WHAT I KNOW;
OB,
lints m % iailg ^utm 0f a |0
COMPRISING
NEAELY FIVE HUNDRED RECEIPTS,
FOR COOKING, PRESERVING, PICKLING, WASHING, IRONING,
GARDENING, PLAIN AND FANCY NEEDLE-WORK,
PUTTING UP OF WINTER STORES,
AND NUMEROUS OTHER RECEIPTS, USEFUL AND NEEDFUL IN
EVERY WELL-REGULATED HOUSEHOLD.
BY ELIZABETH NICHOLSON.
Who sweeps a room as by Thy laws,
Makes that and the action fine. — Herbert.
PHILADELPHIA:
WILLIS P. HAZABD,
NO. 190 CHESTNUT STREET.
1856o
He
0& ¥
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by
ELIZABETH NICHOLSON,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and
for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Pat. Offlo«liik.
4|irU 1914.
ELECTROTTPED BY GEORGE CHARLES,
9 Sansom St., Philadelphia.
PEEFACE,
-«♦«-
*'In the days of other years," when persons in the
middle walks of life were in the habit of keeping but one
"maid of all work," the daily thought of " what we shall
eat," &c., was not only the province of the female head of
the family, but her occupation also. That is, to a certain
extent ; on any extra occasion, or the arrival of an unex-
pected guest, her hands prepared the fitting dessert, or
the evening refreshment. And ably and well did she per-
form the task. Flinging rules to the winds, her judgment,
skill and experience, stood her in good stead. Now, we
have fallen on other days. If, as C. M. Sedgewick says,
" the division of labor is the perfection of the system,"
then in cities we have it, truly. And, in many cases, it is
well. Mothers of rising families can command much
more leisure for higher and nobler duties. The sciences,
heretofore brought to bear only upon massive machinery,
have descended to aid woman in the thousand details of
her daily task-work. Philosophy and chemistry have come
to our preparation and preservation of food. Instead of
the cooking range, with its bushel of coal, to prepare our
dinners, while the thermometer ranges at 90 degrees, we
shall ere long forget, in our beautifully systematized gas
cooking, that our houses were heated from the kitchen,
through our protracted summers ; just as we now forget,
in our brilliantly lit rooms, the vexation of the astral.
(3)
4 PREFACE.
Still, work does not do itself. We admit many a ser-
Tant into our houses to find that profession is not posses-
sion. The author of this volume considered, that an
inexpensive little hook, [so inexpensive as to render the
inconvenience of lending unnecessary,] would be accept-
able. It will be found to contain none but tested receipts,
adapted to every-day doings, given in as brief a manner
as possible, yet adapted to the smallest capacity ; as she
intends it for a Kitchen Book. It contains very few
receipts under each head adapted to great occasions,
because, under our present system, hired waiters are
expected and expect to have all under their supervision.
To the women of America, therefore, I commend this
volume, confident that its purchase, perusal and use, will
be found a true economy, enabling them to devote more
time to works which will minister to a higher need.
E. N.
Philadelphia, 10th mo., 1855.
THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
BREAD.
This staff of life, on which we lean for hodily
support thrice every day, should never be made but
of the best materials, — our health and comfort
depending much thereupon. Many a confirmed
dyspepsia has been induced by the habitual par-
taking of heavy, sour, or ill-baked bread: ow-
ing, in some cases, to the ignorance or indiffer-
ence of the maker and baker — in others, from the
want of the best materials, and the use of a poor
stove or range. If, however, the following rules
are observed closely, a wholesome, beautiful Bread
will be the result.
An improvement in baking bread will be found
in a porcelain lined pan, which can be obtained at
262 Chestnut street, at various prices and sizes.
The English porcelain lined ware is cheapest in
the end.
Yeast. — Take 1 handful good hops, put them
in a little bag in 1 quart of water, to boil. Pare
6 large potatoes and put in the water. When the
latter are soft, pass them through a colander,
(moistening the while with a little of the hot water.)
Now, squeeze out the bag, and return the pulp
made to the water, and let the whole be stirred,
1* 5
6 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
and just come to a boil. In this hot state pour
it on suflBcient flour to make a thinish batter.
When tepid, add i pint yeast. This is fit for use
in the evening, if made in the morning. Put it
in a crock with a lid, in a cool place. [Those
who are near a baker^s, may save this work by
purchasing, each baking day ]
Dry Yeast. — Boil 1 pint hops well in 1 quart
water: strain it hot on 1 pint flour and table-
spoonful of salt : stir it well, and cool. After it
has risen enough, add as much Indian meal as will
make a stiff dough. Roll it into rolls. When they
are light, cut them up in thin cakes and dry them
in the shade ; turning them several times a day.
Keep in a dry place : 2 cakes, soaked in tepid
water an hour, and water all used, makes the
quantity named, under Bread. I have eaten ex-
cellent bread made thus in summer. It is port-
able, and every way desirable for warm weather.
Hop Yeast, — 1 quart water, 1 handful lively
hops, boiled in a bag ^ hour. Pour this scalding
water over sufficient wheat flour to make a thin
batter : add 1 table-spoonful salt ; set it to rise.
When light, add 1 tea-cup yeast. Keep in a co-
vered crock, cool. [A little soda improves yeast
when it is not very lively, put in when using the
yeast.]
Wheat Bread. — Boil 1 quart milk: let it be-
come coolish: then mix with it flour enough to
make a very stiff batter: add J pint of the above-
named Yeast, beat it very smooth, add 2 table-
spoonfuls salt. Let it stand till light ; then knead
it well : [the old saying of " bread is poison that is
not kneaded," was put out as a frightener, I pre-
sume.] Let it rise. Mould and put it in pans.
BRAN BREAD — RYE BREAD BUTTER. 7
J hour. If milk is not convenient, water
will do. The above quantity makes 4 medium
sized loaves. If mush is desired, there may be a
pint of it (when made) put in. Better Bread than
the above rules will show need not he, if properly
baked. The oven should be very warm, not very
hot, and slowly getting hotter. Bake 1 hour.
Bran Bread. — Take 1 lb. fresh Indian meal,
1 handful salt, and make into a thin mush. When
tepid, mix in 1 wine glass yeast, 2 lbs. bran flour,
[which may be had at the feed stores,] a table-
spoonful of sugar or molasses ; mix all together,
and form a loaf without kneading. Bake in a pan
ready greased, longer than the same quantity of
wheat bread. Let it stand to rise in this greased
pan, and bake. s. l. [Rye Bread, ditto.]
Rye Bread. — Make a pot of mush with coarse
yellow Indian meal — season it with salt to taste,
and let it boil well for an hour, then stir in more
Indian until it is quite stiff — ^let it cool until it is
milk-warm, then add yeast enough to raise it, and
knead rye flour into it, until it is a stiff dough —
let it rise — when light, mould it into loaves.
Let it stand till quite light again, and bake as
other bread. Made into small cakes it is very
good hot for breakfast.
Wheat flour used instead of rye makes a bread
which is excellent, and preferred by many : should
be baked in cakes size of a tea-cup top, an inch
thick.
Butter. — There is much bad butter brought
into our markets. The following receipt is from
Everet G. Passmore, whose butter always com-
mands the highest market price. '' In each pan of
milk put enough sour milk to make it very sour
8 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
and thick in 36 hours : in moderate weather 2 or
3 table-spoonfuls will answer ; in cold weather it
should be kept in a room at summer heat. Skim
it every night and morning, in a pot, and before
putting it into the churn, scrape off the top with
a knife, as it will make the butter strong. Work
most of the buttermilk out — then salt it — then
work it well with a cloth, till there is no more milk
in it — print it — throw it in water a while, and set
away in a cool place."
To Cure Butter that •will keep for a
length of time. — Reduce separately to a fine
powder 2 lbs. of the best fine salt, 1 lb. of loaf-
sugar and ^ lb. saltpetre. Sift these ingredients
one above another, on a large sized sheet of paper,
then mix them well together ; keep this mixture
covered up close in a nice jar, and placed in a dry
closet.
When your butter is worked and salted in the
usual way, and ready to put in the jars, use one
ounce of this composition to every pound of but-
ter ; work it well into the mass.
Butter cured in this way (it is said), will keep
good for several years. I have never kept it
longer than from the fall until late in the spring :
it was then very sweet and good.
It will not do to use for a month, because ear-
lier, the salts will not be sufiQciently blended with it.
It should be kept in wooden vessels, or nice stone
jars. Earthenware jars are not suitable for but-
ter, as during the decomposition of the salts, they
corrode the glazing, and the butter becomes rancid
and unhealthy. — e. e. l.
Grafton Milk Biscuit. — Boil and grate
2 white potatoes j add 2 tea-spoonfuls of brown
M. A B 'S MILK BISCUIT. ETC, 9
sugar ; pour boiling water over these, enough to
soften them. When tepid, add 1 small tea-cup
of yeast ; when light, warm 3 oz. of butter in
1 pint of milk, a little salt, and flour enough to
make a stiff sponge — when risen work it on the
board — put it back in the tray to rise again :
when risen roll into cakes and let them stand half
hour. Bake in a quick oven. These Biscuit are
'perfect,
M. A. B.'s Milk Eiscuit. — Mix 1 pint
milk with 6 oz. butter, ^ tea-cup pulverized sugar,
1 tea-spoonful salt, IJ tea-cup yeast, and flour
enough to make a sponge. Let it stand till per-
fectly light ; knead it into a loaf, return to the
tray and rise again. Then roll out the dough, cut
it into small cakes, and stand ^ hour. Bake in a
quick oven \ hour. Leave them in the pans till
wanted for tea, to prevent the under-crust harden-
ing. Yeast for these must be made the day
previous — thus : Boil 4 large potatoes in 1 quart
water ; pour off the water and strain them through
a colander ; then add water enough to thin them,
with 1 tea-spoonful salt and 1 table-spoonful brown
sugar : let it cool and add nearly 1 tea-cup good
yeast.
A Simpler Biscuit. — Save from the bread
dough ^ of the quantity named under wheat bread;
cut up in small pieces 3 oz. butter or lard, or ^ each,
and work in. Make it up into small cakes, and put
to rise in a cool place till time to bake for tea.
These are good.
Potato Rolls. — Boil 2 lbs. potatoes, pass
through a colander, or mash them well; add 2
oz. butter and a pint milkj a little salt, 1 gill
10 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
yeast, and as much flour as will make a soft dough ;
set them to rise ; when light cut them in cakes ;
let them rise ^ hour, and bake. Sweet potatoes
make beautiful biscuit, mixed as above.
French Rolls. — Boil 1 pint milk ; cut up 2
oz. butter into it, add a little salt ; when tepid,
sift in 1 lb. flour, 1 egg beaten, 1 table-spoonful
yeast ; beat these well together ; when risen, form
into rolls, with as little handling as possible.
Bake on tins.
Patent Flour. — Pulverize 6 lbs. wheat flour,
mix 5 tea-spoonfuls dry carb. soda carefully
through it ; then 1 do. cream tartar, and 6 do. of
salt. Incorporate these, and you have risen cakes
at hand, to which add either milk or water, short-
ening or not, as suits, and you have several kinds
of what is called soda cake. To this quantity of
flour J lb. butter would answer.
I find this flour good for crust of any kind :
constant reference will be found in the volume to
the use of it, in various ways.
C. B.'s Soda Cake. — Three pints flour ; 3 tea-
spoonfuls dry cream tar. ; butter the size of a wal-
nut ; soda, 1 tea-spoonful dissolved in milk. Make
a soft dough with milk and bake immediately i
hour.
Batter Cakes. — Muffins. — One quart milk ;
4 eggs ; dessert spoonful salt ; 1 cup yeast. Beat
the eggs well ; add all the ingredients ; make the
batter very stiff by flour ; grease muffin rings after
the batter is light, and bake ; fill the rings ^ full.
Turn them over when brown below.
Flannel Cakes. — One quart milk ; 4 eggs ; 1
cup yeast; 1 dessert spoonful salt; flour enough
BUCKWHEAT CAKES WAFFLES, ETC H
for a tliinisli batter. Set to rise as above ; bake
like Buckwheat Cakes. Cakes -J Indian and ^
wheat, are very nice. Quite good cakes may be
made by leaving out the eggs.
Buek'wheat Cakes. — One quart ouckwheat
meal ; 1 handful Indian meal ; 1 cup yeast ; some
warm water and salt. When ready to bake, ^ tea-
spoonful soda, and 1 cream of tartar, lightens them.
Extempore Buckwheat Cakes may be made by leav-
ing out the yeast, and substituting 1 tea-spoonful
soda ; 2 cream of tartar.
Wafiies. — Take two tea-cups hot hominy ; 1
table-spoonful butter : when cold, add I tea-cup
wheat flour, salt, as much milk as will make a stiff
batter, and 3 eggs, beaten well. Mix, adding a
mite of soda ; do. cream of tartar. Bake in Waf-
fle irons.
Quick Waffles. — One pint milk ; 3 eggs, bea-
ten ; enough wheat flour to make a thick batter :
add a table-spoonful butter melted, and a little
salt, soda and cream of tartar.
Best Waffles. — One quart milk ; ^ lb. melted
butter ; 3 eggs ; 2 large spoonfuls yeast : let it
rise 4 hours. Serve them, when baked, with sugar
and cinnamon.
Rice Waffles. — Beat 3 eggs; stir them into
1^ pints flour, adding by degrees 2 pints milk :
add 1 pint boiled rice with 1 large spoonful butter,
put in while the rice is hot. Salt, and add 2 large
spoonfuls yeast.
As Waffles are rather slow baking, they will be
nearly as good, if baked awhile befpre wanted,
and put in the oven to keep warm.
12 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
Buttermilk Cakes. — Make a smooth batter
of 1 quart buttermilk and flour : then add 2 large
spoonfuls corn meal ; 2 eggs, beaten ; salt ; 1 tea-
spoonful soda dissolved in milk ; (no cream of tar-
tar.) These are most excellent.
Mush, Mush Cakes, and Fried Mush. —
Stir corn meal into boiling water till suflBciently
thick. Add salt ; keep stirring it to prevent its
being lumpy. It should boil nearly 1 hour. Pour
it out in pans, and when cold it makes a whole-
some and good dessert, if sliced and fried. Eat it
with sugar and cream, or batter and molasses.
Mush Cakes. — Take 1 quart cold mush, mix
in it ^ pint wheat flour, and a little butter or lard ;
make it in little cakes with your hands. Flour
them and bake on a griddle as slab cake, or in the
oven.
Corn Batter Cakes. — One quart milk; 3
eggs; salt, and as much sifted corn meal as will
make a thin batter; beat well together, with 1
table-spoonful wheat flour; bake in small cakes,
and serve hot.
Cornmeal Cake, in tins. — One quart meal ;
1 pint boiling milk ; 1 tea-spoonful salt ; a tea-
spoonful soda ; set it to rise in a warm place ; beat
3 eggs and put in ; a little cream of tartar. Bake
in tins, and cut in squares for the table.
Cake, ■without Eggs. — Pour sufficient boil-
ing water over stale bread to soften it ; mash
it through a colander, and add as much wheat
flour as bread, and as much milk as will make it
as thick as batter usually is ; 1 tea-spoonful soda ;
2 cream of tartar. Bake immediately.
TO SEASON SAUSAGE MEAT TEA. 13
BREAKFAST RELISHES.
To Season Sausage Meat. — To 40 lbs.
meat add I lb. salt ; i black pepper ; 12 oz, red
pepper ; ^ the quantity of sage in measure. This is
for common Sausage, to fry — to those designed for
Tom Thumbs, to boil, add a little of each, except
the sage. — a. h.
® \
Tea. — The Chinese have a method of prepar-
ing different from ours. They have a tea-kettle
boiling on the table, and put the tea into an or-
dinary tea-pot, upon which they pour the boiling
water, and allow it to stand only a few seconds
before it is used. If a second cup is wanted a
fresh infusion is made. It would be considered
a meanness to offer a guest tea that was not that
instant prepared. This is their rule for all kinds
of tea.
The most approved method in this country for
black tea, is to pour a small quantity of boiling
water on the tea — let it stand on a hot stove (not
to boil) for 20 minutes, then put it into the tea-
pot intended for the table, and fill it up with boil-
ing water. In pouring out black tea into the cup
always put in the sugar first — then the cream — and
the tea last. It alters the flavor entirely to add
the sugar or cream afterwards.
Green tea, made in the same manner, but al-
lowed to remain on the stove only 5 minutes in-
stead of 20. In pouring out into the cup let each
person add cream and sugar to suit themselves.
Many persons omit cream — the Chinese never use
it in any of their teas. They admire the scented
2
14 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
tea — but never use the colored poisons prepared
for this and the English market.
There is a very neat article, (to be had at 256
Market street,) for boiling tea. It consists of a
small wire box, into which you put the black tea
dry, then place it into the vessel in which tea is
boiled; the advantage of this method is — no tea
leaves can escape into the tea-cup, and you secure
all the leaves compact.
Coffee. — Many purchase bags of costly Coffee
and have it roasted as wanted. In my opinion the
cheapest and most satisfactory method of having
the very best coffee always, is to purchase a few
pounds at a time, of Elwood Shannon's Roasted
Coffee, at 16 cents per lb. His store is in Jayne's
Building, Chestnut street.
Boiling Coffee. — A large tea-cupful of un-
ground coffee will be sufficient for 6 persons, unless
they take it very strong, (which is injurious to
health ;) grind it, and put it in the tin pot, with ^ a
tea-cup of cold water, and the white of ^ an egg ;
shake it till it is mixed ; then pour boiling water
on it, and let it stand close to the fire, and just
come to a boil; stir it, and do not let it boil over;
let it keep at boiling heat 5 or 10 minutes ; then
take it from the fire, and put in ^ a tea-cup of
water to settle it; let it stand 5 minutes, and pour
It off; — if you wish it particularly nice, strain it
through a thin linen cloth, kept for the purpose;
keep it by the fire till it goes to table. If you
boil coffee too long, the aromatic flavor flies off*.—
E. E. LEA.
Boiled Eggs. — Put them in boiling water with
a 3 minute glass in sight. If you wish only
OMELETS. 15
the white hardened, allow 3 minutes — 5 and 8 for
a hard boiled egg. Another, and more delicate
way, and far more graceful to eat, is to break them
into boiling water and let them boil 3 or 4 min-
utes; then take them up with a skimmer on a
plate where is buttered toast. Put a little butter
on the eggs. The most convenient way to have
eggs done to your mind is, to purchase one of the
*' Extempore Cooks," an affair connected with the
gas-burner over head. They may be had at Mur-
phy & Yarnall's, 262 Chestnut street.
Omelet. — Break 8 or 10 eggs into a pan ; add
pepper, salt, and 1 spoonful cold water ; beat them
up to a stiff froth ; meanwhile, put some butter in
a frying pan, and when it nearly boils put in the
eggs. As it fries, take up the edges, that all may
be properly done. When cooked, double it; serve
hot.
Baked Bread Omelet. — Ingredients : 6 oz.
of stale bread, without hard crust ; 5 eggs ; ^ oz.
of parsley, and \ oz. of lemon thyme. Instruc-
tions: Soften the bread thoroughly in a dish,
with a little boiling water, covering it over,
and let it soak for an hour — then mash it up with a
fork, picking out the hard pieces, and adding the
parsley and lemon thyme, chopped fine, with salt
and pepper, as seasoning. Beat the eggs well, mix
them intimately with the other ingredients, and
bake in a buttered dish, (buttered cold,) for about
40 minutes. Turn it out of the dish, garnished
with parsley, and serve with brown sauce.
A Simpler Omelet. — Beat up 4 eggs ; add
1 pint milk or less, season this ; put butter in fry-
ing pan, when hot pour in the q^^ ; cover the pan
16 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
and let it steam a little while ; then turn it up and
up, and over into the dish, to serve.
Clam Fritters. — Strain them from the juice ;
chop the clams ; put pepper and salt ; add an egg
or two ; a little cream or milk ; sift in flour enough
to make them stick together. This is the most de-
licate way of cooking clams.
Corn Fritters. — Six ears of corn cut off the
cob ; salt ; 3 eggs, beaten well separately ; 2 table-
spoonfuls patent flour. Fry brown.
Frizzled Beef, or Liver dried as Beef. —
Put a piece of butter the size of an egg into a
skillet ; sliver up some beef and put in, turning
nearly all the time, till done. Put the meat to one
side of skillet, and put in a little cream, milk or
water, for gravy.
Fried Ham. — This is good served in the same
way ', or, instead of cream, &c., 6 eggs broken
into the gravy and served on the ham.
Salsify, or Oyster Plant. — Wash and scrape
and grate it ; season and make up into cakes ;
fry in lard ; either use bread crumbs or not.
Egg Plant. — Cut it in slices an 8th of an inch
or more ; lay it 3 hours in salt and water ; have a
dressing of bread crumbs, egg with plenty of salt
and pepper. Fry brown and serve hot.
Tomato Omelet. — Select 1 quart ripe to-
matoes; pour boiling water over to remove the
skin ; chop them fine ; put them into a saucepan
without water, cover closely and simmer 1 hour ;
then add salt and cayenne, 1 large spoonful bread
crumbs, and cover tightly ; beat up 3 eggs to a
stiff froth J have ready a heated pan with a piece
A RELISH — SOUPS. It
of butter just large enough to grease it ; stir the
eggs into the tomatoes ; beat all together, and
pour it into the hot buttered pan ; brown it on one
side ; fold it over and serve. This is nice with
beef-steak.
Sweet Potatoes, left at dinner, make a delicate,
wholesome relish, by placing them, sliced, into an
oven to warm, and meanwhile heating and salting
some cream or rich milk to pour over them. Serve
hot.
A Relish. — Put bread crumbs into a sauce-
pan with cream, salt and pepper ; when the bread
has absorbed the cream or milk, break in a few
eggs and fry as Omelet. — c. b.
SOUPS.
The delicate and proper blending of savours is
the chief art of good soup-making. Be sure and
skim the grease off the soup when it first boils, or
it will not become clear. Throw in a little salt to
bring up the scum. Remove all the grease,
[This may be best done by boiling the soup the
day previous, and then the grease all comes off in
a cake. To do so is often more convenient if you
have bones, &c., which may not keep uncooked.]
1 quart water to 1 lb. meat is a pretty good rule.
If it boils away — soup should not boil hard — add
boiling water. The water in which poultry, or
fresh meat has been boiled, should be saved for
gravies or soup next day. If you do not need it,
the poor do. And in connection with this remark
I would say it is much better for all families to
2*
18 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
"seek out" some worthy poor in their own neigh-
bourhood, to whom all their food, not presentable
again on their own tables, shall be sent before it
has become fit for the slop ; and to insist that the
cook shall take or send it thither. By this means
nearly every poor family could count on at least 1
meal a day : and that nuisance in our courts and
alleys — street begging — be abated.
The proper way to make soup is to use a soup-
digester : the flavour of the meat being retained
almost entirely. They may be had at Murphy &
YarnalPs, 262 Chestnut street.
Beef-shin Soup — Mutton and Veal
Soup. — Crack the shin in several pieces, and wash
it through 3 waters ; put it into a pot of water 4
hours before dinner — when it begins to boil, take
off the scum as it rises, and keep it covered; 1
hour before it is done skim off all the fat, and put
in potatoes, 1 onion, 1 carrot — either beat up dump-
lings, as given below, or roll them out of pie-
dough, or bread-dough, if you have it, and put in —
a few minutes before dinner, stir in thickening
enough, with parsley, thyme, pepper, and salt, and
tomatoes, if in season. A shin will make a good
dinner for a large family, and will do to warm over
for the poor (if any left) next day. To eat pickles
with it, or pour a little catsup or vinegar on your
plate, is good. Soup made of mutton, veal, and
lamb, does not require many vegetables — carrots
and potatoes are best.
Gumbo Soup. — Take 2 lbs. fresh beef; put
this in a pot with 2 gallons water ; after boiling 2
hours, throw in ^ peck okra cut in thin slices, and
1 quart ripe tomatoes cut up ; slice 4 onions, fry
them brown, and dust into them, while frying, sev-
OKRA SOUP CHICKEN SOUP, ETC. 19
eral spoonfuls flour ; add these with pepper, salt,
parsley, or other herbs, to your taste, about 1
hour before dinner — it requires 6 hours, moderate
boiling.
Okra Soup.' — Take a shin of beef and put in
1 gallon water after an early breakfast, and let it
boil till 12 o'clock; then cut up 1 onion, parsley,
•J peck okra, and 1 quart tomatoes ; let these boil
until dinner time, say 2 o'clock. This is delicious
soup.
Hashed Beef for second course. — The
boiled beef will make a very good dish, by cutting
the meat into small pieces ; a little cloves, part of
an onion, some of the soup fat with crumbs of
bread over the top-adding ; bake ^ hour in a quick
oven.
Chicken Soup. — Cut up the fowl ; cut each
joint, and let it boil 1 hour ; then stir in thick-
ening, pepper, salt, and parsley enough to season ;
put in a few dumplings (made as elsewhere di-
rected) f let it boil up ^ hour, and serve.
Pea Soup.' — Leave 1 pint peas in the pot with
the water boiled in ; make a thickening of flour
milk, and butter, season with salt, pepper, parsley,
and thyme ; boil 10 minutes, and serve. Children
are fond of this.
