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I
The Arthur and Elizabeth
SCHLESINGER LIBRARY
on the History of Women
in America
RADCLIFFE INSTITUTE
/
THE 6REAT HISTORICAL NOVELS
BY
HH. ERCKHANN-CHATRIAN.
TlfcMi« nrritcrs are abaoliiteljr uneqiialcd In tlhelr «nm pe.
cttllar Aeld. Ttf slaftple, teltl&Aal reallsot of tltelr mtylm omIjt
brlaK* ovC l»to stroMi^er relief tlte »oble purpose 'whlclfc an-
tmmtee all tj&e frorke of -wMcb ** Hadaaft Tbereae ** Is oae.
False i^lorT*, asllltarjr aasbitlon, aad frar aerer perbape bad
eaeuftlee niore po'werf^U appeariaf; ta so modeet a Ibna.
JTeMT T&rh IndepeHdenU
^\f .jBIorhfliiF*
An Episode of the FsJl of tHe First French Empire.
I^OM THB Fbench OF HM. Ebcxmahh-^Jhatbiait.
fFITH FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS^ INCLUDING PORTRAITS OF
THS AUTHORS.
In stiff paper covert, 50e't.| in cicth, 90ctt.
The •€€&€ oT t&b norel/ooe of the moat powerful ever irritcn by these joint au-
thoii» is laid in Phalabuig, one of the French ttrongholib which recent momentous
ereno have agaih made prominent. Like all the other stones of the series this is
lifelike, spirited, and graphic in ici description, thrilling in incident, and perfectly
pure in tone.
CRITICISMS OF THE LONDON PRESS.
"One of the many charming tales written by MM. EnciCMANN'CiiATitiAN. who
have proved how posnble it is to write in French and for Frenchmen noveb that are
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^ey must charm every reader whose taste has not been injured by the gilded nasti-
neas so common in French fiction '*-'-~Lpnd^m Daily New*.
** Thb is another of the wonderful photORraphic pictures of war which have made
MM. Ejkkmann-Chatkian io famous, llicse writers ha\'C a singular skill in lichting
on those details which bring a thing ck)scr home to one tlian pages of powerful MrnX,'
ing."— ZtfWtfw S^iaior,
BV THE SAME AUTHORS.-Uni/crm nith^fu mbfot in siyU mmt /Htt,
MADAME THERE8E: or, tht Votuntoere of '92. With five fuU-poge illustrations.
THE CONSCRIPT. A Story of tho F/wch War of 1813. With eight fulLpoge illuarations
WATERLOO. A SoqiMl U the Conscript of 1813. With six fuU-pagc Ulunratioas.
CHARLES SCRIBNER & CO.,
654 Broadway, N. Y.
^I)e liluetratcb CtbrarQ of Ulonbcra
TWENTY yOLUJUBS READY, CONTAINING OVER
One Thousand Beautiful Illustrations. •
The extraordinary popularity achieved by the " ILLUSTRATED LIBRARY OP
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and they are traced by writers who are not only thoroughly familiar with them, but who
have been spedaKy selected for their ability to write in a popular and entertaining style.
Each volume b moreover a complete treatise in itself upon tlie particular subject to which
it Is devoted, and comprises the latest devehqxnenis in each department of investigation
and discovery. 3d. llie dlfTerent Tolumes are profusely illustrated by designs from the
best srtiats, most carefully executed and specially adapted to the elucidation of the text
lliey ara handsomely printed upon tinted paper, and every care has been taken in their
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Tlie volumes may be purchased separately, or b libraries daasified according to tber
•nbjects, as below :
Each one Yolvme Itao. Price per Yolvne - . • • • $1 60.
Wotiders of Naiure. Wonders tf ArL
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THE SUBLIME IN NATURE. • 44
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THUNDER AND LIQHTNINQ, • 80
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ttz Yclvmet in a neat Imz, $8 00
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CLASS MAKING. 63
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WONDERS OF POMPEII, - - 22
EGYPT 8.300 YEARS AGO, - 40
BlxTolnmeeinaneasboz, $0 00
WotuUrt of Science^
N0» HlmttrmtitHt.
THE SUN. BY GUILLEMIN, • 68
WONDERS OF HEAT. • - 93
OPTICAL WONDERS, - • • 71
WONDERS OF ACOUSTICS. -'110
PcBrYda. inaneat box, $6 0^
WottderftdAdventurtt amdEx/ioits^
N*. iUmstrmiimM
ARMS AND ARMOI»
BODILY STRENGTH * SKILL, }%»
BALLOON ASCENTS. - - • 80
GREAT HUNTS. .... 22
Four Yoli. in a neat boZ| $6 00
r ih« twenty vlumw named mbvve in a handsome ease ftr $90 00,
Any or all the TOliimes of the ILLUSTRATED UBRARY OF WONDERS Mnt
to any addreaa, post or express charges paid, oa reosipt of the pries.
A descriptive CaUlogue of the Wonder Llbraiy, with spcdmea lUustra*
tloas, teat to any addross oa applicatioa.
COMMON SENSE
IN THE HOUSEHOLD:
A MABUAL OF
PRACTICAL HOUSEWIFERY.
BT
MARION HARLAND.
** W^ go npon ^e pxactlcal mods of teaching, NlcUeliy. Wliea • toy \novn
thla oat of book, he goet and 4m» U, Thl« Is our lyvtein. What do 70a think of
NeiD Sotk:
CHARLES 80BIBNER & 00.
1871.
NAKVAIIO COLLEGE LIBRARY
BEQUEST OF
MRS. CHESTER N. QREENOUGN
SEPTEMBER 20, 1t2«
Entered Moordln; to Act of Ooagi'Mi, in the year 1871, by
CHARLES BCBIBNEIt & CO,
in the Offlce of the Librarian of CongreM at Washington.
t4C
ti I,
TIB nw TOBK FaiXTIVO COMFAVT,
Ml, Ml, Ml^ til, flU ImI lllb BtiMt.
^n^*
TO MT
FELLOW-nOUSEKBEPSBS,
KOBTH, KA8T, BOtTTH AKD WEST, THIB TOLXIIIE,
THE GLEANINGS OF MANY YEARS,
IB COBDIALLT
lOMtattb.
INDEX OF GENERAL SUBJECTS.
PACPK
Blano-maDge 625
BtcmL ... . 269
Bnndied fmits 478
Butter 263
Cakes 810
Candy 479
Cannod fmitB 473
" yegetables 476
Catsaps 198
Clean, to, etc. 628
Company 154
Com bread 294
Creams 425
Crutaida 425
Drinks 491
Eggs 252
Familiar talk 18
Fish 50
Fritters 415
Fruit, ripe, for dessert 453
Game 160
Gingeitoead 848
Ices 448
loeKsraam 448
Icing 818
PAOS
JeUies 425
Jenic8,£rait 470
Meats 98
Milk 268
Nnisery, the 522
Pancakes 415
Pickles 480
Pies 849
Preserves 472
Pork 128
Poultry 82
Paddings 888
Salads 200
Saaoes for fish and meat. . . . 183
*' for paddings 419
Servants 870
Sick-room, the 503
SheU-fish 70
Soap 589
Soaps 27
Sandries 528
Tarts 863
Vegetables 210
Vinegars, flavored 103
i
A TALK aa woman to woman, in which each shall say,
** I " and " you," and " my dear," and " you know," as free-
ly as she pleases. It would not be a womanly chat if we
omitted these forms of expression. An informal preface to
what I mean shall be an informal book — bristling with
** I's " all the way through. If said bristles offend the
critic's touch, let him remember that this work is not pre-
pared for the library, but for readers who trouble themselves
little about editorial " we's " and the circumlocutions of
literary modesty.
I wish it were in my power to bring you, the prospec-
tive owner of this volume, in person, as I do in spirit, to
my side on this winter evening, when the baimies are
*^ folded like the flocks ; " the orders for breakfast com-
mitted to the keeping of Bridget, or Gretchen, or Ohloe, or
the plans for the moiTow definitely laid in the brain of that
ever-busy, but most independent of women, the housekeep-
er who '' does her own work." I should perhaps summon to
our cozy conference a very weary companion — ^weary of
foot, of hand — and I should not deserve to be your confidant,
did I not know how often heart- weary with discouragement ;
with much producing of ways and means ; with a certain
despondent looking forward to the monotonous grinding of
the household machine ; to the certainty, proved by past ex-
14 COMMON 8EN8E.
peiience, that toilsome as has been this day, the morrow
will prove yet more abuudant in labors, in trials of strength)
and nerves, and temper. You would tell me what a dreary
problem this of '^ woman^s work that is never done " is to
your fainting soul ; how, try as you may and as you do to
be systematic and diligent, something is always ^' turning
up " in the treadmill to keep you on the strain ; how you
often say to yourself, in bitterness of spirit, that it is a mis-
take of Christian civilization to educate girls into a love of
science and literature, and then condemn them to the routine
of a domestic drudge. You do not see, you say, that years
of scholastic training will make you a better cook, a better
wife or mother. You have seen the time — nay, many times,
since assuming your present position — when you would have
exchanged your knowledge of ancient and modem languages,
belles-lettres, music, and natural science, for the skill of a
competent kitchen-maid. The " learning how " is such hard
work I Labor, too, uncheered by encouraging words from
mature housewives, unsofbened by sympathy even frt)m your
husband, or your father or brother, or whoever may be the
" one " to whom you ** make home lovely." It may be that,
in utter discouragement, you have made up your mind that
you have '^ no talent for these things."
I have before me now the picture of a wife, the mother
of four children, who, many years ago, sickened me for all
time with that phrase. In a slatternly morning-gown at
four in the afternoon, leaning back in the laziest and most
ragged of rocking-chairs, dust on the carpet, on the open
piano, the mantel, the mirrors, even on her own hair, she
rubbed the soft palm of one hand with the grimy fingers of
the other, and with a sickly-sweet smile whined out —
^' Now, I am one of the kind who have no talent for
such things ! The kitchen and housework and sewing are
absolutely hateful to me — utterly uncongenial to my turn
JAMnJAR TALK WITH ICT BSADEB. 15
of mind. The height of my earUilj ambition is to have
nothing to do but to peint on velvet all day 1 "
I felt then, in the height of my indignant disgust, that
there was propriety as well aa wit in the " Spectator's " sug-
gestion that every young woman should, before fixing the
wedding-day, be compelled by law to exhibit to inspectors a
prescribed number of useful articles as her outfit — napery,
bed-linen, clothing, etc., made by her own hands, and that
it would be wise legislation which should add to these proofs
of her fitness for her new sphere a practical knowledge of
housework and cookery.
If you have not what our Yankee grandmothers termed
a " fiunilty '' for housewifery — ^yet are obliged, as is the
caae with an immense majority of American women, to
conduct the afiairs of a household, bills of hxe included —
there ia the more reason for earnest application to your pro-
fession. If the natural taste be dull, lay to it more strength
of will — resolution bom of a just sense of the importance
of the knowledge and dexterity you would acquire. Do
not scoff at the word ^^ profession." Call not that common
and unclean which Providence has designated as your life-
work. I speak not now of the labors of the culinary de-
partment alone ; but^ without naming the other duties which
you and you only can perform, I do insist that upon method,
skill, economy in the kitchen, depends so much of the well-
being of the rest of the household, that it may safely be
styled the root — the foundation of housewifery. I own it
would be pleasanter in most cases, especially to those who
have cultivated a taste for intellectual pursuits, to live
above the heat and odor of this department. It must be
veiy fine to have an efficient aide-de-camp in the person of
a French cook, or a competent sub-manager, or an accom-
plished head-waiter who receives your orders for the day in
your boudoir or library, and executes the same with seal
16 OOMHON 8BNSB.
and discretion that leave you no room for anxiety or regret.
Such mistresses do not need cookery-books. The few — ^and
it must be borne in mind that in this country these are very
few — ^bom in an estate like this would not comprehend
what I am now writing ; would not enter into the depths
of that compassionate yearning which moves me as I think
of what I have known for myself in the earlier years of my
wedded life, what I have heard and seen in other house-
holds of honest intentions brou^t to contempt ; of ill-di-
rected toil ; of mortification, and the heavy, wearing sense
of inferiority that puts the novice at such a woful disadvan-
tage in a community of notable managers.
There is no use in enlarging upon this point. You and
I might compare experiences by the hour without exhaust-
ing our store.
**And then" — ^you sigh, with a sense of resentment
upon you, however amiable your disposition, for the provo-
cation is dire^^' cookery-books and young housekeepers*
assistants, and all that sort of thing, are such humbugs 1 —
dark lanterns at best — ^too often WLU-o'-the-wisps.'*
My dear, would you mind handing me the book which
lies nearest you on the table tJiei-e? '< Dickens?" Of
course. You will usually find something of his in every
room in this house — almost as surely as you will a Bible.
It rests and refreshes one to pick him up at odd times, and
clip in anywhere. Hear the bride, Mrs. John Bokesmith,
upon our common grievance.
^^ She was under the constant necessity of referring for
advice and support to a sage volume, entitled ' The Com-
plete British Family Housewife,' which she would sit con-
sulting, with her elbows upon the table, and her temples in
her hands, like some perplexed enchantress poring over the
Black Art. This, principally because the Complete British
Housewife, however sound -a Briton at heart, was by no
FAMILIAS TALE WITH HY BEADEB. 17
means an expert Briton at expressing herself with clearness
in the British tongue, and sometimes might have issued her
directions to equal purpose in the Kamtchatkan language/'
Don't interrupt me, my long-suffering sister ! There is
more of the same sort to come.
'^ There was likewise a coolness on the pai*t of ^ The
Complete British Housewife ' which Mrs. John Bokesmith
found highly exasp^naUng. She would say, ^ Take a sala-
mander,' as if a general should command a private to catch
a Tartar. Or, she would casually issue the order, ^ Throw
in a handful' of something entirely unattainable. In
these, the housewife's most glaring moments of unreason,
Bella would shut her up and knock her on the table, apos-
trophizing her with the compliment — ' O you ABE a stupid
old donkey ! Where am I to get it, do you think ? ' "
When I took possession of my first real home, the pret-
tily furnished cottage to which I came as a bride, more full
of hope and courage than if I had been wiser, ^ve good
friends presented me^th as many cookery-books, each com-
plete, and all by different compilers. One day's investiga-
tion of my tnSnage convinced me that ipy lately-hired
servants knew no more about cookery than I did, or affected
stupidity to develop my capabilities or ignorance. Too
proud to let them suspect the truth, or to have it bruited
abroad as a topic for pitying or contemptuous gossip, I
shut myself up with my " Ck>mplete Housewives," and in-
clined seriously to the study of the same, comparing one
with the other, and seeking to shape a theory which should
grow into practice in accordance with the best authority.
I don't like to remember that time I The question of dis-
agreeing doctors, and the predicament of falling between
two stools, are trivial perplexities when compared with my
strife and fidlure.
Said the would-be studious countryman to whom a mis-
\
18 OOMlfON BJEN8E.
chievous aoqnaintanoe lent ''Webster's Unabridged Dio-
tionarj " as an entertaining volume, '' I vrastled, and I
wrastled, and I wrastled with it^ but I couldn't get up much
of an interest."
Mj wrestling begat naught save pitiable confusion, hope-
less distress, and a three-days' sick headache, during which
season I am not sure that I did not darkly contemplate sui-
cide as the only sure escape from the meshes that girt me.
At the height- -or depth— of my despondency a friend, one
with a great heart and steady brain, came to my rescue.
Her cheerful laugh over my dilemma rings down to me
now, through all these years, refreshingly as it then saluted
my ears.
*^ Bless your innocent little heart ! " she cried, in her
fresh, gay voice, '' Ninety-nine out of a bundled cook-books
are written by people who never kept house, and the hun-
dredth by a good cook who yet doesn't know how to express
herself to the enlightenment of others. Compile a receipt-
book for yourself. Make haste slowly. Leaiix one thing at
a time, and when you have mastered it, ' mike a note on
it^' as Captain Cuttle says — never losing sight of the princi-
ple that you must do it in order to learn how.'''*
Then she opened to me her own neatly-v^ritten '^ Man-
ual"— the work of years, recommending, as I seized it,
that I should commence my novitiate with simple dishes.
This was the beginning of the hoard of practical receipts
I now offer for your inspection. For fifteen years, I have
steadily pursued this work, gleaning here and sifting there,
and levying such remorseless contributions upon my friends,
that I fear the sight of my paper and pencil hax long since
become a bugbear. For the kindness and courtesy which
have been my invariable portion in this quest, I hereby re-
turn hearty thanks. For the encouraging words and good
wishes that have ever answered the hint of my intention to
FAMILIAB TALK WITH M7 BSADEB. 19
collect what had proved so valuable to me into a printed
volume, I declare myself to be yet more a debtor. I do
not claim for my compend the proud pre-eminence of the
** Complete American Housewife." It is no boastful system
of " Cookery Taught in Twelve Lessons." And I should
write myself down a knave or a fool, were I to assert that
a raw cook or ignorant mistress can, by half-a-day's study
of my collection, equal Soyer or Blot, or even approximate
the art of a half-taught scullion.
We may as well start from the right point, if we hope
to continue friends. Tou must learn the rudiments of the
art for yourself! Practice, and practice alone, will teach
you certain essentials. The management of the ovens, the
requisite thickness of boiling custards, the right shade of
brown upon bread and roasted meats — these and dozens of
other details are hints which cannot be imparted by written
or oral instructions. But, once learned, they are never for-
gotten, and henceforward your fate is in your own hands.
You are mistress of yourself, though servants leave. Have
faith in your own abilities. You tvill be a better cook for
the mental training you have received at school and from
books. Brains tell eveiywhere, to say nothing of intel-
ligent observation, just judgment, a faithful memory, and
orderly habits. Consider that you have a profession, as I
said just now, and resolve to understand it in all its branches.
My book is designed to help you. I believe it will, if for
no other reason, because it has been a faithful guide to my-
self— a reference beyond value in seasons of doubt and need.
I have brought every receipt to the test of common sense
and experience. Those which I have not tried myself were
obtained from reliable housewives — the best I know. I
have enjoyed the task heartily, and from first to last the
persuasion has nqver left me that I was engaged in a good
cause. Throughout I have had you, my dear sister, present
20 OOMlfOK BBN8B.
before me, with the little plait between your brows, the
wistful look about eye and mouth that reveal to me, aa
words could not, your desire to ^ do your best.''
^' In a humble home, and in a humble way," I hear you
add, perhapsj you ^^ are not ambitious ; " you '^ only want
to help John, and to make him and the children comfortable
and happy."
Heaven reward your honest, loyal endeavors ! Would
you mind if I were to whisper a word in your ear I don't
care to have progressive people hear? — although progress
is a grand thing when it takes the right direction. My
dear, John and the chUdren, and the humble home, make
your sphere for the present, you say. Be sure you fill it —
f^dlL I before you seek one wider and higher. There is no
better receipt between these covers than that. Leave the
rest to God. Everybody knows those four lines of George
Herbert's, which ought to be framed and hung up in the
work-room of every house : —
*' A servant, with this clause^
Makes drudgery divme ;
Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws
Makes that and th' action fine."
I wonder if the sainted poet knows — ^in that land where
drudgery is one of the rough places forever overpast, and
work is unmingled blessing — to how many sad and striving
hearts those words have brought peace ?
And by way of helping John, not only by saving money
and preparing palatable and wholesome dishes for his table,
but by sparing the wife he loves many needless steps and
much hurtful care, will you heed a homely hint or two re-
lative to the practice of your art? Study method, and
economy of time and strength, no less than of materials.
I take it for granted that you are too intelligent to share in
the vulgar prejudice against labor-saving machines. A
FAMHJAK TALK WITH ICT SEADEB. 21
nisin-seeder oosts a trifle in oomparison with the time and
patience required to stone the fruit in the old way. A good
egg-beater is a treasure. So with fleunnarkettles, syUabub-
churns, apple-corers, potato-peelers and slioers, clothe»-
wiingera and sprinklers, and the like. Most of these are
made of tin — are therefore cheap and easily kept clean.
Let each article have its own place in the closet and kit-
chen, to which restore it so soon as you have done using it.
Before undertaking the preparation of auy dish, read over
the receipt carefuJly, unless you are thoroughly fiuniliar
with the manufacture of it. Many excellent housewives
have a fieushion of saying loftily, when asked how such things
are made — ^' I carry all my receipts in my head. I never
wrote out one in my life. "
And you, if timid and self-distrustful, are smitten with
shame, keep your receipt-book out of sight, and cram your
memory with ingredients and measures, times and weights,
for fear Mrs. Notable should suspect you of rawness and
inefficiency. Whereas the truth is, that if you have a mind
worthy of the name, its powers are too valuable to be laden
with such details. Master the general principles, as I said
just now, and for particulars look to your marching-orders.
Having refreshed your memory by this reference, pick out
from your household stores, and set in convenient order,
within reach of your hand, everything you will need in
Tnakiug ready the particular compound under consideration.
Then take your stand in the midst — or sit, if you can. It
is common sense-— oftentimes a pious duty, to take judicious
care of your physical health. I lay it down as a safe and im-
perative rule for kitchen use — Never stand wlien you can
do your work as weU while silting. If I could have John's
ear for a minute, I would tell him that which would lead
hin\ to watch you and exercise wholesome authority in this
regard*
22 COMMON SKN8E.
Next, prepai'e each ingredient for mixing, that the bread,
cake, pudding, soup, or logout may not be delayed when
half finished because the flour is not sifted, or the ** shorten-
ing " warmed, the sugar and butter are not creamed, the
meat not cut up, or the herbs not minced. Don't begin
until you are ready ; then go steadily forward, ^^ without
haste, without rest,'' and think of what you are doing.
" Dickens again ? "
Why not, since there is no more genial and pertinent
philosopher of common life aiid every-day subjects? To
quote, then: —
''It was a maxim of Captain Swosser's," said Mrs.
Badger, '' speaking in his figurative, naval manner, that
when you make pitch hot, you cannot make it too hot, and
that if you have only to swab a plank, you should swab it
as if Davy Jones were after you. It appears to me that this
maxim is applicable to the medical as well as the nautical
profession."
** To all professions I " observed Mr. Badger. " It was
admirably said by Captain Swosser ; beautifully said 1 "
But it will sometimes happen that when you have heated
your pitch, or swabbed your deck, or made your pudding
according to the lights set before you, the result is a failure.
This is especially apt to occur in a maiden effort. You
have wasted materials and time, and suffered, moreover,
acute demoralization — ^are enwrapped in a wet blanket of
discouragement, instead of the seemly robe of complacency.
Yet no part of the culinary education is more useful, if
tui*ned to proper account, than this very discipline of failure.
It is a stepping-stone to excellence — sharp, it is true, but
often sure. You have learned how not to do it right, which
is the next thing to success. It is pretty certain that you
% will avoid, in your second essay, the rock upon which ^ou
have split this time. And, after all, there are few fjEdlures
FAIOLIAB TALK WITH KT UEADKB, 23
which are nttor and irremediable. Scorched soups and
custards, souj: bread, biscuit yellow with soda, and cake
heaTj as lead, come under the head of '^ hopeless.'^ They
are absolutely unfit to be set before civilized beings and
educated stomachs. Should such mishaps occur, lock the
memory of the attempt in your own bosom, and do not vex
or amuse John and your guests with the nanration, still less
with -visible proof of the calamity. Many a partial failure
would pass unobserved but for the clouded brow and earnest
apologies of the hostess. Do not apologize except at the
last gasp I Lf there is but one chance in ten that a single
person present may not discover the deficiency which has
changed all food on the table to dust and gravel-stones to
you, trust to the one chance, and carry off the matter
bravely. Tou will be astonished to find, if you keep your
wits about you how often even your husband will remain
in blissful ignorance that aught has gone wrong, if you do
not tell hiuL You know so well what should have been the
product of your labor that you exaggerate the justice of
others' perceptions. Console yourself, furthermore, with
the reflection that yours is not the first failure upon record,
nor the million-and-first, and that there will be as many to-
morrows as there have been yesterdays.
Don't add to a trifling corUretemps the real discomfort
of a discontented or fretful wife. Say blithely, if John
note your minfortune — ^^ I hope to do better another time,"
and' do not be satisfied until you have redeemed your
pledge. Experience and your quick wit will soon teach you
how to avert impending evih of this nature, how to snatch
your preparations from imminent destruction, and, by in-
genious correctives or concealments, to make them present-
able. These you will soon learn for yourself if you keep
before you the truism I have abready written, to wit, that
few fidlnres are beyond repair.
24 OOMMON BEN8K.
Never try experiments for the benefit of inyited gnesta
nor, when John is at home, riak the success of yonr meal
upon a new dish. Have something which you know he
can eat, and introduce experiments as by-phiy. But do not
be too shy of innovations in the shape of untried dishes.
Variety is not only pleasant, but healthfuL The least
pampered palate will weary of stereotyped bills of fare. It
is an idea which should have been exploded long ago, that
plain roast, boiled, and fried, on Monday, Tuesday, Wednes-
day, and Thursday, cod-fish on Friday, with pork-and-beans
every Saturday, are means of grace, because economical.
And with this should have vanished the prejudice against
warmed-over meals — or rechauffes^ as our French Mends
term them. I have tried, in the following pages, to set
forth the attractions of these, their claims to your attention
as being savory, economical, nourishing, and often elegant.
In preparing these acceptably, everything depends upon
your own taste and skill. Season with judgment, cook
just enough and not a minute too long, and dish nicely.
The recommendation of the eye. to ibe palate is a point no
cook can afibrd to disregard. If you can offer an unex-
pected visitor nothing better than bread-and-butter and cold
ham, he will enjoy the luncheon twice as much if the bread
be sliced thinly and evenly, spread smoothly, each slice
folded in the middle upon the buttered surface, and piled
symmetrically ; if the ham be also cut thin, scarcely thicker
than a wafer, and garnished with parsley, cresses, or curled
lettuce. Set on mustard and pickles ; let the table-cloth
and napkin be white and glossy ; the glass clear, and plate
shining clean ; and add to these accessories to comfort a
bright welcome, and, my word for it, you ileed fear no dis-
satisfaction on his part, however epicurean may be his
tastes. Should your cupboard be bare of aught more sub-
stantial than crackers and cheese, do not yield to dismay.
FAMILIAB TALK WITH MY READER. 25
Split the crackers (if splittable), toast the inside lightly,
and butter while hot. Grate your cheese into a powaery
mound, garnishing the edges of the plate. If you have no
beverage except water to set before him, let thiJB be cool,
and pour it out for him yourself, into an irreproachable
glass. A dirty table-cloth, a smeared goblet, or a sticky
plate, will spoil the most luxurious feast. A table well set
is half-spread.
I have not said one-tenth of that which is pressing upon
my heart and mind, yet I fear you may think me trite and
tedious. One suggestion more, and we will proceed to the
details of business.
I believe that, so £sur ajs care can avail in securing such
a result, my receipts are accurate. But in the matter of
seasoning and other minor details, consult your judgment
and John's taste. Take this liberty with whatever receipt
you think you can improve. If I chance to find in your
work-basket, or upon the kitchen dresser, a well-thumbed
copy of my beloved " Common Sense," with copious anno-
tations in the margin, I shall, so far from feeling wounded,
be flattered in having so diligent a student, and, with your
permission, shall engi^aft the most happy suggestions upon
the second edition.
For the speedy issue of which, the petitioner doth hum-
bly pray.
Marion Harland.
2
NOTE.
In lookjng over this book the leader will nofdoe certain receipts
marked thus — ^ I do not claim for these greater merit than should
of right be accorded to many others. I merely wish to call the at-
tention of the novice to them aa certainly safe, and for the most
part simple. Every one thus marked has been tried by myself;
most of them are in frequent, some in daily use, in my own family.
My reason for thus mngling out comparatively a small number of
receipts from the rest, is the reoollectian of my own perplexities —
the loss of time and patience to which I have been subjected in the
examination of a new cookery-book, with an eye to immediate use
of the directions laid down for various dishes. I have often and
vainly wished for a finger-board to guide me in my search for those
which were easy and sure, and which would result satisfactorily.
This sort of directozy I have endeavored to supply, taking care,
however, to inform the reader in advance that, so far as I know,
there ia not an unsafe receipt in the whole work.
Of course it was not necessary or expedient to append the above
sign to plain '* roast and boiled,*' which are in common use eveiy*
where.
SOUPS.
The base of your soup sbotild always be uncooked meat.
To this may be added^ if you like, cracked bones of cooked
game, or of underdone beef or mutton ; but for flavor and
nourishment^ depend upon the juices of the meat which
was put in raw. Cut this into small pieces, and beat tlie
bone until it is fractured at every inch of its length. Put
them on in cold water, without salt, and heat very slowly.
Do not boil fast at any stage of the operation. Keep the
pot covered, and do not add the salt until the meat is thor-
oughly done, as it has a tendency to harden the fibres, and
restrain the flow of the juices. Strain — always through a
cullender, after which clear soups should be filtered through
a hair-sieve or coarse bobbinet lace. The bag should not
be squeezed.
It is slovenly to leave rags of meat, husks of vegetables
and bits of bone in the tureen. Do not uncover until you
are ready to ladle out the soup. Do this neatly and quickly,
having your soup-plates heated beforehand.
Most soups are better the second day than the first, un-
less they are wanned over too quickly or left too long upon
the fire after they are hot. In the one case they are apt
to scorch ; in the other they become insipid.
28 CO^CMON BEN8E.
VEGETABLE SOUPS.
Green Pea. (No. 1.) •!•
4 lbs. beef — cut into small pieces.
^ peck of green peas.
1 gallon water.
Boil the empty pods of the peas in the water one hour
before putting in the beef. Strain them out, add the beef,
and boil slowly for an hour and a half longer. Half an hour
before serving, add the shelled peas ; and twenty minutes
later, half a cup of rice-flour, with salt and j)epper. A
little chopped parsley is an improvement. After adding
the rice-flour, stir fi'equently, to prevent scorching. Strain
into a hot tureen.
Green Pea. (No. 2.)
2 qts. of veal or beef broth.
^ tea8i>oonful sugar.
1 tablesix)onful butter.
1 qt. shelled peas.
Bring the broth to a boil ; put in the peas, and boil for
twenty minutes. Add the sugar, and a biuich of green
mint. Boil a quarter of an hour more, and stir in the
butter, with pepper and salt, if the broth be not sufliciently
Baited already. Sti*ain before serving, and send to table with
small squares of toasted bread floating upon the top.
Split Pea {dried). •!•
1 gallon water.
1 qt. split peas, which have been soajced over night.
1 lb. salt pork, cut into bits an inch square,
i lb. beef, " «
VEGETABLE SOUPS. 29
Put over the fire, and boil slowly for two hours, or until
the quantity of liquor does not exceed two quarts. Pour
into a cullender, and press the peas tlirough it with a wooden
or silver spoon. Return the souj) to the pot, adding a small
head of celery, chopped up, a little parsley, or, if preferred,
summer savoiy or sweet marjoram. Have ready three or
four slices of bread (stale) which have been fried in butter
until they are brown ; cut into slices and scatter them upon
the surface of tho soup after it is poured into the tureen.
Pea and Tomato. •!•
This is made according to eitlier of the foregoing receipts,
in summer with green — ^in winter with dried and split
peas. Just before straining the soup, add a quart of tomar
toes, which have already been stewed soft ; let the whole
come to a good boil, and strain as above directed. If the
stewed tomato be watery, strain off the superfluous liquid
before pouring into the pea soup, or it will be too thin.
Bean (dried). •{*
The beans used for this purpose may be the ordinary
kidney, the rice or field bean, or, best of all, the French
mock-turtle soup bean. ' Soak a quart of these over night
in soft lukewarm water ; put them over the fire next morn-
ing, with one gallon of cold water and about two pounds of
salt j)ork. Boil slowly for three hours, keej)ing the pot
well covered ; shred into it a head of celery, add pepper —
cayenne, if preferred — simmer half an hour longer, strain
through a cullender, and serve, with slices of lemon passed
to each guest.
Mock-turtle beans, treated in this way, yield a very fair
substitute for the fine calf Vhead soup known by the same
name.
30 COMMON SENSE.
Bean and Corn. •{«
This is a winter soup, and is made of white beans pre-
pared according to the foregoing receipt, bnt with the addi-
tion of a quart of dried or canned com. If the former is
used — and the Shaker sweet com is nearly as good for the
purpose as the more expensive canned gi*een com — soak it
overnight in warm water — changing this early in the morn-
ing, and pouring on more warm water, barely enough to
cover the corn, and keeping it in a close vessel until ready
to put on the beans. Let all boil together, with pork as in
the bean soup proper. Strain out as usual. Some persons
have a habit of neglecting *the use of the cullender in mak-
ing bean soup, and serving it like stewed beans which have
been imperfectly drained. The practice is both slovenly
and unwholesome, since the husks of the cereal are thus im-
posed upon the digestive organs of the eater, with no addi-
tional nutriment. To the beans and com may be added a
pint of stewed tomato, if desired.
Asparagus ( White soup).
3 lbs. veal. The knuckle is best.
3 bunches asparagus, as well bleached as you can
procure.
1 gallon water.
Cut off the hard green stem, and put half of the tender
heads of the asparagus into the water with the meat. Boil
in a closely covered pot for three hours, until the meat is
in rags and the asparagus dissolved. Strain the liquor and
return to the pot, with the remaining half of the asparagus
heads. Let this boil for twenty minutes more, and add, be-
fore taking up, a cup of sweet milk (cream is better) in
•^ which has been stirred a tablespoonful of rice-flour, arrow-
root, or corn-starch. When it has fairly boiled up, serve
VEGETABLE SOT7P8. 31
without further straLDing, with small squares of toast in the
tureen. Season with salt and pepper.
AspABAGUS ( Oreen soiip).
3 lbs. veal — cut into small pieces.
^ lb. salt pork.
3 bunches asparagus.
] gallon water.
Out the entire stalk of the asparagus into pieces an inch
long, and when the meat has boiled one hour, add half of the
vegetable to the liquor in the pot. Boil two hours longer
and strain, pressing the asparagus pulp very hard to extract
all the green coloring. Add the other half of the aspara-
gus— (the heads only, which should be kept in cold water
until you are ready for them), and boil twenty minutes more.
Then proceed as with the asparagus white soup, omitting
the milk, thickening, and salt. The pork will supply the
latter seasoning.
ToKATO ( Winter aovp). 4*
3 lbs. bee£
1 qt. canned tomatoes.
1 gallon water.
Let the meat and water boil for two hours, until the
liquid is reduced to little more than two quarts. Then
stir in the tomatoes, and stew all slowly for three^uarters
of an hour longer. Season to taste, strain, and serve.
Tomato {Summer aaup), •{«
2^ lbs. Teal, or lamb.
1 gallon water.
2 qts. fresh tomatoes, peeled and cut up fine.
32 COMMON SEN8B.
Boil the meat to shreds and the water down to two
qaai-ts. Strain the liquor, put in the tomatoes, stirring
them very hard that they may dLssolve thoroughly ; boil
half an hour. Season with parsley or any other green herb
you may prefer, pepper, and salt. Strain again, and stir in
a tablespoonful of butter, with a teaspoonful of white sugar,
before pouring into the tureen.
This soup is more palatable still if made with the broth
in which chickens were boiled for yesterday^s dinner.
Turnip.
Knuckle of veal, well cracked.
5 qts. water.
Cover closely and stew gently for four hours, the day
before the soup is wanted. On the morrow, skim off. the
fat and warm the stock gradually to a boil. Have ready
an onion and six large winter or a dozen small summer
turnips, sweet marjoram or thyme minced very finely. Put
these into the soup and let them simmer together for an
hour. Strain ; return to the fire and add a cup of milk —
in which has been stinted a tablespoonful of rice-flour or
other thickening — and a tablespoonful of biitter. Season
with salt and pepper, let it boil up once, stirring all the
time, as is necessary in all soups where milk is added at
the last, and remove instantly, or it will scorch.
Potato.
A dozen large mealy potatoes.
2 onions.
1 lb. salt pork.
3 qts. water.
Boil the pork in the clear water for an hour and a half,
then take it out. Have ready the potatoes, which, after
VEGETABLE 60UFB. 33
•
being peeled and sliced, should lie in cold water for half an
hour. Throw them into the pot, with the chopped onion.
Cover and boil three-quarters of an hour, stirring often.
Beat in a large tablespoonful of butter, and a cup of cream
or milk in which has been mixed a well-beaten egg. Add
the latter ingredients carefidly, a little at a time ; stir while
it heats to a final boil, and then serve.
This is a cheap and wholesome dish, and more palatable
than one would suppose from reading the receipt.
Graham Soup. 4*
3 onions.
3 carrots.
4 turnips.
1 small cabbage.
1 bunch celery.
1 pt. stewed tomatoes.
Chop all the vegetables, except the tomatoes and cabbage,
very finely, and set them over the fire with rather over
three quarts of water. They sliould simmer gently for half
an hour, at the end of which time the cabbage must be added,
having previously been parboiled and chopped up. In fif-
teen minutes more put in the tomatoes and a bunch of sweet
herbs, and give all a lively boil of twenty minutes. Bub
through a cullender, return the soup to the fire, stir in a
good tablespoonful of butter, pepper, and salt, half a cup of
cream if you have it, thickened with corn-starch ; let it boil
up, and it is ready for the table.
OcHRA, OR Gumbo.
Ochra, or ohra^ is a vegetable little known except in the
far South, where it is cultivated in large quantities and is
very popular. A favorite soup is prepared from it in the
following manner : —
2*
84 CX)MMON BEN8B.
2 qts. of ochraSy sliced thin.
1 qt. of tomatoes, also sliced.
4 tablespoonfuls of butter.
2 lbs. of beef, cut into small pieces.
^ lb. bam or pickled pork, also cut up.
Put the meat and ochras together in a pot with a quart
of cold water — just enough to cover them — ^and let them
stew for an hour. Then add the tomatoes and two quarts
of boiling water— 7more if the liquid in the pot has boiled
away so as to expose the meat and vegetables. Boil three-
quarters of an hour longer, skimming often with a silver
spoon. When the contents of the vessel are boiled to pieces,
put in the butter, with cayenne pepper and salt, if the ham
has not seasoned it sufficiently. Strain and send up with
squares of light^ crisp toast floating upon it.
Cork. 4*
1 large fowl, cut into eight pieces.
1 dozen ears green com.
Boil the chicken in a gallon of water untiL tender — if
tough, the boiling must be slow and long. Then cut the
com from the cob and put into the pot, and stew an hour
longer — still gently. Kemove the chicken with a cupful
of the liquid, if you wish to make other use of the meat.
Set this aside, season the corn-soup with pepper, salt, and
parsley; thicken with rice or wheat flour, boil up once,
and serve without straining, if the com be yoimg and tender.
A tolerable fricassee may be made of the chicken, unless
it has boiled to rags, by beating up an egg and a tablespoon-
ful of butter, adding this to the cupful of reserved liquor,
from which the com must be strained. Boil this for a
moment, thicken with flour, throw in a little chopped pars-
ley, pepper, and salt, pour, while scalding, over the chicken,
HEAT 80TTP8. 35
which yon have arranged in a dish ; garnish with circular
slices of hard-boiled eggs and curled parsley.
MEAT SOUPS.
Beef Soup (a la Julienne), ^
6 lbs. of lean beef. The shin is a good piece for this pur-
pose. SJAve the bones well cracked, carefully extracting
the marrow, every bit of which should be put into the
soup.
6 qts. of water.
The stock must be prepared the day before the soup is
needed. Put the beef, bones and all, with the water in a
close vessel, and set it where it will heat gradually. Let it
boil very slowly for six hours at least, only uncovering the
pot once in a great while to see if there is danger of the
water sinking too rapidly. Should this be the case, replen-
ish with boiling water, taking care not to put in too much.
During the seventh hour, take off the soup and set it away,
still closely covered, until next morning. About an hour
before dinner, take out the meat, which you can use for
mince-meat, if you wish ; remove the cake of fat from the
surfiu» of the stock, set the soup over the fire, and throw in
a little salt to bring up the scum. When this has been
skimmed carefully off, put in your vegetables. These should
be: —
2 carrots.
3 turnips.
Half a head of white cabbage.
1 pt. green com — or dried Shaker com, soaked
over night.
1 head celery.
1 qt. tomatoes.
3G CX)MMON 8EN8E.
These should be prepared for the soup by slicmg them
very small, and stewing them in bai-ely enough water to
cover them, until they break to pieces. Cook the cabbage
by itself in two waters — throwing the first away. The only
exception to the general dissolution, is in the case of a single
carrot, which should likewise be cooked alone and whole,
until thoroughly done, and set aside to cool, when the rest
of the vegetables, with the water in which they were boiled,
are added to the soup. Return the pot to the fire with the
vegetables and stock, and boil slowly for half an hour from
the time ebullition actually begins. Strain without pressing,
only shaking and lightly stirring the contents of the cul-
lender. The vegetables having been added with all their
juices already cooked, much boiling and squeezing ai^ not
needed, and only make the soup cloudy. Cut the reserved
carrot into dice and drop into the clear liquor after it is in
the tm-een, — also, if you like, a handful of vermicelli, or
macaroni wliich has been boiled tender in clear water.
The seasoning of this excellent soup is a matter of taste.
Some use only salt and white pepper. Others like with
this a few blades of mace, and boil in the stock a handful
of sweet herbs. And others fancy that, in addition to
these, a glass of brown sherry imparts a flavor that renders
it peculiarly acceptable to most palates. Send to table very
hot, and have the soup-plates likewise heated.
Veal Soup with Macaroni. •!•
3 lbs. of veal knuckle or scrag, with the bones
broken and meat cut up.
3 qts. water.
^ lb. Italian macaroni.
Boil the meat alone in the water for nearly three hours,
until it is reduced to shreds ; and the macaroni until ten-
HEAT SOUPS. 37
der, in enough water to cover it, in a vessel by itself. The
pieces should not be more than an inch in length. Add a
little butter to the macaroni when nearly done. Strain the
meat out of the soup, season to your taste, put in the ma-
caroni, and the water in which it was boiled ; let it boil up,
and serve.
You can make macaroni soup of this by boiling a pound,
instead of a quarter of a pound, in the second vessel, and
adding the above quantity of veal broth. In this case, send
on with it a plate of grated cheese, that those who cannot
relish macaroni without this accompaniment may put it
into their soup. Take cai-e that the macaroni is of uniform
length, not too long, and that it does not break while stew-
ing. Add butter in proportion to the increased quantity of
macaroni
Beef Soup {broum),
3 lbs. beef cut into strips.
3 onions.
3 qts. water.
Put beef and water into the saucepan and boil for one
hour. Meanwhile, slice the onions and fry them in butter
to a light brown. Drop into the pot with a teaspoonful of
cloves, half as much pepper, same quantity of mace as pep-
per, a pinch of allspice, and a teaspoonful of essence of celery,
if you cannot get a head of fresh celery ; also half a tea-
spoonful of powdered savory or sweet marjoram, and a tea-
spoonful of Worcestershire sauce. Stew all for two hours
more, or until the beef has boiled to pieces. Strain the
soup and return to the fire. Salt to taste, and just before
taking it off, pour in a glass of brown sherry or Madeira
wine.
38 OOMMOK SEirSE.
Mutton or Lamb Broth. •{«
4 lbs. mutton or lamb^^n — cut into small pieces:
1 gallon water.
^ teacupful rice.
Boil the unsalted meat for two hours, slowly, in a covered
vessel. Soak the rice in enough wann water to cover it^
and at the end of this time add it, water and all, to the boil-
ing soup. Cook an hour longer, stirring watchfully from
time to time, lest the rice should settle and adhere to the
bottom of the pot. Beat an egg to a froth and stir into a
cup of cold milk, into which has been rubbed smoothly a
tablespoonful rice or wheat flour. Mix with this, a little at
at a time, some of the scalding liquor, until the egg is so far
cooked that there is no danger of curdling in the soup.
Pour into the pot, when you have taken out the meat,
season with parsley, thyme, pepper, and salt. Boil up fedrly,
and serve. If allowed to stand on the fire, it is apt to bum.
This soup may be made from the liquor in which a leg
of mutton has been boiled, provided too much salt was not
put in with it. It is especially good when the stock is
chicken broth. For the sick it is palatable and nutritious
with the rice left in. When strained it makes a nice white
table soup, and is usually relished by all.
Vermicelli Soup. •!•
4 lbs. lamb, from which every particle of fat has
been removed.
1 lb. veal.
A slice of corned ham.
5 qts. water.
Cut up the meat, cover it with a quart of water, and
set it back on the range to heat very gradually, keeping it
covered closely. At the end of an hour, add four quarts
ICEAT SOUPS. 89
boiling water, and cook xintil the meat is in shreds. Season
with salt, sweet herbs, a chopped shallot, two teaspoonfuls
Worcestershire sauce, and when these have boiled in the
soup for ten minutes, strain and return to the fire. Have
ready about a third of a pound of vermicelli (or macaroni),
which has been boiled tender in clear water. Add this ;
boil up once, and pour out.
In all receipts in which ham is mentioned as seasoning,
reference is made to comedy not smoked pork. The smoke
imparts an undisguisable, and, to many, an unpleasant
flavor, especially to delicate soups and ragouts.
MOCK-TUBTLE OR CALF'S HeAD SoUP. 4*
1 large calf's head, well cleaned and washed.
4 pig's feet, « ** " «
This soup should always be prepared the day before it
is to be served up. Lay the head and feet in the bottom of
a large pot, and cover with a gallon of water. Let it boil
three hours, or tmtil the flesh will slip easily from the
bones. Take out the head, leaving in the feet, and allow
these to boil steadily while you cut the meat from the
head. Select with care enough of the fatty portions which
lie on the top of the head and the cheeks to fill a tea-cup,
and set them aside to cool. Eemove the brains to a saucer
and also set aside. Chop the rest of the meat with the
tongue very fine, season with salt, pepper, powdered mar-
joram and thyme, a teaspoonful of cloves, the same of mace,
half as much allspice, and a grated nutmeg, and return to
the pot. When the flesh falls from the bones of the pig's
feet, take out the latter, leaving in the gelatinous meat.
TiCt all boil together slowly, without removing the cover,
for two hours more ; take the soup from the fire and set it
away until the next day. An hour before dinner, set on
lO COMMON SENSE.
the stock to warm. When it boils strain carefully, and
drop in the meat you have reserved, which, when cold,
should be cut into small squaras. Have these all ready as
well as the force-meat balls. To pi'epare these, rub the
yolks of five hard-boiled eggs to a paste in a Wedgewood
mortar, or in a bowl, with the back of a silver tablespoon,
adding gradually the brains to moisten them, also a little
butter and salt. Mix with these two eggs beaten very
light, flour your hands, and make this paste into balls about
the size of a pigeon's egg. Throw them into the soup five
minutes before you take it off the ^re ; stir in a large
tablespoonful of browned flour nibbed smooth in a little
cold water, let it boil up, and finish the seasoning by the
addition of a glass and a half of good wine — sherry or Ma-
deira— and the juice of a lemon. It should not boil more
than half an hour on the second day. Serve with sliced
lemon. Some lay the slices upon the top of the soup,
but the better plan is ta pass to the guests a small dish
containing these.
This has been well called the " king of soups,'' and is
actually more delicious than the real turtle soup. It is
hoped no one will be afraid to undertake the preparation
of it on account of the apparently tedious and delicate mode
I have describe<l. If the directions be closely followed, the
result is sure to be satisfactory, and the task is really much
less troublesome than it appears to be.
GiBLET Soup.
Feet, neck, pinions, and giblets of three chickens,
or of two ducks or two geese.
1^ lb. veal.
^ lb. ham.
3 qts. water.
Crack the bones into small pieces, chop the giblets (not
MEAT B0UP8. 41
very fine) and cut the meat into strips. Put all together
over the fire, "with a bunch of sweet herbs and a pinch of
allspice. Stew slowly for two hours. Pick out the giblets
with a skimmer or fork, and set them aside in a pan where
they will keep warm. Take up a teacupful of the hot soup,
and stir into this a large tablespoonful of flour which has been
wet with cold water and rubbed to a smooth paste ; then,
two tablespoonfuls of butter. Ketum to the p6t and boil
for fifteen minutes ; season at the last with a glass of brown
sherry and a tablespoonful of tomato or walnut catsup. A
little Worcestershire sauce is an improvement. Finally,
add the giblets, and serve.
Browh Gravy Soup.
3 lbs. beef.
1 carrot.
1 turnip.
1 head of celery.
6 onions, if small button-onions — 2, if large.
3^ qts. water.
Have ready some nice dripping in a fiying-pan. Slice
the onions and fry them brown. Take them out and set
them by in a covered pan to keep warm. Cut the beef into
bits an inch long and half an inch thick, and fry them brown
also, turning frequently lest they should bum. Chop the
vegetables and put them with the meat and onions into a
covered pot. Pour on the water and let all stew together
for two hours. Then throw in salt and pepper and boil one
hour longer, skimming very carefully. Strain ; put back
over the fire ; boil up once more to make the liquid per-
fectly clear, skim, and add a handful of vermicelli that has
been boiled separately and drained dty. The safest plan is
to put in the vermicelli after the soup is poured into the
4:2 COMMON BENBH;.
tureen. Do not stir before it goes to table. The contents
of the tureen should be clear as amber. Some add half a
glass of pale sherry. This is a fine show soup, and very
popular.
Ybal A2n> Sago Soup.
2^ lbs. veal.
} lb. pearl sago.
1 pt. milk.
4 eggs.
3 qts. water.
Put on the veal and water — the meat chopped finely —
and boil for two hours until the liquid is reduced to about
one-half the original quantity. Strain out the shreds of
meat through a coarse cloth, and put the soup again over
the fire. Meanwhile the sago should be washed in several
waters, and soaked half an hour in warm water enough to
cover it. Stir it into the strained broth and boil — stirring
very often to prevent lumping or scorching — ^half an hour
more. Heat the milk almost to boiling ; beat the yolks of
the eggs very Ught; mix with the milk g«duaUy,«ain
making boiled custard, and pour — stirring all the while —
into the soup. Season with pepper and salt ; boil up once
to cook the eggs, and serve. Should the liquid be too thick
after putting in the sago, replenish with boiling water. It
should be about the consistency of hot custard.
This soup is very good, if chicken broth be substituted
for the veal. It is very strengthening to invalids, and es*
pecially beneficial to those suffering with colds or pulmonary
affections.
Chicken Soup, t^t
2 young fowls, or one full-grown.
^ lb. ham.
1 gallon of water.
MEAT SOUPS. 43
Out the fowls into pieces as for fiicassee. Put these
with the ham into the pot with a quart of water, or enough
to cover them fairly. Stew for an hour, if the fowls are
tender ; if tough, until you can cut easily into the breast.
Take out the breasts, leaying the rest of the meat in the
pot, and add the remainder of the water — ^boiling hot. Keep
the soup stewing slowly while you chop up the white meat
you have selected. Rub the yolks of four hard-boiled eggs
smooth in a mortar or bowl, moistening to a paste with a
few spoonfuls of the soup. Mix with these a handful of
fine bread-crumbs and the chopped meat, and make it into
small balls. When the soup has boiled, in all, two hours
and a half, if the chicken be reduced to shreds, strain out
the meat and bones. Season with salt and white pepper,
with a bunch of chopped parsley. Drop in the prepared
force-meat, and after boiling ten minutes to incor{>orate the
ingredients well, add, a little at a time, a pint of rich milk
thickened with flour. Boil up once and serve.
A chicken at least a year old would make better soup
than a younger fowl.
Venison Soup. ^J
3 lbs. of venison. What are considered the in-
ferior pieces will do.
1 lb. ham or salt pork.
1 onion.
1 head of celery.
Cut up the meat ; chop the vegetables, and put on with
just enough water to cover them, keeping on the lid of the
pot all the while, and stew slowly for one hour. Then add
two quarts of boUing water, with a few blades of mace
and a dozen whole, peppers. Or, should you prefer, a little
cayenne. Boil two hours longer, salt, and strain. Return
the liquor to the pot; stir in a tablespoonful of butter;
44 COMMON BENBE.
thicken with a tablespoonfiil of browned flour wet into a
smooth thin paste with cold water; add a tablespoonfiil
walnut or mushroom catsup, a teaspoonful of Worcester-
shire or other pungent sauce, and a generous glass of Ma-
deira or brown sherry.
Hare or Rabbit Soup.
Dissect the rabbit, crack the bones, and prepare precisely
as you would the venison soup, only putting in three small
onions instead of one, and a bunch of sweet herbs. Hares
which are too tough to be cooked in any other way, make
excellent game soup. Also, the large gray squirrel of the
Middle and Southern States.
I have eaten squirrel soup that was really delicious,
Ox-Tail Soup.
1 ox-tail.
2 lbs. lean beef.
4 carrots.
3 onions.
Thyme.
Cut the tail into several pieces and fry brown in butter.
Slice the onions and carrots, and when you remove the ox-
tail from the frying-pan, put in these and brown also.
When done, tie them in a bag with a bunch of thyme and
drop into the soup-pot. Lay the pieces of ox-tail in the
same; then the meat cut into small slices. Grate over
them the two whole carrots, and add four quarts of cold
water, with pepper and salt. Boil from four to six hours,
in proportion to the size of the tail. Strain fifteen minutes
before serving it, and thicken with two tablespoon fuls of
browned flour. Boil ten minutes longer.
FI8U SOUPS. 45
FISH SOUPS.
Oyster Soup (No. 1). 4^
2 qta. of oysters.
1 qt. of milk.
2 tablespoonfals butter.
1 teacupful water.
Strain the liquor from the oysters, add to it the water,
and set it over the fire to heat slowly in a covered vessel.
When it is near boiling, season with pepper and salt, and
stir in the milk, after which stir constantly, unless, as is
wisest, you heat the liquor in a vessel set in a pot of boil-
ing water. When the soup again nears the boiling-point,
add the oysters, and let them stew until they " ruffle " on
the edge. This will be in about five minutes. Then put in
the butter and stir well until it is melted, when the soup is
ready for use.
Serve with sliced lemon and oyster or cream crackers.
Some use mace and nutmeg in seasoning. The crowning
excellence in oyster soup is to have it cooked just enough.
Too much stewing ruins the bivalves, while an underdone
oyster is a fiabby abomination. The plumpness of the main
body and ruffled edge are good indices of their right con-
dition.
Oyster Soup (No. 2).
2 qts. of oysters.
2 eggs.
1 qt. milk.
1 teacupful of water.
Strain the liquor from the oysters into a saucepan, pour
in with it the water. Season with cayenne pepper and a lit-
tle salt, a teaspoonful of mingled nutmeg, mace, and cloves.
46 COMMON BENBE.
When the liquor is ahnost boiling} add half the oysters
chopped finely and boil five minutes quite briskly. Strain
the soup and return to saucepan with the milk. Ha ve ready
some force-meat balls, not larger than marbles, made of the
yolks of the eggs boiled hard and rubbed to a smooth paste
with a little butter, then mixed with six raw oysters chop-
ped very finely, a little salt, and a raw egg well beaten, to bind
the ingredients together. Flour your hands well and roll the
force-meat into pellets, laying them upon a cold plate, so as
not to touch one another, until needed. Then put the re-
served whole oysters into the hot soup, and when it begins to
boil again, drop in the force-meat marbles. Boil until the
oysters " ruffle," by which time the balls will also be done.
Serve with sliced lemon and crackers. A liberal table-
spoonful of butter stiired in gently at the last is an im-
provement.
Clam Soup.
50 clams.
1 qt. milk.
1 pint water.
2 tablespoonfuls butter.
If you cannot buy the clams already opened, put them in
a large pan or tray, and pour boiling water over them. This
will open the shells. Take them out as fast as they unclose,
that you may save all the liquor they contain. Drain off this
and put it over the fire with a dozen whole peppers, a few
bits of cayenne pods, haJf a dozen blades of mace, and salt to
taste. Let it boil for ten minutes, then put in the clams and
boil half an hour quite fast,'kee^pg the pot closely covered.
If you dislike to see the whole spices in the tureen, strain
them out before the clams are added. At the end of the
half hour add the milk, which has been heated to scalding,
not boiling, in another vessel. Boil up again, taking care
the soup does not bum, and put in tlie butter. Then serve
FISH SOUPS. 47
witihout delay. If you desire a thicker soup^ stir a heaping
tsJblespoonful of rice-flour into a little cold milk, and put in
with the quart of hot.
Oat-fish Soup. *{<
Few persons are aware into what a variety of tempting
dishes this much-abused fish can be made. Those who
have only seen the bloated^ unsightly creatures that play
the scavengers about city wharves, are excusable for enter-
taining a prejudice against them as an article of food. . But
the small cat-fish of our inland lakes and streams are alto-
gether respectable, except in their unfortunate name.
6 cat-fish, in average weight half a pound apiece.
^ lb. salt pork.
1 pint milk.
2 eggs.
1 head of celery, or a small bag of celery-seed.
Skin and clean the fish and cut them up. Chop the
pork into small pieces. Put these together into the pot,
with two quarts of water, chopped sweet herbs, and the
celery seasoning. Boil for an hour, or until fish and pork
are in rags, and strain, if you desire a regular soup for a
first course. Ketum to the saucepan and add the milk,
which should be already hot. Kext the eggs, beaten to a
froth, and a lump of butter the size of a walnut. Boil up
once, and serve with dice of toasted bread on the top.
Pass sliced lemon, or walnut or butternut pickles with it.
Eel Soup.
Eel soup is made in precisely the same manner as cat-
fish, only boiled longer. A chopped onion is no detriment
to the flavor of either, and will remove the muddy taste
which these fish sometimes acquire from turbid streams.
48 COMMON SENSE.
Lobster Soup.
2 qts. veal or chicken broth, well strained.
1 large lobster.
2 eggs — boiled hard.
Boil the lobster and extract the meat, setting aside the
coitJ in a cool place. Cut or chop up the meat found in
the claws. Kub the yolks of the eggs to a paste with a
teaspoonful of butter. Pound and rub the claw-meat in
tlie same manner, and mix with the yolks. Beat up a raw
egg, and stir into the paste ; season with i)epper, salt, and,
if you like, mace ; make into force-meat balls, and set away
with the coral to cool and harden. By this time the stock
should be well heated, when j)ut in the rest of the lobster-
meat cut into squai'e bits. Boil fifteen minutes, which time
employ in pounding the coral in a Wedgewood mortar, or
earthenware bowl, rubbing it into a fine, even paste, with
the addition of a few spoonfuls of the broth, gradually
worked in until it is about the consistency of boiled starch.
Stir veri/ carefully into the hot soup, which should, in the
process, blush into a roseate hue. Lastly, di*op in the
force-meat balls, after which do not stir, lest they should
break. Simmer a few minutes to cook the raw egg ; but,
if allowed to boil, the soup will darken.
Crab soup may be made in the same way, excepting the
coralline process, crabs being destitute of that dainty.
Green Turtle Soup.
A glass of Madeii^
2 onions.
Bunch of sweet herbs.
Juice of one lemon«
5 qts. of water.
FISH SOUPS. 49
Chop up the coarser parts of the turtle-meat, with the
entrails and bones. Add to them four quarts of water, and
stew four hours with the herbs, onions, pepper, and salt.
Stew very slowly, but do not let it cease to boil during this
time. At the end of four hours strain the soup, and add
the finer parts of the turtle ajid the green fat, which has
been simmered for one hour in two quarts of water.
Thicken with broWned flour ; return to the soup-pot, and
simmer gently an hour longer. If there are eggs in the
turtle, boil them in a separate vessel for four hours, and
throw into the soup before taking it up. If not, put in
force-meat balls ; then the juice of the lemon and the wine ;
beat up once and pour out. Some cooks add the finer
meat before straining, boiling all together ^ve hours ; then
strain, thicken, and put in the green fat, cut into lumps an
inch long. This makes a handsomer soup than if the meat
is left in.
For the mock eggs, take the yolks of three hard-boiled eggs,
and one raw egg well beaten. Eub the boiled eggs into a
paste with a teaspoonful of butter, bind with the raw egg,
roll into pellets the si2e and shape of turtle-eggs, and lay in
boiling water for two minutes before dropping into the
soup.
JForce-meat halls for tlie above.
Six tablespooufuls turtle-meat chopped very fine. Rub
to a paste with the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs ; table-
B|)oonful of butter, and, if convenient, a little oyster-liquor.
Season with cayenne, mace, and half a teaspoonful of white
sugar. Bind with a well-beaten egg; shape into balls;
dip in egg, then powdered cracker, fry in butter, and drop
into the soup when it is served.
Mock turtle for soups is now within the reach of every
])rivate family, being well preserved in air-tight cans.
50 COMMON SENSE.
FISH.
Boiled Codfish. (Presh.) •{«
Lay the fish in cold water, slightly salted, for half an
hour before it is time to cook it. Wipe it dry and put it
into the fish-kettle with water enough to cover it, in which
has been dissolved a little salt. Let it boil quite bnskly.
A piece of cod weighing three pounds will be cooked in half
an hour from the time the water fsdrly boils, if put in without
a cloth. But by far the better plan is, when the cod has
been wiped free of the salt and water, to wrap it in a clean
linen cloth kept for such purposes. The cloth should be
dredged with flour, to prevent sticking. Sew up the edges in
such a manner as to envelop the fish entirely, yet have but
one thickness of the cloth over any part. The wrapping
should be fitted neatly to the shape of the piece to be cook-
ed. Fish cooked thus will require twice as long to boil as
when put into the water without such protection ; but the
flavor is better preserved, and when unwrapped, it will not
present the sodden appearance and crumbling grain that
disfigure most boiled fish.
Have ready a sauce prepai*ed thus : —
To one gill boiling water add as much milk, and when it is
scalding-hot, stir in — Cleaving the sauce-pan on the fire — ^two
tablespoonfuls of butter, a little at a time, that it may melt
without oiling, a tablespoonful of flour previously wet with
cold water, and, as this thickens, two beaten eggs. Season
with salt and chopped parsley, and when, after one good boil,
you withdraw it from the fire, add a dozen capers, or pickled
nasturtiimi seeds, or, if you prefer, a spoonful of vinegar in
which celery-seeds have been steeped. Put the fish into a
hot dish, and pour the sauce over it. Some serve in a but-
ter-boat ; but I fancy that the boiling sauce applied to the
steaming fish impart ^ a richness it cannot gain later. Gar-
FISH. 51
nish with sprigs of parsley and circles of hard-boiled eggs,
laid around the edge of the dish.
KOCKFISH.
Rockfish and river-bass are very nice^ cooked as above,
but do not need to bo boiled so long as cod£sh.
Boiled Codfish. {Salt,)
Put the fish to soak over night in lukewarm water — as
early as eight o^clock in the evening. Change this for more
warm water at bed-time and cover closely. Change again
in the morning and wash off the salt. Two hours before
dinner take out the cod, examine to see that no crystals of
salt adhere to the under part, and plunge into verj/ cold
water. This makes it firm. Finally, set over the fire with
enough lukewarm water to cover it, and boil for half an
hour. Drain well ; lay it in a hot dish, and pour over it
egg-sauce prepared as in the foregoing receipt, only substi-
tuting the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs, rubbed to a paste
with butter, for the beaten raw egg.
This is a useful receipt for country housekeepers who
can seldom procure fresh cod. Salt mackerel, prepared in
the same way, will well repay the care and time required,
so superior is it to the Friday's dish of salt fish, as usually
served.
Should the cold fish left over be used for fish-balls — as
it should be — it will be found that the sauce which has
soaked into it while hot has greatly improved it.
Codfish Balls. *^
Prepare the fish precisely as for boiling whole. Cut in
pieces when it has been duly washed and soaked, and boD
twenty minutes. Turn off the water, and cover with fresh
52 CX)MMON SENSE.
from the boiling tea-kettle. Boil twenty minutes more ;
drain the ' fish very dry, and spread upon a dish to cool.
When perfectly cold, pick to pieces with a fork, removing
every vestige of skin and bone, and shredding very fine.
When this is done, add an equal bulk of mashed potato ;
work into a stiff batter by adding a lump of butter and
sweet milk, and if you want to have them very nice, a beat-
en egg. Flour your hands and make the mixture into balls
or cakes. Drop them into boiling lard or good dripping,
and fry to a light brown. Plainer fish-cakes may be made
of the cod and potatoes alone, moulded round like biscuit.
In any shape Uie dish is popular.
It gives me great pleasure to recommend the desiccated
cod-fish put up in boxes by the Boston and Philadelphia
Salt Fish Company. The fish is already cooked and shred,
and the housekeeper is thus saved the only disagreeable
part of the process of making this delightful breakfast
relish — the boiling and the unsavory odor arising therefrom,
as well as the care of soaking and picking out the fish. The
balls prepared from the desiccated fish are every whit equal
in flavor to those made of the home-cooked, and can be
ready at half-an-hour's notice. The cost is not more — per-
haps less, than when one buys the cod in bulk, bones and
all.
Salt Codfish stewed with Eggs.
Prepai-e the fish as for balls. Heat almost to boiling
a pint of rich, sweet milk, and stir into it, gradually and
carefully, three eggs well beaten, a tablespoonful of butter,
a little chopped parsley and butter, with pepper, lastly the
fish. Boil up once and turn into a deep covered dish, or
chafing-dish lined with buttered toast. Eat hot for break-
fast or supper.
Fisn. 53
Codfish and Potato Stew, t^
Soak, boil, and pick the fish, if salt, as for fish-balls. If
fresh, boil and pick into bits. Add an equal quantity of
mashed potatoes, a large tablespoonful of butter and milk,
enough to make it very soft. Put into a skillet, and add a
very little boiling water to keep it from burning. Turn
and toss constantly until it is smoking hot but not dry ; add
pepper and parsley, and dish.
Boiled Mackerel. {JFh-esh.) •{«
Clean the mackerel and wipe carefully with a dry, clean
cloth; wash them lightly with another cloth dipped in
vinegar ; wrap each in'a coarse linen cloth (floured) basted
closely to the shape of the fish. Put them into a pot with
enough salted water to coyer them, and boil them gently for
hiEilf an hour. Drain them well. Take a teacupful of the
water in which they were boiled, and put into a saucepan
with a tablespoonful of walnut catsup, some anchovy paste
or sauce, and the juice of half a lemon. Let this boil up
well and add a lump of butter the size of an egg, with a
tablespoonful browned flour wet in cold water. Boil up
again and serve in the sauce-boat. This makes a brown
sauce. You can substitute egg-sauce if you like. Garnish
with parsley and nasturtium blossoms.
Broiled Mackerel. (Fresh.)
Clean the mackerel, wash, and wipe dry. Split it open,
so that when laid flat the backbone will be in the middle.
Sprinkle lightly with salt, and lay on a buttered gridiron
over a clear fire, with the inside downward, until it begins
to brown ; then turn the other. When quite done, lay on
a hot dish and butter it plentifully. Turn another hot dish
54 COMMON 8ENBE.
over the lower one, and let it stand two or three minutes
before sending to table.
Broiled Mackerel. {Salt.)
Soak over night in lukewarm water. Change this early
in the morning for very cold, and let the fish lie in this un-
til time to cook. Then proceed as with the fresh mackerel.
Boiled Halibut, t^t
Lay in cold salt and water for an hour. Wipe dry and
score the skin in squares. Put into the kettle with cold
salted water enough to cover it. It is so firm in texture
that you can boil without a cloth if you choose. Let it heat
gradually, and boil from half to three-quarters of an hour,
in proportion to the size of the piece. Four or five pounds
will be enough for most private families. Drain and ac-
company by egg-sauce — either poured over the fish, or in a
sauce-boat.
Save the cold remnants of the fish and what sauce is left
until next morning. Pick out as you would cod, mix with
an equal quantity of mashed potato, moisten with the sauce,
or with milk and butter if you have no sauce, put into a
skillet, and stir until it is very hot. Do not let it bum.
Season with pepper and salt.
Baked Halibut. *{<
Take a piece of halibut weighing five or six pounds,
and lay in salt and water for two hours. Wipe dry and
score the outer skin. Set in the baking-pan in a tolerably
hot oven, and bake an hour, basting often with butter and
water heated together in a saucepan or tin cup. When a
fork will penetrate it easily it is done. It should be of a fine
brown. Take the gravy in the dripping-pan— add a Uttle
FISH. Oi)
boiling water Bhould there not be enough — ^stir in a table-
spoonful of walnut catsup, a teaspoonf ul of Worcestershire
sauce, the juice of a lemon, and thicken with browned flour
preriouslj wet with cold water. Boil up once and put into
sauce-boat.
There is no finer preparation of halibut than this, which
is, however, comparatively little known. Those who have
eaten it usuallj prefer it to boiled and broiled. You can
use what is left for the same purpose as the fragments of
boiled halibut.
ILaxibut Steak, t^
Wash and wipe the steaks dry. Beat up two or three
eggs, and roll out some Boston or other brittle crackers
upon the kneading-board until they are fine as dust. Dip
each steak into the beaten egg, then into the bread crumbs
(when you have salted the fish), and fry in hot £ett, lard, or
nice dripping.
Or, you can broil the steak upon a buttered gridiron,
over a clear fire, first seasoning with salt and pepper. When
done, lay in a hot dish, butter well, and cover closely.
Devilled Halibut.
Mince a pound of cold boiled or baked halibut, or the
fragments of halibut steak, and mix with it the follow-
ing dressing : The yolks of three hard-boiled eggs rubbed
smooth with the back of a sUver spoon, or in a Wedgewood
mortar, and when there remain no lumps in it, work into
a soft paste with a tablesjioonful salad oil. Next beat in
two teaspoonfuls white sugar, a teaspoonful made mustard,
a pinch of cayenne, teaspoonful salt, one of Worcestershire
sauce, a little anchovy paste if you have it, and finally,
a little at a time to prevent lumping, a small teaeupful of
vinegar in which celery-seed have been steeped. It is easy
56 COMMON SENSE.
to keep a bottle of this on hand for salads and sauces. Stir
all thoroughly into the minced fish, garnish with a chain
of the whites of the eggs cut into rings, with a small round
slice of pickled beet laid within each link, and you have a
2nquant and pretty salad for the supper-table.
Boiled Salmon. {Fresh.) ^
"Wrap the fish, when you have washed and wiped it,
in a clean linen cloth — not too thick — ^baste it up securely,
and put into the fish-kettle. Cover with cold water in
which has been melted a handful of salt. Boil slowly, al-
lowing about a quarter of an hour to each pound. When
the time is up, rij) open a corner of the cloth and test the
salmon with a fork. If it penetrate easily, it is done. If
not, hastily pin up the cloth and cook a little longer. Skim
off the scum as it rises to the top. Have ready in another
sauce-pan a pint of cream — or half milk and half cream will
do — which has been heated in a vessel set in boiling water;
.stir into this a large spoonful of butter, a little salt and
chopped parsley, and a half-gill of the water in which the
fish is boiled. Let it boil up once, stirring all the while —
or, what is bettor, do not remove from the inner vessel.
When the fish is done, take it instantly from the kettle,
lay it an instant upon a folded cloth to absorb the drop-
pings ; transfer with great care, for fear of breaking, to a
hot dish, and pour the boiled cream over it, reserving
enough to fill a small sauce-boat. Garnish with curled
parsley and circular slices of hard-boiled yolks — leaving out
the whites of the eggs.
After serving boiled salmon with cream-sauce, you will
never be quite content with any other. If you cannot get
cream, boil a pint of milk and thicken with arrow-root. It
is not BO nice, but many will not detect the difference — real
cream being a rare commodity in town.
FISH. 57
You may pickle what is left, if it is in one piece. Or,
devil it, as I have directed you to treat cold halibut. Or,
mince, mix with mashed potato, milk, and butter, and stir
into a sort of stew. Or, once again, mix with mashed po-
tato, milk, butter, and a raw egg well-beaten ; make into
cakes or balls, and fxy in hot lard or dripping. At any
rate, let none of it be lost, it being at once one of our most
expensive and most delicious fish.
Baked Salmon, t^
Wash and wipe dry, and rub with pepper and salt.
Some add a soupQon of cayenne and powdei*ed mace. Lay
the fish upon a grating set over your baking-pan, and roast
or bake, basting it freely with butter, and, toward the last,
with its own drippings only. Should it brown too fast,
cover the top with a sbeet of white paper until the whole
is cooked. When it is done, transfer to a hot dish and
cover closely, and add to the gravy a little hot water thick-
ened with arrow-root, rice, or wheat flour, — wet, of course,
first with cold water, — a great spoonful of light tomato sauce,
and the juice of a lemon. Boil up and serve in a sauce-
boat, or you can servp with cream sauce, made as for boiled
sahnon. Garnish handsomely with alternate sprigs of pars-
Icy and the bleached tops of celery, with ruby bits of firm
currant jelly here and there. This is a fine dish for a din-
ner-party. A glass of sherry improves the first-named
sauce.
Salmon Steaks, t^
Dry well with a cloth, dredge with flour, and lay them
upon a well-buttered gridiron, over clear hot coals. Turn
with a broad-bladed knife slipped beneath, and a flat wire
e^-beater above, lest the steak should break. When done
to a light brown, lay in a hot dish, butter each steak, sea-
soning with salt and pepper, cover closely, and sei'^'c.
3*
58 OOHMON BEN8E.
Pickled Salmon. (I^esh.) •{•
Having cleaned your fish, cut into pieces of a con-
venient size to go into the fish-kettle, and boil in salted
water as for the table. Drain it very dry, wipe it with a
clean cloth, and set it aside until next morning.
Make pickle enough to cover it in the following propor-
tions : 2 quarts vinegar, a dozen blades of mace, dozen
white peppers, dozen cloves, two teaspoonfuls made mus-
tard, three tablespoonfuls white sugar, and a pint of the
water in which the fish was boiled. Let them boil up once
hard, that you may skim the pickle. Should the spices
come away with the scum in large quantities, pick them
out and return to the kettle. Set the liquor away in an
earthenware jar, closely covered to keep in the flavor.
Next morning hang it over a brisk fire in a bell-metal
kettle (covered), and heat to boiling. Meanwhile, prepare
the salmon by cutting into pieces an inch and a half long
and half an inch wide. Cut cleanly and regularly with a
sharp knife. When they are all ready, and the liquor is on
the boil, drop them carefully into the kettle. Let the
pickle boil up once to make sure the salmon is heated
through. Have ready some air-tight glass jars, such as
you use for canning fruit and tomatoes. Take the salmon
from the kettle, while it is still on the stove or range, with
a wire egg-beater, taking care you do not break the pieces.
Drop them rapidly into the jar, packing closely as you go
on ; fill with the boiling pickle until it overflows, screw on
the top, and set away in a dark, cool place. Proceed in
the same way with each can until all are full. Salmon
thus put up will keep good for j/ears, as I can testify from
experience, and will well repay the trouble of preparation.
You can vary the seasoning to your taste, adding a shallot
or two minced very fine, some celery and small pods of
cayenne pepper, which always look well in vinegar.
I
I
Fisn. 59
Be sure that the contents of the kettle are boiling when
transferred to the cans, that they are not allowed time to
cool in the transit, that the elastic on the can is properly
adjusted, and the top screwed down tightly, and success is
certain. I would call the attention of those who are fond
of the potted spiced salmon, sold at a high price in gro-
cery-stores, to this receipt for making the same luxury at
home. It costs less by one-half, Ls as good, and is always
on hand.
Pickled Salmon. {Salt)
At certain seasons of the year fresh salmon cannot be
procured, even by thie dvrollers in cities, while those who live
in the country sometimes do not see it from one year's end
to the other. But dried salmon can always be had in any
tolerably well-kept grocery, and a very nice relish prepared
from it.
Wash the' salmon in two or tliree waters, rubbing it
lightly with a coarse cloth to remove the salt-crystals. Then
soak over night in tepid water. Exchange this in the morn-
ing for ice-cold, and let the fish lie in the latter for three
hours. Take it out, wipe dry, and cut in strips as directed
in the foregoing receipt. Drop these, when all are ready,
in a saucepan of boiling water, placed alongside of a kettle
of pickle prepared as for fresh salmon. Beside these have
your air-tight jars, covers laid in readiness, and when the
salmon has boiled five minutes — fairly boiled, not simmered
— fish out the pieces with your wire spoon, pack rapidly
into your can; fill up with ihe boiling pickle from the
other kettle, and seal instantly. In two days the pickled
salmon will be fit for use, and is scarcely distinguishable
from that made of fi*esh fish. It has the advantage of
being always procurable, and of comparative cheapness, and
in the countiy is a valuable stand-by in case of unexpected
supper company.
60 COMMON SENSE.
Smoked Salmon. {Broiled,)
Tako a piece of raw smoked salmon the size of your
haod, or larger in pix)portion to the number who are to sit
down to supper. Wash it in two waters, rubbing off the
salt. Lay in a skillet with enough warm — not hot — water
to cover it; let it simmer fifteen minutes, and boil five.
Remove it, wipe dry, and lay on a buttered gridiron to broil.
Wlien it is nicely browned on both sides, transfer to a hot
dish ; butter liberally, and pepper to taste. Garnish with
hillocks of gi'ated horse-radish interspersed with sprays of
fresh or pickled fennel-seed, or with parsley.
Eaw smoked salmon is in common use upon the supper-
table, cut into smooth strips as long as the middle finger,
and rather wider; arranged neatly upon a garnished dish,
and eaten with pepper-sauce or some other pungent condi-
ment.
Boiled Shad. {Fresh.) ^
Clean, wash, and wipe the fish. A voe shad is best for
this purpose. Cleanse the roes thoroughly, and having
sprinkled both shad and eggs with salt, wrap in separate
cloths and put into the fish-kettle, side by side. Cover with
salted water, and boil from half an hour to three-quarters,
in propoi-tion to the size. Experience is the best rule as to
the time. When you have once cooked fish to a turn, note
the weight and time, and you will be at no loss thereafter.
A good rule is to make a pencilled memorandum in the
margin of the receipt-book opposite certain receipts.
Serve the shad upon a hot dish, with a boat of drawn
butter mingled with chopped egg and parsley, or egg-sauce.
Lay the roes about the body of the fish. Garnish with
capers and slices of hard-boiled eggs.
FISH. 61
Boiled Shad. {Salt)
In tliose States where shad ai-e plenty they are salted,
and used freely, as are salt mackerel elsewhere. They form
a doKghtful breakfast-dish, and are welcome on the supper-
table on winter nights.
Soak the fish six or seven hours in warm water,
changing it several times ; wipe off all the salt and immerse
in ice-cold water. When it has lain in this an hour, put
into a fish-kettle with enough fresh water to cover it, and
boil from fifteen to twenty minutes, in proportion to the
size. Serve in a hot dish, with a large lump of butter
spi^ead over the fish.
Broiled Shad. {Fresh.) t^
Wash, wipe, and split the fish. Sprinkle with salt and
jKjpper, and lay it upon a buttered gridiron, inside down-
ward. When the lower side is browned, turn the fish.
One of medium size will be done in about twenty minutes.
Serve upon a hot dish, and lay a good piece of butter upon
the fish. *
Broiled Shad. {Salt.)
SoaJc over night in lukewarm water. Take out in the
morning and transfer to ice-cold for half an lioui'. Wipe
very dry, and broil as you do fresh shad.
Fried Shad.
This is a popular dish upon Southern tables, and is good
anywhere. Clean, waj^h, and wipe a fine roe-shad ; split and
cut each side into four pieces, leaving out the head, and re-
moving fins and tail. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and
dredge with flour. Have ready a frying-pan of boiling hot
lard or drippings ; put in the fish and fry brown, turning at
the end of five minutes to cook the other side. Fry the
62 CX)MMOK SENSE.
roe in the same way ; lay the fish in the middle of the dish,
and the roe outside of it; garnish with water-cresses and
sprigs of pickled cauliflower, and eat with catsup.
Baked Shad. »|<
Clean, wash, and wipe the flsh, which should be a large
one. Make a stuffing of grated bread-crumbs steeped in
sweet milk, butter, salt, pepper, and sweet herbs, moistened
with a beaten egg. Stuff the shad and sew it up. Lay it
in the baking-pan, with a cupful of water to keep it from
burning, and bake an hour, basting with butter and water,
until it is tender throughout and well browned. Take it
up, put in a hot dish and cover tightly, while you boil up
the gravy with a great spoonful of catsup, a tablespoonful
of browned flour which has been wet with cold water, the
juice of a lemon, and, if you want to have it very fine, a glass
of sherry or Madeira. Garnish with sliced lemon and
water-cresses. You may pour the gravy around the fish, or
serve in a sauce-boat. Of course you take out the thread
with which it has been sewed up before serving the fish.
Boiled Sea-Bass.
Clean and put the fish into the fish-kettle, with salted
water enough to cover it when you have enveloped it in
the fish-cloth. A medium-sized fish will be done in a little
over half an hour. But do not boil too fast. When done,
drain and serve in a hot dish. Lay sliced boiled eggs upon
and about it, and serve with egg-sauce, mingled with capers
or nasturtium seed.
Fried Sea-Bass.
Use smaller fish for this purpose than for boiling.
Glean, wipe dry, inside and out, dredge with flour and
season with salt. Fry in hot butter or dripping. A ^nix-
FifiH. 63
turei half butter, half lard, is good for frying fish. The bass
should be done to a delicate brown — not to a crisp. The
fashion affected by some cooks of drying fried fish to a crust
is simply abominable.
Fried bass are a most acceptable breakfast dish.
Sturgeon Steak.
Skin the steaks carefully and lay in salted water (cold)
for an hour, to remove the oily taste, so ofifensive to most
palates. Then wipe each steak dry, salt, and broil over hot
coals on a buttered gridiron. Serve in a hot dish when
you have buttered and peppered them, and send up gar-
nished with parsley and accompanied by a small glass dish
containing sUced lemon.
Or,
You can pour over them a sauce prepared in this way : —
Put a tablespoonful of butter into a frying-pan, and stir
until it is brown — not burned. Add a half-teacupful of
boiling water in which has been stirred a tablespoonful of
browned flour previously wet with cold water. Add salt,
a teaspoonful Worcestershire sauce or anchovy, the juice of
a lemon, and let it boil up well. Pour over the steaks when
you have arranged them in the dish.
Baked Sturgeox.
A piece of sturgeon weighing five or six pounds is
enough for a handsome dish. Skin it and let it stand in
salt and water for half an hour. Parboil it to remove the
oil. Make a dressing of bread-crumbs, minute bits of fat
salt pork, sweet herbs, and butter. Gash the upper part of
the fish quite deeply, and rub this force-meat well in ; put
in a baking-pan with a little water to keep it from burning,
and bake for an hour.
64 OOHMOK SENSE.
Servo with a sauce of drawn butter, in which has been
stirred a spoonful of caper sauce and another of catsup.
This is a Virginia receipt, and an admirable one.
Mayonnaise. (2^7*.)
Take a pound or so of cold boiled fish (halibut, rock, or
cod), cut — ^not chop — ^into pieces an inch in length. Mix in
a bowl a dressing as follows : the yolks of four boiled eggs
rubbed to a smooth paste with salad oil ; add to these salt,
pepper, mustard, two tcaspoonfuls white sugar, and, lastly,
six tablespoonfuls of vinegar. Beat the mixture until
light, and just before pouring it over the fish, stir in lightly
the frothed white of a raw egg. Serve the fish in a glass
dish, with six tablespoonfuls of vinegar and half the dress-
ing stirred in with it. Spread the remainder over the top,
and lay blanched lettuce-lea vcs around the edges, to be eaten
with it.
Baked Salmon-Trout. •!•
Those who have eaten this piince of game .fish in the
Adirondacks, within an hour after he has left the lake, will
agree with me that he never has such justice done him at
any other time as when baked with cream.
Handle the beauty with gentle respect while cleaning,
washing, and wiping him, and lay him at full length, still
respectfully, iu a baking-pan, with just enough water to
keep him from scorching. If large, score the back-bone
with a sharp knife, taking care not to mar the comeliness
of his red-spotted sides. Bake slowly, basting often with
butter and water. By the time he is done — and he should
be so well-looked after that his roysl robe hardly shows a
seam or rent, and the red spots are still distinctly visible —
have ready in a saucepan a cup of cream — diluted with a
few spoonfuls of hot water, lest it should clot in heating —
FISH. 65
in which has been stirred cautiously two tablespoonfuls of
melted butter and a little chopped parsley. Heat this in a
vessel set within another of boiling water, add the gravy
from the dripping-pan, boil up once to thicken, and when
the trout is laid — always respectfully — in a hot dish, pour
the sauce around him as he lies in state. He will take kind-
ly to the creamy bath, and your guests will take kindly to
him. Garnish with a wreath of crimson nasturtium-blooms
and dainty sprigs of parsley, arranged by your own hands
on the edge of the dish, and let no sharply-spiced sauces
come near him. They would but mar his native richness —
the flavor he brought with him from the lake and wild- wood.
Salt him lightly, should he need it, eat and be happy.
If the above savor of bathos rather than " common
sense," my excuse is, I have lately eaten baked salmon-
trout with cream-gravy.
Boiled Salmon-Trout. »{«
Clean, wash, and dry the trout ; envelop in a thin cloth
fitted neatly to the shape of the fish, lay within a fish-kettle,
cover with salted water (cold), and boil gently half an hour
or longer, according to the size. When done, unwrap and
lay in a hot dish. Pour around it cream-sauce made as for
baked salmon-trout — only, of course, with the omission of
the fish-gravy — and serve.
Fried Trout.
Brook trout are generally cooked in this way, and form
a rarely delightful breakfast or supper dish. *
Clean, wash, and dry the fish, roll lightly in flour, and
fry in butter or clarified dripping, or butter and lard. Let
the fat be hot, fry quickly to a delicate brown, and take up
the instant they are done. Lay for an instant upon a hot
66 COMMON 6£NS£.
folded napkin, to absorb whatever grease may cling to their
speckled sides; then range side by side in a heated dish,
garnish, and send to table. Use no seasoning except salt,
and that only when the fish are fried in lard or unsalted
dripping.
Fried Pickerel. »{«
The pickerel ranks next to trout among game-fish, and
should be fried in the same manner. Especially — and I
urge this with groaning of spirit, in remembrance of the
many times m which I have had my senae of fitness, not to
say my appetite, outraged by seeing the gallant fish brought
to table dried to a crisp throughout, all his juices wasted
and sweetness utterly departed— especially, do not fry him
slowly and too long ; and when he is done, take him out of
the grease!
Cream Pickerel. »{«
Reserve your largest pickerel — those over three pounds in
weight — ^for baking, and proceed with them as with baked
salmon-trout — cream-gravy and all. If you cannot afford
cream, substitute rich milk, and thicken with rice or wheat
flour. The fish are better cooked in this way than any
other.
Fried Perch, and other Pan-pish.
Clean, wash, and dry the fish. Lay them in a large
flat dish, salt, and dredge with flour. Have ready a frying-
pan of hot dripping, lard, or butter ; put in as many fish as
the pan will hold without crowding, and fry to a light
brown. Send up hot in a chafing-dish.
The many varieties of pan-fish — porgies, flounders, river-
bass, weak-fish, white-fish, etc., may be cooked in like man-
ner. In serving, lay the head of each fish to ike tail of iJie
one next him.
FISH. 67
Stewed Cat-fish. •{•
Skin, clean, and cut off the horribly homely heads.
Sprinkle with salt, to remove any muddy taste they may
have contracted from the flats or holes in which they have
fed, and let them lie in a cool place for an hour or so.
Then put them into a saucepan, cover with cold water, and
stew very gently for from half to three-quarters of an hour,
aocordiDg to their size. Add a chopped shallot or button-
onion, a bunch of chopped parsley, a little pepper, a large
tablespoonful of butter, a tablespoonfiil flotir mixed to a
paste with cold water ; boil up once, take out the fish care-
fully, and lay in a deep dish. Boil up the gravy once
more, and pour over the fish. Send to table in a covered
dish.
Fbied Cat-fish. •{«
Skin, clean, and remove the heads. Sprinkle with salt,
and lay aside for an hour or more. Have ready two or
three eggs beaten to a froth, and, in a flat dish, a quantity
of powdered cracker. Dip the fish first in the egg, then in
the cracker, and fry quickly in hot lard or dripping. Take
up as soon as done.
Cat-fish cooked in this manner are sweet and savory —
a trifle too rich for delicate persons, but very nice for those
who are blessed with good digestions.
Cat-fish Chowder.
Skin, clean, and cut off the heads. Cut the fish into
pieces two inches long, and put into a pot with some fat
pork cut into shreds — a pound to a dozen medium-sized
fish, two chopped onions, or half a dozen shallots, a bunch
of sweet herbs, and pepper. The pork will salt it suffi-
ciently. Stew slowly for three-quarters of an hour. Then
stir in a cup of milk, thickened with a tablespoonful of
68 COMMON SENSE.
flour ; take up a cupful of the hot liquor, and stir, a little at
a time, into two well-beaten eggs. Return this to the pot ;
throw in half a dozen Boston or butter crackers, split in
half; let all boil up once, and turn into a tureen. Pass
sliced lemon, or cucumber pickles, also sliced, with it. Take
out the backbones of tlie fish before serving.
Stewed Eels. »|<
Inquire, before buying, where they were caught, and
give so decided a preference to country eels as to refuse
those fattened upon the oflal of city wharves. Nor are the
largest eels the best for eating. One weighing a pound is
better for your purpose than a bulky fellow that weighs
three.
Skin and clean, carefully extracting all the f&i from the
inside. Cut into lengths of an inch and a half; put into a
saucepan, with enough cold water to cover them ; throw in
a little salt and chopped parsley, and stew slowly, closely cov-
ered, for at least one hour. Add, at the last, a great spoon-
ful of butter, and a little flour wet with cold water, also pep-
per. Serve in a deep dish. The appearance and odor of
this stew are so pleasing as often to overcome the preju-
dices of those who " Wouldn't touch an eel for tiie world !
They look so like snakes ! " And those who have tasted
once rarely enter a second demurrer.
Fried Eels.
Prepare as for stewing ; roll in flour, and fry, in hot
lard or dripping, to a light brown.
Chowder (^Yo. 1). 4«
Take a pound of salt pork, cut into strips, and soak in
hot water five minutes. Cover the bottom of a pot with a
FISH. 69
layer of this. Cut four pounds of cod or sea-bass into
pieces two inches square, and lay enough of these on the
pork to cover it. Follow with a layer of chopped onions,
a little parsley, summer savory, and pepper, either black or
cayenne. Then a layer of split Boston, or butter, or whole
cream crackers, which have been soaked in warm water un-
til moist through, but not ready to break. Above this lay
a stratum of pork, and repeat the order given above— onions,
seasoning (not too much), crackers, and pork, until your
materials are exhausted. Let the topmost layer bo buttered
crackers, well soaked. Pour in enough cold water to cover
all barely. Cover the pot, stew gently for an hour, watch-
ing that the water does not sink too low. Should it leave
the upper layer exposed, replenish cautiously from the
boiling tea-kettle. When the chowder is thoroughly done,
take out with a perforated skimmer and put into a tureen.
Thicken .the gravy with a tablespoonful of flour and about
the same quantity of butter. Boil up and pour over the
chowder. Send sliced lemon, pickles, and stewed tomatoes
to the table with it, that the guests may add, if they like.
Chowder (iVb. 2).
Slice six large onions, and fry them in the gravy of fried
salt pork. Cut five pounds of bass or cod into strips three
inches long and one tliick, and line the bottom of a pot with
them. Scatter a few slices of onion upon them, a little salt,
half a dozen whole black peppers, a clove or two, a pinch of
thyme and one of parsley, a tablespoonful tomato or mush-
i-oom catsup, and six oysters ; then comes a layer of oyster
crackers, well-soaked in milk and buttered thickly. Another
layer of fish, onions, seasoning, and crackers, and so on until
all are used up. Cover with water, boil slowly for an hour
and pour out. Serve with capers and sliced lemon. A cup of
oyster-liquor added to the chowder while boiling improves it.
70 COMMON SENSE.
SHELL-FISH.
To Boil a Lobster.
Choose a lively one — ^not too large, lest he should be
tough. Put a handful of salt into a pot of boiling water,
and having tied the claws together, if jour fish-merchant
has not already skewered them, plunge him . into the pre-
pared bath. He will be restive under this vigorous hydro-
pathic treatment ; but allay your tortured sympathies by
the reflection that he is a cold-blooded animal, destitute of
imagination, and that pain, according to some philosophers,
exists only in the imagination. However this may be, his
suffering will be shoii;-lived. Boil from half an hour to an
hour, as his. size demands. When done, draw out the scarlet
innocent, and lay him, face downward, in a sieve to dry.
When cold, split open the body and tail, and crack the claws
to extract the meat, throwing away the " lady-fingers " and
tlie head. Lobsters are seldom served without dressing, up-
on private tables, as few persons care to take the trouble of
preparing their own salad after taking their seats at the
board.
Devilled Ix>bster.
Extract the meat from a boiled lobster, as for salad, and
mince it finely; reserve the coral. Season highly with
mustard, cayenne, salt, and some pungent sauce. Toss and
stir until it is well mixed, and put into a porcelain sauce-
pan (covered), with just enough hot water to keep it from
burning. Hub the coral smooth, moistening with vinegar
until it is thin enough to pour easily, then stir into the con-
tents of the saucepan. It is necessaiy to prepare the dress-
ing, let me say, before the lobster-meat is set on the fire.
It ought to boil up but once before the coral and vinegai-
are put in. Next stir in a heaping tablespoonful of butter.
8HELL-FI8H. 71
and when it boils again, take the pan from the fire. Too
much cooking toughens the meat. This is a famous supper
dish for sleighing-parties.
Lobster Croquettes, p^
To the meat of a well-boiled lobster, chopped fine, add
pepper, salt, and powdered mace. Mix with this one-quarter
as much bread-ci-umbs, well rubbed, as jou have meat;
make into jovates, or pointed balls, with two tablespoonfuls
of melted butter. Roll these in beaten egg, then in pulver-
ized cracker, and fry in butter or very nice sweet lard. Serve
dry and hot, and garnish with crisped parsley.
This is a delicious supper dish or entree at dinner.
Devilled Crab. »{«
This is prepared according to the foregoing receipt —
substituting for the coral in the vinegar some pulverized
cracker, moistened first with a tablespoonful of rich cream.
You can serve up in the back-shell of the crab if you like.
Send in with cream crackers, and stick a sprig of parsley
in the top of each heap, ranging the shells upon a large flat
dish.
Crab Salad.
Mince the meat and dress as in lobster salad. Send in
the back shell of the crab.
Soft Crabs. »J<
Many will not eat hard-shell crabs, considering them
indigestible, and not sufficiently palatable to compensate
for the risk they run in eating them. And it must be
owned that they are, at their best, but an indifi*erent sub-
stitute for the more aristocratic lobster. But in the mom-
72 COMMON SENSE.
ing of life, for him so often renewed, Lis crabsliip is a
different creature, and gi*eatly affected by epicures.
Do not keep the crabs over night, as the shells harden
in twenty-four hours. Pull off the spongy substance from
the sides and the sand-bags. These are the only portions
that are imeatable. Wash well, and wipe dry. Have ready
a pan of seething hot lard or butter, and fry them to a fine
brown. Put a little salt into the lard. The butter will
need none. Send up hot, garnished with parsley.
Water-Turtles, or Terrapins.
Land-terrapins, it is hardly necessary to say, are uneat-
able, but the large turtle that frequents our mill-ponds and
rivers can be convei*ted into a relishable article of food.
Plunge the turtle into a pot of boiling water, and let
him lie there five minutes. You can then skin the under-
part easily, and pull off the homy parts of the* feet. Lay
liim for ten minutes in cold salt and water ; then put into
more hot water — salted, but not too much. Boil until
tender. The time will depend upon the size and age.
Take him out, drain, and wipe dry ; loosen the shell carefully,
not to break the flesh ; cut open also with care, lest you
touch the gall-bag yrith the knife. Remove this with the
entrails and sand-bag. Cut up all the rest of the animal
into small bits, season with pepper, salt, a chopped onion,
sweet herbs, and a teaspoonful of some spiced sauce, or a
tablespoonful of catsup — walnut or mushroom. Save the
juice that runs from the meat, and put all together into
a saucepan with a closely-fitting top. Stew gently fifteen
minutes, stirring occasionally, and add a great spoonful of
butter, or a teaspoonful browned flour wet in cold water, a
glass of brown sherry, and lastly, the beaten yolk of an
egg, mixed with a little of the hot liquor^ that it may not
SHELL-FISn. 78
ciirdle. Boil up once, and turn into a covered dish. Send
around green pickles and delicate slices of dry toast with it.
