SAUCES FOR PUDDINGS.
Liquid Sauce.
Six tablespoonfuls of sugar.
Ten tablespoonfuls of water.
Four tablespoonfuls of butter.
Two tablespoonfuls of wine.
Nutmeg, or lemon, or orange peel, or rose water, to flavor.
Heat the water and sugar very hot. Stir in the butter till it is melted, but be careful not to let it boil. Add the wine and nutmeg just before it is used.
Hard Sauce.
Two tablespoonfuls of butter.
Ten tablespoonfuls of sugar.
Work this till white, then add wine and spice to your taste.
A Healthful Pudding Sauce.
Boil in half a pint of water, some orange or lemon peel, or peach leaves. Take them out and pour in a thin paste, made with two spoonfuls of flour, and boil five minutes. Then put in a pint of brown sugar, and let it boil. Then put in two spoonfuls of butter, and a glass of wine, and take it up before it boils.
An excellent Sauce for Boiled Rice.
Beat the yolks of three eggs into sugar enough to make it quite sweet. Add a tea-cup of cream, and the grated peel and juice of two lemons. When lemons cannot be had, use dried lemon peel, and a little tartaric acid. This is a good sauce for other puddings, especially for the starch minute pudding.
The first receipt for whip syllabub furnishes a very delicate sauce for a delicate pudding, such as the one made of potato starch.
Sweetened cream flavored with grated lemon peel or nutmeg is a fine pudding sauce.
[CHAPTER XIV.]
PLAIN CAKES.
General Directions for Making Cake.
Tie up your hair so that none can fall, put on a long-sleeved apron, have the kitchen put in order, and then arrange all the articles and utensils you will have occasion to use.
If you are a systematic and thrifty housekeeper, you will have your sugar pounded, all your spices ready prepared in boxes, or bottles, your saleratus sifted, your currants washed and dried, your ginger sifted, and your weights, measures, and utensils all in their place and in order.
Butter your tins before beginning to make the cake, so as not to stop for the purpose. It saves much trouble to have your receipt book so arranged that you can measure instead of weighing. This can be done by weighing the first time, and then have a small measure cup, and fill it with each ingredient you have weighed. Then note it down in your receipt book, and ever after use the same measure cup.
Always sift your flour, for neither bread nor cake should be made with unsifted flour, not merely because there may be dirt in it, but because packing injures its lightness, and sifting restores it, and makes bread and cake lighter.
The day before you wish to make cake, stone your raisins, and blanch your almonds, by pouring hot water on them, to take off the skins, and then throwing them into cold water to whiten them. When ready to make your cake, grate your lemon or orange peel. Next weigh your butter and cut it in pieces, and put it where it will soften, but not melt. Then butter your tins. Next, stir the butter to a cream, and then add the sugar, and work till white. Next, beat the yolks of the eggs, strain them, and put them to the sugar and butter. Meantime another person should beat the whites to a stiff froth, and put them in. Then add the spices and flour, and last of all the fruit, as directed below.
Do not use the hand to make cake, but a wood spoon or spad. Earthen is best to make cake in.
In receipts where milk is used, never mix sweet and sour milk, as it makes cake heavy, even when either alone would not do it.
Butter in the least degree strong, spoils cake.
Try whether cake is done by piercing it with a broom splinter, and if nothing adheres it is done.
An oven, to bake cake well, must have a good heat at bottom, and not be too hot on the top, or the cake will be heavy. As these receipts have all been proved, if they fail to make good cake, the fault is probably in the baking.
Cake that is to be frosted, should be baked in pans with perpendicular instead of slanting sides. Line them with buttered paper, the salt soaked out of the butter. If the oven proves too hot, cover the top with paper before it hardens, or the cake will be heavy.
The best way to put in fruit is to sprinkle flour over it, then put in a layer of cake at the bottom, half an inch thick, then a layer of fruit, taking care that it does not touch the sides of the pan, and thus dry up; then a little more cake, then another layer of fruit, and thus till the cake is three inches thick (not more), and let the top layer be cake.
Always dissolve saleratus, or sal volatile, in hot water, as milk does not perfectly dissolve it, and thus there will be yellow specks made.
Make your eggs cold, and whisk till they will stand in a heap.
Volatile alkali the size of a hickory-nut, and a bit of alum of equal size, powdered and dissolved in cold water, will ensure light bread or cake.
A quick oven is so hot that you can count moderately only twenty; and a slow one allows you to count thirty, while you hold your hand in it.
All cake without yeast should have the flour put in quickly, just as it goes into the oven.
Keep cake in a tin box, or in a stone jar wrapped in clean linen.
Rose Butter.
Take a glass jar, put on the bottom a layer of butter, and each day put in rose leaves, adding layers of butter, and when full, cover tight, and use the butter for articles to be flavored with rose water.
Directions for Cleansing Currants.
Put them in warm, not hot water, and rub them thoroughly. Take out all but the bottom part into another pail of water. Then rinse those remaining in the bottom of the first water, through two or three waters, as this part contains most of the impure parts. Then put them into the other pail with the first portion, and rinse all very thoroughly. Take them out with the hands, drain them on a sieve, and spread them on a clean large cloth on a table. Rub them dry with the ends of the cloth, and then sit down and pull off the good ones into a dish in your lap, and push the poor ones aside, being careful to look for the little stones. Spread them to dry on a board, or large dishes, and set them in the sun, or any warm place, to dry. Then tie them up in a jar for future use.
Frosting for Cake.
For the whites of every two eggs, take a quarter of a pound of sifted loaf sugar. Some use only one egg for this quantity of sugar.
Make the eggs cold in cold water, and free them from all of the yolk. Beat the whites in a cool place, till a very stiff froth. Sift the sugar, and beat it in until you can pile it in a heap. Flavor with lemon or rose water. Allow two whites for each common-sized loaf. Spread on with a knife, after the cake is cool, and then smooth with another knife dipped in water. Set it in a warm place to dry. The ornamental filagree work on frosting is easily done by using a small syringe. Draw it full of the above frosting, and as you press it out make figures to your taste. It must not be put on till the frosting of the cake is hardened.
Cake Frosting (another, which is harder).
To the white of each egg, put one heaping teaspoonful of starch, and nine heaping teaspoonfuls of sifted white sugar.
Cut the whites to a stiff froth, mix the sugar and starch, and stir in gradually; continue to stir ten minutes after it is mixed, add two teaspoonfuls of lemon juice, and flavor it with rose water. Put it on with a knife when the cake has stood out of the oven twenty minutes, and then set it in a cool place to harden. Allow the whites of three eggs for two cakes of common size.
Good Child’s Cake.
Three cups raised dough.
One cup of molasses.
The juice and grated rind of a lemon, or one nutmeg.
Half a cup of melted butter, put with the molasses.
Two well-beaten eggs.
A teaspoonful of saleratus in two spoonfuls of hot water.
Work all together, put into buttered pans, and set into the oven immediately.
Put in the lemon juice just before you put it in the pans.
If you do not have lemon juice, add a great spoonful of sharp vinegar, after working the ingredients together, and just before putting it into pans. The lemon juice must be added the last minute. Some think this is improved by standing to rise fifteen minutes. Try and see.
Ginger Snaps.
One cup of molasses.
Half a cup of sugar.
Half a cup of butter.
Half a cup of warm water, the butter melted with it.
A small teaspoonful of pearlash, dissolved in the water.
Two tablespoonfuls of ginger.
The dough should be stiff; knead it well, and roll into sheets, cut into round cakes, and bake in a moderate oven.
Child’s Feather Cake.
Three cups of light dough.
Two cups rolled sugar.
Three well-beaten eggs, mixed with the sugar and butter.
Half a cup of warm milk, or a little less.
One teaspoonful of saleratus in two great spoonfuls of water, and put in the milk.
One cup of melted butter, worked into the sugar.
The grated rind and juice of one lemon.
Work all together, adding the lemon juice just before putting it in buttered pans. If you have no lemons, use one nutmeg, and a tablespoonful of sharp vinegar, added just before putting it in pans. One and a half, if the vinegar is weak. Some think this improved by standing to rise fifteen minutes. Try it.
Best Molasses Gingerbread.
One even tablespoonful of strong ginger, and two if weak.
A gill and a half of milk.
One heaping teaspoonful saleratus, very fine, dissolved in a tablespoonful of hot water, and put into the milk.
Half a pint of molasses, and a small tea-cup full of butter.
Take three pints of flour, and rub the butter and ginger into it thoroughly. Then make a hole in the middle, and pour in the molasses and milk, and begin mixing in the flour, and while doing this, put in a great spoonful of strong vinegar, and if it is weak, a little more. If not stiff enough to roll out, add a little more flour. Roll it into cards an inch thick, and put it into two buttered square pans. Bake it in a flat tin pan, and put it, if the oven is quite hot, on a muffin ring, to keep it from burning at the bottom, and allow from twenty-five to thirty minutes for baking. When done, set it on its edge, or on a sieve, to cool.
Sponge Gingerbread.
One pint of molasses.
Two great spoonfuls of melted butter.
One even tablespoonful of ginger.
One quart of sifted flour.
A heaping tablespoonful of saleratus dissolved in as much hot water.
Half a pint of milk, the saleratus first dissolved in hot water, and put into it.
Make a hole in the flour, and put in all the other ingredients, and while working them together, add a great spoonful of good vinegar, or if weak, one and a half.
Cider Cake.
One tea-cup of butter.
Three tea-cups of sugar.
Two tea-cups of sifted flour.
A teaspoonful of saleratus in two great spoonfuls of water.
A grated nutmeg, and half a tea-cup of milk, with the saleratus in it. Make a hole in the flour, and put in all the ingredients, and while mixing them, add a tea-cup of cider and four more cups of flour.
Cup Cake without Eggs.
One cup of butter.
Two cups of sugar.
One cup of sour cream, or sour milk.
Sal volatile, the size of a small nutmeg, or a teaspoonful of saleratus, dissolved in cold water.
A gill of brandy or wine, half a grated nutmeg, and a teaspoonful of essence of lemon.
Flour enough for a stiff batter.
Put in buttered pans an inch thick, and bake in a quick oven.
Cream Cake without Eggs.
Four cups of flour.
Three cups of sugar.
One cup of butter.
Two cups of sour cream.
Two teaspoonfuls of sal volatile, or three of saleratus, dissolved in a little cold water.
A teaspoonful of essence of lemon, and half a grated nutmeg.
Work the butter and sugar together, add the cream and spice, and put all into a hole in the middle of the flour. Then add the sal volatile, or saleratus. Mix quick and thoroughly, and set in the oven immediately.
Cream Tartar Cake, without Eggs.
Three pints of sifted flour, measured after sifting.
One teaspoonful super carbonate of soda.
A salt spoonful of salt.
Two teaspoonfuls of cream tartar.
A cup and a half of milk.
A pint of rolled sugar.
Mix the cream tartar thoroughly with the flour, and add grated lemon peel, or nutmeg; then dissolve the soda in two great spoonfuls of hot water, and put it with the sugar to the milk. When dissolved, wet it up as quick as possible, but so as to mix very thoroughly. Roll it out, cut into round cakes, and bake immediately. It must be as soft as can be rolled. Add a little more flour, if needful; bake in a quick oven fifteen or twenty minutes. Try more than once, as you may fail at first. When you get the knack it is easy, sure, and very good.
Fruit Cake without Eggs.
Two pounds of flour.
One and three quarter pounds of sugar.
One pint of milk.
Half a pound of butter.
Half a teaspoonful of salt.
One and a half teaspoonfuls of soda, or saleratus, or two of sal volatile, dissolved in a little hot water.
One nutmeg, one pound of raisins, and one wine-glass of brandy. This makes three loaves.
Warm the milk, and add the butter and salt to it. Work the butter and sugar to a cream, and then add the milk, then the flour, then the saleratus, and lastly the spice and fruit.
Drop Cake.
Four and a half tea-cups of flour.
Two and a half tea-cups of sugar.
Half a cup of butter, and five eggs.
Work the butter and sugar to a cream; beat the yolks and whites separately; add the yolks, then the whites, then the flour. Drop them on a buttered tin, and sprinkle caraway sugar plums on the top.
Sugar Gingerbread (rich).
One pound of sugar.
One pound of sifted flour.
Half a pound of butter.
Six eggs.
Two even tablespoonfuls of ginger.
Rub the butter and sugar together, add the eggs well beaten, the flour and ginger, and bake in two square tin sheets.
Sugar Gingerbread (plainer).
Two cups of sugar.
One cup of butter, rubbed with the sugar.
One cup of milk.
Two eggs.
One teaspoonful of pearlash in hot water.
Three tablespoonfuls of ginger.
Five cups of flour.
Make it a soft dough, and add more flour if needed.
Sponge Cake.
Twelve eggs.
The weight of ten in powdered loaf sugar.
The weight of six in sifted flour.
The grated peel, and half the juice of one lemon.
Stir the yolks of the eggs with the sugar, until very light, then add the whites of the eggs, after they are beaten to a stiff froth, stir lightly together, flavor with the lemon, sprinkle in the flour just before it is to be put into the oven, stirring it in as quickly as possible.
Bake in two square tin pans, the bottom and sides of which should be covered with white paper, well buttered.
Weigh it once, then get the measure of the proportions, to save the trouble of weighing afterward.
The secret of making good sponge cake lies in putting the flour in the last minute before it goes into the oven, and having a good bake.
Bridget’s Bread Cake (excellent).
Three cups of dough, very light.
Three cups of sugar.
One cup of butter.
Three eggs. A nutmeg. Raisins.
One teaspoonful of pearlash, dissolved in a little hot water.
Rub the butter and sugar together, add the eggs and spice, and mix all thoroughly with the dough. Beat it well, and pour into the pans. It will do to bake it immediately, but the cake will be lighter if it stands a short time to rise, before putting it into the oven. It is an excellent cake for common use.
It is very important that the ingredients should be thoroughly mixed with the dough.
Doughnuts.
One pound of butter.
One pound and three quarters of sugar, worked with the butter.
Three pints of milk.
Four eggs.
One pint of yeast, if home-made, or half a pint of distillery yeast.
Mace and cinnamon to the taste.
Flour enough to make the dough stiff as biscuit.
Rub the butter and sugar together, add the other ingredients, and set the dough in a warm place to rise. When thoroughly light, roll into sheets, cut with a sharp knife into diamond-shaped pieces, and boil them in fresh lard. Use a good deal of lard, and have it sufficiently hot, or the cake will absorb the fat.
Cookies (plain).
Two cups of sugar.
One cup of butter, worked into the sugar.
One cup of milk.
Two eggs.
Caraway seeds.
A small teaspoonful of pearlash, dissolved in a little hot water.
Flour sufficient to roll.
The dough should be well kneaded before it is rolled into sheets.
French Cake.
Five cups of flour.
Two cups of powdered sugar.
Half a cup of butter.
One cup of milk.
One wine-glass of wine.
Three eggs. Spice to the taste.
A teaspoonful of pearlash.
Rub the butter and sugar together, then add the milk, part of the flour, and the pearlash dissolved in wine; afterward the remainder of the flour and the eggs. The yolks are to be beaten separately, and the whites beaten and put in the last thing. Bake in two square tin pans.
Walnut Hill’s Doughnuts.
One tea-cup of sour cream, or milk.
Two tea-cups of sugar.
One tea-cup of butter.
Four eggs, and one nutmeg.
Two teaspoonfuls of saleratus.
Flour enough to roll.
Cut into diamond cakes, and boil in hot lard.
Cocoanut Cup Cake.
Two cups of rolled white sugar, and one and a half of butter.
One cup of milk, and a teaspoonful of saleratus dissolved in hot water.
Four eggs well beaten, and a nutmeg. Or flavor with rose water.
The white part of one cocoanut, grated.
Flour enough to make a stiff batter.
Beat it well, put it in buttered tins, an inch thick, in a quick oven, and when done, frost it, and cut it in square pieces.
Cocoanut Sponge Cake.
One grated cocoanut, the outer part peeled off.
A teaspoonful of salt, and half a grated nutmeg.
A pint of sifted white sugar.
Six eggs, the yolks beat and strained, the whites cut to a stiff froth.
One teaspoonful of essence of lemon.
A half a pint of sifted flour.
Mix the yolks and the sugar, and then the other ingredients, except the whites and the flour. Just as you are ready to put the cake in the oven, put in the whites, then add the flour by degrees, and stir only just enough to mix it; then put it on buttered paper in cake pans, and set it in. Have a quick oven, but take care not to have the top harden quick. Cover with paper if there is any danger.
Lemon Cake.—No. 1.
Four tumblers of flour.
Two and a half of powdered white sugar.
Three quarters of a tumbler of butter.
One tumbler of milk, two lemons, three eggs, and one heaping teaspoonful of soda. Saleratus will do, but is not so good as soda.
This serves for two square loaves. Dissolve the soda in the milk, heat the yolks, and strain them. Cut the whites to a stiff froth, work the butter and sugar till they look like cream, then add the yolks, then the milk, then the whites of eggs, and then the flour. When thoroughly mixed, grate in the peel of one lemon, and squeeze in the juice of two, and this must not be done till it is ready to set immediately into the oven.
A tumbler and a half of currants improves this cake. Put them in with the lemon juice.
This is delicious when first baked, but will not keep so well as No. 2, which is richer.
Gingernuts.
Six pounds of flour.
One pound and a quarter of butter, rubbed into the sugar.
One pound and three quarters of sugar.
One quart of molasses.
Four ounces of ginger, one nutmeg, and some cinnamon.
The dough should be stiff, and then kneaded hard for a long time. Cut into small cakes. They will keep good, closely covered in a stone jar, for many months.
Honey Cake.
One quart of strained honey.
Half a pint of sugar.
Half a pint of melted butter.
A teaspoonful of saleratus, dissolved in half a tea-cup of warm water.
Half a nutmeg, and a teaspoonful of ginger.
Mix the above, and then work in sifted flour till you can roll it. Cut it into thin cakes, and bake it on buttered tins, in a quick oven.
New Year’s Cookies.
One pound of butter.
A pound and three quarters of sugar.
Two teaspoonfuls of saleratus, in a pint of milk (buttermilk is better).
Mix the butter and sugar to a cream, and add the milk and saleratus. Then beat three eggs, and add, and grate in one nutmeg. Rub in a heaping tablespoon of caraway seed. Add flour enough to roll. Make it one quarter of an inch in thickness, and bake immediately in a quick oven.
Boston Cream Cake.
One pint of butter rubbed into one quart of flour.
One quart of hot water, with the butter and flour stirred in.
When cool, break in from six to twelve eggs, as you can afford.
If needed, add flour till thick enough to drop on buttered tins in round cakes, the size of a tea-cup.
When baked, open and fill with soft custard, or mock cream.
Almond, Hickory, or Cocoanut Cake.
Half a pound of flour. Half a teaspoonful of salt.
A quarter of a pound of butter.
One pound of sugar.
One tea-cup of sour cream, or sour milk, or buttermilk.
Four eggs, and lemon, or any other flavor to your taste.
A teaspoonful of saleratus, or better, a bit of sal volatile, the size of a nutmeg, dissolved in two spoonfuls of hot water.
Mix the above thoroughly, then grate in the white part of a cocoanut, or stir in half a pint of chopped hickory-nuts, chopped fine, or put in a pound of blanched almonds, pounded, but not to a paste. Put it in buttered pans, an inch and a half thick, and bake in a quick oven.
Caraway Cakes.
Two quarts of flour.
One cup of butter.
One quart of rolled sugar.
Half a pint of caraway seeds.
A teaspoonful of essence of lemon.
Mix the sugar and butter to a cream, add the other materials, roll out, and cut into square cakes, and crimp the edges.
Sal volatile the size of a nutmeg, dissolved in a little hot water, improves this.
Fruit Drop Cakes.
Two pounds of flour.
One pound of butter.
One pound of currants.
One pound of sugar. Three eggs.
A teaspoonful each, of rose water, and essence of lemon, and a gill of brandy.
Rub the butter and sugar to a cream. Beat the eggs, and add them. Then put in the other articles. Strew tin sheets with flour and powdered sugar, and then drop on in small cakes. Bake in a quick oven.
Dr. B.’s Loaf Cake.
Two pounds of dried and sifted flour.
A pint of new milk, blood warm.
A quarter of a pound of butter.
Three quarters of a pound of sugar.
A pint of home-brewed yeast, or half as much distillery yeast.
Three eggs, and one pound of stoned raisins.
A glass of wine and a nutmeg.
Work the butter and sugar to a cream, and then rub them well into the flour. Then add the other things, and let it rise over night. Bake an hour and a half, in a slack oven. Put the fruit in as directed in the receipt for raised loaf cake.
Fancy Cakes.
Beat the yolks of four eggs into half a pound of powdered sugar. Add a little less than a half a pound of flour. Beat fifteen minutes, and then put in some essence of lemon, and the whites of the eggs cut to a stiff froth. Bake in small patties, and put sugar plums on the top.
Fried Curd Cakes.
Stir four well-beaten eggs into a quart of boiling milk. Make it very sweet, and cool it. Then stir in two even tea-cups full of sifted flour, a teaspoonful of essence of lemon, and two more well-beaten eggs. Fry these in sweet butter as drop cakes.
Wine Cake.
Put six ounces of sugar into a pint of wine, and make it boiling hot. When blood warm, pour it on to six well-beaten eggs, and stir in a quarter of a pound of sifted flour. Beat it well, and bake immediately in a quick oven.
Egg Rusk.
Melt three ounces of butter into a pint of milk. Beat six eggs into a quarter of a pound of sugar. Mix these with flour enough for a batter, and add a gill of distillery yeast, and half a teaspoonful of salt. When light, add flour enough to make a dough stiff enough to mould. Make them into small cakes, and let them rise in a warm place while the oven is heating.
Citron Tea Cakes.
One tea-cup of sugar.
Two-thirds of a cup of butter.
Two cups of flour.
A bit of volatile salts, the size of a nutmeg, dissolved in hot water (the same quantity of alum dissolved with it, improves it), and put to half a cup of milk.
Beat till light, then add a teaspoonful of essence of lemon, and small thin strips of citron, or candied lemon peel.
Bake in shallow pans, or small patties.
French Biscuit (Mrs. Dr. C.).
Six pounds of flour.
One pint and a half of new milk.
Six ounces of butter.
A cup and a half of sugar.
A teaspoonful of salt.
Six eggs, and half a pint of distillery yeast, or twice as much home-brewed.
Melt the butter in the milk, and beat the eggs. Then add all the ingredients, set it to rise, and when very light, mould it into small biscuits, and bake in a quick oven.
[CHAPTER XV.]
RICH CAKES.
Old Hartford Election Cake (100 years old).
Five pounds of dried and sifted flour.
Two pounds of butter.
Two pounds of sugar.
Three gills of distillery yeast, or twice the quantity of home-brewed.
Four eggs.
A gill of wine and a gill of brandy.
Half an ounce of nutmegs, and two pounds of fruit.
A quart of milk.
Rub the butter very fine into the flour, add half the sugar, then the yeast, then half the milk, hot in winter, and blood warm in summer, then the eggs well beaten, the wine, and the remainder of the milk. Beat it well, and let it stand to rise all night. Beat it well in the morning, adding the brandy, the sugar, and the spice. Let it rise three or four hours, till very light. When you put the wood into the oven, put the cake in buttered pans, and put in the fruit as directed previously. If you wish it richer, add a pound of citron.
Raised Loaf Cake.
Six pounds of dried and sifted flour.
Three pounds of sugar.
Two pounds and a half of butter.
Four eggs, and two pounds of raisins.
Four nutmegs.
Two gills of wine, and two gills of brandy.
In the afternoon, mix the butter and sugar, take half of it and rub into the flour; take about a quart of milk, blood warm, put the yeast into the flour, then wet it up. When fully light, add the rest of the butter and sugar, beat the eggs, and put them in, and set the whole to rise till morning. Add the brandy, wine, and spice, in the morning, and put it in the pans. The fruit is to be added in this way:—First dredge it with flour, then put in enough cake to cover the bottom of the pans, then sprinkle some fruit, and do not let any of it rest against the pan, as it burns, and is thus wasted. Then continue to add a layer of fruit and a layer of cake, having no fruit on the top. This saves those that usually burn on the pan, and secures a more equal distribution.
Mrs. H.’s Raised Wedding Cake (very fine).
Nine pounds of dried and sifted flour.
Four and a half pounds of white sugar.
Four and a half pounds of butter.
Two quarts of scalded milk.
One quart of the yeast, fresh made as below.
Six eggs.
Six pounds of raisins.
Two pounds of citron.
One ounce of mace.
One gill of brandy.
One gill of wine.
Put the ingredients together as directed in the Raised Loaf Cake.
Yeast for the above Cake.
Nine large potatoes, peeled, boiled, and mashed fine.
One quart of water, a very small pinch of hops.
Boil all together, strain through a sieve, add a small tea-cup of flour, and, when blood warm, half a pint of distillery yeast, or twice as much home-brewed. Strain again, and let it work till very light and foaming.
Fruit Cake, or Black Cake.
One pound of powdered white sugar.
Three quarters of a pound of butter.
One pound of flour, sifted.
Twelve eggs.
Two pounds of raisins, stoned, and part of them chopped.
Two pounds of currants, carefully cleaned.
Half a pound of citron, cut into strips.
A quarter of an ounce each, of cinnamon, nutmegs, and cloves, mixed.
One wine-glass of wine, and one wine-glass of brandy.
Rub the butter and sugar together, then add the yolks of the eggs, part of the flour, the spice, and the whites of the eggs well beaten, then add the remainder of the flour, and the wine and brandy. Mix all thoroughly together. Cover the bottom and sides of two square tin pans with white paper, well buttered, pour the mixture in, adding the fruit as formerly directed, first dredging it with flour, and bake four hours. After it is taken from the oven, and a little cooled, ice it thickly.
Pound Cake.
One pound of powdered loaf sugar.
One pound of sifted flour.
Three quarters of a pound of fresh butter.
Eight eggs, and one nutmeg.
Rub the butter and sugar together until very light, then add the yolks of the eggs, the spice, and part of the flour. Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, and stir in with the remainder of the flour. Mix all well together, and bake in small tins, icing the cakes when they are a little warm.
French Loaf Cake.
Five cups of powdered sugar.
Three cups of fresh butter.
Two cups of milk.
Six eggs.
Ten cups of dried and sifted flour.
One wine-glass of wine, one wine-glass of brandy.
Three nutmegs, a small teaspoonful of pearlash.
One pound of raisins, a quarter of a pound of citron.
Stir the sugar and butter to a cream, then add part of the flour, with the milk a little warm, and the beaten yolks of the eggs. Then add, with the remainder of the flour, the whites of the eggs well beaten, the spice, wine, brandy, and pearlash. Mix all thoroughly together, add the fruit, as you put it into the pans. This will make four loaves. Bake about an hour, and then ice them.
Portugal Cake.
One pound powdered loaf sugar.
One pound of dried and sifted flour.
Half a pound of butter.
Eight eggs.
Two tablespoonfuls of lemon juice, or white wine.
One pound of fruit.
One nutmeg.
