TOPICS FOR THE HOUSEHOLD

OATMEAL – One quart water, one and a half cups oatmeal, one-half teaspoon salt. Let boil over a brisk fire for one hour, do not burn. Set back on the stove and boil gently for another hour. Serve in soup plates with sugar and milk.

BAKED BEETS – These excellent vegetables are quite as good baked as boiled, and the sugar is better developed by the baking process. The oven should not be too hot, and the beets must be frequently turned. Do not peel them until they are cooked, then serve with butter, pepper, and salt.

WHEAT CAKES – Three cups flour, two of Indian meal, white. Dissolve one small cake compressed yeast in a cup of water, pour into a jar, add flour and meal. Mix to a stiff batter with lukewarm water, set in a warm place to rise over night. In the morning add a tablespoon syrup, one teaspoon salt, one teaspoon soda, bake on a hot griddle. Save a cup batter to commence next day.

SWEET POTATO PUDDING – Ingredients: Two pounds of raw sweet potato, half pound brown sugar, one-third pound butter, one gill cream, one grated nutmeg, a small piece of lemon-peel, and four eggs. Boil the potato well and mash thoroughly, passing it through a colander. While it is warm mix in sugar and butter. Beat eggs and yolks together and add when the potatoes cold. Add a tablespoonful of sifter flour. Mix all in the grated lemon peel and nutmeg very thoroughly. Butter a pan, and bake twenty-five minutes in a moderately hot oven. May be eaten with a wine sauce.

FISH PIE – Boil one quart of potatoes in boiling water and salt. Soak one pound of stale bread in cold water, and wring it dry in a clean towel. Season it well with the pepper, salt, and a tablespoon of chopped parsley. Cut two pounds of codfish in small pieces, and lay in cold water. When the potatoes are done, peel them, mash them through a colander, and season them with salt and pepper. Put the fish and bread in alternate layers in a pudding dish. Make a top crush of the potatoes, and bake the pie an hour in a moderate oven.

A QUEER POT-AU-FEU – The Courier des Etats Unis contains the following original recipes, which it declares may be found in an English cookery-book: “Pot-au-f-u-a-la Francaise – Put in an earthen-ware crock a pound of beef or mutton. Boil it in from six to eight pints of water, with potatoes, onions, and chopped mint. Let it boil an hour or two, and color it with three tablespoons of molasses. It can now be understood why English people do not take kindly to French cooking. Very possibly those who have tried this ragout must have entertained a very sad idea of our culinary tastes.”

CRANBERRY DUMPLINGS – One quart of flour, one teaspoon of soda, and two teaspoons of cream of tartar, sifted together; mix into a soft dough with sweet milk; roll the dough out very thin in oblong shapes, and spread over it one quart of cranberries picked and washed clean. Add half a pound sugar, sprinkled evenly. Fold over and over, then tie in a pudding cloth and put into steamer, where let it cook over a steady fire for one hour, with faith, never looking into the pot. Serve with sweet meat sauce. – [Harper’s Bazaar]

MUTTON SOUP – A shoulder of mutton weighing about four pounds, remove skin and fat, then put in four quarts cold water, simmer two hours. Boil one yellow turnip, one medium-sized carrot, four potatoes, two bulbs soup celery. Cook the turnip and carrot one hour, the potatoes and celery half an hour. When cooked put in cold water, peel, chop fine. Remove the meat, add the vegetables and one cup boiled rice or barley. Let simmer ten minutes, then add one tablespoon chopped onion and parsley. Cook ten minutes more, as cooking onion or parsley too much destroys the flavor.

PORK AND BEANS - One quart white beans, put in three quarts water, let come slowly to a boil. Cook three ours, do not boil rapidly or they will not cook evenly. Season, teaspoon salt, half teaspoon pepper, and as much cayenne as will go on the end of a pen-knife blade. Put in a deep baking pan; if they have not absorbed all the water, keep some of what they were boiled in as they will need it if too dry. One and a half pounds bacon, nicer than port, skin and score. After the beans have been baking in a slow oven four hours put on top of them the bacon, bake two hours; if too dry, add boiling water.

