Table. Taking up the Dinner. Tea Parties and Evening
  Company,                                                           234


  CHAPTER XXVII.

  ON SETTING TABLES, AND PREPARING VARIOUS ARTICLES
  OF FOOD FOR THE TABLE,                                             243


  CHAPTER XXVIII.

  ON SYSTEMATIC FAMILY ARRANGEMENT, AND MODE OF DOING
  WORK.

  Directions for the Cook. Directions for the Chambermaid. Odds
  and Ends,                                                          247

  CHAPTER XXIX.

  ON A PROPER SUPPLY OF UTENSILS AND CONVENIENCES FOR
  HOUSEKEEPING.

  Kitchen Furniture,                                                 252


  CHAPTER XXX.

  SUGGESTIONS IN REGARD TO HIRED SERVICE,                            269


  CHAPTER XXXI.

  ON THE STYLE OF LIVING AND EXPENSES,                               273


  CHAPTER XXXII.

  WORDS OF COMFORT FOR A DISCOURAGED HOUSEKEEPER,                    276


  CHAPTER XXXIII.

  FRIENDLY COUNSELS FOR DOMESTICS,                                   280


  CHAPTER XXXIV.

  MISCELLANEOUS ADVICE, AND SUPPLEMENTARY RECEIPTS.

  Weights and Measures. Avoirdupois Weight. Apothecaries’ Weight.
  On Purchasing Wood. Items of Advice. To make nice Crayons
  for Blackboards. Some excellent Cheap Dishes. Stewed Beef.
  Tomato Beef. A good Way to use Cold Rice. To prepare Good
  Toast. A Good Pudding. Loaf Pudding. A Plain Lemon Pudding.
  An Excellent Indian Pudding without Eggs. Pork and
  Potato Balls. Oyster Pie. Green Corn Patties (like Oysters).
  Ohio Wedding Cake (Mrs. K.). Best Way of making Corn Cakes
  of all Sorts. Molasses Candy. To make Simple Cerate. Best
  Remedy for Burns. Ginger Tea. Indian Bannock. Egg and
  Bread. Floating Island. A New Mode of cooking Cucumbers,           283




THE

DOMESTIC RECEIPT BOOK.




CHAPTER I.

ON SELECTING FOOD AND DRINKS WITH REFERENCE TO HEALTH.


A work has recently been republished in this country, entitled, “_A
Treatise on Food and Diet; by Dr. J. Pereira. Edited by Dr. Charles
A. Lee_.” “The author of this work,” says Dr. Lee, “is well known
throughout Europe and America, as one of the most learned, scientific,
and practical men of the age;--a physician of great experience and
accurate observation, and a highly successful writer. To the medical
profession he is most favorably known as the author of the best work on
the Materia Medica which has appeared in our language.”

This work contains the principles discovered by Leibig, Dûmas, and
Brossingault, and applies them practically to the subject of the
proper selection of food. All the opinions, expressed in what follows,
are sanctioned by the above work, by Dr. Combe, and by most of the
distinguished practitioners of our age and country.

In selecting food, with reference to health, the following principles
must be borne in mind.

First, that there are _general rules_ in regard to healthful food and
drink, which have been established, not by a few, but by thousands
and thousands of experiments, through many ages, and in an immense
variety of circumstances. It is these _great principles_, which must
be the main dependance of every mother and housekeeper, to guide her in
selecting healthful food and drinks for her children and family. These
rules are furnished by medical writers and practitioners.

Secondly, there are occasional exceptions to these general rules, and
when such occur, two errors should be avoided. One is, giving up all
confidence in the deductions of a wide experience, established by
extensive experiments, and assuming that we have no rules at all, and
that every person must follow the guidance of mere appetite, or his own
limited experience. The other is, making the exception into a general
rule, and maintaining that every person must conform to it.

For example, it is found by general experience, that milk is a very
safe and healthful article of food, and that alcoholic drinks are very
unhealthful. But there are cases which seem to be exceptions to this
rule; for some children never can eat milk without being made sick, and
there are cases known where men have lived to a very advanced age and
in perfect health, who have daily used alcoholic drinks, even to the
point of intoxication.

Still, it is very unwise to throw away the general rule and say, that
it is just as well for children to drink alcoholic drinks as to use
milk,--and as unwise to claim that every person must give up the use of
milk because a few are injured by it.

The true method is, to take the general rules obtained by abundant
experience for our guide, and when any exceptions are found, to regard
them _as exceptions_, which do not vacate the general rule, nor make it
needful to conform all other cases to this exception.

It will be the object of what follows, to point out the _general
rules_, which are to regulate in the selection of drinks and diet,
leaving it to each individual to ascertain, by experiments, what are,
and what are not the exceptions.

In the first place, then, it is a general rule that man needs a
_variety_ of aliment, so that it is unfavorable to health to be
confined to only one kind of food.

The various textures of the human body are composed of chemical
compounds, which differ from each other, both as to ingredients, and
as to modes of combination. It is true, that every portion of the body
may be resolved to a few simple elements, of which oxygen, hydrogen,
carbon, and nitrogen are the chief. But the bodily organs have not
the power of forming all the various animal tissues from these simple
elements. Instead of this, they must be introduced into the body in
various complex and different combinations, as they exist in the forms
of gluten, fibrine, albumen, caseine, and other animal and vegetable
compounds.

Thus the sugar, starch, and oils, found in certain kinds of food,
supply the carbon which sustain the combustion ever carried on in the
lungs by the process of breathing, and which is the grand source of
animal heat. On the contrary, the blood, muscles, skin, cartilages, and
other parts of the body, are daily nourished and renewed, some by the
_gluten_ contained in wheat, others by the _albumen_ of eggs, others
by the _caseine_ of milk, and others by the _fibrine_ of animals. All
these are found in a great variety of articles used as food. When
received into the stomach, the organs of digestion and assimilation
prepare, and then carry them, each to its own appropriate organ, and
then the excreting organs throw off the surplus.

In order, then, to have every portion of the body properly developed,
it is necessary to take such a variety of food, that from one source or
another, every organ of the body shall be sustained by its appropriate
nourishment. The experiments which prove this, have been conducted on a
great scale, and the method and results are detailed in the work of Dr.
Pereira.

This fact exhibits one cause of the craving, sometimes felt for certain
kinds of food, which usually is the call of nature for some ingredient,
that the daily round of aliment does not supply. The statistics
furnished in the work of Dr. Pereira, from various armies, prisons,
almshouses, and asylums, show, that, where many hundreds are fed on the
same diet, the general health of the multitude is better sustained by a
considerable variety and occasional changes, than by a more restricted
selection. Experiments on dogs and other animals, also, have been
tried on a large scale, which prove that there is _no_ kind of food,
which, alone, will preserve full and perfect health; while every kind
(except the food containing _gluten_, which is the chief ingredient
of wheat and other bread-stuffs), when given exclusively, eventually
destroys life. The exclusive use of wheat bread and potatoes, as found
by experiment, will sustain life and health more perfectly, for a great
length of time, than any other kinds of food.

The above fact is a striking exhibition of the beneficence of
Providence, in providing such an immense variety of articles of food.
And no less so is the instinct of appetite, which demands not only a
variety, but is wearied with one unchanging round.

Having ascertained that it is needful to health, that a due variety of
food should be secured, we next proceed to examine the principles that
are to guide us in the selection.

It is found that the articles used for food and drink may be arranged
in the following classes:—

First, articles that furnish no other stimulation to the animal
functions than is secured by the fresh supply of nutrition. All food
that nourishes the body, in one sense, may be called stimulating,
inasmuch as it imparts renewed energies to the various bodily
functions. In this sense even bread is a stimulant. But the more
common idea attached to the word stimulant is, that it is a principle
which imparts a speed and energy to the organs of the system above the
ordinary point secured by perfect and appropriate nourishment. The
first class, then, are those articles that serve to nourish and develop
perfectly every animal function, but do not increase the strength
and speed of organic action above the point of full nourishment. The
bread-stuffs, vegetables, fruits, sugar, salt, acid drinks, and water
are of this class.

Secondly, those articles, which serve to nourish perfectly all the
animal system, and at the same time increase the strength and speed
of all functional action. All animal food is of this class. All
physiologists and medical men agree in the fact, that the pulse and all
the organs of the body, are not only nourished, but are quickened in
action by animal food, while speed and force are reduced by confining
the diet to farinaceous, vegetable, and fruit diet.

Thirdly, those articles which impart no nourishment at all to the body,
but act solely to stimulate all the organs to preternatural action.
Alcoholic drinks, condiments, and aromatic oils are of this description.

Fourthly, articles that are neither nourishing nor stimulating, but
pass out of the system entirely undigested and unassimilated. The bran
of coarse bread is an example.

Fifthly, articles that, either from their nature or modes of
combination and cooking, are difficult of digestion, unhealthful, and,
of course, tend to weaken the organic powers by excessive or unnatural
action. Animal oils, either cooked or rancid, and many articles badly
cooked, are of this kind.


NOURISHING AND UNSTIMULATING FOOD.

The following presents a list of the articles which are found to be
healthful and nourishing, and not stimulating, except as they supply
the nourishment needed by the various bodily functions.

The first and most important of these are called the _farinaceous_
substances. Of these, wheat stands at the head, as the most nutritive,
safe, and acceptable diet to all classes and in all circumstances. This
can be used in the form of bread, every day, through a whole life,
without cloying the appetite, and to an extent which can be said of no
other food.

Wheat is prepared in several forms, the principal of which are the
common Fine Wheat Flour, the Unbolted, or Graham Flour, and Macaroni,
Vermicelli, and Cagliari Pastes. The last are flour paste prepared, or
cut into various shapes and dried.

Wheat flour is made into bread of two kinds, the fermented, or spongy
breads, and the unfermented, or hard breads.

The spongy breads are made by using either yeast, or the combination of
an acid and alkali. In yeast bread, the fermentation of the particles
of diffused yeast evolve carbonic acid. This expands the flour in a
spongy form, in which it is retained by the tenacity of the gluten
of the flour, until baking hardens it. Corn meal and some other
bread-stuffs cannot be raised thus, because they do not contain gluten
sufficient to hold the carbonic acid as it evolves.

When an alkali and acid are used to raise bread, their combination
evolves carbonic acid by a more sudden process than the yeast
fermentation. The lightness produced by eggs is owing to their adhesive
porosity when beaten and mixed with flour and baked.

Bread is also made of rice, rye, Indian meal, and barley. These
varieties of bread-stuffs are useful in various ways. In cases when
persons are troubled with looseness of bowels, rice bread, rice
gruel, and rice water for drink, prevent the necessity of resorting
to medicine. In cases where the opposite difficulty exists, a diet of
unbolted wheat, or rye mush with salt and molasses will remedy the
evil. These articles also can, all of them, be formed into a great
variety of combinations that are at once healthful, and acceptable to
the palate.

The next class of healthful and unstimulating articles are the
_amylaceous_, or _starchy_ articles of diet. Of these Sago, Tapioca,
Arrow Root, and the Lichens, are those in most frequent use. These are
nourishing and remarkably easy of digestion. They are very much used
for invalids, and for young children when first weaned.

The next most valuable articles of food are the _vegetables_. Of
these the Potato is at once the most healthful, and most universally
relished. In the form of Starch, it makes, when cooked, a light and
agreeable article for the sick, and is convenient to housekeepers as
forming a fine _minute pudding_ to meet an emergency.

Of the great variety of vegetables that are furnished at market, or
from our gardens, almost all are palatable and healthful to a stomach
that is strong. Peas, Beans, Onions, and cooked Cabbage and Turnips,
usually are not good for persons whose powers of digestion have been
weakened.

The next most valuable articles of food are _the Fruits_. Almost all
kinds of fruit, _when fully ripe_, are healthful to those who are
not suffering from weakness of digestion. Grapes, Apples, Peaches,
Strawberries, Raspberries, and Currants, are least likely to prove
injurious. The skins and seeds of all fruits consist of woody matter,
that is perfectly undigestible, and should never be taken in large
quantities. It is the skins and seeds of the grape that make raisins
so often injurious to young children. If the skins and stones can be
removed, nothing can be found that is more safe and healthful, in
moderate quantities, than raisins and grapes.

The next articles of healthful unstimulating food are the _Saccharine
substances_, Sugar, Molasses, and Honey. On this point, Dr. Pereira
remarks, “The injurious effects which have been ascribed to sugar are
more imaginary than real. The fondness of children for saccharine
substances may be regarded as a natural instinct; since nature, by
placing it in the mother’s milk, evidently intended it to form a
part of their nourishment. Instead, therefore, of repressing this
appetite for sugar, it ought rather to be gratified _in moderation_.
The popular notion, of its having a tendency to injure the teeth, is
totally unfounded. During the sugar season of the West Indies, every
negro on the plantations, every animal, and even the dogs, grow fat.
And no people on earth have finer teeth than the negroes of Jamaica. It
is probable that this erroneous notion has been propagated by frugal
housewives, in order to deter children from indulging in an expensive
luxury. Sugar is readily digested by a healthy stomach. In dyspeptics,
it is apt to give rise to flatulence and acidity of stomach.”

These remarks, without other considerations, may lead to erroneous
conclusions. There is no doubt that both children and adults are often
injured by the use of sugar, but it is not because it is unhealthful
in its nature, but because it is used in excess or in an improper
manner. In the “Domestic Economy,” pg. 105, it is shown that _highly
concentrated_ food is not favorable to digestion, because it cannot be
properly acted on by the muscular contractions of the stomach, and is
not so minutely divided as to enable the gastric juice to act properly.
Now Sugar, Candy, and the like, are highly concentrated nourishment,
and should not be used except when mixed with other food. The reason,
then, why children are injured by sugar is, that they eat it too
frequently, in too large quantities, and unmixed with other food. A
stick or two of pure candy, eaten with crackers or bread, never would
injure any healthy child. It is too often the case, that candies are
mixed with unhealthful coloring matter, or with nuts and other oily
substances, that make them injurious.

The next article of healthful, unstimulating food, is _jellies_ and
_preserved fruits_. As it has been shown that uncooked fruits and sugar
are both healthful, it may not seem surprising that jellies and fruits
cooked in sugar, when eaten moderately, with bread or crackers, are
regarded as among the most nourishing and healthful of all aliments.
When they prove injurious, it is owing either to the fact that they
are taken alone, or with rich cream, or else are taken in too great
quantities. Eaten moderately, as a part of a meal, they are safe and
nourishing to all, except persons of poor digestion. Healthful stomachs
need not be governed by rules demanded by the invalid, which has too
often been attempted.

The preceding presents a vast variety of articles suitable for food,
containing in abundance all the principles demanded for the perfect
development of all the animal functions, and which physiologists and
medical men unitedly allow to be healthful. These can be combined by
the cook in an endless variety of agreeable dishes, involving no risk
to a healthful stomach, when taken in proper quantities and in a proper
time and manner.


NOURISHING AND STIMULATING FOOD.

The second general division of food, embraces articles which serve
perfectly to nourish and develop every animal organ, but, at the same
time, increase the speed and strength of all functional action beyond
the point which is attained by the system, when fully and perfectly
nourished by vegetables, fruits, and bread-stuffs. There is no dispute
among physiologists and physicians as to the fact, that animal food
produces chyle which is more stimulating to the various organs, than
that which is formed from an exclusive vegetable diet. The only
question debated is, whether this increase of stimulus is favorable, or
unfavorable to health and long life.

Those who maintain that it is unfavorable, say, that all other things
being equal, that machine must wear out the soonest which works the
fastest; that, it is proved, both by analysis and by facts, that
a vegetable diet contains every principle needed for the perfect
development of the whole bodily system, as much so as animal food; and
that the only difference is the _stimulation_ in the animal food, which
makes the system work faster, and of course, wear out sooner.

To this it is replied, that the exact point of stimulation, which
is most safe and healthful, cannot be determined, and that it is as
correct to assume, that to be the proper medium, which is secured by
a mixed diet, as to assume that the proper point is that, which is
secured by an exclusive vegetable diet. Moreover, the fact that the
teeth and digestive organs of man, which seem to be fitted both for
vegetable and animal food, and the fact that the supplies of food on
the earth make it needful to adopt sometimes animal, and sometimes
vegetable diet, and sometimes a mixture of both, furnish an _à priori_
argument in favor of a mixed diet.

In deciding which kinds of animal food are most healthful, several
particulars are to be regarded. The flesh of young animals is more
tender than that of the old ones, but yet they usually are not so
easily digested. Beef, and Mutton, and Venison, when tender, are
considered the meats which are most easily digested, and best for
weak stomachs. Venison is more stimulating than Beef and Mutton. These
meats, when tough, are not so easily digested as when tender.

All meats are made more tender and digestible by hanging.

Solid meats, properly cooked, are more easily digested than soups and
broths. For it is found that these liquids are never digested till the
water is absorbed, leaving a solid mass more undigestible than was the
solid meat. When useful to invalids, it is because they supply the
loss of the withdrawn fluids of the body, but not because more easily
digested. The white meats, such as Chicken and Veal, are best for
invalids, because less stimulating than dark meats.

Liver contains so much oil that it is not good for invalids or
dyspeptics.

The digestibility and healthfulness of meat depends very much upon the
mode of cooking. Boiled meats are most easily digested, when _properly_
boiled. Roasting, broiling, and baking, are healthful modes of cooking,
but _frying_ is a very pernicious mode of preparing meats, the reason
of which will be explained hereafter.

Though there is a disagreement of opinion among practitioners and
physiologists, as to the propriety of using any animal food, they are
all agreed in regard to certain general principles that should regulate
its use. They are as follows:--Less animal food should be used in warm
climates than in cold, and less, also, in summer than in winter. The
reason of this is, that heat is stimulating to the system, and as meat
diet is also stimulating, when heat increases, meat, as a diet, should
decrease, or fevers may ensue.

Another principle is, that the proportions of meat diet should depend
somewhat on the constitution and circumstances. When a person is of
full habit, or inclined to inflammatory attacks of any kind, the
proportion of animal food should be much less than in other cases.

On the contrary, when there is a state of the system that demands
gentle stimulus, an increase of meat diet is sometimes useful.

Persons subject to cutaneous eruptions are sometimes entirely cured by
_long_ abstinence from animal food, and all kinds of oily substances.


FOOD THAT STIMULATES WITHOUT NOURISHING.

The articles which come under this head, are usually called _the
condiments_. In regard to these, Dr. Pereira remarks,—

“The relish for flavoring, or seasoning ingredients, manifested by
almost every person, would lead us to suppose that these substances
serve some useful purpose beyond that of merely gratifying the palate.
At present, however, we have no evidence that they do. They stimulate,
but do not seem to nourish. The volatile oil they contain is absorbed,
and then thrown out of the system, still possessing its characteristic
odor.”

The articles used for food of this kind, are the _sweet herbs_ employed
for seasoning, such as Thyme, Summer Savory, and the like, and the
_spices_, such as Cloves, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Pepper, and Ginger.
Mustard, Horseradish, Water Cresses, Garlic, and Onions, contain these
stimulating oils, combined with some nourishing food.

“Condiments,” says Dr. Beaumont, “particularly those of a spicy kind,
are non-essential to the process of digestion in a healthy state of
the system. They afford no nutrition. Though they may assist the
action of a debilitate stomach for a time, their continual use never
fails to produce an indirect debility of that organ. They affect it as
alcohol and other stimulants do--the _present_ relief afforded is at
the expense of _future_ suffering. Salt and Vinegar are exceptions when
used in moderation. They both assist in digestion, Vinegar by rendering
muscular fibre more tender, and both together, by producing a fluid
having some analogy to the gastric juice.”


FOOD THAT IS ENTIRELY UNDIGESTIBLE.

There is no kind of food used which consists exclusively of
indigestible matter. But it often is the case, that a certain amount
of indigestible matter is mixed with nourishing food, and serves, by
its mechanical aid, to promote the healthful action of the stomach and
bowels. This is the reason why unbolted flour is deemed more healthful
than fine flour, and is consequently preferred for dyspeptics. But
where there is too great a quantity of such indigestible matter, or
where it is not properly combined with digestible food, it proves
injurious and often dangerous. This is the case when the skins
and seeds of fruits are swallowed, which always pass off entirely
undigested.


FOOD THAT IS UNHEALTHFUL IN NATURE, OR MADE SO BY COOKING.

The most injurious food, of any in common use, is the _animal
oils_, and articles cooked with them. On this subject, Dr. Pereira
remarks:—“_Fixed oil_, or _fat_, is more difficult of digestion, and
more obnoxious to the stomach, than any other alimentary principle.
Indeed, in concealed forms, I believe it will be found to be the
offending ingredient in nine-tenths of the dishes which disturb
weak stomachs. Many dyspeptics who avoid fat meat, butter, and oil,
unwittingly eat it in some concealed form. Liver, the yolk of eggs, and
brains, such individuals should eschew, as they abound in oily matter.”

“The influence of heat on fatty substances effects chemical changes,
whereby they are rendered more difficult of digestion, and more
obnoxious to the stomach. Hence those culinary operations in which fat
or oil is subjected to high temperatures, are objectionable.”

“Fixed oils give off, while boiling, carbonic acid, an inflammable
vapor, and an acrid oil, called Acroleon, while the fatty acids of the
oil are, in part, set free. It has always appeared to me that cooked
butter proves more obnoxious to the stomach than cooked _Olive_ oil.
This I ascribe to the facility with which, under the influence of heat,
the acrid, volatile acids of butter are set free. The fat of salt pork
and bacon is less injurious to some dyspeptics than fresh animal fats.
This must depend on some change effected by curing.”

“In many dyspeptics, fat does not become properly chymified. It floats
on the stomach in the form of an oily pellicle, becoming odorous,
and sometimes highly rancid, and in this state excites heartburn,
disagreeable nausea, eructations, and sometimes vomiting. It appears
to me, that the greater tendency which some oily substances have than
others to disturb the stomach, depends on the greater facility with
which they evolve volatile, fatty acids, which are for the most part
exceedingly acrid and irritating. The distressing feelings excited in
many dyspeptics by mutton fat, butter, and fish oils, are, in this way,
readily accounted for. Butter contains no less than three volatile,
fatty acids, namely--the butyric, capric, and capröic. Fats, by
exposure to the air, become rancid, and in this state are _exceedingly_
obnoxious to the digestive organs. Their injurious qualities depend
on the presence of volatile acids, and in part also on non-acid
substances.”

These statements show the reasons why the _fried_ food of all kinds
is injurious. Fat is an unhealthful aliment, and when heated becomes
still more so. This mode of cooking, then, should be given up by every
housekeeper, who intends to take all reasonable means of preserving
the health of her family. There are an abundance of other modes of
preparing food, without resorting to one which involves danger,
especially to children and invalids, whose powers of digestion are
feeble.

The most common modes of preparing unhealthful food, is by frying food,
and by furnishing _bread that is heavy, or sour, or so newly baked_, as
to become clammy and indigestible when chewed. Though there are many
stomachs that can for a long time take such food without trouble, it
always is injurious to weak stomachs, and often renders a healthful
stomach a weak one. A housekeeper that will always keep a supply of
sweet, light bread on her table, and avoid oily dishes, oily cooking,
and condiments, will double the chances of good health for her family.

Minuteness of division is a great aid to easy digestion. For this
reason food should be well chewed before swallowing, not only to divide
it minutely, but to mix it with the saliva, which aids in digestion.

The cooking of food, in most cases, does not alter its nature; it only
renders it more tender, and thus more easily divided and digested.

When a person is feverish and loathes food, it should never be
given, as the stomach has not sufficient gastric juice to secure its
digestion. The practice of tempting the sick by favorite articles,
should therefore be avoided.


LIQUID ALIMENTS, OR DRINKS.

“_Water_” says Dr. Pereira, “is probably the natural drink of
all adults. It serves several important purposes in the animal
economy:--firstly, it repairs the loss of the aqueous part of the
blood, caused by evaporation, and the action of the secreting and
exhaling organs; secondly, it is a solvent of various alimentary
substances, and, therefore, assists the stomach in digestion, though,
if taken in very large quantities, it may have an opposite effect, by
diluting the gastric juice; thirdly, it is a nutritive agent, that is,
it assists in the formation of the solid parts of the body.”

The health of communities and of individuals is often affected by the
nature of the water used for drink, and it is therefore important to
know how to secure pure and good water.

_Rain water_ is the purest of all water, purer than the best spring
water. Of course every person who fears that the water used is the
cause of any evil, can obtain that which is known to be pure and good.
The cheapest mode of obtaining good rain water, is to have a large
cistern dug in the vicinity of some large building, with conducting
spouts. This can be lined with water lime, and the water thus obtained,
when cooled with ice, is as pure as any that can be found.

A distinguished medical writer, Dr. Cheyne, remarking on the effects of
foreign substances in water, states these facts:—

“At the Nottingham Assizes, July, 1836, it was proved on trial, at
which I was a witness, that dysentery, in an aggravated form, was
caused in cattle by the use of water contaminated with putrescent
vegetable matter, produced by the refuse of a _starch_ manufactory.
The fish were destroyed, and all the animals that drank of this water
became seriously ill, and many died. It was shown, also, that the
mortality was in proportion to the quantity of starch made at different
times, and that when the putrescent matter (of the manufactory) was
not allowed to pass to the brook, the fish and frogs returned, and the
mortality ceased among the cattle.”

Dr. Barry, an English physician, states, that when the troops at Cork
were supplied with water from the river Lee, which, in passing through
the city, is rendered unfit for drinking by the influx from sewers, Mr.
Bell suspected that a dysentery, prevailing at the time, arose from
this cause. Upon assuming the care of the troops, he had a number of
water carts to bring water from a spring, and did not allow the use of
river water, and very shortly the dysentery disappeared.

Sir James McGregor states, that, at one time in the Spanish war, when
during three months 20,000 dead bodies were interred at Ciudad Rodrigo,
all those exposed to emanations from the soil, and who were obliged to
use water from sunken wells, were affected by low malignant fevers, or
dysenteries.

This shows that burying in large towns affects the health of the
inhabitants, first by emanations from the soil, and secondly by
poisoning the water percolating through that soil.

Many such facts as these, show the importance of keeping wells and
cisterns from the drainings of sinks, barn-yards, and from decayed
dead animals. And it is probable that much sickness in families and
communities has been caused by neglecting to preserve the water pure,
that is used for drink and cooking.

Water is sometimes rendered unhealthful by being conducted through lead
pipes, or kept in lead reservoirs, or vessels. It is found that the
purer the water, the more easily it is affected by the lead through
which it passes. When the water has certain neutral salts in it, they
are deposited on the surface of the lead, and thus protect from its
poisonous influence. Immersing a very bright piece of lead for some
hours in water, will show whether it is safe to use lead in conducting
the water. If the lead is tarnished, it proves that the water exerts
a solvent power, and that it is unsafe to employ lead in carrying the
water.

The continued use of water containing lead, gives rise to the _lead
cholic_, or _painter’s cholic_, and if the water is still drank,
_palsy_ succeeds. One indication of this disease is a narrow leaden
blue line on the edge of the gums of the front teeth.

The following are methods to be employed in purifying water:—

The most thorough and effectual way of obtaining perfectly pure water,
from that which is noxious, is, to _distill_ it, collecting only the
steam.

In cases where water is injured by the presence of animal or vegetable
matter, _boiling_ sometimes removes much of the evil.

Two grains of powdered alum to every quart of water, will often serve
to remove many impurities.

Filtering through fine sand and powdered charcoal, removes all animal
and vegetable substances which are not held in chemical solution.

Sea water serves both as a cathartic and emetic, and the only mode of
obtaining pure water from it is by distillation.

The impure water used often at sea, is owing wholly to the casks in
which it is carried. When new, the water imbibes vegetable ingredients
from the cask, which become putrid. Water, if carried to sea in iron
casks, if good and pure, always continues so. Cistern water is often
impure, when held in new wooden cisterns, owing to vegetable matter
absorbed by the water.

Dr. Lee remarks, “We are satisfied that impure water is more
frequently the cause of disease than is generally supposed. It has been
thought that decaying vegetable matter, received into the stomach, was
innoxious, owing to the antiseptic properties of the gastric juice. But
this opinion is evidently erroneous. An immense number of facts could
be adduced, to show that this is the frequent cause of disease. The
British army ‘Medical Reports,’ and our own Medical Journals, contain
many facts of a similar kind. The fever which carried off so many of
the United States Dragoons, on a visit to the Pawnees, was occasioned
chiefly by drinking stagnant water, filled with animal and vegetable
matter. We know that calculus diseases are most frequent in countries
that abound in lime water.”


OTHER LIQUID ALIMENTS, OR DRINKS.

The other drinks in most common use are arranged thus,—

1. _The Mucilaginous, Farinaceous, or Saccharine drinks._

These are water chiefly, with substances slightly nutritive, softening,
and soothing. _Toast water_, _Sugar water_, _Rice water_, _Barley
water_, and the various _Gruels_, are of this kind.

2. _The Aromatic and Astringent drinks._

These include Tea, Coffee, Chicory, Chocolate, and Cocoa.

The following remarks on these drinks are taken from the work of Dr.
Pereira.

“The peculiar flavor of _tea_ depends upon the _volatile oil_, which
has the taste and smell of tea. Alone, it acts as a narcotic, but when
combined (as in tea) with tannin, it acts as a diuretic and diaphoretic
(i. e. to promote the flow of urine and perspiration). Its astringency,
proved by its chemical properties, depends upon the presence of tannin.
Of this quality we may beneficially avail ourselves in some cases of
poisoning, as by poisonous mushrooms, by opium, or laudanum.”

“The peculiar influence of tea, especially the _green_ variety, over
the nervous system, depends upon the vegetable oil referred to. The
influence is analogous to that of foxglove; for both green tea and
foxglove occasion watchfulness, and act as sedatives on the heart and
bloodvessels. Strong green tea produces, on some constitutions, usually
those popularly known as nervous, very severe effects. It gives rise to
tremor, anxiety, sleeplessness, and most distressing feelings.”

“As a diluent and sedative, tea is well adapted to febrile and
inflammatory disorders. To its sedative influence should be ascribed
the relief of headache sometimes experienced.”

On this subject, Dr. Lee remarks, “_Green tea_ undoubtedly possesses
very active medicinal properties; for a very strong decoction of it,
or the extract, speedily destroys life in the inferior animals, even
when given in very small doses. The strongly marked effects of tea
upon persons of a highly nervous temperament, in causing wakefulness,
tremors, palpitations, and other distressing feelings, prove, also,
that it is an agent of considerable power. It not unfrequently
occasions vertigo, and sick headache, together with a sinking sensation
at the pit of the stomach, shortly after eating. It is also opposed to
active nutrition, and should, therefore, be used with great moderation
by those who are thin in flesh. From its astringent properties it often
is useful in a relaxed state of bowels.”

“We are satisfied that _green_ tea does not, in any case, form a
salubrious beverage to people in health, and should give place to milk,
milk and water, black tea, milk and sugar, which, when taken tepid,
form very agreeable and healthy drinks.”

_Coffee._ “The infusion, or decoction of coffee, forms a well known
favorite beverage. Like tea, it diminishes the disposition to sleep,
and hence it is often resorted to by those who desire nocturnal
study. It may also be used to counteract the stupor induced by opium,
alcoholic drinks, and other narcotics. In some constitutions it acts as
a mild laxative, yet it is usually described as producing constipation.
The immoderate use of coffee produces various nervous diseases, such as
anxiety, tremor, disordered vision, palpitation, and feverishness.”

_Chicory, or Succory._ This is the roasted root of the Wild Endive, or
Wild Succory. It is prepared like coffee, and some prefer its flavor to
that of coffee.

_Chocolate._ This is prepared by roasting the seeds of the Cacoa, or
Cocoa, then grinding them and forming them into cakes. “Chocolate,
though devoid of the disagreeable qualities of tea and coffee, which
disturb the nervous functions, yet is difficult of digestion, on
account of the large quantity of oil which it contains, and is,
therefore, very apt to disturb the stomach of dyspeptics.”

_Cocoa._ This is made of the nuts and husks of the cocoa, roasted and
ground, and is somewhat less oily than chocolate, and being rather
astringent, is adapted to looseness of the bowels. The _shells_ alone
are often used to make a drink, which is less rich than the Cocoa, and
especially adapted to weak digestive powers.

The seeds of the vegetable called Ochra, roasted and prepared like
coffee, are said to equal it in flavor.

3. _Acidulous Drinks._

“The employment of vegetable _acid_, as an aliment, is necessary
to health. It seems pretty clearly established, that complete and
prolonged abstinence from succulent vegetables, or fruits, or their
preserved juices, as articles of food, is a cause of scurvy.”

“Water, sharpened with vegetable acids, oftentimes proves a most
refreshing beverage, allaying thirst, and moderating excessive heat.
Various acids form cooling, refreshing, and antiscorbutic drinks, and
are well adapted for hot seasons, and for febrile and inflammatory
cases.”

These drinks are prepared by dissolving vegetable acids or acidulous
salts in water, sweetening and flavoring it. Also, by decoctions of
acid fruits, which promote secretions in the alimentary canal, and act
as laxatives.

The carbonated or effervescing drinks belong to this class. They owe
their sparkling briskness to carbonic acid gas confined in the liquid.

4. _Drinks containing Gelatine and Osmazome._

_Gelatine_ is that part of animal and vegetable matter that forms jelly.

_Osmazome_ is that principle in meats which impart their flavor.

Beef Tea, Mutton, Veal, and Chicken Broths are the principal drinks of
this description, and usually are prepared for invalids.

5. _Emulsive, or Milky Drinks._

_Animal milk_ is the principal drink of this class, and as this is
the aliment of a large portion of young children, the necessity of
guarding against abuses connected with the supplies furnished should be
generally known.

A great portion of the milk furnished in New York and other large
cities, is obtained from cows _fed on distillery slops_, and crowded
in filthy pens, without regard to ventilation or cleanliness. Thus
deprived of pure air and exercise, and fed with unhealthy food, their
milk becomes diseased, and is the cause of extensive mortality among
young children. Many cows, also, are fed on decayed vegetables, and
the sour and putrid offals of kitchens, and these, also, become thus
diseased.

A work on this subject, by R. M. Hartly, Esq., of New York, has been
published, which contains these facts. Of five hundred dairies near
New York and Brooklyn, all, except five or six, feed their cows on
distillery slops. And the reason is, that it yields more milk at a
cheaper rate than any other food. But it soon destroys the health of
the animals, and after most of their fluids are, by this process,
changed to unhealthy milk, and the cows become diseased, they are sent
to a cattle market and a new supply obtained.

The physicians in New York, in a body, have testified to the
unhealthiness of this practice, but as yet no inspectors have been
secured to preserve the public from this danger, while the great mass
of the people are ignorant or negligent on the subject. Chemists
have analyzed this unhealthful milk, and find that, while pure milk
is alkaline, slop milk is acid, and also contains less than half the
nourishment contained in pure milk. Scarcely any cream rises on slop
milk, and what does collect can never be turned into butter; but, by
churning, only changes to froth. We have inspectors of flour, meat,
fish, and most other food, and every town and city supplied by milk
carts ought to have inspectors of milk; and where this is not done,
every mistress of a family should narrowly watch her supplies of milk,
and ascertain the mode in which the cows are fed.

In cases where children, or adults, find that milk troubles the
stomach, it is often owing to its _richness_, and water should then
be mixed with it. Infants generally require diluted milk, a little
sweetened, as cow’s milk is, when good, considerably richer than
mother’s milk. The fact that oil is placed among the articles most
difficult to digest, shows the mistake of many, who give diluted cream
instead of milk, supposing it to be better for infants. In all ordinary
cases, where an infant is deprived of the mother’s nourishment, the
milk of a new milch cow, diluted with one-third, or one-fourth water,
and sweetened a little with white sugar, is the safest substitute.
Sometimes oat-meal gruel, or arrowroot, are found to agree better with
the child’s peculiar constitution.

6. _Alcoholic Drinks._

Beer, Wine, Cider, and Distilled Liquors, are the chief of the
alcoholic drinks.

“To persons in health,” says Dr. Pereira, in his “Elements of
Materia Medica,” “the dietical employment of wine is either useless
or pernicious.“ Dr. Beaumont, in his celebrated experiments on St.
Martin,[1] found that wines, as well as distilled spirits, invariably
interfered with the regularity and completeness of digestion, and
always produced morbid changes in the mucous membrane of the stomach.
And this, too, was the case when neither unpleasant feelings nor
diminished appetite indicated such an effect.

[1] This case of St. Martin’s referred to, was that of a soldier, who
by a gun shot, had an opening made into his stomach, which healed up,
leaving so large an orifice, that all the process of digestion could be
examined, after he was restored to perfect health.

Dr. Bell, of Philadelphia, remarks thus: “The recorded experience
of men in all situations and climates, under all kinds of labor and
exposure, prove that abstinence from alcoholic drinks gives increased
ability to go through the labors of the farm and the workshop, to
resist heat and cold, to encounter hardships on sea and land, beyond
what has ever been done under the unnatural excitement of alcohol,
followed, as it is, by depression and debility, if not by fever and
disease. The observation and testimony of naval and military surgeons
and commanders are adverse to the issue of alcoholic drinks to men in
the army and navy.”

The reports from all our chief state prisons also prove that
intemperate men can be instantly deprived of all alcoholic drinks, not
only without danger, but with an immediate improvement of the health.

Wine is often useful as a medicine, under the direction of a physician,
but its stimulating, alcoholic principle, makes it an improper agent
to be drank in health. The same is true of cider and strong beer. Some
wine, beer, and cider drinkers do, by the force of a good constitution,
live to a good old age, and so do some persons, also, who live in
districts infected by a malaria, which destroys the health and life of
thousands. But these _exceptions_ do not prove that either wine, or
malaria are favorable to health, or long life. They are only exceptions
to a general rule.

Meantime, the general rule is established by an incredible amount of
experience and testimony, that alcoholic drinks, _in no cases_, are
needed by those in health, and that the indulgence in drinking them
awakens a gnawing thirst and longing for them, that leads the vast
majority of those who use them, to disease, debility, poverty, folly,
crime, and death.

       *       *       *       *       *

In this detail of the various drinks that may be used by man, we find
that _pure water_ is always satisfying, safe, and sufficient. We find
that acid and effervescing drinks, so acceptable in hot weather, are
also demanded by the system, and are safe and healthful. We find that
milk and broths are also healthful and nourishing.

Black tea, also, when taken weak and not above blood heat, is a
perfectly safe and agreeable warm drink.

Chocolate and cocoa are nourishing and safe to persons who can bear the
oil they contain; and shells are perfectly healthful and safe to all.

In the vast variety of drinks provided for man, we find very few that
are not safe and healthful. Green tea and coffee, as ordinarily used,
are very injurious to very many constitutions. They contain but very
little nourishment, except what is added by the milk and sugar, and
training a family of children to love them (for no child loves them
till trained to do it) is making it probable that all of them will be
less healthful and comfortable, and certain that some will be great
sufferers. Training children to drink tea and coffee is as unreasonable
and unchristian, as training them to drink foxglove and opium would
be--the only difference is, that in one case it is customary, and the
other it is not; and custom makes a practice appear less foolish and
sinful.

There is no need, at this period of the world, to point out the
wickedness and folly of training children to love alcoholic drinks.

In regard to the use of green tea and coffee, one suggestion will be
offered. These are drinks which contain very little nourishment, and
their effect is to stimulate the nervous system without nourishing it.
They are, also, usually drank hot, and heat also is a stimulant to the
nerves of the mouth, teeth, throat, and stomach, inducing consequent
reacting debility. For it is the unvarying law of the nervous system,
that the reacting debility is always in exact proportion to the degree
of stimulation.

It is in vain to expect that the great multitudes, who have been
accustomed, from childhood, to drink hot tea and coffee, once, twice,
and sometimes thrice a day, will give up such a favorite practice.
But it is hoped that some may be induced to modify their course, by
reducing the _strength_ and the _heat_ of their daily potations.
It will be found by housekeepers that, if _once a month_ the daily
quantity of tea, or coffee is _slightly_ reduced, the taste will
imperceptibly accommodate; and that, in the course of six or eight
months, the habits of a family, by these slight monthly variations, may
be changed so as that, eventually, they will love weak tea and coffee
as much as they once loved the strong.

Young housekeepers, who are just beginning to rear a family of
children, will perhaps permit one plea for the young beings, whose fate
in life so much depends on their physical training. It is the weak and
delicate children who are the sufferers, where the habits of a family
lead them to love stimulating drinks. The strong and healthy children
may escape unharmed, the whole evil falls on those, who are least able
to bear it. Oh mother, save the weak lambs of your fold! Save them
from those untold agonies that result from rasped and debilitated
nerves, worn out by unhealthful stimulus! And set before your household
the Divine injunction--“We, then, that are strong ought to bear the
infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.”

In regard to the selection of food, a housekeeper can have small excuse
for ever risking the health of her family by providing unhealthy food,
or cooking it in an unhealthful manner. Innumerable dishes, and enough
to furnish a new variety for every day of the year, can be made of food
that is safe and healthful, and cooked in a healthful manner.

_Avoid condiments, fats, and food cooked in fats, and always provide
light and sweet yeast bread_, is the rule which shuts out almost
everything that is pernicious to health, and leaves an immense variety
from which to select what is both healthful and grateful to the palate.

There are some directions in regard to times and manner of taking
food, that are given more at large, with the reasons for them, in the
“Domestic Economy,” but which will briefly be referred to, because so
important.

Eating _too fast_ is unhealthful, because the food is not properly
masticated, or mixed with the saliva, nor has the stomach sufficient
time to perform its office on the last portion swallowed before another
enters.

Eating _too often_ is unhealthful, because it is weakening and
injurious to mix fresh food with that which is partly digested, and
because the stomach needs rest after the labor of digesting a meal. In
grown persons four or five hours should intervene between each meal.
Children, who are growing fast, need a luncheon of simple bread between
meals.

Eating _too much_ is unhealthful, because the stomach can properly
digest only that amount which is needed to nourish the system. The rest
is thrown off undigested, or crowded into parts of the system where it
is injurious.

Eating food when _too hot_ is injurious, as weakening the nerves of the
teeth and stomach by the stimulus of heat.

Eating _highly seasoned food_ is unhealthful, because it stimulates too
much, provokes the appetite too much, and often is indigestible.

_Badly cooked_ food is unhealthful, because it is indigestible, and in
other ways injurious.

_Excessive fatigue_ weakens the power of digestion, and in such cases,
a meal should be delayed till a little rest is gained.

_Bathing_ should never follow a meal, as it withdraws the blood and
nervous vigor demanded for digestion, from the stomach to the skin.

_Violent exercise_ should not follow a full meal, as that also
withdraws the blood and nervous energies from the stomach to the
muscles.

_Water_, and other drinks, should never be taken in large quantities,
either with, or immediately after a meal, as they dilute the gastric
juice, and tend to prevent perfect digestion. But it is proper to drink
a moderate quantity of liquid while eating.

Where there is a strong constitution and much exercise in the open air,
children and adults may sometimes violate these and all other laws of
health, and yet remain strong and well.

But all, and especially those, who have delicate constitutions, and
are deprived of fresh air and exercise, will have health and strength
increased and prolonged by attending to these rules.




CHAPTER II.

MARKETING--CARE AND USES OF MEATS.


_Beef._

[Illustration: Fig. 1.

 1. Cheek. 2. Neck. 3. Chuck Rib, or Shoulder having four Ribs. 4.
 Front of the Shoulder, or Shoulder Clod, sometimes called Brisket.
 5. Back of the Shoulder. 6. Fore Shin, or Leg. 7,7. Plate pieces;
 the front one is the Brisket, and the back one is the Flank, and is
 divided again into the Thick Flank, or Upper Sirloin, and the Lower
 Flank. 8. Standing Ribs, divided into First, Second, and Third Cuts.
 The First Cut is next to the Sirloin, and is the best. 9. Sirloin. 10.
 Sirloin Steak. 11. Rump, or Etch Bone. 12. Round, or Buttock. 13. Leg,
 or Hind Shank.]


_Veal._

[Illustration: Fig. 2.

 1. Head and Pluck. 2. Rack and Neck. 3. Shoulder. 4. Fore Shank, or
 Knuckle. 5. Breast. 6. Loin. 7. Fillet, or Leg. 8. Hind Shank, or
 Knuckle.]


[Illustration: _Mutton._

Fig. 3.

 1. Shoulder. 2, 2. Neck, or Rack. 3. Loin. 4. Leg. 5. Breast.

 A _Chine_ is two Loins.

 A _Saddle of Mutton_ is two Legs and two Loins.]


[Illustration: _Pork._

Fig. 4.

 1. Leg. 2. Hind Loin. 3. Fore Loin. 4. Spare Rib. 5. Hand. 6. Spring.

 _A Lamb_ is divided into two fore quarters and two hind quarters.

 _Venison._ In this country nothing is used but the hind quarter. Two
 legs and two loins are called a _Saddle_.]


SELECTION AND USES OF MEATS.

In selecting beef, the best parts are cut from the thick portion, from
the shoulder to the rump, and these are the most expensive parts,
including sirloin, sirloin steaks, and first, second, and third cuts of
the fore quarter. The best steaks are made by sawing up these pieces.
Steaks from the _round_ or _buttock_ are tougher and not so sweet
as steaks from rib pieces. The best steaks are from the sirloin and
sirloin steak. Steaks that have large bits of bone should be cheaper,
as the bone is so much loss. A roasting piece cut close to the fore
shoulder is always tough and poor. Tough steaks must be pounded with a
steak hammer.


MODES OF COOKING AND USING THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF ANIMALS.


_Beef._

The _Sirloin_ is to be roasted, and it is considered the best piece for
steaks. The piece next forward of the Sirloin is about as good as any
for roasting.

The _Rump_ is to be corned, or cooked _à la mode_.

The _Round_ is used for corning, or _à la mode_.

The _Edge_ or _Etch Bone_ is corned, or for soup.

The _Hock_ or _Shin_ is used for soups.

The _Rib_ pieces of the fore quarter are used as roasting pieces. The
_first cut_, which is next the Sirloin, is the best, and the others are
better for corning.

The _Head_ is used for mince pies, and the _Tongue_ for smoking. The
_Legs_ are used for soups.

The remaining pieces are used for salting down, stews, soups, and mince
pies, according to various tastes.

The _Tallow_ is to be tried up for candles.


_Veal._

The _Loin_ is used for roasting.

The _Fillet_ (which is the leg and hind flank) is used for cutlets, or
to stuff and boil, or to stuff and roast.

The _Chump end_ of the loin is used for roasting.

The _Knuckles_ are used for broths.

The _Neck_ is used for stews, pot pies, and broths, as are most of the
remaining pieces.

Many persons roast the fore quarter, which is divided into two pieces,
called the brisket, or breast, and the rack.


_Mutton._

The _Leg_ is boiled, or stuffed and roasted.

The _Loin_ is roasted.

The rest are for boiling, or corning.

The Loin is chopped into pieces for broiling, called _Mutton Chops_.

The Leg is often cut into slices and broiled.

Many cure and smoke the leg, and call it smoked venison.


_Pork._

The _Shoulder_ and _Ham_ are used for smoking.

The _Spare Rib_ is used for roasting, and often is used as including
all the ribs.

The _Shoulder_ sometimes is corned and boiled.

That which is to be salted down must have all the lean taken out, which
is to be used for sausages, or broiling.

The _Feet_ use for jelly, head cheese, and souse.


MARKETING.

In selecting _Fish_, take those that are firm and thick, having stiff
fins and bright scales, the gills bright red, and the eyes full and
prominent. When Fish are long out of water they grow soft, the fins
bend easily, the scales are dim, the gills grow dark, and the eyes sink
and shrink away. Be sure and have them dressed immediately, sprinkle
them with salt, and use them, if possible, the same day. In warm
weather put them in ice, or corning, for the next day. Shell Fish can
be decided upon only by the smell. Lobsters are not good unless alive,
or else boiled before offered for sale. They are black when alive,
and red when boiled. When to be boiled, they are to be put alive into
boiling water, which is the quickest and least cruel way to end life.

In selecting _Beef_, take that which has a coarse, loose grain, which
easily yields to the pressure of finger, or knife; which is a purplish
red, and has whitish fat. Ox Beef is best. If the lean is purplish and
the fat very yellow, it is bad Beef. If it is coarse-grained and hard
to break or cut, it is tough. Stall-fed has lighter fat than grass-fed
Beef.

If meat is frozen, lay it in cold water to thaw. A piece of ten pounds,
or more, will require all night to thaw. Beef and Mutton improve by
keeping. Meat is better for not being frozen, except fresh Pork.

In selecting _Veal_, take that which is firm and dry, and the joints
stiff, having the lean a delicate red, the kidney covered with fat, and
the fat very white. If you buy the head, see that the eyes are plump
and lively, and not dull and sunk in the head. If you buy the legs, get
those which are not skinned, as the skin is good for jelly, or soup.

In choosing _Mutton_, take that which is bright red and close grain,
with firm and white fat. The meat should feel tender and springy on
pressure. Notice the vein in the neck of the fore quarter, which should
be a fine blue.

In selecting _Pork_, if young, the lean can easily be broken when
pinched, and the skin can be indented by nipping with the fingers. The
fat also will be white and soft. _Thin_ rind is best.

In selecting _Hams_, run a knife along the bone, and if it comes out
clean, the ham is good, but if it comes out smeared, it is spoilt. Good
Bacon has white fat and the lean adheres closely to the bone. If the
Bacon has yellow streaks, it is rusty, and not fit to use.

In selecting _Poultry_, choose those that are full grown, but not old.
When young and fresh killed, the skin is thin and tender, the joints
not very stiff, and the eyes full and bright. The breast bone shows
the age, as it easily yields to pressure if young, and is tough when
old. If young, you can with a pin easily tear the skin. A goose, when
old, has red and hairy legs, but when young, they are yellow and have
few hairs. The pinfeathers are the roots of feathers, which break off
and remain in the skin, and always indicate a _young_ bird. When very
neatly dressed they are all pulled out.

Poultry and birds ought to be killed by having the neck cut off, and
then hung up by the legs to bleed freely. This makes the flesh white
and more healthful.


ON THE CARE OF MEATS.

Beef and Mutton are improved by keeping as long as they remain sweet.
If meat begins to taint, wash it and rub it with powdered charcoal and
it removes the taint. Sometimes rubbing with salt will cure it.

Corn-fed Pork is best. Pork made by still-house slops is almost
poisonous, and hogs that live on offal never furnish healthful food.

Measely Pork has kernels in it, and is unhealthful.

A thick skin shows that the Pork is old, and that it requires more time
to boil.

If your Pork is very salt, soak it some hours.

Take all the kernels out, that you will find in the round, and thick
end of the flank of Beef, and in the fat, and fill the holes with salt.
This will preserve it longer.

Salt your meat, in summer, as soon as you receive it.

A pound and a half of salt rubbed into twenty-five pounds of Beef, will
corn it so as to last several days, in ordinary warm weather.

Do not let Pork freeze, if you intend to salt it.

Too much saltpetre spoils Beef.

In winter, meat is kept finely, if well packed in snow, without salting.


_Directions for cutting up a Hog._

Split the Hog through the spine, take off each half of the head behind
the ear, then take off a piece front of the shoulder and next the head,
say four or five pounds, for sausages.

Then take out _the leaf_ which lies around the kidneys, for lard.

Then, with a knife, cut out the whole mass of the lean meat, except
what belongs to the shoulder and the ham.

Then take off the ham and the shoulder. Then take out all the fat to be
used for lard, which is the loose piece, directly in front of the ham.

Next cut off a narrow strip from the spring, or belly, for sausage
meat. Cut up the remainder, which is clear Pork, for salting, in four
or five strips of nearly equal width. Take off the cheek, or jowl, of
the head for smoking with the ham; and use the upper part for boiling,
baking, or head cheese.

The feet are boiled and then fried, or used for jelly. It is most
economical to try up the thin flabby pieces for lard to cook with.

The leaf fat try by itself, for the nicest cooking.

Clean all the intestines of the fat for lard. That which does not
readily separate from the larger intestines use for soap grease.

Of the insides, the liver, heart, sweet-breads, and kidneys, are
sometimes used for broiling or frying. The smaller intestines are used
for sausage cases.

In salting down, leave out the bloody and lean portions, and use them
for sausages.


_To try out Lard._

Take what is called _the leaves_ and take off all the skin, cut it
into pieces an inch square, put it into a clean pot over a slow fire,
and try it till the scraps look a reddish brown, taking great care not
to let it burn, which would spoil the whole. Then strain it through a
strong cloth, into a stone pot, and set it away for use.

Take the fat to which the smaller intestines are attached (not the
large ones), and the flabby pieces of pork not fit for salting, try
these in the same way, and set the fat thus obtained where it will
freeze, and by spring the strong taste will be gone, and then it can be
used for frying.


_Directions for salting down Pork._

Cover the bottom of the barrel with salt an inch deep. Put down one
layer of Pork and cover that with salt, half an inch thick. Continue
thus till the barrel is full. Then pour in as much strong pickle as the
barrel will receive. Always see that the Pork does not rise above the
brine. When a white scum, or bloody-looking matter rises on the top,
scald the brine and add more salt.

Leave out bloody and lean pieces for sausages.

The Pork ought to be packed as tight as possible, and _always_ kept
_under_ the brine. Some use a stone for this purpose. In salting down
a new supply, take the old brine, boil it down and remove all the scum,
and then use it to pour over the Pork.


_Mr. H. H.’s Receipt for Curing Hams._

Take an ounce of saltpetre for each ham, and one pint of molasses to
every pound of saltpetre.

Then take a quarter of a pound of common salt for every pint of
molasses used.

Heat the mixture till it nearly boils, and smear the _meat_ side with
it, keeping the mixture hot and rubbing it in well, especially around
the bones and recesses.

Let the hams lie after this from four to seven days, according to the
size of the hams.

Then place them in a salt pickle, strong enough to bear an egg, for
three weeks. Then soak eight hours in fresh water.

Then hang in the kitchen, or other more convenient place, to dry for a
fortnight. Then smoke from three to five days, or till well smoked.

