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 cupful of cold boiled rice into
a pint of milk and add to the eggs, rice and milk a tablespoonful
of melted butter. Sift a teaspoonful of salt into two cups of
Indian meal ; stir all together and bake in shallow pans. Eat hot.
This is the Southern batter bread, or "egg bread."
72 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Indian meal crumpets
Heat a quart of milk to scalding and pour it gradually upon
two full cups of corn-meal. When thoroughly mixed, stir into
this a tablespoonful of granulated sugar and a quarter of a yeast-
cake dissolved in a little warm milk. Cover the bowl or batter
with a clean cloth and set to rise. Early in the morning add a
tablespoonful of melted cottolene or other fat and beat hard for
a moment before pouring the batter into muffin-tins. Set near the
range for twenty minutes and bake.
Steamed corn loaf
Mix together in a bowl a pint of corn-meal and a half-pint of
flour. Make a hole in the center of the mixture and pour into this
three large cupfuls of sour milk. Beat hard and stir in a table-
spoonful of melted butter, two tablespoonfuls of sugar and a
teaspoonful of baking-soda dissolved in a tablespoonful of boiling
water. Beat for several minutes, turn into a greased mold with
a tightly-fitting cover and steam for two hours. Turn out upon
a platter, set in the oven for five minutes, and send to the table.
Sour milk corn bread
Mix together in a bowl three cups of corn-meal and one cup of
graham flour. Stir in a teaspoonful of salt, a tablespoonful of
sugar, a tablespoonful of melted butter and three cups of sour
milk. Now beat in three eggs, whipped light, and a small tea-
spoonful of soda dissolved in a little boiling water. Beat for five
minutes, then pour into a greased mold with a funnel in the
center. Bake for an hour, or until a straw comes out clean from
the thickest part of the loaf.
Sour milk corn-meal griddle-cakes
One-half cup of white corn-meal and the same of flour ; one and
a half cups of loppered milk or buttermilk ; one tablesponf ul of
molasses and the same of melted butter ; one rounded teaspoonful
BREAKFAST BREADS 73
of soda and half as much salt sifted twice with flour and meal ;
one egg beaten very light. Beat molasses and butter to a cream ;
add the milk, the egg, lastly the prepared meal and flour. Beat
hard one minute.
Buttermilk corn bread
Two cups of buttermilk; three well-beaten eggs; two scant
cups of Indian meal (white) ; one rounded teaspoonful of soda;
one tablespoonful of sugar.
Beat the eggs separately, sift the soda twice through the meal
and add one teaspoonful of salt. Beat the ingredients well to-
gether, adding the whites last of all. Bake in a moderate oven in
muffin-rings, with a large spoonful of the batter to each, and
cook to a golden brown.
Dinah's corn bread
Sift two cups of corn-meal twice with an even teaspoonful of
soda and as much salt. Beat two eggs very light. Mix one tea-
spoonful of sugar in three cups of buttermilk or loppered milk,
add the eggs and a tablespoonful of melted butter, lastly, the
prepared flour. Have ready three well-greased deep jelly-cake
tins (warmed), divide the batter between them and bake in a
quick oven. Eat hot.
Corn-meal gems
Sift together a half-cup of flour, a cup of Indian meal, a tea-
spoonful of baking-powder and a half -teaspoonful of salt ; into a
pint of milk whip three beaten eggs, a tablespoonful of melted
cottolene or other fat and two tablespoonfuls of granulated sugar.
Make a hole in the meal and flour mixture and gradually pour the
liquid into this, beating steadily. Beat hard for about five min-
utes, pour into greased and heated gem pans and bake in a good
oven. Remove from the tins and send immediately to the table.
Two-and-two Indian meal muffins
One full cup, each, of Indian meal and white flour ; two cups of
milk; two eggs; two tablespoonfuls of -melted butter; two tea-
74 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
spoonfuls of sugar; two even teaspoonfuls of baking-powder;
two saltspoonfuls of salt. Sift meal and flour together three
times with baking-powder and salt. Add beaten yolks to the
milk, then the butter and sugar beaten together, lastly the pre-
pared flour and meal. If too stiff thin with milk. Bake in hot
muffin-tins or in gem pans.
Johnny-cakes
(Contributed)
Sift with two-thirds of a cup of flour, one tablespoonful of
sugar, two teaspoonfuls of baking-powder and one teaspoonful
of salt. Pour two cups of boiling milk over two cups of corn-
meal and when cool add two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, the
yolks of two eggs well beaten and the sifted flour. Beat the
mixture and just before putting in the oven add the whites of two
eggs whipped light and dry. Bake in a shallow pan and serve
hot.
Corn pone
(Contributed)
Mix with cold water one quart of sifted corn-meal, one tea-
spoonful of salt and one tablespoonful of melted butter. Mold
into oval cakes with the hands. Bake in a hot oven in well-
greased pans. The crust should be brown.
Hominy cake
(Contributed)
Take one cupful of hot boiled hominy, add one teaspoonful of
salt and yolks of two well-beaten eggs. Add slowly one cupful
of milk, one cupful of corn-meal and the whipped whites of two
eggs. Bake in a flat tin in a hot oven twenty or thirty minutes.
BREAKFAST BREADS 75
Corn waffles
(Contributed)
Sift together one cup of white flour, one cup of corn-meal, two
teaspoonfuls of baking-powder and one-half teaspoonful of salt.
Beat the yolks of three eggs until thick, add one and a fourth
cups of milk and stir into the flour mixture. Then add one table-
spoonful of melted butter and the whites of three eggs beaten
stiff. Bake on a hot waffle-iron and serve with caramel sauce.
DIVERS KINDS OF TOAST
Buttered toast
CUT the crusts from thin slices of stale bread and toast them
over a clear fire to a delicate brown ; spread lightly with butter
and pile upon a hot plate ; keep in the open oven until sent to the
table.
German toast
Pare the slices and cut into strips twice as wide as your middle
finger and about as long. Toast quickly on both sides, butter
lightly and serve very hot
Baked milk toast
Trim off the crust from slices nearly half an inch thick ; toast
to a uniform light brown. Have on the range a pan of boiling
water, salted. As you remove each slice from the toaster dip
quickly into the boiling water and lay in a well-buttered pudding
dish ; buttering the toast while smoking hot and salting each slice.
When all the soaked toast is packed into place, cover with scald-
ing milk in which has been melted a tablespoonful of butter.
Cover closely and bake fifteen minutes.
This is so far superior to the usual insipid preparation of mik
toast that no one who has eaten the first can enjoy the poor
parody.
76 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Cream toast
Toast, and proceed as in last recipe, but dipping each slice in
hot salted milk instead of water, and when in the dish covering;
with a mixture one-third milk, two-thirds cream, made very hot.
Add a pinch of soda to the cream to prevent curdling.
Cream toast, baked, is delicious and nutritious. Either of these
dishes can be made of graham bread.
Fried toast
Cut rather thick slices of stale bread round with a cake cutter ;
spread upon a platter and pour over them a mixture of one cup
of milk with an egg beaten into it, then salted slightly. Turn
the slices until saturated, drain carefully and fry as you would
doughnuts in deep hot cottolene or other fat, turning when half
done. Lay scrambled or poached eggs or a nice mince upon them
for breakfast.
Tomato toast
Prepare precisely as directed in recipe for baked milk toast,
but pour over the pile of slices in the dish a rich strained tomato
sauce, lifting the toast with a fork, that the sauce may get at
each piece. Cover and bake. Serve in the dish as an accompani-
ment to chops, omelet or hash.
Anchovy toast
Cut stale bread into strips an inch and a half wide and three
inches long; toast, butter and spread with anchovy paste, as a
foundation for scrambled or poached eggs.
Sardine toast
(Contributed)
Butter rounds of toast and set in the oven to brown. Drain
the oil from a box of sardines and flake with a silver fork. Put
into a saucepan one tablespoonful of butter, one teaspoon ful of
lemon juice and one-half teaspoonful of onion juice. Stir until
BREAKFAST BREADS 77
hot and then add the flaked sardines. Stir until the fish is hot.
Spread on the hot rounds of bread and serve at once.
Cheese custard toast
(Contributed)
Sprinkle hot toasted bread with grated cheese. Set in the
oven until the cheese melts. Take out and arrange in layers in
a pudding dish and pour over it an unsweetened custard. Put in
a moderate oven until the custard is done. Serve at once.
Oyster toast
(Contributed)
Put twelve oysters into a saucepan with their own liquor and
one-quarter teaspoonful of white pepper, one glass of milk and
two cloves. Boil for three minutes. Mix one ounce of butter
with one-half ounce of flour ; put this in a pan and stir well. Add
one teaspoonful of lemon juice and, when boiling, pour the mix-
ture over the toast and serve.
Mushroom toast
(Contributed)
Cut the stems of mushrooms fine and stew in a little milk.
Slice, in quarters, the tops. Cook five minutes in plenty of butter.
Then add cream enough to make a sauce ; sprinkle with salt and
pepper. Let the stems simmer until tender, adding some cream,
if needed. There should be sauce enough to moisten the toast.
Pour on toast and serve.
Ham toast
(Contributed)
Mince the lean of two slices of cooked ham very finely. Beat
the yolks of two eggs, mix with the ham, adding enough cream or
stock to make it soft. Keep it on the fire long enough to warm
through, stirring all the time. Have ready some buttered toast
cut in rounds, Lay the ham mixture neatly on each piece.
EGGS
"THE following method of determining the age of eggs is prac-
tised in the markets of Paris. About six ounces of common
cooking salt is put into a large glass, which is then filled with
water. When the salt is in solution an egg is dropped into the
glass. If the egg is only one day old, it immediately sinks to
the bottom ; if any older it does not reach the bottom of the glass.
If three days old, it sinks only just below the surface. From
five days upwards it floats ; the older it is the more it protrudes
out -of the water." German Newspaper.
Boiled eggs (No. 1)
Be sure the water is at a rapid boil. Wash the eggs in
warm water, leaving them in it just long enough to take off the
chill. If you put them on to boil while cold you must allow
twenty seconds for the shells to get warm. Boil steadily three
minutes and a half, take out, wrap in a warmed napkin and send
immediately to table.
Boiled eggs (No. 2)
Wash in warm water; lay in boiling water and remove the
saucepan promptly from the fire to the side of the range where
it will hold the heat, but can not possibly boil. Cover closely and
leave thus for seven or eight minutes, according to the size of the
eggs. It will be of a custard-like consistency all through, and be
far more digestible than when the white is firm and the yolk soft.
Poached eggs
Add a little vinegar to the water in which you poach eggs, to
prevent the whites from spreading. Breaking each one into a shal-
78
EGGS
EGGS 79
low cup about a quarter of an hour before it is to be cooked is
also a good plan.
Be sure the water is boiling and free from specks. If you have
no egg-poacher, use a clean frying-pan. Fill with boiling water ;
draw to the side of the range, slip the eggs, one by one, upon the
surface, set carefully back over the fire and boil gently three min-
utes, or until the whites are firm. Take up with a flat perforated
spoon, lay upon rounds of buttered toast, trim off ragged edges
and dust lightly with salt and white pepper. Celery salt gives a
pleasant flavor to poached eggs, and some relish a drop of onion
juice upon each.
Eggs poached in milk
Proceed as with those poached in water, using boiling milk in-
stead. When done, transfer to slices of hot buttered toast laid
upon a platter and pour over all a white sauce plain drawn but-
ter, or butter drawn in stock of some kind. Chicken stock is
particularly good for this.
Scrambled eggs
Have a tablespoonful of butter hissing hot in the frying-pan.
Break six eggs into a bowl ; add, without breaking the eggs, two
tablespoonfuls of cream, or, if you have none, of milk in which
half a teaspoonful of corn-starch has been wet ; add pepper, salt,
and a little finely minced parsley ; turn all into the pan, and stir
incessantly in all directions, until you have a creamy mass.
Turn out upon buttered toast or into a hot water dish and
serve before the mass hardens.
Scrambled eggs in cups
With a rather large tin "shape" cut round out of slices of stale
bread an inch thick. With a small "shape" cut more than half
through these rounds and dig out the crumb carefully, leaving
bottom and sides a quarter of an inch thick. Set in a pan on the
upper grating of the oven to crisp. When of a delicate brown,
8o MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
butter the insides and edges of the "cups" and leave in the oven
three minutes longer. Arrange on a dish and fill with scrambled
eggs prepared as in the last recipe.
Fried eggs
Fry 'slices of bacon quickly, take out the meat and keep it hot ;
strain the fat that ran from them, add a tablespoonfu} of cottolene
or other fat or dripping, bring to a boil and break into the pan
as many eggs as you need. Slip a spatula under each, as soon
as it is fairly "set" and reverse it dexterously if you like "turned"
^
Trim ragged and discolored edges, arrange in the center of a
hot platter and lay the bacon about them.
Fried eggs with brown sauce
Put a good lump of butter into the frying-pan, and when it
hisses sharply, cook the eggs as directed in the last recipe. When
done, dish and keep them hot over boiling water. Now put two
more tablespoonfuls of butter into the pan ; fry brown, then add
one tablespoonful of vinegar and a little onion juice with pepper
and salt. Boil the whole together for two minutes, pour it over
the eggs, and serve.
Deviled eggs
Boil six eggs hard, cut carefully in. half, and take out the yolks.
Rub these to a paste with two tablespoonfuls of melted butter,
one-half teaspoonful of Chili sauce, and a saltspoonful, each, of
salt, pepper and French mustard. Form this mixture into balls
that will fit into the halved whites. Set these halves on end on
a hot platter, put a yolk-ball in each, and keep hot while you
make the sauce to pour about them. To make this, cook together
a teaspoonful of butter and one of flour, and pour over them a
half pint of hot milk with a pinch of soda stirred in it. When
this sauce is thick and smooth, add to it one beaten egg and a
tablespoonful of finely minced parsley. Remove immediately
from the fire and pour around the eggs.
EGGS 81
Mince of tongue and eggs
Boil a fresh calf's tongue, let it get cold, and mince fine. Heat
a half-pint of soup stock, and cook together in a frying-pan a
tablespoonful of butter and one of browned flour. On this pour
the hot soup stock, and cook until you have a thick, brown sauce.
Into this turn the chopped tongue, and toss and stir until smoking
hot. Season with a teaspoonful of tomato catsup, a teaspoonful
of onion juice, salt and pepper. Have ready slices of toast on a
heated platter, pour the hot mixture over these ; put a poached
egg in the center of each slice of toast, and serve.
Kidneys are delicious cooked in this way.
Mince of ham and eggs
Prepare as above, but using cold boiled and minced ham in
place of the tongue. A mixture of cold liver and ham is very pal-
atable.
Savory eggs
Dissolve a pinch of soda in a cup of cream and heat the cream.
In another vessel heat a pint of stock. Turn into the stock six
beaten eggs, season to taste with salt, pepper and minced parsley ;
cook until the eggs begin to thicken, stirring all the time ; add the
cream and serve on slices of lightly buttered toast.
A curry of eggs
Put into a saucepan one tablespoonful of butter, and when this
has melted, stir into it a tablespoonful of flour mixed with a tea-
spoonful of curry powder. When these are thoroughly blended
with the butter pour slowly into the saucepan a cupful of veal,
mutton or chicken stock, half a teaspoonful of onion juice, and
season with salt. Stir until you have a smooth sauce, then lay in
it six hard-boiled eggs cut into slices about half an inch thick.
Cook until the eggs are thoroughly heated.
6
82 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
A simple omelet
(Contributed)
Beat the yolks and whites of six eggs separately, and stir
three tablespoonfuls of milk into the yolks. Melt a tablespoonful
of butter in a hot frying-pan. Stir the yolks and whites very
lightly together; pepper and salt them, and turn the frothed
mass into the frying-pan. Keep the omelet from sticking to the
bottom and sides of the pan by frequently slipping a knife or
cake-turner around the sides and under the bottom of the egg
mixture. When the omelet is set, slip it off upon a hot platter,
and, as you do so, fold it over quickly and lightly. Serve at once.
An English omelet
Break six eggs, and separate the yolks from the whites. Beat
the yolks until they are thick. Add a saltspoonful of salt to the
whites, and whip them until they are very stiff. Now, with quick
strokes, lightly stir the whites into the yolks. Have a tablespoon-
ful of butter melted in a frying-pan and turn the beaten eggs
into this. With a knife keep the omelet loosened from the sides
and bottom of the pan, and take care that it does not scorch on
the bottom. When "set" slip the omelet upon a hot platter, and,
as it leaves the pan, fold it over upon itself, sprinkle with salt,
and send at once to the table.
Omelet with tomato sauce
Make what is known in cookery as a "white roux" by cooking
in a saucepan a tablespoonful of butter and one of flour, and,
when they bubble, pouring over them a cupful of strained and
seasoned tomato juice. Keep this sauce hot while you make an
omelet by the foregoing recipe ; dish it, and after it is on the plat-
ter pour the tomato sauce over and around it.
A bread omelet (baked)
Soak three tablespoonfuls of stale crumbs in a cupful of milk
for two hours. Beat six eggs whites and yolks separately
EGGS 83
very light. Into the yolks stir the soaked crumbs, and season
the mixture with salt and pepper. Last of all, stir in with a few
light strokes the stiffened whites. Butter a deep pudding dish,
pour the mixture into this, set it on the lower grating of a quick
oven and bake until light and brown. Sift brown crumbs over
the top and serve the omelet as soon as it is removed from the
oven.
Omelet aux fines herbes
Chop finely parsley, thyme, summer savory, chives, or any
green herbs you fancy; make two tablespoonfuls in all; season
with paprika and celery salt. Make an omelet in the usual way,
pour into the pan, and, before it forms, sprinkle the herbs over
the surface, stirring gently to mix them. Cook then as you
would a plain omelet. A parsley omelet is made according to this
recipe, using no herbs except parsley.
Oyster omelet
Before putting your omelet over the fire, have ready the fill-
ing. Chop a dozen oysters into tiny bits. Stir together over the
fire a large spoonful of butter and one of flour. When smooth
and bubbling draw to the side of the range and add gradually
three tablespoonfuls of cream (with a pinch of soda), and the
same quantity of strained oyster liquor. Set back over the fire
and stir until it boils. Season with paprika and salt; add the
chopped oysters, and bring again to a boil. Set in boiling water
while you make the omelet: When this is ready to fold over,
cover with the cooked oysters, fold, and turn out upon a very
hot dish.
Clam omelet is made in the same way.
Baked mushroom omelet
Peel and cut into quarters a dozen fresh mushrooms and put
them into a saucepan with a tablespoonful of butter, pepper and
salt to taste, and a few drops of lemon juice. Cover the pan and
simmer slowly for ten minutes. Add one cupful of thickened
84 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
chicken or veal stock, and cook slowly ten minutes longer. Then
stir in six eggs, well-beaten, turn into a buttered bake-dish, sift
browned crumbs over the top, and set upon the upper grating of
a quick oven until the eggs are "set." Five minutes should be
enough. Serve at once in the bake-dish.
Daffodils
Chop the whites of six hard-boiled eggs fine, then run through
a vegetable press. Have ready a cup of drawn butter, seasoned
with pepper, salt and onion juice. Mix the whites with this, and
keep hot over boiling water. Have ready eight rounds of toast,
buttered and slightly moistened with gravy chicken, veal or
turkey. Arrange on a hot platter and cover each round with the
white mixture, flattening it on top.
Run the yolks through the press, reducing them to a yellow
powder, season with salt and pepper, and put a spoonful in the
center of each white round.
Nesting eggs
Boil six eggs hard, and throw into cold water. When cold,
strip off the whites and shred them into long straws. Heat a flat
dish one that will bear fire and arrange the shreds around
the inner edge. Have ready a handful of celery (shredded like
the eggs), which has been stewed tender in a little milk, then sea-
soned. Lay this inside of the lines of white shavings, and put a
few spoonfuls of melted butter over both. Set in the oven until
very hot.
Pick to pieces a cupful of cold boiled or baked fish, and run
the yolks of the eggs through the colander or vegetable press.
Mix with the fish, moisten with drawn butter, and mold into
egg-shaped balls. Dispose these neatly within the "nest," and
pour over them a cupful of drawn butter to give the desired
whiteness. Shut up in the oven for a few minutes to get them
heated through, and serve.
This is a less elaborate dish than would seem at first reading.
DAFFODILS
SCALLOPED OYSTERS
CHICKEN OMELET
EGGS 85
If you have stewed celery left from yesterday's dinner, and cold
fish, the rest is easy enough.
Chicken or other meat may be substituted for the fish.
Cheese omelet
Make a plain omelet, and when nearly done, strew powdered
Parmesan cheese over it. Fold, transfer to a hot dish, strew more
cheese on top, and hold a red-hot shovel near enough to scorch the
cheese.
Baked souffle of eggs (No. 1)
Scald a cup of milk, putting in a tiny pinch of soda. Beat the
yolks of six eggs until light and creamy, and the whites till stiff
enough to stand alone. Add one-half teaspoonful of salt, a dash
of pepper and one rounded tablespoonful of butter to the milk
and stir it into the yolks ; then beat in the whites very quickly.
Pour into a deep, buttered pudding dish and bake in a moderate
oven ten minutes, or to a delicate brown. Serve immediately in
the bake-dish.
Baked eggs souffle (No. 2)
Beat six eggs light, whites and yolks separately. Heat one cup-
ful of milk, add one teaspoonful of corn-starch, one-half tea-
spoonful of salt, and the whipped yolks of the eggs. Cook in a
saucepan until as thick as cream, add the whites, beaten stiff, put
into a well-buttered frying-pan, set in a hot oven and bake well
until browned slightly, then slide off upon a hot platter.
Eggs and tomatoes
Cook a tablespoonful of butter and one of flour together in a
saucepan until smooth and hot. Add a cupful of tomatoes,
canned or raw, chopped fine, and strained from the juice. Season
with paprika, celery salt, a half teaspoonful of sugar, and a tea-
spoonful of onion juice. Cook five minutes. Have ready on a
bowl six eggs, beaten whites and yolks together ; take the sauce-
pan from the fire and add the contents gradually to the eggs.
86 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Set back over the fire, stir for one minute, or until the eggs are
set, and serve in a hot, deep dish.
Olla podrida omelet
Make a roux of one tablespoonful of butter and the same of
browned flour in a deep frying-pan. When hissing hot stir in
one cupful of canned tomato, one-half cupful of canned mush-
rooms, sliced fine, the same quantity of minced ham, tongue or
chicken. Season with onion juice, paprika and salt to taste. Let
it simmer five or eight minutes, then stir in four beaten eggs.
Stir carefully as it thickens, and when the eggs are set serve on
buttered toast.
Scrambled eggs with cheese
(Contributed)
Break ten eggs and slip them into a saucepan. Beat them with
one-fourth of a pound of butter, one-fourth of a pound of grated
cheese and salt and pepper to taste. Butter a saucepan and
when hot, pour in the mixture and allow it to cook for five min-
utes over a light fire, stirring all the while. When the mixture
becomes quite thick, pour into a deep dish, and serve with fried
toast.
Scrambled eggs with asparagus tops
(Contributed)
Cut the tender tops of asparagus into pieces one-half inch long.
Cook them in salted water for about ten minutes, then let them
drain. Scramble the eggs and when they are cooked add the
asparagus tops and serve on toast. Lobsters, cooked and cut into
dice, may be substituted for the asparagus tops.
Rice omelet
(Contributed)
To one cupful of cold boiled rice add one cupful of warm
milk, one tablespoonful of melted butter, one teaspoon ful of salt
EGGS 87
and a dash of pepper ; mix well and add three well-beaten eggs.
Heat a tablespoonful of butter in a frying-pan and when hot
pour in the omelet and set the pan in a hot oven. When it is
thoroughly cooked fold it double, turn out on a hot dish and
serve at once.
Fish omelet
(Contributed)
Make about a half pint of white roux, add a piece of butter
about the size of an egg, twelve shelled and cooked shrimps ; sea-
son with salt and pepper; let it cook for two or three minutes,
stirring all the time, then add half of a green sweet pepper,
chopped fine, and cook for one minute. Make an omelet of six
eggs ; when brown, turn up and fill with this mixture. Serve at
once on a hot platter.
Frizzled beef and eggs
(Contributed)
To every half pound of chipped beef allow half a pint of milk,
one tablespoonful of butter and one tablespoonful of flour. Put
the butter into a frying-pan ; when hot add the beef and stir for
about two minutes, or until the butter begins to brown, then
dredge in the flour. Stir well, add the milk and a little pepper,
and just before taking from the fire whip in two well-beaten eggs.
Ham omelet
(Contributed)
Make an omelet in the usual way; pour into an omelet pan
and before the egg sets sprinkle over the top one teacupful of
finely minced, cold, cooked ham.
Egg croquettes
(Contributed)
Cut hard-boiled eggs into one-quarter inch dice. Add one-
fourth as many chopped mushrooms and turn into a thick white
88 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
sauce. When cold, mold into croquettes, dip into egg, then in
bread crumbs and fry in deep fat.
Eggs in cases
(Contributed)
Make little paper cases of buttered writing paper ; put a small
piece of butter in each and a little chopped parsley or onion ;
pepper and salt. Put the cases upon a gridiron over a moderate
fire of bright coals, and when the butter melts break a fresh egg
into each case. Strew over them a few buttered bread-crumbs,
and when almost done glaze the tops with a hot shovel.
Minced eggs
(Contributed)
Chop up, but not too fine, four or five hard-boiled eggs. Put
over the fire, in a saucepan, one tablespoonful of butter, and when
it begins to bubble, stir into it one tablespoonful of flour; cook
one minute, then add one cupful of hot milk. When it cooks
thick like cream, put in the minced eggs. Stir it for a few
minutes, and serve garnished with sippets of toast.
Scalloped eggs
(Contributed)
Slice in rings twelve hard-boiled eggs. Cover the bottom of a
well-buttered baking dish with fine bread-crumbs ; over this
put a layer of eggs, some small pieces of butter and sprinkle
with salt and pepper. Alternate in this way until the dish is filled,
being careful to have bread-crumbs on top. Add two tablespoon-
fuls of rich milk or cream and bake in a moderate oven.
Shirred eggs
Butter small "nappies" and drop an egg carefully into each,
taking care not to break the yolk. Set the nappies in a pan of
boiling water on the range, and cook until the white is set. Put
on each egg a bit of butter, and a dash each of pepper and salt.
Serve at once.
FAMILIAR TALK
WHO RULES THE HOME?
THE question is seldom put so baldly. Indulgent husbands yield
the point in verbal gallantry. Politic wives make it a point of
conscience and etiquette to speak of their husbands as owners
of house and contents and lawful directors in all pertaining
thereunto. At heart, the complaisant Benedict knows his will to
be potent, if not supreme, in home and family. The wedded Beat-
rice is secretly conscious that she can wind her boastful Benedict
about her taper finger, and he will not suspect.
An old, old ballad, warbled with sly smiles by our foremothers,
thus sums up her view of the matter :
" Now, sisters, since we've made it plain
That the case is really so,
We'll even let them hold the rein,
But we'll show them the way to go ! "
Honest John, while his sinewy fingers feel the taut rein be-
tween them, believes himself master of the situation. He pays
for house, food and servants, and often works hard for the
money that secures these for his family. Upon general principles
he has a right to know that the money is wisely spent and hus-
banded ; a right to be well lodged and fed and made as comfort-
able when at home as his means will allow. If he sees furniture
abused, food badly hence unwholesomely cooked, and needless
waste in any department, he has an unquestionable right to direct
his wife's attention to the existing state of things, and insist
that it be amended. On the other hand, in giving his wife his
name, he has made her the managing, as he is the financial, part-
ner of the firm matrimonial.
She is not his hireling.
89
90 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Failure to comprehend this vital truth wrecks the happiness of
more married couples than incompatibility of temper, fickleness
and intemperance, all put together.
A reasonably good wife earns so much more than her own
living that the surplus ought to go to her credit. If not in
money, in a hundred other ways. When John stoops to captious
surveillance of her methods, and personal inspection of her work,
he degrades her to the position of a suspected menial, and sinks
his manhood into Bettyishness. "Bettyishness," according to lex-
icographers, is the synonym for "womanishness," and for John
to be "womanish" is to be unmanly ; Mary would rather have him
savage, now and then.
I saw a spotless reputation discounted the other day, and many
rare, amiable traits of disposition shrivel as waste paper in the
fire, under a single sarcastic utterance of a society woman who
had her own reasons for disliking the person under discussion.
"Yes!" she said, dubiously, to the praise an elderly matron
had given an excellent son and brother. "But, then, he is such
a ladylike person !"
The epithet was apt. Not one of us could deny it. Every
woman present, while she laughed, would have preferred to have
her husband called a brute.
John takes ugly risks when he tempts his hitherto loyal spouse
to name him to her confidential self as "Bettyish," "Miss Nancy-
ish" or a "Mollycoddle." They all mean the same thing. As a
sloven he may be forgiven in consideration of the solid manliness
back of personal carelessness. We wink at rusty shoes, and col-
lars awry, and tousled hair, and missing sleeve-links. For the
same reason we condone crossness, and even a touch of savagery.
When he comes horhe "in a temper," he has had a trying day
down town, or he is hot, or headachy, or hungry. Womanly in-
genuity is set to work to soothe down the inclement mood, and
womanly love glides to the front with the mantle of tenderest
charity to hide the fault from others, and put it out of our own
minds when it is past.
I know a man squarely-built, robust and keen-eyed who
carries the keys of the store-room, and lends them to his wife at
FAMILIAR TALK 91
night and morning to give out the supplies needed for the daily
meals. He registers in day-book and ledger every pound of but-
ter and box of crackers and quart of vinegar brought into the
house, with the date of purchase.
I knew another (who ceased from his labors ten years ago),
who visited kitchen, pantries and store-room several times every
week to see that everything was clean and orderly. He used to
smell milk-pans, run a critical finger around the insidcs of kettles
and pots and inquire into the destination of scraps and all with-
out a blush or misgiving. In each case it was, of course, impos-
sible to keep servants who could get any other place. Wives
belong to the class that can not give warning.
If either of these men would have tolerated the apparition in
his counting-room or office, at stated, or irregular, periods of his
wife bent upon inspection of accounts and sales, the clerks un-
dergoing examination, or standing as witnesses of his humilia-
tion then he was justified to his conscience for his policy of
home rule.
Mary would go to prison for her John, and to the scaffold with
him. She springs to arms in his defense if her nearest of kin dare
to intimate that he is not the pink of perfection she would have
them believe. His grossest eccentricities are graces so long as
they are masculine.
But let him prowl into the pantry, peep into the bread-box,
criticize the arrangement or derangement of china-shelves, pull
open linen drawers, spy out dusty rungs of chairs, take down,
sort, and hang in better order the contents of clothes-hooks and
hat-racks and he may shift for and shield himself. With lofty
scorn the .wife of his immaculate shirt bosom leaves him to the
fate he deserves.
In which course there is some reason and a little unreason.
For which of us does not draw upon John's sympathies in her
domestic distresses? He must not undertake the management of
Bridget, or Daphne, or Marie. These be womanish matters, in
which a man should not intermeddle. It may be the most tem-
perate of suggestions, such as, "My dear, I don't like to find
fault, but if you would speak to Margaret about meddling with
92 .. MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
the papers upon my table when she dusts the library?" It is a
distinct trespass upon wifely preserves. Margaret is under the
protection of her mistress' wing. The interests and credit of the
two are identical. But there comes a day when the league snaps
in two, like scorched twine. The maid gives warning, and com-
pany is expected, and the mistress "did think she had a right to
expect better things from Margaret, after all the kindness she
has shown her in sickness and in health, and the excellent wages
she has given her, and here, at the most inconvenient time she
could have chosen, the creature is deserting her !"
Thus runs the torrent of talk into the ears of a man who
left a much worse complication behind him in his office when
he set his face toward home and imaginary peace. Had he
found fault with Margaret a week ago, he would have been a
"Molly." Should he withhold sympathy from the mistress to-day,
to the extent of commending the ingrate's past services, and won-
dering if there may not be possible palliation somewhere for her
present behavior he is unfeeling, and u a MAN !" When a
woman brings out the monosyllable in that accent, she may as
well go a semi-tone higher and say, "Monster !"
To be explicit, John must dance when his spouse puts the pipes
to her lips, and not presume to mourn but at her lamenting. As
her sister, my sympathies topple dangerously toward her. As an
impartial chronicler I can not deny that much may be said in his
defense, even when he is convicted of womanish meddling. He
is but a passenger upon the domestic craft in fair weather, a pay-
ing passenger, who is expected, nevertheless, to be smilingly con-
tent with his accommodations, to eat as he is fed, sleep upon the
bed as it is made, and to complain of nothing until the sea gets
rough, and another and a stout hand is needed on deck and in
the rigging.
The principle should work well both ways, or it will go to
pieces of its own weight.
FISH FOR BREAKFAST
A modern Peter Magnus, always on the alert for coincidences,
once called my attention to the singular fitness of the height of
the fish season and the coming of Lent.
"It happens uncommonly convenient, at any rate. How very,
very awkward it would 'be if there were no fish in the market
just when the Church forbids meat!" prosed my interlocutor,
whose nationality I need not specify.
I might have replied, had there been any hope of his seeing
the point of the story, with the anecdote of one of his country-
men who invited me to view the total eclipse of the moon through
his telescope, and, while I gazed, remarked upon the happy acci-
dent that this particular eclipse "had taken place at the full of
the moon."
Dame Nature adjusts kindly and cleverly all seasons and hap-
penings to the need of her children. Fish, easily digested and rich
in phosphates, are in their delicious prime as winter suddenly re-
laxes her hold upon our world and our systems. We needed fats
to keep up animal fats in cold weather. The first warmer days
ease the taut running-gear of muscles, nerves and digestive ap-
paratus. She cries, " 'Ware meat !" peremptorily. However deaf
we may be to the Church's behest, we can not afford to disregard
the Great Mother's.
The breaking up of winter, the general letting down of phy-
sical energies and the abundant supply of food precisely adapted
to the season's needs, form a "coincidence" that the most stupid
must perceive. The like principle of demand and supply might,
one might imagine, be recognized in the matter of breakfast
foods. Fish, rightly cooked, tempts the appetite and does not
93
94 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
overload the stomach. Another recommendation which should
have weight with commuters and "hustlers," is that the yielding
fibers require less strenuous mastication than those of steaks,
chops and rashers.
The truism that as a nation we are inordinate flesh-consumers
is tattered by much wear. Since vegetarianism comes as a hard
lesson to the mass of our race, and the exacting palate demands
more definite flavors than those of eggs in any form, resort to
crustacean and finny delicacies should follow as a matter of
course and of common sense.
Shad
Sturgeon is known in England as the "Queen's Own Fish."
Hiawatha names him as the "King of Fishes." The American
epicure has transferred this title to the more delicately flavored
salmon. If a vote of native-born gourmands of all ranks of
society were taken, I think the shad would be the elect favorite
the dainty queen of fishes, the more royal for the wealth of roes
that bespeak her prime.
Planked shad
Have your fish cleaned and split down the back. Wash and
wipe dry. Have ready a clean oak or hickory plank, about two
and one-half inches in thickness and of such a length that it will
go easily into your oven. Set it in the oven until it is heated
through. Rub your shad on both sides with an abundance of but-
ter, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Lay it, open side up, on
the hot plank and fasten it firmly into place by putting a tin tack
at each of the four corners. Lay the plank on the upper grating
of the oven, and rub the fish with butter every few minutes until
done. You can tell when this point is reached by testing with a
fork. Carefully withdraw the tacks and slip the fish upon a hot
platter. Serve with melted butter, and garnish with slices of
lemon and sprigs of parsley.
Broiled shad with sauce piquante
Split the fish down the back, wash, wipe dry, and lay it open
on a well-greased gridiron. Broil over clear coals, taking care
FISH FOR BREAKFAST 95
to turn the fish often, as it burns easily. If the shad is a thick
one it will take about twenty minutes to cook thoroughly. Re-
move carefully from the gridiron, lay on a hot fish platter, but-
ter well and sprinkle with pepper and salt. Pass with the fish a
sauce made in the following manner :
Rub to a cream three tablespoonfuls of butter and two tea-
spoonfuls of lemon juice. Whip into this two teaspoonfuls of
finely minced parsley. The sauce should be light green in color.
Keep in a cold place until time to serve it with the fish.
Fried shad
Mrs. S. T. Rorer, whose authority on culinary counsels few
dare dispute, says : "Shad, being rich in oils, should never be
fried."
In tide-water Virginia, where shad are eaten in their perfec-
tion and within a few hours after they are drawn from the river,
frying is almost popular method of preparing them. Some cooks
there rid the fish of all suspicion of an oily taste by holding it up
by the gills and pouring a pint or so of boiling water over it.
After the shower-bath it is immediately laid in ice water to keep
the flesh firm. Then have the shad split down the back, and cut
each half of the fish into four pieces. Wash quickly and wipe
dry. Roll in beaten egg and cracker crumbs, lay the pieces, side
by side, on a platter and set in the ice-box for two hours. Fry to
a golden brown in deep, boiling cottolene or other fat. Drain
all the grease off in a colander ; arrange the fish in neat order on
a folded napkin laid in the bottom of a fish platter. Garnish with
slices of lemon and sprigs of parsley. Serve Bechamel sauce with'
the fish.
Shad croquettes
Flake the remains of yesterday's fish into bits with a silver fork.
There should be about a cupful of the picked fish. Cook to-
gether a tablespoon ful of flour and one of butter and pour upon
them a cup of milk. Stir to a thick sauce ; pour this gradually
upon the beaten yolks of two eggs, mix well, add the flaked fish,
96 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
season to taste, and turn upon a platter to cool and stiffen. When
the mixture is cold and firm form it into small croquettes and roll
these, first in cracker dust, then in beaten egg, and once again in
cracker dust. Set aside in a cool place for two hours, and fry
in deep boiling cottolene or other fat brought slowly to the boil.
Serve with sliced lemon.
Scalloped shad
Pick cold shad into bits, removing skin and bones. Put two
tablespoonfuls of butter into a frying-pan and fry a sliced onion in
this. Remove the onion, stir in a tablespoonful of browned flour,
and, when this is blended with the butter, pour upon it slowly a
cup of clear beef-stock. Stir to a smooth sauce, season with pep-
per and salt, a very little kitchen bouquet, and a half-cup of
tomato liquor. When smooth and as thick as cream, add the fish,
stir and toss for a moment and remove from the fire. Turn into
scallop shells, sprinkle with crumbs and bake, covered, for twenty
minutes ; then uncover and brown.
Broiled shad roes
Parboil the roes in salted water as soon as they are taken from
the fish. Cook ten minutes and leave in ice water until cold and
firm. "Marinade" them in bath of lemon juice and salad oil for
one hour. Wipe lightly and broil to a nice brown, turning sev-
eral times. Pass with lemon sauce.
Fried shad roes
Parboil as directed, let them get chilled in ice water, wipe dry,
roll in beaten egg and salted cracker crumbs and fry in deep hot
cottolene or other fat heated gradually to the boiling point before
the roes go in.
Scallops of shad roes
Parboil and blanch. When perfectly cold break up and pass
through a colander or vegetable press. Season with lemon juice,
FISH FOR BREAKFAST 97
kitchen bouquet, paprika and salt. Have ready a cup of rich
drawn butter. Stir the roes into it, beat up well, pour into scal-
lop shells or pate-pans, sift fine crumbs over the top and bake
quickly upon the upper grating of the oven.
Shad roe croquettes
Proceed as with the scallops, except that you make the drawn
butter rather thicker, and add a well-beaten egg, together with a
tablespoonful of fine crumbs, to give the croquettes consistency.
Let the mixture get perfectly cold; mold into croquettes, roll in
egg and cracker crumbs and leave on the ice over night. In the
morning renew the crumbs and fry in deep hissing cottolene or
other fat which has been brought gradually to the boil.
Fried smelts with lemon sauce
Clean, wash and dry the smelts. Roll in salted and peppered
flour, and leave in a cold place for an hour to get firm. Fry in
deep cottolene or other fat to a light brown, laying each in a hot
colander as you take it from the pan, to drain of! the grease.
Serve in a hot dish. A pretty way of serving them is to fringe
several thicknesses of white tissue paper at both ends, and lay
in the bottom of the dish, the fringe showing beyond the heap of
fish. Serve with
Lemon sauce
Heat (not melt) three tablespoon fuls of butter until you can
beat it to a cream. Whip into it the strained juice of one large
or two small lemons, with a heaping tablespoonful of finely-
minced parsley. It should be like a light-green cream when
done. Fill with this mixture the halves of lemons, from which
all the pulp and inner skin have been scraped, and garnish the
dish of smelts with them, serving one of the "cups" with each
portion of fish.
98 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Fried trout
Clean, wipe inside and out, pepper and salt ; roll in egg and
cracker crumbs and fry in deep, hot cottolene or other fat, always
recollecting to heat this gradually to boiling point before the fish
go in.
Or, having cleaned and dried them, roll in salted and peppered
meal ; then fry.
Fried perch and other pan-fish
Cook as directed in last recipe. It is always well to have the
fish on ice for an hour or more after they are egged and breaded,
or rolled in meal.
Fish cutlets
Mince cold boiled or baked salmon, haddock, cod, or any other
firm-fleshed fish. Season to taste and mix well with a little rich
drawn butter, made quite thick with corn starch. Spread upon
a broad platter, and, when stiff, cut into the desired shape with
a tin "form." Roll in fine crumbs, then in egg and in cracker
crumbs again ; leave on the ice to get firm, and fry in deep, boiling
cottolene or other fat which has been heated slowly.
Lobster and crab cutlets
Are made in the same way.
Salmon steaks
Have the steaks cut nearly an inch thick. Wipe with a damp
cloth and lay in salad oil for an hour. Drain and put upon a
gridiron over a clear fire. Broil slowly, rubbing with butter from
time to time. They will take at least twenty minutes to cook,
and must be watched carefully that they do not scorch. When
done, put upon each steak a generous lump of butter and sprinkle
with salt and pepper.
FISH FOR BREAKFAST 99
Salmon loaf
Flake cold boiled salmon and moisten it with a gill of cream,
a half-gill of milk and two beaten eggs. Stir in a handful of
fine crumbs, the juice of half a lemon, a tablespoonful of butter,
salt and pepper to taste, and a tablespoonful of minced parsley.
Mix thoroughly, turn into a greased pudding-dish, and bake in
a steady oven for about three-quarters of an hour, then turn out
upon a hot platter. Serve with a white sauce. You may also
boil this in a covered mold.
