Documenting the American South Logo
powered by google
  Highlights   |   About   |   Collections   |   Authors   |   Titles   |   Subjects   |   Geographic   |   Classroom   |   New Additions  

The Young Housewife's Counsellor and Friend:
Containing Directions in Every Department of Housekeeping.
Including the Duties of Wife and Mother:
Electronic Edition.

Mason, Mary Ann Bryan, 1802-1881

Funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services
supported the electronic publication of this title.

Text transcribed by Apex Data Services, Inc.
Images scanned by Tampathia Evans
Text encoded by Apex Data Services, Inc., Melissa Graham and Natalia Smith
First edition, 2001
ca. 600K
Academic Affairs Library, UNC-CH
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
2001.

        © This work is the property of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text.

Source Description:
(title page) The Young Housewife's Counsellor and Friend: Containing Directions in Every Department of Housekeeping. Including the Duties of Wife and Mother
(spine) The Young Housewife's Counsellor and Friend
(cover) Mrs. Mason's [New] Cookery.
MRS. MARY MASON
viii, 9-380 p., ill.
NEW YORK:
E. J. HALE & SON, 17 MURRAY STREET.
1875.

Call number C641.5 M41y (North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

        The electronic edition is a part of the UNC-CH digitization project, Documenting the American South.
        The text has been entered using double-keying and verified against the original. The text has been encoded using the recommendations for Level 4 of the TEI in Libraries Guidelines.
        Original grammar, punctuation, and spelling have been preserved. Encountered typographical errors have been preserved, and appear in red type.
        All footnotes are inserted at the point of reference within paragraphs.
        Any hyphens occurring in line breaks have been removed, and the trailing part of a word has been joined to the preceding line.
        All quotation marks, em dashes and ampersand have been transcribed as entity references.
        All double right and left quotation marks are encoded as " and " respectively.
        All single right and left quotation marks are encoded as ' and ' respectively.
        All em dashes are encoded as --
        Indentation in lines has not been preserved.
        Running titles have not been preserved.
        Spell-check and verification made against printed text using Author/Editor (SoftQuad) and Microsoft Word spell check programs.

Library of Congress Subject Headings, 21st edition, 1998

Languages Used:

LC Subject Headings:

Revision History:

Illustration

Illustration

Illustration

Illustration

Illustration

THE
YOUNG HOUSEWIFE'S
COUNSELLOR AND FRIEND:
CONTAINING
DIRECTIONS IN EVERY DEPARTMENT OF HOUSEKEEPING,
INCLUDING
THE DUTIES OF WIFE AND MOTHER.

BY

MRS. MARY MASON,
AUTHOR OF "A WREATH FROM THE WOODS OF CAROLINA," "SPRING-TIME FOR
SOWING," ETC., PUBLISHED BY THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH
BOOK SOCIETY, NEW YORK.

        "She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not
the bread of idleness."--PROV. xxxi. 27.

NEW YORK:
E. J. HALE & SON,
17 MURRAY STREET.
1875.

Page verso

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by
MRS. MARY MASON,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.

Page v

PREFACE.

        THIS work was first designed and undertaken at the earnest solicitations of two young ladies who were about to enter upon the important duties of married life, and, at their suggestion, the book proposed was to serve as a Counsellor, from the outset of their career, through all the various arrangements of a well-regulated household. This, doubtless, my readers will say was a very daring and difficult undertaking. And so indeed it was. Yet when the motives are weighed, the writer cannot but hope her lenient judges will be inclined to view the undertaking as more the result of affectionate solicitude than that of presumption or conceit.

        By the critical eye of numerous superiors in this important branch of human knowledge, no doubt many omissions, mistakes, and imperfections will be discovered: these, she trusts, will be excused for the sake of her motives.

        If this book should prove the happy Counsellor of one successful housewife, the writer will consider herself well rewarded for her pains.

        Having been written expressly for the benefit of residents of the Southern States, before emancipation, the

Page vi

advice respecting the management of servants may appear unsuitable in some degree for those who are non-residents: nevertheless it will be easy to make allowance for these different circumstances when the above fact is borne in mind, so that the writer sees no necessity for altering the original directions.

        The culinary receipts of this book are all tried and long-practiced receipts, and the writer has taken pains to select them from a more multitudinous list, so as to have them the best and most approved. Her endeavor has been to make her directions perfectly intelligible, unmistakable, and exact, so that no one may say the whole process is not understood of any one receipt. If she fails in this, it will not be from indifference or want of honest endeavor. And be well assured, most indulgent reader, that no efforts will be spared to render the Counsellor so useful and faithful a friend to every young housewife that no bridegroom in the land will think it possible to complete his number of bridal presents till he has included this book among them.

THE AUTHOR.

RALEIGH, N. C.,

Page vii

CONTENTS.

Page 9

THE YOUNG HOUSEWIFE'S
COUNSELLOR AND FRIEND.

PART I.

A LETTER TO THE ORIGINATORS OF THE PLAN OF THIS BOOK.

MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS,--

        In compliance with your very urgent as well as flattering requests, I enter upon a task which may possibly subject me to the censure or ridicule of many who may deem my undertaking pretentious; still, I will for your sakes be brave enough to make the venture. I shall endeavor to furnish you with receipts for all the culinary combinations which you have pronounced excellent, and appeared to enjoy while guests at my family board, and which you say you desire to perpetuate as far as may be at your own.

        I shall give you a short chapter on each of the usual departments of housewifery, and many useful miscellaneous directions which you may find occasion to use. I shall endeavor to aid you, in the economical management of your servants and of the contents of your pantry. And, having done this, I shall throw myself on your indulgent kindness, to excuse any defects or omissions which may appear in my humble undertaking.

Page 10

ECONOMY.

        "Waste not, want not," should be the motto of every household. Nor is this at all inconsistent with liberal provision, or generous distribution of charities. In truth, as to both, care and economy will increase your means for their accomplishment, inasmuch as waste and thriftlessness will diminish your ability for either.

        Your servants should be required to rise early; otherwise, everything will be out of time and hurriedly done, and, consequently, done imperfectly.

        You should set them an example in this yourself, and thus make them ashamed of their delinquency. Besides, it would greatly strengthen your own good resolves to rise and dedicate the first hour of the morning to the praise of the great Father of Light and Love.

        Your meals should be at regular hours; this will enable your servants the better to accomplish their work in due time. Besides, they usually make your irregularity an excuse for their neglect of duty.

        In the culinary department you should always be present at your cook's first experiment in any one receipt, and then simply reading it to her is not sufficient; you should aid her by your direction. But, after she has once succeeded in the preparation, you may venture to depend on her judgment.

        The duties of the house-maid, too, will require

Page 11

your presence, occasionally, throughout, and always at her introduction into them.

        The eye of a kind but firm mistress is the great inspiration to produce efficiency and regularity in her subordinates.

        And here let me counsel a strict observance of the day of rest and devotion. Take care that everything that is possible be done on Saturday, and so arrange your affairs that your servants may have at least half the day on Sunday to attend the worship of Almighty God. Remember that their souls are as precious in the sight of God as yours, and, therefore, be sure and avoid loading your conscience with the blame of their failure to reach the kingdom of heaven.

        Show an interest in everything that concerns your servants; their health, comfort, recreations, dress, and neat personal appearance. In this way you will be sure to win their esteem, love, and gratitude, and thus secure their faithfulness.

        If they are ignorant, instruct them; if unmindful of their duty to God, admonish them kindly. Read the Scriptures to them. Teach them God's commandments, for, alas! many of them do not know of their existence. How can you expect them to be honest or truthful if they are ignorant that such is the will of their Creator?

        A young and inexperienced housekeeper is always more or less in the power of her servants, especially of her cook. It is, therefore, wise to get on the right side of them, so that they will be less inclined to take undue advantage of you.

Page 12

        Experience, and daily experiments, alone can enable you to determine what proportion of the various provisions of a house are necessary. If you find, on the first attempt, you have fallen short, increase the allowance the next time; if too abundant, decrease. Take care that all have enough, but that nothing be wasted. If you provide sufficient for your servants, there will be no excuse for dishonesty or repining.

        "A habit of benevolence must be kept alive, as all other habits are, by constant exercise. Now our daily behavior to our domestics gives us an occasion for an uninterrupted exercise of benevolence as scarcely anything else does. There is not a day passes over our heads but we might contribute something to lessen the uneasiness or promote the happiness of those with whom we have to do; and by studying to do this we mould ourselves more and more into the divine pattern afforded us by our gracious Redeemer."

A TRADITION.

        There is a charming tradition connected with the site on which the Temple of Solomon was erected. It is said to have been occupied in common by two brothers, one of whom had a family, the other had none. On this spot there was sown a field of wheat. On the evening succeeding the harvest, the wheat having been gathered in separate shocks, the elder brother said unto his wife,--

        "My young brother is unable to bear the burden

Page 13

and heat of the day; I will arise, take of my shocks and place with his, without his knowledge."

        The younger brother, being actuated by the same benevolent motives, said within himself,--

        "My elder brother has a family, and I have none; I will contribute to their support; I will arise, take of my shocks and place them with his, without his knowledge."

        "Judge of their mutual astonishment when, on the following morning, they found their respective shocks undiminished. This course of events transpired for several nights, when each resolved in his own mind to stand guard and solve the mystery. They did so; when on the following night they met each other half-way between their respective shocks, with their arms full. Upon grounds hallowed with such associations as this was the Temple of Solomon erected--so spacious and magnificent, the wonder and admiration of the world. Alas! in these days, how many would sooner steal their brother's whole shock than add to it a single sheaf!"

YOUR HOUSE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS.

        If you build, take care that your house is agreeably located; if possible, on a slight eminence, for then you will enjoy the benefit of fresh air, and avoid dampness, to say nothing of the additional beauty in the prospect.

        It will cost little, if any more, to adopt a graceful and beautiful style of architecture than that

Page 14

which is common or unsightly. Be sure and select the former. Even in a simple cottage this is important. A pleasant prospect is always desirable, no matter how humbly circumstanced the dwelling. Shade-trees are beautiful, and of much comfort and utility; but they should not be too much crowded around your dwelling, especially they should never be so placed as to subject it to the dripping from their boughs during rain.

        In your court-yard a simple continuous grass-plot (bordered, if you choose, with flowers) is far more admirable and more in good taste than patch-work flower-beds.

        Even your vegetable-garden should be enlivened with flowers. Place them in borders around every square, taking care to enrich the soil around them every fall and spring, trimming them carefully of their redundant branches. Let the eye luxuriate in the myriad hues and varied forms with which a bountiful Creator has endowed those lovely creations for the delight of man.

        The writer of these pages was once walking with her little child by a garden of flowers, when, with a countenance radiant with delight, and a voice full of the melody of praise, it cried, "Oh, mamma! how good is God to make all these lovely flowers for us! Ought we not to be good and love Him dearly?"

        The internal arrangements of your house should be made with an eye to convenience as well as beauty.

        Be sure and have your dining-room, pantry,

Page 15

kitchen, laundry, and dairy communicating; also the chambers, nursery, dressing-rooms, closets, and bath-room.

YOUR KITCHEN.

        Your kitchen should be near your house,--if not attached to it, joined by a covered-way; otherwise your servants will have to pass through rain and snow oftentimes, and perhaps thereby contract painful if not dangerous maladies. Kindness and consideration should always characterize the mistress of a Christian family.

        Your kitchen-yard should be laid out with neat sand or gravel-walks, and grass-plots, with rose-bushes and vines by the fences and piazzas, so that your dwelling may be surrounded on all sides with these cheering objects,--they elevate the soul, especially when they are glittering with morning dew. They will greatly aid you, too, in advancing the civilization as well as the pure religion of your domestics. How easily may the soul be led to ascend in gratitude to the bountiful Creator, while the eye beholds these most attractive indications of His goodness to man! Everything you can place in the way of your servants, to delight and elevate the best impulses of their nature, will render them better and wiser, as well as happier.

        Your poultry-yard should be at a convenient distance from your dwelling, say adjoining your barn-yard. Poultry of every kind should be banished from the inclosures around your dwelling-house. They always injure your grass and flowers,

Page 16

besides defacing the neatness and order of your arrangements. It is best, too, on the score of economy, as a quantity of grain always falling from the feeding-troughs of your horses and cattle would be otherwise lost.

        SERVANTS.--Praise has always a better effect than censure. Watch for every opportunity to inspire your servants with good motives. Trust them if you would have them honest. I have always found that those who are most particular in locking up from servants are most apt to be robbed. If you have cause to doubt them, say nothing about it, but commend honesty on every suitable opportunity, and endeavor to convince them of the folly of pilfering from those who are ever ready to provide for their comfort and happiness.

        Gradually servants treated in this way will become ashamed of themselves, and abandon such evil courses; unless, indeed, they are thoroughly depraved before coming into your service. If so, dismiss them, when found incorrigible, before they contaminate the rest of your domestics.

        Counsel and encourage, reprove and condemn them, as you would your own erring children, not with rigor and harshness, which can only alienate their affections, and cause them to distrust the holy religion you profess or teach.

        Take care to be well informed of all your affairs, so that any instance of dishonesty or unfaithfulness of any kind may not escape your observation. If you detect the delinquents, reprove with sorrow, and withdraw some accustomed privilege or indulgence

Page 17

for awhile, as a point of duty to them as well as yourself. Servants are seldom so depraved as to become insensible to kindness, more especially when they are convinced that you really have their happiness and their welfare at heart.

        Feed your servants bountifully, not forgetting to include a portion of the dainties with which their ready hands are constantly supplying you. In this way, you will always be rewarded by the agreeable appearance of a cheerful, happy, and contented countenance, and a ready alacrity in your service. Kindness and confidence will elevate your servants, preserve, in a great measure, their integrity, and attach them to yourself.

        YOUR COOK.--Make choice of a strong, healthy, intelligent, brisk, cheerful, honest person; one who has been accustomed to obedience, and has been trained in habits of neatness, for it is scarcely possible to engraft these habits on one who has lived contentedly a sloven for fifteen or twenty years. It is almost as difficult as for the Ethiopian to change his skin.

        Take especial care that the disposition is not burdened with obstinacy or self-will. Such persons will be sure to disregard orders and instructions whenever they clash with inclination or self-conceit.

        There are some families in which is found a natural talent for the culinary art: if possible, choose your cook from such a family; at all events, select a person who gives the preference decidedly to this position in the household; avoid one who

Page 18

is averse to the occupation; such will seldom please, unless, as is rarely the case, she or he is governed by moral or religious principles.

        An intelligent person is apt to have some temper. Amiability, it is true, is lovely in the human character, but a superabundance of this quality in a cook is not desirable. Your very amiable cook is apt to be careless herself, as well as over-indulgent to her fellow-servants for the same quality: and such servants will seldom be concerned at having put the kitchen out of order. A sprinkling of temper, joined to a frank and generous disposition, is a very advantageous quality in a ruler of the culinary domain.

        Cooks should be required to keep everything in its place, and to do everything in the right time. Regularity, cleanliness, diligence, and faithfulness are cardinal virtues in a cook.

        A mistress can neither be just nor generous who requires impossibilities of her cook. If this important personage is not supplied with implements and materials wherewith to execute satisfactorily your commands, she is in a sad predicament indeed, unless (as is not generally the case) she is endowed with an extraordinary degree of wit and sagacity; and even then she may be brought, by your neglect, to most distressing straits, if not to utterly abortive attempts. Supply her, then, prudent and generous mistress, with ample provision of all such things as her important department requires: such as tables, shelves, closets,

Page 19

pasteboards, sieves, tubs, pails, rolling-pins, trays, pots, pans, colanders, strainers, skimmers, a saw, hatchet, cleaver, scissors, mallet, sausage-grinder and stuffer, coffee-toaster, coffee-mill, tea-kettles, pots, mortar and pestles, soap, candles, ovens or a first-rate stove or range, tin baking-pans, furnaces, bell-metal kettles, porcelain kettles and stew-pans, towels, boiling-cloths, bread-towels, dish-cloths, salt, pepper, spices, etc., spice-mills, egg-beaters, strainers, ladles and flesh - fork, bread-toasters, knives and forks, spoons, skewers, aprons, a kitchen clock, etc. All these articles are indispensable, and there are a great many other useful implements which modern ingenuity has brought into use, and which it would be well to introduce into a fully-arranged kitchen.

        A good housekeeper should always know that everything used in cooking is thoroughly cleaned after each meal, and put away in its proper place, so that in the darkest night the hand may be readily laid on any article needed. A habit of this kind is very soon formed, if a regular supervision is exercised for a month or two; after this an occasional inspection will be sufficient. But never suffer these intervals to be so long as to encourage your cook to hope your inspections have ceased altogether.

        A good sunning is of great service in sweetening wooden as well as tin utensils; and it would be well, once every week, to move everything out into the yard, and there subject it to a thorough scouring, washing, and sunning. Besides, the

Page 20

kitchen itself will be much more easily cleaned when the furniture is out of the way.

        Kitchen-utensils will be quickly ruined if left without cleaning from day to day. Woodenware will become mouldy and discolored, and if left wet, will split; tins will become rusty, and in a short time unfit for use. Besides the great inconvenience of finding nothing ready when needed, the expenses of this department will be needlessly increased by this negligence of the mistress.

GENERAL HINTS AND DIRECTIONS.

        A mistress of a house should inspect every apartment daily: see that the whole is swept, dusted, aired, and divested of cobwebs.

        Pantries and store-rooms should be cleaned out at least once a week. Shelves, where china and glass are kept, should be carefully dusted. Closet, cupboard, and pantry doors should be kept shut and locked, so that the cats, rats, and mice be excluded.

        Bedrooms should be aired daily; beds at least once a fortnight in the sun.

        Chimneys should be swept down in the winter daily, before the fires are made, as far as an ordinary broom will reach, particularly in kitchens; and care should be taken to burn them out on rainy days.

        Clothes-lines should be taken in every evening; the weather will mould and rot them.

        Clothes should be well aired before taken into the wardrobe.

Page 21

        Before ironing, clothes should be well sprinkled and packed down, so that they be thoroughly and regularly dampened throughout. Flat-irons should be wiped clean, and set away in a dry place when out of use, slightly greased.

        In the month of February, in this latitude, every part of your chambers should be thoroughly cleansed, the walls whitewashed, the floors scoured, the paint well washed with soap and water or soda and water. The bedsteads should be taken apart, and every portion wiped over with pure cold water, and when set up again all the joints and cracks should be filled up with turpentine-soap mixed with red pepper.

        Your chambermaid should have a dusting-brush, and every morning, when she moves the beds to make them up, she should thoroughly brush every part of the bedstead. This prevents the lodgment of insects.

        Feather beds should be inclosed in cases that may be removed and washed at intervals. Mattresses should be well aired and dusted.

        Basins, pitchers, etc. belonging to chambers should be washed daily in hot water and soap, then rinsed in pure water.

        A damp cloth should be laid under your ironstand, so as to prevent scorching your ironing-sheet.

        Starch should be well boiled, with a bit of spermaceti or mutton tallow in it; a small bit of gum arabic will give it a fine gloss.

        Very little bluing should be used. Soap should

Page 22

be well rinsed out of clothes, particularly those of infants, as it is apt to irritate the skin.

        Flannels should not be passed from hot water to cold. This will cause them to shrink. Wash and rinse them in milk-warm water, then shake them well.

        Pots and all other cooking-utensils should have water in them before exposure to the fire, as to pour it in after the vessel becomes hot will cause it to crack, if of iron or earthenware; if of tin, it will become unsoldered when very hot.

        Custards and puddings should invariably be made of new milk, otherwise it will be apt to curdle.

        Flour should always be sifted before being used; so should meal, and farinas of all kinds. Flour should be dried for cakes.

        Potatoes, apples, etc., designed for puddings or pies, should be stewed and passed through a hair sieve or colander.

        Milk should be set in a cool place in summer, where it will be safe from dust or insects, but uncovered.

        Cream should not be churned till it becomes thick, slightly sour, and at a temperature of sixty-two; then it will yield its butter quickly, and of the best quality.

        Churns should be aired daily, and well scalded with boiling water before being used.

        Scald your wooden paddle, and then immediately plunge it in cold water, to prevent the butter from sticking to it.

Page 23

        Vegetables should be gathered before the sun becomes warm.

        Snap-beans should be divested of the strings or tough fiber on each side.

        Squashes, turnips, etc. should be cut up before boiling.

        Butter should be washed before being used for cooking sauces or puddings.

        None but the purest lard should be used in cooking.

        Baking-pans should be well greased with sweet lard or unsalted butter.

        Apples, pears, peaches, and the like, should be pared and cored before cooking.

        Cherries, plums, and grapes should be stoned.

        Almonds should be shelled and blanched before they are weighed for cakes or any other culinary preparation.

        Cocoanuts should be carefully divested of the dark skin before being grated; lemons and oranges, of the seeds before being used.

        Meats, fresh vegetables, and puddings should always be put in boiling water, dried vegetables or fruits, in cold water, to boil.

        Salt meats should be soaked in cold or milk-warm water before being broiled or fried.

        Fish, meats, and poultry should be well and carefully washed.

        Rice should be carefully divested of any gravel or sand, and washed in several waters before boiling.

        Salt should be kept covered in a dry place.

Page 24

        Pepper and spices should be ground or pounded fine; so should coffee.

        The reader must not look for the reiterated charge, to use clean utensils, in giving receipts. This must be presupposed after reading the chapter on Kitchens.

        When boiling meat, fish, poultry, or any kind of vegetables or soups, your pot should be well skimmed. In preserving, this operation should also be carefully performed.

        Boil okras in a stew-pan to a mucilage before adding them to soup, or they will turn it black. Your stew-pan should be of porcelain. Iron causes the blackness.

        Never leave matches in the way of small children, as they invariably put everything in the mouth, and the substance on the end is a deadly poison.

        In making your coffee by a French strainer, keep it perfectly still while dripping. If you move it about it will not be clear.

        When direction is given in this book to use a teaspoonful of soda, a level spoonful is meant, with all the lumps rubbed out.

        Lemon-juice is the best acid for combination with soda in cookery, and next to it good cider vinegar,--three tablespoonfuls to one level teaspoonful of soda. I never use yeast powders, or any kind of quackery, because unexplained.

        Keep grape wines long on the lees before bottling,--say a year: the flavor is finer.

        All blankets and other woolen coverings for

Page 25

beds should be washed at least once a year. In the spring is the best time.

        Make it an invariable rule to pay your servants promptly, and require of them to remunerate you as promptly in their services. Thus you deprive them of excuse for non-performance of duty.

        Salt should never be added to soups, stews, or gravies till just before serving. If added early in their preparation, as the substance boils down the salt becomes too intense, and there is no remedy for it, whereas it may be added at the table if not sufficient.

        Dr. Kitchener, a famous English professional cook, says, "There never was a good cook that was not a taster."

        In jams of all kinds the fruit should be subjected to the boiling process till reduced one-half before the sugar is added, otherwise they are apt to be burned.

YOUR TEA-KETTLE.

        --A good housekeeper will always inspect her tea-kettle, as from experience she must have discovered that most servants are extremely careless and indifferent to the care of this article in household economy. Water is very apt to be left in the kettle at night, and in the morning it is often filled for breakfast without previously emptying and rinsing it. Of course there are many worthy exceptions in servants, still it is very necessary occasionally to attend to this important matter, even with the most trustworthy; and never should you omit to give instructions in this particular

Page 26

when a new cook or dining-room servant is introduced into the household.

        Tea-kettles should be emptied and washed out with soap and water after using, as regularly as the cups and saucers are washed. They should be wiped dry and turned up open, that no rust may form inside. When to be used, they should be rinsed out with cold water at the pump or well, filled, and placed over a clear fire to boil.

        Water that has been standing in the house is not fit to be used for coffee or tea. Unwholesome gases are apt to be imbibed from the air in which persons have been breathing for even an hour. Standing water is unwholesome to drink; it should be often replaced with fresh.

CELLARS.

        --Examine your cellars frequently at all seasons, especially in spring, when vegetables are sprouting and decaying. The effluvia from decomposing vegetable matter will engender disease. Have everything of the kind removed, with all mouldy articles, boxes, barrels, tubs, especially such as have contained vegetables, pickles, either of meats or vegetables, fish or spirits, vinegar, wines, or decaying matter of any kind. Leave the doors and windows open frequently for airing; whitewash at least once a year, and fumigate, if any disagreeable odors be present, with chloride of lime. Attention to such matters may save the lives of your family. Surely worth the pains. Typhoid fevers, cholera, etc. are engendered in this way.

        Never suffer a foul drain, gutter, or sink to have

Page 27

place in your establishment. If you find it necessary to have a sink in your kitchen for carrying off water, take care it is scalded out every day with hot lye or soapsuds.

        Manure piles should be placed as far as possible from the house and covered with charcoal.

        In the autumn, when the leaves become dry and fall from the trees around your house, have them gathered out of your yards and put away in some convenient place, to cover your potato-beds in the spring. They make excellent manure, too. But having deprived your trees of this natural fertilizer, take care to sprinkle around them a good supply of pulverized manure or guano. Especially on your grass-plots should you do this.

        When wood is cut, have all the chips of any size picked up and put away for kindling fires, leaving the small ones to become manure for your garden. These form a very superior fertilizer, especially for flowers.

CLEANING HOUSE.

        --In February, at the South, on some bright day, have all your beds moved out into the sun, shaken, dusted, and searched well. Search in every seam and corner; and while the beds are sunning, search over all your bedsteads. Wipe them over with cold soapsuds, and carefully stop every crack, seam, and screw-hole with hard turpentine soap, in which you have mingled pepper or a little sulphur.

        This is rather too early for your general house-cleaning, but for the above-mentioned purpose it is the best, as vermin begin to lose their torpor

Page 28

about this time, and bestir themselves to prepare for a progeny. Eggs are laid in this month, and in twenty-four hours you may be overrun with this most disgusting nuisance.

WHITEWASHING.

        --About the first of May you may take up your carpets, whitewash your walls and ceilings, wash your windows and paint.

        Get a bushel of unslacked lime, slack it in a barrel with boiling water, then add about a gallon of flour-paste, and a little bluing, to improve the whiteness. This will be sufficient for your whole house. Add water till it is of a proper consistency. Your barrel will be nearly full. Cover it close till ready for use. An old brush, half-worn out, will make the smoothest walls. Take care to shake off all the superfluous wash before applying the brush to the walls, otherwise you will waste your material, and unnecessarily increase your labor in divesting the floors and paint of the whitewash falling from the brush. Begin up-stairs, do one room at a time, and do not sleep in the rooms on the night after they have been whitewashed.

WASHING PAINT AND WINDOWS.

        --Wash your paint with weak soda-water; rinse it with clear water immediately, or it will take off too much of the paint.

        Wash your windows in the same way, and wipe them dry with old newspapers. If they are discolored, use a little whiting, and carefully wipe it all off, when dry, with newspapers. This leaves no lint.

THE LYE-STAND.

        --Insist on all your wood-ashes

Page 29

being saved to make the family soap. It is a great item in the economy of housekeeping. Let your servants understand at once that you will not buy soap when there are abundant materials at home for its manufacture.

        Any ordinary carpenter can make you a lyestand; and if you are so situated that there is not one at hand, a common cask or barrel, placed on a form and raised about three feet from the ground, will answer very well. Let the two front legs of the stand be a little lower than the two behind, that the lye may drip the better. Have a hole bored with an auger in the bottom of the cask near the front, and fit in it a plug. When this is all ready, throw a gallon of lime on the bottom of the barrel or cask, fill it with new ashes, dampen them slightly, and suffer them so to remain for three weeks; then pour a plentiful supply of boiling water on the ashes, draw off the lye, and make your soap by the receipts in this book.

BATHING.

        --Nothing is more conducive to health than cleanliness; nothing more comforting and delightful than ample bathing conveniences. Be sure and provide well for yourself and family in this department.

        Cold bathing I practice myself, winter and summer, and never have in one instance taken cold from the practice. If you cannot bear an immersion-bath, sponge all over with a rapid motion, and rub dry with a coarse towel. This will keep the pores of the skin in a healthy state, while your frame will be greatly invigorated. At any rate,

Page 30

bathe frequently, even though the peculiar temperament of your system will not favor the enjoyment of cold water,--use it in a tepid state. It is a passing wonder to me that any should deny themselves this great luxury, which costs nothing but a little profitable exertion.

        Cleanliness is, without doubt, the greatest preservative to health yet known to mortals, not only the introduction of pure air into the lungs by breathing, but the resolute and constant avoidance of a contact with impurity either of body or mind, and it is very rarely found that the scrupulously clean in body are unclean in spirit. To wash the body daily in pure water creates an aversion to moral uncleanness. The blessed precept of the divine Sermon on the Mount is ever suggested to the mind in this daily practice,--"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Therefore we are the more inclined to lift up "clean hands and a pure heart" to our Maker. On the other hand, a person who is content with an unclean body will not be averse to the uncleanness of sin.

Page 31

THE LAUNDRY.

        This department should be supplied with ample and suitable conveniences for the work in hand, such as a substantial ironing-table, with a drawer in which to put away, when out of use, the ironing-cloths, rings, crimping-irons, and clothes-pins. The flat-irons should be slightly greased, and placed on a shelf over the ironing-table.

        There should be a skirt-board, and a low, long table for the tubs while the washing is going on; it should be long enough to hold three tubs, as clothes after washing and boiling should always pass through three rinsing waters, the last having a slight tinge of bluing.

        There should be at least six flat-irons, two rings, and a crimping-iron, two dozen clothes-pins, and an ample line on which to hang the clothes. This very necessary article should be taken due care of, and so managed as to be easily taken within-doors as soon as the clothes are removed, as the night dews and the rain will rot it in a very short time if left exposed to their influence. A good and ample clothes-line will cost a dollar, or at least seventy-five cents; and even twenty-five cents saved in clothes-lines, and many other items of house expenses, will amount to no inconsiderable sum in the course of twelve months, to distribute, if you please, among the needy of the parish, thus securing their prayers for your prosperity, and an addition to your substantial treasures in the time to come.

Page 32

        Six tubs, a large clothes-basket, a brass kettle for boiling starch, an ironing-sheet and blanket, with two coarse cloths for straining starch, a copper kettle for boiling clothes, a pair of tongs and a shovel, a good and ample clothes-horse, compose the most necessary implements in effecting the work of the laundry satisfactorily.

        In making your starch, take care that it is thoroughly boiled, otherwise it will not iron smoothly or nicely. Drop in a small bit of spermaceti or mutton tallow while boiling. This will cause it to iron smoothly, and give an agreeable gloss to the surface of the article ironed.

        Servants have generally little idea of proportion, and in bluing clothes they seem to have a propensity to color too highly. This should be restricted, as it deprives the clothes of that snowy appearance, which is their greatest beauty.

        Table-cloths, pillow - cases, table - napkins, and under-clothes of all kinds should have but very little starch. This, too, is a matter necessary to be attended to, as servants have little judgment generally in starching clothes. Shirt-collars, cuffs, and bosoms to shirts, frills, dresses, and caps, of course require more starch. Towels, sheets, and the like should be slightly blued, but not starched.

        I have found by personal experience that the following is far the best mode of washing clothes. The labor is much less than in the usual mode, the clothes are subject to less wear and tear, much time is saved, and I earnestly recommend it to every young housekeeper. It is of the utmost importance

Page 33

to begin right, for then you are not in danger of becoming prejudiced in favor of an uncertain or wrong way.

        Slack five (5) pounds of best lime with five pounds of sal soda in two gallons of boiling water; let it settle, and strain the liquor into a large jug; then pour on the lime and soda two gallons more of water, stirring it well; allow it to settle again, and strain as before, adding this liquor also to the jug, or jugs if necessary. To this mixture add a pint of spirits of turpentine and an ounce of sal ammoniac. Stop it up close.

        On Monday morning sort your clothes. Have ready three large tubs; then take a quart of good soft soap (or dissolved hard soap); add to this twelve tablespoonfuls of the mixture from the jug, as above prepared. Mix it well with the soap, and put into the three tubs half a pint of the soap for each; then fill the tubs two-thirds with lukewarm water; with your hand or a spoon mix the soap well with the water; after which put in your clothes to soak half an hour. Put the remaining half pint of soap into your boiling-kettle. While the white clothes are soaking, make your starch, and wash your flannels and colored clothes. Flannels should be washed out quickly in warm soap-suds, and rinsed in water of the same temperature, otherwise they will be sure to shrink. Shake them out quickly, and hang them out to dry. Don't wring them. This will be sure to shrink them.

        Have ready three tubs on your long table near your boiling-kettle, each nearly full of clean water,

Page 34

the last tinged slightly with bluing. Having your starch-tub conveniently at hand, now rub the collars and wristbands of the shirts, the hems of skirts, and the feet of stockings; no more; then put the clothes in the boiler, as many as it will hold, slightly wringing them. While they are boiling, finish washing and hanging out your colored clothes, or strain your starch. As soon as these have boiled, remove them to the nearest rinsing-tub, and put more into the boiler. Then rinse in the three waters, starch, and hang out the boiled clothes, and proceed with the rest of the clothes in the same way till the whole are hung out.

        All this may be done in the course of the morning, and the colored clothes and flannels may easily be ironed in the same afternoon. In this way time, labor, soap, and water may be greatly saved, besides fatigue and pains from long standing, rubbing, and stooping over the wash-tub. Besides, your clothes will be saved from the certain wear and tear of the wash-board.

        The same water which soaked and boiled the mistress's clothes will do the same for those of the servants.

        SPRINKLING.--Clothes should be sprinkled sufficiently to dampen them throughout, then folded by a thread, rolled up tightly, and laid in the clothes-basket, closely packed, so as to preserve the dampness throughout the whole mass. Clothes should be covered closely from the air, too. At least an hour is necessary for them to remain thus till ironed.

Page 35

        Clothes should never be dampened the night before ironing, especially in summer, for fear of mildew, which is the most difficult of all stains to remove. In winter this might answer a good purpose, provided the clothes be placed out of the danger of freezing.

        In summer, clothes should not be dampened in too large a quantity to iron in one day; and if this is ever done, those remaining unironed should be shaken out, and hung up to dry, as otherwise they will be sure to become mildewed before morning. Clothes, to be well ironed, should be evenly and thoroughly dampened,--but, observe, merely dampened, not wet. Extremes of all kinds are bad, and in this case extremely troublesome,--consuming much time, and very often with bad effect to the articles so managed. At the same time, if clothes are only partially dampened, or left dry in spots, they will look very badly after being ironed.

        IRONING,--After placing your ironing-blanket and sheet on the table, take care to place a coarse piece of cloth, wet, under your ironing-ring before commencing, to prevent scorching your sheet and blanket; and when it becomes dry wet it again. Unfold, and lay your article before you by a thread, passing the iron over it in the same way. Always iron by a thread. Your clothes will look much better.

        Place your clothes-horse in the air, or near the fire, that the clothes may be dried rapidly; and as soon as dry remove them, so as to make room for others. Never place a double layer of ironed

Page 36

clothes on your horse,--it gives them a tumbled look, they are apt to remain damp, and if you have not a conscientious and thoughtful laundry-maid, you are in danger of having the clothes placed in the wardrobe in a damp state. This would endanger your health and the health of your family. If you are not so fortunate as to have a careful person in this department, attend to the airing of your clothes yourself.

        Your laundry-maid should be instructed to sort the clothes (separating those which require mending) before placing them in the wardrobe. Those requiring repair should be brought to your notice or that of your seamstress.

        Especially your husband's shirts should never be put away without buttons, his drawers without strings, or his stockings with holes. Before you have been long married you will find this one of the greatest annoyances a man can be subjected to. Would it not be far better to be careful and please him in this matter than to endanger the harmony which should subsist in married life? Who can tell what a spirit of discord may be waked up by the absence of a button? Be wise in time.

        Never suffer your laundry-maid to put away unironed articles till the next week. Insist on having everything brought in and counted. Of course you counted them before giving them out.

        If the washing was all done in one day, two days are quite sufficient for the ironing; and the clothes should be brought in on Thursday morning, having been well aired through Wednesday night.

Page 37

        As soon as all the ironing is done, and the clothes taken out of the laundry, have all the tubs scoured, sunned, and turned up in a convenient place till required again. Never suffer washing-suds to remain in them, as this causes a disagreeable odor, is uncleanly, and besides will injure your tubs.

        In order to render clothes fire-proof, mix 25 parts tungstate of soda and 4 parts phosphate of soda; then dissolve them in 100 parts water. Starch your clothes first, then immerse them in the above solution; after which dry and iron them. Those you do not wish to starch, dip in the solution also. It will be well to use this solution for children's clothes, as they have not generally the precaution of older persons, and often endanger themselves by approaching too near the fire.

        Wet your table-cloths, napkins, etc., also children's clothes, with alcohol, after eating fruits of any kind, before putting them in the wash, and you will find them stainless when they come in.

        If salt is put immediately on the table-cloth, when wine or other substance likely to stain is spilled on it, there will be no fear of its remaining.

        Ink stains may be removed from clothes by soaking them in oxalic water. Be careful of this water, as it is a deadly poison. Throw it out immediately after it has had its effect. Never leave it in the way of children, or even dumb animals.

Page 38

THE DAIRY.

        A dairy should be placed near a running stream, or a well or pump. It should be under the shade of trees, in a situation where the fresh air is constantly passing through it. It should not be surrounded by other buildings.

        Your dairy should contain a number of shelves, so constructed that water may flow over them, and under the pans of milk in warm weather. Fresh water should be supplied at least three times a day, if you cannot so arrange your dairy as to have running water always passing over the shelves.

        These shelves should be scalded at least every two days, and thoroughly scoured once a week. If milk is spilled on them, immediately remove it, as if left it will create a disagreeable taste and odor in the milk and butter.

        All the utensils used in your dairy should be scalded, scoured, and sunned every day if possible.

        Your milk should be taken immediately from the cows to the dairy, and there strained into shallow pans of china, glass, earthenware, or metal. Wooden vessels should never be used. Cool your pans with fresh water before straining the milk into them.

        As soon as the milk is strained into the pans, the milk-pail, strainer, and dipper should be immediately washed with fresh cold water, then scalded and scoured with hot soap and water, well

Page 39

rinsed with cold water, wiped dry, and placed on a convenient shelf in the sun, if the weather is fine, or if otherwise, on a high shelf in the dairy.