Then wrap them up in strong tar paper, tying it close.

Then tie them tight in bags of coarse unbleached cotton, stuffing in
shavings, so that no part of the paper touches the cotton. Hang them
near the roof in a garret, and they will never give you any trouble.


_To prepare Cases for Sausages._

Empty the cases, taking care not to tear them. Wash them thoroughly,
and cut into lengths of two yards each. Then take a candle rod, and
fastening one end of a case to the top of it, turn the case inside
outward. When all are turned, wash very thoroughly and scrape them with
a scraper made for the purpose, keeping them in warm water till ready
to scrape. Throw them into salt and water to soak till used. It is a
very difficult job to scrape them clean without tearing them. When
finished they look transparent and very thin.


_Sausage Meat._

Take one-third fat and two-thirds lean pork and chop them, and then to
every twelve pounds of meat, add twelve large even spoonfuls of pounded
salt, nine of sifted sage, and six of sifted black pepper. Some like a
little summer savory. Keep them in a cool and dry place.


_Bologna Sausages._

Take equal portions of veal, pork, and ham, chop them fine, season with
sweet herbs and pepper, put them in cases, boil them till tender, and
then dry them.


_Another Receipt for Sausage Meat._

To twenty-five pounds of chopped meat, which should be one-third fat
and two-thirds lean, put twenty spoonfuls of sage, twenty-five of salt,
ten of pepper, and four of summer savory.


_Pickle for Beef, Pork, Tongues, or Hung Beef._

Mix, in four gallons of water, a pound and a half of sugar or molasses,
and of saltpetre two ounces. If it is to last a month or two, put in
six pounds of salt; if you wish to keep it over the summer, use nine
pounds of salt. Boil all together gently, and skim, and then let it
cool.

Put the meat in the vessel in which it is to stand, pour the pickle on
the meat till it is covered, and keep it for family use.

Once in two months boil and skim the pickle, and throw in two ounces of
sugar and half a pound of salt.

When tongues and hung beef are taken out, wash and dry the pieces, put
them in paper bags and hang in a dry, warm place. In very hot weather,
rub the meat well with salt before it is put in the pickle, and let it
lie three hours for the bloody portion to run out. Too much saltpetre
is injurious.


_Another by measure, and with less trouble._

For every gallon of cold water, use a quart of rock salt, a tablespoon
heaping full of saltpetre, six heaping tablespoonfuls of brown sugar,
and two quarts of blown salt. No boiling is needed; keep it as long as
there is salt undissolved at the bottom. When scum rises scald it, and
add more sugar, salt, and saltpetre. Keep weights on the meat to keep
it under.

In very hot weather fresh meat will often spoil if it is put in cold
pickle. At such times put the meat into hot pickle and boil it for
twenty minutes, and the meat will keep a month or more. If you save the
pickle, add a little more salt to it.


_To salt down Beef to keep the year round._

To one hundred pounds of beef, take four quarts of rock salt pounded
very fine, four ounces of saltpetre made very fine, four pounds of
brown sugar, all well mixed.

Scatter some over the bottom of the barrel, lay down one layer, and
over that scatter the proportion of salt belonging to such a portion
of the meat, allowing rather the most to the top layers. Pack all down
very close, and if any scum should rise, sprinkle a pint or more of
salt over the top.


_To Cleanse Calf’s Head and Feet._

Wash clean, and sprinkle pounded rosin over the hair, dip in boiling
water and take out immediately, and then scrape them clean. Then soak
them in water four days, changing the water every day.


_To Prepare Rennet._

Take the stomach of a new-killed calf, and do not wash it, as it
weakens the gastric juice. Hang it in a cool and dry place five days
or so, then turn the inside out and slip off the curds with the hand.
Then fill it with salt, with a little saltpetre mixed in, and lay it in
a stone pot, pouring on a teaspoonful of vinegar, and sprinkling on a
handful of salt. Cover it closely and keep for use.

After six weeks, take a piece four inches square and put it in a bottle
with five gills of cold water and two gills of rose brandy, stop it
close, and shake it when you use it. A tablespoonful is enough for a
quart of milk.




CHAPTER III.

BOILED MEATS.


In _boiling_ meats it is important to keep the water constantly
boiling, otherwise the meat will soak up the water.

If it is necessary to add more water, be careful that it be _boiling_
water.

Be careful to remove the _scum_, especially when it first begins to
boil, and a little salt thrown in aids in raising the scum.

Put the meat into cold water, let it heat very gradually forty minutes
or so, and reckon the time of boiling from the time it commences
_boiling_. Allow about _twenty minutes_ for boiling for each pound of
fresh meat, and _twenty-four_ for salt meats.

Do not let the meat remain long, after it is done, as it injures it.
Put a plate in the bottom to prevent the part that touches from cooking
too much.

Be sure not to let the fire get hot, so as to make a hard boiling,
especially at first. The more gently meat boils the more tender it is,
and the more perfectly the savory portion is developed and retained. If
the meat is fat, skim it and save the fat for other purposes.

Put salt into the water about in the proportion of a great spoonful to
a gallon.


_To cook a Ham_ (_very fine_).

Boil a common-sized ham four or five hours, then skin the whole and fit
it for the table; then set it in an oven for half an hour, then cover
it thickly with pounded rusk or bread crumbs, and set it back for half
an hour.

Boiled ham is always improved by setting it into an oven for near an
hour, till much of the fat fries out, and this also makes it more
tender. Save the fat for frying meat.


_Smoked Boiled Tongues._

Soak them in cold water all night, then wash them and boil for four or
five hours, according to the size. When cooked, take off the skin and
garnish with parsley.


_À la Mode Beef._

Take a round of beef, cut it full of holes entirely through it, roll
strips of raw salt pork in a seasoning made of thyme, cloves, and
pepper and salt, half a teaspoonful of each; then draw these strips
through the holes in the beef.

Put some small onions, say half a dozen, with a quarter of a pound of
butter into a sauce-pan with two great spoonfuls of milk and stew them
till soft, put your beef and these onions in a pot, (you can stew the
onions in the pot instead of the sauce-pan if you prefer it,) pour on
hot water just enough to cover it, and let it cook slowly four or five
hours. Just before taking it up, add a pint of wine, either Port or
Claret. The onions can be cooked separately if preferred.


_Another à la Mode Beef._

If you have about five pounds of beef, take one pound of bread, soak
it in water, pour off the water and mash it fine, adding a bit of
butter the size of half a hen’s egg, salt, mace, pepper, cloves, half a
teaspoonful each, pounded fine.

Mix all with a tablespoonful of flour and two eggs.

Then cut holes through the beef and put in half of this seasoning, and
put it in a bake-pan with boiling water enough to cover it.

Put the pan lid, heated, over it, and a few coals on it, and let
it stew two hours, then take it up and spread the other half of the
dressing on the top, and add butter the size of a hen’s egg, heat the
pan lid again hot enough to brown the dressing, and let it stew again
an hour and a half.

When taken up, if the gravy is not thick enough, add a teaspoonful of
flour wet up in cold water, then add a couple of glasses of white wine
to the gravy, and a bit of butter as large as a walnut.


_To Boil a Leg of Veal or Mutton._

Make a stuffing of bread, and a quarter as much of salt pork, chopped
fine and seasoned with sweet herbs, pepper and salt. Make deep gashes,
or what is better, take out the bone with a carving knife, and fill up
with stuffing, and sew up the opening with strong thread. When there is
a flap of flesh, lap it over the opening and sew it down.

Put it into a large pot and fill it with water, putting in a
tablespoonful of salt, and let it simmer slowly three hours. If it is
needful to add water, pour in boiling water. When it is done take it
up, and save the broth for next day’s dinner.


_Pot Pie, of Beef, Veal, or Chicken._

The best way to make the crust is as follows. Peel, boil, and mash
a dozen potatoes, add a teaspoonful of salt, two great spoonfuls of
butter, and half a cup of milk, or cream. Then stiffen it with flour,
till you can roll it. Be sure to get all the lumps out of the potatoes.
Some persons leave out the butter.

Some roll butter into the dough of bread, others make a raised biscuit
with but little shortening, others make a plain pie crust. But none are
so good and healthful as the potato crust.

To prepare the meat, first fry half a dozen slices of salt pork, and
then cut up the meat and pork, and boil them in just water enough to
cover them, till the meat is nearly cooked. Then peel a dozen potatoes,
and slice them thin. Then roll the crust half an inch thick, and cut
it into oblong pieces. Then put alternate layers of crust, potatoes,
and meat, till all is used. The meat must have salt and pepper
sprinkled over each layer. The top and bottom layer must be crust.
Lastly, pour on the liquor in which the meat was boiled, until it just
covers the whole, and let it simmer till the top crust is well cooked,
say half or three quarters of an hour. If you have occasion to add
more liquor, or water, it must be _boiling hot_, or the crust will be
spoilt. The excellence of this pie depends on having light crust, and
therefore the meat must first be nearly cooked before putting it in the
pie, and the crust must be in only just long enough to cook, or it will
be clammy and hard. When nearly done, the crust can be browned, with
hot coals on a bake-lid. Great care is needed not to burn the crust,
which should not be put where the fire reached the pot on the bottom.


_Calf’s Head._

Take out the brains and boil the head, feet, and lights, in salted
water, just enough to cover them, about two hours. When they have
boiled nearly an hour and a half, tie the brains in a cloth and put
them in to boil with the rest. They should previously be soaked half an
hour in cold water. When the two hours have expired, take up the whole,
and mash the brains fine, and season them with bread crumbs, pepper,
salt, and a glass of Port or Claret, and use them for sauce. Let the
liquor remain for a soup the next day. It serves more handsomely to
remove all the bones.


_Curried Dishes._

Chickens and veal are most suitable for curries. Boil the meat till
tender, and separate the joints. Put a little butter in a stew-pan
with the chickens, pour on a part of the liquor in which the meat was
boiled, enough nearly to cover it, and let it stew twenty minutes more.

Prepare the curry thus: for four pounds of meat, take a tablespoonful
of curry powder, a tea-cup of _boiled_ rice, a tablespoonful of flour,
and another of melted butter, a tea-cup of the liquor, and half a
teaspoonful of salt, mix them, and pour them over the meat and let it
stew ten minutes more.

Rice should be boiled for an accompaniment.


_To Prepare Curry Powder._

One ounce of ginger, one ounce of mustard, one of pepper, three of
coriander seed, three of tumeric, half an ounce of cardamums, quarter
of an ounce of Cayenne pepper, quarter of an ounce of cinnamon, and
quarter of an ounce of cummin seed. Pound them fine, sift them, and
cork them tight in a bottle.


_Veal Stew._

Cut four pounds of veal into pieces three inches long and an inch
thick, put it into the pot with water enough to cover it, and rise an
inch over. Add a teaspoonful of salt, and put in four or five good
slices of salt pork, and half a tea-cup of rice, butter the size of
a hens egg, and season with pepper, salt, and sweet herbs, and let
it simmer slowly till the rice is quite soft, allowing half an hour
to heat and an hour to simmer. If there is too little water, pour in
_boiling_ water.

Adding a little curry turns it into a dish of curried veal, of which
many are very fond. Be sure and skim it well, just before it begins to
simmer.


_Another Veal Stew_ (_very fine_).

Cut four pounds of veal into strips three inches long and an inch
thick, peel twelve large potatoes and cut them into slices an inch
thick, then spread a layer of veal on the bottom of the pot, and
sprinkle a little salt and a very little pepper over it, then put a
layer of potatoes, then a layer of veal seasoned as before. Use up the
veal thus, and over the last layer of veal put a layer of slices of
salt pork, and over the whole a layer of potatoes. Pour in water till
it rises an inch over the whole, and cover it as close as possible,
heat it fifteen minutes and simmer it an hour.

Ten minutes before taking up, put in butter the size of a hen’s egg,
stir in a thin batter made of two tablespoonfuls of flour. Many add
sweet herbs to the salt and pepper.


_To Stew Birds._

Wash and stuff them with bread crumbs, seasoned with pepper, salt,
butter, or chopped salt pork, and fasten them tight. Line a stew-pan
with slices of bacon, add a quart of water and a bit of butter the size
of a goose egg, or else four slices of salt pork.

Add, if you like, sliced onions and sweet herbs, and mace. Stew till
tender, then take them up and strain the gravy over them. Add boiling
water if the liquor is too much reduced.


_A fine Mutton Stew._

Take three quarts of peeled and sliced potatoes, three large onions,
peeled and sliced, and mutton and ham cut into slices. Make layers
first of potatoes, salted, and then with the mutton, sprinkled with
salt, pepper, gravy, or butter, and mushroom or tomato catsup, two
tea-cups of water, and the ham in small quantities. Cover tight and
stew for an hour and a half. Watch, and add boiling water if needed, as
there must be a good supply of gravy at the bottom.


_A Sausage Stew._

Make a thick layer of slices of peeled potatoes, put on a little salt,
and then cut up sausages over the potatoes. Continue alternate layers
of potatoes and sausages, the top layer being potatoes, pour in a
little water and some gravy, or butter, and if you have bits of ham mix
them with the sausages.


_To Bake Beef._

Take ten pounds of the buttock, rub it with salt and let it lie a day
or two, then wash it, and make openings in the beef and insert bits
of salt pork dipped in a mixture of powdered pepper, cloves, and fine
minced onions, cover it, and let it bake four or five hours. Put a
pint of water and teaspoonful of salt in the baking pan and baste
occasionally. Make a gravy of the drippings.


_Beef, or Mutton and Potato Pie._

Take a deep dish, butter it, and put in it a layer of mashed potatoes,
seasoned with butter, pepper, salt and minced onions. Take slices of
beef, or mutton, and season them with pepper and salt, lay them with
small bits of salt pork over the potatoes. Then fill the dish with
alternate layers, as above described, having the upper one potatoes.
Bake an hour, or an hour and a half.


_To Cook Pigeons._

Pigeons are good stuffed and roasted, or baked. They are better stewed
thus:--Stuff them like turkeys, put them in a pot, breast downwards,
and cover them with salted water an inch above the top, and simmer
them two hours if tender, and three if tough. When nearly done, stir
in a bit of butter the size of a goose egg, for every dozen pigeons.
Take them up and add a little flour paste to the gravy, with salt and
pepper, and pour some of it over them, and put the rest in a gravy dish.


_Beef, or Veal Stewed with Apples (very good)._

Rub a stew-pan with butter, cut the meat in thin slices, and put in,
with pepper, salt, and apple sliced fine; some would add a little
onion. Cover it tight, and stew till tender.


_To Boil a Turkey._

Make a stuffing for the craw, of chopped bread and butter, cream,
oysters, and the yolks of eggs. Sew it in, and dredge flour over the
turkey, and put it to boil in cold water, with a spoonful of salt in
it, and enough water to cover it well. Let it simmer for two hours and
a half, or if small, less time. Skim it while boiling. It looks nicer
if wrapped in a cloth dredged with flour.

Serve it with drawn butter, in which are put some oysters.


_To Boil Corned Beef._

Put the beef in water enough to cover it, and let it heat slowly, and
boil slowly, and be careful to take off the grease. Many think it much
improved by boiling potatoes, turnips, and cabbage with it. In this
case the vegetables must be peeled, and _all_ the grease carefully
skimmed as fast as it rises. Allow about twenty minutes of boiling for
each pound of meat.




CHAPTER IV.

ROASTED AND BAKED MEATS.


_General Remarks._

Be sure you have your spit and tin oven very clean and bright, and for
this end wash them, if possible, before they get cold. If they stand,
pour boiling water on to them.

Have a fire so large as to extend half a foot beyond the roaster each
side.

When meat is thin and tender, have a small, brisk fire. When your meat
is large, and requires long roasting, have large solid wood, kindled
with charcoal and small sticks. Set the meat, at first, some distance
from the place where it is to roast, so as to have it heat through
gradually, and then move it up to roast.

Slow roasting, especially at first, and still more for large pieces, is
very important.

Allow about _fifteen minutes_ for each pound of most kinds of meat, and
if it is cold weather, or the meat fresh killed, more time is required,
probably twenty minutes for each pound.

When the meat is nearly done, stir up the fire to brown it. The meat
should be basted a good deal, especially the first part of the time.

Let meat be spitted so as to be equally balanced. When the meat is
nearly done, the steam from it will be drawn toward the fire.

A pale brown is the proper color for a roast.

Some dredge on flour and baste, a short time before roasted meats are
done.

Whenever fresh lard is used instead of butter, in the dripping-pan, or
to rub on meats, more salt must be used.

Flour thickening in gravies must be wet up with very little water till
the lumps are out, and then made thin. Never dredge flour into gravies,
as it makes lumps. Strain all gravies.


_Roast Beef._

The sirloin, and the first and second cuts of the rack, are the best
roasting pieces.

Rub it with salt; set the bony side to the fire to heat awhile, then
turn it, and have a strong fire; and if thick, allow fifteen minutes to
the pound; if thin, allow a little less. If fresh killed, or if it is
very cold, allow a little more time. Half an hour before it is done,
pour off the gravy, thicken it with brown flour, and season it with
salt and pepper. It is the fashion to serve roast beef with no other
gravy than the juice of the meat.


_Roast Lamb._

The fore and hind quarter of lamb are used for roasting. Rub on a
little softened butter, and then some salt and pepper, heat the bony
side first, then turn and roast by a brisk fire, allowing about
fifteen minutes to a pound, and rather more if fresh killed, or the
weather cold. Put a pint of water and a teaspoonful of salt in the
dripping-pan, and a little lard, or butter. Lamb is to be cooked
thoroughly.

The following is a very excellent _sauce_ for roast lamb. Pick, wash,
and shred fine, some fresh mint, put on it a tablespoonful of sugar,
and four tablespoonfuls of vinegar; or, chop some hard pickles to the
size of capers, and put them to half a pint of melted butter, and a
teaspoonful of vinegar.


_Roast Mutton._

The saddle, shoulder, and leg are used for roasting.

Rub the mutton with butter, and then with salt and pepper, and some add
pounded allspice, or cloves. Put butter, or lard, in the dripping-pan,
with a quart of water, or a pint for a small piece, and baste it often.
Set the bony side toward the fire, at some distance, that it may heat
through before roasting. Allow about a quarter of an hour for every
pound. Mutton should be cooked rare.

Make a brown gravy, and serve it with currant jelly.


_Roast Veal._

The loin is the best for roasting, the breast and rack the next best.
Wash the piece to be roasted in cold water, rub a little butter
softened over it, and then some pepper and salt, put a pint or more
water in the dripping-pan, and unless there is a good deal of fat, a
bit of lard, or butter, and baste often. Set the bony side first to
the fire to heat. Allow twenty minutes for every pound, and if cold,
or fresh killed, a little more. Veal should be cooked very thoroughly.
In roasting any part except the loin, cut slits in the veal and draw
through the bits of salt pork, which, while roasting, impart a flavor
to the veal.


_To Roast a Fillet or Leg of Veal._

Cut off the shank bone of a leg of veal, and cut gashes in what
remains. Make a dressing of chopped raw salt pork, salt, pepper,
sweet herbs and bread crumbs, or use butter instead of pork. Stuff
the openings in the meat with the dressing, put it in a bake-pan with
water, just enough to cover it, and let it bake, say two hours for
six pounds. Or put it in a tin oven, and roast it two or three hours,
according to the size.


_Baked, or Roasted Pig._

Take a pig that weighs from seven to twelve pounds, and as much as five
weeks old. Wash it thoroughly outside and inside. Take any fresh cold
meat, say one pound, and a quarter of a pound of salt pork, and twice
as much bread as you have meat.

Chop the bread by itself, and chop the meat and pork fine and mix
all together, adding sweet herbs, pepper and salt, half a tea-cup
of butter, and one egg. Stuff the pig with it, and sew it up tight.
Take off the legs at the middle joint. Put it into a dripping-pan
with cross-bars or a grate to hold it up, and with the legs tied, and
pour into the pan a pint of water and set it in the oven. As soon as
it begins to cook, swab it with salt and water, and then in fifteen
minutes do it again. If it blisters it is cooking too fast; swab it,
and diminish the heat. It must bake, if weighing twelve pounds, three
hours. When nearly done, rub it with butter. When taken out set it for
three minutes in the cold, to make it crisp.


_To Roast a Spare Rib._

Rub with salt, pepper, and powdered sage. Put the bone side to warm
slowly. Dredge on a little flour, and put a little salted water and
butter into the dripping-pan, and baste with it. If large, it requires
three hours; if small, only one to cook it. Pork must be cooked slowly
and very thoroughly.


_Roast Turkey._

Wash the outside and inside very clean. Take bread crumbs, grated or
chopped, about enough to fill the turkey, chop a bit of salt pork, the
size of a good egg, and mix it in, with butter, the size of an egg,
pepper, salt, and sweet herbs to your taste. Then beat up an egg and
work in. Fill the crop and the body, sew them up, and tie the legs and
wings, and spit them. Set it where it will gradually heat, and turn it
once or twice, while heating, for fifteen minutes. Then put it up to
the fire, and allow about twenty-five minutes for each pound. Turkey
must be cooked very thoroughly. It must roast slowly at first, and be
often basted with butter on a fork. Dredge it with flour just before
taking it up, and let it brown.

Put the inwards in a skillet to boil for two hours, chop them up,
season them, use the liquor they are boiled in for gravy, and thicken
it with brown flour, and a bit of butter, the size of a hen’s egg. This
is the giblet sauce. Take the drippings, say half a pint, thickened
with a paste, made of a tablespoonful of brown, or white flour, and let
it simmer five minutes, and then use it for thin gravy.


_Roast Goose._

A goose should be roasted in the same manner as a turkey. It is better
to make the stuffing of mashed potatoes, seasoned with salt, pepper,
sage, and onions, to the taste. Apple sauce is good to serve with it.
Allow fifteen minutes to a pound, for a gosling, and twenty or more for
an older one. Goose should be cooked rare.


_Roast Chickens._

Wash them clean outside and inside, stuff them as directed for turkeys,
baste them with butter, lard, or drippings, and roast them about an
hour. Chickens should be cooked thoroughly. Stew the inwards till
tender, and till there is but little water, chop them and mix in gravy
from the dripping-pan, thicken with brown flour, and season with salt,
pepper, and butter. Cranberry, or new-made apple sauce, is good with
them.


_Roast Ducks._

Wash the ducks, and stuff them with a dressing made with mashed
potatoes, wet with milk, and chopped onions, sage, pepper, salt, and
a little butter, to suit your taste. Reserve the inwards to make the
gravy, as is directed for turkeys, except it should be seasoned with
sage and chopped onions. They will cook in about an hour. Ducks are
to be cooked rare. Baste them with salt water, and before taking up,
dredge on a little flour and let it brown.

Green peas and stewed cranberries are good accompaniments.

Canvass-back ducks are cooked without stuffing.

Wild ducks must be soaked in salt and water the night previous, to
remove the fishy taste, and then in the morning put in fresh water,
which should be changed once or twice.


_Mutton and Beef Pie._

Line a dish with a crust made of potatoes, as directed in the Chicken
Pot Pie. Broil the meat ten minutes, after pounding it till the fibres
are broken. Cut the meat thin, and put it in layers, with thin slices
of broiled salt pork, season with butter, the size of a hen’s egg,
salt, pepper, (and either wine or catsup, if liked); put in water till
it nearly covers the meat, and dredge in considerable flour, cover it
with the paste, and bake it an hour and a half if quite thick. Cold
meats are good cooked over in this way. Cut a slit in the centre of the
cover.


_Chicken Pie._

Joint and boil two chickens in salted water, just enough to cover them,
and simmer slowly for half an hour. Line a dish with raised or potato
crust, or pie crust, then put the chicken in layers, with thin slices
of broiled pork, butter, the size of a goose egg, cut in small pieces.
Put in enough of liquor, in which the meat was boiled, to reach the
surface, salt and pepper each layer, dredge in a little flour, and
cover all with a light, thick crust. Ornament the top with the crust,
and bake about one hour in a hot oven. Make a small slit in the centre
of the crust. If it begins to scorch, lay a paper over a short time.


_Mutton Haricot._

Make a rich gravy by boiling the coarser parts for the liquor, and
seasoning with pepper, spice, and catsup. Cut into the gravy, carrots,
parsnips, onions, and celery, boiled tender; then broil the mutton,
first seasoning it with salt and pepper, put them into the gravy, and
stew all about ten minutes. Garnish with small pickles.


_To Cook a Shoulder of Lamb._

Check the shoulder with cuts an inch deep, rub on first butter, then
salt, pepper, and sweet herbs, over these put the yolk of an egg and
bread crumbs, and then bake or roast it a light brown. Make a gravy of
the drippings, seasoning with pepper, salt, and tomato catsup, and also
the grated rind and juice of a lemon; thicken with a very little flour.


_Rice Chicken Pie._

Line a pudding dish with slices of broiled ham, cut up a boiled
chicken, and nearly fill the dish, filling in with gravy or melted
butter; add minced onions if you like, or a little curry powder, which
is better. Then pile boiled rice to fill all interstices, and cover the
top quite thick. Bake it for half or three quarters of an hour.


_Potato Pie._

Take mashed potatoes, seasoned with salt, butter, and milk, and line a
baking dish. Lay upon it slices of cold meats of any kind with salt,
pepper, catsup, and butter, or gravy. Put on another layer of potatoes,
and then another of cold meat as before. Lastly, on the top put a cover
of potatoes.

Bake it till it is thoroughly warmed through, and serve it in the dish
in which it is baked, setting it in, or upon another.




CHAPTER V.

FRIED AND BROILED MEATS.


_General Remarks._

It is best to fry in lard not salted, and this is better than butter.
Mutton and beef suet are good for frying. When the lard seems hot, try
it by throwing in a bit of bread. When taking up fried articles, drain
off the fat on a wire sieve.


_A nice Way of Cooking Calf’s or Pig’s Liver._

Cut it in slices half an inch thick, pour on boiling water and then
pour it off _entirely_, then let the liver brown in its own juices,
turning it till it looks brown on both sides. Take it up and pour into
the frying-pan enough cold water to make as much gravy as you wish;
then sliver in onion, cut fine, add a little salt and nutmeg, and a bit
of butter to season it, let it boil up once, then put back the liver
for a minute, and then set it on the table.


_Fried Veal Cutlets._

Take half a pint of milk, add a well-beaten egg, and flour enough to
make a batter. Fry the veal brown in some sweet lard, then dip it in
the batter and fry again till brown. Drop in some spoonfuls of batter,
to fry after the veal is taken up, and put them on the top of the veal.
Then put a little thin flour paste into the gravy, adding salt and
pepper, and after one boil, pour it over the whole. The veal must be
cut quite thin, and it should cook nearly an hour in the whole.


_Fricassee Chickens._

Wash the chickens and divide them into pieces, put them in a pot, or
stew-pan, with several slices of salt ham, or pork, and sprinkle each
layer with salt and pepper; cover them with water, and let them simmer
till tender, keeping them covered. Then take them up, and mix with the
gravy a piece of butter the size of a hen’s egg, and a paste made of
two teaspoonfuls of flour wet up with the gravy. Put back the chickens
and let them stew five minutes. Then spread crackers, or toasted bread,
on the platter, put the chickens on it, and pour the gravy over.

In case it is wished to have them browned, take them out when nearly
cooked and fry them in butter till brown, or pour off all the liquid
and fry them in the pot.


_Meats Warmed over._

Cold beef is best made into pies as in a foregoing receipt. Veal is
best made into hashes, or force meat, as in following receipts. If it
is liked more simply cooked, chop it fine, put in water just enough to
moisten it, butter, salt, pepper, and a little juice of a lemon. Some
like a little lemon rind grated in. Heat it through, but do not let it
fry. Put it on buttered toast, and garnish it with slices of lemon.

Cold salted, or fresh beef are good chopped fine with pepper, salt,
and catsup, and water enough to moisten a little. Add some butter
just before taking it up, and do not let it fry, only heat it hot. It
injures cooked meat to cook it again. Cold fowls make a nice dish to
have them cut up in mouthfuls, add some of the gravy and giblet sauce,
a little butter and pepper, and then heat them through.


_A nice Way of Cooking Cold Meats._

Chop the meat fine, add salt, pepper, a little onion, or else tomato
catsup, fill a tin bread pan one-third full, cover it over with boiled
potatoes salted and mashed with cream or milk, lay bits of butter on
the top and set it into a Dutch, or stove oven, for fifteen or twenty
minutes.


_A Hash of Cold Meat for Dinner (very good)._

Peel six large tomatoes and one onion, and slice them. Add a spoonful
of sugar, salt and pepper, and a bit of butter the size of a hen’s egg,
and half a pint of cold water. Shave up the meat into small bits, as
thin as thick pasteboard. Dredge flour over it, say two teaspoonfuls,
or a little less. Simmer the meat with all the rest for _one hour_, and
then serve it, and it is very fine.

Dried tomatoes can be used. When you have no tomatoes, make a gravy
with water, pepper, salt, and butter, or cold gravy: slice an onion in
it, add tomato catsup (two or three spoonfuls), and then prepare the
meat as above, and simmer it in this gravy _one hour_.


_Cold Meat Turnovers._

Roll out wheat dough very thin, and put in it, like a _turnover_, cold
meat chopped fine, and seasoned with pepper, salt, catsup, and sweet
herbs. Make small ones, and fry them in lard till the dough is well
cooked.


_Head Cheese._

Boil in salted water the ears, skin, and feet of pigs till the meat
drops from the bones; chop it like sausage meat. Season the liquor with
pepper, salt, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon, or with pepper, salt, and
sweet herbs, mix the meat with it, and while hot tie it in a strong bag
and keep a heavy stone upon it until quite cold.


_Souse._

Cleanse pigs’ ears and feet and soak them a week in salt and water,
changing the water every other day. Boil eight or ten hours till
tender. When cold put on salt, and pour on hot spiced vinegar. Fry them
in lard.


_Tripe._

Scrape and scour it thoroughly, soak it in salt and water a week,
changing it every other day. Boil it eight or ten hours, till tender;
then pour on spiced hot vinegar, or fry or broil it.


_Force Meat Balls (another Hash.)_

Chop cold veal fine with one-fourth as much salt pork. Season with
salt, pepper, and sweet herbs. Make them into balls and fry them brown.


_To Prepare Cold Beef Steaks._

Put a fine minced onion into a stew-pan, and add half a dozen cloves
and as many pepper corns, pour on a coffee cup of boiling water, and
add three large spoonfuls of butter, or some gravy. Let it simmer ten
minutes. Then cut up the beef in mouthfuls and put into this gravy to
simmer four or five minutes, till heated through, but do not let it
cook any more, as it is not healthful.

Three large tomatoes stewed with the onion improves this.


_A nice Way of Cooking Cold Boiled Ham._

Make quite a thin batter of flour, water, and eggs, with a little salt.
Pour the batter over the bottom of a Dutch oven, or frying-pan, which
has a very little hot butter, or lard in it; say three great spoonfuls.
Let the batter be no thicker on the bottom than a straw; let it fry a
couple of minutes and then cover the batter with _very_ thin slices of
ham, and pour a thin cover of batter over them. Let it fry till the
bottom looks a yellowish brown (have a hot fire), then cut it into
squares, or into triangular quarters, or eighths, and turn it with a
knife, and let it fry till the other side is browned.


_Another Way of Cooking Cold Ham._

Cut up all the bits and ends, put them in a frying, or sauce pan, with
a very little water and some butter. When warmed through, break in some
eggs and stir them up with the ham until the egg is hardened.


_A Veal Hash._

Cut up cooked veal into strips, flour them and fry them to a light
brown, in butter. Then take them up and mix as much hot water as there
is gravy, add a little flour paste, season with salt, pepper, catsup,
and lemon-juice, then add the meat and heat it hot.


_Veal Balls (another Hash)._

Chop the cold veal fine, removing hard portions, add as much bread
crumbs as there is of meat, and half as much broiled salt pork chopped
fine. Moisten all with a glass of white wine if you like it, put in two
eggs, and season with salt, pepper, sweet herbs, and a little nutmeg.
Form them into balls and fry in butter.


BROILED MEATS.

_General Remarks._

It is best to oil the bars of the gridiron with suet and also warm
them before putting the meat on. Chalk is sometimes rubbed on to
the gridiron, when fish is to be broiled. It is desirable to keep a
gridiron expressly for fish, otherwise meat is often made to taste
fishy.


_Broiled Ham._

Cut the ham into thin slices, and broil it very quickly over a hot
fire, then put on butter and a little pepper.


_Broiled Veal Cutlets._

Cut the veal into slices a quarter of an inch thick, lay them on the
gridiron with an equal number of slices of salt pork beside them. When
cooked, put the veal on to the dish, butter, salt, and pepper it well,
and lay the salt pork on the top of it. Veal needs to broil a good
while, till it looks done when cut open.


_Broiled Mutton Chops._

These must be broiled over a quick fire and not cooked so much as veal.


_Broiled Pork Steaks._

These must be cut rather thin, broiled quick, and very thoroughly.


_Beef Steaks._

Those from the sirloin are best, those from the shoulder clod and
round are not so good, but cheaper. Meat, if tough, is made more tender
by pounding, if it is done very thoroughly, so as to break the fibres.
Cut the steaks from half an inch to an inch thick. Broil on hot coals,
and the quicker it is done the better. Ten or twelve minutes is enough
time. Turn it four or five times, and when done put on butter, salt,
and if you like pepper, and on both sides. Do not let your butter be
turned to oil before putting it on. It is best to have beef tongs to
turn beef, as pricking it lets out the juices. Often turning prevents
the surface from hardening and cooks it more equally.


_Beef Liver._

Cut it in slices half an inch thick, pour boiling water on it, broil it
with some thin slices of salt pork dipped in flour; then cut the liver
and pork up into mouthfuls, put them in a frying-pan with a little
butter, pepper, and salt, and stew them three or four minutes.


_To Poach Eggs._

Beat the eggs to a froth, pour them into a buttered tin, set it on
coals, add salt and butter, stir till cooked, and then put it on to
buttered toast.


_To Boil Eggs._

Put them into boiling water and allow three minutes if you wish only
the white hardened, and five minutes if you wish them hard. Another and
more delicate way is to break them into boiling water and let them boil
three or four minutes. Then take them up with a skimmer, draining them
well, and lay them on buttered toast, and spread a little butter on
them.

Another, and the best way to boil them when in the shell, is to pour
on boiling water and let them stand five minutes. Then pour it off and
pour on more boiling water, and let them stand five minutes longer.

This is the way in which they are cooked in egg boilers, which are set
upon the table.


_A Salt Relish._

Cut salt pork into thin slices, fry them till crisp, take them out and
pour a little water to the fat, dredge in a little flour, and put in a
little pepper. Then cut up the pork in mouthfuls and put to this gravy.


_Egg Frizzle (very good)._

Pour boiling water on to salt, smoked beef slivered. Pour off the water
and then frizzle it in the frying-pan with butter. When done, break in
two or three eggs, and stir it till the egg is hardened.


_Frizzled Beef._

Sliver smoked beef, pour on boiling water to freshen it, then pour off
the water and frizzle the beef in butter.


_Veal Cheese._

Prepare equal quantities of sliced boiled veal and smoked tongue,
boiled, skinned, and sliced.

Pound each separately in a mortar, moistening with butter as you
proceed.

Then take a stone jar, or tin can, and mix them in it, so that it will,
when cut, look mottled and variegated. Press it hard and pour on melted
butter. Keep it covered in a dry place. To be used at tea in slices.


_A Codfish Relish._

Take thin slivers of codfish, lay them on hot coals, and when a
yellowish brown, set them on the table.


_Another Way._

Sliver the codfish fine, pour on boiling water, drain it off, and add
butter, and a very little pepper, and heat them three or four minutes,
but do not let them fry.


_Salt Herrings._

Heat them on a gridiron, remove the skin, and then set them on the
table.




CHAPTER VI.

SOUPS.


The delicate and proper _blending of savors_ is the chief art of good
soup-making.

Be sure and skim the grease off the soup when it _first_ boils, or it
will not become clear. Throw in a little salt to bring up the scum.
Remove _all_ the grease.

Be sure and _simmer softly_, and never let a soup boil hard.

Put the meat into cold water, and let it grow warm slowly. This
dissolves the gelatine, allows the albumen to disengage, and the scum
to rise, and diffuses the savory part of the meat. But if the soup is
over a hot fire the albumen coagulates and hardens the meat, prevents
the water from penetrating, and the savory part from disengaging
itself. Thus the broth will be without flavor, and the meat tough.
Allow about two tablespoonfuls of salt to four quarts of soup, where
there are many vegetables, and one and a half where there are few.

Be sure not to leave any fat floating on the surface.

A quart of water, or a little less, to a pound of meat is a good rule.

Soup made of uncooked meat is as good the second day, if heated to the
boiling point.

If more water is needed, use _boiling_ hot water, as cold or lukewarm
spoils the soup.

It is thought that potato water is unhealthy; and therefore do not boil
potatoes in soup, but boil elsewhere, and add them when nearly cooked.

The water in which poultry, or fresh meat is boiled should be saved for
gravies, or soup, the next day. If you do not need it, give it to the
poor.

Keep the vessel covered tight in which you boil soup, that the flavor
be not lost.

Never leave soup in _metal_ pots, as sometimes a family is thus
poisoned.

Thickened soups require more seasoning; nearly double the quantity used
for thin soups.


_French Vegetable Soup._

Take a leg of lamb, of moderate size, and four quarts water. Of
potatoes, carrots, cabbage, onions, tomatoes, and turnips take a
tea-cup full of each, chopped fine. Salt and black pepper to your taste.

Wash the lamb, and put it into the four quarts of cold water. When the
scum rises take it off carefully with a skimmer. After having pared
and chopped the vegetables, put them into the soup. Carrots require
the most boiling, and should be put in first; onions require the least
boiling, and are to be put in the last.

This soup requires about three hours to boil.


_Plain Calf’s Head Soup._

Boil the head and feet in just water enough to cover them; when tender
take out the bones, cut in small pieces, and season with marjoram,
thyme, cloves, salt, and pepper.

Put all into a pot, with the liquor, and four spoonfuls of thin batter,
stew gently an hour, then, just as you take it up, add two or three
glasses of Port wine, and the yolks of eggs boiled hard.


_An Excellent Simple Mutton Soup._

Put a piece of the fore quarter of mutton into salted water, enough to
more than cover it, and simmer it slowly two hours. Then peel a dozen
turnips, and six tomatoes, and quarter them, and boil them with the
mutton till just tender enough to eat. Thicken the soup with pearl
barley. Some add sliced tomatoes, or the juice and rind of a lemon. Use
half a tea-cup of rice if you have no pearl barley.


_Pea Soup._

Soak dry peas over night, putting a quart of water to each quart of
peas. Next morning boil them an hour in this water, and ten minutes
before the hour expires put in a teaspoonful of saleratus. Change them
to fresh water, put in a pound of salt pork, and boil three or four
hours, till the peas are soft. Green peas need no soaking, and must
boil not more than an hour. When taken up, add butter.


_Portable Soup._

Boil down the meat to a thick jelly, season it highly with salt,
spices, and wine, or brandy; when cold, cut it in square inches, and
dry them in the sun. Keep them in a tight tin vessel, and when you use
them put a quart of boiling water to one, or two of the cakes, which
should be one inch square, and the fourth of an inch thick. Vegetables
can be added.


_A Rich Mock Turtle Soup._

Divide the lower from the upper part of the head, and put the head in a
gallon of water, and boil till tender.

Strain the liquor, and let it stand till the next day, and then take
off the fat. Three quarters of an hour before serving it, hang it over
the fire and season it with pepper, salt, mace, cloves, and sweet
herbs, tied up in a small bag; add half a pint of rich gravy. Darken it
with fried sugar, or browned flour; add the juice of two lemons, the
yolks of eight eggs, boiled hard, and force meat balls. Just before
taking up, pour in half a pint of wine.


_Another Dry Pea Soup._

Soak the peas over night. Put a pound and a half of split peas into
four quarts of water, with roast beef, or mutton bones, and a ham bone,
or slices of ham. Add two heads of celery and two onions, and stew
slowly till the peas are soft. Then strain the peas through a coarse
sieve, and put them back and season to your taste with pepper and salt.
Let it boil one hour longer. When you have no celery use a teaspoonful
of essence of celery, or a spoonful of celery vinegar.


_Clam Soup._

Wash a peck of clams and boil them in a pint of water, till those on
the top open and they come out easily. Strain the liquor, and add a
quart of milk. When it just boils thicken with two and a half spoonfuls
of flour, worked into three of butter, with pepper, mace, and other
spices to your taste. It is better without spice.


_Oyster Soup._

Put a gallon of water to a knuckle of veal, boil it to two quarts,
strain and add the juice of the oysters you are to use. Add pepper and
salt to your taste. Fifteen minutes before taking it up, put in the
oysters. Ten minutes before taking up, put in eight rolled crackers,
and after it stops boiling, add half a pint of milk.


_Veal Soup._

Take the knuckle and put it into salted water, enough to cover it, and
also put in a pound of ham. When it is boiled very tender take up the
meat, and strain the soup, and add a head of celery, cut small, one
onion, a turnip and carrot sliced, four sliced tomatoes, a dozen corns
of pepper, and salt to your taste. Thicken with three great spoonfuls
of rice, or vermicelli, or a thin flour paste. Simmer it gently till
all the vegetables are done.

Almost any kind of meat can be made into soup, by taking the broth, and
adding various kinds of seasoning and thickening; such as tomatoes,
ochra, vermicelli, sweet herbs, and vegetables, and in such proportions
as each one likes best. The preceding kinds of soup will be a guide as
to proportions.


_Macaroni Soup (Mrs. F.’s Receipt)._

Take six pounds of beef, and put it into four quarts of water, with
two onions, one carrot, one turnip, and a head of celery. Boil it down
three or four hours slowly, till there is about two quarts of water,
and let it cool. Next day take off the grease, without shaking the
sediment, and pour it off into the kettle, half an hour before dinner
(leaving the sediment out), and add salt to suit the taste, a pint of
macaroni, broken into inch pieces, and a tablespoonful and a half of
tomato catsup.


_Southern Gumbo (Mrs. L.’s Receipt)._

This is a favorite dish at the South and West, and is made in a variety
of ways. The following is a very fine receipt, furnished by a lady, who
has had an extensive opportunity for selection.

Fry one chicken, when cut up, to a light brown, and also two slices of
bacon. Pour on to them three quarts of boiling water. Add one onion and
some sweet herbs, tied in a rag. Simmer them gently three hours and a
half. Strain off the liquor, take off the fat, and then put the ham and
chicken, cut into small pieces, into the liquor. Add half a tea-cup
of _ochre_, cut up; if dry, the same quantity; also half a tea-cup of
rice. Boil all half an hour, and just before serving add a glass of
wine and a dozen oysters, with their juice. Ochre is a fine vegetable,
especially for soups, and is easily cultivated. It is sliced and dried
for soups in winter.


_Giblet Soup._

Take the feet, neck, pinions, and giblets of two fowls, and add a pound
and a half of veal, and a slice of lean ham. Pour on three quarts of
cold water, and boil gently till the meat is very soft. Strain off the
liquor, and, when cold, take off the fat. Cut the giblets and meat into
half-inch pieces; add a tablespoonful of flour with one of butter, and
some of the soup to thin it. Then put into the soup the butter and
meat, with some sweet herbs tied in a bag, with salt to your taste.
Boil it half an hour and it is done.




CHAPTER VII.

FISH.


Put fish into cold water to boil.

Remove any mud taste by soaking in strong salt and water.

It is cooked enough when it easily cleaves from the bone, and is
injured by cooking longer.

Put a napkin under, to absorb dampness, when boiled fish is laid on the
dish.

To fry, dip in egg and bread crumbs, and use lard, not butter. Garnish
with parsley.

Halibut is best cut in slices, and fried, or broiled. Bass are good
every way. Black fish are best broiled or fried. Shad are best broiled,
and sprinkle them with salt some hours before broiling. Salt shad and
mackerel must be soaked over night for broiling. Sturgeons are best
fried; the part near the tail is best for this.


_Directions for making Chowder._

The best fish for chowder are haddock and striped bass. Cut the fish
in pieces of an inch thick, and two inches square. Take six or eight
good-sized slices of salt pork, and put in the bottom of an iron pot,
and fry them in the pot till crisped. Take out the pork, leaving the
fat. Chop the pork fine. Put in the pot a layer of fish, a layer
of split crackers, some of the chopped pork, black and red pepper,
and chopped onion, then another layer of fish, split crackers, and
seasoning. This do till you have used your fish. Then just cover the
fish with water, and stew slowly till the fish is perfectly tender.
Take out the fish, and put it in the dish in which you mean to serve
it; set it to keep warm. Thicken the gravy with pounded cracker; add,
if you like, mushroom catsup and Port wine. Boil the gravy up once,
and pour over the fish; squeeze in the juice of a lemon, and garnish
with slices of lemon.

If not salt enough from the pork, more must be added.


_To Fry Fish._

Fry some slices of salt pork, say a slice for each pound, and when
brown take them up, and add lard enough to cover the fish. Skim it
well, and have it hot, then dip the fish in flour, without salting it,
and fry a light brown. Then take the fish up, and add to the gravy a
little flour paste, pepper, salt; also wine, catsup, and spices, if you
like. Put the fish and pork on a dish, and, after one boil, pour this
gravy over the whole.

Fish are good dipped first in egg and then in Indian meal, or cracker
crumbs and egg, previous to frying.


_To Boil Fish._

Fill the fish with a stuffing of chopped salt pork, and bread, or bread
and butter, seasoned with salt and pepper, and sew it up. Then sew it
into a cloth, or you cannot take it up well. Put it in cold water, with
water enough to cover it, salted at the rate of a teaspoonful of salt
to each pound of fish, and about three tablespoonfuls of vinegar. Boil
it slowly for twenty or thirty minutes, or till the fin is easily drawn
out. Serve with drawn butter and eggs, with capers or nasturtions in it.

Fish can be baked in the same way, except sewing it up in a cloth.
Instead of this, cover it with egg and cracker, or bread crumbs.


_To Broil Fish._

Salt fish must be soaked several hours before broiling. Rub suet on
the bars of your gridiron, then put the fish flesh side down (some say
skin side down, as it saves the juices better), and broil till nearly
cooked through. Then lay a dish on it, and turn the fish by inverting
the gridiron over the dish. Broil slowly, and never pile broiled fish
one above another on the dish.


_Baked Fish._

Cod, bass, and shad are good for baking. Stuff them with a seasoning
made of bread crumbs or crackers, butter, salt, pepper, and, if you
like, spices. Put the fish in a bake-pan, with a tea-cup of water, and
a bit of butter, and bake from forty-five to sixty minutes.


_Cod Sounds and Tongues._

Soak them four hours in blood-warm water, then scrape off the skin, cut
them up, and stew them in a little milk till tender. Just before taking
up stir in butter, and a little flour paste, and scatter cold boiled
eggs cut up over them.


_To Cook Salt Codfish._

Soak the fish in a pailful of water all night. Then hang it in a good
deal of water where it will be kept warm. Put one even great spoonful
of saleratus in the water. (This last softens it as nothing else will
do.) Change the water an hour before dinner, and hang it where it will
get scalding hot. It must not boil, but only simmer. Take it up into a
napkin, so as to keep it dry and hot.


_To Cook Cold Codfish._

Mash boiled potatoes, mash the fish and mix with them, adding some
cream or milk, and a little pepper, make them into round cakes an inch
thick, and fry them in fresh lard.


_To Cook Oysters._

Oysters are best roasted in the shell, convex side downward, to hold
the juices, and cooked till they will open well. They are good also
cooked in a batter made by adding wheat flour to the juice till it is
a batter, and adding two eggs and a salt spoonful of salt. Fry in hot
lard to a light brown.


_Lobsters._

These must never be cooked after they are dead. Put them alive into
boiling water, and boil them till the small joints come off easily.


_Scolloped Oysters._

Take the oysters from the liquor, and place some at the bottom of the
dish, then grate some bread over them, a little nutmeg, pepper, salt,
and cloves. Add another laying of oysters, and the seasoning, a little
butter, and a glass of wine. Cover the whole with grated bread, and
bake half an hour, or perhaps a little more. There will be liquor
enough without adding any water or oyster broth.


_Pickled Oysters._

After taking out the oysters, to each quart of liquor put a teaspoonful
of pepper, two blades of mace, three tablespoonfuls of white wine, and
four of vinegar, also a tablespoonful of salt. Simmer the oysters in
this five minutes, then take them out and put in jars, then boil the
pickle, skim it, and pour it over them.


_To Crimp Fresh Fish._

Cut in slices and lay them for three hours in salt and water, and a
glass of vinegar, then fry or broil them.


_To Cook Eels._

Dress them, lay them open flat, rub them with salt and pepper, cut them
in short pieces, and broil them. Small ones are best skinned and fried.


_To Cook Scollops._

Boil them, take out the hearts (which is the only part used), dip them
in flour and fry brown in lard, or stew with butter, pepper, salt, and
a little water.


_A Good Way of Using Cold Fresh Fish._

Take cold cooked fish, chop it with bread crumbs, pepper, salt, and
boiled salt pork, or ham; season with salt, pepper, catsup, or wine.
Mould into balls with egg and bread crumbs, and fry in lard.


_To Cook Clams._

Thin-edged clams are the best ones. Roast them in a pan over a hot
fire, or in a hot oven, placing them so as to save the juice. When they
open, empty the juice into a sauce-pan, and add the clams with butter,
pepper, and very little salt.

To boil them, put them in a pot with a very little water, and so as to
save their juices. Proceed as above, and lay buttered toast in the dish
when you take them up. Clams are good put into a batter and fried.




CHAPTER VIII.

ON THE PREPARATION OF HASHES, GRAVIES, AND SAUCES.


There is nothing worse for the health, or for the palate, than _a
poor hash_, while a _good_ hash is not only a favorite dish in most
families, but an essential article of economy and convenience. For this
reason, a separate article is devoted to this subject.

The following are the ways in which hashes are spoilt.

The first is by _cooking them_. Meat, when once cooked, should only be
_heated_. If it is again stewed or fried, it tends to make it hard and
tough, and diminishes its flavor.

The second is by _frying_ the _butter_ or _gravy_ in which they
are prepared. It has been shown that this is very injurious to the
healthfulness of food. Butter and oils may be _melted_ without changing
their nature, but when _cooked_, they become much more indigestible and
injurious to weak stomachs.

The third mode of injuring hashes is by putting in flour in such ways
that it is not properly cooked. Flour dredged on to hashes while they
are cooking generally imparts the raw taste of dough.

The fourth mode is by putting in so much water as to make them vapid,
or else so much grease as to make them gross.

The fifth is by seasoning them with so little care, that they either
have very little savory taste, or else are so hot with pepper and spice
as to be unhealthy.

If a housekeeper will follow these directions, or give them to a cook
who will follow them exactly, she will always have good and healthful
hashes.


_To prepare Gravy for a Cold Beef Hash, or Steak Hash._

For a small dish for six persons, put a tea-cup and a half of boiling
water into a small sauce-pan, and make a thin paste with a heaping
teaspoonful of flour, wet with a great spoonful of cold water. Stir it
in, and boil it three minutes. Then put in half a teaspoonful of black
pepper and rather more salt, and let it stand where it will be kept
hot, but not boiling, till fifteen minutes before it is to be used.

Then cut the beef into half-inch mouthfuls and take as many mouthfuls
of cold boiled potato, and half as many of cold turnip. Put these all
together into a tin pan the size of a dining plate. Then stir in two
great spoonfuls of butter into the gravy till melted, and, if you like
tomato catsup, add a great spoonful, and pour it over the hash, and
cover it with a plate and let it heat on the stove, or trivet, ten
minutes, and then serve it.

If the hash is made without vegetables, take only a tea-cup full of
water, and a teaspoonful of flour, and a little less pepper and salt.

If you have the beef gravy of yesterday, use it instead of butter, and
put in less pepper, salt, butter, and water, and only one spoonful of
butter.

If tomatoes are liked, peel and slice two large ones, and add with the
potatoes and turnips.

Let a housekeeper try this, and then vary it to her own taste, or the
taste of her family, and then write the exact proportions for the use
of all the future cooks of her family.


_Gravy for a Mutton Hash, or Venison Hash._

For a dish for six persons, take a tea-cup and a half of boiling water,
and slice fine one small onion (say one an inch in diameter) into it,
to give a slight flavor of onion, and thus hide the strong mutton
taste. Mix a thin paste made with a heaping teaspoonful of flour, wet
with a great spoonful of water, stir it in, and let it boil three
minutes, adding a half a teaspoonful of black pepper, and rather more
salt. Then set it where it will keep hot, but not boil, till wanted.

Cut the mutton into half-inch mouthfuls, leaving out most of the fat.
Cut up the same number of mouthfuls of cold boiled potatoes, and half
as much cold boiled turnips, and slice in two large peeled tomatoes,
or cold boiled parsnip, or both. Mix them in a tin pan the size of a
dining plate, stir two great spoonfuls of butter into the gravy, and,
if you like, a great spoonful of tomato catsup, and pour it on to the
hash. Cover it with a plate, and set it to heat ten minutes on the
stove, or on a trivet over coals.

If you do not put in vegetables, take less water, salt, and pepper. If
you do not put in onion, put in a wine-glass of currant, plum, or grape
jelly, or squeeze in some lemon juice when you add the butter, and
leave out the catsup, or not, as you like. Modify to suit your taste,
and then write the proportions exactly, for all future cooks of your
family.


_To prepare a Veal Hash._

Take a tea-cup of boiling water in a sauce-pan, and mix in an even
teaspoonful of flour wet with a spoonful of cold water, and let it boil
five minutes. Then add, not quite half a teaspoonful of black pepper,
as much salt, and two great spoonfuls of butter, and set it where it
will keep hot, but not boil.

Chop the veal very fine, and mix with it, while chopping, half as much
stale bread crumbs. Put it in a tin pan and pour the gravy on to it,
and let it heat on a stove or trivet ten minutes.

