LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF V CALIFORNIA THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURE BEQUEST OF ANITA D. S. BLAKE Marion Harland's Complete Cook Book MARION HARLAND Marion Harland's Complete Cook Book A PRACTICAL AND EXHAUSTIVE MANUAL OF COOKERY AND HOUSEKEEPING CONTAINING THOUSANDS OF CAREFULLY PROVED RECIPES PREPARED FOR THE HOUSEWIFE, NOT FOR THE CHEF AND MANY CHAPTERS ON THE CARE AND MANAGEMENT OF THE HOME- THE FINAL EXPRESSION OF HER LIFE'S EXPERIENCE BY MARION HARLAND Author of Common Sense in the Household, Etc. FULLY ILLUSTRATED INDIANAPOLIS THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY PUBLISHERS COPYRIGHT 1903 THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY JUNE AGRICULTURE GIFT PRESS OF BRAUNWORTH & CO. BOOKBINDERS AND PRINTERS BROOKLYN. N. Y. CL TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE MARKETING 3 CARE OF HOUSEHOLD STORES 6 KITCHEN UTENSILS 9 CHEMISTRY IN THE KITCHEN 12 CARVING 15 SERVING AND WAITING 18 AMONG THE LINENS , 23 THE CHILDREN . 25 DIET AND DIGESTION 28 THE IMPROMPTU LARDER 32 FAMILIAR TALK BREAKFAST 34 BREAKFAST FRUITS 38 BREAKFAST CEREALS . 42 BREAKFAST BREADS 46 HOT BREAKFAST BREADS 54 QUICK BISCUITS 61 MUFFINS AND THEIR CONGENERS .63 WAFFLES 65 GRIDDLE CAKES 66 BREAKFAST BREADS OF INDIAN MEAL 71 DIVERS KINDS OF TOAST 75 EGGS 78 FAMILIAR TALK WHO RULES THE HOME 89 FISH FOR BREAKFAST 93 FAMILIAR TALK WHERE WE EAT 107 v 117 vi CONTENTS PAGE BREAKFAST MEATS .no BREAKFAST BACON .no TRIPE . , . . . -114 BEEFSTEAK 116 KIDNEYS 118 SWEETBREADS 120 LIVER 122 CHICKEN 123 OTHER BREAKFAST MEATS 126 BREAKFAST GAME 129 BREAKFAST VEGETABLES 131 FAMILIAR TALK WITH MARTHA IN HER KITCHEN 137 THE FAMILY LUNCHEON 143 LUNCHEON DISHES 145 FAMILIAR TALK LIVING TO LEARN 183 CROQUETTES 188 WITH THE CASSEROLE 194 CHEESE DISHES FOR LUNCHEON ........ 198 THE TOAST FAMILY 205 LUNCHEON VEGETABLES 207 SANDWICHES 214 TEMPTING PREFIXES TO LUNCHEON . . . . . .221 SALADS . - . . . i 22 4 LUNCHEON FRUITS, COOKED AND RAW r 241 SWEET OMELETS . 247 FAMILIAR TALK WITH THE NOMINAL MISTRESS OF THE HOUSE . . . . 249 LUNCHEON CAKES . . . | . .-' 258 FROSTINGS FOR CAKES . . . . . . . . .278 VARIOUS FILLINGS FOR CAKES 279 GINGERBREADS 281 SMALL CAKES 284 THE DOUGHNUT AND CRULLER FAMILY 292 FAMILIAR TALK A FRIENDLY WORD WITH "Ou* MAID" . . . .296 CONTEXTS vii PAGE DINNER *'.'.. . . '. 300 SOUPS . . ' . . . . . . . **" ' . " . . 303 BISQUES .*'. . . . . . . . . 314 CREAM SOUPS . . . '. ' .' ' ".' ' -'V- ? '. r ' . . . 318 VEGETABLE SOUPS WITH MEAT . . ..... , . . , 322 VEGETABLE SOUPS WITHOUT MEAT . . ' '. ' ' '. . . 328 FISH SOUPS . . . . 333 FISH ....'. . .337 SAUCES FOR FISH AND MEAT . . . ' . . ' . . .353 FAMILIAR TALK Is IMPROMPTU HOSPITALITY A LOST ART ... . .361 MEATS '. . . ' . . 367 BEEF . . . . . . . . . ' . . . .367 VEAL ...'. . . 377 MUTTON . 385 MEAT AND POULTRY PIES . . . . ' ' . * . . . 388 PORK . . 395 POULTRY . " ' . V . .400 TURKEY . . '. . 400 DUCKS .404 CHICKENS . . .405 GEESE . . .413 GAME . . . . . . . . . ' . . . . .415 DINNER VEGETABLES . .427 EVEN THREADED LIVING . ..*..... 498 SWEETS OF ALL SORTS 1 . .'"' . . . . . . . 53 PIES .... .. ... , . . . . . 53 HOT PUDDINGS ... .. ... . . . . . 5 l8 BAKED PUDDINGS . . ... . . . . " . 528 PANCAKES AND DUMPLINGS 548 SOME PUDDING SAUCES . . . . . , . . .551 COLD PUDDINGS AND CUSTARDS . 555 WHIPPED CREAM DISHES 558 BLANC MANGE 563 FRUIT DESSERTS 576 ICE CREAM AND ICES . 5^ viii CONTENTS PAGE HOME-MADE CANDIES . 590 AFTERNOON TEA , 604 SOME DAINTIES FOR AFTERNOON TEA . . . . . 610 STEWED FRUIT, PRESERVES, FRUIT JELLIES, ETCETERA . . . 617 PICKLES 633 CATSUPS, ET CETERA . .648 THE HOME BREW 652 FORMAL BREAKFASTS AND LUNCHEONS . . . . . . 663 CONCERNING DINNER GIVING 668 SOME STUDIES OF COLOR IN FAMILY DINNERS .... 673 AN EVENING RECEPTION AND CHAFING-DISH SUPPER . . . 676 FAMILIAR TALK COMMON SENSE AND "ETIQUETTE" .681 CANNED GOODS ............ 684 "HANDY" HOUSEHOLD HINTS . . 693 FINAL FAMILIAR TALK EMERGENCIES, BROKEN CHINA, ET CETERA 715 SOME CULINARY TERMS 719 FOR READY REFERENCE =724 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE AFTER DINNER COFFEE IN A COZY CORNER 672 AFTERNOON TEA ON THE VERANDA 606 ANCHOVIES ON TOAST 464 BEEF, ROAST ............ 380 BELGIAN HARE, ROAST ......... 416 BEVERAGES 6^2 BIRTHDAY CAKE . . . . 520 BISCUITS, HOT . 364 BRANDIED PEACHES, GARNISHED ....... 628 BREAKFAST EQUIPAGE -36 CAKE, SLICED HOME-MADE 364 CALF'S HEAD, BOILED . 380 CAVIAR TOAST { GARNISHED 222 CHEESE AND EGG ENTREES . 202 CHICKEN PIE, SMALL ........ 388 CHICKEN PIE IN SILVER STAND , 388 CHICKEN OMELET 84 CHICKEN SALAD MANTLED WITH CREAM MAYONNAISE AND GAR- NISHED = 232 CHICKEN, SCALLOPED , 404 CHICKEN, SCALLOPED 126 COD, BOILED ......... ^ .. 344 COFFEE, CAPITAL CUP OF , 364 COVERED CHEESE DISH FOR LIMBURGER ..... 202 CRAB, SCALLOPED, IN SHELL .156 CREAMED MACARONI IN PINEAPPLE CHEESE SHELL , . . 202 CROQUETTES . . 126 ix x ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE DAFFODILS ........ 84 DINNER, A LITTLE 668 "DINNER, A PICK-UP" .......... 364 EGGS ...... , 78 EGGS, BAKED ., /. , . . _. 78 EGG OMELET .... .78 EGGS, STUFFED ..... . . 202 ENTREES . . ... , , . . . .126 FISH ......... ioo FISH . . ..... . . . . . -344 FLOATING ISLAND . . . 520-558 FONDU OF CHEESE 202 FRUIT SALAD, GARNISHED 232 FRUIT SALAD, IN BANANA-SKIN ... .... 232 GAME 416 GAME PIE IN NAPKINED DISH 388 GRAPE FRUIT PREPARED FOR LUNCHEON 222 GREEN PEAS, GARNISHED 464 HALIBUT STEAK ioo HARLAND, MARION Frontispiece ICE CREAM WITH HOT MAPLE SAUCE ....'.. 582 INDIVIDUAL FLOATING ISLAND 558 IRISH STEW AND BROWNED POTATOES 364 LAMB CHOPS .126 LOBSTER CUTLETS AND WHIPPED POTATOES 156 MERINGUE GLACE AND WHIPPED CREAM 558 MOCK PIGEON 380 MOULD OF JELLY, GARNISHED . 628 ORANGE MARMALADE 582 OYSTER COCKTAILS 222 OYSTER PATTIES . . . ... ....... . . . . . 344 OYSTERS SCALLOPED . . . , ...... . ,. . 84 PAIR OF BOILED FOWLS, GARNISHED ,..,.. . . . . . . 404 PAIR OF ROAST DUCKS 404 PARTRIDGE, ROAST 416 ILLUSTRATIONS xi FACING PAGE PERCH, FRIED ........... 100 PLUM PUDDING 6 520 POULTRY AND ENTREES , , . . : . . . . 404 PUNCH, STRAWBERRY .... : c .... 628 QUAIL ON TOAST 416 RANGE SCREEN LOWERED TO SHUT IN HEAT . 140 RANGE SCREEN PARTLY RAISED . . . . . .138 SALADS . . '. .236 SALMON, BOILED 344 SANDWICHES AFTERNOON TEA , 582 BRUNETTE .;....=..... 216 CRESCENT 216 WHOLE WHEAT BREAD . . . . . . . . . 216 SIDE-BOARD AND CHINA CLOSET , 7 l % SMELTS, FRIED 100 SWEETBREADS, BRAISED 404 SWEETBREAD CUTLETS AND SARATOGA POTATOES . . . .156 TABLES AUTUMN DINNER 300 BRIDESMAID'S, WITH PINK ROSES .... = 500 CHRISTMAS, DECORATED WITH HOLLY ..... 300 DECORATED WITH PINE CONES 266 DECORATED WITH CHRYSANTHEMUMS AND PALMS . . . 300 EASTER WEDDING BREAKFAST , . 266 ENGAGEMENT DINNER 500 JAPANESE DECORATIONS FOR CHILDREN'S LUNCHEON . . 266 SUNFLOWER LUNCHEON 500 A LITTLE DINNER 668 TOAST AND ANCHOVIES GARNISHED ...... 464 TOMATO SALAD ' . 236 TOMATO SALAD WITH WHIPPED CREAM DRESSING . . . 236 TOMATOES, STUFFED AND GARNISHED 464 TROUT, FRIED ........... 344 TURKEY, ROAST 404 xii ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE VEAL AND BEEF 3 8 VEAL CHOPS AND SPINACH . 380 VENISON, ROAST 416 WHIPPED CREAM 520 WHIPPED CREAM, GARNISHED WITH CHERRIES .... 558 WOODCOCK, ROAST 416 Marion Harland's Complete Cook Book DEDICATORY PREFACE To My Fellozv Housekeepers , North, East, South and West : THIRTY-ONE years ago I wrote, dedicated to you, and sent to press, COMMON SENSE IN THE HOUSEHOLD. The daring step was taken in direct opposition to the advice of all who knew my purpose. I was assured that I should lose the modest measure of literary reputation I had won by novels, short stories and essays if I persisted in the ignoble enterprise. One critic forewarned me that "whatever I might write after this preposterous new departure would be tainted, for the imag- inative reader and reviewer, with the odor of the kitchen." He may have been right. I do not know nor do I care whether his judgment or mine was the better. I gave my first cook-book to you because I knew from my own experience, as a young, raw and untaught housekeeper, that you needed just what I had to say. The hundreds of thousands of copies which have been sold, the thousands of grateful letters received from my toiling sisters, testify to that need and that to me was appointed the gracious task of supplying it. Under the impulse of a conviction as solemn and as strong I offer you now a work embodying the best results of mature Housewifery. Or, as I would rather name it, Housemotherhood. Before I put pen to paper I stipulated that the contract with the publishers of THE COMPLETE COOK BOOK should contain a clause forbidding me to prepare and issue any book of a similar character during the next ten years. Whatever I have to say to you through the medium of a printed and bound volume in all these years must be said here. I have had this thought in my mind with the writing of every page. In every page, in every line, in every word I have done i 2 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK my best to serve you. I know you well enough to be assured that you will not forget this. If such a thing might be I would have every dish compounded according to my directions a souvenir to each of you of one who has given thirty-odd of the best years of a busy life to the task of dignifying housewifery into a profes- sion, and ennobling the practice of it in your eyes. For the fair degree of success which has followed these efforts I am thankful. Thankful, too, to those of you whose apprecia- tion of my aim and my work has held up weary hands and stayed the failing heart. This talk, made purposely as "familiar" as if I were face-to- face with each of you, is not a valedictory, but an au revoir. The book in your hands contains the gleanings of an active dec- ade. Housewifery keeps pace with other professions in the swinging march of an Age of Wonders. I have faith in it and in myself to believe that I shall go on with the fascinating work of accumulating. I add, hopefully, I have also faith in you that, in the future as in the thirty years overpast, you will aid me in that accumulation. MARION HARLAND. MARKETING MUTTON and BEEF may be called the Marketer's Perennials. They are in season all the year round. In buying mutton see that the fat is clear, very firm and white ; the flesh close of grain, and ruddy. Buy your meat fresh, even if you mean to hang it in the cellar for a week or longer in cold weather. "Begin fair!" The best cuts of mutton are loin, saddle and leg. French chops are cut from the rib, the fat taken off and several inches of the bone cleaned from meat. They are nice to look at, good to eat and expensive. You can do the trimming at home when you have once seen it done and save the extra cent or two paid for the word "French." Loin chops are cheaper and usually more tender and better-flavored. A more economical piece than the leg for the housewife who does her own marketing is the fore-quarter. You can bone and stuff part of it for a roast ; the chops are almost as good as those cut from the loin, and the bones, when removed, make good stock for broth. The meat is really more juicy and sweet than that of the leg, and the cost from two to three cents a pound less. LAMB is in season from May to November. What is sold un- der that name in winter is undersized mutton, and usually tough and dry. BEEF the Englishman's main-stay is quite as important in the American kitchen. Seek, in purchasing, for rosy, red meat, "shot" with cream-colored suet, dry and mealy, and a good outer coat of fat. Press the meat hard with the tip of your thumb. If it be flabby, and, after yielding to pressure, retains the dent, let it alone. 4 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK The rib roast is a choice cut. It is more comely when the bones are removed, the meat rolled and bound into a round. In which case insist upon having the trimmings sent home. You pay for them, and, when you order soup-meat, for that as well. Have the bones cracked, buy one pound of coarse lean beef for perhaps ten cents, and you have foundation for a good gravy soup, or stock enough for several hashes and stews. The round costs about two-thirds as much as a rib-roast and half as much as a sirloin, and serves admirably for a la mode beef, or a pot-roast. The sirloin steak is far more economical than a porterhouse. Remove the bone before cooking. This cut often contains really more of the coveted tenderloin than the porterhouse, and the rest of the steak is more tender, as a rule, than the dearer cut. Have the steak cut at least an inch thick. Summer FRESH PORK is less desirable than winter lamb. It should be barred from the market after the first of May, and not allowed there before December first, if then. The lean should be pink, the fat pure white and solid, the skin like white, translucent parchment. That it is cheap and "goes far" recommends it to many people. The chine, the spareribs and loin are the best cuts for roast- ing. Pork chops are popular, and pork tenderloins much affect- ed, even by epicures. Children and invalids should never touch unsalted pork at its best estate. VEAL comes into market earlier than genuine spring lamb, and is seasonable all the summer through. Be sure it is not that most objectionable variety of what is rated by dieticians as a de- cidedly objectionable meat known in slang usage as "bob-veal." No calf should be slaughtered until at least six weeks old. The meat should be a clear, pale red, the fat very white, the texture firm. Veal may be innutritious, but the knuckle and, indeed, all the bony parts are invaluable for soups, containing much gelatin- ous matter. The breast, the fillet and loin are the most popular roasting pieces. Veal chops are really better eating and cheaper than the cutlet, and should be better known to the frugal house- wife. MARKETING 5 A calf's head, scraped free of hair and well-cleaned, may be bought in country markets for fifty cents, and can be made into a dainty dish fit for John and John's unexpected friend. Sweetbreads are an acknowledged delicacy, and liver, properly cooked, will be approved by all. By the way, lamb's liver costs less than calf's liver, and is more toothsome. In choosing POULTRY, slip your bare forefinger under the wing where it joins the body and press hard with the nail. If the skin breaks easily, the fowl is probably young. Then try the tip of the breast-bone. If the cartilage gives readily and springs back- slowly, the signs are still favorable. Next, look for hairs on the body and hard horny scales on the legs ; for scrawny necks and a livid hue in the flesh all unfavorable indications. Tough fowls should be cheaper far than tender. If your market-man calls them frankly ''fowls," commend his honesty, and if you contemplate a fricassee or chicken pie, reward his integrity by a purchase. Chickens may be "fowls," yet good, that is, nourish- ing and amenable to judicious "tendering." A veteran housewife, with a reputation to support, tells me she has but one method of securing really excellent meats for her table : "When a market-man sells me tough flesh, or superan- nuated poultry, or ancient fish, I give him warning. At the sec- ond offense, I transfer my custom to another dealer. The rule works well !" It is especially useful when one would be certain of getting FRESH FISH. Now that fish and oysters are bedded h *ce until the wiliest connoisseur may be mistaken in their age, it behooves the housemother to know, first of all, that she is dealing with a man with a conscience as free from reproach as she would have her halibut, salmon and oysters, CARE OF HOUSEHOLD STORES APPLES, POTATOES, TURNIPS, CARROTS, BEETS, etc., if stored in bins or barrels, should be picked over every week. The defective should be thrown away, and if there be any sign of sweating, the good should be spread out on the floor for a day or two to dry before they are repacked. Fruit should be handled with care. Bruises are incipient decay. Particularly FINE FRUIT apples and pears should be wrapped, each separately, in soft, imprinted paper and, when packed, covered with fine, dry sand. Thus protected, they will keep plump and sweet for months, and need no overhauling meanwhile. When practicable, keep VEGETABLES in large quantities else- where than in the cellar under your dwelling. Putrefying roots, cabbages and apples were responsible for much of the winter and spring diseases that puzzled our forefathers and mothers. Even now many a farmhouse reeks with "cellar smells," as subtile and dangerous as sewer gas. Keep EGGS in a cool place, yet not where they will be liable to freeze. If you store them in large quantities, pack in dry salt, the small end down. As an additional precaution, grease the shells, and pour melted lard upon the topmost layer of salt. DRIED BEANS AND PEAS should be kept in wooden or tin boxes with close tops. Have canisters with tight lids for COFFEE AND TEA, and keep them shut. Coffee loses strength and flavor when exposed to the air. Tea softens and molds. In buying CRACKERS give the preference to those packed in tin cases. If they come in paper boxes, set these in tin receptacles, or in stone crocks with snugly fitting tops. Never throw away a tin cracker-box. It is always useful. 