Chapter XII: Preface (11)

GREEN OR STRING BEANS.--Take young and tender beans, the seeds just forming in the pods. Take off the string with a knife, leaving no bits of string adhering to the beans, either at top or bottom. Do not split them. Cut each bean into three pieces, _not more_, and as you cut them throw them into a pan of cold water, kept beside you for the purpose. The old-fashioned way is now obsolete of cutting them into dice or diamonds, or of splitting them. The more they are cut up (beside the trouble and time wasted,) the more the water gets through them when cooking; the more tasteless they become, and the more difficult they are to drain. We have never met with beans that, when cut small, had not a puddle of greasy water in the bottom of the dish, and sometimes the water was all through the dish, and the beans floating in it. Shame on such bean-cooking! When the beans are all ready for the pot, throw them into boiling water very slightly salted, and they will generally be done in half an hour after they have come to a boil. Transfer them to a sieve; and press, and drain them well, till no water is left about them. Then put them into a deep dish, mix them with fresh butter, and dredge them with black pepper.

LIMA BEANS.--Shell the lima beans into a pan of cold water. Let them lie in it an hour. Put them in boiling water, little more than enough to cover them, and boil them till soft and tender. When done, drain and serve them up in a deep dish, adding among them a good piece of butter. The Lima beans now raised in North America have become coarse and white, requiring a renewal of fresh stock or new seeds from Peru. They will then be green and delicate again, as formerly.

SWEET POTATOS.--Choose the sweet potatos large, and nearly of the same size, then you can either boil or roast them. When small they should always be boiled; as, when baked or roasted, the skin becomes so thick and hard, that it takes up nearly the whole potato. Wash them very clean, and cut off a bit from each end. Put them into a large pot of boiling water without salt, and boil them steadily for at least an hour. Probe them with a narrow-bladed sharp knife, and if it does not easily penetrate all through the largest potato, (in at one side and out at the other) continue the boiling till all are soft throughout. Then take them up, peel them, and keep them warm till sent to table.

_To Bake Sweet Potatos_ they should all be large. Wash them, dry them, and cut off the ends. Then bake them in an oven, lying side by side, not piling one on another. Or else (which is better) roast them in hot ashes. They will not be done in less than an hour and a half, perhaps longer. Then wipe them clean, and serve them up in the skins. Eat them from the skins, with cold butter and a tea-spoon.

_To Stew Sweet Potatos._--Wash and wipe them. Then scrape off the skins with a sharp knife. Split them, and cut them into long pieces. Stew them with fresh pork, veal, or beef; first putting at the bottom a very little butter or water to start them, and then the gravy of the meat will suffice for cooking them--skimming it well. Water to stew should be hot.

_Mashed Sweet Potatos_ are very nice. When well boiled, mash them smoothly with a potato beetle. Mix them with fresh butter, and then stir them well, or beat them with a large wooden spoon to render them light. Afterwards, you may make them into round thick cakes, and touch the surface of every one with pepper--red or black. This is a breakfast dish for company.

BOILED TURNIPS.--Have all your turnips nearly of the same size. Pare them; and if large cut them in half. Put them into boiling water, very slightly salted, and keep them closely covered. Twenty minutes will boil them if very small and young; their flavor is then very fine. Afterwards, according to their size, they will require of gentle boiling, from three-quarters to a full hour. Keep them boiling till, on trying them with a fork, you find them perfectly tender all through. Then take them up, drain them well, and pour melted butter over them; touch the top of each with a spot of black pepper. If very old and spongy, they are only fit for the pig barrel. It is said that if boiled in their skins, (though requiring a much longer time to cook well) they have a fine flavor, and are less watery. You can try it.

If the turnips are to be mashed, cut them into small pieces, boil them very soft, and drain and squeeze them till all the water is pressed out. Then mash them very smooth. Transfer them to a deep dish, and mix them with a _moderate portion_ of fresh butter. Turnips are generally served with too much butter. Season them with pepper. When sent to table take care not to set them in a sunny place, as it will give them a bad taste.

Turnips, baked in an oven, are very good--for a change.

SYDNEY SMITH'S SALAD-DRESSING.--Have ready two well-boiled potatos, peeled and rubbed through a sieve; they will give peculiar smoothness to the mixture. Also, a very small portion of raw onion, not more than a _quarter_ of a tea-spoonful, (as the presence of the onion is to be scarcely hinted,) and the pounded yolks of two hard-boiled eggs. Mix these ingredients on a deep plate with one tea-spoonful of salt, one of made mustard, three table-spoonfuls of olive oil, and one table-spoonful of vinegar. Add, lastly, a tea-spoonful of essence of anchovy; mash, and mix the whole together, (using a boxwood spoon) and see that all the articles are thoroughly amalgamated. Having cut up a sufficiency of lettuce, that has been well washed in cold water, and drained, add to it the dressing immediately before dinner, mixing the lettuce through it with a boxwood fork.

This salad dressing was invented by the Rev. Sydney Smith, whose genius as a writer and a wit is well known on both sides the Atlantic. If _exactly_ followed, it will be found very fine on trial; no peculiar flavor predominating, but excellent as a whole. The above directions are taken from a manuscript receipt given by Mr. Smith to an American gentleman then in London.