Toast some bread and cut it into triangular pieces, and lay it on the
bottom of a dish. Spread the hash over, and pour on the gravy. Cut
slices of lemon to lay on the top and around the edge of the platter.

If you like a seasoning of sweet herbs with this hash, the nicest way
is to tie some in a rag and boil it in the water of the gravy when you
first mix it.


_Common Gravies._

Pour out the drippings of the tin roaster through a gravy strainer,
into a pan, and set it away till cold. Next day, scrape the sediment
from the bottom and then use it to make gravy in place of butter, for
hashes. Mutton drippings must never be used for cooking.

It is not fashionable to have gravy made for roast beef or mutton, as
the juice of the meat is preferred, which, on the plate, is mixed with
catsup or whatever is preferred.

Gravies for poultry are made as directed in the article on roasting
meats.

_Drawn butter_ is the foundation of most common gravies, and is to be
prepared in either of the two ways described below.


_Drawn Butter, or Melted Butter._

Rub in two teaspoonfuls of flour into a quarter of a pound of butter.
Add five tablespoonfuls of cold water. Set it into boiling water and
let it melt, and heat until it begins to simmer, and it is done. Never
simmer it on coals, as it fries the oil and spoils it. Be careful not
to have the flour in lumps. If it is to be used with fish, put in
chopped eggs and nasturtions, or capers.

If used with boiled fowl, put in oysters while it is simmering, and let
them heat through.


_Another Mode of preparing Drawn Butter._

Make three teaspoonfuls of flour into a thin batter, and stir it
into a tea-cup of boiling water in a sauce-pan, and let it boil five
minutes. Then take it off, and cut up a quarter of a pound of butter
into pieces, and put in and keep it hot till it is melted. This is
the easiest way, and if it is for very rich cooking more butter may be
added.


_Drawn Meat Gravies, or Brown Gravies._

Put into a sauce-pan fresh meat cut in small pieces, seasoned with salt
and pepper and a bit of butter, and heat it half an hour, till brown,
stirring so that it shall not stick.

Pour on boiling water, a pint for each pound--simmer three hours and
skim it well. Settle and strain it, and set it aside to use. Thicken,
when you need it, with brown flour, a teaspoonful to a half pint.


_A Nice Article to use for Gravy, or Soup._

Take butter the size of an egg, add a tablespoonful of sugar, put it in
a skillet, and stir it till a dark brown, then dredge in flour, and use
it to darken gravy or soup.


_Burnt Butter for Fish, or Eggs._

Heat two ounces of butter in a frying-pan, till a dark brown, then add
a tablespoonful of vinegar, half a teaspoonful of salt, and half a
dozen shakes from the pepper box.


_Sauce for Salad, or Fish._

Take the yolk of two eggs boiled hard, mash them with a mustard
spoonful of mustard, a little black pepper, a little salt, three
tablespoonfuls of salad oil, and three of vinegar. A tablespoonful of
catsup would improve it for many.


_Wine Sauce for Mutton, or Venison._

Take half a pint of the liquor in which the meat was cooked, and when
boiling, put in pepper, salt, currant jelly, and wine to your taste;
add about a teaspoonful of scorched flour, mixed with a little water.


_Oyster Sauce._

Take a pint of oyster juice, add a little salt and pepper, and a stick
of mace, boil it five minutes, and then add two teaspoonfuls of flour,
wet up in half a tea-cup of milk. Let this boil two minutes, then put
in the oysters and a bit of butter the size of an egg; in two minutes
take them up.


_Lobster Sauce._

Mix in six tablespoonfuls of vinegar, the yolks of two boiled eggs,
some of the lobster spawn, a mustard spoonful of mustard, two
tablespoonfuls of salad oil or melted butter, and a little salt and
pepper.


_Apple Sauce._

Boil peeled and quartered tart apples, and put in butter and sugar to
your taste. If boiled in cider with quinces, it will keep a long time.
The fresh-made is best.


_Celery Sauce for Boiled Fowls._

Take four or five celery heads, and cut up all but the green tops into
small pieces, and boil it in half a pint of water till tender. Mix
two teaspoonfuls of flour with a little milk and put in, with a salt
spoonful of salt, and butter the size of an egg. When it boils, take it
up.


_Celery Vinegar._

This is fine to keep in the castor stand. Pound two gills of celery
seed, and add sharp vinegar. Shake every day for a week or two. The
flavor of sweet herbs and sage can be obtained by pouring vinegar on to
them, and for three successive days taking them out, and putting in a
fresh supply of herbs. It must be kept corked and sealed.


_Essence of Celery, to flavor Soup._

Bruise celery seed, and steep it in brandy for a fortnight. An ounce to
half a pint of brandy is enough. Half a teaspoonful will flavor soup.


_Herb Spirit._

It is convenient sometimes to use herb spirit instead of the herbs.
It is made thus. Take all the sweet herbs, as thyme, marjoram, sweet
basil, and summer savory, dry, pound, sift, and steep in brandy for a
fortnight; an ounce to half a pint.


_Soup Powder._

The following is a very convenient article for soups. Dry, pound, and
sift the following ingredients together. Take one ounce each, of lemon,
thyme, basil, sweet marjoram, summer savory, and dried lemon peel, with
two ounces of dried parsley, and a few dried celery seeds. Bottle it
tight. Horseradish can be sliced thin, dried and pounded, and kept in
a bottle for use. Mushrooms can be dried in a moderately warm oven,
then powdered with a little mace and pepper, and kept to season soup or
sauces.


_Soy._

One pound of salt, two pounds of sugar, fried half an hour over a slow
fire, then add three pints of boiling water, half a pint of essence of
anchovies, a dozen cloves, and some sweet herbs. Boil till the salt
dissolves, then strain and bottle it.


_Tomato Catsup._

Pour boiling water on the tomatoes, let them stand until you can rub
off the skin, then cover them with salt, and let them stand twenty-four
hours. Then strain them, and to two quarts put three ounces of cloves,
two ounces of pepper, two nutmegs. Boil half an hour, then add a pint
of wine.


_Mushroom Catsup._

Put the mushrooms in layers, with salt sprinkled over each layer, and
let them stand four days. Then mash them fine, and to every quart add
two-thirds of a teaspoonful of black pepper, and boil it in a stone jar
set in boiling water two hours. Strain it without squeezing, boil the
liquor, let it stand to cool and settle, then bottle, cork, and seal
it, and set it in a cool place.


_Walnut Catsup._

Bruise ten dozen young walnuts, add a quart of vinegar, and
three-fourths of a pound of fine salt. Let them stand two weeks,
stirring every day. Strain off the liquor, and add half an ounce of
black pepper whole, thirty cloves, half an ounce of bruised nutmeg,
half an ounce of ginger, and four sticks of mace. Boil the whole an
hour, then strain and bottle tight.




CHAPTER IX.

VEGETABLES.


_Potatoes._

The great art of cooking potatoes is, to take them up _as soon_ as they
are done. Of course it is important to begin to cook them at the proper
time.

When boiled, baked, fried, or steamed, they are rendered watery by
continuing to cook them after they reach the proper point. For this
reason, potatoes, to bake or boil, should be selected so as to have
them nearly the same size. Begin with the largest first, and continue
to select the largest till all are gone. Be careful that the water does
not stop boiling, as thus the potatoes will be watery. Never boil them
very hard, as it breaks them.


_Boiled Potatoes._

Wash, but do not cut them. Put them in boiling water, having only a
small quantity more than enough to cover them. Put salt in, say a great
spoonful to half a pailful of potatoes. Boil them moderately; when
nearly done, let them simmer slowly, and when cooked (as is discovered,
not by their cracking, but by a fork) pour off the water, and let them
stand till dry. Medium-sized potatoes, when young, will cook in from
twenty to thirty minutes; when old, it requires double the time. When
peeled they boil fifteen minutes quicker. Old potatoes, in the spring,
are improved by soaking in water all night.


_Other Modes of Cooking Potatoes._

After boiling and peeling them, divide them and lay them on a gridiron
to brown. Or when cold, the day after boiling, cut them in slices, and
cook them on a griddle, with just enough lard to make them brown, or
you can brown them on a gridiron.

Another pretty mode for a fancy dish is, to peel large potatoes and
then cut them round and round in shavings, as you pare an apple. Fry
them with clean sweet lard in a frying-pan, till brown, stirring them
to brown alike, drain them on a sieve, and after sprinkling a little
fine salt over them, place them on the table.

Another tasteful mode is, after boiling and peeling them, to flour
them, then dip them in the yolk of an egg, and roll them in fine bread
crumbs. Then fry them till brown and they look very handsomely, and are
excellent to the taste. Fry them without this preparation and they are
very nice.

When potatoes become old, mash them fine, season with salt and butter,
and a little cream or milk, place them in a dish, smoothing and shaping
the top handsomely, and making checks with a knife; then brown them in
a stove, or range-oven, and they are excellent. These can also be made
into balls, dipped in egg and crumbs, and fried as directed above, and
they look very handsomely.

Potatoes, when roasted, should be very carefully washed and rinsed, and
then roasted in a Dutch oven, or stove oven. Notice, lest they be put
in too soon, and thus be made watery by cooking too long.

The following is a very nice way of preparing potatoes for breakfast.
Peel them, and cut them in very thin slices into a very little boiling
water, so little that it will be evaporated when they are cooked.
At this point, add salt to your taste, some cream, or if you have
not cream put in a _very little_ milk and a bit of butter. A little
practice will make this a very favorite dish in any family. The art
is, to cook the potatoes with very little water, so that it will be
evaporated at the time the potatoes are done. They must be stirred
while cooking occasionally.

Another mode is, to mash the potatoes and add salt, butter, and a
little cream, and set them away. Then cut them in slices, and fry for
breakfast.

Many think the following the best way of boiling potatoes. Peel them,
and soak in cold water two hours. Boil in just enough water to cover
them. When about done, pour off the water, and let them steam five
minutes uncovered.


_Turnips._

Boil turnips in a vessel by themselves. Try them with a fork, and
if sweet and good, send them to the table when taken up. If watery,
mash them, wring them in a cloth, and add salt and butter, and if the
sweetness is gone, add a little white sugar, and they will be as good
as new. Boil them in a good deal of water, with salt in it. If they
boil too long, they lose their sweetness and become bitter. An hour is
the medium time required.


_Asparagus._

Keep it cool and moist on the cellar bottom till wanted.

Throw it into cold water, cut off all that is tough, tie it in small
bundles, salt the water when boiling, and then put them in and let them
boil from fifteen to twenty-five minutes. When done, take it up with a
skimmer, lay it on buttered toast, and put butter on to it. Drain it
well on the skimmer before putting it on the toast, or it will spoil
the dish.


_Beets._

Beets must not be cut, as this makes them lose their sweetness. Salt
the water, and boil them in summer an hour, and in winter three hours.


_Parsnips and Carrots._

Parsnips and carrots must be split, or else the outside is done too
much before the inside is cooked sufficiently. Salt the water, and boil
them when young half an hour, and two hours when old. Boil enough to
have some to slice and fry for the next day’s dinner or breakfast, as
they are much the best cooked in this way.


_Onions._

Select the white kind, peel them and put them in boiling milk, a little
salted, and boil them from half to three quarters of an hour. When
taken up, drain in a colander, pour a little melted butter over them,
or put on cold butter.


_Jerusalem Artichokes._

Scrape them, and put them in boiling salted water. Boil large ones
about two hours, then take them up and butter them.


_Squashes._

Summer squashes boil whole, when very young. When older, quarter them,
and take out the seeds. Put them into boiling salted water; when done,
squeeze out the water by wringing in a cloth, and add butter and salt
to your taste.

The neck part of the winter squash is the best; cut it into slices,
peel it, boil it in salted water till tender, then drain off the water,
and serve it without mashing, or, if preferred, wring it and season
with butter and salt. What is left over is excellent _fried_ for next
day’s breakfast or dinner. It must be in slices, and not mashed. Save
the water in which they are boiled, to make yeast or brown bread, for
which it is excellent.


_Cabbage and Cauliflowers._

Take off the outer leaves of a cabbage, cut the stalky part in
quarters, down to the centre, put it in boiling salted water, and boil
them from half an hour to an hour. Cabbages, like turnips, must have a
good deal of water, or they will taste strong.

For cauliflowers, cut off all the leaves but the small ones mixed with
the head, and boil in salted water till it is tender. Some wrap some
of the large leaves around the head, and tie them on, and when cooked
throw aside the leaves. Drain the cauliflower with a skimmer and eat it
with drawn butter.

       *       *       *       *       *

Most vegetables must be put in water only sufficient to cover them,
allowing a little more for evaporation. Strong vegetables like turnips,
cabbage, and some of the greens, require a good deal of water.


_Peas._

Peas, to be good, must be fresh from the vines. Throw them into boiling
salted water, and cook them from fifteen to thirty minutes, according
to their age. When old, they are improved by putting a very little
saleratus into the water, say a quarter of a teaspoonful to half a peck
of shelled peas.


_Sweet Corn._

If it is to be boiled on the cob, put it in salted boiling water, and
let it cook from twenty minutes to three quarters of an hour after it
begins to boil, according to the age of the corn.


_Succatosh._

If you wish to make succatosh, boil the beans from half to three
quarters of an hour, in water a little salt, meantime cutting off the
corn and throwing the cobs to boil with the beans. Take care not to cut
too close to the cob, as it imparts a bad taste. When the beans have
boiled the time above mentioned, take out the cobs, and add the corn,
and let the whole boil from fifteen to twenty minutes, for young corn,
and longer for older corn. Make the proportions two-thirds corn and
one-third beans. Where you have a mess amounting to two quarts of corn
and one quart of beans, take two tablespoonfuls of flour, wet it into a
thin paste, and stir it into the succatosh, and let it boil up for five
minutes. Then lay some butter in a dish, take it up into it, and add
more salt if need be.


_Beans._

Throw them into salted boiling water, and cook them from an hour to an
hour and a half, according to the age. A little saleratus improves them
when old; a piece as big as a pea will do. If you put in too much, the
skins will slip off.


_Egg Plant._

Boil them in a good deal of water a few minutes, to get out the bitter
taste, then cut them in slices, and sprinkle a little salt on them.
Then fry them brown in lard or butter. If they are fried on a griddle,
with only butter enough to keep them from sticking, they are better
than when more butter is used.


_Baked Beans._

Pick over the beans the night before, and put them in warm water to
soak, where they will be kept warm all night. Next morning pour off the
water, and pour on boiling water, and let them stand and simmer till
the beans are soft, and putting in with them a nice piece of pork, the
skin gashed. Put them into the deep dish in which they are to bake,
having water just enough to cover them. Bury the pork in the middle,
so that the top will be even with the surface. All the garden beans
are better for baking than the common field bean. They must bake in a
moderately hot oven from two to three hours.


_Tomatoes._

Pour on scalding water, and let them remain in it five minutes, to
loosen the skins. Peel them, and put them in a stew-pan with a little
salt and butter, and let them stew half an hour, and then pour them on
to buttered toast.

_Another Way._--Peel them, put them in a deep dish, put salt and
pepper, and a little butter over them, then make a layer of bread
crumbs, or pounded crackers, then make another layer of tomatoes, and
over these another layer of crumbs, till the dish is filled. The top
layer must be crumbs. Some persons put nutmeg and sugar with the other
seasoning. Bake three quarters of an hour, or more, according to the
size.

_Another Way._--Peel them, put them in a stew-pan with some salt, boil
them nearly half an hour, then put into them three or four beaten eggs,
and more salt if needed, and very little pepper. Many would add a few
small slices of onion. Most who have tried this last are very fond of
it.


_Greens._

Beet tops, turnip tops, spinach, cabbage sprouts, dandelions, cowslips,
all these boil in salted water till they are tender, then drain in
a colander, pressing hard. Chop them a little, and warm them in a
sauce-pan, with a little butter.

Lay them on buttered toast, and if you like, garnish them with
hard-boiled egg, cut in slices. If not fresh, soak them half an hour in
salt and water.


_Cucumbers._

The chief art of preparing cucumbers consists in making them cool and
crisp. This is done by putting them in cold water for half an hour,
and then cut them in thin slices into cold water. Then drain them in a
colander, and season them with pepper, salt, and vinegar.

Cucumbers are very nice cooked in this way. Peel and cut them into
quarters, take out the seeds, and boil them like asparagus. Put them on
to buttered toast, and put a little butter over them.


_Macaroni._

Mix a pint of milk, and a pint of water, and a teaspoonful of salt;
put in two ounces of macaroni, and boil till the liquor is wasted and
the macaroni tender. Put on butter, or pour over some gravy. Cut the
macaroni in pieces of three or four inches, in order to help it out
more conveniently.


_Another Way._

Simmer it in thin gravy; when tender lay it in a dish, and grate on it
old cheese, and over that grated bread. Pour over it melted butter, and
set in a Dutch oven till of a brown color.


_To Cook Hominy._

Wash in several waters, and boil it five hours, allowing two quarts
of water, and half a teaspoonful of salt, to every quart of hominy.
Drain it through a colander, and add butter and salt, if needed. The
small-grained requires less water and time.


_Macaroni Pudding, to eat with Meat._

Simmer a quarter of a pound of macaroni in plenty of water, until it
is tender. Strain off the water, and add a pint of milk or cream, an
ounce of grated cheese, and a teaspoonful of salt. Mix well together,
and strew over the top two ounces of grated cheese and crumbs of bread.
Brown it well, in baking, on the top. It will bake in a quick oven in
half an hour. It is appropriate to be eaten with boiled ham, or forms a
course by itself, after meat.


_Salad._

Salad, to be in perfection, should be fresh gathered, and put into
salted cold water, which will remove all insects. Let them stand half
an hour, and then drain them thoroughly.


_Mode of Dressing Salad._

Take the yolks of one or two eggs boiled hard, mash them fine, mix with
them pepper, salt, mustard, oil, and vinegar to your taste. Then cut up
the salad, and mix it with this preparation. This is usually done at
table.


_Mushroom._

Cut off the lower part of the stem, peel them, and put them in a
sauce-pan, with just water enough to prevent their burning at the
bottom, put in a little salt, and shake them occasionally while
cooking, to prevent burning. When tender, add butter, salt, and pepper
to your taste, and wine and spice, if you like them. Serve them on
buttered toast.


_Celeriac._

This is very good, and but little known. It resembles celery in flavor,
and is much more easily cultivated. Scrape and cut the roots in slices.
Boil them very tender, drain off the water, add a little salt, and turn
in just milk enough to cover them. Then take them up and add a little
butter.


_Salsify, or Vegetable Oyster._

Boil it till tender, then pour off the water, and add a little milk,
and a little salt and butter.

_Another Way._--Parboil it, scraping off the outside, cut it in slices,
dip it into beaten egg and fine bread crumbs, and fry it in lard.

_Another Way._--Make a batter of wheat flour, milk and eggs, and a
little salt. Cut the salsify in slices; after it is boiled tender, put
it in the batter, and drop this mixture into hot fat by the spoonful.
Cook them a light brown.


_Southern Mode of Cooking Rice._

Pick over the rice, and wash it in cold water. To a pint of rice, put
three quarts of _boiling_ water, and half a teaspoonful of salt. Boil
it just _seventeen minutes_ from the time it fairly begins to boil.
Then turn off _all_ the water, and set it over a moderate fire, with
the lid off, to steam fifteen minutes. Great care must be taken to be
accurate. The rice water poured off is good to stiffen muslins.


_Common Mode of Cooking Rice._

To a pint of clean rice, put three quarts of cold water, and a
teaspoonful of salt. Boil it fifteen or twenty minutes, then pour off
the water, add milk and some cream, and let it boil a few minutes
longer. It should not be so soft as to lose its form.

In case you wish to fry it next morning, boil it longer in the water,
and omit the milk, or not, as you please. It is always a good plan to
boil a good deal, so as to have it next day for griddle cakes, or to
cut in slices and fry.


_Best Mode of Cooking Tomatoes._

This vegetable is much improved by cooking _a long time_.

Immediately after breakfast, begin by boiling two onions. If they are
not liked, omit this part; but it is best to make the trial, as some
can eat this, who cannot take onions any other way comfortably.

Pour boiling water over a dozen large tomatoes, and peel them. Cut
them into a stew-pan; add a tea-cup and a half of bread crumbs,
a teaspoonful of black pepper, a tablespoonful of salt, four
tablespoonfuls of butter, and also the cooked onion. Set them where
they will stew _very slowly_ all the forenoon, the longer the better.
Fifteen minutes before serving them, beat up six eggs, and add, and
give them a good boil, stirring all the time. (Indiana Receipt.)


_Sweet Potatoes._

The best way to cook sweet potatoes is to bake them with their skins
on. When boiled, the largest should be put in first, so as to have all
cook alike. Drain them and dry them, then peel them. They are excellent
sliced and fried for breakfast next day; much better than at first.


_Artichokes._

Boil them till tender, drain them, and serve them with melted butter.


_Stewed Egg Plant._

Take the purple kind, stew till soft, take off the skin, mash it with
butter and sweet herbs, grate bread over the top, and bake it till
brown.




CHAPTER X.

OVENS, YEAST, BREAD, AND BISCUIT.


_On Constructing and Heating an Oven._

The best ovens are usually made thus. After the arch is formed, four
or five bushels of ashes are spread over it, and then a covering of
charcoal over that, then another layer of bricks over all. The use
of this is, that the ashes become heated, and the charcoal being a
non-conductor, the heat is retained much longer. In such an oven, cake
and pies can be baked after the bread is taken out, and then custards
after them. Sometimes four bakings are done in succession.

The first time an oven is used, it should be heated the day previous
for half a day, and the oven lid kept up after the fire is out, till
heated for baking.

As there is so little discretion to be found in those who heat ovens,
the housekeeper will save much trouble and mortification by this
arrangement. Have oven wood prepared of sticks of equal size and
length. Find, by trial, how many are required to heat the oven, and
then require that just that number be used, and no more.

The fire must be made the back side of the oven, and the oven must
be heated so hot as to allow it to be closed fifteen minutes after
clearing, before the heat is reduced enough to use it. This is called
_soaking_. If it is burnt down entirely to ashes, the oven may be used
as soon as cleared.


_How to know when an Oven is at the right Heat._

An experienced cook will know without rules. For a novice, the
following rules are of some use in determining. If the black spots in
the oven are not burnt off, it is not hot, as the bricks must all look
red. If you sprinkle flour on the bottom, and it burns quickly, it is
_too hot_.

If you cannot hold your hand in longer than to count twenty moderately,
it is _hot enough_.

If you can count thirty moderately, it is _not_ hot enough for bread.

These last are not very accurate tests, as the power to bear heat is
so diverse in different persons; but they are as good rules as can be
given, where there has been no experience.


_How to know when Bread is Sour, or Heavy._

If the bread is sour, on opening it quick and deeply with your fingers,
and applying the nose to the opening, a tingling and sour odor escapes.
This is remedied by taking a teaspoonful of saleratus, for every four
quarts of flour, very thoroughly dissolved in hot water, which is to be
put in a hole made in the middle, and very thoroughly kneaded in, or
there will be yellow streaks.

If the bread is light and not sour, it will, on opening it deep and
suddenly, send forth a pungent and brisk, but not a sour odor, and it
will look full of holes, like sponge. Some may mistake the smell of
light bread for that of sour bread, but a little practice will show the
difference very plainly.

If the bread is light before the oven is ready, knead it a little
without adding flour, and set it in a cool place.

If it _rises too much_, it loses all sweetness, and nothing but care
and experience will prevent this. The best of flour will not make sweet
bread, if it is allowed to rise too much, even when no sourness is
induced.


_How to treat Bread when taken from the Oven._

Never set it flat on a table, as it sweats the bottom, and acquires a
bad taste from the table.

Always take it out of the tins, and set it up end way, leaning against
something.

If it has a thick, hard crust, wrap it in a cloth wrung out of cold
water.

Keep it in a tin box, in a cool place, where it will not freeze.


_Yeast._

The article in which yeast is kept must, when new yeast is made, or
fresh yeast bought, be scalded and emptied, and then have a salt
spoonful of saleratus put in, and be rinsed out again with warm water.
If it is glass, rinsing twice with warm water will answer. Junk bottles
are best for holding yeast, because they can be corked tight, and
easily cleansed.


_Potato Yeast._

By those who use potato yeast, it is regarded as much the best, as it
raises bread quicker than common home-brewed yeast, and, best of all,
never imparts the sharp, disagreeable yeast taste to bread or cake,
often given by hop yeast.

Mash half a dozen peeled boiled potatoes, and mix in a handful of wheat
flour, and two teaspoonfuls of salt, and after putting it through a
colander, add hot water till it is a batter. When blood warm, put in
half a tea-cup of distillery yeast, or twice as much potato, or other
home-brewed. When raised, keep it corked tight, and make it new very
often in hot weather. It can easily be made when potatoes are boiled
for dinner.


_Home-made Yeast, which will keep Good a Month._

Four quarts of water, two handfuls of hops, eight peeled potatoes,
sliced, all boiled soft, mixed and strained through a sieve. To this,
add a batter, made one-third of Indian, and two-thirds of rye, in a
pint of cold water, and then boil the whole ten minutes. When cool as
new milk, add a tea-cup of molasses, a tablespoonful of ginger, and a
tea-cup of distillery yeast, or twice as much home-brewed.


_Home-brewed Yeast more easily made._

Boil a handful of hops half an hour in three pints of water. Pour half
of it, _boiling hot_, through a sieve, on to nine spoonfuls of flour,
mix, and then add the rest of the hop water. Add a spoonful of salt,
half a cup of molasses, and _when blood warm_, a cup of yeast.


_Hard Yeast._

This often is very convenient, especially for hot weather, when it is
difficult to keep yeast.

Take some of the best yeast you can make, and thicken it with Indian
meal, and if you have rye, add a little to make it adhere better. Make
it into cakes an inch thick, and three inches by two in size, and dry
it in a drying wind, but not it the sun. Keep it tied in a bag, in a
dry, cool place, where it will not freeze.

One of these cakes is enough for four quarts of flour. When you wish to
use it, put it to soak in milk or water for several hours, and then use
it like other yeast.


_Rubs, or Flour Hard Yeast._

This is better than hard yeast made with Indian.

Take two quarts of best home-brewed yeast, and a tablespoonful of salt,
and mix in wheat flour, so that it will be in hard lumps. Set it in a
dry, warm place (but not in the sun) till quite dry. Then leave out the
fine parts to use the next baking, and put up the lumps in a bag, and
hang it in a dry place.

In using this yeast, take a pint of the rubs for six quarts of flour,
and let it soak from noon till night. Then wet up the bread to bake
next day.

Brewer’s and distillery yeast cannot be trusted to make hard yeast.
Home-brewed is the best, and some housekeepers say, the only yeast for
this purpose.


_Milk Yeast._

One pint of new milk, and one teaspoonful of fine salt. One large
spoonful of flour. Mix, and keep it blood warm an hour. Use twice as
much as the common yeast. Bread soon spoils made of this.


_Wheat Bread of Distillery, or Brewer’s Yeast._

Take eight quarts of flour, and two of milk, a tablespoonful of salt, a
gill and a half of distillery yeast, and sometimes rather more, if not
first rate. Take double the quantity of home-brewed yeast.

Sift the flour, then make an opening in the middle, pour in a part of
the wetting, and put in the salt. Then mix in a good part of the flour.
Then pour in the yeast, and mix it well, then add the rest of the
wetting, using up the flour so as to make a stiff dough. Knead it half
an hour, till it cleaves clean from the hand.

This cannot be wet over night, as, if the yeast is good, it will rise
in one or two hours.

Some persons like bread best wet with water, but most very much prefer
bread wet with milk. If you have skimmed milk, warm it with a small bit
of butter, and it is nearly as good as new milk.

You need about a quart of wetting to four quarts of flour. Each quart
of flour makes a common-sized loaf.


_Wheat Bread of Home-brewed Yeast._

Sift eight quarts of flour into the kneading tray, make a deep hole in
the middle, pour into it a pint of yeast, mixed with a pint of lukewarm
water, and then work up this with the surrounding flour, till it makes
a thick batter. Then scatter a handful of flour over this batter, lay a
warm cloth over the whole, and set it in a warm place. This is called
sponge.

When the sponge is risen so as to make cracks in the flour over it
(which will be in from three to five hours), then scatter over it two
tablespoonfuls of salt, and put in about two quarts of wetting, warm,
but not hot enough to scald the yeast, and sufficient to wet it. Be
careful not to put in too much of the wetting at once.

Knead the whole thoroughly for as much as half an hour, then form it
into a round mass, scatter a little flour over it, cover it, and set
it to rise in a warm place. It usually will take about one quart of
wetting to four quarts of flour.

In winter, it is best to put the bread in sponge over night, when it
must be kept warm all night. In summer it can be put in sponge early in
the morning, for if made over night, it would become sour.


_Baker’s Bread._

Take a gill of distillery yeast, or twice as much fresh home-brewed
yeast, add a quart of warm (not hot) water, and flour enough to make
a thin batter, and let it rise in a warm place all night. This is the
sponge.

Next day, put seven quarts of sifted flour into the kneading tray,
make a hole in the centre, and pour in the sponge. Then dissolve a bit
of volatile salts, and a bit of alum, each the size of a hickory-nut,
and finely powdered, in a little cold water, and add it, with a
heaping tablespoonful of salt, to the sponge, and also a quart more of
blood-warm water.

Work up the flour and wetting to a dough, knead it well, divide it into
three or four loaves, prick it with a fork, put it in buttered pans,
and let it rise one hour, and then bake it about an hour. Add more
flour, or more water, as you find the dough too stiff, or too soft.

A teaspoonful of saleratus can be used instead of the volatile salts
and alum, but it is not so good.


_Wheat Bread of Potato Yeast._

This is made like bread made with home-brewed yeast, except that you
may put in almost any quantity of the potato yeast without injury.
Those who use potato yeast like it much better than any other. The only
objection to it is, that in summer it must be made often, as it will
not keep sweet long. But it is very easily renewed. The chief advantage
is, that it rises quick, and never gives the sharp and peculiar taste
so often imparted to bread and cake by all yeast made with hops.


_Potato Bread._

Rub a dozen peeled and boiled potatoes through a very coarse sieve,
and mix with them twice the quantity of flour, mixing very thoroughly.
Put in a coffee-cup full of home-brewed, or of potato yeast, or half
as much of distillery yeast, also a teaspoonful of salt. Add whatever
water may be needed to make a dough as stiff as for common flour bread.

An ounce or two of butter rubbed into the flour, and an egg beat and
put into the yeast, and you can have fine rolls, or warm cakes for
breakfast.

This kind of bread is very moist, and keeps well.


_Cream Tartar Bread._

Three pints of dried flour, measured after sifting.

Two cups of milk.

Half a teaspoonful of salt.

One teaspoonful of soda (Super Carbonate).

Two teaspoonfuls of cream tartar.

Dissolve the soda in half a tea-cup of hot water, and put it with the
salt into the milk. Mix the cream tartar _very_ thoroughly in the
flour: the whole success depends on this. Just as you are ready to
bake, pour in the milk, knead it up sufficiently to mix it well, and
then put it in the oven as quick as possible. Add either more flour or
more wetting, if needed, to make dough to mould. Work in half a cup of
butter after it is wet, and it makes good short biscuit.


_Eastern Brown Bread._

One quart of rye.

Two quarts of Indian meal: if fresh and sweet, do not scald it; if not,
scald it.

Half a tea-cup of molasses.

Two teaspoonfuls of salt.

One teaspoonful of saleratus.

A tea-cup of home-brewed yeast, or half as much distillery yeast.

Make it as stiff as can be stirred with a spoon with warm water. Let
it rise from night till morning. Then put it in a large deep pan, and
smooth the top with the hand dipped in cold water, and let it stand a
while. Bake five or six hours. If put in late in the day, let it remain
all night in the oven.


_Rye Bread._

A quart of water, and as much milk.

Two teaspoonfuls of salt, and a tea-cup of Indian meal.

A tea-cup full of home-brewed yeast, or half as much distillery yeast.

Make it as stiff as wheat bread, with rye flour.


_Rice Bread.--No. 1._

One pint of rice, boiled till soft.

Two quarts of rice flour, or wheat flour.

A teaspoonful of salt.

A tea-cup of home-brewed, or half as much distillery yeast.

Milk to make it so as to mould like wheat bread.


_Rice Bread.--No. 2._

Three half pints of ground rice.

Two teaspoonfuls (not heaping) of salt.

Two gills of home-brewed yeast.

Three quarts of milk, or milk and water. Mix the rice with cold milk
and water to a thin gruel, and boil it three minutes. Then stir in
wheat flour till as stiff as can be stirred with a spoon. When blood
warm, add the yeast. This keeps moist longer than No. 1.


_Bread of Unbolted Wheat, or Graham Bread._

Three pints of warm water.

One tea-cup of Indian meal, and one of wheat flour.

Three great spoonfuls of molasses, or a tea-cup of brown sugar.

One teaspoonful of salt, and one teaspoonful of saleratus, dissolved in
a little hot water.

One tea-cup of yeast.

Mix the above, and stir in enough unbolted wheat flour to make it as
stiff as you can work with a spoon. Some put in enough to mould it to
loaves. Try both. If made with home-brewed yeast, put it to rise over
night. If with distillery yeast, make it in the morning, and bake when
light.

In loaves the ordinary size, bake one hour and a half.


_Apple Bread._

Mix stewed and strained apple, or grated apple uncooked, with an equal
quantity of wheat flour; add yeast enough to raise it, and mix sugar
with the apple, enough to make it quite sweet. Make it in loaves, and
bake it an hour and a half, like other bread.


_Pumpkin Bread._

Stew and strain some pumpkin, stiffen it with Indian meal, add salt and
yeast, and it makes a most excellent kind of bread.


_Walnut Hill’s Brown Bread._

One quart of sour milk, and one teaspoonful of salt.

One teaspoonful of pulverized saleratus, and one tea-cup of molasses
put into the milk.

Thicken with unbolted wheat, and bake immediately, and you have
first-rate bread, with very little trouble.


_French Rolls, or Twists._

One quart of lukewarm milk.

One teaspoonful of salt.

A large tea-cup of home-brewed yeast, or half as much distillery yeast.

Flour enough to make a stiff batter.

Set it to rise, and when very light, work in one egg and two spoonfuls
of butter, and knead in flour till stiff enough to roll.

Let it rise again, and when very light, roll out, cut in strips, and
braid it. Bake thirty minutes on buttered tins.


_Raised Biscuit._

Rub half a pound of butter into a pound of flour.

One beaten egg.

A teaspoonful of salt.

Two great spoonfuls of distillery yeast, or twice as much home-brewed.

Wet it up with enough warm milk to make a soft dough, and then work in
half a pound of butter. When light, mould it into round cakes, or roll
it out and cut it with a tumbler.


_Very Nice Rusk._

One pint of milk.

One coffee-cup of yeast. (Potato is best.)

Four eggs.

Flour enough to make it as thick as you can stir with a spoon.

Let it rise till _very_ light, but be _sure_ it is not sour; if it is,
work in half a teaspoonful of saleratus, dissolved in a wine-glass of
warm water.

When thus light, work together three quarters of a pound of sugar and
nine ounces of butter; add more flour, if needed, to make it stiff
enough to mould. Let it rise again, and when _very_ light, mould it
into small cakes. Bake fifteen minutes in a quick oven, and after
taking it out, mix a little milk and sugar, and brush over the rusk,
while hot, with a small swab of linen tied to a stick, and dry it in
the oven. When you have weighed these proportions once, then _measure_
the quantity, so as to save the trouble of weighing afterward. Write
the measures in your receipt-book, lest you forget.


_Potato Biscuit._

Twelve pared potatoes, boiled soft and mashed fine, and two
teaspoonfuls of salt.

Mix the potatoes and milk, add half a tea-cup of yeast, and flour
enough to mould them well. Then work in a cup of butter. When risen,
mould them into small cakes, then let them stand in buttered pans
fifteen minutes before baking.


_Crackers._

One quart of flour, with two ounces of butter rubbed in.

One teaspoonful of saleratus in a wine-glass of warm water.

Half a teaspoonful of salt, and milk enough to roll it out.

Beat it half an hour with a pestle, cut it in thin round cakes, prick
them, and set them in the oven when other things are taken out. Let
them bake till crisp.


_Hard Biscuit._

One quart of flour, and half a teaspoonful of salt.

Four great spoonfuls of butter, rubbed into two-thirds of the flour.

Wet it up with milk till a dough; roll it out again and again,
sprinkling on the reserved flour, till all is used. Cut into round
cakes, and bake in a quick oven on buttered tins.


_Sour Milk Biscuit._

A pint and a half of sour milk, or buttermilk.

Two teaspoonfuls of salt.

Two teaspoonfuls of saleratus, dissolved in four great spoonfuls of hot
water.

Mix the milk in flour till nearly stiff enough to roll, then put in the
saleratus, and add more flour. Mould up quickly, and bake immediately.

Shortening for raised biscuit or cake should always be worked in after
it is wet up.


_A good Way to use Sour Bread._

When a batch of bread is sour, let it stand till very light, and use it
to make biscuit for tea or breakfast, thus:

Work into a portion of it, saleratus dissolved in warm water, enough to
sweeten it, and a little shortening, and mould it into small biscuits,
bake it, and it is uncommonly good. It is so much liked that some
persons allow bread to turn sour for the purpose. Bread can be kept on
hand for this use any length of time.




CHAPTER XI.

BREAKFAST AND TEA CAKES.


_General Directions for Griddle and other Breakfast Cakes._

The best method of greasing a griddle is, to take a bit of salt pork,
and rub over with a fork. This prevents adhesion, and yet does not
allow the fat to soak into what is to be cooked.

In putting cakes on to griddles, be careful to form them a regular
round shape, and put on only one at each dip, and so as not to spill
between the cakes.

In frying mush, cold rice slices, and hominy cakes, cut them half
an inch thick, and fry in fresh lard, with enough to brown them
handsomely. Make the slices smooth and regular.


_Buckwheat Cakes wet with Water._

Take a quart of buckwheat flour, and nearly an even tablespoonful of
salt. Stir in warm water, till it is the consistency of thin batter.
Beat it thoroughly. Add two tablespoonfuls of yeast, if distillery, or
twice as much if home-brewed.

Set the batter where it will be a little warm through the night. Some
persons never stir them after they have risen, but take them out
carefully with a large spoon.

Add a teaspoonful of pearlash in the morning, if they are sour. Sift it
over the surface, and stir it well.

Some persons like to add one or two tablespoonfuls of molasses, to give
them a brown color, and more sweetness of taste.


_Extempore Buckwheat Cakes._

Three pints of buckwheat.

One teaspoonful carbonate of soda, dissolved in water enough to make a
batter, and when mixed, add a teaspoonful of tartaric acid, dissolved
in a few spoonfuls of hot water. Mix it in, and bake immediately.

Use salt pork to grease the griddle.


_Buckwheat Cakes wet with Milk._

One quart of flour, and in winter stir in lukewarm milk, till it
is a thin batter, and beat it thoroughly, adding nearly an even
tablespoonful of salt.

Add a small tea-cup of Indian meal, two tablespoonfuls of distillery
yeast, or a good deal more if home-brewed; say half a tea-cup full.
Set it where it will keep warm all night, and in the morning add a
teaspoonful of saleratus, sifted over the top, and well stirred in. If
sour, add more saleratus. This is the best kind of buckwheat cakes.


_Griddle Cakes of Unbolted Wheat._

A quart of unbolted wheat, and a teaspoonful of salt. Wet it up with
water, or sweet milk, in which is dissolved a teaspoonful of saleratus.
Add three spoonfuls of molasses. Some raise this with yeast, and leave
out the saleratus. _Sour_ milk and saleratus are not as good for
unbolted as for fine flour.

These are better and more healthful cakes than buckwheat.


_Best Rice Griddle Cakes._

A pint and a half of solid cold _boiled_ rice, put the night before in
a pint of water or milk to soak.

One quart of milk, added the next morning.

One quart of flour stirred into the rice and milk.

Two eggs, well beaten.

Half a teaspoonful of saleratus, dissolved in a little hot water.

One teaspoonful of salt. Bake on a griddle.

Stale, or rusked bread in fine crumbs, are very nice made into griddle
cakes by the above rule; or they can be mixed with the rice. The rice
must be well salted when boiled.


_A very delicate Omelet._

Six eggs, the whites beaten to a stiff froth, and the yolks well beaten.

A tea-cup full of warm milk, with a tablespoonful of butter melted in
it.

A tablespoonful of flour, wet to a paste with a little of the milk and
poured to the milk.

A teaspoonful of salt, and a little pepper.

Mix all except the whites; add those last; bake immediately, in a flat
pan, or spider, on coals, and when the bottom is done, raise it up
towards the fire, and bake the top, or cover with an iron sheet, and
put coals on it. The remnants of ham, cut fine and added, improve this.
Some like sweet herbs added, and some fine-cut onion.


_Wheat Waffles._

One quart of flour, and a teaspoonful of salt.

One quart of milk, with a tablespoonful of melted butter in it, and
mixed with the flour gradually, so as not to have lumps.

Three tablespoonfuls of distillery yeast. When raised, two well-beaten
eggs.

Bake in waffle irons well oiled with lard each time they are used. Lay
one side on coals, and in about two minutes turn the other side to the
coals.


_Miss B.’s Waffles_ (_without yeast_).

One quart of flour, and a teaspoonful of salt.

One quart of sour milk, with two tablespoonfuls of butter melted in it.

Five well-beaten eggs. A teaspoonful or more of saleratus, enough to
sweeten the milk. Baked in waffle irons.

Some like one tea-cup full of sugar added.


_Rice Waffles._

A quart of milk.

A tea-cup of solid boiled rice, soaked three hours in half the milk.

A pint and a half of wheat flour, or rice flour.

Three well-beaten eggs. Bake in waffle irons.

The rice must be salted enough when boiled.


_Good Cakes for Tea, or Breakfast._

One pint of milk, and a salt spoonful of salt.

One teaspoonful of molasses, and a great spoonful of butter.

One egg well beaten, and two tablespoonfuls of distillery yeast, or
twice as much home-brewed.

Stir the ingredients into flour enough to make a stiff batter.

Let it rise all night, or if for _tea_, about five hours. Add a salt
spoonful of saleratus just before baking it, dissolved in warm water.

Bake in shallow pans, in a quick oven, half an hour.


_Fried Rice for Breakfast._

Boil the rice quite soft the day before, so that it will adhere well.
For breakfast, cut it in slices an inch thick, cook it on a griddle,
with enough sweet lard to fry it brown. Cold mush is good in the same
way.

It must be salted properly when boiling.


_Fried Hominy._

When cold hominy is left of the previous day, it is very good wet up
with an egg and a little flour, and fried.


_Rye Drop Cake_ (_excellent_).

One pint of milk, and three eggs.

A tablespoonful of sugar, and a salt spoonful of salt.

Stir in rye flour, till about the consistency of pancakes.

Bake in buttered cups, or saucers, half an hour.


_Wheat Drop Cake._

One pint of milk, and a little cream.

Three eggs, and a salt spoonful of salt.

With these materials make a thick batter of wheat flour, or unbolted
flour. Drop on tins, and bake about twenty minutes. If unbolted flour
is used, add a great spoonful of molasses.


_Corn Griddle Cakes with Yeast._

Three coffee-cups of Indian meal, sifted.

One coffee-cup of either rye meal, Graham flour, or fine flour.

Two tablespoonfuls of yeast, and a salt spoonful of salt.

Wet at night with sour milk or water, as thick as pancakes, and in the
morning add one teaspoonful of pearlash.

Bake on a griddle. If Graham flour is used, add a very little molasses.


_Pilgrim Cake._

Rub two spoonfuls of butter into a quart of flour, and wet it to dough
with cold water. Rake open a place in the hottest part of the hearth,
roll out the dough into a cake an inch thick, flour it well both sides,
and lay it on hot ashes. Cover it with hot ashes, and then with coals.
When cooked, wipe off the ashes, and it will be very sweet and good.

The Kentucky corn cake, and common dough, can be baked the same way.
This method was used by our pilgrim and pioneer forefathers.


_Sour Milk Corn Cake._

One quart of sour milk, or buttermilk.

A large teaspoonful of pearlash.

A teaspoonful of salt.

Stir the milk into the meal enough to make a stiff batter, _over
night_. In the morning dissolve the pearlash in warm water. Stir it up
quickly, and bake it in shallow pans.

If the milk is sweet, it should be made sour by adding to it a
tablespoonful of vinegar.


_Corn Muffins_ (_from the South_).

One pint of sifted meal, and half a teaspoonful of salt.

Two tablespoonfuls of melted lard.

A teaspoonful of saleratus, in two great spoonfuls of hot water.

Wet the above with sour milk, as thick as for mush or hasty pudding,
and bake in buttered rings on a buttered tin.


_Corn Griddle Cakes with Eggs._

Turn one quart of boiling milk, or water, on to a pint of Indian meal.

When lukewarm, add three tablespoonfuls of flour, three eggs well
beaten, and a teaspoonful of salt. Bake on a griddle.


_Sachem’s Head Corn Cake._

One quart sifted Indian meal, and a teaspoonful of salt.

Three pints of scalded milk _cooled_, and a teaspoonful of saleratus,
dissolved in two spoonfuls of hot water, and put into it.

Beat eight eggs, and mix all together. Bake one hour in pans, like
sponge cake.

It looks, when broken, like sponge cake, and is very fine. If the
whites are cut to a froth, and put in, just as it goes to bake, it
improves it very much. Some think this improved by adding a tea-cup
of sugar. Much depends on the baking, and if you fail, it is probably
owing to the baking.


_Royal Crumpets._

Three tea-cups of raised dough.

Four great spoonfuls of melted butter, worked into the dough.

Three well-beaten eggs.

One tea-cup of rolled sugar, beaten into the eggs.

Turn it into buttered pans, and bake twenty minutes.

Some like them better without the sugar.


_Bachelor’s Corn Cake._

A pint of sifted corn meal, and a teaspoonful of salt.

Two spoonfuls of butter, and a quarter of a cup of cream.

Two eggs well beaten.

Add milk, till it is a thin fritter batter, and bake in deep tin pans.
Beat it well, and bake with a quick heat, and it rises like pound cake.


_Mrs. W.’s Corn Cake._

One pint of milk, and one pint of cream.

Two eggs, well beaten, and a teaspoonful of salt.

A teaspoonful of saleratus, dissolved in a little hot water.

Indian meal, enough to make a thick batter.

Throw the salt into the meal. Then stir in the milk and cream slowly.
Beat the eggs, and add them. Add the saleratus last. Bake it one hour
in shallow pans, well buttered.


_Corn Muffins._

One quart of Indian meal, sifted.

A heaping spoonful of butter.

One quart of milk, and a salt spoonful of salt.

Two tablespoonfuls of distillery yeast, and one of molasses.

Let it rise four or five hours. Bake in muffin rings.

The same will answer to bake in shallow pans, like corn cake. Bake one
hour.

Graham, or unbolted flour, is good made by this receipt.


_Savoy Biscuit._

Beat six eggs into one pound of sugar, until white. Grate the outside
of a lemon into it, mix in three quarters of a pound of flour, and drop
them on buttered paper, a spoonful at a time.


_Cream Cakes._

One quart of cream.

One quart of sifted flour.

One salt spoon of salt.

A wine-glass of distillery yeast, or twice as much home-brewed.

When quite light, bake in cups, or muffin rings.


_Wheat Muffins._

One pint of milk, and two eggs.

One tablespoonful of yeast, and a salt spoonful of salt.

Mix these ingredients with sufficient flour to make a thick batter. Let
it rise four or five hours, and bake in muffin rings. This can be made
of unbolted flour, adding two great spoonfuls of molasses, and it is
very fine.


_Albany Breakfast Cakes._

Ten well-beaten eggs.

Three pints of milk, blood warm.

A quarter of a pound of melted butter, and two teaspoonfuls of salt.

A teaspoonful of saleratus, dissolved in a spoonful of hot water.

Make a thick batter with white Indian meal, and bake in buttered tins,
an inch thick when put in. Bake thirty or forty minutes, in a quick
oven.


_Sally Lunn._

Seven cups of sifted flour.

Half a tea-cup of butter, warmed in a pint of milk.

One salt spoonful of salt, and three well-beaten eggs.

Two tablespoonfuls brewer’s yeast. If the yeast is home-made, use twice
as much.

Pour this into square pans, to rise, and then bake it before it sours.

With brewer’s, or distillery yeast, it will rise in two or three hours,
and must not be made over night. With home-brewed yeast, it rises in
four or five hours.


_Cream Tea Cakes._

One quart of flour, and a teaspoonful of salt.

One pint of sour cream, and half a tea-cup of melted butter.

Half a teaspoonful of saleratus, in a spoonful of hot water.

Mix lightly in dough, to mould in small cakes and bake in buttered tins.


_Buttermilk Short Cakes._

Two quarts of flour, and a teaspoonful of salt.

Rub in two tea-cups full of soft butter, or lard, or beef drippings.

Work it up into a paste, with sour milk or buttermilk, and add a
heaping teaspoonful of saleratus, dissolved in a spoonful of hot water.

Make a soft dough, and mould it into cakes, and bake it in buttered
tins. If the shortening is fresh, add another teaspoonful of salt.


_Wafers._

Two tablespoonfuls of rolled white sugar.

Two tablespoonfuls of butter.

One coffee-cup of flour, and essence of lemon, or rose water to flavor.

Add milk enough for a thick batter, bake in wafer irons, buttered, and
then strew on white sugar.


_Pennsylvania Flannel Cakes._

One quart of milk, and half a teaspoonful of salt.

Three eggs, the whites beaten separately to a stiff froth.

Mix the milk, salt, and yolks, stir in flour till a batter is made,
suitable for griddle cakes. Then, when ready to bake, stir in the
whites.

_Rye flour_ is very fine, used in this way, instead of wheat, but the
cakes adhere so much that it is difficult to bake them. Many love them
much better than the wheat.


_Kentucky Corn Dodgers._

Three pints of _unsifted yellow_ corn meal.

One tablespoonful (heaped) of lard.

One pint of milk.

Work it well, and bake in cakes the size of the hand, and an inch thick.


_Ohio Corn Cake._

One pint of thick sour cream, and one quart of milk, or buttermilk. If
cream cannot be got, add a tablespoonful of melted lard, or butter.

Dissolve enough saleratus in the above to sweeten it, and thicken with
yellow corn meal to the consistency of pound cake. Put it in buttered
pans, an inch thick, and bake in a quick oven.


_Scarborough Puffs._

Take one pint of new milk, and boil it. Take out one cup full, and
stir into it flour enough to make a thick batter. Pour this into the
_boiling_ milk. Stir and boil until the whole is thick enough to hold
a silver spoon standing upright. Then take it from the fire, and stir
in six eggs, one by one. Add a teaspoonful of salt, and less than a
tablespoonful of butter. Drop them by the spoonful into boiling lard,
and fry like doughnuts. Grate on the outside sugar and spice.—(Maine
Receipt.)


_Cream Griddle Cakes._

One pint of thick cream, and a pint of milk.

Three eggs, and a teaspoonful of salt.

Make a batter of fine flour, and bake on a griddle.


_Crumpets._

A quart of warm milk, and a teaspoonful of salt.

Half a gill of distillery yeast, and flour enough for a batter, not
very stiff.

When light, add half a cup of melted butter, or a cup of rich cream,
let it stand twenty minutes, and then bake it as muffins, or in cups.


_Fine Cottage Cheese._

Let the milk be turned by rennet, or by setting it in a warm place. It
must not be _heated_, as the oily parts will then pass off, and the
richness is lost. When fully turned, put it in a coarse linen bag, and
hang it to drain several hours, till all the whey is out. Then mash it
fine, salt it to the taste, and thin it with good cream, or add but
little cream and roll it into balls. When thin, it is very fine with
preserves or sugared fruit.

It also makes a fine pudding, by thinning it with milk, and adding eggs
and sugar, and spice to the taste, and baking it. Many persons use milk
when turned for a dessert, putting on sugar and spice. Children are
fond of it.




CHAPTER XII.

PLAIN PUDDINGS AND PIES.


_General Directions in regard to Puddings and Custards._

Make pudding-bags of thick close sheeting, to shut out the water.
Before putting in the pudding, put the bag in water, and wring it out,
then flour the inside thoroughly. In tying it, leave room to swell;
flour and Indian need a good deal, and are hard and heavy if cramped.

Put an old plate in the bottom of the pot, to keep the bag from burning
to the pot. Turn the pudding after it has been in five minutes, to keep
the heavy parts from settling. Keep the pudding covered with water, and
do not let it stop boiling, as this will tend to make it water soaked.
Fill up with _boiling_ water, as cold would spoil the pudding. Dip the
bag a moment in cold water, just before turning out the pudding.

Avoid stale eggs. When eggs are used, the whites should be beat
separately, and put in the last thing. In many cases, success depends
upon this. Never put eggs into very hot milk, as it will poach them.
Wash the salt out of butter used to butter pans, as otherwise it
imparts a bad taste to the outside.

Put almonds in hot water till you are ready to blanch, or skin them,
and put orange, or rose water with them when you pound them, to prevent
adhesion. Boil custards in a vessel set in boiling water.


_Little Girl’s Pie._

Take a deep dish, the size of a soup plate, fill it, heaping, with
peeled tart apples, cored and quartered; pour over it one tea-cup
of molasses, and three great spoonfuls of sugar, dredge over this a
considerable quantity of flour, enough to thicken the syrup a good
deal. Cover it with a crust made of cream, if you have it, if not,
common dough, with butter worked in, or plain pie crust, and lap the
edge over the dish, and pinch it down tight, to keep the syrup from
running out. Bake about an hour and a half. Make several at once, as
they keep well.


_Little Boy’s Pudding._

One tea-cup of rice. One tea-cup of sugar. One half tea-cup of butter.
One quart of milk. Nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt to the taste.

Put the butter in melted, and mix all in a pudding dish, and bake it
two hours, stirring it frequently, until the rice is swollen.

This is good made without butter.