        CHURNING IN SUMMER.--Keep your milk and cream as cool as possible, and churn slowly.

        Take especial care to wash your butter well, and keep it cool, in a dry place, unless you have ice; in that case, it will be in less danger of mould or disagreeable odors of any kind.

        Skim your morning's milk in the evening in summer; add the cream to the night's milking when you wish to churn; let it stand till morning, and churn before sunrise.

        When you propose churning in winter, scald your churn with boiling water; pour out the water, and immediately pour in your cream, with about a pint of butter-milk from your previous churning, and a pan or two of new milk, according to the size of your churn. Your churn should never be more than half-full. Set your churn near the fire, but not so near as to become hot; it should be only moderately warm. Turn it frequently.

        When the cream has become firm, or bonny-clabber, it is ready for churning. Scald your dasher and top; then immerse them in cold water, to prevent the butter from sticking to them, and churn somewhat rapidly till the butter is coming, then churn slowly to gather it.

        If the temperature is sixty or sixty-five, the butter will come in twenty minutes, or sometimes in less time. You will save much time by attending to this matter.

Page 40

        As soon as the butter and butter-milk are removed from the churn, it should be washed thoroughly with warm soapsuds, then rinsed with cold water, in which you have mingled a small cup of lye or soda water. Then rinse with fresh water, and, after wiping it dry, place it in the sun, or on a dry shelf in your dairy, as the case may be.

        Wash your butter with tepid water, press all the water out, and salt it to your taste; add to the salt a very little pounded white sugar.

        Scald your wooden bowl and paddle; then dip them in cold water, before washing and salting your butter. Then make it into cakes, and print it or cross it over with your paddle. Unless you have a very large dairy, and a great quantity of butter, I would not recommend using the hands to wash and press butter. In that case I suppose it is more convenient, though not so neat as the former mode.

        If you are not so situated as to have a regular dairy and dairy-maid, choose the coolest place in your culinary departments to keep your milk and butter in. Let it be a dry place also; dampness will cause mould. In winter choose a moderately warm place.

        If you have a veranda at the rear of your house, and a perforated tin safe, this is a good place in summer for your milk, though a refrigerator, with ice, would be better still.

CHEESE.

        --Keep four gallons of milk twenty-four hours, then skim it, and add to the cream three gallons of new milk. Put it in a kettle and bring

Page 41

it to a boiling heat. Then add a teaspoonful of rennet-brandy, when the curds will separate from the whey in ten minutes. Drain off the whey, add a teaspoonful of salt and one of powdered loaf-sugar. Pack your curds down smoothly in a hoop, placed on a clean board; cover it with a board a little smaller than the hoop, and place a weight on it. Let it remain twenty-four hours, take it out, rub it over with a mixture of flour and butter, then place it in the sun to dry. Turn it frequently. A day will be sufficient. Then lay your cheese on a shelf in your dairy, when the air will complete the drying.

RENNET.

        --Take the stomach or maw of a calf two or three days old.*

        * If you cannot procure so young a calf, one of a month old will do; but the stomach should be washed from the first salting, and salted the second time before drying. It should be washed slightly.


Empty it, wipe it dry, and salt it well; then hang it up to dry. Keep it in this state ten or twelve months; then cut it up in small pieces, and, after placing it in a wide-mouthed bottle, with the rind and juice of a lemon, a little mace and sugar, fill the bottle with good brandy. A teaspoonful of this brandy will be sufficient for seven or eight gallons of milk, and it should be a small teaspoonful.

        To prevent a cow from milking herself, fasten leather straps around her head and muzzle in the form of an ordinary bridle, with similar straps leading from the muzzle to a leather band around the body (each side) just over the shoulder, where

Page 42

there should be a buckle to fasten it to the band. Buckles are necessary, as the straps are apt to

Illustration

stretch. These straps should be loose enough for the cow to graze, but just barely so.

        This apparatus is perfectly effectual, as in the attempt to turn the head either side the opposite strap will prevent the cow from effecting her object. This is the most comfortable of any mode yet known to effect this object.

        Feed your cows well, if you would have them give you a bountiful supply of milk. Give them (each) three times a day a bucket of warm water, with a little salt, and two quarts of bran or meal, besides always keeping by them as much hay or fodder as they will eat. Boiled peas and cotton seed are excellent for food if bran is not convenient; but three buckets of the preparation above mentioned should be given daily, or what is an equivalent.

        Warm water is necessary in winter, as cows drink very little cold water, and water is absolutely necessary to produce milk,--a bucket four times a day.

        Curry your cows daily, and house them at night,

Page 43

particularly in cold or rainy weather. Calves also should be kept under cover and well fed. Give them at least half the mother's milk till they learn to eat; and as gradually as they eat more heartily, you may lessen their portion of milk. Some persons teach their calves to drink skimmed milk.

        The best mode of managing a calf is to take it immediately as it is calved from the cow and place it in a separate inclosure; then milk the cow and take the milk to the calf. Now put your hand under the surface of the milk, and raising the three first fingers, thrust them into the mouth of the calf. As soon as it tastes the milk it will begin to suck the fingers. It will continue to do this as long as there is any milk for it. After a few times you may lower the fingers till the mouth of the calf enters the milk; it will thus learn to drink in a very short time.

        Take care that your cow is always thoroughly milked. If the udder is hard or swollen, wash it two or three times a day in greasy warm water. Indeed, if a cow's udder is swollen and hard before the calf arrives, she ought to be milked every day, and the udder rubbed well with the hand, using warm water, otherwise it will become very troublesome when the flow of milk takes place after the calving. And as soon as the calving is completed the cow should have a good pail of bran and warm water. If the bran is browned a little it will be the better.

        Both cow and calf should be kept under cover in winter, and, indeed, in all wet or windy days.

Page 44

Some persons keep their milch cows tied up to the manger always. I consider this a cruel custom, as every creature of a beneficent God should have liberty to enjoy itself in its own way, and this cannot be in "durance vile." Besides, cows as well as the human species require exercise in furtherance of a healthy digestion of food.

        Do not suffer your young calf to remain with the cow, even before the milk becomes good, for all experience shows that if all the milk is not drawn entirely from the animal it causes it to decrease in quality. The calf takes it at irregular intervals, as it wishes, often leaving much in the udder, especially when the cow gives a great yield of milk. The best way is to keep the calf from the cow altogether; but if this is not preferred, milk the cow two or three times a day, always before allowing the calf to take his share; this will cause it to draw off every drop of the milk: when immediately separate them. I have no doubt that cows have the power of withholding their milk. This they never do but for their calf. If the calf is never allowed to touch the udder, the cow will never hold up her milk.

        Cows should be dealt with very gently and kindly, and if this is done from the first, they are never guilty of tricks.

        If your cow suffers with colic from overeating, rub the stomach and bowels with spirits of turpentine. It will afford almost instant relief. If she has diarrhoea, give parched bran, never Indian meal.

Page 45

POULTRY.

        Your fowl-house should be well ventilated, and supplied with abundant roosting-poles. The nests should be supplied with clean straw, separated and situated out of the way of the roosts.

        Your fowl-house should be swept clean once a week at least, and sprinkled with sand, charcoal, and lime. It should be fumigated at least once in three weeks with sulphur and tobacco to destroy the vermin. Your water-troughs should be emptied daily, and filled with fresh water. Eggs from insects, which abound in foul water, often are taken up into the mouth and nostrils of chickens, pass into the windpipes and produce worms, which cause the gapes, and so kill the chickens.

        Young turkeys, geese, ducks, and chickens require animal food,--without it they are apt to be weak and sickly. Mix a hard-boiled egg and a little red pepper in the dough with which you feed them. Feed them in the morning and at noon; never near night, as chickens suffer sometimes with dyspepsia from want of exercise after eating; the dough becomes sour on the stomach, and causes the craw to swell, which often kills them.

        Have a hole cut in your hen-house door just large enough for the hens to enter; but keep the door locked that the eggs may be safe. If you intend to rear chickens, take the eggs out of the nests every day,--all but the nest-egg,--and keep

Page 46

them in a warm place in winter, and a cool place in summer. Turn them daily, and be careful not to shake them.

        When a hen sits on a nest steadily for twenty-four hours, pecks at you, and ruffles up her feathers when you touch her, then you may safely put the eggs under her for sitting; but if she leaves the nest on your approach, do not trust your eggs under her, as she is not in earnest, and the eggs will be spoiled.

        Do not trouble your hen while she is hatching,--wait till she voluntarily leaves her nest with all her brood; then transfer her to a convenient little coop, all to herself, in some quiet, grassy nook, where her chickens can run about enjoying themselves, returning at their pleasure to her maternal care. Keep a plate or pan of clean water near by, both for mother and chickens. In this way you will scarcely lose a chicken.

        Turkeys, geese, and ducks may be dealt with in the same way till half-grown.

        Such coops should always have bars in front, open enough for the young to go out and in; but there should be a board the full size of the front of the coop to let down at night and in bad weather. This door should not be raised in the morning till the dew is off the grass, nor in rainy weather.

        Feed your grown fowls of every kind once a day well. Grain is best and most convenient. Give them in the morning as much as they will eat. This will be amply sufficient. If they are industrious they will find plenty of animal food during

Page 47

the day for themselves in the form of bugs and other insects.

        To FATTEN POULTRY.--Have a light coop, without a floor, that your cook can easily move about. Have it sufficiently large to contain eight or ten fowls without crowding them. Feed them twice a day plentifully with warm mush. This, with clean water and fresh gravel every day, will fatten them well in six or eight days.

        Before you kill the last pair, put in six or eight more fowls, and proceed as before with them. Move the coop to a clean place every day. Fowls, turkeys, geese, or ducks may be thus dealt with to advantage.

        Spring chickens should not be killed till fully as large as partridges, and should be very fat. Broil them nicely, and butter them plentifully, or make of them a rich chicken-pie.

        If you ever find it necessary to kill an old tough fowl, give it a spoonful of sharp vinegar half an hour before you kill it. Keep it as long as the weather will allow, and then parboil it before roasting. Another way is to cover the fowl (after killing and cleaning it) with fig leaves for twenty-four hours.

        "It is said to be a fixed fact that old women who live in cottages know best how to rear chickens. They are more successful; and this may be traced to the fact that they keep but few fowls, and these are allowed to run in the house, to roll in the ashes, to approach the fire, to pick up crumbs, and are nursed with care and indulgence. By warmth

Page 48

and judicious feeding a hen may be made to lay far more and richer eggs than she otherwise would."

        Wheat and Indian corn are the best grains for fowls. Occasionally a little refuse meat of any kind will improve them; also milk in which Indian meal or scraps of wheaten bread are mingled. When drooping, give a little sulphur and red pepper in their food.

THE GARDEN.

        The garden may be either, strictly speaking, a pleasure-garden to gratify the eye, or a kitchen-garden to furnish the table with vegetables. The former may to a certain extent be connected with the latter, uniting the agreeable with the useful, but should then be considered subordinate.

        The following directions are principally for the kitchen-garden, and as its object is to produce an abundant supply of desirable vegetables on a limited space, to cultivate it advantageously it is necessary to attend to the following particulars:

  • 1. The site or exposure of the garden.
  • 2. The soil.
  • 3. The form.
  • 4. Manuring.
  • 5. Tillage.
  • 6. Occupation by different crops, either together or in immediate succession.

        1. The site, or rather the exposure of the garden, should be as nearly as possible to the south or

Page 49

southeast, and as it is important to have the ground as level as possible, if the spot selected should naturally slope, as, for instance, on a hillside, it should be terraced, that is, thrown up into level beds, one above the other, taking care to plant the sloping boundaries of each terrace with grass or clover, or, if your garden is not of ample dimensions, with strawberry-vines, thus saving your beds for other purposes. This will not only protect your beds from washing in heavy rains, but will be very ornamental.

        2. The soil should be what is termed a sandy loam, that is, a due admixture of clay, sand, and vegetable matter. The character of the soil, however, is best determined for the beginner by asking the advice of persons skilled in such matters, or by taking some one of the popular horticultural publications, which may be obtained at the store of Orange Judd & Co., 245 Broadway, New York. Your garden should be free of stones; if there originally, they should be gathered up and removed. If your soil is sandy, improve it by the addition of clay; if clayey, by the addition of sand.

        3. The best form for a kitchen-garden is a square; so should the divisions be.

        4. Manuring should be done chiefly in the autumn, winter, or early spring months. If manures are applied in summer months, they should be either well decomposed or in a liquid state, as with guano or manure from the hen-house or dove-cot.

        If manures are judiciously applied, a garden can

Page 50

hardly have too much, especially in the culture of cauliflowers, cabbages, or Irish potatoes. An excellent manure for the last is wood-ashes, whether lixiviated or not, especially the latter, since the tuber of the potato contains a great deal of potash.

        For roots, as beets, carrots, etc., coarse manures should not be used. Guano and other condensed fertilizers may be employed, if applied in a furrow and covered over; the seed being drilled in above.

        5. Tillage. If the garden is to be plowed, it should be done as deeply as the plow will penetrate, and the nature of the soil permit. If it is to be dug, the best implement for the purpose is a four-pronged steel garden fork.

        6. For the simultaneous growth, or for the succession of crops, it is necessary to determine before-hand what vegetables are chiefly desired, and the places in the garden they are intended to occupy, what others with least interference may be planted with them, and what to succeed them. As, for instance, suppose peas are required; these are best sown in double rows, of from eight to ten inches apart; these double rows being from three to four feet apart, according as the pea planted is a low or tall grower. In the intervals may be sown early radishes or lettuce, or there may be planted early cabbages from the sowing of the previous autumn. The peas may be succeeded by winter cabbages or celery. The best peas for cultivation are Landreth's or Buist's extra early, and the Eugenie.

        Early potatoes may be succeeded by turnips or Winningstadt cabbages.

Page 51

        The cultivation of celery is a very suitable preparation of the soil for the root crop, as beets, carrots, parsnips, or salsify.

        For the advantageous cultivation of the garden, the following maxims among others should be well remembered and acted upon: "A stitch in time saves nine," or, in other words, "that weeds just making their appearance are a hundred times more easily eradicated than if suffered to grow to any size;" "That any plant of any kind out of place is a weed;" "That one year's seeding makes a seven years' weeding." No weed, therefore, should ever be allowed to go to seed. A clean garden is not only gratifying to the eye, but is absolutely necessary to profitable cultivation.

        For saving seed always select the best plants, generally the earliest; and if you wish to have your seed in perfection, select from these chosen plants the best stems, branches, or pods. For instance, for seed peas, set apart the most promising row or rows, removing from these all the small and late formed pods, and when those left behind are thoroughly dried, put them in dry bottles, and cork them tight, to destroy the eggs of the curculio deposited in them.

        Gather all your seed of every kind in dry weather, then, having dried them well and thoroughly in the shade, put them up in bottles or paper-bags, or close drawers, safe from the mice or insects.

To CULTIVATE ASPARAGUS.

        --Cover the whole space intended to be occupied by asparagus with

Page 52

at least six or eight inches of strong stable manure, well mixed with wood-ashes and lime, then lay off the beds according to the size of the ground prepared for asparagus, allowing two feet for each walk between the beds, throwing up the rich earth from the walks on the beds. After this it would be advisable, before planting, to suffer the beds to remain a short time to settle, and then to be forked over with a four-pronged garden fork, and raked level.

        The planting of these beds may be done either with seed or plants one or two years old. If you sow with seeds, soak them one or two days in tepid water, and plant them at a depth of three or four inches, and at a distance of sixteen or eighteen inches apart, one seed in each place. Sow thinly in a rich spot a number of seeds, to supply with plants any deficiency from seed not germinating in the beds. After this every fifty feet should be sown with at least a gallon of salt.

        Every autumn the asparagus-beds should be covered with six or eight inches of coarse stable manure, and this forked in carefully in the spring. With this treatment you may begin to cut your asparagus a little in the second year.

CELERY.

        --Sow the seed early in the spring in moist, rich ground. When the plants are from four to six inches high, transplant in trenches four inches deep and nine wide, three feet from trench to trench. Set the plants six inches apart in the row. The soil for celery can scarcely be too rich in manure of the proper description; it should be

Page 53

well decayed, and not of a drying nature. In dry weather a good supply of water or soapsuds is essential. The latter the best material that can be used. Some cultivators earth up at intervals, while others permit the plants to attain their full growth, and earth up all at once, which is best. About the first of October the earthing up may proceed without injury; but let it be done firmly and evenly and on a sloping direction from the base to nearly the top of the leaves. Should the weather become very severe, dry leaves or straw should be spread over the plants.--Buist's Almanac.

        But an experienced and celebrated gardener has given me the following directions for a celery-bed, and as I know his celery is excellent, I shall state his plan:

        Suppose you have a bed fifty feet square; set it off in five feet divisions, two and a half feet from the outer edges. This will contain nine divisions, five for celery; excavate the first, third, fifth, and seventh for celery.

        Have a plank ten or eleven inches wide and five feet long. Lay it across the bed, let it have notches cut on the side seven inches apart, the outer notches nine inches from the edges of the plank. Set your

Illustration

plants under the notches, and mark the width of the plank on the ground before you move further,

Page 54

then move the plank its width, planting as you go, in rows ten to eleven inches apart, and the plants seven inches apart in the rows, till the whole trench is planted. This is most convenient, as you stand on the board while planting the celery, and avoid trampling the bed. Have a stick to make the holes to set the plants in.

        As this is not a very severely cold climate, the celery is usually left in the trench till needed. In colder climates it is usually taken up and buried in cellars with loose earth.

CAULIFLOWERS.

        --To grow the cauliflower to perfection, prepare a bed of light, rich soil, two feet deep, and one-third of it to be composed of well-decomposed manure. Select an open exposure, sheltered from the northwest. The whole to be surrounded with a close frame, and covered with glass shutters. It should be prepared about the first of October. Allow the beds two weeks to settle before planting. Lift the plants carefully from the seed-bed, and plant them in the frame, eighteen inches apart, each way. Give a gentle watering to the plants; and press the earth down firmly. Between each of these plants lettuce may be planted, which will head during the winter or early spring, before the cauliflowers form any size. Should the flowers open more rapidly than desired, they can be retarded by closing the leaves over them. Best varieties are the Half-early Paris, Early Erfurt, and Walcheren.--Buist's Almanac.

COLD-FRAMES AND HOT-BEDS.

        --A frame of boards, six feet long and five wide, facing the south, in a

Page 55

dry situation, with the north board one foot wide, the south board six inches, covered with movable glass sashes, and the earth within covered with a good coating of well-rotted manure, or rich earth, composes what is called a cold-frame, in which to sow seeds in the autumn or winter months, so as to have plants to set out as soon as the frost is gone. These are all that will be necessary in this latitude; for the North a hotbed is sometimes necessary.

        Hotbeds are made in the same way as above, except that fresh stable manure is used, with a thin covering of rich earth in which to sow the seeds. But even at the North seeds sown in a hotbed will be destroyed by the great heat arising from the fresh manure, unless managed very carefully. They should be watched, and the glasses or boards or cloths moved when too much heat is observed. Melons, cucumbers, tomatoes, cabbages, cauliflowers, and lettuce may be obtained very early in spring by these means.

        For the cultivation of superior vegetables I recommend Buist's Family Kitchen Gardener, Philadelphia, and in that you will find the best modes of preparing celery - beds, cold - frames, hotbeds, cold-pits, etc., which my limits will not allow me the space to describe as fully or as perfectly.

        For the flower-garden, use Buist's Flower-garden Directory.

        For the culture of pears, Field's Pear Culture.

        For Bees, Quinby's Mysteries of Bee Keeping.

        For the culture of grapes, Chorlton's Grape Growers' Guide.

Page 56

HOW TO PLANT A GRAPE-VINE.

        --Each year's experience adds to the popularity of the grape as a table-fruit, which should be enjoyed by the poorer classes as well as the rich, for the expense and care necessary to grow and manage three, four, or half a dozen grape-vines is a mere trifle in comparison to the luxury of having an abundance of this delicious fruit. In fact, no person owning or even leasing a house and garden, no matter how limited their means may be, should rest content without a family supply of grape-vines. The grape produces a crop of fruit the third year from the time of planting the vines, and then annual crops for a lifetime under ordinary treatment. The vines require an annual pruning in the fall or winter, and the ground around the vines kept loose, fertile, and free from weeds and grass. When these simple requisites are attended to, the vines increase in productiveness and vigor from year to year, in making new wood and bearing crops of well-ripened fruit. The grape can be grown with considerable success on almost any character of soil that is fertile and well drained, although it will give the largest returns on a deep loam that is in good heart. The roots of the grape-vine travel long distances in search of food, and every facility should be given the young fibrous roots by thorough pulverization of the soil before planting. It will not answer, in planting a vine, to hem in the roots in a hole eighteen inches or two feet in diameter, with four impervious walls, which will present serious obstructions to the healthy growth of the roots. Before setting

Page 57

the vines in place, the ground should be forked over to a depth of eighteen or twenty inches, mixing with it, at the same time, some well-rotted barn-yard manure, bone-dust, and wood-ashes. The surface and subsoil should be kept in their relative positions. Sometimes persons, in preparing borders for vines, in fact for other crops, invert the whole mass, bringing on the surface several inches of a poor, cold subsoil, devoid of vegetable matter, in which nothing will grow for a time. As a matter of course, vines planted on such an inverted soil will make a weak, sickly growth for a year or two, until the roots strike the good soil that was unwisely buried. Most persons not familiar with the culture and habits of the vine, in selecting will choose large old vines in preference to well-grown healthy one- or two-year-old vines. This is a great mistake, but one, however, that experience will correct. For garden and vineyard culture, strong one-year-old vines are best, and on no consideration should a vine more than two years old be planted with the hopes of getting a crop sooner from old than young vines. For, when properly planted, no matter what the age of the vine is, it is changed in a one-year-old vine before any hopes of success can be entertained. When everything is in readiness for planting, a hole should be dug, about five or six inches deep, and wide enough to admit each root to be stretched out to its full length. It is a very good plan, on planting, to mix some finely-ground bone with the earth, that is, put close to the roots. Fill in the

Page 58

hole with surface soil, being careful to get every root drawn out in its natural position. The soil may be raised three or four inches above the surface, to allow for settling, and pressed firmly with the foot close to the vine. The vine should then be cut back to three eyes. Each eye will send out a shoot. When these are two inches in length, the strongest one of the three should be selected and the other two rubbed off. This young shoot should be fastened to a wire or stake during the summer, rubbing off occasionally any laterals that may appear, and allow the whole strength of the vine in this single shoot. At the close of the season's growth, this shoot should again be cut to three eyes, and then a system of training decided upon. Such strong growing varieties as the Concord and Hartford prolific, may be planted ten or twelve feet apart in the border. These vines require more room than is generally allowed to them in vine-yard culture, especially as the vines grow older.--New York Tribune.

STRAWBERRIES.

        --It is well known to every practical strawberry-grower that under certain treatment the appearance of the plant can be decidedly improved, and the size of the berries materially increased above the average of the main crop. This is done with certain varieties by selecting young, vigorous plants, keeping the runners cut off, and mulching the ground with long manure, watering the plants frequently, adding to the water a small quantity of ammonia. Then, again, by removing, when formed, a large part of the berries, leaving

Page 59

only a few of the most vigorous. These few will grow very much larger than if the whole were left on. By this means and copious watering, monstrous berries are sometimes produced. Those mentioned are but a few of the many devices made use of in forcing berries for exhibition; these methods are more or less expensive, and require time for their perfection.--Ibid.

BEES.

        --Where there are many flowers there is nothing easier than to keep bees, especially if you have a lawn of white clover. As respects their management it is best to consult those who employ the modern improvements in bee culture, and the mode of constructing the hives.

Page 60

THE NURSERY.

        The nursery should be a moderately large room, high-pitched, and well ventilated, with an open fireplace, in preference to either a stove or grate. An open fireplace, in which wood is burned, admits of a free circulation of air. Every morning all the windows should be raised while the room is swept. Thus a fresh, pure air will pervade the room in place of that which has been inhaled and exhaled through the night by the lungs of all the inmates, and thus rendered impure and unwholesome. A high wire fender should be provided for your nursery fireplace, too high for the little ones to climb over. There should be only such articles of furniture in the nursery as are absolutely necessary, so as to leave ample room for the children to run about and play. The tables should be without corners. A good thick carpet will save their little heads when they fall. Children of both sexes should always sleep in drawers coming well over the feet, so that they may be less liable to take cold when they throw off the covering.

        Your nurse should be a healthy, honest, well-tempered middle-aged woman, steady, careful, and fond of children. If possible choose one who is governed by real religious principles, that is, one who fears God, and strives to keep His commandments.

Page 61

See that she is cleanly in her own person, free from drinking or snuff-taking. She should not be self-sufficient, but always ready to inform you of everything connected with the nursery, and the welfare of the children, in order that you may exercise your own judgment and discretion in all such matters. However you may think you may confide in your nurse, never allow her to administer medicines, especially opiates. Do this always yourself, and you will never have to reproach yourself with neglect should anything untoward happen to your child from maladministration of medicines.

        If it should happen that you wish to attend a party at night, and your babe is not inclined to sleep, never administer opiates; forego the party rather, if you have not sufficient confidence in your nurse to leave it in her care while awake. Here I am supposing you have not such a nurse as I have above described. It may not be your good fortune to possess such a blessing.

        In choosing a nurse or attendant for the nursery, a Christian mother should be very careful to avoid one who is under the baneful influence of superstition. The history of the world abounds with deeds of darkness, death, and cruelty, the work of this agent of the Evil One. The remedy for this evil is in the hands of faithful parents,--earnest, watchful, Christian parents,--zealous for the honor of God, and the good of their offspring. The nursery is the hotbed of superstition. Who does not know that from the very first dawning of the

Page 62

intelligent mind the inmates of the nursery are controlled by superstitious fear? For her own accommodation, how often does the nursery-maid still the restless little prattler by calling upon "the bugaboo to come and catch naughty little Charley!" And further than this, the memory of ghost-stories told in the nursery is among the most vivid of early impressions, and their injurious influence has been felt and lamented through an after-life of superior Christian training and rational knowledge. In infancy and childhood these mischievous impressions are fastened upon the mind. If this is really so, how important it is that parents should take care of their precious offspring, keeping them from such evil influences, and giving them as much as possible their own personal attention. Few persons are careful to consider the true import of this fearful word. To look at it in its true light it is necessary to divide the definition into three parts:

  • First. It is an unworthy and low appreciation of the moral attributes of God.
  • Second. It is a belief in the agency and influence of inferior and malignant spirits; and,
  • Third. It is a belief in fanciful ceremonies and incantations in place of scriptural faith and trust in Almighty God.

        This view of superstition should deter Christians from yielding to its injurious as well as blasphemous influence. It dishonors God and debases their own soul. Let us hope that a word to the wise will be sufficient.

Page 63

        A NEW-BORN INFANT should be immersed in a bath of warm water, all save the head, which should be kept carefully out. It should then be thoroughly washed with a soft piece of linen or flannel and Castile soap, first touching behind the ears, in the creases of the neck, etc., with a little sweet lard.

        That barbarous custom pursued by the majority of nurses, of stretching the hapless little creature on her lap and scrubbing it all over by piecemeals, should be utterly condemned. It subjects the little, tender creature to untold agonies of pain and coldness which its cruel operator would herself shrink from enduring. Besides the almost impossibility of washing the child effectually, it is apt by this mode of exposure to contract a cold which may eventuate in its death. Those terrible and fatal convulsions of new-born babes called, commonly, black fits, are very probably brought on in this way.

        By the first-mentioned mode of washing it the little creature is comforted, a genial glow is diffused throughout the system, and aids the tender stranger in becoming accustomed to the ungenial clime in which it is destined to exist. It soothes and consoles while it establishes the circulation.

        While the babe is in the bath, let some one hold before the fire a square of flannel, with a soft linen towel spread over it; let the towel be next the fire. As the nurse raises the infant from the bath, let the twofold wrapping of flannel and linen be put gently around it so as to envelop the whole body. Lay it in the nurse's lap and dry the infant by gently

Page 64

pressing the towel to all parts of its body without rubbing, as this process is very irritating to the tender skin. Now powder your infant well, especially in the neck, behind the ears, and indeed in all the creases or folds of its body.

        A number of tender mothers, I am aware, are averse to pins in their infants' clothes, and prefer buttons and tapes as fastenings. These do very well after awhile, but for the new-born babe, who is unable to move itself about, pins are far best, good, large pins, put in with the points well out. For as it is impossible to prejudge of the size of the infant's body, so is it impossible to place the tapes or buttons so as to form a proper bandage in support of the back and abdomen of the infant at this stage of its existence, absolutely needing support, especially as incompetent and careless nurses are apt to place them in a sitting posture long before the bones of the spine are sufficiently firm to endure the position, or the injudicious joltings which the poor little creature is most commonly subjected to. Avoid these, tender mother, by all means. The only effect of this mode of nursing is to render the tender infant sore in every bone of its little body. Quietude is best for the little adventurer into this world of perpetual motion, until it has become strong enough to move of itself.

THE DRESSING.

        --A simple strip of flannel, about the length of the child's body, between the armpits and the hips, and about twice the length around the body, should be wrapped smoothly around the child, commencing and ending in the center of the

Page 65

back, then the linen or lawn shirt, and the body of the flannel skirt should be pinned smoothly together with the same pin,--one at the top, one at the middle, and one at the lower part of the band; let the three pins be carefully placed with the points well out. When this is done the infant will be well supported, well protected from injury, and more comfortable than if loosely clothed by means of tapes or buttons.

NURSERY DIET.

        --The mother's milk is far the best diet for infants. Next to this, cow's or goat's milk mingled with warm water and sugar, in a small quantity. The water should be poured boiling hot on the milk, and allowed to cool to the warmth of new milk. Nature shows by the denial of teeth to new-born infants that solid food is not proper for them.

        When teeth are supplied in sufficient number to masticate solid food, a moderate quantity of such as is of a delicate quality will not be amiss, such as is easy of digestion; but even then meats should be cut up fine before given to a child in the progress of dentition. And hard bread or crackers should be soaked in milk or tea before partaken of by such child.

        Dried fruits, especially raisins, should never be given to children. These last, if swallowed whole, are apt to cause convulsions, and even if slightly chewed, are very indigestible. Cheese should never be given to young children, for the same reason. It is not good for them even if grated fine.

Page 66

        Children seldom chew hard substances perfectly. Well-cooked chicken, birds, or the soft part of oysters, are food strong enough for small children, and then well cut up. Boiled milk, thickened with rice flour, corn-starch, or wheat flour, is a very nutritious and agreeable diet for young children; sweeten it slightly,--and if the child is threatened with diarrhoea, boil a stick of cinnamon in the milk. When your child has reached the age of three years, let its drink at breakfast and tea be simple milk; it is far more healthy than coffee or tea. Milk and good well-baked light bread or well-backed crackers are the very best breakfast for a child. Never give your child cake or preserves at night. Exercise is necessary to facilitate the digestion of such articles of food.

        In summer, if your child has the slightest tendency to diarrhoea, never allow it fresh vegetables of any kind, especially green corn or potatoes. Rice and small hominy are the best vegetables for children. A little salt herring or ham will sometimes give tone to the weak stomach of a child, when suffering especially with diarrhoea.

DIARRHOEA.

        --If your child is seriously affected with diarrhoea, first administer a teaspoonful of castor oil, with a small portion of magnesia; and after it has operated, give a teaspoonful of Osborne syrup three times a day. Diet, rice flour gruel. If this does not succeed, send for the doctor.

CROUP.

        --As soon as you find your child hoarse, give it a spoonful of melted lard, and keep it in the nursery. At night, bathe its feet in a hot mustard

Page 67

bath, so hot as to make the skin very red, wipe them very dry, and put on woolen stockings, or wrap them in flannel; repeat the spoonful of melted lard, and put the child to bed. If croupy symptoms continue, give a small dose of ipecacuanha or hive syrup, sufficient to produce vomiting; when this is over, let the child sleep. But then if you find that the symptoms increase, send for a physician immediately, as you have done all that it would be right for you to do, unless, indeed, you apply some simple external remedy,--such as a mustard plaster to the throat, or cloths wrung out of boiling water. I have found this remedy perfectly successful in one instance. It is said that a spoonful of sulphur in a tumbler of water, given every hour, has been found a sure remedy for croup. Give a spoonful of the water every hour.

CONVULSIONS.

        --Put the child immediately in warm water, and send for a physician. If a doctor cannot be found immediately, and you think the convulsions proceeded from anything the child has eaten, give an emetic of ipecacuanha, and follow it with copious drinks of warm water. Repeat the warm bath if the convulsions continue. And when you take it from the bath, be careful to wrap it well from the air, as a check of perspiration would be injurious, if not fatal.

WORMS.

        --Boil half an ounce of pinkroot in half a pint of water, add to the water (after straining it) half a pound of sugar, boil it to a candy, pull the candy into sticks, cut them about four inches long, and let the child eat it from time to time, for

Page 68

two days, especially before eating in the morning. Then boil half an ounce of senna leaves in the same way, and make the same quantity of candy of it. Give this to the child, as with the pinkroot. On the day after all is eaten, give a dose of castor oil. If this does not bring the worms, get a physician to prescribe for your child, as it is dangerous for persons unacquainted with medicine to administer such without medical advice. Pinkroot and senna are the usual prescriptions of physicians in this case.

VOMITING.

        --If your child is seized with vomiting, first ascertain if it has eaten anything which has disagreed with it. If so, give a teaspoonful of salt in half a cup of warm water. If this does not enable the child to throw off the offending matter, give a small teaspoonful of ipecacuanha, followed with copious drinks of warm water. This will enable the child to vomit easily. One or two drops of camphor in water will often relieve. If this does not relieve, send for the doctor.

        If the vomiting is not occasioned by improper food, it is more than probable that the cause is one requiring the aid of medicine which alone a physician should administer. Therefore, in this case send for one immediately, if the vomiting continues, especially if accompanied with diarrhoea. If no doctor is near, administer one drop at a time of spirits of camphor in a spoonful of water every five or ten minutes. If this has no effect, add to the dose five drops of paregoric. Sometimes pounded mint with brandy laid on the stomach

Page 69

will relieve. Often a mustard plaster will answer. Sometimes a cup of thin corn-meal gruel, without salt or sugar.

CHAFES.

        --Wash well with Castile soap, and grease with lard or mutton tallow.

TETTER.

        --Wash well with Castile soap, and apply citron ointment mixed with sulphur. If this will not do, apply the milk from fig leaves. I have seldom known it to fail, though it is very painful.

COLIC.

        --Catnip is excellent. If it fails, drop a little paregoric in the tea, say one or two drops for a young baby. Sometimes cloths wrung out of hot water, applied to the bowels, will relieve. And sometimes gently rubbing the back will cause the babe to throw off the wind. This brings instant relief.

        Always wash your infant in a good tub of warm water. It is more expeditious, more thorough, and more comfortable to the child.

INFLAMED EYES.

        --Wet them with a little brandy and water. If very obstinate, wipe them with a little, very little, castor oil.

CHAPPED HANDS.

        --Wash them well at night with Indian meal and water, then grease them with mutton tallow.

        If your child falls and strikes its head, be careful to keep it from falling asleep for at least two hours.

        If a limb is sprained, immerse it in warm water till the pain is relieved; then wrap it in cloths wrung out of vinegar and water.

        If your child receives a cut, wash it clear of blood, and cover the wound with adhesive plaster.

Page 70

        If it has a boil, use a milk and bread poultice, or a little honey and flour.

        If it has a sore mouth, use borax and loaf-sugar powdered together.

        When your child begins to teeth, and spills its saliva, put on it an oil-silk apron, coming quite up to the chin.

        If your child is threatened with diphtheria, apply ice to the throat, and give it strong iced lemonade constantly. Do these things at the beginning.

WARTS.

        --Touch them with a little nitrate of silver.

BURNS.

        --Wrap closely in raw cotton and turpentine.

CHILD'S TOOTHACHE.

        --Send the child to the dentist. The new tooth is pushing the old one out, and the pain will continue as long as the contest.

        Keep your child's hair cut short; long hair deforms a handsome child; besides, it is much easier kept clean.

        Small children should not be allowed scissors, knives, forks, needles, or pins.

MEASLES.

        --As soon as you perceive the symptoms, keep your child from a draught of air, and give a little cold saffron-water to bring out the eruption; that is, when the fever has showed itself and no eruption.

MUMPS

         are not dangerous. Keep the child from the cold, and its jaws lubricated with pigs'-feet oil. If the bowels are closed, open them with a mild laxative.

SCARLET FEVER.

        --Grease the child all over with

Page 71

lard or sweet oil, and keep it in a temperate air. Gargle with sage tea, honey and water, with a bit of alum.

HOOPING-COUGH

         must run its course. All you can do is to keep the child from taking cold. Keep your child out of the way of catching the disease in the fall or winter, but never avoid it in the spring, as it will pass off more readily in warm weather. A syrup made of slippery-elm and loaf-sugar is very soothing, and if the child suffers very much, add a little paregoric at night.

        From five to twelve years clothe your children warmly in winter, and let them live out in the open air as much as possible. Do not force the intellect by means of books and a close school-room too soon. Let the skies, the fields, the garden, animals, plants, etc. be their teacher for a time, and gradually introduce them to the love of books. They will learn then the faster, and make up for the seeming lost time.

        See that your children's clothes are well aired after being ironed; and if they get their feet wet in going out, take off both shoes and stockings when they come in. Damp feet cause more severe colds than any other exposure. It would be far better to let your children go barefooted than have damp feet.

Page 72

Children, Management of.

        The limits of the present work will only admit of a few useful hints on this momentous subject, the care and training of the rising generation, the future rulers of the affairs of this world, and immortal heirs of an eternal inheritance in the next.

        Perhaps it will be more effectual to give an example or two from real life than a studied lecture on the care and management of young children. To wake up a loving mother to the danger of her child is always the surest way to gain her ear for its preservation, in circumstances concealed from her view by outward appearance.

        At the present day, too many mothers manage and clothe their children more with an eye to their own gratification, and even of their vain and thoughtless nurses, than to the health and comfort of their precious charge.