6 CARE OF HOUSEHOLD STORES 7 After CHEESE is cut, wrap in tin-foil, or in soft (unprinted) paper and keep in tin, or in stoneware. CRUSTS, BITS OF TOAST, BROKEN CRACKERS AND STALE SLICES of bread should be kept in the kitchen closet until perfectly dry ; then set in a moderate oven for an hour before crushing them with a rolling-pin. Keep these crumbs in a glass jar with a close top. They are invaluable for breading chops and croquettes, and for scallops. Brown FLOUR by the quantity, and when cool put into glass jars ready for use. SALT cakes and hardens in damp weather. Store it in your warmest and driest pantry. In very wet weather mix a little corn starch with that you put into the table salt-cellars.- FLOUR can not be kept too dry, nor can INDIAN OATMEAL, and all kinds of SUGAR. PULVERIZED SUGAR is as susceptible to humid- ity as salt. Tin boxes are absolutely necessary for keeping it tolerably free from lumps. SPICES, PEPPER AND DRIED HERBS must also be shut up closely, and never be kept in open receptacles. Some brands of BAKING- POWDERS actually effervesce when exposed for days at a time to the open air. All are injured seriously by such exposure. For all these staples and ingredients, have closely-fitting lids and keep them on! Store DRIED FRUITS in stone jars with covers ; CANNED FRUITS AND PICKLES in glass jars; tumblers of JELLY AND MARMALADE should be kept in the dark. The light acts chemically upon the contents. If your storeroom be light, wrap jars and tumblers in thick paper tied on with strings. As soon as MEAT comes home from market remove every bit of the brown paper enveloping it, and lay upon a clean dish near the ice never upon it. FISH does not suffer from contact with ice. Meat does, becoming flabby and viscid. If your refrigera- tor is so arranged that you can hang the meat up, that the air can get at all sides of it, it will keep far better than when laid on a platter. A good meat preserver is a box, as large as you can make room for in the refrigerator, the top and bottom of which are of wood, 8 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK the sides of wire netting. Stout hooks are screwed into the in- side of the top, and one of the netted sides is hinged, like a door. MEAT hung in this box will remain untainted and sweet much longer than when hung upon the side of the refrigerator. If you have a cool cellar, keep the meat box, thus prepared, upon a shelf in the darkest corner. The netting excludes insects, yet allows the air to enter, and by drying the surface forms an im- pervious coating which will keep in the juices. Get large tin boxes for BREAD AND CAKE. Scald them fre- quently, drying thoroughly in the sun, and have clean, dry cloths in which to wrap each fresh batch of cake and baking of bread and biscuits. It is an excellent plan to make cotton bags in which to put LETTUCE, CELERY, TOMATOES, SPINACH and other green things you wish to store in the refrigerator. The shelves and ice-box are kept clean, the esculents fresh. Many housewives have adopted the expedient within a few years, and none have abandoned it after a trial. The bags are of coarse, light cotton cloth, or of cheese- cloth, and go into the weekly wash. TABLE BUTTER, wrapped in dampened cheesecloth squares, keeps sweet and firm. These squares are as large as a child's pocket handkerchief, and hemmed to prevent raveling. Half a dozen will last a year, unless the "hired gurrel" takes them for dish-cloths. BUTTER, made into balls for the table, should be kept in a bowl of cold water in the refrigerator, and the water changed every morning. KITCHEN UTENSILS IT is not my purpose to discourage the housewife by a list of culinary furniture. The readers of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" may recall that Mr. St. Clair declared the evolution of irreproachable course dinners through such means as his negro cook employed in a smoky little kitchen with scanty store of pots and kettles to be "nothing short of genius." I have, before now, visited kitchens environed with pot-closets, where hung a glittering assortment of every conceivable patented "indispensable" and sat down in the din- ing-room to greasy, watery soups, scorched meats, soggy bread and curdled custards. It is well to have a plentiful supply of tools. If there be not sense and skill behind them, failure is a foregone conclusion. The object of this brief chapter is to tell our housemothers how to keep such pots and kettles, griddles and pans in working order, and how to make them last a reasonable time. To begin with get good ware. The clumsy iron vessels that gathered grime and soot over the fires kept up by our grand- dames have been pushed aside by lighter and cleaner utensils of various sorts. Coppers that must be as bright outside as they were within, and gathered unto themselves murderous verdigris, if not cleaned before each using, with salt and scalding vinegar were banished, and righteously, long ago, in favor of galvanized, porcelain, granite, agate-iron and nickel-steel-plated wares that neither rust nor green-mold. These wares are as easily kept clean as stone china, and if less durable than iron and copper that descended from mother to daughter and even down to the third generation, last reasonably well when properly handled. Pots, kettles and the like should be set upon the range not io MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK thumped and banged. A nicked cooking utensil is a disgrace to the handler thereof. Cracks and scaling-off are still oftener the result of sudden overheating and of allowing an empty vessel to stand over the fire. The teakettle boils dry, the soup seethes and simmers un- til bones and meat stick to the bottom of the pot. To complete the wreck, the ignorant or indifferent cook snatches off the mis- used utensil and runs with it to the sink, turning the cold-water faucet upon the heated metal. Yet the mistress marvels at the semi-yearly necessity of replenishing kitchen tools ! Never put away a vessel which is not both clean and dry. Wash with hot water, good soap, and household ammonia. Use mop and soap-shaker, if you would spare your hands and do jus- tice to bottoms, seams and sides of pot and pan. Rinse off the suds, wipe and set, upside down, upon the range for thirty sec- onds to make assurance doubly sure. Hang up everything that furnishes the semblance of a loop by which it may be suspended. And always in its own place, so that you could find each in the dark. Cover the shelves of the crockery closet with strips of scal- loped oilcloth that come for the purpose, and the shelves on which you keep metal pie-plates and pans with stout paper, pinked at the edges. If you use tin milk-pans, have them seamless, scald daily with boiling water into which you have stirred a little baking soda, rinse with pure water and stand in the sun. Wooden ware should be scrubbed with a clean, stiff brush and soda-and-water, rinsed well, wiped and dried near the fire or in the open window. Buy three qualities of dish-towels the finest for glass, silver and china ; the second best for crockery used in kitchen work ; the third for heavy kettles, griddles, etc., and have them washed every day. Even when no grease adheres to them they have a musty odor if used several times without washing. Rub gridirons and griddles with dry salt before each using, wiping it off with a clean towel. KITCHEN UTENSILS n Never undertake to polish your stove until it is quite cold, and do not rekindle the fire too soon when the polishing- is done. Next to the range, or stove, the sink is the most important fea- ture of the kitchen. "Let me see a woman's sink, and I will tell you what sort of a manager she is !" was the saying of a shrewd housemother who had seen much of life and of cooks. The waste-pipe should be flushed every day when the water in the boiler is hottest. During the flushing two tablespoonfuls of strong ammonia should be poured down the grating over the waste. Once a week in summer add a handful of crushed wash- ing-soda. And keep the sink, itself, clean all the time! Grease should never accumulate upon the sides and in the corners ; tea leaves and other debris never be clotted over the vent. A stout whisk-brush must hang above the sink and be used freely in scrubbing it. When the whisk becomes stained and flabby, burn it up and get another. A dirty brush, mop or dish- cloth makes not removes dirt. Follow these directions, and if the outer drain-pipes are prop- erly built, you will have no occasion to employ disinfectants and deodorizers. CHEMISTRY IN THE KITCHEN HERE again I shall be brief and practical. Nobody would read this page were I to prate learnedly (apparently) of proteids, phosphates, dextrine, hyposulphites and computed chemical and dietetic values. The purpose of the honest cook-book is to help, not hinder. A few facts relative to chemical effects and changes in every- day cookery should be tabulated. For example, the mission of the much-used and oft-abused bicarbonate of soda familiarly called "baking-soda'' is im- perfectly apprehended by those who handle it most frequently. The average cook does this handling heavily. "Soda makes bread and biscuits rise," is the sum of her knowledge and the aim of her practice in this direction. Soda should be measured as accurately as if it were a potent drug, and never used except in combination with an acid. Even then, lean to the side of mercy in measuring. One even tea- spoonful of soda to two rounded teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar, one even teaspoonful of soda to two cupfuls of buttermilk, or "bonny clabber," one even teaspoonful of soda to one cupful (one-half pint) of molasses, cause what may be considered an equitable effervescence, liberating gases that lighten dough and batter without making them unwholesome. The "greeny-yel- lowy" streaks in farmhouse quick biscuits are poisonous, but the alkali is not in fault. Soda should never be driven in single harness. The first stage of incipient decomposition is acidity. If, when a slightly-suspected fowl or cut of meat is to be boiled or stewed, a teaspoonful of soda be thrown into the pot as soon as the boil begins, violent effervescence will attest the presence of the dis- 12 CHEMISTRY IX THE KITCHEN 13 turbing acid. This subsiding will leave the meat free from un- pleasant taint. Beefsteak and chops, which are just a trifle "touched," may be restored to sanity by a bath of soda and water, well rubbed in. Butter that has suffered in quality through the neglect of the maker in not working all the milk out may be made tolerable for kitchen use by working it over in iced water in which a little soda has been dissolved. After which the butter should be wrapped in a salted cloth with a lump of charcoal in the outer fold. Ammonia is another beneficent agent in correcting natural or artificial deficiencies. A bottle of household ammonia should be as invariably an adjunct to the kitchen sink and that of the waitress's pantry as the soap-dish. It "kills" grease by a chemi- cal combination with it, and lends luster to silver by the same. Dry soda, laid upon a burn or scald, heals, but not merely by excluding the air. Flour would do that as well. The alkali acts directly upon the decomposing skin and vitiated juices of the flesh. The sting of a bee, wasp or hornet is formic acid ; that of a mosquito something akin to it. Ammonia, applied instant- ly, neutralizes the venom and eases the smart. In the composition of salad dressing, stirring the oil, vinegar, salt, pepper and dash of mustard together, long and skilfully, makes a chemical emulsion smoother and more palatable than the hasty slap-dash mixture too often served as "French dressing." Bread-dough which has begun to sour can be brought to terms by working into the batch a little saleratus dissolved in boiling water, which is then allowed to become lukewarm before it is kneaded faithfully through the dough. A like solution should be beaten hard into griddle-cake batter that has a pungent smell. Vinegar and lemon juice are invaluable aids in the business of "tendering" tough meats. Beefsteak, covered for some hours with vinegar or lemon juice, and olive oil, is made eatable by the action of the acid upon the fibers which are further "suppled" by the oil. Vinegar put into the water in which a fowl or mutton is boiled will serve the same purpose, and a dash of vinegar in boiling fish removes the strong oily taste that would otherwise cling to it. 14 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK Powdered alum stirred into turbid water an even tablespoon- ful to four gallons will cause a precipitate and a settlement. The clear water may be drawn off cautiously and used for wash- ing and even for drinking, having no perceptible taste of the alum. A bag of powdered charcoal sunk in a pork barrel will keep the brine sweet through the winter, without blackening it or the meat. CARVING THE present mode of serving meats after the manner of the table d'hote the carving done in the kitchen, and the results placed upon the platter to be served to the guests by butler or waiter has in large measure done away with the demand for hints to the master or mistress of the home upon the art of carv- ing. To those who adhere to the earlier custom, directions can be merely outlines; for the single means by which one may be- come an adept as a carver is in the repeated practice which is re- quired for skill in any work of manipulation. A prerequisite to carving is appropriate implements. The knife, the edge of which has been dulled upon the bread-board, or hacked in the offices of the kitchen, where it has been em- ployed as the scullion's tool, may puncture and tear, but it w;ll not carve. In the hand of even the most skilful it is exaspera- tion. The mistress of the home owes it to the head of the table, as well as to the ease of mind of her guests, .to see that the carving set the knife and its companion fork shall be in the best con- dition for their work. To carve a roast of beef This will depend upon the form in which the roast is placed upon the platter. If it include several ribs, furnishing suffi- cient room for a base of bone, it may be so put before the carver that he may cut perpendicularly in thin slices, passing the knife in a line parallel with the ribs. If, however, the roast be laid upon the side, as is usual, the same direction is to be observed as to the cutting in lines parallel to the ribs. 15 16 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK Where a tenderloin roast is to be carved having but the one large bone