CORN BREAD – Take two quarts of Indian meal, one pint of bread sponge, water enough to wet it. Mold in a half pinto of wheat flour, a tablespoonful of salt. Let it rise, and knead a second time. Bake an hour and a half.

CORN BREAD, No. 2 – Take three teacupfuls of corn meal, on eof wheat flour, two teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar. Mix well while dry. Dissolve one teaspoonful of soda in warm water. Mix to a thin batter, and bake in a quick oven three-fourths of an hour.

Single cream is cream that has stood on the milk twelve hours. It is best for tea or coffee. Double cream stands on its milk twenty-four hours, and cream for butter frequently stands forty-eight hours. Cream that is to be whipped should not be butter cream lest in whipping it change to cutter.

CUSTARD PIES WITHOUT MILK – Boil together five eggs, five tablespoonful of sugar, and a little salt. Pour one pint of boiling water, stirring briskly while adding the water. Flavor with spices most pleasing to the taste, and complete the pie the same as other custards. The quantity is sufficient for two.

CORN FRITTER PUDDING – A teacupful of milk, three eggs, a pint of green corn grated, a little sugar, and as much flour as will form a batter. Beat the eggs, yolks and whites, separately. To the yolks, add the corn, sugar, milk, and flour enough to form the batter. Beat the whole well. Stir in the whites, and drop the batter a teaspoonful at a time into hot lard.

BUCKWHEAT PANCAKES – Mix a large cupful of lukewarm milk with about a quarter of a pound of buckwheat flour. Add to this three eggs and a little more milk to form it into a smooth batter. Let it stand in a warm place for an hour. Add a teaspoonful of baking powder, and fry as usual. Serve rolled up with sugar and lemon juice.

PICKLED OYSTERS – Take of oysters six quarts, salt, four tablespoonfuls; vinegar, half a pint; of black pepper, whole, allspice, and mace, each two tablespoonfuls; of cloves, two dozen. Drain all the liquor from the oysters, add the spice to it. Boil fifteen minutes, skimming carefully, then put in the oysters and boil till they are done, which will be when they are nicely plumped.

CORN BREAD NO. 3 – Take two quarts of corn meal wet with three pints of warm water. Add a tablespoonful of yeast, the same of salt, two of sugar. Let it stand in a warm place five hours. Then add one and a half teacups of flour and a half pint of warm water. Let it rise again an hour and a half. Then pour it into a well-greased pan and when light, bake it in a hot oven. It is best cold.

CABINET PUDDING – One-quarter of a pound of butter and one and a half pound of granulated sugar beaten to a cream. Add the well-beaten yolks of five eggs and one-half0cupful of milk. Then half a pound of flour, with the whites of five eggs. Lastly half a pound of seeded and chopped raisins, with a quarter of a pound of well-washed and dried currants. The fruit must be floured before mixing. Use a buttered mold or floured bag. Boil three hours. Then plunge quickly into cold water. Turn it out at once to prevent sticking. Serve hot with sweet sauce.

PRESSED CHICKEN – Two chickens boiled until the meat leaves the bones easily. Then pull to pieces and chop fine, letting the liquor in which they were cooked, boil away until only a cupful remains. About half as much ham as chicken is then added, roll two soda crackers, season highly and pour the stock over. Mix all well together, put in a deep, long pan, pressing down hard with the hand. Fold a napkin several times over the top and put on a weight. This should be prepared the day before using, when it will slice down easily. I examined my pickles which are cucumbers made sweet, after the following recipe. To one gallon of vinegar, add one quart of water, five pounds of sugar, a tablespoonful of salt, one stick of cinnamon. Pour over boiling hot, let stand ten days, then pour over the liquor and boil again, after which they are ready to be set away for us. I found them all right. [Mrs. Endicott]

ENGLISH APPLE TART – Lay a disk of puff paste n a round time, and place a strip of paste all round it, as for an ordinary jam tart. Spread on the inside a layer of apple marmalade a quarter of an inch thick. Peel and core some apples, cut them in slices a quarter of an inch thick, trim all the slices to the same shape, dispose these slices over the marmalade, overlapping each other, and in some kind of pattern; strew plenty of sugar over, and bake in a quick oven till the apples are a good color.