        A certain careful mother watched over the health and comfort of her children, regardless of the sneers of her fashionable neighbors. She clothed them warmly in winter, taking care that their necks, arms, and lower limbs were well protected from the cold, their feet kept warm and dry with woolen stockings and thick shoes. They were never allowed to be taken out in wet or damp weather, never in very windy weather, only on bright sunny days. In summer, they took the fresh air in the early morning and late in the afternoon,

Page 73

never in the heat of the day. Their food was always simple, their habits were regular, their manners and morals studiously attended to. Pastimes of every rational and proper kind were provided them, home was rendered as happy as possible. Every reasonable indulgence was granted them.

        These children, every one of them (a goodly number), arrived at maturity with good constitutions, and with principles creditable to their parents.

        The happy parents now enjoy the blessing of their careful labor of love, having done their duty to the bodies and souls of their offspring, fitting them for the battle of life with uninjured constitutions, and minds fortified by wholesome Christian discipline.

        My second example I take from that class of mothers who would laugh at the old-fashioned notions and practices of my first example. The prevailing custom of extravagant dressing was adopted, without reference to health or comfort. In winter, they were extravagantly arrayed in embroidery and furs, save that the legs, arms, and neck were unmercifully exposed to the weather. In summer, an infant of five or six months was arrayed in an extravagant profusion of laces, ribbons, flowers, and feathers, most uncomfortably placed in a reclining posture, in a beautiful baby's barouche, with the top thrown back, so as to exhibit the beauty as well as the finery of the inmate as much as possible, sent out with a thoughtless and foolishly fond, ambitious nurse, to vie with others in displaying the elegance of the baby, and that too early

Page 74

in the afternoon or late in the forenoon, when the broiling sun was darting its fierce hot rays into the tender eyes of the fondly cherished darling,--alas! perhaps at this very vainglorious moment the victim of some fell destroying fever. I knew of one infant treated in this way who died of brain fever. Too numerous to mention have been the instances I have witnessed of deaths from croup, diphtheria, and pneumonia, occasioned by the exposure of children in winter, through a vain conformity to fashion.

THE MANNERS OF THE MOTHER MOULD THE CHILD.

        --There is no disputing this fact; it shines in the face of every little child. The coarse, bawling, scolding woman will have coarse, vicious, bawling, fighting children. She who cries on every occasion, "I'll box your ears--I'll slap your jaws--I'll break your neck," is known as thoroughly through her children as if her womanly manners were openly displayed in the public streets!

        These remarks were suggested by the conversation in an omnibus--that noble institution for the students of men and manners--between a friend and a schoolmaster. Our teacher was caustic, mirthful, and sharp. His wit flashed like the polished edge of a diamond, and kept the "bus" in a "roar." The entire community of insiders--and whoever is intimate with these conveyances can form a pretty good idea of our numbers, inclusive of the "one more" so well known to the fraternity--turning their heads, eyes, and ears one way, and finally our teacher said: "I can always tell the

Page 75

mother by the boy. The urchin who draws back with doubled fists and lunges at his playmate if he looks at him askance, has a very questionable mother. She may feed him and clothe him, cram him with sweetmeats, and coax him with promises, but if she gets mad she fights. She will pull him by the jacket; she will give him a knock in the back; she will drag him by the hair; she will call him all sorts of wicked names; while passion plays over her red face in lambent flames that curl and writhe out at the corners of her eyes.

        "And we never see the courteous little fellow with smooth locks and gentle manners, in whom delicacy does not detract from courage or manliness, but we say, 'That boy's mother is a true lady.' Her words and her ways are soft, loving, and quiet. If she reproves, her language is, 'my son,'--not, 'you little wretch--you plague of my life--you torment--you scamp.'

        "She hovers before him as the pillar of light before the wandering Israelite, and her beams are reflected in his face. To him the word mother is synonymous with everything pure, sweet, and beautiful. Is he an artist? In after-life, the face that with holy radiance shines on his canvas will be the mother-face. Whoever flits across his path with sunny smiles and soft, low voice, will bring 'mother's image' freshly to his heart. 'She is like my mother,' will be the highest meed of his praise. Not even when the hair turns silver and the eyes grow dim, will the majesty of that life and presence desert him.

Page 76

        "But the ruffian mother--alas, that there are such!--will form the ruffian character of the man. He in his turn will become a merciless tyrant, with a tongue sharper than a two-edged sword, and remembering the brawling and the cuffing, seek some meek, gentle victim for the sacrifice, and make her his wife, with the condition that he shall be master. And master he is for a few sad years, then he wears a widower's weed till he finds a victim 'number two.' "

        We wonder not that there are so many awkward, ungainly men in society--they have all been trained by women who knew not, nor cared not, for the holy nature of their trust. They have been made bitter to the heart's core, and that bitterness will find vent and lodgment somewhat. Strike the infant in anger, and he will, if he cannot reach you, vent his passion by beating the floor, the chair, or any inanimate thing within reach. Strike him repeatedly, and by the time he wears shoes he will have become a little bully, with hands that double for fight as naturally as if especial pains had been taken to teach him the art of boxing.

        Mothers, remember that your manners mould the child.--Selected.

Page 77

MORAL TRAINING OF CHILDREN.

        --"Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven," said the divine Saviour; "and verily I say unto you, in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven." So that well may a wise man recommend that we reverence children. Most assuredly they are the nearest approach exhibited to our mortal sight of the guileless angels.

        Speak to them gently, then, touch them gently, gently deal with their faults. Never accuse them of wrong unless you are very sure of their delinquency. An unjust charge will thrill through their tender little hearts with the poignancy of a two-edged sword. If often reiterated, the young heart gradually becomes accustomed to wrong, and by little and little hardened. Wrong loses its horror and is adopted at last.

        Mothers, pause well on this momentous subject before you fall into harsh habits with your tender offspring. Many an open breaker of God's laws is educated for such by careless or unwise parents. Children feel keenly, though a wise and merciful Creator has so constituted them that misfortune, such as bereavement of parents or friends, is scarcely comprehended by them, and, consequently, not so keenly felt as by persons of maturer years; were it so their tender hearts would break. With them the tear "forgot as soon as shed" is a merciful provision.

        As soon as your children can lisp their Maker's name, teach them to bend the knee to their Father

Page 78

in heaven. Teach them to know that His all-seeing eye is ever upon them. Thus will they be preserved from sin through the grace of their merciful Saviour. And train them early to attend the services of the church, to reverence the house of God, to know it as the gate to heaven. Suffer them not to violate the sanctity of the Lord's day. Teach them to value and love its services as a child of God, whose children they are.

        Encourage your children to confide in you, and to this end let them see that their happiness and welfare are all-important to you. Encourage openness and honesty in all things. Never deceive them. Share every comfort and enjoyment with them. At table always give them the best you have; never say of an inferior preparation, "This will do for the children." Children are generally sagacious, and will be apt to attribute your motives to selfishness, or indifference to their enjoyments; thus they may come to disesteem their parents, a most disastrous result.

        Be careful to select their companions from the innocent and pure. The longer they are ignorant of guile, the more easily will good habits and principles be formed. Bad examples will lose their force, as the minds of your children are fortified by good principles and biased by habit. Thus carefully trained, your children will soon learn to love virtue and hate vice. And, above all, pray for your beloved offspring; pray for the all-powerful grace of God to purify, strengthen, and confirm their hearts, and regulate their opening minds so

Page 79

that they may shine as lights in this world, not for the emulation of the vain or ambitious, but for the encouragement of those who would attain with them the light of everlasting life.

        WATER is one of the greatest earthly blessings to man, and cannot be too freely used. If we are thirsty, what a perfect relief is water, without the least temptation to excess in drinking! Nature craves no more than what is sufficient. How different with the liquids compounded by man, which require the exertion of moral power to save the drinker from a ruinous excess!

        "Touch not, taste not, handle not," should be the motto over every nursery door, for here, most commonly, a taste and fondness are acquired for the strong drinks compounded by man,--the waters of destruction. Toddy for this thing, and toddy for that, too commonly given to children, lays the foundation for drunkenness little dreamed of by the unthinking mother. Never administer this poison save as a prescription by a physician. Almost all poisons are used in minute portions as medicines, and spirits among the rest; but none should enter the lips of a child but as a physician's prescription.

        Children should be used to habits of strict cleanliness from their very infancy. Not only will this preserve their health and comfort, but incline them, if taught their duty, to God, to the love of purity of heart and life. Remind them, while engaged in their accustomed bathing, to remember the washing of regeneration spoken of by the divine

Page 80

Saviour, when clothing themselves; of the pure robe of righteousness, without which they can never enter heaven. Let them see that you yourself depend on the grace of God to guide you aright by observing regular seasons of prayer, if you desire to form such habits in them.

        Endeavor to preserve their confidence, and never doubt them, unless you have the unhappiness to convict them of untruth. Then punish promptly. Not, however, with harshness, but with sorrow and discretion, according to the magnitude of the fault; and tell them of the sorrow they have caused to their compassionate Redeemer. Never doubt, if you persevere in this scriptural training, that your children will be preserved by the grace of God in innocency of life. For He is faithful who has promised.

Page 81

The Children.
BY CHARLES DICKENS.


                         WHEN the lessons and tasks are all ended,
                         And the school for the day is dismissed,
                         And the little ones gather around me,
                         To bid me good-night and be kissed:
                         Oh, the little white arms that encircle
                         My neck in a tender embrace!
                         Oh, the smiles that are halos of heaven,
                         Shedding sunshine of love on my face!


                         And when they are gone I sit dreaming
                         Of my children too lovely to last;
                         Of love that my heart will remember,
                         When it wakes to the pulse of the past,
                         Ere the world and its wickedness made me
                         A partner of sorrow and sin,
                         When the glory of God was about me,
                         And the glory of gladness within.


                         Oh, my heart grows weak as a woman's,
                         And the fountains of feeling will flow,
                         When I think of the paths, steep and stony,
                         Where the feet of the dear ones must go;
                         Of the mountains of sin hanging o'er them,
                         Of the tempest of Fate blowing wild;
                         Oh! there is nothing on earth half so holy
                         As the innocent heart of a child!


                         They are idols of hearts and of households;
                         They are angels of God in disguise;
                         His sunlight still sleeps in their tresses,
                         His glory still gleams in their eyes;

Page 82


                         Oh! those truants from home and from heaven,
                         They have made me more manly and mild
                         And I know how Jesus could liken
                         The Kingdom of God to a child.


                         Seek not a life for the dear ones,
                         All radiant as others have done,
                         But that life may have just enough shadow
                         To temper the glare of the sun;
                         I would pray God to guard them from evil,
                         But my prayer would bound back to myself;
                         Ah! a seraph may pray for a sinner,
                         But a sinner must pray for himself.


                         The twig is so easily bended,
                         I have banished the rule and the rod;
                         I have taught them the goodness of knowledge,
                         They have taught me the goodness of God;
                         My heart is a dungeon of darkness,
                         Where I shut them from breaking a rule;
                         My frown is sufficient correction;
                         My love is the law of the school.


                         I shall leave the old house in the autumn,
                         To traverse its threshold no more;
                         Ah! how I shall sigh for the dear ones,
                         That meet me each morn at the door!
                         I shall miss the "good-nights" and the kisses,
                         And the gush of their innocent glee,
                         The group on the green, and the flowers
                         That are brought every morning to me.


                         I shall miss them at morn and at eve,
                         Their song in the school and the street;
                         I shall miss the low hum of their voices,
                         And the tramp of their delicate feet.
                         When the lessons and tasks are all ended,
                         And death says, "The school is dismissed!"
                         May the little ones gather around me,
                         To bid me good-night and be kissed.

Page 83

My Mother's Voice.


                         My mother's voice! I hear it now,
                         I feel her hand upon my brow,
                         As when in heartfelt joy
                         She raised her evening hymn of praise,
                         And called down blessings on the days
                         Of her loved boy.


                         My mother's voice! I hear it now,
                         Her hand is on my burning brow,
                         As in that early hour
                         When fever throbbed through all my veins,
                         And that kind hand first soothed my pains,
                         With healing power.


                         My mother's voice! It sounds as when
                         She read to me of holy men--
                         The Patriarchs of old--
                         And gazing downward in my face,
                         She seemed each infant thought to trace,
                         my young eyes told.


                         It comes, when thoughts unhallowed throng,
                         Woven in sweet deceptive song--
                         And whispers round my heart,
                         As when, at eve, it rose on high;
                         I hear and think that she is nigh,
                         And they depart.


                         Though round my heart, all, all beside--
                         The voice of friendship, love, had died--
                         That voice would linger there,
                         As when, soft pillowed on her breast,
                         Its tones first lulled my infant rest,
                         Or rose in prayer.

        Selected.

Page 84

The Trundle-Bed.


                         As I rummaged through the attic,
                         List'ning to the falling rain
                         As it pattered on the shingles
                         And against the window-pane;
                         Peeping o'er the chests and boxes,
                         Which with dust were thickly spread,
                         Saw I in the farthest corner
                         What was once my trundle-bed.


                         So I drew it from the recess
                         Where it had remained so long,
                         Hearing all the while the music
                         Of my mother's voice in song,
                         As she sung in sweetest accents
                         What I since have often read:
                         "Hush, my dear, lie still and slumber,
                         Holy angels guard thy bed."


                         As I listened, recollections
                         That I thought had been forgot,
                         Came with all the gush of mem'ry,
                         Rushing, thronging to the spot;
                         And I wandered back to childhood,
                         To those merry days of yore,
                         When I knelt beside my mother,
                         By this bed upon the floor.


                         Then it was, with hands so gently
                         Placed upon my infant head,
                         That she taught my lips to utter
                         Carefully the words she said.
                         Never can they be forgotten,
                         Deep are they in mem'ry driven:
                         "Hallowed be thy name, O Father!
                         Father! who art in heaven."

Page 85


                         This she taught me; then she told me
                         Of its import great and deep;
                         After which I learned to utter,
                         "Now I lay me down to sleep."
                         Then it was, with hands uplifted,
                         And in accents soft and mild,
                         That my mother asked: "Our Father!
                         O do thou now bless my child!"


                         Years have passed, and that dear mother
                         Long has mouldered 'neath the sod,
                         And I trust her sainted spirit
                         Revels in the home of God.
                         But that scene at summer twilight
                         Never has from mem'ry fled;
                         And it comes in all its freshness
                         When I see my trundle-bed

"THE POWER OF A HOLY LIFE.

        --The beauty of a holy life constitutes the most eloquent and effective persuasive to religion which one human being can address to another. We have many ways of doing good to our fellow-creatures; but none so good, so efficacious as leading a virtuous, upright, and well-ordered life. There is an energy of moral suasion in a good man's life, passing the highest efforts of the orator's genius. The seen but silent beauty of holiness speaks more eloquently of God and duty than the tongues of men and angels."--Churchman, Hartford.

A PLEA FOR THE LITTLE FOLKS.

        --Don't expect too much of them; it has taken forty years, it may

Page 86

be, to make you what you are, with all your lessons of experience; and I will dare say you are a faulty being at best. Above all, don't expect judgment in a child, or patience under trials. Sympathize in their mistakes and troubles; don't ridicule them. Remember not to measure a child's trials by your standard. "As one whom his mother comforteth," says the inspired writer; and beautifully does he convey to us the deep, faithful love that ought to be found in every woman's heart, the unfailing sympathy with all her children's griefs. When I see children going to their father for comfort, I am sure there is something wrong with their mother.

        Let the memories of their childhood be as bright as you can make them. Grant them every innocent pleasure in your power. We have often felt our temper rise to see how carelessly their little plans were thwarted by older persons, when a little trouble on their part would have given the child pleasure, the memory of which would last a lifetime. Lastly, don't think a child hopeless because it betrays some very bad habits. We have known children that seemed to have been born thieves and liars, so early did they display these undesirable traits, yet we have lived to see those same children become noble men and women, and ornaments to society. We must confess they had wise, affectionate parents. And whatever else you may be compelled to deny your child by your circumstances in life, give it what it most values. plenty of love.

Page 87

RELIGION IN THE FAMILY.

        --The first place in which piety is to shed its benign and sanctifying influence is the family. All the relative duties of life are but as concentric circles, ranged around a common center; and as the family is the nearest, and the first in order, its influence there is to be pre-eminent. A family where religion reigns supremely is a charming spectacle to angels and men, and shines as a brilliant light in the world. There mutual affection and forbearance, one toward another, habitually prevail. Within its peaceful habitation parental authority, blended with kindness and gentleness, is always maintained. Wisdom and prudence in training the youthful members for the duties of life are continually displayed. Around that altar kneels each day a group of devout worshipers; and sweeter than the fragrant breath of the morning rises the incense of prayer and praise to Israel's gentle Shepherd. The heads of that family feel that every act of theirs is charged with influence; and that their spirit, temper, and deportment are all moulding human character for time and eternity; and therefore their deep solicitude and watchfulness are unceasingly exercised that they may bring up those committed to their charge in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. On such home culture the smile of high heaven rests. And to show his approbation of it, God declared concerning Abraham, "I know him, that he will command his children, and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment." Such influence

Page 88

is like the aromatic perfume of the violet, insinuating itself into the deep recesses of the infantile mind and heart, where no other could penetrate. And to the present day the inspired aphorism is true, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."--Rev. John Berg.

From the Church Register.]
All Saints--1867.


                         No touch of chill in this clear air,
                         Tho' Autumn's scarlet flame
                         Illumes the grove with glory brief
                         As some fierce conqueror's fame;
                         Yet speaks the day nor fear nor care;
                         Shines rather in her smile,
                         The promise of that parting Look
                         Which breathed--"a little while."


                         Hark! hark! the pulsing sound of bells
                         Upon the ear faint falls,
                         Our holy Mother Church, to prayer
                         Her scattered children calls.
                         Ah, well those skies may loveliest be
                         A reverent Nature paints,
                         Which summons earth with heav'n to share
                         The fair feast of All Saints.


                         A few soft fleeces, like the plumes
                         Of angel wings, brood o'er
                         The hazy line where earth meets heaven
                         As meets the main its shore;

Page 89


                         So still and fair they float and lie,
                         Their lustrous pearly gleam
                         Seems caught from those bright gates that shone
                         On Bunyan's closing dream.


                         And gazing, filled with thoughts like these,
                         In heaven's translucent blue,
                         Kings, Prophets, Priests, and Martyrs seem
                         To gather on the view.
                         Her scroll-like mists the Past unrolls,
                         And sacred legends shine
                         With records from the Book of Life,
                         In characters divine.


                         Yon gilded cloud is like the harp
                         The poet-king bent o'er,
                         And with his psalmistry inspired,
                         He sweeps the strings once more;
                         The kneeling cherub, whose fair brow
                         Lifts up adoring praise,
                         Is he whose trusting "Here am I"
                         Sounds sweet from distant days.


                         That joyous look is his whose songs
                         Of Lamentation moan
                         On every breeze, fanned o'er the wild
                         Once David's glorious throne;
                         The "burden of his sorrow's" fall'n,
                         Crowned with the victor's palm,
                         "Healed of his hurt," he asks no more,
                         "Is there in Gilead balm?"


                         And he, the herald, whose dark eye
                         Filled with prophetic ire,
                         Warned Israel from the wrath to come,
                         In words of living fire,
                         Who, given grace his King to know,
                         All meekly though He trod,
                         Proclaimed in speech whose heaven-taught flow
                         Yet heals--"the Lamb of God!"

Page 90


                         The early martyr with his face
                         "As of an angel," looks
                         Upon us, smiling, as he smiled
                         When all of earth forsook;
                         And he, whose tears washed out the stain
                         Of love by faith forsaken,
                         Stands now, through suffering perfect grown,
                         The Church's rock unshaken.


                         And there, the great Apostle, who
                         Through far isles wandered, shod
                         With Gospel peace, and boldly taught
                         Proud Greece her "unknown God."
                         Whose glowing zeal, on eagles' wings
                         Bathed in the Risen Sun--
                         Dared all, to hear in heaven at last,
                         The Master say, "Well done!"


                         Yon seraph face in melting blue,
                         Whose wondrous lovely eyes
                         Have caught their pure, transcendent hue
                         From light beyond the skies,
                         Is his, who leaning oft to rest
                         The Saviour's heart above,
                         Well learned its sacred secrets blessed,
                         And living breathed but "Love."


                         The eye grows dim with gazing, while
                         The longing heart flow o'er
                         With bliss, like that the exile feels,
                         Drawn near his native shore;
                         Dear faces smile, that, bathed in tears,
                         We laid beneath the sod,
                         Loved hands, once clasped, are waved to greet
                         And beckon us to God.


                         And see,--th' innumerable host
                         Still on the vision grow!
                         "A cloud of witnesses," that wreathes
                         Heaven's vault with wings of snow!

Page 91


                         Where is thy victory, O Grave?
                         And where thy sting, O Death?
                         Eternal conquering Life reigns here,
                         I feel its quickening breath.


                         Its pulses throb within my soul,
                         And tell me that to die
                         Is but the groveling entrance dark
                         To immortality!--
                         Dear Lord, Thy life enkindle now
                         In all! So love's constraints
                         Shall bring us safely home to dwell
                         Forever with Thy Saints!

November 1st, 1867.

LATIE.

        A PARABLE.--"Oh, dear! I am so tired of Sunday!" So said Willie, a playful little boy, who was longing for the Sabbath to be over, that he might return to his amusements.

        "Who wants to hear a story?" said a kind friend who was present. "I, sir," "and I," "and I," said the children, as they gathered around him. Then he told them a parable. Our Saviour, when he was on earth, often taught the people by parables.

        The parable told the little boys was of a kind man who had some very rich apples hanging upon a tree. A poor man was passing by the house of the owner, and he stopped to admire this beautiful apple-tree. He counted these ripe golden pippins--there were just seven of them. The rich owner

Page 92

could afford to give them away; and it gave him so much pleasure to make this poor man happy that he called him and said, "My friend, I will give you a part of my fruit." So he held out his hand and received six of the apples. The owner had only kept one for himself.

        Do you think the poor man was grateful for his kindness? No, indeed. He wanted the seven pippins all for himself. And at last he made up his mind that he would watch his opportunity, and go back and steal the other apple.

        "Did he do that?" said Willie, very indignant. "He ought to have been ashamed of himself. And I hope he got well punished for stealing that apple."

        "How many days are there in a week, Willie?" said his friend.

        "Seven," said Willie, blushing deeply; for now he began to understand the parable, and he felt an uneasy sensation at his heart--conscience began to whisper to him, "And ought not a boy to be ashamed of himself who is unwilling on the seventh day to lay aside his amusements? Ought he not to be punished if he will not remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy?"

        IT'S VERY HARD.--"It's very hard to have nothing to eat but porridge when others have every sort of dainty," muttered Charley, as he sat with his wooden bowl before him.

        "It's very hard to have to get up so early on these bitter cold mornings, and work hard all day, when others can enjoy themselves without an hour of labor!"

Page 93

        "It's very hard to have to trudge along through the snow while others roll about in their coaches!"

        "It's a great blessing," said his grandmother, as she sat at her knitting, "it's a great blessing to have food, when so many are hungry; to have a roof over one's head, when so many are homeless; it's a great blessing to have sight, and hearing, and strength for daily labor, when so many are blind, deaf, or suffering!"

        "Why, grandmother, you seem to think that nothing is hard," said the boy, still in a grumbling tone.

        "No, Charley, there is one thing that I think very hard."

        "What's that?" cried Charley, who thought that at last his grandmother had found some cause for complaint.

        "Why, boy, I think that heart is very hard that it is not thankful for so many blessings."

        A GOOD FATHER.--One evening, as the wind was raging and howling with terrible force, shaking the house, and making timid people tremble for fear of fire or other accidents that might befall them, a number of grown persons were complaining of the wakeful and restless night they had endured during the recent winter storms. A little boy, who had listened unalarmed, with a sweet, beaming trust in his face, said, in his turn, "I sleep so well and sound because I've got such a good Father. I know he would not let anything happen to me. If the house should catch fire, he would take me right up in his arms, and run down-stairs with me, and I'd be safe."

Page 94

        This went to my heart, rebuked the fears of those who tremble and toss upon restless pillows, when He who holds the winds in His fist is their Father and friend. The remark of that dear boy has taught me a lesson which I hope to remember. When I go to his bedside, after he has been asleep for hours, and see his ruddy cheeks and clustering ringlets, and I watch his peaceful, innocent expression, and listen to his gentle breathing, knowing, as well as I do, that he is a timid child, often flying with fear from trifling causes of alarm, then I feel how deep and prevailing must be his trust in a father's loving heart and strong arms, to cause such dreamless slumbers amid howling winds and storms. Cannot the experienced Christian learn a lesson even from a babe's lips? Ought we not to rest peacefully amid causes of alarm, because we "have got such a good father?"--Church Register, Mobile, Ala.

        "HOW TO MANAGE PRECOCIOUS CHILDREN.--Many of the most prominent children are sacrificed to a desire to bring them forward in advance of other children, and this desire is stimulated by natural instincts. Every living creature rejoices in the use of the faculties which God has given it, 'as a strong man to run a race.' The boy whose muscles are well developed will never keep still, but is ready for anything, good or bad, in which he can stir himself. To such a one study is a punishment.

        "But the boy whose muscles are feeble, and whose brain is largely developed, sits still and reads, and

Page 95

the appetite, of course, conforms to the kind and amount of exercise. If he wastes his muscles in exercise, his appetite will demand the muscle-making nitrogen to supply the waste. If he wastes the phosphorus of the brain by study, he will desire phosphatic food to restore it. While the fat and stupid boy, who has neither muscle nor brain, will crave carbonaceous articles to feed his stupidity; and indulgence in these appetites will of course increase the peculiarity.

        "I have seen the little kingbird, after an hour of extraordinary exertions in driving from the neighborhood an intruding hawk, devote the next hour to catching bees and hornets, which abound both in nitrate and phosphates, as a means of restoring his muscular and vital energy. The bird is safe in following his inclinations, living as it does according to natural laws; and having no abnormal development of faculties, and no abnormal appetites, it can eat what it desires, and as much, with perfect impunity.

        "But the child, changed in its condition, as it may be by the ignorance and folly of its parents, even before its birth, is abnormally developed, and of course has abnormal appetites. Indulging these appetites, in case of precocity of the brain, of course increases the excitement of the brain, and the result is inflammation and premature death.

        "A child with a precocious brain, or who is very forward, to use the common expression, is of course more liable to dangerous diseases of the brain than other children; but if parents would give the subject

Page 96

thought, and use their reason in this as in other less important matters, these diseases might generally be warded off.

        "If our eyes have been overworked, or are weak and liable to inflammation, we avoid overusing them, especially in the strong light, and if so inflamed that too much light and all use of them gives pain, we shut out light altogether, and give them rest till they recover. Both light and seeing are pleasant to the eyes in health, and absolutely necessary to give them health and strength, but when diseased, are both alike injurious, and we avoid the influence of both till they recover. And when only weak, and not absolutely diseased, we are careful to have the light or use the eye only moderately or carefully. So of any other organ or faculty--that which is necessary to it in health must be carefully used in tendency to disease.

        "Apply this principle to a precocious brain. The brain is as dependent on appropriate exercise and a supply of phosphorus in health as is the eye on exercise and light; and as we withdraw the exercise and light in weakness and disease, so should we allow the brain rest from exercise and phosphatic food in case of disease and premature development."

Right.


                         YES, right is right, since God is God,
                         And right the day must win;
                         To doubt would be disloyalty,
                         To falter would be sin.--Faber.

Page 97

Hymn.


                         WE thank Thee, Lord, for this fair earth,
                         The glittering sky, the silver sea;
                         For all their beauty, all their worth,
                         Their light and glory come from Thee.


                         Thanks for the flowers that clothe the ground,
                         The trees that wave their arms above,
                         The hills that gird our dwellings round,
                         As Thou dost gird Thine own with love.


                         Yet teach us still how far more fair,
                         More glorious, Father, in Thy sight,
                         Is one pure deed, one holy prayer,
                         One heart that owns Thy Spirit's might.


                         So, while we gaze with thoughtful eye
                         On all the gifts Thy love has given,
                         Help us in Thee to live and die,
                         By Thee to rise from Earth to Heaven.

Hymnologia Christiana.

THE SICK-ROOM.

        This should be a well-ventilated apartment, and scrupulously clean. Everything in it should wear an air of cheerfulness, quietude, and comfort. There should be no loud talking or whispering, but the voice should be carefully attuned to a moderate, and, if possible, musical key,--that is, without discords. If the voice is naturally harsh, modulate it as far as practicable. Avoid creaking shoes, hasty, noisy movements, or impatience of any

Page 98

kind. Wear slippers, move slowly, quietly, carefully, not clumsily, so as to upset chairs or throw down tongs.

        Quiet, patience, watchfulness, tenderness, with regular and prompt attention to the directions of the attendant physician, are absolutely necessary in a good nurse. Kindness, gentleness, and tenderness in handling the patient, are most important. Admit no company in cases of serious sickness, only those who are capable and disposed to aid you in the discharge of your duties. Friends will take no offense at the exclusion, but will readily approve of such a course.

        In some cases cheerful company may be occasionally beneficial,--when the spirits are morbidly depressed,--cheerful, pleasant company can do no harm for a reasonable time, and may be of service.

        The apparel as well as the bedclothes should be frequently changed, especially in case of fevers.

        Bathing is very essential, both to the comfort as to the recovery of the sick. Without this, the effluvia and perspiration emitted through the pores of the skin will close them and poison the already enfeebled system, thus barring recovery. If the patient is too feeble to be placed in the bath, sponging with tepid water will answer. If this cannot be done throughout at once, do it gradually, as the patient is able to bear it.

        I have known patients become fifty per cent. better immediately after a comfortable bath, even by gradual sponging.

        Humor your patient too, as far as at all consistent

Page 99

with safety, endeavor to draw off the thoughts as much as possible from the state of suffering. Never tell the sick disagreeable or alarming news, especially of deaths.

        Physicians generally disapprove of acquainting patients with their real state, when that state is supposed to be bordering on a fatal result. But it is not at all consistent with a conscientious concern for the eternal welfare of a friend or relative to suffer him to die without knowing his nearness to the judgment-seat of his Maker. If it gives alarm merely, it is not a needless alarm; a neglect of this duty is akin to murder of the soul.

        How will you meet such friend at the great day of accounts, knowing that you might have afforded him an opportunity of making his peace with his God, and did not do it, lest you might possibly shorten his mortal existence a few moments in order to save him for eternal life?

        When it pleases the Maker of all to take back the dear one you received as a loan from Him, try and consider that it is for the best. Be sure God, who is a God of love and kindness, would not have afflicted you but as a tender father. Trust that your dear one is in the blessed presence of the Saviour. That his blessed angel bore him tenderly and lovingly to that glorious land "where tears are wiped from every eye and sorrow is unknown." Strive rather to render your life more pure and holy every day, that you may attain to that heavenly mindedness without which you are not a fit companion for the blessed and holy, in

Page 100

whose company your dear one, "gone before," rejoices.

Diet for the Sick-Room.

        WINE-WHEY.--Boil a pint of new milk, and while boiling pour in a glass of white wine. Let it boil a second time, strain out the curds, and the whey is ready. Add sugar, nutmeg, or spice of any kind you like.

        BEEF-TEA.--Cut up into small slices half a pound of beef, cover it with cold water in a porcelain stew-pan, and allow it to simmer till the beef is done. Skim it well, and it is ready for use. Season it with salt and pepper as the patient likes. Some put the beef, after cutting up, into a wide-mouthed bottle, cork it tight, and place the bottle in a kettle of cold water, and boil it till the beef is done. This is a very good way, but the first is equally as good, and much more quickly prepared; besides that, the bottle is very apt to break, and the work all to be done over again, while the patient is languishing for the nourishment. It is apt to require several hours to make the beef-tea in the bottle.

        RICE FLUMMERY.--Boil a pint of new milk with a stick of cinnamon; moisten a small teacupful of rice-flour with a little milk or water, to the consistency of paste; add it to the boiling milk, and having sweetened it to your taste, pour it into a mould; let it get cold, and then turn it out on a glass dish. Eat

Page 101

it with cream or preserves. This is excellent diet for an invalid, especially if afflicted with diarrhoea.

        SAGO.--Boiled to a jelly. To be eaten with milk or cream and sugar. Season to suit the patient.

        ARROWROOT.--Wet a spoonful of arrowroot with a little water into a paste, then pour on boiling water, stirring all the while till it is transparent. Season to please the patient. Lemon-juice and peel makes it very pleasant with a little sugar.

        CHICKEN-WATER.--Boil a young chicken till the meat drops from the bone. Season the water with a little salt, pepper, and thyme.

        If you wish soup, add a little rice at the first, and a small sprig of thyme. A little milk improves it.

        RICE GRUEL.--Boil a cup of new milk, and thicken it with a little rice-flour. Add sugar or salt, as the patient likes.

        BARLEY MILK.--Boil the barley in milk, with a stick of cinnamon, or a little grated lemon-peel. A spoonful of barley to a cup of milk, or half a pint.

        BARLEY-WATER is excellent for a weak stomach.

        TOAST-WATER.--Toast a piece of light bread very brown, put it in a tumbler, and fill it with cold water.

        FROZEN CREAM.--Pure sweet cream, with very little sugar; flavored to suit the patient.

        BAKED APPLES, simply with the skins on. To be eaten cold.

        A simple cerate to dress blisters with is made

Page 102

of equal parts of lard, mutton-tallow, beeswax, and sweet oil.

        Mustard plasters should always be covered with thin muslin, otherwise it adheres to the skin, and is very disagreeable.

        Mustard-baths should be sufficiently warm to make the skin red.

        FLY BLISTERS should be cut at the lower part, but not with many cuts. The skin should be broken no more than is necessary. They should be washed with a very soft rag, Castile soap, and warm water. The soft linen rag, with the cerate, should be somewhat larger than the blister.

        LEECHES.--Cut holes in a piece of soft paper, place it over the skin; put the leeches on it. They will soon find the skin, and take hold. Use a sponge and warm water to encourage the bleeding. To stop bleeding, use lint on the bites.

Page 103

Home.

        What precious, loving, soothing joys cluster around this word! Home does not mean merely a house, containing the requisite number of apartments to be occupied by a growing family, furnished comfortably, or elegantly; home is too sacred a word to mean such things as these. A word so heaven-derived must have a more exalted signification. As its glorious prototype, the earthly home must mean the center of love, joy, peace, around which gather the loved and loving, even as the blessed angels in heaven encircle the throne of love and glory eternal.

        Home is the center of love,--woman's paradise regained. Here her Creator has ordained the sphere in which she may make amends for the evils she has brought upon her race by listening to the subtle enemy of souls. Aided by the gracious Redeemer's all-powerful grace, those in the midst of whom she sits the center of love, may be restored to that blessed first estate from which the daring, unholy spirit of pride and rebellion beguiled her unwary obedience from her just and holy and beneficent Creator. What a glorious mission is this! What folly, what madness, then, to abandon it for the poor rewards again presented to her aspirations by that same spirit of malice and impotent presumption who first brought the curse upon her race!

Page 104

        The chosen life-companion of the man who in his devotion to your happiness has provided you a pleasant domicile, the surrounding of his home-center, the wife of his love, where with one heart, one will, one united effort, the duties and interests and rewards of a rational earthly existence may symbolize that celestial state of being for which both were formed,--you the home-center, or wife, must consider yourself as occupying a mission of love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, taking care that these heaven-taught virtues shine through and regulate everything in the household.

        First, to the husband, she should, in an especial manner, practice all these ennobling traits of a Christian woman. Love, confiding love, should actuate every look, word, and action. Faith or confidence in one, will create faith or confidence in the other.

        The wife should meet her returning husband with a cheerful smile and glad welcome under all circumstances, no matter how seemingly adverse, especially after the toils of the day, when many annoyances may have made the spirit unquiet, needing the composing, comforting voice, and caress of love. A cold or thoughtless repulse at such a moment may lay the foundation for a lasting estrangement, when a resolute carrying out of a firm resolve always to meet him with a loving smile and hearty welcome, will be sure to meet with its due reward,--unwavering love and rectitude of conduct,--when repulses, frowns, taunts, or suspicions

Page 105

may alienate and drive him from his home-center of love and happiness to other resources not so true, so pure, or so refining. Make his fancies or humors your study, comply cheerfully with them all, even if at times your efforts to please are not appreciated so readily. Persevere in this dutiful course, it cannot fail to convince him of the correctness of his judgment in the choice of that precious home-center of happiness and peace which nothing outside of that home can ever afford him; consequently, when away from this unfailing solace and comfort, in his heart of hearts will ever abide a yearning for that center of blessedness.

        Select one of the pleasantest apartments in your dwelling for a sitting-room or family resort; here enthrone yourself as the cheerful dispenser of every good and pleasant thing, to husband, children, and guests, not forgetting the happiness of those obedient domestics who constantly minister to your comfort and satisfaction. Always have a sweet, gentle word and look for them while in attendance on you and yours. If you are a musician, have your instrument here, in readiness always when need be to enliven the household. Perchance here may be your library, containing useful, instructive, and entertaining books, pictures, too, or other works of art, elevating the tastes and enjoyments of your children.

        Resolutely eschew cards, as they are apt to engender a fondness for gaming, and we all know how inclination for any pleasure deadens a sense of wrong. Battledoor, and other innocent pastimes,

Page 106

on a rainy day, may be introduced with advantage and pleasure.

        Keep this apartment always bright, cheerful, and inviting to your husband and children, so that wherever wandering they may ever turn to this spot as their refuge of peace, happiness, and rest,--yourself the center of attraction. With a very little attention, if your household is well regulated, the whole establishment may be made bright and cheerful. At the present day the custom is almost universal to keep the doors and window-shutters closed, to avoid fading carpets, curtains, etc., as well as to relieve the eye from the glare of the sun. Most gentlemen dislike this custom. Should your husband partake of this aversion, open your doors and shutters at once; no matter about the fading of the carpets and curtains, no matter about the glare,--please your husband at all events. Never drive him elsewhere to enjoy the light of the sun or the free circulation of air. Never allow him so plausible an excuse to seek for comfort elsewhere than at home.

        Make your home, indeed, the seat of love, of peace, of enjoyment,--rational enjoyment. Here it has pleased a merciful and pardoning God to afford to sinful woman another opportunity, and higher means, of rendering to her Creator in this paradise regained, that obedience from which she fell. And if she places her trust in the divine Redeemer she shall receive power from on high to accomplish the enduring purpose for which she was originally created, to secure undying

Page 107

bliss to herself and her posterity, and the eternal glory of God, her Creator.