which divides the tenderloin from the more solid por- tion there is little choice whether the knife is drawn with or transversely to the grain : the tenderness of the meat is assured in either case. It may be more convenient to sever entirely the tenderloin from the firmer part of the roast before beginning to slice. This will leave the carver at liberty to serve a portion of each quality of the meat to every guest, as the tenderloin may not be of sufficient size to serve to all. To carve a leg of lamb or mutton If the small ribs which are generally taken off for chops are left with the leg, the carver is free to ask the preference of each guest for the rib or solid slice. The chops may be detached by drawing the point of the knife between the ribs, and if the butcher has properly done his part in severing the light carti- lage at the backbone, as in parting vertebrae. The fleshy por- tion of the leg will be more tender if cut in slices at a right angle with the bone, as one would carve a ham ; that is, across the grain. Some carvers, however, prefer to cut lamb or mutton with the grain, as it enables them to serve a portion more or less thor- oughly cooked, according to the preference of those to be helped. These directions apply equally to carving a haunch of venison. To carve poultry The fowl whether turkey, chicken or duck should be placed on its back upon the platter. This will permit the carver to transfix the breastbone firmly with the fork ; for, upon the stanchness of the hold here will depend the success of all further operations. The wing from the nearer side should first be dis- severed by a gash of the knife underneath the socket. This, if the fowl be tender, is easily accomplished with a single cut. The first and second joints of the leg may next be separated, and the second or upper joint removed from its junction with the body, as was the wing. This is easily effected by a slight cut and pres- CARVING 17 sure of the bone outward. The sidebone may be taken off by running the blade directly along the backbone ; for it adheres only by a filament of skin and the soft fat that attaches to it on this line. These joints having been taken off, the breast is now entirely exposed, and further carving is a very simple matter. The re- moval of the leg has laid bare the cavity, from which the dress- ing may be lifted with a spoon, and the cutting of a few slices from the breast, near the neck, will open the crop with the stuf- fing usually placed there to plump the fowl. The main joint and the pinion of the wing may be severed by cutting the cartilage at the junction of the two bones. To carve fish There is an art in carving fish, and it is confined to a single di- rection. It is to open with a knife at the back, drawing the blade the whole distance from head to tail just above the back- bone, and pressing the meat loose from its fastening. Portions may then be served by cutting transversely with the backbone. Fish so carved is freed from the intricate mass of small bones which are sure to mingle with the flesh if it be cut in any other way. The head, if not already removed, should first be taken off, and the collar or shoulder-bone lifted from the fish. SERVING AND WAITING IF a butler be engaged to do the family serving and waiting, he understands his business, or he should not apply for the place. The rules written out here are for the benefit of households where but one or, at the most, two maids are kept. I assume that the waitress takes charge of the table after the mistress has once shown her how it is to be set. By the way, I hope you call her a "maid," not a "girl." The latter word has been so rubbed and soiled by persistent usage on the part of domesticated foreigners, who shed the name of "serv- ant" as soon as they stamp upon American soil, and by the han- dling of would-be "genteel" housewives, that people of refine- ment hesitate to touch it. What the old-fashioned New England- ers called "hired help" would shake the dust off the soles of the shoes they are not yet quite used to wearing, were you to allude to them as "servants." "Maid" sounds well, bearing to their tickled ears a certain dignity not unsuited to their new estate. Beginning with the first meal of the day, we will suppose a cereal, fruit, one dish of meat, bread and butter, potatoes, hot muffins, tea and coffee a typical American breakfast, in fact. A fruit-plate, holding a doily, on which is a finger-bowl half- filled with water, cold in summer, tepid in winter, is set for each person. If fruit that requires paring or cutting is to be eaten, lay a fruit-knife on the plate. If oranges are served, add an orange-spoon. At the right of the plate are the water tumbler, a knife, with the sharp edge toward the plate, and a cereal- spoon, bowl upward. At the left should be the bread-and-butter plate, the fork, tines upward, and a folded napkin. In front of each plate are a pepper-cruet and a salt-cellar. In the center of the board have a bowl of flowers, or something 18 SERVING AND WAITING 19 green and growing, all the year round. At the foot, carving- knife and fork, a steel or other "sharp- ener," and a tablespoon ; unless you have a polished table, cover it with a neat break- fast-cloth, using napkins ("serviettes") to match. If your table-top be at all pre- sentable, lay a hemstitched or embroidered square of linen sold as a "breakfast or luncheon square" in the center, and un- der each plate a doily of the same style. A thick mat to protect the varnish against the heated meat dish; a carafe, or glass pitcher, of ice-water on each side of the table, and the tea and coffee equipage at the head, complete the preparations for serving. The basket, or dish of fruit, is handed from the sideboard where are arranged tablespoons, the glass or silver tub of broken ice to replenish glasses, and, if there are no carafes on the table, a pitcher of iced water, with a relay of knives and forks in case an extra supply should be required on account of accidents. At the last minute, before the mistress is told at the sitting- room door that "breakfast is on," the glasses are filled with iced water, a firm ball of butter and a freshly-cut slice of bread are laid upon the small plate at the left of each place. When the family and guests are seated, the waitress, dressed in a neat gingham or print gown, a clean apron, with bretelles, bib and full skirt, and a white cap pinned above orderly hair (not used to cloak unkempt elf-locks), passes the fruit basket or dish to the mistress of the house from the left side ; then to each person at table. The fruit eaten, let the waitress, beginning as before, at the head of the table, take from the right side of each person, plate, knife and spoon in one hand, finger-bowl in the other, and re- move to a side table, or to the "waitress's pantry," where they are to be washed. Never pile plates and saucers upon one an- other, or upon a tray. The habit is slovenly and lazy. Still more displeasing is the scraping of plates at the side table, or within hearing of the eaters. 20 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK If the cereal be cooked, it is usually served by the mistress of the house. In this case set the hot dish upon a mat beside or before her, when you have put a cereal saucer with a plate under it before each person. Have a tray, with a napkin or doily within it, ready to receive each saucer as it is filled ; offer to the eaters from the left, and when all are served pass sugar and cream on the tray. When the cereal has been discussed, remove first the dish, then the saucers, and bring in hot plates, quickly and dexterously setting one before each person. They should have been warmed through slowly in the kitchen, but not be so hot as to draw the varnish through the doilies. Next set the dish of hot meat, chicken or fish, in front of the carver. As each portion is laid upon a plate, the plate is set upon the tray you hold. Taking the plate in your hand when you reach the mistress of the house, set it down before her from the right. There need be no confusion in this much-debated question of "left and right" if the waitress will bear in mind one simple rule : When plate, cup or other article is to be taken from the tray by the eater, or he is to help himself from an offered dish, the waitress must stand on his left, that he may use his right hand freely. What the waitress puts upon the table with her own hand must be done from the right. For example, the plate with meat on it is set down from the right of the person who is thus served. He takes his cup of coffee and helps himself to sugar and cream from the left. Before the waitress leaves the breakfast-room for the pantry, if she does not remain throughout the meal, let her replenish glasses with water and ice, pass bread or muf- fins a second time, and if cups are emptied, offer her tray to take them back to the head of the table to be refilled. Should she begin to wash plates and saucers in the adjoining pantry to save time, let this be done very quietly. The rattle of china is not a musical accompani- ment to table-talk. The manner of setting the table and waiting at luncheon is SERVING AND WAITING 21 substantially the same as at breakfast. Dinner demands certain variations, while the general principles are the same. The waitress of to-day has a dinner uniform, decorous in all, becoming to a large majority of women. She wears a black gown, deep white cuffs and collar, and an apron of finer material and somewhat more ornate in fashion than in the forenoon. Under the damask table-cloth is laid a covering of felt made for this purpose sold as "table-felt," or a "silence-cloth." The linen cover lies more smoothly over this and appears to be of better texture than when spread upon bare boards. Besides the damask table-cloth, a "carving square" is laid at the foot of the table, and under it a thick mat on which the hot dish may stand. On this are carving-knife, fork and "steel ;" also tablespoon and gravy ladle, leaving room between for the large dish. A cold plate stands at each place, to be taken up when the hot is set down by the waitress. At the right of the plate lie the soup- spoon, bowl uppermost, two knives, edges turned toward the plate, and a fish-knife (if there is to be fish) beyond the dinner- knives. A tumbler for water, and, if wine is used, glasses for this, stand also on the right, a little beyond the array of knives. Some prefer to lay the soup-spoon at right angles to the knives, and back of where the plate is to be. At the left of the plate have two large forks ; then one for fish, and outside of this an oyster-fork, if there are to be raw oysters. The napkin, folded flat, and inclosing a slice of bread, cut thicker and narrower than for breakfast, lies also on the left. Plates for the several courses are in array on the sideboard, except such as must be brought hot from the kitchen. Salad plates and those for dessert stand in order. Saucers for ices are set upon plates lined with doilies. Fruit plates are also sup- plied with doilies, on which are finger-bowls half-full of water. A side table is reserved for vegetable dishes. They are not placed upon the principal table now, even at the daily family din- ner. Pickles and olives are on the dinner-table ; carafes of water, and always flowers. Some housewives have soup served in hot plates directly from the kitchen. If the tureen be used instead, the mistress prefer- 22 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK ring to pour it out herself, have a carving-cloth at that end of the table also. The soup ladle lies at her right. As she ladles out the soup it is set on the waitress's tray. She takes it off with her hand and puts it from the right before any guest who may be present ; then the family in turn. At a dinner party; those on the right of the hostess are served first. The soup-plate is set upon the cold plate in front of the eater, and when removed is taken from the right, leaving the lower stationary cold plate in its place, until the fish comes, when it is exchanged for a hot one. In clearing the table after each course the soup-tureen, and in its turn the large dish at the foot of the table go out first, the soiled plates afterward. Before the dessert is brought in, crumb the table, using a clean folded napkin, when you have cleared the cloth of salt, pepper, pickles, etc. After the sweets comes the coffee. This is often sent to the guests into the drawing-room. In this case, the waitress covers a large tray with a white napkin, arranges the filled cups, smok- ing hot, upon it, sets the sugar in the middle and takes the whole into the room where the party is assembled. Liqueur-glasses follow the coffee, and are also carried into drawing-room or library. In announcing to the mistress, in sitting-room or elsewhere, that a meal is ready, the waitress says, "Breakfast is on," or "Luncheon is ready," or "Dinner is served" according to modern usage. One frightened unfor- tunate, on duty at a trial-dinner party, filled the hostess with confusion, the guests with secret amusement, by rattling off all three formulas in a breath. It is impossible to write out rules that will meet every form and exigency of "entertaining." The hostess who, having mas- tered the leading principles here given, trains her waitress into the daily practice of them, insisting that her family shall be served three times a day in the right order, and as punctiliously as if a state banquet were the business of the hour, need fear no embarrassing "situations," no matter how large the number, nor how important the stations of her guests. AMONG THE LINENS EVERYTHING commonly classed under this head should be care- fully aired before it is put away. Even when this duty has been conscientiously performed, real linen, made of pure flax, has marvelous properties for absorbing humidity. And humidity is the parent of that relentless foe to housewifely peace mildew. Table-cloths, napkins and linen sheets that have been packed securely as the owner supposed in closets, drawers and chests, sometimes present to our horrified eyes a collection of small blotches, like dark freckles, and as ineradicable, and the folds, when opened, smell musty. The walls of the closet were not quite dry, or the chest has stood in a damp room, or the side- board drawers have gathered must in an unaired basement din- ing-room. It is a matter of common prudence to overhaul the contents of linen closets, and especially linen drawers and chests, once a month, if only to make sure that the contents are keeping well. At the same time be on the lookout for rents, broken threads and thin places. Never buy cheap linen. If you can not afford the finest, you may secure that which is "all linen," round-threaded *and evenly woven. A little practice in the purchase of these treasures will initiate you into the art of judicious choosing. Having bought good "material," take care of it. A break in a table-cloth or nap- kin, or towel, if neatly darned, will give you several more weeks of wear out of it perhaps months. Hemstitched articles are liable to "give" first in the drawn work, and a stitch here in time, saves ninety. You may keep napery in drawers, if more convenient than else- where, or upon shelves in a roomy sideboard. When at all prac- 23 24 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK ticable have a light, airy closet for bed linen. My own linen- room, built to order, has a southern window, unshuttered, through which the sun streams all the afternoon on fine days. Except in wet weather this window stands open for an hour of every day not longer, lest dust should blow in. Suffer another personal paragraph : Not a sheet, towel or pillow-case is taken from this closet except by myself. Each pile has place and meaning. Each set of towels belongs to an especial apartment. Heavy bath towels; soft damask for the leastest baby's use ; big, rough huckaback