In preparing this, or any other salad-dressing, take care not to use that excessively pungent and deleterious combination of drugs which is now so frequently imposed upon the public, as _the best white wine vinegar_. In reality, it has no vinous material about it; and it may be known by its violent and disagreeable sharpness, which overpowers and destroys the taste (and also the substance) of whatever it is mixed with. It is also very unwholesome. Its color is always pale, and it is nearly as clear as water. No one should buy or use it. The first quality of _real_ cider vinegar is good for all purposes.

The above receipt may be tried for lobster dressing.

A Spanish proverb says, that for compounding a _good_ salad, four persons are required--a spend-thrift for oil; a miser for vinegar; a man of judgment for salt; and a madman for stirring the dressing.

FINE CHICKEN SALAD.--Having skinned a pair of cold fowls, remove the fat, and carve them as if for eating; cut all the flesh entirely from the bones, and either mince it or divide it into small shreds. Mix with it a little smoked tongue or cold ham, grated rather than chopped. Have ready one or two fine fresh lettuces, picked, washed, drained, and cut small. Put the cut lettuce on a dish, (spreading it evenly,) or into a large bowl, and place upon it the minced chicken in a close heap in the centre. For the dressing, mix together the following ingredients, in the proportion of the yolks of four eggs well beaten, a tea-spoonful of powdered white sugar, a salt-spoon of cayenne; (no salt if you have ham or tongue with the chicken,) two tea-spoonfuls of made mustard, six table-spoonfuls of salad oil, and five of celery vinegar. Stir this mixture well: put it into a small sauce-pan, set it over the fire, and let it boil three minutes,(not more,) stirring it all the time. Then set it to cool. When quite cold, cover with it thickly, the heap of chicken in the centre of the salad. To ornament it, have ready half a dozen or more, hard-boiled eggs, which, after the shell is peeled off, must be thrown directly into a pan of cold water to prevent them from turning blue. Cut each egg (white and yolk together) lengthways into four long pieces of equal size and shape; lay the pieces upon the salad all round the heap of chicken, and close to it; placing them so as to follow each other round in a slanting direction, something in the form of a circular wreath of leaves. Have ready, also, some very red cold beet, cut into small cones or points all of equal size; arrange them in a circle upon the lettuce, outside of the circle of cut egg. To be decorated in this manner, the salad should be placed in a dish rather than a bowl. In helping it, give each person a portion of every thing, and they will mix them together on their plates.

This salad should be prepared immediately before dinner or supper; as standing long will injure it. The colder it is the better.

CARROTS.--Having washed the carrots, and scraped off the outer skin with a sharp knife, or taken off a very thin paring, split them a few inches down, leaving a long cleft in the upper half only, and put them on to cook in plenty of boiling water, with a little salt in it. There is no table vegetable that needs more boiling than a carrot. Small young carrots require at least half an hour. If large, they must boil from one to two hours, according to their size. When you find them tender throughout, dish them, with melted butter poured round them. They are eaten plain, only with boiled beef or boiled mutton. They are often added to soups and stews, when they must be put in long before the other vegetables. For soups and stews the nicest way is to grate them (before boiling,) on a coarse grater. This way they improve both the taste and color.

Carrots are very nice, sliced thin after boiling, put into a sauce-pan, with bits of butter dredged with flour, seasoned with pepper, and stewed soft without any water.

PARSNIPS.--Scrape the parsnips, and split them half way down. Put them into boiling water with a little salt. Parsnips require less boiling than carrots; and, according to their size, will take from half an hour to an hour. Skim the water while they are boiling. When quite tender take them up, drain them, dish them, and pour melted butter over them. They are especially eaten with corned pork, or salted cod; but are good with various things. They are excellent stewed with fresh beef, or fresh pork, for a plain dinner.

_Fried Parsnips_ make a nice breakfast dish. They must first be parboiled; then split, and cut into long pieces, and fried brown in fresh butter, or in nice dripping of veal or beef.

_Baked Parsnips._--Split and parboil them. Then place them in a large dish. Lay among them some bits of fresh butter, and bake them brown. Eat them with any sort of roast meat.

_Parsnip Fritters._--Boil and peel half a dozen large parsnips, and then split and cut them in pieces. Make a nice batter, allowing four beaten eggs to a pint of milk, and four table-spoonfuls of flour. Have ready over the fire, a frying-pan with boiling lard. Put in a large spoonful of batter; upon that a piece of parsnip, and cover it with another spoonful of batter. Proceed thus till you have used up the parsnips. When done, drain them from the lard, and serve them hot at breakfast or dinner.

BEETS.--Beets must be washed very clean, but not scraped, trimmed, or cut till after they are boiled. Put them on in boiling water; and, according to their size, boil them steadily from one hour and a half, to two hours and a half, but they must not be probed (to ascertain if they are tender all through,) but pinched with the fingers. Then peel off the skins, and trim them neatly. Hold the beet in a pan of cold water while you peel it. Do it quickly. Serve them up either split or sliced, with melted butter poured over them, and seasoned with pepper. Or else they may be sliced thick, (allowing them to get cold,) and spiced vinegar poured over them. Red beets are usually dressed with vinegar; the white or pale ones with melted butter.

