Name: Marion Harland's Complete Cook Book
Author: Marion Harland

Marion Harland's Complete Cook Book (part 2 of 3)

Cut into thin strips, and these into inch lengths, two carrots, one-half of a white turnip, two or three celery stalks, two small onions, a leaf or two of young cabbage, and a good handful of string beans. Put all together, with half a cupful of green peas, into cold salted water, and leave for half an hour. Turn, then, into your soup kettle with sufficient water to cover, and cook for fifteen minutes. Drain off the water, cover the vegetables with a quart of good soup stock or consommé, and cook gently for twenty-five minutes longer. Season with salt and pepper, add chopped parsley and kitchen bouquet to taste, and boil up once before serving. You may add tomatoes or not, as you like.

The stock should be strong.

French onion soup

To a quart of good stock allow six small onions that have been parboiled for ten minutes, and a cupful of fine, dry bread-crumbs. Let them simmer together for half an hour; rub the soup through a colander, pressing through as much of the onion and bread as possible. Put into a saucepan, rub one tablespoonful of butter and two of flour to a cream, and stir into the hot mixture until it thickens. Season with salt and pepper, add one pint of milk heated with a tiny bit of soda, boil up, and serve.

A homely, but a savory soup.

White barley soup

Soak a cupful of barley for several hours in enough water to cover it; then boil in a quart of veal stock until tender and clear. Season with a teaspoonful of onion juice, a tablespoonful of minced parsley, and with celery salt and white pepper to taste. Thicken a pint of scalding milk with a white roux, pour the hot soup slowly upon this and serve.

“Turkey rack” soup

(A Virginia recipe)

Break the carcass of a roast turkey served for yesterday’s dinner into pieces, removing all the stuffing; cover with two quarts of cold water and boil three hours, covered. Set aside until cold; skim and take out all the bones; chop the meat; add to the soup and meat the stuffing rubbed through a colander, a sliced onion and a stalk of celery, cut very small. Simmer for an hour; put a cupful of milk over the fire, not forgetting a pinch of soda; when hot, stir in a tablespoonful of butter rubbed into one of flour; mix with the soup, and boil one minute.

A white fowl soup

Cut an elderly chicken up as for fricassee, severing every joint. Put into the soup-kettle, allowing a quart of water for every pound. Add a sliced onion and three celery stalks. Set at the side of the range; bring slowly to the boil. Cook until the meat slips from the bones, if it takes all day. Set away with the meat in it until cold. Take off the fat. Warm sufficiently to allow you to strain it; take out the bones; cut the white meat into cubes, and keep hot over boiling water. Bring the soup to a boil, season with salt and white pepper, and throw into it, while boiling hard, half a cupful of rice. Cook fast for twenty-five minutes, or until the rice is very tender. Have ready in a saucepan a cupful of hot milk into which you have put a bit of soda; stir in a white roux made by cooking a tablespoonful of butter with one of flour, and add to the soup with a tablespoonful of chopped parsley. Now, put in the meat cubes, boil one minute and serve.

A brown fowl soup

Prepare and cook chicken as just directed, and, when you have skimmed the soup and taken out the bones, cut all the meat into neat cubes; dry it between two cloths; pepper and salt, then dredge well with flour. Put into a frying-pan four tablespoonfuls of the fat you have taken from the soup and when it bubbles, add the pieces of chicken and toss them about until well browned. Remove the chicken and keep it hot. Into the fat left in the pan put one level tablespoonful of flour and stir until well mixed and slightly browned. Add by degrees sufficient soup to moisten to a smooth gravy, then strain it into the soup. Season to taste, put in the chicken dice, simmer five minutes, and serve. You may improve the color by adding a teaspoonful of kitchen bouquet.

Beef juice for invalids

Chop two pounds of lean beef small. Put a layer of this meat in the bottom of a glass jar and sprinkle over it a little salt. Then add another layer and a little more salt, and so on until the meat has been used. Set in a kettle. The water in the kettle should be cold and be heated gradually to the boiling point, after which it should be left to simmer for three or four hours, or until the meat looks like bits of white rags with the juice completely drawn out. Let all get cold together, then skim, and strain out the meat, pressing it hard.

Beef tea

Chop three pounds of lean beef fine and leave in a quart of cold water for two hours. Set water and beef over a slow fire in a covered saucepan and simmer four hours. Set away all night with the meat in it. In the morning remove every bit of grease, and strain through coarse muslin, pressing hard. Season with pepper and salt.

BISQUES

The name is applied to a class of soups thickened into closer consistency than broth by the addition of minced meat and crumbs. When well made, they are popular at family dinners, and some kinds—such as oyster and lobster bisque—are admirable at dinner parties.

Care must be observed to keep the ingredients well together, and to season judiciously. Insipid panada is not a bisque. Still less is a “mess” compounded, not wisely, but so well as to remind one of a poultice.

Oyster bisque

Drain the liquor from a quart of oysters and make of it a quart of liquid by adding cold water. Into this stir the oysters, chopped fine, and put all into a porcelain-lined saucepan over the fire. Cook very gently for twenty minutes. Have heated a quart of milk, in which a pinch of soda has been dissolved, and half a cupful of cracker-crumbs, soaked. Cook together in a saucepan two tablespoonfuls of butter and two of flour. When they are perfectly blended pour upon them the quart of thickened boiling milk and stir until as smooth and thick as cream. Turn into this the oyster soup and season to taste with salt and pepper. Slowly pour a cupful of the soup upon the beaten yolks of two eggs, stirring constantly. When mixed, return the soup with the blended yolks to the saucepan, stir and pour at once into a heated tureen.

Lobster bisque

Two cupfuls of lobster meat, minced fine; one quart of boiling water and the same of milk; half a cupful of butter and a cupful of fine cracker-crumbs; paprika or cayenne and salt to taste; a teaspoonful of flour.

Rub the coral and a quarter of the meat to a paste; leave this in enough boiling water to cover it for half an hour. Then put the reserved chopped lobster into a saucepan, with the cracker-crumbs and half the butter; stir in the hot water and coral, etc., with the rest of the quart of boiling water. Cook gently half an hour in a double boiler after the water in the outer vessel begins to boil hard. Stir often. In another saucepan heat the milk (with a bit of soda) and the rest of the butter worked up with the flour. Boil one minute. Turn the lobster into the tureen; stir in the hot milk and serve at once.

Crab bisque

Is made in the same way.

Clam bisque

Thirty clams; one cupful of milk and half as much cream, or two cupfuls of milk; two tablespoonfuls of butter and one of flour; three eggs; a tablespoonful of onion juice; one cupful of boiling water; a pinch of soda in the milk; one cupful of cracker-crumbs.

Chop the clams and put over the fire in the boiling water. Simmer half an hour. Heat milk and cream in another saucepan with the soda and crumbs. Stir in the roux, boil one minute and pour gradually, beating all the time, upon the yolks, previously whipped smooth. Heat in a double boiler for two minutes, or until the water in the outer vessel boils hard, and turn into the tureen. Season the boiling mince of clams with salt, cayenne and minced parsley, add to the milk in tureen and cover the surface with the whites of the eggs beaten to a standing froth.

In serving, dip the ladle deep into the bisque, but see that each plate is mantled by the meringue.

Chicken bisque

Joint the fowl and cover with cold water, a quart for each pound. Put in a large minced onion and three stalks of celery, minced fine. Cover and cook slowly until you can slip the flesh from the bones. Let all get cold together; skim, take out bones and meat, and chop the latter fine. Return the soup to the fire and heat in another vessel a cupful of milk (dropping in a bit of soda). Thicken this with a tablespoonful of butter rubbed into a teaspoonful of flour, and add a tablespoonful of minced parsley. When the soup has reached a fast boil, stir into it the chopped chicken with a cupful of cracker-crumbs soaked in warm milk; boil one minute, beat in the milk and butter and pour out.

Corn bisque

Drain the liquor from a can of corn. Chop the corn very fine, put it over the fire in a quart of salted water and simmer gently for an hour. Rub through a colander, return to the fire with the water, add a teaspoonful of sugar, and when this melts, two tablespoonfuls of flour rubbed into two of butter. Stir until smooth and pour slowly upon a pint of heated milk. Season with salt and pour the soup gradually upon two beaten eggs. Send immediately to the table.

Cheese bisque

Into a pint of milk put a pinch of soda, and bring to the scalding point. To this add a cupful of stock (chicken or mutton or lamb) in which an onion has been boiled, and a cupful of water in which rice has been cooked until you can run it through a strainer. Cook together in a good-sized saucepan two tablespoonfuls of butter and two of flour. When they are thoroughly blended and bubble pour on them the white soup and stir until it thickens to the consistency of cream. Now beat in a half cupful of grated cheese. Have ready in a bowl two well-whipped eggs, and on these pour, a little at a time, a cupful of hot soup, beating steadily to prevent curdling. Return the cupful of soup with the eggs to the soup on the fire, beat for half a minute, season with salt and pepper, and serve. Odd, but very good when properly made.

Salmon bisque

Open a can of salmon and turn out the contents several hours before making the soup. With a silver fork pick the fish to pieces and take out all bits of bone and skin. Put the fish into an agate saucepan, put on it enough boiling water to cover it, and let it simmer gently for half an hour. Drain off the water and break the fish to a soft mass.

Dissolve a pinch of soda in a pint of milk and heat in a double boiler with a half cupful of cracker-crumbs. Stir into it a pint of well-seasoned veal stock, and thicken with two tablespoonfuls of flour rubbed into two of butter. When thick and smooth, stir in the minced fish, season with salt and paprika, and serve. This is very good when made of boiled fresh salmon.

Bisque of halibut or cod

Boil a pound of firm fresh fish in two waters, and mince it fine, freeing it from all bits of skin or bone. Have ready a quart of white stock, stir the fish into it and season with salt, pepper and a spoonful of minced parsley. Cook together two tablespoonfuls of butter and one of flour, pour upon this a cupful of milk, stir until it thickens, and put with the fish and stock. Boil up once and put into the tureen. A half cupful of powdered cracker-crumbs should be added just before the soup is mixed with the milk.

Tomato bisque (No. 1)

Two cupfuls of fresh tomatoes, chopped fine; one pint of strong stock or skimmed gravy; one cupful of fine crumbs soaked for half an hour in hot milk; one teaspoonful of white sugar; one tablespoonful of onion juice; pepper and salt to taste; one tablespoonful of butter cooked to a roux with one of flour; chopped parsley; cook together five minutes, run through a vegetable press, stir in the stock and seasoning, and return to the fire. Simmer twenty minutes and add the soaked crumbs and parsley; cook together five minutes, stir in as much baking-soda as will lie upon a dime and send in at once.

You may use canned tomatoes for this recipe if you have not fresh.

Tomato bisque (No. 2)

Stir one quart can of tomatoes with a half-teaspoonful of soda for half an hour. Boil half a gallon of fresh milk; add to it a quarter of a pound of butter, pepper and salt. Mash the tomatoes through a colander and stir them into the boiling milk; add a teacupful of rolled crackers; serve immediately. If the milk is put into the tomatoes it will curdle.

CREAM SOUPS

N. B.—See to it that the milk of which they are made is fresh, and always drop in it before heating a pinch of baking-soda to avoid the danger of curdling. A curdled cream soup is a culinary solecism, and should never be put into delicate stomachs. After the soup is ready for the table do not allow it to stand on the part of the range where it may come to a boil.

Cream of spinach soup

Wash a half peck of spinach and put it into a saucepan with a scant quart of water. Boil until tender, then chop very, very fine, and run through a sieve. It should be like a soft green paste. Cook together a tablespoonful of flour and one of butter and pour upon them a quart of hot milk. Stir until smooth, add the spinach, boil up once, season and serve.

Cream of beet soup

Boil the young beets in salted water for an hour. Lay in cold water until cool enough to handle. Scrape off all the skin and chop the beets very fine. Turn the beets and the juice which has exuded from them into a pint of mutton stock, and simmer for fifteen minutes. Rub through a fine colander or a coarse soup-strainer and keep hot at the side of the range. Cook together two teaspoonfuls of butter and two of flour, and pour upon them a pint of milk. Stir until thick and smooth, then add slowly the beet and mutton purée. When very hot, season with salt and white pepper and serve.

Tomato cream soup (No. 1)

Cut up a dozen ripe tomatoes and stew tender in a pint of water. Rub through a strainer and thicken with three teaspoonfuls of corn-starch rubbed to a paste with a tablespoonful of butter. Season with salt, pepper and sugar, and pour slowly upon the mixture a quart of scalding milk, to which a pinch of soda has been added.

Tomato cream soup (No. 2)

Cook a quart of tomatoes soft and rub them through a colander, or drain the liquid from a can of tomatoes. Heat it over the fire, cooking with it a pinch of soda and a teaspoonful of onion juice. Cook together in another saucepan a tablespoonful, each, of butter and flour until they bubble, and then pour upon them a pint of hot milk. Stir until it thickens, salt and pepper the tomato to taste, and mix with it the thickened milk. Add half a teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce and serve at once.

Cream of celery soup

Cut a bunch of celery into small bits and put it over the fire in enough water to cover it. Stew until very tender; rub through a colander, and stir into it a pint of hot veal or other white stock. Cook together two tablespoonfuls of butter and the same of flour, and pour slowly upon them a pint of hot milk in which a pinch of soda has been dissolved. When thick and smooth, add gradually, stirring constantly, the celery and stock. Season with pepper and celery salt, and serve.

Onion cream soup

Into a quart of mutton stock slice six large onions and simmer for an hour. Rub through a colander, return to the fire, and thicken with two tablespoonfuls of flour, rubbed to a paste with two of butter. Bring a half pint of milk to the boiling point and stir it into the soup. Season with salt, white pepper and a tablespoonful of minced parsley.

Potato cream soup (No. 1)

Mash ten large boiled potatoes, beat them to a soft mass with a half pint of cream, and season to taste with salt, pepper and a teaspoonful of onion juice. Heat a pint of milk to scalding, stir it into a quart of heated veal stock and thicken with a white roux. Now beat in the mashed potato, boil up once, stirring constantly, add a handful of chopped parsley, and serve.

Potato cream soup (No. 2)

Boil and mash six good-sized potatoes. Heat a pint of milk to the boiling point and stir into it a tablespoonful of butter, rubbed into the same quantity of flour. When the milk is smooth and thick beat into it slowly the mashed potatoes and stir to a cream-like soup. Season to taste with pepper, salt and onion juice, and just before removing from the fire add a teaspoonful of finely minced parsley.

Cream of corn soup

Grate the corn from a dozen ears and put over the fire in a quart of water. Simmer for three-quarters of an hour. Now add salt and pepper to taste and a teaspoonful of granulated sugar. Rub to a paste two tablespoonfuls of butter and two of flour and thicken the corn soup with this. Have ready heated a quart of milk, pour this gradually upon a beaten egg, turn into a heated tureen and stir in the corn purée.

Cream of asparagus soup

Cut the stalks of a bunch of asparagus into half-inch lengths, and boil slowly for an hour in three cups of salted water. When the stalks are tender, drain through a colander, pressing and rubbing the asparagus that all the juice may exude. Return the liquid to the fire and keep it hot while you cook together in a saucepan a tablespoonful of butter and one of flour, and pour upon them a quart of milk. Stir until smooth, and add the asparagus liquor slowly with a cupful of asparagus tips, already boiled tender. Have ready beaten the yolks of two eggs, pour the hot soup gradually upon these, stirring all the time; return to the fire for just a half minute, season to taste and serve.

Cream of pea soup

Open a can of peas, turn off the liquor and pour over them enough cold water to cover them. At the end of half an hour drain the peas, put them into a saucepan with a pint of water and boil until they are reduced to a pulp. Rub through a colander and add a teaspoonful of granulated sugar. Thicken a pint of rich milk with a teaspoonful of flour rubbed into one of butter, and stir the pea purée into this. Cook for a minute, season to taste, and turn into a heated tureen. Have ready a handful of dice of fried bread to throw upon the surface of the soup just before it is sent to the table.

Tapioca cream soup

Soak two tablespoonfuls of tapioca in a gill of cold water for six or eight hours. Heat a pint of well-seasoned mutton stock to boiling and stir the tapioca into this. Boil until the tapioca is clear, then slowly add a pint of scalding milk, in which a pinch of soda has been dissolved. Season to taste, and pour the soup very gradually upon the beaten yolks of three eggs. Turn into a heated tureen and serve.

Cream cheese soup

Boil an onion for fifteen minutes in a pint of veal stock, then strain it out and return the stock to the fire. Heat a pint of milk to scalding, thicken with two tablespoonfuls of flour rubbed into one of butter, season with white pepper and celery salt, and add to the veal stock. Stir in slowly the beaten yolks of two eggs, then four tablespoonfuls of grated Parmesan cheese and serve.

Cream of lettuce soup

Make as you would cream of spinach soup, but boil ten minutes only. It is very good and more delicate than spinach.

Cream of sago soup

Soak half a cupful of sago for three hours in enough tepid water to cover it. Pour a cupful of boiling water upon it, and simmer in an inner boiler until very soft. Now add three cupfuls of hot milk, into which two tablespoonfuls of butter rolled in flour have been stirred. Beat up well, put in celery salt, pepper and a little onion juice; stir up and beat from the bottom for two minutes; pour gradually upon two beaten eggs; set in boiling water for two minutes, and pour out.

VEGETABLE SOUPS WITH MEAT

Potato purée

Peel and slice a quart of good “old” potatoes. Put them into the soup kettle with a large sliced onion, three stalks of celery cut into inch pieces, a quarter of a pound of butter, and pepper and salt to taste; stew slowly until reduced to a pulp, add a quart of good stock; simmer a few minutes longer, run through a colander into another saucepan and let it boil gently for five minutes. Just before ready to serve add a pint of hot cream, a piece of butter and a tablespoonful of minced parsley.

Bean soup

Soak three cupfuls of dried white beans for eight hours. Drain, cover them with two quarts of boiling water, and boil until the beans are tender and broken to pieces. Rub them and the water in which they have been boiled through a sieve and return to the fire. Add a quart of stock, in which a ham or a piece of corn beef has been boiled. If this is too salt, add other soup stock with it. Boil for an hour, season to taste; stir in a tablespoonful of butter rolled in one of flour and put into the tureen. Put a handful of croutons or dice of fried bread on the surface of the soup.

Mock-turtle bean soup

Make as you would white bean soup, adding, at the last, a tablespoonful of butter rolled in one of browned flour, and when it has boiled one minute, a glass of sherry.

Have in the tureen three tablespoonfuls of hard-boiled egg, cut into dice, and a lemon, peeled and sliced as thin as paper. It is a surprisingly good imitation of mock turtle soup.

Bean and tomato soup

Soak a quart of beans for eight hours. Drain and soak an hour longer in warm water. Drain and put into a soup pot with a gallon of cold water, and bring slowly to a boil. Add a half pound of fat salt pork, chopped, two sliced onions and a bay leaf. Let all simmer gently for four hours. At the end of that time run and press the soup through a sieve, and return it to the pot with a quart of canned tomatoes seasoned, and sweetened with two teaspoonfuls of granulated sugar. Boil for half an hour, strain the soup through a colander and return to the fire, while you thicken it with a tablespoonful of flour rubbed into the same quantity of butter. Boil up once and serve.

Split pea soup

This soup may be made of dried split green or yellow peas. Soak a large cupful of the peas all night, drain, cover with two quarts of water and bring to a boil. Simmer gently until the peas are soft, then rub through a colander and return to the fire, thicken with a tablespoonful of flour rubbed into one of butter and season with pepper, celery, salt and onion juice. Stir until very smooth, turn into a heated tureen, throw in a handful of dice of fried bread and serve.

Celery soup

Wash the celery, cut it into inch lengths and boil it in enough water to cover it until so soft that it can be rubbed through a colander. After passing it through the colander, return to the fire with a pint of white stock. Scald a pint of milk, stir into it a tablespoonful, each, of butter and flour, and when thick and smooth, add slowly the stock seasoned with white pepper and celery salt. Beat for a half-minute and serve.

Green pea purée (No. 1)

Shell two quarts of peas and leave in cold water. Wash the pods and put them over the fire to boil in a quart of veal or mutton stock. Boil for twenty minutes, then drain out the pods and return the stock to the fire. Drain the water from the peas, and when the stock boils again, turn them into this. Add a pinch of soda and boil until the green pellets are reduced to a soft mass. Rub the pulp and liquid through a colander, return to the fire and thicken with a tablespoonful of flour rubbed into one of butter. Have heated in another saucepan a half pint of rich milk. Pour this slowly into a bowl containing a beaten egg; whip all together, and gradually add the peas-purée. Do not return the soup to the fire after it has been poured upon the milk and egg, or it may curdle.

Green pea purée (No. 2)

Boil a quart of shelled peas tender in salted hot water with a young onion, a few sprigs of parsley and six mint leaves. Rub through a colander and return to the fire, adding half a cupful of good stock, salt, pepper and a lump of sugar. When it has boiled two minutes stir in a tablespoonful of butter rolled in flour, cook one minute longer and pour upon croutons of fried bread-dice in the tureen.

Savory potato soup

Crack a good marrow-bone well and put over the fire with three pints of cold water, a small sliced carrot, a stalk or two of celery and a grated onion. Cook slowly until boiled down to one-half the original quantity. Set aside until cold; remove the fat, take out the bones, and rub the vegetables through a colander back into the soup. Heat quickly to a boil, and pour upon your mashed potato, gradually, working in smoothly as you go on. Turn into a double boiler and when again hot put in a great spoonful of chopped parsley. Have ready in another saucepan a good cupful of hot water, in which has been dropped a pinch of soda. Stir into this a teaspoonful of butter, rubbed up in one of corn-starch. Cook three minutes, add to the potato soup, stir briskly for half a minute and put into the tureen. If properly seasoned this is a delicious family broth.

Browned potato soup

Peel and cut into quarters twelve potatoes, put three tablespoonfuls of beef dripping in a soup pot and fry in it the potatoes and a sliced onion. When brown, add two quarts of water and simmer until the potatoes are soft and broken. Rub through a colander, return the purée to the pot, thicken with two tablespoonfuls of browned flour rubbed to a paste with a great spoonful of butter, stir until smooth, add a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, salt and pepper to taste and serve.

It is very good.

Savory rice soup

Boil half a cupful of well-washed rice in boiling water for twelve minutes; drain off the water, pour over it one quart of stock and cook until the rice is tender; then rub through a strainer and return to the fire; beat the yolks of two eggs, add to them half a cup of cream, and this to the soup and stir for one minute; do not allow it to boil; add more seasoning if necessary, and serve.

Okra soup

Into a quart of chicken stock stir two slices of corned ham, minced, a chopped onion and two dozen okra. Add a pint of strained tomatoes and boil all until the okra is tender. Season to taste and serve.

Red tomato soup

Skim all grease from a quart of beef stock and turn into it a can of tomatoes, or a quart of fresh tomatoes, peeled and sliced. Bring to a boil and simmer steadily for an hour. At the end of this time rub the soup through a sieve and return to the fire with a heaping teaspoonful of sugar, a tablespoonful of butter rolled in flour, a teaspoonful of onion juice, the same quantity of kitchen bouquet, and pepper and salt to taste. Add a half-cupful of boiled rice, simmer five minutes and serve with squares of toasted bread.

Tomato and bean soup

Put beef-bones over the fire with half a sliced carrot, two stalks of refuse celery and a grated onion. Pour in three pints of cold water; simmer slowly in a covered pot four hours, until the liquid is reduced to one-half. Turn bones and soup into a bowl and let all get perfectly cold. Skim off the fat, strain out the bones and rub the vegetables through a colander back into the liquor. Season this to your taste with salt and pepper, bring to a boil, add a cupful of stewed tomato and one of baked beans and cook half an hour longer before rubbing all hard through the colander into another saucepan. Stir in a teaspoonful of butter rubbed up with one of flour, to prevent wateriness in the soup, also a little chopped parsley. Boil up sharply for one minute and turn upon tiny squares of fried or toasted bread laid in the bottom of the tureen.

This is an excellent way of using up left-overs of stewed tomatoes and baked beans.

Carrot soup

Wash and clean one dozen half-grown carrots. Slice thin, then place them in a saucepan with two tablespoonfuls of butter, a little salt and sugar and cook slowly, turning often until the carrots begin to color. Add a pint of rich broth and allow them to boil gently to a glaze; then put the carrots through your vegetable press; return to the saucepan, simmer until smoking-hot and serve.

Sorrel soup

Chop the sorrel into bits and boil tender in a quart of mutton stock. Rub through a colander and return to the fire. Thicken a pint of hot milk with a tablespoonful of flour rubbed into one of butter. Cook one minute, or until it is smooth and free from lumps, when stir in slowly the sorrel soup. Season to taste and serve. The French are particularly fond of sorrel soups.

Succotash soup

Remove the strings from string beans, cut the beans into inch lengths and shred each inch into thin strips. Grate the kernels from six ears of corn, and boil the cobs for twenty minutes in a quart of cleared beef stock. Remove the cobs and boil the grated corn and shredded beans in the stock for twenty-five minutes. Now make a pint of tomato sauce, thickening it and seasoning it as usual, and pour the stock, corn and beans gradually upon this. Season all to taste, and serve very hot, without straining.

You may make this soup in winter from canned corn and string beans.

Spinach soup

Pick over, wash and stem half a peck of spinach, and put over the fire in the inner vessel of a double boiler, with boiling water in the outer, and cook tender. Rub through your vegetable press back into the saucepan; add a pint of good stock; season with salt, pepper, a teaspoonful of sugar and a pinch of mace; bring to a quick boil to keep the color, stir in a tablespoonful of butter rolled in a teaspoonful of flour, and cook one minute.

Celery soup

Is good made in the same way, also cauliflower.

Lettuce soup

Treat as directed in spinach soup. Cook very quickly and add a dash of lemon juice.

Farmer’s chowder

Parboil and slice six fine potatoes; fry half a pound of sweet salt pork (chopped) and when it begins to crisp add a minced onion and cook to a light brown. Pack potatoes, pork and onion in a soup kettle, sprinkling each layer with pepper and minced parsley. Add the hot fat; cover with a pint of boiling water and simmer thirty minutes. Turn into a colander and drain the liquor back into the kettle. Have ready a pint of hot milk into which has been stirred a tablespoonful of butter rolled in flour; add to the liquor, cook one minute, return the potatoes to the kettle and serve.

VEGETABLE SOUPS WITHOUT MEAT

Split pea soup

Soak a large cup of split peas all night, then put them over the fire with two quarts of water and bring to a boil. Simmer gently until the peas are soft. Rub through a colander, return to the fire, thicken with a tablespoonful of flour rubbed into two of butter and season with pepper, celery salt and onion juice. Stir to a smooth purée, pour into the tureen and throw a handful of dice of fried bread upon the surface of the soup.

Green pea broth (No. 1)

Drain the liquor from a can of peas, cook them until very soft, then rub through a colander. Thicken a quart of milk with a tablespoonful of flour rubbed into two of butter, stir the mashed peas into this, boil up once, stirring steadily; season with salt and a teaspoonful of sugar, and serve.

Green pea broth (No. 2)

Drain a can of peas and lay the peas in cold water for one hour. Add two cupfuls of cold water, one teaspoonful of sugar, and one slice of onion; boil twenty minutes and rub through a vegetable press. Heat two tablespoonfuls of butter, add one of flour, mixed with one teaspoonful of salt and one-eighth of a teaspoonful of pepper. Stir into the boiling mixture and add two cupfuls of scalded milk heated with a bit of soda. Strain before serving.

“Linsen,” or lentil soup

Pick over and wash one cupful of lentils, soak three hours, and put them on to cook in one quart of boiling water. Let them cook very slowly until soft, and the water reduced one-half. Rub the pulp through a strainer, add one pint of milk and when boiling thicken with one tablespoonful of flour cooked in a tablespoonful of butter. Season with paprika, salt and a little sugar, and serve with croutons.

A good green pea soup

One quart of shelled peas, two cupfuls of milk, two tablespoonfuls of butter and one of flour, one-half teaspoonful, each, of salt and white sugar, and half as much white pepper, one quart of boiling water.

Wash the pods well when you have shelled the peas and put the pods over the fire in the boiling water; cook fifteen minutes, strain and press the softened pods into the water and return to the fire with the raw peas. Cook until soft, when run through your vegetable press back into the saucepan with the water. Have ready a roux made by heating the butter and stirring into it in the frying-pan the flour. Have the milk hot in another vessel, add the roux, cook two minutes. Season the pea-broth and pour into the tureen. Stir in the thickened milk and serve, pouring upon croutons of fried bread.

Squash soup

One cupful of cold boiled squash, run through a colander, one quart of milk, heated, with a pinch of soda, one teaspoonful, each, of salt and of sugar, a quarter as much pepper and a pinch of mace, two tablespoonfuls of butter and one of flour, one tablespoonful of onion juice and two of minced celery.

Make a roux of butter and flour, and stir into the hot milk. Beat together the squash, celery and seasoning until light; heat quickly in a saucepan, stirring all the time. When very hot, put into the tureen, turn in the milk, stirring all well together, and serve.

Turnip soup

Make as directed in last recipe.

Rice and tomato soup

Peel and cut up a dozen ripe tomatoes and boil to a pulp in a quart of salted water. Strain, return to the fire, and add two tablespoonfuls of butter rubbed to a paste with the same quantity of flour; pepper, salt and sugar to taste, a tablespoonful of minced parsley and a teaspoonful of onion juice. Cook for ten minutes, then stir in a cupful of boiled rice.

Corn and tomato soup

Heat two tablespoonfuls of butter in a saucepan, put into it two fine-cut onions, one bay leaf and six whole black peppers; cook five minutes without browning; add one tablespoonful of flour, stir and cook two minutes; then one can of tomatoes, one tablespoonful of sugar, one teaspoonful of salt, one-quarter teaspoonful of white pepper; stir often and cook ten minutes. Next comes one pint of boiling water; cook five minutes, rub the tomatoes through a sieve into a clean saucepan and add one can of corn, put it into the soup and boil fifteen minutes; mix the yolks of two eggs with a half cupful of cream or milk, stir into the soup, and serve at once.

Corn chowder

Cut the kernels from a dozen ears of green corn. Peel and mince two onions and fry them brown in three tablespoonfuls of butter in a deep saucepan. Now put in the corn, four broken pilot biscuits and half a dozen parboiled and sliced potatoes. Season with pepper, salt and a tablespoonful of minced parsley, and cover with a quart of boiling water. Let all cook gently for three-quarters of an hour, then stir in slowly a cupful of boiling milk, thickened with a tablespoonful of flour rubbed into one of butter. Turn at once into a heated tureen. A delightful summer soup.

Artichoke soup

Wash, pare and quarter one dozen large Jerusalem artichokes and lay in cold water for an hour. Put over the fire with enough cold water to keep them from burning and cook five minutes after they begin to boil. Drain off the water, put the artichokes into the inner vessel of the double boiler with one quart of milk and a pinch of soda, and cook until tender. Press the pulp through your vegetable press; put it again into the boiler and thicken with one tablespoonful, each, of butter and flour, first cooked together to a white roux. Season with salt and cayenne and serve with fried bread dice.

Vermicelli soup

(Contributed)

Bring to a boiling point two quarts of soup stock. Add four ounces of vermicelli and boil hard for twenty minutes. Season with pepper and salt and serve at once.

Macaroni soup

(Contributed)

Cook one ounce of macaroni in boiling water for twenty minutes. Drain and cut into little rings. Bring one quart of stock to the boiling point. Add the macaroni and let simmer five minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.

Lima bean soup

(Contributed)

Cook the beans in thin soup stock until they fall to pieces. Pass through the purée strainer. Add enough thin cream or rich milk to make the soup the proper consistency. Season to taste, reheat and serve at once.

Noodles for soup

Beat an egg with a pinch of salt, then stir into it gradually enough flour to enable you to knead it to a firm dough. Lay this on the floured pastry board, roll very, very thin, and cut into strips of a half-inch in width. Leave these long strips on the board for a few minutes until so dry that they may be rolled up loosely, as tape is rolled. These can be dried in a colander near the range and kept for soup. They are to be dropped into the boiling soup and cooked for fifteen minutes. You may keep them in a tin box in a dry place for days.

Croutons

Cut stale bread into dice less than half an inch square; fry in hot dripping or butter to a delicate brown; take up with a split spoon and shake free of fat in a colander.

Egg soup

In a double boiler heat a quart of milk into which you have stirred a pinch of soda and a minced onion. Rub to a paste a tablespoonful, each, of butter and flour and stir into the milk. Season with pepper and salt to taste.

Lay six poached eggs in the bottom of a tureen and when the white soup is smooth and cream-like, pour it carefully upon the eggs.

FISH SOUPS

Red snapper soup

Heat a quart of white stock to a boil. Stir in two cupfuls of the cold cooked fish, freed of skin and bones, and minced finely. Add pepper, salt, a tablespoonful of chopped parsley and a great spoonful of butter. Heat a cupful of milk to boiling, thicken it with a white roux and a half cupful of fine cracker crumbs. When the fish has cooked in the soup for five minutes, stir the liquid into the thickened milk and serve.

Clam chowder

Chop a half-pound of fat salt pork; put a layer of the pork in the bottom of the pot, cover with a layer of clams, sprinkle with a little minced onion and parsley, and put in a layer of split and soaked Boston crackers. Proceed in this way until seventy-five clams are used, then sprinkle with pepper and salt and cover with cold water. Bring slowly to the boil and simmer for an hour. Drain off the liquid and return to the fire. Thicken with a lump of butter rolled in flour, and add a cupful of tomato juice. Return the other ingredients to the pot, bring to the boil, and send to the table.

“Long” clam chowder

Chop a quart of “long,” or soft clams, peel six potatoes and slice thin; mince a quarter of a pound of fat salt pork fine; tie up in a cheese-cloth bag six whole allspice and the same number of whole cloves. Put the minced pork into the pot and fry it crisp; remove the pork and fry a small sliced onion in the pot to a light brown. Now put in the potatoes and a can of tomatoes, the spice bag, a quart of cold water and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Cook for four hours. At the end of three and a half hours add the clams and four pilot biscuits that have been soaked in milk. Serve very hot.

Scallop chowder

Scallops treated as directed in the foregoing recipe make a delicious chowder. Add more cayenne than when clams are used, scallops being the richer fish of the two.

Clam soup

Fifty fine clams, with the liquor that runs from them. One quart of water. One cupful of milk and two well-beaten eggs. Pepper and salt to taste. Pinch of soda in the milk. Two tablespoonfuls of butter.

Put the minced clams, liquor and water in a saucepan; simmer gently (but not boil) about one and a half hours. The clams should be so well-cooked that you seem to have only a thick broth; season with butter, pepper and salt, and pour into a tureen in which a few slices of well-browned toast have been placed. Beat the eggs very light, add slowly the milk, scalding hot, beat hard a minute or so, and when the soup is removed from the fire stir the egg and milk into it.

Oyster soup

Three dozen oysters and one quart of their juice. One quart of milk. Two tablespoonfuls of butter rolled in one of flour. Paprika, or cayenne, and salt to taste. A pinch of mace. Pinch of soda in the milk.

Scald the liquor in one saucepan and the milk in another. Make a roux of butter and flour and add the scalding milk gradually, stirring to a smooth mixture. Now put this with the hot oyster juice; add the oysters and cook until they “ruffle,” not an instant afterward.

Send crackers and sliced lemon around with it.

A fine crab soup

(A Maryland recipe.)

Boil one dozen large crabs; let them get cold, and extract the meat. Meanwhile chop a pound of salt pork and boil half an hour, fast. Cool suddenly, take off the grease from it, turn the liquor into a saucepan and heat. Put the crab-meat into this and simmer thirty-five minutes. Have ready a pint of rich, unskimmed milk, scalding hot. Beat the yolks of three eggs light and pour the milk gradually upon them, stirring all the time. Turn into the inner vessel of a double-boiler, and when the boiling point is reached add the crabs and the liquor in which they were cooked.

Remove from the fire, but leave the inner vessel in the boiling water for five minutes after you have added a tablespoonful of finely-minced parsley.

Eel soup

Two pounds of eels, cleaned and cut into inch-lengths; two tablespoonfuls of butter cooked to a roux with one of flour; three pints of water, one sliced onion, a pinch of mace and a larger of cayenne; salt to taste; dripping for frying; one tablespoonful of minced parsley. Juice of a lemon.

Heat the dripping hissing hot and fry the sliced onion in it. Now put in the eels when you have wiped them dry, and fry on both sides to a light brown. Turn all into a covered saucepan, pour in the cold water and cook slowly for an hour. Season then, stir in the roux; simmer three minutes, put in the lemon juice and serve.

Catfish soup

May be made in the same way.

Chicken broth

Cover a jointed fowl with cold water and boil until tender. Set aside the liquor in which the fowl was boiled until very cold. Remove meat and bones, and skim, removing every particle of fat. Put two quarts of this chicken-stock on the fire, season with salt and a little white pepper, bring to a boil and stir in six tablespoonfuls of rice that has been soaked for an hour in cold water. Add a little onion juice and cook until the rice is soft. Now stir in a tablespoonful of minced parsley and cook for ten minutes longer. Heat a pint of milk into which a pinch of baking soda has been stirred. Cook together a heaping tablespoonful, each, of butter and flour, and when they bubble, pour upon them the pint of heated milk, stirring until you have a smooth white sauce. Into this beat gradually two well-whipped eggs. Stir over the fire for half-a-minute, and pour the egg and milk mixture into a heated tureen. Into this pour slowly, beating steadily, the chicken soup. Season to taste and serve at once.

A “left-over” fish bisque

Rid cold baked or boiled or broiled fish of bones and skin. Pick into fine bits with a silver fork. Get from your fish-merchant for a few cents a pint of oyster liquor. Put over the fire with a generous lump of butter, pepper and salt. Bring to a boil, add the fish, cook one minute and stir in a scant cupful of crumbs soaked in milk. Simmer for three minutes and serve. Pass sliced lemon with it.

FISH

Baked red snapper

A fish that is earning, and honestly, much popularity. It would have all it deserved if it were always cooked properly. It is not a fish with which one can take liberties.

Draw, clean and wipe a five-pound red snapper and wash inside and out with salad oil and lemon. Make a stuffing as follows: One well-beaten egg, one-half cupful of powdered cracker and one cupful of oysters, drained and chopped. Season with one teaspoonful of onion juice, one tablespoonful of butter, one teaspoonful of salt, one-eighth teaspoonful of paprika and one tablespoonful of minced parsley, and moisten with cream and oyster liquor. It should be quite moist. Fill the fish and sew the edges together with fine white cotton.

Put a layer of minced fat pork on the grating of your covered roaster, lay a few slices of tomato and onion on the pork, then the fish on this. Dredge the top with salt and flour, and put on more minced pork. Place it in a hot oven, add a cupful of boiling water, and cover. Baste often, and add more water after each basting. Bake about one hour. Remove to a hot dish and serve with sauce Hollandaise.

Boiled red snapper

Clean, wash, wipe dry and sew up in coarse white mosquito netting. Put it into boiling water deep enough to cover the fish, and which has been salted and flavored with lemon juice. Let the water come to the boiling point, then reduce the heat so it will merely bubble. Simmer about half an hour. Lift carefully from the water, drain and unwrap; put it into a hot dish. Garnish with parsley and serve with tomato sauce or with sauce Hollandaise.

Steamed red snapper

Cover the bottom of your steamer with sliced tomatoes, and on these strew minced onion. Clean, wash and dry the fish; lay upon the prepared bed and steam slowly at least one hour for a fish weighing four pounds. Open the steamer once, and turn the fish very carefully. Serve with oyster sauce or with sauce tartare.

Baked bluefish

Clean, wash and wipe a large bluefish. Lay it in a baking-pan, dash over it a cupful of boiling salted water, and bake, covered, for an hour, basting it often to prevent burning. When tender and brown, transfer the fish to a hot dish, and keep it warm while you set the pan containing the gravy in which it was cooked on the range and thicken it with browned flour, adding to flavor it a pinch of salt, one of pepper, a tablespoonful of catsup and a little good table sauce. Lay slices of lemon about the fish on the platter, and serve the sauce from a gravy-boat.

Broiled bluefish

Clean, wash, wipe and split down the back; dust with salt and pepper and broil over a clear fire. Transfer to a hot dish and cover with a mixture of butter, lemon juice and very finely-minced parsley, rubbed to a cream. Cover and set over hot water for five minutes before serving.

Pass Parisienne potatoes with it.

Boiled black bass with cream gravy

Put in a pot enough slightly salted water to cover the fish, add a gill of vinegar, an onion, eight whole peppers and a blade of mace. Sew up the fish in a piece of thin cheese-cloth fitted snugly to it. Lay in the water; bring very slowly to the simmering point, and then boil steadily, allowing twelve minutes to each pound of the fish. When done remove the cloth, lay the fish on a platter garnished with sliced lemon, and serve with the cream gravy given below.

Cream gravy for black bass

Cook together a tablespoonful, each, of butter and flour, and when blended strain slowly upon them a cupful of the water in which the bass was boiled, and stir until smooth and thick. Season to taste with celery salt and white pepper, and stir in a gill of cream to which a pinch of baking-soda has been added. Make very hot, but do not boil, and as soon as hot remove from the fire.

Baked sea bass with shrimp sauce

Clean, wipe and anoint abundantly, inside and out, with a mixture of salad oil and vinegar. Set on ice for an hour to let the “marinade” mellow the fish.

Have ready half a pound of rindless fat pork, cut as thin as shavings. Lay half upon the bottom of your covered bakepan, put the fish upon them, and spread the upper side with the rest. Pour a little hot water in the pan to generate steam; cover and bake one hour, if the fish be large, basting three times with butter and water. Transfer to a hot dish, and set over hot water while you make the sauce.

Shrimp sauce for baked bass

Strain the gravy left in the pan, and stir in a brown roux made by heating a great spoonful of butter in a frying-pan and working in a tablespoonful of browned flour. Add four tablespoonfuls of boiling water to gravy and roux, or enough to bring it to the consistency of cream, then the juice of half a lemon, cayenne or paprika to taste; lastly, half a can of shrimps, chopped fine. Boil one minute, pour some over the fish, the rest into a gravy-boat.

Stuffed sea bass

Clean, wipe and lay for an hour in a marinade of salad oil and vinegar. Fill with a forcemeat of minced salt pork and chopped champignons. Fresh mushrooms are, of course, better, if you can get them. Bake upon shavings of fat salt pork as directed in last recipe. When it has baked forty minutes, cover with fresh tomatoes, peeled and sliced thin, and half a sweet green pepper, minced. Drop bits of butter upon the tomatoes, and bake twenty minutes longer.

Take up the fish and keep hot while you strain the gravy left in the pan, rubbing the tomatoes and pepper through a colander; stir in a tablespoonful of butter, rolled in flour, add a teaspoonful of sugar and two of onion juice, with hot water if too thick; boil one minute; pour half over the fish, the rest into a sauce-boat.

Muskelonge

The coarse pickerel of the northern rivers and lakes are very nice, cooked as above directed. Bluefish may be treated in the same way.

Baked shad

Wash and wipe a large shad. Make a stuffing of fine breadcrumbs mixed with melted butter, a little minced onion, pepper and salt to taste. Fill the fish with this and sew it up. Lay it in a baking-pan and pour over it a cupful of salted boiling water in which two tablespoonfuls of butter have been melted. Sprinkle the fish with flour and bake in a steady oven. Baste with the drippings every ten minutes. At the end of three-quarters of an hour try the fish with a fork to see if it is done. It should be very tender. Transfer carefully to a hot platter, cut and remove the strings. Keep the fish hot while you make the sauce.

Set on the top of the range the pan in which the fish has been baked. Thicken the fish drippings with two tablespoonfuls of browned flour wet up with cold water. Stir until smooth, then add a cupful of boiling water, the juice of a lemon, a tablespoonful of good table sauce and a teaspoonful of good kitchen bouquet. Unless the sauce is perfectly smooth, strain through a wire sieve. Pour into a heated gravy-boat.

Boiled fresh codfish

Lay the fish in salt and water for an hour before cooking. Choose a “chunky” piece, as nearly square as you can get it. Sew up in white mosquito netting fitted to the shape of the fish. Put on in enough boiling water to cover it, adding four tablespoonfuls of vinegar, and cook steadily ten minutes to the pound. Unwrap the fish and pour over it half of the sauce described below, putting the rest into a gravy-boat.

Egg sauce for boiled codfish

Make a white sauce by cooking together a tablespoonful, each, of butter and of flour until they bubble, pouring upon them a half pint of milk and stirring until thick and smooth. To this add one hard-boiled egg, chopped fine, one raw egg, beaten light, putting it in slowly, and salt and pepper to taste. Pour over the fish in the dish or serve in a sauce-tureen.

Baked fresh codfish with cheese sauce

Cut a neat square or oblong of codfish, lay in salt and water for half an hour; wipe dry and rub all over with melted butter and lemon juice. In the bottom of your baking-pan under the grating and just not touching the fish, have a cupful of veal stock, or weak gravy, strained. Pepper and salt the fish, cover and bake ten minutes to the pound. Take up then and sift dry, fine crumbs thickly all over it. Put dots of butter on these. Set in the oven, uncovered, to brown while you strain the gravy from the pan, thicken with butter rolled in browned flour, add the juice of half a lemon, four tablespoonfuls of grated Parmesan cheese and a little onion juice. Boil one minute, pour a few spoonfuls carefully upon the crumb-crust of the fish, the rest into a boat.

This is an elegant company dish of fish, and easy of preparation.

Baked fillets of halibut

Cut slices of halibut, weighing a pound each, and an inch thick. Cut each into three strips, two fingers wide, lay in lemon juice and salad oil for an hour; then cook precisely as directed above. When you sift the crumbs over the fillets, cover all sides; then proceed as with the baked cod, taking care to arrange the fillets for browning so that they will not touch one another.

Baked halibut

Lay a piece of halibut weighing about four pounds in cold water (salted) for half an hour, then wipe dry and lay in a covered roaster. Pour over it a cupful of boiling water, in which have been melted two tablespoonfuls of butter. Bake until tender and keep hot on a platter while you thicken the gravy left in the pan with browned flour and butter, and season with a teaspoonful, each, of lemon and onion juice, a little celery salt and a wineglassful of claret. Strain, and send to the table in a gravy-boat.

Baked halibut steak (No. 1)

Lay the steak in salted water for fifteen minutes; wipe and put into a baking-pan. Rub the steak with butter, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and pour over and around it a cupful of milk. Bake, basting every ten minutes until the milk is absorbed. Serve with drawn butter.

Send around fried potatoes with it.

Baked halibut steak (No. 2)

Wash, wipe and lay in marinade of olive oil and lemon juice for one hour. Sprinkle, then, liberally, with minced onion, parsley and lemon juice, turning over and over that the steak may be covered. Now, lay upon the grating of your bakepan. Make a white sauce by stirring one cupful of hot milk into one tablespoonful of butter cooked into a roux with one of flour. Season it with salt and pepper, and pour it over the fish. Cover the surface with fine crumbs moistened in melted butter and bake until the fish is done, about twelve minutes to the pound.

Halibut steak baked with tomatoes

(A Creole recipe.)

Make a rich sauce of tomatoes, fresh or canned, seasoning with butter rolled in flour, sugar, pepper, onion juice and salt, adding, if you have it, a sweet green pepper, seeded and minced. Cook fifteen minutes, strain, rubbing through a colander, and cool. Lay the halibut in oil and lemon juice for an hour, place upon the grating of your covered roaster, pour the sauce over it; cover and bake twelve minutes to the pound if the oven be good. Sift Parmesan cheese over the fish, and cook five minutes longer. Serve upon a hot dish, pouring the sauce over it.

Baked fillets of flounder

Take the backbone out of the fish and cut each half into two neat, long slices. Roll each piece up and pin with a wooden skewer. A new toothpick will do. Lay in salad oil and lemon juice for an hour, setting in the ice to make the fish firm while soaking in the marinade.

Roll in fine dry crumbs, peppered and salted; in beaten egg, and again in crumbs. Cover the grating of your bakepan with thin shavings of salt pork, lay the fillets upon them, sprinkle thickly with finely-minced onion and olives, and bake, covered, twelve minutes for each pound. Lift carefully to a hot dish; withdraw the skewers. Garnish with sliced lemon and send to table.

Fried fillets of flounder

Cut, trim and marinade as for baking. When you take them from the ice, roll as for baking, salt and pepper, roll in crumbs, then in egg, and again in crumbs. Leave on ice for half an hour longer, and fry in deep hot cottolene, salad oil, or other fat. Drain, withdraw the skewers and serve with sauce tartare.

Baked fresh mackerel

Marinade for half an hour in olive oil and lemon juice. Lay thin slices of pork upon the grating of a baking-pan, lay the mackerel on the pork, skim down, sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper, and bake in a hot oven for twenty-five minutes.

Serve with tomato sauce.

Boiled salmon-trout

Select a small fish for this purpose, as a large one will not fit into the ordinary-sized fish-kettle. Have in your kettle enough salted boiling water to cover the fish, and add two tablespoonfuls of vinegar to the water. Sew the fish up in a piece of firm cheese-cloth, and lay it carefully in the kettle. After it begins to boil, allow twelve minutes to the pound. When done take out of the water carefully, remove the cloth and transfer the fish to a hot platter. Sprinkle with pepper and salt, and pour over it a well-seasoned white sauce. Garnish the dish with slices of lemon and sprigs of parsley.

Baked salmon

Wipe your fish with a damp cloth, but do not lay it in water. Rub with a little salad oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Lay in a baking-pan and dash over it a cupful of boiling water in which two tablespoonfuls of butter have been melted. Bake, covered, basting every fifteen minutes. When done transfer to a hot platter and set in the open oven while you thicken the gravy left in the pan with corn-starch wet with cold water, and season it with lemon juice and a dash of onion juice. A little tomato catsup is an improvement. Boil up once and pour into a gravy-boat. Send to the table with the salmon, which may be garnished with sprigs of parsley.

Baked pickerel

Clean and wash the fish. Choose a large fine one for this purpose. Lay it on the grating of your bakepan, dredge with salt and pepper, butter well and dredge with flour. Put into a hot oven, and when the flour begins to brown, baste with butter, water and lemon juice. Cook twelve minutes to the pound, remove, and serve with oyster sauce.

Boned baked pickerel

Have your fishmonger take out the backbone when he has split the fish lengthwise, also have him extract every other bone he can get out without tearing the flesh too much. Marinade for an hour in a bath of olive oil and lemon juice. Cover the grating of your bakepan with thin shavings of salt pork, lay the fish upon this, skin-side downward, wash with melted butter, bake, covered, half an hour, baste and cook ten minutes more. Serve with Hollandaise sauce.

Baked salmon-trout with cream gravy

Clean and wash, wipe dry, and go all over it, inside and out, with melted butter and lemon juice. Lay upon the grating of your bakepan, pour in a little boiling water, not quite touching the fish, and bake twelve minutes to the pound, basting twice with butter and twice with the water in the pan below.

Keep hot in heated dish, covered, set over boiling water while you strain the gravy left in the pan, add to it a cupful of hot milk (half cream, if you can get it) scalded with a pinch of soda, thickened with a white roux of butter cooked with flour, and seasoned with paprika, salt and a little minced parsley. Pour over the fish, let it stand three minutes over hot water and serve.

Fried brook trout

Clean with care, roll in peppered and salted flour; set on ice for an hour, and fry immediately in deep fat to a golden-brown. Have a mat of folded and heated tissue paper fringed at the ends, and lay the drained fish upon it. Eat at once.

Broiled soft-shell crabs

Lift the projecting “wings” of the upper shell, and cut or pull off the “feathers” you will find under them. Next trim off the tail, or flap, or “apron,” a round piece of softer shell on the under side of the upper.

Wash quickly and cook without delay lest they die on your hands.

Wash with butter, sprinkle with salt and cayenne pepper, lay within a reversible wire broiler, and cook over clear coals ten minutes, turning twice to broil both sides.

Serve upon thin slices of buttered toast.

Fried soft-shell crabs

Prepare as directed in preceding recipe, sprinkle with cayenne and salt, roll in beaten egg, then in fine crumbs, again in egg, and once more in crumbs and fry in deep, hot fat.

Garnish with water-cress, and pass sliced lemon with them.

Lobster broiled in the shell

Kill the lobster by cutting the tail off with one stroke of the knife, just where it joins the body. With another clean cut divide him lengthwise into two equal parts, shell and all. Take out the coral, the one long intestine and the stomach. Crack the claws with a hammer. Put within a buttered broiler, split side downward, and broil over a fierce fire. As soon as the juice begins to run freely withdraw long enough to wash liberally with melted butter, and return to the fire, turning often to keep in the juices. Cook about ten minutes on the split or flesh side, and eight upon the other.

Have ready a sauce made by rubbing two tablespoonfuls of butter to a cream with lemon juice and finely-minced parsley, adding a little cayenne, and wash the lobster with this while hissing hot. Serve half a lobster to each guest, with oyster forks for extracting the meat.

Pass more sauce for those who wish it.

Lobster baked in shell

Prepare as for broiling, but lay, shell downward, in a bakepan, cover and set in a quick oven, opening in ten minutes to wash with butter. They should be done in twenty minutes, when wash freely with the lemon and butter sauce.

Lobster scalloped in shells

Two cupfuls of lobster meat, cut into small dice. One cupful of white stock, and the same of unskimmed milk. Two tablespoonfuls of butter made into a white roux with one tablespoonful of flour. Salt and paprika to taste. Minced parsley and juice of half a lemon. Beaten yolks of two eggs. Halves of two lobster shells, cleaned. Pinch of soda in milk.

Stir the hot stock and the scalded milk into the roux, season, boil once; remove from the fire, add the eggs and lobster dice and fill the shells. Cover with fine crumbs, rounded, dot with butter, sprinkle with cayenne and bake to a delicate brown.

Lobster á la Newburg

Pick all the meat from the shells of two good-sized freshly-boiled lobsters and cut into one-inch pieces, which place in a saucepan over a hot range, together with two tablespoonfuls of butter, and season with a pinch of salt and one of cayenne. Cook five minutes, pour in a glass of sherry; simmer five minutes, add the beaten yolks of three eggs and a cupful of cream, stirring all the time. When it thickens, pour out and serve.

Do not omit to put a pinch of soda in the cream.

Stewed terrapin

(A Maryland recipe.)

Drop the “diamond-backs” into boiling water and cook until the heads and feet “skin off.” This should be in less than an hour. Let them get perfectly cold. Strip off the shells and extract the heart and entrails carefully, lest an incautious touch rupture the gall-bag and ruin everything. Cut off the head, tail and feet. Cut the meat up small with a sharp knife, put into a saucepan, cover with hot water and simmer fifteen minutes. Rub the yolks of half a dozen hard-boiled eggs to a powder and work in three tablespoonfuls of butter. Heat a cupful of cream in another vessel (with a pinch of soda) and work by degrees into the egg and butter, season with salt and cayenne and mix gradually with the hot terrapin. Cook one minute, add a glass of sherry and pour out.

Fricasseed snapping turtle

Have your fish merchant clean your turtle after he has killed him by throwing him into boiling water. Cut the turtle into neat dice, sprinkle with salt, pepper, onion juice, a dash of kitchen bouquet and a tablespoonful of mushroom catsup. Turn into a saucepan, add just enough cold water to cover the meat, fit a top on the vessel and simmer for half an hour. Now add a tablespoonful of browned flour rubbed to a paste with a great spoonful of butter; when this is blended with the liquid in the pan, add a glass of sherry and stir in very gradually the beaten yolk of an egg. Bring to the boil and remove from the fire. Turn into a deep heated dish.

A fricassee of crabs

Cut the meat into inch-length pieces, and as evenly as possible. Put into a saucepan a mixture of butter, lemon juice and minced parsley, cayenne and salt. Heat slowly, and when it bubbles stir in the crab meat. Simmer gently for fifteen minutes. Have ready in another vessel a tablespoonful of cream for each crab, heated with a pinch of soda. Thicken with a teaspoonful of butter rubbed into one of flour, and turn upon the yolks of three eggs, or one for every pair of crabs; stir for one minute over the fire, pour into a hot covered dish, stir in the hot crab meat; set in boiling water for three minutes, and serve.

Oyster pâtés

Into a pound of flour chop three-quarters of a pound of cold, firm butter, until you have a coarse yellow powder. Have all your utensils cold. Wet the flour and butter with three gills of iced water and, with a spoon, work into a mass. Turn upon a floured pastry board, roll and fold, then roll again three times, lightly and quickly. Fold and put in the ice-box for several hours. Roll into a sheet half an inch thick, and with a cutter cut into rounds like biscuits. Pile these three deep, and with a small cutter pass half-way through each pile. Put into the oven, which should be very hot, and bake to a light, delicate brown. The pastry should be very light. When done remove from the oven, and lift off the little round in the top of each pâté. This will serve as a cover. With a small spoon scoop out the soft paste from the center, thus leaving a cavity to be filled with the oyster mixture.

Cook together a tablespoonful of butter and flour, and pour upon them a cupful and a half of rich milk—half cream, if you have it. Stir to a smooth sauce, add the drained oysters, and cook just long enough for the edges to begin to ruffle. Now beat in gradually the beaten yolk of an egg; cook two minutes, season with celery salt and white pepper and fill the shells with the mixture. Fit on the little covers, and set in the oven until all are very hot.

Oyster fritters

Chop thirty oysters. Make a batter of two beaten eggs, a half pint of milk and a pint of prepared flour. If the batter is too stiff, add more milk. Stir the oysters into the batter, and drop this by the spoonful into deep, boiling cottolene or other fat. As the fritters brown on one side, turn them over. Drain in a hot colander as soon as well colored.