for the boys' lake baths, and the orderly heaps of different styles and textures, every one marked with embroidered letter or monogram designating cham- ber or owner are known familiarly to but one person in the family. , I modestly commend this rule to each housemother. Let the linen shelves be the especial charge of some one particular keeper. If not yourself, one of your daughters. This is rendered almost necessary by the system of rotation that should regulate the use of sheets, pillow-cases, counterpanes and towels. Those which come from the wash this week should be kept by themselves. In laying out clothes for the beds, and towels for the various rooms, select from the bottom of the pile of those laundered on'e, two or four weeks ago, working gradually upward, week by week, until all have gone through the wash and consequently, all are evenlv worn. Never make up a bed with freshly washed linen, no matter how well aired it may seem to be. Sheets, pillow-cases, towels, table-cloths all folded linens should be laid upon the shelves with the open and hemmed ends toward the wall, the round folds outward. The effect is neater to the eye, and articles are more easily taken out. There should be no smell in this airy closet except the inde- scribable sweet sense of freshly laundered linen not strong enough to be called an odor. Lavender, scented grasses, and dried rose leaves are poetical in the writing and the hearing thereof, but the sleeper between smooth cotton or linen sheets sickens of artificial smells. They are neither "goodly," nor wholesome. THE CHILDREN OUR forefathers and foremothers were dressed, in infancy, precisely like their fathers and mothers. As we see by the por- traits treasured among our curios, they were abridged copies of the adults of a hundred years ago. Parents were then consistent in feeding their progeny with food they considered convenient for themselves. When the royal father ate fermenty for breakfast it is upon record that a baby prince, suffering from marasmus, was nour- ished ( !) upon barley, boiled soft with raisins. They sat up to late functions those wretchedly dissipated princelings and the cotter's children went to bed at the same time with himself. He who doubts whether or not our times are better than the former would be converted to steadfastness of conviction by patient study of the nursery habits of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. We have children's outfitters nowadays, who fashion gar- ments utterly unlike those worn by be-corseted, be-trained, and be-pantalooned grown people. The cotter's wife clothes her boys in knickerbockers and blouses, her girls in loose waists and brief skirts, all designed expressly although she does not know it to allow free and healthful growth of the immature creatures. I wish I could add that reform as radical and common-sensible had been wrought in children's diet, and children's hours of rest and sleep. Mothers who have thought deeply upon these matters and acted upon meditation, appreciate the hygienic law that children require sleep to promote growth, as well as to repair the waste of waking which are working hours. If an adult needs seven hours' slumber, the infant of days under seven years of age 25 26 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK requires ten to satisfy wants his senior has outgrown. Up to the age when the child ceases to add inches, if not cubits, to his stature yearly, provision must be made for the steady drain upon vital and nerve forces. The aforesaid canny mothers call in the little ones from play before sundown in summer, bathe them, endue them in night- gowns and pajamas, put dressing-gowns over these, and loose slippers upon the tired feet, then set them down to a supper of bread and milk, or buttered bread with a dash of jam or jelly, and good, sweet milk, with once in a while a plain cooky as an afterthought. Supper over and prayers said, the darlings are laid in bed by the time the west begins to blush at the sun's nearer approach. In winter, the six o'clock supper is served in the nursery or dining-room, and the bairnies disposed of com- fortably to themselves and to the rest of the household before "grown-uppers" sit down to the "hearty" supper or dinner divid- ing the working day from an evening as busy, and sometime .almost as long. To borrow from the slang dictionary the child needs the ten or twelve hours' sleep in his business of growing tall and robust, steady of nerve and sane of mind. Furthermore, he needs food adapted to his needs. Plenty of cereals ; plenty of milk ; plenty of ripe fruit in the season thereof ; meat once a day ; nourishing broths and a few green vegetables. No fried things whatsoever ; neither tea nor coffee. No pastry ; no mince pie nor plum pud- ding, nor highly seasoned entrees. Time enough for these delica- cies when the inches (and feet) are all in, the muscles in splendid working order, the gray matter of the brain "all there," and ready to do the duties of a man's brain for fifty years to come. One branch of a child's education, sorely neglected in tens of thousands of homes, is mastication. As soon as he cuts his teeth teach him why they were given him. Make him chew everything he takes into his mouth. Able dieticians are proclaiming boldly that milk should be chewed, a mouthful at a time, if one would not have it change to curd about the diaphragm. The child's meat should be finely minced for him until he can cut it up for himself, and bolting be reckoned as a breach of decent behavior. THE CHILDREN 27 He may forget the truism that "gentlemen eat slowly" after he joins in the great American rush for fortune. Obedience to it for a term of years will lay the foundation of sound digestion. He will have a better chance of long life and no dyspepsia, than if he had been allowed to gulp down milk by the glassful without drawing breath, and to gobble steaks and chops in two-inch chunks. DIET AND DIGESTION THE second depends upon the first. The two make up a whole which is Health. "Food values" is so emphatically a technical term that I would not employ it here if it did not express just what I mean, when used untechnically. What we eat has many and differing values. It is possible, without degenerating into dietetic cranks, to appraise them pro- perly and to apply the knowledge thus gained to the building up of these bodies of ours and the consequent up-building of the immortal better part they encase. Digestions are so many and so diverse, the one from the other, that it is rank folly to prescribe bills-of-fare warranted to agree with everybody. Take, for example, milk. It has won from the ablest writers on dietetics the title of the One Perfect Food for the human race. Specialists on dyspepsia prescribe an almost exclusive milk diet for obstinate cases. In typhoid fevers it is the specific regimen. One man consumes inordinate quantities, by advice, to increase adipose tissue. A woman lives upon skim milk, swal- lowed very slowly, to reduce her flesh. And so on through multi- farious cases all acting upon the recommendation of experts. All the time, as each of us knows, certain stomachs can not digest milk, or even retain it long enough to test its nutritive properties, while in others it causes intense heartburn and en- genders bile. Toast and tea are the stock invalid diet, the civilized world over. Yet Medical Daniels (M. D.'s) are rising up by the score to protest against ruining stomachs with tannic acid and bur- dening digestive organs by forcing what is no better than dry sawdust upon them. 28 DIET AND DIGESTION 29 Chocolate is freely prescribed as digestible, and so nutritious that one could live and not lose flesh, eating nothing else, for weeks together. I am acquainted personally with ten people at least, to whom any form of chocolate is poisonous and abhorrent to every sense. Natives of the land where the cocoa palm grows virtually sub- sist upon the nuts, and many in other lands devour the imported cocoanut with impunity. The fatty flesh acts upon some stom- achs with the virulence of glass filings, producing terrible cramps and even convulsions. A noted teacher of culinary lore strenuously recommends our native nuts, walnuts, filberts, hazelnuts, chestnuts, and so forth, raw, and cooked in various ways as a substitute for meat. The innovation is daring, and opposed to the conclusion based upon the observation and experience of scores of other writers, to the effect that nuts are hurtful to six people out of ten, the oils, and the cells which contain the oils, difficult of digestion by any save the strongest stomach. It is much the fashion with writers upon domestic economy to extol fish as more economical and more easily digested than flesh, besides being rich in the phosphates needed to repair the waste of brain force. * Some people who would scout the imputation of invalidism can not eat even fresh fish without experiencing symptoms not unlike ptomaine poisoning. I recall the case of one woman who was extremely fond of oysters, yet dared not touch them for fear of fatal consequences. I once saw her faint away an hour after she had eaten half a dozen. Who shall decide when dietists and individual digestions disagree so radically as is indicated by these and hundreds of other examples ? And by what standard of gastronomic morality shall we gage personal conduct in the government of appetite? Since man must eat to live, and an unimpaired digestion is wealth inestimable what shall we eat? Certain combinations of materials are manifestly iniquitous. Cooked fats, fried fats in particular; soggy bread, especially when fresh from the oven; hot cakes, ("sinkers"), viscid with 30 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK griddle grease and swimming in butter ; tough doughnuts, reek- ing with lard ; leathery pie-crust ; underdone fish and rare pork and veal ; cabbage that has been cooked in but one water ; turnips that have been left in t;:e ground until they are stringy pith ; tough meats of all kinds that resist mastication ; unripe fruits none of these should ever enter human mouths, or be imposed upon the long-suffering digestive apparatus. The housemother who studies wisely the properties of the fare she puts before her family will adjust food- values to the several needs of those to whom she ministers. The child of weak intestines must have neither oatmeal, hominy, nor mush for his breakfast cereal. Rice, rightly cooked, thickened milk, well boiled, and arrowroot porridge, will heal irritation, and, as it were, tighten the tension of the machine. He may not indulge in the apple-sauce and cracked wheat which are better than laxa- tive drugs to his hale brother. A bilious girl should not drink milk unqualified by a dash of lime water, and never take coffee. Her languid, appetiteless mother will be refreshed in nerve, stimulated in brain, by a demi- tasse of strong coffee taken without cream after her dinner. It is doubtful whether or not creamed coffee is a wholesome beverage for any one. It is an established fact that the addition of cream works a chemical change, and for the worse, in that which, taken clear, is a valuable digestive agent. An important branch of the mother's profession is to acquaint herself with the stomachic idiosyncrasies of each member of her household. Certain compounds and some simples do not agree with one person, while others thrive upon them. To be cognizant of the peculiarities of each constitution is to be fore- warned of the danger of gastronomic experiments. Lay down as a positive law that it is wrong a sin against the body given by God to eat what one is sure will disagree with one. Tabulate for your own convenience a code of "kitchen physic." To wit, that Indian meal is laxative ; oatmeal, heating ; wheat- flour, binding ; that tea is slightly astringent, and coffee, creamed, a gentle aperient ; that sweets and rare beef engender gouty acid in those disposed to rheumatism and constitutional headache ; DIET AND DIGESTION 31 that candies and other confectionery ferment into sharp acid in an empty stomach, and should, therefore, never be eaten unless as a dessert. The same is true of pickles. Except when eaten in combination with meats and other oily foods, they are actively unwholesome. The schoolgirl habit of champing' pickled cucum- bers and pickled limes, as a starving pauper might gnaw a crust, is pernicious and disgusting. The skins of raisins and grapes are indigestible. Figs are a well-known cathartic, a fact the house- mother should avail herself of where a doctor, if summoned, would prescribe a drug. It is always better to control digestive irregularities by diet than by medicines, each of which is a poison which cures one ill by creating another. Pears dispose one to constipation. Ripe peaches and ripe ap- ples regulate the bowels in a vast majority of cases; an orange, eaten at bed time, is a gentler agent than Rochelle salts, and does as good work. The veteran practitioner who insisted fifty years ago that "cup- board cures" were safer and surer than those wrought by materia medica was in advance of his age. The twentieth century is just growing up to his standard. THE IMPROMPTU LARDER SOME of her friends call it "The Emergency Pantry." The owner objects to the term because it conveys an idea of bandages and styptics. Whereas, the cozy closet devoted to the comfort of possible guests to be welcomed and fed, although unexpected contains substantial food and appetizing delicacies. She belongs to the great and growing host of suburbanites de- pendent upon peripatetic butcher and baker, and the nearest "general store." The keeper of the typical general store never orders so much as one jar of marmalade or a pound of fancy bis- cuits until the last is sold, and has never a twinge of mortification in saying : "Just out ! Expect new lot next week." So our hospitable housewife stocks and keeps filled her reserve shelves. John has a way of bringing home a chance guest to dinner when the notion strikes him, and Mrs. Notable's town 'friends have their way of happening to be in dear Mary's neighborhood about lunch time, and, having come all the way out from town, it is hardly worth while to go home when there are afternoon calls to be paid in the suburbs. When one of these calls chances to be upon Mrs. Notable, afternoon tea must be served. Mrs. Notable's daughters join theater and concert parties, going early into the city and coming out late and hungry. Iced lemonade, ginger ale, cake and sandwiches refresh them and their attend- ants in summer, and on winter nights something hot and savory from "mother's chafing dish." Back of all this stands mother's Impromptu Larder. One shelf holds the best brand of canned soups, chicken, tongue and boned ham; another sardines, anchovies in oil, anchovy paste and pate de foie gras, soused mackerel, and mackerel with tomato sauce. 