Salmon croquettes
With a silver fork flake the contents of a can of salmon, or
two pounds of fresh salmon, into bits removing all pieces of
skin and bone and season to taste with salt, pepper and a few
drops of lemon juice. Cook together a tablespoonful, each, of
butter and flour, and when they bubble pour upon them a cup of
milk. Stir to a smooth, white sauce, add slowly a raw egg, then
turn in the salmon mixed with two tablespoonfuls of fine crumbs.
When the salmon is heated remove from the fire and set aside to
cool. When cold, form into croquettes, roll these in beaten egg
and cracker crumbs and set in the ice-box for an hour before
frying in deep, boiling cottolene or other fat, which has been
heated gradually.
Scalloped salmon
With a silver fork pick into bits the contents of a can of
salmon, rejecting all particles of skin and bone. Make a sauce
of a half-pint of. milk, thickened with a white roux, and turn the
salmon into this. Stir and toss over the fire until smoking-hot ;
season to taste, put into a greased pudding-dish. Strew thickly
with crumbs, dot with bits of butter and bake for twenty min-
utes.
Broiled haddock
Haddock is not popular among "good livers" in the United
States. For some reason it is ranked as a second-hand and
plebeian fish. Yet it can be made good although cheap.
zoo MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Clean, wash and wipe well, and gash the back with a sharp
knife. Then "marinade" as you would his patrician brethren :
i. e., cover him with salad oil and vinegar, or lemon juice, and
let him lie in the bath for an hour. Wipe and broil, turning
when half done. Transfer to a hot dish, anoint with butter,
lemon and chopped parsley, and send to table.
Haddock fillets
Two pounds of what the cooks call "the thick of the fish" will
make four fillets, about four inches long by two wide. Skin
each piece with a sharp knife; trim into shape and leave in a
marinade of oil and vinegar with a tablespoonful of minced
chives, or, if you have none, a tablespoonful of onion juice.
Let the fillets lie there for an hour. Then drain well, roll in a
good batter, afterward in fine crumbs, and fry in deep, boiling
cottolene or other fat. Drain upon hot tissue paper, and send
to table very hot. Send around tomato sauce with it.
Halibut fillets
May be cooked in the same way.
Broiled halibut steak
Rub well with salad oil and lemon juice on both sides, wipe,
and broil over a clear fire, turning three times. Pepper and salt,
lay upon a hot dish and butter well. Send Bearnaise sauce
around with it. (See Sauces.)
Fried halibut steaks
Marinade for an hourj drain, roll in salted flour, then in beaten
egg, lastly in salted and peppered crumbs. Leave on ice for an
hour, and fry in clarified dripping, or in cottolene or other fat.
FISH
FISH FOR BREAKFAST 101
Fried pickerel with cream sauce
Clean, wash and wipe dry. Roll in white cornmeal or in flour,
and lay aside in a cold place while you fry slices of fat salt pork
quickly almost to a crisp. Strain the fat and return to the pan ;
lay in the fish and brown, turning once. When done, remove to
a heated, covered dish and keep hot over boiling water. To the
fat left in the pan add a tablespoonful of butter and a little
boiling water ; boil up and stir in a tablespoonful of flour. When
it begins to bubble add four tablespoonfuls of cream with a tiny
pinch of soda. Stir until smoking-hot, and strain over the fish.
Fried catfish
Skin and clean ; lay the fish in very cold water for a few min-
utes, then wipe them dry. Dredge thoroughly with flour, or roll
them first in beaten egg, then in cracker crumbs, and fry to a
delicate brown.
Fried frogs' legs
Have them carefully skinned, wash well, wipe perfectly dry,
roll in cracker or bread crumbs, dip in well-beaten egg, then
roll again in the crumbs and fry in butter to a golden brown.
Fricassee of frogs' legs
Skin and wash well, drain ; lay in boiling water for five min-
utes. Put over the fire in enough warm milk to cover them and
simmer until tender. Then drain, and lay in a hot dish, butter-
ing well. In another saucepan make drawn butter, using milk
instead of water ; season with salt, paprika and minced parsley,
with a dash of lemon juice ; remove from the fire and stir in two
well-beaten eggs. Cook one minute, stirring all the time, and
take from the range. Pour over the frogs' legs, cover, and set
over hot water for a few minutes before serving. They will be
found delicious.
102 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Stewed frogs' legs
Skin and lay in a marinade of lemon juice and salad oil, with a
dash of onion juice or of minced chives, for one hour. Heat two
tablespoonfuls of butter in a saucepan, add a teaspoonful of
minced onion, one minced tomato and one green pepper chopped
fine. Cook for five minutes. Add the frogs' legs, cover closely
and cook ten minutes. Add a little browned flour and cook until
tender. Season and serve.
Clams on toast
Chop a dozen clams and boil them for five minutes in their
liquor ; drain, arid add to them two tablespoonfuls of fine crumbs,
a tablespoonful of butter, salt and pepper to taste, and a gill of
milk in which a heaping teaspoonful of cornstarch has been dis-
solved. Stir constantly over the fire until the mixture boils,
then add a gill of cream ; stir for a moment longer and pour upon
the toast.
Deviled clams
Slice an onion and fry it to a light brown in a large spoonful
of butter. Strain out the onion and put the hot butter back upon
the fire. Chop two large (peeled) tomatoes fine, season with
salt, half a teaspoonful of sugar, a good dash of paprika and the
same of nutmeg. Stir into the hissing butter ; stir for three
minutes, and add a teaspoonful of butter rolled in half as much
flour. Have ready the clams, drained and chopped fine, and mix
them with the butter and tomatoes. Fill buttered scallop-shells,
or clam-shells, or a buttered pudding-dish with the mixture ; sift
fine-crushed cracker over all, dropping tiny dabs of butter on
top, and cook until delicately browned.
Fried clams
Drain the clams and dry them by laying them on a soft napkin.
Season with a dust of paprika. Beat two eggs light in a soup-
plate and have ready in another deep plate an abundance of
FISH FOR BREAKFAST 103
cracker crumbs. Dip each clam in the egg, and then in the
crumbs, until thoroughly coated. Lay side by side on a large
platter and set in a cold place for an hour. Fry in deep, boiling
cottolene or other fat to a golden brown, drain in a colander,
then transfer to a hot platter. Garnish with slices of lemon
and sprigs of parsley.
Clam scallop
Drain the liquor from two cupfuls of soft clams and set aside
while you chop the clams fine. Moisten two cupfuls of cracker
crumbs with equal parts of clam liquor and milk, season with
paprika and a tablespoonful of melted butter, and lastly, add
three beaten eggs; and the chopped clams. Mix thoroughly, and
turn into a greased pudding-dish. Bake until brown and serve
from the dish in which the scallop was cooked.
Clam fritters
Make a batter of a pint of flour sifted twice with an even tea-
spoonful of baking-powder and half as much salt; one cup of
milk, half a cup of clam liquor and two well-beaten eggs. Chop
two dozen soft clams fine ; season with salt and pepper, add to the
batter, arid drop by the tablespoonful into deep, boiling cottolene
or other fat which has been heated slowly. They are made more
digestible and, to my taste, more palatable by cooking the batter,
as you do griddle-cakes, upon a soapstone griddle.
Fried scallops
Parboil in hot salted water for five minutes; drain and set
them upon ice to get cold and firm. Roll them in salted flour,
next in beaten egg, then in fine crumbs. Set on ice for half an
hour and fry in deep, boiling cottolene or other fat, which has
been gradually heated to the boil.
104 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Curried scallops
Stew the scallops in just enough oyster liquor to cover them.
(Your fish merchant will give you all the oyster liquor you want
and be glad to get rid of it.) Bring gradually to the boil, after
which cook two minutes. Have ready in another vessel a roux
made by stirring into a great spoonful of hissing hot butter a
tablespoonful of white flour and a teaspoonful of curry powder.
Add to these, when smooth and all a-bubble, the hot liquor from
the scallops, a little at a time, keeping the spoon busy until all is
in. Lastly, put in the scallops ; boil one minute and serve. Gar-
nish with rice croquettes, serving these instead of plain boiled
rice. Send around sliced lemons with this dish. The lovers
of scallops will enjoy it.
Soft-shelled crabs
Remove the fringe, or loose shell, from each side of the crab,
and the sandbag; then cut off the eyes. Wash the crabs well,
dry and sprinkle with salt and pepper and roll in flour. Fry in
butter, turning frequently. When nicely browned they are done.
Creamed codfish
Flake cold boiled cod into bits with a silver fork. Cook to-
gether a tablespoonful of flour and one of butter, and pour upon
them a cup of milk. Season to taste and, when smooth, stir in
the flaked fish. Stir and toss until very hot, add salt and pepper
and serve.
Fish-balls
If salt cod be used, shred it finely and soak six hours. Boil
half an hour and let it cool. Mash potatoes to a cream ; allow
half as much potato as you have fish. Mix and heat by setting
in a pan of boiling water over the fire, stirring frequently. When
hot, beat in an egg, whip the mixture smooth ; let the paste get
cold, make into cakes or balls, roll in flour and set on ice. Of
course, this should be done over night. In the morning fry in
FISH FOR BREAKFAST 105
deep boiling beef dripping, clarified, or in cottolene or other fat.
Cold fresh cod makes delicious ''balls." Proceed as with the
salt, leaving out the soaking, and salting to taste.
Boiled salt mackerel
Wash and go all over the fish with a stiff whisk to dislodge
salt crystals. Put on to soak in warm water, exchanging this
three hours later for warmer, and leave all night. In the morn-
ing cover with hot water and set at the side of the range. Half
an hour before breakfast drain and put into boiling water to
which a tablespoon ful of vinegar has been added, and boil gently
for twenty-five minutes. Drain and lay upon a hot dish. Cover
with a white sauce into which -a finely-chopped boiled egg has
been stirred, and serve. You may substitute tomato sauce for
white, if you like. It is very nice when milk is used instead of
water in boiling it.
Broiled salt mackerel
Soak and proceed as in the last recipe. Early in the morning
take the fish from the hot water, cover with ice-cold water for five
minutes ; wipe dry, "marinade" in olive oil and lemon juice for
half an hour, drain and broil. Serve with sauce tartare.
Fried eels
Skin, clean well, taking especial heed of the fat, which must
be removed to the last bit. Cut into short pieces, marinade in
salad oil and vinegar for an hour ; roll, first in salted flour, then
in beaten egg, then in rolled cracker, and fry in deep, boiling
cottolene or other fat. Drain, dash and garnish with parsley
and lemon.
Stewed eels
Skin and clean ; cut into short lengths, lay in cold water for
half an hour; then put over the fire in cold water, just enough
to cover them, and cook slowly for half an hour, or more, ac-
cording to their size. A large eel may require an hour to make
io6 MARION HAKLAND'S COOK BOOK
it tender. Turn off the water, cover the eels with a good white
sauce seasoned with paprika, onion juice, salt and minced pars-
ley; simmer five minutes and serve.
Hoe herring (smoked)
Soak over night when you have washed it well. In the morn-
ing lay in hot water for half an hour, then in ice-cold water for ten
minutes, wipe dry and grill on a gridiron over a clear fire. It is
most appetizing. Pass corn bread with it.
Finnan haddie
Wash the fish thoroughly, leave in cold water for three-quar-
ters of an hour, then lay in scalding water for five minutes.
Wipe very dry, rub butter and lemon juice well into the fiber of
the fish and broil over a clear fire for fifteen minutes. Serve
with a hot butter sauce, or with sauce tartare.
Broiled smoked salmon
Wash a piece of smoked salmon in several waters, and soak it
for an hour. Cover with lukewarm water in a saucepan and sim-
mer for twenty minutes. Drain and wipe very dry, then broil on
a buttered gridiron until browned on both sides. Transfer to a
hot dish, rub with butter, sprinkle lightly with pepper and
minced parsley, garnish with sliced lemon, and serve.
Fried smoked salmon
Wash, soak and parboil the salmon as in the former recipe.
Wipe very dry, roll in egg and cracker dust, and set in a cold
place for an hour before frying in hot salad oil or in cottolene or
other fat. Serve with sauce tartare.
FAMILIAR TALK
WHERE WE EAT
eat to live ; we do not live to eat," is a time-stained say-
ing. It is almost invariably uttered complacently, and seldom
in absolute sincerity. There is something wrong, physically,
with the man who "does not care what he eats." There is a twist
in the moral make-up of the woman who finds catering for the
appetites of those she loves "a wretched bore, don't you know ?"
Next in importance to the "house-place" in the estimation of
the wise and tender mother of the home comes the dining-room
where, three times a day, she has her brood under the wings .of
her comforting, provident and nourishing love. Whatever may
be said as to the merits of the "food products" that fly at the
masthead of the company the motto "Tell me what you eat,
and I will tell you what you are" there is a potent grain of truth
in the legend.
So much of a man's temper and morals during the day de-
pends upon what he has had for breakfast that the mother may
well give serious thought to the composition of the meal. So
much depends upon where and how he eats his breakfast, that
the wonder grows in the philosophic mind that the eating-room
and the appurtenances thereof are a third-rate consideration with
so many otherwise excellent managers.
The housemother who can let sunshine into the morning meet-
ing-place of the family scores an important point in favor of the
success of her pious scheme. Since this can not always be, her
aim should be to simulate the blessed sunbeams as far as she can.
Walls of pale buff, the flash of a gilt frame here, and a bit of
bright drapery there ; yellow silk sash curtains, and, on the side-
107
io8 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
board, the glitter of silver and glass will go far to relieve the
depressing influence of an apartment where the sun never falls.
Thanks to the ingenious florist whose name is preserved in the
"Wardian case," it is quite possible to have a window-garden in
the dining-room on the shady side of the house. A stanch
framework of wood, filled in with glass on the sides and on the
hinged top, with a zinc-lined bottom on which are spread first a
layer of broken flower-pots or other crockery, mixed with char-
coal, and on this a stratum, two inches deep, of garden mold,
supply the foundation for the undertaking.
Stock with ferns, tradescantia, English and German ivy, fill
the spaces between the roots with moss, water well, and close.
Your gardening is done for the season, except that, once a day
say while you are at breakfast the lid is raised a little way to
admit a supply of air, and once in a fortnight it would be well
to water the plants. Shield from the sun, which, striking
through the closed glass, would scald the succulent greenery that
will soon fill the case. Hang the canary's cage above it for an
added touch of cheer.
Always have flowers upon the family table. A pot of ivy, a
geranium, a fern borrowed from some other room at meal times,
will serve the desired end if you can not afford cut flowers in
winter. If you have no window plants, manage to get a vase of
evergreen sprays something to lift the gracious ceremonial of
eating together above the sordid commonplace. If you "eat to
live," let that living be comely and pleasant.
There is no excuse nowadays for setting a table with coarse,
thick stoneware, even when there is no "company" (hateful
phrase !) present. Graceful designs may be had in ware so
cheap as to be within the reach of any woman who can spread
a table of her own.
In the matter of napery, modern fashion comes benevolently
to the help of the poor in purse. Have the top of your table
polished with a mixture of raw linseed oil and turpentine three
parts of oil, one of turpentine rubbed in long and well. Then
set for breakfast and for luncheon with a linen square embroid-
ered or simply hemstitched laid diagonally to the table corners,
FAMILIAR TALK 109
in the middle, with doilies of the same under the plates ; a carv-
ing-cloth before the master of the house, and a tray-cloth before
the mistress. The effect is pleasing and decorative, the more
agreeable to the housewifely eye because the weekly wash is ma-
terially lessened thereby.
If your table has not a polished top, you would better have for
breakfast and luncheon one of the pretty colored lunch-cloths
with napkins to match, which come in divers patterns and at
varying prices.
If your china-closets are insufficient to hold all your china, and
especially if the walls of the room are ungracefully bare, run a
shelf a foot wide near the ceiling and set in graceful array upon
it some of your pretty and odd pieces. The device elevates them
to the dignity of bric-a-brac, relieves the burdened closet shelves
and produces a frieze-like effect that will further detract from
the business-like look of the apartment.
Tax your ingenuity in every way to make the place tempting
to eye and to thought, as well as to appetite. A place where one
is disposed to linger over one's meals for social converse and
social enjoyment, instead of bolting food in hungry silence, pre-
paratory to bolting from the place he calls "home," through cus-
tom and courtesy, to return not until the approach of the next
feeding time.
BREAKFAST MEATS
BREAKFAST BACON
MRS. MARY J. LINCOLN than whom there is not a more
trustworthy authority upon everything pertaining to cookery-
says in a sprightly chapter upon breakfast bacon :
"It has been offered me frequently in thick slices, swimming
in grease, browned almost to blackness, and salt as the briny
waves. You will seldom find a market-man who will take the
time and pains to slice it as thin as it should be, even though
they are supposed to have knives especially adapted for thin
slicing. For that reason I prefer always to buy it by the strip,
and slice it as needed.
"With a strong, sharp knife, begin at one end, trim off the
outside strip of lean, the smoked edges and the rind, down about
three or four inches; then shave off in thinnest possible
slices, as thin as can be cut, and have them whole. When you
come to the rind, trim off more of it if more slices are needed.
Some prefer to turn the strip over and slice from the lower side
down to the rind, but not dividing from the rind until sufficient
is sliced. But whichever way you do it, keep the strip entire
that is, do not cut off three inches, or half a pound, and then
trim and slice that amount, for the last slice will be quite diffi-
cult to hold firmly enough to slice uniformly.
"It can be cut thin much easier if very cold. By wrapping
it securely in thick brown paper and changing the paper fre-
quently, it may be kept in the refrigerator without affecting the
other food.
"Have a smooth frying-pan hot, and everything else ready.
Lay in the bacon and turn it frequently as it changes to the
transparent stage, moving it about so all portions will cook
no
BREAKFAST MEATS in
equally. The heat should be sufficient to cook it quickly, but
not to brown it. As soon as it loses the transparent appearance
and begins to crisp, draw it from the liquid fat toward the edge,
and you will soon tell by the way it dries off and the sound
whether it is cooked enough to be crisp.
"Tilt the pan so the fat will run down away from the bacon,
and let it drain thoroughly in the pan. By watching and turn-
ing it carefully, every piece will be of a uniform light and color,
more or less curly, crisp as a Saratoga potato, and so dry and
free from grease that it might be picked up with gloved fingers
and leave no stain.
"It is less likely to brown when a little of the fat from a pre-
vious frying, or a bit of lard, is put in the pan first, as this keeps
the bacon from sticking to the pan."
I seldom borrow a recipe, for two reasons: First, because I
have a few old-fashioned prejudices as to the rights of pro-
prietorship in such products ; secondly, because, to be frank, I
seldom find one upon which I think I could not improve in the
matter of simplicity and directness. I could not write out more
clearly my ideas on the subject of cutting and cooking breakfast
bacon than my distinguished fellow-laborer has expressed them.
I hereby grant her permission to honor me by abstracting the
same number of words from any of my printed pages.
Bacon and apples
This is a favorite southern dish, and good enough to be trans-
planted.
Slice bacon thin and fry it crisp. Transfer to a platter and
keep it hot while you fry thick slices of unpeeled sweet apples
in the bacon fat. When these are tender, drain and put in the
center of a hot platter. Lay the fried bacon about the edge of
the dish, sprinkle sugar over the apples, and serve.
Bacon and polenta
Wet a cupful of fine Indian meal with two cupfuls of cold
water and stir it into a quart of boiling water. Add a teaspoon-
ii2 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
ful of salt, beat up hard, and let it cook steadily for two hours,
stirring up often to prevent lumping. Should it thicken too
much, add boiling water.
When done, pour out into a broad platter and set aside until
perfectly cold and stiff. If you are to have it for breakfast, cook
it over night. Cut in squares, triangles or rounds, roll in raw
meal (salted), and fry in plenty of boiling dripping or cottolene
or other fat to a delicate brown. As each piece is done, transfer
to a hot colander to drain. Serve in the center of a hot dish,
with thin slices of fried bacon laid about it.
A pretty way of varying a plain but excellent dish is to pour
the hot polenta into fancy molds wet with cold water, leaving
it there until you are ready to cook it, when turn out and fry.
Bacon and sweet peppers
Cut the stem ends from green sweet peppers, handling very
cautiously, lest the seeds should touch the walls of the peppers
and make them "hot." With a small sharp knife extract core
and seeds and throw them away. Cut the peppers into rings,
lay in ice-cold water slightly salted for half an hour. Fry sliced
bacon in a clean pan, take up and keep hot. Dry the peppers by
patting between two clean cloths and fry until clear and tender
in the fat left in the pan. Arrange the peppers in the center of a
hot dish, the bacon around them.
Barbecued ham
Fry slices of cold boiled ham on both sides. Transfer to a
hot dish. Cook together in a frying-pan four tablespoonfuls of
vinegar, a teaspoonful of granulated sugar, a teaspoonful of
French mustard, and a dash of paprika. Stir until very hot and
pour over the fried ham. If raw ham be used, cook for fifteen
minutes in a frying-pan in boiling water to which has been added
a tablespoonful of vinegar; lay in cold water for ten minutes,
wipe dry and fry as directed.
BREAKFAST MEATS 113
Home-made sausages
Grind in a sausage-mill or meat-chopper six pounds of lean,
fresh pork and three pounds of fat. Mix with this twelve tea-
spoonfuls of powdered sage, six, each, of black pepper and of
salt, two teaspoonfuls, each, of ground cloves and of mace, and
one nutmeg, grated. When the seasoning is well mixed with
the meat, pack all down in stone jars and pour melted cottolene
or other fat on top to exclude the air, or put into long- bags of
stout muslin. Dip these in melted grease and hang in the cellar.
They may be made in small quantities and used at once, and
are much better than those we buy in market or shop,
Sausages and apples
Lay the sausages ("bulk sausage meat" is best) in a frying-
pan, cover with hot water and bring quickly to a fast boil. At
the end of five minutes pour off the water and fry on both sides,
turning twice. Lift them, drain over the pan, and lay in a hot
colander in the open oven, while you fry sliced and cored apples
in the fat that ran from the sausages in frying.
If you use link sausage, prick each before boiling.
"Frankfurters"
Cover with boiling water and boil slowly until they rise to the
surface of the water. Drain and rub over with a mixture of but-
ter, lemon juice and made mustard.
Broiled pork chops
Are too heavy as breakfast food for any stomach save that of
a hod-carrier or ditcher. But people will eat them in the "kill-
ing" season, and should have them properly cooked.
Trim away the fat and the skin from the small end ; broil over
ii4 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
clear coals, and thoroughly, for fear of trichinae. Pepper and salt
to taste. Send around tomato catsup with them.
Cutlets and spare-ribs are cooked in like manner.
Curried pork cutlets
Broil as in foregoing recipe and keep hot (covered) over boil-
ing water. Heat a tablespoonful of butter in a frying-pan, and
as soon as it hisses fry in it a tablespoonful of minced onion.
When the onion has browned, strain it from the fat, return the
latter to the pan, and pour in a cupful of boiling water, with half
a cupful of apple sauce. Stir while it simmers for ten min-
utes. Cook two minutes, and pour over the chops. Leave cov-
ered in the oven for five minutes and serve.
TRIPE
A much-maligned article, meet for good men's tables. It is
despised and set at naught by people who should know better,
because it is rarely cooked daintily. At its proper estate under
the hands of a cook who recognizes its real worth it is said to be
both nourishing and digestible. It is certainly palatable, if ten-
der and properly prepared. Buy from your butcher the pre-
pared tripe that is, tripe which has been thoroughly cleaned and
is ready for boiling. No matter how you intend to cook it, boil
it first.
Boiled tripe
Lay the tripe in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Set
at the side of the range, where it will come slowly to a boil, and
simmer steadily for at least four hours. Drain, and set in a cool
place until wanted.
Stewed tripe
Cook as in the preceding recipe, but cut the tripe in half-inch
squares. At the end of four hours drain off all the water except
a gill ; add to this a cup of stewed and strained tomatoes, a dash
of onion juice, salt to taste and a pinch of paprika. Rub to-
BREAKFAST MEATS 115
gather a heaping teaspoonful, each, of butter and flour, and stir
into the tripe mixture. Stir until the sauce is smooth and thick.
Some persons like a teaspoonful of Parmesan cheese added to
this stew just before it is served.
Fried tripe
Lay cold, boiled tripe in a mixture of equal parts of salad oil
and vinegar for two hours. Drain in a colander for fifteen min-
utes. Dip in egg, then in cracker crumbs, and set in a cold
place for several hours. Saute in a frying-pan to a light brown.
Or you may dip squares of cold boiled tripe 1 into good fritter
batter and fry in deep cottolene or other fat. When done, drain
free of grease and serve with a sauce made according to the fol-
lowing recipe :
Into the yolk of an egg beat very slowly, a few drops at a time,
a half-cup of salad oil. When as thick and smooth as cream
add, still slowly, two tablespoonfuls of vinegar, a coffeespoonful
of French mustard, a tablespoonful of minced parsley and salt
and paprika to taste.
Stewed tripe and oysters
Drop three dozen oysters into their boiling liquor, cook for
just one minute, and drain. Cut cold boiled tripe into pieces of
uniform size. Put it over the fire with enough water to cover
it and simmer for three-quarters of an hour. Drain off the
water. Have ready a pint of fresh, scalding milk in a double
boiler and drop the tripe into this. Cook for fifteen minutes ;
add two teaspoonfuls of flour rubbed into the same quantity of
butter, and stir until smooth and thick. Season to taste, add the
oysters and cook until they are heated through. Last of all, stir
in very slowly one beaten egg, and remove at once from the fire.
Stewed tripe and celery
Cut into inch pieces enough celery to make a cupful, and stew
tender in salted, boiling water. Drain and set aside while you
ii6 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
stew the tripe, first in water, then in milk, as in the recipe for
tripe and oysters. Instead of adding the oysters to the thickened
milk, stir in the stewed celery, and cook for a minute before
serving.
BEEFSTEAK
Rub the hot gridiron with a bit of suet before you lay the steak
upon it. The fire should be clear and hot, and yourself at leisure
to watch and to turn quickly when the meat begins to drip.
There are houses in which a flavor of creosote would seem to be
inseparable from a broiled steak. Turn swiftly to keep the
smoke from it, and the juices in. Try with the point of a keen
knife at the end of ten minutes. If the center of the steak be
ruddy, and not purple, and the outside of a fine brown, it is done,
ftemove to a hot platter, pepper and salt and butter well on both
sides. Fit a close cover on the dish and set in the open oven for
five minutes to draw the juices to the surface.
Beefsteak with onions
Cook as just directed. Have ready three tablespoonfuls of
minced onions, cooked for five minutes in hot butter. They
should be tender and clear, but not crisp. After the steak is
dished spread the hot onion thickly over it, let it stand in the
open oven, with a close cover over it, five minutes.
Chateaubriand steak
Broil a neatly-trimmed tenderloin steak, transfer to a hot dish,
butter generously and cover with broiled mushrooms cut into
quarters.
Hamburg steaks
Chop a pound of lean beef very fine, and stir into it a beaten
egg, a teaspoonful of onion juice, salt and pepper to taste, and a
pinch of mace. Mix well, mold into flat cakes, dredge with
salted flour, set on the ice for an hour, roll again in flour, and
saute in good dripping or butter.
BREAKFAST MEATS 117
Chilli con carni (No. 1)
(A Mexican dish.)
Beefsteak (round), one tablespoonful of hot dripping, two
large red peppers (dry), two tablespoonfuls of rice, one-half pint
of boiling water, salt, onions, flour.
Cut steaks into small pieces. Put into a frying-pan with hot
dripping, hot water and rice. Cover closely, and cook steadily
until tender. Remove seeds and part of rind from red peppers.
Cover with the chilli water, add garlic and thyme. Simmer until
cold, then squeeze them in the hand until the water is thick and
red. If not thick enough, add a little flour. Season with salt
and a little onion if desired. Heat and pour sauce on the meat.
Serve very hot.
Chilli con carni (No. 2)
Provide for it two pounds of steak, six red chillies, two cloves,
one tablespoonful of flour, a little garlic, thyme, dripping.
Seed the chillies and cover with boiling water. Soak until tender
and then scrape the pulp into water. Cut steak in small pieces
and fry brown in dripping or butter; add flour and brown it.
Cover with the chilli water, add garlic and thyme. Simmer until
the meat is tender and the gravy of the right consistency.
Beef cakes
Scrape round steak, season to taste with salt and pepper ; form
with the hands into small, flat cakes and broil over a quick fire.
Stew of beef's liver
Cut one pound of liver into slices. Chop a quarter of a pound
of fat salt pork. Spread a layer of the pork in the bottom of
the inside kettle of a double boiler. Cover the pork with slices
of liver, sprinkle this with a teaspoonful, each, of minced onion
and parsley, add more pork, more liver, onion and parsley until
all the ingredients are in the pot. As you do this, sprinkle each
u8 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
layer lightly with pepper. Pour a half-pint of seasoned weak
stock over all, cover the pot closely and keep the water in the
outer pot at a gentle boil for two hours and a half. Now strain
out the meat and keep hot while you return the gravy in the pot
to the fire and thicken it with a brown roux. Boil up once and
pour the gravy over the liver.
KIDNEYS
First of all, they must be perfectly fresh. If not, they have an
odor, and a peculiar "tang" that the unfortunate eater never for-
gets, and which causes him to feel an aversion for kidneys hence-
forth and forever. Care should also be exercised in removing all
bits of fat and gristle. Last of all, cook the kidneys in a savory
way and spare no pains to make them appetizing.
Brown stew of kidneys
Split the kidneys, wash them, drain and cut into small pieces
of uniform size. Pour cold water over these and set at the side
of the range, where they will come slowly to a boil. Just before
the boiling point is reached turn off the hot water, substitute cold,
and bring to the boil. Drain the kidneys and keep them hot
while you cook together a tablespoonful of browned flour and
the same quantity of butter. When these are blended pour upon
them a scant teacupful of salted boiling water, and stir until
thick and smooth. Now add salt and pepper, a teaspoonful of
kitchen bouquet, the same quantity of Worcestershire sauce, a
half -teaspoonful of lemon juice and a tablespoonful of currant
jelly. Turn the kidneys into this and stir until very hot.
Savory kidneys
Skin and slice three pairs of lambs' kidneys. Cut into halves
fourteen canned mushrooms. Heat together a cup of bouillon
and a half-cup of the liquor from a can of mushrooms. Cook
together in a saucepan .a tablespoonful, each, of butter and
BREAKFAST MEATS 119
browned flour, and when these bubble pour upon them the bouil-
lon and mushroom liquor. Stir to a thick sauce and add a tea-
spoonful of Worcestershire sauce, the same quantity of tomato
catsup, a half-teaspoonful of onion juice, salt to taste and a dash
of paprika. Now stir in the mushrooms and sliced kidneys.
Cook for five minutes after the boil is reached, stirring con-
stantly.
Fried kidneys
Cut three pairs of lambs' kidneys into halves. Fry eight thin
slices of bacon until done ; remove from the fire and keep hot
while you fry the halved kidneys in the bacon fat. Cook slowly
for ten minutes, turning often. Remove the kidneys and keep
hot with the bacon while you stir a teaspoonful of Worcester-
shire sauce and the same quantity of catsup into the gravy left in
the pan.
Put crustless slices of toasted bread on a platter, lay the kid-
neys on these, pour the gravy over them and dispose the crisp
slices of bacon about the edge of the platter.
Broiled kidneys
Cut the kidneys into thick slices. Melt a little butter and
stir into it a saltspoonful of mustard and a dash of lemon juice.
Dip each slice of kidney in this, roll in cracker dust, and set aside
until this coating stiffens. A half-hour will be long enough.
Broil on a small gridiron over a clear fire, turning often that
the kidneys may not burn. Be sure they are thoroughly done.
Serve very hot.
Stewed kidneys
Cut the kidneys in halves, remove all the fat and cover the
kidneys with hot water, bring to the boil and drain. Cover with
more hot water, again bring to the boil and drain. Repeat this
process a third time. Remove them from the liquor, slice thin,
and thicken the gravy with browned flour rubbed smooth with
two teaspoonfuls of butter. Return the kidneys to the gravy,
130 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
and when very hot add pepper, salt, two tablespoonfuls of mush-
rooms, minced, two teaspoonfuls of Worcestershire sauce, a little
lemon juice, and two tablespoonfuls of sherry. Serve imme-
diately.
Kidneys sautes
Split the kidneys, trim off all fat and cut each kidney into
quarters. Melt three tablespoonfuls of butter in a frying-pan,
sprinkle the kidneys with pepper and salt and roll each piece in
flour before laying it in the frying-pan. Cook, turning often,
until brown. Lay upon a hot platter and add to the grease in
the pan x a wineglassful of sherry, a quarter of a teaspoonful of
onion juice and a tablespoonful of mushroom catsup. Boil this
sauce up once, and pour it over the kidneys.
Kidneys a la brochette
Split the kidneys, put over the fire in cold water, and bring to
a rapid boil. Drain, wipe and slice each half. Cut the same
number of thin slices of bacon the same size and freed from rind
and hard lean. Arrange the bacon and kidney slices alternately
on small skewers or stout straws, and broil them quickly. Send
to table on the skewers.
SWEETBREADS
Said a maid to me once : "Indeed, mem, I niver see sich an-
other as yersel' for cookin' wild things and innards !"
The "wild things" to which she referred were quail, wood-
cock and hare, while the "innards" of which she spoke with such
scorn were sweetbreads, kidneys and brains. I may remark,
en passant, that the lower classes seldom like viands most prized
by the epicure, and the cooking of them, to be done properly,
must be performed by the mistress not the maid unless the
latter be an accomplished cook.
BREAKFAST MEATS 121
Broiled sweetbreads
Wash a pair of sweetbreads, throw them in boiling salted
water, and cook for ten minutes. Drain, and lay in iced water
until thoroughly cold. This process is called "blanching" the
sweetbreads, and should be done as soon as the perishable dain-
ties are brought home from the butcher's. Wipe them dry, rub
with butter, and broil them over a clear fire. Watch them that
they do not scorch. When done, put them on a hot dish, pour
a little melted butter over them, sprinkle lightly with salt and
pepper and serve.
Fried sweetbreads
Blanch and split each sweetbread in half, lengthwise. Dip in
beaten egg, roll in cracker crumbs, and set in a cold place for
this coating to harden. At the end of an hour, fry in deep cotto-
lene or other fat brought slowly to a fast boil.
Broiled sweetbreads with mushrooms
Blanch the sweetbreads and cut them in half, lengthwise.
Grease a small gridiron, lay the split sweetbreads on this, and
broil over a clear fire, turning frequently and watching carefully
lest they scorch. When done, lay on rounds of crustless toast,
rub thoroughly with butter, salt and pepper to taste, and cover
with minced mushrooms fried in butter.
Sweetbread cutlets
Parboil, blanch and mince enough sweetbreads to make two
cupfuls. Put into a saucepan with a little white stock and bring
to a boil. Thicken with a white roux, and when smooth stir in
gradually two beaten egg yolks ; then turn the mixture upon a
dish to cool and stiffen. Form with floured hands into cutlets,
arid fry in deep, boiling cottolene or other fat
122 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Creamed sweetbreads
Blanch and cut two pairs of sweetbreads into neat dice. Cook
together in a saucepan two tablespoonfuls, each, of butter and
flour, and pour upon them a pint of cream. Stir to a smooth
sauce, add the sweetbreads and cook, stirring steadily until very
hot. Season with salt, pepper, and a teaspoonful of minced
parsley.
LIVER
It is not known to all housewives, even to those who practise
economy from necessity or from choice sometimes from both
that lamb's liver, which costs one-fourth as much as calf's liver,
is quite as palatable some say better than the more expensive
viand. The hint may be borne in mind in studying the follow-
ing recipes.
Liver and bacon
Slice the liver, sprinkle each slice with salt and pepper, and
roll in salted flour. Set on ice while you fry twice as many thin
strips of bacon as you have slices of liver. Remove the bacon
from the pan and lay in the floured liver. Fry slowly until done,
turning often. It should cook for at least fifteen minutes. Drain
the liver, holding each piece over the pan that the grease may
drip off, and arrange on a heated platter, the bacon around it.
Broiled liver en brochette
Cut the bacon thin and the slices of liver into pieces of the
same length and width. Run a wooden skewer or stout straw
through each piece of liver and, alternately, through a slice of the
bacon. Proceed in this way until each slice of bacon is fastened
to a slice of liver, and each skewer is full. Lay on a broiler and
broil over a clear fire. When done lay the liver and bacon, still
skewered together, on a hot platter.
BREAKFAST MEATS
Tried liver
123
Cut the liver into strips half an inch wide and four inches long.
Heat two tablespoonfuls of butter or dripping in a frying-
pan and fry a sliced onion in it. Strain out the onion. Have
ready the liver, peppered and salted and rolled in flour. Put
this into the fat and cook, turning once. Take up the liver and
keep hot over boiling water. Stir into the fat left in the pan
two tablespoonfuls of tomato sauce, one teaspoonful of kitchen
bouquet, and a heaping teaspoonful of browned flour wet to a
paste in cold water. Add salt and paprika to taste, boil up once,
put in two tablespoonfuls of sherry and pour over the liver.
There is no nicer way of cooking liver for breakfast.
Mince of liver
Chop, very fine, one pound of calf's liver. Put one table-
spoonful of butter in a saucepan, add the liver with two table-
spoonfuls of chopped bacon ; cover and cook gently for one hour.
When nearly done add a half-teaspoonful of salt, a quarter-tea-
spoonful of pepper, and two tablespoonfuls of boiling water.
Serve on a platter upon buttered toast.
CHICKEN
Fried chicken
Joint a tender chicken as for fricassee. Dip each piece in
beaten egg, then roll in salted cracker dust until thoroughly
coated. Set aside for an hour before frying in boiling cottolene
or other fat to a golden brown. Be sure to fry long enough for
the thickest pieces of chicken to be cooked all the way through.
Virginia fried chicken
Prepare the chicken as directed in the last recipe. Fry half
a pound of bacon, sliced thin. When crisp, but not burned,
MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
strain off the fat and return to the pan. Keep the bacon hot
while you fry the chicken (prepared with egg and cracker dust)
in the fat, turning twice. Should there not be fat enough, add
dripping or cottolene or other fat. When done, arrange upon a
hot dish and garnish with the bacon.
Fried chicken with cream gravy
(A Maryland dish.)
After dishing the chicken cooked as in foregoing recipe, strain
the fat again, stir in a lump of butter rolled in flour that has been
slightly browned, and, when it bubbles, a small cup of hot cream
or milk to which a pinch of soda has been added. Stir for two
minutes to prevent scorching, add a tablespoonful of minced
parsley and pour over the chicken.
Broiled chicken
Use none but undeniably young chickens for broiling. Clean
well and split down the back. Lay for an hour in a marinade of
salad oil and lemon juice, if there is any doubt on this point.
If certain of your subject, wash over with butter and lay upon
a greased and heated gridiron, breast uppermost. The fire should
be red and strong. Broil about ten minutes to the pound, lifting
when it begins to drip and turning four times to insure thorough
cooking. When dished it should be sprinkled with pepper and
salt and well buttered.
SOME WAYS OF COOKING COLD CHICKEN
Chicken fritters
Cook a heaping tablespoonful of flour in one tablespoonful of
hot butter and one cup of chicken stock, added gradually. Sea-
son with celery salt and pepper and pour half of this sauce into
a small, shallow, buttered pan. Chop one cupful of cold chicken
BREAKFAST MEATS 125
quite fine, season and spread it evenly over the top of the sauce
after it has thickened. Cover with the remainder of the sauce,
place on ice, and when very cold and hard cut into rounds or
squares. Dip them quickly into batter and fry in deep, hot cotto-
lene or other fat, or in clarified chicken dripping.
These should be prepared over nig^\ The fritters will keep
their shape if left a long time before the paste is cut up.
Chicken omelet
Beat four eggs very light, season with salt and pour into a
greased frying-pan. Have ready a cupful of minced chicken
(heated) and a pint of hot white sauce in which a tablespoonful
of minced parsley has been stirred. When the omelet is "set"
and ready to be removed from the pan, sprinkle over it the
minced chicken, fold it over and transfer to a hot platter. Pour
the white sauce about the omelet.
Chicken mince on the half -shell
Cut fine sweet peppers in half lengthwise; remove core and
seeds, taking care not to touch the sides of the peppers, and soak
for an hour in cold water slightly salted.
Mince fine the cold meat of a chicken and add it to one-fourth
as much fine crumbs as you have chicken; moisten with gravy
or sauce ; fill the peppers, sprinkle fine crumbs over the top, dot
with bits of butter, bake half an hour covered, then brown.
Creamed chicken
Make a white roux of two tablespoonfuls of butter and half as
much flour ; when it bubbles add a cupful of cold chicken cut into
dice, a teaspoonful of onion juice, salt and pepper to taste and
enough stock to keep all from burning. Cook for ten minutes be-
fore stirring in two hard-boiled eggs chopped fine and a cup of
rich milk heated with a pinch of soda stirred in.
136 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Imitation terrapin
Proceed as directed in last recipe, adding at the last, the
juice of half a lemon and a glass of sherry. Boil up and serve
at once.
Turkey croquettes
Mince enough cold roast turkey to make two cupfuls, season
with salt, pepper and a half pint of oyster liquor. Put into a sauce-
pan and make scalding hot. Thicken a cupful of hot milk with a
tablespoonful of white roux, stir it into the turkey mince, and
when the boiling point is reached remove it from the fire. When
cold and stiff form into croquettes, crumb these and set on the
ice for two hours before frying to a golden brown in deep, boil-
ing cottolene or other fat, or in clarified chicken drippings, if you
have it.
Turkey scallops
Mince remnants of cold turkey rather coarsely and mix with it
one-third as much stuffing or bread crumbs. Moisten with
gravy, oyster liquor or stock, season well; fill scallop shells or
pate pans with the mixture, cover with fine crumbs, with dots
of butter over all and bake in a quick oven.
Stewed calf-brains
Heat a great spoonful of butter in the frying-pan and when
hot, stir in a tablespoonful of flour. Add a gill of cream with salt
and pepper, chopped parsley and a teaspoonful of kitchen bou-
quet. Put a pinch of soda into the cream. When heated, put in the
brains, which have been previously blanched and cut into large
dice. Cook ten minutes, stirring constantly, and serve hot.
Brain fritters
Blanch the brains by boiling them in salted water for ten min-
utes. Throw into ice-cold water and leave there for half an
hour. When cold, mash to a paste with a wooden spoon. Stir
LAMB CHOPS
I
CROQUETTES!
CHICKEN SCALLOP
ENTREES
BREAKFAST MEATS 127
into them two eggs, beaten light, a tablespoonful of melted butter,
a half -teaspoon ful of salt and enough flour to make a fritter bat-
ter. Beat hard fpr three minutes and drop this mixture into deep,
boiling cottolene or other fat. When golden brown in color,
drain free of grease in a hot colander. Serve very hot.
