Chapter IV: Part 4

=Plum Pudding (Royal Christmas).=—2 cups raisins, 2 cups currants, 2 cups suet, ½ cup almonds, blanched, 2 cups flour, 2 cups grated bread, ½ cup each citron, orange, and lemon peels, 8 eggs, 1 cup sugar, ½ cup cream, 1 gill each wine and brandy, large pinch salt, 1 tablespoon extract nutmeg, 1 teaspoon Royal Baking Powder. Put in large bowl raisins, seeded, currants, washed and picked, suet, chopped very fine, almonds, cut fine, citron, orange, and lemon peels, chopped, sugar, wine, brandy, and cream; lastly, add flour, sifted with powder; mix all well together, put in large, well-buttered mold (fig. II); set in saucepan with boiling water to reach ½ up sides of mold, steam thus 5 hours; turn out on dish carefully; serve with Royal wine sauce.

=Plum Pudding, 2.=—1½ cups each grated bread, very finely chopped suet, raisins, seeded, currants, washed and picked, and coffee sugar, ½ cup each citron, milk, and orange marmalade, 4 eggs, 2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon Royal Baking Powder, 1 teaspoon each extract cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. Mix all these ingredients well together in large bowl, put in well-buttered mold, set in saucepan with boiling water to reach ½ up its sides; steam thus 3½ hours; turn out carefully on dish, and serve with Royal wine sauce.

=Princess Pudding.=-⅔ cup butter, 1 cup sugar, 1 large cup flour, 3 eggs, ½ teaspoon Royal Baking Powder, small glass brandy. Rub to smooth cream butter and sugar; add eggs, 1 at a time, beating few minutes after each addition; add flour sifted with powder, and brandy; put into mold well-buttered, set in saucepan with boiling water to reach ½ up its sides; steam thus 1½ hours; turn out on dish carefully; serve with lemon sauce.

=Raisin Roly Poly.=—2 cups flour, ½ teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon Royal Baking Powder, sifted together. Rub in 2 tablespoons butter, mix with milk to soft dough, roll out ½ inch thick. Spread with a little soft butter. Sprinkle thickly with seeded raisins, then with 2 tablespoons granulated sugar. Roll up, pinch ends together, lay on buttered pie-plate, and steam 30 minutes. Dry off in oven 10 minutes. Serve with creamy or liquid sauce.

=Raisin Pudding.=—1 cup finely chopped suet, ½ cup sugar, 2 eggs, ½ cup milk, 1 cup entire wheat flour, 1 teaspoon Royal Baking Powder, 1 cup floured raisins. Steam 3 hours. Serve with liquid sauce.

=Rice Pudding.=-½ cup rice, 1½ pints milk, ½ cup sugar, large pinch salt, 1 tablespoon lemon rind chopped fine. Put rice, washed and picked, sugar, salt, and milk in quart pudding-dish; bake in moderate oven 2 hours, stirring frequently first 1½ hours, then permit it to finish cooking with light-colored crust, disturbing it no more. Eat cold with cream.

=Rice Pudding, 2.=-½ cup rice, ¾ pint milk, 4 apples, peeled, cored, and stewed, ⅓ cup sugar, 4 eggs. Boil rice in milk until reduced to pulp; beat well with apple sauce and sugar for 10 minutes, then set aside to cool; then carefully mix in whites of eggs, whipped to stiff froth, butter the mold, pour in pudding, set in saucepan with boiling water to reach ½ up its sides; steam slowly for 25 minutes; permit it to stand 3 minutes before turning out; serve with custard sauce.

=Sago Pudding.=—1 quart milk, 4 tablespoons sago boiled in the milk till soft; set dish in kettle of hot water, and let sago swell gradually. Beat up 3 eggs, and stir into cooked milk and sago; salt and sugar to taste. Then put in oven and bake very lightly. Serve with creamy sauce.

=Soufflé of Different Fruits.=—With fruits of a soft and juicy nature, such as peaches, plums, apricots, bananas, etc., proceed in this manner: Remove the kernels and press the fruit through a sieve; put what you have thus obtained in a bowl, adding ½ pound powdered sugar and the whites of 3 eggs; beat well with an egg-beater for 5 or 6 minutes. Then take the whites of 6 or 7 eggs and beat them into a stiff froth; mix well together. Put this on a dish in a well-heated oven 5 or 6 minutes before serving. Sprinkle powdered sugar on top. For hard fruits, such as apples, pears, etc., cook them first and then press through a sieve. The treatment is exactly the same as for the others.

=Suet Pudding.=—2 eggs, 1 cup milk, ½ cup molasses, ½ cup finely chopped suet, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoons Royal Baking Powder, 3 scant cups flour, spices to taste, and 1 cup mixed chopped fruit—raisins, citron, currants, or almonds. Steam 2 hours and serve with a soft sauce.

=Tapioca Pudding.=—1 small cup tapioca, 1 quart milk, 1 teaspoon butter, 3 tablespoons sugar. Soak tapioca in water 4 or 5 hours, then add the milk; flavor with extract lemon, or anything else you prefer. Bake slowly 1 hour. To be made day before it is wanted, and eaten cold with cream or milk and sugar. Some prefer the pudding made with 3 pints milk and no water.

=Tapioca and Cocoanut Pudding.=—1 cup tapioca soaked overnight, 1 quart milk, yolks 4 eggs, whites of 2, 1 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons grated cocoanut; bake ½ hour. Make frosting of whites 2 eggs, 3 tablespoons sugar, 2 tablespoons grated cocoanut; spread over pudding when baked. Set in oven until a light brown.

Sauces for Puddings, Etc.

=Brandy Sauce.=—Proceed as directed for wine sauce, 2, substituting brandy for wine.

=Canned Fruit Sauce.=—Take the syrup from any canned fruit, add sufficient sugar to sweeten, and an equal quantity of boiling water. Measure, and for 1 pint thicken with 1 tablespoon arrowroot blended in a little water. Boil 10 minutes; add 1 tablespoon butter and stir till melted.

=Currant Jelly Sauce.=—Melt 1 cup red-currant jelly, add 1 glass white wine, and 1 teaspoon extract raspberry.

=Currant Jelly Sauce, 2.=—Cream 2 tablespoons butter; add gradually ¾ cup stiff currant jelly slightly softened by standing in warm room. Beat well and serve very cold.

=Cream Sauce.=—Bring ⅔ pint cream slowly to boil; set in stewpan boiling water; when it reaches boiling point add sugar, then pour slowly on whipped whites of 2 eggs in bowl; add 1 teaspoon extract vanilla and use.