Stewed Oysters. •{<
Drain the liquor from two quarts of firm, plump oysters ;
mix with it a small teacupful of hot water, add a little salt
and pepper, and set over the fire in a saucepan. When it
comes to a boil, add a large cupful of rich milk. (Cream is
better.) Let it boil up once, put in the oysters, let them
boil for five minutes or less — ^not more. When they " ruf-
fle,'' add two tablespoonfuls of butter, and the instant it is
melted and well stirred in, take the saucepan from the fire.
Serve with oyster or cream crackers, as soon as possible.
Oysters become tough and tasteless when cooked too much,
or left to stand too long after they are withdrawn from the
fire. A good and safe plan is, to heat the milk in a sepa-
rate vessel set in another of hot water, and after it is
mingled with the liquor and oysters, stir assiduously or it
may " catch," as the cooks say — i, e., scorch on the sides or
bottom of the saucepan.
Fried Oysters. ^J^
Use for frying the largest and best oysters you can find.
Take them cai'efully from the liquor ; lay them in rows upon
a clean cloth, and press another lightly upon them to absorb
the moisture. Have ready several beaten eggs, and in an-
other dish some crackers crushed fine. In the frying-pan
heat enough nice butter to cover the oysters entirely. Dip
each oyster first in the egg, then into the cracker, rolling it
over that it may become completely incrusted. Drop them
carefully into the frying-pan, and fry quickly to a light
brown. If the butter is hot enough they Avill soon be ready
to take out. Test it by putting in one oyster before you
• 4
74 COMMON SENSE.
lisk the rest. Do not let them lie in the pan an instant after
they are done. Serve diy, and let the dish be warm.' A
chafing-dish is best.
Oysteu Fbitteks. •{<
Drain the liquor from the oystera, and to a cupful of this
add the same quantity of milk, three eggs, a little salt, and
flour enough for a thin batter. Chop the ojrsters and stir
into the batter. Have ready in the frying-pan a few spoon-
fuls of lard, or half lard, half butter ; heat veiy hot, and drop
the oyster-batter in by the tablespoonful. Try a spoonful
first, to satisfy yourself that the lard is hot enough, and that
the fntter is of the right size and consistency. Take rapidly
from tlie pan as soon as they are done to a pleasing yellow-
brown, and send to table very hot.
Some fiy the oyster whole, enveloped in batter, one in
each fritter. In this case, the batter should be thicker than
if the chopped oyster were to be added.
Scalloped Oysters, t^t
Crush and roll several handfuls of Boston or other fri-
able crackers. Put a layer in the bottom of a buttered
pudding-dish. Wet this with a mixture of the oyster liquor
and milk, slightly warmed. Next, have a layer of oysters.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and lay small bits of butter
upon them. Tlien another layer of moistened crumbs, and
so on until the dish is fuU. Let the top layer be of crumbs,
thicker than the rest, and beat an egg into the milk you
pour over them. Stick bits of butter thickly over it, cover
the dish, set it in the oven, bake half an hour ; if the dish
is large, remove the cover, and brown by setting it upon tho
upper grating of oven, or by holding a hot shovel over it.
SHELL-FISH. 75
Broiled Oysters. »{<
Choose large, fat oysters; wipe them very dry; sprinkle
salt and cayenne pepper upon them, and broil upon one of
the small gridirons sold for that purpose. Tou can dredge
the oyster with flour if you wish to have it browp, and some
fiEuicy. the juices are better kept in in this way. Others
dislike the crust thus formed. Butter the gridiron well,
and let your fire be hot and clear. If the oyster drip, with-
draw the gridiron for an instant until the smoke clears
away. Broil quickly and dish hot, putting a tiny piece of
batter, not larger than a pea, upon each oyster.
Cream Oysters on the Half-shell.
Pour into your inner saucepan a cup of hot water, an-
other of milk, and one of cream, with a little salt. Set into
a kettle of hot water until it boils, when stir in two table-
spoonfuls of butter and a little salt, with white pepper.
Take from the fire and add two heaping tablespoonfuls of ar-
row-root, rice-flour, or corn-starch, wet with cold milk. By
this time your shells should be washed and buttered, and a
fine oyster laid within each. Of course, it is selon les rhgles
to use oyster-shells for this purpose ; but you will find clam-
shells more roomy and more manageable, because more re-
gular in shape. Bange these closely in a large baking-pan,
propping them with clean pebbles or fragments of shell, if
they do not seem inclined to retain their contents. Stir the
cream very hard and fill up each shell with a spoon, taking
care not to spill any in the pan. Bake five or six minutes
in a hot oven after the shells become warm. Serve on the
shell. Some substitute oyster-liquor for the water in the
mixture, and use all milk instead of cream.
76 OOIOION 8KKSE.
Oyster Omelet. »{<
12 oysters, if large ; double the number of small ones.
6 eggs.
1 cup milk.
1 tablespoonful butter.
Chopped parsley, sali, and pepper.
Chop the oysters very finely. Beat the yolks and whites
of the eggs separately as for nice cake — the white until it
stands in a heap. Put three tablespoonfuls of butter in a
frying-pan, and heat while you are mixing the omelet. Stir
the milk into a deep dish with the yolk, and season. Next
put in the chopped oysters, beating vigorously as you add
them gradually. When they are thoroughly incorporated,
IK)ur in the spoonfid of melted butter ; finally, whip in tlie
whites lightly and with as few strokes as possible. If the
butter is hot, and it ought to be, that the omelet may not
stand uncooked, put the mixture into the pan. Do not stir
it, but when it begins to stiffen — "to set," in culinary
phrase, slip a broad-bladed, round-pointed dinner-knife
around the sides, and cautiously under the omelet, that the
butter may roach every part. As soon as the centre is
fairly " set," turn out into a hot dish. Lay the latter bot-
tom upward over the frying-pan, which must be turned up-
side-down dexterously. This brings the browned side of
the omelet uppermost. This omelet is delicious and easily
made.
Oyster Pie. •{<
Make a rich puff-paste ; roll out twice as thick as for a
fruit-pie for the top-crust — about the ordinaiy thickness for
the lower. Line a pudding-dish with the thinner, and fill
with crusts of dry bread or light crackers. Some use a
folded towel to fill the interior of the pie, but tlio above
expedient is preferable. J>uttcr the edges of the dish, that
SHELL-FISH. 77
jou may be able to lift the upper crust without breaking.
Cover the mock-pie with the thick crust, ornamented heavily
at the edge, that it may lie the more quietly, and bake. '
Ckx)k the oysters as for a stew, only beating into them at
the last two eggs, and thickening with a spoonful of fine
cracker-crumbs or rice-flour. They should stew but five
minutes, and time them so that the paste will be baked just
in season to receive them. lift the top crust, pour in the
smoking hot oysters, and send up hot.
I know that many consider it unnecessary to prepare the
oysters and crust separately ; but my experience and obser-
vation go to prove that, if this precaution be omitted, the-
oysters are apt to be wofully overdone. The reader can
try both methods and take her choice.
Pickled Oysters. •{<
100 large oysters.
1 pint white wine vinegar.
1 doz. blades of mace.
2 doz. whole cloves.
2 doz. whole black peppers.
1 large red pepper broken into bits.
Put oysters, liquor and all, into a porcelain or bell-metal
kettle. Salt to taste. Heat slowly until the oysters are
very hot, but not to boiling. Take them out with a perfo-
rated skimmer, and set aside to cool. To the liquor which
remains in the kettle add the vinegar and spices. Boil up
fairly, and when the oysters ai-e almost cold, pour over them
scalding hot. Cover the jar in which they are, and put
away in a cool place. Next day put the pickled oysters into
glass cans with tight tops. Keep in the dai'k, and where
they arc not liable to become heated.
I have kept oysters thus prepared for throe weeks in the
78 COMMON BEN8E.
winter. If you open a can, use the contents up as soon
as practicable. The air, like the light, will turn them
dark.
It is little trouble for every housekeeper to put up the
pickled oysters needed in her fJEtmily ; and besides the satis-
faction she will feel in the consciousness that the materials
used are harmless, and the oysters sound, she will save at
least one-third of the price of those she would buy ready
pickled. The colorless vinegar used by " professionals " for
such purposes is usually sulphuric or pyroligneous add. If
you doubt this, pour a little of the liquor from the pickled
oysters put up by your obliging oyster-dealer into a bell-
metal kettle. I tried it once, and the result was a liquid
that matched the clear green of Niagara in hue. I cannot
compare it justly with anything else.
Boast Oysters.
There is no pleasanter frolic for an Autumn evening, in
the regions where oysters are plentiful, than an impromptu
"roast" in the kitchen. There the oysters are hastily
thrown into the fire by the peck. You may consider that
your fjEistidious taste is marvellously respected if they are
washed first. A bushel basket is set to receive the empty
shells, and the click of the oyster-knives forms a constant
accompaniment to the music of laughing voices. Nor are
roast oysters amiss upon your own quiet supper-table, when
the " good man " comes in on a wet night, tired and hungry,
and wants " something heartening." Wash and wipe the
shell-oysters, and lay them in the oven, if it is quick ; upon
the top of tlie stove, if it is not. When they open, they
are done. Pile in a large dish and send to table. Eemove
the upper shell by a dexterous wrench of the -knife, season
the oyster on the lower, with pepper-sauce and butter, or
pepper, salt, and vinegar in lieu of the sauce, and you have
SUELL-nSU. 79
the very aroma of this pearl of bivalves, pure and unde-
filed.
Or, you may open while raw, leaving the oysters upon
the lower shells ; lay in a large baking-pan, and roast in their
own liquor, adding pepper, salt, and butter before serving.
Raw Oysters.
It has become quite fashionable to serve these as one of
the preliminaries to a dinner-pai*ty ; sometimes in small
plates, sometimes on the half-sheU. They are seasoned by
each guest according to his own taste.
Steamed Oysters.
If you have no steamer, impi'ovise one by the help of a
cullender and a pot-lid fitting closely into it, at a little
distance from the top. Wash some shell oysters and lay
them in such a position in the bottom of the cullender that
the liquor wiU not escape from them when the shell opens,
that is, with the upper shell down. Cover with a cloth
thrown over the top of the cullender, and press the lid hard
down upon this to exclude the air. Set over a pot of boil-
ing water so deep that the cullender, which should fit into
the mouth, does not touch the water. Boil hard for twenty
minutes, then make a hasty examination of the oysters. If
they are open, you are safe in removing the cover. Serve
on the half-shell, or upon a hot chafing-dish. Sprinkle a
little salt over them and a few bits of butter ; but be quick
in whatever you do, for the glory of the steamed oyster is to
be eaten hot.
Oyster PAt^s. »J<
1 qt. oysters.
2 tablespoonfuls of butter.
Pepper, and a pinch of salt.
80 COMMON SENSE.
Set the oystei-s, with enough liquor to cover them, in a
saucepan upon the range or stove ; let them come to a boil ;
skim well, and stir in the butter and seasoning. Two or
three spoonfuls of cream will improve them. Have ready
small tins lined with puff-paste. Put three or four oysters
in each, according to the size of tho pdte * cover with paste
and bake in a quick oven twenty minutes. For open pdtes,
cut the paste into round cakes : those intended for the bot-
tom crust less than half an inch thick ; for the upper, a lit-
•
tie thicker. With a smaller cutter, remove a round of paste
from the middle of tho latter, leaving a neat ring. Lay
this carefully upon the bottom crust ; place a second ring
upon this, that tho cavity may be deep enough to hold the
oysters; lay the pieces you have extracted also in the
pan with the rest, and bake to a fine brown in a quick oven.
When done, wash over with beaten egg, around top and all,
and set in the oven thi-ee minutes to glaze. Fill the cavity
with a mixture prepared as below, fit on the top lightly, and
serve.
Jilixture,
To half the liquor fi*om a quart of oysters add an equal
quantity of milk, and let it come to a boil. Put in all the
oysters, leaving out the uncooked liquor ; heat to boiling,
and stir in —
1 tablespoonful butter.
2 tablespoonfuls corn-starch, wet with a little milk.
A little salt.
Boil four minutes, stirring all the time until it thickens,
and fill tho cavity in tho paste shells. These j^^^s are very
nice.
8HELL-FISH. 81
Scallops.
The heart is the only part used. If you buy them in
the shell, boil and take out the hearts. Those sold in our
markets are generally ready for frying or stewing.
Dip them in beaten egg^ then in cracker-crumbs, and
fry in hot lard.
Or,
You may stew like oysters. The fried scallops are gen-
erally preferred.
Scalloped Clahs.
Chop the clams fine, and season with pepper and salt.
Cayenne pepper is thought to give a finer flavor than black
or white ; but to some palates it is insufferable. Mix in
another dish some powdered cracker, moistened first with
warm milk, then with the clam liquor, a beaten egg or two,
and some melted butter. Stir in with this the chopped
clams. Wash as many clam-shells as the mixture will fill ;
wipe and butter them ; fill, heaping up and smoothing over
with a silver knife or tea-spoon. Range in rows in your
baking-pan, and cook until nicely browned. Or, if you do
not care to be troubled with the shells, bake in patty-pans,
sending to table hot in the tins, as you would the scallop-
shells.
Clam Fritters. »J*
12 clams, minced fine.
1 pint of milk.
3 eggs.
Add the liquor from the clams to the milk ; beat up the
egg^ and put to this, with salt and pepper, and flour enough
for thin batter ; lastly, the chopped clams. Fry in hot lard,
tr3ring a little first to see that fat and batter are right. A
tablespoonful will make a fritter of modeititc size. Or, you
4*
83 OOMMON 8BNSE.
can dip the whole clams in batter and cook in like manner
Fry quickly, or tliey are apt to be too greasy.
Clam Chowder,
Fry five' or six slices of fat pork crisp, and chop to
pieces. Sprinkle some of these in the bottom of a pot ;
lay upon them a stratum of clams ; sprinkle with cayenne
or black pepper and salt, and scatter bits of butter profuse-
ly over all ; next, have a layer of chopped onions, then one
of small crackers, split and moistened with warm milk. On
these pour a little of the fat left in the pan after the pork
is fried, and then comes a new round of pork, clams, onion,
etc. Proceed in this order until the pot is nearly full,
when cover with water, and stew slowly — the pot closely
covered — for three-quarters of an hour. Drain off all the
liquor that will flow freely, and, when you have turned the
chowder into the tureen, return the gravy to the pot.
Thicken with flour, or, better still, pounded crackers ; add
a glass of wine, some catsup, and spiced sauce ; boil up,
and pour over the contents of the tureen. Send around
walnut or butternut pickles with it.
P O U LTRY.
Poultry should never be eaten in less than six or eight
hours after it is killed ; but it should be picked and drawn
as soon as possible. There is no direr disgrace to our
Northern markets than the practice of sending whole dead
fowls to market. I have bought such from responsible
poultry-dealers, and found them uneatable, from having re-
mained undrawn until the flavor of the craw and intestines
had impregnated the whole body. Those who are conveiv
sant with the habit of careful country housewives, of keep-
POULTBT. 83
ing up a fowl without food for a day and night before kill-
ing and dressing for their own eating, cannot but regard
with disgust the surcharged crops and puffy sides of those
sold hy toeight in the shambles. If you want to know what
you really pay for poultry bought in these circumstances,
weigh the offid extracted from the fowl by your cook, and
deduct from the market weight. ^^ But don't you know it
actually poisons a fowl to lie so long undressed?" once ex-
claimed a Southern lady to me. ^^ In our markets they are
offered for sale ready picked and drawn, with the giblets —
also cleaned — tucked under their wings."
I know nothing about the poisonous nature of the en-
trails and crops. I do assert that the custom is unclean
and unjust. And this I do without the remotest hope of
arousing my fellow-housekeepers to remonstrance against
estabid usage. Only it reUeves my mind somewSTL
grumble at what I cannot help. The best remedy I can
propose for the grievance is to buy live fowls, and, before
sending them home, ask your butcher to decapitate them ;
the probabilities being greatly in favor of the supposition
that your cook is too ^Hinder-hearted" to attempt the job.
One word as to the manner of roasting meats and fowls.
In this day of ranges and cooking-stoves, I think I am
speaking within bounds when I assume that not one house-
keeper in fifty uses a spit, or even a tin kitchen, for such
purposes. It is in vain that the writers of receipt-books
inform us with refreshing naivete that all our meats are
baked, not roasted, and expatiate upon the superior flavor
of those prepared upon the English spits and in old-fash-
ioned kitchens, whei'e enormous wood-fires blazed from
morning until night. I shall not soon forget my perplex-
ity when, an inexperienced housekeeper and a firm believer
in all " that was writ " by older and wiser people, I stood
before my neat Mott'i " Defiance," a fine sirloin of beef
84 OOMICON SENSE.
ready to be cooked on the table behind me, and read from
my Instruction-book that my ^^ fire should extend at least
eight inches beyond the roaster on either side ! '' I am not
denying the virtues of spits and tin kitchens — only regret-
ting that they are not within the reach of every one. In
view of this fact, let me remark, for the benefit of the un-
fortunate many, that, in the opinion of excellent judges, the
practice of roasting meat in close ovens has advantages.
Of these I need mention but two, to wit, the preservation
of the flavor of the article roasted, and the prevention of
its escape to the upper regions of the dwelling.
The directions hereafter given touching roasting will
apply either to turnspit, " kitchens," or ovens.
Roast Turkey.
After drawing the turkey, rinse out with several ^^'ate^s,
and in next to the last mix a tcaspoonful of soda. The in-
side of a fowl, especially if purchased in the market, is
sometimes very sour, and imparts an unpleasant taste to the
stuffing, if not to the inner part of the legs and side-bones.
The soda will act as a con*ective, and is moreover very
cleansing. Fill the body with this water, shake well, empty
it out, and rinse with fair water. Then prepai*e a dressing
of bread-crumbs, mixed with butter, pepper, salt, thyme or
sweet maijoram, and wet with hot water or milk. You
may, if you like, add the beaten yolks of two eggs. A little
chopped sausage is esteemed an improvement when well in-
corjiorated with the otlier ingredients. Or, mince a dozen
oysters and stir into the di*essing ; and, if you are partial to
the taste, wet the bread-crumbs with the oyster-liquor.
The effect upon the turkey-meat, particularly that of the
breast, is veiy pleasant.
Stuff the craw with this, and tie a string tightly about
the neck, to prevent the escape of the stuffing. Then fill
POULTEY. 85
the body of the turkey, and sew it up with strong thread.
This and the neck-string are to be removed when the fowl
is dished. In roasting, if your fire is brisk, allow about ten
minutes to a pound ; but it will depend very much upon
the turkey*s age whether this rule holds good. Dredge it
with flour before roasting, and baste often ; at first with
butter and water, afterward with the gravy in the dripping-
pan. If you roast in an oven, and lay the turkey in the
pan, put in with it a teacup of hot water. Many roast al-
ways upon a grating placed on the top of the pan. In that
case the boiling water steams the underpart of the fowl,
and prevents the skin from drying too fast, or cracking.
Roast tQ a fine brown, and if it threaten to darken too
i-apidly, lay a sheet of white paper over it until the lower
part is also done.
Stew the chopped giblets in just enough water to cover
them, and when the turkey is lifted from the pan, add
these, with the water in which they were boiled, to the
drippings ; thicken with a spoonful of browned flour, wet
with cold water to prevent lumping, boil up once, and pour
into the gravy-boat. If the turkey is very fat, skim the
drippings well befoi'e putting in the giblets.
Serve with cranberry sauce. Some lay fried oysters in
the dish around the turkey.
Boiled Turkey.
Chop about two dozen oysters, and mix with them a
dressing compounded as for roast turkey, only with more
butter, and wet with the oyster-liquor and a like quantity
of milk. Stuff the turkey as for roasting, craw and body,
and baste about it a thin cloth, fitted closely to every part.
The inside of the cloth should be dredged with flour to pre-
vent the fowl from sticking to it. Allow fifteen minutes to
a pound, and boil slowly.
86 COMMON BKNSE.
Serve with oyster-sauce, made by adding to a cupful of
the liquor in which the turkey was boiled, the same quan-
tity of milk and eight oysters chopped fine. Season with
minced parsley, stir in a spoonful of rice or wheat flour, wet
with cold milk, a tablespoonful of butter. Boil up once and
pour into an oyster-tureen. Send around celery with it.
Turkey Scallop. »J<
Cut the meat from the bones of a cold boiled or roasted
turkey left from yesterday's dinner. Remove the bits of
skin and gristle, and chop up the rest very fine. Put in
the bottom of a buttered dish a layer of cracker or bread-
crumbs ; moisten slightly with milk, that they may not ab-
sorb all the gravy to be poured in afterward ; then spread a
layer of the minced turkey, with bits of the stuffing, pep-
per, salt, and small pieces of butter. Another layer of
cracker, wet with milk, and so on until the dish is nearly
full. Before putting on the topmost layer, pour in the
gravy left from the turkey, diluted — should there not be
enough — with hot water, and seasoned with Worcester-
shire sauce, catsup, and butter. Have ready a crust of
cracker-crumbs soaked in warm milk, seasoned with salt,
and beaten up light with two eggs. It should be just thick
enough to spread smoothly over the top of the scallop.
Stick bits of butter plentifuUy upon it, and bake. Turn a
deep plate over the dish imtil the contents begin to bub-
ble at the sides, showing that the whole is thoroughly
cooked ; then remove the cover, and brown. A large pud-
ding-dish full of the mixture will be cooked in three-quar-
ters of an hour.
This, like many other economical dishes, will prove so
savory as to claim a frequent appearance upon any table.
Cold chicken may be prepared in the same way ;
POULTBY. 87
The minced turkey, dressing, and cracker-crumbs may
be wet with gravy, two eggs beaten into it, and the force-
meat thus made rolled into oblong shapes, dipped in e^
and pounded cracker, and fried like croquettes, for a side
dish, to " make out *' a dinner of ham or cold meat.
IlAGOtJT OP Turkey.
This is also a cheap, yet nice dish. Cut the cold
turkey from the bones and into bits an inch long with knife
and fork, tearing as little as possible. Put into a skillet or
saucepan the gravy left from the roast, with hot water to
dilute it should the quantity be small. Add a lump of
butter the size of an egg, a tcaspoonful of pungent sauce,
a half-teaspoonful of cloves, a large pinch of nutmeg, with
a little salt. Let it boil, and put in the meat. Stew very
slowly for ten minutes — not more — and stir in a table-
spoonful of cranberry or currant jelly, another of browned
flour which has been wet with cold water ; lastly, a glass
of brown sherry or Madeira. Boil up once, and serve in a
covered dish for breakfast. Leave out the stuflSng entire-
ly; it is no improvement to the flavor, and disfigures the
appearance of the ragoilit.
Roast Chickens.
Having picked and drawn them, wash out well in two
or three waters, adding a little soda to the last but one
should any doubtful odor linger about the cavity. Prepare
a stufling of bread-crumbs, butter, pepper, salt, &jq. Fill
the bodies and crops of the chickens, which should be
young and pliunp ; sew them up, and roast an hour or more,
in proportion to their size. Baste two or three times with
butter and water, afterward with their own gravy. If
88 COMMON 8ENSE.
laid flat within the dripping-pan, put in at the first a little
hot water to prevent burning.
Stew the giblets and necks in enough water to cover
them, and, when you have removed the fowls to a hot dish,
pour this into the drippings ; boil up once ; add the gib-
lets, chopped fine ; thicken with browned flour ; boil again,
and send to table in a gravy-boat.
Serve with crab-apple jelly or tomato sauce.
Boiled Chickens.
Clean, wash, and stuff as for roasting. Baste a floured
cloth around each, and put into a pot with enough boiling
water to cover them well. The hot water cooks the skin at
once, and prevents the escape of the juices. The broth
will not be so rich as if the fowls are put on in cold water ;
but this is a proof that the meat will be more nutritious
and better flavored. Stew very slowly, for the first half-
hour especially. Boil an hour or more, guiding yourself
by size and toughness.
Serve with egg or bread sauce. (See Sauces,)
Fricasseed Ciiickex. (White.) »J<
Clean, wash, and cut up the fowls, which need not be so
tender as for roasting. Lay them in salt and water for
half an hour. Put them in a pot with enough cold water
to cover them, and half a pound of salt pork cut into thin
strips. Cover closely, and let them heat very slowly ; then
stew for over an hour, if the fowls are tender. I have
used chickens for this purpose tliat required four hours'
stewing, but they were tender and good when done. Only
put them on in season, and cook very slowly. If they boil
fast, they toughen and shrink into imeatableness. When
tender, add a chopped onion or two, parsley, and pepper.
POULTRY. 89
Cover closely again, and, when it has heated to boiling, stir
in a teacupfiil of milk, to which have been added two beaten
eggs and two tablespoonfuls of flonr. Boil up fairly ; add a
great spoonful of butter. Arrange the chicken neatly in a
deep chafing-dish, pour the gravy over it, and serve.
In this, as in all cases where beaten egg is added to hot
liquor, it is best to dip out a few spoonfuls of the latter,
and drop a Kttle at a time into the egg, beating all the
while, that it may heat evenly and gradually before it ia
put into the scalding contents of the saucepan or pot.
Eggs managed in this way will not curdle, as they are apt
to do if thrown suddenly into hot liquid.
Fricasseed Chicken. (Brovm.) ^
Clean, wash, cut up, and skin a pair of young chickens.
Lay in clear water for half an hour. If tliey are old, you
cannot brown them well. Put them in a saucepan, with
enough cold water to cover them well, and set over the fire
to heat slowly. Meanwhile, cut half a pound of salt pork
into strips, and fry crisp. Take them out, chop fine, and
put into the pot with the chicken. Fry in the fat left in
the frying-pan one large onion, or two or three small ones,
cut into slices. Let them brown well, and add them also
to the chicken, with a teaspoonful of allspice and one of
cloves. Stew all together slowly for an hour or more, until
the meat is very tender ; you can test this with a fork.
Take out the pieces of fowl and put in a hot dish, covering
closely until the gravy is ready. Add to this a great spoon-
ful of walnut or other dark catsup, and nearly three table-
spoonfuls of browned flour, a little chopped parsley, and a
glass of brown sherry. Boil up once; strain through a
cullender, to remove the bits of pork and onion ; return to
the pot, with the chicken ; let it come to a final boil, and
serve, pouring the gravy over the pieces of fowl.
90 COMMON SENSE.
Broiled Chicken.
It is possible to render a tough fowl eatable by boiling
or stewing it with care. Never broil such! And even
when assured that your " broiler " is young, it is wise to
make this doubly sure by laying it uppn sticks extending
from side to side of a dripping-pan full of boiling water.
Set this in the oven, invert a tin pan over the chicken, and
let it steam for half an hour. This process relaxes the
muscles, and renders supple the joints, besides preserving
the juices that would be lost in parboiling. The chicken
should be split down the back, and wiped perfectly dry
before it is steamed. Transfer from the vapor-bath to a
buttered gridiron, inside downward. Cover with a tin pan
or common plate, and broil until tender and brown, turning
several times ; from half to three-quarters of an hour will
be sufficient. Put into a hot chafing-dish, and butter very
well. Send to table smoking hot.
Fried Chicken {No. 1).
Clean, wash, and cut to pieces a couple of Spring chick-
ens. Have ready in a frying-pan enough boiling lard or
dripping to cover them well. Dip each piece in beaten egg
when you have salted it, then in cracker-crumbs, and fiy
until brown. If the chicken is large, steam it before fry-
ing, as directed in the foregoing receipt. When you have
taken out the meat, throw into the hot fat a dozen sprigs
of parsley, and let them remain a minute — just long enough
to crisp, but not to dry them. Garnish the chicken by
strewing these over it.
Fried Chicken iJNo, 2).
Cut up half a pound of fat salt pork in a frying-pan,
and fry until the grease is extracted, but not until it
POULTRY. 91
browns. Wash and cut up a young chicken (broiling size) ;
soak in salt and water for half an hour ; wipe dry, season
with pepper, and dredge with flour ; then fry in the hot
fat until each piece is a rich brown on both sides. Take
up, drain, and set aside in a hot covered dish. Pour into
the gravy lefb in the frying-pan a cup of milk — half cream
is better; thicken with a spoonful of flour and a table-
spoonful of butter; add some chopped parsley, boil up,
and pour over the hot chicken. This is a standard dish in
the Old Dominion, and tastes nowhere else as it does when
eaten on Virginia soil. The cream-gravy ia often omitted,
and the chicken served up dry, with bunches of fried pars-
ley dropped upon it.
Chicken Pot-pie.
Line the bottom and sides of a pot with a good rich
paste, reserving enough for a top crust and for the square
bits to be scattered through the pie. Butter the pot very
lavishly, or your pastry will stick to it and bum. Cut up
a fine large fowl, and half a pound of ham or salt pork.
Put in a layer of the latter, pepper it, and cover with
pieces of the chicken, and this with the paste dumplings
or squares. If you use potatoes, parboil them before put-
ting them into the pie, as the first water in which they are
boiled is rank and unwholesome. The potatoes should be
sliced and laid next the pastry squares ; then another layer
of pork, and so on until your chicken is used up. Cover
with pastry rolled out quite thick, and slit this in the mid-
dle. Heat very slowly, and boil two hoiu*s. Turn into a
large dish, tlie lower crust on top, and the gravy about it.
This is the old-fasliioned pot-pie, dear to the memory
of men who were school-boys thirty and forty years ago.
If you are not experienced in such manufactures, you had
better omit the lower crust; and, having browned the
92 COMMON BEKBE.
upper, by putting a hot pot-lid or stove-cover on top of
the pot for some minutes, remove dexterously without
breaking. Pour out the chicken into a dish, and set the
crust above it.
Veal, beef-steak, lamb (not mutton), hares, &c., may be
substituted for the chicken. The pork will salt it suffi-
ciently.
Baked Chicken Pie »J<
Is made as above, but baked in a buttered pudding-dish,
and, in place of the potatoes, three hard-boiled eggs are
chopped up and strewed among the pieces of chicken. If
the chickens are tough, or even doubtful, parboil them be-
fore making the pie, adding the water in which they were
boiled, instead of cold water, for gravy. If they are lean,
put in a few bits of butter. Oi^nament with leaves cut out
with a cake-cutter, and a star in the centre. Bake an hour
— more, if the pie is large.
Chicken Puddikg »{<
Cut up as for fricassee, and parboil, seasoning well with
pepper, salt, and a lump of butter the size of an egg, to
each chicken. The fowls should be young and tender, and
divided at every joint. Stew slowly for half an hour, take
them out, and lay on a flat dish to cool. Set aside the
water in which they were stewed for your gravy.
Make a batter of one quart of milk, three cups of flour,
three tablespoonfuls melted butter, half a teaspoonful soda,
and one spoonful of cream tartar, with four eggs well beaten,
and a Kttle salt. Put a layer of chicken in the bottom of
the dish, and pour about half a cupful of batter over it —
enough to conceal the meat ; then, another layer of chicken,
and more batter, until the dish is full. The batter must
form the crust. Bake one houi*, in a moderate oven, if the
dish is large.
POULTBY. 93
Beafc up an egg, and stir into the gravy which was set
aside ; thicken with two teaspoonfuls of rice or wheat flour,
add a little chopped parsley ; boil up, and send it to table
in a gravy-boat.
Chickek and Ham. t^
Draw, wash, and stuff a pair of young fowls. Cut
enough large, thick slices of cold boiled ham to envelop
these entirely, wrapping them up carefully, and winding a
string about all, to prevent the ham from falling off. Put
into your dripping-pan, with a little water to prevent
scorching ; dashing it over the meat lest it should dry and
shrink. Invei't a tin pan over all, and bake slowly for one
hour and a quarter, if the fowls are small and tender —
longer, if tough. Lift the cover from time to time to baste
with the drippings — ^the more frequently as time wears on.
Test the tenderness of the fowls, by sticking a fork through
the ham into the breast. When done, undo the strings,
lay the fowls in a hot dish, and the slices of ham about
them. Stir into the dripping a little chopped parsley, a
tablespoonful of browned flour wet in cold water ; pepper,
and let boil up once. Pour some of it over the chickens —
not enough to float the ham in the dish ; serve the rest in
a gravy-boat.
Roast Ducks.
Clean, wash, and wipe the dmcks very carefully. To the
usual dressing add a little sage (powdered or green), and
a minced shallot. Stuff, and sew up as usual, reserving the
giblets for the gi'avy. If they are tender, they will not re-
quire more than an hour to roast. Baste well. Skim the
gravy before putting in the giblets and thickening. The
giblets should be stewed in a very little M'^ater, then chopped
fine, and added to the gravy in the dripping-pan, with a
chopped shallot and a spoonful of browned flour.
Accompany with cun-ant or gi*apo jelly.
94 COMMON SENSE.
To Use up Cold Duck. •!•
I may say, as preface, that cold duck is in itself an ex-
cellent supper-dishy or side-dish, at a family dinner, and is
often preferred to hot. If the duck has been cut into at all,
divide neatly into joints, and slice the breast, laying slices
of dressing about it. Garnish with lettuce or parsley, and
eat with jelly.
But if a warm dish is desired, cut the meat from the
bones and lay it in a saucepan, with a little minced cold
ham ; pour on just enough water to cover it, and stir in a
tablespoonful of butter. Cover, and heat gradually, until
it is near boiling. Then add the gravy, diluted with a little
hot water ; a great spoonful of catsup, one of Worcester-
shire sauce, and one of currant or cranberry jelly, with a
glass of wine and a tablespoonful of browned flour.
Or,
You may put the gravy, with a little hot water and a lump
of butter, in a frying-pan, and when it is hot lay in the
pieces of duck, and warm up quickly, stirring in at the
last a teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce and a table-
spoonful of jelly.
Serve in a hot chaflng-dish.
(For wild ducks, see Game.)
Stewed Duck.
Tliis is a good way to treat an old and tough fowl.
Clean and divide, as you would a chicken for fricassee.
Put into a saucepan, with several (minced) slices of cold
ham or salt pork which is not too fat, and stew slowly for
at least an hour — keeping the lid on all the while. Then
stir in a large chopped onion, a half-spoonful of powdered
sage, or a whole spoonful of the green leaves cut fine, half
POULTEY. 95
as much parsley, a tablespoonful catsup, and black pepper.
Stew another half-hour, or until the duck is tender, and
add a teaspoonful brown sugar, and a tablespoonful of
browned flour, previously wet with cold water. Boil up
once, and serve in a deep covered dish, with green peas as
an accompaniment.
Guinea Fowls.
Many are not aware what an excellent article of food
these speckled Arabs of the poultry-yard are. They are
kept chiefly for the beauty of their plumage, and their deli-
cious eggs, which are far richer than those of chickens.
Unless young they are apt to be tough, and the dark
color of the meat is objected to by those who are not fond
of, or used to eating game. Cooked according to the fore-
going receipt they are very savory, no matter how old they
may be. Put them on early, and scew slowly, and good
management will bring the desired end to pass. There is
nothing in the shape of game or poultry that is not ame-
nable to this process, providing the salt be omitted imtil the
meat is tender.
But a pair of yoimg Guinea fowls, stufied and roasted,
basting them with butter until they are half done, deserve
an honorable place upon our bill of fare. Season the gravy
with a chopped shallot, parsley, or summer savory, not
omitting the minced giblets, and thicken with browned
flour. Send around currant, or other tart jelly, with the
fowL A little ham, minced fine, improves the dressing.
EoA5T Goose.
Clean and wash the goose — not forgetting to put a spoon-
full of soda in next to the last water, rinse out well, and
wipe the inside quite dry. Add to the usual stuffing of
bread-crumbs, pepper, salt, etc., a tablespoonful melted but-
96 COMMON SEK8K.
ter, a large-sized onion chopped fine, a tablespoonful chop-
ped sage, the yolks of two eggs, and some minute bits of fat
pork. Stuff body and craw, and sew up. It will take fully
two hours to roast, if the fire is strong. Cover the breast
imtil it is half done with white paper, or a paste of flour and
water, removing this when you are ready to brown.
Make a gravy as for roast duck, adding a glass of sherry
or Madeira, or (if you can get it) old Port.
Send to table with cranberry or apple sauce.
Goose Pie.
An old goose is as nearly good for nothing as it is possi-
ble for anything which was once valuable, and is not now
absolutely spoiled, to be. The best use to put it to is to
make it into a pie, in the following manner. Put on the
ancient early in the morning, in cold water enough to cover
it, unsalted, having cut it to pieces at eveiy joint. Warm it
up gradually, and let it stew — not boil hard — for four or five
hours. Should the water need replenishing, let it be done
from the boiling kettle. Parboil a beef's tongue (smoked),
cut into slices nearly half an inch thick ; also slice six hard-
boiled eggs. Line a deep pudding-dish with a good paste ;
lay in the pieces of goose, the giblets chopped, the sliced
tongue and egg, in consecutive layers ; season with l)epper,
salt, and bits of butter, and proceed in this order until the
dish is full. If the goose is largo, cut the meat from the
bones after stewing, and leave out the latter entirely. In-
tersperse with strips of paste, and fill up with the gravy in
which the goose was stewed, thickened with flour. Cover
with a thick paste, and when it is done, brush over the top
with beaten white of egg.
In cold weather this pic will keep a week, and is very
good.
POUL'i'KY. 97
KOAST TlOEONS.
Clean, wash, and stuff as you would chickens. Lay them
in rows, if roasted in the oven, with a little water in the
pan to prevent scorching. Unless they are very fat, baste
with butter until they are half done, afterwards with their
own gravy. Thicken the gravy that drips from them, and
boil up once ; then pour into a gravy-boat. The pigeons
should lie close together on the dish.
Stewed Pigeons.
Picky draw, clean and stuff as above directed. Put the
pigeons in a deep pot with enough cold water to cover them,
and stew gently for an hour, or until, testing them with a
fork, you find them tender. Then se^ason with pepper, salt,
a few blades of mace, a little sweet marjoram, and a good
piece of butter. Stew, or rather simmer, for five minutes
longer — then stir in a tablespoonful of browned flour. Let
it boil up once ; remove the pigeons, draw out the strings
with which they were sewed up, and serve, pouring the hot
gravy over them. A little salt pork or ham, cut into strips,
is an improvement. This should be put in when the pigeons
have stewed half an hour.
Broiled Pigeons or Squabs.
Young pigeons or " squabs " are rightly esteemed a great
delicacy. They are cleaned, washed, and dried carefully with
a clean cloth ; then split down the back, and broiled like
chickens. Season with pepper and salt, and butter liberally
in dishing them. They are in great request in a convales*
cent's room, being peculiarly savory and nourishing.
They may, for a change, be roasted whole, according to
the receipt for roast pigeons,
5
08 COMMON 8ENBB.
Pigeon Pie
Is best made of wild pigeons. (See Game.)
MEATS.
EoAST Beef.
The best pieces for roasting are the sirloin and rib pieces.
The latter are oftenest used by small families. Make your
butcher remove most of the bone, and skewer the meat into
the shape of a round. If you roast in an oven, it is a good
plan to dash a small cup of boiling water over the meat in
first putting it down, letting it trickle into the pan. This,
for a season, checks the escape of the juices, and allows the
meat to get warmed through before the top dries by said
escape. If there is much fat upon the upper surface, cover
with a paste of flour and water until it is nearly done.
Baste frequently, at firet with salt and water, afterward with
the drippings. Allow about a quarter of an hour to a
pound, if you like your meat rare ; more, if you prefer to
have it well done. Some, when the meat is almost done,
dredge with flour and baste with butter— only once.
Remove the beef, when quite ready, to a heated dish ;
skim the drippings ; add a teacupful of boiling water, boil
up once, and send to table in a gravy-boat. Many reject
made gravy altogether, and only serve the red liquor that
runs from the meat into the dish as it is cut. This is the
practice with some — indeed most of our best housekeepers.
If you have made gravy in a sauce-boat, give your guest his
choice between that and the juice in the dish.
Serve with mustard, or scraped horse-radish and vinegar.
BEEF. 99
KOAST BSEFy WITH YORKSHIRE PUDDING. »{«
Set a piece of beef to roast upon a griating, or several
sticks laid across a dripping-pan. Three-quarters of an
hour before it is done, mix the pudding and pour into the
pan. Continue to roast the beef, the dripping meanwhile
ialling upon the latter below. When both are done, cut the
pudding into squares, and lay around the meat when dished.
If there is much fat in the dripping-pan before the pudding
is ready to be put in, drain it off, leaving just enough to
prevent the batter from sticking to the bottom.
Hecdptfor Pudding,
1 pint of milk.
4 eggs, whites and yolks beaten separately.
2 cups of flour.
1 teaspoonful salt.
Be careful, in mixing, not to get the batter too stiff.
This pudding, which the cook who introduced it into my
family persisted in calling ^^ Av^tion padding," is very
palatable and popular, and not so rich as would be thought
from the manner of baking. It should be a yellow-brown
when done.
Beef-Steak.
It is not customary to fry beef-steaks for people who
know what really good cookery is. To speak more plainly,
a steak, hiUed by heat and swimming in grease, is a culinary
solecism, both vulgar and indigestible.
Cut the steak thick, at least three-quarters of an inch in
thickness, and if you cannot get tender meat for this pur-
pose, it is best to substitute some other dish for it. But
since tender meat is not a]|yrays to be had, if the piece you
have purchased is doubtful, lay it on a clean cloth, take a
blunt heavy carving-knife, if you have not a steak mallet.
100 COMMON BENSE.
and back dosdy from one end to the other ; tlien turn and
repeat the process upon the other side. The knife should
be so dull you cannot cut with it, and the strokes not the
sixtieth part of an inch apart. Wipe, but not wash, and
lay on a buttered gridiron over a clear fire, turning very
often as it begins to drip. Do not season until it is done,
which will be in about twelve minutes, if the fire is good
and the cook attentive. Rub your hot chafing-dish with a
split raw onion, lay in the steak, salt and pepper on both
sides, and put a liberal lump of butter upon the upper.
Then put on a hot cover, and let it stand five minutes to
draw the juices to the surface before it is eaten. If you
have neither chafing-dish nor cover, lay the steak between
two hot platters for the same time, sending to table without
uncovering. A gridiron fitting under the grate is better
than any other. If a gridiron is not at hand, rub a little
butter upon the bottom of a hot, clean fi-ying-pan, put in
the meat, set over a bright fire, and turn frequently. This
will not be equal to steak cooked upon a gridiron, but it is
infinitely preferable to the same fried.
I shall never forget the wondering distrust with which
my first cook, a sable " professional,'' watched me when I
undei-took to show her how to prepare a steak for the third
breakfast over which I presided as mistress of ceremonies.
And when, at the end of twelve minutes, I removed the
meat, " rare and hot," to the heated dish in readiness, her
sniff of lofty contempt was eloquent as indescribable.
" Call dat cooked ! Folks 'bout here would 'a had dat
steak on by day -break !"
A remark that has been recalled to my mind hundreds
of times since at the tables of so-called capital housewive.s.
The best — ^nay, the only pit^ces for steak are those known
as porter-house and sirloin. The former is the more highly
esteemed by gourmands ; but a really tender sirloin is more
BEEF. 101
serviceable where there are seyeral persons in the family,
the porter-house having a narrow strip of extremely nice
meat lying next the bone, while the rest is often inferior to
any part of the sirloin.
m
Beef-steak and Onions.
Prepare the steak as above directed. While it is broiling,
put three or four chopped onions in a frying-pan with a lit-
tle beef-dripping or butter. Stir and shake them briskly
until they are done, and begin to brown. Dish your steak
and lay the onions thickly on top. Cover and let all stand
five or six minutes, that the hot onions may impart the re-
quired flavor to the hot meat. In helping your guests, in-
quire if they will take onions with the slices of steak put
upon their plates. I need hardly remind the sensible cook
how necessary it is to withdraw the gridiron from the fire
for an instant, should the fat drip upon the coals below, and
smoke or blaze. Tet those who have eaten steaks flavored
with creosote may thank me for the suggestion.
Beef A-la-hode. »|4
Take a round of beef; remove the bone from the middle,
and trim away the tougher bits about the edges, with such
gristle, &c., as you can reach. Set these aside for soup-
stock.
Bind the beef into a synmietrical shape by passing a
strip of stout muslin, as wide as the round is high, about it,
and stitching the ends together at one side. Have ready at
least a pound of fat salt pork, cut into strips as thick as
your middle finger, and long enougli to reach from top to
bottom of the trussed round. Put a half pint of vinegar
over the fire in a tin or porcelain saucepan ; season with
three or four minced shallots or button onions, two tea-
spoonfuls made mustard, a teaspoonful nutmeg, one of
102 OOMMOK SENSE.
cloves, half as much allspice, half- spoonful black pepper ;
with a bunch of sweet herbs minced fbie, and a tablespoon-
ful brown sugar. Let all simmer for five minutes, then boil
up once, and pour, while scalding hot, upon the strips of
pork, which should be laid in a deep dish. Let all stand to^
gether until cold. Remove the pork to a plate, and mix with
the liquor left in the dish enough bread-crumbs to make
a tolerably stiff force-meat. If the vinegar is very strongs
dilute with a little water before moistening the crumbs.
With a long, thin-bladed knife, make perpendicular incisions
in the meat, not more than half an inch apart, even nearer
is better; thrust into these the strips of fat pork, so far
down that the upper ends are just level with the surface,
and work into the cavities with them a little of the force-
meat. Proceed thus until the meat is fairly riddled and
plugged with the pork. Fill the hole from which the bone
was taken with the dressing and bits of pork ; rub the up-
per side of the beef well with the spiced force-meat. Put
into a baking-pan, with a little water to prevent burning ;
turn a large pan over it to keep in the steam, and roast
slowly for five or six hours, allowing half an hour to each
pound of meat. If the beef be tough, you had better stew
the round by putting it in a pot with half enough water to
cover it. Cover tightly and stew very slowly for six hours ;
then set in the oven with the gravy about it, and brown
half an hour, basting frequently.
If you roast the round, do not remove the cover, except
to baste (and tliis should be done often), until fifteen min-
utes before you draw it from the oven. Set away with the
muslin band still about it, and pour the gravy over the meat.
When cold, lift from the gravy, — which, by the way,
will be excellent seasoning for your soup-stock, — cut the
stitches in the muslin girdle, and remove carefully and
send the meat to table, cold, garnished with parsley and
BEEF. 108
naatiirtimii blossoms. Carve horizontally, in slices thin as
a shaving. Do not offer the outside to anj one ; but the
second cut will be handsomely marbled with the white
pork, which appearance should continue all the way down.
I cannot too highly commend this as a side-dish at din-
ner, and a supper and breakfast stand-by. In winter it
will keep a week and more, and as long in summer, if kept
in the refrigerator — except when it is on the table.
Bbeakfast Stew of Beef. ^
Cut up two pounds of beef — not too lean — ^into pieces
an inch long; put them into a saucepan with just enough
water to cover them, and stew gently for two hours. Set
away until next morning, when season with pepper, salt,
sweet marjoram or summer savory, chopped onion, and
parsley. Stew half an hour longer, and add a teaspoon-
ful of sauce or catsup, and a tablespoonful of browned
flour wet up with cold water ; finally, if you wish to have
it very good, half a glass of wine. Boil up once, and pour
into a covered deep dish.
This is an economical dish, for it can be made of the
commoner parts of the beef, and exceedingly nice for winter
breakfasts. Eaten with corn-bread and stewed potatoes, it
will soon win its way to a place in the " stock company "
of every judicious housewife
Another Breakfast Dish.
Cut thin slices of cold roast beef, and lay them in a tin
saucepan set in a pot of boiling water. Cover them with
a gravy made of three tablespoonfuls of melted butter,
one of walnut catsup, a teaspoonful of vinegar, a little salt
and pepper, a spoonful of currant jelly, a teaspoonful made
mustard, and some warm water. Cover tightly, and steam
104 COMMON SENSE.
for half an hour, keeping the water in the outer vessel on
a hard boil.
If the meat is under-done, this is particularly nice.
Beef Hash.
To two parts cold roast or boiled corned beef, chopped
fine, put one of mashed potatoes, a little pepper, salt, milk,
and melted butter. Turn all into a frying-pan, and stir un-
til it is heated through and smoking hot, but not until it
browns. Put into a deep dish, and if stiff enough, shape
as you would mashed potato, into a hillock.
Or, you can cease stining for a few minutes, and let
a brown crust form on the under side; then turn out
whole into a flat dish, the brown side uppermost.
Or, mould the mixture into flat cakes; dip these in
beaten eggs and fry in hot drippings.
The remains of beef a-la-mode ai'e very good prepared
in any of these ways. A little catsup and mustard are an
improvement to plain cold beef, thus hashed.
Beef-steak Fie.
Cut the steak into pieces an inch long, and stew with
the bone (cracked) in just enough water to cover the meat
until it is half done. At the same time parboil a dozen
potatoes in another pot. If you wish a bottom crust — a
doubtful question — line a pudding-dish with a good paste,
made according to the receipt given below. Put in a layer
of the beef, with salt and pepper, and a very little chopped
onion; then one of sliced potatoes, with a little butter
scattered upon them, and so on, until the dish is full.
Pour over all the gi'uvy in which the meat is stewed, hav-
ing first thrown away the bone and thickened with browned
flour. Cover with a crust thicker than the lower, leaving
a sHt in the middle.
BEEF 105
CfiisbT FOR Meat-Pies. 9^
1 quart of flour.
3 tablespoonfuls of lard.
2^ cups milk.
1 teaspoonful of soda wet with hot water, and
stirred into the milk.
2 teaspoonfiils of cream-tartar sifted into the dry
flour.
1 teaspoonful of salt.
Work up very lightly and quickly, and do not get
too stifll
Beef-Pie, with Potato Cbust. »j^
Mince a»me rare roast beef or cold corned beef, if it is
not too salt; season with pepper and salt, and spread a
layer in the bottom of a pudding-dish. Over this put one
of mashed potato, and stick bits of butter thickly all over
it ; then another of meat, and so on until you are ready
for the crust.
To a large cupful of mashed potato add two tablespoon-
fuls of melted butter, a well-beaten egg, two cups of milk,
and beat all together until very light. Then work in
enough flour to enable you to roll out in a sheet — not too
stifl — and, when you have added to the meat and potato in
the dish a gravy made of warm water, butter, milk, and
cat<mp, with what cold grkvy or dripping remains from the
" roast," cover the pie with a thick, tender crust, cutting a
slit in the middle.
You can use the potato crust, which is very wholesome
and good, for any kind of meat-pie. It looks well brushed
over with beaten white of egg before it goes to table,
5*
106 GOliMON BEN8E.
Beef's Heart.
Wash the heart well, and ciit into squares half an inch
long. Stew them for ten minutes in enough water to cover
them. Salt the water slightly to draw out the blood, and
throw it away as it rises in scum to the top. Take out the
meat, strain the liquor, and return the chopped heart to it,
with a sliced onion, a great spoonful of catsup, some pars-
ley, a head of celery chopped fine, and cayenne pepper,
with a large lump of butter. Stew until the meat is very
tender, when add a tablespoonful of browned flour to
thicken. Boil up once, and serve.
To Corn Beef.
Kub each piece of beef well with salt mixed with one-
tenth part of saltpetre, until the salt lies dry upon the sur-
face. Put aside in a cold place for twenty-four hours, and
repeat the process, rubbing in the mixture very thoroughly.
Put away again until the next day, by which time the
pickle should be ready.
5 gallons of water.
1 gallon of salt.
4 ounces 8altj>etre.
H lb. brown sugar.
Boil this brine ten minutes ; let it get perfectly cold ; then
pour over the beef, having wiped the latter entirely dry.
Examine the pickle from time to time to see if it keeps
well ; if not, take out the meat without delay, wipe it, and
rub in dry salt, covering it well until you can prepare new
and stronger brine.
Boiled Corned Beef.
If your piece is a round, skewer it well into shape, and
tie it up with stout tape or twine when you have washed it
BEEF. 107
in three or four waters and removed all the salt from the
outside. Put into a pot, and cover with cold water. Al-
low, in boiling, about twenty minutes to a pound. Turn
the meat three times while cooking.
When done, drain very dry, and serve- with drawn but-
ter in a sauce-boat. Send around mashed turnips with the
meat. They should be boiled in a separate pot, however,
or they will impart a disagreeable taste to the beef.
The brisket is a good piece for a fiajnily dinner.
Beef Tongue.
Soak over night in cold water when you have washed
it well. Next morning put into a pot with plenty of cold
water, and boil slowly until it is tender throughout. This
you can determine by testing it with a fork.
When it is cold, pare off the thick skin, cut in round
slices, and dish for tea, garnishing with fresh parsley.
Tongue sandwiches are generally held in higher esteem
than those made of ham.
Dried Beef.
The most common way of servuig dried or smoked
beef is to shave it into thin slices or chips, raw ; but a
more savory relish may be made of it with little trouble.
Put the slices of uncooked beef into a frying-pan with
just enough boiling water to cover them ; set them over
the fire for ten minutes, drain off all the water, and with a
knife and fork cut the meat into small bits. B«tum to
the pan, which should be hot, with a tablespoonful of but-
ter and a little pepper. Have ready some well-beaten eggs,
allowing four to a half-pound of beef; stir them into the
pan with the minced meat, and toss and stir the mixture
for about two minutes. Send to table in a covered dish.
108 OOMMOK 8EN8S.
MUTTON AND LAMB.
Roast Mutton.
The parts which are usually roasted are : —
The shouldery
The saddle, or chine, and
The loin and haunch (a leg and part of the loin).
The leg is best boiled, unless the mutton is young and
very tender. Wash the meat well, and dry with a clean
cloth. Let your fire be clear and strong ; put the meat on
with a little water in the dripping>pan. If you think well
of the plan (and I do), let this be a cupful of boiling water
dashed over the meat when it is first put down to roast,
and left to trickle into the pan. I have elsewhere explained
the advantages of the method. Allow, in roasting, about
twelve minutes per pound, if the fire is good. Baste often
— at first with salt and water, afterward with the gravy. ^
If it is in danger of browning too fiast, cover with a large
sheet of white paper. Boast lamb in the same manner,
but not so long. Skim the gravy well, and thicken very
slightly with browned flour. Serve with currant jelly.
Roast Muttok a la Venison.
A Christmas saddle of mutton is very fine, prepared as
follows : Wash it weU, inside and out, with vinegar. Do
not wipe it, but hang it up to dry in a cool cellar. When
the vinegar has diied off, throw a clean cloth over it, to
keep out the dust. On the next day but one, take down
the meat and sponge it over again with vinegar, then put
it back in its place in the cellar. Repeat this process three
times a week for a fortnight, keeping the meat hung in a
cold place, and covered, except while you are washing it.
When you are ready to cook it, wipe it off with a dry
cloth, but do not wash it. Roast — basting for the first
MUTTON AND LAMB. 109
hour -with butter and water; afterward with the gravy,
and keeping the meat covered with a large tin pan for two
hours. A large saddle of mutton will require four hours to
roast. When it is done, remove to a dish, and cover to
keep it hot. Skim the gravy, and add half a teacupful
of walnut, mushroom, or tomato catsup, a glass of Ma-
deira wine, and a tablespoonful of browned flour. Boil
up once, and send to table in a sauce-boat. Always send
around currant or some other tart jelly with roast mutton.
If properly cooked, a saddle of mutton, prepared in accord-
ance with these directions, will strongly resemble venison
in taste. An old Virginia gentleman whom I used to
know, always hung up the flnest saddle his plantation
could furnish six weeks before Christmas, and had it
sponged oflf with vinegar every other day, until the morn-
ing of the important 25th ; and the excellence of his mut-
ton was the talk of the neighborhood. It can certainly be
kept a fortnight anywhere at that season.
Boiled Mutton.
Wash a leg of mutton clean, and wipe dry. Do not
leave the knuckle and shank so long as to be unshapely.
Put into a pot with hot water (salted) enough to cover it,
and boil until you ascertain, by probing with a fork, that
it is tender in the thickest part. Skim off all the scimi as
it rises. Allow ahout twelve minutes to each pound. Take
from the fire, drain perfectly dry, and serve with melted
butter, with capers, or nasturtium seed ; or, if you have
neither of these, some cucumber or gherkin-pickle stirred
into it. If you wish to use the broth for soup, put in very
little salt while boiling ; if not, salt well, and boil the meat
in a cloth.
110 COMMON SEN8E.
Mutton Stew. »J^
Cut up from three to four pounds of mutton, — ^the in-
ferior portions will do as well as any other, — crack the
bones, and remove all the fat. Put on the meat — ^the
pieces not more than an inch and a half in length — ^in a pot
with enough cold water to cover well, and set it where it
will heat gradually. Add nothing else until it has stewed
an hour, closely covered ; then throw in half a pound of
salt pork cut into strips, a chopped onion, and some pep-
per ; cover and stew an hour longer, or until the meat is
very tender. Make out a little paste, as for the crust of
a meat-pie ; cut into squares, and drop in the stew. Boil
ten minutes, and season further by the addition of a little
parsley and thyme. Thicken with two spoonfuls of flour
stirred into a cup of cold milk. Boil up once, and serve
in a tureen or deep covered dish.
K green com is in season, this stew is greatly improved
by adding, an hour before it is taken from the fire, the
grains of half a dozen ears, cut from the cob.
Try it for a cheap family dinner, and you will repeat
the experiment often. Lamb is even better for your pur-
pose than mutton.
Mutton Chops.
If your butcher has not done it, — and the chances are
that he has not, unless you stood by to see it attended to, —
trim oif the superfluous fat and skin, so as to give the
chops a certain litheness and elegance of shape. Dip each
in beaten egg, roll in pounded cracker, and fry in hot lard
or dripping. If the fat is imsalted, sprinkle the chops
with salt before rolling in the egg. Serve up dry and hot.
Or,
You may omit the egg and cracker, and broil on a gridiron
over a bright fire. Put a little salt and pepper upon each
MUTTON AND LAMB. Ill
thop, and butter them before they go to table. Cook lamb
chops in the same way.
Mutton Cutlets. {Baked,)
Cut them from the neck, and trim neatly. Lay aside
the bits of bone and meat you cut off, to make gravy.
Pour a little melted butter over the cutlets, and let them
lie in it for fifteen minutes, keeping them just warm enough
to prevent the butter from hardening ; then dip each in
beaten egg, roll in cracker-crumbs, and lay them in your
dripping-pan with a very little water at the bottom. Bake
quickly, and baste often with butter and water. Put on
the bones, &c., in enough cold water to cover them ; stew,
and season with sweet herbs, pepper, and salt, with a spoon-
ful of tomato catsup. Strain when aU the substance is
extracted from the meat and bones ; thicken with browned
flour, and pour over the cutlets when they are served.
Mutton Ham.
For a leg of mutton weighing 12 lbs., take—-
1 ounce of black pepper, or ^ ounce of cayenne,
\ lb. brown sugar,
1 ounce saltpetre,
l\ lb. salt.
The day after the sheep is killed, mix the sugar, pepper,
and saltpetre, and rub well into the meat for nearly fifteen
minutes, until the outer part of it is thoroughly impreg-
nated with the seasoning. Put the ham into a large earth-
enware vessel, and cover it with the salt. Let it remain
thus for three weeks, turning it every day and basting it
with the brine ; adding to this, after the first week, a tea-
cupful of vinegar. When the ham is removed from the
pickle, wash with cold water, then with vinegar, and hang
112 COMMON SENSE.
it up in a cool cellar for a week, at least, before it is
used.
Soak an hour in fair water before boiling.
Or if you choose to smoke it for several days after it is
corned, it can be chipped and eaten raw, like jerked ven-
ison or dried beef.
Most of the receipts above given will apply as well to
lamb as to mutton. There are several exceptions, however,
which you will do well to note. Lamb should never be
boiled except in stews. It is tasteless and sodden cooked
in this manner, on account of its immaturity. But, on the
other hand, a lamb-pie, prepared like one of beef or ven-
ison, is excellent, while mutton-pies have usually a strong,
tallowy taste, that spoils them for delicate palates.
Boast lamb should be eaten with mint sauce (if you
fancy it), currant jelly, and asparagus or green peas. Let-
tuce-salad is likewise a desirable accompaniment.
Mutton or Lamb RECHAurrfi. »j^
Cut some slices of cold underdone mutton or lamb ; put
them in a frying-pan with enough gravy or broth to cover
them. Or, if you have neither of them, make a gravy of
butter, warm water, and catsup. Heat to boiling, and stir
in pepper and a great spoonful of currant jelly. Send to
table in a chafing-dish, with the gravy poured about the
meat.
Or,
You can put a lump of the butter in the bottom of the
pan, and when it boils, lay in the slices of meat, turning
them before they have time to crisp. As soon as they are
thoroughly heated take them out, lay upon a hot dish,
sprinkle with pepper and salt, and serve with a small spoon-
ful of jelly laid upon each.
VEAL. 113
VEAL.
Despite the prejudice, secret or expressed, which pre-
vails in many minds against veal, — one which the wise and
witty "Country Parson" has as surely fostered among
reading people, as did Charles Lamb the partiality for
roast pig, — the excellent and attractive dishes that own this
as their base are almost beyond number. For soups it is
invaluable, and in entrees and recfiavffes it plays a distin-
guished part. Prom his head to his feet, the animal that
furnishes us with this important element of success in what
should be the prime object of cookery, to wit, to please
while we nourish, has proved himself so useful as an ally
that it behooves us to lift the stigma from the name of
*' calf," provided he be not too infantine. In that case he
degenerates into an insipid mass of pulpy muscle and gela-
tine, and deserves the bitterest sneers that have been flimg
at his kind.
Roast Veal.
LOIN.
Veal I'equires a longer time to roast than mutton or
lamb. It is fair to allow at least a quarter of an hour to
each pound. Heat gradually, baste fi'equently — at fb^t
with salt and water, afterward with gravy. When the
meat is nearly done, dredge lightly with flour, and baste
once with melted butter. Skim the gra^T" ; thicken with a
teaspoonful of flour, boil up, and put into the gravy-boat.
'Should the meat brown too fiast, cover with white paper.
The juices, which make up the characteristic flavor of meat,
are ofiener dried out of veal than any other flesh that comes
to our tables.
BREAST.
Make incisions between the ribs and the meat, and fill
with a force-meat made of fine bread-crumbs, bits of pork
114: COMMON BENSE.
or ham chopped "exceeding small," salt, pepper, thyme,
sweet marjoram, and beaten egg. Save a little to thicken
the gravy. Koast slowly, basting often, and the verdict of
the eaters will differ from theirs who pronounce this the
coarsest part of t^e veal. Dredge, at the last, with flour,
and baste well once with butter, as with the loin.
FILLET.
Make ready a dressing of bread-crumbs, chopped thyme^
and parsley ; a little nutmeg, pepper and salt, rubbed to-
gether with some melted butter or beef suet ; moisten with
milk or hot water, and bind with a beaten egg.
Take out the bone from the meat, and pin securely into
a round with skewera; then pass a stout twine several
times about the fillet, or a band of muslin. Fill the cavity
from which the bone was taken with this stufBng, and thrust
between the folds of the meat, besides making incisions
with a thin, sharp knife to receive it. Once in a while
slip in a strip of fat pork or ham. Baste at first with salt
and water, afterward with giavy. At the last, dredge with
flour and baste with butter.
SnOULDEB.
Stuff as above, making horizontal incisions near the
bone to receive the dressing, and roast in like manner.
Veal Cutlets.
Dip in beaten egg when you have sprinkled a little
pepper and salt over them ; then roll in cracker-crumbs,
and fry in hot dripping or lard. If you use butter or drip-
ping, add a little boiling water to the gravy when the meat
is dished ; thicken with browned flour, boil up once, send-
ing to table in a boat.
TBAL. 115
Or,
You can rub the cutlets well with melted butter, pepper,
and broil on a gridiron like beef-steak, buttering very weU
after dishing.
Veal Chops
Are more juicy and less apt to be tough and solid than cut-
lets. Trim the bone as with mutton chops, and &y, dip-
ping in beaten egg and cracker-crumbs. Add a little pars-
ley aud a minced shallot to the gravy.
Yeal Steak.
This should be thinner than beef-steak, and be done
throughout. Few persons are fond of rare veal. Broil
upon a well-greased gridiron over a clear fire, and turn fre-
quently while the steaks are cooking. Put into a saucepan
four or five young onions minced fine, a great teaspoonful
of tomato catsup, or twice the quantity of stewed tomato,
a lump of butter the size of an egg, and a little thyme or
parsley, with a small teacupful of hot water. Let them
stew together while the steaks are broiling, thickening, be-
fore you turn the gravy out, with a spoonful of browned
flour. Add, if you please, a half-glass of wine. Boil up
once hard, and when the steaks are dished, with a small bit
of batter upon each, pour the mixture over and around
them.
Spinach is as natural an accompaniment to veal as are
green peas to lamb.
Veal Pies.
Let your veal be juicy and not too fat. Take out all
the bone, and put with the fat and refuse bits, such as skin
or gristle, in a saucepan, with a large teacupful of cold wa-
ter to make gravy. Listead of chopping the veal, cut in
IIG OOHHOK 8EN6E.
thin, oven slicos. line a pudding-dish with a good paste,
and put a layer off veal in the bottom ; then one of hard-
boiled eggs sliced, each piece buttered and peppered before
it is laid upon the veal ; cover these with sliced ham or
thin strips of salt pork. Squeeze a few drops of lemon-
juice upon the ham. Then another layer of veal, and so
on until you are ready for the gravy. This should have
been stewing for half an hour or so, with the addition of
pepper and a bunch of aromatic herbs. Strain through a
thin cloth and {)Our over the pie. Cover with crust and
bake two hours.
Or,
Butter a large bowl very thickly, and line with sliced hartl-
boiled eggs. Then put in, in perpendicular layers, a lining
of veal cut in thin slices, and seasoned with pepper. Next,
one of sliced ham, each slice peppered and sprinkled with
lemon-juice, more veal and more ham, until the dish is
packed to the brim. Cover with a thick paste made of
ilour and hot water, just stiff enough to handle with ease.
Press this closely to the outside of the bowl, which should
not be at all greasy. Let it overlap the rim about half an
inch. Some cooks substitute a cloth well floured, but it
does not keep in the essence of the meats as well as the
paste. Set the bowl in a pot of hot water, not so deep that
it will bubble over the top. It is better that it should not
touch the paste rim. Boil steadily — not hard — for at least
three hours. Kemove the paste the next day, when bowl
and contents are perfectly cold, and turn out the pie into a
large plate or flat dish. Cut in circular slices — thin as a
wafer — ^beginning at the top, keeping your carver hoiizon-
tal, and you have a delicious relish for the supper-table, or
side-dish for dinner. Set in a cool place, and in winter it
will keep several days.
This is the " weal and hammer pie " endorsed by Mr.
VEAL. 117
"Wegg as a good thiiag " for mellering the organ," and is a
great favorite in England. It is a good plan to butter the
eggs as well as the dish, as much of the success of the pie
depends upon the manner in which it is turned out. Also,
upon the close packing of the sliced meat. The salt ham
prevents the need of ottier salt.
Stewed Fillet op Yeal.
Stuff, and bind with twine as for roasting. Then cover
the top and sides with sliced ham which Ylob been already
boiled, securing with skewers, or twine crossing the meat
in all directions. Lay in a pot, put in two large cups of
boiling water, cover immediately and closely, and stew
gently — ^never letting it cease to boil, yet never boiling hard,
for four or hve hours. A large fillet will require nearly
five hours. Remove the cover as seldom as possible, and
only to ascertain whether the water has boiled away. If
it is too low, replenish from the boiling kettle. Take off
the strings when the meat is done ; arrange the ham about
the fillet in the dish, and serve a bit with each slice of veal.
Strain the gravy, thicken with flour, boil up once, and isend
in a boat.
Serve with stewed tomatoes and spinach.
Stewed Knuckle of Veal.
Put the meat into a pot with two quarts of boiling wa-
ter, half a pound of salt pork or ham cut into stiij)s, a
caiTot, two onions, a bunch of parsley and one of summer
savory — all cut fine — two dozen whole pepper-corns, and
stew, closely covered, for three hours. When done, take
the meat from the pot and lay in the dish. Strain the
gravy, thicken with rice-flour, boil up once, and pour over
the meat.
118 OOMMON SENSE.
Yeal Scallop. 4*
Chop some cold roast or stewed veal very fine, put a
layer in the bottom of a buttered pudding-dish, and season
with pepper and salt. Next have a layer of finely powder-
ed crackers. Strew some bits of butter upon it and wet
with a little milk ; then more veal seasoned as before, and
another round of cracker-crumbs, with butter and milk.
When the dish is full, wet well with gravy or broth, dilu-
ted with wani| water. Spread over all a thick layer of
cracker seasoned with salt, wet into a paste with milk and
bound with a beaten egg or two, if the dish be large. Stick
butter-bits thickly over it ; invert a tin pan so as to cover
all and keep in the steam, and bake — ^if small, half an hour ;
three-quarters will suffice for a large dish. Kemove the
cover ten minutes before it is served, and brown.
This simple and economical dish should be an acquaint-
ance with all who are fond of veal in any shape. Children
generally like it exceedingly, and I have heard more than
one gentleman of excellent judgment in culinary affairs
declare that the best thing he knew about roast veal y as
that it was the harbinger of scallop on the second day.
Try it, and do not get it too dry.
Veal PAt^s.
Mince the veal as above, and roll three or four cracl 3rs
to powder. Also, chop up some cold ham and mix vith
the veal in the proportion of one-third ham and two-thirds
veal. Then add the cracker, and wet well with gravy and
a little milk. If you have no gravy, stir into a cup of hot
milk two tablespoonfuls of butter and a beaten egg. Sea-
son well to your taste, and bake in pat6 pans lined ^th
puff-paste. If eaten hot, send to table in the tins. li 5old,
slip the p&tes out and pile upon a plate, with sprigs of para-
VEAL. 119
ley between. A. little oyster-liquor iB a marked improve-
ment to the gravy.
Stewed Calp's-BEead.
•
Wash the head in several waters, and taking out the
brains, set them by in a oool place. Tie the head in a flour-
ed doth and boil it two hours in hot water slightly salted.
Wash the brains carefully, picking out all the bits of skin
and membrane, cleansing them over and over until they
are perfectly white. Then stew in just enough water to
cover them. Take them out, mash smooth with the back
of a wooden spoon, and add gradually, that it may not
lump, a small teacupful of the water in which the head is
boiled. Season with chopped parsley, a pinch of sage, pep-
per, salt, and powdered cloves, with a great spoonful of but-
ter. Set it over the fire to ummer in a saucepan until you
are ready. When the head is tender, take it up and drain
very dry. Score the top, and rub it well over with melted
butter ; dredge with flour and set in the oven to brown.
Or, you can use beaten egg and cracker-crumbs in place of
the butter and flour.
When you serve the head, pour the gravy over it.
Never skin a calTs-head. Scald as you would that of
a pig. A little lye in the water will remove the hair — ^as
will also pounded rosin, applied before it is put into the water.
Calf'8,Heab. {ScaUcped), 4*
dean the head, remove the brains, and set in a cool
place. Boil the head until the meat slips easily from the
bones. Take it out and chop fine, season with herbs, pep-
per, and salt ; then put in layers into a buttered pudding-
dish with bits of butter between each layer. Moisten well
with the liquor in which the head was boiled. Wash the
brains very thoroughly, removing all the membrane. Beat
120 COMMON 8ENBE.
them into a Bmooth paste, season with pepper and salt, and
stir in with them two eggs beaten very light. Spread this
evenly over the scallop, dredge the top with a little flour,
and bake to a delicate brown. Half an hour will be long
enough.
SwEET-BiiEADS {Fried), »J«
Wash very carefully, and dry with a linen cloth. Lard
with narrow strips of fat salt pork, set closely together. Use
for this purpose a larding- needle. Lay the sweet-breads in
a clean, hot frying-pan, which has been well buttered or
greased, and cook to a fine brown^ turning frequently until
the pork is crisp.
Sweet-Breads (Broiled), 4*
Parboil, rub them well with butter, and broil on a clean
gridiron. Turn frequently, and now and then roll over in
a plate containing some hot melted butter. This will pre-
vent them fi'om getting too dry and hard.
Sweet-Breads {Stewed), tf*
When you have washed them, and removed all bits of
skin and fatty matter, cover with cold water, and heat to a
boil. Pour off the hot water, and cover with cold until the
s>«^eet-breads are firm. If you desire to have them very
rich, lard as for frying before you put in the second wat^r.
They ai-e more delicate, however, if the pork be left out.
Stew in a veiy little water the second time. When they
are tender, add for each sweet-bread a heaping teaspoonful
of butter, and a little chopped parsley, with pepper, and
salt, and a little cream. Let them simmer in this gravy for
five minutes, then take them up. Send to table in a covered
dish, with the gravy poured over them.
If you lard the sweet-breads, substitute for the ci'eam in
TEAL. 121
the grayy a glass of good wine* In this case, take the
sweet-breads out before it is put into the gravy. Boil up
onoe and pour over them.
Sweet-Bbeads {Boasted).
Parboil and throw into cold water, where let them stand
for fifteen minutes. Then change to more cold water for
five minutes longer. Wipe perfectly dry. Lay them in
your dripping-pan, and roast, basting with butter and water
until they begin to brown. Then withdraw them for an
instant, roll in beaten egg, then in cracker-crumbs, and re-
turn to the fire for ten minutes longer, basting meanwhile
twice with melted butter. Lay in a chafing-dish while you
add to the dripping half a cup hot water, some chopped
parsley, a teaspoonful browned flour, and the juice of half
a lemon. Four over the sweet-breads before sending to
table.
Jellied Veal.
Wash a knuckle of veal, and cut it into thi'ee pieces.
Boil it slowly until the meat will slip easily from the bones ;
take out of the liquor ; remove all the bones, and chop the
meat fine. Season with salt, pepper, two shallots chopped
fine as possible, mace and thyme, or, if you like, sage. Put
back into the liquor, and boil until it is almost dry and
can be stirred with difficulty. Turn into a mould until next
day. Set on the table cold, garnish with parsley, and cut
in slices. The juice of a lemon, stirred in just before it is
taken from the fire, is an improvement.
Calf's-Heab IK A Mould.
Boil a calTs-head until tender, the day before you wish
to use it. When perfectly cold, chop — not too small — ^and
sesiRon to taste with pepper, salt, mace, and the juice of a
0
122 COMMON SENSE.
lemon. Prepare half as much cold ham, fat and lean — also
minced — as you have of the chopped cairs-head. Butter a
mould well, and lay in the bottom a layer of the calfs-
head, then one of ham, and so on until the shape is full,
pressing each layer hard, when you have moistened it with
veal gravy or the liquor in which the head was boiled.
Pour more gravy over the top, and when it has soaked in
well, cover with a paste made of flour and water. Bake
one hour. Remove the paste when it is quite cold, and
turn out carefully. Cut petpendicularly.
This is quite as good a relish when made of cold roast or
stewed veal and ham. It will keep several days in cool
weather.
Veal Olives with Oysteus.
Cut large, smooth slices from a fillet of veal, or veal
chops will do quite as well. Trim them into a unifofm
shape and size, and spread each neatly with force-meat
made of bread-crumbs and a little chopped pork, seasoned
with pepper and salt. Over this spread some chopped
oysters, about three to a good-sized slice of veal. Boll
them up carefully and closely, and pin each with two small
tin or wooden skewers. Lay them in a dripping-pan ; dash
a teacupful of boiling water over them, and roast, basting
at least twice with melted butter. When tliey ai*e brown,
remove to a chafing-dish, and cover, while you add a little
oyster-liquor to the gravy left in the dripping-pan. Let
this simmer for three or four minutes ; thicken with a tear
spoonful of browned flour, and boil up once. Withdraw
the skewers cautiously, so as not to break the olives ; pour
«
the gravy over and around them, and serve. If you have
no skewers, bind the olives with pack-thread, cutting it, of
course, before sending to table.
Serve with cranberry jelly.
VEAL. 123
Minced Veal.
Take the remains of a cold roast of veal fillet, shoulder,
or breast, and cut all the meat from the bones. Put the
latter, with the outside slices and the gristly pieces, into a
saucepan, with a cup of cold water, some sweet herbs, pep-
per, and salt. If you have a bit of bacon convenient, or a
ham-bone, add this and omit the salt. Stew all together
for an hour, then strain, thicken with flour, return to the
fire, and boil five minutes longer, stirring in a tablespoon-
ful of butter.
Meanwhile, mince the cold veal, and when the gravy is
ready put this in a Kttle at a time. Let it almost boil, when
add two tablespoonfuls of cream, or three of milk, stirring
all the while. Lastly, squeeze in the juice of a lemon, and a
moment later half a glass of sherry or Madeira wine.
The mince-meat should be dry enough to heap into a
shape in a fiat dish or chafing-dish. Lay triangles of but-
tered toast about the base of the mound, and on the top a
poached egg.
The remains of cold roast beef treated in this manner,
substituting for the toast balls of mashed potato^ will make
a neat and palatable dish.
Send around spinach or stewed tomatoes with minced
veal ; scraped horseradish steeped in vinegar with the beef.
Veal Cutlets A la Maintenon.
The cutlets shotdd be nearly three-quarters of an inch
thick, and trim in shape. Dip each in beaten egg, then
into pounded cracker which has been seasoned with pow-
dered sweet herbs, pepper, and salt. Wrap each cutlet in a
half-sheet of note or letter paper, well buttered ; lay them
upon a buttered gridiron and broil over a clear fire, turning
often and dexterously. You can secure the papers by fring- ^
124 COHMOJBf SENSE.
ing the ends, and twisting these after the cutlets are put in ;
this is neater than to pin them together. In trying this
dish for the first time, have ready a sufficient number of
duplicate papers in a clean, hot dish. If your envelopes are
much soiled or darkened while the cutlets are broiling,
transfer qtiickly when done to the clean warm ones, twist
the ends, and serve. Cutlets prepared in this manner are
sent to table in their cloaks, ranged symmetrically upon a
hot chafing-dish.
The expedient of the clean papers is a " trick of the
trade,'' amateur housewives will observe with satisfaction.
Epicures profess to enjoy veal cooked in covers far more
than when the flavor and juices escape in broiling without
them. Empty every drop of gravy from the soiled papers
into the clean over the cutlets.
Croquettes of Calf's Brains.
Wash the brains very thoroughly imtil they are free from
membranous matter and perfectly white. Beat them
smooth ; season with a pinch of powdered sage, pepper, and
salt. Add two tablespoonfuls fine bread-crumbs moistened
with nuJk, and a beaten egg. Boll into balls with floured
hands, dip in beaten egg, then cracker-crumbs, and fry in
butter or veal-drippings.
These make a pleasant accompaniment to boiled spinach.
Heap the vegetable in the centre of the dish, arrange the
balls about it, and give one to each person who wishes
spinach.
Calf's Liver {JRoasted),
Soak the liver in salt and water an hour to draw out the
blood. Wipe perfectly dry, and stuff with a forcemeat
made of bread-crumbs, two slices of fat salt pork, chopped
small, a shallot, pepper, salt, and nutmeg; sweet maijoram
VEAL. 125
and thyme, and, if you chooBe, a little sage. Moisten this
with butter melted in a very little hot water, and two raw
eggs, well beaten. In order to get this into the liver, make
an incision with a narrow sharp knife, and without en-
larging the aperture where the blade entered, move the
point dexterously to and fro, to enlarge the cavity inside.
Stuff this fuU of the forcemeat, sew or skewer up the outer
orifice.; lard with strips of salt pork, and roast for an hour,
basting twice with butter and water, afterward with the
gravy in the dripping-pan. Pour the gravy over the liver
when done.
Boasted liver is very good cold, cut into slices like tongue.
Calp*8 Liveb {JFHed).
SKce the Kver smoothly, and lay in salt and water to
draw out the blood. Lard each slice, when you have wiped
it dry, with slices of fat salt pork, drawn through at regular
distances, and projecting slightly on each side. Lay in a
clean frying-pan and fry brown. When done, take out the
slices, arrange them neatly on a hot dish, and set aside to
keep warm. Add to the gravy in the frying-pan a chopped
onion, a half-cup of hot water, pepper, the juice of a lemon,
and thicken with brown fiour. Boil up well, run through
a cullender to remove the onion and the bits of crisped
pork that may have been broken off in cooking, pour over
the liver, and serve hot.
Pigs' livers can be cooked in the same way.
Calf's Livek (Stewed).
Slice the liver and lay in salt and water an hour. Then
cut into dice and put over the fire, with enough cold water
to cover it well. Cover and stew steadily for an hour,
when add salt, pepper, a little mace, sweet marjoram, pars-
126 COMMON SEKBE.
ley, and a teaspoonful Worcesterahire sauce. Stew again
steadily, not fast, for half an hour longer, when put in a
table-spoonful of butter, two of browned flour — wet with
cold water, a teaspoonful of lemon-juice and one of cur-
i*ant jelly. Boil five minutes longer, and dish. A little
wine is an improvement.
Or,
Put in with the liver-dice some of salt pork — say a hand-
ful— and when you season, a chopped onion, and omit the
jelly at the last, substituting some tomato catsup.
Imitation Pat6s de Foie Gras. t^
Boil ^ calfs liver until very tender in water that has
been slightly salted, and in another vessel a nice calTs
tongue. It is best to do this the day before you make
jovLrpdtiy as they should be not only cold, but firm when
used. Cut the liver into bits, and rub these gradually to a
smooth paste in a Wedgewood mortar, moistening, as you
go on, with melted butter. Work into this paste, which
should be quite soft, a quarter-teaspoonful of cayenne pep-
per, or twice the quantity of white or black, half a grated
nutmeg, a little cloves, a teaspoonful of "Worcestershire
sauce, salt to taste, a full teaspoonful of made mustard, and
a tablespoonful of boiling water, in which a minced onion
has been steeped until the flavor is extracted. Work all
together thoroughly, and pack in jelly-jars with air-tight
covers, or, if you have them, in pdte-^sxs. They give a
foreign air to the compound, and aid imagination in deceiv-
ing the palate. Butter the inside of the jars weU, and
pack the pdte very hard, inserting here and there square
and triangular bits of the tongue, which should be pared
and cut up for this purpose. These simulate the truffles im-
bedded in the genuine pdtee from Strasbourg and elsewhere.
VEAL. • 127
When the jar is packed, and smooth as marble on the sur-
face, cover with melted butter. Let this harden, put on
the lid, and set away in a cool place. In winter it will
keep for weeks, and is very nice for luncheon or tea. Make
into sandwiches, or set on in the jars, if they are neat and
ornamental.
The resemblance in taste to the real pdte de foie gras
is remarkable, and the domestic article is popular with the
level's of that deKcacy. Pigs' livers make a very iaarpdte.
If you can procure the livers of several fowls and treat as
above, substituting bits of the inside of the gizzard for truf-
fles, you will find the result even more satisfactory.
Veal Marble.
Boil a beef-tongue the day before it is to be used, and a
like number of pounds of lean veal ; or, the lean of a well-
cooked fillet will do as well. Grind first one, then the
other, in a sausage-cutter, keeping them in separate vessels
until you are ready to pack. If you have no machine for
this purpose, chop ver^ fine. Season the tongue with pep-
per, powdered sweet herbs, a teaspoonful of made mustard,
a little nutmeg, and cloves — just a pinch of each ; the veal
in like manner, with the addition of salt. Pack in alter-
nate spoonfuls, irregularly as possible, in cups, bowls, or
jars which have been well buttered. Press very hard as
you go on, smooth the top, and cover with melted butter.
AVhen this cools, close the cans, and keep in a cool, diy
place. Turn out whole, or cut in slices for tea. It is a
pretty and savory relish, garnished with parsley or the
blanched tops of celeiy.
You can use ground ham instead of tongue. It is hard-
ly so good, but is more economical.
128 COMMON SENSE.
PORK.
At the South, whei-e, in spite of the warm cliaiate, the
consumption of pork is double that of the North, the full-
grown hog is seldom represented by any of his parts at the
table, fresh or pickled, unless it be during killing-time ;
then fresh spare-ribs, chine, and steak, with other succu-
lent bits, are welcome upon the choicest bills of fare. The
rest of the animal — ham, shoulders, and middlings — ^is con-
signed to the packing-barrel, and ultimately to the smoke-
house. But, in cool weather, "shoat" — L «., pig under
six months of age — ^is abundantly displayed in market, and
highly esteemed by all classes. The meat is fine and sweet,
and, unless too fat, nearly as delicate as that of chicken —
a very different looking and ta«dng dish from the gross,
oleaginous joints and ^^ chunks " offered for sale in many
other regions as ^* nice young pork.'' Those of my read-
ers who can command *^ shoat " are to be heartily congratu-
lated. Those whose butchers dispense only portions of the
mature porker will do well, in my opinion, if they rarely
admit him to their families before he has been salted, and
been thereby purged of many unwholesome properties.
Few stomachs, save those of out-door laborers, can digest
the fresh meat of a two or three, or even one year old hog.
This is the truthful, but, to unaccustomed ears, offensive
name for him at the South and West, where his qualities
and habits are best known.
The parts of a properly dissected hog are the hams,
shoulders, griskin or chine, the loin, middlings, spare-ribs,
head, feet, liver, and haslet. The choice portions are hams,
shoulders, and, for roasting, the loin. All hogs should be
kept up and well fed for three weeks, at least, before they
are killed ; their styes be frequently cleaned, and furnished
with abundance of wat«r, renewed every day. Sir Grunter
POBK« 129
would be a more cleanly creature if he were allowed more
extensiYe water privileges. If it were possible — and in
the country this may sometimes be done — ^to build his pen
on the bank of a running stream, he would speedily redeem
his character from the stain cast upon it by the popular
verdict, and the superior quality of the meat repay the
thoughtful kindness of his owner. It is a disgrace to
humanity, hardly second to the barbarities of swill-milk
manuiactories, this compulsory £dth of any domestic ani-
maL Those who, like myself, have been loathing witnesses
of the pig-pens upon the premises of well-to-do fieuiners —
the receptacles of the vilest slops and o&l, never cleaned
except during the yearly removal of manure from barn-
yard to field — cannot marvel at the growing prejudice
against pork in all its varieties that pervades our best
classes. We feed the hog with the offscourings (this is
literal) of house, garden, and table ; bed him in mire, and
swell him with acetous fermentation, not to say active de-
composition, and then abuse him for being what we havc
made him. I am persuaded — and wiser people than I de-
clare— that hog-scrofula and cholera, and the rest of the
train of fleshly ills that are the terror of pork-raisers, have,
one and all, their root in this unseemly inhumanity. Es-
chew fresh pork we may, but we cannot dispense with hams,
shoulders, and, most valuable of all to the cook, lard and
pickled pork. Beal sausage, porcine and home-made, is still
sweet and pleasant to the unpampered palate ; and of roast
pig, the gentlest and most genial of English essayists did
not di«<^aiTi to become the eulogist. In memory of his use-
fulness, in belief of the healthfulness which should be his
birthright, and the safeguard of his consumers, let us treat
Bristle well — I do not say philosophically, but sensibly and
kindly.
A pig should not be allowed to eat anything for twenty-
6*
180 COMMON SENSE.
four hours before lie is killed. After he is butchered, great
care should be exercised to keep the pork from tainting ;
it spoils more readily, when fresh, than any other meat.
Cook all kinds of pork thoroughly. When underdone it
is not only unpalatable, but exceedingly unwholesome.
Boast Leg of Pork.
One weighing about seven pounds is enough, even for a
large family. If the pig is young, the leg will be even
smaller. Score the skin in squares, or ps^rallel lines run-
ning from side to side, for the convenience of the carver.
Put it down to roast with a very little water in the pan be-
low. Heat gradually until the fat begins to ooze from the
meat, when quicken the fire to a red, stetwly glow. Baste
only with its own gravy, and do this often, that the skin
may not be hard or tough. When done take it up, skim
the gravy thoroughly, put in half a cup of boiling water,
thicken with brown flour, add pepper, salt, and the juice of
a lemon, and serve in a boat.
Or,
If the joint be that of a full-grown hog, rub into the top,
after scoring it deeply, a force-meat of bread-crumbs season-
ed with sage and chopped onion, wet with the juice of a
lemon or a very little vinegar ; pepper and salt to taste.
Bub this in hard until the cracks are filled. With a shaq)
knife make incLsions close to the knuckle-bone, and stuff
with the forcemeat, tying a string tightly about it afterward,
to prevent the escape of the seasoning. Bub over once with
butter, when the meat is warm throughout ; then baste with
the fat. Skim all the fat from the drippings that can be re-
moved before making the gravy.
Send around tomato or apple sauce, and pickles, with
roast pork.
POSK. 131
Loin of Pork.
Cook as you would a leg, allowing twenty minutes to a
pound in roasting. This is a good rule for fresh pork, the
meat being coarser and of closer grain than are more deli-
cate meats.
A shoulder is roasted in the same way.
Roast Spabe-Rib.
When first put down to the fire, cover with a greased
paper imtil it is half done. Remove it then, and dredge
with flour. A few minutes later, baste once with butter,
and afterward, every little while, with its own gravy. This
is necessary, the spare-rib being a very dry piece. Just
before you take it up, strew over the surface thickly with
fine bread-crumbs seasoned with powdered sage, pepper, and
salt, and a small onion minced into almost invisible bits.
Let it cook five minutes and baste once more with butter.
Skim the gravy, add a half-cupful of hot water, thicken with
brown flour, squeeze in the juice of a lemon, strain, and
pour over the meat in the dish.
Send tomato catsup around with it, or if you prefer,
put a libei*al spoonful in the gravy, after it is stiuined.
Roast Chine.
A chine is treated precisely as is the spare-rib, except
that the strip of skin running along the back is scored close-
ly. If you wish, you can omit the bread-crumb crust, the
onion and sage. In carving, cut thin horizontal slices from
the ribs. Chine is best cold. The meat next the ribs is
delicious when scraped off and made into sandwiches, or
laid upon buttered toast.
Or,
You can wash the chine over with beaten egg, dredge
with cracker-crumbs, seasoned with salt and i>epper, and
132 COMMON SENSE.
roast, basting witli butter and water once when tlie meat is
heated through, afterward with its own gravy. This is a
palatable supper-dish when cold. Garnish with cucumber-
pickles cut in round slices.
Roast Pig.
A month-old pig, if it be well-grown and plump, is best
for this puipose. It is hardly possible that any lady-house-
keeper will ever be called upon to do the but<5her's work
upon the bodies of full-grown hogs, or even ** shoat " — a
task that requires the use of hatchet or cleaver. It is well
that she should know how to clean and di^ess the baby pig,
which is not larger than a Thanksgiving turkey.
As soon as it is really cold, make ready a large boiler of
scalding water. Lay the pig in cold water for fifteen min-
utes ; then, holding it by the hind leg, plunge it into the
boiling water, and shake it about violently until you can
pull the hair off by the handful. Take it out, wipe it dry,
and with a crash cloth or whisk broom rub the hair off,
brushing from the tail to the head, until the skin is per-
fectly clean. Gut it open, take oul the entrails, and wash
very thoroughly with cold water, then with soda and water,
to remove any unpleasant odor ; next with salt and water.
Rinse with fair water and wipe inside. Then wrap in a
wet cloth, and keep this saturated with cold water imtil
you are ready to stuff it. If these directions be followed
implicitly, the pig will be fair and white, as if intrusted to
a professional butcher.
For stuffing, take a cupful of bread-crambs, half a
chopped onion, two teaspoonfuls powdered sage, three ta-
blespoonfuls melted butter, a saltspoonful of pepper, half a
grated nutmeg, half a teaspoonful of salt, two well-beaten
eggs. Mix all these ingredients, except the egg, together,
incorporating them well ; moisten with half a cup of warm
PORK. 133
water (or milk), beat in the eggs, aud stuff the pig into his
natural size and shape. Sew him up, and bend his fore-
feet backward, his hind-feet forward, under and close to the
body, and skewering them into the proper position. Dry
it well, and di'edge with flour. Put it to roast with a little
hot water, slightly salted, in the dripping-pan. Baste with
butter and water three times, as the pig gradually warms,
afterward with the dripping. When it begins to smoke or
steam, rub it over, every five minutes or so, with a cloth
dipped in melted butter. Do not omit this precaution if
you would have the skin tender and soft after it begins te
brown. A month-old pig will require about an hour and
three quarters or two hours — sometimes longer — to roast,
if the fire be brisk and steady.
Should you or your guests dislike onion, prepare your
stuffing without it. The following is a good receipt for
rich and savory force-meat for a pig : —
One cup of bread-crumbs, an ounce of suet, a bunch of
parsley minced fine, teaspoonful of powdered sage, pepper,
salt, and nutmeg, a little thyme, half a glass Madeira or
sherry, juice of a lemon, two tablespoonfuls melted butter,
a cup of oyst«r-liquor, and two well-beaten eggs. For a
Christmas pig, it is worth one's while to take the trouble
to prepare this stuffing.
If your pig is large, you can cnt ofif his head and spUt
him down the back before sending to table. Do this with
a sharp knife, and lay the backs together. But it is a
pity I I have before me now the vision of a pig I once
saw served whole on the table of a friend, that forbids mo
ever to mutilate the innocent before the guests have a
chance to feast their eyes upon the goodly picture. He
was done to a turn — ^a rich, even brown, without a seam or
crack from head to taU, and he knelt in a bed of deep-
green parsley, alternately with bunches of whitish-green
134: COMMON SENSE.
celery tops (the inner and tender leaves) ; a garland of the
same was about his neck, and in his mouth was a tuft of
white cauliflower, surrounded by a setting of curled pars-
ley. Very simple, you see; but I never beheld a more
ornamental roast.
Skim your gravy well ; add a little hot water, thicken
with brown flour, boil up once, strain, and, when you have
added half a glass of wine and half the juice of a lemon,
serve in a tureen.
In carving the pig, cut ofi' the head-first; then split
down the back, take off hams and shoulders, and separate
the ribs. Serve some of the dressing to each person.
I have been thus minute in describing the preparation
qf this holiday dish, because it is erroneously considered a
difficult task. Any cook with a moderate degree of judg-
ment and experience can undertake it with a reasonable
expectation of success.
Pork Steaks.
Those from the loin are best, but they can be cut from
the neck. Kemove the skin and trim neatly. Season with
pepper and salt, and broil over a clear fire. Some excel-
lent housewives broil without seasoning, adding pepper,
salt, a pinch of sage, another of minced onion, and a lump
of butter after they are put into the hot dish. Then cover
closely and set in the oven for five minutes, \mtil the aroma
of the condiments flavors the meat. Try this method.
You can cook spare-rib in the same manner.
PoBK Chops.
Remove the skin, trim them, and dip first in beaten
egg, then in cracker-crumbs seasoned with salt, pepper,
minced onion, and a little sage. Fry in hot lard or drip-
pings twenty or thirty minutes, turning often. The gravy
FOBK. 135
of this disk is usually too rich or fat to accompany the
meat.
Pork cutlets are cooked in like manner. Send applo-
sauce to the table with them, and season with tomato cat-
sup.
Stewed Pork.
Take some tolerably lean slices from the leg, or bits
left from trimming the various pieces into shape. Cut into
dice an inch square, put into a pot with enough cold water
to cover them, and stew gently for three-quarters of an
hour, closely covered. Meanwhile parboil half a dozen Irish
potatoes, cut in thick slices, in another vessel. When the
pork has stewed the allotted time, drain off the water
from these and add to the meat. Season with pepper, salt,
a minced shallot, a spoonful of pungent catsup, and a bunch
of aromatic herbs. Cover again, and stew twenty minutes
longer, or until the meat is tender throughout.
If your meat be not too fat, this stew will be very good,
especially on a cold day.
Yon can stew cutlets in the same way.
Pig's Head (JRoasted),
Take the head of a half-grown pig ; clean and split it,
taking out the brains and setting these aside in a cool place.
Parboil the head in salted water, drain off this, wipe the
head diy, and wash all over with beaten egg ; dredge thickly
with bread-crumbs, seasoned with pepper, sage, and onion,
and roast, basting twice with butter and water ; then with
the liquor in which the head was boiled ; at last with the
gravy that runs from the meat. Wash the brains in sev-
eral waters until they are white ; beat to a smooth paste,
add one-quarter part fine bread-crumbs, pepper, and salt ;
make into balls, binding with a beaten egg ; roll in flour
and fry in hot fat to a light brown. An*ange about the
136 COMMON SENSE.
head when it is dished. Skim the gravy left in the drip-
ping-pan, thicken with brown flour, add the juice of a
lemon, and boU up once. Pour it over the head.
Pig's Heap with Liver and Heart {Stewed).
Clean and split the head, taking out the brains and set-
ting aside. Put the head in a pot with water enough to
cover it and parboil it. Have ready another pot with the
liver and hearty cut into inch-long pieces, stewed in just
enough water to keep them from scorching. When tioie
head is half done, add the entire contents of the second ves-
sel to the first, and season with salt, pepper, a little onion,
parsley, and sage. Cover and stew until the head is very
tender, when take it out and lay in the middle of a flat dish.