Fried brains
Blanch as above directed, leave in cold water until firm, and
wipe dry. Slice into pieces of uniform size; pepper and salt,
roll in beaten egg, then in fine crumbs. Do this over night. In
the morning roll again in egg and cracker-dust; leave on the
ice for half an hour and fry quickly in hot cottolene or other fat.
Drain free from fat and serve hot. Pass thin slices of crisp
toast with them.
Broiled veal chops
Trim neatly and broil over a clear fire, turning several times.
Allow ten minutes to the pound. Transfer to a hot dish and
cover with a mixture of butter, lemon juice and minced parsley.
Cover and set in a hot oven for a few minutes before serving.
Fried veal chops or cutlets
Dip in egg, then in cracker crumbs, and set on ice until morn-
ing. Repeat the process, leave on ice for half an hour and fry
in deep, hot cottolene or other fat. Drain, dish and send to table
with tomato sauce.
Veal cutlets and bacon
Chop raw lean veal fine, season well with celery salt and pep-
per, and with your hands mold into oval shape. Roll in egg and
fine crumbs and leave on ice all night. In the morning fry thin
slices of bacon, remove them to a hot dish and fry the cutlets
slowly in the fat left in the pan. Drain, arrange on a platter and
lay the bacon about them. Pass tomato sauce with them.
iaft MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Lamb chops
Trim off the fat, broil carefully and arrange them around a
mound of mashed potatoes. Garnish with a garland of parsley
laid about the base of the mound.
Barbecued lambs' tongues
Open a can of lambs' tongues and spread on a platter. Sprinkle
with salt, pepper and a little onion juice. Lay in a sauce made
by stirring together three tablespoonfuls of salad oil and one of
vinegar. Let them stand in this mixture over night. In the
morning heat a little butter in the frying-pan, lay the tongues in
this and saut&, turning often.
Mince of mutton
Chop the meat fine, removing bits of fat and gristle. Season
with salt, pepper and a little onion juice. (It is always better to
grate, than to slice onions for seasoning.) Mix with the minced
meat one-fifth of its bulk of fine bread crumbs wet with the gravy
and work in the beaten yolk of a raw egg to "bind" the mixture.
Mold into flat cakes, dip these into a beaten raw egg, then in
cracker crumbs and set in a cold place over night. Fry quickly,
as you would doughnuts, in deep cottolene or other fat (never in
lard) made very hot. Take up as soon as they are done, drain off
every drop of fat and lay upon rounds of lightly browned toast
in a heated dish. Garnish with sprigs of parsley.
Minced mutton and tomato toast
Make three cups of good well-seasoned tomato sauce, thickened
with a heaping teaspoonful of flour rubbed into one of butter.
Keep hot in a double boiler set at the side of the range.
Toast slices of bread, butter them, spread on a platter and put
a tablespoonful of tomato sauce on each. Into the remainder
of the tomato sauce turn two cupfuls of minced mutton, put the
saucepan over the fire, stir until the meat is thoroughly heated,
season to taste and pour upon the toast.
BREAKFAST GAME
Broiled rabbit
HAVE your butcher skin and clean the rabbit, remove the head
and open it from end to end on the under side. Wipe it inside
and out with a damp cloth and lay it open on a greased gridiron.
Cut gashes across the back that the heat may penetrate to the
thickest part. Broil over a clear fire, turning often. It should
cook for about twenty minutes. Transfer to a hot dish, rub with
butter, sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve.
Barbecued rabbit
Cook precisely as in the last recipe and keep hot on a platter
while you make a sauce of two tablespoonfuls of vinegar, two of
melted butter, a dash of salt and a ' teaspoonf ul of French mus-
tard. Pour this sauce over the hot rabbit and send to table. This
is a delicious and savory dish.
Smothered rabbits
Skin and clean a pair of rabbits ; lay in a covered roaster ; pour
a cup of boiling water over them and cook, covered, until ten-
der. Baste five or six times with a mixture of butter and water
mixed with a teaspoonf ul of onion juice. When the rabbits are
done transfer to a platter and keep hot, while you thicken the
gravy in the pan with a tablespoonful of browned flour rubbed
up with one of butter. Cook one minute, add two teaspoon fuls
9 129
130 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
of vinegar, a saltspoonful of paprika and a generous teaspoonful
of made mustard. Boil up once, pour over the rabbits and leave,
covered, over hot water five minutes before serving.
Venison steak
Grease your gridiron thoroughly before laying your steak upon
it. Broil the steak, turning frequently over a fire of clear coals.
As it is better rare, do not cook the venison too long. When done
lay the meat upon a hot platter, put upon it several spoonfuls of
butter and a little currant jelly, cover and set in the oven long-
enough to melt the butter and to soften the jelly, then send im-
mediately to the table.
Broiled quails and woodcock
Clean and split down the back. Wash carefully and dry inside
and out with a clean cloth. Leave on ice half an hour and broil
over a clear hot fire. Dish, pepper and salt, put a piece of butter
upon, and lay under each bird a round of delicate toast.
Small birds
Can be cooked in the same way.
BREAKFAST VEGETABLES
Stewed potatoes
PARE the potatoes and cut into small dice. Cook tender in
boiling water, salted. When clear, but not broken, turn off the
water and cover with hot milk into which you have stirred a lump
of butter rolled in flour. Simmer for ten minutes, add a table-
spoonful of finely-minced parsley, boil up once and serve.
Hashed potatoes, browned (No. 1)
Cook as in last recipe, but when ready for the milk turn the
stewed potatoes into a buttered pudding dish, cover with the
milk, butter and flour and bake, covered, half an hour. Then un-
cover and brown.
This dish is particularly good if a little onion juice and about
a tablespoonful of minced celery be mixed with the potatoes just
before they are put into the bake-dish. The dice should be very
small.
Hashed potatoes, creamed and browned (No. 2)
Cut a dozen cold boiled potatoes into very small dice. Thicken
a cupful of hot milk with a tablespoonful of flour, rubbed into one
of butter. Season to taste and stir the potato dice into this sauce.
Stir for just a minute ; turn into a greased baking-dish and brown
in a good oven.
Lyonnaise potatoes
Cut a dozen cold boiled potatoes into dice of uniform size.
Shred two onions very thin and put them into a frying-pan with
two tablespoonfuls of butter. Fry the onion to a light brown;
132 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
add the potatoes and fry until delicately colored, stirring fre-
quently. Strew with chopped parsley and serve.
Potato croquettes
Into a pint of hot mashed potatoes stir a* tablespoonful of but-
ter, a beaten egg, salt and pepper and enough cream to make the
potatoes of the proper consistency to be formed into croquettes.
Roll in egg and cracker crumbs and set in the ice-box for an hour
before frying in deep cottolene or other fat to a light brown.
Drain in a hot colander.
Potato omelet
Beat two cupfuls of mashed potatoes to a cream with milk, salt
and pepper and two tablespoonfuls of melted butter. Beat three
eggs light and whip them into the potato mixture. Have a but-
tered frying-pan heated, turn the omelet into this and cook until
set ; turn out upon a hot platter.
Chopped potatoes sautes
Chop cold boiled potatoes evenly and rather coarsely. Put a
tablespoonful of butter or of good dripping into a frying-pan and
when hot stir the potato-dice into it, tossing and shaking until
they are smoking hot. Pepper and salt and dish.
An equal quantity of sweet potato dice mixed with the white
will make the dish still better.
Potatoes fried whole
Boil potatoes of uniform size until just done. Sprinkle with
salt. When cold roll in beaten egg and cracker crumbs and
set in a cold place for an hour. Fry in deep, boiling cottolene or
other fat, or in dripping to a golden brown.
BREAKFAST VEGETABLES 133
Fried green peppers
Slice green peppers crosswise and remove the seeds and tough,
white membrane. Melt a little butter in the frying-pan and fry
the sliced peppers in this. They are an appetizing accompani-
ment to fried fish.
Stuffed peppers
Mince enough cold chicken to make a cupful and stir into it two
tablespoonfuls of minced ham and one of melted butter. Season
to taste. Cut the stems from green peppers so that they will
stand upright. Cut off the tops of the peppers, remove the seeds
and membrane and fill with the minced chicken and ham. Stand
the peppers on end in a baking-pan, pour about them a cup of
chicken stock and bake half an hour.
German potato pancakes
Six large raw potatoes grated fine; three eggs; a scant tea-
spoonful of soda ; salt to taste. Mix as pancake dough and fry
in plenty of cottolene or other fat previously heated gradually
to a boil.
Fried eggplant
Cut the eggplant into slices nearly three-quarters of an inch
thick, peel these and lay them in a bowl of cold, salted water,
putting a plate on them to keep them under the surface of the
liquid. At the end of an hour remove the vegetables from the
water and wipe dry on a clean cloth. Dip each slice in beaten
egg, then in cracker crumbs and lay on a platter. Set in the ice-
box for an hour and fry to a golden brown in deep boiling cotto-
lene or other fat. Drain in a colander lined with tissue paper and
pile on a folded napkin on a hot platter.
Broiled eggplant
Cut the eggplant in slices half an inch thick, peel and leave
for an hour in cold, salted water, as in the preceding recipe.
134 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Wipe the slices dry and lay in a bath of five tablespoonfuls of
salad oil and two teaspoonfuls of vinegar. At the end of fifteen
minutes remove the eggplant, drain in a colander, sprinkle each
slice with salt and pepper, lay on a gridiron and broil over a clear
fire. Cook for five minutes on one side before turning the broiler.
Serve very hot.
Pried ripe tomatoes
Cut firm tomatoes into thick slices, but do not peel them.
Sprinkle each slice with salt, dip into a beaten egg and then in fine
cracker dust. Set in a cold place for an hour and fry in boiling
cottolene or other fat, or in butter.
Broiled ripe tomatoes (No. 1)
Cut large* firm tomatoes into half-inch slices, sprinkle with
salt and pepper and dip in fine bread crumbs. Put into a greased
broiler and broil over a clear fire until heated thoroughly. Spread
with soft butter and serve at once.
Broiled tomatoes (No. 2)
Wash and wipe ripe tomatoes. With a very sharp knife cut
them in half and lay, skin side down, upon a buttered broiler.
Cook over a clear fire until done; arrange squares of toast on a
hot platter and lay the broiled tomatoes on this toast half a
tomato to each slice. Handle carefully that they may not break.
Sprinkle with pepper and salt and pour melted butter over all.
Grilled tomatoes
Cut large, firm tomatoes into thick slices. Do not peel. Rub
an oyster broiler lightly with butter, lay on it the slices of tomato
and broil over a clear fire. Have ready a sauce made by working
a teaspoonful, each, of minced parsley and of lemon juice into
two tablespoonfuls of butter. Sprinkle the tomatoes with pepper
and salt, put the sauce on them, let them stand covered in the
BREAKFAST VEGETABLES 135
open oven or plate-warmer for a couple of minutes, or until the
butter is melted, and serve.
Tomatoes and bacon
Prepare tomatoes as in the preceding recipe, omitting the sauce.
Keep them hot while you broil or fry thin slices of bacon to a
delicate crisp. Arrange the tomatoes on a dish, lay a slice or two
of the bacon on each piece of the tomato and serve. This is an
excellent breakfast dish.
If for any reason it is not convenient to broil the tomatoes,
they may be fried in butter or in olive oil, drained dry and served
in the same fashion.
Broiled green tomatoes
Cut the unpeeled tomatoes into half-inch slices and lay in sweet
oil for five minutes. Transfer the slices carefully to a fine wire
broiler and cook to a delicate brown. When done, sprinkle with
salt and pepper, lay on slices of crisp toast and pour a white sauce
over and around all.
Fried green tomatoes
Wipe green tomatoes with a damp cloth, cut them into slices
half an inch thick, dip in beaten egg and cracker crumbs, set in
the ice-chest for half an hour and then fry in butter to a delicate
brown. Drain from grease and serve on a hot platter.
Broiled mushrooms
Peel, lay upon a buttered broiler and cook over clear coals, al-
lowing three minutes to each side of the mushrooms. Transfer
to thin slices of crustless toast, put a bit of butter and a dash of
salt and paprika on each mushroom and set in an oven just long
enough to melt the butter.
Fried mushrooms
Melt a great spoonful of butter in an agate frying-pan. Peel
the mushrooms and cut off their stems, scraping these last. Lay
136 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
the mushrooms with their scraped stalks in the frying-pan and
cook, turning often, until done. Serve very hot.
Green pepper toast
Slice bread thin, cut off the crusts and toast on both sides to a
delicate brown, then butter and keep hot in the oven. Heat a
cup of beef stock in the saucepan. Rub together a tablespoonful
of butter and the same quantity of browned flour and stir it into
the beef stock. When you have a very thick brown sauce add
salt to taste and a half cupful of green peppers which have been
seeded, freed from the tough white core and minced very fine.
Stir to a paste, remove from the fire and spread upon the slices
of hot toast. Set in the oven ' long enough to become very hot
and crisp, and serve.
Fried hominy
Warm three cups of cold boiled hominy by setting the vessel
containing it in an outer vessel of boiling water. When hot, add
a saltspoonful of salt and a tablespoonful of melted butter, beat
the hominy smooth and turn into small muffin-tins to get cold and
to form. When very stiff, turn the forms over, roll each in
beaten egg and cracker dust and set all in a cold place for an
hour. Fry in deep, boiling cottolene or other fat.
Block potatoes
(Contributed)
Cut raw potatoes in cubes. Wipe them dry and fry in deep fat
until a light brown. Salt, drain on brown paper and serve hot.
FAMILIAR TALK
WITH MARTHA IN HER KITCHEN
(Time The cook's "afternoon out.")
IT is the Christian duty of every housemother in this comfort-
loving land to provide a commodious, well-appointed kitchen and
laundry, where daily household work is done, and clean, airy, com-
fortable chambers for workers, where they may take rest in sleep
when that work is over. I should fail in observance of the Golden
Rule if I were to oblige them to work where I could not w^rk,
or to sleep where slumber would be an impossibility to me.
My own preference for a kitchen floor-covering is really good
linoleum of conventional design and light in color, therefore
cheerful in effect. Many housewives insist upon oiled hardwood
or painted floors. Not one cook in twenty takes proper care of
an oiled floor, and paint soon wears off. It is economical to buy
a prime quality of linoleum, and to lay the same pattern on
kitchen, laundry and hall. When it wears out in one room it can
be replaced from another. Inlaid linoleum will last for years.
Thick, strong rugs should be laid before the range and by the
tables, one under the table at which the servants eat. Linoleum is
cold to the feet, and one takes cold readily when over-heated.
I read, last year, that kitchen tables are now, as "a taking nov-
elty," covered with zinc. Over a score or years ago I covered
what may be called the work-tables in my kitchen with this useful
metal, tacking it neatly under the edges, lest a loose point might
tear hands or clothes. I have kept it up ever since. The table-
tops are cleaned easily ; they never "take" grease or stain of any
kind, and they outwear wood by many years.
Another invaluable invention which I wish I could place in
137
138 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
every kitchen is a sheet-iron hood and asbestos curtain, fitted to
the top of the recess enclosing the range. It works so easily upon
pulleys that a little finger could pull it down. When raised, it is
entirely out of the cook's way ; when down, it shuts in the range
like an impervious screen. Sliding doors in the center allow
one to look into pots and kettles simmering behind it, when over-
sight is advisable. If left closed, it will lower the temperature of
the kitchen twenty degrees within two hours. It cost twenty
dollars when new, twelve years ago. If I could not get another,
twelve hundred dollars would not buy it.
I long ago discarded the old-fashioned tin and iron cooking
utensils in favor of agate-nickel-steel ware, which is as easily
washed as crockery bowls and plates ; is light and neat in appear-
ance ; never rusts, and is altogether satisfactory. All of my ket-
tles have covers, and we use covered roasters another boon to
housewives for cooking meats. They keep in flavor and juices,
and lessen the labor of basting.
Always have a rocking-chair convenient into which the cook can
drop for rest between the times of active duty, and one apiece
for maids in the laundry. For yourself, follow the rule I laid
down imperatively a quarter-century ago in COMMON SENSE IN
THE HOUSEHOLD "Never stand at your work when you can
sit." A chair suited in height to the mixing table will save you
many an ache in the feet, back and head.
Do not allow servants to jumble their table crockery, etc., up
with pots, saucepans, kettles, colanders and the like. There is no
reason why the dresser or closet in which the kitchen tableware
is kept should not be as daintily arranged as the dining-room
buffet. It should hold no commerce with the pot closet.
The servants' chambers must be furnished with iron bedsteads,
good mattresses, plenty of clean blankets and white spreads. The
"honeycomb" spreads are absurdly cheap and easily washed. The
rest of the appointments of the dormitories need not be elaborate.
If they are neat and comfortable the occupants are more likely
to try and make them attractive. When one pins up a crucifix
over her bed, her mother's or sister's photograph against the wall,
or even a colored lithograph of a patent medicine notice it pleas-
FAMILIAR TALK 139
antly. It means that she is catching the home feeling. Muslin
curtains cost next to nothing. Hang them up at her window;
give her a pretty cover for her bureau-top and a plain one for her
washstand, and plenty of towels. The Golden Rule works well
here where does it not ?
I read a little story many, many years ago before you were
born, I think a slight, commonplace affair, that has furnished
two generations of busy housewives with a hard-worked mot
de famille.
Excuse the foreign phrase! We have none in English that
exactly translates it. "Household word" comes nearer to it than
anything else, without quite covering it.
The tale was of a fidgety housekeeper of the sort stigmatized
in the rough parlance of the sensible vulgar as "nasty particular."
A friend, calling upon her soon after breakfast, found her fairly
beside herself with worry because guests she had expected at noon
had telegraphed that they would be with her at eleven o'clock that
morning. Distracted Martha "could never in the world be ready
for them. There was so much to do that she did not know what
to take hold of first. It was enough to drive a woman out of her
senses," etc., etc., etc.
"But what have you to do ?"
"Do! Do! Do! Why everything !"
The visitor drew off her gloves.
"I will stay and help you. Shan't I get the spare room ready ?"
A gesture of disdain.
"As if I would have put that off until today !"
"Can I help about luncheon ?"
"Well ! I should be ashamed of myself if the cook hadn't her
orders and materials and all before this !"
"Perhaps I could dust the parlors? or polish silver? or
glancing around the perfectly appointed dining-room, where the
luncheon table was already laid "I might arrange the flowers in
the vases?"
It finally transpired that the frantic and "forehanded" hostess
could specify but one thing that remained to be done before every-
thing should be in order for the visitors. She had "butter-balls
140 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
to make for luncheon. She always kept the paddles in ice-water
for hours beforehand."
I was young then and read the little story aloud to my mother
a woman blessed with a keen sense of humor and as keen a per-
ception of the fitness of things. She adopted the phrase on the
spot. "Butter-balls to make" became with us the synonym for
needless hurry and flurry and worry. When used interrogatively,
it was the cabalistic formula that caused a precipitate and a settle-
ment of many a muddy whirl of anxieties, the open sesame to a
"chamber the name of which was Peace."
Half of the perturbations that chase the housemother "clean out
of her wits" are as purely imaginary as those that beset the her-
oine of our wee scrap of a story. That other American Martha
who cried out on Monday morning : "Washing to-day ! Ironing on
Tuesday ! Baking on Wednesday ! Bless my life, half the week
gone and nothing done!" is hardly a caricature of the national
housewife. Worry is a whirlwind that throws the weightier
matters of the law of life out of plumb, and raises such a dust of
minor duties and possible hindrances that the blinded victim can
see nothing aright.
One of the fixed principles of the universe is that two objects
can not occupy the same place at the same time. Another, which
we are more slow to admit, is that no two duties are cast for one
and the same instant. The throngs of homely tasks that obscure
our toiler's vision in the anticipation of "another day's work,"
drifting and dancing in the light of the new day a flood of
elusive moths have really sequence and order. Let her take
hold of her astral or inner self, by the shoulders, and hold her
steady until she can weigh and classify the importunate atoms.
The pretty fairy-tale of the tasks set for Graciosa by her wicked
stepmother supplies another and a pat illustration. The poor girl
had to sort a roomful of feathers of all colors and sizes. After
laboring vainly for hours, she called tearfully for her fairy lover,
who, with one stroke of his wand, laid each kind in a separate
heap from the rest.
Your wand and my wand dear Martha, is the cool, long
breath of sober reflection that gives us time to say: "All these
RANGE-SCREEN LOWERED TO SHUT IN HEAT
FAMILIAR TALK 141
things can not be done at once. Some of the less important can
be laid over into the convenient season which must fall into the
lot of even an American housekeeper. I must keep each in its
place. I will" a strong "will," a long "will," and many "wills"
altogether "I will think of but one thing at a time, and do it
as if there were nothing else in the world for me to do."
The discipline of thought and nerves that must attend upon
such a moral and mental effort will train lawless impulses and
teach concentration of thought as well as the much-vaunted
higher mathematics could. Work need not, of necessity, be
worry. Industry does not imply haste.
"Count five and twenty, Tattycoram !" entreated Mr. Meagles,
when the foundling's temper was likely to get away from her.
In the same tone of affectionate warning, I pass on my homely
test of facts and values "Butter-balls to make!" First, make
sure of what you really have to do, and to do today. Secondly,
having screened and sifted the mass, assort the ore before you be-
gin to smelt it and yourself !
In place of counting five and twenty, accept my formula
"Draw ten deep breaths" before you make up your mind that you
have not time for one.
The world is full of fresh air and it owes us all we can take in
leisurely and thankfully.
No matter how heavy your burdens, your experience reflects
'that of hundreds of others. It may be a mean kind of misery
that loves company. The knowledge that others are fighting
and toiling bravely along the same line with ourselves; that
others have conquered the circumstances which oppose us, braces
us for renewed effort. What woman has done, woman may do
again.
You are far from being hopelessly "mired ;" you have what is
called "a good fighting chance" for life and usefulness. You
have one tremendous advantage, a solid foothold to begin with, in
the certainty that you are in the right path.
The confident assurance of this is half the battle. The other
half is in doing your work as it comes to your hand. Don't cul-
tivate "a long reach," It never pays. You "don't get ahead one
142 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
inch." Perhaps God means for you to move by quarter-inches.
He has ten thousand ways of disciplining His children, and so
teaching them to make the very best of themselves. It is as cer-
tain as that He rules the heavens, that He knows just what sort
of training is good for you. Your husband, your children, your
home, are your working capital, a loan from Him your talents,
if you like that figure better. They are more than worth all the
labor and the worries that fall into your lot.
Husband, children, home, work and worry fill to-day full.
Hence the folly, "and the danger, and the sin of "the long reach."
The one coming guest whom you should never welcome is to-mor-
row's possible troubles. The children are not to be educated to-
day, nor is John ill or dead at the present moment, and the "lone-
some" maid does not go until her month is up. The faith that
removes mountains wears short-sighted glasses and brings them
to bear upon the work in hand.
This is not preaching, but practical philosophy. Try how it
will work for a week then a month then a year.
Keep your house as well as you can for John, for the babies,
for yourself, and let the neighbors run theirs to suit themselves.
Comparisons, according to Dogberry, are "odorous." Compari-
son of this sort savors of discontent and trouble. Mind your own
business and take your business in sections.
"Magnify your office." You are as important in your king-
dom as the Queen of Great Britain and the Empress of the'
Indias was in hers, and have not one worry where she had a
thousand.
Lastly, read in full the text relating to the "bread of careful-
ness." Look it up and take it as the application of my lay-
sermon.
THE FAMILY LUNCHEON
FIFTY years ago luncheon expressed the most desultory and
haphazard meal possible to enlightened humanity. School children
carried lunch-boxes and parcels in the corners of book-bags when
they left home after breakfast. Picnic, berrying and nutting
parties stowed away bountiful luncheons in baskets and hampers.
There were three meals a day, breakfast, dinner and supper, or in
New England, tea. Households in which people sat down, even
upon "occasions," to a luncheon set forth in orderly fashion upon
a table, to be eaten in courses with knives and forks, were as
few as those in which afternoon tea was served.
The change that, by pushing the dinner hour nearer the close of
day has made expedient, if not needful, a substantial noon-day
meal, has come about naturally and gradually. The down-town
of men workers and the up-town of homes have receded from
each other until the head of the house can no longer spare time to
dine at home at midday. And the stately sequence of soup, fish,
meat and sweets is a tedious sham when there are no men to be
cooked for. In the country the increasing army of commuters have
but two meals at home during the week day. Wives, compassion-
ately reminiscent of the hasty bit and sup that stays their stomachs
during a day's shopping, assume that the respective Johns fare no
better. John's breakfast is a touch-and-go affair. He shall have
abundant recompense for that and the wretched sandwich and
lukewarm coffee that mocked fainting Nature at the noon spell.
By these and others stages luncheon has become an American
institution, and has come to stay. It is, to most women, the pleas-
antest meal of the day, even when partaken of at home, with
none present but "the children" and the grown women of the
household. It breaks up the monotony of daily tasks; it is eaten
143
144 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
without flurry or hurry, because with little ceremony. "Pick-up"
dishes and accidental entrees figure conspicuously in the menu,
things for which men, as a rule, care little and their wives and
daughters much. Tea and toast, cake and preserves can be en-
joyed without fear of bantering comment, and a harmless disli
of gossip can be uncovered without provoking severe strictures.
The Ladies' Luncheon, which has grown into one of the most
important of modern social functions, will be considered later.
LUNCHEON DISHES
OYSTERS
Fricasseed oysters
Drain the liquor from a quart of oysters and bring 1 to the boil-
ing point. Stir into it two tablespoonfuls of cracker crumbs
rolled very fine. Set at the side of the range while you scald a
half pint of cream in which you have dissolved a tiny pinch of
soda. Meanwhile melt three tablespoonfuls of butter in a sauce-
pan and cook the oysters in this until their edges "ruffle," when
they must be removed and laid on tiny slices of toast on a hot
water dish. Turn the melted butter remaining in the saucepan
into the oyster liquor and pour this slowly, stirring all the time,
on the hot cream, season with salt and paprika, and pour immedi-
ately over the oysters and toast.
Deviled oyster pate's
Drain the liquor from a quart of oysters. Chop the oysters and
mix with them a cup of cracker crumbs, two tablespoonfuls of
melted butter and enough oyster liquor to soften the whole.
Season with salt, paprika and a few drops of Tabasco sauce, with
a teaspoonful of tomato catsup. Butter small pate-pans, fill
these with the mixture, sprinkle cracker crumbs on top, and bake.
Creamed oysters
Drain the liquor from a quart of oysters.
Cook together three tablespoonfuls of butter and two of flour,
and when they bubble pour upon them a cupful of oyster liquor
10 145
146 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
and a cupful of rich milk (cream is better), in which you have
dropped a bit of soda the size of a pea. Stir until the sauce
thickens, then turn into it the oysters. Cook until the oysters are
heated through; add, a few drops at a time, the beaten yolks of
two eggs, keeping your spoon moving all the time. Do not allow
it to cook a minute after the last drop of egg is added.
Broiled oysters (No. 1)
There are several methods of broiling oysters. For all of them
a good large oyster is needed. I give the simplest method first.
Dry your oysters on a towel ; sprinkle them with salt and a
little red pepper and lay them within an oyster-broiler. Turn
them so that they may brown on both sides, put them on a hot
dish, dress at once with butter, and serve as soon as this has
melted.
Broiled oysters (No. 2)
Drain and dry your oysters, sprinkle them with salt and pepper
and roll them in bread-crumbs. Broil them over a clear fire, turn-
ing them until they are brown. Serve on buttered toast. Put a
bit of butter on each oyster and squeeze on it a few drops of
lemon juice.
Broiled oysters with brown sauce
Sprinkle large drained oysters with salt and pepper, dip in
beaten egg, then, roll in cracker-dust, and lay on the ice for an hour
before cooking upon an oyster-broiler over a clear fire to a delicate
brown. Put on a hot platter and cover with a brown sauce.
Brown sauce for broiled oysters
Cook together a scant tablespoon ful, each, of butter and
browned flour ; pour upon a half pint of cleared consomme ; sea-
son with salt, pepper, a dash of Worcestershire sauce, a little
mushroom catsup and a few drops of kitchen bouquet. Add a
dash of lemon' juice and serve.
LUNCHEON DISHES 147
Scalloped oysters
Drain the oysters and dispose in a buttered bake-dish in the
following order :
In the bottom have a light layer of crushed cracker crumbs ;
season with paprika and salt, drop bits of butter upon them and
wet with oyster liquor and milk mixed in equal quantities. Now
comes a layer of oysters, similarly seasoned, next a layer of
crumbs. Go on thus until the dish is full or the materials are
used up. The top layer should be crumbs with a double allow-
ance of butter. Cover closely and bake half an hour, then uncover
and brown lightly.
Oyster scallops
Prepare as above, but bake in pate-pans or in shells, covering
each with fine crumbs. In tide-water Virginia, notably near Wil-
liamsburg, the first capital of the state, large, fluted shells are
dug up many feet below the surface, which, when cleaned, make
the best possible receptacle for scalloped oysters. All who have
eaten fresh oysters, just from York river, cooked in these fossil
remains, will agree with me that they are incomparably savory.
Send sliced lemon around with them.
Fried oysters
They must be large, plump and fresh. Drain well ; spread upon
a clean, soft towel, and cover with another, patting them gently
to dry them on both sides. Roll each over and over in salted
cracker-crumbs; set on the ice for an hour; dust more crumbs
over them, and fry, a few at a time, in boiling hot butter, cotto-
lene or other fats.
Drain, garnish with parsley and serve.
Oysters creamed and baked
Heat a large spoonful of butter in a clean frying-pan, rub in a
tablespoonful of flour, and stir to a white roux. Remove to the
table. Season with salt and white pepper. Have ready pate-pans
148 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
or scallop-shells arranged in a baking-pan ; put three or four fine
oysters in each, cover with the white sauce and cook in a quick
oven about eight minutes, or until the oysters "ruffle." Serve in
the shells. The white sauce should be thick, as the liquor from
the oysters will thin it.
Stewed oysters
Drain in a colander one quart of oysters. Put the liquor over
the fire in a saucepan, with a good tablespoonful of butter. Add
half as much boiling water as you have liquor, pepper and salt to
taste, and bring to a boil. As soon as this is reached, put in the
drained oysters and cook quickly. When they "ruffle" in five
minutes or thereabouts add half a cupful of milk heated in an-
other vessel with a tiny bit of soda to prevent curdling, and half
a teaspoonful of corn-starch wet with cold milk, stirred in. Pour
upon the oysters, cook for one minute and dish.
Most stewed oysters are cooked into insipid toughness.
Oyster stew
Heat the liquor from a quart of oysters to boiling. While it is
growing hot put over the fire in another vessel a pint of milk.
When this is heated stir into it a tablespoonful of butter rolled
in as much flour. Drop the oysters into the hot liquid and let
them cook until they ruffle. Pour the milk into the saucepan
with the oysters, season to taste with salt and pepper, and serve.
This is the old-fashioned stew and is better than many more
modern inventions.
Oysters fried in batter
Make a rather thick batter of one egg, a cupful of milk and
about half a cupful of flour, sifted twice, with a scant half tea-
spoonful of baking-powder and half as much salt. Drain fine
oysters, roll each in flour, let them stand half an hour, then dip
in the batter and fry in boiling butter, cottolene or other fat.
Drain off every drop of grease in a hot colander and serve.
LUNCHEON DISHES 149
Steamed oysters
Wash shell oysters and arrange, flat side up, in the steamer.
Cover closely, and set over water at a hard boil. In twenty-five
minutes lift the steamer from the fire. If the shells gape, the
oysters are done. Pry off the lower shell, put a bit of butter on
each, and send at once to table. Pass salt and pepper and sliced
lemon with them. They are delicious if eaten piping hot, pre-
serving the flavor far better than stewed or panned oysters can
hold it.
Panned oysters
Fit rounds of buttered toast into the bottom of pate pans ; lay
on these as many oysters as the pans will hold, season with salt
and pepper, lay a dot of butter upon each panful and set in your
covered roaster to cook in a quick oven about ten minutes, or
until the oysters "ruffle." Serve in the pans.
An appetizing luncheon or supper dish.
i
Creamed panned oysters
Cook as in last recipe, and when the oysters are done add to
each pan a large teaspoonful of cream heated to scalding, putting
in a tiny pinch of soda to prevent curdling.
Instead of the cream you may make a dish of
Deviled panned oysters
When ready for the table add to each pan a dozen drops of
Tabasco sauce, stirred into a saltspoonful of French mustard
and the same quantity of lemon juice. Beat together, stir lightly
into the oysters with a fork, heat one minute and serve.
Curried oysters
Into two tablespoonfuls of white roux stir a few drops of onion
juice and a teaspoonful of curry powder. Add a cupful of scald-
ing oyster liquor, and, when well incorporated, pour over broiled
150 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
or fried oysters laid upon toast in a chafing-dish. Rice croquettes
are nice served with this dish.
Oyster pie or pat6s
Make pastry shells or a pie shell of puff paste, bake, and when
cold, fill with a filling made thus : Cook together a tablespoonful,
each, of butter and flour ; pour on them a cup of cream and a gill
of oyster liquor and stir to a smooth sauce. Drop in the oysters
and cook, stirring steadily until the edges begin to curl ; remove
from the fire and beat in gradually the yolk of an egg. Pour into
the pastry shells and set in the oven until the pastry and contents
are very hot.
Oyster cocktails (No. 1)
Into a tablespoonful of tomato catsup stir a half tablespoonful
of grated horseradish, a half tablespoonful of Worcestershire
sauce, a tablespoonful of lemon juice, a quarter teaspoonful of
Tabasco sauce, half a tablespoonful of vinegar and a saltspoon-
f ul of salt. Set in the ice for an hour. Into very cold little
glasses put five small oysters that have been chilled, and fill the
glasses with the cold sauce.
Oyster cocktails (No. 2)
For six of these provide thirty small oysters. Make a sauce by
mixing together a tablespoonful, each, of lemon juice and tomato
catsup, a teaspoonful of grated horseradish, a pinch, each, of salt
and cayenne pepper and six drops of Tabasco sauce. Have all
very cold, and the cocktail or claret glasses thoroughly chilled
before you put five oysters in each and divide the sauce equally
between them. Lay a slice of lemon on top of each cocktail.
Oysters with mushrooms
(Contributed)
Drain about twenty-five oysters, put them into a hot pan with a
teaspoonful of butter and toss them until they are plumped and
LUNCHEON DISHES 151
ruffled on both sides. Then place them in a hot dish. To the
oyster liquor add the juice of half a pint of chopped mushrooms
and enough milk to make a pint. Thicken this with a tablespoon-
ful of flour moistened with a little milk and cook three minutes ;
stir in the mushrooms and cook two minutes longer ; add a half
teaspoonful of salt, a half teaspoonful of lemon juice, a teaspoon-
ful of onion juice, the beaten yolks of two eggs and a heaping
tablespoonful of butter. Put in the oysters and as soon as the
preparation reaches the boiling point turn into a hot dish.
Pigs in blankets
(Contributed)
Take large oysters and allow them to remain in the following
dressing: The juice of two lemons, half a teaspoonful of salt and
a dash of cayenne pepper. Now wrap each oyster in a thin slice
of bacon and fasten with a toothpick, fry in a little butter until
the bacon is crisp. Have nicely browned slices of toast and lay
the oysters on them. Garnish with parsley and serve.
Baked oysters
(Contributed)
Select nice large oysters. Wash and scrub the shells free from
sand. Put them into a baking-pan and bake in a hot oven until
the shells open. Carefully remove the upper shell ; put a bit of
butter on each oyster, sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve
in the under shells.
Oysters with macaroni
(Contributed)
Put about four ounces of macaroni in plenty of boiling salted
water and cook for twenty minutes. Take out and drain well.
Into a buttered baking-dish put a layer of the macaroni, then a
layer of oysters, dot with bits of butter, season with pepper and
salt ; follow this with another layer of macaroni, another of ovs-
152 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
ters and seasoning, and finish with a layer of macaroni sprinkled
thickly with grated cheese. Bake in a moderate oven twenty
minutes.
Oysters sautes
Drain the oysters well, season with pepper and salt, roll in fine
bread crumbs, and brown in a little clarified butter in a spider.
Serve on a hot platter.
Scalloped clams
Select one dozen large clams in the shell and two dozen soft
ones. Use care not to injure the shells which are to be used in
cooking. Clean the shells well and put two soft clams into each
one. Add to each a touch of wiMte pepper and one and a half tea-
spoonfuls of minced celery. Cut into small dice a few slices of
bacon and add four of these to each shell ; sprinkle bread crumbs
over the top, put a piece of butter on top of each and bake in the
oven till brown.
Roast clams
Wash the clams and lay them unopened in a bake-pan, and set
on the top of the very hot range. Cook until the shells open wide,
then remove the upper shell and transfer the lower with the
clam and juice still in it to a hot platter. Squeeze upon each
clam a few drops of lemon juice and serve in the shells. Pass
tomato catsup or chili sauce with them.
Creamed clams
Drain the liquor from a pint of opened clams, and set the clams
and liquor on the range in separate double boilers to heat. Cook
together a large tablespoonful of butter and the same of flour
until they bubble, then pour upon them the heated liquor and
cook until smooth and thick. Have ready in another vessel a
pint of hot cream, in which a pinch of soda has been dissolved.
Pour this gradually upon a beaten egg, and return to the fire for
LUNCHEON DISHES 153
a minute, stirring constantly. Add the chopped and heated clams
to the thickened liquor, season with paprika, stir gradually into
the hot eggs and cream, and pour upon squares of lightly but-
tered toast.
Clam pates
Drain the liquor from a quart of clams. Cook together a table-
spoonful of butter and one of flour, and pour upon them a cup of
hot milk (in which a pinch of soda has been dissolved) and a
cup of clam liquor. Stew until you have a smooth, thick sauce,
and then add the chopped clams. Add a beaten egg, drop by
drop, and when well mixed remove from the fire, season and set
aside to cool. Line pate pans with good puff paste, fill with the
clam mixture, put pastry over the tops and bake to a light brown.
Serve hot.
Deviled clams (No. 1)
Steam in the shell as you have been told how to steam oysters.
When they gape, open, saving all the liquor in a bowl. Cut off
the dark end of each clam and set aside while you strain the liquor
and bring it quickly to a boil. Season with paprika, butter, lemon
juice and a few drops of Tabasco sauce; put in the clams and as
soon as they are smoking hot, turn into a heated covered dish.
Send around buttered bars of graham bread, or strips of buttered
toast, or hot crackers, buttered lightly.
Deviled clams (No. 2)
Take two dozen clams from the shells, drain and chop. Scald a
cup of rich milk and thicken it with two tablespoonfuls of flour
rubbed into one of butter; remove from the fire, add gradually
the beaten yolks of three eggs, paprika and celery salt to taste,
a few drops of lemon juice and the chopped clams. Wash the
clam shells, fill with this mixture, and set in a pan in the oven for
ten minutes. Serve very hot/
154 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Lobster la Newburg
Stir a pinch of baking soda into a pint of cream ; put this, the
beaten yolks of three eggs, and a wineglassful of sherry in a
double boiler and cook, stirring, until thick. Now add a pint of
lobster meat, seasoned with salt and cayenne, and stir until smok-
ing hot ; then serve.
Lobster timbales
Mix together a cup of cold boiled lobster, minced very fine,
eight blanched and chopped almonds, and season with celery salt
and white pepper. Stir in a half pint of whipped cream and
the whites of four eggs beaten very stiff and work in an ordinary
Hollandaise sauce. Turn into timbale molds and bake.
Lobster cutlets
Two cupfuls of minced lobster seasoned with a quarter tea-
spoonful of salt, a dash of paprika, and one teaspoonful, each, of
lemon juice and minced parsley. Moisten with one cup of thick
drawn butter and the beaten yolk of one egg. When cool, shape
into cutlets ; egg and crumb them, let them stand for one hour on
ice, then fry in deep, hot butter.
Creamed lobster
Two cups of boiled lobster meat, cut into dice. Season with
paprika, salt and lemon juice. Heat a great spoonful of butter in
a saucepan and turn in the lobster dice. Toss until smoking hot,
add half a cup of cream, heated (with a bit of soda), then beat into
it the whipped yolks of three eggs. Stir for one minute, and dish.
Send hot, buttered crackers around with it.
Curry of lobster
Heat a tablespoonful of butter in a frying-pan, and cook in it a
tablespoonful of sliced onion. Strain out the onion, return the
butter to the pan, and stir to a roux with a level tablespoonful of
LUNCHEON DISHES 155
flour and a teaspoonful of curry powder. Add four tablespoonfuls
of cream, heated (not forgetting the pinch of soda) ; lastly two
cupfuls of lobster meat, cut into dice. Stir steadily until very hot,
and dish.
Note
All of these preparations of lobster may be made with canned
lobster, although they must always be inferior in flavor to those
made from the fresh fish. If canned lobster be used, drain oft
every drop of the liquor and have the meat as dry as possible be-
fore it goes into the manufacture of the proposed dish.
Scalloped lobsters
(Contributed)
Cover the bottom of a baking-dish with fine bread-crumbs. On
this put a layer of lobster and season with pepper and salt; add
another layer of crumbs, another of lobster and so on, until the
dish is filled. Moisten with milk, strew with bits of butter and
bake about twenty minutes.
Deviled lobster
Two cups of lobster meat, cut into dice. Reserve the coral,
rubbing it to a paste with butter and lemon juice. Heat two
tablespoonfuls of butter in a saucepan, add the lobster meat high-
ly seasoned with paprika, French mustard, ten drops of Tabasco,
or double the quantity of Worcestershire sauce and salt. As
soon as it bubbles turn in the coral paste and let it just come to a
boil before serving.
Deviled crab
Pick the meat from boiled crabs, taking care not to break the
shells. Flake the meat and mix with it a tablespoonful of melted
butter, cayenne and salt to taste and a tablespoonful- of lemon
juice. Return to the shells, sprinkle with bread crumbs and bits
of butter, and bake.
156 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Crabs and champignons
Two cupfuls of crab meat, cut into dice, and half a can of cham-
pignons (mushrooms), cut into dice of the same size. Make a
roux in a frying-pan of two tablespoonfuls of butter and one
heaping tablespoonful of flour, stirred until smooth. Mix the
crab meat and champignons well together, season with paprika,
salt and a dash of onion juice ; turn into the smoking roux; cook
three minutes ; remove from the fire ; add quickly three table-
spoonfuls of cream, heated, with a pinch of soda; set over the
fire for one minute, add a glass of sherry, and serve hot.
Lobsters cooked in this way, substituting the fresh mushrooms
for the canned, are delicious.