Oyster pie

Line a deep pie-plate with puff paste, fill the interior with bread crusts (to be removed later) and fit on a top crust, buttered about the edge on the under side that it may be easily taken off. Stew a quart of oysters for five minutes; stir in very slowly a cupful of thick white sauce and the beaten yolks of two eggs. When the paste is done take off the top, remove the bread crusts, fill the center with the creamed oysters, replace the top crust and set the pie in the oven for five minutes before sending to the table.

Pickled oysters

Bring a quart of oysters, with their liquor, to the boil; immediately remove the oysters and drop into a large glass jar. To the liquor add six whole cloves, six whole pepper-corns, six blades of mace broken into bits, a small red pepper, a cupful of vinegar and a little celery salt. Boil up once and pour immediately over the oysters. Keep in a dark place until wanted.

Jumbolaya

(An East Indian recipe.)

Wash half a cupful of raw rice well and drop into a pint of strained tomato juice, made boiling hot. Cook fast for twenty minutes, or until the rice is soft, but not broken; add two tablespoonfuls of butter worked to a paste with two teaspoonfuls of curry; simmer ten minutes, salt to taste and put in twenty-five fine oysters. Cook until they ruffle, and pour out.

This is a good entrée for a family dinner. Pass thin slices of buttered graham bread and ice-cold bananas with it.

Clam pie

Fry a quarter pound of fat salt pork crisp; strain out the scraps and fry a sliced onion in the same fat. Strain again, add a pint of clam juice with a lump of butter the size of an egg, and make hot while you prepare the “pie.”

In the bottom of a buttered bakedish put a layer of clams, on them one of milk crackers, previously soaked in hot milk, buttered, peppered and salted, more clams and so on until the dish is nearly full. Cover the last stratum of clams with parboiled potatoes cut very thin, pepper and salt, and sprinkle these with a tablespoonful of grated onion and the same of parsley. Now pour the hot liquor over all, cover with a good pie crust and bake half an hour in a good oven, covered, then brown.

Clam cocktails

Put a dozen small clams in an ice-cold bowl and pour over them a half tablespoonful, each, of Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, lemon juice and tomato catsup, a teaspoonful of horseradish and a saltspoonful, each, of salt and Tabasco sauce. Mix and bury in ice for an hour before serving in two small glasses.

Oysters with Parmesan cheese

(Contributed)

Drain the oysters free from all liquor. Lay in a well-buttered baking-dish, sprinkle over with finely-minced parsley, season with salt and pepper; over all pour one-half glass of champagne and cover thickly with grated Parmesan cheese. Put in the oven until nicely browned on top. Take out; drain all the fat from it, and serve while very hot in the dish in which it was baked.

Oyster cutlets

(Contributed)

Drain off the liquor and wash the oysters well. Put them into a saucepan over the fire and heat until the edges curl, being careful to stir all the time. Strain the liquor. Chop the oysters fine. Rub together one tablespoonful of butter and one rounded tablespoonful of flour for each pint of chopped oysters. Add the oyster liquor and cook until quite thick. Then add the chopped oysters and the yolk of one egg, beaten well. After taking from the fire add one teaspoonful of salt, one tablespoonful of minced parsley and the juice of one-half a lemon. Let all stand until perfectly cold. Form into cutlets, dip into egg, then into breadcrumbs and fry in hot fat.

Oyster canapés

(Contributed)

Toast ten slices of buttered bread and place in the oven to keep warm. Wash and drain one quart of oysters. Throw them into a hot pan and stir until the edges are curled. Add one teaspoonful of butter, one-half teaspoonful of salt and a dash of cayenne. Dish on the slices of toast, garnish with a thin slice of lemon for each one, and serve at once.

Scalloped fish

The remains of any cold cooked fish may be utilized and made palatable in this way. Get rid of skin, bones and fat. Pick fine, season well, and mix with good drawn butter. Fill buttered scallop shells or “nappies” with the mixture, strew with fine crumbs, stick bits of butter on the top, add a “suspicion” of cayenne, and bake to a delicate brown.

Oyster scallop

Cut each oyster in half, “draw” the butter in the oyster liquor and proceed as in the preceding recipe.

SAUCES FOR FISH AND MEAT

Drawn butter (“white sauce”)

Heat two tablespoonfuls of butter in a saucepan. When it bubbles put in (all at once) two tablespoonfuls of flour, and stir from the sides towards the center of the pan until the ingredients are well mixed. Have ready-heated a cupful of milk, add to this the “roux” gradually, and beat to a smooth cream. Season with white pepper and salt, and, if you like, a little onion juice.

Egg sauce

Make as above, beating the yolks of two raw eggs into the thickened milk, and if for fish, adding the yolk and white of a hard-boiled egg chopped fine, also a little minced parsley.

Brown sauce

Make as you would white, but substitute boiling water for the milk, and browned flour for white. Add a teaspoonful of kitchen bouquet, the juice of a lemon, pepper and salt.

Sauce tartare (No. 1)

Make a pint of mayonnaise dressing. Into this beat a teaspoonful of mustard, a tablespoonful of minced parsley, a teaspoonful, each, of chopped pickle and minced capers, a dozen drops of onion juice. Beat for a minute, and serve in a sauceboat.

Sauce tartare (No. 2)

Make a cupful of drawn butter (using boiling water, not milk). Beat in a teaspoonful of French mustard, half as much onion juice, a little cayenne and salt, a heaping teaspoonful of finely-chopped pickle and the beaten yolk of a raw egg at the last.

Hollandaise sauce

Into one cupful of drawn butter beat the yolk of an egg, then a good teaspoonful of best salad oil, dropping as you would for mayonnaise. Add, then, the juice of half a lemon, a pinch of pepper, one of salt, and the same of sugar, and serve at once.

Béchamel sauce for meat

A roux of butter and flour should be thinned with a cupful of veal or chicken stock, seasoned with onion juice, a small carrot, sliced, pepper and salt. Strain the stock before mixing with the roux. Have ready a cupful of rich milk or cream, heated with a pinch of soda; draw the hot stock and roux from the fire, stir in the cream, and it is ready for use.

Béchamel sauce for fish

Put the bones, head and a few ounces of fish meat in cold water over the fire, with an onion and a small carrot, sliced, also a bay leaf; boil down to one cupful of liquid, and use instead of veal or chicken stock in last recipe. In all other respects make in the same way.

Oyster sauce

To a white roux of butter and flour add a cupful of boiling liquid made by cooking a dozen oysters in hot water for two minutes. Drain the oysters (which should be very small) and keep warm while you stir the thinned roux to a smooth cream, and season it with a dash of cayenne, a teaspoonful of lemon juice and a little salt. Boil one minute, put in the oysters and take at once from the fire.

Lobster sauce

Make a rich-drawn butter and beat into it the coral of a lobster worked smooth with a tablespoonful of butter. Add the juice of half a lemon, cayenne and salt. Finally, add half a cupful of lobster meat, minced as fine as powder. Heat and serve.

Horseradish sauce

Into a cupful of drawn butter beat a great spoonful of grated horseradish wet with lemon juice, and work to creamy whiteness.

Anchovy sauce

Beat a tablespoonful of anchovy paste into a cupful of drawn butter, adding the juice of half a lemon and a dash of cayenne or paprika.

Shrimp sauce

Into a cupful of drawn butter beat a good teaspoonful of anchovy sauce, the juice of half a lemon, and half a can of shrimps minced fine and made very hot in a tablespoonful of boiling butter. Simmer for two minutes and serve.

An excellent fish sauce.

Celery sauce

Boil half a cupful of minced celery in a cupful of hot water for fifteen minutes. Strain through a cloth, pressing hard. Return the liquor to the fire and boil up. Then cook with it a roux made of two tablespoonfuls of butter and the same of flour. Have ready the yolk of an egg, beaten light. Pour the hot sauce upon it, stir less than one minute over the fire, season with salt and paprika and pour out.

A nice accompaniment to boiled fowl and to boiled mutton.

Tomato sauce

Peel and slice a quart of tomatoes; cook twenty minutes and strain through a coarse bag into a saucepan. Season with a teaspoonful of onion juice, one of sugar, a little salt and pepper, and when it boils stir in a tablespoonful of butter cooked to a roux with one of flour. Simmer two minutes and serve.

Caper sauce

Into a cupful of good drawn butter stir a great spoonful of minced capers and a teaspoonful of onion juice.

Maître d’hôtel sauce

Beat two tablespoonfuls of soft butter to a cream with the juice of half a lemon and a tablespoonful of finely-minced parsley. It should be a fine, pale green when done. Serve cold with hot fish.

Mint sauce

Chop six sprays of mint very fine, and add to half a cupful of vinegar in which have been dissolved two tablespoonfuls of white sugar and a dash of pepper.

Serve cold with roast lamb.

Onion or soubise sauce

Boil two onions of fair size in two waters and until soft all through; mince and mix with a cupful of drawn butter. Season with pepper and salt, beat to a cream over the fire, and when very hot, serve.

Bread sauce

Heat a cupful of milk and season with a tablespoonful of butter, salt and pepper to taste and a teaspoonful of onion juice. Boil up and stir in lightly half a cupful of fine bread-crumbs, previously dried, but not colored in the oven. They should be tossed up several times while drying to prevent clotting, and be very crisp.

Serve with boiled chicken.

Béarnaise sauce

Beat the yolks of two eggs very light, put into a round-bottomed saucepan and set in one of boiling water; stir into it, a few drops at a time, three tablespoonfuls of salad oil, heating as you stir; then, as gradually, the same quantity of boiling water; next, one tablespoonful of lemon juice, a dash of cayenne and salt.

It is served with all sorts of fish, also with chops, cutlets and steaks.

Claret or Bordelaise sauce

Make a brown sauce by substituting browned flour for white in the roux, adding a teaspoonful of kitchen bouquet. Season with onion juice, salt and pepper, boil one minute, pour in a wineglassful of claret, heat for half a minute more, and serve.

Serve with roast meats and poultry.

Cream cucumber sauce

Pare and mince with a keen knife two cucumbers of fair size. Drain off the liquid without pressing, letting it drip for two minutes. Have ready a chilled bowl rubbed with a clove of garlic. Put the mince into it, season with white pepper, salt, a teaspoonful of onion juice and a tablespoonful of lemon juice.

Mix lightly into it with a silver fork a cupful of whipped cream into which has been beaten a pinch of soda.

Serve very cold with fish.

Plain cucumber sauce

When the cucumbers have been minced, drained and turned into the chilled bowl scented with cut garlic, mix with them a good French dressing of two tablespoonfuls of oil, one-third as much lemon juice, a little salt and pepper.

N. B.—You may substitute for the garlic a tablespoonful of minced chives blended with the dressing.

Serve cold with fish, and quickly, before the cucumbers wilt.

Cranberry sauce

Wash and pick over carefully a quart of cranberries. Put into the inner vessel of a double boiler, fill the outer with boiling water and cook, keeping the cranberries closely covered until they are broken to pieces. Rub through your vegetable press into a saucepan, sweeten abundantly, bring to a boil (barely), and turn into a wet mold to form.

Apple sauce

Pare, core and quarter tart apples, dropping into cold water as you do this. Put over the fire dripping wet and cover closely to keep in the steam. When they are heated through, open and stir up from the bottom. When soft and broken, rub through colander or vegetable press, sweeten to taste while hot and set away to cool.

Serve with roast pork and roast ducks.

Jelly sauce

Make a cupful of a brown sauce of butter, browned flour and a little caramel. Heat boiling hot and beat in four or five teaspoonfuls of currant or other tart jelly.

Serve with game, lamb or mutton.

Espagnole sauce

(Contributed)

Put four tablespoonfuls of butter into a saucepan. When hot stir into it five tablespoonfuls of flour. Stir until very brown. Add two cupfuls of brown stock and one tablespoonful of Worcester sauce. Salt and pepper to taste. Let the sauce boil well and remove from the fire. Serve with chops or steak.

Parsley sauce

(Contributed)

To a good white sauce add three tablespoonfuls of finely-chopped parsley and a little green fruit coloring and let it come to a boil.

Cider sauce

(Contributed)

Put into a saucepan over the fire one tablespoonful of butter and when this begins to bubble stir into it one tablespoonful of flour; cook for one minute, then add slowly one teacupful of highly-seasoned stock; cook for ten minutes, add a cupful of cider, and when it again comes to a boil, strain and serve. This sauce is excellent with boiled ham.

Giblet sauce

(Contributed)

Boil the giblets until tender. Chop them, but not too fine. Put two tablespoonfuls of butter into a saucepan, with two tablespoonfuls of flour. Add slowly a cupful of the water in which the giblets have been boiled and a cup and a half of rich milk. Add to this the chopped giblets and season with salt and pepper. Serve in sauce-boat.

Cauliflower sauce

(Contributed)

To a pint of white sauce add a cupful of chopped cauliflower. Reheat, and when ready to serve stir in a teaspoonful of butter and a tablespoonful of lemon juice.

Champagne sauce

(Contributed)

Into one cupful of champagne put two cloves, four peppercorns, one bay leaf and a little sugar. Let all simmer for five minutes. Then add one cupful of brown sauce. Simmer for ten minutes more and strain. To be served with ham.

Port wine sauce

(Contributed)

Port wine sauce is made the same as champagne sauce, except that port wine is used instead of champagne.

Olive sauce

(Contributed)

Make a brown sauce as follows: Put four tablespoonfuls of butter into a saucepan; when hot add four and a half tablespoonfuls of flour and stir until very brown; add two cupfuls of brown stock and salt and pepper to taste. Remove the stones from five olives and boil for five minutes in water to which one tablespoonful of vinegar has been added. Drain and mince and add to the sauce.

Imitation caper sauce

Cut cucumber pickles into tiny cubes with a sharp knife. Do not chop them, as the bits must be of uniform size. Drain perfectly dry and stir into hot drawn butter. Boil for one minute. Eat with fish or chops.

FAMILIAR TALK

IS IMPROMPTU HOSPITALITY A LOST ART

Without staying to prove my premises I take it for granted nobody will dispute that what it pleases me to call impromptu hospitality is an out-of-date virtue.

In the very olden time there were those who were backward in the practice of it. Else the fisherman Apostle would not have enjoined upon the “strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia,” to “use hospitality, one to another, without grudging.”

An ancient writer says: “The primitive Christians made one principal part of their duty to consist in the exercise of hospitality; and they were so exact in the practice of it that the very heathens admired them for it.”

From which we gather that the Apostolic admonition had fallen into good soil and brought forth much fruit.

It would be interesting to know when the quid pro quo element entered into and defiled the noble virtue. The primitive Christians aforesaid had no knowledge of this alloy, while the recollection of the Master’s teaching was fresh in their minds:

“For if ye lend to them of whom you hope to receive, what thank have ye?”

The principle that moves me to invite those to sit at my table and sleep under my roof who can return the favor in kind, or be useful in turn to me in some way, is barter, not hospitality. When I give a feast—be it afternoon tea, or the gravest of social functions, a dinner party—to five hundred, or to five people who have invited me at some time to their houses—and because of the obligation under which their invitations have laid me—I may be honest. I am not generous. I pay a debt. I do not exercise a grace.

The former times were not better in all respects than these. But for divers reasons they were more hospitable times. It was inevitable that private houses should keep open doors when taverns, and even houses of entertainment, were few and far apart upon main-traveled roads, and utterly wanting to the traveler who pushed his way into the back country unknown except to the pioneer. If the stranger were not welcomed to the home of him whose house stood nearest to the wayside, he was shelterless in night or storm. There is the less need for the exercise of undiscriminating hospitality when inn and hotel “blaze” the track into the wilderness.

There is none the less occasion for asking our friends to enter our homes and to partake of the food which is a symbol of the good-will we have for them, our disposition to share with them the best blessings granted to man in this world—home loves and home joys. True hospitality but widens the circle and makes the guest “at home.” Artificial hospitality seeks or accepts a convenient season for making the everyday life of the home seem what it is not to the stranger within our gates.

Our forbears said: “Come in and take pot-luck with us.”

An old Virginian told me that, as a boy, he was a visitor in a country house in the central part of the state, when a carriage drove up to the gate, and James Madison, then president of the United States, alighted. The lady of the manor was sitting upon the front porch, a bit of needle-work in hand. She arose, cordial and dignified, to receive her guest. As her chief butler, a far more consequential personage than his mistress, bustled out with a footman or two at his heels to see what could be done for the distinguished arrival, she said to him in a gentle “aside,” audible to the boy visitor: “James! see that a plate is put upon the table for Mr. Madison.”

Southern hospitality was a proverb then and for many a year thereafter. In her book, “The Voice of the People,” Miss Glasgow tells a story, which I can certify is not exaggerated, of an old aunt who came to her nephew’s house on a visit of a week and stayed twenty years, guarded by the viewless, but potent, ægis of hospitality. A plate was put upon the table for the poor relation in town and country house in that lavish land, as freely as for the chief magistrate, and was filled as bountifully.

When relative, acquaintance or stranger tarried but a night, the householder, in the homely speech of his fathers, asked in gentle sarcasm, “if he had come for a chunk of fire?”

In his father’s day, lucifer matches were unknown. When the fire went out upon the kitchen hearth of plantation or cabin, a swift runner was sent across fields to borrow a live brand from the nearest neighbor. He must hurry back before it went out.

We invite people to come to us at a stated time and for a given period. When the time is up, we tell them graciously that we have enjoyed their visit, and hope we shall meet again before long. When the carriage that takes them to the station is out of sight, we say, “That is well over!” and make a note to that effect in our visiting book.

Leaving the general view of our subject for individual illustration:—

If satirists and grumbling wives are to be believed, a husband can hardly do a more imprudent thing than to bring home an unexpected guest to dinner, or luncheon, or supper.

The ill-used wife contends that he always does this—as if with malice aforethought—at the most inconvenient times and seasons. From her standpoint he might have recollected—it seems incredible that he could have forgotten—that it is washing or ironing day, or Thursday, which is the cook’s afternoon out, and that the housemaid is not equal to a regular dinner. When the mistress has planned to have a “pick-up” composite of the substantial meal required by a man after his day’s work, and the tea and toast which are supposed to meet the temporal needs of the feminine system—the apparition of an impromptu guest, and that guest a man, is like a boulder rolled upon the track before the domestic engine. The train is derailed, conductor and engineer “rattled,” and badly shaken up.

Our housewife has reason on her side, and a good deal of it. It is all very fine to say, she urges, that her table should always be neat and orderly; that what is nice enough for her husband in the way of food and appointments should content the president, should he chance to drop in. Everybody sings that song in the same key, and it is stale bosh! For everybody knows that in the best regulated families we do make special provision for company. John comprehends that the best china can not be used every day, if we would have it remain even “good.” The second-best is excellent in quality, and pretty. Yet what housekeeper is superior to the wish to show outsiders that she has a Minton fish set; Coalport meat dishes and plates; silver vegetable dishes; Sèvres after-dinner coffee-cups? To set out her table as tastefully as she can afford to do is an offering due to the stranger within her gates—a visible token of hospitable intent. She is, in a measure, defrauded in all this when a surprise-visit is sprung upon her.

John is sensible, and does not object to left-overs now and then, when flavorously put together. Today’s salmi, or salad, or croquette is, to him, a reminiscence of yesterday’s roast. The oyster-stew made by his wife to spare servants wearied by laundry work, is as satisfactory to him, once in several whiles, as a six-course dinner would be. He sees in an Irish stew, supported by browned potatoes, hot biscuits, home-made cake and a capital cup of coffee, a feast fit for the gods as represented by his hungry self and any fellow he may have corralled and brought in to “take pot-luck.”

“I ask yer honors if that is anny sort of a shkull to take to Donnybrook Fair!” cried an Emeralder who had killed his man “in a bit of a foight,” when the defense produced the broken skull of the deceased in court to prove that the “frontal, parietal and occipital segments were extraordinarily thin.”

Mary submits to a jury of her peers if she has not a right to be “put about” when Johnny comes marching home serenely with a guest in tow, who, for the lack of time to make anything else ready, must be set down to left-over oyster, or Irish stew.

“When a man is asked to dinner, he expects a dinner!” she asserts in justifiable vexation. “And when all is said and done, the fact remains that one’s husband is not a visitor for whom one must mind her p’s and q’s.”

Yet—and a “yet” that might fill a whole line if its importance were considered—there is, also, much to be said on John’s side. Any bachelor can ask the old friend who looks in upon him in business hours and places, to lunch or dine with him at a chop house or hotel. The guest knows what he would get there. Just such a meal as he can buy for dollars and cents at fifty other “eating joints” all over the country. A meal, eaten in the presence of from twenty to one hundred other feeders, amid the babble of voices, the rattle of crockery and the click of knives and forks.

It is the married man alone who can offer the wayfarer a taste—and a generous taste—of HOME. The dear old fellow thrills in every inch of body and soul when he claps an ancient chum on the back with—

“Now you must see my wife and babies, old man!” or says to a business acquaintance in town for the day: “Mrs. Johannes and I would be charmed to have you take a family dinner with us. I am just going home now. Come with me!”

If malcontent Mary but knew it, he pays the highest possible compliment to her, as woman and housekeeper, by taking her welcome for granted.

I heard a man say the other day of another:

“He is a royally good fellow, and, I take it, is happily married. He begged me to dine with him when I called at his office, and without giving his wife notice. A fellow doesn’t take such liberties with his wife unless he is pretty sure of her and her housekeeping. I couldn’t accept the invitation, but the impression left upon my mind was most agreeable.”

It is worth Mary’s while to score a point in her favor with her husband’s friends and to strengthen her hold upon him by meeting the unexpected guest with frank cordiality, and in every other way making the best of the situation.

She keeps the house, and has the work and worry that go with the keeping. John pays for the material part of the home. How much it signifies to him the best of wives does not always know. It is his stimulus, his hope, his sheet anchor, when all the waves and billows of business trouble go over his soul—his haven of refuge—the nearest approach to Heaven he can find on this side of the dark river. He has a lien—in legal phrase—upon all the benefits accruing therefrom.

The exercise of spontaneous hospitality is not the least of these.

I am so unhappy as to know a woman who has her whole house, including attic and cellar, swept every week and dusted thoroughly daily. Every picture is taken down on Saturday morning that the backs and cords may be wiped off with a damp cloth wet with a disinfectant. She changes servants from twelve to twenty-four times a year. She will tell you with an air of calm sad conviction, that “there is not one tolerably efficient maid in America.” Her daughters have been her slaves since they could wield broom and duster. They are pale and thin; their eyes have a hunted look and are hollowed by fixed dark crescents beneath them. One of them was married two years ago, and sank into confirmed invalidism after the birth of a pitiful scrap of a baby that wailed feebly for an hour and died.

I met the single sister not long ago on a ferry-boat, and she confided to me that she is to submit to a crucial operation in a few days.

“The doctors say it is too much housework,” she said bitterly, “I can not recollect when I was not tired, tired, TIRED! My mother keeps the cleanest house in town. She says ‘dirt is disease.’ Maybe so! I know that life is not worth living when one has to pay such a price for cleanliness. My mother has bones of steel and nerves of whalebone, and can not comprehend ‘how it happens that she should be afflicted with delicate children.’

“As to company—it is a curse—nothing less! To have a friend in to a meal involves so much extra work beforehand, so much readjusting afterward, that the thought is frightful.

“This is not living. It is slavery!”

MEATS

BEEF

Roast beef

Never wash a raw roast, at least not the parts unprotected by the thin skin. Wipe the skin off with vinegar, dry with a soft cloth, and lay the meat, cut sides at top and bottom, upon the grating of your roaster. Dash a cupful of really boiling water over it. They cicatrice the surface and keep in the juices. Dredge with flour, cover and cook ten minutes to the pound, turning all the heat into the oven for fifteen minutes; then shift into a slower oven, or “dampen” the fire. Baste every ten minutes with the gravy dripping into the pan. Ten minutes before dishing the meat, wash freely with butter and dredge with browned flour, to “glaze” the roast.

Never serve “made gravy” with roast beef. Pour the liquid from the pan into a bowl, and when the fat is solid, remove it and clarify for dripping. The residuum will add richness to your soup-stock, or make a savory base for stew or hash.

Serve horseradish sauce and mustard with your rare roast, and put a little of the ruddy juice which exudes as the meat is carved, upon each slice when served.

Roast beef with Yorkshire pudding

Fifteen minutes before taking up the roast just described, skim six tablespoonfuls of fat from the gravy, put into a smaller dripping-pan, or pudding-dish, and set in the oven. Have ready this batter:

Sift an even teaspoonful of salt and one of baking-powder twice with a pint of flour. Beat two eggs light, add to them two cupfuls of milk, turn in the sifted flour and mix quickly. Set the reserved fat upon the upper grating of the oven; when it begins to bubble, turn in the batter, and cook quickly to a fine, golden-brown. Cut into squares and garnish the meat with them when you dish it.

This is a better way than cooking the pudding in the roaster under the meat, as used to be the custom with English cooks.

Réchauffé of beef à la jardiniére

Lay yesterday’s piece of beef in a roasting-pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cover it with thick slices of raw tomatoes. Dash a cupful of boiling water over all, put a close cover on the roaster, and cook in a hot oven for thirty-five minutes. While this is cooking boil tender a pint of green peas, a pint of potatoes—cut into tiny squares—three carrots, also cut small, and ten small onions. Season each vegetable with pepper, salt, and a small bit of butter.

Lay the beef with the tomatoes upon it on a hot platter, pour over it any gravy remaining in the pan, and arrange neatly about it the other vegetables. Be sure that meat and vegetables are very hot when served.

Braised beef

Put a nice round of beef in a broad-bottomed iron pot with a tablespoonful of butter, and sprinkle a chopped onion over it. Cook the beef on one side until brown, then turn and cook on the other side for the same length of time. Now dash a pint of boiling water over the meat, put a close cover on the pot and let the contents cook slowly, allowing at least fifteen minutes to every pound of beef. When the meat is done, remove from the pot to a platter and keep warm while you strain the gravy left in the pot; return to the fire and thicken it with a tablespoonful of browned flour rubbed into the same quantity of butter. Season the gravy with salt, pepper, and a teaspoonful of kitchen bouquet, and pour it over the meat.

Rib-ends of beef

These are usually cut off when the roast is rolled, and can be bought cheap.

Fry in beef fat a sliced onion and a chopped sweet pepper—carefully seeded. Take these up with a skimmer and keep hot. Pepper, salt and flour the rib-ends and fry in the same fat until they begin to brown. Put, now, with the fat into a saucepan, strew the fried onion and pepper on top; pour in a cup of weak stock; fit on a close cover, and cook very slowly until the beef is tender.

Strain and skim the gravy, thicken with browned flour; add a teaspoonful of kitchen bouquet; arrange the beef-bones in a dish; pour the gravy over them and serve.

Pot-roast of coarse beef

Cut four pounds of coarse lean beef in one piece. Fry half a pound of fat salt pork in a rather shallow pot. Put in the beef, and cook fast on both sides for five minutes. Cover with a chopped onion and a cupful of canned tomatoes, a sliced carrot and a sliced turnip. Now, pour in enough hot water to come half-way to the top of the meat; cover closely and simmer slowly for two hours, turning at the end of the first hour.

Take out the beef; rub with butter, pepper and salt, and set in the oven while you skim and strain the gravy, rubbing the vegetables with it through a colander. Put this back into the pot, thicken with browned flour, boil up once; pour half over the meat and serve the rest in a gravy-boat.

Rolled boiled beef

(An English recipe)

Cut an oblong piece of beef from the flank. It should be two inches thick, twelve inches long and six wide. Lay it on a dish and spread upon it this forcemeat:

A cupful of cracker crumbs, two tablespoonfuls of finely-chopped salt pork, half a teaspoonful of salt, one saltspoonful, each, of thyme, marjoram, and sage, half a saltspoonful of pepper, a few drops of onion juice, or one teaspoonful of chopped onion, and one egg. Moisten with a good stock until soft enough to spread over the meat.

Roll as you would a valise pudding, tie about with pack-thread and sew up in mosquito netting or cheese-cloth. Put on in plenty of boiling water and cook slowly for four hours. Let it lie in the water until the latter is a little more than lukewarm, and put under a heavy weight until next day. Remove the cloth, cut the strings and serve cold with horseradish sauce.

Corned beef is very good prepared in this way. Add vinegar to the water in which it is boiled and omit the pork from the stuffing.

Beef à la mode (No. 1)

Cut two pounds of lean beef from the round into strips. Cover the bottom of a pudding-dish with thin strips of bacon, then put in half the meat and strew over this carrots, turnips and onions, sliced very thin. There should be four of these, part of them going over the first layer of beef, the remainder over the second layer of beef. With them go two bay-leaves broken into bits. Cover all with stock, make a paste of flour and water, rolling it out as for pie crust, cover the top of the bake-dish with this, pinching it down about the edges so that no steam may escape. Bake for two hours in a steady oven, remove the paste cover, and send the dish at once to the table.

Beef à la mode (No. 2)

Have a solid piece cut from the round, and tie into shape with stout cords at intervals of an inch apart. Plug the meat perpendicularly with strips of fat salt pork, long enough to project half an inch at top and bottom. Make incisions clear through the beef with a sharp, thin knife, and fill these with forcemeat made of fat pork, minced, onion and bread-crumbs, sharply seasoned. Lay the meat in a braising-pot, cover deep with chopped onion, carrot, turnip, celery, three bay-leaves, a sliced tomato, and sprinkle with mace and paprika. Now pour in a cupful of cold water, cover closely and cook slowly fifteen minutes to the pound.

If you wish to serve hot, clip the threads; rub the gravy through a colander, let it cool a few minutes to throw up the fat; skim and thicken with browned flour, and pour half over the meat, half into a gravy-boat.

It is, however, nicer if left to get cold in the gravy, with a heavy weight on top, until next day. Then remove the cords, and cut in thin, horizontal slices.

An underdone roast can be metamorphosed in this way for a second-day’s dinner.

Braised rolled beefsteak

This is a good way of dealing with a hopelessly tough steak. Lay upon a board and pound from end to end with a mallet. Cover with a forcemeat of minced salt pork, onion and seasoned crumbs, wet with a little gravy; roll up upon the stuffing and tie into shape. Lay in your roaster; pour in a little cold water (or, better still, weak stock), cover and cook slowly for two hours, basting often with gravy from the pan. Undo the strings carefully, after pinning the roll together with skewers, and lay upon a hot dish, covered, while you prepare the gravy. Skim, thicken with browned flour, add a good spoonful of kitchen bouquet, boil up and pour into a boat.

Baked beefsteak à la jardiniére

Still another way of making a tough steak eatable. Pound it on both sides and lay in lemon juice and salad oil for two hours. Transfer then to your roaster, cover with two sliced tomatoes, a sliced carrot, an onion and a turnip, with minced sweet herbs. Add a cupful of cold water, cover closely and cook slowly twenty minutes to the pound.

Cut one large carrot, two large onions, two turnips and four stalks of celery into neat dice and cook them soft, without breaking, in salted water, each in a pan of its own. In another saucepan cook four large tomatoes, peeled and whole.

When the steak is done, keep hot over boiling water, while you rub the vegetables with which it was cooked through the colander or a vegetable press back into the gravy, thickening this with browned flour. Boil one minute, add the juice of a lemon and a glass of sherry, and keep hot in a closed vessel. Dish the meat, lay the vegetable dice about it in little heaps, each kind by itself, leaving the tomatoes whole; pour the rich gravy over all; cover the dish and leave in the open oven for three minutes to let the gravy soak in.

You have now a “French dish,” that will amply repay the additional pains it has cost you.

A family pot-roast of beef

The round will serve for this dish. Fry slices of fat salt pork in an iron pot, and when crisp, remove and throw in a sliced onion. When this is browned, remove and lay the roast in the pot. Cook for ten minutes, turn and cook for five minutes more. Now, add a cupful of water, cover closely and simmer over a slow fire for an hour. Add a sliced carrot, two teaspoonfuls of lemon juice, a bay-leaf and a tablespoonful of Worcestershire sauce to the contents of the pot. Turn the beef over and over in this, and if the meat seem dry add a cupful of water, or, better still, stock. Cook covered, very slowly, for two hours more. Transfer the meat to a hot platter, thicken the gravy left in the pot with a brown roux, salt and pepper to taste, and stir in two tablespoonfuls of vinegar. Pour this sauce over the meat and send to the table.

A New England pot-roast

Lay a round of beef in a broad, deep pot. Pour in a cupful of boiling water, add two slices of onion, cover closely and cook gently ten minutes to the pound. Transfer to a dripping-pan, rub with butter, dredge with flour, and brown in a quick oven. Strain and cool the gravy left in the pot, take off the fat, put the gravy into a saucepan, season with pepper, salt and a little kitchen bouquet, and thicken with a heaping tablespoonful of brown roux. Boil up once and serve in a gravy-boat, or pour around the base of the beef.

Savory ragout of beef

Cut a round beefsteak into inch-squares. Fry minced salt pork in a pan until you have enough fat to fry the meat, then remove the bits of pork and lay in the meat, each piece of which must first be rolled in flour. When the meat is brown at the edges, add to the fat two tablespoonfuls of flour that has been lightly browned, stir in a pint of weak stock, or, if you have not that, of boiling water; stir to a brown sauce, and return the meat to it, throwing in, at the same time, a minced onion. Leave the meat at the side of the range where it will cook very slowly for three-quarters of an hour. Now, season to taste with salt, add a bay leaf and a little kitchen bouquet. A little Worcestershire sauce is thought by some to be an improvement. Cover again and cook, still slowly, for over an hour, or until the meat is very tender. Stir in two tablespoonfuls of vinegar, and turn out upon a heated platter.

Beef hot pot

Two pounds of beef ribs; one tablespoonful of dripping; two chopped onions and six tiny green peppers, four slices of toast, a little black pepper, chives, vinegar, thyme, raisins, olives, tomatoes to taste, all minced.

Heat the dripping in a saucepan, put into it the ingredients (leave the peppers whole, and mince the chives), cover closely and stew until boiled to rags. Thicken with butter rolled in browned flour. Serve on toast.

Boiled beef tongue (smoked)

Wash the tongue well and soak four hours in tepid water. Put over the fire in plenty of cold water and cook twelve minutes to the pound after the boil begins. Let it get cold in the water; pare and trim neatly, and garnish with small green pickles.

Braised fresh beef’s tongue (No. 1)

Wash the tongue and boil for half an hour. Trim away the root and the tough edges.

Fry a sliced onion in three tablespoonfuls of dripping. Strain out the onion and lay the tongue in the frying-pan. Cook ten minutes, turning twice. Remove to your covered roaster; lay upon the grating and dredge with flour. Pour the fat over it; add a large cupful of boiling water and cook, closely covered, for an hour and a half, basting four times.

Take up and keep hot over boiling water while you skim off the fat, and thicken with browned flour. Season with paprika, onion juice, salt and half a cupful of strained tomato sauce.

Dish the tongue and pour the gravy over it. Send around horseradish sauce with it.

Sauce for braised tongue

Cook together in a saucepan a tablespoonful, each, of butter and flour until they bubble. Into a half-pint cup put a couple of teaspoonfuls of vinegar, fill up the cup with boiling water, and turn this on the butter and flour. Stir until thick and smooth. Just before taking from the fire stir in a tablespoonful of grated horseradish. Let it get hot, and serve.

Braised fresh tongue (No. 2)

Clean, and boil for an hour, leaving in the water for fifteen minutes after taking it from the fire. Trim neatly. Skewer the tip and root of the tongue together and lay in your covered roaster upon a layer of sliced onion, carrot, celery, tomatoes, and minced parsley. Cover with the same; add a cupful of the water in which the tongue was boiled, fit on your cover and cook slowly for two hours. Dish the tongue and keep hot. Rub gravy and vegetables through the colander, into a saucepan; thicken with browned flour. Lay the tongue in a bake-pan; pour the gravy over it, and set upon the top grating of an oven to brown. Dish, pour the gravy about the tongue and serve. Eat mushroom sauce with it.

Mushroom sauce for the above

Wash the mushrooms, wipe and peel them, then cut into tiny dice. Stir in a little of the gravy from the tongue; season with salt and paprika; add a lump of butter rolled in browned flour and cook two minutes.

A little lemon juice improves the flavor.

An Italian entrée of beef’s tongue

This is a good way to warm up the remains of a boiled or roast fresh tongue. Slice, cover with oil and lemon-juice, and leave in the marinade for one hour. Then add salt, pepper, some sliced onion, a little parsley and a few mushrooms cut into halves. Place in a frying-pan and cook slowly for about fifteen minutes, moistening with a tablespoonful of sherry and a little lemon juice; just before taking from the fire add a little brown stock, and a little tomato sauce, well-seasoned.

Boiled beef’s tongue

Wash well and cook in salted, boiling water until a steel skewer goes easily into the thickest part. Leave in the water for fifteen minutes, trim, and lay on a hot dish. Pour sauce tartare over it and send more around with it.

Boiled beef’s heart

Wash the heart and soak for half an hour in cold, salted water. Wipe and stuff the ventricles with a forcemeat of bread-crumbs and chopped ham or salt pork, minced fine and well seasoned. Sew up in cheese-cloth fitted to the heart, and bring slowly to a boil in salted water, to which a tablespoon of vinegar has been added. Boil gently two hours, turning the heart several times.

Remove the cloth and dish the heart. Pour a piquante sauce over it.

The heart is made more savory if you will boil it in weak stock instead of water.

Roast beef’s heart

Prepare as directed in last recipe, but roast instead of boiling, laying the heart upon a bed of minced onion and tomatoes, and pouring in a little hot water to make the gravy. Rub this through a colander, thicken with browned flour, season to taste and pour over the heart.

How to corn beef

Mix salt with saltpeter in the proportion of ten parts of the first to one of the second, and with this rub the piece of beef to be corned until the salt lies dry upon the surface. Let it stand in a cold place for twenty-four hours and repeat the process, and the next day put it into pickle. This is made by boiling together for ten minutes a gallon of salt, four ounces of saltpeter, and a pound and a half of brown sugar in five gallons of water. The meat should not be put into the pickle until the latter is perfectly cold. Leave it in the pickle and take it out as needed, looking after it once in a while to see if it is keeping well. If not, take the meat out, rub it well with dry salt, and prepare a fresh and stronger brine.

How to corn a tongue

Put into a saucepan a gallon and a half of water, a half-pound of brown sugar, two and a quarter ounces of salt and a half-ounce of saltpeter. Boil for half an hour, skim and, when cold, pour over the tongue.

It should be ready for use in a week.

Boiled corned beef

Soak for an hour in cold water. Put over the fire in plenty of cold water. Put into the pot with it a peeled carrot and a small onion, and for a gallon of water a tablespoonful of vinegar. Cook slowly, allowing twenty-five minutes to the pound if very salt, or if the meat has lain in the brine for some weeks. Let it lie in the liquor for half an hour after it is done. Lift it then, trim away ragged edges, lay on a hot dish and wash all over with butter in which has been beaten the juice of half a lemon.

Strain a cupful of the liquor; stir into it a tablespoonful of butter rolled in one of flour, boil two minutes and add a great spoonful of minced pickles, or of capers. Some like to use pickled onions for this purpose.

Send around horseradish and mustard with it.

When it leaves the table put a plate with a heavy weight upon it, and leave thus all night.

VEAL

Roast leg of veal

Wipe a leg of veal with a damp cloth and place it in a covered roaster. Dash a cupful of boiling water over the meat, cover it closely and cook at the rate of twenty minutes to the pound. Half an hour before the meat is taken from the oven remove the cover from the roaster, baste the meat with the gravy in the pan, and brown.

Shoulder of veal

This may be roasted, like the leg, but is better for having the bone removed, and the cavity thus left filled with a forcemeat made of bread-crumbs and chopped ham, seasoned to taste.

Veal cutlets

Wipe the cutlets with a damp cloth, dip them, first, in beaten egg, then in cracker dust, and set in a cold place for an hour. Fry in dripping to a rich brown. Cook slowly that they may be thoroughly done. Lay for a moment on brown paper to drain free of grease, and put on a hot platter. Serve with tomato sauce.

Veal steaks with mushroom sauce

Broil the steaks slowly over a clear fire, turning often that they may not scorch. When done, keep the meat hot on a platter in the oven while you make the following sauce:

Drain the liquor from a can of mushrooms and cut the mushrooms in halves. Cook together a tablespoonful of butter and one of browned flour until they are dark brown in color. Pour upon them the mushroom liquor and a cupful of beef stock. Stir to a smooth sauce, season with a dash of Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper, and add the halved mushrooms. Cook for two minutes, stirring constantly, then pour over and around the veal steaks.

Breast of veal á la jardiniére

Lard with strips of fat salt pork, and sprinkle with paprika. Dredge with flour and lay upon the grating of your covered roaster, add enough boiling water to cover it barely, and roast for an hour, basting with the gravy every ten or fifteen minutes. Then turn on the other side and spread over the roast a pint of tomatoes peeled and sliced, two onions, chopped fine, two sprigs of parsley, chopped fine, and two chopped peppers. Baste for another hour every ten minutes. When the meat is removed keep hot while you take up the vegetables with a split spoon, and keep them hot also. Strain the gravy, thicken with browned flour, and put into a boat. Lay the vegetables about the meat upon a metal or fire-proof dish, dredge this last with browned crumbs, and dot with softened butter. Set upon the top grating of the oven for five minutes to brown and send to table in the dish.

Stuffed roast fillet of veal

Take out the central bone and skewer the fillet into a neat round. Make a forcemeat of crumbs, minced pork, onion juice, parsley and half a can of mushrooms, minced. Wet with a few spoonfuls of stock or gravy; fill the bone-hole and ram the stuffing into the folds of the meat from both sides. Lay on your covered roaster, cover with very thin slices of fat salt pork, and dash a cupful of boiling water over top and sides. Roast, covered, twelve minutes to the pound. Fifteen minutes before you draw it from the oven remove the pork, wash with butter and dredge with browned flour. Then brown, uncovered.

The fillet should be basted four times while roasting. After the fourth basting draw off a cupful of gravy from the dripping-pan, set on ice, or in cold water until the fat rises, skim, add four tablespoonfuls of strained tomato juice, thicken with browned flour, and cook three minutes before pouring into a gravy-boat.

Roast breast of veal

Cook as you would the fillet, running a sharp knife between ribs and meat to make space for the stuffing.

Serve spinach with it.

Breaded veal cutlets

Roll the cutlets in fine crumbs, salted and peppered; dip into beaten egg, then again in crumbs. Set on ice for an hour to get firm, and fry in deep fat, turning three times, carefully. Cook slowly after the first five minutes. Underdone veal is unwholesome and unpalatable.

Drain off the fat, and serve in a heated dish. Send around horseradish or tomato sauce with them, and accompany with spinach.

Mock squabs

Have six or eight slices cut from a loin of veal, half an inch thick, about seven inches long and four wide. Make a forcemeat of crumbs, fat pork, and minced mushrooms seasoned with paprika, onion juice and a little lemon juice with a suspicion of grated lemon-peel. Moisten with a beaten egg and cover with this each slice of meat nearly to the edge, roll up tightly and tie with twine, or fasten with wooden skewers. Dredge with salt, pepper and flour, roast them as previously directed, golden-brown. Be very careful that they do not brown or become too highly colored. When nearly done add cream to almost cover and let them simmer about fifteen minutes or until quite tender. Remove the strings, arrange the “squabs” on toast, garnish with water-cress, and pour a little of the strained cream over each. Serve with asparagus or spinach.

Larded veal

Have a solid piece cut from the thickest part of the shoulder. Lard at short intervals with strips of fat salt pork and put into your covered roaster with sliced carrot, onion, bits of celery and a few sprigs of parsley; over all pour a large cupful of good stock, cover and cook slowly for about three hours. You should baste frequently while cooking, and a short time before it is done remove the cover, to cook the larding thoroughly and give a good color to the veal.

Just before taking up pour out a cupful of gravy, skim off the fat and thicken with browned flour, add a great spoonful of tomato catsup, and simmer until you are ready to dish the meat. Pour then into a boat.

Roast calves’ hearts

You will need two hearts for a dish of moderate size. Wash them thoroughly, leaving in salt and water for an hour, to draw out the blood. Run a slender, keen knife from the large end of each heart straight to the center, turning it around several times to make a central hole for the forcemeat stuffing. Make this of cracker crumbs highly seasoned with onion juice, salt and pepper, thyme or marjoram. Moisten with melted butter, or use hot water and a little fat pork or bacon finely chopped. Sew the opening together, and thrust in several lardoons of salt pork. Dredge with salt, pepper and flour. Fry one sliced onion in dripping in a frying-pan. Put in the heart and brown it lightly all over. Pour in stock to cover it—barely—add a bay leaf, two slices of carrot and one teaspoonful of salt. Cover the pan and cook in a moderate oven about two hours, or until very tender.

When done remove the strings, put the hearts upon a hot dish, and thicken the gravy with browned flour. Add lemon juice and other seasoning if needed. Strain over the hearts. Garnish with Parisian potatoes alternately with small tomatoes, pared and baked. Pour melted butter and minced parsley over potatoes and tomatoes.

Larded liver

Wash a calf’s or lamb’s liver, lard it with narrow strips of salt pork, and put it into a covered roaster. Pour over the liver a pint of cold beef stock and cover the pan closely. Set in a moderate oven and cook an hour and a half. Transfer the liver to a deep dish and put the pan containing the gravy on the top of the range. Thicken the gravy with a heaping tablespoonful of browned flour and add to it a cupful of strained tomato liquor, a teaspoonful of onion juice, salt and pepper to taste. Boil up once and pour over the liver.

Salmi of liver

Boil a calf’s liver for one hour in slightly salted water, and let it get cold. Cut into dice of uniform size, and for each cupful allow one tablespoonful of butter, one cupful of stock, one teaspoonful of tomato sauce, and two tablespoonfuls of chopped olives. Brown the butter, add one tablespoonful of flour and brown again; add gradually the stock, and stir until smooth and thick. Put in the catsup, olives and liver dice, season to taste, and simmer for fifteen minutes. Serve hot.

A delightful and not inelegant entrée.

Roast sweetbreads

Parboil two pairs of sweetbreads and blanch by throwing them into cold water. Drain, pierce three or four holes in each and press into these holes narrow strips of fat salt pork, allowing the strips to project a half-inch on each side. Lay the sweetbreads in a roasting-pan, pour a cupful of weak veal stock over them and rub them with melted butter. Cover and bake for twenty-five minutes; remove from the pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper, put a spoonful of the thickened and seasoned gravy upon each, and send to the table.

Baked calf’s head

The head should be cleaned with the skin left on, also the ears, and split down the under side, leaving the top unbroken. Remove the tongue and brains, parboil and set them on ice. Put the head on in plenty of cold water, boil quickly and for one minute after the boiling point is reached. Take the head off and lay in ice-cold water. Change this for colder in ten minutes, and leave in this for several hours.

Then put over the fire in boiling water, to which a tablespoonful of vinegar has been added, and a tablespoonful of salt. Cook gently until you can slip out the bones easily.

Do this, drawing the teeth, cheek-bones and skull, taking care not to break the upper skin. Put into a bake-dish, restoring the shape as well as you can. Cut the tongue into slices and lay close against the cheeks; wash plentifully with butter rubbed to a cream with lemon juice, sift dry crumbs all over it and bake, covered, half an hour. Then brown.

To make the gravy, rub the brains to a soft paste; pepper and salt, season with tomato catsup and onion juice, add enough of the liquor in which the head was boiled to make a boatful of gravy, thicken with butter rolled in flour, simmer five minutes and serve.

There is no more savory preparation of calf’s head than this. It goes to table in the bake-dish. The liquor from the pot in which it had the second boiling makes excellent soup stock.

Boiled calf’s head

Boil as directed in last recipe, but do not blanch or bone. When it has been cooked tender, dish, with the tongue (which should have been boiled with it), sliced and laid against the cheeks, and pour over it a brain gravy, made as for the baked head, with the addition of a great spoonful of minced olives.

Mock turtle

Boil and blanch a calf’s head, take out the bones and let the meat and tongue get cold in the liquor. Do not let it remain long enough to jelly. As soon as the meat is firm take it from the stock, wipe dry, and cut with the tongue into neat dice an inch long, and half as wide. Make a gravy of a large cupful of the pot liquor, thickened with butter rolled in browned flour and seasoned with lemon and onion juice, a teaspoonful of kitchen bouquet, a little salt and paprika. Put in the meat, and simmer fifteen minutes.

Have ready a sauce made by heating a cupful of cream (adding a pinch of soda) and pour it, stirring all the time, upon the beaten yolks of three eggs. Stir and beat for one minute, and add to the meat and gravy. Now add a glass of sherry and pour all into a deep dish, in which you have laid a pile of turtle eggs made by rubbing together the yolks of three hard-boiled eggs and the boiled brains of the calf, binding them with a raw egg and a little browned flour. They should be made into little marbles with floured hands and cooked in boiling butter for two minutes, then fished out and drained in a colander.

A delicious entrée!

Calf’s liver á la jardiniére

Lard a large liver with strips of fat salt pork. Cover the bottom of a large saucepan with a carrot and a young turnip (all cut into dice), six very small onions, a handful of green peas and the same of string beans cut into short lengths. Lay the liver upon these, pepper it and pour in a cupful of stock, or a cupful of hot water in which a tablespoonful of butter has been melted. Cover closely and cook an hour and a half without opening. In a bake-pan cook four peeled tomatoes of medium size. Take up the liver and the vegetables, the latter with a split spoon. Lay the liver upon a hot dish, group the vegetables (the tomatoes included), each of a kind together, about it; keep hot in the oven while you strain the gravy into a saucepan, add a great spoonful of catsup and a tablespoonful of browned flour wet with cold water, and cook for one minute. Pour a few spoonfuls over liver and vegetables, the rest into a boat.

Casserole of calf’s liver

Wash and wipe a calf’s liver perfectly dry. Fry a few slices of fat bacon in a pan until the fat is all fried out. Strain and return the fat to the pan, lay in the liver and fry two minutes on each side, and then put into the casserole; add one pint of rich brown sauce, a cupful of button onions that have been browned in butter and three tablespoonfuls of lemon juice. Fasten on the cover with a flour and water paste, put in a moderate, steady oven, and cook for two hours. Then remove the paste from the cover, put in potato balls that have been fried in hot fat, and send to the table in the casserole.

Fried brains for garnishing

Soak the brains in cold water for an hour, cover with fresh, cold water and bring to a boil. Cook for three minutes; drain, and set in a cold place for an hour. Cut in thick slices, sprinkle with salt and white pepper; dip in beaten egg, roll in cracker dust and set in a cold place long enough for the coating to stiffen. Fry in deep cottolene or other fat.

Scallop of calf’s brain

Soak brains in cold water for an hour, then boil for ten minutes. Drop into iced water, and when very cold cut into tiny dice. Butter a pudding dish, put in a layer of the brains, sprinkle with pepper, bits of butter and a few drops of onion juice; then put in a thin layer of minced ham. Add more brains, and proceed in this way until the dish is full. Sprinkle the top with buttered crumbs, pour a cupful of veal stock over all, and bake for twenty minutes.

Brain croquettes for garnishing

Prepare the brains as in the preceding recipe, chop and add to them butter, salt and pepper to taste. Into each cupful of the mixture stir a tablespoonful of crumbs and moisten all with cream. Heat in a double boiler, and when the boiling point is reached whip in slowly a beaten egg, and remove the mixture from the fire. Turn upon a dish to cool and stiffen before forming into small croquettes. Crumb these and set on the ice for two hours. Fry in deep, boiling cottolene or other fat.

Any dish of liver or calf’s head—in fact of veal in any form—is made elegant by a garnish of brains, fried as croquettes, or in slices.

MUTTON

Roast leg of mutton with sorrel sauce

Wipe a leg of young mutton with a damp cloth, then with a dry. Put into a covered roaster, dash a cupful of boiling water over it and roast at the rate of twelve minutes to each pound of the meat. Fifteen minutes before serving remove the cover and brown. If you do not use a covered roaster baste the meat every fifteen minutes, while cooking, with the gravy in the pan.

Do not send made mutton gravy to the table with it. Pass currant jelly with it and such a sauce as this:

Mince a cupful of field sorrel—young and tender—and stir two tablespoonfuls of butter rubbed into one of browned flour into a cupful of boiling water. Add the sorrel, a dash of paprika and salt. Cook for one minute, take from the fire and beat into it, a very little at a time, the well-whipped yolk of an egg. Set in boiling water until the mutton is served. It must not cook.

Boiled leg of mutton

Carefully trim the meat, cutting off all loose or gristly portions, and wipe with a damp cloth. Have a kettle of boiling water and put in the meat, boiling fast for about ten minutes, when it may simmer until done. Do not put in salt or pepper until nearly cooked. Eat with caper sauce.

The water in which the mutton is boiled makes excellent Scotch broth, or plain mutton soup.

Roast shoulder of mutton

Carefully remove the bone, or shoulder blade, and fill the place with this forcemeat: One cupful of fine bread-crumbs, one tablespoonful of chopped parsley, one teaspoonful of chopped onion, salt and pepper to taste, a half-dozen chopped mushrooms—canned or fresh—and melted butter to moisten the mixture. Sew up the slit left by the bone, and place in the covered roaster with a cupful of water or weak stock. Cook quickly at first, basting often, and allowing for cooking about fifteen minutes to the pound. Serve with sorrel or other meat sauce, never with made gravy.

Pass string-beans, tomatoes, green peas or young turnips with it.

Stuffed shoulder of lamb

Have the bone extracted neatly, and fill the cavity left with a stuffing of a cupful of bread-crumbs, a dozen raw oysters, chopped fine, two tablespoonfuls of butter, melted, one tablespoonful of chopped parsley, one teaspoonful of onion juice, one-half teaspoonful of paprika. Roast in a quick oven. Into two tablespoonfuls of softened butter mix one tablespoonful, each, of chopped parsley, onion and lemon juice, and kitchen bouquet. Draw the meat, when done, from the oven, spread it with this prepared sauce, and return to the oven for four minutes. Garnish with small, round, fried potatoes.

Send around green peas with it.

Hotch-potch

Cut two pounds of lean mutton into neat pieces an inch square. Peel and slice six medium-sized potatoes, cut into dice, and parboil for five minutes. Parboil also a dozen small, young onions, no larger than the end of your thumb. Have a couple of kidneys—calf’s or lamb’s—cut into dice, and drain the liquor from fifteen small oysters. Put a layer of meat dice in the dish, then a layer of onions, kidneys and potatoes. Season each layer of vegetables with pepper and salt. Then another layer of meat, onions and kidneys, and the remaining potatoes. Pour on a cupful of hot water, cover the pan closely and bake it in a moderate oven for three hours. Look at it occasionally and add more water if it seems dry.

When nearly ready to serve take up the mixture with a skimmer, arrange it in a deep hot dish. Add the oysters to the gravy left in the pan, cook till they ruffle, add more seasoning if needed, and pour it over the whole.

Family stew of lamb and peas

Cut two pounds of coarse lean lamb into dice. There must be neither fat nor bone in it. Fry a sliced onion brown in two tablespoonfuls of dripping or butter. Strain the fat back into the pan, dredge the meat with flour and fry for three minutes in it, turning to sear both sides. Turn meat and fat into a saucepan, add a cupful of stock or of butter and water, cover closely and stew for an hour, or until the lamb is tender. Put in then a cupful of green peas with three leaves of green mint. Cover again and cook until the peas are tender, but not until they break. Have ready a broad dish lined with slices of toast soaked in tomato sauce. Take up meat and peas in a perforated skimmer and lay upon the toast. Keep hot, while you thicken the gravy left in the pot with a tablespoonful of butter rolled in one of browned flour; season, boil up and pour over the stew. Let it stand one minute and serve.

Casserole of lamb chops

Trim two pounds of lean chops and proceed as with the meat in last recipe until they have been browned in the fat.

Now turn meat and fat into your casserole, in the bottom of which is a layer of pared and sliced tomatoes. Have ready half a cupful of potato balls cut with a “gouge” and parboiled for five minutes, a dozen button onions, also parboiled, and half a can of champignons (mushrooms). Sprinkle these over and between the chops. Pour in a cupful of good stock, or gravy, well seasoned; lastly, another layer of sliced tomatoes, salted, peppered, sprinkled with sugar and dotted with butter. Cover the casserole and set in a moderate oven for two hours.

Drain off all the gravy without disturbing the rest of the contents of the casserole. Skim, thicken with browned flour, add the juice of half a lemon, boil up, pour in a glass of sherry, pour gently back into the casserole, cover, set in the oven for three minutes and send to table, covered.

If you once try this recipe you will not be satisfied until the dish it represents becomes a frequent visitor to your table.

MEAT AND POULTRY PIES

Chicken pie

Cut at every joint a pair of young chickens. Lay on ice while you make a gravy of the pinions, necks and feet—scalding and skinning the feet before putting with the rest over the fire, covering deep with cold water and bringing slowly to the boil. Cook until the flesh is in rags, and the liquor reduced by one-half. Strain, season highly with onion juice, salt and paprika, thicken with browned flour and let the gravy get cold.

Meanwhile, arrange your chicken in a bake-dish; lay among the pieces either well-seasoned forcemeat balls no larger than marbles, made of bread-crumbs and hard-boiled yolks, bound with a raw egg, or canned mushrooms. Of course, fresh mushrooms are better if you can afford them. Put in a cupful of cold water, cover with a good crust, half an inch thick, and bake for an hour and a half. Lay a piece of stout paper over the pie to keep it from browning too fast. When you remove this at the end of an hour draw the pie to the door of the oven, fit a funnel into a slit left in the center of the crust and pour in all the gravy it will hold. Do this very quickly, shut up the oven and leave the pie in until done. Remove the paper ten minutes before the time is up and brown lightly.