With a perforated skimmer remove the liver and heart and
spread about the head, surrounding, but not covering it.
Strain the gravy and return to the pot, thicken with
browned flour, squeeze in the juice of a lemon, and drop
in carefully force-meat balls of the brains, prepared accord-
ing to the foregoing receipt and Med a light brown« Boil
once and pour about the head, arranging the balls upon it,
to cover the split between the two sides of the head.
You may improve this dish, which is very savory, by
boiling a couple of pigs' feet with the head until the meat
wiU slip from the bones. Take them from the liquor, cut
off and chop the meat, and put into the large pot when
you add the liver, etc.
Souse op Pigs' Ears and Feet.
Clean the ears and feet well; cover them with cold
water slightly salted, and boil until tender. Pack in stone
jars while hot, and cover while you make ready the pickle.
To half a gallon of good cider vinegar allow half a cup of
white sugar, three dozen whole black pepper, a dozen blades
POBK. 137
of mace, and a dozen cloves. Boil this one minute, taking
care that it reallj boils, and pour i^hilo hot over the still
warm feet and ears. It will be ready to use in two days,
and will keep in a cool, dry place two months.
If you wish it for breakfast, make a batter of one egg,
one cup of milk, salt to taste and a teaspoonful of butter,
with enough flour for a thin mufin-batter ; dip each piece
in this, and fry in hot lard or dripping. Or dip each in
beaten egg, then in pounded cracker, before frying.
Souse is also good eaten cold, especially the feet.
Head-Cheese {or Sottse).
This is made of the head, ears, and tengue. Boil them
in salted water until very tender. Strip the meat from the
bones and chop fine. Season with salt, p^per, sage, sweet
marjoram, a little powdered cloves, and half a cup of strong
vinegar. Mix all together thoroughly, taste te see that it
is flavored sufficiently, remembering that the spice tends te
keep it, and pack hard in moulds or bowls, interspersing the
layers with bits of the tongne cut in oUongs, squares, and
triangles not less than an inch in length. Press down and
keep the meat in shape by putting a plate on the top of each
mould (first wetting the plate) and a weight upon this. In
two days the cheese will be ready for use. Turn out from
the shapes as you wish to use it ; or, should you desire to
keep it several weeks, take the cheese from the moulds and
immerse in cold vinegar in stone jars. This will presei*ve
it admirably, and you have only to pare away the outside,
should it be too acid for your taste.
This is generally eaten cold for tea, with vinegai* and
mustard ; but it is very nice cut in slices, seasoned slightly
with mustard, and warmed in a fiying-pan with enough but-
ter to prevent burning. Or, you may dip in beaten egg,
then cracker-crumbs, and fry for breakfast.
138 COMMOli SENSE.
■
If the tongue is arranged judiciously, the slices will be
prettily mai*bled.
Pork Pot-pie.
You can make this of lean pork cut from any part of
the pig, but the chine is best. Crack the bones well, and
cut up the chine into rihlettea two ii^ches long. Line your
pot, which should be round at the bottom and well greased,
with a good light paste ; put in the meat, then a layer of
parboiled potatoes, split in half, seasoning with pepper and
salt as you go on. When the pot is nearly full, pour in a
quart of cold water and put on the upper crust, cutting a
small round hole out of the middle, through which you can
add hot water should the gravy boil away too fast. Slips
of paste may also be strewed among the meat and potatoes.
Put on, the pot-lid, and boil from one hour and a half to
two hours. When done, remove the upper crust carefully,
turn out the meat and gravy into a bowl, that you may
get at the lower. Lay this upon a hot dish, put the meat,
etc., in order upon it, pour the gravy over it, and cover with
the top crust. This can be browned with a red-hot shovel,
or oven-lid.
Cheshire Pork-pie.
Cut two or three pounds of lean fresh pork into strips
as long and as wide as your middle finger. Line a buttered
dish with puff-paste ; put in a layer of pork seasoned with
pepper, salt, and nutmeg or mace ; next a layer of juicy ap-
ples, sliced and covered with about an ounce of white sugar ;
then more pork, and so on until you are ready for the paste
cover, when pour in half a pint of sweet cider or wine, and
stick bits of butter all over the top. Cover with a thick
lid of puff-paste, cut a slit in the top, brush over with
beaten egg, and bake an hour and a half.
This is an English dish, and is famous in the region fr'om
f
POBK- 139
-whidi it takes its name. It is much liked by those who
have tried it, and is considered by some to be equal to our
inince-pie.
Yorkshire pork-pie is made in the same way, with the
omission of the apples, sugar, and nutmeg, and the addition
of sage to the seasoning.
SAUSi.G£ {JV^o. 1).
6 lbs. lean fresh pork.
3 « fat " "
12 teaspoonfuls powdered sage.
6 ** black pepper.
6 « salt
2 teaspoonfuls powdered mace.
2 " « cloves.
1 grated nutmeg.
Grind the meat, fat and lean, in a sausage-mill, or chop
it very fine. The mill is better, and the grinding does not
occupy one-tenth of the time that chopping does, to say
nothing of the labor. One can be bought for three or four
dollars, and will well repay the purchaser. Mix the sea-
soning in with your hands, taste, to be sure all is right, and
pack down in stone jars, pouring melted lard on top. An-
other good way of preserving them is, to make long narrow
bags of stout muslin, large enough to contain, each, enough
sausage for a family dish. FUl these with the meat, dip in
melted lard, and hang from the beams of the cellar.
If you wish to pack in the intestines of the hog, they
should be carefully prepared as follows : Empty them, cut
them in lengths, and lay for two days in salt and water.
Turn them inside out, and lay in soak one day longer. Scrape
them, rinse well in soda and water, wipe, and blow into one
end, having tied up the other with a bit of twine. If they
140 COMMON BEN6E.
Are whole and clear, stuff with the meat ; tie up and hang
in the store-room or cellar.
These are fried in the cases, in a dean, dry frying-pan,
until brown. If you have the sausage-meat in bulk, make
into small, roimd flat cakes, and fry in the same way. Some
dip in egg and pounded cracker — others roll in flour before
cooking. Their own fat will cook them. Send to table
dry and hot, but do not let them fry hai'd. When one side
is done, turn the other. The fire should be very brisk.
Ten minutes, or twelve at the outside, is long enough to
cook them.
Sausaqe (iVo. 2).
4 lbs. pork, lean.
H " ** fat.
10 teaspoonfuls sage.
5 ^ pepper,
5 « salt.
Grind and season as directed in No. 1.
This will not keep so long as that made according to the
former receipt, but is very good for immediate family use.
Sausage {No, 3).
2 lbs. lean pork.
2 « « veal.
2 " beef suet
Peel of half a lemon.
1 grated nutmeg.
1 teaspoonf ul black pepper.
1 " cayenne.
5 teaspoonfuls salt.
3 ^< sweet marjoram and
thyme mixed.
POllK. 141
2 teaspoonfals of sage.
Juice of a lemon.
Stuff in cases. This is very fine.
BoLOOXA Sausage ( Uncooked),
6 lbs. lean pork.
3 " '' beef.
2 *' beef suet.
4 ounces salt.
6 tablespoonfuls black pepper.
3 " cayenne.
2 teaspoonfuls powdered cloves.
1 ^^ allspice.
One minced onion, very finely
chopped.
Chop or grind the meat, and mix the seasoning well
through it. Pack it in beef-skins (or entrails) prepared as
yon do those of pork. In the city, you can have these
cleaned by your butcher, or get them ready for use from a
pork merchant. Tie both ends tightly, and lay them in
brine strong enough to bear up an egg. Let them be in
this for a week ; change the brine, and let them remain in
this a week longer. Turn them over every day of the fort-
night. Then take them out, wipe them, and send them to
be smoked, if you have no smoke-house of your own. When
well smoked, rub them over with sweet oil or fresh butter,
and hang them in a cool, dark place.
Bologna sausage is sometimes eaten raw, but the dread
of the fatal trichirue should put an end to this practice, did
not common sense teach us that it must be unwholesome,
no less than disgusting. Cut in round, thick slices, and
toast on a gridiron, or fiy in their own fat. If you mean
to keep it some time, rub over the skins with pepper to
keep away insects.
142 COMMON SENSE.
BoLOONA Sausage (Cooked).
2 lbs. lean beef.
2 " « veal.
2 " " pork.
2 *' fat salt pork — not smoked.
1 lb, beof suet.
10 teaspoonfuls powdered sage.
4 lbs. marjoram, parsley, savory, and thyme — ^mixed.
2 teaspoonfuls cayenne pepper, and the same of
black.
1 grated nutmeg.
1 teaspoonful cloves.
1 minced onion.
Salt to taste.
Chop or grind the meat and suet ; season, and stuff into
beef-skins ; tie these up ; prick each in several places to al-
low the escape of the steam; put into hot — ^not boiling
water, and heat gradually to the boiling-point. Cook slowly
for one hour ; take out the skins and lay them to dry in the
sun, upon clean, sweet straw or hay. Bub the outside of
the skins with oil or melted butter, and hang in a cool, dry
cellar. If you mean to keep it more than a week, rub pep-
per or powdered ginger upon the outside. You can wash
it off before sending to table. This is eaten without further
cooking. Cut in round slices, and lay sliced lemon around
the edge of the dish, as many like to squeeze a few drops
upon the sausage before eating.
Lard.
Every housekeeper knows how unfit for really nice
cooking is the pressed lard sold in stores as the '^ best and
cheapest." It is close and tough, melts slowly, and is some-
times diversified b}' fibrous lumps. And even when lard
PORK. 143
Has been " tried out " by the usual process, it is often mixed
'w^itb so much water as to remind us unpleasantly that it
is bought by weight.
The best way of preparing the ** leaf lard," as it is called,
is to skin it carefully, wash, and let it drain ; then put it,
cut into bits, into a large, clean tin kettle or bucket, and
set this in a pot of boiling water. Stir from time to time
until it is melted ; throw in a very little salt, to make the
sediment settle ; and when it is hot — (it should not boil fast
at any time, but simmer gently until clear) — strain through
a coarse cloth into jars. Do not squeeze the cloth so long
as the clear fat will run through, and when you do, press
the refuse into a different vessel, to be used for commoner
purposes than the other.
Most of the lai*d in general use is, however, made from
the fiitty portions of pork lying next the skin of the hog,
and are left for this purpose by the butcher. . Scrape from
the rind, and cut all into dice. Fill a large pot, putting in
a teacupful of water to prevent scorching, and melt very
slowly, stirring every few minutes. Simmer until there
remains nothing of the meat but fibrous bits. Bemove
these carefully with a perforated skimmer ; throw in a little
salt, to settle the fat, and when it is clear, strain through a
£xke cullender, a sieve, or a coarse cloth. Dip the latter in
boiUng water, should it become clogged by the cooling lard.
Observe the directions about squeezing the strainer. If
your family is small, bear in mind that lard keeps longer in
small than large vessels. Set away the jai*s, closely covered,
in a cool, dry cellar or store-room.
In trying out lard, the chief danger is of burning. Sim-
mer gently over a steady fire, and give it your whole atten-
tion until it is done. A moment^s neglect will ruin all.
Stir ve^ often — almost constantly at the last — ^and from
the bottom, until the salt is thrown in to settle it, when
144 COMMON BENSK
m
withdraw to a less hot part of the fire. Bladders tied over
lard jars are the hest protection ; next to these, paper, and
outside of this, cloths dipped in melted grease.
Bbawn (No. 1.)
Fig's head weighing 6 lbs.
1 lb. lean beef.
1 teaspoonful salt.
^ teaspoonful pepper (black or white).
i teaspoonful cayenne pepper.
i te«q>oonM m«,e.
A pinch of cloves.
A small onion minced very fine.
Clean and wash the head, and stew with the beef in
enough cold water to cover. When the bones will slip out
easily, remove them, after draining off the liquor. Chop
the meat finely while it is hot, season, and pour all into a
mould, wet inside with cold water. If you can have a tin
mould made in the shape of a boar's head, your brawn will
look well at a Christmas feast.
Brawn (No. 2).
Pig's head, feet, and ears.
^ teaspoonful of black pepper, and same of cayenne.
4 teaspoonfuls powdered sage.
1 teaspoonful mace.
An onion minced.
Salt and saltpetre.
Soak the head twelve hours, and lay in a stroxig brine,
with a tablee^onfiil of saltpetre. Let it lie three days in
this ; rinse ; then boil it until you can draw out the bones.
Do this very carefully from the back and nndernaide of the
head, breaking tho outline of the top as little as possibin
FOBE. 145
Chop the meat of the feet and ears, which should have been
boiled with the head, season to taste with the spices I have
indicated (tastes vary in these mattters), beat in the brains,
or two tablespoonfuls of melted butter. Fill up the hollows
lefb by the removal of the bones with this mixture. Tie in
a flannel cloth, sewing this tightly into the shape of the
head; boil an hour and a quarter, and set aside to drain
and cool. Do not remove the cloth until next day. This
will be found very nice.
Saveloys.
8 lbs. pork.
4 teaspoonfuls black pepper.
1 teaspoonful cayenne.
1 ^^ cloves or mace.
8 teaspoonfuls sage, sweet marjoram, and thyme,
mixed.
1 teacupful bread-crumbs.
Lay the meat, which should be young pork, in a brine of
salt and water, with a tablespoonful of saltpetre, and leave
it for three days. Dry and mince it, season, and add the
grated bread. Stuff in skins, and bake, closely covered, in
an oven for half an hour. Or, what is better, steam over
boiling water one hour.
Eat either hot or cold.
To Pickle Pork. (No. 1.)
Hams, shoulders, chines, and ^^ middlings,'' are the parts
of the hog which are usually pickled. This should be done
as soon as may be after the meat is fairly cold — especially
in moderate weather. "When you can pack down pork
twenty-four hours after butchering, it is best to do so, un-
less the cold be severe enough to preserve it longer.
146 COMMON SENSE.
H lbs. salt.
1 lb. brown sugar.
1 oz. saltpetre in 3 gallons of ¥rater.
Put into a large Banoepan and boil for half an hour,
skimming off the scum. When cold, pour over the meat,
and let it lie for a few days.
This is intended to corn a small quantity of meat for
family use.
(No. 2.)
80 lbs. of meat.
2 quarts and 1 pint of fine salt.
4 lbs. sugar, or 1 quart best molasses.
3 oz. saltpetre.
Pulverize and mix the seasoning, with the exception of
the two quarts of salt, using the one pint only. Rub the
meat toell all over, and lay upon boards on the cellar>floor
for twenty-four hours. Then, put a few clean stones
in the bottom of a barrel ; lay sticks across these, that the
nieat may not soak in the liquor that drains from it. Pack
the meat in layers, strewing between these the remaining
two quarts of salt. Let it lie in the cask for fifteen or six-
teen days, every day during this time tipping the cask to
drain off the liquor, or drawing it through a bung-hole near
the bottom. Pour this back in cupfids over the meat.
If you do not mean to smoke the meat, take it out at
the end of the fortnight, rub each piece well over with dry
salt, and return to the barrel. If Uie liquor does not cover
it, make fresh brine in the proportion of two pounds of salt,
a quarter of an ounce of saltpetre, and a quart of water, and
pour in when you have boiled it half an hour and let it cool.
Lay a round piece of board upon the upper layer and keep
this down with stones. Examine from time to time, to be
sure the meat is keeping well. Should it seem likely to
PORK. 147
iainty throw away the pickle, rub each piece over with dry
salt, and pack anew. Pork pickled in this way wUl keep
two years.
To Cure Hams.
Having pickied your hams with the rest of your pork,
as just directed, take them, after the lapse of sixteen days,
from the packing barrel, with the shoulders and jowls. At
the South they empty the cask, and consign the ^^ whole
hog '' to the smoke-house. Wash off the pickle, and, while
wet, dip in bran. Some use saw-dust, but it is not so good.
Others use neither, only wipe the meat dry and smoke.
The object in dipping in bran or saw-dust is to form a crust
which prevents the evaporation of the juices. Be sure that
it is well covered with the bran, then hang in the smoke,
the hock end downward. Keep up a good smoke, by hav-
ing the fire partially smothered with hickory chips and saw-
dust, for four weeks, taking care the house does not -be-
come hot. Take down the meat, brush off the bran, exam-
ine closely, and if you suspect insects, lay it in the hot sun
for a day or two.
The various ways of keeping hams — each strongly
recommended by those who have practised it — are too nu-
merous to mention here. Some pack in wood ashes ; oth-
ers, in dry oats ; others, in bran. But the best authorities
discard packing altogether. I will name one or two meth-
ods which I know have been successful. <^ I hang mine on
hooks from wires, at the top of my granary, which is tight
and dark,'' says an excellent judge and manufacturer of
hams. " They are good and sweet when a year old," An-
other admirable housekeeper covers with brown paper,
then with coarse muslin stitched tightly and fitting close-
ly, then whitewashes. But for the paper, the lime would
be apt to cat away the grease. Still another covers with
148 COMMON SENSE.
muslin, and coats with a mixture of bees-wax and rosiu.
There is no doubt that the covers are an excellent precau-
tion— ^provided always, that the insects have not already
deposited their eggs in the meat. The bran coating tends
to prevent this.
I have eaten ham twenty years old in Virginia, which
had been kept sweet in slaked ashes. Unslaked will act
like lime upon the fat.
Boiled Ham.
Soak in water over night. Kext morning wash hard
with a coarse cloth or stiff brush, and put on to boil with
plenty of cold water. Allow a quarter of an hour to each
pound in cooking, and do not boil too fast. Do not remove
the skin until cold; it will come off easily and cleanly
then, and the juices are better preserved than when it is
stripped hot. Send to table with dots of pepper or diy
mustard on the top, a tuft of fringed paper twisted about
the shank, and garnish with parsley.
Cut very thin in carving.
Glazed Ham. »{«
Brush the ham — ^a cold boiled one, from which the
skin has been taken — well, all over with beaten e^. To
a cup of powdered cracker allow enough rich milk or
cream to make into a thick paste, salt, and work in a tea-
spoonful of melted butter. Spread this evenly a quarter
of an inch thick over the ham, and set to brown in a mod-
erate oven.
Steamed Ham.
This is by far the best way of cooking a ham. Lay in
cold water for twelve hours ; wash very thoroughly, rub-
bing with a stiff brush, to dislodge the salt and smoke on
PORK, ^ 149
the outside. Put into a steamer, cover closely, and set it
over a pot of boiling water. Allow at least twenty min-
utes to a pound. Keep the water at a hard boH.
If you serve ham hot, skin, and immediately strew
thickly with cracker or bread-crumbs, to prevent the waste
of the essence. Put a frill of paper about the knuckle.
Send around cabbage or other green vegetables with it.
Baked Ham.
Soak for twelve hours. Trim away the rusty part from
the imder side and edges, wipe very diy, cover the bottom
with a paste made of flour and hot water, and lay it upside
down in the dripping-pan, with enough water to keep it
from burning. Bake five hours, or allow fully twenty-five
minutes to a pound. Baste now and then, to prevent the
crust from cracking and scaling off. When done, peel off
this and the skin, and glaze as you would a cold ham.
Put cut paper about the knuckle, and garnish with
parsley and sliced red ))eet — pickled.
ErOAST Ham.
Soak for two days in lukewarm water, changing at least
six times a day. Take it out, wash very well, scrubbing
the tmder part hard, and trimming away the black and
rusty edges. Skin with cai*e, lest you mangle the meat
and spoil the syn^etry of the shape. Lay in a dish and
sponge with a cloth dipped in a mixture of wine, vine-
gar, sugar, and mustard — about a tablespoonful of white
sugar, a saltspoonful of made mustard, and a glass of wine
to half a gill of vinegar. Do this at intervals of an hour,
washing every part of the ham well, all day and until bed-
time. Renew the process next morning until six hours be-
fore you need the meat Put it upon the spit or in the
150 COMMON SENSE.
•
dripping-pan, with a cup of hot water to prevent burning.
Add to the mixture — or what ifl left of it in the dish — a
cupful of boiling water. Keep this on the stove and baste
continually with it until the liquor flows freely from the
ham as it cooks ; then substitute the gravy. When done
(you must test with a fork), cover with cracker-crumbs,
worked to a paste with milk, butter, and a beaten egg, and
return to the oven to brown.
Skim the gravy ; add a glass of good wine, a tablespoon-
ful of catsup, — walnut, if you have it, — the juice of a lemon,
and a little nutmeg. Boil up, and send to table in a
boat.
Troublesome as the mode of cooking it may seem, roast
ham is so delicious — especially when cold — as fully to
recompense the housekeeper who may be tempted to try it.
Broiled Hah.
Cut in slices. Wash well, and soak in scalding water
in a covered vessel for half an hour. Pour off the water
and add more boilihg water. Wipe dry when the ham has
stood half an hour in the second water, and lay in cold for
five minutes. Wipe again and broil over (or under) a
clear fire.
Cold boiled ham, that is not too much done, is better
for broiling than raw. Pepper before serving.
Barbecued Hah. »{«
If your ham is raw, soak as above directed ; then lay
the slices flat in a frying-pan ; pepper each and lay upon it
a qiiarter of a teaspoonful of made mustard. Pour about
them some vinegar, allowing half a teaspoonful to each
slice. Fry quickly and turn often. Wlien done to a fine
brown, transfer to a hot dish ; add to the gravy in the pan
PORK. 151
half a glass of wine and a very small teaspoonful of white
sogar. Boil up and pour over tlie meat.
Underdone ham is nice barbecued.
Fried Hah.
If raw, soak as for broiling. Cook in a hot frying-pan,
turning often until done. Serve with or without the gravy,
as you please. In some parts of the coimtry it is custom-
ary to take the meat first from the pan, and add ta the
gravy a little cream, then thicken with flour. Boil up
once and pour over the ham. A little chopped parsley is
a pleasant addition to this gravy.
Or,
You may dip some slices of cold boiled ham — cut rather
thick — ^in beaten egg, then in cracker-crumbs, and fry them
in fat extracted from some bits of salt pork. Take the dry
fried pork from the pan before putting in the ham. Gar-
nish with crisped parsley.
Ham Sandwiches.
Cut some slices of bread in a neat shape, and trim off
the crust, imless it is very tender. Butter them and lay
between every two some thin slices «of cold boiled ham.
Spread the meat with a little mustard if you like.
Ground ham makes delicious sandwiches. Cut the
bread very thin, and butter well. Put in a good layer of
ham, and press the two sides of the sandwiches firmly, but
gently, together. Then roll lengthwise, and pile in a plate
or basket.
Ham and Chicken Sandwiches.
Mince some cold roast chicken, and a like quantity of
cold boiled ham. Put the mixture into a saucepan, with
152 CX>MMON SENSE.
enough gravy — chicken or veal — to make a soft paste. If you
have no gravy, use a little hot water, a few spoonfuls of
cream, and a fair lump of butter. Season with pepper to
your taste. Stir while it heats almost to boiling, working
it very smooth. In about five minutes after it begins to
smoke, take from the fire and spread in a dish to cool.
With a good-sized cake-cutter, or a plain thin-edged tum-
bler, cut some rounds of cold bread, and butter one side of
each. Sprinkle the buttered sides with grated cheese, and,
when the chicken is cold, put a layer between t^ese.
These sandwiches are simple and very good.
Ham and Chicken Pie.
Cut up and parboil a tender young chicken — ^a year old
one is best. Line a deep dish with a good pie-crust. Cut
some thin slices of cold boiled ham, and spread a layer next
the crust ; then arrange pieces of the fowl upon the ham.
Cover this, in turn, with slices of hard-boiled eggs, buttered
and peppered. Proceed in this order until your materials
are used up. Then pour in enough veal or chicken gravy
to prevent dryness. Unless you have put in too much
water for the size of the fowl, the liquor in which the
chicken was boiled is best for this purpose. Bake one hour
and a quarter for a Mrge pie.
Ham and Egos.
Cut your slices of ham of a uniform size and shape.
Fry quickly, and take them out of the pan as soon as they
are done. Have the eggs ready, and drop them, one at a
time, in the hissing fat. Have a large pan for this purpose,
that they may not touch and run together. In three min-
utes they will be done. The meat should be kept hot, and
when the eggs are ready, lay one upon each slice of ham.
PORK. 153
which should have been cut the proper size for this. Do
not use the gravy.
Pork anp Beaks.
Parboil a piece of the middling of salt pork, and score
ilie skin. Allow a pound to a quart of dried beans, which
must be soaked over night in lukewarm water. Change
this twice for more and warmer water, and in the morning
put them on to boil in cold. When they are soft, drain
off the liquor, put the beans in a deep dish, and half-bury
the pork in the middle, adding a very little warm water.
Bake a nice brown.
This is a &vorite dish with New England farmers and
many others. Although old-fashioned, it still makes its
weekly appearance upon the tables of hundreds of well-to-
do families.
Pork and Peas Pudding.
Soak the pork, which should not be a fat piece, over
night in cold water ; and in another pan a quart of dried
split peas. In the morning put on the peas to boil slowly
until tender. Drain and rub through a cullender ; season
with pepper and salt, and mix with them two tablespoon-
fuls of butter and two beaten eggs. Beat all well together.
Have ready a floured pudding-cloth, and put the pudding
into it. Tie it up, leaving room for swelling ; put on in
warm, not hot water, with the pork, and boil them together
an hour. Lay the pork in the centre of the dish, turn out
the pudding, slice and arrange about the meat.
?♦
154 COMMON 6KNBE.
Laying to your conduct tlie line and plummet of the
Golden Rule, never pay a viait (I use the word in contra-
distinction to «* call ") without notifying your hostess-elect
of your intention thus to favor her.
Perhaps once in ten thousand times, your friend — ^be
she mother, sister, or intimate acquaintance— may be en-
raptured at your unexpected appearance, travelling-satchel
in hand, at her door, to pass a day, a night, or a month ; or
may be pleasantly surprised when you take the baby, and
run in to tea in a social way. But the chances are so greatly
in favor of the probability that you will upset her house-
hold arrangements, abrade her temper, or put her to undue
trouble or embarrassment, by this evidence of your wish to
have her feel quite easy with you, to treat you as one of
the family, that it is hardly worth your while to risk so
much in order to gain so little.
Mrs. Partington has said more silly things than any
other woman of her age in this country ; but she spoke
wisely in declaring her preference for those surprise-parties
**when people sent word they were coming." Do not be
ashamed to say to your nearest of kin, or the confidante of
your school-days — " Always let me know when to look for
you, that I may so order my time and engagements as to
secure the greatest possible pleasure from your visit." If
you are the woman I take you to be — methodical, indus-
trious, and ruling your household according to just and
firm laws of order and punctuality, you need this notice.
If you are likewise social and hospitable, your rules are
made with reference to possible and desirable interruptions
of this nature. It only requires a little closer packing of
certain duties, an easy exchange of times and seasons, and
COMPANY. 165
leisure is obtained for the right enjoyment of your friend's
Bocietj. The additional -place is set at table ; jour spare
bed, which yesterday was tossed into a heap that both mat-
tresses might be aired, and covered lightly with a thin
spread, is made up with fresh sheets that have not gath-
ered damp and must from lying packed beneath blankets
and coverlets for may be a month, for fear somebody might
happen in to pass the night, and catch you with the bed in
disorder. Towels and water are ready ; the room is bright
and dustless ; the dainty dish so far prepared for dinner or
tea as to be like Mrs. Bagnet's greens, '' off your mind ; ''
John knows whom he is to see at his home-ooming ; the
cliildren are clean, and on the qui wvd— children's instincts
are always hospitable. The guest's welcome is half given in
the air of the house and the £unily group before you have
time to utter a word. It may have appeared to her a use-
less formality to despatch the note or telegram you insisted
upon. She knows you love her, and she would be wounded
by the thought that she could ever '^ come amiss " to your
home. Perhaps, as she lays aside her travelling-dress, she
smiles at your ^^ ceremonious, old-maidish ways," and mar-
vels that so good a manager should deem such forms neces-
sary with an old friend.
If she had driven to your house at night&U, to discover
that you had gone with husband and children to pass sev-
eral days with John's mother, in a town fifty miles away,
and that the servants were out ^* a -pleasuring " in the mis-
tress' absence ; if she had found you at home, nursing three
children through the measles, she having brought her
youngest with her ; if you were yourself the invalid, bound
hand and foot to a Procrustean couch, and utterly imable
even to see her — John, meanwhile, being incapacitated from
playing the part of agreeable host by worry and anxiety ;
if, on the day before her an*ival, your chambermaid had
156 COMMON SENSE.
gone off in a " tiff," leaving you to do her work and to
nurse your cook, sick in the third story ; if earlier comers
than herself had filled every spare mattress in the house ; —
if any one of these, or a dozen other ills to which house-
keepers are heirs, had impressed upon her the idea that her
visit was inopportune, she might think better of your
" punctilio."
- But since unlooked-for viidtors will occasionally drop
in upon the best-regulated families, make it your study to
receive them gracefully and cordially. If they care enough
for you to turn aside from their regular route to tarry a
day, or night, or week with you, it would be churlish not
to show appreciation of the favor in which you are held.
Make them welcome to the best you can offer at so short a
notice, and let no preoccupied air or troubled smile bear
token to your perturbation — if you are perturbed. If you
respect yourself and your husband, the appointments of
your table will never put you to the blush. John, who
buys the silver, glass, china, and napery, is entitled to the
every-day use of the best. You may have — I hope this is
so — a holiday set of each, put away beyond the I'each of
hourly accidents ; but if this is fit for the use of a lord,
do not make John eat three hundred and sixty days in the
year from such ware as would suit a ditcher's cottage. If
your children never see bright silver unless when " there
is company," you cannot wonder, although you will be
mortified, at their making looking-glasses of the bowls of
the spoons, and handling the forks awkwardly. Early im-
press upon them that what is nice enough for Papa, is nice
eiiough for the President. I have noticed that where there
is a wide difference between family and company table fur-
niture, there usually exists a corresponding disparity be-
tween every-day and company manners.
Especially, let your welcome bo ready and hearty when
5
COMPANY. 157
jour husband brings home an unexpected guest. Take
care he understands clearly that this is his prerogative ;
that the rules by which you would govern the" visits of
your own sex are not applicable to his. Men rarely set
seasons for their visits. They snatch an hour or two with
an old chum or new friend out of the hurry of business-
life, as one stoops to pluck a stray violet from a dusty
roadside. John must take his chances when he can get
them. If he can walk home, arm in arm, with the school-
fellow he has not seen before in ten years, not only fear-
lessly, but gladly, anticipatory of your pleasure at the
sight of his ; if, when the stranger is presented to you, you
receive him as your friend because he is your husband^s, and
seat him to a family dinner, plain, but nicely served, and
eaten in cheerfulness of heart; if the children are well-
behaved, and your attire that of a lady who has not lost
the desire to look her best in her husband^s eyes — you have
added to the links of steel that knit your husband's heart
to you ; increased his affectionate admiration for the best
little woman in the world. Many a man has been driven
to entertain his friends at hotels and club-rooms, because
he dared not take them home without permission from the
presiding officer of his household. The majority of healthy
men have good appetites, and are not disposed to be crit-
ical of an unpretending bill of fare. The chance guest of
this sex is generally an iigreeable addition to the family
group, instead of de trop — always supposing him to be
John's friend.
As to party and dinner-giving, your safest rule is to
obey the usage of the community in which you live in
minor points, letting common sense and your means guide
you in essentials. Be chary of undertaking what you can-
not carry through successfully. Pretention is the ruin of
more entei'tainments than ignorance or lack of money. If
158 COMMON SENSE.
you know how to give a large evening party (and think it
a pleasant and remunerative investment of time and sev-
eral hundred dollars) — ^if you understand the machinery
of a handsome dinner-party, and can afford these lux-
uries, go forward bravely to success. But creep before you
walk. Study established customs in the best managed
houses you visit ; take coimsel with experienced friends ;
now and then make modest essays on your own responsi-
bility, and, insensibly, these crumbs of wisdom will form
into a comely loaf. There is no surer de-appetizer — to coin
a word — ^to guests than a heated, over-&tigued, anxious
hostess, who betrays her inexperience by nervous glances,
abstraction in conversation, and, worst of all, by apologies.
A few general observations are all I purpose to offer as
hints of a foundation upon which to build your plans for
^' company-giving." Have an abundance of clean plates,
silver, knives, <&c., laid in order in a convenient place, —
such as an ante-room, or dining-room pantry, — ^those de-
signed for each course, if your entertainment is a dinner,
upon a shelf or stand by themselves, and make your wait-
ers understand distinctly in advance in what order these
are to be brought on.
Soup should be sent up accompanied only by bread, and
such sauce as may be fashionable or suitable. Before din-
ner is served, however, snatch a moment, if possible, to
inspect the table in person, or jnstruct a trustworthy £Ekc-
totum to see that everything is in place, the water in the
goblets, a slice of bread laid upon a folded napkin at each
plate, &c. Unless you have trained, professional waiters,
this is a wise precaution. If it is a gentleman's dinner,
you can see to it for yourself, since you wUl not be obliged
to appear in the parlor until a few minutes before they are
summoned to the dining-room. If there are ladies in the
company, you must not leave them.
COMPANY. 159
To return, then, to our soup : It is not customary to
offer a second plateful to a guest. When the table is
cleared, the £sh should come in, with potatoes — ^no other
vegetable, unless it be a salad or stewed tomatoes. Fish is
usually attended by pickles and sauces. After a thorough
change of plates, (be., come the substantials. Game and
other meats are often set on together, unless the dinner is
a very protracted and formal one. Various vegetables are
passed to each when he has been helped to meat. If wine
be used, it is introduced after the fish. Pastry is the first
relay of dessert, and puddings may be served from the
other end of the table. Kext appear creams, jellies, char-
lotte-russes, cakes, and the like ; then fruit and nuts ; lastly
coffee, often accompanied with crackers and cheese. Wi:ie,
of course, goes around during the dessert — ^if it flows at all.
Evening parties are less troublesome to a housekeeper,
because less ceremonious than dinners. If you can afford
it, the easiest way to give a large one is to put the whole
business into the hands of the profession, by intrusting
your order, not only for supper, but waiters and china, to a
competent confectioner. But a social standing supper of
oysters, chicken-salad, sandwiches, coffee, ice-cream, jellies,
and cake, is not a formidable undertaking when you have
had a little practice, especially if your own, or John's
mother, or the nice, neighborly matron over the way will
assist you by her advice and presence.
We make this matter of company too hard a business
in America ; are too apt to treat our friends as the Stras-
burgers do their geese ; shut them up in overheated quar-
ters, and stuff them to repletion. Our rooms would be
better for more air, our guests happier had they more
liberty, and our hostess would be prettier and more spright-
ly were she not overworked before the arrivals begin, and
full of trepidation after they come, — ^a woman cumbered
160 COHHON 8EN6E.
with many thoughts of serving, while she is supposed to be
enjoying the society of her chosen associates. It is so well
understood that company is a weariness, that inquiries as to
how the principal agent in bringing about an assembly has
" borne it," have passed into a custom. The tender sym-
pathies manifested in such queries, the martyr-like air with
which they are answered, cannot fail to bring to the satiri-
cal mind the Chinaman^s comment upon the British officers'
dancing on ship-board in warm weather.
" Why you no make your servants do so hard work,
and you look at dem ? "
We pervert the very name and meaning of hospitality
when we pinch our families, wear away our patience, and
waste away our nervous forces with our husbands' money,
in getting up to order expensive entertainments for com-
pai-ative strangers, whose utmost acknowledgment of our
efforts in their behalf will consist in an invitation, a year
hence it may be, to a party constructed on the same plan,
managed a little better or a little worse than oui*s. This
is not hospitality without grudging, but a vulgar system of
barter and gluttony more worthy of Abyssinians than
Christian gentlefolk.
VENISON.
I ONCE received a letter from the wife of an Eastern
man who had removed to the Great West, in which bitter
complaints were made of the scarcity of certain comforts —
ice-cream and candy among them — ^to which she had been
accustomed in other days. " My husband shot a fine deer
this morning," she wrote, ** but I never could endure ven-
zon. Can you tell me of any way of cooking it so as to
VENISON. 161
make it tolerably eatible ? " I did not think it very singu-
lar that one whose chief craving in the goodly land in which
she had found a home was for cocoanut cakes and choco-
late caramels, should not like the viand the name of which
she could not spell. Nor did I wonder that she failed to
make it '^ eatible,'' or doubt that her cooking matched her
orthography. But I am amazed often at hearing really
skilful housewives pronounce it an undesirable dish. In
the hope of in some measure correcting this impression
among Eastern cooks, who, it must be allowed, rarely taste
really fresh venison, I have written out, with great care and
particularity, the following receipts, most of which I have
used in my own family with success and satisftiction.
The dark color of the meat, — I mean now not the black,
but rich reddish-brown flesh, — so objectionable to the unin-
itiated, is to the gourmand one of its chief recommendations
to his favor. It should also be fine of grain and well
coated with fat.
Keep it hung up in a cool, dark cellar, covered with a
cloth, and use as soon as you can conveniently.
Haunch of Yenison. 4*
If the outside be hard, wash off with lukewarm water ;
then rub all over with fresh butter or lard. Cover it on
the top and sides with a thick paste of flour and water,
nearly half an inch thick. Lay upon this a large sheet of
thin white wrapping-paper well buttered, and above this
thick foolscap. Keep aU in place by greased pack-thread ;
then put down to roast with a little water in the dripping-
pan. Let the fire be steady and strong. Pour a few ladle-
fuls of butter and water over the meat now and then, to
prevent the paper from scorching. If the haunch is large,
it will take at least five hours to roast. About half an
hour before you take it up, remove the papers and paste.
162 COMMON SENSE.
and test with a skewer to see if it is done. If this passes
easily to the bone through the thickest part, set it down to
a more moderate fire and baste every few minutes with
claret wine and melted butter. At the last, btfste with but-
ter, dredge with flour to make a light froth, and dish. It
should be a fine brown by this time. Twist a frill of fiinged
paper around the knuckle.
For gravy, put into a saucepan a pound or so of sci*aps
of raw venison left from tiimming the haunch, a quart of
water, a pinch of cloves, a few blades of mace, half a nut-
meg, cayenne and salt to taste. Stew slowly to one-half the
original quantity. Skim, strain, and return to the sauce-
pan when you have rinsed it with hot water. Add three
tablespoonfuls of currant jelly, a glass of claret, two table-
spoonfuls of butter, and thicken with browned flour. Sead
to table in a tui^eeu.
Send around currant jelly with venison always.
Neck.
This is roasted precisely as is the haunch, allowing a
quarter of an hour to a pound.
Shoulder.
This is also a roasting-piece, but may be cooked without
the paste and paper. Baste often with butter and water,
and toward the last, with claret and butter. Do not let it
get dry for an instant.
To Stew a Shoulder.
Extract the bones through the under-side. Make a
stuffing of several slices of fat mutton, minced fine and
wasoned Bmartly with cayenne, salt, aUspice, and wine, and
fill the holes from which the bones were taken. Bind
firmly in shape with broad tape. Put in a large saucepan
VENISOK. 163
with a pint of gravy made from the refuse bits of venison,
add a glass of Madeira or port ^ine, and a little black pep-
per. Cover tightly and stew very slowly three or four
hours, according to the size. It should be very tender.
Kemove the tapes with care; dish, and when you have
strained the grav}'', pour over the meat.
This is a most savoiy dish.
Venison Steaks. 4*
These are taken from the neck or haunch. Have your
gridii'on well buttered, and fire clear and hot. Lay the
steaks on the bars and broil rapidly, turning often, not to
lose a drop of juice. They will take three or four minutes
longer to broil than beef>steaks. Have ready in a hot chafing-
dish a piece of butter the size of an e^ for each pound of
venison, a pinch of salt, a little pepper, a tablespoonful
currant-jelly for each pound, and a glass of wine for every
four pounds. This should be liquid, and warmed by the
boiling water under the dish by the time the steaks are done
to a turn. If you have no chafing-dish, heat in a saucepan.
Lay each steak in the mixture singly, and turn over twice.
Cover closely and let all heat together, with fresh hot water
beneath — unless your lamp is burning — ^for five minutes
before serving. If you serve in an ordinary dish, cover and
set in the oven for the same time.
Or,
If you wish a plainer dish, omit the wine and jelly ; pepper
and salt the steaks when broiled, and lay butter upon them
in the proportion I have stated, letting them stand between
two hot dishes five minutes before they go to table, turning
them three times in the gravy that nms from them to min-
gle with the melted butter. Delicious steaks con^spond-
ing in shape to mutton chops are cut from the loin and rack.
164 COMMON SENSE.
Venison Cutlets. 4*
Trim the cutlets nicely, and make gravy of the refuse
bits in the proportion of a cup of cold water to half a pound
of venison. Put in bones, scraps of fat, etc., and set on in
a saucepan to stew while you make ready the cutlets. Lard
with slips of fat salt pork a quarter of an inch apart, and
projecting slightly on either side. When the gravy has
stewed an hour, strain and let it cool. Lay the cutlets in a
saucepan, with a few pieces of young onion on each. Allow
one onion to four or five pounds. It should not be flavored
strongly with this. Scatter also a little minced parsley
and thyme between the layers of meat, with pepper, and a
very little gifted nutmeg. The pork lardoons will salt
sufficiently. When you have put in all your meat, pour in
the gravy, which should be warm — not hot. Stew steadily
twenty minutes, take up the cutlets and lay in a frying-pan
in which you have heated just enough butter to prevent
them from burning. Fry &Ye minutes very quickly, turn-
ing the cutlets over and over to brown, without drying
them. Lay in order in a chafing-dish, and have ready the
gravy to pour over them without delay. This should be
done by straining the liquor left in the saucepan and return-
ing to the fire, with the addition of a tablespoonful of cur-
rant jelly, a teaspoonful Worcestershire or other piquant
sauce, and half a glass of wine. Thicken with browned
flour, boil up well and pour over the cutlets. Let all stand
together in a hot dish five minutes before serving. Yenison
which is not fat or juicy enough for roasting makes a relish-
able dish cooked after this receipt.
Hashed Venison. 4*
The remains of cold roast venison — especially a stufled
shoulder — may be used for this dish, and will give great
VENISON. 165
satisfaction to cook and consumers. Slice' the meat from
the bones. Piit these with the fat and other scraps in a
saucepan, with a large teacupful of cold water, a small
onion — one of the button kind, minced, parsley and thyme,
pepper and salt, and three or four whole cloves. Stew for
an hour. Strain and return to the saucepan, with whatever
gravy was left from the roast, a tablespoonful currant jelly,
one of tomato or mushroom catsup, a teaspoonful of an-
chovy sauce, and a little browned flour. Boil for three
minutes ; lay in the venison, cut into slices about an inch
long, and let all heat over the fire for eight minutes, but do
not allow the hash to boil. Stir frequently, and when it is
smoking hot, turn into a deep covered dish.
Roast Fawn.
Clean, wash thoroughly; stuff with a good force-meat
made of bread-crumbs, chopped pork, pepper and salt, a little
grated nutmeg, the juice of a lemon. Moisten with water
and cream, bind with beaten egg and melted butter. Sew
up the fawn, turning the legs under, and binding close to
the body. Cover with thin slices of fat pork, bound on with
'pack-thread, crossing in every direction, and roast at a quick
fire. Allow twenty-two minutes to a pound. Twenty min-
utes before it is dished, remove the pork, and set down the
fawn to brown, basting with melted butter. At the last,
dredge with flour, let this brown, froth with butter, and
serve.
Garnish with abundance of curled parsley, dotted with
drops of red currant jelly. A kid can be roasted in the same
way — also hares and rabbits.
Yenison Pasty. ^
This is a name dear to the heart of the Englishman,
since the days when Friar Tuck feasted the disguised Coeur
166 COMMON SENSE.
de Lion npon it in the depths of Sherwood Forest, until
the present generation. In this country it is oomparatively
little known ; but I recommend it to those who have never
yet been able to make venison " tolerably eatable."
Almost any part of the deer can be used for the purpose,
but the neck and shoulders are generally preferred.
Cut the raw venison from the bones, and set aside these,
with the skin, fat, and refuse bits, for gitivy. Put them in-
to a saucepan with a shallot, pepper, salt, nutmeg and sweet
herbs, cover well with cold water, and set on to boil.
Meanwhile, cut the better and fairer pieces of meat into
squares an inch long, and cook in anotlier saucepan until
tliree-quarters done. line a deep dish with good puff-paste.
That for the lid should be made after the receipt appended
to this. Put in the squares of venison, season with pepper,
salt, aud butter, and put in half a cupful of the liquor in
which the meat was stewed, to keep it from burning at the
bottom. Cover with a lid of the prepared pastry an inch
thick. Cut a round hole in the middle, and if you have not
a small tin cylinder that will fit this, make one of buttered
pa2)er ; stiff writing-paper is best. The hole should be large
enough to admit your thumb. Bake steadily, covering the
top with a sheet of clean paper so soon as it is firm, to prevent
it from browning too fast. While it is cooking prepare the
gravy. When all the substance has been extracted from the
bones, etc., strain the liquor back into the saucepan ; let it
come to a boil, and when you have skimmed carefully, add
a glass of port wine, a tablespoonful of butter, the juice of
a lemon, and some browned flour to thicken. Boil up once,
remove the plug from the hole in the pastry, and pour in
through a small funnel, or a paper horn, as muck gravy as
the pie will hold. Do this very quickly ; brush the crust
over with beaten egg, and put back in the oven until it is
a delicate brown, or rather, a golden russet. The pie should
VENISON. 167
only be drawn to the door of the oven for these operations,
and everything should be in readiness before it is taken
out, that the crust may be light and flaky. If you have
more gravy than you need for the dish, serve in a tureen.
Crust op Pasty.
H lb. of flour.
12 oz. butter.
3 eggs.
Salt.
Ice-water.
Dry and sift the flour and cut up half the butter in it with
a knife or diopper until the whole is flne and yeUow ; salt,
and work up with ice-water, lastly adding the eggs beaten
very light. Work out rapidly, handling as little as pos-
sible, roll out three times very thin, basting with butter,
then into a lid nearly an inch thick, reserving a thin-
ner one for ornaments. Having covered in your pie, cut
from the second sheet with a cake-cutter, leaves, flowers,
stars, or any figures you like to adorn the top of your crust.
Bake the handsomest one iipon a tin plate by itself and
brush it over with egg when you glaze the pie. After the
pasty is baked, cover the hole in the centre with this.
If thesQ directions be closely followed the pasty will be
delicious. Bake two or three hours, guiding yourself by
the size of the pie. It is good hot or cold.
Venisok Ham.
These are eaten raw, and will not keep so long as other
smoked meats.
Mix together in equal proportions, salt and brown
sugar, and rub them hard into the hams with your hand.
Pack them in a cask, sprinkling dry salt between them,
168 COMMON SENSE.
and let them lie eight days, rubbing them over every day
with dry salt and sugar. Next mix equal parts of fine salt^
molasses, and a teaspoonful of saltpetre to every two hams.
Take the hams out of the pickle, go over them with a brush
dipped in cider vinegar, then in the new mixture. Empty
the cask, wash it out with cold water, and repack the hams,
dripping from the sticky bath, scattering fine salt over each.
Let them He eight days longer in this. Wash off the pickle
first with tepid water, until the salt crystals are removed ;
then sponge with vinegar, powder them with bran while
wet, and smoke a fortnight, or, if large, three weeks. Wrap
in brown pap^* that has no unpleasant odor, stitch a muslin
cover over this, and whitewash, unless you mean to use at
once. Chip or shave for the table.
Venison Sausages.
5 lbs. lean venison.
2 <^ fat salt pork.
5 teaspoonfuls powdered sage.
4 '' salt.
4 " black pepper.
2 " cayenne.
1 small onion.
Juice of one lemon.
Chop the meat very small, season, and pack in skins or
small stone jai*s. Hang the skins, and set the jars, tied
down with bladders, in a cool, dry place.
Fry as you do other sausages.
RABBITS OR HARES.
The tame rabbit is rarely if ever eaten. The wild hai'e
of the South — in vulgar parlance, " old hare," although the
creature may be but a day old — exactly corresponds with
BABBITS OB nABKS. 169
the rabbit of the Northern fields, and when fat and tender,
may be made into a variety of excellent dishes.
Hares are unfit for eating in the early spring. There is
thus much significance in *^ Mad as a March hare." The
real English hare is a much larger animal than that which
is known in this country by this name. To speak correctly,
all our " old field hares " are wild rabbits.
Roast Rabbit.
Clean, wash, and soak in water slightly salted for an
hour and a half, changing it once during this time. It is
best to make your butcher or hired man skin it before
you undertake to handle it. Afterward, the task is easy
enough. Parboil the heart and liver, chop fine, and mix
with a slice of fat pork, also minced. Make a force-meat
of bread-crumbs, well seasoned and quite moist, using the
water in which the giblets were boiled, and working in the
minced meat. Stuff the body with this, and sew it up.
Rub with butter and roast, basting with butter and water
until the gra^'y flows freely, then with the dripping. It
should be done in an hour. Dredge with flour a few min-
utes before taking it up, then froth with butter. Lay in a
hot dish, add to the gravy a little lemon-juice, a young
onion minced, a tablespoonful of butter, and thicken with
browned flour. Give it a boil up, and serve in a tureen or
boat.
Garnish the rabbit with sliced lemon, and put a dot of
currant jelly in the centre of each slice. Cut off the head
before sending to table.
Rabbits Stewed with Onions.
Clean a pair of nice rabbits ; soak in cold salt and water
for an hour, to draw out the blood ; put on in a large sauce-
8
170 COMMON SENSE.
pan with cold water enough to cover them, salt slightly,
and stew until tender. Slice in another pot half a dozen
onions, and boil in a very little water until thoroughly done.
Drain oflF the water, and stir the onions into a gill of drawn
butter, pepper to taste, and when it simmers, add tlie juice
of a lemon. Cat off the heads of the hares, lay in a hot
dish and pour over them the onion-sauce. Let the dish
stand in a warm place, closely covered, five minutes before
sending to table.
Fricasseed Babbit ( White), t^t
Clean two young rabbits, cut into joints, and soak in
salt and water an hour. Put into a saucepan with a pint
of cold water, a bunch of sweet herbs, an onion finely
minced, a pinch of mace, one of nutmeg, pepper, and half a
pound of fat salt pork, cut into slips. Cover, and stew
until tender. Take out the rabbits and set in a dish where
they will keep warm. Add to the gravy a cup of cream (or
milk), two well-beaten eggs stirred in a little at a time, and
a tablespoonful of butter. Boil up once — ^when you have
thickened with flour wet in cold milk — ^and take the saucepan
from the fire. Squeeze in the juice of a lemon, stirring all
the while, and pour over the rabbits. Do not cook the head
or neck.
Fricasseed Babbit {Brown),
Cut off the head, — joint, and lay in soak for an hour.
Season the pieces with pepper and salt, dredge with flour,
and fry in butter or nice dripping until brown. Take from
the fat, lay in a saucepan, and cover with broth made of
bits of veal or lamb. Add a minced onion, a great spoonful
of walnut catsup, a bunch of sweet herbs, a pinch of cloves
and one of allspice, half a teaspoonful of cayenne. Cover
closely, and simmer for half an hour. Lay the pieces of
BABBITS OB HABBS. 171
bare in order upon a hot dish and cover to keep warm.
. Strain the gravy, return to the saucepan, thicken with
browned flour, put in a tablespoonful of butter, squeeze in
the juice of a lemon, pour over the rabbits, and send to
table.
Labded Rabbit.
Cut off the head and divide the body into joints. Lard
with slips of fat pork ; put into a clean hot frying-pan and
fry until half done. Have ready some strained gravy made
of veal or beef — ^the first is better ; put the pieces of rabbit
into a saucepan, with a bunch of sweet herbs, a minced onion,
and some pepper. Stew^ closely covered, half an hour, or
until tender : take out the rabbits and lav in a hot covered
dish. Strain the gravy, add a tablespoonful of butter, the
juice of a lemon, and thicken with flour. Boil up and pour
over the meat.
Fried Rabbit.
They must be very tender for this purpose. Cut into
joints ; soak for an hour in salt and water ; dip in beaten
egg, then in powdered cracker, and fry brown in nice sweet
lard or dripping. Serve with onion sauce. Garnish with
sliced lemon.
Barbecued Rabbit, tj^
Clean and wash the rabbit, which must be plump and
young, and having opened it all the way on the under-side,
lay it flat, with a small plate or saucer to keep it down, in
salted water for half an hour. Wipe dry and broil whole,
with the exception of the head, when you have gashed
across the back-bone in eight or ten places that the heat
may penetrate this, the thickest part. Tour fire should be
hot and clear, the rabbit turned often. When browned and
tender, lay upon a very hot dish, pepper and salt and butter
profusely, turning the rabbit over and over to soak up the
172 COMMON SENSE.
melted butter. Cover and set in the oven for five mintites,
and heat in a tin cup two tablespoonfuls of vinegar season-
ed with one of made mustard. Anoint the hot rabbit well
with this, cover and send to table garnished with crisped
parsley.
The odor of this barbecue is most appetizing, and the
taste not a whit inferior.
Babbit Pie.
Cut a pair of rabbits into eight pieces each, soak in salt-
ed water half an hour, and stew until half done in enough
water to cover them. Cut a quarter of a pound of fat pork
into slips, and boil four eggs hard. Lay some bits of pork
in the bottom of a deep dish and upon these a layer of the
rabbit. Upon this spread slices of boiled egg, peppered and
buttered. Sprinkle, moreover, with a little powdered mace,
and squeeze a few drops of lemon-juice upon each piece of
meat. Proceed in this order until the dish is full, the top
layer being pork. Pour in the water in which the rabbit
was boiled, when you have salted it and added some lumps
of butter rolled in flour. Cover with puff-paste, cut a slit
in the middle, and bake one hour, laying paper over the top
should it brown too fast.
SQUIRRELS.
The large gray squirrel is seldom eaten at the North,
but in great request in Virginia and other Southern States.
It is generally barbecued, precisely as are rabbits ; broiled,
Mcasseed, or — ^most popular of all — made into a Brunswick
stew. This is named from Brunswick County, Virginia, and
is a famous dish-— or was — at the political and social pic-nics
known as barbecues. I am happy to be able to give a re-
ceipt for this stew that is genuine and explicit, and for
which I am indebted to a Virginia housekeeper.
BQTJIBBEL8. 173
Brunswick Stew. 4*
2 sqxiirrels— 3, if small.
1 quart of tomatoes — peeled and sliced.
1 pint butter-beans, or Lima.
6 potatoes, parboiled and sliced.
6 ears of green com cut from the cob.
•J- lb. butter.
•}- '^ fat salt pork.
1 teaspoonful ground black pepper.
Half a teaspoonful cayenne.
1 gallon water.
1 tablespoonfiil salt.
2 teaspoonfuls wbite sugar.
1 onion, minced small.
Put on the water with the salt in it, and boil five min-
utes. Put in the onion, beans, com, pork or bacon cut
into shreds, potatoes, pepper, and the squirrels, which must
first be cut into joints and laid in cold salt and water to
draw out the blood. Cover closely and stew two and a
half hours very slowly, stirring frequently from the bot-
tom. Then add the tomatoes and sugar, and stew an hour
longer. Ten minutes before you take it from the fire add
the butter, cut into bits the size of a walnut, rolled in
flour. Give a final boil, taste to see that it is seasoned to
your liking, and turn into a soup-tureon. It is eaten from
soup-plates. Chickens may be substituted for squirrels.
•
BjiOOtT OF Squibrels.
Skin, clean, and quarter a pair of fine young squirrels,
and soak in salt and water to draw out the blood. Slice a
tolerably large onion and fry brown in a tablespoonful of
butter. Stir into the frying-pan five tablespoonfuls of boil-
ing water, and thicken with two teaspoonfuls of browned
174 OOMMOK 8ENBE.
flour. Put the squirrels into a saucepan, with a quarter
of a pouncL of bacon cut into slips ; season with pepper and
bait to taste, add the onions and their gravy, and half a
cupful of tepid water. Cover and stew for forty minutes,
or until tender ; pour in a glass of wine and the juice of
half a lemon, shake around well, and turn into a deep cov-
ered dish.
Broiled Squirrels.
Clean and soak to draw out the blood. Wipe dry and
broil over a hot, clear fire, turning often. When done, lay
in a hot dish and anoint with melted butter, seasoned with
pepper and salt. Use at least a tablespoonful for each
squirrel, and let it lie between two hot dishes five minutes
before sending -to table.
PHEASANTS, PARTRIDGES, QUAILS, GROUSE,
ETC.
The real pheasant is never sold in American markets.
The bird known as such at the South is called a partridge
at the North, and is, properly speaking, the ruffled grouse.
The Northern quail is the English and Southern partridge.
The wild fowls brought by the hundred dozen from the Far
West to Eastern cities, and generally styled prairie-fowls,
are a species of grouse. The mode of cooking all these is
substantially the same.
Roast.
Clean, truss, and stuff as you do chickens ; roast at a
hot fire, and baste with butter and water until brown ;
sprinkle with salt, dredge lightly at the last with flour to
froth the birds, and serve hot. Thicken the gravy with
browned flour, boil up, and serve in a boat. Wash the in-
side of all game — prairie-fowls in particular — ^with soda and
water, rinsing out carefully afterward with fair water.
PHEASANTS, PAETKIDGES, QUAILS, ETC. 175
Broiled.
Clean, wash, and split down the back. Lay in cold
water half an hour. Wipe carefully, season with salt and
pepper, and broil on a gridiron over a bright fire. When
done, lay in a hot di&h, butter on both sides well, and serve
at once.
Broiled quails are delicious and nourishing fare for in-
valids.
Grouse roasted with Bacon. 4^
Clean, truss, and stuff as usual. Cover the entire bird
with thin slices of corned ham or pork, binding all with
buttered pack-thread. Koast three-quarters of an hour,
basting with butter and water three times, then with the
dripping. When quite done, dish with the ham laid about
the body of the bird. Skim the gravy, thicken with
browned flour, season with pepper and the juice of a lemon.
Boil up once.
Quails roasted with BEam. >j^
Proceed as with the grouse, but cover the ham or pork
with a sheet of white paper, having secured the slices of
meat with pack-thread. Stitch the papers on, and keep
them well basted with butter and water, that they may not
bum. Boast three-quarters of an hour, if the ^q is good.
Bemove the papers and meat before sending to table, and
brown quickly. This is the nicest way of cooking quails.
Salmi of Game.
Cut cold roast partridges, grouse, or quaUs into joints,
and lay aside while you prepare the gravy. This is made
of the bones, dressing, skin, and general odds and ends,
after you have selected the neatest pieces of the birds. Put
these — the scraps — into a saucepan, with one small onion.
176 OOMHOK BEN8E.
minced, and a bunch of sweet herbs; pour in a pint of
water, and whatever gravy you may have, and stew, close-
ly covered, for nearly an hour. A few bits of pork should
be added if you have no gravy. Skim and straiii, retui*n
to the filre, and add a little brown sherry and lemon-juice,
with a pinch of nutmeg ; thicken with brown flour, if the
stuffing has not thickened it sufficiently, boil up, and pour
over the reserved meat, which should be put into another
saucepan. Warm until all is smoking-hot, but do not let
it boil. Arrange the pieces of bird in a symmetrical heap
upon a dish, and pour the gravy over them.
Game Pie — {Vert/Jine).
This may be made of any of the birds named in the
foregoing receipts. Grouse and quails together make a de-
lightful Chiistmas pie. Clean and wash the birds ; cut the
quails in half, the grouse into four pieces. Trim off bits
of the inferior portions, necks, lower ribs, etc., and put
them with the giblets into a saucepan, with a pint and a
half of water, if your pie requires six birds. While this is
stewing make a good puff-paste and line a large pudding-
dish, reserving enough for a lid at least half an inch thick.
When the livers are tender, take them out, leaving the
gravy to stew in the covered saucepan. Lard the breasts
of the birds with tiny strips of salt pork, and mince a cou-
ple of slices of the same with the livers, a bunch of parsley,
sweet marjoram, and thyme, also chopped fine, the juice
of a lemon, pepper, and a very small shallot. Make a force-
meat of this, with bread-crumbs moistened with warm
milk. Put some thin strips of cold corned (not smoked)
ham in the bottom of the pie, next to the crust ; lay upon
these pieces of the bird, peppered and buttered, then a layer
of the force-meat, and so on, until you are ready for the
gravy. Strain this, return to the fire, and season with
PHEASANTS, PAETBIDGES, QUAILS, ETC. 177
pepper and a glass of wine. Heat to a boil, pour into the
pie, and cover with the upper crust, cutting a slit in the
middle. Ornament with pastry leaves, arranged in a
wreath about the edge, and in the middle a pastry bird,
with curled strips of pastry about it. These last should be
baked separately and laid on when the pie is done, to cover
the hole in the middle.
Bake three hours if your pie is large, covering with pa-
per if it threaten to brown too fast.
Quail Pie.
Clean, truss, and stuff the birds. Loosen the joints with
a penknife, but do not separate them. Parboil them for
ten minutes, while you prepare a puff-paste. Line a deep
dish with this ; put in the bottom some shreds of salt pork
or ham ; next, a layer of hard-boiled eggs, buttered and
peppered; then the birds, sprinkled with pepper and
minced parsley. Squeeze some lemon-juice upon them, and
lay upon the breasts pieces of butter rolled in flour. Cover
with slices of egg, then with shred ham ; pour in some of
the gravy in which the quails were parboiled, and put on
the lid, leaving a hole in the middle. Bake over an hour.
Wild Pioeonb (Stewed), t^*
Clean and wash very carefully, then lay in salt and wa-
ter for an hour. Binse the inside with soda and water,
shaking it well about in the cavity ; wash out with fair
water and stuff with a force-meat made of bread-crumbs and
chopped salt pork, seasoned with pepper. Sew up the birds,
and put on to stew in enough cold water to cover them,
and allow to each a fair slice of fat bacon cut into narrow
strips. Season with pepper and a pinch of nutmeg. Boil
slowly in a covered saucepan until tender ; take from the
gi avy and lay in a covered dish to keep warm. Strain the
8*
178 COMMON SENSE.
gravy, axld the juice of a lemon and a tablespoonful of cur-
rant jelly, thickening with browned flour. Boil up and
pour over the pigeons.
WiLD-PiGEON Pie. >j^
This is made precisely as is quail pie, except that the
pigeons are cut into four pieces each, and not stutFed. Far-
boil and lay in the dish in alternate layers with the bacon
and boiled eggs. Make the gravy richer than for the quails,
by the addition of a good lump of butter, rolled in flour,
stirred in and boiled up to thicken before you put it on
the fire. Wild pigeons are usually tougher and leaner than
tame.
WILD DUCKS.
Nearly all wild ducks are liable to have a fishy flavor,
and when handled by inexpeiienced cooks, are sometimes
uneatable from this cause. Before roasting them, guard
against this by parboiling them with a small carrot, peeled,
put within each. This will absorb the unpleasant taste. An
onion will have the same effect ; but, unless you mean to
use onion in the stuffing, the carrot is preferable. In my
own kitchen I usually put in the onion, considering a sus-
picion of garlic a desideratum in roast duck, whether wild
or tame.
Boast Duck (Wild),
Parboil as above directed ; throw away the carrot or
onion, lay in fresh water half an hour ; stuff with bread-
ciTimbs seasoned with pepper, salt, sage, and onion, and
roast until brown and tender, basting for half the time with
butter and water, then with the drippings. Add to the
gravy, when you have taken up the ducks, a tablespoonful
of currant jelly, and a pinch of cayenne. Thicken with
browned flour and serve in a tureen.
WILD DUCKS — WILD TUEKEY. 179
Wild Ducks {Stewed), 4^
Parboil ten minutes, when you have drawn them^ and
put in a raw carrot or onion. Lay in very cold water half
an hour. Cut into joints, pepper, salt, and flour them.
Have ready some butter in a frying-pan, and fry them a
light brown. Put them in asaucepsinand cover with gravy
made of the giblets, necks, and some bits of lean veal. Add
a minced shallot, a bunch of sweet herbs, salt, and pepper.
Cover closely and stew half an hour, or until tender. Take
out the duck, strain the gravy when you have skimmed it ;
put in a half-eup of cream or lich milk in which an egg has
been beaten, thicken with browned flour, add a tablespoon-
ftd of wine and the juice of half a lemon, beaten in gradual-
ly not to curdle the cream ; boil up and pour over the ducks.
This is about the bedt way of cooking wild ducks.
WILD TURKEY.
This stately stalker of Southern forests and Western
praiiies is eagerly sought after by the lovers of good eating
in those regions. The dark meat and game flavor proclaim
his birthright of lordly freedom as truly after he is slain
and cooked, as did his lithe grace of figure, lofty carriage,
and bright eye while he trod his native wilds. I have heard
sportsmen declare that when they have inveigled him up to a
blind by imitating the call of his harem or younglings, they
have stood in covert, gun at shoulder and finger on the
trigger, spell-bound by pitying admiration of his beauty.
But I have never seen that sensibility curbed appetite while
they told the story at the table adorned by the royal bird ;
have noted, indeed, that their mouths watered rather than
their eyes, as he crumbled, like a dissolving view, under the
blade of the carver.
Draw and wash the inside very carefully, as with all
i
180 (X)MMON BENSE.
game. Domestic fowls are, or should be, kept up without
eating for at least twelve hours before thej' are killed ; but
we must shoot wild when we can get the chance, and of
course it often happens that their crops are distended by a
recent hearty meal of rank or green food. Wipe the cavity
with a dry soft cloth before you stuff. Have a rich force-
meat, bread-crumbs, some bits of fat pork, chopped fine,
I)epper, and salt. Moisten with milk, and beat in an egg
and a couple of tablespoonfuls of melted butter. Baste with
butter and water for the first hour, then three or four times
with the gravy; lastly, five or six times with melted butter. A
generous and able housekeeper told me once that she al-
ways allowed a pound of butter for basting a large wild
turkey. This was an extravagant quantity, but the meat
is diier than that of the domestic fowl, and not nearly so
fat. Dredge with flour at the last, froth with butter, and
when he is of a tempting brown, serve. Skim the gravy,
add a little hot water, pepper, thicken with the giblets chop-
ped fine and browned flour, boil up, and pour into a tureen.
At the South the giblets are not put in the gravy, but laid
whole, one under each wing, when the turkey is dished.
Garnish with small fried sausages, not larger than a dollar,
crisped parsley between them.
Send around currant jelly and cranberry sauce with it.
SMALL BIRDS.
Roast Snipe or Plovers,
Clean and truss, but do not stuff. Lay in rows in the
dripping-pan, or tie upon a spit, sprinkle with salt, and baste
well with butter, then with butter and water. When they
begin to brown, which will be in about ten minutes, cut as
many rounds of bread (without crust) as there are birds.
Toast quickly, butter, and lay in the dripping-pan, a bird
SMALL BISDS. 181
upon each. When the birds are done, serve upon the toast,
-with the gravy poured over it. The toast should lie under
them while cooking at least five minutes, during which time
the birds should be basted with melted butter seasoned
with pepper.
The largest snipe will not requii*e above twenty minutes
to roast.
Woodcock.
This is the most delicious of small birds, and may be
either roasted or broiled.
HoasL
The English do not draw woodcock, regarding the trail
as a borme bauchcy and I have known American house-
keepers who copied them in this respect. In this case,
roast precisely as you would snipe or plover, only putting
the toast under the birds so soon as they begin to cook,
to catch the trail.
To my taste, a better, and certainly to common sense
people a less objectionable plan, is to fill the birds with a
rich force-meat of bread-crumbs, peppered and salted, mois-
tened with cream until it is very soft, and shortened with
melted butter. Sew them up and roast, basting with butter
and water, from twenty minutes to half an hour. When
half done, put circular slices of buttered toast beneath,
and serve upon these when you take them up.
broiled.
Split down the back, and broil over a clear fire. Butter,
pepper, and salt when done, and let them lie between two
hot dishes for five minutes before sending to table. Small
snipe are nice broiled in this way ; also robins and doves.
182 OOMMON 8E1T8E.
Salmi of Woodcock oe Snipe.
Clean and half-roast the birds ; cut in quarters, and put
in a saucepan with gravy made of the giblets, necks, and
some bits of fat pork, stewed in a little water. Add a
minced button onion, salt, and a pinch of cayenne, and stew
fifteen minutes or until tender, closely covered. Take out
the birds, and pile neatly upon buttered toast in a chafing-
dish. Strain the gravy and return to the fire, adding some
small pieces of butter rolled in fiour, the juice of a lemon,
and a little wine. Boil up, and pour over the salmi.
Ortolans, Reed-Birds, Bail, and Sora
may be roasted or broiled. A good way is to roll an oyster
in melted butter, then in bread-crumbs seasoned with pep-
per and salt, and put into each bird before roasting. Baste
with butter and water three times, put the rounds of toast
underneath, and baste freely with melted butter. They
will require about twelve minutes to cook, and will be
found delicious.
To Keep Game prom Tainting.
Draw so soon as they come into joxir possession ; rinse
with soda and water, then with pure cold water ; wipe dry,
and rub them Hghtly with a mixture of fine salt and black
pepper. If you must keep them some time, put in the
cavity of each fowl a piece of charcoal ; hang them in a
cool, dark place, with a cloth thrown over them. Small
birds, unless there are too many of them, may be kept in
a refrigerator after you have drawn, washed, and wiped
them.
The charcoal is an admirable preventive of decompo-
sition.
BAU0E8 FOB MSAT AND FIBH. 188
SAUCES FOR MEAT AND FISH.
These are no longer tlie appendages of the rich man's
bill of fare only. A general knowledge of made sauces,
as well as the more expensive ones imported from abroad
and sold here at high prices, is a part of every intelligent
housekeeper's culinary education. Few are so ignorant as
to serve a fish sauce with game, or vice verad. From the
immense number of receipts which I have collected and
examined, I have selected comparatively few but such as
I consider ^^ representative " articles. The ingenious house-
wife is at liberty, as I have said before, elsewhere, to modify
and improve upon them.
First, par exceUencey as the most important, and because
it is the groundwork of many others, 1 place
Melted or Drawn Butter.
No. 1.
2 teaspoonfuls flour.
1^ ounce butter.
1 teacupful water or milk.
A little salt.
Put the flour and salt in a bowl, and add a little at a
time of the water or milk, working it very smooth as you
go on. Put into a tin cup or saucepan, and set in a vessel
of boiling water. As it warms, stir, and when it has boiled
a minute or more, add the butter by degrees, stirring all
the time until it is entirely melted and incorporated with
the flour and water. Boil one minute.
Mix with milk when you wish to use for puddings ;
with water for meats and fish.
184 OOMMOK SEK8B.
No. 2.
1 J teaspoonful of flour.
2 ounces butter.
1 teacupful (small) hot water.
Wet the flour to a thin smooth paste with cold water^
and stir into the hot, which should be in the inner vessel.
When it boils, add the butter by degrees, and stir until
w^ll mixed. Boil one minute.
No. 3.
3 ounces butter.
Half-pint water (hot).
A beaten egg.
1 heaping teaspoonful flour.
Wet the flour to a smooth paste with a little cold milk,
and add to the hot water in the inner vessel, stirring until
thick. Have ready the beaten egg in a cup. Take a tea-
spoonful of the mixture from the fire, and beat with this
until Ught ; then another, and still another. Set aside the
cup when this is done, and stir the butter into the con-
tents of the inner saucepan gradually, until thoroughly
mixed, then add the beaten egg in the same way. There is
no danger of clotting the egg, if it be treated as I have
described.
Ego Sauce. ^
3 hard-boiled eggs.
A good teacupful drawn butter.
A little salt.
Chop the yolks only of the eggs very fine, and beat
into the hot drawn butter, salting to taste.
This is used for boiled fowls and boiled fish. For the
former, you can add some minced parsley ; for the latter,
SAUCES FOB MEAT AND EIBH. 185
chopped pickles, capers, or nasturtium seed. For boiled
beef, a small shallot minced fine.
Or,
Omit the boiled eggs, and beat up two raw ones very light
and put into the drawn butter instead, as directed in No. 3.
For boiled beef or chicken, you may make the drawn but-
ter of hot liquor taken from the pot in which the meat is
cooking, having first carefully skimmed it.
Sauce fob Boiled or Baked Fish.
4 ounces butter.
1 tablespoonful flour.
2 anchovies.
1 teaspoonful chopped capers, or nasturtium seed,
or green pickle.
1 shallot.
Pepper and salt to taste.
1 tablespoonful vinegar.
1 teacupful hot water.
Put the water into the inner saucepan, chop the an-
chovies and shallot, and put in with the pepper and salt.
Boil two minutes, and strain back into the saucepan when
you havO' rinsed with hot water. Now add the flour wet
smooth with cold water, and stir iintil it thickens ; put in
the butter by degrees, and, when it is thoroughly melted
and mixed, the vinegar ; lastly, the capers and a Uttle nut-
meg.
White Sauce for Fish, t^
Make drawn butter by receipt No. 2, but with double
the quantity of flour, and use, instead of water, the liquor
in which the fish was boiled. Add four tablespoonfuls of
milk, in which a shallot and a head of celery or a pinch of
186 COMMON 6ENBE.
celery seed has been boiled, then strained out. Boil one
minute, and stir in a teaspoonful of chopped parsley.
Oybteb Sauce. 4^
1 pint oysters.
Half a lemon.
2 tablespoonfuls butter.
1 teaspoonful flour.
1 teacupful milk or cream.
Cayenne and nutmeg to taste.
Stew the oysters in their own liquor Ave minutes, and
add the milk. When this boils, strain the liquor and re-
turn to the saucepan. Thicken with the flour when you
have wet it with cold water ; stir well in ; put in the but-
ter, next the cayenne (if you like it), boil one minute ;
squeeze in the lemon-juice, shake it around well, and pour
out.
Or,
Orain the oysters dry without cooking at all ; make the
sauce with the liquor and other ingredients just named.
Chop the raw oysters, and stir in when you do the butter ;
boil five minutes, and pour into the tureen. Some put in
the oysters whole, considering that the sauce is handsomer
than when they are chopped.
Oyster sauce is used for boiled halibut, cod, and other
fish, for boiled turkey, chickens, and white meats generally.
Crab Sauce.
1 crab, boiled and cold.
4 tablespoonfuls of milk.
1 teacupful drawn butter.
Cayenne,. mace, and salt to taste.
SAUCBS FOB MEAT AND FISH. 187
Make the drawn butter as usual, and stir in the milk.
Pick the meat fix>m the crab, chop very fine, season with
cayenne, mace, and salt to taste ; stir into the drawn but-
ter. Simmer three minutes, but do not boil.
Lobster sauce is very nice made as above, with the ad-
dition of a teaspoonful of made mustard and the juice of
half a lemon. This is a good fish sauce.
Anchovy Saucb.
6 anchovies.
A teacupful drawn butter.
A wine-glass pale sherry.
Soak the anchovies in cold water two hours ; pull them
to pieces, and simmer in just enough water to cover them
for half an hour. Strain the liquor into the drawn butter
(No. 3), boil a minute, add the wine ; heat gradually to a
boil, and stew five minutes longer.
Serve with boiled fish.
Sauce fob Lobstebs.
5 tablespoonfuls fresh butter.
Teacupful vinegar.
Salt and pepper to taste, with a heaping tea
spoonful white sugar.
1 teaspoonful made mustard.
Minced parsley.
Beat the butter to a cream, adding gradually the vine-
gar, salt, and pepper. Boil a bunch of parsley five minutes,
chop small; beat into the butter; lastly the sugar and
mustard. The butter must be light as whipped egg.
188 COMMON SENSE.
Bread Sauce.
1 pint milk.
1 cup bread-crumbs (very fine).
1 onion, sliced.
A pinch of mace.
Pepper and salt to taste.
3 tablespoonfuls butter.
Simmer tbe sliced onion in the milk until tender ; strain
the milk and pour over the bread-crumbs, which should be
put into a saucepan. Cover and soak half an hour ; beat
smooth with an egg-whip, add the seasoning and butter ;
stir in well, boil up once, and serve in a tureen. If it is
too thick, add boiling water and more butter.
This sauce is for roast poultry. Some people add some
of the gravy from the dripping-pan, first straining it and
beating it well in with the sauce.
White Celery Sauce.
2 large heads of celery.
1 teacupful of broth in which the fowl is boiled.
1 ^^ ci*eam or milk.
Salt and nutmeg.
Heaping tablespoonful flour, and same of butter.
Boil the celery tender in salted water ; drain, and cut
into bits half an inch long. Thicken the gravy from the
fowl — a teacupful — with the flour ; add the butter, salt, and
nutmeg, then the milk. Stir and beat until it is smooth ;
put in the celery ; heat almost to boiling, stirring all tho
while ; serve in a tureen, or, if you prefer, pour it over the
boiled meat or fowls.
SAUCES FOS. MEAT AND FISH. 189
Onion Sauce.
4 white onions.
1 teacupful hot milk.
3 tablespoonfuls butter.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Peel the onions, boil tender, press the water from
them, and mince fine. Have ready the hot milk in a sauce-
pan ; stir in the onions, then the butter, salt, and pepper.
Boil up once.
If you want to have it particularly good, make nice
melted or drawn butter (No. 3) ; beat the mashed onion
into it; add a teacupful of cream or new milk; season,
boil up, and serve.
MaItre d'H6tel Sauce. >j^
1 teacupful drawn butter.
1 teaspoonful minced parsley.
1 lemon.
Cayenne and salt to taste.
Draw the butter (No. 2) ; boil the parsley three min-
utes ; take it out and lay in cold water five minutes, to
cool ; chop and stir into the butter ; squeeze in the lemon-
juice, the pepper and salt; beat hard with an egg-whip,
return to the fire, and boil up once.
This is a *' stock '^ sauce, being suitable for so many
dishes, roast or boiled.
Mint Sauce for Roast Lamb.
2 tablespoonfuls green mint, chopped fine.
1 tablespoonful powdered sugar.
Half a teacupful cider vinegar.
190 COMMON SENSE.
Chop the mint, put the sugar and vinegar in a sauoe-
boat, and stir in the mint. Let it stand in a cool place
fifteen minutes before sending to table.
MusHBOOM Sauce.
1 teacupful yoimg mushrooms.
4 tablespponfuls butter.
1 teacupful cream or milk.
1 teaspoonful flour.
Nutmeg, mace, and salt to taste.
Stew the mushrooms in barely enough water to cover
them until tender. Drain, but do not press them, and add
the cream, butter, and seasonuig. Stew over a bright fire,
stirring all the while until it begins to thicken. Add the
flour wet in cold milk, boil up and serve in a boat, or pour
over boiled chickens, rabbits, etc.
Caulifloweb Sauce
1 small cauliflower.
3 tablespoonfuls butter, cut in bits, and rolled in
flour.
1 onion.
1 small head of celery.
Mace, pepper, and salt.
1 teacupful water.
1 teacupful milk or cream.
Boil the cauliflower in two waters, changing when about
half done, and throwing away the first, reserve a teacupful
of the last. Take out the cauliflower, drain and mince.
Cook in another saucepan the onion and celery, mincing
them when tender. Heat the reserved cupful of water
again in a saucepan, add the milk ; when warm put in the
SAUCES FOB MEAT AND FISH. 191
cauliflower and onion, the butter and seasoning — coating
the butter thickly with flour ; boil until it thickens.
This is a delicious sauce for boiled corned beef and
mutton.
Asparagus Sauce.
A dozen heads of asparagus.
2 teacupfuls drawn butter.
2 eggs.
The juice of half a lemon.
Salt and white pepper.
Boil the tender heads in a very little salted water.
Drain and chop them. Have ready a pint of drawn but*
ter, with two raw eggs beaten into it ; add the asparagus,
and season, squeezing in the lemon-juice last. The butter
must be hot, but do not cook after putting in the asparagus
heads. This accompanies boiled fowls, stewed flllet of veal,
or boiled mutton.
Apple Sauce.
Pare, core, and slice some ripe tart apples, stew in water
enough to cover them until they break to pieces. Beat up
to a smooth pulp, stir in a good lump of butter, and sugar
to taste.
Apple sauce is the invariable accompaniment of roast
pork — or fresh pork cooked in any way. If you wish, you
can add a little nutmeg.
Peach Sauce.
Soak a quart of dried peaches in water fotir hours.
Wash them, rubbing them against one another by stirring
around with a wooden spoon. Drain, and put into a sauce-
pan with just enough water to cover them. Stew until
they break to pieces. Rub to a soft smooth pulp, sweeten
to taste with white sugar. Send to table cold, with roast
game or other meats.
192 (X>KMON SENSE.
Cranberry Sauce.
Wash and pick a quart of ripe cranberries, and put into
a saucepan with a t«acupful of water. Stew slowly, stir-
ring often until they are thick as marmalade. They require
at least an hour and a half to cook. When you take them
from the fire, sweeten abundantly with white sugar. If
sweetened while cooking, the color will be bad. Put them
into a mould and set aside to get cold.
And this is a nicer plan — strain the pulp through a cul-
lender or sieve, or coarse mosquito-net, into a mould wet
with cold water. When firm, turn into a glass dish or sal-
ver. Be sure that it is sweet enough.
Eat with roast turkey, game, and roast ducks.
To Brown Flour.
Spread upon a tin plate, set upon the stove, or m a very
hot oven, and stir continually after it begins to color, until
it is brown all through.
Keep it always on hand. Make it at odd minutes, and
put away in a glass jar, covered closely. Shake up every
few days to keep it light and prevent lumping.
To Brown Butter.
Put a lump of butter into a hot frying-pan, and toss it
around over a clear fire until it browns. Dredge browned
flour over it, and stir to a smooth batter until it begins to
boil. Use it for coloring gravies, such as brown fricassees,
etc. ; or make into sauce for baked fish and fish-steaks, by
beating, in celery or onion vinegar, Kvery little brown sugar
and some cayenne.
CATSUPS AND FLAVOEED VINEGAES. 193
CATSUPS AND FLAVORED VINEGARS.
Made Mustard. 4^
4 tablespoonfuls best English mustard.
2 teaspoonfuls salt.
2 " white sugar.
1 " white pepper.
2 « salad oil.
Vinegar to mix to a smooth paste— -celery or Tarragon
vinegar if you have it.
1 small garlic, minced very small.
Put the mustard in a bowl and wet with the oil, rub-
bing it in with a silver or wooden spoon until it is absorbed.
Wet with vinegar to a stiff paste ; add salt, pepper, sugar,
and garlic, and work all together thoroughly, wetting little
by little with the vinegar until you can beat it as you do
cake-batter. Beat five minutes very hard ; put into wide-
mouthed bottles — empty French mustard bottles, if you
have them — ^pour a little oil on top, cork tightly, and set
away in a cool place. It will be mellow enough for use in
a couple of days.
Having used this mustard for years in my own family,
I can safely advise my friends to undertake tl^e trifiing labor
of preparing it in consideration of the satisfaction to be de-
rived from the condiment. I mix in a Wedgewood mortar,
with pestle of the same ; but a bowl is nearly as good. It
will keep for weeks.
Horse-radish.
Scrape or grind, cover with vinegar, and keep in wide-
mouthed bottles. To eat with roast beef and cold meats.
9
194 COMMON SENSE.
Walnut Catsup.
Choose young walnuts tender enough to bo pierced with
a pin or needle. Prick them in severai places, and lay in a
jar witli a handful of salt to every twenty-five, and water
enough to cover them. Break them with a billet of wood
or wooden beetle, and let them lie in the pickle a fortnight,
stiiTing twice a day. Drain off the liquor into a saucepan,
and cover the shells with boiling vinegar to extract what
juice remains in them. Crush to a pulp and strain through
a cullender into the saucepan. Allow for every quart an
ounce of black pepper and one of ginger, half an oimce of
cloves and half an ounce of nutmeg, beaten fine. Put in a
pinch of cayenne, a shallot minced fine for every ttoo quarts,
and a thimbleful of celery-seed tied in a bag for the same
quantity. Boil all together for an hour, if there be a gal-
lon of the mixture. Bottle when cold, putting an equal
quantity of the spice in each flask. Butternuts make de-
lightful catsup.
Mushroom Catsup.
2 quarts of mushrooms.
J lb. of salt.
Lay in an earthenware pan, in alternate layers of mush-
rooms and salt; let them lie six hours, then break into bits.
Set in a cool place three days, stirring thoroughly every
morning. Measure the juice when you have strained it,
and to every quart allow half an ounce of allspice, tlie same
quantity of ginger, half a teaspoonful of powdered mace, a
teaspoonfid of cayenne. Put into a stone jar, cover closely,
set in a saucepan of boiling water over the fire, and boil
five hours Jiard, Take it off, empty into a porcelain ket-
tle, and boil slowly half an hour longer. Let it stand all
night in a cool place, until settled and clear. Pour off
CATSUPS AND FLAVOBED YINEGAES. 195
carefully from the sediment, and bottle, filling the flasks to
the mouth. Dip the corks in melted rosin, and tie up with
bladders.
The bottles should be very small, as it soon spoils when
exposed to the air.
Imitation Worcestershire Sauce.
3 teaspoonfuls cayenne pepper.
2 tablespoonfuls walnut or tomato catsup (strained
through muslin).
3 shallots minced fine.
3 anchovies chopped into bits.
1 quart of vinegar.
Half-teaspoonful powdered cloves.
Mix and rub through a sieve. Put in a stone jar, set
in a pot of boiling water, and heat until the liqidd is so hot
you cannot bear your finger in it. Strain, and let it stand
in the jar, closely covered, two days, then bottle for use.
Oyster Catsup.
1 quart oysters.
1 tablespoonful salt.
1 teaspoonful cayenne pepper, and same of mace.
1 teacupful cider vinegar.
1 " sherry.
Chop the oysters and boil in their own liquor with a
teacupful vinegar, skimming the scum as it rises. Boil
three minutes, strain through a hair-cloth ; return the
liquor to the fire, add the wine, pepper, salt, and mace.
Boil fifteen minutes, and, when cold, bottle for use, sealing
the corks.
196 COMMON SENSE.
Tomato Catsup. 4*
1 peck ripe tomatoes.
1 ounce salt.
1 " mace.
1 tablespoonful black pepper.
1 teaspoonful cayemie.
1 tablespoonful cloves (powdered).
7 " ground mustard.
1 ^^ celery seed (tied in a thin muslin
bag).
Cut a slit in the tomatoes, put into a bell-metal or por-
celain kettle, and boil until the juice is all extracted and
the pulp dissolved. Strain and press through a cullender,
then through a hair sieve. Return to the fire, add the sea-
soning, and boil at least five hours, stirring constantly for
the last hour, and frequently throughout the time it is on
the fire. Let it stand twelve hours in a stone jar on the .
cellar floor. When cold, add a pint of strong vinegar.
Take out the bag of celery seed, and bottle, sealing the
corks. Keep in a dark, cool place.
Tomato and walnut are the most useful catsups we have
for general purposes, and either is in itself a fine sauce for
roast meat, cold fowl, game, etc.
Lemon Catsup.
12 large, fresh lemons.
4 tablespoonfuls white mustard-seed.
1 " turmeric.
1 " white pepper.
1 teaspoonful cloves.
1 ** mace.
1 saltspoonful cayenne.
CATSUPS AND FLAVOBED VINEGAKS. 197
2 tablespoonfuls white sugar.
2 '^ grated horse-i'adish.
1 shallot, minced fine.
Juice of the lemons.
2 tablespoonfuls table-salt.
Grate the rind of the lemons; poimd or grind the
spices, and put all together, including the horse-radish.
Strew the salt oyer all, add the lemon-juice, and let it
stand three hours in a cool place. Boil in a porcelain ket-
tle half an hour. Pour into a covered vessel — china or
stone — and let it stand a fortnight, stirring well everj day.
Then strain, bottle, and seal.
It is a fine seasoning for fish sauces, fish soups, and
game ragouts.
" Ever-ready ^ Catsup. 4*
2 quarts cider vinegar.
12 anchovies, washed, soaked, and pidled to pieces.
12 small onions, peeled and minced.
1 tablespoonful mace.
3 « fine salt.
3 " white sugar.
1 " cloves.
3 " whole black pepper.
2 *' ground ginger.
1 " cayenne.
1 quart mushrooms, minced, or
1 " ripe tomatoes, sliced.
Put into a preserving kettle and boil slowly four hours,
or until the mixture is reduced to one-half the original quan-
tity. Strain through a flannel bag. Do not bottle until
next day. Fill the flasks to the top, and dip the corks in
beeswax and rosin.
198 COMKOK 8SN8S.
lliis catsup will keep for years. Mixed with drawn
butter, it is used as a sauce for boiled fish, but is a fine
flayoriug essence of gravies of almost any kind.
A Good Store Sauce.
2 tablespoonfuls horse-radish (grated).
1 '^ allspice.
A grated nutmeg.
3 large pickled onions (minced fine).
2 dozen whole black peppers.
A pinch of cayenne.
1 tablespoonful salt.
1 " white sugar.
1 qiiai*t vinegar from walnut or butternut pickle.
Mix all the spices well together ; crush in a stone jar
with a potato-beetle or billet of wood ; pour over the vine-
gar, and let it stand two weeks. Put on in a porcelain or
clean bell-metal kettle and heat to boiling ; strain and set
aside until next day to cool and settle. Bottle and cork
very tightly. It is an excellent seasoning for any kind of
gravy, sauce, or stew.
Mock Capers. 4^
Gather green nasturtium seed when they are full-grown,
but not yellow ; dry for a day in the sun ; put into small
jars or wide-mouthed bottles, cover with boiling vinegar,
slightly spiced, and when cool, cork closely. In six weeks
they will be fit for use. They give an agreeable taste to
drawn butter for fish, or boiled beef and mutton
Celery Vinegar.
A bunch of fresh celery, or
A quarter of a pound of celery seed.
CATSUPS AND FLAVOREJ) VINEGAKS. 199
1 quart of best vinegar.
1 teaspoonful salt.
1 tablespoonful white sugai*.
Cut up the celery into small bits, or pour the seed into
a jar ; scald the salt and vinegar, and pour over the celery
stalks or seed*; let it cool, and put away in one large jai*
tightly corked. In a fortnight strain and bottle in small
flasks, corking tightly.
Onion Vinegak.
6 large onions.
1 tablespoonful salt.
1 " " white sugar.
1 quart best vinegar.
Mince the onions, strew on the salt, and let them stand
Ave or six hours. Scald the vinegar in which the sugar
has been dissolved, pour over the onions ; put in. a jar, tie
down the cover, and steep a fortnight. Strain and bottle.
Elderberry Catsup.
1 quart of elderberiies.
1 *' -of vinegar.
6 anchovies, soaked and pulled to pieces.
Half a teaspoonful mace.
A pinch of ginger.
2 tablespoonfuls white sugar.
1 teaspoonful salt.
1 tablespoonful whole peppers.
Scald the vinegar and pour over the berries, which
must be picked from the stalks and put into a large stone
jar. Cover with a pane of glass, and set in the hot sun
two days. Strain off the liquor, and boil up with the
200 COMMON BENB£.
other ingredients, stirring often, one hour, keeping covered
unless while stirring. Let it cool ; strain and bottle.
This is used for flavoring brown gravies, soups, and
ragotlts, and, stirred into browned butter, makes a good
piquant sauce for broiled or baked fish.
Peppee Vinegar.
6 pods red peppers broken up.
3 dozen black pepper-corns.
2 tablespoonfuls white sugar.
1 quart of best vinegar.
Scald the vinegar in which the sugar has been dis-
solved ; pour over the pepper, put into a jar, and steep a
fortnight. Stiuin and bottle.
This is eaten with boiled fish and raw ojsters, and is
useful in the preparation of salads.
Horse-radish Vinegar.
6 tablespoonfuls scraped or grated horse-radish.
1 tablespoonful white sugai*.
1 quari vinegar.
Scald the vinegar; pour boiling hot over the horse-
radish. Steep a week, strain and bottle.
SALADS.
" The dressing of the salad should be saturated with
oil, and seasoned with pepper and salt before the vinegar
is added. It results from this process that there never can
be too much vinegar ; for, from the specific gravity of the
vinegar compared with oil, what is more than useful will
fjEdl to the bottom of the bowl. The salt should not be
dissolved in the vinegar, but in the oil, by which means it
SALAse. 201
is more equally distributed throughout the salad.'' — Clutp-
tal, a French chemisL
The Spanish proverb says, that ''to make a perfect
salad, there should be a miser for oil, a spendthrift for
vinegar, a wise man for salt, and a madcap to stir the in-
gredients up and mix them well together."
Sydney Smith's Keceipt for Salad Dressing.
Two boiled potatoes, strained through a kitchen
sieve.
Softness and smoothness to the salad give ;
Of mordant mustard take a single spoon —
Distrust the condiment that bites too soon ;
Yet deem it not, thou man of taste, a fault.
To add a double quantity of salt.
Four times the spoon with oil of Lucca crown.
And twice with vinegar procured from town ;
True taste requires it, and your poet begs
The pounded yellow of two well-boiled eggs.
Let onions' atoms lurk within the bowl,
And, scarce suspected, animate the whole ;
And lastly, in the flavored compound toss
A magic spoonful of anchovy sauce.
Oh, great and glorious ! oh, herbaceous meat !
'Twould tempt the dying anchorite to eat.
Back to the world he'd. turn his weary soul.
And plunge his fingers in the salad bowl.
At least twenty-five years ago I pasted tlie above dog*
gerel in my scrap-book, and committed it to memory. The
first salad I was ever trusted to compound was dressed in
strict obedience to the directions of the witty divine, and
to this day these seem to me pertinent and worthy of note.
The anchovy sauce can be omitted if you like, and a spoon-
9*
202 COMMON 8ENBE.
ful of Harvey's or Worcestersliire substituted. Tbis U
best suited for chicken or turkey salad.
Lobster Salad. 4^
Pick out every bit of the meat from the body and claws
of a cold boiled lobster. Lay aside the coral for the dress-
ing, and mince the rest. For the dressing you will need —
4 eggs, boiled hard.
2 tablespoon^ils salad oil.
1 teaspoonful made mustard.
1 «* salt.
2 " white sugar.
^ " cayenne pepper. Vinegar at discretion,
1 ** of Harvey's, Worcestershire, or anchovy
sauce.
Kub the yolks to a smooth paste in a mortar or bowl,
with a Wedgewood pestle, a silver or wooden spoon, until
perfectly free from lumps. Add gradually, rubbing all the
while, the other ingredients, the coral last. This should
have been worked well upon a plate with a silver knife or
wooden spatula. Proceed slowly and carefully in the opera-
tion of amalgamating the various ingredients, moistening
with vinegar as they stiflfen. Increase the quantity of this
as the mixture grows smooth, until it is thin enough to
pour over the minced lobster. You will need a teacupful
at least. Then stir long and well, that the meat may be
thoroughly impregnated with the dressing. Some mix
chopped lettuce with the salad ; but unless it is to be eaten
within a few minutes, the vin^^ will wither the tender
leaves. The better plan is to heap a glass dish with the
inner leaves of several lettuce-heads, laying pounded ice
among them, and pass with the lobster, th^t the guests may
add the green salad to their taste.
4
SALADS. 203
When lettuce is out of season, the following dressing,
the receipt for which was given me by a French gourmand,
may be used.
Prepare the egg and coral as above, with the condiments
there mentioned, but mix with the lobster-meat four table-
spoonfuls of fine white cabbage, chopped small, with two
small onions, also minced into almost indivisible bits, a
teaspoonful of anchovy or other sauce, and a tablespoonful
of celery vinegar.
All lobster salad should be eaten as soon as possible
after the dressing is added, else it becomes imwholesome.
If you use canned lobster, open and turn out the contents
of the can into a china dish several hours before you mix
the dressing, that the close, airless smell may pass away.
Garnish the edges of the dish with cool white leaves of
curled lettuce, or with a chain of rings made of the whites
of the boiled eggs.
Chicken Salad. 4^
The white meat of a cold boiled or roasted chicken
(or turkey).
Three-quarters the same bulk of chopped celery.
2 hard-boiled eggs.
1 raw egg, well beaten.
1 teaspoonful of salt.
1 " pepper.
1 ^^ made mustard.
3^ '' salad oil.
2 ^^ white sugar.
^ teacupf ul of vinegar.
Mince the meat well, removing every scrap of fat, gris-
tle, and skin ; cut the celery into bits half an inch long, or
less, mix them, and set aside in a cold place while you pre-
pare the dressing.
204 COMMON SENSE.
Kub the yolks of the eggs to a fine powder, add the salt,
pepper, and sugar, then the oil, grinding hard, and putting in
but a few drops at a time. The mustard comes next, and let
all stand together while you whip the raw egg to a froth.