Crabs en coquille (No. 1)
Two cupfuls of crab meat, cut into neat dice, and set on ice un-
til needed. One heaping tablespoonful of flour and an even
tablespoonful of butter. Four tablespoonfuls of cream. Salt,
cayenne, ten drops of Tabasco sauce or twice as much Worces-
tershire. A little boiling water. Pinch of soda in the cream.
Make a roux of butter and flour. Season the crab meat and
stir into the roux, thinning with just enough boiling water to
make the mixture manageable. When smoking-hot, take from
the fire, beat in the hot cream and fill crab shells with the paste,
rounding to suit the shape of the shell. Sift fine crumbs, salted
and peppered, over each, put bits of butter on top, and brown on
the upper grating of the oven.
Crabs en coquille (No. 2)
(A Cuban dish.)
Prepare as directed in foregoing recipe, but mix with the crab
meat the pulp of three tomatoes, cut into bits and drained dry, a
green pepper, seeded and minced, and four tablespoonfuls of the
inside of an eggplant (boiled and cold), cut small ; also half a cup
of fine bread (not cracker) crumbs. Season with paprika, salt,
SWEETBREAD CUTLETS AND SARATOGA
POTATOES, GARNISH OF CELERY TOPS
CRAB SCALLOPED IN SHELL GARNISHED
WITH LETTUCE AND LEMON
LOBSTER CUTLETS AND WHIPPED POTATO
LUNCHEON DISHES 157
and a teaspoonful of onion juice. Stir into the roux over the
fire, adding a little boiling water if too thick, until very hot, when
remove to a table and beat in the whipped yolks of two eggs. Fill
your crab shells, sift fine crumbs on top, dot with butter and cook,
covered, ten minutes before browning upon the upper grating.
SHRIMPS
THE wee shell-fish are comparatively little known in many parts
of the United States except as they come in cans. Even in this
shape they lend themselves to many pleasing combinations con-
venient for luncheons and picnics.
Open the cans several hours before they are to be used, turn
out the contents into an open bowl, rinse in cold water, drain and
set on ice, or in some very cold place.
Buttered shrimps
Heat two tablespoonfuls of butter in a saucepan; add a tea-
spoonful of flour, and, when bubbling hot, a tablespoonful of to-
mato sauce, paprika and salt to taste, and a teaspoonful of onion
juice. Boil one minute and add a can of shrimps, washed and
drained. Stir the mixture four minutes over a brisk fire and
serve.
Pass thin slices of buttered brown bread with them.
Shrimps en coquille
Prepare as directed on preceding page, in crabs en coquille, No.
i. They are very good.
Scallop of shrimps and mushrooms
Cook precisely as in recipe on preceding page, for crabs and
champignons.
Curried shrimps
Make a roux of one heaping tablespoonful of butter and a little
less flour ; thin with one small cupful of boiling water ; add an
158 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
even tablespoonful of best curry powder and one teaspoonful of
onion juice. Stir for one minute and add a can of shrimps,
washed and drained. Cook five minutes and serve.
Shrimps and eggs
( A Cuban dish.)
Make a roux of one large tablespoonful of butter and one of
flour; when it bubbles add a teaspoonful of onion juice and twice
as much green sweet pepper, minced fine, with salt and a salt-
spoonful of sugar. Boil up and stir in a can of shrimps, pre-
viously washed and drained. Cook for five minutes ; remove to the
table and mix in gradually, stirring all the time, four eggs which
have been beaten just enough to break the yolks , Return to the
fire and stir until the eggs begin to "set."
Maryland terrapin
Boil the terrapin until the skin on the claws is sufficiently soft
to rub off at the slightest touch. Take from the shell, and re-
move every particle of entrails and lungs. Place the meat in a
chafing-dish. Add butter, pepper and salt, the quantity of each
depending on the quantity of flesh. Let it simmer until the es-
sence and butter reach the consistency of light gravy. Serve hot.
If desired, add a little good sherry while eating, but not while
cooking. Use no spices, dressing or other ingredients that can
detract from the flavor.
SARDINES
THE adaptability of the sardine to a variety of preparations that
are appetizing and delicious is not generally recognized by the
housekeeper. The tiny fish may be used as the foundation of
many nice, light dishes, and during the heated months form a
pleasing variety upon the heavier lunch or supper dishes com-
posed of meat. It is always well to open a box of sardines an
LUNCHEON DISHES 159
hour or two before the contents are to be used. Drain the fish
from the oil in which they are packed, as this is too rich to be
digestible, and does not improve the flavor of the fish. In buy-
ing sardines, choose the more expensive quality rather than the
cheap, so-called sardines, which are often only American minnows
packed down in oil.
Baked sardines
Toast crustless slices of graham bread and butter them. Put
the drained sardines on a tin plate, squeeze over them a few drops
of lemon juice and sprinkle with fine cracker crumbs. Set the
plate in the oven and bake the fish for ten minutes. Transfer the
sardines to the toast, and keep hot while you make the following
sauce :
Strain a half-pint of liquor from a can of tomatoes and put it
into a porcelain-lined saucepan to heat. Rub together a teaspoon-
ful of butter and one of flour, stir these into the tomato liquor,
and, as the sauce thickens, add a half-teaspoonful of onion juice
and a teaspoonful of granulated sugar, salt and pepper to taste.
Boil up once and pour over the sardines and toast.
You may, if you like, substitute white bread for brown, and
omit the tomato sauce entirely.
Broiled sardines
Drain the sardines free from oil and lay them on a fine oyster-
broiler. Broil over a clear fire for five minutes. Butter heated
saltine wafers, and lay a sardine on each of these. Squeeze four
drops of lemon juice and two drops of onion juice on each fish
and send to the table very hot.
Canapes of sardines
Cut thin bread into crescents or triangles. The crescent is tHe
true canape shape. Toast the bread. Flake sardines fine with a
fork ; work into them a teaspoonful of melted butter, a teaspoon-
ful of lemon juice, a pinch of salt and four or five drops of Ta-
160 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
basco sauce. Spread the toast first with butter, then with the sar-
dine mixture, place on a tin plate, cover, and set in the oven until
very hot.
Grilled sardines
Cut as many strips of bread as you have sardines, making each
piece a little longer and broader than the fish. Toast or fry
these. Roll your sardines in egg and then in fine cracker crumbs,
and fry to a light brown. Lay a sardine on each strip of toast
and garnish with lemon and parsley.
Sardine eggs (cold)
Boil six eggs hard and throw into cold water. Remove the
shells and cut the eggs in halves, removing the yolks. Pound
these yolks to a paste with a tablespoonful of salad oil, and work
into this paste eight skinned and minced sardines. Now add a
teaspoonful of lemon juice, and a saltspoonful, each, of salt, pep-
per and mustard. Form into balls, and fit these into the halved
whites of the eggs, trimming off the bottoms of the whites so
that they will stand on end. Serve garnished with water-cress,
and with or without a mayonnaise dressing.
Sardine eggs (hot)
After making out the "eggs" as directed in foregoing recipe,
put into a saucepan with a broad bottom and closely fitting lid, and
set in a pot of water at a hard boil on the range. Do not let the
water get into the inner vessel. In twenty minutes they should
be heated through. Transfer to a hot dish and pour over them
a hot Bearnaise sauce. (See Sauces.)
Sardines in cups
Cut rounds of stale bread more than half an inch thick. Press
a smaller cutter inside of the larger round half way through the
bread. Scrape out the crumb from the inner round, leaving
sides and bottom whole. Set upon the upper grating of a hot
LUNCHEON DISHES 161
oven until crisped to a light brown. Turn and toast the bottom
of the cups ; then butter well. Skin and behead eight sardines.
Scrape to a smooth pulp and mix with this sauce :
Make a roux of a large tablespoonful of butter and nearly as
much flour, thin with a few spoonfuls of boiling water, season
with a teaspoonful of anchovy paste and one of Worcestershire
sauce ; stir in the sardine pulp, and when it begins to bubble fill
the buttered bread cups, which should have been kept hot. Send
around sliced lemon with them.
Anchovies an lit
Toast thin rounds of bread ; butter and cover thickly with the
yolks of hard-boiled eggs, run through the vegetable press. Make
a hollow in the mass of powdered egg and lay a curled anchovy in
the little pit thus formed.
Set in a hot oven for five minutes, and serve.
Anchovy toast
Cut the crust from slices of bread and toast to a light brown.
Butter lightly, and spread with anchovy paste. Lay the toast
upon a hot platter in the oven while you make a sauce by cooking
together a tablespoonful of butter and the same quantity of
browned flour, and when they are blended pouring upon them
a pint of beef stock. Stir to a smooth, brown sauce, add a tea-
spoonful of kitchen bouquet, six stoned and chopped olives, pep-
per to taste, and a very little salt. Pour this sauce over and
around the anchovy toast.
Anchovy croutons
Cut white bread into three-inch triangles, and fry them in but-
ter to a pale brown. Drain, and spread each lightly with anchovy
paste, and on this lay a slice of tomato. Dust with salt and pep-
per and serve cold,
ii
162 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Caviar in saucers
Prepare rounds of bread as directed for "Sardines in Cups,"
and keep hot while you make the filling thus :
Two tablespoonfuls of caviar, one teaspoonful of lemon juice,
one-fourth teaspoonful of curry powder, and the same of paprika.
Put all into a saucepan over the fire and stir until quite hot ; then
put it into the hot and crisped "saucers."
Caviar strips
Cut an equal number of slices of brown and of white bread
quite thin and butter on one side. Trim into neat oblongs and
spread the white bread with caviar. Fit a brown strip over each
piece thus prepared, press lightly and firmly together, and lay,
log-cabin-wise, in a tray lined with a doily.
A curry of salmon
Open a can of salmon two hours before using, and remove all
bits of skin and bone. Pour two tablespoonfuls of olive oil into
a frying-pan and fry in it a minced onion. When the onion is
brown stir into the oil a tablespoonful of flour mixed with a tea-
spoonful of curry powder, and when these are blended add a large
coffee-cupful of boiling water. Season and stir for a moment,
and turn the salmon into the mixture. Cook for two minutes and
serve. Pass sliced lemon with this dish.
Salmon mayonnaise
Have boiling in a kettle a gallon of salted water to which a gill
of vinegar has been added. Lay carefully in this two salmon
steaks and let them boil very slowly. Test with a silver fork, and
when done, but not at all broken, lift carefully from the water and
drain. Set aside until cool, then keep on the ice until wanted.
Lay the steaks on a cold platter and pour a very thick mayon-
naise over them. Spread this smooth with a knife that the steaks
may be covered. Garnish with an abundance of water-cress.
LUNCHEON DISHES 163
Scallop of salmon
Open a can of salmon several hours before it is needed. Re-
move all bits of skin and bone, and flake the fish into small pieces.
Make a white sauce and stir the salmon into this. Pour into a
buttered pudding-dish, cover thickly with bread crumbs and bits
of butter, and bake.
Beauregard cod i
Boil a pound of cod the day before it is needed and let it get
cold. Flake to pieces with a silver fork, removing all bits of
skin and bone. Next day heat a pint of fresh milk in a double
boiler, thicken this with a teaspoonful of flour rubbed into one of
butter, and stir in the flaked fish. Season to taste and cook for
five minutes. Turn upon squares of buttered toast. Have ready
four hard-boiled eggs, the yolks powdered, the whites cut into
rings. Sprinkle the yellow powder over the fish and lay the
white rings about the edge of the platter.
Baked smelts with oyster forcemeat
Choose fine, large smelts of uniform size. Clean, wash and
wipe, and fill them with a forcemeat made of one part fine
crumbs, three parts finely-minced oysters, seasoned with paprika,
a little minced parsley, salt and a tablespoonful of melted butter
to a cupful of the forcemeat. Sew the fish up with fine thread
and long stitches ; lay in your covered roaster with a little boiling
water under the grating and bake twenty minutes, basting once
with butter when nearly done. Serve with lemon sauce.
They make a delicious fish course for luncheon. The threads
should be clipped carefully that the fish may not be torn as they
are drawn out before serving.
Baked smelts
Clean, wipe, roll in melted butter, then in cracker dust, set on
ice to stiffen for an hour, and cook fifteen minutes in your cov-
ered roaster. Send sliced lemon around with this dish.
164 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Creamed shad
(Contributed)
Make a white sauce by cooking together a tablespoonful of but-
ter and a heaping one of flour, and, when they are blended, pour-
ing upon them a pint of unskimmed milk. Add a few drops of
onion juice, then pour slowly upon the beaten yolks of two eggs.
Season with salt, pepper and a teaspoonful of minced parsley.
Into this sauce stir a pint of cold, cooked shad that has been freed
of bones and flaked very fine. Turn into a greased pudding-dish,
sprinkle with crumbs and bake for twenty minutes or until heated
through.
A "pick-up" of fish
This is a good dish for Saturday when you are gathering up
left-overs to clear decks for the Sunday which is to begin the new
week.
A cupful of cold, cooked fish cod, halibut, salmon or any other
firm fish; the same quantity of cold, cooked macaroni, cut into
small bits; half a cupful of tomato sauce, one cupful of oyster
liquor, which any fish dealer will give you ; a heaping tablespoon-
ful of butter and the same of flour, a teaspoonful of onion juice
and the same of minced parsley. Salt and paprika to taste.
Heat the butter in a saucepan ; stir in the flour, and, when it
bubbles, the tomato sauce, the oyster liquor and the seasoning.
Boil up once, add fish and macaroni; heat to a bubble without
stirring, and turn into a deep dish.
Fish scallop
Prepare as above, but instead of stewing turri*all into a buttered
pudding-dish as soon as macaroni and fish are added to the hot
sauce ; strew crumbs on top, stick bits of butter over it and bake,
covered, half an hour. Then brown.
LUNCHEON DISHLS 165
Baked chowder
Fry a small sliced onion in a large spoonful of butter ; strain and
return butter to the frying-pan. Have ready two pounds of cod
or other firm fish cut into inch squares ; put into the hot butter and
toss and turn until they are well coated ; pack the fish in a buttered
bake-dish alternately with slices of parboiled potatoes, fat salt
pork, minced fine (about half a pound in all), bits of butter rolled
in flour, minced parsley and two tomatoes chopped. Season a
large cupful of oyster liquor with paprika and salt, and pour over
all. Cover with split Boston crackers that have been soaked in
milk for half an hour, fit on a lid and bake, covered, one hour.
Then brown. A savory family dish.
A "Cape Cod folks" tid-bit
Soak two pounds of salt cod over night. In the morning wash
and scrub it with a whisk to remove lingering crystals of salt and
cover with hot water in which an onion has been boiled. Let it
stand in this until the water is cold. Take out the fish and lay
between two towels until perfectly dry. Broil then on both sides,
turning twice ; lay it in a hot water dish ; break to pieces with a
fork, and cover well with hot drawn butter, seasoned with pepper,
lemon juice and minced parsley. Let it stand (covered) for ten
minutes over the hot water before serving, and you will be sur-
prised by the excellent dish contrived of such homely materials.
Halibut and cheese scallop
Have ready two cupfuls (less, if you happen not to have as
much) of cold, cooked halibut, flaked rather coarsely with a fork.
Make a good white sauce drawn butter based upon milk instead
of water. Butter a bake-dish and fill it with alternate layers of
the fish, sauce and grated cheese (very mild), using altogether
about four tablespoonfuls of the latter, and cover the top with
crumbs. Bake half an hour in a quick oven, and serve hot.
Keep covered until ten minutes before serving, when brown.
i66 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Deviled halibut or cod
Pick cold, cooked fish into bits with a silver fork. Make a
forcemeat of bread-crumbs, the yolks of two eggs run through
colander or vegetable press, a tablespoonful of melted butter, one
of minced parsley, a teaspoonful of onion juice, paprika and salt.
Mix with the fish, wet up with oyster liquor and fill scallop shells
with the mixture. Cover with fine crumbs, pepper and salt them,
put a dot of butter upon each scallop and bake quickly to a light
brown.
EGGS
Curried eggs
Boil seven eggs hard and throw into cold water to loosen the
shells. Remove these without tearing or breaking the eggs, and
cut round in slices nearly half an inch thick. Have ready in a
saucepan a large cup of gravy from which the fat has been re-
moved. Chicken gravy or stock is especially nice for this pur-
pose. Season well with a teaspoonful of onion juice, half a cup-
ful of strained tomato sauce, with pepper and salt. Boil up,
thicken with two tablespoonfuls of browned flour and a teaspoon-
ful of curry powder, and simmer together three minutes.
Arrange the sliced eggs upon a chafing-dish or hot-water dish,
pour the curry sauce over them ; set in the hot oven for three or
four minutes, covered, to get heated through, and send to table
in the hot-water dish.
Serve boiled rice with it.
Banana toast
Is a pleasing accompaniment to curried eggs.
Remove the crust from graham bread and cut it into thin
slices. Spread one piece with thin slices of banana and lay an-
other slice of bread upon this. Press the two pieces together that
they may not fall apart, and toast quickly to a light brown. Keep
hot in the oven until wanted, as these sandwiches are not good
when cold.
LUNCHEON DISHES 167
Egg timbales
Beat six eggs light and stir into them a half-pint of rich milk,
a pinch of soda and salt and white pepper to taste. Pour into
greased muffin-pans ; set these in an outer pan of boiling water,
and Ipake until the egg is "set." Turn the timbales out upon a
platter and pour a rich brown sauce around them.
Baked omelet
Break five eggs, the whites and yolks separately. Soak the
crumbs of a slice of white bread in a half-cupful of milk for ten
minutes. Beat the yolks of the eggs thoroughly and whip the
whites stiff. Stir the bread and milk into the yolks, add a tea-
spoonful of salt and a saltspoonful of white pepper, and stir in
the whites of the eggs lightly just enough to mix them. Turn
into a well-greased pudding-dish and bake in a quick oven. Do
not let the omelet crust over too quickly, but put a piece of paper
over the top for a few minutes. Uncover and brown.
Deviled eggs
Boil a dozen eggs hard, throw into cold water, and at the end
of half an hour remove the shells. Cut the eggs carefully in
half, extract the yolks and rub these to a paste with three table-
spoonfuls of salad oil, two tablespoonfuls of vinegar, a half-tea-
spoonful of made mustard, a dash of paprika, two or three drops
of Tabasco sauce, and salt to taste. Form this paste into balls,
put the balls back into the halved whites and fit the whites into
place. Run a wooden toothpick through the two halves of each
egg to hold them together. Wrap every egg in waxed or tissue
paper to keep it from becoming dry. Eat cold, with or without
mayonnaise dressing.
Omelets caches
Wash and wipe six large, smooth tomatoes of uniform size.
Cut a piece from the blossom end of each and lay aside. Scoop
out the pulp carefully, not to break the walls of the tomato. Set
i68 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
together in an open pudding-dish and put this into a brisk oven
until the tomatoes are smoking-hot, but not until they break and
collapse. Have ready the pulp you have extracted, minced and
stewed, seasoned with butter, pepper, salt, a little onion juice and
sugar. Drain off most of the juice. Beat four eggs light, add
four tablespoonfuls of cream, a tablespoonful of butter heated to
a roux with one of flour, mix quickly with three tablespoonfuls
of the drained tomato, and fill the tomato shells with them. Fit
on the tops and set in a shallow pan upon the top grating of a
quick oven. Five minutes should cook them. Slip a spatula un-
der each tomato, transfer to a hot platter and serve at once.
Pass thin slices of brown bread with them.
Chicken or turkey timbales
Boil eight eggs very hard and leave them in cold water for
two or more hours. Take the shells off, cut in half, and extract
the yolks. Chop the whites before running them through a veg-
etable press. Now mix with them four heaping tablespoonfuls
of the breast of chicken or turkey minced as finely as possible ;
season with half a teaspoonful of onion juice, paprika and celery
salt to taste, and mix to a white paste with the whites of three
eggs beaten to a standing froth. Have ready enough buttered
"nappies" or pate pans to hold the mixture ; fill them, set in a pan
of hot water and bake twenty minutes in a quick oven.
Turn out upon a hot platter ; pour a good white sauce about the
base, heap a teaspoonful of the powdered yolks on the top of each
and serve.
The yolks are prepared by running through a colander or, bet-
ter still, a vegetable press.
Scallop of chicken and eggs
Strew fine, dry, buttered crumbs over the bottom of a buttered
baking-dish, then put in a layer of cold, cooked chicken cut into
small dice. Cook a teaspoonful of chopped onion in a tablespoon-
ful of butter till slightly colored, add a cupful of milk, and when
LUNCHEON DISHES 169
hot stir in half a cupful of dry bread-crumbs. Add a teaspoonful
of chopped parsley and a little salt and paprika. Let it cool until
blood-warm, then stir in two well-beaten eggs, and pour the mix-
ture over the meat. Cover with fine crumbs. Place in the oven
and bake, covered, half an hour. Serve in the dish in which
it is baked.
A savory mince
Use any cold meat you have left over, except beef poultry,
lamb, veal, mutton, will do and a little ham chopped and mixed
with the other meat. Add one-third bread-crumbs soaked in
stock or gravy and season well. Stir in a saucepan until very
hot. Prepare "cups" of stale bread by cutting round, then with
a smaller cutter marking out an inner circle, from which scrape
out the bread, leaving bottom and sides whole. Dip these in a raw,
sugarless custard made of a cupful of milk and two beaten eggs,
and let each absorb all it will hold. Fry in hot cottolene or other
fat to a light brown, drain, fill with the mince, which should be
quite soft, drop a raw egg upon each, and set in the oven until
the egg is "set."
Larded sweetbreads (roasted)
Blanch the sweetbreads. With a sharp skewer make holes
in them and run through these openings narrow strips of salt
pork. Let the bits of pork project half an inch on each side.
Lay the sweetbreads in a covered roaster, pour about them a pint
of cleared and seasoned soup stock, cover closely and cook for an
hour, then transfer to a hot dish. Thicken the gravy in the pan,
season and pour it about the sweetbreads.
Larded sweetbreads (fried)
Prepare as in the last recipe, but instead of roasting dip in egg,
then in crumbs ; set on ice for an hour and fry in boiling butter.
170 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Sweetbread pate's
Make shells of rich puff paste, bake them, and fill, while hot,
with a mixture made according to the following recipe :
Cut a pair of blanched sweetbreads into small dice. Cut ten
canned mushrooms into quarters and mix them with the sweet-
breads. Add eight blanched and chopped almonds and six olives
cut into tiny pieces. Heat a cup of cream and thicken it with a
teaspoonful of cornstarch rubbed into one of butter. When
smooth and thick add the sweetbreads, olives, etc. If too thick
now, thin the mixture with a little mushroom liquor. As soon
as all the ingredients are heated through remove from the fire
and turn into the shells.
Timbales of sweetbreads
Blanch and chop two pairs of sweetbreads until as fine as pow-
der, then rub them very smooth with the back of a silver spoon.
Work into this paste a gill of sweet cream and the beaten yolks of
two eggs. Season with salt and white pepper, and beat long and
hard. Butter small timbale molds or "nappies," and pour the
mixture into them. Set the molds in a pan of hot water and bake
in a hot oven until "set." Loosen the contents of the nappies
with a sharp knife, and turn out the molds upon a hot dish. Pour
a white sauce about them.
Sweetbreads en nid
Follow directions for larded sweetbreads, and keep hot. Make
a "nest" for them of cold boiled ham shredded into bits hardly
larger than coarse straw ; cold roast chicken, turkey or veal,
and cold boiled spaghetti in four-inch lengths. Arrange upon
a hot platter to simulate a nest, pour a little scalding, well-
seasoned gravy over them, and set the dish in a hot oven about
five minutes. Have ready "a large cupful of rich tomato sauce,
strained and thickened with a roux of butter and flour, and sea-
soned with salt, paprika and onion juice. Lay the sweetbreads
upon the "straw," and pour the boiling tomato sauce over all.'
LUNCHEON DISHES 171
A baked mince
Mix together two cupfuls of minced cold lamb, chicken or veal,
one cupful of chopped ham and one cupful of fine bread-crumbs.
Moisten thoroughly with well-seasoned soup stock. Turn into a
greased bake-dish and set in the oven until heated through.
Break upon the top of the mince as many eggs as will lie side by
side on it, sprinkle with salt and pepper, return to the oven and
bake until the whites are set and firm. Send to table in a pud-
ding-dish.
Curried beef
Melt three tablespoonfuls of butter in a frying-pan and cook in
it for five minutes an onion, sliced. Remove the onion, and stir
into the melted butter two tablespoonfuls of browned flour, mixed
with a tablespoonful of curry powder. Cook until they bubble,
then pour on them a pint of beef stock. Stir until you have a
thick, brown sauce. Season with salt and mix with it two cupfuls
of cold roast beef cut into dice. Toss and stir until the meat is
heated through. Have ready on a platter a hollowed mold of
boiled rice, and pour the meat and sauce in the center and about
the base of this.
Curried veal
Cut three pounds of lean veal into dice an inch square. Fry a
sliced onion in two tablespoonfuls of butter until it begins to
color. Strain out the onion ; heat the butter to hissing, put in
the meat cubes and shake over the coals until heated through and
slightly browned. Turn the contents of the frying-pan into a
pot, rinsing out the pan with a cupful of boiling water, just
enough to cover the meat. Sprinkle over all three table-spoon-
fuls of finely-minced salt pork and some chopped parsley,
cover closely and stew gently for two hours, or until the veal is
tender. Drain the meat free from gravy in a colander and keep
hot over boiling water. Return the gravy to the fire; add salt
if necessary. Have ready in a cup a great spoonful of browned
flour, wet to a paste with cold water. When smooth, add a tea-
172 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
spoonful of curry, and stir in well before adding both to the hot
gravy. As it begins to boil put in the meat; cook gently (cov-
ered) ten minutes, and serve.
Always serve boiled rice with curry, the same person helping
both. A large spoonful of the rice is put upon the heated plate,
and the curry poured over it. Bananas that have been chilled
upon the ice are a most grateful accompaniment to curry of any
kind. One is given to each person, who peels and slices it with a
silver knife.
*
Curried lamb or mutton
Make in the same way, substituting either of these meats for
veal. If you like, stir a little currant jelly into the gravy.
Curried chicken
Joint the chicken as for frying, divide the breast and the back
into two pieces, and proceed as with a curry of veal. It is par-
ticularly nice and popular with all who have been gently led on
to appreciate a savory curry.
A "toss-up" of veal
Make a roux of one tablespoonful of butter and the same of
flour; when very hot and bubbling, add a little onion juice, pep-
per and salt, four tablespoonfuls of hot milk (cream if you have
it), with a pinch of soda heated in it; lastly, six tablespoonfuls of
rich, strained tomato sauce. Stir in two cupfuls of cold veal, cut
into dice, and the moment it begins to boil remove from the fire
to a hot dish.
Mince of veal garnished with eggs
Make the mince as directed in foregoing recipe, but somewhat
stiffer ; season highly, bring to a boil and mold in the middle of a
hot platter. Against this hillock of mince lay fried eggs, neatly
trimmed, and outside of these curled strips of fried breakfast
LUNCHEON DISHES 173
bacon. This dish will be much improved by the addition of half
a can of mushrooms, minced fine.
Mince of lamb and rice
This is very much like the mince just described, the main dif-
ference being that a cupful of cold boiled rice and a green sweet
pepper minced fine are added to the meat and tomato sauce. You
may also substitute poached eggs for fried, and ham for bacon.
Any of the dishes just mentioned make savory a plain family
luncheon, and may be easily prepared at little expense by the
housewife who keeps a bright lookout for available "left-overs."
An Italian hotch-potch
Which became a favorite with us under the general name of
"Frittura" during the winters we spent in Florence.
I suppose that it was a weekly clearing-house for all manner of
leavings from roast and boiled meats, but it was good! Calf's and
poultry livers ; cold mutton, lamb and veal ; calf's brains ; now and
then oysters ; small artichokes ; sprigs of cauliflower ; potatoes ;
celery all cooked, cut into small pieces, seasoned, rolled in flour,
.next in egg, again in flour, and fried ; first the meat, then the veg-
etables, in boiling oil, and drained, were duly sorted, but served
upon one and the same dish very hot.
Stew of mutton and peas
Cut three pounds of lean mutton into dice. In a pot fry six
slices of fat salt pork ; when crisp, remove them with a skimmer
and lay in the grease the mutton, dredged with flour and half
an onion sliced. Cook for five minutes, then cover with cold
water and simmer until the meat is very tender. Remove the
meat, lay it on a platter, sprinkle with salt and pepper and keep
it hot while you thicken the gravy in the pot with a brown roux,
and season it to taste with a tablespoonf ul of tomato catsup, a tea-
spoonful of kitchen bouquet and salt and pepper to taste. Now
174 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
add the contents of a can of peas. These peas should have been
drained and exposed to the air for an hour. Bring the stew to a
boil, cook for five minutes, return the meat to the pot for a min-
ute, then pour all into the hot platter.
Mince turnovers
Two cupfuls of flour, sifted twice with one rounded teaspoonful
of baking-powder and half as much salt. Chop into it two table-
spoonfuls of butter, and wet up with a cupful of milk, quickly
and lightly. Roll into a sheet less than a quarter-inch thick,
and this into squares about six inches across. Put into the
middle of each square a large tablespoonful of minced poultry,
veal, ham or lamb or a mixture of these well-seasoned and wet
with gravy. Double the paste into a triangle, enfolding the meat ;
pinch or print the edges to hold them together, and bake.
They are good hot or cold.
Beef with sauce piquante
Cut slices from yesterday's roast of beef, mutton or veal. Put
into a saucepan three tablespoonfuls of butter, a teaspoonful of
vinegar, a half -teaspoonful of kitchen bouquet, a tablespoonful of
tomato catsup, a teaspoonful of made mustard, and salt and pep-
per to taste. Stir these ingredients well together and lay the
sliced meat into the sauce thus prepared. Turn the meat over
and over until heated through, and serve with the sauce poured
over it.
Larded beef
With a sharp knife make through a round of beef incisions an
inch apart. Into the holes thus made stick long strips of fat salt
pork. Rub the meat with a dressing made of equal parts of oil
and vinegar, seasoned with salt and pepper. Let the meat lie in
this for eight hours. Put the meat into a covered roaster, pour a
pint of beef stock around it and roast for four hours. Set away
in the gravy with a weight on the top. When cold, slice very
thin and serve.
LUNCHEON DISHES 175
Beef loaf
Mix together three pounds of chopped raw beef, one-quarter of
a pound of minced salt pork, one cup of cracker dust, two tea-
spoonfuls, each, of salt and pepper, and moisten all with two
beaten eggs and a teaspoonful of onion juice. Work in two
tablespoonfuls of melted butter, and pack in a greased mold.
Cover; set in a roasting-pan of boiling water, and cook in a
steady oven for two hours. Let the loaf get cold in the mold be-
fore turning out.
Veal loaf
Chop two pounds of cold cooked veal very fine, and work into
it a teaspoonful, each, of salt, pepper and onion juice, a dozen
chopped olives and as many minced mushrooms. Wet with a
half-pint of veal or chicken stock. Pack in a greased mold and
cook as in the preceding recipe. Have the loaf very cold before
turning it out.
Pressed veal
Boil two pounds of lean veal in enough water to cover it.
When cold, remove the meat from the liquor, skim the grease from
the latter and chop the meat fine. To the chopped veal add a
cupful of minced boiled ham and two hard-boiled eggs, chopped.
Season the veal liquor with celery salt, pepper, a little tomato
catsup and a dash of nutmeg. Make the chopped meat very
moist with this liquor and press the mass hard into a buttered
mold. Cover and set in the oven for half an hour. Remove from
the oven; keep in a cool place for twenty-four hours, and turn
from the mold upon a chilled platter.
Jellied tongue
Boil a tongue, and when cold place it in a brick-shaped mold.
Into a pint of seasoned and heated beef stock stir a half-box of
soaked gelatine, and when this is dissolved pour the stock around
the tongue in the mold. When cool, set on the ice until the jelly
is very firm. Turn out on a cold platter.
i/6 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Jellied chicken
Boil a chicken the day before it is to be used. When the liquor
is cold skim from it every bit of fat.
Soak a half-cup of gelatine in a cup of cold water for two
hours. Remove all skin from the chicken and cut the meat into
neat dice. Cut two dozen canned French mushrooms into halves.
Stone and halve one dozen large olives.
Bring to a boil and strain a pint of the chicken liquor ; stir into
it the soaked gelatine, and set aside to cool. As it begins to
thicken prepare your chicken loaf in the following manner : In
a buttered mold lay a stratum of the chicken, sprinkle with pep-
per and salt, and a few halved olives and mushrooms, pour upon
this the thickening, but still liquid, jelly. Then add more chicken,
mushrooms and olives; pour upon them more jelly, and proceed
in this manner until the mold is full. Set in a cool place for
twenty-four hours before using. Lay a warm cloth for a mo-
ment about the mold, then invert it upon a chilled platter. This
loaf is delicious served with lettuce and mayonnaise.
Beefsteak and sherry sauce
Broil a porterhouse steak over a clear fire until done. Lay on
a hot platter. Make a sauce of a cupful of beef bouillon, thickened
with a tablespoonful of brown roux, and when this is smooth add
to it a wineglassful of sherry, a tablespoonful of onion juice and
a half-cupful of French mushrooms, cut in half. Boil up once and
pour over the steak.
Mock roast chicken
Boil and chop fine the giblets from three chickens saved from
roast or fricassee. Trim the fat from a good-sized, but not thick,
round steak. Make a forcemeat in the following manner :
Mix together the chopped chicken giblets, two hard-boiled eggs,
chopped fine, and a half-cupful of fine bread-crumbs. Moisten all
with chicken stock. Lay the steak upon the table, cover thickly
with the forcemeat and roll it up, as you would a sheet of music,
tying it in shape with stout strings. Melt two tablespoonfuls of
LUNCHEON DISHES 177
butter in a frying-pan and cook the steak in this just long enough
to brown it lightly. Remove the meat from the pan and put
over the fire in a large pot. Add to the fat in the pan a table-
spoonful of browned flour and pour upon it two cups of chicken
stock. Stir to a smooth sauce, season to taste and pour over the
steak in the pot. Cover closely and simmer for an hour and a
half. Transfer the meat to a hot platter, remove the string, and
pour the sauce over it.
Stewed rump steak
Trim the fat from the edge of a thick rump steak, and put the
steak over the fire in a large pot. Pour over it a cup of cold
water, cover closely and set at the side of the range, where it will
simmer for three-quarters of an hour after it reaches the boil.
Remove the meat from the pot and transfer to a baking-pan ;
season the gravy and pour it over the top, and cook for fifteen
minutes longer, basting three times during the process. Remove
the steak to a hot platter and set in the open oven while you add
to the gravy a cup of soup stock and thicken it with a little
browned flour rubbed to a paste with a spoonful of butter. Sea-
son with kitchen bouquet, celery salt and a half-teaspoonful of
good sauce. Add a dozen canned mushrooms cut in half. Cook
one minute and pour over the steak.
Rump steak and tomatoes
With a sharp carving-knife split a thick rump steak, thus mak-
ing two thin steaks. Spread the lower half of this with bits of
butter, a little minced ham and a cupful of tomatoes. (Use the
canned tomatoes, straining off the juice and using it for the
sauce.) Lay the upper half of the steak, sandwich-wise, upon the
lower, and fasten the two together with small, stout skewers.
Lay the meat in a covered roasting-pan, dash a cup of boiling
water over it, and cook, allowing twenty minutes to each pound.
Transfer to a hot dish, remove the skewers and pour over the
steak a savory tomato sauce.
12
178 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Mutton mince with tomatoes
Make three cups of good tomato sauce thickened with a heap-
ing teaspoonful of flour rubbed into one of butter. Keep hot in
a double boiler set at the side of range.
Toast slices of bread, butter, spread on a platter, and put
a tablespoonful of tomato sauce on each. Into the remainder of
the tomato sauce turn two cupfuls of minced mutton, put the
saucepan over the fire, stir until the meat is thoroughly heated,
season to taste and pour upon the toast.
Porterhouse steak with oysters
Broil a fine tender steak on both sides and transfer it to a hot
dish. Pepper and salt well, then rub into the steak a mixture of
butter rubbed to a cream with the juice of half a lemon.
Put one pint of oysters into a saucepan without any of the
liquor. Stir until the edges ruffle, add one tablespoonful of butter
creamed with an equal amount of flour and cooked to a roux.
Pour over the hot steak and serve 'at once.
Savory stew of beef
Cut two pounds of raw lean beef into very small strips, almost
like straws, with a keen blade. Put into a saucepan ; cover with
cold weak stock, or, if you have none, with cold water, and cook
slowly two hours. Put into another saucepan a cupful of
rich brown stock, one small onion chopped fine, a little grated
nutmeg, cayenne pepper and the juice of half a lemon ; boil these
ingredients a few minutes and mix with the beef, adding a little
browned flour if necessary. Dish upon a hot platter, lay triangles
of fried toast about the base, and serve.
Roulades of beef
Cut two pounds of lean steak into pieces about five inches long
and half as wide, and less than half an inch thick. Make a force-
meat of cooked sausage, chopped fine, and mixed with one-fourth
LUNCHEON DISHES 179
as much fine, buttered and seasoned bread-crumbs. Place two
tablespoonfuls of this mixture on each piece of meat, roll them
into the shape of a small cylinder, and sew both ends with fine
thread. Let them brown in butter in a frying-pan, then put them
into a saucepan with the juice of a lemon, two cupfuls of brown
stock, a carrot and an onion, sliced, and salt and pepper to taste.
Cover closely, and cook for two hours. Transfer to a hot platter,
clip and draw out the thread ; thicken the gravy left in the sauce-
pan with browned flour, add a little Worcestershire sauce and a
glass of sherry ; boil up once and pour over the roulades.
How to use up the cold tongue
Cut cold boiled beef -tongue into dice. Make a roux in a sauce-
pan with two tablespoonfuls of butter and the same amount of
flour, salt, pepper, and the juice of half a lemon. Add a cupful
of strained tomato. Simmer slowly for ten minutes. Strain, re-
turn to the saucepan, lay in the tongue and let it stand where it will
keep hot without boiling for five minutes. Serve in a hot platter.
This is still better if made of fresh beef's tongue.
Galantine
Cut a strip of lean veal from the loin or the breast, about six
inches wide and twice as long. Prepare a forcemeat of cooked
ham, chopped mushrooms, any scraps of poultry you may have,
the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs, one-third as much crumbs as
you have meat, season with paprika and grated onion.
Lay this forcemeat in the center of the veal, roll up carefully,
wrap in cheese-cloth and sew up closely. Lay it in a plate in a
kettle, cover with cold water, add one-half teaspoonful of salt, one
bay leaf and a sprig of thyme, cover and boil for fifteen minutes.-
Then put it at one side of the fire where it can only simmer for two
hours. When done set aside, with a plate upon it and a heavy
weight upon the plate, until next day. Clip the threads, unwrap
the meat and serve, garnished with cress and nasturtiums. Cut
perpendicularly.
iSo MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Chipped smoked beef
Shred the beef into thin straws. Make a white sauce, lay in
the beef and simmer for five minutes. Then stir in a beaten egg,
a little onion juice and pepper. Stir until the egg is set, and
serve upon toast.
Brains on toast
Scald and blanch the brains, beat smooth, add three eggs and
beat hard. Have ready a tablespoonful of butter in a frying-
pan hissing hot ; turn in the mixture and stir steadily for three
minutes. Serve upon rounds of toast.
Baked calf's liver (larded)
Lard with strips of fat salt pork, inserted perpendicularly. The
lardoons should project on both sides. Cover the bottom of a
saucepan with minced pork, place the liver on it; add a carrot,
two small onions, a half-dozen stalks of celery, all chopped fine ;
the juice of a lemon and a quart of strong stock ; cover the sauce-
pan and bake slowly for two hours and a half, basting often with
the liquor in the pan. When done remove the liver, and put into
the oven for a few minutes to brown ; make a rich gravy of the
remainder of the gravy in the pan ; put the liver in the center of
the dish, strain the sauce and pour over it.
Mock psite de foie gras
When poultry is in full season and the weather is cold, save
the giblets from half a dozen fowls, boiling them, salting slightly
to keep them and setting them in a cold place. When you have
enough, chop them, rejecting tough portions, and run through a
vegetable press. Work to a smooth paste with melted butter,
season with paprika, salt, and a dash of onion juice. Pack down
in small jars, pour melted butter over the top, and keep in a cool,
dry place. If you will boil a few mushrooms in salted water,
strain, cut them into coarse dice and intersperse throughout the
LUNCHEON DISHES 181
paste, you will have a veritable imitation of the famous Stras-
burg pates. .
You may substitute calf's, lamb's or pig's liver for those of
fowls if you can not get the latter.
Savory ham
Fry slices of boiled ham on both sides. Transfer to a hot dish.
Cook together in a frying-pan four tablespoonfuls of vinegar, a
teaspoonful of granulated sugar, a teaspoonful of French mus-
tard, and a dash of paprika. Stir until very hot, and pour over
the fried ham.
Cottage pie
(Contributed)
Chop cold meat very fine. To each cupful add one saltspoonful
of salt and one-and-a-half saltspoonfuls of pepper, a pinch of sum-
mer savory and one-half cupful of stock. Put into a baking dish
and cover with a crust of mashed potatoes. Brush over the top
with milk and bake in an oven to a golden brown.
Breaded tongue with tomato sauce
(Contributed)
Take six slices of cooked tongue, one-half can of tomatoes, one
slice of onion, three tablespoonfuls of butter and a bit of bay leaf,
three tablespoonfuls of flour, one-third cupful of bread-crumbs and
one egg. Cut the tongue in slices about one-half inch thick. Dip
into the crumbs, then in the egg and then in the crumbs again, and
saute in butter. Place on a dish and pour around it a sauce made
by cooking together the tomatoes, onion and bay leaf fifteen min-
utes. Season with salt and pepper.
Steamed beef
(Contributed)
Select a piece of lean beef, wipe well with a cloth wrung out of
cold water ; remove all pieces of fat and gash with a sharp knife.
182 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Put the meat into a stone crock, sprinkle with salt and pepper and
put in a few cloves. Cover with a tight lid. Cook in an oven
slowly for several hours allowing no steam to escape. When
done the meat will be very tender.
Irish stew
Take a pound of meat from the neck of beef or mutton and cut
into neat pieces. Stew gently, and about an hour before it is done
season and add two onions cut into dice and two carrots also cut
into dice. About half an hour before the meat is done add two
potatoes and three stalks of celery cut into dice. Serve on a plat-
ter, putting the vegetables around the meat.