        As one by one it pleases the Giver of all good to increase the blessing of children, so should increase the care and vigilance of the watchful mother in warding off the beguiling of the Evil One, and in training their tender minds to the love and service of their Maker,--the tender branches to cluster and cling around that invigorating Vine, whose eternal Root is fixed on high, even in the eternal Throne. Sure and steadfast will be their growth in grace if so trained from their earliest capabilities; for what saith the word of God, "Train up a child in the way be should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." This injunction is given to parents personally. It does not mean merely sending them to church or Sunday-school; it does not mean the ridding one's self of personal responsibility, by turning these inalienable duties over to a third person, however capable that person may be: it means the daily teaching and training, by one's self, by the mother especially, of one's offspring in the faith, fear, and love of God. Devote your children to God at the earliest possible moment. Place them at once in his faithful keeping; bear them ever in your arms and hearts of love before his sight, that He may never forget them as his own, so shall they be safe from the influence of evil. Teach them as soon as possible to believe in his ever-present Providence and care, that his all-seeing eye is ever upon them, so will the gentle Saviour ever fold

Page 108

them in his arms and make them blest. And when, through the power of his grace, you have done your duty to these precious souls confided to your tender care and training, how joyfully will you meet them all in those blissful mansions prepared for all who love and serve their ascended Lord! Then, indeed, will your earthly home have proved a type of heaven, where faith is consummated in bliss in the Home above.

        A lovely home, such as I have described, is now within my personal observation.

        Two young, earnest Christians were united some twelve years ago,--a home of Christian love and obedience was established. Although possessing the means of almost unlimited affluence, these true hearts could not be drawn aside from the duties and pleasures of their Redeemer's service; no earthly advantage or pleasure could divert their minds from the pursuit of those enduring treasures laid up in heaven for the servants of God. Every rational and beautiful adornment makes up the surroundings of this Christian home, and earnestly do its inmates strive to render it a type of that glorious home above, the object of their holy, earnest aspirations. Here an altar is raised for the daily worship of their Maker, and all the members of the circle unite, morning and evening, in this holy worship. Peace, harmony, and love abound throughout,--faith, hope, and blessed charity, love to God, and benevolence to man, govern and adorn this quiet, rational home.

        A lovely little daughter now takes her mother's

Page 109

place at the piano; morning and evening the parents, little ones, and domestics surround her, and all unite in praising God. A sweet strain of heaven-taught music arises to the gates of heaven from their united voices; six lovely children of God pour forth their guileless praise from spirits daily ripening for the choirs above. Thrice blessed parents, what bliss is yours even in this uncertain world! Yet think not, admiring reader, that no trial of faith and love has interrupted the happiness of these faithful people. First the softest little voice was missing at the family altar, and the angels bore the blessed little one to the arms of the Saviour she loved and praised.

        Who does not know the anguish of the stricken mother's heart? Love to God above that of the child soon whispered submission; yet the gentle Saviour wept at the grave of a friend, thus sanctioning and hallowing the tears of bereavement. But the rod was kissed,--still trusting, still adoring and loving, she walks with patience and with faith the road that leads her to her darling's blest abode. Scarce was the bleeding sorrow healed, scarce were the mourning circle accustomed to the silence of that cherub voice, and taught to know it still in brighter realms, warbling its Saviour's praise, when again was the rod uplifted,--the next in guileless innocence is taken from the place of praise to swell the strains above of glory to the Lamb. Again the rod is kissed,--the submissive heads are bowed in love and adoration, the quiet, trusting walk resumed of duty and benevolence.

Page 110

What a lovely exhibition of the power of faith in the promises of God!

        At that great day when God will make up his jewels, think you, gentle reader, the blessedness, the rewards of this mother, will not a million of times outweigh the poor, pitiful triumph of her who has voluntarily relinquished these glorious aspirations for the vain applause of the world, so soon to pass away! Heed not, like this deluded one, the promptings of the enemy of souls. Aspire not to things beyond the sphere in which it has pleased your Creator to assign your duties and your joys. The contented fulfillment of those legitimate duties will bless you with far more elevated and pure rewards than all the hollow plaudits of the world, when you may have abandoned your true sphere in life, and accomplished all your ambition proposed, more difficult, more daring, and, as you fondly dream, more elevating to your nature. The elevation thus obtained is only that "bad eminence attained by him who rebelled against his Maker, and fell to rise no more."

        In this age of ceaseless advancement, when divine Christianity is steadily lengthening her cords and strengthening her stakes, when the mighty revolutions through which the world is now passing point indubitably to the second advent of its glorious Founder, let not her who was last at his cross and first at his sepulcher, her whom He has raised from the degradation of heathenism and placed with the noble of all lands, barter her precious birthright, which was purchased at the price of His

Page 111

own blood, for a poor, pitiful mess of pottage, presented to her lips by the same evil spirit who first deprived her of her innocence, then reduced her to the state of an outcast from paradise and the favor of her beneficent Creator.

        The inspired apostles of the Lord give us all necessary guidance in fulfilling the will of our heavenly Master. St. Paul tells us, "Let the woman learn in silence, with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence; for Adam was first formed, and then Eve: and Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression."

        St. Peter also saith, "Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands: even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement. Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according

Page 112

to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered."

        I am well aware that the so called strong minded portion of my sex will call me pusillanimous for thus upholding the doctrine of woman's subjection to her natural superior; but I beg such to remember me as being a firm believer in the revelations of God through his divine Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. My Counsellor can give no other instructions than those afforded by Him and his own apostles, at the same time praying for the mercy of God to "those rebellious" into whose hands this book may chance to fall, that they may be guided into the way of truth and peace.

        POSITION OF WOMAN.--"The order of the universe demands headship: the head of Christ is God, the head of man is Christ, the head of woman is man. The peace of the family and of society depends upon the recognition by woman of man's headship, and her ready acquiescence in it, submitting herself to the revealed will of God.

        "The question, then, which the Christian woman will ask herself is not, what can I do in my own judgment? but, what has God assigned me to do? Society in all its departments is of his organization, what place has He given me to fill in it? She will not engage in vain efforts to set aside God's ordinances, but will rejoice in the honor wherewith the Son of God has honored her, in that her nature, in its distinctive features, sets forth

Page 113

forms of the divine character that could in no other way be so fittingly expressed: gentleness, patience, humility, submission. These are hateful words to the 'strong-minded,' but they signify virtues dear to God.

        "If any Christian woman, with her Bible in her hand, have been deluded into following such leaders, they are like to find ere long that they have been playing into the hands of the most bitter enemies of their Lord, and opening gates to sensualism, which they can never again close."--Churchman, Hartford, Conn.


        "THE Epistle to the Romans teaches that all men are sinners, in many cases from ignorance of what is right, and in many from stress of temptation, so that neither Greek nor Jew can boast of his own righteousness. For it is not "by works of righteousness" that we are to be considered and treated as righteous persons, but through a "faith that works by love;" that faith or belief which is not a mere intellectual conviction, but a controlling purpose or spiritual principle which habitually controls the feelings and conduct. And so long as there is this constant aim and purpose to obey Christ in all things, mistakes in judgment as to what is right and wrong are pitied, "even as a father pitieth his children," when from ignorance they run into harm. And even the most guilty transgressors are freely forgiven when truly repentant and faithfully striving to forsake the error

Page 114

of their ways. Moreover, this tender and pitying Saviour is the Almighty One who rules both this and the invisible world, and who "from every evil still educes good." This life is but the infant period of our race, and much that we call evil, in his wise and powerful ruling may be for the highest good of all concerned.

        "The blessed Word also cheers us with pictures of a dawning day to which we are approaching, when a voice shall be heard under the whole heavens, saying, "Alleluia"--"the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever." And "a great voice out of heaven" will proclaim, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his people. And God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying; neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away."

        "The author still can hear the echoes of early life, when her father's voice read to her listening mother in exulting tones the poet's version of this millennial consummation, which was the inspiring vision of his long life-labors--a consummation to which all their children were consecrated, and which some of them may possibly live to behold.


                         "O scenes surpassing fable, and yet true!
                         Scenes of accomplished bliss! which who can see
                         Though but in distant prospect, and not feel
                         His soul refreshed with foretaste of the joy!

Page 115


                         "Rivers of gladness water all the earth,
                         And clothe all climes with beauty; the reproach
                         Of barrenness is past. The fruitful field
                         Laughs with abundance; and the land once lean,
                         Or fertile only in its own disgrace,
                         Exults to see its thistly curse repealed.


                         "Error has no place: That creeping pestilence is driven away;
                         The breath of heaven has chased it. In the heart
                         No passion touches a discordant string,
                         But all is harmony and love. Disease
                         Is not; the pure and uncontaminate blood
                         Holds its due course, nor fears the frost of age.


                         "One song employs all nations; and all cry,
                         'Worthy the Lamb, for he was slain for us!'
                         The dwellers in the vales and on the rocks
                         Shout to each other; and the mountain-tops
                         From distant mountains catch the flying joy;
                         Till, nation after nation taught the strain,
                         Earth rolls the rapturous hosanna round.


                         "Behold the measure of the promise filled!
                         See Salem built, the labor of our God
                         Bright as a sun the sacred city shines;
                         All kingdoms and all princes of the earth
                         Flock to that light; the glory of all lands
                         Flows into her: unbounded is her joy,
                         And endless her increase. Thy rams are there,
                         Nebaioth, and the flocks of Kedar there;
                         The looms of Ormus and the mines of Ind,
                         And Saba's spicy groves pay tribute there.


                         "Praise is in all her gates: upon her walls,
                         And in her streets, and in her spacious courts,
                         Is heard salvation. Eastern Java there
                         Kneels with the native of the farthest west;
                         And Æthiopia spreads abroad the hand,
                         And worships. Her report has traveled forth

Page 116


                         Into all lands. From every clime they come
                         To see thy beauty, and to share thy joy,
                         O Zion! an assembly such as earth
                         Saw never, such as Heaven stoops down to see!"

Nothing but Leaves.


                         NOTHING but leaves! The spirit grieves
                         Over a wasted life;
                         Sins committed while conscience slept,
                         Promises made but never kept;
                         Hatred, battle, and strife,
                         Nothing but leaves!


                         Nothing but leaves! No garnered sheaves
                         Of life's fair ripened grain,
                         Words, idle words, for earnest deeds.
                         We sow our seeds, lo! tares and weeds,
                         To reap, with toil and pain,
                         Nothing but leaves!


                         Nothing but leaves! Memory weaves
                         No veil to cover the past,
                         As we return our weary way,
                         Counting each lost and misspent day,
                         We find sadly at last
                         Nothing but leaves!


                         And shall we meet the Master so?
                         Bearing our withered leaves?
                         The Saviour looks for perfect fruit;
                         We stand before Him humbled, mute,
                         Waiting the word He breathes,
                         Nothing but leaves!

Page 117

PART II.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

        "Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."--COR. x. 31.


        DOUBTLESS some may consider this an extraordinary motto at the commencement of this part of my Counsellor, before they have time to see the bearing it has upon the subject-matter in hand, but when they can do so the wonder will vanish.

        Suppose, by the instructions of the Counsellor, a young housewife has been enabled to prepare her meals after such an excellent, acceptable manner so as to strike the eye of her husband agreeably, just as he comes to the table and lifts up his hands to ask a blessing, will not his heart be better attuned to thanks and praise than if the reverse were before him? Would he not be more inclined to give glory to God, not only for this happy result of the wife's efforts, but for the exemplary wife herself? Will not the wife be acting for the glory of God when she has produced such pleasant and pious feelings in her husband? Most assuredly.

        But another may ask, How can it be for the glory of God that your housewife is instructed to prepare such a number and variety of expensive

Page 118

dishes? Is not this rather to the detriment of that holy cause? I answer, no. And let the objector first ask himself this question: Who created and placed in the reach of his rational creatures all these good and pleasant things, the combination of which, according to the best modes, compose those expensive preparations? Was it not our beneficent Creator? And did He not bless us with physical and moral abilities to well employ his gifts without abusing them? And what possible reason have we for supposing it is not his will that we should use them in the most agreeable way? Surely there is none.

        And then let it be borne in mind that a prudent, faithful wife will never prepare such expensive dishes in excess, which makes the sin, but will take care to select such for her ordinary table as will correspond with her husband's means. She will never overstep the bounds of her allotted funds for household expenses; nay, she will rather fall within them, as much as she can, consistently with the wishes of her husband and the reasonable enjoyment of the gifts of God.

        From these prudent savings she may lay by the means to indulge in more costly preparations for her table on holy days, social entertainments, and bountiful charities. At Christmas, Easter, and other joyful occasions, wedding entertainments, etc.--these are surely occasions on which she may innocently employ her skill and ingenuity in rendering her table an object of rejoicing and praise; a scene of rational enjoyment, where all the superior

Page 119

endowments of mind as well as body may be cherished and invigorated; where good will, good humor, good cheer may combine, to return thanks to the bountiful Giver of all good; where the eye may be entertained with beautiful arrangements, the soul with the harmony of amiable, social feelings, as well as the taste with those exquisite, delicate combinations of the bounties of Nature she has learned so well to perfect. All these things should be so enjoyed as to redound to the glory of God.

        Such rules as the following will be found profitable in housewifery:

  •         1. Rise early, have your meals at regular hours, and be punctual in engagements.

  •         2. Keep your house scrupulously clean and regularly aired every day.

  •         3. Assemble all your family regularly, morning and evening, to praise and thank God for His goodness.

  •         4. Be kind, be quiet, be cheerful, be forbearing and forgiving.

  •         5. Be just and generous.

        Never use inferior articles of food. Buy the best flour, butter, lard, bacon, etc.

        An inferior article will spoil your cooking, and be sure to be used wastefully. Bad bread will be thrown in the slops; bad butter will spoil your cookery; and you are apt to use it profusely, so as to get through with it,--so with all other inferior articles. The best way is to buy the best and use it economically. If it is butter, make such dishes

Page 120

as will not require it; or, use those which do, seldom. There are numbers of good receipts in this book not needing butter.

        Always try flour, butter, etc. before making a purchase, and you will save yourself much annoyance, as well as discomfort and mortification. You can never make good things of bad ingredients.

        Accustom your daughters, while growing up, to aid you in culinary matters. Take care, before they marry, that they know how to perform all the duties of a housewife. Otherwise they may be unhappy, unprofitable wives, and more of a burden than a pleasure and comfort to their husbands. Do not fancy it unrefined for young ladies to enter the culinary domain. No duty is unrefined.

BREAKFAST.

        IF possible, be present when your breakfast-table is set,--at least for some time after you have installed a new servant.

        It will prevent carelessness.

        Take care that every article is wiped with a fresh, clean towel, and that a snowy, glossy cloth is laid to receive them.

        But the first thing to be observed on entering your breakfast-room should be, that your servant is properly and neatly attired; that he or she is bright and glossy in complexion,--silencing, at a glance, the suspicion that water and soap were lacking at their toilet duties.

Page 121

        Observe that the hair is combed, braided or turbaned, in a careful and tasteful manner, as the case may be.

        Take care that your servants are provided with a basin and towel, in some convenient place, that there may be no excuse for carelessness in this important particular.

        Be sure your coffee-pot and teapot are scalded (inside) with boiling water, before receiving their destined contents.

        Light your spirit-lamp before sitting down.

        If it is winter, take care that your plates and dishes are warmed. Instruct your cook to dish up the breakfast as speedily as possible, so that part of it may not be getting cold on the table while the rest is coming.

        A number of dishes should be brought in at once on a waiter,--covered, of course, from the air.

        Before the bell is rung, see that every requisite is on the table, as it is invariably considered an evidence of poor housekeeping to call for such after the family are seated.

        For a guest to do this, is a decided indignity to the mistress of the house; and, from a member of the family, it assumes the character of a reproach. Avoid these mortifications by your own forethought and regularity.

        As soon as you rise from the table, while your servant is cleaning the knives and forks, look over and count your spoons, great and small. If any of them are discolored with egg, rub them, before the final washing, with a little fine ashes, or wash them in soda water.

Page 122

        Now look over your casters,--wipe and replenish them; then your salt-cellars. Take the salt out, wash your cellars, rub all the lumps out of the salt in a plate, with a knife-blade, fill your cellars again, smooth over the salt with your knife-blade, and see that the salt-spoons are in order.

        These daily duties are indispensable, if you wish to have everything in order, and nothing lost by neglect.

        Now call in your cook, and make all necessary arrangements for every meal in the next twenty-four hours. Thus you will be relieved of much household duty, and secure to yourself many agreeable leisure hours; that is, provided your cook has been previously well trained and taught,--otherwise, attend as much as possible to everything, rather than subject your husband and friends to bad cookery.

        Count and clean your silver once a week, as well as your knives and forks. Whiting, mixed with vinegar and water, will make your silver very bright. Polish it, when dry, with a soft, old cotton rag or buckskin. Take care to rub also with whiting the handles of your knives.

        To CLEAN KNIVES.--Take a bit of woolen rag, scrape over it some rottenstone, then drop on it a lump of pure olive oil or lard. Rub your knives with this till all the discoloration is gone, then wipe or wash them; after which, immediately polish them with a dry flannel and whiting.

        Be careful to wash your cups, saucers, etc. in good strong soapsuds, and rinse them in pure water.

Page 123

        Knives that you do not use every day, grease, and wrap in tissue-paper.

        Your dining-room servant should be provided with at least two dozen cup-towels, one dozen knife-towels, and half a dozen dusters.

        Have these nicely washed, ironed, and locked up, and place as many of each in the hands of your servant, daily, as you find he or she will need.

        See that these are duly returned at night, washed and ironed, to be placed with their fellows under lock and key.

        The duster must, of course, form an exception, as it will be needed early in the morning.

        Count all your towels every Monday morning. All that have been in use during the previous week should be washed and boiled in weak lye. This is necessary to preserve their clear complexion.

        Table- and bed-linen, as well as clothes of all kinds, should be counted weekly.

        To CLEAN BRASSES.--If they have become dark and rusty, rub them first with wet brickdust, and then with rottenstone and water; after which, repeat the rubbing with a dry woolen rag and dry rottenstone. Turpentine and oils or acids are bad in many respects. Never use them.

Coffee.

        Choose the best and oldest coffee. Mocha is generally considered the best, but old Government Java is worthy to contest the prize. This, however, is a matter of taste.

        Washing coffee, before browning, is unnecessary,

Page 124

as the exterior coating, with all attached to it, is removed in browning. If you prefer washing, let the coffee become thoroughly dried before it is browned. Pick out all the stones.

        Instruct your cook to allow no other duty to interfere while she is engaged in browning coffee. If the stirring is discontinued for awhile, the grains at the bottom of the pan become brown, while those on the surface are still uncolored. Now the browning must continue till the light grains become brown, and by this time the grains first browned become black,--that is, burned to charcoal,--in which remains neither strength nor taste. In such a case, would it not be quite as well to throw away one-half of your coffee before browning and toast the remainder properly? I am sure of it.

        Coffee should be toasted to a deep-brown color, but never till black. When coffee approaches the right degree of browning, and the aroma begins to rise, a lump of butter, as large as a hazel-nut, should be stirred in, to arrest its escape. As soon as it is done, the browned coffee should be put away in a canister with a closely-fitting lid. If all is ground immediately, there is the greater reason to keep it from the air, as, after being ground, the aroma the more easily escapes.

        But the very best mode of making coffee is to parch and grind it just before making.

        To MAKE CLEAR COFFEE.--You may use the white of an egg or a bit of isinglass. Mix your coffee to the consistency of paste, with cold water and either of the above clarifiers, then pour on

Page 125

boiling water. Allow your coffee to boil twenty minutes before sending to table. A cupful of ground coffee will make three pints of the beverage--a coffeecup.

        A French strainer makes far the best coffee, and is the most convenient.

        If the French strainer were adopted in public houses and steamboats, and its careful management attended to, there would be no complaints made, as now, of bad coffee. It is a common thing to hear gentlemen call out, "Here, waiter, if this is coffee, bring me tea; if it is tea, bring me coffee!"

        If a proprietor values the reputation of his house, or the attractiveness of his table, he should give such things as these his personal attention occasionally,--instructing his housekeeper according to some approved mode of preparation of his coffee, tea, and the like. Few persons enjoy their breakfast if the coffee is indifferent; and where it is known good coffee may be found, there the guests will gather.

        A friend comes occasionally to take a cup of coffee with the author, saying "that at the hotel is horrid."

        To have your coffee in perfection, put it in the strainer about an hour before it is to be used. As soon as it is dripped it should be transferred to the table coffeepot or urn, after having been brought to the point of boiling. The pot or urn should be first scalded well. If your company is large, and you have but one strainer, as soon as the portion prepared is removed to the table coffeepot, empty

Page 126

out the grounds and put in a fresh supply of coffee, drip it as before, and serve a second supply: it will be all the better coming in while the breakfast progresses.

        Be very careful that all the tins belonging to your strainer be well and thoroughly cleansed in hot soapsuds, and well rinsed in clear, clean water, then sunned. If water is allowed to remain in your strainer, a very disagreeable taste is imparted to the coffee. It should be put away dry. A kettle lined with porcelain is a most excellent vessel to keep dripped coffee in till needed, if prepared too soon. Directions generally come with the strainer.

        Your urn or coffeepot should be kept with the same care as your strainer,--clean, dry, and well sunned or aired.

        If you wish to have coffee and tea in perfection, supply yourself with conveniences to prepare them yourself on the table. If you use gas, it is very easy to obtain a drop-light with stands for the urns or coffeepots.

        If you do not use gas, use a spirit-lamp for the purpose.

Tea.

        Green or black tea, to be drunk in perfection, must be made with boiling water,--boiling at the time of being poured on the tea; and black tea is the better for boiling some ten minutes.

        Do not trust this operation to servants, as it is very common, with most of them, to believe that water once boiled is boiling water. Although the kettle, on boiling, is removed from the fire so far

Page 127

as entirely to stop the ebullition of the water, it is thought nevertheless boiling water, and tea is made of such, in most cases, if the eye of the mistress is not upon it.

        Of best green tea three teaspoonfuls will be sufficient for six persons, though if you wish tea for one, a spoonful will be needed. For black tea a larger proportion will be necessary, perhaps double.

        If a silver teapot is used, the tea should first be made in an earthen pot, and kept at boiling heat near the fire till about to be served; then the silver pot should be scalded with boiling water, and the tea immediately transferred into it and served.

        Three things it would be well to avoid in tea,--tea of inferior quality, weak tea, and cold tea: unless persons desire iced tea,--then it should be well iced. Tepid tea is nauseous, especially if weak.

Chocolate.

        Grate into your stewpan two ounces of chocolate or cocoa, add sufficient hot water to make a smooth paste, then pour on it a pint of boiling water. Set the stewpan on the fire and let it boil, stirring it frequently; then pour on it half a pint of sweet new milk. Boil again for ten minutes, and it is ready for use. Add sugar and cream, if you like, at the table.

Yapon.

        This is a shrub, growing on the sand-banks of the coast of North Carolina. It is cut in August, boughs and leaves, into small portions, then laid in the sun till partially dried, when it is placed in a heated brick oven, and thoroughly dried and browned.

Page 128

        It is now ready for use, and is prepared thus:

        Boil a large handful of the yapon in a quart of water for fifteen minutes, then remove it to your teapot, and drink it with sugar and cream.

        The flavor is very pleasant,--very much like black tea.

Cream and Milk.

        Cream for coffee should be taken from milk of the previous night.

        In summer your milk should be kept in a cool place, if not on ice, so as to have it sweet for coffee in the morning. If cream is sour, it is not fit for coffee or tea.

        Boiled milk may be used as a substitute, though sweet cream is far preferable.

Sugar.

        Clean, clear brown sugar is very good in coffee, but for green tea crushed or loaf is most agreeable.

        Keep your sugars well covered, as often a disagreeable foreign taste is given to your coffee or tea from substances which have been admitted through carelessness.

Butter.

        Your butter should be fresh and sweet. If you make your own butter, be sure and press out all the milk and wash it well with pure water, taking care again to press it dry, and then add nice, fine salt and a little powdered white sugar.

        Scald your butter-print with boiling water, and immediately immerse it in cold water. This will prevent the butter from sticking.

Page 129

VARIOUS MODES OF PREPARING YEASTS AND
BREADS, MUFFINS, CAKES, Etc.

A Mode of Originating Yeast.

        Take 1 oz. of hops.

        Take 4 oz. of white sugar.

        Take 3 oz. of salt.

        Take 8 oz. of flour.

        Take 1 qt. mashed Irish potatoes.

        Take 3 qt. cold water.

        Simmer the hops and water together till the water is reduced to two quarts and a pint. Then strain and divide the liquor, placing half in a vessel with the flour, sugar, and salt, and half in another vessel containing the mashed potatoes. Beat each portion twenty minutes, when stir all well together, and put it away in a jug to ferment. Shake it frequently. It will be ready for use in twenty-four hours. Two tablespoonfuls, or half a gill, will be sufficient for a quart of flour.

        HOP YEAST.--Boil a handful of hops in a pint of water till reduced one-third; then pour your hop-water. while boiling, through a sieve or colander, on two large spoonfuls of sifted flour. Stir the mixture till smooth, let it cool to the warmth of new milk, then add a cupful of well-risen yeast and a thimbleful of soda.

        Put your yeast into a clean, strong jug, well stopped, in a cool place. If you have no very cool place, stop it loosely.

        DRY YEAST.--After making your yeast as above directed, when it is very light pour it into a tray

Page 130

of sifted corn-meal; make it into a very stiff dough, and, if in winter, set it to rise as you would a loaf of bread, and, when it becomes full of cracks, it is light; then sift meal over a clean, dry tray, scatter your dough loosely over it, and set it in a cool place to dry. Stir it about frequently, and have it to dry as quickly as possible, or it will be either sour or mouldy. When thoroughly dry, put it in a paper bag, and hang it up in a draught of air, where it will be dry. If it is in summer, scatter the dough as soon as you make it, as it may sour in the loaf before spreading.

        I have instructed all my neighbors to make yeast cakes in this way, but notwithstanding, scarcely a day passes that some one of them does not send to me for dry yeast, saying that theirs is sour. This arises from carelessness in drying their yeast. It should be stirred about frequently while drying, and moved to a dry tray.

        POTATO YEAST.--Take six large white Irish potatoes, wash them clean, then boil them till soft in two quarts of pure water. Peel, and mash them to a fine, smooth pulp; then strain a quart of the water in which they have been boiled (boiling hot) through a sieve, on to a teacupful of sifted flour. Pour a little, at first, and mix it smoothly with the flour; then add the whole quantity. Now add your mashed potatoes, a good spoonful of sugar, and last of all, after the mixture is cold, a teacupful of well-risen yeast. Put your new-made yeast into a clean, strong jug, and, having corked it loosely, set it in a cool place; or you may use less water, and make dry yeast, as before directed.

Page 131

        Make fresh dry yeast every week. It is said that the principle of fermentation, in yeast, is a minute fungus or mushroom with vegetable life, and when kept too long in a dry state it dies, and the principle is lost. If only a portion of these mushrooms live, your bread cannot rise to the full; thus many careless or ignorant housekeepers eat inferior bread.

        Always save a portion of your yeast to begin a new batch with.

        SPONGE.--Suppose you wish rolls for breakfast. About six o'clock the previous evening dissolve a spoonful of dry yeast (for every quart of flour you wish to use) with milk-warm water, in some convenient vessel with a cover, add flour sufficient to make a pretty thick batter, and set the mixture to rise till nine o'clock; then make up your rolls.

        If your cook has sufficient time to make fresh potato yeast every morning after breakfast, and if she has sufficient judgment and care to keep it in the proper temperature, she may furnish you with splendid bread and rolls for breakfast next morning. It is only for the convenience of the thing that jug or dry yeast should be at all made. Neither will make as perfect bread as yeast made every twentyfour hours. Save a little each time to begin with next morning.

        FRESH POTATO YEAST.--Boil two good-sized potatoes and mash them smoothly, pass them through a colander; then pour a little warm water on them gradually, stirring till well mixed and blood-warm; then add a spoonful of sugar and a gill of yeast. Set it to rise, in a moderately warm place in winter,

Page 132

and a cool place in summer. At nine o'clock at night make up your bread, as in No. 1 Premium Bread of this book.

My Premium Bread No. 1.

        Sift three quarts of best white flour into a tray or pan; take therefrom three spoonfuls of flour, and scald it with boiling water. Cool this paste with three spoonfuls of new milk and a little cold water; then add an egg, a tablespoonful of sugar, and one of salt.

        Now make an opening in the center of your tray of flour, pour therein the above mixture, with a cup of well-risen yeast, add sufficient water to form a moderately stiff dough, and knead it well.

        The water should be blood-warm in cold weather and cold in summer.

        Put your bread to rise in a tin bucket with a closely-fitting lid. It will not do so well to cover it with a cloth; in this case a thick, hard crust will form on it, which must be taken off, and this is a waste. Besides, in the covered bucket it will rise sooner and more uniformly.

        By long practice I have discovered three good tests by which to ascertain when bread is sufficiently light.

  •         1st. It should be at least twice its original size.

  •         2d. To the touch it should feel like a loosely-stuffed cotton cushion.

  •         3d. When touched suddenly on one side it should shake throughout the whole mass.

        Now mould out your loaves or rolls; let them

Page 133

rise as before, with the three tests. Wet them over with cold water, and bake immediately, if you wish your bread sweet and in perfection. Delay will render it tasteless or sour. Bake slowly.

        When you think your bread is done, strike it with the hand. If the sound is hollow and clear, you have judged rightly; if dull and heavy, return it to the oven, as, if you allow it to become cool, it will be of no avail to attempt its completion,--your cake is inevitably dough.

        Take care that the whole is covered with a firm, light-brown crust.

Premium Bread No. 2.

        Is made by the same process as the other, leaving out the sugar, milk, and eggs.

Twist Loaf.

        Take a pound of well-risen dough; divide it in half. Roll each piece under the hands, on a board or table, taking care to have them large in the center and gradually smaller at the ends. Each piece should be about ten inches long. Cover these pieces of dough with a cloth, and leave them to rise. When ready for baking, place them across each other thus:

Illustration

Then twist each opposite end together, beginning

Page 134

from the middle each way, when your twist will be complete, thus;

        

Illustration

Salt-Yeast Bread.

        Quite early in the morning beat up a thick batter of flour, warm water, salt, and a couple of tablespoonfuls of Indian meal. Set it in a warm place for four or five hours. If not sufficiently light, stir it and set it to rise awhile longer. When light, make out your dough, and set your bread to rise in a Dutch oven. Bake when light. This yeast will only answer for summer.

Six Rolls.

        Put a quart and a half of sifted flour into a tin bucket, make an opening in the center of the flour, pour into it a cup of well-risen yeast, a tablespoonful of sugar and half the quantity of salt, with a pint of milk or water. Stir till a smooth batter is formed in the center of the flour, cover it with flour, and leave it to rise till the covering of flour is cracked, showing it to be light. Now knead the dough and divide it into rolls. Put them in a deep, well-greased pan, and suffer them to rise again till very light. Bake them in a moderate oven. They should be of a light-brown color all over. Some persons add butter or lard. A small teaspoonful is sufficient.

Page 135

Bran Bread.

        One pint of bran.

        One pint Indian meal.

        One pint wheat flour, middlings.

        Made as Premium Bread No. 2.

        To be baked thoroughly.

        A thimbleful of soda should be added to the dough.

Lady Rolls.

        One quart of flour.

        One spoonful of butter.

        One egg.

        One spoonful of white sugar.

        One cup of yeast (well risen).

        Half teaspoonful of salt.

        Add, as in No. 1, milk and water sufficient to make a pliable dough.

        Set your rolls to rise overnight, make them out quite early in the morning, in round balls, and then roll them on the table to an oval form; cover them to rise again till half an hour before breakfast, when bake them in a slow oven, of a light-brown color. Set a dish cover over them for ten minutes to make the crust soft, if you prefer it so.

        Do not leave them in the oven a moment after they are done, or they will become hard and crusty.

Rasped Rolls

        Are made as above, but allowed to be more deeply browned on the top, and the crust partially rasped off.

        These rolls are very handsome on a supper-table, and are delicious. They should be served cold.

Page 136

Planters' Bread.

        Two quarts of best white flour.

        Six eggs, well beaten.

        One pint of sweet cream.

        One cup of well-risen sponge.

        One small teaspoonful of salt.

        Two teaspoonfuls of sugar.

        Mix, and manage it entirely as Premium Bread No. 1; then bake, in two greased tins or earthen pans. Or you may bake in small, square, oblong pans, as rolls.

Lemon Biscuits.

        Three spoonfuls of butter.

        Four eggs.

        A teacupful of sour milk.

        Two cups of white sugar, with grated lemon-peel.

        Flour sufficient to make a soft dough.

        Add a teaspoonful of soda before the flour is sifted, and pass both together through the sieve; roll out thin and cut them; then bake in a moderate oven.

Breakfast Buns.

        One pound of flour.

        Quarter pound of butter.

        Quarter pound of sugar (down weight).

        With rather more than half a pint of light sponge.

        Stir the butter and sugar to a cream, then add the sponge, with milk sufficient, when poured into the flour, to make a soft dough. Let the dough rise, then knead it a second time; roll it out an inch thick, and cut out the buns with a ring or

Page 137

cake-cutter: let them rise a second time, and bake them quickly. When done, brush them over with sugar and water, and sift over them fine white sugar.

Sandwiches.

        Have ready a first quality fresh loaf of bread and a very sharp knife. Butter the slices before cutting them off the loaf,--it will butter the easier. Cut the slices very thin, then place on each buttered slice thin shavings of cold ham; roll the slices up evenly, and place them in a plate till the pile is sufficiently high.

        These are very nice, and convenient for tea or supper.

Dixie Rolls.

        Make No. 1 bread. When well risen, divide the dough into lumps that will fill a teacup; roll them out into round, flat cakes; double them in half, let them lie doubled up till light, then wet them with cold water, and bake them in a moderate oven. This will be an oval roll, with a seam lengthwise, which gives it the appearance of a grain of wheat.

Ring Rolls.

        Mould out small round rolls; lay them in rings, in a round pan, till one fills up the center; let them rise well, and, after wetting them with cold water, bake them in a slow oven.

Sponge Muffins.

        One quart and a half flour.

        Two eggs.

Page 138

        One teaspoonful of butter or lard.

        One teaspoonful of sugar.

        One teaspoonful of salt.

        One cup of well-risen yeast.

        Add water sufficient to make a soft dough, which will admit of being rolled out on a board without sticking.

        This quantity will make four muffins.

        Make the dough out into round balls, and flatten them with the rolling-pin till about the thickness of your little finger; allow them to rise again till twice their original thickness; then bake, split, and butter them.

        These are excellent. Serve hot.

Tough Muffins.

        These are made of simple bread dough, well risen.

        Take a piece of dough about the size of an ordinary orange, roll it out flat, say as thick as your little finger, cover your muffins with a cloth, and let them rise till quite as thick again as at first, then put them to bake on a griddle moderately heated. Turn them frequently. When done, split them open, and butter them while hot. Serve them immediately.

Egg Muffins.

        Rub one teaspoonful of butter into a quart of sifted flour, then add three half pints of sweet milk and six eggs beaten very light; add a little salt, a teaspoonful of soda, and two of cream of tartar or strong vinegar. If you have buttermilk, leave out the acids above mentioned. Half a cupful of buttermilk will be sufficient in the sweet milk.

Page 139

Scotch Cakes.

        Two quarts of flour.

        One large tablespoonful of butter.

        One cup and a half of milk.

        One cup of well-risen yeast.

        Two eggs and half a teaspoonful of salt.

        Combine all these ingredients into a soft dough overnight, and in the morning early roll out the dough and make it into thin biscuits, of any size you fancy. Cover them, to rise a second time. When light, bake them quickly, and send to the breakfast-table, quite hot, from time to time.

My Favorite Muffins

        Are made as Scotch cakes; then divide the dough into eight pieces, roll them into round balls, flatten them with the rolling-pin, allow them to rise again, and bake them in a moderate oven. When done,--but with a soft crust,--split them, butter them well, and send them to table hot, in quick succession, two at a time.

Sweet Potato Biscuits.

        To half a pound of potatoes, boiled, mashed, and strained through a colander, add a tablespoonful of lard or butter, a teaspoonful of salt, and a quart of flour; then wet these up with as much milk as will make a pliable dough that will easily be rolled out on a board. When rolled out, cut your cakes or biscuits with a cutter, and bake them in a quick oven; or you may add yeast, and set them to rise. They are good either way.

Page 140

Cottage Bread.

        Make a quart of flour into a moderately stiff dough, with a tablespoonful of butter, one of sugar, one egg, and a cup of well-risen yeast; as usual, add a little salt.

        Make the dough into three cakes, roll them, and set them to rise. When light, bake them in a quick oven.

Short Cakes.

        Mix half a pound of lard or butter with a pound of flour, add a little salt, and water sufficient to make a moderately stiff dough. Roll it out several times, doubling it up in the intervals. Finally, roll it out into a sheet the usual thickness for such cakes; cut them either round or square, and bake them in a quick oven.

Buckwheat Cakes.

        Make a very thick batter of buckwheat flour and water, add a spoonful of yeast-meal or two spoonfuls of well-risen sponge; beat it a great deal with a wooden spoon. Set your jar in a warm place, where the batter will be sure to turn sour, and in the morning, just before you begin to bake your cakes, add a cup of new milk, with a teaspoonful of soda in it. Bake them brown.

        If you do not like soda, keep your cakes while rising in a cool place in summer, and in a moderately warm place in winter. Add the cup of milk in the morning just before baking.

Page 141

Brown Flour Cakes

        Are made in the same way as buckwheat cakes, with addition of a cup of Indian meal and flour.

Breakfast Cream Muffins.

        Beat four eggs till very light, and stir them gradually into a quart of sour cream, with flour sufficient to make a stiff batter, then add half a teaspoonful of soda, with a teaspoonful of salt, and bake them in muffin-rings.

Southern Biscuits.