Beat this into the dressing, and pour in the vinegar spoon-
ful by spoonful, whipping the dressing well as you do it.
Sprinkle a little dry salt over the meat and celery ; toss it
up lightly with a silver fork ; pour the dressing over it,
tossing and mixing until the bottom of the mass is as well
saturated as the top ; turn into the salaid-bowl, and gamisli
with white of eggs (boiled) cut into rings or flowers, and
sprigs of bleached celery-tops.
If you cannot get celery, substitute crisp white cabbage,
and use celery vinegar in the dressing. You can also, in
this case, chop 'some green pickles, gherkins, mangoes, or
cucumbers, and stir in.
Turkey makes even better salad than chicken.
You can make soup of the liquor in which the fowl is
cooked, since it need not bo boiled in a cloth.
Lettuce Salad. 4*
Two or three heads white lettuce.
2 hard-boiled eggs.
2 teaspoonfuls salad oil.
i « salt.
1 " white sugar.
^ '^ made mustard.
1 " pepper.
4 tablespoonfuls vinegar.
Rub the yolks to a powder, add sugar, pepper, salt,
mustard, and oil. Let it stand five minutes, and beat in the
vinegar. Cut the lettuce up with a knife and fork, — a
chopper would bruise it, — put into a bowl, add the dressing,
and mix by tossing with a silver fork.
BALADB. 205
Or,
You can dress on the table with oil and vinegar only,
pulling the heart of the lettuce out with your fingers, and
seasoning to taste.
Summer Salad.
3 heads of lettuce.
2 teaspoonfuls green mustard leaves.
A handful of water-ci'esses.
Four or five very tender radishes.
1 cucumber.
3 hard-boiled eggs.
2 teaspoonfuls white sugar.
1 teaspoonful salt.
1 " pepper.
1 '' made mustai'd.
1 teacupful vinegar.
2 tablespoonfuls salad oil.
Mix the dressing as for lettuce salad. Cut up the hearts
of the lettuce, the radishes and cucimiber, into very small
pieces ; chop the mustard and cress. Pour over these the
dressing, tossing very lightly, not to bruise the young leaves ;
heap in a salad-bowl upon a lump of ice, and garnish with
fennel-heads and nasturtium-blossoms.
This is a delightful accompaniment to boiled or baked
fish.
WatertCresses.
Wash and pick over the cresses carefully, pluck from
the stems, and pile in the salad bowl, with a dressing of
vinegar, pepper, salt, and sugar, well stirred in.
206 COMMON SBN8E.
Cabbage Salad, or Cold Slaw. »{«
1 head of fine white cabbage, minoed fine.
3 hard-boiled eggs.
2 tablespoonfuls salad oil.
2 teaspoonfiils white sugar.
1 teaspoonful salt.
1 " pepper.
1 " made mustard.
1 teacupful vinegar.
Mix as for lettuce and pour upon the chopped cabbage.
Shred the head of cabbage fine, and di*ess with —
1 cup vinegar.
1 tablespoonful butter.
1 sugar.
2 tablespoonfuls sour cream.
A pinch of pepper, and the same of salt.
Put the vinegar, with all the ingredients for the dress-
ing, except the cream, in a saucepan, and let them come
to a boil. Pour while scalding over the cabbage, and
set away until perfectly cold. Add the cream just before
serving, stirring in with a silver fork.
This is a veiy nice preparation of cabbage, and &r more
wholesome than the uncooked. Try it 1
Tomato Qalad. tj^
12 medium-sized tomatoes, peeled and sliced.
4 hard-boiled eggs.
1 raw egg, well beaten.
1 teaspoonful salt.
^ spoonful cayenne pepper.
SALADS. 207
1 teaspoonful white sugar.
1 tablespoonful salad oil.
2 teaspoonfuls made mustard.
1 teacupful vinegar.
Kub the yolks to a smooth paste^ adding by degrees the
salt, pGPP^i^> sugnr, mustard, and oil. Beat the raw egg to
a froth and stir in, — lastly the vinegar. Peel the tomatoes,
slice them a quarter of an inch thick, and set the dish on
ice, while you are making ready the dressing. Stir a great
lump of ice rapidly in this — ^the dressing — until it is cold ;
take it out, cover the tomatoes with the mixtiure, and set
back on the ice until you send to table.
This salad is delicious, especially when ice-cold.
Celeky Salad. 4*
boiled egg.
raw egg.
tablespoonful salad oil.
teaspoonful white sugar,
saltspoonful salt.
** pepper,
tablespoonfuls vinegar,
teaspoonful made mustard.
Prepare the dressing as for tomato salad ; cut the celery
into bits half an inch long, and season. Eat at once, before
the vinegar injures the crispness of the vegetable.
Salmon Salad. 4*
1| lb. cold boiled or baked salmon.
2 beads white lettuce (or celery).
3 hard-boiled eggs.
2 tablespoonfuls salad oil.
208 COMMOir 8£NS£.
1 teaspoonf 111 salt, and same of cayenne.
i " white sugar.
1 " WoroestershiriB or anchovy sauce.
1 '^ made mustard.
1 teacupful vinegar.
Mince three-quarters of the salmon, laying aside four or
Qve pieces half an inch wide and four or five long; cut
smoothly and of uniform size. Prepare the dressing in the
usual way, and pour over the minced fish. Shred the let-
tuce, handling as little as possible, and heap in a separate
bowl, with pounded ice. This must accompany the salmon,
that the guests may help themselves to their liking. Or.
you may mix the lettuce with the fish, if it is to be eaten
immediately. Celery, of course, is always stirred into the
salad, when it is used. The reserved pieces of salmon
should be laid in the dressing for ^ye minutes befoi'e
the latter is added to the minced fish, then dipped in
vinegar. "When you have transferred your salad (or ma-
yonnaise) to the dish in which it is to be served, round it
into a mound, and lay the strips upon it in such a manner
as to divide it into triangular sections, the bars all meeting
at the top and diverging at the base. Between these have
subdivisions of chain-work made of the whites of the boiled
eggs, each circle overlapping that next to it.
You can dress halibut in the same way.
Cheese, Salad, or Mock Ciiab.
1^ lb. pickled shrimps.
} lb. good old cheese.
1 tablespoonful salad oil.
1 teaspoonful cayenne pepper.
1 « salt.
1 " white sugar.
\
BALADB. 209
1 teaspoonful made mustard.
4 tablespoonfuls celery or onion vinegar.
Mince tlie shrimps and gi*ate tlie cheese. Work into
the latter, a little at a time^ the various condiments enu-
merated above, the vinegar last. Let all stand together ten
minutes before adding the shrimps. When this is done,
stir well for a minute and a half and serve in a glass dish,
gamifihed with lemon, or (if you can get one) in a clean
crab-shell.
^ lb. old cheese, grated.
• 1 hard-boiled egg.
1 teaspoonful cayenne.
1 '' salt.
1 ** white sugar.
1 ^' made mustard.
1 tablespoonful onion vinegar.
1 ^' salad oil.
Kub the yolk of .the egg to a paste with the oil, adding
in order the salt, pepper, sugar, and mustard, lastly the
cheese. Work all well together before putting in the
vinegar. Serve in a crab-shell.
These mixtures bear a marvellous resemblance in taste
to devilled crab, and make a good impromptu relish at tea
or luncheon. Eat with crackers and butter. This is still
better if you add a cupful of cold minced chicken.
Use none but the best and freshest olive salad oil {not
sweet oil, felsely so called) in compounding your salad-
dressing. If you cannot obtain this, melted butter is the
best substitute I know of.
210 COMMON 8SNS£.
VEGETABLES.
BuLES Applicable to the Cooking of aix Vegetables.
1. Have them as fresh as possible. Stale and withered
ones are unwholesome and unpalatable. Summer vegeta-
bles should be cooked on the same day they are gathered^ if
l>os8ible.
2. Pick over and wash well, cutting out all decayed or
unripe pai'ts.
3. Lay them, when peeled, in cold water for some time
before cooking.
4. If you boil them, put a little salt in the water.
5. Cook them steadily after you put them on.
6. Be sure they are thoroughly done. Rare vegetables
are neither good nor fashionable.
7. Drain well.
8. Serve hot I
POTATOES.
Boiled Potatoes {tuUh iJie skins on).
Boil in cold water with a pinch of salt. Have them of
uniform size, and cook steadily until a fork will pierce easily
to the heart of the largest. Then pour off the water, every
drop ; sprinkle with salt and set back on the range, a little
to one side, with the lid of the pot off. Let them dry thi*ee
or four minutes; peel very quickly and serve in an un-
covered dish.
WitJiout ihe Skins,
Pare very thin. The glory of a potato is its mealiness,
and much of the starch, or meal, lies next the skin — conse-
quently is lost by slovenly paring, which likewise defaces
the shape. Lay in cold water for half an hour, have ready
a pot of boiling water slightly salted, drop in the potatoes,
POTATOK8. 211
and keep at a i^apid boil until tender. Drain off the water,
sprinkle with fine salt, and dry as just directed.
And here comes a conflict of authorities. Says my kind
friend and neighbor, Mrs. A., an excellent housewife — ** I
boil my potatoes in cold water always, — with a pinch of
salt, of course, and when half done, throw away the boiling
water and All up with cold, then boil again. This makes
the potatoes mealy." Mrs. B., whose reputation as a house-
keeper and cook is in every kitchen, interposes : — " I have
tried both ways. My experience is that potatoes melt into
a sort of starchy gruel when boiled in cold water. The
philosophy of the operation is to heat quickly and thor-
oughly, and, the instant they are done, to dry out every
drop of water. And — " with a touch of pardonable pride —
** we generally have delightful potatoes." This is true, but
remembering that Mrs. A.'s are like snow hillocks, ready to
crumble at a breath, I come home and try the cold water
plan. My cook, unlike most of her tribe, is too sensible to
suppose that she knows everything, and willingly abets me.
The result of our experiments stands somewhat thus — Gar-
net, White Mountain, and Early Rose potatoes are apt to
dissolve in cold water, giving off their starch too readily,
perhaps. We boil them in hot water. Peach Blows, Prince
Alberts, and other late varieties are best cooked as Mrs. A.
recommends — always pouring off the water the instant
they are done and letting the potatoes dry for a few minutes.
My housewifely friends can decide for themselves which
method is preferable.
Mashed Potatoes. 4*
Old potatoes are best mashed. Pare, and let them lie
in cold water from half to three-quarters of an hour. A
longer time will not hurt them. Boil in hot or cold water
according to the toughness of texture. A coarse, waxy
^ I
212 CX>MMON BENBE.
potato is best cooked in cold water. In cither case, put in
a pinch of salt. Drain thoroughly when done, sprinkle
with salt, and mash them in the pot with a potato-beetle,
working in a tablespoonful of butter and enough milk to
make the paste about the consistency of soft dough. Leave
no lumps in it, and when smooth, dish. Form into a mound
with a wooden spoon, and leave dots of pepper here and
there on the surface, as large as a half-dime.
Or,
Brown by setting in the oven until a crust is formed.
Glaze this with butter, and serve.
To Boil New Potatoes.
If very young, rub the skin off with a rough towel. If
almost ripe, scrape with a blunt knife. Lay in cold water
an hour, cover with cold water slightly salted, boil half an
hour. Drain, salt, and dry for two or three minutes. Send
to table plain.
Or,
You may crack each by pressing lightly upon it with
the back of a wooden spoon, lay them in a deep dish, and
pour over them a cupful of cream or new milk, heated to a
boil, in which a great spoonful of butter has been dissolved.
To Stew Old Potatoes, p^
This is a good way to cook potatoes which are so rank
and tough as hardly to be eatable in any other form.
Pare and quarter, if large. Soak in cold water one
hour. Put into a pot with enough cold salted water to
cover them. When almost done, turn off the water, add a
like quantity of milk, and bring to a boil. Before taking
up, stir in a heaping tablespoonful of butter, a little salt, a
POTATOES. 213
handful of chopped parsley^ and thicken slightly with flour
previously wet in cold milk. Boil one minute, and pour all
into a deep dish.
Stewed Potatoes for Breakfast. 4*
Pare, quarter, and soak in cold water half an hour.
Stew in enough cold salted water to cover them. Before
taking up, and when they are breaking to pieces, drain oif
half the water, and pour in a cupful of milk. Boil three
minutes, stirring well ; put in a lump of butter the size of
an egg, a little salt and a pinch of pepper ; thicken slightly
wi-i^ flour, boil up well and turn into a covered dish.
This is an excellent family dish. Children are usually
fond of it, and it is very wholesome.
Baked Potatoes.
Wash and wipe some large ripe potatoes, and bake in a
jquick oven until tender, say from three-quarters of an hour
to an horn*, if of a good size. Serve in a napkin with the
skins on. Tear or cut a hole in the top when you eat them,
put in a bit of butter with salt and pepper. They are good
for boys' cold fingers at supper-time on winter nights
Potato Puff. »!•
Take two cupfuls of cold mashed potato, and stir into
it two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, beating to a white
cream before adding anything else. Then put with this
two eggs whipped very light and a teacupful of cream or
milk, salting to taste. Beat all well, pour into a deep dish,
and bake in a quick oven until it is nicely browned. If
properly mixed, it will come out of the oven light, pully,
and delectable.
214 COMMON 8RN6E.
Potatoes Warmed Over — alias au Maitre d^Hdtd,
Slice cold boiled potatoes a quarter of an inch thick
and put into a saucepan with four or five tablespoonfuls of
milk, two or three of butter, pepper, salt, and some chopped
parsley. Heat quickly, stirring all the time until ready to
boil, when stir in the juice of half a lemon. This last in-
gredient entitles the dish to the foreign title. Pour into a
deep dish, and serve very hot.
Potato Croquettes. •!•
Season cold mashed potato with pepper, salt, and nut-
meg. Beat to a cream, with a tablespoonful of melted but-
ter to every cupful of potato. Bind with two or three
beaten eggs, and add some minced parsley. Roll into oval
balls, dip in beaten egg, then in bread>crumbs, and fry in
hot lard or drippings.
Pile in a pyramid upon a flat dish, and serve.
Fried Potatoes. 4«
Pai'e, wash, and slice some raw potatoes as thin as wa-
fers. This can be done with a sharp knife, although there
is a little instrument for the purpose, to be had at the
house-furnishing stores, which flutes prettily as well as
slices evenly. Lay in ice-water for half an hour, wipe dry
in two cloths, spreading them upon one, and pressing the
other upon them. Have ready in the frying-pan some boil-
ing lard or nice dripping, fiy a light brown, sprinkle with
salt, and serve in a napkin laid in a deep dish and folded
over the potatoes. To dry them of the fat, take from the
frying-pan as soon as they are brown, with a perforated
skimmer, put into a cullender and shake for an instant.
They should be crisp and free from grease.
k.
POTATOES. 215
Or,
' Chop cold boiled potatoes into bits, season with pepper
and salt, and fry lightly in di-ipping or butter, turning them
constantly until nicely browned.
Potato Kibbon.
Pai-e and lay in ice-water for an hour. Choose the
largest and soundest potatoes you can get for this dish. At
the end of the hour, pare, with a small knife, round and
round in one continuous curling strip. There is also an in-
strument for this purpose, which costs but a trifle, and will
do the work deftly and expeditiously. Handle with care,
fiy — a few at a time, for fear of entanglement — ^in lard or
clarified drippings, drain, and arrange neatly upon a hot
flat dish.
Potatoes A la Cr£:me. 4*
Put into a saucepan three tablespoonfuls of butter, a
small handful of parsley chopped small, salt and pepper to
taste. Stir up well until hot, add a small teacupful of cream
or rich milk, thicken with two teaspoonfuls of flour, and
stir until it boils. Chop some cold boiled potatoes, put into
the mixture, and boil up once before serving.
Stuffed Potatoes. 4*
Take large, fair potatoes, bake until soft, and cut a
round piece off the top of each. Scrape out the inside
carefully, so as not to break the skin, and set aside the
empty cases with the covers. Mash the inside very
smoothly, working into it while hot some butter and cream
— about half a teaspoonful of each for every potato. Sea-
son with salt and pepper, with a good pinch of grated
cheese for each ; work it very soft with milk, and put into
216 COMMON SENBK.
a saucepan to heat, stirring, to prevent burning. When
scalding hot, stir in one well-beaten egg for six large pota-
toes. Boil up once, fill the skins with the mixture, repla-
cing the caps, return them to the oven for three minutes ;
arrange upon a napkin in a deep dish, the caps uppermost ;
cover with a fold of the napkin, and eat hot.
Or,
You may omit the eggs and put in a double quantity of
cheese. They are very good.
Potato Scallops.
Boil, and mash the potatoes soft with a little milk.
Beat up light with melted butter — a dessertspoonful for
every half-pint of the potato — salt and pepper to taste.
Fill some patty-pans or buttered scallop shells with the mix-
ture, and brown in an oven, when you have stamped a pat-
tern on the top of each. Glaze, while hot, with butter, and
serve in the shells.
If you like, you can strew some grated cheese over the
top.
Browned Potatoes — {WhoLe),
Boil and peel some large, ripe potatoes, and three-quar-
ters of an hour before a piece of roast beef is removed from
the fire, skim the fat from the gravy; put the potatoes in
the dripping-pan, having dredged them well with flour.
Baste them, to prevent scorching, with the gravy, and
when quite brown, drain on a sieve. Lay them about the
meat in the dish.
Browned Potato — (Mashed),
This is also an accompaniment to roast beef or mutton.
Maah some boiled potatoes smoothly with a little milk, pep-
i
r
POTATOES, 217
^ per^ salt, and a boiled onion (minced) ; make into small
f cones or balls; flour well, and put under or beside the
meat, hfijf an hour or so before you take it up. Skim oflf
all the fat from the gravy before putting them in. Drain
i, them dry when brown, and lay around the meat when
dished.
These are nice with roast spare-rib, or any roast pork
that is not too fat.
Broiled Potatoes.
Cut whole boiled potatoes, lengthwise, into slices a
quarter of an inch thick, and lay upon a gridiron over a
hot, bright fire. Brown on both sides, sprinkle with pep-
. per and salt, lay a bit of butter upon each, and eat very hot.
^"- ^ Potato Cakes.
Make cold mashed potato into flat cakes ; flour and hy
in lard, or good sweet dripping, until they are a light-brown.
Boast Sweet Potatoes.
I Select those of uniform size, wash, wipe, and roast un-
til you can tell, by gently pressing the largest between the
finger and thumb, that it is mellow throughout. Serve in
their jackets.
[ Sweet, as well as Irish potatoes, are very good for pic-
[ nic luncheon, roasted in hot ashes. This, it will be remem-
^ bered, was the dinner General Marion set before the Brit-
^ ish officer as " quite a feast, I assure you, sir. We don't
often fare so well as to have sweet potatoes and salt."
The feast was cleansed from ashes by the negro orderly's
shirt-sleeve, and served upon a natural trencher of pine-
bark.
10
218 common sense.
Boiled Sweet Potatoes.
Have them all as nearly the same size as possible ; put
into cold water, without any salt, and boil until a fork will
easily pierce the largest. Turn oflf the water, and lay them
in the oven to diy for iive minutes. Peel before sending
to table.
Or, 4.
Parboil, and then roast until dune. This is a wise plan
when they are old and watery. Boiling is apt to render
them tasteless. Another way still is to boil until they are
almost done, when peel and bake brown, basting them with
butter several times, but di-aining them dry before they go
to the table.
Fried Sweet Potatoes. »J«
Parboil them, skin, and cut lengthwise into slices a
quarter of an inch thick. ' Fry in sweet dripping or butter.
Cold boiled potatoes may be cooked in this way. Or
you can chop them up with an equal quantity of cold Irish
potatoes, put them into a frying-pan with a good lump of
butter, and stir until they are hot and slightly brown.
CABBAGE.
Boiled Cabbage.
Pick off the outer green leaves, quarter, examine care-
fully to be sure there are no insects in it, and lay for an
hour in cold water. Then put into a pot with plenty of
boiling water, and cook fifteen minutes. Throw away the
water, and fill up the pot from the boiling tea-kettle. Cook
until tender aU through. Three-quarters of an hour will
do for a good-sized cabbage when young. Late in the sea-
CABBAGE. 219
son you must be guided by the tenderness of the stalk.
Drain well, chop, and stir in a tablcspoonful of butter, pep-
per, and salt. Serve very hot. If you boil corned beef or
pork to eat with cabbage, let the second water be taken
from tho' pot in which this is cooking. It will flavor it
nicely.
Always boil cabbage in two waters.
Bacon and Cabbage.
This, I need hardly say, is a favorite covintry dish at
the South. The old-fashioned way of preparing it was to
boil meat and cabbage together, and serve, reeking with
fat, the cabbage in quarters, soaking yet more of the essence
from the ham or middling about which it lay. In this shape
it justly earned a reputation for grossness and indigestibility
that banished it, in time, from many tables.
Yet it is a savory and not unwholesome article of food in
winter, if the cabbage be boiled in two waters, the second
being the ^' pot-liquor " from the boiling meat. Drain thor-
oughly in a cullender, pressing out every drop of water that
will flow, without breaking the tender leaves; and when
the meat is dished, lay the cabbage neatly about it, and upon
each quarter a sUce of hard-boiled egg.
When you eat, season with pepper, salt, and vinegar.
Stuffed Cabbage.
Choose for this purpose a large, firm cabbage. Take off
the outer leaves, and lay in boiling water ten minutes, then
in very cold. Do this several hours before you are ready
to stuff it. When perfectly cold, bind a broad tape about it,
or a strip of muslin, th^t it may not fall apart when the
stalk is taken out. Hemove this with a thin sharp knife,
leaving a hole about as deep as your middle-finger. Without
220 . COMMON SENSE.
widening the mouth of the aperture, excavate the centre
u^til you have room for four or five tablespoonfuls of the
force-meat — ^more, if the head be large. Chop the bits you
take out very small ; mix with some minced cold boiled pork
or ham, or cooked sausage-meat, a very little onion, pepper,
salt, a pinch of thyme, and some bread-crumbs. Fill the
cavity with this, bind a wide strip of muslin over the hole in
the top, and lay the cabbage in a large saucepan with a pint
of "pot-liquor" from boiled beef or ham. Stew gently
until very tender. Take out the cabbage, unbind carefully,
and lay in a dish. Keep hot while you add to the gravy,
when you have strained it, pepper, a piece of butter rolled
in flour, and two or three tablespoonfuls rich milk or cream.
Boil up, and pour over the cabbage.
" COLLARDS," Oli CaBBAQE-SpROUTS.
Pick over carefully, lay in cold water, slightly salted,
half an hour; shake in a cullender to drain, and put into
boiling water, keeping at a fast boil until tender. A
piece of pork seasons them pleasantly. In this case put
the meat on first, adding the greens when it is parboiled,
and cooking them together. Boil in an uncovered vessel.
Drain very well ; chop and heap in a dish, laying the meat
on top.
Ladies^ Cabbage. ^
Boil a firm white cabbage fifteen minutes, changing the
water then for more from the boiling tea-kettle. When
tender, drain and set aside until perfectly cold. Chop fine,
and add two beaten eggs, a tablespoonful of butter, pepper,
salt, three tablespoonfuls rich milk or cream. Stir aU. well
together, and bake in a buttered pudding-dish until brown.
Kat very hot.
I con conscientiously recommend this dish even to those
CABBAQE. 221
who are not fond of any of the ordinary preparations of cab-
bage. It is digestible and palatable, more nearly resem-
bling cauliflower in taste than its coarser and commoner
cousin- German,
Fried Cabbage.
Chop cold boiled cabbage, and drain very dry, stirring
in a little melted batter, pepper, and salt, with three or
four tablespoonfuls of cream. Heat all in a buttered fry-
ing-pan, stirring until smoking hot ; then let the mixture
stand just long enough to brown slightly on the underside.
It is improved by the addition of a couple of beaten eggs.
Turn out by putting a flat dish above the pan, upside-down,
and reversing the latter.
This is a breakfast-dish.
Sauerkraut.
Shred or chop the cabbage fine. Line a barrel, keg, or
jar with cabbage-leaves on the bottom and sides. Put in a
layer of the cut cabbage, three inches in depth ; press down
well and sprinkle with four tablespoonfuls of salt. When
you have packed five layers in this way, press hard with a
board cut to fit loosely on the inside of the barrel or jar.
Put heavy weights on this, or pound with a wooden beetle
until the cabbage is a compact mass, when remove the board
and put in more layers of salt and shred cabbage, repeating
the poundiDg every four or &ve layers, until the vessel is
full. Cover with leaves, and put the board on the top of
these with a heavy weight to keep it down. Set all away
to ferment. In three weeks remove the sctmi, and if need
be, cover with water. Keep in a cool dry cellar. It can be
eaten raw or boiled, and seasoned with pork.
This is the mode simple if not pv/r of preparing this, to
nostrils unaccustomed to it, malodorous compound. Some
222 COMMON SENSE.
add to the salt whole black peppers, cloves, garlic, and mace
— " then put it away," as a mild, motherly Teuton dame
once told me, " in the cellar to r — " — ** Rot ! " interpolated a
disgusted bystander, anticipating her deliberate utterance.
" No, my dear," drawled the placid Fi'au, " to ripen.'''*
CAULIFLOWER
Boiled Cauliflower.
Pick off tlie leaves and cut the stalk close to the bottom
of the bunch of flowers. Lay in cold water for half an
hour. Unless very large, do not cut it ; if you do, quarter
it neatly. Tie a close net of coarse bobbinet lace or tarlar
tan about it to prevent breaking or bruising; put into
boiling water salted, and cook until tender. Undo and re-
move the net, and lay the cauliflower in a hot dish. Have
ready a large cupful of nice drawn butter and pour over it.
Cut with a silver knife and fork in helping it out, and
give a little of the sauce to each person. Take it out of the
water as soon as it is done, serve quickly, and eat hot. It
darkens with standing.
Stewed Cauliflower.
Use for this dish the smaller and more indiflerent cauli-
flowers. Cut them into small clusters ; lay in cold salt and
water half an hour, and stew fifteen minutes in boiling
water. Turn most of this ofl*, leaving but half a teacupful
in the saucepan. Add to this a half-cupful of milk thick-
ened with a very little rice or wheat flour, and two table-
spoonfuls of melted butter, pepper, and salt. Shake the
saucepan over the Are gently until it boils ; take out the
cauliflowers with a perforated skimmer, lay in order upon a
dish, and pour the sauce over them.
vegetables. 223
Scalloped Cauliflower.
Boil until tender, clip into neat clusters, and pack — ^the
stems downward — in a buttered pudding- dish. Beat up a
cupful of bread-crumbs to a soft paste with two tablespoon-
fuls of melted butter and three of cream or milk ; season
with pepper and salt, bind with a beaten egg, and with this
cover the cauliflower. Cover the dish closely and bake six
minutes in a quick ovon ; brown in five more, and serve
very hot in the dish in which they were baked.
Broccoli and Brussels Sprouts.
Pick over, wash carefully, cut off the lower part of the
stems and lay in cold water, slightly salted, half an hour.
Cook quickly in boiling water, with a little salt, until tender.
This will be in twelve or fifteen minutes. Cook in an un-
covered saucepan. Drain well, lay in a neat pile lightly
heaped in the centre of a dish, and pour drawn butter over
them, or serve this in a tureen.
Broccoli and Eggs.
Boil two or three heads of broccoli until tender. Have
ready two cupfuls of butter drawn in the usual way, and
beat into it, while hot, four well-whipped eggs. Lay but-
tered toast in the bottom of a hot dish, and on this the
largest head of broccoli whole, as a centre-piece. Arrange
close about this the others cut into clustei-s, the stems
downward, and pour the egg-sauce over all.
Mashed Turnips.
Peel and lay in cold water, slightly salted, until the
water boils in the saucepan intended for them. Put them
in and boil until very tender. The time will depend upon
their age. Drain and mash in the cullender with a wooden
]
224 OOKHON SENSE.
spoon, stirriBg in at the last a tablespoonful of butter,
with pepper and salt to taste, and serve hot.
If eaten with boiled corned beef, you may take a little
of the liquor from the pot in which the meat is cooking ;
put it into a saucepan, boil up once to throw off the
scum, skim clean, and cook the turnips in this.
Or,
If the turnips are young, rub them when tender through
the cullender ; add a little milk, butter, pepper, and salt ;
heat to boiling in a clean saucepan, and serve.
Young Turnips Boiled Whole.
Pare smoothly, and tiim all into the same size and
shape. Lay in cold water half an hour. Put on in boiling
water, with a tablespoonful of butter, and stew until tender.
Drain dry, without crushing or breaking them ; pile in a
deep dish, and cover with a white sauce made of butter
drawn in milk. Turnips should be eaten very hot always.
Boiled Spinach.
In respect to quantity, spinach is desperately deceitful.
I never see it drained after it is boiled without bethinking
myself of a picture I saw many years since, illustrative of
the perils of innocent simplicity. A small (lucky) boy and
big (unlucky) one have been spending their holiday in fish-
ing. While the former, well satisfied with the result of his
day's sport, is busy putting up hiB rod and tackle, the de-
signing elder dexterously substitutes his own string of min-
nows for the other's store of fine perch. The little fellow,
turning to pick it up, without a suspicion of the cruel cheat,
makes piteous round eyes at his fellow, ejaculating, " How
they have swhrunk I "
A young housekeeper of my acquaintance, ordering a
VEGETABLES. 225
Spring dinner for Herself and husband, piirchascd a quart
of spinach. When it should have appeared upon the table,
there came in its stead a platter of sliced egg, she having
given out one for the dressing. " Where is the spinach ? "
she demanded of the maid of all work. " Under the egg,
ma'am ! " And it was really all there.
Moral, — Get enough spinach to be visible to the naked
eye. A peck is not too much for a family of four or ^^,
Pick it over very carefully; it is apt to be gritty.
Wash in several waters, and let it lie in the last half an
hour at least. Take out with your hands, shaking each
bunch well, and put into boiling water, with a little salt.
Boil from fifteen to twenty minutes. When tender, drain
thoroughly, chop very fine ; put into a saucepan with a
piece of butter the size of an egg, and pepper to taste. Stir
until very hot, turn into a dish and shape into a flat-topped
mound with a silver or wooden spoon; slice some hard-
boiled eggs and lay on top.
Or,
Rub the yolks of the eggs to a powder ; rniv with butter,
and when your mound is raised, spread smoothly over the
flat top. Four eggs will dress a good-sized dish. Cut the
whites into rings and garnish, laying them on the yellow
surface. This makes a pleasant dressing for the spinach.
Spinach A la CRfearE.
Boil and chop very fine, or rub through a cullender.
Season with pepper and salt. Beat in, while warm, three
tablespoonfuls melted butter (this is for a large dish). Put
into a saucepan and heat, stirring constantly. When smok-
ing hot, add three tablespoonfuls of cream and a teaspoonful
white sugar. Boil up once, still stirring, and press firmly
into a hot bowl or other mould. Turn into a hot dish and
garnish with boiled eggs.
10*
226 COMMON SENSE.
Green Peas.
Shell and lay iu cold water until you are ready to cook
them. Put into salted boiling water, and cook from twen-
ty minutes to half an hour. If young and fresh, the short-
er time will suffice. If just gathered from your own vines
and tender, season only with salt. Market peas are greatly
improved by the addition of a small lump of white sugar.
It improves taste and color. The English always put it in,
also a sprig of mint, to be removed when the peas are
dished. Drain well, and dish, with a great lump of butter
stirred in, and a little pepper. Keep hot.
Pea Fritters or Cakes. 4*
Cook a pint or three cups more peas than you need for
dinner. Mash while hot with a wooden spoon, seasoning
with pepper, salt, and butter. Put by until morning. Make
a batter of two whipped eggs, a cupful of milk, quarter tea-
spoonful soda, a half teaspoonful cream tartar, and half a
cup of flour. Stir the pearmixture into this, beating very
hard, and cook as you would ordinary griddle-cakes.
I can testify, from experience, that they make a delight-
fid morning dish, and hereby return thanks to the unknown
friend to whom I am indebted for the receipt.
Asparagus (boUed).
Cut your stalks of equal length, rejecting the woody or
lower portions, and scraping the white part which remains.
Throw into cold water as you scrape them. Tie in a bunch,
with soft strings — ^muslin or tape — and put into boiling
water slightly salted. If very young and fresh, it is well
to tie in a piece of coarse net to protect the tops. Boil
from twenty to forty minutes, according to the age. Just
before it is done, toast two or three slices of bread, cutting
VEGETABLES. 227
off the crust ; dip in the asparagus liquor, butter, and lay
in a hot dish. When you take off the asparagus, drain, un-
bind the bundle, and heap it upon the toast, with bits of
butter between the stalks.
Asparagus and Eggs.
Cut twenty-five or thirty heads of asparagus into bits
half an inch long, and boil fifteen minutes. Have a cup-
ful of rich drawn butter in a saucepan, and put in the as-
paragus when you have drained it dry. Heat together to
a boil, seasoning with pepper and salt, and pour into a but-
tered bake-dish. Break ^ve or six eggs cai'efuUy over the
surface ; put a bit of butter upon each ; sprinkle with salt,
and pepper, and put in the oven until the eggs are set.
You may beat the eggs — yolks and whites separately —
to a froth ; season with butter, pepper, and salt ; stir them
together, with the addition of three tablespoonfuls of m\}\r
or cream, and pour evenly over the asparagus mixture in
the dish. This is decidedly the better way of the two,
although somewhat more troublesome,
Aspakagus in Ambush. 4*
Cut off the tender tops of fifty heads of asparagus ; boil
and drain them. Have ready half a dozen (or more) stale
biscuit or rolls, from which you have cut a neat top slice
and scraped out the crumb. Set them in the oven to crisp,
.laying the tops beside them, that the cavities may be well
dried. Meanwhile, put into a saucepan a sugarless custard
made of a pint — ^if you need so much — of milk, and four
well-whipped eggs. Boil the milk first, before beating in
the eggs; set over the fire and stir until it thickens, when
add a great spoonful of butter, a little salt and pepper ;
228 COMMON 6EN6E.
lastly the asparagus tops, minced fine. Do not let it boil,
but take from the fire so soon as the asparagus is fairly in ;
fill the rolls with the mixture, put on the tops, fitting them
accurately ; set in the oven three minutes, and arrange on
a dish, to be eaten hot
The number of rolls will depend upon their size. It is
better to have them small, so that one can be served to each
person. They will be found extremely nice.
Boiled Okions.
Cut off tops and tails, and skin them. Lay in cold
water half an hour, then put into a saucepan with enough
boiling water to cover them. Cook fifteen minutes and
drain off the water, re-covering them with more from the
boiling tearkettle. Boil until a straw will pierce them ;
drain and put into a dish with pepper, salt, and plenty of
butter. Send around drawn butter with them. Never cook
onions in an iron pot.
Stewed Onions. 4*
Young onions should always be copked in this way :
Top, tail, and skin them, lay them in cold water half an hour
or more, then put into a saucepan with hot water enough
to cover them. When half done, throw off all the water,
except a small teacupful — less, if your mess is small ; add
a like quantity of milk, a great spoonful of butter, with
pepper and salt to taste. Stew gently until tender, and
turn into a deep dish.
If the onions are strong and large, boil in three waters,
throwing away all of the first and second, and reserving a
very little of the third to mix with the milk.
It ought to be more generally known that the disagreea-
ble odor left by any of the onion family upon the breath
may be removed by chewing and swallowing a few grains
ONIONS. 229
of roasted coffee. No more nutritious vegetable ever finds
its way to our tables, and it is greatly to be regretted that
the unpleasant result just named should deter so many from
eating it. It is especially beneficial to brain-workers and
nervous invalids — the very people who are least likely to
taste it.
Baked Onions.
The large Spanish or Beimuda onions are the only kinds
which are usually baked. Wash clean, but do not remove
the skins. Boil an hour — ^the water should be boiling
when they are put in, and slightly salt. Change it twice
during this time, always replenishing with more, boiling-
hot. Tarn off the water, take the onions out and lay upon
a cloth, that all the moisture may be absorbed or evaporate.
Kol] each in a round piece of buttered tissue-paper, twisting
it at the top to keep it closed, and bake in a slow oven
nearly an hour. When tender all through, peel them, put
them into a deep dish, and brown slightly, basting with
butter freely. This will take perhaps a quarter of an hour
more. Serve in a vegetable dish, and pour over the melted
butter, when you have sprinkled with pepper and salt.
Stuffed Onions.
Wash and skin very large Bermuda onions. Lay in
cold water an hour. Parboil in boiling water half an hour.
Drain, and while hot extract the hearts^ taking care not to
break the outer layers. Chop the inside thus obtained veiy
fine, with a little cold fat pork or bacon. Add bread-
crambs, pepper, salt, mace, and wet with a spoonful or two
of cream. Bind with a well-beaten egg, and work into a
smooth paste. Stuff the onions with this ; put into a drip-
ping-pan with a very little hot water, and simmer in the
oven for an hour, basting often with melted butter. When
230 COMMON BENSE.
done, take the onions up carefully, and arrange the open
ends uppermost in a vegetable dish. Add to the gravy in
the dripping-pan the juice of half a lemon, four tablespoon-
fuls of cream or milk, and a little browned flour wet with
cold milk. Boil up once, and pour over the onions.
Stewed Tomatoes. 4*
Loosen the skins by pouring scalding water upon them ;
peel and cut them up, extracting the cores or hard part of
the stem-end, and removing all unripe portions. Stew in a
saucepan (tin or porcelain) half an hour, when add salt
and pepper to taste, a teaspoonful of white sugar, and a
tablespoonful of butter. Stew gently fifteen minutes longer,
and serve.
Some cooks thicken the tomatoes with a little grated
bread. A minced onion — a small one — ^improves the flavor.
Another pleasant variety is to put a quarter as much green
corn as you have tomatoes into the saucepan when it is first
set on the fire, and stew gently.
Stuffed Baked Tomatoes. 4*
Choose large, smooth tomatoes, and cut a thin slice
from the blossom end of each, laying it aside for further
use. Scoop out the inside, and chop fine with a little grated
bread, some green com, salt, pepper, a teaspoonful white
sugar, and a tablespoonful butter. Mix well, and stuff the
hollowed tomatoes. Fit the top on neatly, place in circu-
lar rows in a deep dish and bake three-quarters of an hour,
to a light brown. Fill the interstices with the force-meat
if you have any left, before you bake. Do not peel them.
Scalloped Tomatoes, p^
Peel and cut in slices a quarter of an inch thick. Pack
in a pudding-dish in alternate layers, with a force-meat made
TOMATOES. 231
of bread-crumbs, butter, salt, pepper, and a little white
sugar. Spread thickly upon each stratum of tomatoes, and
when the dish is nearly full, put tomatoes uppermost, a
good bit of butter upon each slice. Dust with pepper and
a little sugar. Strew with dry bread-crumbs, and bake cov-
ered half an hour ; remove the lid and bake brown.
Scallop of Tomatoes and Gbesn Corn, p^
This is made as above, substituting for the bread-crumbs
in the force-meat, green corn cut from the cob, and season-
ing with some fat pork chopped very fine, a minced shallot,
pepper, salt, and sugar. Let the top layer be tomatoes,
butter and season, and sift grated bread-crumbs over it to
brown the scallop. Bake covered half an hour ; uncover
and leave in the oven as much longer. This time is for a
lai'ge dishful.
Broiled Tomatoes.
Select large, firm ones, and do not peel. Slice half an
inch thick, and broil upon an oyster gridiron. A few
minutes will suffice to cook them. Have ready in a cup
some hot butter, seasoned with pepper, salt, a little sugai-,
and a half a teaspoonful of made mustard. As soon as the
tomatoes are done, dip each piece in this mixture and lay
upon a hot chafing-dish. When all are dished, heat what
remains of the seasoning to a boil, pour upon them, and
serve at once.
Broiled tomatoes are much liked by those who have
eaten them cooked in this manner.
Baked Tomatoes {Plain).
Peel and slice a quarter of an inch thick. Pack in a
pudding-dish, seasoning each layer with salt, pepper, butter,
and a very little white sugar. Bake covered half an hour ;
232 COMMON 8ENSK
remove the lid, and brown for fifteen minutes. Five min-
utes before taking from the oven, pour over the top three
or four tablespoonfuls of cream whipped up for a few
minutes with melted butter.
Raw Touatoes.
Do not loosen the skins with scalding water. It im-
pairs the flavor and destroys the crispness. Pare with a
keen knife, slice and lay in a glass dish. Season with
pepper, salt, and vinegar, stirring a piece of ice rapidly
around in the dressing before pouring it over the tomatoes,
and setting the dish in the refrigerator until wanted.
There is no salad, excepting, perhaps, lettuce and cucum-
bers, that is more improved by the use of ioe than tomatoes.
Raw Cucumbers.
Pare neatly from end to end, and lay in ice-water one
hour. Wipe them and slice thin. Season with pepper,
salt^ and vinegar — and oil, if you wish — claying some bits of
ice among them, with thin slices of onion. Cucumbers
should be gathered while the dew is on them, and eaten the
same day. Leave them in a cool place until you are ready
to pare them.
Fried Cucumbers. 9^t
Pare and lay in ice-water half an hour. Cut length-
wise into slices nearly half an inch thick, and lay in ice-
water ten minutes longer. Wipe each piece dry with a
soft cloth, sprinkle with pepper and salt, and di^edge with
flour. Fry to a delicate brown in sweet clarified dripping,
nice lard, or butter.
Many declare that cuciimbers are never fit to eat unless
fried, and they are assuredly far more wholesome than
when served raw.
GBEEN CORN. 238
STEwia) Cucumbers.
Pare, lay in ice-water an hour ; then slice a quarter of
an inch thick. Pick out the seeds with a pen-knife, and
put into a saucepan with enough boiling water to cover
them. Stew fifteen minutes, and drain off the water.
Add enough from the boiling tea-kettle to keep them from
burning; season with salt and pepper, and stir carefully
in a tablespoonful of butter — or two, should the quantity
of cucumber be large. Stew gently ten minutes, and add
half a cupful of rich milk; thicken with a little flour,
boil up, and serve in a deep dish, squeezing some lemon-
juice in at the last.
This is a popular English dish, although it seems a
strange one to American ideals.
Boiled Green Corn.
Choose young sugar-corn, full grown, but not hard ;
test with the nail. When the grain is pierced, the milk
should escape in a jet, and not be thick. Clean by strip-
ping off* the outer leaves, turn back the innermost cover-
ing carefully, pick off every thread of silk, and recover
the ear with the thin husk that grew nearest it. Tie at
the top with a bit of thread, put into boiling water salted,
and cook flast from twenty minutes to half an hour, in
proportion to size and age. Cut off the stalks close to the
cob, and send whole to table wrapped in a napkin.
Or, you can cut from the cob while hot, and season
with butter, pepper, and salt. Send to table in a root or
vegetable dish.
Corn and Tomatoes.
Take equal quantities of green com cut from the cob,
and tomatoes sliced and peeled. Stew together half an
234 COMMON 6ENBK.
hour; season "with pepper, salt, and a very little sugar.
Stew fifteen minutes longer, and stir in a great lump of
butter. Five minutes later, pour out and serve.
SlX'COTASH.
This is made of gi'een corn and Lima beans, although
you can substitute for the latter string or butter beans.
Have a third more com than beans, when the former has
been cut from the cob and the beans shelled. Put into
boiling water enough to cover them — ^no more — and stew
gently together until tender — perhaps half an hour — stir-
ring now and then. Pour off neai-ly all the water, and
add a large cupful of milk. Stew in this, watching to pre-
vent burning, for an hour ; then stir in a great lump of
butter, a teaspoonf ul of flour wet with cold milk, pepper
and salt to taste. Boil up once, and pour into a deep
vegetable-dish. If you use string-beans, string and cut up
into half-inch lengths before cooking.
Green Corn Pudding. 4*
1 quart milk.
6 eggs.
2 tablespoonfuls melted butter.
1 " white sugar.
1 dozen ears of com — large ones.
Grate the com from the cob ; beat the whites and yolks
of the eggs separately. Put the com and yolks together,
stir hardy and add the butter; then the milk gradually,
beating all the while ; next the sugar and {i little salt ;
lastly the whites. Bake slowly at first, covering the dish,
for an hour. Remove the cover, and brown finely.
This is a most delicious accompaniment to a meat
courae, when properly mixed and baked. Warm up what
GREEN CORN. 285
is left from dinner for breakfast, by moistening it with a
little warm milk and stirring in a saucepan until smoking-
hot. You can make this pudding from canned com in
winter.
Green Corn Fritters or Cakes. »J^
Grate the corn, and allow an egg and a half for every
cupful, with a tablespoonful of milk or cream. Beat the
eggs well, add the corn by degrees, beating very hard ; salt
to taste; put a tablespoonful of melted butter to every
pint of com ; stir in the milk, and thicken with just
enough flour to hold them together — say a tablespoonful
for every two eggs. You may fry in hot lard, as you would
fritters, but a better plan is to cook upon a griddle, like
batter cakes. Test a little first, to see that it is of the
right consistency.
Eaten at dinner or breakfast, these always meet with a
cordial welcome.
Stewed Green Corn.
Cut from the cob, and stew fifteen minutes in boiling
water. Turn oflf most of this, cover with cold milk, and
stew until very tender, adding, before you take it up, a
large lump of butter cut into bits and rolled in flour.
Season with pepper and salt to taste. Boil five minutes,
and serve.
Cold com left from dinner shovQd be cut from the cob
and stewed a few minutes in a little milk, adding seasoning
as above. Or, you can mix it with chopped cold potatoes —
Irish or sweet ; heat a piece of butter or beef-dripping in
a frying-pan, and stir in the mixture until smoking-hot.
Never throw away a good ear of sweet corn.
286 OOHMON SENSE.
EoASTED Green Corn.
Turn back the husks upon the stalk, pick off the silk,
recover with the husks closely as possible, and roast in the
hot ashes of a wood-fire. Eat with butter, salt, and pep-
per, out of doors, in the forest, or on the beach.
Salsify or Oyster-Plant {Stewed). >{«
Scrape the roots, dropping each into cold water as soon
as it is cleaned. Exposure to the air blackens them. Cut
in pieces an inch long, put into a saucepan with hot water
enough to cover them, and stew until tender. Turn off
nearly all the water, and add a cupful of cold milk.
Stew ten minutes after this begins to boil ; put in a great
lump of butter, cut into bits, and roUeil in flour ; pepper
and salt to taste. Boil up once, and serve. The taste is
curiously like that of stewed oysters.
Fried Salsify, or Mock Oysters. ^
Scrape the roots thoroughly, and lay in cold water ten
or fifteen minutes. Boil whole until tender, drain, and
when cold, mash with a wooden spoon to a smooth paste,
picking out all the fibres. Moisten with a little milk ; add
a tablespoonful of butter, and an egg and a half for every
cupful of salsify. Beat the eggs light. Make into round
cakes, dredge with flour, and fry brown.
Fried Eqq-Plant. >|«
Slice the egg-plant at least half on inch thick ; pare each
piece carefully, and lay in salt and water, putting a plate
upon the topmost to keep it under the brine, and let them
alone for an hour or more. Wipe each slice, dip in beaten
egg, then in cracker-crumbs, and fry in hot lard until well
done and nicely browned.
TBOETABLEB. 237
Stuffed Egg-Plant.
Parboil for ten minutes. Slit each down the side, and
L extract the seeds. Prop open the cut with a bit of clean
wood or china, and lay in cold salt and water while you
prepare the force-meat. Make this of bread-crumbs, minute
bits of fat pork, salt, pepper, nutmeg, parsley, and a very
little onion, chopped up together. Moisten with cream, and
bind with a beaten egg. Fill the cavity in the egg-plant
with this ; wind soft pack-thread about them to keep the
slit shut, and bake, putting a little water in the dripping-
pan. Baste with butter and water when they begin to
cook. Test with a straw when they are tender, and baste
twice at the last with butter. Lay the egg-plants in a dish,
add two or three tablespoonfuls of cream to the gravy,
thicken with a little flour, put in a teaspoonfiil of chopped
parsley, boil up once, and pour over the vegetable.
Boiled Carrots.
Wash and scrape well, and lay in cold water half an
hour. If large, split them, or cut across in two or three
pieces. Put into boiling water, slightly salted, and boil
imtil tender. Large ones will require nearly an hour and
a half to cook. Young carrots should only be washed be-
fore they are boiled, and the skin be nibbed off with a cloth
afterward. Butter well, and serve hot.
Stewed Carrots.
Scrape, and lay in cold water half an hour or more.
Boil whole three-quarters of an hour, drain, and cut into
round slices a quarter of an inch thick. Put on in a sauce-
pan with a teacupful of broth — ^veal, or beef, or mutton ;
pepper and salt to taste, and stew gently half an hour. Just
before they are done, add four tablespoonfuls cream or milk.
288 COMMON BENSE.
and a good lump of butter cut into bits, and rolled in flour.
Boil up and serve.
If you have not the broth, use water, and put in a table-
spoonful of butter when the saucepan is set on the fire, in
addition to the quantity I have specified.
AnoHver Way,
Scrape and boil until neai^ly done. Cut into small
squares, and put into a saucepan, with two small onions
minced ; a little chopped parsley, pepper and salt to taste,
and half a cup of rather thin drawn butter. They will re-
quire half an hour's simmering. Serve hot.
Mashed Carrots.
Wash, scrape, and lay in cold water a while. Boil very
tender in hot water, slightly salted. Diuin, and mash
with a beetle or wooden spoon, working in a large spoonful
of butter, with pepper and salt. A little cream will im-
prove them. Mound as you would mashed potatoes, and
stamp a figure upon them, or mark in squares with a knife.
French, oe String or " Snap " Beans.
Break off the tops and bottoms and " string " carefully.
Tlieji pare both edges with a sharp knife, to be certain that
no remnant of the tough fibre remains. Kot one cook in
a hundred performs this duty as deftly and thoroughly as
it should be done. I have heard several gentlemen say that
they could always tell, after the first mouthful, whether the
mistress or the hireling had " strung " the beans. It is a
tedious and disagreeable business, this pulling bits of woody
thread out of one^s mouth when he wants to enjoy his dinner.
Cut the beans thus cleared of their troublesome attachisy
in pieces an inch long, an*! lay in cold water with a little
VEGETABLES. 239
salt for fifteen or twenty minutes. Drain them, and put
into a saucepan of boiling water. Boil quickly, twenty
minutes if well-grown — ^less if small — at any rate, until
tender. Drain in a cullender until the water ceases to drip
from them. Dish with a great spoonful of butter stirred in.
To my taste, beans need to have a bit of bacon boiled
with them — whole, or chopped into bits that dissolve in the
boiling. It mellows the rank taste you seek to remove by
boiling.
Lima and Butter Beans.
Shell into cold water ; let them lie a while ; put into a
pot with plenty of boiling water and a little salt, and cook
fast until tender. Large ones sometimes require nearly an
hour's boiling. The average time is forty minutes. Drain
and butter well when dished, peppering to taste.
Kidney and other Small Beans.
Shell into cold water, and cook in boiling until tender.
A small piece of fat bacon boiled with them is an advan-
tage to nearly all. If you do this, do not salt them.
Dried Beans.
Wash and soak over night in lukewarm water, chang-
ing it several times for warmer. If this is done they will
require but two hours' boiling. Drain very thoroughly,
pressing them firmly, but lightly, in the cullender with a
wooden spoon; mix in a great lump of butter when they
are dished.
Boiled Beets.
Wash, but do not touch with a knife before they are
boiled. If cut while raw, they bleed themselves pale in
the hot water. Boil until tender — ^if full-grown at least
240 COMMON BENSE.
two hours. When done, rub off the skins, slice round if
large, split if young, and butter well in the dish. Salt and
pepper to taste.
A nice way is to slice them upon a hot dish, mic a great
spoonfvQ of melted butter with four or five of vinegar, pep-
per and salt, heat to boiling, and pour over the beets.
Instead of consigning the cold ones ^* left over ^' to the
swill-pail, pour cold vinegar upon them and use as pickles
with cold or roast meat.
Stewed Beets.
Boil young, sweet beets, until nearly done ; skin and
slice them. Put into a saucepan with a minced shallot and
parsley, two tablespoonfuls melted butter, a like quantity
of vinegar, some salt and peppen Set on the fire and sim-
mer twenty minutes, shaking the saucepan now and then.
Serve with the gravy poured over them.
Boused Parsnips.
If young, scrape before cooking. If old, pare carefully,
and if large, split. Put into boiling water, salted, and boil,
if small and tender, from half to three-quarters of an hour,
if full-grown, more than an hour. When tender, drain and
slice lengthwise, buttering well when you dish.
Fried Parsnips. >|*
Boil until tender, scrape off the skin, and cut in thick
lengthwise slices. Dredge with flour and fry in hot drip-
ping or lard, turning when one side is browned. Drain off
every drop of fat ; pepper, and serve hot.
VEGETABLES. 241
Parsnip Fritters. >|*
Boil tender, mcush smooth and fine, picking ont the
woody bits. For three large parsnips allow two eggs, one
cup rich milk, one tablespoonful butter, one teaspoonful
salt, three tablespoonfuls flour. Beat the eggs light, stir in
the mashed parsnips, beating hard; then the butter and
salt, next the milk, lastly the salt. Fry as fritters, or as
griddle-cakes.
Mashed Parsnips.
Boil and scrape them, mash smooth with the back of a
wooden spoon, or a potato-beetle, picking out the fibres ;
mix in three or four spoonfuls of cream, a great spoonful
of butter, pepper and salt to taste. Heat to boiling in a
saucepan, and serve. Heap in a mound as you would po-
tato cooked in the same way.
Buttered Parsnips.
Boil tender and scrape. Slice a quarter of an inch thick
lengthwise. Put into a saucepan with three tablespoonfuls
melted butter, pepper and salt, and a little chopped parsley.
Shake over the fire until the mixture boils. Lay the pars-
nips in order upon a dish, pour the sauce over them, and
garnish with parsley. It is a pleasant addition to this dish
to stir a few spoonfuls of cream into the sauce after the
parsnips are taken out ; boil up, and pour upon them.
Boiled Sea-kale.
Tie up in bunches when you have picked it over care-
fully, and lay in cold water for an hour. Put into salted
boiling water, and cook twenty or thirty minutes until ten-
der. Lay some slices of buttered toast in the bottom of a
dish, clip the threads binding the stems of the searkale, and
11 .
2-12 COMMON SENSE.
pile upon the toast, buttering it abundantly. Or, you can
send around with it a boat of drawn butter.
Stewed Sea-kale.
Clip off the sterna, wash well, tie in neat bunches, and
when it has lain in cold water an hour or so, put into a
saucepan of boiling water, slightly salted. Boil fifteen
minutes, drain- well, clip the threads, and return to the
saucepan, with a little rich gravy if you have it. If not,
pour in three or four tablespoonfuls of butter drawn in milk,
pepper and salt, and simmer eight or ten minutes.
Artichokes.
Strip off the outer leaves, and cut the stalks close to
the bottom. Wash well and lay in cold water two hours.
Immerse in boiling water, the stalk-ends uppermost, with
an inverted plate upon them to keep them down. Boil an
hour and a half, or until very tender. Arrange in circles
upon a dish, the tops up, and pour drawn butter over
them.
Summer Squash or Cymbling.
There are many varieties of this vegetable, but the gen-
eral rules for cooking them are the same. Unless they are
extremely tender, it is best to pare them, cutting away as
little as possible besides the hard outer rind. Take out
the seeds, when you have quartered them, and lay the
pieces in cold water. Boil until tender throughout. Drain
well, pressing out all the water ; mash soft and smooth, sea-
soning with butter, pepper, and salt Do this quickly, that
you may serve up hot.
v£oetable8. 243
Winter Squash.
Pare, take out the ^eeds, cut into small pieces, and stew
tmtil soft and tender. Drain, press well, to rid it of all the
water, and mash with butter, pepper, and salt. It will
take much longer to cook than the summer squash, and be-
fore you put it into hot water, should lie in cold at least
two hours.
Stewed Pumpkin.
Cut in two, extract the seeds, slice, and pare. Cover
with cold water for an hour ; put over the fire in a pol of
boiling water and stew gently, stirring often, -tin til it breaks
to pieces. Drain and squeeze, rub through a cullender,
then return to the saucepan with a tablespoonful of butter,
pepper, and salt to taste. Stir rapidly from the bottom
until very hot, when dish, rounding into a mound, with
" dabs " of pepper on the top.
Baked Pumpkin.
Choose the richest pumpkin you can find ; take out the
seeds, cut in quarters or eighths, pare, and slice lengthwise
half an inch thick. Arrange in layers — not more than two
or three slices deep— in a shallow but broad baking-dish.
Put a very little water in the bottom, and bake very slowly
until not only done, but dry. It requires a long time,
for the heat should be gentle. Butter each strip on both
sides when you dish, and eat hot with bread and butter for
tea.
I have been assured, by people who have tried it, that
this is a palatable dish to those who are fond of the flavor
of pumpkin. I insert it here upon their recommendation
— ^not my own.
244: OOMMON BEN8E.
Poke Stalks.
When the young stalks are not larger than a man's lit-
tle finger, and show only a tuft of leaves at top a few
inches above ground, is the time to gather them. They are
unfit for table use when larger and older. Scrape the
stalks, but do not cut off the leaves. Lay in cold water,
with a little salt, for two hours. Tie in bundles, as you do
asparagus, put into a saucepan of boiling water, and cook
fast three-quarters of an hour. Lay buttered toast in the
bottom of a dish, untie the bundles, and pile the poke
evenly upon it, buttering very well, and sprinkling with pep-
per and salt. This is a tolerable substitute for asparagus.
Mushrooms.
Imprimis, — ^Have nothing to do with them until you
are an excellent judge between the true and false. That
sounds somewhat like the advice of the careful mother to
her son, touching the wisdom of never going near the water
until he learned how to swim — ^but the caution can hardly
be stated too strongly. Not being ambitious of martyrdom,
even in the cause of gastronomical enterprise, especially if
the instrument is to be a contemptible, rank-smelling fun-
gus, I never eat or cook mushrooms ; but I learned, years
ago, in hill-side rambles, how to distinguish the real from
the spurious article. . Shun low, damp, shady spots in your
quest. The good mushrooms are most plenty in August
and September, and spring up in the open, simny fields or
commons, after low-lying fogs or soaking dews. The top is
a dirty white, — par complaisance^ pearl-color, — the under-
side pink or salmon, changing to russet or brown soon after
they are gathered. The poisonous sport all colors, and are
usually far prettier than their virtuous kindred. Those
which are dead- white above and below, as well as the stalk,
are also to be let alone.
MU8HBOOHB. 245
■
Cook a peeled white onion in the pot with your mnsh-
rooms. If it turn black, throw all away, and be properly
thankful for your escape. It is also deemed safe to reject
the mess of wild pottage, if, in stirring them, your silver
spoon should blacken. But I certainly once knew a lady
who did not discover until hers were eaten and partially
digested, that the silver had come to grief in the discharge
of duty. It was very dark, and required a deal of rubbing
to restore cleanliness and polish ; but the poison — if death
were, indeed, in the pot — ^was slow in its effects, since she
lived many years afber the experiment. It is as well per-
haps, though, not to repeat it too often.
To re-capitulate. — The eatable ones are round when
they first show their heads in a critical world. As they
grow, the lower part unfolds and reveals a lining of salmon
fringe, while the stalk and top are dirty white. When the
mushroom is more than twenty-four hours old, or within a
few hours after it is gathered, the salmon changes to brown.
The skin can also be more easily peeled from the edges than '
in the spurious kinds.
Stewed Mushboohs.
Choose button mushrooms of uniform size. Wipe clean
•and white with a wet flannel cloth, and cut off the stalks.
Put into a porcelain saucepan, cover with cold water, and
stew very gently fifteen minutes. Salt to taste; add a
tablespoonfdl of butter, divided into bits and rolled in
flour. Boil three or four minutes; stir in three table-
spoonfiils of cream whipped up with an egg, stir two min-
utes without letting it boil, and serve.
Or,
Rub them white, stew in water ten minutes ; strain par-
tially, and cover with as much warm milk as you have
246 GOMMON SEN6E.
poured off water ; stew ftye minutes in this ; salt, pepper,
and add some veal or chicken gravy, or drawn butter.
Thicken with a little flour wet in cold milk, and a beaten
©gg-
Baked Mushrooms.
»
Take fresh ones, — the size is not very important, — cut
off nearly all the stalks, and wipe off the skin with wet
flannel Arrange neatly in a pie-dish, pepper and salt,
sprinkle a little mace among them, and lay a bit of butter
upon each. Bake about half an hour, basting now and
then with butter and water, that they may not be too dry.
Serve in the dish in which they were baked, with maitr6
^hdtd sauce poured over them.
Bboiled Mushrooms.
Peel the finest and freshest you can get, score the under
side, and cut the stems close. Put into a deep dish and
anoint well, once and again, with melted butter. Salt and
pepper, and let them lie in the butter an hour and a half.
Then broil over a clear, hot fire, using an oyster-gridiron,
and turning it over as one side browns. Serve hot, well
buttered, pepper and salt, and squeeze a few drops of lemon-
juice upon each.
Celery.
Wash and scrape the stalks when you have cut off the
roots. Cut off the green leaves and reject the greenest,
toughest stalks. Betain the blanched leaves that grow
nearest the heart. Keep in cold water until you send to
the table. Serve in a celery glass, and let each guest dip in
salt for himself. {See Cdery SaUui,)
RADISHES — OKRA. 247
Kadishes.
A friend of mine, after many and woful trials with ^' the
greatest plague of life," engaged a supercilious young lady
who " only hired out in the best of families as a professed
cook." She arrived in the afternoon, and was told that tea
would be a simple affair — bread-and-butter, cold meat, cake,
and a dish of radishes, which were brought in from the gar-
den as the order was given. The lady was summoned to
the pai-lor at that moment, and remarked in leaving — " You
can prepare those now, Bridget." Awhile later slie peeped
into the kitchen, attracted by the odor of hot fat. * The
frying-pan hissed on the fire, the contents were a half-pound
of butter, and the " professional " stood at the table with a
radish topped and tailed in one hand, a knife in the other.
" I'm glad to see ye," thus she greeted the intruder. " Is
it paled or owpaled ye'll have them radishes ? Some of the
quality likes 'em fried wid the skins on — some widout. I
thought I'd wait and ask yerself."
My readers can exercise their own choice in the matter
of peeling, putting the frying out of the question. Wash
and lay them in ice-water so soon as they are gathered.
Cut off the tops when your breakfajst or supper is ready,
leaving about an inch of the stalks on ; scrape off the skin
if you choose, but the red ones are prettier if you do not ;
arrange in a tall glass or a round glass saucer, the stalks out-
side, the points meeting in the centre; lay cracked ice
among them and send to table. Scrape and quarter the
large white ones.
Good radishes are crisp to the teeth, look cool, and taste
hot.
Okra.
Boil the young pods, in enough salted hot water to
cover them, until tender. Drain thoroughly, and when
248 COMMON SENSE.
di&hed pour over them a sauce of three or four spoonfuls
melted (not drawn) butter, a tablcspoonful of vinegar, pep-
per and salt to taste. Heat to boiling before covering the
okras with it.
Boiled Hominy.
The large kind, made of cracked, not ground corn, is
erroneously termed '* samp " by Northern grocers. This is
the Indian name for the fine-gi*ained. To avoid confusion,
we will call the one large, the other small. Soak the large
over night in cold water. Next day put it into a pot
witl\ at least two quarts of water to a quart of the hominy,
and boil slowly three hours, or until it is soft. Drain in a
cullender, heap in a root-dish, and stir in butter, pepper, and
salt.
Soak the small hominy in the same way, and boil in as
much water, slowly, stirring very often, almost constantly
at the last. It should be as thick as mush, and is generally
eaten at breakfast with sugar, cream, and nutmeg. It is a
good and exceedingly wholesome dish, especially for chil-
dren. The water in which it is boiled should be slightly
salt. If soaked in warm water, and the same be changed
once or twice for warmer, it will boil soft in an hour. Boil
In the last water.
Fried Hominy.
If large, put a good lump of butter or dripping in the
frying-pan, and heat. Turn in some cold boiled hominy,
and cook until the under-^de is browned. Place a dish up-
side-down on the frying-pan and upset the latter, that the
brown crust may be uppermost.
Eat with meat.
Cut the small hominy in slices and fry in hot lard or
drippings. Or, moisten to a soft paste with milk ; beat in
some melted butter, bind with a beaten egg, form into
HOMINY CSOQUETTES — ^BAKED HOMINY. 249
round cakes with your hands,* dredge with flour and fry a
light brown.
Hominy Croquettes. 4*
To a cupful of cold boiled hominy (small-grained) add a
tablespoonfvQ melted butter and stir hard, moistening, by
degrees, with a cupful of milk, beating to a soft light paste.
Put in a teaspoonfiil of white sugar, and lastly, a well-
beaten egg. KoU into oval balls with floured hands, dip in
beaten egg, then cracker-crumbs, and fry in hot lard.
Very good I
Baked Hominy. >|*
To a cupful of cold boiled hominy (small kind) allow
two cups of milk, a heaping teaspoonful of butter, a tea-
spoonful of white sugar, a little salt, and three eggs. Beat
the eggs very light, yolks and whites separately. Work
the yolks first into the hominy, alternately with the melted
butter. When thoroughly mixed, put in sugar and salt^
and go on beating while you soften the batter gradually
with the milk. Be careful to leave no lumps in the hominy.
Lastly stir in the whites, and bake in a buttered pudding-
dish until light, firm, and delicately browned.
This can be eaten as a dessert, but it is a delightful
vegetable, and the best substitute that can be devised for
green com pudding.
Hige Croquettes. 4*
Half a cup of rice.
1 pint milk.
2 tablespoonfuls sugar.
3 eggs.
A little grated lemon-peel.
1 tablespoonful melted butter.
A saltspoonful salt.
11*
250 GOHMON 8EN8E.
Soak the rice three hours in warm water enough to
cover it. Draiu almost dry, and pour in the milk. Stew
in a farina-kettle, or one saucepan set in another of hot
water, until the rice is very tender. Add the sugar, butter
and salt, and simmer ten minutes. Whisk the eggs to a
froth, and add cautiously, taking the saucepan from the fire
while you whip them into the mixture. Ketum to the
range or stove, and stir while they thicken, not allowing
them to boil. Bemove the saucepan, and add the grated
lemon-peel ; then turn out upon a well-greased dish to
cool. When cold and stiff, flour your hands and roll into
oval or pear-shaped balls ; dip in beaten egg, then in fine
cracker-crumbs, and fry in nice lard.
Or,
You can make a plainer dish of cold boiled rice, mois-
tened with milk and a little melted butter to a smooth
paste. Add sugar and salt, bind with two or three beaten
eggs ; make into cakes or balls, and proceed as directed
above. Eat hot with roast or boiled fowls. If you shape
like a pear, stick a clove in the small end for the stem.
Boiled Rice.
Pick over carefully and wash in two waters, letting it
stand in the last until you are ready to boil. Have ready
some boiling water slightly salted, and put in the rice.
Boil it just twenty minutes, and do not put a spoon in it,
but shake up hard and often, holding the cover on with the
other hand. When done, drain off the water, and set the
sauce-pan imcovered upon the range, where the rice will
dry, i^t bum, for five minutes.
Eat with boiled mutton or fowls.
MAOABONL 251
Baked Macaboni. 4^
Break half a pound of pipe macaroni in pieces an inch
long, and put into a saucepan of boiling water slightly
salted. Stew gently twenty minutes. It should be soft,
but not broken or split. Drain well and put a layer in the
bottom of a buttered pie or pudding-dish ; upon this grate
some mild, rich cheese, and scatter over it some bits of
butter. Spread upon the cheese more macaroni, and fill
the dish in this order, having macaroni at the top, but-
tered well, without the cheese. Add a few spoonfuls of
cream or milk, and a very little salt. Bake covered half
an hour, then brown nicely, and serve in the bake-dish.
Stewed Macakoni — Italian Style.
Break the macaroni into inch lengths, and stew twenty
minutes, or until tender. Prepare the sauce beforehand.
Cut half a pound of beef into strips and stew half an hour.
The water should be cold when the meat is put in. At the
end of that time, add a minced onion and a pint of toma-
toes peeled and sliced. Boil for an hour, and strain
through a cullender when you have taken out the meat.
The sauce should be well boiled down by this time. You
do not want more than a pint for a large dish of macaroni.
Ketum the liquid to the saucepan, add a good piece of
butter, with pepper and salt, and stew until you are ready
to dish the macaronL Drain this well, sprinkle lightly
with salt, and heap upon a chafing-dish or in a root-dish.
Four the tomato sauce over it ; cover and let it stand in a
warm place ten minutes before sending to table. Send
around grated cheese with it. The Italians serve the meat
also in a separate dish as a ragoCtt, adding some of the sauce,
highly seasoned with pepper and other spices.
252 OOMMON SENSE.
Macaboni a la Cr^me. 4^
Cook the macaroni ten minutes in boiling water.
Drain this off, and add a cupful of milk, with a little salt.
Stew until tender. In another saucepan heat a cup of
milk to boiling, thicken with a teaspoonful of flour, stir in
a tablespoonful of butter, and lastly, a beaten egg. When
this thickens, pour over the macaroni after it is dished.
ThiB is a simple and good dessert, eaten with butter,
sugar, and nutmeg, or sweet sauce. If set on with meat,
grate, cheese thickly over it, or send around a saucer of
grated cheese with it.
Egos.
To guess (I do not say determine) whether an egg is
good, shut one eye ; firame the egg in the hollow of the
hand, telescope-wise, and look at the sun through it with
the open eye. If you can distinctly trace the outline
of the yolk and the white looks clear around it, the chances
are in favor of the egg and the buyer. Or, shake it gently
at your ear. If addled, it will gurgle like water ; if there
is a chicken inside, you may distinguish a slight ^' thud ''
against the sides of the egg. Or, still again, you may try
eggs from your own poultry-yard by putting them into a
pan of cold water. The freshest sink first. Those that
float are questionable — generally worse.
The best plan is to break them. In making cake, or
anything that requires more than one, break each over a
saucer, that it may be alone in its condemnation, if bad.
Ileject doubtful ones without hesitation. Yield implicit
trust, or none at all.
Keep eggs in a cool, not cold place. Pack in bran or
salt, with the small end do'^fuward, if you wish to use within
two or three weeks ; and furthermore, take the precaution
to grease them well with linseed oil, or wash them over with
EGOS. 253
a weak solution of gum tragacanth or varnish. This ex-
cludes the air. Another way is to make some pretty sti*ong
lime-water, allowing a pound of lime to a gallon of boiling
water. When perfectly cold, fill a large jar with it in
which you have packed the eggs, small end downward ; lay
a light saucer upon the top to keep them under water, and
keep in a cool place. Renew the lime-water every three
weeks. You may add an ounce of saltpetre to it.
Eggs for boiling may be ^^ canned " as follows : So soon
as they are brought in from the nests, put two or three
dozen at a time in a deep pan ; pour scalding water over
them ; let it stand thirty seconds, and turn it all off. Cover
immediately with more scalding water, and repeat the pro-
cess yet the third time. Wipe dry, and pack in bran or
salt when they cool. Tliis hardens the albumen into an
air-tight case for the yolk. Of course, you cannot use these
eggs for cake or syllabubs, or anything that is prepared
with whipped eggs. Pack with the small end down.
BoiLEa> Eoos.
Put into a saucepan of boiling water with a tablespoon,
not to break or crack them. Only a slovenly cook, or a
careless one, drops them in with her fingers. Boil steadily
three minutes, if you want them soft — ten, if hard.
Another way is to put them on in cold water, and let it
come to a boil, which will be in ten minutes. The inside,
white and yolk, will be then of the consistency of custard.
Many gourmands like them best thus. Still another is to
put them in one of the silver egg-boilers used on the break-
fast-table (a covered bowl will do as well) ; cover them
with boiling water, and let them stand three minutes.
Pour this off, and refill with more, also boiling hot, and
leave them in it five minutes longer. Wrap in a napkin
in a deep dish, if you have not a regular egg-dish.
254 COMMON 6£N8£.
Dropped or Poached Eggs.
Strain some boiling water into a frying-pan, which must
also be perfectly clean. The least impurity will mar the
whiteness of the eggs. When the water boils, break the
eggs separately into a saucer. Take the firying-pan off, and
slip the eggs, one by one, carefully upon the surface. When
all ai'e in, put back over the fire and boil gently three min-
utes. Take out with a perforated skimmer, drain, and lay
upon slices of buttered toast in a hot dish. Garnish with
parsley, and dust with pepper and salt.
Poached Eggs A la CRftifE. 4^
Nearly fill a dean frying-pan with strained water boil-
ing-hot ; strain a tablespoonful of vinegar through double
muslin, and add to the water with a little salt. Slip your
eggs from the saucer upon the top of the water (first tak-
ing the pan from the fire). Boil three minutes and a half,
drain, and lay on buttered toast in a hot dish. Turn the
water firom the pan and pour in half a cupful of ci-eam or
milk. If you use the latter, thicken with a very little
(om-><arch. Let it heat to a boil, stinging to prevent burn-
ing, and add a great spoonful of butter, some pepper and
salt. Boil up once, and pour over the eggs. A better way
still is to heat the milk in a separate saucepan, that thp
eggs may not have to stand. A little broth improves the
sauce.
Ham and Eggs.
Fry the eggs in a little very nice salted lard ; drain off
every drop of grease, and lay them upon a hot dish, with
neat slices of fried ham around the edges, half the size of
the slice as first carved from the ham. . Trim off the rough
edges of the eggs, and cut the ham evenly in oblong pieces,
before dishing. Garnish with parsley.
EGOS. 255
4
Fried Eoos.
Melt some butter in a frying-pan, and when it hisses,
drop in the eggs carefully. Fry three minutes ; dust with
pepper and salt, and transfer to a hot dish.
Fricasseed Eoos. 4^
Boil the eggs hard, cut in half crosswise, and take out
the yolks. Chop these fine, or rub to a paste, with a little
ground tongue or ham or cold fowl, some minced parsley,
some melted butter, and a very little made mustard. Work
well together and fill the whites with it, setting them close
together in a deep covered dish, the open ends up. Have
ready some veal gravy or chicken broth ; heat to boiling in
a saucepan with a half teaspoonful chopped parsley, salt,
pepper, and lastly three tablespoonfuls of cream to a cup
of broth. Boil up; pour smoking hot over the eggs, let
them stand five minutes, closely covered, and send to table.
This is not an expensive dish. Eggs are always a
cheaper breakfast-dish for a small family than meat, even
at fifty cents a dozen. Six will make a nice quantity of
the fricassee, . and it is a delicious relish. Always drop
hard-boiled eggs into cold water as soon as they are done,
to prevent the yolks from turning black.
Breaded' Egos. 4^
Boil hard, and cut in round thick slices. Pepper and
salt ; dip each in beaten raw egg, then in fine bread-crumbs
or powdered cracker, and fry in nice dripping or butter,
hissing hot. Drain off every drop of grease, and serve on
a hot dish for breakfast, with sauce, like that for Mcasseed
eggs, poured over them.
256 COMMON SENSE.
Baked Eggs.
Break six or seven eggs into a buttered dish, taking
care that each is whole, and does not encroach upon the
others so much as to mix or disturb the yolks. Sprinkle
with pepper and salt, and put a bit of butter upon each.
Put into an oven and bake until the whites are well set.
Serve very hot, with rounds of buttered toast^ or sand-
wiches.
Scrambled Eggs. 4^
Put a good piece of butter in a frying-pan, and when it
is hot drop in the eggs, which should be broken whole into
a bowl. Stir in with them a little chopped parsley, some
pepper and salt, and keep stirring to and fro, up and down,
without cessation, for three minutes. Turn out at once
into a hot dish, or upon buttered toast, and eat without
delay.
Chinese Bird's-Nbst of Egos.
Make a white sauce as follows : Stew half a pound of
lean veal, cut into strips, with a large sprig of parsley, in a
quart of water, until the meat is in rags, and the liquor
reduced one-half. Stiuin through tarlatan or lace, and
return to the saucepan with half a cupfiil of milk. When
it boils, thicken with a little rice or wheat fldur, season
with white pepper and salt, and the juice of half a lemon.
Set in the comer to keep hot. Have ready six, or eight,
or ten hard-boiled eggs. Take out the yolks carefully, and
cut the whites into thin shreds. Pile the yolks in the cen-
tre of a round, shallow dish, arrange the shreds of white
about them in the shape of a birdVnest ; give a final stir
to the sauce, and pour carefully over the eggs. It should
not rise higher in the dish than half way to the top of the
nest, when it flows down to its leveL Garnish with pars-
ley.
EGGS. 257
Scalloped Egos. 4^
Make a force-meat of chopped ham — ground is better —
fine bread-crumbs, pepper, salt, a little minced parsley, and
some melted butter. Moisten with milk to a soft paste,
and half fill some pattj-pans or scallop-shells with the mix-
ture. Break an egg carefully upon the top of each, dust
with pepper and salt, and sift some very finely powdered
cracker over all. Set in the oven, and bake until the eggs
are weU set — about eight minutes. Eat hot. They are
very nice. You can substitute ground tongue for the ham.
Poached Eggs, with Sauce. 4^
Make the sauce by putting half a cupful of hot water
in a saucepan, with a teaspoonful of lemon-juice, three
tablespoonfuls of veal or chicken broth (strained), pepper,
salt, maoe, and a tablespoonful of butter, with a little
minced parsley. Boil slowly ten minutes, and stir in a
well-whipped egg carefully, lest it should curdle. Have
ready some poached eggs in a deep dish, and pour the sauce
over them.
Eggs upon Toast. 4*
Put a good lump of butter into the fiying-pan. When
it is hot, stir in four or five well-beaten eggs, with pepper,
salt, and a little parsley. Stir and toss for three minutes.
Have ready to your hand some slices of buttered toast (cut
round with a tin cake-cutter before they are toasted) ;
spread thickly with ground or minced tongue, chicken, or
ham. Heap the stirred egg upon these in mounds, and set
in a hot dish garnished with parsley and pickled beets.
Eggs au Lit {in bed). 4*
Mince some cold fowl — chicken, turkey, or duck (or
some cold boiled veal and ham in equal quantities) — very
258 COMMON 6ENSE.
fine, and rub in a Wedgewood mortar, adding by degrees
some melted butter, pepper, salt, minced parsley, and two
beaten eggs. Warm in a frying-pan when it is well mixed,
stirring in a little hot water should it dry too fast. Cook
five minutes, stirring to keep it from scorching or brown-
ing. Form, on a hot platter or flat dish, into a mound, fiat
on top, with a ridge of the mixture i-unning all around. It
is easily moulded with a broad-bladed knife. In the dish
thus formed, on the top of the mince-meat, lay as many
poached eggs as it will hold, sprinkling them with pepper
and salt. Arrange triangles of buttered toast in such
order, at the base of the mound, that they shall make a
pointed wall against it.
Devilled Eggs.
Boil six or eight eggs hard ; leave in cold water until
they are cold ; cut in halves, slicing a bit ofi* the bottoms
to make them stand upright, h la Columbus. Extract the
yolks, and rub to a smooth paste with a very little melted
butter, some cayenne pepper, a touch of mustard, and just
a dash of vinegar. FDl the hollowed whites with this, and
send to table upon a bed of chopped cresses, seasoned with
pepper, salt, vinegar, and a little sugar. The salad should
be two inches thick, and an egg be served with a heaping
tablespoonful of it. You may use lettuce or white cab-
bage instead of cresses.
Egg-Baskets. 4^
Make these for breakfast the day after you have had
roast chicken, duck, or turkey for dinner. Boil six eggs
hard, cut neatly in half and extract the yolks. Rub these
to a paste with some melted butter, pepper and salt,
and set aside. Found the minced meat of the cold fowl
EQGS. 259
fine in the same manner and mix with the egg-paste, moist-
ening with melted butter as yon proceed, or with a little
gravy, if you have it to spare. Cut off a slice from the
bottoms of the hollowed whites of the egg, to make them
stand ; fill with the paste ; arrange close together upon a
flat dish, and pour over them the gravy left from yester-
day's roast, heated boiling hot, and mellowed by a few
spoonfub of cream or rich milk.
Omelette (plain), 4*
Beat six eggs very light, the whites to a stiff froth that
will stand alone, the yolks to a smooth thick batter. Add to
the yolks a small cupful of milk, pepper and salt, lastly stir
in the whites lightly. Have ready in a hot frying-pan a good
lump of butter. When it hisses, pour in your mixture gen-
tly and set over a clear fire. It should cook in ten minutes
at most. Do not stir, but contrive, as the eggs '^ set," to
slip a broad-bladed knife under the omelette to guard against
burning at the bottom. The instant ** hiss " of the butter
as it flows to the hottest part of the pan will prove the wis-
dom and efficacy of the precaution. If your oven is hot,
you may put the frying-pan in it as soon as the middle of
the omelette is set. When done, lay a hot dish bottom up-
ward on the top of the pan, and dexterously upset the latter
to bring the browned side of the omelette uppermost. Eat
soon, or it will fall.
I know these directions to be worthy of note. I have
never seen lighter or better omelettes anywhere than in
households where these have been the rule for years in the
manufacture of this simple and delightful article of food.
Omelette with Ham, Tongue, or Chicken. 4^
Make precisely as above ; but when it is done, scatter
thickly over the surface some minced ham, tongue, or sea-
260 COMMON BENBE.
Boned chicken, slip your broad knife under one side of the
omelette ajid double in half, enclosing the meat. Then up-
set the frying-pan upon a hot dish.
Or,
You can stir the minced meat into the omelette after
all the ingredients are put together, adding, if you like,
some chopped parsley.
Cauliflower Omelette.
Chop some cold cauliflower Tery fine, and mix in when
your omelette is ready to go into the pan. Season highly
with cayenne pepper and salt.
Asparagus Omelette
Is made of the tops only, minced and seasoned, and stirred
in as is the cauliflower. Tomato omelette has stewed
tomato spread over the surface, and is then doubled in
half.
EOO-BALLS FOR SoUP. 4^
Hub the yolks of three or four hard-boiled eggs to a
smooth paste with a very little melted butter, pepper, and
salt. To these add two raw ones, beaten light, and enough
flour to hold the paste together. Make into balls with
floured hands and set in a cool place until just before your
soup comes off, when put in carefully and boil one minute.
Omelette aux Fines Herbes.
After the yolks and whites are mixed together with the
milk, stir in, with two or three strokes of the spoon or
whisk, two tablespoonfuls of chopped parsley, green thjone,
and sweet maijoram, with pepper and salt. F17 instantly.
SWEET OMELETTES. 261
Cheese Omelette.
Grate some rich old cheese, and having mixed the ome-
lette as usual, stir in the cheese with a swift turn or two
of the whisk, and at the same time some cho{>ped parsley
and thyme. If you beat long the cheese will separate the
milk from the eggs. Cook at once.
Sweet Omelettes.
OmdeUe /SouJlee—(IfVied).
6 eggs.
4 tablespoonfuls sugar (powdered).
1 teaspoonful of vanilla.
2 tablespoonfuls butter.
Beat the whites and yolks separately. Add the sugar
to the yolks, a little at a time, beating very thoroughly,
until they are smooth and thick. The whites should stand
alone. Put two tablespoonfuls of butter in a frying-pan,
heat to boiling, and when you have added the vanilla to
the omelette, pour it in and cook very quickly, as you
would a plain one. Blip the knife frequently under it, to
loosen from the sides and bottom. It is more apt to scorch
than an omelette without sugar. Turn out upon a very
hot dish, sift powdered sugar over the top, and serve in-
stantly, or it will fall and become heavy.
Omelette Soufflee — (Baked),
6 eggs.
6 tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar.
Juice of a lemon and half the peel, grated.
Beat yolks and whites separately and very well. Add
to the yolks by degrees the powdei*ed sugar, and beat until
it ceases to froth, and is thick and smooth. The whites
262 COMMON 8EN8E.
should be stiff enough to cut with a knife. Stir together
lightly with the seasoning, pour into a well-buttered dLsh,
and bake in a quick oven five or six minutes. The dish
should be warmed when it is buttered, not to chill the
eggs. Send around with a spoon, and let each one help
himself before it can fall.
Apple Omelette, tft
6 large pippins.
1 tablespoonful butter.
3 eggs.
5 or 6 tablespoonfuls sugar.
Nutmeg to taste.
1 teaspoonful rosewater.
Stew the apples, when you have pared and cored them,
as for apple-sauce. Beat them very smooth while hot, ad-
ding the butter, sugai*, and nutmeg. When perfectly cold,
put with the eggs, which should be whipped light, yolks
and whites sepai-ately. Put in the yolks first, then the
rosewater, lastly the whites, and pour into a deep bake-
dish, which has been warmed and buttered. Bake in a
moderate oven until it is delicately browned. Eat warm
— not hot — for tea, with Graham bread. It is better for
children — I say nothing of their elders — than cake and pre-
serves.
Omelette with Jelly.
Currant or other tart jelly.
Five eggs.
4 tablespoonfuls cream, or the same of milk, thick-
ened with a teaspoonful of rice-flour or arrow-
root.
2 tablespoonfuls powdered sugar.
1 teaspoonful bitter almond or vanilla flavoring.
MILK, BUTTER, CHEESE, ETC. 263
Beat whites and yolks separately, adding to the latter
the sugar and milk after they are thick and smooth. Kext,
chop in the seasoning ; lastly, stir in the whites with a few
swift strokes. Put a large spoonful of butter in the fry-
ing-pan, and, when it is hot, pour in the omelette. Spread
upon it when done, which will be in a very few minutes,
some nice jelly. Take the pan from the fire to do this,
spread quickly, slip your knife or tin spatula under one-
half of the omelette, and double it over. Turn over on a
hot platter, sift powdered sugar upon it, and eat at once.
Milk, Butter, Cheese, etc.
A cool cellar is the best place in which to keep milk,
if you have no dairy or milk-room. Strain it into broad
shallow pans, which are lukewarm fronf recent scalding.
You can get them made in one piece, with no seams in
which sour cream or dirt may lurk unsuspected. Set upon
swing shelves, to avoid the possibilities of drowned mice,
and keep the cellar dark to save it from flies. In twelve
hours skim for the table, and, unless you have need of the
milk, let it stand twelve hours more for the second rising
of cream. Put this into the stone jar or crock in which
the cream is kept for churning. Even in butter-making, I
have found it a good plan to take off at night the cream
clean from the morning churning, instead of letting it stand
twenty-four houra, as is the usual custom. The ^' second
rising '' will repay one for the additional trouble. Chum
as soon as convenient after the cream " loppers " or thick-
ens. If it stand too long, it becomes bitter or musty. The
chum should be well scalded and aired between the churn-
ings. Scrupulous cleanliness should be the unbending rule
of dairy arrangements. All strongly-flavored substances
must be kept from the neighborhood of milk and butter.
They are ready absorbents, and when they contract odor or
264 COMMON SENSE.
taste, never get rid of it. Have earthen and tin milk-ves-
selSy and never allow them to be put to any other use.
Scald the chum, and cool with ice or spring water;
pour in the thick cream. Chum rather fast, until the but-
ter-flakes, left by the dasher upon the top, show that the
end to be gained is near — then more slowly. The motion
should always be regular. In warm weather pour a little
cold water into the chum, should the butter come slowly.
Take it up with the perforated dasher, turning it dexter-
ously just below the surface of the butter-milk, to catch
every stray bit. Have ready some clean, very cold water,
in a deep wooden tray, and into this plunge the dasher
when you draw it from the chum. The butter will float
oflf, leaving the dasher free. Having collected every par-
ticle, gather behmd a wooden butter-shovel and drain off
the water, squeezing and pressing the butter with the shovel.
Set in a cool place for an hour to harden — a necessary meas-
ure in summer — then work and knead it with a wooden ladle
until not another drop of water exudes, and the butter is like
yellow marble in polish and closeness of pores. When you
have worked out the butter-milk, add by degrees fine salt,
in the proportion of a dessertspoonful to every pound.
Then set aside for some hours, alvxiys in a cool place. The
last working is a slight affair, comparatively. Still using
the paddle, and never, from beginning to end of the opera-
tion, touching with your hands, mould into rolls or pound
** pats." Mark with grooves or checkers with the ladle,
or stamp with a print. Wrap each roll in a clean wet
linen cloth, which has no touch of soap or starch about it,
and pack in a stone jar, sprinkling a little salt between the
layers.
If you wish to keep it a long time, work with especial
care, and pack down hard in a perfectly clean stone jar.
Do not, above all things, take one that has ever been used
i
MILK, BTJTrEE, CHEESE, ETC. 265
for pickles. You may not detect the faintest odor linger-
ing about it, but the butter will, and absorb it, too. Some
cover the butter with strong brine, but a better way is to
press a £aie linen cloth closely to the surface, and cover
this with a thick layer of clean fine salt. Set in a cool,
dry place, and keep the cloth over it all the time ; also a
tightly-fitting lid. When you begin to use it, take out
enough to last a week, and re-cover. If you admit the air
every day, it is apt to grow strong. A pretty plate of but-
ter for the table is made of balls half the size of an egg,
rolled in the little fiuted paddles sold for the purpose.
Bonny-Clabber, or Lopfered Milk. 9^
Set a china or glass dish of skimmed milk away in a
warm place, covered. When it turns — i. *«., becomes a
smooth, firm, but not tough cake, like blanc-mange — serve
in the same dish. Cut out carefully with a large spoon,
and put in saucers, with cream, powdered sugar, and nut-
meg to taste. It is better, if set on the ice for an hour be-
fore it is brought to table. Do not let it stand until the
whey separates from the curd.
Few people know how delicious this healthful and cheap
dessert can be made, if eaten before it becomes tart and
tough, with a liberal allowance of cream and sugar. There
are not many jellies and creams superior to it.
Rennet.
Clean the stomach of a calf (or have your butcher do
it for you) so soon as it is killed, scouring inside and out
with salt. When perfectly clean, tack upon a frame to dry
in the sun for a day. Cut in squares, and pack down in
salt, or keep in wine or brandy. When you wish to use
the salted, soak half slw hour in cold water, wash well, and
12
266 COMMON 8EXSE.
put iiito the milk to be turned, tied to a striug, that it may
be drawn out without breaking the curd. The liquor ren-
net sold by druggists is sometimes good, quite as often
worthless. You can, however, get the dried or salted in
the markets, and often in the drug-stores.
Mountain Citstaiid, or Junket. Jj^
Take a piece of i*ennet an inch long, or a teaspoonful
of the wine in which rennet is kept, to each quart of milk.
Season with yanilla or lemon, a little nutmeg, and a table-
spoonful of sugar to each quart. More will retard the
formation. Set in a warm place — near the fire, or on the
kitchen table— closely covered. Look at it from time to
time, and if, in the course of an hour, there are no signs
of stiffening, add more rennet. When it is firm, like blanc-
mange, and before the whey separates from the curd, re-
move the rennet, and set upon ice until it is wanted. Serve
witli powdered sugar and cream.
Thickened Milk.
Boil a quart of milk, add a very little salt, and two
tablespoonfuls of rice or wheat flour wet in cold milk.
Stir in smoothly, and let it thicken in a vessel of boiling
water, keeping the outer sauce2>an at a hard boil for half
an hour. Eat with butter and sugar, or with cream and
sugar. For invalids, or children who are suffering with
summer disorders, boil at least an hour, stirring very often.
Cheese.
I have doubted the utility of inserting a receipt for
regular cheese -making. The apparatus necessary for the
manufacture is seldom, if ever, found in a private family,
while cheese can be had in every country store at one-third
the expense to an amateur of making it. But, remember-
MILK, BUTTES, CHEESE, ETC. 267
ing that it may be a pleasant, if not profitable experiment,
for the mistress of many cowg to make at her odd moments,
I have secured what purports to be an exact description of
*' cheese-making on a small scale.''
To each gallon of milk warm from the cow, add a piece of
rennet six inches long and three wide, or two tablespoonfuls
rennet-water — i, c, water in which rennet has been boiled.
Cover, and set in a warm place until it becomes a firm curd ;
this should be, at the most, not more than three-quarters of
an hour. When the whey has separated entirely, and looks
clear and greenish, wash your hands very clean, and with
them gently press all the curd to one side of the pan or tub,
while an assistant dips out the whey. Have ready a stout
linen bag, pour the curd into it, and hang it up to dry
until not another drop of whey can be pressed out ; then
put the curd into a wooden dish, and chop it fine. Empty
into a finar bag, and put into a small cheese-box, or other
circular wooden box with a perforated bottom, and a lid
that slides down easily but closely on the inside. Your
bag should be as nearly as possible the same shape and
size as this box. Lay heavy weights upon the top, in lack
of a cheese-press, and let it stand an houi*. The cloth
should be wet inside as well as out, before you put the
curds in. At the end of the hour, take out the cheese
and chop again, adding salt this time. Have ready a fresh
wet cloth ; pack in the curd hard. There should be a cir-
cular cover for this bag, which must be basted all around,
and very smooth on top. Scald the box and cover, then
rinse with cold water, and put the cheese again under
press for twelve hours. Next day,. take it out, rub all
over with salt, and fit on a clean wet cloth. Look at it
sixteen hours later, pare off the rough edges, and scrape
the sides of inequalities before returning to the press for
the last time. I^et it remain under the weights for twenty-
268 COMMON BENBE.
four hours. Strip off the cloth, iTib the cheese well with
butter, and lay upon a clean cloth spread on a shelf in a
cool, dry place. A wire safe is best. Wipe clean ; then
rub every day with butter for a week, and turn also every
twenty-four hours. At the end of the week, omit the
greasing, and rub hard with a coai'^e cloth. Do this every
day for a month. Your cheese will then be eatable, but
it will be much finer six months later.
Stilton cheeses— renowned over the world— are buried
in dry heather when they are firm enough to remove from
the shelves, and kept there a month. This is called
** ripening.*'
Cottage Cheese.
Heat sour milk, until the whey rises to the top. Pour
it off, put the curd in a bag and let it drip six hours, with-
out squeezing it. Put in a wooden bowl, chop fine with a
wooden spoon, salt to taste, and work to the consistency of
soft putty, adding a little cream and butter as you pro-
ceed. Mould with your hands into round " pats" or balls,
and keep in a cool place. It is best when fresh.
Cream Cheese.
Stir a little salt into a pan of " lojjpered " cream. Pour
into a linen bag, and let it drain three days, changing the
bag every day. Then pack into a wooden cup or mould
with holes in the bottom, and press two hours. Wet the
mould with cold water before putting in the cream-curd.
Wrapped in soft white paper — ^two or three folds of tissue-
paper will do — to exclude the air, they will keep in a
cool place for a week.
This is the cheese sold in this country under the name
of NeufchcUd.
BBEAD. 269
BREAD.
If eminence of importance entitled a subject to preemi-
nence of position, that of which we are now about to speak
should have stood foremost in this work. It is not a pleas-
ant thing to think or write about, but it is a stubborn fact
that upon thousands of tables, in otherwise comfortable
homes, good bread is an unknown phenomenon. I say phe-
nomenon, because it would indeed be a marvellous estrange-
ment of cause and effect were indifferent flour, unskilfully
mixed with flat yeast, badly risen and negligently baked, to
result in that pride of the notable housekeeper — light, sweet,
wholesome bread. I know a household where sour, stiflf
bread is the rule, varied several times duiing the week by
muffins scented and colored with soda, clammy biscuit, and
leathery griddle-cakes ; another, where the bread is inva-
riably over-risen, and consequently tasteless, sometimes
slightly acid ; yet another in which home-made bread is not
used at all, because it is ''so troublesome and uncertain,'^
the mistress preferring to feed her family, growing children
and all, upon the vari-colored sponges bought at the bakers
— sponges inflated with sal volatile, flavorless, and dry as
chips when a day old, and too often betraying, in the dark
streaks running through the interior of the loaf, want of
cleanliness in the kneader. Yet these are all well-to-do
people, who submit to these abominations partly because
they do not know how badly off they are— chiefly because
it is their way of doing, and they see no reason for chang-
ing. ** I have been a housekeeper for thirty years, and have
always mixed my bread just so," retorted a mistress once,
when I mildly set forth the advantages of '* setting a sponge"
over-night. " I put in flour, yeast, and milk if I have it,
and give them a good stir ; then set the dough down to rise.
.Our folks don't fancy very light bi-ead. There don't seem
270 COMMON SENSE.
to be any substance in it — so to speak. Mine generally
turns out pretty nice. It^s all luck, after all, about bread.''
*' I'm told you bave a receipt for making bread," laugh-
ed another to me ; '* I never heard of such a thing in my
life, and I've been keeping house eighteen years. So I
thought I'd call and ask you for it — just as a curiosity,
you know. I want to see what it is like."