One and a half pounds of almonds, weighed before shelling.
Stir the butter and sugar to a cream. Beat the whites and yolks of the eggs separately. Then, by degrees, put in the flour, and add the lemon juice last, stirring all lightly together. If almonds are to be used, they should be blanched. Pound the almonds, or cut into shreds.
Golden Cake.
This and the following cake are named from gold and silver, on account of their color as well as their excellence.
They should be made together, so as to use both portions of the eggs.
To make golden cake, take
One pound of flour, dried and sifted.
One pound of sugar.
Three quarters of a pound of butter.
The yolks of fourteen eggs.
The yellow part of two lemons grated, and the juice also.
Beat the sugar and butter to a cream, and add the yolks, well beaten and strained. Then add the lemon peel and flour, and a teaspoonful of sal volatile, dissolved in a little hot water. Beat it well, and just before putting it into the oven add the lemon juice, beating it in very thoroughly.
Bake in square flat pans, ice it thickly, and cut it in square pieces. It looks finely on a dish with the silver cake.
Silver Cake.
One pound of sugar.
Three quarters of a pound of dried and sifted flour.
Six ounces of butter.
Mace and citron.
The whites of fourteen eggs.
Beat the sugar and butter to a cream, add the whites cut to a stiff froth, and then the flour. It is a beautiful-looking cake.
Shrewsbury Cake.
One pound of dried and sifted flour.
Three quarters of a pound of powdered sugar.
Half a pound of butter.
Five eggs.
Rose water, or grated lemon peel.
Stir the butter and sugar to a cream. Then add the eggs, the whites and yolks beaten separately, and add the flour.
Queen’s Cake.
One pound of dried and sifted flour.
One pound of sugar.
Half a pound of butter.
Four eggs. One nutmeg.
One gill of wine.
One gill of brandy.
One gill of thin cream.
One pound of fruit.
Rub the butter and sugar together. Beat separately the yolks and whites of the eggs. Mix all the ingredients, except the flour and fruit, which must be put in just before putting in the oven. This makes two three-pint pans full. It requires one hour and a half to bake.
Crullars.
Five cups of flour.
One cup of butter.
Two cups of sugar.
Four eggs.
One spoonful of rose water. Nutmeg.
Rub the butter and sugar together, add the eggs, the whites and yolks beaten separately, then the flour. Roll into a sheet about half an inch thick, cut this with a jagging-iron into long narrow strips. Twist them into various shapes, and fry them in hot lard, of a light brown. The fat must be abundant in quantity, and very hot, to prevent the lard from soaking into the cake.
Lemon Cake.—No. 2.
One pound of dried and sifted flour.
One pound of sugar.
Three quarters of a pound of butter.
Seven eggs.
The juice of one lemon, and the peel of two.
This makes two loaves.
Beat and strain the yolks, cut the whites hard, work the butter and sugar to a cream. Fruit if wished. A tumbler and a half of currants is enough.
This is richer than No. 1, and keeps well.
Almond Cake.
One pound of sifted sugar.
The yolks of twelve eggs, beat and mixed with the sugar.
The whites of nine eggs, added to the above in a stiff froth.
A pound of dried and sifted flour, mixed after the above has been stirred ten minutes.
Half a pound of sweet almonds, and half a dozen bitter ones, blanched and pounded with rose water to a cream.
Six tablespoonfuls of thick cream. Use the reserved whites of eggs for frosting.
This makes one large, or two small loaves.
Lemon Drop Cakes.
Three heaping tablespoonfuls of sifted white sugar.
A tablespoonful of sifted flour.
The grated rinds of three lemons.
The white of one egg well beaten; all mixed.
Drop on buttered paper, and bake in a moderate oven.
Jelly Cake.
Half a pound of sifted white sugar.
Six ounces of butter.
Eight eggs, whites beat to a stiff froth. Yolks beat and strained.
Juice and grated rind of one lemon.
One pound of dried and sifted flour.
Work the butter and sugar to a cream. Add the eggs, then the flour, and then the lemon juice. Butter tin scolloped pans, and put in this a quarter of an inch thick. Bake a light brown, and pile them in layers, with jelly or marmelade between.
Cocoanut Drops.
One pound grated cocoanut, only the white part.
One pound sifted white sugar.
The whites of six eggs, cut to a stiff froth.
You must have enough whites of eggs to wet the whole stiff.
Drop on buttered plates the size of a cent, and bake immediately.
Sugar Drops.
Twelve spoonfuls of butter.
Twenty-four spoonfuls of sifted white sugar.
A pint of sifted flour.
Half a nutmeg, and three eggs, the whites beaten separately.
Mix the butter and sugar to a cream, add the eggs, then the flour, drop on buttered tins, and put sugar plums on the top. Bake ten or fifteen minutes.
[CHAPTER XVI.]
PRESERVES AND JELLIES.
General Directions for making Preserves and Jellies.
Gather fruit when it is dry.
Long boiling hardens the fruit.
Pour boiling water over the sieves used, and wring out jelly-bags in hot water the moment you are to use them.
Do not squeeze while straining through jelly-bags.
Let the pots and jars containing sweetmeats just made remain uncovered three days.
Lay brandy papers over the top, cover them tight, and seal them, or, what is best of all, soak a split bladder and tie it tight over them. In drying, it will shrink so as to be perfectly air-tight.
Keep them in a dry, but not warm place.
A thick leathery mould helps to preserve fruit, but when mould appears in specks, the preserves must be scalded in a warm oven, or be set into hot water, which then must boil till the preserves are scalded.
Always keep watch of preserves which are not sealed, especially in warm and damp weather. The only sure way to keep them without risk or care, is to make them with enough sugar and seal them, or tie bladder covers over.
To Clarify Syrup for Sweetmeats.
For each pound of sugar, allow half a pint of water. For every three pounds of sugar, allow the white of one egg.
Mix when cold, boil a few minutes, and skim it. Let it stand ten minutes, and skim it, then strain it.
Brandy Peaches.
Prick the peaches with a needle, put them into a kettle with cold water, scald them until sufficiently soft to be penetrated with a straw. Take half a pound of sugar to every pound of peach; make the syrup with the sugar, and while it is a little warm, mix two-thirds as much of white brandy with it, put the fruit into jars, and pour the syrup over it. The late white clingstones are the best to use.
Peaches (not very rich).
To six pounds of fruit, put five of sugar. Make the syrup. Boil the fruit in the syrup till it is clear. If the fruit is ripe, half an hour will cook it sufficiently.
Peaches (very elegant).
First take out the stones, then pare them. To every pound of peaches, allow one-third of a pound of sugar. Make a thin syrup, boil the peaches in the syrup till tender, but not till they break. Put them into a bowl, and pour the syrup over them. Put them in a dry, cool place, and let them stand two days. Then make a new rich syrup, allowing three quarters of a pound of sugar to one of fruit. Drain the peaches from the first syrup, and boil them until they are clear, in the last syrup. The first syrup must not be added, but may be used for any other purpose you please, as it is somewhat bitter. The large white clingstones are the best.
To preserve Quinces Whole.
Select the largest and fairest quinces (as the poorer ones will answer for jelly). Take out the cores and pare them. Boil the quinces in water till tender. Take them out separately on a platter. To each pound of quince, allow a pound of sugar. Make the syrup, then boil the quinces in the syrup until clear.
Quince Jelly.
Rub the quinces with a cloth, until perfectly smooth. Remove the cores, cut them into small pieces, pack them tight in your kettle, pour cold water on them until it is on a level with the fruit, but not to cover it; boil till very soft, but not till they break.
Then dip off all the liquor you can, then put the fruit into a sieve, and press it, and drain off all the remaining liquor.
Then to a pint of the liquor add a pound of sugar, and boil it fifteen minutes. Pour it, as soon as cool, into small jars, or tumblers. Let it stand in the sun a few days, till it begins to dry on the top. It will continue to harden after it is put up.
Calf’s Foot Jelly.
To four nicely-cleaned calf’s feet, put four quarts of water; let it simmer gently till reduced to two quarts, then strain it, and let it stand all night. Then take off all the fat and sediment, melt it, add the juice, and put in the peel of three lemons, and a pint of wine, the whites of four eggs, three sticks of cinnamon, and sugar to your taste. Boil ten minutes, then skim out the spice and lemon peel, and strain it.
The American gelatine, now very common, makes as good jelly, with far less trouble, and in using it you only need to dissolve it in hot water, and then sweeten and flavor it.
To preserve Apples.
Take only tart and well-flavored apples, peel, and take out the cores without dividing them, and then parboil them. Make the syrup with the apple water, allowing three quarters of a pound of white sugar to every pound of apples, and boil some lemon peel and juice in the syrup. Pour the syrup, while boiling, on to the apples, turn them gently while cooking, and only let the syrup simmer, as hard boiling breaks the fruit. Take it out when the apple is tender through. At the end of a week boil them once more in the syrup.
Pear.
Take out the cores, cut off the stems, and pare them. Boil the pears in water, till they are tender. Watch them, that they do not break. Lay them separately on a platter as you take them out. To each pound of fruit, take a pound of sugar. Make the syrup, and boil the fruit in the syrup till clear.
Pineapple (very fine).
Pare and grate the pineapple. Take an equal quantity of fruit and sugar. Boil them slowly in a sauce-pan for half an hour.
Purple Plum.—No. 1.
Make a rich syrup. Boil the plums in the syrup very gently till they begin to crack open. Then take them from the syrup into a jar, and pour the syrup over them. Let them stand a few days, and then boil them a second time, very gently.
To preserve Oranges.
Boil the oranges in soft water till you can run a straw through the skin.
Clarify three quarters of a pound of sugar for each pound of fruit, take the oranges from the water, and pour over them the hot syrup, and let them stand in it one night. Next day, boil them in the syrup till it is thick and clear. Then take them up, and strain the syrup on to them.
Purple Plum.—No. 2.
Take an equal weight of fruit, and nice brown sugar. Take a clean stone jar, put in a layer of fruit and a layer of sugar, till all is in. Cover them tightly with dough, or other tight cover, and put them in a brick oven after you have baked in it. If you bake in the morning, put the plums in the oven at evening, and let them remain till the next morning. When you bake again, set them in the oven as before. Uncover them, and stir them carefully with a spoon, and do as not to break them. Set them in the oven thus the third time, and they will be sufficiently cooked.
White, or Green Plum.
Put each one into boiling water, and rub off the skin. Allow a pound of fruit to a pound of sugar. Make a syrup of sugar and water. Boil the fruit in the syrup until clear, about twenty minutes. Let the syrup be cold before you pour it over the fruit. They can be preserved without taking off the skins, by pricking them. Some of the kernels of the stones boiled in give a pleasant flavor.
Citron Melon.
Two fresh lemons to a pound of melon. Let the sugar be equal in weight to the lemon and melon. Take out the pulp of the melon, and cut it in thin slices, and boil it in fair water till tender. Take it out and boil the lemon in the same water about twenty minutes. Take out the lemon, add the sugar, and, if necessary, a little more water. Let it boil. When clear, add the melon, and let it boil a few minutes.
Strawberries.
Look them over with care. Weigh a pound of sugar to each pound of fruit. Put a layer of fruit on the bottom of the preserving kettle, then a layer of sugar, and so on till all is in the pan. Boil them about fifteen minutes. Put them in bottles, hot, and seal them. Then put them in a box, and fill it in with dry sand. The flavor of the fruit is preserved more perfectly, by simply packing the fruit and sugar in alternate layers, and sealing the jar, without cooking. But the preserves do not look so well.
Blackberry Jam.
Allow three quarters of a pound of brown sugar to a pound of fruit. Boil the fruit half an hour, then add the sugar, and boil all together ten minutes.
To preserve Currants to eat with Meat.
Strip them from the stem. Boil them an hour, and then to a pound of the fruit, add a pound of brown sugar. Boil all together fifteen or twenty minutes.
Cherries.
Take out the stones. To a pound of fruit, allow a pound of sugar. Put a layer of fruit on the bottom of the preserving kettle, then a layer of sugar, and continue thus till all are put in. Boil till clear. Put them in bottles, hot, and seal them. Keep them in dry sand.
Currants.
Strip them from the stems. Allow a pound of sugar to a pound of currants. Boil them together ten minutes. Take them from the syrup, and let the syrup boil twenty minutes, and pour it on the fruit. Put them in small jars, or tumblers, and let them stand in the sun a few days.
Raspberry Jam.—No. 1.
Allow a pound of sugar to a pound of fruit. Press them with a spoon, in an earthen dish. Add the sugar, and boil all together fifteen minutes.
Raspberry Jam.—No. 2.
Allow a pound of sugar to a pound of fruit. Boil the fruit half an hour, or till the seeds are soft. Strain one quarter of the fruit, and throw away the seeds. Add the sugar, and boil the whole ten minutes. A little currant juice gives it a pleasant flavor, and when that is used, an equal quantity of sugar must be added.
Currant Jelly.
Pick over the currants with care. Put them in a stone jar, and set it into a kettle of boiling water. Let it boil till the fruit is very soft. Strain it through a sieve. Then run the juice through a jelly-bag. Put a pound of sugar to a pint of juice, and boil it together five minutes. Set it in the sun a few days.
Quince Marmalade.
Rub the quinces with a cloth, cut them in quarters. Put them on the fire with a little water, and stew them till they are sufficiently tender to rub them through a sieve. When strained, put a pound of brown sugar to a pound of the pulp. Set it on the fire, and let it cook slowly. To ascertain when it is done, take out a little and let it get cold, and if it cuts smoothly it is done.
Crab-apple marmalade is made in the same way.
Crab-apple jelly is made like quince jelly.
Most other fruits are preserved so much like the preceding, that it is needless to give any more particular directions, than to say that a pound of sugar to a pound of fruit is the general rule for all preserves that are to be kept through warm weather, and a long time.
Preserved Watermelon Rinds.
This is a fine article to keep well without trouble for a long time. Peel the melon, and boil it in just enough water to cover it till it is soft, trying with a fork. (If you wish it green, put green vine leaves above and below each layer, and scatter powdered alum, less than half a teaspoonful to each pound.)
Allow a pound and a half of sugar to each pound of rind, and clarify it as directed previously.
Simmer the rinds two hours in this syrup, and flavor it with lemon peel grated and tied in a bag. Then put the melon in a tureen, and boil the syrup till it looks thick, and pour it over. Next day, give the syrup another boiling, and put the juice of one lemon to each quart of syrup. Take care not to make it bitter by too much of the peel.
Citrons are preserved in the same manner. Both these keep through hot weather with very little care in sealing and keeping.
Preserved Pumpkin.
Cut a thick yellow pumpkin, peeled, into strips two inches wide, and five or six long.
Take a pound of white sugar for each pound of fruit, and scatter it over the fruit, and pour on two wine-glasses of lemon juice for each pound of pumpkin.
Next day, put the parings of one or two lemons with the fruit and sugar, and boil the whole three quarters of an hour, or long enough to make it tender and clear without breaking. Lay the pumpkin to cool, strain the syrup, and then pour it on to the pumpkin.
If there is too much lemon peel, it will be bitter.
[CHAPTER XVII.]
PICKLES.
Do not keep pickles in common earthen ware, as the glazing contains lead, and combines with the vinegar.
Vinegar for pickling should be sharp, but not the sharpest kind, as it injures the pickles. If you use copper, bell metal, or brass vessels for pickling, never allow the vinegar to cool in them, as it then is poisonous. Add a tablespoonful of alum and a tea-cup of salt to each three gallons of vinegar, and tie up a bag with pepper, ginger-root, and spices of all sorts in it, and you have vinegar prepared for any kind of common pickling.
Keep pickles only in wood, or stone ware.
Anything that has held grease will spoil pickles.
Stir pickles occasionally, and if there are soft ones, take them out and scald the vinegar, and pour it hot over the pickles. Keep enough vinegar to cover them well. If it is weak, take fresh vinegar, and pour on hot. Do not boil vinegar or spice over five minutes.
To Pickle Tomatoes.
As you gather them, throw them into cold vinegar. When you have enough, take them out, and scald some spices tied in a bag, in good vinegar, and pour it hot over them.
To Pickle Peaches.
Take ripe but hard peaches, wipe off the down, stick a few cloves into them, and lay them in cold spiced vinegar. In three months they will be sufficiently pickled, and also retain much of their natural flavor.
To Pickle Peppers.
Take green peppers, take the seeds out carefully, so as not to mangle them, soak them nine days in salt and water, changing it every day, and keep them in a warm place. Stuff them with chopped cabbage, seasoned with cloves, cinnamon, and mace; put them in cold spiced vinegar.
To Pickle Nasturtions.
Soak them three days in salt and water as you collect them, changing it once in three days, and when you have enough, pour off the brine, and pour on scalding hot vinegar.
To Pickle Onions.
Peel, and boil in milk and water ten minutes, drain off the milk and water, and pour scalding spiced vinegar on to them.
To Pickle Gherkins.
Keep them in strong brine till they are yellow, then take them out and turn on hot spiced vinegar, and keep them in it in a warm place, till they turn green. Then turn off the vinegar, and add a fresh supply of hot, spiced vinegar.
To Pickle Mushrooms.
Stew them in salted water, just enough to keep them from sticking. When tender, pour off the water, and pour on hot spiced vinegar. Then cork them tight if you wish to keep them long. Poison ones will turn black if an onion is stewed with them, and then all must be thrown away.
To Pickle Cucumbers.
Wash the cucumbers in cold water, being careful not to bruise, or break them. Make a brine of rock, or blown salt (rock is the best), strong enough to bear up an egg, or potato, and of sufficient quantity to cover the cucumbers.
Put them into an oaken tub, or stone-ware jar, and pour the brine over them. In twenty-four hours, they should be stirred up from the bottom with the hand. The third day pour off the brine, scald it, and pour it over the cucumbers. Let them stand in the brine nine days, scalding it every third day, as described above. Then take the cucumbers into a tub, rinse them in cold water, and if they are too salt, let them stand in it a few hours. Drain them from the water, put them back into the tub or jar, which must be washed clean from the brine. Scald vinegar sufficient to cover them, and pour it upon them. Cover them tight, and in a week they will be ready for use. If spice is wanted, it may be tied in a linen cloth, and put into the jar with the pickles, or scalded with the vinegar, and the bag thrown into the pickle jar. If a white scum rises, take it off and scald the vinegar, and pour it back. A small lump of alum added to the vinegar, improves the hardness of the cucumbers.
Pickled Walnuts.
Take a hundred nuts, an ounce of cloves, an ounce of allspice, an ounce of nutmeg, an ounce of whole pepper, an ounce of race ginger, an ounce of horseradish, half pint of mustard seed, tied in a bag, and four cloves of garlic.
Wipe the nuts, prick with a pin, and put them in a pot, sprinkling the spice as you lay them in; then add two tablespoonfuls of salt; boil sufficient vinegar to fill the pot, and pour it over the nuts and spice. Cover the jar close, and keep it for a year, when the pickles will be ready for use.
Butternuts may be made in the same manner, if they are taken when green, and soft enough to be stuck through with the head of a pin. Put them for a week or two in weak brine, changing it occasionally. Before putting in the brine, rub them about with a broom in brine to cleanse the skins. Then proceed as for the walnuts.
The vinegar makes an excellent catsup.
Mangoes.
Take the latest growth of young muskmelons, take out a small bit from one side, and empty them. Scrape the outside smooth, and soak them four days in strong salt and water. If you wish to green them, put vine leaves over and under, with bits of alum, and steam them a while. Then powder cloves, pepper, and nutmeg in equal portions, and sprinkle on the inside, and fill them with strips of horseradish, small bits of calamus, bits of cinnamon and mace, a clove or two, a very small onion, nasturtions, and then American mustard-seed to fill the crevices. Put back the piece cut out, and sew it on, and then sew the mango in cotton cloth. Lay all in a stone jar, the cut side upward.
Boil sharp vinegar a few minutes, with half a tea-cup of salt, and a tablespoonful of alum to three gallons of vinegar, and turn it on to the melons. Keep dried barberries for garnishes, and when you use them turn a little of the above vinegar of the mangoes heated boiling hot on to them, and let them swell a few hours. Sliced and salted cabbage with this vinegar poured on hot is very good.
Fine Pickled Cabbage.
Shred red and white cabbage, spread it in layers in a stone jar, with salt over each layer. Put two spoonfuls of whole black pepper, and the same quantity of allspice, cloves, and cinnamon, in a bag, and scald them in two quarts of vinegar, and pour the vinegar over the cabbage, and cover it tight. Use it in two days after.
An excellent Way of Preparing Tomatoes to eat with Meat
Peel and slice ripe tomatoes, sprinkling on a little salt as you proceed. Drain off the juice, and pour on hot spiced vinegar.
To Pickle Martinoes.
Gather them when you can run a pin head into them, and after wiping them, keep them ten days in weak brine, changing it every other day. Then wipe them, and pour over boiling spiced vinegar. In four weeks they will be ready for use. It is a fine pickle.
A convenient Way to Pickle Cucumbers.
Put some spiced vinegar in a jar, with a little salt in it.
Every time you gather a mess, pour boiling vinegar on them, with a little alum in it. Then put them in the spiced vinegar. Keep the same vinegar for scalding all. When you have enough, take all from the spiced vinegar, and scald in the alum vinegar two or three minutes, till green, and then put them back in the spiced vinegar.
Indiana Pickles.
Take green tomatoes, and slice them. Put them in a basket to drain in layers, with salt scattered over them, say a tea-cup full to each gallon. Next day, slice one quarter the quantity of onions, and lay the onions and tomatoes in alternate layers in a jar, with spices intervening. Then fill the jar with cold vinegar. Tomatoes picked as they ripen, and just thrown into cold spiced vinegar, are a fine pickle, and made with very little trouble.
To Pickle Cauliflower, or Brocoli.
Keep them twenty-four hours in strong brine, and then take them out and heat the brine, and pour it on scalding hot, and let them stand till next day. Drain them, and throw them into spiced vinegar.
[CHAPTER XVIII.]
ARTICLES FOR DESSERTS AND EVENING PARTIES.
Ice Cream.
One quart of milk.
One and a half tablespoonfuls of arrowroot.
The grated peel of two lemons.
One quart of thick cream.
Wet the arrowroot with a little cold milk, and add it to the quart of milk when boiling hot; sweeten it very sweet with white sugar, put in the grated lemon peel, boil the whole, and strain it into the quart of cream. When partly frozen, add the juice of the two lemons. Twice this quantity is enough for thirty-five persons. Find the quantity of sugar that suits you by measure, and then you can use this every time, without tasting. Some add whites of eggs, others think it just as good without. It must be made very sweet, as it loses much by freezing.
Directions for freezing Ice Cream.
If you have no apparatus for the purpose (which is almost indispensable), put the cream into a tin pail with a very tight cover, mix equal quantities of snow and blown salt (not the coarse salt), or of pounded ice and salt, in a tub, and put it as high as the pail, or freezer; turn the pail or freezer half round and back again with one hand, for half an hour, or longer, if you want it very nice. Three quarters of an hour steadily, will make it good enough. While doing this, stop four or five times, and mix the frozen part with the rest, the last time very thoroughly, and then the lemon juice must be put in. Then cover the freezer tight with snow and salt till it is wanted. The mixture must be perfectly cool before being put in the freezer. Renew the snow and salt while shaking, so as to have it kept tight to the sides of the freezer. A hole in the tub holding the freezing mixture to let off the water, is a great advantage. In a tin pail it would take much longer to freeze than in the freezer, probably nearly twice as long, or one hour and a half. A long stick, like a coffee stick, should be used in scraping the ice from the sides. Iron spoons will be affected by the lemon juice, and give a bad taste.
In taking it out for use, first wipe off every particle of the freezing mixture dry, then with a knife loosen the sides, then invert the freezer upon the dish in which the ice is to be served, and apply two towels rung out of hot water to the bottom part, and the whole will slide out in the shape of a cylinder.
If you wish to put it into moulds, pour it into them when the cream is frozen sufficiently, and then cover the moulds in the snow and salt till they are wanted. Dip the moulds in warm water to make the ice slip out easily.
If you wish to have a freezer made, send the following directions to a tinner.
Make a tin cylinder box, eighteen inches high and eight inches in diameter at the bottom, and a trifle larger at the top, so that the frozen cream will slip out easier. Have a cover made with a rim to lap over three inches, and fitted tight. Let there be a round handle fastened to the lid, an inch in diameter, and reaching nearly across, to take hold of, to stir the cream. This will cost from fifty to seventy-five cents.
The tub holding the ice and freezer should have a hole in the bottom, to let the water run off, and through the whole process the ice must be close packed the whole depth of the freezer.
Philadelphia Ice Cream.
Two quarts of milk (cream when you have it).
Three tablespoonfuls of arrowroot.
The whites of eight eggs well beaten.
One pound of powdered sugar.
Boil the milk, thicken it with the arrowroot, add the sugar, and pour the whole upon the eggs. If you wish it flavored with vanilla, split half a bean, and boil it in the milk.
Another Ice Cream.
Three quarts of milk.
Two pounds and a half of powdered sugar.
Twelve eggs, well beaten.
Mix all together in a tin pail, add one vanilla bean (split), then put the pail into a kettle of boiling water, and stir the custard all the time, until it is quite thick. After it is cooled, add two quarts of rich cream, and then freeze it.
Strawberry Ice Cream.
Rub a pint of ripe strawberries through a sieve, add a pint of cream, and four ounces of powdered sugar, and freeze it.
Ice Cream without Cream.
A vanilla bean, or a lemon rind, is first boiled in a quart of milk. Take out the bean or peel, and add the yolks of four eggs, beaten well. Heat it scalding hot, but do not boil it, stirring in white sugar till very sweet. When cold, freeze it.
Fruit Ice Cream.
Make rich boiled custard, and mash into it the soft ripe fruit, or the grated or cooked hard fruit, or grated pineapples. Rub all through a sieve, sweeten it very sweet, and freeze it. Quince, apple, pear, peach, strawberry, and raspberry, are all good for this purpose.
Rich Custards.
One quart of cream.
The yolks of six eggs.
Six ounces of powdered white sugar.
A small pinch of salt.
Two tablespoonfuls of brandy.
One spoonful of peach water.
Half a tablespoonful of lemon brandy.
An ounce of blanched almonds, pounded to a paste.
Mix the cream with the sugar, and the yolks of the eggs well beaten, scald them together in a tin pail in boiling water, stirring all the time, until sufficiently thick. When cool, add the other ingredients, and pour into custard cups.
Wine Cream Custard.
Sweeten a pint of cream with sifted sugar, heat it, stir in white wine till it curdles, add rose water, or grated lemon peel in a bag, heated in the milk. Turn it into cups.
Or, mix a pint of milk with the pint of cream, add five beaten eggs, a spoonful of flour wet with milk, and sugar to your taste. Bake this in cups, or pie plates.
Almond Custard.
Blanch and pound four ounces of sweet almonds, and a few of the bitter. Boil them five minutes in a quart of milk, sweeten to your taste, and when blood warm, stir in the beaten yolks of eight eggs, and the whites of four. Heat it, and stir till it thickens, then pour into cups. Cut the reserved whites to a stiff froth, and put on the top.