_Baked Beets_ have a finer flavor, and are more nutritious than when boiled. Wash and wipe them dry, but do not skin or cut them till after cooking. They must be thoroughly done before they are taken out of the oven, and then pared and trimmed. According to their size they will require from four to six hours baking. Their blood-red color makes them ornamental to the table; but when cooked in soups or stews they add little to the taste, which is overpowered by that of other ingredients.

SQUASHES OR CYMLINGS.--See that the squashes are not turning old, and hardening. Wash them, and cut them into four pieces each; but do not split them. Put them on in boiling water, with a little salt. Boil them steadily till quite tender throughout. Then take them up, and mash or drain them through a cullender, pressing them with a broad short-handled wooden ladle. All the water (of which there will be a profusion,) must be entirely squeezed out. Serve them up very dry, and smoothly and evenly mashed, having first mixed with them a _very little butter_; and season them with very little pepper. Much butter gives them a disagreeable taste and consistence, and the butter should be fresh and good. It is better to mash squashes, turnips, pumpkins, &c., without any butter, than to use that which is salt and bad. The flat white ones are the best summer squashes; the striped green are more watery; the cashaw, or yellow winter squash, is best of all, and grows well in the New England states, from whence, as it keeps well all winter, it is often brought in barrels. Every family should get a barrel of winter squashes from Boston. They do not thrive in the middle States. In New Jersey and Pennsylvania, they cannot be raised even from the best yankee seed, turning pumpkinish the next year, and afterwards becoming quite pumpkins, and very bad ones too. But when raised in their native soil and climate nothing of the squash kind is equal to them. They are very dry and sweet, and of a rich yellow color. Take them out of the barrel, and keep them far apart on the shelves or floor of a dry pantry.

STEWED PUMPKIN.--No pumpkin is too large to be good, but they may be too old. Cut a good deep-colored pumpkin in half, and empty out all the seeds, &c. Then cut it into pieces, and pare them. Put the pieces of pumpkin into a pot with barely sufficient water to keep them from burning. When they are thoroughly done or soft all through, take them up; drain, mash, and press them through a cullender. They must be _very_ dry. Put the stewed pumpkin into a dish, and mix it with a small portion of butter. Season it with black pepper, and eat it with boiled corned beef, or corned pork, or bacon.

Stewed pumpkin is chiefly used for pies and puddings.

YANKEE PUMPKIN PUDDING.--Take a pint of stewed pumpkin. Mix together a pint of _West India_ molasses and a pint of milk, adding two large table-spoonfuls of brown sugar, and two table-spoonfuls of ground ginger. Beat three eggs very light, and stir them, gradually, into the milk and molasses. Then, by degrees, stir in the stewed pumpkin. Put it into a deep dish, and bake it without a crust. This is a good farm-house pudding, and _equally_ good for any healthy children.

For a large family, double the quantities of ingredients--that is, take a quart of milk, a quart of molasses, four spoonfuls of brown sugar, four spoonfuls of ginger, six eggs, and a quart of stewed pumpkin.

You had best have at hand _more than a quart_ of pumpkin, lest when mixed it should not hold out. This pudding is excellent made of winter squash.

STEWED MUSHROOMS.--Peel and wash a quart of very fresh mushrooms, and cut off all the stems. Button mushrooms are best; but if you can only procure large ones, quarter them. Sprinkle them slightly with salt and pepper, and put them into a stew-pan with a quarter of a pound of nice fresh butter, cut in pieces and slightly dredged with flour. Keep the lid closely covered all the time. When quite tender, put the mushrooms into a deep dish, in the bottom of which is laid a nice toast that has had all the crust pared off, and been dipped for a minute in hot water, and slightly buttered. Serve up the mushrooms closely covered. They require no seasoning.

BAKED MUSHROOMS.--Take large fine fresh mushrooms. Peel them and remove the stems. Lay them on their backs in a large dish, (not letting them touch each other) and put into each mushroom, (as in a cup) a bit of the best fresh butter. Set the dish in an oven and bake them. Send them to table in the same dish; or transfer them to another, with a large toast at the bottom. There is no better way of cooking mushrooms than this.

If you cannot procure good butter, cook them in nice olive oil.

TO BOIL INDIAN CORN.--Corn for boiling should be full grown, but young and tender, and the grains soft and milky. If its grains are becoming hard and yellow, it is too old for cooking. Strip the ears of their leaves and the silk. Put them into a large pot of boiling water, and boil it rather fast for half an hour or more, in proportion to its size and age. When done, take it up, drain it, dish it under a cover, or napkin, and serve it up hot. Before eating it, rub each ear with salt and pepper, and then spread it with butter. Epicures in corn consider it sweetest when eaten off the cob. And so it is; but _before company_ few persons like to hold an ear of indian corn in their hands, and bite the grains off the cob with their teeth. Therefore, it is more frequently cut off the cob into a dish; mixed with salt, pepper, and butter, and helped with a spoon.