Clam Soup. — Wash 50 small sand-clams very
clean ; put them in an iron pot — set it in a hot
place and cover it up. When they become hot,
the clams open ; then take them from the shells.
Put the clams aside in a pan, and pour the juice
into a stew-pan ; let it simmer 5 minutes, strain
it, and rub 2 table-spoonfuls butter and 1 flour
20 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
smoothly together ; put the juice on to cook, and
slowly add the flour and butter ; stir it well to-
gether; add "I tea-spoonful salt, -J nutmeg, and 1
pint cream or milk ; stir this well, let it simmer
10 minutes, chop up parsley and add, then clams.
One boil-up finishes, as clams require very little
cooking. If you use the large clams, they must
be chopped.
Drop-Dumplings for Soup. — Beat 1 egg,
add 2 spoonfuls milk, salt — beat in flour to a thick
batter, drop them in the soup and boil 20 minutes
before serving.
A good dumpling may be made of " patent flour"
mixed with the top of the soup into a batter.
Okra will improve any soup. It is well to pur-
chase it, while in season, a little every market-day ;
slice thin and dry on earthen plates about the fire.
Be sure to take only young ones. These can be
put in boxes for winter use ; putting in one hand-
ful for soup.
Portable Soup. — Boil down the meat to a
thick jelly, season highly with spices ; dry in the
sun. Put it away out of the air, and to 1 inch
square put one quart boiling water — vegetables
added.
MEATS.
When a joint of meat comes from market, it is
well to cut it up at once. Separate your roasting
piece. Cut up the part for steaks, and put away
in your coolest place what is left to cook after-
ward. Take out the bones you mean to make a
BOILEAU BEEF A-LA-MODE. 21
soup of, and boil them soon, as they will not keep
as well as the meat.
It is impossible to say how long meat must be
cooked — -much depends on the fire ; coal gives out
more heat than wood ; beside, persons dififer in
what meat well done means. Bed meat, like beef,
must be cooked rarer than white meat, as pork.
A good way to find how much done it is, is to
stick a skewer in near the bone : if blood follows it,
it is not done. Gravy for roast meat is made by
putting some browned flour in, also salt and pep-
per and boiling water.
In frying meat, lard is better than butter. Mut-
ton and beef suet are good : when the lard seems
hot, try it by throwing in a mite of bread.
When boiling meat or poultry, skim it often, or
the meat will be dark : keep it boiling. Put fresh
meat into boiling water, salt meat into cold ; allow
^ hour for every lb. meat.
In roasting poultry or birds, be careful to baste
and turn often. The back, having little flesh,
requires little cooking.
Boileau. — 5 lbs. 2nd cut rump beef — take out
the bone — put 1 tea-spoonful of cloves and all-
spice mixed, a little sweet basil cut fine ; rub these
well into the meat ; roll it up in a cloth tightly,
and tie it — put in the pot some water with 2 pota-
toes, 1 carrot, 1 onion. Stew 3 hours.
Beef A-la-mode. — To a piece of beef 10 lbs.
take 6 blades of mace, 12 cloves, half nutmeg —
pound them fine, then rub the spice well into the
beef : after the beef has been rubbed with salt and
saltpetre, for 12 hours, roast it.
Hoast Beef. — A brisk fire, baste often, season
22 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
well with pepper and salt — dredge flour. 20 min-
utes for each lb.
Roast Veal. — If a fillet, take out the little
bone ; make a filling of bread, butter, sweet mar-
joram or parsley. Lay the flank round the lean
part, putting filling between, and skewer and tie
it round. Put filling where the bone was.
Sprinkle over all with salt, pepper, and flour, and
bake.
A Roast Pig. — Clean it again after coming
from market. Cut out the eyes with a penknife,
clean the ears, take out the tongue, singe ofl" hairs,
&c. Make a filling as above, adding sage and
more pepper. Stuff the pig and sew it up.
Roast 2j hours, watching to prevent burning ; if
in danger of this, put paper between it and the
fire. Baste frequently with salt and water.
Gravy. — Boil the tongue, liver and feet with
salt and pepper till they are tender, in water
enough to cover them when they are done.
Just before dishing up, take out the liver, chop
or mash it up, work some flour into a small piece
butter, stir all in — put over fire again, and come
to a boil ; take it off and pour into a gravy tur-
reen. For sauce — stewed or baked apples, boiled
onions, &c.
Roast Turkey. — Cut off the tips of the
wings, the neck, gizzard, liver and heart, and lay
them aside for gravy. Wash it thoroughly ; filling
as for veal (given above). Cook it 2 or 3 hours.
Gravy. — Boil the neck, &c., tender, with salt,
pepper, &c. Thicken with flour just before din-
ner. Chickens — the same. An hour generally
BROILED CHICKENS, ETC. 23
cooks them. For sauce — cranberry sauce, currant
jelly, oyster sauce, &c.
Boiled Turkey or Fowls. — Clean and wash
your turkey, as above — stuff with bread, butter,
&c., as above, and, if you have them, some oysters.
Have the water boiling, with a little salt ; put in
the fowl, breast downwards. Skim the pot often.
Do not let it boil till the skin breaks, as it is then
disfigured. Oyster sauce.
Roast Mutton and Lamb. — If a shoulder
or leg, stuff as veal, sprinkle also do., and cook.
Serve with asparagus, peas, lettuce, beans, &c.
Pudding under Meat. — Take 6 table-
spoonfuls patent flour, 1 tea-spoonful salt, 3 well-
beaten eggs, and 1 pint milk ; beat this to a stiff
batter; put a dish beneath the meat, which is
roasting, to catch the drippings ; when well
greased, pour in the batter, and when brown, and
set, turn it. A pudding an inch thick requires 2
hours at a good fiire. Eat as a dessert or not.
Broiled Chickens. — Take those that are
young and tender, cut them down the back and
breast bone — wash and dry them. Lay them flat
and skewer them down ; season with pepper and
salt, and broil ^ hour on hot coals. Stew the gib-
lets in water enough to cover them. When done,
mix flour and butter and a little parsley chopped
line, stir it in, and come to a boil. Take off — dish
the chickens and pour the gravy over.
Fricassee. — Stew a large fowl in water, cov-
ered close, till tender — seasoning it with salt and
pepper. Thicken the water with flour and butter
pour in some cream — boil and dish it.
24 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
To Boil a Ham. — A large ham should boil
very slowly 3 or 4 hours ; should be pat in cold
water, and kept covered during the process. A
small ham will boil in 2 hours. Keraove the skin
and save it for the soap-fat crock. Save the water
and skim it, when cold, for the same purpose.
To Bake a Ham. — Boil it J hour for every
lb. ; then bake it in the same proportion. Serve
hot.
Tomato Ste"W. — Take 8 lbs. plate-rib of beef,
put it on to boil in 1 gallon water, with 12 toma-
toes, the same of okras, 6 potatoes cut small, 2
carrots cut longwise, 2 onions ; season it with salt
and pepper ; let it stew slowly 4 hours ; skim all
the fat off the gravy, and garnish the meat with
the potatoes, carrots, and tomatoes. This is a
cheap, good dish.
To Dress a Calf's Head. — Procure a large
pelted head (that is, one having the skin on) ;
let the butcher cut it open, and remove the nose
and eyes. Wash it well through many waters,
into which put some salt to bring out the blood —
clean the head well, removing the swallow and
other things. Let the brains remain in the head,
and soak all night. The next day remove the
brains and skin them — wrap them in a little cloth ^
by themselves, and the head in a towel (clean one),
fastened up tightly. Let the head boil about 2
hours, and the brains about 1 or J of an hour.
When done, take it up, and remove all the bones,
and take out the tongue, which you may put back
in the water to keep hot. Season the meat well
with pepper, salt, and sweet marjoram. Lay it on
a dish and cover it with the skin — on the top of
TO DRESS THE BRAINS OF A CALF's HEAD, ETC. 25
which put the yelk of a raw egg. Sprinkle dry
crumbs of bread on the top of this, with some
lumps of butter laid here and there — season the
top of this well, and put it into the oven to browa
for about 20 minutes.
To Dress the Brains of the above. —
Take the brains while hot and mash them in a
bowl, add pepper, salt, and butter — chop a hard-
boiled egg fine, and mix with it, and set it to keep
warm — then slice the tongue through the middle,
and lay it on a small plate by itself, and garnish it
with the brains laid neatly around it.
Force-meat Balls. — Chop 1 pound of lean
veal, very fine, season it with pepper, salt and sweet
marjoram — add a little flour to make them stick
together — roll into balls the size of a hickory nut,
and fry them brown.
Gravy for the Head. — Mix butter and
flour together, and brown it — add pepper and salt
— add some of the water in which the head was
boiled to thin the gravy. Serve the head on a
plate, and lay the force-meat balls around it with
a little gravy.
Veal Cutlets. — Cut the veal in slices near an
inch thick ; wash, drain, and season it ; beat up an
egg, and have ready some pounded crackers or
bread-crumbs ; dip the slices first in the egg, and
then in the bread, and fry them in hot lard ; mix
a gravy of flour and water, with salt, pepper, and
parsley ; when the veal is taken up, pour it in ; let
it boil a few minutes and pour it over the dish, and
grate a little nutmeg over. — e. e. l.
To Roast a Goose. — Make a stuffing of bread,
butter, salt, pepper, sage, thyme, and onions j it
3
S6 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
requires but little butter, as geese are generally-
fat ; wash it well in salt and water, wipe it, and
rub the inside with salt and pepper. A common-
sized goose will roast in an hour, and a small one
in less time ; pour off nearly all the fat that drips
from the goose, as it will make the gravy too rich.
Make hash gravy of the giblets, the same as for
turkey. — e. e. l.
Ducks. — Wild ducks are generally cooked with-
out stuffing ; and for those that like them rare, 15
or 20 minutes will be long enough ; for com-
mon ducks, a stuffing should be made the same as
for a goose ; they will roast in -J hour. Currant
jelly and apple sauce should be eaten with ducks
and geese. — e. e. l. .
Rabbits and Squirrels. — Rabbits and squir-
rels, or birds, may be fried as chickens, or stewed
in a pot with a little water. If you make a pie
of rabbits or squirrels, they should be stewed first
to make them tender, and then made in the same
way as chicken pie. Rabbits are very good
cooked with chopped onions, in a pot with a little
water, and thickening of milk and flour stirred in
when they are nearly done. Squirrels make very
good soup. — E. E. L.
To Fry Ham. — Slice the ham, and if it is
very salt, pour boiling water on it, and let it soak
a while ; then fry it with a small piece of lard ;
when done, dish it ; mix together flour, milk,
parsley, and pepper ; let it boil, and pour it over
the ham. — e. e. l.
To Cook Pigeons. — Pigeons should be roasted
about 15 minutes before a quick fire ; as the meat
SIDE DISHES MUTTON CHOPS, ETC. 27
is dry, they should have rich stuffing, and be basted
with butter. '
You may bake them in a Dutch oven, or stew
them in a pot, with water enough to cover them,
and some crumbs of bread or flour dusted over
them ; let them cook slowly ^ hour ; mix together
flour and water, with salt, pepper, and parsley, to
season, and a lump of butter ; stir this in and let
it boil up ; put them in a deep dish and pour the
gravy over. Pigeons make a very nice pie in the
same way as chickens. — e. e. l.
SIDE DISHES.
Fried Oysters or Clams. — Beat up an egg
and grate a cracker or two, sprinkle pepper on your
oysters or clams, dip them one by one into the
egg, then into the grated cracker. Fry in butter
and lard in equal proportions. They take but a
few minutes.
On the occasion of many guests, it is better to
purchase cracker-crumbs, ready for use, at the bis-
cuit bakery.
Mutton Chops. — Cut the ribs, season them,
have a dressing as for fried oysters, and broil or
fry. Make gravy.
Fried Liver. — Liver should be cut across
the grain ; pour boiling water over it, drain and
season with salt, pepper, and a little sage — flour
each piece and fry a very short time, or it will be
hard. Make gravy.
Meat Cakes. — Chop any kind of fresh, cold
28 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
meats, season — make a batter of patent flour ; lay
a spoonful on the greased griddle, then a spoonful
of the chopped meat, and then one of batter.
Turn when browned.
Scalloped Oysters. — Toast several pieces of
bread brown, and butter them on both sides;
take a baking-dish and put the toast round the
sides, instead of a crust ; pour your oysters into
the dish, and season with salt, pepper, butter, and
mace or cloves. Crumb bread on the top, and
bake in a quick oven J hour.
Another Way. — Grease well a baking-dish with
butter, throw fine bread-crumbs about in it until
they adhere on all sides — have a bowl of seasoned
bread-crumbs ready, and lay oysters into the dish,
so as to cover the bottom of it ; then sprinkle
crumbs over them and a small piece of butter —
then another layer of oysters, covered in the same
way with crumbs, until the dish is full — cover the
last layer rather more thickly with crumbs, and
lay several pieces of butter here and there over it ;
bake it until it is nicely brown — not too long, or
the oysters will be hard.
N. B. — Do not drain the oysters, but lift them
with a spoon out of their liquor.
Fried Halibut. — Have the slices seasoned
some hours before frying, as it makes it less liable
to break in turning. Prepare egg-crumbs, sea-
soned— dip it in, and fry brown. Turn over.
Make a drawn-butter sauce for this.
Cold Meat Turnovers. — Make a little
dough of patent flour ; roll very thin in a circle,
and put in like a turnover — cold meat chopped
BREAKFAST RELISHES. 29
fine and seasoned with salt, pepper, catsup and
sweet herbs : either fry in lard or bake in oven.
Croquetts. — Take a cold chicken, roast or
broiled ; mince it very fine, or it will not adhere —
moisten it with a rich gravy — season with pepper,
salt, and a little mace ; make it up in small forms
in a jelly-glass, done over with egg and fine bread-
crumbs— fry slowly in lard or butter. — r.
Beef Croquetts. — Take cold roast-beef or
veal ; mince it fine ; put an onion chopped fine,
sweet marjoram, a little powdered cloves ; moisten
with the beef gravy, make it into balls like saus-
age ; put the yelk of an egg over them ; flour and
fry them in lard.
Chicken Croquetts. — 1 pair fowls weighing
10 lbs. ; boil them — mince it, very fine indeed ; add
1 pint cream, J lb. butter, salt and pepper to taste ;
shape them oval by a jelly-glass, as mould ; boil
in lard, and serve brown. I know nothing in this
way so delicious.
To Bake a Ham. — Make a dressing of bread,
&c., moistened with three eggs. Take a ham
which has been cut, fill up the place, and cover the
top with this dressing ; bake ^ hour, and garnish
with parsley. Eat hot.
Many of these side dishes are good relishes.
BREAKFAST RELISHES.
Beefsteak. — Choose the tenderest part of
beef, an inch thick, broil it over good coals, covered
with a plate j have butter, salt, pepper, and a little
3*
30 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
water in a dish ; when you turn the beef, dip it in
this ; be careful to have as much of the juice as
you can. When done, put it in a warm dish and
pour the basting over. Some lilce beef fried better.
Sausages. — To 10 lbs. finely-chopped pork,
put 4 oz. salt (scant), 2 oz. pepper, good weight,
1 table-spoonful ground cloves, and 1 oz. sage.
Scrapple. — Take a pig's haslet and as much
offal lean and fat pork as you wish, to make
scrapple ; boil them well together in a small quan-
tity of water until they are tender ; chop them
fine, after taking them out of the liquor ; season,
as sausage : then skim off the fat that has arisen
where the meat was boiled, to make all soft, throw
away the rest of water, and put this altogether in
the pot ; thickening it with ^ buckwheat and J In-
dian. Let it boil up, then pour out in pans to
cool. Slice and fry it in sausage-fat, after the
sausage is done.
Souse. — Boil the feet till the bones come out
easily, and pick out all the bones. Pack them in
a pan with pepper and salt, and cover it with vine-
gar or not, as you choose. Fry in lard for dinner.
Head-Cheese. — Boil in salted water the ears,
skin, and feet of pigs till the meat drops off. Chop
like sausage ; season with pepper, salt, cloves, and
herbs ; mix all together ; put it under pressure to
cool. Cut in slices for the table, cold.
To Broil Tomatoes for Breakfast. — Take
large round tomatoes, wash and wipe them, and
put them on the gridiron over lively coals — the stem
side down ; when this is brown, turn them and let
them cook till quite hot through ; place them on a
hot dish and send them quickly to table, where
FISH. 31
each one may season for himself with pepper, salt,
and butter.
To Bake Tomatoes for Breakfast. —
Season them with pepper and salt ; flour and bake
them in a stove, in a deep plate with a little butter
over them.
♦
FISH.
To Ste"W a Rock Fish. — Hub the fish with
salt and pepper, and a little cayenne on the inside ;
put it in an oval stew-pan. To a fish that weighs
6 lbs., put a pint of water; when it is about half
done, season it well with salt and pepper, and a
little mace or cloves ; rub ^ lb. butter in ^ tea-cup
of flour, with a little parsley and thyme ; stir this
in with a pint of oysters. Serve it with the gravy
in the dish. A large fish should be allowed an
hour, small ones half an hour. — e. e. l.
To Broil Shad. — Soak a salt shad a day or
night previous to cooking ; it is best to drain an
hour before you put it to the fire ; if it hangs long
exposed to the air, it loses its flavour ; grease the
gridiron to keep it from sticking ; have good coals,
and put the inside down first. Fresh shad is bet-
ter to be sprinkled with salt an hour before it is
put to broil ; put a plate over the top to keep the
heat in. In broiling shad or other fresh fish you
should dust them with corn meal before you put
them down. — lb.
To Bake a Fresh Shad.—Make a stuffing
of bread, butter, salt, pepper and parsley ; fill a
82 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
large shad with this, and bake it in a stove or
oven. — lb.
To Fry Fresh Fish. — Have the fish well
scalded, washed and drained ; cut slits in the sides
of each ; season them with salt and pepper, and
roll them in corn flour ; have in your frying-pan
hot lard or bacon drippings ; dip them in q^q;^ be-
fore rolling them in corn flour, to keep them from
breaking. — Ih.
To Boil Salt Shad, Mackerel or Her-
ring.— Wash the fish from the pickle ; put it in
a frying-pan ; cover it with water, and let it boil
15 minutes ; take it up and drain it between two
plates ; put a little butter over, and send it hot to
the table : or, after boiling, you can flour, and fry
it in drippings of any kind. — lb.
To Boil Salt Salmon. — Let salmon soak
over night, and boil it slowly for 2 hours ; eat it
with drawn butter. To pickle salmon after it has
been boiled, heat vinegar scalding hot, with whole
peppers and cloves ; cut the fish in small square
pieces ; put it in a jar, and pour the vinegar over.
Shad may be done in the same way. — tb.
To Boil Fresh Fish. — After being well
cleaned, rub the fish with salt, and pin it in a
towel ; put it in a pot of boiling water, and keep it
boiling fast ; — a large fish will take from | to | of
an hour — a small one from 15 to 20 minutes. A
fat shad is very nice boiled, although rock and
bass are preferred generally ; when done, take it
up on a fish- dish, and cover it with egg sauce or
drawn butter and parsley. Pickled mushrooms
and walnuts, and mushroom catsup, are good with
boiled fish. — lb.
VEGETABLES. 33
VEGETABLES.
For cooking vegetables, always have your water
boiling before you put them in, and keep them
boiling till done — standing after they are done
will injure their colour.
Potatoes. — The medium size potato boils in
20 minutes. They should have the water drawn
off them directly they are done, and put in a
hot place a few minutes to dry — waiting spoils
them. When old and not very mealy, to peal and
wring them in a napkin improves them much.
When neiD, serve with cream and butter in the
sauce-dish. Sweet potatoes take rather longer to
boil than white. Old potatoes are made white
and mealy by paring them 4 hours beforehand and
laying them in cold water : drop them into boiling
water ; and the moment they are done, pour it off
and let them stand in the steam awhile.
Asparagus. — Tie it in bunches, the tops all
one way ; put some salt in boiling water ; put in
the asparagus, and boil ^ hour. Toast some
bread, dip it in the water for an instant ; take out
the asparagus and put on the bread. Make drawn
butter.
To Boil Rice. — Pick a pint of rice, wash it
clean — put in three pints of boiling water : it
should boil fast, and by the time the water evapo-
rates, the rice will be sufficiently cooked ; set it
where it will keep hot, until you are ready to dish
it. E. E. L.
Hominy. — Large hominy, after it is washed,
34 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
must be put to soak over night ; if you wish to
have it for dinner, put it to boil early in the
morning, or it will not be done in time ; eat it as
a vegetable.
Small hominy will boil in an hour ; it is very
good at breakfast or supper, to eat with milk or
butter, or to fry for dinner.
Both large and small hominy will keep good in
a cool place several days. Be careful that the
vessel it is cooked in, is perfectly clean, or it will
darken the hominy. — lb.
To Fry Hominy. — Put a little lard in your
frying-pan, and make it hot ; mash and salt the
hominy ; put it in, and cover it over with a plate ;
let it cook slowly for ^ hour, or longer if you like
it very brown ; when done, turn it out in a plate.
If you do not like it fried, mash it well, with a
little water, salt, and butter, and warm it in a fry-
ing-pan.— Ih.
To Boil Green Corn. — Pick out ears near
the same size, and have the water boiling when
you put them in ; -J hour is long enough for young
corn ; that which is old and hard will take an hour
or more ; if young corn is boiled too long, it be-
comes hard and indigestible. — Tb.
To Fricassee Corn. — Cut green corn off the
cob ; put it in a pot, and just cover it with water;
let it boil J hour ; mix a spoonful of flour with ^
pint of rich milk, pepper, salt, parsley, thyme and
a piece of butter ; let it boil a few minutes, and
take it up in a deep dish. Corn will do to cook
in this way when too old to boil on the cob. — Ih.
String Beans. — String beans, if boiled in salt
and water, will require fully 2 hours ; but if boiled
LIMA BEANS — PEAS, ETC. 35
in a net, in a pot with bacon, they will not take
so long ; if they are cooked in the same pot with
cabbage, it will injure the flavour. It is a good
way to boil a very small piece of pork or bacon, or
a ham-bone in the pot with beans ; when they are
done, season them with cream, butter, salt, and
pepper. — Ih.
Lima Beans. — Shell them, and wash them in
cold water ; let them boil about an hour ; when
done, dip them from the water, and season with
salt, pepper, cream or butter \ keep them hot till
they are sent to table.
Dried Lima beans should be soaked over night,
and boiled 2 hours or longer, if they are not
soft.— i6.
Peas. — Early peas require about J hour to
boil, and the later kinds rather longer ; the
water should boil when they are put in ; when
they are tough and yellow, they may be made ten-
der and green, by putting in a little pearl-ash, or
ashes tied up in a rag, just before they are taken
up ; this will tender all green vegetables, but do
not put too much ; — when done, dip them out ;
drain and season them with butter, pepper, and
salt ; put a bunch of parsley in the middle of the
dish.— /6.
Cold Sla"W. — Cut hard white cabbage across
the leaves, and put it in a deep plate ; scald 2
large spoonfuls of vinegar with a piece of butter,
some pepper and salt ; pour this over the slaw ;
have an Qgg boiled hard ; chop it fine, and spread
it over the top. Some persons like it heated in a
pan with vinegar and water, and the yelk of a raw
Qg^ mixed through it. — Ih.
36 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
Cauliflowers, &c. — Have a pot with half
milk, and the rest water ; when this boils, put in
the cauliflowers, and let them boil till tender ; put
in some salt just before you take them up ; have
ready drawn butter and parsley, to pour over
them, or a sauce of cream and butter. Good
heads of yellow Savoy cabbage, cooked in this
way, resemble cauliflowers. Brocoli is a delight-
ful vegetable, and may be cooked in the same
manner. — Ih.
To Boil Cabbage. — In summer, you should
allow a large head of cabbage an hour to boil, but
w^hen it has been tendered by the frost, it will boil
in half that time. Most persons prefer cabbage
boiled with ham ; the pot should be well skimmed
before it goes in, or the grease will penetrate the
cabbage, and make it unwholesome ; take it up
before it boils to pieces. It is very good boiled
with corned beef or pork, or with milk and water,
with a little salt added. Some like it with a little
salaeratus thrown in while boiling, as that tenders
it and makes it of a more lively green. — lb.
Parsnips. — Scrape and split them, and boil
until quite soft, either in salt and water, or with
meat ; they are very good served up in this way,
with plenty of butter. They may, when boiled,
either be baked with a few slices of salt meat, and
require no seasoning but pepper, or made into
small round cakes, seasoned with butter, pepper,
and salt, and fried. — Ih.
Carrots.— Carrots should be scraped, and
boiled till soft in plenty of water ; when they are
done, take them up, and slice them thin ; season
TURNIPS — ONIONS — BEETS, ETC. 31
them with salt, pepper, and butter. They are
suitable to eat with boiled meat or fowls. — lb.
Turnips. — Pare and quarter the turnips, and
put them in a pot of clear water, or with fresh
meat; boil them ^ hour; drain, and season them
with butter, pepper, and salt ; mash them. — lb.
Onions. — After they are peeled, boil them in
milk and water; if small, they will cook in ^
hour; when they are done, pour off the water;
put in cream, butter, and salt, and let them stew
a few minutes. Small onions are much better for
cooking, as they are not so strong. — lb.