=Creamy Sauce.=—Cream 2 tablespoons butter; beat in by degrees ½ cup powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons each of thick cream and sherry. Beat long and hard. Just before serving stand bowl over hot water and beat till sauce looks creamy but is not hot enough to melt the butter.

=Custard Sauce.=—1 pint milk, yolks 4 eggs, ½ cup sugar. Set over fire and stir until thick.

=Duchesse Sauce.=—Boil 2 ounces grated chocolate in ½ pint milk 5 minutes; strain on 2 yolks of eggs beaten with ½ gill cream and ½ cup sugar; strain, return to fire, stir until thick as honey; remove and add 1 teaspoon extract vanilla.

=Foaming Sauce.=—Whip white 1 egg and ½ cup powdered sugar to a stiff froth. Whip separately 1 cup thick cream to a solid froth. Mix lightly together, flavor with 1 tablespoon sherry.

=Hard Sauce.=—Beat 1 cup sugar and ½ cup butter to white cream; add whites 2 eggs; beat few minutes longer; add tablespoon brandy and teaspoon extract nutmeg; put on ice until needed.

=Golden Sauce.=—Make hard sauce as above without egg whites or flavoring. Beat in gradually the yolks of 2 raw eggs and add flavoring to suit. The color may be accentuated by the addition of a little yellow color-paste.

=Hygienic Cream Sauce.=-½ pint milk, ½ pint cream, yolk 1 egg, 1 tablespoon buckwheat dissolved in little milk, large pinch salt. Bring milk and cream to boil in thick, well-lined saucepan; add to it buckwheat dissolved in milk, stirring rapidly to prevent lumping; allow it to boil 5 minutes; remove from fire, beat in the yolk of egg diluted with a tablespoon milk.

=Lemon Sauce.=—Boil 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water together 15 minutes, then remove; when cooled a little, add ½ teaspoon extract lemon and 1 tablespoon lemon juice.

=Molasses Sauce.=—Boil together 10 minutes 1 cup molasses, 1 tablespoon vinegar, 1 tablespoon butter, pinch salt. For apple puddings.

=Orange Sauce.=—To golden sauce made as above add the grated yellow rind and 1 tablespoon of the juice of an orange.

=Peach Sauce.=—Place peach juice from can in small saucepan; add equal volume of water, little more sugar, and 8 or 10 raisins; boil this 10 minutes, strain, and just before serving add 8 drops extract bitter almonds.

=Rexford Sauce.=—Dissolve 1 teaspoon corn-starch in little water; add it to 1 cup boiling water, with ⅔ cup brown sugar; boil 10 minutes; remove from fire; add ½ cup cider, scalding hot, 1 large tablespoon good butter, and yolks 2 eggs.

=Royal Wine Sauce.=—Bring slowly to boiling point ½ pint wine; then add yolks of 4 eggs and 1 cup sugar; whip it on fire until in state of high froth and a little thick; remove and use as directed.

=Sugar Sauce.=—Beat to light cream ½ cup sugar, flavored with ½ teaspoon extract lemon and ½ cup butter; add yolks of 2 eggs and place on ice until wanted.

=Vanilla Sauce.=—Put ½ pint milk in small saucepan over fire; when scalding hot, add yolks 3 eggs; stir until thick as boiled custard; add, when taken from the fire and cooled, 1 tablespoon extract vanilla and whites of eggs whipped stiff.

=Wine Sauce.=-¾ pint water, 1 cup sugar, 1 small teaspoon corn-starch, 1 teaspoon each extract lemon and cinnamon, ½ gill wine. Boil water, add corn-starch dissolved in little cold water, and the sugar; boil 15 minutes, strain; when about to serve, add extracts and wine.

=Wine Sauce, 2.=-½ pint water, 1 cup sugar, ½ teaspoon corn-starch, 1 teaspoon each extract bitter almonds and vanilla, ½ cup white wine. Stir 2 tablespoons of sugar on the fire in thick saucepan, with 1 tablespoon water, until very dark, _but not burned_; add water boiling, rest of sugar, the corn-starch dissolved; boil 10 minutes; when about to serve, strain, add extracts and wine.

Pies

The richest pastry for pies is called puff paste, and much skill and practice are required to make it flaky, tender, and very light. First-class puff paste will rise in baking to double its thickness and be in light, flaky layers and without greasiness. The novice must learn to handle it as lightly and little as possible in rolling and turning. It should be put in the ice-box as soon as made and stand at least twelve hours before being used.

Pastry flour should always be used for pie crust. It is whiter than bread flour and when rubbed between the fingers it feels very smooth and soft, like corn-starch. Carefully sift before using.

Where it is desired to have a plainer pastry, or one less troublesome to make and more economical, the use of a small quantity of Royal Baking Powder will give a light and tender crust. As in other cases, the baking powder must be mixed and sifted with the flour before the shortening is added. Sweet home-made lard may be used in place of butter, either wholly or in part, giving a less expensive but equally good and light paste. Never use sour milk or so-called prepared or self-raising flours.

=Paste for Pies.=—3 cups sifted flour, ½ teaspoon Royal Baking Powder, large pinch salt, 1 cup cream, ½ cup butter. Sift flour, salt, and powder together; add the cream; mix into smooth, rather firm paste; flour the board, roll it out thin; spread the butter on it evenly, fold in three; roll out thin, and fold in three; repeat twice more and use.

=Paste, 2.=—3 cups flour, ½ teaspoon Royal Baking Powder, ½ pound beef suet, freed of skin and chopped very fine, 1 cup water. Place the flour, sifted with the powder, in bowl; add suet and water; mix into smooth, rather firm dough.

=Paste, 3.=—3 cups sifted flour, ½ cup lard, 1½ cups butter, ½ teaspoon Royal Baking Powder, 1 cup water. Cut lard into flour, sifted with powder; mix into smooth, firm paste with the water; place it to cool for 15 minutes; meanwhile press milk and salt from butter by pressing in clean, wet towel, and flour it. Roll out dough on well-floured board; place butter on it; fold dough over it, completely covering butter; roll it out lightly to ½ inch in thickness, turn it over, fold each end to middle, flour it, roll out again; fold ends to middle, and turn it; repeat this 3 times more, and use. If this paste is made in summer, put on ice after each operation of folding and rolling.