It is said that young green corn will boil sufficiently in ten minutes, (putting it, _of course_, into a pot of boiling water.) Try it.

_Another way._--Having pulled off the silk, boil the corn without removing any but the outside leaves. With the leaves or husk on, it will require a longer time to cook, but is sweeter and more nutritious.

HOMINY.--Hominy is white indian corn, shelled from the cob, divested of the outer skin by scalding in hot lye, and then winnowed and dried. It is perfectly white. Having washed it through two or three waters, pour boiling water on it; cover it, and let it soak all night, or for several hours. Then put it into a pot or sauce-pan, allow two quarts of water to each quart of hominy, and boil it till perfectly soft. Then drain it, put it into a deep dish, add some butter to it, and send it to table hot, (and _uncovered_,) to eat with any sort of meat; but particularly with corned beef or pork. What is left may be made next day into thick cakes, and fried in butter. To be _very good_, hominy should boil four or five hours.

CAROLINA GRITS OR SMALL HOMINY.--The small-grained hominy must be washed and boiled in the same manner as the large, only allow rather less water for boiling. For instance, put a pint and a half of water to a quart of small hominy. Drain it well, send it to table in a deep dish _without a cover_, and eat it with butter and sugar, or molasses. If covered after boiling, the vapor will condense within the lid, and make the hominy thin and watery.

SAMP.--This is indian corn skinned, and then pounded or ground till it is still smaller and finer than the Carolina grits. It must be cooked and used in the same manner. It is very nice eaten with cream and sugar.

For invalids it may be made thin, and eaten as gruel.

HOMINY CAKES.--A pint of small hominy, or Carolina grits; a pint of white indian meal, sifted; a salt-spoonful of salt, three large table-spoonfuls of fresh butter; three eggs or three table-spoonfuls of strong yeast; a quart of milk. Having washed the small hominy, and left it soaking all night, boil it soft, drain it, and while hot mix it with the indian meal; adding the salt, and the butter. Then mix it gradually with the milk, and set it away to cool. Beat the eggs very light, and add them gradually to the mixture. The whole should make a thick batter. Then bake them on a griddle, in the manner of buckwheat cakes, rubbing or scraping the griddle always before you put on a fresh cake. Trim off their edges nicely, and send them to table hot. Eat them with butter.

Or you may bake them in muffin rings.

If you prefer making these cakes with yeast, you must begin them earlier, as they will require time to rise. The yeast should be strong and fresh. If _not_ very strong, use four table-spoonfuls instead of two. Cover the pan, set it in a warm place; and do not begin to bake till it is well risen, and the surface of the mixture is covered with bubbles.

CORN PORRIDGE.--Take young corn, and cut the grains from the cob. Measure it, and to each heaping pint of corn allow not quite a quart of milk. Put the corn and milk into a pot, stir them well together, and boil them till the corn is perfectly soft. Then add some bits of fresh butter dredged with flour, and let it boil five minutes longer. Stir in at the last, four beaten yolks of eggs, and in three minutes remove it from the fire. Take up the porridge and send it to table hot, and stir some fresh butter into it. You may add sugar and nutmeg.

CORN OYSTERS.--Three dozen ears of large young indian corn, six eggs; lard and butter in equal portions for frying. The corn must be young and soft. Grate it from the cob as fine as possible, and dredge it with wheat flour. Beat very light the six eggs, and mix them gradually with the corn. Then let the whole be well incorporated by hard beating. Add a salt-spoon of salt.

Have ready, in a frying pan, a sufficient quantity of lard and fresh butter mixed together. Set it over the fire till it is boiling hot, and then put in portions of the corn mixture, so as to form oval cakes about three inches long, and nearly an inch thick. Fry them brown, and send them to table hot. In taste they will be found to have a singular resemblance to fried oysters, and are universally liked if properly done. They make nice side-dishes at dinner, and are very good at breakfast.

SUMMER SACCATASH.--String a quarter of a peck of young green beans, and cut each bean into three pieces, (not more,) and do not split them. Have by you a pan of cold water, and throw the beans into it as you cut them. Have ready over the fire a pot or sauce-pan of boiling water; put in the beans, and boil them hard near twenty minutes. Afterwards take them up, and drain them well through a cullender. Take half a dozen ears of young but full-grown indian corn, (or eight or nine if they are not all large) and cut the grains down from the cob. Mix together the corn and the beans, adding a very small tea-spoonful of salt, and boil them about twenty minutes. Then take up the saccatash, drain it well through a sieve, put it into a deep dish, and while hot mix in a large piece of butter, (at least the size of an egg,) add some pepper, and send it to table. It is generally eaten with salted or smoked meat.

Fresh Lima beans are excellent cooked in this manner, with green corn. They must be boiled for half an hour or more, before they are cooked with the corn.

Dried beans and dried corn will do very well for saccatash, but they must be soaked all night before boiling. The water poured on them for soaking should be hot.

WINTER SACCATASH.--This is made of dried shelled beans and hard corn, soaked over night in separate pans, and boiling water poured over them in the morning, after pouring off the first water. Then boil both together till they are _quite soft_. Drain them dry in a sieve, put them into a deep dish, and mix in a large piece of butter, seasoned with pepper. This is a good accompaniment to corned pork or beef. The meat must be boiled in a separate pot.