Cold chicken pie

Make precisely as in last recipe, but add to the gravy while hot a tablespoonful of gelatine soaked for two hours in cold water enough to cover it. Pour into the pie as already directed. Let the pie get cold before eating it. The gravy will be jellied.

This is a nice dish for Sunday dinners in hot weather.

Fowl pie

Cut an old fowl into joints, splitting the back and dividing the breast into quarters. Put over the fire in plenty of cold water, season with onion juice and the juice of half a lemon. No salt and no pepper. Cover closely and simmer very gently for several hours until you find it tender. Strain off the gravy and season with onion juice, celery salt, a bay-leaf, minced parsley, paprika and salt. Return the gravy to the fire, stir in a lump of butter rolled in browned flour and cook one minute. Arrange the chicken in a deep bake-dish, pour in the gravy, lay over the top two hard-boiled eggs cut into thin slices, cover with a good crust, and bake.

Chicken pot pies

For these have several stoneware or other fire-proof deep dishes, about the size of a bird bath. Cut up a young fowl into joints, cover with cold water and cook tender, but not until the meat leaves the bones. Lay a piece of dark meat and one of light in each dish; sprinkle with minced salt pork, and drop in each dish potato marbles which have been parboiled for ten minutes. Add small cubes of pastry, three to each dish, and two small young onions, no bigger than the end of your thumb. Unless they are mere infants, parboil them five minutes before they go in. Have ready two cupfuls of the liquor in which the chicken was cooked. Thicken with a lump of butter rolled in browned flour; season with paprika and minced parsley. The pork should salt it sufficiently. Fill the dishes, cover each with a good crust, make a slit in the middle and bake, covered with paper, half an hour. Then brown.

You may, if you like, make one dish of this, but many prefer the individual “portions.”

Chicken and ham pie

Cut up and stew the chickens, as in last recipe. Have ready four good-sized slices of corned ham (not smoked), boiled and cold, and cut into strips. Put a layer of ham in the bottom of a buttered bake-dish, season with chopped mushrooms and parsley, salt and pepper, and add a layer of white sauce, the base of which is the liquor in which the chickens were cooked. Next, place in the dish the pieces of chicken in regular order, and upon these the yolks of hard-boiled eggs. Repeat the seasoning and the sauce, lay a few strips of ham over the top, cover with a good paste, wash the pie with beaten egg, and bake for an hour and a half. If you have no mushrooms you may substitute a little mushroom catsup.

Veal pie (No. 1)

Cut three pounds of lean veal into inch-square cubes; put into a saucepan with a cupful of cold water, and heat slowly. Remove the scum as it begins to boil; add two small onions, sliced, two tablespoonfuls of carrot cubes, and one teaspoonful of salt. Let it simmer until very tender. Put the meat then into a deep baking-dish.

Let the liquor boil down to one cupful and a half, strain it and remove most of the fat. Add one-half cupful of cream or of rich milk, and pepper to taste. Thicken it with a tablespoonful of flour rubbed in one of butter; cook it five minutes, and strain it over the meat. If you have any cold boiled ham you may add a little of it to the veal, cutting it into tiny pieces.

Cover with a rich biscuit dough, half an inch thick, and bake one hour, covered with thick paper. Uncover and brown.

Veal pie (No. 2)

Cut two pounds of coarse lean veal into cubes and cook tender in enough cold water to cover it. Have ready half a pound of finely-minced pork, an onion, chopped fine, two tablespoonfuls of finely-minced olives, a stalk of celery cut fine, and a tablespoonful of chopped parsley. Put a stratum of veal in the bottom of a buttered bake-dish; cover with this mixture and sprinkle with paprika and with butter. When all the materials are used up in this order fill the dish with gravy made by thickening the liquor in which the veal was stewed with browned flour, adding a tablespoonful of tomato catsup, and boiling one minute. Cover with a good crust; make a slit in the top and bake, covered, one hour; then brown.

Beef and tomato pie

Cut a pint of cold roast beef into small dice of uniform size, and mix with it two or three slices of bacon, also cut small. Line a deep dish with good puff paste, put a layer of the beef and bacon in the bottom of the dish, season with pepper and salt, cover with a layer of peeled and sliced tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and dots of butter rolled in flour; add more meat and more tomatoes, until the dish is full. Cover the top layer with bits of butter, then with a crust of puff paste, making holes in this for the escape of steam. Bake until brown.

Beef and potato pie

Moisten three cupfuls of minced roast beef with a little stock, season to taste, and put it into a greased pudding-dish. Into a large cupful of mashed potatoes beat a little milk and a tablespoonful of melted butter. Season this potato and spread it over the top of the minced beef. Set it in the oven and bake, covered, for twenty minutes; uncover, wash over with beaten white of eggs and cook for fifteen minutes longer, or until it is lightly browned.

Beefsteak pie

Cut two pounds of round steak into small squares. Cover (barely) with cold water and cook tender, very slowly. Cut two veal kidneys into cubes and (if you can get it) a sweetbread, blanched by throwing it into cold water, after parboiling it. Drain the liquor from the beef, and let both get almost cold. Make a good gravy by thickening this liquor with a tablespoonful of butter rolled in browned flour, seasoning well with kitchen bouquet, onion juice, salt and pepper. Let it simmer two minutes. Arrange the beef, kidneys and sweetbread in neat layers in the dish, interspersing these with a dozen small oysters. Pour in the gravy, cover with a good crust, half an inch thick, and cook, covered, one hour; then brown.

Kidney pie

Cut four kidneys into neat squares and stew gently in weak stock for half an hour. Cook a quarter-pound of macaroni till tender, and cut it into inch lengths. Butter a baking-dish and put in a layer of macaroni; over that spread a layer of sliced kidneys, seasoned with pepper, salt and made mustard. Sprinkle over a little flour, and add a layer of tomatoes. Repeat these layers and cover with fine bread-crumbs when the dish is filled. Pour in a rich gravy made from the stock in which the kidneys were stewed; put small bits of butter over the crumbs on top, and bake steadily for one hour.

Sweetbread pie

Blanch two sweetbreads by parboiling for ten minutes, then leaving in ice-cold water for the same length of time. When firm cut into half-inch squares. Make a white roux by cooking in a saucepan two tablespoonfuls of flour in two of butter, add gradually a cupful of cream heated with a pinch of soda, season with half a teaspoonful of salt and half a saltspoonful of white pepper, a few grains of cayenne, and two tablespoonfuls of stewed and strained tomato. Put the sweetbreads and sauce into a deep dish, cover with a rich crust, make a slit in the center; bake, covered, half an hour, then brown. Beat one egg, add half a cupful of hot cream, and pour into the opening in the crust just before serving.

Mutton chop pie

Trim two pounds of tender chops by cutting away skin, fat, and two inches of the rib bone. With the refuse trimmings make a gravy by cooking slowly three hours in just enough water to cover them. Let it cool, skim off all the fat, season highly, thicken well with browned flour, boil up once and again let it cool.

Arrange the chops on the inside of a bake-dish, overlapping one another; fill the central space with chopped mushrooms, a chopped tomato, six small button onions and a pint of green peas. Pour in the gravy; cover with a good crust, make a slit in the middle and bake, covered, half an hour; then brown.

Veal chop pie

May be made as above, substituting chopped tomatoes for the green peas. In this case have the gravy very thick, as the tomato juice will thin it.

Small pork pies

(A Devonshire recipe.)

Chop fine a quarter of a pound of beef kidney suet and mix with it an equal quantity of butter. Rub both into a pound of flour and set all over the fire in a saucepan until the butter and suet are melted and the flour very hot. Knead together then into a stiff paste, cover with the cloth and put it near the fire while you make ready the meat. There should be about two pounds of the neck of pork, and this should be cut into very small pieces, seasoned liberally with salt, pepper and a teaspoonful of powdered sage, and cooked gently for twenty-five minutes before it goes into the pie. The paste must then be divided into as many pieces as you wish to have pies, and these must be made into round shapes—“built up” into the shape of round pies. The way to do this must be studied carefully, for it is a knack in itself. The fist is put into the middle of the piece of dough from which the pie is to be raised, and by working it in a circular fashion the hollow is formed which is to receive the meat. The process should really be seen to be adequately understood. When the pie is “raised” the meat is put into it, a round of paste laid on the top and its edge pinched to that of the lower crust. It is then baked in a steady, rather slow, oven.

An English pork pie

Cook two pounds of lean pork for half an hour in enough weak stock to cover it. Let it get cold in the liquor (which reserve for the gravy). Take out the cold meat and cut into neat dice. Butter a deep dish and lay in some of the meat. Cover with a layer of hard-boiled eggs, chopped coarsely; season with onion juice, pepper, salt and a pinch of nutmeg. Stick bits of butter here and there. Dust with browned flour.

Strain and reheat the liquor in which the meat was cooked; stir in a lump of butter rolled in browned flour, cook one minute, add a teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce; pour into the pie, and let it cool before covering with a good paste. Cut a slit in the middle of the crust; bake, covered, three-quarters of an hour. Uncover, wash with white of egg and brown.

Send around apple sauce with it.

A New England pork pie

Boil half a pound of “streaked” salt pork with a sliced onion and four parsnips of moderate size. Put them on in enough cold water to cover them, and boil until the parsnips are tender, the onion cooked to rags. Have ready three fair-sized potatoes, sliced and parboiled. Slice the parsnips. Cut the pork into very small, thin slices, and line a deep dish with it. Put in a layer of sliced potatoes, sprinkle with flour, salt and pepper, a layer of sliced parsnips, then another layer of each. Add enough of the water in which the pork and parsnips were boiled to fill the dish. Cover with a good crust, and bake in a good oven one hour.

It is said by those who like parsnips to be very good—considering!

Pigeon pie

Dress, draw and singe carefully four young pigeons; stuff them with the chopped livers, hearts and gizzards and fine crumbs, mixed with chopped parsley, a good lump of butter, pepper and salt. Run a small wooden skewer through the body of each, fastening the wings to the sides. Cover the bottom of your bake-dish with thin strips of corned ham; season with chopped parsley, mushrooms, pepper and salt; over these lay the pigeons; between every two birds put the yolk of an egg boiled hard, and two or three in the center also. Add to the dish sufficient thick brown gravy to cover the pigeons, cover the pie with puff-paste, and bake for an hour and a half.

PORK

Roast pig

Lay the pig, which has been prepared by the butcher, in cold water for fifteen minutes, then wipe dry, inside and out. Make a stuffing as for a turkey, and work into it two beaten eggs. Stuff the pig to his original size and shape. Sew him up, bend his fore legs backward, and his back legs forward under him, and skewer him thus. Dredge him with flour and put it, with a little salted water, into a covered roaster. Roast for an hour and a half; remove the cover, rub the pig well with butter and return the cover, leaving the slide open. At the end of twenty minutes remove the cover again, rub the pig once more with butter, and brown him for ten minutes. Serve very hot with apple sauce.

A pig for roasting should not weigh over six or seven pounds after it is cleaned. If larger, it is gross food. The meat should be as delicate as chicken.

Roast pork

Score the skin until the knife touches the meat under it. Rub into these lines or squares a mixture of fine crumbs seasoned with onion juice, a little grated lemon-peel and the juice of half a lemon, with pepper and salt to taste. Work in well until the stuffing stands out of the cracks. Put into your roaster, with a cupful of hot water under it, and after covering bring quickly to the point at which the water begins to steam. Slacken the heat then, and cook twenty-five minutes to the pound, basting often with its own gravy.

Pour off this gravy twenty minutes before taking the meat up, and set in a bowl of ice to send all the fat to the top. Greasy pork gravy is an offense to the educated palate. Thicken with browned flour.

A better plan is not to attempt to make gravy, but to send around apple sauce alone with the roast.

Chine of pork braised with apples

Instruct your butcher to cut the chine with plenty of meat on both sides of the bone. Sprinkle it well with pepper and salt, and lightly with sage and sweet marjoram. Pare, core and cut into thick slices three large, tart apples. Cover the grating of your roaster with them, strew with sugar and lay the chine upon them. Dot the meat with butter; cover and roast twenty-five minutes to the pound. At the end of that time transfer the meat to a dripping-pan, turning it over that the side which has lain upon the apples may be uppermost. Wash with butter, cover thick with salted and peppered crumbs, and brown upon the upper grating of a hot oven while you make the gravy.

To do this rub the cooked apple and the liquor with them through a colander into a saucepan, add a little hot water, a lump of butter rolled in flour, and, if very tart, a little sugar; pepper and salt to taste, boil up and turn into a boat.

Serve peas, pudding or beans in some shape with the chine.

Pork tenderloins

Broil over a clear, steady fire, turning as often as they begin to drip. Allow twenty minutes, if small; more when large. Lay upon a heated dish, cover with a mixture of butter, lemon juice, onion juice, pepper, salt and a dash of powdered sage. Turn over and over in this as it melts; cover closely and leave over hot water several minutes to let the seasoning sink into the meat.

Serve browned whole potatoes and apple sauce with them.

Boiled ham

Soak eight hours, and scrub it hard with a stiff brush or whisk to get out salt and dirt. Cover with an abundance of cold water, and put into it two tablespoonfuls of vinegar. Heat very gradually. At the end of the first hour it should not have reached the boiling point. Simmer gently four or five hours. Allow twenty minutes to every pound for a corned ham; twenty-five for a smoked. Let it get almost cold in the liquor—entirely cold before you skin it.

Barbecued fresh ham

Score the rind with a sharp knife. Mix one tablespoonful of mustard seed, half a teaspoonful, each, of celery seed and pepper corns with one cupful of sugar, one cupful of vinegar and two cupfuls of water. Let these stand ten minutes, then pour it over the ham. Turn it in this pickle several times during the day. Next morning put the ham into your covered roaster in a slow oven, fat side down, for the first hour. Strain the pickle and keep it hot on the back of the stove. Baste the ham frequently with it and bake four hours, or until tender.

All of the pickle should have been used in basting. Lay the ham upon a heated dish and keep hot over boiling water while you make the gravy. Strain the liquor, thicken with browned flour, add salt to taste, simmer for five minutes and pour part over the meat, the rest into a boat.

Those who are fond of hot fresh pork can not do better than to try this. It is also delicious cold.

Breaded ham

Boil as directed in recipe for boiled ham. When cold, skin and rub all over with flour. Next, brush with beaten egg, sift fine crumbs thickly ever the egg, then more egg and another coat of crumbs. Dust with pepper and brown gradually.

Eat cold, garnished with parsley.

Baked ham

Is seldom really “baked.” Boil a ham eighteen minutes to the pound; leave it one hour in the liquor in which it was cooked; take it out and let it get really cold and firm before stripping off the skin. Rub the upper side with white of egg and sift over it bread dust a quarter of an inch thick. Pepper lightly, and set in the oven for half an hour, or until the coating is well shortened by the oozing fat, and of a nice brown. Let it get cold to the very bone before serving it. If you like a suspicion of onion flavoring, wash the surface to be breaded with onion juice before going over it with the white of an egg.

Baked corned ham

Soak over night. In the morning scrub hard and pare away the underside until the meat and fat show red and white. Wash well with vinegar and do not wipe. Lay, skin downward, in your roaster, covering the side you have pared with a thick paste of flour and water. Have ready a mixture of one cupful of cold water and half as much vinegar, a tablespoonful of molasses and one of onion juice. Pour around the ham; cover closely and bake half an hour to the pound, after the water is hot. Baste six times with the liquor in the pan.

Take up, scrape off the paste, remove the skin, dusting instantly and thickly with fine cracker-crumbs to stop the escape of the juices. There should be a cracker crust a quarter-inch thick. Set upon the upper grating to brown.

Stuffed ham

Wash a ham and soak over night; then, with a narrow, sharp blade, remove the bone. Fill the cavity thus left with a forcemeat of bread-crumbs, seasoned with pepper and moistened with a little water in which a spoonful of butter has been melted. Sew the ham up closely in a piece of cheese-cloth and boil until done, allowing twenty minutes to the pound. Leave it in the water until cold, transfer to a platter and put under a heavy weight for twelve hours. Now remove the cloth and the skin, and sprinkle the ham with pepper before sending to the table.

To pickle pork

Mix together four and a half pounds of salt, a pound of brown sugar and one ounce of saltpeter, stirred into three gallons of water. Boil for half an hour, skimming every ten minutes. Set aside to cool, and when cold pour over the meat packed in a crock or keg.

Virginia recipe for curing ham

Put the ham into pickle made by putting into one and one-half gallons of water one-half pound of brown sugar, one-half ounce of saltpeter and two and one-quarter pounds of salt. Boil this mixture for half an hour, skimming frequently; then set aside to cool and pour over the ham. Leave for two weeks, remove the ham, wash it in fresh water; dip it, still wet, in bran, and coat thickly with it. Now take to the smokehouse and hang, hock end down, in smoke from hickory chips and sawdust for four weeks. Brush off the bran, wrap in brown paper and hang up until needed.

POULTRY

ROAST TURKEY

Draw, with care not to break the gall-bag. Wash out the cavity three times with cold water, adding a little soda to the second water. You can not be too careful in this part of your task.

Fill the body and craw with some one of the stuffings or “dressings” given below. Sew up the body and tie the skin covering the craw securely about the “scrag” or neck with cotton twine. Bind the legs and wings snugly to the body with cotton tape or strips of muslin. If the fowl be rather scrawny cover the breast with thin slices of fat salt pork. Put upon the grating of your covered roaster. Pour a cupful of boiling water over it to sear the skin and keep in the juices; cover and cook fifteen minutes to the pound, quite fast for twelve minutes or so, afterward steadily but slowly. Baste four times, each time very thoroughly, with the gravy from the pan.

A quarter of an hour before taking the turkey up, uncover and wash over with butter, then dredge with flour, and shut up in the oven to brown.

Make the gravy by stirring into the contents of the dripping-pan (when you have removed the turkey and are keeping it hot) the giblets, minced almost to powder, a tablespoonful of browned flour wet up with cold water, salt and pepper to taste. Skim before you add anything. Boil one minute and pour into a gravy-boat.

Always serve cranberry sauce with turkey, when you can get it.

Bread dressing for turkey

To a large cupful of crumbs allow a tablespoonful of minced fat pork. Season with pepper and, if you like, a little minced parsley. A little onion juice is an improvement. Moisten very slightly with cream, or milk.

Sausage dressing for turkey

Make as in last recipe, substituting sausage-meat for the pork. If partially cooked before it goes into the dressing, it is more wholesome.

Oyster stuffing for turkey

Make a stuffing for turkey in the ordinary way of dried breadcrumbs seasoned with parsley, thyme and sweet marjoram, and moistened with melted butter. To this add twenty small oysters chopped fine, and with this stuff the breast of the turkey.

Or to the ordinary seasoned bread-stuffing for a turkey add two dozen small oysters, moisten the crumbs slightly with the oyster liquor, and fill the breast of the turkey with the mixture.

Chestnut stuffing for turkey

Boil one quart of the large French or Italian chestnuts, shell and peel them. Mash smooth and rub into them two tablespoonfuls of butter, and salt and white pepper to taste. Stuff the turkey with this as you would any other kind of dressing.

Fillets of turkey with rice

Skin the breast of a plump turkey, and slice away the breast. Use a sharp knife and hold it almost horizontal while at work. The slices should be nearly half an inch thick, and as nearly uniform in size as possible. Dip in beaten egg, then in salted and peppered cracker-crumbs; again in the egg, and once more in the crumbs. Set on the ice while you cook the rice.

Put one cupful of clear chicken or turkey stock into a saucepan; add a cupful of rice, one-half teaspoonful of onion juice, and the same of salt, and simmer slowly until the liquid is absorbed. When the rice is tender add two tablespoonfuls of butter; one tablespoonful of grated cheese, and season to taste. Cover and let it stand at the side of the fire until the fillets are ready. Heat five or six spoonfuls of pure salad oil slowly in a frying-pan, and when it boils, cook the fillets in it to a nice brown. Mound the savory rice in the center of a hot dish and lay the fillets about it.

When properly made this is an elegant entrée.

Roast turkey, réchauffé

When but half of a large turkey has been cut away, the remainder can be made presentable for a second serving by “braising” it thus:

Cut very thin slices of fat salt pork and cover the untouched side with them, binding in place with soft twine. Lay the turkey, cut-side downward, in your covered roaster; pour a large cupful of weak stock or gravy under the grating, put on the lid and cook one hour, slowly, basting several times with the gravy in the pan below the roast. Take up the turkey, remove the pork, dredge with flour and set back in the oven, basting it with butter to “glaze” it as soon as the flour is wet through. Shut up to brown when you have drained away the gravy.

Strain this through a colander, thicken with browned flour, add half a can of minced champignons, cook two minutes, and pour into a boat.

Scallop of turkey and oysters

Cut cold roast or boiled turkey into inch-lengths, free from skin and gristle, and put a layer in the bottom of a buttered bake-dish. Season with salt and pepper, dot with butter and cover with minced raw oysters. Season this layer, scatter fine crumbs over it, put in more seasoned turkey, and go on in this order until your materials are used up. Pour in, then, a cupful of gravy made by boiling down bones and stuffing in a quart of water until reduced to one-third the original quantity of liquid, and straining out the bones. Cover with fine crumbs, dot with butter and bake, covered, forty-five minutes, then brown. You may omit the oysters, and have a plain turkey scallop.

Or substitute chopped mushrooms for the minced oysters.

Turkey and sausage pudding

This is a good way of using yesterday’s turkey, if there is not a sightly half left to be set on again.

Into a buttered bake-dish put a layer of turkey, cut—not chopped—into half-inch lengths. Drop bits of butter over it, but no other seasoning. Cover with minced, cooked sausage-meat, and this with three or four olives chopped fine. Proceed in this way until the dish is ready for the crust. Pour in a cupful of rich gravy made of bones and stuffing; cover with a good biscuit-dough half an inch thick; cut a hole in the middle and bake, covered, three-quarters of an hour, then brown.

Ragout of turkey

Break the carcass of a roast turkey all to pieces, and chop what remnants of stuffing you have. Add a quart of cold water, and cook slowly until you have but a cupful of liquid. Strain and let it get cold. Skim off the fat, season with onion juice, kitchen bouquet, salt and paprika, and set over the fire with the turkey meat, cut into neat cubes, and a half cupful of champignons (or fresh mushrooms, if you have them). Bring quickly to a boil, thicken well with browned flour, boil up, add a glass of claret and serve. Lay sippets of fried bread around the ragout.

Boiled turkey

An undeniably tough turkey would be better boiled than roasted.

Clean, wash and fill with oyster-stuffing, for which a recipe was given a few pages back. Truss closely and sew up in a clean piece of white mosquito-netting. Lay in a pan and pour boiling water all over it from the tea-kettle, slowly, to toughen the skin and keep in the juices. Roll the turkey over and over in his hot bath, take out at the end of two minutes; put into a pot, cover deep with cold water, and heat gradually to a boil. Cook fifteen minutes to the pound, always gently. If the turkey be large and old, give him twenty minutes for each pound. Take the pot from the range, leave it covered for twenty minutes with the bird in it. Take him out, unwrap quickly, dish, wash freely with hot butter well-seasoned with salt and white pepper; pour a few spoonfuls of hot drawn butter over him, and serve. Send oyster sauce around with boiled turkey.

DUCKS

Roast ducks

Draw and clean, washing the inside in three waters, the second having a teaspoonful of baking-soda mixed with it.

Plunge into ice-cold water; leave them there for fifteen minutes; wipe well inside and out, and stuff with a forcemeat of dry crumbs seasoned with salt, pepper, onion juice and finely minced parsley.

Personally, I do not like sage in the stuffing. It gives a “medicated tang,” to my way of thinking—or tasting. Many people, however, insist upon adding the venerable simple to the forcemeat. Do not moisten the stuffing. Put it in dry, packing well. Dredge the ducks with peppered and salted flour; lay upon the grating of your roaster, pour a cupful of boiling water over them, and roast, covered, from twelve to fifteen minutes to the pound, according to age. Baste four times with the gravy from the dripping-pan. Uncover, wash with butter, dredge with flour and brown.

To make the gravy, drain off the liquor from the pan; set in ice-water to throw up the grease, strain, add the giblets minced very fine, thicken with browned flour, and boil for two minutes.

Serve with currant jelly, or apple sauce, and pass green peas with them.

Braised ducks

Young ducks are essential for this purpose. Lay three slices of fat corned ham upon the grating of your roaster, and upon them a minced onion, a stalk of celery, chopped, a sliced carrot and a tablespoonful of chopped parsley. Clean and truss, but do not stuff the ducks; lay them upon the prepared “bed,” and pour a cupful of boiling water over them. Cover the pan and let them cook, closely covered, in a moderate oven for about two hours. Take up the ducks, strain the liquor from the pan, and let it cool enough to remove all the fat. Then put it into a saucepan, and let it boil. Add one teaspoonful of lemon juice, and thicken it slightly with browned flour. Return the fowls to the sauce till hot again, then serve with the sauce poured over them.

Creole salmi of duck

Melt in a saucepan two tablespoonfuls of butter, and stir into this a half tablespoonful, each, of chopped ham, onion, celery, sweet pepper and parsley, with a tablespoonful of flour, a quarter of a teaspoonful of salt, and a half teaspoonful of paprika. Stir for three minutes, then add a cupful of consommé, two cloves and a blade of mace. Simmer for an hour; strain and add to it two cupfuls of cold duck, cut into neat pieces an inch long. Boil one minute to heat the meat thoroughly, and serve.

Garnish with sippets of fried bread.

CHICKENS

Roast chickens

Singe to get rid of down, draw and wash well, rinsing the cavity of each fowl with soda and water. Wipe and fill bodies and craws with a stuffing of dry crumbs, well-seasoned with pepper, salt and butter. Tie up the neck and bind legs and wings close to the body with soft cord or tapes.

Lay upon the grating of your covered roaster; dash a cupful of boiling water over them, cover, and roast fifteen minutes to the pound. Drain off the gravy, and set in iced water to throw up the fat. Wash the chickens over with butter, dredge with flour and brown. Clip the threads and dish. Thicken the gravy with browned flour, add the chopped giblets (previously boiled tender), boil up once and turn into a boat.

Boiled fowls

Prepare as for roasting; sew up in white netting, or in coarse lace, and souse four times in boiling water. Then put over the fire in cold, slightly salted water, covering deeply; bring slowly to the boil, and cook gently fifteen minutes to the pound.

Have ready egg-or oyster-sauce, or bread-sauce. Pour a few spoonfuls of hot butter, salted and peppered, over the chickens, the rest into a boat.

Smothered chickens

Broilers, and other really young fowls, are necessary for this dish. Split down the back when you have cleaned and washed them. Lay them out flat on the grating of your roaster, skin side down, and put into a very hot oven, covered. Have ready half a cupful of melted butter, and after five minutes baste the chickens well with this. Turn them as soon as the inside has colored slightly; baste again with butter; when nearly done dredge thickly with flour and wash again with butter. When they are brown, and the flesh is tender in the joints, they are done. Thirty minutes should be sufficient. Baste frequently, and as soon as they are browned you may add a little hot water to the butter.

Take up the chickens and keep them hot, thicken the gravy with browned flour, and boil one minute before pouring into a boat.

If the chickens are large, make a gash at each joint before cooking, and cook longer. This is sometimes called “baked broiled chicken,” sometimes, “chicken broiled in the oven.”

Broiled chicken

When you have cleaned and washed the young chickens, split down the back, so as to leave the breast in one piece. Lay in lemon juice and salad oil for half an hour, wipe lightly, pepper and salt, and lay within a well-greased broiler, skin side uppermost. Broil ten or twelve minutes to the pound, according to age and weight, turning often and never allowing it to drip upon the coals. When done, lay, breast upward, upon a hot dish, rub all over with a mixture of butter, lemon juice and minced parsley, and serve.

Pass fried potatoes with it.

Baked fried chicken

Here again you must have young chickens. Clean, wash and cut up at every joint, dividing the breast into two pieces. Lay in a marinade of salad oil and lemon juice for half an hour; drain, but do not wipe. Roll in beaten egg, then in cracker-crumbs. Repeat the process and leave on the ice for an hour. Lay, then, upon the grating of your roaster, pour a little gravy in the pan beneath, and cover closely. At the end of twenty minutes, baste with melted butter, carefully, not to disturb the crumb coating; re-cover, and at the end of half an hour more, baste plentifully with the gravy. Now let them brown. Send bread-sauce in with them, and garnish with parsley.

Braised chicken

Cover the grating of your roaster with a blanket of vegetables; a carrot, a small young turnip, an onion, a young carrot, a stalk of celery, all cut up small; a little chopped parsley, and two tablespoonfuls of finely minced salt pork. Have ready the chicken, cleaned and trussed, but not stuffed. Lay, breast upward, on the vegetables and pork. Pour a little boiling water over him from the teakettle, and set, covered, in the oven. Cover closely and cook at least twenty minutes to the pound if the chicken be young. If old, extend the time. At the end of one hour lift the cover and baste with butter, then with the water from the pan, and shut up for an hour longer. Uncover then, rub with butter, dredge with flour and brown.

Drain the gravy with the vegetables from the pan, rub through a colander into a saucepan, thicken with browned flour, boil up and serve in a boat.

Baked chicken

Clean as usual, and cover with thin slices of cold boiled ham. Corned ham is better than smoked, but either will do. Wind fine cotton cord around and around the ham to hold it in place; lay upon the grating of your roaster; pour over it a cup of boiling hot stock, scatter parsley and sprinkle onion juice upon it; cover closely to keep in the steam and cook slowly twenty-five minutes to the pound. Baste three times within the first hour. Test with a skewer or a fork. If tender, it should be unwrapped, basted with butter, dredged with flour and left uncovered to brown.

Garnish with the ham cut into strips. Thicken the gravy with browned flour, season and cook one minute.

Fricasseed chicken

Clean as usual, and dissect so thoroughly that the carver will have nothing for his knife to do in “helping” the dish. The breast and the back should be in two pieces, each, and every joint be separate from the next.

Wash, but do not wipe. Arrange the pieces, dripping wet, in a pot, scatter over each layer minced onion, parsley and chopped fat pork; season with salt and pepper. Cover the pot very closely and set it where it will not begin to boil under an hour. Increase the heat somewhat, but cook slowly throughout. Cook until done! The toughest tendons will yield to slow stewing in time.

When assured that your end is gained, take out the meat with a split spoon, heap upon a platter, the white at one end, the dark at the other, and keep hot while making the gravy. To do this, pour into a bowl, set in iced water to make the fat rise. Skim, return to the pot and add a cupful of hot milk thickened with a tablespoonful of butter rubbed into one of flour. Boil one minute—when you have added a pinch of soda. Have ready two well beaten eggs, add the boiling gravy gradually and pour over the chicken.

This is an old family recipe and warranted excellent.

Pass boiled rice with this dish.

A brown fricassee

Prepare as for ordinary fricassee. Fry half a pound of fat salt pork, sliced thin, in a pan; when they hiss and smoke, put in a large sliced onion and cook until it colors. Now dredge the pieces of chicken with flour and fry, a few pieces at a time, in the same fat, turning several times. When they begin to brown turn all into a pot with the shreds of pork and onion. Add a very small cupful of stock; cover closely and cook until done.

Have ready a brown roux, made by cooking together a great spoonful of butter with the same of browned flour. Stir in a teaspoonful of kitchen bouquet, and add to the gravy left in the pot after the chicken is dished. Cook two minutes and pour over the dished chicken. Set in the oven for three minutes before serving.

A pilau of chicken

Joint a tender broiler and leave for half an hour in a bath of salad oil and lemon juice. Drain, without wiping. Have ready three tablespoonfuls of butter, hissing hot, in a frying-pan. Fry a sliced onion in it, and then put in the chicken. Cook for ten minutes, turning often, and empty the contents of the pan into a pot with a broad bottom. Pour upon them a cupful of strained tomato sauce, and the same of weak stock—chicken or veal. Stew gently until the chicken is tender; take it up and keep in a hot colander set in the oven and covered closely. Drain off every drop of gravy, return to the fire and add three-quarters of a cupful of rice which has soaked for an hour in cold water. Cook fast until the rice is soft but not broken. Put the chicken back into the pot, mixing well with the rice, simmer three minutes and heap upon a heated platter. Sift Parmesan cheese thickly over all.

Boiled chicken stuffed with oysters

Prepare as usual for boiling or roasting, then fill body and craw with small oysters, which have been dipped in peppered and salted melted butter. Sew up in netting and boil twenty minutes to the pound if young, thirty minutes if old. Unwrap, wash over with butter and lemon juice; pour a few spoonfuls of oyster sauce upon them, the rest into a boat.

Chicken en casserole

Truss the chicken, which must be young and plump, as for roasting. Into a frying-pan on top of the range put two tablespoonfuls of butter, a sliced onion and carrot, a bay leaf and a sprig of thyme. When the vegetables are slightly browned put, with the chicken, into the casserole, add a pint of well-seasoned stock, cover the casserole and cook in the oven for three-quarters of an hour. After it has been in the oven for this length of time, drop in a dozen potato balls, or strips that have been cut from raw potatoes and sauté in hot butter, and a dozen French mushrooms. Season the gravy to taste, and leave the casserole uncovered that the chicken may brown. Ten minutes before taking from the oven, pour over the chicken two tablespoonfuls of sherry. When you take the chicken from the oven sprinkle it with minced parsley. Serve in the casserole.

Creamed stewed chicken

Cut up a fowl as for fricassee, and put over the fire in enough cold water to cover it well. Bring gradually to a gentle boil. When it begins to bubble, add a stalk of celery, some chopped parsley and two tablespoonfuls of minced onion, with a bay leaf. Simmer until tender before seasoning with salt and pepper.

Make a white roux in a frying-pan of two tablespoonfuls of butter cooked with the same quantity of flour. As soon as they are well mixed, stir into them, a teaspoonful at a time, a large cupful of strained and skimmed gravy from the pot. Have ready half a cup of cream, heated, with a pinch of soda. Add this to the thickened gravy also, very slowly, not to curdle the cream. Do not boil after the cream goes in. Arrange the chicken upon a broad platter; pour the creamed gravy over it, and garnish with dumplings cooked in the gravy left in the large pot, after the reserved cupful and the chicken are taken out.

Dumplings for chicken stew

Into a pint of flour sift a heaping teaspoonful of baking-powder, and a quarter-teaspoonful of salt, and sift the flour twice. Now rub in a tablespoonful of shortening and wet with enough milk to make a dough that can be rolled out. Roll and cut into rounds, and drop these into the boiling gravy. They should be done in ten minutes.

Mexican hot tamales (No. 1)

Boil a fowl until tender; salt while boiling. Chop very fine and season with plenty of cayenne pepper and a little garlic. Have ready a thick paste made of one cupful of corn-meal mixed with a little boiling water. Shape the meat into rolls the size of the little finger, and encase each in the corn-meal paste. Take the inner husks of Indian corn, cut off the ends, leaving the husks about six inches long, and wash them in boiling water.

Wrap each tamale in a corn husk; throw two or three Mexican peppers into the liquor in which the chicken was boiled, and cook the tamales in it for fifteen minutes.

Mexican hot tamales (No. 2)

Boil a fowl until tender; strip the meat from the bones and chop fine. Mince half a pound of seeded raisins, and a half-cupful of stoned olives, with one young red pepper chopped “exceeding fine.” Mix all well together, and stir to a paste with two cupfuls of Indian meal; wet with scalding water, season with salt, onion juice and a teaspoonful of sugar. Add more boiling water until you can stir over the fire for fifteen or twenty minutes. Then add six hard-boiled eggs minced fine; meantime lay smooth the soft inner husks of green corn, and tear some into strips for tying; lay upon two of the husks as much of the paste mixture as they will contain, wrap them about it and tie each roll with the stripped husk; drop these rolls into boiling salted water, and boil them for one hour.

If well seasoned, these are very savory.

Chop suey

(A Chinese recipe)

One-half chicken (or quarter chicken and as much fresh pork, or you can make it all pork, but chicken is much better), one large onion, a handful of mushrooms, a stalk of celery, six Chinese potatoes, a bowl of rice, a small dessert dish of Chinese sauce (which answers for salt).

When the chicken is cleaned scrape the meat from the bones and cut into strips about one and a half inches long and one-half inch wide. If pork is used, cut the strips the same length. Slice the onions thin; soak the mushrooms ten minutes in water, then remove the stems; cut the celery into pieces one and a half inches long. Chinese potatoes require no cooking; simply wash and slice.

First put chicken (or chicken and pork, or pork) into a frying-pan with fat and fry until done, but not brown or hard. Then add the sliced onions and cook a little. Add mushrooms. Now pour enough sauce over the ingredients to make them brown. Then add some water and stew a few minutes. Add celery, and after a minute add the potatoes. Finally, add a little floured water to it, making gravy of the water which stewed it.

The Chinese potatoes, mushrooms and Chinese sauce can be procured at any Chinese grocery. If the rice is not cooked properly it will detract greatly from the good taste of the chop suey. Otherwise it is a very palatable dish.

To those who do not know how to serve it I will say: Put some rice into a bowl, then add as much chop suey as you want. Mix and pour in enough of the sauce that was used in cooking it. Tea is usually taken with this dish.

Canned chicken

Joint the chicken as for fricassee, cover with cold water, and bring slowly to the boil. Simmer until tender, but not broken. When done add salt to the liquor, boil all up once, then remove the chicken and pack in wide-mouthed jars. Pack in as tightly as possible. Stand the jars at the side of the range in a pan of boiling water, boil up the chicken liquor, fill the jars to overflowing with the scalding liquid and seal immediately.

GEESE

Roast goose

Draw, clean, singe and truss as you would prepare a turkey. Always put onion and a suspicion of sage in the stuffing. Lay upon the grating of your roaster; pour a cup of boiling water over him to cicatrice the skin and keep in the juices, and roast, covered, twenty minutes to the pound if of reasonable age. If of unreasonable, cook slowly, basting often with the liquor in the dripping-pan, at least half an hour for each obdurate pound. A goose is a most uncertain quantity.

At the last, wash with butter, pepper and salt him, and dredge with flour, then brown. Drain off and skim the fat from the gravy before you season the goose. Goose-grease is valuable in the domestic pharmacopœia, but neither palatable nor wholesome.

Thicken the gravy with browned flour, add the giblets minced very fine, boil up and it is ready.

Serve apple sauce with him.

Braised goslings

Clean and truss without stuffing. Prepare a bed for them by slicing a carrot, an onion, a turnip (all younglings, like the birds), also a pared apple, and cutting a stalk of celery into bits. With these cover the grating of your roaster; lay the birds upon them, dredge with salt, pepper and a little powdered sage, when you have poured a little boiling water over them from the kettle. Cover, and roast slowly fifteen minutes to the pound. Wash with butter, dredge with flour and brown.

Take the goslings up and keep hot while you make the gravy. Rub vegetables and liquor through a colander into a bowl. Set this in cold water to throw up the grease. Skim, thicken with browned flour, adding two teaspoonfuls of tomato catsup, boil up and serve.

Serve apple sauce and green peas, or Lima beans, with the goslings which are most eatable when half-grown.

Salmi of goose

Cut the remains of a roast goose into small pieces, about an inch long and half as wide. Have ready a gravy made by boiling down the bones and toughest scraps until you have a cupful of strong stock. Add to this a carrot, a young turnip, a tomato, an apple and a stalk of celery, all cut into dice, and the vegetables parboiled for ten minutes. Simmer in the gravy until you can run them through your vegetable press. Put in the meat and cook slowly until tender. Thicken with browned flour.

GAME

The lower one descends in the social scale the less appreciation is there of game of any variety. What the plebeian terms “wild things” play a small part upon his menu—indeed, are probably altogether absent from it. He turns with a shrug from jugged hare, broiled quail and roast partridge to feast upon what is known in his set as “plain roast and boiled.” It is the epicure and the man of refined and cultivated gastronomic tastes who can appreciate good game.

Just here it may be well to remark that game need not of necessity be “high.” Some persons profess to prefer it when it has been kept so long as to be a little offensive to the olfactory organs. Whether or not this be affectation is not for us to judge. Suffice it to say that the following recipes are for the preparation of well-seasoned game, and not for viands that bear a distressing resemblance to carrion.

Saddle of venison

Rub the meat thoroughly with melted butter, and wrap it in buttered paper. Put into a covered roaster with a little water in the bottom of the pan. Allow at least twenty minutes’ roasting to every pound of meat. Half an hour before the meat is done remove the cover and the paper, and cook, basting every ten minutes with butter and a little melted currant jelly. At the end of the half-hour transfer the venison to a hot platter; strain the drippings left in the pan, add to them a cupful of boiling water, a dash of nutmeg, salt, pepper, two tablespoonfuls of butter and the same quantity of currant jelly. When the butter and the jelly are melted, pour the sauce into a gravy-boat and send to the table with the venison.

The loin, the haunch and the leg of venison may be cooked in like manner, and may be served with propriety even at a “company dinner,” although the saddle, like Abou Ben Adhem’s name, “leads all the rest.”

Venison steak

It requires about three minutes more time to broil than beefsteak, even when tender. If doubtful, lay in olive oil and lemon juice for two hours before cooking. Drain without wiping, and broil over clear hot coals, turning often to avoid scorching.

Take up, lay upon a very hot dish, sprinkle with salt and paprika and spread on both sides a mixture of butter stirred up with currant jelly. Cover and leave over hot water five minutes before it goes to table.

Roast partridges

Select plump birds, pick and clean as you would chickens, washing them out quickly in cold water. To allow them to lie in the water injures their flavor. Tie the legs and wings closely to the sides and put the birds in a covered roaster with a cup of water under them. Rub with butter, dredge with flour and cook for half an hour. Now remove the cover of the roaster and baste the birds plentifully with melted butter. Replace the cover, cook for fifteen minutes longer, uncover and brown.

Woodcock

May be roasted according to the foregoing recipe, but as it is a smaller bird than the partridge, less time will be required in the cooking. The fashionable way of cooking woodcock is what is known as “with the trail.” To prepare the woodcock, wash them and remove the crops. Fold the legs and wings close to the body and bend the head forward so that the long bill may be run, skewer-wise, through the legs and wings, thus holding them in place. Put two slices of toast in the bottom of a large, deep fireproof soup-plate, and place two birds, side by side, upon this; put a lump of butter upon each, and invert a large saucer or small plate over them. Over the opening left about the edge of the saucer lay a strip of pastry, that all air may be excluded. Set in the oven for seven minutes, then make an incision in the pastry and allow the steam to escape. Cover this small hole with a bit of fresh pastry, return the birds to the oven and cook for half an hour. Pour melted butter over the woodcock, serve on the toast on which they were cooked, and garnish with strips of the browned pastry.

As some persons do not like the “trail,” it may be well to remark that drawn woodcock may be cooked according to this recipe.

Broiled quail

Pick and draw the birds, and remove the heads and feet. Wipe out the bodies with a wet cloth, split down the back and lay open upon a gridiron. Broil on both sides, taking care that the delicate flesh is not dried into tastelessness. Lay the quail upon slices of buttered toast, put a lump of butter upon each, and sprinkle with butter and salt. Set in the oven until the butter melts, then send to the table.

Roasted quail

Clean and wash in two waters. The second should have a teaspoonful of baking-soda dissolved in it. Rinse with clear water and wipe the inside of each bird with a soft linen cloth. Put within the body of each a single fine oyster, bind legs and wings down with fine soft cotton. Have ready thin slices of fat salt pork, two for each bird. Cover the breasts with these, binding with soft string; lay upon the grating of the roaster, pour a little boiling water from the kettle upon each, and roast from twenty to twenty-five minutes. Five minutes before you take them up, remove the pork, wash with butter, dredge with flour and brown.

Cut rounds of stale bread, toast and butter them; soak with gravy from the pan, and lay a bird upon each.

You may omit the oysters and fill the birds instead with a forcemeat of seasoned crumbs. Chopped oysters also make a good stuffing, while some prefer to roast them uncovered and without the pork covering.

RABBITS AND HARES

In America “hare” and “rabbit” are interchangeable terms. The wild rabbit of the Middle States and New England is the “old hare” of the South, and one with the “Br’er Rabbit” of negro folk-lore. Hence I shall use the names indifferently in the recipes dealing with the wily coureur du bois of both regions.

Barbecued rabbit

Wash the cleaned and beheaded rabbit thoroughly, and cut it open all along the under side of the body. Make deep incisions across the backbone that the heat may penetrate to the center of the flesh. Spread the hare open on a gridiron and broil, turning frequently. When done, transfer to a hot platter, rub with butter, cover and keep warm in the oven while you make the sauce that is to accompany the game.

In a small saucepan melt three tablespoonfuls of butter, and stir into it two tablespoonfuls of vinegar, a teaspoonful of French mustard and a teaspoonful of minced parsley. When very hot pour this sauce over the rabbit. Let it stand covered in a hot dish five minutes before serving.

Roast rabbit

Leave the heads on in cleaning them. Stuff the bodies with a forcemeat of fat salt pork, minced onion and fine crumbs, well seasoned with pepper and salt. Sew them up with fine thread and lay upon thin slices of pork covering the grating of the roaster. Lay other slices of pork over them, pour over all a cupful of stock and roast one hour. Remove the pork then, wash with butter, dredge with flour and brown.

Drain off the gravy, lay the bits of bacon about the rabbit in the dish; thicken the gravy with browned floor. Boil up, add a tablespoonful of tomato catsup and a glass of claret, and take from the fire.

Casserole of rabbit

Skin, clean and cut up as for fricassee. Make two pieces of each back. Fry a dozen slices of fat salt pork in a frying-pan, then two sliced onions to a pale brown. Strain the fat back into the pan, keeping the shreds of onion and pork in a bowl by themselves. Pepper, salt and dredge with flour the jointed hare and fry, a few pieces at a time, in the same fat. Have ready parboiled about two dozen potato balls and half as many baby onions, with half a cupful of button mushrooms, canned or fresh. When the meat is well seared on both sides, lay some in the casserole, then six potato balls and two or three onions with a few mushrooms. Strew the chopped salt pork over them, season with pepper and dredge with browned flour. Proceed in this order until the casserole is full. Cover with cold stock or gravy, put on the cover, filling in the cracks where it joins the casserole with flour paste; and cook slowly three hours before opening it. If tender, then drain off the gravy carefully not to disturb the various layers. Put into a saucepan, thicken with browned flour; season with tomato catsup and salt and pepper if needed. Boil one minute; stir in a tablespoonful of tart jelly and the same of lemon juice; return to the casserole; replace the cover and leave in an open oven for five minutes before serving.

Stewed rabbits

Clean and joint as for the casserole, cutting each joint and halving the backs. Proceed in the same way, also, to fry the pork, onion and meat when you have peppered, salted and floured this last.

Then pack in a saucepan, pour in enough stock (or butter and water) barely to cover it; season with salt, pepper, sweet herbs and onion juice; cover closely and stew slowly for two hours, or until tender. Drain the gravy into another saucepan, setting that containing the meat, covered, in a larger vessel of boiling water. Thicken the gravy with a big lump of butter worked up with browned flour, a teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce and one of kitchen bouquet; pour back upon the meat and let all stand together in boiling water for five minutes.

Belgian hares

May be cooked in any of the ways described in recipes for preparing wild hares for table use.

Wild turkey

Clean and truss as you would a tame turkey, but wet the stuffing with melted butter, and while roasting the bird must be basted freely with butter. Six or seven times are not too much. The flesh, while sweet and peculiarly “gamy,” is drier than that of his domesticated brother.

As it is impossible to determine his age before shooting him, there are even chances that he will be tougher than if fattened for the table. Should this prove to be the case, steam him over boiling water for an hour before putting him into the roaster.

Send currant or grape jelly around with him instead of cranberry, and add a little lemon juice to the thickened gravy. Garnish him with “link” sausages, boiled and then fried.

Roast grouse

Here again we have dry birds. Clean, rinse out well with soda and water, then with pure water; wipe inside and out, and cover with thin slices of corned ham—more fat than lean. Bind criss-cross with soft twine or narrow tape, pour a cup of boiling water over them, and roast forty minutes, basting with the gravy in the pan three times. Take off the bacon, wash the birds with butter, dredge with flour and brown while you make the gravy.

Thicken this with browned flour, add the juice of half a lemon, boil up, pour in a small glass of claret and serve. Garnish with the ham and whole olives.

Braised wild pigeons

Clean, wash carefully; put an olive in the body of each and bind legs and wings neatly to the sides of the birds.

Fry six or eight slices of fat salt pork in the frying-pan until crisp, but not burned. Strain the fat back, lay in the pigeons and roll over and over in the boiling grease until seared on all sides. Take them up and keep hot. Add a spoonful of butter to the hot fat, and when it hisses, fry a large onion, sliced, in it. Lay the pigeons upon the grating of the roaster, pour the boiling fat and onion over them; add a cupful of weak stock; cover closely and cook steadily for three-quarters of an hour. Test the birds with a skewer or fork, and if tender wash with butter, dredge and brown. Remove to a hot dish and make the gravy.

Thicken with a brown roux, and season to taste; stir in a dozen stoned olives. “Pimolas” are nice if you can get them. If you can get fresh mushrooms, fry or broil a dozen and lay about the pigeons when they are dished.

Pass currant jelly with them.

Stewed wild pigeons

Wash well, when you have cleaned them, rinsing out with soda and water, and leave in salt and water for an hour. Chop fat corned pork fine, season with onion juice and paprika, and put a teaspoonful into the body of each bird. Truss neatly, winding the body about with soft thread, and put into a saucepan. Cover with cold water and simmer gently until tender. Take up then and lay in a fire-proof dish. Wash with butter beaten to a cream with lemon juice, onion juice and finely minced parsley. Cover and set in the oven over hot water.

Thicken the gravy with browned flour, beat in a great spoonful of currant jelly, add two dozen champignons cut into halves, boil one minute, return the pigeons to the gravy and simmer ten minutes.

SQUIRRELS

The large gray squirrel of the Southern and Middle States is reckoned by many epicures as superior to rabbits or hares in richness and delicacy of flavor. The small red roisterer who chatters in groves and coppice, and devours the eggs and young of songbirds, is secured from trapper and gunner by his worthlessness as an article of food. There is so little of him and that little is so juiceless that powder and shot would be wasted upon him.

His gray cousin-german is so toothsome when properly cooked, one wonders that there are not preserves of them near all our large towns. They are easily raised, hardy and, with little care, multiply rapidly.

Broiled squirrels

Skin, clean and lay in a marinade of salad oil and lemon juice for one hour. Drain, but do not wipe. Lay upon a gridiron, wide open, ribs downward. Broil over clear coals, turning as they begin to drip. When done, remove to a hot water dish, wash with butter creamed with lemon juice and seasoned with pepper and salt. Cover and let them stand five minutes before serving.

Stewed squirrels

Clean, lay in salt and water half an hour, then joint, cutting the back into two pieces. Put into a saucepan, sprinkle with minced onion, and cover with cold water. Cover closely and stew one hour before adding four tablespoonfuls of fat salt pork minced fine. Cook for another hour, or until tender. Take up the squirrels and keep hot. Stir into the gravy a great spoonful of butter rolled in flour. Have ready in another vessel half a cupful of cream, heated with a pinch of soda, into which has been beaten a raw egg. Pour the gravy over the squirrels, simmer one minute, add the cream and take at once from the fire.

Roast squirrels

Clean, wash and lay for one hour in salad oil and lemon juice. Have ready a large cupful of bread-crumbs soaked in enough cream to moisten them, add a cupful of minced mushrooms and pepper, salt and onion juice to your taste. Fill the animals with this stuffing, sew up and truss, rub all over with butter, lay in a baking-dish and nearly cover with weak stock. When done, make a piquante sauce from the gravy in the pan by adding the juice of half a lemon, a teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce, paprika and salt to taste. Boil up and pour into a boat.

Virginia stew of squirrels

Clean, wash and joint three squirrels. Lay in salt and water for half an hour. Put then into a broad pot in this order: First, a layer of chopped fat salt pork, then one of minced onions; next, of parboiled potatoes, sliced thin; then follow successive layers of green corn cut from the cob, Lima beans and the squirrels. Proceed in this order, seasoning each layer with black, and more lightly, with cayenne pepper, until all the materials are used up. Cover with four quarts of boiling water, and put a tight lid on the pot. Stew gently for three hours before adding a quart of tomatoes, peeled and cut into bits, two teaspoonfuls of white sugar and a tablespoonful of salt. Cook an hour more; stir in four tablespoonfuls of butter, cut up in two of flour, boil three minutes and turn into a tureen.

This is the genuine recipe, over a century old, for making the far-famed “Brunswick stew” eaten in perfection at Old Virginia races, “barbecues” and political dinners.

Chickens, lamb and veal may be used in place of squirrels, also “old hares.”

Barbecued squirrels

Broil, as already directed, lay upon a hot dish, ribs downward, and cover with a sauce made by heating together four tablespoonfuls of vinegar with two of butter; a teaspoonful, each, of sugar and made mustard, a half teaspoonful, each, of salt and pepper. Boil one minute; pour over the squirrels, and let them stand, covered, ten minutes before serving.

GAME PIES

Squirrel pie

Clean and joint the squirrels, cutting the backs into three pieces, each. Put six slices of fat salt pork into a saucepan, fry three minutes, then put in the squirrels and fry to a light brown in this fat, adding, as the meat begins to yellow, a chopped onion, some chopped parsley and a cupful of mushrooms; sprinkle over them two tablespoonfuls of flour; add a pint of stock and simmer slowly until the meat is tender, seasoning, at the last, with salt and pepper. Boil one minute; pour over the squirrels, and let them cool before putting into bakedish; pour in a gravy formed by stewing, add a few more mushrooms and a couple of hard-boiled eggs cut in slices; cover with a good crust and bake one hour.

Rabbit pie

Clean, wash and joint, cutting each back into three pieces. Leave in salt and water for half an hour; wipe, and rub well with lemon juice, salt and pepper; where the meat is thick, make several cuts with a knife that the seasoning may penetrate. Lay them in a saucepan, add cold water to cover, then put in a bay-leaf, eight peppercorns, a bit of mace and two sliced onions. Cook slowly till the meat is tender. Have ready a buttered bakedish and when the meat is cool lay within this, alternately with sliced boiled eggs, a few minced olives and a dozen tiny young onions which have been parboiled. Thicken with browned flour the liquor in which the rabbit was stewed, and add more salt if needed. Strain it over the meat, using enough to make it quite moist. Cover the dish with a rich pastry or baking-powder crust, make a wide cut in the center, and bake, covered, half an hour, then brown.

Squirrel or rabbit pot-pie

Proceed as with the preceding recipes, until you are ready to pack in the dish. Add, then, three potatoes parboiled and sliced, and tiny dumplings, like marbles, made of a good biscuit dough; cut round and boil ten minutes in the gravy before this goes into the pie.

Pie of small birds

I wish I could preface the recipe with the information that English sparrows are available for this purpose. If not suppressed they are likely to lessen the supply of edible small birds and of warblers of all kinds to a degree inconceivable by those who have not watched their achievements in this line.

Blackbirds, ricebirds and snipe may be used in families or as neighbors in the manufacture of our dish.

Clean and stew the birds for half-an-hour in weak stock. Let them get perfectly cold in this gravy; take out, put an oyster in the body of each. Arrange around the inside of your bake-dish, the necks all against the rim, the tails pointing toward the center. Put a bit of butter upon each breast and sprinkle very finely minced salt pork over all. Thicken the gravy with browned flour, season well and pour upon the birds. Cover with a good crust, cut a slit in the middle, and bake, covered, half-an-hour. Then brown.

Quail pie

Joint as you would a chicken for fricassee, cover the baking-dish bottom with thin slices of streaky bacon, first partially boiled to extract the salt; cover with a good white sauce, a few mushrooms, or a little mushroom catsup, and some chopped parsley, then with puff-paste. Cut a slit in the middle; bake, covered, and slowly, one hour. Uncover and brown.

A combination game pie

Wild pigeons and quails, ricebirds, snipe, woodcock—in fact, any small edible birds—may be blended in this. Clean the birds and, if tough, stew them in weak stock. If they are large—that is, too large for a whole bird to be served for one portion—cut them in halves through the breastbone. If the birds are young and tender they may be browned in hot butter; first dredging them with flour, instead of parboiling. Arrange them in a deep, round baking-dish with the breasts up and the feet all pointing toward the center.

Make a gravy of the stock in which they were parboiled, season well with salt, pepper, onion juice and the juice of half a lemon; thicken with a roux of butter and browned flour. Fill in the central space left by the feet of the game with mushrooms, a cupful of small drained oysters, two kidneys, cut into quarters, half a cupful of pimolas, or with plain olives, stoned, and three hard-boiled eggs minced fine with one dozen button onions, parboiled. Pour the rich gravy over all. Cover with a good puff-paste; make a slit in the middle and bake, covered, half-an-hour, then brown.

Pigeon pie

Clean and joint the pigeons and wipe each piece with a damp cloth. Sprinkle with pepper and salt, and sauté in shallow dripping in which an onion has first been fried. Grease a pudding dish and put a layer of the fried pigeons in the bottom; cover this with minced salt pork, sliced hard-boiled eggs, and the minced pigeon giblets. Each piece of pigeon should have been rolled in browned flour before going into the dish. Arrange the layers as directed, until the dish is full—having the top layer of the minced salt pork. Pour a cupful of good stock over all; cover the pie with puff-paste; cut a slit in this to allow the steam to escape, and bake in a steady oven for an hour.

Venison pie

Stew gently until tender some small pieces of fresh venison, and some slices of sweet potato; season with salt and pepper. Put into a baking-dish and cover with a paste made from the drippings from a roast of venison, allowing one-half pound of fat to one pound of flour.