A Cream for Stewed Fruit.
Boil two or three peach leaves, or a vanilla bean, in a quart of cream, or milk, till flavored. Strain and sweeten it, mix it with the yolks of four eggs, well beaten; then, while heating it, add the whites cut to a froth. When it thickens, take it up. When cool, pour it over the fruit, or preserves.
Currant, Raspberry, or Strawberry Whisk.
Put three gills of the juice of the fruit to ten ounces of crushed sugar, add the juice of a lemon, and a pint and a half of cream. Whisk it till quite thick, and serve it in jelly glasses, or a glass dish.
Lemonade Ice, and other Ices.
To a quart of lemonade, add the whites of six eggs, cut to a froth, and freeze it. The juices of any fruit, sweetened and watered, may be prepared in the same way, and are very fine.
Lemon and Orange Cream.
Grate the outer part of the rind of eight oranges, or lemons, into a pint of cold water, and let it stand from night till morning. Add the juice of two dozen of the fruit, and another pint of cold water. Beat the yolks of six eggs, and add the whites of sixteen eggs, cut to a stiff froth. Strain the juice into the egg. Set it over the fire, and stir in fine white sugar, till quite sweet. When it begins to thicken, take it off, and stir till it is cold. Serve it in glasses, or freeze it.
Vanilla Cream.
Boil a vanilla bean in a quart of rich milk, till flavored to your taste. Beat the yolks of eight eggs, and stir in, then sweeten well, and lastly, add the whites of the eggs, cut to a stiff froth. Boil till it begins to thicken, then stir till cold, and serve in glasses, or freeze it.
A Charlotte Russe.
Half a pint of milk, and half a vanilla bean boiled in it, and then cooled and strained.
Four beaten yolks of eggs, and a quarter of a pound of powdered loaf sugar stirred into the milk. Simmer five minutes, and cool it.
An ounce of Russia isinglass boiled in a pint of water till reduced one half, and strained into the above custard.
Whip a rich cream to a froth, and stir into the custard.
The preceding is for the custard that is to fill the form.
Prepare the form thus:—Take a large round, or oval sponge cake, three or four inches thick, with perpendicular sides. Cut off the bottom about an inch thick, or a little less, and then turn it bottom upwards into a form of the same size and shape. Then dig out the cake till it is a shell, an inch thick, or less. Fill the opening with the custard, and cover it with the slice cut from the bottom. Then set it into a tub of pounded ice and salt, for forty minutes, being careful not to get any on to the cake. When ready to use it, turn it out of the form on to a flat oval dish, and ornament the top with frosting, or syringe on it candy sugar, in fanciful forms. This can be made by fitting slices of sponge cake nicely into a form, instead of using a whole cake.
A Plainer Charlotte Russe.
Half an ounce of Russia isinglass, or a little more.
Half a pint of milk, and a pint of thick cream.
Four eggs. Three ounces sifted white sugar.
A gill and a half of white wine.
Boil the isinglass in the milk, flavoring with vanilla or lemon. Stir the sugar into the yolks of the eggs. Put the wine to the cream, and beat them to a froth. Then strain the isinglass into the yolks, then add the cream and wine, and last of all the whites of the eggs cut to a stiff froth. Then line a dish with sponge cake, making the pieces adhere with whites of eggs, and pour in the above.
A Superior Omelette Souflée.
Take eight eggs. Put the whites on one plate, and the yolks on another (two persons do it better than one); beat up the whites to a perfect froth, and at the same time stir the yolks with finely-powdered sugar, flavored with a little lemon peel, grated. Then, while stirring the whites, pour the yolks into the whites, stir them a little (but not beat them). Then pour all on a round tin plate, and put it in the oven; when it begins to rise a little, draw it to the mouth of the oven, and with a spoon pile it up in a pyramidal shape, and leave it a few minutes longer in the oven. The whole baking requires but three or four minutes, and should be done just as wanted for the table.
Almond Cheese Cake.
Three well-beaten eggs.
A pint of new milk, boiling while the eggs are mixed in.
Half a glass of wine, poured in while boiling.
On adding the wine, take it from the fire, strain off the whey, and put to the curds sifted white sugar, to your taste, three eggs, well beaten, a teaspoonful of rose water, half a pound of sweet almonds, and a dozen of bitter ones, all blanched and pounded, and sixteen even spoonfuls of melted butter. Pour this into patties lined with thin pastry. Ornament the top with Zante currants, and almonds cut in thin slips. Bake as soon as done.
Flummery.
Cut sponge cake into thin slices, and line a deep dish. Make it moist with white wine; make a rich custard, using only the yolks of the eggs. When cool, turn it into the dish, and cut the whites to a stiff froth, and put on the top.
Chicken Salad.
Cut the white meat of chickens into small bits, the size of peas.
Chop the white parts of celery nearly as small.
Prepare a dressing thus:—
Rub the yolks of hard-boiled eggs smooth, to each yolk put half a teaspoonful of mustard, the same quantity of salt, a tablespoonful of oil, and a wine-glass of vinegar. Mix the chicken and celery in a large bowl, and pour over this dressing.
The dressing must not be put on till just before it is used. Bread and butter and crackers are served with it.
Gelatine, or American Isinglass Jelly.
Two ounces of American isinglass, or gelatine.
One quart of boiling water.
A pint and a half of white wine.
The whites of three eggs.
Soak the gum in cold water half an hour. Then take it from the water, and pour on the quart of boiling water. When cooled, add the grated rind of one lemon, and the juice of two, and a pound and a half of loaf sugar. Then beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, and stir them in, and let the whole boil till the egg is well mixed, but do not stir while it boils. Strain through a jelly-bag, and then add the wine.
Wine jelly is made thus, except that half a pint more of wine is added.
In cold weather, a pint more of water may be added. This jelly can be colored by beet juice, saffron, or indigo, for fancy dishes.
Oranges in Jelly.
Peel and divide into halves several small-size oranges; boil them in water till a straw will pierce them, then put them into a syrup made of half a pound of sugar for each pound of fruit, and boil the oranges in it till clear. Then stir in an ounce, or more, of clarified isinglass, and let it boil a little while. Take the oranges into a dish, and strain the jelly over. Lemons may be done the same way.
Jelly Tarts.
One pound of sifted flour.
Three quarters of a pound of butter, rubbed in well.
Wet it up with about a pint of cold water, in which a bit of sal volatile, the size of a large pea dissolved in a little cold water, has been put. Beat the whole with a rolling-pin, cut it into round cakes, wet the tops with beaten egg, and strew on fine white sugar. Bake in a quick oven, and when done put a spoonful of jelly in the centre of each.
Sweet Paste Jelly Tarts.
A pint of dried and sifted flour.
A pint of sifted sugar.
Two-thirds of a pint of sweet butter.
A bit of sal volatile, the size of two large peas, dissolved in a tablespoonful of cold water.
Mix the butter and sugar to a cream, work in the flour, add the sal volatile, and cold water, if needed, for making a paste to roll. Beat the whole with a rolling-pin, roll it half an inch thick, cut it with a tumbler, wet the tops with milk, put them on buttered tins into a quick oven, and when done, heap a spoonful of jelly on the centre of each.
They are excellent for a dessert, or for evening parties.
An Apple Lemon Pudding.
Six spoonfuls of grated, or of cooked and strained apple. Three lemons, pulp, rind, and juice, all grated. Half a pound of melted butter. Sugar to the taste. Seven eggs, well beaten.
Mix, and bake with or without paste. It can be made still plainer by using nine spoonfuls of apple, one lemon, two-thirds of a cup full of butter, and three eggs.
Buttermilk Pop.
Rub an ounce of butter into a tea-cup of flour, wet it up to a thin paste with cold buttermilk, and pour it into two quarts of boiling fresh buttermilk. Salt to the taste.
Wheat Flour Blanc Mange.
Wet up six tablespoonfuls of flour to a thin paste, with cold milk, and stir it into a pint of boiling milk. Flavor with lemon peel, or peach leaves boiled in the milk. Add a pinch of salt, cool it in a mould, and eat with sweetened cream and sweetmeats.
Orange Marmelade.
Take two lemons, and a dozen oranges; grate the yellow part of all the oranges but five, and set it aside. Make a clear syrup of an equal weight of sugar. Clear the oranges of rind and seeds, and put them with the grated rinds into the syrup, and boil about twenty minutes, till it is a transparent mass.
A Simple Lemon Jelly (easily made).
One ounce of cooper’s isinglass. A pound and a half of loaf sugar. Three lemons, pulp, skin, and juice, grated.
Pour a quart of boiling water on to the isinglass, add the rest, mix and strain it, then add a glass of wine, and pour it to cool in some regular form. If the lemons are not fresh, add a little cream of tartar, or tartaric acid. _American gelatine_ is used for this.
Cranberry.
Pour boiling water on them, and then you can easily separate the good and the bad. Boil them in a very little water till soft, then sweeten to your taste. If you wish a jelly, take a portion and strain through a fine sieve.
Fruits Preserved without Cooking.
Pineapples peeled and cut in thin slices, with layers of sugar under and over each slice, will keep without cooking, and the flavor is fully preserved. Use a pound and a half of sugar for each pound of fruit.
Quinces peeled and boiled soft, and then laid in sugar, pound to a pound, in the same way, are very beautiful.
Apple Ice (very fine).
Take finely-flavored apples, grate them fine, and then make them _very_ sweet, and freeze them. It is very delicious.
Pears, peaches, or quinces, also are fine either grated fine or stewed and run through a sieve, then sweetened _very_ sweet and frozen. The flavor is much better preserved when grated than when cooked.
Lemon, or Orange Ice Cream.
Squeeze a dozen lemons, and make the juice thick with sugar; then stir in slowly three quarts of cream, and freeze it. Oranges require less sugar.
Cream Tarts.
One pound of sifted flour, and a salt spoon of salt.
A quarter of a pound of rolled sugar.
A quarter of a pound of butter, and one beaten egg.
Sal volatile the size of a nutmeg, dissolved in a spoonful of cold water. Mix the above, and wet up with cold water, and line some small patties, or tartlet pans. Bake in a quick oven, then fill with mock cream, sprinkle on powdered sugar, put them back into the oven a few minutes till a little browned.
Whip Syllabub.
One pint of cream.
Sifted white sugar to your taste.
Half a tumbler of white wine.
The grated rind and juice of one lemon.
Beat all to a stiff froth.
Trifles.
One well-beaten egg, and one tablespoonful of sugar.
A salt spoonful of salt, and flour enough for a stiff dough.
Cut it in thin round cakes, and fry in lard; when they rise to the surface and are turned over, they are done. Drain on a sieve, and put jam or jelly on the centre of each.
Nothings.
Three well-beaten eggs, a salt spoonful of salt, and flour enough for a very stiff paste. Roll and cut into very thin cakes, fry them like trifles, and put two together with jam, or jelly between.
Apple Snow.
Put twelve very tart apples in cold water over a slow fire. When soft, take away the skins and cores, and mix in a pint of sifted white sugar; beat the whites of twelve eggs to a stiff froth, and then add them to the apples and sugar. Put it in a dessert dish, and ornament with myrtle and box.
Iced Fruit.
Take fine bunches of currants on the stalk, dip them in well-beaten whites of eggs, lay them on a sieve and sift white sugar over them, and set them in a warm place to dry.
Ornamental Froth.
The whites of four eggs in a stiff froth, put into the syrup of preserved raspberries, or strawberries, beaten well together, and turned over ice cream, or blanc mange. Make white froth to combine with the colored in fanciful ways. It can be put on the top of boiling milk, and hardened to keep its form.
To Clarify Isinglass.
Dissolve an ounce of isinglass in a cup of boiling water, take off the scum, and drain through a coarse cloth. Jellies, candies, and blanc mange should be done in brass, and stirred with silver.
Blanc Mange.
A pint of cream, and a quart of boiled milk.
An ounce and a half of clarified isinglass, stirred into the milk. Sugar to your taste.
A teaspoonful of fine salt.
Flavor with lemon, or orange, or rose water.
Let it boil, stirring it well, then strain into moulds.
Three ounces of almonds pounded to a paste and added while boiling, is an improvement. Or filberts, or hickory-nuts, can be skinned and used thus.
It can be flavored by boiling in it a vanilla bean, or a stick of cinnamon. Save the bean to use again.
Calf’s Foot Blanc Mange.
Take a pint of calf’s foot jelly, or American isinglass jelly, and put it in a sauce-pan, with the beaten yolks of six eggs, and stir till it begins to boil. Then sweeten and flavor to your taste; set it in a pan of cold water, and stir it till nearly cold, to prevent curdling, and when it begins to thicken, put it into moulds.
Variegated Blanc Mange.
For evening parties a pretty ornamental variety can be made thus.
Color the blanc mange in separate parcels, red, with juice of boiled beets, or cochineal; yellow, with saffron; and blue, with indigo.
Put in a layer of white, and when cool, a layer of another color, and thus as many as you like. You can arrange it in moulds thus, or in a dish, and when cold cut it in fanciful shapes.
Jaune Mange.
Boil an ounce of isinglass in a little more than half a pint of water, till dissolved; strain it, add the juice and a little of the grated rind of two oranges, a gill of white wine, the yolks of four eggs, beaten and strained, and sugar to your taste. Stir over a gentle fire till it just boils, and then strain into a mould.
Ivory Dust Jelly.
Boil a pound of the dust in five pints of water, till reduced to one quart, strain it, add a quart more of water, boil till a stiff jelly, then add lemon, or orange juice and rind, and sugar to your taste, and strain into moulds.
Apple Jelly.
Boil tart, peeled apples in a little water, till glutinous, strain out the juice, and put a pound of white sugar to a pint of the juice. Flavor to your taste, boil till a good jelly, and then put it into moulds.
Another Lemon Jelly.
Take the clear juice of twelve lemons, and a pound of fine loaf sugar, and a quart of water. For each quart of the above mixture, put in an ounce of clarified isinglass, let it boil up once, and strain into moulds. If not stiff enough, add more isinglass, and boil again.
Orange Jelly.
The juice of nine oranges and three lemons.
The grated rind of one lemon, and one orange, pared thin.
Two quarts of water, and four ounces of isinglass, broken up and boiled in it to a jelly.
Add the above, and sweeten to your taste. Then add the whites of eight eggs, well beaten to a stiff froth, and boil ten minutes, strain and put into moulds, first dipped in cold water. When perfectly cold, dip the mould in warm water, and turn on to a glass dish.
Floating Island.
Beat the yolks of six eggs with the juice of four lemons, sweeten it to your taste, and stir it into a quart of boiling milk till it thickens, then pour it into a dish. Whip the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, and put it on the top of the cream.
Another Syllabub.
The juice and grated outer skin of a large lemon.
Four glasses of white wine.
A quarter of a pound of sifted white sugar.
Mix the above, and let them stand some hours.
Then whip it, adding a pint of thick cream, and the whites of two eggs cut to a froth.
An Ornamental Dish.
Pare and core, without splitting, some small-sized tart apples, and boil them very gently with one lemon for every six apples, till a straw will pass through them.
Make a syrup of half a pound of white sugar for each pound of apples, put the apples unbroken, and the lemons sliced, into the syrup, and boil gently till the apples look clear. Then take them up carefully, so as not to break them, and add an ounce, or more, of clarified isinglass to the syrup, and let it boil up. Then lay a slice of lemon on each apple, and strain the syrup over them.
Carrageen Blanc Mange (Irish Moss).
Take one tea-cup full of Carrageen, or Irish moss, after it has been carefully picked over. Wash it thoroughly in pearlash water, to take out the saline taste; then rinse it in several waters, put it in a tin pail, and pour to it a quart of milk. Set the pail, closely covered, into a kettle of boiling water. Let it stand until the moss thickens the milk, then strain through a fine sieve, sweeten with powdered loaf sugar, and flavor with rose or lemon. Wet the moulds in cold water, then pour in the blanc mange, and set it in a cool place. In two, or three hours, or when quite firm, it may be used. Loosen the edges from the moulds, and then turn it out upon china or glass plates. It may be served with powdered sugar and cream.
A Dish of Snow.
Grate the white part of cocoanut, put it in a glass dish and serve with currant or cranberry jellies.
To Clarify Sugar.
Take four pounds of sugar, and break it up.
Whisk the white of an egg, and put it with a tumblerful of water into a preserving pan, and add water gradually, till you have two quarts, stirring well. When there is a good frothing, throw in the sugar, boil moderately, and skim it. If the sugar rises to run over, throw in a little cold water, and then skim it, as it is then still. Repeat this, and when no more scum rises, strain the sugar for use.
To Prepare Sugar for Candies.
Put a coffee cup of water for each pound of sugar, into a brass, or copper kettle, over a slow fire. Put in, for each pound, say half a sheet of isinglass, and half a teaspoonful of gum-arabic, dissolved together. Skim off all impurities, and flavor to your taste.
All sugar for candy is prepared thus, and then boiled till, when drawn into strings and cooled, it snaps like glass.
A little hot rum, or vinegar, must be put to loaf sugar candy, to prevent its being too brittle.
Candies made thus, can be colored with boiled beet juice, saffron, and indigo, and it can be twisted, rolled, and cut into any forms.
It can have cocoanut, almonds, hickory-nuts, Brazil, or peanuts, sliced, or chopped and put in.
It can be flavored with vanilla, rose, lemon, orange, cloves, cinnamon, or anything you please.
Sugar Kisses.
Whisk four whites of eggs to a stiff froth, and stir in half a pound of sifted white sugar, and flavor it as you like.
Lay it, when stiff, in heaps, on white paper, each the shape and size of half an egg, and an inch apart. Place them on a board which is half an inch thick, and put them into a hot oven. When they turn a little yellowish, slip off the paper on to a table, and let them cool five minutes. Then slip off two of the kisses with a knife, and join the bottom parts together which touched the paper, and they, if pressed gently, will adhere. Then lay them on a plate, and continue till all are thus prepared. These look handsomely, and are very delicate and good.
Almond Macaroons.
Half a pound of almonds blanched, and pounded with a teaspoonful of essence of lemon till a smooth paste.
Add an equal quantity of sifted white sugar, and the beaten whites of two eggs. Work well together with a spoon.
Dip your hand in water, and work them into balls the size of a nutmeg, lay them on white paper, an inch apart; then dip your hand in water, and smooth them. Put them in a cool oven for three quarters of an hour.
Cocoanut can be grated and used in place of the almonds, and thus make cocoanut macaroons.
Filbert Macaroons.
Heat a quarter of a pound of filbert meats till the skin will rub off, and when cold pound them, and make a paste with a little white of an egg, add a quarter of a pound of white sifted sugar, and the white of an egg; when well mixed, bake them like almond macaroons.
Flour macaroons look as well, and are nearly as good. To make them, work a pint of sifted white sugar into one beaten egg, till a smooth paste, and add a little sifted flour, so as to mould it in your hands. Flavor with essence of lemon, or rose water, and proceed as with almond macaroons.
Cocoanut Drops.
The white part of a cocoanut, grated.
The whites of four eggs, well beaten.
Half a pound of sifted white sugar.
Flavor with rose water, or essence of lemon.
Mix all as thick as can be stirred, lay in heaps an inch apart, on paper, and on a baking tin; put them in a quick oven, and take them out when they begin to look yellowish.
Candied Fruits.
Preserve the fruit, then dip it in sugar boiled to candy thickness, and then dry it. Grapes and some other fruits may be dipped in uncooked, and then dried, and they are fine.
Another Way.
Take it from the syrup, when preserved, dip it in powdered sugar, and set it on a sieve in an oven to dry.
To make an Ornamental Pyramid for a Table.
Boil loaf sugar as for candy, and rub it over a stiff form, made for the purpose, of stiff paper, which must be well buttered. Set it on a table, and begin at the bottom, and stick on to this frame, with the sugar, a row of macaroons, kisses, or other ornamental articles, and continue till the whole is covered. When cold, draw out the pasteboard form, and set the pyramid in the centre of the table with a small bit of wax candle burning with it, and it looks very beautifully.
[CHAPTER XIX.]
TEMPERANCE DRINKS.
The advocates of entire abstinence from intoxicating drinks seem to be divided into three classes. One class consider it to be a sin in itself, to take anything that contains the intoxicating principle.
Another class adopt the temperance pledge on the principle urged by St. Paul in 1 Cor. 8: 13, and engage not to use intoxicating drinks as a beverage, nor to offer them to others, and maintain that though neither their pledge nor divine command requires more than this, yet that, to avoid the appearance of evil, they will not use any kind of alcoholic liquors for any purpose. Such will not employ it in cooking, nor keep it in their houses.
The third class believe that the wisest course is to adopt the pledge “not to use, or offer to others intoxicating drinks as a beverage,” and strictly to adhere, both to the spirit and letter of this pledge, but not to go beyond it. Such think it proper to use wine and brandy in cooking, and occasionally for medicinal purposes, and suppose that the cause of temperance will be best promoted by going no farther. The writer belongs to this last class, and therefore has not deemed it desirable to omit or alter receipts in which wine and brandy are employed for cooking.
It has now become almost universal, in the medical profession, to maintain the principle, that alcoholic drinks, except as medicine, are never needful, but as the general rule, are always injurious. And they consider that those cases where the use of them seems to involve no evil, should be regarded as owing to the fact that a strong constitution, or some peculiarity of temperament, can occasionally resist the evil influence for a certain length of time, just as some persons, by similar causes, are sustained in health in a malaria district.
But none can tell how long a good constitution will resist the baleful operation of alcohol or malaria, nor are these exceptions any argument in favor either of intoxicating drinks or a pestilential atmosphere.
The great abundance of delicious and healthful drinks that are within reach, leaves no excuse for resorting to such as are pernicious. The following receipts furnish a great variety, and many of them are very easily and cheaply obtained.
In regard to effervescing drinks, Dr. Pereira remarks:
“Water charged with carbonic acid forms a cool and refreshing beverage. It acts as a diaphoretic and diuretic (i. e., to promote perspiration and the healthful action of the kidneys), and is a most valuable agent for checking nausea and vomiting. When it contains bicarbonate of soda in solution, it proves antacid, and is a most valuable beverage for persons afflicted with calculi in the bladder.”
The following receipts may be tried in succession, and some among them will suit the taste of every one. Some of the receipts for drinks for the sick are also very fine for common use.
Ginger Beer Powders, and Soda Powders.
Put into blue papers, thirty grains to each paper, of bicarbonate of soda, five grains of powdered ginger, and a drachm of white powdered sugar. Put into white papers, twenty-five grains to each, of powdered tartaric acid.
Put one paper of each kind to half a pint of water. The common soda powders of the shops are like the above, when the sugar and ginger are omitted.
Soda powders can be kept on hand, and the water in which they are used can be flavored with any kind of syrup or tincture, and thus make a fine drink for hot weather.
Currant Ice Water.
Press the juice from ripe currants, strain it, and put a pound of sugar to each pint of juice. Put it into bottles, cork and seal it, and keep it in a cool, dry place. When wanted, mix it with ice water for a drink. Or put water with it, make it very sweet, and freeze it. Freezing always takes away much of the sweetness.
The juices of other acid fruits can be used in the same way.
Sarsaparilla Mead.
One pound of Spanish sarsaparilla. Boil it in four gallons of water five hours, and add enough water to have two gallons. Add sixteen pounds of sugar, and ten ounces of tartaric acid.
To make a tumbler of it, take half a wine-glass of the above, and then fill with water, and put in half a teaspoonful of soda.
Effervescing Fruit Drinks.
Very fine drinks for summer are prepared by putting strawberries, raspberries, or blackberries into good vinegar and then straining it off, and adding a new supply of fruit till enough flavor is secured, as directed in Strawberry Vinegar. Keep the vinegar bottled, and in hot weather use it thus. Dissolve half a teaspoonful or less of saleratus, or soda in a tumbler, very little water till the lumps are all out. Then fill the tumbler two-thirds full of water, and then add the fruit vinegar. If several are to drink, put the soda, or saleratus into the pitcher, and then put the fruit vinegar into each tumbler, and pour the alkali water from the pitcher into each tumbler, as each person is all ready to drink, as delay spoils it.
Effervescing Jelly Drinks.
When jams or jellies are too old to be good for table use, mix them with good vinegar, and then use them with soda, or saleratus, as directed above.
Summer Beverage.
Ten drops of oil of sassafras. Ten drops of oil of spruce. Ten drops of oil of wintergreen. Two quarts of boiling water poured on to two great spoonfuls of cream tartar. Then add eight quarts of cold water, the oils, three gills of distillery yeast (or twice as much home-brewed), and sweeten it to the taste. In twenty-four hours, bottle it, and it is a delicious beverage.
Simple Ginger Beer.
One great spoonful of ginger and one of cream tartar. One pint of home-brewed yeast and one pint of molasses. Six quarts of water. When it begins to ferment bottle it, and it will be ready for use in eight hours.
Orange, or Lemon Syrup.
Put a pound and a half of white sugar to each pint of juice, add some of the peel, boil ten minutes, then strain and cork it. It makes a fine beverage, and is useful to flavor pies and puddings.
Acid Fruit Syrups.
The juice of any acid fruit can be made into a syrup by the above receipt, using only a pound of sugar for each pint of juice, and kept on hand for summer drink.
Imitation Lemon Syrup.
Four ounces tartaric acid, powdered. Two drachms oil of lemon. This can be kept in a vial for a month, and then must be renewed. A tablespoonful put to water sweetened with loaf sugar, makes six glasses of lemonade.
Superior Ginger Beer.
Ten pounds of sugar.
Nine ounces of lemon juice.
Half a pound of honey.
Eleven ounces bruised ginger root.
Nine gallons of water. Three pints of yeast.
Boil the ginger half an hour in a gallon and a half of water, then add the rest of the water and the other ingredients, and strain it when cold, add the white of one egg beaten, and half an ounce of essence of lemon. Let it stand four days then bottle it, and it will keep good many months.
Lemon Sherbet.
Dissolve a pound and a half of loaf sugar in one quart of water, add the juice of ten lemons, press the lemons so as to extract not only the juice, but the oil of the rind, and let the skins remain a while in the water and sugar. Strain through a sieve, and then freeze it like ice cream.
Orange Sherbet.
Take the juice of a dozen oranges, and pour a pint of boiling water on the peel, and let it stand, covered, half an hour. Boil a pound of loaf sugar in a pint of water, skim, and then add the juice and the water in the peel to the sugar. Strain it and cool it with ice, or freeze it. The juice of two lemons and a little more sugar improves it.
Sham Champagne.
One lemon sliced.
A tablespoonful of tartaric acid.
One ounce of race ginger.
One pound and a half of sugar.
Two gallons and a half of boiling water poured on to the above. When blood warm, add a gill of distillery yeast, or twice as much of home-brewed. Let it stand in the sun through the day. When cold in the evening, cork and wire it. In two days it is ready for use.
Coffee.
Mocha and Old Java are the best, and time improves all kinds. Dry it a long time before roasting. Roast it quick, stirring constantly, or it will taste raw and bitter. When roasted, put in a bit of butter the size of a chestnut. Keep it shut up close, or it loses its strength and flavor. Never grind it till you want to use it, as it loses flavor by standing.