        To one quart of flour add a small tablespoonful of lard, and half a teaspoonful of salt. Mix the dough with water, as stiff as possible, and knead it with the hands till pliable and smooth; continue to knead it till it pops under every pressure of the hand. This is a test of its lightness. Then make balls of the dough about the size of an egg, flatten them on the board with the rolling-pin, prick them in the center with a fork, and bake them in a quick oven. When the edges are hard they are done, otherwise do not take them from the oven, or they will be undone and unwholesome.

        The labor of making these biscuits will be lessened by using the machine on page 142, which may be easily made by an ordinary carpenter.

        Mix the dough in a tray with the hand, then put it in the dough-trough at A, turn the crank C with the right hand, and push the dough toward the grooved cylinder with the other. The dough will pass under the roller or cylinder D to B; then reverse

Page 142

the crank, and the dough will return to A. Continue this operation till your dough is very light, and make the biscuits as above directed.

        

Illustration

        The cylinder may be taken out to clean.

        Crackers made in this way are very nice, if the dough is rolled out thin, and the crackers baked crisply.

Sitgrieves Crackers.

        Rub into six pounds of flour one pound of fresh butter, then wet it with water sufficient to make a very stiff dough. Knead it well with the hands, as in the foregoing receipt, or pass it under the roller of your biscuit-machine till the dough becomes very light and pliable. If very light, the bulk will be increased, and there will be heard a frequent popping of the dough as it is worked.

        Another way to test its lightness is to dent the dough with your finger. If light, the dent will disappear on removing your finger.

Page 143

        During the working a little dry flour should be added, from time to time, as you double up the dough. Cut your light dough into two-inch squares, roll them in the hand, flatten them with the rolling-pin, prick them in the center, and bake them in a quick oven.

Cream Biscuits.

        Take a quart and a half of flour, add to it a teaspoonful of soda and one of salt, put it in a tray, and pour in the middle half a pint of rich cream. If not sour, add a tablespoonful of good vinegar, then knead up the dough well with milk or water sufficient to make it moderately stiff. Roll it out, and cut it with a ring or cake-cutter. Bake the biscuits in a quick oven; do not allow them to remain till hard.

Soda Biscuits

        Are made in the same way, except that butter or lard is used instead of cream. Soda and some convenient acid are necessary. Good cider-vinegar is best; three spoonfuls to one of soda.

Light Biscuits

        Are made of simple bread dough, with the addition of lard or butter. Experience must decide the quantity. These should rise the second time, and be baked quickly, after wetting with cold water.

Crisp Wafers.

        One pint of flour made into a pliable dough, with one egg, a spoonful of lard or butter, and milk sufficient to make the dough; a sprinkle of salt.

Page 144

Work the dough well, make it into small, round balls, flatten them with a rolling-pin to the thinness of paper, if possible; lay them in the waferirons, and bake them quickly.

To Make Toast.

        Cut your bread in even slices, about half an inch thick. Have a clear coal fire; put your bread quite near it, so as to have it toasted quickly. When of a light brown turn it; brown in like manner the other side, and take it from the fire. If you desire dry toast, it is ready now; but if buttered toast, dip the crusts in warm water quickly, butter it, and send it to table hot. To be used immediately, or it becomes hard and uninviting.

        If you wish milk-toast, have ready a pan of hot milk and butter, in which dip your slices as fast as toasted; lay them in a covered dish evenly, and serve at once.

Scalded Crackers.

        Scald a dish of crackers with pure boiling water, let them stand covered for a few minutes, then take out one at a time, butter it, and lay it in a warm, covered dish till the whole are buttered. Serve immediately.

        Crackers soaked in cold water and buttered are very nice for tea in summer.

Waffles.

        One quart of flour.

        One quart of milk.

        Six eggs.

Page 145

        Quarter of a pound of butter.

        Two tablespoonfuls of good light yeast.

        Mix, and beat all these ingredients well together, and set the waffles to rise at twelve o'clock in the day, for tea at seven. If for breakfast, mix overnight.

        If pains be taken to beat the eggs well, so that they are very light, the waffles may be compounded just before baking, without yeast.

Rice Waffles No. 1.

        One cup of boiled rice, or rice-flour.

        One quart of milk.

        One teaspoonful of butter.

        Four eggs. One cup of flour.

        A teaspoon half full of salt.

        Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, and mix the whole very evenly. Bake in waffle-irons, and butter before sending to table. If too thick to pour, add a little milk.

Batter Cakes or Dabs No. 1.

        Take one pint of sifted Indian meal and one pint of boiled small hominy, make these into a batter, with three eggs well beaten, a little salt, and milk, to produce a proper consistency.

Hominy Cakes.

        One quart of milk, a pint of sifted flour, a pint of soft-boiled small hominy, with two eggs, and a small spoonful of butter. Beat the batter till very light, and bake it as buckwheat cakes.

Page 146

Rice Waffles No. 2.

        Two cups of flour, three eggs, a cup and a half of soft-boiled rice, with milk sufficient to make a muffin-batter. Add a little salt, beat it well, and bake in waffle-irons.

Sally-lunn No. 1.

        One and a half pounds of flour.

        One pint of milk, warmed, and

        Two ounces of butter melted in the milk.

        Three eggs.

        One cup of well-risen yeast.

        A spoonful of sugar.

        Beat all well together. Grease a baking pan, pour in the batter, and set it to rise. In summer make it at twelve o'clock, for tea; in winter, at nine. Observe that it is twice as high in the pan as before it began to rise; then bake it, and when baked, serve it immediately. It spoils by standing.

Sally-lunn No. 2

        Is made with the ingredients of No. 1, with just milk enough to make them into a soft dough, which work with the hand into a round loaf, and place it in a greased pan or earthen form to rise. When light, bake in a moderate oven, and turn out on a plate. Serve while hot; though, unlike No 1, this is good cold.

Victoria Muffins.

        Half a pint of rich cream.

        One pint of milk.

Page 147

        Six eggs.

        One quart of flour, with a little salt.

        A teaspoonful of soda; and if the cream and milk are sweet, add the usual portion of acid.

        Bake in rings or patty-pans.

        These muffins may be made with yeast; but the milk should in this case be new and sweet, and instead of cream use a spoonful of fresh butter.

Drop Muffins No. 1.

        Beat two eggs well, with a teaspoonful of sugar, one of melted butter, and a cup of sweet cream; stir in as much flour as will make a batter stiff enough for a spoon to stand up in it; add a little salt and a good cup of light yeast.

        Make these muffins the night before; do not stir them in the morning before baking. Drop them by spoonfuls in a greased oven or on a griddle. They are very fine either way.

Another, No. 2.

        One quart of flour, three eggs, a spoonful of lard, the same of sugar, two tablespoonfuls of good yeast, a little salt, and soda; add warm water sufficient to make so stiff a batter that a spoon will stand up in its center.

        Bake as for No. 1.

Whigs.

        One pound of flour, a quarter of a pound of butter, half a pint of milk, one tablespoonful of sugar, half a cup of well-risen yeast, a little salt.

        To be baked in rings. If on a griddle, turn them; if in an oven, do not.

Page 148

Binah Muffins.

        Six eggs.

        One quart of sweet milk.

        One light quart of flour.

        One spoonful of butter.

        A little salt.

        Warm the butter a little if the weather is cold, and beat it to a cream. Then, as you break your eggs, drop the yelk of each into the butter, beating it all the while till very light; then add in small portions, alternately, the milk and flour, and last of all the whites of eggs, beaten as stiff as possible. Cut them into the batter, gently, with a knife, and bake immediately. These are splendid muffins.

Flannel Cakes No. 1.

        One quart of flour.

        Three spoonfuls of Indian meal.

        Three eggs.

        One teaspoonful of butter, melted in one pint of warm milk.

        One cup of yeast, or a spoonful of yeast-meal.

        Set these cakes where they will sour a little, then add soda sufficient to sweeten them. Bake on a hot, greased griddle, as buckwheat cakes.

Flannel Cakes No. 2

        Are made when you have no time to let them rise with yeast. They may be baked as soon as made; but care should be taken to mix and beat them well. A teacup of buttermilk or three spoonfuls of good vinegar should be added, and a teaspoonful of soda to receipt No. 1.

Page 149

Barbadoes Muffins.

        Take a quart of flour, and make a stiff batter with milk, add a cup of yeast (risen), four eggs, well beaten, a little salt, and a spoonful of melted butter; beat the batter up well, and set it to rise at dinner-time, if you wish them for tea.

        Bake them in muffin-rings, on a hot griddle. Turn them quickly when brown on one side. Fill your rings half full, and they will rise to the top.

Buttermilk Cakes.

        Take a pint of buttermilk, and thicken it with flour to the consistency of buckwheat cakes, add a little salt, and a teaspoonful of soda. Bake rapidly on a greased griddle.

Dabs No. 2.

        Scald a pint of Indian meal slightly, add a pint of sweet milk, and two eggs; beat till very light. Bake on a greased griddle.

Bryan Pone.

        One pint of sweet milk.

        One pint of sifted Indian meal.

        Six eggs, beaten separately till very light.

        One large spoonful of butter, rubbed into the meal while dry. Add a little salt.

        Mix all well together, and bake it in a well-greased pan, from which turn it out on a plate to serve. It requires a brisk fire.

Page 150

Buttermilk Pone.

        Rub a spoonful of butter or lard into a quart of dry Indian meal, at night, and moisten it with a cup of buttermilk, and one of water; add a little salt; let it remain till morning, then mix in a teaspoonful of soda; pour your dough into a greased pan, and bake it as any other Indian bread.

Rice Cakes.

        One pint of boiled rice, a teacup of flour, two eggs, a small spoonful of butter, a teaspoonful of salt, and milk sufficient to make a muffin-batter. Bake in greased tin plates. When done, turn out on a china plate. Serve hot. To be cut in slices, and eaten with butter.

St. Charles Pone.

        One pint of sifted Indian meal.

        One pint of sour milk.

        One teaspoonful of butter.

        Two eggs.

        Half teaspoonful of soda.

        If your milk is sweet, add a teaspoonful of cream of tartar, or two of sharp vinegar.

        Beat the ingredients well together, and bake in a greased pan, from which turn it carefully on a plate, and serve hot.

Crisp Muffins.

        One pint of sifted Indian meal.

        One pint of milk or cream.

        Two eggs.

Page 151

        A teaspoonful of salt.

        A spoonful of butter or lard.

        Drop the batter in a hot, greased pan or oven by spoonfuls, taking care that your muffins do not touch. Let them bake till crisp and brown.

Patty Muffins

        Are made in the same way as above, with the addition of two eggs, soda, and cream of tartar. Bake in patty-pans.

Crisp Johnny Cakes.

        Take a quart of Indian meal (sifted), rub into it a spoonful of butter or lard, then add a little salt, and water sufficient to make a moderately stiff dough.

        Wet a clean oaken board, and lay on your johnny cake carefully with the hands. Do not make it quite as large as the board. Place it before a good live-coal fire, on the long edge of the board, perpendicularly. To do this, it must be supported from behind by a brick or stone.

        When browned on the exposed side, the johnny cake must be turned, and when both sides are brown, it must be split through the middle, the soft part of it taken out, and then again it must be placed before the fire, and the inner sides browned till the whole is very crisp.

Sweet Potato Johnny Cakes.

        Made as above, with the addition of half the quantity of mashed potatoes.

Page 152

        Omit the splitting and crisping. Butter them, and eat them hot.

Sweet Pone No. 1.

        Have a stewpan with boiling water the overnight, sift Indian meal, and stir into the water till you have a smooth, thick mush; add a little salt; cover the stewpan till morning in a cool place. In the morning take the mush and knead it well with your hand, grease a pan, and put in the dough, smoothing it carefully on the top. Bake it in a hot oven till very brown, top, bottom, and sides.

        It should be a deep pan, and the pone should be turned out on a plate to serve. Cut it in slices as you would a pound cake, and eat it hot, with butter.

        If any of your pone is left from breakfast, it will be very nice cold for dinner.

Thin Griddle Cakes.

        Moisten Indian meal into a soft dough that may be moulded with the hands; make cakes about the size of a breakfast plate, by laying a lump on the middle of the griddle, and then with the hand flattening it out to its intended circumference. It should be barely half an inch thick. Bake on both sides, split, and butter. Serve as hot as possible. These are excellent cakes.

Sweet Pone No. 2.

        Take two quarts of sifted white Indian meal, pour over it a pint of boiling water, let it stand

Page 153

awhile to cool, then add a spoonful of salt, and cold water sufficient to make a moderately stiff dough. Do this overnight, and cover it close, in a moderately warm place. In the morning, quite early, lay a couple of cabbage leaves in the bottom of a Dutch oven or spider, put in your pone, taking care to shape it nicely with the hands. Bake it slowly, but steadily, till your breakfast is all ready; then serve it hot.

        This pone makes a very nice breakfast, with hot coffee and sausages, particularly if you have sweet, fresh butter.

Hoe Cake.

        Moisten Indian meal with cold water and a little salt; knead your dough well, to make it light. Bake on a hoe or griddle over a moderate fire; turn it often, till well browned on both sides. If you like you can add a little lard or butter.

Boiled Bread.

        Scald your meal slightly, then knead the dough well with cold water, and a little salt. Make the dough stiff, and roll the bread in the hand to smooth, even balls; then, after flattening them a little, drop them in boiling water. An hour and a half will be sufficient.

Page 154

CURING MEATS.

Preliminaries.

        CHOOSE some sunny day in the beginning of winter, before you put up your bacon, to prepare your smoke-house for its reception. If your smoke-house is an old one, take everything out of it; search well for rats and other vermin. If you discover signs of them, get a terrier, if possible; dig up the floor and destroy their nests. Then, after fumigating with sulphur and red pepper, hang on the walls of the smoke-house at least half a dozen little bags filled with chloride of lime wet with vinegar. This will prevent the entrance of rats for a long time. Do this whenever you find signs of their presence in your smoke-house.

        Now that your smoke-house is ready, get a sugar or molasses hogshead,--one recently emptied,--have it sawed in half, and place each half in your smoke-house ready to pack your salted pork in.

        In this country, hogs are usually cut up in the same manner, that is, into heads, hams, shoulders, middlings, chines, backbones, and jowls. As soon as this is done, examine each piece, and trim off all the fat, which is not absolutely necessary to preserve the shape of the piece. Round off the large end of the hams. Here is much superfluous fat. Then do the same by the shoulders and middlings. The chine and backbone pieces should be divested

Page 155

of all the fat. The skins should all be saved for the souse; boiled with the feet, and a head or two, they will make excellent souse-cheese.

        Have before you a large wooden tray, or shallow box, in which to salt your meat. To every ham and shoulder of your bacon allow

        One tablespoonful of salt.

        One tablespoonful of saltpeter.

        One teaspoonful of sugar.

        Half teaspoonful of red pepper.

        Quarter teaspoonful of soda.

        Mix all these in some capacious vessel, and with the hand rub the mixture well into every part of each piece. Remember, the hocks of both hams and shoulders should be rubbed thoroughly. Lay your hams and shoulders skin downward in one half-hogshead, then rub your middlings and jowls with what is left of the above mixture, and when all are well rubbed, then lay them by. Put a quantity of salt into your salting-tray or box, and rub your hams first thoroughly with salt, one after another, laying them skin downward in the second half-hogshead. Do this with the shoulders next, and then with the jowls and middlings, taking care to have a good layer of salt in the bottom of the hogshead, and every piece covered well with salt before being laid down.

        By rubbing the hams and shoulders first a good deal of saltpeter, etc. falls into the tray or box, and is thus saved for the middlings and other pieces which are to be subsequently salted.

        Having rubbed, salted, and laid your hams away,

Page 156

proceed in the same manner with the middlings, etc., till the whole is salted. Let your meat remain thus for two weeks, when it must be all rubbed over again with additional salt, though this time but little more will be required. Let your meat remain two more weeks, and it is ready for smoking or drying.

        Lay your middlings down first, the second time of salting, with the hams uppermost. Before hanging your meat, sprinkle ground red pepper over it, and do not hang it low, particularly just over the smoke-hearth. Much good meat is ruined in this way after all your careful salting.

To Cure Hams in Pickle.

        Seven pounds of coarse salt.

        Five pounds of brown sugar.

        Two ounces of pearlash or soda.

        Four gallons of water.

        Boil all together, and skim well, and when cold put in your hams. This quantity of pickle will cure one hundred pounds of hams. Eight weeks will perfect them, then hang them to smoke or dry.

        This is an excellent pickle for beef. Three weeks will corn it well.

My favorite Mode of Curing Beef, Tongues, and Venison.

        Make a pickle strong enough to bear up an egg (four gallons of water to the hundred weight), then in a bowl or pan mix eight spoonfuls of sugar, eight spoonfuls of saltpeter, eight spoonfuls of salt, and four of soda. Mix all these well

Page 157

together, wash all your pieces of beef clean from the blood, rub each piece well with the mixture, and drop them into the pickle. If venison or tongues, treat them in the same way. Have a board fitting the inside of your pickle-tub, with a stone to suit; cover it up carefully. It will be ready in a week to use.

        Eight weeks are long enough to keep meat of any kind in pickle; indeed, it is injurious to keep it so longer. It should be hung up to dry or smoke for about a week, then put away in a safe place from the fly.

To Smoke Meat.

        Make a bright fire in the smoke-hearth, and then smother it with a quantity of fine chips or tanner's bark, mixed with a handful of red pepper. If you find your chips inclined to blaze, put a slight covering of ashes over them. This will deaden the heat, without confining the smoke. Make such a fire as will be likely to continue burning for the whole day. Take care to make your smoke daily, and the bacon will be sufficiently cured in six weeks to pack away.

        Hams and shoulders are usually packed in barrels or boxes of leached ashes. The ashes should be thoroughly dried, or the fat of your hams may be partially converted into soap. Take care of this.

        If your smoke-house is a very dark one, and free from vermin, your hams may continue to hang all the year without packing; but a smoke should be made on damp days. Venison and mutton,

Page 158

beef and beef-tongues, should be smoked in the same way; and sausages are much improved by smoking moderately. Too much makes them harsh, and strong in taste.

To Dry Lard.

        Cut your fat into three-inch squares, and throw it into tubs of clean water; shake it about to divest it of all the blood, and then pour off the water, and fill the tubs with a fresh supply; allow it to remain till morning, and then drain your fat, and put it into pots or boilers over a moderate fire. A fire made of chips or coal, on the hearth, a little in advance of the main kitchen fire, is best, as well as safest. If you hang your pots or boilers of fat over a blazing fire, it is apt to boil over, and may set your kitchen on fire, or it will most probably burn. Both these evils may be avoided by the first-mentioned mode of procedure. Let your lard boil pretty briskly till the water is all dried out; this will be known by its transparent appearance, for it will have a milky appearance until then. Now lessen your fire, and simmer the lard slowly, but steadily, stirring it all the while well from the bottom, or it is apt to burn. When your cracklings have become shrunken and of a yellow-brown color, your lard is done. Let it cool, and strain it into jars or wooden tubs for the purpose. Some use tin.

To Prepare Cases for Sausage.

        Take the small entrails of a hog, and after carefully emptying and washing them in many waters,

Page 159

put them to soak in salt water for twenty-four hours. Then with the back of a knife-blade scrape them on a board on both sides, that is, outside and inside, being turned. It is very easy to turn them on a stick. Continue to scrape them till all the fleshy substance is gone, leaving only the thin, transparent skins. Then with a pair of bellows blow each one up. Those without holes put again into salt water. Let them remain till you are ready to use them.

        Those which have holes are generally put with the rest of the chitterlings and boiled, so that nothing is lost.

        On the inside of the leaf-fat (which is taken from over the tenderloin) is a broad sheet of skin, which, if carefully peeled off, will make a capital case for tom-thumbs, or large sausage. So also will the large intestine, if carefully cleaned as above directed.

        If you intend to smoke your sausage, thin muslin, dipped in lard, will answer for cases. When you use these, pour boiling water on them, and take the muslin off.

Sausages.

        Chop your meat very fine, and to every seven pounds add one of leaf-fat, also chopped fine. Then season it with salt, sage, black and red pepper, and, if you choose, savory, in the following proportions:

        Eight pounds of sausage-meat.

        Two and a quarter ounces of salt.

        Eight large spoonfuls of sifted sage; nine, if you like; one of savory.

Page 160

        Three teaspoonfuls of black pepper, ground.

        Three teaspoonfuls of red pepper, ground.

        Mix all well in your sausage-meat, and pack it down hard in a stone jar; pour melted lard over the surface, and keep it well covered. Or, stuff your sausage in cases, link them in chains, and hang them to dry or smoke. (See Directions for Cases.)

        Your sausage-meat in jars must be made into small, round cakes, floured on both sides, and fried in their own grease.

        Your tom-thumbs should not be used till thoroughly dried, and then boiled; after which to be divested of their cases, and served either hot or cold. These should always be smoked.

Liver-puddings.

        Boil the pigs' livers, and, while warm, crumble them up with your hands, then to every liver add two tablespoonfuls of melted lard, two tablespoonfuls of Indian mush, one tablespoonful of salt, one of sage (pounded), and a teaspoonful of black and red pepper. Put them in large cases, as for tomthumbs, and smoke them. Liver-puddings sometimes turn sour, and therefore it will be well to add a little soda when you mix them.

Brains.

        Wash them clear of the blood, then chop them up with eggs, pepper, and salt. Fry them in lard, stirring them frequently, as you would scrambled eggs.

Page 161

Spare-ribs.

        Cut them up into convenient pieces, wash them clean, salt, pepper, and broil them till thoroughly done. Serve them hot.

Back-bones.

        Cut them in small pieces, and boil them in water to cover them; when done, stir in flour, salt, pepper, and sage. Allow them to stew till the gravy is of a proper consistency, and they are ready to serve.

Calf's Feet.

        Have a pot of boiling water and weak lye, dip the hoofs in it for ten minutes, and with a sharp knife remove them from the feet; then lay the feet in clear cold water for twenty-four hours. When they are perfectly white and clean, boil them in a pot, full of water. When they are quite tender, the large bones having been loosened from the flesh, and easily removed, the feet are done; take them up, and put them away in cold salt and vinegar, with water.

        Calf's feet, floured, and fried brown, make a very nice dish for breakfast.

A Calf's Head,

        Cleaned nicely, with the skin on, and boiled, may be fried in the same way.

Calf's Liver for Breakfast.

        Lay the liver in cold water, with vinegar, for an hour; then cut it in thin slices, salt, pepper, and

Page 162

flour it, and then fry it in hot lard. Do not allow it to burn. Pour a little hot water in the frying-pan after you take out the liver, stirring it well, then add a little pounded mace, with salt and pepper, and pour it over the liver in the dish.

Head Cheese.

        Take four hogs' heads, wash and scrape them very nicely, and cut off the end of the snouts; scrape and clean the skins which have come off the fat of the backbones and chines, and take the feet also if you like. Put all these into a large pot of water, and boil them till so tender that the bones may be easily withdrawn from the meat. Chop the meat up, and season it with salt, pepper, and spices to your taste,--mace, cinnamon, and nutmeg are best. When all are well mixed, tie the meat up securely in a clean, strong cloth or towel, put it in a tray or tub, with a heavy weight on, so as to flatten your cheese. Let this remain till the following morning, when cut it in slices, as required for the table.

        This is an excellent dish for luncheon. It is generally eaten with vinegar.

Sweetbreads, Melts, and Tenderloins

        Are usually fried in hot lard for breakfast.

Pig's Feet.

        Have ready a pot of boiling ashes and water, put your pig's feet in it for a few minutes, and take off the hoofs with a sharp-pointed knife. As you do this, lay the feet in cold water, in which is

Page 163

a little weak lye. Let the feet so remain, covered in water, till the following morning, when scrape them well and lay them in fresh water; repeat this every morning till the fourth or fifth, when the feet will be white and clean. Now boil them in water without salt till perfectly tender, and put them away in water, vinegar, and salt.

        Pig's feet are very nice taken out of this water each morning and fried brown for breakfast. Flour them before frying.

        Calf's feet are also very nice prepared in the same way.

        The liquor in which pig's or calf's feet are boiled, strained, divested of the lard, and purified, makes excellent jelly. (See Receipts in this book.)

        The grease from a set of calf's feet will make good oil for your kitchen lamp. If skimmed off, and put in a jar with twice the quantity of weak lye for about two weeks, will become well-purified machine oil.

Dried Beef.

        Take a leg of the finest beef you can get, split it in half, from the knuckle to the thigh-joint, that is, longitudinally; wash it well, so that it is free from blood. Lay each piece in a large dish, then mix in a separate vessel two pounds of brown sugar, with two tablespoonfuls of saltpeter, and three of fine salt, with a little soda, say a piece as big as a pea; mix all well together; rub each piece of beef with this mixture, and put what remains of it on the surface of each piece. On the following morning turn the beef over; do this every day, rubbing

Page 164

the beef. In about a week the whole of the juice which has been drained from the beef will be absorbed into it again, and when this is the case hang your beef to dry or smoke. When sufficiently dry, wrap in paper, and put away in a cool, dry place. In summer this beef is excellent.

YOUR DINNER-TABLE.

        TAKE care that your table is bright and clean, then cover it with a pure, glossy, linen-damask cloth. Place your casters in the center, unless you prefer to rear a pyramid of flowers in their place; in this case let the casters remain on the side-board or side-table, and instruct your waiter to hand it to any one wishing it. Lay the plates, etc., according to the number of persons to dine, always with one extra, for an accidental guest.

        Lay your knives and forks together, at the right side of your plates, with glasses for water and wine, if you use both, and a spoon for soup. Turn your plate upside down, with a clean, folded napkin on it, and, if you choose, with a slice of bread beneath. Never thrust your napkin into your tumbler or goblet, it is very unrefined,--this is a custom originating with waiters in hotels, who wished to make a show. Take care your casters are brilliantly clean, and well filled with choice condiments.

        I have always found it most convenient to lay the dinner-table early, that is, as soon as the dining-room

Page 165

is put in order after breakfast, placing the entire equipage on which is intended, corresponding to the number of dishes proposed. This will enable your servant to know exactly where you wish each article placed.

        When dinner is ready to be served, let all the dishes be taken from the table, carried into the kitchen, and placed in the same order on a clean table, and when having received their appointed contents returned to the dining-room. You will see the great advantage of this arrangement, especially when you have company to dinner; for, as you must be in your drawing-room at the time, there might be some serious mistake in the placing of the dishes, which it would be too late to remedy when you are called in,--that is, when your entire dinner is placed on the table at once; or, in case of a succession of courses, you would not think it proper to be giving directions before your guests. In winter, always take care your plates are in the plate-warmer till you sit down to dinner.

Courses.

        First course--soup.

        Second course--fish.

        Third course--meats.

        Fourth course--salads.

        Plates, knives, forks, and spoons to be removed each time, and replaced with clean ones, except spoons, which will not be needed.

        Then comes the dessert; after which introduce finger-bowls half full of pure water, with napkins.

Page 166

        

Illustration

DINNER-TABLE.

Page 167

        The dishes selected for this table are merely intended to represent a suitable style of arrangement, as also a handsome one, without any intention of insisting on always having them appear in their present position on the table, or on any necessity of always having them for a dinner company. The mistress of a house must use her taste, judgment, or fancy in the selection of her dishes, always remembering that "variety is the spice of life." In truth, as a dinner-party is equally as conducive to rational as physical enjoyment, it is well to give your table as attractive and agreeable an appearance as possible, ornamenting even with efforts of genius. Pyramids of fruits and flowers, or vases of choice exotics, at intervals, enliven a dinner-table vastly, put the guests in a genial humor, and open their hearts to the impulses of kind, generous, and benevolent feelings toward their companions as well as all mankind.

Arrangement of your Dessert.

        If you have a suite of apartments admitting of it, set your dessert-table in another communicating with your dining-room. As soon as dinner is over, let the guests rise and be conducted into the dessert-room. It will afford an agreeable change, and relieve you of removal of dinner-dishes, brushing off or removing cloths, etc.

        If this arrangement cannot be made when the dessert is over, remove the cloth, and take a glass of wine with the guests, or a cup of coffee, and retire with your lady guests to the withdrawing-room.

Page 168

        

Illustration

DESSERT FOR CHRISTMAS DINNER.

Page 169

Beef Soup No. 1.

        Take a shank of beef, crack the bone in several places, wash it clean, and put it in a pot, with half a cup of rice; fill your pot with cold water, cover it, and set it over a brisk fire. As soon as it begins to simmer, draw it somewhat off the fire, where it will only continue to simmer. Skim it well, and put in your vegetables: Lima beans, green corn, a little chopped turnip, cabbage, and small, young potatoes. Keep your soup boiling slowly for seven hours, when the meat will be partially dissolved, and a thick mucilage or broth formed. When the last hour has arrived, add tomatoes, a bunch of marjoram, savory, or thyme, or, if you choose, a small sprig of each. Then add your okras, already boiled to a mucilage in a porcelain stewpan. Let it boil up once more, and serve immediately. Add salt and red pepper before serving.

        Remember to stir your soup frequently well from the bottom during the whole process of boiling. If the vegetables are suffered to adhere to the bottom of the pot, they are apt to burn, and thus you have had all your labor for naught--your soup is ruined.

        Skim off the fat before sending the soup to table. Soup that is boiled properly has imbibed all the substance of the meat, and if any bits of meat remain undissolved, they should be removed before serving.

Page 170

Beef Soup No. 2.

        This soup is made as No. 1, though of bits of meat other than the shank. It will not be quite as rich or gelatinous, but very good, if taken pains with.

        In winter, when fresh vegetables cannot be obtained, those which have been dried will answer as well, though it is necessary to introduce them at the first, when the water is cold, as otherwise they are not apt to dissolve perfectly. Chopped celery, or even the seed, will improve your soup very much.

Bean Soup.

        Put your beans on early, with a few slices of ham and beef. Boil them till entirely dissolved, then strain them through a colander; return the soup to the pot, with a little chopped onion, celery, and a bunch of herbs, with salt and pepper to your taste.

        Let your soup boil for a short time slowly, strain it again, and serve it in a tureen. If too thick, add a little hot water before the last boiling.

Turtle Soup.

        Kill your turtle at night, and hang it up to bleed by the hind fins. In the morning separate the upper and under shell carefully. Do not break the gall-bag, or it will be ruined. Now take out all the flesh, fins, and eggs, and lay them in clean water. Some persons save the liver also.

        Take off all the black skin from the fins, put your turtle in a pot of water, let it boil till tender,

Page 171

skim it well, then add a few slices of ham, a large lump of fresh butter, rubbed in flour, with onion, chopped celery, marjoram, thyme, savory, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg. Boil a handful of chopped Irish potatoes, with half a teacupful of rice, in a small stewpan, till dissolved, and add them to the soup with a pint of Madeira wine. Let it boil up, and pour your soup into the tureen.

To Clean a Calf's Head.

        Scald it in weak lye, scrape off the hair, and, after washing it thoroughly, soak it overnight in clean, cold water.

Calf's Head Soup.

        This soup is called mock-turtle, because of its so nearly resembling that preparation in taste. It is made precisely in the same manner.

        Turtle soup and calf's head soup are both eaten with force-meat balls.

Force-meat Balls.

        Chop up fine, as for sausage-meat, veal or tender beef, with sweet herbs, salt, pepper, and bread-crumbs moistened with eggs. When your force-meat is well mixed, make of it little balls with the hands, flour them, and fry them brown, then drop them in the soup after it is placed in the tureen.

Okra Soup.

        This soup is made in the same way as beef soup No. 1, and when the vegetables are boiled to a mash, they are taken out with a perforated skimmer,

Page 172

and half a gallon of okras, cut up, is added to the soup. Let it boil till very thick, and pour it into the tureen.

Chicken Soup.

        Clean and draw your chicken, wash it in several waters, then put it in a pot, with a large spoonful of rice; cover it, and let it boil; skim it carefully. When done, add a teacupful of new milk, a sprig of thyme, with a little pepper (either red or black, as you like) and salt.

Green Pea Soup.

        Boil a quart of shelled green peas in two quarts of water till soft, then take them out of the water and mash them with a wooden spoon; return them to their liquor, with a few slices of cold ham, a few slices of cold beef, pepper, salt, parsley, marjoram, and thyme. Boil it up briskly, and serve it very hot. This is a dainty soup.

Oyster Soup.

        Take two quarts of the finest oysters you can get, take them carefully out of their liquor, and divest them of any bits of shell that may adhere to them, strain the liquor, and use it or not, as you like, for the soup. Now put a quart of sweet milk into a clean saucepan, with a few grains of allspice and a few bits of mace. Let it come to a boil, then stir in gradually a quarter of a pound of butter, previously rubbed with a spoonful of flour, and mixed with a few spoonfuls of the boiling milk. Put in your oysters, and let them simmer till plump;

Page 173

then take them out, put them in the tureen, and when the milk has boiled up again, pour it over the oysters in the tureen, and serve hot. Toast some thin slices of bread, cut them in inch squares, and throw them on the soup. A cup of sweet cream improves oyster soup very much.

        If you have not the milk, cream, or butter, season your oysters with slices of boiled ham, and thicken it slightly and smoothly with wheat flour; add a little onion, parsley, or spice.

Clam Soup

        Is made as oyster soup, except that the clams must be chopped up very fine and boiled till tender, before the seasoning is put in. A little chopped celery and onion will improve this soup very much.

Fish.

        If a fish is fresh and good, the eyes will appear prominent and bright, the gills of a bright red, the body firm, and the bones elastic. If blue at the gills, the eyes dull, and the flesh flabby, do not buy the fish.

        To clean fish of all kinds, the scales should be carefully removed, every one, the fish should be opened, and every particle of the entrails taken out. The blood should be all scraped and washed out. Great care should be taken that the gall is not broken. The fish should be well and carefully washed before being seasoned for cooking.

        A large fish, intended for baking or boiling, should be opened for drawing in front, just

Page 174

over the entrails; but if intended for broiling or frying, they are usually opened down the back, and laid flat, when the entrails can be removed without difficulty. Open your large fish, intended for boiling or baking, as little as possible; cut it from the gills downward about two inches, insert the finger, and draw the entrails up.

        After cleaning and washing out well, cutting off the vent and gills, stuff with bread, butter, pepper, salt, and onion, as you like.

        Pan fish, such as perch, robins, etc., must be opened from the gills to the vent, which latter cut off. They may be scored on both sides, at regular distances of an inch or an inch and a half, then peppered, salted, and fried.

        Fish in summer are never good on the second day, unless kept in ice; in winter it does not matter so much; but care should be taken to cook them as soon as possible, unless they are well salted, as fish is never good stale.

To Boil Fish.

        Put them in boiling water (with a little salt) inclosed in a bag or towel, well secured. A towel is best, because you can unroll it over the dish with less danger of breaking the fish. Weigh your fish, and allow a quarter of an hour to each pound. If the water boils steadily on to the last, it will be well done. If you have any suspicions that it is not done, run a needle into the thick part to the bone in the back, move the point about, and be sure the flesh is loosened from the bone, otherwise return it

Page 175

to the boiler for a little while longer. Egg sauce is usually an accompaniment for boiled fish.

        All small fish are best fried, such as perch, robins, spotted-fish, etc. Mackerel, mullets, and flounders, when fresh, are excellent fried crisply, and eaten with butter and tomato or mushroom sauce. When salted, they are best broiled and buttered.

To Stew Eels.

        Get them very fresh, skin them, and, having washed them well, stew them in pure water till tender; then rub a spoonful of butter, with the same quantity of flour; stir this in with the water and fish, then add a sliced onion, a sprig of marjoram and thyme, with salt and red pepper. Let the whole stew till well done.

To Prepare Shad for Broilng.

        Scale your shad perfectly, clean it nicely, then split it down the back, and lay it flat on your board or tray; now remove the entrails perfectly, taking care not to break the gall. Wash out all the blood, and lay your shad in clean water till you are ready to place it over the fire.

To Prepare a Shad for Breakfast.

        First, with a sharp knife, remove all the bones from your shad, sprinkle it with salt and a little Cayenne pepper, after which dredge on a thin coat of flour. Have ready a greased tin sheet (not a pan), lay on it your shad, and put it in your stove or oven; let it brown slowly, and when done slip it

Page 176

carefully off the tin sheet to a hot dish. Butter it well, and serve it immediately.

To Broil a Fresh Shad.

        Grease your gridiron, put your shad on it, over bright coals for five minutes, just to give it the taste of the fire, then transfer it to a tin sheet, and having dredged on flour, pour on a large spoonful of melted butter, and bake.

Court Bouillon.

        This dish may be made of either rockfish or sheepshead. For one fish, sliced, weighing about six or seven pounds, take

        Three spoonfuls of butter.

        Four spoonfuls of flour (brown the flour).

        One pint of chopped onions.

        One quart of chopped tomatoes.

        One quart of water.

        One pint of claret wine.

        Two tablespoonfuls of chopped parsley.

        One tablespoonful of chopped thyme.

        One teaspoonful of pounded cloves.

        One teaspoonful of allspice.

        Fry the onions in the butter, then add the browned flour, then the tomatoes, water, wine, spices, and herbs. Let the whole come to a boil, add the sliced fish, and let it simmer forty minutes, then add pepper and salt.

Page 177

To Fry Fish.

        If a large fish, cut it into four- or five-inch squares, pepper, salt, and flour it, then fry it in boiling lard. Your fish should swim in lard, or it will be scorched at the under side, and this will spoil its fine appearance. Serve it hot, with melted butter in a boat.

To Pickle Fish.

        Rock, salmon, or sheepshead will be very nice pickled thus: Cut your fish in six- or eight-inch pieces, boil these till thoroughly done, that is, till easily parted from the bone, and bloodless; then take them out carefully, lay them in a stone jar, with alternate layers of spice, pepper, salt, and sliced onion; cover them with vinegar and a little water, say a pint to two quarts of vinegar. Cover the jar, and set it in a cool place.

        Pickled fish is excellent for breakfast, tea, or supper. Do not keep it long.

To Broil Fish.

        Fresh fish should remain on the gridiron barely long enough to acquire the taste belonging to broiled fish, then it should be transferred to a tin sheet, and set in an oven to brown slightly. When done, butter, and serve hot.

To Prepare Salt Herrings for Breakfast.

        Either broil or fry them. Soak and wash them overnight, and in the morning, early, hang them up to dry. Sift flour or meal over them, and fry

Page 178

them a light brown, or broil them on a gridiron over dull coals. If the coals are bright, your herrings will burn and blister before being done within.