=Paste, 4.=—5 cups flour, 1 cup butter, 1 cup lard, 1 cup water, ½ teaspoon Royal Baking Powder. Sift flour with powder; rub in lard and butter cold; add the water; mix into a smooth, lithe dough.

=Paste, 5 (Puff Paste).=—3 cups sifted flour, 2 cups butter, 1 egg yolk, a little salt. This is difficult to make. The essentials are: A cool place to make it in, ice broken up in 2 shallow cake pans, good flour, and butter, firm, with salt and buttermilk worked out. Sift flour on pastry slab, form it in a ring with back of your hand. Place in center the egg yolk and salt; add a little ice-water, and from inside of ring gradually take flour, adding a little at a time, as you require it, more ice-water, about a cup altogether, until you have smooth, fine paste, very tenacious and lithe. Place in ice-box 15 minutes, then roll out to size of a dinner-plate; lay on it butter, and wrap over it edges of dough, carefully covering it; turn it upside down, roll out very thin; then turn face down—the face is side of paste next to rolling-pin—folding it in three, squarely; repeat this _three times more_, placing it in thin tin on the broken ice, and other tin containing ice _on it_, after each turn or operation of folding and rolling. By this method this difficult puff paste may be made successfully in hottest weather.

=Paste, 6.=—3 cups sifted flour, 1 large cup butter, ½ teaspoon Royal Baking Powder, 3 tablespoons sugar, ½ cup milk. Sift flour with powder and sugar, rub in butter, add milk; mix into a smooth dough of medium stiffness.

=Apple Pot-Pie.=—14 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced, 1½ pints flour, 1 teaspoon Royal Baking Powder, 1 cup sugar, ½ cup butter, 1 cup milk, large pinch salt. Sift flour with powder and salt, rub in butter cold, add milk, mix into dough as for tea biscuits; with it line shallow stewpan to within 2 inches of bottom; pour in 1½ cups water, apples, and sugar; wet edges and cover with rest of dough; put cover on, set it to boil 20 minutes, then place in moderate oven until apples are cooked; then remove from oven, cut top crust in four equal parts; dish apples, lay on them pieces of side crust cut in diamonds, and pieces of top crust on a plate; serve with cream.

=Apple Pie.=—5 or 6 apples, 1 cup sugar, ⅓ cup water, 1 teaspoon extract lemon, paste, 4. Peel, quarter, and core apples, put in stewpan with sugar and water; when tender, remove; when cold, add extract and fill pie-plate, lined with paste; wet the edges, cover with paste rolled out thin, and wash with milk; bake in steady, moderate oven 20 minutes.

=Apple Pie, 2.=—3 tart apples, ½ cup sugar, ½ lemon rind grated, paste, 4. Peel, core, and slice apples very thin; line pie-plate with paste; put in apples, sugar, and little water; wet the edges, cover with paste rolled out very thin; wash with milk; bake in steady, moderate oven 25 minutes—or till apples are cooked.

=Dried Apple Pie.=—Stew apples until quite soft; rub through a colander; have them juicy. Beat 2 eggs, saving the white of 1; ½ cup butter, ½ cup sugar to every pie; season to taste. Quantity of sugar must be governed somewhat by the acidity of the apples. Bake with a bottom crust; while they are baking make a frosting of the white of 1 egg; when pies are done spread frosting evenly over the top; set again in the oven and brown slightly.

=Cream Pie and Oranges.=—Cut the oranges in thin slices and sprinkle sugar over them; let them stand for 2 or 3 hours; serve in ordinary fruit-plates. The pie is made with a bottom crust only, and that not thick, but light and flaky. Take 1 coffee-cup thick, sweet cream, ½ cup pulverized sugar, 1 tablespoon flour, 1 egg; flavor with extract lemon; bake until you are sure the crust is brown and hard, so that it will not absorb the custard.

=Banbury Tarts.=—Chop 1 cup seeded raisins, add ½ cup cleaned currants, 1 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons cracker dust, 1 beaten egg, juice and grated rind 1 lemon. Roll pie crust, 5 very thin, cut in circles. Lay on each a tablespoonful of filling; wet edges of paste; fold each side over the middle to form pointed ovals, dust with granulated sugar, and bake 20 minutes in slow oven.

=Cocoanut Pie.=—Proceed as for custard pie, (plain), adding 1½ cups grated cocoanut, and leaving out ½ pint milk.

=Cranberry Pie.=—Paste, 4, 3 cups cranberries, stewed with 1½ cups sugar, and strained. Line pie-plate with paste; put in cranberry jam; wash the edges, lay 3 narrow bars across; fasten at edge, then 3 more across, forming diamond-shaped spaces. Lay rim of paste, 5, or of same; wash with egg wash; bake in quick oven until paste is cooked.

=Custard Pie (Plain).=—Paste, 6, 1½ pints milk, 4 eggs, 1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon extract lemon, add pinch salt. Line well-greased pie-plate ¼ inch thick, take ball of paste, flour it well, and proceed, with palm of left hand pressed against edge, to push the paste from center into a thick, high rim on edge of plate. Fill while in oven with sugar, eggs, and milk, beaten with extract and strained; bake in moderate oven 20 minutes.

=Custard Pie (Apple).=—Proceed as for custard pie (peach), substituting thick, stewed apples.

=Custard Pie (Peach).=—Proceed as for custard pie (plain), laying in bottom of pie some cooked, fresh, or canned peaches, then adding the custard.

=Fruit Pies of all Kinds.=—Use about 3 cups prepared fruit for each pie. Heap fruit in center. Sprinkle with sugar to sweeten; if juicy, add 1 teaspoon or more of flour with sugar. Use pie crust, 4 or 6.

=Gooseberry Pie.=—Paste, 5, 3 cups gooseberries, stewed with 1½ cups sugar 15 minutes, and strained. Proceed as directed for cranberry pie.

=Lemon Cream Pie.=—Paste, 5, 1½ pints milk, 3 tablespoons corn-starch, 1 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons butter, grated rind and juice of 2 lemons, yolks 4 eggs. Boil milk, add corn-starch dissolved in a little cold milk; when it reboils, take off, beat in yolks, butter, lemon juice, and rind; pour at once into pie-plates lined with paste, having high rim—as described in custard pie; bake in hot oven until paste is cooked—about 20 minutes.

=Lemon Cream Meringue Pie.=—Having made the lemon cream pie, whip whites of 4 eggs to dry froth; gently incorporate 1 cup sugar; spread over top of pie; dust with powdered sugar; return to oven to set fawn color.