CAROLINA WAY OF BOILING RICE.--Pick the rice carefully, and wash it through two or three cold waters till it is quite clean. Then (having drained off all the water through a cullender,) put the rice into a pot of boiling water, with a very little salt, allowing as much as a quart of water to half a pint of rice. Boil it twenty minutes or more. Then pour off the water, draining the rice as dry as possible. Lastly, set it on hot coals with the lid off, that the steam may not condense upon it and render the rice watery. Keep it drying thus for a quarter of an hour. Put it into a deep dish, and loosen and toss it up from the bottom with two forks, one in each hand, so that the grains may appear to stand alone.

TOMATOS.--Tomatos require long cooking; otherwise they will have a raw taste, and be quite too acid. Take fine tomatos that are quite ripe, put them into a pan, and scald them in very hot water. Let them remain for ten minutes, or till you can peel them without scalding your hands. Drain them through a sieve. You may either press out all the seeds, (retaining only the pulp or liquid,) or leave the seeds in, squeezing the tomatos slightly. Put them into a stew-pan, which must on no account be of copper, as the acid of the tomatos will render it poisonous. We knew a lady who died in agonies from eating tomatos cooked in a copper vessel that had the tinning partly worn off. If the tin inside is indispensable, (which it is) why have any copper about it? A vessel of _double_ block tin only, will last as long, and stand the fire as well as if there was copper inside. For all stews, an iron pan, lined with delft (or what is called porcelain or enamel) is excellent. Best of all for stewing tomatos, and many other things, is a _bain marie_, or double kettle, with the water outside, in the outer kettle.

Having nearly filled the stew-pan with the tomatos, (cut up, if they are large) add a little salt and pepper, a piece of fresh butter dredged with flour, and (if approved) a very little chopped onion. If you have ready-boiled onions at hand, take one or two of them and mince it fine. Add to the tomatos some powdered white sugar to lessen the excessive acid. Put but very few bread-crumbs--if too many, they will weaken the taste. Tomatos are an improvement to every kind of plain soups, and may be added, with advantage, after the soup is in the tureen. The cooking of tomatos should be commenced at least three hours before dinner. Put no water with them--their own juice is sufficient.

Many persons like tomatos raw, sliced like cucumbers, and seasoned with vinegar and pepper.

TO KEEP TOMATO PULP.--Having boiled them till entirely dissolved, (adding a little salt and pepper) press and strain them through a sieve, pour the liquor into pint or half-pint bottles, (which must be perfectly clean) and stand the bottles up in a large iron pot or oven, with a layer of straw in the bottom. Fill up the pot with cold water, cork them tightly, and let the water boil round the bottles for five hours. As it boils away, fill up with more hot water. When you take them out, put a spoonful of salad oil at the top of each bottle; seal the bottles with rosin cement. This pulp will be good for tomato purposes till next summer, if kept in a cool dry place. When you open a bottle use it fast, or cork it again immediately.

BROILED TOMATOS.--Take the very largest and ripest tomatos. Wash, but do not scald or peel them. Cut the tomatos _half_ apart on four sides, extract the seeds, and fill each tomato with a nice forcemeat of stuffing, made of bread-crumbs, butter, minced veal or pork, mace, nutmeg, and sweet marjoram. Having stewed this stuffing in a sauce-pan, (moistening it with tomato juice, or gravy) fill all the tomatos with it, opening them out a little like the leaves of a tulip. Butter slightly a heated gridiron, and broil them on it. Or, they may be baked in an oven.

This is a dish for company, either at dinner or breakfast.

BUTTON TOMATOS.--These are the very smallest tomatos, and are excellent for pickling and preserving. If quite ripe, and free from blemishes, they will keep very well in cold vinegar, and are the easiest done of all pickles. There are two sorts of button tomatos, the red and the yellow, both equally good. Wipe every tomato clean and dry, and put them into small glass jars that have a cover. Fill the jars two-thirds with the tomatos, and then fill up to the top with the best cider vinegar. On the top put a table-spoonful of salad oil, and cover them closely. They require nothing to secure their keeping well. But the taste will be improved, by putting in with them, three very small thin muslin bags, each containing mace, nutmeg, and ginger, broken small, but not powdered. Lay one bag of spice at the bottom of the jar; one about the middle, and one near the top. If done without spice, they are the cheapest of all pickles. Do not put them into soups or stews; but eat them cold with meat, like other pickles.

If kegs of these tomatos were carried to sea, and liberally served out to the crew, the scurvy would be less frequent, even on long voyages.

Large whole tomatos would do for this purpose. We wish it were the universal custom in ships to take out with them plenty of tomatos kept in this way in vinegar. Tomato catchup is now much used for the army--so it should be for the navy; not only for the sick, but for the well; to keep them well.

BREAD, PLAIN CAKES, etc.