Veal loaf (raw meat)
Put three pounds of raw veal and one-fourth pound of salt pork
through the meat chopper ; add to this one teacupf ul of fine bread
crumbs, one tablespoonful of butter, three beaten eggs to which
four tablespoonfuls of cream have been added, one teaspoonful of
pepper, three teaspoonfuls of salt and two teaspoonfuls of pow-
dered sage. Mix well together and form into a loaf. Bake in a
mold two and a half hours, basting with butter and water.
FAMILIAR TALK
LIVING TO LEARN
WHEN one is too old to learn anything, his day of life is vif-
tually over, so far as usefulness to his kind goes. The ten or
twenty years left to him upon earth are a blunder on the part of
some one, and we know that the Creator and Father of us all
makes no mistakes. In the eloquent (and pessimistic) description
of old age from the pen of the royal preacher-poet, we read that
the aged shall be afraid of that which is high. The shrinking from
new emprises, characteristic of the days when the almond-tree
shall blossom and the knees that upbear (or keep) the house, shall
tremble, is excusable when physical infirmity has enfeebled nerv-
ous forces and digestion. There is no excuse except this for the
cessation of mind-growth.
This may sound didactic. It is written with a purpose. Given
a sane mind in a sane body, and learning should go on indefi-
nitely. The man or woman of mature years leaves off lessons
because he chooses to get out of the habit of study. The preju-
dice against old cooks said by one authority to be either drunk
or crazy as a class is founded upon this disinclination to learn
novel methods. She who honestly aspires after excellence never
thinks that she has reached it. When, in saying, "that is not MY
WAY/' a cook believes that she has put an end, not only to con-
troversy, but to any suspicion that the world may have moved an
inch or two since she learned her trade she registers herself
among the incurables.
The mistress who yields to the earliest manifestations of an
inclination to draw the dead line in housewifely progress is weakly
indulgent or blindly foolish. In one wealthy family, not a
hundred miles from a great city, "a valued old servant" played
183
184 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
the tyrant for over a score of years. Little by little, the em-
ployers, mindful of her long term of faithful service, admitted
her pleas that this or that new-fangled way was opposed to her
habits and inclination, until family bills of fare were monotonous
to boredom, the style of serving that of a preceding generation.
At last Elizabeth died and was buried at the master's expense.
"It's dreadful, I suppose," piped the youngling of the long-
suffering band on the way home from the funeral. "But it ought
to be some comfort that we won't be obliged to have rice pudding
three times a week any more."
Faithful Elizabeth had her epitaph.
Nothing is more solemnly and sadly sure in this rushing age
than that he who does not keep up with it will be thrown down
and trampled out of sight. It is a trifle, apparently, when a
woman tabooes oil in salad dressing because she "has never been
used to putting it in," when she thinks mint sauce a "trashy"
accompaniment to roast lamb, and "won't hear of hot sauce with
cold pudding," or whipped cream as an accompaniment to ice-cold
raw tomatoes. When the vegetable dishes must all be set on the
table with the meat, "as she has always had them," and lettuce
be cut up and dressed in the kitchen at the cook's convenience,
instead of being served, crisp and cool, from the deft fingers of
some member of the family who is "up in salads."
Each protest is a symptom of decadence which is wilful, not
inevitable. She has stopped learning because she has "stopped."
In time, mental muscles become stiff, but disu'se is the cause of the
change.
"I account that day lost in which I have learned no new thing,"
said an aged sage.
Our housewife may lay the saying to heart. If there be a bet-
ter way than hers of doing anything from making pickles to
giving a wedding supper she should be on the alert to possess
herself of it. It is not true that it is easier for young people to
keep themselves and their houses abreast of the times than it is for
their elders. The first step that counts in the downward road is
the tendency not to take any step at all. To stand still is to be
left.
FAMILIAR TALK 185
Many who believe that they cultivate the seeing eye, the hear-
ing ear, and the willing, receptive mind, live and die without
learning the great truth that the mighty thing we call Life is made
up of minute matters. They see and admire the coral reef that
heaves a back a mile long out of the surf, and give never a
thought to the coral builders.
A man who thinks much and observes much, once told me that
one essential difference between a man's work and a woman's is
that he grasps general principles while she gives her attention
to details.
A man, according to this authority, is an impressionist painter,
handling his brush boldly, dashing in broad effects of light and
shadow, while a woman finishes each object carefully, sometimes,
after the manner of the Dutch school of painting, showing the
very hairs upon the brawny peasant's arm.
( I may be excused for saying, in passing, that, being a woman,
I founded upon his general principle the particular moral that one
sex supplements the other, and that the Creator meant the work
of the world to be done by them in concert.)
He had turned from his desk to talk with me and, while talk-
ing, looked ruefully at an inky forefinger.
"I should keep some pumice stone, or acetic acid, or acetate of
soda, or ammonia, here to remove ink-stains," he said. "I always
spill ink in filling my fountain pen."
A box of matches was in a pigeonhole ; a wet sponge, used for
stamping and sealing letters, was close to the disfigured hand.
I bade him wet the match and rub it upon the stain until it dis-
appeared the work of a minute. The sulphur in the ever-con-
venient match acted upon the black spots without blackening the
skin, whereas any one of the four detersives he had mentioned
would have left a hard, disagreeable sensation upon the cuticle.
He was all right as to the principles. The one driblet of practi-
cal wisdom was for the moment worth them all.
A bright young woman whom I am glad to know, has written
a little book entitled, "FIRST AID TO THE YOUNG HOUSEKEEPER."
It includes scores of things which everybody ought to know, and
which everybody else, especially the writer of household manuals.
T<% MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
takes it for granted that the housewife does know. It is intelli-
gent attention to this very matter of detail that constitutes the
"finish" of work of whatever kind. One of the "Sunday books"
of my childhood was a series called "THE WEEK," a story of
English cottage life. I can recall many sentences and the whole
story in substance. One remark was to this effect : "Mary was a
good housekeeper; Nanny an indifferent. Nanny's hearth was
free of ashes and cinders, but dusty in the corners. Mary's was
not only swept, but pipe-clayed. Mary's kettle was bright and
black; Nanny's clean, but brown and dull."
That is, Nanny had mastered general principles; Mary looked
to details.
I read last week in a woman's corner of a daily paper a letter
from a grateful housewife whose hall carpet had been deluged
by the kerosene from a broken lamp. By the advice of a visitor
she promptly covered the great spot with dry oatmeal. When
this was swept off in the morning not a trace of the oil remained.
"My husband explains this by saying that the oatmeal is at
once an alkali and an absorbent," she writes. "I pass the useful
knowledge on."
A careless servant knocked a lamp from the table in the bed-
room of my summer cottage and the matting got a full quart of
the best kerosene. I had the floating oil wiped up with a clean,
soft cloth, opened the windows, shut the door, and let no one
enter the room for twelve hours. Not a trace of grease remained
at the end of that time. The volatile oil had effaced itself. The
alkaline absorbent was not needed.
"We are all fond of cauliflower ; my husband and sons like
young onions in the season," said the mistress of a big house.
"We can not have either of these vegetables cooked on account
of the odor. It fills the house from cellar to attic."
A housewife who lives in a tiny city flat has both of these
dishes whenever she likes. The vegetables are put over the fire
in cold water; a little salt is thrown in, and the pot is left un-
covered. If these rules be strictly obeyed, the rising odor during
cooking will be scarcely perceptible.
A physician, driving with his wife through a lonely country
FAMILIAR TALK 187
neighborhood, heard screams issuing- from the open door of a
cottage and went in to see if he could be of use. A child had
upset a kettle of boiling water upon its legs and feet and was in
agony from the scald.
"Have you linseed oil and lime water in the house ?" . asked
the doctor.
Before the distracted mother could say that there was neither,
the doctor's wife said, "Do you burn wood in any room?"
There was a wood-stove in the parlor. There is always lard
in the country pantry. In three minutes an ointment of lard and
soot from the stovepipe was beaten up and spread upon old linen ;
in five minutes the scalds were covered with it. The relief was
speedy ; the cure complete in a day or two.
The wise housewife gleans a great store of precious driblets
against the hour and minute of need. Such study of details is
like sweeping up gold filings. The separate particles are nomi-
nally valueless, compared with the mastery of great principles.
When massed and assorted, they go far toward making life easy.
A suggestive German fable is of a trooper who saw a loose
horseshoe on the ground as he was going into battle, got down,
picked it up and hung it about his neck by a string. In the first
charge a bullet struck the horseshoe and glanced aside harmlessly.
"Ha !" said the trooper. "Even a little armor is a good thing,
if rightly placed."
The horseshoe was "a detail."
GENERAL DIRECTIONS
( Which the housewife is particularly requested to read)
Two things are essential to the excellence of croquettes. The
mixture composing them must not be too stiff. The fat in which
they are cooked must be boiling when they go in, and deep enough
to float them. If these conditions are neglected, you will have a
pasty, sticky compound, soaked with grease and misshapen, per-
haps scorched on the under side. The hot fat should form a crust
instantly which prevents the fat from touching the interior of
the croquette.
Always make out croquettes at least a couple of hours before
they are to be cooked; roll in egg, then in fine crumbs, or in
cracker-dust; arrange upon a floured dish, not touching one an-
other, and leave upon ice, or in a very cold place to stiffen.
Oyster croquettes
Cook twenty-five oysters in their liquor until they just begin to
ruffle, remove from the fire, drain (reserving half a cupful of the
liquor) , and chop fine. Stir together over the fire two tablespoon-
fuls of flour and two of butter and pour on them a half-cupful of
cream with a pinch of soda in it, and the half-cupful of oyster
liquor. When beaten to a smooth sauce add slowly the beaten
yolk of two eggs, then the chopped oysters, salt and pepper and a
pinch of grated nutmeg. Remove at once from the fire and set
aside to cool. When very cold form into croquettes.
188
CROQUETTES 189
Lobster croquettes
(Contributed)
Two cupfuls of minced lobster seasoned well with paprika, salt
and a little mace. One-fourth the quantity of bread-crumbs, i. e.
about half a cupful. Four tablespoonfr.ls of cream, heated (with
a pinch of soda), and thickened with a teaspoonful of butter rolled
in flour. Make a thick paste of the n.l.vture; let it get stiff and
cold ; make into croquettes, roll in egg and cracker -crumbs ; set on
the ice for an hour ; roll again in cracker-dust and fry in deep,
hot cottolene or other fat, which has been heated slowly. Drain,
garnish with lemon and parsley and serve.
Chicken croquettes
Cook together in a saucepan a tablespoonful of flour and one
of butter until they are blended. Pour upon this white roux a
cupful of rich milk, and when you have a smooth white sauce stir
in a cupful and a half of minced boiled or roast chicken. Season to
taste with celery salt, white pepper and a dash of nutmeg. Cook
until well heated, then add the yolks of two eggs and cook for
just two minutes before removing from the fire. Set aside until
cold and stiff ; mold into croquettes, roll in cracker-dust, in beaten
egg and yet again in cracker-dust, and set on the ice for two
hours before frying.
Turkey croquettes
Make in the same way, but mince more finely, as the meat is
firmer and harder.
Veal croquettes
Make a forcemeat of two cupfuls of minced veal, two table-
spoonfuls of bread-crumbs, one scant teaspoonful of salt, one-quar-
ter teaspoonful of paprika, one-eighth teaspoonful of mace, one
teaspoonful of onion juice, a tablespoonful of butter and the yolks
of two raw eggs. Stir in a saucepan over the fire until the mix-
ture is heated through, and set aside to cool. When cool, make
190 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
up into croquettes, dip in beaten egg, roll in egg and fine crumbs
and fry. Serve with tomato sauce.
Veal anJ spaghetti croquettes
Mix together a cupful, each, of cold cooked veal and of cold
boiled spaghetti, both minced fine. Season with salt, paprika and
onion juice. Stir into a cupful of drawn butter, well thickened;
cook together in a saucepan until smoking hot, when add the yolk
of a raw egg and a tablespoonful of Parmesan cheese (pow-
dered). Form into croquettes, dip into beaten egg, roll in bread-
crumbs and fry in smoking hot cottolene or other fat, or dripping
until brown. Serve with tomato sauce.
Chicken and macaroni croquettes
Make as directed in the foregoing recipe, omitting the cheese.
A nice sauce for either of these dishes is stewed and strained
tomatoes, thickened with a tablespoonful of butter rolled in flour
and cooked one minute before a large tablespoonful of grated
Parmesan cheese is stirred in.
Rice croquettes
Beat an egg light and stir it into a cupful of boiled rice ; add a
teaspoonful, each, of sugar and melted butter, salt to taste, add
enough cream to form the mixture into croquettes of the right
consistency. Dip each croquette into beaten egg, then in cracker-
dust and set all for two hours in a cold place before frying in
boiling cottolene, or other fat, to a golden brown.
Croquettes of brains
Calf's, or lamb's or pig's brains may be used for this dish.
Wash the brains in cold water, put them over the fire in boil-
ing water, cook for two minutes, drain and lay in ice-cold water
until cold and stiff.
Beat them into a paste. Have ready some thick drawn butter
CROQUETTES 191
and beat into the brains until the paste is smooth and stiff enough
to handle ; add, then, flour to stiffen it yet more ; season with pep-
per, salt and a little very finely minced parsley ; flour your hands,
make the paste into croquettes ; roll in egg and cracker-crumbs ;
set on the ice for two hours or more and fry in deep boil-
ing cottolene or other fat. Drain and serve.
Veal and ham croquettes
Mince enough cold veal to make a cupful when chopped ; mix
with it half as much cold boiled ham and one-fourth as much fine
crumbs. Rub the yolk of a hard-boiled egg through a colander
or vegetable press, and add to the mixture. Season with pepper
and onion juice and moisten with thickened gravy or with drawn
butter. Lastly, whip in a raw egg to bind the mixture and make
into croquettes. Roll in egg and in crumbs, set aside to form and
stiffen, and fry.
Potato croquettes
Work to a paste two cupfuls of mashed potatoes and a table-
spoonful of melted butter. Season with salt and pepper and beat
light with a raw egg. Form into balls or croquettes ; roll in egg
and then in cracker-dust ; let them stand on ice until stiff and fry in
deep, boiling cottolene or other fat. Drain off every drop of fat
and serve hot.
Hominy croquettes
Make precisely as you would potato croquettes, beating hard
until the mixture is entirely free from lumps, hominy being more
adhesive and cohesive than potato.
Fish and potato croquettes
One cupful of cold cooked fish picked to pieces with a fork, and
one-third the quantity of mashed potato worked to a stiff cream
with a little drawn butter and seasoned with pepper, salt and
a dash of Worcestershire sauce. Make into croquettes; roll in
192 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
egg, then in cracker-crumbs ; let them get cold and firm and fry
in deep, hot cottolene or other fat.
Beef croquettes
Two cups of minced cold roast beef or steak (never corned
beef). One-quarter as much mashed potato. Season well with
pepper, salt and onion juice, with a little very finely minced pars-
ley. Enough gravy to moisten the mixture and a raw egg to
bind it.
Work together well, mold into cones, cover with egg and crack-
er-dust ; let them get chilled for two hours and fry in deep, boil-
ing cottolene or other fat, or dripping.
Potato and nut croquettes
Blanch the kernels, of two dozen English walnuts, or twice that
number of pecans, by pouring scalding water over them and leav-
ing them in it until the skins crack and curl. 'Strip them bare,
spread on a dish, sprinkle lightly with celery salt and paprika, and
let them get perfectly cold. When crisp, pound in a mortar, or
chop and crush fine. Mix with them two cupfuls of mashed po-
tatoes, into which you have worked a little cream, butter and salt
while hot. Beat into the mixture the raw yolk of an egg. Mold
into croquettes ; set aside until stiff ; roll in egg and then in
cracker-crumbs, and fry. Dry in a hot colander and serve at once.
Celery croquettes
Cook together a tablespoonf ul of flour and one of butter* and
when they bubble pour upon them a cupful of milk. When this is
thick and free from lumps pour it gradually upon the beaten yolks
of two eggs. Now add a cupfuH of celery cut (not chopped) into
tiny bits, season with celery salt and white pepper and turn out
to cool. When cold form with floured hands into small cro-
quettes, roll these in cracker-dust, then in beaten egg, again in
cracker-dust and set aside for an hour before frying in deep, boil-
ing cottolene or other fat, always brought gradually to the boil.
CROQUETTES 193
Oyster-plant croquettes
(Contributed)
Boil, mash and season the oyster-plant, mold into shapes, sprin-
kle with bread-crumbs, dip in egg and again in crumbs and fry
in hot fat.
Sweetbread croquettes
(Contributed)
Take four sweetbreads, removing pipes and membranes soak
for an hour in cold salted water. Plunge into boiling salted water
to which has been added a tablespoonful of vinegar; cook twenty
minutes. Drop again into cold water to harden. Chop them
very fine and season with salt and pepper and a teaspoonful of
grated onion. Add the beaten yolks of three eggs, a tablespoonful
of butter, one-half cupful of cream and enough fine bread-crumbs
to make soft enough to roll into balls. Dip in. egg and then in
bread-crumbs and fry in hot fat to a nice brown. Take up and
drain on brown paper. Serve hot with sliced lemon..
WITH THE CASSEROLE
THE French name "casserole" has a certain amount of terror
for the American housewife. The foreign word startles her and
awakens visions of cooking as done by a Parisian chef, or by one
who has made the culinary art his profession. She, a plain, every-
day housekeeper, would not dare aspire to the use of a casserole.
And yet the casserole itself is no more appalling than a sauce-
pan. It is simply a covered dish, made of fireproof pottery, which
will stand the heat of the oven or the top of the range. And the
dainty cooked in this dish is "casserole" of chicken, rice, etc.,
as the case may be. Like many another object of dread this, when
once known, is converted into a* friend.
Casserole of chicken
Clean and joint a tender spring chicken. Put into a frying-pan
three tablespoonfuls of butter and fry in this a small onion and a
carrot, both cut into tiny dice. When these vegetables are lightly
browned, turn into the casserole, add to them two cupfuls of clear
soup stock, in which three bay leaves and a little thyme have been
boiled and then removed. In this consomme lay the jointed
chicken, put the closely-fitting cover on the casserole and set it
in a steady oven. It should cook for an hour. At the end of this
time stir into the chicken a dessertspoonful of tomato catsup. Re-
cover and cook for half an hour longer. Then add two dozen
small French mushrooms which have been previously stewed for
ten minutes, lastly, a glass of sherry. Season the whole to taste
with pepper and salt and leave uncovered in the oven long enough
for the chicken to brown. Fresh mushrooms are, of course, bet-
ter than canned when you can get them.
194
WITH THE CASSEROLE 195
Casserole of rice and liver
Boil a cupful of rice in a quart of water until reduced to a soft
paste. Mash this rice paste smooth with two tablespoonfuls of
butter and salt and pepper to taste. Line a well-greased casserole
with the mixture, pressing the paste firmly against bottom and
sides, and leaving a large hollow in the center. Set in a cold place
until stiff and firm. Meanwhile boil a pound of lamb's liver, drain
and chop fine. Heat in a saucepan two cupfuls of soup stock, sea-
son with a teaspoonful of kitchen bouquet, thicken with browned
flour and stir into this sauce the minced liver. Fill the hollow in
the center of the rice with the liver mixture, sprinkle with bread-
crumbs and set in the oven to brown.
Casserole of potato and cheese
Boil a sufficient number of potatoes to make three cupfuls when
mashed. Return the mashed potatoes to a saucepan and stir over
the fire, as you add slowly the beaten yolks of three eggs. When
the smoking mass is hot and stiff, turn it into a greased casserole
and press firmly against the sides, leaving a hollow in the middle
about the size of a kitchen teacup. Brush the top and sides of the
potato with the white of an egg and set in the oven until glazed
and firm. Meanwhile, heat in a frying-pan or chafing-dish six
tablespoonfuls of grated Parmesan cheese in a gill of milk and
when hot add to it the yolk of an egg, a pinch of salt and a dash
of paprika. When this cheese-sauce is thick and hot, remove the
casserole from the oven, fill the hollow in the middle of the po-
tato with the cheese mixture, sprinkle cracker-crumbs over the
top of the potato and cheese and return to the oven to brown.
Serve in the casserole and at once.
Casserole of lamb or mutton chops
Trim the chops neatly, removing every bit of fat and skin. In
the bottom of the casserole put a layer of pared and shredded to-
matoes ; sprinkle with salt, pepper, a little sugar and a teaspoonful
196 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
of onion juice. Lay three or four chops upon the tomatoes; sea-
son them with salt and pepper; arrange about them small pel-
lets of parboiled potato, cut with a gouge, after the manner of
Parisian potatoes, also a dozen or so champignons (canned
mushrooms). Now, more tomato, seasoned as before, then more
chops, potatoes and mushrooms, until all are used up in this
order. The upper layer should be tomatoes. Pour in a generous
cupful of stock bouillon, consomme, mutton broth, or whatever
you have ; cover and cook steadily for two hours if the casserole
be large.
When the meat is tender to the trial-fork, pour off the gravy
carefully into a saucepan, thicken with browned flour; add the
juice of half a lemon, a teaspoonful of kitchen bouquet and a glass
of brown sherry. Pour back over the contents of the casserole,
set in the oven for three minutes, covered, and serve in the dish.
An elegant dish can be made of unpromising chops by following
these directions.
Mock casseroles of chicken
Select large, smooth, tart apples of good flavor and of uniform
size. Remove core with corer. Mince cold chicken fine, season
with salt, a dash of cayenne, pinch of powdered thyme, one-half
cupful of bread-crumbs, moistened with three or four teaspoonfuls
of sweet cream. Fill each apple and bake in oven. Serve hot or
cold with mayonnaise as a salad.
%
Creamed chicken
Carve enough meat from a cold roast chicken to make a pint
when cut into small dice. Cook together in a saucepan a table-
spoonful, each, of butter and flour ; when they are blended pour
upon them a cup of white stock, and when this is thick, a cup of
milk. Stir to a smooth sauce and add the minced chicken. Season
to taste ; cook until the meat is very hot and serve.
WITH THE CASSEROLE
Creamed chicken and macaroni
197
Cut cold boiled or roast chicken into small dice of uniform
size, and into half-inch lengths half the quantity of cold, cooked
macaroni. Make a good white sauce, season highly with paprika,
salt and a suspicion of onion juice. Beat two eggs light and stir
into them four tablespoonfuls of cream, heated, with a pinch of
soda. Mix well with the chicken and spaghetti; put over the
fire in a frying-pan, or broad saucepan, and stir and toss until
smoking hot. Serve in a deep dish.
Scallops of turkey or chicken
Chop the meat fine and to two cupfuls add a tablespoonful of
butter, two tablespoonfuls of bread-crumbs, half a cupful of boil-
ing water, salt and pepper to taste. Put these all into a saucepan
and stir while heating. Lastly, put in two raw eggs, beaten light,
and take from the fire. Fill baking cups two-thirds full of the
mixture, set in a pan of boiling water and bake about twenty-five
minutes. Turn out carefully into a heated dish and pour white
sauce around them.
Philadelphia scrapple
(Contributed)
Take a cleaned pig's head and boil until the flesh slips easily
from the bones. Remove all the bones and chop fine. Set the
liquor in which the meat was boiled aside until cold, take the cake
of fat from the surface and return the liquor to the fire. When it
boils, put in the chopped meat and season well with pepper and
salt. Let it boil again and thicken with corn-meal as you would
in making ordinary corn-meal mush, by letting it slip slowly
through the fingers to prevent lumps.
Cook an hour, stirring constantly at first, afterward putting
back on the range in a position to boil" gently. When done, pour
into a long, spare pan, not too deep, and mold. In cold weather
this can be kept several weeks. Slice and saute in butter or drip-
ping.
CHEESE DISHES FOR LUNCHEON
A fondu of cheese
Grate cheese and crush broken and dried bread and crusts into
fine crumbs. There should be two cupfuls of these to one of cheese.
Wet the crumbs with two cupfuls of milk in which has been dis-
solved a bit of soda no larger than a Lima bean. Beat two eggs
light, whites and yolks apart; whip the yolks into the soaked
crumbs with a tablespoonful of melted butter. Season with salt
and a dust of cayenne, add the frothed whites, deftly and rapidly ;
bake in a greased pudding dish in a brisk oven, keeping the dish
covered until the fondu has puffed high and is crusty on top.
Then brown lightly and serve at once, as it soon falls. Pass
crackers and pickles with it.
Rice and cheese pudding-
Boil a cupful of rice tender ; drain dry in a hot colander ; set at
the side of the range for ten minutes. Mix, then, with two beaten
eggs, a tablespoonful of butter, pepper and salt to taste. Line a
well-greased dish with this paste, leaving a hollow in the middle.
The walls of rice should be about an inch thick. Set in the hot
oven for five minutes. Have ready a cupful of hot milk ; stir into
it a tablespoonful of butter rolled in flour, half a cupful of grated
cheese, a generous pinch of paprika, with salt to taste, and a pinch
of baking-soda. Lastly, and quickly, add a beaten egg. Pour
this mixture into the hollowed rice, sift fine crumbs over it, and set
covered in the oven. At the end of ten minutes uncover and
brown slightly. Serve at once, as it falls into heaviness with
standing.
CHEESE DISHES FOR LUNCHEON 199
Cheese rice
Boil a cupful of rice in two quarts of water. When tender, turn
into a colander, drain, shake hard and stand at the side of the
range ten minutes to dry. Now stir into the rice, first, a table-
spoonful of melted butter, then four tablespoonfuls of Parmesan
cheese and a dash of cayenne pepper. Serve very hot.
Tomatoes and cheese
Cut the stem-end from large tomatoes, and with a small spoon
scoop out the insides. To two tablespoonfuls of the tomato pulp
add a teaspoonful of bread-crumbs and the same quantity of
cheese crumbled into bits. Season to taste and return this mixture
to the tomatoes. Replace the stem-ends and bake the tomatoes for
twenty minutes in a roasting-pan. Transfer to a hot platter and
serve.
Cheese straws
To a half pint of prepared flour add two ounces of grated Par-
mesan cheese, moisten with the yolk of an egg and enough milk to
make a paste that can be rolled out. Roll into a thin sheet and cut
into narrow "straws." Bake to a delicate brown. While they are
hot sift grated cheese over them.
Cheese puffs
In a saucepan of boiling water melt two tablespoonfuls of but-
ter. When the water and butter are boiling, stir into them four
tablespoonfuls of flour, wet with a little cold water, and four
tablespoonfuls of grated cheese. Cook for three minutes, stirring
all the time. Remove from the fire, and when the mixture is cold
add two eggs and beat hard for fifteen minutes. Line a baking-
pan with greased paper and drop the mixture upon it, a spoonful
at a time, leaving ample space between each puff for the swelling
caused by baking. When puffed up and brown they are done and
must be eaten at once.
200 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Cheese fritters
Make small sandwiches of buttered white bread (from which
the crust has been removed) sliced thin and thin slices of cheese.
Press each sandwich firmly, that the two pieces of bread may not
separate in the cooking, and drop into boiling fat. Fry to a golden
brown and remove to a colander lined with tissue paper.
Egg and cheese timbales
Beat six eggs very light and add to them a gill of warm milk,
in which a pinch of soda has been dissolved, five tablespoonfuls of
grated cheese and a pinch, each, of paprika and salt. Butter small
timbale molds, or pate pans, fill with the egg mixture and set in a
baking-pan of boiling water until the egg is set. Turn out care-
fully on a hot platter and pour hot tomato sauce about them.
Serve at once, as they soon fall. A nice luncheon entree.
Cheese souffle
Cook together in a saucepan two tablespoonfuls, each, of butter
and flour, and when they are blended t pour upon them a half
pint of milk. Stir to a smooth white sauce and stir into this eight
tablespoonfuls of grated cheese, a saltspoonful of salt, a pinch of
baking-soda and a dash of paprika. Have ready beaten four eggs,
white and yolks separate. Remove the cheese mixture from the
fire and gradually beat into it the yolks of the eggs; last of all,
fold in lightly the stiffened whites. Turn the mixture into a
greased pudding-dish and bake in a steady oven to a golden
brown. Serve immediately.
Cheese ramakins
Cut slices of bread very thick, pare off the crusts and press
a round cake-cutter half-way through the middle of each slice.
Take out the crumb enclosed in this circle. Butter the bread and
set in the oven until dry and crisp. Now fill the hollow in each
slice with a mixture made of a tablespoonful of butter, four table
CHEESE DISHES FOR LUNCHEON 201
spoonfuls of grated cheese, a tablespoonful of cream and a little
salt and pepper. Set for five minutes in a hot oven.
Cheese biscuits
Cook together in a small saucepan three tablespoonfuls of but-
ter and four of flour. When these are blended pour upon them a
half pint of boiling water and stir until thick and smooth; add
four tablespoonfuls of grated cheese, a dash of celery salt and
of cayenne pepper. Cook, stirring constantly, until very thick;
remove from the fire and add, slowly, two beaten eggs. Beat
for ten minutes and drop by the spoonful upon a greased baking-
pan. Drop these cakes so far apart that they will not touch
each other. Lay a sheet of brown paper over the top of the
pan and set in a hot oven for ten or fifteen minutes. When the
biscuits are puffed up and seem nearly done, remove the paper
and brown them. Slip a thin-bladed knife carefujly under the bis-
cuits to loosen them from the pan and serve at once, as they soon
fall.
Cheese crackers
On buttered crackers lay slices of American cheese cut thin*
arrange in a baking-pan and set in the oven until the cheese is
melted. Serve hot. A little cayenne sprinkled upon the crackers
is liked by many.
Cheese fingers
Cut puff-paste into strips as long and as wide as your middle
finger, sprinkle with a layer of cheese (grated), press upon this
another strip of pastry, sprinkle with more cheese and bake in a
quick oven.
Cream cheese
To every quart of rich milk you use allow a pinch of salt and a
teaspoonful of rennet, taking care to buy that which is not flavored
in any way. When it is solid, turn into a bag and let it drip-
When it is well drained so that all the whey is taken from the
curd it may take more than a day for this, and in that case you
202 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
must change the bag at the end of the first twelve hours take it
out, chop the curd fine, put it into a cheese box and press two
hours. Wrap in two or three folds of tissue paper or in tinfoil,
to exclude the air.
Deviled crackers and cheese
Butter thin crackers water, butter, cream or saltine dip each
lightly into hot milk and lay in a buttered bake-dish. Sprinkle
the layers with salt and paprika and every other layer with a
spatter of French mustard. Cover each layer with dry, grated
cheese. The topmost layer should be soaked crackers dotted with
butter. Finally, pour in a cup of milk, heated, with a pinch of
soda. Cover closely for the first half-hour of baking, then brown
delicately.
Creamed cheese golden buck
This is a good way of using cream cheese which has become
a little dry after the tinfoil has been removed.
Rub three tablespoonfuls of cream cheese to a paste with a tea-
spoonful of butter ; salt and pepper it and work in a tablespoonf ul
or two of cream, enough to make it quite soft. Set in a pan of
boiling water over the fire and stir until hot, when add a beaten
egg, cook one minute and spread upon buttered crackers.
Nonpareil Welsh rarebit
Half a pound of soft grated cheese ; one gill of ale ; two eggs ;
one tablespoonf ul of butter; one teaspoonful of lemon juice and
the same of Worcestershire sauce and half a spoonful of celery
salt. A pinch of cayenne and one of mustard.
Put a broad saucepan over the fire and melt the butter. When
it hisses stir in the cheese, then, still stirring, the dry seasoning.
Have ready the eggs beaten separately and very light, before you
stir them together in a bowl with a few swift strokes. Add three
spoonfuls of the hot mixture to these, rapidly, then pour the eggs
(now warmed by the hot cheese) into the saucepan, never letting
the spoon rest. In one minute more add the sauce and lemon
juice and put upon rounds of hot, buttered toast.
CREAMED MACARONI IN PINEAPPLE CHEESE SHELL
COVERED CHEESE DISH FOR LIMBURGER, ETC.
CHEESE AND EGG-ENTRFES
CHEESE DISHES FOR LUNCHEON 203
Macaroni in cheese shell
Break macaroni into two-inch lengths and boil until tender
in plenty of salted water ; then drain and blanch by pouring cold
water over it. After it has been blanched cut into pieces not over
a half inch long. Have ready a cheese-shell, one from which the
cheese has been thoroughly scooped out. These shells, which
are frequently thrown away, make a nice receptacle for serving
macaroni. Stand the shell on a piece of waxed paper and this
in a baking-pan. Put two tablespoonfuls of butter and two of
flour in the saucepan, mix and add a pint of milk, stir until
boiling, mix in the cold macaroni and stir over the fire until
it is just heated through; add a teaspoonful of salt and salt-
spoonful of pepper and pour the mixture into the shell ; cover with
a piece of greased paper and leave in the oven fifteen minutes.
Lift the shell carefully, putting it on a round plate and send to
the table. This process imparts a most delicate cheese flavor and
makes a sightly dish. If baked too long, it will become soft and
fall apart. For that reason the macaroni must be hot when poured
into the shell. If the shell is carefully cleaned, it may be used
several times.
Cream celery in Edam cheese shell
Cut the cleaned celery stalks into inch-lengths and cook until
tender in boiling water, slightly salted. For three cupfuls of the
cut celery allow a pint of white sauce, using the water in which the
celery was cooked, with the cream, as the liquid. Turn into the
shell of an Edam cheese, cover with half a cupful of fine cracker-
crumbs, mixed with two tablespoonfuls of melted butter and let
it brown in the oven. Send around powdered cheese with this
dish.
Cheese rings
(Contributed)
Prepare a dough as for cheese straws, but cut it out with a
doughnut cutter, brown slightly in a moderate oven. Draw sev-
eral cheese straws through the opening in each ring and serve
with salad.
204 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Baked cheese
(Contributed)
Dissolve three ounces of butter in a gill of hot water. Melt
three ounces each of American and Gruyere cheese. Stir all to-
gether until creamy, then add enough sifted flour to make a stiff
paste and the beaten yolks of two eggs. Mix the whole thor-
oughly. Mold with two buttered tablespoons, slip on greased
paper, and when all are molded set in a moderate oven. When
slightly brown brush them over with the whites of the eggs beaten
stiff. Return to the oven for one minute. Take up on a hot
dish, dust with pepper and fill the center with grated cheese.
Cheese cutlets
(Contributed)
To the well-beaten yolks of three eggs add one tablespoonful of
cream and one ounce of grated Parmesan cheese and season with
mace and cayenne. Beat until very light and add one tablespoon-
ful of Bechamel sauce. Pour into a buttered pan and steam over
hot water until firm. When cold cut in shapes with a fancy
cutter, dredge with grated cheese and fry in boiling fat to a deli-
cate brown. Serve at once on fried bread.
THE TOAST FAMILY
Toast, pure and simple
Pare the crust from thin slices of bread, cut each slice in two
and toast to a golden brown over a clear fire ; butter lightly ; pile
together and throw a napkin over them. The sooner they are eaten
the better. This toast is the accompaniment to scores of break-
fast and luncheon dishes.
Brown bread toast
Is especially good and goes well with oysters and certain salads.
Deviled toast
Is best when made of stale whole wheat or of graham bread.
Toast as just directed and spread with a mixture made by cream-
ing together a great spoonful of butter with a quarter-teaspoon-
ful, each, of lemon juice, dry mustard and paprika. Sift, if you
like, dry grated cheese over each round of toast thus deviled and
set for one minute upon the upper grating of a hot oven. Eat at
once.
Tomato toast
Make a pint of well-seasoned tomato sauce. Toast crustless
slices of bread ; butter and dip each slice in hot, salted milk, then
put the slices in layers in a pudding dish. Put a spoonful of to-,
mato sauce on each layer, and when the dish is full, pour the re-
maining sauce over all. Cover and set in the oven for ten min-
utes, then send to the table. It will be found very good.
205
206 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Celery toast
Stew inch-lengths of celery until soft ; run through a vegetable
press ; mix with a thin white sauce, seasoning with paprika, salt
and a dash of onion juice; boil up once and put into a pudding
dish with alternate layers of lightly toasted bread which have
been dipped into the salted water poured off from the boiled cel-
ery. Cover and set in the oven for ten minutes, then serve in
the bake-dish. A pleasant accompaniment to chicken or veal
croquettes.
Sandwiched toast
Cut bread into very thin slices and remove all the crusts. But-
ter lightly, and between every two slices lay an extremely thin
shaving of chicken or cold roast veal. Press the slices of bread
firmly together, lay on a toaster and toast each to a delicate
brown. Serve at once. These are especially nice with cucumber
salad.
Toasted crackers
Butter seafoam or snowflake crackers and dust with celery salt
and a little paprika. Set in the oven until very hot, then serve.
Toasted anchovy crackers
Spread crackers with anchovy paste and set in the oven until
very hot before sending to the table.
LUNCHEON VEGETABLES
Hashed potatoes, browned
Pare, wash and cut eight fine potatoes into small cubes, not
more than half an inch square. Put these over the fire with two
tablespoonfuls of minced celery and half as much grated onion.
Salt to taste, and cook until tender but not broken ; drain off the
water and turn the potatoes into a buttered dish. Have ready a
cupful of hot milk, into which stir a large tablespoonful of butter
rubbed into one of flour. Do not cook them together, but add a
tablespoonful of finely-minced parsley, and pour over the potatoes.
Cover and bake fifteen minutes, then brown upon the upper grat-
ing of your oven. Serve in the bake-dish.
The celery and onion impart a most agreeable flavor to the
dish.
Potato scallop
Work gradually into your cold mashed potato a cupful of
warmed milk (in which has been dissolved a pinch of soda) until
you have a smooth mixture ; season with pepper and salt, add an
egg beaten very light, and bake briskly in a well-greased pudding
dish. Serve in the dish before it has time to fall.
Potato chips
Pare, slice very thin with a sharp knife and throw into ice
water for an hour. Dry between two towels, and cook until deli-
cately colored in deep, boiling cottolene or the best salad oil, slight-
ly salted. Drain perfectly dry, toss upon hot tissue paper for an
instant and serve in a deep dish lined with a napkin, which is
drawn over the potatoes.
207
208 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Potato strips
Prepare in the same way, after cutting into long, thin strips,
the length of the potato.
Potatoes on the half -shell
Bake large, smooth potatoes of uniform size until they yield' to
the pinching fingers. Divide each carefully in half, lengthwise ;
scrape out the interior, taking care not to break the skin ; mash
the potato with a little hot milk and melted butter until you can
beat it to a cream ; salt and pepper, beat in two tablespoonfuls of
grated cheese (Parmesan is best) for two cupfuls of potato, and
return to the waiting shells. Set in the oven until hot through
and slightly browned. Serve in the skins.
They are very good.
Potato puff
Beat a cupful of mashed potato to a soft, creamy mass, with a
cupful of warm milk and an even tablespoonful of butter. Have
ready two eggs, whipped light, and add to the "cream." Pepper
and salt to your liking ; turn into a warmed and buttered pudding
dish; set in a quick oven and bake, covered, for half an hour,
then brown. Serve at once before it falls.
Potato drop cakes
Pare, wash and grate six good-sized raw potatoes ; press out the
water, add three well-beaten eggs and a heaping tablespoonful of
flour, with salt to taste. Beat well, and drop by the great spoon-
ful in deep, hot cottolene or other fat. Fry to a delicate brown.
Sweet potatoes au gratin
Peel and slice cold, boiled sweet potatoes. Grease a pudding
dish, put a layer of potatoes in the bottom of it, sprinkle with salt,
pepper, sugar and bits of butter. Put in more potatoes, sprinkle
these as you did the others, and when the dish is full pour over the
LUNCHEON VEGETABLES 209
contents a gill of boiling water, in which a tablespoonful of butter
has been melted. Strew with fine crumbs, sprinkle with salt and
pepper, and bake, covered, for twenty minutes. Uncover and
brown.
Sweet potato puff
Into two cupfuls of boiled and mashed sweet potatoes beat
three tablespoonfuls of melted butter, a cupful of milk and four
beaten eggs. Salt to taste, beat hard and turn into a greased
pudding dish. Bake to a golden brown.
Pea pancakes
Open a can of green peas several hours before you wish to
use them, drain in a colander and cover with cold water until you
are ready to cook them. Boil tender in water slightly salted,
drain, and while hot rub through a colander or vegetable press.
Work in a teaspoonful of butter, with pepper and salt to taste.
Stir for a minute, and let the paste get cold. Beat two eggs light
and add to the cold paste, alternately with a cupful of milk. Sift
half a teaspoonful of baking powder twice with four tablespoon-
fuls of flour, and stir into the mixture.
Drop upon a soapstone griddle as you would griddle cakes.
Eat while hot, as a vegetable. Peas left over from yesterday
are nice made up in this way.
t*
Buttered rice
This, too, is a nice "made-over entree." Boil rice in the usual
way, and, after draining well, press while warm into a bowl or
mold. Next day turn it out carefully upon a pie plate and set in a
quick oven. When it is hot all through draw to the door of the
oven and butter abundantly. Shut the oven, door and brown
lightly. Butter again and sift a thick coating of grated cheese
(Parmesan, if you have it) over all. Leave in the oven for a few
minutes to melt the cheese, and heap irregularly with a meringue
14
210 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
of the whites of two eggs beaten up with a pinch of celery salt.
Brown very lightly, slip a spatula under the mold and transfer
carefully to a hot platter.
It is a pretty yet a simple side dish, good and easily made.
Tomatoes farcies
Carefully peel large, firm tomatoes, and scoop out the centers.
In the hollow thus left in each tomato put a layer of minced ham.
Set the tomatoes in a bake-pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper,
put a bit of butter upon the top of each and cook for ten minutes.
Then drop upon the mince in each tomato a raw egg; dust with
salt and pepper and cook until the eggs are "set."
_ : ; &
Tomato cups and saucers
Cut the tops from large, ripe tomatoes, and scoop out the in-
sides with a small spoon. Keep these insides for the sauce, to be
used later. Make a mince of cold roast beef or mutton, moisten
it with a rich gravy, season to taste and half fill the hollowed
tomatoes with this mixture. Set in a covered roasting-pan and
bake for twenty minutes in a steady oven. Meanwhile, strain the
tomato pulp, heat it and make of it a sauce thickened with two
teaspoonfuls, each, of flour and butter, rubbed to a paste. Season
to taste. Toast rounds of crustless bread, lay these on a platter
and pour the tomato sauce over and around them. Keep hot until
the tomatoes are ready. When these have cooked for twenty min-
utes remove the cover of the roaster and drop into each half-
filled tomato a raw egg. Replace the cover and bake just long
enough to "set" the eggs. Upon each round of toast lay a stuffed
tomato, sprinkle with pepper and salt and send to the table.