=Lovers of Chocolate=, in any and every form, can make this addition to a common custard pie. Beat 1 egg to a stiff froth, then add pulverized sugar and grated chocolate with ½ teaspoon extract vanilla; spread this on the top of the pie and let it harden for a moment in the oven. Or you may prepare it in still another way. Put the chocolate in a basin on the back of the stove, and let it melt (do not put a drop of water with it); when melted beat 1 egg and some sugar in with it. In the latter case it will be a regular chocolate brown in color, and in the other a sort of gray.

=Mince Pie.=—Paste, 3, 2 cups mince-meat.

=Mince-meat.=—7 pounds currants, 3½ pounds peeled and cored apples, 3½ pounds beef, 3½ pounds suet, ½ pound each citron, lemon, and orange peel, 2½ pounds coffee sugar, 2 pounds raisins, 4 nutmegs, 1 ounce cinnamon, ½ ounce each cloves and mace, 1 pint brandy, and 1 pint white wine. Wash currants, dry, pick them; stone the raisins; remove skin and sinews from beef and suet. Chop each ingredient, separately, very fine; put into large pan as they are finished, finally adding spices, brandy, and wine; thoroughly mix together; pack in jars; store in cold, dry place. This mince-meat will keep from 12 to 18 months. The fruit should never be floured in making mince pie.

=Mince-meat, 2.=—2 pounds currants, 5 pounds peeled and cored apples, 2 pounds lean boiled beef, 1 pound beef suet, ¾ pound citron, 2½ pounds coffee sugar, 2 pounds raisins, 1 pound seedless raisins, 2 tablespoons cinnamon, 1 nutmeg, 1 tablespoon each mace, cloves, and allspice, 1 pint each Madeira wine and brandy. Wash currants, dry, pick them; stone the raisins; remove skin and sinews from the beef. Chop each ingredient up, separately, very fine; place as soon as done in large pan, finally adding spices, Madeira, and brandy; mix thoroughly; pack in jars; keep in cold place.

=Peach Tart.=—For each large peach allow 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 tablespoon water. Fill baking-dish with sliced peaches, add sugar and water. Cover with pie crust, 6, bake in moderate oven about 30 minutes. Serve hot with cream.

=Plum Pie.=—Paste, 5, 3 cups plums; simmer in water, cover with 1½ cups sugar, until tender. Line pie-plate with the paste; wet edges; cover; wash with egg; bake in quick oven 20 minutes.

=Pumpkin or Squash Pie.=—Use pie crust, 4 or 6. Mix 3 cups thick stewed and sieved pumpkin or squash, 2 cups milk, 1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 eggs, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, pinch cloves. Line 2 pie-plates as for custard pie; bake in moderate oven.

=Rhubarb Pie.=—Paste, 4, 1½ bunches rhubarb, 1½ cups sugar. Cut fruit in small pieces after stripping off skin, cook it very fast in shallow stewpan, with sugar. Line pie-plate with the paste; wet rim; add rhubarb, cold; lay 3 bars paste across, fastening ends; lay 3 more across, forming diamond-shaped spaces; lay round a rim, wash over with egg, and bake in quick oven 15 minutes.

=Tarts: Gooseberry, Currant, Apple, or any other Fruit.=—Time to bake, from ¾ to 1 hour. 1 quart gooseberries, rather more than ½ pound paste, moist sugar to taste. Cut off tops and tails from gooseberries, or pick currants from their stems, or pare and quarter the apples or peaches; put them into pie-dish with sugar, line edge of dish with paste, pour in a little Water, put on cover, ornament edge of paste in the usual manner, and bake it in a brisk oven.

=Tartlets.=—Time to bake, ¼ hour. Line some patty-pans with puff paste, fill them with any jam or preserve, and bake lightly.

=Open Jam Tart.=—Time to bake, until paste loosens from the dish. Line shallow tin dish with puff paste, put in the jam, roll out some of paste, wet it lightly with yolk of an egg beaten with a little milk and a tablespoon of powdered sugar; cut it in very narrow strips, then lay them across the tart; lay another strip round the edge, trim off outside, and bake in quick oven.

Other Desserts

=Baked Custards.=—For each quart milk allow 4 large or 5 small eggs and 3 tablespoons sugar. Warm milk; pour over eggs and sugar beaten together. Fill small earthen cups or pudding-dish. Stand in pan of warm water; add flavoring to suit, and bake in moderate oven till firm in center. For chocolate custards melt chocolate with sugar.

=Corn-starch Custard.=—Scald 1 quart milk. Dissolve 2 level teaspoons corn-starch in little cold milk. Turn quickly into hot milk; stir till thickened, then cover and cook 10 minutes. Beat 2 eggs with 3 tablespoons sugar, add to custard, stir a moment longer, strain. Add flavoring when partly cooled.

=Tapioca Custard.=—Put 2 tablespoons fine tapioca in double boiler with 1 pint milk, cook and stir till tapioca is transparent. Add yolks 2 eggs beaten with 3 tablespoons sugar, and pinch salt; stir till thickened. Add whites whipped to stiff froth, stir lightly 3 minutes; take from fire; add flavoring when cooled. If pearl or lump tapioca is used, it must be soaked in cold water for several hours before cooking.

=Apple Snow.=—Core, quarter, and steam 3 large, sour apples. Rub through sieve, cool; whip whites 3 eggs to very stiff froth with ½ cup powdered sugar, gradually add apple, and whip long time till white and stiff. Pile in dish, garnish with dots currant jelly.

=Snow Eggs.=—To whites 5 eggs add pinch salt, and whip to very stiff froth; gradually add 1 tablespoon powdered sugar and few drops flavoring. Scald 1 quart milk in large pan. Shape whites in tablespoon, drop a few at a time in hot milk. Turn until cooked. Lift out with skimmer, lay on glass dish. When all are cooked make custard with egg yolks, milk, and 3 tablespoons sugar, and serve with eggs.

=Charlotte Russe.=—Mix 1 pint rich cream, ½ cup powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla. Have very cold and whip to stiff froth, turning under cream when it first rises. Line dish with sponge cake or ladyfingers, fill with whipped cream.

=Chocolate Blanc-mange.=—Quart milk. ½ box gelatine soaked in 1 cup water, 4 tablespoons grated chocolate rubbed smooth in a little milk, 3 eggs, extract vanilla to taste. Heat milk until boiling, then add other ingredients; boil 5 minutes. Pour into mold. Serve cold with sugar and cream, or custard.