I wisely kept my thoughts to myself, and dictated the
receipt, which she jotted down in a memorandum-book,
laughing all the while at the '^ excellent joke."
" You really use this ? " she demanded, when this was
done.
" I do. I have used no other for many years."
*' And the bread I ata upon your table, the other night,
was made according to this ? "
Again an affirmative answer.
** I guess your cook could tell another story," rejoined
the skeptic. " You can't make me believe that bread is
made by rule. I put my materials together anyhow, and I
have as good luck as most of my neighbors."
I regarded my visitor as an impertinent simpleton; but
I have been amazed, in subsequent years, at finding that her
creed is that of hundreds of housewives more or less sensi-
ble. '^ Luck " rules the baking, and upon the shoulders of
this Invisible are laid the deficiencies of the complacent
cook. Cheap flour and laziness are at the bottom of more
mishaps in the bread line than any other combination of
circumstances. From the inferior grades of flour, it is pos-
sible to make tolerable biscuit, crumpets, and muffins, plain
jiastry, and very good griddle-cakes. You cannot, by any
stress of art, produce excellent bread from poor flour. It
is no economy to purchase it for this purpose. It injudici-
ous to lay in two barrels at a time, and to use the best only
for the semi- or tri-weekly baking.
BSEAD. 271
Chiefesb then among the conditions to good bi-ead, I
place good " family " flour— dry, elastic, and odorless.
Whiteness is a secondary consideration, although, to Ameri-
can eyes, this is a recommendation. A little experience
vnll teach you to detect the signs that foretell satisfactory
baking-days, and vice versd. If in handling the flour you
discern a heaviness like that of ground plaster ; if in squeez-
ing a handful tightly you discover that it retains the im-
print of palm and Angers, and rolls back into the tray a
compact ball or roll ; if it is in the least musty, or sour,
use it very sparingly in your trial-baking, for the chances
are as ten to one that you will head the barrel up again
and return it to your grocer.
Sometimes new flour can be ripened for use by sifting
enough for each baking into a large tray, and exposing it to
the hot sun for some hours, or by setting it upon the kitch-
en hearth for the same time. And it not unfrequently hap-
pens that flour improves greatly after the barrel has been
open for several days or weeks. It dries out and becomes
lighter, more elastic. Next in importance to the quality
of the flour is that of the yeast. This shotild be light in
color and lively, effervescing easily when shaken, and emit-
ting an odor like weak ammonia. If dull or sour, it is bad.
In cities, it is easiest, perhaps cheapest, to buy yeast from
a breweiy or bakery, exercising your discrimination as to
quality ; unless you can satisfy yourself in this regard, you
had better make your own. I can confidently recommend
the receipts given in this work as easy and safe, having
tried them in my own family.
Novices in bread-making, and many who should have
learned better by long experience, fall into a sad mistake
in the consistency of the dough. It should be mixed as
8oft as it can be'hancUecL Bread will rise sooner and high-
er, bo lighter and more digestible, and keep fresh much
272 COMMON BEKBE.
longer, if this inile be followed. Stiff bread is close in tex-
ture, often waxy to the teeth, and after a day or so becomes
very hard.
Set the dough to rise in a moderately warm place, and
keep it at an even temperature. There is force in the old
lament — " My bread took cold, last night." Cold arrests
the process of fermentation. There is a chance, should this
occur, that a removal to a more genial atmosphere and care-
ful nursing may cure the congestion, should it be only par-
tial. Too much heat carries forward the work too rapidly.
In this case, you will find your dough puffy and sour. Cor-
rect the latter evil by dissolving a little soda or saleratus
in hot water, and working it well in.
Knead your bread faithfully and from all sides, imtil
it rebounds like india-rubber after a smart blow of the fist
upon the centre of the mass.
The oven should not be too hot. If you cannot hold
your bare arm within it while you count thirty, it is too
quick. Keep the heat steady after the bread goes in. Too
much fire at first, and rapid cooling, produce the cfiect upon
the bread which is technically called " slack-baked," i, c,
the inside of the loaf is never properly done. Practice and
intelligent observation will, in time, make you an adept
in the management of your ovens. If the bread rises rapid-
ly while baking, and the crust begins to form before the
lower part of the loaf is baked, cover the top with clean
paper until you are ready to brown it.
Grate away the burned portions of the crust, should
there be such. This is better than chipping with a knife.
One of the best bread-makers I know bakes in round pans,
each loaf by itself, and grates the whole outer surface, top,
bottom, and sides, quickly and lightly, toning down the
brown to a uniform and pleasing tint. Tilt your loaves
upon the edge, the lower part resting upon the table, the
BRKAD. 273
upper supported by the wall or other upright object, and
throw a coarse dry cloth over them until they cool.
This position allows the air to get at all sides, and prevents
"sweating." A tin bread-box is best, with a' cloth at bot-
tom and enwrapping the loaves.
Yeast {JETop). Jj^
4 large potatoes, or six small.
2 quarts cold water.
Double-handful hops, tied in a coarse
muslin bag.
4 tablespoonfuls flour.
2 white sugar.
Peel the potatoes, and put them with the hop-bag into
a saiicepan containing two quai'ts cold water. Cover and
boil until the potatoes break and fall apart. Take these
out with a perforated skimmer, leaving the water still boil-
ing, mash them fine with a potato-beetle, and work in the
flour and sugar. Moisten this gradually with the hoUing
hop tea, Stirling it to a smooth paste. When all the tea
has been mixed in, set it aside to cool. While still slightly
warm, add four tablespoonfuls of lively yeast, and turn all
into a large open vessel to *^ work." Keep this in a warm
place until it ceases to bubble up, or until next day. In
summer it will work well in a few hours. When quite
light, put in earthen jai*s with small mouths, in which fit
corks, or bottle it, and remove to ice-house or cellar. It
will keep good for a fortnight — longer in winter.
When you wish to use it for baking, send a small vessel
to the cellar for the desired quantity, and re-cork at once.
A half-hour in a hot kitchen may spoil it.
12*
271 COMMON 8KN6B.
Yeast {Sdf-vxyrkingy
8 potatoes.
2 ounces hops.
4 quarts cold water.
1 lb. flour.
\ lb. white sugar.
1 tablespoonful salt.
Tie the hops in a coarse muslin bag, and boil one hour
in four quarts of water. Let it cool V> lukewarmness be-
fore removing the bag. Wet with the tepid liquor — a little
at a time — the flour, making to a smooth paste. Put in
the sugar and salt, beat up the batter three minutes before
adding the rest of the tea. Set it away for two days in an
open bowl covered with a thin cloth, in a closet which is
moderately and evenly warm.
On the third day, peel, boil, and mash the potatoes, and
when entirely free from lumps and specks, stir in grad-
ually the thickened hop-liquor. Let it stand twelve hours
longer in the bowl, stirring often, and keeping it in the
warm kitchen. Then bottle or put away in corked jars,
which must bo perfectly sweet and freshly scalded. This
will keep a month in a cool cellar. It is more troublesome
to make it than other kinds of yeast, but it needs no other
" rising" to excite fermentation, and remains good longer
than that made in the usual way.
Yeast {Potato), »J^
6 potatoes.
2 quarts cold water.
4 tablespoonfiils flour.
2 *' white sugar.
Peel and boil the potatoes until they break. Leaving
the water on the Are, take them out and mash fine with the
BREAD. 275
flour and sugar, wetting gradually with the hot water until it
is all used. When lukewarm, add a gill of good yeast, and
set aside in an open vessel and warm place to ferment.
When it ceases to effervesce, bottle and set in ice-house.
This yeast is very nice and white, and is preferred by
many who dislike the bitter taste of hops. It is also con-
venient to make when hops cannot be obtained.
Yeast Cakes. Jj^
2 quarts water (cold).
1 quart pared and sliced potatoes.
Double-handful hops, tied in coarse muslin bag.
Flour to make stiff batter.
1 cup Indian meal.
Boil the potatoes and ]iop-bag in two quarts of water
for three-quarters of an hour. Remove the hops, and while
boiling hot, strain the potatoes and water through a cidlen-
der into a bowl. Stir into the scalding liquor enough flour
to make a stiff batter. Beat all up well ; add two table-
spoonfuls lively yeast and set in a waim place to rise.
When light, stir in a cup of Indian meal, roll into a sheet
a quarter of an inch thick and cut into round cakes. Dry
these in the hot sun or in a vert/ moderate oven, taking
care tlioy do not heat to baking. It is best to put them in
after the fire has gone down for the night, and leave them
in until morning. When entirely dry and cold, hang them
up in a bag in a cool, dry place.
Use one cake three inches in diameter for a loaf of fair
size ; soak in tepid water until soft, and add a pinch of soda
or saleratus, then mix.
These cakes will remain good a month in summer, two
in winter.
276 COMMON SENSE.
Bakiko Powders.
1 oimce super-carbonate soda.
7 drachms tartaric acid.
Boll smootlily and mix thoronghly. Keep in a tight
glass jar or bottle. Use one teaspoonful to a quart of flour.
Or,
12 teaspoonfuls carb. soda.
24; *' cream tartar.
Put as above, and use in like proportion.
Bread Sponge {Potato), »J^
6 potatoes, boiled and mashed fine while hot.
6 tablespoonfuls baker^s yeast.
2 " white sugar.
2 " lard.
1 teaspoonful soda.
1 quart warm — not hot — water.
3 cups flour.
Mash the potatoes, and work in the lard and sugar.
Stir to a cream, mixing in gradually a quart of the water
in which the potatoes were boiled, which should have been
poured out to cool down to blood warmth. Be<U in the
flour, already wet up with a little potato-water to pi'event
lumping, then the yeast, lastly the soda. Cover lightly if
the weather is warm, more closely in winter, and set to rise
over night in a warm place.
Bread Sponge {Plain), »J^
1 quart wann water.
6 tablespoonfuls baker^s yeast.
2 « lard.
2 ** white sugar.
BREAD. 277
1 teaspoonful soda.
Flour to make a soft batter.
Melt the lard in the warm water, add the sugar, then the
flour by degrees, stirring in smoothly. A quart and a pint
of flour will usually be sufficient if the quality is good.
Next comes the yeast, lastly the soda. Beat up hard for
several minutes, and set to rise as above.
Bread mixed with potato-sponge is more nutritious,
keeps fresh longer, and is sweeter than that made with the
plainer sponge. But there are certain seasons of the year
when good old potatoes cannot be procured, and new ones
will not do for this purpose.
The potato-sponge is safer, because surer for beginners
in the important art of bread-making. After using it for
fifteen years, I regard it as almost infallible — ^given the
conditions of good flour, yeast, kneading, and baking.
Family Bread ( White). •{•
Having set your sponge over night, or, if you bake late
in the afternoon, early in the morning, sift dry flour into a
deep bread-tray, and strew a few spoonfuls of fine salt over
it. The question of the quantity of flour is a delicate one,
requiting judgment and experience. Various brands of
flour are so unequal with respect to the quantity of gluten
they contain, that it is impossible to give any invariable rule
on this subject. It will be safe, however, to sift two quarts
and a pint, if you have set the potato sponge ; two quarts for
the plain. This will make two good-sized loaves. Make a
hole in the middle of the heap, pour in the risen sponge
(which should be very light and seamed in many places on
the top), and work down the flour into it with your hands.
If too soft, add more flour. If you can mould it at all, it
is not too soft. If stiff*, rinse out the bowl in which the
278 COMMON SENSE. '
sponge was set with a little lukewarm water, and work this
in. When you have it in manageable shape, begin to knead.
Work the. mass into a ball — ^your hands having been wel]
floured from the first ; detach it from the tray, and lift it
in your left hand, while you sprinkle flour with the right
thickly over the bottom and sides of the tray. Toss back
the ball into this, and knead hard — always toward the
centre of the mass, which should be repeatedly turned over
and around, that every portion may be manipulated. Brisk
and long kneading makes the pores fine and regular. Gap-
ing holes of diverse sizes are an uneriing tell-tale of a care-
less cook. Spend at least twenty minutes — half an hour is
better — in this kind of useful gymnastics. It is grand ex-
ercise for arms and chest. This done, work the dough into
a shapely ball in the centre of the tray, sprinkle flour over
the top ; throw a cloth over all and leave it on the kitchen-
table to rise, taking care it is not in a draught of cold air.
In summer, it will rise in four or five hours— in winter, six
are often necessary. It should come up steadily until it at
least trebles its original bulk and the floured surface cracks
all over. Knead again for ten or fifteen minutes. Then,
divide it into as many parts as you wish loaves, and put
these in well-greased pans for the final riEdng. In a large
household baking, it is customary to mould the dough into
oblong rolls, three or four, according to the number of
loaves you desire, and to lay these close together in one
large pan. The second kneading is done upon a floured
board, and should be. thorough as the first, the dough being
continually shifted and tmned. Set the pans in a warm
place for an hour longer, with a cloth thrown over them to
keep out the air and dust. Then bake, heeding the dii-ec-
tions set down in the article upon bread in general. If your
ovens arc in good condition, one hour should bake the above
quantity of bread. But hero again expciience must be
BREAD. 279
your guide. Note carefully for yourself how long a time
is required for your first successful baking, as also how
much dry flour you have worked into your sponge, and let
these data regulate future action. I have known a varia-
tion of two quaiis in a large baking, over the usual measure
of flour. I need not tell you that you had better shun a
brand that requires such an excessive quantity to bring the
dough to the right consistency. It is neither nutritious nor
economical. When you make out the loaves, prick the top
with a fork.
Do not make your flrst baking too large. Practice is
requisite to the management of an unwieldy mass of dough.
Let your trial-loaf be with say half the quantity of sponge
and flour I have set down, and increase these as skill and
occasion require, carefully preserving the proportions. {Seven
or eight quarts of flour will be needed for the semi- weekly
baking of a family of moderate size.
If I have seemed needlessly minute in the directions I
have laid down, it is because I wish to be a guide, not a
betrayer, and because I am deeply impressed witli the worth
of such advice as may tend to diminish the number of those
who know not for themselves the comfort and delight of
eating from day to day, and year to year, good family bread.
Family Bread (^Brown). »J«
I wish it were in my power, by much and eai'nest
speaking and writing, to induce every housekeeper to
make brown bread — that is, bread made of unbolted, usu-
ally called Graham flour — a staple article of diet in her fam-
ily. I only repeat the declaration of a majority of our best
chemists and physicians when I say that our American
fondness for fine white bread is a serious injury to oui
health. We bolt and rebolt our flour until we extract
from it thrce-quai-ters of its nutritive qualities, leaving
280 COMMON SENSE.
little strength in it except what lies in gluten or starch,
and consign that which makes bone and tissue, which regu-
lates the digestive organs, and leaves the blood pure, the
brain clear, to the lower animals. Growing children es-
pecially should eat brown bread daily. It supplies the
needed phosphate to the tender teeth and bones. If prop-
erly made, it soon commends itself to their taste, and white
becomes insijnd in comparison. Dyspeptics have long been
familiar with its dietetic virtues, and, were the use of it
moi'e general, we should have fewer wretches to mourn
over the destroyed coats of their stomachs. It is whole-
some, sweet, honest, and sliould be popular.
Prepare a sponge as for white bread, using potatoes
or white flour. My rule is to take out a certain quantity
of the risen sponge on baking day, and set aside for brown
bread. Put into a tray two parts Graham flour, one-third
white, and to every quart of this allow a handful of Indian
meal, with a teaspoonful of salt. Wet this up with the
sponge, and when it is mixed, add, for a loaf of fair size,
half a teacupful of molasses. The dough should be very
soft. If there is not enough of the sponge to reduce it to
the desired consistency, add a little blood-warm water.
Knead it diligently and long. It will not rise so rapidly
&s the white flour, having more *' body " to carry. Let it
take its time; make into round, comfortable loaves, and
set down again for the second rising, when you have again
kneaded it. Bake steadily, taking care it does not bum,
and do not cut while hot. The result will well repay you
for your trouble. It will take a longer time to bake than
white bread. Brown flour should not be sifted.
Boston Brown Bread.
Set a sponge over night, with potatoes or white flour,
in the following proportions : —
BREAD. 281
1 cup yeast.
6 potatoes, mashed fine with three cups of flour.
1 quart warm water.
2 tablespoonfuls lard (ar^ if you leave out the potatoes,
one quart of warm water to three pints of flour).
2 tablespoonfuls brown sugai*.
Beat up well, and let it rise Ave or six hours.
When light, sift into the bread-tray —
1 quart rye-flour.
2 quarts Indian meal.
1 tablespoonful salt.
1 teaspoonful soda, or saleratus.
Mix this up very soft with the risen sponge, adding
warm water, if needed, and working in gradually
Half >a teacupful of molasses.
Knead well, and let it rise from six to seven hours.
Then work over again, and divide into loaves, putting these
in well-greased, i-ound, deep pans. The second rising should
last an hour, at the end of which time bake in a moderate
oven about four hours. Bapid baking will ruin it. If
put in late in the day, let it stay in the oven all night.
Bye Bread.
Set a sponge, as above, but with half the quantity of
water.
In the morning mix with this :
1 quart warm milk.
1 tablespoonful salt.
1 cup Indian meal.
And enough rye flour to make it into pliable dough.
Proceed as with wheat bread, baking it a little longer.
282 COMMON SENSE.
It is a mistake to suppose that acidity, greater or less,
is the normal state of rye bread. If you find your dough
in the slightest degree sour, correct by adding a teaspoon-
ful of soda dissolved in warm water. It is safest to add
this always in wai'm weather, •
Milk Bread.
1 quart of milk.
i teacupful of yeast.^
J lb. butter, one tablespoonful white sugar.
Stir into the milk, which should be made blood-warm,
a i)int of flour, the sugar, lastly the yeast. Beat all to-
gether well, and let them rise five or six hours. Then
melt the butter, and add with a little salt. Work in fiour
enough to make a stiff dough ; let this rise four hours, and
make into small loaves. Set near the fire for half an hour,
and bake.
In warm weather, add a teaspoonful soda, dissolved in
warm water, to the risen sponge, as all .bread mixed with
milk is apt to sour.
Buttermilk Bread.
1 pint buttermilk heated to scaldLig.
Stir in, while it is hot, enough flour to make a tolerably
thick batt«r. Add half a gill of yeast, and let it rise five
or six hours. If you make it over night you need not add
the yeast, but put in, instead, a tablespoonful white sugar.
In the morning, stir into the sponge, a teaspoonful soda
dfssolved in hot water, a little salt, and two tablespoq^fuls
melted butter. Work in just flour enough to enable you
to handle the dough comfortably ; knead well, make into
loaves, and let it rise until light.
This makes very white and wholesome bread.
BBEAD. 283
Rice Bread.
Make a sponge of —
1 quart warm water.
1 teacupfiil yeast.
1 tablespoonful white sugar.
2 *' lard.
1 quart wheat flour.
Beat well together, and when it has risen, which will be
in about five hours, add three pints of warm milk and three
teacupfuls rice-flour wet to a thin paste with cold nulk,
and boiled four minutes a« you would starch. This should
be a little more than blood-warm when it is stirred into the
batter. If not thick enough to make out into dough, add a
little wheat-flour. E^nead thoroughly, and treat as you would
wheat bread in the matter of the two risings and baking.
This is nice and delicate for invalids, and keeps well.
If you cannot procure the rice-flour, boil one cup of whole
rice to a thin paste, mashing and beating it smooth.
French Bolls. (A^o. 1.) 4*
In kneading dough for the day^s baking, after adding
and working in the risen sponge, set aside enough for a loaf
of tea-rolls. Work into this a heaping tablespoonful of lard
or butter, and let it stand in a tolerably cool place (not a
cold or draughty one) for four hours. Knead it again,
and let it alone for three houi*s longer. Then make into
rolls, by rolling out, very lightly, pieces of the dough into
round cakes, and folding these, not quite in the centre, like
turn-overs. The third rising will be for one hour, then
bake steadily half an hour or less, if the oven is quick.
Having seen these rolls, smoking^ ligbt, and delicious
upon my own table, at least twice a week for ten years,
with scarcely a failure in the mixing or baking, I can con-
284 COMMON 8ENSE.
fidently recommend the receipt and the product. You can
make out part of your Graham dough in the same manner.
French Bolls. (A^o. 2.)
1 quart milk ; new, warm milk is best.
1 teacup yeast.
1 quart and a pint flour.
When this s[)onge is light, work in a well-beaten egg
and two tablespoonfuls melted butter, with a teaspoonful of
salt, half a teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water, one
tablespoonful white sugar and enough flour to make a soft
dough. Let this stand four or five hours, roll out into
round cakes and fold as in No. 1, or shape with your hands
into balls. Bet these closely together in the baking-pan ;
let them rise one hour, and just before putting them into
the oven, cut deeply across each ball with a sharp knife.
This will make the cleft roll, so familiar to us in il^rench
restaurants. Bake half an hour.
BisEN Biscuit. *J«
1 quart milk.
J cup lard or butter — ^half-and-half is a good rule.
J cup of yeaj^t.
2 tablespoonfuls white sugar.
1 teaspoonful salt.
Flour to make a soft dough.
Mix over night, warming the milk slightly and melting
the lard or butter. In the morning, roll out into a sheet
three-quarters of an inch in thickness; cut into round
cakes, set these closely together in a pan, let them rise for
twenty minutes, and bake twenty minutes.
These delightful biscuits are even better if the above in-
gredients be set with half as much flour, in the foim of a
BREAD. 285
thin sponge, and the rest of the flour be worked in five
hours later. Let this rise five hours more, and proceed as
already directed. This is the best plan if the biscuit are
intended for tea.
Sally Lunn. {No. 1.) 4*
1 quart of flour.
4 eggs.
\ cup melted butter.
1 cup worm milk.
1 cup warm water.
4 tablespoonfuls yeast.
1 teaspoonful salt.
^ '^ soda, dissolved in hot water.
Beat the eggs to a stiff' froth, add the mil£, water, butter,
soda, and salt ; stir in the flour to a smooth batter, and
beat the yeast in well. Set to rise in a buttered pudding-
dish, in which it must be baked and sent to table. Or, if
you wish to turn it out, set to rise in a t^e^^-buttered mould.
It will not be light under six hours. Bake steadily three-
quarters of an hour, or until a straw thrust into it comes
up clean. Eat while hot. *
This is the genuine old-fasliioned Sally Lunn, and will
hardly give place even yet to the newer and faster com-
pounds known under the same name.
Sally Lunn. {No. 2.) 4*
1 scant quart flour.
4 eggs.
1 teacupful milk.
1 *^ lard and butter mixed.
1 teaspoonful cream-tartar.
1^ *' soda dissolved in hot water.
1 " salt.
286 OOMMON SENSE.
Beat the eggd very light, yolks and whites separately ;
melt the shortening, sift the cream-tartar into the flour,
add the whites the last tiling.
Potato Biscuit.
8 potatoes of medium size, mashed very fine.
4 tablespoonfuls butter, melted.
2 cups milk, blood- warm.
1 cup yeast.
Flour to make a thin batter.
2 tablespoonfuls white sugar.
Stir all the above ingredients together except the but-
ter, and let the sponge rise until light — ^four or five hours
will do ; then «.dd the melted butter with a little salt and
flour, enough to make soft dough. Set aside this for four
hours longer, roll out in a sheet three-quarters of an inch
thick, cut into cakes ; let these rise one hour, and bake.
Mrs. E 's Biscuit {Soda), »J«
1 quart flour.
2 heaping tablespoonfuls of lard.
2 cups sweet — if you can get it — new milk.
1 teaspoonful of soda.
2 " cream-tartar.
1 saltspoonful of salt.
Kub the soda and cream-tartar into the flour, and sift
all together before they are wet ; then put in the salt ; next
the lard, nibbed into the prepared flour quickly and light-
ly ; lastly, pour in the milk. Work out the dough rapidly,
kneading with as few strokes as possible, since handling
injures the biscuit. If property prepared the dough will
have a rough surface and the biscuit be flaky. The dough
should also be vori/ soft. If the flour stiffen it too much,
BBEAD. 287
add more milk. KoU out lightly, cut into cakes at least
half an inch thick, and hake in a quick oven. The hiscuit
made by the friend from whom I had this receipt were
marvels of lightness and sweetness. I have often thought
of them since with regretful longing, when set down to so-
called " sodarbiscuit," marbled with greenish-yellow streaks,
and emitting, when split, an odor which was in itself an
eloquent dissuasive to an educated appetite. Few cooks
make really good, quick biscuit — ^why, I am unable to say,
unless upon the principle of " brains will tell." I have
had more than one in my kitchen, who, admirable in almost
every other respect, were absolutely uniit to be intrusted
with this simple yet delicate manufacture. The common
fault is to have too ^' heavy a hand " with soda, and to
" guess at " the quantities, instead of measuring them. Eat
while warm.
GRAHA.M Biscuit. »J*
3 cups Graham flour.
1 cup white.
3 cups milk.
2 tablespoonfuls lai'd.
1 heaping tablespoonful white sug&r.
1 saltspoonful of salt.
1 teaspoonful soda.
2 teaspoonfuls cream-tartar.
Mix and bake as you do the white soda-biscuit (Mi*s.
E 's). They are good cold as well as hot.
Minute Biscuit.
1 pint sour, or buttemdlk.
1 teaspoonful soda.
2 teaspoonfuls melted butter.
288 COMMON 8BN8E.
Flour to make soft dough — just stiff enough to handle.
Mix, roll, and cut out rapidly, with as little handling as
may be, and bake in a quick oveu.
Graham Whkatlets.
1 pint Gitiham flour.
Nearly a quart of boiling water or milk.
1 teaspoonful salt.
Scald the flour, when you have salted it, into as soft
dough as you can handle. Boll it nearly an inch thick,
cut in round cakes, lay upon a hot buttered tin or pan,
and bake them in the hottest oven you can get ready.
Everything depends upon heat in the manufacture of these.
Some cooks spi*ead them on a hot tin, and set this upou a
red-hot stove. Properly scalded and cooked, they are light
as pufls, and very good ; otherwise they are flat and tough.
Split and butter while hot.
Sweet Rusk. 4*
1 pint warm milk.
J cup of butter,
1 cup of sugar.
2 eggs.
1 teaspoonful of salt.
2 tablespoonfuls yeast.
Make a sponge with the milk, yeast, and enough flour
for a thin batter, and let it rise over night. In the morn-
ing add the butter, eggs, and sugar, previously beaten up
well together, the salt, and flour enough to make a soft
dough. Mould with the hands into balls of uniform size ;
set close together in a pan, and let them rise until very
light. After baking, wash the tops with a clean soft cloth
dipped in molasses and water.
BREAD. 289
Dried Busk. »{*
1 pint of wai'm milk.
2 eggs.
\ teacup of butter.
Half a cup of yeast.
1 teaspoonful salt.
Set a sponge with these ingredients, leaving out the
eggs, and stirring in flour until you have a thick batter.
Early next morning add the well-beaten eggs, and flour
enough to enable you to roll out the dough. Let this rise
in the bread-bowl two hours. Roll into a sheet nearly an
inch thick, cut into round cakes, and arrange in your bak-
ing-])an two deep, laying one upon the other carefully.
Let these stand for another half-hour, and bake.
These are now very nice for eating, and you may, if
you like, reserve a plateful for tea ; out the rule for the
many, handed down through, I am a&aid to say how many
generations, in the family where I first ate this novel and
delightful biscuit, is to divide the twins, thus leaving one
side of each cake soft, and, piling them loosely in the pan,
set them in the oven when the fire is declining for the
night, and leave them in until morning. Then, still obey-
ing the traditions of revered elders, put them in a clean
muslin bag, and hang them up in the kitchen. They will
be fit to eat upon the third day. Put as many as you need
in a deep dish and pour over them iced milk, or water, if
you cannot easily procure the former. Let them soak un-
til soft, take them out, drain them for a minute in a shal-
low plate, and eat with butter. Invalids and children
crave them eagerly. Indeed, I have seen few refuse them
who had ever tasted them before. There is a pastoral flavor
about the pleasant dish, eaten with the accompaniment of
fresh berries, on a summer evening, that ai)peals to the bet-
ter impulses of one's appetite.
13
290 COMMON SENSE.
Try my soaked rusk — not forgetting to ice the milk —
and you will find out for yourself what I mean, but cannot
quite express.
Dried rusk will keep for weeks, and gi*ow better every
day. The only risk is in their being eaten up before they
attain makirity.
Butter Crackeks.
1 quart of flour.
3 tablespoonfuls butter.
^ teaspoonful soda, dissolved in hot water.
1 saltspoonful salt.
2 cups sweet milk.
Rub the butter into the flour, or, what is better, cut it
up with a knife or gliopper, as you do in pastry ; add the
salt, milk, and soda, mixing well. Work into a ball, lay
upon a floured board, and beat with the rolling-pin half an
hour, turning and shifting the mass often. Boll into an
even sheet, a quarter of an inch thick, or less, prick deeply
with a fork, and bake hard in a moderate oven. Hang
them up in a muslin bag in the kitchen for two days to
diy.
Wafers. »J*
1 pound of flour.
2 tablespoonfuls butter.
A little salt.
Mix with sweet milk into a stifl* dough, roll out very
thin, cut into round cakes, and again roll these as thin as
they can be handled. Lift them carefully, lay in a pan,
and bake very quickly.
These are extremely nice, especially for invalids. They
should be hardly thicker than writing-paper. Flour the
baking-pan instead of greasing.
BBEAD. 291
Cbumfets {Sweet),
1 pint raised dough.
3 eggs.
3 tablespoonfuls butter.
•J cup white sugar.
When your bread has passed its second rising, work in-
to the above-named quantity the melted butter, then the
eggs and sugar, beaten together until very light. Bake in
muffin-rings about twenty minutes.
Crumpets (Plain). »J*
3 cups warm milk.
\ cup yeast.
2 tablespoonfuls melted butter.
1 saltsjx^onful salt, aud the same of soda, dissolved in
hot water.
Flour to make good batter.
Set these ingredients — leaving out the butter and soda
— as a sponge. When very light, beat in the melted but-
ter, with a very little flour, to prevent the butter from
thinning the batter too much ; stir in the soda hai'd, flU
pattypans or muffin-rings with the mixtui*e, and let them
stand fifteen minutes before baking.
This is an excellent, easy, and economical receipt.
Graham Muffins. 4*
3 cups Graham flour.
1 " white flour.
1 quart of milk.
J cup yeast.
1 tablespoouful lard or butter.
1 teaspoonful salt.
2 tablespoonfuls sugar.
292 COMMON SENSE.
Set to rise over night, and bake in muffin-rings twenty
minutes in a quick oven. Eat hot.
Queen Muffins. »{*
1 quart of milk.
1^ cup of yeast.
2 tablespoonfuls white sugar.
1 ** of lard or butter.
1 teaspoonful salt.
Flour to make a good batter.
2 eggs.
Set the batter — leaving out the eggs — to rise over
night. In the morning beat the eggs very light, stir into
the batU'r, and bake in muffin-rings twenty minutes in a
quick oven.
Creak Muffins. 4*
1 quart sweet milk (half-cream, if you can get it).
1 " flour — heaping.
6 eggs.
1 tablespoonful butter, and the same of lard — melted
together.
Beat the eggs light — the yolks and whites separately ;
add the milk, with a little salt, then the shortening, lastly
the flour, stirring in lightly. Bake immediately in well-
greased rings half filled with the batter. Your oven should
be hot, and the muffins sent to table so soon as they are
taken up.
Buttermilk Muffins.
1 quart buttermilk, or '^ loppered " sweet milk.
2 eggs.
1 teaspoonful soda, dissolved in hot water.
1 <* salt.
- Flour to make good batter.
BBBAB. 293
Beat the eggs well and stir them into the milk, beating
hard all the while ; add the flour and salt, and at the last
the soda. Bake at once in a quick oven.
"Mother's" Muffins. bJ*
1 pint milk.
legg.
1 tablespoonful lard.
i cup yeast.
Flour for stiff batter.
1 teaspoonfdl salt.
Set to rise over night.
Chablotte Muffiks. •{<
1 quart of flour.
3 eggs — the whites and jolks beaten separately and
until stilf.
3 cups of milk. If sour, no disadvantage, if soda be
added.
A little salt.
The excellence of these depends upon thorough beat-
ing and quick baking.
Bice Muffins. ^^
1 cup cold boiled rice.
1 pint of flour.
2 eggs.
1 quart of milk, or enough to make thin batter.
1 tablespoonful lard or butter,
1 teaspoonful salt.
Beat hard and bake quickly.
294 OOHMON BEN8E.
HOKIKY MUFFIKS. »{«
2 cups fine hominy — boiled and cold.
3 eggs.
3 cups sour milk. If sweet, add one teaspoonful cream-
tartar.
•}- cnp melted butter.
2 teaspoonfiils salt.
2 tablespoonfuls white sugar.
1 scant cup flour.
1 teaspoonful soda.
Beat the hominj smooth; stir in the millr, then the
butter, salt, and sugar ; next the eggs, which should first
be well beaten ; then the soda, dissolved in hot water ;
lastly the flour.
There are no more delicious or wholesome muffins than
these, if rightiy mixed and quickly baked.
Belle's Muffins.
3 pints of flour.
1 quart of milk.
2 eggs.
2 tablespoonfuls cream-tartar.
1 teaspoonful soda.
1 « salt.
Sift the cream-tartar with the flour. Beat the eggs
very light. Dissolve the soda in hot water. Bake in rings
in a quick oven.
Corn Bread.
There is a marked diflerence between the corn-meal
ground at the South, and that which is sent out from
Northern mills. If any one doubts this, it is not she who
hajB perseveringly tried both kinds, and demonstrated to
BBEAD. 295
her own conviction that the same treatment will not do
for them. An intelligent lady once told me that the shape
of the particles composing the meal was different — the one
being round and smooth, the other angular. I am inclined
to believe this. The Southern meal is certainly coarser,
and the bread made from it less compact. Moreover, there
is a partiality at the North for yellow meal, which the
Southerners regard as only fit for chicken and cattle-feed.
The yellow may be the sweeter, but I acknowledge that I
have never succeeded in making really nice bread from it.
Indian meal should be purchased in small quantities,
except for a very large family. It is apt to heat, mould,
and grow musty, if kept long in bulk or in a warm place.
If not sweet and dry, it is useless to expect good bread or
cakes. As an article of diet, especially in the early warm
days of spring, it is healthful and agreeable, often acting
as a gentle corrective to bile and other disorders. In
winter, also, it is always acceptable upon the breakfast
or supper table, being warming and nutritious. In sum-
mer the free use of it is less judicious, on account of its
laxative properties. As a kindly vaiiation in the routine
of fine white bread and baker's rolls, it is worth the atten-
tion of every housewife. "John and the children" will
like it, if it approximates the fair standard of excellence ;
and I take it, my good friend— you who have patiently
kept company with me from our prefatory talk until now —
that you love them well enough to care for their comfort
and likings.
" My husband is wild about com bread," a wife re-
marked to me not a hundred years ago, ** but I won't make
it for him ; it is such a bother I And if I once indulge
him, he will give me no peace."
Beloved sister, I am persuaded better things of you.
Good husbands cannot be spoiled by petting. Bad ones
296 COMMON SENSE.
cannot be made worse — they may be made better. It seems
a little thing, so trifling in its consequences, you need not
tire fui-ther your aching back and feet to accomplish it —
the preparation of John's fi^vorite dish when he does not
expect the treat — to surprise him when he comes in cold
and hungry, by setting "before him a dish of hot milk-toast.,
or a loaf of corn-bread, brown and crisp without, yellow
and spongy within, instead of the stereotyped pile of cold
slices, brown or white. If he were consulted, he would
say, like the generous soul he is — " Don't take one needless
step for me, dear." And he would mean it. But for all
that, he will enjoy your little surprise — ay ! and love you
the better for it. It is the " little bv little " that makes
up the weal and woe of life.
May I make this digression longer yet, by telling you
what I overheard a husband say to a wife the other day,
when he thought no one else was near enough to hear him ?
He is no gourmand, but he is very partial to a certain kind
of cruller which nobody else can make, he thinks, so well
as his little wife. It so chanced that in frying some of these
she scalded her hand badly. After it was bandaged, she
brought up a plate of the cakes for his luncheon. He look-
ed at them, then at her, with a loving, mournful smile.
** I can understand now," said he, " how David felt
when his men-of-war brought him the water fix)m the well
of Bethlehem."
Then he stooped and kissed the injured fingers. Yet
he has been married nearly twenty years. I was not
ashamed that my eyes were moist. I honored him the more
that his were dim.
This is my lesson by the wayside apropos to com bread.
And now again to business.
BBEAD. 297
Heceipts/br Bread made of Norihem Indian Meal.
Nonpareil Cobn Bread. Jj^
2 heaping cups of Indian meal.
1 cup of flour.
3 eggs.
2^ cups milk.
1 tablespoonf\il lard.
2 " white sugar.
1 teaspoonful soda.
2 '^ cream-tartar.
1 « salt.
Beat the eggs very thoroughly — whites and yolks sep-
arately— ^melt the lard, sift the cream-tartar and soda into
the meal and flour while yet dry, and stir this in at the
last. Then, to borrow the direction scribbled by a rattle-
tongaed girl upon the above receipt, when she sent it to
me — '^ heai like mad I '' Bake quickly and steadily in a
buttered mould. Less than half an hour will usually suffice.
In cutting com bi'ead hold the knife perpendicularly/ and
cut toward you.
Corn Meal Muffins.
Mix according to the foregoing receipt, only a little thin-
ner, and bake in rings or small pattypans. All kinds of
com bread should be baked quickly and eaten while hot.
BiSEN Corn Bread.
1 pint Indian meal.
2 cups risen sponge, taken from your regular baking ot
wheat bread.
^ cup molasses, or^ what is better, 4 tablespoonfuls
white sugar.
13*
298 OOHMOir SENSE.
1 teaspoonfiil soda, dissolyed in hot water.
1 tablespoonfiil lard, melted.
1 cup flour, or enough for stiff batter.
Mix well, put to rise in a buttered mould until very
light. Bake one hour. It is well to scald the meal and
stir in while blood-warm.
Steamed Corn Bbead.
2 cups Indian meal.
1 cup flour.
2 tablespoonfuls white sugar.
2^ cups ^^ loppered '' milk, or buttermilk.
1 teaspoonful soda.
1 « salfc.
1 heaping tablespoonful lard, melted.
Beat veiy hard and long, put in buttered mould, tie a
coarse cloth tightly over it, and if you have no steamer, fit
the mould in the top of a pot of boiling water, taking care
it does not touch the surface of the liquid. Lay a close
cover over the cloth tied about the mould, to keep in all the
heat. Steam one hour and a half, and set in an oven ten
minutes. Turn out upon a hot plate, and eat while warm.
This will do for a plain dessert, eaten with pudding-sauce.
Cobn-Meal Cruhpets.
1 quart Indian meal.
1 ^* boiled milk.
4 tablespoonfuls yeast.
2 " white sugar.
2 heaping tablespoonfuls lard
or butter, or half-and-half.
1 saltspoonful salt.
Scald the meal with the boiling milk, and let it stand
BBEAD. 299
until lukewarm. Then stir in the sugar^ yeast, and salt,
and leave it to rise five hours. Add the melted shortening,
beat well, put in greased muffin-rings, set these near the
fire for fifteen minutes, and bake. Half an hour in a quick
oven ought to cook them.
Never cut open a muffin or crumpet of any kind, least
of all one made of Indian meal. Pass the knife lightly
around it to pierce the crust, then break open with the
fingers.
Heceipis for Com JBread made of Southern Indiom Meal.
Johnny Cake.
1 teacupful sweet milk.
1 " buttermilk.
1 teaspoonful salt.
1 " soda.
1 tablespoonful melted butter.
Enough meal to enable you to roll it into a sheet half
an inch thick. Spread upon a buttered tin, or in a shallow
pan, and bake forty minutes. As soon as it begins to brown,
baste it with a rag tied to a stick and dipped in melted but-
ter. Repeat this five or six times until it is brown and crisp.
Break — not cut it up — and eat for luncheon or tea, accom-
panied by sweet or buttermilk.
Aunt Jenny's Johnny Cake.
Mix as above ; knead well, and bake upon a perfectly
clean and sweet board, before a hot fire, with something at
the back to keep it up. Incline at such an angle as will
prevent the cake from slipping off, until it is hardened
slightly by baking, then place upright. Baste fi^quently
with butter until nicely crisped.
800 COMMON SENSE.
Batter Bread or " Egg Bread.^' 4^
Half a cup of bread-crumbs soaked in a pint of milk.
2 eggs.
2 cups Indian meal.
1 tablespoonful lard or butter.
1 teaspoonful salt.
Beat the eggs ligbt, and the soaked bread-crumbs to a
smooth batter. Melt the shortening. Stir all together
very hard, and bake in shallow tins very quickly.
EisEN Cork Bread.
Mix a tolerably stiff dough of corn-meal and boiling
water, a little salt, and a tablespoonful butter. Let it stand
four or five hours until light ; make into small loaves and
bake rather quickly.
Corn-heal Pone.
1 quart Indian meal.
1 teaspoonfuf salt.
A little lard, melted.
Cold water to make a soft dough.
Mould with the hands into thin oblong cakes, lay in a
well-greased pan, and bake very quickly.
The common way is to mould into oval mounds, higher
in the middle than at the ends, shaping these rapidly and
lightly with the hands, by tossing the dough over and over.
This is done with great dexteiity by the Virginia cooks,
and this corn-meal pone forms a part of every dinner. It
is broken, not cut, and eaten very hot.
GEIDDLE-CAKKS, WAFFLES, ETC. 801
Ash Cake
Is mixed as above. A clean spot is swept upon the liot
heai'th, the bread put down and covered with hot wood-
ashes. It must be washed and wiped dry before it is eaten.
A neater way is to lay a cabbage-leaf above and below the
pone. The bread is thus steamed before it is baked, and is
made ready for eating by stripping off the leaves.
Fried Pone.
Instead of moulding the dough with the hands, cut into
slices with a knife. Try out some fat pork in a frying-pan,
and fry the slices in the gravy thus obtained to a light
brown,
Griddle-Caeies, Waffles, etc.
If you have not used your griddle or waffle-iron for
some time, wash it off hard with hot soap and water ; wipe
and rub well with dry salt. Heat it and grease with a bit
of fat salt pork on a fork. It is a mistake, besides being
slovenly and wasteful, to put on more grease than is abso-
lutely necessary to prevent the cake from sticking. A piece
of pork an inch square should last for several days. Put
on a great spoonful of butter for each cake, and before fill-
ing the griddle test it with a single cake, to be sure that all
is right with it as well as the batter.
The same rules apply to waffles. Always lay hot cakes
and waffles upon a hot plate as soon as baked.
Buckwheat Cakes. 4^
1 quart buckwheat flour.
4 tablespoonfuls yeast.
1 teaspoonfal salt.
1 handful Indian meal.
2 tablespoonfuls molasses — not syrup.
802 COMMON SENSE.
Warm water enough to make a thin batter. Beat yerj
well and set to rise in a warm place. If the batter is in the
least sour in the morning, stir in a very little soda dissolv-
ed in hot water.
Mix in an earthen crock, and leave some in the bottom
each morning — a cupful or so — to serve as sponge for the
next night, instead of getting fresh yeast. In cold weather
this plan can be successfully pui-sued for a week or ten days
without setting a new supply. Of course you add the usual
quantity of flour, &c., every night, and beat up well.
Do not make your cakes too small. Buckwheats should
be of generous size. Some pUt two-thii*ds buckwheat, one-
third oat-meal, omitting the Indian.
Flannel Cakes. 4^
1 quart milk.
3 tablespoonfuls yeast.
1 tablespoonful butter, melted
2 eggs, well beaten.
1 teaspoonful salt.
Flour to -make a good batter. Set the rest of the ingrcH
dients as a sponge over night, and in the morning add the
melted butter and eggs.
Corn-meal Flatjacks.
1 quart sour or buttermilk.
2 eggs, beaten light.
1 teaspoonful salt.
1 ^^ soda dissolved in hot water.
2 tablespoonfuls molasses.
1 *' lard, melted.
i cup flour.
Meal to make a batter a trifle thicker than flannel cakes.
GBIDDLE-CAKE8, WAFFLES, ETC. 803
Graham Cakes. 4^
2 cups brown flour.
1 cup white "
3 cups sour OP buttermilk.
1 fuB teaspoonful soda, dissolved in hot water.
1 teaspoonfiil salt.
1 heaping tablespoonful lard.
3 eggs, beaten very light.
If you use sweet milk, add two teaspoonfuls cream-tar-
tar. Bake as soon as they are mixed.
Auntie's Cakes {without JSgga),
1 quart sour or buttermilk.
2 teaspoonfuls soda (small ones).
1 " salt.
Flour to make a tolerably thick batter.
stir tmtU smooth-no longer-and bake immediately.
Egoless Flannel Cakes.
1 quart milk.
^ teacupful yeast.
2 cups white flour.
1 cup Indian meal.
1 tablespoonful lard, melted.
1 teaspoonful salt.
Set over night, adding the lard in the morning.
Gbandpa's Favorites. ^
1 quart milk.
2 cups stale bread-crumbs.
1 good handful of flour.
1 tablespoonful melted butter.
804 OOICMON BEN8E.
3 eggs, woU beaten.
1 teaspoonful salt.
Work the bread and TnilV smooth, stir in the butter and
eggs, then the salt, lastly just enough flour to bind the
mixture. If too thick, add milk. These are wholesome
and good. Take care they do not stick to the griddle.
Risen Batter-Cakes.
3 cups white Indian meal.
1 cup white flour.
1 tablespoonful butter, melted and added in the morn-
ing.
1 quart milk.
4 tablespoonf uls of yeast.
1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water, and added in
the morning.
1 teaspoonful salt.
Mix over night.
EicE Caeies. 4^
One cup cold boiled rice.
One pint flour.
1 teaspoonful salt.
Two eggs beaten light.
Milk to make a tolerably thick batter.
Beat all together well.
-HoMimr Cakes, vf^
2 cups flne hominy, boiled and cold.
1 cup white flour.
1 quart milk.
3 eggs, very well beaten.
1 teaspoonful salt.
QBIDDLB-CAESS, WAPFLEB, ETC. 305
Beat smooth tbe hominy, work in the milk and salt,
then the flour, lastly the eggs. Bake at once, and keep the
mixture weU stirred.
CsEAH Cakes, t^
1 pint cream and same quantity of milk, slightly sour.
4 eggs, whites and yolks whipped separately.
1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in boiling water.
1 " salt.
Elour to make a good batter, well beaten in.
Velvet Cakes.
1 quart new unskimmed millr — half cream and half
milk is preferable.
3 eggs, whites and yolks beaten separately and very
stifF.
1 teaspoonful salt.
Eice flour.
Mix the beaten yolks with the milk, add the salt, then
rice flour to make a batter thick as that for flannel cakes ;
lastly, '^rhip in the stifilened whites very lightly, and bake
immediately.
Risen Waffles.
1 quart milk.
1 heaping quart flour.
5 tablespoonfuls yeast.
2 eggs.
1 tablespoonful melted butter.
1 teaspoonful salt.
Set the mixture — ^minus the eggs and butter — over
night as a sponge ; add these in the morning, and bake in
waffle-irons.
306 oohmok 8en8b.
" Mother's " Waffles. •!•
2 cups milk.
2 eggs.
3 cups flour.
1 teaspoonful cream-tartar.
i " soda.
1 saltspoonful salt.
1 tablespoonful melted butter.
Sift the cream-tartar into the flour ^th the salt. Dis-
solve the soda in a little hot water. Beat the eggs very
well. Add the flour the la^t thing. If the batter is too
stifl*, put in more mUk.
Rice Waffles {No. 1). 4^
1 cup boiled rice.
1 pint milk.
2 eggs.
Lardy the size of a walnut.
•J- teaspoonful soda.
1 '^ cream-tartar.
1 « salt.
Flour for a thin batter.
Rice Waffles (iVo. 2).
1 quart milk.
1 cup cold boiled rice.
3 cups rice flour, or enough for thin batter.
1 tablespoonful melted butter.
3 eggs.
1 teaspoonful salt.
Quick Waffles.
1 pint milk.
3 eggs, beaten very light.
SHORTCAKE, BTO. 307
1 tablespoonful melted butter.
1 teajBpoonful cream-tartar sifted in the flour.
•}- " Boda.
1 « salt.
A heaping pint of flour, or enough to make soft batter.
KicE AND Cobn-Meal Wapfles.
1 cup cold boiled rice.
•}- cup white flour, and same of corn-meal.
2 e^s well whipped, and milk to make soft batter.
1 tablespoonful melted butter.
•^ teaspoonful soda, dissolved in hot water.
1 « of salt.
Beat the mixture smooth before baking.
Be especiallj careful in greasing jour irons for these
waffles, as for all which contain rice.
Shortcake, <&c.
Sunnyhank Shortcake {for frui£), ^
2 quarts flour.
2 tablespoonfuls lard.
3 " butter.
2^ cups sour or buttermilk. " Loppered " cream is
still better.
2 eggs, well beaten.
1 teaspoonful soda, dissolved in hot water.
1 " salt.
Chop up the shortening in the salted flour, as for pastry.
Add the eggs and soda to the milk ; put all together, hand-
ling as little as may be. Boll lightly and quickly into two
sheets, the one intended for the upper crust fully half an
308 COMMON BEKBB.
inch thick, the lower less than this. Laj the latter smooth-
ly in a well-greased baJdng-pan, strew it thiddy with rasp-
berries, blackberries, or, what is better jet, huckleberries ;
sprinkle four or five tablespoonfuls of sugar over these,
cover with the thicker crust, and bake from twenty to
twenty-five minutes, until nicely browned, but not dried.
Eat hot for bi-eakfast with butter and powdered sugar.
If sweet milk be used, add two tablespoonfuls cream-
tartar sifted into the dry flour. It should be mixed afi soft
as can be rolled. This shortcake is very nice made with
the common ^' black-caps " or wild raspberries.
Stbawbebry Shobtcake. 4^
1 quart flour.
3 tablespoonfuls butter.
1 large cup sour cream or very rich " loppered " milk.
legg.
1 tablespoonful white sugar.
1 teaspoonful soda, dissolved in hot water.
1 saltspoonful salt.
Proceed, in mixing and baking, as with the huckleberry
short-cake, except that, instead of putting the benies be-
tween the crust, you lay one slieet of paste smootlily upon
the other, and bake until done. While warm — not hot —
separate these. They will come apart easily, just where
they were joined. Lay upon the lower a thick coating,
several deep, of strawberries; sprinkle powdered sugar
among and over them; cover with the upper crust. It
is best to bake strawberry shortcake in round jelly-cake
tins, or round pans a little deeper than these, as they
should be sent to table whole, while the hot short-cake is
generally out into square slices, and piled upon a plate.
Strawberry shortcake is esteemed a great delicacy in
SHORTCAKE, ETC. 309
its season. It is eaten at tea, cut into triangles like pie,
and sweet cream poured oyer each slice, with more sugar
sifted over it, if desired.
Scotch Shqrt-bread.
2 lbs. flour.
1 lb. best butter.
i lb. powdered sugar.
Chop the flour and butter together, having made the
latter quite soft by setting it near the fire. Knead in the
sugar, roll into a sheet half an inch thick, and cut in
shapes with a cake-cutter. Bake upon buttered paper in a
shallow tin untU crisp and of a delicate yellowish brown.
Grandma's Shortcake.
1 lb. flour, dried and sifted.
} lb. butter, and half as much lard.
1 saltspoonful salt.
A pinch of soda, thoroughly dissolved in just enough
vinegar to cover it, and well worked in.
Enough ice-water to enable you to roll out into paste
half an inch thick. Cut into squares, prick with a fork, and
bake light brown. Split, butter, and eat while hot.
Easter Buns ("-ffb^ Cross^^), •!•
3 cups sweet milk.
1 cup yeast.
Flour to make thick batter.
Set this as a sponge over night. In the morning add —
1 cup sugar.
^ cup butter, melted.
^ nutmeg.
1 saltspoonful salt.
810 CX)MMON 8ENBB.
Flour enough to roll out like biscuit. Knead well, and
set to rise for five Lours. KoU half an inch thick, cut into
round cakes, and lay in rows in a buttered baking-pan.
When they have stood half an hour, make a cross upon
each with a knife, and put instantly into the oven. Bake
to a light brown, and brush over with a feather or soft
bit of rag, dipped in the white of an egg beaten up stiff
with white sugar.
These are the " hot cross-buns" of the " London cries."
Plain Buns
Are made as above, but not rolled into a sheet. Knead
them like biscuit-dough, taking care not to get it too stiff,
and after the five-hour rising, work in two or three hand-
fuls of cuiTants which have been previously well washed
and dredged with flour. Mould with your hands into
round balls, set these closely together in a pan, that tliey
may form a loaf — " one, yet many " — when baked. Let
them stand nearly an hour, or until very light ; then bake
from half to three-quaiters of an hour until brown. Wash
them over while hot with the beaten egg and sugar.
These are generally eaten cold, or barely warm, and are
best the day they are baked.
Cake.
Use none but the best materials for making cake. If
you cannot afford to get good flour, dry white sugar, and
the best family butter, make up your mind to go without
your cake, and eat plain bread with a clear conscience.
There are no intermediate degrees of quality in eggs.
I believe I have said that somewhere else, but it ought to
be repeated just here. They should be, like Ctesar^s wife,
above suspicion. A tin wliisk or whip is best for beat-
ing them. All kinds of cake are better for having the
CAKE. 311
whites and yolks beaten separately. Beat the former in a
large shallow dish until you can cut through the froth with
a knife, leaving as clear and distinct an incision as you
would in a solid substance. Beat the yolks in an earthen-
ware bowl until they cease to froth, and thicken as if misced
with flour. Have the dishes cool — ^not too cold. It is
hard to whip whites stiff in a warm room.
Stir the butter and sugar to a cream. Cakes often fail
because this rule is not followed. Beat these as faithfully
as you do the eggs, warming the butter very slightly if
hard. Use only a silver or wooden spoon in this as in
other parts of your work. I have heard of silver egg-
whips, but they are not likely to come into general use, ex-
cept where the mistress makes all the cake, pudding, etc.
Do not use fresh and stale milk in the same cake. It acts
as disastrously as a piece of new cloth in an old garment.
Sotir milk makes a spongy cake ; sweet, one closer in grain.
Study the moods and tenses of your oven carefully be-
fore essaying a loaf of cake. Confine your early efforts to
tea-cakes and the like. Jelly-cake, baked in shallow flat
tins, is good practice during the novitiate. Keep the heat
steady, and as good at bottom as hot.
Streaks in cake are caused by unskilful mixing, too
rapid or unequal baking, or a sudden decrease in heat be-
fore the cake is quite done.
DonH delude yourself, and maltreat those who are to
eat your cake, by trying to make soda do the whole or most
of the duty of eggs. Others have tried it before, with un-
fortunate results. If curiosity tempt you to the experi-
ment, you had better allay it by buying some sponge-cake
at the comer bakery.
Test whether a cake is done by running a clean straw
into the thickest part. It should come up clean.
Do not leave the ovon-door open, or change the cake
312 COMMON BEN8K
from one oven to the other, except in extreme cases. If it
harden too fast on the top, cover with paper. It should
rise to full height before the crust forms.
Except for gingerbread, use none but white sugar.
Always sift the flour.
Be accurate in your weights and measures.
There is no short road to good fortune in cake-snaking.
What is worOh doing at all is worth doing well. There is
no disgrace in not having time to mix and bake a cake.
You may well be ashamed of yourself if you are too lazy,
or careless, or hurried to beat your eggs, crq^ your butter
and sugar, or measure your ingredients.
Yet, sometimes, when you believe you have left no
means untried to deserve success, fGolure is your portion.
What then ?
If the cake be uneatable, throw it away upon the first
beggar-boy who comes for broken meat, and say nothing
about it. If streaky or burned, cut out the best parts,
make them presentable as possible, and give them to John
and the children as a ^^ second-best " treat. Then keep up
a brave heart and try again. You may not satisfy your-
self in a dozen trials. You certainly wiU not, if you never
make another attempt.
Cake should be wrapped in a thick cloth as soon as
cool, and kept in tight tin boxes. Do not cut more at a
time than you are likely to use, as it is not good when dry.
Jelly-cakes are best set away upon plates, cloths wrapped
closely about them, and a box enclosing all.
Cream your sugar and butter, measure milk, spices, etc.,
before beginning work. For fruit-cake it is best to pre-
pare the matezials the day before. Let your icing dry
thoroughly before wrapping up the cake.
Sift yowr flour before measuring^ as all the following
receipts are for sifted flour.
OAKE. 313
ICINO. ^
Whites of 4 eggs.
1 pound powdered white sugar.
Lemon, vanilla, or other seasoning.
Break the whites into a broad, clean, cool dish. Throw
a small handful of sugar upon them, and begin whipping it
in with long, even strokes of the beater. A few minutes
later, throw in more sugar, and keep adding it at intervals
until it is all used up. Beat perse veringly — always with a
regular, sweeping movement of the whisk — until the icing
is of a smooth, fine, and firm texture. Half an hour's
beating should be sufficient, if done well. If not stifi* en-
ough, put in more sugar. A little practice will teach you
when your end is gained. If you season with lemon-juice,
allow, in measuring your sugar, for the additional liquid.
Lemon-juice or a very little tartaric acid w^hitens the icing.
Use at least a quarter of a pound of sugar for each egg.
This method of making icing was taught me by a con-
fectioner, as easier and surer than the old plan of beating
the eggs first and alone. I have used no other since my
first trial of it. The frosting hardens in one-fourth the
time required under the former plan, and not more than
half the time is consumed in the manufacture. I have
often iced a cake but two hours before it was cut, and found
the sugar dry all through.
Pour the icing by the spoonful on the top of the cake
and near the centre of the surface to be covered. If the
loaf is of such a shape that the liquid will settle of itself to
its place, it is best to let it do so. If you spread it, use a
broad-bladed knife, dipped in cold water. If it is as thick
with sugar as it should be, you need not lay on more than
one coat. You may set it in a moderate oven for three
minutes, if you are in great haste. The better plan is to
U
314 COMMON SENSE.
dry in a sunny window, where the air can get at it, and
where there is no dust.
Color icing yellow by putting the grated peel of a lemon
or orange in a thin muslin bag, straining a little juice
through it, and squeezing it hard into the ogg and sugar.
Strawberry -juice coloi*s a pretty [)ink, as does also cran-
berrj'-syrup.
Almond Icing.
Whites of four eggs.
1 pound Rwect almond.s.
1 " powdered sugar.
A little rose-water.
Blanch the almonds by pouring boiling water over them
and stripping off the skins. Wlien dry, pound them to a
paste, a few at a time, in a Wcdgewood mortar, moistening
it with rose-water as you go on. When beaten fine and
smooth, beat gradually into icing, prepai*ed according to
foregoing receipt.
Put on very thick, and, when nearly dry, cover with
plain icing.
This is \'crv fine.
Or,
Mingle a few bitter almonds with the sweet. The blended
flavor of these and the rose water is very pleasant.
Mautiia'*s Cake {For JcUy), ^
3 eggs.
1 cup sugar.
Butter, the size of an egg.
1 cup flour.
1 teaspoonful cream- tartar, sifted in the flour.
\ teaspoonful soda, dissolved in a tablespoonful milk.
Bake in jelly-cake tins, and sprejid, when cold, with
fruit jellv,
k.
CAKE. 815
This is, although so simple and inexpensive, an admira-
ble foundation for the various kinds of jelly, cream, and
meringue cake, which are always popular. It seldom fails,
and when well mixed and baked, is very nice.
Mrs. M.'s Cup Cake. ^
1 cup butter.
2 " sugar.
3 cups flour
4 eggs.
1 cup sweet milk.
1 teaspoonful soda.
Bake in a loaf, or as jelly-cake.
Cream-Cake. ^
2 cups powdered sugar,
f cupful butter.
4 eggs.
^ cupful milk.
\ teaspoonful soda.
1 " cream-taHar.
3 cups flour.
Bake in thin layers as for jelly-cake, and spread be-
tween them when cold the following mixture : —
\ pint of milk.
2 small teaspoonfuls corn-starch.
1 egg.
1 teaspoonful vanilla.
^ cup sugar.
Heat the milk to boiling, and stir in the corn-starch
wet with a little cold milk ; take out a little and mix grad-
ually with the beaten egg and sugar ; return to the rest of
the custard, and boil, stirring constantly until quite thick.
316 COMMON BENBE.
Let it cool before you season, and spread on cake. Season
the icing also with vanilla.
Jelly-Cake,
1 lb. sugar.
1 " flour.
i " butter.
6 eggs.
1 cup milk.
i teaspoonful soda.
1 ** cream-tartar.
Bake in shallow tins, and, when cool, put jelly between.
C0C0A2fUT-CAKE. 4^
2 cups powdered sugar.
^ cup butter,
3 eggs.
1 cup milk.
3 cups flour.
2 teaspoonfuls cream-tartar.
1 teaspoonful soda.
Bake as for jelly-cake.
MUing.
1 grated cocoanut.
To one-half of this add whites of 3 eggs beaten to a
froth, and 1 cup of powdered sugar. Lay this be-
tween the layers.
Mix with the other half of the grated cocoanut four
tablespoonfuls powdered sugar, and strew thickly on top
of cake.
Hosiers Cocoanut-Cake.
2 cups flour.
I J " sugar.
CAKE. 317
i cup butter.
^ " sweet milk.
3 eggs.
1 teaspoonful cream-tartar.
J '* soda.
Sift cream-tartar and soda into the dry flour ; cream
the butter and sugar ; add the beaten eggs, then the milk ;
lastly the flour. Bake in jeUy-cake tins.
Grate one cocoanut ; mix with it a cup and a half of
white sugar, also the milk of the cocoanut. Set the mix-
ture in the oven until the sugar melts; then spread be-
tween the cakes.
Loaf Cocoanut Cake.
1 lb. sugar.
i " butter.
6 eggs..
^ lb. flour.
1 '^ finely grated cocoanut, stirred lightly in the last
thing.
Bake immediately.
"One, Two, Thkee, Foub" Cocoanut-Cake.
1 cup butter.
2 cups sugar.
3 " flour.
4 eggs (the whites only).
1 cup milk.
1 teaspoonful cream-tartar, ) .^,, , . , ,, „
I ic ^wi I sifted into the flour.
•J- soda, )
^ small cocoanut, stirred in at the last.
818 COMMON BEK8E.
Cocoanut-Cakes {Small),
1 cocoanut, carefully skinned and grated.
Milk of the same.
1^ lb. powdered sugar.
As much water as you have cocoanut milk.
Whites of three eggs.
Dissolve one pound of sugar in the milk and water.
Stew until it becomes a " ropy " syrup, and turn out into
a buttered dish. Have ready the beaten white of egg,
with the remaining half-pound of sugar whipped into it ;
mix with this the grated cocoanut, and little by little,
beating all the while the boiled syrup, so soon as it cools
sufficiently not to scald the eggs. Drop in tablespoonfuls
upon buttered papers. Tiy one first, and if it runs, beat
in more sugar. Bake in a very moderate oven, watching
to prevent scorching. Tliey should not be suffered to
brown at all.
These will keep some time, but are best quite fresh.
Cocoanut Conks.
1 lb. powdered sugar.
J " grated cocoanut.
Whites of 6 eggs.
Whip the eggs as for icing, adding the sugar as you go
on, iintil it will stand alone, then beat in the cocoanut.
Mould the mixture with your hands into small cones,
and set these far enough apart not to touch one another,
upon buttered paper in a baking-pan. Bake in a very modo-
i-ate oven.
Lee Cake. 4^
10 eggs.
1 lb. sugar.
CAK£. 319
J lb. flour.
2 lemons.
Beat whites and yolks separately'; add to all the yolks
and the whites of seven eggs the sugar, the lind of two
lemons, and juice of one. Bake as for jelly-cake.
To the whites of three eggs allow a pound and a quai-ter
of powdered sugar ; beat stiff as for icing, take out enough
to cover the top of the cake and set aside. Add to the rest
the juice and half the grated rind of a large orange. When
the cake is nearly cold, spread this between the layers.
Beat into the icing resei*ved for the top a little lemon-juice,
and, if needed, more sugar. It should be stiffer than that
spread between the cakes.
You can make a very delightful variation of this elegant
cake, by spreading the orange icing between layers made ac-
cording to the receipt given for " Martha's Jelly-Cake "
several pages back, and frosting with lemon mMtigiie^ as
above.
WniTE-MoUNTAIN CaKE.
3 cups sugar.
1 cup butter.
^ " sweet milk.
Whites of ten eggs.
\ teaspoonful soda, ) . - , . , , ^
1 " cream-tai-tar, j
4} cups flour.
Flavor with essence of bitter almond.
Icing, whites of 3 eggs, 1 lb. powdered sugar. Flavor
with lemon-juice. Bake in jelly-cake tins, and All with
grated cocoanut, sweetened with a quarter of its weight of
powdered sugar, or with icing such as is made for Lee cake,
only flavored with lemon entirely.
320 COMMON 8EN8E.
French Cake.
1 lb. sugar.
i" butter.
1 " currants, washed clean and dredged with flour.
3 cups flour.
4 eggs.
Nutmeg and cinnamon to taste.
<j^ teaspoonful sOda dissolved in three tablespoonfuls
milk.
Lemon-Cake (No, 1).
1 lb. sugar.
12 eggs, whites and yolks beaten separately.
^ lb. flour.
Juice and rind of a lemon.
Icing flavored with same.
Baked in small square tins, and iced on sides and top,
these are sometimes called biscuits glaces.
Lemon-Cake (xVb. 2).
1 cup of butter (packed).
2 scant cuj^s of sugar.
10 eggs, yolks and whites beaten separately.
1 small cup of milk.
Juice and rind of a lemon.
1 small teaspoonful soda.
Flour to make tolerably thin batter (between two and
three cups). Of some qualities of flour three cups will be
needed.
Bake in a quick oven.
Lady-Cake {No, 1).
\ lb. butter.
1 " flour.
CAKE. 321
8 eggs.
1 teaspoonful cream-tartAr.
^ *' soda.
1 lb. sugar.
1 pint milk.
Lady-Cake (iVT?. 2). »J^
1 lb. sugar.
J *' sifted flour.
6 oz. butter.
The whipped whites of ten eggs.
Flavor with bitter almond, and bake in square, not very
deep tins. Flavor the frosting with vanilla. The combina-
tion is very pleasant.
Sister Mag's Cake. 4^
2^ cups powdered sugar.
J cup of butter.
1 " sweet milk.
3 cups flour.
4 eggs.
1 lemon, juice and rind.
1 small teaspoonful soda.
Bake in a square or oblong tin, and frost with whites
of two eggs beaten stiff with powdered sj^gar.
DovEB Cake. 4^
1 lb. flour.
1 " white sugar.
^ ^^ butter, rubbed with the sugar to a
very light cream.
6 eggs.
1 cup sweet milk.-
14*
322 COWdON SENSE.
1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in vinegar.
1 " powdered cinnamon.
1 tablespoonfiU rose-water.
Flavor the frosting with lemon-juice.
Chocolate Cake, t^*
2 cups of sugar.
1 cup butter.
The yolks of five eggs and whites of two.
1 cup of milk.
3 J cups flour.
^ teaspoonful soda.
1 " cream-tartar, sifted into the flour.
Bake in jelly -cake tins.
Mixture for JUling,
Whites of three e^s.
\\ cup sugar.
3 tablespoonfuls grated chocolate.
1 teaspoonful vanilla.
Beat well together, spread between the layei-s and on
top of cake.
Caramel Cake. ^
i cups sugar.
1^ « butter.
1 cup milk.
4^ cups flour.
5 eggs.
Small teaspoonful soda.
2 teaspoonfuls cream-tartar.
CASE. 823
Caramd for filling,
1 J cup brown sugar.
\ cup milk.
1 '' molasses.
1 teaspoonful butter.
1 tablespoonful flour
2 *' cold water.
Boil this mixture live minutes, add half a cake Baker's
chocolate (grated), boil iintil it is the consistency of rich
custard. Add a pinch of soda, stir well, and remove from
fire.
When cold, flavor with a large teaspoonful vanilla, and
spread between the layers of cake, which should be baked
as for jelly-cake. Cover the top with the same, and set in
an open, sunny window to dry.
The above quantity will make two largo cakes.
Marble Cake.
lAghL
1 cup white sugar.
\ " butter.
\ '' milk.
Whites of 3 eggs.
1 teaspoonful cream-taHar.
\ " soda.
2 cups flour.
Danrk,
\ cup brown sugar.
\ " butter.
\ ^^ molasses,
i " milk.
324 COMMON BEN8K
^ uutmeg.
1 tcaspoonful cinnamon.
^ " allspice.
^ " soda.
1 ^' cream-tartai*.
2 cups flour.
Yolks of three eggs.
Butter your mould, and put in the dark and light bat-
ter in alternate tablespoonfuls.
Marbled Cake, t^*
1 cup butter.
2 cups powdered sugar.
3 " flour.
4 eggs.
1 cup sweet milk.
^ teaspoonful soda.
1 " cream-tartar sifted with the flour.
When the cake is mixed take out about a teacupful of
the batter, and stii* into this a great spoonful of grated
chocolate, wet with a scant tablespoonful of milk. Fill
your mould about an inch deep with the yellow batter, and
drop upon this, in two or three places, a spoonful of the
dark mixture. Give to the brown spots a slight stir with
the tip of your spoon, spi^eading it in broken circles upon
the lighter surface. Pour in more yellow batter, then drop
in the brown in the same manner as before, proceeding in
this order until all is used up. When cut, the cake will
be found to be handsomely variegated.
Or,
You may color the reserved cupful of batter with enough
prepared cochineal to give it a fine pink tint, and mix as
you do the brown.
CAKE. 326
Chocolate Icing {/Simple).
^ cake chocolate.
i cup sweet milk.
1 tablespoonful corn-starch.
1 teaspoonful vanilla.
Mix together these ingredients, with the exception of
the vanilla ; boil it two minutes (after it has hiriy come to
a boil), flavor, and then sweeten to taste with powderod
sugar, taking care to make it sweet enough.
Caramels {Chocolate).
2 cups brown sugar.
1 cup molasses.
1 tablespoonful (heaping) of butter.
3 tablespoonfuls flour.
Boil twenty-five minutes ; then stir in half a pound of
grated chocolate wet in one cup of sweet milk, and boil
imtil it hardens on the spoon, with which you must stir it
frequently. Flavor with a teaspoonful of vanilla.
Chocolate ficLAins.
4 eggs.
The weight of the eggs in sugar.
Half their weight in flour.
J teaspoonful soda, ) sifted well with the
^ " cream-tartar, ) flour.
If you bake these often, it will be worth your while to
have made at the tinner^s a set of small tins, about five
inches long and two wide, round at the bottom, and kept
firm by strips of tin connecting them. If you cannot get
these, tack stiff writing-paper into the same shape, stitch-
ing each of the little canoes to its neighbor after the man-
326 COMMON SENSE.
iier of a pontoon bridge. Have these made and buttered
before you mix the cake ; put a spoonful of batter in each,
and bake in a steady oven. When nearly cold, cover the
rounded side with a caramel icing, made according to the
foregoing receipt.
These little cakes are popular favorites, and with a lit-
tle practice can be easily and quickly made.
Ellie^s Cake. »{<
1 cup of sugar.
i " butter.
3 eggs.
^ cup sweet milk.
1 teaspoonful cream-tartar.
i " soda.
2^ cups flour.
Bake in jelly-cake tins, and fill with jelly or chocolate.
A simple and excellent cake.
Sponge Cake.
1 teacup powdered sugar.
3 eggs.
^ teaspoonful cream-tartiir.
J " soda.
1 teacupful flour.
Flavor with lemon — half the juice and half the lind of
one. Bake twenty minutes in shallow tins.
Mrs. M.'s Sponge-Cake. »!•
12 eggs.
The weight of the eggs in sugar.
Half their weight in flour.
1 lemon, juice and rind.
CAKE. 327
Beat jolks and whites very light, the sugar into the
former when they are smooth and stiff; next, the juice and
grated peel of the lemon, then the flour ; lastly, the beaten
whites, veri/ lightly.
The lady from whom I had this admirable receipt was
celebrated among her acquaintances for her beautiful and
delicious sponge-cake.
"Which should always be baked in tins like these,"
she said to me once, sportively, " or it does not taste just
right."
The moulds were like a large brick in shape, with al-
most perpendicular sides. I instantly gave an order for a
couple precisely like them, and really fancied that cake
baked in them was a little better than in any other form.
But you can hardly fail of success if you prepare yours pre-
cisely as I have directed, bake in whatever shape you will.
Be careful that your oven is steady, and cover the cake
with paper, to prevent biuning.
It is a good plan to line the pans in which sponge-cake
is baked with buttered paper, fitted neatly to the sides
and bottom.
Pound Cake (iV^o. 1).
1 lb. sugar.
1 " floui'.
J '' butter.
9 eggs..
2 teaspoonfuls cream-tartar.
1 " soda.
Cream the butter and sugar with gi-eat care ; beat the
yolks and whites separately; sift the cream-tartar well
through the flour. Add the flour last.
828 COMMON 8KN8E«
Pound Cake (No. 2).
1 lb. flour.
1 " eggs.
1 " sugar.
i " butter.
1 glass brandy.
1 nutmeg.
1 teaspoonful mace.
Cream half the flour with the butter, and add brandy and
spice. Beat the yolks until light, add the sugar, then the
beaten whites and the rest of the flour alternately. When
this is thoroughly mixed, put all together and beat steadily
for half an hour. ^
If properly made and baked this is a splendid cake.
Washington Cake.
3 cups sugar.
2 « butter.
5 eggs.
1 cup milk.
4 cups flour.
2 teaspoonfuls cream-tartar.
1 teaspoonful soda.
Mix as usual and stir in, at the last,
^ lb. currants well washed and dredged.
J " raisins seeded and chopped fine, then floured.
A handful of citron sliced fine.
Cinnamon and nutmeg to taste.
Fruit-cake takes lonc^r to bake than plain, and the hoat
must be kept steady.
Lincoln Cake.
1 lb. butter.
1 " sugar.
CAKE. 329
1 lb. f]our.
6 eggs.
2 cups sour cream or milk.
1 grated nutmeg.
1 teaspoonful powdered cinnamon.
1 tablespoonful rose-water. »
1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water, and stirred
into the milk just before adding the latter to the
cake.
Cream the butter and sugar, put with them the. yolks
whipped light, then the cream and spice, next the flour,
then the rose-water, and a double-handful of citron cut in
slips and dredged ; Anally, the beaten whites of the eggs.
Stir all well, and bake in a loaf or in a ^^ card," using a
square shallow baking-pan.
This is a good cake and keeps well.
Black oh Wedding Cake.
1 lb. powdered sugar.
1." butter.
1 " flour.
12 eggs.
1 lb. currants well washed and dredged.
1 ** raisins seeded and chopped.
' ^ " citron cut into slips.
1 tablespoonful cinnamon.
2 teaspoonfuls nutmeg.
1 " cloves.
1 wineglass brandy.
Cream the butter and sugar, add the beaten yolks of the
c^ggs, and stir all well together before putting in half of the
flour. The spice should come next, then the whipped
330 COMMON SENSE.
whites stirred in alternately with the I'est of the , flour,
lastly the brandy.
The above quantity is for two large cakes. Bake at
least two hours in deep tins lined with well-buttered pa-
per.
The icing should be laid on stiff and thickly. This
cake, if kept in a cool, dry place, will not spoil in two
months.
I have eaten wedding-cake a year old.
Test the cakes well, and be sure they are quite done
before taking them from the oven.
Fruit-Cake {jylainer).
1 lb. powdered sugar.
1 " flour,
f " butter.
7 eggs.
J lb. currants — washed, picked over, and dredged.
^ " raisins — seeded and chopped, then dredged.
J " citron cut into slips.
1 tcaspoonful nutmeg.
1 " cinnamon.
1 glass brandy.
Cream butter and sugar ; add the beaten yolks, then
the spice and the whipped whites alternately with the
flour ; the fruit and brandy last.
Almond Cake.
1 lb. powdered sugar.
1 *« flour.
J " butter.
8 eggs.
CAKE. 331
1 coffee-cupful sweet almonds, blanched by putting them
into hot water, and, when stripped of their skins
and perfectly cold, beaten to a smooth paste in a
Wedgewood mortar, with a little rose-water and half a
teaspoonful essence of bitter almonds.
Beat whites and yolks separately ; stir butter and sugar
to a cream ; add to tliis the yolks ; beat very hard before
putting in the flour ; stir in the almond-paste alternately
with the whites. Put in the brandy last.
Season the icing with rose-water.
Nut-Cake. »{•
2 cups sugar.
1 cup butter.
3 cups flour.
1 cup cold water.
4 eggs.
1 teaspoonful soda.
2 teaspoonfuls cream-tartar,
2 cupfuls kernels of hickory-nuts or white walnuts,
carefully picked out, and added last of all.
Gold Cake, t^t
1 lb. sugar.
i « butter.
1 « flour.
Yolks of ten eggs — well beaten.
Grated rind of one orange, and juice of two lemons.
1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water.
Cream the butter and , sugar, and stir in the yolks.
Beat very hard for five minutes before putting in the flour.
The soda next, and lastly the lemon-juice, in which the
grated orange-peel sliould have been steeped and strained
332 COMMON BENSE.
out in a piece of thin muslin, leaving the flavoring and
coloring matter in the juice.
Flavor the icing also with lemon.
Silver Cake. 4*
1 lb. Bugai\
} " flour.
i " butter.
Whites of ten eggs — whipped very stiff.
1 large teaspoonful essence bitter almonds.
Cream butter and sugar ; put next the whites of the
eggs ; then the flour, lastly the flavoring.
Make gold and silver cake on the same day ; bake them
in tins of corresponding size, and lay them in alternate
slices in the cake-basket. Flavor the icing of silver cake
with rose-water.
Almond Macaroons.
Prepare the almonds the day before you make the cakes,
by blanching them in boiling water, stripping off the skins,
and pounding them when perfectly cold — a few at a time —
in a Wedgewood mortar, adding from time to time a little
rose-water. When beaten to a smooth paste, stir in, to a
pound of the sweet almonds, a generous tablespoonful of
essence of bitter almonds ; cover closely, and set away in a
cold place until the morrow. Then to a pound of the nuts
allow : —
1 lb. powdered sugar.
The beaten whites of eight eggs, and
1 teaspoonful nutmeg.
Stir the sugar and white of egg lightly together ; then
whip in gradually the almond-paste.
Line a broad baking-pan with buttered white paper;
CAKE. 333
drop upon this spoonfuls of the mixture at such distances
apart as shall prevent their running together. Sift pow-
dered sugar thickly upon each, and bake in a quick oven
to a delicate brown.
Try the mixture first, to make sure it is of the right
consistency, and if the macaroons run into irregular shapes,
beat in more sugar. This will hardly happen, however, if
the mixture is already well beaten.
Huckleberry Cake. »{*
1 cup butter.
2 cups sugar.
3 cups flour.
5 eggs.
1 cup sweet milk.
1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water.
1 *^ nutmeg, and the same of cinnamon.
1 quart ripe, fresh huckleberries, thickly dredged with
flour.
Stir the butter and sugar to a cream, add the beaten
yolks ; then the milk, the flour, and spice, the whites whip-
ped stiff, and the soda. At the last stir in the huckleber-
ries with a wooden spoon or paddle, not to bruise them.
Bake in a loaf or card, in a moderate but steady oven, until
a straw comes out clean from the thickest part.
This is a delicious cake, and deserves to be better known.
Corn-Starch Cake. »{«
2 cups sugar, ) ^^^ ^^ ^ ^^^^
1 cup butter, )
1 cup milk.
2 cups flour.
3 eggs, whites and yolks beaten separately.
334 COMMON SEKSE.
i cup cornstarch.
2 toaspoonfuls cream-tartar, sifled well through the flour.
1 '^ soda, dissolved in hot water.
Sifr. the corn-Htarch with the flour, and add the last thing.
Bake in small tins and eat while fresh. They dry in two
or three days and become insipid, but are very nice for
twenty-four hours after they are baked.
White C\\ke.
1 cup butter.
2 cups sugar.
1 cup sweet milk.
Whites of five eggs.
3 cups flour.
2 teaspoonfuls cream-tartar.
1 " soda.
COOKIES, ETC.
Mrs. B.'s Cookies. •{•
6 eggs, whites and yolks separately.
1 cup butter.
3 cups sugar.
Flour to make batter just stiff* enough to be moulded
with well-floured hands.
Flavor with lemon.
Make into round cakes and bake in a quick oven.
Small Sugar Cakes.
1 heaping teacup of sugar.
J teacup of butter.
^ teacup sweet milk.
2 eggs, well beaten.
COOKIES, ETC. 835
2 teaspoonfuls cream-tartar.
1 '^ coda dissolved in hot water.
Flour sufficient to enable you to roll out the dough.
1 saltspoonful salt.
Nutmeg and cinnamon to taste.
Cut into round cakes and bake quickly.
New Year's Cakes. ( Very nice.) »J<
1^ lb. sugar.
1 lb. butter.
^ pint cold water.
2 eggs.
3^ lbs. flour.
1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water.
4 tablespoonfuls caraway seed sprinkled through the
flour.
Rub the butter, or, what is better, chop it up in the
flour ; dissolve the sugar in the water ; mix all well witli
the beaten eggs, cut in square cakes, or with an oval mould,
and bake quickly.
"Mother's" Cookies.
1 cup butter.
2 cups sugar.
3 6ggs, well beaten.
} teaspoonful soda dissolved in boiling water.
1 " nutmeg.
^ *' cloves.
Flour to make soft dough, just stiff enough to roll out.
Try two cups to begin with, working it in gradually. Cut
in round cakes, stick a raisin or currant in the top of each,
and bake quickly.
336 COMMON SENSE.
Coriander Cookies, t^
1 cup butter.
3 cups sugar.
1 cup " loppeved " milk or cream.
4 eggs.
7 cups flour, or just enough to stiffen into a roUcible paste.
2 tablespoonfuls coriander seed (ground or beaten).
1 '^ soda, dissolved in boiling water.
If you use sweet milk, add two teaspoonfuls cream-
tartar. You may substitute caraway for the coriander
seed.
Rice-Flour Cookies.
^ lb. ground rice.
jf " flour, dried and sifted.
1 " powdered sugar.
i'' butter.
4 eggs.
Juice and half the grated rind of a lemon.
1 tablespoonful orange-flower water.
Beat yolks and whites very light ; then put the sugar
with the yolks. Boat ten minutes, add the orange-flower
water and lemon ; lastly, the flour and whites alternately.
Beat the mixture half an hour. Bake immediately in patty-
pans. Eat while fresh.
Molasses Cookies. {Good.)
1 cup butter.
2 cups molasses.
1 teaspoonful cloves.
1 tablespoonful ginger.
Sufficient floiu* to make stiff baiter, not dough. Mould
COOKIES, ETC. 837
with the hands into small cakes, and bake in a steady rather
than quick oven, as they are apt to bum.
Ginger- Snaps (iTo. 1).
1 cup butter.
1 ^' molasses.
1 " sugar.
J " sweet milk.
1 teaspoonful saleratus.
2 " gii^ger.
Flour for tolerably stiff dough.
Ginqer-Snaps (JVo. 2). 4*
1 large cup butter and lard mixed*
1 coffee-cup sugar.
1 cup molasses.
•}- " water.
1 tablespoonful ginger.
1 ^' cinnamon.
1 teaspoonful cloves.
1 ^' soda dissolved in hot water.
Flour for pretty stiff dough.
Boll out rather thinner than sugar ^ cakes, and bake
quickly. These ginger-snaps will keep for weeks, if locked
up,
Ginger-Snaps {No, 3).
1 pint molasses.
1 teacup sugar.
1 tablespoonful ginger.
1 " allspice.
1 cup butter.
5 cups flour.
Roll thin and cut into small cakes. Bake in quick oven.
15
33S COMMON 8EN8E.
Aunt Margaret^s Jumbles.
1 cup butter.
2 cups sugar.
1 teacup milk.
5 eggs.
1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in boiling water.
1 " nutmeg.
Sufficient flour to make soft dough. Boll out, cut into
shapes, and sift sugar over them before they go into the
oven.
Lemon Jumbles.
1 egg.
1 teacupful sugar.
1 « butter.
3 teas|K>onfuls milk.
1 " cream-tartar.
J « soda.
2 small lemons, juice of two and grated rind of one.
Mix rather stiff. Roll and cut out with a cake-cutter.
RiNQ Jumbles.
1 lb. butter.
1 " sugar.
4 eggs.
\\ lb. flour, or enough to make out a soft dough.
Wineglass (small) rose-water.
Cream the butter and sugar, add the beaten yolks, then
the rose-water, ne^^t half the flour, lastly the whites, stirred
in very lightly, sJtemately with the remaining flour. Have
ready a pan, broad and shallow, lined on the bottom with
buttered paper, With a tablcspooi; forn^ regular rings of
JUMBLES, CAKES, ETC. 339
tho dough upon this, leaving a hole in the centre of each.
Bake quickly, and sifl fine sugar over them as soon as they
are done.
You may substitute lemon or vanilla for the rose-water.
Mrs. M.'s Jumbles.
1 cup sugar.
1 « butter.
^ '^ sour cream.
1 egg.
1 teaspoonful soda, dissolved in hot water.
Kutmeg to taste.
Bake in rings, as directed in previous receipt.
Almond Jumbles.
1 lb. sugar.
^ « flour.
i " butter.
1 teacup "loppered" milk.
5 eggs.
2 tablespoonfuls rose-water.
f lb. almonds, blanched and chopped small, but not
pounded.
1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in boiling water.
Cream, butter, and sugar ; stir in the beaten yolks, the
milk, the flour, and the rose-water, the almonds, lastly the
beaten whites very lightly and quickly. Drop in rings or
round cakes upon buttered paper, and bake immediately.
You may substitute grated coooanut, or the chopped
kernels of white walnuts, for the almonds, in which case
add a little salt.
340 COMMON SENSE.
Currant Cakes.
1 lb. flour.
i " butter.
J ** sugar.
4 eggs.
^ lb. currants, well washed and dredged.
^ teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water.
^ lemon, grated rind and juice.
1 teasi>oonful cinnamon.
Drop from a spoon upon well-buttered paper, lining a
baking-pan. Bake quickly.
Drop Sponge-cakes.
^ lb. powdered sugar.
i " flour.
4 eggs — ^yolks and whites separate, and beaten very
stiff:
1 lemon — all the juice, and half the grated rind.
Drop upon buttered paper, not too near together. Tiy
one, and if it runs, beat the mixture some minutes longer
hardy adding a very little flour. Your oven should be very
quick, and the cakes a delicate yellow brown.
Lady^s Fingers
Are mixed like drop sponge-cakes, but disposed upon the
paper in long, narrow cakes. They are very nice dipped
in chocolate icing, or caramel.
Aunt Margaret's Crullers, t^
1 lb. butter.
1^ lb. powdered sugar.
12 eggs.
Mace and nutmeg to taste.
Flour to roll out stiff.
CBULLEBS. 341
This is for a large quantity of ciniUers. Roll out in a
thin sheet, cut into shapes with a jagging-iron, and fry in
plenty of boiling lard. Test the heat first by dropping in
one. It should rise almost instantly to the surface. Crul-
lers and doughnuts soak in fat at the bottom of the kettle.
These should be a fine yellow.
The most delicious and the nicest-looking crullers I
have ever seen were made by the dear old lady from whom
I had this receipt. They were as pretty and perfect a
picture of their kind as she was of hers.
Crullers are better the second day than the first. If
the fat becomes so hot that the cinillers brown before they
puff out to their full dimensions, take the kettle from the
fire for a few minutes. Have enough cut out before you
begin to fry them, to keep a good supply all the while on
the fire. If you undertake the task alone, cut out all be-
fore cooking one.
Katie's Crullers.
1 lb. sugar.
\ « butter.
6 eggs.
1 tablespoonful sweet milk.
1 small teaspoonful soda.
1 nutmeg.
Sufiicient flour to roll out stiff.
"Mother's" Crullers.
1^ teacup sugar.
\ teacup sour cream or milk.
\ " butter.
1 egg.
1 small teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot t^ator.
Flour to roll out a tolerably stiff paste.
842 COMMON SENSE.
Annie's Crullers.
2 cups sugar.
1 cup butter.
2 eggs.
2 cups sour milk.
1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water.
Flour to roll out tolerably stiff.
Risen Doughnuts.
1 lb. butter.
IJ^ lb. sugar.
1 quart sweet milk.
4 eggs.
1 large cup yeast.
1 tablespoonful mace or nutmeg.
2 teaspoonfuls cinnamon.
Flour to make all stiff as bread-dough.
1 teaspoonful salt.
Cream the butter and sugar, add the milk, yeast, and one
quart and a pint of flour. Set to rise over night. In the
morning beat the eggs very light, and stir into the batter
with the spice and rest of the flour. Set to rise three hours,
or until light ; roll into a pretty thick sheet, cut out, and
fiy in boiling lard. Sift powdered sugar over them while
hot.
Quick Doughnuts.
1 cup butter.
2 cups sugar.
4 eggs.
1 cup sour milk or cream.
1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water.
CSULLEBS, DOUGHNUTS, ETC. 343
1 teaspoonful nutmeg.
^ << cinnamon.
Flour to roll out in pretty soft dough.
Cut into shapes, and fry in hot lard.
Soft Gingerbread. •!«
1 cup butter.
1 ^' molasses.
1 " sugar.
1 " sour or buttermilk.
1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in boiling water.
1 tablespoonful ginger.
1 teaspoonful cinnamon.
2 eggs.
About five cups of flour— enough to make it thick as
cup-cake batter, perhaps a trifle thicker. Work in four
cups first, and add very cautiously.
Stir butter, sugar, molasses, and spice together to a
light cream, set them on the range until slightly warm;
beat the eggs light; add the milk to the warmed mixture,
then the eggs, the soda, and lastly the flour. Beat very
hard ten minutes, and bake at once in a loaf, or in small
tins. Half a pound raisins, seeded and cut in half, will
improve this excellent gingerbread. Dredge them well
before putting them in. Add them at the last.
Sponge Gingerbread {egglcss), ^
5 cups flour.
1 heaping tablespoonful butter.
1 cup molasses.
1 " sugar.
1 " milk (sour is best).
2 teaspoonfiils salei*atus, not soda, dissolved in hot water.
844 COMMON SENSE.
2 tcaspoonfuls ginger.
1 '' cinnamon.
Mix thi^ molasses, sugar, butter, and spice together;
warm them slightly, and beat until they are lighter in col-
or by many degrees than when you began. Add the milk,
then the soda, and having mixed all well, put in the flour.
Beat very hard five minutes, and bake in a broad, shallow
pan, or in pdte-tins. Half a pound of seeded raisins cut
in pieces will be a pleasant addition.
Try this gingerbread warm for tea or luncheon, with
a cup of hot chocolate to accompany it, and you will soon
I'epeat the experiment.
Plain Gingerbread.
2 cups molasses.
i " lard.
1 « butter.
2 teaspoonfuls soda dissolved in hot water,
2 tablespoonfuls ginger.
1 cup sour milk.
Thicken with flour to a soft dough.
Warm the molasses, lard, butter, and ginger, and beat
them ten minutes before adding the milk, soda, and flour.
Roll out, cut into shapes, and bake in a quick, but not
too hot oven. Keep in a tight tin box. Brush over with
white of egg while hot.
Gingerbread Loaf (No. 1).
1 cup butter.
1 '^ molasses.
1 ** sugar.
^ " cold water.
1 tablespoonful ginger.
OINO£BBR£AD. 345
1 teaspoonful cinnamon.
1 " soda, dissolved in boiling water.
Flour to make stiff batter.
Melt the butter, slightly warm the molasses, spice, and
sugar, and beat together ten minutes. Then pat in the
water, soda, and flour. Stir very hard, and bake in three
small loaves. Brush them over with syrup while hot, and
eat fresh.
Loaf Gingerbread (No 2).
1 cup butter.
2 cups molasses.
1 tablespoonful ginger.
2 eggs, very well beaten.
1 teaspoonful saleratus.
1 cup milk, sweet or sour. If sour, heap your spoon
with saleratus.
Flour to the consistency of pound-cake.
Spiced Gingerbread.
1 lb. flour.
1 " sugar.
J " butter.
5 eggs.
i teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water*
1 " cream-tartar.
3 tablespoonfuls sweet milk.
1 large tablespoonful ginger.
1 teaspoonful cloves.
1 ** nutmeg.
1 '^ cinnamon.
Cream the sugar and butter, stir in the beaten yolks,
the milk and spice, the soda, and when these are well mixed,
the flour. Bake in two squai*c or roimd loaves.
15*
346 COMMON SENBB.
Sugar Gingerbread.
1 cup of butter.
2 cups of sugar.
1 cup sour cream or milk.
3 eggs.
1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water.
2 tablespoonfuls ginger.
1 teaspoonful cinnamon.
5|- cups of flour, or enough to roll out 9ofi, Gut in
shapes, brush over with white of egg while hot, and bake.
Bread Cake.
On baking-day, take from your dough, after its second
rising — 2 cups risen dough. Have ready, also —
2 cups white sugar.
1 cup butter, creamed with the sugar.
3 eggs.
1 teaspoonful soda, dissolved in hot water.
2 tablespoonfuls sweet milk— cream is better.
\ lb. currants, well washed and dredged.
1 teaspoonful nutmeg.
1 " cloves.
Beat the yolks very light, add the creamed butter and
sugar, the spice, milk, soda, and dough. Stir until all are
well mixed ; put in the beaten whites, lastly the fruit.
Beat hard five minutes, let it rise twenty minutes in two
well-buttered pans, and bake half an hour or until done.
Fruit Gingerbread.
2 lbs. flour,
f « butter.
1 ^^ sugar.
SWEET WAFEE8. 847
1 lb. raisinSy seeded and chopped.
1 ** currants^ well washed.
2 cups molasses.
^ cup sour cream.
C eggs.
1 heaping teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water.
2 tablespoonfuls ginger.
1 teaspoonful cinnamon.
1 " cloves.
Cream the butter and sugar, warm the molasses slightly,
and beat these together ; then the beaten yolks, next the
milk and spice, the soda, the flour and whites, well whip-
ped ; lastly the fruit, which must be thickly dredged. Beat
well before baking.
A little citron, slired fine, is an improvement. Bake in
two broad pans, in a moderate oven. This cake will keep
a long time.
Sweet Wafers.
6 eggs.
1 pint flour.
2 oz. melted butter.
H cup powdered sugar.
1 cup milk.
1 teaspoonful nutmeg.
Beat whites and yolks separately and very stifl*, rub the
sugar and butter together, and work in first the yolks, then
the milk, then the flour and whites. Bake in well-but*
tered wafer or waffle irons, very quickly, browning as little
as possible. Boll them while hot upon a smooth, round
stick, not larger than your little finger, sb'pping it out care-
fully when the cake takes the right shape.
Thcso little cakes are an acceptable addition to any
34S COMMON 8EN8E.
tea or sup[>er table, and look well among faucy cakes in a
basket.
Boston Cream Cakes. >{«
J- lb. butter.
J " flour.
8 eggs.
1 pint water.
Stir the butter into the water, which should be wann,
set it on the fire in a saucepan, and slowly bring to a boil,
stilling it often. When it boils, put in the flour, boil one
miniite, stirring all the while ; take from the fire, turn into
a deep dish, and let it cool. Beat the eggs very light, and
whip into this cooled paste, first the yolks, then the whites.
Drop, in great spoonfuls, upon buttered paper, taking
care not to let them touch or run into each other, and bake
ten minutes.
Cream far JiUiny,
1 quart milk.
4 tablespoon fills corn-starch.
2 eggs.
2 cups sugar.
Wet the corn-starch with enough milk to work it into
a smooth pa.stc. Boil the rest of the milk. Beat the eggs,
add the sugar and corn-starch to these, and so soon as the
milk boils pour in the mixture gradually, stirring all the
time until smooth and thick. Drop in a teaspoonful of but-
ter, and when this is mixed in, set the custard aside to cool.
Then add vanilla or lemon seasoning ; pass a sharp knife
lightly around the pufls, split them, and fill with the mix-
ture.
Tlie best cream cakes I have ever tasted were made by
this somewhat odd receipt.
Try it.
PIE8. 349
Nougat.
1 lb. sweet almonda.
J " fine white sugar.
1 tablespoonful rose-water.
Blanch the almonds in boiling water. When stripped
of their skins, throw them into ice- water for five minutes.