To prepare it, put two great spoonfuls to each pint of water, mix it with the white, yolk, and shell of an egg, pour on hot, but not boiling water, and boil it not over ten minutes. Take it off, pour in half a tea-cup of cold water, and in five minutes pour it off without shaking. When eggs are scarce, clear with fish skin, as below. Boiled milk improves both tea and coffee, but must be boiled separately. Much coffee is spoiled by being burned black instead of brown, and by being burned unequally, some too much and some too little. Constant care and stirring are indispensable.
Fish Skin for Coffee.
Take the skin of a mild codfish which has not been soaked, rinse and then dry it in a warm oven, after bread is drawn. Cut it in inch squares. One of these serves for two quarts of coffee, and is put in the first thing.
Chocolate.
Allow three large spoonfuls of scraped chocolate to each pint of water, or take off an inch of the cake for each quart of water, boil it half an hour, and do not boil the milk in it, but add it when wanted.
Cocoa and Shells.
Dry the nut in a warm oven after bread is drawn, pound it, and put an ounce to each pint of water. Boil an hour, and do not add milk till it is used. If shells are used, soak them over night, then boil them an hour in the same water. Put in as much as you like. Boil cocoa and chocolate the day before, cool and take off the oil, and then heat for use, and it is as good, and more healthful.
Tea.
The old-fashioned rule to put one teaspoonful for each person, is not proper, as thus fifty persons would require fifty teaspoonfuls, which is enormous. Every person must be guided by taste in this matter. Tea is spoilt unless the water is boiling when it is made. Black tea improves by boiling, but green is injured by it.
Ochra.
It is said that the seeds of ochra burnt like coffee, make a beverage almost exactly like it.
Children’s Drinks.
There are drinks easily prepared for children, which they love much better than tea and coffee, for no child at first loves these drinks till trained to it. As their older friends are served with green and black tea, there is a white tea to offer them, which they will always prefer, if properly trained, and it is always healthful.
White Tea.
Put two teaspoonfuls of sugar into half a cup of good milk, and fill it with boiling water.
Boy’s Coffee.
Crumb bread, or dry toast, into a bowl.
Put on a plenty of sugar, or molasses.
Put in one half milk and one half boiling water.
To be eaten with a spoon, or drank if preferred.
Molasses for sweetening is preferred by most children.
Strawberry Vinegar.
Put four pounds very ripe strawberries, nicely dressed, to three quarts of the best vinegar, and let them stand three, or four days. Then drain the vinegar through a jelly-bag, and pour it on to the same quantity of fruit. Repeat the process in three days a third time.
Finally, to each pound of the liquor thus obtained, add one pound of fine sugar. Bottle it and let it stand covered, but not tight corked, a week; then cork it tight, and set it in a dry and cool place, where it will not freeze. Raspberry vinegar can be made in the same way.
Royal Strawberry Acid.
Take three pounds of ripe strawberries, two ounces of citric acid, and one quart of spring water. Dissolve the acid in the water and pour it on to the strawberries, and let them stand in a cool place twenty-four hours. Then drain the liquid off and pour it on to three pounds more of strawberries, and let it stand twenty-four hours. Then add to the liquid its own weight of sugar, boil it three or four minutes (in a porcelain lined preserve kettle, lest metal may affect the taste), and when cool, cork it in bottles lightly for three days, and then tight, and seal them. Keep it in a dry and cool place, where it will not freeze. It is very delicious for the sick, or the well.
Delicious Milk Lemonade.
Pour a pint of boiling water on to six ounces of loaf sugar, add a quarter of a pint of lemon juice, and half the quantity of good sherry wine. Then add three quarters of a pint of cold milk, and strain the whole, to make it nice and clear.
Portable Lemonade.
Mix strained lemon juice with loaf sugar, in the proportion of four large lemons to a pound, or as much as it will hold in solution; grate the rind of the lemons into this, and preserve this in a jar. If this is too sweet, add a little citric acid. Use a tablespoonful to a tumbler of water.
[CHAPTER XX.]
RECEIPTS FOR FOOD AND DRINKS FOR THE SICK.
General Remarks on the Preparation of Articles for the Sick.
Always have everything you use very sweet and clean, as the sense of taste and smell are very sensitive in sickness. Never cook articles for the sick over a smoke or blaze, as you will thus impart a smoky taste. When the mixture is thick, stir often to prevent burning. Be very careful, in putting in seasoning, not to put in too much, as it is easy to add, but not to subtract.
The nicest way to flavor with orange or lemon peel, is to rub loaf sugar on the peel till the oil is absorbed into it, and then use the sugar to flavor and sweeten. Herbs and spice, when boiled to flavor, should be tied in a rag, as they will not then burn on to the vessel at the edges.
Always have a shawl at hand, also a clean towel, a clean handkerchief, and a small waiter when you present food or drink. Many of the articles for desserts and evening parties are good for the sick.
An Excellent Relish for a Convalescent.
Cut some codfish to bits the size of a pea, and boil it a minute in water to freshen it. Pour off all the water, and add some cream and a little pepper.
Split and toast a Boston cracker, and put the above upon it. Milk with a little butter may be used instead of cream.
Ham or smoked beef may be prepared in the same way. For a variety, beat up an egg and stir it in, instead of cream, or with the cream.
These preparations are also good for a relish for a family at breakfast or tea.
Several Ways of Preparing Chickens for the Sick.
Chicken tea is made by boiling any part of the chicken, and using the broth weak with only a little salt.
Chicken broth is made by boiling a chicken a good deal, and skimming very thoroughly and seasoning with salt. A little rice, or pearl barley improves it, or a little parsley may be used to flavor it.
Chicken panada is made by pounding some of the meat of boiled chicken in a mortar, with a little broth, and also a little salt and nutmeg. Then pour in a little broth and boil it five minutes. It should be a thick broth.
Milk Porridge.
Make a thin batter with Indian meal and wheat flour, a spoonful of each, and pour it into a quart of boiling milk and water, equal portions of each. Salt it to the taste. Boil ten minutes.
Rice Gruel, and Oatmeal Gruel.
Make a thin paste of ground rice or Indian meal, and pour into boiling water, or boiling milk and water. Let the rice boil up once, but the corn meal must boil half an hour. Season with salt, sugar, and nutmeg. A little cream is a great improvement.
Arrowroot and Tapioca Gruels.
Jamaica arrowroot is the best. Make a thin paste, and pour into boiling water, and flavor with sugar, salt, and nutmeg. A little lemon juice improves it.
Tapioca must be soaked in twice the quantity of water over night, then add milk and water, and boil till it is soft. Flavor as above.
Dropped Egg.
Salt some boiling water, and drop in it a raw egg out of the shell, taking care not to break the yolk; take it up as soon as the white is hardened. Dip some toast in hot water, and put salt or butter on to it, and lay the egg on the top.
Wheat Gruel for Young Children with weak stomachs, or for Invalids.
Tie half a pint of wheat flour in thick cotton, and boil it three or four hours; then dry the lump and grate it when you use it. Prepare a gruel of it by making a thin paste, and pouring it into boiling milk and water, and flavor with salt. This is good for teething children.
Another Panada.
Boil a mixture of one-fourth wine, and three-fourths water, and flavor it with nutmeg or lemon. Stir in grated bread or crackers, and let it boil up once.
Herb Drinks.
Balm tea is often much relished by the sick. Sage tea also is good. Balm, sage, and sorrel, mixed with sliced lemon and boiling water poured on, and then sweetened, is a fine drink. Pennyroyal makes a good drink to promote perspiration.
Herb drinks must often be renewed, as they grow insipid by standing.
Other Simple Drinks.
Pour boiling water on to tamarinds, or mashed cranberries, or mashed whortleberries, then pour off the water and sweeten it. Add a little wine if allowed.
Toast bread very brown, and put it in cold water, and it is often relished. Pour boiling water on to bread toasted very brown, and boil it a minute, then strain it, and add a little cream and sugar. Make a tea of parched corn pounded, and add sugar and cream.
Cream Tartar Whey.
Warm a pint of fresh milk, when scalding hot, stir in a teaspoonful of cream tartar, and if this does not turn it, add more, till it does. Strain it, and sweeten with loaf sugar. Those who cannot eat wine whey can eat this without trouble, and it is good in fevers.
Simple Wine Whey.
Mix equal quantities of water, milk, and white wine. Warm the milk and water, and then add the wine. Sweeten it to the taste.
A great Favorite with Invalids.
Take one third brisk cider and two thirds water, sweeten it, and crumb in toasted bread, or toasted crackers, and grate on nutmeg. Acid jellies will answer for this, when cider cannot be obtained.
A New Way of making Barley Water.
Put two tablespoonfuls of pearl barley into a quart jug, two great spoonfuls of white sugar, a small pinch of salt, a small bit of orange, or lemon peel, and a glass of calve’s foot jelly, and then fill the jug with boiling water. Shake it, and then let it stand till quite cold. It is best made over night, to use next day. When the liquor is all poured off, it may be filled again with boiling water, and it is again very good.
Panada.
Take two crackers, pour on boiling water, and let it simmer five minutes; beat up an egg, sweeten and flavor it to your taste, and then put the cracker to it.
Arrowroot Blanc Mange.
Take two tablespoonfuls of arrowroot to one quart of milk, and a pinch of salt. Scald the milk, sweeten it, and then stir in the arrowroot, which must first be wet up with some of the milk. Let it boil up once. Orange water, rose water, or lemon peel, can be used to flavor it. Pour it into moulds to cool.
Rice Flour Blanc Mange.
Four tablespoonfuls of ground rice and a pinch of salt wet up with a little milk and stirred into a quart of boiling milk. Rub the rind of a lemon with hard, refined sugar, till all the oil is absorbed, and use the sugar to sweeten to your taste. Boil, stirring well, for eight minutes; then cool it, and add the whites of three eggs cut to a froth. Put it on to the fire, and stir constantly till boiling hot, then turn it into moulds, or cups, and let it stand till cold.
Another Receipt for American Isinglass Jelly.
One ounce of gelatine, or American isinglass.
Three pints of boiling water.
A pound and a half of loaf sugar.
Three lemons, cut in slices, leaving out the peel of one.
The whites of four eggs, cut to a stiff froth.
Soak the isinglass half an hour in cold water, then take it out and pour on the boiling water. When cool, add the sugar, lemon, and whites of eggs; boil all three or four minutes, then strain through a jelly-bag, and add wine to your taste.
Tapioca Jelly.
One cup full of tapioca.
Wash it two or three times, soak it in water, for five or six hours. Then simmer it in the same water in which it has been soaked, with a pinch of salt and bits of fresh lemon peel, until it becomes transparent. Then add lemon juice, wine, and loaf sugar to flavor it. Let all simmer well together, then pour into glasses to cool.
Caudle.
To rice, or water gruel, add a wine-glass of wine, or ale, and season with nutmeg and sugar.
Sago Jelly.
Soak a tea-cup full of sago in cold water, half an hour, then pour off the water, and add fresh, and soak it another half hour; and then boil it slowly with a pinch of salt, a stick of cinnamon, or a bit of orange, or lemon peel, stirring constantly. When thickened, add wine and white sugar to suit the taste, and let it boil a minute; then turn it into cups.
Spiced Chocolate.
One quart of milk.
Two squares of chocolate.
One stick of cinnamon.
A little nutmeg.
Grate the chocolate. Boil the milk, reserving a little cold to moisten the chocolate, which must be mixed perfectly smooth to a thin paste. When the milk boils (in which the cinnamon must be put when cold, and boil in it), stir in the chocolate, and let it boil up quickly, then pour into a pitcher, and grate on the nutmeg. Rich cream added to the milk, will improve it.
Barley Water.
Put two ounces of pearl barley to half a pint of boiling water, and let it simmer five minutes; pour off the water, and add two quarts of boiling water, add two ounces sliced figs, two of stoned raisins, and boil till it is reduced to a quart. Strain it for drink.
Water Gruel.
To two quarts of boiling water, add one gill of Indian meal and a heaped tablespoonful of flour, made into a paste and stirred in the water. Let it boil slowly twenty minutes. Salt, sugar, and nutmeg to the taste.
Oatmeal makes a fine gruel in the same way.
Beef Tea.
Broil a pound of tender, juicy beef ten minutes, salt and pepper it, cut it in small pieces, pour on a pint of boiling water, steep it half an hour, and then pour it off to drink. Another way is slower, but better. Cut the beef in small pieces, fill a junk bottle with them, and keep it five hours in boiling water. Then pour out, and season the juice thus obtained.
Tomato Syrup.
Express the juice of ripe tomatoes, and put a pound of sugar to each quart of the juice, put it in bottles, and set it aside. In a few weeks it will have the appearance and flavor of pure wine of the best kind, and mixed with water is a delightful beverage for the sick. No alcohol is needed to preserve it.
The medical properties of the tomato are in high repute, and it is supposed that this syrup retains all that is contained in the fruit.
Arrowroot Custard for Invalids.
One tablespoonful of arrowroot.
One pint of milk. One egg.
One tablespoonful of sugar.
Mix the arrowroot with a little of the cold milk, put the milk into a sauce-pan over the fire, and when it boils, stir in the arrowroot and the egg and sugar, well beaten together. Let it scald, and pour into cups to cool. A little cinnamon boiled in the milk flavors it pleasantly.
Sago for Invalids.
Wash one large spoonful of sago, boil it in a little water, with a pinch of salt and one or two sticks of cinnamon, until it looks clear; then add a pint of milk, boil all well together, and sweeten with loaf sugar.
Rice Jelly.
Make a thin paste of two ounces of rice flour, and three ounces of loaf sugar, and boil them in a quart of water till transparent. Flavor with rose, orange, or cinnamon water. It can be made also by boiling whole rice long and slowly. A pinch of salt improves it.
Sassafras Jelly.
Take the pith of sassafras boughs, break it in small pieces, and let it soak in cold water till the water becomes glutinous. It has the flavor of sassafras, and is much relished by the sick, and is also good nourishment.
Buttermilk Whey.
One quart of good buttermilk. When boiling, beat up the yolk of an egg, and stir in, and, if it can be allowed, some thick cream, or a little butter. Then beat the white to a stiff froth and stir in. Sugar and spice if liked.
Alum Whey.
Mix half an ounce of pounded alum with one pint of milk. Strain it, and add sugar and nutmeg to the whey. It is good in cases of hemorrhages, and sometimes for colic.
Another Wine Whey.
One pint of boiling milk.
Two wine-glasses of wine.
Boil them one moment, stirring.
Take out the curd, and sweeten and flavor the whey.
Mulled Wine.
One pint of wine and one pint of water.
Beat eight eggs and add to the above, while boiling, stirring rapidly. As soon as it begins to boil it is done.
Tamarind Whey.
Mix an ounce of tamarind pulp with a pint of milk, strain it, and add a little white sugar to the whey.
Egg Tea and Egg Coffee (very fine).
Beat the yolk of an egg with a great spoonful of sugar, and put it to a tea-cup of cold tea or cold coffee. Add a half a tea-cup of water, cold in summer and boiling in winter, and as much cream. Then whip the white of the egg to a stiff froth and stir it in. It is very much relished by invalids.
Cranberry Tea.
Wash ripe cranberries, mash them, pour boiling water on them, and then strain off the water and sweeten it, and grate on nutmeg.
Apple Tea.
Take good pippins, slice them thin, pour on boiling water, and let it stand some time. Pour off the water, and sweeten and flavor it.
Egg and Milk.
Beat the yolk of an egg into a great spoonful of white sugar, or more. Add a coffee cup of good milk, then beat the white of the egg to a stiff froth, and stir it in. A little wine, or nutmeg to flavor it.
Sago Milk.
Soak one ounce of sago in a pint of cold water an hour. Pour off the water, and add a pint and a half of new milk. Simmer it slowly till the sago and milk are well mixed. Flavor with sugar, nutmeg, and wine.
Tapioca Milk.
Made like sago milk, only not boiled so long.
Bread and Milk.
Take a slice of good bread and soak it in milk, and then put on a little butter, and it is often very acceptable to the sick. In some cases sprinkle a little salt on instead of butter.
Egg Gruel.
Beat the yolk of an egg with a spoonful of white sugar, and then beat the white separately, to a stiff froth. Pour water when boiling to the yolk, then stir in the white and add spice, or any seasoning, to suit the taste. When a person has taken a violent cold, after being warm in bed give this as hot as it can be taken, and it is often a perfect cure.
Ground Rice Gruel.
Take two tablespoonfuls of ground rice, and a pinch of salt, and mix it with milk enough for a thin batter. Stir it with a pint of boiling water, or boiling milk, and flavor with sugar and spice.
Oatmeal Gruel.
Four tablespoonfuls of grits (coarse oatmeal) and a pinch of salt, into a pint of boiling water. Strain and flavor it while warm.
Or, take fine oatmeal and make a thin batter with a little cold water, and pour it into a sauce-pan of boiling water.
Simple Barley Water.
Take two ounces and a half of pearl barley, cleanse it, and boil it ten minutes in half a pint of water. Strain out this water and add two quarts of boiling water, and boil it down to one quart. Then strain it, and flavor it with slices of lemon and sugar, or sugar and nutmeg.
This is very acceptable to the sick in fevers.
Compound Barley Water.
Take two pints of simple barley water, a pint of hot water, two and a half ounces of sliced figs, half an ounce of liquorice root sliced and bruised, and two ounces and a half of raisins. Boil all down to two pints, and strain it. This is slightly aperient.
Cream Tartar Beverage.
Take two even teaspoonfuls of cream tartar, and pour on a pint of boiling water, and flavor it with white sugar and lemon peel to suit the taste. If this is too acid, add more boiling water, as cold, or lukewarm water, is not so good.
Seidlitz Powders.
Two drachms of Rochelle salts, and two scruples of bicarbonate of soda, in a white paper; thirty-five grains of tartaric acid in a blue one.
Dissolve that in the white paper in nearly half a tumbler of water, then add the other powder, dissolved in another half tumbler of water.
Syrup mixed with the water makes it more agreeable. It is a gentle laxative.
Blackberry Syrup, for Cholera and Summer Complaint.
Two quarts of blackberry juice.
One pound of loaf sugar.
Half an ounce of nutmegs.
A quarter of an ounce of cloves.
Half an ounce of cinnamon.
Half an ounce of allspice.
Pulverize the spice, and boil all for fifteen or twenty minutes. When cold, add a pint of brandy.
Remarks on the Combinations of Cooking.
The preceding receipts have been tested by the best housekeepers. In reviewing them, it will be seen that there are several ways of combining the various articles, all of which have, in the hands of good housekeepers, proved successful. Still it will be found that some methods are more successful than others.
In most cases, the receipts have been written as given by the ladies, who endorse them as the best. But it is believed that the following general rules will enable a housekeeper to modify some of them to advantage.
In using the whites of eggs, it is found, as shown by several receipts, that various combinations are much lighter when they are cut to a froth, and put in the last thing. This is so in batter puddings, and several other receipts. It seems, therefore, probable that in all cases, cake and pies, and puddings that will allow it, will be lighter by adding the cut whites of the eggs the last minute before cooking. Sponge cake especially would most probably be most easily made light by this method.
In using alkalies with acids to raise mixtures, the poorest is pearlash, the next best is saleratus; bicarbonate of soda is still better, and sal volatile is best of all.
But one thing must be remembered in reference to sal volatile, and that is, that the lightness made by it is owing to the disengagement of the gas by heat. It is mixed with the flour, and when set in the oven, the heat volatilizes and expels the gas, and thus the lightness is induced. Of course hot water must not be used to dissolve it, as it would expel much of the gas. Sal volatile must be kept powdered, and closely confined in glass bottles with ground glass stoppers. It is certain to make any mixture light that can be raised by anything.
Cream tartar is best bought in lumps, and then pulverized and kept corked.
When saleratus is used with sour milk or buttermilk, the flour should be wet up with the sour milk, and then the alkali dissolved, and worked in. This makes the effervescence take place in the mixture; whereas, if the alkali is put into the sour liquid, much of the carbonic acid generated is lost before it reaches the flour.
In all cases, then, where saleratus is used with acid wetting, it would seem best to wet up the flour with at least a part of the sour liquid, before putting in the alkali.
When the alkali is a light powder, it may sometimes be mixed thoroughly with the flour, and then the sour liquid be mixed in. The experiment can be made by any who like to learn the result. A lady who understands chemistry may often improve her receipts by applying chemical principles. All the lightness made by an acid and an alkali is owing to the disengagement of carbonic acid, which is retained by the gluten of the flour. Of course, then, that mode is best which secures most effectually all the carbonic acid generated by the combination.
Cooking is often much improved by a judicious use of sugar or molasses. Thus, in soups, a very little sugar, say half a teaspoonful to the quart, gives body to the soup, and just about as much sweetness as is found in the juices of the best and sweetest kinds of meat. It is very good when the meats used are of inferior kind, and destitute of sweetness. So in preparing vegetables that are destitute of sweetness, a little sugar is a great improvement. Mashed turnips, squash, and pumpkin, are all of them much improved by extracting all the water, and adding a little sugar, especially so when they are poor.
A little molasses always improves all bread or cakes made of unbolted wheat or rye.
A little lard or butter always improves cakes made of Indian meal, as it makes them light and tender.
The careful use of salt is very important in cooking. Everything is better to have the salt cooked in it, but there should always be a little less salt than most would like, as it is easy for those who wish more to add it, but none can subtract it.
When the shortening is butter, no salt is needed in cakes and puddings, but in all combinations that have no salt in shortening, it must be added. A little salt in sponge cake, custards, and the articles used for desserts, made of gelatine, rice, sago, and tapioca, is a great improvement, giving both body and flavor.
[CHAPTER XXI.]
ON MAKING BUTTER AND CHEESE.
The directions in this article were given by a practical amateur cheese-maker of Goshen, Conn., a place distinguished all over the nation for the finest butter and cheese.
Articles used in Making Cheese.
The articles used in making cheese are, a large tub, painted inside and outside, to hold the milk, a large brass kettle to heat it, a cheese basket, cheese hooks, cheese ladders, strainers of loose linen cloth, and a cheese press.
It is indispensable that all the articles used be first washed thoroughly, then scalded, and then dried thoroughly, before putting away.
Mode of Preparing the Rennet.
Do not remove any part of the curd that may be found in the rennet (which is the stomach of a calf), as it is the best part. Take out everything mixed with the curd in the stomach. Soak the rennet in a quart of water, then hang it to dry, where flies will not reach it, and keep the water bottled for use. Rennet differs in strength, so that no precise rule can be given for quantity, but say about half a tea-cup full to two pails of milk.
To Make Cheese.
Strain the milk into the tub, keeping in all the cream. Heat a portion, and then add it to the cold, till the whole is raised to 98° or 100° Fahrenheit; no more and no less. Then put in the rennet, stirring well, and take enough to have the curd form well in an hour. If it does not form well, more must be stirred in.
When the curd is formed, cut it in small checks to the bottom, and then break it gently with a skimmer, to make the whey separate. If this is not done gently, the milk runs off, the whey turns white, and the cheese is injured. The greener the whey, the better the cheese.
When the whey is separated, set the basket over the tub, spread the strainer over, and dip the curd into it, occasionally lifting the corners to hasten the draining.
Then draw up the corners, twist them, and set a stone on, to press out the whey for ten minutes. Then again cut up the curd, and press it again as before. Continue thus till it is thoroughly drained. Then press it all into some regular form, and in cool weather it may stand till next morning for more cheese to be added. But if the weather is hot, it must be scalded the first day.
To Scald the Curd.
Cut, or chop the curd into cakes the fourth of an inch in size, put it in the strainer, and immerse it in the brass kettle of warm water, enough to cover it. Then raise the temperature to 105°. Stir it well till warmed through, say half an hour. Then gradually add cold water, till reduced to 88° or 90°. Then drain the curd thoroughly as before, and salt it, allowing four ounces of salt to every ten pounds of curd, and mixing very thoroughly. Then put it into the small strainers, and then into the cheese hoops, laying the strainer over smoothly, and placing the follower on it. Put it to press, and let it remain two days. When taken from the press, grease it with common butter or butter made of whey cream, and set it on a shelf in a dark, cool room. Grease and turn it every day till firm, and for six months grease and turn it often.
If the cheese is to be colored, boil anatto with ley, and put to the milk with the rennet. To make sage cheese, put in sage juice (some add to the sage spinach juice) when you put in the rennet. Sew strips of strong cotton around large cheeses, when taken from the press, to preserve their form. In fly time, put cayenne pepper in the butter you rub on.
Stilton cheese is made of milk enriched by cream, and of a small size.
Cottage cheese is made by pressing the curds of milk, and when free from whey, adding cream or butter and salt.
Welsh rabbit is made by melting cheese and adding wine and other seasoning.
Old and dry cheese is very good grated and mixed with a little brandy, just enough to wet it up.
Directions for making Butter.
Two particulars are indispensable to success in making good butter; the first is, that the churning be frequent, so that the cream will not grow bitter, or sour; and the second is cleanliness in all the implements and processes connected with it.
In hot weather it is important to keep the milk, cream, and butter as cool as possible. For this purpose, those who have no ice-house, or very cool milk-room, hang their cream down a well. In winter it is needful to raise the temperature of the cream a little, while churning, but care must be taken to do it very slightly, or the butter is injured. The best way is to warm the churn, and churn in a warm room.
After the weather gets cold, the cream rises more perfectly after allowing the milk to stand say ten or eleven hours, to set it over a furnace a while till it is warmed through, but not heated hot enough to boil. Then take it back, let it stand eleven hours longer, and skim it. This secures more, and better cream.
In hot weather, set the churn into a tub of cold water, and churn steadily, as stopping puts back the process, and injures the butter. In hot weather, do not churn very fast, as it makes soft butter. When the butter has come, collect it in a wooden bowl, which is the best article to work it in, having first scalded it, and then put it in cold water till cold. Do not use the hand in working over butter, as it injures it so much that a higher price is often paid for butter made without using the hand.
A wooden spad made for the purpose is the proper article for working over butter.
As soon as the butter is put in the bowl, pour in as much of the coldest water as will allow you to work the butter, and keep adding and pouring off cold water, as you work it, until the water will run off clear. It is continuing this process until all the buttermilk is extracted, which alone will secure butter that will keep good and sweet. Water hastens the process, but butter keeps longer not to have it used.
No precise direction can be given for salting, as tastes vary so much in regard to this. It is a good way to notice the proportions which are most agreeable, and note the measure, and then measure ever after.
In salting down in firkins, use the nicest rock salt, as much depends on the nature of the salt. The firkins must be very thoroughly seasoned, and the bottom covered with salt, and the sides rubbed with it. Pack the butter in layers, with salt between. After a few days, the butter will shrink from the sides, and then the space must be filled with new and nice brine. Muslin spread under and over the layer of salt, between the layers of butter is a good plan, as it saves the butter.
It is said that butter will be preserved sweet a long time for journeys, or voyages, by working into it very thoroughly a mixture composed of one-fourth salt, one-fourth saltpetre, and two-fourths white sugar.