Scallop of tomatoes and eggs
Into a pint of stewed tomatoes stir a generous cupful of fine
bread crumbs, a tablespoonful of melted butter, a half teaspoonful
of sugar, pepper and salt to taste. Mix thoroughly and turn into
a greased pudding dish. Upon the top of this scallop break as
LUNCHEON VEGETABLES 211
many eggs as will lie upon it side by side. Sprinkle with salt,
pepper and bits of butter and bake until the eggs are set.
Rice and cheese pudding
Boil a cup of rice until each grain is tender and stands alone.
Now beat in gradually five whipped eggs and a cup of milk, in
which have been stirred two tablespoonfuls of grated cheese.
Stir over the fire for a minute and pour the mixture into a greased
pudding dish. Bake in a good oven for half an hour.
Pilau of green peppers
Cut green peppers lengthwise, removing the seeds with care,
lest they make the green shells too hot. Fill the halves with
boiled rice, into which has been stirred a tablespoonful of melted
butter for a cupful of the boiled rice, and two tablespoonfuls of
grated Parmesan cheese, with salt to taste. Mound the rice
smoothly and high, and after the pilau has cooked ten minutes in
a covered pan brown lightly. Serve hot.
Scallop of sweet peppers and ham
Cut each pepper lengthwise into quarters and remove the seeds
carefully, lay in iced water for fifteen minutes, then drain. Cut
each quarter in half. Butter a pudding dish and put in the bot-
tom of it a layer of minced ham, on top of this a layer of cut
peppers ; sprinkle thickly with fine crumbs and moisten all thor-
oughly with seasoned stock. Now put in more ham, another layer
of peppers and crumbs, liberally dotted with bits of butter and
sprinkled with salt. Bake, covered, in a good oven for half an
hour, then uncover and cook ten minutes longer.
Buttered rice with peppers
Cook an even cupful of rice fast in two quarts of salted boiling
water for twenty minutes, or until tender, but not broken. Drain
in a colander, and set in an open oven to dry off for five minutes.
212 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Have ready one large, or two small green sweet peppers, seeded
carefully and chopped fine. Put a heaping tablespoonful of but-
ter in a frying-pan ; when it hisses add the minced peppers ; toss
and stir over the fire until smoking hot all through. Put the rice
into a dish and pour the contents of the frying-pan all over
it, loosening the mass with a fork to allow the sauce to pene-
trate it.
Boston baked beans
Soak one quart of beans over night in warm not hot water.
In the morning cook them until the skin curls on a bean when you
blow upon it. Pack them in an earthen pot. Score the skin of
a pound of streaked salt pork, and almost bury it in the beans.
Pour over this one dessertspoonful of molasses, mixed with as
much vinegar, a good pinch of pepper and a teaspoonful of mixed
mustard. Cover closely and bake six hours in a good oven.
Baked beans and tomatoes
Soak and boil as directed in the last recipe. Then put the
beans into a deep pudding dish ; bury a piece of pork (parboiled)
in the center and pour over them a large cupful of stewed and
strained tomatoes seasoned with pepper, sugar, onion juice and a
good lump of butter, but not thickened. Cover closely and cook
for three hours, if the dish be large.
Fried cucumbers
Peel and slice cucumbers and lay in a dressing of equal parts of
oil and vinegar for ten minutes. Drain and dip in beaten egg,
roll in cracker crumbs and fry in deep cottolene or other fat.
Drain and serve hot.
Mushrooms on toast
Peel and broil fresh mushrooms, spread them with butter, dust
with salt and pepper, and serve them on rounds of toast. Or
you may cut the mushrooms in quarters, put them in a double
boiler with a tablespoonful of butter and cook until tender. They
LUNCHEON VEGETABLES 213
may then be seasoned to taste and poured, sauce and all, on
rounds or triangles of crustless toast
Baked mushrooms
Peel and stem large mushrooms. Line a deep bake-dish with
thin slices of toast, each of which has been dipped for an instant
in seasoned beef stock. Fill the dish with layers of mushrooms,
sprinkling each layer with salt, paprika, and bits of butter. When
the dish is full, pour over all a gill of stock, and bake, covered, for
twenty minutes. Uncover and cook for five minutes before send-
ing to the table.
Dried mushrooms and eggs
Wash the dried mushrooms, boil until tender and drain the
water off. Put into a pan to fry in butter for about ten minutes,
sprinkle a very little caraway seed on them, and salt to taste.
Break a few eggs over them.
SANDWICHES
THE day has passed and forever when a sandwich meant two
thick slices of bread, enclosing what the boys call a "hunk" of
cold meat. Now the popular delicacy is made of bread cut to
wafer-like thinness and shorn of all suggestion of crust. The
" filling" may be simple or composite, as taste may dictate, and the
ingenious housewife will devise many delicious combinations to be
spread between the two layers of her sandwiches.
Ham sandwiches
Chop lean ham fine and beat into each cupful of the minced
meat a tablespoonful of salad oil, a teaspoon ful of vinegar, a salt-
spoonful of French mustard, six olives chopped fine, and a tea-
spoonful of minced parsley. Work all to a paste and spread on
thin slices of white bread.
Chicken sandwiches
Mince the white meat of a roast chicken and mix it with half a
can of French mushrooms, chopped fine, and a half cupful of
chopped English walnuts. Season to taste with pepper and salt,
and moisten with melted butter. Put the mixture between slices
of whole wheat bread.
Brunette sandwiches
Slice Boston brown bread very thin, butter lightly, and spread
with Neufchatel or with cottage cheese. Have ready crisp lettuce-
leaves, dip each in a bowl of French salad dressing, then lay on the
already spread brown bread. Press another slice of buttered
brown bread on this, and the sandwich is ready. These sand-
214
SANDWICHES 215
wiches must be kept in a moist atmosphere until it is time to serve
them.
Lamb or mutton sandwiches
Mince cold roast lamb, or tender mutton fine, and season with
salt, pepper and tomato catsup. Add a few minced olives and
make all into a paste with mayonnaise dressing. Spread between
thin slices of bread. Cut these sandwiches into diamond shapes.
Beef sandwiches
Chop rare cold roast beef very fine, taking care to use only
the lean portions of the meat. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and a
saltspoonful of horseradish. Mix and make into sandwiches with
thinly-sliced graham bread. These may be eaten by persons of
delicate digestion, and are both appetizing and nourishing.
Egg sandwiches
Mash the yolks of hard-boiled eggs to a powder and moisten
with olive oil and a few drops of vinegar. Work to a paste, add
salt, pepper and French mustard to taste, with a drop or two of
Tabasco sauce. Now chop the whites of the eggs as fine as pos-
sible (or until they are like a coarse powder) and mix them with
the yolk paste. If more seasoning is necessary, add it before
spreading the mixture upon sliced graham bread.
Walnut sandwiches
Shell English walnuts. Blanch and chop, and to every table-
spoonful of nuts allow a good half tablespoonful of cream cheese.
Rub well together and spread on thin slices of crustless white or
graham bread.
Peanut sandwiches
Shell and skin freshly-roasted peanuts and roll them to fine
crumbs on a pastry-board. Add salt to taste, and mix the pow-
dered nuts with enough fresh cream cheese to make a paste that
216 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
can be easily spread on unbuttered bread. Keep in a cold, damp
place until wanted.
Water cress sandwiches
Season water cress with salt, pepper, and a few drops of vine-
gar, and chop coarsely. Mix with creamy cottage cheese and
spread on thinly-sliced white bread.
Cottage cheese sandwiches
Cottage cheese, spread upon a slice of buttered bread, and cov-
ered with a leaf of lettuce dipped in oil and vinegar, then with
the second buttered slice, makes a nice relish.
Sardine sandwiches
Wipe the fish, skin, take out the backbone and rub to a smooth
paste with a little butter and lemon juice. Add a dash of cay-
enne, or a few drops of Tabasco sauce, and spread between thin
slices of brown bread.
Salmon sandwiches
*
(Contributed)
Remove the skin and bones from a can of calmon, shred with a
silver fork and add the crumbled yolks of six hard-boiled eggs.
Season to taste and add any good salad dressing. Spread on thin
slices of brown bread.
Olive sandwiches
(Contributed)
Take equal parts of large and stuffed olives. Mince fine, mix
with a little thick mayonnaise, and spread on thin slices of but-
tered bread.
Salad sandwiches
(Contributed)
Take finely-chopped chicken or veal, season with salt, pepper
and a dash of onion juice. Add a little mayonnaise and spread
the mixture on thin slices of bread lined with crisp lettuce leaves.
WHOLE WHEAT BREAD SANDWICHES
IN FOLDED NAPKIN
SANDWICHES 217
Nasturtium sandwiches
(Contributed)
Butter thin slices of white bread, place between them the petals
of nasturtium flowers or the very young leaves. Place the flow-
ers so that they will show along the edges of the bread and deco-
rate the plate with the leaves and flowers.
Raisin sandwiches
(Contributed)
Make a paste of large seeded raisins and candied lemon peel
chopped fine and moistened with lemon juice. Spread on lightly-
buttered thin slices of bread. Serve with a cup of good tea.
Chocolate sandwiches
(Contributed)
Melt a small piece of butter in a saucepan ; grate into it bitter
chocolate and season with granulated sugar. When the chocolate
is thoroughly melted take from the fire and cool. Moisten with a
little thick cream and spread on thin slices of slightly buttered
bread.
Hash sandwiches
(Contributed)
Cut pieces of bread into uniform sizes, dip them in beaten egg,
to which a little milk and a pinch of salt has been added. Fry to
a light brown in hot butter. Make a highly-seasoned hash of
chopped meat and potatoes. Cook in stock until heated through.
Arrange toast on platter, putting a spoonful of hash on each
piece and covering with another piece of toast.
Date and nut sandwiches
(Contributed)
Remove the stones and the thick skin which surrounds them
from the dates, then chop them fine. Add half as much finely-
2i8 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
chopped English walnut or pecan meats ; moisten with creamed
butter, add a pinch of salt and spread between two thin slices of
bread.
Fig and nut sandwiches
(Contributed)
For fig sandwiches use the recipe for dates and nuts, substitut-
ing figs for dates.
Ginger sandwiches
(Contributed)
Cut thin slices of plain gingerbread. Spread with soft cream
cheese. Put between the slices a thin slice of preserved ginger.
Marmalade sandwiches
(Contributed)
Toast slices of bread, spread while hot with butter, fill with a
thick marmalade and serve hot.
Cheese and nut sandwiches
(Contributed)
Take equal parts of grated cheese and English walnuts pounded
to a meal and moisten with thick cream. Season to taste and
spread between thin slices of buttered bread.
Lettuce sandwiches
(Contributed)
Lay between two thin slices of buttered bread a crisp lettuce
leaf, on which has been spread a thin layer of salad dressing.
SANDWICHES 219
Sweetbread sandwiches
(Contributed)
Put cold boiled sweetbreads through a potato ricer, moisten
with half as much whipped cream, season with salt, cayenne and
lemon juice. Spread on thin slices of buttered bread and cut in
fancy shapes.
Lobster sandwiches
(Contributed)
Season the finely-chopped meat of a lobster with a few drops of
Tabasco sauce, lemon juice and oil and spread upon thinly-but-
tered bread.
Hot ham sandwiches
(Contributed)
Butter thin slices of bread. Broil some very thin slices of ham,
put between the slices of bread and serve hot.
Tongue sandwiches
(Contributed)
Make a dressing one part mustard and five parts butter, add
salt and pepper to taste and a little cayenne. Butter the bread
with the dressing and lay between the slices thin slices of cold
tongue.
Mint sandwiches
(Contributed)
Pulverize one tablespoonful of mint leaves ; pour over them two
tablespoonfuls of boiling water. Let it stand for about a half an
hour. Soak half an ounce of gelatine in one tablespoonful of
water. Dissolve it over hot water. Strain the mint into the gela-
tine and when cool add a pint of rich whipped cream and a pinch
of salt. Let this stand in a mold until perfectly cold and firm.
Slice in thin slices and put between dainty slices of bread.
220 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Anchovy sandwiches
(Contributed)
Spread thin slices of bread with a very little butter. Cover this
with a thin layer of anchovy paste. Mince finely some olives and
use for a filling.
Club sandwiches
(Contributed)
Toast slices of bread a nice brown, and while hot spread with
butter and put between the slices a lettuce leaf, some cold baked
chicken cut in thin slices, a few chopped olives and pickles, some
slices of hot crisp bacon, a layer of salad dressing, another lettuce
leaf and the other slice of toast.
These are very nice for Sunday evening supper.
TEMPTING PREFIXES TO LUNCHEON
Grape fruit
This is among the most popular of appetizers to be served at a
luncheon. Cut the fruit in half, crosswise, and with a sharp knife
remove all the bitter white membrane that divides the lobes. Fill
the space thus left with as much granulated sugar as the fruit
will hold. Set on the ice until very cold.
Fruit baskets
Cut oranges in half so cleverly as to leave a wide strip from the
upper half of the rind attached to the lower, like the handle of a
basket, or the "bale" of a bucket. Should you break it at one
side you can, after filling the cup or basket, put a neat stitch in
and tie a bow of narrow ribbon over the join.
Empty the lower cup entirely to the white inner lining. Set
on the ice while you prepare the filling. Cut the orange pulp
into neat, clean bits; mix with crystallized cherries, atoms of
marrons glaces or of blanched nuts, add fine white sugar and a
little liqueur, or if you prefer, sherry. Fill the baskets and leave
half buried in cracked ice until you are ready to set them on the
table.
Set each basket upon a chilled plate, laying an orange spoon
beside it.
If you do not care to take the trouble of leaving the handle on,
make bowls of the halved fruit. They are a delicious introduc-
tion to a company luncheon.
Oyster cocktails
Bury small oysters in the ice until needed. Have the tall, slen-
der glasses in which they are to be served laid in the ice also that
221
222 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
they may be thoroughly chilled. Make a sauce of two tablespoon-
fuls of tomato catsup, a dozen drops of Tabasco sauce, the juice
of a lemon, a saltspoonful of grated horseradish and a dash, each,
of salt and paprika. Add two tablespoonfuls of oyster liquor,
mix thoroughly and set on the ice until very cold.
Put five oysters in the bottom of each chilled glass, pour the
sauce upon them, and serve.
Raw oysters
Lay, when opened, on the deeper of the halved shells that the
liquor may not escape. Have a bed of finely-cracked ice in each
plate, fix five oysters in each bed, with a piece of lemon in the
middle. Pass grated horseradish in vinegar with them, and small
crackers, or buttered bars of graham bread.
Raw clams
Are served in the same way.
Caviar crisps
Remove the crusts from slices of white bread and cut into strips
an inch wide and three inches long. Toast to a light brown and
set aside to cool. Open a small can of caviar and rub into the
contents a tablespoonful of salad oil and a teaspoonful of lemon
juice. If the paste is not soft enough add more oil. Spread the
crisp toast with this paste, garnish with sprigs of parsley, and
serve cold.
Clam wafers
Chop a dozen soft clams very, very fine, and season with pepper
and a few drops of lemon juice. Add to them the beaten yolk of
one egg and enough finely-rolled cracker crumbs to make a soft
paste. Spread seafoam wafers thickly with this paste, lay them
in a baking pan and set in the oven for five or ten minutes, or until
the wafers and paste are very hot and the batter is quite stiff.
Serve at once.
CAVIAR TOAST GARNISHED WITH
CELERY AND LEMON
OYSTER COCKTAILS
TEMPTING PREFIXES TO LUNCHEON 223
Anchovy toast
Cut the crust from a loaf of graham bread and slice, then cut
each slice in half and toast on both sides. Spread lightly with
butter. Open a jar of anchovies and lay one of the tiny fish on
each strip of graham toast, squeeze a few drops of lemon juice
upon it, sprinkle with paprika and set in the oven until very hot.
Anchovy bars
Butter narrow saltine wafers, spread them with anchovy paste,
and set them in the oven long enough to become very hot. Serve
two on each plate.
Deviled crackers
Butter seafoam wafers, sprinkle lightly with paprika, then drop
upon them a very little grated Parmesan cheese, and set in the
oven until they brown delicately about the edges.
Hot-house grapes
Cut the larger bunches into smaller, all of uniform size. Lay
on ice until just before luncheon when, tie a dainty bow of ribbon
of a harmonizing color with the grapes, upon each bunch.
Jack Frost grapes
Divide a large bunch of selected grapes into smaller bunches of
even proportion. With a earners-hair brush varnish each grape
thoroughly with the white of an egg. Dust carefully with granu-
lated sugar. Tie to each cluster a bow of narrow white ribbon.
SALADS
IN A Familiar Talk, some pages back, I have alluded to the
"Woman with a Way," who will not use oil in salad dressing.
A story which stuck to an eminent magazine publisher to the end
of his busy career was of a new cook whose salads won the un-
qualified approval of her master, who was a gourmand in a
gentlemanly way. She had been serving perfect mayonnaises
and well-adjusted French dressings for a fortnight, when one of
the children fell ill and the doctor prescribed a dose of castor oil.
The mother recollected distinctly the purchase of a bottle not
long before, but it could not be found. Bridget heard the inquiry
going the rounds and came to the front.
"Castor ile is it ye are wanting? And it is mesilf that was
thinking this morning, as I had a right to spake to yez, mem, to
order more. I put the lasht dhrop inter the castor yisterday.
Salad every day uses a dale of ile."
Bridget knows better now, and her mistress's taste is so far
cultivated by much use of salad oil that she insists upon having it
"pure."
An airy waitress, in the second day of her trial week in my
household, complimented me patronizingly upon the judgment
which led me to select "the best brand."
"There's no better oil on the market to my way of thinking than
the Borducks !" holding a bottle up to let the light fall through the
slow liquid amber of "Huile de Bordeaux."
The oil of Bordeaux is good, when not doctored upon this side
of the water. There are olive groves in other foreign lands that
send thousands of gallons of pure oil to America to be mixed with
cheaper oils, returned to the bottles bearing foreign labels, and
palmed off upon the most credulous public upon the globe as the
yield of the royal olive.
224
SALADS 225
Pure salad oil, when it has any perceptible odor, should have a
faint "nutty" perfume; it should taste like the ripe olives from
which it was expressed; in color it should be palest, tenderest
green ; it should blend readily and harmoniously with condiments
and with the body of the salad.
French dressing
Rub the inside of a bowl with a clove of garlic. Measure into
a bowl six tablespoonfuls of oil, two of vinegar, two saltspoonfuls
of salt, and one of pepper. Mix thoroughly before pouring over
the salad.
Mayonnaise dressing
Into a chilled soup plate drop the yolk of an egg drained free
of all the white, squeeze upon it a teaspoonful of lemon juice and
stir in with a silver fork until well mixed. Now add gradually
a few drops of salad oil, stirring steadily. As the dressing thick-
ens, add the oil more freely until you have used half a pint.
Season with a dash of paprika, a half teaspoonful of salt, a salt-
spoonful of mustard, and a generous tablespoonful of vinegar.
In making your chicken salad allow a cupful of celery cut into
bits to every two cups of the chicken dice, and make a cupful of
mayonnaise for five cupfuls of the salad.
Cream dressing
Beat three eggs, yolks and whites together, until they are very
light; add one teaspoonful of salt, a pinch of red pepper, half a
saltspoonful of mustard mixed with a little water, and, lastly,
three or four tablespoonfuls of rich, sweet cream.
Sonr cream salad dressing
Have a cupful of rich sour cream very cold, then beat hard for
five minutes, adding, as you do so, a tablespoonful of powdered
sugar and a half teaspoonful of lemon juice. This dressing is
delicious served with chilled cucumbers, sliced thin.
15
226 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Boiled salad dressing
Into three well-beaten eggs stir a cupful of vinegar, a table-
spoonful of sugar, two saltspoonfuls of salt, a dash of paprika, and
a small teaspoonful of French mustard. Beat thoroughly, turn into
a saucepan, stir steadily until the boil begins, and add a teaspoon-
ful of butter. When this melts remove the dressing from the fire.
Beat for two minutes and set aside to cool. When cold put in
the ice-box, where it will keep a week or ten days.
Chicken salad
Cut cold, boiled chicken into small dice. With two cupfuls of
this meat mix a cupfuj of celery cut into dice. Sprinkle all with
salt and pepper. Into three tablespoonfuls of oil stir a table-
spoonful of vinegar. Pour this over the chicken and celery and
toss until well mixed. Line a chilled bowl with crisp lettuce
leaves, fill with the chicken salad and pour mayonnaise dressing
over all.
Turkey salad
Is made in like manner, rejecting the dark meat of the legs,
unless it is very tender.
Lobster salad
Pick out the meat from a fresh, well-boiled lobster. Cut with
a sharp knife into small dice, taking care not to tear the meat.
Set on ice while you make a good mayonnaise, which, in turn,
must go on the ice. Have ready one-third as much celery as you
have lobster, cut into half -inch lengths. Mix together in a bowl,
sprinkle with cayenne and salt and stir lightly into it a cupful of
mayonnaise. Line a chilled bowl with crisp lettuce, arrange the
salad within this; garnish with the lobsters' claws and hard-
boiled eggs cut into lengths lengthwise. Set on ice until it goes to
table.
Crab salad
Is made in the same way, omitting the eggs from the gar-
nish.
SALADS 227
Oyster salad
Choose small oysters for this salad. If you can not get these,
cut each oyster in half, but do not chop them. Drain the liquor
from the oysters, and to every cupful of these add a cupful of crisp
white celery cut into half-inch bits sprinkled lightly with salt.
Mix and stir mayonnaise dressing through the mixture. Line a
chilled bowl with lettuce leaves, fill with the oyster salad and pour
a rich mayonnaise over all. Garnish with stoned olives.
Shrimp salad
For this dish you can use either the fresh or the canned shrimps.
If the former, they must be shelled. If the latter, they must be
taken from the can several hours before they are to be used and
set on the ice. Line a salad bowl with crisp lettuce leaves, lay
the shrimps upon these and cover with mayonnaise dressing.
Serve at once.
Shrimp and tomato salad
Cut the tops from ripe tomatoes and remove the insides. Fill
the tomato shells with cold boiled shrimps, with their backs up;
set each tomato upon a leaf of lettuce and pour mayonnaise dress-
ing over all. A pretty salad.
Grab and tomato salad
Carefully strip the skin from six large, firm tomatoes, and re-
move the centers. Fill the hollowed vegetables with the chopped
and seasoned meat of six boiled crabs. Set the stuffed tomatoes
in the ice for several hours. Lay on crisp lettuce leaves, and put
a spoonful of mayonnaise dressing upon each tomato.
Shrimp salad and tomato aspic
Strain the liquor from a can of tomatoes through coarse muslin.
Put over the fire, season with salt and paprika and the strained
juice of a small onion. When it boils skim well and pour over
228 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
half a box of Coxe's gelatine, which has been soaked three hours
in a cup of cold water. Set away to form into a jelly.
When ready to use it line a salad dish with lettuce, arrange the
contents of a can of shrimps (strained) upon the leaves, and
spoonfuls of tomato jelly upon the shrimps. Send around French
salad dressing with it.
Salmon mayonnaise
Boil eight eggs hard, throw into cold water ; peel and lay in ice.
Make a cup of mayonnaise and rub into it five large clean-cut
pieces of canned salmon. Slice the eggs, lay them on lettuce
leaves and pour over them the salmon mayonnaise.
Sardine salad
Drain the oil from a box of sardines and squeeze three drops
of lemon juice on each fish. Lay crisp lettuce leaves in iced water
for half an hour, then shake free of moisture and lay on a chilled
platter. On each leaf lay a sardine, and upon this pour a spoon-
ful of thick mayonnaise dressing. Garnish the edge of the plat-
ter with cold boiled beets cut into star shapes. Serve with crack-
ers and cream cheese.
Egg salad with sardine mayonnaise
Boil eight eggs hard, throw into cold water ; peel and lay in the
ice. Make a cup of mayonnaise and rub into it four sardines
that have been skinned and mashed to a paste. Halve the eggs,
lay them on crisp lettuce leaves and pour a spoonful of the sar-
dine mayonnaise over all.
Egg salad with boiled dressing
Beat smooth the yolks of three eggs with one teaspoonful of
sugar, a half teaspoonful of mustard, one-half teaspoonful of salt,
SALADS 229
dash of celery salt, one cup of vinegar and one cup of milk,
added alternately to prevent curdling, and two tablespoonfuls of
oil; put into double boiler and cook to the consistency of thin
custard, stirring all the time. Let it get perfectly cold. Line a
chilled dish with lettuce leaves, heap hard-boiled eggs, cut into
quarters, upon these and pour over them the dressing.
Simple lettuce salad
Unless you have an exceptionally deft and cool-fingered cook
or waiter, make the salad on the table yourself. Have, first, a
finger-bowl passed quietly to you, into which dip your fingers,
drying them on your napkin. While you do this the waitress or
butler should set before you the oil, vinegar, pepper and salt,
with salad spoon and fork and a small bowl, in the bottom of
which is a tablespoonful of finely-minced green chives. If you
have not these, the inside of the bowl should have been rubbed
well with garlic. Mix in the bowl of the spoon a teaspoonful of
salt with half as much pepper; fill the large spoon with vinegar,
mixing salt and pepper well in this ; turn into the mixing bowl ;
then fill the spoon three times with oil. Stir and toss until the
ingredients are thoroughly incorporated. Two larger bowls
should be ready at hand, one empty, the other heaped with crisp,
cold lettuce leaves. Pick these apart lightly with the tips of your
fingers and put into the empty bowl. When all are in pour the
dressing over the lettuce, tossing lightly and quickly with salad
fork and spoon. Pass at once with heated crackers and fancy
cheese of some kind.
Lettuce and tomato salad
After tearing the lettuce apart, lay, as on a bed, tomatoes pared
and sliced, or cut into eighths. Pour the dressing over them.
Salad should never be touched with one's own knife, but di-
vided, if need be, with the fork. It should not be necessary to
remind people who know anything of the by-laws of dining and
lunching as received by polite society, that it is awkward and un-
230 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
conventional to hash tender lettuce, celery or cress with knife
and fork, clinking against the plate in a castanet accompaniment
to table talk. Yet it is done in our sight and hearing almost every
day.
Water cress salad
Tear apart gingerly, pile in a bowl, and pour a French dressing
over it. Some like to dip it into salt, as celery is eaten, without
other dressing.
Potato salad (No. 1)
Cut cold-boiled potatoes into tender slices and mix with them
two raw white onions, minced, and a tablespoonful of chopped
parsley. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and two table-
spoonfuls of salad oil mixed with a dessertspoonful of vinegar.
Toss and turn, and put into a salad bowl. Set in the ice for two
hours. Just before sending to the table stir into the salad a half
cupful of mayonnaise, and pour the rest of the dressing over the
top of the salad.
Potato salad (No. 2)
Peel eight potatoes that have been boiled in their skins and al-
lowed to cool. Slice the potatoes into a bowl and add to them a
chopped onion, which has been scalded after it was minced. Sea-
son the potato and onion with salt and pepper to taste. Pour
upon them five tablespoonfuls of oil and two of vinegar. Toss
up well and let them stand an hour before serving.
Cauliflower salad
Cut a young cauliflower into clusters, boil tender, drain and
lay in the ice until very cold. Arrange on leaves of lettuce and
serve with mayonnaise dressing. A delicious salad.
Eeet salad
Boil eight young beets tender; drain, and lay in iced water
until thoroughly chilled. Drain once more and scrape off the
SALADS 231
skins. Pour into a bowl six tablespoonfuls of salad oil with one
tablespoonful of vinegar, and stir into them two saltspoonfuls,
each, of salt and pepper. Stir this dressing thoroughly. With a
sharp knife cut the chilled beets into tiny dice of uniform size,
and as you do so drop these dice into the French dressing in the
bowl. When all the beets are cut, turn them over and over in the
dressing that they may become well coated. Set the bowl and
its contents on the ice for an hour, or until very cold. Line a
chilled salad bowl with crisp lettuce leaves. Drain all the dress-
ing from the beets into a small glass bowl. Upon each lettuce
leaf put a spoonful of the beet dice. When serving, put a spoon-
ful of dressing upon each leaf.
A macedoine salad
One cup of green peas, boiled and cold, and the same of string
beans cut into half-inch lengths, well cooked and suffered to get
cold. One cup of celery cut into inch-lengths. One-half cup of
boiled carrots, cut into tiny dice, also cold. One cup of red
beets boiled and cut into small dice. Leave all these ingredients
in the ice-box until chilled and stiff. Have ready a chilled glass
or silver bowl a shallow one is best; heap the beets in the cen-
ter, arrange next to them a ring of celery dice, then the beans,
next the carrots, lastly the peas all forming a mound. Pour
over this a good French dressing, garnish with a wreath of nas-
turtium blooms about the base and set on the ice until needed.
Pass, if you like, a mayonnaise dressing with it. The true salad
lover will, however, prefer the French dressing alone. It is a
beautiful salad and easily made. If you can not get celery in
summer, substitute boiled corn cut from the cob to make the
white ring.
A fruit salad
Pare four juicy, sweet oranges, peel off every bit of the white
inner skin from the fruit it incloses, pull the lobes apart, and cut
each into four pieces.
Scald a cupful of English walnut kernels, strip away the bitter
232 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
skin and let the kernels get dry and cold. Mix with the bits of
orange, set on the ice for an hour, heap in a glass salad dish lined
with crisp lettuce and cover with a good mayonnaise dressing.
Some consider a tablespoonful of celery cut into small pieces
an improvement to this dish.
Apple and nut salad
Scoop the inside from fine, smooth, tart apples, and fill them
with a mixture of cut-up celery and walnut meats, blanched and
chopped, the whole well moistened with mayonnaise. Slices of
pippins are sometimes mixed with watercress and covered with
French dressing, making a piquante salad that is especially good
with roast duck.
Apple and celery salad
Cut enough crisp celery into small bits to make a cupful. Lay
in iced water. Peel and cut four large apples into small dice,
dropping these into water as you do so. Drain the celery and
sprinkle it with salt. Drain the apples, mix with the celery, and
pour over all a thick mayonnaise dressing. Serve very cold.
Orange salad
Peel and divide the oranges into lobes, then cut each of these
into three pieces. Have ready four tablespoonfuls of blanched
English walnut kernels, cold and firm, for the same number of
oranges. In serving, put a leaf of lettuce upon each plate, a
great spoonful of the cut oranges upon the leaf and on this last
a spoonful of nut-meats. Pour a good mayonnaise over all.
Bean and beet salad
Boil a half cupful of small kidney beans. There should be a
cupful when cooked. Cook until soft a pint of tender string
beans, cut into inch-lengths. Boil tender four large, or six small
red beets. Let all get stone-cold. Cut the beets, then, into tiny
dice. In the center of a glass dish heap the beets, next the white
FRUIT SALAD IN BANANA-SKIN
' CHICKEN SALAD MANTLED WITH
CREAM MAYONNAISE AND GARNISHED
FRUIT SALAD GARNISHED WITH
MARRONS GLACES
SALADS
233
beans, and, as an outer circle, the green. Edge with white "heart"
lettuce leaves, and pour a French dressing over all.
A pretty and palatable salad.
If you use dried white beans they must be soaked for six hours
before boiling.
Nasturtium salad
Cut fine the heart of a large bunch of celery, mince a table-
spoonful of parsley and six blades of chives. Mix with a French
dressing, stir in lightly the petals of a dozen large nasturtium
blossoms; line a salad bowl with crisp lettuce, and put this mix-
ture in the center. Garnish elaborately with nasturtium leaves
and blossoms.
Dandelion salad
Pick the young tender leaves of the dandelion, wash and lay in
ice water for half an hour. Drain, shake dry and pat still drier
between the folds of a napkin. Turn into a chilled bowl, cover
with a French dressing, toss the greens over and over in this and
send at once to table.
This is very wholesome and palatable to those that like it !
Cabbage salad
Shred a small white cabbage very fine. Heat a gill of vinegar,
add to it a tablespoonful of butter, a tablespoonful of sugar, and
a dash of celery salt and white pepper. Bring to a boil, stir in the
shredded cabbage, and stir until very hot. Have ready a half cup-
ful of milk, in which a pinch of soda has been dissolved, and stir it
slowly into three beaten eggs. Boil until it is like thick cream.
Pour this mixture over the hot cabbage, mix well together, season
to taste, and turn into a chilled bowl. Bury in the ice until very
cold.
Cold slaw
Shred a white cabbage fine. Heat a cup of milk. Heat, also,
a gill of vinegar, and when this last is boiling, stir into it a table-
spoonful, each, of butter and sugar, a teaspoon ful of celery es-
234 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
sence, two saltspoonfuls of salt and one of pepper. When boil-
ing hard, stir in the shredded cabbage, and as soon as this is really
hot, remove it from the fire. Pour the scalding milk slowly upon
two beaten eggs and cook, stirring steadily until thick, then pour
upon the cabbage and toss until well mixed. Set in the ice for
two hours. Serve very cold.
Cucumber salad
Select small, firm cucumbers of uniform size. Wash well in
cold water. Dry thoroughly. Make two incisions in the top of the
cucumber about an inch from each end and about one-half inch
deep. Next cut lengthwise from one incision to the other care-
fully and remove the top. Scoop out the pulp and mix with salt.
Then chop some celery fine (if celery is out of season substitute
cabbage), and some blanched walnut meats, also chopped. After
the cucumber pulp has stood about an hour in the salt drain off
the water and add the celery and the nuts. Mix thoroughly with a
French dressing, and about twenty minutes before serving fill
up the shells, placing a piece of parsley in each end.
Cucumbers with lemon juice
Lay fresh cucumbers in the ice for twelve hours. Peel and
slice very thin, and send immediately to the table covered with
crushed ice. As you dish them put some of the ice on each plate
and pour over the cucumbers a dressing made of two parts of
salad oil and one part of lemon juice, with salt and paprika to
taste.
Daisy salad
Cut two-inch rounds of cream or Neufchatel cheese one-half
inch in thickness, and place on crisp lettuce leaves. Put the yolks
of two hard-boiled eggs through the vegetable-press and place
a teaspoonful of this yellow powder in the center of each round.
Serve mayonnaise or French dressing in a separate bowl.
SALADS 235
Tongue salad
Make a good French dressing. Dip into it firm, crisp lettuce
leaves. Have ready cold boiled tongue, cut as thin as writing
paper. Lay a slice upon each leaf, and serve with .heated and -
buttered crackers. You can substitute ham for the tongue.
Tomato aspic
Soak a half-box of gelatine in a half-pint of water for an hour.
Bring to a boil the liquor drained from a quart can of tomatoes,
and add to it a teaspoonful of onion juice, two teaspoonfuls of
sugar, a bay leaf and a teaspoonful of minced parsley, with pep-
per and salt to taste. Simmer for twenty minutes, add the gela-
tine, stir until dissolved, and strain through flannel into a jelly
mold. Serve when firm, garnished with lettuce and pour over all
a mayonnaise dressing. This jelly in culinary phrase, "aspic"
lends itself agreeably to many combinations of salad, being sus-
ceptible of countless variations.
Tomatoes with whipped cream
Carefully peel and halve ripe tomatoes and lay them on the ice
for several hours. Transfer to a chilled platter, sprinkle with
salt, garnish with lettuce leaves and put a great spoonful of
whipped cream upon each tomato half.
Tomato and corn salad
Pour boiling water over large, smooth tomatoes to loosen the
skins, and set on ice. When perfectly cold, gouge out the center
of each tomato with a spoon, and fill the cavity with boiled corn
cut from the cob and left to get perfectly cold; then mix with
mayonnaise dressing. Arrange the tomatoes on a chilled platter
lined with lettuce, and leave on ice until wanted. Pass more
mayonnaise with the salad.
236 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Tomato and peanut salad
Prepare the tomatoes as in the last recipe. Have ready a pint
or more of roasted peanut meats, blanched by pouring boiling
water over them, then skinned, and when cold pounded finely
and mixed with mayonnaise dressing. Fill the tomatoes with
this. Serve on lettuce leaves.
Iced tomato salad
(Contributed)
Cook a quart of raw tomatoes soft, strain and season with nut-
meg, sugar, paprika, a pinch of 'grated lemon peel and salt.
Freeze until firm ; put a spoonful upon a crisp lettuce leaf in each
plate, cover with mayonnaise and serve immediately. It is still
prettier if you can freeze it in round apple-shaped molds.
Canned tomatoes may be used if you have not fresh.
Clam salad
(Contributed)
Remove the skins and black heads of cold clams. Marinade
for ten minutes in a French dressing and serve on a bed of
shredded lettuce.
Pear salad
(Contributed)
Peel and slice five sweet, ripe pears, sprinkle with fine sugar,
and add a little maraschino or ginger syrup. Serve with a little
cream. Or pare and slice enough ripe, sweet pears to make one
pint ; add one-half cupful of blanched and chopped almonds, one-
fourth of a cupful of powdered sugar and the strained juice of
two lemons. Serve in a cup of lettuce leaves made by placing
together the stem end of two lettuce leaves taken from the inside
of a head of lettuce.
TOMATO SALAD WITH
WHIPPED CREAM DRESSING
SALADS
SALADS 237
Hot potato salad
(Contributed)
Put into a frying-pan one-fourth of a pound of bacon, cut into
dice; when light brown take out and saute in the fat a small
onion cut fine. Add one-half as much vinegar as fat, a few
grains of salj and cayenne and one-half as much hot stock as
vinegar. Have ready the potatoes boiled in skins. Remove the
skins and slice hot into the frying-pan enough to take up the
liquid. Add the diced bacon, toss together and serve.
Asparagus and shrimp salad
(Contributed)
To one cupful of shrimps add two cupfuls of cold cooked
asparagus tips, and toss lightly together. Season with salt and
pepper. Make a dressing of the yolks of three hard-boiled eggs,
rubbed through a sieve, and sufficient oil and vinegar to make the
consistency of cream, using twice as much oil as vinegar. Pour
over the asparagus and shrimps.
Asparagus salad
(Contributed)
Asparagus tips heaped on lettuce leaves and served with
French, mayonnaise or boiled dressing, poured over all, make a
very good salad.
Endive salad
(Contributed)
Use the well-blanched leaves only. Wipe these with a damp
cloth. Pour over this a French dressing and serve with roasted
game.
Sweetbreads and cucumber salad
(Contributed)
Marinate one pair of sweetbreads in French dressing. Chill
thoroughly. Drain and mix with equal parts of sliced cucumber;
238 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
cover with French dressing into which has been stirred whipped
cream.
Spinach salad
(Contributed)
Select the young, tender leaves from the center of the stock;
wash carefully, drain and chill and serve with French dressing.
*
Lenten salad
(Contributed)
Line the bottom of the salad-dish with crisp lettuce leaves.
Fill the center of the dish with cold boiled or baked fish, cut into
pieces, and pour over it a pint of mayonnaise dressing. Gar-
nish with rings of hard-boiled eggs.
Apple and cress salad
(Contributed)
Pare and cut into small pieces four medium-sized apples. Pour
over this a French dressing. Pick carefully the leaves from a
bunch of cress. Arrange around the outside of the salad-dish
and heap the apples in the center of the dish.
Strawberry salad
(Contributed)
Choose the heart from a nice head of lettuce, putting the stems
together to form a cup. Put a few strawberries in the center and
cover with powdered sugar and one teaspoonful of mayonnaise
dressing.
Banana salad
(Contributed)
Sliced bananas, served in the same manner as the strawberries
in the above recipe, make an excellent salad.
SALADS 239
Veal salad
(Contributed)
Use equal parts of well-cooked cold veal cut into small pieces,
and finely-chopped white cabbage. Marinate the veal for two
hours. Drain and mix with the cabbage. Season with salt and
pepper, and a little chopped pickle, and cover with mayonnaise
dressing.
Cherry salad
i
(Contributed)
Stone a pint of large cherries, being careful not to bruise the
fruit. Place a hazelnut in each cherry to preserve the form.
Chill thoroughly, arrange in a salad dish on lettuce leaves and
pour over all a cream mayonnaise dressing.
Peach salad
(Contributed)
Pare a quart of ripe yellow peaches, and cut into thin slices ;
slice very thin a half cupful of blanched almonds. Mix the fruit
and nuts with two-thirds of a cupful of mayonnaise, to which has
been added one-third of a cupful of whipped cream. Serve im-
mediately on lettuce leaves.
Ham salad
(Contributed)
Mix equal portions of minced, well-cooked ham and English
walnuts or almonds. Serve with mayonnaise on lettuce leaves.
Sweetbreads with celery salad
(Contributed)
Wash the sweetbreads thoroughly and let them stand in cold
water half an hour. Boil in salted water twenty minutes and then
put in cold water again for a few minutes, to harden. To one
cupful of minced sweetbreads add one cupful of diced celery and
240 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
one-half cupful of chopped nuts. Cover well with mayonnaise
dressing to which some whipped cream has been added.
Green bean salad
(Contributed)
Select fresh string beans and boil until tender in salted water.
Or use a good quality of canned string beans. Arrange on a dish
and serve with mayonnaise dressing.
Pea salad
(Contributed)
Drain and press through a sieve a can of green peas. Dis-
solve one box of gelatine in one-fourth of a cup of cold water and
stir over a hot fire until heated. Take from the fire and add one-
fourth teaspoonful of onion juice, one-half teaspoonful of salt,
and a dash of pepper. Serve very cold with the following dress-
ing: Put into a double boiler the yolks of two eggs, two table-
spoonfuls of stock and two tablespoonfuls of oil. Stir until
thick, take from the fire and add slowly one tablespoonful of
tarragon vinegar, one chopped olive and two teaspoonfuls of
chopped parsley.
LUNCHEON FRUITS, COOKED AND RAW
Stewed rhubarb
Select only good, firm stalks, and reject those that are withered.
Lay them in cold water for an hour, and cut into half-inch pieces.
Put them over the fire in a porcelain-lined saucepan and strew
each layer plentifully with sugar. Pour in enough water to cover
all, and bring very slowly to a boil. Let the rhubarb stew gently
until it is very tender, then remove from the fire. When cold,
serve with plain cake.
Rhubarb and raisins
For every cupful of raw rhubarb cut into inch lengths add a
third as much of raisins seeded and cut in half. Cook until soft,
as directed in last recipe.
Rhubarb and dates
Stone a quarter of a pound of dates, cover with hot water, and
cook five minutes. Add three cupfuls of raw rhubarb, cut into
inch lengths, and cook, closely covered, until the rhubarb is ten-
der. Sweeten to taste and set aside to cool in a covered bowl,
after which set on ice until needed.
Rhubarb and figs
Soak a quarter-pound of figs in warm water for two hours.
Cut into small pieces and cook as previously directed with three
cups of raw rhubarb, cut into inch lengths, until the rhubarb is
tender. Eat cold.
This dish is cooling to the blood, gently laxative and pleasing
to the taste.