=Iced Fruits for Desserts.=—Any desirable fruit may be easily iced by dipping first in the beaten white of an egg, then in sugar finely pulverized, and again in egg, and so on until you have the icing of the desired thickness. For this purpose oranges or lemons should be carefully pared, and all the white inner skin removed that is possible, to prevent bitterness; then cut either in thin horizontal slices if lemons, or in quarters if oranges. For cherries, strawberries, currants, etc., choose the largest and finest, leaving stems out. Peaches should be pared and cut in halves, and sweet, juicy pears may be treated in the same way, or look nice when pared, leaving on the stems, and iced. Pineapples should be cut in thin slices, and these again divided into quarters.

=Floating Island.=—1 quart milk, 4 eggs, yolks and whites beaten separately, 4 tablespoons sugar, 2 teaspoons extract vanilla or bitter almonds, ½ cup currant jelly. Heat milk to scalding, but not boiling. Beat the yolks; stir into them the sugar, and pour upon them gradually, mixing well, a cup of the hot milk. Put into saucepan and boil until it begins to thicken. When cool, flavor and pour into a glass dish. Heap upon top meringue of whites whipped until you can cut it, into which you have beaten the jelly, a teaspoon at a time.

Frozen Desserts

=How to Freeze.=—Pound ice to bits size of hickory nut. Use salt in lumps ½ size of a pea. Allow 1 part salt to 3 parts ice. Mix together in pail. In bottom of freezer put 1 inch layer of mixture, and pack. Arrange and fasten can in freezer. Fill up space between with the mixture, packing hard. Turn can occasionally to make sure it will run freely. When ice is within 1 inch of top of can open and fill can, replace and fasten top. Turn slowly at first. Increase speed, adding more ice and salt as mixture sinks. When cream is very firm open can, draw out dasher, work cream down in can with wooden spoon, cover top with paper, then with can cover, add more ice and salt, heaping it over top of can. Cover with heavy blanket, set away in cold place for 2 hours.

=Plain Ice Cream.=—Scald 1 pint milk; mix 1 cup sugar with 2 tablespoons flour, pinch salt, and 2 beaten eggs. Add to hot milk, stir over fire till thick and smooth, cover and cook 20 minutes. Strain and cool. Add 1 pint cream, flavoring desired, and freeze. One can condensed milk and 1 cup milk may be mixed and added in place of cream. Very good ice cream may be made without the addition of any cream.

=Philadelphia Ice Cream.=—Scald 1 pint cream. Add 1 cup sugar and stir till dissolved. Take from fire and add 1 pint chilled cream. Freeze when cold.

=Delmonico Ice Cream.=—Make a cooked custard with 1 pint milk, 5 eggs, 1 cup sugar; strain and cool. Add 1 pint rich cream, 2 tablespoons flavoring, and freeze.

To this as well as to any cream may be added at will 1 cup fresh fruit or berries rubbed through sieve, ½ cup cake crumbs, or any variety flavorings and colorings desired.

=Water Ices.=—Boil 1 quart water and 1 pint sugar 5 minutes. Add ⅛ box gelatine soaked in cold water, stir till dissolved and chill. Add 1 cup lemon juice and freeze.

All water ices are made in this way, varying the proportion of sugar according to the acidity of the fruit used. Canned fruit syrups may be substituted for fresh fruit juice.

=Biscuit Glacé.=—1½ pints cream, 12 ounces sugar, yolks of 8 eggs, and 1 tablespoon extract vanilla. Take 6 ounces crisp macaroons, pound in mortar to dust. Mix cream, sugar, eggs, and extract. Place on fire, and stir composition until it begins to thicken. Strain and rub through hair-sieve into basin. Put into freezer; when nearly frozen, mix in macaroon dust, another tablespoon extract vanilla, and finish freezing.

=Chocolate Ice Cream.=—3 pints best cream, 12 ounces pulverized white sugar, 4 whole eggs, 1 tablespoon extract vanilla, 1 pint rich cream whipped, 6 ounces chocolate. Dissolve chocolate in small quantity of milk to smooth paste. Now mix with cream, sugar, eggs, and extract. Place all on fire, stir until it begins to thicken. Strain through hair-sieve. Place in freezer; when nearly frozen, stir in lightly the whipped cream, and 1 tablespoon extract vanilla, and finish freezing.

=Crushed Strawberry Ice Cream.=—3 pints best cream, 12 ounces pulverized white sugar, 2 whole eggs. Mix all in porcelain-lined basin; place on fire; stir constantly to boiling point. Remove and strain through hair-sieve. Place in freezer and freeze. Take 1 quart ripe strawberries, select, hull, and put in a china bowl. Add 6 ounces pulverized white sugar, crush all down to pulp. Add this pulp to frozen cream, with 2 tablespoons extract vanilla; mix in well. Now give freezer few additional turns to harden.

=Orange Water Ice.=—Juice 6 oranges, 2 teaspoons extract orange, juice 1 lemon, 1 quart water, 1 pound powdered sugar, 1 gill rich, sweet cream; add all together and strain. Freeze same as ice cream.

=Peach Ice Cream.=—One dozen of best and ripest red-cheeked peaches; peel and stone; place in china basin, crush with 6 ounces pulverized sugar. Now take 1 quart best cream, 8 ounces pulverized white sugar, 2 whole eggs. Place all on fire until it reaches boiling point; now remove and strain; place in freezer and freeze. When nearly frozen stir in peach pulp, with teaspoon extract almonds; give few more turns of freezer to harden.

=Raspberry Water Ice.=—Press sufficient raspberries through hair-sieve to give 3 pints juice. Add 1 pound pulverized white sugar and juice of 1 lemon, with 1 teaspoon extract raspberry. Place in freezer and freeze.

Canning and Preserving

=Canning.=—The important points to be observed in canning are, to use only sound, ripe fruit; to have hot syrup and air-tight jars; to fill jars to overflowing and seal immediately. Jars should be scalded and tested before using. Patent canners greatly simplify the work.

Pick over the fruit, stem, pare, cut, wash, etc., and pack in jars. Make syrup by adding ½ pint boiling water to 1 pound sugar. When clear, bring to boiling point and carefully fill the jars. Stand in canner or on board in wash-boiler containing water up to shoulders of jars. Cover and cook according to directions or till tender. Take from canner or boiler, add more syrup till overflowing, cover and seal immediately.