In large dairies, the milk is churned soon after it is taken from the cow.
The quality of butter depends very much upon the kind of cows. Those who give a great deal of milk, are usually small and thin. Every cow should have a tea-cup full of salt each week, and must be well fed. Green cornstalks and carrots, are excellent for cows. Turnips, cabbage, and parsnips spoil the milk. The waste of the kitchen, with a quart of corn meal, and as much hay as she will eat daily, is good fare. Skimmed milk for drink is good, and if it is refused, withhold water, and the cow will learn to love it. Milk three times a day, and you get much more cream; stripping must be done thoroughly, or you lose cream, and dry up the cow. Never make a cow run, as it injures the milk. Use tin vessels for milk.
A stoneware churn is best, and a tin one is better than wood. Keep milk in a cool place, where air circulates freely; close air spoils milk and cream. Never stir milk after it is set, as it stops the rising of the cream. Skim milk as soon as it becomes loppard. Put a little ice in each pan in hot weather, and you get more cream. In skimming milk, do not scrape off the hardest portion that adheres to the pan, as it injures the butter. Put a spoonful of salt to each pailful of milk (except what is for family use), and it makes the butter sweeter, and come easier. Salt your cream as you gather it, and it keeps better, and makes sweeter butter. In hot weather churn in the coolest part of the day, and in a cool place, and do not shut the air out of the churn, as it is necessary to make the butter come. Butter is best, to work it enough the first time. Never work it three times. It will keep better to work out the buttermilk without putting in water. The more entirely it is freed from buttermilk, the longer it will keep sweet.
A good brine is made for butter by dissolving a quart of fine salt, a pound of loaf sugar, and a teaspoonful of saltpetre in two quarts of water, and then strain it on to the butter. Packed butter is most perfectly preserved sweet by setting the firkin into a larger firkin, and filling in with good brine, and covering it. Butter will keep sweet a year thus.
Buttermilk kept in potter’s ware dissolves the glazing, and becomes poisonous.
Never scald strainers or milky vessels till thoroughly washed, as the milk or cream put in them will be injured by it. The best way to scald such vessels is to plunge them all over into scalding water, and then every spot is scalded.
Butter will sometimes not come because the air is too much excluded from the churn.
[CHAPTER XXII.]
ARTICLES AND CONVENIENCES FOR THE SICK.
“In some maladies,” says Dr. Pereira, “as fevers and acute inflammatory diseases, an almost unlimited use of fluids is admitted, under the names of slops, thin diet, fever diet, broth diet, &c. They quench thirst, lessen the stimulating quality of the blood, increase its fluidity, and promote the actions of the secreting organs. They are sometimes useful, also, in lessening the irritating contents of the alimentary canal.”
“But in some maladies it is necessary to restrict the quantity of fluids taken, or, in other words, to employ a dry diet.”
As it is so customary for invalids to throng to watering places, the following remarks contain very important cautions.
“The Congress Water at Saratoga,” says Dr. Lee, “though it possesses active medical qualities, yet, except in diseases attended with inflammatory action, seldom occasions unpleasant consequences, unless drank in very large quantities, when it often causes serious, if not dangerous effects.” Dr. Steel, a physician who has devoted much attention to this subject, remarks, “About three pints should be taken, an hour or two before breakfast, and be followed by exercise, to produce a cathartic effect. Where more is needed for this effect, add a teaspoonful or two of Epsom salts to the first tumbler. It should not be drank at all during the remainder of the day by those who wish to experience the full benefit of its use. It would be better for those whose complaints render them fit subjects for its administration, if the fountain should be locked up, and no one suffered to approach it after the hour of nine or ten in the morning.”
It is probable that multitudes who frequent mineral springs, not only lose all benefit, but suffer injury by the excessive use of the water. Such waters should, by invalids, be taken under the direction of a physician well acquainted with their nature and uses.
Alcoholic drinks should never be given to the sick, except by direction of a physician, as they are powerful medical agents, and in some cases would increase disease.
The acid drinks are ordinarily those most relished by the sick, and they are, usually, very serviceable, especially in febrile and other inflammatory attacks. Ice cream and drinks are good for the sick, especially in fevers.
When a person is debilitated by sickness, the stomach should never be loaded with rich food. Nor should the palate be tempted by favorite articles, when no appetite for food exists, as this is the indication of nature that the stomach is in no order to digest food.
Dr. Lee remarks, “We regard rice as the most valuable of all the articles of food, in cases of the derangement of the digestive organs. It nourishes, while it soothes the irritable mucous membrane, and while it supports strength, never seems to aggravate the existing disease. For acute, or chronic affections of the alimentary canal, rice water for drink, and rice jelly for food, seem peculiarly well adapted, and appear to exert a specific influence in bringing about a recovery. These preparations are invaluable also in convalescence from acute fevers and other maladies, and in the summer complaints of young children.”
“Isinglass is a very pure form of gelatine, and dissolved in milk, sweetened and flavored, is taken with advantage by convalescents when recovering from debility.”
Cod sounds, and the American gelatine, are equally good. Calve’s foot jelly, blanc mange, and other gelatinous food, are among the best kinds of nourishment, especially in cases of cholera infantum. The slight quantity of spice or wine used to flavor such articles, except in peculiar cases, cannot do any injury.
Buttered toast, either dry or dipped, rarely is a suitable article for the sick, as melted oils are very difficult of digestion. Where there are strong powers of digestion, it may be proper.
Many cases of illness, among both adults and children, are readily cured by abstinence from all food. Headaches, disordered stomachs, and many other attacks, are caused, often, by violating the rules of health laid down in the preceding chapter, and in consequence, some part of the system is overloaded, or some of the organs are clogged. Omitting one, two, or three meals, as the case may be, gives the system a chance to rest, and thus to gain strength, and allows the clogged organs to dispose of their burdens. The practice of giving drugs to “clear out the stomach,” though it may afford the needed relief, always weakens the system, while abstinence secures the good result, and yet does no injury.
Said a young gentleman to a distinguished medical practitioner of Philadelphia,—“Doctor, what do you do for yourself, when you have a turn of headache, or other slight attack?” “Go without my dinner,” was the reply. “Well, if that will not do, what do you do then?” “Go without my supper,” was the answer. “But if that does not cure you, what then?” “Go without my breakfast. We physicians seldom take medicines ourselves, or use them in our families, for we know that starving is better, but we cannot make our patients believe it.”
Many cases of slight indisposition are cured by a change of diet. Thus, if a person suffers from constipation, and, as the consequence, has headaches, slight attacks of fever, or dyspepsia, the cause often may be removed by eating rye mush and molasses for breakfast, brown bread, baked apples, and other fruits.
In cases of diarrhœa, rice water for drink, and rice pudding or jelly, will often remove the evil.
In cases of long-continued confinement from sickness, it is very desirable to have a good variety of articles for the sick, as the invalid is wearied with the same round, and perhaps may be suffering for some ingredient of food, which is not found in the articles provided.
For this reason, a large number of receipts of articles for the sick have been provided in this work. In preparing them, great care should be used to have every article employed clean and pure, and to prevent any burning in cooking, as the sensibilities of the sick to bad tastes and smells are very acute.
It is often the case in dyspepsia and cholera infantum, that jellies of American gelatine are very much better than any preparations of farinaceous food, being much more easily digested.
It would be a happy thing for the sick, and a most benevolent custom, if the young ladies of a place should practise cooking the various articles for the sick, and carrying them to invalids as an offering of kindness and sympathy. It would be twice a blessing, first to the invalid, and quite as much to the young benefactress.
There are many little comforts and alleviations for the sick, which should be carefully attended to, which are particularly pointed out in the chapter on the Care of the Sick, in the Domestic Economy. Such, for example, as keeping a room neat, clean, and in perfect order, having every article in use sweet and clean, keeping a good supply of cool water, providing pleasant perfumes, lemons, flowers, and other objects agreeable to the senses, speaking softly, kindly, and cheerfully, and reading the Bible and other cheering books of the kind, whenever it will be acceptable. Be careful to change the linen next the skin, and the bed linen, often. Be sure to ventilate the room thoroughly, two or three times a day, as pure air is a great restorative of health and strength. Wash the skin often, as it has a great tendency to restore health, and never, except in very peculiar cases, can do any harm.
Always request a physician to write all his directions, that no mistake may be made, and nothing be forgotten. Always inquire of him as to the exact mode of preparing every article ordered, and never venture to alter, or omit, what he directs, unless you are sure that you are better qualified to practise than he, in which case he should be dismissed, and you should assume his duties.
Always keep all medicines in papers and vials, labelled, that poisons be not given by mistake, or other injurious articles used.
The drawing at Fig. 5 represents a contrivance for the sick, which ought to be prepared in every village, to rent out to those who need it.
Fig. 5.
It is called the Water Bed, or Hydrostatic Couch, and is made at an expense of from twelve to fifteen dollars. The object of it is to relieve the sufferings of those who, from extreme emaciation, or from ulcers, or bed sores, are great sufferers from the pressure of the bed on these sore places. This kind of bed proves a great relief from this kind of suffering.
It consists of a wooden box, six feet long, and two feet and a half wide at the top, and the sides gradually sloping inward, making it fourteen inches deep. This is lined with sheet zinc, to make it water tight. Over this is thrown, and fastened to the edge of the box, a sheet of thick India rubber, water-proof cloth, large enough for an entire lining to the inside of the box. The edges of it are first made to adhere to the upper edge of the box with spirit varnish, and then a thin strip of board is nailed on, to fasten it firmly, and make it water tight. Near the bottom, at A, is a hole and plug, to let off water; and at B, a tin tube, soldered in the upper part of the outside, to pour water in. When used, the box is to be filled half full of water, about blood warmth. Then a woollen blanket and pillow are laid upon the India rubber cloth, and the patient laid on them, and he will float as he would in water, and there will be no pressure on any part of the body greater than is felt when the body is in water.
This is important for all who suffer from bed sores, or sloughing in protracted fevers, from diseases in the hip-joint, from diseases of the spine, lingering consumption, and all diseases that compel to a protracted recumbent position. None but those who have seen, or experienced the relief and comfort secured to sufferers by this bed, can conceive of its value. The writer saw the case of a young man, who was enduring indescribable tortures with the most dreadful ulcers all over his body, and who had for several days and nights been unable to sleep, from extreme suffering. This bed was made for him, as an experiment, after trying every other mode of relief in vain. It was placed by his bedside, and the water poured in, and then his friends raised him with the greatest care in a blanket, and laid him on it. Instantly his groans ceased, an expression of relief and delight stole over his countenance, and exhausted nature sunk instantly into the most peaceful and protracted slumbers. And ever after, he was relieved from his former sufferings. Every hospital, every alms-house, and every village should have the means of obtaining such a bed for the many classes of sufferers who would thus find relief, and it is woman who should interest herself to secure such a comfort for the sick, who especially are commended to her benevolent ministries.
The drawing, AA, is the outline of a sick couch, such as would prove a great comfort in every family, and at a small expense. The following are the dimensions:—Length of seat inside, six feet three inches; breadth, twenty-eight inches; height of the seat from the floor, thirteen inches. The swing frame, dd, is three feet long, and is fastened three feet from the head-board by a very large pin or screw. The seat should be of sacking, and a thick hair mattrass, or cushion for a bed or cushion and be divided into two parts, where the swing frame is fastened. The frame is fastened by large screws at ff. The supporter, ee, is fastened by large and strong hinges to the upper part of the frame, and is moved into the notches made in the frame of the seat. When in the notch a, the frame is very low; when in notch b, it is higher; and when at c, it is as high as is needful to raise the sick. A piece of sacking is to be fastened over the frame, leaving it loose, especially at the top, and leaving a space at o, so as to give room for a pillow, and so that the head can be thrown a little back. The frame and supporter must be thick and strong. When not in use for the sick, the frame can be laid down, and the cushion laid over it, and then with a frill fastened in front, it makes a good-looking and most comfortable chamber couch, or a lolling sofa for a sitting-room.
Such a couch saves much labor to friends and nurses, because it is so low, so easily moved, and the nurse can go around it and work on both sides so easily, while the frame raises the patient with great ease and comfort. It would be a good plan to engage some carpenter or cabinet-maker, in every village, to provide such an article to rent out, and probably it would be in constant demand.
The frame, supporter, hinges, and screws, must be very strong, or they will break.
Fig. 6 represents a contrivance for securing exercise in the open air for invalids, which would often prove convenient and agreeable.
Such an article can be easily made of the broken toy of a child, called a velocipede, or the back wheels of a child’s wagon. Nothing but shafts are needed, and a common rocking-chair, with a foot-board nailed across the front rocker, on which to rest the feet. The chair is then slipped along back to the axle of the wheels, so that the shafts, when raised, are under the seat, and lift it up. In this way an invalid can be rolled through yards and gardens with very little effort, and with great comfort and relief to the imprisoned sufferer, who perhaps can ride in no other way.
Fig. 6.
There is no way of relieving the weariness and nervousness of an invalid more effectually than by rubbing the limbs and arms with the bare hand of a healthful person.
Those who believe in animal magnetism would say, that by this method, the well person imparts a portion of the magnetism of a healthful body to aid in restoring the sick. Those who do not believe in it, will say that it soothes and strengthens the nerves. Either way, it is a great comfort to a suffering invalid.
It is unhealthful to sleep with a sick person, especially one who has lung complaints, as the breath and effluvia from the skin sometimes communicate disease, even in complaints not contagious. Young children should not sleep with the aged, because their healthful fluids will be absorbed.
[CHAPTER XXIII.]
THE PROVIDING AND CARE OF FAMILY STORES.
The art of keeping a good table, consists, not in loading on a variety at each meal, but rather in securing a successive variety, a table neatly and tastefully set, and everything that is on it, cooked in the best manner.
There are some families who provide an abundance of the most expensive and choice articles, and spare no expenses in any respect, who yet have everything cooked in such a miserable way, and a table set in so slovenly a manner, that a person accustomed to a really good table, can scarcely taste a morsel with any enjoyment.
On the contrary, there are many tables where the closest economy is practised, and yet the table-cloth is so white and smooth, the dishes, silver, glass, and other table articles so bright, and arranged with such propriety, the bread so white, light, and sweet, the butter so beautiful, and every other article of food so well cooked, and so neatly and tastefully served, that everything seems good, and pleases both the eye and the palate.
A habit of doing everything in the best manner, is of unspeakable importance to a housekeeper, and every woman ought to aim at it, however great the difficulties she may have to meet. If a young housekeeper commences with a determination to try to do everything in the best manner, and perseveres in the effort, meeting all obstacles with patient cheerfulness, not only the moral, but the intellectual tone of her mind is elevated by the attempt. Although she may meet many insuperable difficulties, and may never reach the standard at which she aims, the simple effort, persevered in, will have an elevating influence on her character, while at the same time she actually will reach a point of excellence far ahead of those who, discouraged by many obstacles, give up in despair, and resolve to make no more efforts, and let things go as they will. The grand distinction between a noble and an ignoble mind is, that one will control circumstances; the other yields, and allows circumstances to control her.
It should be borne in mind, that the constitution of man demands a variety of food, and that it is just as cheap to keep on hand a good variety of materials in the store-closet, so as to make a frequent change, as it is to buy one or two articles at once, and live on them exclusively, till every person is tired of them, and then buy two or three more of another kind.
It is too frequently the case, that families fall into a very limited round of articles, and continue the same course from one year to another, when there is a much greater variety within reach, of articles which are just as cheap and easily obtained, and yet remain unthought of and untouched.
A thrifty and generous provider, will see that her store-closet is furnished with such a variety of articles, that successive changes can be made, and for a good length of time. To aid in this, a slight sketch of a well-provided store-closet will be given, with a description of the manner in which each article should be stored and kept, in order to avoid waste and injury. To this will be added, modes of securing a successive variety, within the reach of all in moderate circumstances.
It is best to have a store-closet open from a kitchen, because the kitchen fire keeps the atmosphere dry, and this prevents the articles stored from moulding, and other injury from dampness. Yet it must not be kept warm, as there are many articles which are injured by warmth.
A cool and dry place is indispensable for a store-room, and a small window over the door, and another opening out-doors, is a great advantage, by securing coolness, and a circulation of fresh air.
Flour should be kept in a barrel, with a flour scoop to dip it, a sieve to sift it, and a pan to hold the sifted flour, either in the barrel, or close at hand. The barrel should have a tight cover to keep out mice and vermin. It is best, when it can be conveniently done, to find, by trial, a lot of first-rate flour, and then buy a year’s supply. But this should not be done, unless there are accommodations for keeping it dry and cool, and protecting it from vermin.
Unbolted flour should be stored in barrels, and always be kept on hand, as regularly as fine flour.
Indian meal should be purchased in small quantities, say fifteen or twenty pounds at a time, and be kept in a covered tub or keg. When new and sweet, it should not be scalded, but when not perfectly fresh and good when used, it is improved by scalding. It must be kept very cool and dry, and if occasionally stirred, is preserved more surely from growing sour or musty.
Rye should be bought in small quantities, say forty or fifty pounds at a time, and be kept in a keg, or half barrel with a cover.
Buckwheat, Rice, Hominy, and Ground Rice, must be purchased in small quantities, and kept in covered kegs, or tubs. Several of these articles are infested with small black insects, and examination must occasionally be made for them.
Arrowroot, Tapioca, Sago, Pearl Barley, American Isinglass, Macaroni, Vermacelli, and Oatmeal, are all articles which help to make an agreeable variety, and it is just as cheap to buy a small quantity of each, as it is to buy a larger quantity of two or three articles. Eight or ten pounds of each of these articles of food can be stored in covered jars, or covered wood boxes, and then they are always at hand to help make a variety. All of them are very healthful food, and help to form many delightful dishes for desserts. Some of the most healthful puddings are those made of rice, tapioca, sago, and macaroni, while isinglass, or American gelatine, form elegant articles for desserts, and is also excellent for the sick.
Sugars should not be bought by the barrel, as the brown is apt to turn to molasses, and run out on to the floor. It is best to keep four qualities of sugar on hand. Refined loaf for tea, crushed sugar for the nicest preserves and to use with fruit, nice brown sugar for coffee, and common brown for cooking and more common use. The loaf can be stored in the papers, on a shelf. The others should be kept in close covered kegs, or covered wooden articles made for the purpose.
Butter must be kept in the dryest and coldest place you can find, in vessels of either stone, earthen, or wood, and never in tin.
Lard and Drippings must be kept in a dry, cold place, and should not be salted. Usually the cellar is the best place for them. Earthen, or stone jars are the best to store them in.
Salt must be kept in the dryest place that can be found. Rock salt is the best for table salt. It should be washed, dried, pounded, sifted, and stored in a glass jar, and covered close. It is common to find it growing damp in the salt stands for the table. It should then be set by the fire to dry, and afterwards be reduced to fine powder again. Nothing is more disagreeable than coarse or damp salt on a table.
Vinegar is best made of wine, or cider. Buy a keg, or half barrel of it, and set it in the cellar, and then keep a supply for the castors in a junk bottle in the kitchen. If too strong, it eats the pickles.
Pickles never must be kept in glazed ware, as the vinegar forms a poisonous compound with the glazing.
Oil must be kept in the cellar. Winter strained must be got in cold weather, as the summer strained will not burn except in warm weather. The best of lard oil is preferred to every other by those who use it. Some lard oil is very poor.
Molasses, if bought by the barrel, or half barrel, should be kept in the cellar. Sugar bakers’ is best for the table, and Porto Rico for cooking. If bought in small quantities, it should be kept in a demijohn. No vessel should be corked or bunged, if filled with molasses, as it will swell, and burst the vessel, or run over.
Hard Soap should be bought by large quantity, and laid to harden on a shelf, in a very dry place. It is much more economical to buy hard, than soft soap, as those who use soft soap are very apt to waste it in using it, as they cannot do with hard soap.
Starch it is best to buy by a large quantity. It comes very nicely put up in papers, a pound or two in each paper, and packed in a box. Starch, which by the single pound is five cents a pound, if bought by the box, is only three cents a pound, and this makes a good deal of difference, in a large family, by the year. The high-priced starch is cheapest in the end.
Indigo is not always good. When a good lot is found by trial, it is best to get enough for a year or two, and store it in a tight tin box.
Coffee it is best to buy by the bag, as it improves by keeping. Let it hang in the bag, in a dry place, and it loses its rank smell and taste.
Tea, if bought by the box, is about five cents a pound cheaper than by small quantities. If well put up in boxes lined with lead, it keeps perfectly. But put up in paper, it soon loses its flavor. It therefore should, if in small quantities, be put in glass, or tin, and shut tight.
Saleratus should be bought in small quantities, then powdered, sifted, and kept tight corked in a large mouth glass bottle.
It grows damp if exposed to the air, and then cannot be used properly.
Raisins should not be bought in large quantities, as they are injured by time. It is best to buy the small boxes.
Currants for cake should be prepared as directed for cake, and set by for use in a jar.
Lemon and Orange Peel should be dried, pounded, and set up in corked glass jars.
Nutmeg, Cinnamon, Cloves, Mace, and Allspice, should be pounded fine, and corked tight in small glass bottles with mouths large enough for a junk bottle cork, and then put in a tight tin box, made for the purpose. Or they can be put in small tin boxes with tight covers. Essences are as good as spices.
Sweet Herbs should be dried, and the stalks thrown away, and the rest be kept in corked large mouth bottles, or small tin boxes.
Cream Tartar, Citric and Tartaric Acids, Bicarbonate of Soda, and Essences, should be kept in corked glass jars. Sal volatile must be kept in a large-mouth bottle, with a ground glass stopper to make it air-tight. Use cold water in dissolving it. It must be powdered.
Preserves and Jellies should be kept in glass or stone, in a cool, dry place, well sealed, or tied with bladder covers. If properly made, and thus put up, they never will ferment. If it is difficult to find a cool, dry place, pack the jars in a box, and fill the interstices with sand, very thoroughly dried. It is best to put jellies in tumblers, or small glass jars, so as to open only a small quantity at a time.
The most easy way of keeping Hams perfectly is to wrap and tie them in paper, and pack them in boxes or barrels with ashes. The ashes must fill all interstices, but must not touch the hams, as it absorbs the fat. It is much less labor, and quite as certain a mode as the one previously mentioned. It keeps them sweet, and protects from all kinds of insects.
After smoked beef, or ham, are cut, hang them in a coarse linen bag in the cellar, and tie it up to keep out flies.
Keep Cheese in a cool, dry place, and after it is cut, wrap it in a linen cloth, and keep it in a tight tin box.
Keep Bread in a tin covered box, and it will keep fresh and good longer than if left exposed to the air.
Cake also should be kept in a tight tin box. Tin boxes made with covers like trunks, with handles at the ends, are best for bread and cake.
Smoked herring keep in the cellar.
Codfish is improved by changing it, once in a while, back and forth from garret to cellar. Some dislike to have it in the house anywhere.
All salted provision must be watched, and kept under the brine. When the brine looks bloody, or smells badly, it must be scalded, and more salt put to it, and poured over the meat.
Salt fish barrels must not be kept near other food, as they impart a fishy smell and taste to it.
Cabbages and Turnips in the cellar often impart a bad smell to a house. All decayed vegetable matter should be kept out of a cellar, as it creates a miasma, that sometimes causes the most fatal diseases. Therefore, always take care of the vegetable bins, and have all that are decaying removed.
A cellar should be whitewashed often, to keep it sweet and clean.
[CHAPTER XXIV.]
SUGGESTIONS IN REFERENCE TO PROVIDING A SUCCESSIVE VARIETY OF FOOD.
By a little skill and calculation, a housekeeper may contrive to keep a constant change of agreeable varieties on her table, and that, too, without violating the rules either of health or economy. Some suggestions will be offered to aid in this object.
In the first place, much can be effected by keeping on hand a good supply of the various bread-stuffs. Good raised bread, of fine flour, must be the grand staple, but this may, every day, be accompanied with varieties of bread made of unbolted flour, or rye and Indian, or Indian alone, or potato and apple bread, or rice bread, or the various biscuits and rusk. It will be found that these are all more acceptable, if there are occasional changes, than if any one of them is continued a long time.
All the dough of these different kinds of bread, when light, can, with very little trouble, be made into drop cakes, or griddle cakes for breakfast, or tea, by adding some milk and eggs, and in some cases a little melted lard.
Very fine common cake is also easily made, at every baking, by taking some of the dough of bread and working in sugar, butter, and eggs, by the receipt given for Bread Cake and Child’s Feather Cake. These can be made more or less sweet and rich at pleasure.
In the next place, a good supply of fruit in the garden, and stored in the cellar, enables a housekeeper to keep up a constant variety. The directions given under the head of Modes of Preparing Apples for the Tea Table, will be found very useful for this purpose, while those for preparing Rice and Dry Bread are equally serviceable in helping out a cheap and convenient variety. There are some cheap dishes at the end also, which are very good, and easily made.
The directions for preparing Hashes, also, are recommended as a mode of economizing, that is very acceptable when properly done. The little relishes obtained in summer from the garden, are very serviceable in securing varieties. Among these may be mentioned cucumbers, radishes, cabbage sprouts, Jerusalem artichokes, and tomatoes, all of which are very fine eaten with salt and vinegar.
Mush, hominy, tapioca, and rice cooked, and then, when cold, fried on a griddle, are great favorites. If salt pork rinds are used to grease the griddle, there will be so little fat used, that no injury to the most delicate stomachs can result from this mode of cooking.
In winter, the breakfast-table and tea-table can be supplied by a most inviting variety of muffins, griddle cakes, drop cakes, and waffles made of rice, corn meal, and unbolted flour, all of which are very healthful and very agreeable to the palate.
One mode of securing a good variety, in those months in spring when fruits and vegetables fail, is by a wise providence in drying and preserving fruits and vegetables. The following directions will aid in this particular.
Directions for Preserving Fruits and Vegetables.
Blackberries, whortleberries, currants, raspberries, peaches, plums, apples, pears, and quinces, can all be preserved by drying them in the sun, and then storing them in bags in a cool, dry place.
Green currants, and green gooseberries, can be preserved thus. Gather them when perfectly dry, put them into very dry junk bottles, free from stems and eyes, set the bottles uncorked into a kettle of cold water, and then make the water boil. Then cork the bottles (the fruit should come up to the cork), and seal them with bee’s wax and rosin. Store them in a dry, cool place, where they will not freeze. Everything depends on success in excluding air and water. Putting them in boxes, and filling the interstices with dry sand, is the surest mode of storing the bottles.
There is a receipt for Preserving Fruit in Water, that has found its way into many receipt books, which seems to the writer to be a dangerous and useless one, and never should be tried.
It directs that fruit be put in bottles, then water poured in, and then the bottles corked tight, and the cork tied. Then the bottles are to be set in a kettle of water, which is to be heated till it boils. Of course this must burst the bottles, or throw out the corks.
It is probable that the design of some plan of this sort was to exclude all air from the fruit. This could be done by setting the bottles filled with fruit and water, uncorked, in a kettle of water, and making the water boil. Then cork the bottles and seal them, and the water will remain, but all air will be excluded. The writer never has seen a person who has tried this method, and perhaps it may be one in which fruit can be preserved.