_Children’s Fruit Dumpling._

Invert a plate in a preserve kettle, or an iron or brass kettle. Put in
a quart or more of sliced apples or pears. Put in no water or sugar,
but simply roll out some common dough an inch thick, and just large
enough to cover them, and hang it over the fire fifteen or twenty
minutes. When the fruit is cooked the dough will have risen to a fine
puff, and also be cooked. There must not be any thing laid on the top
of the dough to prevent it from rising, but the kettle may be covered.
When it is done, take off the dough cover, with a fork and skimmer, put
it on to a plate, pour the fruit into a round dish, put the cover on,
and eat it with a sweet sauce. It is more healthful, and much better
than dumplings boiled the common way.


_Birth-day Pudding._

Butter a deep dish, and lay in slices of bread and butter, wet with
milk, and upon these sliced tart apples, sweetened and spiced. Then lay
on another layer of bread and butter and apples, and continue thus till
the dish is filled. Let the top layer be bread and butter, and dip it
in milk, turning the buttered side down. Any other kind of fruit will
answer as well. Put a plate on the top, and bake two hours, then take
it off and bake another hour.


_Children’s Boiled Fruit Pudding._

Take light dough and work in a little butter, roll it out into a very
thin large layer, not a quarter of an inch thick. Cover it thick with
strawberries, and put on sugar, roll it up tight, double it once or
twice and fasten up the ends. Tie it up in a bag, giving it room to
swell. Eat it with butter, or sauce not very sweet.

Blackberries, whortleberries, raspberries, apples, and peaches, all
make excellent puddings in the same way.


_English Curd Pie._

One quart of milk. A bit of rennet to curdle it.

Press out the whey, and put into the curds three eggs, a nutmeg, and a
tablespoonful of brandy. Bake it in paste, like custard.


_Fruit Fritters._

A pint of milk. A pint and a half of flour. Two teaspoonfuls of salt.
Six eggs, and a pint of cream if you have it; if not, a pint of milk
with a little butter melted in it.

Mix with this, either blackberries, raspberries, currants,
gooseberries, or sliced apples or peaches, and fry it in small cakes in
sweet lard. Eat with a sauce of butter beat with sugar, and flavored
with wine or nutmeg, or grated lemon peel.


_Common Apple Pie._

Pare your apples, and cut them from the core. Line your dishes with
paste, and put in the apple; cover and bake until the fruit is tender.
Then take them from the oven, remove the upper crust, and put in sugar
and nutmeg, cinnamon or rose water to your taste; a bit of sweet butter
improves them. Also, to put in a little orange peel before they are
baked, makes a pleasant variety. Common apple pies are very good to
stew, sweeten, and flavor the apple before they are put into the oven.
Many prefer the seasoning baked in. All apple pies are much nicer if
the apple is grated and then seasoned.


_Plain Custard._

Boil half a dozen peach leaves, or the rind of a lemon, or a vanilla
bean in a quart of milk; when it is flavored, pour into it a paste made
by a tablespoonful of rice flour, or common flour, wet up with two
spoonfuls of cold milk, and stir it till it boils again. Then beat up
four eggs and put in, and sweeten it to your taste, and pour it out for
pies or pudding.


_A Richer Custard._

Beat to a froth six eggs and three spoonfuls sifted sugar, add it to a
quart of milk, flavor it to your taste, and pour it out into cups, or
pie plates.


_Another Custard._

Boil six peach leaves, or a lemon peel, in a quart of milk, till it
is flavored; cool it, add three spoonfuls of sugar, and five eggs
beaten to a froth. Put the custard into a tin pail, set it in boiling
water, and stir it till cooked enough. Then turn it into cups, or, if
preferred, it can be baked.


_Mush, or Hasty Pudding._

Wet up the Indian meal in cold water, till there are no lumps, stir
it gradually into boiling water which has been salted, till so thick
that the stick will stand in it. Boil slowly, and so as not to burn,
stirring often. Two or three hours’ boiling is needed. Pour it into a
broad, deep dish, let it grow cold, cut it into slices half an inch
thick, flour them, and fry them on a griddle with a little lard, or
bake them in a stove oven.


_Stale Bread Fritters_ (_fine_).

Cut stale bread in thick slices, and put it to soak for several hours
in cold milk.

Then fry it in sweet lard, and eat it with sugar, or molasses, or a
sweet sauce. To make it more delicate, take off the crusts.


_To prepare Rennet._

Put three inches square of calf’s rennet to a pint of wine, and set it
away for use. Three tablespoonfuls will serve to curdle a quart of milk.


_Rennet Custard._

Put three tablespoonfuls of rennet wine to a quart of milk, and add
four or five great spoonfuls of white sugar, flavor it with wine, or
lemon, or rose water. It must be eaten in an hour or it will turn to
curds.


_Bird’s Nest Pudding._

Pare tart, well-flavored apples, scoop out the cores without dividing
the apple, put them in a deep dish with a small bit of mace, and a
spoonful of sugar in the opening of each apple. Pour in water enough to
cook them; when soft, pour over them an unbaked custard, so as just to
cover them, and bake till the custard is done.


_A Minute Pudding of Potato Starch._

Four heaped tablespoonfuls of potato flour. Three eggs, and half a
teaspoonful of salt. One quart of milk.

Boil the milk, reserving a little to moisten the flour. Stir the flour
to a paste, perfectly smooth, with the reserved milk, and put it into
the boiling milk. Add the eggs well beaten, let it boil till very
thick, which will be in two or three minutes, then pour into a dish
and serve with liquid sauce. After the milk boils, the pudding must be
stirred every moment till done.


_Tapioca Pudding._

Soak eight tablespoonfuls of tapioca in a quart of warm milk till soft,
then add two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, five eggs well beaten,
spice, sugar, and wine to your taste. Bake in a buttered dish, without
any lining.


_Sago Pudding._

Cleanse the sago in hot water, and boil half a pound in a quart of milk
with a stick of mace or cinnamon, stirring very often, lest it burn.
When soft, take out the spice and add half a cup of melted butter, four
heaping spoonfuls of sugar, six eggs, and, if you like, some Zante
currants, strewed on just as it is going into the oven.


_Cocoanut Pudding_ (_Plain_).

One quart of milk.

Five eggs.

One cocoanut, grated.

The eggs and sugar are beaten together, and stirred into the milk when
hot. Strain the milk and eggs, and add the cocoanut, with nutmeg to the
taste. Bake about twenty minutes like puddings.


_New England Squash, or Pumpkin Pie._

Take a pumpkin, or winter squash, cut in pieces, take off the rind
and remove the seeds, and boil it until tender, then rub it through a
sieve. When cold, add to it milk to thin it, and to each quart of milk
three well-beaten eggs. Sugar, cinnamon, and ginger to your taste. The
quantity of milk must depend upon the size and quality of the squash.

These pies require a moderate heat, and must be baked until the centre
is firm.


_Ripe Fruit Pies._

_Peach, Cherry, Plum, Currant, and Strawberry._--Line your dish with
paste. After picking over and washing the fruit carefully (peaches must
be pared, and the rest picked from the stem), place a layer of fruit
and a layer of sugar in your dish, until it is well filled, then cover
it with paste, and trim the edge neatly, and prick the cover. Fruit
pies require about an hour to bake in a thoroughly heated oven.


_Batter Pudding._

One quart of milk.

Twelve tablespoonfuls of flour.

Nine eggs.

A teaspoonful of salt.

Beat the yolks thoroughly, stir in the flour, and add the milk slowly.
Beat the whites of the eggs to a froth and add the last thing. Tie in
a floured bag, and put it in boiling water, and boil two hours. Allow
room to swell.


_Mock Cream._

Beat three eggs well, and add three heaping teaspoonfuls of sifted
flour. Stir it into a pint and a half of boiling milk, add a salt
spoon of salt, and sugar to your taste. Flavor with rose water, or
essence of lemon.

This can be used for cream cakes, or pastry.


_Bread Pudding._

Three pints of boiled milk.

Eleven ounces of grated bread.

Half a pound of sugar.

A quarter of a pound of butter.

Five eggs.

Pour the boiling milk over the bread, stir the butter and sugar well
together, and put them into the bread and milk. When cool enough, add
the eggs, well beaten. Three quarters of an hour will bake it.

A richer pudding may be made from the above recipe by using twice as
much butter and eggs.


_Sunderland Pudding._

Six eggs.

Three spoonfuls of flour.

One pint of milk. A pinch of salt.

Beat the yolks well, and mix them smoothly with the flour, then add the
milk. Lastly, whip the whites to a stiff froth, work them in, and bake
immediately.

To be eaten with a liquid sauce.


_An Excellent Apple Pie._

Take fair apples; pare, core, and quarter them.

Take four tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar to a pie.

Put into a preserving pan, with the sugar, water enough to make a thin
syrup; throw in a few blades of mace, boil the apple in the syrup until
tender, a little at a time, so as not to break the pieces. Take them
out with care, and lay them in soup dishes.

When you have preserved apple enough for your number of pies, add to
the remainder of the syrup, cinnamon and rose water, or any other
spice, enough to flavor it well, and divide it among the pies. Make
a good paste, and line the rim of the dishes, and then cover them,
leaving the pies without an under crust. Bake them a light brown.


_Boiled Apple Pudding._

One quarter of a pound of butter.

One pound of flour.

Two dozen apples.

Make a plain paste of the flour and butter. Sprinkle your pudding-bag
with flour, roll the paste thin, and lay inside of the bag, and fill
the crust with apples nicely pared and cored. Draw the crust together,
and cut off any extra paste about the folds; tie the bag tight, and
put it into boiling water. Boil it two hours. A layer of rice, nicely
picked and washed, sprinkled inside the bag, instead of crust, makes a
very good pudding, called an _Avalanche_.

Common dough rolled out makes a fine crust for the above, especially
with a little butter worked in it. It is more healthful than the
unleavened crust.


_Spiced Apple Tarts._

Rub stewed or baked apples through a sieve, sweeten them, and add
powdered mace and cinnamon enough to flavor them. If the apples are
not very tart, squeeze in the juice of a lemon. Some persons like the
peel of the lemon grated into it. Line soup dishes with a light crust,
double on the rim, and fill them and bake them until the crust is done.
Little bars of crust, a quarter of an inch in width, crossed on the top
of the tart before it is baked, is ornamental.


_Boiled Indian Pudding._

Three pints of milk.

Ten heaping tablespoonfuls of sifted Indian meal.

Half a pint of molasses.

Two eggs.

Scald the meal with the milk, add the molasses, and a teaspoonful of
salt. Put in the eggs when it is cool enough not to scald them. Put
in a tablespoonful of ginger. Tie the bag so that it will be about
two-thirds full of the pudding, in order to give room to swell. The
longer it is boiled the better. Some like a little chopped suet with
the above.


_Baked Indian Pudding._

Three pints of milk.

Ten heaping tablespoonfuls of Indian meal.

Three gills of molasses.

A piece of butter, as large as a hen’s egg.

Scald the meal with the milk, and stir in the butter and molasses, and
bake four or five hours. Some add a little chopped suet in place of the
butter.


_Rice Balls, or German Pudding._

Two tea-cups of rice.

One quart of milk.

Four ounces of sugar.

One wine-glass of wine.

Spice to the taste.

Wash the rice carefully, and throw it in a pan of boiling salted water.
Let it boil very fast seventeen minutes, then pour off the water, and
in its place put one-third of the milk, and a stick of cinnamon. Let
it boil till it is as thick as very stiff hasty pudding, then put in
half the sugar; fill small tea-cups with this rice, and set them to
cool. When cool, turn out the rice on to a large dish, pour over it
a syllabub (not whipped), made of the remaining milk and sugar, with
the wine. It is still better made with a syllabub of rich cream, and
whipped.


_Apple Custard._

Take half a dozen very tart apples, and take off the skin and cores.
Cook them till they begin to be soft, in half a tea-cup of water. Then
put them in a pudding dish, and sugar them. Then beat eight eggs with
four spoonfuls of sugar, mix it with three pints of milk; pour it over
the apples, and bake for about half an hour.


_Rhubarb Pie._

Cut the stalks of the rhubarb into small pieces, and stew them with
some lemon peel till tender. Strain them, sweeten to your taste, and
add as many eggs as you can afford. Line pie plates with paste, and
bake it like tarts, without upper crust.


_Plain Macaroni or Vermacelli Puddings._

Put two ounces of macaroni, or vermacelli, into a pint of milk, and
simmer until tender. Flavor it by putting in two or three sticks of
cinnamon while boiling, or some other spice when done. Then beat up
three eggs, mix in an ounce of sugar, half a pint of milk, and a glass
of wine. Add these to the macaroni or vermacelli, and bake in a slow
oven.


_Green Corn Pudding._

Twelve ears of corn, grated. Sweet corn is best.

One pint and a half of milk.

Four well-beaten eggs.

One tea-cup and a half of sugar.

Mix the above, and bake it three hours in a buttered dish. More sugar
is needed if common corn is used.


_Bread Pudding for Invalids, or Young Children._

Grate half a pound of stale bread, add a pinch of salt, and pour on a
pint of hot milk, and let it soak half an hour. Add two well-beaten
eggs, put it in a covered basin just large enough to hold it, tie it in
a pudding cloth, and boil it half an hour; or put it in a buttered pan
in an oven, and bake it that time. Make a sauce of thin sweet cream,
sweetened with sugar, and flavored with rose water or nutmeg.


_Plain Rice Pudding, without Eggs._

Mix half a pint of rice into a quart of rich milk, or cream and milk.
Add half a pint of sugar and nutmeg, and powdered cinnamon. Bake it
two hours or more, till the rice is quite soft. It is good cold.


_Another Sago Pudding._

Six tablespoonfuls of sago, soaked two hours in cold water, and then
boiled soft in a quart of milk. Add four spoonfuls of butter, and
twenty spoonfuls of sugar beaten into the yolks of six or eight eggs.
Add currants or chopped raisins dredged with flour, and nutmeg, and
cinnamon, or a grated lemon peel and juice. Bake it in a buttered dish
three quarters of an hour. It is good cold.

       *       *       *       *       *

NOTE.--All custards are much improved by a little _salt_, say a small
half teaspoonful to a quart of milk. In all the preceding receipts,
where no butter is used, a little salt must be put in, say a small
half teaspoonful to each quart. Many puddings are greatly injured by
neglecting it.


_Oat Meal Mush._

This is made just like Indian mush, and is called Bourgoo.


_Modes of Preparing Apples for the Table._

Pippins are the best apples for cooking.

1. Put them in a tin pan, and bake them in a reflector or stove, or
range oven, or a Dutch oven. Try them with a fork, and when done, put
them on a dish, and if sour fruit, grate white sugar over them. Sweet
ones need to bake much longer than sour. Serve them in a saucer with
cream, or a thin custard.

2. Take tart and large apples, and peel them; take the cores out with
an apple corer, put them in a tin, and fill the openings with sugar,
and a small bit of orange or lemon peel, or a bit of cinnamon. Scatter
sugar over the top, and bake till done, but not till they lose their
shape. Try with a fork.

3. Peel large tart apples, and take out the cores with the apple corer.
Put them in a Dutch oven, or preserving kettle, and simmer them till
cooked through. Then take them out and put into the kettle a pint of
the water in which they were boiled, and beat the white of an egg and
stir in. Then throw in three or four cups of nice brown sugar, and let
it boil up, and skim it till clear. Then put in the apples, and let
them boil up for five minutes or more. Then put them in a dish for tea,
and serve with cream if you have it; if not, take a pint or pint and a
half of rich milk in a sauce-pan, and beat up two eggs, and stir in and
cook it in a tin pail in boiling water, and serve it like cream to eat
with the apple.

4. Peel large tart apples, put them in a tin pan with sugar in the
openings, and bits of lemon or orange peel, or cinnamon, to flavor and
scatter sugar over. Bake till soft, then put them in a dish, and pour
over them a custard made of four eggs and a quart of milk.

5. Peel tart apples, and grate them in a dish, and grate in as much
stale bread. Beat up two eggs in a pint or pint and a half of milk, and
make it quite sweet, and flavor with rose water, or grated lemon, or
orange peel, and pour it in and mix it well. Then bake it, and eat it
either as a pudding for dinner, or as an article for the tea-table, to
be eaten cold and with cream. If you have quinces, grate in one-third
quince, and add more sugar, and it is a great improvement. Various
berries can be stewed and mixed with bread crumbs, and cooked in this
way.

6. Peel apples (or prepare any other fruit), and put them in layers in
a stone or earthen jar with a small mouth. Intermix quinces if you have
them. Scatter sugar between each layer in abundance. Cover the mouth
with wheat dough, and set the jar in with the bread, and let it remain
all night, and it makes a most healthful and delicious dish. Some place
_raw_ rice in alternate layers with the fruit. Children are very fond
of this dish thus prepared with rice, and it is very little trouble,
and nothing can be more healthful.

7. Peel and core apples (or take peaches, or pears, or damsons), and
allow half a pound of sugar to a pound of fruit. Clarify the sugar, by
adding water and the beaten white of an egg, and stirring and skimming
it. Boil the fruit in the syrup all day very slowly, mashing and
stirring often, till it is a thick, smooth paste. If it has skins in
it, it must be strained through a colander. Put it in buttered pans to
cool. Then lay it in a dry, cool place. It can be cut in slices for the
tea-table. Quinces make the best. Apples, with the juice and some of
the peel of lemons or oranges, are fine. This is called _Fruit Cheese_.

8. Boil down new sweet cider to one half the original quantity. Stew
peeled and cored apples, with one quarter as many quinces, in this
cider, till it is a very dark color. If well boiled, it will keep a
year in jars, and is called _Apple Butter_.

9. The following mode of cooking _dried fruits_ is the best. Take dried
peaches, quinces, or apples, and put them to swell in cold water for
several hours. Peaches must be _very_ thoroughly washed. Then put them
into a stewing kettle, with a _great deal_ of water, and a pint of
brown sugar to each pound of fruit. Cover them, and let them simmer
_very slowly_ for several hours, till the water is boiled down to as
much liquid as you wish.

Peaches have a finer flavor when dried with the skin on, as _fully_
ripe peaches cannot be pared and dried. When finely flavored, peaches
have a solid pulp; when ripe they should be _pared_ and then dried, and
such are much the best for cooking in the above way.

They will, when cooked thus, be preferred by every body to the finest
and most expensive sweetmeats.

10. The following is the best and cheapest method of making the finest
_Apple Jelly_. Grapes and damsons can be made the same way.

Take the best pippins, and wipe them, taking out stem and eye. Cut them
in thin slices, without paring or quartering, as the chief flavor is in
the peel, and the jelly part is in the cores.

Put them in a preserving kettle, and put in just water enough to cover
them, and boil them very soft. Then mash and strain through a jelly-bag
made of coarse flannel. Put the liquid into the kettle, with a pint of
brown sugar to each pint of the liquid, and add the juice and rind of
a lemon cut in slices. Beat up the white of one egg, and stir in very
thoroughly. Boil up three times, throwing in some cold water to stop it
from running over. Then let it stand quiet on the hearth half an hour.
Try it, and if not hard enough, let it boil till it will turn to jelly
on cooling. Then skim off the scum, and pour off the clear jelly, and
strain the sediment through the jelly-bag. Then put it in glasses. It
can be boiled down, and make elegant apple candy.

Grapes and damsons should have water put in when first boiled, as the
flavor is thus more perfectly extracted. Frost grapes make an elegant
jelly, as do the wild plum, by this method. In summer these jellies are
fine for effervescing drinks, with some good wine vinegar mixed with
them.


_Fruit Custards._

A pint and a half of fruit stewed and strained, cooled and sweetened.

Six eggs well beaten, and stirred into a quart of milk.

Mix the above and flavor with spice, and bake in cups or a deep dish
twenty minutes, or half an hour, according to the size. It is good cold.

It may be boiled in a tin pail in boiling water.


_Modes of preparing Rice for the Dinner or Tea Table._

Pick over and wash the rice, and boil it _fifteen minutes_ in water
with salt in it. Rice is very poor unless the salt is _cooked_ into it.
Then pour off the water, and pour in good rich milk, and let it simmer
slowly till the rice is soft. There should be milk just sufficient to
make the rice of a _pudding_ consistency, so that it can be put in cups
and turned out without losing its form.

1. Fill a tea-cup with this rice, and invert it in a platter or shallow
large pudding dish, and fill the dish with cups of rice inverted. On
the summit of each mound thus made, make an opening with a teaspoon,
and lay a pile of jelly or sweetmeats. Then pour into the dish a
custard made of two eggs and a pint of milk, boiled in a tin pail in
boiling water. This looks very pretty, and is excellent.

If you have cream, take half milk and half cream, and pour into the
dish, instead of the custard.

2. Put the rice into a large bowl, and press it down hard. Then invert
the bowl in a pudding dish, and empty the rice, so as to leave it in
the shape of the bowl. Make, at regular distances, openings in the
rice, and lay in them jelly, or sweetmeats. Help some of the rice and
sweetmeats to each person in a saucer, and have a small pitcher of
sweetened cream, flavored with wine and nutmeg, and pour some into
each saucer. Or prepare a thin custard of two eggs to a pint of milk,
boiling it in a tin pail in boiling water.

3. Set the rice away till cold. Then cut it into slices half an inch
thick. Put a layer of rice in the bottom of a soup plate, and cover it
with stewed apple, or jelly, or sweetmeats half an inch thick. Continue
thus, with alternate layers of rice and jelly (or other cooked fruit)
till it is as high as you wish. Then cut the edges around smooth and
even, so as to show the stripes of fruit and rice, smooth it on the
top, and grate on white sugar, or nutmeg.

Help it in saucers, and have cream, or a thin boiled custard, to pour
on to it. If you wish to ornament it a good deal, get colored sugar
plums of various sizes, and put them in fanciful arrangements on the
top.

4. Set away boiled rice till it is cold, and so solid as to cut in
slices. Then lay in a buttered deep pudding dish alternate layers of
this rice, half an inch thick, and stewed or grated apple. Add sugar
enough to sweeten it, and spice grated or sifted on each layer of
fruit. When piled up as high as you wish, cover with rice, smooth it
with a spoon dipped in milk, and bake it from half to three quarters of
an hour. If the apples are grated raw, you must bake three quarters of
an hour. When it is done, grate white sugar over the top, and eat it
for a pudding.

Pears, plums, peaches, quinces, and all the small berries can be stewed
and used with rice in this way.

Rice can be made into rice _avalanches_ and _snow-balls_, by taking a
pudding cloth and flouring it, and laying _raw_ rice over it an inch
thick, and then put pared and cored fruit on it and draw it up and tie
it so that the rice will cook around the fruit. Tie it tight, allowing
_a little_ room for the rice to swell. Make several small ones in this
way, and they are called _snow-balls_. These are eaten with cream
sweetened and spiced, or with hard or soft pudding sauces.


_Rice and Meat Pudding._

Take any kind of cold meat, and chop it fine, with cold ham, or cold
salt pork. Season it to your taste with salt, pepper, and sweet herbs,
a little butter, and stir in two eggs. Then make alternate layers of
cold boiled rice and this mixture, and bake half an hour. Or make it
into cakes with the rice and fry it.


_Modes of preparing Dishes with Dry Bread, or Bread so old as to be not
good for the table._

Put all dry bits of crust and crumbs, and leavings of the table, in a
tin pan. When the bread is drawn, set it in the oven, and let it stand
all night. It is, when pounded, called _rusk crumbs_, and is good to
eat in milk, and also in these ways.

1. Take apple sauce or stewed pears, or peaches, or any kind of small
berries, and mix them with equal quantities of rusk crumbs. Make a
custard of four eggs to a quart of milk, sweetening it very sweet. Mix
it with the bread crumbs and fruit, and bake it twenty minutes, as a
pudding.

2. Make a custard with four eggs to a quart of milk, thicken it with
rusk crumbs, and bake it twenty minutes, and eat it with pudding sauce,
flavored with wine and nutmeg.

3. Take any kind of cold meats, chop them fine with cold ham, or cold
salt pork. Season with salt and pepper, and mix in two eggs and a
little butter. Mix this up with bread crumbs or rusk crumbs, and bake
it like a pudding. Or put it in a skillet, and warm it like hash. Or
put it into balls, and flatten it and fry it like forced meat balls.

4. Soak dry bread crumbs in milk till quite soft. Then beat up three
eggs and stir in, and put in sliced and peeled apples, or any kind of
berries. Flour a pudding cloth, and tie it up and boil it half or three
quarters of an hour, according to the size.

This pudding does not swell in boiling. Eat with sauce.

5. Take stale bread and crumble it fine, and mix it with egg and a
little milk, and boil it in a large pudding cloth, or put it around
small peeled apples, and boil it for dumplings in several smaller
cloths.

6. Take bread crumbs, or rusk crumbs, and mix them with eggs and milk,
and bake them for griddle cakes. If you have raspberries, blackberries,
whortleberries, strawberries, or ripe currants, put them in and then
thicken with a little flour, so as to make _drop cakes_, and bake them
(a large spoonful at a time), on a griddle, as drop cakes. Or put them
in muffin rings, and bake them. Eat with butter and sugar, or with
pudding sauces.




CHAPTER XIII.

RICH PUDDINGS AND PIES.


_Ellen’s Pudding, or Rhubarb Tart._

One pint of stewed pie plant.

Four ounces of sugar.

One half pint of cream.

Two ounces of pounded cracker.

Three eggs.

Stew the pie plant, and rub it through a sieve. Beat the eggs well, and
mix with the sugar and cream. Stir the cracker crumbs into the fruit,
and add the other ingredients. Line your plate with a moderately rich
paste, and bake half an hour.


_Nottingham Pudding._

One pint of sifted flour.

Three gills of milk.

One gill of rich cream.

Six apples.

Four eggs.

A salt spoonful of salt.

Pare the apples, and take out the core without cutting the apple. Mix
the batter very smooth, and pour over the apples. Eat with liquid
sauce. This pudding requires an hour to bake.


_Rice Plum Pudding._

Three gills of rice.

One quarter of a pound of butter.

One quarter of a pound of sugar.

One quart of milk.

A teaspoonful of salt.

Six eggs.

A pound and a half of stoned raisins or currants.

Half a tablespoonful of cinnamon.

A little rose water, and one nutmeg.

Boil the rice with lemon peel in the milk, till soft. Mix the butter,
sugar, and eggs. Dredge the fruit with flour, and put in with the spice
the last thing. Bake an hour and a half.


_Eve’s Pudding_ (_the best kind_).

Half a pound of beef suet, and half a teaspoonful of salt.

Half a pound of pared and chopped apples.

Half a pound of sugar.

Half a pound of flour.

Half a pound of stoned raisins, dredged with flour.

Five eggs. A grated nutmeg. A glass of brandy.

Chop and mix the suet and apples. Beat the sugar into the yolks of the
eggs. Mix all, putting in the whites cut to a stiff froth just before
going into the oven. Bake two hours.


_Baked English Plum Pudding._

A quarter of a pound of suet, chopped first, and half a teaspoonful of
salt.

Half of a pound of bread crumbs.

Half of a pound of stoned raisins, wet and dredged with flour.

Half of a pound of currants.

Half of a pound of sugar.

Three ounces of citron.

Milk, and six eggs.

Pour enough scalded milk on to the bread crumbs to swell them; when
cold, add the other ingredients. If it is too stiff, thin it with milk;
if it is too thin, add more bread crumbs. Then add two grated nutmegs,
a tablespoonful of mace and cinnamon, and half a gill of brandy. Bake
two hours.


_A Boiled English Plum Pudding._

One pound of currants.

One pound of stoned raisins, dredged with flour.

Half a pound of beef suet, chopped fine, and a teaspoonful of salt.

One pound of bread crumbs.

One-fourth of a pound of citron.

Eight eggs.

Half a pint of milk, and one gill of wine, or brandy.

A heaping coffee cup of sugar, and mace and nutmeg to your taste.

Eaten with a sauce of butter, sugar, and wine.

It requires six or seven hours to boil, and must be turned several
times.

In both these puddings, cut the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth,
and put in the last thing.


_Almond Cheese Cake._

Beat eight eggs, and stir them into a quart of boiling milk, and boil
to curds. Press the curds dry, and add two cups of cream, six heaping
spoonfuls of sugar, and a teaspoonful of powdered mace and cinnamon.

Then stir in three ounces of blanched almonds, beat to a thin paste
with rose water, and a few bitter almonds, or peachnuts, beat with
them. Lastly, put in half a pound of stoned raisins, cut up, and
dredged with flour, and bake immediately, half an hour.

Some persons make the curd with rennet, and then add the eggs and other
articles.


_Cocoanut Pudding._

Three quarters of a pound of grated cocoanut.

One quarter of a pound of butter.

One pound of sugar.

One half pint of cream.

Nine eggs.

One gill of rose water.

Stir the butter and sugar as for cake, add the eggs well beaten. Grate
the cocoanuts, and stir it in with the butter and eggs. Put in the
other ingredients, and bake with or without a crust.

It requires three quarters of an hour for baking. Some persons grate in
stale rusk, or sponge cake.


_Arrowroot Pudding._

Take four tea-cups of arrowroot, and mix it with a pint of cold milk.
Boil another pint of milk, flavoring it with cinnamon, or peach leaves,
or lemon peel. Stir the arrowroot into this boiling milk. When cold,
add the yolks of six eggs beaten into four ounces of sugar. Last of
all, add the whites cut to a stiff froth, and bake in a buttered dish
an hour. Ornament the top with sweetmeats, or citron cut up.


_Ground Rice Pudding._

Make a batter of a quarter of a pound of ground rice, stirred into a
pint of cold milk. Pour it into three pints of boiling milk, and let
it boil three minutes. Mix three spoonfuls of butter with four ounces
of sugar, and the yolks of eight eggs, and put to the rice. When cool,
strain through a sieve. Flavor with nutmeg and essence of lemon, or
boil lemon peel in the milk. Add the whites of the eggs last, cut to a
stiff froth, and also the juice of a lemon. Ornament with jelly.


_Mrs. O.’s Pumpkin Pie._

One quart of strained pumpkin, or squash.

Two quarts of milk, and a pint of cream.

One teaspoonful of salt, and four of ginger.

Two teaspoonfuls of pounded cinnamon.

Two teaspoonfuls of nutmeg, and two of mace.

Ten well-beaten eggs, and sugar to your taste.

Bake with a bottom crust and rim, till it is solid in the centre.


_Cracker Plum Pudding_ (_excellent_).

Take eight Boston soda crackers, five pints of milk, and one dozen eggs.

Make a very sweet custard, and put into it a teaspoonful of salt.

Split the crackers, and butter them very thick.

Put a layer of raisins on the bottom of a large pudding dish, and then
a layer of crackers, and pour on a little of the custard when warm, and
after soaking a little put on a thick layer of raisins, pressing them
into the crackers with a knife. Then put on another layer of crackers,
custard, and fruit, and proceed thus till you have four layers. Then
pour over the whole enough custard to rise even with the crackers. It
is best made over night, so that the crackers may soak. Bake from an
hour and a half to two hours. During the first half hour, pour on, at
three different times, a little of the custard, thinned with milk, to
prevent the top from being hard and dry. If it browns fast, cover with
paper.

Bread and butter pudding is made in a similar manner, except the
custard need not be cooked when poured in, and the fruit may be left
out.


_Minced Pie._

Two pounds and a half of tongue, or lean beef.

A pound and a half of suet.

Eight good-sized apples.

Two pounds of raisins.

Two pounds of sugar.

Two gills of rose water.

One quart of wine.

Salt, mace, cloves, and cinnamon, to the taste.

Boil the meat, and chop very fine. Chop the suet and apples very fine.
Stone the raisins, cutting each into four pieces. Dissolve the sugar
in the wine and rose water, and mix all well together with the spices.
Twice this quantity of apple improves the pies, making them less rich.
Line your plates with a rich paste, fill, cover, and bake. Measure the
spices used, to save tasting next time, and to prevent mistakes.


_Marlborough Pudding._

Six tart apples.

Six ounces of sifted sugar.

Six ounces of butter, or a pint of thick cream.

Six eggs.

The grated peel of one lemon, and half the juice.

Grate the apples after paring and coring them. Stir together the butter
and sugar as for cake. Then add the other ingredients, and bake in a
rich paste. Some persons grate in crackers, and add rose water and
nutmeg. It is much better to grate than to stew the apples, for this
and all pies.


_Orange, or Lemon Pudding._

Two large lemons, or oranges.

One pound of loaf sugar.

Four ounces of butter.

One pint of cream.

Nine eggs.

A little rose water.

Grate the yellow part of the peel of the fruit, squeeze the juice, mix
the butter and sugar thoroughly together, beat the eggs well. Mix all
the ingredients except the juice, which must not be added until ready
to bake. Line your dishes with a rich paste, and fill and bake three
quarters of an hour in a moderate oven.


_Sweet Potato Pudding._

Grate half a pound of parboiled sweet potatoes, and stir to a cream six
ounces of sugar and six of butter, and then add the beaten yolks of
eight eggs.

Mix the above, and add the grated peel and juice of a lemon, a glass of
wine, and a grated nutmeg.

The last thing, put in the whites of the eggs beat to a stiff froth.

Common potatoes and carrots may be made as above, only they are to be
boiled soft, and put through a colander, and more sugar used.


_Quince Pudding._

Peel and grate six large quinces. Add half a pint of cream, half a
pound of sugar, and six well-beaten eggs. Flavor with rose water, and
bake in a buttered dish three quarters of an hour.


PASTE FOR PUDDINGS AND PIES.

This is an article which, if the laws of health were obeyed, would be
banished from every table, for it unites the three evils of animal fat,
_cooked_ animal fat, and heavy bread. Nothing in the whole range of
cooking is more indigestible than rich pie crust, especially when, as
bottom crust, it is made still worse, by being soaked, or slack baked.
Still, as this work does not profess to leave out unhealthy dishes, but
only to set forth an abundance of healthful ones, and the reasons for
preferring them, the best directions will be given for making the best
kinds of paste.


_Healthful Pie Crusts._

Good crusts for plain pies are made by wetting up the crust with rich
milk turned sour, and sweetened with saleratus. Still better crusts are
made of sour cream sweetened with saleratus.

Mealy potatoes boiled in salted water, and mixed with the same quantity
of flour, and wet with sour milk sweetened with saleratus, make a good
crust.

Good light bread rolled thin, makes a good crust for pandowdy, or pan
pie, and also for the upper crust of fruit pies, to be made without
bottom crusts.


_Paste made with Butter._

Very plain paste is made by taking a quarter of a pound of butter for
every pound of flour. Still richer allows three quarters of a pound of
butter to a pound of flour. Very rich paste has a pound of butter to a
pound of flour.


_Directions for making Paste._

Take a quarter of the butter to be used, rub it thoroughly into the
flour, and wet it with _cold_ water to a stiff paste.

Next dredge the board thick with flour, and cut up the remainder of the
butter into thin slices, and lay them upon the flour, and dredge flour
over thick, and then roll out the butter into thin sheets and lay it
aside.

Then roll out the paste thin, cover it with a sheet of this rolled
butter, dredge on more flour, fold it up, and roll it out, and then
repeat the process till all the butter is used up.

Paste should be made as quick and as cold as possible. Some use a
marble table in order to keep it cold. Roll _from_ you every time.


_Puff Paste._

Dissolve a bit of sal volatile, the size of a hickory-nut, in cold
water. Take three quarters of a pound of butter for every quart of
flour, and rub in one quarter of the butter, and wet it up with cold
water, adding the salts when cool. Roll all the rest of the butter
into sheets as directed above. Roll the paste three times, each time
laying over it one-third of the butter sheets, and dredging on flour,
as directed above. In rolling it, always roll _from_ you, and not
towards you.


SAUCES FOR PUDDINGS.

_Liquid Sauce._

Six tablespoonfuls of sugar.

Ten tablespoonfuls of water.

Four tablespoonfuls of butter.

Two tablespoonfuls of wine.

Nutmeg, or lemon, or orange peel, or rose water, to flavor.

Heat the water and sugar very hot. Stir in the butter till it is
melted, but be careful not to let it boil. Add the wine and nutmeg just
before it is used.


_Hard Sauce._

Two tablespoonfuls of butter.

Ten tablespoonfuls of sugar.

Work this till white, then add wine and spice to your taste.


_A Healthful Pudding Sauce._

Boil in half a pint of water, some orange or lemon peel, or peach
leaves. Take them out and pour in a thin paste, made with two spoonfuls
of flour, and boil five minutes. Then put in a pint of brown sugar, and
let it boil. Then put in two spoonfuls of butter, and a glass of wine,
and take it up before it boils.


_An excellent Sauce for Boiled Rice._

Beat the yolks of three eggs into sugar enough to make it quite sweet.
Add a tea-cup of cream, and the grated peel and juice of two lemons.
When lemons cannot be had, use dried lemon peel, and a little tartaric
acid. This is a good sauce for other puddings, especially for the
starch minute pudding.

The first receipt for whip syllabub furnishes a very delicate sauce for
a delicate pudding, such as the one made of potato starch.

Sweetened cream flavored with grated lemon peel or nutmeg is a fine
pudding sauce.




CHAPTER XIV.

PLAIN CAKES.


_General Directions for Making Cake._

Tie up your hair so that none can fall, put on a long-sleeved apron,
have the kitchen put in order, and then arrange all the articles and
utensils you will have occasion to use.

If you are a systematic and thrifty housekeeper, you will have your
sugar pounded, all your spices ready prepared in boxes, or bottles,
your saleratus sifted, your currants washed and dried, your ginger
sifted, and your weights, measures, and utensils all in their place and
in order.

Butter your tins before beginning to make the cake, so as not to stop
for the purpose. It saves much trouble to have your receipt book so
arranged that you can _measure_ instead of weighing. This can be done
by weighing the first time, and then have a small measure cup, and fill
it with each ingredient you have weighed. Then note it down in your
receipt book, and ever after use the same measure cup.

_Always_ sift your flour, for neither bread nor cake should be made
with unsifted flour, not merely because there may be dirt in it, but
because packing injures its lightness, and sifting restores it, and
makes bread and cake lighter.

The day before you wish to make cake, stone your raisins, and blanch
your almonds, by pouring hot water on them, to take off the skins, and
then throwing them into cold water to whiten them. When ready to make
your cake, grate your lemon or orange peel. Next weigh your butter and
cut it in pieces, and put it where it will soften, but not melt. Then
butter your tins. Next, stir the butter to a cream, and then add the
sugar, and work till white. Next, beat the yolks of the eggs, strain
them, and put them to the sugar and butter. Meantime another person
should beat the whites to a stiff froth, and put them in. Then add the
spices and flour, and last of all the fruit, as directed below.

Do not use the hand to make cake, but a wood spoon or spad. Earthen is
best to make cake in.

In receipts where milk is used, never _mix_ sweet and sour milk, as it
makes cake heavy, even when either alone would not do it.

Butter in the least degree strong, spoils cake.

Try whether cake is done by piercing it with a broom splinter, and if
nothing adheres it is done.

An oven, to bake cake well, must have a good heat at bottom, and not be
too hot on the top, or the cake will be heavy. As these receipts have
all been proved, if they fail to make good cake, the fault is probably
in the baking.

Cake that is to be frosted, should be baked in pans with perpendicular
instead of slanting sides. Line them with buttered paper, the salt
soaked out of the butter. If the oven proves too hot, cover the top
with paper before it hardens, or the cake will be heavy.

The best way to put in fruit is to sprinkle flour over it, then put
in a layer of cake at the bottom, half an inch thick, then a layer of
fruit, taking care that it does not touch the sides of the pan, and
thus dry up; then a little more cake, then another layer of fruit, and
thus till the cake is three inches thick (not more), and let the top
layer be cake.

Always dissolve saleratus, or sal volatile, in hot water, as milk does
not perfectly dissolve it, and thus there will be yellow specks made.

Make your eggs cold, and whisk till they will stand in a heap.

Volatile alkali the size of a hickory-nut, and a bit of alum of equal
size, powdered and dissolved in cold water, will _ensure_ light bread
or cake.

A quick oven is so hot that you can count moderately only twenty; and a
slow one allows you to count thirty, while you hold your hand in it.

All cake without yeast should have the flour put in quickly, just as it
goes into the oven.

Keep cake in a tin box, or in a stone jar wrapped in clean linen.


_Rose Butter._

Take a glass jar, put on the bottom a layer of butter, and each day put
in rose leaves, adding layers of butter, and when full, cover tight,
and use the butter for articles to be flavored with rose water.


_Directions for Cleansing Currants._

Put them in warm, not hot water, and rub them thoroughly. Take out
all but the bottom part into another pail of water. Then rinse those
remaining in the bottom of the first water, through two or three
waters, as this part contains most of the impure parts. Then put
them into the other pail with the first portion, and rinse all very
thoroughly. Take them out with the hands, drain them on a sieve, and
spread them on a clean large cloth on a table. Rub them dry with the
ends of the cloth, and then sit down and pull off the good ones into a
dish in your lap, and push the poor ones aside, being careful to look
for the little stones. Spread them to dry on a board, or large dishes,
and set them in the sun, or any warm place, to dry. Then tie them up in
a jar for future use.


_Frosting for Cake._

For the whites of every two eggs, take a quarter of a pound of sifted
loaf sugar. Some use only one egg for this quantity of sugar.

Make the eggs cold in cold water, and free them from all of the yolk.
Beat the whites in a cool place, till a very stiff froth. Sift the
sugar, and beat it in _until you can pile it in a heap_. Flavor with
lemon or rose water. Allow two whites for each common-sized loaf.
Spread on with a knife, after the cake is cool, and then smooth with
another knife dipped in water. Set it in a warm place to dry. The
ornamental filagree work on frosting is easily done by using a small
syringe. Draw it full of the above frosting, and as you press it out
make figures to your taste. It must not be put on till the frosting of
the cake is hardened.


_Cake Frosting_ (_another, which is harder_).

To the white of each egg, put one heaping teaspoonful of starch, and
nine heaping teaspoonfuls of sifted white sugar.

Cut the whites to a stiff froth, mix the sugar and starch, and stir
in gradually; continue to stir ten minutes after it is mixed, add two
teaspoonfuls of lemon juice, and flavor it with rose water. Put it on
with a knife when the cake has stood out of the oven twenty minutes,
and then set it in a cool place to harden. Allow the whites of three
eggs for two cakes of common size.


_Good Child’s Cake._

Three cups raised dough.

One cup of molasses.

The juice and grated rind of a lemon, or one nutmeg.

Half a cup of melted butter, put with the molasses.

Two well-beaten eggs.

A teaspoonful of saleratus in two spoonfuls of hot water.

Work all together, put into buttered pans, and set into the oven
immediately.

Put in the lemon juice just before you put it in the pans.

If you do not have lemon juice, add a great spoonful of sharp vinegar,
after working the ingredients together, and just before putting it into
pans. The lemon juice must be added the last minute. Some think this is
improved by standing to rise fifteen minutes. Try and see.


_Ginger Snaps._

One cup of molasses.

Half a cup of sugar.

Half a cup of butter.

Half a cup of warm water, the butter melted with it.

A small teaspoonful of pearlash, dissolved in the water.

Two tablespoonfuls of ginger.

The dough should be stiff; knead it well, and roll into sheets, cut
into round cakes, and bake in a moderate oven.


_Child’s Feather Cake._

Three cups of light dough.

Two cups rolled sugar.

Three well-beaten eggs, mixed with the sugar and butter.

Half a cup of warm milk, or a little less.

One teaspoonful of saleratus in two great spoonfuls of water, and put
in the milk.

One cup of melted butter, worked into the sugar.

The grated rind and juice of one lemon.

Work all together, adding the lemon juice just before putting it
in buttered pans. If you have no lemons, use one nutmeg, and a
tablespoonful of sharp vinegar, added just before putting it in pans.
One and a half, if the vinegar is weak. Some think this improved by
standing to rise fifteen minutes. Try it.


_Best Molasses Gingerbread._

One even tablespoonful of strong ginger, and two if weak.

A gill and a half of milk.

One heaping teaspoonful saleratus, very fine, dissolved in a
tablespoonful of hot water, and put into the milk.

Half a pint of molasses, and a small tea-cup full of butter.

Take three pints of flour, and rub the butter and ginger into it
thoroughly. Then make a hole in the middle, and pour in the molasses
and milk, and begin mixing in the flour, and while doing this, put in
a great spoonful of strong vinegar, and if it is weak, a little more.
If not stiff enough to roll out, add a little more flour. Roll it into
cards an inch thick, and put it into two buttered square pans. Bake it
in a flat tin pan, and put it, if the oven is quite hot, on a muffin
ring, to keep it from burning at the bottom, and allow from twenty-five
to thirty minutes for baking. When done, set it on its edge, or on a
sieve, to cool.


_Sponge Gingerbread._

One pint of molasses.

Two great spoonfuls of melted butter.

One even tablespoonful of ginger.

One quart of sifted flour.

A heaping tablespoonful of saleratus dissolved in as much hot water.

Half a pint of milk, the saleratus first dissolved in hot water, and
put into it.

Make a hole in the flour, and put in all the other ingredients, and
while working them together, add a great spoonful of good vinegar, or
if weak, one and a half.


_Cider Cake._

One tea-cup of butter.

Three tea-cups of sugar.

Two tea-cups of sifted flour.

A teaspoonful of saleratus in two great spoonfuls of water.

A grated nutmeg, and half a tea-cup of milk, with the saleratus in it.
Make a hole in the flour, and put in all the ingredients, and while
mixing them, add a tea-cup of cider and four more cups of flour.


_Cup Cake without Eggs._

One cup of butter.

Two cups of sugar.

One cup of sour cream, or sour milk.

Sal volatile, the size of a small nutmeg, or a teaspoonful of
saleratus, dissolved in cold water.

A gill of brandy or wine, half a grated nutmeg, and a teaspoonful of
essence of lemon.

Flour enough for a stiff batter.

Put in buttered pans an inch thick, and bake in a quick oven.


_Cream Cake without Eggs._

Four cups of flour.

Three cups of sugar.

One cup of butter.

Two cups of sour cream.

Two teaspoonfuls of sal volatile, or three of saleratus, dissolved in a
little cold water.

A teaspoonful of essence of lemon, and half a grated nutmeg.

Work the butter and sugar together, add the cream and spice, and put
all into a hole in the middle of the flour. Then add the sal volatile,
or saleratus. Mix quick and thoroughly, and set in the oven immediately.


_Cream Tartar Cake, without Eggs._

Three pints of sifted flour, measured after sifting.

One teaspoonful super carbonate of soda.

A salt spoonful of salt.

Two teaspoonfuls of cream tartar.

A cup and a half of milk.

A pint of rolled sugar.

Mix the cream tartar thoroughly with the flour, and add grated lemon
peel, or nutmeg; then dissolve the soda in two great spoonfuls of hot
water, and put it with the sugar to the milk. When dissolved, wet it
up as quick as possible, but so as to mix very thoroughly. Roll it
out, cut into round cakes, and bake _immediately_. It must be as soft
as can be rolled. Add a little more flour, if needful; bake in a quick
oven fifteen or twenty minutes. Try more than once, as you may fail at
first. When you get the _knack_ it is easy, sure, and very good.


_Fruit Cake without Eggs._

Two pounds of flour.

One and three quarter pounds of sugar.

One pint of milk.

Half a pound of butter.

Half a teaspoonful of salt.

One and a half teaspoonfuls of soda, or saleratus, or two of sal
volatile, dissolved in a little hot water.

One nutmeg, one pound of raisins, and one wine-glass of brandy. This
makes three loaves.

Warm the milk, and add the butter and salt to it. Work the butter and
sugar to a cream, and then add the milk, then the flour, then the
saleratus, and lastly the spice and fruit.


_Drop Cake._

Four and a half tea-cups of flour.

Two and a half tea-cups of sugar.

Half a cup of butter, and five eggs.

Work the butter and sugar to a cream; beat the yolks and whites
separately; add the yolks, then the whites, then the flour. Drop them
on a buttered tin, and sprinkle caraway sugar plums on the top.


_Sugar Gingerbread_ (_rich_).

One pound of sugar.

One pound of sifted flour.

Half a pound of butter.

Six eggs.

Two even tablespoonfuls of ginger.

Rub the butter and sugar together, add the eggs well beaten, the flour
and ginger, and bake in two square tin sheets.


_Sugar Gingerbread_ (_plainer_).

Two cups of sugar.

One cup of butter, rubbed with the sugar.

One cup of milk.

Two eggs.

One teaspoonful of pearlash in hot water.

Three tablespoonfuls of ginger.

Five cups of flour.

Make it a soft dough, and add more flour if needed.


_Sponge Cake._

Twelve eggs.

The weight of ten in powdered loaf sugar.

The weight of six in sifted flour.

The grated peel, and half the juice of one lemon.

Stir the yolks of the eggs with the sugar, until very light, then add
the whites of the eggs, after they are beaten to a stiff froth, stir
lightly together, flavor with the lemon, sprinkle in the flour just
before it is to be put into the oven, stirring it in as quickly as
possible.

Bake in two square tin pans, the bottom and sides of which should be
covered with white paper, well buttered.

Weigh it once, then get the _measure_ of the proportions, to save the
trouble of weighing afterward.

The secret of making good sponge cake lies in putting the flour in the
last minute before it goes into the oven, and having a good bake.


_Bridget’s Bread Cake_ (_excellent_).

Three cups of dough, very light.

Three cups of sugar.

One cup of butter.

Three eggs. A nutmeg. Raisins.

One teaspoonful of pearlash, dissolved in a little hot water.

Rub the butter and sugar together, add the eggs and spice, and mix
all thoroughly with the dough. Beat it well, and pour into the pans.
It will do to bake it immediately, but the cake will be lighter if it
stands a short time to rise, before putting it into the oven. It is an
excellent cake for common use.

_It is very important_ that the ingredients should be thoroughly mixed
with the dough.


_Doughnuts._

One pound of butter.

One pound and three quarters of sugar, worked with the butter.

Three pints of milk.

Four eggs.

One pint of yeast, if home-made, or half a pint of distillery yeast.

Mace and cinnamon to the taste.

Flour enough to make the dough stiff as biscuit.

Rub the butter and sugar together, add the other ingredients, and set
the dough in a warm place to rise. When thoroughly light, roll into
sheets, cut with a sharp knife into diamond-shaped pieces, and boil
them in fresh lard. Use a good deal of lard, and have it sufficiently
hot, or the cake will absorb the fat.


_Cookies_ (_plain_).

Two cups of sugar.

One cup of butter, worked into the sugar.

One cup of milk.

Two eggs.

Caraway seeds.

A small teaspoonful of pearlash, dissolved in a little hot water.

Flour sufficient to roll.

The dough should be well kneaded before it is rolled into sheets.


_French Cake._

Five cups of flour.

Two cups of powdered sugar.

Half a cup of butter.

One cup of milk.

One wine-glass of wine.

Three eggs. Spice to the taste.

A teaspoonful of pearlash.

Rub the butter and sugar together, then add the milk, part of the
flour, and the pearlash dissolved in wine; afterward the remainder of
the flour and the eggs. The yolks are to be beaten separately, and the
whites beaten and put in the last thing. Bake in two square tin pans.


_Walnut Hill’s Doughnuts._

One tea-cup of sour cream, or milk.

Two tea-cups of sugar.

One tea-cup of butter.

Four eggs, and one nutmeg.

Two teaspoonfuls of saleratus.

Flour enough to roll.

Cut into diamond cakes, and boil in hot lard.


_Cocoanut Cup Cake._

Two cups of rolled white sugar, and one and a half of butter.

One cup of milk, and a teaspoonful of saleratus dissolved in hot water.

Four eggs well beaten, and a nutmeg. Or flavor with rose water.

The white part of one cocoanut, grated.

Flour enough to make a stiff batter.

Beat it well, put it in buttered tins, an inch thick, in a quick oven,
and when done, frost it, and cut it in square pieces.


_Cocoanut Sponge Cake._

One grated cocoanut, the outer part peeled off.

A teaspoonful of salt, and half a grated nutmeg.

A pint of sifted white sugar.

Six eggs, the yolks beat and strained, the whites cut to a stiff froth.

One teaspoonful of essence of lemon.

A half a pint of sifted flour.

Mix the yolks and the sugar, and then the other ingredients, except
the whites and the flour. Just as you are ready to put the cake in the
oven, put in the whites, then add the flour by degrees, and stir only
just enough to mix it; then put it on buttered paper in cake pans, and
set it in. Have a quick oven, but take care not to have the top harden
quick. Cover with paper if there is any danger.


_Lemon Cake.--No. 1._

Four tumblers of flour.

Two and a half of _powdered_ white sugar.

Three quarters of a tumbler of butter.

One tumbler of milk, two lemons, three eggs, and one heaping
teaspoonful of soda. Saleratus will do, but is not so good as soda.

This serves for two square loaves. Dissolve the soda in the milk, heat
the yolks, and strain them. Cut the whites to a stiff froth, work the
butter and sugar till they look like cream, then add the yolks, then
the milk, then the whites of eggs, and then the flour. When thoroughly
mixed, grate in the peel of one lemon, and squeeze in the juice of two,
and this must not be done till it is ready to set _immediately_ into
the oven.

A tumbler and a half of currants improves this cake. Put them in with
the lemon juice.

This is delicious when first baked, but will not keep so well as No. 2,
which is richer.


_Gingernuts._

Six pounds of flour.

One pound and a quarter of butter, rubbed into the sugar.

One pound and three quarters of sugar.

One quart of molasses.

Four ounces of ginger, one nutmeg, and some cinnamon.

The dough should be stiff, and then kneaded hard for a long time. Cut
into small cakes. They will keep good, closely covered in a stone jar,
for many months.


_Honey Cake._

One quart of strained honey.

Half a pint of sugar.

Half a pint of melted butter.

A teaspoonful of saleratus, dissolved in half a tea-cup of warm water.

Half a nutmeg, and a teaspoonful of ginger.

Mix the above, and then work in sifted flour till you can roll it. Cut
it into thin cakes, and bake it on buttered tins, in a quick oven.


_New Year’s Cookies._

One pound of butter.

A pound and three quarters of sugar.