Amount of Sugar per Quart Jar

Canned Preserved
Cherries 4 oz. 8 oz.
Strawberries 8 ” 12 ”
Raspberries 4 ” 6 ”
Blackberries 6 ” 9 ”
Quinces 8 ” 12 ”
Pears 4 ” 8 ”
Grapes 4 ” 8 ”
Peaches 4 ” 8 ”
Pineapples 8 ” 12 ”
Crab-apples 6 ” 10 ”
Plums 6 ” 9 ”
Rhubarb 8 ” 12 ”
Sour apples 6 ” 9 ”
Currants 8 ” 12 ”
Cranberries 8 ” 12 ”

=Preserving.=—Preserves require from ¾ to 1 pound of sugar to each pound of fruit, and ½ cup water to each pound sugar. The fruit should be simmered in the syrup until tender, a little at a time; skimmed out into the jars; when all are done the syrup should be brought to boiling point, jars filled and sealed. Hard fruits like quinces should be first steamed or cooked in boiling water till tender.

=Jams.=—Jams are usually made with small fruits or with chopped large fruits; they are cooked with an equal weight of sugar till rich and thick, then put into tumblers or small jars and sealed.

=Jellies.=—Use equal parts of sugar and drained fruit juice. Mash and heat berries till juice runs readily, then turn into bags of unbleached muslin or 2 thicknesses of cheese-cloth and let drip. Measure juice and sugar. Boil juice 20 minutes. Have sugar in shallow pan, heat through in open oven. Add to boiling juice, boil up once, take off fire and pour into tumblers. Fruit like apples and quinces should be chopped and covered with water, then simmered till tender before turning into jelly-bags.

=Spiced Fruits.=—These are also called sweet pickled fruits. For 4 pounds prepared fruit allow 1 pint vinegar, 2 pounds brown sugar, ½ cup whole spices—cloves, allspice, stick cinnamon, and cassia-buds. Tie spices in thin muslin bag, boil 10 minutes with vinegar and sugar. Skim, add fruit, cook till tender. Boil down syrup, pour over fruit in jars, and seal. If put in stone pots, boil syrup 3 successive mornings and pour over fruit. Currants, peaches, grapes, pears, and berries may be prepared in this way, also ripe cucumbers, muskmelons, and watermelon rind.

Soups

=Soup Stock= is made from cheap, tough cuts. The meat should be cut in small pieces and soaked in cold water for half an hour to draw out the juices. Bone is added for the sake of the gelatine which it contains, and which will give body to the soup. A good proportion is 1 pound each of meat and bone to each quart of water. Use a kettle with a very tight cover and simmer slowly for a number of hours. Stock is better when made the day before it is to be used.

=Soup Stock.=—1 pound lean beef, 1 pound bone (or 2 pounds of shin), 1 quart cold water, 1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon peppercorns, 2 cloves, 2 allspice berries, 1 sprig parsley, 1 teaspoon mixed herbs, 1 tablespoon each kind chopped vegetable. Prepare meat as above, soak in water ½ hour, heat slowly and simmer 3 hours, add vegetables and seasonings, simmer 1 hour longer, and strain. Next day remove cake of fat.

To clear stock beat white 1 egg till frothy, add with broken shell to above stock when cold (after fat is removed); heat slowly and stir constantly. Boil 10 minutes without stirring; set aside 10 minutes; strain through 2 thicknesses cheese-cloth dipped in cold water.

=Soups with Pastes or Vegetables.=—Prepare and clear stock as above. In salted water boil macaroni, vermicelli, barley, rice, tapioca, or other vegetables or dry material until done; drain and add to the clear soup and simmer together 10 minutes. Proportion, ½ cup cooked material to 1 quart stock. Vegetables should be boiled in salted water, cut in shapes, and added to stock in same proportion.

=Tomato Soup with Stock.=—1 quart stock, 1 can tomatoes, salt, pepper, and sugar to taste. Stew and strain tomatoes; add to boiling stock, season, and simmer 10 minutes.

=Tomato Soup without Stock.=—Stew together for 10 minutes 1 can tomatoes, 1 pint water, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon sugar, 5 cloves, ½ teaspoon peppercorns, 1 tablespoon chopped onion, 1 tablespoon chopped parsley. Rub through sieve, return to fire, and thicken with 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon flour rubbed together and stirred in.

=Mock Bisque Soup.=-½ can tomatoes, 1½ tablespoons butter, 1½ tablespoons flour, 1 quart milk, salt and pepper. Stew and strain tomatoes; scald milk in double boiler and thicken with the flour and butter; season tomatoes well and reheat. Take both from fire and mix together; if tomatoes are acid add pinch of soda. If mixed on fire soup is apt to curdle.

=Scotch Broth.=—Soak ½ cup pearl barley overnight. Cut 2 pounds neck of mutton in bits, add 2 quarts water, soak 1 hour. Heat slowly, skim, add barley, skim again; simmer 1 hour, add ½ cup each diced onion, carrot, turnip, celery fried for 5 minutes in 1 tablespoon dripping. Simmer 3 hours. Season well, thicken a little with flour, add 1 tablespoon chopped parsley, and serve.

=Consommé.=—1 chicken, 3 pounds lean beef, 1 onion, 1 turnip, 2 carrots, bunch sweet herbs, 7 quarts cold water, ½ cup sago soaked in cold water, pepper and salt. Cut beef in strips and disjoint chicken, slice vegetables, chop herbs, put all on with water to cook slowly for 6 hours. Take out chicken and beef; salt and pepper and put into jar. Strain soup, pulping vegetables through a sieve. Season and divide it, pouring ½ on meat in jar, and setting in pot of hot water to cook, covered, 2 hours more. Heat the rest and skim; put in sago, simmer for ½ hour, then pour out. When 2 hours have passed, pour out stock in bowl; when cold put on ice.

=Bean Soup.=—Soak quart white beans overnight; in morning pour off water; add fresh, and set over fire until skins will easily slip off; throw them into cold water, rub well, and skins will rise to top, where they may be removed. Boil beans till perfectly soft, allowing 2 quarts water to 1 quart beans; mash beans, add flour and butter rubbed together, also salt and pepper. Cut cold bread into small pieces, toast, and drop on soup when you serve.

=Family Soup.=—Time, 6 hours; 3 or 4 quarts pot liquor, _i. e._, the water in which mutton or salt beef has been boiled. Any bones from dressed meat, trimmings of poultry, scraps of meat or 1 pound gravy beef, 2 large onions, 1 turnip, 2 carrots, a little celery seed tied in a piece muslin, bunch savory herbs, 1 sprig parsley, 5 cloves, 2 blades mace, a few peppercorns, pepper and salt to taste. Put all your meat-trimmings, meat-bones, etc., into stewpan. Stick onions with cloves, add them with other vegetables to meat; pour over all the pot liquor; set over slow fire and let simmer gently, removing all scum as it rises. Strain through fine hair-sieve.