Beets. — Wash the beets ; cut the tops off, and
put them in boiling water ; the early turnip beet
is best for summer, and will boil in less than an
hour; the long winter beet should be boiled 2
hours ; — when they are done, drop them in cold
water for a minute ; peel and slice them ; season
with butter, pepper, and salt ; send them hot to
table. <
To pickle beets, put them in a jar after they
have been boiled ; fill it up with weak vinegar ;
put in salt, cayenne and black pepper. — 76.
To Ste^w Tomatoes. — Wash and pour boil-
ing water over them ; peel off the skins, and cut
them up ; season them with pepper and salt ; put
in a lump of butter, and boil them in their own
juice for -J- hour ; stir in enough crumbs of bread
to thicken them ; let them cook slowly 10 minutes
longer; be careful that the bread does not
burn. — lb.
To Bake Tomatoes. — Take out the inside
of large tomatoes, make a stuffing of bread, but-
4
88 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
ter, pepper, salt and aa egg ; fill them with this,
and set them in a deep pie-plate ; let them bake
slowly -J hour. — lb.
Tomatoes. — If you wish to bake tomatoes in
the oven with bread, pour boiling water on, and
skin them ; cut them in small pieces ; season with
salt and pepper, and put them in a pan with
crumbs of bread and butter ; cover the pan with
a plate, and bake j of an hour ; when done, mash
them and take them out on a dish. — lb.
To Fry Tomatoes. — Slice them, season with
pepper and salt, and fry in hot butter ; if they
are green, dip them in flour after being sea-
soned.— lb.
Tomato Omelet. — Pour boiling water on
the tomatoes, skin and cut them fine ; to 1
quart of this, put 2 chopped onions and a lump
of butter the size of an egg ; let them boil ^
hour, then mash them ; put in grated bread, pep-
per, salt, and the yelks of 2 eggs. — lb.
Spinach. — Wash it well ; put it into a pot
and sprinkle salt over it : cover it close, and hang
over the fire to stew — a very little water. Stir it.
Poach a few eggs, slice and put over it, with drawn
butter last.
Egg Plant.' — Cut it in thin slices ; let it soak
in salt water (or put salt between the slices) for
several hours : wipe the pieces dry, pepper then,
dip each piece in an egg which has been beaten
a little, then dip them in grated crackers ; fry
them in drippings, or -^ lard and -^ butter.
CAPER SAUCE — MACARONI, ETC. 39
SAUCES.
Caper Sauce. — Put some capers in your
butter-boat, and pour drawn butter over them.
Nasturtions make aUnost as good a sauoe as capers,
and is prepared in the same way — a few. of them
pickled are put in a butter-boat, and drawn butter
poured over them.
Macaroni. — Boil it 1 hour : drain all the wa-
ter off ; add a little cream (or milk), stir in some
flour and butter mixed, and let it boil 5 minutes.
When dished, grate over it Parmesian cheese.
Another. — Lay as much macaroni as will fill a
quart bowl in cold water ; let it soak -J hour,
then put it into a deep baking dish, add a pint of
rich milk, \ lb. butter and a tea-spoonful of salt,
cut in pieces ; over the top grate hard old English
or American cheese. Bake an hour — it should
be brown as a loaf of bread, and served in the
baking dish. — e. w. t.
Dra"wn Butter.' — Put |- pint of water in a
skillet, rub \ lb. butter in a large spoonful of
flour ; when the water boils, stir it in and let it
boil a few minutes ; season it with parsley, chop-
ped fine. — E. E. L.
Stuffing or Dressing. — Stuffing for poultry
is made of bread and butter, an egg, salt, pepper,
chopped parsley or thyme, mixed together ; if the
bread is dry, it should have a little boiling water
poured on it. — Ih.
Egg Sauce. — This is made as drawn butter,
40 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
with one or two eggs boiled hard and chopped into
it, and a little salt. — Ih.
Celery Sauce. — Take a large bunch of celery,
cut it fine, and boil it till soft, in a pint of water ;
thicken it with butter and flour, and season it with
salt, pepper and mace. — Ih.
PICKLES AND CATSUP.
To insure good cider-vinegar, it is safest to
purchase it of some farmer who is known to have
a cider-press, as so much of the beautiful vinegar
we see is made from a weed, which eats and de-
stroys the pickles.
Cucumbers. — Procure the smallest size ; lay
them in a wash-tub of cold water 3 days, changing
them into another tub and fresh water 3 times a
day : then wipe them dry and put them in the
jars with whole peppers, allspice, and mustard-
seed, and a handful of salt to each jar. Boil the
vinegar 3 days in succession, and pour over them
hot, till quite covered.
Martinoes.— Gather them when you can run
a pin-head into them, and, after wiping them, keep
them 10 days in weak brine, changing it every
other day. Then wipe them, and pour over boil-
ing spiced vinegar. In 4 weeks they are ready
for use.
Cauliflo"wer. — Keep them 24 hours in strong
brine; take them out and heat the brine, pour-
ing it on scalding hot; let them stand till next
PEPPER SAUCE — UNIVERSAL PICKLE, ETC. 41
day. Drain them and throw them into spiced
vinegar.
Pepper Sauce. — Take 25 peppers without,
seeds; cut them pretty fine, then take more than
double the quantity of cabbage, cut like slaw ] 1
root horse-radish grated, 1 handful salt, a heaping
table-spoonful of mustard-seed, and ground cloves
do., allspice do., boil enough vinegar to cover it,
and pour over boiling hot, mixing it well through.
Universal Piekle. — To 3 quarts vinegar, ^
lb. salt, ^ lb. ginger, ^ oz. mace, 1 tea-spoonful
cayenne pepper, 1 oz. mustard-seed ; boil these
with the vinegar, and when cold put into a jar
You may put in whatever green fruit or vegetables
you choose, from time to time.
Tomatoes. — To 1 gallon jar take 2 table-
spoonfuls salt, 1 black pepper (whole), 1 cloves do.,
1 of mustard, 1 red pepper the size of an egg ;
mix these together and sprinkle over them, layer
by layer, in the jars ; let them stand 3 or 4 days,
and then pour over boiling vinegar,
India Pickle.' — 15 old cucumbers; pare,
seed, and cut them in thin strips ; spread them on
a board, strewn thickly with salt ; let them stand
12 hours ; then expose them to the sun, turning
until perfectly dry, avoiding the night air : wash
them in vinegar ; put a layer of mustard-seed,
onions, a stick grated horse-radish. Simmer in 1
quart vinegar, -J- oz. tumeric, §• oz. race ginger,
(both tied in a bag) allspice Y/hole, a few cloves
and cinnamon. When cool, pour it over the cu-
cumbers. Excellent, and improves by age.
To Pickle Mangoes. — Take Musk-melons at
4*
42 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
a proper age, before they get too hard ; make a slitin
the sides, and take out the seeds with a tea-spoon ;
boil a pickle of ground alum salt, that will bear an
egg, and let the melons lay in this a week ; then
make a new pickle, and let them lay in it another
week ; then wash them, and scald them in weak
vinegar, or sour cider, with cabbage leaves around
the kettle ; put them in a jar, and put the vinegar
and leaves in with them ; leave them 2 days, then
wipe them carefully, and to 2 dozen mangoes,
have an ounce of mace, 1 of cloves, some nastur-
tions, small onions, scraped horse-radish, and mus-
tard-seed sufficient to fill them ; fill up the inside
of each one, and tie them round with strings.
Put them in your kettle with strong vinegar, and
let them scald a few minutes ; then put them in a
wide-mouthed jar, and pour the vinegar over;
have them covered close, and they will keep good
for several years. — e. e. l.
English Walnuts. — Gather them when nearly
full grown, but not too hard ; pour boiling salt and
water on them; let them be covered with it 9
days, changing it every 3d day ; then take them
out on dishes, and put them in the sun to blacken,
turning them over ; then put them in a jar and
strew over them pepper, cloves, garlic, mustard-
seed and scraped horse-radish ; cover them with
cold strong vinegar, and tie them up. — lb.
Onions. — Peel small white onions, and pour
boiling milk and water over them ; when cold, put
them in a jar, and make a pickle of strong vine-
gar, a little mace, ginger, white mustard-seed, and
horse-radish ; boil it and pour over them.
If you want them to be white, do not put in
black pepper or cloves. — lb.
SPICED PEACHES, ETC. 43.
Spiced Peaches. — Take 9 lbs. of good ripe
peaches, rub them with a coarse towel, and halve
them ; put 4 lbs. sugar and a pint of good vine-
gar in your preserving kettle, with cloves, cinna-
mon, and mace ; when the syrup is formed, throw
in the peaches, a few at a time, so as to keep them
as whole as may be ; when clear, take them out
and put in more ; boil the syrup till quite rich,
and then pour it over the peaches. Cherries may
be done in the same way.. — lb.
Pickled Beans. — Procure young ones from
the late crop ; boil them in water, slightly salted,
till tender ; throw them in a colander with dish
over to drain ; when done dripping, lay them^ out
on a dry cloth and wipe. Pour boiling vinegar,
spiced, over them, and you have an excellent
pickle. These are delicate for tea.
Tomato Ketchup. — To ^ bushel of toma-
toes strained through a sieve, add \ oz. ground
cloves, \ oz. mace do., \ oz. ground ginger, -^
this quantity of cayenne pepper, and a small tea-
cup salt : these must be boiled in the juice. Put
these in the juice after the tomatoes are skinned
and strained, and let it boil 2 hours. The -J
bushel of tomatoes I boil awhile first.
To Pickle Green Tomatoes. — Slice 1 peck
green tomatoes; take 1 gallon vinegar, 6 table-
spoonfuls whole cloves, 4 of allspice, 2 of salt, 1
of mace, 1 of cayenne pepper; boil the vinegar
and spices 10 minutes; put in the tomatoes and
boil all together \ hour longer ; when cold put in
jars. There is no nicer pickle.
44 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
SPICED SWEET PICKLES.
Cherries. — 4 quarts cherries, 1 lb. sugar, 1
quart vinegar: boil some spice with the sugar
and pour over hot.
Peaches. — Pare, stone and halve the fruit :
put 9 lbs. peaches to 4 lbs. sugar, 1 pint vinegar :
boil the peaches in water till tender, then put in
vinegar and sugar, with a little whole allspice — i
hour, or till done. — r. b.
Pickled Plums.— 4 quarts plums, 1 pint
vinegar, 1 lb. sugar : boil the vinegar, spices and
sugar together, and then put in plums, and boil
awhile longer.
■' SALTINa MEATS.
To Pickle Pork. — Take out all the ribs, and
cut it in pieces of about 3 lbs. each ; pack it in a
tight barrel, and salt it well with coarse salt ; boil
a very strong pickle made of coarse salt, and when
it is cold pour it over the meat, and put a weight
on the top ; if you wish pork to keep, do not put
saltpetre in, as it injures the flavour. — e. e. l.
Pork pickle may be boiled over again and used.
Keep a potato in it to test the strength. The
*' Burlington Herring," so famous, are cured in
this way.
Beef. — To 100 lbs. beef take 6 gallons water,
6 lbs. salt, 4 oz. saltpetre, \\ brown sugar : the
beef to remain in 11 days, then hang to dry.
DRIED LIVER — HAMS. 45
Pour tliis brine over cold. Better dried beef than
this makes, need not be. There is no real need of
smoking dried beef; it is often inconvenient to do
it, and smoke houses are not always near.
Dried Liver. — Engage a butcher to bring a
whole fresh liver, put it in a pickle made as above,
let it be in about 2 weeks, hang to dry. It is to
be frizzled like beef.
Hams. — Take as much water as will cover your
hams ; salt enough to bear an egg, so that the egg
will show above the pickle as large as a shilling,
1^ heaping table-spoonfuls for each ham, and mo-
lasses enough to make it the colour of cider or of
good molasses and water : let them lay in pickle 6
weeks. Do not pack them too tight ; keep them
well covered with pickle, and remove all scum.
Take them out and hang to dry. When dry out-
side commence smoking : a light mahogany colour
is best, and bag before the flies come. Hickory
or apple-tree chips are best for smoking. The
above are superior to the mode of dry salting and
rubbing, as practised by some ; also less trouble,
and making a more juicy and highly flavoured
ham. — s. p. N.
The following is the method of curing Hams,
which took the first Premium of the Maryland
Agricultural Society, in 1854 : To each green
ham of 18 lbs. 1 dessert-spoonful saltpetre, and ^
lb. brown sugar, applied to the fleshy side of the
ham and about the hock : cover the fleshy side
with fine salt, an inch thick, and pack away in tubs :
to remain from 3 to 6 weeks, according to size. Be-
fore smoking rub off any salt that may remain on
the ham, and cover well with ground black pepper,
particularly about the bone and hock. Hang up
46 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
and drain for 2 weeks. Smoke with green wood
8 weeks, or till the rind is a light chestnut colour.
Pepper prevents the fly. I never bag hams.
TEA RELISHES.
Chicken Salad.— Take a pair of fowls : boil
them (saving the water for soup next day) ; when
entirely cold remove all the skin and fat, and dis-
joint them ; cut the meat from the bones in very
small pieces, not exceeding an inch ; wash and
split 2 large heads of celery, and cut the white
part into pieces an inch long, and having mixed
the chicken and celery together, put them in a
deep China dish, cover and set it away. Just be-
fore the salad is to be eaten the dressing is to be
put on, which is thus made: Take the yelks of 8
hard-boiled eggs, put them into a flat dish, and
mash them to a paste with the back of a spoon :
add to the egg a tea-spoonful fine salt, do. cayenne
pepper, ^ gill made mustard, 1^ wine-glass French
vinegar, and 2 wine-glasses sweet oil ; then add
the yelk of 1 raw egg, well beaten, or 1 table-
spoonful cream ; mix all these ingredients tho-
roughly, stirring them a long time, till quite
smooth. After you pour it on the chicken and
celery, mix the whole well together with a silver
fork. — M. A. B.
Clay's Chicken Salad. — To 2 pair large
chickens 1^ bottles fresh sweet oil, 2^ table-spoon-
fuls mustard ; begin by breaking the yelks of 3 raw
eggs into a deep plate, add the mustard : mix it
well round and round the dish : add about one
TO STEW AND PICKLE OYSTERS, ETC. 4T
tea-spoonful vinegar, then a very little oil at a
time till all the oil is used : during all this time it
must be long and well stirred, and always the same
way. Have ready the yelks of 18 hard-boiled
eggs, mix in very lightly into this about 1 tea-cup
vinegar ; let this second dressing be lightly stirred
into the former, a spoonful at a time, then season
the chickens with pepper and salt, add the celery ;
mix the dressing well through it, leaving enough
to garnish the dish when served. The celery
should be nicely cleaned, cut fine and put to soak
in cold water till wanted, then turn on a cloth and
wipe it quite dry.
To Ste'W Oysters. — Strain the liquor and
put it on the fire in a nice vessel to simmer. To
the liquor of 100 oysters take ^ lb. butter and 2
table-spoonfuls flour ; mash the flour into the but-
ter till it is a smooth paste, then stir it into the
liquor : season the whole with mace, salt and pep-
per. When the liquor simmers put in the oysters,
and when the thin end curls up take them off the
fire : they are done. — a. m. m.
To Pickle Oysters. — Take 150 oysters, put
them in a nice vessel, with salt to your taste, over
the fire. Allow the oysters to simmer, not boil :
take them out and put them into a stone jar, leav-
ing the liquor in the saucepan : add to it 1 pint
good vinegar, a large tea-spoonful blades of mace,
36 whole cloves, do. whole pepper. Let it come
to a boil, and when the oysters are cold pour the
liquor over them.
Tongue, &e. — If the tongue is dry let it soak
several hours before boiling it, slowly ; if just out
of pickle the water should boil when it goes in.
A tongue-presser (which costs 15 cents) soon
48 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
saves itself in making the small end go farther,
and causing no waste.
Salsify or Vegetable Oyster. — Boil it till
tender, then pour off the water, and add a little
milk, salt, and butter.
Another way. — Parboil it, scraping off the out-
side, cut it in slices, dip it into beaten q^^ and fine
bread-crumbs, and fry it in lard.
Another. — Make a batter of wheat flour,
milk, eggs, and a little salt. Cut the salsify in
slices : after it is boiled tender put it in the batter,
and drop this mixture into the hot fat by spoon-
fuls.
Sandi^v'iehes. — Spread nice butter over a loaf
fresh bread, then cut it with a sharp knife very thin
indeed ; cut a slice of ham or dried beef, put it in
the middle, roll the bread over it, and send to the
tea-table. These are delicate and convenient for
lunch, or a pic-nic.
Pickled Shad. — Clean them well and wipe
them with a dry cloth, cut them in pieces of con-
venient size for the tea-table : then add as much
salt, whole pepper, allspice, cloves and mace as you
choose : season it properly, sprinkle the spice be-
tween each layer of shad in a new earthen or stone
vessel, fill it up with vinegar ; if strong cider vinegar
it should have one-third water, and then tightly close
the jar with dough, put it in the oven of a baker
after the bread has come out, at noon, and let it
stand till 10 o'clock, at eve ; do not open it till
cool through j bruise the spices, but not grind
them.
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES, ETC. 49
CAKES.
The cost of Cake is so much lessened by being
home-made, that it is a saving of time to make
such as will keep awhile, by the plentiful use of
good butter and eggs. The richest cake costs
never more than 13 cents per lb., even when made
at a time when butter and eggs are dearest. Be-
sides, it is pleasant to feel assured of one's own
skill in the matter, as we are liable to be called
upon to exercise it at times and in places where
money cannot purchase so good an article. There
are few fancy cakes given, because there is no
economy in making these at home.
Weights and Measures. — It is well to as-
certain how much in weight certain cups and bowls
hold, and keep them for that purpose. One quart
sifted flour, or sifted loaf sugar, or softened butter,
each weigh about 1 lb. A pint equals 8 ozs. ; -J pint
4 oz. ; 1 gill 2 oz. A quart of brown sugar or of
Indian meal, equals 12 oz. of the same. One large
spoonful flour, loaf sugar or melted butter, equals
^ oz. of the same, a little heaped ; 4 spoonfuls 1
oz. A medium sized tea-spoon holds 60 drops of
water; 10 eggs weigh 1 lb.
Mountain Gingerbread. — 6 cups flour, 2
do. butter, 2 do. sugar, 2 do. molasses, 4 eggs, 1
tea-cup ginger, 1 tea-spoonful soda, 2 tartaric acid.
This is a batter, and if baked in a Turk's Head or
bread pan, keeps a long time, and is very nice.
Ginger Nuts. — H lbs. flour, 1 pint molasses,
-J lb. butter, -J oz. ginger, J oz. of cinnamon and
5
50 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
allspice mixed, 1 tea-spoonful ground cloves, ^
tea-spoonful soda, 1 cream of tartar.
Hard Gingerbread. — 2 lbs. flour, i lb. but-
ter, 1 pint molasses, j lb. sugar, 1 oz. ginger, i
tea-spoonful soda, 1 tea-spoonful cream of tartar.
Lady Cake. — k lb. butter, | sugar, whites of
16 eggs, 40 drops essence of bitter almonds, ^ gill
rose water, 3 lbs. flour. Mix as pound cake.
Tea Biscuit. — IJ lbs. flour, | sugar, f lb.
butter, 1 tea-spoonful caroway seed, dissolve I
tea-spoonful soda into a scant s pint tepid milk.
This makes a dough, which roll in thickish cakes,
and bake in a quick oven.
Cinnamon Loaf. — Sift into a pan 1 lb. flour,
put into i pint warm milk i lb. butter ; stir the
milk and butter into the flour, a wine-glass of good
yeast, and a little salt. Mix these well and set in
a warm place to rise for an hour. Then add J lb.
fine sugar, i a nutmeg, 1 large spoonful ground
cinnamon, and one wine-glass rose water. Mix
these well into the sponge, pour it into baking
pans, and let it rise again i hour.
Jumbles. — 1 lb. flour, | butter, | sugar,
whites of 4 eggs well-beaten, rose water. Bake ^
an hour in a slow oven.
Golden Cake. — k lb. flour, i lb. sugar, 6 oz.
butter, yelks of t eggs, yellow of 1 lemon and
juice. Beat butter and sugar together, and add
yelks, lemon, flour, i tea-spoonful soda, 1 cream
tartar. Bake in flat pans, and ice it while warm,
if possible.
Silver Cake. — i lb. flour, i lb. sugar, J lb.
butter, whites of T eggs, a little almond or peach
POOR man's cake, etc. 51
water. Ice as above. These 2 cakes can be best
made at the same time — are but little more trouble
than one, and, cut in squares iu a silver cake basket,
make a pretty appearance.
Poor Man's Cake. — 2 cups flour, 1 cream,
1 of sugar, 1 egg, 1 tea-spoonful soda, 2 cream
tartar : the latter dry.
Cocoanut Pound Cake. — 3 cups flour, 1
do. butter, 2 do. sugar, whites of 6 eggs, J tea-
spoonful soda, 1 cream tartar, 1 cup milk : grate
1 small cocoanut, and put in two-thirds of it last.
Prime Bread Cake. — 2 tea-cups risen dough,
J tea-cup sugar, J do. butter, 2 eggs, a few rai-
sins. Mix these, and add -J tea-spoonful soda and
1 cream tartar. Rise awhile, after putting in
Turk's Head.
Buena Vista Buns. — i lb. white sugar, i- lb.
butter, 4 eggs, f lb. flour, nutmeg to taste, J tea-
spoonful soda, 1 cream tartar, currants or not, as
convenient.
Cocoanut Cakes. — Grate 1 cocoanut, mix
the milk with it, sweeten to taste. Form into lit-
tle balls, put on white paper, and stand in a warm
place.
Burlington Buns. — Rub i lb. sugar and 6
oz. butter into 2 lbs. flour: add 1 gill baker's
yeast and 1 pint of warmed milk. Let the dough
be soft as possible to mould. Make this at 6 P.
M. Let it rise in a warm place till 10, then mould
it over. Next morning it will be light. Make
into cakes and rise awhile. Bake 20 minutes.
Philadelphia Buns. — 1 pint milk, 1 cup
butter, 1 pint yeast, 3 cups sugar, 1 egg. Make
62 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
a soft dough at night. Early in the morning add
not quite i tea-spoonful soda, and 2 tea-spoon-
fuls ammonia. Now put in a little more flour,
mould it well, and return it to rise. When light,
make into cakes, and let them stand 2 hour. Bake
them.
N. B. — Either of these two receipts, faithfully-
followed, will make Buns which cannot be excelled.
Sponge Cake. — 6 eggs, same weight sugar,
^ weight of flour, i a lemon squeezed in, the
whole of the lemon-skin grated. Beat the yellow
to a froth, then add the sugar : when well-beaten
add the white, (which must be very light,) then
put in the juice, then grating, last flour, a tea-
spoonfal of salt.
Another way. — 5 eggs, -J lb. sugar, 6 oz. flour,
(leaving out 2 table-spoonfuls.) Beat the whites
of the eggs to a froth : add the sugar and unbeaten
yelks alternately, leaving out 1 yelk : add flour last.
Coeoanut Jumbles. — Grate 1 large cocoanut ;
rub ^ lb. butter with 1 lb. sifted flour, and wet it
with 3 eggs, beaten, and a little rose water ; add
by degrees the nut, so as to make a stiff dough :
bake in a quick oven from 5 to 10 minutes.
Grafton Cake. — 1 pint flour, 5 pint sugar,
1 table-spoonful butter, 2 tea-spoonfuls cream
tartar, 1 soda, 1 ^^^. Make a batter of milk
mixed, until quite thin. This is the best cake for
the materials used in the whole collection.
Albany Cake. — Cream, 1 lb. sugar, and J lb.
butter : take 3 eggs well-beaten, 1 tea-spoonful
soda, do. cream tartar; add IJ lbs. sifted flour.
This is a dough.
Pound Cake. — 1 lb. sugar, 1 lb. butter, 10
POUND CAKE CUP CAKE, ETC. 53
eggs, 1 nutmeg, grated, IJ flour, 1 wine-glass rose-
water ; cream the butter and sugar, (I put the
butter and sugar into a stove-oven till it becomes
a little melted,) beat It some and add, by de-
grees, the ingredients named, — 1st the yelks, well
beaten, nutmeg, rose-water, whites, lastly flour.
Make this now very smooth, put in -J tea-spoonful
soda, and 1 do. cream tartar ; the latter dry,
I always bake such cake in a " Turk's turban,"
to secure lightness.
Baking is a nice point. The oven must be
warm, and getting warmer, not hot to be cooled. If
the latter, it is sure t'o be heavy, the cake browning
rapidly prevents the inner part rising.
Cup Cake. — Cream, -J cup butter and 4 cups
sugar together ; stir in 5 well-beaten eggs ; dis-
solve 1 tea-spoonful soda in a cup of milk or
cream ; nutmeg, 6 cups flour, a tea-spoonful cream
tartar, dry.
Black Cake. — 1 lb. butter, 1 do. sugar, beaten
to a cream ; stir in 12 eggs beaten well ; sift in 1
lb. flour, add 3 lbs. stoned raisins, 3 do. cleaned
currants, 5 nutmegs, -J oz. cinnamon, 1 tea-spoon-
ful cloves, 1 lb. citron cut in small thin slices ;
these must be well mixed ; baked in a moderate
oven. This improves by keeping.