Peach Leather is much relished by invalids, and is prepared thus. Squeeze out the pulp of very ripe peaches, and spread it half an inch thick on plates or shingles, and let it dry till quite hard and tough. Then roll it up in layers, with clean paper between.
Tomato Leather can be made in the same way. But the following is the best mode of preserving tomatoes. Pour boiling water on to the ripe tomatoes, and peel them. Boil them till reduced to half the original quantity, throwing in, at first, a tea-cup of sugar and a large spoonful of salt for every gallon. When reduced to one half the quantity, spread it on flat dishes half an inch thick, and dry it eight or ten days in the sun, and air. Then put it in layers, with paper between. In preparing it for table, stew it slowly in a good deal of water, adding bread crumbs and seasoning.
Some persons dry them in a brick oven instead of the sun. A quicker, but not so nice a way, is simply to cut them in two without peeling, and dry them in the oven.
Tomato Figs are prepared thus:—Scald and peel them, and then boil them in one-third the weight of sugar, till they are penetrated by it. Then flatten and dry them in the sun, occasionally turning them and sprinkling with sugar. When dry, pack them in layers, with sugar sprinkled between.
Green Corn can be preserved by simply turning back the husk, all but the last thin layer, and then hanging it in the sun, or a very warm room. When it is to be used, boil it till soft, and then cut it off the cob and mix it with butter, and add, if you like, dried Lima beans cooked soft, in another vessel. The summer sweet corn is the proper kind to dry. Lima beans can be dried in the sun when young and tender. They are good to bake, when dried after they are ripe.
Another mode is to parboil sweet corn, cut it from the cobs, and dry it in the sun. Then store it in a dry, cool place, in a bag.
Another way is to take off all the husks but the thin one next the corn; tie this over the corn tight, and pack it in salt.
Try each of these ways, and make succotash with dried Lima beans, adding a little cream to the broth. If done right, it is excellent in winter. In cutting corn from cobs, in all cases take care not to cut off any cob, as it gives a bad taste.
Peas, also, are good to dry, and make a fine dish thus. Take six or eight pounds of corned beef, put it in a large pot and fill it with water, and put in two quarts of dried peas. Let them boil till soft, and then add the sweet herb seasoning, or take it up without any other seasoning than a little pepper and the salt of the meat.
Beef, cooked thus, is excellent when cold, and the pea soup, thus made, is highly relished. No dish is cheaper, or more easily prepared.
Pumpkins and squashes can be peeled and cut in strips and dried in the sun.
The stalks of rhubarb or the pie plant can be slivered fine and dried in the sun for winter use.
A housekeeper who will take pains to have these things done in the proper season, and well stored, will always keep an inviting table, in those months when others so much complain that they can find no variety.
It is a good plan for a housekeeper the first day, or week of every month, to make a calculation of her bill of fare for that month, going over such a receipt-book as this, and ascertaining how many of the varieties offered she can secure. At the same time she can be laying in stores of articles for future use. System in this matter is of essential service.
[CHAPTER XXV.]
ON BREAD MAKING.
Few housekeepers are aware of their responsibility in reference to the bread furnished for their family. As this is the principal article of food, there is no one thing on which the health of a family, especially of young children, is more dependant.
Baker’s bread is often made of musty, sour, or other bad flour, which is made to look light, and the bad taste removed by unhealthy drugs. Of course, to the evil of unhealthy flour, is added unhealthy drugs, and there is no mode of discovering the imposition.
The only safe mode is, to have all bread made in the family, and to take all needful care that it shall uniformly be good.
Bread made of salt, or milk risings, is good only the first day, and to those accustomed to good yeast bread, it is offensive to the smell, and not acceptable to the palate.
Bread made of sour milk, or buttermilk and an alkali, or made by mixing cream tartar in the flour, and an alkali in the wetting, is good as an occasional resort, in emergencies, when good yeast cannot be preserved, or when there is not time to wait for yeast rising.
But, as the ordinary bread for continued daily use, it is expensive, and not healthful or good like yeast bread. Some persons suffer from sore mouths and disordered stomachs, in consequence of eating it. Sometimes this is owing to the imperfect mixture of the materials. When the cream tartar is not very thoroughly mixed with the flour, or when the alkali is not properly dissolved and thoroughly mixed, or when there is too much of either, the skin of the mouth and stomach are affected by the bread.
The only kind of bread which is always good for the health, and always acceptable to every palate, is sweet, well-raised, home-made yeast bread. The best kind of home-made yeast bread is an article of luxury to be found upon very few tables, and those who enjoy this comfort, know that there is no food upon earth, which is so good, or the loss of which is so much regretted.
In order to secure such bread, these three things are indispensable, viz.: good flour, good yeast, and good care.
In order to secure good flour, it is best to try it by tasting it, and you ordinarily can detect sourness or must. Buy a small quantity, and then, if it is found to be very superior, and it can be done conveniently, it is well to provide enough of it to last till the next crop of wheat affords new flour, when another supply for a year can be secured. Flour stored in barrels needs no other care than putting it in a cool, dry place, where it is well protected from rats and cockroaches. A tight covered box made of thick plank, large enough to hold several barrels, with shelves to hold smaller supplies of other bread-stuffs, with a door in one side shutting very tight, is a perfect protection from rats, mice, and cockroaches.
Good flour has a yellowish tinge, and when pressed tight in the hand, retains the creases of the skin impressed on it. Poor flour is not thus adhesive; it can be blown about readily, and sometimes has a dingy look, as if ashes were mixed with it.
When good flour is found, notice the brand, and seek the same next time. It is sometimes the case, however, that bad flour is passed off, by putting on the brands of persons who have gained a name as makers of superior flour. The only sure way is to try a small sample, and then get a larger supply, if it is good, from the same stock.
Grown wheat makes dough that is runny, and cannot be well moulded, or make good bread. This can be discovered only by trial. Smutty wheat makes flour that is very unhealthful.
Flour always should be sifted before using it, to restore the lightness destroyed by packing, as well as to remove impurities. Bread is also more sure to be light, if the flour is heated before wetting. This can be done, by setting the kneading trough aslant before the fire, stirring it a little as it is warming. When bread proves to be bad, examine the yeast, and see also whether the oven bakes properly. If both are as they should be, and the bread is still poor, then the fault is in the flour, and it should be sent back and another supply obtained. And in buying flour, this liberty should always be secured, even if a higher price is the condition. No economy is so false as to try to save by means of bad bread. Medicine and doctors’ bills soon show the folly of it.
Good yeast is as indispensable to good bread as good flour. Of the receipts given in this book, the one which will keep a month is the best. The one which is made with fewer materials will not keep so well, but is more easily made.
In hot weather, when it is difficult to keep yeast, the hard yeast will be a great convenience. Some housekeepers who have tried both, prefer the flour hard yeast to that which is made with Indian meal, as it does not turn sour, as Indian does. Home-brewed yeast must be used for hard yeast, and not distillery or brewer’s. Yeast, when it is good, is all in a foam, or else has large beads on the surface, and its smell is brisk and pungent, but not sour. When poor, it sometimes smells sour, sometimes looks watery, and the sediment sinks to the bottom, and it has no froth or beads. Sometimes, when yeast does not look very good, it is improved by adding a tea-cup, or so, of flour, and two or three great spoonfuls of molasses, and setting it in a warm place to rise. Yeast must be kept in stone, or glass, with a tight cork, and the thing in which it is kept should often be scalded, and then warm water with a half teaspoonful of saleratus be put in it, to stand a while. Then rinse it with cold water. Sour yeast cannot be made good by saleratus.
The last grand essential to good bread is good care. Unless the cook can be fully trusted, the mistress of a family must take this care upon herself. She must, if needful, stand by and see that the bread is wet right, that the yeast is good, that the bread is put where it is warm enough, that it does not rise too long, so as to lose its sweetness (which is often the case before it begins to turn sour), that it is moulded aright, that the oven is at the right heat, and that it is taken out at the right time, and then that it is put in the right place, and not set flat on to a greasy table, or painted shelf, to imbibe a bad taste.
Perhaps it may be thought that all this is a great drudgery, but it is worse drudgery to have sickly children, and a peevish husband, made so by having all the nerves of their stomachs rasped with sour, or heavy bread. A woman should be ashamed to have poor bread, far more so, than to speak bad grammar, or to have a dress out of the fashion. It is true, that, by accident, the best of housekeepers will now and then have poor bread, but then it is an accident, and one that rarely happens. When it is very frequently the case that a housekeeper has poor bread, she may set herself down as a slack baked and negligent housekeeper.
It is very desirable that every family should have a constant supply of bread made of unbolted flour, or of rye and Indian. Most persons like to eat of it occasionally, and it tends to promote health. Warm cakes also, made of unbolted flour, are very excellent, and serviceable to health. The receipts for these articles in this work are first-rate. Warm raised bread cakes, of fine wheat, are not so healthy for breakfast, as those made of unbolted flour, Indian meal, rice, or tapioca. Griddle cakes, muffins, and waffles, made of these last articles, are more healthful than those made of fine wheat. If eaten at the right temperature (not above blood heat), and with but little butter, they are safe and harmless. Unbolted flour is good in almost any receipt in which fine flour is to be used, and many very much prefer it for all kinds of warm cakes. Brown bread, when light, makes good drop cakes, or good griddle cakes, by adding a little water or milk, and some eggs, and in some cases, a spoonful or two of molasses. Many cases are on record, of great changes for the better, in the health of individuals and communities, by the habitual use of food made of unbolted flour.
The style in which bread is prepared for the table, is a matter to be carefully attended to. In moulding up loaves and small cakes, do not leave lumps and loose flour adhering to the outside, but work them in thoroughly, so as to have the cake look fair and smooth. Wipe off flour from the outside before carrying to the table. Buttered pans are better than floured ones, because the cakes cleave off cleaner. When soda and saleratus are used, work it in thoroughly, or you will have those yellow spots and streaks, which look so disgusting, and show a slovenly negligence.
In the receipts for making bread, no particular direction is given in regard to the time bread should stand after it is moulded and put in pans, because here is the point where observation and discretion are so indispensable, and rules are unavailing without. In hot weather, when the yeast is very good, and the bread very light, it must not stand over fifteen minutes after it is moulded, before setting in. If it is cold weather, and the yeast is less active, or the bread not perfectly raised, it may sometimes stand an hour in the pans without injury.
When it is risen in the pans so as to crack, it is ready for the oven, and if it stands after this it loses sweetness, and then turns sour. A great deal of bread is spoiled by standing too long after it is put in the pans. The only way to prevent this is for the housekeeper to ascertain, by experiment, how soon her yeast ordinarily raises bread to the right point, so as to make that full lightness which does not destroy the sweetness of the flour, and yet is complete. When this is secured, the bread should not stand more than fifteen minutes after moulding, unless it is very cold weather. Those who trust entirely to raising the bread after it is put into the pans, are much less likely to have the best kind of bread, and far more risk is run than in the way here given.
In summer, if the milk is not new, it should be scalded, or the bread will turn sour by keeping. Bread is never as good which has turned sour, and been sweetened with saleratus, as if it had risen only just enough. In using saleratus, take a teaspoonful to each quart of wetting used; or, which is the same thing, a teaspoonful to four quarts of flour.
The proportion of yeast is about a tablespoonful of brewer’s or distiller’s yeast for every quart of wetting, or twice as much home-brewed yeast. In warm weather, pour the wetting boiling hot into the flour, and the bread keeps better. But be careful not to kill the yeast by putting it in before the mixture is sufficiently cooled. About blood warmth is the right temperature.
The eastern brown bread rises faster than the wheat bread, and in hot weather cannot be made over night; and if made with other bread, must be set to rise in a cool place.
It is always best to keep bread several hours before eating, until it can be cut without making it clammy. Biscuits, and small cakes of bread, are best baked in the morning to use for tea, and in the evening for breakfast. When cake is to be made of bread dough, it ought to be wet up with milk.
Most of the rules which have been given in other books for making cream tartar bread and cakes allow too much of the acid and alkali, and this affects the health.
Three pints of flour to one teaspoonful of soda and two of cream tartar is about right. Domestics are often careless in getting right proportions, and thus health is injured. It is probable that this can be remedied by getting an apothecary to combine the two powders in the right proportions when very dry, and keeping them in a glass bottle, with a ground glass stopper, so as to be air-tight. The dampness of the air would make them combine, and neutralize them. There are yeast powders for sale of this kind. The way to use them is first to mix them thoroughly in the flour, and then put in the wetting.
In regard to yeast, the distillery rises fastest, the brewer’s nearly as fast, and the home-brewed slowest of all. Sometimes distillery yeast will raise bread in an hour. Every housekeeper must learn by trial the time necessary to raise bread, and by this calculate the time to put her oven heating.
For large loaves of bread or cake, the oven must be heated with hard wood, so as to soak thoroughly. For smaller things lighter wood is as good, and more economical. After a housekeeper has tried her oven, her yeast, and her oven wood, she can make out very minute directions for her domestics. But with poor domestics she ordinarily will need to persevere in superintending this matter herself, if she would always have good bread.
[CHAPTER XXVI.]
DIRECTIONS FOR DINNER AND EVENING PARTIES.
The following directions for a dinner-party are designed for a young and inexperienced housekeeper, in moderate circumstances, who receives visiters at her table from the most wealthy circles.
They are not intended for what would be called a stylish dinner-party, but what in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, in the most respectable society, would be called a plain, substantial dinner, and as complete and extensive as any young housekeeper, with the ordinary supply of domestics, ought to attempt anywhere. Anything much more elaborate than this, usually demands the services of a professed cook. The details will be given with great minuteness, that a novice may know exactly what to do in every particular.
It is generally the case, that, at dinner-parties for gentlemen, no ladies are present but those who are members of the family. The gentleman of the house invites his friends the day previous, and then gives notice to his wife who are to come, and consults with her as to the articles to be provided, which of course he aids in purchasing.
The housekeeper then makes a list of all the articles to be used, either for table furniture or cooking, and then examines her cupboard, store-closet, and cellar, to see if everything is at hand and in order. All the glass and silver to be used is put in readiness, and the castors, salts, and every thing of the kind arranged properly. In order to be more definite, the exact dishes to be provided will be supposed to be these:
Soup. Fish. A boiled ham. A boiled turkey, with oyster sauce. Three roasted ducks, and a dish of scolloped oysters. Potatoes, Parsnips, Turnips, and Celery. For dessert, Pudding, Pastry, Fruit, and Coffee.
This will make a dinner for about ten or twelve persons. The pastry should be baked the day before, and the soup boiled down.
In the morning of the day for the dinner-party, every article should be on hand from market, and the cook have extra help, so as to get breakfast and the dishes out of the way early.
Then, the first thing, let her stuff and truss the turkey and ducks, and set them away to use when the time comes. Be sure that they are trussed so that the legs and wings will be tight to the body, and not come sprawling on to the table.
Suppose the dinner hour be three o’clock, as this is the earliest hour at which such a dinner could be comfortably prepared.
At nine o’clock, let the ham be washed, and put to boil. Then let the vegetables be prepared, ready for cooking. Next prepare the pudding. The pastry ought to be baked the day before. If not, it should be done very early in the morning, and be out of the way.
The pudding should be one of those put in the list of rich puddings, which does not require long baking or boiling. The receipt will be the guide as to time for cooking it. Next, prepare the oysters. One large cannister (or three pints) will be needed for the dish of scolloped oysters, and a small cannister (or a pint) will be needed for the sauce for the turkey. This last is simply drawn butter, with the oysters put in it, and simmered a few minutes. Be sure and follow the receipt for drawn butter exactly, as cooks are very apt to spoil this kind of sauce.
Put the turkey to boil at one, if it is tender, as it ought to be, and sooner, if it is not. Put the ducks to roast at two. Ducks are best cooked rare, but the turkey must be boiled through entirely, so that all parts look the same color when carved.
The gravy for the ducks, and the drawn butter, must be prepared half an hour before taking up dinner. The fish must be put to boil in a fish kettle. The time depends on the size.
The soup should be boiled down the day before. Let it be, for example, the receipt named Macaroni Soup. In this case, any convenient time before dinner-time, put the macaroni to boil in a sauce-pan by itself, and when cooked enough, set it aside. Then, just before dinner is to be served, pour the cold soup into the kettle, add the seasoning and macaroni, and give it such a heat as just boils it for a minute or two, and then it is ready to serve.
The vegetables should be put to boil at such times as will have them cooked just right at the dinner hour, and this the housekeeper must calculate, according to their size and age.
Unless there is an experienced cook, who can be trusted with everything, the lady of the house must superintend herself in the kitchen, until it is time for her to dress; and as the company will not arrive till the hour appointed, she can, by arranging her dress, all but the finish, remain until it is nearly time to send up the dinner.
Setting the Table.
The table should be set early in the forenoon, by the waiter, under the direction of the lady of the house, and in the manner exhibited in Fig. 7.
The table rug must first be laid exactly square with the room, and the tables also set exactly parallel with the sides of the room. If the tables are handsome ones, put on two white table-cloths, one above the other. If the tables are not handsome, cover them with a colored table-cloth, and put two white ones over.
Then set the castors in the exact centre of the table. Some prefer to have them on a side-table, and the waiter carry them around, but the table looks better to have them put in the centre. If they are put on the side-table, the celery stand may be placed in the centre of the table.
Next place the plates and knives as in Fig. 7, with a napkin and tumbler at the right of each plate, as in the drawing. If it is cold weather, set the plates to warm, and leave them till wanted. Set the salt stands at the four corners, with two large spoons crossed by each, as in the drawing.
Then place table-mats in the places where the dishes are to be set. The host is to be seated at one end, and the hostess at the other, and at their plates put two knives and two forks. Put a carving knife and fork, and carver stand, at each place where a dish is to be carved. Put the jelly and pickles at diagonal corners, as marked on the drawing. If wine is to be used, put two wine-glasses by each tumbler. Just before dinner is to be served, a bit of bread, cut thick, is to be laid with a fork on each napkin.
Then prepare the side-table thus:
As the party, including host and hostess, will be twelve, there must be one dozen soup plates, and one dozen silver spoons. Then there must be two dozen large knives, and three dozen large plates, besides those on the table. This is to allow one plate for fish, and two for two changes of meat for each guest. Some would provide more. Then, there must be three dozen dessert plates, and two dozen dessert knives and forks. One dozen saucers, and one dozen dessert spoons. One or two extra of each kind, and three or four extra napkins, should be added for emergencies. (At a side stand, or closet, should be placed, at dinner-time, a wash dish of hot water, and two or three wiping towels.)
On the side-table, also, is to be placed all articles to be used in helping the dessert; and unless there is a convenient closet for the purpose, the dessert itself must be set there, and covered with napkins.
All the dishes and plates to be used, except those for desserts and soups, must, in cold weather, be set to warm by the waiter. If coffee is to be served at the dinner-table, the furniture for this must be put on the side-table, or in an adjacent room, or closet.
Taking up the Dinner.
Such a dinner as this cannot usually be prepared and served easily, without two to cook and serve in the kitchen, and two waiters in the dining-room. One waiter will answer, if he is experienced and expert in such matters.
When the hour for dinner arrives, let the cook first take up the soup and fish. The soup and soup plates are to be set by the hostess, and the spoons laid near. Potatoes and drawn butter, or fish sauce, are to be sent up with fish.
The fish is to be set before the host, and the fish knife and sauce placed by it, and then the waiter is to inform the lady of the house that dinner is ready. She rises, and informs her husband, or the guests, that dinner is ready, and then the gentleman for whom the party is made, or some other one of the invited guests, conducts the lady to the table, and takes his seat at the first plate at her right hand. She then helps the soup, beginning at the right, and passing it around in order, without inquiring whether each one wishes it. If any one prefers fish, he passes the soup to the next. Meantime the host either helps the fish to all who wish it, or leaves it covered till the soup is removed, and the plates changed. The plates for fish are set on, around the table, and the soup plates are set on to them, while soup is served.
While soup and fish are served above, the cook below proceeds thus:—The ham can be taken up some time before dinner, prepared for the table, and set aside, covered, as it is not injured by standing. Of course this is done at any convenient time. The turkey and ducks may first be taken up, prepared for table, and then covered, and set where they will be kept warm. Then the gravies and drawn butter are to be put in the gravy boats. The vegetables must be taken up the last thing, and the potatoes last of all, as the excellence of all depends on their being served hot, especially potatoes. Some would prepare a dish of mashed potatoes, but this increases the complexity of the business, which should, as much as possible, be avoided.
After soup and fish, and the plates are removed by the waiters above, and clean plates put around, wine or conversation will fill up the time, while the meats are brought on, which are to be placed on the table, covered, and in the order marked in the drawing, Fig. 7.
When all are prepared, the host gives a sign to the waiters, and the covers are all to be removed, and so adroitly that no steam be spilt on the table-cloth or guests. To do this, the covers must be first inverted, holding them directly over the dishes they cover, and this the hostess must teach the waiter to do beforehand, if need be. He is to be taught, also, to offer each article to guests on their left side, to observe when guests have done eating, and then to change their plate, knife, and fork, and never to speak except to answer questions, or to offer the articles he serves.
The host carves the dish before him. The hostess helps the dish opposite to her, and the gentlemen guests carve the dishes opposite to them. As soon as ready to help, the lady asks the gentleman at her right to what he will be helped, and never makes excuses for, or praises any particular dish. The host commences at his right hand, and does the same, till all are helped. Every person begins to eat as soon as helped. The waiters are to observe if bread, water, or anything is wanting to any guest, and offer a supply. The hostess should, if possible, be at ease, so as to converse, and if she has occasion to direct the waiters (which, by previous instructions, should be avoided), she should do it as quietly and easily as possible. After all the guests are helped, the host helps the hostess, and then himself.
If wine is used, it is served by the host immediately after soup and fish, and any other times during the dinner he chooses. If the lady of the house is asked to drink wine, it is deemed uncourteous to refuse. She is expected to have a little poured into her glass, and raise it to her lips, looking at and slightly bowing to the guest who makes the request, and as soon as he has filled his glass. Whenever any other makes the same request, a very little wine is to be poured into her glass, as the ceremony is incomplete without this.
After any guest has finished eating, the waiter is to change his plate, knife, and fork, and the host or hostess asks to what he will be helped.
Soon after all the guests are done eating meats, the hostess directs the waiter, and every article is removed from the table, and the upper table-cloth taken off. Then the dessert knives, forks, and plates are set around, and the dessert is placed on the table. The pudding is to be set on a mat, before the hostess, and the dish of cheese before the host, and the pastry arranged in some regular order on the table, with knives and forks to help. These are divided and distributed by the host and hostess, assisted by the guests.
When these are finished, everything is removed again, and the other table-cloth taken off, leaving the bare table, or the colored cloth. Then the fruit is set on. After fruit, the coffee is brought to the table, or the company retire to the drawing-room, and take their coffee there.
Such a dinner-party as the above, may be got up and carried through comfortably by a housekeeper, if she is provided with an experienced cook and well-trained waiter. But without these, it is absolute cruelty for a husband to urge, or even to allow his wife to go through all the toil, anxiety, and effort needful for such an affair.
In all cases, it would be more consistent with the laws of health, and thus with the laws of God, to have a dinner including far less variety, and it is hoped that as true Christianity and true refinement advance, that the reform in regard to eating will advance, like the temperance reform in regard to drinking.
When men become so refined and cultivated, that they can supply wit and good sense, instead of the overflows induced by the excitement of wine, diluted by the stupidity resulting from excess in eating, a housekeeper will find the giving of a dinner-party a very different matter from what it ordinarily is found to be. As dining parties are often conducted, the number, and variety, and character of the dishes offered, tempt to an excess, which overloads the stomach, and thus stupifies the brain; so that all the wit and brilliancy that is obtained, is the simple product of vinous fermentation.
Tea Parties and Evening Company.
In one respect, fashion has aided to relieve a housekeeper of much care in providing evening entertainments. It is now fashionable to spread a table for evening parties, and not to serve tea and coffee, as was formerly done. As this is the easiest, and most rational way of entertaining evening company, no other method will be so minutely described.
If a lady designs to invite from forty to sixty friends to pass the evening, or even to have a much larger company invited, the following would be called a plain but genteel arrangement, for company in New York, Philadelphia, or any of our large cities.
Set a long table in the dining-room, and cover it with a handsome damask cloth. Set some high article containing flowers, or some ornamental article, in the centre. Set Champagne glasses with flowers at each corner. Set loaves of cake at regular distances, and dispose in some regular order about the table, preserves, jellies, lemonade, and any other articles that may be selected from the abundant variety offered in the collection of Receipts for Evening Parties in this book.
Where a very large company is to be collected, and a larger treat is thought to be required, then a long table is set in the centre of the room, as above, and on it are placed cakes, pastry, jellies, and confectionary. Then smaller tables are set each side of a mantle, or in corners, one of which is furnished with sandwiches, oysters, salad, celery, and wine, and the other with coffee, chocolate, and lemonade. Sometimes all are placed on one long table, and in this case, cakes, jellies, and confectionary are put in the centre, coffee and lemonade at one end, and oysters, sandwiches, celery, and wines at the other. A great deal of taste may be displayed in preparing and arranging such a table.
As it is often the case, that the old mode of serving tea and coffee will be resorted to, one modification is proposed, which decreases the labour and anxiety to the housekeeper, and increases the enjoyment of the company. It is this. Set a table in one of the parlors, and cover it with a damask cloth. Let the tea and coffee be served at this table, the lady of the house presiding. Then let the gentlemen wait upon the ladies around the room, and then help themselves. This is particularly convenient when it is difficult to get good waiters.
Most of the articles used for evening parties (with the exception of rich cakes, wine, and high-seasoned chicken salad) are not unhealthful, if taken moderately.
When these parties break up at seasonable hours, they may prove one of the most rational and harmless modes of securing social enjoyment; but when connected with highly exciting amusements, and late hours, they are sure to wear upon the constitution and health, and rational and conscientious persons, for these and other reasons, will avoid them.
[CHAPTER XXVII.]
ON SETTING TABLES, AND PREPARING VARIOUS ARTICLES OF FOOD FOR THE TABLE.
To a person accustomed to a good table, the manner in which the table is set, and the mode in which food is prepared and set on, has a great influence, not only on the eye, but the appetite. A housekeeper ought, therefore, to attend carefully to these particulars.
The table-cloth should always be white, and well washed and ironed. When taken from the table, it should be folded in the ironed creases, and some heavy article laid on it. A heavy bit of plank, smoothed and kept for the purpose, is useful. By this method, the table-cloth looks tidy much longer than when it is less carefully laid aside.
Where table napkins are used, care should be taken to keep the same one to each person, and in laying them aside, they should be folded so as to hide the soiled places, and laid under pressure.
The table-cloth should always be put on square, and right side upward. The articles of furniture should be placed as exhibited in figures 7 and 8.
The bread for breakfast and tea should be cut in even, regular slices, not over a fourth of an inch thick, and all crumbs removed from the bread plate. They should be piled in a regular form, and if the slices are large, they should be divided.