Two teaspoonfuls of saleratus, in a pint of milk (buttermilk is better).

Mix the butter and sugar to a cream, and add the milk and saleratus.
Then beat three eggs, and add, and grate in one nutmeg. Rub in a
heaping tablespoon of caraway seed. Add flour enough to roll. Make it
one quarter of an inch in thickness, and bake _immediately_ in a quick
oven.


_Boston Cream Cake._

One pint of butter rubbed into one quart of flour.

One quart of hot water, with the butter and flour stirred in.

When cool, break in from six to twelve eggs, as you can afford.

If needed, add flour till thick enough to drop on buttered tins in
round cakes, the size of a tea-cup.

When baked, open and fill with soft custard, or mock cream.


_Almond, Hickory, or Cocoanut Cake._

Half a pound of flour. Half a teaspoonful of salt.

A quarter of a pound of butter.

One pound of sugar.

One tea-cup of sour cream, or sour milk, or buttermilk.

Four eggs, and lemon, or any other flavor to your taste.

A teaspoonful of saleratus, or better, a bit of sal volatile, the size
of a nutmeg, dissolved in two spoonfuls of hot water.

Mix the above thoroughly, then grate in the white part of a cocoanut,
or stir in half a pint of chopped hickory-nuts, chopped fine, or put
in a pound of blanched almonds, pounded, but not to a paste. Put it in
buttered pans, an inch and a half thick, and bake in a quick oven.


_Caraway Cakes._

Two quarts of flour.

One cup of butter.

One quart of rolled sugar.

Half a pint of caraway seeds.

A teaspoonful of essence of lemon.

Mix the sugar and butter to a cream, add the other materials, roll out,
and cut into square cakes, and crimp the edges.

Sal volatile the size of a nutmeg, dissolved in a little hot water,
improves this.


_Fruit Drop Cakes._

Two pounds of flour.

One pound of butter.

One pound of currants.

One pound of sugar. Three eggs.

A teaspoonful each, of rose water, and essence of lemon, and a gill of
brandy.

Rub the butter and sugar to a cream. Beat the eggs, and add them. Then
put in the other articles. Strew tin sheets with flour and powdered
sugar, and then drop on in small cakes. Bake in a quick oven.


_Dr. B.’s Loaf Cake._

Two pounds of dried and sifted flour.

A pint of new milk, blood warm.

A quarter of a pound of butter.

Three quarters of a pound of sugar.

A pint of home-brewed yeast, or half as much distillery yeast.

Three eggs, and one pound of stoned raisins.

A glass of wine and a nutmeg.

Work the butter and sugar to a cream, and then rub them well into the
flour. Then add the other things, and let it rise over night. Bake an
hour and a half, in a slack oven. Put the fruit in as directed in the
receipt for raised loaf cake.


_Fancy Cakes._

Beat the yolks of four eggs into half a pound of powdered sugar. Add
a little less than a half a pound of flour. Beat fifteen minutes, and
then put in some essence of lemon, and the whites of the eggs cut to a
stiff froth. Bake in small patties, and put sugar plums on the top.


_Fried Curd Cakes._

Stir four well-beaten eggs into a quart of boiling milk. Make it very
sweet, and cool it. Then stir in two even tea-cups full of sifted
flour, a teaspoonful of essence of lemon, and two more well-beaten
eggs. Fry these in sweet butter as drop cakes.


_Wine Cake._

Put six ounces of sugar into a pint of wine, and make it boiling hot.
When blood warm, pour it on to six well-beaten eggs, and stir in a
quarter of a pound of sifted flour. Beat it well, and bake immediately
in a quick oven.


_Egg Rusk._

Melt three ounces of butter into a pint of milk. Beat six eggs into a
quarter of a pound of sugar. Mix these with flour enough for a batter,
and add a gill of distillery yeast, and half a teaspoonful of salt.
When light, add flour enough to make a dough stiff enough to mould.
Make them into small cakes, and let them rise in a warm place while the
oven is heating.


_Citron Tea Cakes._

One tea-cup of sugar.

Two-thirds of a cup of butter.

Two cups of flour.

A bit of volatile salts, the size of a nutmeg, dissolved in hot water
(the same quantity of alum dissolved with it, improves it), and put to
half a cup of milk.

Beat till light, then add a teaspoonful of essence of lemon, and small
thin strips of citron, or candied lemon peel.

Bake in shallow pans, or small patties.


_French Biscuit (Mrs. Dr. C.)._

Six pounds of flour.

One pint and a half of new milk.

Six ounces of butter.

A cup and a half of sugar.

A teaspoonful of salt.

Six eggs, and half a pint of distillery yeast, or twice as much
home-brewed.

Melt the butter in the milk, and beat the eggs. Then add all the
ingredients, set it to rise, and when very light, mould it into small
biscuits, and bake in a quick oven.




CHAPTER XV.

RICH CAKES.


_Old Hartford Election Cake (100 years old)._

Five pounds of dried and sifted flour.

Two pounds of butter.

Two pounds of sugar.

Three gills of distillery yeast, or twice the quantity of home-brewed.

Four eggs.

A gill of wine and a gill of brandy.

Half an ounce of nutmegs, and two pounds of fruit.

A quart of milk.

Rub the butter very fine into the flour, add half the sugar, then the
yeast, then half the milk, hot in winter, and blood warm in summer,
then the eggs well beaten, the wine, and the remainder of the milk.
Beat it well, and let it stand to rise all night. Beat it well in the
morning, adding the brandy, the sugar, and the spice. Let it rise
three or four hours, till very light. When you put the wood into the
oven, put the cake in buttered pans, and put in the fruit as directed
previously. If you wish it richer, add a pound of citron.


_Raised Loaf Cake._

Six pounds of dried and sifted flour.

Three pounds of sugar.

Two pounds and a half of butter.

Four eggs, and two pounds of raisins.

Four nutmegs.

Two gills of wine, and two gills of brandy.

In the afternoon, mix the butter and sugar, take half of it and rub
into the flour; take about a quart of milk, blood warm, put the yeast
into the flour, then wet it up. When fully light, add the rest of the
butter and sugar, beat the eggs, and put them in, and set the whole to
rise till morning. Add the brandy, wine, and spice, in the morning, and
put it in the pans. The fruit is to be added in this way:--First dredge
it with flour, then put in enough cake to cover the bottom of the pans,
then sprinkle some fruit, and do not let any of it rest against the
pan, as it burns, and is thus wasted. Then continue to add a layer of
fruit and a layer of cake, having no fruit on the top. This saves those
that usually burn on the pan, and secures a more equal distribution.


_Mrs. H.’s Raised Wedding Cake (very fine)._

Nine pounds of dried and sifted flour.

Four and a half pounds of white sugar.

Four and a half pounds of butter.

Two quarts of scalded milk.

One quart of the yeast, fresh made as below.

Six eggs.

Six pounds of raisins.

Two pounds of citron.

One ounce of mace.

One gill of brandy.

One gill of wine.

Put the ingredients together as directed in the Raised Loaf Cake.


_Yeast for the above Cake._

Nine large potatoes, peeled, boiled, and mashed fine.

One quart of water, a very small pinch of hops.

Boil all together, strain through a sieve, add a small tea-cup of
flour, and, when blood warm, half a pint of distillery yeast, or twice
as much home-brewed. Strain again, and let it work till very light and
foaming.


_Fruit Cake, or Black Cake._

One pound of powdered white sugar.

Three quarters of a pound of butter.

One pound of flour, sifted.

Twelve eggs.

Two pounds of raisins, stoned, and part of them chopped.

Two pounds of currants, carefully cleaned.

Half a pound of citron, cut into strips.

A quarter of an ounce each, of cinnamon, nutmegs, and cloves, mixed.

One wine-glass of wine, and one wine-glass of brandy.

Rub the butter and sugar together, then add the yolks of the eggs,
part of the flour, the spice, and the whites of the eggs well beaten,
then add the remainder of the flour, and the wine and brandy. Mix all
thoroughly together. Cover the bottom and sides of two square tin pans
with white paper, well buttered, pour the mixture in, adding the fruit
as formerly directed, first dredging it with flour, and bake four
hours. After it is taken from the oven, and a little cooled, ice it
thickly.


_Pound Cake._

One pound of powdered loaf sugar.

One pound of sifted flour.

Three quarters of a pound of fresh butter.

Eight eggs, and one nutmeg.

Rub the butter and sugar together until very light, then add the yolks
of the eggs, the spice, and part of the flour. Beat the whites of the
eggs to a stiff froth, and stir in with the remainder of the flour. Mix
all well together, and bake in small tins, icing the cakes when they
are a little warm.


_French Loaf Cake._

Five cups of powdered sugar.

Three cups of fresh butter.

Two cups of milk.

Six eggs.

Ten cups of dried and sifted flour.

One wine-glass of wine, one wine-glass of brandy.

Three nutmegs, a small teaspoonful of pearlash.

One pound of raisins, a quarter of a pound of citron.

Stir the sugar and butter to a cream, then add part of the flour, with
the milk a little warm, and the beaten yolks of the eggs. Then add,
with the remainder of the flour, the whites of the eggs well beaten,
the spice, wine, brandy, and pearlash. Mix all thoroughly together, add
the fruit, as you put it into the pans. This will make four loaves.
Bake about an hour, and then ice them.


_Portugal Cake._

One pound powdered loaf sugar.

One pound of dried and sifted flour.

Half a pound of butter.

Eight eggs.

Two tablespoonfuls of lemon juice, or white wine.

One pound of fruit.

One nutmeg.

One and a half pounds of almonds, weighed before shelling.

Stir the butter and sugar to a cream. Beat the whites and yolks of the
eggs separately. Then, by degrees, put in the flour, and add the lemon
juice last, stirring all lightly together. If almonds are to be used,
they should be blanched. Pound the almonds, or cut into shreds.


_Golden Cake._

This and the following cake are named from gold and silver, on account
of their color as well as their excellence.

They should be made together, so as to use both portions of the eggs.

To make _golden cake_, take

One pound of flour, dried and sifted.

One pound of sugar.

Three quarters of a pound of butter.

The yolks of fourteen eggs.

The yellow part of two lemons grated, and the juice also.

Beat the sugar and butter to a cream, and add the yolks, well beaten
and strained. Then add the lemon peel and flour, and a teaspoonful of
sal volatile, dissolved in a little hot water. Beat it well, and just
before putting it into the oven add the lemon juice, beating it in very
thoroughly.

Bake in square flat pans, ice it thickly, and cut it in square pieces.
It looks finely on a dish with the silver cake.


_Silver Cake._

One pound of sugar.

Three quarters of a pound of dried and sifted flour.

Six ounces of butter.

Mace and citron.

The whites of fourteen eggs.

Beat the sugar and butter to a cream, add the whites cut to a stiff
froth, and then the flour. It is a beautiful-looking cake.


_Shrewsbury Cake._

One pound of dried and sifted flour.

Three quarters of a pound of powdered sugar.

Half a pound of butter.

Five eggs.

Rose water, or grated lemon peel.

Stir the butter and sugar to a cream. Then add the eggs, the whites and
yolks beaten separately, and add the flour.


_Queen’s Cake._

One pound of dried and sifted flour.

One pound of sugar.

Half a pound of butter.

Four eggs. One nutmeg.

One gill of wine.

One gill of brandy.

One gill of thin cream.

One pound of fruit.

Rub the butter and sugar together. Beat separately the yolks and whites
of the eggs. Mix all the ingredients, except the flour and fruit,
which must be put in just before putting in the oven. This makes two
three-pint pans full. It requires one hour and a half to bake.


_Crullars._

Five cups of flour.

One cup of butter.

Two cups of sugar.

Four eggs.

One spoonful of rose water. Nutmeg.

Rub the butter and sugar together, add the eggs, the whites and yolks
beaten separately, then the flour. Roll into a sheet about half an inch
thick, cut this with a jagging-iron into long narrow strips. Twist them
into various shapes, and fry them in hot lard, of a light brown. The
fat must be abundant in quantity, and very hot, to prevent the lard
from soaking into the cake.


_Lemon Cake.--No. 2._

One pound of dried and sifted flour.

One pound of sugar.

Three quarters of a pound of butter.

Seven eggs.

The juice of one lemon, and the peel of two.

This makes two loaves.

Beat and strain the yolks, cut the whites hard, work the butter and
sugar to a cream. Fruit if wished. A tumbler and a half of currants is
enough.

This is richer than No. 1, and keeps well.


_Almond Cake._

One pound of sifted sugar.

The yolks of twelve eggs, beat and mixed with the sugar.

The whites of nine eggs, added to the above in a stiff froth.

A pound of dried and sifted flour, mixed after the above has been
stirred ten minutes.

Half a pound of sweet almonds, and half a dozen bitter ones, blanched
and pounded with rose water to a cream.

Six tablespoonfuls of thick cream. Use the reserved whites of eggs for
frosting.

This makes one large, or two small loaves.


_Lemon Drop Cakes._

Three heaping tablespoonfuls of sifted white sugar.

A tablespoonful of sifted flour.

The grated rinds of three lemons.

The white of one egg well beaten; all mixed.

Drop on buttered paper, and bake in a moderate oven.


_Jelly Cake._

Half a pound of sifted white sugar.

Six ounces of butter.

Eight eggs, whites beat to a stiff froth. Yolks beat and strained.

Juice and grated rind of one lemon.

One pound of dried and sifted flour.

Work the butter and sugar to a cream. Add the eggs, then the flour,
and then the lemon juice. Butter tin scolloped pans, and put in this a
quarter of an inch thick. Bake a light brown, and pile them in layers,
with jelly or marmelade between.


_Cocoanut Drops._

One pound grated cocoanut, only the white part.

One pound sifted white sugar.

The whites of six eggs, cut to a stiff froth.

You must have enough whites of eggs to wet the whole stiff.

Drop on buttered plates the size of a cent, and bake immediately.


_Sugar Drops._

Twelve spoonfuls of butter.

Twenty-four spoonfuls of sifted white sugar.

A pint of sifted flour.

Half a nutmeg, and three eggs, the whites beaten separately.

Mix the butter and sugar to a cream, add the eggs, then the flour, drop
on buttered tins, and put sugar plums on the top. Bake ten or fifteen
minutes.




CHAPTER XVI.

PRESERVES AND JELLIES.


_General Directions for making Preserves and Jellies._

Gather fruit when it is dry.

Long boiling hardens the fruit.

Pour boiling water over the sieves used, and wring out jelly-bags in
hot water the moment you are to use them.

Do not squeeze while straining through jelly-bags.

Let the pots and jars containing sweetmeats just made remain uncovered
three days.

Lay brandy papers over the top, cover them tight, and seal them, or,
what is best of all, soak a split bladder and tie it tight over them.
In drying, it will shrink so as to be perfectly air-tight.

Keep them in a dry, but not warm place.

A thick leathery mould helps to preserve fruit, but when mould appears
in specks, the preserves must be scalded in a warm oven, or be set into
hot water, which then must boil till the preserves are scalded.

Always keep watch of preserves which are not sealed, especially in warm
and damp weather. The only sure way to keep them without risk or care,
is to make them with enough sugar and seal them, or tie bladder covers
over.


_To Clarify Syrup for Sweetmeats._

For each pound of sugar, allow half a pint of water. For every three
pounds of sugar, allow the white of one egg.

Mix when cold, boil a few minutes, and skim it. Let it stand ten
minutes, and skim it, then strain it.


_Brandy Peaches._

Prick the peaches with a needle, put them into a kettle with cold
water, scald them until sufficiently soft to be penetrated with a
straw. Take half a pound of sugar to every pound of peach; make the
syrup with the sugar, and while it is a little warm, mix two-thirds as
much of white brandy with it, put the fruit into jars, and pour the
syrup over it. The late white clingstones are the best to use.


_Peaches (not very rich)._

To six pounds of fruit, put five of sugar. Make the syrup. Boil the
fruit in the syrup till it is clear. If the fruit is ripe, half an hour
will cook it sufficiently.


_Peaches (very elegant)._

First take out the stones, then pare them. To every pound of peaches,
allow one-third of a pound of sugar. Make a thin syrup, boil the
peaches in the syrup till tender, but not till they break. Put them
into a bowl, and pour the syrup over them. Put them in a dry, cool
place, and let them stand two days. Then make a new rich syrup,
allowing three quarters of a pound of sugar to one of fruit. Drain the
peaches from the first syrup, and boil them until they are clear, in
the last syrup. The first syrup must not be added, but may be used for
any other purpose you please, as it is somewhat bitter. The large white
clingstones are the best.


_To preserve Quinces Whole._

Select the largest and fairest quinces (as the poorer ones will answer
for jelly). Take out the cores and pare them. Boil the quinces in water
till tender. Take them out separately on a platter. To each pound of
quince, allow a pound of sugar. Make the syrup, then boil the quinces
in the syrup until clear.


_Quince Jelly._

Rub the quinces with a cloth, until perfectly smooth. Remove the cores,
cut them into small pieces, pack them tight in your kettle, pour cold
water on them until it is on a level with the fruit, but not to cover
it; boil till very soft, but not till they break.

Then dip off all the liquor you can, then put the fruit into a sieve,
and press it, and drain off all the remaining liquor.

Then to a pint of the liquor add a pound of sugar, and boil it fifteen
minutes. Pour it, as soon as cool, into small jars, or tumblers. Let it
stand in the sun a few days, till it begins to dry on the top. It will
continue to harden after it is put up.


_Calf’s Foot Jelly._

To four nicely-cleaned calf’s feet, put four quarts of water; let it
simmer gently till reduced to two quarts, then strain it, and let it
stand all night. Then take off all the fat and sediment, melt it, add
the juice, and put in the peel of three lemons, and a pint of wine, the
whites of four eggs, three sticks of cinnamon, and sugar to your taste.
Boil ten minutes, then skim out the spice and lemon peel, and strain it.

The American gelatine, now very common, makes as good jelly, with far
less trouble, and in using it you only need to dissolve it in hot
water, and then sweeten and flavor it.


_To preserve Apples._

Take only tart and well-flavored apples, peel, and take out the cores
without dividing them, and then parboil them. Make the syrup with the
apple water, allowing three quarters of a pound of white sugar to every
pound of apples, and boil some lemon peel and juice in the syrup. Pour
the syrup, while boiling, on to the apples, turn them gently while
cooking, and only let the syrup simmer, as hard boiling breaks the
fruit. Take it out when the apple is tender through. At the end of a
week boil them once more in the syrup.


_Pear._

Take out the cores, cut off the stems, and pare them. Boil the pears in
water, till they are tender. Watch them, that they do not break. Lay
them separately on a platter as you take them out. To each pound of
fruit, take a pound of sugar. Make the syrup, and boil the fruit in the
syrup till clear.


_Pineapple (very fine)._

Pare and _grate_ the pineapple. Take an equal quantity of fruit and
sugar. Boil them slowly in a sauce-pan for half an hour.


_Purple Plum.--No. 1._

Make a rich syrup. Boil the plums in the syrup very gently till they
begin to crack open. Then take them from the syrup into a jar, and pour
the syrup over them. Let them stand a few days, and then boil them a
second time, very gently.


_To preserve Oranges._

Boil the oranges in soft water till you can run a straw through the
skin.

Clarify three quarters of a pound of sugar for each pound of fruit,
take the oranges from the water, and pour over them the hot syrup, and
let them stand in it one night. Next day, boil them in the syrup till
it is thick and clear. Then take them up, and strain the syrup on to
them.


_Purple Plum.--No. 2._

Take an equal weight of fruit, and nice brown sugar. Take a clean stone
jar, put in a layer of fruit and a layer of sugar, till all is in.
Cover them tightly with dough, or other tight cover, and put them in
a brick oven after you have baked in it. If you bake in the morning,
put the plums in the oven at evening, and let them remain till the next
morning. When you bake again, set them in the oven as before. Uncover
them, and stir them carefully with a spoon, and do as not to break
them. Set them in the oven thus _the third_ time, and they will be
sufficiently cooked.


_White, or Green Plum._

Put each one into boiling water, and rub off the skin. Allow a pound of
fruit to a pound of sugar. Make a syrup of sugar and water. Boil the
fruit in the syrup until clear, about twenty minutes. Let the syrup be
cold before you pour it over the fruit. They can be preserved without
taking off the skins, by pricking them. Some of the kernels of the
stones boiled in give a pleasant flavor.


_Citron Melon._

Two fresh lemons to a pound of melon. Let the sugar be equal in weight
to the lemon and melon. Take out the pulp of the melon, and cut it in
thin slices, and boil it in fair water till tender. Take it out and
boil the lemon in the same water about twenty minutes. Take out the
lemon, add the sugar, and, if necessary, a little more water. Let it
boil. When clear, add the melon, and let it boil a few minutes.


_Strawberries._

Look them over with care. Weigh a pound of sugar to each pound of
fruit. Put a layer of fruit on the bottom of the preserving kettle,
then a layer of sugar, and so on till all is in the pan. Boil them
about fifteen minutes. Put them in bottles, hot, and seal them. Then
put them in a box, and fill it in with dry sand. The flavor of the
fruit is preserved more perfectly, by simply packing the fruit and
sugar in alternate layers, and sealing the jar, without cooking. But
the preserves do not look so well.


_Blackberry Jam._

Allow three quarters of a pound of brown sugar to a pound of fruit.
Boil the fruit half an hour, then add the sugar, and boil all together
ten minutes.


_To preserve Currants to eat with Meat._

Strip them from the stem. Boil them an hour, and then to a pound of the
fruit, add a pound of brown sugar. Boil all together fifteen or twenty
minutes.


_Cherries._

Take out the stones. To a pound of fruit, allow a pound of sugar. Put a
layer of fruit on the bottom of the preserving kettle, then a layer of
sugar, and continue thus till all are put in. Boil till clear. Put them
in bottles, hot, and seal them. Keep them in dry sand.


_Currants._

Strip them from the stems. Allow a pound of sugar to a pound of
currants. Boil them together ten minutes. Take them from the syrup, and
let the syrup boil twenty minutes, and pour it on the fruit. Put them
in small jars, or tumblers, and let them stand in the sun a few days.


_Raspberry Jam.--No. 1._

Allow a pound of sugar to a pound of fruit. Press them with a spoon, in
an earthen dish. Add the sugar, and boil all together fifteen minutes.


_Raspberry Jam.--No. 2._

Allow a pound of sugar to a pound of fruit. Boil the fruit half an
hour, or till the seeds are soft. Strain one quarter of the fruit, and
throw away the seeds. Add the sugar, and boil the whole ten minutes.
A little currant juice gives it a pleasant flavor, and when that is
used, an equal quantity of sugar must be added.


_Currant Jelly._

Pick over the currants with care. Put them in a stone jar, and set
it into a kettle of boiling water. Let it boil till the fruit is
very soft. Strain it through a sieve. Then run the juice through
a jelly-bag. Put a pound of sugar to a pint of juice, and boil it
together five minutes. Set it in the sun a few days.


_Quince Marmalade._

Rub the quinces with a cloth, cut them in quarters. Put them on the
fire with a little water, and stew them till they are sufficiently
tender to rub them through a sieve. When strained, put a pound of brown
sugar to a pound of the pulp. Set it on the fire, and let it cook
slowly. To ascertain when it is done, take out a little and let it get
cold, and if it cuts smoothly it is done.

Crab-apple marmalade is made in the same way.

Crab-apple jelly is made like quince jelly.

Most other fruits are preserved so much like the preceding, that it
is needless to give any more particular directions, than to say that
a pound of sugar to a pound of fruit is the general rule for all
preserves that are to be kept through warm weather, and a long time.


_Preserved Watermelon Rinds._

This is a fine article to keep well without trouble for a long time.
Peel the melon, and boil it in just enough water to cover it till it is
soft, trying with a fork. (If you wish it green, put green vine leaves
above and below each layer, and scatter powdered alum, less than half a
teaspoonful to each pound.)

Allow a pound and a half of sugar to each pound of rind, and clarify it
as directed previously.

Simmer the rinds two hours in this syrup, and flavor it with lemon peel
grated and tied in a bag. Then put the melon in a tureen, and boil the
syrup till it looks thick, and pour it over. Next day, give the syrup
another boiling, and put the juice of one lemon to each quart of syrup.
Take care not to make it bitter by too much of the peel.

Citrons are preserved in the same manner. Both these keep through hot
weather with very little care in sealing and keeping.


_Preserved Pumpkin._

Cut a thick yellow pumpkin, peeled, into strips two inches wide, and
five or six long.

Take a pound of white sugar for each pound of fruit, and scatter it
over the fruit, and pour on two wine-glasses of lemon juice for each
pound of pumpkin.

Next day, put the parings of one or two lemons with the fruit and
sugar, and boil the whole three quarters of an hour, or long enough to
make it tender and clear without breaking. Lay the pumpkin to cool,
strain the syrup, and then pour it on to the pumpkin.

If there is too much lemon peel, it will be bitter.




CHAPTER XVII.

PICKLES.


Do not keep pickles in common earthen ware, as the glazing contains
lead, and combines with the vinegar.

Vinegar for pickling should be sharp, but not the sharpest kind, as it
injures the pickles. If you use copper, bell metal, or brass vessels
for pickling, never allow the vinegar to cool in them, as it then is
poisonous. Add a tablespoonful of alum and a tea-cup of salt to each
three gallons of vinegar, and tie up a bag with pepper, ginger-root,
and spices of all sorts in it, and you have vinegar prepared for any
kind of common pickling.

Keep pickles only in wood, or stone ware.

Anything that has held grease will spoil pickles.

Stir pickles occasionally, and if there are soft ones, take them out
and scald the vinegar, and pour it hot over the pickles. Keep enough
vinegar to cover them well. If it is weak, take fresh vinegar, and pour
on hot. Do not boil vinegar or spice over five minutes.


_To Pickle Tomatoes._

As you gather them, throw them into cold vinegar. When you have enough,
take them out, and scald some spices tied in a bag, in good vinegar,
and pour it hot over them.


_To Pickle Peaches._

Take ripe but hard peaches, wipe off the down, stick a few cloves into
them, and lay them in _cold_ spiced vinegar. In three months they will
be sufficiently pickled, and also retain much of their natural flavor.


_To Pickle Peppers._

Take green peppers, take the seeds out carefully, so as not to mangle
them, soak them nine days in salt and water, changing it every day, and
keep them in a warm place. Stuff them with chopped cabbage, seasoned
with cloves, cinnamon, and mace; put them in cold spiced vinegar.


_To Pickle Nasturtions._

Soak them three days in salt and water as you collect them, changing it
once in three days, and when you have enough, pour off the brine, and
pour on scalding hot vinegar.


_To Pickle Onions._

Peel, and boil in milk and water ten minutes, drain off the milk and
water, and pour scalding spiced vinegar on to them.


_To Pickle Gherkins._

Keep them in strong brine till they are yellow, then take them out and
turn on hot spiced vinegar, and keep them in it in a warm place, till
they turn green. Then turn off the vinegar, and add a fresh supply of
hot, spiced vinegar.


_To Pickle Mushrooms._

Stew them in salted water, just enough to keep them from sticking. When
tender, pour off the water, and pour on hot spiced vinegar. Then cork
them tight if you wish to keep them long. Poison ones will turn black
if an onion is stewed with them, and then all must be thrown away.


_To Pickle Cucumbers._

Wash the cucumbers in cold water, being careful not to bruise, or break
them. Make a brine of rock, or blown salt (rock is the best), strong
enough to bear up an egg, or potato, and of sufficient quantity to
cover the cucumbers.

Put them into an oaken tub, or stone-ware jar, and pour the brine over
them. In twenty-four hours, they should be stirred up from the bottom
with the hand. The third day pour off the brine, scald it, and pour it
over the cucumbers. Let them stand in the brine nine days, scalding it
every third day, as described above. Then take the cucumbers into a
tub, rinse them in cold water, and if they are too salt, let them stand
in it a few hours. Drain them from the water, put them back into the
tub or jar, which must be washed clean from the brine. Scald vinegar
sufficient to cover them, and pour it upon them. Cover them tight,
and in a week they will be ready for use. If spice is wanted, it may
be tied in a linen cloth, and put into the jar with the pickles, or
scalded with the vinegar, and the bag thrown into the pickle jar. If a
white scum rises, take it off and scald the vinegar, and pour it back.
A small lump of alum added to the vinegar, improves the hardness of
the cucumbers.


_Pickled Walnuts._

Take a hundred nuts, an ounce of cloves, an ounce of allspice, an ounce
of nutmeg, an ounce of whole pepper, an ounce of race ginger, an ounce
of horseradish, half pint of mustard seed, tied in a bag, and four
cloves of garlic.

Wipe the nuts, prick with a pin, and put them in a pot, sprinkling
the spice as you lay them in; then add two tablespoonfuls of salt;
boil sufficient vinegar to fill the pot, and pour it over the nuts and
spice. Cover the jar close, and keep it for a year, when the pickles
will be ready for use.

Butternuts may be made in the same manner, if they are taken when
green, and soft enough to be stuck through with the head of a pin. Put
them for a week or two in weak brine, changing it occasionally. Before
putting in the brine, rub them about with a broom in brine to cleanse
the skins. Then proceed as for the walnuts.

The vinegar makes an excellent catsup.


_Mangoes._

Take the latest growth of young muskmelons, take out a small bit from
one side, and empty them. Scrape the outside smooth, and soak them four
days in strong salt and water. If you wish to green them, put vine
leaves over and under, with bits of alum, and steam them a while. Then
powder cloves, pepper, and nutmeg in equal portions, and sprinkle on
the inside, and fill them with strips of horseradish, small bits of
calamus, bits of cinnamon and mace, a clove or two, a very small onion,
nasturtions, and then American mustard-seed to fill the crevices. Put
back the piece cut out, and sew it on, and then sew the mango in cotton
cloth. Lay all in a stone jar, the cut side upward.

Boil sharp vinegar a few minutes, with half a tea-cup of salt, and a
tablespoonful of alum to three gallons of vinegar, and turn it on to
the melons. Keep dried barberries for garnishes, and when you use them
turn a little of the above vinegar of the mangoes heated boiling hot on
to them, and let them swell a few hours. Sliced and salted cabbage with
this vinegar poured on hot is very good.


_Fine Pickled Cabbage._

Shred red and white cabbage, spread it in layers in a stone jar, with
salt over each layer. Put two spoonfuls of whole black pepper, and the
same quantity of allspice, cloves, and cinnamon, in a bag, and scald
them in two quarts of vinegar, and pour the vinegar over the cabbage,
and cover it tight. Use it in two days after.


_An excellent Way of Preparing Tomatoes to eat with Meat._

Peel and slice ripe tomatoes, sprinkling on a little salt as you
proceed. Drain off the juice, and pour on hot spiced vinegar.


_To Pickle Martinoes._

Gather them when you can run a pin head into them, and after wiping
them, keep them ten days in weak brine, changing it every other day.
Then wipe them, and pour over boiling spiced vinegar. In four weeks
they will be ready for use. It is a fine pickle.


_A convenient Way to Pickle Cucumbers._

Put some spiced vinegar in a jar, with a little salt in it.

Every time you gather a mess, pour boiling vinegar on them, with a
little alum in it. Then put them in the spiced vinegar. Keep the same
vinegar for scalding all. When you have enough, take all from the
spiced vinegar, and scald in the alum vinegar two or three minutes,
till green, and then put them back in the spiced vinegar.


_Indiana Pickles._

Take green tomatoes, and slice them. Put them in a basket to drain
in layers, with salt scattered over them, say a tea-cup full to each
gallon. Next day, slice one quarter the quantity of onions, and lay
the onions and tomatoes in alternate layers in a jar, with spices
intervening. Then fill the jar with cold vinegar. Tomatoes picked
as they ripen, and just thrown into cold spiced vinegar, are a fine
pickle, and made with very little trouble.


_To Pickle Cauliflower, or Brocoli._

Keep them twenty-four hours in strong brine, and then take them out and
heat the brine, and pour it on scalding hot, and let them stand till
next day. Drain them, and throw them into spiced vinegar.




CHAPTER XVIII.

ARTICLES FOR DESSERTS AND EVENING PARTIES.


_Ice Cream._

One quart of milk.

One and a half tablespoonfuls of arrowroot.

The grated peel of two lemons.

One quart of thick cream.

Wet the arrowroot with a little cold milk, and add it to the quart of
milk when boiling hot; sweeten it very sweet with white sugar, put in
the grated lemon peel, boil the whole, and strain it into the quart
of cream. When partly frozen, add the juice of the two lemons. Twice
this quantity is enough for thirty-five persons. Find the quantity of
sugar that suits you by measure, and then you can use this every time,
without tasting. Some add whites of eggs, others think it just as good
without. It must be made _very_ sweet, as it loses much by freezing.


_Directions for freezing Ice Cream._

If you have no apparatus for the purpose (which is _almost_
indispensable), put the cream into a tin pail with a very tight cover,
mix equal quantities of snow and blown salt (not the coarse salt), or
of pounded ice and salt, in a tub, and put it _as high as the pail,
or freezer_; turn the pail or freezer half round and back again with
one hand, for half an hour, or longer, if you want it very nice. Three
quarters of an hour steadily, will make it good enough. While doing
this, stop four or five times, and mix the frozen part with the rest,
the last time very thoroughly, and then the lemon juice must be put in.
Then cover the freezer tight with snow and salt till it is wanted. The
mixture must be perfectly cool before being put in the freezer. Renew
the snow and salt while shaking, so as to have it kept tight to the
sides of the freezer. A hole in the tub holding the freezing mixture
to let off the water, is a great advantage. In a tin pail it would
take much longer to freeze than in the freezer, probably nearly twice
as long, or one hour and a half. A long stick, like a coffee stick,
should be used in scraping the ice from the sides. Iron spoons will be
affected by the lemon juice, and give a bad taste.

In taking it out for use, first wipe off every particle of the freezing
mixture dry, then with a knife loosen the sides, then invert the
freezer upon the dish in which the ice is to be served, and apply two
towels rung out of hot water to the bottom part, and the whole will
slide out in the shape of a cylinder.

If you wish to put it into moulds, pour it into them when the cream is
frozen sufficiently, and then cover the moulds in the snow and salt
till they are wanted. Dip the moulds in warm water to make the ice slip
out easily.

If you wish to have a freezer made, send the following directions to a
tinner.

Make a tin cylinder box, eighteen inches high and eight inches in
diameter at the bottom, and a trifle larger at the top, so that the
frozen cream will slip out easier. Have a cover made with a rim to
lap over three inches, and fitted tight. Let there be a round handle
fastened to the lid, an inch in diameter, and reaching nearly across,
to take hold of, to stir the cream. This will cost from fifty to
seventy-five cents.

The tub holding the ice and freezer should have a hole in the bottom,
to let the water run off, and through the whole process the ice must be
close packed the whole depth of the freezer.


_Philadelphia Ice Cream._

Two quarts of milk (cream when you have it).

Three tablespoonfuls of arrowroot.

The whites of eight eggs well beaten.

One pound of powdered sugar.

Boil the milk, thicken it with the arrowroot, add the sugar, and pour
the whole upon the eggs. If you wish it flavored with vanilla, split
half a bean, and boil it in the milk.


_Another Ice Cream._

Three quarts of milk.

Two pounds and a half of powdered sugar.

Twelve eggs, well beaten.

Mix all together in a tin pail, add one vanilla bean (split), then put
the pail into a kettle of boiling water, and stir the custard all the
time, until it is quite thick. After it is cooled, add two quarts of
rich cream, and then freeze it.


_Strawberry Ice Cream._

Rub a pint of ripe strawberries through a sieve, add a pint of cream,
and four ounces of powdered sugar, and freeze it.


_Ice Cream without Cream._

A vanilla bean, or a lemon rind, is first boiled in a quart of milk.
Take out the bean or peel, and add the yolks of four eggs, beaten well.
Heat it scalding hot, but do not boil it, stirring in white sugar till
_very_ sweet. When cold, freeze it.


_Fruit Ice Cream._

Make rich boiled custard, and mash into it the soft ripe fruit, or the
grated or cooked hard fruit, or grated pineapples. Rub all through
a sieve, sweeten it very sweet, and freeze it. Quince, apple, pear,
peach, strawberry, and raspberry, are all good for this purpose.


_Rich Custards._

One quart of cream.

The yolks of six eggs.

Six ounces of powdered white sugar.

A small pinch of salt.

Two tablespoonfuls of brandy.

One spoonful of peach water.

Half a tablespoonful of lemon brandy.

An ounce of blanched almonds, pounded to a paste.

Mix the cream with the sugar, and the yolks of the eggs well beaten,
scald them together in a tin pail in boiling water, stirring all the
time, until sufficiently thick. When cool, add the other ingredients,
and pour into custard cups.


_Wine Cream Custard._

Sweeten a pint of cream with sifted sugar, heat it, stir in white wine
till it curdles, add rose water, or grated lemon peel in a bag, heated
in the milk. Turn it into cups.

Or, mix a pint of milk with the pint of cream, add five beaten eggs, a
spoonful of flour wet with milk, and sugar to your taste. Bake this in
cups, or pie plates.


_Almond Custard._

Blanch and pound four ounces of sweet almonds, and a few of the bitter.
Boil them five minutes in a quart of milk, sweeten to your taste, and
when blood warm, stir in the beaten yolks of eight eggs, and the whites
of four. Heat it, and stir till it thickens, then pour into cups. Cut
the reserved whites to a stiff froth, and put on the top.


_A Cream for Stewed Fruit._

Boil two or three peach leaves, or a vanilla bean, in a quart of cream,
or milk, till flavored. Strain and sweeten it, mix it with the yolks of
four eggs, well beaten; then, while heating it, add the whites cut to a
froth. When it thickens, take it up. When cool, pour it over the fruit,
or preserves.


_Currant, Raspberry, or Strawberry Whisk._

Put three gills of the juice of the fruit to ten ounces of crushed
sugar, add the juice of a lemon, and a pint and a half of cream. Whisk
it till quite thick, and serve it in jelly glasses, or a glass dish.


_Lemonade Ice, and other Ices._

To a quart of lemonade, add the whites of six eggs, cut to a froth,
and freeze it. The juices of any fruit, sweetened and watered, may be
prepared in the same way, and are very fine.


_Lemon and Orange Cream._

Grate the outer part of the rind of eight oranges, or lemons, into a
pint of cold water, and let it stand from night till morning. Add the
juice of two dozen of the fruit, and another pint of cold water. Beat
the yolks of six eggs, and add the whites of sixteen eggs, cut to a
stiff froth. Strain the juice into the egg. Set it over the fire, and
stir in fine white sugar, till quite sweet. When it begins to thicken,
take it off, and stir till it is cold. Serve it in glasses, or freeze
it.


_Vanilla Cream._

Boil a vanilla bean in a quart of rich milk, till flavored to your
taste. Beat the yolks of eight eggs, and stir in, then sweeten well,
and lastly, add the whites of the eggs, cut to a stiff froth. Boil
till it begins to thicken, then stir till cold, and serve in glasses,
or freeze it.


_A Charlotte Russe._

Half a pint of milk, and half a vanilla bean boiled in it, and then
cooled and strained.

Four beaten yolks of eggs, and a quarter of a pound of powdered loaf
sugar stirred into the milk. Simmer five minutes, and cool it.

An ounce of Russia isinglass boiled in a pint of water till reduced one
half, and strained into the above custard.

Whip a rich cream to a froth, and stir into the custard.

The preceding is for the custard that is to fill the form.

Prepare the form thus:--Take a large round, or oval sponge cake, three
or four inches thick, with perpendicular sides. Cut off the bottom
about an inch thick, or a little less, and then turn it bottom upwards
into a form of the same size and shape. Then dig out the cake till it
is a shell, an inch thick, or less. Fill the opening with the custard,
and cover it with the slice cut from the bottom. Then set it into a tub
of pounded ice and salt, for forty minutes, being careful not to get
any on to the cake. When ready to use it, turn it out of the form on to
a flat oval dish, and ornament the top with frosting, or syringe on it
candy sugar, in fanciful forms. This can be made by fitting slices of
sponge cake nicely into a form, instead of using a whole cake.


_A Plainer Charlotte Russe._

Half an ounce of Russia isinglass, or a little more.

Half a pint of milk, and a pint of thick cream.

Four eggs. Three ounces sifted white sugar.

A gill and a half of white wine.

Boil the isinglass in the milk, flavoring with vanilla or lemon. Stir
the sugar into the yolks of the eggs. Put the wine to the cream, and
beat them to a froth. Then strain the isinglass into the yolks, then
add the cream and wine, and last of all the whites of the eggs cut to
a stiff froth. Then line a dish with sponge cake, making the pieces
adhere with whites of eggs, and pour in the above.


_A Superior Omelette Souflée._

Take eight eggs. Put the whites on one plate, and the yolks on another
(two persons do it better than one); beat up the whites to a perfect
froth, and at the same time stir the yolks with finely-powdered sugar,
flavored with a little lemon peel, grated. Then, while stirring the
whites, pour the yolks into the whites, _stir_ them a little (but not
beat them). Then pour all on a round tin plate, and put it in the oven;
when it begins to rise a little, draw it to the mouth of the oven,
and with a spoon pile it up in a pyramidal shape, and leave it a few
minutes longer in the oven. The whole baking requires but three or four
minutes, and should be done just as wanted for the table.


_Almond Cheese Cake._

Three well-beaten eggs.

A pint of new milk, boiling while the eggs are mixed in.

Half a glass of wine, poured in while boiling.

On adding the wine, take it from the fire, strain off the whey, and
put to the curds sifted white sugar, to your taste, three eggs, well
beaten, a teaspoonful of rose water, half a pound of sweet almonds,
and a dozen of bitter ones, all blanched and pounded, and sixteen even
spoonfuls of melted butter. Pour this into patties lined with thin
pastry. Ornament the top with Zante currants, and almonds cut in thin
slips. Bake as soon as done.


_Flummery._

Cut sponge cake into thin slices, and line a deep dish. Make it moist
with white wine; make a rich custard, using only the yolks of the
eggs. When cool, turn it into the dish, and cut the whites to a stiff
froth, and put on the top.


_Chicken Salad._

Cut the white meat of chickens into small bits, the size of peas.

Chop the white parts of celery nearly as small.

Prepare a dressing thus:—

Rub the yolks of hard-boiled eggs smooth, to each yolk put half a
teaspoonful of mustard, the same quantity of salt, a tablespoonful of
oil, and a wine-glass of vinegar. Mix the chicken and celery in a large
bowl, and pour over this dressing.

The dressing must not be put on till just before it is used. Bread and
butter and crackers are served with it.


_Gelatine, or American Isinglass Jelly._

Two ounces of American isinglass, or gelatine.

One quart of boiling water.

A pint and a half of white wine.

The whites of three eggs.

Soak the gum in cold water half an hour. Then take it from the water,
and pour on the quart of boiling water. When cooled, add the grated
rind of one lemon, and the juice of two, and a pound and a half of loaf
sugar. Then beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, and stir them
in, and let the whole boil till the egg is well mixed, but do not stir
while it boils. Strain through a jelly-bag, and then add the wine.

Wine jelly is made thus, except that half a pint more of wine is added.

In cold weather, a pint more of water may be added. This jelly can be
colored by beet juice, saffron, or indigo, for fancy dishes.


_Oranges in Jelly._

Peel and divide into halves several small-size oranges; boil them
in water till a straw will pierce them, then put them into a syrup
made of half a pound of sugar for each pound of fruit, and boil the
oranges in it till clear. Then stir in an ounce, or more, of clarified
isinglass, and let it boil a little while. Take the oranges into a
dish, and strain the jelly over. Lemons may be done the same way.


_Jelly Tarts._

One pound of sifted flour.

Three quarters of a pound of butter, rubbed in well.

Wet it up with about a pint of cold water, in which a bit of sal
volatile, the size of a large pea dissolved in a little cold water, has
been put. Beat the whole with a rolling-pin, cut it into round cakes,
wet the tops with beaten egg, and strew on fine white sugar. Bake in a
quick oven, and when done put a spoonful of jelly in the centre of each.


_Sweet Paste Jelly Tarts._

A pint of dried and sifted flour.

A pint of sifted sugar.

Two-thirds of a pint of sweet butter.

A bit of sal volatile, the size of two large peas, dissolved in a
tablespoonful of cold water.

Mix the butter and sugar to a cream, work in the flour, add the sal
volatile, and cold water, if needed, for making a paste to roll. Beat
the whole with a rolling-pin, roll it half an inch thick, cut it with a
tumbler, wet the tops with milk, put them on buttered tins into a quick
oven, and when done, heap a spoonful of jelly on the centre of each.

They are excellent for a dessert, or for evening parties.


_An Apple Lemon Pudding._

Six spoonfuls of grated, or of cooked and strained apple. Three lemons,
pulp, rind, and juice, all grated. Half a pound of melted butter. Sugar
to the taste. Seven eggs, well beaten.

Mix, and bake with or without paste. It can be made still plainer by
using nine spoonfuls of apple, one lemon, two-thirds of a cup full of
butter, and three eggs.


_Buttermilk Pop._

Rub an ounce of butter into a tea-cup of flour, wet it up to a thin
paste with cold buttermilk, and pour it into two quarts of boiling
fresh buttermilk. Salt to the taste.


_Wheat Flour Blanc Mange._

Wet up six tablespoonfuls of flour to a thin paste, with cold milk, and
stir it into a pint of boiling milk. Flavor with lemon peel, or peach
leaves boiled in the milk. Add a pinch of salt, cool it in a mould, and
eat with sweetened cream and sweetmeats.


_Orange Marmelade._

Take two lemons, and a dozen oranges; grate the yellow part of all the
oranges but five, and set it aside. Make a clear syrup of an equal
weight of sugar. Clear the oranges of rind and seeds, and put them with
the grated rinds into the syrup, and boil about twenty minutes, till it
is a transparent mass.


_A Simple Lemon Jelly_ (_easily made_).

One ounce of cooper’s isinglass. A pound and a half of loaf sugar.
Three lemons, pulp, skin, and juice, grated.

Pour a quart of boiling water on to the isinglass, add the rest, mix
and strain it, then add a glass of wine, and pour it to cool in some
regular form. If the lemons are not fresh, add a little cream of
tartar, or tartaric acid. _American gelatine_ is used for this.


_Cranberry._

Pour boiling water on them, and then you can easily separate the good
and the bad. Boil them in a very little water till soft, then sweeten
to your taste. If you wish a jelly, take a portion and strain through
a fine sieve.


_Fruits Preserved without Cooking._

Pineapples peeled and cut in thin slices, with layers of sugar under
and over each slice, will keep without cooking, and the flavor is fully
preserved. Use a pound and a half of sugar for each pound of fruit.

Quinces peeled and boiled soft, and then laid in sugar, pound to a
pound, in the same way, are very beautiful.


_Apple Ice_ (_very fine_).

Take finely-flavored apples, grate them fine, and then make them _very_
sweet, and freeze them. It is very delicious.

Pears, peaches, or quinces, also are fine either grated fine or stewed
and run through a sieve, then sweetened _very_ sweet and frozen. The
flavor is much better preserved when grated than when cooked.


_Lemon, or Orange Ice Cream._

Squeeze a dozen lemons, and make the juice thick with sugar; then stir
in slowly three quarts of cream, and freeze it. Oranges require less
sugar.


_Cream Tarts._

One pound of sifted flour, and a salt spoon of salt.

A quarter of a pound of rolled sugar.

A quarter of a pound of butter, and one beaten egg.

Sal volatile the size of a nutmeg, dissolved in a spoonful of cold
water. Mix the above, and wet up with cold water, and line some small
patties, or tartlet pans. Bake in a quick oven, then fill with mock
cream, sprinkle on powdered sugar, put them back into the oven a few
minutes till a little browned.


_Whip Syllabub._

One pint of cream.

Sifted white sugar to your taste.

Half a tumbler of white wine.

The grated rind and juice of one lemon.

Beat all to a stiff froth.


_Trifles._

One well-beaten egg, and one tablespoonful of sugar.

A salt spoonful of salt, and flour enough for a stiff dough.

Cut it in thin round cakes, and fry in lard; when they rise to the
surface and are turned over, they are done. Drain on a sieve, and put
jam or jelly on the centre of each.


_Nothings._

Three well-beaten eggs, a salt spoonful of salt, and flour enough for
a very stiff paste. Roll and cut into very thin cakes, fry them like
trifles, and put two together with jam, or jelly between.


_Apple Snow._

Put twelve very tart apples in cold water over a slow fire. When soft,
take away the skins and cores, and mix in a pint of sifted white sugar;
beat the whites of twelve eggs to a stiff froth, and then add them
to the apples and sugar. Put it in a dessert dish, and ornament with
myrtle and box.


_Iced Fruit._

Take fine bunches of currants on the stalk, dip them in well-beaten
whites of eggs, lay them on a sieve and sift white sugar over them, and
set them in a warm place to dry.


_Ornamental Froth._

The whites of four eggs in a stiff froth, put into the syrup of
preserved raspberries, or strawberries, beaten well together, and
turned over ice cream, or blanc mange. Make white froth to combine with
the colored in fanciful ways. It can be put on the top of boiling milk,
and hardened to keep its form.


_To Clarify Isinglass._

Dissolve an ounce of isinglass in a cup of boiling water, take off the
scum, and drain through a coarse cloth. Jellies, candies, and blanc
mange should be done in brass, and stirred with silver.


_Blanc Mange._

A pint of cream, and a quart of boiled milk.

An ounce and a half of clarified isinglass, stirred into the milk.
Sugar to your taste.

A teaspoonful of fine salt.

Flavor with lemon, or orange, or rose water.

Let it boil, stirring it well, then strain into moulds.

Three ounces of almonds pounded to a paste and added while boiling, is
an improvement. Or filberts, or hickory-nuts, can be skinned and used
thus.

It can be flavored by boiling in it a vanilla bean, or a stick of
cinnamon. Save the bean to use again.


_Calf’s Foot Blanc Mange._

Take a pint of calf’s foot jelly, or American isinglass jelly, and put
it in a sauce-pan, with the beaten yolks of six eggs, and stir till it
_begins_ to boil. Then sweeten and flavor to your taste; set it in a
pan of cold water, and stir it till nearly cold, to prevent curdling,
and when it begins to thicken, put it into moulds.


_Variegated Blanc Mange._

For evening parties a pretty ornamental variety can be made thus.

Color the blanc mange in separate parcels, red, with juice of boiled
beets, or cochineal; yellow, with saffron; and blue, with indigo.

Put in a layer of white, and when cool, a layer of another color, and
thus as many as you like. You can arrange it in moulds thus, or in a
dish, and when cold cut it in fanciful shapes.


_Jaune Mange._

Boil an ounce of isinglass in a little more than half a pint of water,
till dissolved; strain it, add the juice and a little of the grated
rind of two oranges, a gill of white wine, the yolks of four eggs,
beaten and strained, and sugar to your taste. Stir over a gentle fire
till it just boils, and then strain into a mould.


_Ivory Dust Jelly._

Boil a pound of the dust in five pints of water, till reduced to one
quart, strain it, add a quart more of water, boil till a stiff jelly,
then add lemon, or orange juice and rind, and sugar to your taste, and
strain into moulds.


_Apple Jelly._

Boil tart, peeled apples in a little water, till glutinous, strain
out the juice, and put a pound of white sugar to a pint of the juice.
Flavor to your taste, boil till a good jelly, and then put it into
moulds.


_Another Lemon Jelly._

Take the clear juice of twelve lemons, and a pound of fine loaf sugar,
and a quart of water. For each quart of the above mixture, put in an
ounce of clarified isinglass, let it boil up once, and strain into
moulds. If not stiff enough, add more isinglass, and boil again.


_Orange Jelly._

The juice of nine oranges and three lemons.

The grated rind of one lemon, and one orange, pared thin.

Two quarts of water, and four ounces of isinglass, broken up and boiled
in it to a jelly.

Add the above, and sweeten to your taste. Then add the whites of eight
eggs, well beaten to a stiff froth, and boil ten minutes, strain and
put into moulds, first dipped in cold water. When perfectly cold, dip
the mould in warm water, and turn on to a glass dish.


_Floating Island._

Beat the yolks of six eggs with the juice of four lemons, sweeten it to
your taste, and stir it into a quart of boiling milk till it thickens,
then pour it into a dish. Whip the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth,
and put it on the top of the cream.


_Another Syllabub._

The juice and grated outer skin of a large lemon.

Four glasses of white wine.

A quarter of a pound of sifted white sugar.

Mix the above, and let them stand some hours.

Then whip it, adding a pint of thick cream, and the whites of two eggs
cut to a froth.


_An Ornamental Dish._

Pare and core, without splitting, some small-sized tart apples, and
boil them very gently with one lemon for every six apples, till a straw
will pass through them.

Make a syrup of half a pound of white sugar for each pound of apples,
put the apples unbroken, and the lemons sliced, into the syrup, and
boil gently till the apples look clear. Then take them up carefully, so
as not to break them, and add an ounce, or more, of clarified isinglass
to the syrup, and let it boil up. Then lay a slice of lemon on each
apple, and strain the syrup over them.


_Carrageen Blanc Mange_ (_Irish Moss_).

Take one tea-cup full of Carrageen, or Irish moss, after it has been
carefully picked over. Wash it thoroughly in pearlash water, to take
out the saline taste; then rinse it in several waters, put it in a tin
pail, and pour to it a quart of milk. Set the pail, closely covered,
into a kettle of boiling water. Let it stand until the moss thickens
the milk, then strain through a fine sieve, sweeten with powdered loaf
sugar, and flavor with rose or lemon. Wet the moulds in cold water,
then pour in the blanc mange, and set it in a cool place. In two, or
three hours, or when quite firm, it may be used. Loosen the edges from
the moulds, and then turn it out upon china or glass plates. It may be
served with powdered sugar and cream.


_A Dish of Snow._

Grate the white part of cocoanut, put it in a glass dish and serve with
currant or cranberry jellies.


_To Clarify Sugar._

Take four pounds of sugar, and break it up.

Whisk the white of an egg, and put it with a tumblerful of water into
a preserving pan, and add water gradually, till you have two quarts,
stirring well. When there is a good frothing, throw in the sugar, boil
moderately, and skim it. If the sugar rises to run over, throw in a
little cold water, and then skim it, as it is then still. Repeat this,
and when no more scum rises, strain the sugar for use.