Queen Cake. — 1 lb. flour, I sugar, ^ do. but-
ter, 4 eggs, nutmeg, ^ tea-spoonful soda, 1 do.
cream tartar. Bake in small tins.
Crullers. — ^^ lbs. flour, rub in a piece of butter
the size of a walnut, beat 3 eggs to a froth, and
add 1 lb. sugar, nutmeg, 1 tea-spoonful soda dis-
solved in milk, do. cream tartar. This makes a
dough which is to be formed into twists, and fried
5*
54 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
in goose-drippings. These are cheap and ex-
cellent.
1, 2, 3, 4 Cake. — 1 cup butter, 2 sugar, 3 flour,
4 eggs, nutmeg, 1 tea-spoonful soda, 2 cream tartar.
Kisses. — Take the whites of 4 eggs, beat them
very lightly, and mix with them enough sifted
sugar to make them very stiff ; then drop on paper
half the size you want them, and put them in a
slow oven 20 minutes. Take them off the paper
with a knife, and put 2 together. 4 eggs make a
cake-basket full.
Jelly Cake.-^Make a batter as for pound cake ;
bake it in cakes on a griddle, and while warm
spread jelly between each layer. Trim with a
knife.
A Good Cake "without Eggs. — 1 cup su-
gar, 1 butter, nutmeg, 1 cup milk, 2 oz. currants
(or not), 1 tea-spoonful dry cream tartar, ^ do.
soda dissolved in milk, flour enough to make a
batter.
Scotch Cake. — 1 lb. brown sugar, 1 do.
flour, J lb. butter, 2 eggs, cinnamon. Koll very
thin to bake.
Doughnuts.' — li pints milk, | lb. sugar, i lb.
butter, and 1 nutmeg ; make a sponge of these
over night. Fry in lard. They are as good as
possible.
Extempore Doughnuts. — 1 tea-spoonful of
soda, 2 cream tartar, 2 cups sugar, 1 pint milk, 5
nutmeg, flour enough to make a soft dough.
Loaf Cake. — 3 lbs, flour, 1 J sugar, IJ butter,
4 eggs, 1 pint milk, 2 lbs. fruit j raise with yeast
GOpDFELLOW's SPANISH BUNS, ETC. 55
Another without eggs. — 3 lbs. flour, 1 J butter, 1^
sugar, IJ lbs. raisins, 1 nutmeg, 1 table-spoonful
cinnamon, J pint yeast, 1 pint milk. Put the milk,
butter, and yeast into the flour, and let it rise.
Groodfellow's Spanish Buns. — (Original
Receipt.) — | lb. flour, 6 oz. butter, cut up tine in
it; 4 eggs beaten well, 1 tea-spoonful of mixed
nutmeg, mace, and cinnamon, 3 wine-glasses baker's
or brewer's yeast, 3 wine-glasses milk ; mix it with
a knife ; add the sugar. Place it in the tins, and
let it rise 2 or 3 hours ; then sprinkle 2 oz. cleaned
currants over the batter, pressing them lightly
below the surface. Bake in a slow oven ; when
done, ice, or sprinkle sugar over, and cut in
squares.
Icing. — This elegant finish, is made by beating
the whites of 2 eggs to a very stiff froth, and add-
ing, little by little, fine pulverised sugar, till quite
thick. Flavour with essence of Yanilla, or a mite
of cream tartar. Lay it on with a broad knife,
and smooth with another knife dipped in water.
Set it in a cool oven with the door open, to dry.
I prefer on the hearth under the oven. If you
wish figures or flowers, make up 3 eggs, reserving
a third till the cake has become dried after icing,
then insert a clean new glass syringe into the
remainder, and direct it as you choose over the
iced cake. Dry again. It is said that ripe fruit
may be laid on the icing when about half dry,
with a very pretty effect, such as strawberries, &c.
Save a little icing out, dilute with rose-water,
and put on when that first done is dry ; makes it
smooth and glossy. This is more trouble, however.
56 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
ELAYOURS.
Peach Kernels. — Crack the stones, take out
and scald the kernel to take ofif the skin ; put
them into wine for use.
Rose Flavour. — Put rose leaves into wine
for use.
PASTRY
The proper making and baking of paste is a very
lady-like accomplishment, and is often found an
indispensable one. There is a mistaken notion
that rich crust is not only indigestible, but costly.
If the following directions are adhered to, the re-
verse will be found the fact.
Paste for Shells and Puddings. — Take 1
lb. flour, cooled and sifted, and 1 lb. butter : use
no salt ; make the flour into a stiff paste with very
cold water, mixing it with a strong spoon : throw
it out on the pie-board and roll very thin : cut the
butter [which must be very cold] into small pieces
and lay half of them on the paste : flatten each
down by a quick pressure of the hand, dredge very
much flour lightly over the whole surface, fold to-
gether lengthwise and crosswise, into a small lump :
roll out again thinly, lay on the rest of the butter
in the same way, sprinkle again with flour, fold
together, and roll as thin as possible : dredge
again, fold together, and roll into a wafer-like
sheet, which, having dredged, fold lightly into a
roll about 3 inches wide ; cut the whole of this
A PLAIN CRUST OYSTER PIE, ETC. 51
into squares, flatten each square with the rolling-
pin, and cut out with a shell-cutter; having pre-
pared 2 of these, take, with a small round cutter,
a piece from the centre of one, and put it upper-
most in a tin which will hold several. Bake 15
minutes in a very quick oven : watch them care-
fully, as much depends on baking. When properly
made, these will rise to the height of 2 or 3 inches.
The above quantity makes 12 shells, 5 inches in
diameter.
A Plain Crust. — 1 bowl lard, 1 do. waiter
(scant), 3 do. flour : mix all well together, and roll
out, using "patent flour" (if convenient). In
the preparation of puddings baked in crust, the
under part of the crust can be made by the plainer
method, and |- lb. of the richer used as an edge.
Oyster Pie. — 50 oysters : strain the liquor: line
a dish with paste, take 2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
fine, 2 oz. butter : mix these with 1 slice dry
bread crumbled fine ; add pepper, salt and nutmeg
to your taste ; then to each layer of oysters
sprinkle some of the mixture ; it is best to reserve
some of the oyster juice for gravy, which thicken
and serve in a boat. Cover it with paste and
bake.
Chicken Pie. — Cut up a chicken, and if old
boil 15 minutes in water, which save, to put in the
pie : make paste and put in the dish, cutting out
the middle lay in the chicken, dust flour over and
put in butter, pepper, and salt; cover them with the
water, roll out the top crust quite thick, and close
the pie round the edge : make an opening in the
middle with a knife ; let it bake an hour. If
warmed over next day, pour off the gravy and
warm separately ; add it to the pie to serve.
58 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
Pot Pie. — Cut up 1 large cliicken, grease a
dinner pot with lard : roll out crust enough, [of
"plain crust,"] to line it, cutting out the bottom.
As you put in the pieces of chicken, strew in
flour, salt, and pepper, a few pieces of the crust
rolled thin, and a few potatoes : cover this with
water, and put on it a covering of paste, with a
slit in the middle. Let this cook slowly 2 hours ;
have hot water at hand, to add in case it be too
dry. Yeal, lamb, &c., may be made thus. Also,
peach or apple pot pie.
Vol Au Vent. — Make up -J- lb. flour into
paste, roll out one-third of it oval shape. Take
one of your dish covers and cut out two, leaving
the bottom crust whole, but cutting the middle
out of the second ; lay them on a tin : cut out a
third one, making a distinct line with a cover
of smaller oval. Put it in a quick oven, a light
brown : take out with a knife this inner circle, fill
in the centre with stewed oysters, fricasseed chicken
or minced veal, hot. It is well to put in a napkin,
to bake.
Mince Pies. — 1 lb. finely-chopped roast beef,
•| lb. suet do., ^ peck apples do., 1 lb. raisins, ^
lb. cleaned currants, 1 nutmeg, 2 table-spoonfuls
ground cinnamon, 1 do. ground cloves, the juice
of 2 lemons and rinds grated, mace, 1 lb. sugar,
sweet cider to moisten it. Let this stand mixed,
all night : when using, put in 2 oz. citron, cut in
very thin strips.
Apple Pie. — Pare, core and wash ^ peck
apples. Put them in 4 pie plates with a little
water. Make a crust, and cover them. While
hot from the oven put in sugar, a small piece of
PIE-PLANT PIE, ETC. 59
butter, cream, or the yellow of an egg, stirred in.
Turn out into a China plate.
Pie-Plant Pie. — Cut it up, skinning the
stronger stalks, and strewing sugar over before
the crust is put on. A little water. All juicy
fruit like currants prepare in this way also. One
lemon to 4 pies, grated all in, is good.
PUDDINGS, &c.
Apple Puddings, in crust. — Ij pint stewed
apples, 1 tea-cup rich cream, ^ lb. butter, 4 eggs,
nutmeg, grated lemon skin, sugar to taste. Put
in the butter while the apples are hot, the re-
mainder when cool. Dried apples will do.
Pumpkin Puddings. — 1 pint stewed pump-
kin, [it comes now powdered,] 1 quart milk, 4 or
6 eggs, J lb. butter, sugar and mace, nutmeg and
grated lemon peel, or ginger, or other spice.
Potato Puddings. — J peck white ones, boiled.
Beat them up : add j butter, 1 pint cream, grate
3 lemons, all across, [take out seeds,] 8 eggs, 1
tea-spoonful soda.
Green Corn Pudding. — Grease a deep earth-
en baking dish with butter : grate with a coarse
grater 2 dozen ears of corn, selecting such as are
of equal ripeness : add tea-spoonful salt, table-
spoonfal white sugar, a quart of milk, and lastly,
2 eggs well-beaten : lay a piece of butter rather
larger than an egg on top of all, put it into a
slow oven, bake 4 hours ; if the oven is too quick
it will make the pudding curdle; when done it
should be nicely brown all over, and the consis-
60 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
tency of warm mush : good for tea or dinner : may
be eaten with sugar, but a little butter is better.
Another way. — Grate corn from 12 ears of young
corn : add -J- gill milk, 1 table-spoonful white su-
gar, 1 Qgg beaten. Mix all, and bake IJ hours.
Flemish Pudding. — 1 pint milk, 4 eggs, ^
pint flour, salt : boil -J an hour.
Save- all Pudding. — Weigh out of your crock
of dry bread ^ lb. bread : put it on the stove with
1 pint milk to soften : let it remain 3 hours, then
beat it up fine : cool awhile, and add 1 table-
spoonful sugar, 2 do. Zante currants, 2 eggs
beaten : pare, core and cut 2 apples and add : but-
ter a "Turk's turban" and put it in : sprinkle 2
table-spoonfuls chopped suet on the top, and bake
J hour. Eat with butter and a little sugar
Cocoanut Puddings. — Grate the nuts, sav-
ing all the milk : to a pound of cocoanut add \ lb.
butter, and f lb. sugar; let the butter and sugar
be mixed ; the whites of 9 eggs [or the whole of 4]
beaten well, 6 crackers, or same of dry bread
rolled fine, wet with 1 wine-glass rose water, and
all the milk of nuts : 3 nuts make 12 small pud-
dings, or 1 1 lbs. of the grated nuts.
Cocoanut Custard. — 1 nut grated into 1
pint milk, 3 eggs, sugar to taste, butter as large
as a walnut, the outside of a lemon and nutmeg.
Soda Cracker Pudding. — 4 soda crackers
soaked in 3 tea-cups water, 2 lemons grated in,
and 2 tea-cups sugar. These taste like apple pie.
Apple Custard. — Pare tart apples, core
them with an an apple corer, put them in a deep
dish with a small piece of butter, and 1 tea-spoon-
APPLE MERINGUE RICE PUDDING, ETC. 61
ful sugar in the opening of each apple. Pour in
water enough to cook them : when soft, cool them,
and pour over an unbaked custard so as to cover
them, and bake till custard is done.
Apple Meringue. — Pare, core and stew 10
tart apples, in a very little water : season as for a
pie, and put it in a fruit pie dish, into a cool oven.
Beat up, meanwhile, the whites of 4 eggs as you
would for icing : piling it on the apple like rocks,
or irregular, avoiding the edge of dish. Keturn
it to a warm oven, and brown macaroni colour.
Slip all out carefully, by aid of knife or' spoon,
into a China dish, and serve with cream, which if
you have not, make a custard of the yellows, fla-
voured with essence of Yanilla, &c.
Custard may be used instead of apple ; it may
be a soft one, and in cups.
Rice Pudding. — Wash 3 heaping table-spoon-
fuls rice : put it into 1 quart milk, a pinch of salt,
white sugar to taste, a little nutmeg and butter.
Put it in the oven directly after breakfast, in a
warmish oven : let it simmer, and when a brown
skin begins to form stir it in. Do this 3 times.
You will thus have a creamy pudding. Raisins
or not.
Macaroon Pudding. — Boil 1 quart milk, dis-
solve the weight of 4 cents' worth Russian isin-
glass in as little water as possible : add it to the
boiling milk. Roll 12 macaroons, (chocolate if
you choose,) to a fine powder : stir it in the milk,
and pour it into a mould. Eat cold, with cream.
— E. W. T.
Iced Apples.' — Pare, core, and spice 10 apples
of a large tart kind. Bake them till nearly done.
6
62 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
Put them away to get entirely cold : then prepare
some icing as for Apple Meringue, and, first pour-
ing off all the juice, lay the icing thickly on the tops
and sides as much as you can. Return them to the
oven to just harden and be set. Serve with cream.
This is very beautiful, either for dessert or an
evening.
Apple Tapioca.' — Core some tart apples :
fill up the opening with butter and sugar, strew
some sugar around them. Put 1 dessert-spoonful
dry Tapioca on each apple. Put water around,
nearly up to the top of apples : bake, and serve
as the above.
Apple Float. — Prepare 12 tart apples as for
sauce : when cold, add 2 whites of eggs, beaten :
then beat the whole till quite stiff. Have made
previously a soft custard, with the 2 yelks. Put
the apple on the custard.
Adelaide's Pudding. — Pare and core, and
fill up with nutmeg, sugar and butter, 6 apples.
Make a batter of 1 egg, patent flour, ^ pint milk,
and pour round. A little salt in batter. [These
varieties of apple dessert are healthful, cheap, ea-
sily made, and excellent.]
Cup Batter Pudding. — 6 eggs, 6 table-
spoonfuls flour, 1 pint milk, 1 tea-spoonful salt.
Beat the yelks apart well, and mix them with the
flour : then add the milk. Lastly, whip the white
stiff, mix and bake at once, -J- hour.
Boiled Batter Pudding. — 6 eggs, 1 quart
milk, 12 table-spoonfuls sifted flour, (or more, if
preferred,) 1 tea-spoon salt. Mix as other batter ;
have water boiling. Dip your bag into the hot
water ; take it out, and sift flour inside. Pour in
BREAD PUDDING FRITTERS, ETC. 63
the batter and tie it tightly, leaving room for the
pudding to swell. Put it in now and boil IJ
hours. To be eaten hot with sauce No. 1 or 4.
A pound of currants, or any fruit preferred : boil
awhile longer for them, and turn over frequently,
or the fruit will settle to one side.
A Bread Pudding. — 1 quart milk, 4 eggs, ^
lb. dried currants, a few slices stale bread, 1 tea-
spoon salt. Bake in a quick oven ^ hour. Eat it
with sauce l^o. 2 or 4. Another way is to put
alternate slices of apple and bread, and bake.
Fritters, "with Yeast. — Make a batter of 1
pint milk, and as much flour as will form it, 1 tea-
spoon salt, and 5 table-spoons yeast. Put
this in a warm place 3 hours. Just before dinner
beat up 1 egg well, and add. These fritters are
quite wholesome, being light, and do not absorb
much lard. Boil them in lard.
Delightful Pudding. — 1 quart boiled milk, ^
lb. mashed potatoes, J lb. flour, a small piece butter,
and when cold add 3 eggs, beaten. Bake ^ hour.
Eat with sauce No. 2.
Cottage Pudding. — 1 pint flour, ^ pint su-
gar, 1 lb. butter, 2 eggs, -J pint milk, 2 tea-spoon-
fuls cream tartar, 1 do. soda, a few currants or
stoned raisins. Bake J hour in a Turk's turban.
This is very good to put on at tea as a cake, if
left at dinner. Sauce No. 2.
Stale Bread Fritters. — Make as the above-
named fritters, substituting bread for flour. These
are more tender.
Cold Custard. — To 1 quart milk, (sweetened
with white sugar to taste,) add 3 table-spoonfuls
64 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
wine, in which rennet has been placed. Ponr it
immediately into custard caps, and let it stand in
a cool place several hours before dinner. Grate a
little nutmeg over each, and eaten with cream,
you have a dessert often more acceptable than a
more elaborate and costly one. Put 1 calf's rennet,
cut in strips, into 1 quart wine : let it remain a
week, and use as directed. n
Custard Pudding. — Beat the yelks of 4 eggs
smooth, adding, (little by little,) 1 quart milk,
scant. Sweeten to taste: a pinch of salt, slice
stale bread very thin, spread butter over it, then
nutmeg, and lay on the top. Bake till custard is
thick. [Salt enriches any kind of custard or bat-
ter: put in 1 tea-spoonful to 2 quarts.]
Trifle. — Break rusk or sponge cake into a
dish, pour a boiled custard over it, and put a sylla-
bub over that. Garnished with jelly and flowers,
this makes a handsome dessert.
Syllabub. — Make 1 quart rich cream very
sweet, grate i nutmeg over it, put it into a China
bowl, and milk a cow into it, that it may be very
frothy.
Floating Island. — Take the whites of 3 eggs,
beat them to a froth : put 4 spoonfuls any kind of
jelly, or roast apple ; beat them together till it
becomes a substance that will heap on a spoon.
Meanwhile, have made a boiled custard of H
pint milk to the 3 unused yelks. Put the island
on, and pile up like rocks.
AnotJie?^ Way. — The whites of 8 eggs in a deep
earthen bowl : add a small tea-cupful of currant
jelly, beaten altogether until it forms a stiff froth
in a cold place ; (the eggs should be at least 2
bird's nest pudding, etc. 65
days old, and very cold.) Pour cream into a glass
bowl, and drop the island from a large spoon on
to the surface of the cream.
Bird's Nest Pudding. — Make the founda-
tion of the nest of blancmange, or calf's foot
jelly, or prepared corn : rasp the skin of 3 lemons
and preserve it; then lay it round and on the
mange like the straw : take out the contents of 4
eggs through a small hole, and fill the shell with
hot blancmange, or prepared corn ; when cold,
break off the shells and lay mange in the nest. A
beautiful dessert.
Delicious Apple Pudding. — Yery conve-
nient, as it may be made several hours before it is
baked, or when a nice addition is wanted unex-
pectedly. Pare and chop fine i a dozen or more,
according to their size, of the best cooking apples ;
grease a pudding dish, cover the bottom and sides
I an inch thick with grated bread, and very small
lumps of butter : then put a layer of apples with
sugar and nutmeg, and repeat the layer, which
must be of bread and butter : pour over the whole
a tea-cup of cold water. Put into the oven as
soon as the dinner is served, and bake it 25 or 30
minutes. It may be baked the day before it is
wanted : when it must be heated thoroughly,
turned into a shallow dish, and sprinkled with
powdered sugar. It requires no sauce. — American
Agriculturalist.
V
Tapioca Pudding. — 2 oz. to 1 pint milk,
softened in the oven, and when nearly cold add 3
eggs, and a little butter and sugar. Bake or boil
1 hour
Baked Indian Pudding. — Cut up i lb. but-
6*
1^8 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
ter in 1 pint molasses, warm them till melted.
Boil 1 quart milk, and pour over a pint corn meal,
and stir in the molasses gradually : when cold,
beat 6 eggs and stir them in : add the peel of a
lemon, grated, or other spice : stir very hard, pour
into a buttered dish, and bake 2 hours.. — j. g.
lee Cream. — To 1 gallon cream 2J lbs. white
sugar, 4 Yanilla beans. For freezing this quan--
tity, pound 5 lbs. ice, mixed with 2 lbs. coarse salt.
The new " Cylinder Freezer" makes it in 10
minutes, and may be had at Murphy & Yarnall's,
262 Chestnut street. The above receipt is from
B. H. Fassell, of whom it is better for Philadel-
phians to order it, as he makes a very good, rich
cream, at 31 cents, plain, and 31 cents in moulds,
at corner Race and Jacoby, above Twelfth street.
Snow Cream. — Take the richest cream you
can procure, season it with a few drops of essence
of lemon, or syrup of lemon peal, and powdered
white sugar, and if you choose a spoonful of pre-
serve syrup, and just as you send it to table, stir
in light newly-fallen snow till it is nearly as stiff
as ice cream.
Carrageen or Irish Moss Blancmange. —
Wash in 3 waters i an ounce of Carrageen moss ;
drain and put it in 2 quarts of new milk, let it
boil for a few minutes, strain it in a pitcher, wet
the moulds, and pour it in while hot ; let it stand
till it becomes thick, when it may be eaten with
sugar and cream, seasoned with peach or rose water,
or with a lemon rolled in the sugar. Some prefer
seasoning the blancmange before putting it in the
moulds. It will keep in a cool place 2 days, and
is better to be made the day before it is eaten.
SNOW FRITTERS— EICE FLUMMERY, ETC. 6Y
Snow Fritters. — Take of light new-fallen
snow, 3 table-spoonfuls for every egg you would
otherwise use — that is, if you would wish the quan-
tity that 3 eggs would make in the usual way, take
9 table-spoonfuls of snow, and stir in a quart of
rich milk that has been setting in a very cold place,
so that it will not melt the snow, and destroy its
lightness ; put in a tea-spoonful of salt, and enough
wheat flour to make a stiff batter ; have ready a
frying-pan with boiling lard, and drop a spoon-
ful in a place, as with other fritters, and set the
remainder in a cold place till the first are done.
Eat them with wine sauce, or sugar, butter and
cream, or any thing you fancy.
Rice Flummery. — Rice that is ground
coarse, in a hand-mill, is much better for making
flummery than the flour you buy ; put 3 pints of
milk to boil, mix with water 2 tea-cups of ground
rice, and stir it in the milk when it boils ; while
the milk is cold, put in it 2 dozen peach kernels,
blanched, and rolled with a bottle ; wet your
moulds with cold cream or water ; keep stirring
the rice till it is thick, when pour it out in the
moulds ; just before dinner turn them out on
dishes, have cream, sugar and nutmeg mixed, to
eat with it.
Whipped Cream. — Take 1 pint rich cream,
1 tea-cup sifted sugar, essence of lemon or the
grated rind, to taste ; put this into a large pitcher,
churn it with a whipped-cream churn, (which you
may get at a tinman's for 25 cents,) until all of it
comes to a froth : then place it with a spoon upon
any mould dessert. This is very delicate and
pretty, and will double the cream used. — a. p.
68 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
Sauces. No. 1. — Mix 1 tea-spoonful flour in
1 tea-cup water, with 2 spoonfuls sugar and 1 but-
ter : stir this in i pint boiling water, let it boil a
few minutes ; when add 1 glass wine and nutmeg.
"No. 2. — Beat equal quantities of butter and
white sugar to a cream, grate nutmeg into it.
Beat all well together, and put to harden before
serving it.
No. 3. — Melt molasses, butter and vinegar to-
gether.
No. 4, Cream Sauce. — Boil i pint cream,
thicken it very little, put in a lump of butter :
sweeten to taste, and when cold add 1 glass wine,
or a lemon rind and juice.
JELLIES.
Calf |s Foot Jelly.— Clean 6 feet : put them
on to boil in 21 quarts water and J tea-spoonful salt :
boil down one-half, strain it, and when cold scrape
off all the fat, using a piece of silk paper last. Put
it into a porcelain kettle, add sugar and wine to
the taste, the rind of 2 lemons and juice, the
whites of 4 eggs and shells : let it boil hard 20
minutes, without stirring ; strain it through a
flannel bag into moulds. It is more likely to turn
out perfectly if made the day before used.
Tapioca Jelly. — Soak 3 table-spoonfuls pearl
Tapioca in 1 quart water, several hours : put it in
a saucepan with the same water, and let it boil
slowly till clear and thick. Season with wine or
lemon, and white sugar. Turn out in moulds.
GELATINE JELLY — CURRANT JELLY, ETC. 69
G-elatine Jelly. — Take 3 oz. Gelatine, 2
quarts water, 1 pint wine, (or lemon juice enough
to flavour,) l^ white sugar, whites of 3 eggs and
shells ; boil 20 minutes, and pour as above.
Currant Jelly. — 4 quarts ripe currants mashed
in both hands, till nearly all are broken ; squeeze
out the stems and remove them. Put the pulp
into a strong bag and squeeze very tightly, and
there will be nearly 3 pints juice. Put 3 lbs. white
sugar to this, and boil ^ hour.
Apple Jelly. — Slice whole apples, (cores,
parings and all,) cook them with just water enough
to cover them, till reduced to a soft pulp. Take the
rind and juice of 4 lemons ; strain this pulp, (not
squeezing much or going over it twice,) add the
lemons, measure pint for lb. white sugar ; let it
boil -J hour, and turn into forms, Quince &c.,
the same way.
Rice Jelly. — Boil i lb. whole rice with J lb.
loaf sugar, in 1 quart water, till it becomes a glu-
tinous mass. Strain off the jelly and let it cool,
in moulds.
