MOIST STUFFING
The little cook herself can be allowed to make the stuffing. To each loaf of stale bread, broken in small pieces, add salt and pepper to taste, two tablespoonfuls of butter, half-teaspoonful of ground sage and boiling water enough to slightly moisten.
DRY STUFFING
For dry dressing, crumble the bread, omit the water, but use four tablespoonfuls of melted butter. Pack in the turkey very loosely. Some people like this seasoned with thyme, while others prefer onion.
OYSTER STUFFING
Or if oyster dressing is preferred, omit sage and add instead one pint of oysters, using the liquor to dampen the bread. Pack lightly in the turkey, sew up the opening with white thread and set away in a cool place.
CRANBERRY SAUCE
Taking the cranberries next, the child can sort them over, wash and put in a granite kettle, allowing half a cupful of water and two cupfuls of sugar to each quart of berries. Place over a slow fire, and after boiling fifteen or twenty minutes, stirring only enough to keep from burning, remove and set away until cool enough to pour in a glass dish. Berries cooked this way will keep their shape, be transparent and a bright, pretty red.
MINCE MEAT
The mince-meat takes some time to prepare, and is much better if made a week or two beforehand and allowed to stand in a tightly covered jar. Our small cook can help get ready the raisins, currants, citron, orange peel, and apples while the beef is boiling, and then will be delighted to do the chopping. To half a pound of lean beef, cooked until well done and chopped fine, add half a pound of chopped suet and one pound of chopped tart apples, prepared separately. To this put half a pound of currants, cleaned and dried, half a pound of seeded raisins, half a pound of citron, cut in small pieces, two cupfuls of light-brown sugar, an even teaspoonful salt, half a teaspoonful each of ground cloves and allspice, one teaspoonful cinnamon, one-fourth teaspoonful grated nutmeg, one tablespoonful of finely broken dried orange peel, juice of one lemon, one pint of boiled cider. Boil slowly for an hour, add, if desired, one-half cupful of brandy, and then pack away in a crock in a cool place. This recipe, with full directions for mixing, should then be written out in the small cook-book, for although it may not be needed again for a long time, it will be ready for reference at any moment, ready for use without any doubt or trouble—and "the kind that mother used to make." Mince-meat is so fascinating, too, on account of all the good things that go into it, that scarcely anyone that ever made it right once can fail thereafter.