32 THE IMPROMPTU LARDER 33 Baked beans, plain, and baked beans with tomato sauce, have honorable place among potted foods; also dainty jars of fancy cheeses, ready for use at a second's notice, and bottles of grated Parmesan. Olives, including pimolas, stand in line with "pin- money pickles" and catsups. There is a brave array of home- made jellies, marmalades, brandied and pickled peaches; a case of imported ginger ale, bottles of domestic liqueurs, and glass cans of apple-sauce and tomatoes, put up in Mrs. Notable's own kitchen. A fair proportion of each kind of pickle and preserve is set aside for the Impromptu Larder and not touched for family consumption. Fancy biscuits of many sorts have several shelves for their own ; sweet and unsweetened cheese biscuits, sea-foams and snow- flakes and zwieback; hard crackers and soft crackers; plain wafers, fruit wafers and cream wafers; lady-fingers and ginger- snaps make a goodly show to the eye and stay the mistress's surprised soul when the impromptu luncheon or supper must be more sudden and abundant than usual. "My strong tower !" she once called this pantry, laughingly. In winter she finds room for nuts, raisins, apples and oranges ; in autumn, for baskets of grapes. These last named may be called "transients," the supply being renewed frequently. Mrs. Notable is not a rich woman. She is obliged to make each dollar do the full work of one hundred cents. To this end she keeps an "expense book," setting down every article purchased and the cost thereof. In the account of necessary outlays that for replenishing the stores in the strong tower is registered under the head of "HOS- FAMILIAR TALK BREAKFAST COMMON sense would decide that we should begin the day with the glad alertness with which the sun smiles at us over horizon, or housetops. He rejoices as a strong man ready that is, rubbed down, supple and light to run a race. There are still writers of "goody" books and works on hygiene who extol the morning mood. According to them, the whole hu- man machine is then at its best. The head is clear, the stomach is vigorous, the spirits are buoyant, life is a joy. In reality the reality of the every-day life of respectable people who have not tarried long at the wine, or eaten Welsh rarebits over night the hard pull of the day is at the beginning. The head of the average man or woman ought to be clear, the digestive organs active, limbs and joints in excellent working order. There should not be what one comedian describes as a "dark-brown, fuzzy taste" in the mouth, or the feeling that the cranium is stuffed with cotton wool, and the diaphragm should not loathe all manner of food. But such things are. Where one man tells you that breakfast is the best meal of the day, fifty account the ceremony of the earliest meal of each new day as a hollow mockery. A celebrated judge left upon record the saying: "No man should be hanged for a murder committed before breakfast." Another, almost as famous, openly and officially declared his unwillingness to con- demn a prisoner convicted of manslaughter of whom his physi- cian had testified that he was a chronic dyspeptic. "A dyspeptic," urged the judge, whose own diet had consisted of mush and milk for ten years, "is never quite sane." Not one of his three daily meals is "comfortable" to him whose 34 FAMILIAR TALK 35 alimentary apparatus is out of order. To one in tolerable health the business of "stoking" the engine for the drive of the forenoon should not be irksome. Thus common sense and hygienic general principles. Now for facts. A brilliant woman summed up the popular judgment on the subject in an after-luncheon speech before other literary women, in the assertion that "the human machine needs to be wound up and lubricated and regulated by bath and breakfast before it is fit to work with other machines, or, indeed, to go at all. Break- fast, partaken of in the company of one's nearest and dearest, is a blunder of modern civilization. It is an ordeal over which each should mourn apart." A young man of education and breeding, who lives in bacheloi chambers with three other "good fellows," confesses that, while the seven o'clock dinner hour is always full of cheer and good- will, the four friends seldom exchange a syllable at the breakfast table beyond a brief salutation at entering the room, and a curt "good day," in separating to their various places of business. "Thanks to this sensible silence, we have lived together three years without quarreling," he wound up the story by saying. "Every man is a brute until he has had his morning coffee." Much of this is talk for talk's sake, and some of it is Tem- per. It is not easy for one to get full command of oneself before the relaxed nerves are braced by tea or coffee, and the long-empty stomach is brought up to concert pitch by food. If we have slept too heavily, we are stupid: : f too little, irritable. I admit that the American's first meal of the crude day, with the accompaniment of the rush for car, or boat, or train, that turns out or in dyspeptics by the hundred thousand yearly, is not conducive to domestic happiness, or the preservation of table etiquette. The householder, devouring porridge, two cups of scalding coffee, rolls, steak and fried potatoes, at discretion, with one eye on the clock, and both feet braced for the jump and run he knows are imminent if he would catch the train, is in the first or fortieth stage of what a witty essayist diagnoses as "Ameri- canitis." His children's railroad speed of deglutition and the 36 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK scurry for school are along the same lines of discomfort and dis- ease. Upon the mother's hands and head rests the responsibility of "getting them off for the day," a battle renewed with each morn- ing until she "fairly loathes the name and the thought of break- fast." The remedy for the domestic disgrace for it is nothing if not that is so simple that I have little hope it will be respected, much less accepted. It is, get up fifteen minutes earlier in the morning ! The plain truth is that your system is not "ready for break- fast," when you announce that you are. The racer, to whom Scripture compares the smiling God of Day, never takes the first lap at a rush. He warms gradually to his work, having at the outset paid as diligent heed to the "Make ready !" as to the "Go !" If you rise usually at seven, have the hot water and cleaned boots brought to the door at a quarter before seven, and get up when you are called. A brisk bath and a smart rubbing with a crash towel, preceded by fifty gymnastic strokes, such as arm- swinging and general flexing of the muscles ; twenty-five deep breaths that pump the morning air down to the bottomest well of your lungs and clear the respiratory passages of effete matter lodged there during the night these, with a general disposition to speak charitably toward, and to speak civilly to companions and competitors in the race, correspond to "make ready." Clean, supple, and in good heart, come to the table as to preliminary re- freshment you have time and appetite to enjoy. At least seven-tenths of the twaddle over the horrors of the family breakfast are affectation and indolence. Breakfasting in bed is an imported fashion, and to my notion, is not a clean practice. The tray brought to an unaired room, a tumbled bed and an unwashed body, looks well in French engravings, but is a solecism in an age of hygienic principles, much ventilation and matutinal baths. The inability to be in charity with one's fellow mortals, to smile genially and to speak gently before the world is well started upon its diurnal swing, and the complainant's BREAKFAST EQUIPAGE FAMILIAR TALK 37 physical system is toned and tuned and oiled by eating, is degrad- ing in itself. The confession of it is puerile. Force yourself to speak pleasantly if you can not at once bring your spirits up to the right level. Study to be a man, or a woman, although breakfastless. To be thrown in the first round of the day by the sluggish flesh and the devil of ill-humor, before the world has a chance to grapple with you, is cowardly and sinful. BREAKFAST FRUITS THE imported fashion of beginning breakfast with fresh fruit has become an American custom. The assuasive effect of the generous juices upon the coat of the stomach, usually clogged at early morning with a mucous deposit, is a wholesome preparation for digestive processes a "toner" to just- awakened energies. To commit suddenly to the long- suffering stomach, as yet inert, and but dimly aware of what is expected of it, a "feed'* of beefsteak, potatoes and hot breads, is always an unwelcome surprise. Sometimes the abused organ turns with the proverbial blind wrath of the patient, and revenges itself, if not speedily, surely and fiercely. It would fain be awakened kindly and gently. To this end, stay it with oranges, comfort it with apples and grapes. Oranges 1. Cut in half, crosswise, and dig out the pulp with a silver or gold orange spoon. 2. They are yet nicer prepared beforehand by running a sharp knife on the inside, close to the rind, thus severing the membranes that divide the lobes. Take these membranes out carefully, leav- ing the pulp in the two cups of the halved orange. It can be then eaten as easily as a custard could be. Set on ice until you are ready to serve. 3. Peel the oranges ; separate the lobes and cut each into three pieces. Serve in a chilled glass dish, passing powdered sugar for those who like it. Breakfast fruits are far more wholesome when eaten without sugar. 38 BREAKFAST FRUITS 39 Grapes Keep them on ice for an hour before sending to table, even in winter, and scatter cracked ice over and among them. This has the double advantage of cooling and of cleansing them. Pass grape scissors with the dish of fruit. Peaches, pears and apples Wash and dry pears and apples with a soft cloth. Have a silver fruit knife at each plate, and let the eaters pare the fruit for themselves. Peaches should be left with the fur (and bloom) on. Berries These should never in any circumstances be sugared in the dish. Let each person sweeten his portion for himself, after which they should be eaten immediately, before the sugar has time to draw out the juice and thereby wither the berries. Strawberries should be eaten at breakfast with the caps on. Choose the finest fruit for this meal, using the stem as a handle, and dipping the berry into powdered sugar, if not sweet enough to be eaten without. Raspberries and blackberries Never wash these, or strawberries, unless they are intolerably gritty. Water is ruin to flavor and integrity, where the more delicate berries are concerned. Set on ice for an hour or more be- fore sending to table. Pass sugar for those who wish it, and in helping out each portion avoid bruising the berries. "Mashed" berries suffer an instant change in flavor. The air begins at once to act chemically upon the liberated juices. Huckleberries and gooseberries Wash, drain and leave on ice for two hours. Pass sugar with huckleberries for such as wish it. They are better without at 40 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK breakfast. Gooseberries are always eaten without. The large English varieties are delicious and very healthful. If cream be eaten with breakfast fruit, it should be as an after- course or dessert. It loses character and effect as an assuasive and persuasive agent. Melons Cantelopes and nutmeg melons are prime favorites as an intro- ductory step to the weightier business of the morning meal. They deserve their popularity. Cut those of small and medium size in half; scrape out the seeds and put a lump of ice in each half. The larger may be di- vided into thirds, and a piece of ice laid upon each piece. Pass salt and pepper, also sugar with them. Many epicures prefer to eat them au nature I. Stewed fruits In the late winter or early spring-time, when apples are scarce and dear, and oranges have not yet come to their full plenteous- ness and flavor, the human system needs anti-bilious food. Our foremothers compounded a villainous preventive against spring "humors," of sulphur and molasses, stirred together to a cream and administered before breakfast to each shuddering creature who had pains in the bones, headache and nausea at rising, and a general sensation of good-for-nothingness. "Advanced" matrons added cream of tartar to the villainous preventive, and gave their families to drink of cream-of-tartar lemonade. According to these wise and worthy women, "spring fever" was as inseparable from the opening season as robin song and pussy willow. Even now, cooling medicines are advised by physicians and be- lieved in by families. The careful student of hygiene, a science the prime principle of which is prevention, and not cure, shows us a more excellent way. The kindly fruits of the earth never merit their name more truly than when winter is going and spring-time is coming ; when benevolent bile, balked in its rightful channels, becomes a baleful agency to be fought as an acknowl- edged foe. In fruit and in succulent vegetables we find our cool- BREAKFAST FRUITS 41 ing medicines, "indicated" by the great physician, Nature. If fresh fruits be wanting, we must accept substitutes. Stewed rhubarb Wash, scrape and cut the stalks into inch lengths. Leave in cold water for an hour. Put over the fire in the inner vessel of a double boiler, set in cold water, bring to a boil and simmer gently until tender and clear. Keep the inner vessel closely cov- ered that the steam may do its work. Remove from the fire, sweeten to taste not heavily turn into a bowl and cover until cold. As a breakfast dish, this is refreshing and most wholesome. Cooked as above, you get the benefit of the anti-bilious juices, undiluted by water. Set on ice for an hour before eating. Some add a handful of sultana raisins to the raw rhubarb. Prunes Wash and soak for two hours. Drain, put over the fire with just enough cold water to cover them, and cook tender. Turn out and cover until cold. Put on the ice for an hour before send- ing to the table. No sugar should be added to prunes when they are to be eaten at breakfast time. They are slightly laxative and anti-bilious. BREAKFAST CEREALS SOME dietetists, who are neither cranks nor simpletons, disbe- lieve in cereals of whatsoever sort as a first course at breakfast. They urge that to spread a hot poultice all over the lining of the stomach is to relax and weaken that organ ; that it goes to sleep, as it were, and is too inert to dispose properly of the rest of the meal. Others are strenuous in the belief that the act of chewing is necessary to the proper assimilation of even semi-solids, and since few people think of chewing porridge, the value of it as nutriment is doubtful. There is force in the latter demur. Children should be taught to chew porridge of all kinds, also bread and milk. One zealous dietist insists that milk "the one and only perfect food"- ought to be masticated. The motion of the jaws excites the sali- vary glands, he says, causing the flow of a secretion most favor- able to digestion. As to the "hot poultice," there is a grain of reason in the ob- jection. As I have explained in urging the propriety of begin- ning breakfast with fruit, the coat of the stomach is masked, after the sleep of the night, by a thin mucus, which interferes with the task of the digestive agencies. If fruit is not eaten, a draft of cold water, not iced, will do the work in part. A few swallows of really hot water are better still. A sip of tea or coffee or, perhaps, best of all, vichy, apollinaris or other good mineral water, may precede the nourishing cereal. That it is nourishing when the stomach gets hold of it, is un- deniable. Oatmeal builds up bone, and muscle, and brain ; Indian meal mush and hominy are gently laxative and cooling to the blood ; preparations of wheat are less laxative, and therefore 42 BREAKFAST CEREALS 43 safer in hot weather, and for teething children, than oatmeal in any form. Rice boiled tender in milk is both palatable and wholesome. Each and all of these should be eaten with cream, and except as a dessert, never with sugar. Children who are trained to eat porridge and milk, or cream, without sugar, find the addition of this unpleasant. It certainly tends to acidity of the stomach. Every cereal, with the exception of rice, that needs any cooking needs a great deal of it. Soaking over night is indispensable to the excellence of most of them. Four hours of boiling make oat- meal good ; eight hours make it better ; twenty-four hours make it "best." Oatmeal Soak over night. Even the varieties which are advertised "to require no soaking, and but fifteen minutes' cooking," are im- proved by this process. Turn a deaf ear to the charmer who would persuade you to the contrary. "Steam cooked'' is often a delusion and a snare. Put your oatmeal into the inner vessel of your farina kettle, cover deep in cold water, put on the lid and set at the back of the range at bedtime. In the morning add boil- ing water, salt to taste, and draw to the front, filling the outer ket- tle with hot water. Cook steadily for an hour and as much longer as you can. My own taste is for oatmeal boiled to a jelly. It is as far superior to the ordinary preparation of the cereal as creamed cauliflower is to Dutch cabbage. Send to table and eat with cream. Never throw away oatmeal "left-overs." Cook again, and yet again, always in a double boiler. Hominy Soak all night ; cover with boiling water, slightly salted, in the morning, and cook for an hour. A delicious preparation of hominy is effected by cooking it in plenty of salted water until tender, turning off the water and supplying its place with cold milk. Bring to a boil and serve. 