Quince Jelly. — ^Wash and wipe the quinces ;
cut them in small pieces, and take out the seeds
carefully ; have your kettle cleaned and half full
of water; throw the quinces and seeds in till you
get it full ; cover them over, and let them boil till
very soft ; mash them well and strain them ; to
every pint of juice put a pound of sugar ; clean
the kettle again, pour in the juice and sugar, and
let it boil till it forms a jelly ; it should be put
into tea-cups, if you want it to turn out whole,
with brandy papers on the top, and pasted over.
It is a nice jelly to use with whips or trifle.
YO THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
Molasses Candy or Taffy. — Put a quart of
good molasses (not sugar-house) in a Dutch oven or
iron pot, having previously greased it with butter ;
let it boil very fast, stirring it all the time for 15
minutes ; then put in a tea-cup of sugar and let it
boil 15 minutes longer, stirring all the time ; take
a little out on a plate, and when it is brittle, pour
it while hot into tin plates rubbed with butter ;
put it in a cold place and break it up when you
want it for use ; never put taffy in China or earth-
en plates, as they would probably be broken in
taking it out. Some think it an improvement to
add the kernels of black walnuts, nicely picked ;
put them in just as you take up the taffy and give
it one stir ; a tea- cup of kernels to a pint of mo-
lasses is a good proportion.
/
PRESERVES.
These are costly affairs in every way : not done
without fatigue, time and patience — to say nothing
of their unwholesomeness for some. We give a
few.
Cocoanut Preserved. — Grate 1 nut, save
the milk and put in ; sweeten to taste with pow-
dered loaf, and cook ^ hour, stirring all the time
to prevent burning. This is very pretty for puffs,
but sickish.
Preserved Pine Apple. — Take lb. for lb.
of sugar ; boil the slices in water a few at a time,
till clear. Then make a syrup with the water,
and cook the apples 15 minutes in it. If the
syrup is not slightly thick, boil it longer.
Grated Pine Apple. — Grate the apples
whole, and take lb. for lb. ; boil 20 minutes, stir-
ring often.
Common Cherries. — Stone the light-coloured
common cherries, and to every pound of fruit allow
a pound of sugar, which boil up with the juice ;
after you have skimmed it throw in the cherries,
and let them boil till the syrup is rich.
Cherries for common use. — Stone 12 lbs.
of good cherries; allow i lb. of brown sugar to
each pound of fruit, after it is stoned ; let them
cook slowly for 2 hours ; examine them through
the summer, and if they show any signs of fermen-
tation set them in a brick oven, after the bread is
(U)
T2 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
done, or in a Dutcli oven of hot water, which keep
at boiling heat for an hour.
It is a good plan to know the weight of your
preserving kettle, as you can then weigh the fruit
in it, with a pair of steelyards. — lea.
Gooseberries. — Take the large gooseberries,
pick off the stems and blossoms, give them their
weight in sugar ; put them in the kettle alternately,
with the sugar, and pour over them a pint of water
to 4 lbs. of /ruit ; let them boil gently till the
scum arises ; when this is taken off, let them cook
faster ; when clear, take them up on dishes, and
boil the syrup longer.
Peaches. — Have sweet, white clingstone peach-
es, pare and stone them ; to each lb. take a pound
of sugar made in a syrup, put the peaches in,
and when they look clear take them up on dishes ;
let the syrup boil longer.
Quinces. — Pick out the finest quinces, pare
them, and cut them in halves, or in rings ; take
the best of the parings and the seed, and boil them
in water till they are very soft ; strain the liquor,
and have the kettle cleaned again ; wash and weigh
the quinces, and give them their weight in sugar ;
put the sugar in the water the parings were boiled
in ; skim it, and put in the quinces ; let them boil
very slowly till clear ; take them up on dishes, and
boil the syrup longer.
Citron Melon. — Cut it in pieces the size you
wish, take out the soft centre and seeds, pare off
the green rind, then throw the pieces in cold water
and let them stand all night. Next day boil them,
in water enough to cover them, for 20 minutes,
adding alum the size of a walnut to each quart
LIMES PEACHES WITHOUT COOKING, ETC. tS
of water, to green them ; | sugar to 1 lb. fruit,
slice some lemons, and put in also essence of gin-
ger to taste. Boil till clear. — a. p.
Limes. — Green limes are found in our stores
but for about 6 weeks in the middle of summer.
Purchase them by the 100 ; put them in salt and
water strong enough to bear an egg, (closely cov-
ered,) till the warm weather is over. Make an
incision, take out all the seeds, and put them in
cold water 24 hours, changing the water several
times : then boil them in soda water till tender
enough to put a straw through — say 1 tea-spoon-
ful soda to 6 quarts water. Put them again in
cold water for 24 hours, changing the water several
times. To each pound limes 2 J lbs. white sugar,
and 3 pints water. Boil the syrup 15 minutes,
then put in the limes ; boil them 5 minutes. They
are then clear. Let syrup boil i hour, and they
are all done — 100 limes make about 2 lbs. weight.
These are delicious, and will keep always.
Peaches "without Cooking. — To 4 lbs. fruit
add 1 lb. sugar ; place the sugar and peaches in
a kettle over the fire, long enough to melt the su-
gar without cooking the fruit. Then remove them
from the kettle, place them in Arthur's jars, and
put them in a pot, (of warm water, if glass ; hot,
if tin,) letting the water boil several minutes. —
M. L. N.
Damsons. — ^Weigh out as much sugar as you
have fruit ; if it is brown you must clarify it ; put
a pint of water to 3 lbs. of sugar, make a syrup,
wash the damsons, put them in and let them cook
slowly for ^ an hour; then take them out on
dishes, and let them dry in the sun for 2 days, tak-
ing them in the house at night j boil the syrup i
1
tJr THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
an hour after the fruit is taken out ; when done in>
this way they will be whole and clear. You can
make a jam by boiling them slowly for 2 hours ;
or a jelly, as currants.
Quince Marmalade. — Pare the quinces and
cut them up fine ; put the parings and cores to
boil ; then strain them ; put in the quinces, and
let them boil till soft ; when mash them fine, and
put in J lb. of sugar to a lb. fruit ; let them cook
gently for 2 hours, and take them up in pint bowls ;
when cold, put brandy papers on the top of each,
and paste them over ; they will turn out whole to
put on table.
Marmalade of Mixed Fruits. — Pare equal
quantities of peaches, apples, pears and quinces ;
cut them fine, and put them to boil with a pint
of water to 6 lbs. of fruit ; let them cook tho-
roughly, but do not let them burn ; take them out
and mash them well ; clean the kettle, and put
them back, with half their weight in sugar; let
them cook very slowly for 2 hours.
To Conserve Peaches. — Take the yellow
peaches, pare them, and cut them from the stone
in one piece ; to 6 lbs. of peaches have 2 lbs. of
sugar ; make a syrup of f lb. of sugar, and a little
water ; put them in, and let them stay till they are
quite clear ; then take them up carefully on a dish,
and set them in the sun to dry ; pound the sugar
fine, and strew over them, turning them over to
let each part have some ; do not put much on at a
time, and if any syrup is made remove them to
fresh dishes ; when they are sufficiently dry, lay
them lightly in a jar, with a little sugar between
each layer.
ROASTED FRUIT, ETC. Y5
Frosted Fruit. — Take large ripe cherries,
apricots, plums or grapes ; if cherries, cut off
half of the stem ; have in one dish some white
of an egg beaten, and in another some pow-
dered loaf-sugar ; take the fruit, one at a time, and
roll them first in the egg, and then in the sugar ;
lay them on a sheet of white paper in a sieve, and
set it on the top of a stove, or near a fire, till the
icing is hard.
Crystalized Plums. — Stone them and put 1
lb. plums to ^ lb. sugar : cook them to a pulp :
then spread on broad dishes to dry : pack them
away in glass jars. When wanted to serve, take a
little and roll in powdered sugar the shape of
plums. M. L. N.
Peach Leather.' — Stew peaches as if for pies,
taking out the stones and making into a pulp : put
this on planed boards on a roof in the sun ; in a
few days it will be dry enough to peel off the
boards. Roll it, and put away dry.
Cranberries. — For every quart cranberries put
1 lb. full white sugar : make a syrup first, skim it,
and stew the cranberries ; 1 dessert-spoonful of
sup. car. soda put in after they are taken off the
fire, takes off the acidity.
Cranberries are said to be nearly, or quite as
good, if to 1 of stewed dried apples, 3 quarts
of cranberries ; or 1 of cranberries, and 2 apples.
Preserves keep with less cooking, if after being
boiled awhile, they are taken out of their syrup
and dried in the sun : the juice being put in glass
jars, and standing also in the sun. — e. r. p.
Quinces and peaches are better and far less
troublesome, preventing burning, by chipping
T6 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
them, and letting them boil till clear, doing the
jelly longer and taking them out before going to
pulp.
Pears. — Take sound medium-sized pears : re-
move nearly all the stem, and boil them in water just
enough to cover them till soft ; take each out care-
fully, and lay on a sieve to drain ; put equal weight
of sugar, the juice and rind of lemons ; make a
syrup of ^ pint water to 1 lb. sugar, and boil
them, (with green ginger, in a book-muslin bag,)
till clear. If the syrup is not thickish, boil it
longer.
Quinces, just as above, leaving out lemons and
ginger.
Crab Apples. — Select perfect ones ; pour boil-
ing water over them, which removes the skin : lay
them in water enough to cover them ; let them
simmer slowly till soft ; take them out and drain ;
make a clean syrup, pound for pound ; boil them
in it till clear, lay them on dishes to cool, and place
in jars ; cook the syrup a little longer, and pour
it over the apples when hot. Seal.
Peaches. — These may be done to taste even
better than the hermetically sealed uncooked arti-
cle, by taking half sugar, (or less,) to 1 lb. peaches.
Cook them 5 minutes, the syrup somewhat longer.
Seal them perfectly.
A Simpler Way.< — Take the fruit, either quinces
or peaches, which is not so nice, and cut off the
whole peach or quince, in small pieces, sugar to
taste ; cook 20 minutes, and seal entirely from the
air. Any kind of fruits we have in our markets
may be thus preserved, at quarter the cost, time
and trouble, and they will be found far better eat-
ing than preserves. Method. — Let the ^lass jars
Arthur's self-sealing cans and jars. 77
_be warming near the fire, while the fruit is stewing ;
have corks to fit, bladder lined, put in the fruit a
little at a time, boiling hot ; warm your cement,
meanwhile, insert the cork, taking care to have
the glass full to the cork, press down tightly ; then
put another piece of wet bladder over the cork,
tieing it down tightly ; invert the glass into the
cement, then stand it up to harden ; when hard^
roll the edge of the glass again in the hot cement,
and you have a perfectly air-tight vessel. The
very best and safest mode, however, and one which
servants must be doubly-refined stupid not to
succeed in, is Arthur's Patent Self-sealing Cans
and Jars. We give, below, an engraving of one
of these valuable vessels.
For some purposes, as
for putting up tomatoes,
the tin cans are prefer-
able ; for others, the glass
jars, with many house-
keepers, will have the
preference. It has been
proved, however, that all
kinds of fruits may be
kept unchanged in the
Arthur's Self-Sealing Can. tin CaUS.
These vessels were used during the last summer
in incredibly large quantities, and with the most
complete success. They may be obtained in most
of the principal cities and towns in the country,
of the agents. They are accompanied with ex-
plicit directions for use, and valuable recipes for
putting up fruits and vegetables.
We are glad to be able, from actual trial, to
give this strong testimonial in favour of so useful
an invention.
7*
•78 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
It will be seen that they are constructed with a
channel around the mouth. Into this channel a
very adhesive cement is poured at the time they
are manufactured, and allowed to harden, so that
when they are purchased they are ready for use,
obviating entirely the necessity of melting or pour-
ing wax or cement of any kind. In order to seal
one of Arthur's Cans or Jars, when filled with hot
fruit, it is only necessary to put on the cover, and
lay upon it a weight of a few pounds to keep it in
place, until the vapour on the inside condenses.
It is strictly, when heated substances are enclosed
in it, a self-sealing vessel. If the article is cold,
or only warm, it is merely necessary to heat the
cover and put it in place. The whole operation is
so exceedingly simple, that the vessel will at once
commend itself to every intelligent housekeeper.
The tin cans, made after this plan, are free from
the defects which render all tin cans with a small
opening objectionable, and entirely prevent their
use more than a single time. All the cut edges of
the tin are covered with solder, so that no part of
the iron is exposed to contact with the con-
tents, and cannot become rusted, as must occur
with the ordinary can ; and as this is so entirely
open, it can be cleansed as easily and thoroughly
as a tin cup.
SYRUPS.
Strawberry Syrup. — Juice 1 pint, water
do., white sugar 3 lbs. After squeezing the juice
from berries, take the pulp and pour the measured
water over it, and let it come to a boil ; strain
this, and make up the pint with water, if wanting.
Pour this on the sugar, put it over the fire, and
heat till the sugar is dissolved and come to a boil ;
take it off the fire, add strawberry juice, stir well ;
place on the fire 5 minutes, remove, and when cool
strain and bottle. Same for Raspberry, Pine
Apple, &c. : 3 quarts ripe berries make the above.
Vanilla Syrup. — Boil 3 lbs. white sugar ia
1 quart boiling water, J hour ; then put in 2 Y.a-
nilla beans and 1 tea-cup water, and boil until
reduced to 1 quart again. Then strain it through
a flannel bag and bottle close.
This is rendered needless by a highly concen-
trated article sold at corner Fifth and Cherry, the
Pree Produce Store of G. W. Taylor, called Allin-
son's Essence Yanilla.
Ginger Syrup.^ — 1 lb. sugar to 1 pint water :
boil 20 minutes — when cool, add essence of ginger
to taste.
Cherry Vinegar. — 6 quarts cherries, broken
up, and 1 quart vinegar ; let it stand 3 days : then
press the juice from them through a jelly bag, and
to 1 pint juice f lb. white sugar : boil it 12 min-
utes, and skim. This makes 8 porter bottles full.
Blackberries done in this way are also good as a
drink. — a. r.
(19)
PLEASANT DRINKS.
Lemonade.' — To 1 pint juice 4 lbs. sugar, 2
quarts ice-water. It makes more to soak the
halves of lemons that have been squeezed in a
little water, a few at a time, using the water.
Mock Lemonade. — J oz. tartaric acid, 6 oz.
sugar, 4 drops essence lemon dropped on the su-
gar, 1 quart boiling water.
Carbonated Drink.- — 2 quarts ice-water, 4
table-spoonfuls vinegar, 2 tea-spoonfuls ground
ginger. Sweeten to taste, and add 1 tea-spoonful
soda, 1 do. cream tartar.
Penny Beer. — } oz. cream tartar, 1 cts. worth
sassafras, 1 do. sarsaparilla, 1 do. pipsissaway.
All these are bought in the market. Put 1 gallon
water to the sassafras, pipsissaway and sarsaparilla,
and boil H hours Then pour it off and add an-
other gallon of water, and boil until the strength
is out of the herbs Pour it boiling on the cream
tartar : when about milk warm put in 1 cts. worth
yeast. Sweeten with molasses and sugar.
Raspberry Vinegar. — Pour 1 quart vinegar
on 1 quart fresh- picked raspberries : the next day
Strain it through a sieve on another quart of rasp-
berries, and so on 5 or 6 days ; then to every pint
juice add 1 lb. white sugar, set it in a jar, which
must be placed in a pot of boiling water, until
scalded through. Bottle.
Ginger Beer. — 1 gallon cold water, 1 lb.
white sugar, i oz. race ginger, 1 sliced lemon, 1
(80)
HOARHOUND BEER, ETC. 81
tea-cup yeast. Let it stand all night to ferment ;
then pour it off without stirring, bottle it, and add
1 raisin to each bottle. — m. m.
Hoarhound Beer. — Take 1 handful flour,
pour 1 quart boiling water over it, 4 table-spoon-
fuls of yeast, and put in when cool enough ; when
risen, add 3 lbs. brown sugar, 4 table-spoonfuls
ground ginger, 1 pint strong hoarhound, (4 cents'
worth,) steep it in boiling water : stir this all up,
let it be for 12 hours, strain through a linen cloth
into bottles.
Portable Lemonade. — Tartaric acid ^ oz.,
loaf sugar 3 ounces, essence of lemon ^ drachm.
Powder the tartaric acid : also the sugar. Mix
them, and pour the essence of lemon upon them a
few drops at a time ; when all is mixed, divide
into 12 equal parts, and put them in white paper.
When wanted, dissolve 1 in a tumbler of water,
and lemonade will be the result.
WINES.
Currant Wine. — To 1 quart juice add 2
quarts water, 1 lb. sugar ; mix well together, and
let it stand 24 hours, without stirring : then skim
it, putting it in a jug or keg, leaving out the cork,
and let it ferment in a cool place for a week, or
till done fermenting : then cork tightly, and when
clear it is fit to bottle.
Quince Wine. — Grate whole quinces, (cut-
ting out rot and worms,) squeeze the juice through
a flannel bag, and to each quart juice put 1 lb. su-
gar. Let it work long enough to clear out the
pugs : when clear bottle it. — m. p.
P. S. These two wines are inserted with some
hesitation ; but there are occasions when wine is
needed, and these are easily and cheaply made by
persons living in the country.
A Pleasant Wine. — 2 quarts morel cherry
juice, 1 quart water, and 2 lbs. sugar : boil and
skim it, and when cool add 1 pint brandy.
(82)
GAS cooKma.
In regard to cooking with gas, our experience
is just 3 months old. As far as that experience
goes, we give it a decided preference over every
other kind of cooking.
The best apparatus for the purpose is Gleason's
Patent, to b,e had of Gleason & Sons, No. 463
Market street. There are two sizes ; one of them
small enough for the smallest family — very com-
pact and convenient, and not unsightly — they cost
from 20 to 30 dollars.
The usual objection made to the use of gas for
cooking, has been, that it is expensive. We have
not found it so — and for labour-saving and clean-
liness, nothing can equal it.
Bread baked by gas is not to be surpassed for
its delicate taste ; and meats retain their flavour
and tenderness more perfectly than when roasted
by any other means — for steaks and chops it equals
''the good hickory coals," of which this genera-
tion is often reminded by the one which is passing
away ; and when it is remembered that the heat is
only generated while the stove is in actual use,
its superiority over every other mode of cooking
is obvious for the summer months.
One of our friends, who has used gas for this
purpose for 15 years, both summer and winter,
and who is acquainted with the methods pursued
in Paris and London, assures us that it is as much
cheaper than either coal or wood, as it is better.
If that is so, there is really nothing to be desired
but some improvement in the apparatus, which
could be easily made to make cooking a pleasure,
instead of a temper-trying burden. — e. w. t.
(83)
KURSING THE SICK.
Next to the gift of healing comes, in importance,
the office of nurse. Yery few families are so cir-
cumstanced as to be sufficiently strong-handed or
skillful to nurse in cases of protracted illness,
without great weariness and loss of sleep, even if
the aid of kind neighbours and friends be proffered.
In our city a most useful institution exists, called
the " Nurses' Home," where, at any hour of day
or night, competent nurses may be obtained at
reasonable rates, as very many can attest. " The
Home" is located at 341 Race, above 9th street.
Medicine. — The only medicine which seems
needful to insert, is one which is of great benefit
in slight ailments, such as constipation, sick sto-
mach, headache, &c., and which is not, I believe,
disavowed even by that much-obtaining system —
"Homeopathy." I allude to "citrate of magnesia."
S. Simes, corner Chestnut and 12th sts., has a very
palatable article for sale. It is really a pleasant,
sparkling potion.
(84)
COOKERY FOR THE SICK.
Let every thing be sweet and clean, as their
senses of taste and smell are very acute. Let it be
presented in an inviting form ; fine China, silver,
&c., used. Be careful not to over-flavour their
food. Always have a shawl at hand ; also, a clean
towel, clean handkerchief, and a small waiter, when
you present food or drink. Many of the articles
under "dessert" are good for the sick. It is well
to have a stand or small table by the bedside, that
you can set any thing on. A small silver strainer
that will just fit over a tumbler or tea-cup, is very
useful to strain lemonade, panada, or herb tea.
If you want any thing to use through the night,
you should prepare it, if possible, beforehand ; as
a person that is sick, can sometimes fall asleep
without knowing it, if the room is kept perfectly
still.
A Vegetable Soup. — Take an onion, a tur-
nip, 2 pared potatoes, a carrot (a head of celery,
or not) : boil them in 3 pints water till the vege-
tables are cooked ; add a little salt ; have a slice
of bread toasted and buttered, put into a bowl
and pour soup over. When in season, tomatoes,
or okra, or both, improve this.
Gum Water. — J oz. to 1 oz. dissolved in
1 quart cold water. Sweeten it.
Slippery Elm Bark. — Yery good for weak
or inflamed eyes.
Coffee. — Sick persons should have their coffee
8 (85)
86 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
made separate from the family, as standing in the
tin pot spoils the flavour. Put 2 tea-spooufuls of
ground coffee in a small mug, and pour boiling
water on it ; let it set by the fire to settle, and
pour it off in a cup, with sugar and cream.
Care should be taken that there are no burnt
grains.
Chocolate. — To make a cup of chocolate, grate
a large tea-spoonful in a mug, and pour a tea-cup
of boiling water on it; let it stand covered by
the fire a few minutes, when you can put in sugar
and cream.
Black Tea. — Black tea is much more suitable
than green for sick persons, as it does not affect
the nerves. Put a tea-spoonful in a pot that will
hold about 2 cups, and pour boiling water on it. Let
it set by the fire to draw 5 or 10 minutes.
Rye Mush. — This Is a nourishing and light
diet for the sick, and is by some preferred to mush
made of Indian meal. Four large spoonfuls of
rye flour mixed smooth in a little water, and stirred
in a pint of boiling water : let it boil 20 minutes,
stirring frequently. Nervous persons who sleep
badly, rest much better after a supper of corn, or
rye mush, than if they take tea or coffee.
Boiled Custard. — Beat an e^g with a heaped
tea-spoonful of sugar ; stir it into a tea-cupful of
boiled milk, and stir till it is thick ; pour it in a
bowl on a slice of toast cut up, and grate a little
nutmeg over.
Panada. — Put some crackers, crusts of dry
bread or dried rusk, in a sauce-pan with cold wa-
ter, and a few raisins ; after it has boiled half an
hour, put in sugar, nutmeg, and J a glass of wine,
EGG AND BARLEY PANADA, ETC. 8t
if the patient has no fever. If you have dried
rusk, it is a quicker way to put the rusk in a bowl
with some sugar, and pour boiling water on it out
of the tea-kettle. If the patient can take no-
thing but liquids, this makes a good drink when
strained.
Egg Panada. — Boil a handful of good raisins
in a quart of water ; toast a slice of bread and cut
it up ; beat 2 eggs with a spoonful of sugar, and
mix it with the bread ; when the raisins are done,
pour them on the toast and eggs, stirring all the
time ; season to your taste with wine, nutmeg and
butter.
Barley Panada. — ^Boil a small tea-cup of
barley in water till it is soft, with a tea-cup of rai-
sins ; put in nutmeg and sugar, and break in it
toast or dried rusk.
Calf's Foot Blancmange. — Put a set of
nicely- cleaned feet in 4 quarts of water, and let it
boil more than half away ; strain through a colan-
der, and when it is cold scrape off all the fat, and
take out that which settles at the bottom ; put it
in a sauce-pan, with a quart of new milk, sugar to
your taste, lemon peal and juice, and cinnamon or
mace ; let it boil 10 minutes and strain it ; wet
your moulds, and when it is nearly cold, put it in
them ; when it is cold and stiff, it can be turned
out on a plate, and eaten with or without cream.
This is very nice for a sick person, and is easily
made.
Chicken Water. — If you have a small
chicken, it will take half of it to make a pint of
chicken water. Cut it up and put it to boil in a
covered skillet with a quart of water j when it has
88 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
boiled down to a pint, take it up, and put in a
little salt and slice of toasted bread. This is va-
luable in cases of dysentery and cholera morbus,
particularly when made of old fowls.
Beef Tea, &e. — Take a piece of juicy beef,
without any fat, cut it in small pieces, bruise it till
tender, put it in a wide-mouthed bottle, and cork it
tight ; put this in a pot of cold water, set it over
the fire, and let it boil an hour or more. When a
person can take but a small quantity of nourish-
ment, this is very good. Mutton may be done in
the same way.
Mutton and Veal Broth. — Boil a piece of
mutton till it comes to pieces ; then strain the
broth, and let it get cold, so that the fat will rise,
which must be taken off ; then warm it, and put in
a little salt. Yeal broth may be made in the same
way, and is more delicate for sick persons.
Wine Whey. — Boil a pint of milk, and put
to it a glass of white wine ; set it over the fire till
it just boils again, then set it off till the curd
has settled, when strain it, and sweeten to your
taste.
Oat-meal G-ruel.—Mix 2 spoonfuls of oat-
meal with as much water as will mix it easily, and
stir it in a pint of boiling water in a sauce-pan
until perfectly smooth ; let it boil a few minutes ;
season it with sugar and nutmeg, and pour it out
on a slice of bread toasted and cut up, or some
dried rusk. If the patient should like them, you
can put in a few raisins, stoned and cut up. This
will keep good a day, and if nicely warmed over,
is as good as when fresh.