_To Prepare Sugar for Candies._

Put a coffee cup of water for each pound of sugar, into a brass, or
copper kettle, over a slow fire. Put in, for each pound, say half a
sheet of isinglass, and half a teaspoonful of gum-arabic, dissolved
together. Skim off all impurities, and flavor to your taste.

All sugar for candy is prepared thus, and then boiled till, when drawn
into strings and cooled, it snaps like glass.

A little hot rum, or vinegar, must be put to loaf sugar candy, to
prevent its being too brittle.

Candies made thus, can be colored with boiled beet juice, saffron, and
indigo, and it can be twisted, rolled, and cut into any forms.

It can have cocoanut, almonds, hickory-nuts, Brazil, or peanuts,
sliced, or chopped and put in.

It can be flavored with vanilla, rose, lemon, orange, cloves, cinnamon,
or anything you please.


_Sugar Kisses._

Whisk four whites of eggs to a stiff froth, and stir in half a pound
of sifted white sugar, and flavor it as you like.

Lay it, when stiff, in heaps, on white paper, each the shape and size
of half an egg, and an inch apart. Place them on a board which is half
an inch thick, and put them into a hot oven. When they turn a little
yellowish, slip off the paper on to a table, and let them cool five
minutes. Then slip off two of the kisses with a knife, and join the
bottom parts together which touched the paper, and they, if pressed
gently, will adhere. Then lay them on a plate, and continue till all
are thus prepared. These look handsomely, and are very delicate and
good.


_Almond Macaroons._

Half a pound of almonds blanched, and pounded with a teaspoonful of
essence of lemon till a smooth paste.

Add an equal quantity of sifted white sugar, and the beaten whites of
two eggs. Work well together with a spoon.

Dip your hand in water, and work them into balls the size of a nutmeg,
lay them on white paper, an inch apart; then dip your hand in water,
and smooth them. Put them in a cool oven for three quarters of an hour.

Cocoanut can be grated and used in place of the almonds, and thus make
cocoanut macaroons.


_Filbert Macaroons._

Heat a quarter of a pound of filbert meats till the skin will rub off,
and when cold pound them, and make a paste with a little white of an
egg, add a quarter of a pound of white sifted sugar, and the white of
an egg; when well mixed, bake them like almond macaroons.

Flour macaroons look as well, and are nearly as good. To make them,
work a pint of sifted white sugar into one beaten egg, till a smooth
paste, and add a little sifted flour, so as to mould it in your hands.
Flavor with essence of lemon, or rose water, and proceed as with almond
macaroons.


_Cocoanut Drops._

The white part of a cocoanut, grated.

The whites of four eggs, well beaten.

Half a pound of sifted white sugar.

Flavor with rose water, or essence of lemon.

Mix all as thick as can be stirred, lay in heaps an inch apart, on
paper, and on a baking tin; put them in a quick oven, and take them out
when they begin to look yellowish.


_Candied Fruits._

Preserve the fruit, then dip it in sugar boiled to candy thickness, and
then dry it. Grapes and some other fruits may be dipped in uncooked,
and then dried, and they are fine.


_Another Way._

Take it from the syrup, when preserved, dip it in powdered sugar, and
set it on a sieve in an oven to dry.


_To make an Ornamental Pyramid for a Table._

Boil loaf sugar as for candy, and rub it over a stiff form, made for
the purpose, of stiff paper, which must be well buttered. Set it on a
table, and begin at the bottom, and stick on to this frame, with the
sugar, a row of macaroons, kisses, or other ornamental articles, and
continue till the whole is covered. When cold, draw out the pasteboard
form, and set the pyramid in the centre of the table with a small bit
of wax candle burning with it, and it looks very beautifully.




CHAPTER XIX.

TEMPERANCE DRINKS.


The advocates of entire abstinence from intoxicating drinks seem to
be divided into three classes. One class consider it to be a sin _in
itself_, to take anything that contains the intoxicating principle.

Another class adopt the temperance pledge on the principle urged by
St. Paul in 1 Cor. 8: 13, and engage not to use intoxicating drinks
_as a beverage_, nor to offer them to others, and maintain that though
neither their pledge nor divine command requires more than this, yet
that, to _avoid the appearance of evil_, they will not use any kind
of alcoholic liquors for _any_ purpose. Such will not employ it in
_cooking_, nor keep it in their houses.

The third class believe that the wisest course is to adopt the pledge
“not to use, or offer to others intoxicating drinks _as a beverage_,”
and strictly to adhere, both to the spirit and letter of this pledge,
but not to go beyond it. Such think it proper to use wine and brandy
in cooking, and occasionally for medicinal purposes, and suppose that
the cause of temperance will be best promoted by going no farther.
The writer belongs to this last class, and therefore has not deemed
it desirable to omit or alter receipts in which wine and brandy are
employed for cooking.

It has now become almost universal, in the medical profession, to
maintain the principle, that alcoholic drinks, except as medicine,
are _never_ needful, but as the general rule, are always injurious.
And they consider that those cases where the use of them seems to
involve no evil, should be regarded as owing to the fact that a strong
constitution, or some peculiarity of temperament, can occasionally
resist the evil influence for a certain length of time, just as some
persons, by similar causes, are sustained in health in a malaria
district.

But none can tell how long a good constitution will resist the baleful
operation of alcohol or malaria, nor are these exceptions any argument
in favor either of intoxicating drinks or a pestilential atmosphere.

The great abundance of delicious and healthful drinks that are within
reach, leaves no excuse for resorting to such as are pernicious. The
following receipts furnish a great variety, and many of them are very
easily and cheaply obtained.

In regard to effervescing drinks, Dr. Pereira remarks:

“Water charged with carbonic acid forms a cool and refreshing beverage.
It acts as a diaphoretic and diuretic (i. e., to promote perspiration
and the healthful action of the kidneys), and is a most valuable agent
for checking nausea and vomiting. When it contains bicarbonate of soda
in solution, it proves antacid, and is a most valuable beverage for
persons afflicted with calculi in the bladder.”

The following receipts may be tried in succession, and some among them
will suit the taste of every one. Some of the receipts for drinks for
the sick are also very fine for common use.


_Ginger Beer Powders, and Soda Powders._

Put into blue papers, thirty grains to each paper, of bicarbonate of
soda, five grains of powdered ginger, and a drachm of white powdered
sugar. Put into white papers, twenty-five grains to each, of powdered
tartaric acid.

Put one paper of each kind to half a pint of water. The common soda
powders of the shops are like the above, when the sugar and ginger are
omitted.

Soda powders can be kept on hand, and the water in which they are used
can be flavored with any kind of syrup or tincture, and thus make a
fine drink for hot weather.


_Currant Ice Water._

Press the juice from ripe currants, strain it, and put a pound of
sugar to each pint of juice. Put it into bottles, cork and seal it, and
keep it in a cool, dry place. When wanted, mix it with ice water for
a drink. Or put water with it, make it _very_ sweet, and freeze it.
Freezing always takes away much of the sweetness.

The juices of other acid fruits can be used in the same way.


_Sarsaparilla Mead._

One pound of Spanish sarsaparilla. Boil it in four gallons of water
five hours, and add enough water to have two gallons. Add sixteen
pounds of sugar, and ten ounces of tartaric acid.

To make a tumbler of it, take half a wine-glass of the above, and then
fill with water, and put in half a teaspoonful of soda.


_Effervescing Fruit Drinks._

Very fine drinks for summer are prepared by putting strawberries,
raspberries, or blackberries into good vinegar and then straining it
off, and adding a new supply of fruit till enough flavor is secured, as
directed in Strawberry Vinegar. Keep the vinegar bottled, and in hot
weather use it thus. Dissolve half a teaspoonful or less of saleratus,
or soda in a tumbler, very little water till the lumps are all out.
Then fill the tumbler two-thirds full of water, and then add the fruit
vinegar. If several are to drink, put the soda, or saleratus into the
pitcher, and then put the fruit vinegar into each tumbler, and pour the
alkali water from the pitcher into each tumbler, as each person is all
ready to drink, as delay spoils it.


_Effervescing Jelly Drinks._

When jams or jellies are too old to be good for table use, mix them
with good vinegar, and then use them with soda, or saleratus, as
directed above.


_Summer Beverage._

Ten drops of oil of sassafras. Ten drops of oil of spruce. Ten drops
of oil of wintergreen. Two quarts of boiling water poured on to
two great spoonfuls of cream tartar. Then add eight quarts of cold
water, the oils, three gills of distillery yeast (or twice as much
home-brewed), and sweeten it to the taste. In twenty-four hours, bottle
it, and it is a delicious beverage.


_Simple Ginger Beer._

One great spoonful of ginger and one of cream tartar. One pint of
home-brewed yeast and one pint of molasses. Six quarts of water. When
it _begins_ to ferment bottle it, and it will be ready for use in eight
hours.


_Orange, or Lemon Syrup._

Put a pound and a half of white sugar to each pint of juice, add some
of the peel, boil ten minutes, then strain and cork it. It makes a fine
beverage, and is useful to flavor pies and puddings.


_Acid Fruit Syrups._

The juice of any acid fruit can be made into a syrup by the above
receipt, using only a pound of sugar for each pint of juice, and kept
on hand for summer drink.


_Imitation Lemon Syrup._

Four ounces tartaric acid, powdered. Two drachms oil of lemon. This
can be kept in a vial for a month, and then must be renewed. A
tablespoonful put to water sweetened with loaf sugar, makes six glasses
of lemonade.


_Superior Ginger Beer._

Ten pounds of sugar.

Nine ounces of lemon juice.

Half a pound of honey.

Eleven ounces bruised ginger root.

Nine gallons of water. Three pints of yeast.

Boil the ginger half an hour in a gallon and a half of water, then add
the rest of the water and the other ingredients, and strain it when
cold, add the white of one egg beaten, and half an ounce of essence of
lemon. Let it stand four days then bottle it, and it will keep good
many months.


_Lemon Sherbet._

Dissolve a pound and a half of loaf sugar in one quart of water, add
the juice of ten lemons, press the lemons so as to extract not only the
juice, but the oil of the rind, and let the skins remain a while in the
water and sugar. Strain through a sieve, and then freeze it like ice
cream.


_Orange Sherbet._

Take the juice of a dozen oranges, and pour a pint of boiling water on
the peel, and let it stand, covered, half an hour. Boil a pound of loaf
sugar in a pint of water, skim, and then add the juice and the water in
the peel to the sugar. Strain it and cool it with ice, or freeze it.
The juice of two lemons and a little more sugar improves it.


_Sham Champagne._

One lemon sliced.

A tablespoonful of tartaric acid.

One ounce of race ginger.

One pound and a half of sugar.

Two gallons and a half of boiling water poured on to the above. When
blood warm, add a gill of distillery yeast, or twice as much of
home-brewed. Let it stand in the sun through the day. When cold in the
evening, cork and wire it. In two days it is ready for use.


_Coffee._

Mocha and Old Java are the best, and time improves all kinds. Dry it a
long time before roasting. Roast it quick, stirring constantly, or it
will taste raw and bitter. When roasted, put in a bit of butter the
size of a chestnut. Keep it shut up close, or it loses its strength and
flavor. Never grind it till you want to use it, as it loses flavor by
standing.

To prepare it, put two great spoonfuls to each pint of water, mix
it with the white, yolk, and shell of an egg, pour on hot, but not
boiling water, and boil it not over ten minutes. Take it off, pour in
half a tea-cup of cold water, and in five minutes pour it off without
shaking. When eggs are scarce, clear with fish skin, as below. Boiled
milk improves both tea and coffee, but must be boiled separately. Much
coffee is spoiled by being burned black instead of brown, and by being
burned unequally, some too much and some too little. Constant care and
stirring are indispensable.


_Fish Skin for Coffee._

Take the skin of a mild codfish which has not been soaked, rinse and
then dry it in a warm oven, after bread is drawn. Cut it in inch
squares. One of these serves for two quarts of coffee, and is put in
the first thing.


_Chocolate._

Allow three large spoonfuls of scraped chocolate to each pint of water,
or take off an inch of the cake for each quart of water, boil it half
an hour, and do not boil the milk in it, but add it when wanted.


_Cocoa and Shells._

Dry the nut in a warm oven after bread is drawn, pound it, and put an
ounce to each pint of water. Boil an hour, and do not add milk till
it is used. If shells are used, soak them over night, then boil them
an hour in the same water. Put in as much as you like. Boil cocoa and
chocolate the day before, cool and take off the oil, and then heat for
use, and it is as good, and more healthful.


_Tea._

The old-fashioned rule to put one teaspoonful for each person, is not
proper, as thus fifty persons would require fifty teaspoonfuls, which
is enormous. Every person must be guided by taste in this matter.
Tea is spoilt unless the water is boiling when it is made. Black tea
improves by boiling, but green is injured by it.


_Ochra._

It is said that the seeds of ochra burnt like coffee, make a beverage
almost exactly like it.


_Children’s Drinks._

There are drinks easily prepared for children, which they love much
better than tea and coffee, for no child at first loves these drinks
till trained to it. As their older friends are served with _green_ and
_black_ tea, there is a _white_ tea to offer them, which they will
always prefer, if properly trained, and it is _always_ healthful.


_White Tea._

Put two teaspoonfuls of sugar into half a cup of good milk, and fill it
with boiling water.


_Boy’s Coffee._

Crumb bread, or dry toast, into a bowl.

Put on a plenty of sugar, or molasses.

Put in one half milk and one half boiling water.

To be eaten with a spoon, or drank if preferred.

Molasses for sweetening is preferred by most children.


_Strawberry Vinegar._

Put four pounds very ripe strawberries, nicely dressed, to three quarts
of the best vinegar, and let them stand three, or four days. Then drain
the vinegar through a jelly-bag, and pour it on to the same quantity of
fruit. Repeat the process in three days a third time.

Finally, to each pound of the liquor thus obtained, add one pound of
fine sugar. Bottle it and let it stand covered, but not tight corked, a
week; then cork it tight, and set it in a _dry_ and cool place, where
it will not freeze. Raspberry vinegar can be made in the same way.


_Royal Strawberry Acid._

Take three pounds of ripe strawberries, two ounces of citric acid, and
one quart of spring water. Dissolve the acid in the water and pour it
on to the strawberries, and let them stand in a cool place twenty-four
hours. Then drain the liquid off and pour it on to three pounds more
of strawberries, and let it stand twenty-four hours. Then add to the
liquid its own weight of sugar, boil it three or four minutes (in a
porcelain lined preserve kettle, lest metal may affect the taste), and
when cool, cork it in bottles lightly for three days, and then tight,
and seal them. Keep it in a dry and cool place, where it will not
freeze. It is very delicious for the sick, or the well.


_Delicious Milk Lemonade._

Pour a pint of boiling water on to six ounces of loaf sugar, add a
quarter of a pint of lemon juice, and half the quantity of good sherry
wine. Then add three quarters of a pint of cold milk, and strain the
whole, to make it nice and clear.


_Portable Lemonade._

Mix strained lemon juice with loaf sugar, in the proportion of four
large lemons to a pound, or as much as it will hold in solution; grate
the rind of the lemons into this, and preserve this in a jar. If this
is too sweet, add a little citric acid. Use a tablespoonful to a
tumbler of water.




CHAPTER XX.

RECEIPTS FOR FOOD AND DRINKS FOR THE SICK.


_General Remarks on the Preparation of Articles for the Sick._

Always have everything you use very sweet and clean, as the sense of
taste and smell are very sensitive in sickness. Never cook articles for
the sick over a smoke or blaze, as you will thus impart a smoky taste.
When the mixture is thick, stir often to prevent burning. Be very
careful, in putting in seasoning, not to put in _too much_, as it is
easy to add, but not to subtract.

The nicest way to flavor with orange or lemon peel, is to rub loaf
sugar on the peel till the oil is absorbed into it, and then use the
sugar to flavor and sweeten. Herbs and spice, when boiled to flavor,
should be tied in a rag, as they will not then burn on to the vessel at
the edges.

Always have a shawl at hand, also a clean towel, a clean handkerchief,
and a small waiter when you present food or drink. Many of the articles
for desserts and evening parties are good for the sick.


_An Excellent Relish for a Convalescent._

Cut some codfish to bits the size of a pea, and boil it a minute in
water to freshen it. Pour off all the water, and add some cream and a
little pepper.

Split and toast a Boston cracker, and put the above upon it. Milk with
a little butter may be used instead of cream.

Ham or smoked beef may be prepared in the same way. For a variety, beat
up an egg and stir it in, instead of cream, or with the cream.

These preparations are also good for a relish for a family at breakfast
or tea.


_Several Ways of Preparing Chickens for the Sick._

_Chicken tea_ is made by boiling any part of the chicken, and using the
broth weak with only a little salt.

_Chicken broth_ is made by boiling a chicken a good deal, and skimming
very thoroughly and seasoning with salt. A little rice, or pearl barley
improves it, or a little parsley may be used to flavor it.

_Chicken panada_ is made by pounding some of the meat of boiled chicken
in a mortar, with a little broth, and also a little salt and nutmeg.
Then pour in a little broth and boil it five minutes. It should be a
thick broth.


_Milk Porridge._

Make a thin batter with Indian meal and wheat flour, a spoonful of
each, and pour it into a quart of boiling milk and water, equal
portions of each. Salt it to the taste. Boil ten minutes.


_Rice Gruel, and Oatmeal Gruel._

Make a thin paste of ground rice or Indian meal, and pour into boiling
water, or boiling milk and water. Let the rice boil up once, but the
corn meal must boil half an hour. Season with salt, sugar, and nutmeg.
A little cream is a great improvement.


_Arrowroot and Tapioca Gruels._

Jamaica arrowroot is the best. Make a thin paste, and pour into boiling
water, and flavor with sugar, salt, and nutmeg. A little lemon juice
improves it.

Tapioca must be soaked in twice the quantity of water over night, then
add milk and water, and boil till it is soft. Flavor as above.


_Dropped Egg._

Salt some boiling water, and drop in it a raw egg out of the shell,
taking care not to break the yolk; take it up as soon as the white is
hardened. Dip some toast in hot water, and put salt or butter on to it,
and lay the egg on the top.


_Wheat Gruel for Young Children with weak stomachs, or for Invalids._

Tie half a pint of wheat flour in thick cotton, and boil it three or
four hours; then dry the lump and grate it when you use it. Prepare a
gruel of it by making a thin paste, and pouring it into boiling milk
and water, and flavor with salt. This is good for teething children.


_Another Panada._

Boil a mixture of one-fourth wine, and three-fourths water, and flavor
it with nutmeg or lemon. Stir in grated bread or crackers, and let it
boil up once.


_Herb Drinks._

Balm tea is often much relished by the sick. Sage tea also is good.
Balm, sage, and sorrel, mixed with sliced lemon and boiling water
poured on, and then sweetened, is a fine drink. Pennyroyal makes a good
drink to promote perspiration.

Herb drinks must often be renewed, as they grow insipid by standing.


_Other Simple Drinks._

Pour boiling water on to tamarinds, or mashed cranberries, or mashed
whortleberries, then pour off the water and sweeten it. Add a little
wine if allowed.

Toast bread very brown, and put it in cold water, and it is often
relished. Pour boiling water on to bread toasted very brown, and boil
it a minute, then strain it, and add a little cream and sugar. Make a
tea of parched corn pounded, and add sugar and cream.


_Cream Tartar Whey._

Warm a pint of fresh milk, when scalding hot, stir in a teaspoonful
of cream tartar, and if this does not turn it, add more, till it does.
Strain it, and sweeten with loaf sugar. Those who cannot eat wine whey
can eat this without trouble, and it is good in fevers.


_Simple Wine Whey._

Mix equal quantities of water, milk, and white wine. Warm the milk and
water, and then add the wine. Sweeten it to the taste.


_A great Favorite with Invalids._

Take one third brisk cider and two thirds water, sweeten it, and crumb
in toasted bread, or toasted crackers, and grate on nutmeg. Acid
jellies will answer for this, when cider cannot be obtained.


_A New Way of making Barley Water._

Put two tablespoonfuls of pearl barley into a quart jug, two great
spoonfuls of white sugar, a small pinch of salt, a small bit of orange,
or lemon peel, and a glass of calve’s foot jelly, and then fill the jug
with _boiling_ water. Shake it, and then let it stand till quite cold.
It is best made over night, to use next day. When the liquor is all
poured off, it may be filled again with boiling water, and it is again
very good.


_Panada._

Take two crackers, pour on boiling water, and let it simmer five
minutes; beat up an egg, sweeten and flavor it to your taste, and then
put the cracker to it.


_Arrowroot Blanc Mange._

Take two tablespoonfuls of arrowroot to one quart of milk, and a pinch
of salt. Scald the milk, sweeten it, and then stir in the arrowroot,
which must first be wet up with some of the milk. Let it boil up once.
Orange water, rose water, or lemon peel, can be used to flavor it. Pour
it into moulds to cool.


_Rice Flour Blanc Mange._

Four tablespoonfuls of ground rice and a pinch of salt wet up with a
little milk and stirred into a quart of boiling milk. Rub the rind of
a lemon with hard, refined sugar, till all the oil is absorbed, and
use the sugar to sweeten to your taste. Boil, stirring well, for eight
minutes; then cool it, and add the whites of three eggs cut to a froth.
Put it on to the fire, and stir constantly till boiling hot, then turn
it into moulds, or cups, and let it stand till cold.


_Another Receipt for American Isinglass Jelly._

One ounce of gelatine, or American isinglass.

Three pints of boiling water.

A pound and a half of loaf sugar.

Three lemons, cut in slices, leaving out the peel of one.

The whites of four eggs, cut to a stiff froth.

Soak the isinglass half an hour in cold water, then take it out and
pour on the boiling water. When cool, add the sugar, lemon, and
whites of eggs; boil all three or four minutes, then strain through a
jelly-bag, and add wine to your taste.


_Tapioca Jelly._

One cup full of tapioca.

Wash it two or three times, soak it in water, for five or six hours.
Then simmer it in the same water in which it has been soaked, with
a pinch of salt and bits of fresh lemon peel, until it becomes
transparent. Then add lemon juice, wine, and loaf sugar to flavor it.
Let all simmer well together, then pour into glasses to cool.


_Caudle._

To rice, or water gruel, add a wine-glass of wine, or ale, and season
with nutmeg and sugar.


_Sago Jelly._

Soak a tea-cup full of sago in cold water, half an hour, then pour
off the water, and add fresh, and soak it another half hour; and then
boil it slowly with a pinch of salt, a stick of cinnamon, or a bit of
orange, or lemon peel, stirring constantly. When thickened, add wine
and white sugar to suit the taste, and let it boil a minute; then turn
it into cups.


_Spiced Chocolate._

One quart of milk.

Two squares of chocolate.

One stick of cinnamon.

A little nutmeg.

Grate the chocolate. Boil the milk, reserving a little cold to moisten
the chocolate, which must be mixed perfectly smooth to a thin paste.
When the milk boils (in which the cinnamon must be put when cold, and
boil in it), stir in the chocolate, and let it boil up quickly, then
pour into a pitcher, and grate on the nutmeg. Rich cream added to the
milk, will improve it.


_Barley Water._

Put two ounces of pearl barley to half a pint of boiling water, and
let it simmer five minutes; pour off the water, and add two quarts of
boiling water, add two ounces sliced figs, two of stoned raisins, and
boil till it is reduced to a quart. Strain it for drink.


_Water Gruel._

To two quarts of boiling water, add one gill of Indian meal and a
heaped tablespoonful of flour, made into a paste and stirred in the
water. Let it boil slowly twenty minutes. Salt, sugar, and nutmeg to
the taste.

Oatmeal makes a fine gruel in the same way.


_Beef Tea._

Broil a pound of tender, juicy beef ten minutes, salt and pepper it,
cut it in small pieces, pour on a pint of boiling water, steep it half
an hour, and then pour it off to drink. Another way is slower, but
better. Cut the beef in small pieces, fill a junk bottle with them,
and keep it five hours in boiling water. Then pour out, and season the
juice thus obtained.


_Tomato Syrup._

Express the juice of ripe tomatoes, and put a pound of sugar to each
quart of the juice, put it in bottles, and set it aside. In a few weeks
it will have the appearance and flavor of pure wine of the best kind,
and mixed with water is a delightful beverage for the sick. No alcohol
is needed to preserve it.

The medical properties of the tomato are in high repute, and it is
supposed that this syrup retains all that is contained in the fruit.


_Arrowroot Custard for Invalids._

One tablespoonful of arrowroot.

One pint of milk. One egg.

One tablespoonful of sugar.

Mix the arrowroot with a little of the cold milk, put the milk into
a sauce-pan over the fire, and when it boils, stir in the arrowroot
and the egg and sugar, well beaten together. Let it scald, and pour
into cups to cool. A little cinnamon boiled in the milk flavors it
pleasantly.


_Sago for Invalids._

Wash one large spoonful of sago, boil it in a little water, with a
pinch of salt and one or two sticks of cinnamon, until it looks clear;
then add a pint of milk, boil all well together, and sweeten with loaf
sugar.


_Rice Jelly._

Make a thin paste of two ounces of rice flour, and three ounces of loaf
sugar, and boil them in a quart of water till transparent. Flavor with
rose, orange, or cinnamon water. It can be made also by boiling whole
rice long and slowly. A pinch of salt improves it.


_Sassafras Jelly._

Take the pith of sassafras boughs, break it in small pieces, and let
it soak in cold water till the water becomes glutinous. It has the
flavor of sassafras, and is much relished by the sick, and is also good
nourishment.


_Buttermilk Whey._

One quart of good buttermilk. When boiling, beat up the yolk of an egg,
and stir in, and, if it can be allowed, some thick cream, or a little
butter. Then beat the white to a stiff froth and stir in. Sugar and
spice if liked.


_Alum Whey._

Mix half an ounce of pounded alum with one pint of milk. Strain it, and
add sugar and nutmeg to the whey. It is good in cases of hemorrhages,
and sometimes for colic.


_Another Wine Whey._

One pint of boiling milk.

Two wine-glasses of wine.

Boil them one moment, stirring.

Take out the curd, and sweeten and flavor the whey.


_Mulled Wine._

One pint of wine and one pint of water.

Beat eight eggs and add to the above, while boiling, stirring rapidly.
As soon as it begins to boil it is done.


_Tamarind Whey._

Mix an ounce of tamarind pulp with a pint of milk, strain it, and add a
little white sugar to the whey.


_Egg Tea and Egg Coffee_ (_very fine_).

Beat the yolk of an egg with a great spoonful of sugar, and put it to a
tea-cup of cold tea or cold coffee. Add a half a tea-cup of water, cold
in summer and boiling in winter, and as much cream. Then whip the white
of the egg to a stiff froth and stir it in. It is very much relished by
invalids.


_Cranberry Tea._

Wash ripe cranberries, mash them, pour boiling water on them, and then
strain off the water and sweeten it, and grate on nutmeg.


_Apple Tea._

Take good pippins, slice them thin, pour on boiling water, and let it
stand some time. Pour off the water, and sweeten and flavor it.


_Egg and Milk._

Beat the yolk of an egg into a great spoonful of white sugar, or more.
Add a coffee cup of good milk, then beat the white of the egg to a
stiff froth, and stir it in. A little wine, or nutmeg to flavor it.


_Sago Milk._

Soak one ounce of sago in a pint of cold water an hour. Pour off the
water, and add a pint and a half of new milk. Simmer it slowly till the
sago and milk are well mixed. Flavor with sugar, nutmeg, and wine.


_Tapioca Milk._

Made like sago milk, only not boiled so long.


_Bread and Milk._

Take a slice of good bread and soak it in milk, and then put on a
little butter, and it is often very acceptable to the sick. In some
cases sprinkle a little salt on instead of butter.


_Egg Gruel._

Beat the yolk of an egg with a spoonful of white sugar, and then beat
the white separately, to a stiff froth. Pour water when boiling to the
yolk, then stir in the white and add spice, or any seasoning, to suit
the taste. When a person has taken a violent cold, after being warm in
bed give this as hot as it can be taken, and it is often a perfect cure.


_Ground Rice Gruel._

Take two tablespoonfuls of ground rice, and a pinch of salt, and mix
it with milk enough for a thin batter. Stir it with a pint of boiling
water, or boiling milk, and flavor with sugar and spice.


_Oatmeal Gruel._

Four tablespoonfuls of _grits_ (coarse oatmeal) and a pinch of salt,
into a pint of boiling water. Strain and flavor it while warm.

Or, take fine oatmeal and make a thin batter with a little cold water,
and pour it into a sauce-pan of boiling water.


_Simple Barley Water._

Take two ounces and a half of pearl barley, cleanse it, and boil it
ten minutes in half a pint of water. Strain out this water and add two
quarts of boiling water, and boil it down to one quart. Then strain it,
and flavor it with slices of lemon and sugar, or sugar and nutmeg.

This is very acceptable to the sick in fevers.


_Compound Barley Water._

Take two pints of simple barley water, a pint of hot water, two and a
half ounces of sliced figs, half an ounce of liquorice root sliced and
bruised, and two ounces and a half of raisins. Boil all down to two
pints, and strain it. This is slightly aperient.


_Cream Tartar Beverage._

Take two even teaspoonfuls of cream tartar, and pour on a pint of
boiling water, and flavor it with white sugar and lemon peel to suit
the taste. If this is too acid, add more _boiling_ water, as cold, or
lukewarm water, is not so good.


_Seidlitz Powders._

Two drachms of Rochelle salts, and two scruples of bicarbonate of soda,
in a white paper; thirty-five grains of tartaric acid in a blue one.

Dissolve that in the white paper in nearly half a tumbler of water,
then add the other powder, dissolved in another half tumbler of water.

Syrup mixed with the water makes it more agreeable. It is a gentle
laxative.


_Blackberry Syrup, for Cholera and Summer Complaint._

Two quarts of blackberry juice.

One pound of loaf sugar.

Half an ounce of nutmegs.

A quarter of an ounce of cloves.

Half an ounce of cinnamon.

Half an ounce of allspice.

Pulverize the spice, and boil all for fifteen or twenty minutes. When
cold, add a pint of brandy.


_Remarks on the Combinations of Cooking._

The preceding receipts have been tested by the best housekeepers.
In reviewing them, it will be seen that there are several ways of
combining the various articles, all of which have, in the hands of
good housekeepers, proved successful. Still it will be found that some
methods are more successful than others.

In most cases, the receipts have been written as given by the ladies,
who endorse them as _the best_. But it is believed that the following
general rules will enable a housekeeper to modify some of them to
advantage.

In using _the whites of eggs_, it is found, as shown by several
receipts, that various combinations are much lighter when they are cut
to a froth, and put in _the last thing_. This is so in batter puddings,
and several other receipts. It seems, therefore, probable that in all
cases, cake and pies, and puddings that will allow it, will be lighter
by adding the cut whites of the eggs _the last minute before cooking_.
Sponge cake especially would most probably be most easily made light by
this method.

In using alkalies with acids to raise mixtures, the poorest is
pearlash, the next best is saleratus; bicarbonate of soda is still
better, and sal volatile is best of all.

But one thing must be remembered in reference to sal volatile, and
that is, that the lightness made by it is owing to the disengagement
of the gas by _heat_. It is mixed with the flour, and when set in the
oven, the heat volatilizes and expels the gas, and thus the lightness
is induced. Of course _hot_ water must not be used to dissolve it, as
it would expel much of the gas. Sal volatile must be kept powdered, and
closely confined in glass bottles with ground glass stoppers. It is
certain to make any mixture light that can be raised by anything.

Cream tartar is best bought in lumps, and then pulverized and kept
corked.

When saleratus is used with sour milk or buttermilk, the flour should
be wet up with the sour milk, and then the alkali dissolved, and worked
in. This makes the effervescence take place _in the mixture_; whereas,
if the alkali is put into the sour liquid, much of the carbonic acid
generated is lost before it reaches the flour.

In all cases, then, where saleratus is used with acid wetting, it would
seem best to wet up the flour with at least a part of the sour liquid,
before putting in the alkali.

When the alkali is a light powder, it may sometimes be mixed thoroughly
with the flour, and then the sour liquid be mixed in. The experiment
can be made by any who like to learn the result. A lady who understands
chemistry may often improve her receipts by applying chemical
principles. All the lightness made by an acid and an alkali is owing
to the disengagement of carbonic acid, which is retained by the gluten
of the flour. Of course, then, that mode is best which secures most
effectually all the carbonic acid generated by the combination.

Cooking is often much improved by a judicious use of _sugar_ or
_molasses_. Thus, in soups, a very little sugar, say half a teaspoonful
to the quart, gives _body_ to the soup, and just about as much
sweetness as is found in the juices of the best and sweetest kinds of
meat. It is very good when the meats used are of inferior kind, and
destitute of sweetness. So in preparing vegetables that are destitute
of sweetness, a little sugar is a great improvement. Mashed turnips,
squash, and pumpkin, are all of them much improved by extracting all
the water, and adding a little sugar, especially so when they are poor.

A little molasses always improves all bread or cakes made of unbolted
wheat or rye.

A little lard or butter always improves cakes made of Indian meal, as
it makes them light and tender.

The careful use of _salt_ is very important in cooking. Everything is
better to have the salt cooked in it, but there should always be a
_little less_ salt than most would like, as it is easy for those who
wish more to add it, but none can subtract it.

When the shortening is butter, no salt is needed in cakes and puddings,
but in all combinations that have no salt in shortening, it must be
added. A little salt in sponge cake, custards, and the articles used
for desserts, made of gelatine, rice, sago, and tapioca, is a great
improvement, giving both _body_ and flavor.




CHAPTER XXI.

ON MAKING BUTTER AND CHEESE.


The directions in this article were given by a practical amateur
cheese-maker of Goshen, Conn., a place distinguished all over the
nation for the finest butter and cheese.


_Articles used in Making Cheese._

The articles used in making cheese are, a large tub, painted inside and
outside, to hold the milk, a large brass kettle to heat it, a cheese
basket, cheese hooks, cheese ladders, strainers of loose linen cloth,
and a cheese press.

It is indispensable that all the articles used be first washed
thoroughly, then scalded, and then dried thoroughly, before putting
away.


_Mode of Preparing the Rennet._

Do not remove any part of the curd that may be found in the rennet
(which is the stomach of a calf), as it is the best part. Take out
everything mixed with the curd in the stomach. Soak the rennet in a
quart of water, then hang it to dry, where flies will not reach it, and
keep the water bottled for use. Rennet differs in strength, so that no
precise rule can be given for quantity, but say about half a tea-cup
full to two pails of milk.


_To Make Cheese._

Strain the milk into the tub, keeping in all the cream. Heat a portion,
and then add it to the cold, till the whole is raised to 98° or 100°
Fahrenheit; no more and no less. Then put in the rennet, stirring well,
and take enough to have the curd form well in an hour. If it does not
form well, more must be stirred in.

When the curd is formed, cut it in small checks to the bottom, and then
break it gently with a skimmer, to make the whey separate. If this
is not done gently, the milk runs off, the whey turns white, and the
cheese is injured. The greener the whey, the better the cheese.

When the whey is separated, set the basket over the tub, spread the
strainer over, and dip the curd into it, occasionally lifting the
corners to hasten the draining.

Then draw up the corners, twist them, and set a stone on, to press
out the whey for ten minutes. Then again cut up the curd, and press
it again as before. Continue thus till it is thoroughly drained. Then
press it all into some regular form, and in cool weather it may stand
till next morning for more cheese to be added. But if the weather is
hot, it must be scalded the first day.


_To Scald the Curd._

Cut, or chop the curd into cakes the fourth of an inch in size, put
it in the strainer, and immerse it in the brass kettle of warm water,
enough to cover it. Then raise the temperature to 105°. Stir it well
till warmed through, say half an hour. Then gradually add cold water,
till reduced to 88° or 90°. Then drain the curd thoroughly as before,
and salt it, allowing four ounces of salt to every ten pounds of curd,
and mixing very thoroughly. Then put it into the small strainers, and
then into the cheese hoops, laying the strainer over smoothly, and
placing the follower on it. Put it to press, and let it remain two
days. When taken from the press, grease it with common butter or butter
made of whey cream, and set it on a shelf in a dark, cool room. Grease
and turn it every day till firm, and for six months grease and turn it
often.

If the cheese is to be colored, boil anatto with ley, and put to the
milk with the rennet. To make sage cheese, put in sage juice (some
add to the sage spinach juice) when you put in the rennet. Sew strips
of strong cotton around large cheeses, when taken from the press, to
preserve their form. In fly time, put cayenne pepper in the butter you
rub on.

_Stilton cheese_ is made of milk enriched by cream, and of a small size.

_Cottage cheese_ is made by pressing the curds of milk, and when free
from whey, adding cream or butter and salt.

_Welsh rabbit_ is made by melting cheese and adding wine and other
seasoning.

Old and dry cheese is very good grated and mixed with a little brandy,
just enough to wet it up.


_Directions for making Butter._

Two particulars are indispensable to success in making _good_ butter;
the first is, that the churning be frequent, so that the cream will
not grow bitter, or sour; and the second is _cleanliness_ in all the
implements and processes connected with it.

In hot weather it is important to keep the milk, cream, and butter as
cool as possible. For this purpose, those who have no ice-house, or
very cool milk-room, hang their cream down a well. In winter it is
needful to raise the temperature of the cream a little, while churning,
but care must be taken to do it very slightly, or the butter is
injured. The best way is to warm the churn, and churn in a warm room.

After the weather gets cold, the cream rises more perfectly after
allowing the milk to stand say ten or eleven hours, to set it over a
furnace a while till it is warmed through, but not heated hot enough to
boil. Then take it back, let it stand eleven hours longer, and skim it.
This secures more, and better cream.

In hot weather, set the churn into a tub of cold water, and churn
steadily, as stopping puts back the process, and injures the butter. In
hot weather, do not churn very fast, as it makes soft butter. When the
butter has come, collect it in a wooden bowl, which is the best article
to work it in, having first scalded it, and then put it in cold water
till cold. _Do not use the hand_ in working over butter, as it injures
it so much that a higher price is often paid for butter made without
using the hand.

A wooden spad made for the purpose is the proper article for working
over butter.

As soon as the butter is put in the bowl, pour in as much of the
coldest water as will allow you to work the butter, and keep adding
and pouring off cold water, as you work it, until the water will run
off clear. It is continuing this process until _all_ the buttermilk
is extracted, which alone will secure butter that will keep good and
sweet. Water hastens the process, but butter keeps longer not to have
it used.

No precise direction can be given for salting, as tastes vary so much
in regard to this. It is a good way to notice the proportions which are
most agreeable, and note the measure, and then measure ever after.

In salting down in firkins, use the nicest rock salt, as much depends
on the nature of the salt. The firkins must be very thoroughly
seasoned, and the bottom covered with salt, and the sides rubbed with
it. Pack the butter in layers, with salt between. After a few days,
the butter will shrink from the sides, and then the space must be
filled with new and nice brine. Muslin spread under and over the layer
of salt, between the layers of butter is a good plan, as it saves the
butter.

It is said that butter will be preserved sweet a long time for
journeys, or voyages, by working into it very thoroughly a mixture
composed of one-fourth salt, one-fourth saltpetre, and two-fourths
white sugar.

In large dairies, the milk is churned soon after it is taken from the
cow.

The quality of butter depends very much upon the kind of cows. Those
who give a great deal of milk, are usually small and thin. Every cow
should have a tea-cup full of salt each week, and must be well fed.
Green cornstalks and carrots, are excellent for cows. Turnips, cabbage,
and parsnips spoil the milk. The waste of the kitchen, with a quart of
corn meal, and as much hay as she will eat daily, is good fare. Skimmed
milk for drink is good, and if it is refused, withhold water, and the
cow will learn to love it. Milk three times a day, and you get much
more cream; stripping must be done thoroughly, or you lose cream, and
dry up the cow. Never make a cow run, as it injures the milk. Use tin
vessels for milk.

A stoneware churn is best, and a tin one is better than wood. Keep milk
in a cool place, where air circulates freely; close air spoils milk
and cream. Never stir milk after it is set, as it stops the rising of
the cream. Skim milk as soon as it becomes _loppard_. Put a little ice
in each pan in hot weather, and you get more cream. In skimming milk,
do not scrape off the hardest portion that adheres to the pan, as it
injures the butter. Put a spoonful of salt to each pailful of milk
(except what is for family use), and it makes the butter sweeter, and
come easier. Salt your cream as you gather it, and it keeps better, and
makes sweeter butter. In hot weather churn in the coolest part of the
day, and in a cool place, and do not shut the air out of the churn, as
it is necessary to make the butter come. Butter is best, to work it
enough the first time. Never work it three times. It will keep better
to work out the buttermilk without putting in water. The more entirely
it is freed from buttermilk, the longer it will keep sweet.

A good brine is made for butter by dissolving a quart of fine salt,
a pound of loaf sugar, and a teaspoonful of saltpetre in two quarts
of water, and then strain it on to the butter. Packed butter is most
perfectly preserved sweet by setting the firkin into a larger firkin,
and filling in with good brine, and covering it. Butter will keep sweet
a year thus.

Buttermilk kept in potter’s ware dissolves the glazing, and becomes
poisonous.

Never scald strainers or milky vessels till thoroughly washed, as the
milk or cream put in them will be injured by it. The best way to scald
such vessels is to plunge them all over into scalding water, and then
every spot is scalded.

Butter will sometimes not come because the air is too much excluded
from the churn.




CHAPTER XXII.

ARTICLES AND CONVENIENCES FOR THE SICK.


“In some maladies,” says Dr. Pereira, “as fevers and acute inflammatory
diseases, an almost unlimited use of fluids is admitted, under the
names of _slops_, _thin diet_, _fever diet_, _broth diet_, &c. They
quench thirst, lessen the stimulating quality of the blood, increase
its fluidity, and promote the actions of the secreting organs. They are
sometimes useful, also, in lessening the irritating contents of the
alimentary canal.”

“But in some maladies it is necessary to restrict the quantity of
fluids taken, or, in other words, to employ a _dry diet_.”

As it is so customary for invalids to throng to watering places, the
following remarks contain very important cautions.

“The Congress Water at Saratoga,” says Dr. Lee, “though it possesses
active medical qualities, yet, except in diseases attended with
inflammatory action, seldom occasions unpleasant consequences, unless
drank in very large quantities, when it often causes serious, if
not dangerous effects.” Dr. Steel, a physician who has devoted much
attention to this subject, remarks, “About _three pints_ should be
taken, an hour or two before breakfast, and be followed by exercise, to
produce a cathartic effect. Where more is needed for this effect, add a
teaspoonful or two of Epsom salts to the first tumbler. It should not
be drank at all during the remainder of the day by those who wish to
experience the full benefit of its use. It would be better for those
whose complaints render them fit subjects for its administration, if
the fountain should be locked up, and no one suffered to approach it
after the hour of nine or ten in the morning.”

It is probable that multitudes who frequent mineral springs, not only
lose all benefit, but suffer injury by the excessive use of the water.
Such waters should, by invalids, be taken under the direction of a
physician well acquainted with their nature and uses.

Alcoholic drinks should never be given to the sick, except by direction
of a physician, as they are powerful medical agents, and in some cases
would increase disease.

The acid drinks are ordinarily those most relished by the sick, and
they are, usually, very serviceable, especially in febrile and other
inflammatory attacks. Ice cream and drinks are good for the sick,
especially in fevers.

When a person is debilitated by sickness, the stomach should never be
loaded with rich food. Nor should the palate be tempted by favorite
articles, when no appetite for food exists, as this is the indication
of nature that the stomach is in no order to digest food.

Dr. Lee remarks, “We regard rice as the most valuable of all the
articles of food, in cases of the derangement of the digestive organs.
It nourishes, while it soothes the irritable mucous membrane, and
while it supports strength, never seems to aggravate the existing
disease. For acute, or chronic affections of the alimentary canal,
rice water for drink, and rice jelly for food, seem peculiarly well
adapted, and appear to exert a specific influence in bringing about a
recovery. These preparations are invaluable also in convalescence from
acute fevers and other maladies, and in the summer complaints of young
children.”

“Isinglass is a very pure form of gelatine, and dissolved in milk,
sweetened and flavored, is taken with advantage by convalescents when
recovering from debility.”

Cod sounds, and the American gelatine, are equally good. Calve’s foot
jelly, blanc mange, and other gelatinous food, are among the best kinds
of nourishment, especially in cases of cholera infantum. The slight
quantity of spice or wine used to flavor such articles, except in
peculiar cases, cannot do any injury.

Buttered toast, either dry or dipped, rarely is a suitable article for
the sick, as melted oils are very difficult of digestion. Where there
are strong powers of digestion, it may be proper.

Many cases of illness, among both adults and children, are readily
cured by _abstinence from all food_. Headaches, disordered stomachs,
and many other attacks, are caused, often, by violating the rules of
health laid down in the preceding chapter, and in consequence, some
part of the system is overloaded, or some of the organs are clogged.
Omitting one, two, or three meals, as the case may be, gives the system
a chance to rest, and thus to gain strength, and allows the clogged
organs to dispose of their burdens. The practice of giving drugs to
“clear out the stomach,” though it may afford the needed relief, always
weakens the system, while _abstinence_ secures the good result, and yet
does no injury.

Said a young gentleman to a distinguished medical practitioner of
Philadelphia,—“Doctor, what do you do for yourself, when you have a
turn of headache, or other slight attack?” “Go without my dinner,”
was the reply. “Well, if that will not do, what do you do then?”
“Go without my supper,” was the answer. “But if that does not cure
you, what then?” “Go without my breakfast. We physicians seldom take
medicines ourselves, or use them in our families, for _we_ know that
_starving_ is better, but we cannot make our patients believe it.”

Many cases of slight indisposition are cured by a _change of diet_.
Thus, if a person suffers from constipation, and, as the consequence,
has headaches, slight attacks of fever, or dyspepsia, the cause often
may be removed by eating rye mush and molasses for breakfast, brown
bread, baked apples, and other fruits.

In cases of diarrhœa, rice water for drink, and rice pudding or jelly,
will often remove the evil.

In cases of long-continued confinement from sickness, it is very
desirable to have a good variety of articles for the sick, as the
invalid is wearied with the same round, and perhaps may be suffering
for some ingredient of food, which is not found in the articles
provided.

For this reason, a large number of receipts of articles for the sick
have been provided in this work. In preparing them, great care should
be used to have every article employed clean and pure, and to prevent
any burning in cooking, as the sensibilities of the sick to bad tastes
and smells are very acute.

It is often the case in dyspepsia and cholera infantum, that jellies
of American gelatine are very much better than any preparations of
farinaceous food, being much more easily digested.

It would be a happy thing for the sick, and a most benevolent custom,
if the young ladies of a place should practise cooking the various
articles for the sick, and carrying them to invalids as an offering
of kindness and sympathy. It would be twice a blessing, first to the
invalid, and quite as much to the young benefactress.

There are many little comforts and alleviations for the sick, which
should be carefully attended to, which are particularly pointed out in
the chapter on the Care of the Sick, in the Domestic Economy. Such, for
example, as keeping a room neat, clean, and in perfect order, having
every article in use sweet and clean, keeping a good supply of cool
water, providing pleasant perfumes, lemons, flowers, and other objects
agreeable to the senses, speaking softly, kindly, and cheerfully, and
reading the Bible and other cheering books of the kind, whenever it
will be acceptable. Be careful to change the linen next the skin, and
the bed linen, often. Be sure to ventilate the room thoroughly, two or
three times a day, as pure air is a great restorative of health and
strength. Wash the skin often, as it has a great tendency to restore
health, and never, except in very peculiar cases, can do any harm.

Always request a physician to _write_ all his directions, that no
mistake may be made, and nothing be forgotten. Always inquire of him
as to the exact mode of preparing every article ordered, and never
venture to alter, or omit, what he directs, unless you are sure that
you are better qualified to practise than he, in which case he should
be dismissed, and you should assume his duties.

Always keep all medicines in papers and vials, _labelled_, that poisons
be not given by mistake, or other injurious articles used.

The drawing at Fig. 5 represents a contrivance for the sick, which
ought to be prepared in every village, to rent out to those who need it.

[Illustration: Fig. 5.]

It is called the _Water Bed_, or _Hydrostatic Couch_, and is made at
an expense of from twelve to fifteen dollars. The object of it is to
relieve the sufferings of those who, from extreme emaciation, or from
ulcers, or bed sores, are great sufferers from the pressure of the bed
on these sore places. This kind of bed proves a great relief from this
kind of suffering.

It consists of a wooden box, six feet long, and two feet and a half
wide at the top, and the sides gradually sloping inward, making it
fourteen inches deep. This is lined with sheet zinc, to make it water
tight. Over this is thrown, and fastened to the edge of the box, a
sheet of thick India rubber, water-proof cloth, large enough for _an
entire lining_ to the inside of the box. The edges of it are first
made to adhere to the upper edge of the box with spirit varnish, and
then a thin strip of board is nailed on, to fasten it firmly, and make
it water tight. Near the bottom, at A, is a hole and plug, to let off
water; and at B, a tin tube, soldered in the upper part of the outside,
to pour water in. When used, the box is to be filled half full of
water, about blood warmth. Then a woollen blanket and pillow are laid
upon the India rubber cloth, and the patient laid on them, and he will
float as he would in water, and there will be no pressure on any part
of the body greater than is felt when the body is in water.

This is important for all who suffer from bed sores, or sloughing in
protracted fevers, from diseases in the hip-joint, from diseases of
the spine, lingering consumption, and all diseases that compel to
a protracted recumbent position. None but those who have seen, or
experienced the relief and comfort secured to sufferers by this bed,
can conceive of its value. The writer saw the case of a young man, who
was enduring indescribable tortures with the most dreadful ulcers all
over his body, and who had for several days and nights been unable
to sleep, from extreme suffering. This bed was made for him, as an
experiment, after trying every other mode of relief in vain. It was
placed by his bedside, and the water poured in, and then his friends
raised him with the greatest care in a blanket, and laid him on it.
Instantly his groans ceased, an expression of relief and delight stole
over his countenance, and exhausted nature sunk instantly into the most
peaceful and protracted slumbers. And ever after, he was relieved from
his former sufferings. Every hospital, every alms-house, and every
village should have the means of obtaining such a bed for the many
classes of sufferers who would thus find relief, and it is _woman_ who
should interest herself to secure such a comfort for the sick, who
especially are commended to her benevolent ministries.

[Illustration: The sick couch]

The drawing, AA, is the outline of a _sick couch_, such as would prove
a great comfort in every family, and at a small expense. The following
are the dimensions:--Length of seat inside, six feet three inches;
breadth, twenty-eight inches; height of the seat from the floor,
thirteen inches. The swing frame, _dd_, is three feet long, and is
fastened three feet from the head-board by a very large pin or screw.
The seat should be of sacking, and a thick hair mattrass, or cushion
for a bed or cushion and be divided into two parts, where the swing
frame is fastened. The frame is fastened by large screws at _ff_. The
supporter, _ee_, is fastened by large and strong hinges to the upper
part of the frame, and is moved into the notches made in the frame of
the seat. When in the notch _a_, the frame is very low; when in notch
_b_, it is higher; and when at _c_, it is as high as is needful to
raise the sick. A piece of sacking is to be fastened over the frame,
leaving it loose, especially at the top, and leaving a space at _o_,
so as to give room for a pillow, and so that the head can be thrown a
little back. The frame and supporter must be thick and strong. When
not in use for the sick, the frame can be laid down, and the cushion
laid over it, and then with a frill fastened in front, it makes a
good-looking and most comfortable chamber couch, or a lolling sofa for
a sitting-room.

Such a couch saves much labor to friends and nurses, because it is
so low, so easily moved, and the nurse can go around it and work on
both sides so easily, while the frame raises the patient with great
ease and comfort. It would be a good plan to engage some carpenter or
cabinet-maker, in every village, to provide such an article to rent
out, and probably it would be in constant demand.

The frame, supporter, hinges, and screws, must be _very_ strong, or
they will break.

Fig. 6 represents a contrivance for securing exercise in the open air
for invalids, which would often prove convenient and agreeable.

Such an article can be easily made of the broken toy of a child, called
a velocipede, or the back wheels of a child’s wagon. Nothing but shafts
are needed, and a common rocking-chair, with a foot-board nailed
across the front rocker, on which to rest the feet. The chair is then
slipped along back to the axle of the wheels, so that the shafts, when
raised, are under the seat, and lift it up. In this way an invalid can
be rolled through yards and gardens with very little effort, and with
great comfort and relief to the imprisoned sufferer, who perhaps can
ride in no other way.

[Illustration: Fig. 6.]

There is no way of relieving the weariness and nervousness of an
invalid more effectually than by rubbing the limbs and arms with the
bare hand of a healthful person.

Those who believe in animal magnetism would say, that by this method,
the well person imparts a portion of the magnetism of a healthful body
to aid in restoring the sick. Those who do not believe in it, will say
that it _soothes and strengthens the nerves_. Either way, it is a great
comfort to a suffering invalid.

It is unhealthful to sleep with a sick person, especially one who has
lung complaints, as the breath and effluvia from the skin sometimes
communicate disease, even in complaints not contagious. Young children
should not sleep with the aged, because their healthful fluids will be
absorbed.




CHAPTER XXIII.

THE PROVIDING AND CARE OF FAMILY STORES.


The art of keeping a good table, consists, not in loading on a variety
at each meal, but rather in securing a _successive_ variety, a table
neatly and tastefully set, and everything that is on it, cooked in the
best manner.

There are some families who provide an abundance of the most expensive
and choice articles, and spare no expenses in any respect, who yet
have everything cooked in such a miserable way, and a table set in so
slovenly a manner, that a person accustomed to a _really_ good table,
can scarcely taste a morsel with any enjoyment.

On the contrary, there are many tables where the closest economy is
practised, and yet the table-cloth is so white and smooth, the dishes,
silver, glass, and other table articles so bright, and arranged with
such propriety, the bread so white, light, and sweet, the butter so
beautiful, and every other article of food so well cooked, and so
neatly and tastefully served, that everything seems good, and pleases
both the eye and the palate.