16 241
242 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Stewed gooseberries
Remove the tops and stems from one quart of gooseberries,
wash and drain. Put them into a saucepan with barely enough
boiling water to cover them. Let them stew until tender. Dis-
solve one cupful of sugar in one-half cupful of water and boil to a
syrup, then mix it with the fruit and set away to cool.
Agate-nickel-steel ware is altogether the best in the market for
stewing acid fruits. They should never be cooked in tin or in
iron, and unless copper has just been cleaned with vinegar to
remove all suspicion of verdigris, the use of it is dangerous. I
can not say too much of the ware I have named. It is easily kept
clean, durable and safe.
Hot green apple sauce
Utilize in this way early windfalls and unripe summer apples,
proverbially dear to the heart of the small boy and harmful to
his digestive organs.
Pare and slice thin with a silver knife or with a fruit-knife of
Swedish bronze. The crude acid forms an instant and unpleasant
combination with steel. As you slice, drop into cold water to
keep the color. Cook in an agate-nickel-steel saucepan, with
just enough boiling water to keep the apples from burning to the
bottom. Fit on a close lid and do not open the pan for half an
hour, lest the steam escape. Shake up, and sidewise, every ten
minutes to insure uniform steaming. When the half-hour is up
open the saucepan, and if the apples are soft rub quickly through
a colander of the same ware with the saucepan. Beat in sugar
to taste, also a lump of butter about a tablespoonful to a quart
of the stewed fruit ; turn into a covered bowl and serve hot. Pass
thin graham bread and butter with it.
It is wholesome, anti-bilious and palatable.
Cold apple sauce
Make in the same way of ripe, tart apples, a seasoning with
mace or nutmeg to taste. When it has cooled set on ice until
wanted.
LUNCHEON FRUITS, COOKED AND RAW 243
Stewed apples
Pare and core a dozen tart, juicy apples. Put them into a
saucepan with just enough cold water to cover them. Cook
slowly until they are tender and clear. Then remove the apples
to a bowl, and cover to keep hot; put the juice into a saucepan
with a cupful of sugar, and boil for half an hour. Season with
mace or nutmeg. Pour hot over the apples and set away cov-
ered until cold. Eat with cream.
Baked sweet apples
Wash and core, but do not pare them. Arrange in a deep
pudding-dish; put a teaspoonful of sugar and the tiniest imagi-
nable bit of salt into the cavities left by coring; pour in a half
cupful of water for a large dishful of apples; cover closely and
bake in a good oven forty minutes or until soft.
Eat ice-cold, with cream and sugar.
Stewed prunes
Wash dried prunes and soak them for at least five hours in
cold water. Put them into a saucepan with enough water to
cover them and simmer very gently for twenty minutes. Now
add sufficient granulated sugar to sweeten liberally, and simmer
until the prunes are tender. Take from the fire and set aside to
cool. Eat with plain cake.
Steamed prunes
Soak as directed above. Place them in a covered roaster and
steam steadily for two hours. Make a syrup in a separate vessel
with the water left from the soaking. This recipe is especially
suited to those who desire but little sugar in prunes, as but little
sweetness can be added to the prunes in steaming.
Never boil prunes, as the flavor is thereby injured. When
cooked as directed, if the syrup is not heavy enough to suit, re-
move the prunes from the syrup and boil the syrup down to the
required consistency.
244 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Stewed prunelles and sultanas
Prunelles are more than subacid, and need the modifying in-
fluence of sweeter fruits. Allow equal parts of prunelles and of
the small sultana raisins. Wash the fruit in tepid water, and
soak it in enough cold water to cover it for several hours, on the
back of the range. Draw them forward where they will simmer
gently until soft. Add sugar to taste, let the syrup boil up once,
then set away to cool.
Dried apples and peaches
The prejudice against the dried apple of commerce is pro-
nounced, and founded upon traditions we should have outlived.
The kiln-dried fruit of to-day is a respectable edible and capable
of excellent results. It is especially good if mixed with equal
parts of dried peaches, soaked for three hours in just enough
tepid water, to cover the fruit (having been first washed) ; then
put over the fire with the water in which they were soaked, and
simmer tender. Rub through a colander, add sugar, cinnamon
and cloves to taste, and let the mixture get perfectly cold.
Stewed cherries
None of our small fruits are more injured by transportation
than these same luscious and ruddy lobes. If you must buy
cherries which are brought from a distance and are, of necessity
several days old, cook them if you regard the welfare of the di-
gestive organs of your family. The verse that tells us "cher-
ries are ripe" would be more reassuring if it also informed us that
they were recently picked.
Wash and pick over carefully; put over the fire in a "safe"
saucepan, such as I have already indicated, with just enough
water to prevent burning, cover closely and stew until soft, but
not broken. Strain off the liquor; set aside the cherries in a
covered bowl, add three tablespoon fuls of su-ar to each pint of
the juice, return to the fire ; boil fast for half an hour and pour
over the fruit. Keep covered until cold.
LUNCHEON FRUITS, COOKED AND RAW 245
Raw cherries
To be eaten at their raw best they should be kept in the ice-
box until needed. Then they may be served with their stems
still on in a glass bowl with fragments of ice scattered among
them.
Sugared cherries
Use large, firm cherries for this dish. Have in front of you a
soup-plate containing the whites of three eggs mixed with five
tablespoonfuls of cold water, another plate filled with sifted
powdered sugar at your right, the bowl of cherries at your left.
Dip each cherry in the water and white of egg, turn it over and
over in the sugar and lay on a chilled platter to dry. When all
are done sift more powdered sugar over the fruit and arrange
carefully on a glass dish.
Glace cherries
Select firm, sweet cherries from which the stems have not been
removed. Into a perfectly clean porcelain-lined saucepan put a
pound of granulated sugar and a gill of cold water, and boil to a
syrup. Do not stir during the process of cooking. Try the
syrup occasionally by dropping a little in cold water. When it
changes to a brittle candy it is done. Remove the saucepan at
once from the fire and set it in a pan of boiling water. Dip each
cherry quickly in the hot syrup and lay on a waxed paper to dry.
If the syrup shows signs of becoming too thick, add more boiling
water to that in the outside pan. When all the cherries have been
"dipped" stand them in a warm place to dry.
Pineapple and orange
Cut the top from a pineapple and carefully remove the inside,
so that the shell may not be broken. Cut the pulp into bits, mix
it with the pulp of three ripe oranges, also cut very small, and
liberally sweeten the mixture. Smooth off the bottom of the
pineapple shell so that it will stand upright, refill with the fruit
pulp, put on the tip and set in the ice for three hours.
246 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Creamed peaches
Lay large, ripe free-stone peaches on the ice for several hours,
peel, cut them in half and remove the stones. Whip half a pint
of cream light, with two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar.
Fill the hollows left by the stones to heaping with the whipped
cream. Keep in the ice-box until time to serve the fruit.
Grapefruit and strawberries
Cut grapefruit in half and remove the tough fiber and part of
the pulp. Chop this pulp and add it to mashed and sweetened
strawberries. Refill the grapefruit rinds with the mixture, and
set on the ice for an hour or two.
Strawberries and cream
Cap the berries, one at a time, using the tips of your fingers.
The practice of holding capped berries in the hollow of the hand
until one has as many as the space will accommodate, is unclean
and unappetizing. Cap them deftly and quickly, letting each fall
into a chilled bowl, and do this just before serving, keeping in a
cool place until they are ready to go to table. Pass powdered
sugar and cream, also ice-cold, with them.
Raspberries and cream
Follow the directions given in last recipe.
Bartlett pears and cream
Select sweet, ripe pears and lay them in the ice for two hours.
Do not peel until just before they are needed. Pare deftly and
quickly, slice, sprinkle with sugar, cover with cream and serve.
Bananas and cream
Bananas are very good treated as the pears were in the last
recipe. It is a good plan to bury these in the ice until wanted for
dessert. Then the hostess may, at the table, quickly peel and
slice them into different saucers. Bananas thus prepared do not
have time to become discolored from exposure to the air.
SWEET OMELETS
Apple sauce omelet (baked)
Beat the yolks of seven eggs light; stir into them five table-
spoonfuls of powdered sugar and a cupful and a half of sweetened
apple sauce. Beat long and hard, stir in the stiffened whites,
beat for a minute longer and turn into a greased pudding-dish.
Bake, covered, for about ten minutes, then uncover and brown.
Serve at once with whipped cream. It is also good served with
a hot sauce made by the following recipe :
Into a pint of boiling water stir a half-cupful of sugar, and when
this dissolves add a teaspoonful of butter, the juice and the
grated rind of a lemon and the stiffened white of an egg. Beat
for a minute over the fire, but do not let the sauce boil.
Jam omelet
Beat the yolks of five eggs light with a heaping tablespoonful
of powdered sugar. Into this stir a teaspoonful of corn-starch
dissolved in three tablespoonfuls of milk, then the stiffened whites
of the eggs. Cook in a frying-pan until set ; spread with straw-
berry jam, fold and serve as dessert.
Omelet souffle
Beat the yolks of five eggs very light, adding, gradually, four
tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar. In another dish whip the
whites to a standing froth. With a few long strokes blend the
two ; pour into a buttered bake-dish and bake quickly. Sift pow-
dered sugar on the top at the end of two minutes, and very
quickly, as the omelet will fall if the oven stands open even a
few seconds. Serve at once in the bake-dish.
247
248 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Orange omelet
(Contributed)
Beat the yolks of five eggs together until thick and lemon-
colored. Add five tablespoonfuls of orange juice, the grated
rind of one orange and five tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar.
Then fold in lightly the beaten whites of four eggs. Put a little
butter in an omelet pan, and when hot pour in the omelet mix-
ture and spread in evenly. Let it cook through, but not harden.
Fold the edges over and turn out upon a hot dish. Serve with a
dressing of sliced oranges and powdered sugar.
Omelet with marmalade
(Contributed)
Beat the yolks of three eggs very light. Then fold in the
whites beaten dry. Turn into an omelet pan in which one
teaspoonful of butter has been melted. Spread the omelet evenly
and cook over a slow fire to set the eggs. Then put in the oven
until done. Spread one-half of the omelet with marmalade, fold
and serve on hot platter.
FAMILIAR TALK
A commonsensible talk with the nominal mistress of the house
THERE is not that household in the land where servants are
employed which is not measurably dependent upon them for
peace of mind as well as for comfort of body. Every housewife
who reads this will recall the sinking of heart, the damp depres-
sion of spirit, which has suddenly overtaken a cheerful mood
when the kitchen barometer beckoned "storm" or "change."
Such an overtaking is not an affliction, but it sometimes comes
dangerously near to sorrow. The independent maid of all work
has it in her power to alter the family plans with a word, when
that word is "going." Should she elect to stay, her lowering
brows and sharp or sullen speech abash a mistress who quails at
little else. In wealthier households a domestic "strike" involves
panic, disorder and suffering.
I know of a wet-nurse whose abandonment of her infant
charge, without a word of warning, at ten o'clock one Saturday
night, caused a long and terrible illness, resulting in infantile par-
alysis. A cook who had lived in one family for three years re-
sented the arrival of unexpected guests, packed her trunk and left
her mistress to get dinner. The lady was in delicate health and
all unused to such work. She became overheated and exhausted,
took a heavy cold, which ripened into pneumonia, and died three
days after the cook's desertion.
I need not multiply illustrations of the helplessness of Amer-
ican housewives in the face of such disasters, and the possibility
that these may befall any one of us. We have no redress. The
women who helped organize the "Protective League" know this.
The law does not protect the employer. Public opinion gives her
no support. The cook whose fit of temper cost a kind mistress
249
250 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
her life was recommended to me within a month after an event
that should have shocked the moral sense of every housewife in
the community, and recommended by a friend of the murdered
woman and of myself. When I exclaimed in surprise, I was told :
"We can not be judges of our neighbors' domestic affairs."
There is no class spirit among us. For some reasons this is a
matter of congratulation to us and the public. All that is needed
to make the opening gulf between mistresses and maids impas-
sible is organization on our part, which signifies open war. It
is, nevertheless, I note in passing, patent that there should be a
code of honor among us with regard to employment of those
who have proved absolutely untrustworthy in other households.
We are not true to one another in this matter, and our em-
ployees, who are held together by the unwritten laws of a union,
none the less strong because nameless and informal, know this as
well as we do. The knowledge is one of the most potent weapons
in their armory.
Let this pass for the present. I would direct your attention,
my sister-worker in the home missionary field, to the brighter
side of the vexed question.
After forty years' careful study of this matter of domestic
service study carried on in other lands as well as in our own
I record thankfully my conviction that the domestics in well-
regulated American homes are better cared for, better paid and
more thoroughly appreciated than any other class of working
women in this country or abroad. I record, likewise and con-
fidently, that the proportion of faithful, valued and even beloved
domestics among us is much larger than that of indifferent or
worthless. Most cheerfully and thankfully I add to this record
that, personally, I have a list of honest, virtuous, willing work-
ers, whose terms of service in my family varied from three to
thirteen years, and who went from my house to homes of their
own, bearing with them the cordial esteem of those they had
served. Nor is my experience singular, even in these United
States. It is so far from being exceptional that I deprecate, al-
most as an individual grievance, any attempt to organize those
who should be our coworkers into a faction that considers us as
FAMILIAR TALK 251
"the opposition." It is a putting asunder of those whom a mu-
tual need should join together.
Backed by my two-score years of experiment and action, I dare
believe that a leaf or two from my book of household happenings
may be of service to younger women and novices in the profes-
sion which absorbs the major part of our time and strength.
To begin with beware of discouragement during the early
trial-days of the new maid. Be slow to say, even to yourself:
"She will never suit me !" The first days and weeks of a strange
"place" are a crucial test for her as for you, and she has not your
sense of proportion, your discipline of emotion and your philo-
sophical spirit to help her to endure the discomforts of new ma-
chinery.
Looking back upon my housewifely experiences, I am moved
to the conclusion that the domestics who stayed with me longest
and served me best were those who did not promise great things
in their novitiate.
One "a greenhorn, but six weeks in the country" frankly
owned that she knew nothing of American houses and ways. She
was "willing to learn," and with a childish tremble of the chin
"didn't mind how hard she worked if people were kind to her."
I think the quivering chin and the clouding of the "Irish blue"
eyes moved me to give her a trial. She did not know a silver
fork from a pepper cruet, or a tea-strainer from a colander, and
distinguished the sideboard from the buffet by calling the one the
"big," the other the "little dresser." She had been with me a
month when I trusted her to prepare some melons for dessert,
giving her careful and minute directions how to halve the nutmeg
melons, take out the seeds and fill the cavities with cracked ice,
while the watermelon royal in proportions and the first fruits
of our own vines was to be washed, wiped, and kept in the ice-
chest until it was wanted.
At dinner the "nutmegs" appeared whole ; the watermelon had
been cut across the middle and eviscerated scraped down to the
white lining of the rind then filled with pounded ice. The
succulent sweetness, the rosy lusciousness of the heart, had gone
into the garbage can.
252 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Nevertheless, I kept blue-eyed Margaret for eight years. She
stands out in my grateful memory as the one and only maid I
have ever had who washed dishes "in my way." Never having
learned any other, she mastered and maintained the proper
method.
The best nursery-maid I ever knew, and who blessed my house-
hold for eleven years, objected diffidently at our first interview to
giving a list of her qualifications for the situation. She "would
rather a lady would find out for herself by a fair trial whether
she would fit the place or. not." I engaged her because the
quaint phrase took my fancy. She proved such a perfect fit that
she continued to fill the place until she went to a snug home of
her own.
What may be called the New Broom of Commerce has no mis-
givings as to her ability to fill any place, however important.
Upon inquiry of the would-be employer as to the latter's qualifi-
cations for that high position, the N. B. of C. may decline to ac-
cept her offer of an office which promises more work than "privi-
leges." But she could fill it full if she were willing to "take
service" with the applicant.
One of the oddest incongruities of the new-broom' problem is
that we are always disposed to take it at its own valuation. With
each fresh experiment we are confident that at last!-^we have
what we have been looking for lo! these many years. She is a
shrewd house-mother who reserves judgment until the first awk-
ward week or the crucial first month has brought out the staying
power or proved the lack of it.
Officious activity in unusual directions is a bad omen in the New
Broom of Commerce. In sporting parlance, I at once "saw the
finish" of one whom I found upon the second day of service with
me washing a window in the cellar. She "couldn't abide dirt no-
where," she informed me, scrubbing vehemently at the dim panes.
I had just passed through the kitchen where a prateful of fiery
coals was heating the range plates to an angry glow. All the
drafts were open ; the boiler over the sink was at a bubbling
roar ; upon the tables was a litter of dirty plates and dishes ; pots,
pans and kettles filled the sink.
FAMILIAR TALK 253
It is well to have a care of the corners, but the weightier mat-
ters of the law of cleanliness are usually in full sight.
I once knew a woman who, deliberately, and of purpose,
changed servants every month. She said no new broom lasted
more than four weeks, and when one became grubby and stumpy
she got rid of it. Her house was the cleanest in town and her
temper did not seem worse for friction.
Another woman who, strange to te":, lived to be ninety years
old, "liked moving" and never lived two years in one and the
same house. She maintained that she kept clear of rubbish by
frequent flittings, and enjoyed rubbing out and beginning again.
Personally, I should have preferred a clean, lively conflagration
every three years or so, but she throve upon nomadism.
In minor details of housewifery, as in more important, make
up your mind how you will manage the home and turn a deaf ear
to gratuitous suggestions from people whose own households
would be better conducted if their energies were concentrated.
Let one example suffice : A so-called reformer felt herself
called in (or out of) the Gospel of Humanity, the other day, to
inveigh in a parlor lecture upon the unkindness and general un-
christianliness of the maid's cap and apron which all would-be
stylish mistresses insist upon. "Have I, a Christian woman in a
republic," cried the oratress, "the right to put the badge of servi-
tude upon my sister woman, because, having less money than I
have, she is obliged to earn her living? Do I not tend to degrade,
instead of elevating her ?
"Of a piece with the cap and apron is the black dress, now 'the
thing' for girls in domestic service. Why should not Bridget and
Dinah exercise their' own right in dress as well as I?"
These questions have been put to me many times by women who
think and act for themselves without regard to arbitrary conven-
tionalities.
I am so well assured that most conventionalities have a substra-
tum of common sense that I am slow to condemn any one of them.
I dispute, at the outset, the insinuation that black dress, white
cap and apron are a badge of servitude. I know no more inde-
pendent class of women than trained nurses, no more arbitrary
254 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
men than railway officials. I should certainly never consider the
distinctive garb of the Sisters of Charity Protestant or Roman
Catholic as degrading. The idea of humiliation attached to the
uniform of housemaid and child's nurse in the mind of employees
or employer is founded upon the conviction that domestic service
demeans her who performs it. This is precisely the prejudice
which sensible, philanthropic women are trying to beat down
a prejudice that has more to do with the complications of the
servant question than all other influences combined. If I hesi-
tate to ask a maid entering my service to wear the uniform of her
calling, I intimate too broadly to be misunderstood that there is
something in that service which would demean her were it gener-
ally known that she is in it.
I had one maid, years ago, who would not run around the
corner to grocery or haberdasher's without taking time to put on
her Sunday coat and hat, and to lay off her apron. When I spoke
to her of the absurdity and inconvenience of this, she confessed,
blushingly, that the porter at the grocery was "keeping company
with her," and "it" was nat'ral a gurrel should want to look her
best when she was like to see him."
"Ah," I said, "doesn't he know what your position is in my
house? Has he never seen you in cap and apron?"
"Shure, mem ! Every day when he fetches the groceries."
"Then, if he is a sensible fellow, he will respect you all the
more for not pretending to be what you are not. Since he knows
what your business is, show him that you are not ashamed of it.
You are as respectable in your place as he is in his as I am in
mine always providing that you respect your service and your-
self."
Call the distinctive dress of your maid a "uniform," not a
livery. Point out to her the examples of trained nurses, of rail-
way conductors, of the very porters who "keep company" with
her ; the policemen she admires afar off ; the soldiers, whose brass
buttons dazzle her imagination. Remind her that saleswomen in
fashionable shops wear the black gown, white apron, deep linen
collar and cuffs and pride themselves upon looking their best in
them. Especially make her comprehend (if you can, for the ways
FAMILIAR TALK
355
of the untrained mind are past finding out), that she has an hon-
orable calling and need not be ashamed to advertise it.
Congratulate yourself, above all, that a sensible fashion holds
back Bridget and Dinah from the "exercise of their own taste in
dress." The modification of that taste wrought by the neat and
modest costume prescribed by a majority of modern housewives
may be in itself a good thing, sparing the eyes of spectators of her
toilettes when she becomes "Mrs." and independent, and the purse
of the porter, or truckman, or mechanic, who will have to pay
for them.
I have laid stress upon the advantages of long terms of serv-
ice, to maid and to mistress. Like all other good things it has its
perils and its abuses to be avoided.
Two-thirds of the scandals that poison the social atmosphere
steal out, like pestilential fogs, through servants' gossip. We
discuss "the girl" in our bedchambers, and if so much stirred up
by her works and ways as to forget what is due to our ladyhood,
compare notes in the parlor as to these same works and ways.
Being well-bred women, the traditions of our caste prevent us
from making domestic grievances the staple of drawing-room
conversation and the marrow of table-talk. The electroplated
vulgarian never calls attention more emphatically to the absence
of the "Sterling" stamp upon her breeding, than when she chat-
ters habitually of the virtues and the faults of her household
staff.
On the other hand, the most sophisticated of us would be
amazed and confounded if she knew what a conspicuous part
She plays in talk below stairs and on afternoons and evenings
"out."
Thackeray, prince of satirists, puts it cleverly :
"Some people ought to have 'mutes for servants in Vanity
Fair mutes who could not write. If you are guilty tremble!
That fellow behind your chair may be a Janissary with a bow-
string in his plush breeches pocket. If you are not guilty, have a
care of appearances, which are as ruinous as guilt."
We should be neither shocked nor confounded that these things
are so. If we are mildly surprised, it argues ignorance of human
256 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
nature, and of the general likeness of one human creature to an-
other, that proves the whole world kin. When mistresses in
Parisian toilettes, clinking gold spoons against Dresden as they
sip Bohea in boudoir or drawing-room, raise their eyebrows or
laugh musically over the latest bit of social carrion in "our set"
Jeames or Abigail, who has caught a whiff at a door ajar, or
through a keyhole, is the lesser sinner in serving up the story in
the kitchen cabinet. The domestics are in, yet not of, the em-
ployer's world, living for six and a half days of the week among
people with whom they have no affinity by nature or education!
Where we would talk of "things," the lower classes discuss what
they name "folks." Their range of thought is pitifully narrow;
the happenings in their social life are few and tame. What won-
der if they retail what we say and do and are, as sayings, doings
and characters appear to them ?
What would be extraordinary, if it were not so common, is
the opportunity gratuitously afforded in we will say, guardedly
one family out of three for the collection of material for these
sensations of the nether story. I speak by the card in asserting
that the influence gained by the confidential maid over her well-
born, well-mannered, well-educated mistress is greater than that
possessed by any friend in the (alleged) superior's proper circle
of equals.
Without taxing memory I can tell off on my fingers ten gentle-
women, in every other sense of the word, whose intimate confi-
dantes are hirelings who were strangers until they entered the
employ of their respective mistresses ( ?). We need not cross the
ocean to listen with incredulous horror to insinuations and open
assertions as to the hold a gigantic Scotch gilly acquired over a
royal widow. Our next-door neighbors on both sides and our
acquaintances across the way are in like bondage.
I have in mind one of the best and most refined women I ever
knew whose infatuation for her incomparable Jane was the
laughing-stock of some, the surprise and grief of others. Jane
disputed the dear soul's will, oft and again ; gave her more advice
than she took, and, behind her back, ridiculed her unsparingly
as many of the mistress's friends were aware. The dupe would
FAMILIAR TALK 257
resign the affection and society of one and all of her compeers
sooner than part with Jane.
Another "just could not live without my Mary." The remote
suggestion throws her into a paroxysm of distress. Her own
husband knows it to be necessary to warn her not to tell this and
that business or family secret to Mary, knowing, the while, in his
sad soul, the chances to be against her keeping her promise not
to share it with her factotum.
Ellen is the bosom friend of a third ; Bridget is the right hand,
the counsellor and colleague of a fourth. A fifth confides to her
second-rate associates that her faithful Fanny knows as much of
family histories (and there are histories in the clan) as she does,
and that she the miscalled mistress takes no step of importance
without consulting her.
Perhaps one man in five hundred is under the thumb of his
employee, and then because the underling has come into posses-
sion of some dangerous secret, or has a "business hold" upon
him.
Have wives more need of sympathy ? or are they less nice in the
choice of intimates, and more reckless in confidences?
LUNCHEON CAKES
Huckleberry shortcake
SIFT two heaping teaspoonfuls of baking-powder and one of
salt into a quart and a pint of flour. Chop into this two table-
spoonfuls of cottolene or other fat and two of butter. Beat two
eggs light and add them to a pint of sweet milk. Make a hole
in the flour, pour in the milk and egg, and mix with a wooden
spoon. Turn out upon a pastry board and roll into two sheets,
about a third of an inch in thickness. Line a greased biscuit-pan
with one sheet, cover it three-quarters of an inch thick with
huckleberries, strew these with granulated sugar, fit the upper
sheet of dough on the pan and bake in a steady oven until done.
Cut into squares and send to table. Split, and eat with butter
and sugar.
Currant shortcake
Mash a quart of ripe red currants and stir into them two cups
of granulated sugar. Cover and set aside for half an hour.
Make a dough as for quick biscuit, only using a tablespoonful
more butter than usual. Roll into a large round biscuit about
ten inches in diameter. Bake, and, as soon as done, split open,
spread with butter and then with half the sweetened currants.
Replace the top of the biscuit and pour the remainder of the cur-
rants and juice over and around the shortcake. Serve at once.
Hot strawberry shortcake
Mash a quart of berries, sweeten them with plenty of granu-
lated sugar, and let them stand for an hour and a half.
Into a pint of flour sift a teaspoonful of baking-powder, and
258
LUNCHEON CAKES 259
half a teaspoonful of salt. Chop into this one tablespoonful of
butter until it is thoroughly incorporated. Add enough milk to
make a dough that can be easily handled. Turn this upon a
floured pastry-board, roll lightly into a huge biscuit as large as
a pie-plate. Put into a greased pan and bake in a quick oven.
When done, split open quickly, spread with butter, then thickly
with the mashed berries, put the two halves together again, pour
the remaining mashed berries over the entire cake, and serve
very hot.
Cold strawberry shortcake
Cream two tablespoonfuls of butter with a cup of powdered
sugar. Beat three eggs light, add to them a quarter of a cup
of cream, and stir into the creamed butter and sugar. Beat long
and hard before adding a cupful of flour sifted twice with a
teaspoonful of baking-powder. Grease three jelly-cake tins, half-
fill with the batter and bake in a quick oven. When cold, remove
the cakes from the tins, spread each layer with halved straw-
berries, sprinkle with sugar and pile on a dish. Serve with an
abundance of cream.
Scotch shortcake
(Contributed)
Cream a half-pound of fresti butter with a quarter-pound of
sugar, and work into it with the hands a pound of flour. Knead
long, then turn upon a pastry-board and press into a flat sheet
half an inch thick. Cut into squares and bake until light-brown
and crisp.
Orange shortcake
(Contributed)
Sift into one and one-half cupfuls of flour one-half cupful of
corn-starch, one level teaspoonful of baking-powder and one-half
teaspoonful of salt. Rub into this with the tips of the fingers
one-third of a cup of butter and moisten with milk enough to
make a soft dough. Divide the dough in halves and spread, over
26o MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
the bottom of two tins. When done butter the cakes, sift over
each powdered sugar,* and put between them thin slices of peeled
oranges.
German coffee cake (No. 1)
Two cupfuls of scalded milk, one cupful of water, one yeast-
cake (one-cent size), one cupful of sugar, one-half cupful of but-
ter, two eggs, a little salt.
Cream sugar and butter, add milk and yeast dissolved in the
water, the salt and eggs, well-beaten. Thicken with enough flour
to make a batter that can be stirred with a spoon. Beat well
and set to rise for about three hours. When light, add enough
flour to enable you to roll it out. Roll about an inch thick, and
place in long, shallow pans. Set to rise. When light, drop over
the top bits of butter about the size of a hickory-nut, and sprinkle
generously with sugar and a little cinnamon. Bake about thirty
minutes.
German coffee cake (No. 2)
To two cupfuls of soft bread sponge that has been allowed
to rise, add one-half cupful of warm milk, a little salt, one-quarter
cupful of melted shortening, two eggs, beaten with three-quarters
of a cup of sugar. Add one-half grated nutmeg, some raisins
or currants, and as much warmed flour as can be worked in with
a spoon. Put it into a greased "tin and let it rise. When very
light, moisten the top with milk, sprinkle with sugar and cinna-
mon, and bake in a slow oven forty minutes. Cover with brown
paper until almost done.
Potato cake
Two cupfuls of white sugar, one cupful of butter, four eggs,
one-half cupful of milk, one cupful of potatoes, one teaspoonful,
each, of cinnamon and cloves, one-half cup of chocolate, two cups
of flour, two teaspoonfuls of baking-powder, one cup of almonds.
Blanch and chop almonds ; grate cold boiled potatoes ; beat eggs
separately, adding whites last. Bake in a shallow pan in a mod-
erate oven, and cover with caramel frosting.
LUNCHEON CAKES 261
Huckleberry cake
Sift a scant quart of flour twice with two teaspoonfuls of
baking-powder. Cream together one cupful of butter and two of
sugar, add to them five beaten eggs, a cup and a half of milk, a
half-teaspoonful, each, of powdered cinnamon and nutmeg and
the prepared flour. Last of all, stir in a cupful of huckleberries
thoroughly dredged with flour. Bake in greased muffin tins in
a steady oven.
This excellent cake is better when twenty-four hours old than
when freshly baked.
Apple cake
Cream together a half-cupful of butter and two cupfuls of sugar,
and beat into them a half-cupful of milk and five whipped eggs.
Last of all, add three cupfuls of flour into which have been sifted
two small teaspoonfuls of baking-powder. Bake in layers. When
cold, make the filling by heating in a double boiler a cupful of
apple sauce, adding sugar to taste, and then beating in gradually
the yolks of two eggs and the juice of a lemon. Cook, stirring,
for a minute, and set aside until cold before spreading on the .cake.
Springleys (No; 1)
(A German recipe.)
Beat one pound of granulated sugar for ten minutes with four
eggs, leave for an hour, then add one tablespoonful of lemon ex-
tract, and one teaspoonful of hartshorn. Work in enough flour
(about two pounds) to make it stiff enough to roll out. Powder
the forms with flour before using, so as to prevent sticking. Cut
apart and lay on a smooth slab until morning. Sprinkle anise
seed in the bottom of the tins before putting cakes in. Bake in a
quick oven and watch very closely in order to keep them from
burning.
262 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Springerlein (No. 2)
(An old German recipe.)
One cup of powdered sugar, rolled fine, sifted and warmed.
Four large eggs. Grated rind of one lemon. One pound of
flour thoroughly dried and sifted three times. One-half teaspoon-
ful of baking-powder sifted thoroughly with the flour.
With a silver or wooden spoon stir the sugar and eggs steadily
for one hour, stirring one way, add rind of lemon, flour and bak-
ing-powder, mix quickly into a loaf-shape without much han-
dling. Set aside in a cool place for two hours. Flour your bak-
ing-board lightly take a small piece of dough, which by this
time must be stiff enough to cut with a knife, roll out to about
a quarter of an inch thick. Put about two tablespoonfuls of
flour in a small cheese-cloth bag and with this lightly dust the
mold. Press the dough on the mold, lightly but firmly with the
finger tips, then turn the mold over and carefully remove. With a
cutter cut off surplus dough, put with remainder and proceed as
before. Use as little flour as possible in rolling out. Put a cloth
on the table, sprinkle it with anise-seed, lay the cakes on this and
stand them for twelve hours in a cool room. Bake in a moderate
oven in lightly-buttered pans. This recipe will make from sixty-
five to seventy-five cakes.
Currant bun
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 teaspoonful, each,
of powdered mace and cinnamon, put in the flour and the 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
LUNCHEON CAKES 263
doubled in size; bake one hour in a rather quick oven; sprinkle
with fine sugar when done.
Cinnamon buns
Save a cupful of bread dough from the second rising. Cream a
half-cupful of butter with a half-cupful of sugar, stir in a well-
beaten egg and work these into the dough. Now add a half-tea-
spoonful of cinnamon, a teaspoonful of soda, dissolved in a little
hot water and a half-cupful of cleaned currants, dredged with
flour. Knead for several minutes, form into buns, set to rise for a
half-hour, then bake.
Parkin
Mix together three pounds of oatmeal, a pound and a half of
molasses, a half-pound of butter creamed with a half-pound of
sugar, a dash of ginger and as much baking-soda as will lie upon
a shilling, dissolved in a little boiling water. Mix thoroughly
and bake in flat pans.
Grandmother's apple cake
(From an old family recipe.)
Three cups of dried apples stewed slowly in two cups of mo-
lasses, then set aside to cool. Three cups of flour ; two-thirds of
a cup of butter ; two cups of brown sugar ; one-half cup of raisins ;
currants and grated lemon peel, mixed; eight teaspoonfuls of
water, one level teaspoonful of soda dissolved in the water, three
eggs, spices to taste.
This cake will keep for weeks. It is better when a few days
old than when first made.
The apples should be carefully washed, first in warm, then in
cold water, lying in this last for half an hour. Drain and toss in
a towel before adding the molasses.
In the "old times" the quantity of cake made by this recipe
lasted the children a month.
264 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Bun loaf
(An English recipe.)
Cream together half a cupful of mixed butter and lard with a
half-cupful of brown sugar; beat into this one egg and work
both into a cupful of bread dough that has had its second rising.
Work in, also, half a teaspoonful of cinnamon and, quarter of a
grated nutmeg, half a cupful of mixed raisins and currants, the
raisins seeded and chopped, the currants washed and dried, and
both dredged with flour, a tablespoonful of citron shredded and
also dredged, and knead all well for three or four minutes. Make
into a loaf, let it rise half an hour and bake in a moderate oven.
Fruit cake (No. 1)
One cupful of butter; one and a half cupfuls of powdered
sugar ; two cupfuls of flour ; six eggs ; half a pound, each, of
raisins and currants; quarter-pound of citron; teaspoonful of
cinnamon and nutmeg ; half teaspoonful of ground cloves ; three
tablespoonfuls of brandy.
Cream butter and sugar, beat in the whipped yolks of the eggs,
stir in the flour, the spice, the raisins, seeded and chopped; the
currants, washed; the citron, shredded, and all the fruit, well
dredged with flour, then the whites, beaten stiff, and the brandy.
Bake about two hours in a steady oven.
Fruit cake (No. 2)
Seed and chop a quarter of a pound of raisins ; stem and wash
a quarter of a pound of currants ; and mince three tablespoonfuls
of citron. Mix all this fruit together and thoroughly dredge
with flour.
Rub to a cream a generous cupful of powdered sugar and a half-
cupful of butter, and beat into this five whipped eggs. Now add
half a teaspoonful, each, of ground cinnamon, nutmeg and mace,
and stir in a cupful of flour. Last of all, add the fruit, turn into a
greased cake tin and bake steadily, not fast, until done. This
will probably take from an hour to an hour and a half.
LUNCHEON CAKES 265
Fruit cake (No. 3)
Cream one cupful of butter with two cupfuls of powdered su-
gar, beat the yolks of six eggs and add to the butter and sugar.
Put in two and a half cupfuls of sifted flour, half a pound, each, of
seeded and chopped raisins, and of washed and dried currants, a
quarter of a pound of shredded citron, all well dredged with flour,
and a teaspoonful, each, of cinnamon and grated nutmeg. Last of
all, put in the whites of the eggs beaten stiff. Bake in a steady
oven.
Christmas fruit cake
This cake may be made as long before Christmas as you desire,
as it will keep for months. Cream together a half-pound, each,
of butter and sugar, and stir in six beaten eggs. Now beat in one
teaspoonful, each, of powdered nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon,
one cupful of flour, a half pound, each, of cleaned currants,
seeded and chopped raisins, and a quarter of a pound of shredded
citron all thoroughly dredged with flour. Last of all, add a
tablespoonful of rose water. Turn into a deep tin, well greased,
and bake in a steady oven until done.
Pound cake
One pound, each, of butter, of sugar, of eggs, of flour ; one
tablespoonful of brandy, one-half teaspoonful of mace.
Cream butter and sugar, beat whites and yolks separately and
very light. Add the brandy and mace to the creamed butter and
sugar, stir in the yolks, and, after beating hard for a couple of
minutes, add the flour and whites alternately, whipping them in
lightly, but not stirring after they have gone in. A pound cake
batter should be as stiff as it can be stirred. Bake in brick tins,
or in small pans in a steady oven, covering with paper to prevent
too quick browning.
Grafton cake
Cream together three tablespoonfuls of butter with two cupfuls
of sugar and beat into these the yolks of three eggs, whipped
266 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
light. Add a cupful of cold water and two cupfuls of sifted flour.
Stir in, then, the whites of the eggs, beaten stiff, and another
cupful of flour into which has been sifted a heaping teaspoonful
of baking-powder. Flavor with a half-teaspoonful of nutmeg
and cinnamon, mixed.
Gold cake
Cream together a cupful of butter and two cupfuls of sugar.
When well blended, stir in the beaten yolks of four eggs and a
scant cupful of milk. Now add, gradually, enough prepared flour
to make a good batter, and, at the last, the juice and grated rind of
one orange. Turn into a greased tin and bake until a straw conies
out clean from the thickest part of the loaf. Frost with an icing
made by beating a cupful of powdered sugar into the unbeaten
white of one egg. When light and smooth, add a teaspoonful of
orange juice and a tablespoonful of grated orange peel.
Silver cake
Cream together a cupful of sugar and a half-cupful of butter,
and beat into them the whites of four eggs, then a half-cupful of
cold water. Sift a pint of flour with a heaping teaspoonful of
baking-powder and add this gradually, beating to a light batter.
Stir in, at the last, a teaspoonful of rose-water and bake in a loaf.
Cover with icing flavored with rose-water.
Chocolate loaf cake (No. 1)
Cream together a cupful of sugar and a half-cupful of butter ;
add a cupful of milk, four beaten eggs, and three ounces of grated
chocolate dissolved in a little milk. Beat all hard, then stir in
quickly two cupfuls of sifted prepared flour; flavor with vanilla
and turn all into a greased cake tin. Bake in a steady oven until
a straw comes out clean from the thickest part of the loaf.
Chocolate loaf cake (No. 2)
Dissolve eight tablespoonfuls of sweet grated chocolate in a
gill of hot milk. Rub to a cream a half-cupful of butter and a
DECORATED WITH PINE CONES, HOLLY AND MISTLETOE
AN EASTER WEDDING BREAKFAST. WITH LILIES
JAPANESE DECORATIONS FOR A CHILDREN'S LUNCHEON
LUNCHEON CAKES 267
large cupful of sugar, and into this beat five whipped eggs, the
dissolved chocolate, a pint of prepared flour and a teaspoonful of
vanilla. Turn into a loaf-tin and bake. Cover with chocolate
icing.
Cocoanut and citron layer cake
Rub together three-quarters of a cupful of butter and a cupful
and a half of powdered sugar. When this mixture is like a soft
cream, add six eggs, beaten light, a cupful of water, and three
cupfuls of flour sifted twice with a heaping teaspoonful of baking-
powder. If the batter should be too thin, add cautiously a little
more flour. Pour into three greased layer-cake tins, and bake to
a delicate brown.
Whip a pint of cream stiff with a generous half-cupful of pow-
dered sugar. Have ready a fresh cocoanut, grated. Beat this
into the whipped cream. When the cake is cold, spread each layer
of it with this mixture, and sprinkle with minced citron. On the
top layer heap the cocoanut cream, and dot it here and there with
bits of the green citron. This cake must be eaten within a few
hours after it is made.
Old-fashioned sponge cake
Weigh ten eggs ; allow their weight in sugar, and half their
weight in flour. Beat the yolks light, whip the sugar into them,
stir in half the grated peel and all the juice of a lemon, then the
flour, and lastly the whites folded in. Bake in a steady oven.
A good cup sponge cake
Beat the yolks and whites of five eggs separate. Into the yolks
stir a cupful of sugar and a small teacupful of flour that has been
well sifted with a small teaspoonful of baking-powder. Beat long
and hard if you do it for twenty minutes it will not be too long.
Add a teaspoonful, each, of lemon and orange juice and fold in
lightly the stiff whites. Bake at once in a loaf tin in a steady
oven. It should be done in three-quarters of an hour.
268 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Boiled sponge cake (No, 1)
Eight eggs. The weight of the eggs in sugar, and half their
weight in flour. Separate the yolks and whites of the eggs
carefully. Beat the yolks very light, add the sugar to them, the
juice and grated rind of one lemon, and half the flour. Whip
the whites to a stiff froth, add half of these to the batter, stir in
the rest of the flour and the remaining whites. Pour into a
greased cake-mold, with a tight-fitting top, and put this, on the
stove in a pot of boiling water. Do not let the water come up
over the top of the tin. Boil steadily for at least an hour before
looking at the cake. Test then with a straw, and if not done, boil
a while longer. The straw should come out clean when the cake
is done.
Boiled sponge cake (No. 2)
Beat six eggs light, yolks and whites separately. Bring to a
boil three-quarters of a pound of sugar and a half-cupful of water.
Boil for five minutes and pour gradually, beating steadily, upon
the yolks of the eggs. Now whip in the juice of a lemon, a half-
pound of prepared flour, and the whites of the eggs, added quickly
and lightly. Bake in brick-shaped tins in a steady oven, covering
the cake with paper for the first twenty minutes of the baking.
The loaf should be done in half an hour.
Raisin bread
Scald a pint of milk and beat into it a teaspoonful of melted
butter and one of salt. When the mixture is lukewarm add half
a yeast-cake, dissolved in a half-cupful of warm water, and beat in
enough flour to make a good batter. Set in a warm room to rise
for eight hours. Beat hard, add a cupful of flour and work in a
cupful of halved and seeded raisins, plentifully dredged with flour.
Set to rise until light, then bake.
LUNCHEON CAKES 269
Water crackers or wafers
(A Southern recipe.)
Into a half-pound of flour rub a tablespoonful of butter, a little
salt, and add enough cold water to make a dough that can be
rolled out. Roll very thin, cut out, and roll again. Bake in a
floured tin to a pale brown.
Pork cake
(A Yorkshire recipe.)