Corn Gruel. — Mix 2 spoonfuls of sifted corn-
ARROW-ROOT BLACKBERRIES, ETC. 89
meal in some water ; have a clean skillet with a
pint of boiling water in it, stir it in, and when
done, season it with salt to your taste, or sugar, if
you prefer it.
Arrow-Root. — Moisten 2 tea-spoonfuls of
powdered arrow-root with water, and rub it smooth
with a spoon ; then pour on a half pint of boiling
water ; season it with lemon juice, or wine and
nutmeg. In cooking arrow-root for children, it is
a very good way to make it very thick, and thin it
afterwards with milk.
Blackberries. — Allow a pint of currant juice
and a pint of water to 6 lbs. of blackberries ; give
them their weight in brown sugar ; let them boil
till they appear to be done, and the syrup is rich.
Blackberry jelly can be made as currant jelly, and,
is good for sick children, mixed with water.
Blackberry Syrup. — The following is the
recipe for making the famous blackberry syrup.
No family should be without it. All who try it
will find it a sovereign remedy for bowel com-
plaints : — '' To 2 quarts blackberry juice add J oz.
each of powdered nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice,
^nd J oz. powdered cloves. Boil these together
to get the strength of the spices, and to preserve
the berry juice. While hot, add a pint of fourth
proof pure French brandy, and sweeten with loaf
sugar. Give a child 2 tea-spoonfuls 3 times a day,
and if the disorder is not checked, add to the quan-
tity."
Barley Water. — Take 2 oz. of pearl barley,
wash it in clean cold water, put it into ^ pint
boiling water, and let it boil for 5 minutes : pour
off this water, and add to it 2 quarts of boiling
8*
90 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
water ; boil it to 2 pints, and strain ; flavour it
with lemon juice; sweeten with white sugar to
your taste.
^ For Chapped Lips. — Put a tea-cupful of
rich cream over some coals to stew, with 3 table-
spoonfuls of powdered loaf-sugar. This has a
healing effect.
Another remedy, equally good, is to a tea-cupful
of honey, add half the quantity of mutton tallow,
and stew together till well mixed ; pour it out in a
cup, and keep stirring till cold.
For chapped hands, mix together equal quanti-
ties of rich cream and strong vinegar, and rub it
over every time you wash your hands.
Cold Water for Burns.— Mr. Seth Hunt,
of Northampton, gives the following statement of
the success of treating with cold water a severe
burn and scald in his family : — " Cold water was
applied, by immersion, till the pain ceased ; the
water being changed as often as it became warm.
The part was then kept swathed with wet banda-
ges, a dry woolen one enveloping them, until the
injury was healed. The healing was rapid, and
effected without leaving a scar. The instant relief
which the cold water gave from the excruciating
pain, was highly gratifying."
MISCELLANEOUS.
Dentrifiees. — White's Tooth Powder is very-
good. The common strawberry is said to be a
natural dentrifice, and its juice dissolves the tartar
and makes the breath agreeable. Honey and
charcoal make a good dentrifice.
To Prevent Corns. — Wear easy shoes : fre-
quent bathing the feet in warm water, with a
little salt, or potash, dissolved in it. The corn
itself may be completely destroyed by rubbing it
daily with a little caustic solution of potash. Lu-
nar caustic, touched with a hair pencil, night and
morning, also is good to cure corns.
To Remove Warts. — Sal ammoniac will
remove them ; also, lunar caustic.
For a Weak Back. — Take a beef's gall,
pour it into 1 pint alcohol, and bathe frequently.
It acts like a charm.
Cure for Corns. — Bind a piece of sponge,
moistened* in a weak solution of pearlash, on go-
ing to bed. It is said that the skin may be
brushed off in the morning, having been dissolved
by the action of the caustic. I have been entirely
cured by a poultice of bread and water, with a
little laudanum and paregoric put in, putting it on
2 nights at bed-time.
Another Cure. — Take equal parts pulverized
indigo, common brown soap and tallow : of these
make a soft ointment, by rubbing well together.
(91)
92 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
Spread it on soft leather and apply : keep it on
till relieved.
Court Plaster. — Put 4 beeves' feet into a
large quantity of water: let them boil until the
meat will leave the bone : then take them out, skim
the oil carefully off, put the liquor on again in a
smaller vessel, and boil it till it is of a suitable
consistence to spread on silk (say the thickness of
molasses) with a brush.
WINTER AND OTHEH STORES.
Yegetables are best kept on a stone floor, if the
air be excluded. Meat in a cold, dry place. Sugar
and sweetmeats require a dry place — so does salt.
Candles cold, but not damp. Dried meats, hams,
&c., the same. All sorts of seeds for puddings, soups,
&c., are best in glass jars, with close lids. I prefer
glass for every household purpose for which it is
at all suitable, its contents being seen at a glance.
It is quite cheap, if bought in quantity. Whit-
alls, Race St., near Fourth, keep jars and bottles.
Corn. — There are several methods. Cutting
off the cob after cooking 5 minutes, is one — ^then
drying in the sun. Another is to make a pickle
instead of drying it, and put in "Arthur's Cans."
The Shakers have the art.
Another Way to keep Green Corn. — Make
pickle in a barrel, as for meat. Throw into it,
from time to time, ears of unhusked sugar corn.
When you have enough, put weights to keep the
corn under, and cover the barrel. When used,
soak the ears all night, (after taking off the husk,)
and boil in a large portion of water, which must
be changed once, in boiling.
Okra. — This very desirable vegetable for soups,
should be purchased when young and small, sliced,
and dried on plates, in a cool oven, or about a
stove. Put it away in glass jars, dry.
Herbs should be gathered when they are in
blossom.
(93)
94 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
There are various ways of keeping eggs : all
those given below are good.
Greased Eggs. — Warm some fat of almost
any kind, put the eggs in ; cover them quite, take
them out and lay them in an old tin or earthen
vessel : paste them up, or better, cement with the
tin, as named elsewhere, and they will be found
good all winter.
Eggs in Lime. — Pour 2 gallons hot water
over 1 pint lime, and ^ pint salt ; when cold put
some eggs in a jar, and pour it over them ; be sure
there are no cracked ones. — r. h.
Keeping Eggs. — Having tried many ways of
preserving eggs, I have found the following to be
the easiest, cheapest, surest, and best. Take your
crock, keg, or barrel, according to the quantity
you have, cover the bottom with half an inch salt,
and set your eggs close together on the small end ;
be very particular to put the small end down ; for
if put in any other position, they will not keep as
well, and the yelk will adhere to the shell : sprinkle
them over with salt, so as to fill the interstices,
and then put in another layer of eggs, and cover
with salt, and so on, till your vessel is filled. Cover
it tight, and put it where it will not freeze, and
the eggs will keep perfectly fresh and good any
desirable length of time.
S^weet Potatoes. — These are the greatest
luxury in the way of vegetables, our tables can
offer in winter. Engage a Jersey man, in whom
you have confidence, to bring them at the proper
time in a proper state. Let them be put in the
garret of a house which has a furnace, in barrels
or boxes : let them be uncovered for several days,
TO KEEP APPLES AND PEARS. 95
with a circulation of air constantly kept up. At
the end of 4 or 5 days cover them with newspa-
pers, if the boxes have no covers. I find the
temperature most adapted to them is 60. We have
them till they come again. — e. n.
White Potatoes are hardy, and will bear the
cellar.
Lima Beans, picked ripe, and put on a garret
floor to dry; then shelled and put in bags in a
dry place, will keep. Soak them over night.
To keep Apples and Pears. — Put them
in air-tight vessels, and place them in the cellar
in a temperature between 32 and 40. In this way,
sa3'-s the " Horticulturist," these fruits may be
preserved, in perfect order for eating, all winter.
Another Way. — Wrapping each apple or pear
in paper, answers well also.
SUPPLEMENT.
Calves' Feet Pudding. — Boil the feet as for
jelly ; take 1 quart of stock, 5 eggs, cinnamon,
sugar, lemon and wine, to taste : strain it through a
thin cloth and pour it in a mould : the eggs must
be beaten light. Serve it with cream.
Winter Pudding. — 1 pint flour, 2 oz. butter,
1 tea-cupful sugar, do. milk, rind and juice of 1
lemon, 1 egg, 1 tea-spoonful soda, 2 oz. cream tar-
tar : bake -J hour.
Quince Jam, — Grate quinces which have been
pared, cored and halved : to 1 lb. quince, after
grated, | sugar : boil 20 minutes. This is very
light coloured, and if put in moulds or bowls turns
out well.
Blancmange in Eggs. — Have ready some
egg-shells, which have been broken as little as
possible ; dissolve ^ oz. gelatine in a very little
warm water, and then stir in 1 pint good milk ;
sweeten and flavour it. Boil it ^ hour, stirring
frequently. Strain it, and put it into the egg-shells
to cool. When congealed, have ready a China
or glass dish of calves' feet jelly ; break the shells
from off the mange, cut them in half, scoop out a
little of the middle, and insert some of the calves'
feet jelly to imitate the yelk. These placed over
the surface of the dish have a pretty birds'-nest
look. Cream served with it is good, but not
needful.
(96)
PEACHES UNCOOKED, ETC. 9t
Peaches Uncooked. — Procure glass jars,
(with a rim at the top, and not too thick bottoms.)
Pare and halve ripe peaches, put them into the jars,
(which must be warmed previously,) packing as
close as possible in the jars. Make a syrup of 1
lb. sugar to 1 quart water ; let it come to a boil,
then pour it over the peaches, filling the jars quite
full. Have ready some white muslin, and ^ yard
gum elastic cloth. Dip the muslin, which may be
cut in squares of one-eighth yard size, into the
syrup : then have the gum cloth ready cut, and
tie the two together with strong twine tightly
over the bottle. This was tried with entire suc-
cess, the concave lids proving the absent air. I
should think tomatoes would do well thus, if
cooked, especially. This gum cloth may be had at
gum elastic stores, at $1 25 per yard, and it will
last years, with care. — s. l.
Apple Pudding. — Take 10 eggs, beat them
very light : add 1 pint stewed and strained apple,
stir in ^ lb. butter, the juice and grated rind of
2 lemons : sugar to your taste. Bake this.
Sauce for the above. — To ^ lb. butter, 8
tea-spoonfuls white sugar, 1 egg, 1 glass of wine :
put all into a nice saucepan, and beat well toge-
ther. Set it on the fire, and stir constantly a few
minutes.
Baked Custard. — Whites and yelks of 5
eggs, 4 table-spoonfuls flour, 1 pint milk, salt ;
beat this light, then bake. Eat with sauce.
Bun Fritters.— Dip stale sliced buns in milk,
with 2 or 3 eggs beaten well, and stirred in till
completely saturated ; then fry them a light brown,
and dip them immediately in powdered cinnamon
and sugar. Serve hot. — r. j.
9
USEFUL IMPLEMENTS.
The preparation of fruit for pies is often a te-
dious operation. There is a recently invented
" Apple Parer," which pares 4 bushels of apples
per hour, and may be had at 414 Market street,
for $1 50 cents.
Milk Boiler. — It is difficult to boil good milk
without burning. A very complete article may be
had at Williams', 256 Market street, for t5 cents.
Farina Boilers are another convenience.
Roll Pans. — A very nice way of baking rolls
or bread for immediate eating, is a roll pan, hold-
ing 6 rolls — to be had at 256 Market street, for
62 cents.
Potato Masher. — There is a method of
mashing potatoes, which has an elegant effect, by
using a French article, to be had at 256 Market
street.
A Tongue Presser soon saves its own cost, and
may be had at Williams', 256 Market street, for
88 cents.
Cylinder Sausage Cutter. — Simple and
convenient. One person can cut 100 lbs. of meat
per hour with it. Wooden Cylinder, price $4 50,
warranted to work well.
Also, a Sausage Stuffer, which works with great
rapidity — costs about $4 00.
These may be had at P. Morris & Co.'s, K E.
corner Seventh and Market streets.
(98)
MISCELLANEOUS.
Table Knives and Forks. — Steel knives
are injured by being wrapped in woolen — ^brown
paper is better. The Nickel silver forks, which
are now in such general use, are very desirable,
and not expensive. They will bear constant use
for a long time, and are cleanly and labour-saving.
A beautiful article, which I know to bear constant
use, may be had at $10 per dozen, at 436 Market
street.
Plated steel knives are also a far more pleasant
implement than iron ones. In a family where
careful and neat housekeeping is observed, I be-
lieve them to be a saving of 25 per cent. They
are spared the daily scouring on a board, and need
not go into the kitchen at all, but be washed in
soap-suds, rinsed, dried on a soft napkin, and put
in the spoon and fork basket. A superior article
of the above described knife, may be had at H.
Filley's, 436 Market street, at a cost of $10 for
dinner, and $8 50 for dessert sizes.
Castors. — The best castor, for the price, which
1 know of, may be had at the above-named store.
Of course the treble plating, of either new or re-
newed ware, is always cheapest.
A Very Celebrated Cologne Water. —
6 drachms of oil of lemon, do. bergamot, 3 do.
lavender, 10 drops cinnamon, 20 drops cloves, i
drachm rosemary, 40 drops neroli, 20 drops rose,
2 drachms tincture of musk, 6 pints deodorized al-
cohol. Shake up well ; let it stand 4 hours be-
(99)
100 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
fore filtering. This recipe costs 3t cents per pint :
may be had at 311 Market street.
Cologne Water. — 60 drops oil of lavender,
60 do. bergamot, 60 do. essence lemon, 60 do.
orange water, 60 drops musk : put tliese in 1 pint
alcohol. This is a very delicate fragrance, and
may be had at 30 cents per pint, at Savery's, 311
Market street.
Bandoline. — Pour over 1 oz. quince seeds 1
pint of boiling water. Let it stand over night ;
next morning slightly boil it and strain it ; when
cold, add 4 table-spoonfuls of alcohol, and 2 or 3
of cologne, and flavour it with the oil of almonds,
or whatever you prefer. — m. e. w.
HINTS FOR WASHma AND IRONINa
DAYS.
CONCENTRATED LYE.
Hard Soap. — To 1 lb. of the Saponifier add 3
gallons of water, dissolve in an iron or copper
kettle, heat to boiling : add 4 lbs. of tallow, soap-
fat, lard or olive oil, until a clear solution of uni-
form consistency is obtained ; when the solution
has attained this point, keep on a simmer, and add
salt, in small portions, until the soap, separating
first into hard grains, ceases to froth, and forms
slabs and flakes through which the steam puffs,
when it is finished and ready to mould. If you
want to make rosin or yellow soap, take one-third
of clean rosin and two-thirds of the above quan-
tity of fat : add the rosin first, and when it is all
dissolved and taken up by the Saponifier, put in
the fat and finish up as the other.
Hard Fancy Soap. — Dissolve 1 lb. of Sapo-
nifier in 3 lbs. of water, and add thereto, stirring
the same rapidly, 4 lbs. of tallow or soap-fat,
merely liquefied — or that much lard or olive oil,
cold ; keep stirring and beating until all has as-
sumed the appearance of thick honey, cover it up
and set the batch in a warm place, or better, cover
it with a woolen blanket or a feather bed, to keep
up the heat, and let it stand for 24 hours, when it
will have set into a fine, hard soap, which may be
perfumed and variegated with colours by stirring
the desired colours or perfume into the mixture,
just before covering.
9* (101)
102 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
Soft Soap.— To 1 lb. of the Saponifier add 3
gallons of rain or soft water: set it boiling, and
then put in 4 lbs. of soap-fat or tallow. When the
solution is clear and the fat all combined, which is
seen by the disappearance of all fatty eyes or spots
on the liquid, add 12 gallons of soft or rain water;
when cold, your soap is ready for use.
For all other purposes in which potash is used,
the Saponifier will prove a cheap substitute.
Pump water softened and made fit for washing :
— dissolve 1 lb. of the Saponifier in 1 gallon of
water, and keep it for use in a well-corked demi-
john or jug ; to a tub full of pump or hard spring
water add from one- eighth of a gill to a pint of
the clear solution ; the quantity of course varies
according to the size of the tub and nature of the
water, some taking more and some less ; a table-
spoonful will generally be found enough to make 3
to 5 gallons of water fit for washing.
In all the above operations it should be remem-
bered to replenish the water, which may evaporate
while dissolving the Saponifier, or while boiling.
The soft soap, made as above, I know to be ex-
cellent. To be had at corner Chestnut and 12th
streets.
Soap for Washing Clothes, &e. — Ammo-
nia Soap. — Ammonia is a wonderfully cleansing
principle, and I am inclined to believe, enters
largely into all soaps vended, as " warranted to
take out soil and grease in silk cloth," &c. Pur-
chase 5 lbs. strong country soap, or else the home-
made soap named on preceding page, cut it into
thin pieces and put it into 1 quart strong lye : let
it get hot enough to melt, not boil; when dissolved
take it off the fire, and add 5 oz. pearl ash, and 1
SOAP FOR WASHING CLOTHES, ETC. 103
gill liquid ammonia. Have a crock or stone pot
with a lid, into which pour the hot liquid before
ammonia is put in. Cover it quickly, and- stir 2
or 3 times while cooling, keeping it covered the
while. When about to use it, take 1 lb. of it and
dissolve in a basin of warm (not hot) water,
meanwhile putting water for washing hot enough
to bear your hands ; put all together, stirring with
hand, and put in as many clothes as the water will
cover. Cover over the tub with a soiled sheet,
and let it stand 20 minutes. When you wash the
articles you will find the soil not removed, but
loose, and very little rubbing needful. The wash-
board need not be used for the ''first boil." Let
all the clothes go through this tub, adding a little
hot water, and they will be found surprisingly
clean and white. Nearly all colours in calico and
mousselines will bear it, but 'tis better to try a
piece of it first. A little beef's gall put in, sets
colours. When every article has gone through it,
do not pour it under the gate, but set it aside till
evening : water grape vines, and vegetables, and
flowers with it, and a better fertilizer is not. Also,
you may make a very useful soap of sand, by tak-
ing a pint of the soap while cooling, and mixing
enough pewter sand to adhere. Make it in cakes
and put to dry. This is good for scrubbing grease
spots, &c., and invaluable on the wash-stand to
take ink-spots from hands.
Tinware, passed through such suds, is cleansed
and polished by the process, and washbasins, &c.,
may be rinsed after, and look well.
Flannels are best put into the suds when it is
nearly or quite cold : it prevents their fulling,
somewhat. Boiling suds must be improper for
r 104 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
woolen goods, as fullers use that method to thicken
their woolen fabrics.
The great cause of flannel shrinking is, I believe,
the oil and perspiration from the pores of the
body ; therefore an article half cotton is preferable.
To make Calicoes Wash Well. — Infuse 3
gills of salt in 4 quarts of boiling water, and put
the calicoes in while hot, and leave it till cold ;
in this way the colours are rendered permanent,
and will not fade by subsequent washing.
Bleaching Liquid. — Although the ammonia
soap does not yellow clothes, it is easy to have
them new-looking, by putting into the blue rinse
water ^ tea-cupful of *' Eau de Javette," or bleach-
ing liquid — an inexpensive article, to be had at
Simes', corner Chestnut and 12th streets. If there
are stains of fruit or iron mould, put a few drops
(undiluted) on the spots, rubbing and washing off
immediately. Liquid Blue is both economical and
convenient. A good article may be had at Save-
ry's, 311 Market street.
The Patent Clothes-Drying Machine. —
This is the most simple and useful machine ever
yet invented for drying clothes. It is simply a
post erected in the centre of the yard, about 6^
feet above the surface, or of a proper height to be
out of the way of the head. In the centre of the
upper end of the post is driven an iron pin, pro-
jecting about 3 inches. A cast-iron hub, having a
hole in the centre of the lower arch of the size of
the pin, with 6 mortices or recesses at equal dis-
tances around the periphery ; the hub is placed
upon the pin in the post, the arms, 6 in number,
are placed one in each mortice or recess. The
STARCH. 105
clothes line is run from arm to arm around the
machine from 6 to 8 times, and about 8 inches
apart. The washerwoman stands on a chair, hav-
ing her basket of clothes by her side, and hangs
the small ones first on the inner line, moving the
machine around until she has hung out her entire
washing without moving her chair. Every little
breath of air causes it to revolve around ; thus the
clothes are constantly changing position — allowing
the sun and air to come to all of them alike. The
advantages are —
1. That when there are no clothes on the ma-
chine, it is out of the way of the head, and can all
be unshipped and put away, leaving nothing but
the post in the yard.
2. It will dry the clothes in a much less time.
3. There is no necessity for treading down the
plants in the yard, as only one position is neces-
sary.
4. Clothes can be hung out in much less time.
5. A person can pass around the machine to
any other part of the yard without stooping under
the clothes, as is the case when the line is strung
across the yard.
6. Their cheapness, as one can be furnished,
complete and erected, for $5 00 — if turned post
and painted, $6 00. To be had at 262 Chestnut
street
Starch. — It is economy to use two kinds of
clear starch in a wash. The Pearl starch is best
for shirts and collars, &c. Let it be smoothly
made, and well boiled. Put in a piece of sperm
the size of a walnut, to 1 quart starch. [It is a
good way to use the ends of candles, oil having
become so high ; it is cheaper and pleasanter to use
106 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
them, even for "go-about" light, where there is
gas.] The other articles in a wash do as well
with a cheaper starch, made in the above manner.
Collars may be made to look extremely well by
sprinkling them down with the other clothes the
evening before ironing, and, just as you iron them,
dipping them, one by one, for a moment in cold
water ; wring and iron them — there will be a polish
on them.
Another Way. — Put 2 oz. of gum arable to 1
pint water; when dissolved, strain it through a
cloth and bottle. Put 1 table-spoonful to each
pint of starch after it is made. This gives lawns
a new appearance : it makes laces and muslins
stiffer. When you bottle the gum, put in a piece
of corrosive sublimate the size of a pea, to prevent
its becoming sour.
Ironing. — This has, through all time, been a
wearisome, worrying process, at times, in the ex-
perience of all. The day has, I hope, nearly gone
by, when " good fires" will be kindled and kept
up, (perhaps through a whole day, while the ther-
mometer ranges at 90,) just that a family ironing
may be accomplished. In cities, where we have
gas, an elastic tube is introduced into a flat iron
made for the purpose ; and at a cost of about four
cents an hour, we have a perpetually heated flat
iron. Por those who have not gas, an equally
pleasant spirit iron, with a wick lit by alcohol,
performs the labour. They are for sale at Wil-
cox's, 273 Chestnut st. The cost is about $6.
To Cleanse Carpets. — 1 tea-spoonful liquid
ammonia in 1 gallon warm water, will often re-
store the colour to carpets, even if produced by an
acid or an alkali. If a ceiling has been white-
STAINING FLOORS, PIAZZAS, ETC. lOt
washed v/ith carpet down, and a few drops are
visible, this will remove it.
Another Way. — After the carpet is well beaten
and brushed, scour with ox gall, which will not
only extract grease but freshen the colours — 1 pint
of gall in 3 gallons warm water, will do a large
carpet. Table floor-cloths may be thus washed.
The suds left from a wash, where ammonia soap is
used, even if almost cold, cleanses these floor-
cloths well.
For Staining Floors, Piazzas, &e. — Make
a strong lye of boiled wood ashes, add as much
copperas as will stain the floor a light shade of
oak : try a little first. Put on the wash with a
mop dipped in the lye, and wet the boards well.
When varnished, this lasts a season.
For Cleansing Brushes and Combs. —
Put 1 tea-spoonful liquid ammonia into 2 quarts
warm water ; put in 1 brush at a time, rub it
about quickly, dip it all over, rinse in clear tepid
water, and wipe dry. Put in your combs several
at once (as they are not varnished), and rinse and
dry them ; fine tooth combs thus cleansed, and
just before using, cut a piece of v/hite flannel the
length of comb, and stick it through the whole
length, about half-way up. Kemove this when
your hair is combed — will keep them so.
Ants. — The large black ants may be routed by
a wet sponge, sugared : the small ones, by honey
set aboutr
Soap for Mouse Holes. — A lump of hard
soap is good to stop a rat, mouse, cockroach or
ant hole. They all hate soap.
108 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
Several Methods of Cleaning Silver
and Brass. — Cleanse silver with hot water : make
a solution of equal parts of ammonia and spirits
turpentine. Put it on with a soft cloth : while
wet, have another cloth dipped in prepared chalk,
or whiting, and go over the article : have a third
clean dry cloth to polish.
Rotten stone and camphene are good, but the
surrounding paint generally suffers if used on doors.
The very best method is to wash the articles, whe-
ther gold chains, silver teapots or plated ware, in
soft warm water, with 1 tea-spoonful liquid am-
monia to J- gallon water ; dry it, and have a lea-
ther dipped in rouge and burnish. A little rouge
goes very far. Have a tooth brush for chased
work.
There are also many good polishes sold in pow-
ders, under various names.
Another Method. — Dissolve a piece of alum the
size of a shell-bark in 1 quart strong lye : scum it
well, add soap, and wash the silver with it. — m. p.
Where the front door plates and knobs are
cleansed every morning, a little fine whiting, with
a soft rag, the breath blown a moment previously
on it, keeps them bright, and saves paint and
labour.