FRENCH PANCAKES – Beat two ounces of granulated sugar, and two ounces of butter to a cream. Beat two eggs separately, the yolks to a cream and the whites to a froth, and add the yolks to the butter and sugar. Stir a half-pint of milk into these ingredients. Butter six tin pie-plates. Sift two ounces of flour with a teaspoonful of baking powder, and stir it quickly into the above mixture with the whites of the eggs. Put the batter quickly upon the buttered plates, and bake the pancakes brown in a quick over. Dust with powdered sugar, lay them one over the other, with a little jelly between, and serve hot.

CODFISH WITH CREAM – Pick out carefully in flakes all the flesh from the remnants of some boiled codfish. Melt a piece of butter in a saucepan, and add to it a large pinch of flour and a gill of milk or cream, with pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg to taste, also the least bit of cayenne. Stir well, put in the fish, and gently shake it in this sauce until quite war,. If the composition be too dry, add a little milk or cream. Then dry, add a little milk or cream. Then add, off the fire, the yolks of two eggs beaten up with a little milk, and serve.

PEA SOUP – Soak a pint of split peas in water for twelve hours, drain off the water, put the peas into a saucepan with three pints of cold water, a piece of bacon (about half a pound), two springs of dried mint, a bay leaf, some parsley, an onion stuck with two or three cloves, some whole pepper, and salt to taste. Let the whole boil three hours, then pas the puree through a hair sieve, make it hot again, and serve with dice of bread fried in butter.

OMELET – Break three eggs, putting the whites in one dish, and the yolks in another. Add quarter of a saltspoon of salt and a dash of pepper to the yolks, and beat half a minute. Put a bit of butter as large as a chestnut into a clean omelet pan, and set over the fire to heat. Beat the whites to a stiff froth, mix the yolks gently into it, and put the omelet into the pan. Stir the omelet with a fork, running it close to the bottom of the pan, and piling the omelet in a heap in the center. When done enough, pile it on one side of the pan, hold a hot dish close to it, and toss the omelet out on it. Serve immediately. An omelet of three eggs is large enough for two persons; if more are to be served, cook another the same size, as a larger one will not be so light.


POTATO SALAD – Pare and slice some cold boiled potatoes. Peel and slice thin one onion. Mix on a salad dish, and pour over them the following dressing: Stir together one saltspoon of salt, quarter of a saltspoon of pepper, one tablespoonful of vinegar, and three of oil. Dress the salad with this mixture, and serve with chopped parsley.

POTATO SOUP – Boil two or three pounds of potatoes well, mash them, add slowly good broth sufficient for your tureen. Let this well boil, and then add some spinach, sorrel, a little parsley, lemon thyme, mint, and sage, all chopped fine. Boil all five minutes. Pepper and salt to taste. Just before taking off the fire add two well beaten eggs.

PICKLED ONIONS – Take some small onions, peel and throw them into a stew pan of boiling water. Set them over the fire, and let them remain until quite clear. Then take them out quickly, and lay them between two cloths to dry. Boil some vinegar with ginger and a whole pepper, and when cold pour it over the onions in glass jars, and tie them closely over.

SALAD CREAM – Take the yolks of three fresh eggs. Whisk them well up with ten grains of cayenne pepper. Then take an ounce of mustard, salt one dram and a half, salad oil half an ounce. Mix well with half a pint of the best vinegar, and then add the two lots together. Shake them well, and you will have an excellent mixture, which will keep for twelve months.

FRIED POTATOES – Pare some potatoes so as to give each the form of a cylinder, then cut each cylinder in slices the eighth of an inch thick. By this means all the pieces of potato will be the same size. Dry them thoroughly in a napkin. Put them in the frying basket, and plunge it in boiling hot lard. Shake the basket continually, and as soon as the potatoes have acquired a light yellow color, turn them out on a cloth in front of the fire and sprinkle them with fine salt.