HINTS ON HEATING OVENS AND BAKING.--Brick ovens are generally heated with dry fagots or small branches, or with light split wood. For baking bread, the oven-wood must be heavier than for pies. A heap of wood should be placed in the centre of the oven on the brick floor, and then set on fire. While the wood is burning, the door of the oven must be left open. When the wood is all burnt down, and reduced to a mass of small red coals, the oven will be very hot. Then shovel out all the coals and sweep the oven floor with a broom, till it is perfectly clean, and entirely free from ashes. Try the heat within. For baking bread, the floor of the oven should look red, and a little flour thrown in should burn brown immediately. If you can hold your hand within the mouth of the oven as long as you can distinctly count twenty, the heat is about right. Pies, puddings, &c., require less heat. When a brick oven is used, a peel, or large broad-bladed long-handled wooden shovel is necessary for putting in the bread, pies, &c., placing them on the broad or shovel-end of the peel, and slipping them off on the oven floor. Then close up the door of the oven, and leave the things to bake. When done, slip the peel beneath them, and hand them out on it.

To bake in an Iron Dutch oven, (a large deep, cast-iron pan, with a handle, a close-fitting lid, and standing on three or four feet,) you must first stand the lid upright before a clear fire to heat the inside; and it will be best if the oven itself is also stood up before the fire for the same purpose. This should be done while the article to be baked is preparing, that it may be put in as soon as it is ready. The oven may be suspended to the crane, and hung over the fire, or it may be set on a bed of hot wood coals in the corner of the hearth. As soon as the loaf or pie is in, put on the lid of the oven, and cover it all over with hot coals, replenishing it with more live coals as the baking proceeds. If you find it too hot on the top, deaden it with ashes. If the oven stands on the hearth, keep up the heat at the bottom, by additional live coals placed beneath it. Whether the oven is hung over the fire, or stood on the hearth, there must always be hot coals all over the lid, the hottest near the edge.

To bake on a griddle, you may either hang it over the fire, or set it over hot coals on the hearth. Most griddles have feet. The fire must be quite clear and bright, and free from smoke, or the cakes will be blackened, and have a disagreeable taste. The griddle must be perfectly clean; and while you are baking, it will require frequent scraping, with a broad knife. If it is well scraped after every cake is taken off, it will not want greasing, as there will be no stickiness. Otherwise, some butter tied up in a clean rag and laid on a saucer, must be kept at hand all the time, to rub over the griddle between the baking of each cake; for butter, lard, or nice beef or veal dripping may be substituted, but it will not be so fine. Never grease with mutton fat, as it will communicate the taste of tallow. A bit of the fat of _fresh_ pork may do, (stuck on a fork,) but salt pork will give the outside of the cakes a disagreeable saltness, and therefore should not be used.

A griddle may be placed in the oven of a hot stove. Some close stoves have a hole in the top with a flat lid or cover, which lid can be used as a griddle.

The tin-reflecting ovens (with shelves for the pies and cakes) that are used for baking in the summer, and that, having a furnace beneath, and a chimney-pipe, can be set out of doors, so that the kitchen may not be kept hot, are very good for things that will bake soon, and that do not require what is called a strong, solid heat. But they are not effective unless the inside is kept _very bright_; otherwise it will not reflect the heat. The tin ovens should (as well as tin roasters) be cleaned thoroughly and scoured bright with sand every time they are used.

The art of baking with anthracite, (or any other mineral coal,) can only be acquired by practice. The above hints on baking, refer exclusively to wood fires.

When a charcoal furnace is used for baking, stewing, or any sort of cooking, it should either be set out in the open air, or the door of the kitchen must be kept open all the time. The vapor of charcoal in a close room is so deleterious as to cause death.

DRIED CORN MEAL YEAST CAKES.--Half a pound of fresh hops, four quarts of water, a pint of wheat or rye flour, half a pint of strong fresh yeast from the brewer or baker, three pints or more of indian meal. Boil half a pound of fresh hops in four quarts of water, till the liquid is reduced to two quarts. Strain it into a pan, and mix in sufficient wheat flour to make a thin batter, adding half a pint of the best yeast you can procure. Leave it to ferment; and when the fermentation is over, stir in sufficient indian meal to make a moderately stiff dough. Cover it, and set in a warm place to rise. When it has become very light, roll it out into a square sheet an inch thick, and cut it into flat cakes, about four inches square. Spread them out separately, on a large dish, and let them dry slowly in a cool place where there is no sun. While drying, turn them five or six times a day. When they are quite dry and hard, put them, separately, into brown paper bags, and keep them in a box closely covered, and in a place not the least damp.

When you want them to use for yeast, dissolve in a little warm water one or more of the cakes, in proportion to the quantity of bread you intend making. When it is quite dissolved, stir it hard, thicken it with a little wheat flour, cover it, and place it near the fire to rise, before you use it. Then mix it with the flour, according to the usual manner of making bread. One yeast cake is enough for two quarts of meal or flour.

This way of preserving yeast is very convenient for keeping through the summer, or for conveying to a distance.