The butter should be cooled in cold water, if not already hard, and then cut into a smooth and regular form, and a butter knife be laid by the plate, to be used for no other purpose but to help the butter.
Small mats, or cup plates, should be placed at each plate, to receive the tea-cup, when it would otherwise be set upon the table-cloth and stain it.
Fig. 7.
| A, Castors. | F, Scolloped Oysters. | K, Parsnips. |
| B, Boiled Turkey. | G, Boiled Ham. | PP, Pickles. |
| C, Oyster Sauce. | H, Potatoes. | JJ, Jelly. |
| D, Roasted Ducks. | I, Turnips. | X, Host. |
| E, Gravy for Ducks. | S, Celery. | Y, Hostess. |
Fig. 8.
All the flour should be wiped from small cakes, and the crumbs be kept from the bread plate.
In preparing dishes for the dinner-table, all water should be carefully drained from vegetables, and the edges of the platters and dishes should be made perfectly clean and neat.
All soiled spots should be removed from the outside of pitchers, gravy boats, and every article used on the table; the handles of the knives and forks must be clean, and the knives bright and sharp.
In winter, the plates, and all the dishes used, both for meat and vegetables, should be set to the fire to warm, when the table is being set, as cold plates and dishes cool the vegetables, gravy, and meats, which by many is deemed a great injury.
Cucumbers, when prepared for table, should be laid in cold water for an hour or two to cool, and then be peeled and cut into fresh cold water. Then they should be drained, and brought to the table, and seasoned the last thing.
The water should be drained thoroughly from all greens and salads.
There are certain articles which are usually set on together, because it is the fashion, or because they are suited to each other.
Thus with strong-flavored meats, like mutton, goose, and duck, it is customary to serve the strong-flavored vegetables, such as onions and turnips. Thus, turnips are put in mutton broth, and served with mutton, and onions are used to stuff geese and ducks. But onions are usually banished from the table and from cooking, on account of the disagreeable flavor they impart to the atmosphere and breath.
Boiled Poultry should be accompanied with boiled ham, or tongue.
Boiled Rice is served with poultry as a vegetable.
Jelly is served with mutton, venison, and roasted meats, and is used in the gravies for hashes.
Fresh Pork requires some acid sauce, such as cranberry, or tart apple sauce.
Drawn Butter, prepared as in the receipt, with eggs in it, is used with boiled fowls and boiled fish.
Pickles are served especially with fish, and Soy is a fashionable sauce for fish, which is mixed on the plate with drawn butter.
There are modes of garnishing dishes, and preparing them for table, which give an air of taste and refinement, that pleases the eye.
Thus, in preparing a dish of fricasseed fowls, or stewed fowls, or cold fowls warmed over, small cups of boiled rice can be laid inverted around the edge of the platter, to eat with the meat.
Sweetbreads fried brown in lard, and laid around such a dish, give it a tasteful look.
On Broiled Ham, or Veal, eggs boiled, or fried and laid, one on each piece, look well.
Greens and Asparagus should be well drained, and laid on buttered toast, and then slices of boiled eggs be laid on the top, and around.
Hashes, and preparations of pig’s and calve’s head and feet, should be laid on toast, and garnished with round slices of lemon.
Curled Parsley, or Common Parsley, is a pretty garnish, to be fastened to the shank of a ham, to conceal the bone, and laid around the dish holding it. It looks well laid around any dish of cold slices of tongue, ham, or meat of any kind.
The proper mode of setting a dinner-table is shown at Fig. 7, and the proper way of setting a tea-table is shown at Fig. 8. In this drawing of a tea-table, small-sized plates are set around, with a knife, napkin, and cup plate laid by each, in a regular manner, while the articles of food are to be set, also, in regular order. On the waiter are placed the tea-cups and saucers, sugar bowl, slop bowl, cream cup, and two or three articles for tea, coffee, and water, as the case may be. This drawing may aid some housekeepers in teaching a domestic how to set a tea-table, as the picture will assist the memory in some cases. On the dinner table, by each plate, is a knife, fork, napkin, and tumbler: on the tea-table, by each plate is a knife, napkin, and small cup-plate.
[CHAPTER XXVIII.]
ON SYSTEMATIC FAMILY ARRANGEMENT, AND MODE OF DOING WORK.
Nothing secures ease and success in housekeeping so efficiently as system in arranging work. In order to aid those who are novices in these matters, the following outlines are furnished by an accomplished housekeeper. They are the details of family work, in a family of ten persons, where a cook, chambermaid, and boy, are all the domestics employed, and where the style of living is plain, but every way comfortable. The mistress of this family arranges the work for each domestic, and writes it on a large card, which is suspended in the kitchen for guidance and reference. On hiring a new cook, or chambermaid, these details are read to her, and the agreement made, with a full understanding, on both sides, of what is expected. The following is copied, verbatim, from these cards prepared for the cook and chambermaid.
Directions for the Cook.
Sunday.—Rise as early as on other days. No work is to be done that can be properly avoided.
Monday.—Rise early in hot weather, to have the cool of the day for work. Try to have everything done in the best manner. See that the clothes line is brought in at night, and the clothes pins counted and put in the bag. Put the tubs, barrel, and pails used, on the cellar bottom.
Inquire every night, before going to bed, respecting breakfast, so as to make preparation beforehand.
Tuesday.—Clean the kitchen and sink-room. Bake, and fold the clothes to iron the next day.
Wednesday.—Rise early in warm weather, so as to iron in the cool of the day.
Thursday.—Fold off the clothes. No other special work.
Friday.—Clean all the closets, the kitchen windows, the cellar stairs, and the privies. Try up all the grease, and put it away for use.
Saturday.—Bake, and prepare a dinner for Sunday.
Every day but Monday, wipe the shelves in the pantry and kitchen closet.
Be careful to have clean dish towels, and never use them for other purposes.
Keep a good supply of holders, both for cooking and ironing, and keep them hung up when not in use.
Keep your boiler for dish water covered.
Sweep and dust the kitchen every day.
Never throw dirt, bones, or paper around the doors or yard.
Never give or lend what belongs to the family without leave.
Try to keep everything neat, clean, and in order.
Have a time for everything, a place for everything, and everything in its place.
The hour for going to bed is ten o’clock. Those who work hard should go to bed early, or else health and eyesight will fail.
Directions for the Chambermaid.
Sweep the sitting-room before breakfast on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
Wednesday, give all the chambers a thorough sweeping, and wash down the stairs.
Thursday, sweep the bedroom and nursery, and wipe the paint. Put up the clean clothes, after the cook folds them.
Friday, wash the windows and the piazzas.
Saturday, sweep the chambers, wash the bowls and pitchers in hot suds, and scald the other vessels, unless they are washed in hot suds daily, when they will not need it.
After doing the daily chamber-work, collect the lamps, and fix them in this manner:
First pick up the wicks, and cut them off square (and for this purpose keep sharp scissors), then clean all the black sediment from the tubes. Wash them in suds as hot as you can bear your hand in, and wipe them dry with a cloth kept clean for the purpose, and used for nothing else. Be careful not to fill them full, lest the oil swell and run over. Screw them very tight, and see that the little air-hole is kept open, or the lamp will not burn.
Wash the outside of the oil filler, and wipe the scissors clean. Wash the cloths used in fresh, clean suds, dry them, and then put them in their place. Wipe the basin used, and put it in its place.
After cleaning the lamps, wash and scour the knives, thus:
Wash them first, and be careful not to put the handles in the water. Wipe them dry, and then scour them with Bath brick, and a cork dipped in soft soap. Never rub a knife on a board in scouring it, as it wears it out very fast.
After scouring, do not wash them, but wipe them with a dry cloth, and be careful to get the brick out from between the fork tines. Use a small stick prepared for the purpose. If the handles are soiled by scouring, wipe them with a damp cloth.
Lay the large knives in one side of the knife basket, and the small ones the other side, and put the handles of the knives one way, and the handles of the forks the opposite way.
Always fill the boiler after you take out dish water, lest the cook be disturbed by your neglecting it.
Arrange the china-closet in order, after putting up the breakfast dishes. Dishes not often used must be wiped when used.
In doing chamber-work, turn up the vallance of the beds, set the windows open, brush down cobwebs, move every moveable article, to sweep under it, and sweep with short strokes.
Always hang the cloths kept for wiping bowls and pitchers on the towel frames, and use them for nothing else.
Have a dust cloth with a loop for every room, and put it in the wash once a fortnight.
Wash the breakfast dishes thus:—Rinse the cups, scrape the plates very clean, put the bits of butter on the butter plate, and empty all the slops into the slop bowl, and then empty it.
First wash the glass things with a swab in suds, as hot as possible, wiping each one as soon as taken out of the water. When glass is very cold, put a little warm water in it before putting it into the hot suds, or you will crack it.
Next wash the silver and Britannia, wiping each as soon as taken out. Then wash the other articles.
Keep the castors bright and clean, and well filled. Wipe the salt spoons dry, and do not lay them so as to touch the salt. If the salt is damp, take it out and dry it, mashing it to powder.
Wipe off the china-closet shelves every day, and Saturdays wash them.
Rub the silver and Britannia every Saturday, after washing them.
In the Domestic Economy, at p. 318, will be found directions for washing dishes in the kitchen, which are to be hung over the sink.
Every family must vary somewhat from all others in its routine of family work, and it often is the case, that such written directions will be of little or no use to domestics. But the fact of having them written, and the reading of them over to all new-comers, as what is expected of them, and occasional reference to them, as what was agreed on when making the bargain, often will be of much service. And it is an aid to the housekeeper herself, who is liable to forget many things in teaching new-comers their duties.
Odds and Ends.
There are certain odds and ends, where every housekeeper will gain much by having a regular time to attend to them. Let this time be the last Saturday forenoon in every month, or any other time more agreeable, but let there be a regular fixed time once a month, in which the housekeeper will attend to the following things:
First, go around to every room, drawer, and closet in the house, and see what is out of order, and what needs to be done, and make arrangements as to time and manner of doing it.
Second, examine the store-closet, and see if there is a proper supply of all articles needed there.
Third, go to the cellar, and see if the salted provision, vegetables, pickles, vinegar, and all other articles stored in the cellar are in proper order, and examine all the preserves and jellies.
Fourth, examine the trunk, or closet of family linen, and see what needs to be repaired and renewed.
Fifth, see if there is a supply of dish towels, dish cloths, bags, holders, floor cloths, dust cloths, wrapping paper, twine, lamp-wicks, and all other articles needed in kitchen work.
Sixth, count over the spoons, knives, and forks, and examine all the various household utensils, to see what need replacing, and what should be repaired.
A housekeeper who will have a regular time for attending to these particulars, will find her whole family machinery moving easily and well; but one who does not, will constantly be finding something out of joint, and an unquiet, secret apprehension of duties left undone, or forgotten, which no other method will so effectually remove.
A housekeeper will often be much annoyed by the accumulation of articles not immediately needed, that must be saved for future use. The following method, adopted by a thrifty housekeeper, may be imitated with advantage. She bought some cheap calico, and made bags of various sizes, and wrote the following labels with indelible ink on a bit of broad tape, and sewed them on one side of the bags:—Old Linens; Old Cottons; Old Black Silks; Old Colored Silks; Old Stockings; Old Colored Woollens; Old Flannels; New Linen; New Cotton; New Woollens; New Silks; Pieces of Dresses; Pieces of Boys’ Clothes, &c. These bags were hung around a closet, and filled with the above articles, and then it was known where to look for each, and where to put each when not in use.
Another excellent plan is for a housekeeper once a month to make out a bill of fare for the four weeks to come. To do this, let her look over this book, and find out what kind of dishes the season of the year and her own stores will enable her to provide, and then make out a list of the dishes she will provide through the month, so as to have an agreeable variety for breakfasts, dinners, and suppers. Some systematic arrangement of this kind at regular periods will secure great comfort and enjoyment to a family.
[CHAPTER XXIX.]
ON A PROPER SUPPLY OF UTENSILS AND CONVENIENCES FOR HOUSEKEEPING.
What is the proper supply of kitchen utensils, depends very much on the style of living adopted, and on the character of the domestics employed. Where a person’s means are small, there must be a sacrifice of time and convenience to save expense; and where domestics are in such habits that no proper care will be taken of utensils, the supply must be more limited.
But where a housekeeper has abundant means, and where she can, by a reasonable effort, secure proper attention to the care of utensils, it greatly contributes to the ease and success of housekeeping to have a full supply of them. And there is much economy, both of time and comfort, in securing such a supply. Where there are a few utensils, and these are to be used for a great variety of purposes, there is a loss of time in stopping to clean articles used for one thing, when wanted for another; there is a loss of time in running about to look for them; and there is a loss of patience in finding them out of the way at just the wrong time, so that good success is often thus entirely prevented.
Moreover, many processes of cooking and housekeeping are performed with much more success, when the cook is well provided with suitable utensils; while the use of the same article for various kinds of dishes, or for different modes of cooking, often destroys the delicate flavor of food, and makes all dishes taste very much alike. This is the case often, in steam and canal boats, where every article on the table seems to have imbibed one and the same flavor.
In pointing out the various conveniences to be used in housekeeping, reference will be had to those chiefly who have means to purchase everything they deem useful, and also who can obtain such domestics, that proper care will be taken of whatever is provided.
In the Domestic Economy at p. 319, is a list embracing a full supply of all those articles which some of the best housekeepers in our country deem useful and desirable, for the various processes of housekeeping, in a family of medium size, and of abundant means; where everything is done for comfort, and nothing for show.
Kitchen Furniture.
The kitchen floor should be covered with an oil cloth. Carpets, or bits of carpet, are not so good, because of the grease and filth that must accumulate in them, and the labor of sweeping, shaking, and cleansing them. Nothing is cleansed so easily as an oil cloth, and it is much better than a painted floor, because it can be removed to be painted.
If the cook is troubled with cold feet in winter, small bits of carpeting can be laid where she sits and stands the most. Otherwise they had better be kept out of the kitchen.
Directions for preparing a kitchen oil cloth will be found page 317 of the Domestic Economy.
There should always be a clock in the kitchen, as indispensable to success in cooking, and regularity of meals.
Two tables, a large one for cooking, and a small one for meals, should be provided.
Besides this, a settee ironing-table is a very great comfort and convenience, which is represented at Fig. 9, and is a better pattern than the one described in the Domestic Economy.
Fig. 9.
The back is made to turn on pivots at CC, and rests when turned on the sides. At AA, are projections, with a hole that meets the holes in the sides at BB, and then the peg at E is put in to hold it firmly. The box, or seat, is divided into two parts, with lids at DD, and in these boxes are kept, on one side the ironing sheet, wipers and holders, and on the other side, the irons, rings, &c., used in ironing. When the back is not used for ironing, it is put down, and the article is a good settee, and if provided with cushions, is as comfortable as most parlor sofas. It can be put on castors, and have handles at the sides, and then it can be moved up to the fire winter evenings for use; the back serving both to reflect the warmth of the fire, and to keep off draughts of air.
The following are the dimensions. Length, six feet. Width of seat, twenty inches. Height of seat, fourteen inches. Height of back, from the bottom, four feet. This makes the width of the table when it is turned down. Height of the ends where the table rests when turned over, two feet six inches.
In some families, it is sometimes necessary to have a domestic sleep in the kitchen. In this case, a bunk settee, like the one which is represented as open at Fig. 10, is very convenient.
Fig. 10.
The following are the dimensions. Six feet long. Seat two feet wide, and sixteen inches high. The parts c c pass within the ends d d. The seat a, when it is shut up, rests on the ledge that runs along the back at b. The bed and bed-clothing are at the bottom of the box, and are shut up in it by day.
At Fig. 11 is represented a kitchen table, with shelves and drawers fastened over it, which, if made and furnished in the manner described, every housekeeper would find an invaluable aid to system, and it would save many steps, and much inconvenience. The shelves are to be nailed or screwed on the wall at a convenient height over the table.
Fig. 11.
The following are the dimensions of the two articles.
Table.—Six feet long. Three feet two inches broad. Thirty inches high. The top to project only two inches over the frame. The box divided by three drawers. Two of the drawers divided by partitions into three equal parts, as seen by the dotted lines in the drawing.
The shelves over the table are three feet in height, three feet six inches wide, and a foot deep. The drawers are four inches deep, and the part above the drawers is divided by the shelves into three equal portions. It is better to have two doors in front of the shelves to shut the dust out. Some would prefer a curtain to slide on an iron wire. At A is hung the salt box, made with a lid, and at B is the coffee mill, and the other side the soap dish is at C.
To furnish this complete, there should be tin boxes made with tight lapping covers, like that at Fig. 12, and of three sizes. The largest should be eight inches in height, and three and a half in diameter. The next size should be six inches high and three inches in diameter. The next should be four inches high and two inches in diameter. These can all be made at a tinner’s for a small sum. In the largest size put two kinds of sugar, and the starch. In the medium size keep tea and coffee, table salt and ginger. In the smallest size keep cream tartar, indigo, mustard, sweet herbs, and spices. In junk bottles, keep a supply of vinegar, molasses, and catsup. In a wide-mouth glass jar, with tight glass stopper, keep soda, or saleratus. Write labels and paste on to each, and arrange them on these shelves in one division. On the shelves of the other division, put the following articles:—those that can be suspended, hang on nails at the side, over the shelves. A dredging box, kitchen pepper box, two-sized graters, two small sieves, a bottle brush, a vial funnel, a larger funnel, a quart, pint, and gill measure, a gravy strainer, a corkscrew, half a dozen bowls, as many cups, saucers, and two small pitchers. On the top of the shelves put the spice mill, and the balance and weights. Fig. 16 shows the best kind. In one of the drawers of the shelves, put needles, thread, twine, wax, and bits of cotton and linen. In the other drawer put the Receipt Book, bits of paper and pencil for writing notes and memoranda, an account book, and a pen and ink.
In the table drawer which is not subdivided, put these articles:—Rolling-pin, griddle spad, iron meat fork, coffee stick, mush stick, gridiron scraper, skewers, saw knife, chopping knife, egg and cake beaters, apple corer, potato beetle, meat hammer, butter spad, whetstone.
In the middle drawer, put, in the front part, the kitchen knives and forks, and carver, the iron spoons, and other spoons used in the kitchen. In the centre part of this drawer put the kitchen table-cloths, and in the back part, the bags for all kinds of family uses, the pudding cloths, jelly strainer, and starch strainers.
In the other drawer, keep in one division, the clean dish cloths and towels; in another, the roller and tumbler towels, and in another the clean lamp towels, and a good supply of holders and dust cloths. Let the cleaver and board be kept on the top of the shelves.
By this arrangement the cook will find every article she has occasion to use close at hand, and when she washes dishes, her towels and soap, and the place where to lay up all utensils as she washes them, are in immediate reach. No one knows, without trial, how many steps are saved, and how much confusion and waste avoided, by such an arrangement. And the expense for securing it is a trifle, far less than is often spent for some showy but useless article for the parlor.
Fig. 13.
Another arrangement is a great aid to system and order. Have a closet made as represented at Fig. 13. In these partitions place these articles, the largest in the largest part, and hanging all that can be suspended, on pegs. A large and small clothes frame. A skirt board. A bosom board. A press board. A yard stick. Three or four brooms. A floor brush for sweeping oil cloths and painted floors. A cobweb brush. A long brush to wash windows outside. A carpet stretcher. A whitewash brush. A long-handle upright dust pan, and a common dust pan. A rag bag. Scrubbing brushes.
In the part with shelves, place, in the upper partitions, in one, the shoes, brushes, and blacking. In another, articles for cleaning brass and silver. In another, sponges, rags, and stain mixtures. In the next division, below, put the lamps and candlesticks, and the waiter containing all the articles used in cleaning lamps.
At the bottom of this closet, keep a box containing the following articles:—A hammer, a small saw, three sizes of gimlets, papers of tacks, nails, screws, two chisels, a bedscrew, a carpet claw.
In another box, keep old newspaper, wrapping paper, and a large ball of twine.
Have a clothes broom and clothes brush hung here, and keep the table-rug here.
All other articles in common use are to be kept in the pantry, or china closet, or in the pot closet.
By thus arranging articles together in one place, and with so complete an assortment, much time and many steps are saved, while they are preserved in good order. A housekeeper who chooses to do without some of these conveniences, and spend the money saved in parlor adornments, has a right to do so, and others have a right to think she in this shows herself deficient in good sense.
The accompanying drawings are designed to show some of the most convenient kitchen and other utensils.
Fig. 14.
Fig. 14 represents a Tin Baker, or Reflector. The iron hooks running out in front, fit it to use with grates. It can be made without them, or made so that they can be drawn out and put in. This bakes bread, cakes, apples, &c., as well as an oven.
Fig. 15.
Fig. 15, called a Footman, is made of brass, or sheet iron, and is used with a grate, to heat irons, and for other purposes.
Fig. 16.
Fig. 16 is the best kind of Balances to use in weighing cake, and for other purposes.
Fig. 17.
Fig. 17 is a tall-handle Dust Pan. The pan is half a yard in length, ten inches in width, and the handle two feet high, and set up perpendicularly. It is a very economical arrangement to save carpets and labor, as it is set down in spots, and the common broom used to throw the dust and rubbing from the carpet on to it, instead of brushing them all across the carpet.
Fig. 18.
Fig. 18 is a Saw Knife, being a saw on one side, and a knife on the other. It is very useful in preparing meats.
Fig. 19.
Fig. 19 is a Lemon Squeezer. At A is a concave place with holes bored through. At B is a convex projection to fit into the concave portion, and here the half lemon is put to be squeezed.
Fig. 21. Fig. 20.
Fig. 20, a Case for lamplighters. It is made of tin, like a tumbler, with a lid fastened at the top by a hinge. It stands in the parlor, to receive the remnants of extinguished lamplighters and matches, to prevent smoke and rubbish, and is a great convenience. It can be made for a trifle at a tinner’s.
Fig. 21 is a tin Match Safe, which should be hung in the kitchen, and the matches be kept in it. It is not only convenient, but important for safety.
Fig. 22.
Fig. 22 is a Meat Mallet, or beef steak hammer. It is a block of wood six inches square, cut in checks, so as to make sharp points on the face, and is used to make tough steaks more tender.
Fig. 23.
Fig. 23 is an Egg Beater. It is made of iron wire, fastened to a tin handle. It is fine for beating eggs and cake, and saves labor. The tin should be six inches long and an inch wide.
Fig. 24.
Fig. 24 is a small brush, useful to dust ledges in parlors, and the frames of windows.
Fig. 25.
Fig. 25 is an Apple Corer. It is a scroll of tin soldered together, about seven inches long, an inch in diameter at the largest end, and tapering to half an inch at the smaller end, where it is cut off obliquely. It costs but a dime, and every housekeeper can have one made at a tinner’s, and needs one.
Fig. 26.
Fig. 26 is a Gridiron Scraper. It is fitted to the bars of gridirons that have scooped bars. It has a convex scraper on one end of the transverse piece of iron, and a concave one at the other, so as to fit both sides of the gridiron bars.
Fig. 27.
Fig. 27 shows the best shape for a Rolling Pin.
Fig. 28.
Fig. 28 shows a Fish Kettle, with the strainer drawn out above it. It should be large enough to use sometimes for boiling a ham. This and the sauce pans following can be used on a cooking stove, or be set on a trivet when an open fire is used.
Fig. 29.
Fig. 29 is a Preserving Kettle with a cover.
Fig. 30.
Fig. 30 is another Preserving Kettle, without a cover. The advantage of these is, that they are shallow, so that the fruit will not need to be piled. The cover preserves the flavor more perfectly. The best are of copper or bell metal. Porcelain ones are apt to crack.
Fig. 31.
Fig. 31 is a Cast Iron Sauce-pan, lined with tin.
Fig. 32.
Fig. 32 is a Tin Sauce-pan.
Fig. 33.
Fig. 33 is a Copper Sauce-pan.
Every housekeeper needs at least four different sizes of sauce-pans. The copper ones are the best, and most durable. The iron lined with tin the next best. The tin are the poorest.
Fig. 34.
Fig. 34 is a Trivet, and is very useful in heating articles over coals to prevent burning. Three or four of different sizes are needed with an open fire. Food cooked for the sick demands them.
Fig. 35.
Fig. 35 is a Tin Bonnet, and is very useful to keep articles warm, to roast apples, to warm plates, &c. Two or three will be kept in constant use when it is found how useful they are.
Fig. 36.
Fig. 36 is a brush to clean bottles, made of bristles twisted into wire.
Fig. 37.
Fig. 37 is a Tin Safe. It is to be made five feet high, five feet wide, a division in the middle, and three shelves each side. Two doors in front, with a lock and key, and all the panels of perforated tin. It is very useful to preserve food in hot weather, and to protect it also from mice.
Refrigerators are very excellent to keep meat, butter, milk, and cream, during hot weather. They are made in a superior manner, and kept for sale, but the following is a mode of securing a cheap one.
Take a barrel and bore holes in the bottom. Lay some small sticks crossing, and set a half barrel within, with holes bored in the bottom. Nail list along the edge of each, and make a cover to lay on each, so that the cover resting on the list will make it very close. Then put ice into the inner one, and the water will filter through the holes in the bottom, and while the ice is preserved, it will make the inner half barrel a perfect refrigerator. Those who buy ice every day will find this a great convenience if they have no other refrigerator.
Fig. 38.
Fig. 38 represents an excellent pattern for a Sofa Bedstead, such as a common carpenter can make. Its dimensions are as follows:—Length, six feet. Width, two feet two inches. Height of the seat from the floor, fifteen inches. Height of the back and sides from the seat, eighteen inches. The seat is a frame with slats to be laid across lengthwise, as this gives more ease than crosswise slats. The back is a frame, with slats crosswise, with two frame legs, as at A and B, swinging on hinges, and when pulled out they serve to support the back. The back is hooked up to the sides, and when laid down rests on the frame legs A B. These legs turn with pintles, or wood hinges. The ends of the sofa have grooved slides for the head and foot boards to slide in, as at C C, and have brown linen nailed on both inside and outside, on which to fasten the sofa cover. Two thick cushions of hair, or of moss and cotton, are made, one to serve for the seat, one to set up against the back. These serve for the bed when the back is laid down. A frill is fastened around the frame of the seat, and the box D, underneath, is to hold the bedclothes, and runs on castors, as also does the sofa.
Fig. 39.
Fig. 39 is a very convenient and cheap article for a light seat to use in a chamber, or in gardening. It is made just like a cross bedstead or cot, with a bit of stair carpeting used as the seat. Handles fastened to it make it more convenient to carry about, as it can be doubled up, and taken in one hand. These are the dimensions: Sticks for the seat, one foot long. Sticks for the legs, one foot six inches long.
Fig. 40.
Fig. 40 is an article for a bedchamber, and remarkably convenient for dressing the feet. In one drawer are kept stockings of all sorts, and in the other shoes; it has a cushion and handles, and is set on castors. It is to stand by the bedside, and a person can change the dress of the feet with the greatest comfort and convenience. These are the dimensions:—Twenty inches square and twelve inches high from castors to cushion.