One pound of fat salt pork free from lean or rind ; chop so fine
as to be almost like lard, pour upon it one-half pint of boiling
water, add two cupfuls of dark brown sugar, one of New Orleans
molasses, one teaspoonful of soda stirred into the molasses, one
pound of raisins, one pound of dates, chopped; one- fourth of a
pound of citron shaved fine. Stir in enough sifted flour to make
it the consistency of common cake batter; season with one tea-
spoonful, each, of cinnamon, cloves, allspice and nutmeg. Bake
in a moderate oven.
Kleiner
(A Danish recipe.)
The yolks of six eggs, the yolks and whites of two eggs, one-
quarter of a pound of sugar. Whip these together, add two table-
spoonfuls of cream, one ounce of melted butter, and work in as
much flour as possible, but not more than a pound. Knead this
with flour until the dough stops sticking to the fingers. Roll
out very thin with a little more flour, and cut in oblong pieces
about three inches long, and not quite half as wide. Cut a slit
in the middle of each, and bend one end through, so as to make
a twist in the middle. Boil in deep cottolene or other fat until
light brown. Put up in tin boxes. They will keep for a long
time.
270 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Poverty cake
Mix together half a cupful of molasses, half a cupful of sugar,
one egg and two tablespoonfuls of melted butter. When these
are beaten together thoroughly add one teaspoonful of soda dis-
solved in half a cupful of cold water, cinnamon or ginger to taste,
and one and a half cupfuls of flour. Bake in a shallow pan in a
moderate oven for about thirty minutes.
Good, in spite of the name !
Jelly roll
Take four eggs and their weight in butter, sugar and flour.
Cream the butter and sugar, add the beaten yolks, and whip for
five minutes. Put in the flour, the stiffened whites, and, last of
all, a full teaspoonful of baking-powder. Pour into a greased
baking-tin, and make the layer not more than half an inch thick.
Bake quickly and steadily, turn from the pan while hot, spread
with jelly at once and roll. Cover with paper and tie into shape
until cold.
Angel cake
Sift a teaspoonful of cream of tartar six times with a half-cup-
ful of flour. Whip the whites of six eggs until they stand alone,
then gradually stir into them a half-cupful of granulated sugar
and the sifted flour. Beat very hard, turn into a clean, ungreased
pan with a funnel in the middle. Bake in a steady oven until a
straw comes out clean from the thickest part. Turn the pan up-
side down upon a clean towel, and as the cake cools, it will slip out
of the tin. When cold, ice the bottom and sides of the loaf.
Devil's food
Half a cupful of chocolate, grated ; half a cupful of sweet milk ;
half a cupful of brown sugar. Boil these together until as thick as
cream, and let cool.
One cupful of brown sugar ; half a cupful of butter ; two eggs ;
two-thirds of a cupful of milk ; vanilla flavoring. Mix well, beat
LUNCHEON CAKES 271
in the boiled mixture and two cupfuls of flour sifted with a heap-
ing teaspoonful of baking-powder. Bake in layers, put together
with chocolate filling and cover with a white icing.
Sunshine cake
Sift one cupful of granulated sugar and add it to the yolks of
five eggs, first beating these until they are thick. Add a dash of
salt. Sift three-quarters of a cupful of flour twice with half a tea-
spoonful of cream of tartar, and add to the eggs and sugar. Beat
for twenty minutes, and fold in the whites of seven eggs whipped
stiff with a teaspoonful of white sugar dissolved in one tea-
spoonful of lemon juice and one tablespoon ful of orange juice.
Butter a pan, flour it lightly, and bake the cake in a steady oven
for forty minutes.
Orange layer cake
Cream three tablespoonfuls of butter with two cupfuls of sugar,
add the beaten yolks of five eggs, the juice and half the grated
rind of an orange, and three cupfuls of flour or enough for a bat-
ter sifted with two teaspoonfuls of baking-powder. Last of all,
fold in the stiffened whites of three eggs. Bake in layer tins.
Filling for orange cake
Beat the whites of two eggs very stiff with one cupful of pow-
dered sugar ; add the juice and half the grated peel of an orange.
Whip to a soft cream, and spread between the layers when they
are cold.
Almond cake
Blanch enough almonds to make a cupful of them when
skinned, and when cold pound to a paste. Or, what is more
convenient, buy the almond paste ready prepared. Cream a quar-
ter-pound of butter with a pound of powdered sugar, and beat
into this the well-whipped yolks of seven eggs. Now beat in
gradually the almond paste, a teaspoonful of rose-water, a quart
of sifted flour, and, lastly, the stiffened whites of the eggs. Bake
272 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
in a loaf in a steady oven until a straw comes out clean from the
thickest part. When cold, ice, flavoring the icing with rose-water
and a very little essence of bitter almonds.
Chrysanthemum cake
Half a pint of butter and one pint of sugar rubbed to a cream ;
the beaten whites of eight eggs, and one and a half pints of flour
in which have been sifted one and a half teaspoonfuls of baking-
powder, one-half pint of milk and the grated rind of an orange.
Color the batter a delicate pink with cochineal, and bake in jelly-
cake tins in a moderate oven. Use red sugar for icing.
Daisy cake
Beat the yolks of four eggs very light with a cupful of sugar.
Cream- a quarter of a pound of butter and stir into the beaten egg
and sugar, then add a gill of water into which three teaspoonfuls
of cream have been stirred, and flavor with vanilla extract. Now
fold in one and a half cupfuls of flour that have been sifted with
two even teaspoonfuls of baking-powder. If this quantity makes
the batter too stiff, add less, as some flours thicken more than oth-
ers. Bake in layers. These form the yellow part of the cake. For
the white part cream a half cupful of butter with one and a half
cupfuls of sugar, add a cupful of lukewarm water and two and a
half cupfuls of flour that have been sifted with two teaspoonfuls of
baking-powder. Beat hard. Add the juice and rind of one lemon,
and fold in the stiffened whites of the four eggs. Bake in layers.
When cold, put the layers together, alternating yellow and white,
using a boiled icing filling. Use the same icing for the top, color-
ing it with grated orange peel. When this frosting is firm, make
a plain white boiled icing and, with a pastry tube, make of it the
form of a daisy on top of the other icing.
Lemon cake
One cupful of butter; two and a half cupfuls of sugar; three
eggs, yolks and whites beaten separately; four cupfuls of flour;
LUNCHEON CAKES 273
one scant teaspoonful of baking-soda dissolved in a little milk;
one cupful of sweet milk ; the juice and grated rind of two lemons.
Beat butter and sugar to a cream, add the yolks, well beaten, then
the milk and soda. Then add two cupfuls of the flour, the juice
and grated rind of the lemons. Mix again, and, last of all, add the
whites of the eggs beaten to a stiff froth. Bake in a hot oven.
White mountain cake
Into three cupfuls of sugar rub one cupful of butter and stir in a
half-cupful of sweet milk. Add four cupfuls of prepared flour al-
ternately with the stiffened whites of ten eggs. If you find that
the batter is going to be too stiff, do not put in the whole quantity
of flour. Bake in layer tins.
Filling for white mountain cake
Boil together a half-pound of sugar and a half-cupful of water
until the syrup is thick enough to hang in a thick thread from a
fork dipped into it. Stir in, a teaspoonful ar a time, the stiffened
whites of two eggs, beating them hard into the boiling syrup.
Remove from the fire and beat until like thick cream, and cool ;
then add a teaspoonful of lemon juice. Spread on each layer of
the cake, put the layers in a pile on top of one another and pour
the remaining icing over the top layer, spreading it smoothly
with a knife dipped in boiling water. Sprinkle the whole cake
with powdered sugar while the frosting is still moist.
Mocha cake
Cream a half cupful of butter with one and a half cupfuls of
sugar. Add three-quarters of a cupful of milk, and the stiffened
whites of three eggs alternately with enough prepared flour to
make a good batter. Bake in layers.
18
274 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Filling for Mocha cake
Thicken a cupful of scalding milk with a tablespoonful of corn-
starch wet with a little cold milk. Stir over the fire until smooth,
then pour gradually on the yolks of three eggs that have been
beaten light with a half cupful of sugar. Stir over the fire for
three minutes, and set aside until almost cold, when beat in a gill
of strong black coffee. Spread upon the cake layers.
Thanksgiving citron cake
Cream a cupful of butter with three cupfuls of powdered sugar,
add a cupful of milk, and four cupfuls of prepared flour alter-
nately with the stiffened whites of ten eggs. If too stiff lessen the
quantity of flour. Flavor with rose-water, and stir in two cups of
shredded citron, plentifully dredged with flour. Bake in an oven,
not too hot, for two hours.
Minnehaha cake
Cream a half-cupful of butter with one and a half cupfuls of
sugar, add the beaten yolks of four eggs ; a half-pint of milk, and
the stiffened whites of the eggs alternately with three even cupfuls
of prepared flour, or enough to make a good batter. Bake in layer
tins.
Filling for Minnehaha cake
Boil a cupful of sugar with four tablespoonfuls of water until
a drop "threads" when pressed between the thumb and finger;
then beat in the whipped white of an egg, and a half-cupful, each,
of seeded and chopped raisins and walnut meats. Spread this
mixture on the layers of cake.
Marshmallow layer cake
Cream a cupful of butter with two cupfuls of sugar, and when
smooth and light., add the well-beaten yolks of six eggs, a cupful
of milk and two cupfuls of prepared flour, alternately with the stif-
LUNCHEON CAKES 275
fened whites of the six eggs. If the batter is too thin, add a little
more flour. Flavor with vanilla and bake in layer tins.
y
Filling for marshmallow cake
.Dissolve five tablespoonfuls of gum arabic in a gill of cold
water; then stir in a half-cupful of powdered sugar and boil all
together until a little dropped in cold water can be rolled into a
soft ball between the finger and thumb. Have ready-beaten the
white of an egg and strain the syrup into this, beating the stif-
fened egg constantly as you do so. Flavor with vanilla and
spread upon the cake layers with a knife dipped in boiling water.
Plain loaf cake
One cupful of butter rubbed to a cream with two cupfuls of
sugar ; three cupfuls of flour sifted three times with a heaping tea-
spoonful of baking-powder; four eggs, whites and yolks beaten
separately, and very light; one cupful of milk. Bake in two
loaves.
This simple formula is the foundation for scores of fancy
cakes, especially of those baked in layers.
Nut cake
Cream one cupful of butter with two cupfuls of sugar ; add a
cupful of cold water, the well-beaten yolks of four eggs, a half tea-
spoonful of ground mace and cinnamon, mixed, and three cup-
fuls of prepared flour, stirred in alternately with the stiffened
whites of the eggs. Do not get the batter too stiff. Now add
two cupfuls of hickory-nut kernels, thoroughly dredged with flour.
Stir in quickly and turn at once into a well-greased loaf-tin.
Bake in a steady oven, covering the cake with brown paper for
the first half-hour it is in the oven. When a straw comes out
clean from the thickest part it is done. When cold, turn out, and
cover with a plain white-of-egg icing. Arrange half-kernels of
hickory-nuts at regular intervals on the top of the icing.
276 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Sour cream cake
(Contributed)
Beat the yolks of three eggs until stiff, add one cupful of
sugar and one cupful of rich sour cream, in which has been dis-
solved one scant teaspoonful of soda. Add two cupfuls of sifted
flour, one-half teaspoonful of salt, and one teaspoonful of lemon
extract. Bake in a shallow pan.
Bride's cake
Cream together three cupfuls of sugar and one scant cupful of
butter, adding the sugar a little at a time. Add one cupful of milk.
Sift thoroughly three cupfuls of flour, three teaspoonfuls of bak-
ing-powder and one cupful of corn-starch. Beat very light the
whites of twelve eggs. To the egg and sugar mixture add the
sifted flour, and, last, of all, the beaten whites of the twelve eggs.
Flavor to taste. Stir all together thoroughly. Pour into well-
buttered and floured tins. Bake slowly in a moderate oven.
Cream cake
(Contributed)
Beat separately the whites and yolks of four eggs, to the yolks
add two cupfuls of sugar stirred in a little at a time, and one cup-
ful of sweet cream. Sift thoroughly two heaping cupfuls of flour,
one teaspoonful of soda and two teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar.
Add this to the egg mixture. Stir in the whites last, stirring
gently.
Marble cake
(Contributed)
White Part : With two and one-half cupfuls of flour sift two
teaspoonfuls of baking-powder. Cream one-half cupful of butter
and one cupful of white sugar. Add one-half cupful of sweet milk
and the sifted flour. Then the whites of four eggs beaten stiff
and a teaspoonful of vanilla.
LUNCHEON CAKES 277
Dark Part: Stir until perfectly smooth and creamy one-half
cupful of butter and one cupful of brown sugar. Add to this the
well-beaten yolks of four eggs, one-half cupful of cooking mo-
hsses, one-half cupful of sour milk. Sift with one and a half cup-
fuls of flour, one teaspoonful, each, of cloves, cinnamon, mace and
grated nutmeg. Stir in part of the flour mixture. Then add one
teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a little milk, and the rest of the
p our. Butter well the cake pan and drop in a spoonful of each
] - 'nd. trying to drop the mixture so as to give the appearance of
Miirble.
One egg cake
(Contributed)
Cream one-half cup of butter, two cupfuls of sugar; add one
egg beaten light, one cupful of milk, one teaspoonful of vanilla,
'and two cupfuls of flour into which have been sifted two level tea-
spoonfuls of baking-powder. Bake in a moderate oven.
Caramel cake
(Contributed)
Sift together three cupfuls of pastry flour and three teaspoon-
fuls of baking-powder. Cream one-half cupful of butter and two
cupfuls of sugar. Beat the yolks of four eggs until thick and
lemon-colored. Add one cupful of milk and alternately the well-
beaten whites of the eggs and the flour. Then add one teaspoon-
ful of vmilla extract nnd one teacupfnl of chopned wlnuts. Bake
in loaf and when done cover with the caramel frosting.
Currant cake
(Contributed)
Sift together three jupfuls of pastry tiom and three level tea-
spoonfuls of baking-powder. Cream one scant cupful of butter
with one and one-half cupfuls of sugar, adding the sugar gradu-
ally ; and the well-beaten yolks of three eggs and one teaspoonful
278 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
of vanilla. Add to this one-half cupful of milk alternately with
the flour and last of all one cupful of cleaned and floured currants.
Bake in a moderate oven about fifty minutes.
FROSTINGS FOR CAKES
Boiled frosting for cake
Put into a saucepan half a cupful of water and a pound of gran-
ulated sugar and let it boil slowly. Do not stir. When it spins
a thread from the tip of a spoon dipped into it, take it from the
fire. Set it aside until it is blood-warm, and then stir steadily
until you have a smooth white cream. Apply it to the cake as you
would any other icing. If made properly it will harden by the
time it is fairly on the cake. If it hardens too%much before it is
used set it in warm water until it softens. Flavor it while stirring.
Frosting for plain loaf cake
One cupful of cream ; one pound of confectioner's sugar XXX ;
one cupful of seeded raisins, chopped; one cupful of almonds,
chopped ; one teaspoonful of lemon juice. Mix quite stiff.
Chocolate frosting for layer cake
Put into a porcelain-lined saucepan a cupful of granulated su-
gar and a third of a cupful of hot water and boil without stirring
until it threads, then pour slowly upon the beaten white of an egg
to which has been added a pinch of cream of tartar. Beat stead-
ily, adding, as you do so, two heaping tablespoonfuls of grated
chocolate, two tablespoonfuls of cream, a half-teaspoonful of but-
ter, and a teaspoonful of vanilla. When the mixture is blood-
warm, cover the cake with it.
Milk frosting
(Contributed)
To ten tablespoonfuls of sweet milk, add one and one-half cup-
fuls of sugar, and boil six minutes. Take from the fire and stir
until white. Flavor and spread quickly.
LUNCHEON CAKES 279
Frosting made with yolks
(Contributed)
Proceed exactly the same as for ordinary frosting, using the
yolks of the eggs instead of the whites.
VARIOUS FILLINGS FOR CAKE
Marshmallow filling
Dissolve five teaspoonfuls of powdered gum arabic in half a
cup of cold water, add half a cupful of powdered sugar and boil
until thick enough to form a soft ball between the fingers when
dropped into ice water. Pour upon the white of an egg beaten
stiff, flavor with a teaspoonful of vanilla and a few drops of
lemon juice and spread on the cake with a knife dipped in hot
water.
Soft white filling for layer cake
Make a syrup of a cupful of granulated sugar and a third of a
cupful of water and simmer over the fire until it threads. Beat the
whites of two eggs stiff, add a generous pinch of cream of tartar,
and beat steadily while you pour in the hot syrup. Do not cease
beating until it is like a thick white paste ; then flavor with vanilla
or lemon and spread at once on the layer cakes.
Caramel filling (No. 1)
Put together over the fire three-quarters of a cupful of cream,
half a cupful of sugar and a tablespoonful of butter. Cook until
it spins a thread, add to it four tablespoonfuls of burnt sugar, or
caramel, and a teaspoonful of vanilla. When it is cool, use for the
filling and frosting of cake.
Caramel filling (No. 2)
Make the caramel of burnt sugar by putting a cupful of sugar
over the fire with a quarter-cup of water and let them boil until
280 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
the syrup begins to change color. Tip the saucepan from one
side to the other so that it may brown equally. When it is nearly
black, but before it has begun to char, add to it a cupful of boiling
water, pouring it in carefully lest in its sputtering you should be
scorched. It must boil after this until all is dissolved and it is
like very dark syrup. In making your cake filling put over the
fire one tablespoonful of butter, three-quarters of a cupful of
cream and half a cupful of white sugar. Boil all together until
they spin a thread from the end of a fork tine, add four table-
spoonfuls of the caramel and a teaspoonful of vanilla and set aside
to cool. Use for filling and frosting cakes.
Raisin filling
One cupful of granulated sugar and one-fourth cupful of water.
Boil together without stirring until it is brittle when dropped into
cold water. Stir quickly into the beaten white of one egg. Add
to this one small cup of stoned raisins chopped very fine.
Cocoanut filling
( Contributed)
Chill one cupful of thick sweet cream and add one-half cupful
of powdered sugar. Whip until light and dry and fold in the
well-beaten white of one egg and one cupful of grated cocoanut.
Spread between the layers and over the top of the cake.
Custard filling
(Contributed)
Put two cupfuls of milk into a double boiler and bring to the
boiling point. Moisten two tablespoonfuls of corn-starch in a
little cold milk. Beat the yolks of four eggs very light and add
one-half cupful of sugar ; then the corn-starch. Stir this mixture
with the boiling milk and let it cook long enough for the corn-
starch to be thoroughly cooked. Flavor when almost cold.
LUNCHEON CAKES 281
Fig filling
(Contributed)
Put one cupful of water into a saucepan over the fire and add
one-half cupful of sugar. Add one pint of figs, finely chopped,
to the syrup and cook together until soft and smooth. When cold
spread between the layers of the cake.
Almond filling
(Contributed)
Beat three cupfuls of powdered sugar into the whites of three
eggs. Blanch one pound of sweet almonds. Pound in a mortar
until they make an even paste, with a little sugar. Then add to
the whites of the eggs, and flavor with a little vanilla. Stir thor-
oughly.
GINGERBREADS
Molasses gingerbread (No. 1)
Warm together two cupfuls of molasses, a half cupful each of
cottolene or other fat and butter, and two tablespoonf uls of ground
ginger, and when a little more than blood-warm, beat hard for
ten minutes; then add two teaspoonfuls of soda dissolved in a
little hot water, a cupful of sour milk and enough flour to make a
soft dough that can be rolled out. Turn on a floured board, roll
out, cut into shapes and bake in a good oven. While hot brush
over with the white of an egg.
Molasses gingerbread (No. 2)
One cupful of New Orleans molasses ; one cupful of sugar ; one
cupful of sour cream ; one small cupful of butter ; three eggs ;
three cupfuls of flour; one teaspoonful each of cloves, cinnamon,
ginger and baking-soda, the last dissolved in a little hot water.
Bake in two loaves in a moderate oven.
282 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Hard gingerbread
In a double boiler heat a cupful of New Orleans molasses, and
add half a cupful of melted butter to it. Pour into a bowl and
when blood-warm add a tablespoonful of ginger, a half teaspoon-
ful of soda dissolved in a little boiling water, and stir in enough
flour to make a stiff dough. Turn upon a floured board, roll thin,
cut out and bake in a hot oven.
Soft gingerbread
Sift one teaspoonful of baking powder and a half teaspoonful
of salt twice with two cupfuls of flour. Stir to a cream half a cup-
ful of butter, the same of sugar and the same of molasses. Warm
the mixture slightly and beat light before adding a well-whipped
egg, a half teaspoonful of ground mace and a tablespoonful of
ginger. Dissolve half a teaspoonful of baking soda in a table-
spoonful of hot water ; stir this into half a cupful of sweet milk ;
lastly, stir in the flour ; beat hard for one minute, and bake in two
shallow pans, well buttered, or in pate pans.
Kaisin gingerbread
Mix as above, adding at the last half a cupful of seeded raisins
cut into halves and well dredged with flour.
Aunt Nelly's gingerbread
Sift half a teaspoonful of salt and an even teaspoonful of bak-
ing-soda in one and a half cupfuls of flour. Rub to a cream half
a cupful of butter, with an equal quantity of brown sugar and of
molasses. Beat smooth and light, adding, gradually, half a cupful
of milk. Now stir in a cupful of prepared flour, after which add
more flour until you can knead it as you would bread dough.
Work it hard for one minute, roll into an even sheet, and cut to fit
your baking pans, which must be well greased. Cut into squares
with a jagging iron as the sheet lies in the pan, and bake in a
good oven covered for twelve minutes. Then uncover and brown.
LUNCHEON CAKES 283
Gingerbread, "such as mother used to make"
Mix together a half-cupful each of brown sugar and New Or-
leans molasses, and stir in a tablespoonful of melted butter, a tea-
spoonful of ground ginger and a teaspoonful of cinnamon. Set
the bowl containing these ingredients at the side of the range until
the contents are blood- warm; then remove from the range and
beat with an egg-beater until the batter is light brown in color.
Now stir in a cupful of sour milk and three cupfuls of sifted flour.
Beat very hard, adding, last of all, a teaspoonful of baking-soda
dissolved in hot water. Beat for two minutes longer and bake
in deep muffin-tins, or in a shallow baking-pan.
Sour milk gingerbread
Mix together a half cupful of sugar, a half cupful of molasses,
a tablespoonful of butter, a half teaspoonful of ground cinnamon
and a teaspoonful of ground ginger. Set the bowl containing this
mixture at the side of the range until the contents are warm, then
beat until light in color and foamy in appearance. Now beat in a
teacupful of sour milk, a teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a table-
spoonful of boiling water, and two and a half cupfuls of flour.
Turn into a greased shallow pan, and bake in a steady oven. Eat
hot.
Currant gingerbread
Make as directed in last recipe, adding at the last half a cupful
of currants that have been carefully washed and picked over, then
soaked for half an hour in warm water, dried between two towels
and dredged with flour.
Honey gingerbread
Warm a generous half-cupful of butter and beat into it two
scant cupfuls of strained honey. When you have a light cream,
beat in one tablespoonful of powdered sugar, a tablespoonful of
ginger and half a teaspoonful of cinnamon. Now add the beaten
yolks of four eggs, and, alternately with the frothed whites, three
284 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
even cupfuls of flour sifted twice with a teaspoonful of baking-
powder.
Beat hard for one minute and bake in buttered shallow pans in
a moderate oven forty-five minutes. Keep covered for thirty
minutes.
SMALL CAKES
WHAT the old-fashioned people call "dough cakes" what we
term "cookies" or "jumbles" are amongst the most popular small
cakes that the housemother can present to her brood. The only
trouble is that they are sometimes too popular, as they melt away
before John's and the boys' onslaughts like snow under spring
sunshine. Still the mother makes them gladly. It is always a
great convenience to have a stone crock full of cookies in the
house. They are nice for luncheon, for afternoon tea, and to eat
with a glass of milk before going to bed. They must be kept
in a dry atmosphere, as they are doubly delicious when crisp and
friable.
Almond macaroons
Beat the whites of three eggs stiff and whip into them half a
cupful of powdered sugar, a quarter-pound of almond paste, crum-
bled fine, half a teaspoonful of corn-starch, and five drops of es-
sence of bitter almonds. Drop by the spoonful on buttered pa-
per and bake in a hot oven. If you can not get almond paste,
pound blanched almonds fine.
Cocoanut macaroons
Into two cups of grated cocoanut stir a cupful and a half of
powdered sugar and a gill of cream, or just enough to wet the
cocoanut. Add the beaten whites of two eggs, and mix all thor-
oughly. Line a baking pan with buttered paper, drop the cocoa-
nut mixture by the teaspoonful upon this and bake quickly in a
hot oven. Sift powdered sugar over the macaroons while they are
still warm.
LUNCHEON CAKES 285
Auntie's cookies
One cupful of butter ; two cupfuls of sugar ; three eggs ; one-
half teaspoonful of baking-powder; one even teaspoonful of nut-
meg and half as much cloves ; flour for a soft dough. Begin with
two cupfuls, adding cautiously until you have the right consist-
ency.
Rub butter and sugar to a soft cream ; add the yolks of the eggs,
beaten light, then the spice, one cupful of flour with which the
baking-powder has been sifted twice, and half the whites beaten
stiff. Next another cupful of flour and the rest of the whites.
Roll into a sheet of dough about a quarter-inch thick, cut into
rounds and bake in a good oven. If you like, you may stick a
seeded raisin or a bit of citron in the top of each cooky before
baking.
Currant cookies
One cupful of sugar; two scant cupfuls of flour; four table-
spoonfuls of butter ; two eggs ; one scant teaspoonful of baking-
powder; one cupful of cleaned currants, chopped fine; nutmeg
and cinnamon to taste.
Rub butter and sugar to a cream; add spices and the eggs
beaten light, then the flour with which the baking-powder has
been sifted twice; lastly, the chopped currants. Roll out with
quick, light strokes, cut into shapes and bake in a tolerably brisk
oven. They are better the second day after baking than on the
first.
Oatmeal cookies
Mix together four cupfuls of flour (into which you have sifted
a teaspoonful of soda) and three cupfuls of oatmeal ; add two cup-
fuls of powdered sugar, a cupful of melted butter, and a tea-
spoonful of salt. Moisten the mass with enough cold water to
make a very stiff dough. Roll as thin as possible, cut into round
cakes and bake. This will make a very large number of cookies,
but they will keep well for weeks.
286 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
German almond cookies
The yolks of six eggs ; one and a half cupfuls of sugar ; three-
quarters of a cupful of butter ; one cupful of almonds, chopped :
one tablespoonful of cinnamon ; three cupfuls of flour. Beat well,
drop small spoonfuls on a well-greased pan and bake lightly.
Sponge cookies
Beat the yolks of two eggs light with one cupful of sugar.
When smooth, add the whites beaten to a standing froth, the juice
of half a lemon, and, with quick, light strokes, a cupful of flour
sifted twice with one teaspoonful of baking-powder and a little
salt. Now, work in more flour until you have a "reliable" dough.
Cut into shapes, and bake quickly in a floured shallow pan.
Lemon cookies
Cream two cupfuls of granulated sugar and one cupful of but-
ter. Add three beaten eggs and flavor with lemon juice. Sift into
the mixture enough flour to make the dough stiff enough to han-
dle, roll thin, cut out and bake.
Spice cookies
Cream one cupful of butter with two of sugar, and add three
eggs. Mix together a teaspoonful each of allspice, cinnamon and
nutmeg, and stir these into the batter. Add enough flour to make
a good dough, roll out and bake.
Caraway cookies
Rub one-half cupful of butter to a cream with one cupful of
powdered sugar, and when light beat in the yolks of three eggs.
Beat the whites stiff and add them alternately with two cupfuls of
flour. Stir in one teaspoonful of caraway seed and enough more
flour to enable you to roll it very thin. Cut into, rounds and bake
quickly.
LUNCHEON CAKES 287
Fanny's cookies
Into two cupfuls of granulated sugar rub one cupful of butter,
then stir in three eggs, well beaten, and flour enough to make a
stiff dough. Roll out on a floured board, cut, sprinkle with gran-
ulated sugar, stick a raisin in the center of each and bake.
Sand cookies
Cream a cupful of butter with two cupfuls of granulated sugar,
add two eggs beaten light, yolks and whites separately, then half a
teaspoonful of ground mace or of nutmeg. Have ready three
cupfuls of flour sifted twice with one teaspoonful of baking-pow-
der, and work into the mixture until you can roll out the dough.
Cut round with a tin cutter; wash the tops lightly with white
of egg; press half of a split blanched almond into the center of
each, and sprinkle well with coarse granulated sugar.
This is the "sand."
Bake quickly.
Peanut cookies
One cupful of butter; one and one-half cupfuls of powdered
sugar ; three eggs ; one cupful of freshly roasted peanuts, pounded,
rolled to a coarse powder, and mixed with about three cupfuls of
flour.
Cream the butter and sugar, add the beaten eggs, then the flour
and crushed peanuts. The dough should be just stiff enough to
handle easily. Drop the dough by the spoonful upon a floured
board, pat it into round cakes with the fingers, grate a little nut-
meg over the top of each cake and bake. A novelty, and one that
is likely to be popular.
Alma's drop cakes
Beat five eggs light yolks and whites separately. Into the
yolks stir a cupful of powdered sugar, the juice of a lemon and
half the grated peel then the stiffened whites of the eggs. Sift
together a heaping cupful of flour and a teaspoonful of baking-
288 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
powder, and beat this into the other ingredients. Line a hot but-
tered pan with thick writing paper, w T ell buttered ; drop the batter
by the spoonful upon the paper, and bake at once in a quick oven.
Sift powdered sugar over them while hot.
Vanilla cookies
Cream one cupful of butter with two of sugar, and stir in a cup-
ful of sour cream, two beaten eggs and three cupfuls of flour
sifted twice with a teaspoonful of soda. Flavor with vanilla ex-
tract. If your dough is not stiff enough to handle, add more
sifted flour until it is of the right consistency. Roll into a sheet
about a quarter of an inch thick, cut into rounds and bake.
Cocoamit cream puffs
These cakes, while requiring care in their preparation, amply
repay one for the time spent in their making.
Into a cupful of hot water stir a half-cupful of butter and bring
to a boil. Then add a cupful and a half of flour, and cook (stir-
ring constantly) for two minutes ; take from the fire and pour into
a bowl to cool. When the mixture is cold beat into it the whipped
yolks of four eggs ; lastly, the stiffened whites. Line a baking pan
with buttered paper ; drop the batter by the large spoonful upon it,
and bake in a quick oven. The puffs should be done in fifteen
minutes. When they are cold cut off the tops, fill with the fol-
lowing mixture and replace the tops.
Filling
Into two cupfuls of thick whipped cream beat a cupful of grated
cocoanut, half a cupful of powdered sugar and a teaspoonful of
extract of bitter almonds. Whip up hard before putting into the
puff shells.
Molasses cookies
Warm a cupful of molasses slightly and beat to a cream with
half a cupful of softened butter. Add the juice of half a lemon,
one tablespoonful of ginger and half a teaspoonful of cinnamon.
LUNCHEON CAKES 289
Now stir in two cnpfuls of flour sifted three times with an even
teaspoonful of baking-soda, until you have a soft dough. Roll out
and cut into shapes. Bake in a good oven.
Ginger jumbles
Into two cupfuls of molasses stir a cupful of melted butter, a
teaspoonful of ground cinnamon, a tablespoonful of pulverized
ginger, and a half a teaspoonful of baking-soda. Beat well, add
enough flour to make a soft dough, form with floured hands into
small cakes and bake.
Gingersnaps (No. 1)
One cupful of sugar, one cupful of butter, one tablespoonful of
ginger, one teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a little water, as much
flour as can be stirred in with a spoon not kneaded. Pinch off
a bit of the dough the size of a large marble, roll in the hands
until round, pat it flat and place in a pan, leaving between each
cake space for spreading; bake in a good oven to a moderate
brown. Leave in the pan until sufficiently cool to be "snappy."
Gingersnaps (No. 2)
Cream a cupful of butter with one of sugar, beat in a cupful of
molasses, stir in a cupful of water, a teaspoonful each of ground
ginger and cinnamon, a teaspoonful of allspice and a scant one of
soda sifted with a pint and a half of flour. Add enough flour to
make a dough that can be rolled out, roll thin, cut into rounds,
and bake.
Pfeffernusse
(A German recipe.)
One pound of fine flour, sifted; one teaspoonful of baking-
powder ; one pound of sugar, sifted ; four large eggs ; three
ounces of citron ; the grated rind of 6ne lemon ; one grated nut-
meg; one teaspoonful of cinnamon; one scant teaspoonful of
19
290 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
ground cloves. Mix the baking-powder and spices and sift with
the flour, then work in the beaten eggs and sugar ; form into small
balls and bake in a slow oven. Place in a pan sufficiently far apart
to allow them to swell to the size of macaroons when baked.
White peppernuts
Cream one and a half cupfuls of granulated sugar and a half-
cupful of butter together, add three eggs, beaten light, a half cup-
ful of milk, two teaspoonfuls of vanilla extract, and flour sifted
with two even teaspoonfuls of baking-powder. Add this flour
until stiff enough to roll out ; roll a half inch thick, cut out with a
thimble and bake in a hot oven. Care should be taken to put them
so far apart that they will not run together in the baking.
9
Brown peppernuts
Three eggs ; one cupful of brown sugar ; a half-cupful of but-
ter ; one cupful of molasses ; a half-cupful of sour or buttermilk ;
a teaspoonful of baking-soda ; a scant teaspoonful of cinnamon
and ginger, and flour enough to handle. Mix, roll out and bake
as you would white peppernuts.
Peppernuts (No. 4)
Mix together half a pound of powdered sugar, the yolks of
two eggs, one whole egg and a quarter-teaspoonf ul of potash pro-
cured from a druggist. Stir thk well for fifteen minutes ; add a
quarter-ounce of ground cinnamon, a quarter-teaspoonful each of
ground pepper and cloves, and the grated rind of a lemon. When
all is well mixed, put with it half a pound of pastry flour. Knead
well on a floured board, roll out about half an inch thick and cut
into small rounds with a biscuit cutter. Bake in a greased tin
in a very moderate oven.
Peppernuts (No. 5)
Sift together two cupfuls of sugar, four cupfuls of flour, one
tablespoonful of cinnamon, half a tablespoonful of cloves, and one
LUNCHEON CAKES 291
and a half teaspoonfuls of baking-powder. Add to this half a cup-
ful of citron, chopped fine ; the grated rind of a lemon and a quar-
ter of a nutmeg. Make to a dough with four eggs beaten enough
to mix yolks and whites. Shape into balls the size of a hickory-
nut, with buttered hands, and bake in pans lined with greased pa-
per. When done, cover with an icing.
Icing for peppernuts
Into two tablespoonfuls of boiling water stir enough confec-
tioner's sugar to make it thick. Flavor with lemon juice and a
little of the grated rind. The icing should be of the right con-
sistency to be applied with a pastry brush. Let the cakes stand
in a cool, dry place until the icing has hardened.
Vanities (No. 1)
Beat two eggs ; stir in a pinch of salt and a half-teaspoonful of
rose water ; add sifted flour until just stiff enough to roll out. Cut
with a cake-cutter and fry quickly in hot cottolene or other fat.
Sift powdered sugar on them while hot, and when cool put a tea-
spoonful of jelly in the center of each.
Vanities (No. 2)
Boil a cupful of milk and thicken it in the saucepan with flour
to a stiff dough. Let it become cool, then break in three eggs,
one at a time, and beat thoroughly. Add a tablespoonf ul of melted
butter. Drop it by small teaspoonfuls into hot cottolene or some
good fat, fry to a delicate brown ; drain and roll in a mixture of
sugar and cinnamon.
Anise cakes
Cream a half-pound of butter with a half-pound of sugar, add
three well-beaten eggs and enough flour to make a stiff dough,
adding to the flour an ounce of anise seed. Roll into a thin sheet,
cut into shapes with a cutter and bake.
292 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
Hermits
Cream together a cupful of butter and two of sugar. Beat in
the whipped yolks of three eggs, add a half-cupful of milk and
then the beaten whites. Work in two cupfuls of flour, sifted twice
with a teaspoonful of baking-powder, and if this does not make
a dough that could be rolled out, add more flour cautiously, not
to have the cakes too stiff. Roll into a very thin sheet, strew
thickly with the kernels of hickory-nuts, pecans or English wal-
nuts, chopped fine and sprinkled with sugar. Fold the dough
once over the nuts, passing the rolling-pin lightly over the upper
sheet, and cut into rounds with a cake cutter. Bake in a quick
oven, covered, for fifteen minutes ; uncover and brown.
Plain cookies
(Contributed)
Cream together one cupful of butter and two cupfuls of sugar.
Add one egg, well beaten, one cupful of milk, three teaspoonfuls
of baking-powder and flour enough to make a soft dough. Roll
thin, cut in small cakes and bake in a moderate oven.
Eggless cookies
(Contributed)
Cream one cupful of butter and add one cupful of sweet milk,
one teaspoonful of vanilla, and one teaspoonful of soda dissolved
in a little warm water. Use flour enough to make a soft dough.
Cakes made by this recipe will keep fresh for a long time.
THE DOUGHNUT AND CBULLER FAMILY
THESE crisp and toothsome dainties may be made several weeks
before they are needed, as they improve with age. Keep them
in a stone crock, or large tin cracker-box with a closely-fitting
LUNCHEON CAKES 293
cover. As you pack them down, sprinkle each layer with powdered
sugar.
Have a large quantity cut out before you begin the work of
frying, for when the fat has attained the proper state of heat you
will not want to set it to one side to cool, while you roll out another
batch of the small cakes. Of course, crullers and doughnuts do
not really taste better when cut into various shapes, but, since
John and the boys fancy that they do, the mother will do well
to indulge the innocent notion and to twist and turn the raw
dough into fantastic and attractive forms.
Heat the cottolene or other fat used for frying gradually until
so hot that a piece of the dough used as a test will rise to the sur-
face at once, swell immediately and brown quickly. As the dough-
nuts brown, remove them from the kettle with a perforated
spoon and lay in a colander, set at the side of the stove, to drain
free of grease. Transfer to a platter, and while hot, sprinkle with
sugar.
Quick doughnuts
Cream one cupful of sugar with half a cupful of butter, add one
cupful of milk, two eggs, beaten light, one tablespoonful of cinna-
mon and nutmeg mixed, and two cupfuls of flour into which has
been sifted a heaping teaspoonful of baking-powder. Work in
enough flour to make a soft dough. Roll out into a sheet nearly
an inch thick, and cut into shapes with a cutter. Fry in deep
cottolene or other fat.
Sour milk doughnuts
Cream a cupful of butter and two cupfuls of sugar; add four
beaten eggs, a half-pint of sour milk, a teaspoonful of soda dis-
solved in a little boiling water, a teaspoonful each of nutmeg and
cinnamon, and enough flour to make a dough that can be rolled
out. Roll and cut into shapes. Fry in deep, boiling cottolene or
other fat, which has been heated slowly.
Mother's doughnuts
Cream a generous half cupful of butter with two cupfuls of su-.
gar ; add three well-beaten eggs, a cupful and a half of milk, and
294 MARION HARLAND'S COOK BOOK
about five cupfuls of flour, which has been sifted with three tea-
spoonfuls of baking-powder. Add this flour gradually until you
have enough to make a dough that can be rolled out, as it may not
take the full amount. Roll out, cut into rounds, drop into boiling
cottolene or other fat and fry to a golden brown. Drain in a col-
ander, and while hot sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Ideal crullers
Rub together a half-pound of butter and three-quarters of a
pound of powdered sugar. When you have a soft cream, work
in gradually six beaten eggs, a half-teaspoonful each of nutmeg
and cinnamon, and by the handful enough flour to enable you
to roll out the dough. Avoid getting it too stiff. Roll into a very
thin sheet and cut into rings. The centers of the rings make
prettly little marble-shaped crullers. Fry in deep boiling cotto-
lene or other fat, which has been heated slowly.
Mary's crullers
Rub half a pound of butter to a cream with three-quarters of a
pound of pulverized sugar. Beat in the yolks of five eggs, whipped
smooth; add an even teaspoonful of mace and cinnamon mixed,
lastly the stiffened whites of the eggs, alternately with enough
flour for a stiff dough. Begin with two cupfuls (sifted). Roll
out, cut into fancy shapes and set in a cold place for an hour be-
fore frying in deep, boiling cottolene or other fat.
Buttermilk crullers
Into a cupful and a half of granulated sugar rub three-quarters
of a cupful of butter, add two eggs, half a teaspoonful of soda dis-
solved in a tablespoonful of hot water, and a cupful and a half of
buttermilk. Now sift in enough flour to make a tender dough,
roll out and fry.
LUNCHEON CAKES 295
Sunnybank crullers
Rub together four tablespoonfuls of butter and a generous cup-
ful of powdered sugar ; add to the cream thus made half a tea-
spoonful of powdered cinnamon and beat it in thoroughly. Now
add four well-beaten eggs, and whip long and hard. Last of all,
sift in very gradually enough flour to make a stiff dough. Roll
this out and, with a fancy cake-cutter, cut it into small orna-
mental shapes. The bits of dough left over may be gathered up,
put together and rolled out again, then cut into strips and small
squares. After the crullers are cooked and drained free of fat,
spread them upon a platter and sprinkle with powdered sugar and
cinnamon in the proportion of a teaspoonful of the spice to half a
cupful of sugar.
FAMILIAR TALK
A FRIENDLY WORD WITH "OTTR MAID"
To BEGIN with I wish I could devise some method of convinc-
ing you that I am really and truly "friendly."
A newspaper article I have just read says, "It can not be denied
that the present attitude of American mistress and maid is, at
best, one of armed neutrality."
Put into everyday English, that means that each is willing, if
convenient, to get along comfortably and pleasantly with the
other, but that each holds herself ready to fight, if fighting seems
to be advisable.
This, "attitude" is all wrong, through and through. I should
like to change it in your mind before I begin to talk with you.
The best and most wonderful Book ever written tells us that
the men who, once upon a time, built the ruined walls and temple
of Jerusalem, held a trowel, or spade, or hammer in one hand,
and a sword or spear in the other, because their enemies were ly-
ing in wait, watching for an opportunity to attack them. We are
not surprised to read in the same chapter that these enemies
laughed at the sort of work done under such circumstances. They
said, "If a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall."
Two hands are better for doing work than one; two heads are
better for planning work than one; two hearts at peace with
each other are the greatest possible help to head and hands.
Take it for granted when you take a place that your employer
is friendly to you. Don't look upon her as a possible enemy. When
she trusts you to handle delicate china, take care of handsome fur-
niture or to co 