A habit of _doing everything in the best manner_, is of unspeakable
importance to a housekeeper, and every woman ought to _aim_ at it,
however great the difficulties she may have to meet. If a young
housekeeper commences with a determination to _try_ to do _everything_
in the best manner, and perseveres in the effort, meeting all obstacles
with patient cheerfulness, not only the moral, but the intellectual
tone of her mind is elevated by the attempt. Although she may meet many
insuperable difficulties, and may never reach the standard at which
she aims, the simple effort, _persevered_ in, will have an elevating
influence on her character, while at the same time she actually will
reach a point of excellence far ahead of those who, discouraged
by many obstacles, give up in despair, and resolve to make no more
efforts, and let things go as they will. The grand distinction between
a noble and an ignoble mind is, that one _will_ control circumstances;
the other yields, and allows circumstances to control her.

It should be borne in mind, that the constitution of man demands _a
variety_ of food, and that it is just as cheap to keep on hand a good
variety of materials in the store-closet, so as to make a frequent
change, as it is to buy one or two articles at once, and live on them
exclusively, till every person is tired of them, and then buy two or
three more of another kind.

It is too frequently the case, that families fall into a very limited
round of articles, and continue the same course from one year to
another, when there is a much greater variety within reach, of articles
which are just as cheap and easily obtained, and yet remain unthought
of and untouched.

A thrifty and generous provider, will see that her store-closet is
furnished with such a variety of articles, that successive changes can
be made, and for a good length of time. To aid in this, a slight sketch
of a well-provided store-closet will be given, with a description of
the manner in which each article should be stored and kept, in order
to avoid waste and injury. To this will be added, modes of securing a
_successive variety_, within the reach of all in moderate circumstances.

It is best to have a store-closet open from a kitchen, because the
kitchen fire keeps the atmosphere dry, and this prevents the articles
stored from moulding, and other injury from dampness. Yet it must not
be kept warm, as there are many articles which are injured by warmth.

A _cool_ and _dry_ place is indispensable for a store-room, and a
small window over the door, and another opening out-doors, is a great
advantage, by securing coolness, and a circulation of fresh air.

_Flour_ should be kept in a barrel, with a flour scoop to dip it, a
sieve to sift it, and a pan to hold the sifted flour, either in the
barrel, or close at hand. The barrel should have a tight cover to keep
out mice and vermin. It is best, when it can be conveniently done,
to find, by trial, a lot of first-rate flour, and then buy a year’s
supply. But this should not be done, unless there are accommodations
for keeping it dry and cool, and protecting it from vermin.

_Unbolted flour_ should be stored in barrels, and always be kept on
hand, as regularly as fine flour.

_Indian meal_ should be purchased in small quantities, say fifteen or
twenty pounds at a time, and be kept in a covered tub or keg. When new
and sweet, it should not be scalded, but when not perfectly fresh and
good when used, it is improved by scalding. It must be kept very cool
and dry, and if occasionally stirred, is preserved more surely from
growing sour or musty.

_Rye_ should be bought in small quantities, say forty or fifty pounds
at a time, and be kept in a keg, or half barrel with a cover.

_Buckwheat_, _Rice_, _Hominy_, and _Ground Rice_, must be purchased in
small quantities, and kept in covered kegs, or tubs. Several of these
articles are infested with small black insects, and examination must
occasionally be made for them.

_Arrowroot_, _Tapioca_, _Sago_, _Pearl Barley_, _American Isinglass_,
_Macaroni_, _Vermacelli_, and _Oatmeal_, are all articles which help
to make an agreeable variety, and it is just as cheap to buy a small
quantity of each, as it is to buy a larger quantity of two or three
articles. Eight or ten pounds of each of these articles of food can
be stored in covered jars, or covered wood boxes, and then they are
always at hand to help make a variety. All of them are very healthful
food, and help to form many delightful dishes for desserts. Some of
the most healthful puddings are those made of rice, tapioca, sago, and
macaroni, while isinglass, or American gelatine, form elegant articles
for desserts, and is also excellent for the sick.

_Sugars_ should not be bought by the barrel, as the brown is apt to
turn to molasses, and run out on to the floor. It is best to keep
four qualities of sugar on hand. Refined loaf for tea, crushed sugar
for the nicest preserves and to use with fruit, nice brown sugar for
coffee, and common brown for cooking and more common use. The loaf can
be stored in the papers, on a shelf. The others should be kept in close
covered kegs, or covered wooden articles made for the purpose.

_Butter_ must be kept in the dryest and coldest place you can find, in
vessels of either stone, earthen, or wood, and never in tin.

_Lard and Drippings_ must be kept in a dry, cold place, and should not
be salted. Usually the cellar is the best place for them. Earthen, or
stone jars are the best to store them in.

_Salt_ must be kept in the _dryest_ place that can be found. _Rock
salt_ is the best for table salt. It should be washed, dried, pounded,
sifted, and stored in a glass jar, and covered close. It is common to
find it growing damp in the _salt stands_ for the table. It should then
be set by the fire to dry, and afterwards be reduced to fine powder
again. Nothing is more disagreeable than coarse or damp salt on a table.

_Vinegar_ is best made of wine, or cider. Buy a keg, or half barrel of
it, and set it in the cellar, and then keep a supply for the castors in
a junk bottle in the kitchen. If too strong, it _eats_ the pickles.

Pickles never must be kept in glazed ware, as the vinegar forms a
poisonous compound with the glazing.

_Oil_ must be kept in the cellar. _Winter strained_ must be got in cold
weather, as the _summer strained_ will not burn except in warm weather.
_The best of lard_ oil is preferred to every other by those who use it.
Some lard oil is very poor.

_Molasses_, if bought by the barrel, or half barrel, should be kept
in the cellar. Sugar bakers’ is best for the table, and Porto Rico
for cooking. If bought in small quantities, it should be kept in
a demijohn. No vessel should be corked or bunged, if filled with
molasses, as it will swell, and burst the vessel, or run over.

_Hard Soap_ should be bought by large quantity, and laid to harden on
a shelf, in a very dry place. It is much more economical to buy hard,
than soft soap, as those who use soft soap are very apt to waste it in
using it, as they cannot do with hard soap.

_Starch_ it is best to buy by a large quantity. It comes very nicely
put up in papers, a pound or two in each paper, and packed in a box.
Starch, which by the single pound is five cents a pound, if bought by
the box, is only three cents a pound, and this makes a good deal of
difference, in a large family, by the year. The high-priced starch is
cheapest in the end.

_Indigo_ is not always good. When a good lot is found by trial, it is
best to get enough for a year or two, and store it in a tight tin box.

_Coffee_ it is best to buy by the bag, as it improves by keeping. Let
it hang in the bag, in a dry place, and it loses its rank smell and
taste.

_Tea_, if bought by the box, is about five cents a pound cheaper than
by small quantities. If well put up in boxes lined with lead, it keeps
perfectly. But put up in paper, it soon loses its flavor. It therefore
should, if in small quantities, be put in glass, or tin, and shut tight.

_Saleratus_ should be bought in small quantities, then powdered,
sifted, and kept tight corked in a large mouth glass bottle.

It grows damp if exposed to the air, and then cannot be used properly.

_Raisins_ should not be bought in large quantities, as they are injured
by time. It is best to buy the small boxes.

_Currants_ for cake should be prepared as directed for cake, and set by
for use in a jar.

_Lemon_ and _Orange Peel_ should be dried, pounded, and set up in
corked glass jars.

_Nutmeg_, _Cinnamon_, _Cloves_, _Mace_, and _Allspice_, should be
pounded fine, and corked tight in small glass bottles with mouths
large enough for a junk bottle cork, and then put in a tight tin box,
made for the purpose. Or they can be put in small tin boxes with tight
covers. Essences are as good as spices.

_Sweet Herbs_ should be dried, and the stalks thrown away, and the
rest be kept in corked large mouth bottles, or small tin boxes.

_Cream Tartar_, _Citric_ and _Tartaric Acids_, _Bicarbonate of Soda_,
and _Essences_, should be kept in corked glass jars. Sal volatile must
be kept in a large-mouth bottle, with a ground glass stopper to make it
air-tight. Use cold water in dissolving it. It must be powdered.

_Preserves_ and _Jellies_ should be kept in glass or stone, in a cool,
dry place, well sealed, or tied with bladder covers. If properly made,
and thus put up, they never will ferment. If it is difficult to find a
cool, dry place, pack the jars in a box, and fill the interstices with
sand, very thoroughly dried. It is best to put jellies in tumblers, or
small glass jars, so as to open only a small quantity at a time.

The most easy way of keeping _Hams_ perfectly is to wrap and tie them
in paper, and pack them in boxes or barrels with ashes. The ashes must
fill all interstices, but must not touch the hams, as it absorbs the
fat. It is much less labor, and quite as certain a mode as the one
previously mentioned. It keeps them sweet, and protects from all kinds
of insects.

After smoked beef, or ham, are cut, hang them in a coarse linen bag in
the cellar, and tie it up to keep out flies.

Keep _Cheese_ in a cool, dry place, and after it is cut, wrap it in a
linen cloth, and keep it in a tight tin box.

Keep _Bread_ in a tin covered box, and it will keep fresh and good
longer than if left exposed to the air.

_Cake_ also should be kept in a tight tin box. Tin boxes made with
covers like trunks, with handles at the ends, are best for bread and
cake.

Smoked herring keep in the cellar.

_Codfish_ is improved by changing it, once in a while, back and forth
from garret to cellar. Some dislike to have it in the house anywhere.

All _salted provision_ must be watched, and kept under the brine. When
the brine looks bloody, or smells badly, it must be scalded, and more
salt put to it, and poured over the meat.

Salt fish barrels must not be kept near other food, as they impart a
fishy smell and taste to it.

_Cabbages_ and _Turnips_ in the cellar often impart a bad smell to a
house. All decayed vegetable matter should be kept out of a cellar, as
it creates a miasma, that sometimes causes the most fatal diseases.
Therefore, always take care of the vegetable bins, and have all that
are decaying removed.

A cellar should be whitewashed often, to keep it sweet and clean.




CHAPTER XXIV.

SUGGESTIONS IN REFERENCE TO PROVIDING A SUCCESSIVE VARIETY OF FOOD.


By a little skill and calculation, a housekeeper may contrive to keep
a constant change of agreeable varieties on her table, and that,
too, without violating the rules either of health or economy. Some
suggestions will be offered to aid in this object.

In the first place, much can be effected by keeping on hand a good
supply of the various bread-stuffs. Good raised bread, of fine flour,
must be the grand staple, but this may, every day, be accompanied
with varieties of bread made of unbolted flour, or rye and Indian, or
Indian alone, or potato and apple bread, or rice bread, or the various
biscuits and rusk. It will be found that these are all more acceptable,
if there are occasional changes, than if any one of them is continued a
long time.

All the dough of these different kinds of bread, when light, can, with
very little trouble, be made into drop cakes, or griddle cakes for
breakfast, or tea, by adding some milk and eggs, and in some cases a
little melted lard.

Very fine common cake is also easily made, at every baking, by taking
some of the dough of bread and working in sugar, butter, and eggs, by
the receipt given for Bread Cake and Child’s Feather Cake. These can be
made more or less sweet and rich at pleasure.

In the next place, a good supply of _fruit_ in the garden, and stored
in the cellar, enables a housekeeper to keep up a constant variety. The
directions given under the head of _Modes of Preparing Apples for the
Tea Table_, will be found very useful for this purpose, while those for
preparing _Rice and Dry Bread_ are equally serviceable in helping out
a cheap and convenient variety. There are some cheap dishes at the end
also, which are very good, and easily made.

The directions for preparing _Hashes_, also, are recommended as a mode
of economizing, that is very acceptable when properly done. The little
relishes obtained in summer from the garden, are very serviceable in
securing varieties. Among these may be mentioned cucumbers, radishes,
cabbage sprouts, Jerusalem artichokes, and tomatoes, all of which are
very fine eaten with salt and vinegar.

Mush, hominy, tapioca, and rice cooked, and then, when cold, fried on a
griddle, are great favorites. If salt pork rinds are used to grease the
griddle, there will be so little fat used, that no injury to the most
delicate stomachs can result from this mode of cooking.

In winter, the breakfast-table and tea-table can be supplied by a most
inviting variety of muffins, griddle cakes, drop cakes, and waffles
made of rice, corn meal, and unbolted flour, all of which are very
healthful and very agreeable to the palate.

One mode of securing a good variety, in those months in spring when
fruits and vegetables fail, is by a wise providence in drying and
preserving fruits and vegetables. The following directions will aid in
this particular.


_Directions for Preserving Fruits and Vegetables._

Blackberries, whortleberries, currants, raspberries, peaches, plums,
apples, pears, and quinces, can all be preserved by drying them in the
sun, and then storing them in bags in a cool, dry place.

Green currants, and green gooseberries, can be preserved thus. Gather
them when perfectly dry, put them into very dry junk bottles, free
from stems and eyes, set the bottles uncorked into a kettle of cold
water, and then make the water boil. Then cork the bottles (the fruit
should come up to the cork), and seal them with bee’s wax and rosin.
Store them in a dry, cool place, where they will not freeze. Everything
depends on success in excluding _air and water_. Putting them in boxes,
and filling the interstices with dry sand, is the surest mode of
storing the bottles.

There is a receipt for _Preserving Fruit in Water_, that has found
its way into many receipt books, which seems to the writer to be a
dangerous and useless one, and never should be tried.

It directs that fruit be put in bottles, then water poured in, and then
the bottles _corked tight_, and the cork tied. Then the bottles are to
be set in a kettle of water, which is to be heated _till it boils_. Of
course this must burst the bottles, or throw out the corks.

It is probable that the design of some plan of this sort was to exclude
all air from the fruit. This could be done by setting the bottles
filled with fruit and water, _uncorked_, in a kettle of water, and
making the water boil. Then cork the bottles and seal them, and the
water will remain, but all air will be excluded. The writer never has
seen a person who has tried this method, and perhaps it may be one in
which fruit can be preserved.

_Peach Leather_ is much relished by invalids, and is prepared thus.
Squeeze out the pulp of very ripe peaches, and spread it half an inch
thick on plates or shingles, and let it dry till quite hard and tough.
Then roll it up in layers, with clean paper between.

_Tomato Leather_ can be made in the same way. But the following is
the best mode of preserving tomatoes. Pour boiling water on to the
ripe tomatoes, and peel them. Boil them till reduced to half the
original quantity, throwing in, at first, a tea-cup of sugar and a
large spoonful of salt for every gallon. When reduced to one half the
quantity, spread it on flat dishes half an inch thick, and dry it eight
or ten days in the sun, and air. Then put it in layers, with paper
between. In preparing it for table, stew it slowly in a good deal of
water, adding bread crumbs and seasoning.

Some persons dry them in a brick oven instead of the sun. A quicker,
but not so nice a way, is simply to cut them in two without peeling,
and dry them in the oven.

_Tomato Figs_ are prepared thus:--Scald and peel them, and then boil
them in one-third the weight of sugar, till they are penetrated by
it. Then flatten and dry them in the sun, occasionally turning them
and sprinkling with sugar. When dry, pack them in layers, with sugar
sprinkled between.

_Green Corn_ can be preserved by simply turning back the husk, all but
the last thin layer, and then hanging it in the sun, or a very warm
room. When it is to be used, boil it till soft, and then cut it off
the cob and mix it with butter, and add, if you like, dried Lima beans
cooked soft, in another vessel. The summer sweet corn is the proper
kind to dry. Lima beans can be dried in the sun when young and tender.
They are good to bake, when dried after they are ripe.

Another mode is to parboil sweet corn, cut it from the cobs, and dry it
in the sun. Then store it in a dry, cool place, in a bag.

Another way is to take off all the husks but the thin one next the
corn; tie this over the corn tight, and pack it in salt.

Try each of these ways, and make _succotash_ with dried Lima beans,
adding a little cream to the broth. If done right, it is excellent in
winter. In cutting corn from cobs, in all cases take care not to cut
off any cob, as it gives a bad taste.

Peas, also, are good to dry, and make a fine dish thus. Take six or
eight pounds of corned beef, put it in a large pot and fill it with
water, and put in two quarts of dried peas. Let them boil till soft,
and then add the sweet herb seasoning, or take it up without any other
seasoning than a little pepper and the salt of the meat.

Beef, cooked thus, is excellent when cold, and the pea soup, thus made,
is highly relished. No dish is cheaper, or more easily prepared.

Pumpkins and squashes can be peeled and cut in strips and dried in the
sun.

The stalks of rhubarb or the pie plant can be slivered fine and dried
in the sun for winter use.

A housekeeper who will take pains to have these things done in the
proper season, and well stored, will always keep an inviting table, in
those months when others so much complain that they can find no variety.

It is a good plan for a housekeeper the first day, or week of every
month, to make a calculation of her bill of fare for that month, going
over such a receipt-book as this, and ascertaining how many of the
varieties offered she can secure. At the same time she can be laying
in stores of articles for future use. System in this matter is of
essential service.




CHAPTER XXV.

ON BREAD MAKING.


Few housekeepers are aware of their responsibility in reference to the
_bread_ furnished for their family. As this is the principal article of
food, there is no one thing on which the health of a family, especially
of young children, is more dependant.

Baker’s bread is often made of musty, sour, or other bad flour, which
is made to look light, and the bad taste removed by unhealthy drugs. Of
course, to the evil of unhealthy flour, is added unhealthy drugs, and
there is no mode of discovering the imposition.

The only safe mode is, to have all bread made in the family, and to
take all needful care that it shall uniformly be good.

Bread made of _salt_, or _milk risings_, is good only the first day,
and to those accustomed to good _yeast bread_, it is offensive to the
smell, and not acceptable to the palate.

Bread made of sour milk, or buttermilk and an alkali, or made by mixing
cream tartar in the flour, and an alkali in the wetting, is good as an
occasional resort, in emergencies, when good yeast cannot be preserved,
or when there is not time to wait for yeast rising.

But, as the ordinary bread for continued daily use, it is expensive,
and not healthful or good like yeast bread. Some persons suffer from
sore mouths and disordered stomachs, in consequence of eating it.
Sometimes this is owing to the imperfect mixture of the materials.
When the cream tartar is not _very_ thoroughly mixed with the flour,
or when the alkali is not properly dissolved and thoroughly mixed, or
when there is too much of either, the skin of the mouth and stomach are
affected by the bread.

The only kind of bread which is always good for the health, and always
acceptable to every palate, is sweet, well-raised, home-made _yeast
bread_. The _best_ kind of home-made yeast bread is an article of
luxury to be found upon very few tables, and those who enjoy this
comfort, know that there is no food upon earth, which is so good, or
the loss of which is so much regretted.

In order to secure such bread, these three things are indispensable,
viz.: _good flour_, _good yeast_, and _good care_.

In order to secure good flour, it is best to try it _by tasting it_,
and you ordinarily can detect sourness or must. Buy a small quantity,
and then, if it is found to be very superior, and it can be done
conveniently, it is well to provide enough of it to last till the next
crop of wheat affords new flour, when another supply for a year can
be secured. Flour stored in barrels needs no other care than putting
it in a cool, dry place, where it is well protected from rats and
cockroaches. A tight covered box made of thick plank, large enough to
hold several barrels, with shelves to hold smaller supplies of other
bread-stuffs, with a door in one side shutting very tight, is a perfect
protection from rats, mice, and cockroaches.

Good flour has a yellowish tinge, and when pressed tight in the hand,
retains the creases of the skin impressed on it. Poor flour is not thus
adhesive; it can be blown about readily, and sometimes has a dingy
look, as if ashes were mixed with it.

When good flour is found, _notice the brand_, and seek the same next
time. It is sometimes the case, however, that bad flour is passed off,
by putting on the brands of persons who have gained a name as makers of
superior flour. The only sure way is to try a small sample, and then
get a larger supply, if it is good, from the same stock.

_Grown_ wheat makes dough that is _runny_, and cannot be well moulded,
or make good bread. This can be discovered only by trial. _Smutty_
wheat makes flour that is very unhealthful.

Flour always should be _sifted_ before using it, to restore the
lightness destroyed by packing, as well as to remove impurities. Bread
is also more sure to be light, if the flour is heated before wetting.
This can be done, by setting the kneading trough aslant before the
fire, stirring it a little as it is warming. When bread proves to be
bad, examine the yeast, and see also whether the oven bakes properly.
If both are as they should be, and the bread is still poor, then the
fault is in the flour, and it should be sent back and another supply
obtained. And in buying flour, this liberty should always be secured,
even if a higher price is the condition. No economy is so false as to
try to save by means of bad bread. Medicine and doctors’ bills soon
show the folly of it.

_Good yeast_ is as indispensable to good bread as good flour. Of the
receipts given in this book, the one which will keep a month is the
best. The one which is made with fewer materials will not keep so
well, but is more easily made.

In hot weather, when it is difficult to keep yeast, the hard yeast will
be a great convenience. Some housekeepers who have tried both, prefer
the flour hard yeast to that which is made with Indian meal, as it does
not turn sour, as Indian does. Home-brewed yeast must be used for hard
yeast, and not distillery or brewer’s. Yeast, when it is good, is all
in a foam, or else has large _beads_ on the surface, and its smell is
brisk and pungent, but not sour. When poor, it sometimes smells sour,
sometimes looks watery, and the sediment sinks to the bottom, and it
has no froth or beads. Sometimes, when yeast does not look very good,
it is improved by adding a tea-cup, or so, of flour, and two or three
great spoonfuls of molasses, and setting it in a warm place to rise.
Yeast must be kept in stone, or glass, with a tight cork, and the thing
in which it is kept should often be scalded, and then warm water with
a half teaspoonful of saleratus be put in it, to stand a while. Then
rinse it with cold water. Sour yeast cannot be made good by saleratus.

The last grand essential to good bread is _good care_. Unless the cook
can be fully trusted, the mistress of a family _must_ take this care
upon _herself_. She must, if needful, stand by and see that the bread
is wet right, that the yeast is good, that the bread is put where it
is warm enough, that it does not rise too long, so as to lose its
sweetness (which is often the case before it begins to turn sour), that
it is moulded aright, that the oven is at the right heat, and that it
is taken out at the right time, and then that it is put in the right
place, and not set flat on to a greasy table, or painted shelf, to
imbibe a bad taste.

Perhaps it may be thought that all this is a great drudgery, but it is
worse drudgery to have sickly children, and a peevish husband, made so
by having all the nerves of their stomachs rasped with sour, or heavy
bread. A woman should be _ashamed_ to have poor bread, far more so,
than to speak bad grammar, or to have a dress out of the fashion.
It is true, that, by accident, the best of housekeepers will now and
then have poor bread, but then it is an accident, and one that rarely
happens. When it is very frequently the case that a housekeeper has
poor bread, she may set herself down as a _slack baked_ and negligent
housekeeper.

It is very desirable that every family should have a constant supply
of bread made of unbolted flour, or of rye and Indian. Most persons
like to eat of it occasionally, and it tends to promote health.
Warm cakes also, made of unbolted flour, are very excellent, and
serviceable to health. The receipts for these articles in this work are
first-rate. Warm raised bread cakes, of fine wheat, are not so healthy
for breakfast, as those made of unbolted flour, Indian meal, rice,
or tapioca. Griddle cakes, muffins, and waffles, made of these last
articles, are more healthful than those made of fine wheat. If eaten
at the right temperature (not above blood heat), and with but little
butter, they are safe and harmless. Unbolted flour is good in almost
any receipt in which fine flour is to be used, and many very much
prefer it for all kinds of warm cakes. Brown bread, when light, makes
good drop cakes, or good griddle cakes, by adding a little water or
milk, and some eggs, and in some cases, a spoonful or two of molasses.
Many cases are on record, of great changes for the better, in the
health of individuals and communities, by the habitual use of food made
of unbolted flour.

The style in which bread is prepared for the table, is a matter to be
carefully attended to. In moulding up loaves and small cakes, do not
leave lumps and loose flour adhering to the outside, but work them in
thoroughly, so as to have the cake look fair and smooth. Wipe off flour
from the outside before carrying to the table. Buttered pans are better
than floured ones, because the cakes cleave off cleaner. When soda
and saleratus are used, work it in thoroughly, or you will have those
yellow spots and streaks, which look so disgusting, and show a slovenly
negligence.

In the receipts for making bread, no particular direction is given in
regard to the time bread should stand after it is moulded and put in
pans, because here is the point where observation and discretion are so
indispensable, and rules are unavailing without. In hot weather, when
the yeast is very good, and the bread very light, it must not stand
over fifteen minutes after it is moulded, before setting in. If it is
cold weather, and the yeast is less active, or the bread not perfectly
raised, it may sometimes stand an hour in the pans without injury.

When it is risen in the pans so as to crack, it is ready for the oven,
and if it stands after this it loses sweetness, and then turns sour.
A great deal of bread is spoiled by standing too long after it is put
in the pans. The only way to prevent this is for the housekeeper to
ascertain, by experiment, how soon her yeast ordinarily raises bread
to the right point, so as to make that full lightness which does not
destroy the sweetness of the flour, and yet is complete. When this is
secured, the bread should not stand more than fifteen minutes after
moulding, unless it is very cold weather. Those who trust entirely to
raising the bread after it is put into the pans, are much less likely
to have the _best kind_ of bread, and far more risk is run than in the
way here given.

In summer, if the milk is not new, it should be scalded, or the bread
will turn sour by keeping. Bread is never as good which has turned
sour, and been sweetened with saleratus, as if it had risen only just
enough. In using saleratus, take a teaspoonful to each quart of wetting
used; or, which is the same thing, a teaspoonful to four quarts of
flour.

The proportion of yeast is about a tablespoonful of brewer’s or
distiller’s yeast for every quart of wetting, or twice as much
home-brewed yeast. In warm weather, pour the wetting boiling hot into
the flour, and the bread keeps better. But be careful not to kill the
yeast by putting it in before the mixture is sufficiently cooled. About
_blood warmth_ is the right temperature.

The eastern brown bread rises faster than the wheat bread, and in hot
weather cannot be made over night; and if made with other bread, must
be set to rise in a cool place.

It is always best to keep bread several hours before eating, until
it can be cut without making it clammy. Biscuits, and small cakes of
bread, are best baked in the morning to use for tea, and in the evening
for breakfast. When cake is to be made of bread dough, it ought to be
wet up with milk.

Most of the rules which have been given in other books for making cream
tartar bread and cakes allow too much of the acid and alkali, and this
affects the health.

_Three pints_ of flour to one teaspoonful of soda and two of cream
tartar is about right. Domestics are often careless in getting right
proportions, and thus health is injured. It is probable that this can
be remedied by getting an apothecary to combine the two powders in the
right proportions when _very dry_, and keeping them in a glass bottle,
with a ground glass stopper, so as to be air-tight. The dampness of
the air would make them combine, and neutralize them. There are yeast
powders for sale of this kind. The way to use them is first to mix them
thoroughly in the flour, and then put in the wetting.

In regard to yeast, the distillery rises fastest, the brewer’s nearly
as fast, and the home-brewed slowest of all. Sometimes distillery yeast
will raise bread in an hour. Every housekeeper must learn by trial the
time necessary to raise bread, and by this calculate the time to put
her oven heating.

For large loaves of bread or cake, the oven must be heated with hard
wood, so as to _soak_ thoroughly. For smaller things lighter wood is
as good, and more economical. After a housekeeper has tried her oven,
her yeast, and her oven wood, she can make out very minute directions
for her domestics. But with poor domestics she ordinarily will need to
persevere in superintending this matter herself, if she would always
have good bread.




CHAPTER XXVI.

DIRECTIONS FOR DINNER AND EVENING PARTIES.


The following directions for a dinner-party are designed for a young
and inexperienced housekeeper, in moderate circumstances, who receives
visiters at her table from the most wealthy circles.

They are not intended for what would be called a _stylish_
dinner-party, but what in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, in the
most respectable society, would be called a plain, substantial dinner,
and as complete and extensive as any _young_ housekeeper, with the
ordinary supply of domestics, ought to attempt _anywhere_. Anything
much more elaborate than this, usually demands the services of a
professed cook. The details will be given with great minuteness, that a
novice may know exactly what to do in every particular.

It is generally the case, that, at dinner-parties for gentlemen,
no ladies are present but those who are members of the family. The
gentleman of the house invites his friends the day previous, and then
gives notice to his wife who are to come, and consults with her as to
the articles to be provided, which of course he aids in purchasing.

The housekeeper then makes a list of all the articles to be used,
either for table furniture or cooking, and then examines her cupboard,
store-closet, and cellar, to see if everything is at hand and in order.
All the glass and silver to be used is put in readiness, and the
castors, salts, and every thing of the kind arranged properly. In order
to be more definite, the exact dishes to be provided will be supposed
to be these:

Soup. Fish. A boiled ham. A boiled turkey, with oyster sauce. Three
roasted ducks, and a dish of scolloped oysters. Potatoes, Parsnips,
Turnips, and Celery. For dessert, Pudding, Pastry, Fruit, and Coffee.

This will make a dinner for about ten or twelve persons. The pastry
should be baked the day before, and the soup boiled down.

In the morning of the day for the dinner-party, every article should
be on hand from market, and the cook have extra help, so as to get
breakfast and the dishes out of the way early.

Then, the first thing, let her stuff and truss the turkey and ducks,
and set them away to use when the time comes. Be sure that they are
trussed so that the legs and wings will be tight to the body, and not
come sprawling on to the table.

Suppose the dinner hour be three o’clock, as this is the earliest hour
at which such a dinner could be comfortably prepared.

At nine o’clock, let the ham be washed, and put to boil. Then let the
vegetables be prepared, ready for cooking. Next prepare the pudding.
The pastry ought to be baked the day before. If not, it should be done
very early in the morning, and be out of the way.

The pudding should be one of those put in the list of rich puddings,
which does not require long baking or boiling. The receipt will be the
guide as to time for cooking it. Next, prepare the oysters. One large
cannister (or three pints) will be needed for the dish of scolloped
oysters, and a small cannister (or a pint) will be needed for the sauce
for the turkey. This last is simply drawn butter, with the oysters put
in it, and simmered a few minutes. Be sure and follow the receipt for
drawn butter exactly, as cooks are very apt to spoil this kind of sauce.

Put the turkey to boil at _one_, if it is tender, as it ought to be,
and sooner, if it is not. Put the ducks to roast at _two_. Ducks are
best cooked _rare_, but the turkey must be boiled through entirely, so
that all parts look the same color when carved.

The gravy for the ducks, and the drawn butter, must be prepared half an
hour before taking up dinner. The fish must be put to boil in a fish
kettle. The time depends on the size.

The soup should be boiled down the day before. Let it be, for example,
the receipt named _Macaroni Soup_. In this case, any convenient time
before dinner-time, put the macaroni to boil in a sauce-pan by itself,
and when cooked enough, set it aside. Then, just before dinner is to
be served, pour the cold soup into the kettle, add the seasoning and
macaroni, and give it such a heat as just boils it for a minute or two,
and then it is ready to serve.

The vegetables should be put to boil at such times as will have them
cooked _just right_ at the dinner hour, and this the housekeeper must
calculate, according to their size and age.

Unless there is an experienced cook, who can be trusted with
everything, the lady of the house must superintend herself in the
kitchen, until it is time for her to dress; and as the company will not
arrive till the hour appointed, she can, by arranging her dress, all
but _the finish_, remain until it is nearly time to send up the dinner.


_Setting the Table._

The table should be set early in the forenoon, by the waiter, under the
direction of the lady of the house, and in the manner exhibited in Fig.
7.

The table rug must first be laid exactly square with the room, and the
tables also set exactly parallel with the sides of the room. If the
tables are handsome ones, put on two white table-cloths, one above
the other. If the tables are not handsome, cover them with a colored
table-cloth, and put two white ones over.

Then set the castors in the exact centre of the table. Some prefer to
have them on a side-table, and the waiter carry them around, but the
table looks better to have them put in the centre. If they are put on
the side-table, the celery stand may be placed in the centre of the
table.

Next place the plates and knives as in Fig. 7, with a napkin and
tumbler at the right of each plate, as in the drawing. If it is cold
weather, set the plates to warm, and leave them till wanted. Set the
salt stands at the four corners, with two large spoons crossed by each,
as in the drawing.

Then place table-mats in the places where the dishes are to be set.
The host is to be seated at one end, and the hostess at the other, and
at their plates put two knives and two forks. Put a carving knife and
fork, and carver stand, at each place where a dish is to be carved. Put
the jelly and pickles at diagonal corners, as marked on the drawing. If
wine is to be used, put two wine-glasses by each tumbler. Just before
dinner is to be served, a bit of bread, cut thick, is to be laid with a
fork on each napkin.

Then prepare the side-table thus:

As the party, including host and hostess, will be twelve, there must be
one dozen soup plates, and one dozen silver spoons. Then there must be
two dozen large knives, and three dozen large plates, besides those on
the table. This is to allow one plate for fish, and two for two changes
of meat for each guest. Some would provide more. Then, there must be
three dozen dessert plates, and two dozen dessert knives and forks. One
dozen saucers, and one dozen dessert spoons. One or two extra of each
kind, and three or four extra napkins, should be added for emergencies.
(At a side stand, or closet, should be placed, at dinner-time, a wash
dish of hot water, and two or three wiping towels.)

On the side-table, also, is to be placed all articles to be used in
helping the dessert; and unless there is a convenient closet for the
purpose, the dessert itself must be set there, and covered with napkins.

All the dishes and plates to be used, except those for desserts and
soups, must, in cold weather, be set to warm by the waiter. If coffee
is to be served at the dinner-table, the furniture for this must be put
on the side-table, or in an adjacent room, or closet.


_Taking up the Dinner._

Such a dinner as this cannot usually be prepared and served easily,
without two to cook and serve in the kitchen, and two waiters in the
dining-room. One waiter will answer, if he is experienced and expert in
such matters.

When the hour for dinner arrives, let the cook first take up the soup
and fish. The soup and soup plates are to be set by the hostess, and
the spoons laid near. Potatoes and drawn butter, or fish sauce, are to
be sent up with fish.

The fish is to be set before the host, and the fish knife and sauce
placed by it, and then the waiter is to inform the lady of the house
that dinner is ready. She rises, and informs her husband, or the
guests, that dinner is ready, and then the gentleman for whom the party
is made, or some other one of the invited guests, conducts the lady to
the table, and takes his seat at the first plate at her right hand. She
then helps the soup, beginning at the right, and passing it around in
order, without inquiring whether each one wishes it. If any one prefers
fish, he passes the soup to the next. Meantime the host either helps
the fish to all who wish it, or leaves it covered till the soup is
removed, and the plates changed. The plates for fish are set on, around
the table, and the soup plates are set on to them, while soup is served.

While soup and fish are served above, the cook below proceeds
thus:--The ham can be taken up some time before dinner, prepared for
the table, and set aside, covered, as it is not injured by standing. Of
course this is done at any convenient time. The turkey and ducks may
first be taken up, prepared for table, and then covered, and set where
they will be kept warm. Then the gravies and drawn butter are to be put
in the gravy boats. The vegetables must be taken up the last thing, and
the potatoes last of all, as the excellence of all depends on their
being served hot, especially potatoes. Some would prepare a dish of
mashed potatoes, but this increases the complexity of the business,
which should, as much as possible, be avoided.

After soup and fish, and the plates are removed by the waiters above,
and clean plates put around, wine or conversation will fill up the
time, while the meats are brought on, which are to be placed on the
table, covered, and in the order marked in the drawing, Fig. 7.

When all are prepared, the host gives a sign to the waiters, and the
covers are all to be removed, and so adroitly that no steam be spilt
on the table-cloth or guests. To do this, the covers must be first
inverted, _holding them directly over the dishes they cover_, and this
the hostess must teach the waiter to do beforehand, if need be. He is
to be taught, also, to offer each article to guests on their _left_
side, to observe when guests have done eating, and then to change their
plate, knife, and fork, and never to speak except to answer questions,
or to offer the articles he serves.

The host carves the dish before him. The hostess helps the dish
opposite to her, and the gentlemen guests carve the dishes opposite
to them. As soon as ready to help, the lady asks the gentleman at
her right to what he will be helped, and never makes excuses for, or
praises any particular dish. The host commences at his right hand, and
does the same, till all are helped. Every person begins to eat as soon
as helped. The waiters are to observe if bread, water, or anything
is wanting to any guest, and offer a supply. The hostess should, if
possible, be at ease, so as to converse, and if she has occasion
to direct the waiters (which, by previous instructions, should be
avoided), she should do it as quietly and easily as possible. After all
the guests are helped, the host helps the hostess, and then himself.

If wine is used, it is served by the host immediately after soup and
fish, and any other times during the dinner he chooses. If the lady of
the house is asked to drink wine, it is deemed uncourteous to refuse.
She is expected to have a little poured into her glass, and raise it
to her lips, looking at and slightly bowing to the guest who makes the
request, and as soon as he has filled his glass. Whenever any other
makes the same request, a very little wine is to be poured into her
glass, as the ceremony is incomplete without this.

After any guest has finished eating, the waiter is to change his plate,
knife, and fork, and the host or hostess asks to what he will be helped.

Soon after all the guests are done eating meats, the hostess directs
the waiter, and every article is removed from the table, and the upper
table-cloth taken off. Then the dessert knives, forks, and plates are
set around, and the dessert is placed on the table. The pudding is to
be set on a mat, before the hostess, and the dish of cheese before the
host, and the pastry arranged in some regular order on the table, with
knives and forks to help. These are divided and distributed by the host
and hostess, assisted by the guests.

When these are finished, everything is removed again, and the other
table-cloth taken off, leaving the bare table, or the colored cloth.
Then the fruit is set on. After fruit, the coffee is brought to the
table, or the company retire to the drawing-room, and take their coffee
there.

       *       *       *       *       *

Such a dinner-party as the above, may be got up and carried through
comfortably by a housekeeper, if she is provided with an experienced
cook and well-trained waiter. But without these, it is absolute
_cruelty_ for a husband to urge, or even to allow his wife to go
through all the toil, anxiety, and effort needful for such an affair.

In all cases, it would be more consistent with the laws of health, and
thus with the laws of God, to have a dinner including far less variety,
and it is hoped that as true Christianity and true refinement advance,
that the reform in regard to _eating_ will advance, like the temperance
reform in regard to drinking.

When men become so refined and cultivated, that they can supply wit
and good sense, instead of the overflows induced by the excitement of
wine, diluted by the stupidity resulting from excess in eating, a
housekeeper will find the giving of a dinner-party a very different
matter from what it ordinarily is found to be. As dining parties
are often conducted, the number, and variety, and character of the
dishes offered, tempt to an excess, which overloads the stomach, and
thus stupifies the brain; so that all the wit and brilliancy that is
obtained, is the simple product of _vinous fermentation_.


_Tea Parties and Evening Company._

In one respect, fashion has aided to relieve a housekeeper of much
care in providing evening entertainments. It is now fashionable to
spread a table for evening parties, and not to serve tea and coffee,
as was formerly done. As this is the easiest, and most rational way
of entertaining evening company, no other method will be so minutely
described.

If a lady designs to invite from forty to sixty friends to pass the
evening, or even to have a much larger company invited, the following
would be called a plain but genteel arrangement, for company in New
York, Philadelphia, or any of our large cities.

Set a long table in the dining-room, and cover it with a handsome
damask cloth. Set some high article containing flowers, or some
ornamental article, in the centre. Set Champagne glasses with flowers
at each corner. Set loaves of cake at regular distances, and dispose
in some regular order about the table, preserves, jellies, lemonade,
and any other articles that may be selected from the abundant variety
offered in the collection of Receipts for Evening Parties in this book.

Where a very large company is to be collected, and a larger treat is
thought to be required, then a long table is set in the centre of
the room, as above, and on it are placed cakes, pastry, jellies, and
confectionary. Then smaller tables are set each side of a mantle, or
in corners, one of which is furnished with sandwiches, oysters, salad,
celery, and wine, and the other with coffee, chocolate, and lemonade.
Sometimes all are placed on one long table, and in this case, cakes,
jellies, and confectionary are put in the centre, coffee and lemonade
at one end, and oysters, sandwiches, celery, and wines at the other. A
great deal of taste may be displayed in preparing and arranging such a
table.

As it is often the case, that the old mode of serving tea and coffee
will be resorted to, one modification is proposed, which decreases the
labour and anxiety to the housekeeper, and increases the enjoyment of
the company. It is this. Set a table in one of the parlors, and cover
it with a damask cloth. Let the tea and coffee be served at this table,
the lady of the house presiding. Then let the gentlemen wait upon the
ladies around the room, and then help themselves. This is particularly
convenient when it is difficult to get good waiters.

Most of the articles used for evening parties (with the exception of
rich cakes, wine, and high-seasoned chicken salad) are not unhealthful,
if taken moderately.

When these parties break up at seasonable hours, they may prove one of
the most rational and harmless modes of securing social enjoyment; but
when connected with highly exciting amusements, and late hours, they
are sure to wear upon the constitution and health, and rational and
conscientious persons, for these and other reasons, will avoid them.




CHAPTER XXVII.

ON SETTING TABLES, AND PREPARING VARIOUS ARTICLES OF FOOD FOR THE TABLE.


To a person accustomed to a good table, the manner in which the table
is set, and the mode in which food is prepared and set on, has a great
influence, not only on the eye, but the appetite. A housekeeper ought,
therefore, to attend carefully to these particulars.

The table-cloth should always be _white_, and well washed and ironed.
When taken from the table, it should be folded in the ironed creases,
and some heavy article laid on it. A heavy bit of plank, smoothed and
kept for the purpose, is useful. By this method, the table-cloth looks
tidy much longer than when it is less carefully laid aside.

Where table napkins are used, care should be taken to keep the same one
to each person, and in laying them aside, they should be folded so as
to hide the soiled places, and laid under pressure.

The table-cloth should always be put on _square_, and right side
upward. The articles of furniture should be placed as exhibited in
figures 7 and 8.

The bread for breakfast and tea should be cut in even, regular slices,
not over a fourth of an inch thick, and all crumbs removed from the
bread plate. They should be piled in a regular form, and if the slices
are large, they should be divided.

The butter should be cooled in cold water, if not already hard, and
then cut into a smooth and regular form, and a butter knife be laid by
the plate, to be used for no other purpose but to help the butter.

Small mats, or cup plates, should be placed at each plate, to receive
the tea-cup, when it would otherwise be set upon the table-cloth and
stain it.


[Illustration: Fig. 7.

  A, Castors.
  B, Boiled Turkey.
  C, Oyster Sauce.
  D, Roasted Ducks.
  E, Gravy for Ducks.
  F, Scolloped Oysters.
  G, Boiled Ham.
  H. Potatoes.
  I, Turnips.
  S, Celery.
  K, Parsnips.
  PP, Pickles.
  JJ, Jelly.
  X, Host.
  Y, Hostess.
]

[Illustration: Fig. 8.]

All the flour should be wiped from small cakes, and the crumbs be kept
from the bread plate.

In preparing dishes for the dinner-table, all water should be
carefully drained from vegetables, and the edges of the platters and
dishes should be made perfectly clean and neat.

All soiled spots should be removed from the outside of pitchers, gravy
boats, and every article used on the table; the handles of the knives
and forks must be clean, and the knives bright and sharp.

In winter, the plates, and all the dishes used, both for meat and
vegetables, should be set to the fire to warm, when the table is being
set, as cold plates and dishes cool the vegetables, gravy, and meats,
which by many is deemed a great injury.

Cucumbers, when prepared for table, should be laid in cold water for an
hour or two to cool, and then be peeled and cut into fresh cold water.
Then they should be drained, and brought to the table, and seasoned the
last thing.

The water should be drained thoroughly from all greens and salads.

There are certain articles which are usually set on together, because
it is _the fashion_, or because they are _suited_ to each other.

Thus with _strong-flavored meats_, like mutton, goose, and duck, it
is customary to serve the strong-flavored vegetables, such as onions
and turnips. Thus, turnips are put in mutton broth, and served with
mutton, and onions are used to stuff geese and ducks. But onions are
usually banished from the table and from cooking, on account of the
disagreeable flavor they impart to the atmosphere and breath.

_Boiled Poultry_ should be accompanied with boiled ham, or tongue.

_Boiled Rice_ is served with poultry as a vegetable.

_Jelly_ is served with mutton, venison, and roasted meats, and is used
in the gravies for hashes.

_Fresh Pork_ requires some acid sauce, such as cranberry, or tart apple
sauce.

_Drawn Butter_, prepared as in the receipt, with eggs in it, is used
with boiled fowls and boiled fish.

_Pickles_ are served especially with fish, and _Soy_ is a fashionable
sauce for fish, which is mixed on the plate with drawn butter.

There are modes of _garnishing dishes_, and preparing them for table,
which give an air of taste and refinement, that pleases the eye.

Thus, in preparing a dish of fricasseed fowls, or stewed fowls, or
cold fowls warmed over, small cups of boiled rice can be laid inverted
around the edge of the platter, to eat with the meat.

_Sweetbreads_ fried brown in lard, and laid around such a dish, give it
a tasteful look.

On _Broiled Ham_, or _Veal_, eggs boiled, or fried and laid, one on
each piece, look well.

_Greens_ and _Asparagus_ should be well drained, and laid on buttered
toast, and then slices of boiled eggs be laid on the top, and around.

_Hashes_, and preparations of pig’s and calve’s head and feet, should
be laid on toast, and garnished with round slices of lemon.

_Curled Parsley_, or _Common Parsley_, is a pretty garnish, to be
fastened to the shank of a ham, to conceal the bone, and laid around
the dish holding it. It looks well laid around any dish of cold slices
of tongue, ham, or meat of any kind.

The proper mode of setting a dinner-table is shown at Fig. 7, and the
proper way of setting a tea-table is shown at Fig. 8. In this drawing
of a tea-table, small-sized plates are set around, with a knife,
napkin, and cup plate laid by each, in a regular manner, while the
articles of food are to be set, also, in regular order. On the waiter
are placed the tea-cups and saucers, sugar bowl, slop bowl, cream cup,
and two or three articles for tea, coffee, and water, as the case may
be. This drawing may aid some housekeepers in teaching a domestic how
to set a tea-table, as the picture will assist the memory in some
cases. On the dinner table, by each plate, is a knife, fork, napkin,
and tumbler: on the tea-table, by each plate is a knife, napkin, and
small cup-plate.




CHAPTER XXVIII.

ON SYSTEMATIC FAMILY ARRANGEMENT, AND MODE OF DOING WORK.


Nothing secures ease and success in housekeeping so efficiently as
_system_ in arranging work. In order to aid those who are novices
in these matters, the following outlines are furnished by an
accomplished housekeeper. They are the details of family work, in a
family of ten persons, where a cook, chambermaid, and boy, are all
the domestics employed, and where the style of living is plain, but
every way comfortable. The mistress of this family arranges the work
for each domestic, and writes it on a large card, which is suspended
in the kitchen for guidance and reference. On hiring a new cook, or
chambermaid, these details are read to her, and the agreement made,
with a full understanding, on both sides, of what is expected. The
following is copied, verbatim, from these cards prepared for the cook
and chambermaid.


_Directions for the Cook._

_Sunday._--Rise as early as on other days. No work is to be done that
can be properly avoided.

_Monday._--Rise early in hot weather, to have the cool of the day for
work. Try to have everything done in the best manner. See that the
clothes line is brought in at night, and the clothes pins counted and
put in the bag. Put the tubs, barrel, and pails used, on the cellar
bottom.

Inquire every night, before going to bed, respecting breakfast, so as
to make preparation beforehand.

_Tuesday._--Clean the kitchen and sink-room. Bake, and fold the clothes
to iron the next day.

_Wednesday._--Rise early in warm weather, so as to iron in the cool of
the day.

_Thursday._--Fold off the clothes. No other special work.

_Friday._--Clean all the closets, the kitchen windows, the cellar
stairs, and the privies. Try up all the grease, and put it away for use.

_Saturday._--Bake, and prepare a dinner for Sunday.

Every day but Monday, wipe the shelves in the pantry and kitchen closet.

Be careful to have clean dish towels, and never use them for other
purposes.

Keep a good supply of holders, both for cooking and ironing, and keep
them hung up when not in use.

Keep your boiler for dish water covered.

Sweep and dust the kitchen every day.

Never throw dirt, bones, or paper around the doors or yard.

Never give or lend what belongs to the family without leave.

Try to keep everything neat, clean, and in order.

_Have a time for everything, a place for everything, and everything in
its place._

The hour for going to bed is ten o’clock. Those who work hard should go
to bed early, or else health and eyesight will fail.


_Directions for the Chambermaid._

Sweep the sitting-room before breakfast on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

Wednesday, give all the chambers a thorough sweeping, and wash down the
stairs.

Thursday, sweep the bedroom and nursery, and wipe the paint. Put up the
clean clothes, after the cook folds them.

Friday, wash the windows and the piazzas.

Saturday, sweep the chambers, wash the bowls and pitchers in hot suds,
and scald the other vessels, unless they are washed in hot suds daily,
when they will not need it.

After doing the daily chamber-work, collect the lamps, and fix them in
this manner:

First pick up the wicks, and cut them off square (and for this purpose
keep sharp scissors), then clean all the black sediment from the tubes.
Wash them in suds as hot as you can bear your hand in, and wipe them
dry with a cloth kept clean for the purpose, and used for nothing else.
Be careful not to fill them full, lest the oil swell and run over.
Screw them very tight, and see that the little air-hole is kept open,
or the lamp will not burn.

Wash the outside of the oil filler, and wipe the scissors clean. Wash
the cloths used in fresh, clean suds, dry them, and then put them in
their place. Wipe the basin used, and put it in its place.

After cleaning the lamps, wash and scour the knives, thus:

Wash them first, and be careful not to put the handles in the water.
Wipe them dry, and then scour them with Bath brick, and a cork dipped
in soft soap. Never rub a knife on a board in scouring it, as it wears
it out very fast.

After scouring, do not wash them, but wipe them with a dry cloth, and
be careful to get the brick out from between the fork tines. Use a
small stick prepared for the purpose. If the handles are soiled by
scouring, wipe them with a damp cloth.

Lay the large knives in one side of the knife basket, and the small
ones the other side, and put the handles of the knives one way, and the
handles of the forks the opposite way.

Always fill the boiler after you take out dish water, lest the cook be
disturbed by your neglecting it.

Arrange the china-closet in order, after putting up the breakfast
dishes. Dishes not often used must be wiped when used.

In doing chamber-work, turn up the vallance of the beds, set the
windows open, brush down cobwebs, move every moveable article, to sweep
under it, and _sweep with short strokes_.

Always hang the cloths kept for wiping bowls and pitchers on the towel
frames, and use them for nothing else.

Have a dust cloth with a loop for every room, and put it in the wash
once a fortnight.

Wash the breakfast dishes thus:--Rinse the cups, scrape the plates very
clean, put the bits of butter on the butter plate, and empty all the
slops into the slop bowl, and then empty it.

First wash the glass things with a swab in suds, as hot as possible,
wiping each one as soon as taken out of the water. When glass is very
cold, put a little warm water in it before putting it into the hot
suds, or you will crack it.

Next wash the silver and Britannia, wiping each as soon as taken out.
Then wash the other articles.

Keep the castors bright and clean, and well filled. Wipe the salt
spoons dry, and do not lay them so as to touch the salt. If the salt is
damp, take it out and dry it, mashing it to powder.

Wipe off the china-closet shelves every day, and Saturdays wash them.

Rub the silver and Britannia every Saturday, after washing them.

       *       *       *       *       *

In the Domestic Economy, at p. 318, will be found directions for
washing dishes _in the kitchen_, which are to be hung over the sink.

Every family must vary somewhat from all others in its routine of
family work, and it often is the case, that such written directions
will be of little or no use to domestics. But the fact of having them
written, and the reading of them over to all new-comers, as what is
expected of them, and occasional reference to them, as what was agreed
on when making the bargain, often will be of much service. And it is an
aid to the housekeeper herself, who is liable to forget many things in
teaching new-comers their duties.


_Odds and Ends._

There are certain _odds and ends_, where every housekeeper will gain
much by having a _regular time_ to attend to them. Let this time be
the last Saturday forenoon in every month, or any other time more
agreeable, but let there be a _regular fixed time_ once a month, in
which the housekeeper will attend to the following things:

First, go around to every room, drawer, and closet in the house,
and see what is out of order, and what needs to be done, and make
arrangements as to time and manner of doing it.

Second, examine the store-closet, and see if there is a proper supply
of all articles needed there.

Third, go to the cellar, and see if the salted provision, vegetables,
pickles, vinegar, and all other articles stored in the cellar are in
proper order, and examine all the preserves and jellies.

Fourth, examine the trunk, or closet of family linen, and see what
needs to be repaired and renewed.

Fifth, see if there is a supply of dish towels, dish cloths, bags,
holders, floor cloths, dust cloths, wrapping paper, twine, lamp-wicks,
and all other articles needed in kitchen work.

Sixth, count over the spoons, knives, and forks, and examine all the
various household utensils, to see what need replacing, and what should
be repaired.

A housekeeper who will have _a regular time_ for attending to these
particulars, will find her whole family machinery moving easily and
well; but one who does not, will constantly be finding something out of
joint, and an unquiet, secret apprehension of duties left undone, or
forgotten, which no other method will so effectually remove.

A housekeeper will often be much annoyed by the accumulation of
articles not immediately needed, that must be saved for future use. The
following method, adopted by a thrifty housekeeper, may be imitated
with advantage. She bought some cheap calico, and made bags of various
sizes, and wrote the following labels with indelible ink on a bit of
broad tape, and sewed them on one side of the bags:—_Old Linens_; _Old
Cottons_; _Old Black Silks_; _Old Colored Silks_; _Old Stockings_; _Old
Colored Woollens_; _Old Flannels_; _New Linen_; _New Cotton_; _New
Woollens_; _New Silks_; _Pieces of Dresses_; _Pieces of Boys’ Clothes_,
&c. These bags were hung around a closet, and filled with the above
articles, and then it was known where to look for each, and where to
put each when not in use.