DINNER VEGETABLES

THE ARISTOCRATIC ASPARAGUS

A writer upon dietetics says—whether truthfully or not each of us can judge for himself—“Asparagus has nothing plebeian about it, as has the onion, the potato, the cabbage, turnip or parsnip. It is essentially a gentleman’s vegetable, and is an aristocrat from tip to stalk.”

It is becoming more and more customary to serve certain vegetables as a course by themselves, instead of with the meat and its attendant vegetables, as in days gone by. The housekeeper, who is often sorely perplexed as to what entrée she shall serve with a dinner, eagerly welcomes this custom. Asparagus, artichokes and cauliflower may be sent in as separate courses.

Boiled asparagus

Cut off the tough lower part of your asparagus-stalks and save them to stew for flavoring your next soup. Lay the asparagus in cold water for fifteen minutes, then tie carefully into a bundle with a piece of soft string. Put into a saucepan large enough for them to lie at full length. Cover with salted, boiling water and boil until tender. If young, twenty minutes should suffice. Drain carefully and lay neatly on a hot dish. Pass drawn butter with the asparagus.

Asparagus on toast

Cut the woody part from a bunch of asparagus, and with a soft piece of twine tie it into a loose bundle. Have ready, boiling, enough salted water to cover the asparagus. The saucepan containing this should be large enough to allow the asparagus to lie at full length. Boil until tender, but not until the green tips begin to break. Spread upon a platter crustless slices of buttered toast; drain the asparagus, and lay it in a neat pile upon the toast. Of course the string must be removed from the bundle. Just before sending to the table pour a white sauce over the asparagus. An excellent plan is to pour this sauce only over the green ends of the stalks, leaving the white ends uncovered, that the fingers need not be soiled in handling the vegetable.

Baked asparagus

Cut the tender halves of the asparagus-stalks into inch-lengths. Cook for fifteen minutes in salted boiling water, then drain. Grease a pudding dish and put in the bottom a layer of the asparagus. Sprinkle this with fine bread-crumbs, bits of butter, pepper and salt and small pieces of hard-boiled egg. Now put in another layer of asparagus, more crumbs, etc., and so on until the dish is full. The last layer must be sprinkled with crumbs and bits of butter. Bake for half an hour, and serve in the dish in which it is cooked.

Asparagus tips cachés

Cut the tops from square breakfast-rolls, and scoop the crumbs from the insides, leaving box-like crusts. Butter the outside and inside of these hollowed rolls and set them with the tops beside them in the oven to dry and brown lightly.

Boil asparagus tips tender in salted water and drain. Have ready on the stove a white sauce made by cooking together a tablespoonful of butter and one of flour, and adding to them a cup and a half of milk. Stir into this sauce the asparagus tips, and pepper and salt to taste. Fill the hollowed rolls with the mixture, replace the tops and set in the oven just long enough to become very hot.

Creamed asparagus

Reject the lower halves of your asparagus stalks and boil the upper halves until they are very tender. Then drain and chop. Cook together a tablespoonful of butter and two of flour until they bubble, pour on them a pint of milk with a bit of soda dissolved in it. Stir until smooth and of the consistency of cream, add the minced asparagus, with salt and pepper to taste. Set this mixture aside until cool, then beat into it three well-whipped eggs and two tablespoonfuls of cream. Pour into a greased pudding dish and bake covered for twenty minutes; uncover and brown.

Asparagus á la vinaigrette (No. 1)

Boil the asparagus according to the directions given in the preceding recipe. When done, drain and set aside until cold, then place in the ice-box until wanted. Lay upon a chilled platter and pour over the stalks the following dressing:

Put three tablespoonfuls of salad oil into a bowl and stir into it a tablespoonful of vinegar, a saltspoonful, each, of salt and sugar, and a dash of paprika.

The asparagus and the dressing that accompany it should be served very cold.

Asparagus á la vinaigrette (No. 2)

Cook as directed in recipe for boiled asparagus. While the vegetable is cooking make a hot French dressing by putting together in a saucepan over the fire half-a-dozen tablespoonfuls of salad oil, two of vinegar, two teaspoonfuls of French mustard, half a teaspoonful of sugar, salt and pepper to taste. When the asparagus is tender, drain, lay it in a deep dish, and pour over it the hot dressing. Cover and set aside to cool, then stand in the ice-chest for an hour or two before serving.

Asparagus loaf

Cook three cupfuls of the asparagus tips until tender, then drain. Put into a saucepan two tablespoonfuls of butter and one tablespoonful of flour; cook together one minute. Add one cupful of milk, one-half teaspoonful of salt and one-fourth teaspoonful of paprika. Add the milk slowly, stirring all the time, and let it cook five minutes. Take from the fire and add four well-beaten eggs, one cupful of asparagus tips and a teaspoonful of chopped parsley. Line a well-buttered baking dish with the remainder of the asparagus tips; pour in the asparagus and sauce, and cook with the dish in water in the oven for fifteen minutes. Serve with egg sauce.

ARTICHOKES

The American artichoke, indigenous to this country, has received, nobody living can say why, the absurd name of “Jerusalem artichoke.” It is a tuber, resembling in appearance a turnip when cooked, but far more agreeable in flavor.

The Italian artichoke articiocco was introduced into this country some years ago, and speedily became a fashionable edible. The part eaten is the succulent bud, cut before it expands into a flower.

Boiled Jerusalem artichokes

Wash the artichokes thoroughly, pare and slice or trim them into an oblong shape. Cook in slightly salted boiling water until tender, but not broken, and pour melted butter over them. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and when turned into the dish, add a sprinkling of minced parsley and a few drops of lemon juice.

Baked Jerusalem artichokes

Wash and pare the artichokes, and cook tender. Then cut into neat slices. Put them into a baking-dish, sprinkle on a layer of grated Parmesan cheese and cover with a white or cream sauce. Sprinkle buttered crumbs over the top and bake until the crumbs are brown.

Boiled Italian artichokes

Cut off the stems, put the vegetables into boiling salted water, and boil for half-an-hour. Cut in half from top to bottom and serve half-an-one to each person. Pass with them a Hollandaise sauce. The stems are stripped off by the person eating the artichoke, the soft end dipped in the sauce and eaten. The fuzzy part should be scraped off and the bottom of the artichoke, which is really the most delicate portion, eaten with a fork.

Italian artichokes with sauce tartare

Remove the stems and outer leaves from the artichokes, and with a sharp knife remove the cores or centers. Lay these in cold, salted water for half-an-hour, drain and put into a saucepan with enough salted, boiling water to cover them. Cook until tender, drain thoroughly, put into a heated vegetable dish, and pour over them a sauce made of a half-cupful of melted butter, into which you have beaten a teaspoonful of lemon juice, a few drops of onion juice, a saltspoonful of French mustard, a pinch, each, of salt and paprika, and a teaspoonful of salad oil. Beat this sauce all together over the fire, remove from the range, and stir it, very slowly, into one beaten egg. Unless this is done gradually, the hot liquid will curdle the egg. Beat hard for a minute before pouring over the artichokes.

Fried Italian artichokes

Cut off the leaves and trim away the wool from the stalks. Cook tender, but not until broken, in salted water; drain and set on ice until perfectly cold. Make a good batter of half a cupful of flour sifted twice with a quarter teaspoonful of baking-powder and a little salt, wet up with half a cupful of milk into which has been beaten one egg.

Cut each artichoke, perpendicularly, into halves, sprinkle with salt and pepper, dip into the batter and fry in deep cottolene or other fat. Drain off every drop of fat and serve hot with a tart sauce.

BANANAS

Bananas sautés

Peel, cut lengthwise into thirds; roll in flour, slightly salted and peppered. Heat two tablespoonfuls of butter, or clarified dripping in a frying-pan; put in the bananas and fry to a golden brown, turning several times. Serve upon buttered toast.

Bananas fried whole

Peel and cut off the tip at each end; sprinkle with pepper and salt, roll in beaten egg, then in fine crumbs, again in egg, and again crumb them. Leave them upon ice for an hour or two, and fry in deep, boiling cottolene or other fat to a delicate brown. Serve very hot.

Baked bananas

Strip off one-third of the skin of each, and with a silver knife loosen the skin around the fruit. Arrange in a baking-pan with the stripped side uppermost. On each banana place a quarter teaspoonful of butter, sprinkle with one teaspoonful of sugar and a half teaspoonful of water for each banana, and bake about twenty minutes.

Scalloped bananas

Peel, slice and arrange in a buttered bake-dish, alternately with fine crumbs. Sprinkle each layer with salt, pepper and butter, also with a little cream. Let the uppermost layer be crumbs, well-buttered and wet with cream. Bake, covered, half-an-hour, then brown.

BEANS

Boston baked beans (No. 1)

Soak a quart of beans in cold water all night. In the morning soak them for two hours in warm water. Drain, put into a pot with enough water to cover them, and bring them slowly to a boil. When they are tender, turn then into a deep bake-dish; first pouring off the surplus water. Cut gashes in a half-pound piece of parboiled salt pork, and place this in the center of the dish. To a pint of the water in which the beans were boiled add a gill of molasses and a saltspoonful of French mustard. Mix well, and pour this over the beans and pork. Cover the dish and bake in a steady oven for six hours.

Boston baked beans (No. 2)

Wash a quart of beans, let them stand over-night in a gallon of cold water. In the morning, pour off the water and wash again. Then place in a pot, cover with plenty of water, and set over the fire.

Have the pork all fat if possible, unless lean is preferred. Score the rind deeply. Put the beans and pork over the fire and simmer until the beans begin to crack open, not any longer. Drain all the water from them and rinse again with cold water. Put about half the beans in the pot, and then the pork, rind-side up. Next, put in the remainder of the beans. Mix a teaspoonful, each, of mustard and sugar with pepper, and a great spoonful of molasses with a pint of boiling water and pour over the beans. Cover the pot, set in a slow oven and bake ten hours, adding boiling water whenever the beans look dry. Do not have the fire so hot that the water on the beans bubbles, and have no more water than will barely come to the top of the beans. Use an earthen pot.

New Jersey baked beans

Soak and boil the beans in the same way as before described—only change the water in which they are boiled an hour before they are done—and boil the pork with the beans; a slice of onion and a tiny piece of bay-leaf may be added to the first water. When they are ready for baking fill a shallow basin with them; place the pork in the center with the scored rind exposed, with one or two tablespoonfuls of molasses, some white pepper, and one tablespoonful of butter in small bits sprinkled all over the beans; bake, covered, about two hours. Enough of the water in which they were boiled should be poured in to make them soft, and about an hour before they are done one cupful of sweet cream, heated, with a pinch of soda, may be poured in upon the beans, loosening them with a fork that the cream may soak in.

Sunnybank baked beans

Soak over night and boil tender as already directed. Parboil half a pound of pork and chop fine. Have ready a large cupful of strained tomato sauce, well seasoned with onion juice, butter, salt and a good deal of sugar. Put a layer of minced pork in the bottom of your dish; then one of beans, next tomato sauce. Proceed in this way until the dish is full; add a very little hot water; cover closely and bake two hours, then brown.

It will be found very good, a vast improvement upon the conventional pork and baked beans. The top layer should be of tomato sauce.

Baked beans with tomato sauce

Soak white beans over night in cold water, and in the morning put over the fire in boiling water, slightly salted. Cook until tender. Drain and put into a deep dish. Cover with a tomato sauce, made by cooking together a tablespoonful, each, of butter and flour until they bubble, and then pouring upon them a cupful of strained tomato liquor. Season to taste, and rather highly, unless you have previously added salt and pepper to the beans. Stir the sauce in with these and bake, closely covered, for two hours.

Beans sautés

Soak beans over night and boil until tender. Drain very dry and sprinkle with salt. Put two tablespoonfuls of butter into a frying pan, and when this has melted fry in it a large onion sliced. When the onion has browned remove it with a perforated spoon, and stir into the butter a tablespoonful of minced parsley. Now add the beans and turn them over and over in the hissing butter until very hot. Sprinkle lightly with salt (if needed) and pepper. Turn into a colander, then into a hot dish.

Stewed beans

Soak over night. In the morning parboil for one hour, drain, put them over the fire in enough weak stock to cover them and stew two hours, slowly. For the last hour set in a pan of boiling water to prevent scorching. All the stock should be absorbed, yet the beans should not be dry. At the end of two hours stir in a sauce made of one tablespoonful of butter, one teaspoonful of mustard and the same of molasses, with twice as much onion juice and the juice of half a lemon, mixed in half a cupful of boiling water. Leave, covered, upon the fire for ten minutes (still in boiling water) and turn out.

Lima beans

Shell, lay in cold water for half an hour, and cook half an hour in boiling water, a little salted. Drain, dish, toss about over a lump of butter, and salt and pepper to your liking.

Lima beans with white sauce

Cook as directed in last recipe, but instead of dishing after draining, return to the saucepan with a good white sauce into which you have stirred a little chopped parsley. Simmer three minutes and serve.

Boiled string beans

You can not destroy this dish more effectually than by “stringing” the beans in the slovenly manner practised by at least one-half of American cooks, or those who represent the American kitchen. The neatest way of ridding beans of backbones is to pare each the whole length with a sharp knife. The flavor is more delicate when this is done.

Lay a handful of the pods upon a board with the ends even, and cut through all into inch-pieces. Wash and cook in boiling salted water until tender. Drain, season with butter, salt and pepper, and serve.

Full-grown beans demand much more time for cooking than young. Underdone beans have a rank taste and are unwholesome.

Steamed cream string beans

By some they are called “butter beans,” by others “German wax beans.” They are sweeter and richer than the ordinary green string bean. Put into cold water for half an hour after paring the fiber lightly from each side of the pods, taking care not to touch the beans inside. Then, with a sharp knife cut them into slanting slivers, three for each bean, and each a little over an inch long. Wash and put the dripping beans into a saucepan containing a great spoonful of warmed (not hot) butter, pepper and salt to taste. Add three tablespoonfuls of warm water. Cover closely, and bring slowly to a gentle simmer. Now and then shake the saucepan upward to make sure the beans are not sticking to the bottom, but do not open it, as everything depends upon the steam. Young beans may be tender in forty minutes. Large or stale will not be fit to eat under one hour. Do not put more than three tablespoonfuls of water for a quart of beans, and dish without draining.

String beans of any kind are nicer when cooked in this way than any other.

Savory string beans

String and cut the beans diagonally as just directed, and boil tender in salted water. Have ready a roux of butter and flour, and mix it with half a cupful of gravy of any kind. Stir until smooth, seasoning with pepper, salt and a little onion. Strain this sauce over the beans and cook for five minutes longer.

BEETS

Boiled beets

As the preliminary process to all dishes composed of beets is boiling it is well to learn exactly how this should be done. Too often the once ruddy vegetable is allowed to “bleed” out its juices until it has a pallid and uninviting appearance.

Wash the beets, rubbing them carefully with the palm of the hand to dislodge dirt, but not so hard as to abrade the tender skin. Drop into fresh cold water as you cleanse them. Put into a saucepan of salted boiling water and cook for an hour. Drain, scrape, slice and serve in a deep dish with melted butter poured over them. They are best when a tablespoonful of hot vinegar is added to the melted butter.

Creamed young beets

Cook with two inches of the stem on to prevent bleeding, and do not clip the tap root. Have ready a cupful of cream heated with a pinch of soda. Rub the skins off, top and tail the beets, and slice them thin into the cream, setting the saucepan containing it in boiling water. When all are in stir in a tablespoonful of butter rubbed into one of flour, pepper, salt and a teaspoonful, each, of sugar and onion juice. Simmer two minutes to cook the flour, and dish.

BRUSSELS SPROUTS

Boiled Brussels sprouts

Remove the outer leaves and lay the sprouts in cold salted water for three-quarters of an hour. Drain and boil in salted water for about fifteen minutes, or until tender. Try with a fork, and if they are tender, but not soft, all through, they are done. Drain and lay in a hot dish and pour over them a half cupful of melted butter in which has been stirred a half saltspoonful, each, of salt and pepper. Serve very hot.

Brussels sprouts au gratin

Boil the sprouts tender in salted water, drain and cut each sprout in four pieces. Cook together a tablespoonful, each, of butter and flour, and when they are blended pour upon them a scant pint of milk. When you have a smooth sauce stir the quartered sprouts into this. Season to taste, turn all into a greased pudding-dish, strew thickly with crumbs and bits of butter, and bake to a light brown. Serve in the dish in which they were baked.

CABBAGE

Those who know cabbage as it is served with the old-fashioned “boiled dinner” have no conception of the many delightful changes of which this so-called plebeian vegetable is susceptible. In summer, when it is young and tender, it is particularly good, and may be so cooked that it is as palatable and delicate to the taste as its refined cousin, the cauliflower. Have the water boiling when the vegetable is thrust into it, head down, and keep it at a hard boil until done. Some housekeepers claim that a teaspoonful of vinegar added to the water will dissipate the obnoxious odor.

Savory boiled cabbage

Cut a firm cabbage into four parts and reject the outer leaves. Wash carefully in two waters, taking care to dislodge any insects that may be concealed between the leaves. Have a large pot of boiling water on the range; dissolve in a tablespoonful of salt and a quarter of a teaspoonful of baking soda. Plunge the cabbage into this, and cook, uncovered, for fifteen minutes, drain, and fill the pot with more boiling water, adding salt as you do so. Cook the cabbage until tender, always uncovered, turn into a colander, press out all the water and set aside to get very cold. Chop fine and season with salt, white pepper, and a dash of tomato catsup. Heat in a saucepan a large cupful of well-seasoned soup stock, turn the cabbage into this and toss and turn until very hot. Now add a large spoonful of melted butter, and a teaspoonful of lemon juice, and serve.

Baked cabbage

Boil cabbage tender in two waters, drain and set aside until cold, then chop fine. Mix together two beaten eggs, two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, two tablespoonfuls of cream, a saltspoonful of salt and a dash of paprika. Stir this into the chopped cabbage and put it into a buttered pudding-dish. Sprinkle breadcrumbs over the top and bake until brown.

Fricasseed cabbage

Boil and chop, as in the last recipe, and keep hot while you cook together in a saucepan a tablespoonful of butter and one (heaping) of flour; when they bubble pour upon them a cupful of hot milk. Stir to a smooth sauce; turn into this the chopped cabbage, cook for a minute, season and serve.

Stuffed cabbage

Choose a fresh, firm cabbage. Lay in cold water for half an hour, and boil in salted water for ten minutes. Remove, drain, and allow it to get very cold. Meanwhile make a forcemeat of a cupful of boiled rice and the same quantity of chopped cold chicken with half a cupful of minced ham. Work to a paste and season. Stand the cabbage on the stem-end and carefully open the leaves, beginning at the center. Fill the spaces between the layers of leaves with the forcemeat; close the cabbage upon itself, tie it up firmly in a piece of coarse netting, put it gently into a pot of boiling salted water, and cook almost two hours. Take from the water, remove the netting very carefully, put the cabbage on a platter and pour a rich white sauce over it. If properly prepared, this is a delicious dish.

Baked cabbage with tomato sauce

Boil a cabbage in two waters, drain, cut it fine, and season with salt and pepper. Grease a pudding-dish and put a layer of the cabbage in the bottom of it; cover this layer with tomato sauce and sprinkle with a few fine crumbs. Proceed in this way until the dish is full, having the last layer of crumbs. Bake for half an hour.

Shredded cabbage and cheese

Cut a cabbage into shreds and boil in salted water until tender. Drain and stand in a heated colander at the side of the range. Cook together two teaspoonfuls of butter and two of flour, and pour upon them a pint of hot milk. Season with salt and pepper, and stir in three heaping tablespoonfuls of grated cheese. Cook, stirring constantly, for just a minute. Turn the cabbage into a deep vegetable dish and pour the cheese sauce over it.

Cold slaw

Wash a cabbage and lay it in cold water for half an hour. With a sharp knife cut it into strips, or shreds. As you cut these drop them into iced water. When ready to serve, drain in a colander, shaking hard to dislodge the moisture, and pour over all a dressing made by rubbing the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs to a paste with one beaten egg, a half cupful of salad oil, the juice of a lemon, mustard, salt and pepper to taste.

Cabbage cream salad

Prepare as in the preceding recipe, only cutting the shreds into inch-lengths before dropping them in iced water. Beat a pint of cream very stiff. Drain the cabbage, sprinkle lightly with salt, and stir it into the whipped cream, turning and tossing until it is thoroughly coated with the white foam. Serve at once with crackers and cheese. The cabbage should be tender and crisp for this dish.

An Italian dish of cabbage

Boil a cabbage in two waters; drain; when cold, chop coarsely, and season with salt and pepper. Butter a pudding-dish, put a layer of the cabbage in this; sprinkle with buttered crumbs and a teaspoonful of grated Parmesan cheese. Put in more cabbage, more crumbs and cheese, and, when the dish is nearly full, pour a cup of seasoned beef stock over all. Bake for half an hour.

Scalloped cabbage

Boil a head of cabbage in two waters; drain; let it cool, and chop fine. Cover the bottom of a baking-dish with bread-crumbs; scatter over these tiny morsels of butter, seasoned with pepper, salt and a few drops of onion juice; spread with a layer, an inch thick, of the minced cabbage. Season this layer with salt, butter-bits, and a sharp dash of lemon juice. Repeat the crumbs, then a second stratum of cabbage, a cupful of boiling milk, and cover all thickly with bread-dust, well seasoned. Sift grated cheese upon the top, and bake, covered, until bubbling hot. Uncover and brown. You can use weak stock in place of milk if you have it. Boil a pinch of soda in the milk. An excellent family dish.

CARROTS

Stewed carrots

Wash, scrape off the skin, cut into dice and leave in cold water for half an hour. Put, then, into the inner compartment of a double boiler with no water upon them except that which clings to them after washing. Cover closely, and cook tender. An hour should be long enough for this. Turn into a deep dish, pepper and salt, and cover with a good white sauce.

Mashed carrots

Scrape and slice carrots, and boil tender in two waters. Drain, rub through a colander, and mash with a potato-beetle. Beat light with a tablespoonful of melted butter, add salt and pepper, and serve very hot.

Carrots sautés

Boil young carrots, not longer than your forefinger, for eight minutes in salted water. Rub and scrape off the skins; cover with boiling water and cook tender. Drain, lay for a minute in cold water until you can handle them, and cut each carrot in two, each half into strips. Heat a tablespoonful of butter in a frying-pan with a half teaspoonful of white sugar, a little salt and pepper, and when it boils lay in the strips of carrot. Cook three minutes after the bubble recommences; sprinkle with chopped parsley, toss about for one minute, drain and serve hot.

Carrot croquettes

Wash and scrape and cook until very tender. Mash smooth and beat to a paste with the yolk of a raw egg, a good spoonful of softened butter, pepper and salt to taste. Let this paste get cold and stiff before making into croquettes or balls. Roll in beaten egg, then in fine crumbs; set on ice for an hour and fry in deep, boiling cottolene or other fat. Drain and serve hot.

CAULIFLOWER

Cauliflower boiled whole

Choose a fine, white head for this purpose. Put it, flower downward, into ice-cold salted water for half an hour. Tie, then, in coarse cheese-cloth or netting, and plunge, head foremost, into a pot of boiling salted water. Cook half an hour, drain, take off the cloth and dish. Pour a rich white sauce over it.

Cauliflower au gratin

Cut a large cauliflower into eight pieces and boil tender in salted water. Drain, lay in a deep pudding-dish, stems down, and pour over it a plain white sauce into which two hard-boiled eggs have been chopped. Sprinkle with bread-crumbs and bake to a light brown.

Cauliflower with tomato sauce

Boil a whole cauliflower for ten minutes in fresh water; drain and boil until tender in salted water. Put into a vegetable dish, flower side up, rub thoroughly with butter, then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Last of all, pour over the cauliflower a pint of tomato sauce.

CELERY

Stewed celery (No. 1)

Wash the celery, cut into half-inch bits, and stew tender in slightly-salted boiling water. Drain this off and add a cupful of milk. Cook for three minutes, stir in a teaspoonful of butter rubbed into a teaspoonful of flour, boil up once, season to taste, and serve.

Stewed celery (No. 2)

A bunch of indifferent celery may be utilized for this dish. I have rescued stalks frosted accidentally through the cook’s carelessness, laid them in ice-cold water for two hours, prepared them as I shall direct, and presented as palatable food that whose end would otherwise have been the garbage pail.

After stewing tender and draining, transfer to another saucepan in which you have heated a cupful of milk (with a pinch of soda in it), thicken it with a tablespoonful of butter rubbed in a teaspoonful of flour, and stir to a boil. Mix the celery well with this, season with pepper and salt, heat all together for one minute, and dish.

Brown stew of celery

Wash and cut into small bits a bunch of celery. Put it into a saucepan and pour over it a pint of cleared beef stock. Stew until tender. Drain the celery and set aside while you return to the saucepan the stock in which it was cooked. Thicken this with a paste made by rubbing a heaping teaspoonful of browned flour into one teaspoonful of butter. When you have a smooth brown sauce, stir in the celery, and when this is very hot, season and serve.

Savory celery

Scrape, cut into inch-lengths, lay in cold water for an hour; cook tender in salted hot water. Drain, and return the celery to the saucepan. Have ready heated a cupful of weak stock, or gravy, strained through a cloth, seasoned with paprika, salt and onion juice, then thickened with a tablespoonful of browned flour rolled in the same quantity of butter. Pour this over the celery, heat all together for one minute, and dish.

The outer green stalks of celery may be used thus, and more satisfactorily than a tyro might think possible.

Fried celery

Scrape and boil as directed in foregoing recipes; drain, and spread upon a cloth in a very cold place. They must be dry and firm before you dip each piece in beaten egg, then in seasoned bread or cracker-dust. Set again in the cold for an hour, and fry in deep cottolene or other fat to a golden brown. Drain in a hot colander and serve.

Stewed celery roots

Wash and scrape the roots of celery and stew in salted water until very tender. Drain and cut into small dice. Have ready in a saucepan a pint of hot milk, thicken this with a teaspoonful of flour rubbed into one of butter, turn a cupful (heaping) of the celery dice into this sauce, stir until very hot, season to taste and serve.

Besides being a palatable dish when thus cooked, celery root is an admirable nervine, and therefore indicated as beneficial diet for brain-workers and nervous invalids.

GREEN CORN

Boiled corn

Strip husk and silk from the ear and put over the fire in plenty of boiling water, slightly salted. Boil hard for twenty minutes if the corn be young and fresh.

Send to table wrapped in a napkin.

Stewed corn

Cut from the cob with a sharp knife; put over the fire in just enough boiling salted water to cover it. Stew gently ten minutes; turn off the water and add a cupful of hot milk (with a pinch of soda in it). Cook ten minutes more, stir in a tablespoonful of butter rubbed up with a teaspoonful of flour; boil one minute and turn into a hot, deep dish.

Green corn pudding (No. 1)

Grate the grains from twelve ears of corn; beat into the corn the whipped yolks of four eggs until thoroughly incorporated; stir in now two tablespoonfuls of melted butter and one tablespoonful of powdered sugar; salt to taste, and add the whites of the eggs whipped to a froth. Lastly stir in a tiny pinch of soda; turn into a buttered pudding-dish and bake, covered, half an hour. Uncover, brown quickly, and send to table at once.

If this delicious “soufflé” be made of canned corn, chop it very fine.

Green corn pudding (No. 2)

Mix together two cupfuls of grated corn, two beaten eggs, a half pint of milk, a pinch of soda, a tablespoonful of melted butter and a tablespoonful of sugar. Grease a shallow baking-dish, turn the mixture into this, sprinkle with buttered crumbs, cover and bake for half an hour, then uncover and brown.

Green corn pudding (No. 3)

Grate the kernels from twelve ears of corn and stir into them the beaten yolks of six eggs and a tablespoonful, each, of melted butter and granulated sugar. Now beat in a quart of milk, a half teaspoonful of salt and, last of all, the stiffened whites of the six eggs. Turn into a greased pudding-dish and bake, covered, for half an hour, then uncover and brown.

This, when properly made and baked in a quick oven, is a veritable soufflé and incomparable.

Corn fritters

Cut from the ears a pint of sweet corn. Beat together a cupful of milk, two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, one egg, whipped light, salt to taste and enough flour to make a thin batter. Into this stir the grated corn. Beat hard and cook as you would griddle-cakes upon a soapstone griddle. They are a palatable accompaniment to roast chicken.

Green corn balls

Grate enough green corn from the cob to make two cupfuls; into this stir a beaten egg, a teaspoonful, each, of sugar and melted butter, with salt to taste. Add enough flour to enable you to form the mixture into balls, roll these in flour and fry in deep fat.

Succotash

Cut the corn from eight ears and put it into a saucepan with a pint of young Lima beans and enough salted boiling water to cover them both. Boil until the vegetables are tender; drain and turn into a double boiler with a cupful of boiling milk. Cook for ten minutes, then stir in a tablespoonful of butter, and simmer for five minutes longer. Season to taste and serve. Large “Limas” should be cooked ten minutes before the corn is added.

Corn and tomatoes

Grate the grains from six ears of corn; pare and cut into small pieces four ripe tomatoes. Put over the fire in a saucepan; stew half an hour; season with a great spoonful of butter, a teaspoonful of sugar and one of onion juice; salt and pepper to taste. Cook five minutes more and dish.

Scallop of corn and tomatoes

Pare and cut small a dozen ripe tomatoes and turn them, or the contents of a can of tomatoes, into a chopping bowl and chop the large pieces of the vegetable into small bits; then set in a saucepan over the fire and bring to the boil. Drain the liquor from a can of corn, or grate the grains from a dozen ears, and put the corn into a bowl of fresh water. After ten minutes drain the water off, and transfer the corn to a saucepan with enough boiling water to cover it. Let it simmer for five minutes, pour off the water and add the boiling tomatoes to the corn. Let both cook together for five minutes, during which time stir into them a heaping teaspoonful of butter, two teaspoonfuls of granulated sugar, and salt and pepper to taste. Pour the mixture into a greased bake-dish, sprinkle bread-crumbs and bits of butter over the top and bake for half an hour.

Green corn croquettes

Grate the corn from a dozen ears, or drain the liquor from a can of corn, and chop the kernels fine. Cook together a tablespoonful of butter and two of flour, and, when these are blended, add slowly a pint of milk into which has been stirred a pinch of soda. Cook this mixture, stirring all the time, until you have a thick white sauce; add to it the chopped corn and half a teaspoonful of powdered sugar, with pepper and salt to taste. Remove from the fire and set aside to cool. When cold, form with lightly-floured hands into croquettes, and dip each croquette in beaten egg and cracker-dust. Set all aside in a platter in the ice-chest for several hours, then fry in deep, boiling fat.

Corn omelet

Grate the corn from four ears of boiled corn. Beat four eggs well, add three tablespoonfuls of cream and cook in a hot pan. When ready to fold, sprinkle with salt and pepper, add the corn and turn out on a hot dish. Heat the corn slightly over hot water before putting into the omelet.

Creole chowder

Heat a generous lump of butter and in it brown four sliced onions. Add four peeled tomatoes, four chopped green bell-peppers, and the corn cut from four cobs. Add as much water as may be needed in cooking, season with salt and sugar and a little black pepper. A full hour’s cooking will be necessary, and the chowder must be served piping hot.

CUCUMBERS

Many persons look upon the cucumber with fear as a source of indigestion and gastric discomfort. One able dietitian has left on record his opinion that a square inch of verdant cucumber is about as fit to be put into the human stomach as would be a like quantity of Paris green.

Our cucumber, like many another abused article, is maligned because its enemies have never made the attempt to do it justice. If a few simple rules are followed it will prove less indigestible and more palatable than foes and friends imagine. When cooked, it loses many of its disturbing qualities. But, as some people enjoy the crisp freshness of its raw state, it is well to learn just how to prepare it properly.

Raw cucumbers

See to it that the cucumber is fresh and lay it on the ice until wanted. Do not be content with leaving it on the shelf of the refrigerator. It must be in actual contact with the ice. Just before sending to the table, peel quickly and slice thin, scattering crushed ice among the slices. At the table make a French dressing of one part vinegar, three parts oil, salt and pepper to taste, and pour over the cucumbers as you dish them. To allow the vegetable to lie for even fifteen minutes in the dressing is to toughen the fiber and make it as indigestible as gutta percha.

Stewed cucumbers

Peel eight medium-sized cucumbers and cut them into slices an inch thick. Lay in iced water for half an hour. Have a pint of unsalted, hot beef stock in a saucepan, drain the cucumbers and lay them in this. Stew until tender, then remove with a skimmer and lay in a vegetable-dish. Cook together a tablespoonful, each, of butter and browned flour, and pour upon them the stock in which the cucumbers were cooked. Stir until you have a smooth brown sauce; add a saltspoonful of salt, the same amount of pepper, a teaspoonful of kitchen bouquet and a half teaspoonful of onion juice. Stir all together and pour over the stewed cucumbers.

Stuffed cucumbers

Cut good-sized young cucumbers into halves, lengthwise, and remove the seeds. Fill the hollows thus left with a forcemeat made of equal parts of chopped roast beef and minced boiled ham, with half as much fine bread-crumbs. Moisten this stuffing with melted butter and season to taste. Place the halves of each cucumber carefully together and tie with soft twine. Place in a roasting-pan, pour about them a cupful of skimmed beef stock, and cook until tender. Remove the strings, transfer the cucumbers to a hot platter, thicken the gravy left in the pan and pour it about them. This is a Syrian recipe.

Baked cucumbers

Peel medium-sized cucumbers, arrange them in a bake-dish and pour about them a couple of tablespoonfuls of water in which has been melted a tablespoonful of butter. Dust with salt and pepper, and bake, covered, for half an hour. If you wish, you can scallop them by cutting them in slices, sprinkling with crumbs and basting with bits of butter. Bake, covered, until tender; uncover and brown.

Fried cucumbers

Peel and leave in ice water for half an hour. Slice lengthwise, making three slices of each cucumber of fair size, lay in fresh iced water for ten minutes more. Wipe dry, sprinkle with pepper and salt, dredge with flour and fry to a light brown in deep, boiling cottolene or other fat. Drain, and serve dry and hot.

CHESTNUTS

The large Spanish chestnuts sold by grocers in the city, and in the markets, make excellent puddings with or without sugar, and, as vegetables, go well with poultry and beef.

Chestnut pudding

Boil and skin enough chestnuts to make a cupful when rubbed through a colander or vegetable press. Beat four eggs light, stir the chestnut into the yolks; add a tablespoonful of melted butter and two tablespoonfuls of fine cracker dust, two cupfuls of milk, a tablespoonful of sugar, salt and pepper to taste; lastly, the frothed whites. Bake, covered, in a buttered pudding-dish for half an hour; uncover, brown and serve before it falls. Eat with meat.

Chestnut croquettes

Shell and boil five cupfuls of large chestnuts; skin, and rub through a colander. Work into them a tablespoonful of butter, a little salt, a few drops of lemon juice and a dash of paprika. Turn into a double boiler, and make very hot, then set aside to cool. When cold form into small croquettes, roll in egg, then in cracker-crumbs and set in the ice for an hour before frying in deep, boiling cottolene or other fat. Peanut croquettes may be made in the same way.

DANDELIONS

Make a wholesome and, to some tastes, palatable “greens” in the spring of the year. They must be gathered while very young and tender, or they are bitter. The best time to cut them is just before they flower. Throw at once into cold water, as they wilt soon after they are picked.

Stewed dandelions (No. 1)

Cut the stems from a half peck of dandelion leaves, and break each leaf into small bits, dropping these into cold water as you do so. Wash thoroughly, drain, and lay in cold water for fifteen minutes. Drain again, and put over the fire in a porcelain-lined saucepan, with enough salted water to cover them. Simmer for fifteen minutes while you make the following sauce:

Cook together a tablespoonful, each, of butter and flour, and pour upon them a pint of milk, in which a pinch of soda has been dissolved. Stir to a smooth white sauce. Drain the water from the dandelion leaves, and stir these into the sauce. Season to taste, and beat in, very slowly, a whipped egg. Remove at once from the fire and turn into a deep vegetable dish.

Stewed dandelions (No. 2)

Pick the leaves from the stems, and drop into iced water. Take them up by the handful, dripping wet, and put, with no other water, into the inner vessel of a farina boiler. Fill the outer kettle with boiling water; cover the inner closely, and cook fast for half an hour. Rub the leaves through a vegetable press or a colander into a saucepan; beat in a tablespoonful of butter, a teaspoonful of sugar, salt and pepper to taste, a teaspoonful of lemon juice, and, at the last, three tablespoonfuls of hot cream to which has been added a pinch of soda. Stir until smoking hot over the fire, turn out into a heated dish, garnish with sippets of fried bread, and serve.

Dandelion greens cooked thus are almost as good as spinach à la crême.

EGGPLANT—A MUCH ABUSED VEGETABLE

Tens of thousands of average American housewives know but one way of cooking it, and not one in a hundred performs that one properly.

Fried eggplant is one of the many dishes which remind the eater of the small girl of nursery-rhyme fame, who—

“When she was good was very, very good But when she was bad she was horrid.”

When only half fried, or soaked with grease, this vegetable is an abomination to the educated palate and the self-respecting stomach. When tender and thoroughly cooked, it is one of the most delicious of the summer and fall garden products.

Fried eggplant

Peel an eggplant and cut into slices half an inch thick. Lay in cold salt water for an hour; wipe each slice dry and dip, first in beaten egg, and then in cracker dust. Set in a cold place for an hour and fry in deep boiling cottolene or other fat. Drain in a heated colander before dishing.

Stuffed eggplant on the half-shell

Wash and wipe a large eggplant and parboil it in boiling salted water for ten minutes. Let it get perfectly cold, cut in half lengthwise, and scrape out the center, leaving the walls of the vegetable three-quarters of an inch thick. Chop the pulp fine and add to it a small cupful of minced chicken, half a cupful of minced ham, a quarter of a cupful of bread-crumbs, a tablespoonful of melted butter, salt and pepper to taste. Mix well, add enough soup stock to make a stiff paste, and fill the hollow sides with this. When full and rounded, sprinkle the forcemeat with bread-crumbs, and lay the halves, side by side, in a bakepan, pouring three cupfuls of soup stock around them. Bake nearly an hour, basting every ten minutes. Remove the eggplant to a hot platter, thicken the gravy left in the pan with browned flour, boil up once on top of the range, stirring constantly, and pour this browned sauce about the base of the halved eggplant.

Scalloped eggplant

Pare off the skin, cut into dice and lay in cold salt water for an hour. Then parboil for twenty minutes. Drain well and pack in a buttered bake-dish, alternately, with fine crumbs. Dot each layer with butter, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and strew with finely-minced sweet green peppers. Fill the dish in this order, cover with a layer of crumbs wet with cream; dot with butter, cover and bake half an hour, then brown.

Eggplant stuffed with tomatoes

Halve the eggplant and remove the insides as in the last recipe but one. Make a forcemeat of the eggplant pulp, a cupful of chopped ripe tomatoes, one chopped green pepper, and a cupful of bread-crumbs. Season with a tablespoonful of melted butter and salt and pepper. Fill the hollow sides with this mixture, bind the two halves together with wide tape, and bake, basting frequently with melted butter and hot water. When tender, transfer to a hot platter, cut and remove the tape, and pour hot tomato sauce about the eggplant.

Stewed eggplant, with sauce piquante

Prepare as for eggplant on the half-shell by halving and scooping out the pulp, leaving substantial walls. Chop the pulp and cover with hot water. Season with a tablespoonful of onion juice, salt and pepper, and simmer for fifteen minutes. Take from the fire, drain, turn into a bowl and work in two tablespoonfuls of soft bread-crumbs, one tablespoonful of finely-chopped capers, two tablespoonfuls of cold boiled tongue, minced, and, when well-mixed, add salt to taste.

Pack this forcemeat closely into each half, and fit the two parts together, binding securely together with tapes or soft twine.

Put into your covered roaster; pour enough weak stock around it to come one-third of the way up the side, bake, covered, half an hour, then turn and cook the other side. Undo the strings, lay the eggplant carefully in the middle of a hot dish, and pour a good sauce piquante over and around it.

HOMINY

The small-grained hominy, called at the South “samp,” after the manner of the aborigines who bequeathed it to us, must be used in the recipes which follow.

Plain hominy pudding

Soak a cupful of hominy for three hours in tepid water. Drain, and put over the fire in plenty of boiling water, slightly salted. Boil fast for thirty minutes or until tender; turn off the water and pour in a pint of hot milk, with a little salt. Cook for fifteen minutes, stir in a generous lump of butter and turn into a deep dish.

Eat with sugar and cream.

Baked hominy

Stir into a pint of milk a cupful of cold boiled hominy, and when this is smooth, add a tablespoonful of melted butter, a tablespoonful of sugar, a saltspoonful of salt and four well-beaten eggs. Beat very light, pour into a buttered pudding-dish and bake for about half an hour or until “set” and brown. This is a good accompaniment to roast beef.

Hominy croquettes

Into two cupfuls of boiled hominy work a tablespoonful of melted butter; when the cereal is free from all lumps, add to it two beaten eggs, and when these are thoroughly incorporated, season the mixture with salt and pepper. Flour your hands, make the paste into small croquettes, and set aside until stiff and very cold. Now dip each croquette into beaten egg, roll in cracker-crumbs, and when all are thoroughly coated set in the ice-box for two hours. Fry to a golden brown in deep, boiling cottolene or other fat.

Hominy fritters

Rub two cupfuls of cold boiled hominy to a smooth paste with one tablespoonful of melted butter. Next, thin with warmed milk, and add three well-beaten eggs. Finally, stir in a cupful of flour which has been sifted twice with a teaspoonful of salt and half as much baking-powder.

Drop by the spoonful into boiling, deep cottolene or other fat; or, better still, cook upon a soapstone griddle.

KALE

This vegetable, otherwise known as “sea-kale,” should be better known in our country. In England it takes high rank and holds it creditably.

Pick it over carefully, clip off the stems and lay it in cold water for an hour. Drain, and put it into a saucepan full of salted boiling water. Cook until tender, drain and chop fine. Return to the saucepan with three tablespoonfuls of melted butter, salt and pepper to taste. Serve very hot on squares of buttered toast.

MACARONI

Few articles of diet are more toothsome and more wholesome than macaroni in its various forms when properly prepared. Like rice, it is so often miserably cooked that its excellent qualities are not generally recognized. Macaroni may be bought in several shapes, the large, or pipe-macaroni being perhaps the most common. Besides this there are the smaller and more delicate vermicelli, spaghetti and the flat ribbon, or egg-macaroni. Recipes for the cooking of one may be used in the preparation of any of the divers phases of this food.

Baked macaroni (No. 1)

Break into inch-lengths half a pound of macaroni. Boil it until tender in weak broth. Drain off the liquor; put the macaroni into a pudding-dish that will stand the fire; pour over it a half cupful of the stock in which it was boiled, and put a tablespoonful of butter, broken into small pieces, here and there through it. Sift over it fine bread-crumbs and grated cheese; dot with bits of butter and brown in the oven.

Baked macaroni (No. 2)

Break half a pound of macaroni into short lengths; cook until tender in boiling, salted water. It must be clear and soft, but not broken. Drain and put a layer in the bottom of a buttered pudding-dish. Dot with butter, sprinkle lightly with cayenne and salt to taste; cover with grated cheese, and on this dispose another layer of macaroni. Fill the dish in this order, having cheese for the top layer. Pour in a cupful of milk; cover, and bake half an hour. Uncover and brown.

Creamed macaroni

Put a cupful of macaroni into two quarts of boiling salted water and cook for twenty-five minutes, or until tender, but not broken. Drain off all the water and keep the macaroni hot in a covered dish while you make the cream sauce to pour over it. Cook together in a saucepan until they bubble, two teaspoonfuls of flour and the same quantity of butter; pour over them a pint of hot milk, and, as this thickens, stir into it two heaping tablespoonfuls of grated Parmesan cheese. Pour this sauce upon the macaroni just before serving, lifting the latter lightly with a fork that the creamy sauce may reach every part.

Macaroni with cheese sauce

Boil tender in salted water and drain. Cook together in a saucepan a great spoonful of butter and a cupful of grated Swiss cheese. As soon as the cheese is melted, turn the macaroni into the saucepan and stir and toss with a silver fork until thoroughly blended with the sauce. Serve at once.

Macaroni and chicken

Boil half a package of spaghetti tender, drain, drop into cold water, and drain again. Lay on a biscuit-board and cut into pieces about half an inch long. Thicken a pint of chicken stock with a tablespoonful of flour rubbed into one of butter. Stir into this a cupful of cold boiled or roast chicken, chopped fine, and the cold macaroni. Last of all, beat in slowly a whipped egg, remove from the fire, season to taste, turn into a greased pudding-dish, sprinkle crumbs over the top and bake for half an hour.

Send around grated cheese with it. You may use veal if you have no chicken.

Macaroni and tomatoes (very nice)

Break half a pound of pipe macaroni into inch-lengths, and boil in salted water until tender. Drain, and put a layer of the macaroni in the bottom of a greased pudding-dish, sprinkle with pepper, salt, onion juice and grated cheese, and cover all with a layer of stewed and strained tomatoes that have been previously seasoned to taste. On these goes another layer of macaroni, and so on until the dish is full. The topmost layer must be of tomatoes sprinkled with crumbs and good-sized bits of butter. Set in a hot oven, covered, for twenty minutes, and then bake, uncovered, until the crumbs are well-browned.

Spaghetti with Swiss cheese

Break a half pound of spaghetti into bits not more than an inch and a half in length, and boil in slightly salted water for twenty minutes. Turn into a hot colander and set at the side of the range to drain. Grate enough Swiss cheese to make a generous half cupful and turn into a saucepan with three tablespoonfuls of melted butter. Stir well; add the hot spaghetti, toss and stir for a minute, or just long enough to melt the cheese; add a dash of paprika and serve in a hot dish.

Macaroni rissoles

Have ready a cupful of cold, boiled macaroni cut up small. Make a white sauce by cooking together a tablespoonful of butter and two of flour and stirring into them a cupful of hot milk. Stir until thick, add a large tablespoonful of grated cheese, and, gradually, the whipped yolks of four eggs, beating all the time. Work the macaroni into the sauce and set aside until the mixture is very cold. With floured hands form into small balls—not quite as large in circumference as a silver dollar—roll in beaten egg, then in fine cracker-crumbs, and set in the ice-box for two hours. Fry in deep, boiling cottolene or other fat. Serve with tomato sauce.

Macaroni piquante

Break spaghetti into very small bits less than an inch in length. Boil these for twenty minutes, or until tender, in salted water. Drain and keep hot while you make the following sauce:

Cook together in a saucepan a heaping teaspoonful, each, of butter and browned flour, and when these are blended to a brown roux, pour upon them a pint of beef stock, and stir until smooth. Now add four tablespoonfuls of tomato catsup, six drops of Tabasco sauce, a teaspoonful of kitchen bouquet, a pinch of salt and a dash of paprika. Turn the boiled spaghetti into this sauce, stir all together, and pour the mixture into a greased pudding-dish. Sprinkle buttered crumbs and grated cheese over the top and bake until brown.

Macaroni á la Napolitaine

Have a long fish kettle half full of boiling, salted water, and lay a half pound of unbroken pipe-macaroni in this. Boil for twenty minutes or until tender. Carefully drain the water from the kettle and slip the macaroni gently upon a heated platter, where it may lie at full length. Set the platter in the oven to keep warm while you make a sauce by cooking together in a saucepan two tablespoonfuls of butter and one of flour, and pouring upon them a pint of strained tomato liquor. Stir to a smooth sauce, then season with onion juice, celery salt, pepper, and four tablespoonfuls of Parmesan cheese. Pour this sauce over the macaroni on the platter. When you serve, cut the mass with a sharp knife into manageable lengths.

MUSHROOMS

It is a pity there should be such a popular dread of the poisonous “toadstool” that his nutritious and innocuous brother—the edible mushroom—is shunned by thousands of rational creatures. The most wary need not fear this joy of the epicure when it is bought at market or at a responsible grocer’s shop. Trustworthy dealers run no risks in purchasing the wares from those whose business it is to cultivate and sell them. Mushrooms bought under these circumstances are no more to be feared than artichokes or Brussels sprouts. They form delicious entrées and tempt the most jaded appetite.

Broiled mushrooms

Peel carefully with a small knife and cut off the stems. Lay the mushrooms in a deep dish and pour melted butter over them. Remove them gently to a greased gridiron and broil over clear coals until delicately browned on both sides. Lay diamond-shaped slices of thin buttered toast in a dish, and the mushrooms upon these, sprinkle with pepper and salt and pour a little melted butter over all.

Fried mushrooms

Melt a great spoonful of butter in an agate frying-pan. Peel the mushrooms and cut off their stems, scraping the latter. Lay the mushrooms with their scraped stalks in the frying-pan and cook, turning often, until done. Serve very hot.

Stewed mushrooms

Peel the mushrooms and simmer gently in salted water until tender. Ten minutes should suffice. Drain and keep hot while you make a white sauce of a half pint of milk thickened with a tablespoonful of flour rubbed into one of butter. Turn the mushrooms into this and stir over the fire until very hot. Season with salt, pepper, a dash of mace, and serve.

Baked mushrooms

Peel very large mushrooms and cut off their stems. Grease a shallow pudding-dish and put a layer of mushrooms, under sides upward, into this. Into each mushroom pour a few drops of melted butter. Do not put more than two layers in the dish. Bake, closely covered, in a quick oven until tender. This should be in about twenty minutes. When done, remove the cover, pour melted butter over the mushrooms, and serve very hot in the dish in which they were cooked.

Fricasseed mushrooms

Peel and remove the stems from large mushrooms. Make a forcemeat by chopping the white meat of a cold roast chicken fine with a few small mushrooms and moistening it with chicken stock. Grease a pudding-dish and lay the large mushrooms, tops down, in this. Fill the mushrooms and the space between them with the forcemeat. Sprinkle bits of butter over all. Pour in enough of the chicken stock to make the contents of the dish very moist, lay a few wafer-like slices of bacon on top of the scallop, and bake, covered, in a hot oven for a quarter of an hour. Uncover, and cook for five minutes longer. Serve in the dish in which they were cooked.

ONIONS

A once-despised vegetable which now takes rank as a highly-respectable edible upon good men’s—and women’s—tables. Delicate spinsters no longer faint at fumes of boiled onions, and finical housewives have forgotten the rusty joke about cooking onions in the middle of a ten-acre lot. There are ways of extracting the coarser flavor that once condemned them with dyspeptics. Cooks have learned that there is as much difference between a well-done and a parboiled onion as between half-cooked and mealy potatoes. Housewives and physicians now appreciate the nutritive values of the esculent bulb, and prize it for these as well as for the seasoning which nothing else supplies. Onion juice is indispensable to the flavor of ragouts and soups, and is obtained by grating, not chopping. The superiority of this mode of getting the essence of the vegetable can not be rightly estimated by one who has not tried it. Onion seasoning should be tasted, never seen.

Stewed young onions

Cut off the stalks, remove the skins and lay the onions in cold water for half an hour. Put them over the fire in hot, salted water and cook for twenty minutes. Drain off the water and return the onions to the fire with a cupful of hot milk, in which has been dissolved a bit of soda the size of a pea. Add a tablespoonful of flour and stew slowly until the sauce is like thick cream.

Boiled onions

Peel and lay for an hour in cold water. Boil in two waters until tender. Drain, sprinkle with pepper and salt; put into a deep vegetable-dish and pour over them a great spoonful of melted butter.

Baked onions (No. 1)

Peel the onions and boil for ten minutes. Drain, arrange in a greased pudding-dish, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and pour over all a white sauce, to which a beaten egg has been added. Sprinkle with fine crumbs, set in the oven and bake, covered, for twenty minutes, then uncover and brown.

Baked onions (No. 2)

Cook tender in boiling water changed once after fifteen minutes; drain and arrange, side by side, in a baking-pan. Melt a tablespoonful of butter in a cupful of hot soup stock, season with salt and pepper and pour over the onions. Cook in a hot oven until the onions are brown, when they may be lifted with a perforated spoon and put into the dish in which they are to be served. Put the pan of gravy on top of the range, thicken the contents with browned flour and pour over the onions. Serve very hot.

Savory onions

Select young onions for this dish. Lay the onions in a saucepan with a very little salted water and simmer for ten minutes. Drain off the water; pour over the onions a small cupful of beef stock and cook for ten minutes longer. With a split spoon remove the onions to a hot dish, while you thicken the gravy left in the pan with a heaping teaspoonful of browned flour rubbed to a paste in the same quantity of butter. When you have a smooth brown sauce season it with a teaspoonful, each, of kitchen bouquet and tomato catsup, and salt and pepper to taste. Pour this sauce over the onions.

Stuffed onions, creamed

Boil eight large onions gently until quite tender, but not broken. Drain, and when cold, carefully remove the hearts or centers. Chop three of these hearts fine and mix with them a cupful of minced ham and season to taste. Moisten with rich cream and the beaten yolk of an egg. Fill the centers of the onions with the mixture, put a piece of butter in the top of each, set side by side, in a deep dish, pour a little milk about them and bake, covered, for twenty minutes. Then uncover, sprinkle with buttered crumbs and bake ten minutes longer. Serve hot.

Scalloped onions

Parboil onions and drain. When cold, cut into bits. Put a thick layer of these in the bottom of a greased pudding-dish, sprinkle with salt and pepper and dot with bits of butter. Cover with a very thin layer of crumbs moistened with milk. Put in more seasoned onions and more crumbs, and proceed in this way until the dish is full. Then pour in carefully a little cream, cover and bake for half an hour; uncover and brown.

Onion custard

Cook the onions tender in two waters; drain, and lay in a deep pudding-dish. Thicken a pint of hot milk with a teaspoonful of corn-starch rubbed into two teaspoonfuls of butter and gradually pour this white sauce upon two beaten eggs. Season with pepper and salt and pour the mixture about the onions. Bake until the custard is set.

GREEN PEAS

They lose sweetness with every hour—I might say with every minute—that passes after they have been picked. The passage from garden to kitchen and from pod to pot should be made as short as possible. As you shell throw them into cold water, not holding them in the hand until they are heated and moist. As soon as the last is shelled, drain and cook.

Boiled green peas

Shell and lay in cold water for ten minutes. Drain, turn into slightly salted boiling water and cook for about twenty-five minutes, or until very tender, but not broken. Drain in a colander, put into a dish, stir into the peas a lump of butter, and sprinkle very lightly with salt and pepper.

Green pea pancakes

Boil a pint of shelled peas, and mash while hot, adding a tablespoonful of butter and salt and pepper to taste. Now beat in two whipped eggs, a half pint of milk and five tablespoonfuls of prepared flour. Beat hard and fry on a hot griddle. A soapstone griddle is best. Then they are baked—not fried.

Green pea soufflé

Boil a pint of shelled peas until very tender, and mash with two tablespoonfuls of melted butter. Beat three eggs light and stir into them a pint of milk and the mashed peas. Season with salt and pepper, beat hard and turn into a greased pudding-dish. Bake, covered, for twenty minutes; uncover and brown. Serve this soufflé as soon as it is removed from the oven.

Green pea fritters

Shell enough peas to make a quart without the pods. Lay the peas in cold water for a half hour; put over the fire in two quarts of boiling salted water and cook for half an hour, or until very tender, but not broken. Drain free of water, turn into a bowl and mash soft with two tablespoonfuls of butter and with salt to taste. Beat four eggs very light, add to them three gills of milk and a cupful of flour with which has been sifted a teaspoonful of baking-powder and a half teaspoonful of salt. Stir the mashed peas by the great spoonful into this mixture and beat until you have a smooth, light green batter. Have your soapstone griddle very hot and drop your batter by the spoonful upon this. When done on one side turn and bake to a delicate brown. Serve very hot as a vegetable to accompany any kind of meat or poultry.

Green pea croquettes

Peas that are getting hard will do for these. Boil in just enough salted water to cover them well. While hot, run through the vegetable press. Beat to a smooth paste with a tablespoonful of butter and two of flour. Pepper and salt to taste, drop in a dash of onion juice; lastly, beat in a well-whipped egg. Stir in a vessel set within another of boiling water until hot all through, and set away until cold and stiff. Mold then into croquettes, dip in beaten egg and cracker-crumbs; leave on ice for half an hour before frying in boiling deep cottolene or other fat. Drain and serve very hot.

You may use canned peas if you can not get fresh.

PEPPERS

The large, green peppers, known to the green-grocer as “sweet peppers,” have grown rapidly into favor as a fresh vegetable, within the last decade. They must be seeded with the utmost care. A touch of the seeds against the green sides will ruin the latter for present use. Get hold of the inner stem and draw the clustered seeds through the opening at the stem end, without touching the inside walls.

Fried green peppers

Cut open lengthwise and extract all seeds and tough white fiber. Slice crosswise. Lay in cold salted water for ten minutes, then wipe dry. Melt four tablespoonfuls of butter in a frying-pan and sauté the sliced peppers in this. Lay about broiled steak or chops.

Stuffed peppers

Make a forcemeat of a tablespoonful of minced ham, one of minced chicken, three chopped mushrooms and a cupful of boiled rice. Make this paste wet by adding to it a chopped tomato and enough melted butter to make it of the right consistency for stuffing. Smooth the stem-ends, cut the blossom-ends from green peppers and take out the seeds and inside fibers. Lay the green shells for three minutes in salted boiling water, then plunge into iced water. Let them lie in this for fifteen minutes. Drain and wipe dry. Fill with the forcemeat, replace the tips, and stand the peppers, side by side, in a dripping-pan containing a quarter of an inch of soup stock. Cook for twenty minutes, basting twice with a little salad oil. When done, stand the peppers on a platter and pour a little salad oil about them.