Housekeepers are much troubled to keep dippers in order. The only sure mode is to have two made of copper, with iron handles fastened on very tight, one to hold a pint, and another two or three quarts. These will never rust or leak, and may be kept for years. Let them be hung by the fire. Keep trivets on which to set kettles over coals, so as not to burn the articles while cooking.
The most successful mode of securing the proper care of utensils, is to make a definite agreement with the cook, on hiring her, that after dinner, she shall examine kitchen, cellar, and pantry, and wash every article that needs cleansing; and that once a month she shall scour all that need scouring. Then, at least once a week, and once a month, the housekeeper should examine herself whether this agreement is fulfilled.
[CHAPTER XXX.]
SUGGESTIONS IN REGARD TO HIRED SERVICE.
There is no subject on which young housekeepers need wisdom and instruction more, than in regard to the management of domestics, and therefore some farther suggestions will be offered, in addition to those presented in the Domestic Economy.
Success in the management of domestics very much depends upon the manners of a housekeeper towards them. And here, two extremes are to be avoided. One is a severe and imperious mode of giving orders and finding fault, which is inconsistent both with lady-like good breeding, and with a truly amiable character. Few domestics, especially American domestics, will long submit to it, and many a good one has been lost, simply by the influence of this unfortunate manner.
The other extreme is apt to result from the great difficulty of retaining good domestics. In cases where this is experienced, there is a liability of becoming so fearful of displeasing one who is found to be good, that, imperceptibly, the relation is changed, and the domestic becomes the mistress. A housekeeper thus described this change in one whom she hired: “The first year she was an excellent servant; the second year, she was a kind mistress; the third year, she was an intolerable tyrant!”
There is no domestic so good that she will not be injured by perceiving that, through dependance upon her, and a fear of losing her services, the mistress of the family gives up her proper authority and control.
The happy medium is secured, by a course of real kindness in manner and treatment, attended with the manifestation of a calm determination, that the plans and will of the housekeeper, and not of the domestic, shall control the family arrangements.
When a good domestic first begins to insist that her views and notions shall be regarded, rather than those of the housekeeper, a kind but firm stand must be taken. A frank conversation should be sought, at a time when nothing has occurred to ruffle the temper on either side. Then the housekeeper can inquire what would be the view taken of this matter in case the domestic herself should become a housekeeper, and hire a person to help her; and when the matter is set before her mind in this light, let the “golden rule” be applied, and ask her whether she is not disposed to render to her present employer what she herself would ask from a domestic in similar circumstances.
Much trouble of this kind is saved by hiring persons on trial, in order to ascertain whether they are willing and able to do the work of the family in the manner which the housekeeper wishes; and in this case, such written cards as have been exhibited in previous pages can be read, or some member of the family can go around for a day or two, and show how everything is to be done.
There is no department of domestic life where a woman’s temper and patience are so sorely tried, as in the incompetence and constant changes of domestics. And therefore, there is no place where a reasonable and Christian woman will be more watchful, careful, and conscientious.
The cultivation of patience will be much promoted, by keeping in mind these considerations in reference to the incompetence and other failings of those who are hired.
In the first place, consider that the great object of life to us is not enjoyment, but the formation of a right character; that such a character cannot be formed, except by discipline, and that the trials and difficulties of domestic life, if met in a proper spirit and manner, will, in the end, prove blessings rather than evils, by securing a measure of elevation, dignity, patience, self-control, and benevolence, that could be gained by no other methods. The comfort gained by these virtues, and the rewards they bring, both in this and in a future life, are a thousand-fold richer than the easy, indolent life of indulgence, which we should choose for ourselves.
In the next place, instead of allowing the mind to dwell on the faults of those who minister to our comfort and convenience, cultivate a habit of making every possible benevolent allowance and palliation. Say to yourself—“Poor girl! she has never been instructed, either by parents or employers. Nobody has felt any interest in the formation of her habits, or kindly sought to rectify her faults. Why should I expect her to do those things well which no one has taken any care to teach her? She has no parent or friend now to aid her but myself. Let me bear her faults patiently, and kindly try to cure them.”
If a woman will cultivate the spirit expressed in such language, if she will benevolently seek the best good of those she employs, if she will interest herself in giving them instruction, if they need it, and good books to read if they are already qualified to understand them, if she will manifest a desire to have them made comfortable in the kitchen, and in their chambers, she certainly will receive her reward, and that in many ways. She will be improving her own character, she will set a good example to her family, and in the end, she will do something, and in some cases much, to improve the character and services of those whom she hires. And the good done in this way goes down from generation to generation, and goes also into the eternal world, to be known and rejoiced in, when every earthly good has come to an end.
It is sometimes the case, that the constant change of domestics, and the liability thus to have dishonest ones, makes it needful to keep stores under lock and key. This measure is often very offensive to those who are hired, as it is regarded by them as an evidence both of closeness and of suspicion of their honesty.
In such cases, it is a good plan, when first making an agreement with a domestic, to state the case in this way. That you have had dishonest persons in the family, and that when theft is committed, it is always a cause of disquiet to honest persons, because it exposes them to suspicion. You can then state your reasons as two-fold: one to protect yourself from pilfering when you take entire strangers, and the other is to protect honest persons from being suspected. When the matter is thus presented, at first hiring a person, no offence will be taken afterwards.
In some portions of our country, the great influx of foreigners of another language and another faith, and the ready entrance they find as domestics into American families, impose peculiar trials and peculiar duties on American housekeepers. In reference to such, it is no less our interest than our duty to cultivate a spirit of kindness, patience, and sympathy.
Especially should this be manifested in reference to their religion. However wrong, or however pernicious we may regard their system of faith, we should remember, that they have been trained to believe that it is what God commands them to obey, and so long as they do believe this, we should respect them for their conscientious scruples, and not try to tempt them to do what they suppose to be wrong. If we lead an ignorant and feeble mind to do what it believes to be wrong, in regard to the most sacred of all duties, those owed to God, how can we expect them to be faithful to us?
The only lawful way to benefit those whom we regard as in an error, is, not to tempt them to do what they believe to be wrong, but to give them the light of knowledge, so that they may be qualified to judge for themselves. And the way to make them willing to receive this light, is to be kind to them. We should take care that their feelings and prejudices should in no way be abused, and that they be treated as we should wish to be, if thrown as strangers into a strange land, among a people of different customs and faith, and away from parents, home, and friends.
Remember that our Master, who is in heaven, especially claims to be the God of the widow, the fatherless, and the stranger, and has commanded, “If a stranger sojourn with you in your land, ye shall not vex him, but the stranger that dwelleth among you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself.”
There is one rule, which every housekeeper will find of incalculable value, not only in the case of domestics, but in the management of children, and that is, never to find fault at the time that a wrong thing is done. Wait until you are unexcited yourself, and until the vexation of the offender is also past, and then, when there is danger of a similar offence, forewarn, and point out the evils already done for want of proper care in this respect.
[CHAPTER XXXI.]
ON THE STYLE OF LIVING AND EXPENSES.
This work is designed primarily for young and inexperienced housekeepers, and the following suggestions are presented as the advice of many judicious and experienced matrons in our country, to their young countrywomen, who are to follow them in the trying duties of housekeeping.
Nothing in this country is a greater source of suffering to housekeepers, than bad taste in their style of living and expenditure. Good taste is that nice perception of fitness and propriety which leads a person to say and do whatever is suitable and appropriate in all possible circumstances. Such good taste is ordinarily the result of good feelings and well-cultivated mind, and an acquaintance with the world. Yet this correct taste is sometimes found in minds that have enjoyed but few advantages, but by nature are endowed with refined feelings and good common sense.
Where this good taste exists, it leads a woman to wish to have her house, furniture, and style of living, in all its parts, exactly conformed to her means, and her situation. If she is not rich, she will not wish to have a house, or furniture, or dress like those who are rich, and will find a pride and pleasure in making a small house, plain furniture, simple dress, and an economical table, so neat, and orderly, and comfortable, and tasteful, as to ensure comfort and satisfaction to all around her. If she cannot command good domestics, nor live comfortably in a house, and with furniture which requires them, she will aim to alter the style of her establishment, and adopt one which can be thoroughly and successfully carried out by such domestics as she can obtain.
Where good domestics are scarce, it is a very great mistake to attempt to live in a large house. The labor of house cleaning, and window cleaning, the sweeping, the care of furniture, and many other items of labor, are much increased by enlarging the size of the house. In the country, where good help is scarce, a house on the plan of one of the cottages drawn in the Domestic Economy, with bed presses instead of chambers, will be found to be a great saving of labor, and the expense that might be incurred in building, furnishing, and taking care of chambers, can be laid out in making conveniences for carrying water, and furnishing the kitchen properly. The drawings for this purpose in the Domestic Economy will be found useful in this respect.
In cities, nothing is more pernicious to a housekeeper’s health, than going up and down stairs, and a woman who has good taste and good sense, will not, for the sake of show, keep two parlors on the ground floor and her nursery above and kitchen below. One of these parlors will be taken for her nursery and bedroom, even should all her acquaintance wonder how it can be, that a wife and mother should think her health and duties of more importance than two dark parlors shut up for company.
When a woman has good sense and good taste, these are some of the things she will not do.
She will not be so anxious to obtain admission into any circle as to seek it by a conformity to its fashions, which will involve her in labor, or expenses that lessen domestic comfort, or are inappropriate to her income.
She will not be particularly anxious to know what the fashion is, in dress and furniture, nor give up any important duty or pursuit to conform to it. Nor will she be disturbed if found deficient in these particulars, nor disturb others by making apologies, or giving reasons.
She will not, while all that is in sight to visiters, or to out-door observers, is in complete order, and in expensive style, have her underclothing, her bedroom, her kitchen, and her nursery ill furnished, and all in disorder. She will not attempt to show that she is genteel, and belongs to the aristocracy, by a display of profusion, by talking as if she was indifferent to the cost of things, or by seeming ashamed to economize. These things are marks of a vulgar, unrefined person, that fancies that it is money, and not character, that makes the lady. And by persons of education and refinement, such things are always regarded as indicating a vulgar, uncultivated mind.
Let a young housekeeper, then, adopt these maxims as her guide in regulating the style of her dress, furniture, table, and the size of her house.
Do not begin housekeeping in the style in which you should end it, but begin on a plain and small scale, and increase your expenditures as your experience and means are increased.
Be determined to live within your income, and in such a style that you can secure time to improve your own mind, and impart some of your own advantages to others.
Try to secure symmetry in your dress, furniture, style of living, and charities. That is, do not be profuse in one direction, and close and pinching in another.
Cultivate a taste for intellectual pleasures, home pleasures, and the pleasures of benevolence.
Have some regular plan for the employment of your time, and in this plan have chief reference to making home pleasant to your husband and children. It will save them from a thousand snares, and you from many sorrows.
[CHAPTER XXXII.]
WORDS OF COMFORT FOR A DISCOURAGED HOUSEKEEPER.
There is no doubt of the fact, that American housekeepers have far greater trials and difficulties to meet than those of any other nation. And it is probable that many of those who may read over the methods of thrift and economy adopted by some of the best housekeepers in our land, and detailed in this work, will with a sigh exclaim, that it is impossible for them even to attempt any such plans.
Others may be stimulated by the advice and examples presented, and may start off with much hope and courage, to carry out a plan of great excellence and appropriateness, and after trying a while, will become discouraged by the thousand obstacles in their way, and give up in despair.
A still greater number will like their own way best, and think it is folly to attempt to change.
For those who wish they could become systematic, neat, and thorough housekeepers, and would like to follow out successfully the suggestions found in this work, and for those who have tried, or will try, and find themselves baffled and discouraged, these words of comfort are offered.
Perhaps you find yourself encompassed by such sort of trials as these. Your house is inconvenient, or destitute of those facilities for doing work well which you need, and you cannot command the means to supply these deficiencies. Your domestics are so imperfectly qualified that they never can do anything just right, unless you stand by and attend to everything yourself, and you cannot be present in parlor, nursery, and kitchen all at once. Perhaps you are frequently left without any cook, or without a chambermaid, and sometimes without any hands but your own to do the work, and there is constant jostling and change from this cause. And perhaps you cannot get supplies, either from garden or market, such as you need, and all your calculations fail in that direction.
And perhaps your children are sickly, and rob you of rest by night, or your health is so poor that you feel no energy, or spirits to make exertions. And perhaps you never have had any training in domestic affairs, and cannot understand how to work yourself, nor how to direct others. And when you go for aid to experienced housekeepers, or cookery books, you are met by such sort of directions as these: “Take a pinch of this, and a little of that, and considerable of the other, and cook them till they are done about right.” And when you cannot succeed in following such indefinite instructions, you find your neighbors and husband wondering how it is, that when you have one, two, or three domestics, there should be so much difficulty about housekeeping, and such constant trouble, and miscalculation, and mistake. And then, perhaps, you lose your patience and your temper, and blame others, and others blame you, and so everything seems to be in a snarl.
Now the first thing to be said for your comfort is, that you really have great trials to meet; trials that entitle you to pity and sympathy, while it is the fault of others more than your own, that you are in this very painful and difficult situation. You have been as cruelly treated as the Israelites were by Pharaoh, when he demanded bricks without furnishing the means to make them.
You are like a young, inexperienced lad, who is required to superintend all the complicated machinery of a manufactory, which he never was trained to understand, and on penalty of losing reputation, health, and all he values most.
Neither your parents, teachers, or husband have trained you for the place you fill, nor furnished you with the knowledge or assistance needed to enable you to meet all the complicated and untried duties of your lot. A young woman who has never had the care of a child, never done housework, never learned the numberless processes that are indispensable to keep domestic affairs in regular order, never done anything but attend to books, drawing, and music, at school, and visiting and company after she left school, such an one is as unprepared to take charge of a nursery, kitchen, and family establishment, as she is to take charge of a man-of-war. And the chief blame rests with those who placed her so unprepared in such trying circumstances. Therefore, you have a right to feel that a large part of these evils are more your misfortune than your fault, and that they entitle you to sympathy rather than blame.
The next word of comfort is, the assurance that you can do every one of your duties, and do them well, and the following is the method by which you can do it. In the first place, make up your mind that it never is your duty to do anything more than you can, or in any better manner than the best you can. And whenever you have done the best you can, you have done well, and it is all that man should require, and certainly all that your Heavenly Father does require.
The next thing is, for you to make out an inventory of all the things that need to be done, in your whole establishment. Then calculate what things you find you cannot do, and strike them off the list, as what are not among your duties. Of those that remain, select a certain number that you think you can do exactly as they need to be done, and among these be sure that you put the making of good bread. This every housekeeper can do, if she will only determine to do it.
Make a selection of certain things that you will persevere in having done as well as they can be done, and let these be only so many as you feel sure you can succeed in attempting. Then make up your mind that all the rest must go along as they do, until you get more time, strength, and experience, to increase the list of things that you determine shall always be well done.
By this course, you will have the comfort of feeling that in some respects you are as good a housekeeper as you can be, while there will be a cheering progress in gaining on all that portion of your affairs, that are left at loose ends. You will be able to measure a gradual advance, and be encouraged by success. Many housekeepers fail entirely, by expecting to do everything well at first, when neither their knowledge or strength is adequate, and so they fail everywhere, and finally give up in despair.
Are you not only a housekeeper, but a mother? Oh, sacred and beautiful name! how many cares and responsibilities are associated with it! And how many elevating and sublime anticipations and hopes are given to inspire, and to cheer! You are training young minds whose plastic texture will receive and retain every impression you make, who will imitate your feelings, tastes, habits, and opinions, and who will transmit what they receive from you to their children, to pass again to the next generation, and then to the next, until a whole nation will have received its character and destiny from your hands! No imperial queen ever stood in a more sublime and responsible position than you now occupy, in the eye of Him who reads the end from the beginning, and who is appointing all the trials and discipline of your lot, not for purposes which are visible to your limited ken, but in view of all the consequences that are to result from the character which you form, and are to transmit to your posterity!
Remember, then, that you have a Father in heaven, who sympathizes in all your cares, pities your griefs, makes allowances for your defects, and is endeavoring by trials, as well as by blessings, to fit you for the right fulfilment of your high and holy calling.
[CHAPTER XXXIII.]
FRIENDLY COUNSELS FOR DOMESTICS.
My friends, you fill a very important and respectable station. The duties committed to you by God are very apt to be considered of small account, but they are indeed most solemn and important.
On your faithfulness and kindness depends the comfort of a whole family, and on you often depends the character and happiness of a whole flock of children. If you do your part faithfully in assisting the mother to carry forward her plans, she will be able to train them aright. If you fail to perform your part, she will be perplexed, discouraged, and disabled, and everything will go wrong.
Every person finds troubles and trials in their lot, and so you must find them in yours. But trials are sent by God, not for evil, but for good, so that we, by patiently bearing them, and by striving to improve under them, may grow wiser and better, and thus more happy than we could be without them.
Whenever, therefore, anything vexes, or troubles you, comfort yourselves by thinking that it is designed for your good, and reap at least one benefit, by bearing it with patience and cheerfulness.
In all your dealings with those who employ you, try to follow “the golden rule,” and do by them as you will wish to have others do by you, when you are the mistress of a family, and hire others to help you.
Do you find that many things are uncomfortable and unpleasant in your present lot? Remember that you never can find a place in this world where everything will be just as you want it, and that it is a bad thing for you, as well as for your employers, to keep roving about from one place to another. Stay where you are, and try to make those things that trouble you more tolerable, by enduring them with patience. Do not fret and be angry at your employers when they oppose your wishes, but wait until you feel in better humor, and then tell them what troubles you, and what you wish they would alter, and in a kind and respectful way, and you will be ten times more likely to gain what you desire.
Do you think that you are found fault with too much, and that your employer is so hard to please that you wish to change for another? Perhaps you do not know how often you do things different from what she wishes, when she does not complain. Perhaps she tells you only just what she thinks she ought to do, for your good. Perhaps she does not know that she does find fault a great deal, or that her manner is an unpleasant one. Perhaps she has a great many cares and troubles that you know not of, which try her nerves, and make her feel very irritable, and thus speak hastily when she does not intend it.
Be patient with her failings, if you think you see any, just as you wish to have her bear with your faults, when they trouble her. If you find your patience failing, it may be well in some cases, to say to your employer, that you should do better, if she would find fault less, and praise you more when you do well. But never say anything of this kind when you are angry yourself, or when you see that she is displeased.
Be careful, in all your dealings with children, always to speak the truth, and never let them hear from you any filthy or wicked language. Never promise to do a thing and then break your word, for this teaches them to break promises. Never tell them frightful stories, or try to make them mind you by saying what is not true. Never help them conceal what they have done that is wrong, but try to persuade them to confess their faults.
Never take the least thing that does not belong to you, and never tempt children to give you what does not belong to them.
Never tell tales out of the family, nor tell to your employers the bad things you have seen, or heard in other families, for this is mean and ungenerous.
Do not spend your money for useless and expensive things, but learn to be economical and prudent, that you may be preparing to be a good housekeeper, wife, and mother, if ever you have a family of your own.
Do not form a habit of roaming about to see company, but be industrious in hours not employed for those who hire you, in mending and making your own clothes.
Take care and keep your person clean, and your hair and clothes in order, and have your chamber always neat and tidy.
Do not be rude and boisterous in manners, but always speak politely to all, especially to those who employ you.
Do not waste any of the provisions, or property of your employers, nor let it spoil by neglect, and never lend or give away anything belonging to the family without leave.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Read your Bible daily, and try to obey its teachings.
Pray to God to forgive your past sins, and to help you keep all his commands, and live every day so that you will not be afraid to die.
[CHAPTER XXXIV.]
MISCELLANEOUS ADVICE, AND SUPPLEMENTARY RECEIPTS.
Weights and Measures.
It is a good plan to have a particular measure cup kept for the purpose, and after once weighing all those receipts that are given by weight, to measure the quantity by this cup, and then write the measures in your receipt book, and keep the cup only for this purpose. The following is some guide in judging of the relative proportion between measures and weights.
A quart of flour, or of sifted loaf sugar, or of softened butter, each weigh about a pound. The flour, if sifted, must be heaped.
A pint equals eight ounces.
A half a pint equals four ounces.
One gill equals two ounces.
Half a gill equals one ounce.
A quart of brown sugar, or of Indian meal, equals a pound and two ounces of the same.
One great spoonful of flour, loaf sugar, or of melted butter, equals a quarter of an ounce of the same. It should be a little heaped.
Four spoonfuls equal an ounce, or half a gill.
Eight spoonfuls equal one gill.
Sixteen spoonfuls equal half a pint.
Spoons differ so much in size that this is an uncertain guide.
A medium-sized teaspoon holds sixty drops of water.
Ten eggs usually weigh a pound.
Four gills make a pint.
Two pints make a quart.
Four quarts make a gallon.
Eight quarts make a peck.
Four pecks make a bushel.
Avoirdupois Weight.
Sixteen drachms make an ounce.
Sixteen ounces make a pound.
Twenty-eight pounds make a quarter.
Four quarters make a hundred.
Twenty hundred make a ton.
Apothecaries’ Weight.
Twenty grains make a scruple.
Three scruples make a drachm.
Eight drachms make an ounce.
Twelve ounces make a pound.
On Purchasing Wood.
Wood that is straight and solid makes more in a load, and is the most profitable.
A cord of small crooked sticks does not contain half the wood there is in a load of solid logs.
The best wood for fires is the hickory, hard maple, white ash, black birch, yellow birch, beech, yellow oak, and locust. The best are placed first.
The following are inferior in quality. Elm, soft maple, white birch, pepperage, and pine.
The following are not fit to burn, either because they snap, or will not burn. Chestnut, butternut, cedar, sassafras, red oak, and buckeye.
Any person can learn to distinguish each kind by a little attention and instruction.
Wood is bought by measurement. A cord of wood is 8 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 4 feet high.
To know the amount of a load, multiply the length by the breadth, and the product by the height, and you have the number of square feet. If it is 128 feet, it is a cord.
Items of Advice.
If you keep an account of your stores, and the dates when they are bought, you can know exactly how fast they are used, and when they are wasted, or stolen.
Stale bread is improved by steaming it half an hour or more.
Grate up dry cheese, and cheese crusts, moisten it with wine or brandy, and keep it in a jar for use. It is better than at first.
Boil old earthenware soaked with grease in hot lye, and it will cleanse it.
Wheat should always be washed before grinding.
When you clean house, begin with the highest rooms first, so that clean rooms be not soiled when done.
Repair house linen, turn sheets, and wash bedclothes in summer.
Clean house in the fall instead of spring, and you get rid of all the filth made by flies. But when you burn bituminous coal, spring is the proper time for house cleaning.
Keep coarse mats on the kitchen table for keeping it clean.
Use a coarse apron and gloves for cleaning grates. Have coal cinders sifted, and save the coarse part to burn again.
Buy your wood in August and September, when it usually is cheapest and plenty.
Have the backs of your chimneys kept clean by sweeping.
Never try a new dish for company.
To purify water, put common charcoal pounded in a common flower-pot, and fine sand over it, and let the water trickle through. Or, take an old sieve, and fill it with sand and pounded charcoal, and strain the water, and then cool it with ice.
Keep a receipt book for yourself, and write in it the improvements of your own experience.
Keep bits of potter’s clay in the house, to use for a paste to extract grease from carpets, floors, and broadcloths.
Dry bran around grapes and other fruit preserves it.
All fat should be tried up once a week, for cooking, or soap grease. Good fat saves butter.
When a stove-pipe or other iron is cracked, make a cement with ashes, salt, and water, and it will stop the opening.
Faded colors often are improved by strong salt and water.
Sal volatile, or spirits of hartshorn, will restore colors taken out by acids.
Eggs are preserved longer by packing them close, standing on their small ends. Another way is to pack them in fine salt, small end down. Another way is to pack them, small end down, and then pour on them a mixture of four quarts of cold water, four quarts of unslacked lime, two ounces of salt, and two ounces of cream-tartar. This will serve for nine dozen eggs. Try all these ways.
Rancid butter is said, by good judges, to be restored thus:—Put fifteen drops of chloride of lime to a pint of water, and work the butter in it till every particle has come in contact with the water. Then work it over in fair cold water.
Indelible Ink is thus prepared:—Buy three drachms of nitrate of silver, and put it in a vial with two spoonfuls of water. Let it stand a few days, then color it with a little ink, and add a tablespoonful of brandy. The preparation is made of strong pearlash water, stiffened with gum-arabic, and colored with red wafers.
Buy cheap red wafers, and scatter them about, and cockroaches will eat them and be destroyed. The roots of black hellebore scattered in their haunts is an infallible remedy.
Cold cream for sore lips, is made by mixing two ounces of oil of almonds, one ounce of spermaceti, one drachm of white wax, and melting them together, adding rose water to perfume them.
Jelly-bags should be made of flannel, and pudding cloths of thick linen, with strings sewed on to them.
Rose leaves should be gathered and preserved by crowding them into a jar with brandy, to use for cooking.
Potato starch is made by grating peeled potatoes, and rubbing them in water. Then pour off the water, after stirring it, and dry what sinks to the bottom.
Orange and lemon peel can be saved thus:—Dry it in an oven, pound it, and then bottle it close.
Orange or lemon water is prepared thus:—Pound the fresh skins in a mortar, pour in boiling water, cover close, and when cold bottle close. Or use wine or brandy.
Cologne water is made thus:—Buy at the apothecary’s one drachm each of oil of lavender, oil of lemon, oil of rosemary, and oil of cinnamon. Add two drachms of oil of bergamot. Mix in a vial, and add a pint of alcohol.
When Pearlash or Saleratus becomes damp, dissolve it in as much water as will just entirely dissolve it, and no more. A tablespoonful of this equals a teaspoonful of the solid. Keep it corked in a junk bottle.
The following is a very useful receipt for children who go to school where blackboards are used.
To make nice Crayons for Blackboards.
These directions are given by Prof. Turner, of the American Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, as follows:
“Take 5 pounds of Paris white, 1 pound of Wheat flour, wet with water, and knead it well; make it so stiff that it will not stick to the table, but not so stiff as to crumble and fall to pieces when it is rolled under the hand.
“To roll out the crayons to the proper size, two boards are needed, one to roll them on; the other to roll them with. The first should be a smooth pine board three feet long and nine inches wide. The other should also be pine, a foot long and nine inches wide, having nailed on the under side near each edge a slip of wood one-third of an inch thick, in order to raise it so much above the under board as that the crayon, when brought to its proper size, may lie between them without being flattened.
“The mass is rolled into a ball, and slices are cut from one side of it about one-third of an inch thick: these slices are again cut into strips about four inches long and one-third of an inch wide, and rolled separately between these boards until smooth and round.
“Near at hand should be another board 3 feet long and 4 inches wide, across which each crayon, as it is made, should be laid, so that the ends may project on each side—the crayons should be laid in close contact, and straight. When the board is filled, the ends should all be trimmed off so as to make the crayons as long as the width of the board. It is then laid in the sun, if in hot weather, or if in winter, near a stove or fireplace, where the crayons may dry gradually, which will require twelve hours. When thoroughly dry they are fit for use.
“An experienced hand will make 150 in an hour.” Young boys can make them and sell to their companions.