To take Stains out of Silver Plate. —
Steep the plate in lye 4 hours : then cover it over
with whiting wet with vinegar, a thick coat, and
dry ; after which rub off the whiting, and pass it
over with dry bran, and the spots will not only
disappear, but the plate will look exceedingly
bright.
To Eject a Cork from a Bottle.—If the
cork has been pressed into a bottle, take a strong
TO CLEAN WHITE MARBLE MANTLES, ETC. 109
twine and pass it in double ; a little turning and
the twine will enclose the cork, and so may be
drawn out.
To Clean White Marble Mantles.—
Brush them well with a brush, such as painters use,
daily, and wipe with a soft dry towel. If soiled,
dip a sponge in clean warm water and wash it,
drying with a soft towel. To clean the carved
part, wet a sponge with pumice stone, and gently
rub on, washing off with pure water, drying with
a towel: for the interstices, use a stick covered
with a towel.
To Wash Oil Cloth. — Oil cloth may be made
to have a fresh, new appearance, by washing it
every month with a solution of sweet milk with
the white of 1 beaten egg. Soap, in time, injures
oil cloth. A very little " boiled oil" freshens up an
oil cloth : very little must be used, and rubbed in
with a rag. Equal parts of copal varnish I put ;
it gives a gloss.
To Red a Yard.— Many persons put red on a
yard to cover green bricks. The green may be
removed by pouring boiling water, in which any
kind of vegetables (not greasy) have been boiled.
Persevere in this a few days, and all green will
disappear. For red colour, make a solution of 1
oz. common glue to 1 gallon water : while hot, put
in alum the size of an egg, ^ lb. Venetian red, and
1 lb. or more Spanish brown. Try a little on a
brick, let it dry, and add colour, if too light : wa-
ter, if too dark.
To Wash Silk and Ribbons in Cam-
phene. — Put a flat-iron to heat. Take 2 tea-
cups, into which put 3 table-spoonfuls fresh pure
10
110 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
camphene. Have an old tooth-brush, and a small
planed board laid on a newspaper on the table.
Lay the ribbon or tie-shawl along the board,
wetting tooth-brush with the camphene, and rub-
bing it all over the article : hardest where it is
most soiled : do this for a minute, turn over and
do likewise : put it in the tea-cup used out of, pass
it through your fingers to clean it, put it in the
other tea-cup a minute ; now have a clean cloth at
hand, on which lay the ribbons. Have your iron-
ing cloth ready, the iron just warm enough to pass
rapidly over the silk. Iron it on both sides, when
a few hours hanging in the air takes off all smell,
and they resemble new ribbon. Do not iron your
ribbon when it is too wet, but sop it a moment in
the dry cloth, and it is ready.
Durable Ink. — 100 grains lunar caustic, 1
drachm gum arable, into 1 oz. soft water. Pre-
paration water. — 1 oz. sal soda, 2 oz. soft water :
a little gum arable to stiffen the linen.
Horw to Paper a Wall.— Cut off the right
side of the pieces, measure one the height of the
wall : cut up one piece in lengths, leaving any odd
pieces for windows. Have a pine table, across
which lay several of the lengths. Begin to paste
by laying the one nearest you to the edge : paste
it well all over : double it to within ^ yard of the
top : carry it there, and have a clean towel over
your shoulder : match the figure first at the ceiling,
and use the cloth to smooth it as you pass your
hand over the whole width : let the ends of the
doubled part now fall, and keep on down smoothing
as you go, till at the wash-board cut off the paper
to fit snugly. When you wish to turn a corner,
measure what is wanted : after wetting, cut the 2
PASTE — PAINTING A ROOM, ETC. Ill
ends a bit, and crease it between the ends on the
edge of the table. Now you are ready for the
border, when the room is covered. Cut it into
lengths of Ij yards, paste it, and go up the ladder
with towel : be sure you are careful, matching it
as it belongs.
Paste. — Mix wheat flour in a pail with tepid
water. Pour boiling water on this, and it will
thicken. Before you begin the room, paste at all
the ins and outs of the wood-work little bits of the
paper. Papering a room is much less trouble and
fatiguing than many women imagine ; and there
are cases where it will be found a great conve-
nience to feel assured of success.
Painting a Room. — Get a painter to mix
the quantity of paint required. Purchase such a
brush as is sold for 20 cents ; have the surface you
intend painting thoroughly cleansed from grease
or spots ; stir the paint well, and you can proceed.
There is very little labor in this, and often may be
done to advantage by a woman. If much of a job
is undertaken, it is needful to have oil and turpen-
tine added.
Economical Paint. — Skim milk 2 quarts, fresh
slacked lime 8 oz., linseed oil 6 oz., white burgundy
pitch 2 oz., Spanish white 3 lbs. The lime to be
slacked in water, exposed to the air, mixed in one-
fourth of the milk : the oil in which the pitch is pre-
viously dissolved, to be added a little at a time ;
then the rest of the milk, and afterwards the Spa-
nish white. This quantity is sufficient for 2t
square yards, 2 coats, and the expense not more
than 25 cents.
Liquid ammonia 2 tea-spoonfuls, and a piece of
112 THE ECONOMICAL COOK BOOK.
alum the size of a shell-bark, will insure light
bread.
Stale bread is freshened by steaming it -J hour.
Never try a Ne'W Dish for Company. —
Keep a receipt book yourself, and write in it the
improvements of your own experience.
Oxalic acid will remove all stains from hands
or clothing. But it must be used with great care,
being not only a deadly poison, but tendering
every fabric, if not wetted very soon.
For rough hands in winter, rub pumice stone
gently over them. (Sand soap is better.)
Take glove fingers for vials.
To Eradicate Roaches. — I know of but
one method. Purchase a tin box of a sort of
phosphorous paste, to be had only at Glentworth's,
corner Race and Jacoby streets.
Cold Cream. — Take -J oz. white wax, do. of
spermaceti, and 3 oz. of almond oil. Put the whole
into a basin, and place it in hot water till fused :
then gradually add 3 oz. rose water, elder water,
or orange flower water, stirring all the time with
a fork or small whisk. "When cold it is fit for use.
—A. M. M.
For Colouring Sea Weed Red.— Dip the
moss into a boiling solution of 1 oz. alum in 1
pint water. Dry it. Make a solution of ^ oz.
cochineal, l oz. cream tartar, one table-spoonful
spirits hartshorn to ^ tumbler water. Dip in the
moss, wring, and dry in the shade.
Crystalized Grasses. — 9 oz. alum heated
till dissolved. Put in the grass when the alum
FOR COLOURING SEA WEED RED. 113
water is cool enough to bear the hand ; watch it,
and take it out when the crystals are large as you
wish : dry them on papero If you wish colours,
get a few powdered paints and sprinkle over, di-
rectly it comes from the water : heat alum over
when it becomes cold. — m. l, n>.
10*
CEMENTS.
Cement for the Tops of Bottles or Jars.
—Take equal parts of rosin and brick dust
pounded fine, a lump of beeswax : stew them to-
gether, and keep in an old tin, melting it when
you want to seal your bottles or jars.
To Stop Cracks in Iron Vessels. — Mix
wood ashes and salt into a paste, with a little wa-
ter : apply them, whether the vessels are cold or
hot.
Cement. — 3 parts ashes, 3 parts clay, and 1
sand, is said to make a cement as hard as marble,
and impervious to water.
Liquid glue is good for vases, &c.
Loose handles of knives and forks may be re-
fastened by making a cement of rosin and brick
dust. Heat the handle, and pour in the cement
very hot. Seal engravers do this.
Melt a little isinglass in spirits of wine, adding
one-fifth water, and using a gentle heat ; when
perfectly melted and mixed it will form a transpa-
rent glue, which will unite glass so fast that the
fracture will hardly be seen.
To take out Fruit Spots. — Let the spotted
part imbibe a little water without dipping, and
hold the part over a lighted common ]3rimstone
match, at a proper distance. The sulphurous gas
which is discharged, soon causes the spot to dis-
appear.
(114)
TO PRESERVE PENCIL DRAWINGS, ETC. 115
To Preserve Pencil Dra-wings. — Lay
them on the surface of skimmed milk : then take
up one corner till it drains and dries. The milk
must be perfectly free from cream, or it will grease
the paper.
Renovation of Manuscripts. — Take a
hair pencil, and wash the effaced part with a solu-
tion of prussiate of potash in water, and the wri-
ting will again appear, if the paper has not been
destroyed.
Cleaning Prints. — Prints which have ex-
isted for years, and perhaps centuries, transmitted
from hand to hand, passing through auctions, ex-
posed in shop windows, turned over and over
again in dealer's folios, necessarily acquire an ac-
cumulation of the dirt of ages ; and yet may not
have the ill-luck to be actually stained or soiled,
otherwise than by this gradual effect of exhibition
and use. In such cases, the chief part of the soil-
ing thus acquired, may be removed by pure water
pierely. To effect this, the print is laid, face down-
wards, in a vessel large enough to admit of the
whole paper lying quite flat ; water boiling hot is
then poured over it, sufficiently to cover it to the
depth of an inch or more. The print is allowed
to soak in the water, more or less time, according
to circumstances. By degrees the dirtiness disen-
gages itself from the surface into the water ; the
print is then taken out, and passed through fresh,
clear water, and lield or hung up, for the super-
fluous moisture to run from it : and, when this has
sufficiently taken place, it is laid between sheets
of white French blotting-paper, and covered by a
thick mill-board, weights being laid on it, so as to
have the effect of a moderate press j and it is thus
116 THE HOUSE BOOK.
left till dry. Where there is mucli soiling to be
removed, and of old standing, it may be allowable
to use, gently and carefully, a soft hair brush, while
the print is saturated with the water, to assist in
the disengagement of the impurities.
To Colour White Ribbons. — They should
first be passed through water a little acid, to whiten
them. For blue, put 1 oz. indigo into a bottle, with
3 oz. blue vitriol. Fill the bottle one-third full to
allow for fermentation : leave out the cork. Let it
stand 2 weeks before using : shake it once a day
for a week, and if too thick add water.
This mixture, with warm water and alum, will
colour any shade of blue in 5 minutes.
A little tumeric, mixed with boiling water and
alum, colours any shade of yellow ; scarlet lake
and cream tartar, any shade of pink.
A few drops of blue mixed with the pink, makes
dove colour.
To Mix White'wasli. — Pour a kettle of
boiling water on a peck of unslacked lime ; put
in 2 lbs. whiting, and i pint salt ; when all are
mixed together, put in J oz. of Prussian blue,
finely powdered ; add water to make it a proper
thickness to put on a wall.
White"wash for Buildings or Fences. —
Put in a barrel 1 bushel of best unslacked lime ;
pour on it 2 buckets of boiling water, and when it
is mixed put in 6 lbs. fine whiting ; fill up the bar-
rel with water, stir it well, and keep it covered
from the rain ; let it stand several days before
you use it, when stir it up ; thin it with milk as
you use it, and put J a pint of salt to each bucket-
ful. This makes a durable wash for a rough-cast
or frame house, or for fences ; the salt prevents it
from peeling off.
USEFUL
AND
OEMENTAL WORK.
(lit)
LEATHER WORK.
The leather used for this purpose is called
Blank Leather, by dealers. It can be had at any
Leather and Morocco store, at from 50 to 15 cents
a skin. The leaves or flowers are to be drawn
with a black lead pencil on the smoothest side of
the leather, and then cut out with a small pair of
pointed scissors — they are then to be thrown into
a cup of clear cold water until they are saturated
with moisture, when they are to be laid on a
towel, and are ready for being shaped or veined,
according to the shape and veiniug of the leaf or
flower they are meant to represent (but never, as
you love nature, according to your fancy) ; use your
ingenuity to the utmost in devising modes of im-
itating accurately, but do not try to invent other
forms than her gracious hand supplies. Most
leaves can be shaped by the finger, after the veins
have been drawn upon the damp surface, which is
best done with a rather blunt point of any thing
almost — knitting needle or steel stiletto. Many
flowers should be veined in the same manner, and
most of them can be shaped by the finger — others,
such as jasmin or convolvulus can be made cup-
shaped, by pressing a round piece of leather into
the mouth of a bottle, and drawing the edges
down tightly over the lip of it — varying the size
of the bottle to suit the size of the flower from the
smallest homeopathic, up to any size required —
they should be laid gently on a paper to dry, and
are then ready for use.
To ornament frames of all kinds, for mirrors,
(119)
120 THE HOUSE BOOK.
pictures, &c., for brackets, baskets, bonnets, &c.,
&c., they can be fastened on surfaces by nailing,
sewing (which is best when possible) or gluing.
The arrangement of them, for different purposes,
gives room for the exercise of nice taste and dis-
crimination ; be careful to use the foliage proper
to the flower, and do not surround grapes with
rose leaves, nor jasmine with grape tendrils.
If intended to represent carved wood, they may
be varnished, but they lose something of delicacy
and beauty in the process.
The varnish should be best copal, applied with
a camel's hair paint brush.
The easiest way to draw the outlines, is to cut
the intended shape out of thin pasteboard, (a visit-
ing card, for instance;) lay it on the leather and
trace round it with a pencil. — e. w. t.
To make Twigs look like Coral. — Take
clear rosin, dissolve it, and to every ounce of
whicli add 2 drachms of the finest vermilion ;
when stirred well together, choose the twigs and
branches, peeled and dried; then take a pencil
and paint the branches all over while the com-
position is warm : afterwards shape them in imi-
tation of natural coral. This done, hold the
branches over a gentle fire till all is smooth and
even, as if polished. White coral may be imi-
tated with white lead, in the same manner.
To take Impressions of Medals and
Coins, &e. — Melt a little isinglass glue with
brandy, and pour it thinly over the medal, so as to
cover its whole suface ; let it remain on for a day
or two, and then taking it off, it will be clear, and
have an elegant impression of the coin. It will
not soften in damp weather, as other glue.
LAMP SHADES, ETC, 121
Lamp Shades. — A variety of tasteful and
beautiful shades may be made, by procuring large
sheets of Bristol board, or fine map paper, cutting
it the shape of the wire frame, making a scalloped
edge and bottom, by placing a 25 cent piece on
the edge and passing a pencil round it : then,
when you have repeated this all along on both
sides, cut half of the mark away. Now, with a
shoemaker's punch strike holes in these scallops,
and you are ready to make the wreath. Autumn
leaves are elegant for this purpose : also, summer
flowers. Sea. weed has been used, and is very de-
licate and graceful. After putting on a few leaves,
&c., with gum tragacanth, put large flat-irons on
the work, and proceed. Some begin by painting
a stem all across, and attaching the leaves, break-
ing off their stems. "When you have completed
the leaves, let them lie under pressure some hours.
Cut coarse Tarlton muslin the shape, and with a
little gum tragacanth, paste it to the scallops on
both edges. Pare when dry. Join the shade care-
fully last, with gum, pressing it with a flat-iron.
Rustic Baskets. — Take a piece of wood four
inches square ; have four pieces the width of tape
three inches long. Tack these to the middle of
each side of this square, in an inclined position :
drive a tack through the top of each of these up-
rights, take a piece of wire, pass it round these
tacks and all around the basket, throw a handle
over the top of the same, secure, and break it off;
paint all green ; when dry, put arbae vitse around
inside, and on the handle, intersperse flowers,
and you have a very pretty shaped extempore
vase of flowers ; if wet, it will last long. A
piece of sponge, inserted below the flowers, keeps
11
122 THE HOUSE BOOK. '
up moisture. A novel basket for cut flowers may
be made by cutting a ripe sun-flower with quarter
yard of stem, inverting it, placing a wet sponge
below, flowers and green above, two or three toy
birds and real butterflies down the handle ; and, if
you choose, varnishing the under part. It is then
entirely water proof.
Picture Frames. — There are several ways of
making inexpensive frames. One is to have a
bookbinder's board cut into any form the picture
demands, pasting dark paper or muslin over it,
and using the Norway fir cones for covering.
Shell the larger leaves off the cone, cut them
smooth and glue them over the frame, to lie as
the shingles of a roof — or with the points inner,
and overlying each other. You may purchase
wall paper imitating several woods, and paste
neatly over a pine or other picture frame. When
dry, varnish with two coats copal, and at a dis-
tance the illusion is almost complete. Toy cot-
tages may be made in this way, of binders^ board
cut into cottage form, with deep gables, glass
pasted inside for windows, papering the sides, &c.,
then gluing on the roof, and afterwards the cones.
Give two coats of copal varnish, when dry.
Moss Basket. — Procure the beautifully green
hanging moss from trees. Make a shallow flang-
ing basket of pasteboard : sew this moss within
and without ; keep it as a receptacle for the choice
autumn gatherings of wood and field. It is very
pretty.
Potichomania. — Potichomania is the art of
giving glass the appearance of ornamented porce-
lain. Cut out carefully the designs which you
COTTAGE FURNITURE. 123
wish to employ. Arrange them on a table as you
wish them to appear in your Potiche. Apply
with a brush some gum in the inside of the Po-
tiche, over the whole surface you wish to fix your
cutting ; put in your cutting with care, and press
every portion of it firmly to the glass, being care-
ful to press out every particle of air. When your
Potiche is entirely decorated, you will see that
every thing is well secured ; apply a coat of gum,
and smooth down the paper ; let it dry at least
six hours, and again assure yourself that all is per-
fectly smooth ; give the inside of the Potiche an-
other thorough coat of gum ; let it dry again, during
at least 6 hours. It may then be painted any colour
desired, by either pouring the paint into the Po-
tiche, and running it around, or using a brush.
If a second coat of paint should be desired, let
the first become perfectly dry before the second is
applied. When carefully made, as handsome
vases can be produced as the imported, and at
one-tenth the cost. All the materials may be pro-
cured at Keller & Bright's, S. W. corner Fourth
and Chesnut streets. These vases cost from 20
cents to $5. Pictures, per sheet, from 25 cents to
$2 50. Paint and gum, 25 cents per bottle.
Brushes 25 cents.
Cottage Furniture — A number of inexpen-
sive, convenient articles, may be 'made with a little
ingenuity and calico, or mousseline, or moreen.
If you have cane-seat chairs, which have become
broken in the canes only, old merino or cloth may
be tacked over, (putting thick muslin between,)
then narrow gimping over the tacks. Give the
chairs previously a washing in ammonia soap-suds,
124 THE HOUSE BOOK.
and a coat of copal varnish, and you have reno-
vated them at little labour and cost.
For Seats, — If you have an old hair trunk, it
may be converted into a pretty and useful seat, by
covering it with merino or moreen ; one on either
side of a bed is useful for shoes and bonnets. You
can get a neat table, and place for soiled clothes,
by dressing a barrel with pink or blue chintz and
lace over it, or furniture calico. Another way, is
to get a carpenter to make you the frame for an
hour-glass table. Dressed with furniture chintz,
and pockets all round the top, it makes a very
useful sewing table, for city or country.
A Divan. — An exceedingly useful couch may
be had at small cost, by having a carpenter to
make a frame of common stuff, 6 feet long, 28
inches wide, and 12 inches high. Have a sloping
side-piece and head-piece cut out of a board : let
the head-piece be 1 foot high, tapering to the
whole width of couch : let the side-piece taper
from the head : let this be 3 feet long. Have
slats nailed across the bottom, or girth passed
through holes bored in the sides. Let the side-
piece and end be upholstered first, and nailed on :
make a thick mattress of hay or straw for the
bottom, and another of hair top. Cover with
calico — a frill to reach the floor. There must be
castors. One half of this divan may run under a
bed, if the room is small. The best way to make
a comfortable affair of it, is to let an upholsterer
stuff it, and put in springs. This makes an addi-
tional cost of 3 dollars.
Bonnet Cases. — On leaving home, the trans-
fer of a dress bonnet is often a difficulty. A neat
article to carry a bonnet with caps inside of it, is
MAKING SHOES. 125
made Tby cutting a thick pasteboard into a half
circle, first cutting a paper pattern that shape,
which will enclose the face : cut 2 of these alike :
cut a strip deep enough to enclose the bonnet :
try it by putting in your bonnet. Get dark quiet
coloured glazed paper, baste it over the paste-
board, bind with ribbon the colour, make a lid
to fit of the same, sew all together, and a loop or
two, with button, will secure it from dust or wet.
If you do not mind size, a bag of silk could be
sewed to the top to hold any small light article,
thereby avoiding the risk, in travelling, of losing
small parcels.
Another way is to procure a square box, with
lid; make sides of Holland the height required
for bonnet, have 4 pieces of wood the same height
to stand in the comers, and you have a box which
can be flattened at pleasure ; put into a trunk, and
used at sea-side hotels, &c., where closets, &c.,
are not.
Making Shoes. — ^Women may make slippers
and gaiters, by purchasing a last, and the imple-
ments sold at "Finding stores." Rip up an old
gaiter ; cut out and make your uppers like it ; sew
on tips of patent leather. Wet your sole, tack it
wrong side out to the last, in three places. Tack
the middle of your upper to the middle of instep
of last, have a borer and a waxed end, and sew all
round the shoe. When done, pound down the
stitches with a hammer, turn the shoe, put it on
the last again, pound the edges hard all round,
and leave till dry. Next day you can make the
other. Paste a linen sole lining ; or better, put
in old thin soles, as the ones you make must ne-
cessarily be so. One can make satin or kid slip-
11*
126 THE HOUSE BOOK.
pers very easily, at a most trifling cost : they will
do for the parlour of an evening.
Making a Dress. — " Machine sewing" will
do all parts of a dress, except button-holes ; and you
may make your own body linings fit, by ripping
the baste out of one on which your dressmaker is
at work, laying it on strong brown paper, cutting
and creasing, just where her seems are, and next
time doing it yourself.
Children's Toys. — It is interesting, when on
a journey, or in the country, to gather moss,
acorns, shells, sea grass, &c., and on returning
have a cottage made of binders' board, and these
glued or sewed on. They serve the double pur-
pose of a remembrance for yourself, and a plea-
sure for children.
Toy Scrap Books. — It is well to save child-
ish pictures, and wood-cuts of various kinds, (many
of which give children an excellent idea of places,)
and paste them into one of those large calico or
worsted pattern books, which are called sample cards,
and are of little use at the stores, after their season
has passed. These books are lasting, and give
much pleasure to children. Another way is, to
select fancy-coloured muslin, then forming into
leaves hemmed at the edges, upon which pictures
may be pasted. Sew six of these together, and
then join them. A stiff piece of pasteboard, co-
vered with muslin, forms a nice binding.
Dolls' Hats and Bonnets. — These articles
may be made in gay coloured crotchet cotton, or
wool, by the same receipts as are given for larger
size in this book. A doll boy's hat is made by
putting two stitches in one, when you come to the
GUTTA PERCHA, ETC. 12T
rim, then going round a few times, and finish.
Starch them, and dry a bonnet on a tea-cup or
bowl, and a hat on any circular article the size.
Gutta Pereha. — A great amusement, blend-
ed with design, may be offered children, by pur-
chasing a piece of gutta pereha, and allowing them
to melt it in hot water, and form it into shapes of
animals, &c. It will teach, while it amuses.
For Knitting Pitcher Purses. — Set on 8
stitches to form 8 points : knit a round plain,
then another, throwing the silk before the needle
at each stitch. The next plain, putting on 8
beads, which must be pulled through the stitch
on to the right side. The next widen again 8
times, then a plain round with 2 beads at each
point, and so on, until 9 heads are on. 'Now you
are done widening. Then another plain round,
and another of 9 beads : when you begin to de-
crease, 2 at every point, till it is finished.
Knit 2 plain rounds before beginning purse
stitch, putti^jg on 2 beads at once, every other
one, so as to form diamonds, until 20 rows are
knit: then 2 rows of beads round and round,
knitting a plain round after each. Kib 2 and 2
to form the neck, 26 rounds : then take off 6
stitches for the handle to form the spout ; knit
backwards and forwards ; take off 2 stitches at
the end of the needle till but 18 remain, narrow-
ing twice every other round as the beginning of
each needle, just as you finish. Knit to the place
for the handle, make 6 stitches ; then a plain
round, a row of beads, another plain round, an-
other row of beads, and then take them off. For
handle knit the first stitch, then put on 5 beads,
slip to the other end of needle, and a plain row,
128 THE HOUSE BOOK.
and so on till long enough. Put on the ring and
sew just below the 2 rows; sew up the side; put a
tassel on the bottom. — m. a. c.
To Knit a Boy Doll.— Of zephyr i oz. for
jacket : i oz. for pants : 3 skeins for cap — 3 flesh
colour, 2 black, 1 white. Set on 35 stitches for
the pants : knit 20 rounds plain. Narrow alter-
nately at each end of needle. Narrow 4 times,
knitting 3 rounds between each. Narrow t times,
knitting 2 rounds between each. Narrow every
round till there are 18 stitches. Take 9 stitches,
and join on the white zephyr ; knit 1 row plain,
the next seam, till there are 11 rows. Join the
black to the other 9, and knit T rounds for the
heel. Take up 8 stitches on each side, and nar-
row every other round till there are 10 stitches.
Knit as long as the white, and then knit round
and round, one round seam and one plain, narrow-
ing off at the toe. Knit 2 of these, sew each one
up separately as far as it is narrowed, and join
them together by the other part.