Another excellent plan is for a housekeeper once a month to make out
_a bill of fare_ for the four weeks to come. To do this, let her look
over this book, and find out what kind of dishes the season of the year
and her own stores will enable her to provide, and then make out a list
of the dishes she will provide through the month, so as to have an
agreeable variety for breakfasts, dinners, and suppers. Some systematic
arrangement of this kind at regular periods will secure great comfort
and enjoyment to a family.




CHAPTER XXIX.

ON A PROPER SUPPLY OF UTENSILS AND CONVENIENCES FOR HOUSEKEEPING.


What is the proper supply of kitchen utensils, depends very much on
the style of living adopted, and on the character of the domestics
employed. Where a person’s means are small, there must be a sacrifice
of _time_ and _convenience_ to save expense; and where domestics are in
such habits that no proper care will be taken of utensils, the supply
must be more limited.

But where a housekeeper has abundant means, and where she can, by a
reasonable effort, secure proper attention to the care of utensils, it
greatly contributes to the ease and success of housekeeping to have
a full supply of them. And there is much economy, both of time and
comfort, in securing such a supply. Where there are a few utensils,
and these are to be used for a great variety of purposes, there is a
loss of time in stopping to clean articles used for one thing, when
wanted for another; there is a loss of time in running about to look
for them; and there is a loss of _patience_ in finding them out of the
way at just the wrong time, so that good success is often thus entirely
prevented.

Moreover, many processes of cooking and housekeeping are performed
with much more success, when the cook is well provided with suitable
utensils; while the use of the same article for various kinds of
dishes, or for different modes of cooking, often destroys the delicate
flavor of food, and makes all dishes taste very much alike. This is the
case often, in steam and canal boats, where every article on the table
seems to have imbibed one and the same flavor.

In pointing out the various conveniences to be used in housekeeping,
reference will be had to those chiefly who have means to purchase
everything they deem useful, and also who can obtain such domestics,
that proper care will be taken of whatever is provided.

In the Domestic Economy at p. 319, is a list embracing a _full
supply_ of all those articles which some of the best housekeepers in
our country deem useful and desirable, for the various processes of
housekeeping, in a family of _medium size_, and of abundant means;
where everything is done for _comfort_, and nothing for _show_.


_Kitchen Furniture._

The kitchen floor should be covered with an oil cloth. Carpets, or bits
of carpet, are not so good, because of the grease and filth that must
accumulate in them, and the labor of sweeping, shaking, and cleansing
them. Nothing is cleansed so easily as an oil cloth, and it is much
better than a painted floor, because it can be removed to be painted.

If the cook is troubled with cold feet in winter, small bits of
carpeting can be laid where she sits and stands the most. Otherwise
they had better be kept out of the kitchen.

Directions for preparing a kitchen oil cloth will be found page 317 of
the Domestic Economy.

There should always be a clock in the kitchen, as indispensable to
success in cooking, and regularity of meals.

Two tables, a large one for cooking, and a small one for meals, should
be provided.

Besides this, a settee ironing-table is a very great comfort and
convenience, which is represented at Fig. 9, and is a better pattern
than the one described in the Domestic Economy.

[Illustration: Fig. 9.]

The back is made to turn on pivots at CC, and rests when turned on the
sides. At AA, are projections, with a hole that meets the holes in the
sides at BB, and then the peg at E is put in to hold it firmly. The
box, or seat, is divided into two parts, with lids at DD, and in these
boxes are kept, on one side the ironing sheet, wipers and holders, and
on the other side, the irons, rings, &c., used in ironing. When the
back is not used for ironing, it is put down, and the article is a
good settee, and if provided with cushions, is as comfortable as most
parlor sofas. It can be put on castors, and have handles at the sides,
and then it can be moved up to the fire winter evenings for use; the
back serving both to reflect the warmth of the fire, and to keep off
draughts of air.

The following are the dimensions. Length, six feet. Width of seat,
twenty inches. Height of seat, fourteen inches. Height of back, from
the bottom, four feet. This makes the width of the table when it is
turned down. Height of the ends where the table rests when turned over,
two feet six inches.

In some families, it is sometimes necessary to have a domestic sleep
in the kitchen. In this case, a _bunk settee_, like the one which is
represented as open at Fig. 10, is very convenient.

[Illustration: Fig. 10.]

The following are the dimensions. Six feet long. Seat two feet wide,
and sixteen inches high. The parts c c pass within the ends d d. The
seat a, when it is shut up, rests on the ledge that runs along the back
at b. The bed and bed-clothing are at the bottom of the box, and are
shut up in it by day.

At Fig. 11 is represented a kitchen table, with shelves and drawers
fastened over it, which, if made and furnished in the manner described,
every housekeeper would find an invaluable aid to system, and it would
save many steps, and much inconvenience. The shelves are to be nailed
or screwed on the wall at a convenient height over the table.

[Illustration: Fig. 11.]

[Illustration: Fig. 12.]

The following are the dimensions of the two articles.

_Table._--Six feet long. Three feet two inches broad. Thirty inches
high. The top to project only two inches over the frame. The box
divided by three drawers. Two of the drawers divided by partitions into
three equal parts, as seen by the dotted lines in the drawing.

The shelves over the table are three feet in height, three feet six
inches wide, and a foot deep. The drawers are four inches deep, and
the part above the drawers is divided by the shelves into three equal
portions. It is better to have two doors in front of the shelves to
shut the dust out. Some would prefer a curtain to slide on an iron
wire. At A is hung the salt box, made with a lid, and at B is the
coffee mill, and the other side the soap dish is at C.

To furnish this complete, there should be tin boxes made with tight
lapping covers, like that at Fig. 12, and of three sizes. The largest
should be eight inches in height, and three and a half in diameter. The
next size should be six inches high and three inches in diameter. The
next should be four inches high and two inches in diameter. These can
all be made at a tinner’s for a small sum. In the largest size put two
kinds of sugar, and the starch. In the medium size keep tea and coffee,
table salt and ginger. In the smallest size keep cream tartar, indigo,
mustard, sweet herbs, and spices. In junk bottles, keep a supply of
vinegar, molasses, and catsup. In a wide-mouth glass jar, with tight
glass stopper, keep soda, or saleratus. Write labels and paste on to
each, and arrange them on these shelves in one division. On the shelves
of the other division, put the following articles:--those that can be
suspended, hang on nails at the side, over the shelves. A dredging
box, kitchen pepper box, two-sized graters, two small sieves, a bottle
brush, a vial funnel, a larger funnel, a quart, pint, and gill measure,
a gravy strainer, a corkscrew, half a dozen bowls, as many cups,
saucers, and two small pitchers. On the top of the shelves put the
spice mill, and the balance and weights. Fig. 16 shows the best kind.
In one of the drawers of the shelves, put needles, thread, twine, wax,
and bits of cotton and linen. In the other drawer put the Receipt Book,
bits of paper and pencil for writing notes and memoranda, an account
book, and a pen and ink.

In the table drawer which is not subdivided, put these
articles:--Rolling-pin, griddle spad, iron meat fork, coffee stick,
mush stick, gridiron scraper, skewers, saw knife, chopping knife, egg
and cake beaters, apple corer, potato beetle, meat hammer, butter spad,
whetstone.

In the middle drawer, put, in the front part, the kitchen knives
and forks, and carver, the iron spoons, and other spoons used in
the kitchen. In the centre part of this drawer put the kitchen
table-cloths, and in the back part, the bags for all kinds of family
uses, the pudding cloths, jelly strainer, and starch strainers.

In the other drawer, keep in one division, the clean dish cloths and
towels; in another, the roller and tumbler towels, and in another the
clean lamp towels, and a good supply of holders and dust cloths. Let
the cleaver and board be kept on the top of the shelves.

By this arrangement the cook will find every article she has occasion
to use close at hand, and when she washes dishes, her towels and soap,
and the place where to lay up all utensils as she washes them, are in
immediate reach. No one knows, without trial, how many steps are saved,
and how much confusion and waste avoided, by such an arrangement. And
the expense for securing it is a trifle, far less than is often spent
for some showy but useless article for the parlor.

[Illustration: Fig. 13.]

Another arrangement is a great aid to system and order. Have a closet
made as represented at Fig. 13. In these partitions place these
articles, the largest in the largest part, and hanging all that can be
suspended, on pegs. A large and small clothes frame. A skirt board.
A bosom board. A press board. A yard stick. Three or four brooms. A
floor brush for sweeping oil cloths and painted floors. A cobweb brush.
A long brush to wash windows outside. A carpet stretcher. A whitewash
brush. A long-handle upright dust pan, and a common dust pan. A rag
bag. Scrubbing brushes.

In the part with shelves, place, in the upper partitions, in one, the
shoes, brushes, and blacking. In another, articles for cleaning brass
and silver. In another, sponges, rags, and stain mixtures. In the
next division, below, put the lamps and candlesticks, and the waiter
containing all the articles used in cleaning lamps.

At the bottom of this closet, keep a box containing the following
articles:--A hammer, a small saw, three sizes of gimlets, papers of
tacks, nails, screws, two chisels, a bedscrew, a carpet claw.

In another box, keep old newspaper, wrapping paper, and a large ball of
twine.

Have a clothes broom and clothes brush hung here, and keep the
table-rug here.

All other articles in common use are to be kept in the pantry, or china
closet, or in the pot closet.

By thus arranging articles together in one place, and with so complete
an assortment, much time and many steps are saved, while they are
preserved in good order. A housekeeper who chooses to do without some
of these conveniences, and spend the money saved in parlor adornments,
has a right to do so, and others have a right to think she in this
shows herself deficient in good sense.

The accompanying drawings are designed to show some of the most
convenient kitchen and other utensils.

[Illustration: Fig. 14.]

Fig. 14 represents a _Tin Baker_, or _Reflector_. The iron hooks
running out in front, fit it to use with grates. It can be made without
them, or made so that they can be drawn out and put in. This bakes
bread, cakes, apples, &c., as well as an oven.

[Illustration: Fig. 15.]

Fig. 15, called a _Footman_, is made of brass, or sheet iron, and is
used with a grate, to heat irons, and for other purposes.

[Illustration: Fig. 16.]

Fig. 16 is the best kind of _Balances_ to use in weighing cake, and for
other purposes.

[Illustration: Fig. 17.]

Fig. 17 is a tall-handle _Dust Pan_. The pan is half a yard in
length, ten inches in width, and the handle two feet high, and set up
perpendicularly. It is a very economical arrangement to save carpets
and labor, as it is set down in spots, and the common broom used
to throw the dust and rubbing from the carpet on to it, instead of
brushing them all across the carpet.

[Illustration: Fig. 18.]

Fig. 18 is a _Saw Knife_, being a saw on one side, and a knife on the
other. It is very useful in preparing meats.

[Illustration: Fig. 19.]

Fig. 19 is a _Lemon Squeezer_. At A is a concave place with holes bored
through. At B is a convex projection to fit into the concave portion,
and here the half lemon is put to be squeezed.

[Illustration: Fig. 21.]

[Illustration: Fig. 20.]

Fig. 20, a _Case_ for lamplighters. It is made of tin, like a tumbler,
with a lid fastened at the top by a hinge. It stands in the parlor,
to receive the remnants of extinguished lamplighters and matches, to
prevent smoke and rubbish, and is a great convenience. It can be made
for a trifle at a tinner’s.

Fig. 21 is a tin _Match Safe_, which should be hung in the kitchen, and
the matches be kept in it. It is not only convenient, but important for
safety.

[Illustration: Fig. 22.]

Fig. 22 is a _Meat Mallet_, or beef steak hammer. It is a block of wood
six inches square, cut in checks, so as to make sharp points on the
face, and is used to make tough steaks more tender.

[Illustration: Fig. 23.]

Fig. 23 is an _Egg Beater_. It is made of iron wire, fastened to a tin
handle. It is fine for beating eggs and cake, and saves labor. The tin
should be six inches long and an inch wide.

[Illustration: Fig. 24.]

Fig. 24 is a small brush, useful to dust ledges in parlors, and the
frames of windows.

[Illustration: Fig. 25.]

Fig. 25 is an _Apple Corer_. It is a scroll of tin soldered together,
about seven inches long, an inch in diameter at the largest end, and
tapering to half an inch at the smaller end, where it is cut off
obliquely. It costs but a dime, and every housekeeper can have one made
at a tinner’s, and needs one.

[Illustration: Fig. 26.]

Fig. 26 is a _Gridiron Scraper_. It is fitted to the bars of gridirons
that have scooped bars. It has a convex scraper on one end of the
transverse piece of iron, and a concave one at the other, so as to fit
both sides of the gridiron bars.

[Illustration: Fig. 27.]

Fig. 27 shows the best shape for a _Rolling Pin_.

[Illustration: Fig. 28.]

Fig. 28 shows a _Fish Kettle_, with the strainer drawn out above it.
It should be large enough to use sometimes for boiling a ham. This and
the sauce pans following can be used on a cooking stove, or be set on a
_trivet_ when an open fire is used.

[Illustration: Fig. 29.]

Fig. 29 is a _Preserving Kettle_ with a cover.

[Illustration: Fig. 30.]

Fig. 30 is another _Preserving Kettle_, without a cover. The advantage
of these is, that they are shallow, so that the fruit will not need to
be piled. The cover preserves the flavor more perfectly. The best are
of copper or bell metal. Porcelain ones are apt to crack.

[Illustration: Fig. 31.]

Fig. 31 is a _Cast Iron Sauce-pan_, lined with tin.

[Illustration: Fig. 32.]

Fig. 32 is a _Tin Sauce-pan_.

[Illustration: Fig. 33.]

Fig. 33 is a _Copper Sauce-pan_.

Every housekeeper needs at least four different sizes of sauce-pans.
The copper ones are the best, and most durable. The iron lined with tin
the next best. The tin are the poorest.

[Illustration: Fig. 34.]

Fig. 34 is a _Trivet_, and is very useful in heating articles over
coals to prevent burning. Three or four of different sizes are needed
with an open fire. Food cooked for the sick demands them.

[Illustration: Fig. 35.]

Fig. 35 is a _Tin Bonnet_, and is very useful to keep articles warm, to
roast apples, to warm plates, &c. Two or three will be kept in constant
use when it is found how useful they are.

[Illustration: Fig. 36.]

Fig. 36 is a brush to clean bottles, made of bristles twisted into wire.

[Illustration: Fig. 37.]

Fig. 37 is a _Tin Safe_. It is to be made five feet high, five feet
wide, a division in the middle, and three shelves each side. Two doors
in front, with a lock and key, and all the panels of perforated tin. It
is very useful to preserve food in hot weather, and to protect it also
from mice.

_Refrigerators_ are very excellent to keep meat, butter, milk, and
cream, during hot weather. They are made in a superior manner, and kept
for sale, but the following is a mode of securing a cheap one.

Take a barrel and bore holes in the bottom. Lay some small sticks
crossing, and set a half barrel within, with holes bored in the bottom.
Nail _list_ along the edge of each, and make a cover to lay on each, so
that the cover resting on the list will make it very close. Then put
ice into the inner one, and the water will filter through the holes in
the bottom, and while the ice is preserved, it will make the inner half
barrel a perfect refrigerator. Those who buy ice every day will find
this a great convenience if they have no other refrigerator.

[Illustration: Fig. 38.]

Fig. 38 represents an excellent pattern for a _Sofa Bedstead_, such as
a common carpenter can make. Its dimensions are as follows:--Length,
six feet. Width, two feet two inches. Height of the seat from the
floor, fifteen inches. Height of the back and sides from the seat,
eighteen inches. The seat is a frame with slats to be laid across
_lengthwise_, as this gives more ease than crosswise slats. The back
is a frame, with slats crosswise, with two frame legs, as at A and B,
swinging on hinges, and when pulled out they serve to support the
back. The back is hooked up to the sides, and when laid down rests on
the frame legs A B. These legs turn with pintles, or wood hinges. The
ends of the sofa have grooved slides for the head and foot boards to
slide in, as at C C, and have brown linen nailed on both inside and
outside, on which to fasten the sofa cover. Two thick cushions of hair,
or of moss and cotton, are made, one to serve for the seat, one to set
up against the back. These serve for the bed when the back is laid
down. A frill is fastened around the frame of the seat, and the box D,
underneath, is to hold the bedclothes, and runs on castors, as also
does the sofa.

[Illustration: Fig. 39.]

Fig. 39 is a very convenient and cheap article for a light seat to use
in a chamber, or in gardening. It is made just like a cross bedstead or
cot, with a bit of stair carpeting used as the seat. Handles fastened
to it make it more convenient to carry about, as it can be doubled up,
and taken in one hand. These are the dimensions: Sticks for the seat,
one foot long. Sticks for the legs, one foot six inches long.

[Illustration: Fig. 40.]

Fig. 40 is an article for a bedchamber, and remarkably convenient for
dressing the feet. In one drawer are kept stockings of all sorts,
and in the other shoes; it has a cushion and handles, and is set on
castors. It is to stand by the bedside, and a person can change the
dress of the feet with the greatest comfort and convenience. These
are the dimensions:--Twenty inches square and twelve inches high from
castors to cushion.

Housekeepers are much troubled to keep _dippers_ in order. The only
sure mode is to have _two_ made of _copper_, with iron handles fastened
on very tight, one to hold a pint, and another two or three quarts.
These will never rust or leak, and may be kept for years. Let them be
hung by the fire. Keep _trivets_ on which to set kettles over coals, so
as not to burn the articles while cooking.

The most successful mode of securing the proper care of utensils, is
to make a definite agreement with the cook, on hiring her, that after
dinner, she shall examine kitchen, cellar, and pantry, and wash every
article that needs cleansing; and that once a month she shall scour all
that need scouring. Then, at least once a week, and once a month, the
housekeeper should examine herself whether this agreement is fulfilled.




CHAPTER XXX.

SUGGESTIONS IN REGARD TO HIRED SERVICE.


There is no subject on which young housekeepers need wisdom and
instruction more, than in regard to the _management of domestics_, and
therefore some farther suggestions will be offered, in addition to
those presented in the Domestic Economy.

Success in the management of domestics very much depends upon the
_manners_ of a housekeeper towards them. And here, two extremes are to
be avoided. One is a severe and imperious mode of giving orders and
finding fault, which is inconsistent both with lady-like good breeding,
and with a truly amiable character. Few domestics, especially American
domestics, will long submit to it, and many a good one has been lost,
simply by the influence of this unfortunate manner.

The other extreme is apt to result from the great difficulty of
retaining good domestics. In cases where this is experienced, there
is a liability of becoming so fearful of displeasing one who is found
to be good, that, imperceptibly, the relation is changed, and the
domestic becomes the mistress. A housekeeper thus described this change
in one whom she hired: “The first year she was an excellent servant;
the second year, she was a kind mistress; the third year, she was an
intolerable tyrant!”

There is no domestic so good that she will not be injured by perceiving
that, through dependance upon her, and a fear of losing her services,
the mistress of the family gives up her proper authority and control.

The happy medium is secured, by a course of real kindness in manner and
treatment, attended with the manifestation of a calm determination,
that the plans and will of the _housekeeper_, and not of the domestic,
shall control the family arrangements.

When a good domestic _first_ begins to insist that her views and
notions shall be regarded, rather than those of the housekeeper, a kind
but firm stand must be taken. A frank conversation should be sought, at
a time when nothing has occurred to ruffle the temper on either side.
Then the housekeeper can inquire what would be the view taken of this
matter in case the domestic herself should become a housekeeper, and
hire a person to help her; and when the matter is set before her mind
in this light, let the “golden rule” be applied, and ask her whether
she is not disposed to render to her present employer what she herself
would ask from a domestic in similar circumstances.

Much trouble of this kind is saved by hiring persons _on trial_, in
order to ascertain whether they are willing and able to do the work
of the family in the manner which the housekeeper wishes; and in this
case, such written cards as have been exhibited in previous pages can
be read, or some member of the family can go around for a day or two,
and show how everything is to be done.

There is no department of domestic life where a woman’s temper and
patience are so sorely tried, as in the _incompetence_ and constant
_changes_ of domestics. And therefore, there is no place where a
reasonable and Christian woman will be more watchful, careful, and
conscientious.

The cultivation of _patience_ will be much promoted, by keeping in
mind these considerations in reference to the _incompetence_ and other
failings of those who are hired.

In the first place, consider that the great object of life to us is
not _enjoyment_, but the _formation of a right character_; that such
a character cannot be formed, except by _discipline_, and that the
trials and difficulties of domestic life, if met in a proper spirit
and manner, will, in the end, prove blessings rather than evils, by
securing a measure of elevation, dignity, patience, self-control, and
benevolence, that could be gained by no other methods. The comfort
gained by these virtues, and the rewards they bring, both in this and
in a future life, are a thousand-fold richer than the easy, indolent
life of indulgence, which we should choose for ourselves.

In the next place, instead of allowing the mind to dwell on the
_faults_ of those who minister to our comfort and convenience,
cultivate a habit of making every possible benevolent allowance and
palliation. Say to yourself--“Poor girl! she has never been instructed,
either by parents or employers. Nobody has felt any interest in the
formation of her habits, or kindly sought to rectify her faults. Why
should I expect her to do those things well which no one has taken
any care to teach her? She has no parent or friend now to aid her but
myself. Let me bear her faults patiently, and kindly try to cure them.”

If a woman will cultivate the spirit expressed in such language, if she
will benevolently seek the best good of those she employs, if she will
interest herself in giving them instruction, if they need it, and good
books to read if they are already qualified to understand them, if she
will manifest a desire to have them made comfortable in the kitchen,
and in their chambers, she certainly will receive her reward, and that
in many ways. She will be improving her own character, she will set a
good example to her family, and in the end, she will do something, and
in some cases _much_, to improve the character and services of those
whom she hires. And the good done in this way goes down from generation
to generation, and goes also into the eternal world, to be known and
rejoiced in, when every earthly good has come to an end.

It is sometimes the case, that the constant change of domestics, and
the liability thus to have dishonest ones, makes it needful to keep
stores under lock and key. This measure is often very offensive to
those who are hired, as it is regarded by them as an evidence both of
_closeness_ and of _suspicion_ of their honesty.

In such cases, it is a good plan, when first making an agreement with
a domestic, to state the case in this way. That you have had dishonest
persons in the family, and that when theft is committed, it is always
a cause of disquiet to _honest_ persons, because it exposes them to
suspicion. You can then state your reasons as two-fold: one to protect
yourself from pilfering when you take entire strangers, and the other
is to protect honest persons from being suspected. When the matter is
thus presented, at first hiring a person, no offence will be taken
afterwards.

In some portions of our country, the great influx of foreigners of
another language and another faith, and the ready entrance they find as
domestics into American families, impose peculiar trials and peculiar
duties on American housekeepers. In reference to such, it is no less
our interest than our duty to cultivate a spirit of kindness, patience,
and sympathy.

Especially should this be manifested in reference to their _religion_.
However wrong, or however pernicious we may regard their system of
faith, we should remember, that they have been trained to believe that
it is what God commands them to obey, and so long as they do believe
this, we should respect them for their conscientious scruples, and not
try to tempt them to do what they suppose to be wrong. If we lead an
ignorant and feeble mind to do what it believes to be wrong, in regard
to the most sacred of all duties, those owed to God, how can we expect
them to be faithful to us?

The only lawful way to benefit those whom we regard as in an error,
is, not to tempt them to do what they believe to be wrong, but to give
them _the light of knowledge_, so that they may be qualified to judge
for themselves. And the way to make them willing to receive this light,
is _to be kind to them_. We should take care that their feelings and
prejudices should in no way be abused, and that they be treated as we
should wish to be, if thrown as strangers into a strange land, among a
people of different customs and faith, and away from parents, home, and
friends.

Remember that our Master, who is in heaven, especially claims to be
the God of the widow, the fatherless, and _the stranger_, and has
commanded, “If a stranger sojourn with you in your land, ye shall not
vex him, but the stranger that dwelleth among you shall be unto you as
one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself.”

There is one rule, which every housekeeper will find of incalculable
value, not only in the case of domestics, but in the management of
children, and that is, never to find fault _at the time that a wrong
thing is done_. Wait until you are unexcited yourself, and until the
vexation of the offender is also past, and then, when there is danger
of a similar offence, _forewarn_, and point out the evils already done
for want of proper care in this respect.




CHAPTER XXXI.

ON THE STYLE OF LIVING AND EXPENSES.


This work is designed _primarily_ for young and inexperienced
housekeepers, and the following suggestions are presented as the
advice of many judicious and experienced matrons in our country, to
their young countrywomen, who are to follow them in the trying duties
of housekeeping.

Nothing in this country is a greater source of suffering to
housekeepers, than _bad taste_ in their style of living and
expenditure. _Good taste_ is that nice perception of fitness and
propriety which leads a person to say and do whatever is _suitable_
and _appropriate_ in all possible circumstances. Such good taste is
ordinarily the result of good feelings and well-cultivated mind, and
an acquaintance with the world. Yet this correct taste is sometimes
found in minds that have enjoyed but few advantages, but by nature are
endowed with _refined feelings_ and _good common sense_.

Where this good taste exists, it leads a woman to wish to have her
house, furniture, and style of living, in all its parts, exactly
conformed to _her means_, and _her situation_. If she is not rich,
she will not wish to have a house, or furniture, or dress like those
who are rich, and will find a pride and pleasure in making a small
house, plain furniture, simple dress, and an economical table, so neat,
and orderly, and comfortable, and tasteful, as to ensure comfort and
satisfaction to all around her. If she cannot command good domestics,
nor live comfortably in a house, and with furniture which requires
them, she will aim to alter the style of her establishment, and adopt
one which can be thoroughly and successfully carried out by such
domestics as she can obtain.

Where good domestics are scarce, it is a very great mistake to attempt
to live in _a large house_. The labor of house cleaning, and window
cleaning, the sweeping, the care of furniture, and many other items of
labor, are much increased by enlarging the size of the house. In the
country, where good help is scarce, a house on the plan of one of the
cottages drawn in the Domestic Economy, with _bed presses_ instead of
chambers, will be found to be a great saving of labor, and the expense
that might be incurred in building, furnishing, and taking care of
chambers, can be laid out in making conveniences for carrying water,
and furnishing the kitchen properly. The drawings for this purpose in
the Domestic Economy will be found useful in this respect.

In cities, nothing is more pernicious to a housekeeper’s health, than
going up and down stairs, and a woman who has good taste and good
sense, will not, for the sake of _show_, keep _two_ parlors on the
ground floor and her nursery above and kitchen below. One of these
parlors will be taken for her nursery and bedroom, even should all her
acquaintance wonder how it _can_ be, that a wife and mother should
think her health and duties of more importance than two dark parlors
shut up for company.

When a woman has good sense and good taste, these are some of the
things she will not do.

She will not be so anxious to obtain admission into any circle as to
seek it by a conformity to its fashions, which will involve her in
labor, or expenses that lessen domestic comfort, or are inappropriate
to her income.

She will not be particularly anxious to know what the fashion is, in
dress and furniture, nor give up any important duty or pursuit to
conform to it. Nor will she be disturbed if found deficient in these
particulars, nor disturb others by making apologies, or giving reasons.

She will not, while all that is _in sight_ to visiters, or to out-door
observers, is in complete order, and in expensive style, have her
underclothing, her bedroom, her kitchen, and her nursery ill furnished,
and all in disorder. She will not attempt to show that she is genteel,
and belongs to the aristocracy, by a display of profusion, by talking
as if she was indifferent to the cost of things, or by seeming ashamed
to economize. These things are marks of a vulgar, unrefined person,
that fancies that it is _money_, and not _character_, that makes the
lady. And by persons of education and refinement, such things are
always regarded as indicating a vulgar, uncultivated mind.

Let a young housekeeper, then, adopt these maxims as her guide in
regulating the style of her dress, furniture, table, and the size of
her house.

Do not begin housekeeping in the style in which you should end it, but
begin on a plain and small scale, and increase your expenditures as
your experience and means are increased.

Be determined to live _within_ your income, and in such a style that
you can secure time to improve your own mind, and impart some of your
own advantages to others.

Try to secure _symmetry_ in your dress, furniture, style of living, and
charities. That is, do not be profuse in one direction, and close and
pinching in another.

Cultivate a taste for _intellectual_ pleasures, _home_ pleasures, and
the pleasures of _benevolence_.

Have some _regular plan_ for the employment of your time, and in this
plan have chief reference to making home pleasant to your husband and
children. It will save them from a thousand snares, and you from many
sorrows.




CHAPTER XXXII.

WORDS OF COMFORT FOR A DISCOURAGED HOUSEKEEPER.


There is no doubt of the fact, that American housekeepers have far
greater trials and difficulties to meet than those of any other nation.
And it is probable that many of those who may read over the methods
of thrift and economy adopted by some of the best housekeepers in our
land, and detailed in this work, will with a sigh exclaim, that it is
_impossible_ for them even to attempt any such plans.

Others may be stimulated by the advice and examples presented, and may
start off with much hope and courage, to carry out a plan of great
excellence and appropriateness, and after trying a while, will become
discouraged by the thousand obstacles in their way, and give up in
despair.

A still greater number will like their own way best, and think it is
folly to attempt to change.

For those who wish they _could_ become systematic, neat, and thorough
housekeepers, and would like to follow out successfully the suggestions
found in this work, and for those who have tried, or will try, and find
themselves baffled and discouraged, these words of comfort are offered.

Perhaps you find yourself encompassed by such sort of trials as these.
Your house is inconvenient, or destitute of those facilities for doing
work well which you need, and you cannot command the means to supply
these deficiencies. Your domestics are so imperfectly qualified that
they never can do anything _just right_, unless you stand by and attend
to everything yourself, and you cannot be present in parlor, nursery,
and kitchen all at once. Perhaps you are frequently left without any
cook, or without a chambermaid, and sometimes without any hands but
your own to do the work, and there is constant jostling and change from
this cause. And perhaps you cannot get supplies, either from garden
or market, such as you need, and all your calculations fail in that
direction.

And perhaps your children are sickly, and rob you of rest by night,
or your health is so poor that you feel no energy, or spirits to make
exertions. And perhaps you never have had any training in domestic
affairs, and cannot understand how to work yourself, nor how to
direct others. And when you go for aid to experienced housekeepers,
or cookery books, you are met by such sort of directions as these:
“Take a _pinch_ of this, and a _little_ of that, and _considerable_
of the other, and cook them till they are done _about right_.” And
when you cannot succeed in following such indefinite instructions, you
find your neighbors and husband wondering how it is, that when you
have one, two, or three domestics, there should be so much difficulty
about housekeeping, and such constant trouble, and miscalculation, and
mistake. And then, perhaps, you lose your patience and your temper,
and blame others, and others blame you, and so everything seems to be
in a snarl.

Now the first thing to be said for your comfort is, that you _really
have_ great trials to meet; trials that entitle you to pity and
sympathy, while it is the fault of others more than your own, that you
are in this very painful and difficult situation. You have been as
cruelly treated as the Israelites were by Pharaoh, when he demanded
bricks without furnishing the means to make them.

You are like a young, inexperienced lad, who is required to superintend
all the complicated machinery of a manufactory, which he never was
trained to understand, and on penalty of losing reputation, health, and
all he values most.

Neither your parents, teachers, or husband have _trained_ you for the
place you fill, nor furnished you with the knowledge or assistance
needed to enable you to meet all the complicated and untried duties
of your lot. A young woman who has never had the care of a child,
never done housework, never learned the numberless processes that
are indispensable to keep domestic affairs in regular order, never
done anything but attend to books, drawing, and music, at school,
and visiting and company after she left school, such an one is
as unprepared to take charge of a nursery, kitchen, and family
establishment, as she is to take charge of _a man-of-war_. And the
chief blame rests with those who placed her _so unprepared_ in such
trying circumstances. Therefore, you have a right to feel that a large
part of these evils are more your misfortune than your fault, and that
they entitle you to sympathy rather than blame.

The next word of comfort is, the assurance that you _can_ do _every
one_ of your duties, and do them well, and the following is the method
by which you can do it. In the first place, make up your mind that it
never is your _duty_ to do anything more than you _can_, or in any
better manner than _the best you can_. And whenever you have done the
best you can, you have done _well_, and it is all that man _should_
require, and certainly all that your Heavenly Father _does_ require.

The next thing is, for you to make out an inventory of all the things
that _need_ to be done, in your whole establishment. Then calculate
what things you find you _cannot_ do, and strike them off the list,
as what are not among your _duties_. Of those that remain, select a
certain number that you think you can do _exactly as they need to be
done_, and among these be sure that you put the making of _good bread_.
This every housekeeper _can_ do, if she will only determine to do it.

Make a selection of certain things that you will _persevere_ in having
done _as well as they can be done_, and let these be only so many as
you feel sure you can succeed in attempting. Then make up your mind
that all the rest must go along as they do, until you get more time,
strength, and experience, to increase the list of things that you
determine shall always be well done.

By this course, you will have the comfort of feeling that in _some_
respects you are as good a housekeeper as you can be, while there will
be a cheering progress in gaining on all that portion of your affairs,
that are left at loose ends. You will be able to measure a gradual
advance, and be encouraged by success. Many housekeepers fail entirely,
by expecting to do _everything well at first_, when neither their
knowledge or strength is adequate, and so they fail everywhere, and
finally give up in despair.

Are you not only a housekeeper, but a _mother_? Oh, sacred and
beautiful name! how many cares and responsibilities are associated
with it! And how many elevating and sublime anticipations and hopes
are given to inspire, and to cheer! You are training young minds whose
plastic texture will receive and retain every impression you make, who
will imitate your feelings, tastes, habits, and opinions, and who will
transmit what they receive from you to their children, to pass again to
the next generation, and then to the next, until _a whole nation_ will
have received its character and destiny from your hands! No imperial
queen ever stood in a more sublime and responsible position than you
now occupy, in the eye of Him who reads the end from the beginning, and
who is appointing all the trials and discipline of your lot, not for
purposes which are visible to your limited ken, but in view of all the
consequences that are to result from the character which you form, and
are to transmit to your posterity!

Remember, then, that you have a Father in heaven, who sympathizes in
all your cares, pities your griefs, makes allowances for your defects,
and is endeavoring by trials, as well as by blessings, to fit you for
the right fulfilment of your high and holy calling.




CHAPTER XXXIII.

FRIENDLY COUNSELS FOR DOMESTICS.


My friends, you fill a very important and respectable station. The
duties committed to you by God are very apt to be considered of small
account, but they are indeed most solemn and important.

On your faithfulness and kindness depends the comfort of a whole
family, and on you often depends the character and happiness of a
whole flock of children. If you do your part faithfully in assisting
the mother to carry forward her plans, she will be able to train them
aright. If you fail to perform your part, she will be perplexed,
discouraged, and disabled, and everything will go wrong.

Every person finds troubles and trials in their lot, and so you must
find them in yours. But trials are sent by God, not for evil, but for
good, so that we, by patiently bearing them, and by striving to improve
under them, may grow wiser and better, and thus more happy than we
could be without them.

Whenever, therefore, anything vexes, or troubles you, comfort
yourselves by thinking that it is designed for your good, and reap at
least one benefit, by bearing it with patience and cheerfulness.

In all your dealings with those who employ you, try to follow “_the
golden rule_,” and do by them as you will wish to have others do by
you, when you are the mistress of a family, and hire others to help you.

Do you find that many things are uncomfortable and unpleasant in your
present lot? Remember that you never can find a place in this world
where everything will be just as you want it, and that it is a bad
thing for you, as well as for your employers, to keep roving about from
one place to another. Stay where you are, and try to make those things
that trouble you more tolerable, by enduring them with patience. Do not
fret and be angry at your employers when they oppose your wishes, but
wait until you feel in better humor, and then tell them what troubles
you, and what you wish they would alter, and in a kind and respectful
way, and you will be ten times more likely to gain what you desire.

Do you think that you are found fault with too much, and that your
employer is so hard to please that you wish to change for another?
Perhaps you do not know how often you do things different from what
she wishes, when she _does not_ complain. Perhaps she tells you only
just what she thinks she ought to do, for your good. Perhaps she does
not know that she _does_ find fault a great deal, or that her manner
is an unpleasant one. Perhaps she has a great many cares and troubles
that you know not of, which try her nerves, and make her feel very
irritable, and thus speak hastily when she does not intend it.

Be patient with her failings, if you think you see any, just as you
wish to have her bear with your faults, when they trouble her. If
you find your patience failing, it may be well in some cases, to say
to your employer, that you should do better, if she would find fault
less, and praise you more when you do well. But never say anything
of this kind when you are angry yourself, or when you see that she is
displeased.

Be careful, in all your dealings with children, always to _speak the
truth_, and never let them hear from you any filthy or wicked language.
Never promise to do a thing and then break your word, for this teaches
them to break promises. Never tell them frightful stories, or try to
make them mind you by saying what is not true. Never help them conceal
what they have done that is wrong, but try to persuade them to confess
their faults.

Never take the least thing that does not belong to you, and never tempt
children to give you what does not belong to them.

Never tell tales out of the family, nor tell to your employers the bad
things you have seen, or heard in other families, for this is mean and
ungenerous.

Do not spend your money for useless and expensive things, but learn
to be economical and prudent, that you may be preparing to be a good
housekeeper, wife, and mother, if ever you have a family of your own.

Do not form a habit of roaming about to see company, but be industrious
in hours not employed for those who hire you, in mending and making
your own clothes.

Take care and keep your person clean, and your hair and clothes in
order, and have your chamber always neat and tidy.

Do not be rude and boisterous in manners, but always speak politely to
all, especially to those who employ you.

Do not waste any of the provisions, or property of your employers, nor
let it spoil by neglect, and never lend or give away anything belonging
to the family without leave.

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Read your Bible daily, and try to obey its teachings.

Pray to God to forgive your past sins, and to help you keep all his
commands, and live every day so that you will not be afraid to die.




CHAPTER XXXIV.

MISCELLANEOUS ADVICE, AND SUPPLEMENTARY RECEIPTS.


_Weights and Measures._

It is a good plan to have a particular measure cup kept for the
purpose, and after once weighing all those receipts that are given
by weight, to _measure_ the quantity by this cup, and then write the
measures in your receipt book, and keep the cup only for this purpose.
The following is some guide in judging of the relative proportion
between measures and weights.

A quart of flour, or of sifted loaf sugar, or of softened butter, each
weigh about a pound. The flour, if sifted, must be heaped.

A pint equals eight ounces.

A half a pint equals four ounces.

One gill equals two ounces.

Half a gill equals one ounce.

A quart of brown sugar, or of Indian meal, equals a pound and two
ounces of the same.

One great spoonful of flour, loaf sugar, or of melted butter, equals a
quarter of an ounce of the same. It should be a little heaped.

Four spoonfuls equal an ounce, or half a gill.

Eight spoonfuls equal one gill.

Sixteen spoonfuls equal half a pint.

Spoons differ so much in size that this is an uncertain guide.

A medium-sized teaspoon holds sixty drops of water.

Ten eggs usually weigh a pound.

Four gills make a pint.

Two pints make a quart.

Four quarts make a gallon.

Eight quarts make a peck.

Four pecks make a bushel.


_Avoirdupois Weight._

Sixteen drachms make an ounce.

Sixteen ounces make a pound.

Twenty-eight pounds make a quarter.

Four quarters make a hundred.

Twenty hundred make a ton.


_Apothecaries’ Weight._

Twenty grains make a scruple.

Three scruples make a drachm.

Eight drachms make an ounce.

Twelve ounces make a pound.


_On Purchasing Wood._

Wood that is straight and solid makes more in a load, and is the most
profitable.

A cord of small crooked sticks does not contain half the wood there is
in a load of solid logs.

The best wood for fires is the hickory, hard maple, white ash, black
birch, yellow birch, beech, yellow oak, and locust. The best are placed
first.

The following are inferior in quality. Elm, soft maple, white birch,
pepperage, and pine.

The following are not fit to burn, either because they snap, or will
not burn. Chestnut, butternut, cedar, sassafras, red oak, and buckeye.

Any person can learn to distinguish each kind by a little attention and
instruction.

Wood is bought by measurement. A cord of wood is 8 feet long, 4 feet
wide, and 4 feet high.

To know the amount of a load, multiply the length by the breadth, and
the product by the height, and you have the number of square feet. If
it is 128 feet, it is a cord.


_Items of Advice._

If you keep an account of your stores, and the dates when they are
bought, you can know exactly how fast they are used, and when they are
wasted, or stolen.

Stale bread is improved by steaming it half an hour or more.

Grate up dry cheese, and cheese crusts, moisten it with wine or brandy,
and keep it in a jar for use. It is better than at first.

Boil old earthenware soaked with grease in hot lye, and it will cleanse
it.

Wheat should always be washed before grinding.

When you clean house, begin with the highest rooms first, so that clean
rooms be not soiled when done.

Repair house linen, turn sheets, and wash bedclothes in summer.

Clean house in the fall instead of spring, and you get rid of all the
filth made by flies. But when you burn bituminous coal, spring is the
proper time for house cleaning.

Keep coarse mats on the kitchen table for keeping it clean.

Use a coarse apron and gloves for cleaning grates. Have coal cinders
sifted, and save the coarse part to burn again.

Buy your wood in August and September, when it usually is cheapest and
plenty.

Have the backs of your chimneys kept clean by sweeping.

Never try a new dish for company.

To purify water, put common charcoal pounded in a common flower-pot,
and fine sand over it, and let the water trickle through. Or, take an
old sieve, and fill it with sand and pounded charcoal, and strain the
water, and then cool it with ice.

Keep a receipt book for yourself, and write in it the improvements of
your own experience.

Keep bits of potter’s clay in the house, to use for a paste to extract
grease from carpets, floors, and broadcloths.

Dry bran around grapes and other fruit preserves it.

All fat should be tried up once a week, for cooking, or soap grease.
Good fat saves butter.

When a stove-pipe or other iron is cracked, make a cement with ashes,
salt, and water, and it will stop the opening.

_Faded colors_ often are improved by strong salt and water.

_Sal volatile_, or spirits of hartshorn, will restore colors taken out
by acids.

_Eggs_ are preserved longer by packing them close, standing on their
small ends. Another way is to pack them in fine salt, small end down.
Another way is to pack them, small end down, and then pour on them a
mixture of four quarts of cold water, four quarts of unslacked lime,
two ounces of salt, and two ounces of cream-tartar. This will serve for
nine dozen eggs. Try all these ways.

_Rancid butter_ is said, by good judges, to be restored thus:--Put
fifteen drops of chloride of lime to a pint of water, and work the
butter in it till every particle has come in contact with the water.
Then work it over in fair cold water.

_Indelible Ink_ is thus prepared:--Buy three drachms of nitrate of
silver, and put it in a vial with two spoonfuls of water. Let it stand
a few days, then color it with a little ink, and add a tablespoonful
of brandy. The preparation is made of strong pearlash water, stiffened
with gum-arabic, and colored with red wafers.

_Buy cheap red wafers_, and scatter them about, and cockroaches will
eat them and be destroyed. The roots of _black hellebore_ scattered in
their haunts is an infallible remedy.

_Cold cream_ for sore lips, is made by mixing two ounces of oil of
almonds, one ounce of spermaceti, one drachm of white wax, and melting
them together, adding rose water to perfume them.

_Jelly-bags_ should be made of flannel, and _pudding cloths_ of thick
linen, with strings sewed on to them.

_Rose leaves_ should be gathered and preserved by crowding them into a
jar with brandy, to use for cooking.

_Potato starch_ is made by grating peeled potatoes, and rubbing them in
water. Then pour off the water, after stirring it, and dry what sinks
to the bottom.

_Orange_ and _lemon peel_ can be saved thus:--Dry it in an oven, pound
it, and then bottle it close.

_Orange_ or _lemon water_ is prepared thus:--Pound the fresh skins in a
mortar, pour in boiling water, cover close, and when cold bottle close.
Or use wine or brandy.

_Cologne water_ is made thus:--Buy at the apothecary’s one drachm each
of oil of lavender, oil of lemon, oil of rosemary, and oil of cinnamon.
Add two drachms of oil of bergamot. Mix in a vial, and add a pint of
alcohol.

When _Pearlash_ or _Saleratus_ becomes damp, dissolve it in as much
water as will just entirely dissolve it, and no more. A tablespoonful
of this equals a teaspoonful of the solid. Keep it corked in a junk
bottle.

The following is a very useful receipt for children who go to school
where blackboards are used.


_To make nice Crayons for Blackboards._

These directions are given by Prof. Turner, of the American Asylum for
the Deaf and Dumb, as follows:

“Take 5 pounds of Paris white, 1 pound of Wheat flour, wet with water,
and knead it well; make it so stiff that it will not stick to the
table, but not so stiff as to crumble and fall to pieces when it is
rolled under the hand.

“To _roll_ out the crayons to the proper size, two boards are needed,
_one_ to roll them _on_; the _other_ to roll them _with_. The first
should be a smooth pine board three feet long and nine inches wide. The
other should also be pine, a foot long and nine inches wide, having
nailed on the under side near each edge a slip of wood one-third of
an inch thick, in order to raise it so much above the under board as
that the crayon, when brought to its proper size, may lie between them
without being flattened.

“The mass is rolled into a ball, and slices are cut from one side of
it about one-third of an inch thick: these slices are again cut into
strips about four inches long and one-third of an inch wide, and
rolled separately between these boards until smooth and round.

“Near at hand should be another board 3 feet long and 4 inches wide,
across which each crayon, as it is made, should be laid, so that the
ends may project on each side--the crayons should be laid in close
contact, and straight. When the board is filled, the ends should all
be trimmed off so as to make the crayons as long as the width of the
board. It is then laid in the sun, if in hot weather, or if in winter,
near a stove or fireplace, where the crayons may dry gradually, which
will require twelve hours. When thoroughly dry they are fit for use.

“An experienced hand will make 150 in an hour.” Young boys can make
them and sell to their companions.


SOME EXCELLENT CHEAP DISHES.


_Stewed Beef._

Take a shank or hock of beef, with all the meat belonging to it, and
put it into a pot full of water early in the morning and throw in a
tablespoonful of salt. Let it simmer _very_ slowly, till the beef is
soft, and cleaves from the bone, and the water is reduced to about two
quarts. Then peel some potatoes, and cut them in quarters, and throw in
with two teaspoonfuls of black pepper, two of sweet marjoram, and two
of thyme, or summer savory. Add some _celery flavor or sauce_, and more
salt if it requires it. Stew until the potatoes are cooked enough, but
not till they are mashed. Then take dry bread, and throw in, breaking
it into small pieces, and when soaked, take up the whole and serve it,
and everybody will say it is about the best dish they ever tasted.

Those who love onions slice in three or four with the potatoes. Rice
can be put in instead of bread.


_Tomato Beef._

Stew a shank or hock of beef as above, except you put in nine or ten
peeled tomatoes instead of potatoes and sweet herbs, and also leave out
the bread. Some would add a little chopped onion. This is excellent and
a very healthful mode of preparing beef, especially if it is tough.


_A good Way to use Cold Rice._

Heat the rice in milk, add a well-beaten egg or two, a little salt,
butter, and sugar, let it boil up once, and then grate on nutmeg.


_To prepare Good Toast._

Toast the bread very quick, dip each slice in boiling water as soon as
you have toasted it, and then lay thin bits of butter over. Cover and
keep hot as you proceed. A _tin bonnet_ is very useful for this. Make
milk toast in the same way, keeping the milk at nearly boiling heat. It
is better to spread the butter thin on to the toast after it is dipped
in hot milk, than to melt it in it.


_A Good Pudding._

Line a buttered dish with slices of wheat bread, first dipped in milk.
Fill the dish with sliced apple, and add sugar and spice. Cover with
slices of bread soaked in milk, cover close with a plate, and bake
three hours.


_Loaf Pudding._

When bread is too stale, put a loaf in a pudding-bag and boil it in
salted water an hour and a half, and eat it with hard pudding sauce.


_A Plain Lemon Pudding._

Nine spoonfuls of grated apple, one grated lemon, (peel and pulp,) half
a cup of butter, and three eggs. Mix and bake, with or without a crust,
about an hour. Cream improves it.


_An Excellent Indian Pudding without Eggs._

Take seven heaping spoonfuls of Indian meal, half a teaspoonful of
salt, two spoonfuls of butter or sweet lard, a teacup of molasses, and
two teaspoonfuls of ginger or cinnamon, to the taste. Pour into these
a quart of milk while boiling hot. Mix well, and put it in a buttered
dish. Just as you set it in the oven stir in a teacup of cold water,
which will produce the same effect as eggs. Bake three quarters of an
hour, in a dish that will not spread it out thin.


_Pork and Potato Balls._

Take one-third chopped salt pork or ham, either raw or cooked, and
two-thirds of cold cooked potatoes chopped fine. Mix them up with egg,
_a little_ salt and pepper, and then make into balls and fry, or merely
cook in a skillet.

Chop cold potatoes fine, and then add some pork fat and a little
pepper, salt, and water, and warm slowly, and it is very good.


_Oyster Pie._

Make a crust by working flour into mashed boiled potatoes with a little
salt. Line a deep dish with it, invert a small teacup in the middle to
hold the juice in and to hold up the upper crust. Put in the oysters
with a little pepper and butter, and dredge in some flour. Cover with
crust, make a large slit on the top, and bake an hour.


_Green Corn Patties (like Oysters)._

Twelve ears of sweet corn grated. (Yellow corn will do, but not so
well.)

One teaspoonful of salt and one of pepper.

One egg beaten into two tablespoonfuls of flour.

Mix, make into small cakes, and fry brown in butter or sweet lard.


_Ohio Wedding Cake (Mrs. K.)._

Two pounds of flour.

One pound of butter.

One pound of sugar--brown is best.

Two pounds of currants or one of raisins.

Ten eggs.

Two teacups of molasses.

One gill of wine, and one of brandy.

One gill of cream, spice and citron to the taste.

Mix the butter and sugar, add the molasses, then the beaten yolks of
eggs, then the flour, then the spice, wine, and cream, then the whites
of the eggs in a stiff froth. Put in the fruit in the manner previously
directed, and the citron with it at the same time. This is a very fine
cake.


_Best Way of making Corn Cakes of all Sorts._

There is often a sharp and strong taste to corn meal, which is remedied
by wetting it up the day before it is used. The best kind of corn cakes
are made by wetting up a large quantity of Indian meal with milk, and
letting it stand for several days. Take a quantity of it, and first
make it as thin as you want, either for griddle cakes, or drop cakes,
or thicker cakes. Add salt and a spoonful of melted butter or lard
for every quart, also sugar to your taste. A little always improves
all corn cakes. Then dissolve soda or salaratus, a teaspoonful for
each quart. If it is very sour it will want more, and _tasting_ is the
surest guide. Just as you are ready to bake, stir in enough salaratus
to sweeten it, and stir quickly and only long enough to mix it well,
and then _bake immediately_ in buttered tins.

Domestics often use too much salaratus, which is bad for the stomach,
and the housekeeper should ascertain by trial the right quantity, and
then direct to have it _carefully measured_ every time. Corn cakes,
made as above, just thick enough to form into round cakes half an inch
thick and baked on a griddle, are excellent.


_Molasses Candy._

As all children are fond of this article, the following directions may
be acceptable. Boil the molasses (maple is the best) till it will, if
dropped in cold water, become crisp. Then, for each quart, put into it
an even teaspoonful of salaratus dissolved in a little warm water, and
stir it till well mixed. This makes it tender and crisp. Take a part
and cool it in a buttered pan, to work white and draw into sticks. Into
the remainder stir roasted corn, either pounded or whole, or peanuts or
almonds, or walnuts or hazelnuts.

_Whole Popped_ corn made into cakes with candy is excellent. Roasted
corn pounded and mixed with half the quantity of maple sugar is good,
and some eat it thus in milk.


_To make Simple Cerate._

Melt together equal quantities of white wax and spermaceti, and then
add an equal quantity of sweet oil, or a little more.

Never use rancid oil.


_Best Remedy for Burns._

Pound and sift _wood soot_, and mix it with sweet lard, and apply it,
spread on linen rags. It will ease a burn quicker than anything. If
the skin is off, the great thing is to keep it covered close from the
air. If the burns are large and bad, give salts or cream tartar as a
cathartic.


_Ginger Tea._

Pour half a pint of boiling water on to a teaspoonful of ginger; add
sugar and milk to the taste.


_Indian Bannock._

Take one pint of Indian meal, and stir into it a pint of sour milk,
half a teaspoonful of salt, a spoonful of molasses, and a spoonful
of melted butter. Beat two eggs and add, and then stir in a pint of
wheat flour. Then thin it with milk to the consistency of drop cakes,
and when ready to bake, stir in a heaping teaspoonful of salaratus
dissolved in hot water. Pour into square buttered tins an inch thick,
and bake fifteen minutes.


_Egg and Bread._

Put bread crumbs into a sauce pan, with cream, salt, and pepper, and a
little grated nutmeg. When the bread has absorbed the cream, break in
eight eggs and fry it like an omelet, or bake it in buttered tins, or
muffin rings.


_Floating Island._

Beat the whites of eggs till _very_ stiff, then put in one
tablespoonful of some acid jelly for each white, and beat it a good
while. Boil rich sweetened milk, and put it in a glass dish, and _when
cold_, put the jelly and eggs on the top.


_A New Mode of cooking Cucumbers._

Pare them, cut them in quarters lengthwise, dip them in corn meal or
wheat flour, pepper and salt them, and then fry them brown, and they
are very fine.


       *       *       *       *       *


Transcriber's Notes

Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations
in hyphenation, spelling and punctuation remain unchanged.

Italics are represented thus _italic_.

The following changes have been made.

In the section on Kitchen Furniture

 a vial tunnel, a larger tunnel
  has been changed to
 a vial funnel, a larger funnel

In the section Items of Advice

 Boil old earthen soaked with grease in hot ley, and it will cleanse it.
  has been changed to
 Boil old earthenware soaked with grease in hot lye, and it will
 cleanse it.





End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Miss Beecher's Domestic Receipt Book, by 
Catherine Beecher

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