To Fry Perch or Robins.

        Clean, scale, and draw your perch neatly, wash them thoroughly from the blood, take out the gills, and trim the tails and fins; salt and flour them, then fry them in boiling lard a handsome brown. Some cooks score them on both sides before flouring them. Serve them very hot, with drawn butter or boiled egg sauce.

To Roast a Shad on a Board.

        Take a fat, fresh shad, clean it neatly, lay it open on the back, as for broiling, salt and pepper it, then nail it to an oaken board or barrel top, first heating the board thoroughly. Set the board up on its side before the fire, turn it frequently, first one side up, then the other, to preserve the juice. Flour and butter it while roasting, and, when done, lay the board with the fish on a dish, and send it to the table hot, with drawn butter and chopped eggs.

To Broil or Bake a Salt Shad or Mackerel.

        Take it from the pickle overnight, lay it in water to soak till morning, when quite early wash it, scrape it, and lay it in fresh, cold water for a short time, then wipe it dry, and hang it up till all your breakfast is ready for the fire, then lay it on the gridiron over the fire, as directed for fresh shad, or on a tin sheet to be baked. Serve it hot.

Page 179

To Bake Fish.

        Having cleaned and washed your fish, salt it a little, and stuff it with slices of buttered bread sprinkled with red pepper, and chopped onion or garlic; cover it with bread-crumbs or pounded cracker, after having brushed it over with yelk of egg. Put it in a pan or Dutch oven, with some water in the bottom, to prevent the fish from becoming dry. Baste it frequently with butter. When it is of a handsome brown color on the upper side, take off the lid of the oven, that the water may evaporate; let your fish remain in the butter to brown on the under side, and serve it hot, with gravy made of the butter in the oven, with a little browned flour and water, pepper, salt, and onion.

To Stew Fish.

        Cut your fish into pieces, four or five inches square, put it in a stewpan with water; let it boil gently, then rub a lump of fresh butter, with half its quantity of flour, moisten it with a little of the boiling water, and mix it gradually and smoothly with the water around the fish; then season your stew with salt, pepper, onion, or parsley. Add a cup of rich, sweet milk or cream when your fish is done, and serve hot.

Chowder.

        Slice your fish in pieces about six inches long; add slices of fat pork, salt, pepper, onions, and pounded crackers, with a cup of milk, then a little

Page 180

flour rolled in butter, with parsley, and a glass of wine. Simmer this gently for an hour in a closely covered Dutch oven, and serve it hot.

        Fish of any kind stewed in this way, with the addition of mushrooms and spices, makes a very excellent and handsome dish for company.

Codfish.

        Boil it tender, prick it from the bones, and mix it with equal quantity of mashed Irish potatoes, a spoonful of butter, onion, salt, pepper, parsley, a glass of white wine. Bake it in a baking-dish, with nice, rich paste, above and below, or make it into balls a little flattened, and fry them in lard.

Sturgeon.

        Parboil your sturgeon, cut it in slices, and stew it with butter, pepper, salt, onion, and parsley, or stuff it, season it, and bake it as veal.

Salmon,

        When in season, should be of a pinkish gray, and when cooked almost rose colored. The small-headed salmon is the best. Salmon is best boiled in thick slices; when done, dress them with melted butter and sprigs of parsley.

To Bake Sturgeon.

        Take out the bones and stuff the vacancies with bread, butter, onion, thyme, and marjoram. Place bits of butter on it in a baking-dish, dredge on flour, and having poured a few spoonfuls of boiling

Page 181

water on it from the teakettle, bake it as you would veal.

        Or cut it in pieces, and stew it in water sufficient to cover it, with butter rubbed in flour, onion, pepper, salt, and thyme or marjoram.

Crabs and Lobsters

        Are best simply boiled, and the meat cut up, and dressed with salad dressing. (See receipts in this book.)

Oysters.

        Do not buy oysters in the shell; unless they will close firmly and quickly on the knife-blade when inserted into their mouths. If the oysters yield at once to the knife, or the mouths are open, you may be sure they are dead. Do not buy them,--they are worthless, unwholesome.

        Do not buy opened oysters if they are of a creamy-white color, and begin to acquire a tainted odor. They are spoiled or spoiling.

        Good oysters have a transparent appearance, even when very fat, and of a whitish color, whereas the spoiled ones are of a thick, dead white, and somewhat like a plumped oyster, unless they are very poor.

Fried Oysters.

        Take your oysters one by one out of their liquor, laying them on a clean towel to drain, then shred up bread-crumbs, or have ready pounded crackers, into which beat up several eggs, whites and yelks together, with a little salt and pepper. Have ready a frying-pan with boiling lard, take up one oyster

Page 182

at a time, with a fork or spoon, lay it first on one side and then on the other in the egg and bread-crumbs or cracker, after which drop it in the hot lard. Drop in as many as your pan will conveniently hold without one oyster touching another. Fry them a light brown.

        Another way.--Drain your oysters as above, sift Indian meal over them, and fry them brown.

        Another.--Fry them in a common batter, of milk, eggs, and flour, as above.

Stewed Clams.

        Prepare them as you would oysters, except that they should be cut up, and allowed more time to stew.

Clam Fritters.

        Chop your clams fine, and pour them in a batter of eggs, milk, and flour, with a little pepper and salt: drop them from a spoon in boiling lard.

To Stew Oysters.

        Take them out of their liquor, put them in a stewpan, with new milk sufficient to cover them, add butter, pepper, and salt to your taste; simmer them till plump, and serve them immediately. Oysters are often spoiled by too much cooking. It renders them tough and tasteless.

        Another way.--Take them from their liquor till it is strained, to divest it of bits of shell or other objectionable things, then return them, and stew them in their own liquor; simmer till plump, with butter, pepper, salt, a cup of cream, and a few pieces of whole mace.

Page 183

        Some persons rub a little flour into the butter before adding it to the oysters; but in this case it is best to remove the oysters till the liquor and flour are well amalgamated, and thoroughly done.

Scolloped Oysters.

        Cover the bottom of a baking-dish with bread-crumbs, mixed with butter, pepper, and salt; add a layer of oysters, then another covering of bread-crumbs and butter, sprinkled with salt and pepper, then oysters again and bread - crumbs, till the pan is full. Let the last layer be of bread-crumbs, butter, etc. Bake brown, and send them to table hot.

        Scolloped oysters are sometimes baked in scollopshells, prepared as above, and thus has the name been obtained for this mode of dressing oysters. They may be prepared in little patty-pans.

Oyster Pie.

        Cover a baking-dish with puff paste, fill it with oysters, butter, pepper, and salt; the butter rubbed up with a spoonful of flour. Cover the dish with puff paste, and bake of a light brown. You may ornament the top crust with paste leaves.

Pickled Oysters.

        Pick your oysters, strain their liquor, then boil the liquor with a little salt, a pod of red pepper, and a little mace. While boiling, put in the oysters, let them boil till plump, then take them out, put them in your jar; throw in the liquor a

Page 184

pint of good vinegar to two quarts of oysters, let the vinegar and liquor boil up, and pour it on the oysters. They are now done. Do not use them till they are cold.

        If you wish to keep the oysters for some time, boil them rather more, make them quite salt, and cork them, then put them in a cool place or in ice.

Broiled Oysters.

        Drain the liquor from them, and lay them on oyster-irons over bright coals. Butter them, and send them to table hot.

Oyster Fritters.

        Take your oysters out of their liquor, and chop them a little. Have ready a batter of eggs, milk, and flour, add to this a little of the oyster liquor, strained; let your lard boil, and put your fritters in, one spoonful at a time. Fry them a yellow brown. Very little salt is necessary, if any.

To Roast Oysters.

        Have a bright wood fire, wash your oysters clean, and lay them on the fire; as soon as their mouths open, turn them. Allow them to remain till the shells are dry on both sides, and they are done. Open them near the fire, over a heated deep dish, and serve with butter, pepper, and salt.

Roasted Clams.

        Clams are roasted in the same manner as oysters, and served in like manner. Indeed, clams are

Page 185

roasted, stewed, fried, and broiled in the same manner as oysters, except that they should be chopped up very fine, if stewed or fried in batter.

Shrimps.

        Pick and boil your shrimps, then cover the bottom of a baking-dish with pounded cracker and butter; add a layer of shrimps and another of butter and crackers till the dish is full, the crackers forming the last layer. Then pour over the whole a cup of sweet cream, with a little salt, pepper, and mace.

Terrapins.

        Cut open your terrapins, and having extracted the eggs, feet, and legs, wash them in pure water, and stew them till tender, then stir in butter and flour rubbed together; mace, onion, salt, and pepper to your taste, with a cup of wine.

Page 186

ROASTING.

        THERE is no such thing as roasting without exposure to actual fire. There can be no intermediate agent. If one is used, then the article intended to be roasted is baked, boiled, fried, or stewed. That noble old dish, "roast beef," is poorly represented by baked beef, that is, beef done in an oven or stove.

        I remember, in my young days, seeing a piece of beef or a turkey hung up by a string before the fire, with a dripping-pan beneath it to catch its juices as they fell. The cook or her assistant frequently turned the string to keep her meat or turkey revolving slowly before the fire, while with a basting-mop, moistened with butter or lard and flour, she rubbed it as it turned. When done, it was usually a beautiful and delicious dish, vastly superior to your baked meats of this age of improvements.

        Again, I have seen roasting done to the same perfection by means of a roasting-jack or spit and crank, so constructed of iron as to turn the meat horizontally before the fire instead of vertically. This also was more convenient than the first-mentioned mode.

        Next came a still greater improvement, the tin-kitchen. It roasted equally well, while to the housekeeper or cook it was a great convenience.

Page 187

But this did not satisfy the spirit of expediency, and again the inventive genius of man went to work, and the cooking-stove came into existence. Being decidedly more economical in fuel, labor, and time, it has superseded all other modes of cooking, to a vast extent, in this rapidly advancing age.

        It is seldom a really roasted joint of meat or fowl of any kind is to be found at the present day. But I do assure my reader, who is only acquainted with baked beef or baked fowl, there is a great enjoyment in store should she or he determine for once to break through this modern idea, and go back to primitive roasting. The difference is astonishing, and well worth the experiment.

        Venison, mutton, veal, lamb, and pork should be dressed by the same rules.

        The same rules by which a joint of meat is roasted will apply to poultry of every kind, and therefore I shall only give general directions for this application of heat. Of course the preparatory directions must be different, such as cleaning, trussing, stuffing, etc.

        When you are about to roast a joint of meat, first wash it clean, then having prepared a bright, glowing fire, spit your joint, and after slightly salting it, and dredging an even thin coat of flour all over it, place it in your tin-kitchen at a distance of two feet from the fire. Throw a little water into your dripping-pan to prevent the juices from burning as they fall from the meat. From time to time baste your meat with a basting-mop, and lard

Page 188

or butter. Gradually move your meat, inch by inch, nearer to the fire, and, as it begins to brown, dredge on more flour; let it brown, and rub it when brown with the basting-mop, then with a spoon sprinkle it with water from the dripping-pan; as this returns to the dripping-pan, it takes down with it the browned flour, which is sufficient to color the gravy.

        Let your meat become of a bright yellow-brown color; then, on pricking it with a fork, if no red juice follows, the meat is done. If it is preferred rare, remove it from the fire sooner.

Roast Beef of Old England.

        When King James I. ascended the English throne it is probable he had never, in all his royal Scottish lifetime partaken of this noble dish, for such was his delight, on taking the first morsel into his mouth, that he instantly drew out his sword and bestowed the honor of knighthood on the object of his admiration,--a loin of beef. Thenceforth it was "Sir Loin" on the royal board, and has ever since retained that name or title.

To Roast a Sirloin of Beef.

        Cooks usually allow a quarter of an hour to a pound in roasting or baking; but as a sirloin is much thiner than it is broad and long, a less time will be required to cook it.

        If your beef does not weigh more than ten pounds, an hour and a half will suffice; if twelve or fifteen, two hours and a half will do.

Page 189

        First, wash your meat carefully, rub it with a little salt, dredge on a thin coat of flour, and having spitted it lengthwise, place it before the fire at a distance of two feet. Have your fire briskly and clearly burning. Put a cup of water in your dripping-pan to prevent the burning of the juices which will drop from your meat. It will become warm through, but will cook slowly. Turn it frequently. When it begins to fry and drop its juice freely, turn it around more rapidly. When it has been doing three-quarters of an hour, move it a few inches nearer to the fire. Baste it frequently with butter or lard, or, if very fat, with the dripping from the pan. After basting, dredge on more flour till it is brown; baste again, and continue this throughout the process. Prick your meat now with a fork, and if no bloody juice follows, it is done; then draw it nearer to the fire for the last half hour. Baste it often, to prevent burning. When it is covered with a rich, brown crust, take it from the spit, but keep it near the fire, covered, till your dinner is dished. Now pour your dripings into a saucepan, skim off most of the fat, and let it boil to a proper consistency. Serve in a gravy-boat, and not with the roast in the dish.

To Bake a Sirloin of Beef.

        This is a very nice and difficult process, seeing this dish is intended to represent genuine roast beef in both appearance and quality.

        Be very particular to follow all the directions for roast beef as closely as possible, considering there

Page 190

is to be no roasting about it. Take care it is not suffered to burn, or become dry and hard; that it is basted well and frequently; that it is of a handsome brown all over. Be sure and have no bits of uncolored flour about it, and that it is thoroughly done.

        As the dish is intended for dinner, it must be presumed that there is a substantial and active fire in your stove. Your fire cannot be graduated to suit one article more than another. This can only be done by placing some things nearer and some at a greater distance from the fire-chamber, or by opening a door. This latter must be done in the case of baking meats, indeed, any other article. Place your sirloin in a dripping-pan with water, dredge on flour, and draw your beef to the farthest side of the stove from the fire. Do this, if your sirloin is a large one, about two hours and a half before it is intended to be served. If a medium size one, two hours will do. Leave the stove door open partially till your water is hot, as well as your beef. Baste frequently with a larded mop and with flour. When on pricking your beef with a fork, no bloody juice follows, you may conclude your baked meat is nearly done; now, after basting well, close your door, and allow it to become of a yellow-brown color. When this is the case, take out your beef, place it near the stove to keep warm, and boil down your gravy to a proper consistency. Send your sirloin to the table in a heated dish, and the gravy in a gravy-boat. No seasoning is necessary but a little salt. Mustard and horseradish are agreeable condiments.

Page 191

        Some persons like their beef only partially done, so that when cut the juice will retain a red color. If this is desired, an hour is sufficient for a sirloin of a moderate size.

Beefsteak.

        Beefsteaks should be taken from the tenderloin; but if this cannot be done, then from the tongue side of the joint which bounds the larger round. If this cannot be procured, then take your steak from the round itself, nearest the hip-joint. These steaks will require to be beaten with a meatmallet, taking care not to make them ragged by too much beating.

        Now wash your steaks well in pure water, grease your gridiron with sweet lard, and put it over a bright, glowing bed of lively coals.

        Sprinkle your steaks on both sides with sifted flour, and lay them on the gridiron. Cover them with a tin or sheet-iron pan, about the size of your gridiron. This will prevent their drying too rapidly.

        When brown on one side, turn the other, and as soon as that is brown remove your steaks from the gridiron to the pan which covers them; set it on the gridiron, add a good piece of sweet butter, and pour in from your teakettle a few spoonfuls of boiling water, cover with another pan, and let your steaks so remain till your dinner is dished, after which serve them in a hot dish, with cover.

        No salt will be needed in the cooking, it only makes the steak hard; add this and other usual

Page 192

condiments after you are helped to the steak. Your plates should be hot to eat beefsteak in perfection.

        If bits of your steak remain after dinner, add them to your soup-pot on the following day. They impart a pleasant tone to soup, if not scorched in broiling.

Beef Alamode.

        Take a Dutch oven that has been carefully cleaned, and put it over a few lively coals. Drop into it a spoonful of good lard; as soon as it is melted, dredge in sufficient flour to cover the bottom of the oven. Leave it to brown. When every appearance of whiteness has disappeared from the flour, draw the coals out, for fear of burning, till your round is ready.

        Wash a fine round of beef, then lay it on a board, and with a sharp knife gash it vertically all over, taking care to move the point of the knife so as to make the incisions larger within the meat than at the surface, so as to contain the stuffing the better. Then prepare your stuffing:

        One onion, chopped.

        One handful of fat pork or bacon, chopped fine.

        One tablespoonful of sugar.

        One teaspoonful of salt.

        Half teaspoonful of red pepper.

        Spoonful of powdered savory, thyme, and celery seed.

        One spoonful of spices, mixed.

        Mix all well together, and fill up the gashes in the round.

Page 193

        Sift flour over the meat, and now place it in the oven, and replace the coals. Pour boiling water into the oven, around the meat, till it approaches the upper surface, but do not let it overflow the meat. Heat the cover of the oven, put a few embers on it, and let the beef stew for seven hours. Keep a kettle of boiling water near, and fill up, from time to time, as the gravy diminishes. Do not suffer it to become dry, as alamode beef is a rich stew, not a baked meat. If suffered to become dry, it will be hard.

        When you open your oven to fill up with water, throw some of the gravy over the meat, and rub the flour about that it may not form a crust. Loosen the round from the bottom occasionally.

        Just before you remove the round from the oven, pour over it a good glass of port wine, let it remain covered for a few moments, and then serve. Put your gravy in a gravy-boat. If your gravy is not quite of the consistency of cream, let it boil a few minutes more; if too thick, add boiling water.

        This is a very handsome dish for a cold supper, and what is left of it after supper will make, with some of the gravy, a fine hash for breakfast.

        Alamode beef, cold, and cut up fine, makes a delicious salad, prepared in the same way as chicken salad, that is, provided it is prepared in a proper manner, when it will be as tender as chicken; but if suffered to become hard in stewing, it will not answer for a salad.

Page 194

Hash Alamode.

        Slices of alamode beef stewed with some of the gravy, with the addition of a glass of wine, and a lump of butter. Serve in a hot, covered dish.

Calf's Head Fried.

        Boil a calf's head, after well cleaning, as directed before. When done, and quite tender, cut it in pieces, cover each piece with egg, and bread-crumbs or pounded cracker, seasoned with salt and pepper, as directed for oyster fritters, and fry them till of a light brown. This a very nice dish.

Boned Beef Roll.

        With a sharp knife take the ribs out of a piece of fat beef, then stuff the cavities with bread and butter, pepper, salt, sweet herbs, onions, and a little mace. Roll the beef, tie it securely with a strong twine, and roast or bake it in the usual way, taking especial care that it is colored lightly, and not allowed to dry. This is a handsome and delicious dish. Remove the string before serving.

Baked Tenderloin.

        Take a tenderloin, whole, out of a large beef, flour it well, set it in an oven, with a cup of water, to keep it from burning. When it begins to bake, baste it frequently with flour and butter rolled together, and occasionally with the water from the dripping-pan. When it is done of a light brown, with a crust all over the surface, dish it up, make the gravy, and pour it over the tenderloin.

Page 195

        If your family is large, you will scarcely get as much as you wish of this delicious and delicate dish.

Collared Beef.

        Take a flank of fresh beef, draw out the bones, lay it on a tray or dish, and salt it slightly, adding a small spoonful of saltpeter. Let it remain two days, then wash off the salt, sprinkle it with pounded mace, cinnamon, allspice, and a spoonful of brown sugar. Roll it up tightly, tie a towel over it closely, and boil it for three hours rapidly; then take it out of the pot; place a weight on it till cold. On the following day unroll the towel, take out your beef, and slice it for breakfast or tea.

To Stew Beef.

        Cut your beef into thin slices, wash it clean, put it in a stewpan, and cover it with water; let it boil till tender, then rub a large spoonful of butter, with a moderate one of flour, stir it into the water containing the beef, with a seasoning of salt, pepper, a little onion, and a small sprig of marjoram. If you have any cold, boiled Irish potatoes, slice them in your stew; it will improve it.

Hunters' Beef.

        With one quart of salt mix

        Two ounces of saltpeter.

        Half ounce of cloves.

        Half ounce of mace.

        Half ounce of allspice.

        Half ounce of nutmeg.

        One tablespoonful of sugar.

Page 196

        Take the bone from the middle of a large, fat, tender round of beef; fill the hole with the above mixture, and rub it well over the whole round. Have ready a wooden tub, which will just hold the round; sprinkle in some salt, with a handful of the above mixture, put in the round, and cover the top with the remainder of the mixture. Cover the tub closely, set it in a cool place for two weeks, when it will be ready for use.

        Cover the bottom of a Dutch oven with paste, lay your round in, cover it with paste also, then pour a cup of water in the bottom of the oven, cover it close, and bake it slowly five hours. When done, take off the crust, shave off a thin slice from the top of the round. Serve it cold. A very excellent dish for a supper.

Hash.

        Cut your meat into small pieces with a knife and fork; do not chop it fine; then put it in a saucepan, with a little water, salt, pepper, and butter rolled in flour; stir it frequently, and let it stew till the gravy is of a proper consistency. Then dish your hash in a covered dish.

        Cold turkey or any other kind of poultry, cold beef or any other kind of meat, will make good hash for breakfast.

To Broil Ham.

        Cut it in thin slices, lay them in cold water to extract the salt, wipe the slices, and lay them on a clean, greased gridiron over dull coals. Turn them when they appear slightly browned on one

Page 197

side, and brown the other. Do not suffer them to remain till dry and hard.

Browning for Soup or Gravies.

        Melt a spoonful of sugar with a spoonful of butter, and let the mixture remain over the fire till quite brown, then add a glass of water; stir it well together, and bottle it for use. A tablespoonful is sufficient to brown a tureen of soup.

To Boil a Ham and Serve it.

        Lay your ham in cold water overnight. In the morning scrape it clean, and lay it in fresh water till time to boil it. Weigh your ham, and put it on in time to allow a quarter of an hour for every pound, and a quarter of an hour to be heated through. Let it boil slowly. If you allow it to boil hard, it may be done before the time, and will become by the time appointed too much done. This should be looked to; and if, on piercing it with a fork, there is difficulty in drawing it out, the ham is not yet done; but if the fork comes out readily, take your ham from the fire, it is done. There is another way to know if your ham is done. If the bone attached to the thigh-joint is loose and easily withdrawn, your ham is certainly done.

        When your ham is done, take the pot off the fire till it is time to prepare your ham for table. The usual way is to draw off the skin, and send the ham to table hot. If you wish to dress your ham, there are several handsome modes of doing this. First, leave on the skin, and, while your ham is warm, with a sharp-pointed penknife cut a bunch of

Page 198

flowers and leaves on the skin, then draw off care fully all the superfluous bits of skin. This is a very handsome mode, and shows well, particularly after the ham is cold. Another way is to brush it over with a batter made of the yelks of eggs and milk, to sift pounded cracker over this, and stick cloves over the ham in any fanciful manner, then set the ham in an oven and brown it. When you dish your ham, dress the hock with fringed white paper.

To Boil a Round of Corned Beef.

        If your round has been long in the pickle, soak it several hours before boiling. Weigh it, and allow it the same time to boil as for a ham. Keep a kettle of boiling water near for the purpose of filling up your pot as it boils down. The water should cover the meat well throughout the boiling. Skim your pot often, and when your meat is done wash it well, that no appearance of the scum defaces it; then with a sharp knife shave off a thin slice from the upper surface before sending it to table. This displays its fresh, ruddy complexion.

To Boil a Smoked Tongue.

        It should be soaked overnight, and boiled till, on piercing it with a fork, it is found quite tender and does not cling to the fork in drawing it out.

Venison Pasty.

        Take a shoulder of venison, wash it clean, and soak it well, to free it from the blood; then put it in cold water, and let it boil till perfectly tender;

Page 199

take it out of the pot and cut the meat off in convenient slices. Strain the water in which it was boiled into a clean stewpan.

        Now line a deep baking-dish with puff paste, place a large, clean towel, folded up to rise in the center, in the baking-dish, cover it with a sheet of puff paste, and ornament the borders of the pie with a wreath of paste leaves cut out with a jagging-iron. Place your pie in a slow oven, and bake it lightly. Take a half pound of fresh butter and rub into it a spoonful of flour, then melt the mixture with a tablespoonful of mixed spices, that is to say, a little cinnamon, mace, allspice, and nutmeg, with the rind of a lemon, grated, thyme, and marjoram. Mix this with the boiling water in the stewpan along with the sliced venison. Let all boil together well, then add a couple of glasses of best Madeira wine, and having removed the towel from the inside of the baking-dish, pour in the contents of the stewpan, put on the top crust again, and set the pie in the oven for a few moments

Stuffed Leg of Venison.

        As venison is usually a winter dish, take care that it is not frozen when it is put to roast. Observe your venison overnight, and if frozen, put it to soak during the night in a large tub of cold water. See that it is entirely submerged. In the morning, when it is thoroughly thawed, wipe it dry, and lay it on a dish or tray. Make incisions of an inch and a half apart with a sharp knife, moving the point inside the meat, so as to contain

Page 200

the more stuffing. Now mix together in a bowl--

        One handful of fat pork or bacon, chopped fine.

        One small silver-skinned onion, chopped fine.

        One tablespoonful of sugar.

        One tablespoonful of mixed spices, ground fine.

        One handful of marjoram, thyme, and parsley, all chopped fine.

        One teaspoonful of salt.

        Half teaspoonful of red pepper.

        A lump of butter the size of an egg, and moisten all with one egg.

        Stuff your venison, dredge on flour, and roast or bake as directed for beef. When it is done, pour over it a glassful of Madeira wine.

        A leg of mutton dressed in this way is excellent.

A Stuffed Leg of Venison No. 2.

        Cut deep incisions all over your leg of venison, then stuff it with the following mixture:

        A handful of chopped fat pork.

        A handful of bread-crumbs.

        A spoonful of sugar.

        A spoonful of salt.

        A spoonful of spices (mixed).

        A teaspoonful of celery seed, or a handful of chopped celery.

        Then place the venison in a Dutch oven, with a little water in the bottom, and a thick sheet of white paper on the top.

        Put a little fire under the oven, and a little

Page 201

on the heated lid, let the vension cook slowly for an hour, and then gradually increase the heat till you find the paper quite brown, and the water dried in the oven. Now take off the paper, put a large spoonful of butter rubbed in flour in the oven; let it fry brown; then pour in water from the boiling kettle, stirring all the while. Move your venison about frequently to prevent it sticking. Cover it up, but from time to time open the oven and baste the meat with the gravy. When it has remained two hours and a half, pierce it to the bone with a fork; if no blood exudes, it is done. Pour over it a glass of Madeira wine, let it remain a little, and then serve.

To Dress Venison in a Chafing-dish.

        Set your chafing-dish on the table, and light your spirit-lamp. Rub a teaspoonful of flour into a tablespoonful of fresh butter, and place it in the hot chafing-dish. Let it fry till of a light-brown color. Then add a few spoonfuls of water, with a little mace, cinnamon, nutmeg, a few cloves, and grated rind of a lemon in its juice. Now add some thin slices of venison, and put on the cover of the chafing-dish for a little while, then open it and turn the steaks. Cover the venison again for a few minutes more, then open the chafing-dish again, and sprinkle over the steaks a little salt and red pepper. Pour over them a glass of Madeira wine, cover them up again for a few more minutes, and then eat them with currant jelly.

Page 202

Venison Steaks in the Woods.

        Cut some large, thin slices off the ham, lay them over bright coals; when brown on one side turn them, and as soon as both sides are brown, salt, pepper, and butter them; then eat them immediately with your hunters' loaf, and water from the spring.

Boiled Leg of Mutton.

        Have ready a pot of boiling water, wash your leg of mutton, cut off the hock, and drop it in the boiling water. Boil it gently, allowing a quarter of an hour for every pound. Skim the water frequently, and keep the pot well covered; fill up the pot with hot water from your teakettle as it boils down; to fill up with cold water will harden the meat. When you think your meat is done, prick it with a fork, and if no bloody water follows, you have judged rightly. If you like it rare, then dish it up somewhat sooner.

        Make a sauce of drawn butter and hard-boiled eggs, chopped up, and serve a portion of it in a boat, the remainder pour over your leg of mutton. Garnish it and the sides of the dish with sprigs of fresh parsley.

Mutton Stew.

        Take a leg of mutton which has been served the day previous, and put it in a pot without cutting it up. Cover it with water, and let it simmer, and then add a spoonful of butter rubbed up with as much flour, and stir it smoothly; then cut up boiled Irish potatoes, with a pod of pepper, a little

Page 203

salt, and a bunch of thyme, if you like it. Let the stew simmer for an hour, and when you have placed it in the dish, lay the potatoes around it, and pour the gravy over the whole. It should be a deep dish.

Mutton-steaks.

        Take them from the thigh, saw through the bone, and have your steaks of a fine oval shape. Broil them as beefsteaks; butter, pepper, and salt them, and serve hot.

Mutton Soup

        May be made from the water in which mutton is boiled the previous day, in winter. It requires high seasoning and a quantity of vegetables.

Soyer's Crab-shaped Mutton-chops.

        Take a medium-sized saddle of mutton, and saw through the backbone, between each pair of opposite ribs. This will give you a crab-shaped chop. Trim off the superfluous ends of the ribs; wash, salt, and flour your chops, and broil them nicely on a gridiron over bright coals. When they are done, place them two in a dish, and butter them well while hot; or, as soon as they are browned, place them in a covered frying-pan, with a lump of butter rubbed in a little flour. Let them brown. Take them out, pour in the pan a little water from your teakettle, stir it about, let it boil up, and pour the gravy over your chops in the dish which goes to table.

        The crab-shaped chop will make two ordinary

Page 204

chops if parted at the backbone. These are to be dressed in the same manner as above.

Veal Cutlets.

        Wash your cutlets, and parboil them, then wipe them dry with a clean towel. Have ready a frying-pan of hot lard, and a dish of pounded crackers. In another dish have two or three eggs beaten up with two or three spoonfuls of rich, sweet cream; lay your cutlets in the eggs first (both sides), then in the crackers, after which put them in the boiling lard. Be careful not to move your cutlets about in the frying-pan, as that will cause the crust to fall off. Turn them gently when brown on the under side. Salt and pepper your cutlets slightly, also the mixture of eggs and cream. After dishing your cutlets, add to the lard remaining in the frying-pan a lump of butter rubbed in very little flour, a little chopped parsley or celery, then pour in a cup of boiling water from your teakettle, stir it briskly till very smooth gravy, let it boil awhile, then serve it in a gravy-boat.

        Your cutlet, if properly attended to, will present a very inviting appearance, being of a handsome yellow-brown color, with a crispy coat, which would be destroyed by pouring the gravy over it.

To Roast a Pig.

        Take a fat pig, six weeks old, have it dressed carefully; wash it well in fair water. Trim out all the inside of the ears and mouth; cut out the tongue, and chop off the extremity of the snout.

Page 205

Wash your pig again thoroughly inside and out, then rub it throughout well with a mixture of salt, pepper, and sage.

        Stuff your pig with bread, butter, salt, pepper, sage, and thyme, then sew it up carefully. Spit it lengthwise, and, having dredged it with flour, place it before the fire to roast. Put some water in your dripping-pan; have a larding-mop ready, with butter and flour mixed in a plate; mop over your pig frequently with these while it is roasting. Set your tin-kitchen two feet from the fire at first, but gradually draw it nearer till the pig is well browned. Do not bring it too near, or it will scorch.

        When done take it up, and pour the gravy into a saucepan, let it boil to a proper consistency. Chop up the liver and toes (which must be previously boiled) in the gravy, and serve it in a boat.

To Roast or Bake a Leg of Pork.

        Score it through the skin in diamonds or squares, and roast or bake it as beef or mutton. It will require more time. Season the gravy with sage, pepper, and salt.

To Bake a Pig.

        Prepare and season it as for roast pig. Leave your stove door open when you first put it in. As your pig bakes, gradually close the door, as directed for baked beef, mopping it well, from time to time, with flour and butter, occasionally wetting it over with the gravy or water in the dripping-pan. Turn it frequently.

Page 206

To Bake Lamb.

        There is no difference in baking lamb and any other fresh meat, except that it will take less time with the same fire, and requires close attention to prevent burning. The gravy is made, too, in the same way as for other meats.

Lamb Pie.

        Cover the bottom of a baking-dish with crust, then fill it with slices of cold lamb, salting and peppering each larger slice, adding bits of butter rubbed in flour with every layer. When full, pour in water to cover the lamb, and over all lay a neat crust of good pastry. Let it bake slowly.

An excellent and plentiful Dinner for a poor Family.

        Get a set of beef or calf's feet from the butcher, clean them thoroughly, and put them in salt and water to soak overnight. In the morning quite early, say at six o'clock, wash them in several more waters, break the bones in several places, and put them in a pot full of water to boil. If they keep regularly boiling, they will be tender at eleven o'clock, when the bones can be easily withdrawn from the meat; take out the feet, and, without the bones, put them in a bowl of salt and water, with a little vinegar. Now add to the water in the pot a small cup of rice, a few small potatoes, cut up (Irish or sweet), with two grated carrots, a turnip, a few beans or peas, and a sprig of thyme. Set it boiling, and keep it so till near the time for your dinner, when cut the meat off the feet into nice

Page 207

pieces, salt, pepper, flour, and fry them a yellow brown in sweet lard. These in a dish, your soup in a tureen, with bread and potatoes, will make a very savory and acceptable dinner for a moderate-sized family.

Ox-tail Soup and Stew.

        Two or three ox tails from the butcher make excellent soup in the same way as above, and when tender, the meat, with the marrow which will be found on the soup, will make a very nice stew.

        An ox's head also will be nice, prepared in the same manner, cleaned and baked.

        These things cost but a few cents.

Pork and Beans.

        Boil your pork till quite done, skin it, and score it in squares; sprinkle it with flour.

        Boil also your beans till quite soft, place them in a baking-dish neatly, place your pork in the center, and brown them in a moderate oven.

Tripe.

        Clean it thoroughly by scraping, soaking in salt water, and scalding, then boil it till very tender, after which lay it away in salt and water and vinegar till the following day; it will then be ready to cut in squares, and fried in lard. Flour and pepper it before frying.

Chitterlings

        Are prepared in the same way, except that they require to be in salt water longer, and to have it changed oftener.

Page 208

EGGS.

To Boil Eggs.

        Choose eggs two days old. Take care that the water is boiling. Three minutes will boil them soft, six will have them hard.

To Fry Eggs.

        Put your frying-pan over a moderate bed of coals, throw into it a spoonful of lard, butter, or ham gravy. Allow it to become very hot, then break your eggs, one by one, in a saucer, and turn it carefully into the frying-pan. Do not break the yelks. When set, throw the butter over each egg with a spoon. Do not turn them. Cut off all the dark fragments before sending to table.

To Fry Eggs with Ham.

        Having cut your ham into thin slices, and pared off the skins, wash them, and fry them lightly, then having turned them, break an egg on each slice. Let them remain thus till set, then brown them with a salamander or shovel; or you may remove the ham and fry the eggs separately. Place the ham on the dish with the eggs on each slice.

To Poach Eggs.

        Have ready a saucepan of boiling water, into which carefully break your eggs one by one. As soon as the whites are set, take them up with a perforated ladle. Pour on them melted butter. The water should barely cover the eggs.

Page 209

Macaroni.

        Put your macaroni in boiling milk and water. When it becomes tender take it out and drain it. For half a pound, beat up the yelks of two fresh eggs, with a full tablespoonful of melted butter, then add a saltspoon of salt, one of red pepper, two of mustard, and half a pint of sweet cream. Have ready two teacupfuls of grated cheese, then fill up your baking-pan with alternate layers of macaroni, cheese, and the prepared seasoning, taking care that the cheese and the seasoning make the surface of the dish. Bake in a moderate oven, and serve hot.

Macaroni No. 2.

        Boil half a pound of the macaroni as in the fore-going receipt; fill up a baking-dish with alternate layers of macaroni and slices of new cheese, well buttered, and sprinkled slightly with mustard, then pour over the whole a cup of cream, in which you have dissolved a teaspoonful of white sugar.

Scrambled Eggs.

        Melt a spoonful of butter in a frying-pan over the fire, break in eight or ten eggs, one by one, stirring all the while, with a fork, rapidly. When done, sprinkle in a little salt and pepper. Serve hot, in a covered dish.

Egg Pie.

        Boil a dozen eggs hard, and slice them, lay them in a crust, with alternate layers of grated ham or

Page 210

minced cold chicken; butter, pepper, salt, and a cup of cream poured over all. Cover the pie with a crust, and bake it. Serve hot.

To Roast Eggs.

        Make a puncture in the large end of the egg, then pour water over it, and cover it in hot ashes in front of the fire, from whence you may easily take it when done.

To Toast Cheese.

        Toast thin slices of light bread, to cover the bottom of a baking-dish or plate, then butter slices of new cheese, lay them on the toasted bread, and moisten the whole with a small quantity of cream, with a little mustard in it. Brown your cheese in a quick oven, and serve it very hot.

        Another mode.--Toast thin slices of bread and butter, then, while warm, place them in plates, cover them well with grated cheese, and an upper layer of butter. Brown quickly, and serve hot.

OMELETS.

No. 1.

        BREAK eight eggs into a bowl, and beat them till very light. Mix a teaspoonful of flour in a cup of sweet cream or milk, add this to the eggs, with a little chopped celery or parsley, and pepper and salt. Beat all well together. Melt a large spoonful of butter in an oval frying-pan, pour in the omelet

Page 211

to cover the whole pan, and let it fry till brown. Do not turn it, but with a large knife roll it up as you would a sheet of paper, and serve it hot.

No. 2.

        Melt a spoonful of butter with one of flour (the butter largest) in a stewpan, then break the yelks of eight eggs into the contents of the stewpan, stirring them well; then whip the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, add a cup of rich cream, add these to the yelks and butter, with chopped parsley, onion, pepper, and salt. Pour all into a small frying-pan, and fry the omelet brown. Do not turn it, but brown it with a salamander. Remove it carefully to a dish, and serve it hot.

        This omelet is very nice baked in a greased pan or dish.

GRAVIES AND SAUCES.