BARONESS PUDDING – Shred one-half pound of suet, and chop fine. Seed and chop one-half pound raisins. Mix the suet and raisins with half a pound of stale bread-crumbs, four ounces of sugar, and a pint of milk. Wring a pudding cloth out of boiling water, dust thickly with flour, tie the pudding up in it, put into a large pot of boiling water, and boil steadily for four hours. Turn out of the cloth, dust thickly with powdered sugar, and serve hot with any pudding sauce.

PIG’S FEET – If you have more than you want to use now, boil them until the bones drop out, them mince them coarsely and boil in a little of the same water. Season well. Pour into a crock. Press down closely, and when cold cover with vinegar, and it will keep until warm weather. It will be firm, like jelly, and can be cut into slices. This is very good for laboring men who work out of doors. There is no oil or grease for boots and shoes that can compare with the grease skimmed, when cold, off the kettle in which pigs’ feet have been oiled. It is very softening, and there will be jut enough of the gluey substance in it to make a good mixture and give a nice “shine.”

MARMALADE – Half a peck of pippin apples, a quarter of a peck of pears, half a peck of peaches, a quarter of a peck of quinces, two quarts of water and the peel of a large orange grated and added with the juice half an hour before the marmalade is done. Put the parings and cores of the quinces into the water and boil a short time, closely covered to prevent evaporation. Strain them out and put the water on the quinces and pears, all cut small. Boil them for an hour. Then add the other fruit and five pounds of sugar. Boil gently two hours, stirring them to prevent burning. Add the juice and rind of the orange, and boil half an hour longer.

BUTTERSCOTCH – One pound of white sugar, three-fourths of a pint of water, once and a half teaspoonfuls of butter, lemon juice. Boil sugar and water over a slow fire until it ropes; add butter and juice of lemon. Pour on a pan to cool. Any other flavoring can be used.

ICING – The white of an egg not beaten, one teaspoonful of cold water and a pint of powdered sugar, stirred together. Will make icing for one cake. Less sugar makes the soft icing on baker’s cake.

LEMON BUTTER – One and a half cupfuls of white sugar, whites of three eggs, yolk of one, grated rind and juice of a lemon and a half, or two small ones; cook over a slow fire twenty minutes, stirring all the while. Very nice for tarts, or to be eaten as preserves.

MARYLAND STEWED OYSTERS – Put the juice into a saucepan and let it simmer, skimming it carefully. Then rub the yolks of three hard-boiled eggs and one large spoonful of lour well together, and stir into the juice. Cut in small pieces quarter of a pound of butter, half a teaspoonful of whole allspice, a little salt, a little cayenne, and the juice of a fresh lemon. Let all simmer ten minutes, and just before dishing add the oysters. This is for two quarts of oysters.

CROQUETTES OF CHICKEN – Put in a stewpan a piece of butter the size of an egg, one spoonful of flour, salt and pepper to taste, mix well and let it melt. One cold chicken well chopped and stirred in the mixture till hot. When cold, add the yolk of one egg well beaten. Take large spoonfuls and rub them into oblong shapes, and dip them in egg in which you have stirred a little pepper and salt. Roll in cracker crumbs and fry in hot, lard. These croquettes are very nice made of meal.

PEAR PICKLES – One peck of pears, three pounds of sugar, one pint of good cider vinegar; steam the pears over water until tender; then boil in the sirup, with spices, same as for peaches. I always peel the pears for pickling, but do not peaches.

MIXED PICKLES – Slice green tomatoes and cover with salt and water, let them stand three or four days; then boil tender in water and a little vinegar. Drain well after boiling; then put a layer of tomatoes in a jar and sprinkle with (whole) allspice, cinnamon, cloves and thinly sliced horse radish; a layer of shredded cabbage, slightly salted; a layer of onions, and so repeat until the jar is filled; put spices between each layer; cover the whole with boiling, hot vinegar.