44 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK Cracked wheat Cook as you would oatmeal. An hour's boiling suffices. Milk porridge Heat a pint of milk to boiling. Into a pint of cold milk stir four tablespoonfuls of flour, and when this is smooth stir it into the hot milk. Cook in a double boiler for an hour, add salt to taste, and serve with cream. Meal-and-flour porridge Mix together two tablespoonfuls of Indian meal and the same quantity of flour, wet them with cold water, and stir into a cup of boiling water. Cook in a double boiler for half an hour, stirring often. Add salt, and beat in slowly a pint of scalding milk, cook, stirring* constantly for fifteen minutes longer. Serve with cream. Brewis (as made by our grandmothers) Dry bread in the oven and crush with the rolling-pin into crumbs. Heat two cups of slightly salted milk, and when it boils, stir in a cupful of the dried crumbs. Add a tablespoonful of butter, and cook, beating steadily for five minutes. Serve hot with cream, or an abundance of sweet milk. Rice Wash a cupful of rice in two waters, then drop it slowly into two quarts of salted boiling water. The water should be at a galloping boil. Do not stir the rice once during the twenty min- utes in which it must cook steadily. At the end of that time test a grain to see if it is tender, and if it is, turn the rice into a colander ; shake this hard that the air may reach all the kernels, and set in the open oven five minutes before dishing. Each grain should stand separate from the rest. BREAKFAST CEREALS 45 This is the South Carolinian way of cooking rice, and the one and only right way. Indian meal mush Moisten a cupful of corn-meal with enough cold water to make it into a paste. Stir this paste into a quart of salted, boiling water, and cook, beating it hard and often, for an hour at least. If the mush becomes too stiff, add from time to time more boiling water. Farina A good, inexpensive cereal, which seldom appears upon the breakfast table. Yet it should have honorable mention. Soak overnight. In the morning, stir it into boiling water, slightly salted, and cook half an hour, stirring up well from the bottom. Each patented breakfast cereal has its champion. It would be invidious to name any of them here. Nearly all are founded upon wheat, corn, rye, barley or rice. Each is accompanied by full directions for the preparation of the same for the table. BREAKFAST BREADS Beginning with the most important and difficult form of bread-making, I offer three methods of preparing and baking the wholesome home-made loaf, fondly recollected by those whose early lives were spent in regions where bakers' sawdusty cubes and parallelograms were not delivered at the back door in lieu of the genuine staff of life. Potato sponge bread (No. 1) Boil and mash, while hot, four potatoes of fair size, beating into them a tablespoonful, each, of cottolene or other fat and of white sugar. Beat smooth, adding, gradually, one and one-half pints of lukewarm water. Strain through a colander upon a pint of sifted flour. When you have a lumpless batter, add half a cake of compressed yeast, dissolved in four tablespoonfuls of warm water. This is your sponge. Set in a moderately warm place in a bread-bowl with a perforated cover. If you have not this cover, throw a double fold of mosquito net or cheese-cloth over the bowl. In four hours in summer, and six in winter, the sponge should be light and the top broken by air bubbles. Have ready in an- other deep bowl or tray five pints of dried flour of the best qual- ity, sifted with a tablespoonful of salt. Hollow a space in the middle and work the sponge gradually into the flour with a clean, cool, bare hand, well floured to hinder the dough from sticking to it. The dough should be just stiff enough to handle. When you can lift it to the kneading-board without spilling, it is ready. Rinse the bowl out with a little warm water and work into the dough in order to get all the sponge. Flour the board and BREAKFAST BREADS 47 knead the ball of dough, always working from the outside of the Dall toward the middle. After ten minutes' hard work, turning the dough over and over and around and around, the dough should be so elastic that if you deal it a smart blow with your fist the indentation will fill up again instantly. Return to the mixing bowl, cover and leave as before, out of drafts in a steady temperature. When it has risen to double the original bulk in four or six hours return to the board and knead again, quickly and vigorously, for eight or ten minutes. Make into loaves and set to rise in pans, filling each half-full. Cover with a cloth, let all rise for an hour, or until the pans are two-thirds full, and bake. Have a steady fire, with coal enough to last until the baking is over. See that the ovens are a just right" by holding your naked arm in one. If you can hold it there comfortably for one whole minute and not more, you may put in the bread. Or try the oven with a little flour put upon a tin plate and set well back in the closed oven. It should be delicately touched with brown in five minutes if the oven be right. In ten minutes open the oven door very cautiously, and if you see the pans filled to the top, cover with light-brown "grocer's paper" to prevent the crust from hardening before the heart of the loaf is done. Ten minutes before the hour for baking is up remove the papers and let the top crust brown. Turn out the loaves carefully upon a cloth, propping them against a pan or other clean object, that they may not get sodden in cooling. Do not put into the bread-box until they are entirely cold. The box should have a cloth in the bottom, and another thrown over the bread before the box is closed. Bread with plain sponge (No. 2) Chop a tablespoonful of cottolene or other fat, or butter, into a quart of flour; wet with a quart of warm water; add a table- spoonful of sugar, and half a yeast-cake dissolved in warm water. Beat all together hard for ten minutes, as you would cake batter. Cover, and set aside to rise as with potato sponge. In the morn- 48 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK ing work into two quarts of salted flour and proceed as directed in last recipe. Milk bread (No. 1) Sift two quarts of flour with a tablespoonful of sugar and an even teaspoonful of salt. Have ready a pint of boiling water into which you have stirred an even tablespoonful of butter. Add, while the water is boiling, two cups of milk, and take from the fire at once. When a little more than blood-warm, stir into the milk-and-water half a cake of compressed yeast, dissolved in half a cupful of warm water. Make a hole in the sifted flour, pour in the mixture and work quickly with a wooden spoon to a soft dough. Flour your hands, make the dough into a man- ageable ball and knead hard and steadily for ten minutes. Let the dough rise to double the original bulk in your covered bread- bowl, make into loaves when you have kneaded it for five min- utes, and proceed as already directed. Milk bread (No. 2) Sift two quarts of flour into a large bowl and stir into it a teaspoonful, each, of salt and sugar. Into this flour stir a pint of warm milk, to which has been added a scant tablespoonful of melted butter, a pint of warm water, and half a yeast cake dis- solved in a gill of blood-warm water. Work to a dough ; turn upon a floured pastry-board and knead for fifteen minutes. Put the dough in the bread-raiser and set to rise over night. Early in the morning divide into loaves, knead each for five minutes, put the loaves into greased pans and set in a warm place to rise for an hour before baking in a steady oven. Cover the bread for the first half -hour it is in the oven. It should be baked in an hour. Whole wheat bread (No. 1) Dissolve a cake of yeast in half a cupful of warm water. Pour two cups of boiling water upon two cups of milk, and stir into BREAKFAST BREADS 49 them a teaspoonful, each, of salt and sugar. When they are about blood-warm add the yeast. Into this stir a quart of whole wheat flour. Of course, flour varies in its thickening powers, but there should be enough to make a good batter. Beat hard for five minutes, then stir in more flour until you have a dough that is as soft as it can be handled. Knead for ten minutes on a floured board and set to rise for three hours. Knead again for five minutes ; make into loaves and let these rise. When light, bake. If the loaves are small they will bake in three- quarters of an hour. Whole wheat bread (No. 2) One tablespoonful of cottolene or other fat and the same of sugar. One cup, each, of boiling water and of hot (not boiling) milk. One yeast-cake dissolved in half a cup of warm water. One cup of white flour and three cups of whole wheat flour, or enough to make a soft dough. Knead for ten minutes ; cover and let it rise until it is twice its original bulk. Make into small loaves ; let it rise for an hour, or until very puffy, and bake. Graham bread (No. 1) Set a sponge over night, as for white bread, and in the morn- ing work into it a cup of salted whole wheat flour, three cups of graham flour and three tablespoonfuls of molasses. Knead long and hard, and set to rise. When very light make into loaves and set in a warm place for an hour longer. Bake in an even oven. The loaves should be covered with thick wrapping-paper during the first half-hour they are in the oven, then allowed to brown. This bread is especially nice when made with a potato sponge, keeping fresh and sweet much longer than when the plain sponge is used. Graham bread (No. 2) Make a sponge as for white bread, over night, and in the morning add to it three scant tablespoonfuls of molasses and 4 50 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK enough graham flour to make a soft dough. Knead thoroughly, and after forming into loaves and putting these into well-greased pans, set them to rise. When risen, bake in a tolerably hot oven. Old-fashioned rye bread Dissolve half a cake of yeast in a quarter-cup of lukewarm milk, with a small teaspoonful of white sugar. Pour this into a wooden bowl, add a pint of lukewarm water, a heaping tea- spoonful, each, of salt and caraway seed, and a pint of rye flour. Stir well with a wooden spoon and set to rise in a warm place for two hours. When sufficiently risen it will be full of bubbles. Add then flour enough to make a very stiff dough. Beat this for at least ten minutes and set to rise for two hours more. Knead on a floured board, let it rise in the pan again until it begins to crack. Dip your hand in cold water, wet the loaf and put it into the oven. It must bake one hour. Do not open the door for ten minutes after it goes in. The oven should be very hot at first, and as soon as the bread is browned it should be covered with stout paper. If you like, you may omit the caraway seeds. Some people dislike them exceedingly. Others would not relish rye bread "all of ye olden time" without them. Eye and Indian bread Make a soft, sponge of potatoes, or a plain sponge. (See Bread No. 2.) When light, sift together two cupfuls of rye flour with one of Indian meal, a teaspoonful of salt, an even teaspoonful of soda. Make a hole in the middle, pour in the sponge, and when the ingredients are thoroughly incorporated beat in half a cupful of molasses. Should the molasses thin the dough into a batter, add rye flour. Knead until it is as light as a rubber ball, set aside in a covered bread-bowl and let it rise six hours. Work ten minutes more, make into loaves, and when they are well up in the world bake in a slow oven. The loaves BREAKFAST BREADS 51 will require three hours to bake properly. Cover with paper for the first two hours. The dear old grandaunt from whom I got this ancient and honorable recipe had baked her "rye and Indian" for fifty years in the brick oven of a homestead two hundred years old. She covered her loaves with leaves from an oak near the door. The oak overshadowed a well dug in 1640. Steamed Boston brown bread Mix thoroughly a cup, each, of graham flour, wheat flour and corn-meal, and stir in a teaspoonful of salt. Warm together a cup of milk, in which is dissolved a small teaspoonful of baking soda, and a teacup ful of molasses. Pour over the mixed flours and meal a cupful of boiling water, and then add the warmed milk and molasses. Beat hard and long, and turn into a greased pudding-mold with a closely-fitting top. Cook in an outer vessel of boiling water for three hours. Remove from the water, take the cover from the mold and set in the oven for ten or fifteen minutes, or until the bread is dry about the edges. Turn out, wrap in a napkin, and send to the table. ''Salt-rising" bread (No. 1) (An old Virginia recipe) Dissolve a half-teaspoonful of salt in two cups of scalding water, and beat in gradually enough flour to make a very soft dough. Beat for ten minutes, cover and set in a very warm place for eight hours. Now stir a teaspoonful of salt into a pint of lukewarm milk and add enough flour to make a stiff batter before working it into the risen dough. Mix thoroughly, cover, and set again in a warm place to rise until very light. Turn into a wooden bowl and knead in enough flour to make the batter of the consistency of ordinary bread dough. Make into loaves and set these to rise, and, when light, bake. 52 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK "Salt-rising" bread (No. 2) (Contributed) Put a quart of warm water, not scalding hot, but at blood- heat, into a pitcher, deep and of narrow mouth. Beat into it one teaspoonful of sugar, one-half teaspoonful of salt, a lump of soda not larger than a pea and (not necessarily, but preferably) a tablespoonful of corn-meal, with enough flour to make a rather thick, but not really stiff, batter. Set your pitcher, well covered, into a stone jar or other deep vessel, and surround it with blood- warm water, setting it where such temperature will be quite evenly maintained. Never allow it to reach scalding heat. In two and a half hours, or, at the very most, three and a half, you will have foaming yeast. Now take a pan of flour, make a hole in the center, pour in the foaming yeast with as much water, gradually mixed with the yeast and flour, as will make the num- ber of loaves desired. Do not make the dough very stiff. It should quake visibly when the pan is shaken. Cover well with dry flour and clean cloths, set in a warm place (temperature 80 degrees or 100 degrees Fahrenheit, or thereabouts), and, as soon as light, knead into loaves, which will soon rise enough for baking. Do not delay baking after the last rising, or your bread may have a slightly sour taste. Bake thoroughly, and no better or more wholesome fermented bread could be asked for. Sweet potato bread Dissolve one cake of compressed yeast in one-fourth cup of lukewarm water, add one cup of scalded milk (blood- warm), one tablespoonful of salt, one-half cup of sugar and one full cup of sweet potato, roasted, scraped from the skins, worked to a cream with three tablespoonfuls of melted butter, then allowed to cool. Beat all together until light, and stir in with a wooden spoon flour to make a soft dough. Throw a cloth over the bread- bowl and set in a