        THE best gravies for roast meats are made from the browned drippings from them during the process of roasting, as directed in a number of my fore-going receipts. Yet is it sometimes well, especially for baked meats, to cut off trimmings from the joint, and fry them brown, with flour, for gravy. In this case, pour in boiling water, and stir up the browned bits till a thick gravy is formed, then add a lump of butter, pepper, salt, and onion, if you like.

        This is a nice gravy for veal cutlets, especially if a

Page 212

cup of sweet cream is added, and a small teaspoonful of curry-powder. Chickens fried crisp and brown are much improved by curry gravy. It should be poured over them.

Egg Sauce.

        Put into a saucepan a large tablespoonful of fresh butter, with a spoonful of sifted flour; let the butter melt a little, and then mix it well with the flour, then pour on boiling water sufficient to make a thick batter; let it boil, stirring it all the while, till done, then add the yelks of four hard-boiled eggs, a little salt, pepper, and parsley. Serve in a boat, hot.

        White sauce, for boiled fowl or turkey, is made in the same way, leaving out the egg, and adding a cup of rich, sweet cream.

        Sauce for boiled chickens is made in the same manner, with a little of the water in which they were boiled.

Cranberry Sauce.

        Stew your cranberries in a covered saucepan till soft, then pulp them through a hair sieve, return them to the saucepan, with equal weight of good brown sugar, and a spoonful of butter. A little water should be added, or the sauce will be too thick. To be served hot.

Shrimp Sauce.

        Take a pint of fresh shrimps, pick and shell them carefully, then put them into a saucepan, with half a pound of fresh butter; season with Cayenne pepper and a little salt.

Page 213

        The flavor of shrimps should not be marred by any additions whatever. Serve them hot.

Lobster Sauce.

        Choose a fresh, lively hen lobster. A heavy one, if possible. Scald it to death at once, then pick out all the spawn and red coral; pound these in a mortar, moisten them with a spoonful of hot water, and one of melted butter, then pass the mixture through a hair sieve. Now cut up all the meat of your lobster into small pieces, put the meat with the pounded spawn, add a quarter of a pound more of melted butter; place the whole in a porcelain saucepan, with a very little cream, and Cayenne pepper; cover it, and let it stew slowly over a dull bed of coals. It must not boil. This would deprive it of its fine coral color. To be served hot.

Mushroom Sauce.

        This sauce is excellent with fish, flesh, or fowl. Pick your mushrooms carefully, take off the stems, and rinse them in clean water, handling them gently; then put them in a stewpan, with an equal quantity of rich, sweet cream, and a spoonful of butter. Cover them closely, and let them stew till quite soft, then pulp them, cream and all, through a hair sieve. Return them to the stewpan, after washing it; let them stew gently till ready to serve. Season with salt and pepper to your taste.

Asparagus Sauce.

        Take tender white shoots of asparagus, and stew them in water just sufficient to cover them. When

Page 214

soft, take them out of the water, and stir them well into as much new milk as will cover them. Pass the whole through a sieve; add a spoonful of fresh butter, and return them to the stewpan; let them simmer gently till served. Season them with salt and pepper to your taste. The yelks of two hard-boiled eggs will improve them.

Tomato Sauce.

        After washing and carefully stemming your ripe, sound tomatoes, simmer them till soft, then pass them through a sieve, and, after adding butter, bread-crumbs soaked in new milk, salt, pepper, and a little sugar, stew them several hours, till of a rich, thick consistency. Stir them often while stewing. Serve very hot.

Anchovy Sauce.

        A pound and a half of anchovies.

        A quart of strong vinegar.

        A glass of brandy.

        A glass of port wine.

        Two lemons, sliced.

        Mace, cloves, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, each a teaspoonful; with onion, thyme, savory or marjoram, Cayenne pepper, as much as you like, or omit these last, if you choose.

        Stew all well together, strain through a hair sieve, and bottle close. Reserve the brandy till the sauce is cold, and add it just before bottling.

Oyster Sauce.

        Take a quart of fine, fresh oysters out of their liquor, and stew them in a pint of sweet, new milk,

Page 215

with pepper, salt, and some bits of mace; stir together a large spoonful of fresh butter, with a teaspoonful of sifted flour; add this to the sauce while stewing. Stir it well, till smoothly mixed, then give it the finishing flavor, with a cup of rich, sweet cream, and a spoonful of eschalot essence.

Celery Sauce.

        Cut up the well-bleached parts of two fine heads of solid celery, stew the celery in one pint of water till tender, then rub into a large spoonful of butter a small spoonful of flour, add these to the celery, with a cup of sweet cream. Let it boil a little, and serve hot.

        This is a delicious sauce with poultry or wild fowl.

Mint Sauce.

        Make a rich syrup of clarified sugar, chop fine a head of fresh mint, stir it in while the syrup is cold, and serve immediately, with a spoonful of vinegar. The flavor is injured by cooking.

        Some use simply brown sugar, vinegar, and chopped mint.

FILLING.

For a Turkey.

        BREAD-CRUMBS, wet with sweet milk.

        A spoonful of butter.

        One egg.

        A little thyme, pepper, and salt.

Page 216

For a Goose.

        Bread-crumbs, wet with milk.

        A spoonful of butter.

        A spoonful of sage (powdered).

        A spoonful of thyme.

        Pepper, salt, and an apple chopped up fine.

        One egg.

        For ducks and a pig, the same.

For a Ham.

        A cupful of bread-crumbs, soaked in milk.

        Six cloves.

        Six grains of allspice.

        One stick of cinnamon; all pounded fine.

        Cayenne pepper, a very little.

        Marjoram.

        Savory.

        Thyme.

        Parsley; each a teaspoonful, rubbed, and sifted fine.

        A teaspoonful of melted butter, and an egg, all mixed well together.

TO PREPARE POULTRY FOR ROASTING OR
BOILING.

        AFTER having cut off the head, and suffered your fowl to bleed thoroughly, pick it carefully. Do not break the skin. Singe off all the fine hairs. Then lay your fowl on a board, and with a sharp knife cut a slit over the intestines, just under the

Page 217

thigh, and another on the back of the neck. Now insert a finger of one hand into the latter incision, and push down the crop and its contents, while the other hand draws the intestines out at the lower incision, which was made under the thigh. Do this gently and slowly, for if you, through haste, should break the intestines, nothing can ever remove their disagreeable odor and taste from your fowl.

        Having drawn your fowl, put your knife inside the lower incision, and cut off the piece of external skin attached to the lower intestine. This done, lay your fowl in a tub of clean water, wash it thoroughly, and change the water several times; then take it out, and wipe it dry, inside and out: after which rub it slightly with salt and pepper (inside as well as outside).

        If a turkey or chicken, make a filling of breadcrumbs, butter, pepper, and salt, moistened with egg; and having filled your fowl, place the thighs and wings firmly by the side with skewers; tie a cord around the neck, and the extreme ends of the legs, with the extremity of the fowl. Dredge on flour, as directed for beef, and other roast meats, and proceed as before directed.

        If your turkey or fowl is to be boiled, have ready a pot of boiling water, dip a towel into it, then, after rubbing it with flour, inclose your fowl or turkey; tie it tightly, and drop it into your pot of boiling water. A large hen will take an hour and a half or two hours, a turkey hen two hours. When you think it is done, thrust a large darning-needle

Page 218

into the breast or thigh; if it goes in readily, it is done, if not, let it boil longer.

        When done, turn it out on a dish, with its own gravy; cut up two hard-boiled eggs in thin, round slices, lay them over the fowl, with fresh sprigs of parsley. Drawn butter, with hard-boiled eggs, is the usual sauce. Some use oysters.

        If your fowl is roasted, cut up hard-boiled eggs for the gravy.

        If you have a pair of ducks to roast, the seasoning and stuffing should be mixed with sage, marjoram, and onions.

        The same for a goose. To be roasted in the same manner as a turkey or chicken. Some persons bake them in a Dutch oven. (See Stuffing.)

Fried Chickens.

        Cut up your chickens, wash them clean, salt and pepper them. Have ready boiling lard, flour your chickens, and fry them a light brown. Serve without gravy; the dish is handsomer.

        Some fry little flat cakes of Indian meal, and cover the bottom of the dish with them before laying on the chicken; these are called corndodgers.

        Some persons pour a little boiling water into the browned lard in which the chickens have been fried, stirring it well, till a rich gravy is formed. This is sent to table in a gravy-boat, as an accompaniment for the fried chicken.

        Parsley should be chopped and fried with this gravy, and a little butter added.

Page 219

Broiled Chickens.

        Truss them flat; salt, pepper, and flour them, then broil them a nice brown; butter them well, and serve hot. Cover them while broiling, to keep them juicy.

Boned Turkey.

        Take a fine, fat turkey, that has been nicely plucked, without breaking the skin, and without being drawn, lay it on a board before you, and, with a sharp and pointed knife, gash it to the bone, beginning at the back of the neck, and ending at the tail. Now lay your turkey on its side, with the breast nearest to you; begin at the back, and scrape the meat from the bone, downward, till you come to the wing and thigh. Loosen all the meat from the thigh and wing, scraping it clean, till you come to the joints of the pinion, and drum-stick or leg; leave these in, by separating the joint, they will serve to keep the turkey in shape after the bones are all out. Now continue the scraping till you have loosened all the meat down to the extremity of the breastbone, when you must turn your turkey over on the opposite side, and proceed as before with it, leaving on the parson's nose; cut off the vent. Now pass your knife around the edge of the breastbone, and the boning is complete. Take out your carcass, and prepare to fill your turkey for dressing. Shred fine a pound of well-risen light bread, mix with it half a pound of fresh butter, with a little salt, chopped celery, and a half teaspoonful of red pepper. To

Page 220

this add two quarts of best oysters, drained, and well picked; mix all well together, and fill your turkey, sewing it up carefully. Now turn your turkey, breast uppermost, and placing the pinion and leg in the natural position, skewer them down firmly, and truss neatly, with the aid of a bit of tape or cord. Rub with salt and red pepper all over, dredge on flour to form a nice crust, and place the turkey in a baking-dish, set it in the oven, and let it bake till thoroughly done, and of a light, handsome brown. While baking, baste it frequently with the gravy which will be found in the baking-dish.

        When your turkey is done, allow it to remain in the baking-dish till cold, and the form well settled. It is best cold. But if intended for dinner, it must be transferred to the china dinner-dish as soon as done.

        Prepare the gravy as for plain roasted turkey, with oysters.

        There should be a cup of water, and a large spoonful of butter in the baking-pan, wherewith to baste the turkey. Use a pocket-knife.

To make a Chicken Pie.

        Cut up a pair of fat chickens, carefully cleaned, and drawn, put them in a saucepan, with water to cover them, and a little salt. Cover them, and let them boil till tender. Skim them well.

        Make a nice crust, with a quart of flour and half a pound of butter or lard, wet up with sweet milk and water. Cover a baking-dish with the crust,

Page 221

then sprinkle your chickens with a little fine black pepper and a good deal of sifted flour; lay them in the crust, with bits of butter rolled in flour; fill up the pie with the water in which the chickens were boiled, then cover the pie with a neatly fitting crust.

        Ornament the top of the pie with thin leaves of paste, cut out with a jagging-iron. Bake in a slow oven, and serve hot.

Partridge or Pigeon Pie.

        This pie is made as chicken pie.

Gravy for Broiled Chickens or Partridges.

        Melt a small spoonful of butter in a saucepan, and then dredge in a spoonful of sifted flour, let it brown in the butter, then add a little boiling water, with pepper, salt, and chopped hard-boiled egg. When this has boiled, pour it over your chickens after they are in the dish.

Potted Partridges.

        Truss and stuff your partridges as you do fowls, then melt a spoonful of butter in a small pot, and then dredge in a spoonful of flour, and wait till it is browned; flour also your partridges, and put them in the pot, with a cup of water; set the pot over the fire, and when the birds begin to brown, shake the pot frequently, turning the birds from side to side till browned all over. When done, place them side by side neatly in the dish, and pour the gravy over them.

        This is a dainty dish, good enough for a queen.

Page 222

To Roast or Bake a Goose.

        Have a fat young goose nicely plucked and cleaned, then rub it well, outside and in, with a mixture of salt, sage, pepper, and marjoram, and stuff it with bread-crumbs, seasoned with the mixture above mentioned. Truss it neatly, dredge plenty of flour over it, and roast it or bake it as in directions already given for baked or roasted meats or fowl.

        Ducks are usually prepared, seasoned, stuffed, and baked or roasted as above, except that they should be done quickly, rather underdone.

        The juice of a lemon squeezed into the gravy will improve it very much. Currant jelly or cranberries are an agreeable sauce for ducks.

Canvas-back Ducks

        Should be parboiled, with a carrot inside, to extract the fishy taste, in case they might have any, and then the carrot should be removed, the ducks stuffed with bread-crumbs, and butter, pepper, and salt.

        Roast them as in the above receipt. Sauces the same, with a glass of wine poured over the ducks just before taking them from the fire.

Pelau No. 1.

        Boil a pair of fat young fowls, and when done take them from the pot, and having thrown off half the water, put in a pint of best rice, well washed and picked. Let the rice boil till done, then stir into it a good spoonful of fresh butter,

Page 223

with a little pepper and salt. Lay some of the rice in a dish, place the fowls on it, and with the remainder of the rice form a mound. Brush it over with egg, and set it in the oven to brown.

Pelau No. 2.

        Boil a pint of rice by the Carolina receipt, then mix butter, pepper, and salt with it, and stuff a fat, full-grown fowl with half of it, if necessary; then stew your fowl in water, with butter, flour, and the yelks of two eggs. When your fowl is done, place the remainder of your boiled rice in a dish, shape it into a mound, and place your fowl on the summit, after which pour the gravy in which it was stewed over the whole.

Pelau No. 3.

        Half-grown chickens, cut up in the usual way, with a few slices of nice bacon or ham, then boiled with rice, as in above receipts, make a very nice pelau. When done, take out the chickens and bacon, add butter, pepper, and a little salt to the rice; put the chickens neatly on the rice in a dish, and pour drawn butter, with chopped hard-boiled eggs, over the whole.

Brunswick Stew.

        Four hours before you intend to have dinner, put in a stewpan five quarts of water, with two or three slices of bacon, and an onion, sliced. Let the water boil for an hour, then add two quarts of peeled tomatoes, four or five ears of corn (cut off the cobs), four Irish potatoes, sliced, and a few

Page 224

butter-beans. As soon as the stew begins to boil, cut up a pair of tender chickens or squirrels, add them to the stew, and suffer it to boil till the flesh drops from the bone: then thicken with bread-crumbs, and it is ready to serve.

A Pot-Pie.

        Line a small pot with pie-crust, fill it with chickens, cut up and season as for stewed chicken, cover the whole with a crust, cut a small hole in the center, and place it over a moderate fire till done. When done, put the soft top crust in the bottom of the dish, place the chicken neatly on it, pour on the gravy, and cover the whole with the crusts from the sides of the pot.

Boiled Turkey, with Oysters.

        Having cleaned, drawn, and well rinsed your turkey, rub it well, inside as well as outside, with salt and pepper, then mix a quart of oysters, with bread-crumbs, butter, red pepper, salt, and a little thyme, as stuffing for your turkey. Fill it completely, sew up the opening, truss the wings and thighs neatly by the sides of the turkey, then inclose it in a towel, dipped in boiling water, and well floured; drop it in boiling water. Boil it a quarter of an hour for every pound.

        The water should boil slowly, but steadily. When done, turn your turkey out of the towel on a hot dish; garnish with stewed oysters.

        Egg sauce, with oysters, should be eaten with your boiled turkey.

Page 225

Guinea Fowls.

        These should be parboiled before roasting, unless very young, and then they are better baked in a profusion of gravy, otherwise they are very dry. The Dutch oven is best for Guinea fowls, as the lid can be kept over them to prevent the steam from escaping, so that they are in a manner stewed. Brown them well. Prepare the gravy as for roast fowls or turkeys.

Chickens Fried with Cream.

        After plucking, and cutting up your chickens, lay them for an hour in cold water, then, after wiping them dry, salting, peppering, and flouring, fry them in lard till of a handsome, light-brown color. Now take them from the frying-pan, and, after carefully taking out all the burnt bits of flour, pour into the pan a cup of rich, sweet cream, with a handful of chopped parsley, and half a teaspoonful of curry-powder. Let the gravy stew till the parsley is quite done, dish your chickens, and pour the gravy over them.

        This is a very delicious dish.

To Fricassee Chickens.

        Cut up two fat chickens, as for chicken pie, wash them, and take off the skins, then put them in a stewpan of water, with a little salt. Let them boil till tender. Now take them out of the water, and skim it well or strain it; add to the water a quarter of a pound of butter rolled in flour, stir it

Page 226

till well mixed; add a broken pod of red pepper, a handful of chopped celery or parsley, and a blade of mace, broken to pieces; return it to the stewpan, and let it boil, then return the chicken to the stewpan also, with a cup of sweet cream, and two hard-boiled eggs, chopped fine. Stir it for a minute, and serve it in a covered, deep dish.

Gumbo.

        Prepare your chicken as for stewing, and fry it in a quarter of a pound of butter, after flouring well. Wait till it is fried perfectly brown, then add a quart of boiling water, cover it, and let it boil for half an hour, and then add twenty-five fresh oysters, and a spoonful of gumbo (powdered sassafras leaves), or dry and ground okra. Add both red and black pepper.

VEGETABLES.

        To boil vegetables, take care and put them in boiling water; to bake them, in a hot oven.

        All vegetables should be thoroughly done, if cooked at all. They should be always fresh from the garden, if possible.

        Dried beans, peas, and corn should be soaked in warm water before cooking, and they require more time than those that are fresh gathered.

        In gathering peas, beans, or cucumbers, take care to select such as are young and tender, though

Page 227

you must avoid, too, an extreme in this respect. Practice alone will guide aright.

        Always gather your vegetables early in the morning; the hot sun withers and makes them tough or flabby.

        Peas and beans should be boiled in just enough water to make them tender, and it should be allowed to dry into them, so that none of their sweetness should be lost. Uncover your pot or stewpan as soon as they are soft, and they will be dry the sooner. Add your seasoning before dishing them.

        A little salt should be put in the water when vegetables are boiled.

To Boil Irish Potatoes.

        Wash them very clean, but do not peel them. Put them in boiling water just sufficient to cover them. Let them boil steadily, and as soon as you can pierce them easily with a fork, pour off all the water, take the vessel from off the fire, but leave it near enough to be kept quite hot. Double a coarse, clean towel, and lay it over the potatoes till you are ready to serve them; then peel them, butter them well, and send them to table very hot.

Mashed Potatoes.

        After peeling them, lay them in cold water for an hour, and then boil them as in the above receipt.

        As soon as you pour off the water, mash them fine in the pot, add salt, pepper, cream or butter.

Page 228

Keep them hot till ready to serve, then pile them up roughly in the dish, as balls of snow.

        Or, put the mashed potatoes in a baking-dish, smooth them over with egg and milk, beaten together, and brown them in the oven. Serve in the baking-dish, hot.

Potato Cakes.

        Mash boiled potatoes with cream, salt, and pepper; make with the hands small, round cakes, flatten them, and fry them brown, or bake them.

Sliced Potatoes Fried.

        Slice cold potatoes, and fry them in hot lard. These are nice for breakfast.

Sweet Potatoes.--How to Cook them.

        Sweet potatoes should be first washed very clean, and baked with the skins on. Let your oven be quite hot at first, then gradually lessen the heat. If this rule is observed, the skins of your potatoes will be soft, and easily withdrawn. If burned by too much heat, you cannot easily peel them, and the potatoes shrink to nothing when it is off. Do not allow your cook to put the potatoes in the oven too early. An hour and a half will bake them well.

        Or, peel, slice thin, and salt them, then fry them in boiling lard.

        Or, broil them on a gridiron, and butter them well.

        Or, peel, split them in half, and bake them in a

Page 229

dish, with plenty of butter rubbed over them from time to time. Pour the butter over them from the baking-dish when they are done.

HOMINY OF ROANOKE, OR GREAT HOMINY.

        THIS was an ancient American dish, a genuine Southern dish, it having first appeared to civilized eyes in 1584, on a royal board, on the Island of Roanoke.

        My intelligent reader will remember that on the arrival of Sir Walter Raleigh's first American expedition within the Pamlico Sound, that the mariners landed on the Island of Wokokon, and there received a visit from Granganemo, the chieftain or sovereign of Roanoke. Courtesy demanding a return of the royal visit, the British admirals, Amadas and Barlow, a few days after appeared off the royal residence, at the northern extremity of the Island of Roanoke. The king being absent on a hunting excursion, the queen, with a royal retinue, received the distinguished strangers at the water's side, and conducted them in pomp to the royal abode. There a sumptuous board awaited them,--venison, wild fowl, fish, hominy, potatoes, and a variety of fruits. After having partaken of this lordly fare, and received the refined civilities of this noble and amiable American princess, the strangers prepared to return to Wokokon, when a royal escort accompanied them to their boats, followed

Page 230

by attendants loaded with provisions and costly presents. Doubtless, among the former was found a goodly portion of that lordly dish,--Great Hominy of Roanoke.

        And here it is gratifying to observe this early evidence of native hospitality and courtesy in the land of our birth and our love,--courtesy and hospitality imbibed with the nourishment of her children, and perpetuated to the present day by the good Old North State.

Great Hominy No. 1.

        Pick out a dozen fine, full ears of white hominycorn, shell off all the good grains, and put them in a large wooden mortar; pour on boiling water to cover them, then with a wooden pestle (at the lower end of which has been driven in an iron wedge) rub the corn up and down in the water till the husks are all loose, then remove the corn into a shallow tray, and winnow out all the husks. When this is done, return the corn to the mortar, and slightly break the grains. If not boiled immediately, the hominy should be spread to dry.

To Boil Great Hominy.

        Put your hominy into a spacious pot or boiler, filled with cold water, your teakettle being filled at the same time; let both boil, and as the water on the hominy boils away, replenish from the teakettle (which likewise keep full).

        Boil your hominy for twelve hours, say from seven in the morning till seven in the evening. Keep it steadily boiling all the while, filling up

Page 231

from the teakettle till the last hour, when let it dry away till merely moist. It is now done. Add salt to your taste, and serve hot. Eat it with milk or butter.

To Fry Hominy.

        Have ready a clean, greased spider hot over the coals; put in a small spoonful of nice, sweet lard or butter, let it melt; then put in about a quart and a half of boiled hominy; stir and mash it up well with the lard or butter. Let it fry awhile, stirring it about occasionally. When you find that the water is dried out of it, with your spoon mould it into a round form in the middle of the spider; let it so remain till your breakfast is ready, and then with a knife loosen the hominy from the spider, and placing a plate or dish, bottom upward, on the hominy, turn it out, and serve hot.

        It will have a rich, brown coat or crust on it, and will make a handsome dish, and a very delicious one for breakfast; especially with well-seasoned sausages as an accompaniment.

        A little boy of the author's acquaintance, on being told by his pious mother that all good gifts came from God, and that little children should always pray to their Father in heaven for every good and desirable gift, on one evening, while kneeling at his mother's knee, added this little impromptu prayer to those dictated by her: "And, Lord, please to make mamma give Johnny for breakfast as much big hominy and sausage as ever he can eat." A little child is an excellent judge of good eating.

Page 232

        A good handful of white hominy beans boiled with your hominy will improve it very much in flavor, and add to its consistency.

Great Hominy No. 2.

        Boil your corn in ashes and water till the husks peel off, then put it into a vessel of cold water, and rub off with the hands all the skins. Wash it in three or four waters, and then put it to soak all night. In the morning, rub out all the blackened hearts or sprouts, and boil in pure water, as in Great Hominy No. 1.

Small Hominy.

        Grind your corn in a coarse mill, wash the hominy in many waters, rubbing it with the hands till all the husks are off, then boil as you would rice, though a much longer time is required. It may be boiled for breakfast, if washed overnight.

        Small hominy, cold, is also good fried; in the same way as the great hominy.

        Very good small hominy may be taken from coarsely ground meal. Sift out all the fine meal for bread, and wash what remains in the sieve. When the husk is removed, a very fine hominy will be found to remain.

Scolloped Tomatoes.

        Scald and peel full ripe tomatoes, lay them whole in a baking-dish, with alternate layers of bread, butter, pepper, salt, and a very little mustard. Cover them with bread-crumbs and butter, then bake them brown. Some persons like sugar with them.

Page 233

Sliced Tomatoes.

        Choose full ripe, large tomatoes; with a sharp knife peel off the skin, then slice them thin, season them with salt, pepper, and mustard, if you like it, and cover them with sharp vinegar.

        Tomatoes dressed in this way, with cold veal cut up in small pieces, and with the addition of sweet oil and hard-boiled eggs, make an agreeable substitute for lobster.

Stewed Tomatoes.

        Scald them with boiling water, slip off the skins, take out the pithy parts, and add a third of their quantity in bread-crumbs; then butter, pepper, and salt as you like. Some use sugar also. Stew your tomatoes to a thick pulp, and just before you serve them add a cup of rich, sweet cream.

Celery.

        I have never seen a good dish of cooked celery, except as seasoning for other dishes. Celery in its native beauty, coolness, crispness, and delicious taste, is only eaten in perfection. In a handsome cut-glass goblet, in the center of the dinner-table, it is most attractive. I cannot give directions for such a barbarism as cooked celery.

        The only form in which I can tolerate celery compounded is in chicken salad. This is a royal dish, indeed, when properly made.

Green Peas

        Should be boiled in as little water as possible, and as soon as soft the top of the stewpan should be

Page 234

taken off, that the water remaining should be suffered to evaporate before the peas are taken out. In this way all the sweetness is retained.

        Serve them as hot as possible, with butter and sweet cream, with a little salt and pepper.

        Fresh beans and peas of all sorts should be boiled in the same way.

        Dry beans and peas should be soaked overnight, and so should dried young corn. These should be boiled in much more water, and when soft the water should be allowed nearly to evaporate, so that the sweetness of the vegetables may be preserved. These also should be well buttered.

Green Corn.

        Boil it on the cobs, and cut it off before serving. Cover with butter, and add a little salt and pepper.

        Or, you may cut it off the cobs, and stew it with cream, butter, pepper, and salt.

        Green corn is excellent roasted on the cob, and eaten with butter.

Green Corn Pie.

        One quart of grated or scraped green corn, the yelks of three eggs, and a heaping spoonful of butter, a little salt, and red pepper, all mixed well together; to this add a cup of tomato juice, strained through a sieve. Line a deep baking-dish with the mixture, have ready two nicely stewed chickens, with plenty of butter, fill the dish with the chickens and thin gravy, then cover them with what remains of the corn batter. Bake in a moderate oven till well done.

Page 235

To Fry Green Corn.

        Melt a good spoonful of butter in a frying-pan, and cut your corn off the cobs; when the butter is quite hot, pour into it about a quart of the corn, seasoned with salt and pepper to your taste; stir it about till you think it is done, then suffer it to remain quiet till a crust is formed at the bottom, then loosen it with a knife, and turn it out on a suitable dish.

Lettuce.

        Gather your lettuce early in the morning, keep it in cold water till dinner is ready, then, after trimming off all the outer leaves and the ends of those remaining, split the heads in half, or quarter them, if very large; then lay them neatly in the salad-dish, and pour the dressing over them.

Dressing for Lettuce, Slaw, Tomatoes, Lobster, Cucum-
bers, Celery, etc.

        Take the yelks of two hard-boiled eggs, mash them fine in three tablespoonfuls of best olive oil, then add, gradually stirring all the while, two tablespoonfuls of best vinegar, two saltspoonfuls of salt, two mustardspoonfuls of mixed mustard, and red pepper at your discretion.

        This quantity will answer for one salad-dishful of lettuce, or other vegetables above mentioned; not quite sufficient for the same quantity of lobster. Add in this case one-third more.

Page 236

To take the Husks off Grain.

        Two parts calcined soda, twelve parts water, one part caustic lime in three of water. To be boiled one hour and a half to two hours, and then twenty times its weight in water added. Seven and a half quarts of this liquid will suffice for two hundred pounds of grain. Let it remain twenty-four hours, and if the husks are not sufficiently loosened, suffer it to remain a few hours longer. You can rub off the husks with the hand, after which the grain should be soaked in clean water for a night, and the water changed in the morning. After standing awhile you may boil your grain.

Okra for Gumbo.

        Dry them thoroughly in the sun, then grind them to a powder in a spice-mill, and keep them in a bottle well stopped.

Chicken Salad.

        Roast or boil, till done and tender, three full-grown, fat fowls, and before cold, take off the skin, and remove all the flesh from the bones.

        Wait till the flesh is cold, then, with a sharp knife, cut it into half-inch pieces; do not mince it fine. Spread it in a wide dish, and strew over it a teaspoonful of fine salt, then take the yelks of six hard-boiled eggs, and with a wooden spoon rub them into a smooth paste, with six spoonfuls of pure, sweet oil; add six tablespoonfuls of sharp vinegar, one of mustard, six saltspoonfuls of salt,

Page 237

and one of Cayenne pepper (ground fine). Mix all well together.

        Cut your celery into pieces, from an inch to half an inch in length, mix it with your cut up chicken in a large bowl; and pour over them your dressing.

        If the salad is not to be immediately used, keep your celery in cold water till the time appointed. Keep the chicken and dressing in separate vessels also.

        To allow your celery to remain saturated with the dressing, even for an hour, will destroy its crispness, which is an essential quality of its excellence.

To Boil Rice No. 1.

        Pick and wash a pint bowl of rice; let it soak awhile; this improves its whiteness. Now put it in your saucepan, with twice the quantity of water (two bowls); cover it, and let it boil. When it begins to settle down, and a white, milky water appears above it, sprinkle in a little fine salt; take off the cover, and allow your rice to become entirely dry. Do not put a spoon into it. When it is dry, it is done.

        Wet a bowl with cold water, throw it out, put your rice in it, with a spoon pack it down smoothly, and, after it stands for a moment, turn it out on a dish for the table.

        This is the way rice is prepared in Barbadoes.

Page 238

The Carolina way to Boil Rice.

        Let the rice boil as in No. 1, till the water becomes milky, then pour off the water; leave the rice uncovered till perfectly dry.

        The rice-water thus obtained will make excellent starch, and it is good to wet up your flour for bread instead of simple water.

Boiled Rice No. 2.

        One bowl of rice, well picked and washed, boiled in one bowl of water. Let all the water boil out; draw it out with a fork to open the grains; a little salt should be dropped in while it is boiling.

Boiled Rice and Milk.

        Boil as above, and when the water has evaporated, add a cup of rich milk; allow it to boil again till nearly dry, and put the rice in a form, from which turn it out on a dish. Eat it with butter or cream.

Fried Rice.

        Make cold rice into round, flat cakes with the hand, cover them with a little flour, and fry them in lard or butter.

Indian Mush.

        Put some water in a stewpan, let it boil, and stir in quickly as much sifted meal as will make your mush as thick as you wish. Let it remain on the fire till thoroughly done.

        The fire should be of coals, and not so hot as to scorch the mush. Stir it constantly till done.

Page 239

Indian Gruel.

        Sift Indian meal; then while the husks are in the sieve pour over them cold water. It will look like milk. Put this on to boil. Let it boil well. Add a little fine salt.

        Gruel made of meal is coarse and unpalatable.

Stewed Mushrooms.

        Be careful to select the true mushrooms. Pick them clean, peel them, cut off the stems, and wash them gently; then put them in a stewpan, with butter, pepper, salt, and a little water; let them stew ten minutes, then add a cup of cream (sweet); let them stew a minute or two longer, and serve them hot. Some persons add a little white wine, but they are better without.

Greens.

        Greens must be boiled with ham or pork. They are insipid and flat without. Butter does not seem to be congenial. Let them boil half an hour just before you take up your dinner.

        Tender sprouts from the cabbage-stalks, in the spring, mustard, or turnip tops, are an acceptable adjunct to ham or pork, when other vegetables are scarce.

        Let them boil soft and tender, drain them, and serve them very hot.

Rice Puffs.

        Beat up the whites of two eggs till very light, and stir them in a quart of boiled rice, with a little

Page 240

salt and a small spoonful of flour; then add half a cup of rich cream; beat the mixture well, and drop it by spoonfuls on a tin. Bake in a quick oven. Serve immediately, while hot. Or, fry them in lard.

Cauliflowers.

        Boil them in milk and water; strain off all the milk and water, then serve your cauliflowers, well covered with rich drawn butter.

        Broccoli should be dressed in the same manner.

        An hour is sufficient to boil either.

Parsnips.

        Wash and scrape your parsnips well, boil them till tender, split them in half, lengthwise, and bake them in an earthen dish, well buttered.

        Or, mash them fine, mix them with a batter of eggs, milk, and a little flour, and fry them brown, by spoonfuls, dropped in boiling lard.

Salsify or Vegetable Oysters.

        Scrape and wash your salsify very clean, then boil it till very tender. Mash it fine, then add eggs, salt, pepper, a little milk, flour, and butter. Beat it well; drop small spoonfuls in boiling lard, and fry them brown.

        Or, after boiling, cut your salsify in pieces about the size of an oyster, and stew them in cream, seasoned with salt, pepper, a little mace, and onion.

Page 241

Turnips.

        Wash, peel, quarter, and boil them, an hour or more, till tender; then take them out, mash them in a colander till very dry, then return them to the pot or stewpan, with a lump of butter, a cup of cream, salt, and pepper; let the stewpan remain near the fire till it is time to serve dinner.

Egg Plant.

        Egg plants may be dressed in three different ways. The best is to slice them, with the skins peeled off, and then to sprinkle each piece with salt, lay them one upon another in a dish, for an hour or more, till the bitter juice is drawn from them, then wash them, salt and pepper them; flour, and fry them brown.

        Another way is to boil them whole, till soft and done, then cut them in half; take out all the egg, leaving only the shells. Mix with the egg, butter, pepper, salt, bread-crumbs, a little chopped onion, and yelks of eggs; return the mixture to the egg shells, set them in an oven, and bake them brown.

        Or, you may mix the boiled insides of several vegetable eggs in the same way, and bake them in a common-sized earthen dish, covered with bread-crumbs.

Onions.

        Use none but silver skins. Boil them in two successive waters, and lay them, when done, in a third, for ten minutes, before serving. Drain them dry, and butter them well.

Page 242

Asparagus.

        Lay your asparagus together neatly, having the sprout ends the same way; roll it in a clean towel or cloth, and lay it in boiling water, with a little salt; let it boil an hour, unroll your towel over a heated dish, with a slice of toast on the bottom; lay your asparagus neatly on the toast, and pour over it a good cupful of drawn butter. Serve it hot.

Beets.

        Wash your beets carefully. Do not break off the ends, or they will bleed, and become colorless. Boil them an hour and a half; take them out of the pot, and wash it clean, then slice your beets; return them to the pot, with salt, pepper, a cup of rich drawn butter, and half a cup of vinegar. Serve them hot.

        Or, you may omit the dressing, save the vinegar: when they should be eaten cold.

Squashes.

        Wash, quarter, and boil them till soft, then drain, and mash them in a colander. Return them to the vessel in which they were boiled, with cream, butter, pepper, and salt. Stir them occasionally over a few dull coals till ready to serve.

Spinach.

        Have ready a pot or saucepan of boiling water. First poach half a dozen eggs in the water; when done, take them out, and put in your spinach; let

Page 243

it boil gently for fifteen minutes, then take it up in a colander, press all the water out, sprinkle a little salt over it, lay on the poached eggs, and pour over the whole some rich drawn butter. Cover your dish, and serve the spinach very hot.

Okras.

        Boil them simply in salt and water, say a teaspoonful of salt to a pot of water. As soon as they are soft take them out, and drain them well. Lay them in a deep dish, with melted butter.

West India way.

        Or, boil a gallon of okras till dissolved into a thick mucilage, add a quarter of a pound of butter, pepper, salt, some small, thin slices of broiled ham; stir it well over the fire, then serve it hot, with mush balls.

Artichokes.

        Boil them two hours in water, with a little salt, and serve them entire, burs and all. Eat them with butter, after dinner, before the dessert comes on.

Jerusalem Artichokes

        May be prepared as Irish potatoes, boiled and mashed, with butter, pepper, salt, and an egg, then browned in a baking-dish, or fried in balls.

Cabbage.

        Boil your cabbage till tender, with a little salt in the water, then take it up in a colander, drain it well, place it nicely in a dish, and cover it with drawn or melted butter.

Page 244

Cold Slaw.

        Shave up a crisp, bleached cabbage very fine, and dress it as lettuce, with oil, pepper, salt, mustard, eggs, and vinegar. (See Dressing for Lettuce.)

Cucumbers

        Should be gathered when young and tender. Do not wait till they turn white or yellow. The seeds are then enlarged, and the vegetable unfit for use. Be sure that they are still of a deep-green color.

        Quite early in the morning put them in cold water, keep them thus till just before your dinner is dished; then peel off the green skin carefully, and slice them thin. Dress them with salt, pepper, mustard, and vinegar, or with the foregoing receipt for dressing lettuce.

Carrots.

        Peel them, and boil them till quite tender, and serve them hot, with melted butter.

        Or, mash them fine, and add butter, pepper, and salt, then brown them in a baking-dish. Grated carrots make a fine coloring for soups.

Snap Beans.

        Choose those half-grown, take off the strings carefully, split them down the middle, and boil them till tender. Serve with drawn butter, or rich, sweet cream, pepper, and salt.

Page 245

Corn Pudding.

        Cut quite young corn off the cobs till you have three pints; add to this three eggs, two spoonfuls of fresh butter, a spoonful of sifted Indian meal, a cup of milk, and salt and pepper as much as you like. Pour this mixture in a baking-dish, and bake it an hour. Serve it very hot.

Corn Fritters

        Are made exactly as corn pudding, but with flour instead of meal, and rather more milk, say sufficient to make the batter as thin as for fritters commonly. Fry them in boiling lard.

Chicken Pudding.

        Stew two young chickens, cut them in pieces, and add them to the foregoing corn pudding.

Page 246

PICKLING.

To Pickle Cucumbers.