=Clam Soup.=—Boil juice of clams, make a little drawn butter and mix with the juice; stir till it boils, chop up clams and put them in; season to taste with pepper, salt, and little lemon juice; cream or milk is to be added. Boil over slow fire 1 hour.

=Soups of Dried Peas or Beans.=—Pick and soak split peas, dried green peas, or black or white beans overnight. Drain, measure, add 4 times as much cold water; to each quart of water, ½ onion. Simmer slowly till soft. Rub through sieve. Return to fire, season with salt and pepper; for each quart thicken with 1 teaspoon each butter and flour. Boil up again for a few minutes. Black bean soup should also have a pinch of mustard and a little lemon juice added, and slices of hard-boiled egg.

=Croutons.=—Trim crust from stale bread and cut in ½-inch dice. Fry golden brown in a little butter or in a kettle of smoking-hot fat. Drain and serve hot with soups. Instead of frying they may be browned in the oven.

=Ox-tail Soup.=—1 ox-tail, 2 pounds lean beef, 4 carrots, 3 onions, thyme and parsley, pepper and salt to taste, 4 quarts cold water. Cut tail into joints, fry brown in good dripping. Slice onions and 2 carrots and fry in the same, when you have taken out the pieces of tail. When done tie the thyme and parsley in lace bag, and drop into the soup-pot. Put in the tail, then the beef cut into strips. Grate over them 2 whole carrots, pour over all the water, and boil slowly 4 hours; strain and season; thicken with brown flour wet with cold water; boil 15 minutes longer and serve.

Fish

=Directions for Preparing.=—Clean fish carefully, slit it low enough so as not to have any blood on the backbone, but do not make too large a cut so as to spoil look of fish; wash thoroughly in cold water. _Great care_ must be taken not to break gall, for it would make fish bitter. Use good dripping or lard for frying.

=To Broil Fish.=—Clean, wash, and wipe dry. Split so that when laid flat the backbone will be in the middle, or take the backbone out. Sprinkle with salt and lay, inside down, upon a buttered gridiron over a clear fire until it is nicely colored, then turn. When done, put upon a hot dish, butter plentifully, and pepper. Put a hot cover over it and send to table.

=Boiled Bass, or other Fish.=—Put sufficient water in pot to enable fish, if alive, to swim easily. Add ½ cup vinegar, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 onion, 1 dozen whole black peppers, 1 blade mace. Sew up fish in piece of clean net or muslin, fitted to shape. Heat slowly for first ½ hour; then boil 8 minutes, at least, to pound, quite fast. Unwrap, and pour over it cup of drawn butter, based upon the liquor in which fish was boiled, with juice of ½ lemon stirred into it.

=Creamed Fish.=—Steam 2 pounds codfish, break in flakes, removing bones and skin. Make 1 pint white sauce (see Meat and Fish Sauces). Grease a baking-dish, fill with alternate layers of fish and sauce, seasoning with salt, pepper, chopped parsley, and lemon juice or a few drops of vinegar. Mix together 1 cup dry bread crumbs and 3 tablespoons melted butter; spread over top and brown in quick oven.

This may be varied by using tomato, bechamel, curry, or any other sauce, or by adding grated cheese or sliced hard-boiled eggs to the white sauce; by baking in shells or patty-pans in place of the deep dish, or by covering with mashed potato or biscuit crust instead of crumbs.

=Broiled Salt Mackerel.=—Freshen by soaking it overnight in water, taking care that the skin lies uppermost. In the morning dry it without breaking, cut off the head and tip of the tail, place it between the bars of a buttered fish-gridiron, and broil to a light brown; lay it on a hot dish, and dress with a little butter, pepper, and lemon juice, vinegar, or chopped pickle.

=Broiled Halibut.=—Slices of halibut, salt, pepper, butter. Cut the slices of fish about an inch thick, season with pepper and salt, and lay them in melted butter ½ hour, allowing 3 tablespoons of butter to a pound of fish, then roll them in flour, and broil about 20 minutes. Serve very hot.

=Codfish Balls.=—Put fish in cold water, set on back of stove; when water gets hot, pour off and put on cold again until fish is fresh enough; then pick it up. Boil potatoes and mash them; mix fish and potatoes together while potatoes are hot, taking ⅔ potatoes and ⅓ fish. Put in plenty of butter; make into balls and fry in plenty of lard. Have lard hot before putting in balls.

Variation may be had by rolling each ball in beaten egg, then in dry bread crumbs before frying.

=Fried Blue Fish, and other Kinds.=—Clean, wipe dry, inside and out. Sprinkle with flour, and season with salt. Fry in hot butter or sweet lard. ½ lard and ½ butter make a good mixture for frying fish. The moment fish are done to good brown, take them from fat and drain in hot strainer; garnish with parsley.

=Fish Chowder.=—Cut 2 or 3 slices of salt pork into dice pieces; fry to crisp, and turn the whole into chowder-kettle. Pare 6 medium-sized potatoes and cut them in two. Peel small onion and chop fine. Put potatoes into kettle with part of onion. Cut fish (which should be fresh cod or haddock) into convenient pieces, and lay over potatoes; sprinkle over it rest of the onion. Season well with salt and pepper, add just enough water to come to top of fish. Pour over the whole quart can tomatoes; cover closely and allow to cook about as long as takes to boil potatoes; then add 2 quarts milk, and let it scald up again. Season with tomato catsup, and more salt and pepper if required.

=To Fry Brook Trout or any other Small Fish.=—Clean fish, and let them lie few minutes wrapped singly in clean dry towel; season with pepper and salt; roll in corn meal, fry in ⅓ butter and ⅔ lard; drain on sieve, and serve hot.

Shell Fish

=Clam Chowder.=—25 clams cut up, ½ pound salt pork chopped fine, 6 potatoes sliced thin, 4 onions sliced thin. Put pork in kettle; after cooking a short time add potatoes, onions, and juice of clams. Cook 2½ hours, then add clams; 15 minutes before serving add 2 quarts milk.

=Fried Oysters.=—Select largest and finest oysters. Drain and wipe them by spreading upon cloth, laying another over them, pressing lightly. Roll each in beaten egg, then in cracker crumbs with which has been mixed a very little pepper. Fry in mixture of equal parts of lard and butter.