PEACH PICKLES – To one peck of peaches allow four pounds of sugar and a pint of sharp cider vinegar; use nice yellow peaches if you can get them. Take a coarse towel and rub them until smooth or the fur is removed. Put two or three cloves in each one; when your sirup is melted and boiling hot, add a small bag of ground cinnamon and enough peaches to boil without crowding. Let them boil from two to five minutes, skim out, place in a jar, and continue until all are boiled. Cook sirup until thick as desired and pour on them (hot) three times.

RAGAN PICKLES – Two gallons of cabbage, sliced fine; one gallon of chopped green tomatoes; twelve onions, also chopped; one gallon best vinegar; one pound brown sugar; one tablespoonful of black pepper; half an ounce turmeric powder; one ounce celery seed; one tablespoonful ground allspice; one teaspoonful ground cloves, one-fourth pound white mustard, one gill of salt. Boil all together, stirring well, for two hours. Take from the fire, and add the spices; then put in air-tight jars. Set in a cool, dry place, and this delicious pickle will keep all winter.

PICKLED BUTTERNUT OR WALNUTS – Gather them when soft enough to be pierced with a pin. Lay them in strong brine for five days, changing this twice in the meantime. Drain and wipe dry; pierce each by running a large darning needle through it, and lay them in cold water for six hours. To each gallon of vinegar allow one cup of sugar, three dozen each of whole cloves and black pepper corns, half as much allspice and a dozen blades of mace. Boil five minutes; pack the nuts in small jars and cover with the scalding vinegar. Repeat this twice within a week; tie up and set away. Good to eat in a month.

TOMATO CATSUP – Take a bushel of ripe tomatoes; rub them with a damp cloth; cut out the hearts and place them over the fire with two heaping handfuls of peach leaves, one dozen large onions (cut in small pieces) and one quart of water. Boil until soft and strain through a coarse sieve. It will take about two hours to boil soft enough. Put the liquid in the boiler again over the fire, adding a half gallon of strong vinegar. Have ready two ounces ground allspice, two ounces ground black pepper, two ounces cayenne pepper, two ounces mustard, and, if preferred, two ounces celery seed, one ounce ground cloves, two grated nutmegs, two pounds brown sugar and one pint of salt; mix the ingredients thoroughly before putting them in the boiler. Boil two hours and when cool put in bottles, cork, seal and keep in a cool place.

CANNED PUMPKINS – Wash the pumpkin (do not peel, as the sweetest part lies next the rind); but up in rings, then in small squares; fill your kettle and put in a few spoonfuls of water to start it; cover closely and let it steam until tender. Remove the cover and let it cook until as dry as possible without burning (stirring often) whether it be half or a whole day. Seal while hot in tine cans (it must be kept dark). When wanted for pies remove from the can to the colander and thoroughly sift; allow two eggs for three pies; make quite sweet with brown sugar; flavor with ginger and make thin as sweet cream with equal parts of milk and water, or two-thirds water (I prefer it to all milk); bake slowly in a good crust until it is solid like custard. If properly baked it will be a rich brown, shiny to look at and delicious to the palate.

BLACK BEAN SOUP
One of the most delightful and economical of soups can be made of black beans. Allow one teacupful for each pint of soup. Soak the beans over night in cold water, and put them over a slow fire in the same water. When they commence to boil add a pinch of soda, drain and cover with boiling water. Add from two to eight ounces of park, according to the quantity of beans used, onions, parsley, and pepper. Boil slowly until the beans are very soft, strain through a sieve, pressing them well through and scraping off the pulp from the underside. Finish the seasoning with a dash of butter and a bit of red pepper. This makes a very elegant company soup if croutons and dice of the yolks of hard boiled eggs be placed in the tureen just before serving. For the croutons have plenty of very hot sweet drippings on the fire, and throw in a number of very small dice of stale bread. As soon as they take on a light brown color drain through a sieve and keep in a dry place until wanted. Of course the fat is to be poured off for future frying purposes.
CORN LOAF – Take one pint of sweet milk, half pint of sour milk, half cup of butter, one of molasses, three eggs, one of wheat flour, a little salt, corn meal to make a thick batter, one teaspoonful of soda. Bake two hours slowly.