        GATHER half-grown cucumbers every day, and put them in salt and water till you have sufficient to fill a large stone jar, then take a bell-metal preserving-kettle and cover the bottom with vine or mustard leaves. Wash your cucumbers (having soaked them the previous twenty-four hours in cold water), lay in a portion of them on the leaves, then cover them with more leaves, another layer of cucumbers, leaves again, and cucumbers, till the kettle is nearly full; let the last layer be leaves. Fill the kettle with cold water, set it over a slow fire to steam till the cucumbers are green. Just before you take them out increase the heat, and let the cucumbers simmer a little while. Take them out and lay them in fresh hot water for fifteen minutes, and then put them in the stone jar, with alternate layers of spices, mustard, horseradish, and celery seed; sliced onion, if you like, may be added. Then fill up your jar with strong vinegar, sweetened slightly with brown sugar. Cover the whole with three teaspoonfuls of pure sweet oil. Keep your pickles covered close.

Pickled Cabbage.

        Take well-headed, white cabbages, cut them in quarters, sprinkle them with fine salt, and lay them in a wooden vessel for two days. Have ready a quantity of sliced onions (white), also mixed spices,

Page 247

then fill a stone jar nearly full with alternate layers of cabbage, onions, and spices. Shake off a portion of the salt before laying the cabbage in the jar; then fill up the jar with strong vinegar, boiling hot, covered with pokeberry juice. One pint of pokeberry juice will color a gallon of vinegar. In three days the pickle will be ready for use.

Sliced Green Tomato Pickle.

        Take one peck of green tomatoes, slice them, and lay them in a wooden vessel, with alternate layers of fine salt. Let them so remain three days, then take them out of the salt, and wash them in clean water. Then mix together one ounce of black mustard seed, one ounce of white mustard seed, one ounce of celery seed, one ounce of mixed spices, six red pepper pods, cut up, and a box of ground mustard. Put the tomatoes in a preserving-kettle, in alternate layers, with the above mixture. Cover the whole with strong vinegar, and boil fifteen minutes.

To Pickle Tomatoes.

        Put ripe tomatoes in whisky, and when you wish a jar of them pickled, take them out, wash them in clean water, scald them in strong vinegar, with spices, mustard, pepper, and salt, then put them in your jar, and cover them close.

Tomato Marmalade.

        Take a peck of fine, large, ripe tomatoes, free from blemishes, wash them, free them of the stems, and boil them in their own juice till soft, then

Page 248

strain them through a hair sieve; return them to the kettle, with salt, pepper, sugar, and spices to your taste; stew them till very thick. Put them away in pint earthen jars, in a dry place.

Mushroom Catsup.

        Gather fresh mushrooms (take care they are not worm-eaten), put them in a covered stewpan, without water, and stew them over a very slow fire, then take them out and strain them through a thick cloth or towel. To every pint of the liquor add a teaspoonful of salt, one of ground mace, one of garlic, one of red pepper, and then return it to the stewpan (washed out clean), and let it boil till reduced one-half or more. Bottle it with a teaspoonful of sweet oil at the top. Cork it well.

Yellow Pickles.

        To make yellow pickle of cabbages and asparagus, you must put them in strong, boiling salt and water, and allow them to remain till the water is cold, then take them out and lay them in the sun for two days.

        Cucumbers and young corn are to be kept in salt water for two weeks, then laid in cold, fresh water for three hours. Scald them, and if green, lay them in the sun two days. Then take

        One pint of black mustard seed.

        Four ounces of ginger.

        Three ounces of black pepper.

        Three ounces of allspice.

        One ounce of cloves.

Page 249

        One ounce of mace.

        Two and a half ounces of turmeric.

        Two ounces of celery seed.

        All these to be powdered fine and added to two gallons of best vinegar, with a double-handful of scraped horseradish,*

        * Let your horseradish lie in the sun for a few hours before being added to the vinegar.


four lemons, sliced, and a pound and a half of brown sugar, and one handful of garlic.

        Put your pickles in a stone jar, and cover them well with the prepared vinegar. Keep them from the air securely.

Peach Mangoes.

        Take large free-stone peaches, split them on one side, and take out the stone, then make a stuffing of horseradish, mustard seed, celery seed, mace, onions or garlic, a sprinkle of salt; moisten all these with sweet oil. Fill your peaches, tie them around with a strong flax thread, and fill a stone jar, then pour over them strong vinegar, with sugar, as much as you like.

        Onions, peppers, beans, peaches, young corn, cauliflowers, broccoli, and, indeed, any vegetable usually pickled, may be put up with the same seasoning. There need be no separate receipts for them.

Damson Pickles No. 1.

        Take one pound of damsons, one pound of sugar, half pint of best vinegar. Put the damsons into a stone jar, boil the sugar and vinegar, and pour over

Page 250

the fruit each morning for six successive mornings; on the seventh, pour the whole into a preserving-kettle; add mace, cloves, and cinnamon to your taste, and boil twenty minutes. They will be fit for use as soon as cold.

Sweet Pickled Peaches.

        To six pounds of peaches put three pounds of sugar and one pint of vinegar. Mace, allspice, cinnamon, each a spoonful, and six cloves, to be beaten, tied up in a muslin bag, and dropped in the pickled peaches while boiling. Boil quite thick, stirring constantly.

To Pickle Peaches No. 1.

        Wash cling-stone peaches well in cold water, put them in a stone jar, then scald (not boil) strong vinegar sufficient to cover the peaches, add a little loaf-sugar, just enough to give a slightly sweet taste, pour in the vinegar, and cover up close from the air.

Pickled Damsons No. 2.

        To every pound of fruit add one pound of sugar and half a pint of strong vinegar; cloves, mace, cinnamon, each one teaspoonful. Prepare them as in plain preserved damsons.

To Pickle Walnuts.

        Gather the walnuts while tender. Try them by running a needle through one. If it goes through easily, your walnuts are in a proper state for pickling.

        Boil them in salt and water for fifteen minutes,

Page 251

then take them out, and put them in jars, with garlic, a few blades of mace, a little allspice, cloves, and cinnamon, pounded. Pour over the walnuts strong vinegar, and cork and seal them up well for twelve months, when they will be fit for use.

Walnut Catsup.

        Pound your walnuts in a marble mortar, put them in a preserving-kettle, cover them with water, and let them simmer for two hours, then strain off the liquor, and to every pint add a teaspoonful of garlic, mace, and cloves. Boil it down to less than half the quantity, fill your bottles half full, and finish with strong vinegar. Bottle tight. It is ready for use at once.

Stuffing for Mangoes or Peppers.

        Chop up cabbage as you would for slaw, and season it with equal portions of mace, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, white mustard, and celery seed; then moisten these ingredients with a cup of sweet oil; add garlic or onion, if you like.

To Pickle Peaches No. 2.

        Wash cling-stone peaches, and stick them full of cloves, put them in a stone jar, boil strong vinegar, with sufficient sugar to give it a sweet taste, and pour it boiling hot over the peaches. It should be more than sufficient to cover them. Close the jar well from the air.

        You may omit the cloves, and add mace to the boiling vinegar instead.

Page 252

Hodge-Podge.

        Shred up green tomatoes with a few pods of green peppers; boil them in weak salt and water until tender; then take them up with a perforated skimmer; drain them as dry as possible.

        Shred some onions fine, with ground mustard, mustard seed, and any kind of spices you prefer; add one cup of sugar.

        Fill up a jar three-fourths with the tomatoes; add vinegar till it is full; cover close, and set your jar away. It will be fit for use in a few days.

Chow-Chow No. 1.

        Shred up cabbage fine, put it in a jar with salt water, let it stand two days, then put it in a dry cloth, and wring it as dry as possible; mix in it beaten cinnamon, celery seed, ground mustard seed, whole onions, and a little mace; fill your jar three-fourths, and cover with strong vinegar. Cover close from the air.

No. 2.

        Some persons add to their chow-chow young cucumbers, beans, nasturtiums, or radish pods.

Tomato Catsup No. 1.

        Take a gallon of ripe tomatoes, cut a slit in each, put them in a kettle, and boil half an hour, then take them out, and press them through a sieve; put the juice into a kettle, with half an ounce of pounded mace, a few cloves, a teaspoonful of black

Page 253

and Cayenne pepper, mixed, four tablespoonfuls of ground mustard, mixed together, and boil slowly three hours; then take it out, and let it stand till next day, then stir in half a pint of best vinegar, and bottle securely.

Tomato Catsup No. 2.

        Split the tomatoes, and boil them till quite done, stirring them frequently to prevent burning; strain them through a colander first, and then a hair sieve, rubbing them with a spoon, to get as much of the pulp as possible. To a half gallon of the strained pulp add four tablespoonfuls (level) of salt, four tablespoonfuls of black pepper, three tablespoonfuls of mustard, one teaspoonful (level) of cloves, one teaspoonful of mace, one teaspoonful of red pepper, one quart of vinegar, one clove of garlic. Boil till you think it is done, and when taken from the fire, set it aside till the next day; and should there be any watery substance on the top; boil till it entirely disappears. Skim while boiling. The pepper and spices must be sifted through a very fine sieve.

Tomato Catsup No. 3.

        Take one gallon of ripe tomatoes, free from blemish, stew them till quite soft, then pass them through a sieve. To the liquor add--

        One pint of vinegar.

        Four pods of Cayenne pepper.

        Three spoonfuls of ground black pepper.

        Three spoonfuls of salt.

Page 254

        One ounce of spice (such as you like).

        Five ounces of mustard seed.

        Boil, stirring till done, and bottle closely.

Chow-Chow No. 2.

        Four pounds of cabbage, cut fine, four pounds of brown sugar, twenty pods of green pepper, cut fine, one pound of white mustard seed, two tablespoonfuls of salt, two tablespoonfuls of grated horseradish. Put all, well mixed, in a jar, and fill up with strong cider vinegar.

Cucumber Catsup.

        Gather the cucumbers the day before you make the catsup, then peel and grate them, pour off all the water and throw it away; grate enough of white onions to flavor it, and then add black and Cayenne pepper, and salt; stir all well together, fill the bottles half full of the mixture, then fill them up with good cider vinegar. Some chop the cucumbers and onions, and others add mustard.

Raspberry Vinegar.

        Gather the raspberries in a bowl, and cover them with strong cider vinegar. Let them stand two days, adding fresh fruit, if you have it, then press and strain it, and to every pint of juice add a pound of loaf sugar. Boil it fifteen minutes, skim it well, and when perfectly cold bottle it, and keep in a cool place. This, with water, is a very refreshing drink in summer.

Page 255

PASTRY.

        PASTRY should be made up with cold water,--in summer, the coldest you can get; and it should be made in a cool place. It should be mixed with a knife-blade, and touched as little as possible with the hands.

        It should be baked in a moderately heated oven, so that when done it is as light colored as possible; but it should be thoroughly done.

Puff Paste No. 1.

        For one pound of flour weigh one pound of fresh butter, well washed, and dried in a clean towel. Take out one teaspoonful of butter and replace it with one of sweet lard. Now wet up your flour with cold water, and one spoonful of butter, into a moderately stiff dough; roll it out on a marble slab or board into a thin sheet, cover it with butter, and fold it up, then roll it out again, and fold as before seven more times, each time spreading the sheet of dough with butter, sprinkling it every time with a little flour from the sieve. Now roll up your sheet of dough, and it is ready to use. Take care, in covering your plates with this paste, never to disturb the folds, or mash them with the hand; if you do, they cannot blow apart, and display your superior skill in pastry making.

Puff Paste No. 2.

        For one pound of flour weigh three-fourths of a pound of butter or lard. Mix it as in No. 1; roll out, and fold three times.

Page 256

Mrs. Gen. Lee's Boiled Pastry.

        Sift your flour, add a little salt only, and make a moderately stiff dough, with water actually boiling at the time.

        Roll out your paste on a board well floured, and cover your fruit for boiling.

Potato Paste.

        Peel eight large Irish potatoes, and boil them; when soft, pour off the water, and mash them fine, pass them through a colander, and moisten them with a spoonful of butter or lard, and a pint of milk or water; make them into a dough, with as much flour as will enable you to roll it out without sticking to the board.

        This is an excellent paste for dumplings or turnovers for any kind of fruit.

Simple Apple Pies No. 1.

        Pare your apples, and stew them to a pulp, pass them through a colander, sweeten, and spice them to your taste, and bake them in puff paste. A cup of sweet cream will improve these pies.

Sliced Apple Pies No. 2.

        Pare and slice your apples, put them in plates covered with puff paste, with alternate layers of sugar, butter, and a sprinkle of finely ground cinnamon, or lemon if you prefer it; then pour a spoonful of water on, and cover the pies with thin sheets of crust. Bake them rather longer than apple pies No. 1, as the apples have not before been

Page 257

cooked. There should be more fire at the bottom than at the top, or your crust will be too dark when the apples are done.

Sliced Potato Pies.

        Boil sweet potatoes till slightly done; slice them, and fill a deep plate with alternate layers of sliced potatoes, butter, sugar, spices, and brandy, say about one wineglass of brandy to a large pie; sugar and butter as you like. Cover your pie with puff paste, and bake it.

        It should be served hot. It is a good substitute for minced pie.

Minced Pies.

        One pound of suet, chopped fine.

        One pound of raisins, chopped fine.

        One pound of citron, chopped fine.

        One pound of currants, pounded slightly.

        One pound of beef tongue, chopped fine.

        One pound of minced apples.

        Half ounce of mace.

        Half ounce of allspice.

        Cloves.

        Cinnamon.

        Nutmeg, pounded.

        One pint of brandy.

        One pint of wine.

        If you wish to make a jar full of minced meat to keep for any time, leave out the wine and chopped apples; add these when you make your pies, with a full spoonful of the juice from brandy peaches, if you have them, to each pie, and grated lemonpeel. Bake in puff paste. Serve hot.

Page 258

Tarts.

        When prepared fruits of any kind are baked in small pans, without an upper crust, they are called tarts.

        Tarts may be ornamented after being baked, by cutting out thin leaves of paste, baking them on a plate or tin sheet, and then, when the tart is cold, arranging them in the center, or in a wreath on the fruit.

        Cut the leaves with a short stem that may enter into the tart, and so form a highly-relieved flower.

        Some persons cut long strips of thin paste with a jagging-iron, and lay them across the tart before baking it.

Puffs.

        Cover little patty-pans with puff paste, bake them white, and fill them when cold with preserves.

        Every kind of fruit may be made into pies or tarts, with sugar to sweeten them as you like. There need be no directions for each separately. Pies always have an upper crust.

Page 259

PUDDING SAUCES.

No. 1.

        CREAM half a pound of fresh butter with three-fourths of a pound of sugar; add a glass of white wine, half a nutmeg, and the rind and juice of a lemon; then melt your sauce in a porcelain stewpan over a slow fire.

        This should be done by your cook while the family are at dinner, as the sauce will need constant stirring. If this action is suspended, the butter will separate from the sauce, and become oil at the surface. If taken from the fire, it will become stiff and hard.

        Another.--Cream half a pound of butter with three-fourths of a pound of sugar; add to this a cup of sweet, rich cream, a glass of wine, a spoonful of brandy. Season with spice or lemon to your taste.

Cream Sauce.

        Whip rich cream to a syllabub, with sugar, wine, and the juice of a lemon or orange.

        Another.--Boil one pound of sugar in a cup of water till it becomes a thick syrup, then add a quarter of a pound of butter, a glass of wine, the juice and rind of a lemon, half a grated nutmeg.

Page 260

PUDDINGS.

Boiling Puddings.

        HAVE your water boiling when your pudding is put in; have a plate in the bottom of the pot to prevent burning your bag, or even if you use a tin boiler, it is best to have the plate. Keep your pot constantly boiling the number of hours designated, or your pudding may not be done in due time; besides, its lightness will be less if the boiling is suffered to subside at intervals.

Plum Pudding No. 1.

        One dozen of eggs.

        One quart of new milk.

        One pound of flour, with a pound of beef suet rubbed into it.

        Two pounds of raisins, stoned and chopped.

        Two pounds currants, washed and picked.

        One pound citron, cut up fine.

        Two lemons, the rinds grated into the juice.

        After all being thoroughly mixed, to be tied up tightly in a linen bag, which has been previously dipped in boiling water and rubbed with flour.

        The water should be boiling when the pudding is put in, and kept boiling till it is removed to the dish in which it is to go to the table. Four hours should be allowed it to boil.

Page 261

Plum Pudding No. 2.

        One pound of sugar.

        One pound of butter.

        One pound of flour.

        One dozen eggs.

        Cream your butter and sugar together; beat your eggs lightly, add them to the sugar and butter, gradually, with the flour, as in pound cake. Then add--

        Two pounds of stoned and chopped raisins.

        One pound of cut citron.

        One pound preserved orange or lemon, chopped.

        Quarter ounce of mace.

        Quarter ounce of cinnamon; the same of cloves and nutmeg.

        Boil five hours, and serve with boiled sauce, as for plum pudding No. 1.

Plum Pudding No. 3.

        Scald a pound of light bread with one quart of boiling milk; let it swell, then mash it fine with a wooden spoon. And to this eight eggs, half a pound of butter, one pound of raisins, one pound of currants, one pound of citron, one pound of preserved plums or cherries. To be boiled three hours.

        To be served with either of the foregoing sauces.

Rice Pudding No. 1.

        One teacupful of rice flour.

        One dozen of fresh eggs.

        One quart of milk.

Page 262

        Beat all well together, and boil in a linen bag, prepared as before directed. Two hours will be sufficient. Serve with hot boiled sauce.

Rice Pudding No. 2.

        Beat six eggs with six tablespoonfuls of sugar, then add, gradually, two teacupfuls of boiled rice, and a spoonful of butter, with a little orange or lemon peel. One quart of milk added last.

        Pour all in a baking-dish, and when baked serve hot.

Rice Pudding No. 3.

        Wash and pick a pint of rice, put it in soak for an hour; stone and chop a cupful of raisins, put the rice, mingled with the chopped raisins, in a boiling-cloth, tying it so as to leave room for the rice to swell. At first you will be compelled to guess at it, the second time you will know how much space to allow.

        Turn your pudding out on a dish to serve. Eat with cream and wine sauce.

        Or, you may boil rice and milk as in boiled rice No. 3, with the cup of chopped raisins in it.

        Turn it out from a form.

Boiled Indian Pudding.

        One and a half quarts of sifted Indian meal, with a large spoonful of butter rubbed into it, six eggs, a quart of milk, and a teaspoonful of salt. Beat all well together, and boil in a scalded and floured bag, as before mentioned, three hours.

Page 263

        Boiled molasses or white sugar and lemon-juice will serve as a sauce.

Plain Boiled Pudding.

        One dozen eggs.

        One quart milk.

        One teacupful of flour.

        Beat all well together; tie in a scalded and floured bag, and boil as directed in the receipt for plum pudding, except that two hours will be sufficient to boil it in.

        Sauce.--Butter, sugar, wine, and nutmeg, beaten well together, make the best sauce for this pudding.

Plain Baked Pudding.

        One quart of milk.

        Eight eggs.

        A pint of flour.

        A teaspoonful of butter, and a little salt.

        Beat the eggs well, alone, and then gradually add the flour and milk.

        Sauce as for plain boiled pudding.

Preserve Pudding.

        One cup of flour.

        One cup of butter.

        One cup of milk.

        Two cups of sugar.

        Four eggs.

        One cup and a half of preserves of any kind, if you choose several kinds.

        Sauce as above.

Page 264

Sunderland Pudding.

        Six eggs, three tablespoonfuls of flour, one pint of milk, warmed, and a spoonful of butter melted in it; a little salt. Beat all well together. Bake in a quick oven.

Fosset Pudding.

        Eight eggs, half a pound of sugar, one quart of milk, one cup of flour; leave out four whites of the eggs. While the pudding is baking, beat the four whites of eggs to a stiff froth, with six spoonfuls of sugar (white sugar). Pour this on the pudding when done, and let it brown. Eat it with butter.

Henrietta Pudding.

        Beat six eggs very light, sift into them a pound of loaf sugar, and a light pound of flour; add a glass of brandy, and half a grated nutmeg. When well beaten together add a pint of cream. Pour it into a deep baking-dish and bake it. When done, sift sugar over it to serve. Eat it with butter.

Baked Indian Pudding.

        Boil a quart of milk, mix in it two gills and a half of corn meal, very smoothly, seven eggs, a gill of molasses, and a small piece of butter. Bake it two hours.

Apple Pudding.

        To three pints of stewed apples (passed through a sieve), half pound of butter, half pound of sugar, the yelks of ten eggs, and half a cup of rich, sweet cream. To be baked in puff paste.

Page 265

Tapioca Pudding.

        Dissolve a teacupful of tapioca in a quart of water overnight. In the morning take it out of the water, and boil it in a quart of milk, with two teacupfuls of sugar.

        Pare and core eight apples, filling the opening with a lump of sugar and a small piece of cinnamon; then put them in a baking-dish, and pour the tapioca over them. Bake them brown. Let them get cold before serving. Eat them with wine or milk, as you like.

Edgecombe Pudding.

        Boil two tablespoonfuls of corn-starch in two cups of new milk. When cold, add the yelks of six eggs, half pound of sugar, a spoonful of butter, and the juice and grated rind of a fresh lemon. Pour it in puff paste, and cover it with icing. Bake in a moderate oven.

Eve's Pudding.

        Chop six large apples very fine, grate six ounces of stale bread, add six ounces of brown sugar, six ounces of currants, washed, picked, and sprinkled with flour. Mix all well together with six ounces of butter, and two tablespoonfuls of flour; beat six eggs very light, add these with a teaspoonful of cinnamon and half a nutmeg, grated. Boil for three hours.

        To be eaten with cream sauce.

Page 266

Bread Pudding.

        Half pound of stale bread, soaked in milk (one pint).

        Half pound of sugar, beaten with six eggs.

        Quarter pound of butter.

        Half pound of raisins; mace or nutmeg.

        Boil it as before directed, and eat it with butter, sugar, and wine, well creamed together, with nutmeg or lemon-peel.

        The same pudding is good baked, with the addition of a cup of cream.

Puff Pudding.

        Six eggs, six tablespoonfuls of flour, one quart of milk, two teaspoonfuls of yeast-powder. Bake quickly. Sauce as above.

Henderson Pudding.

        Five eggs.

        Two cups of sugar.

        One cup and a half of butter.

        One cup of cream.

        Two cups of flour, with a teaspoonful of soda.

        Beat all well together, and, just before pouring into the pudding-bag, add two teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar, or three of strong vinegar. To be eaten with cream sauce.

        Cream Sauce.--Three-fourths of a pound of sugar, half as much butter, stirred together till very light, then put over the fire and melted, with a glass of Madeira wine, a cup of cream, and a few drops of essence of lemon.

Page 267

Confederate Pudding.

        One cup of Indian-meal mush.

        One cup of sugar, and one of cream.

        Four eggs, well beaten.

        Three ounces of butter.

        One glass of wine, with cinnamon.

        All to be well beaten together, and poured into crusts, which have been covered with apple jelly. Bake in a moderate oven.

Croatan Pudding.

        One pound of boiled small hominy.

        Six eggs.

        Six spoonfuls of sugar.

        One spoonful of butter.

        One-fourth of a nutmeg, and a glass of wine.

        Beat all well together, and bake in plates covered with puff paste.

Sweet Potato Pudding.

        One pound of boiled and mashed potatoes.

        One pound of butter.

        One pound of sugar.

        Nine eggs.

        Nutmeg, cinnamon, or lemon.

        Stir the butter into the potatoes while warm, then add the sugar and yelks of the eggs; beat the whites to a stiff froth, add them with the wine and spice. Bake in puff paste as above.

Page 268

Almond Pudding.

        Half pound of blanched almonds, pounded with rose-water.

        One pint of rich, sweet cream.

        Half pound of fresh butter.

        Half pound of white sugar.

        Two large Naples biscuits, grated, and the yelks of five eggs.

        Mix, and beat all well together, and bake in puff paste.

Neapolitan Pudding.

        Take one cup of mush, and while hot stir into it a good spoonful of butter and one cup of sugar. Beat four eggs very lightly, and add them, with half a nutmeg, and the rind and juice of a lemon. Beat all well together, and bake in puff paste, with a layer of jelly at the bottom of the pudding.

Sponge Cake Pudding.

        Make a sponge cake after receipt in this book, and boil in a tin pudding-case.

        The water should be boiling hard when the pudding is put in, and should boil steadily at least two hours. The boiler should be well covered.

        Turn out your pudding on a dish, serve it hot, and eat with a rich, boiled sauce of sugar, butter, wine, lemon-peel and juice.

Boiled Molasses Pudding.

        One cup of butter.

        One cup of molasses.

Page 269

        One cup and a half of milk.

        Five cups of flour.

        Spices to your taste; one teaspoonful of soda, and two tablespoonfuls of sharp vinegar, or the juice of a lemon.

        Boil it five hours in a tin mould. Turn it out on a dish, and serve with boiled sauce. Raisins or currants improve this pudding.

Boiled Cherry Pudding.

        Rub a light pound of butter into a pound of flour, add three-fourths of a pound of preserved cherries, and three-fourths of a pound of chopped and stoned raisins; then beat six eggs very light, and mix them gradually.

        Put this pudding in a form or cloth, at nine o'clock, and boil it till two; or at ten, if you dine at three.

        This is an exceedingly nice pudding. Sauce as for plum pudding.

Orange Pudding.

        One dozen and a half of eggs (six whites left out), three-fourths of a pound of butter, creamed with one pound of powdered white sugar, and the grated rind of four oranges, with their juice. Bake in puff paste.

Baked Pudding for two.

        Three eggs.

        Six spoonfuls of flour.

        One pint of milk.

Page 270

        Bake twenty minutes, and eat it with sauce of butter, sugar, wine, and nutmeg.

Blackberry Pudding.

        Cream together half a pound of butter and a pound of brown sugar, add half a pound of flour, with four eggs, beaten till very light. When well compounded, pour the batter into a greased baking-dish, and lay a quart of ripe blackberries lightly on the top. Do not stir them in.

        Bake this pudding as you would a pound cake, and serve it with cream sauce, with wine.

Citron Pudding.

        The yelks of nine eggs, ten ounces of white sugar, six ounces of butter, and two tablespoonfuls of Indian meal mush.

        Cut your citron in thin slices, lay it in puff paste, fill up your baking-dish or plate with the pudding, and bake in a moderate oven.

A very nice and cheap Potato Pudding.

        A pound of grated raw sweet potato.

        A spoonful of butter.

        Two spoonfuls of sugar.

        Two eggs.

        A cup of sweet milk.

        A little nutmeg or cinnamon.

        Mix all well together, and bake in an earthen baking-dish. Serve hot.

Page 271

Alice's Pudding.

        Plates covered with puff paste, spread with jelly, and then filled with pound cake batter, and baked in a slow oven a light brown. Sift loaf-sugar over them before serving.

Jelly Pudding.

        One cup of sugar.

        One cup of butter.

        One cup of eggs (measured), and well beaten together.

        One cup of jelly.

        To be baked in crusts of puff paste.

Dainty Pudding.

        Dissolve two rolls in one cup of sweet milk, add six eggs, well beaten, reserving two of the whites.

        One cup of butter.

        One cup of raisins.

        One cup of currants.

        One grated lemon, with the juice.

        After being baked, make an icing with the two reserved whites of eggs and half a pound of loaf-sugar; pour it on the pudding while hot, and return it to the oven for a few moments before serving. Cream sauce.

Lemon Pudding.

        Grate the rinds of six fresh lemons into the juice of three; beat the yelks of sixteen eggs and sixteen tablespoonfuls of sugar together, add a like quantity of melted butter, and four crackers, finely pounded.

Page 272

Now add the lemon-juice and peel, and beat all well together till very light. Cover your baking-dishes with puff paste, fill them with the pudding batter, and bake in a moderate oven.

Pumpkin Pudding.

        Grate half a pound of pumpkin, make a rich custard of milk, eggs, and sugar; add the grated pumpkin, with spices to your taste. Bake in puff paste. A little butter improves it.

A rich Ground Rice Pudding.

        Take five tablespoonfuls of ground rice, and boil it in a quart of new milk, with a grated nutmeg and a little cinnamon, stirring it all the while. When it is done, pour it in a pan, and stir into it a quarter of a pound of butter and half a pint of cream. When it is cold, add the yelks of eight eggs, and whites of four; then add half a pound of clean currants, sprinkled with dry flour, and half a glass of rose-water; the same of wine and brandy.

        Bake it in a deep dish, or boil it. Eat it with boiled sauce or cream sauce.

Barbadoes Bread Pudding.

        Eight eggs and eight spoonfuls of sugar, beaten well together; after which add, gradually, one quart of milk. Pour all in a baking-dish, then butter three thin slices of bread, with the crusts off, lay them into the baking-pan till wet through with the eggs and milk. Turn the buttered sides

Page 273

of the slices up, and bake in a quick oven. When firmly set in the pan it is done. Serve hot.

Apple Pudding.

        Beat one spoonful of butter, with four eggs, and half a pound of grated apple; add to this half a pound of sugar; spice and lemon to your taste. Bake in puff paste, as lemon pudding.

Cocoanut Pudding.

        One grated cocoanut.

        One dozen eggs, well beaten, with half a pound of butter and a pound of sugar.

        To be baked in puff paste.

        Some persons leave out the yelks of the eggs. In Barbadoes the whites are left out, and the cocoanut pressed in a dry towel till all the oil is extracted; butter is added instead. Best way.

Fig Pudding.

        Three-fourths of a pound of grated bread, half a pound of figs, six ounces of suet, six ounces of sugar, one teacupful of milk, a little nutmeg, and other spices.

        Figs and suet to be chopped fine. Mix the bread and suet first, then the figs and sugar, and then one egg, and the milk last. Boil one hour.

        To be eaten with sauce made of sugar, butter, wine, and spices, or lemon.

Hague Pudding.

        Juice of three lemons, the rinds grated in it.

        One pound of sugar.

Page 274

        Five eggs.

        Quarter pound of butter.

        Two spoonfuls of rich cream.

        Stir these ingredients well, and simmer them in a stewpan until thick and clear as honey. Stir them all the while. When cool, put them in puff paste, and bake in a moderate oven.

Boiled Lemon Pudding.

        Half pound of bread-crumbs.

        Half pound of suet.

        Half pound of sugar.

        Yelks of four eggs, whites of two.

        Grated rinds of two lemons and their juice.

        Mix thoroughly, beat well, and boil one hour and a half

Sweet Potato Pudding No. 2.

        One pound of boiled and strained potatoes, three-fourths of a pound of butter, the same of sugar, six eggs, one nutmeg, and a glass of wine or brandy. Bake in a crust.

Transparent Pudding.

        The yelks of eight eggs, half a pound of sugar, the same of butter, the rinds of two oranges, and the juice of one. Bake in a rich, puff paste.

Raleigh Pudding.

        Ten eggs, thirteen spoonfuls of sugar, five of flour, three-fourths of a pound of butter. Bake in a deep dish, and serve hot.

Page 275

Irish Potato Pudding.

        Eight eggs, well beaten, one pound of sugar, half a pound of butter, and three-fourths of a pound of mashed and strained potatoes, lemon-peel and juice, with a glass of white wine.

Mock Cocoanut Pudding.

        Made as lemon pudding, with four spoonfuls of sifted Indian meal in place of the four pounded crackers.

        Most persons mistake this pudding for real cocoanut pudding.

Suet Pudding.

        Rub half a pound of chopped suet into one quart of sifted flour; add to these one quart of sweet milk, and eight eggs, well beaten, with a little salt. Boil your pudding, either in a form or a floured cloth, four hours.

        Any of the sauces of this book suit it.

Corn-starch Pudding.

        Boil a quart of milk, and thicken it with three tablespoonfuls of corn-starch, then remove the mixture to a bowl, and beat into it four eggs, two cups of sugar, and one of butter. Beat all well together, and bake your puddings in plates, covered with puff paste. Flavor with lemon-peel or nutmeg.

Page 276

VARIOUS DISHES FOR DESSERT.

Frumenty--an Old English Dish.

        Scald a half gallon of new wheat, rub off the husks or bran, and boil it in water till perfectly tender; boil down nearly all the moisture, then add a half gallon of new milk; let it boil again, and, while boiling, add half a dozen eggs, well beaten, with a pound of white sugar, and a few sticks of cinnamon. When sufficiently done, take out the cinnamon. This is a dish very much enjoyed at harvesting.

Pancakes.

        One quart of milk.

        One quart of flour (slight).

        Four eggs.

        Half a teaspoonful of salt.

        Mix as fritters. Grease a frying-pan, pour in sufficient batter to make the cakes as large in circumference as a breakfast plate. When done, do not turn them, but roll them up as you would a sheet of paper. Send them to the table hot, with syrup, or sauce of any kind you fancy.

Apple Dumplings.

        Pare and core a dozen good-sized apples; make a paste of one quart and a half of flour, with milk and a good spoonful of butter or sweet lard; work the paste smooth, till free from flour, then inclose each apple in a thin crust, smoothly, and without seams or openings; roll them in flour, inclose them also in a square cloth, pinned securely over each

Page 277

dumpling, and throw them in boiling water for a couple of hours. When done, take them from the cloths, and send them to table hot. To be eaten with butter and sugar, or some sweet sauce.

        Peach, cherry, or blackberry dumplings are made in this way.

Apple, Peach, or Berry Turnovers.

        Make a crust as for apple dumplings; roll it out in an oblong form, quite thin; slice your apples or peaches, or wash and pick your berries, cover the crust with them, then roll up the paste, press down well all the edges, so as to prevent the escape of the fruit; roll up the turnover in a boiling-cloth, taking care to pin it up securely, and throw it in boiling water for a couple of hours or more.

        Eaten as apple dumplings.

Fritters.

        One quart of flour.

        One quart of milk.

        Four eggs.

        Half a teaspoonful of salt.

        Mix in the flour, a little milk at a time till the whole is in, then add the yelks of the eggs, and the whites when beaten to a stiff froth.

        Drop a spoonful at a time in boiling lard, and fry the fritters to a light-brown color.

        To be eaten with wine and sugar, syrup, or any of the sweet sauces to be found in this book.

Page 278

Apple Fritters

        Are made in the same way, with four or five apples grated or sliced in the batter.

Bell Fritters.

        Boil one quart of water, and stir in while it is boiling one quart of flour, then break in a dozen fresh eggs, one at a time, stirring all the while briskly; when well mixed, drop by spoonfuls in boiling lard. Take care there should be sufficient lard to prevent the fritter from touching the bottom of the pan. Sift powdered white sugar over them, and eat them with rich, boiled sauce, or whipped cream and sugar.

Cheese Cakes.

        Boil two quarts of new milk, and, while boiling, add half a cup of buttermilk, which will cause the curd to separate from the whey; squeeze the curd in a clean napkin, then weigh it, and add to it its weight in sugar and half its weight in butter; then beat six eggs till very light, stir them well in the curds, with the juice and grated rind of a lemon or orange. Some prefer a little pounded mace.

Floating Island No. 1.

        One quart of milk and the yelks of eight eggs made into a custard, then whip the whites to a stiff froth, and pour it on the top of a pan of boiling water; cover it, let it stand a few moments to cook, then lift it off carefully with a perforated

Page 279

skimmer, and put it on the custard in spoonfuls. They should form a circle of islands around the dish, besides several in the center. It should be a spacious glass dish.

Floating Island No. 2.

        Whip the whites of a dozen eggs to a stiff froth, and gradually add to them, spoonful by spoonful, a tumbler of jelly, made of any kind of fruit. Have ready a glass dish of rich milk or cream, lay the whipped eggs and jelly on the surface by spoonfuls. Do not let them touch one another.

Rice Blanc-mange.

        Wash and well soak a pint of best white rice, and boil it in three pints of pure water till every grain is dissolved, and the water displaced by a thick paste of the rice; then add to it a cup of sugar, the rind of a lemon, grated, with a little cinnamon, and a cup of rich cream, beat to a stiff froth: then pour your blanc-mange in moulds, turn them out on glass dishes, and eat them with preserves or custard.

        Strawberry or raspberry juice or jelly, mingled with this preparation of rice, looks well in moulds or forms.

Boiled Custard.

        Set a quart of milk on the fire to boil, then break eight eggs into a bowl, with eight spoonfuls of sugar, which beat together till very light. As soon as the milk boils, pour it on the eggs, and

Page 280

stir it well; then wash out the stewpan clean in which the milk was boiled, and return the custard, set it over the fire again to boil, slightly stirring it all the while.

        There is commonly a little curdled milk in the bottom of the stewpan after boiling, and if the eggs are poured into it, without washing out the stewpan, the custard will be spoiled.

Rock Custard.

        Make this custard as above, leaving out the whites of the eggs. Pour your custard when done in a china dish, and having whipped the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, fill it up as high as possible on the custard; set it in the oven, and brown it slightly.

        This is a beautiful dish, and much improved by grating in the whipped whites of the eggs the rind of a fresh, green lemon.

Baked Custard.

        Boil a quart of new milk, with a couple of bitter almonds or a stick of cinnamon. Let it cool, and beat into it six eggs, with six spoonfuls of sugar; fill your cups, and set them in a pan of hot water in the oven to bake. Take them out as soon as firm.

Rice Flummery.

        Thicken milk with rice flour, after having boiled in it a few sticks of cinnamon. Sweeten to your taste. You may turn it out from a mould, if you like.

Page 281

Farina Blanc-mange.

        Boil in a quart of rich, sweet milk a handful of bitter almonds or a bunch of peach leaves. After the milk has boiled, take out the leaves or almonds, and add three large spoonfuls of loaf-sugar, and, gradually, half a pint of farina, wet with a cup of cold water or milk, stirring it all the while. When sufficiently done, wet your moulds with cold water, and turn the blanc-mange into them. Do not turn them out of the moulds till about to serve them.

Mould Custard.

        Boil as for boiled custard, and, while boiling the second time, add an ounce of gelatine dissolved in a cup of milk, with a cup of rich cream, sweetened; then pour your custard into moulds. Flavor with lemon or vanilla.

Page 282

ICE CREAMS.

Vanilla Ice Cream No. 1.

        BOIL three-fourths of a pound of loaf-sugar in a teacupful of water, and half of a vanilla bean, till it becomes a thick syrup. When it is cold, add half a gallon of rich, sweet cream; whip it to a stiff syllabub, and freeze it in the usual way. Strain the syrup before adding the cream.

Vanilla Ice Cream No. 2

        Is made with half a gallon of sweet, rich cream, a spoonful of vanilla essence or extract, and three-fourths of a pound of loaf-sugar. Freeze it.

Lemon Ice Cream No. 1.<