Peppers stuffed with fish

Trim the stem-ends of your green peppers so that they will stand up. Cut off the tips and, with a small keen knife, extract the seeds and as much of the tough fiber as will come away. Mince white fish fine, moisten it with a white sauce, season and fill the peppers with this mixture. Stand in the oven long enough to heat through, and serve.

Scalloped peppers au gratin

Cut large green peppers in half, lengthwise, extract core and seeds and fill them with minced cold cooked fish, well seasoned, mixed with one-third its weight of fine bread crumbs. The mixture (forcemeat) must be wet with gravy or tomato sauce. Round the contents of the halved pepper in the shape of the missing other half, sprinkle with fine crumbs, and bake to a light brown.

You may use for these scallops of cold chicken, lean lamb or veal. See that you do not get the forcemeat too stiff.

Scalloped peppers on the half-shell

Halve the peppers lengthwise, remove seeds and membrane, and parboil for five minutes. When cold, fill the halves with minced roast beef and fine bread-crumbs moistened with tomato juice. Bake in a covered pan, basting every ten minutes. At the end of a half hour remove to a hot platter and serve with tomato sauce poured over and around the halved peppers.

Peppers and rice

(A Creole dish.)

Cook half a cupful of rice in plenty of boiling water, a little salt, for twenty minutes hard. Drain in a colander and set at the back of the range to dry off. Heap within a deep dish.

Prepare your peppers as already directed. Slice as for frying in the usual way. When you take them from the cold salt and water, fry them in a great spoonful of butter. Lift them from the pan and chop rather coarsely. Add to the hot butter and peppers a teaspoonful of onion juice and two tablespoonfuls of stock. Boil up and pour upon the rice. Set in the oven, covered, for three minutes, and serve.

POKE STALKS

Cut as you would asparagus, when they are but a few inches high. They are then tender and succulent, and are thought by some imaginative vegetarians to resemble the “aristocrat” in flavor.

They are undeniably wholesome—also inexpensive.

Scrape the stalks and lay in cold water for an hour. Tie loosely together with a piece of soft twine, put over the fire with enough salted water to cover them, and boil until tender. Drain, sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper and lay upon a platter on slices of buttered toast. Pour white sauce over all.

POTATOES

“The Tyrant Potato” is not assailed ignorantly, nor yet flippantly. After careful study of its properties, its works and its ways, the utmost concession that is now made to peculiar prejudice is in the declaration that, since people will make potatoes nine-tenths of their vegetable diet, it is essential to the national digestion that the ninety-three parts of water and of starch contained in the tuber be cooked in such manner as shall render the esculent as palatable and as little hurtful as is practicable when the constituents are not to be ignored.

The above protest stands at the head of that section of the “NATIONAL COOK BOOK” which is headed “POTATOES.” I wrote it ten years ago, and am “of the same opinion still.”

Talk against it as we may, the potato holds its sway in defiance of chemistry and dietetics, and our Johns, one and all, insist upon its daily appearance. As one weary housewife said to me:

“If I give my fingers to be burned in the preparation of a half dozen vegetables and have not potatoes in the number, my culinary and housekeeping skill are as sounding brass and tinkling cymbals—to my husband, at least. And I am so tired of the same old ways of cooking the same old potatoes!”

Her remark made me wonder why housekeepers adhere to the “same old ways.” Why not try new ones?

One hint may be acted upon with advantage to cook and to eaters.

One of the bugbears to the housewife is paring potatoes. It is not a pleasant task, and the necessity of performing it recurs with disagreeable frequency.

The housekeeper is wise if, while the potatoes are in the process of peeling, she pares and cooks more than enough for the repast for which they are intended, and by utilizing the cold left-overs does away with the necessity of peeling more of the tyrannical starch-and-water for the next meal.

A majority of the recipes herewith given are based upon the supposition that she has done this.

New potatoes with cream sauce

(Contributed)

Boil the potatoes in salted water until done. Drain and cover with a white sauce made as follows: Put two tablespoonfuls of butter into a saucepan and when it begins to bubble add two tablespoonfuls of flour; let them cook for one minute, then add one pint of hot milk, season with salt and pepper and a half teaspoonful of chopped parsley.

Potatoes, boiled au natural

Wash, drop into boiling water slightly salted, and cook fast until a fork will pass easily into the largest. Turn off the water, throw in a handful of salt, and set the pot, uncovered, at the back or side of the range, to dry the potatoes “off.” Serve in their skins.

Boiled potatoes

Pare with a sharp knife, and as thin as possible. Much of the mealiness of the potato depends upon this. The scullion who slashes away chunks of her beloved edible really deprives it of its chief merit, and all its comeliness. Have a pot of boiling water ready, salt it slightly and boil fast until a fork pierces the largest readily. Throw off the water immediately, sprinkle with salt, and dry out as directed in last recipe.

Baked potatoes (No. 1)

Select fine potatoes of uniform size. Wash, wipe and bake until the largest yields to the pressure of thumb and finger. Serve wrapped in a hot napkin. If the eater will knead his potato skilfully between his fingers before breaking it open, he will find a mealy mass upon opening it. Never cut a baked potato. It makes it “soggy.”

Baked potatoes (No. 2)

Pare and parboil; then set in an open bakepan in the oven and bake about half an hour, basting freely with butter or dripping until you have a delicate brown “glaze” upon each.

These may be eaten as a separate dish, or as a garnish for roast beef.

Stuffed potatoes

Bake eight large potatoes until done. Cut off the tops with a sharp knife and scoop out the insides with a small spoon. Set aside the skins for future use. With the back of a spoon mash the potatoes smooth, rub into them two tablespoonfuls of butter, a gill of cream, two teaspoonfuls of finely minced onion, a teaspoonful of minced parsley and salt and cayenne pepper to taste. When you have worked these ingredients to a smooth mass, beat in the stiffened whites of two eggs. Fill the empty potato skins with this creamy mixture, heaping it high. Stand the potato cases on end, side by side, in a baking-pan and set in the oven until the potato protruding from the tops is a delicate brown.

Potatoes on the half-shell

Bake large smooth potatoes, and cut each carefully in half lengthwise. Scrape out the insides, leaving the skins whole. Beat what you have taken out to a cream with melted butter, cream or milk, season with pepper and salt, and fill the “shells,” rounding the potato on top. Put a dot of butter upon each and brown lightly upon the upper grating of your oven.

Potato soufflé

Into two cupfuls of mashed potato work three cupfuls of hot milk in which two tablespoonfuls of butter have been half melted. Beat out all the lumps until you have a smooth purée. Season with salt and pepper. Beat four eggs very light and whip them into the potato and milk. When thoroughly mixed pour into a deep greased pudding-dish and bake in a good oven until “set” and delicately browned.

Potato croquettes

Warm in a double boiler two cupfuls of mashed potatoes and stir into this two teaspoonfuls of butter and the beaten yolks of two eggs. Add enough milk to make the paste of the right consistency to handle easily. With lightly floured hands form into croquettes and set aside to cool. When cold, dip in beaten egg and roll in cracker-dust. Set in the ice-box for several hours longer and fry in deep cottolene or other fat.

Potato fritters

Peel and boil four large potatoes, and when they are cold cut into tiny bits. Make a batter of two eggs—beaten light—a cupful of milk and a cupful and one-half of flour sifted twice with a half teaspoonful of baking-powder. Now add the minced potatoes, mix well and season with salt. Drop this mixture by the spoonful into deep, boiling cottolene or other fat. When the fritters are done lift them out with a perforated spoon, and lay them in a hot colander to drain free of fat.

Scalloped potatoes

Put a layer of sliced cold-boiled potatoes in the bottom of a buttered pudding-dish, sprinkle with crumbs and bits of butter. Put in another layer of potatoes and more crumbs until the dish is full, having the topmost layer of the buttered crumbs. Moisten all by pouring carefully into the dish a cupful of well-seasoned white stock. Bake for twenty minutes.

Stewed potatoes (No. 1)

Peel, cut into neat, small dice and lay in cold water for an hour. Put over the fire in boiling water, slightly salted, and cook tender. Turn off the water and pour in a large cupful of hot milk, in which you have stirred a pinch of soda. Boil one minute and stir in a tablespoonful of butter rubbed into one of flour. Pepper and salt, add a tablespoonful of onion juice and a tablespoonful of minced parsley. Simmer for another minute, and serve.

Stewed potatoes (No. 2)

Peel potatoes and cut them into neat squares. Lay in cold water for an hour, drain, and put them over the fire in salted boiling water. Stew until they are tender, but not soft. Turn into a colander to drain. Cook together in a saucepan a heaping teaspoonful, each, of butter and browned flour, and pour upon them a pint of weak beef stock. When you have a smooth, thick sauce, season with pepper, salt and a little onion juice, and mix with the potato dice.

Hashed and browned potatoes

Pare, cut very small and evenly, and put into a saucepan with a finely minced onion and a stalk of celery chopped into tiny bits. Cover with salted boiling water and cook tender. Drain off the water, supplying its place with milk, heated with a pinch of soda. Bring to a bubble and stir in a large tablespoonful of butter, rubbed to a cream with one of flour. Pepper, salt, mix well—but taking care not to break the potatoes—take from the fire, stir and toss for a moment, then turn all into a greased pudding-dish, sprinkle crumbs on the top and brown in a good oven.

Potatoes á la duchesse

Peel and boil enough potatoes to make a pint when mashed. Mix with them the yolk of an egg, two tablespoonfuls of melted butter and the same quantity of cream. Turn this mixture upon a pastry-board and press it flat and smooth. With a sharp knife cut the potato paste into squares of uniform size. Slip a cake-turner under each square and transfer it carefully to a greased baking-pan. Set in a cold place to stiffen, then sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese, and bake in a quick oven to a delicate brown.

Potatoes á la Lyonnaise

Cut cold boiled potatoes into tiny dice of uniform size. Put two great spoonfuls of butter into the frying-pan and fry two sliced onions in this for three minutes. With a skimmer remove the onions and turn the potatoes into the hissing butter. Toss and stir with a fork that the dice may not become brown. When hot, add a teaspoonful of finely chopped parsley and cook a minute longer. Remove the potatoes from the pan with a perforated spoon, that the fat may drip from them. Serve very hot.

Savory potatoes

Heat in a double boiler a quart of milk and put into it three sliced onions. Boil for ten minutes, strain out the onions, return the milk to the fire, and stir into it two teaspoonfuls of butter rubbed into two of flour, and two teaspoonfuls of minced parsley. When the milk is as thick as cream, add to it two cupfuls of sliced cold boiled potatoes. Season with pepper and salt, and as soon as the potatoes are hot, pour all into a greased pudding-dish, sprinkle bread-crumbs over the top and bake until brown.

Potatoes and corn

(A “left-over.”)

Cut the kernels from six ears of boiled corn. Cut eight cold boiled potatoes into small dice of uniform size. Put into a frying-pan a tablespoonful of butter and turn the potatoes and corn into this; salt and pepper. Fry, tossing and stirring constantly, for ten minutes.

Fried potato hash

Chop cold boiled potatoes, season with salt, pepper and onion juice. Have two tablespoonfuls of good dripping, hissing hot, in a frying-pan; put in the potatoes and pat smooth. Cook slowly, turning the frying-pan occasionally that they may brown evenly on the bottom. In about twenty minutes they should be nicely colored and crusted into a thick sheet. Reverse carefully upon a hot platter.

Brown creamed potatoes

Cut eight potatoes into small dice of uniform size, boil tender in salted water, drain and stir into a pint of milk which has been thickened with a tablespoonful of flour rubbed into one of butter; season. Turn all into a deep dish and bake until brown.

Potatoes with cheese sauce

Boil a dozen potatoes and, while hot, mash soft with hot milk and melted butter, adding salt and white pepper to taste. Whip light and heap in the center of a fire-proof platter. Smooth the sides of the mound with a knife and carefully remove about a cupful of potato from the center of the mound, leaving a cavity in its place. Dip a feather or brush in the beaten white of an egg and wash the inside of the hollow and the top and sides of the mound with this. Now set in the oven to get very hot and to brown lightly. When done draw to the door of the oven and fill the hollow with the sauce—made according to the following recipe—sprinkle the potatoes and cheese with crumbs and return to the oven for five minutes before sending to the table.

Sauce for the above

Heat a cupful of milk with a generous pinch of soda; season with pepper, salt and onion juice, and thicken with a heaping tablespoonful of butter cooked to a roux with one of flour; cook one minute and add three large spoonfuls of grated Parmesan cheese.

Mashed potatoes

Boil and mash white potatoes and whip to a cream with a cupful of hot milk and a tablespoonful of melted butter. Whip for fully five minutes with two forks, then pile upon a hot platter.

Potato hillock

Boil potatoes, dry at the back of the range, salting well, and rub through a vegetable press or colander upon a fire-proof platter. As they fall let them form a conical hillock in the middle of the platter. Grate cheese thickly over the hillock and brown lightly upon the upper grating of your oven.

Potatoes Parisienne

Parisienne potatoes are cut into small balls from raw potatoes with a French vegetable cutter or a round spoon. They may be either fried, or boiled and served with maître d’hôtel sauce.

French fried potatoes

Peel potatoes, cut into strips, and lay in iced water for at least an hour. Drain and pat dry between the folds of a clean dish-towel that should absorb every drop of moisture. Have ready a kettle of deep cottolene or other fat, heated gradually until it is boiling hot. Test this by dropping in a bit of the potato. It should rise to the top and brown immediately. Put in the potatoes, fry to a golden brown, drain, first in a hot colander, then shake in heated tissue paper before transferring to a hot dish lined with a napkin.

Saratoga chips

Peel the potatoes and proceed as directed in preceding recipe when you have cut them into slices as thin as shavings.

Potatoes au gratin

Slice potatoes thin and put in layers in a greased pudding-dish, sprinkling each layer with salt, pepper and bits of butter. When all are in, pour in a gill of hot water or hot milk, and sprinkle the top layer of potatoes thickly with cracker-crumbs mixed with salt and pepper and bits of butter. Bake, covered, for half an hour. Uncover and brown.

Potato omelet

Make an omelet in the usual way; have ready by the time it is done, and lay upon it, this mixture, then fold down:

Cook one small minced onion in one tablespoonful of dripping until yellow, add one cupful of cold boiled potatoes, chopped fine, and cook until slightly colored, stirring frequently. Shake into it a little pepper and salt and one teaspoonful of finely minced parsley.

Set into the oven to keep warm until the omelet is ready.

Potato dumplings (No. 1)

Grate ten or twelve large raw potatoes. Put the grated pulp into a muslin bag and press out the juice. Turn into a bowl and add one-third as much boiled potato that has been run through a vegetable press. Salt to taste and beat in a raw egg until you have a smooth, creamy paste. Make into dumplings with well-floured hands, and roll each in flour to prevent them from sticking together while they are boiling.

Have a pot of water at a hard boil, drop in the dumplings and cook from ten to twelve minutes. Test by taking one out and cutting in two to see if it is done in the center. Take up with a skimmer and serve at once, as they soon get heavy.

Serve them with any kind of roast meat, or alone with gravy.

Potato dumplings (No. 2)

Peel medium-sized potatoes that have been partly boiled (not quite soft). When cold, grate; to three parts of the potatoes take one part of grated wheat bread, and add small squares of wheat bread browned in butter, then crushed into crumbs.

To each pint of the above add two eggs, well-beaten, two ounces of melted butter and nutmeg to suit taste. Mix all thoroughly and form into round dumplings the size of an egg, or larger, as preferred. Roll in flour and boil in salted water until dry inside, or about fifteen minutes.

Serve with roast meats.

Always use mealy potatoes.

Potato balls (“Kartoffelklösse”)

(A German recipe.)

Peel, boil and mash potatoes; put aside to cool.

Three cupfuls of potatoes, one cupful of bread, two eggs, well-beaten, separately; pepper, salt and nutmeg to taste, and some chopped parsley that has been heated in butter. The bread should be prepared as for croutons, crusts removed, cut in squares, browned in butter in the oven, then crushed. The mixture should be very stiff. Mold into small balls and drop into boiling, well-salted water; keep water boiling for fifteen minutes, when the klösse should be about twice the original size and done to the center. They may be served with bread-crumbs browned in butter, placed on the top of each dumpling, or with tomato sauce. With chopped meat filling the center of the dumplings they can also be varied. If too moist, use flour or bread-crumbs in molding. A good cook has the knack of dropping from the spoon without molding, but this is hard to do. The klösse should be the size of small apples when finished. Americans very often use a trifle of baking-powder to insure lightness in these. Germans depend on good beating.

SWEET POTATOES

Boiled sweet potatoes

Wash and cook in boiling water until soft. Set in a moderate oven for ten minutes to keep them from being watery.

Baked sweet potatoes

They are seldom cooked in any other way at the South, where they are native to the soil, and at their best estate.

Wash and wipe and bake in a good oven until tender.

Glazed sweet potatoes

Parboil in their skins, peel and lay in a bake-pan. Cook, basting often with butter, until they are a golden brown.

Scallop of sweet potatoes and bacon

This is a good “left-over” when you have a little cold corned ham and some cold boiled or baked sweet potatoes. Mince the meat—the fatter the better—and put a layer in the bottom of a bake-dish. Cover with sweet potato dice, pepper, and put in more bacon. When all the materials are used up, cover with crumbs; add enough milk to wet the crumbs, cover and bake half an hour. Uncover and brown.

Sweet potatoes au gratin

Parboil the potatoes, peel and slice while hot. Butter a deep dish well; put in a layer of potatoes, sprinkle with sugar, salt, pepper, and dot with butter; then a stratum of fine crumbs; season in the same way, leaving out the sugar. The uppermost layer should be of crumbs and well buttered. Pour in four tablespoonfuls of warm water to generate steam, cover closely and bake half an hour. Uncover and brown.

This is an especially nice dish for a family dinner, and always liked by children.

Buttered sweet potatoes

Boil sweet potatoes and peel them. Lay in a deep dish and upon each potato put a teaspoonful of butter. Set in the oven and heat until the butter sizzles about the edge of the dish. Then send to the table.

Sweet potato croquettes

Into two cupfuls of boiled and mashed sweet potatoes beat a tablespoonful of butter, and stir in a saucepan over the fire until smoking hot. Now remove and add a tablespoonful of cream and the yolks of two eggs. When cold, form into croquettes and roll each croquette in beaten egg and cracker-crumbs. Arrange all on a platter and set in a cold place for several hours before frying in deep cottolene or other fat to a golden brown.

Sweet potato puff

Into two cupfuls of boiled and mashed sweet potatoes beat three whipped eggs, a cupful of milk, two tablespoonfuls of melted butter and seasoning to taste. Beat hard and bake in a greased pudding-dish.

Sweet potato and chestnut croquettes

Boil and mash enough sweet potatoes to make two cupfuls, and enough Spanish chestnuts to make one cupful. Rub the nuts and potatoes together while hot and beat into them two tablespoonfuls of butter, four teaspoonfuls of cream, two beaten eggs, and season to taste. When cold, form into croquettes, roll in egg and cracker-crumbs, and set in a cold place for an hour before frying in deep, boiling cottolene or other fat.

RICE

Boiled rice

Into three pints of hot salted water, when at a fast boil, throw half a cupful of raw rice, previously washed and picked over. Keep it at a furious boil for twenty minutes, when test a grain to see if it is done. If it is soft, drain away every drop of water; set the uncovered pot at the back of the range for two minutes to dry off the rice, and serve. Not a spoon should touch it while cooking, and each grain should be whole and apart from the rest.

This, the one and only way to boil rice properly, is also the easiest. Shake the saucepan up three times while the rice is in cooking, to make sure it does not clog.

Pasty rice is as abhorrent to those who have eaten it cooked according to this recipe as sodden, gluey potatoes.

Serve in a hot, uncovered dish. Eat with butter, salt and pepper, and you will not regret the tyrant potato, should he fail to appear.

Buttered rice

Spread three cups of cold boiled rice upon a platter and set in the open oven that every grain may dry. Meanwhile, heat a little butter in the frying-pan and fry a sliced onion in it. When the slices are browned remove them with a perforated spoon, and lay the rice by the spoonful in the pan. Stir until each grain is coated with the butter; turn the rice into a heated colander, shake hard, and set at the side of the range for five minutes. Serve in a deep vegetable dish.

Rice croquettes

Boil as directed in first recipe; drain, and beat in two whipped eggs, half a cupful of milk (or cream if you have it), a little butter, a teaspoonful of sugar, a little mace, pepper and salt. Set by until perfectly cold, form into croquettes, roll in egg and fine crumbs, leave on ice for an hour and fry in boiling deep cottolene or other fat.

You can make the croquettes of cold boiled rice if you have it, but it is hardly as good for the purpose as the hot. The croquettes seldom have the consistency of those made up while the rice is hot.

Rice and tomato croquettes

When the rice has boiled ten minutes drain off the water and cover the rice with tomato juice, already heated and seasoned with pepper, salt and sugar. Cook ten minutes more, or until the rice is tender. Take from the fire, add a great spoonful of butter and a teaspoonful of onion juice; the beaten yolks of three eggs, and, when you have beaten these in, two tablespoonfuls of grated Parmesan cheese. Set in a pan of boiling water and stir over the fire for five minutes. Turn out and let it get perfectly cold. Make into croquettes, roll in egg and cracker crumbs; set on ice for an hour and fry in hot, deep cottolene or other fat. Drain and serve.

Boiled rice with tomato sauce

Boil in the usual way, dish, and pour over it, loosening with a fork that the sauce may penetrate to every part, a generous cupful of rich tomato sauce, seasoned with pepper, salt, onion juice and sugar, and, finally, with two tablespoonfuls of grated cheese.

Savory rice

Prepare as in last recipe, but add a small cupful of good stock to an equal quantity of tomato sauce; cook together for two minutes and pour over the rice.

Rice pudding as a vegetable

Boil one cupful of raw rice twenty minutes, or until soft, but not broken. Beat four eggs light, and when you have stirred a tablespoonful of butter into the rice add these and season with pepper and salt. Stir in, gradually, a scant quart of milk; beat all well for one minute, turn into a buttered pudding-dish and bake, covered, half an hour; then brown.

It should be as light as a soufflé, and must be eaten at once. A pleasing accompaniment to roast poultry of any kind.

Savory rice pudding

Boil and drain a cupful of rice. Stir into it, while hot, a tablespoonful of butter and a cupful of hot milk with which has been mixed a teaspoonful of corn-starch dissolved in cold water. Add a well-beaten egg, salt and pepper, and spread upon a platter to cool. Meanwhile make ready two cupfuls of chopped meat of almost any kind—poultry, veal, lamb, mutton, beef, giblets, liver—or a mixture of several—whatever you have on hand. Chop half a can of mushrooms and work in; season highly with paprika, kitchen bouquet and onion juice. Some even put in a little curry. Moisten slightly with gravy and when the rice has cooled mix all well together. Butter a cake mold lavishly, put the pudding into it; fit on a close top and set in a pot of boiling water. Cook steadily for at least two hours. Dip the mold into ice-water to loosen the pudding from the sides, and turn out upon a hot platter.

Send tomato sauce, mixed with grated cheese, around with it, or any gravy you may chance to have left over.

Molded rice (No. 1)

Boil a cupful of raw rice ten minutes; drain and pour over it, in place of the water, two cupfuls of chicken gravy or stock made from chicken, duck or turkey bones, seasoned well with salt, pepper and onion juice. Set in boiling water uncovered, and cook gently until quite dry. Turn into a bowl wet with hot water, press down firmly and reverse the bowl upon a hot platter. Cover the mound with grated cheese, brush all over with beaten white of egg, sift grated cheese upon the egg, and set upon the top grating of your oven to color slightly.

Molded rice (No. 2)

Boil a cupful of rice in plenty of hot salted water until soft. Drain and dry off. Stir into it a great spoonful of butter, a teaspoonful of onion juice and the beaten yolks of two eggs, with salt and pepper to taste. Stir over the fire in a bowl set in boiling water for two minutes, using a fork that you may not break the rice to pieces. Turn into a round-bottomed bowl wet with cold water, and press down hard. Reverse the bowl upon a fireproof platter, cover the molded rice thickly with a meringue made of the whites of the eggs beaten stiff, and set upon the top grating of the oven for three minutes to form.

Eat with drawn butter.

Spanish rice (very nice)

Boil one cupful of rice until tender in plenty of boiling water, salted; drain and dry off. Chop a quarter of a pound of fat salt pork, and fry in a pan. When it hisses put into the pan two medium-sized onions, also minced. Chop two green sweet peppers (seeded, of course), and mix with the rice, then the pork and onions, and enough tomato sauce to moisten the mixture well. Butter a bake-dish, add salt and pepper, if needed, to the rice, and put into the dish. Coat thickly with fine crumbs and bake, covered, for twenty minutes; then brown.

Rice timbales

Pack hot boiled rice in slightly buttered timbale molds; let them stand in hot water for ten minutes; run a pointed knife around the sides; turn from the molds and serve as a garnish for curried meats or boiled fowl.

SALSIFY, OR OYSTER-PLANT

Stewed salsify

Scrape the roots, throwing them at once into cold water, that they may not blacken. Cut into inch lengths and put over the fire in boiling salted water. Stew until tender. Drain off the water and pour upon the salsify in the saucepan a cup of hot milk. After it has simmered five minutes add a tablespoonful of butter and three tablespoonfuls of cracker dust; season to taste and serve.

Mock fried oysters

Wash, trim and cook a bunch of oyster-plant (or salsify) in boiling salted water until tender. Drain and scrape off the skin. Mash well, and if stringy rub through a colander.

To one pint of the mashed salsify add one teaspoonful of flour, one tablespoonful of butter, one well-beaten egg, and salt and pepper to season highly. Take up a small spoonful and shape it into an oval about the size of a large oyster; dip each lightly in flour or very fine cracker crumbs, and brown on each side in hot butter.

Salsify fritters

Scrape the salsify and grate it fine. If you have a machine for grinding vegetables, use that, as the process of grinding is so rapid that there is not time for the salsify to discolor before it is prepared. Have made a batter of two beaten eggs, half a cupful of flour, a gill of milk, and salt to taste. Beat hard, and whip the grated salsify into this. Drop by the spoonful into deep, boiling cottolene or other fat. When the fritters are of the right shade of brown, drain them quickly in a hot colander to free them of superfluous grease. Serve very hot.

Scalloped salsify

Wash and trim, but do not scrape fine roots of salsify. Boil in salted water until tender. Drain, scrape, clean and cut into inch lengths. Pack into a buttered bake-dish, alternately with thick white drawn butter, well seasoned, and fine bread-crumbs, seasoned and buttered. The top layer should be crumbs wet with cream. Cover closely and bake half an hour; then brown delicately.

Not a bad imitation of scalloped oysters.

SPINACH

“Spinach is one of our most valuable vegetables. It contains salts and is slightly laxative. In order to retain all the nutritive value and the salts in the spinach it is best to cook in a steamer. It should be cooked just long enough to be tender, which is from ten to fifteen minutes. Spinach, if cooked too long, will lose its flavor and color.”

Thus writes an able authority upon dietetics. In three sentences we have here condensed the cardinal rules for preparing this queenly esculent for the use of the human animal. Opposed to one clause of the summary we have the story of a noted epicure who found spinach so much better when warmed up for the thirteenth time that he ordered his cook to cook it thirteen times on the first day of serving.

Boiled spinach, plain

Pick over the spinach, rejecting all yellow or dried leaves. Wash in four waters, letting it soak in the last cold bath for three-quarters of an hour. Put into a large pot over the fire with just enough cold water to cover it. Cook for twenty minutes, or until tender. Drain in a colander, then turn into a wooden chopping-bowl and chop very, very fine. Return the spinach to the saucepan, stir into it a great spoonful of butter, and salt and pepper to taste. Mound the spinach on a hot platter, and garnish with slices of hard-boiled eggs.

Spinach á la crême

Pick over and wash the spinach as in the last recipe. After soaking in the fourth water, put the leaves, with the moisture still clinging to them, into a large pot, and cover closely. The moisture on the leaves and the juice of the vegetables will form enough liquor to prevent scorching. Cook for twenty minutes, stirring well several times during the process. Sprinkle with salt and turn into a colander to drain. Press out the liquid, turn the spinach into a chopping-bowl and chop as fine as possible. Cook together in a saucepan one tablespoonful of flour and two of butter, and, when they are blended, pour the spinach upon them. Season and cook for several minutes, stirring constantly. Pour upon the spinach a small cupful of cream in which a pinch of soda has been dissolved, and cook three minutes longer, still stirring. Now add pepper and salt to taste and a pinch of nutmeg, and beat hard for three minutes. Serve smoking-hot, garnished with small triangles of toast.

Spinach puff

Boil as in the former recipe, chop “exceeding small,” and beat in a tablespoonful of melted butter, salt, pepper and a pinch of nutmeg. Set aside until cool, then stir in a gill of cream, the whipped yolks of two eggs and the stiffened whites of three. Beat hard and turn into a deep, greased pudding-dish. Bake for twenty minutes, and serve at once.

Spinach soufflé

Boil the spinach and chop fine. Add the beaten yolks of two eggs, a tablespoonful of melted butter, salt and pepper to taste. Set this mixture away to cool. When cold, beat into it a half-gill of cream and the frothed whites of three eggs. Turn into a buttered pudding-dish, and bake quickly in a hot oven to a light brown. Serve as soon as it is removed from the oven.

Spinach pátés

Boil the spinach, press out every drop of water and chop fine. Cook together in a saucepan a tablespoonful of butter and two of flour. Add the spinach with pepper and salt to taste; cook for five minutes. Butter the insides of muffin-tins or pâté-pans, and press the spinach hard into these. Set in the oven to keep hot while you make a white sauce. Carefully turn out the forms of spinach on a hot platter, lay a slice of hard-boiled egg on the top of each form and pour the white sauce around it.

SQUASH

The summer squash differs from the winter variety in having a tender shell and in being very juicy. Both may be cooked in a variety of ways, and form many appetizing dishes. In opening the winter squash it is often necessary to exert great strength to break through the outer rind—some housekeepers using a small saw for the purpose. The summer vegetable may be easily peeled or sliced with an ordinary case-knife.

Boiled squash

Wash two summer squashes, pare them, and cut into pieces about an inch square. Put them over the fire in a saucepan of boiling water and boil steadily for twenty-five minutes. Drain in a colander, pressing hard to extract the water, turn into a wooden bowl and mash with a potato-beater until free from lumps. Now beat in a heaping tablespoonful of butter; salt and pepper to taste. Return to the fire just long enough to get very hot, stirring all the time. Serve in a deep vegetable dish.

Baked squash

Peel, boil and mash two small squashes. When cold, beat in two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, two whipped eggs, a gill of cream and salt and pepper to taste. Turn into a greased bakedish, sprinkle with bread-crumbs and bake for a half-hour. A good way to use squash left over from yesterday.

Creamed squash

Peel two summer squashes and cut into dice of uniform size. Boil for fifteen minutes in salted water, or until tender, but not broken. Drain carefully in a colander and keep hot while you cook together two heaping teaspoonfuls of butter and the same quantity of flour until they bubble; then pour upon them a cupful and a half of sweet milk. Stir until smooth; turn in the squash dice, season liberally with salt and white pepper, and serve.

Scalloped squash

Peel, wash and boil three summer squashes according to directions given in the recipe for boiled squash. Beat two eggs light, and whip into them a small cupful of rich sweet milk, and a tablespoonful of melted butter. Beat this mixture into the mashed squash, season with salt and pepper and turn all into a greased pudding-dish. Sprinkle with bread-crumbs and bits of butter, and bake.

Squash pancakes

Boil and mash two squashes, and when cold beat into them two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, a quarter of a teaspoonful of salt, a pint of milk, two eggs and a cupful of flour in which has been sifted a teaspoonful of baking-powder. Beat hard for five minutes. Have a soapstone griddle heated, and drop the mixture by the spoonful on this. If the cakes are too stiff, add a little more milk. Serve hot with butter. These are good with broiled steaks or chops.

Squash fritters

Peel and slice the squash, and boil in salted water for a little over five minutes. Carefully remove the slices and drop into iced water. When cold, drain in a colander and pat dry between the folds of a dish-towel. Dip each slice in beaten egg, then in cracker crumbs, and when all are thoroughly coated set in a cold place for an hour. Have ready a kettle of boiling dripping; drop the squash slices carefully into this and fry to a golden brown. Drain in a heated colander, sprinkle with pepper and salt, and serve.

TOMATOES

The nineteenth century was a third gone before the world on this side of the sea began to appreciate the beneficent qualities of what our foremothers used to call “love apples.” There is no other vegetable that is of more value as a liver regulator and blood-cooler than the tomato. The small quantity of calomel it contains acts as a corrective of biliousness, and stimulates all the secretions of the body to activity. Eaten raw, it is cooling and delicious, and it may be cooked in so many and varied forms that one does not soon weary of it.

In the average home it appears as a salad, in soup, stewed, and perhaps baked or scalloped. When it has been thus served many housekeepers consider that they have exhausted its capabilities. On the contrary, they have hardly touched upon its possibilities.

The increasing familiarity with sauces as the cook’s potent aids in converting old dishes into new, has made tomato sauce popular as an accompaniment of certain compounds of macaroni, but even those who use the sauce in this manner do not all know how admirable it is served with boiled or baked fish, or with roast mutton, or as a vehicle for shrimps, or as a zest for eggs. Apart from this, the tomato, not made into a sauce, but employed either fresh or canned, may come to the table in a variety of easily-prepared and savory combinations that will appeal to the family caterer as being the new and inexpensive dishes she is always seeking.

Raw tomatoes

Never scald them. Pare and strip off the skins. Set on ice until you are ready to serve. Cut up quickly, lay within a chilled bowl and season, as you serve, with French dressing.

Raw tomatoes and cucumbers

Cut off the tops of large, firm tomatoes and carefully remove most of the pulp. Keep pulp and tomatoes in the refrigerator while you peel and cut into small dice ice-cold cucumbers. Mix the cucumber dice with the tomato pulp, fill the tomato shells, set them on crisp lettuce leaves and pour a great spoonful of mayonnaise dressing over each.

Creamed tomatoes

Cut firm tomatoes into thick slices and fry them until tender in a couple of spoonfuls of butter. Have ready a white sauce made by cooking together a tablespoonful, each, of butter and flour to the bubbling point, and then pouring upon them a half-pint of milk—or, better still, a half-pint of mingled milk and cream. Cook, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens, dish the tomatoes and turn the sauce upon them, after seasoning them suitably with pepper and salt.

Stewed tomatoes

Peel, slice and put a quart of tomatoes over the fire in a nickel-steel-plated or agate saucepan—never in tin. Stew fast twenty minutes. Season with a lump of butter rolled in flour, a teaspoonful of sugar, salt and pepper to taste, and two teaspoonfuls of onion juice. Stew five minutes longer, and serve.

Some cooks substitute fine dry crumbs for the flour. Unless some thickening is used, the tomatoes will be watery and thin.

Raw tomatoes and whipped cream

Pare large, smooth tomatoes carefully, and set on ice until chilled to the heart. Cut each in half when ready to serve, sprinkle lightly with salt and paprika, and heap with whipped cream.

A welcome entrée in summer. Send around heated and buttered crackers and cream cheese with them, or thin slices of buttered graham bread.

Tomato croquettes

These can be made either of fresh or canned tomatoes. Rub through a colander half the contents of a can of tomatoes into a saucepan with a thin slice of onion, salt, pepper, two or three cloves, and one tablespoonful of sugar. Cook for fifteen minutes, thicken with corn-starch—four teaspoonfuls of it rubbed to a cream with a generous lump of butter. Let it boil up and add one egg. Pour the mixture out to cool. When cool, form into croquettes, and dip them, first, in beaten egg, then in fine crumbs; set on ice for two hours before frying in deep, boiling cottolene or other fat.

Stuffed tomatoes (No. 1)

Cut the tops from large, firm tomatoes, and with a small spoon scoop out the insides. To half of this pulp, chopped, add as much minced boiled ham and two tablespoonfuls of bread-crumbs. Season to taste and fill the tomatoes with this mixture. Set in a baking-pan and bake for twenty minutes, covered; then brown.

Stuffed tomatoes (No. 2)

Cut the tops from large tomatoes and scrape out the pulp. Mix with this one part of bread-crumbs to two parts of minced boiled ham. Fill the tomato shells with this mixture, put a bit of butter upon the top of each, and set, side by side, in a bake-pan. Pour a cupful of soup stock over and around the tomatoes, and bake until tender.

Scalloped tomatoes

Grease a pudding-dish and put in the bottom of it a layer of peeled and sliced tomatoes. Cover with a layer of salted and peppered crumbs, sprinkle with bits of butter and a little sugar. Now put in another stratum of tomatoes and more crumbs. When the dish is full pour over all a cupful of well-seasoned soup stock, sprinkle the top with crumbs, and bake, covered, for fifteen minutes. Uncover and brown.

Tomatoes and corn

Put a cupful, each, of stewed tomatoes and boiled corn over the fire together, bring to a boil, add half a teaspoonful of white sugar and, if you like, a dash of onion juice; cook one minute longer and serve.

A good way of using yesterday’s left-overs of these vegetables.

Tomato fritters

Make a batter of a cupful of flour, a cupful of water, a tablespoonful of butter, a saltspoonful of salt and the white of an egg. The water should be just warm enough to melt the butter, but not hot. Stir the two into the sifted and salted flour, mixing carefully, and, lastly, beat in the whipped white of an egg. Into the batter thus made dip rather thick slices of peeled tomatoes, and fry in deep hot fat to a light, delicate brown. The tomatoes may be sprinkled with salt and pepper before dipping them in batter, or the fritters may be seasoned after they are cooked.

Tomatoes stuffed with meat

Select large, firm tomatoes, cut off the tops and scoop out the inside pulp. Do not peel. Chop fine a cupful of cold meat—it may be fowl, tongue or ham, or even lamb, mutton or beef, if the latter are well seasoned. With the meat put a half cupful of fine bread-crumbs, a tablespoonful of butter, and salt, pepper, parsley and onion juice. The quantity of these to be used must be determined by the amount of seasoning there is already in the meat. After sprinkling the inside of the tomato shells with a very little salt and pepper fill them with the mixture of meat, crumbs, etc. If this seems too dry it may be moistened with a small quantity of gravy or soup stock, or even with milk or cream. Arrange the tomatoes in a pudding-dish, replace the tops, lay a cover over them and bake half an hour. Serve in the dish in which they were cooked.

Tomatoes stuffed with corn

Prepare the tomatoes as in the preceding recipe, place them in the bake-dish and fill them with a mixture of a cupful of grated green corn, half a cupful of bread-crumbs, a tablespoonful, each, of milk and butter, a teaspoonful of white sugar, and salt and pepper to taste.

Tomatoes stuffed with rice

Fill tomato shells prepared as above directed with cold boiled rice, to which have been added two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, half a teaspoonful of onion juice, salt and paprika. When the shells are filled strew the contents of each thickly with grated cheese before laying on the tops. Bake, covered, half an hour.

Tomatoes stuffed with macaroni

Prepare as in last recipe, substituting cold, boiled macaroni, chopped, for the rice, and mixing cheese with the filling, besides strewing it on the top.

Tomatoes à la créme

Cut unpeeled tomatoes into thick slices. Put into a frying-pan three tablespoonfuls of butter, and fry the tomatoes for three minutes in this, or until they are tender. Remove carefully and keep hot on a platter set in an open oven. Into the butter in the pan stir a tablespoonful of flour and cook until thoroughly blended; then pour in gradually a half-pint of rich milk in which a pinch of soda has been dissolved. Stir all to a smooth sauce, season and pour over the fried tomatoes.

Tomatoes and poached eggs

Cook tomatoes by either of the preceding recipes, or stew them until tender. If you do the latter, strain off the thin, watery liquor that comes from them in cooking, and set it aside for sauces or for seasoning. Make of the thick portion of the tomato a layer in the bottom of a platter, seasoning to taste with pepper and salt, and, if desired, with a few drops of onion juice; make all very hot and lay on the bed thus prepared carefully poached eggs. If fried eggs are preferred, they may be substituted. Dust them with a little salt and pepper and serve at once.

Tomato omelet

Peel and chop four tomatoes. Soak a cupful of bread-crumbs in a cup of milk and stir them into five beaten eggs. Add the chopped tomatoes, season to taste and turn into a frying-pan in which two tablespoonfuls of butter have been melted. Cook until set, turn upon a hot platter, pour tomato sauce about the omelet, and send at once to the table.

Curried tomatoes

Put into a frying-pan a heaping tablespoonful of butter and half a small onion, grated. Cook until the latter begins to brown—about two minutes—and stir in a scant teaspoonful of curry powder. In this fry thick slices of tomato until tender, sprinkle with salt and serve.

Another method of preparing curried tomatoes is to cook them by the recipe given for creamed tomatoes, adding a teaspoonful of curry powder to the cream sauce and pouring this over the fried tomatoes.

Curried green tomatoes

Cut large green tomatoes into very thick slices. Melt in a frying-pan three tablespoonfuls of butter and fry in this a small onion, sliced. At the end of two or three minutes stir into the melted butter a teaspoonful of curry powder. Lay the tomatoes in this mixture and fry them on both sides. When done, drain, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and serve.

TURNIPS

Mashed turnips

Peel, lay in cold water for an hour; boil tender in hot, salted water; throw this off and fill up the pot with boiling water, slightly salted. Cook five minutes in this, drain well and rub through a colander or vegetable-press. Beat in a lump of butter rolled in a little flour, salt and pepper to taste; return to the saucepan and cook one minute, stirring all the time.

Turnips boiled, plain

Pare and quarter. Cook tender in two waters; drain, dish; pour a little melted butter, seasoned with pepper and salt, over them, and serve hot.

Young turnips stewed with cream

Pare, lay in cold water one hour; cook tender in two waters; drain and cover with hot cream (heated with a pinch of soda) or hot milk, if you have no cream. Simmer gently for five minutes; stir in a white roux made by cooking together a tablespoonful of butter and one of flour, salt and pepper, and serve very hot.

Young turnips with white sauce

Peel, lay in cold water for an hour; boil for ten minutes in fresh water, cover with boiling, slightly salted water, and cook tender. Drain, dish, season and pour over them a good white sauce of drawn butter.

Fried turnips

Peel and slice young turnips, dropping them into cold water as you do so. Turn into a pot of boiling water, and cook for twenty minutes. Drain carefully, so as not to break the slices. When cold, dip each slice in beaten egg, then in salted cracker dust, and spread all upon a platter. Let them stand for an hour and fry in deep, boiling fat to a golden brown.

Turnips and carrots sautés

Peel and cut into dice of uniform size enough cold boiled turnips and carrots to make a cupful of each. Mix and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Melt two tablespoonfuls of butter in a frying-pan and turn the vegetable dice into this. Toss and turn in the hissing butter for five or ten minutes; drain in a hot colander and dish.

Kohlrabi turnips

Separate the turnip of the vegetable from the leaves that surround it and wash thoroughly. Cut into quarters and boil for twenty minutes in salted water. Drain; sprinkle with salt and pepper, and serve hot with melted butter.

Kohlrabi with leaves

Remove the outer leaves from the swelled stalk, or turnip; wash thoroughly and throw into cold water. Drain both and put them on to boil in separate vessels of salted water. When the turnips have cooked for ten minutes, drain and pour over them fresh boiling water, to which a tablespoonful of vinegar has been added. Boil for ten minutes longer; drain, scrape and slice. Dip the slices, one by one, in melted butter and lay about the edge of a hot platter. Drain the leaves which have been cooked tender, turn into a chopping-bowl and chop very fine. Return to the fire with two tablespoonfuls of butter, pepper and salt to taste. Beat to a smoking mass, and heap in the center of the heated platter, about the edge of which you have laid the sliced vegetable.

A WORD ABOUT NUTS

Nuts of all kinds are gaining in favor as articles of diet, and are at their best in the autumn and winter. They may be bought, shelled and packed in boxes, so that they are ready for immediate use. The housekeeper of moderate means, with an abundance of time at her disposal, will find that it is cheaper to buy the nuts in their shells and crack them herself. If she is so fortunate as to be able to despise the petty economies she will rejoice in the prepared nuts. They will save her much tedious labor.

If Spanish chestnuts are not to be procured when wanted, large domestic chestnuts may be boiled and used in their stead.

Chestnut croquettes

Boil a quart of Spanish chestnuts in salted water. While still hot, remove the shells and skins and rub the nuts through a colander. With a wooden spoon work to a smooth paste, adding, as you do so, a tablespoonful of butter, a saltspoonful of salt, a dash of paprika, a quarter of a teaspoonful of onion juice, a handful of fine bread-crumbs, and the unbeaten yolk of an egg. Put the paste in a double boiler over the fire and heat through. With floured hands form into croquettes, dip in beaten egg, then in cracker dust, and lay on a platter in the refrigerator for two hours. Fry in deep, boiling cottolene or other fat; drain in a colander, and serve very hot.

English walnut croquettes

Crack, extract the kernels, blanch by pouring boiling water over them, stripping off the loosened skins and dropping into cold water. Leave there for ten minutes; take out, dry between two soft towels and, when crisp and perfectly dry, proceed as with chestnuts in last recipe.

Peanut stuffing for roast duck

Prepare the ducks for roasting and make a stuffing of bread-crumbs seasoned with butter, pepper and salt. Chop a cupful of roasted and shelled peanuts to a powder and rub them into the bread-crumbs. Stuff the ducks with this mixture and roast, basting frequently.

Savory chestnuts

Boil and shell and skin large Spanish chestnuts; break each in half and cover with a thin giblet gravy. Or you may make a gravy of the legs and necks of a pair of fowls, and thicken it with browned flour rolled in butter. The gravy must be brown. Cook the chestnuts in it for ten minutes. This is a pleasing accompaniment to roast poultry of any kind, particularly roast turkey.

EVEN-THREADED LIVING

“Come what may, appearances must be kept up!” wrote a venerable gentlewoman to her daughter, with whom life had grown suddenly hard by reason of her husband’s pecuniary losses. “Show a brave front to the world although there may be an empty purse and an empty larder behind it. Noblesse oblige!”

The motto is grand—sometimes sublime.

There is an heroic side to the question, of which I shall treat presently.

The ignoble side, and that which forms the basis of most treatises on this subject, crops up when appearances are all in all, and make the life a continual lie, like an embroidered silk stocking drawn over an unwashed foot.

One of my childish recollections is of a rich woman, whose “pair of parlors,” as she called them, were richly carpeted, curtained and furnished, as was also a spacious dining-room on the same floor. When there was no company the family sat in a back room adjoining the kitchen. The worthy woman, visiting a sister-housewife, was scandalized at learning that she, her husband and six children actually used the parlors “every day and Sunday, too,” and ate habitually in a dining-room “where there was an elegant Brussels carpet on the floor.”

“My dear Mrs. Blank!” cried the wealthy economist, “do you expect to have all this and heaven, too?”

“I expect to enjoy heaven the more for having made the best of the Father’s gifts to me here,” answered the matron of advanced ideas.

Ideas, which I record with devout gratification, are fast relegating to a dusty and dishonored past, the “best room” of farmhouse and town mansion never opened except for visitors. With it is going the basement sitting-room, “low” in every sense of the word, which used to be thought good enough for the family. Expensive furniture, kept with real china and solid silver for “occasions”—that is, when appearances must be kept up before comparative strangers and acquaintances for whom, taken as individuals, the appearance-worshipers care less than nothing; fine clothes, worn above mean undergarments; sounding phrases aired, like the reserve of linen sheets, for company use—have more influence upon character than we are willing to believe. It is well to put the best foot foremost. It is better to have both feet decently shod and alike serviceable. Each of us knows plenty of people who have company tones, company smiles, company phraseology, company opinions—_un_wisely kept for show. One and all, singly and collectively, they mean to imply something which the wearers thereof are not. Their “appearances” are social electroplating, moral veneering. Slipshod at home and every day; well-groomed abroad and in the sight of those to whom it makes not an atom of difference how the hypocrites look or act,—“home devils and street angels,” as plain-spoken critics style them,—such is the great host of those who keep up appearances because they have not souls above shams, whose dusters and mops never visit the insides of burnished cups and platters. Verily they have their reward, but the prizes are as ignoble as the recipients and their motives.

We see, or may see, if we use our senses aright, the heroic side of the question. My heart aches with the thought of scores of examples which pass under my eyes in the lives of unknown martyrs of whom this world is not worthy, by whom the world to come will be made the worthier abiding-place of those for whom the Father has prepared it.

An old woman, who knew the Bronté sisters as children and women, told me that their body linen was darned by a thread until the original fabric hardly showed between the mending.

“But it was always whole and clean, and they made it as carefully as if it were to be trimmed with real lace. Nobody ever saw a rip in their gloves, and they cleaned them themselves. They looked like the ladies they were. Not a bit fashionable, but downright ladylike, you know. They always kept themselves up.”

I heard another “downright ladylike” girl, who is almost as poor as the Yorkshire sisters were, insist, the other day, upon dressing for the family dinner when the relative with whom she lived begged her not to change her walking costume.

“You are so tired, my dear, after teaching all day!”

“We working women can not take such liberties with ourselves,” said the spirited heroine. “If we let the forms of elegant propriety and conventionality go, we are in danger of forgetting what they represent.”

Of a like strain was the regard for appearances that led young Ellsworth, who was killed early in the Civil War, decline an invitation to dine with a business acquaintance at a restaurant when Ellsworth was so hungry that the smell of the food made him almost frantic. He was then a poor student working his way through a New York law school. In referring to the incident in more prosperous days, Colonel Ellsworth explained that he could not have accepted a courtesy he would not be able to repay in kind.

“A gentleman may starve without loss of caste,” he added. “He forfeits his right to the name in becoming a pauper, or a beggar.”

The outward appearance was the sign of the inward grace, inbred and invincible.

True refinement—the kind that does not shrink or go to pieces under the roughest processes of the mangle we know as daily living—is “even-threaded” and consistent throughout.

I called the other day upon a woman who has never been rich, but always refined. She is now poor. She can never be common. Her lunch hour was earlier than I had supposed, and my call infringed upon it. She and her daughter were at table.

“You shall not go,” she insisted; “I can give you a cup of hot tea and little else besides ‘bread and cheese and kisses.’ The welcome must make up the rest.” [Illustration: A BRIDESMAIDS’ TABLE WITH PINK ROSES]

TABLE FOR AN ENGAGEMENT DINNER

SUGGESTION FOR A SUNFLOWER LUNCHEON]

The cheese had been melted upon buttered toast, cut by a tin “shape” into scalloped ovals; it was golden brown in color, crisp to the teeth, savory to the palate. The tea was scalding and fresh and fragrant; for meat we had three Hamburg steaks, garnished with celery-tops. They were accompanied by an apple-and-celery salad, treated on the table to a French dressing; wafery slices of brown bread and butter went with it. Afterwards we had Albert biscuits and a second cup of tea—and nothing else. Beyond the laughing remark prefacing the frugal meal, the hostess offered no apology. She lived in this style every day, affecting nothing and hiding nothing. A gentlewoman in grain, if she had sat down to three meals a day alone, she would have breakfasted, lunched and dined—not merely “fed.” Luxury was beyond her reach—elegance never.

Simplicity need not be homely. Neatness is not a synonym for bareness. A certain degree of beauty and grace is almost a Christian duty.

The best cooks can not afford to despise the recommendation of the eye to the palate. The difference between plain and dainty housekeeping depends so much upon it that the professional caterer plays cunningly upon the desire of the eye, often bringing a good thing into disrepute. Because his garnishes and fanciful devices conceal cheap materials and indifferent manufactures is no reason why the housekeeper should not make the substantial “home fare” provided by her honest hands goodly to sight, as well as to taste.

Cooking schools and classes, chafing-dish lectures and the cuisine corner of the woman’s page have been active for more than a third of a century to bring our average American housewife to what old-time revivalists called “a realizing sense” of the deficiencies of the national kitchen, and by the rugged road of conviction to conversion from the old way to the new, which is the better. There is no dearth of missionaries, no lack of machinery.

Much of the work done by these is surface culture—scratching and smoothing over the soil, cleansing, to a polish, cup and platter. Curled parsley, beets, carrots and turnips, carved into leaves, stars and flowers, and fantastic confections of tissue paper and meringue—do not cheat veterans in gastronomics into relish of the ill-prepared dishes they adorn. Experiences of this sort have something to do with the contempt felt by many competent cooks for culinary esthetics. They class everything that looks in this direction under the head of “French cookery,” a synonym with them for flash and frippery.

I grant that to the hale appetite of the lover of “plain roast and boiled” of joints, haunches and rounds—the man who can digest mountains of fried “griddles,” and, in the bottom of his stomachic conscience, prefers corned beef and cabbage to broiled sweetbreads and mushrooms—his steak, or rare roast, or sugar-cured ham, or choice cut of cod, tastes no better for the garnish of cress, nasturtium or lemon. I once saw a millionaire “high-liver” toss aside the green sprays with the declaration that he “liked to have victuals and weeds sent in upon separate dishes.” After clearing the trou—trencher!—he proceeded to feed.

In the feeder’s very teeth I maintain that food daintily served tastes better than the same when set before us with no regard to seemliness. If slender appetites are to be coaxed into action, the study of pleasing effects becomes an obligation.

DINNER SWEETS OF ALL SORTS

PIES

Pastry

Have all ingredients very cold. Into a pound of flour chop three-quarters of a cup of firm, cold butter. When the flour is like a coarse powder stir into it a small cupful of iced water. With a spoon mix together, then turn upon a floured pastry-board, roll out quickly and lightly, fold and roll out again. Set the pastry on the ice until chilled through, roll out and line a pie-dish with it. Before filling the pastry shell with fruit, or other material of which the pie is to be made, wash over the lower crust with the unbeaten white of an egg, and, when the filling is put in, set the pie immediately in an oven that is as hot at the bottom as at the top. The oven must be hot and steady.

A good puff paste

Into a half-pound of flour chop six ounces of firm, cold butter, and, when like a coarse powder, wet with a small cupful of iced water. Stir to a paste and turn upon a chilled board. Roll out quickly and lightly, handling as little as possible. Fold and roll out three times, then set on the ice for several hours before making into pies. Always bake pastry in a very hot oven.

Family pie crust

Sift a quart of flour three times with one teaspoonful of baking-powder. Chop into it two tablespoonfuls of cottolene or other fat until it is like granulated dust. Wet with iced water into a stiff dough, handling as little as you can, using a wooden spoon until it is too stiff to manage. Turn upon a floured board and roll out thin. Have ready two tablespoonfuls of firm butter, and with this dot the paste in rows one inch apart, using one tablespoonful of butter. Roll up the sheet of paste, inclosing the butter; beat flat with the rolling-pin, and roll out as before. Use the other tablespoonful of butter in dotting this sheet, sprinkle lightly with flour, and roll up tightly. Give a blow or two of the pin to hold it in fold, and set on the ice until you are ready to use it—all night if you like. It is better for three or four hours’ chilling.

Butter the pie-plates, lay the crust lightly within them; pinch the edges to hinder it from “crawling” while baking, fill with fruit, or whatever else is to go into them. If this is to be what a witty editor designates as “the kivered pie which stands high in the royal family of Pie,” lay the paste neatly over the filling, trim off ragged edges, and press or print down the edges.

A North Carolina man thus separates the “royal family” aforesaid: “There are three varieties: kivered, unkivered and barred.”

The New York editor, just quoted, says of the “kivered” variety:

“Its triumphant composition requires of the artist higher qualities of head and heart, a more delicate touch, a higher strain of genius, a sublimer imagination, than the composition of the unkivered, or the barred. There must be magic in the upper crust of it. Ah! that delicious, finely-flaking upper crust, designed by a deep-revolving brain and fashioned by a sensitive hand, a pâté Queen Mab would be glad to nibble!”

On the other hand, a New Orleans knight of the pen boldly defines the kivered pie as “distinctively a product of New England civilization, that has no place in simpler and more democratic states. Descendants of the men who made the charge up King’s Mountain, the Majuba Hill of this continent, take their pie unkivered. They will not touch the kivered abomination!”

Mince pie

Returning to our New York editorial, the amused reader finds this eulogium upon mince pie:

“There goes much skill to the making of a mince pie. Within the fortunate inwards of the president of pies are strange dainties and spices, and Dr. Johnson’s drink of heroes. The elements are so mixed in it that nature may stand up and say to all the world: ‘This is a pie! A great mince pie is a masterpiece!’”

An anonymous writer upon the same subject says for the comfort of semi-dyspeptics:

“Mince-meat ought to be extremely wholesome for the same reasons that make it good to eat—its flavors of sweet and sour, of meat, apple and spice, which relieve each other, and its finely divided particles which allow the choicer blending of flavors and save the stomach much of the grinding work which reduces food to the pulp in which it enters the blood. What gives mince pie its ill repute as the very spawn of nightmare, are its overdressing with suet and butter, only fit for polar consumption, and its drugging with spices. Spice is the very food of the nerves, rightly used, growing more essential as circulation and sense dull with age. But it should be delicately, discerningly used not to lose its potency. The overdressing with fat is a relic of the old English barbarism which stewed its food in tallow, and, as the old play has it, ‘took two fat wethers to baste one capon.’”

Mince-meat

(A family recipe 150 years old.)

Boil two pounds of lean beef, and when cold, chop fine. Mince a pound of beef suet to a powder. Peel and chop five pounds of apples. Seed and halve two pounds of raisins. Wash, and pick over carefully two pounds of cleaned currants and one pound of sultana raisins. Cut into tiny bits three-quarters of a pound of citron. Mix these ingredients, adding, as you do so, two tablespoonfuls, each, of cinnamon and mace, a tablespoonful, each, of cloves and allspice, a teaspoonful of ground nutmeg, a tablespoonful of salt and two and a half pounds of brown sugar. When all is well mixed, stir in a quart of sherry and a pint of the best brandy. Mix thoroughly and pack down in a stone crock.