Take them out and dry between two cloths. Shave with
a small knife into thin slips. Put them into a slow oven
until they are very slightly colored. Meanwhile, melt the
sugar — wiihoui adding water — in a porcelain kettle over
the fire, stirring it all the while to keep it from burning.
When it bubbles up and is quite melted take off the kettle
and instantly stir in the hot almonds. Have ready a tin
pan or mould, well buttered and slightly warmed. Pour
in the nougat ; press it thin and fiat to the bottom of the
pan if you mean to cut it into strips ; to all sides of tlio
mould if you intend to fill it with syllabub or macaroons.
Let it cool in the mould, for the latter puri)ose, withdraw-
ing it carefully when you want it. If you cut it up, do it
while it is still warm — not hot.
The synip should be a bright yellow before putting in
tlic almonds.
PIES.
Use none but the best butter in pastry.
" Cooking butter is a good thing," said a grave epicure
to me once, " an admirable thing — in its place, which is in
the soap-fat kettle or upon wagon-wheels ! "
It is certainly out of place in biscmts, cake, or in any
substance destined for hiiman palates and stomachs. It Ls
never less in place than in pastry ; never betrays its vile-
ness more surely and odiously.
3S0 COMMON SENSE.
Butter intended for pastry should be washed carefully
in several clear, cold waters, and kneaded while under
water, to extract the salt. Then wipe it dry, and lay it in a
cold place until you are ready to work it in.
'^Keep cool,'' is a cardinal motto for pastry-makers.
A marble slab is a good thing to roll out paste upon. Next
to this, the best article is a dean board of hard wood, which
is never used for any other purpose. It is harder to make
good pastry in warm weather than cold, on account of the
tendency of the butter to oil, and thus render the crust
heavy and solid.
Few people know what really good pastry is. Fewer
still can make it. It has no inevitable resemblance either
to putty or leather. It is light, crisp, flaky, goodly to be-
hold— ^goodlier to the taste.
'^ Pork fat and pies kill more people yearly in the
United States than do liquor and tobacco,'' said a popular
lecturer upon conservatism.
Perhaps so ; but I incline to the belief that bad pastry
is amiwerable for a vast majority of the murders. Not that
I recommend pies of any description as healthful daily food
— least of all for children. But since they are eaten freely
all o^'er our land, let us make them as wholesome and pa-
latable as possible.
Family Pie-Crust (No. 1). •!•
1 quart flour.
^ lb. lard, sweet and firm.
\ " butter.
1 small teacup ice-water.
Sift the flour into a deep wooden bowL With a broad-
bladed knife, or a small keen '^ chopper," cut up the lard
into the flour until it is fine as dust. Wet with ice-
FIE6. 361
water into a stiff dough, working it with a wooden spoon
until obliged to make it into a roll or ball with your hands.
Flour these, and knead the paste into shape with as few
strokes as will effect your end. Lay the lump upon a
floured kneading-board and roll it out into a thin sheet,
always rolling from you with quick, light action. When
thin enough, stick bits of butter in regular close rows all
over the sheet, using a knife for this pur{)ose rather than
your hands. Roll up the paste into close folds as you
would a sheet of music. Flatten it that your rolling-pin
can take hold, and roll out again as thin as before. Baste,
roll up and then out, until your butter is gone. It is a
good plan to sprinkle the inside of each sheet with a little
flour after buttering it, before making it into a roll. Fina^.ly,
make out your crust ; butter your pic-plates, lay tlie paste
lightly within them, cut it off evenly about the edges after
fitting it neatly; gather up the scraps left from cutting,
and make into another sheet. If the pies are to have a
top crust, fill the plates with fruit or whatever you have
ready, lay the paste on this, cut it to fit, and press down
the edges to prevent the escape of the juice, with a spoon,
knife, or jagging-iron, ornamenting it^in a regular figure.
Bake in a moderate oven until a light brown. Be
particularly careful to have your heat as great at the
bottom as at the top, or the lower crust will be clammy
and raw.
Pastry is always best when fresh.
It is well, when you can spare the time, to lay the roll,
when all the butter is used up, in a very cold place for fif-
teen minutes or so before rolling it into crust. Indeed,
some good housewives let it stand on the ice an hour in hot
weather. They say it tends to make it flaky as well as firm.
Touch as little with your hands as may be practicable.
362 COMMON SENSE.
Family PiE-CRUtsT {N'o. 2). •!«
1 lb. flour.
} " butter.
1 teaspoonful soda.
2 teaspoonfuls creain*tartar.
. Ice-water to make into a Btiff" dough.
Chop half the butter into the flour until it looks like
yellow sand (sift the soda and cream-tartar with the flour,
passing it through the sieve twice to make sure it is well
mixed) ; work with ice-water into stiff dough ; roll into a
thin sheet, baste with one-third the remaining butter, fold
up closely into a long roll, flatten and re-roll, then baste
again. Kepeat this operation three times, until the butter
is gone, when make out your crust.
This is an easy and sure receipt, and the paste very
fine.
Fksncii Pukf-Paste. •!«
1 lb. flour.
I " butter.
1 egg ; use the yolk only.
Ice-water.
Chop half the butter into the flour ; stir the beaten egg
into half a cup ice-water, and work the flour into a stiff
dough ; roll out Hiiriy baste with one-third the remaining but-
ter, fold closely, roll oiit again, and so on until the butter is
used up. KoU very thin, and set the last folded roll in a
very cold place ten or fifteen minutes before making out
the crust. Wash with beaten egg while hot. This paste is
very nice for oyster-^? cl^c^ as well as for fi-uit-pies.
PIES. 353
Puff-Paste.
1 pint flour.
■J- lb. butter.
1 egg, well beaten. Use the yolk only.
1 gill ice-water.
Mix the flour, a tablespoonful of butter, the beaten egg,
and ice-water into a paste with a wooden spoon. Flour
your pastry-board, and roll out the crust very thin. Put
the rest of the butter, when you have washed it, in the
centre of this sheet, in a flat cake. Turn the four comei*s
of the 'paste over it, and roll out carefully, not to break the
paste. Should it give way, flour the spot, that it may not
stick to the roller. When very thin, sprinkle lightly with
flour, fold up, and roll out four times more. Set in a cool
place for an hour, roll out again, and cut into tartlet-shells
or top crust for pies.
The bottom crust of pies may often be made of plainer
pastry than the upper.
Transparent Crust. ( Very rich.)
1 lb. flour.
1 " butter.
1 egg — the yolk only.
Wash the butter, dry, and then melt it in a vessel set
in another of boiling water, stirring gently all the while to
prevent oiling. Take off the salty scum from the top, and
when almost cold beat up the butter little by little with the
egg, which should be previously whipped light. When
these are thoroughly incorporated work in the flour, roll
out twice, sprinkling lightly with flour before you fold it
up ; let it stand folded five minutes in a cold place, and
make out for tartlets or pdies. It is not suitable for large
pies. Bake before you fill them, and brush over with a
beaten egg while hot.
854 COMMON 8EN8E.
Mince 'Pies'{N^o, 1).
4 lbs. meat — i. e., two-thirds apple, one-ihird meat.
3 '^ raisins, seeded and chopped.
2 " currants, washed, picked over, and diied.
3 quarts cider.
1 pint brandy.
1 heaping tablespoonful cinnamon.
1 " " nutmeg.
The same of cloves, and half the quantity of mace.
Make very sweet with brown sugar.
The meat should be a good piece of lean beef, boiled
the day before it is needed. Half a pound of raw suet,
chopped fine, may be added. Chop the meat, clean out
bits of skin and gristle, and mix with twice the quantity
of fine juicy apples, also chopped ; then put in the fruit,
next the sugar and spice, lastly the liquor. Mix very thor-
oughly, cover closely, and let all stand together for twenty-
four hours before making the pies.
Mince Pies (iVo. 2). •!«
2 lbs. lean fresh beef, boiled, and when cold, chopped
fine.
1 lb. beef-suet, cleared of strings and minced to powder.
5 lbs. apples, pared and chopped.
2 '^ raisins, seeded and chopped.
1 lb. sultana raisins, washed and picked over.
2 lbs. currants, washed and carefully picked over,
i lb. citron, cut up fine.
2 tablespoonfuls cinnamon.
1 powdered nutmeg.
2 tablespoonfuls mace.
1 tablespoonful cloves,
1 " allspice.
PIES. 355
1 iablespoonful fine salt.
2^ lbs. brown sugar.
1 quart brown slierry.
1, pint best brandy.
Mince-meat made by this receipt will keep all winter in
a cool place. Keep in stone jars, tied over with double
covers. Add a little more liquor (if it should dry out),
when you make up a batch of pies. Let the mixture stand
at least twenty-four hours after it is made before it is used.
Lay strips of pastry, notched with a jagging-iron, in a
cross-bar pattern, upon the pie, instead of a top-crust.
I take this opportunity of warning the innocent reader
against placing any confidence whatever in dried currants.
I years ago gave over trying to guess who put the dirt in
them. It is always there ! gravel-stones lurking under a
specious coating of curranty-looking paste, to crucify grown
people^s nerves and children's teeth; mould that changes
to mud in the mouth ; twigs that prick the throat, not to
mention the legs, wings, and bodies of tropical insects — a
curious study to one interested in the entomology of Zante.
It is all dirt ! although sold to us at currant prices.
Wash your currants, therefore, fii"st in warm water,
rolling up your sleeves, and rubbing the conglomerate
masses apai-t, as you would scrub a muddy garment. Drain
them in a cullender, and pass them through three more
waters — cold now, but cleansing. Then spread them upon
a large dish, and enter seiiously upon your geological and
entomological researches. ** Sultanas " — sweet and seed-
less— ai'e nearly as troublesome, but their specialty is more
harmless, being stickiness and stems.
Neveiilieless, since John has a weakness for mince-pies
(I never saw an un-dyspeptic man who had not), it is woiiJi
your while to make them, having this consolation, that if
856 COMMON SENSE.
you are wise you need not engage in the manufacture of-
tener than once, or at most, twice a winter. But let the
children taste them sparingly, and never at night,* if you
value their health and your own sound slumbers.
Apple Mince-Meat.
2 lbs. apples — pared and 'chopped.
J lb. beef suet — cleared of strings and powdered.
1 " currants.
^ " raisins, seeded and chopped.
i " sultana i-aisins.
J " citron, cut into shreds.
1 lemon — -juice and grated rind.
1 tablespoonful cinnamon.
1 teaspoonful cloves.
1 " mace.
1 tablespoonful allspice.
2 lbs. brown sugar.
Half-pint best brandy.
A glass of wine.
2 teaspoonfuls salt.
Pack down in a stone jai*, with close covei*, and keep in
a cool place.
Mock Mince-Meat. »{<
6 soda crackers — rolled fine.
2 cups cold water.
1 cup molasses.
1 " brown sugar.
1 " sour cider.
1^ cup melted butter.
1 cup raisins — seeded and chopped.
1 " currants.
PIES. 857
2 eggs — beaten light.
1 tablespoonful cinnamon and allspice mixed.
1 teaspoonful nutmeg.
1 " cloves.
1 « salt.
1 " black pepper.
1 wineglass of brandy.
*^ Mince-pie in summer is a pleasant rarity," was the
remark of a party of hungry travellers, in semi-apology for
the f3EU5t that every plate made a return journey to the
comely landlady, who was dispensing generous triangles of
pie. She smiled gratifiedly, but said nothing in reply, un-
til, when the gentlemen had strolled off to the woods with
their cigars, she came upon me, seated alone on the piazza,
and grew confidential under the influence of that sort of
free-masonic understanding housekeepers have with one
another, almost at sight.
**I had to laugh," said the good soul, "when they
praised my mince-pies. They're healthfuller in summer-
time than the real thing."
I took down the receipt on the spot from her lips. If
any one doubts the merits of the counterfeit, let her do as I
did — trv it.
Apple Pie (A^o. 1). •{<
Pare, core, and slice ripe, tart winter apples — Pippins,
Greenings, or Baldwins — line your dish with a good cnist,
^ut in a layer of fruit, then spiinkle light-brown sugar
thickly over it, scatter half a dozen whole cloves upon this,
lay on more apples, and so on, until the dish is well filled.
Cover with crust and bake. Sift powdered sugar over the
top before sending to table.
858 COMMON BEKSE.
Apple Pie (iVb. 2). >J*
Stew green or ripe apples when you have pared and
cored them. Mash to a smooth compote, sweeten to taste,
and, while hot, stir in a teaspoonful butter for each pie.
Season with nutmeg. When cool, fill your crust, and
either cross-bar the top with strips of paste, or bake with-
out cover.
Eat cold, with powdered sugar strewed over it.
Apple Custard Pie. »{<
3 cups stewed apple.
Nearly a cup white sugar.
i) eggs.
1 quart milk.
Make the stewed apple very sweet, and let it cool. Beat
the eggs light, and mix the yolks well with the apple, sea-
soning with nutmeg only. Then stir in gradually the milk,
beating as you go on ; lastly add the whites ; fill your crust
and bake without cover.
Apple Mkrinuue Pies. »{<
Stew and sweeten ripe, juicy apples, when you have
pared and sliced them. Mash smooth, and season with
nutmeg. If yon ]ike the flavor, stew some lemon-peel with
the apple, and remove when cold. Fill your crust, and
bake until just done. Spread over the apple a thick
meringue, made by whipping to a stiff froth the whites of
three eggs for each pie, sweetening with a tablespoonfui
of powdered sugar for each egg. Flavor this with rose-
water or vanilla ; beat until it will stand alone, and cover
the pie three-quarters of an inch thick. Set back in the
oven until the meringue is well " set." Should it color too
darkly, sift powdered sugar over it when cold. Eat cold.
PIES. 369
They are very fine.
Peach pies are even more delicious, made in this manner.
Pippin Pies.
12 fine ripe pippins, pared and grated.
1 lb. white sugar.
^ lb. butter.
6 eggs — whites and yolks separately beaten.
1 lemon — grated peel and juice, with nutmeg.
Cream the butter and sugar, stir in the beaten yolks,
tlien the lemon, nutmeg, and apple ; lastly the whites, very
lightly. Bake in paste, with cross-bars of the same on top.
Pumpkin Pie (No. 1). >i<
1 quai't stewed pumpkin — ^pressed through a sieve.
9 eggs — whites and yolks beaten separately.
2 quaiis milk.
1 teaspoonful mace.
1 « cinnamon, and the same of nutmeg.
1^ cup white sugar, or very light brown.
Beat all well together, and bake in crust without cover.
Pumpkin Pie (No. 2).
1 quart pumpkin— stewed and strained.
1 « milk.
1 cup sugar.
7 eggs — ^beaten very light.
1 teaspoonful ginger, and same of mace and cinnamon
each.
Squash Pie
Is made precisely like pumpkin pie, except that, being
less rich, it requires one more egg for each pie.
360 COMMON 8EK8E.
Sweet-Potato Pie (No. 1).
Parboil, skin, and slice crosswise firm sweet potatoes.
Line a dish with paste, put in a layer of sliced potato,
sprinkle thickly with sugar, scatter among them a few
whole cloves, and cover with more slices. Fill the dish in
this order ; put a tablespoonful of melted butter in each
pie ; pour in a little water ; cover with crust, and bake.
Eat cold.
Sweet-Potato Pie (No. 2). >!•
1 lb. mealy sweet potatoes. The firm yellow ones
ai'e best.
i cup butter.
} " white sugar.
1 tablespoonful cinnamon.
1 teaspoonful nutmeg.
4 eggs — ^whites and yolks beaten separately.
1 lemon, juice and rind, and glass of brandy.
Parboil the potatoes, and grate them when quite cold.
K grated hot, they are sticky and heavy. Cream the but-
ter and sugar ; add the yolk, the spice, and lemon ; beat
tJbe potato in by degrees and until all is light ; then the
brandy, and stir in the whites. Bake in dishes lined with
good paste — without cover.
You may make a pudding of this by baking in a deep
dish — well buttered, without paste. Cool before eating.
Irish-Potato Pie {or Pudding), ^
1 lb. mashed potato, rubbed through a cullender.
^ lb. butter — creamed with the sugai*.
G eggs — whites and yolks separately.
1 lemon — ^squeezcd into the potato while hot
PIES. 861
1 teaspoonful nutmeg, and same of mace.
2 cups white sugar.
Mix as you do sweet potato pudding, and bake in open
Hliells of paste. To be eaten cold.
Lemon Pie {or Transparent Fudding). >J«
■J- lb. butter.
1 lb. sugar.
6 eggs — whites and yolks separately.
Juice of one lemon.
Grated rind of two.
1 nutmeg.
^ glass brandy.
Cream butter and sugar, beat in the yolks, the lemon,
spice, and brandy, stirring in the whites at the last.
Bake in pie-crust, open.
You may, if you wish to have these very nice, beat up
the whites of but four eggs in the mixture, and whip the
whites of four more into a meringue with four tablespoon-
fuls sugar and a little lemon«juice, to spread over the top
of each pie.
Eat cold. They are very nice baked in pattypans.
Lemon Pie {N'o, 2).
1 apple, chopped fine.
legg.
1 lemon, chop the inside very fine and gi*ate the rind,
1 cup sugar.
Butter, the size of a walnut.
This is just enough for one pie. Take the thick white
rind off the lemon before you chop it. Take out tho seeds
carefully.
10
862 COMHON 8EXSE.
Lemon Cream Pie. »|<
1 teacup powdered sugar.
1 tablespoonful butter.
legg.
1 lemon — juice and grated rind, removing the seeds with
care.
1 teacupful boiling water.
1 tablespoonful corn-starch, dissolved in cold water.
Stir the corn-starch into the water, cream the butter
and- sugar, and pour over them the hot mixture. When
quite cool, add lemon and the beaten egg. Take the inner
rind off the lemon and mince very small.
Bake in open shell.
I^EMON Pie (xVo. 3).
1 great spoonful butter.
J cup white sugar.
Juice and grated peel of lemon.
Bake in open shells of paste.
Cream the sugar and butter, stir in the beaten yolks
and the lemon, and bake. Beat the whites to a stiff m6-
ringue with three tablespoonfuls powdered sugar and a lit-
tle rose-water. When the pies are done, take from the
oven just long enough to spread the m6ringue over the top,
and set back for three minutes. This mixture is enough
for two small, or one good-sizod pie.
Eat cold.
Orange Pie.
3 eggs.
J cup of white sugar.
2 tablespoonfuls butter.
PIES. . 863
1 orange — juice and half the grated rind.
J lemon — juice and grated peel.
Kutmeg to taste.
Cream the butter and sugar, beating in the orange and
lemon until very light ; add the beaten yolks, fill two pastry
shells and bake. Beat the whites stiff with two tablespoonfuls
powdered sugar, and when the pies are done, spread over
them, returning to the oven for three or four minutes.
Lemon Takt.
1 cup sugar.
2 lemons — all the juice, and a teaspoonful grated peel.
|- teaspoonful corn-starch, dissolved in a little cold water.
A dozen raisins stewed, cut in two and seeded.
Beat up well, and bake with upper and lower crust.
Orangk Tartlets.
2 fine Havana oi-anges, juice of both, and grated peel of
one.
J cup of sugar — ^ cup if the oranges are very sweet.
1 tablespoonful of butter.
i lemon — juice only, to wet 1 teaspoonful corn-starch.
Beat all weU together, and bake in tartlet shells without
cover.
Chocolate Tarts.
4 eggs, whites and yolks.
i cake of Baker's chocolate, grated.
1 tablespoonful corn-starch dissolved in water.
3 « milk.
4 ** white sugar.
2 teaspoonfuls vanilla.
1 saltspoonful salt.
864 COMMON 6ENSE.
^ teaspoonful cinnamon.
1 " butter, melted.
Bub the chocolate smooth in the milk and heat to boiling
over the fire, then stir in the corn-starch. Stir five min-
utes until well thickened, remove from the fire, and pour
into a bowl. Beat all the yolks and the whites of two
eggs well with the sugar, and when the chocolate mixture
is almost cold, put all together with the flayoring, and stir
until light. Bake in open shells of pastry. When done,
cover with a meringue made of the whites of two eggs and
two tablespoonfuls of sugar flavored with a teaspoonful of
lemon-juice. Eat cold.
These are nice for tea, baked in pattypans.
Cocoa-nut Pie {N'o. 1).
^ lb. grated cocoa-nut.
J " white sugar (powdered).
6 oz. butter.
5 eggs — the whites only.
1 glass white wine.
2 tablespoonfuls rose-water.
1 teaspoonful nutmeg.
Cream tlie butter and sugar, and when well mixed, beat
very light, with the wine and rose-water. Add the cocoa-
nut with as little and as light beating as possible ; finally,
whip in the stiffened whites of the eggs with a few skilful
strokes, and bake at once in open shells. Eat cold, with
powdered sugar sifted over them.
These are very pretty and delightful pies.
Cocoa-nut Pie {N'o. 2).
1 lb. grated cocoa-nut.
i « butter.
PIES. 365
i lb. powdered sugar.
1 glass of brandy.
2 teaspoonfuls lemon-juice.
4 eggs— white and yolks separated.
2 teaspoonfuls vanilla.
Rub the butter and sugar together; beat light with the
brandy and lemon-juice ; stir in the beaten yolks ; lastly the
cocoa-nut and the whites, alternately. Bake in open shells.
Eat cold, with powdered sugar sifted over it.
Cocoa-nut Custard Pie.
1 lb. cocoa-nut, grated.
-)- ** powdered sugar.
1 quart milk, unikmhTned.
6 eggs beaten to a froth.
1 teaspoonful nutmeg.
2 teaspoonfuls* vanilla or rose-water.
Boil the milk, take it from the fire, and whip in grad-
ually the beaten eggs. When nearly cold, season ; add the
cocoa-nut, and pour into paste-shells. Do not boil the egg
and milk together. Bake twenty minutes.
Some put the custard quite raw into the pie-dishes, but
the cocoa-nut is apt, in that case, to settle at the bottom.
You may, however, pour the raw mixture into cups,
and bake by setting in a pan of boiling water, stirring well
once, as they begin to warm. This is cocoa-nut cup-cus-
tard, and is much liked.
Ohocolate Custard-pie.
1 quarter-cake of Baker's chocolate, grated,
1 pint boiling water.
6 eggs.
1 quai*t milk.
866 COMMON SENSE.
^ cup white sugar.
2 tcaspoonfuls vanilla.
DiKsolve the chocolate in a very little milk, stir into
the boiling water, and boil three minutes. When nearly
cold, beat up with this the yolks of all the eggs and the
whites of three. Stir this mixture into the ndlk, season,
and pour into shells of good paste. When the custard ia
" set " — but not more than half done— spread over it the
whites, whipped to a froth, with two tablespoonfuls sugar.
You may bake these custards without paste, in a pud-
ding-dish or cups set in boiling water.
Corn-starch Custard Pie. •!•
6 eggs.
3 pints milk.
6 tablespoonfuls white sugar.
2 " cora-starch.
2 teaspoonfuls essence bitter almonds.
Boil the milk, stir in the corn-starch wet in a little cold
milk, and boil one minute. When nearly cold, stir in the
sugar, the yolks of all the eggs, and the whites of two ;
flavor, and pour into your paste-shells. Whip the remain-
ing whites to a meringue, with two tablespoonfuls white
sugar and a teaspoonf ul of vanilla, and when the custard
is just "set," draw your pies to the edge of the oven to
spread this over them. Do it quickly, lest the custard fall
by exposure to the air.
You may bake this as a pudding by omitting the pastry.
Eat cold.
If you have not corn-starch, substitute arrow-root or
rice-flour.
PEES. 867
Custard Pie.
4 eggs.
1 quurt of milk.
4 tablespoonfuls white sugar.
Flavor wiili vanilla or other essence.
Beat the yolks and sugar light, and mix with the milk ;
flavor, whip in the whites, which should be already a stiff
froth, mix well, and pour into shells. Gi-ate nutmeg upon
the top.
Bake this as cup-custard, or a custard pudding, in cups
or a deep dish set in a pan of boiling water.
Peach Pie. »{<
Peel, stone, and slice the peaches. Line a pie-plate
with a good crust, and lay in jour fruit, sprinkling sugar
liberally over them in proportion to their sweetness. Very
ripe peaches require comparatively little. Allow three
peach-kernels, chopped fine, to each pie ; pour in a very
little water, and bake with an upper crust, or with cross-
bars of paste across the top.
Some simply pare the peaches and put in whole, pack-
ing them well, and sweetening freely. In this case they
should be covered entirely with crust.
For one of the most delightful pics that can be made of
any fruit, look for apple miringue pie, and substitute peach-
es. I can peaches expressly to have peach mdiingues in
winter-time.
CnERRY Pie.
Line the dish with a good crust, and fill with lipe cher-
ries, regulating the quantity of sugar you scatter over them
by their sweetness. Cover and bake.
Eat cold, with wlxito sugar sifted over the top.
868 OOMMON SENSE.
Blackberry, Baspberrt, and Plum Pies
Are made in the same manner.
Currant and Raspberry Tart, tft
To three cups of currants allow one of raspberries. Mix
well together before you fill the crust, and sweeten abun-
dantly. Cover with crust and bake.
Eat cold, with white sugar sifted over it.
Currant Tart
Is made as above, with moft sugar. The most common
fault of currant pie is extreme sourness. Small fruits
should be looked over carefully before they are cooked.
Currants are troublesome, but they must nevertheless be
looked after warily on account of their extreme stem-
miness.
Green Gooseberry Tart. »{^
Top and tail the gooseberries. Put into a porcelain ket-
tle with enough water to prevent burning, and stew slowly
until they break. Take them ofi*, sweeten wdl^ and set aside
to cool. When cold pour into pastry shells, and bake with
a top crust of puff-paste. Brush all over with beaten egg
while hot, set back in the oven to glaze for three minutes.
Eat cold.
Ripe Gooseberry Pie.
Top and tail the berries. Line your dish with crust,
and fill with berries, strewing white sugar among them.
Cover and bake.
Damson Tart.
Pick over the fruit, put in a dish lined with pastry, sweeten
very freely, cover and bake. Brush with beaten egg when
done, and return to the oven for a few minutes to glaze.
PIES. 369
Cranberry Tart.
"Wash and pick over the berries. Put into a porcelain
saucepan with a very little water, and simmer until they
bui*st open and become soft. Run through a cullender to
remove the bkins, and sweeten to taste. Bake in pastry-
shells, with a cross-bar of pastry over the top.
Strawberry Pie.
Cap and pick over the berries, arrange in layers, be-
sprinkle with a good coating of sugar, in a shell of pastry.
Fill it very full, as strawberrief shrink very much in cook-
ing. Cover with crust and bake.
Huckleberry pie is made in the same way,
Creah Baspberry Tart, tft
Line a dish with paste and fill with raspberries, made
very sweet with powdered sugar. Cover with paste, but do
not pinch it down at the edges. When done, lift the top
crust, which should be thicker than usual, and pour upon
the fruit the following mixture : —
1 small cup of milk — half cream, if you can get it, heated
to boiling.
Whites of two eggs, beaten light and stirred into the
boiling milk.
1 tablespoonful white sugar.
^ teaspoonful corn-starch wet in cold milk.
Boil these ingredients three minutes ; let them get per-
fectly cold before you put them into the tart. Replace the
top crust, and set the pie aside to cool. Sprinkle sugar over
the top before serving.
You make strawberry cream tart in the same manner.
16*
370 COMMON SENSE.
Rhubarb Taut. (Open.)
Skin tho stalks with care, cut into small pieces ; put into
a saucepan with very little water, and stew slowly until
soft. Sweeten while hot, but do not cook the sugar with
the fruit. It injures the flavor, by making it taste like pre-
serves. Have ready some freshly-baked shells. Fill up
with the fruit and they are ready to serve.
You may, after sweetening the stewed rhubarb, stir in a
lump of butter the size of a hickory-nut for each pie, also a
well-beaten egg for each, and bake in pastry. Lay cross-
bars of paste over the top.
Rhubarb Pie. {Covered.)
Skin the stalks, cut in lengths of half an inch ; strew
lavishly with sugar, and fill tlie crusts with tho raw fruit.
Some scatter seedless i^aisins among the rhubarb. Cover,
and bake neaily three-quarters of an hour. Binish with
egg while hot, and return to the oven to glaze.
Eat cold, as you do all fruit-pies.
SERVANTS.
Some years ago — more than I care to count over — I
read a lively little book entitled, " The Greatest Plague of
Life." I have forgotten who wrote it, if I ever knew. It
was in the form of an autobiography ; the heroine called
heraelf, with an amusing affectation of disguise, ^^ Mrs.
S-k-n-s-t-n," and it was illustrated by George Cruikshank.
I read it aloud in my home-circle, and many a hearty laugh
wo had over the poor lady's peqilexitics and calamities.
Regarding the history us a clever burlesque, I suffered
SEIIVAKTS. . 371
no appreciable draught upon my sympathies until time and
experience brought me in contact with so many who echoed
her plaint, that I could not but recur, now and then, with a
half-sad smile, to her sufferings under the rule of Norah,
who chased her up-stairs with a carving-knife ; with Mary,
who drank up the cherry-brandy, filled the bottle with cold
weak tea, and kept her pit3ring employers up all night to
pull her through an epileptic fit ; with John, who never an-
swered the parlor bell " unless they persewered ; " whose
stomach could not bear cold meat at dinner, but rallied
bravely under a couple of pounds at supper. There was
one nursery-maid who whipped Mrs. S-k-n-s-t-n's child, and
another who upset the perambtdator in the park, and, too
much absorbed in the suit of a whiskered Guardsman to
note what had happened, went on dragging the carriage
upon its side until the baby's cheek was cruelly scarified by
the gravel — besides a host of other wnworthies set for the
distress of Mrs. S-k-n-s-t-n's mind, body, and estate.
" Douglas Jerrold wrote that book," interrupted a friend
at my elbow. *' And, apropos de holies, have you seen
Punch's recent article, * Servantgalism ; or. What Shall
Be Done "With the Missusses ? ' "
" The malady in America must bear another name," rcr
marks a lady, gayly. " We have no servants — at least in
this region. My cook is forty-seven years old, and my
chambermaid a widow, who has buried two children ; yet
they would be highly affronted were I to speak of them ex-
cept as ' girls.' It is a generic term that belongs to the
class * who live out,' from sixteen up to sixty. I had a
lesson on this head not a month since. My laundress^
who has lived with me six years, was thanking me for a ser-
vice I had done her brother.
" * I'll never forget you for it, mem,' she sobbed. * I'll
bless you for it, on mo knees, night and morning,'
372 COMMON 6SM6E.
'< I am glad I have been able to help your friends,
Katy,'' I said. '^ You have been a faithfid servant to
me "
She cut my sentence in the middle by \valking out of
the room — ^I supposed, to conceal her emotions. I was un-
deceived, five minutes later, vhen her angry tones reached
me from the kitchen, the door of which she had left open.
<< r\\ never believe a person has a good heart, or de-
serves to be called a Christian, who names an honest,
respectable girl who tries to do her duty, a servant I ^ A
fiedthful servant ! ' says she ; ' as if she was a queen and me-
self a beggar ! ' "
'' What did you say to the ungrateful wretch ? ^^ aslcs a
listener, indignantly.
" Nothing. I went quietly out of hearing, reminded,
for the hundi*cdth time, of Solomon^s warning, ^ Take no
heed unto all words that are spoken, lest thou hear thy
servant curse thee.' I recalled, too, the saying of a
mightier than the Royal Preacher: * Whosoever will be
greatest among you, let him be your servant.'^ "
** I thought you were one of the favored few who had
no trouble with them,'' says another housekeeper, sighingly.
" There is real comfort, — excuse me, my dear Mrs. Ster-
ling,— ^but it is refreshing to a weaiied soul to know that
you have felt some of our tribulations. It seems to me, at
times, that there is no other affliction worthy the name
when compared with what we endure from the ' Necessary
Evil.' I have tried all sorts — the representatives from
every nation under heaven, I verily believe — and they are
all alike ! They will wear me into an untimely grave yet."
" I wouldn't let them, my dear Martha," replies Mrs.
Sterling, with her sunny smile. " If evils, they are surely
minor afflict ions. And, after all, I imagine * they ' arc a
good deal like the rest of man and womankind — pretty
8EfiVA19TB. 873
much as you choose to take them. The truth is, there is
no justice in wholesale denunciation of any class. You
I'ecollect the Western orator's truism, * Human nature,
Mr. President, nine cases out of ten, is human nature.'
When I consider the influences under which a majority of
our servants have been reared- — ignorance, poverty, super-
stition, often evil example in their homes — my wonder is,
not at the worthlessness of some, but that so many are
virtuous, honest, and orderly. You will allow that, as a
general thing, they are quite as industrious as their mis-
tresses, and control their tempers almost as well. And we
make so many mistakes in our dealings with them ! "
My old friend does not often lecture, but she has some-
thing to say now, and forgets herself in her subject.
" We err so grievously in our management, that a sense
of our failures should teach us charity. Do we understand,
ourselves, what is the proper place of a hired * help ' in our
families ? If ifc is the disposition of Mrs. Shoddy to tram-
ple upon them as soulless machines, Mrs. Kindly makes a
sort of elder daughter of her maid ; indulges, consults,
and confides in her, and wonders, by-and-by, to find herself
under Abigail's thumb — her husband and children subject
to the caprices of a pampered menial. I never hear a lady
say of a valued domestic, * I could not get along without
her,' without anticipating as a certainty the hour when
she sliall annoimce, ^ There is such a thing as keeping a
servant too long.' The crisis comes, then, to Mrs. Kindly.
In a moment of desperatioir she frees her neck from the
yoke. Abigail packs her six trunks, havinc: entered Mrs.
Kindly's se^ce, seven years before, with her worldly all
done up in a newspaper, shakes the dust off the neat Bal-
moral boots which have replaced her brogans, against the
lieartless tyrant who sits crying, in her own room up-stairs,
over thoughts of how Abigail has been so clean, quick, and
374 COMMON 8EN6E.
devoted to her interests ; how she has nursed her through
a long and dangerous illness, and had the charge of Emma
and Bobby from their birth. She has prepared a handsome
present for her in memory of all this, and is hurt more
than by anything else when she learns that the girl has
taken her final departure without even kissing the baby.
^^ It is not strange that the deceived mistress should, from
that day, write down Abigail a monster of ingratitude, and
forget the faithful service of years in the smart of wounded
feeling; when the truth is that she did the maid more
injury by injudicious petting, than the latter could do her
mistress had she absconded with all the plate in the house.
She has, as might have been expected, proved Abigail's un-
fitness to be her confidante and co-adviser ; but, at the same
time, she has filled her brain with notions of her superior-
ity to her fellow-servants, her heart with burnings for the
higher station she can never occupy,
" I speak feelingly upon this subject," continues Mrs.
Sterling, with a laugh ; " for I was once led into this
very mistake myself, by the attractive qualities of a young
woman who lived with me nine years as seamstress and
chambermaid. She was so even-tempered, so sensible, in-
dustrious, and respectful, that she gained upon the esteem
of us all. One day, while we sat together at work, I told
her of some family changes in prospect, prefacing the com-
munication by the remark, * I want to speak to you of
something, Eliza, which you must not mention to any one
else at present. The interests of an employer and a ser-
vant should bo the same.'
" Then, very foolishly, I opened up my mind freely on
the subject that engaged it. She answered modestly, but
intelligently, entering into my plans with such cordial in-
terest and pledges of coo])eration, that I went to prepare
for a walk, feeling really strengthened and cheered by the
6EKVANT8. 375
talk. At the frout door I was met by a letter I'oquiring an
immediate reply. Betuming to my chamber to lay off my
hat and shawl, I heard Eliza talking loudly and gleefully,
in the adjoining sewing-room, with the cook, whom she
must have called upnstairs through the speaking-tube. You
camiot imagine, nor I describe, my sensations at listening,
against my will, to an exaggerated account of the inter-
view which had just taken place. Not only my language,
but my tones were mimicked with great gusto and much
laughter by my late confidante— -the phi-ase ^ The interests
of the employer and the servant should be the same'
occurring again and again, and forming, apparently, the
cream of the joke. I was very angry. But for the rule
adopted early in my married life, never to reprove a r.or-
vant when out of humor, I should instantly have ordered
the treacherous creature— as I named her — from the house.
I sat down instead, to cool off and to think. With reflec-
tion, common sense rallied to my aid.
" ' The girl does well enough in her place, which is that
of a hired chambermaid and seamstress,' said this monitor.
' She knew her position, and would have kept it, but for
your folly in dragging her up to temporary equality with
yourself. You made yourself ridiculous, and she was
shrewd enough to see it. Take the lesson to heart ; write
it out in full for future guidance, and keep your own
counsel.'
" Eliza never suspected my discovery. She remained
with me until her maniage a year afterward, and we parted
upon good terms."
I have quoted from my friend at length, because I honor
her excellent judgment and mature experience, and because
I agree so fully with her touching the evil of so-called con-
fidential servants. The principle of acknowledged favoiit-
ism is ruinous to domestic tfomfort, let who may bo the
376 COMMON 6KNSE.
object thus distinguished. Kely upon it, my dear lady, at
least ono-third of home-wrangles and social scandal arises
from this cause. Be assured, also, that if you do not per-
ceive the impropriety of lowering yourself to the level of
your subordinates, they will, and gauge their behavior ac-
cordingly. The connection is an unnatural one, and, like
all others of the kind, must teiminate disastrously in time.
Then the discarded favorite, aggrieved and exaspei*ated,
leaves your house to tattle in the ears of some other indis-
creet mistress, of your sayings and doings. Show your
servant that you respect yourself and her too truly to for-
get what is due to both. Be kind, pleasant, always reason-
able and attentive to her needs, willing to hearken to and
meet any lawful request. Make her comfortable, and, so
far as you can, happy.
Excuse one moi-e quotation from Mrs. Sterling, whom,
when I was much younger than I am now, I consulted
with regard to the just medium between familiaiity and
austerity.
^^ llemenibcr they are human beings, and treat them as
sucli," she said. *' Not that you are likely to reap a large
reward in their gratitude, but because it is right, and be-
cause you find no exceptions to the practice of the Golden
Kule laid down in the Bible. Be faithful in your obedience
to the law of kindness. With the return tide you have
nothing to do. This is a safe and straight pith. I believe
it to be also the smoothest. You will be better and more
cheerfully served than your neighbor, who, recognizing in
every hireling a natural enemy, is always on the defensive."
I have found the most serious obstacle to a comfortable
pursuance of her safe path, to lie in this same prejudice —
rooted by centuries of misunderstandings and caste- wars —
the belief of necessary antagonism between employ era and
employed. Mrs. Storling's Eliza only expressed the pre-
sEEVAirrs. 377
vailing sentiment of her class, when she ridiculed her
mistress' proposition that their interests ought to be identi-
cal. I have failed so often and so signally in the endeavor
to impress the merits of this policy upon domestics, that I
rarely attempt it now. There is always a suspicion — ^more
or less apparent — ^that you have a single eye to self-interest
in all your regulations and counsels. ^^What does she
hope to gain ? What am I in danger of losing ? " are the
queries that invariably present themselves to the subordi-
nate's mind. The arguments by which your plans are sup-
ported are thrown away upon ignorant and illogical listen-
ers— ^your array of facts totally disbelieved. Your auditor
does not say this, but in divers and ingenious ways she
contrives to let you know that she is not so silly as to be
imposed upon by the specious array of evidence.
For how much of this are mistresses responsible ? Has
this creed of distrust been learned by experience of injustice
or exaction, or is it one of the popular prejudices, which
are harder to overthrow than sound and well-established
principle? Of one thing I am certain: Mistresses and
maids would more speedily come to a right understanding
of oneness of interest but for the influence exerted over the
former by Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Robinson, and Mrs. Brown,
who don't allow this, and couldn't think of that, and never
heard of the other privilege or immunity being granted to
servants. Before they would yield such a point, or submit
to one syllable of dictation, they would do all their own
work, etc., etc. Poor Mrs. PKable, listening dumbly and
meekly, goes home with a low-spirited sense of her own
pusillanimity upon her, and tries to assert her authority
and redeem past faults by a sudden tightening of the reins
that results in a runaway and general smash-up.
Cannot we remember — ^you and I — my dear reader, that
we may sometimes be as nearly right as those who talk more
378 COMMON 8EN8E.
loudly and strongly than we upon domestic economy, laying
down mles we never thought of suggesting; splitting into
ninths a hair our short-sighted eyes cannot make out when
whole, and annihilating our timid objections with a lordly
*' Zalways do so," which is equal to a decree of infiedlibility ?
Cannot we make up our minds, once and for all, to be a law
unto ourselves in all matters pertaining to our households ?
Mrs. Jones' rule may be good for her ; Mrs. Kobinson's
better than any other in her particular case, and Mrs.
Brown's best of all for one in her peculiar circumstances ;
yet any one or all of them be unsuitable for oiir use.
Avoid talking about your domestic affairs with people
whose gossip on these topics is incessant. You are angry
when a whiff of some such discussion as enlightened Mrs.
Sterling, with regard to our mistake, is wafted to you
through the dumb-waiter or register, an accident that will
occur while the tones of the plaintiffs ai*o loud and untrain-
ed by education or policy. It is mean and unkind — traitor-
ous, in fact, you say, for them so to misrepresent and revile
you — after all the kindness you have showed to them, too !
Bridget, Chloe, or Gretchen, passing the parlor-door and
catching the sound of her name as roughly handled, may
have her own sensations, and draw her own inferences —
beinff human like yourself. It is tiresome and vulgar, this
everlasting exchange of experiences about " my girl," and
" your girl," and everybody else's " girl." It is time sensi-
ble women ceased, in this respect, to imitate the fashion of
the class they censure, and put down the bootless battle
with a strong will. Order your household, then, so far
alight as you can by the help of common sense and grace
from on high, and let Mesdames Jones, Bobinson, and
Brown look to the ways of their own, and expend their
surplus energies upon their neighbors' concerns — counting
you out.
8BKVANTS. 379
(I believe that is slang, but let it stand !)
These worthy and fussy housewives act upon the sup-
jiosition that all " girls '' are cast in the same mould. Being
human (do not let us forget that !), the probability is, that
there are varieties of the species.
But, if the mistresses are led by their associates, the
"girl's" "acquaintances" sway her yet more powerfully.
Every conscientious, well-meaning housewife knows what a
brake is this informal, but terrible " Union " upon her en-
deavors to improve and really benefit those under her di-
rection. I have been amazed and disgusted at the tyranny
exercised by this irresponsible body over the best servants
I have ever seen.
" We would be hooted at, ma'am, if we dida't give in
to them," said one, when I represented how senseless and
almost suicidal was the course recommended by these evil
advisers. " There's not a girl in town would speak to us
if we didn't join in with the rest. It's like a strike, you
see — ^awful upon them as holds back."
Do not, then, my discouraged fellow-laborer, imagine
that I anf ignorant of your trials, your doubts, your dis-
heartening experiences. If I disagree with Mrs. S-k-n-s-t-n
and do not pronounce our servants to be the greatest plague
of life, inclining rather to the belief that — always allow-
ing for human nature and the drawbacks I have entmicr-
ated — ^good mistresses are apt to make good servants, it
is in consequence of long and careful study and observa-
tion of the practical working of Mrs. Sterling's rule. Like
begets like. Pleasant words are more likely to be an-
swered by pleasant than are tart or hasty ones. If you
would have your servants respectful to you, be respectful
to them. The best way to teach them politeness is by
example. It should not cost you an effort to say, " Thank
you," or "If you please." The habit exerts an unconscious
380 COMMON SENSE.
refining influcnco upon them, and you dignify instead of
degrading your ladyhood by being pitiful and courteous
te all. If you can only maintain your position by haugh-
tiness and chilling disregard of the feelings of inferiors,
your rank is false, or you unfit to hold it.
To begin, then: Be mistress of yourself. Amid all
your temptations to angry or sarcastib speech (and how
many and how strong these are, you and I know), curb
yourself with the recollection that it is despicable, no less
than useless, to say cutting things to one who has no right
to retort upon you in kind.
" Ma'," says Miss Aiirelia in Miss Sedgwick's admirable
story, "Live and let Live" — "how can you let your help be
so saucy to you ? "
Master Julius, who was standing by, took a different
view of the matter.
"If Ma' doesn't want her help to be sarcy to her," he
said, " she hadn't ought to be sarcf/ to them."
Teach your children the like forms of kindly speech
and habits of consideration for the comfort and happiness
of your domestics, checking with equal promptn^ undue
freedom and the arrogance of station. It is as gracefiil to
bend as it is mean to grovel.
Learn not to see everything, and, so soon as you can,
put &r from you the delusive hope that anybody else —
unless it be dear old John — ^will ever serve you as well
as you would serve yourself. This failure is attributable
to some one of the nine-tenths we spoke of just now. She
is a prudent housekeeper who can wink at trifling blemishes
without effort or parade. There is one text which has
come into my troubled mind hundreds of times on such
occasions, calming perturbation into solemnity, and bring-
ing, I hope, charity with humility : —
SEBVAin^s. 881
'* If lluyUy Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord,
who shall stand ? "
But if your hold of the rein be gentle, let it also be
firm. Never forget that the house is yours, and that you
— not hirelings — are responsible for the disposition of the
stores purchased with John's money.
'^I was much amused the other day," said an easy-
tempered lady to me, ^^ at a talk that passed under my win*
dow between my new cook and one of her visitors.
'^ ^ And how are ye gitting along ? ' asked the guest.
" * Oh ! pretty well-ish, now,' was the reply. * I was
a-feard, when I first come, that slie would bother me a-trot-
ting down into the kitchen so constant. But I give her a
hint as how that wasn't the trick of a raal lady, and she's
kep' out nicely sence then. You've got to stand up for
your own rights in this wurrld, or you'll be trod upon.' "
Now, it would be throwing away words to reason with
a woman like that cook, or a mistress might show that in
no other department of labor would such a principle be
tolerated — ^that from the Secretary of State down to the
scavenger who empties your ash-pan, every employ^ who
draws wages has an overlooker, to whom he is accountable
for the manner in which his work is done and his money
earned ; and that the fact that she is an ignorant, high-
tempered woman is no just cause of exemption. Yet in
how many families is this point tacitly yielded, and the
mistress admitted upon sufferance to her own kitchen — the
room furnished with her money, and in which she hardly
dare touch or look at the articles intended for the consump-
tion of her own family ?
One often hears such remarks as, " It isn't every girl
who will stand having the mistress popping in and out
while she is at work." When, in any other situation, the
very fact of this unwillingness to have the owner of the
382 COMHON SENSE.
materials used in that work present, would be strong pre-
sumptive proof of negligence or dishonesty. The princi-
ple is pernicious from beginning to end, and should not be
tolerated for an instant.
It gives me pleasure to state here, that I know nothing
personally of this curious reversal of the rights of employer
and domestic. I am inclined to believe, if one-half I hear
of other housewives' trials be true, that I have been highly
favored among American women. My authority in the
kitchen, as in other parts of the household, has never been
disputed — ^in my hearing or presence, that is. I have
always met with a cheerful reception below-stairs when I
appeared there to direct or share the labors of my cooks ;
have found them willing to undertake new dishes, and
ready to learn my " way," however unlike it might be to
their own. As a rule, also, — ^to which the exceptions have
been few and very fax between, — ^tliose employed by me
have been cleanly, industrious, kind-hearted, and respect-
ful ; patient under inconveniences, and attentive in sick-
ness. I should not, therefore, do my duty, did I not Hft
my voice in a plea for charitable judgment, just and gen-
erous treatment of a class which, however faulty, have
much to do and to endure. Mrs. Skinflint's grocer's ac-
count may be less than yours, if you adopt this policy —
Mrs. Sharp's coal-cellar be better dusted, and the paint in
her attic scrubbed oftener ; but I believe, in the long run,
you will be tho most comfortable in body as in conscience.
Your machinery will move with fewer jerks and less fric-
tion. Your servants will remain with you longer, and be
better-tempered while they stay, if you show that you ap-
preciate tho £ekct of a common humanity; that you owe
them duties you are resolved to fulfil during their sojourn
under your roof, however mercenary may be their perform-
ance of those devolving upon them.
PTJDDINGS, 388
Finally, dear sister, do not add to the real miseries of
life by regarding the annoyance of a careless, slothful, or
impertinent domestic as a real trouble. Class it \7ith petty
vexations which are yet curable as well as endurable, and
live above it — a noble, beneficent existence in the love of
your fellow-creatures and the fear of God — a life that can-
not suffer perceptible disturbance from such a contemptible
rootlet of bitterness as this. It is only the feeble, the
inefficient, or the indolent mistress whose peace of mind is
'dependent upon such casualties as a breeze, a hurricane, or
a sudden vacancy in the department of the interior.
Becollect, when the infliction is sharpest, that brier-
pricks are disagreeable, but never serious, unless the blood
be very impure.
♦
PUDDINGS.
I have, for convenience sake, classed among pies all
preparations baked in crust in a pie-dish. Many of these,
however, are called puddings, such as custards of various
kinds, lemon, cocoa-nut, and orange puddings. The reader
will have no trouble in finding the receipts for these, if she
will bear the above remark in mind.
Baked Puddings.
Beat your eggs very light — and, if you put in only one
or two, whip white and yolk separately, beating the latter
into the sugar before adding the whites. '
Fruit, rice, corn-starch, and bread puddings require a
steady, moderate oven in baking. Custard and batter pud-
dings should be put into the dish, and this into the oven,
the instant they are mixed, and baked quickly. No pud-
ding, unless it be raised with yeast, should be allowed to
384 COMMON BENBE.
stand out of the oven after the ingredients are put together.
Give one final hard stir jnst hefore it goes in, and be sure
the mould is well greased.
Apple Meringue Pudding.
1 pint stewed apples.
3 eggs — ^white and yolk separate.
•J- cup white sugar, and one teaspoonful butter.
1 teaspoonful nutmeg and cinnamon mixed.
1 ^^ essence bitter almond (for the meringue).
Sweeten and spice, and, while the apple is still very
hot, stir in the butter, and, a little at a time, the yolks.
Beat all light, pour into a buttered dish, and bake ten min-
utes. Cover, without drawing from the oven, with a me-
ringue made of the bea.ten whites, two tablespoonfuls white
sugar, and the bitter almond seasoning. Spread smoothly
and quickly, close the oven again, and brown very slightly.
Eat cold, with white sugar sifted over the top, and send
around cream to pour over it instead of sauce.
Baked Apple Pudding.
6 large firm pippins (grated).
3 tablespoonfuls butter.
^ cup sugar.
4 eggs— whites and yolks separate.
Juice of one lemon, and half the peel.
Beat butter and sugar to a cream, stir in the yolks, the
lemon, the grated apple, lastly the whites. Grate nutmeg
over the top, and bake until nicely browned.
Eat cold with cream.
y
baked puddings. 886
Sweet Apple Pudding. ^
1 quart milk.
4 eggs.
3 cups chopped apple.
1 lemon — all the juice and half the rind.
Kutmeg and cinnamon.
^ teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a little vinegar.
Flour for a stiff batter.
Beat the yolks very light, add the milk, seasoning, and
flour. Stir hard five minutes, and beat in the apple, then
the whites, lastly the soda, well mixed in.
Bake in two square shallow pans one hour, and eat
hot, with sweet sauce. Much of the success of this pudding
depends upon the mixing — almost as much upon the baking.
Cover with paper when half done, to prevent hardening.
Pippin Pudding. fcj<
8 fine pippins, pared, cored, and sliced, breaking them
as little as possible.
1 cup very fine bread-crumbs.
2 teaspoonfuls butter — melted.
5 eggs — whites and yolks separate.
} cup sugar.
1 oz. citron, shred finely.
1 teaspoonful nutmeg, and a dozen whole cloves.
1 cup milk or cream.
Soak the bread-crumbs in the milk, cream the butter
and sugar, and beat into this the yolks. Next, adding the
milk and soaked bread, stir untU very smooth and light.
Put in the nutmeg and citron, and w^hip in the whites
lightly. Butter a deep dish, and put in your sliced apple,
sprinkling each piece well with sugar, and scatteiing the
17
386 COMMON 8EN6S.
cloves among them. Pour the custard you have prepared
over them, and bake three-quarters of an hour.
Sift powdered sugar over the top, and eat cold.
Bbown Betty. ^
1 cup bread-crumbs.
2 cups chopped apples — ^taiii.
^ cup sugar.
1 teaspoonful cinnamon.
2 tablespoonfuls butter cut into small bits.
Butter a deep dish, and put a layer of the chopped
apple at the bottom; sprinkle with sugar, a few bits of
butter, and cinnamon ; cover with bread-crumbs ; then more
apple. Proceed in this order until the dish is full, having
a layer of crumbs at top. Cover closely, and steam three-
quarters of an hour in a moderate oven ; then uncover and
brown quickly.
Eat warm with sugar and cream, or sweet sauce.
This is a homely but very good pudding, especially for
the children's table. Serve in the dish in which it is
baked.
Apple Batteb Pudding.
1 pint rich milk.
2 cups flour.
4 eggs.
1 teaspoonful salt.
^ ^^ soda, dissolved in hot water.
Peel and core eight apples carefully, and range them close-
ly together in a deep dish. Beat the batter very light and
pour over them. Unless the apples are very ripe and sweet
(for tart apples), fill the centre of each with white sugar.
Bake an hour, and eat hot with sweet sauce.
BAKED PUDDINGS. 887
Apple and Plxtm Pudding.
f lb. fine tart apples, pared and chopped.
J " sugar.
} " flour.
i " beef suet, rubbed fine.
f '* raisins, seeded and chopped.
6 eggs.
1 teaspoonful nutmeg and the same powdered cloves.
1 " salt.
i glass brown sherry and the same of brandy.
Stir the beaten yolks and sugar very light, add the suet
and apples with the ^spice ; then the raisins, well dredged
with flour ; next the flour, and, when this is all in, the
liquor; lastly, the whites beaten very stiff. Bake in two
buttered moulds, in a moderate oven, an hour and a half at
least. Eat hot, with sauce.
You may boil this pudding if you like.
Apple and Tapioca Pudding. ^
1 teacupful tapioca.
6 apples — juicy and well-flavored pippins — pared and
cored.
1 quart water.
1 tea^poonfid salt.
Cover the tapioca with ihree cups of lukewarm water,
and set it in a tolerably warm place to soak Gye or six
hours, stirring now and then. Pack your apples in a deep
dish, adding a cup of lukewarm water ; cover closely and
steam in a moderate oven until soft all through, turning
them as they cook at bottom. ' If the dish is more than a
third fuU of liquid, turn some of it out before you pour the
soaked tapioca over all. Unless your apples are very sweet.
S88 COMMON BEN8E.
fill the centre with sugar and stick a clove in each, just be-
fore you cover with the tapioca. Indeed, I always do this.
It softens the hard acid of the fruit. Bake, after the tapio-
ca goes in, one hour.
Eat warm, with sweet hard sauce.
Baked Apple Dumplings. ^
1 quart flour.
2 tablespoonfuls lard — or half butter is better.
2 cups of milk.
1 teaspoonful soda, dissolved in hot water.
2 '^ cream-tartar sifted into the dry flour.
1 saltspoonful salt.
Chop the shortening into the flour after you have sifted
this and the cream-tartar together ; put in the soda and wet
up quickly — just stifl* enough to roll into a paste less than
half an inch thick. Cut into squares, and lay in the centre
of each a juicy, tan apple, pared and cored ; bring the cor-
ners of the square neatly together and pinch them slightly.
Lay in a buttered baking-pan, the joined edges downward,
and bake to a fine brown. When done, brush over with
beaten egg, and set back in the oven to glaze for two or
three minutes. Sift powdered sugar over them, and eat hot
with rich sweet sauce.
I greatly prefer the above simple crust for all kinds of
dumplings, to the rich paste which becomes heavy so soon
as it begins to cool. It is also more quickly and easily made,
and far more wholesome than pastry.
Tapioca Pudding, t^
1 cup tapioca,
1 quart milk.
6 eggs — whites and yolks beaten separately.
BAKED PUDDINGS. 889
2 tablespoonfuls butter, melted*
2 " sugar.
Soak the tapioca, in enough cold water to cover it, two
hours ; drain off the water, if it be not all absorbed ; soak
two hours longer in the milk, which should be slightly
warmed. When the tapioca is quite soft, beat the sugar
and butter together; add the yolks, the milk and tapioca,
lastly the whites. Stir very well, and bake in a buttered
dish. Eat warm with sweet sauce.
You may make a sago pudding in the same way.
COBN-STABCH'PUDDINa. ^
4 tablespoonfuls corn-starch.
1 quart milk.
4 eggs — ^whites and yolks separate.
f cup sugar.
Nutmeg and cinnamon.
1 tablespoonfid butter.
Dissolve the corn-starch in a little cold milk, and having
heated the rest of the milk to boiling, stir this in and boil
three minutes, stirring all the time. Bemove from the fire,
and while still very hot, put in the butter. Set away until
cold; beat the eggs very light — ^the sugar and seasoning with
them, and stir into the corn-starch, beating thoroughly to a
smooth custard. Turn iq;ito a buttered dish, and bake half
an hour. Eat cold, with powdered sugar sifted over it.
CoBN-StABCH M6BINGUE. ^
4 eggs.
1 quart of milk.
f cup sugar.
4 teaspoonfuls corn-starch.
■J- cup fruit-jelly or jam.
390 COMMON SENSE.
Heat the milk to boiling, and stir in the corn-starchy
which has previously been dissolved in a little cold milk.
Boil fifteen minutes, stirring all the while. Ptemove from
the fire, and while still hot, add gradually the yolks of the
eggs beaten up with the sugar and seasoned with vanilla,
lemon, or bitter almond. Pour this into a buttered pud-
ding-dish and bake fifteen minutes, or until the custard
begins to ^' set.'^ Without withdrawing it further than
the door of the oven, spread lightly and quuMy upon this
a m6ringue of the whites whipped up stiff with a half-cup
jelly — ^add gradually. Use crab-apple jelly, if bitter almond
has been put into the custard ; currant, for vanilla ; straw-
berry or other sweet conserve, if you season the custard
with lemon. Bake, covered, for five minutes. Then re-
move the Hd, and brown the m6ringue very slightly.
Eat cold, with powdered sugar sifted thickly over the
top.
Arrow-root Puddino
Is made according to either of the foregoing receipts,
substituting arrow-root for corn-starch. Farina puddings
also.
Bread I'uddino. ^
1 quart of milk.
2 cups of fine bread-crumbs — alwaya stale and dry.
4 eggs.
2 tablespoonfuls melted butter.
Nutmeg to taste. jj
\ teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water. r
Beat the yolks very light, and having soaked the bread-
crumbs well in the milk, stir these together ; then the butter
and seasoning, with the soda ; lastly the whites. Bake to a
fine brown, and eat hot with pudding-sauce.
This, if well mixed and baked, is quite a different dish
I
BAKED PUBDmaS. 391
from the traditioiial and much-despised bread-padding
of stingy housekeepers and boarding-house landladies.
"Which," says an English Josh. Billings, "nothing can
be more promiskus than a boarding-house bread-pudding.'^
Try mine instead, putting all the sugar into the sauce, and
enough there, and you will cease to sneer.
You may boil this pudding, if you like, in a floured
cloth or buttered mould.
Fruit Bbead Pudding. ^
1 quart milk.
6 eggs.
2 tablespoonfuls melted butter.
2 *' (heaping) sugar.
^ lb. rai<dns, seeded and chopped.
^ " currants, well washed and picked over.
Handful of shred citron, and 1 teaspoonful soda dis-
solved in hot water.
2 8cant cups fine bread-crumbs, from a stale loaf.
Beat the yolks light with the sugar, add the bread-
crumbs when they have been well soaked in the milk, and
stir until smooth. Next put in the fruit well dredged with
flour, the soda, and finally the whites whipped to a stiff
froth.
This will require longer and steadier baking than if the
fruit were not in. Cover it if it threatens to harden too
soon on top. Send to table hot in the dish in which it was
baked, or turn out very carefully upon a hot plate. Eat
warm, with pudding-sauce.
Bbead-and-Butter Pudding.
4 eggs.
3 cups milk.
892 COMMON SENSE.
J cup sugar.
Vanilla or other extract.
Nutmeg to taste.
Bread and butter.
Cut thin slices of bread (stale), spread thickly with
butter, and 6]>rinkle with sugar. Fit them neatly and
closely into a buttered pudding-dish until it is half fulL
Lay a small, heavy plate upon them to prevent them from'
floating, and saturate them gradually with a hot custard
made of the milk heated almost to boiling, then taken from
the fire, and the beaten eggs and sugar stirred in with the
seasoning. Let the bread soak in this fifteen minutes or
BO, adding by degrees all the custard. Just before you put
the pudding in the oven, take up the plate gently. If the
bread stUl rise to the top, keep down with a silver fork or
spoon, laid upon it from the side of the dish, until the cus-
tard thickens, when slip it out. Eat cold.
Bbead-a>i>-marmalade Pudding t^
Is made precisely as above, except that each slice is spread
with marmalade or jam besides the butter.
Either of these puddings is good boiled.
Alice's Pudding. ^
1 quart of milk.
4 eggs.
1 cup very fine dry bread-crumbs.
^ " strawberry or othgr sweet jam,
i " sugar.
Butter a pudding-dish ; sprinkle the bottom with bread-
crumbs; pour over these half a cup jam, and cover this
^ well with the rest of the crumbs, wet with a very little
milk. Heat the quart of milk until near boiling, take it
BAKED PUDDINGS. 393
from the fire and add, gradually, the beaten yolks and
sugar, stirring in the beaten whites lightly at the last.
Heat this by degrees, stirring constantly until it begins to
thicken; put it, spoonful by spoonful, upon the layer of
bread-crumbs, taking care not to disturb these, and when
all is in, bake until well ^^ set '^ and very slightly browned.
Eat cold. Cream is a delicious accompaniment to it.
The Queen of Puddings. ^
1^ cup white sugar.
2 cups fine diy bread-crumbs.
5 eggs,
1 tablespoonful of butter.
Vanilla, rose-water, or lemon seasoning.
1 quart fresh rich milk, and one half cup jelly or jam.
Bub the butter into a cup of sugar ; beat the yolks very
light, and stir these together to a cream. The bread-crumbs,
soaked in milk, come next, then the seasoning. Bake this
in a buttered pudding-dish — ^a large one and but two-thirds
full — ^until the custard is ^^ set.'' Draw to the mouth of
the oven, spread over with jam or other nice fruit-conserve.
Cover this with a meringue made of the whipped whites
and half a cup of sugar. Shut the oven and bake until the
meringue begins to color.
Eat cold, with cream.
You may, in strawberry season, substitute the fresh
fruit for preserves. It is then truly delightful.
Crackeb Pudding. ^
1 quart milk.
1 cup powdered cracker
6 eggs.
2 tablespoonfuls melted butter.
1 teaspoonful soda^-dissolved in boiling water.
17*
894 COMMON SENSE.
Heat the milk slightly, and pouring it over the cracker,
let them stand together fifteen minutes. Stir into this first
the beaten yolks, then the butter and soda ; beat all smooth
and add the whipped whites.
Eat hot, with pudding-sauce.
DOBCHESTEB CrACKEB FlTTX PUDDINa.
2 quarts milk.
6 Boston crackers — split and buttered.
8 eggs — beaten very light.
2 cups sugar. Nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon to taste.
1 teaspoonful of salt.
1 lb. raisins, seeded and cut in two.
Make a custard of the milk, eggs, and sugar, seasoned
with the spices, by heating the milk almost to boiling, then
taking it from the fire and adding gradually the yolks,
sugar, seasoning, and whites. Do not boil it again. Butter
a pudding-dish; put a layer of crackers in the bottom,
moistening with a few spoonfuls of the hot custard. On
this lay some of the raisins — a thick stratum ; cover with
crackers — ^the buttered side downward ; moisten with the
custard, and proceed in this order untU your crackers and
fruit are used up. Pour in custard until only the top of
the upper layer is visible, but not enough to float them ;
cover closely and set in the cellar over night. In the morn-
ing add the rest of the custard, at intervals of five or six
minutes between the cupfuls.
Bake two hours in a moderate oven. Cover with paper
if it should seem likely to harden too feuit.
Eat hot, with sauce.
Cracker Suet Pudding. ^
\ lb. beef suet, freed from strings, and powdered.
1 cup fine cracker-cnimbe.
BAKED PUDDINGS. 395
2 tablespoonfiils sugar.
4 eggs.
3 cups milk.
Pinch of soda.
1 teaspoonful salt.
Beat the yolks with the sugar ; add to these the milk
in which the cracker has been soaked for half an hour;
work into a smooth paste before putting in the suet and
soda. Whip the whites in last, and bake nearly, if not
quite an hour. Cover, should the crust form too rapidly.
Eat hot, with wine sauce.
You may also steam or boil this pudding.
Feuit Cracker Pudding.
1 cup powdered cracker soaked in one pint of millr.
^ lb. beef suet, cleared from strings and powdered.
i ^* raisins, seeded and cut in two.
^ ^^ currants, washed and dried.
3 oz. almonds.
5 eggs.
i cup sugar.
1 teaspoonful nutmeg, and same of cinnamon. Rose-
water to taste.
Blanch the almonds and cut with a sharp knife into thin
shavings. Beat the yolks with the sugar until light and
thick; mix in the cracker and milk ; the suet and the fruit,
well dredged ; the spice and rose-water ; then the whipped
whites, finally the almonds.
Bake in a buttered mould one hour and a half. Turn
out and eat with wine sauce.
Or,
Boil in a well-buttered mould. In this case, blanch, but do
396 CX>MMON SENSE.
not cut the almonds, and do not stone the raisins. Butter
the mould so thickly that you can stick the almonds to the
sides in regular rows, alternately with rows of whole i-aisins.
Put in the mixture gently, not to disturb these ; cover the
mould and boil or steam three hours. Treated in this way,
it makes a pretty -looking pudding. It is palatable in any
shape.
Cracker akd Jam Pudding.
3 eggs.
^ cup cracker-crumbs.
•j^ cup sugar.
1 tablespoonful butter.
1 teacup milk.
^ lemon — juice and grated rind.
3 tablespooniuls jam.
Soak the cracker in the milk ; rub the butter and sugar
together, adding the lemon, and beating to a cream ; then
stir in the beaten yolks ; next the cracker and milk ; lastly,
the whites. Butter a deep dish, and put the json, which
should be pretty stiff, at the bottom. Fill up with the mix-
ture, and bake about half an ho\ir.
Eat cold, with sugar sifted over the top.
Rice Pudding (Plain), t^
1 coffee-cup rice.
2 quarts milk.
8 tablespoonfuLs sugar.
1 teaspoonful salt.
Butter the size of an egg — ^melted.
Nutmeg and cinnamon to taste.
Wash and pick over the rice, and soak in one pint of
the milk two hours. Then add the rest of the milk, th0
BAXED PUDDINGS. 397
sugar, salt, butter, and spice. Bake two hours, and eat
cold.
Rice and Tapioca Pudding.
^ cup rice.
^ " tapioca.
} " sugar.
3 pints milk.
Cinnamon to taste.
Soak the tapioca in a cup of the milk three hours ; wash
the rice in several waters, and soak in another cup of m\]\r
as long as you do the tapioca. Sweeten the remaining
quart of milk ; put all the ingredients together, and bake
two hours in a slow oven. Eat cold.
Bice Pudding with Eggs. »{<
1 quart milk.
4 eggs.
i cup rice.
f -** sugar.
1 tablespoonful butter.
Handful of raisins, seeded and cut in two.
Soak the rice in a pint of the milk an hour, then set the
saucepan containing it where it will slowly heat to a boil.
Boil five minutes ; remove and let it cool. Beat the yolks,
add the sugar and butter, the rice and the milk in which it
was cooked, with the pint of unboiled ; the beaten whites,
and finally the raisins. Grate nutmeg on the top, and bake
three-quarters of an hour, or untH the custard is well set
and of a light brown. Eat cold.
Rice-Floub Pudding.
2 quarts of milk.
^ lb. rice-flour.
398 COMMON BENBE.
] cup sugar.
6 eggs.
1 tablespoonful butter.
1 small teaspoonful nutmeg.
2 teaspoonfuls yanilla or rose-water.
1 lemon — juice of the whole, and half the grated rind.
Heat the milk to a boil, and stir in the rice-flour wet
to a smooth paste with a little cold milk ; boil until well
thickened, stirring all the time. Take from the fire, and
while still hot stir in the butter, the yolks beaten light with
the sugar, the lemon, nutmeg, and the whites of three eggs.
Mix well, and bake in a buttered dish three-quarters of an
hour. Just before you take it up, draw to the mouth of
the oven and cover with a meringue of the remaining whites,
beaten stiff with two tablespoonfuls powdered sugar, and
flavored with vanilla or rose-water. Bake until the merin-
gue begins to brown. Sift sugar on the top and eat cold.
Batter Pudding. ^
1 pint of milk.
4 eggs — ^whites and yolks beaten separately.
, 2 even cups flour.
1 teaspoonful salt.
1 pinch of soda.
Bake in a buttered dish three-quarters of an hour.
Serve in the pudding-diBh as soon as it is drawn from the
oven, and eat with rich sauce.
Or
Tou may boil it in a buttered mould or floured ba^, flour-
ing it v&ry thickly. Boil two hours, taking care the boiling
does not cease for a moment until the pudding is done.
BAKED FITDDINGS. 399
Batter Pudding {No, 2).
1 quart milk.
10 tablespoonfuls flour.
7 eggs.
1 teaspoonful salt.
^ ^^ soda, dissolved in hot water.
1 '' cream-tartar, sifted into the flour.
Wet the flour gradually with the milk to a very smooth
paste ; next add the beaten yolks, then the salt and soda ;
lastly the whites, whipped to a stiff froth. Bake in a but-
tered dish for an hour, and serve at once. Eat hot, with
sauce.
If you boil it, leave plenty of room to swell in the bag,
and boil two hours.
Cottage Pudding. »I^
1 cup of sugar.
1 tablespoonful of butter.
2 eggs.
1 cup sweet milk.
3 cups flour, or enough to make a tolerably stiff batter,
^ teaspoonful of soda.
1 '^ cream-tartar, sifted with the flour.
1 « salt.
Bub the butter and sugar together, beat in the yolks,
then the milk and soda, the salt, and the beaten whites, al-
ternately with the flour. Bake in a buttered' mould ; turn
out upon a dish ; cut in slices, and eat with liquid sauce.
This is a simple but very nice pudding.
400 OOHHON 8EN8E.
Qerman Puffs. »{«
3 cups flour.
3 «« milk.
3 oggB — whites and yolks beaten separately and wry
light
3 teaspoonfuls melted butter.
1 saltspoonfdl salt.
Pour in nine well-buttered cups of same size as that
used for measuring, and bake to a fine brown. Eat as soon
as done, with sauce.
Cup Puddings.
3 eggs.
The weight of the eggs in sugar and in flour.
Half their weight in butter.
2 tablespoonftds nulk.
\ teaspoonf ul soda, dissolved in hot water.
Rub the sugar and butter together; beat the yolks light
and add then the milk and soda; lastly the flour and beaten
whites alternately. Fill six small cups, well buttered, and
bake twenty minutes, or until a nice brown. £at warm.
Lemon Pudding. »{<
1 cup of sugar.
4 eggs.
2 tablespoonfuls corn-starch.
2 lemons — juice of both and rind of one.
1 pint milk.
1 tablespoonful butter.
Heat the milk to boiling, and stir in the corn-starch,
wet with a few spoonfuls of cold water. Boil five minutes,
stirring constantly. While hot mix in the butter and set it
away to cool. Beat the yolks light, and add the sugar, mix-
BAXED PUDDmOS. 401
ing very tihorouglily before putting in the lemon-juice and
grated rind. Beat tliis to a stiff cream and add gradually
to the corn-starch milk, when the latter is cold. Stir all
smooth, put in a buttered dish, and bake. Eat cold.
Lemon Meringue Pudding {very nice).
*
1 quart milk.
2 cups bread-crumbs.
4 eggs.
i cup butter.
1 cup white sugar.
1 large lemon — -juice and- half the lind, grated.
Soak the bread in the milk ; add the beaten yolks, with
the butter and sugar rubbed to a cream, also the lemon.
Bake in a buttered dish until firm and slightly brown. Draw
to the door of the oven and cover with a meringue of the
whites whipped to a froth with three tablespoonfuls of pow-
dered sugar, and a little lemon-juice. Brown very slightly;
sift powdered sugar over it, and eat cold.
You may make an orange pudding in the same way.
CocoANUT Pudding.
^ lb. grated cocoanut.
i cup stale sponge cake, crumbed fine.
1 cup sugar.
1 large cup rich milk — crjoam, if you can get it.
6 eggs.
2 teaspoonfuls vanilla, or rose-water.
Cream the butter and sugar, and add the beaten yolks.
When these are well mixed, put in the cocoanut ; stir well
before adding the milk, cake-crumbs, flavoring ; and lastly,
the whites of three eggs. Whip the other whites stiff with
three tablespoonfdls of powdered sugar ; flavor with vanilla,
402 OOMHON SENSE.
and just before taking the padding from the oven, spread
this m^ringiie over the top, and close the oven until the
icing is slightly browned.
Bake in all three-quarters of an hour.
Orange Marmalade Pudding.
1 cup fine bread-crumbs.
•J- ** sugar.
1 ** milk or cream.
4 eggs.
2 teaspoonfuls butter.
1 cup orange or other sweet marmalade.
Rub the butter and sugar together ; add the yolks well
beaten, the milk, bread-crumbs, and the whites whipped to
a froth. Put a layer of this in the bottom of a well-buttered
mould, spread thickly with some pretty stiff marmalade —
orange is nicest — then another layer of the mixture, and so
on imtil the mould is full, having the custard mixture at
top. Bake in a moderate oven about an hour, turn out of
the mould upon a dish and serve, with sweetened cream or
custard.
Macaroni Pudding. »{4
1 cup macaroni broken into inch lengths.
1 quart milk.
4 eggs.
J lemon — juice and grated peel.
2 tablespoonfuls butter,
f cup sugar.
Simmer the macaroni in half the milk until tender.
While hot stir in the butter, the yolks, well beaten up with
the sugar, the lemon, and lastly the whipped whites. Bake
BAKED PUDDINaB. 408
in a buttered mould about half an hour, or until nicolj
browned.
Vermicelli Pudding
May be made according to the foregoing receipt.
Neapolitan Pudding. — ( Veryjine.) »J<
1 large cup fine bread-crumbs soaked in milk.
f cup sugar.
1 lemon — juice and grated rind.
6 eggs.
^ lb. stale sponge-cake.
■^ << macaroons — almond.
^ cup jelly or jam, and one small tumbler of sherry
wine.
i cup milk poured upon the bread-crumbs.
1 tablespoonful melted butter.
E.ub the butter and sugar together; put the beaten
yolks in next ; then the soaked bread-crumbs, the lemon,
juice, and rind, and beat to a smooth, light paste before
adding the whites. Butter your mould very well, and put
in the bottom a light layer of dry bread-crumbs ; upon this
one of macaroons, laid evenly and closely together. ' Wet
these with wine, and cover with a layer of the mixture ; then
with slices of sponge-cake, spread thickly with jelly or jam ;
next macaroons, wet with wine, more custard, sponge-cake,
and jam, and so on imtil the mould is full, putting a layer
of the mixture at the top. Cover closely, and steam in the
oven three-quarters of an hour ; then remove the cover to
brown the top. Turn out carefully into a dish, and pour
over it a sauce made of currant jelly warmed, and beaten
up with two tablespoonfuls melted butter and a glass of
pale sherry.
A plain round mould is best for the pudding, as much
404 OOMMON SENSE.
of its comeliness depends upon the manner iu which the
cake and macaroons are fitted in.
It is a pretty and good pudding, and will well repay
the trifling trouble and care required to manage it properly.
It is also nice boiled in a buttered mould.
Rhubabb Puddikq.
Prepare the stalks as for pies ; cover the bottom of a
buttered pudding-dish with slices of bread and butter;
cover with the rhubarb cut into short pieces; sprinkle
abundantly with sugar ; then put on another layer of bread
and butter, and so on until your dish is fulL Cover and
steam, while baking, for half an hour. Kemove the lid
and bake ten minutes, or until browned*
Eat hot with sauce.
GOOSEBERBY PUDDINO.
1 pint ripe or nearly ripe gooseberries.
6 or 8 slices toasted stale bread.
1 cup milk.
i " sugar.
1 tablespoonful butter, melted.
Stew the gooseberries ten minutes — very slowly, not to
break them. Gut your slices of bread to fit your pudding-
dish, and toast to a light brown on both sides. (Gut off
all the crust before toasting.) Dip each slice, while hot,
in milk, and spread with the melted butter. Gover the
bottom of the dish with them; put next a layer of the
gooseberries, sprinkled thickly with sugar; more toast,
more berries, and so on, until the dish is full. Gover
closely and steam in a moderate oven twenty or twenty*
five minutes. Turn out upon a hot dish and pour over it
a good pudding-sauce.
BAKED PUDDINGB. 405
This is considered a wholesome breakfast dish, and is
certainly good. In this case omit the sauce, sift powdered
sugar over the top, and eat with the same.
Newabk Pudding.
1 cup fine bread-crumbs soaked in a pint of the milk.
1 quart of milk.
5 eggs.
2 tablespoonfuls rice-flour.
^ lb. raisins seeded, cut in two, and dredged with flour.
Vanilla or bitter almond extract.
2 tablespoonfuls melted butter, and a half-teaspoonful
soda.
Beat the yolks light ; add the soaked bread-crumbs and
milk ; stir to a smootii batter, put in the rice-flour, wet up
first with cold milk ; the reserved pint of milk, the season-
ing, butter, the fruit, lastly the whites whipped stifll Bake
an hour in a buttered mould; turn out and pour sauce
over it, serving hard sauce also with it.
Or,
You may boil the mixture two hours in a floured cloth or
buttered mould.
Baked Plum Pudding.
li lb. of flour.
1 lb. raisins seeded, cut in two, and dredged with flour.
i lb. suet, freed from strings and powdered.
1 cup sugar.
2 oz. citron, shred fine.
6 eggs — whites and yoiks beaten separately.
Nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves — one teaspoonful each.
Milk to make a thick batter of the flour. Begin with
two cups, and add more if necessary.
406 COMMON 8EK6B.
Beat the yolks and sugar together ; add the suet and
spice, then the flour, moistening the mixture gradually
with milk until you can move the spoon in it. Dredge
the fruit and put in by degrees ; finally, stir in the beaten
whites. Beat all very hard and long before baking in a
buttered mould. It will require cU least an hour and a
half in a moderate oven.
Turn out, and eat with rich sweet sauce.
Bellb^s Dumplings.
1 qvLBxt prepared flour.
2^ tablespoonfuls lard and butter mixed.
2 cups of milk, or enough to make a soft dough.
Boll out a quarter of an inch thick, cut into oblong
pieces, rounded at the comers ; put a great spoonfiil damson,
cherry, or other tart preserve in the middle and roll into a
dumpling. Bake three-quarters of an hour, brush over
with beaten egg whUe hot, set back in the oven three min-
utes to glaze.
Eat hot with brandy or wine sauce.
Or,
Tou may make a roll-pudding of it by rolling out the paste
into an oblong sheet, spreading thickly with the preserves,
folding it up as one would a travelling-shawl to be put into
a strap, pinching the ends together that the juice may not
escape, and boiling in a floured cloth fitted to the shape of
the " roley-poley." Boil an hour and a half.
Boiled Puddings.
You can boil puddings in a bowl, a mould, or a cloth.
The mould should have a closely-fitting top and be buttered
well — top and all — before the batter or dough is put in.
BOILED PUDDINGS. 407
These moulds are usually made with hasps or other fasten-
ing. In lack of this, jou had better tie down the cover
securely. I once boiled a pudding in a tin pail, the top of
which I made more secure by fitting it over a cloth floured
on the inside, lest the pudding should stick. The experi-
ment succeeded admirably, and I commend the suggestion
to those who find, after the pudding is mixed, that their
mould leaks, or the bowl that did duty as a substitute has
been broken, and nothing said to ^Hhe mistress" about it.
If you use a bowl, butter it, and tie a floured cloth tightly
over the top. If a cloth, have it clean and sweet, and flour
bountifuUy on the inside. In all, leave room for batter,
bread, rice, and cracker puddings to swell. Tie the string
very tightly about the mouth of the bag, which must be
made wiih felled seams at sides and bottom, the better to
exclude the water.
The water must be boiling when the pudding goes m,
and not stop boiling for one instant until it is done. If it
is in a bag, this must be turned several times, under water ^
to prevent sticking or scorching to the sides of the pot.
The bag must also be entirely covered, while the water
should not quite reach to the top of a mould. If you use
a basin, dip the cloth in boiling water before dredging with
flour on the inside.
When the time is up, take mould, basin, or cloth from
the boiling pot, and plunge instcmdy into cold water ; then,
turn out without the loss of a second. This will prevent
sticking, and leave a clearer impression of the mould upon
the contents.
Boiled puddings should be served as soon as they are
done, as they soon become heavy.
Many of the baked puddings I have described are quite
as good boiled. As a safe rule, double ike time of hakvng^
if you hoUm
408 OOHHON 8EN8B.
Berbt Pudding.
1 pint of milk.
2 eggs.
1 saltspoonful salt.
i teaapoonful soda dissolved in hot water.
^ ** cream-tartar, sifted through a cup of flour,
and added to enough flour to make a thick batter.
1 pint blackberries, raspberries, currants, or huckle-
berries, well dredged with flour — stirred in at the last.
Boil one hour in buttered mould.
Huckleberry Pudding. »{<
1 pint milk.
2 eggs.
1 quart flour — or enough for thick batter.
1 gill baker's yeast.
1 saltspoonful yeast.
1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in boiling water.
Nearly a quart of berries— well dredged with flour.
Make a batter of eggs, milk, flour, yeast, salt^ and soda,
and set it to rise in a warm place about four hours. When
you are ready to boil it, stir in the dredged fruit quickly
and lightly. Boil in a buttered mould or a floured doth
for two hours.
This will be found lighter and more wholesome than
boiled pastry.
Eat hot with sweet sauce.
Fruit Valise Pudding.
1 quart flour.
I tablespoonful lard, and same of butter.
1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water.
2 " cream-tartar — sifted through the flour.
BOILED PUDDINGS. 409
1 saltspoonful salt.
2 cups milk, or enough to make the flour into sofb
dough.
1 quart berries, chopped apples, sliced peaches, or other
fruit; jam, preserves, canned fruit, or marmalade may
be substituted for the berries.
Roll out the crust less than half an inch thick — ^indeed,
a quarter of an inch will do — into an oblong sheet. Cover
thickly with the fruit and , sprinkle with sugar. Begin at
one end, and roll it up closely, the fruit inside. In putting
this in, leave a narrow margin at the other end of the roll,
which should be folded down closely like the flap of a pocket-
book. Pinch the ends of the folded roll together, to prevent
the escape of the fruit, and baste up in a bag, the same size
and shape as the ** valise." Flour the bag well before put-
ting in the pudding, having previously dipped it — the cloth
— ^into hot water, and wring it out.
Boil an hour and a half. Serve hot with sauce, and cut
crosswise in slices half an inch thick.
Boiled Apple Dumplings. {No, 1.) "J^
Make a paste according to the above receipt; cut in
squares, and put in the centre of each an apple, pared and
cored. Bring the comers together ; enclose each dumpling
in a small square cloth, tied up bag-wise, leaving room to
swell. Each cloth should be dipped in hot water, wrung
out and floured on the inside before the apple is put in.
Boil one hour.
Apple Dumplings. {No, 2.) »{<
1 quart flour.
^ lb. suet.
1 teaspoonful salt.
18
410 OOHMON 8SN8E.
^ teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water.
1 ^' cream-tartar sifted in the flour.
Cold water enough to make into a tolerably stiff paste.
Roll out, cut into squares, put in the middle of each a
fine, juicy apple, pared and cored. Fill the hole left by
the core with marmalade, or with sugar, wet with lemon-
juice. Sticky clove in the sugar. Close the paste, tie up
in the cloths, when you have wet them with hot water and
floured them, and boil one hour.
• A pleasing idea for dumpling cloths is to crochet them
in a closo stitch with stout tidy cotton. They are easily
done, wash and wear well, and leave a very pretty pattern
upon the paste when they are opened. Crochet them round,
with a cord for drawing run into the outer edge.
Boiled Fruit Pudding.
Prepare a paste in accordance with either of the fore-
going receipts, but roll into one sheet. Lay apples, peaches,
or berries in the centre, paring and slicing the fruit ; sprin-
kle with sugar, and close the paste over them as you would
a dumpling. Dip a stout cloth in hot water, flour the in-
side, put in the pudding, tie tightly, and boil two hours and
a half.
Eat hot with sauce.
Bice Duhplikgb.
}- lb. rice boiled without stirring, until soft, and at the
top dry.
12 pippins, pared and cored.
Strawberry marmalade or crab-apple jelly.
Let the rice cool upon a sieve or coarse cloth, that it
may dry at the same time. Dip your dumpling cloths in hot
water ; wring them out and flour well inside. Put a handfid
BOILED PUDDINGS. 411
of the cold rice upon each, spreading it out into a smooth sheet.
Lay in the centre an apple ; fill the hole left by the core with
marmalade or jelly ; draw up the cloth carefully to enclose
the apple with a coating of rice ; tie, and boil one hour.
Turn out with care ; pour sweet sauce or rich sweetened
cream over them, and send around more in a boat with
them.
Suet Dumplings (plain).
2 cups fine bread-crumbs, soaked in a very little milk.
1 cup beef suet, freed from strings, and powdered.
4 eggs, whites and yolks separated, and beaten very
light.
1 tablespoonful sugar.
1 teaspoonful cream-tartar, sifted into the flour.
■J- " soda dis.solved in boiling water.
1 « salt.
Enough milk to mix into a stiff paste.
Make into large balls with floured hands; put into
dumpling cloths dipped into hot water and floured inside ;
leave room to swell, and tie the strings very tightly.
Boil three-quarters of an hour. Serve hot with wine
sauce.
Fruit Suet Dumplings
Are made as above, with the addition of ^ lb. raisins,
seeded, chopped, and dredged with flour, and ^ lb. currants,
washed, dried, and dredged.
Boil one hour and a quarter.
Boiled Indian Meal Pudding.
1 quart milk.
1 '' Indian meal.
3 eggs.
3 heaping tablespoonfuls sugar, and 1 teaspoonful salt. , ^; ^
J lb, beef suet, chopped into powder.
i i
>..*
112 COMMON SENSE.
Scald the milk, and while boiling hot stir in the meal
and suet with the salt. When cold add the jolks, beaten
light with the sugar, then the whites. Dip your bag in hot
water, flonr it, and fill half full with the mixture, as it will
swell very much. Boil five hours.
Eat very hot with butter and sugar.
Cabinet Puddiko.
^ lb. flour.
I « butter.
5 eggs.
1^ lb. sugar.
^ << raisins, seeded and cut in three pieces each.
^ '^ currants, washed and dried.
^ cup cream or milk.
^ lemon — juice and rind grated.
Cream the butter and sugar ; add the beaten yolks, then
the milk and the flour, alternately with the whites. Lastly,
stir in the fruit, well dredged with flour, turn into a but-
tered mould, and boil two hours and a half at least.
Serve hot, with cabinet pudding sauce over it. {See
Sweet Sauces,)
Eve's Pudding.
1 heaping cup of fine dry bread-crumbs.
^ lb. pared and chopped apples.
^ ^^ raisins, seeded and chopped.
6 oz. currants, washed and dried.
6 eggs.
1 teaspoonful nutmeg, and same of allspice.
1 glass brandy.
1 cup sugar, and 1 teaspoonful salt.
^ lb. suet, chopped to powder.
TVork the sugar into the beaten yolks ; then the suet
and crumbs, with the chopped apples ; next the brandy
BOILED PUDDINGS. 413
and spice, then the whipped whites ; lastly the fruit, well
dredged with flour.
Boil in a buttered bowl or mould three hours. Eat hot
with sauce.
The Queen of Plum Puddings.
1 lb. butter.
1 « of suet, freed from strings and chopped fine.
1 " of sugar.
2i lbs. of flour.
2 '^ of raisins, seeded, chopped, and dredged with
flour.
2 lbs. of currants, picked over carefully after they are
washed.
^ lb. of citron, shred fine.
12 eggs, whites and yolks beaten separately.
1 pint of milk.
1 cup of brandy.
^ oz. of cloves.
^ " of mace.
2 grated nutmegs.
Cream the butter and sugar ; beat in the yolks when
you have whipped them smooth and light ; next put in the
milk ; then the flour, alternately with the beaten whites ;
then the brandy and spice ; lastly the fruit, well dredged
with flour. Mix all thoroughly ; wring out your pudding-
cloth in hot water ; flour well inside, pour in the mixture,
and boil five hours.
I can confidently recommend this as the best plum pud-
ding I have ever tasted, even when the friend at whose
table I had first the pleasure of eating it imitated the
example of ** good King Arthur's " economical spouse, and
what we " couldn't eat that night," " next da^ fried," by
heating a little butter in a frying-pan, and laying in slices
414 COMMON BENSS.
of her pudding, wanned them into almost their original
excellence. It will keep a long time — in a Unseed closet or
safe.
Orangk Roley-Poley.
Make a light paste as for apple dumplings or valise
pudding, roll in an oblong sheet, and lay oranges (sweet
ones), peeled, sliced, and seeded, thickly all over it. Sprin-
kle with white sugar ; scatter a teaspoonful or two of the
grated yellow peel over all and roll up closely, folding
down the end to secure the syrup. Boil in a pudding-
cloth one hour and a half.
Eat with lemon sauce.
Cherry or Currant Pyramid.
Wash and stone the cherries, or pick the currants from
their stems. Make some good light crust, roll it out a
quarter of an inch thick, and cut for the bottom a round
piece about the size of a tearplate. You can use the top
of a tin pail for a cutter. Spread your fruit upon this,
and sprinkle with sugar, leaving a half inch margin all
around. Koll out a second sheet an inch less in diameter
than the first, lay it carefully upon the fruit, and turn up
the margin of the lower piece over the edge of this. Spread
this, in turn, with fruit and sugar, and cover with a third
and lessening round; proceeding in this order until the
sixth and topmost cover is not more than three inches
across. Have ready a conical cap of stout muslin adapted
to the proportions and dimensions of your pile ; dip it in
boiling water, flour inside, and draw gently over all. It
should be large enough to meet and tie xmder the base
without cramping the pyramid.
Boil two hours, and eat with sweet sauce.
FBITTEB8, TASCAKEBj ETO. 415
FRITTERS, PANCAKES, Etc.
Have plenty of nice sweet lard in which to fry fritters,
and test the heat by dropping in a teaspoonful before you
risk more. If right, the batter will rise quickly to the sur-
face in a puff-ball, spluttering and dancing, and will speedily
assume a rich golden brown. Take up, as soon as done,
with a skimmer, shaking it to dislodge any drops of lard
that may adhere ; pile in a hot dish, sift sugar over them,
and send instantly to the table. Fry as many at a time as
the kettle will hold, and send in hot fresh ones while the
batter lasts. A round-bottomed saucepan or kettle, rather
wide at top, is best for frying them.
Use a frying-pan for pancakes ; heat it ; put in a tea-
spoonful or two of lard and run it quickly over the bottom;
then pour in a large ladleful of batter — enough to cover the
bottom of the pan with a thin sheet. Turn with a tin
spatula, very carefully, to avoid tearing it. The frying-pan
should be a small one. Have ready a hot dish ; turn out
the pancake upon it, cover with powdered sugar, and roll
up dexterously like a sheet of paper. Send half a dozen to
table at once, keeping them hot by setting the dish in the
oven until enough are baked.
I am thus explicit in these general instructions to save
myself the trouble, and the reader the tedium, of a repetition
under each receipt.
In olden times it was a boast of notable cooks that they
could toss a pancake from the pan out of the top of the
chimney with such accuracy of calculation, that it would
turn itself on the way back, and settle in its place, ready,
like St. Lawrence, to have the other side fried. JT never
saw a pancake tossed, although in my childish days I saw
hundreds fried by the honorable tribe — ^now so fast passing
away—of Old Yirginia cooks. I do not advise this acro<
416 OOMMON SENSE.
batic system of culinary exploit, especially for beginners.
Indeed, I doubt if the pancakes would be found equal to the
journey in these days of tight chimney-throats and cooking
stoves. They must be out of practice as well as their manu-
facturers. Be careful not to have too much grease in the
pan.
Fritters (iNTo. 1). »J«
1 pint flour.
4 eggs.
1 teaspoonful salt.
1 pint boiliAg water.
Stir the flour into the water by degrees, and stir until
it has boiled three minutes. Let it get almost cold, when
beat in the yolks, then the whites of the eggs, which must
be previously whipped stiff.
Fritters {No. 2).
6 eggs.
1 quart milk.
3 cups flour*
\ teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water.
1 teaspoonful cream-tartar sifted into the flour.
A little salt.
Beat the yolks and whites separately, of course ; stii* the
milk in with the former, then the soda, the flour, and salt,
finally the whites. Beat very hard, and fry <U oncCy in
great ladlefuls.
Apple Fritters. »J«
A batter according to the preceding receipt.
6 large juicy apples, pared and quartered.
1 glass brandy.
1 tablespoonful white sugar.
1 teaKpooiiful cinnamon.
FETITKES, PANCAXES, ETC. 417
Put the brandy, a very little waterj the sugar, and the
spice into a covered saucepan with the apples. Stir gently
until half done ; drain off the liquor, every drop ; mince
the apple when cold, and stir into the batter.
Or,
You may parboil the apples in clear water, with a very
little sugar, and proceed as just directed.
Jelly Feitters.
1 scant cup sponge-cake crumbs — very fine and diy.
1 cup boiling milk.
4 eggs.
2 tablespoonfuls powdered sugar.
1 teaspoonful corn-starch, wet in a little cold milk.
2 tablespoonfuls currant or cranberry jelly.
Soak the cake-crumbs in the boiling milk, and stir in
the corn-starch. Heat all together to a boil, stirring all
the time. Beat the yolks light, and add to this as it cools,
with the sugar. Whip in the jelly, a little at a time, and
put in the whites — beaten to a stiff froth — at the last.
Fry immediately.
Bread Fritters.
1 quart milk — boiling hot.
2 cups fine bread crumbs (aerated bread is best).
3 eggs.
1 teaspoonful nutmeg.
1 tablespoonful butter — ^melted.
1 saltspoonful salt, and the same of soda, dissolved in
hot water.
Soak the bread in the boiling milk ten minutes, in a
covered bowl. Beat to a smooth paste ; add the whipped
18*
418 COMMON SEETSE.
jolks, the butter, salt, soda, and finally the whites, whipped
stiff.
Queen's Toast.
Fry slices of stale baker's bread — ^aerated, if you can get
it — in boiling lard to a fine brown. Dip each slice quickly
in boiling water to remove the grease. Sprinkle with pow-
dered sugar, and pile upon a hot plate. Before toasting,
cut out the slices with a round cake-cutter, taking ofif all the
crust. They look better when piled up. Pour sweet wine
sauce over them when hot, and serve at once.
Jelly-Cake Fritters (very nice). •Jm
Some stale sponge, or plain cup cake, cut into rounds
with a cake-cutter.
Hot lard.
Strawberry or other jam, or jelly.
A little boiling nulk.
Cut the cake carefully and fry a nice brown. Dip each
slice for a second in a bowl of boiling milk, draining this
off on the side of the vessel ; lay on a hot dish and spread
thickly with strawberry jam, peach jelly, or other delicate
conserve. Pile them neatly and send around hot, with
cream to pour over them.
This is a nice way of using up stale cake, and if lightly
prepared, the dessert is almost equal to Neapolitan pudding.
Pancakes.
1 pint of flour.
G eggs.
1 saltspoonful salt, and same of soda dissolved in
vinegar.
Milk to make a tfiin batter. Begin with two cups and
add until the batter is of the right consistency. Beat the
SWEET, OB PUDDING SATT0E8. 419
yolks light, add the salt, soda, and two ciips of milk, theai
the flour and beaten whites alternately, and thin with more
milk.
Jelly ob Jam Pancakes.
A batter as above. When the pancakes are fried, lay
upon a hot plate, spread quickly with nice jam or jelly, and
roll up neatly upon the preserves. Sprinkle lightly with
powdered sugar, and send around with wine sauce or sweet-
ened cream.
SWEET, OR PUDDING SAUCES.
Hard Sauce. »{«
Stir to a cream 1 cup of butter.
3 cups of powdered sugar.
When light, beat in f teacup of wine.