warm place until well risen. Make into small loaves ; let them rise for an hour, and bake in a brisk oven. This is also a Virginia recipe. You may substitute Irish for sweet potatoes if you like. BREAKFAST BREADS 53 Buttermilk bread Into a chopping-bowl put a quart of flour which has been sifted three times with half a teaspoonful of baking powder, the same quantity of baking soda, and a quarter of a teaspoonful of salt. Chop into this flour a heaping tablespoonful of butter until the shortening is thoroughly incorporated. Work in gradually a pint of buttermilk or enough to make a soft bread dough. Turn into a greased bread tin and bake in a steady oven for an hour. Cover with paper for the first half-hour, that the bread may have an opportunity to rise before the crust forms. Turn out and send to the table while very hot. Cut with a sharp knife into slices, which must be generously buttered. While per- haps this bread is not to be recommended to people who suffer from weak digestions, it will be liked by those whose gastric apparatus is in proper working order. If you can not get buttermilk, loppered milk will do as well. German coffee bread Heat a cup of milk to scalding, but do not let it boil. Stir into it while hot two tablespoonfuls of cottolene (never lard), or butter, two tablespoonfuls of sugar and a little salt. Let it cool to blood-warmth, when add half a yeast-cake dissolved in one-quarter cup of blood-warm milk, and flour to make a stiff batter. Cover, and let rise until light. Add one-half cup of seeded raisins, cut into pieces. Spread one-half inch thick in a buttered dripping-pan; cover and let rise. Brush with melted butter, and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Bake in a moderate oven for half an hour. Cover for half of that time with thick paper. Graham bread without yeast To three and one-half cups of graham flour add two cups of sour milk, one cup of New Orleans molasses, a pinch of salt and one teaspoonful of soda dissolved in hot water. Bake in a slow oven one hour. 54 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK HOT BREAKFAST BREADS Hot breads comprising griddle-cakes, biscuits, muffins, Sally Lunns and crumpets may not be wholesome for everybody. I seriously incline to the belief that they are not, especially in warm weather, and if partaken of too freely. But the best types of these are good, and their appearance upon the board where John had looked for stale bread, or charred toast, is a means of breakfast grace not to be underrated by the wise housewife. She is a canny woman who runs down into the kitchen for ten or fifteen minutes on a stormy morning, or when the bread is especially dry, or John is "a wee bit blue," and tosses up (always by rule and measure) ingredients that come out of a quick oven, puffy, hot, delicious, to gladden the boys' hearts and give their father pleasanter food for consideration than busi- ness worries. If the men of any family were called upon for their opinion of what a dietetic crank, better versed in anatomy and chemistry than in courtesy, once anathematized at my break- fast table as "rank poison, madam ! and nothing short of a sin !" they would say of his tabooed hot breads "Naughty ! but nice !" One John who hankers for the buckwheat cakes and sausage of his boyhood as the wanderers in the wilderness, their souls a-weary of manna, lusted for Egyptian flesh-pots maintains, upon fairly tenable hygienic principles, that warm bread is made unwholesome because it is not masticated properly. "We chew stale bread," he says. "We bolt griddle-cakes and muffins because they are soft and easily swallowed. Give 'the salivary glands a chance to act upon them and they will not harm you." The prescription is easily tried. Breakfast rolls (No. 1) Sift a quart of flour with a half-teaspoonful of salt and a tea- spoonful of sugar, rub into it a tablespoonful of butter, add a cup of warm milk and a third of a yeast-cake that has been dis- BREAKFAST BREADS 55 solved in three tablespoonfuls of warm water, and knead this dough for twenty minutes. Set to rise for six or eight hours, make into rolls, put these into a greased baking;-pan, and let them rise for half an hour longer before baking. Breakfast rolls (No. 2) Sift a quart of flour and stir into it a saltspoonful of salt, a teaspoonful of sugar, a cup of warm milk, two tablespoonfuls of melted cottolene or other fat, and two beaten eggs. Dissolve a quarter of a cake of compressed yeast in a little warm milk and beat in last of all. Set the dough in a bowl to rise until morning. Early in the morning make quickly and lightly into rolls, and set to rise near the range for twenty minutes. Bake for about an hour. Parker house rolls One cup of scalded milk (not boiled) left to cool until a little more than blood-warm, one-half yeast-cake dissolved in four tablespoonfuls of warm water, one tablespoonful of butter, three cups of flour, or a little less, one even tablespoonful of sugar, one- half teaspoonful of salt. Melt the butter in the milk, add salt, sugar and yeast with rather less than half the flour. Make a sponge of these ingredi- ents, beat hard for five minutes and set in a warm, sheltered place to rise. It should be quite light in an hour and a half in winter, an hour in summer. Work in the rest of the flour until you have a soft dough. Knead three minutes and set to rise with a folded cloth over the bowl to exclude the air. When it has doubled its original bulk, turn out upon your kneading-board, and work quickly, but lightly, with fingers, not fists, for one minute. Roll with quick strokes and few into a thick sheet, rub over with melted butter (not hot). Roll up and knead one minute longer to incorporate the butter. Pull off bits of the dough three times as large as a walnut, and roll on the board into the desired shape. Arrange close together in the baking-pan. Cover and let them 56 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK rise for half an hour, again doubling their size; then bake in a brisk, steady oven. Twenty minutes should suffice. When they have been in five minutes cover with whitey-brown grocer's paper. Five minutes before the time is up take this off and brown. Vienna rolls Set a plain bread sponge at six o'clock in the evening. At bedtime make out a dough as directed for home-made bread. Cover in your mixing-bowl and set in a moderately warm place until six o'clock next morning. Make into round rolls as large as a small egg ; set in a floured baking-pan so far apart that they will not touch as they rise; cover and leave for an hour. Just before they go into the oven cut half through the middle of each with a floured, sharp knife. Bake in a moderate oven to form a good crust. Cover at the end of ten minutes with paper. Re- move this fifteen minutes later and brown. Raised apple biscuits (An old Virginia recipe) One cup of scalded milk left to become blood-warm; one tablespoonful of butter melted in the milk ; one tablespoonful of sugar; one-half teaspoonful of salt; one-half teaspoonful of baking-soda; one-half cake compressed yeast, dissolved in warm water; one cupful of grated apple; enough flour for making soft dough. Mix the sugar with the butter and milk, and add the yeast. Sift salt twice with a cupful of flour. Make a hole in the middle and pour in the liquid. Beat into a batter and let it rise four hours. When light, sift the soda twice with another cupful of flour ; grate the just-pared apple into the batter and beat in before it can change color. Finally, work in the sifted flour and soda. Let it rise for an hour, make into round, flat cakes with your hand; set close together in a pan, and when very light bake in a moderate oven. They are very good split open while hot, and buttered and sugared. BREAKFAST BREADS 57 Sally Limn Sift together a pint of flour, a half-teaspoonful of salt and the same of powdered sugar. In a large bowl beat stiff two eggs, pour on them a half-cup of warm milk, three tablespoonfuls of butter, melted, and a quar- ter of a tablespoonful of baking soda dissolved in a tablespoonful of hot water. Now slowly beat in the sifted flour and a quarter of a yeast-cake dissolved in half a cup of warm water. Whip to a smooth batter, and turn into a large greased mold to rise. In the morning set the mold in a steady oven and bake for half an hour, or until a straw pierced through the center of the loaf comes out clean. Turn out and serve at once. Dried rusk (An old Dutch family recipe) Mix together a pint of milk, four tablespoonfuls of melted but- ter, a teaspoonful of salt and a half-cake of yeast dissolved in a half-cup of lukewarm water. Add enough flour to make a thick batter, beat it in well, cover the bowl containing this, and set in a warm place for two hours. Now work in the beaten eggs, and, when these are incorporated, add enough flour to make a dough that can easily be rolled out. Set to rise for two hours longer, then turn upon a floured board, roll out and cut into round bis- cuits. Lay in a baking-pan and set these near the range to rise for half an hour. Bake, and when done leave in the open oven to dry out. See that the fire is so low that the rusk will dry, not brown or burn. If you can spare the oven so long leave the rusk in it for six or eight hours ; then set in a dry closet for several days before using. When you wish to use them lay in a deep bowl, pour iced milk upon them and let them soak until soft. Serve very cold with butter. They are delicious for summer-morning breakfasts. 58 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK , / Caraway biscuits (Contributed) Sift together three pints of flour, one teaspoonful of salt and one and one-half teaspoonfuls of baking-powder. Rub into this four tablespoonfuls of shortening. Add two tablespoonfuls of car- away seed, two eggs, well beaten, and one pint of milk. Mix this into a smooth, firm dough. Knead quickly ; roll out to about a quarter of an inch in thickness and cut with a large biscuit-cutter. Prick with a fork, lay on greased baking tins and bake in a hot oven fifteen minutes. Egg- biscuits (Contributed) Sift together a quart of flour and two teaspoonfuls of bak- ing-powder. Rub into this a piece of butter the size of an egg. Add two well-beaten eggs, one teaspoonful of sugar and one teaspoonful of salt. Mix together quickly with one cup of milk or more if needed. Roll to one-half inch thickness, cut into biscuits and bake at once in a quick oven twenty minutes. French rolls (Contributed) To three cupfuls of sweet milk add a cup of shortening and one-half cake of compressed yeast and one teaspoonful of salt. Add flour enough to make a stiff dough. Let this rise over night. In the morning add two well-beaten eggs; knead thor- oughly and let rise again. Make into balls about as large as an egg and then roll between the hands. Place close together on well buttered pans. Cover, let rise again, then bake in a quick oven to a delicate brown. BREAKFAST BREADS 59 Fruit rolls (Contributed) Sift two cupfuls of flour, two teaspoon fuls of baking-powder, one-half teaspoonful of salt thoroughly together and mix with two-thirds cup of milk. Roll to a quarter of an inch thickness. Brush over with two tablespoonfuls of melted butter. Mix to- gether one-third cupful of stoned raisins, chopped fine, two teaspoonfuls of citron, chopped fine, two teaspoonfuls of sugar and one-third teaspoonful of cinnamon. Spread this .mixture over the dough, roll up like a jelly roll, cut in pieces three- fourths of an inch in thickness, and bake in quick oven fifteen minutes. Hot cross buns (Contributed) To three cups of milk add flour enough to make a thick bat- ter. Into this stir one cake of compressed yeast dissolved in warm water. Set this to rise over night. In the morning add a few spoonfuls of melted butter and one-half spoonful of grated nutmeg, one saltspoon of salt, one teaspoonful of soda, and 'flour enough to make a stiff dough like biscuit. Knead well and let rise five hours. Roll to one-half inch thickness, cut in round cakes and put in buttered baking pans. Let stand until light. Make a deep gash in each with a knife. Bake in mod- erate oven till light brown. Brush over the top with the beaten white of an egg and powdered sugar. Currant buns Warm a cupful of cream in a double boiler, take it from the fire and stir into it a cupful of melted butter which has not been allowed to cook in melting. Beat three eggs very light, add them to the cream and butter, then stir in a cupful of sugar. Dissolve a half-cake of yeast in a couple of tablespoonfuls of water, sift a good quart of flour, make a hollow in it, stir into it the yeast and then, after adding to the other mixture 'a teaspoon- 60 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK ful, each, of powdered mace and cinnamon, put in the flour and yeast. Beat all well for a few minutes, add a cupful of currants that have been washed, dried and dredged with flour, pour into a shallow baking pan, let it rise for several hours until it has doubled in size, bake one hour in a rather quick oven. Sprinkle with fine sugar when done. Raised muffins In a quart of warm milk dissolve thoroughly half a yeast-cake. Stir into this two tablespoonfuls of sugar, a teaspoonful of salt, and a tablespoonful of melted cottolene or other fat. Add enough flour to make a quite stiff batter not dough and. set to rise over night. In the morning whip into the batter four well- beaten eggs and turn into heated and greased muffin-tins. Bake at once. English muffins Bring a pint of milk to the boiling point and stir into it a tea- spoonful of cottolene or other fat. Set aside until the mixture is lukewarm, then add two cups of flour into which a teaspoonful of salt has been sifted. Now beat in half a yeast-cake dissolved in a quarter of a cup of warm water, and set the batter aside to rise all night. In the morning add a cup of sifted flour, and with floured hands make lightly into round muffins and set to rise in greased muffin-tins for half an hour. Slip the rings and their contents on to a greased griddle and bake, first on one side, then on the other, until done. English crumpets (No. 1) f Mix together -three gills of lukewarm water, a half-teaspoon- ful, each, of salt and sugar and a teaspoonful of melted butter ; then dissolve a quarter of a yeast-cake in this mixture. Into this stir enough flour to make a very stiff batter. Beat for ten minutes, adding as you do so enough lukewarm milk to make batter just stiff enough to be poured slowly from the bowl. BREAKFAST BREADS 61 Grease shallow muffin-rings, place these on a soapstone griddle, and when hot pour the batter into them to the depth of a quarter- inch and bake slowly, not turning until brown on the under side. Then turn for just a few minutes. English crumpets (No. 2) On baking-day take a pint of dough from your bread-bowl an hour before breakfast. Put into a bowl and make a hole in the middle. Have ready two eggs beaten very light, and work them into the dough. Then thin it with milk and water to the consistency of griddle-cakes ; beat it well, let it rise until break- fast, bake them on a hot griddle, butter and send to the table hot. QUICK BISCUITS, ETCETERA Milk biscuits One quart flour, three cups of milk, one tablespoonful mixed butter and cottolene or other fat, one heaping teaspoonful of baking-powder, half-teaspoonful of salt. Sift the salt with the flour, chop in the butter and cottolene or other fat, add the bak- ing-powder and the milk and mix to a soft dough. Handle as little as possible. Roll out into a sheet an inch .thick, cut into rounds and bake in a floured pan. Milk-and-water biscuits Make as in the preceding recipe, but using one and one-half cups of milk and the same quantity of water. Some housewives prefer these to the all-milk biscuits, alleging that the milk tends to make the dough heavy. Quick Sally Lunn A quart of flour sifted twice with a teaspoonful of baking- powder, one cupful