Mince-meat should be prepared several weeks before it is needed, that it may “ripen” and become mellow. Those whose temperance principles forbid the moistening of the mince-meat with brandy or sherry, may use cider in their place. In making mince pies have the best puff-paste. Line pie-plates with this, fill the crust shells with the mince-meat, and lay strips of pastry, lattice-wise, across the tops of the pies. Bake in a good oven, which should be as hot at the bottom as at the top. The pies may be kept for weeks, but must be reheated before serving.

Our New Orleans essayist upon the national pie, is cavalierly disdainful in throwing aside the third variety:

“The barred pie may be dismissed without discussion, being a mere compromise, a pabulum for colorless individuals who are the mugwumps of the dining-room.”

In defiance of the slur, I commend my “barred” mince pie, with its latticed cover, as the pearl of the royal race. For a century and a half, the Old Virginia housewives, from whom I proudly claim descent, laid the dainty trellis across the heaving brown breast of the masterpiece, and six generations of epicures have set thereon the seal of their approval.

Pumpkin pie (No. 1)

Belongs to the noble order of the “unkivered” pie.

Add the beaten yolks of four eggs and one cupful of white sugar to two cupfuls of pumpkin that has been stewed and put through a colander. With this mix a quart of milk, one teaspoonful of cinnamon, mace and nutmeg mixed, and the whites of the eggs, beaten stiff. Line a very deep pie-dish with a good paste, cut slashes in it here and there, stir the pumpkin custard well from the bottom and put it into the pastry. Bake in a steady oven.

Pumpkin pie (No. 2)

Into a quart of stewed and strained pumpkin stir a quart of milk, a cup of granulated sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg to taste, and, last of all, five eggs, well beaten. Mix thoroughly, and pour the mixture into a deep pie-plate lined with puff paste. Bake in a good oven until the pumpkin custard is “set.” Eat cold. Canned pumpkin is used in the same way and is almost as good as the fresh.

Lemon cream pie (No. 1)

Heat a quart of milk and stir into it one-third of a cupful of prepared flour wet with a little cold milk. Let this get hot, stirring all the while. Beat the yolks of five eggs light with five tablespoonfuls of sugar, and add the milk and flour to this. Let all cook together for one minute after they come to the simmer; take from the fire and add the juice and grated peel of a large lemon. Bake in open shells of puff paste, and, as soon as the custard is set, cover it with a meringue made of the whites of the five eggs beaten stiff with three tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar. Brown lightly and serve cold.

Lemon cream pie (No. 2)

Cream a tablespoonful of butter with a cupful of sugar; dissolve a heaping tablespoonful of corn-starch in a gill of cold water, and stir it into a cupful of boiling water. Stir until smooth; then pour over the sugar and butter. Mix well and when cool stir in the grated rind and the juice of a large lemon, and one beaten egg. Line a pie-plate with puff paste, fill with this mixture and bake. When done, cover with a meringue, and return to the oven just long enough to brown lightly.

Lemon pie with crust

Beat two eggs light and stir into them two cupfuls of sugar; add a pint of water, three tablespoonfuls of cracker-dust, the same quantity of flour rubbed to a paste with a little cold water, the grated rind of one, and the juice of two lemons. Beat hard, add a pinch, each, of cinnamon and nutmeg, and turn the mixture into pie-plates lined with pastry. Cover with an upper crust, cut gashes in this for the escape of the steam, and bake in a steady oven for forty minutes.

Crustless lemon pie

Soak a cupful of crumbs for an hour in a little milk. Cream together a half-cupful of sugar and half as much butter, whip into them the beaten yolks of three eggs and the white of one, reserving the other whites for the meringue. Now add the juice and grated rind of two lemons, then the soaked crumbs. Line a large pie-plate with puff paste, pour in the lemon mixture and bake to a golden brown. Make a meringue of the stiffened whites and two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar. Draw the pie to the door of the oven, spread with the meringue and return it to the oven just long enough to brown it delicately. Eat cold.

Cocoanut pie

Cream a half-cupful of butter with two scant cupfuls of powdered sugar, and when very light add half a grated cocoanut and a generous tablespoonful of rose-water. Now “fold” in quickly and lightly the stiffened whites of six eggs, turn into a deep pie-dish lined with puff paste and bake in a quick oven. Eat cold with powdered sugar and whipped cream flavored with rose-water. This is delicious.

When it is possible to do so buy the fresh cocoanut and grate it. The prepared or desiccated article put up in boxes may be used as a makeshift. It can never be a worthy substitute for the fresh and juicy nut.

Chocolate pie (No. 1)

Make a custard by pouring two cupfuls of scalding milk gradually upon three eggs that have been beaten well with four tablespoonfuls of sugar. Return to the fire, stir in a half-cupful of grated sweet-chocolate, remove from the fire, add a teaspoonful of vanilla, and pour the mixture into a pie-plate lined with puff paste. Bake until “set.”

Chocolate pie (No. 2)

One pint of milk; one cupful of sugar; yolks of two eggs; two tablespoonfuls of grated chocolate. Mix, and bake in an open crust. Make a meringue of the whites of the eggs and a tablespoonful of sugar and spread on the top of the pie to brown.

Orange pie

Rub to a creamy paste a half-cupful of butter and a cupful of granulated sugar. Beat light the yolks of four eggs, whip them into the butter and sugar, add the juice and a quarter of the grated peel of a large orange, a teaspoonful of lemon juice, and the stiffened whites of two eggs. Line a pie-plate with light puff paste and turn the orange mixture into this. Bake until the filling is set and the crust lightly browned. Beat the whites of two eggs light with two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar. When the pie is done, draw it to the door of the oven, spread it with this meringue, and return to the oven just long enough to color the meringue delicately. Eat cold.

Custard pie

Whip light the yolks of three eggs with four tablespoonfuls of sugar. Pour upon them two cupfuls of boiling milk, stirring this in slowly. Flavor with a teaspoonful of vanilla. Line a pie-plate with paste, brush the inside with the white of an egg, pour in the custard and bake.

Sliced apple pie

Line a deep pie-dish with good puff paste. Put into this peeled and cored and thinly-sliced apples; sprinkle thickly with sugar and squeeze a few drops of lemon juice upon them. Add more sliced apple, more sugar, a little more lemon, and proceed in this way until the dish is full. Cover with a round of puff paste, pinch together the edges of the upper and lower crusts, and cut several slits in the upper to allow the steam to escape. Bake in a steady oven to a golden brown, covering the pie with paper for the first ten minutes.

Creamed sweet apple pie

Pare, core and quarter Campfield pound sweets, or other sweet apples. Put them into a pudding-dish with a few spoonfuls of water to prevent burning, cover closely and cook until tender, but not broken. Add two tablespoonfuls of sugar to each cupful and let them get cold in the syrup. Then cut into thin slices or tiny dice. Roll out some puff paste quite thin; line a pie-plate, sprinkle with flour, lay on another crust and bake until brown. When ready to serve, open the crusts, spread the lower one with the stewed apple, cover with whipped cream, put on the top crust and sprinkle that with powdered sugar.

Creamed apple-sauce pie

Bake your crusts as directed in preceding recipe. When you separate them, spread with well-sweetened apple-sauce beaten light; cover with whipped cream; lay on the upper crust and sprinkle powdered sugar on top.

In both of these recipes you may substitute a meringue of frothed whites, slightly sweetened, for the cream, spreading the same upon the top crust.

Apple meringue pie

Slice and stew ripe, tart apples; run through the colander or vegetable press into a bowl. Sweeten plentifully, and beat in, while hot, a tablespoonful of butter. Have ready buttered pie-plates lined with puff paste; when the sauce is cold fill these shells with it and bake until very lightly browned. Cover with a meringue, slightly sweetened and flavored with vanilla or other essence; set in a hot oven and bake until the meringue begins to color. Sift powdered sugar over all. Eat cold.

Peach meringue pie

Stew and rub peaches through a colander or a vegetable press. Sweeten to taste, and when cold, proceed as directed in last recipe. They are very nice.

Whole peach pie

Line a deep pie-plate with pastry, and lay in it as many whole peeled peaches as it will hold. Strew thickly with sugar; fit on an upper crust and bake to a golden brown. Eat with powdered sugar and cream.

Creamed peach pie (No. 1)

Peel, stone and halve ripe peaches. Line a deep pie-plate with puff paste, and lay the peaches in this. Sprinkle thickly with sugar, and fit on an upper crust. Have ready and cold, a cream sauce. To make this, scald a half-pint of milk and thicken it with a tablespoonful of corn-starch rubbed smooth in a little cold milk. Add two tablespoonfuls of sugar and the frothed white of one egg. Boil together for five minutes and set aside to cool. When the pie is done carefully lift the top crust and fill the pie to overflowing with the cream sauce. Replace the crust and set in a cool place. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and eat very cold.

Creamed peach pie (No. 2)

Bake as above, stoning the peaches and cutting each in half. While hot, insinuate the blade of a knife between upper and lower crust, to loosen them. Let the pie get cold; lift the crust and spread whipped cream upon the peaches. Cover again, strew powdered sugar upon the top crust and eat.

Creamed raspberry pie

Line a pie-dish with good pastry and fill it three-quarters full of red raspberries strewed with granulated sugar. Cover with an upper crust, but rub the edges of this and of the lower crust with butter to prevent their sticking together. Make a cream of a cupful of hot milk thickened with a teaspoonful of corn-starch wet with cold milk. Stir in two tablespoonfuls of sugar, remove from the fire, and when cool whip in the stiffened whites of three eggs. When the pie is done and is cold, lift off the upper crust and cover the raspberries with the “cream.” Replace the cover and sift powdered sugar over it.

Cherry pie

Many persons make a cherry pie without stoning the cherries. That stoning them is a trouble is not to be denied, but the result is so satisfactory that it really seems worth while to take the pains to accomplish it. In stoning cherries, use a sharp knife and save all the juice. Grease a deep pie-dish and line it with good puff pastry. Fill the pastry shell with the cherries and the juice that flowed from them in the stoning process. Cover with a thin crust, cut slits in this for the escape of the steam, and bake. Eat cold.

Cranberry pie

Seed a cupful of raisins and chop them into bits. Cut into halves two cupfuls of cranberries and mix them with the minced raisins. Add two even cupfuls of sugar, a cupful of water, two tablespoonfuls of flour and a few drops of lemon juice. Line deep pie-plates with puff paste; fill each with the mixture, put on a thin upper crust and cut slits in this for the escape of the steam. Bake in a good oven to a golden brown. When cold, sprinkle with sugar.

Cranberry and raisin pie

Seed and mince one cupful of raisins; mix with two cupfuls of cranberries halved, a half cupful of water and a cupful of sugar. Stir one teaspoonful of flour with the sugar and mix all well. Fill shells of pastry laid in buttered plates with this mixture, called by some “mock cherry pie,” lay strips of crust cut with a jagging-iron over the top and bake.

Strawberry pie

Line a buttered plate with puff paste, wash with white of egg and fill with ripe strawberries capped and washed. Sweeten plentifully, cover with another crust; cut slits in this, and bake.

Currant pie (No. 1)

Mix ripe and stemmed currants with one cupful of sugar to two of currants, and bake between upper and lower crusts. Strew white sugar over the top and eat cold.

Currant pie (No. 2)

Fill a pastry shell with one cupful of ripe currants, cleaned and stemmed. Pour upon them an egg, beaten light with one-half cupful of sugar. Lay another crust over the currants and bake.

New England blueberry pie

Wash and dredge blueberries with flour; then scatter among them half a cupful of sugar for each pint of berries. Fill paste shells with this, dot with butter, cover with another crust and bake.

These are richer than huckleberry or blueberry pies, when made in the usual way, the flour thickening the juice slightly and the butter tempering the acid.

Blackberry pie

Make as directed in foregoing recipe.

Combination berry pie

Line a deep pie-plate with pastry and bake long enough to set the crust on top, but not to brown, or entirely cook it. Have ready a mixture of equal quantities of elderberries and huckleberries with one-fourth as many red currants. Dredge with flour, and sprinkle over all a generous cupful of sugar for a quart of berries; dot the surface with bits of butter,—one tablespoon in all,—cover with a crust which should be well turned under the crust of the lower one, and bake, covered, half an hour, then brown.

Sweet potato pie

Parboil, peel, and when cold, grate enough sweet potatoes to make a pound. Cream a half cupful of butter with three-quarters of a cupful of sugar and the beaten yolks of four eggs, a teaspoonful, each, of powdered cinnamon and nutmeg, the grated potato, the juice and rind of a lemon, a wineglassful of brandy and, last of all, the whites of the eggs. Line a large pie-plate with puff paste, fill with the mixture and bake.

Irish potato pie

Boil and rub through a colander or vegetable press; then proceed as with the sweet potatoes in last recipe, but using a full cupful of sugar.

This pie is even more delicious than the sweet potato compound.

Rhubarb and raisin pie

Peel the rhubarb and cut into inch pieces; pour boiling water over it and let stand for ten minutes. Drain; line the pie-plate with plain paste. Fill the pie with rhubarb, and strew over it one cupful of sugar and one-half cupful of raisins. Add small pieces of butter. Cover with a crust and bake.

Whipped cream pie

(Contributed)

Line a pie-plate with a rich crust and bake in a hot oven. When cool spread over with a layer of jelly or marmalade. Whip one cupful of thick cream, sweetened with powdered sugar, and flavored with vanilla; pour this over the marmalade. Or fill crust with whipped cream to which has been added one teacupful of blanched chopped almonds.

Turnover pies

(Contributed)

Mix a plain puff paste. Roll thin and cut into circular pieces about the size of a saucer. Put fruit over one-half of the piece. Sprinkle with sugar. Wet the edges and turn the paste over. Press the edges together and bake on tins in a quick oven twenty minutes.

Mock mince pie

(Contributed)

Mix well together one cupful of raisins chopped fine, one-half cupful of chopped currants, one-fourth teaspoonful of salt, one tablespoonful of vinegar, two-thirds of a cupful of molasses, one-half cupful of cider, one-half cup of sugar, one-half cupful of cut citron and the juice and rind of two lemons, two Boston crackers rolled and one well-beaten egg. Line a pie-pan with paste and fill with some of the mixture, cover with a puff paste and bake.

Washington pie

(Contributed)

Beat together one tablespoonful of butter, one cupful of sugar and one egg until light. Add one cupful of milk and two cupfuls of flour into which have been sifted one teaspoonful of ginger, one teaspoonful of cinnamon and one-half teaspoonful of baking-powder. Beat thoroughly until smooth. Line the Washington pie-plate with a plain paste, put the mixture into it and bake in a moderate quick oven thirty minutes. When done cover with frosting and set to cool.

Crumb pie

Soak a half cupful of bread-crumbs in enough milk to cover them until they are soft and have absorbed all the milk. Cream a third of a cupful of sugar with two ounces of butter; add two eggs, well beaten, and the juice and grated rind of two small lemons, or one very large one. Now, stir in the soaked crumbs, beat for a minute; turn into a pie-plate lined with puff paste, and bake in a hot oven until brown and very light.

Custard pie

Make a custard by pouring three cupfuls of scalding milk upon four eggs that have been beaten light with four tablespoonfuls of sugar. Flavor with vanilla, and pour into a pie-dish lined with puff paste. Bake until set. Serve cold.

Vinegar pie (No. 1)

One cupful of vinegar; one cupful of water; a tablespoonful of butter; one heaping tablespoonful of flour wet with cold water; two-thirds of a cupful of sugar. Put flour, vinegar, butter and sugar into a saucepan and stir until melted, then add the cold water. Stir until thick. Have pie-tins lined with a rich crust; fill with the mixture and bake for fifteen minutes in a hot oven.

Beat the white of an egg to a stiff meringue, adding two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar. When the pies are done, draw them to the door of the oven, spread thickly with the meringue, and return to the oven until a very light brown.

Vinegar pie (No. 2)

One egg; one heaping tablespoonful of flour; one teacupful of sugar; one cupful of cold water; one tablespoonful of vinegar; nutmeg to taste. Beat the egg, add the sugar and flour, beating hard; then add the other ingredients, and bake in an open crust.

Currant tarts

Into a quart of sifted flour chop a cupful of firm, cold butter. When the butter is like coarse sand add a cupful of iced water and work into a paste, touching with the hands as little as possible. Turn upon a pastry-board and roll out twice; then set on the ice for an hour or two. Line small buttered tart-pans with this paste.

Stem and pick over ripe red currants and wash them. Nearly fill the pastry shells with these and sweeten very generously with granulated sugar. Bake, and, when cold, sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Cranberry tarts

Make a cranberry sauce according to directions already given. Line pâté-pans with puff paste; fill with the cranberry sauce, lay strips of pastry, crosswise, over the tops, and bake in a quick oven. When done, sprinkle with granulated sugar and set away to cool.

Lemon tarts

Cream together a cupful of butter and two cupfuls of sugar, stir in the beaten yolks of six eggs, the grated rind of one, and the juice of two lemons, a dash of nutmeg, a wineglassful of brandy, and the stiffened whites of the eggs. Line pâté-pans with puff paste, and fill with this mixture. Bake in a quick oven and serve cold.

Orange cheese cakes

Peel and seed four large oranges, saving all the juice. Boil half of the peels until tender, and, when cold, beat them to a paste with twice their weight in powdered sugar; add the minced pulp and the juice of the oranges with a tablespoonful of butter; beat all together; line pâté-pans with puff paste, lay in the orange mixture and bake.

There must be no fibrous skin or membrane left in the pulp. To get rid of this rub it through a colander.

Cherry tarts

Wash, stem and stone the cherries. Allow one cupful of sugar to a pint of cherries, if tart fruit be used. Put the sugar and one-half cupful of water on the fire; when boiling add the fruit and cook ten minutes. Stir in one teaspoonful of butter and, if the syrup seem thin, wet one teaspoonful of corn-starch in cold water and stir in to thicken the juice slightly.

Have ready-baked pâtés of pastry; fill with the cherry mixture when the latter is cold, sift sugar over top, and eat.

Fried tartlets

Make a rich puff paste and cut it into pieces six inches square. In the center of each square put a great spoonful of raspberry, strawberry, currant or gooseberry jam. Pinch the four corners of the square together, or fold it in half and pinch the edges tightly together that the fruit may not ooze out. Drop the tarts carefully into a kettle of deep, boiling cottolene or other fat, and fry quickly to a delicate brown. Drain in a colander lined with tissue paper.

These are the celebrated “Banbury tarts” of English folk-lore.

HOT PUDDINGS

Boiled puddings

Before attempting a boiled pudding, be sure that you have a good mold with a tightly-fitting cover in which to cook it. You may use such a substitute as a bowl with a floured cloth tied over the top, but this is, at best, a “make-do” which may allow the water to enter and ruin your dough. The best substitute for a mold is a cottolene pail with a top, which may be made more secure by tying it on. Always grease your mold thoroughly,—top, bottom and sides,—and leave room for the swelling of the contents. Three hours will be, as a rule, the longest time required for the boiling of a pudding of ordinary size. All boiled puddings should be served as soon as they are cooked.

Apple pudding (No. 1)

Chop a cupful of suet to a coarse powder and stir it into three cupfuls of flour, twice sifted with a teaspoonful of baking-powder. Add enough milk to make a dough that can be rolled out. Roll into a square sheet. In the center of the sheet lay three cupfuls of peeled and minced apples, strewn with sugar. Bring the four corners of the sheet over the fruit, and pinch the corners together in the middle. Tie up firmly with a piece of broad white tape passed twice around the pudding. Lay in a steamer and cook for two and one-half hours. Remove the tape and serve the pudding with a hard sauce flavored with lemon juice and powdered cinnamon.

Apple pudding (No. 2)

Into two cupfuls of prepared flour chop a tablespoonful of butter, until it is like a coarse yellow powder. Make a batter of this buttered flour, a teacupful of milk and three beaten eggs. Have ready half a dozen peeled and sliced apples, wiped dry, then dredged with flour; stir these into the batter and turn into a greased pudding-mold. Boil for two hours. Eat with a hot lemon sauce.

Cranberry pudding

Sift three cupfuls of flour with a half teaspoonful of salt and stir in a cupful of molasses, a small cupful of sour cream, two beaten eggs and half a teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a little boiling water. Last of all, beat in a cupful and a half of halved cranberries, thoroughly dredged with flour. Turn into a greased mold and steam for at least two hours. Eat with a hard sauce.

Blackberry pudding

Make a batter of a pint of milk, two eggs, and a cupful of flour, sifted with a saltspoonful of salt and a small teaspoonful of baking-powder. Add more flour if the batter is too thin. Beat thoroughly and stir into the batter a pint of blackberries thoroughly dredged with flour. Pour at once into a greased mold and boil for two hours. Serve with a hard sauce.

Plum pudding (No. 1)

Rub together a cupful of granulated sugar and a half cupful of butter. Into this stir a half pound of chopped and powdered suet, then beat in five eggs, a half pint of milk and a teaspoonful of orange juice. Dredge with flour a cupful, each, of seeded raisins and cleaned currants and a half cupful of minced citron. Add this fruit to the batter and stir in a quarter of a teaspoonful, each, of powdered cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Last of all, beat in a quart of flour, turn into a large mold and steam for six hours.

Plum pudding (No. 2)

Half a pound, each, of sugar and suet; a quarter of a pound of butter; five cupfuls of flour; one pound, each, of cleaned currants and of raisins; two tablespoonfuls of shredded citron; one cupful of milk; half a teaspoonful, each, of ground mace, cloves and nutmeg; six eggs; half a cupful of brandy.

Rub butter and sugar together and mix with them the milk and the beaten yolks of the eggs. Add the flour and the whipped whites; dredge the raisins (which should have been seeded and chopped), the currants and citron with flour, and put these in with the spices and the brandy. Mix well, pack into a greased mold, plunge at once into a pot of boiling water and boil five hours. Be careful that the water does not boil over the top of the mold and get into the pudding.

Fig pudding (No. 1)

Soak a cupful of bread-crumbs in a cupful of milk for half an hour. Chop enough suet to make a quarter of a cupful; beat three eggs light; cut into tiny bits a sufficient number of soaked figs to make a cupful of the minced fruit.

Turn the soaked crumbs into a bowl, and stir into them a half cupful of granulated sugar, the whipped eggs, the powdered suet, a pinch of salt and a dash, each, of cinnamon and nutmeg. Last of all, stir in the minced figs thickly dredged with flour, beat well and turn into a greased pudding mold with a closely-fitting top. Boil for about three hours. Turn out and eat with a hard sauce.

Fig pudding (No. 2)

Use only the best figs, soak one hour in a little warm water, and chop enough to make a generous cupful when minced. Soak two cupfuls of fine bread-crumbs in two cupfuls of milk until very soft. Into the crumbs stir five eggs, beaten light, a half cupful of sugar, a saltspoonful of salt, and the cupful of minced figs, thoroughly dredged with flour. Beat hard for several minutes, and turn into a greased pudding mold with a close top. Set in boiling water and cook for three hours. Dip the mold into cold water for an instant, then turn the pudding out upon a hot platter. Set in the oven long enough for the moisture to dry from the outside of the pudding. Three minutes in a hot oven should suffice. Send to the table and eat with a hard sauce flavored with a little nutmeg.

Fig and raisin pudding

Soak a large cupful of bread-crumbs in a cupful of milk for an hour; stir into them three eggs, beaten very light, three tablespoonfuls of powdered suet, and three tablespoonfuls of flour sifted with a teaspoonful of baking-powder. Have ready a half cupful of minced figs and the same quantity of seeded and quartered raisins. Mix the fruit together, dredge thoroughly with flour, and stir it into the pudding batter. Pour the mixture into a large pudding mold with a closely fitting top, leaving an abundance of room in the mold for the pudding to swell. Steam for fully three hours. Turn from the mold, set the pudding in the oven for five minutes, and serve with a liquid sauce.

Boiled Indian pudding (No. 1)

Heat a quart of milk to scalding, and beat into it gradually three cupfuls of Indian meal, into which you have stirred a scant teaspoonful of salt. When the meal is thoroughly beaten in and is free from lumps, add two heaping tablespoonfuls of powdered suet and remove from the fire. Turn into a bowl and set aside to cool. When the meal-mixture is very cold beat in four whipped eggs, a gill of molasses and a half teaspoonful of powdered cinnamon. Beat for five minutes and pour into a greased pudding mold with a closely fitting top. Boil for five hours, turn out upon a heated platter and set in the oven for five minutes before sending to the table. Eat with a hard or liquid sauce.

Indian pudding (No. 2)

Heat a quart of milk to scalding. Into a pint of Indian meal stir a half pound of finely chopped suet and a saltspoonful of salt. Turn this into the scalding milk. Stir all together and remove from the fire. When cold add three well-beaten eggs, a small cupful of molasses and half a teaspoonful of baking-soda dissolved in a tablespoonful of boiling water. Dredge a pound of seeded raisins with a cup of flour, and stir in last of all. Boil for three hours. Serve with hard sauce.

Batter pudding

Into four eggs, beaten very light, stir three cupfuls of milk and a pint of flour that has been twice sifted with a teaspoonful of baking-powder and a saltspoonful of salt. Turn into a greased pudding mold and steam for two hours. Eat with hot brandy sauce.

Boiled prune pudding

Stew a pound and a half of prunes; when cold remove the stones and cut each prune into four pieces. Into a half cupful of powdered suet stir a half cupful of powdered sugar, two beaten eggs, a gill of milk, a gill of the prune liquor and a scant pint of flour, sifted with a half teaspoonful of baking-powder and a saltspoonful of salt. Beat all thoroughly together, and, last of all, add the quartered prunes, thoroughly dredged with flour. Turn into a greased pudding mold with a closely fitting top and boil for two and a half hours. Eat hot with hard sauce.

Boiled huckleberry pudding

Make a rich biscuit dough. Roll this out, spread thickly with huckleberries, sprinkle with granulated sugar, and dot with bits of butter. Roll the sheet up carefully into an oblong parcel, pinch the edges together and put into a muslin bag. Plunge this into a vessel of boiling water and keep at a hard boil for at least two hours. Remove the pudding and serve with hot liquid sauce.

Steamed orange pudding (1)

Soak a cupful of bread-crumbs in a cupful of milk until very soft; beat into them three whipped eggs, two tablespoonfuls of powdered suet and three-quarters of a cupful of sugar. Carefully peel and divide into half lobes three oranges, dredge each piece thoroughly with flour, and stir the fruit into the above mixture. Turn into a greased pudding mold with a closely fitting top and steam for at least three hours. Turn the pudding out upon a hot platter, set in the oven for five minutes to dry, and send to the table with a hard sauce.

Boiled orange pudding (2)

Make a light paste of a pint of flour and three-quarters of a cupful of shortening—half butter, half cottolene or other fat—wet with enough iced water to make it of the proper consistency to roll out. Set in a cold place for several hours. Roll into a large sheet and cover this thickly with juicy oranges, peeled, sliced and seeded. Sprinkle the fruit well with granulated sugar and roll up the pastry. Fold the ends closely together, sew the pudding into a floured cheese-cloth bag, and boil for nearly two hours. Serve very hot with a hard sauce flavored with orange juice and a half teaspoonful of the grated peel.

Raisin pudding

Wash and seed a cupful and a half of raisins, and dredge them thickly with flour. Chop a cupful of suet very fine, removing all particles of string. It should be like powder. To this add a half cupful of brown sugar, a cupful of sour milk and three eggs beaten light. Now stir in enough flour to make a batter. (This batter must not be too thick, as the raisins have to be added to it.) About two cupfuls of flour should be enough. Beat in a half teaspoonful, each, of nutmeg and cinnamon and a small teaspoonful of soda, dissolved in a little boiling water. Now add the raisins, stir them in well, turn the pudding into a greased mold with a closely fitting top and steam for three hours. Eat with a hard sauce flavored with vanilla.

Fruit pudding

Cream together a cupful of butter and the same quantity of powdered sugar. Beat six eggs light and stir them into the butter and sugar. When thoroughly blended add three cupfuls of prepared flour and the grated peel of two lemons.

Have already prepared a half pound of seeded and halved raisins, eight minced figs and a quarter of a pound of minced citron. Mix these, dredge them thoroughly with flour and stir into the batter. Boil in a very large mold for three hours. This is an excellent company pudding and is a large one. Eat with hot liquid sauce.

Clonduff pudding

One cupful of molasses; half a cupful of melted butter; three and a half cupfuls of flour; one cupful of milk; three eggs, well-beaten; one-half teaspoonful of baking-soda; one teaspoonful of cinnamon; pinch of salt.

Stir molasses and butter to a cream, add the milk, the eggs, the spice, lastly, the flour, sifted three times with the salt and soda. Mix well, pour into a buttered mold; set in a pot of boiling water and cook steadily for three hours. The water must be kept at a fast boil all the time, replenishing from the tea-kettle if need be. Eat with wine sauce.

An excellent family pudding, and not expensive.

Sally’s pudding

Crumb stale cake finely. If there are several kinds, no matter. Stir the white of a raw egg into just enough cold water to moisten the crumbs. Don’t get them too soft. Press the mixture into a well-greased mold, with a close cover; boil steadily one hour; turn out while hot and eat with hard or liquid sauce.

Boiled gooseberry pudding

Top, tail and wash two cupfuls of gooseberries, ripe or green. Dredge with flour. Sift two cupfuls of flour with one teaspoonful of baking-powder and half as much salt. Cream one-half cupful of sugar with half as much butter. Add the well-beaten yolk of one egg, then the white, beaten stiff, one cupful of milk and the flour mixture alternately. Lastly, stir in the floured fruit; turn into a well-greased mold and boil two hours.

Steamed apricot pudding

With one heaping cupful of flour sift, twice, a heaping teaspoonful of baking-powder and half a teaspoonful of salt. Chop two tablespoonfuls of cottolene or other fat into this and mix to a dough with one cupful of milk. Strain the liquor from a can of apricots and save it to make sauce for the pudding. Butter a deep mold; pour an inch of dough into the bottom; cover with halved apricots; then more dough, and so on until all your materials are used up. Cover closely and boil or steam for three hours.

For sauce, strain and heat the syrup, thicken with a roux of flour and butter, cook for one minute; add a great spoonful of sugar and boil three minutes.

Suet pudding

Slightly warm and stir together one cupful of molasses and one of suet, freed from strings and powdered. Have ready a cupful of seeded and minced raisins and two even cupfuls of flour, sifted with one even teaspoonful of soda and a saltspoonful of salt. Beat two eggs light, add to the warmed mixture, season with mace and cinnamon, put in the flour, lastly the fruit. Pour into a buttered mold and steam nearly three hours.

Mary’s favorite pudding

Sift twice with two cupfuls of whole wheat flour a heaping teaspoonful of baking-powder and half a teaspoonful of salt. Have ready half a cupful of nut-meats—walnuts or hickory-nuts—scalded, skinned and dried, then chopped, and a cupful of sultana raisins, stemmed and washed. Dredge well with flour. Mix one cupful of milk with one-half cupful of molasses. Stir the sifted flour into this, add the dredged nuts and fruit mixed together; turn into a well-buttered mold, fit upon it a close top, and steam or boil for three hours.

Cornstarch hasty pudding

Heat a quart of milk in a double boiler. When it reaches the boiling point add four tablespoonfuls of corn-starch wet up with cold water and a pinch of salt. Cook for ten minutes, stirring often; then add a tablespoonful of butter, and let it stand at the side of the range for five minutes longer. Beat well and serve hot. Eat with butter and sugar.

East Indian pudding (very good)

One cupful of milk; three-quarters of a cupful of flour, sifted with an even teaspoonful of baking powder; three tablespoonfuls of butter; four eggs; four tablespoonfuls of minced preserved ginger, and one tablespoonful of the syrup.

Heat the milk to scalding, stir in the butter, and, when this is melted, boil up before adding the dry flour—all at once. Stir quickly down to the bottom every time, and when you have a smooth batter, turn out into a bowl. Beat hard with upward strokes for one minute and let it cool quickly, uncovered. When cold, make a hole in the middle, and break in an egg from the shell. Beat it in hard and well before dropping in another. Proceed in this way until all the eggs are beaten into the dough.

Dredge the minced ginger with flour before adding it. Last of all, work in the syrup.

Butter a mold well, put in the pudding and steam for two hours, or boil for an hour and a half. Set in cold water for one minute to make it shrink from the sides of the mold. Turn out, and eat hot with brandy sauce.

Cherry batter pudding

Stone three cupfuls of ripe cherries. Beat two eggs light, stir into them a tablespoonful of melted butter and a pint of milk, then four cupfuls of prepared flour. Last of all, stir in the cherries, well dredged with flour. Turn into a greased mold and steam for three hours. Serve with a hard sauce.

Cabinet pudding

(Contributed)

Butter a pudding mold and sprinkle the bottom with chopped raisins, citron and currants; add a layer of sponge cake and sprinkle lightly with ground cinnamon and cloves. Alternate these layers until the mold is almost full. Beat four eggs until light, add one quart of milk and a little salt and four tablespoonfuls of melted butter. Pour over the cake. Let all stand one hour and then steam for one and a half hours and serve with a currant jelly sauce.

Cherry roly-poly

(Contributed)

Sift one teaspoonful of salt and three level teaspoonfuls of baking-powder into one pint of flour; rub into this one tablespoonful of butter and moisten with enough milk to make a rather stiff dough. Toss on the board and pat into a rectangular shape. Have ready some stoned and well-drained cherries, lay them on the dough and press them gently into it. Dredge with flour and roll over into a loose roll, pinch the edges together and wrap in a cloth. Lay in a steamer and cook one hour; serve with cherry sauce.

BAKED PUDDINGS

Baked prune pudding (No. 1)

Stone and chop eighteen stewed prunes. Beat the yolks of four eggs light with two tablespoonfuls of sugar. Cook together in a saucepan one tablespoonful of butter and two of flour, and when they are blended pour upon them a scant gill of hot milk. Cook, stirring, to a thick white sauce; beat this gradually into the yolks and sugar, and add the minced prunes. Beat hard for five minutes, and set aside to cool. When cold, add the stiffened whites of the four eggs, beat for a minute and turn into a buttered pudding-dish. Bake in a hot oven for half an hour.

The sauce to be eaten with this pudding is made by heating the prune liquor, adding to it sugar, and, when this is dissolved, a dash of lemon juice.

Prune pudding (No. 2)

Soak a pound of prunes all night and, in the morning, drain well. Put them over the fire with a half cupful of granulated sugar and enough water to cover them, and stew until tender. Take them from the liquor and set aside to cool in a colander, reserving the liquor for the pudding sauce. Stone the prunes and chop them very fine. Break six eggs, dividing the yolks from the whites. Whip the yolks until thick, beat into them three tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, the minced prunes and the finely-chopped meats of a dozen English walnuts. Last of all, add quickly, and with light strokes, the stiffened whites of the eggs. Turn into a greased pudding-dish and bake in the lower part of a moderate oven for half an hour. Serve in the bake-dish as soon as done with a sauce made by stirring into a pint of rich cream three tablespoonfuls of sugar, a dash, each, of nutmeg and cinnamon, and a gill of prune syrup. Serve this sauce cold.

Fruit pudding

Into the beaten yolks of five eggs beat a cupful of sugar, a half pound of powdered suet, a teaspoonful, each, of ground nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves, two cupfuls of milk and a pint of flour. Have ready chopped two ounces of citron and a half pound of seeded raisins. To these add a half pound of cleaned currants and dredge all thoroughly with flour. Stir the fruit gradually into the batter, and, last of all, fold in the stiffened whites of five eggs. Turn into a greased pudding-dish and bake for an hour and a quarter in a steady oven. Eat with hard sauce.

Pineapple pudding

Peel and chop a pineapple and cover with granulated sugar. Let it stand in the ice-box for an hour, then drain the juice from the fruit, saving both. In the bottom of a buttered pudding-dish put a layer of split “lady fingers,” and over them pour a little of the pineapple juice, to which you have added two teaspoonfuls of lemon juice. Spread the lady-fingers with a layer of the chopped pineapple; put in another layer of the pineapple, and more of the juice and fruit. Have the top layer of the moistened pineapple. Cover, set the pudding-dish in an outer pan of boiling water, and bake in a steady oven for at least an hour. Uncover, and brown lightly. Serve this pudding with hot liquid sauce flavored with the juice of two lemons and the grated peel of one.

Apple and tapioca pudding

Soak a cupful of tapioca for two hours in enough cold water to cover it. Lay, side by side, in a deep bake-dish apples that have been pared and cored. Pour over them a cupful of boiling water; put a cover on the dish and cook in the oven until the apples are tender. When done, drain the water from the apples, leaving them still in the bake-dish, fill the centers with granulated sugar, squeeze a few drops of lemon juice on each, and pour the soaked tapioca over and around the fruit. Bake for about an hour. Eat hot with hard sauce.

Tapioca and raisin pudding

Soak a cupful of tapioca in a pint of milk for three hours, then add a quart of rich milk and soak at least an hour longer. Put into a double boiler and heat slowly. When the tapioca is very soft, cream two tablespoonfuls, each, of butter and sugar; add to this two beaten eggs, then gradually beat in the hot tapioca. Add a cupful of seeded and halved raisins, turn into a buttered pudding-dish and bake. Eat hot with hard sauce.

Peach batter pudding

Make a batter of four beaten eggs, a quart of milk, two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, three scant cupfuls of prepared flour and a saltspoonful of salt. Lay in a deep pudding-dish fifteen peaches that have been peeled, stoned and quartered. Strew with sugar, pour the batter over and around them and bake in a steady oven. Eat at once with hard sauce.

Plum pudding

Seed and chop a pound of raisins, stem and wash a pound of currants, shred and mince three tablespoonfuls of citron and dredge with flour. Rub to a cream a half pound of sugar and half as much butter, and beat into them six whipped eggs, a cupful of milk, a quart of flour, and spices to taste. Stir in the fruit, last of all.

Baked orange pudding

Make a batter of two eggs, a cupful of milk, a tablespoonful of melted butter and about three cupfuls of flour into which have been sifted two teaspoonfuls of baking-powder. Peel, seed and cut into bits four oranges; beat these into the batter and bake in a greased pudding-dish in a hot oven. Serve with hot liquid sauce made according to the following recipe:

Orange sauce

Rub together five tablespoonfuls of butter and a cupful of granulated sugar. Put these into a saucepan and pour upon them half a cupful of boiling water, then the stiffened whites of three eggs, the juice of two oranges and half a lemon. Beat with an egg-beater until very foamy, and serve.

Raspberry cottage pudding

Rub to a cream a tablespoonful of butter and a scant cupful of sugar. Stir in a gill of cream, three beaten eggs, and two cupfuls of prepared flour. Last of all, add a pint of red raspberries, plentifully dredged with flour. Turn into a greased mold and bake for one hour. Serve hot with hard sauce into which has been beaten the juice from a pint of red raspberries.

Blackberry pudding

Beat three eggs light and stir them into two cupfuls of milk. Sift a quart of flour with two teaspoonfuls of baking-powder and beat this gradually into the eggs and milk. Dredge three cupfuls of blackberries with flour and stir these into the batter. Turn into a greased pudding-dish, and bake, covered, for an hour; then uncover and brown. Eat with hard sauce.

Cherry pudding

Stem and stone two heaping cupfuls of cherries. Beat three eggs light and stir into them a pint of milk, a tablespoonful of melted butter, and a quart of flour which has been twice sifted with two teaspoonfuls of baking-powder. Beat well, and add the cherries, which should be thoroughly dredged with flour. Stir these in, lightly and quickly; turn into a greased pudding-dish and bake in a steady oven for an hour and a half. Bake, covered, for the first hour; uncover and brown. Serve the pudding in the dish in which it was baked. Eat hot with a hard sauce.

Rhubarb pudding

Grease a pudding-dish and put into it a layer of bread-crumbs that have been soaked in a pint of water to which have been added the juice of a lemon and a half cupful of sugar. Sprinkle these crumbs with bits of butter, and put over them a thick layer of stewed rhubarb well sweetened. Now add more crumbs and more rhubarb, and proceed in this manner until the dish is full. Sprinkle the top of the pudding with dry bread-crumbs dotted with bits of butter. Bake, covered, for half an hour; uncover, and bake for ten minutes longer. Eat with hard sauce, flavored with powdered nutmeg.

Brown betty

Peel and chop enough apples to make two cupfuls. Have ready one cupful of fine bread-crumbs and two tablespoonfuls of butter cut into small bits. Butter a bake-dish and put in the bottom of it a layer of chopped apple sprinkled with sugar, bits of butter, and a very little cinnamon; over this spread a layer of crumbs. Then comes another layer of apple, and so on until the dish is full. The topmost layer must be of crumbs dotted with bits of butter. Bake, closely covered, for forty minutes; remove the cover, set the dish on the upper grating of the oven, and brown the pudding. Serve hot, with hard butter and sugar sauce.

Rice custard pudding

Make a white sauce by cooking together, until they bubble, a tablespoonful of flour and one of butter, and pouring on them a cupful of milk. Stir until thick, and set aside to cool. When cool, beat into this sauce three-quarters of a cupful of cold boiled rice and four well-beaten eggs. Turn into a buttered pudding-dish, put the dish into a pan of boiling water and cook until the custard is set. A quarter of an hour should suffice. Eat with a vanilla sauce made according to the following directions:

Put a cupful of boiling water into a saucepan over the fire, stir into it two teaspoonfuls of corn-starch dissolved in cold water, one teaspoonful of butter, half a cupful of sugar, a teaspoonful of lemon juice and a teaspoonful of vanilla. Stir until the sauce boils and thickens.

Poor man’s pudding

Pare the crusts from slices of graham bread, toast delicately and cut the slices into dice. Butter a pudding-dish and strew the bottom with these bread dice. Moisten with a very little milk, and sprinkle with granulated sugar. Cover with apple sauce, well sweetened. Add more bread dice, then apple sauce, and proceed in this way until your dish is full. Let the top layer be of apple sauce. Strew with bread-crumbs and sprinkle with cinnamon. Cover and bake in a hot oven for twenty minutes, then uncover and brown. Eat cold with sugar and cream.

Canned peach puddings

Sift twice with two cupfuls of flour a heaping teaspoonful of baking-powder and a half teaspoonful of salt. Chop into this a tablespoonful of butter. Beat two eggs light, and mix with two cupfuls of milk. Wet the prepared flour into a soft dough with the milk and eggs. Butter several deep pâté-pans. Put half a peach into the bottom of each; dust with sugar and cover with batter; then, another peach and so on, until the pans are full. Set in a pan of boiling water in a good oven and bake, covered, twenty minutes. Uncover, cook five minutes longer, and turn out upon a hot dish.

Make sauce for them by adding sugar to the peach syrup, heating and stirring in a roux of one tablespoonful of butter cooked with a teaspoonful of flour.

A German pudding

Three-quarters of a cupful of seeded raisins, three-quarters of a cupful of cleaned currants, one-half cupful of chopped almonds, one-half cupful of sugar, six eggs, one-half cupful of sweet milk, five slices of stale white bread.

Cut the crust from the bread, cut the bread slices into small cubes, and fry them to a golden-brown in a large tablespoonful of butter. Have a pudding-dish buttered; put in a layer of bread, next of fruits and nuts mixed together, then more bread. Beat the yolks, sugar, milk and a little grated lemon peel; add the beaten whites of four eggs; pour this mixture over the pudding and bake slowly for three-quarters of an hour. When done, beat the remaining whites of the eggs light with a tablespoonful of sugar, spread upon the pudding and brown slightly. Serve warm with fruit sauce.

Baked Indian pudding

Stir into a cupful of yellow corn-meal a half teaspoonful of salt; pour gradually upon the salted meal two cupfuls of boiling water, and beat until free of lumps. Have ready heated in a large double boiler five cupfuls of milk, and into this stir the scalded meal. Boil for an hour. Whip four eggs very light, and into them a gill of molasses, a tablespoonful of melted butter, and a quarter of a teaspoonful, each, of powdered cinnamon and nutmeg. Now remove the boiled meal from the fire and add it very slowly, beating steadily, to the egg mixture. Turn all into a deep, greased pudding-dish and bake, covered, for nearly an hour. Uncover and brown. Serve the pudding from the dish in which it was baked. Eat with hard sauce flavored with lemon juice.

Baked Indian puddings

Make a mush as directed in last recipe. Beat light three eggs and one cupful of molasses, one tablespoonful of softened butter, one teaspoonful of soda. Ginger to taste. Stir in mush enough to make a thick batter. Butter and heat a dozen pâté-pans, fill only half-full with the mixture, put a raisin on top of each, and bake to a nice brown. Run a knife inside of the pans and turn out upon a hot dish. Serve with hard sauce flavored with vanilla.

Macaroni pudding

Break a half pound of spaghetti into bits of uniform length, and cook in a double boiler until tender. Have heated a pint and a half of rich milk, and thicken this slightly with a half teaspoonful of corn-starch rubbed into a teaspoonful of butter. When the milk is of the consistency of cream, drain the macaroni and stir into it this white sauce. Put into a double boiler and heat for five minutes. Turn into a deep dish, sprinkle lightly with powdered cinnamon, and serve with butter and sugar.

Bread-crumb pudding

Soak a pint of fine dry bread-crumbs for two hours in a quart of milk, then beat in two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, a half teaspoonful of powdered nutmeg, the whipped yolks and the stiffened whites of four eggs. Bake in a buttered pudding-dish and eat hot with hard sauce.

Cottage pudding (excellent)

Sift three cupfuls of flour twice with one teaspoonful of baking-powder and a little salt. Rub to a cream a cupful of powdered sugar and a heaping tablespoonful of butter. Beat two eggs light—yolks and whites separately. Mix the yolks with the creamed butter and sugar, then one cupful of milk; lastly, the prepared flour, alternately with the frothed whites. Bake, covered, in a buttered mold until a straw comes out clean from the thickest part.

Eat with hard, or with liquid sauce.

Bread and fig pudding

Cut figs into small dice. Make a custard by heating a cupful of milk and pouring it upon four eggs beaten light with six tablespoonfuls of sugar, then cooking it until it is just thick enough to coat the spoon. Dip crustless slices of bread for a second in milk; put a layer of them into a pudding-dish, cover with the fig-dice, and pour over all the hot custard. Then put in more bread, more figs and custard, and proceed until the dish is full. Wait a moment for the bread to absorb some of the custard, and pour the rest of the hot liquid into the dish until it is full to the brim. Cover the dish and bake until the custard is set; uncover and brown. Serve as soon as baked. Eat with a hard sauce.

Peach scallop

Peel and chop enough peaches to make two cupfuls. Put a layer of them into the bottom of a greased pudding-dish, sprinkle thickly with sugar, add a layer of stale sponge cake-crumbs, then more sugared peaches, and so on until the dish is full. Sprinkle with sugar and crumbs, and bake for three-quarters of an hour. Eat hot with hard sauce.

Date pudding

Substitute dates, stoned and minced, for figs in the next-to-the-last recipe.

Queen of puddings

Beat the yolks of four eggs light, add a cupful of sugar, a tablespoonful of softened butter, and when these are well-mixed, four cupfuls of milk. Lastly, beat in two cupfuls of dried crumbs, and turn into a buttered pudding-dish. Bake like a custard. When baked, spread over the top strawberries, sliced peaches or jelly of any sweet kind, and cover the whole with the whites of the eggs beaten stiff with half a cupful of sugar. Brown lightly in the oven. Sift powdered sugar over fresh fruit if it is used, and always over the meringue. Eat warm with sugar and cream, or very cold with the same.

An old-fashioned bread pudding

Soak a pint of fine crumbs in a quart of milk, and when they have soaked for two hours, stir in four well-beaten egg yolks, two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, a scant half teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a little boiling water and a pinch of nutmeg. Last of all, fold in lightly the stiffened whites of the eggs. Bake in a well-greased pudding-dish, cover for half an hour, then uncover and brown. Send to the table as soon as done and eat with hot wine sauce.

A baked Charlotte

Slice stale cake as neatly as may be. Spread each piece with jam or jelly; pack closely in a greased pudding-dish; pour over it a raw custard made by beating an egg very light and stirring it into a large cupful of milk. No sugar is needed. Bake, covered, for half an hour. Eat hot with lemon sauce, or very cold with cream.

Apple meringue pudding

Four cupfuls of well-sweetened apple sauce, run through a colander and beaten with an egg-whisk until light and creamy. One cupful of fine bread-crumbs; three eggs; one glass of sherry; one tablespoonful of butter (melted); juice of a lemon and half the grated rind; mace and cinnamon to taste. Mix crumbs, apple sauce and melted butter well together, add the seasoning, the lemon, and finally the beaten yolks of the eggs. Beat hard for one minute, turn into a buttered pudding-dish and bake, covered, for half an hour. Draw to the oven door and spread with a meringue made of the stiffened whites of the eggs. Eat ice-cold with cream.

Chocolate pudding

Make a good custard of a quart of milk, the yolk of five eggs and a cupful of sugar. Have ready two tablespoonfuls of cornstarch wet with cold milk. When the custard is hot, take from the fire, stir this in, with four tablespoonfuls of grated, unsweetened chocolate. Turn into a buttered pudding-dish and bake, covered, for half an hour. Draw to the door of the oven and spread with a stiff meringue made of the whites whipped light with two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar and a teaspoonful of vanilla. Return to the oven for one minute, or until the meringue is “set.”

Eat cold with whipped cream.

Summer squash pudding

Stew the squash, drain and rub through your vegetable press. To each pint add one cupful of sugar, one-half teaspoonful of mace and a little salt, and slowly pour over and mix in one quart of boiling milk. Set aside until perfectly cold, when add the yolks of five well-beaten eggs and a cupful of thick cream; bake in a pudding-dish in a moderate oven until firm in the center.

Draw to the oven door and cover with the whites of three eggs beaten to a meringue with a cup of fine macaroon-crumbs. Shut the oven and brown lightly.

Eat cold. It will be found very nice.

Cornstarch pudding

Dissolve three tablespoonfuls of corn-starch in a cupful of milk, then set aside until cool. Now beat in three tablespoonfuls of sugar and three beaten eggs with a teaspoonful of melted butter. Stir until thick and smooth. Scald a pint of milk and add to it the corn-starch and cold milk. Season with vanilla, and bake in a buttered pudding-dish. Serve cold with sweetened cream.

Bread-and-milk pudding

Soak two cupfuls of fine crumbs in a quart of milk for an hour. Stir in a tablespoonful of melted butter and a teaspoonful of vanilla. Now beat in three well-whipped eggs; turn into a buttered pudding-dish and bake until set. Eat hot with sugar and butter, or cream and sugar.

Bread-crumb pudding

Soak three cupfuls of fine crumbs for an hour in a quart of milk. Beat into the soaked crumbs four eggs, whipped light, a tablespoonful of melted butter and a teaspoonful of vanilla. Turn into a greased pudding-dish and bake, covered, for twenty minutes; uncover and brown. Eat at once with hard sauce flavored with vanilla.

Polly’s pudding

(A Virginia recipe)

Make a custard of two cupfuls of hot milk poured gradually upon the yolks of three eggs beaten light with four tablespoonfuls of sugar. Butter a pudding-dish and sprinkle the bottom with finely-minced candied lemon peel, minced crystallized fruit, and a very little shredded suet, then a layer of fine crumbs. Cover each layer with a few spoonfuls of the warm custard as you go on until the dish is full. Cover and bake half an hour; spread with a meringue made of the whites and a tablespoonful of sugar and color lightly. Eat cold.

Rice pudding without eggs

(Contributed)

Put into a baking-dish one cupful of rice; sweeten with a cupful of sugar; season with a teaspoonful, each, of salt, grated nutmeg and cinnamon. Scatter through the rice one-half cupful of seeded raisins and pour over it six cupfuls of milk. If the pudding looks dry, add another cupful of milk fifteen minutes before taking from the oven.

Rice pudding with eggs

(Contributed)

Boil until soft one cupful of rice in plenty of hot water. Drain and while hot add one tablespoonful of butter. When cold add to it one cupful of sugar, one teaspoonful of grated nutmeg and one teaspoonful of ground cinnamon. Beat four eggs very light, whites and yolks separately, and add them to the rice. Then add one cupful of seeded raisins. Stir in one cupful of sweet milk gradually, turn into a buttered baking-dish and bake in a hot oven.

Bird’s nest pudding

(Contributed)

Put into a buttered baking-dish six or seven pared and cored apples. Mix to a smooth paste with cold milk five tablespoonfuls of flour, and add the yolks of three eggs well beaten. Then add one teaspoonful of salt and the whites of the eggs well beaten. Then more milk, using one pint in all. Pour this mixture over the apples and bake one hour in a moderate oven. Serve with any good sauce.

Minute pudding

(Contributed)

Beat two eggs very light and add a pint of flour and enough of a pint of milk to make it smooth. Put the remainder of the milk into a buttered saucepan; add a little salt, and when it comes to a boil add lightly the egg and flour mixture. Let it cook well and serve immediately with the following simple sauce: Rich milk or cream sweetened to taste and flavored with nutmeg.

Cracker pudding

Soak two cupfuls of crushed crackers, very fine, in a quart of hot milk, and stir in a double boiler over the fire until it smokes. Then put in a tablespoonful of butter, a saltspoonful of baking-powder and four beaten eggs. Turn into a greased pudding-dish and bake until the custard is set. Send to table at once, and eat with hard sauce.

Frumenty

(Old English recipe)

Cook a cupful of raw rice with two cupfuls of hot water in the inner vessel of a double boiler for half an hour. Then turn it into three cupfuls of milk heated in the double boiler, and cook until very tender. Stir in one level teaspoonful of salt and one level tablespoonful of butter. Beat two eggs light with two tablespoonfuls of sugar, and stir this into the hot rice when you take it from the fire.

Rub to a light cream two tablespoonfuls of brown sugar with one of butter and season with cinnamon. Turn the hot rice into a deep dish, spread this sauce smoothly over the top, and serve.

This dish, made with cracked wheat instead of rice, was what King Arthur’s cook was bearing across the courtyard when Tom Thumb, dropped by the bird of prey, fell plump into it. It is sometimes called “fermenty.”

Sago pudding

Soak half a cupful of sago in a cupful of cold water for two hours. Drain, put into the inner vessel of a farina kettle with a quart of hot milk, and simmer until the sago is clear, stirring up from the bottom several times. Add, then, a tablespoonful of butter, four of sugar, a good pinch of salt and three eggs beaten light. Beat all well and turn into a buttered bake-dish. Bake in a quick oven twenty minutes.

Eat hot with sauce, or cold with cream.

Apple soufflé pudding

Four eggs; one pint of milk; two tablespoonfuls of butter; six large apples, juicy and tart; a pinch of soda in the milk; two tablespoonfuls of flour.

Heat the milk; stir the butter over the fire until hot, then add the flour and mix to a paste; add the hot milk to this, stir until smooth, and pour gradually over the beaten yolks. Into this grate the pared apples, one by one, mixing well and quickly, that they may keep their color. Now, fold in the whites, beaten to a standing froth, pour into a buttered pudding-dish and bake very quickly.

Serve before it falls, and eat with hard or liquid sauce.

Apple puff

Peel and grate enough apples to make two cupfuls. Beat the whites of five eggs very stiff with four tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar; stir in quickly the grated apples, and two teaspoonfuls of lemon juice. Turn into a pudding-dish and bake for half an hour. Eat as soon as baked with a hot custard sauce.

Cocoanut soufflé

Bring a pint of milk to the scalding point, and stir into it a cupful of grated cocoanut. Set aside until cold, then add five eggs, beaten very light, and a teaspoonful of essence of bitter almonds. Bake in a soufflé-dish until “set.” Serve with sweetened whipped cream.

Rice soufflé

Make a white sauce of a cupful of milk thickened with a tablespoonful of flour rubbed into one of butter. Let this cool, then beat into it a teacupful of cold boiled rice, the whipped yolks and the stiffened whites of five eggs. Turn into a greased pudding mold and bake until set. Serve immediately. Eat with cream and sugar.

Rhubarb soufflé

Soak half a cupful of bread-crumbs for an hour in a cupful of milk. Beat six eggs light, yolks and whites separate. Stir the thickened yolks into the soaked crumbs; add a cupful of stewed and sweetened rhubarb, and, last of all, fold in the whites. Turn into a greased pudding-dish and bake, covered, for half an hour; then uncover and brown. Send to the table as soon as it is removed from the oven, and serve immediately with sweetened whipped cream.

Sweet omelet soufflé

Beat the yolks of four eggs stiff, and stir into them four tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar. Add two teaspoonfuls of vanilla, and beat hard for five minutes. Whip the whites of six eggs to a meringue with a heaping tablespoonful of powdered sugar, and stir lightly and quickly into the yolk mixture. Turn into a buttered pudding-dish and bake in a hot oven to a delicate brown. Serve immediately.

Prune soufflé (delicious)

Soak eighteen prunes over night and stew tender. Remove the stones and chop the prunes to a smooth pulp. Make a meringue of the whites of eight eggs and seven tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar. Beat the prunes into this, turn into a greased pudding-dish and bake for twenty minutes. Serve immediately with whipped cream.

Lemon soufflé

Make a white roux of two tablespoonfuls of butter and the same of flour; heat a cupful of milk to the boiling point, add to the roux and set aside to cool; then add the yolks of four eggs well beaten with powdered sugar and the juice and grated rind of one lemon. Just before putting into the oven to bake, stir in lightly the beaten whites of the eggs. Bake three-quarters of an hour and serve with whipped cream flavored with lemon and slightly sweetened.