Juice of a lemon.
2 teaspoonfuls nutmeg.
Beat long and hard until several shades lighter in color
than at first and creamy in consistency. Smooth into shape
with a broad knife dipped in cold water, and stamp with a
wooden mould, first scalded and then dipped in cold water.
Set upon the ice until the pudding is served.
Bee-hive Sauce. »{«
Mix a hard sauce according to the previous receipt, and
when light, set aside three or four tablespoonf uls in a plate.
To the larger quantity left add gradually, cheiTy, currant,
or cranberry juice enough to color it a good pink. Red
jelly will do if berries are out of season. Beat the color-
ing matter in thoroughly, and shape into a conical mound.
Roll half a sheet of note-paper into a long, narrow funnel.
420 COMMON SENSE.
tie a string about it to keep it in shape, and fill with the
uncolored sauce. Squeeze it out gently through the small
end in a ridge, beginning at the base of the cone and wind-
ing about it to the top, filling your funnel as it is emptied,
and guiding ib carefully. The effect of the alternate white-
and-pink lines is very pretty.
If the pudding is one to which chocolate would be a
pleasant addition, color with grated chocolate, rubbed
smooth in a little of the wine, and ridge with white. Set
upon the ice or upon the cellar-floor until firm. Stick a
colored almond or other ornamental candy upon the top.
This bee-hive is easily made, and will set off even a plain
pudding handsomely.
BRAia)Y Sauce (hard). •{«
■J- cup butter.
2 cups powdered sugar.
1 wineglass brandy.
1 teaspoonful mixed cinnamon and mace.
"Warm the butter very slightly, work in the sugar, and,
when this is light, the brandy and spice. Beat hard — shape
into a mould and set in a cold place until wanted.
"White "Wine Sauce {liquid), »J«
^ cup butter.
2^ cups powdered sugar.
2 wineglasses pale sherry or white wine.
^ cup boiling water.
1 teaspoonful nutmeg.
Work the butter into the sugar, moistening, as you go
on, with boiling water. Beat long and hard until your
bowl is nearly full of a creamy mixture. Then add gradu-
ally the wine and nutmeg, still beating hard. Turn into a
SWEET, OB PUDDINO SAUCES. 421
tin pail, set within a saucepan of boiling water, and stir
frequently until the sauce is hot, but not until it boUs.
Take the saucepan from the £re and leave the pail stand-
ing in the water, stirring the contents now and then, until
you are ready to serve the pudding.
If rightly made, this sauce will be nearly as white as
milk.
Lemon Sauce. •{«
1 large cup of sugar.
Nearly half a cup of butter.
legg.
1 lemon — ^all the juice and half the grated peel.
1 teaspoonful nutmeg.
3 tablespoonfuls boiling water.
Cream the butter and sugar and beat in the egg whipped
b'ght ; the lemon and nutmeg. Beat hard ten minutes, and
add, a spoonful at a time, the boiling water. Put in a tin
pail and set within the uncovered top of the tearkettle,
which you must keep boiling until the steam heats the
sauce very hot, but not to boiling. Stir constantly.
Milk Pudding Saucb.
2 eggs, beaten stiff.
1 large cup of sugar.
5 tablespoonfuls boiling milk.
i teaspoonful arrow-root or corn-starch, wet with cold
milk.
1 teaspoonful nutmeg, or mace.
1 tablespoonful butter.
Hub the butter into the sugar, add the beaten eggs, and
work all to a creamy froth. Wet the corn-starch and put
in next with the spice — ^finally, pour in by the spoonful the
boiling milk, betttdng well all the time. ' Set within a sauce-
422 COMMON SENSE.
pan of boiling water five minutes, stirring all the while, but
do not let the sauce boil.
This is a good sauce for bread and other simple pud-
dings.
Cabinet Pudding Sauce.
Yolks of four eggs, whipped very light.
1 lemon — juice and half the grated peel.
1 good glass of wine.
1 teaspoonful of cinnamon.
1 cup of sugar.
1 tablespoonful of butter.
Bub the butter into the sugar, add the yolks, lemon, and
spice. Beat ten minutes and put in the wine, still stirring
hard. Set within a saucepan of boiling water, and beat
while it heats, but do not let it boil.
Pour over the pudding.
Fkuit Pudding Sauce. •!•
-J cup butter.
2^ cups sugar.
1 dessert spoonful corn-starch wet in a litlte cold milk.
1 lemon — juice and half the grated peel.
1 glass of wine.
1 cup boiling water.
Cream the butter and sugar well ; pour the corn-starch
into the boiling water and stir over a clear fire until it is
well thickened ; put all together in a bowl and beat five
minutes before returning to the saucepan. Heat once, al-
most to the boiling point, add the wine, and serve.
CusTA&D Sauce.
1 pint of milk.
2 eggs, beaten very light.
SWEET, OB PUDDING SAUCES. 423
i wineglass of brandy.
1 cup powdered sugar, stirred into the eggs.
Nutmeg to taste.
1 teaspoonful vanilla.
Heat the milk to boiling, and add by degrees to the
beaten eggs and sugar; put in the nutmeg, and set within a
saucepan of boiling water. Stir until it begins to thicken.
Take it off and add the brandy gradually. Set, until it is
wanted, within a pan of boiling water.
Pour oyer the pudding when it comes from the mould.
Jelly Sauce. »J«
^ cup currant jelly.
1 tablespoonful butter, melted.
^ dessert spoonful arrowroot or corn-starch ; wet with
cold water.
1 glass pale sherry.
3 tablespoonfuls boiling water.
Stir the arrowroot into the boiling water and heat, stir-
ring all the time, until it thickens ; add the butter, and set
aside until almost cool, when beat in, spoonful by spoonful,
the jelly to a smooth pink paste. Pour in the wine, stir
hard, and heat in a tin vessel, set within another of boiling
water, until very hot.
Pour over and around Neapolitan, bread-and-marma-
lade puddings, cake-fritters, and Queen's toast.
Sweetened Cream (cold).
1 pint of cream.
4 tablespoonfuls powdered sugar.
1 teaspoonful of nutmeg.
1 '* vanilla.
424 COMMON 8ENBX.
Mix all well together, stirring until the sugar is dis-
solved. Eat with jam puddings, queen of all puddings,
Alice's pudding, and peach roley-poley.
Cream Sauce (hot),
1 pint cream.
4 tablespoonfuls powdered sugar.
Whites of two eggs, beaten stiff.
Extiuct of vanilla or bitter almonds, one teaspoonful.
1 teaspoonful nutmeg.
Heat the cream slowly in a vessel set in a saucepan of
boiling water, stirring often. When scalding, but not boil-
ing hot, remove it from the fire, put in the sugar and nut-
meg ; stir three or four minutes and add the whites. Mix
thoroughly and flavor, setting the bowl containing it in a
pan of hot water imtil the pudding is served, stirring now
and then.
Jelly Sauce {N^o. 2). 4*
•J cup cuirant jelly.
2 tablespoonfuls melted butter.
1 lemon — juice and half the grated peel.
^ teaspoonful nutmeg.
2 glasses wine, and a tablespoonful powdered sugar.
Heat the butter a little more than blood- waim ; beat
the jelly to a smooth batter and add gradually the butter,
the lemon, and nutmeg. Warm almost to a boil, stirring
all the while ; beat hard, put in the sugar, lastly the wine.
Set in a vessel of hot water, stirring now and then, until it
is wanted. Keep it covered to hinder the escape of the
wine flavor. Stir well before pouring out.
This is a very fine jelly, particularly for cabinet and
Neapolitan puddings.
CUSTASBS, BLANCMANGES, ETO. 425
Custards, Blaxc-Mange, Jellies, and Creams.
A good rule for custard is five eggs to a quart of milk,
and a tablespoonful of sugar to each eggy although a good
plain custard can be made with an e^ for each cup of milk
'and four tablespoonfuls of sugar to the quart. Creams and
custards that are to be frozen must have at least one-third
more sugar than those which are not to undergo this
process.
In heating the milk for custard, do not let it quite boil
before adding the yolks. My plan, which has proved a safe
one thus far, is to take the scaldijig milk from the fire, and
instead of pouring the beaten eggs into it, to put a spoonful
or two of the milk to them^ beating well all the while, add-
ing more and more milk as I mix, until there is no longer
danger of sudden curdling. Then, return all to the fire
and boil gently until the mixture is of the right consistency.
From ten to fifteen minutes should thicken a quart. Stir
constantly.
Alwai/8 boil milk and custard in a vessel set within
another of boiling water. If you have not a custard or
farina kettle, improvise one by setting a tin pail inside of a
pot of hot water, taking care it does not float, also that the
water is not so deep as to bubble over the top. Custards
are better and lighter if the yolks and whites are beaten
separately, the latter stirred in at the last.
Boiled Custard.
1 quart of milk.
Yolks of five eggs aad the whites of seven — (two for
the m6iingue).
6 tablespoonfuls sugar.
Vanilla flavoring — 1 teaspoonful to the pint.
Heat the milk almost to boiling ; beat the yolks light
42G COMMON 8EN8B.
and stir in the sugar. Add the milk in the manner de>
scribed in ^'general directions" at bead of this section;
stir in five whites whipped stiff; return to the fire and stir
until thick, but not until it breaks. Season it with vanilla,
pour into glass cups ; whip the whites of two eggs to a
meringue with a heaping tablespoonful of powdered sugar,
and when the custard is cold, pile a little of this upon the
top of each cup. You may lay a preserved strawberry or
cherry, or a bit of melon sweetmeat, or a little bright jelly
upon each.
ALMOin> CUSTABDS.
1 pint milk (half cream).
^ lb. almonds, blanched and pounded to a paste, a few at
a time in a Wedgewood mortar, adding gradually —
2 tablespoonfuls of rose-water.
Yolks of three eggs and whites of four — (two for me-
ringue).
4 tablespoonfuls sugar.
1 teaspoonful extract bitter almond in mdringue.
Scald the milk, add the beaten yolks, the sugar, the
almond paste, and the whites of two eggs. Boil, stirring
constantly until it thickens. Stir up well when almost cold
and pour into cups. Make a mdringue of the whites of
two eggs and two tablespoonfuls powdered sugar, flavored
with bitter almond, and heap upon each cup.
Quaking Custard. ►J*
3 cups milk.
Yolks of four eggs — reserving the whites for me-
ringue.
J package Cooper's or Coxe*s gelatine.
6 tablespoonfuls sugar.
Vanilla or lemon flavoring. Juice of a lemon in me-
ringue.
CUSTARDS, BLAl^O-MANGES, ETC. 427
Soak the gelatine in a cup of the cold milk two hours.
Then heat the rest of the milk to boiling, add that in which
the gelatine is, and stir over the fire until the latter is quite
dissolved. Take from the fire, and let it stand five minutes
before putting in the beaten yolks and sugar. Heat slowly
until it begins to thicken perceptibly, not boil — say seven
or eight minutes, stirring constantly. When nearly cold,
having stirred it every few minutes during the time, flavor
it, wash out your mould in cold water, and without wiping
it, pour in the custard and set on the ice or in a cold place
to harden. When quite firm, turn into a cold dish, loosen-
ing it by wrapping about the mould a cloth wrung out in
hot water, or dipping the mould for an instant in warm,
not boiling water. Have ready the whites whipped to a
froth with three tablespoonfuls powdered sugar and juice
of a lemon. Heap neatly about the base of the moulded
custard, like snow-drifts. If you like, you may dot this
with minute bit« of currant jelly.
This is a pleasing dish to the eye and taste.
Floatino Island. •{«
1 quart of milk.
4 eggs — whites and yolks beaten separately.
4 tablespoonfuls (heaping) white sugar.
2 teaspoonfuls extract bitter almond or vanilla.
^ cup currant jelly.
Beat the yolks well, stir in the sugar^ and add the hot,
not boiling milk, a little at a time. Boil xmtil it begins to
thicken. When cool, flavor and pour into a glass dish, first
stirring it up well. Heap upon it a m6ringue of the whites
into which you have beaten, gradually, half a cup of cur-
rant, cranberry, or other bright tart jelly. Dot with bits
of jelly cut into rings or stars, or straight slips laid on in a
pattern.
428 COMMON 6EN8E.
Spanish Creak. •{«
•J- box of gelatine.
1 quart of milk.
Yolks of three eggs.
1 small cup of sugar.
Soak the gelatine an hour in the milk ; put on the fire
and stir well as it warms. Beat the yolks very light with
the sugar, add to tho scalding milk, and heat to boiling
point, stirring all the while. Strain through thin muslin
or tarlatan, and when almost cold, put into a mould wet
with cold water. Flavor with vanilla or lemon.
Bavarian Cream (Very fine).
1 quart sweet cream.
Yolks only of four eggs.
} oz. of gelatine or isinglsiss.
1 cup (small) of sugar.
2 teaspoonfuls vanilla or bitter almond extract.
Soak the gelatine in just enough cold water to cover it,
for an hour. Drain, and stir into a pint of the cream
made boiling hot. Beat the yolks smooth with the sugar,
and add the boiling mixture, beaten in a little at a time.
Heat imtil it begins to thicken, but do not actually boil ;
remove it from the fire, flavor, and while it is still hot stir
in the other pint of cream, whipped or churned in a sylla-
bub chum to a stiff froth. Beat in this **whip," a spoon-
ful at a time, into the custard until it is the consistency of
sponge-cake batter. Dip a mould in cold water, pour in
the mixture, and set on tho ice to form.
Snow Custard. »J«
i package Coxo's gelatine.
3 eggs.
OnSTABDB, BLANOMANGES ETC. 429
1 pint milk.
2 cups of sugar
Juice of one lemon.
Soak the gelatine one hour in a teacnpful of cold water.
To this, at the end of this time, add one pint boiling water.
Stir until the gelatine is thoroughly dissolved ; add two-
thirds of the sugar and the lemon-juice. Beat the whites
of the eggs to a stiff froth, and when the gelatine is quite
cold, whip it into the whites, a spoonful at a time, for at least
an hour. Whip steadily and evenly, and when all is stiff,
pour into a mould, previously wet with cold water, and set
in a cold place. In four or five hours turn into a glass
dish.
Make a custard of the milk, eggs, and remainder of the
sugar, flavor with vanilla or bitter almond, and when the
m6ringue is turned out of the mould, pour this around the
base.
Baked Custasd.
1 quart of milk.
4 eggs, beaten light — whites and yolks separately.
5 tablespoonfuls sugar, mixed with the yolks.
Nutmeg and vanilla.
Scald but not boil the milk ; add by degrees to the
beaten yolks, and when well mixed, stir in the whites.
Flavor, and pour into a deep dish, or custard-cups of white
stone-china. Set these in a pan of hot water, grate nutmeg
upon each, and bake until Arm. Eat cold from the cups.
French Tapioca Custard. »{«
6 dessert spoonfuls tapioca.
1 quart of milk.
1 pint of cold water.
3 eggs.
430 COMMON SENSE.
1 teaspoonful vanilla, or other essence.
1 heaping cup of sugar.
A pinch of salt.
Soak the tapioca in the water five hours. Let the milk
come to a boil; add the tapioca, the water in which it was
boiled, and a good pinch of salt. Stir until boiling hot, and
add gradually to the beaten jolks and sugar. Boil again
{always in a vessel set within another of hot water), stir-
ring constantly. Let it cook until thick, but not too long^
as the custard will break. Five minutes after it reaches the
boil will suffice. Pour into a bowl, and stir gently into the
mixture the whites of the eggs, beaten to a stiff froth.
Flavor, and set aside in a glass dish until very cold.
Eat with an accompaniment of light cake and brandied,
or canned peaches or pears. This will be found a veiy
delightful dessert.
Tapioca Blanc-makge.
^ lb. tapioca, soaked in a cup of cold water four hours.
1 pint rich new milk.
f cup of sugar.
2 teaspoonfuls bitter almond or vanilla essence.
A little salt.
Heat the milk, and stir in the soaked tapioca. When
it has dissolved, add the sugar. Boil slowly fifteen minutes,
stirring all the time; take from the fire, and beat until
nearly cold. Flavor and pour into a mould dipped in
cold water. Turn out, and pour cold sweetened cream
aroimd it.
Sago Blanc-makge.
May be made in the same way as tapioca.
CUSTiLBDS, BLANOHANGEB, ETO. 431
Cobn-Starch Blakc-manqe. 4«
1 qiiarfc of milk.
4 tablespoonfuls corn-starch, wet in a little cold war-
ter.
3 eggs, well beaten — whites and jolks separately.
1 cup of sugar.
Yanilla, lemon, or other essence. *
1 saltspoonful salt.
Heat the milk to boiling ; stir in the com starch and
salt, and boil together five minutes (in a farina-kettle), then
add the yolks, beaten light, with the sugar ; boil two min-
utes longer, stirring all the while ; remove the mixture from
the fire, and beat in the whipped whites while it is boiling
hot. Pour into a mould wet with cold water, and set in a
cold place. Eat with sugar and cream.
Fakina Blang-uange
Is made according to the above receipt, but boiled fif-
teen minutes before the eggs are added. You may omit
the eggs if you like, and only want a plain dessert.
Arrowroot Blanc-mange. »J«
3 cups of new milk.
2^ tablespoonfuls of arrowroot, wet up with cold milk.
} cup of sugftr.
Yanilla, lemon, or bitter almond flavoring, with a Kttle
white wine.
Mbc the arrowroot to a smooth batter with one cup of
the milk. Heat the remainder to boiling ; add the arrow-
root, stirring constantly. When it begins to thicken put
in the sugar, and cook ten minutes longer, still stirring it
well from the sides and bottom. Take it ofi*; beat well five
432 COlOfON SENSE.
minutes ; flavor with the essence and a small wineglass of
white wine. Give a hard final stir before putting it into a
mould wet with cold water.
This ia very nourishing for invalids and joung children.
For the latter you may omit the wine.
Almond Blakc-makge. 4«
1 quart of milk.
1 oz. Cooper's gelatine.
3 ozs. of almonds, blanched and pounded in a mortar,
with
1 tablespoonful of rose-water, added to prevent oiling.
f cup sugar.
Heat the milk to boiling, having previously soaked the
gelatine in a cup of it for an hour. Turn in this when the
milk is scalding hot ; add the pounded almond-paste, and
stir all together ten minutes before putting in the sugar.
When the gelatine has dissolved, remove the blanc-mange
from the vessel of boiling water in which you have cooked it,
and strain through a thin muslin bag, pressing it well to get
out the flavor of the almonds. There should be three or
four bitter ones among them. Wet a mould with cold
water, put in the blanc-mange, and set in a cold place until
firm.
You may make blanc-mange without the almonds, al-
though it will not be so nice — and substitute vanilla for
the rose-water.
Neapolitan Blanc-mange. 4«
Make according to the foregoing receipt, and, after strain-
ing, separate into four different portions, allowing about a
cupful of the mixture for each. Have ready
CITSTAEDS. BLANO-MAKGES, ETC. 433
1 great tablespoonful chocolate, wet with a very little
boiling water, and rubbed to a smooth paste, for the
brown coloring.
Yolk of an egg beaten light for the yellow.
1 great tablespoonful currant jelly for the pink.
Beat the chocolate into one portion, mixing it well ; the
jelly into another, the egg into a third, returning this and
that, flavored with chocolate, to the fire, and stirring until
very hot, but not boiling. Leave the fourth uncolored. When
quite cold and a little stiflf, pour carefully into a wet mould
— ^the white first; then the pink; next the yellow; and the
chocolate last. Of course, when the blanc-mange is turned
out, this order of colors will be reversed. Set in a cold
place. Loosen, when firm, by dipping the mould for a mo-
ment in warm water, and working the top free from the
edge with a few light touches of your fingers. This is a
handsome dish and easily managed. Currant juice or cran-
berry color a finer pink than jelly, biit are apt to thin the
blanc-mange, unless used cautiously. A little vanilla im-
proves the chocolate.
Jaune-mange. t^
1 oz. Coxe's gelatine, soaked in half a cup cold water
one hour.
1 cup of boiling water.
Yolks of four eggs beaten very light.
1 orange, juice and half the grated peel.
1 lemon ** and one-third the grated peel.
1 cup white wine or clear pale sherry.
1 cup powdered sugar and a good pinch of cinnamon.
Stir the soaked gelatine in the boiling water until dis-
solved ; take from the fire and beat, a little at a time, into
the yolks; return to the inner saucepan with the sugar,
19
484 OOHMON 8SN8B.
orange, lemon, and cinnamon. Stir over a dear fire ttntil it
is boiling hot ; put in the vine and strain through a hair-
fiieve or a piece of tarlatan. Set away in a mould wet
with cold water.
The success of this dish depends much upon the stirring
and the watchfulness of the cook. The mixture should not
be allowed to boil at anj moment.
Yelyet Blanoxakqe. t^
2 cups of sweet cream.
•j^ oz. Cooper's gelatine, soaked in a very little cold water
one hour.
J half cup white sugar (powdered).
1 teaspoonfid extittct of bitter almonds.
1 glass white wine.
Heat the cream to boiling, stir in the gelatine and sugar,
and, so soon as they are dissolved, take from the fire. Beat
ten minutes, or, what is better, chum in a syllabub-churn
until very light ; flavor, and add by degrees the wine, mixing
it in well. Put into moulds wet with cold water.
Chocolatb Blang-manoe.
1 quart of milk.
1 oz. Cooper's gelatine, soaked in a cup of the milk one
hour.
4 heaping tablespoonfuls of grated chocolate, rubbed up
with a little milk.
3 eggs, whites and yolks beaten separately.
|- cup sugar and 2 teaspoonfuls of vanilla.
Heat the milk to boiling ; pour in the gelatine and milk,
and stir until it is dissolved ; add the sugar to the beaten
yolks and stir until smooth ; beat the chocolate into this,
OUBTAKDS, BLANC-MANGES, ETC. 435
and pour in, spoonful by spoonful, the scalding milk upon
the mixture, stirring all the while until all is in. Return
to the inner saucepan and heat gently, stirring faithfully
until it almost boils. Remove from fire, turn into a bowl,
and whip in lightly and briskly the beaten whites with the
vanilla. Set to form in moulds wet with cold water.
Charlotte Russe. •{«
1 lb. of ladyVfingers.
1 quart rich sweet cream.
J cup powdered sugar.
2 teaspoonfuls vanilla or other extract.
Split and trim the cakes, and fit neatly in the bottom
and sides of two quart moulds. Whip the cream to a stiff
froth in a syllabub-churn when you have sweetened and
flavored it ; fill the moulds, lay cakes closely together on
the top, and set upon the ice until needed.
You may use for this purpose a loaf of sponge-cake, cutting
strips from it for the sides and leaving the crust for the bot-
tom and top, each in one piece.
A Tipsy Charlotte. 4«
1 large stale sponge-cake.
1 pint rich sweet cream.
1 cup sherry wine.
J oz. Cooper's gelatine, soaked in a cup of cold water two
hours.
1 teaspoonful vani?\a or bitter almond extract.
8 eggs, whites and yolks beaten together, but very light.
1 pint milk.
1 cup sugar.
436 COMMON SENSE.
Heat the cream almost to boiling; put in the soaked
gelatine and half a cup of sugar, and stir until dissolved.
Kemove from the fire, flavor, and, when cool, beat or chum
to a standing froth. Cut off the top of the cake in one
piece, and scoop out the middle, leaving tlie sides and bottom
three-quarters of an inch thick. Over the inside of these
pour the wine in spoonfuls, that all may be evenly moistened.
Fill with the whipped cream, replace the top, which should
also be moistened with wine and set in a cold place imtil
needed.
Serve with it, or pour around it, a custard made of the
eggs, milk, and the other half cup of sugar.
Chocolate Charlotte Eusse.
^ oz. Cooper^s gelatine, |oaked in a very little cold
water.
3 tablespoonfuls grated chocolate rubbed smooth in a
little milk.
^ cup powdered sugar.
4 eggs.
^ lb. sponge-cake.
1 teaspoonful vanilla.
1 pint cream.
Heat the cream to boiling, slowly, stirring frequently ;
add the sugar, chocolate, and gelatine, and, when these aro
dissolved, add, a spoonful at a time, to the beaten yolks.
Set back in the saucepan of boiling water, and stir five
minutes, until very hot, but do not let it boil. Take it ofi*,
flavor, and whip or chum to a standing froth, adding the
beaten wliites toward the last. Line a mould with sponge-
cake, fill with the mixture, and set upon the ice.
CU8TABDS, BLAUO-MiLNGES, ETO. 437
Flummery.
2 oz. almonds — a few bitter among them.
1 tablespoonful orange-flower or rose-water.
1 pint cream.
1 oz. Cooper's gelatine, soaked one hoar in one cup cold
water.
1 cup milk.
^ " sugar.
Blanch the almonds, and, when cold, pound them to a
paste in a Wedgewood mortar, adding orange-flower or rose-
water to prevent oiling. Heat the milk to boiling, put in
the gelatine, the sugar and almonds, and stir five minutes,
or until they are thoroughly dissolved. Strain through
thin muslin, pressing the cloth well. When cool, beat in
the cream, a little at a time, with an egg-whip, or churn
in a syllabub-chum until thick and stiff. Wet your mould,
put in the mixture, and let it stand seven or eight hours in
a cold place.
Gelatine Chaelotte Eusse. ( Very nice.)
1 pint of cream, whipped light.
i oz. gelatine, dissolved in 1 gill of hot milk.
Whites of 2 eggs, beaten to a stiff froth.
1 small tea-cup of powdered sugar.
Flavor with bitter almond and vanilla.
Mix the cream, eggs, and sugar ; flavor, and beat in the
gelatine and innillr last. It should be quite cold before it
is added.
Line a mould with slices of sponge-cake, or with lady V
fingers, and fill with the mixture.
Set upon the ice to cool.
438 COMMON 8EN8B.
Whipped Syllabubs.
1 pint of cream, rich and sweet.
^ cup sugar, powdered.
1 glass of wiue.
YaniUa or other extract, 1 large teaspoonfuL
Sweeten the cream, and, when the sugar is thoroughly
dissolved, stir in the wine carefully with the flavoring ex-
tract, and churn to a strong froth.
Heap in glasses, and eat with cake.
Gooseberry Fool.
1 quart of gooseberries, ripe.
1 tablespoonful butter.
1 cup of sugar.
Yolks of four eggs.
Meringue of whites, and 3 tablespoonfuls sugar.
Stew the gooseberries in just water enough to cover
them. When soft and broken, rub them through a sieve
to remove the skins. While still hot beat in the butter,
sugar, and the whipped yolks of the eggs. File in a glass
dish, or in small glasses, and heap upon the top a meringue
of the whipped whites and sugar.
Creasc Meringues.
4 eggs (the whites only), whipped stiff, with 1 lb. pow.
dered sugar.
Lemon or vanilla flavoring.
When very stiff, heap in the shape of half an egg upon
stiff letter-pai)er lining the bottom of your baking-pan.
Have them half an inch apart. Do not shut the oven-
door closely, but leave a space through which you can
watch them. When they are a light yellow-brown, take
CU6TAI&DS, BLANC-MANQES, ETC. 439
them out and cool quickly. Slip a tbin-bladed knife under
each ; scoop out the soft inside, and fill with cream whipped
as for Charlotte Russe.
They are very fine. The oven should be veiy hot,
Calf's-Foot Jelly.
4 calf's feet, cleaned carefully.
4 quarts of water.
1 pint of wine,
3 cups of sugai^-or sweeten to taste.
Whites of 3 eggs, well beaten.
2 teaspoonfuls of nutmeg.
Juice of 1 lemon, and half the grated peel.
Boil the calf's feet in the water until it is reduced one-
half; strain the liquor, and let it stand ten or twelve hours.
Skim off every particle of the fat, and remove the dregs ;
melt slowly in a porcelain or bell-metal kettle, add the sea-
soning, sugar, and the whipped whites of the eggs, and boil
fast about twelve minutes, skimming well. Strain through
a double flannel bag suspended between the four legs of an
upturned high stool or backless chair, the bowl set beneath.
Do not squeeze or shake it, until the jelly ceases to run freely ;
then slip out the bowl, and put under another, into which
you. may gently press what remains. The first will be the
clearer jelly, although the second dripping will taste quite
as well. Wet your moulds, put in the jelly, and set in
a cool place.
There are still some housekeepers who insist that the
jellies made from the modem gelatine are not comparable
in beauty and flavor to those prepared from the genuine
feet. Seeing means taste as well as belief with them, and
when they handle' and behold the beloved feet, they know
what they are about. Gelatine, they will darkly and dis-
440 COMMON SENSB.
gustfuUj assert, is made of hom-shayings and hoofs and the
like, and no more fit to be used for cooking purposes than
so much glue.
Nevertheless, while gelatine is so clean, bright, and con-
venient, housewives who find the days now but half as
long as did their mothers, despite labor-saving machines,
will turn a deaf ear to these alarmists, and escape the
tedious process above-described bj using the valuable sub-
stitute.
Wine Jelly. 4«
2 lbs. sugar.
1 pint of wine — pale sherry or white.
1 pint of cold water.
1 package Coxe^s gelatine.
Juice of two lemons and grated peel of one.
1 quart of boiling water.
1 good pinch of cinnamon.
Soak the gelatine in the cold water one hour. Add to
this the sugar, lemons, and cinnamon ; pour over all a quart
of boiling water, and stir until the gelatine is thoroughly
dissolved. Put in the wine, strain through a double fiannel
bag, without squeezing, wet your moulds with cold water,
and set the jelly away in them to cool.
Cider Jelly. 4«
May be made by the receipt just given, substituting a
pint of clear, sweet cider for the wine.
Fever patients may use cider jelly when wine is for-
bidden, and they will find this both refreshing and nutri-
tious.
OnSTiLBDS, BLANO-MA27GXS, ETO. 441
Bird's Nest ik Jelly. 4«
1 quart of jelly, made according to either of the receipts
just given, but with a cup less of boiling water, that
it may be very firm.
3 cups of white blanc-mange.
9 empty eggshells.
Fresh rinds of two oranges.
J cup of sugar.
Cut the rind from the oranges in long narrow strips, and
stew these gently in enough water to cover them until they
are tender. Add to them half a cup of sugar, and simmer
fifteen minutes longer in the syrup. Lay them out upon a
dish to cool, taking care not to break them. If you have
preserved orange-peel in the house, it will serve you the
trouble of preparing this.
The blanc-mange should be made the day before you want
it, and the eggshells filled. The original contents, yolk and
white, should be poured out through a hole, not larger than
a half-dime, in the small end, and the interior washed with
pure water, shaken around well in thenL Then fill with
blanc-mange and set in a pan of flour or sugar — the open end
up — that they may not be jostled or overttirned.
Next morning fill a glass dish two-thirds full of the jelly,
which should be very clear, reserving a large cupful. Break
the shells from about the blanc-mange, and lay the ai-tificial
eggs upon the jelly so soon as the latter is firm enough to
bear them. Pile theiA neatly, but not too high in the mid-
dle, bearing in mind that what is the top now will be the
bottom when the jelly is turned out. Lay the orange peel,
which represents straWy over these and around them. Warm
the reserved jelly, so that it will flow readily, but do not
get it hot ; pour over the straw and eggs, and set away in
19*
442 OOMMON SENSE.
•
a cold place to form. When firm, turn out upon a glass
dish or salver.
Thus pretty and fanciful dish is yet easUy made. The
materials are so simple and inexpensive, and the effect of the
work, if deftly done, so pleasing, that I have no hesitation
in calling the attention even of novices to it.
Wine Jelly {boded).
1 box Coxe^s gelatine, soaked in 1 pint of cold water one
hour.
1 quart of boiling water poured over this, and stirred
until the gelatine is dissolved.
1^ lb. white sugar.
2 lemons— juice and peel.
1 pint of wine.
Put all over the fire, boil up once well, and strain through
a double flannel bag into moulds.
O&ANQE Jelly.
■
m
2 oranges — juice of both and grated rind of one.
1 lemon — juice and peel.
1 package Coxe's gelatine, soaked in a very little water,
one hoiur.
1 pint boiling water.
1^ cup sugar, and 1 small cup of wine.
1 good pinch of cinnamon.
Squeeze the juice of the fruit into a bowl, and put with
them the grated peel and the cinnamon. Pour over them
the boiling water, cover closely, and let them stand half an
hour. Strain, add the sugar, let it come to a boil, stir in
the gelatine, and, when this is well dissolved, take the sauce-
pan from the fire. Strain through a double flannel bag into
moulds.
ICE-CBEAH Aim OTHEB ICES. 443
Vabiegatej) Jelly, t^
1 quart of dear jelly.
i teaspoonful prepared cochineal or red currant juice.
1 cup white blanc-mange.
Divide the jelly into two equal portions, and color one
with a veri/ little prepared cochineal, leaving the other as it
is, of a pale amber. Wet a mould with cold water and pour,
in a little of the latter. Set the mould in the ice, that the
jelly may harden quickly, and so soon as it is firm pour in
carefully some of the red. Set back upon the ice to get
ready for the amber, adding the two colors in this order
until you are ready for the base, which should be wider
than the other stripes, and consist of the white blanc-mange.
Keep both jelly and blanc-mange near the fire until you have
filled the mould — I mean, of course, that intended for the
latest layers. Let all get very firm before you turn it out.
You may vary two moulds of this jelly by having the
blanc-mange base of one colored with chocolate, a narrow
white stripe above relieving the grave efi*eck of the brown.
Ice-cream and otheb Ices.
If you wish to prepare ice-cream ai an hour's notice, you
cannot do better than to purchase the best patent freezer
you can procure. I had one once which would freeze cream
admirably in half an hour. I have forgotten the patentee's
name, and perhaps this is well for him, since truth would
oblige me to record an unlucky habit his machine had of
getting out of order just when I wanted it to do its best.
My earliest recollections of ice-cream are of the discordant
grinding of the well-worn freezer among the blocks of ice
packed about it — a monotone of misery, that, had it been
unrelieved by agreeable associations of the good to which it
441 . OOMMOK 8EK8E.
was " leading up," would not have been tolerated out of
Bedlam. For one, two, three, sometimes four hours, it went
on without other variety than the harsher sounds of the fresh
ice and the rattling " swash " as the freezer plunged amid
the icy brine when these were nearly melted ; without ces-
sation save when the unhappy operator nodded over his
work, or was relieved by another predestined victim of lux-
ury and ennui — a battalion of the laziest juveniles upon the
place being detailed for this purpose. I verily believed in
those days that the freezing could not be facilitated by
energetic action, and used to think how fortunate it was
that small darkeys had a predilection for this drowsy em-
ployment. I shall never forget my amazement at seeing a
brisk Yankee housewife lay hold of the handle of the pon-
derous tin cylinder, and whirl it with such will and celerity,
back and forth, back and forth, that the desired end came
to pass in three-quarters of an hour.
That day has gone by. Time has grown too precious
now even to juvenile contrabands for them to sit half the
day shaking a freezer under the locust-trees on the old
plantation lawn. Machines that will do the work in one-
tenth of the time, with one-fiftieth of the labor, are sold
at every comer. But, so far as I know, it was reserved for
a nice old lady up in the ** Jersey " mountains — the tidiest,
thriftiest, most cheerful bee I ever knew — to show her neigh-
bors and acquaintances that ice-cream could be made to
freeze itself. For five or six years I have practised her
method, with such thankfulness to her, and such satisfaction
to my guests and family, that I eagerly embrace the op-
portuni\;y of circulating the good news.
Self-freezing Ice-cbeah. •{«
1 quart rich milk.
8 eggs — whites and yolks beaten separately and very light.
ICE-CBEAM AKD OTHER ICES. 445
4 cups sugar.
3 pints lich sweet cream.
5 teaspoonfuls vanilla or other seasoning, or 1 vanilla
bean, broken in two, boiled in the custard, and left
in until it is cold.
Heat the milk almost to boiling, beat the yolks light,
add the sugar, and stir up well. Pour the hot milk to this,
little by little, beating all the while ; put in the frothed
whites, and return to the fire — boiling in a pail or sauce-
pan set within one of hot water. Stir the mixture steadily
about fifteen minutes, or until it is thick as boiled custard.
Pour into a bowl and set aside to cool. When quite cold,
beat in the cream; and the flayoring, unless you have used
the bean.
Have re^dy a quantity of ice, cracked in pieces not larger
than a pigeon egg — the smaller the better. You can manage
this easily by laying a great lump of ice between two folds
of coarse sacking or an old carpet, tucking it in snugly,
and battering it, through the cloth, with a sledge-hammer or
mallet until fine enough. There is no waste of ice, nor
need you take it in your hands at all — only gather up the
comers of the carpet or cloth, and slide as much as you
want into the outer vessel. Use an ordinary old-fashioned
upright freezer, set in a deep pail ; pack around it closely,
first, a layer of pounded ice, then one of rock salt — common
salt will not do. In this order fill the pail ; but before cov-
ering the freezer-lid, remove it carefully that none of the salt
may get in, and, with a long wooden ladle or flat stick (I had
one made on purpose), beat the custard as you would batter,
for five minutes, without stay or stint. Replace the lid, pack
the ice and salt upon it, patting it down hard on top ; cover
all with several folds of blanket or carpet, and leave it for
one hour. Then remove the cover of tho fireezer when
416 OOMMOK SENSE.
you have wiped it carefully outside. You will find within a
thick coating of frozen custard upon the bottom and sides.
Dislodge this with your ladle, which should be thin at the
lower end, or with a long carving-knife, working every
particle of it clear. Beat again hard and long until the
custard is a smooth, half-congealed paste. The smoothness
of the ice-cream depends upon your action at this juncture.
Put on the cover, pack in more ice and salt, and turn off the
brine. Spread the double carpet over all once more, having
buried the freezer out of sight in ice, and leave it for three
or four hours. Then, if the water has accumulated in such
quantity as to buoy up the freezer, pour it off, fill up with
ice and salt, but do not open the freezer. In two hours
moi*e you may take it from the ice, open it, wrap a towel,
wrung out in boiling water, about the lower part, and turn
out a solid column of cream, firm, close-grained, and smooth
as velvet to the tongue.
Should the ice melt very fast, you may have to turn off
the water more than twice ; but this will seldom happen
except in very hot weather. You need not devote fifteen
minutes in all to the business after the custard is made.
You may go into the cellar before breakfast, having made
the custard overnight, stir in the cold cream and flavoring,
get it into the freezer and comfortably packed down before
John is through shaving, and by choosing the times for
your stolen visits to the lower regions, surprise him and
the children at a one-o^clock dinner by the most delicious
dessert in the world. I have often laughed in my sleeve at
seeing my John walk through the cellar in search of some
mislaid basket or box, whistling carelessly, without a sus-
picion that his favorite delicacy was coolly working out its
own solidification under the inverted barrel on which 1
chanced to be leaning at his entrance.
Any of the following receipts for custard ice-cream may
I
ICECRRAM Am) OTHEB ICES. 447
be frozen in like manner. Do not spare salt, and be sure
your ice is finely cracked, and after tbe second beating do
not let tbe air again into tbe freezer. If you cannot get dry
rock salt, tbat wbicb settles at tbe bottom of fisb-barrels
will do as well. Keep tbe freezer bidden, from first to last,
by tbe ice beaped over it, except wben you bave to lift tbe
lid on tbe occasions I bave specified.
Chocolate Ice-cbeam. ^
1 quart of cream.
1 pint new milk.
2 cups sugar.
2 eggs beaten very ligbt.
5 tablespoonfuls cbocolate rubbed smootb in a little milk.
Heat tbe milk almost to boiling, and pour, by degrees,
in witb tbe beaten egg and sugar. Stir in tbe cbocolate,
beat well tbree minutes, and return to tbe inner kettle.
Heat until it tbickens well, stirring constantly ; take from
tbe fire and set aside to cool. Many tbink a little vanilla
an improvement. Wben tbe custard is cold, beat in tlio
cream. Freeze.
Almond Ice-creau.
3 oz. sweet almonds and 1 oz. of bitter, blancbed, and,
wben cold, potmded to a paste, a few at a time,
in a Wedge wood mortar, adding
2 tablespoonfuls of rosewater to prevent oiling.
3 pints cream — fresb and sweet.
Nearly 2 cups of sugar.
1 tablespoonful of arrowroot, wet up witb cold milk.
Heat one pint cream almost to boiling, add tbe sugar,
and wben tbis is melted, tbe almonds. Simmer ten minutes,
stirring often, remove from tbe fire, and let all stand to-
448 OOMMON BEH8E.
gether ten minutes longer in a covered vesseL Strain out
the cream, pressing tlie bag hard to get the full flavor of
the almonds, return to the inner saucepan and stir in the
arrowroot until the cream thickens — say five minutes.
When cold, beat veiy light with an egg-whip, adding grad-
ually the rest of the cream. It should be light in half an
hour. Then freeze.
If you wish to mould yo\ir creams in fancy shapes, open
your freezer two hours after the second stirring and trans-
fer the cream to a tight mould, having given it a third
vigorous beating. Pack this down in ice and salt, and let
it stand two hours longer than you would have done had
it remained in the freezer.
COFFEB ICE-CREAH.
3 pints of cream.
1 cup black coffee — ^very strong and clear.
2 cups sugar.
2 tablespoonfuls arrowroot, wet up with cold milk.
Heat half the cream nearly to boiling, stir in the sugar,
and, when this is melted, the cofifee ; then the arrowroot.
Boil all together five minutes, stirring constantly. When
cold, beat up very light, whipping in the rest of the cream
by degrees. Then freeze.
I cannot say certainly that this can be frozen without
turning, although I see n9 reason why it should not, sinco
the arrowroot gives it the consistency of custard.
Italian Cream.
2 pints of cream.
2 cups of sugar.
2 lemons — juice and grated peeL
2 tablespoonfuls of brandy.
ICE-CBEAM JlSD OTHER ICES. 449
Sweeten the cream and beat in the lemons gradually,
not to curdle it; add the brandy and freeze in a patent
freezer, or by turning quickly. In turning the freezer, open
twice during the operation, to stir and beat the contents
smooth.
Lemon Ice-cbeam. »{«
1 quart of cream.
2 lemons — the juice of one and the grated peel of one
and-a-half.
2 cups of sugar.
Sweeten the cream, beat the lemon gradually into it,
and put at once into the freezer. Freeze rapidly in a
patent freezer, or the acid is apt to turn the milk.
You may make orauge ice-cream in the same way.
Pine-apple Ice-cream. ^
1 quart of cream.
1 large ripe pine-apple.
1 lb. powdered sugar.
Slice the pine-apple thin, and scatter the sugar between
the slices. Cover it, and let the fruit steep three hours.
Then cut, or chop it up in the syrup, and sti*ain it thi^ough
a hair sieve or bag of double coarse lace. Beat gradually
into the cream, and freezo as rapidly as possible.
You may, if you like, reserve a few pieces of pine-apple,
unsugared, cut into square bits, and stir them through the
cream when half frozen.
Peach Ice-cream ^
Is very nice made after the preceding receipt, with two or
three handfuls of freshly cut bits of the fruit stirred in
when the cream is half frozen.
450 OOMHON 8EN8E.
Raspberbt OB Strawberry Ice-creah. »{i
1 quart ripe sweet benies.
1 lb. sugar.
1 quart fresh cream.
Scatter half the sugar over the berries and let them
stand three hours. Press and mash them, and strain them
through a thin muslin bag. Add the rest of the sugar,
and when dissolved beat in the cream little by little.
Freeze rapidly, opening the freezer (if it is not a patent
one) several times to beat and stir.
Or,
You may have a pint of whole berries, unsugared, ready
to stir in when the cream is frozen to the consistency of
stiflf mush. In this case add a cup more sugar to the
quart of crushed berries.
Frozen Custard with the Fruit Frozen in. ^
1 quart milk.
1 quart cream.
6 eggs, and 3 cups of sugar beaten up with the yolks.
1 pint fresh peaches, cut up small, or fresh ripe ber-
ries.
Heat the quart of milk almost to boiling, and add
gradually to the beaten yolks and sugar. Whip in the
frothed whites, return to the custard-kettle, and stir until
it is a thick, soft custard. Let it get perfectly cold, beat in
the cream and freeze. If you let it freeze itself, stir in the
fruit after the second beating ; if you turn the freezer, when
the custard is like congealed mush.
ICE-CSEAH AND OTHES lOES. 451
TuTTi Frutti Ice-cbeam. ^
1 pint of milk.
1 qaart of cream.
Yolks of 5 eggs — ^beaten light with the sugar.
3 cups of sugar.
1 lemon — j nice and grated peel.
1 glass of pale sherry, and ^ lb. crystallized fruits,
chopped.
Heat the milk almost to boiling ; pour by degrees over
the eggs and sugar, beating all together well. Return to
the fire, and bail ten minutes, or until set into a good cus-
tard. When cold, beat in the cream, and half freeze before
you stir in half a pound of crystallized fruit — peaches,
apricots, cherries, limes, etc., chopped very fine. Beat in
with these the lemon and wine ; cover again, and freeze
hard.
In all fruit ice-creams the beating of the custard should
be very hard and thorough, if you would have them smooth.
Lehok Ice. ^
6 lemons — juice of all, and grated peel of three.
1 large sweet orange — juice and rind.
1 pint of water.
1 " of sugar.
Squeeze out every drop of juice, and steep in it the rind
of orange and lemons one hour. Strain, squeezing the
bag dry ; mix in the sugar, and then the water. Stir until
dissolved, and freeze by turning in a freezer — opening three
times to beat all up together.
452 OOMMON SENSE.
Orange Ice. »{«
6 oranges — juice of all, and grated peel of three.
2 lemons — the j nice only.
1 pint of sugar dissolved in 1 pint of water.
Prepare and freeze as you would lemon ic6.
Pineapple Ice.
1 juicy ripe pineapple — ^peeled and cut smalL
Juice and grated peel of 1 lemon.
1 pint of sugar.
1 " water, or a little less.
Strew the sugar over the pineapple and let it stand an
hour. Mash all up together, and strain out the syrup
through a hair-sieve. Add the water and fceeze.
Cherry Ice.
1 quart cherries, with half the stones pounded in a
"Wedgewood mortar.
2 lemons — the juice only.
1 pint of water, in which dissolve 1 pint of sugar.
1 glass of fine brandy.
Squeeze out the bruised cherries and stones, in a bag,
over the sugar; add the water, then the brandy, and
freeze.
It will require a longer time to freeze than other ices,
on account of the brandy.
Currant and Raspberry Ice (JFlne),
1 quart red currants.
1 pint raspberries — ^red or white.
BIFE FBUn FOB DESSEBT. 453
1 pint of water.
1^ ** of sugar.
Squeeze out the juice ; mix in the sugar and water, and
freeze.
Strawberry or Easpberry Ice.
1 quart berries. Extract the juice and strain.
1 pint sugar — dissolved in the juice.
1 lemon — juice only,
-j- pint of water.
RIPE FRUIT FOR DESSERT.
Orai^ges
May be put on whole in fruit-baskets, or the skin be
, cut in eighths half way down, separated from the fruit and
curled inward, showing half the orange white, the other
yellow. Or, pass a sharp knife lightly around the fruit,
midway between the stem and blossom end, cutting through
the rind only. Slip the smooth curved handle of a tea-
spoon carefully between the peel and body of tlie orange,
and gently work it all around until both upper and lower
halves are free, except at stem and blossom. Turn the
rind, without tearing it, inside out, making a white cup at
either end — the round white fruit between them.
Sal.U)E d'Orange.
Pare and slice large sweet oranges ; sprinkle powdered
sugar thickly over each slice, and pour a couple of glasses
of wine on the top. Sprinkle powdered sugar over all,
and serve at once, or the fruit will lose its fre^diness.
You may omit the wine if you like.
Do not let any fruit intended to be eaten fresh for des-
454 OOHMOK 8EN8E.
sert lie in tho sugar longer than is absolutely necessary.
It extracts the flavor and withers the pulp.
Ambrosia.
8 fine sweet oranges, peeled and sliced.
•)- grated cocoanut.
^ cup powdered sugar.
Arrange the orange in a glass dish, scatter the grated
cocoanut thickly over it, sprinkle this lightly with sugar,
and cover with another layer of orange. Fill up the dish
in this order, having cocoanut and sugar for the top layer.
Serve at once.
Apples.
Wash and polish with a clean towel, and pile in a china
fruit-basket, with an eye to agreeable variety of color.
Peaches and Pears.
Pick oub the finest, handling as little as may be, and
pile upon a salver or flat dish, with bits of ice between
them, and ornament with peach leaves or fennel sprigs.
One of the prettiest dishes of fi-uit I ever saw upon a
dessert-table was an open silver basket, wide at the top,
heaped with rich red })eaches and yellow Bartlett peai-s,
interspersed with feathery bunches of green, which few of
those who admired it knew for carrot-tops. Wild white
clematis wreathed the handle and showed here and there
among the fruit, while scarlet and white verbenas nestled
amid the green.
Send around powdered sugar with the fruit, as many
like to dip peaches and pears in it after paring and quar-
tering them.
BIPE FBUrr FOB DESSEBT. 455
Strawberries, Kaspberries, and Blackberries.
Never wash strawberries or raspberries that are intended
to be eaten as fresh fruit. If they are so gritty as to require
this process, keep them off the table. You will certainly
ruin the flavor beyond repair if you wash them, and as cer-
tainly induce instant fermentation and endanger the coats
of the eaters' stomachs, if, after profaning the exquisite deli-
cacy of the fruit to this extent, you complete the evil work
by covering them with sugar, and leaving them to leak their
lives sourly away for one or two hours.
Put them on the table in glass dishes, piling them high
and lightly, send around powdered sugar with them and
cream, that the guests may help themselves. It is not eco-
nomical perhaps, but it is a healthful and pleasant style of
serving them — I had almost said the only decent one.
" But I don't know who picked them I " cries Mrs.
Fussy.
No, my dear madam ! nor do you know who makes the
baker's bread, or confectioner's cakes, creams, jellies, salads,
etc. Nor, for that matter, how the flour is manufactured
out of which you conjure your dainty biscuit and pies. I
was so foolish as to go into a flour-mill once, and having
seen a burly negro, naked to the waist, with his trousers
rolled up to his knees, stand in a bank of "fine family
flour," a foot deep in the lowest part, on a July day, shovel-
ling it into barrels for the market, I rushed into the outer
air a sicker and a wiser woman. «
I know God made strawberries. " Doubtless," says
Bishop Butler, " He could have made a better berry, but
He never did 1 " The picker's light touch caxmot mar flavor
or beauty, nor, were her fingers filthy as a chimney-sweep's,
could the delicate fruit sufler from them as from your bar-
barous baptism. You would like to know who picked them*
456 COMMON 8EK6E.
I should inquire instead, '^ Who washed them, and in what ? ^
I recollect seeing a housekeeper, who was afflicted with
your inquiring turn of mind, wash strawherries in a wash-
hand basin !
CURRA1?TS AKD KaSPBERRIES.
Pick the currants from the stems, and mix with an equal
quantity of raspberries. Put into a glass bowl, and eat with
powdered sugar.
Frosted Currants.
Pick fine even bimches, and dip them, one at a time, into
a mixture of frothed white of egg, and a very little cold
water. Drain them until nearly di*y, and roll in pulveiized
sugar. Kepeat the dip in the sugar once or twice, and lay
them upon white paper to dry. They make a beautiful
garnish for jellies or charlottes, and look well heaped in a
dish by themselves or with other fruit.
Plums and grapes are very nice frosted in the same
way.
PRESERVES AND FRUIT JELLIES.
Use none but porcelain, or good bell-metal kettles for
preserves and jellies If the latter, clean thoroughly juRt
before you put in the syrup or fruit. Scour with sand,
then set it over the fire, with a cupful of vinegar and a large
handful of salt in it. Let this come to a boil, and scour the
whole of the inside of the kettle with it. Do not let your
preserves or anything else stand one moment in it after it
is withdrawn from the fire ; fill the emptied kettle instantly
with water and wash it perfectly clean, although you may
mean to return the syrup to it again in five minutes. By
observing these precautions, preserves and pickles made in
I
PBESEBYES AND FKUIT JELLIES. 457
bell-metal may be rendered as good and wholesome as if
the fi-ailer porcelain be used.
Use only fine sugar for nice preserves. Moist or dark
sugar cannot be made to produce the same eflfcct as dry
white.
Do not hurry any needful step in the process of preserv-
ing. Prepare your fruit with care, weigh accurately, and
allow time enough to do your work well. Put up the pre-
serves in small jars in preference to large, and, when once
made, keep them in a cool, dark closet that is perfectly
dry. Keep jellies in small stone china jars, or glass tum-
blers closely covered. You can procure at most china and
glass stores, or house-furnishing establishments, metal
covers with elastic rims for these, which can be used from
year to year.
Cover jellies and jams with tissue paper, double and
wet with brandy, pressed closely to the conserve before you
put on the lid, or paste on the thick paper. Examine your
shelves frequently and narrowly for a few weeks to see if
your preserves are keeping well. If there is the least sign
of fermentation, boil them over, adding more sugar.
If jellies are not so firm after six or eight hours as you
would have them, set them in the sun, with bits of window
glass over them to keep out the dust and insects. Ren^pve
these at night and wipe off the moisture collected on the
under side. Repeat this every day until the jelly shrinks
into firmness, filling up one cup from another as need re-
quires. This method is far preferable to boiling down,
which both injures the flavor and darkens the jelly.
Preserved Peaches. •{•!
"Weigh the fruit after it is pared and the stones ex-
tracted, and allow a pound of sugar to every one of peaches.
Crack one quarter of the stones, extract the kernels, break
20
458 CX>MMOK BEN8E.
them to pieces and boil in just enough water to cover them,
until soft, when set aside to steep in a covered vesseL Put
a layer of sugar at the bottom of the kettle, then one of
fruit, and so on until you have used up all of both ; set it
where it will warm slowly until the sugar is melted and the
fruit hot through. Then strain the kernel-water and add
it. Boil steadily until the peaches are tender and clear.
Take them out with a perforated skimmer and lay upon
large flat dishes, crowding as little as possible. Boil the
syrup almost to a jelly — that is, until clear and thick, skim-
ming off all the scum. Fill your jars two-thirds full of the.
peaches, pour on the boiling syrup, and, when cold, cover
with brandy tissue-paper, then with cloth, lastly with thick
paper tied tightly over them.
The peaches should be ready to take off after half an
hour's boiling ; the syrup be boiled fifteen minutes longer,
J^t, and often stirred, to throw up the scum. A few slices
of pineapple cut up with the peaches flavor them finely.
Preserved Pears
Are put up precisely as are peaches, but are only pared, not
divided. Leave the stems on.
^ Peach Marmalade. ^
Pare, stone, and weigh the fruit ; heat slowly to draw
out the juice, stirring up often from the bottom with a
wooden spoon. After it is hot, boil quickly, still stirring,
three quarters of an hour. Add, then, the sugar, allowing
three quarters of a pound to each pound of the fruit. Boil
up well for ^YB minutes, taking off every particle of scum.
Add the juice of a lemon for every three pounds of fruit,
and the water in which one-fourth of the kernels have been
boiled and steeped. Stew all together ten minutes, stirring
PBE8EBVES AND FBUIT JELLIES. 459
to a smooth paste^ and take from the fire. Put up hot in
air-tight cans, or, when cold, in small stone or glass jars,
with brandied tissue-paper fitted neatly to the surface of the
marmalade.
A large, ripe pineapple, pared and cut up fine, and stir-
red with the peaches, is a fine addition to the flavor.
Preserved Quinces. ^
Choose fine yellow quinces. Pare, quarter, and core
them, saving both skins and cores. Put the quinces over
the fire with just enough water to cover them, and simmer
until they are soft, but not until they begin to break. Take
them out carefully, and spread them upon broad dishes to
cool. Add the parings, seed, and cores, to the water in
which the quinces were boiled, and stew, closely covered,
for an hour. Strain through a jelly-bag, and to every pint
of this liquor allow a pound of sugar. Boil up and skim it,
put in the fruit and boil fifteen minutes. Take all from the
fire and pour into a large deep pan. Coves closely and let
it stand twenty-four hours. Drain off the syrup and let it
come to a boil; put in the quinces carefully and boil another
quarter of an hour. Take them up as dry as possible, and
again spread out upon dishes, setting these in the hottest
sunshine you can find. Boil the syi*up until it begins to
jelly ; fill the jars two-thirds full and cover with the syrup.
The preserves should be of a fine red. Cover with brandied
tissue-paper.
Preserved Apples.
Firm, well-flavored pippins or bell-flower apples make
an excellent preserve, prepared in the same manner as
quinces. A few quinces cut up among them, or the juice
of two lemons to every three pounds of fruit, improves
them.
460 OOldniON SENSE.
Quince Marmalade. *^
Pare, core, and slice the quinces, stewing the skins, cores,
and seed in a vessel by themselves, with just enough water
to cover them. When this has simmered long enough to
extract all the flavor, and the parings are broken to pieces,
strain off the water through a thick cloth. Put the quinces
into the preserve-kettle when this water is almosf cold, pour
it over them and boil, stirring and mashing the fruit with
a wooden spoon as it becomes soft. The juice of two
oranges to every three pounds of the fruit imparts an agree-
able flavor. When you have reduced all to a smooth paste,
stir in a scant three-quarters of a pound of sugar for every
pound of frmt; boil ten minutes more, stirring constantly.
Take off, and when cool put into small jars, with brandied
papers over them.
Quince Cheese
Is marmalade boiled down very thick, packed int-o small
pots. It will turn out Arm as cheese, and can be cut in
slices for luncheon or tea.
Apple Butter.
This is generally made by the large quantity.
Boil down a kettleful of cider to two-thirds the oriiri-
nal quantity. Pare, core, and slice juicy apples, and put as
many into the cider as it will cover. Boil slowly, stirring
often with a flat stick, and when the apples are tender to
breaking, take them out with a perforated skimmer, di-ain-
ing well against the sides of the kettle. Put in a second
supply of apples and stew them soft, as many as the cider
will hold. Take from the fire, pour all together into a tub
or large crock ; cover and let it stand twelve hours. Then
return to the kettle and boil down, stirring all the while
FBESEBVES ASTD FBUIT JELLIES. 461
tinti] it is the consistencj of soft soap, and brown in color.
Yoii may spice to taste if you please.
Keep in stone jars in a dry^ cool place. It should keep
all winter.
Preserved Crab-apples. tj<
m
The red Siberian crab is best for this purpose. Pick
out those that are nearly perfect, leaving Hie sterna on, and put
into a preserve-kettle, with enough warm water to cover
them. Heat this to boiling, slowly, and simmer until the
skins brei\k. Drain and skin them ; then, with a penknife,
extract the cores through the blossom ends. Weigh them ;
allow a pound and a quarter of sugar and a teacupful of
water to every pound of fruit. Boil the water and sugar
together until the scum ceases to rise ; put in the fruit, cover
the kettle, and simmer until the apples are a clear red, and
tender. Take out with a skimmer; spread upon dishes
to cool and harden ; add to the syrup the juice of one lemon
to three pounds of fruit, and boil until clear and rich. Pill
your jars three-quarters full of the apples, pour the syrup
in, and, when cool, tie up.
Preserved Green-gaoes and Large Purple Plums. ^
Weigh the fruit and scald in boiling water to make
the skins come off easily. Let them stand in a large bowl
an h<)ur after they are peeled, that the juice may exude.
Drain this off; lay the plums in the kettle, alternately
with layers of sugar, allowing pound for pound ; pour the
juice over the top and heat slowly to a boil. Take out the
plums at this point, very carefully, with a perforated skim-
mer, draining them well through it, and spread upon broad
dishes in the sun. Boil the syrup until thick and clear,
skimming it faithfully. Eetum the plums to this, and boil
ten minutes. Spread out again until cool and £rm ; keep-
4G2 COMMON 6EN8E.
ing the syrup hot on the fire, fill your jars three-quarters
full with the fruit ; pour on the scalding syrup, cover to
keep in the heat, and, when cold, tie up.
Or,
If you do not care to take the trouble of peeling the
fruit, prick it in several places with a needle, and proceed
as directed.
Unique Preserves.
Gather young cucumbers, a little longer than your
middle finger, and lay in strong brine . one week.
Wash them and soak a day and a night in fiedr water,
changing this four times. Line a bell-metal kettle with
vine-leaves, lay in the cucumbers, with a little alum scat-
tered among them; fill up with clear water; cover with
vine-leaves, then with a close lid, and green as for pickles.
Do not let them boil. When well greened, drop in ice-
water. When perfectly cold, wipe, and with Iei small knife
slit down one side ; dig out the seeds ; stuff with a mixture
of chopped raisins and citron ; sew up the incision with
fine thread. Weigh them, and make a syrup, allowing a
pound of sugar for every one of cucumbers, with a pint
of water. Heat to a lively boil, skim, and drop in the
fruit. Simmer half an hour, take out and spread upon
a dish in the sun while you boil down the syrup, with a
few slices of ginger-root added. Wlien thick, put in the
cucumbers again ; simmer five minutes and put up in glass
jars ; tying them up when cold.
An odd, but also a singularly delicious sweetmeat.
Dahsoxs
Are put up in the same manner as plums, but pricked,
instead of skinned.
PRESEBYES AND FBUTT JELLIES. 463
Pbeseryed Obanoe Peel. ( Very nice,)
Weigh the oranges whole, and allow pound for pound.
Peel the oranges neatly and cut the rind into narrow shreds.
Boil until tender, changing the water twice, and replenish-
ing with hot from the kettle. Squeeze the strained juice
of the oranges over the sugar ; let this heat to a boil ; put
in the shi-eds and boil twenty minutes.
Lemon peel can be preserved in the same way, allowing
more sugar.
OfiANGE Marmalade.
Allow pound for pound. Pare half the oranges and cut
the rind into shreds. Boil in three waters until tender,
and set aside. Grate the rind of the remaining oranges ;
take off and throw away every bit of the thick white inner
skin; quarter all the oranges and take out the seeds.
Chop, or cut them into small pieces ; drain all the juice
that will come away, without pressing them, over the sugar ;
heat this, stirring until the sugar is dissolved, adding a very
little water, unless the oranges are very juicy. Boil and
skim five or six minutes ; put in the boiled shreds, and
cook ten minutes ; then the chopped fruit and grated peel,
and boil twenty minutes longer. When cold, put into small
jars, tied up with bladder or with paper next the fruit,
cloths dipped in wax over all. A nicer way still is to put
away in tumblers with self-adjusting metal tops. Press
brandied tissue-paper down closely to the fruit.
Lemon MARMAiiADE.
Is made as you would prepare oi-ange — ^allowing a pound
and a quarter of sugar to a pound of the fruit, and using
but half the grated peeL
4t6i COMMON 6ENBE.
Preserved Pineapple. ^J^
Pare, cut into slices, take out the core of each one, and
weigh, allowing pound for pound of sugar and fruit. Put
in alternate layers in the kettle and pour in water, allowing
a teacupful to each pound of sugar. Heat to a boil ; take
out the pineapple and spread upon dishes in the sun.
Boil and skiin the syrup half an hour. Return the pine-
apple to the kettle and boil fifteen minutes. Take it out,
pack in wide-mouthed jars, pour on the scalding syrup ;
cover to keep in the heat, and, when cold, tie up, first put-
ting brandied tissue-paper upon the top.
Pineapple Marmalade.
Pai-e, slice, core, and weigh the pineapple ; then cut
into small bits. Make a syrup of a teacup of water to two
pounds of sugar; melt, and heat to a boil. Heat tho
chopped pineapple in a vessel set within one of boiling
water, covering it closely to keep in the flavor. When it
is smoking hot all through, and begins to look clear, add
to the syrup. Boil together half an hour, stirring all the
while, or until it is a clear, bright paste.
Preserved Citron or Water-melon Kind.
Pare off the green skin, and the soft, white, inner
rind. Cut into strips or into fanciful shapes. Allow a
pound and a quarter of sugar to each pound of rind.
Line your kettle with vine-leaves and fill with the rind,
Bcattoring a little pulverized alum over each layer. Cover
with vine-leaves, three thick ; pour on water enough to reach
and wet these, and lay a close lid on the top of tho kettle.
I^et all steam together for three hours ; but the water
must not actually boil. Take out your rind, which
PBESEBYES AND FBUIT JELLIES. 465
should be well greened by this process, and throw at onoe
into very cold water. It should lie in soak, changing the
water every hour, for four houi-s.
For the syrup, allow two cups of water to a pound and
a quarter of sugar. Boil, and skim it until no more scum
comes up ; put in the rind, and simmer gently nearly an
hour. Take it out, and spread upon dishes in the sun
until firm and almost cool. Sinmier in the syrup for half
an hour ; spread out again, and, when firm, put into a large
bowl, and pour over it the scalding syrup.
Twelve hours later put the syrup again over the fire,
adding the juice of a lemon and a tiny strip of ginger-root
for every pound of rind. Boil down until thick ; pack the
lind in jars and pour over it the syrup. Tie up whbn
cool.
A very handsome sweetmeat, although rather insipid in
flavor. The reader can judge whether, as the charity boy
said of the alphabet, and the senior Weller of matrimony,
it is worth while to go through so much and get so little.
Presebved Ginger, t^
Pare the roots of green ginger and lay in cold water fif-
teen minutes. Boil in three waters, changing the hot for
cold every time, until very tender ; drain, and lay in ice-
water. For the syrup, allow a pound and a quarter of
sugar for every pound of ginger, and a cupful of water for
each pound of sugar. Boil, and skim until the scum ceases
to rise. When the syrup is cold, wipe the ginger dry and
drop it in. Let it stand twenty-four hours. Drain off and
reheat the syrup. This time put the ginger in when blood
warm. Do not look at it again for two days. Then reboil
the syrup, and pour over the ginger scalding hot. In a
week drain off once more, boil, and add again while hot to
20*
466 COHMOK BEK8E.
the ginger ; cover closely. It will be fit for use in a fort-
night.
Preserved Cherries. »{«
Stone the cherries, preserving every drop of jnioe.
Weigh the fruit, allowing pound for pound of sugar. Put
a layer of fi*uit for one of sugar until all is used up ; pour
over the juice and boD gently until the syrup begins to
thicken.
The short-stem red cherries or the Morellas are best for
preserves. Sweet cherries will not do.
Preserved Strawberries. tj<
Pound for pound. Put them in a preserving kettle over
a slow fire until the sugar melts. Boil twenty-five minutes,
fast. Take out the fruit in a perforated skimmer and fill
a number of small cans three-quai-tcrs full. Boil and skim
the syrup five minutes longer, fill up the jars, and seal while
hot.
Keep in a cool, dry place.
Strawberry Jam. 4^
For every pound of frmt three-quarters of a pound of
sugar.
1 pint red currant jtdce to every 4 pounds strawber-
ries.
Boil the juice of the currants with the strawberries half
an hour, Stirling all the time. Add the sugar, and boil
up rapidly for about twenty minutes, skimming carefully.
Put in small jars, with brandied tissue-paper over the top.
You can omit the currant juice, but the flavor will not
be so fine.
PBE8EBVE8 AND FBUTT JELLIES. 467
Easpberbt Jam. *^
f lb. of sugar to every lb. fruit.
Put the fruit on alone, or with the addition of a pint of
currant juice to every four pounds of fruit. Boil half an
hour, mashing and stirring well. Add the sugar, and cook
twenty minutes more. Blackberry jam is very nice made
as above, leaving out the currant juice.
GOOSEBBBBT JaM
Is made in the same manner as raspberry, only the cur-
rant juice is omitted, and the gooseberries boiled one hour
without the fruit, and another after it is put in. The fridt
must be ripe.
EiPE Tomato Presebves. ^
7 lbs. round yellow, or egg tomatoes — peeled,
7 lbs. sugar, and juice of 3 lemons.
Let them stand together over night. Drain off the syi*up
and boil it, skimming well. Put in the tomatoes and boil
gently twenty minutes. Take out the fruit with a perfo-
rated skimmer, and spread upon dishes. Boil the syrup
down until it thickens, adding, just before you take it up,
the juice of three lemons. Put the fruit into the jars and
fill up with hot syrup. When cold, seal or tie up.
Green Tomato Pbesebyes. (Good,)
8 lbs. small green tomatoes. Pierce each with a fork.
7 lbs. sugar.
4 lemons — the juice only.
1 oz. ginger and mace mixed.
Heat all together slowly, and boil until the fruit is
clear. Take it frofti the kettle in a perforated Bkimmer,
468 GOMHOK SEN^SS.
and spread upon dishes to cool. Boil the syrup thick. Put
the fruit into jars and cover with hot syrup.
Preserved Figs. ^
The weight of ripe figs in sugar.
Peel of one lemon and juice of two.
A little ginger.
Cover the figs with cold water for twelve hours. Then
simmer in water enough to cover them until tender, and
spread out upon a sieve to cool and harden. Make a syrup
of the sugar, and a cup of cold water for every pound-
Boil until clear of scum ; put in the figs and simmer tea
minutes. Take them out and spread upon dishes in the
sun. Add the lemons and ginger ; boil the syrup thick ;
give the figs another boil of fifteen minutes, and fill the
jars three-quarters of the way to the top. Fill up with
boiling syrup, cover, and, when cold, seal up.
Baked Apples. 9^»
Cut out the blossom end of sweet apples — Campfields or
Pound Sweets — with a sharp • penknife ; wash, but do not
pare them ; pack them in a large pudding-dish ; pour a cup-
ful of water in the bottom, cover closely with another dish
or pan ; set in a moderate oven, and steam until tender all
through. Pour the liquor over them while hot, and repeat
this as they cool. Set on the ice several hours before tea,
and, when you ai'e ready, transfer them to a glass dish,
pouring the juice over them again. Eat with powdered
sugar and cream. Applets baked in this way are more ten-
der and digestible, and better flavored, than those baked in
an open vessel. Campfields are particularly good.
pbesebyeb aitd fruit jellies. 469
Apples Stewed Whole. 9^»
Pare, and vnth a small knife extract the cores of fine
juicy apples that are not too tart ; put in a deep dish with
just enough water to cover them ; cover and bake, or stew,
in a moderate oven, until they are tender and clear ; take
out the apples, put in a bowl, and cover to keep hot ; put
the juice into a saucepan, with a cupful of sugar for twelve
apples, and boil half an hour. Season with mace, ginger,
or whole cloves, adding the spice ten minutes before you
remove the syrup from the fire. Pour scalding over the
apples, and cover until cold.
Eat with cream.
Baked Pears.
Sweet pears' may be baked just as sweet apples are —
i. e., steamed without being pared or cored.
Or,
If large, cut in half, put into a deep dish, with a very
little water; sprinkle them with sugar, and put a few
cloves, or bits of cinnamon, or a pinch of ginger among
them. Cover closely, and bake until tender.
Stewed Pears. »{«
If small and ripe, cut out the blossom-end, without
paring or coring ; put into a ^ucepan, with enough water
to cover them, and stew until tender; add a half cupful
of sugar for every quart of pears, and stew all together ten
minutes ; take out the pears, lay in a covered bowl to keep
warm; add to the syrup a little ginger or a few cloves;
boil fifteen minutes longer, and pour over the fruit hot.
470 COMMON BEH8B.
Or,
If the pears are not quite ripe, but hard and disposed
to be tough, peel them, cut out the blossom-end, leaving on
the stems, and stew until tender in enough water to cover
them. Take them out, set by in a covered dish to keep
warm ; add to the liquor in the saucepan an equal quantity
of the best molasses and a little ginger ; boil half an hour,
skim, and return the pears to the saucepan. Stew all to-
gether twenty minutes, and pour out.
These are very good, and will keep a week or more,
even in warm weather. I have canned them while boiling
hot, and kept them sweet a whole year.
Baked Quinces.
Pare and quarter ; extract the seeds and stew the fruit
in clear water until a straw will pierce them ; put into a
baking-dish with a half cupful of sugar to every eight
quinces; pour over them the liquor in which they were
boiled ; cover closely, and steam in the oven one hour ; take
out the quinces, lay them in a covered bowl to keep warm ;
return the syrup to the saucepan, and boil twenty minutes ;
pour over the quinces, and set away covered to cooL
Eat cold.
FKUIT JELLIES.
CURBANT, BlACKBERBY, STRAWBERRY, ETC. ^
Put the fruit into a stone jar ; set this in a kettle of
tepid water, and put it uj)on the fire. Let it boil, closely
covered, until the fruit is broken to pieces; strain, pressing
the bag (a stout coarse one) hard, putting in but a few
handfuls at a time, and between each squeezing tumiug it
FBTTIT JELLIES. 471
insido out to scald ofif the pulp and skins. To each pint of
juice allow a pound of sugar. Set the juice on alone to
boil, and while it is warming divide the sugar into several
different portions, and put into shallow pie-dishes or pans that
will fit in your ovens ; heat in these, opening the ovens now
and then to stir it and prevent burning. Boil the juice
just tioenty minutes from the moment it begins fairly to boil.
By this time the sugar should be so hot you cannot bear
your hand in it. Should it melt around the edges, do not
be alarmed. The burned parts will only form into lumps
in the syrup, and can easily be taken out. Throw the sugar
into the boiling juice, stirring rapidly all the while. It
will "hiss" as it falls in, and melt very quickly. With-
draw your spoon when you are sure it is dissolved. Let
the jelly just come to a boil, to make all certain, and take
the kettle instantly from the fire. Boll your glasses or
cups in hot water, and fill with the scalding liquid. If
these directions be strictly followed, and the fruit is at the
proper state of ripeness, there need be no dread of failure.
I have often had the jelly "form" before I filled the last
glass.
I wish it were in my power, by making known the ad-
vantages of the process I have described, to put an end to
the doubts and anxieties attendant upon the old-fashioned
method of boiling jelly into a preserve. This plan is so
simple and safe, the jelly made so superior in flavor and
color to that produced by boiHng down juice and fruit, that
no one who has ever tried both ways can hesitate to give it
the preference. I have put up jelly in no other way for
twelve years, and have never failed once.
Strawberry jelly should have a little lemon-juice added
to that of the fruit. Both it and black beiTy, and very ripe
raspberry jelly, are apt to be less firm than that made
from more tart fruits ; still, do not boil it. Set it in the
473 COMMON SENSE.
sun, as I have directed at the begiimiiig of the section upon
preserves and fruit jellies, filling one cup from anotlier as
the contents shrink. The sun will boil it down with less
waste, and less injury to color and taste, than the fife will.
Cooking jelly always darkens it.
Put brand ied tissue-paper over the top of each glass
when cold and firm, paste a thick paper over it, and keep
in a dry place.
Easpberrt and Currant Jelly. >{•
To two parts red raspberries or " Blackcaps," put one
of red cun-ants, and proceed as with other berry jelly.
The flavor is exquisite. This jelly is especially nice for
cake.
Wild Cherry and Currant Jelly, t^*
Two-thirds wild cherries (stones and all) and one of red
currants. A pound of sugar to a pint of juice, and make as
you do plain currant jelly.
This, besides being very palatable and an excellent table
jelly, is highly medicinal, good for coughs and any weak-
ness of the digestive organs. I put it up first as an experi-
ment, and because I chanced to have the cheriies. Now I
would not pass the winter without it, unless obliged to do
so by a failure of the fruit crop.
Peach Jelly. 4*
Crack one-third of the kernels and put them in the jar
with the peaches, which should be pared, stoned, and
sliced. Heat in a pot of boiling water, stirring from time
to time until the fruit is well broken. Strain, and to every
pint of peach juice add the juice of a lemon. Measure
again, allowing a pound of sugar to a pint of liquid. Heat
the sugar very hot, and add when the jtdce has boiled
CALKED FBTjrrS AND VEGETABLES. 473
twenty minutes. Let it come to a boil, and take instantly
from the fire.
This is very fine for jelly- cake.
Gbeen Fox Grape Jelly 9^»
Is made after the receipt for cuiTant jelly, only allowing
a pound and a half of sugar to a pint of juice.
Kipe grapes require but pound for pint.
Quince Jelly. 9^»
Pare and slice the quinces, and add for every five pounds
of fruit a cup of water. Put peelings, cores, and all into a
stone jar; set this in a pot of boiling water, and, when the
fruit is soft and broken, proceed as with other jellies.
Crab-apple Jelly. t^»
Cut Sibeiian crab-apples to pieces, but do not pare or
remove the seeds. The latter impart a peculiarly pleasant
flavor to the fruit. Put into a stone jar, set in a pot of hot
water, and let it boil eight or nine hours. Leave in the jar
all night, covered closely. Next morning, squeeze out the
juice, allow pound for pint, and manage as you do currant
jelly.
Should the apples be very dry, add a cup of water for
every six pounds of fruit.
There is no finer jelly than this in appearance and in
taste.
»
CANNED FRUITS AND VEGETABLES.
Within a few years canned fruits have, in a great
measure, superseded preserves. They are cheaper, more
wholesome, and far less difficult to prepare. Attention to
474; COMMON SENSE.
a few general rules will insure success to every housekeeper
who sensihlj prefers to put up her own season's supply
of these to purchasing those for double the cost, which ai^
not nearly so good.
First, examine cans and elastics narrowly before you
begin operations. See that the screw is in order, the can
without crack or nick, the elastic firm and closely fit-
ting.
Secondly, have the fruit boiling hot when sealed. Have
upon the range or stove a pan in which each empty can is
set to be filled after it is rolled in hot water. Lay elastic
and top close to your hand, fill the can to overflowing, re
membering that the fruit will shrink as it cools, and that a
vacuum invites the air to enter ; clap on the top without
the loss of a second, screw as tightly as you can, and as the
contents and the can cool, screw again and again to fit the
contraction of metal and glass.
Tliirdly, if you use glass cans (and they are cheapest in
the end, for you can use them year after year, getting new
elastics when you need them) keep them in a cool, dark place,
and dry as well as cool. The light will cause them to fer-
ment, and also change the color.
Cant^ed Berries. »{<
Heat slowly to boiling, in a large kettle. When they
begin to boil, add sugar in the proportion of one tablespoon-
ful to each quart of fruit. Before doing tliis, however,
if there is much juice in the kettle, dip out the surplus with
a dipper or cup. It will only increase the number of cans
to be filled, without real advantage to you. Leave the berries
almost dry before putting in the sugar. This will make
syrup enough. Boil all together fifteen minutes, and can.
Huckleberries, grapes, blackberries, curi'ants, raspber-
ries, cherries, and strawberries jmt up in this way are very
CANNED FEUTTS AND VEGETABLES. 475
good eaten as you would preserves, and make pies which are
scarcely inferior to those filled with fresh fruit.
Canned Peaches. »{«
Pare, cut in half and stone, taking care not to break
the frnit ; drop each piece in cold water so soon as it is
pared. The large, white freestone peaches are nicest for
this purpose. Firmness of texture is a desideratum. The
fruit should be ripe, but not soft. Allow a heaping table-
spoonful of sugar to each quart of fruit, scattering it
between the layers. Fill your kettle and heat slowly to a
boil. Boil three minutes, just to assure yourself that every
piece of fruit is heated through. Can and seal. It is,
safe to put a cupful of water in the bottom of the kettle
before packing it with fruit, lest the lower layer should
bum.
Canned Pears. ^
For the finer varieties, such as the Bartlett and Seckel,
prepare a syrup, allowing a pint of pure water and a quar-
ter of a pound of sugar to a quart of fruit. While this is
heating, peel the pears, dropping each, as it is pared, into a
pan of clear water, lest the color should change by exposure
to the air. When the syrup has come to a fast boil, put in
the pears carefully, not to bruise them, and boil until they
look clear and can be easily pierced by a fork. Have the
cans ready, rolled in hot water, pack with the pears and fill
to overflowing with the scalding syrup, which must be kept
on the fire all the while, and seal.
The tougher and more common pears must be boiled in
water until tender ; thrown while warm into the hot syrup,
then allowed to boil ten minutes before they are canned.
Apples may be treated in either of the above w»iys as
their texture may seein to demand.
476 COMMON SEI78E.
Canned Plums. •}«
Prick with a noodle to prevent bursting; prepare a
syrup allowing a gill of pure water and a quarter of a pound
of sugar to every throe quarts of fruit. When the sugar
is dissolved and the water blood-warm, put in the plums.
Heat slowly to a boil. Let them boil five minutes — not
fiist or they will break badly, fill up the jars with plums,
pour in the scalding syrup until it runs down the sides,
and seal.
Greengages are very fine put up in this way ; also dam-
sons for pies.
Canned Tomatoes. >|*
" I don't hold with any of these new-fangled notions,"
said an old lady to me, when I mentioned that my canning
was over for the summer. ** I was beguiled, two yeara ago,
into putting up some tomay teases in cans, and if I'm for-
given for that folly I'll never tempt Providence in tde
same manner again."
<* Thoy didn't keep, then ? "
" Keep ! they sp'iled in a week I 'Twas no more'n I
expected and deserved for meddling with such a hum-
bug."
** Perhaps you did not follow the directions closely ? "
^' Indeed I did ! I cooked the tormented things, and
seasoned 'em with butter and salt, all ready for the table,
and screwed the tops down tight. But, in course, they
sp'iled 1 "
" Were you careful to put them into the cans boiling
hot ? "
" 'Twould have cracked the glass ! I let 'em get nice
and cold first. I didn't suppose it made any difference
about such a trifle as that ! "
Poor old lady ! I think of her and her mighty temptsr
CAJSTNED FRUrrS AND VEGETABLES. 477
lion of Providence whenever I can tomatoes, for heat does
make a difference — all the diffeience in the world in this
sort of work.
Pour boiling water over the tomatoes to loosen the
skins. Remove these; drain off all the juice that will
come away without pressing hard ; put them into a kettle
and heat slowly to a boil. Your tomatoes will look much
nicer if you remove all the hard parts before putting
them on the fire, and rub the pulp soft with your hands.
Boil ten minutes, dip out the surplus liquid, pour the
tomatoes, boiling hot, into the cans, and seal. Keep in a
cool, dark place.
Canned Tomatoes and Corn. >|*
Boil the com on the cob, when it is in nice order for
roasting, twenty minutes over a good fire, and cut off while
hot. Have your tomatoes skinned and rubbed to a smooth
pulp. Put in two measures of them for every one of the cut
corn ; salt as for the table, stirring it well in, and bring to
a hard boil. Then, can quickly, and as soon as they are
cold set away in a cool, dark place.
Pkeserved Geeen Corn. 4*
Boil on the cob until the milk ceases to flow when the
grain is pricked. Cut off the corn and pack in stone jars
in the following order: — A layer of salt at the bottom,
half an inch deep. Then one of com two inches in depth,
another half-inch of salt, and so on until the jar is nearly
filled. Let the topmost layer of salt be double the depth of
the others, and pour over all melted — not hot — lard. Press
upon this, when nearly hard, thick white paper, cut to fit
the mouth of the jar. Keep in a cool place. Soak over-
night before using it.
478 COMMON' SENSE.
Qreen com is difficult to can, but I know it will keep
well if put up in thiu way. And, strange to tell, be so
fresh after the night^s soaking as to require salt when vou
boil it for the table. Should the top layer be musty, dig
lower still, and you will probably be rewarded for the search.
BRANDIED FRUITS.
BRAimiED Peaches or Peabs. •{*
4 lbs. fruit.
4 lbs. sugar.
1 pint best white brandy.
Make a syrup of th& sugar and enough water to dissolve
it. Let this come to a boil ; put the fruit in and boil five
minutes. Having removed the fruit carefully, let the syrup
boil fifteen minutes longer, or until it thickens well ; add
the brandy, and take the kettle at once from the fire ; pour
the hot syrup over the fruit, and seal.
If, after the fruit is taken from the fire, a reddish liquor
oozes from it, drain this off before adding the clear syrup.
Put up in glass jars.
Peaches and pears should be peeled for brandying.
Plums should be pricked and watched carefully for fear of
bursting.
pRAin^iED Cherries or Berries. >|*
Make a syrup of a pound of sugar and a half gill of
water for every two lbs. of fruit. Heat to boiling, stirring
to prevent burning, and pour over the berries while warm
--710^ hot. Let them stand together an hour ; put all into
a preserving-kettle, and heat slowly; boil five minutes, tako
out the fruit with a perforated skimmer, and boil the syrup
0ANDIE8. 479
twenty minutes. Add a pint of^brandy for every five pounds
of &uit ; pour over the berries hot, and seaL
CANDIES.
Molasses Candy. »{<
1 quart good molasses.
^ cup vinegar.
1 cup sugar.
Butter the size of an egg.
1 teaspoonful saleratus.
Dissolve the sugar in the vinegar, mix with the molas-
ses, and boil, stirring frequently, until it hardens when
dropped from the spoon into cold water; then stir in the
butter and soda, the latter dissolved in hot water. Flavor to
your taste, give one hard final stir, and pour into l>uttered
dishes. As it cools, cut into squares for " tafiey," or, while
soft enough to handle, pull white into sticks, using only the
buttered tips of your fingers for that purpose.
SUGAB-CANDY. tj^
6 cups of sugar.
1 cup of vinegar.
1 cup of water.
Tablespoonful of butter, put in at the last, with
1 teaspoonful saleratus dissolved in hot water.
Boil, without stirring, half an hour, or until it crisps in
cold water. Pull white with the tips of your fingers.
Since children must eat candy, this is the best you can
give them. It is very nice. Flavor to taste.
480 COHMOir SENSE.
PICKLES.
Use none but the best cider vinegar ; especially avoid
the sharp colorless liquid sold under that name. It is weak
sulphuric acid, warranted to riddle the coat of any stomach,
even that of an ostrich, if that bird were so bereft of the
instinct of self-preservation as to make a lunch of bright-
green cucumber-pickle seven times a week.
If you boil pickles in bell-metal, do not let them stand
in it one moment when it is off the fire ; and see for your-
self that it is perfectly clean and newly scoured before the
vinegar is put in.
Keep pickles in glass or hard stoneware ; look them
over every month ; remove the soft ones, and if there are
several of these, drain off and scald the vinegar, adding a
cup of sugar for each gallon, and pour hot over the pickles.
If they are keeping well, throw in a liberal handful of sugar
for every gallon, and tie thtiu up again. This tends to
presei*ve them, and mellows the sharpness of the vinegar.
This does not apply to sweet pickle.
Pickle, well made, is better when a year old than at the
end of six months. I have eaten walnut pickle ten years
old that was very fine.
Keep your pickles well covered with vinegar.
If you use ground spices, tie them up in thin muslin
bags.
Cucumber or Gherkin Pickle. 4*
( hoose small cucumbers, or gherkins, for this purpose.
They are more tender, and look better on the table. Re-
ject all over a finger in length, and every one that is mis-
shapen or specked, however slightly. Pack in a stone jar
or wooden bucket, in layers, strewing salt thickly between
these. Cover the top layer out of sight with salt, and pour
PICKLES. 481
ou cold water enough to cover all. Lay a funall plate or
round board upon them, with a clean stone to keep it down.
You may leave them in the brine for a week or a month,
stirring up from the bottom every other day. If the longer
time, be sure your salt and water is strong enough to bear
up an egg. If you raise your own cucumbers, pick them
every day, and drop in the pickle. When you are ready to
put them up, throw away the brine, with any cucumbers
that may have softened under the process, and lay the rest
in cold fresh water for twenty-four hours. Change the
water then for fresh, and leave it for another day. Have
a kettle ready, lined with green vine-leaves, and lay the
pickles eyenly within it, scattering powdered alum over the
layers. A bit of alum as large as a pigeon-egg will be
enough for a two-gallon kettleful. Fill with cold water,
cover with vine-leaves, three deep ; put a close lid or in-
verted pan over all, and steam over a slow fire five or six
hours, not allowing the water to boil. When the pickles
are a fine green, remove the leaves and throw the cucumbers
into very cold water. Let them, stand in it while you pre-
pare the vinegar. To one gallon allow a cup of sugar, three
dozen whole black peppers, the same of cloves, half as
much allspice, one dozen blades of mace. Boil ^ve minutes;
put the cucumbers into a stone jar, and pour the vinegar
over them scalding hot. Cover closely. Two days after-
ward scald the vinegar again and return to the pickles.
Itepeat this process three times more, at intervals of two,
four, and six days. Cover with a stoneware or wooden
top ; tie stout cloth over this, and keep in a cool, dry place.
They will be ready for eating in two months. Examine
every few weeks.
21
482 COMMON SENSE.
Pickled Mangoes. »{<
Young miiRk or nutmeg melons.
English mustard-seed, two handfuls, mixed with
Scraped hoTBeradish, one handful.
Mace and nutmeg ])ounded, 1 teaspoonful.
Choj)pod garlic, 2 teaspoonfuls.
A little ginger.
Whole pej»i)er-corns, 1 dozen.
^ tablesj)oouful of ground mustard to a pint of the
mixture.
1 tablespoonful sugar to the same quantity.
1 " best salad oil to the same.
1 teaspoonful celery-seed.
Cut a slit in the side of the melon ; insei t"* your finger
and extract all the seeds. If you cannot get them out in
this way, cut a slender piece out, saving it to replace, — but
the slit is better. Lay the mangoes in strong brine for
three days. Drain otf the brine, and freshen in pure water
twenty-four hours. Green as you would cucumbers, and
lay in cold water until cold and firm. Fill with the stuf-
fing ; sew up the slit, or tie up with ])'ack thread ; pack in
a deep stone jar, and pour scalding vinegar over them.
Repeat this process three times more at intervals of two
days, then tie up and set away in a cool, dry place.
They will not be ** ripe " under four months, but are
very fine when they are. They will keep several years.
Pepper Mangoes. >|«
Are put up in the same way, using green peppers that
are full-grown, but not tinged with red.
They are very good, but your fingers will smart after
thrusting them into the peppers to pull out the seeds. For
this purpose I have used, first, a small penknife, to cut the
>- pounded fine.
PICEXE8. 483
core from its attacliment to the stem-end of the pepper,
then a smooth bit of stick, to pry open the slit in the side
and work out the loose core or bunch of seed. By the
exercise of a little ingenuity you may spare yourself all
sufiering from this cause. Should your fingers burn badly,
anoint them with sweet-oil and wear gloves that night.
Cream will also allay the smart.
Pickled Cabbage (Yellaw),
2 gallons vinegar.
1 pint white mustard-seed.
4 oz. ginger.
3 oz. pepper-corns.
1 oz. allspice.
2 oz. cloves.
1 oz. mace.
1 oz. nutmeg.
2 oz. turmeric.
1 large handful of garlic, chopped.
1 handful scraped horseradish.
4 lbs. sugar.
2 oz. celery seed.
3 lemons, sliced thin.
Mix all and set in the sun for three days.
To prepare the cabbage, cut in quarters — leaving off the
outer and green leaves — and put in a kettle of boiling brine.
Cook three minutes. Take out, drain, and cover thickly with
salt. Spread out in the sun to dry ; then shake off the salt,
and cover with cold vinegar in which has been steeped enough
turmeric to color it well. Leave it in this two weeks, to
draw out the salt and to plump the cabbage. They are
then ready to pack down in the seasoned vinegar. Do not
use under six weeks or two months.
484 OOHHON 8EK8E.
Pickled Cabbage {Purple).
Quarter the cabbage. Lay in a wooden tray, sprinkle
thickly with salt, and set in the cellar until next day.
Drain off the brine, wipe diy, lay in the sun two hours,
and cover with cold vinegar for twelve hours. Prepare
the pickle by seasoning enough vinegar to <x>ver the cab-
bage with equal quantities of mace, cloves, whole white
peppers ; a cup of sugar to every gallon of vinegar, and a
teaspoonful of celery seed for every pint. Pack the cal>-
bage in a stone jar ; boil the vinegar and sjtices five min-
utes and pour on hot. Cover and set away in a cool, dry
place.
This will be ripe in six weeks.
Pickled Onions.
Peel the onions, which should be fine white ones — not
too large. Let them stand in strong brine for four days,
changing it twice. Heat more brine to a boil, throw in the
onions, and boil three minutes. Throw them at once into
cold water, and leave them there four hours. Pack in jans,
interspersing with whole mace, white pepper-corns, and
cloves. Fill up with scalding vinegar in which you have
put a cupful of sugar for every gallon. Cork while hot.
They will be ready for use in a month, but will be better
at the end of three months.
Qreen Beans and Radish Pods.
Take young French or " string " beans, and radish pods
just before they change color; green and pickle as you do
cucumbers and gherkins.
PICKLE^ 486
Nasturtium-seed. »{<
Take the green seed after the flower has dried off. Lay
in salt and water two days, in cold water one day ; pack
in bottles and cover with scalding vinegar, seasoned with
mace and white peppei-coi-ns, and sweetened slightly with
wliite sugar. Cork, and set away four weeks before you
use them.
They are an excellent substitute for capers.
Pic SLED Butternuts and Walnuts. ^
Gather them when soft . enough to be pierced by a pin.
Lay them in strong brine five days, changing this twice
in the meantime. Drain, and wipe them with a coarse
cloth ; pierce each by running a large needle through it,
and lay in cold water for six hours.
To each gallon of vinegar allow a cup of sugar, three
dozen each of whole cloves and black pepper-corns, half as
much allspice, and a dozen blades of mace. Boil five
minutes ; pack the nuts in small jars and pour over them
' scalding hot. Bepeat this twice within a week ; tie up and
set away.
They will be good to eat in a month — and very good
too.
Pickled CAULirLOWER. ^
Pick the whitest and closest bunches. Cut into small
sprays or clusters. Plunge into a kettle of scalding brine
and boil three minutes. Take them out, lay upon a sieve
or a cloth, sprinkle thickly with salt, and, when dry, brush
this off. Cover with cold vinegar for two days, setting the
jar in the sun. Then pack carefully in glass or stoneware
jars, and pour over them scalding vinegar seasoned thus:
To one gallon allow a cup of white sugar, a dozen blades
486 OOHHON 8SNBE.
of mace, a tablespoonful of celery-seed, two dozen 'white
popper-corns and some bits of red pepper pods, a tablespoon-
ful of coriander-seed, and the same of whole mustard. Boil
five minutes. Repeat the scalding once a week for three
weeks ; tie up and set away. Keep the cauliflowers under
the vinegar by putting a small plate on top.
SucED Cucumber Pickle. ( Very nice.)
2 dozen large cucumbers, sUoed, and boiled in vinegar
enough to cover them, one hour. Set aside in the
hot vinegar.
To each gallon of cold vinegar allow —
lb. sugar,
tablespoonful of cinnamon.
" ginger.
" black pepper.
" celery-seed,
teaspoonful of mace.
" allspice.
** cloves,
tablespoonful turmeric.
'^ horseradish, scraped.
^^ garlic, sliced.
•}- teaspoonful Cayenne pepper.
Put in the cuciunbers and stew two hours.
The pickle will be ready for use so soon as it is cold.
Pickled Water-melon Kind. {Extremdy nice,)
Equal weight of rind and white sugar.
\ ounce white ginger to a gallon of pickle.
1 pint vinegar to eveiy pound of sugar,
1 tablespoonful turmeric to a gallon of pickle.
A* ace, cloves, and cinnamon to tasto.
PICKLES. 487
Take the thickest rind yon can get, pare off the hard
green rind, also the soft inner pulp. Lay the pieces — ^narrow
strips or fanciful cuttings — in brine strong enough to float
an egg, and let them remain in it ten days. Then soak in
fail* water, changing it every day for ten days. Cover them
with clear water in a preserving-kettle, heat slowly and
boil five minutes. Take them out and plunge instantly into
ice-water. Leave them in this until next day. Give them
another gentle boil of five minutes in strong alum-water.
Simmer carefully, as a hard boil will injure them. Change
directly from the alum to the ice-water again, and do not
dLiturb them for four hours. After a third boil of ^yq
minutes, let them remain all night in the last water to make
them tender. Next day add to enough water to cover the
rinds sufficient sugar to make it quite sweet, but not a syrup.
Simmer the rinds in this ten minutes, throw the water away,
and spread them upon dishes to cool. Meanwhile prepare
a second syrup, allowing sugar equal in weight to the rind,
and half an ounce of sliced white ginger to a gallon of
the pickle, with a cup of water for every two pounds of
sugar. When the sugar is melted and the syrup quite
hot, but not boiling, put in the rinds and simmer until they
look quite clear. Take it out, spread upon the dishes again,
while you add to the syrup a pint of vinegar for every pound
of the sugar you have put in, one tablespoonful of turmeric
to a gallon of pickle ; mace, cloves, and cinnamon to taste.
Boil this up, return the rind to it, and simmer fifteen
minutes. Put up in glass jars. It will bo fit for use in two
weeks.
This is a very handsome and delicious pickle, although
it may seem to be made upon the principle of the French-
man's pebble-soup.
488 COMMON 8RKSE.
Green Tomato Soy. •!•
2 gallons tomatoes, green, and sliced without peeling.
12 good-sized onions, also sliced.
2 quarts vinegar.
1 quart sugar.