EXCELLENT HOME-MADE YEAST.--Yeast should always be kept in a glass bottle or a stone jug, and never in earthen or metal. Before you make fresh yeast, empty entirely the vessel that has contained the last; and if of stone, scald it twice with boiling water, in which it will be well to mix a little clear lye. Then rince it with cold water, till perfectly clean. If you have not used lye in scalding it, dissolve some potash or pearlash in the rinsing water, to remove any acidity that may linger about the vessel, and may therefore spoil the new yeast. If you keep your yeast in glass bottles, the water must be warm, but not hot; as scalding water may crack them: also, melt some potash or pearlash in this water. The vessel for keeping it being purified, proceed to make your yeast. Have ready, in a kettle over the fire, two quarts of boiling water; put into it a very large handful of hops, (as fine and fresh as possible,) and let the water boil again with the hops in it for twenty minutes more. Sift into a pan three pints of wheat flour. Strain the liquor from the hops into a large bowl, and pour half of it hot over the flour. Stir it well, and press out all the lumps till it is quite smooth. Let the other half of the liquid stand till it is cool, and then pour it gradually to the rest; mixing it well, by stirring as you proceed. Then take half a pint of good strong yeast--brewer's or baker's yeast, if you can get it fresh; if not, you must use some that has been left from your last making, provided it is not the least sour; stir this yeast into the mixture of hop water and flour, put it immediately into your jug or bottles, and cork it loosely till the fermentation is over, (which should be in an hour,) and it will then be fit for use. Afterwards cork it tightly. It will keep better if you put a raisin or two into the bottom of each bottle, before you pour in the fresh yeast. Into a stone jug put half a dozen raisins.

All yeast is better and more powerful for being fresh. It is better to make it frequently, (the trouble being little,) than to risk its becoming sour by endeavoring to keep it too long. When sour it becomes weak and watery, and tastes and smells disagreeably, and will never make light bread; besides, being very unwholesome. The acidity may be somewhat corrected by stirring in some dissolved pearlash, saleratus, or soda, immediately before the yeast is used; but it is better to have it good and fresh, without the necessity of any corrective. Yeast should always be kept in a cool place.

Those who live in towns where there are breweries have no occasion to make their own yeast during the brewing season, and in summer they can every day supply themselves with fresh yeast from the baker's. It is only in country places where there are neither brewers or bakers that it is expedient to make it at home. For home-made yeast, we know the above receipt to be excellent.

Sweet cakes, buns, rusks, &c., require stronger and fresher yeast than bread; the sugar will otherwise retard their rising.

INDIAN BREAD OR PONE.--Four quarts of indian meal sifted, a large half pint of wheat flour, a table-spoonful of salt, half a pint of strong fresh yeast, a quart of warm water. Sift into a large deep pan the indian meal and the wheat flour, mixing them well. Make a hole in the centre. The water must be warm, but not hot. Mix it with the yeast, and pour them into the hole in the midst of the meal. Take a spoon, and with it mix into the liquid enough of the surrounding meal to make a thin batter, which you must stir till it is quite smooth, and free from lumps. Then strew a handful of wheat flour over the surface, scattering it thinly, so as to cover the whole. Warm a clean cloth, and lay it folded over the top of the pan. Then set it in a warm place to rise, nearer the fire in winter than in summer. When it is quite light, and has risen so that the flour on the surface is cracked, strew on the salt, and begin to form the whole mass into a dough; commencing round the hole that contains the batter, and adding, gradually, sufficient lukewarm water (which you must have ready for the purpose,) to mix it of the proper consistence. When the whole is completely mixed, and the batter in the centre is thoroughly incorporated with the dough, knead it hard for at least half an hour. Then, having formed the dough into a round lump in the middle of the pan, strew a little more flour thinly over it. Cover it, and set it again in a warm place for half an hour. Then flour your pasteboard, divide the dough equally, and make it into two loaves. Have the oven ready. Put in the loaves directly, and bake them about two hours or more. Indian meal requires always more baking than wheat. When you take them out, it is well to wrap each loaf in a clean, coarse towel, well sprinkled with cold water, and rolled up damp till the bread is baked. Having thus wrapped up the loaves, stand them on end to cool slowly. The damp cloths will prevent the crust from hardening too much while the loaves are cooling.

All indian bread, and every sort of indian cake, is best when quite fresh.

Excellent bread may be made of equal proportions of wheat, rye flour, and indian corn; or of three parts wheat and one part indian. All bread should be kept closely secluded from the air, wrapped in cloths, and put away in boxes or baskets with tightly-fitting lids.

Should you find the dough sour, (either from the heat of the weather, or from standing too long,) you may recover it, by dissolving in a little lukewarm water a tea-spoonful of pearlash, saleratus, or soda. Sprinkle this water all over the dough. Then knead it in, so that it may be dispersed throughout. Then put it into the oven as soon as possible; first tasting the dough, to discover if the sourness is entirely removed. If not, mix in a little more pearlash, and then taste it again. Take care not to put in too much of any of these alkaline substances, lest they communicate a disagreeable, soapy taste to the bread.

When you buy corn meal, it will keep better if the whole is sifted as soon as you get it. Avoid buying much at a time, unless you can keep it in a very cool place. When sour, it is unfit to eat. Common indian meal is much the best for use.