Orange soufflé

(Contributed)

Cut stale sponge cake into small cubes and saturate with orange juice. Pour into a dish and pour over it rich custard. Cover with a good meringue, brown nicely and serve.

Bread soufflé

Soak a pint of bread-crumbs for two hours in a quart of rich milk. Beat hard until you have a soft mass. Stir into this the yolks of four beaten eggs, a tablespoonful of melted butter and, last of all, the stiffened whites of six eggs. Pour into a greased pudding-dish and bake for forty minutes in a steady oven. Serve immediately with a sweet, hot custard sauce made of the remaining yolks of the eggs.

Boiled rice with milk and egg

Wash a cupful of rice and cook in an abundance of boiling water slightly salted until tender, but not pasty. Drain off every drop of the water, shaking the rice in a colander. Return the cereal to the fire in a double boiler and stir into it a quart of boiling milk, into which three beaten eggs have been gradually whipped. Cook gently for a few minutes, or until much of the milk has been absorbed. Eat with sugar and cream.

Banana soufflé

Peel and chop very fine five bananas. Into a pint of whipped cream stir five well-beaten eggs, then stir in quickly the banana pulp. Turn into a soufflé-dish, bake in a quick oven until brown and light, and serve immediately with sugar and cream.

Chocolate soufflé

(Contributed)

Cook together in a saucepan a tablespoonful of butter and two of flour, and as these thicken stir into them six tablespoonfuls of sweet milk. Beat thick and smooth, then pour upon the yolks of three eggs that have been beaten light with two tablespoonfuls of sugar. Whip hard, adding four tablespoonfuls of grated sweetened chocolate, until the mixture is lukewarm; put on the ice to cool, covering it to keep a crust from forming on top. When cold add the stiffened whites of the eggs, fold these in lightly and bake in a quick oven. Serve at once with sweetened whipped cream.

FRITTERS

In making fritters an essential to their success is that the fat in which they are fried be very deep and boiling hot. Always test it by dropping into it a small spoonful of batter. If this do not rise quickly to the surface, swell rapidly, and acquire a light brown hue, your fat is too cool. Let it stand over the hottest part of the range for a few minutes and again test it. When it is at the right temperature fry your fritters quickly, dropping in the batter by the spoonful. When done, remove the fritters with a perforated spoon, and lay them in a heated colander lined with brown paper. Transfer to a hot platter covered with a folded napkin and serve at once.

Fritters à la créme

Stir a pinch of soda into a pint of milk and heat in a double boiler. Wet two tablespoonfuls of corn-starch with cold milk, and when dissolved turn it into the hot milk. Stir until thick; remove from the fire, and beat into it a tablespoonful of melted butter, three beaten eggs and a teaspoonful of vanilla. Pour into a square pan and set aside until very cold. Cut the mixture into small triangles, dip into batter, and fry to a golden brown. Remove the fritters very carefully from the fat, as they are tender and break easily. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Apple fritters

Beat the yolks and whites of five eggs separately. Into the yolks stir three generous cupfuls of sweet milk, a pinch of salt and three scant cupfuls of flour, sifted with a teaspoonful of baking-powder. Beat for a minute, add the stiffened whites and, when these are blended, a cupful of peeled and thinly-sliced apples. When the fritters are done and transferred to a hot dish, sprinkle them liberally with powdered sugar to which a little cinnamon has been added.

Orange fritters

Make a plain fritter batter with two eggs, a cupful of milk, half a teaspoonful of salt and sufficient flour to make a batter that will pour from the spoon, or coat whatever fruit is put into it. Peel the oranges and separate into sections, taking out the seeds. Dip these sections into the batter, covering well, and slide carefully into hot cottolene or other fat, browning, first on one side, then on the other. They can be served with sauce, or simply dusted with powdered sugar. If served as a dessert, use a sauce.

Apricot fritters

Peel and slice fourteen firm apricots and lay them in cold water while you make a batter of the following ingredients: Four eggs, beaten light, a half-pint of milk, a pinch of salt, and a heaping cupful of flour sifted twice with a teaspoonful of baking-powder.

Remove the apricots from the water, and pat them dry between the folds of a clean dish towel. Beat the batter hard, stir into it the fruit and fry at once. Sprinkle with sugar while hot, and serve with a lemon sauce. Canned apricots may be used for this purpose, every drop of juice being removed.

Peach fritters

Peel and slice a dozen peaches, and stir them into a batter made by beating together three whipped eggs, a cupful of rich milk, a pinch of salt and a cupful of prepared flour. Drop this mixture by the spoonful into deep, boiling fat. When the fritters are of a golden-brown color, drain in a colander and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Serve very hot.

Rhubarb fritters

Scrape the stalks of the rhubarb, cut into quarter-inch lengths; stew in sugar and water for ten minutes; drain and set aside to get cold.

Make a batter of a half-pint of milk, three eggs, beaten light, and a cupful of prepared flour. Beat hard and stir into this batter a cupful of the rhubarb. Drop by the spoonful into deep, boiling cottolene or other fat, and fry to a bright brown. Serve with lemon sauce.

Banana fritters (No. 1)

Whip three eggs very light and beat into them a cupful of milk and a cupful of flour that has been sifted with a teaspoonful of baking-powder and a saltspoonful of salt. Cut six bananas into small bits, stir these into the batter, and drop by the spoonful into deep, boiling cottolene or other fat. When golden brown, drain in a colander lined with tissue-paper. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, and serve hot.

Banana fritters (No. 2)

Peel and cut bananas lengthwise into thick slices. Squeeze over them a few drops of lemon juice, then turn over and squeeze juice on the under side. Dry between soft cloths, and dip into fritter batter, coating each slice thoroughly. Fry in deep, boiling cottolene or other fat to a light brown.

Swiss fritters

Slice stale bread nearly an inch thick, cut round with a cake-cutter, and fry quickly in deep hot cottolene or other fat. Drop each round, as soon as done, into boiling water for one second, to remove superfluous grease. Spread the fritters, as fast as they are fried and dipped, with powdered sugar, wet up with lemon juice. Cover and keep hot until needed.

Almond roulettes

Make a paste of twenty-five blanched and chopped almonds, a pint of fine bread-crumbs, a teaspoonful of extract of bitter almonds, the whipped whites of two eggs and a heaping teaspoonful of cornstarch. Form into balls, and set these in the ice-box for an hour. Make a batter of a cupful of lukewarm water, a pinch of salt, the frothed white of an egg, and a cupful of prepared flour. Take the balls of nut-paste from the ice-chest, dip each ball in the batter, rolling it about until thoroughly coated, and fry in boiling butter. Serve with a cream sauce.

Sweet potato fritters

Boil, skin, and dry in an open oven. Mash while warm, and rub through a colander, or a vegetable press. Stir into a pint of potatoes a cupful of milk, a tablespoonful of butter, a little salt and two tablespoonfuls of sugar; finally, the yolks of two beaten eggs. With floured hands shape into flat cakes, dip into the frothed whites, then in cracker-crumbs, repeating the process. Leave upon ice two hours and fry in deep, boiling cottolene or other fat to a golden brown.

Eat with lemon sauce.

PANCAKES AND DUMPLINGS

Risen pancakes

Make a sponge of a quart of flour, a half-cake of compressed yeast dissolved in a little water, and a teaspoonful of salt. Set to rise all night; in the morning beat in three well-whipped eggs and a tablespoonful of melted butter. Bake on a soapstone griddle.

Jersey pancakes

Four heaping tablespoonfuls of flour, mixed with sufficient milk to make a good batter. Add the beaten yolks of four eggs, and salt to taste; lastly, add the well-beaten whites of the eggs. Melt a tablespoonful of butter in a frying-pan, pour in batter until the bottom of the pan is thinly covered. Bake brown on both sides. When done, fold like an omelet, strewing sugar seasoned with powdered cinnamon between the folds.

Italian pancakes

Make a batter of a cupful of milk, three eggs beaten light, a saltspoonful of salt, two teaspoonfuls of salad oil, two teaspoonfuls of sugar and a half cupful of white flour. Beat hard and set aside for an hour. Put a little butter in a frying-pan, and when very hot pour in enough batter to cover the bottom of the pan. When brown on one side, turn and brown on the other. Spread with jelly; roll and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Jelly pancakes

Make a batter of five beaten eggs, two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, three cupfuls of milk, and about a quart of prepared flour. Mix well and fry in a large frying-pan in which a little butter has been melted. The batter should cover the entire bottom of the pan. When brown on one side, turn. When done, spread with fruit jelly, and roll up as you would a sheet of music. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, and send at once to the table.

Cherry dumplings

Into a pint of prepared flour chop a heaping tablespoonful of butter, stir in a cupful of milk and work into a dough. Roll into a sheet, and cut into squares about four inches across. In the center of each square put a great spoonful of stoned and sugared cherries, pinch the four corners of the pastry together in the middle over the cherries and lay the dumplings, joined sides down, in a floured baking-pan. Bake and eat hot with a hard sauce.

Raspberry dumplings

Make a dough of a quart of flour sifted with a half teaspoonful of salt and two teaspoonfuls of baking-powder, two tablespoonfuls of butter chopped into bits, and a pint of milk.

Roll this dough out and cut into pieces about five inches square. In the middle of each of these squares put a heaping tablespoonful of black raspberries, sprinkle liberally with sugar, and turn over upon them the four corners of the dough square, pinching them together in the middle. Put in the oven and bake for half an hour.

Apple dumplings

Sift an even quart of flour twice with one and a half teaspoonfuls of baking-powder, and half a teaspoonful of salt. Chop into this a tablespoonful of cottolene or other fat and one of butter. Mix into a soft dough with two cupfuls of milk; roll out into a sheet a scant half-inch thick, and cut into squares about five inches each way. Lay in the center of each a large tart apple, pared and cored. Fill the space left by coring with sugar, fold the corners together, enveloping the apple, tie up in cheese-cloth squares, dipped into hot water, and well floured on the inside. Have ready a pot of boiling water. Drop in the dumplings and cook fast one hour. Dip each for one second in cold water to loosen the cloth, turn out upon a hot dish and eat with hard sauce.

Peach dumplings

Make as you would apple dumplings, substituting for the cored apple a stoned peach, the cavity filled with sugar, then the halves neatly fitted together. They are very good.

Suet dumplings

Rub a cupful of white suet free from strings, and powder it fine. Rub and chop it into two cupfuls of fine crumbs. Sift a teaspoonful of baking-powder three times with four tablespoonfuls of flour, and work into the crumbs and suet. Add a teaspoonful of salt. Beat three eggs very light and stir into a cupful and a half of milk. With this wet crumbs and flour into a rather stiff dough. Make into dumplings with floured hands; tie up in cheese-cloth dipped in hot water and floured on the inside, leaving plenty of room to swell, and boil one hour.

Eat with liquid sauce.

Cornmeal dumplings

Scald a quart of milk, stir in three cupfuls of Indian meal, or enough to make a stiff dough; cook for five minutes, stirring often from the bottom. Take from the fire; beat in one-half cupful of powdered suet with a teaspoonful of salt, and let it get perfectly cold. Then add three eggs beaten light with two tablespoonfuls of sugar, and, lastly, a tablespoonful of flour sifted three times with half a teaspoonful of baking-powder. Make out into balls the size of an egg with floured hands, envelop in cheese-cloth squares, prepared as directed in preceding recipes. The dumplings will double their size in boiling, so make allowances in tying them up.

Boil one hour hard. Dip into cold water for a second, turn out and eat with hard sauce.

Orange dumplings

Chop a tablespoonful of butter into two cupfuls of flour which has been twice sifted with one teaspoonful of baking-powder and a quarter-teaspoonful of salt. Mix with a cupful of milk to a soft dough, and roll this into a sheet a half-inch thick; cut into squares; lay in each a peeled, sliced and seeded orange, and sprinkle thickly with sugar. Envelop in cheese-cloth squares as already directed, and proceed as with other fruit dumplings.

SOME PUDDING SAUCES

Cream sauce

Work two tablespoonfuls of butter into a half cupful of sugar, then the beaten yolks of two eggs and a cupful of rich cream, to which a pinch of soda has been added. Cook altogether, stirring constantly in a double boiler, until like thick cream and very smooth; add a generous wineglassful of sherry, and serve. This is a delicious pudding sauce.

Chocolate sauce

Boil together a half cupful of sugar and a cupful of water for five minutes; stir in four tablespoonfuls of chocolate dissolved in a gill of milk, and a tablespoonful of arrowroot dissolved in four tablespoonfuls of cold water. Boil for five minutes longer, stirring steadily, add a teaspoonful of vanilla and a dash of cinnamon, and serve.

Hard sauce

Work two tablespoonfuls of butter and a cupful of powdered sugar to a white cream, then beat in the juice of a lemon and a pinch of nutmeg. Set in a cold place until needed.

Canned fruit sauce

Heat with additional sugar, one large cupful of any kind of fruit juice or syrup left from canning. If fresh fruit juice is used, more sugar will be needed than for the syrup. About one-half cupful of sugar to each cupful of juice is an average amount. Mix one teaspoonful of cornstarch with the sugar, or wet it with the liquid if syrup is used, also one tablespoonful of butter. Boil all together for five minutes.

Meringue sauce

Rub to a light cream one-half cupful of butter with one cupful of powdered sugar. When light and almost snow white, add gradually two tablespoonfuls of fruit juice or syrup, and, just before serving, one-fourth of a cupful of boiling water, and the white of an egg beaten to a froth.

Lemon sauce

Cook for fifteen minutes one cupful of sugar with three tablespoonfuls of boiling water, a half teaspoonful of grated lemon peel, and the strained juice of a lemon.

Take from the fire, and pour gradually upon the beaten yolks of three eggs. Set in boiling water and stir until the eggs are “set,” but not until they begin to harden.

Caramel sauce

Put a cupful of sugar into a saucepan and stir over the fire, until melted and light brown. Add one cupful of boiling water and let it simmer gently for ten minutes. When cool stir in a teaspoonful of vanilla.

Jelly sauce

Put into a saucepan over the fire one cupful of boiling water, one-half cupful of jelly, two tablespoonfuls of sugar and two tablespoonfuls of butter. When melted stir into it a teaspoonful of cornstarch dissolved in one-half cupful of cold water, and let it come to a boil. Keep warm over hot water until ready to use.

Foamy sauce

To the beaten whites of two eggs add one cupful of sugar. Beat thoroughly and add one cupful of boiling milk. When cool add one teaspoonful of vanilla.

Maraschino sauce

Put into a saucepan three-fourths of a cupful of boiling water and one-third of a cupful of sugar. Add one-fourth of a cupful of Maraschino cherries cut in halves, one-half cupful of Maraschino syrup and one-half tablespoonful of butter. When this comes to a boil, stir in slowly two teaspoonfuls of cornstarch dissolved in a little cold water. Boil for five minutes.

Vanilla sauce

Add one well-beaten egg to one-half pint of milk. Sweeten to taste. Pour the mixture into a double boiler and cook over water until it begins to thicken; take from the fire and add one teaspoonful of vanilla. Serve hot.

Apricot sauce

(Contributed)

Rub three-fourths of a cupful of apricots through a sieve. Whip three-fourths of a cupful of heavy cream, sweetened and flavored. When stiff and dry, add the apricot pulp.

Plain whipped cream

(Contributed)

Add to one cupful of “double” cream, one-half cupful of powdered sugar, and one teaspoonful of lemon or vanilla. Put in a bowl and set in a larger bowl of cracked ice. Chill the whip, for everything must be very cold; whip until stiff and dry, then add the beaten white of one egg.

Strawberry sauce

Boil together for ten minutes three-fourths of a cupful of sugar and one-half cupful of water. Run through a vegetable press one pint of strawberries, and when the syrup is cool, add the strawberry pulp and one-half teaspoonful of vanilla.

Madeira sauce

Put one tablespoonful of butter into a saucepan. Stir into it one tablespoonful of flour and cook for one minute; add one pint of boiling water, stirring all the time until it boils. Next, add one-half cupful of sugar and one tablespoonful of caramel. Let it stand over boiling water for ten minutes and just before serving add one-fourth of a cupful of Madeira wine.

Claret sauce

(Contributed)

Make a syrup by boiling one cupful of sugar and one-third of a cup of water. When cold add one-third of a cupful of claret.

Brandy sauce (liquid)

Work two tablespoonfuls of butter into two cupfuls of powdered sugar, moistening with boiling water. Beat hard for five minutes, and set within a saucepan of water at a hard boil. Stir until scalding hot, add a teaspoonful of cornstarch wet in cold water, cook one minute and pour in a glass of good brandy. Take at once from the fire.

Wine sauce (liquid)

Make as just directed, but using wine in place of brandy.

COLD PUDDINGS AND CUSTARDS

Besides the ordinary baked and boiled custards, there are many varieties which are easily prepared, and are delicious, as well as digestible. The milk of which these are made should always have added to it a bit of soda the size of a pea to prevent curdling. I shall not mention this in the following recipes, as I shall take it for granted that the precaution has been taken.

Boiled cup custards

Heat a quart of milk in a double boiler, but do not bring it quite to the boil. Beat five eggs light and stir into them half a cupful of sugar. On this mixture pour the scalding milk very gradually, beating steadily all the time. Return to the double boiler, and cook, stirring constantly, until the custard is thick enough to coat the spoon. If boiled longer than this it will curdle and separate. Remove the custard from the fire, season with two teaspoonfuls of vanilla and set aside to cool. When cold, nearly fill glasses or cups with the mixture and heap with a meringue made by whipping the whites of two eggs stiff with two tablespoonfuls of sugar.

Baked custard

Proceed exactly as in the preceding recipe until you have poured the hot milk on the sugar and eggs. At this point flavor the mixture with two teaspoonfuls of vanilla, and turn it into a pudding-dish. Grate nutmeg over the top of the custard, set the pudding-dish in an outer pan of boiling water, and bake in a moderate oven. When the custard is firm it is done.

Boiled chocolate custards

(Contributed)

Scald a quart of milk in a double boiler, and stir into it a bit of soda the size of a pea. Beat five eggs light with a half cupful of powdered sugar, and whip into them five tablespoonfuls of grated chocolate. Pour the scalding milk upon this mixture, return it to the fire in a double boiler, and cook, stirring constantly until it thickens and coats the spoon. Remove from the fire and flavor with a teaspoonful of vanilla. When cold, pour into custard cups or glasses, and heap sweetened whipped cream upon the top of each.

Baked chocolate custard

Into a quart of scalding milk stir five tablespoonfuls of grated chocolate wet with cold milk. Cook for a minute. Have the yolks of seven eggs and the whites of five (reserving the other whites for a meringue) beaten light with a cupful of sugar. Pour the scalding milk and chocolate gradually on the eggs and sugar, and turn into a buttered pudding-dish set in a pan of boiling water. Bake until firm, then draw to the door of the oven and spread with a meringue made of the reserved whites and two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar. Return to the oven and bake to a delicate brown. Eat cold with cream.

French tapioca custard

Soak four tablespoonfuls of tapioca in two cupfuls of cold water and let it stand for four hours; add a quart of scalding milk, and stir for a minute. Turn all into a double boiler, and bring to the scalding point, then pour gradually upon the yolks of four eggs beaten light with a cupful of sugar. Cook again in a double boiler for ten minutes, by which time the custard should be thick. Set in the ice until very cold. Now whip the whites of the four eggs stiff, beat them into the custard, add two teaspoonfuls of vanilla, turn into a glass bowl, and serve.

Tapioca cocoanut custard

Make as directed in last recipe, but add to the beaten whites at the last a cupful of finely-grated cocoanut sweetened with powdered sugar.

Floating island

Heat a pint of milk to scalding in a double boiler. Beat the yolks of three eggs stiff—setting the whites in the ice-box until they are needed for a meringue. Into the whipped yolks stir three tablespoonfuls of granulated sugar, and pour the scalding milk gradually upon these. Return to the fire and cook, stirring all the time, until the custard is thick enough to coat the spoon. Remove from the fire, and, when the custard is cool, flavor with a teaspoonful of vanilla and turn into a glass bowl. Whip the chilled whites to a stiff meringue and beat into this, a little at a time, three tablespoonfuls of red jelly—catawba grape or currant. The meringue should be pink in color, and may be heaped upon the top of the custard in the bowl.

Rice custard

Cream a tablespoonful of butter with two of powdered sugar, and gradually work in three beaten eggs. Add two cupfuls of milk, and when you have a smooth mixture, two cupfuls of cold, boiled rice. Beat until free from lumps, add a pinch of salt, and turn into a greased pudding-dish. Set in the oven in a pan of boiling water, and bake, covered, until the custard is set. Uncover and brown. Eat cold with sugar and cream.

Cocoanut custard

Wet five tablespoonfuls of cornstarch with cold milk, and stir it into a quart of scalding milk until thick and free of lumps. Whip six eggs light with a cupful of sugar, and add gradually to the thickened milk. Cook for five minutes; add, at once, a grated cocoanut, and take from the fire. Flavor with a teaspoonful of rose-water, and when it begins to cool, pour into a glass bowl. When cold, eat with sugar and cream.

Orange custard

(Contributed)

Squeeze out and strain the juice of six good oranges. Add a cupful of sugar and cook slowly for half an hour, skimming often. Take from the fire and turn into a bowl. When lukewarm, pour gradually, beating all the time, upon a warm custard made of the yolks of five eggs and two cupfuls of milk. Put in your egg-whip and beat steadily five minutes. Turn into a glass bowl, and lay upon the top a meringue made by whipping the whites of the eggs with five tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar. Set upon ice until very cold.

Coffee custards

Into a quart of rich custard cooked and still warm stir a pint of very strong, clear, hot, black coffee. Beat for five minutes until thick and creamy. Fill glasses or custard cups with it, and heap whipped cream on top of each. Set in cracked ice until you serve.

Cinnamon custard

(Contributed)

Bring a quart of milk to the boiling point. Add a saltspoon of salt, a piece of cinnamon stick and three ounces of sugar. Strain, and when cold mix with two or three well-beaten eggs. Pour into a pudding-dish and cover the top of the dish with slices of brown bread, buttered on both sides and cut in triangular pieces. Bake in a slow oven and serve with hot sauce.

WHIPPED CREAM DISHES

The easiest and most rapid way to whip cream is with an ordinary, old-fashioned wire egg-whip. Put the cream into a shallow dish and set in the ice-box until thoroughly chilled. Into a half-pint stir two teaspoonfuls of sugar and begin at once to beat with regular, steady strokes, not removing the froth as it forms, but whipping until the cream is a thick, stiff, smooth mass. If the cream is cold, if the utensils are chilled, and the room is not too warm, the desired effect may be produced in ten minutes. I have done it in five. When the sillibub has reached the right consistency add a teaspoonful of such flavoring as you desire. A half-pint of cream whips to a pint.

Orange cream

Soak a half-package of gelatine in a cupful of cold water for an hour, then stir it into a cupful of boiling water. Have ready the juice of two oranges and the grated rind of one, and pour over them a cupful of sugar and the hot liquid gelatine. Set at the side of the range while you beat the yolks of three eggs stiff. Strain the hot liquid and pour, a very little at a time, upon the beaten yolks, stirring constantly. Heat again in a double boiler, beating all the while, and as soon as the custard reaches the boiling point remove and set aside to cool. When cold and thick, beat into it a pint of whipped cream.

Chestnuts with whipped cream

Shell and boil Spanish chestnuts, remove the skins and rub the nuts through a colander. Sweeten to taste and beat to a soft paste with a little cream. Form the mixture into a pyramid in the center of a chilled platter, and heap sweetened, whipped cream around it.

Prune Charlotte

Stew a dozen and a half large prunes; when cold, remove the stones and chop fine. Whip a pint of cream very stiff with three tablespoonfuls of sugar, then whip the minced prunes into this. Line a glass dish with lady-fingers, or thin slices of sponge cake, and fill the center with the prune cream. Set in the ice-box until time to serve.

Fruited whipped cream

Whip a pint of cream stiff, sweeten abundantly and stir into it lightly a cup of whole strawberries, a banana peeled, and cut into dice an orange, treated in the same way, and a cup of finely-minced pineapple. Serve very cold. As the fruits are acid, the cream should be very sweet.

Peach sponge

Mash two quarts of peeled and cut-up peaches. Strew sugar over them, and let them stand for an hour to draw out the juice. Put the fruit through a vegetable press and extract all the juice. Soak a box of gelatine in cold water until dissolved, add four tablespoonfuls of sugar, and heat to scalding. Now stir in the peach juice, remove from the fire, and strain. When cool, set the bowl containing the mixture in a pan of ice, and beat into it a pint of whipped cream. When very stiff turn into a mold to form.

Peach tapioca

Soak a cup of tapioca over night. Peel and cut up ten peaches; add a cup of sugar and stew until tender. Boil the tapioca in two cups of water until clear, then stir the stewed peaches into it. Remove from the fire, add the juice of a small lemon and set away to cool. Eat with whipped cream.

Strawberry float

Mash two quarts of berries and strain off the juice. Sweeten this and add it to a pint of very rich cream. Whip the whites of four eggs stiff with six tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, and beat in the mashed berries. Put the pink cream in the bottom of a glass bowl and heap the strawberry meringue high upon it.

Raspberry float

May be made according to the foregoing recipe, substituting raspberries for strawberries.

Pineapple Charlotte

Grate or chop a pineapple very fine, after peeling it and removing the “eyes.” Soak a half-box of gelatine for an hour in a half cupful of cold water, then add a cupful of granulated sugar and a cupful of boiling water, and stir over the fire just long enough to dissolve the gelatine. As the mixture cools add the pineapple; set the bowl containing it in a vessel of cracked ice, and stir steadily until the mixture thickens. Now beat in a pint of sweetened, whipped cream and turn into a mold wet with cold water. When formed, eat with powdered sugar and cream.

Apple snow

Stew peeled and sliced apples until they are so soft that they can be rubbed through a colander. There should be a pint of this apple sauce. Set aside until cold. Beat the whites of three eggs to a stiff froth, and into this beat the apples by the spoonful, alternately with a cupful of powdered sugar. When very stiff, add a teaspoonful of lemon juice, turn into chilled glasses, heap whipped cream upon the top, and serve.

Marrons with whipped cream

Chop half a bottle of marrons and put a teaspoonful in the bottom of each glass custard cup. Pour a little of the liquor in which they were put upon these, and fill the glasses with whipped cream. Set in cracked ice until served.

Whipped cream with macaroons

Crush stale almond macaroons fine, and beat into whipped cream just before serving. Heap in a chilled bowl, sift macaroon-crumbs thickly on top, and serve.

Orange and cocoanut delight

Use very sweet oranges for this dish, and do not try dried cocoanut. Buy the fresh fruit, and grate it.

In the bottom of a glass bowl put a layer of sliced and seeded oranges, sprinkle with granulated sugar, and then with a layer of the grated cocoanut. On this put a generous spoonful of sweetened and whipped cream. Now another layer of the sugared oranges, more cocoanut and whipped cream, and so on until the dish is full. The top layer must be of whipped cream, heaped high in the center.

Pineapple snow

Soak a half-box of gelatine in a scant cupful of cold water for an hour. Peel a small pineapple, and grate it; then cover with a cup of sugar, and let it stand for an hour before stirring the soaked gelatine into it. Turn all into a saucepan set within a pan of boiling water, and stir until the gelatine and sugar are dissolved. Remove from the fire and let it cool, but not stiffen. Whip a pint of cream very stiff. Stand the saucepan containing the gelatine and pineapple in a deep bowl of cracked ice and, as the mixture stiffens, beat into it, by the spoonful, the whipped cream. Beat steadily until all the cream is in, and the jelly is stiff and white. Turn into a glass bowl, and set in the ice for some hours. Serve with rich cream.

Raspberry cream sponge

Mash a quart of red raspberries, and stir into them a large cupful of granulated sugar. Soak a half cupful of gelatine in a cupful of cold water for an hour. Pour upon the gelatine a cupful of boiling water. Stir until the gelatine is dissolved, then add the sweetened berries. Strain all through a muslin bag, pressing hard to extract the juice. Turn into a bowl to get cool. When cool, set the bowl in an outer vessel of cracked ice, and as the jelly stiffens, beat into it, by the spoonful, a pint of whipped cream. Beat until stiff and very cold. Set in the ice to form. Serve with sweetened cream.

Banana froth

Whip a cupful of cream stiff. Rub enough bananas through a fine sieve to make a cupful of pulp, and beat this at once into the whipped cream; add four tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, and beat to a frothy mass. Line a glass dish with almond macaroons, fill it with the banana cream, and sprinkle this generously with tiny bits of crystallized cherries, citron and blanched and minced almonds. Serve at once. Of course, the fruits and nuts must be minced and made ready before the preparation of the banana cream is begun.

Macaroon Charlotte Russe

Soak macaroons in custard until rather soft, but not broken, and line a dish with them. Beat a pint of cream stiff, and stir into it half a cupful of blanched and chopped almonds and the same quantity of minced citron. Heap this upon the soaked macaroons.

BLANC MANGE

Arrowroot blanc mange

Put half a pint of milk into a double boiler, and when it reaches the scalding point stir into it three heaping teaspoonfuls of arrowroot which have been dissolved in a gill of cold water. Stir until thick and smooth; remove from the fire, flavor with a half-teaspoonful of vanilla, and pour into a bowl to cool. Set in the ice-box until needed. Serve with powdered sugar and cream.

Vanilla blanc mange

Soak a half-package of gelatine in enough water to cover it, and at the end of two hours stir into it a half cupful of sugar. Add this to a pint of scalding milk, and stir until the gelatine is dissolved; remove from the fire, strain and flavor with a teaspoonful of vanilla. Pour into wet molds to form. When firm, serve with sweetened whipped cream.

Chocolate blanc mange (No. 1)

Soak a package of gelatine in a half-pint of cold milk for two hours. Stir a pinch of soda into a quart of rich milk, and bring to the scalding point in double boiler. Beat the yolks of two eggs light with a small cupful of granulated sugar. Stir the soaked gelatine into the hot milk, and when it dissolves pour the hot liquid gradually upon the yolks and sugar; then whip in five tablespoonfuls of grated chocolate wet to a paste with a little cold milk. Put all into a double boiler and cook, stirring all the time, until the boiling point is just reached. Remove at once from the fire, turn into a bowl, whip in the stiffened whites of the eggs, and a teaspoonful of vanilla. Pour into a mold wet with cold water and set in a cool place to form. When ready to serve, wring a cloth out in hot water, wrap it for a moment about the mold, and turn the contents out upon a chilled glass dish. Eat with powdered sugar and rich, sweet cream.

Chocolate blanc mange (No. 2)

Heat a pint of milk and add to it a pinch of soda. Into the milk stir a half-cupful of sugar, and, when this is dissolved, two generous tablespoonfuls of corn-starch wet with cold milk. Cook until smooth and very thick; add two heaping tablespoonfuls of grated chocolate, and cook for a minute before removing from the fire. Stir into the pudding a teaspoonful of vanilla, turn into a mold wet with cold water, and set in a cold place to form.

Snow pudding

Soak a half-package of gelatine for two hours in enough water to cover it. At the end of the two hours add to the gelatine a cupful of granulated sugar and the juice of a lemon, and pour upon these two cupfuls of boiling water. Stir until the gelatine is dissolved, strain and set aside to cool. Beat the whites of three eggs to a stiff meringue, and when the jelly is cold and begins to thicken, whip into it this meringue. Beat from fifteen to twenty minutes, or until the mixture is like a stiff white foam. Wet a mold with cold water, pour the jelly into this, and set in the ice. When you are ready to serve the pudding, turn it out upon a chilled dish, and eat with sugar and cream, or with soft custard.

Banana blanc mange

Soak a tablespoonful of gelatine for an hour in a teacupful of water. Bring a cupful and a half of milk to the boiling point, add a pinch of baking-soda, and stir in a half cupful of sugar and the soaked gelatine. Boil for five minutes, stirring steadily. Line a jelly-mold with sliced bananas and pour the lukewarm blanc mange carefully in upon these. Set in the ice to form. Turn out and eat with whipped cream.

Peach sponge

Soak a half-box of gelatine for two hours. Peel and slice a dozen peaches, add to them a cupful and a half of sugar and a half cupful of water, and stew until the fruit is broken to pieces. Now stir in the soaked gelatine. When this is dissolved rub all through a coarse sieve, add a tablespoonful of lemon juice, and when the mixture is cool and beginning to thicken whip in the stiffened whites of four eggs. Beat steadily for fifteen minutes, and turn into a mold to form. Serve very cold with whipped cream.

Italian cream

Soak half a box of gelatine in a cupful of cold water for an hour. Heat four cupfuls of milk in a double boiler, and when hot stir into them the yolks of four eggs beaten light with half a cupful of sugar. Stir over the fire for two minutes, add the gelatine and keep stirring until dissolved. Take from the fire, flavor with a teaspoonful of vanilla and set aside to cool. Beat the whites of the eggs stiff, and add them to the custard when it is cold, but before it has begun to form. Turn into a mold wet with cold water and set aside to form firm.

Pink pudding

Soak a package of gelatine for an hour in a cupful of cold water. Mash a pint of ripe strawberries and turn upon them a cupful of granulated sugar. Pour a pint of boiling water upon the gelatine, and stir over the fire until dissolved; add the sugar and mashed berries, and strain through coarse muslin. When the jelly is very cold whip the whites of five eggs to a stiff meringue and beat the jelly into them. Turn into a mold and set in ice to form. Serve with whipped cream.

Brown mange

Soak a half-box of gelatine in a cupful of milk for three hours. Stir into it a cupful of granulated sugar, and pour upon it a scant quart of scalding—not boiling—milk. Add a half-cake of grated chocolate wet to a paste with milk. Stir over the fire just long enough to dissolve the gelatine and melt the chocolate, but do not let the milk boil. Pour the hot milk gradually upon the stiffened whites of four eggs. Turn the mixture into a bowl and set this in a pan of ice while you beat the contents long and steadily—until the jelly begins to stiffen. Turn into a glass bowl and set on the ice to form. When cold and firm, send to the table with great spoonfuls of whipped cream upon the top of the brown “mange.”

Rose mange

A pretty blanc mange may be made according to the foregoing recipe by omitting the chocolate and using in its place just enough juice from preserved strawberries to color the mixture a delicate pink. When the whipped cream is added dot the white surface with a few of the preserved berries.

Strawberry sponge

Soak one-half package of gelatine in one-half cupful of cold water for two hours. Mash one quart of fine strawberries and add one-half cupful of sugar and the juice of two lemons. Boil one-half cupful of sugar in a cupful of water gently for twenty minutes. Rub the strawberries through a sieve. Add the gelatine to the boiling syrup and take from the fire at once. Then add the strawberries, pour the mixture into a dish set in cracked ice and beat thoroughly for five minutes. Add the beaten whites of four eggs and beat until the mixture begins to thicken. Pour into molds and set away until firm.

Cider jelly

Soak one package of gelatine in a cupful of cold water for two hours. Add three cupfuls of sugar and the juice of three lemons; also the grated rind of one lemon. Dissolve this in one quart of boiling water. Then add one pint of good sweet cider, strain, pour into molds and let it stand on ice for several hours.

Junket

Milk is indispensable for family desserts, forming as it does the basis of tender custards and velvety creams. One of the most delicious of the metamorphoses to which it is susceptible is when, by the addition of a rennet tablet, it is changed into a tender and smooth junket. The tablet is preferable to liquid rennet, being more easily carried and more easily kept.

* * * * *

Flavor a quart and a pint of fresh milk with two teaspoonfuls of vanilla, and then mix with it two tablespoonfuls of rennet. Stir for a moment and put into a warm room to form. As soon as the milk has “set,” put the dish containing it in the ice-chest until it is time to send it to the table. Eat with sugar and cream. This dessert should not be made more than two hours before it is to be served, as long standing causes the milk to separate and form into curds and whey.

Vanilla junket

Dissolve one rennet tablet in a tablespoonful of cold water. Stir this into a quart of milk that is just lukewarm and has been flavored with a teaspoonful of vanilla extract. Set in a warm room until firm, then put into the ice-chest until needed. This dessert should not be made more than two hours before the meal for which it is intended, as long standing causes it to break and separate. Eat with sugar and cream.

Coffee junket (very nice)

Dissolve a rennet tablet in a tablespoonful of water. Into a pint and a half of milk stir a gill of very strong black coffee, liberally sweetened. Add the dissolved rennet and turn into a glass bowl. Leave in a cool room until formed, then set on the ice immediately. Eat with sweetened whipped cream.

Charlotte Russe (No. 1)

Cut a stale sponge cake into slices and line a glass bowl with them. Into a pint of chilled cream stir half a cupful of powdered sugar and whip until stiff. At the last, beat in two teaspoonfuls of extract of vanilla. Fill the bowl with the whipped cream and set in the ice-chest until wanted.

Charlotte Russe (No. 2)

Soak a quarter of a box of gelatine in a half cupful of milk for two hours. Stir a half-cupful of sugar into a pint of cream and whip the cream until stiff; then flavor with a teaspoonful of vanilla. Into the soaked gelatine beat the stiffened whites of three eggs and the sweetened and flavored whipped cream. Beat hard for a minute. Line a glass bowl with thin slices of sponge cake, and heap the white mixture in the middle.

Banana Charlotte

In a double boiler heat a cupful of cream, to which you have added a pinch of soda. Sweeten slightly, and thicken with a heaping teaspoonful of corn-starch dissolved in a gill of cold milk. Keep warm over hot water—stirring occasionally to prevent lumping—while you nearly fill a bowl with alternate layers of sliced bananas and very thin slices of sponge cake—the latter moistened slightly with milk. When the bowl is three-quarters full pour over the contents the thickened cream and set aside to get very cold. Fill the bowl with sweetened whipped cream, heap it high and serve.

Pound cake trifle

Cut a pound cake and spread each slice thickly with raspberry jam. Lay on a flat dish, and heap on each slice a great spoonful of meringue made by whipping the whites of four eggs stiff, then adding sugar and currant jelly to taste, and beating into a pink mass. Serve with cream.

Peach trifle

Boil together for five minutes one cupful of sugar and one cupful of water. Put into this one quart of pared peaches. Stir slowly until tender. When almost cold press them through a sieve. Line a deep glass dish with stale sponge cake dipped in sherry. Spread over this the cold peach pulp. Flavor one and a half cupfuls of thick sweet cream with two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar and one teaspoonful, each, of vanilla and lemon and whip until thick and solid. Pour this into the peaches and let it stand until very cold.

Raspberry trifle

Line the bottom of a deep glass dish with thin slices of sponge cake. Squeeze over it a little raspberry juice and cover with a thick layer of whole sweetened red raspberries. Over this another layer of the cake and another of the raspberries until the dish is filled three-quarters full. Pour over all this a plain boiled custard and serve very cold.

Rhubarb trifle

Cook soft two cupfuls of rhubarb, scraped and cut into inch lengths, using barely enough water to keep it from scorching. Soak a half-ounce of gelatine, and when ready for use strain into it the rhubarb rubbed through a sieve; add six or eight ounces of sugar and a cupful of cream; stir over the fire until well heated through, but do not let it boil, and pour into a wet mold. Set on ice. Serve with whipped cream.

Strawberry Charlotte

Mash a quart of ripe “capped” berries, and sweeten abundantly. Beat the whites of four eggs stiff, then whip in the berries strained through a sieve. Beat until smooth and stiff. Line a chilled dish with sponge cake, and fill with the pink “whip.” Dot the top thickly with ripe berries.

Rice blanc mange

Soak a quarter-box of gelatine in a quarter-cupful of water one hour; rub a quarter of a pound of rice flour in a little cold milk; add this to one quart of scalding milk; stir constantly for five minutes; add a cupful and a half of sugar and the soaked gelatin; stir for one minute, then add the grated rind of one lemon; strain this into a bowl. When a little cool mix in half a teaspoonful of bitter almond; turn into a mold that has been wet in cold water; stand in a cold place until ready to serve.

Tipsy pudding

Line a glass dish with thin slices of sponge cake. Moisten the slices with sherry or some other good wine. Put over this a layer of preserved fruit, another layer of cake and another of fruit, and so on until the dish is filled. Pour over the whole a quart of rich boiled custard.

Strawberry sillibub

Line a glass bowl with thin slices of sponge cake. Pour over the cake enough strawberry juice to dissolve the cake. Rub off on blocks of loaf sugar the yellow rind of two oranges, and dissolve the sugar in a pint of rich cream. Squeeze the juice of the oranges on some powdered loaf sugar, and add it gradually to the cream. Whip the mixture to a stiff froth, then heap it on the dissolved cake. Ornament the top with large strawberries, halved.

Orange jelly (No. 1)

For a quart of jelly allow three oranges with deep yellow skins and two lemons. Squeeze out and strain the juice. Soak half a package of gelatine in the juice, but before pressing the fruit grate carefully all the outside, so that no white mixes with the yellow rind. Cover the grated peel with a quart of cold water, softened by a pinch of baking-soda; bring gradually to the boil and simmer for five minutes. Add a teacupful of sugar to the soaked gelatine, then strain into it through a flannel bag, or fine sieve, the hot orange water, stirring all the while.

Wet a mold with cold water, put in the jelly and set on ice to form.

Orange jelly (No. 2)

Soak a half-box of gelatine in enough cold water to cover it. At the end of two hours stir into it a cupful of granulated sugar, put it into a saucepan and pour upon it three cupfuls of boiling water. Stir over the fire until the gelatine and sugar are dissolved, when add a cupful of strained orange juice and a dash of cinnamon. Do not allow the jelly to boil after the orange juice has been added, but remove at once; strain through flannel and turn into a mold wet with cold water. Set in a cold place to form.

Or a prettier fashion is to pour the liquid jelly into halved orange peels from which the pulp has been carefully removed, and which have lain in cold water for half an hour. When firm, the jelly should be eaten from these improvised bowls.

Coffee jelly

Soak one-half box of gelatine in one-half cupful of cold water. Put a cupful of sugar and one of water over the fire, and stir to a quick boil. Pour it over the gelatine and stir until it is dissolved. Add two cupfuls of strong, clear, black coffee, and strain. Turn into a wetted mold. Serve with whipped cream.

Tapioca jelly

Soak a half cupful of tapioca over night in a cupful of cold water. Put into a double boiler a pint of boiling water and dissolve in this a tablespoonful of granulated sugar. Now turn in the soaked tapioca and cook until clear. Remove from the fire and add two teaspoonfuls of lemon juice. Have ready jelly glasses wet with cold water, and turn the liquid jelly into these. Set in a cold place to form. Serve very cold with sweetened cream.

Raspberry jelly

Stir into a quart of red raspberries a cupful of granulated sugar. At the end of an hour run the berries through a vegetable press, and strain the juice thus produced through a flannel bag. Have ready a half-box of gelatine soaked in a cupful of cold water for two hours, and pour over this a pint of boiling water. Strain and stir in the sweetened raspberry juice, then set aside to get cold. Wet a jelly mold, line with firm, ripe raspberries, and pour the cool half-firm jelly carefully into it. Set in a cold place to form. Eat with cream.

Rice jelly

Wash a cupful of rice and soak it for two hours in a cupful of water. Have ready on the range a quart of boiling water and turn the rice and the water in which it was soaked into this. Boil for three-quarters of an hour, then strain through a muslin bag. When cold and thick, serve with powdered sugar and cream. It is very nice and nourishing.

Banana soufflé (cold)

Put into a double boiler a pint of milk (half cream if you can get it), and add a pinch of baking-soda. Beat the yolks of three eggs light with five heaping tablespoonfuls of granulated sugar. Add to the beaten eggs and sugar a teaspoonful of corn-starch dissolved in a little cold milk. When the milk reaches the scalding point add the egg mixture and stir to a smooth custard, or one that will coat the spoon. Slice four bananas thin into the bottom of a deep pudding-dish, add to the hot custard a teaspoonful of vanilla and pour it over the bananas. Have the whites of the eggs whipped to a stiff meringue, with two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar; heap it on top of the custard and bake in a quick oven to a delicate brown. Serve very cold with whipped cream.

Cream puffs

Melt a half-pound of butter in a pint of scalding water, and when this boils stir in three-quarters of a pound of flour. Stir steadily for a minute, or until the flour does not stick to the sides of the saucepan. Remove from the fire. When the mixture is cool whip in, one at a time, eight eggs beaten very light. Set on the ice for an hour. Line pans with buttered paper and drop the mixture by even spoonfuls at regular intervals—far apart—upon this paper. Bake in a hot oven until the puffs are golden brown. When cold, cut a slit in the side of each and fill with a cream made by the following recipe:

Cream puff filling

Thicken a cupful of hot milk with three tablespoonfuls of flour wet to a paste with cold water. When it has boiled for a minute, and is free from lumps, remove from the fire and pour upon three eggs, well beaten with a half cupful of powdered sugar. Stir over the fire to a thick, smooth cream; remove, flavor with vanilla, and when cold fill the puffs.

Macaroons

Beat the whites of three eggs stiff with three-quarters of a pound of powdered sugar. Stir in half a pound of finely-crumbled almond paste; beat until smooth, and drop by the spoonful upon greased paper. Bake for ten minutes in a steady oven.

Tutti-frutti jelly of canned fruit

Make a good jelly, using the liquor from the canned fruit as seasoning. Strain while hot, and pour a little into a wet mold or bowl. When the jelly begins to form put a layer of chopped fruit upon the jelly, cover with more jelly (which you should have kept slightly warm). When this is firm, more fruit, and so on until materials are used up. When firm and cold, you can slice at pleasure.

Prune and nut jelly

Soak a cupful of prunes all night; drain and stew them until tender in three cupfuls of water. Before taking them from the fire add a cupful of sugar. Drain the prunes, keeping the syrup, chop them and stir into them two dozen blanched and chopped almonds. Soak two-thirds of a box of gelatine in a cupful of cold water for two hours, add a cupful of boiling water and the prune liquor. Stir over the fire until the gelatine is dissolved; then remove, add the juice of a lemon and two tablespoonfuls of sherry. Turn into a glass dish, and when partly congealed stir in the prunes and nuts. Every few minutes stir the jelly until it becomes firm enough to prevent the fruit from sinking to the bottom. Eat very cold with sweetened, whipped cream.

Wine jelly

Soak one-half box of gelatine in one-half cupful of cold water for an hour; put into a saucepan two cupfuls of boiling water, one cupful of sugar and some thin slices of lemon peel. When the sugar has dissolved add the gelatin and stir until that has dissolved; remove from the fire, and when partly cool add the juice of one lemon and three-quarters of a cupful of sherry wine. Pour into molds and set to cool.

Creamed figs

Wash the figs and put them in a saucepan with just enough water to cover them and with half a cup of granulated sugar. Simmer until the figs are tender when pierced with a fork. Take from the fire and spread on a plate to cool. Add a cup of sugar to the liquid and boil to a rather thick syrup. Take from the fire and pour over the figs. When very cold put into a glass dish and just before sending to the table, heap whipped cream on top. Eat with light cake.

Fig jelly

Prepare the figs by stewing. Chop very fine. Have ready half a box of soaked gelatin, put this over the fire in a cup of boiling water, add the sweetened fig syrup, stir until the gelatin is thoroughly dissolved, take from the fire, add a wineglassful of sherry and stir in the minced figs. Turn into a mold wet with cold water to form.

FRUIT DESSERTS

When people call in, or upon, a doctor, in the expectation of hearing that their internal mechanism is “all agley,” and to pay well for the knowledge, they want something to show for what they have done and mean to do. The physician’s catechism and advice that do not entail an application to a druggist for further help to the deranged machinery, the transfer of vial, box or packet to the patient’s hands, and the passage of coin of the realm or paper of the republic from one pocket to another, are a violation of civilized usages.

“It is naught! It is naught!” saith the patient, and when he is gone his way he complaineth. Henceforward neither he nor his listeners to his tale of fraud, “doctor with” the candid practitioner forevermore.

It will be seen that a certain physician ran one positive and several possible risks when he said to an anemic, wild-eyed patient, teetering upon the inner edge of nervous prostration, with a tilt in the wrong direction:

“A sanitarium! By no means! And drugs, nervines, sedatives and the like would do you no permanent good. The best of them are mere placebos that amuse the invalid while nature cures him. What you need—what most broken-down women need—is fresh air and fresh fruit. Plenty of both! Live out of doors and live upon fruit!”

Then he charged as liberal a fee as if he had recommended an ocean voyage, Baden-Baden, Carlsbad, and “ites” and “ines” by the dozen.

If he had ordered a tank of oxygen to be sent to the invalid’s room and fallen to work pumping the gas into her lungs at a cost of one hundred dollars per day, the sufferer and the sufferer’s friends and gossips would have been satisfied, because impressed with the novelty and the scientific flavor of the proceeding. The means would be commensurate with the end to be gained.

Eat abundantly as much as you can without surfeit, of whatever fruit agrees with you best, and while this regimen is going on, sparingly of meat and rich gravies, not at all of pastry. Let the assuasive, and dissuasive, and persuasive juices of ripe, fresh fruit have their perfect work. Take your case in hand seriously, and with a definite, intelligent intention. Drugs interfere with nature; fresh air and fruit are her obedient handmaidens.

Apples

Many persons fancy that raw apples are indigestible, and only endurable in the early morning. Doubtless the old adage that fruit is gold in the morning, silver in the middle of the day, and lead at night, is to some extent answerable for this (to my way of thinking) erroneous impression.

Dietitians tell us that ripe, raw apples contain more phosphates in proportion to their bulk than any other article of food, fish not excepted. A recent writer on this point boldly declares that in this lies the secret of healthful longevity. They correct biliousness and act as a sedative upon the racked nerves and allay insomnia.

“Eat uncooked apples constantly, although, of course, in moderation, and drink distilled water only, and years will be added to your life, while the evidences of age will be long in coming.

“This argument is based on the supposition that as age advances, the deposits of mineral matter in the system increase, and that aging is little more than a gradual process of ossification.

“Phosphoric acid contains the least amount of earth-salts, and for that reason is probably the nearest approach to the elixir of life known to the scientific world.

“If you want to live long, to retain your youth at the same time, and to increase your brain-tissue, eat plenty of apples, drink only distilled water, and eat as little bread as possible. A diluted solution of phosphoric acid is also recommended to those who care to take pains to follow the diet here outlined.”

Tart apples are far more wholesome than sweet, and all, like potatoes, should be fully ripe when eaten.

Wash and polish them for the table, arrange in a silver basket or glass dish, and pass silver knives with them. The touch of steel injures the flavor.

Peaches

Neither wash nor wipe. The soft down upon the cheek of a ripe peach is one of its charms. Keep on the ice until you are ready to serve, then pile in a fruit dish and garnish with peach leaves. Pass silver knives with them.

To prepare grapefruit for table

Cut the grapefruit in half, and dig out the hard core and seeds, leaving a hollow in the center. Loosen the pulp from the skin all around the sides of the fruit, so that it can be eaten easily with a spoon. The method from this point is determined by the individual taste. Some persons like the fruit without sugar. Others fill the hollow in the middle with sugar, and pour upon this a little rum, or sherry, or Maraschino. The addition of a few Maraschino cherries is often made, and in hot weather the fruit is sometimes laid in the ice.

Picked pineapple

Peel the pineapple and remove the little dark protuberances upon the surface of the fruit. With a fork pick or tear the fruit into strips, strew these with granulated sugar and set in the ice until wanted.

Pineapple and raspberries

Trim the bottom of a large pineapple so that it will stand upright. Cut off the top, but do not throw it away. With a sharp knife dig out the inside of the fruit, taking care that the knife does not penetrate the sides or walls of the pineapple. Put this hollowed case and the top into the refrigerator until needed. Pick the inside of the pineapple into tiny bits, and mix with it a cupful of red raspberries. Sweeten abundantly with granulated sugar, and turn the fruit into a glass, or a china jar, with a closely fitting cover. Put on the lid and bury the jar in the ice for several hours. Just before time to serve it, remove from the ice, fill the hollowed shell with the fruit mixture, replace the top on the pineapple and send to table.

Pineapple and strawberries

Cut off the top of a pineapple, and pare away the bottom so that it will stand upright and firm on the plate; scoop out the pulp, discarding the core; mix the pulp with strawberries cut in halves, the juice of an orange and sugar to taste. Return the mixture to the shell and chill thoroughly. Garnish the dish with leaves from the crown.

Strawberries

If large and ripe, do not cap them, but pass whole, with powdered sugar that each eater may help himself. Holding the stem as a handle, he dips the fruit in the sugar and nibbles it daintily.

Orange baskets

In halving large sweet oranges leave a strip of rind on one side that may serve as a handle to the other. Dig out the pulp from under and around the “handle,” leaving that in the lower “basket” intact. Set the baskets in ice until you are ready to serve. Tie a bow of narrow ribbon to each handle before sending to table. Eat with orange spoons.

ICE CREAM AND ICES

Freezers that speedily congeal the contents of their grinding depths may be bought so cheaply, our housekeeper will find that in the long run it is economy to buy a patent freezer and make her ices at home.

In freezing creams of all sorts, and water, or fruit ices, the process is greatly simplified by having the ice crushed fine. Many cooks who are new to the business, do not recognize this fact. In consequence, they learn that to freeze cream takes very much longer than they were led to imagine from the circular advertising “the most rapid freezer ever put upon the market.” While this circular may to a certain extent exaggerate the facts, do not condemn the new machine until you have pounded or shaved your ice very fine. A machine for shaving ice facilitates this process. Lacking this, put the ice into a strong bag and pound it fine with a wooden mallet.

I wish it were in my power to name and recommend “a perfect freezer” of any kind. Grinding is slow work; it is hard work; it is hot work at a season when action begets discomfort. My heart leaped high within me when a correspondent wrote gushingly of a freezer that “did the business of, and in itself without calling upon housewife or cook for so much as a turn or touch.” Upon trial of the “perfect” machine, I found the product—after I had faithfully obeyed instructions—coarse-grained, and shot with icy needles. I can, however, refer to a self-freezing process practised in my household for twenty odd years, and with never a failure.

Pour your cream, of whatever kind, into the freezer, surround with alternate layers of ice, shaved or cracked almost as fine as snow, and rock salt. Fill to the top and pour over all two quarts of the strongest brine. Bury the freezer out of sight in cracked ice and throw a piece of carpet, or a doubled sack over all, and don’t touch it again for an hour. Open then and beat and churn, when you have scraped the frozen cream from the sides down into the middle. Have a stout “dasher” in miniature made, and work diligently for at least five or six minutes. The granulation and ice-needles of the “perfect machine” were the consequence of neglect of this beating and churning. Now close the freezer, pack down again in rock salt and finely pounded ice, burying it out of sight as before, put a weight on the top, unless the freezer be fast to the bottom of the outer vessel, and let all alone for two hours more—longer if you like.

You will have then a pillar of lusciousness, smooth as cream can be and should be. Dip the freezer in hot water and turn out, or wrap a towel wet in hot water about it to loosen the cream.

All ices are the better for being packed down in ice for some time after they are frozen. It is a ripening and mellowing process. If you wish to add fruit or nuts to the plain custard or cream beat them in when you open the freezer to “churn” the contents.

Vanilla ice cream

Make a custard of a quart of milk, seven eggs and four cupfuls of granulated sugar. Remove from the fire and flavor with vanilla extract. When cold beat into the custard a quart of rich cream, and freeze.

It is made more elegant and delicious by pouring over each plateful, when served, a hot or a cold chocolate, or cold strawberry sauce.

Chocolate sauce for vanilla ice cream

Rub four heaping tablespoonfuls of sweet chocolate (grated fine) to a smooth paste, with six tablespoonfuls of cream. Add two cupfuls of boiling water, and cook in a double boiler, stirring constantly, for ten minutes after the boil begins. Flavor with vanilla or other extract when cold. Before using, beat for three minutes hard.

This “dressing” is especially nice if a few spoonfuls of whipped cream be beaten into it just before serving. It should be very cold, or very hot. If the latter, omit the whipped cream but froth by heating over the fire.

Strawberry sauce for vanilla cream

Crush a pint of berries, mix with them a cupful of sugar; stir until dissolved; strain through a fine colander or a vegetable press, and set on ice until needed.

Hot maple sauce for vanilla ice cream

Boil a pound of maple sugar with a very little water until it begins to “thread.” Then stir into it a half a cupful of shelled English walnuts, broken, not chopped, into bits. There should be enough to make the sauce quite thick. Pour hot over vanilla ice cream.

Chocolate ice cream

Make a custard according to the directions given in the recipe for vanilla ice cream, stirring into it, while in cooking, four tablespoonfuls of grated chocolate. When this chocolate custard is cold beat in a pint of rich cream and freeze.

Burnt almond ice cream

Beat the yolks of four eggs light, add to them a cupful of sugar and a pint of hot milk. Put over the fire in a double boiler, cook until the mixture thickens like a custard, take from the fire, whip in the whites of the eggs, beaten stiff, and when the mixture is cold stir in lightly half a pint of sweet cream, whipped stiff, a cupful of almonds, which have been shelled, blanched, chopped fine, browned in two teaspoonfuls of caramel sugar, and pounded to a coarse powder. Flavor with a teaspoonful of vanilla and half a teaspoonful of almond extract. Freeze as you would other ice cream.

Pistachio ice cream

Blanch a quarter of a pound of pistachio nuts by pouring boiling water over them, letting them stand in this for ten minutes and slipping off the skins. Grind to a powder or pound to a paste, adding a few drops of cream in the latter case. Have ready a custard as for vanilla ice cream, made of six eggs, a quart of milk and a pound of sugar, and after this is cooked to a custard, and cold, add a quart of rich cream, the pistachio nuts and enough green vegetable paste to make it of the desired shade of green. Turn into the freezer and freeze.

Maple frappé

Into two cupfuls of maple syrup stir a cupful of water and a cupful of rich cream, and freeze. Serve in punch-glasses with teaspoons.