=Oysters Roasted in the Shell.=—Wash and scrub the shells. Cook in hot oven, on top of stove, over red-hot coals, or in steamer until shells open. Always place them round shell down to retain juice. Serve melted butter and vinegar or lemons with them.

=Panned Oysters.=—Pick over the opened oysters to remove bits of shell. Wash quickly in cold water and drain on sieve. Put into saucepan with 1 tablespoon butter for 25 oysters and a dash of salt and pepper. Cover and shake over a hot fire until edges ruffle and oysters are plump. May be served on toast.

=Stewed Oysters.=—Pick over and wash 1 quart oysters. Scald 1 pint milk. Strain, boil, and skim oyster liquor; when clear add oysters. Cook till oysters are plump and well ruffled; take from fire, add hot milk, salt, and pepper.

If desired thicker, rub together 1 tablespoon each of butter and flour; add to milk and stir until smooth. This may be varied by addition of a little chopped celery or onion.

=Creamed Oysters.=—Prepare 1 cup thick cream sauce (see Sauces). Pan 1 pint cleaned oysters; drain and add to sauce. Season with salt, pepper, pinch of mace, and few drops lemon juice.

=Scalloped Oysters.=—Pick, wash, and drain 1 solid quart oysters. Put in layers in baking-dish, alternating with dry bread or cracker crumbs and seasoning. When dish is filled add strained oyster liquor and sufficient milk to moisten. Cover with crumbs, add 1 tablespoon butter in bits, and bake ½ hour in hot oven.

=Broiled Oysters.=—Pick, wash, and drain large oysters. Dip each in melted butter, roll in fine crumbs, and broil in fine wire broiler over a clear, hot fire. Serve on toast with sliced lemons.

=Pickled Oysters.=—2 gallons large oysters, drain and rinse them; put 1 pint oyster juice in 1 quart vinegar over fire; scald and skim until clear; add 1 tablespoon whole pepper, 1 tablespoon cloves, 1 tablespoon mace, 1 even tablespoon salt; scald a minute, then throw in oysters; let them just come to a boil. The oysters should be pickled day before being wanted, as they grow tough after standing a few days in vinegar.

=Oyster Pâtés.=—1 quart oysters, minced fine with a sharp knife; 1 cup rich drawn butter based upon milk; cayenne and black pepper to taste. Stir minced oysters in drawn butter and cook 5 minutes. Have ready some shapes of pastry, baked in pâté-pans, then slipped out. Fill these with the mixture; set in oven 2 minutes to heat, and send to table.

=Oyster Pie.=—1 quart oysters, drained; pepper, salt, and butter to taste. 1 quart flour, 2 tablespoons lard, 1 tablespoon salt, mix with water for pie crust. Butter plate, then line pie-plate with crust; fill with oysters, seasoned; put over a crust and bake.

=Scallops in Batter.=—Wash and dry large scallops. Dip each in fritter batter (see Fritters) and fry golden brown in smoking-hot fat.

=To Boil Lobsters or Crabs.=—The lobster is in good season from April to December, and should be purchased alive and plunged into boiling water in which a good proportion of salt has been mixed. Continue to boil according to size about 20 minutes. Crabs should be boiled in the same manner, but a little more than half the time is necessary.

=Deviled Crabs.=—1 cup crab meat, picked from shells of well-boiled crabs, 2 tablespoons fine bread crumbs or rolled cracker, yolks two hard-boiled eggs chopped, juice of a lemon, ½ teaspoon mustard, a little cayenne pepper and salt, 1 cup good drawn butter. Mix 1 spoon crumbs with chopped crab meat, yolks, seasoning, drawn butter. Fill scallop shells—large clam shells will do—or small pâté-pans—with the mixture; sift crumbs over top, heat to slight browning in quick oven.

=Soft Shell Crabs.=—Fry in butter or lard.

=To Open a Boiled Lobster.=—Wipe off shell, break off large claws; separate tail from body; take body from shell, leaving “lady,” or stomach, on shell. Put aside green fat and coral; remove small claws; remove woolly gills from body, break latter through middle, and pick out meat from joints. Crush or cut under side of tail, draw meat from shell. Draw back flesh on upper end and pull off intestinal cord. Break edge of large claws and remove meat.

=Lobster Newburg.=—Season 1 pint diced lobster with ½ teaspoon salt, dash cayenne, pinch nutmeg. Put in saucepan with 2 tablespoons butter, heat slowly. Add 2 tablespoons sherry; cook 5 minutes; add ½ cup cream beaten with yolks 2 eggs, stir till thickened. Take quickly from fire.

Meats

Broiling

The rules for roasting meat apply to broiling, except that instead of cooking it in the oven it is to be quickly browned, first on one side and then on the other, over a hot fire, and removed a little from the fire to finish cooking. Meat an inch thick will broil in about 4 minutes. It should be seasoned after it is cooked.

Frying

There are two distinct methods of frying: One with very little fat in the pan, to practise which successfully the pan and the fat must be hot before the article to be fried is put into it. For instance, in frying chops, if the pan is hot, and only fat enough is used to keep the chops from sticking to it, the heat being maintained so that the chops cook quickly, they will be nearly as nice as if they were broiled. Frying by the other method consists in entirely immersing the article to be cooked in sufficient smoking-hot fat to cover it, and keeping the fat at that degree of heat until the food is brown. It should then be taken up with a skimmer and laid upon brown paper for a moment to free it from grease.

Boiling and Stewing

Fresh meat for boiling should be put into boiling water and boiled very gently about 20 minutes for each pound. A little salt, spice, or vegetables may be boiled in the water with the meat for seasoning. A little vinegar put in the water with tough meat makes it tender. The broth of boiled meat should always be saved to use in soups, stews, and gravies. Stewing and simmering meats means to place them near enough to the fire to keep the water on them bubbling moderately, constantly, and slowly. Salt meats should be put over the fire in cold water, which as soon as it boils should be replaced by fresh cold water, the water to be changed until it remains fresh enough to give the meat a palatable flavor when done. Salted and smoked meats require about 30 minutes’ very slow boiling, from the time the water boils, to each pound. Vegetables and herbs may be boiled with them to flavor them. When they are cooked the vessel containing them should be set where they will keep hot without boiling until required, if they are to be served hot; if they are to be served cold, they should be allowed to cool in the pot liquor in which they were boiled. Very salt meats, or those much dried in smoking, should be soaked overnight in cold water before boiling.

Roasting