INDIAN RYE BREAD.--Two quarts of indian meal, two quarts of rye meal, three pints of milk or water, two tea-spoonfuls of salt, half a pint of strong fresh yeast. Having sifted the rye and indian meal in a large pan, mix them well together, adding the salt. Boil the milk or water in a sauce-pan, and when scalding hot pour it on the meal, and stir the whole very hard. If too stiff, add a little more warm water. Let it stand till it becomes only of a lukewarm heat, and then stir in the yeast. Knead the mixture into a stiff dough, and knead it long and hard for at least half an hour. Then cover the pan with a thick cloth that has been previously warmed, and set it near the fire to rise. When the dough is quite light, and cracked all over the top, take it out of the pan; divide the mass in half, make it into two loaves, knead each loaf well for ten minutes or more, and then cover and set them again near the fire for about half an hour. By this time have the oven ready, put in the loaves directly, and bake them at least an hour and a half. This bread is considered very wholesome.

Should you find the dough sour, you may rectify it by kneading in a tea-spoonful of soda or pearlash, dissolved in a little warm water.

INDIAN WHEAT BREAD.--This is made in the above manner, substituting wheat for rye flour.

In any sort of home-made bread, (either white or brown) a handful or more of indian meal will be found an improvement, rendering it moist and sweet.

BOSTON RYE AND INDIAN BREAD.--Two quarts of indian meal, two quarts of rye meal, half a pint of strong fresh yeast, half a pint of West India molasses, a small table-spoonful of salt. Sift the rye and indian meal into a large pan or wooden bowl; and mix them well together, adding a little salt. Have ready half a pint of water, warm but not hot. Mix with it the molasses, and then stir into it the yeast. Make a hole in the middle of the pan of meal, pour in the liquid, and then with a spoon work into it a portion of the flour that surrounds the hole, till the liquid in the centre becomes a thick batter. Sprinkle the top with rye meal, lay a thick cloth over the pan, and set it in a warm place to rise. In three or four hours it should be light enough to appear cracked all over the surface. Then pour into the middle (by degrees) about a pint of warm water, (it must not be hot,) and as you pour mix it well all through the dough, till the whole becomes a round mass. Sprinkle some rye flour on the dough, and having floured your hands, knead it long and hard, (at least half an hour, and after it ceases to stick to your hands,) turning it over as you proceed. Then sprinkle the dough again with flour, cover it, and again set it in a warm place to rise. Have the oven ready, and of the proper heat, so that the bread may be put in as soon as it has completely risen the second time. When perfectly light, the dough will stand high, and the surface will be cracked all over. This quantity will be sufficient for a common-sized loaf. Set it directly into the oven, and bake it about two hours. When bread has done rising, it will fall again if not put into the oven. As soon as it is done, wrap it immediately in a clean coarse towel wet with cold water, and stand it up on end till it is cool.

This is a palatable, cheap, and wholesome bread. It may be baked in a deep tin or iron pan.

If the dough should have stood so long as to become sour, (which it will, if mixed over night,) restore it by kneading in a small tea-spoonful of pearlash or saleratus melted in a little warm water.

EGG PONE.--Three eggs, a quart of indian meal, a large table-spoonful of fresh butter, a small tea-spoonful of salt, a half pint (or more) of milk. Beat the eggs very light, and mix them with the milk. Then stir in, gradually, the indian meal, adding the salt and butter. It must not be a batter, but a soft dough, just thick enough to be stirred well with a spoon. If too thin, add more indian meal; if too stiff, thin it with a little more milk. Beat or stir it _long and hard_. Butter a tin or iron pan. Put the mixture into it, and set the pan immediately into an oven, which must be moderately hot at first, and the heat increased afterward. A Dutch oven is best for this purpose. It should bake an hour and a half or two hours, in proportion to its thickness. Send it to table hot, and cut into slices. Eat it with butter, or molasses.

INDIAN MUSH.--Have ready on a clear fire a pot of boiling water. Stir into it, by degrees, (a handful at a time,) sufficient indian meal to make a very thick porridge, and then add a very small portion of salt, allowing not more than a level tea-spoonful to a quart of meal. You must keep the pot boiling all the time you are stirring in the meal; and between every handful stir hard with the mush-stick, (a round stick about half a yard long, flattened at the lower end,) as, if not well stirred, the mush will be lumpy. After it is sufficiently thick and smooth, keep it boiling an hour longer, stirring it occasionally. Then cover the pot closely, and hang it higher up the chimney, or set it on hot coals on the hearth, so as to simmer it slowly for another hour. The goodness and wholesomeness of mush depends greatly on its being long and thoroughly boiled. It should also be made very thick. If well made, and well cooked, it is wholesome and nutritious; but the contrary, if thin, and not sufficiently boiled. It is not too long to have it three or four hours over the fire, first boiling, then simmering. On the contrary, it will be better for it. The coarser the corn meal the less cooking it requires. Send it to table hot, and in a deep dish. Eat it with sweet milk, buttermilk, or cream, or with butter and sugar, or with butter and molasses; making a hole in the middle of your plate of mush, putting some butter into the hole, and then adding the sugar or molasses.

Cold mush that has been left may be cut into slices, or mouthfuls, and fried next day, in butter, or in nice dripping of veal, beef, or pork; but not mutton or lamb.