2 tablespoonfuls salt.
2 " ground mustard.
2 '^ black pepper, ground.
1 tablespoonful allspice.
1 " cloves.
Mix all together and stew until tender, stirring often
lest they should scorch. Put up in small glass jars.
This is a most useful and pleasant sauce for almost
every kind of meat and fish.
Sweet Tomato Pickle. { V^rf/ good.) •!•
7 lbs. ripe tomatoes, peeled and sliced.
3^ " sugar.
1 oz. cinnamon and maco mixed.
1 " cloves.
1 quart of vinegar.
Mix all together and stew hour.
Ripe Tomato Pickle. {JVo. 2.)
2 gallons tomatoes, peeled, but not sliced.
1 pint vinegar.
2 lbs. sugar.
Mace, nutmeg, and cinnamon to taste.
Put all on together, heat slowly to a boil, and simmer
jono hour. Put up in glass jars.
PI0ELE8. 489
Sweet Pickle — Plums, Peabb, Peaches, or other
Fruits. »{<
7 lbs. fruit, pared.
4 " white sugar.
1 pint strong vinegar.
Mace, cinnamon, and cloves.
Pare peaches and pears ; prick plums and damsons, to-
matoes, "globes" or husk-tomatoes (otherwise known as
ground-plums), put into the kettle with alternate layers of
sugar. Heat slowly to a boil ; add the vinegar and spice ;
boil five minutes; take out the fruit with a perforated
skimmer and spread upon dishes to cool. Boil the syrup
thick ; pack the fruit in glass jars, and pour the syrup on
boiling hot.
£xamine every few days for the first month, and should
it show signs of fermenting set the jars (imcovered) in a
kettle of water, and heat until the contents are scald-
ing.
Husk-toioatoes — a fruit which looks like a hybrid be-
tween the tDmato and plum — are particularly nice put up
in this way.
Pickled Peaches.
10 lbs. fruit — pared.
4J" sugar.
1 quart vinegar.
Mace, cinnamon, and cloves to taste.
Lay the peaches in the sugar for an hour; drain off
every drop of syrup, and put over the fire with about a
cup of water. Boil until the scum ceases to rise. Skim ;
put in the fruit and boil five minutes. Take out the
peaches with a perforated skimmer, and spread upon dishes
to cool. Add the vinegpir and spioes to the syrup. Boil
21*
490 OOMMON BBNBJL
fifteen minutes longer, and pour over the fruit in gl
jars.
Pickled Peaches {unpedect).
Rub the fur off with a coarse doth, and prick each
peach with a fork* Heat in jiLst enough water to cover
them until they almost boil ; take them out, and add to the
water sugar in the following proportions : —
For every 7 lbs, of fruit
3 lbs. of sugar.
Boil fifteen minutes ; skim, and add —
3 pints of vinegar.
1 tablespoonful (each) of allspice, mace, and cinnamon.
1 teaspoonful celery-seed.
1 " cloves.
Put the spices in thin muslin bags. Boil all together
ten minutes, then put in the fruit, and boil until they can
be pierced with a straw. Take out the fruit with a skim-
mer, and spread upon dishes to cool. Boil the syrup until
thick, pack the peaches in glass jars, and pour this over
them scalding hot.
You may pickle pears in the same way without peeling.
Pickled Cherries. •{<
Morella, or large red tart cherries, as fresh as you can
get them. To every quart allow a large cup of vinegar
and two tablespoonfuls of sugar, with a dozen whole cloves
and half a dozen blades of mace.
Put the vinegar and sugar dn to heat with the spices.
Boil five minutes ; turn out into a covered stoneware ves-
sel, cover, and let it get perfectly cold. Sti-ain out the
spices, fill small jars three-quarters of the way to the top
with fruit, and pour the cold vinegar over them. Cork or
cover tightly. Leave the stems on the cherries.
DBINKS. • 491
PiCKLETTE. tj^
4 large crisp cabbages, chopped fine.
1 quart onions, chopped fine.
2 quarts of vinegar, or enough to cover the cabbage.
2 lbs. brown sugar.
2 tablespoonfuls ground mustard.
2
a
black pepper.
2
cc
cinnamon.
2
C(
turmeric
2
u
celery-seed.
1
(C
allspice.
1
a
mace.
1
((
alum, pulverized.
Pack the cabbage and onions in alternate layers, with a
little salt between them. Let them stand until next day.
Then scald the vinegar, sugar, and spices together, and pour
over the cabbage and onion. Do this three mornings in suc-
cession. On the fourth, put all together over the fire and
heat to a boil. Let them boil five minutes. When cold,
pack in small jars.
It is fit for use as soon as cool, but keeps well.
DRINKS.
COFITE.
Never buy ground coffee if you can get tmy other. The
mere fact that after they have gone to the expense of the
machinery and labor requisite for grinding it, the manufac-
turers can sell it cheaper per pound than grocers can the
whole grains, roasted or raw, should convince every sensible
person that it is adulterated with other and less expensive
493 COMMON SENSE.
substances. Be that as it may, co£fee loses its aroma so
rapidly after it is ground that it is worth your while to
buy it whole, either in small quantities freshly roasted, or
raw, and roast it yourself. You can roast in a pan in the
oven, stirring eveiy few minutes, or in the same upon the
top of the range. Stir often and roast quickly to a bright
bro\vn — not a dull black. While still hot, beat up the white
of au egg with a tablespoonful of melted butter and stir up
well with it. This will tend to preserve the flavor. Grind
just enough at a time for a single making.
To MAKE Coffee {hailed).
1 full coffee-cup (^ pint) of ground coffee.
1 quart of boiling water.
White of an egg, and crushed shell of same.
^ cup of cold water to settle it.
Stir up the eggshell and the white (beaten) with the
coffee, and a very little cold water, and mix gradually with
the boiling water in the coffee-boiler. Stir from the sides
and top as it boils up. Boil pretty fast twelve minutes ;
pour in the cold water and take from the flre, setting
gently upon the hearth to settle. In five minutes, pour it
off carefully into your silver, china, or Britannia coffee-pot,
which should be previously well scalded.
Send to table hot.
To Make Coffee without Boiling.
There are so many patent coffee-pots for this purpose,
and the directions sold with these are so minute, that I
need give only a few general rules here. Allow rather more
coffee to a given quantity of water than if it were to be
boiled, and have it ground very fine. Put the coffee in the
uppermost compartment, pour on the water very slowly
j>KmKB. 493
until the fine coffee is saturated, then more rapidly. The
water should be boiling. Shut down the top, and the coffee
ought to be ready when it has gone through the double or
treble set of strainers. Should it not be strong enough,
run it through again.
CAFfi AU Lait.
1 pint very strong-made coffee — fresh and hot.
1 ^^ boiling nxilk.
The coffee should be poured off the grounds through a
fine strainer (thin muslin is the best material) into the
table coffee-pot. Add the milk, and set the pot where it will
keep hot for five minutes before pouring it out.
Tea.
2 teaspoonfuls of tea to one large cupful of boiling
water.
Scald the teapot well, put in the tea, and, covering close^
set it on the stove or range one minute to warm ; pour on
enough boiling water to cover it well, and let it stand ten
minutes to "draw." Keep the lid of the pot shut, and set
in a warm place, but do not let it boil. Fill up with as
much boiling water as you will need, and send hot to the
table, after pouring into a heated china or silver pot.
The bane of tea in many households is unboiled water.
It can never extract the flavor as it shoidd, although it
steep for hours. The kettle should not only steam, but
bubble and puff in a hard boil before you add water from
it to the tea-leaves.
Boiling after the tea is made, injures the flavor, either
- by deadening or making it rank and " herby."
494 COMMON 8EN6E.
Chocolate. •{•
6 tablespoonfuls grated chocolate to each pint of water.
As much milk as you have water.
Sweeten to taste.
Put on the water boiling hot. Rub the chocolate smooth
in a little cold water, and stir into the boiling water. Boil
twenty minutes ; add the milk and boil ten minutes more,
stirring frequently. You can sweeten upon the fire or in
the cups.
Cocoa Nibs, or Shells. 4*
1 quart of boiling water.
2 ozs. of cocoa nibs.
1 quart fresh milk.
Wet the shells or nibs up with a little cold water ; add
to the boiling, and cook one hour and a half ; strain, put in
the milk, let it heat almost to boiling, and take from the
fire.
This is excellent for invalids.
Prepared Cocoa. ^J^
1 quart of water, boiling.
2 ozs. prepared cocoa — Baker's is best.
1 quart of milk.
Make as you do chocolate — only boil nearly an hour
before you add the milk, afterward heating altriost to boil-
ing. Sweeten to taste.
Milk Tea (for Children).
1 pint fresh milk and the same of boiling water. Sweeten
to taste.
BBINK8. 495
Baspbebry Boyal.
4 quarts ripe berries.
1 quart best cider vinegar.
1 lb. white sugar.
1 pint £ne brandy.
Put the berries in a stone jar, pour the vinegar over
them, add the sugar, and pound the berries to a paste with
a wooden pestle^ or mash with a spoon. Let them stand in
the sun four hours ; strain and squeeze out all the juice,
and put in the brandy. Seal up in bottles; lay them on
their sides in the cellar, and cover with sawdust.
Stir two tablespoonfuls into a tumbler of ice-water when
you wish to use it.
Baspberry Yinegar. »{•
Put the raspberries into a stone vessel and mash them
to a pulp. Add cider-vinegar — no specious imitation, but
the genuine article — enough to cover it well. Stand in the
sun twelve hours, and all night in the cellar. Stir up well
occasionally during this time. Strain, and put as many fresh
berries in the jar as you took out; pour the strained vinegar
over them ; mash and set in the sun all day. Strain a sec-
ond time next day. To each quart of this juice allow
«
1 pint of water.
5 lbs. of sugar (best white) for every 3 pints of this
liquid, juice and water mingled.
Place over a gentle fire and stir until the sugar is dis-
solved. Heat slowly to boiling, skimming oflf the scum;
and as soon as it fairly boils take off and strain. Bottle
while warm, and seal the corks with sealing-wax, or bees'-
wox and rosin.
A most refreshing and plea ant drink.
496 OOMHON 8ENBB.
BlACKBERBY YlNEQAB
Is made in the same manner aa raspberxy, allowing 5^
lbs. sugar to 3 pints of juice and water.
Blackberry Cordial.
1 quart of blackberry juice.
1 lb. White sugar.
^ lb. grated nutmeg.
^ oz. powdered cinnamon.
^ oz. allspice.
^ oz. doves.
1 pint best brandy.
Tie the spices in thin muslin baga; boil juice, sugar, and
spices together fifteen minutes, skimming well; add the
brandy ; set aside in a closely covered vessel to cool. When
perfectly cold, strain out the spices, and bottle, sealing the
corks.
Elderberry Wine.
8 quarts of berries.
4 quarts of boiling water poured over the berries.
Let it stand twelve hours, stirring now and then. Strain
well, pressing out all the juice. Add
3 lbs. of sugar to 4 quarts of juice.
1 oz. powdered cinnamon.
^ oz. powdered cloves.
Boil five minutes, and set away to ferment in a stone
jar, with a doth thrown lightly over it. When it has done
fermenting, rack it off carefully, not to disturb the lees.
Bottle and cork down well.
DBINKS. 497
Cranberry Wine.
Mash ripe berries to a pulp ; put into a stone jar.
Add 1 quart of water to 2 quarts of benies.
Stir well and let it stand two days. Strain through a
double flannel bag ; mash a second supply of hemes, equal
in quantity to the first, and cover with this liquid. Steep
two days more ; strain ; add
1 lb. sugar for 3 quarts of liquor,
and boil five minutes. Let it ferment in lightly covered
jars ; rack ofi* and bottle.
This is said to be very good for scrofula.
Strawberry Wine.
3 quarts of strawberries, mashed and strained. To the
juice (there shoidd be about a quart, if the berries are ripe
and fresh) add
1 quart of water.
1 lb. of sugar.
Stir up well and ferment in a clean, sweet cask, leaving
the bung out. When the working subsides close tightly, or
rack off into bottles.
This is said by those who have tasted it to be very good.
Currant Wine.
Pick, stem, mash, and strain the currants, which should
be very ripe.
To 1 quart of juice add
f lb. white sugar.
^ pint of water.
Stir all together long and well ; put into a clean cask,
leaving out the bung, and covering the whole with a bit
408 COMMON SENSE.
of lace or mosquito net. Let it ferment about four weeks —
rack off when it is quite still, and bottle.
Jamaica Ginger-beer.
1 bottle Jamaica Ginger Extract
1 oz. cn»am-tai'tar.
6 quarts water.
1 lb. sugar.
Stir until the sugar is melted, then put in the grated
))cel of a lemon, and heat until blood-warm. Add a table-
spoonful of brewers' yeast; stir well and bottle, wiring
down the corks. It will be fit for use in four days.
This is a refreshing and healthful beverage mixed witix
founded ice in hot weather.
Raisin Wine.
1 lb. wliite sugar.
2 lbs. raisins, seeded and chopped.
1 lemon — all the juice and half the grated peeL
2 gallons boiling water.
Put all into a stone jar, and stir every day for a week.
Strain, then, and bottle it. It will be fit for use in ten
days.
Lemonade or Sherbert.
3 lemons to a quart of water.
6 tablespoonfuls of sugar.
Pare the yellow |>eel from the lemons, and, unless you
mean to use the sherbert immediately, leave it out. It
gives a bitter taste to the sugar if left long in it. Slice
and squeeze the lemons upon the sugar, add a very little
water, and let them stand fifteen minutes. Then fill up
with water ; ice well, stir, and pour out.
DBmKS. 499
Orangeade
Is made in the same maimer, substituting oranges for
lemons.
Strawberry Sherbert. {Ddicious.)
1 quart of strawberries.
3 pints of water.
1 lemon — the juice only.
1 tablespoonful orange-flower water.
J lb. white sugar.
The strawberries should be fresh and ripe. Crush to a
smooth paste; add the rest of the ingredients (except
the sugar), and let it stand three hours. Strain over the
sugar, squeezing the cloth hard ; stir until the sugar is dis-
solved ; strain again and set in ice for two hours or more
before you use it.
Regent's Punch. (JFlne,)
1 lb. loaf-sugar or rock candy.
1 large cup strong black tea — (made).
3 wine-glasses of brandy.
3 " « rum.
1 bottle champagne.
2 oranges — juice only.
3 lemons — " . '*
1 large lump of ice.
This receipt was given me by a gentleman of the old
school, a connoisseur in the matter of beverages as of
cookery. **Tell your readers," he writes, "that better
punch was never brewed." I give receipt and message
together.
600 COMMON BENBB.
KoMAK Punch.
3 coffee cups of lemonade— (strong and sweet).
1 glass champagne.
1 " mm.
2 oranges — juice only.
2 eggs — whites only — well whipped.
^ lb. powdei*ed sugar, beaten into the stiffened whites.
You must ice abundantly — or, if you prefer, freeze.
Sherry Cobbler.
Several slices of pineapple, cut in quarters.
A lemon, sliced thin.
An orange, "
^ cup of powdered sugar.
1 tumbler of shettry wine.
Ice-water.
Pounded ice.
Take a wide-mouthed quart-pitcher and lay the sliced
fniit in order in the bottom, sprinkling sugar and pounded
ice between the layers. Cover with sugar and ice, and let
all stand together five minutes. Add then two tumblers of
water and all the sugar, and stir well to dissolve this. Fill
the pitcher nearly full of pounded ice, pour in the wine,
and stir up from the bottom until the ingredients are
thoroughly mixed. In pouring it out put a slice of each
kind of fruit in each goblet befoi*e adding the liquid.
It is best sucked through a straw or glass tube.
Nectar. ►J^
Make as above, substituting a little rose-water for the
pineapple, and squeezing out the juice of the orange and
DBINK6. 501
lemon, instead of putting in the slices. Sprinkle nutmeg
on the top.
This forms a delicious and refreshing drink for in-
valids.
Claret Punch.
1 bottle of claret.
J the quantity of ice-water.
2 lemons, sliced.
i cup powdered sugar.
Cover the sliced lemon with sugar and let it stand ten
minutes. Add the water ; stir hard for a whole minute, and
pour in the wine. Put pounded ice in each glass before
filling with the mixture.
Egg Nogg. 4*
6 eggs — whites and yolks beaten separately and very
stiff.
1 quart rich milk,
^cup of sugar.
i pint best brandy.
Flavor with nutmeg.
Stir the yolks into the milk with the sugar, which should
first be beaten with the yolks. Next comes the brandy.
Lastly whip in the whites of three eggs,
Chebry Bounce.
4 lbs. of sour and the same quantity of sweet cherries.
2^ lbs. white sugar.
1 gallon best whiskey.
Crush the cherries to pieces by pounding in a deep
wooden vessel with a smooth billet of wood. Beat hard
enough to crack all the stones. Put into a deep stone jar;
mix in the sugar well, and cover with the whiskey. Shake
502 COMMON SENSE.
around briskly and turn into a demijohn. Cork tightly
and let it stand a month, shaking it every day, and another
month without touching it. Then stimn off and bottle.
It is better a year than six months old.
If the Maltese cross appears but seldom in the section
devoted to drinks, it is because most of my information
respecting their manufacture is second-hand. In my own
family they are so little used, except in sickness, that I
should not dare to teach others, upon my own authority,
how to prepare them. Indeed, the temptation I felt to omit
many of them reminded me of a remark made, introductory
of preserves, by one of the " Complete Housewives," who,
all tive together, drove me to the verge of an attack of con-
gestion of the brain, before I had been a housekeeper for a
week. Said this judicious lady : — ** Preserves of all kinds
are expensive and indigestible, and therefore poisonous.
TJierefore " — again — " I shall not give directions for their
manufacture, except to remark that barberries stewed in
molasses are economical, and a degree less hurtful than
most other's of that class of compounds."
Then I reflected that I might, upon the same principle,
exclude all receipts in which cocoanut is used, because it is
rank poison to me ; while a dear friend of mine would as
soon touch arsenic as an egg. A large majority of the
beverages I have named are highly medicinal, and deserve
a place in the housekeeper's calendar on that account.
Many, so far from being hurtful, are beneficial to a weak
stomach or a system suffering \mder general debility.
None which contain alcohol in any shape sJiotdd be used
daily ^ miich less semi- or tri-daily by a well person.
This principle reduced to practice would prove the pre-
ventive oimce which would cure, all over the land, the need
for Temperance Societies and Inebriate Asylums.
THE BICK-BOOM. 503
THE SICK-ROOM.
The sick-chamber should be the most quiet and cheerful
in the house — a sacred isle past which the waves of domes-
tic toil and solicitude glide silently. This is not an easy
rule to obey. Whoever the invalid may be, whether the
mother, father, or the sweet youngling of the flock, the
foundations of the household seem thrown out of course
while the sickness lasts. You may have good servants and
kind friends to aid you, but the hitch in the machinery is
not to be smoothed out by their efforts. The irregulaiity
does not annoy you : you do not notice it if the attack be
severe or dangerous. All other thoughts are swallowed up
in the all-absorbing, ever-present alarm. You count noth-
ing an inconvenience that can bring present relief, or possi-
ble healing to the beloved one ; disdain for yourself rest or
ease while the shadow hangs above the pillow cru.shed by
the helpless head. But when it passes, when the first
transport of thankfulness has subsided into an abiding sense
of safety, the mind swings back to the accustomed pivot,
and your eyes seem to be suddenly unbound. You find, with
dismay, that the children have run wild, and the comfort of
the whole family been neglected during your confinement to
the post of most urgent duty; with displeasure, that the
servants have, as you consider, taken advantage of your
situation to omit this task, and to slur over that; — n
fine, that nothing has been done well, and so many things
left altogether undone, that you are " worried out of your
senses'^ — a phrase that too often signifies, out of your
tempei.
And it is just at this juncture — when you are called to
fifty points of attention and labor at once, and are on the
verge of despair at the conglomeration worse conglomerated
arising before you ; fidgetting to pick up dropped stitches in
504 COMMON 8EN8E.
the web you were wont to keep so even — that the invalid
becomes most exacting. " Unreasonable," you name it to
yourself, even though it be John himself who calls upon
you every third minute for some little office of loving-kind-
ness ; who wants to be amused and fed and petted, and
made generally comfortable as if he were a six-months-old
baby ; who never remembers that you must be wearied out
with watching and anxiety, and that everything below-
stairs is going to destruction for the want of a balance-
wheel. The better he loves you the more apt is he to fancy
that nobody but you can do anything for him ; the more
certain to crave something which no one else knows how to
prepare. And when you have strauicd muscle and patience
a Utile further to get it ready,, and with prudent foresight
made enough to last for several meals, it is more than
probable that his fickle taste will suggest something entire-
ly different for " next time." " Just for a change, you
know, dear. One gets so tired of eating the same thing so
often ! "
He might be more considerate — less childish — ^you
think, turning away that he may not see your change of
countenance. When you have taken so much |>ains to
suit him exactly ! It is harder yet when he refuses to
do more than taste the delicacy you hoped would tempt
him.
** It is very nice, I suppose, my love," says the poor
fellow, with the air of a martyr. '* But it does not taste
light, somehow. Maybe the children can dispose of it. If
I had a lemon icp, or some wine jelly such as my mother
used to make, I am sure I could relish it. I always did
detest sick peoples' diet ! "
If he IB very much shaken «ks to nerves, he will be likely
to say, ** messes. ^"^
^^ I am fairly wild ! " said a loving wife and mother, and
THE BICK-BOOM. 505
thrifty housekeeper, to me one daj, when I called to see
her. I
She had just nursed her husband and three children
through the influenza. All had been down with it at once. j
That form of demoniacal possession is generally conducted
upon the wholesale principle. One of her servants had
left in disgust at the increased pressure of- work ; the
weather was rainy, blowy, raw ; the streets were muddy,
and there was no such thing as keeping steps and halls
clean, while the four invalids were cross as only tootuache
or influenza can make human beings.
** I am fairly wild ! " said the worthy creature, with
tears in her eyes. '^ I cannot snatch a minute, from morn-
ing until night, to put things straight, and yet I am almost
tired to death ! I was saying to myself as you came in, that
I wouldn't try any longer. I would just sit still until the
dirt was piled up to my chin, and then Iv}ovld get upon the
tahUI''
How often I have thought of her odd speech since !
sometimes with a smile — more frequently with a sigh. But
with all my pity for the nurse and housekeeper, I cannot
conceal from myself — I would not forget, or let you for-
get for a moment — the truth that the sick one is the greater
sufferer. It is never pleasant to be laid upon the shelf.
The resting-place — ^falsely so-called — is hard and narrow
and uneven enough, even when the tramp of the outer world
does not jar the sore and jaded frame ; when there is no ap-
parent need for the sick person to be upon his feet, and for
aught that others can see, or he can say, he might just as
well stay where he is for a month or two. But when, the
rack of paiu having been removed, the dulled perceptions
of the mind re-awaken to sensitiveness, an 1 there com'?8 to
his ear the bugle-call of duty — sharp, imperative ; — when
every idle moment speaks to him of a slain opportunity,
23
606 OOHMON BKETSS.
and the no longer Btrong man shakes his fetters with piteous
cries against fate, do not despise or be impatient with him«
He is feverish and inconsiderate and capricious because he
is not himself. You see only the poor wreck left by the
demon as he tore his way out of him at the Divine com-
mand. Gather it up lovingly in your arms, and nui-se it
back to strength and comeliness. The sick should always
be the chief object of thought and care with all in the
household. If need be, let the dirt lie chin-deep every-
where else, so long as it is kept out of that one room.
There be jealous in your care that nothing offends sight
and smell.
There should be no smell in a sick-chamber. To avoid
this, let in the air freely and often. Cologne-water will
not dispel a foul odor, while disinfectants are noisome in
themselves. Bathe the patient as frequently and thor-
oughly as prudence will allow, and change his clothing,
with the bed- linen, every day. Do not keep the medicines
where he can see them, nor ever let him witness the mix-
ing of that which he is to swallow. So soon as his meals
are over, remove every vestige of them from the room.
Even a soiled spoon, lying on table or bureau, may offend
his fastidious appetite. Cover the stand or waiter from
which he eats with a spotless napkin, and serve his food in
your daintiest ware.
My heart softens almost to tearfulness when I recall the
hours, days, weeks, I have myself spent in the chamber of
languishing, and the ingenuity of tenderness that, from my
babyhood, has striven to cheat the imprisonment of weaii-
ness, and make me forget pain and uselessness. The pretty
surprises daily invented for my entertainment ; the exceed-
ing nicety with which they were set out before me ; the
Joving words that nounshed my spirit when the body was
faint unto death, — ^these are events, not slight incidents, in
THE SICK-ROOM. 607
the book of memory. When I cease to be grateful for them,
or to learn from them how to minister unto others of the
like consolation, may my heart forget to beat, my right hand
lose her cunning !
Do not ask your charge what he would like to eat to-
day. He will, of a surety, sicken with the effort at selection,
and say, " Nothing I " But watch attentively for the slight-
est intimation of a desire for any particular delicacy, and if
you are assured that it cannot hurt him, procure it, if you
can, without letting him guess at your intention. Feed him
lightly and often, never bringing more into his sight than
he may safely eat. A big bowl of broth or jelly will either
tempt him to imprudence, or discourage him. '^ Am I to
be burdened with ail that ? " cries the afi&ighted stomach,
and will have none of it. While he is very weak, feed him
with your own hand, playfully, as you would a child, talk-
ing cheerily of something besides his food, and coaxing him
into taking the needed nutriment as only a wife and mother
can, or as nobody but John could beguile you to effort in
the same direction.
Study all pleasant and soothing arts to while away the
time, and keep worry of every kind away from him. A
trifle at which you can laugh will be a burden to the en-
feebled mind and body, and he has nothing to do but lie
still and roll it over until it swells into a mountain. When
he can be removed without danger, let him have his meals
in another room, changing the air of each when he is not
in it. Every one who has suffered from long sickness
knows the peculiar loathing attendant upon the idea that all
food is tainted with the atmosphere of the chamber in which
it is served, and if eaten in bed, tastes of the mattress and
pillows. The room and all in it may be clean, fresh, and
sweet, but the fancy cannot be dismissed. And it is wiser
to humor than to reason with most sick fancies.
608 CX)10COK 8EK8S.
A hired nune in a useful, often a necessaiy thing, but
while. you are upon your feet, and mistress of your own
house, delegate to no one the precious task of catering for
the dear sufferer. It is an art in itself. I hope a practical
knowledge of it will be taught in Women^s Me<iical Colleges,
when they are an established *^ institution ^^ ^ith us.
I wish it were proper to record here the nanio of one of
the kindest and best flEunily physicians I evar knew, who
had charge of my not very firm health during; my girlhood.
He owed much — I suppose no one ever know really how
much — of his success in his practice to his tact and skill in
devising palatable and suitable nourishment fc>r his patients.
I well remember the childish pleasure with which I would
hear him say when the violence of the attack had passed —
" Now, my dear child, we must begin with kitchen physic I"
and the glow of amused expectation with whidi I used to
watch him, as, with an arch show of myst<3ry, he would
beckon my mother from the room to receive his ^ prescrip-
tion ; ^' the impatience with which I awaited the result of
the conference, and the zest with which I ate whatever he
ordered.
If I could have persuaded him to manage this depart-
ment of my work, it would win for me the degree of M.D.
with a new meaning — Mistress of Dietetics.
THE SICK-ROOM.
Beef Tea. 4*
I lb. lean beef, out into small pieces.
Put into ajar without a drop of water; cover tightly,
and set in a pot of cold water. Heat gradually to a boil,
and continue this steadily for three or foiu: hours, imtil the
THE 8I0K-B00H. 509
meat is like white rags, and the juice all drawn out. Sea-
son with salt to taste, and when cold, skim. The patient
will often prefer this ice-cold to hot. Serve with Albert
biscuit or thin '^ wafers," unleavened, or made by a receipt
given under the head of Bbeab.
Mutton Bboth. »f*
1 lb. lean mutton or lamb, cut small.
1 quart witer — cold.
1 tablespoanful rice, or barley, soaked in a very little
warm water.
4 tablespoonfuls milk.
Salt and pepper, with a little chopped parsley.
Boil the meat, unsalted, in the water, keeping it closely
covered, until it falls to pieces. Strain it out, add the
soaked barley or rice ; simmer half an hour, stirring often ;
stir in the seasoning and the milk, and simmer five minutes
after it heats up well, taking care it does not bum.
Serve hot, with cream crackers.
Chickek Bboth. »|t
Is excellent made in the same manner as mutton, crack-
ing the bones well before you put in the fowl.
Yeal AND Sago Broth.
2 lbs. knuckle of veal, cracked all to pieces.
2 quarts of cold water.
3 tablespconfuls best pearl sago, soaked in a cup of cold
water.
1 cup creiim, heated to boiling.
Tolks of two eggs, beaten light.
Boil the veal and water in a covered saucepan very
610 COMMON SENSE.
filowlj until reduced to one quart of liquid ; strain, season
with salt, and stir in the soaked sago (having previously
warmed it by setting for half an hour in a saucepan of
boiling water, and stirred from time to time). Simmer
half an hour, taking care it does not bum ; beat in the
cream and eggs ; give one good boil up, and turn out.
This is excellent for consumptives.
Beef and Sago Broth.
2 lbs. of beef — cut up small.
2 quarts of water.
1 cup of sago, soaked soft in a little lukewarm water.
Yolks of three eggs.
Salt to taste.
Stew the beef until it falls to pieces ; strain it out, salt
the liquid and stir in the sago. Simmer gently one hour,
stirring often. Add the beaten yolks; boil up well and
serve. ^
This is a strengthening and nice soup. Eat with dry-
toast.
Arrowroot Jelly (plain). »J*
1 cup hoUing water.
2 heaping teaspoonfuls of best Bermuda arrowroot.
1 teaspoonful lemon juice.
2 teaspoonfuls of white sugar.
Wet the arrowroot in a little cold water, and rub
smooth. Then stir into the hot, which should be on the
fire and actually boiling at the time, with the sugar already
melted in it. Stir until clear, boiling steadily all the while,
and add the lemon. Wet a cup in cold water, and pour in
the jelly to form. Eat cold with sugar and cream flavored
with rosewator.
THE SICK-BOOK. 611
An inyaluable preparation in cajaes where wine is for-
bidden.
Arrowroot Wine Jelly. »{*
1 -cup boiling water.
2 Heaping teaspoonfuls arrowroot.
2 " white sugar.
1 tablespoonful brandj, or 3 tablespoonfuls of wine.
An excellent corrective to weak bowels.
Arrowroot Blanomange. »{•
1 cupful boiling milk.
2 dessertspoonfuls best arrowroot, rubbed smooth in
cold water.
2 teaspoonfuls white sugar.
Vanilla or other essence.
Boil until it thickens well, stirring all the while. Eat
cold with cream, flavored with rosewater, and sweetened to
taste.
Sago
May be substituted for arrowroot in anj of the forego-
ing receipts, when you have soaked it an hour in water
poured over it cold, and gradually warmed by setting the
cup containing it in hot water. Boil rather longer than
you do the arrowroot.
Sago Gruel. »{*
2 cups water.
2 tablespoonfuls sago.
3 teaspoonfuls white sugar.
1 glass of wine.
1 tablespoonful lemon juice.
Nutmeg to taste, and a pinch of salt.
612 OOMHON BEsrsx.
Put the sago in the irater while cold, and warm by
setting in a saucepan of boiling water. Stir often, and let
it soften and heat lor one hour. Then boil ten minutes,
stirring all the while ; add the sugar, wine, and lemon, and
|K>ur into a bowl or mould to cooL Eat warm, if preferred.
The wine and nutmeg should be omitted if the patient is
fevorish.
Indian Meal Gruel. »|t
2 quarts of boiling water.
1 cup of Indian meal, and
1 tablespoonfui- flour, wet up with cold water.
Salt to taste — and, if you like, sugar and nutmeg.
Wet the meal and flour to a smooth paste, and stir into
the water while it is actually boiling. Boil slowly half an
hour, stirring up well from the bottom. Season with salt
to taste. Some sweeten it, but I like it better with a little
pepper added to the salt.
If a cathartic is desired, omit the wheat flour altogether.
Oatmeal Qbuel
Is made in the same way.
Milk and Eicb Gkuel.
1 quart boiling milk.
2 tablespoonfuls (heaping) ofground rice, wet with cold
milk.
1 saltspoonful of salt.
Stir in the rice-paste and boil ten minutes, stirring all
the while. Season with sugar and nutmeg, and eat warm
with cream.
You may use Indian meal instead of rice-flour, which
is an astringent. In this case, boil half an hour.
THE 8IGK-B00H. 618
Dm ED Flour for Teethiko Children.
1 cup of flour, tied in a stout mualizi bag and dropped
into cold war^r, then set oyer the fire.
JBoU thr^e hours steadily. Turn out the flour ball '
and drj in tlie hot sun all daj ; or, if you need it at once,
dry in a moderate oyen without shutting the door.
To use it —
Grate a tablespoonful for a cupful of boiling milk and
water (half and half). Wet up the flour with a very little
cold water, E.tir in and boil five minutes. Put in a little
salt.
Tapioca Jelly. 4* ( Very good,)
1 cup of tapioca.
3 cups of cold water.
Juice of a lemon, and a pinch of the grated peel.
Sweete]! to taste.
Soak the tapioca in the water four hours. Set within
a saucepan of boiling water ; pour more luke-warm water
oyer the tapioca if it has absorbed too much of the liquid,
and heat, stirring frequently. If too thick after it begins
to clear, pu'"/ in a yery little boiling water. When quite
clear, put in the sugar aud lemon. Pour into moulds. Eat
cold, with cream flayored with rosewater and sweetened.
Tapioca Blakc-mange. 4*
1 cup of tapioca soaked in 2 cups cold water*
3 cups boUing milk. *
3 tablespooniuls white sugar.
Bosewater or yanilla.
Soak the tapioca four hours, and stir, with the water in
which it was soaked, into the boiling milk. Sweeten and
22*
514 COMMON SENSE.
boil slowly, stirring all the while, fifteen minutes. Take
olT, flavor and pour into moulds.
Eat cold with cream. Wash tapioca well before soaking.
Arbowboot Custard. (JVice.)
2 cups of boiling milk.
3 heaping teaspoonfuls arrowroot, wet up with a little
cold milk.
2 tablespoonfuls white sugar, beaten with the egg.
1 egg, very well beaten.
Mix the arrowroot-paste with the boiling milk; stir
three minutes ; take from the fire and whip in the egg and
sugar. Boil two minutes longer, flavor with vanilla or
rosewater, and pour into moulds.
Rice-Flour Milk.
2 cups of milk, boiling,
2 tablespoonfuls rice-flour, wet up with cold milk.
2 " white sugar.
Boil ten minutes, stirring all the while, and flavor to
taste. Eat warm with cream.
Sago Milk. ^
3 tablespoonfuls sago, soaked in a large cup cold water
one hour.
3 cups boiling milk.
Sweeten and flavor to taste.
Simmer slowly half an hour. Eat warm.
Tapioca Milk
Is made in the same way.
THE SICK-BOOH. 515
Boiled Kice. t^
i cup whole rioe, boiled in just enough water to oover it.
1 « of milk.
A little salt.
1 egg, beaten light.
When the rice is nearly done, turn off the water, add
the milk and simmer — taking care it does not scorch — ^until
the milk boils up well. Salt, and beat in the egg.
Eat warm with cream, sugar, and nutmeg.
Panada. •J^
6 Boston crackers, split.
2 tablespoonfuls white sugar.
A good pinch of salt, and a little nutmeg.
Enough hailing watev to cover them well.
Split the crackers, and pile in a bowl in layers, salt and
sugar scattered among them. Cover with boiling water
and set on the hearth, with a close top over the bowl, for
at least one hour. The crackers should be almost clear
and sofb as jelly, but not broken.
Eat from the })owl, with more sugar sprinkled in if you
wish it. If properly made, this panada is very nice.
Bread Panada, or Jelly. »{«
Pare some slices of stale baker's bread and toast nicely,
without burning. Pile in a bowl, sprinkling sugar and a
very little salt between; cover well with boiling water,
and set, with a tight lid upon the top, in a pan of boiling
water. Simmer gently, until the contents of the bowl are
like jelly. Eat warm with powdered sugar and nutmeg.
616 onocozr BEsrea.
CmcKEN Jellt. ( Very ncwriBhing,) 4«
Half a raw chicken, pounded with a nudlet, bones and
meat together.
Plenty of cold water to coyer it well — ahout a quarts
Heat slowly in a covered Teasel, and let it simmer until
the meat is in white rags and the liquid reduced one^half.
Strain and press, first through a cullender, then through a
coarse cloth. Salt to taste, and pepper, if you think best ;
return to the fire, and simmer five minutes longer. Skim
when cooL Give to the patient cold — just from the ice —
with unleavened wafers. Keep on the ice. You can make
into sandwiches by putting the jelly between thin slices of
bread spread lightly with butter.
CaXiVSs* Feet Bboth.
2 calves* feet.
2 quarts cold water.
1 egg, beaten up with two tablespoonfdls milk for each
cupful of broth.
Pepper and salt
Boil the feet to shreds; strain the liquor through a
double muslin bag ; season to taste, and set by for use, as
you need it. Warm by the small quantity, allowing to
each cupful a beaten egg and two tablespoonfuls of mWy
Give a good boil up to cook these, and serve with thin, crisp
toast. If the patient can take it, a dash of lemon-juice im-
proves the broth.
Toast Wateb. 4*
Slices of toast, nicely browned, without a symptom of
burning.
Enough boiling water to cover them.
I
THE BIGK-BOok. 517
Cover closely, and let them steep until cold. Strain the
water, sweeten to taste, and put a piece of ice in each glass-
ful. If the physician thinks it safe, add a little lemon-
juice.
Apple Water. 4*
1 lai^ juicy pippin, the most finely-flavored you can
get.
3 cups of cold water — 1 quart if the apple is very
large.
Pare and quarter the apple, but do not core it. Put it
on the fire in a tin or porcelain saucepan with the water,
and boil, closely covered, until the apple, stews to pieces.
Strain the liquor cU <mcey pressing the apple hard in the cloth.
Strain this again through a finer bag, and set away to cooL
Sweeten with white sugar, and ice for drinking.
Tt is a refreshing and palatable drink.
Jellt Water. 4*
1 large teaspoonful currant or cranberry jelly*
1 goblet ice-water.
Beat up well for a fever-patient.
Wild cherry or blackberry jelly is excellent, prepared
in like manner for those sufiering with summer complaint.
Flax-seed Lemonade. »{*
4 tablespoonfuls flax-seed (whole).
1 quart boiling water poured upon the flax-seed.
Juice of two lemons, leaving out the peeL
Sweeten to taste.
Steep three hours in a covered pitcher. If too thick,
put in cold water with the lemon-juice and sugar. Ice for
drinking.
It is admirable for oolda
518 cxnocoK bense.
Slippert-elm Babe Tea.
Break tho bark into bits, pour boDing water oyer it ;
cover and let it infuse until cold. Sweeten, ice, and take
for summer disorders, or add lemon-juice and drink for a
bad cold.
Apple Toddy. 4*
Boil a large juicy pippin in a quart of water, and when
it has broken to pieces strain off the water. While it is
still boiling-hot, add a glass of fine old whiskey, a little
lemon-juice, and sweeten to taste.
Take hot at bed-time for influenza.
Mile Punch. 4«
1 tumbler of milk, well sweetened.
2 tablespoonfiils best brandy, well stirred in.
I have known very sick patients to be kept alive for days
at a time by this mixture, and nothing else, until Nature
could rally her forces. Give very cold with ice.
Egg and Milk Punch 4*
Is made by the preceding receipt, with an egg beaten
very light with the sugar, and stirred in before the brandy
IB added.
Iceland or Isish Moss Lemonade. 4*
1 handful Irish or Iceland moss, washed in five waters.
2 quarts boiling water, poured upon the moss, and left
until cold.
2 lemons, peeled and sliced, leaving out the peeL
Sweeten very well and ice.
Do not strain, and if it thicken too much, add cold
water.
Excellent for feverish colds and all pulmonary troubles.
THE 8ICE-B00M. 519
Iceland or Irish Moss Jelly. »J<
1 handful moss, washed in five waters, and soaked an
hour.
1 quart boiling water,
2 lemons — the juice only.
1 glass of wine.
^ teaspoonful cinnamon. (Measure scantily.)
Soak the washed moss in a very little cold water ; stir
into the boiling, and simmer until it is dissolved. Sweeten,
flavor, and strain into moulds. You may use two glasses
of cider instead of one of wine for a fever-patient, putting
in a little less water.
Good for colds, and very nourishing.
Sea-moss Blanc-mange
Is made in the same way, using boiling milk instead of
water, and leaving out the lemons and wine. Flavor with
vanilla or rose-water.
Dry Toast.
Fare off the crust from stale light bread ; slice half an
inch thick and toast quickly, Graham bread is very nice
to&sted.
Butter lightly if the patient can eat butter.
McLK Toast. ^
Toast as just directed ; dip each slice, as it comes from
the toaster, in boiling water ; butter, salt slightly, and lay
in a deep covered dish. Have ready in a saucepan enough
boiling milk to cover all well. When your slices are packed
salt this very slightly ; melt in it a bit of butter and pour
over them. Cover closely and let it stand five minutes
530 OOIOCOK SXNBS.
before using it. It is excellent when, made of Graham
bread.
This is a good dish for a family tea as well as for inva-
Uds.
Unleavened Biscuit, ob Wafers. 4*
Mix good, dry flour to a stiff dough with milk ; salt^
and roll out thin. Cut into round cakes and roU these
again almost as thin as letter-paper. Bake very quickly.
They may also be mixed with water. These are very
simple and palatable, and go well with ftll kinds of broth,
especially oyster-soup.
Dried Ruse:. (See Bread,)
Beef Steak and Mutton Chops.
Choose the tenderest cuts and broil over a clear hot fire
with your wisest skilL Let the steak be rare — the chops
well-done. Salt and pepper, lay between two hot plates
three minutes, and serve to your patient. If he is very
weak, do not let him swallow anything except the juice,
when he has chewed the meat weU.
The essence of rare beef — ^roast or broiled — ^thus ex-
pressed, is considered by some physicians to be more
strengthening than beef-tea, prepared in the usual manner.
Sangarbe or Portsree.
One-third wine or porter mixed with two-thirds cold
water. Sweeten, grate nutmeg on the top, and ice.
Serve dry toast with it. Taken hot, it is good for a sud-
den cold.
Wine Whey.
1 pint boiling milk.
1 large glass pale wine, poured in when the milk ia
scalding hot. Boil up once, remove from the fire and let it
THE SIOK-SOOK. 521
cool. Do not stir it after the wine is put in. When the
curd forma, draw off the whej and sweeten*
Herb Teas
Are made hj infusing the dried or green leases and stalks
in boiling water, and letting them stand until cold. Sweeten
to taste.
Sage tea, sweetened with honey, is good for a sore throat,
used as a gargle, with a small bit of alum dissolved in it.
Catnip tea is the best panacea for infant ills, in the way
of cold and colic, known to nurses.
Pennyroyal tea will often avert the unpleasant conse-
quences of a sudden check of perspiration, or the evils in-
duced by ladies' thin shoes.
Chamomile and gentian teas are excellent tonics taken
either cold or hot.
The tea made from blackberry-root is said to be good for
summer disorders. That from green strawberry leaves is an
admirable and soothing wash for a cankered mouth.
Tea of parsley-root scraped and steeped in boiling water,
taken warm, will often cure strangury and kindred affec-
tions, as will that made firoln dried pumpkin-seed.
Tansy and rue teas are useful in cases of colic, as are
fennel seeds steeped in brandy.
A tea of damask-ix»se leaves, dry or fresh, will usually
subdue any simple case of summer complaint in infants.
Mint tea, made from the green leaves, crushed in cold
or hot water and sweetened, is palatable and healing to the
stomach and bowels.
•
MiNt Julep. »!«
Some sprigs of green mint, slightly bruised in a tumbler
with a teaspoon. Put in a generous teaspoonful of white
622 OOMMON 8ENBE.
sugar ; add gradually, stirring and rubbing lighUy, enough
waU^r to fill the glass three-quarters of the way to the top.
Fill up with pounded ice ; stir hard ; pour into a larger
glass that you may shake up well, and put in two table-
spoonfuls fine brandy.
This is called a <* hail-storm julep.'^
£au Sucr£. •{«
Dissolve three or four lumps of loaf sugar in a glass of
ice-water, and take a teaspoonful every few minutes for a
^' tickling in the throat/' or a hacking cough. Keep it ioe-
cold.
A simple, but often an efficacious remedy.
THE NURSERY.
All food intended for infants should be very thoroughly
cooked. The numerous varieties of farinaceous substances —
biscotine, farina, rice-flour, arrowroot, etc., however nourish-
ing may be their properties when rightly prepared, are harsh
and drastic when underdone. Unless you have a nurse
whom you know for yourself to be faithful and experienced,
always superintend the cooking of baby's food. It can do
no harm — it may prevent much — if you examine it every-
day to see that it is right as to quality and quantity. Do
not aim at vaiiety in this branch of your profession. Con-
fine a child under three years of age to a very limited bill
of fare. His stomach is too delicate an organ to be tam-
pered with. Let milk — scalded or boiled, as a rule — ^be
the staple, mixed with farina, barley, or something of the
sort. Let him munch Graham bread and light crackers
freely. Remove far from him hot bread and griddle-cakes.
THE NUSSEBT. 523
When he has cut his carnivorous teeth, Nature B&ys —
** This creature wants meat." And Nature's supply is seldom
iu advance of the demand. If he did not need what the
teeth are designed to chew, you may be sure they would not
be given him. Grant him the novel food sparingly and with
discretion as to kind. Hare beef and well-boiled mutton,
tender roast or boiled chicken and turkey are safe. With-
hold fried meats of every description. Do not let him touch
veal or pork in any shape. Mince the meat very finely to
save his digestive apparatus all unnecessary work. Mealy
old potatoes — never new or waxy — young onions, boiled in
two waters ; fresh asparagus, green peas, and dry sweet po-
tatoes should suffice for vegetables, with, of course, rice and
hominy. For dessert, once in a while, a simple custard,
a taste of home-made ice-cream, rice and farina puddings,
Graham hasty pudding; the inner part of a well-roasted
apple, and, in their season, ripe peaches and apples, will not
harm him, taken in moderation, if he be well and strong.
I^are tlie fruit always. The skin of an apple is as bad for
him as a bit of your kid gloves would be ; that of a grape
more indigestible than sole-leather. Kaisins — ^^ skins and
all" — are unfit for anybody to eat. Pulp and pits, they
are poisonous for baby. Ditto, pickles, pastry, and pre-
serves. Ditto, most kinds of cake and all sorts of fruit
puddings.
Give him light suppers, and put him to bed early in a
dark room. He will not grow better in a glare of artificial
light than will your camellias and azalias.
Always see for yourself that his last waking thoughts are
pleasant ; that he shuts his eyes at peace with the world
and in love with you ; that his feet are warm, his stomach
easy, and his body not overloaded with blankets and quilts ;
also, that the nursery is clean and freshly aired. These are
better prescriptions for sound slumber than all the old
624 OOIOCOK BSZTBE.
wives^ fables of the exoellent propertieB of that peniicioua
drug — Soothing Syrup.
Farixa. tj^
1 cxip boiling water.
1 " fresh milk.
1 large tablespoonful Hecker's Farina^ wet up with cold
water.
2 teaspoonfuLs white sugar.
A pinch of salt.
Stir the farina into the boiling water {digluly salted) in.
the farina kettle ({. 0., one boiler set within another, the
latter filled with hot water). Boil fifteen minutes, stirring
constantly until it is well-thickened. Then add the milk,
stirring it in gradually, and boil fifteen minutes longer.
Sweeten, and give to the child so soon as it is cool enough.
You may make enough in the morning to last all day;
warming it up with a little hot milk as you want it. Keep
in a cold place. Some of the finest children I have ever
seen were reared upon this diet. Do not get it too sweet,
and cook it well. Be sure the farina is sweet and dry.
Babley.
It sometimes happens that milk disagrees with a delicate
infant so seriously that it is necessary to substitute some
other article of diet for a few days. I have known bcurley-
water to be used, in such cases, with great success.
2 cups boiling water.
2 tablespoonfuls pearl barley — ^picked over and washed.
A pinch of salt.
2 teaspoonfuLs white sugar — not heaping.
Soak the barley half an hour in a very little lukewarm
water, and stir, without draining, into the boiling water,
THE NVfiBBBT. 625
salted veiy Bligbtly. Simmer one hour, stirring often, and
strain before sweetening.
AUROWBOOT. »{i
1 cup of boiling water.
1 *^ fresh milk.
2 teaspoonfuls best Bermuda arrowroot, wet with cold
water.
1 nnall pinch of salt.
2 even teaspoonfuls white sugar, dissolved in the milk.
Stir the arrowroot paste into the salted boiling water ;
stir and boil five minutes or until it is clear; add the
sweetened milk, and boil ten minutes, slowly, still stirring.
If the child has fever, or cannot digest milk, substitute
hot water for it. It is, however, a dangerous expeiiment
to forbid milk altogether for an infant. I should rather
diminish the quantity, putting in, say, one-third or one-
fourth as much as the receipt names, and filling up with
boiling water.
Bice Jelly. »{i
i cup whole rice, well-washed and soaked two hours in
a little warm water ; then added, with the water, to
that in the kettle.
3 pints cold water.
1 small pinch of salt, put into the water.
Sweeten to taste with loaf sugar.
Simmer the rice half an hour; then boil until it is a
smooth paste, and the water is reduced one-half. Strain
through double tarlatan, sweeten, and give to the child.
This is an admirable preparation for an infant sufiering
with weakness of the bowels. If there is no fever, you may
put one-third part milk, boiled with the rice. Give a few
spoonfuls every hour or half hour.
696 OOlCMOK BEN6B.
Milk and Bread. 4i
^ cup boiled milk.
2 tablespoonfuls stale Qraham bread.
A very little sugar.
Crumble the bread into the boiled milk, sweeten, and
when cool enough, feed to the cliild with a spoon.
WnEATEN Grits, t^
4t tablespoonfuls grits (cracked wheat) soaked in a little
cold water one hour, and then put into the kettle.
1 quart boiling water.
1 cup milk.
A pinch of salt.
Boil the soaked grits in the quart of water one hour,
stirring up often; add the milk and boil half an hour
longer. Sweeten to taste, and if the child is well, pour
cream over it. This is designed for children over a year
old. It is slightly cathartic; especially if the milk be
omitted, and is most useful in regulating the bowels. When
this can be done without drugs, it is far better.
Hominy and Milk. 4*
^ cup small hominy.
1 scant quart of cold water.
Pinch of salt.
Boil one hour, stirring often. While hot, mix some
soft with new milk, sweeten to taste and feed to baby with
a spoon.
This is also relaxing to the bowels, and should not be
given if the child is disDosed to summer complaint.
THE NUB8EBY. 527
Gbahah Hasty Pudding. •{«
1 cup Graham flour, wet up with cold water.
1 large cup boiling water and same quantity of milk.
1 saltspoonful of salt.
Stir the wet flour into the boiling water, slightly salted.
Boil ten minutes, stirring almost constantly. Add the
milk and cook, after it has come again to a boil, ten min-
utes longer. Give with sugar and milk for breakfast.
Eaten with cream, nutmeg, and powdered sugar, this is
a good plain dessert for grown people as well as children.
Rice Flour Hasty Pudding
Is made as above, substituting two heaping tablespoon-
fiiLs rice flour for the GrahaD^
Milk Porbidgs.
1 tablespoonful Indian meal ) wet to a paste with cold
1 " white flour ) water.
2 cups boiling water.
2 « milk.
A good pinch of salt.
3oil the paste in the hot water twenty minutes ; add the
milk and cook ten minutes more, stirring often.
Eat with sugar and milk, stirred in while hot.
Mush and Mile.
1 cup Indian meal, wet up with cold water.
2 quarts cold water.
Salt to taste.
Boil two hours ; stirring often with a wooden spoon or
a stick.
To be eaten hot with milk and sugar.
628 OOVMOS BEN8X.
Ck>NDENSKI> MOJL
This is perhaps the safest substitute for the ^good milk
from one oow,'' which few mothers in town can procure.
Keep the can in a cool phice and mix according to direc-
tions.
SUNDRIES.
Cleaning Pots, Kettles, and Tins.
Boil a double handful of haj or grass in a new iron pot,
before attempting to cook with it ; scrub out with soap and
sand ; then set on full of fair water, and let it boil half an
hour. After this, jou majiMse it without fear. As soon
as you empty a pot or frying-pan of that which has been
cooked in it, fill with hot or cold water (hot is best) and
set back upon the fire to scald thoroughly.
New tins should stand near the fire with boiling water
in them, in which has been dissolved a spoonful of soda,
for an hour ; then be scoured inside with soft soap ; after-
ward rinsed with hot water. Keep them clean by rubbing
with sifted wood-aAhes, or whitening.
Copper utensils should be cleaned with brickdust and
flannel.
Never set a vessel in the pot-closet without cleaning and
wiping it thoroughly. If grease be left in it, it will grow
rancid. K set aside wet, it is apt to rust.
Knives.
Clean with a soft flannel and Bath brick. If rusty, use
wood-ashes, rubbed on with a newly cut bit of Irish i>otato.
This will remove spots when nothing else will. Keep your
BUNDBIES. 629
best set wrapped in 9ofi white paper ; then in linen, in a
drawer out of damp and dust.
Never dip the ivory handles of knives in hot water.
Silver.
Wash, after each meal, all that is soiled, in v&ry hot soft
water, with hard soap. Wipe hard and quickly on a clean
towel; then polish with dry flannel. If discolored with
egg, mustard, spinach, or beans, or by any other means,
rub out the stain with a stiff toothbrush (used only for this
purpose), and silver soap.
For years I have used no other preparation for cleaning
silver than the Indexical silver soap, applied as I have
described. After rubbing wi% a stifT lather made with
this, wash off with hot water, wipe and polish while hot.
There is no need for the weekly silver cleaning to be an
event or a bugbear, if a little care and watchfulness be
observed after each meal. Silver should never be allowed
to grow dingy. If Bridget or Chloe will not attend prop-
erly to this matter, take it in hand yourself. Have your
own soap-cups — ^two of them — one with common soap, the
other with a cake of silver soap in the bottom. Have for
one a mop, for the other a stiff brush — a toothbrush is best.
Use your softest towels for silver.
Besides being clean and easy of application, the silver
soap will not wear away the metal as will whiting or chalk,
or plate-powder, however finely pulverized.
China ksd Glass.
There are few of the minor crooks in the lot of the
careful housewife that cause her more anxiety and more
discoui-agement than the attempt to teach domestics how to
wash up dishes.
23
580 OOIOCON BEKSS.
'Tve heard that Mrs. is very exact about some
things, such as washing up dishes and the likes of that ! ^
said a woman to me, with an affected laugh, having called
to apply for the then vacant position of cook ia my kitchen. I
She had high recommendations, a whine engrafted upon
her native brogue, and spoke of me in the third person — a
trick of cheap (and bogus) gentility that tries my nerves
and temper to the very marrow of my spine. **I was
a-saying to myself, as I came along, that Mrs. must
have been very onlucky in her girls if she had to tache
them how to wash up dishes. I always thought that was
one of the things that came kinder naCrad to c^very cook.^
** Mrs. 's" experience goes to prove tbat the wrong i
way of doing this must "come natural" to t^he class men-
tioned, and that Nature is mighty in woman. The fact
that the right way is not to pile unrinsed dishes and
plates in a big pan with a loose bit of soap on top, and
pour lukewarm water over all ; then with a bit of rag to
splash said water over each separately, and make another
pile of them upon the kitchen-table, until the last is drawn,
reeking with liquid grease, sticky and streaming, from the
now filthy puddle of diluted swill ; then to rub them lightly
and leisurely with one towel — be they many or few — is as
difficult of comprehension to the scuUionly mind as would
be a familiar lecture upon the pons asinorum.
Yet the right and only neat method is so simple and
easy ! Rinse the greasy plates, and whatever is sticky with
sugar or other sweet, in hot water and transfer to a larger
pan of very hot. Wash glass first; next silver; then china
— one article at a time, although you may put several in
the pan. Have a mop with a handle ; rub upon the soap
(over which the water should have been powed) until you
have strong suds ; wash both sides of plate and saucer, and
wipe before pti^ting it out of your hand. Draining leaves
STTKDBIES. 631
streaks which can be felt by sensitive finger-tips, if not
seen. If china is rough to the touch, it is dirty. Hot,
clean suds, a dry, clean towel, and quick wiping leave it
bright and shining. Koll your glasses around in the water,
filling them as soon as they touch it, and you need never
crack one. A lady did once explain the dinginess of her
goblets to me by saying that she was ^' afraid to put them
in hot water. It rots glass and makes it so tender! I
prefer to have them a little cloudy." This is literally true
^-ihat she said it, I mean. Certainly not that a year's soak
in hot water could make glass tender.
Washing Wnnwws.
Dissolve a little washing-soda in the water if the glass
is very dim with smoke or dirt. Do not let it run on the
sash, but wash each pane with old flannel; dry quickly
with a soft, clean towel, wiping the comers with especial
care. Polish with chamois skin, or newspapers rubbed soft
between the hands.
To Clean Cabpets.
Sprinkle the carpet with tea leaves ; sweep well ; then
use soap and soft, warm water for the grease and dirt spots.
This freshens up old carpets marvellously. Rub the wet
spots dry with a clean cloth.
To Clean Paint.
Scour with a flat brush, less harsh than that used for
floors, using warm soft suds ; before it dries wash off with
old flannel dipped in clean cold water, and wipe dry with a
linen towel or cloth. Go thi'ough the whole process quickly,
that the water may not diy upon and streak the paint.
533 OOIOCOK BBNBE.
To Keep Woolens.
Beat out all the dust^ and sun for a day; shake Tery
hard ; fold neatly and pin — or, what is better, sew up — closely
in muslin or linen cloths, putting a small lump of gum-
camphor in the centre of each bundle. Wrap newspapers
about all, pinning so as to exclude dust and insects.
These are really all the precautiSns necessary for the
safety even of furs, if they are strictly obeyed« But you
may set moths at defiance if you can, in addition to these,
secure, as a packing-case, a whiskey or alcohol barrel but
lately emptied, and still strongly scented by the liquor.
Have a dose head, and fit it in neatly. Set away in the
garret, and think no more of your treasures until next
winter.
To Wash Doubtful Calicoes.
Put a teaspoonful of sugar of lead into a pailful of
water, and soak fifteen minutes before washing.
To Clean a Cloth Coat.
Bub soap upon the wristbands and collar ; dip them in
boiling-hot suds — and scrub with a stiff clean brush.
Treat the grease and dirt spots in the same way. Change
the suds for clean and hot as it gets dirty. Wet and brush
the whole coat, the right way of the cloth, with fresh suds,
when you have scoured out the spots, adding three or four
tablespoonfuls of alcohol to the water. Stretch the sleeves,
pocket-holes, wristbands, and collar into shape, folding the
sleeves as if they had been ironed, also the collar. Lay
upon a clean cloth, spread upon the table or floor, and let
it get perfectly dry in the shade, turning over three or four
times without disturbing the folds.
siiin)siE8. 6S8
To Clean Silk.
To Remove Ghease Spots, — Scrape Yenetian or French
chalk fine; moisten to a stiff paste with soap-suds; make it
into fiat cakes by pressing between two boards, and dry in
the sun or oven. Keep these for use. When you need
them, scrape one to powder and cover the spot with it, lay-
ing the silk upon a fine clean linen or cotton cloth. Lay
two or three folds of tissue-paper upon the chalk, and
press it with a hot iron for a minute or more, taking care
it does not touch the silk. Baise the paper and scrape off
the grease with the chalk. Split a visiting-card, and rub
the place where the spot tmw, with the inside, to restore the
lustre. The silk should be pressed on the wrong side.
If the spot be discovered at once, simply rub the wrong
side hard with powdered French chalk, and leave it to wear
off.
To Wcuh aS^A;.— Mix together
2 cups cold water.
1 tablespoonful honey.
1 ^' soft soap.
1 wineglass alcohol.
Shake up well ; lay the silk, a breadth at a time, on a
table, and sponge both sides with this, rubbing it well in ;
shake it about well and up and down in a tub of cold water;
flap it as dry as you can, but do not wring it. Hang it by
the edges, not the middle^ until fit to iron. Iron on the
wrong side while it is very damp.
Black and dark or sober-colored silks may be success-
fully treated it this way.
To Smooth Wrinkled Silk. — Sponge on the right side
with very weak gum-arabic water, and iron on the wrong
side.
534 COMMON 8KNSE.
To Renew Wrinkled Cbapb.
Stretch over a basin of boiling water, holding it smooth,
but not tight, over the top, and shiftiug as the steam £drly
peneti*ates it. Fold, while damp, iu the original creases,
and lay under a heavy book or board to dry. It will look
almost as well as new.
To Restore the Pile op Velvet.
If but slightly pressed, treat as you would crape. Steam
on the right side until heated through. If very badly
crushed, wet on the wrong side ; let an assistant hold a hot
iron, bottom upward, and pass the wet side of the velvet
slowly over the fiat surface — ^a sort of upside-down ironing.
When the steam rises thickly through to the right side, it
wiD raise the pile with it. Dry without handling.
To Curl Tumbled Feathers.
Hold over the heated top of the range or stove, not near
enough to bum ; withdraw, shake them out, and hold them
over it again until curled.
To Clean Straw Matting.
Wash with a cloth dipped in clean salt and water ; then
wipe dry at once. This prevents it from turning yellow.
To Wash Lawn or Thin Muslin.
Boil two quarts of wheat-bran in six quarts, or more, of
water, half an hour. Strain through a coarse towel and
mix in the water in which the muslin is to be washed. Use
no soap, if you can help it^ and no starch. Rinse lightly in
fair water. This preparation both cleanses and stifiens the
lawn. If you can conveniently, take out all the gathers.
The skirt^ should always be ripped from the waist
BTTNDBIES. 535
To Wash "Woolekb.
Wash in clean, hot soap snds ; rinse out in clear, hot
xvater, and shake out the wet without passing through the
wringer. Worsted dress-goods should never be wrung when
washed.
To Wash White Lace Edging.
Have a quart bottle covered with linen, stitched
smoothly to fiit the shape. Begin at the bottom and wind
the lace about it, basting fast at both edges, even the
minutest point, to the linen. Wash on the bottle, soaping
it well, rinse by plunging in a pail of fair water, and boil as
you would a white handkerchief, bottle and all. Set in the
hot sun to dry. When quite dry, clip the basting-threads,
and use the lace without ironing. If neatly basted on, it
will look nearly as well as new — if not quite.
*
Black Lace.
■J cup rain water, or very soft spring water.
1 teasr>oonful borax.
1 tabl«3spoonful spirits of wine.
Sq\ieeze the tumbled rusty lace through this four times,
then rinse in a cup of hot water in which a black kid glove
has been boiled. Pull out the edges of the lace until almost
dry ; then press for two days between the leaves of a heavy
book.
To Sponge Black Worsted Dresses.
Sponge on the right side with a strong tea made of Jig-
leaves^ and iron on the wrong.
This process restores lustre and ciispness to alpaca,
bombazine, ei^c
636 OOIOCOK BBN8E.
To Cleax Yert Dirtt Black Dresses.
2 parts soft water to 1 part alcohol, or if there be paint
spots upon the stuff, spirits turpentine. Soap a sponge
well, dip in the mixture, and rub, a breadth at a time, on
both sides, stretching it upon a table. Iron on the wrong
side, or that which is to be inside when the stuff is made up.
Sponge off with fair water, hot but not scalding, hefort you
iron. Iron while damp.
To Bemove Stains from Marble.
Make a mortar of unslacked lime and very strong lye.
Cover the spot thickly with it and leave it on for six weeks.
Wash it off perfectly dean, and rub hard with a brush dip-
ped in a lather of soap and water. Polish with a smooth,
hard brush.
Iron Mould
Is as nearly ineradicable as it is possible for stain to be.
Try moistening the part injured with ink, and while this
is wet, rub in muriatic acid diluted with five times its
weight of water. I have heard that the old and new stain
can sometimes be removed together by this operation.
Mildew
Is likewise obstinate. If anything will extract it, it is
lemon-juice mixed with an equal weight of salt, powdered
starch, and soft soap. Bub on thickly and lay upon the
grass in the hot sun ; renewing the application two or three
times a day until the spot fades or comes out.
I have also used salt wet with tomato-juice, often re-
newed-, laying the article stained upon the grass. Some-
times the stain was taken out, sometimes not.
BUimBlES. 637
Ink.
While the stainA axe yet wet upon the carpet, sponge
them with skim-milk thoroughlf/. Then wash out the milk
with a clean sponge dipped again and again in fair water,
cold. Exchange this presently for warm ; then rub dry
with a cloth. If the stain is upon any article of clothing,
or table, or bed linen, wash in the milk well, afterward in
the water.
Dry ink stains can be removed from white cloth by
oxalic acid, or lemon-juice and salt.
Stains of Acids and Aulalies.
Treat add stains with hartshorn ; alkaline with acids.
For instance, if the color be taken out of cloth by white-
wash, wash with strong vinegar.
Grease Spots.
1 quart boiling water. .
1 oz. pulverized borax.
^ oz. of gum camphor.
Shake up well and bottle. It is excellent for removing
grease spots from woolens.
Cube fob Bubns.
One-third part linseed oil.
Two-thirds lime water.
Sliake up well ; apply and wrap in soft linen.
Until you can procure this keep the part covered with
wood-soot mixed to a soft paste with lard, or, if you have
not these, with common molasses.
23*
588 OOlfMOK SENSE.
To Stop the Flow of Blood.
Bind the cut with cobwebs and brown sugar, pressed on
like lint. Or, if 70U cannot procure these, with the fine
dust of tea. When the blood ceases to flow, apply lauda-
num.
To Relieve Asthma.
Soak blotting or tissue paper in strong saltpetre water.
Dry, and bum at night in your bed-room.
I know this to be an excellent prescription.
Antidotes to Poison.
For any poison swallow instantly a glass of cold water
with a heaping teaspoonful of common salt and one of
ground mustard stirred in. This is a speedy emetic.
When it has acted, swallow the whites of two raw eggs.
If you have taken corrosive sublimate take half a
dozen raw e^^ besides the emetic. If laudanum, a cup
of very strong coffee. If arsenic, first the emetic, then
half a cup of sweet oU or melted lard.
Cologne Water. {Fine,) {No, 1.)
1 drachm oil lavender.
1 ** " bergamot.
2 « " lemon.
2 " " rosemary.
50 drops tincture of musk.
8 ** oil of cinnamon.
8 " " cloves.
1 pint of alcohol.
STTNDBIES. 589
CoLOONB Watkk, (No. 2.)
60 drops oil of layender.
60 ** « bergamot.
60 " « lemon.
60 " oi*aiige-flower water.
1 pint of alcohol.
Cork and shake well.
Habd Soap.
6 lbs. washing soda.
3 ^^ unslaked lime.
Pour on 4 gallons boiling water.
Let it stajid until perfectly dear, then drain off. Put
in 6 lbs. clean fat.
Boil until it begins to harden — about two hours — stir-
ring most of the time.
While bailing, thin with two gallons of cold water,
which jou have poured on the alkaline mixture after
draining off the four gallons. This must also settle clear
before it is drawn off. Add it when there is danger of
boiling over.
Try the thickness by cooling a little on a plate. Put
in a handful of salt just before taking from the fire.
Wet a tub to prevent sticking ; turn in the soap and let
it stand until solid. Cut into bars ; put on a board and
let it dry.
This will make about forty pounds of nice soap ; much
better for Wiishing (when it has dried out for two or three
months) than yellow turpentine soap.
540 COMMON BSN8K.
Bab Soap.
Buy a box at a time ; cut into small squares and lay
upon the garret-floor to dry for several weeks before it ia
used*
Soft Soap.
10 lbs. grease.
6 ** soda (washing).
8 gallons hot water.
Let it stand for several days until the grease is eaten
up. If too thick, add more water. Stir every day. If
wood-ashes are used instead of soda, boil the mixture.
THB Kin>.
INDEX.
PAOB
PAMILIAB TALK.. 13
SOUPS. 27
Vegetable Soups 28
Asparagus soup (white) 30
'' " igrem) .... 31
Bean ** (dried) 29
Bean and com soup 30
Com ** 84
Graham •* 33
Green Pea ** (No. 1).. 28
" ** (No. 2). . 28
Gumbo« or okra ** 33
Pea and tomato '' 20
Pea (split and dried) Boap. . 28
Potato ** .. 32
Tomato (toinier) ** . . 31
** (swnmer) " .. 31
Turnip *♦ .. 82
Meat Sovps, 85
Beef soup d la JnUenne 35
** (brown) 37
Brown gmvj Boup 41
Chicken " 42
Giblet " 40
Hare or rabbit ** 44
Mockturtic ** 39
Mutton or lamb broth 38
Oxtail soup 44
PAOB
Veal and macaroni soup 30
Veal and sago ** .... 44
Vermicelli *' .... 88*
Venison * ** 43
Fish Soups •. 45
Catfish soup 47
Clam " 40
Bel " 47
Green turtle " 48
Lobster " 48
Oyster ** (No. 1) 45
" '* (No. 2).... 45
PISH 50
Baas (sea) boiled 62
" fried 62
Catfish, stewed 67
** fried 67
** chowder 67
Chowder, clam 83
" (No. 1) 68
" (No.2) 60
Codfishballs 51
** (/r<?*A), boiled 50
** («att), boiled 51
** and potato stew .... 53
** (saU)^ stewed with
eggs 52
Eels, fried 68
543
INDE±,
PAGK
Eelis stewed 68
Fifth, mayoimaiae of 64
HaUbut, baked 54
boiled 64
** devUled 65
'' steak 65
Macketel {ffe$Ji)^ boiled .... 68
{mU), broUed 54
** (/r«/0, " 53
Perch and other pan-fish. ... 66
Pickerel, fried. 60
'* baked with cream. 66
Rockfish and river bass 51
Salmon, baked 67
** boUed 66
** {fresh), pickled ... 58
** {snU\ " ... 59
** (nmoked), brofled.. 60
** steak 57
Salmon-tront, baked with
cream 64
Salmon -trout, boiled 65
fried 65
Shad, baked 62
»« {fresh), boned 60
*' MO, " 61
** (/rflnA), broiled 61
•' {saU), »* 61
** fried 61
Sturgeon, baked 03
" steak 63
SheU-fiah 70
Clam chowder 82
** fritters 81
'* scallop 81
Crab, deviUed 71
" salad 71
PAeK
Crabs, soft 71
Lobster, to boil 70
*^ croquettes 71
" devilled 70
*' salad. {8eeSdiad»,)2(Xt
Oysters, cream on half shell. 76
" broiled 76
** fried r3
" frittera 74
" omelette 76
** pat6 79
" pie 76
" pickled 77
" raw 70
" roast 78
** scalloped 74
** steamed 79
" stewed 73
Scallops 81
Terrapin or turtle 72
POULTRY 82
Chicken, boUed 88
** broUed 90
" fricassee {brtntn),, 89
" {whiU)., 88
** fried (JVb.l) 90
** " (iTo. 2) 90
" and ham 93
Chicken-pie {baked) ..,...., 93"
** pot-pie 91
" pudding 92
" roaat 87
Ducks, roafit 93
** stewed 94
Duck, cold, to use up ,. . 94
Goose-pio 96
** roast 95
INDEX.
643
PAOK
Guinea-fowl, roast 95
Pigeons, broiled 97
Pigeon-pie 98
Pigeons, roast 97
'' stewed 97
Turkey, boUed 85
»* ragofttof 87
** roast 84
. " scallop of 80
MEATS
98
Beef. 98
Beef d la mode 101
** breakfast stew of 103
** {earned), boUed 107
" hashed 104
*' heart, stewed 106
" {dried) 107
Beef-steak 99
and onions 101
<t
ti
pie
104
Beef, roast 98
** tongpie, boiled 107
'' to com 106
** roast, with Yorkshire
pudding 09
Beef -pie, potato-orust 105
Mutton and Lamb 108
Mutton d la yenison 108
** boUed 100
'* or lamb chop 110
** " cutlets,baked HI
Mutton-ham Ill
*' or lamb n'c^wjft. .. 112
" ** roast 108
Mutton-stew 110
ti
ii
PAQH
Veal 113
Calf s head in a mould 121
scalloped 119
stewed 119
GaLTs brains, croquettes ol . 124
*' Uyer, fried 125
** *« roast 124
»♦ *♦ stewed 125
Imitation pdU defoie gras, . 120
Sweetbreads, broiled 120
" fried 120
" roasted 121
** stewed ; 120
Yeal, breast of (roast) 118
'* chops 115
" cutlets a fti Muntenon. 123
" cutlets (ptoin) 114
** fillet of (roast) 114
" jeUied 121
** loin of (roast) . . — 113
*• marbled 127
** minced 123
** oliyes with oysters 122
** pat6 118
** pie tl5
** shoulder of (roast)... . 114
V«alsteak 115
** stewed 117
Veal, knuckle of (stewed).. 117
Pork,
128
Brawn (JVi?. 1) 144
" {No. 2) 144
Chine, roast 131
Chops i;J4
Ham, to cure 147
" baked 149
** barbecued 150
544
INDEX*
fAOK
Ham, boiled. 148
** broiled 150
** gUsed 148
*♦ fried 151
*' roast 149
** sandwiches 151
** and chicken sandwich-
es 151
*' and chicken pie 162
" and eggs 152
** steamed 148
Lard 142
Leg of pork, roast 130
Loin " »* 131
Pig^s head, roast 135
Pig* 8 '* with liTer and
heart 186
Pig, roast {whole) 132
Pork-steak 134
** stewed 135
Pot-pie of pork 138
Cheshire 138
Pork, to pickle {No. 1). . . . 145
** {No. 2) 140
** and beans 153
Padding, pork and pease. .. . 153
Bpare-rib, roast 131
Bausage, Bologna (cooked). . 142
" " (uncooked) 141
Sausage {No. 1) 139
'' {No. 2) 140
*' {No. 3) 140
Saveloys 145
Souse, or hcad-cheess 137
Souse of pig's feet and ears. 130
COMPA\Y 154
PAGM
Veni$on. 100
Gutlets of Teniaon IfU
Fawn, roast 165
Ham — venison 167
Hash " 164
Haunch " 161
Neck •' 162
Pasty ** 165
Sausage ** 1(58
Shoulder. '' of, roast 163
** ** of, stewed. . . 162
Steak •' 163
liabbiUi or HarsB 168
Barbecued rabbit 171
Pried *' 171
Fricassee of rabbit (brown) . . 1 70
** ** {vTutf)... 170
Lardedrabbit 171
Pie of rabbit 172
Rabbitroast 169
'^ stewed with onions . . 169
J^titrds 173
Broiled squirrel 174
Brunswick stew 173
Ragout of squirrel 173
Pheasants^ partridges, qtuuUy
grouse^ etc 174
Grouse, broiled 175
** roast 174
** ** withb-xjon 175
Quails, broiled TTl
" roast 174
** *' with ham 175
moEx.
54S
PAOB
Quail-pie 177
PheoBant and partridge, roast 174
Pie of game 176
Salmi of game 175
AVild ducks 178
" ** roast 178
" *' stewed 179
Wild pigeon pie 178
" '* stewed 177
Wild turkey 179
SmaUbirds 180
Game, to keep from tainting 182
Ortolans, reed-birds, rail, and
BOra 182
Salmi of woodcock or snipe. 182
Snipe, roast 180
Woodcock, roast 181
** broiled 181
SAUCES FOR MEAT AND
FJSH. 183
AnchoTj sauce 187
Apple " 191
Asparagus ^* 191
Bread " 188
Butter, to brown 192
Cauliflower sauce 190
Crab sauce 18G
Cranberry sauce 192
Drawn butter {Ko. 1) 183
** {2^0. 2). 184
" '* {No, 3) 184
Egg sauce 184
Flour, to brown 192
Maitre d'hotel sauce 189
Mint " 189
PAOK
Mushroom sauce 190
Onion »* 189
Oyster " 186
Peach ** 191
Sauce for boiled or baked fish 185
** lobster 187
White celery sauce 188
** sauce for fish 185
CATSUPS AND FLAVORED
VINEGARS 193
A good store sauce 199
Celery vinegar 198
Elderberry catsup 199
'' Ever-ready " catsup 197
Horse-radish ** 200
" scraped 193
Imitation Worcestershire
sauce 195
Lemon catsup 196
Made mustard 198
Mock capers 198
Mushroom catsup 194
Onion vinegar 199
Oyster catsup 195
Pepper vinegar 200
Tomato catsup 196
Wahiut ** 194
SALADS 200
Cabbage salad, or cold slaw. 200
Celery " 207
Chicken " 203
Lettuce *' 204
Lobster " 20i
Mock crab / 20i
Salmon salad :cO?
54J
INDEX.
PAGR
Sydney Smithes salad droBa-
iDg 201
Rnmmer salad 205
Tomato '' 206
Water cresses 205
VEGETABLES 210
Artichokes 242
Asparagus, boiled 226
'' in ambush 227
** and eggs 227
Beans, butter, or Lima 239
** i(?rird) 230
** French, string or
*'8nap" 238
*^ kidney, and other
small 230
Beets, boUed 239
** stewed 240
BrooooU and Brussels sprouts 223
Cabbage, boiled 218
fried 221
Udies' 220
Cabbage and bacon 210
** sprouts, or *'ool-
hirds'' 220
" stuffed 219
Carrots, boiled 237
'' mashed 238
** stewed 237
Cauliflower, boiled 222
'' scalloped 223
stewed 222
Celery 246
Com {green), boQed 233
" ** fritters, or
cakes 235
" " padding 234
PA OK
Com (ffreen), roart 2)0
** " stewed 2:35
** ** and tomatoes. 2;^
^* '* ' and beans (suc-
cotash)..;.. 234
Cucumbers, fried 2:^2
raw 232
'' stewed 233
Cymblings (summer squash). 242
Egg-plant, fried 236
" stuffed 237
Hominy croquettea 249
** boUed 248
♦* hiked. 249
** fried 248
Macaroni d la ereme 252
** baked 251
'^ stewed, Italian
style 251
Mushrooms. 244
'' baked 246
** broiled 246
" stewed 245
Okra 247
Onions, baked 229
** stewed 228
" stuffed 229
Parsnips, boiled ^ 240
** buttered 241
" fried 240
" fritters 241
** mashed 241
Peas [green), fritters or cakes 226
** green 226
Poke-stalks 244
Potatoes, baked 213
^* boiled with skins on 210
" boUed without ** 210
*' (ii^),bofled 212
INBEX.
54?
PAGE
Potatoes, browned (ti^dUi).,. 216
** ** {nuuhed). 216
** broiled ;.. 217
•* dla creme 215
Potato-cakes 217
** croquettes 214
Potatoes, fried 214
*• mashed 211
** maitre d'hGtel 214
Pototo-puif 218
*• ribbon 215
** scallop 216
Potatoes (stewed for break-
fast) 213
Potatoes {M), stewed 212
** stuffed 215
** {meet), boiled 217
" " fried 218
" " roast 217
Pumpkin, baked 243
stewed 243
Radishes 247
Rice, bofled 250
** croquettes. 249
Salsify (or oyster-plant),
fried 230
Salsify (or oyster-plant),
stewed 236
Sea-kale, boiled 241
•* stewed 242
Squash (summer) 243
** (winter) 243
Sauerkraut 221
Spinach d la creme 225
** boiled 224
Succotash 234
Tomatoes, baked 231
" broiled 231
** raw 232
PACK
Tomatoes, scalloped. 230
* ' and com scallop. . 231
" stewed 230
*< stuffed and baked. 230
Turnips, boiled (whole) 224
mashed 223
(t
EGGS. 252
Eggs au lit (in bed) 257
*' baked 256
Egg-baskets. 258
Eggs, boiled 253
breaded 255
Chinese bird's nest of. 250
devilled 258
dropped or poached . . . 254
fried 255
fricasseed 255
with ham 254
poached d la creme, . . . 254
«* with sauce... 257
scalloped 257
scrambled 256
upon toast 257
Egg-bolls for soup 260
Omelette, asparagus 260
aux fines herbes. . . 260
cauliflower 260
cheese 261
phiin 259
with ham,chicken,
or tongue 259
Sweet ameiettes 261
Omelette, apple 262
" jelly 262
" souffle, baked... 261
*» " fried.... 261
(t
u
11
C(
((
648
nmEX.
PAOK
MILK, BUTTER, CHEESE,
ETC 263
Bonny clabber, or ^' lopi^ered
milk" 265
Butter (to make) 263
Cheese 206
Cottage cheese 268
Cream " 268
Junket, or mountain cuataid 266
Rennet 265
Thickened milk ... 269
BREAD 569
Bread, Boston brown 280
*' (family), brown 279
** " white 277
Butter-milk bread 283
Bread, milk 282
** rice 288
lye 281
B Kcuit, Graham 287
** minute 287
** . Mrs. K'sisoda)..,, 286
** risen 284
'* potato 286
Crackers, butter 290
Crumpets (plain) 291
*' {8wef.t) 291
Muffins, Be]le'B 294
" buttermilk 292
** Charlotte 293
** cream 292
" Graham 291
" hominy 294
" queen 292
** ** Mother's" 293
** rice 293
Powders, baking 276
Rolls, French (JVo. 1) 283
" (m,2) 284
Rusk (dried) 280
** (sweet) 288
Sally Lunn {No, 1) 285
** ** {No, 2) 285
Sponge for bread (potato) . . 276
'* " (plain)... 276
Wafers 290
Wheatlets, Graham 288
Yeast cakes 275
" (hop) 278
*' (pouto) 274
** (self -working) 274
Corn bread 294
Ash-cake 801
Batter-bread, or egg-bread. . 809
Corn-bread, nonpareil 297
" risen (JVb. 1)... 297
*' " {No, 2)... 800
** steamed 298
Crumpets, Indian-meal 298
Johnny-cake 299
" Aunt Jenny's... 299
Muffins, Indian-meal 297
Pone 300
" fried 301
GriddLe-cakes^ foajffles, etc, 801
Cake?, Auntie's (tcii/iovt eggs) 303
** buckwheat 801
" batter (risen) 304
" cream 805
** flannel 802
" ** (eggleas) 308
raDBz.
549
PAGE
Cakes, Graham 803
" Grandpa's favorite... 303
" hominy 304
** rice 304
" Telvet 304
Flapjacks, corn-meal 302
Waffles, "Mother's" 806
" rice(iVi?. 1) 306
*» " {No. 2). 306
" " and corn-meal. 307
" risen 305
" quick 306
Shortcake, etc .-. 307
Bans, Easter (*'hot cross''). 309
" plain 310
Shortcake, Grandma's 309
** Scotch 809
" strawberry 308
*' Sunnybank 307
CAKE.
Almond cake 830
Black cake •...., 329
Caramel cake 822
Chocolate cake 822
** caramels 825
** ddairs 325
Coooannt cake 316
»* '' (Boflie^s) 816
" cakes (small) 818
" cake {loaf) 317
** cones 818
Corn-starch cake 833
Cream cake 815
DoTer '* 821
EUie's " 826
PAOR
Frenchcake 320
Fmit " 330
Gold " 3:U
Huckleberry cake 333
Jelly " 310
Lady " {No. 1)... 320
" •* {No. 2)... 321
Lee ** 318
Lemon '« {No. 1)... 320
" {No. 2)... 820
Linooki '* 328
Marble " 323
Marbled ** 32^1
Martha's " 314
Mrs. M.'8cup ** 315
Mrs. M.'s sponge-cake 826
Macaroons, almond 332
Nut-cake 331
"One, two, three, four" cake
(cxsoannt) 817
Pound cake {No. 1) 337
" " {No. 2) 828
Silver ** 832
Sister Mag's cake 821
Sponge " 326
Washington " 328
White " 334
White Mountain cake. 819
Idng 813
Almond icing 314
Chocolate icing 825
Plain idng 313
Small Cake8y Cookies, etc. . 334
Boston cream cakes 348
Cakes, bread 346
650
tNX)JU«
• i
«<
ii
t4
PAOK
GnkeB, eanmnt 840
" New Year's 335
small sugar 834
{drop)y sponge 840
Cookies, Mrs. B.'s 834
'' coriander 330
'* molasses 836
*' "Mother's" 835
" rioe-flour 830
Cmllers, Annie's 342
'' AontMaigaxet's. .. 840
" KaUe's 841
" "Mother's" 341
Doughnuts, quick 842
" risen 842
Ginger snaps {Jio. I) 887
(Aft 2) 887
(No.B) 887
JumbleSf almond 839
'* Aunt Maigaiet's. . . 888
" lemon 888
" Mra.M.'s 839
** ring 888
Lady's fingers 840
Macaroons, almond 832
Nougat 849
Wafers (MM^) 847
Oingerbread 843
Gingerbread fruit 846
loaf(iVi?.l).... 844
** (Ab. 2).... 845
plain 844
soft 843
spiced 345
sponge 843
sugar 846
it
i(
PAOB
PIBS 849
Apple pie (JVb. 1) 857
" " (JVi?. 2) a58
Blackbeny pie 308
Cherry " 3(i7
Coooanut *• {No. 1) 304
** " {No. 2) 3(54
Crust for pies {No. 1 ) 350
" " " {No. 2) 352
" ** " transparent.. 853
Custard pie 307
" apple pie. 358
*' chocolate pie 365
'' corn-starch pie. . . . 306
" oocoanut *'.... 365
** peach **.... 358
Huckleberry pie 308
Lemon pie {No. 1) 361
" " {No. 2) 301
** ** {No. 3) 302
*^ cream pie 302
M6ringue apple - pie (and
peach) 358
Mince-meat, apple, for pies. . 356
Minoepie {No. 1) 354
** »* {No. 2) 854
Mock mince-meat 850
Orange pie 862
Paste, French puff 352
** puff 352
Peach pie 367
Pippin »' 359
Potato" Irish. 800
" " sweet {No. i)... . 300
** ** ** (A(?. 2) 360
Plum ** 308
Pumpkin pie {No. 1) 359
** {No. 2) :59
INDEX.
651
Bafipberry pie
Ripe gooeebeny pie
Rhubarb *'
Squash "
Strawberry **
TarU,
Tart, chooolate
** cream raspberry
** cranberry
** currant.-
" currant and raspber
ly ••■
*' damson
** green gooseberry
** lemon
Tartlets, orange
" rhubarb...
SERVANTS
PUDDINGS
Baked Puddings
Alice's pudding
Apple, pudding, baked
** dumplings **
^* batter pudding
** meringue "
" and plum ** ......
** sweet "
< * and tapioca pudding . ,
Arrowroot pudding. ........
Batter pudding (JVo. 1)
" " {No. 2)
Bread *'
' * and butter pudding . . ,
** fruit ** ...
PAGE
868
368
370
350
369
363
369
869
368
368
368
368
363
363
370
870
883
383
392
384
388
386
384
386
887
800
398
899
390
391
391
PAOB
Bread and marmalade pnd-
ding 392
** Brown Betty" 386
Gocoanut pudding 401
Corn-starch " 389
" ** meringue pud-
ding 889
Cottage pudding. . . , 399
Cracker ** 303
** Dorchester plum pud-
ding 894
fruit pudding 395
and jam** 896
suet ** 394
Cup puddings 400
Dumplings, apple {baked) . . . 888
" Belle's 406
German puffs 400
GooHebeny pudding 404
Lemon '* 400
meringue pudding. . . 401
... 402
... 403
... 405
... 402
... 885
... 405
i(
tt
t(
it
(i
It
(t
(k
ti
t(
Macaroni
Neapolitan
Newark
Orange marmalade
Pippin
Plum
Queen of puddings 393
Rhubarb pudding 404
Rice *• (i>2fMn)... 396
*' and tapioca pudding. . 397
Rice-pudding with eggs. .... 397
Rice-flour pudding 897
Tapioca ** 388
Vermicelli " 403
Botledptiddinffs 406
Berry pudding 4^8
Cabinet '* 412
552
INDEX.
PAOR
Gheny, or oanant pjramid. . 414
Dompliog, apple {No. 1). . . . 409
** ,** (JVb.2).... 409
** fruit suet 411
** rice 410
*• Buet 411
Eve's pudding 412
Fruit •* 410
*' valise pudding 408
Huckleberry »* 408
Indian meal pudding 41 1
Omnge roley-poley 414
Queen of plum-puddings. ... 413
FRITTEES, PANCAKES,
ETC 415
Fritters (No. 1) 416
(No. 2) 416
apple 410
bread 417
jelly -coke 418
jeUy 417
Pancakes. 418
** jelly or jam 41 9
Queen's toast 418
SWEET, OR PUDDING
SAUCES 419
Bee-biTe sauoe 419
Brandy " {hard) 420
Cabinet pudding sauce 422
Cream sauce {hot) 424
Cream, sweetened {cold) 428
Custard sauce 422
Fruit-pudding sauce 422
Jelly sauce {No. 1) 423
{No, 2) 424
i(
it
<(
4«
(k
t(
It
»(
PAOR
Hardsaace 419
Lemon'* 421
Milk ** 421
>^liite wine sauoe {Uguul) . . . 41:0
CUSTARDS, BLANC-MANGE,
JELLIES AND CREAMS. 425
Blanc-mange, almond 432
" arrowroot 431
*' chocolate 434
** farina 431
** Neapolitan . . . 432
*' yelvet 434
Charlotte Russe, chocolate. . 436
gelatine... . 437
cream 435
tipsey 435
Cream, Bavarian 428
" Spanish 428
Custard, almond 426
baked 429
boUed 425
French tapioca. . . . 429
quaking 42 »
snow 428
Floating Island 42/
Flummeiy 4;»7
Gooseberry fool 438
Jaune mange 433
JeUy, calf s-foot 439
bird*8 nest in 441
cider 440
orange 442
wine {boUed) 442
" {oold) 440
variegated 443
Meringue, cream 4,'^
Whipped syllabub , . . . 4JJ8
INDEX.
653
PAGX
ICE-CREAM AND OTHER
ICES 443
Custard, frozen with fmit. . 450
Ice-cniam, almond 447
chocolate. 447
coffee 448
Italian 448
lemon 440
peach 449
pine -apple 441
raspberry or
strawberry. . . . 450
self -freezing .... 444
tuttifrutti 451
Ice, cherry 452
currant and raspberry. . . 452
lemon 451
orange 452
pine-apple 452
strawberry or raspberry. 453
(t
<(
II
4(
RIPE FRUIT FOR DESSERT.
Ambrosia 454
Apples 454
Blackberries. 455
Currants 656
** frosted. ... 456
Oranges. 453
Peaches and Pears 454
Raspberries 455
Balade d' orange. 453
Strawberries 455
PRESERVES AND FRUIT
JELLIES 472
Pnvierces.
Apples baked. 468
24
pAoa
Apple bntter. 460
Apples, preserved 459
^* stewed whole 469
Blackberry jam 467
Cherries, preserved 466
Crab apple. 461
Damson, preserved 462
Figs, *' 468
Ginger, " 465
Grooseberries," 467
Greengage, ** 461
Lemon, ** 463
Orange marmalade 463
*^ peel, preserved. .... 463
Peach marmalade 458
** preserves 458
Pears, baked 469
" preserved 458
" stewed 469
Pine-apple marmalade 464
" preserved. 464
Quinces, baked. 470
Quince cheese 460
<* marmalade 460
Quinces, preserved 459
Raspberry jam 467
Strawberry 466
Strawberries, preserved . 466
Tomato, '* {ffreen). 467
** " {Hpe),. 467
Unique preserves 463
Water-melon rind, or dtron. . 464
Fruit JMea 470
Blackberry jelly 470
Cherry (wild) and currant
jelly 473
Cnb-apple jelly 473
654
INDEX.
Cnznnt
Fox grape (grem)
Onpe {ripe)
Peach
Quince
PAaa
j«U7. . 470
** .. 478
" .. 473
*• .. 472
" .. 478
Baapbeny and cnxxant ** . . 472
Sfcrawbeny " .. 470
CA17NED FRUITS AND
YEOETABLES. . . . 473
Berries (bxandied) 478
♦* (canned) 474
Com and tomatoes (canned). 477
Green com (preserved in salt) 477
Peaches (brandied) 478
** (canned) 475
Pears (brandied) 478
*• (canned) 475
Plums (brandied) 478
" (canned) 476
Tomatoes ** 476
Candif»
Molasses candy 479
Sugar " 479
PICKLES 480
Feans (green), and radish-
podH 484
Cabbage, purple 484
" yeUow 488
Caulijflower, pickled 485
Cherries, " 490
Cucumbers or gherkins, piclc-
led 480
Cucumbers, sliced pickle. . . . 486
Mangoes, melon '* .... 482
PASH
Mangoes, pepper picUe 482
Nasturtium seed, *' 485
Onion, " ... 484
Peache (sweet), ** ... 489
*' (unpeeled) " ... 490
Pear (sweet), " ... 489
Picklette 491
Plums, pickled. 489
Tomato (green), pickle 488
" " soy. 488
" ripe,plckle 488
Walnut or butternut pickle. 485
Water-melon rind pickle. . . . 480
DRINKS 491
Blackbeny cordial 490
" Tinegar 490
Caf6aulait 493
Claret punch 601
Cherry bounce 601
Chocolate 494
Cocoa-nibs, or shells 494
'* prepared 494
Coffee (booed) 492
Coffee 491
»* (without boiling). ... 492
Cranberry wine 497
Currant, " 497
£^gg-D0gg. 501
Elderbeny wine 496
Jamaica ginger-beer 498
Lemonade, or sherbet. 498
Milk tea for chUdren 494
Nectar 500
Orangeade 499
Raisin wine 498
Raspberry royal 495
'< yinegar 406
H«l
INDEX.
655
PAOB
Begent^B punch 490
Boman »* 500
Sheny cobbler 500
Strawbeziy sherbet 409
" wine 497
Tea 493
THE SICK-BOOM... 503
Blanc-mange, arrowroot. . . . 401
*' sea-moss. .... 619
*' tapioca. 513
Beef-steak and mutton -choiM 520
Bisonit or wafers 520
Broth, beef and sago 510
" calf.foot 516
*« chicken 609
** mutton 509
*< veal and sago 509
Custard, arrowroot 614
Dried rusk 520
Dried flour for teething chil-
dren 513
Eau Buor^ 522
Gruel, Indian-meal 512
<' milk and rice 512
'' oatmeal 512
*' sago 511
Jelly, arrowroot (plftin) 510
** *• (loine) 511
" chicken 516
*' Iceland, or Irish moss 518
" tapioca 513
Lemonade, flaxseed 517
*' Iceland, or Irish
moss 518
Milk, rice-flour 514
" sago 514
PAOR
Milk, tapioca 514
Mmt julep 521
Panada 515
'* bread, or jelly 515
Punch, egg and milk 618
*• milk 518
Bice, boiled • . . 615
Sangaree, or parteree 620
Tea, beef 508
Teas, herb 621
Tea, slippery -elm bark 618
Toast, dry 519
** milk 619
Toddy, apple 518
Water, " 517
** jelly 517
" toast 516
Wine-whey 520
THE NUBSEBY. ... 522
Arrowroot 525
Barley 524
Farina 524
Hominy and milk 526
Jelly, rice 625
Milk and bread 526
'^ condensed 628
** porridge 627
Mush and milk 627
Pudding, Graham 627
" rice-flour 627
Wheaten grits 626
SUNDBIES 528
Antidotes for poison 638
Asthma, to relieve 638
Blood, to stop the flow of . . . 538
Bums, to ooze 537
656
INBfiZ.
Glean, oarpete to 531
. knirefl 528
kettles, pots, and tins 528
china and glass 520
doth ooat, a 532
black wonted dress . . 535
•dirty Uaok dress. 536
point 581
silk 533
straw matting 534
silver 529
windows 531
Grape, wrinkled, to renew. . 434
Feathers, tumbled, to oorl. . 534
Grease-spots, to remove. . . . 537
Soap, bar 540
•• hard 539
TAorn
Soap, soft 540
Stains, adds and alkalies. . . 587
*' ink,toremove .537
*< izon-monld, to r^-
BK>ve 536
*' from marble to re-
move 536
** mildew, to remove. . 536
Vdvet, to restore the pile of. 534
Wash, doubtfol calicoes to. . 532
*' lace, black to 535
" ** whiteto 532
'* lawn, or thin muslin 534
" woollens 535
Water, cologne (No. 1) 538
** iHTo. 2) 539
Woollens, to keep 532
r
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