Nesselrode pudding

Make a rich custard of eight eggs and a quart of milk; stir into it a quart of rich cream, turn into a freezer and grind until half-frozen. Now open the freezer, remove the dasher and with a long-handled spoon beat into the cream a pound of chopped marrons glacés. Replace the top of the freezer, pack down in ice and rock salt, and leave for three hours. Turn the pudding upon a chilled platter, and heap whipped cream about the base.

Crushed strawberry ice cream

Make a custard like the one for which directions are given in the last recipe, only doubling the quantity. Add a quart of cream and pour into the freezer. Grind or leave packed down until half-frozen. Have ready a quart of strawberries mashed and abundantly sweetened. When the ice cream is half congealed carefully remove the top from the freezer and with a long spoon beat in the crushed berries, stirring up the contents from the bottom. Replace the top and continue to grind until frozen.

Red raspberries may be used in the same way.

Macaroon ice cream

Spread a half-pound of macaroons on a pastry-board and with a rolling-pin crush them to a powder.

Make a custard after the following manner: Heat a pint of milk to the scalding point and pour it gradually upon three eggs beaten light with one and a half cupfuls of granulated sugar. Put into a double boiler over the fire and stir until like thick cream; remove, and set aside to cool. When cold stir into this custard a pint of rich cream, the powdered macaroons and a teaspoonful of vanilla extract. Turn into the freezer and grind until frozen.

Macaroon mousse

Make custard as in last recipe, but whip the cream, then beat the powdered macaroons well into it, pack an ice and freeze without grinding.

The “mousse” or mossy effect is produced by freezing whipped cream without turning the crank. (See directions given at beginning of this chapter.)

Strawberry mousse

Whip a pint of thick cream very stiff and stir into it a cupful of crushed berries which have been sweetened abundantly and from which all of the juice has been drained. Mold and pack in ice and salt for four hours. When ready to serve, garnish with whole strawberries.

Raspberry mousse

Mash a quart of red raspberries and cover them with a pint of granulated sugar. Whip a quart of cream to a stiff froth, and beat it gradually into the mashed berries. Turn into the freezer. Do not grind, but pack in ice and cracked salt for three hours. This is delicious served with or without whipped cream.

Peach ice cream (No. 1)

Scald a pint of cream and pour it very gradually upon three eggs that have been beaten light with three cupfuls of sugar. Put over the fire in a double boiler and cook, stirring constantly until you have a custard that coats the spoon. This will take about fifteen minutes. Set the custard aside until cold, then stir into it a pint of rich cream and three cupfuls of cut-up peaches. These peaches should not be peeled and cut until just before the time for freezing them, and must be cut into very small bits, and sprinkled abundantly with sugar. Stir custard, cream and peaches well together, turn all into the freezer and freeze until firm. If you freeze without grinding, beat the fruit in after the cream has been packed down for an hour.

Peach ice cream (No. 2)

Make a quart of rich ice cream and flavor with almond. When frozen hard take up and cut into cakes. Line the bottom and sides of the freezer with these. Reserve one-fourth for a cover. Fill the center with layers of sliced peaches and thick whipped cream. Cover with the reserved cream and let the freezer remain in ice and salt an hour. Dip quickly into warm water and turn out carefully.

Café parfait

Put together one quart of thick cream, one gill of clear, strong coffee and a cupful of fine white sugar. Whip all light in a cream churn, or with any other appliance you have for whipping cream. When stiff and light put into a mold that will fit in a freezer, and bind a strip of cloth or several folds of tissue paper about the top of the mold so as to keep the salt water from getting in. Put the mold into a freezer tub and surround it with fine ice and rock salt, well packed down. It should stand in this for at least three hours. As a rule it is served heaped in glasses or cups.

Raspberry parfait

With a silver spoon mash a quart of red raspberries and stir into them a pound of granulated sugar. Set in a cold place for several hours while you soak half a box of gelatine in a half a pint of cool water. When the gelatine has soaked for two hours turn it into a saucepan, pour over it a cupful of boiling water, and stir until dissolved. Rub the berries and sugar through a fine colander into the dissolved gelatine, and again set it in a cold place for an hour or two. Meanwhile, beat a pint of sweet cream stiff. (This will make about a quart of whipped cream.) When the gelatine mixture is cold beat the whipped cream into it, put into a freezer and freeze.

Fruit meringue glacé

This is one of the simplest and most delicious of desserts and may be made of any kind of fruit that is at hand. It is especially good when made of strawberries, red raspberries, or ripe peaches.

Crush a quart of fruit to a pulp and cover it with a pint of granulated sugar. Pour on this a half pint of cold water and the unbeaten whites of five eggs. Mix and turn into the freezer. The grinding process will whip the contents into frozen foam, light yet firm.

Orange and banana meringue glacé

Peel, seed and chop five oranges fine, and cover them with two cupfuls of granulated sugar. At the end of half an hour peel and chop five or six bananas, and stir immediately into the sugared oranges. Now add a pint of cold water and the unbeaten whites of five eggs. Turn into the freezer and grind until you have a frozen fruit froth.

Strawberry surprise

Mash two quarts of strawberries to a pulp, add to them a pint of sugar, a pint of water, the juice of two lemons and the unbeaten whites of six eggs. Turn into the freezer and freeze. The turning of the dasher will beat all to a foamy and delicious “surprise.”

Alaska bake (No. 1)

Whites of six eggs. Six tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar. Two-quart brick of ice cream. A thin sheet of sponge cake.

Make a meringue of the egg whites and the sugar, cover a board with white paper, lay on the sponge cake, turn the ice cream out upon the cake (which should extend one-half inch beyond the cream), cover with the meringue, and spread smoothly. Place on the oven grate and brown quickly. The board, paper, cake and meringue are poor conductors of heat and prevent the cream from melting. Slip from paper on ice cream platter.

Alaska bake (No. 2)

Cover thickly a two-quart brick mold of ice cream with a meringue made of the whites of six eggs and six tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar.

Place the dish upon a board and set in a very quick oven to brown. The meringue acts as a non-conductor, and prevents the heat from melting the ice cream.

It may also be browned with a salamander or a heated fire-shovel.

Sherbet

Squeeze all the juice from six lemons and one large orange. Put into this the grated rind of the orange, and of three of the lemons, and let it steep for an hour. Strain in a bag, squeezing this hard; add two cupfuls of granulated sugar and one pint of water. Mix well and put into a freezer. The length of time it will take to freeze depends upon the make of the freezer. Some require more time than others.

Berry sherbet

Mash one quart of berries, or enough to make one pint of juice; add one pint of sugar, and after the sugar is dissolved, add one pint of water and the juice of one lemon. Press through coarse lace, or cheese cloth, and freeze.

Tutti-frutti ice cream

Break the whites of seven eggs into a chilled bowl, add to them two cupfuls of powdered sugar and a pint of rich cream into which you have stirred a bit of baking-soda the size of a pea. Put over the fire in a double boiler and make it scalding hot, but remove before the boiling point is reached. Now set the inner saucepan in a pan of ice, and churn until cold and light. Turn into the freezer and grind. Peel and cut into small bits three peaches, an apple, an orange, a banana, two dozen cherries (crystallized, if you can not get the fresh), and cut into small pieces a half cupful of red raspberries. Mix all these fruits thoroughly together. When the cream is frozen, but not very stiff, carefully wipe off the top of the freezer, remove the cover, and take out the dasher. Turn the mixed fruits into the cream, and with a long-handled spoon stir them in. Press all down hard, replace the cover, and pack the freezer down in ice and salt for three hours longer.

Cherry ice

Stem and stone a quart of cherries, crush and cover them with two cupfuls of sugar. At the end of an hour squeeze the cherries through a vegetable press and extract all the juice. To this add the juice of a lemon, a pint of water and the unbeaten whites of three eggs. Turn all into a freezer and grind until you have a firm, light ice. Pack the freezer in ice and salt for an hour after the dasher is removed.

Whole banana ice cream

Wash and wipe twelve large ripe red bananas, cut the skins down carefully all the length on one side, and as carefully extract the pulp without breaking the skins. Remove the pulp, scrape out the fibrous portion from the skins and put the latter in the ice-chest until the cream is ready. Mash the pulp of the bananas, mix with it two cupfuls of sugar and one quart of cream, and add two teaspoonfuls of lemon juice. Rub through your colander to get rid of fibrous parts, and freeze in the usual way. When almost hard, fill the banana skins with the cream, packing it in well, tie with soft thread and return to the cleaned and chilled freezer. Freeze for another hour (without turning). Have ready a dozen narrow green ribbons. Remove the threads, tie the bananas up with the ribbons; lay back in a freezer when you have wiped it dry, and leave in ice and rock salt until served.

Plum Bavarian cream

Soak half a box of gelatin in half a pint of cold water. Press through a sieve one pint of canned, or freshly stewed and sweetened plums. Stir the gelatin over boiling water until dissolved; stir the plums into this and mix well; pour into a bowl set in ice, and stir constantly until it begins to thicken; then add one pint of whipped cream; stir lightly until well-mixed. Turn into a mold and stand in a cool place. Serve with whipped cream.

Cider ice

Dissolve one and a half cupfuls of granulated sugar in one quart of cider. Add one cupful of orange juice and one-fourth cupful of lemon juice. Mix the ingredients well together and freeze in the usual manner.

Raspberry and currant cream

Mash one quart of black raspberries and one pint of red currants with two and a half cupfuls of sugar. Let them stand several hours, strain off the juice and turn into the freezer. When partly frozen, add one cupful of sweet cream, sweetened, flavored and whipped.

Candied citron ice cream

Cut peeled and cored citron into strips. To each pound of these strips allow a pound of granulated sugar. Make a syrup of the sugar and water, allowing a cup of water to each pound of sugar. Cook the citron strips in this until clear and tender, adding enough ginger-root to flavor. Take out the citron and lay on platters to cool, and boil the syrup until very thick. Add a little lemon juice, return the citron to the syrup and stir until candied. Lay on a platter to cool and dry. When you wish to use it cut into tiny shreds and beat into plain vanilla ice cream when half-frozen. Close the freezer and turn until the contents are firm.

HOME-MADE CANDIES

There has of late years been so much criminal adulteration of candy that the cautious parent is tempted to condemn all bonbons as unfit for human stomachs. In our wholesale condemnation we are prone to forget that the longing for sweets is a natural craving of the system, and that pure sugar, taken in moderation and at the proper time, is not injurious, but rather aids in the process of digestion.

A moderate amount of good candy eaten directly after a hearty meal should not prove injurious to any healthy person.

Appreciation of this hygienic law has led to the introduction of the bonbonnière upon the luncheon and the dinner table. The sweet morsels are nibbled because it is fashionable to partake of them, but the good results are the same as if intelligent comprehension of need and supply were the motive power.

Maple candy

Break a pound of maple sugar into bits and then crush it fine with a rolling-pin. Stir it into two cupfuls of hot milk; put over the fire, and stir until the sugar is melted. Now boil hard, stirring all the time, until the syrup is brittle when dropped into cold water; beat in a lump of butter the size of a small hen’s egg, and as soon as this melts, pour the candy into greased pans. Cut into large squares before it hardens.

Maple caramels

Break two pounds of maple sugar into a quart of milk—half cream, if you have it—and boil steadily, until a little dropped into cold water, hardens. Pour into greased pans, and as it cools, mark into squares.

Maple fudge

Break a pound of maple sugar into small pieces and put it over the fire with a cupful of milk. Bring to a boil, add a tablespoonful of butter and cook until a little dropped into cold water becomes brittle. Take from the fire, stir until it begins to granulate a little about the sides of the pot, and then pour into a greased pan. Mark into squares with a knife.

Sugar candy

Wet two heaping cupfuls of granulated sugar with a half pint of cold water and put over the fire in a porcelain-lined saucepan. When the sugar is dissolved, stir in a bit of cream of tartar (as large as a Lima bean) dissolved in a spoonful of cold water. Boil the candy until a bit hardens when dropped into cold water; remove from the fire, stir in a teaspoonful of vanilla, turn into greased pans, mark into squares and set aside to harden. Or, as the candy cools, pull it with buttered finger-tips into long white ropes. Let it get very cold and brittle before eating.

Chocolate fudge (No. 1)

Boil together a cupful of sugar, one cupful of grated chocolate, one-half cupful of milk, one-quarter of a cupful of molasses. Boil, stirring often, until a little hardens in cold water. Remove from the fire, beat in a teaspoonful of vanilla, stir for a minute and turn into a buttered pan.

Chocolate fudge (No. 2)

Three pounds of light brown sugar, one-half pound of chocolate, one-half cupful of cream, one-quarter pound of butter, three tablespoonfuls of vanilla extract.

Put all into a porcelain kettle, or smooth iron pot, excepting the vanilla extract. Set on the back of the stove and let it melt slowly—two hours are none too long, if you value smooth, rich fudge. Then pull forward to boil about ten minutes. Try, at the end of seven or eight minutes, in ice-cold water, and if it “balls” in the fingers, take off and beat, adding the vanilla. Turn out into buttered tins, and score when cool enough.

Penotchie

Put over the fire in a saucepan three cupfuls of light brown sugar—not coffee sugar—with a cupful of milk and boil to the stage when dropped into cold water it makes a soft but firm ball in the fingers. Add, then, a teaspoonful of butter; take from the fire, flavor with a teaspoonful of vanilla and stir in a cupful of kernels of English walnuts, hickory nuts, or pecans, broken into pieces. Turn out upon a well-buttered shallow pan and mark into squares with a buttered knife.

This is sometimes known as “Penuchie,” sometimes as “Mexican Kisses.”

Molasses candy (No. 1)

Stir together three cupfuls of New Orleans molasses and a cupful of brown sugar. Add a gill of vinegar and put all over the fire in a porcelain-lined saucepan. Bring slowly to a boil and stir the syrup often as it cooks. Test the candy, from time to time, by dropping a bit into iced water. As soon as this bit hardens stir into the boiling syrup a heaping teaspoonful of butter; when this melts, add a teaspoonful of baking-soda dissolved in a tablespoonful of boiling water, and remove immediately from the fire. Pour into buttered tins and cut into diamond-shaped candies, or pull into ropes.

This is the good old-fashioned molasses candy of “candy pulls”—the frolics dear to our mothers’ girlish days. In my opinion it is sweeter to taste and to memory than chocolate creams or any other modern bonbon.

Molasses candy (No. 2)

Boil together a cupful of molasses, one of brown sugar, a tablespoonful of butter and a tablespoonful of vinegar. When a drop hardens in cold water remove from the fire, beat in a small teaspoonful of baking-soda, stir hard, and turn into buttered pans. As it hardens, cut into squares, or when hard break into bits.

Molasses “velvets”

One cupful of molasses, three cupfuls of sugar, one cupful of boiling water, three tablespoonfuls of vinegar, one-half teaspoonful of cream of tartar, one-half cupful of melted butter, one-fourth teaspoonful of soda. Pour the first four ingredients into a kettle placed over the front of the range. As soon as the boiling point is reached add cream of tartar. Boil until, when tried in cold water, the mixture will harden and crisp. Stir constantly during the last half hour of cooking. When nearly done add the butter and soda. Pour into a buttered pan and pull as you would plain molasses candy. Before pulling add one teaspoonful of vanilla, one-half teaspoonful of lemon extract, or any essence you may prefer.

Molasses taffy

Boil a pint of molasses for twenty minutes, then stir in two saltspoonfuls of baking-soda and boil for fifteen minutes more, or until a little dropped into cold water is brittle. You must stir the taffy constantly while boiling, or it will scorch. When it is done add a teaspoonful of vinegar and pour into buttered pans, or pull to a light brown.

Molasses walnut candy

Boil a quart of molasses for half an hour, then add a saltspoonful of baking-soda and boil until a little dropped into cold water becomes brittle. Stir in shelled and halved walnuts, and pour into a greased pan.

Molasses stick candy

Boil together a pint of molasses, two tablespoonfuls of butter, a pound of brown sugar and two tablespoonfuls of vinegar. When a little hardens in iced water remove from the fire, and, as it cools, pull into long light strips with floured finger-tips. Lay on waxed paper to harden.

Chocolate caramels (No. 1)

Heat together over a slow fire two cupfuls of brown sugar, half a cupful of molasses, half a cupful of cream, four tablespoonfuls of butter, and half a cake of Baker’s unsweetened chocolate, grated. Cool until it is brittle when dropped into cold water; flavor with a teaspoonful of vanilla, turn into a greased pan, and when cool cut into squares with a knife.

Chocolate caramels (No. 2)

Boil together two pounds of granulated sugar, a quarter of a pound of grated chocolate, a half pint of milk, a quarter of a pound of butter. Cook until a bit hardens when dropped into cold water, flavor with vanilla, pour into greased tins and mark into squares.

Opera caramels

Stir into two cupfuls of granulated sugar just enough milk to dissolve it, add a quarter teaspoonful of cream of tartar and put over a slow fire. Stir constantly while boiling until a little dropped into cold water has the consistency of putty. Pour into a shallow pan and set aside to cool until so stiff that your finger pressed on it leaves a dent. Now beat until you have a soft, dough-like mass. Knead this, put upon a pastry board sprinkled with powdered sugar, and roll into a sheet a half inch thick. Cut into squares. If you wish to make vanilla caramels of these stir in the vanilla just before taking the mixture from the fire.

Chocolate creams

Beat the white of an egg light with a teaspoonful of sugar, add a teaspoonful of vanilla and enough confectioner’s sugar to make a mixture stiff enough to be rolled into balls. Beat very smooth, then form into balls the size of a small marble, and spread in a pan to get stiff and firm. Cover with a chocolate coating.

Chocolate coating for creams

Melt sweetened chocolate in a double boiler. Run a thick skewer into each cream ball and dip in the melted chocolate until thoroughly coated. Spread on buttered tins to dry; or, spread upon waxed paper.

Chocolate marshmallows

Buy two ounces of finely powdered white gum arabic and let it stand, covered with eight tablespoonfuls of cold water, for an hour. Put it then into a double boiler, and let it heat slowly until the gum is dissolved. Strain through a cheese-cloth, wash out the double boiler and return the gum arabic to this with seven ounces of powdered sugar and two tablespoonfuls of grated chocolate. Stir over the fire for about three-quarters of an hour. At the end of this time the mixture should be stiff. Take from the fire, beat rapidly for two minutes, put in a teaspoonful of vanilla, and pour into a pan which has been well dusted with corn-starch. When cold cut into squares.

Fondant for cream candies

To one pound of granulated sugar put into a granite saucepan, add a gill and a half of boiling water, and stir until the sugar is dissolved—no longer. Let the syrup boil about six minutes, and dip a fork into it. Try this, holding up the fork and watching the syrup on the point, until this has reached a stage where it spins a thread. Test it still further by dropping a little of the boiling sugar into iced water. When it can be made into a very soft ball with the fingers, turn it out on a large platter, which has been lightly buttered. Be careful not to stir the sugar when boiling, and do not scrape off the sugar that adheres to the side of the saucepan. As soon as the syrup in the dish is blood-warm, stir it with a wooden spoon, or paddle, until it begins to crumble. It should be a smooth white mass, and when it has come to this stage should be kneaded in the hands like dough. Pack it into a bowl, cover it with a thin cloth, slightly moistened, and set it away until needed.

Chop nuts and roll in this fondant, or roll in it whole. Citron cut into strips may be coated with it.

Cream dates

Stone dates, opening at one side only, fill with fondant, close gently into the original shape and sprinkle with sugar.

Butterscotch

Wet a pound of brown sugar with a cupful of water, into which two tablespoonfuls of vinegar have been stirred. Put into an agate saucepan. Cook for ten minutes, add four tablespoonfuls of butter and boil until a drop hardens in cold water. Pour into large buttered tins, and as it cools, mark off into squares.

Lemon butter

Boil together half a pound of brown sugar, a tablespoonful of vinegar and a gill of water for ten minutes, and add a heaping tablespoonful of butter. Boil until the candy becomes brittle when dropped into cold water, and take from the fire. Add to it the juice of a lemon and pour into a shallow, well-greased pan.

Hoarhound candy (made from fresh leaves)

Make a strong solution of hoarhound leaves; strain this, and put a quarter of a cupful of it over the fire with a pound of brown sugar and a very little water. Cook until a little dropped in cold water is brittle. Add a tablespoonful of vinegar, boil up once and turn into greased tins.

Hoarhound candy (made from dried leaves)

Steep a heaping tablespoonful of dried hoarhound leaves in half a cupful of boiling water for one hour, then strain and squeeze. Add the liquid to two cupfuls of brown sugar, put over the fire in a saucepan, and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Put in a tablespoonful of vinegar and boil until the candy breaks when dropped into cold water. Drop from the point of the spoon upon buttered paper, or pour into a pan and cut into squares.

Wintergreen candy

Made as directed in last recipes, substituting wintergreen for hoarhound.

Walnut creams

Beat the whites of an egg very light with enough XXX sugar to make it very stiff. Now add cream, a few drops at a time, until the mixture is of the consistency of putty, working it with the hands until it is soft and smooth. Flavor with vanilla, or with lemon juice and the grated rind. Roll into small balls, flatten these, and press a half walnut on each side of every ball.

French cream almonds

Four cupfuls of granulated sugar; one cupful of boiling water; two tablespoonfuls of glucose.

Stir until mixed and dissolved, then cover, and boil until the syrup strings. Pour into a crock and allow it to stand undisturbed until cool enough for you to hold your finger in it. Stir with a wooden spoon until thick; pour upon a marble slab and knead all lumps out. Work in flavoring and coloring if desired. Mold into balls and press a blanched almond on the top of each ball.

Creamed English walnuts

For this use the large English walnuts, cracking them carefully so as not to break the kernels. Remove each half in one piece and free it from all bits of shell.

Heat over boiling water half a pound of fondant like that for which directions have been given in the recipe for chocolate creams. Flavor it with a teaspoonful of vanilla extract, stir it until it becomes creamy and dip into it with a pair of small sugar tongs the half of the walnut. Lift it out carefully and lay it on waxed paper until it is dry.

Or you may make a fondant of another kind by mixing the white of an egg with an equal quantity of cold water and stirring into it enough confectioner’s sugar of the variety known as “XXX” to make a dough-like paste that can be handled with the fingers. This may be flavored to taste with vanilla or bitter almond, or any other extract, and formed with the fingers into small balls. To each side of this may be pressed the flat surface of an English walnut kernel. They may then be laid on waxed paper in a box.

Peanut candy

Boil together two and one-half cupfuls of sugar and a gill of water, without stirring, until a little, when dropped into cold water, can be worked into a soft ball. Now add a tablespoonful of butter and boil until the candy hardens when dropped into cold water. Stir in a cupful of shelled, roasted and skinned peanuts, turn the mixture into a buttered pan and cut into squares.

Peanut molasses candy

Boil together a cupful, each, of molasses and brown sugar, a tablespoonful of vinegar and two of butter. When a little, dropped into cold water, is brittle, add a cupful of shelled, roasted and skinned peanuts, remove at once from the fire, add a teaspoonful (scant) of baking-soda, beat hard, and pour into buttered pans.

Nougat

Boil together a pound of sugar and a half cupful of cold water until it becomes brittle if dropped into cold water. Cover the bottom of a well-buttered shallow tin with nut kernels—hickory, walnut and pecans, blanched almonds, strips of cocoanut, bits of figs, dates and the like. Add a tablespoonful of lemon juice to the candy when it is done, and pour it over the fruit and nuts in the pan. Let it get cold and mark into squares and strips.

Creamed burnt almonds

Put two cupfuls of granulated sugar into a saucepan with two tablespoonfuls of water, set over the fire and stir continually with a wooden spoon. As soon as it is well melted, move it to one side of the fire, drop in the blanched almonds, and take them out at once with a perforated spoon, or candy dipper. Lay them on buttered dishes to harden.

Creamed grapes

Make a syrup of a pound of sugar and a gill of water. Boil without stirring until a drop put into iced water becomes brittle. Remove from the fire, set in an outer pan of boiling water, and add to the syrup a dessertspoonful of lemon juice. Run a stiff wire or the prong of a pickle fork through each grape, and dip them, one by one, in the hot syrup, then lay on waxed paper to dry.

Creamed popcorn

Make a syrup as for creamed grapes in the recipe given above, but omit the lemon juice. Drop into the syrup enough crisp popcorn to make it thick; take out this, after stirring for half a minute, by the great spoonful and lay on greased paper. As the mass hardens roll a spoonful of it into a ball, then roll this over and over in freshly popped and sugared corn, until the white kernels adhere to the sticky ball.

Popcorn balls

Make an old-fashioned molasses candy, and just before removing from the fire, stir in enough popcorn to thicken it. Take the mixture out by the spoonful and roll, as soon as it can be handled, into balls, then roll these over and over in kernels of popcorn until no more will adhere to the balls.

Sugared peanuts

Prepare as you would salted nuts, but substitute butter for oil, and fine sugar for salt, after you have rolled the nuts in the white of an egg, beaten light. Spread out upon white paper to dry in the sun, or in a moderate oven.

Orange straws

Select thick-skinned oranges, and cut the peel in strips a quarter inch wide. Have a pan of boiling water on the stove, and place as many pieces of the peel in the water as you can easily handle. Let it boil five minutes, drain, cover again with boiling water, boil five minutes more, drain again, once more cover with boiling water and boil five minutes, making fifteen in all. Drain thoroughly, then make a syrup of one teacupful of sugar to three tablespoonfuls of water; when this boils add the peel, and cook until this is absorbed (about twenty minutes); remove from the pan, and, while hot, roll each straw in granulated sugar which you have placed previously upon clean paper. Then put each straw on paper in a pan until the bottom of the pan is covered, and place in a warm oven until all are dry. Have the sugar to roll the straws in and all ingredients ready before beginning the cooking, as the straws must be handled very rapidly. They will keep for weeks and not become sticky. One cup of sugar will do for five oranges.

Candied orange peel

When peeling the orange cut the rind into quarters, then cut into long strips. Put into a pan, cover with cold water, bring to the boil and drain. To six oranges allow one and a half cupfuls of granulated sugar and a cupful of water; put these into a granite saucepan and bring to a hard boil. Add the orange peel and boil down quickly, taking care not to burn. When the liquid is almost cooked away take the saucepan off the stove and stir in a cupful of sugar. Stir until almost cold, pick apart with the fingers, and lay on a plate.

Candied pineapple

Peel, slice and weigh the pineapple, and allow a pound and a half of granulated sugar to each pound of fruit. Put the fruit and sugar together in a granite kettle and add just enough water to cover the fruit. Boil until the fruit is tender, remove and spread on a dish to cool while you boil the syrup until very thick. Now lay in the pineapple; cook and stir for five minutes more, and then spread the sliced fruit on platters until dry and “candied.”

Candied citron

Peel and core the citron and cut into strips. Weigh the fruit, and allow a pound of sugar to each pound of the citron strips. Make a syrup, allowing a cupful of water to each pound of sugar. Cook the citron in this until it is tender; remove and spread on dishes. Boil in the syrup enough ginger to give a slight flavor, and when the syrup is very thick stir in a little lemon juice. Now lay the strips of citron back in the syrup, and stir until candied and coated with sugar. Lay on a platter to cool and dry.

Marshmallows

Soak four ounces of pulverized gum arabic in a teacupful of cold water for two hours. Put into a double boiler with cold water in the outer vessel and bring gradually to the scalding point. When the gum is dissolved, strain through coarse muslin, return to the double boiler with a heaping cupful of powdered sugar, and stir steadily until the mixture is white and stiff. Remove from the fire, beat very hard for a minute and flavor with vanilla; beat a minute longer, and pour into tins, the insides of which have been rubbed with corn-starch. When the paste is cool cut it into squares of uniform size and turn each of these over and over in a mixture made of three parts corn-starch and one part powdered sugar. Keep packed in a tin box until wanted, as they soon dry if exposed to the air.

Peanut brittle

Boil together a cupful, each, of molasses and brown sugar, a tablespoonful of vinegar and two tablespoonfuls of butter. When a little dropped into cold water is brittle, add a cupful of blanched peanuts; remove at once from the fire, add a teaspoonful of baking-soda, beat hard, and pour into buttered pans.

Hickory nut candy

Prepare half a cupful of hickory nut kernels by chopping them. Boil together one cupful of “A” sugar, one-third of a cupful of water, and a piece of butter the size of a walnut until it makes a soft lump when tested in water. Remove from the fire and stir in the nuts. When it begins to look cloudy, pour by the spoonful into buttered tins. It will spread into flat cakes.

Maple nut candy

Butter a shallow tin and cover the bottom with butternut meats. Place on the cooler part of the stove one quart of maple sugar and one cupful of water. Cook slowly and test in water. When done, pour over the nut meats. Before it hardens, mark into squares.

Crystallized fruits

Make a syrup of a pound of sugar and a gill of water. Boil, without stirring, until a drop put into iced water becomes immediately brittle. Remove the saucepan from the fire and set it at once in an outer pan of boiling water. Add to the syrup the juice of a quarter of a lemon. Run the prongs of a sharp pickle fork through each piece of fruit to be candied, and dip it in the hot syrup. Lay on buttered or waxed paper to dry.

Stuffed dates

Remove the stones from dates and fill with a mixture made as follows:

Put into an agate saucepan one cupful of granulated sugar and a gill of cold water, with half a saltspoonful of cream of tartar. Stir just long enough to dissolve the sugar, then boil, without touching, until a drop put into cold water can be formed into a soft ball. Remove from the fire immediately, skim off every particle of crust, if there be any upon the surface of the syrup, and pour the syrup into a bowl. When so cool and thick that the finger leaves a dent when pressed upon it, stir with a wooden spoon to a smooth white paste. When too stiff to stir with a spoon, work the mixture with the hands. This filling will keep for weeks. When you wish to use it, set the cup containing it in a pan of hot water until soft enough to handle.

Slippery-elm cough candy

Soak a good handful of dried slippery-elm bark in a pint of water all night. In the morning bring it to a boil, strain and press to get out all the mucilaginous matter, and put the liquid thus obtained over a slow fire with two cupfuls of sugar. Wet the sugar well with lemon juice before adding it to the slippery-elm tea. Simmer, stirring until the sugar dissolves. When the candy “ropes” pour it out into broad buttered tins and mark into squares. You may pull it white if you like. It is palatable and excellent for colds and coughs.

AFTERNOON TEA

In every respectable English dwelling, be it palace or cottage, tea is served between four and five o’clock every afternoon in the year. The crone in the almshouse takes hers direct from the hob in winter, and in summer hobbles with her black teapot, a teaspoonful of the precious leaves in the bottom, to the common kitchen to have it filled. Her betters in name and in worldly gear assemble about the tea equipage in drawing room or library, or in the family “parlor.”

For the wealthy there are tea-tables of divers patterns, some with leaves that draw out to accommodate cups and saucers when set in array. The conventional afternoon tea-table is lower than that intended to hold bric-a-brac and books. The chair occupied by the mistress of the house or one of her daughters is low and broad, that she may sit at her ease while making and dispensing the beverage. The central figure upon the tray is a teakettle of silver, copper, brass or lacquered Japanese ware, with a spirit lamp beneath. When the water boils the tea is “masked,” i. e., a little is poured upon the dry leaves in the pot, a wadded “cozy” is fitted over the latter, and the tea is “drawn” for about two minutes before the rest of the water is added.

The cups are passed by a servant if none of the young people of the family or intimate friends are present to whom the graceful task can be delegated. The tone of the whole function is easy sociability.

This is especially marked in the English country house, where sportsmen, who have been out with the dogs and gamekeeper all day, are allowed to drift into the drawing-room, in splashed gaiters and knickerbockers, for a chat and a cup of hot tea before going off to dress for dinner.

As accompaniments to the tea we have a basket of light cakes or biscuits, thin bread and butter, now and then buttered scones or “tea cake.” Anything more elaborate mars the simplicity of the custom, perverting it into an “occasion.” It ceases to be afternoon tea, a rest station between the one o’clock luncheon and the seven or eight o’clock dinner. In some towns and cities—particularly in the lavish South—the effort to introduce this simplest of social functions has failed ignominiously, because—like dish-washing, toast-making and tea-making, speaking the truth and spelling correctly—the right way of doing it is too easy to learn. The “spread” of oysters, salads, cakes and creams, bouillon and bonbons, flummery and fruit, into which the imported custom degenerated, was as foreign to the true spirit of the original as the crush of elaborately dressed women and the sprinkle of uncomfortable men who attended the teas was to the cordial informality that should obtain with guests and entertainers.

It is a wholesome symptom in our feverish social system that the beneficent break in the diurnal rush and press furnished by afternoon tea-time is becoming more and more prevalent. In tens of thousands of homes, in city and in country, five o’clock brings together the scattered parts of the home circle in the living-room. Jaunty wicker stands, three and four-storied, for holding plates of fancy biscuits, thin bread and butter, cake and crisp strips of lightly buttered toast spread with anchovy paste, have crept into conservative drawing-rooms; teakettle, teapot and their appurtenances appear duly at the stroke of the hour, and visitors who happen to call at that hour are cordially made welcome to the grateful refreshment. “Tea” is always there, no matter who comes or goes, and it typifies what we need more than all else besides in a land where labor is the rule and relaxation the exception—home joys, home comfort, home rest!

Five o’clock tea has come to stay! Whether as a simple refreshment for busy women who long for a life-saving station in the afternoon rush, or as an informal—and inexpensive—fashion of entertaining one’s friends, it seems to be as firm a fixture on this side of the Atlantic as on the other.

One of the chief charms of the afternoon tea is its adaptability. It may be as much or as little of a function as one chooses. I do not refer now to the cup of tea that the hostess pours for herself or the chance friend every afternoon in the week, but to the tea where guests are regularly invited. It may be madame’s At Home day, which extends over a period of a few weeks, or runs through the whole winter, or it may be one of the more formal occasions, to which guests are invited in droves, and social debts thereby paid en bloc.

For the simpler function it is easy to lay down rules. Little is required for it. If it is to be a weekly affair for which cards are issued early in the season, it is foolish to plan an elaborate menu, and even worse than foolish, for it is in bad taste. The guest who goes to such a day, “at home,” does not expect a “spread,” and the hostess who offers too much makes life harder for the timid woman of small means who is not quite sure what is the correct thing, but is only positive that it must be expensive.

For the ordinary one-day-every-week-all-winter afternoon tea there are many houses where one has only bread and butter or fancy biscuits and a simple cake. I know one woman who prides herself upon the quality of the doughnuts she serves at her afternoon teas, and they are the only sweets she has beyond a little dish of bonbons. To be sure, there are simple sandwiches or thin bread and butter, but further than this she does not go except for some special occasion.

For such an Afternoon Tea the following menus are offered as suggestions:

AFTERNOON TEA MENU. I

Caviar Sandwiches Creamed Chicken Sandwiches Fancy Cakes Tea, or Coffee, or Chocolate

AFTERNOON TEA MENU. II

Chicken and Celery Sandwiches Anchovy Toast Fancy Cakes Tea, or Coffee, or Chocolate

These menus may be modified in many ways. Other varieties of sandwiches may be provided. Both tea and coffee, or tea and chocolate, may be offered. Plain cake may be supplied instead of the fancy cakes, and a good tea biscuit may be given instead of one kind of sandwiches. Little dishes of bonbons may stand by to supplement the feast.

For these, as for the ordinary afternoon tea where there are no invited guests, the preparations are the same. The tea-table is not to be left standing fully equipped to gather dust when it is not in use. The cups and saucers and other tea plenishings are brought in on a tray and placed on the table. This may be a regular tea-table, or it may be the table one finds in every drawing-room where are piled the magazines and books of the day. These may be swept to one side to make space for the tray. The hostess may make the tea and pour it, or it may be brought in ready from the kitchen.

When tea-time extends over the whole afternoon, a tea-ball will prove of value. Then each guest is sure of a fresh hot cup of tea, and while the alcohol lamp holds out to burn the supply will not fail.

If there are a good many guests there may be a maid at hand to pass cups and offer the plates of sandwiches and sweets. But, as a rule, the affair is so informal that hostess and guests wait on themselves.

With the cup and saucer there may be offered a plate, and some hostesses offer doilies as well, but this is not obligatory. The maid is chiefly needed to replenish the hot water, to take away empty cups and the like, and if she is within sound of the bell, it answers as well as though she were at the elbow of the hostess.

When the tea is to be a larger and more formal function, matters are differently arranged. In those cases where a hostess gives perhaps two days, and invites all her dear five hundred friends to be present at one or the other of them, there is not room in the drawing-room for the tea-table nor place for the chatty informality of the simpler afternoon tea. The table is laid in the dining-room, or the library, and a friend is invited to “pour.” If there are two beverages,—as there are, almost invariably,—one friend takes each end of the table, and there may be even a third, presiding over another hot drink, or over the punch bowl. A waitress or two must be at hand to take away the dishes that have been used and bring fresh, and to see that the guests have enough to eat and drink. The hostess has no time to see to anything beyond the salutations of the guests as they come in, and can only suggest to them that they go out to the dining-room and find something to eat.

Once in a while, a hostess will give no more than is contained in the menus already suggested, except that the supplies of all kinds may be increased, and that there may be three kinds of sandwiches, instead of one or two, and a larger choice in the matter of cake. Two hot drinks, at least, must be supplied.

But in so large a function the bill of fare is more likely to be something like the following:

AFTERNOON TEA MENU. III

Bouillon Lobster Sandwiches Chicken Truffle Sandwiches Lettuce Sandwiches Salted Almonds Olives Bonbons Cakes Tea Coffee Chocolate, or Claret Punch

When an afternoon tea gets to this stage it may still be called “a tea,” but it has gone far beyond that, and has become a daytime reception. Even if the sun is shining outside there is usually artificial light in the rooms. The lamps are burning with a pleasant subdued light, there are candles with colored shades, the women who are receiving and presiding over the table are in full dress. The table itself is beautiful with china and cut glass and silver. Flowers are about everywhere, and except that the men are in morning dress and the women guests in street costume, it might be an evening party.

There is a reception held in the afternoon that is even more elaborate than this. When a woman wants to make signal some special “occasion,”—to honor a guest, or perhaps because it is the only “crush” she gives in the year,—she often makes it a tea. For this the cards will be out ten days or more in advance and the refreshments provided are more elegant and numerous than those mentioned above. Such a collation might be as follows:

AFTERNOON TEA MENU. IV

Bouillon

Chicken or Lobster Salad Creamed Oysters Nut Sandwiches Sardine Sandwiches Cream Cheese Sandwiches Olives or Pimolas Salted Nuts Bonbons Ices Frappé Cakes Tea Coffee Chocolate Punch

The table is arranged for this as for the third tea mentioned, but there must be waiters in attendance, and they serve nearly everything. In most cases there is nothing done by the young women friends of the hostess who gather in the dining-room except entertain the guests and see that they have enough to eat. Once in a while, these young women may preside at the coffee-urn, or the chocolate, or teapot, but it is not a common occurrence.

The matter has been put into the hands of “the profession.”

It is all very nice, and an excellent way to clear the debit side of one’s social ledger, but the mind turns to the quiet afternoon tea-table with the hot tea under the cozy, the saucer of sliced lemon, the tiny flask of rum or the graceful cream jug, the sugar basin and plate of sandwiches, or bread and butter, with affection one never cherishes for the huge kettledrum.

SOME DAINTIES FOR AFTERNOON TEA

Tea cakes

Sift a quart of flour three times with two teaspoonfuls of baking-powder and one of salt. Chop into this a tablespoonful of butter and one of cottolene or other fat.

(In all preparations requiring shortening, cottolene is preferable to lard.)

Mix in a bowl with a wooden spoon, adding about three cupfuls of milk, or enough to make a soft dough. Turn out upon your board and roll, with swift, light strokes into a sheet half an inch in thickness. Reverse a jelly-cake tin upon the sheet and cut with a sharp knife cakes just the size of the tin. With a spatula, transfer to a floured baking-pan and bake in a quick oven.

Split while hot, butter and cut into triangular pieces, six to each cake. Do not divide them until the triangles are drawn from the plate by those who are to eat them.

Tea scones

Mix as directed in recipe for tea cakes, but cut into rounds with a small biscuit cutter. Bake upon a soapstone griddle, upon both sides, to a delicate brown; split and butter while hot. Line a plate or a tray with a napkin, lay in the scones and fold the corners of the napkin lightly over them.

Oatmeal scones

To three cupfuls of oatmeal add one of white flour, a teaspoonful of salt and two of baking-powder. Heat three cupfuls of milk to scalding, not to boiling, stir in a tablespoonful of sugar with two and a half of butter, and mix with a wooden spoon these ingredients into a soft dough.

Do not touch it with your hands.

Turn out upon a kneading-board, roll into a sheet less than a quarter of an inch thick, cut into rounds with a large biscuit-cutter, and bake upon a hot soapstone griddle, turning to brown. Butter while hot.

Virginia wafers

Rub two tablespoonfuls of butter into a pint of flour, add enough iced water to make a stiff dough, put up on a floured pastry board, and roll out as thin as writing paper in rounds as large as a saucer. Bake in a floured pan in a quick oven.

They should be rough and “bubbly” on top. Eat cold.

Corn-meal tea cakes

Mix fine white corn-meal with boiling milk; gradually add a little salt, and let it simmer half an hour or more, then drop it from a large spoon upon a soapstone griddle, and bake on both sides to an even brown. Butter and eat hot.

Bristol tea cakes

Rub two level tablespoonfuls of butter into four cupfuls of sifted flour; mix it with thin cream to a soft dough to roll out; toss the dough upon a floured board, cut with a biscuit cutter into rounds and bake on a hot griddle, or in the oven; split and butter them; serve on a napkin.

Raisin bread

Make as you would ordinary white bread, with the addition of one-half cupful of raisins to a small loaf. Spread thin, triangular slices of this with butter, and then with a layer of cream cheese.

Hot milk tea cakes

Into three well-whipped eggs beat a cupful of sugar, a large cupful of prepared flour, and a teaspoonful of vanilla. Beat hard; add a gill of scalding hot milk, stir in quickly and turn the mixture into greased pâté-pans. These cakes are best if eaten hot, but are also good cold.

Stuffed rolls

Light rolls, shaped like finger rolls, but larger, may be cut open on one side, the crumb dug out and the cavity filled with minced and seasoned chicken, turkey, ham, or tongue. Close the roll and bind it with narrow ribbon tied with a bow and floating ends. You may tie the ham rolls with one color, the chicken with another.

Peanut crisps

One cupful of roasted and chopped peanuts, one cupful of powdered sugar, one tablespoonful of flour and the whites of two eggs. The mixture is dropped on a buttered paper and baked to a light brown in a moderate oven. A quart of unshelled peanuts will yield the necessary cupful of chopped nuts.

Salted almonds

Shell and blanch the almonds by pouring boiling water over them, letting them stand for ten minutes, then stripping off the skins. Dry the nuts between the folds of a clean dish towel, and put them in a baking-pan with a tablespoonful of melted butter. Turn them over and over in this until all are coated, then set the pan in the oven until the nuts are delicately browned, stirring often, that all may brown evenly. Turn into a colander, strew thickly with fine salt, and shake the colander hard to dislodge superfluous salt and grease. When cold, the nuts will be crisp. Keep in a dry place.

Peanut butter for sandwiches

Shell and skin freshly-roasted peanuts and pound or grind them to a fine powder. Mix to a smooth paste, with half as much butter as you have peanut powder. If the butter is rather fresh, add a little salt.

Cream cheese for sandwiches

Into a broad pan pour the fresh warm milk as soon as possible after it is milked; set at the side of the range and bring slowly to the point where it just begins to simmer. Remove at once and set in the ice-box, where it will cool suddenly, and leave it there for six or eight hours. Now skim and press the clotted cream into small jars or deep saucers. Sprinkle the top of the cream with fine salt, and cover. Keep in a cold place until wanted.

Marguerites

The white of one egg, partly beaten; two tablespoonfuls of sugar, and one-half cupful of chopped walnuts. Stir all together and spread on wafers, or upon long narrow crackers. Bake to a light brown.

Ham and chicken sandwiches

Into a pint of cold boiled or roast chicken, chopped very fine, stir a cupful of minced ham; season with a few minced olives, and moisten with salad oil. Add white pepper to taste, and spread between thin slices of crustless white bread, buttered lightly.

Cheese and olive sandwiches

Mix cream cheese and chopped olives together; spread very thin slices of bread with the mixture; serve on a folded napkin.

Egg and olive sandwiches

Boil six eggs hard, remove the shells and chop the eggs very, very fine. Stone and chop eighteen large olives, and mix these with the minced egg. Moisten all with a little melted butter, season to taste and mix to a moist paste. Spread on thin slices of crustless bread, and press the two halves of the sandwich firmly together.

Lettuce and cream cheese sandwiches

Cut white bread into very thin slices and remove the crusts, then butter lightly. Spread with Philadelphia cream cheese. Dip a leaf of crisp lettuce in a French salad dressing, and lay it upon a slice of the bread, then press another slice upon it. With a sharp pair of scissors trim off the projecting leaf of lettuce. Pile these sandwiches on a plate, cover and keep in the ice-box until wanted.

FRAPPÉ BEVERAGES

A pleasant custom prevalent at many summer afternoon teas is that of passing nearly frozen beverages for the refreshment and delectation of the guests. These glacés or frappés are so easily prepared that the veriest tyro in the ice-making art need not be afraid to attempt them. On a warm day they are a refreshing variety upon the conventional cup of tea, and are so light and innocuous as not to interfere with the enjoyment of the dinner which must come an hour or two later. These ices are served in glasses, and with spoons.

Café frappé

Put two cupfuls of finely-ground coffee into a large French coffee-pot, or biggin, and pour upon it two quarts of boiling water. When this has dripped through the strainer, pour it into a pitcher and turn it back into the strainer. Repeat this process four times, then pour the clear coffee into a bowl, and stir into it two large cupfuls of granulated sugar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved and set aside to cool. When cold, add the unbeaten whites of two eggs, turn into a freezer and grind until frozen, but still rather soft. When turned into a glass it should be of about the consistency of soft snow. This rule of consistency applies to all these frozen beverages.

Tea frappé

Scald a china teapot, put into it six teaspoonfuls of the best mixed tea and pour upon it eight cupfuls of freshly-boiling water. Let this stand for six or eight minutes, strain it into a bowl, and sweeten to taste. When cold, turn into the freezer.

Frosted lemonade

Boil together for fifteen minutes two quarts of water, and four cupfuls of granulated sugar. Remove from the fire and when the syrup is lukewarm, add the juice of a dozen lemons. Set aside until cold, then freeze.

Frozen orangeade

Mix together the juice from six oranges and two lemons. Boil together three cupfuls of water and one cupful of sugar for ten minutes; remove from the fire and add the orange and lemon juice. When cold, add the unbeaten white of one egg, and freeze.

Frozen raspberry juice

Mash two quarts of red raspberries and cover them with three heaping cupfuls of granulated sugar. Let this stand in a warm place for an hour, then press through a cheese-cloth bag or a vegetable press to extract all the juice. To this add the juice of three lemons and of one orange, and two quarts of cold water. Stir well together and freeze. Some persons put a spoonful of whipped cream upon each glass of this ice. The contrast of the white with the pink is very pretty.

Ginger ale frappé

Open three bottles of imported ginger ale and turn the contents into a bowl. Add the juice of four lemons and a half cupful of granulated sugar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved; turn the mixture into a freezer, and freeze. This ice is very refreshing.

WAFERS

Graham wafers

Sift three cupfuls of graham flour and one cupful of white flour with a heaping teaspoonful of salt and two teaspoonfuls of baking powder. Melt two tablespoonfuls of butter with one of sugar in a pint of scalding milk. Make a hole in the middle of the flour, and pour this in. Stir to a soft dough, turn upon a floured pastry-board, roll out quickly and lightly into a thin sheet, cut into rounds with a biscuit-cutter, and bake in a floured baking pan until brown and crisp. While hot, spread lightly with butter.

Lemon wafers

Cream a cup of butter with two cups of sugar, work in two beaten eggs, a small cup of cold water and the grated rind and the juice of a large lemon. Add flour to make the dough stiff enough to roll out; roll very thin, cut into rounds and bake. Orange wafers may be made in the same way.

Vanilla wafers

Cream a cup of butter with two cups of sugar, add three well-beaten eggs and vanilla to taste. Stir in just enough flour to make a soft dough that can be rolled. Roll very thin, cut into rounds, and bake.

Peanut wafers

Cream together four tablespoonfuls of butter and a half-cup of sugar. When this mixture is soft and creamy add the well-whipped yolks of two eggs, four tablespoonfuls of milk, a cup of roasted and ground peanuts, and enough flour to make a good dough. Roll into a thin sheet, cut into rounds and bake.

STEWED FRUIT, PRESERVES, FRUIT JELLIES, MARMALADES, ETCETERA

STEWED FRUIT

Much of the excellence of stewed fruit depends upon the manner in which it is cooked. As it is served, in nine cases out of ten, it has a medicated “tang” that is far from agreeable—produced by the cooking of the sugar with the fruit. She who is familiar with this form of the sweetmeat alone has no conception of how palatable a dessert it makes if properly prepared. Served with plain or sponge cake it is a convenient dessert for Sunday night’s supper, or for the dainty family luncheon. But the housekeeper who would have her stewed fruit really good must be willing to be a little careful—perhaps fussy—in the preparation thereof. Apples that are a little tough, pears that are rather tasteless when raw, green or hard peaches and sour plums may, with the help of the stewing kettle and the housewife’s ingenuity, be converted into tender, toothsome morsels. Use always an agate-iron or porcelain-lined preserving kettle, as the action of the acid upon tin or iron darkens the fruit.

Nearly all fruits prepared according to recipes given herewith may be kept for months if sealed hot in glass cans, as one would can vegetables or unsweetened fruits. They are more wholesome than the pound-for-pound preserves.

Stewed apples

Peel and core firm apples, dropping them into cold water as you do so, that the color may be preserved. Put them over the fire with enough boiling water to cover them, and let them simmer gently until very tender, but not broken. With a perforated skimmer remove them carefully from the water and arrange them in a deep dish. Strain the liquor and return it to the fire, putting into it a large cupful of granulated sugar for every dozen apples you have cooked. Boil to a syrup, add the juice of one lemon and pour over the apples. Cover closely and set in a cold place until wanted. These apples will keep in the ice-box for several days.

Steamed apples

From a dozen medium-sized apples remove the peeling with a sharp knife, taking care to have the parings as thin as possible. Take out the cores; put the apples, side by side, in a deep pudding-dish, and pour over them enough water almost to cover them. Invert a plate, or pan, over the pudding-dish, set it in the oven and steam the contents until each apple can be easily pierced with a fork. Remove from the oven and lay the apples carefully in a deep dish. Set the pudding-dish containing the liquor from the apples on top of the range, add to it a cupful of granulated sugar, and bring to a boil. Simmer for twenty minutes, then add a dash of grated nutmeg and a pinch, each, of mace and ground cloves. Boil to a syrup and pour over the apples. Eat cold.

Stewed pears

Peel and quarter a dozen large pears and remove the cores, laying the quartered fruit in cold water as you do so. Put them over the fire with a pint of boiling water and stew until tender. Remove the fruit and add to the liquor a cupful of sugar, a stick of cinnamon, one of mace, and a teaspoonful of lemon juice. Boil until thick, strain the syrup and pour it over the pears. Cover closely until they are cold. Seckel pears, peeled and stewed whole according to this recipe, are delicious.

Stewed peaches

Peel and stone three dozen peaches. Put them over the fire with enough boiling water to cover them and put into the water six peach-pits (crushed) and two slices of pineapple cut into dice. Stew slowly, and when the peaches are tender transfer them to a bowl while you boil the liquor hard for five minutes, then strain it and add three cupfuls of granulated sugar. Boil to a thick syrup and pour over the peaches. Cover while cooking.

Stewed plums

Wipe each plum carefully with a soft damp cloth, and prick it with a fork to prevent bursting. Have the water in the preserving kettle a little more than lukewarm and lay the fruit in it. Bring to a gentle boil, cook just long enough for the plums to become tender, but not long enough for the skins to crack. They must be watched carefully. Remove to a deep dish, add a cupful of granulated sugar to every quart of liquor, boil to a syrup and pour over the plums.

Apple sauce

Wash two dozen firm, juicy apples and cut them—without peeling—into pieces. Put them into a porcelain-lined saucepan with a cupful of cold water and bring to a boil. Cook steadily, stirring frequently, until the fruit is soft and broken into bits. Remove from the fire and run through a colander to free the sauce from all bits of skin. Sweeten the apples to taste, and stir over the fire until the sugar is melted, but do not allow the mixture to boil. Add a teaspoonful of lemon juice and set aside until cold. Apple sauce made in this way is better in flavor and color than that made from the peeled fruit. The best part of the apple is that lying close to the skin, and it consequently loses much of its flavor in the peeling.

If sealed up while hot this will keep through the winter and supply fresh apple sauce when the raw fruit is scarce and expensive.

Stewed evaporated peaches

Wash the sliced peaches carefully and soak for six hours in cold water. Turn the fruit with the water in which it was soaked into a saucepan and bring to a gentle boil. Add a little sugar and stew until the peaches are tender. With a split spoon remove the slices of fruit, add a cupful of granulated sugar to the liquor, and boil quickly to thick syrup. Pour this over the peaches.

Stewed dried pears

Wash and soak the evaporated fruit as directed in the preceding recipe, and put over the fire in the water in which it was soaked. The slices should be just covered by the water. Stew until very tender, then remove the fruit and set aside while you measure the juice. To a half-pint of the liquor add a half-pint of molasses and simmer for twenty-five minutes. Skim the syrup, return the pears to it, add a pinch of powdered ginger, boil up once, and remove from the fire.

Gingered pears

Peel and core and cut in very thin slices. For eight pounds of sliced fruit put into a kettle the juice from five lemons, one cupful of water, seven pounds of sugar and half a pound of ginger-root scraped and cut into thin slices.

Let the sugar dissolve before adding the fruit. Cut the peel of a lemon into long, thin slices and add to the fruit. Let it cook slowly for an hour, uncovered, and can while hot.

Stewed rhubarb

Carefully scrape—not peel—the stalks, cut into inch-lengths, and lay them in cold water for half an hour. Weigh the rhubarb, and to each pound of the fruit allow a half-pound of granulated sugar. Put the rhubarb, still wet, into an agate-lined saucepan, mix the sugar with it, and set it at one side of the range until the sugar melts. Bring slowly to a boil, and stew until the rhubarb is very tender. Eat cold, accompanied by plain cake, or thin bread and butter.

You may seal up while hot in glass jars, wrap in paper to exclude the light, and keep all the year round.

Apple butter

Boil cider down to two-thirds of its original quantity. Into this turn as many peeled and sliced apples as the liquid will cover and simmer, stirring often, until very tender. When the first supply of apples is tender, strain them out, add more and cook in the same fashion until all the cider is absorbed. Take from the fire, put all into a stone crock and set aside for twelve hours, then return to the fire and boil until you have a soft brown mass. Remove and pack in stone jars.

Peach butter

Peel and slice enough peaches to thicken three quarts of cider and boil steadily until the fruit is reduced to a pulp. While cooking, stir frequently. Remove from the fire, let it get cold, return to the fire and stew for an hour longer, or until brown and thick. Pack down in a stone crock.

Plum butter

To every pound of plums allow three-quarters of a pound of sugar. Wash the plums and put them into a preserving kettle, with the moisture still clinging to them. Cover, bring slowly to a boil, and cook until the fruit is broken to pieces and is very soft. Rub through a colander to remove stones and skins; return the juice and pulp to the fire, add the sugar and boil until the mixture is very thick. Put up in jars.

Peach jam

After you have peeled and stoned the fruit, weigh it, and to every pound of fruit allow three-quarters of a pound of sugar. Put the peaches in the kettle at the side of the range and bring very slowly to a boil in the juice that flows from them. Stir often; at the end of three-quarters of an hour drain off superfluous juice and add the sugar. Boil for fifteen minutes, skimming often, then add the juice of a lemon, cook for a minute more, and turn into glasses or small jars. The surplus of liquor will make good jelly.

Berry jam

Pick over and wash the berries, and allow equal weight of fruit and sugar. Put the berries into a preserving kettle, mash them as they heat, and when considerable juice has been drawn out, add the sugar gradually. Let them boil up all over, and then either skim out the fruit, or turn all into a strainer. Set the juice on to boil again, and cook until it is thick or will “jelly;” put the fruit back and let it boil once, and seal up in small jars.

If the fruit be very juicy, drain off half the syrup, strain out the seeds and cook until it jellies. Then, put up in glasses. Do this before adding the fruit for the last boil. A still better plan is to dip out superfluous juice before the sugar goes in. Add pound for pint and make jelly of it.

Orange marmalade

Slice two dozen unpeeled oranges, and remove the seeds. Mix with them two lemons. These, as well as the oranges, must be shredded very thin. Measure the juice and add enough water to make three quarts of liquid. Put all into a stone crock, cover, and set in a cool place all night. Turn into a preserving kettle and bring slowly to the boil. Simmer until the peel is very tender. Now stir in a pound of sugar for every pint of juice, and boil until the skin is clear in appearance. Remove from the fire, and when cool turn into jelly glasses.

Grape marmalade

Stem the grapes and measure them, allowing a cupful of sugar for each half-pint of fruit. Pulp the grapes, keeping the skins for further use. Extract the seeds by boiling the pulp until tender, then rubbing it through a fine colander. Put the pulp, juice and skins over the fire in a preserving kettle and add the sugar. Boil until very thick, pour into jars and seal.

Peach marmalade

Marion Harland's Complete Cook Book (part 2 of 3)

Cite this passage

MLA

APA

Chicago

Marion Harland's Complete Cook Book (part 2 of 3)