of milk, one-half cupful of melted butter, 62 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK four eggs, beaten light ; one teaspoonf ul of salt. Add the sifted flour last, in' great handfuls, stirring all the time, as long as you can use a spoon. The dough should be very soft ; in fact, almost a batter. Bake in a mold with a funnel in the middle, and eat while hot. Potato biscuits Boil and mash six or eight potatoes. While warm, lay on a floured pastry-board, and run the rolling-pin over and over them until they are free from lumps. Turn into a bowl, wet with a cup of sweet milk, add a teaspoonful of melted butter ; when well mixed work in half a cup of salted flour, or just enough to make a soft dough. Return to the board, roll out quickly and lightly into a thin sheet, and cut into round cakes. Bake in a quick oven. Butter as soon as they are done, laying one on top of the other in a pile. Eat before they fall. The excellence of potato biscuits depends very greatly upon the softness of the dough, light handling, and quick baking. If properly made, they will be found extremely nice. They are a favorite Irish dish. Graham biscuits Stir together in a chopping-bowl a pint of graham flour and a half-pint of white flour. To this add a teaspoonful of salt, one of sugar, and two rounded teaspoonfuls of baking-powder. Mix thoroughly, and chop into the mixture two tablespoonfuls of cottelene or other fat. Add a pint of milk, and if the mixture is then too stiff to handle, add enough water to make into a soft dough. Turn upon a floured board, roll out, and cut into biscuits, handling as little and as lightly as possible. Bake in a steady oven. Virginia beaten biscuits One pint of flour, one cup of water, one teaspoonful of salt. Mix into a stiff dough; transfer to a floured block of wood and beat with a rolling-pin, steadily, for ten minutes, shifting the dough often and turning it over several times. In the olden BREAKFAST BREADS 63 days half an hour was the regulation time, but ten minutes are enough if one has a strict eye to business. Cut into round cakes, prick with a straw and bake in a brisk oven. MUFFINS AND THEIR CONGENERS Whole wheat muffins INTO a quart of whole wheat flour stir a teaspoonful of salt and two teaspoonfuls of baking-powder. Beat three eggs light and stir them into three cups of rich milk, Add these to the flour, stir in a tablespoonful of melted cottolene or other fat, and beat very hard for at least five minutes. Turn into greased muffin- tins and bake in a quick oven. Oatmeal muffins (Contributed) To one cup of oatmeal mush add one-half cup of milk, one well-beaten egg, one teaspoonful of butter, one tablespoonful of sugar and one cup of flour in which has been sifted two teaspoon- fuls of baking-powder. Stir well together and bake in hot muffin-pans. Sally's muffins One egg ; a tablespoonful of sugar ; one-quarter cup of butter. Beat all together thoroughly. Add one cup of milk, a little salt and one cup of flour into which is sifted two teaspoonfuls of bak- ing-powder. Now add enough flour to make a batter a little stiffer than for griddle-cakes. Bake in well-buttered, hot muffin- tins. Risen brunette muffins Cream together two tablespoonfuls of brown sugar and one tablespoonful of butter and add to it three cups of warm (not hot) milk. Sift into a bowl three cups of graham flour and one of white, with a teaspoonful of salt. Pour into this the butter, 64 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK sugar and milk mixture and add a cup of warm milk in which half a yeast-cake has been dissolved. Beat thoroughly and set in a warm place to rise for at least six hours. Butter muffin-tins, half fill with the mixture, and set on a stool by the range to rise for fifteen minutes before baking in a steady oven. Graham puffs Thoroughly beat the yolks of four eggs, and whip the whites to a stiff meringue. To the yolks add a pint of milk, a teaspoonful of salt, three teaspoonfuls of melted cottolene or other fat, and a tablespoonful of sugar. Sift two teaspoonfuls of baking-powder into a quart of graham flour and stir this gradually into the milk and yolks. Beat until all lumps are gone and you have a smooth batter, then, with a few strong strokes, add the stiffened whites of the eggs. Half fill deep heated muffin-tins with the batter and bake at once in a hot but steady oven. Graham gems (No. 1) Into a quart of warm milk stir four eggs that have been beaten only a little, add a tablespoonful, each, of melted butter and sugar. Add now, gradually, three cupfuls of graham flour that has been sifted with a heaping teaspoonful of baking-powder. Beat very hard for seven or eight minutes and bake in greased and heated gem pans. Graham gems (No. 2) Into a pint of warm milk whip three unbeaten eggs, one table- spoonful of melted butter and a teaspoonful of sugar. Grad- ually stir in a cup and a half of graham flour and beat hard for several minutes. Turn into heated gem pans, and bake in a very hot oven. Serve immediately. BREAKFAST BREADS 65 Rice muffins Make a batter of a quart of milk, three beaten eggs, a table- spoonful of melted butter, a teaspoonful, each, of salt and sugar, and two cups of prepared flour. Mix thoroughly and beat in a cup of cold boiled rice. Beat very hard and bake in a quick oven. Graham muffins Rub to a cream a tablespoonful of sugar and two of butter. Into this beat four eggs. Sift a teaspoonful of baking-powder into three cups of graham flour, add the butter and egg mixture, and beat very hard. Turn into heated and greased muffin-tins and bake in a very hot oven. Popovers Two cups of flour, sifted twice with one teaspoonful of baking- powder; half a teaspoonful of salt; two cups of milk; one egg, beaten very light. Beat for four minutes and bake in hot, but- tered pate, or gem pans, in a brisk oven. Serve at once. WAFFLES Risen waffles Four eggs; two cups of milk; three tablespoonfuls of melted butter ; one tablespoonful of sugar ; three cupfuls of flour, sifted with half a teaspoonful of salt ; one-half yeast-cake dissolved in warm water. Beat well and long; set in a warm place to rise and bake in waffle-irons. Rice waffles One cup of boiled rice ; one pint of sweet milk ; two eggs ; one teaspoonful of baking-powder ; one teaspoonful of salt ; a table- 5 66 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK spoonful of butter and flour to make a thin batter. Sift salt, baking-powder and one scant cup of flour twice together; add milk and eggs, beat in butter and rice. Beat two minutes. Quick waffles Two cups of flour sifted twice with one teaspoonful of baking- powder and the same of salt. Three eggs ; one tablespoonful of butter or cottolene or other fat. Two cupfuls of milk. Beat the yolks smooth, add the milk, and turn this upon the prepared flour. Whip lightly and quickly for one minute, add the stiffened whites and drop by the spoonful into heated and greased waffle-irons. GRIDDLE CAKES If you can get a soapstone griddle, use no other. Cakes are baked not fried upon it, and are thereby made comparatively wholesome. Set the griddle at the side of the range to heat grad- ually at least one hour before you begin to bake the cakes. If heated suddenly it is liable to crack. Clean with dry salt, then wipe with a clean cloth and it is ready for use. Never allow a drop of grease to touch it. "If you have an iron griddle, lubricate with a bit of salt pork, leaving just enough grease on the surface to prevent sticking. The popular prejudice against griddle-cakes is founded mainly upon the fact that dough or batter soaked in grease is abhorrent to dietetic ethics. Soapstone and iron griddles alike need tempering or seasoning in order to do their work well. They are seldom "just right" at the first trial. Give them time and handle them patiently. Buckwheat cakes (No. 1) Mix together a quart of buckwheat flour, four tablespoonfuls of yeast, a handful of Indian meal, two tablespoonfuls of New Orleans molasses, a teaspoonful of salt and enough water to make BREAKFAST BREADS 67 a thin batter. Beat hard and set to rise in the warm kitchen. A pint of this may be left over in the morning after the baking of the cakes and used as a sponge the following night, the flour, etc., being added. If the batter seems sour, add a very little baking-soda. This batter may be kept in a stone crock for a week or longer. Buckwheat cakes (No. 2) One cup of milk and same of boiling water ; two tablespoonfuls of molasses ; half cake of compressed yeast dissolved in warm water ; one-half teaspoonf ul of salt ; two cups of buckwheat flour, or enough for a good batter. Beat five minutes, and set in a warm place to rise. In the morning beat hard for one minute ; if it be sour, add a little soda, and let it rise near the fire for half an hour before baking. Quick buckwheat cakes Two cups of buckwheat and half a cup of corn-meal ; two cups of warm milk and half a cup of warm water ; two tablespoonfuls of molasses, two teaspoonf uls of baking-powder; one even tea- spoonful of salt. Mix milk, water and molasses together. Sift meal and flour three times with the baking-powder and salt. Make a hole in the center of the flour, stir in the milk and water quickly and lightly until you have a good batter not too stiff and bake. Sour milk buckwheat cakes Make as in preceding recipe, substituting loppered milk or buttermilk for sweet, and a rounded teaspoonful of baking-soda for the baking-powder. Whole wheat griddle-cakes Sift a quart of whole wheat flour, a teaspoonful of baking- powder and one of salt well together. Stir into this a tablespoon- 68 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK ful of melted butter, a tablespoonful of sugar, two beaten eggs and two cupfuls of milk. Beat all together and bake upon a soapstone griddle. Lizzie's flannel cakes Two cups of flour ; two cups of sweet milk ; one egg ; one tea- spoonful of baking-powder; a generous pinch of salt. Beat the egg very light; add the milk and, lastly, with just enough beating to mix all together, the flour, sifted twice with salt and baking- powder. Bake at once. After several years trial of this simple recipe, I can recommend it unhesitatingly as the best, cheapest and most wholesome way I know for preparing breakfast cakes. The excellence of the cakes depends upon quick mixing and baking. A soapstone griddle, which is never greased, should be used. Waffles may be made in the same way mixed a little thinner by using less flour. Huckleberry griddle-cakes (Contributed) To one cup of milk add one-half teaspoonful of salt, one tea- spoonful of baking-powder, one tablespoonful of sugar and two well beaten eggs. Add sufficient flour to make a batter. Stir into this one pint of huckleberries rolled in flour. Fry on hot griddle. Butter them hot and serve. Feather griddle-cakes Add to a pint of water and milk a teaspoonful of salt, a half- teacupful of yeast and flour enough to make a batter. Let stand all night. In the morning add one cupful of thick sour milk, two eggs well beaten, one level tablespoonful of butter, one level tea- spoonful of soda and flour enough to make the consistency of pancake batter. Let stand twenty minutes and then bake . Bice griddle-cakes Scald one pint of milk and let stand until cold. Then add one- half cake of compressed yeast, one teaspoonful of salt, one cup BREAKFAST BREADS 69 of boiled rice and about one and one-half cups of flour. Beat continuously for three minutes. Cover and let stand in warm place till morning. In the morning beat two eggs separately until they are very light. Add first the yolks and then the whites. Mix thoroughly and let stand fifteen minutes and then bake on hot griddle. Peas griddle-cakes Take two cups of cooked green peas and rub through a strainer. Pour into this one cup of boiling milk. Add a tea- spoonful of butter and one of sugar and one of salt. When cold add one egg beaten till light and one cup of flour into which has been sifted three level teaspoonfuls of baking-powder. Fry on a soapstone griddle. French pancakes To the yolks of three eggs add one cup of milk, one-half tea- spoonful of salt and one teaspoonful of sugar. Pour one-third of this mixture on one-half cup of flour and stir to a smooth paste ; then add the remainder of the mixture and beat well. To this add one-half teaspoonful of salad oil. Pour enough of the batter into a hot buttered frying-pan to cover the pan. When brown turn and brown the other side. Spread with butter and jelly, roll up and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Sour milk griddle-cakes > Into a quart of loppered milk stir a quart of flour, a teaspoonful of salt and two beaten eggs. Mix thoroughly, then add as much flour as will be needed to make a good batter. Last of all, add a teaspoonful of baking soda dissolved in a tablespoonful of hot water. Balce at once on a very hot griddle. Stale bread griddle-cakes Let two cupfuls of dry bread crumbs soak for an hour in a quart of milk. Into this beat a tablespoonful, each, of molasses and melted butter, a teaspoonful of salt and three well-beaten 70 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK eggs. When thoroughly mixed, add half a cupful of flour which has been sifted with a half teaspoonful of baking-powder. Bake on a soapstone griddle if possible. Hominy griddle-cakes One cup of cold boiled hominy beaten to a smooth paste with a tablespoonful of melted butter, then whipped light with the yolks of the eggs; two eggs, whites and yolks beaten separately; one cup of milk; one tablespoonful of flour sifted twice, with an even teaspoonful of baking-powder and a teaspoonful of salt; one tablespoonful of molasses. Stir molasses into the milk, add to the hominy, butter and yolks ; lastly, put in prepared flour and the whites of the eggs. Sweet corn griddle-cakes One cup of sweet corn fresh or, canned, chopped fine and run through a vegetable press ; one cup of hot milk ; one tablespoon- ful, each, of butter and sugar ; half teaspoonful of salt ; one cup of flour sifted twice with a rounded teaspoonful of baking-pow- der and a little salt ; two eggs. Mix as you would hominy cakes. Corn-meal and graham griddle-cakes Two cups of corn -meal and one cup of graham flour. The flour should be sifted three times with one even teaspoonful of baking-powder and a little salt. One quart of scalding milk. One tablespoonful of butter and the same of molasses, stirred to a cream. One even teaspoonful of salt. Two eggs whites and yolks beaten separately. Scald the meal with the milk, beat in butter and molasses and let it cool to blood warmth before adding the beaten yolks and the prepared flour alternately with the stiffened whites. If too stiff, thin with cold milk. Beat hard and bake. Wholesome and palatable if properly made. BREAKFAST BREADS 71 Graham griddle-cakes Two cups of graham flour; two tablespoon fuls of butter, or one of butter and one of cottolene or other fat ; one of molasses ; three cups of milk ; four eggs ; one teaspoonful of baking-powder and twice as much salt sifted twice with the flour ; half a cup of white flour mixed thoroughly with the brown. Stir shortening and molasses to a cream, beat in the yolks of the eggs, then the milk, a little at a time, lastly the mixed flour alternately with the whites of the eggs. The batter should be like thick cream before you bake it. VABIOUS BREAKFAST BREADS OF INDIAN MEAL Corn bread made of northern meal Two cupf uls of corn-meal ; one cupful of flour ; two and a half cupfuls of milk ; three eggs ; a tablespoonful, each, of butter and white sugar ; one teaspoonful of salt ; two teaspoonfuls of baking- powder. Melt the butter and stir it into the eggs, which should have been beaten very light, and after sifting the salt, sugar and bak- ing-powder with the meal and flour, put in the milk, eggs and butter. Beat hard and bake for half an hour in a greased pan in a steady oven. Corn bread made of southern meal Beat two eggs light ; stir half a cupf