For the jacket set on TO stitches ; knit 4 rounds
for the polka ; knit this to the top of the pants,
with 4 needles : knit 1 row plain, the next seam,
and so on. Narrow 4 on each side to form the
hips ; knit 18 rounds, then divide in half, and 8
rounds will form the arm-hole. To form the
shoulders, narrow 1 at each end of the needle, till
there are 14 stitches. Take up 6 stitches at the top
of the arm-hole, and widen by throwing the thread
before the beginning of the needle, till there are 24
stitches. Knit 13 rounds. Narrow 6 times, knit-
ting 2 rounds between each. Narrow every round
till there are 12 stitches. Head-knit 5 rows to
the thumb, widening 2 under it. Take 4 middle
TO KNIT A BOY DOLL. 129
stitches, and knit on 2 needles, like guard chain,
7 or 8 rows. Knit 2 or 3 rows, and then knit 4
fingers like the thumb. Head-knit on 4 needles
6 or 8 rows ; widen 4 under the mouth ; widen 1
on each side behind, till there are 54 stitches.
Knit plain up to the top of the nose, then take 3
stitches with 2 other needles, and widen by throwing
the thread before the needle, till there are 8 stitches ;
8 or 9 rows make it long enough. Take up the
3 stitches at top of nose, and knit round 6 rounds
till high enough for the forehead. Work the eyes,
cheek and mouth, with suitable colours ; then stuff
with cotton. Hair is knit with 5 stitches plain,
and binding off 2 ; press it with a wet cloth, and
unravel the other 3 ; 2 or 3 rows of this sewed on
the back of head.
The cap, set up 50 stitches; knit 4 rounds, and
then narrow one at each end of needle till none left ;
sew up and trim with cord. Or a crotchet cap is
pretty. Collar : 40 stitches, 5 or 6 rounds ; then
a strip for the front of jacket, 32 stitches, 4 rounds,
and knit on it, and 6 buttons put on it. — m. a. c.
KNITTING, NETTING,
AND
CROTCHET.
(130)
A FEW EECEIPTS FOR KNITTING.
A Sha"wl. — Purchase 4 oz. of split zephyr,
(some prefer the Shetland wool.) Get 1-J oz. of
this, of some quiet colour, for border : the rest,
white. Cast on 400 stitches (upon large needles)
of the colour ; narrow once in the middle of these
stitches, which are all placed on 1 needle ; narrow
also at the end of every row ; have your coloured
zephyr divided into 4 parts ; use up ^ at first,
then knit in as much white as you have coloured ;
then use the other I of coloured, return to the
white, and go on ; it is better to put in a red
string to note the middle, as the narrowing in the
middle must be regular. You finish with 1 stitch ;
now ^ the shawl is made ; begin, and do another
like it. Sew them together, it does not show,
and your job is far less burly and discouraging.
A split zephyr shawl, 2 yards square, costs little
over one dollar — a Shetland, half that. A col-
oured one made thus, of whole zephyr, would be
strong and beautiful, but heavier. Small ties
for head are made as above, casting on 150
stitches, and finishing the neck by taking up the
loops and putting on a border all round.
Another. — A very pretty stitch for small work
is made thus — Knit 1, knit 2 together : then draw
the first stitch over the second, throw the thread
over the needle : knit 3, throw the thread over
the needle. Wrong side, heel. In the third
round take care to knit for the 3 plain stitches, the
2 loops, with the narrowed stitch, between them.
Another. — Knit 3 plain stitches ; draw the first
(132)
A STAR PURSE, ETC. 133
over the other two, throw the thread over the
needle, knit three, draw the first over the second,
and throw the thread over the needle. Wrong
side, heel. In third round, put the hole in middle
of the three plain stitches.
A Star Purse. — 57 stitches on the needle, of
green purse silk ; knit 1 row, heel ; second row,
knit the first 8 plain, bind the first of these 3
over the other 2, put the thread in front of the
needle, and so on, in the same manner. Change
the colour to white, after every seam row. — m. a. b.
Mufflers. — Cast on 66 stitches of zephyr; rib
it 2 and 1 ; knit thus for about 3 inches. Cast
off, and net into the top 66 nets ; go around the
second time by putting 2 into one j make a few
more, and finish. — m. m.
Gaiters. — Cast on 90 of dark or black tapes-
try ; knit a few rows garter, and make holes for
strings. (You do this by knitting two together,
throwing over the thread ;) put it into ribs, 2 and
2, narrowing every 9 rows at each end, till long
enough to reach ankle ; then divide the whole into
3 parts, leaving ^ front, the rest on either side ;
put in another needle, cast on 46 stitches on the
instep, and shape the front piece to your shoe,
narrowing off at the side.
Infant's Socks. — Cast on 24 stitches on each
3 needles ; rib 1, slip and bind ; make T, and knit
t also ; narrow 1 and rib ; do this times enough
to have 11 holes deep ; put in coloured zephyr,
rib every 5 rounds ; make 5 ribs deep for heel,
narrowing it as in a tiny stocking. When the heel
is taken up, let there be narrowing to 38. Nar-
row 9 on the white instep before joining it to
12
134 THE HOUSE BOOK.
zephyr. Make 4 ribs before narrowing off toe,
beginninj^ with 6 and 6 betw^een ; let there be 20
holes from top to end of instep.. — a. b.
A pretty quick-made Sock. — Cast on 81
stitches; knit 11 rows like garter, narrow and
widen all across for holes ; knit 2 rows more ; knit
9 rows and bind off ; commence at the back of
sock, knit the 11, take up the 9 on instep, then
cast on 1 1 at the end of needle ; knit 9 more rows,
narrow on the 10th, 11th and 12th; bind off.
Commence at the toe and take up 11 ; take up 1
on instep, draw the Uth over 12th, leaving 11 ;
knit 9 rows across, take up tte 9 on the opposite
side : then knit the 11 rows, then the 9 ; narrow
on the 10th, 11th, 12th. Bind off.— m. e.
A Round Guard. — Cast on 4 stitches ; knit
them, then slip them to the other end of needle,
and pull the first stitch tightly. This makes a
round string, and soon done.
For Knitting Shoes. — Cast on 24 stitches,
3 rows thrown up and 4 knit plain, for 31 ribs.
Throw on 24 for the instep, finishing the toes with
19 ribs. Commence narrowing the 4th rib from
the instep, narrow once at each end of the needle
on every plain row, for 3 rows ; then narrow every
plain and every rib until it is small enough, leav-
ing 27 stitches at the end. Take up the stitches
at the top for the edge, according to fancy. 1 oz.
of worsted for a pair of shoes.
Directions for Knitting an Infant's
Cap. — Cast 45 stitches of double zephyr on a
wooden needle ; knit 4 times across the needles ;
then slip off the first stitch, turn the zephyr twice
round the needle, and knit two together ; continue
WASH MITTEN, ETC. 135
this to the end of the needle, then 4 times across ;
then the narrowing and widening row, or the.
zephyr wound twice round the needle, and the
stitches, after you knit 4 rows of holes, and 4
plain rows, then take 10 stitches off each end
of the needles, and tie them up to prevent them
running down ; then knit the remaining 25
stitches with the 4 plain rows, and the row of
holes between ; on the third row of holes narrow
1 stitch, on the middle of the needle; on the
fourth row of holes, narrow 1 stitch on the middle
of the needle ; on the fifth row of holes, narrow 2
stitches on the middle of the needle ; on the sixth
row of holes, narrow 2 stitches on the middle of
the needle. Then knit 3 rows of plain knitting,
when you come to the end of the third row ; then
take up the stitches along the side of the crown
and knit up the 10 stitches you tied up ; then
knit back, and take up the stitches on the oppo-
site side of the crown, and the 10 stitches you
tied up ; then knit a row of holes, and 4 plain
rows ; continue this until you arrive at the sixth
row of holes, when you widen 1 stitch on each
side of the needle ; then widen two stitches on
the seventh needle, widen 3 stitches on the eighth
row of holes, and widen 4 stitches on the ninth
row of holes ; then knit 4 rows of holes, and the
4 plain rows between — 4 plain rows complete the
cap. Put cotton in the hem.
Wash Mitten.—Cast on 50 of IS'o. 8 tidy
cotton : make it J yard long, narrowing 4 or 5
times at the end of last rows. Sew it up, all but
a thumb-hole. — e. n.
Tidy Edging.— Cast on 9: knit the first 3
stitches plain, leaving 6 at the left end : turn in the
136 THE HOUSE BOOK.
cotton, knit 2 together, do again and again : turn in
the cotton, and the 2 last, plain : next row plain :
continue the above till 9 holes are made ; then
knit 2 plain rows between, and reverse it, by nar-
rowing after the first stitch is knit, where you wi-
dened before, and throw over the thread just as
above. — m. e.
Chair Tidy. — Cast on 11*7 stitches : knit the
first 3 rounds like a stocking : slip the first stitch
loosely, narrow the next 8 to 4 : make a stitch, knit
a stitch, and so on till there are 1 made stitches :
make a stitch, narrow 1, and go on as it is com-
menced : knit 3 rounds between this. Get No. 8
cotton — ^ lb. makes 2.
Honey-comb Stitch.— Knit 3 rows so as to
be all pearled (or heeled) on the right side : then
slip off 2, and knit 3 all across : do this 5 times
in succession : then again pearl the 3 rows, knit-
ting all the stitches, when these 3 rows are made.
There will be occasional widening or narrowing
needful in this stitch, at the end of needle, as it is
not right without there are 3 on the end, when
commenced with 3 ; or narrowed to 2, when 2 is
the commenced number. Upon beginning every
other figure, you must reverse it, as above said.
This makes a rich bureau or table cover, but is
tedious. — L. A. s.
Lily Bell. — 6 plain, 4 seamed between them,
go all across : begin by seaming 4 ; then cast
on 6, knit 4, seam, and so on across. Do this for
9 rows : then narrow each side of bell till there is
but 1. Begin another row of bells by seaming
4 : cast on 6, as above : then seam 1, narrow 1.
and there are 4 between, as above. Go on in this
way till the toilet cushion is done. This is a very
beautiful stitch.
NETTma.
This is convenient for pick-up work, or parlour,
evening or conversation work ; the operation be-
ing only mechanical, and not requiring much sight
or attention.
A Sha"wl. — 60 loops cast on : 2 rows of a
colour, using 6 shades of zephyr : the same num-
ber of white, make 10 stripes for centre. For the
border in the first row put 3 loops in each mesh :
on the fourth and fifth from the point behind, put 3
in each mesh : then the first, second and third from
point, put 4 in each mesh : in the point, put 5.
At the commencement of each row of the border
widen 1. This shawl takes T oz. tapestry; the
centre one has a mesh three-fourths of an inch
deep : that which goes round last but one, being
two and a half do.
A Very Elegant Tidy — Is made by casting
on 60 loops, and narrowing down to 1 ; break it
off and begin at the 60, tapering off that side.
The mesh used first row should be a degree less
in size, to allow for the loop being removed. If
40 sewing cotton is used, and the tidy darned in
figures or flowers, you have a lace-like affair.
Bottle Stand. — Put on 25, with a mesh the
size of a dress whalebone : 6 rows of these ; then
put two into every one, and make 10 rows ; then
do not widen, but put in a large mesh ; make 16
rows with 8 shades — 1 row of each shade, and re-
verse it ; finish it off as you commenced. This
made of green, shaded, is moss-like and beautiful.
12* (13t)
138 THE HOUSE BOOK.
A Tidy, which has an unusual effect, may be
made by netting straight along (the size you wish),
with a small whalebone, and every row missing 1
loop, and taking and netting the next ; being care-
ful to alternate at the beginning of row. It is best
to put in a red mark, which you did last. Use 40,
spool cotton.
CROTCHET.
It is impossible to enumerate the beautiful and
useful articles which may be made with this little
implement — the crotchet needle. It is peculiarly
convenient — takes up no room, and mostly can be
when and where no other work would be admis-
sible. It may be made to fill up those tedious
" waiting" moments known to all our experience.
A Table Cover. — Procure ^ lb. 'No. 8 tidy
cotton : cast it on by making a chain of 5, link-
ing it, widening as for a mat, and putting in any
patterns to form a variety. These are pleasant be-
neath a gas-burner, and either save a costly cover,
or hide a shabby one.
Crotchet Bonnet. — 5 spools, No. 8 crotchet
cotton ; begin at crown, widen till 14 rounds are
completed ; then do 9 plain rounds ; then widen 1
in every 10, on the tenth round ; then put in a
black thread to mark the middle of the back.
There must be 12 stitches left in the middle of
back, and the thread begun on the right side —
commencing the first 3 or 4 stitches in single
crotchet, break off the thread at the end of the
rows. Begin next row 2 off from the last, stop-
ping do. : do this T times, which gives slope
enough for the neck. Now the face is to be
begun, by beginning at the first stitch and widen-
ing 1, also at the last : break off the thread each
row : do this while making 18 rows. You are
now ready for finish of face and cape. Crotchet
all round the bonnet 10 times, widening once in
(139)
140 THE HOUSE BOOK.
every 10 stitches on each row ; also, when you
come to the ears, doing all behind single crotchet.
The bonnet is double, and looks more chip-like
made on wrong side. This bonnet can be done
up at home to look well. Borrow a block from
your milliner, first putting the bonnet in the wash,
then starching stiffly and rough-dry: save some
of the starch, and when dry dip again, and rough-
diy. Then have the block ready, put the bonnet
in clear cold water a moment, wring it out dry and
block it, putting pins at the ears and ends. Set
in a chair in the sun, throwing a lace over it to
save soil, while drying.
Another, open work. — Cast on 4 loops, widen
for 18 rows : then do 20 rows without widening :
then drop It loops and do 32 rows, widening at
each ear : then 4 rows all round the i3onnet, (save
just behind :) then 1 round the face of larger
loops. — c. s.
A very pretty finish to crotchet table covers and
cake tidies is, to make a chain of 5 : then make a
bag in single crotchet large enough to hold a
cherry stone ; put it in and work over it.
Crotchet Shawl. — 5 oz. Shetland wool ; cast
on a chain as long as you wish the shawl in size.
Put 4 double crotchet into 1 : leave 2 between,
and repeat this all across : next row do the very
same into the centre of the 4 double crotchet
stitches all across. You will find a very coarse
needle will make the work more open and elegant.
Crotchet all round any pattern you wish, in any
colour. Here is a useful shawl for 62 cents.
STRAY RECIPES AND USEFUL
ARTICLES.
One of the " minor miseries," in our houses, is
an army of ants. A chemist informs me they may
be routed by making a solution of corrosive su-
blimate 1 oz., sal ammoniac 1 oz., water 8 oz.
Mix and dissolve. Apply this with a hair pencil,
to all the places where they "most do congregate."
Flies. — It is all a mistake — ^the use of cobalt
and fly paper, &c. They like it, eat it, and die ;
but scores of other flies come to the funeral, who
else would not. It is far better, on pleasant days,
to burn pepper, or any spice, on a shovel, in the
room. They hate spices, and will flee.
Hints for Seamstresses. — Sewing cotton,
such as comes for the use of " Wilson's Sewing
machines," and called " waxed cotton," is very
pleasant to sew with, there being no need of wax.
Needles. — The best sewing needles now in
use, are said to be "Bate's."
Moths. — Drawers or wardrobes, where wool-
ens are kept, should be occasionally emptied, and
left open to the influence of fresh air and sun-
shine, and all the corners cleared from dust.
This, and taking care never to put away clothes
damp, will be most likely to prevent the moth.
Bake Irons. — The smell of griddle cakes
baking, may be avoided by the use of a soap-stone
griddle, it requiring to be greased once, and only
once. Costs $1.
(141)
142 THE HOUSE BOOK.
Nuts at Table. — These may be cracked easily
and rapidly, by the use of Blake's Nut Cracker.
Costs 50 cents.
Moist Bread. — There is a nice box of Ja-
panned tin, now in use, for keeping bread and
cake from the air, (which always dries both.)
Costs from $1 to $3.
Laundry Iron. — This is a complete iron for
small articles, both ends pointed, and the face
highly polished. Costs 31 cents.
Iron Holders. — Sheet iron next the handle ;
stuffed, and buckskin next the hand. Cost 25
cents.
Liquid Polish. — Embrie's liquid polish, for
brass, Britannia and tin-ware, performs what it
promises. It is excellent. Costs 25 cents per
bottle. — All the above named articles may be had
at E. W. Carryl's House Furnishing store, 162
Chestnut street.
Clough's Premium Furniture Polish. —
In use by some of our best cabinet makers. Costs
3Y cents per bottle, and may be had of J. S.
Clough, 138 Chestnut street.
Premium Liquid Stove Polish. — This is
not only more convenient than the powder, but
will bear to be applied while the stove is hot,
easily taking a polish, and emitting a pleasant
smell. For grates or portmantles, thin it a little
with soft water. Costs 25 cents.
Almanac. — This fancy instrument is about
the size of a ten dollar gold piece, and richly gilt.
It is so constructed, that by adjusting on the first
day of the month, you can tell at an instant's
SILVER GLASS DOOR KNOBS, ETC. 143
glance the day of the month and week. It answers
for not only a year, but for all coming time. It
is pretty for a Caba. Costs 25 cents. Can be
purchased at J. S. Clough's, 138 Chestnut street.
Silver Glass Door Knobs. — These are a
most desirable article for street and parlour doors.
Requiring no cleansing, they are always bright and
elegant. Being covered with glass, however,
they will not bear a blow, but with care will last
for years. They cost $1 15 for front door, and $1
12^ for bell pull. May be purchased at Dilworth,
Branson & Co.'s, IS Market street.
Cooking Extracts. — These, in a highly con-
centrated form, are both economical and conve-
nient. Rose, lemon, vanilla and bitter almond, are
desirable in cooking. They may be had at Rush-
ton's, 170 Chestnut street.
Rose and Teaberry Tooth Paste.^ — These
are said to contain nothing injurious to the teeth,
and are purifying and fragrant.
Antimephitic Aromatic Vinegar. — This
is desirable for sick rooms and crowded halls, be-
ing fragrant and reviving. Yerbena water is also
a desirable article for the sick room.
Chapped Hands. — There is a nice prepara-
tion called "Amandine," which is very desirable
for the toilet in winter.
The Transparent Ball Soap is the best for ordi-
nary use on the toilet. For shaving, the " Sa-
ponaceous Compound" finds great favour, where
used. These may all be had at Rushton's, (late
Jules Hauel,) 110 Chestnut street.
144 THE HOUSE BOOK.
Potiehomania — Is the art of imitating the
painting on glass or China, and it is truly the imi-
tation of the most elegant of the Chinese porce-
lain, Sevres, Japanese or Etruscan vases, and with
care they are so closely imitated that none but
connoisseurs can discover, at first sight, the differ-
ence. The work is very beautiful and very simple,
and the materials far its manufacture are few and
inexpensive. First choose some coloured figures,
representing birds, flowers, &c., rich and clear in
their colours. The ground colour of the Chinese
porcelain, is, in general, a greenish white: the
Sevres, a bluish white : while the Etruscan is almost
a cane colour. A pair of very fine pointed scis-
sors will be needed, and a sharp penknife. Have
ready your vase, select your figures, and proceed
to cut them out of the sheet with the scissors,
keeping very close to the work ; a trifle within is
better, for no white edges must be seen. After
they are all cut, arrange them on a sheet of paper
in the way and the place they are to occupy in the
vase ; afterwards gum them very evenly and care-
fully on the coloured side. Let them lay until
the gum rather thickens, and the paper softens :
then take them up carefully, and place them in
their proper place on the inside of your vase.
Press them carefully, with a bit of old linen rag,
tight to the glass, and exclude all air from be-
tween them and the glass ; otherwise bubbles will
be formed and the work will be spoiled. When all
are arranged, wipe away the gum that has touched
the glass, and all soil and finger marks. After all
is dry and clean, varnish the back of the prints
with the gum ; when this is quite dry, paint the
inside of the vase the colour you have selected,
not by using the brush in the ordinary way, but
POTICHOMANIA. 145
by gently touching the inside, as if by a constant
succession of taps; if not, the prints may be
loosed from their places. The antennae of the
butterflies, and many other parts, may be put in
gold, or by drawing the parts in gum-water, and
passing gold bronze over them. This must be
done before the ground is laid. Use all your
colours clear and bright : the brighter they are the
better they will appear, and where gold is used,
the shell, or prepared gold of the artists' kind.—
ANN s. STEPHENS. (See page 121.)
13
HINTS FOU MAKING A CITY GARDEN.
Many of the yards in cities are small, and not
much visited by the sun. By a little attention,
even a shady yard with " raoss-covered" bricks,
may be made to show other signs of verdure than
this, by planting such shrubbery as will not only
bear the shade, but do better there. To remove
the green from bricks, as well as directions for
reddening them, see page 109.
The garden implements needed, are^ — a light
hoe, a garden trowel, a watering pot, and a vari-
ety of seeds, roots and bulbs, which can be ob-
tained at any of the florists'.
Prepare the soil, if clayey, by putting on a cov-
ering of sand 3 inches deep, and the same depth
of well-rotted manure. Spade it in as deep as
possible, and mix it well. Ashes are good for all
kinds of soil, as they loosen those which are close,
hold moisture in those that are sandy, and destroy
insects. The best kind of soil is that which will
bold water the longest, without becoming hard
when dry.
For Pot Plants. — Take one-fourth common
soil, one-fourth well- decayed manure, and half ve-
getable mould from the woods. Break up the
manure, sift it .through a coarse sieve, mix the
materials thoroughly.
Planting Seeds. — Never plant when the soil is
very wet. When the seeds are small many should
be planted together, that they may assist each
other in breaking the soil. Never water with very
(146)
TRANSPLANTING, ETC. I4t
cold water. It is best to plant seeds at two dif-
ferent times, lest the first should fail, owing to wet
or cold weather.
Transplanting. — Transplant at evening, or
just before a shower. Set them a little deeper
than before, and press the soil firmly round them.
Water and cover them a day or two. If the soil
just around has not been removed, transplanting
retards but little.
To Re-pot House Plants. — Renew the soil
every year, soon after the time of blossoming.
Prepare soil as above. Loosen the earth from the
pot by passing a knife round the sides. Turn the
plant upside down, remove the pot, and remove all
the matted fibres at the bottom, and all the earth
except that which clings to the roots. From
woody plants, like roses, shake off all the earth.
Take the new pot and put a piece of broken earth-
enware over the hole at the bottom, and then
hold the plant in a proper position, shake in the
earth around it. Now pour in the water to settle
the earth, and heap in fresh soil till the pot is full.
Small pots are better than large ones, as the roots
are not so likely to rot from excess of moisture.
Bulbs, &c. — Plant the crocus in 10th mo.
(Oct.) ; cover 2 inches deep and 4 apart. Hya-
cinths at the same time, 8 inches apart and 3 or
4 deep, in a rich soil, jonquils at the same time,
2 inches deep. These should not be taken up oft-
ener than once in 3 years. Narcissus also, in this
month, 4 inches deep, covered with straw and
leaves through the winter, and uncovered the
middle of 3d mo., (March.) Plant tulips in rich
soil at this time, 3 inches deep. Plant tube roses
148 THE HOUSE BOOK. ^
late in the 4tli mo,, (April,) in a rich soil. They
are delicate and should be covered, in case of
frosts. Daffodils should be planted 2 inches deep.
Bulbs, in glasses, must have the water changed
every week.
When they have done flowering, they should be
dried, and put in a dry place till 10th mo., (Oct.,)
when they are to be re-planted, taking off the off-
sets, and putting them in a bed by themselves.
Annuals. — These should be so planted that
the tallest may be behind, and flowers of similar
colour should not be near each other. Many of
one kind are prettiest together.
Verbenas. — These flowers are now very po-
pular. It is best to plant them out in 4th mo.,
(April,) watering them in dry weather, and they
will flower profusely, lifting some of the plants be-
fore frost, for winter flowering. They ought to
be allowed to run according to their nature, for if
tied up, they will not do so well, being in that
way much exposed. The purple kind, left out,
wdll survive the winters of Philadelphia.
Pot Plants. — The best situation for plants, in
pots, is to shade them from the sun, and fully ex-
posed to the air while blooming. Myrtles and
Oleanders are very subject to the white scaly in-
sect, and before the heat of summer begins they
should be well cleansed.
Plants coming into Flo"wer. — Examine
the beds and keep down the weeds. A garden
well kept is easily kept. Paint green all the sticks
which are to be used as props. Sixpence worth
of green paint refreshes thrice its cost.
Daisies may be planted out in shady places : the
CLIMBERS ANNUAL CLIMBERS, ETC. 149
sun destroys them during summer, if exposed.
Hydrangeas do well in the shade, and will bloom
in summer, even if left out in the winter.
Climbers. — The most beautiful perennial climb-
ers are sweet-scented monthly honeysuckle, white,
yellow, and coral do., clematis, purple glycene and
pea.
Annual Climbers. — The most desirable are
white and buff thunbergia, morning glory, red and
white cypress. The latter two are very pretty,
planted thickly round the bare trunk of a tree,
and trained upon strings to the branches above ;
planted in a line, and trained on a net, these two
vines look well also.
Scarlet sage, snowberries and chrysantheums
pay better for their keep, than almost any other
products of our city gardens — coming after nearly
all other flowers have gone, and bearing slight
frosts, if covered at nightfall.
Roses. — Uoses in a garden are "a joy for-
ever." The most desirable for cities, are — the
grevillie, which will bear any Philadelphia winter :
the tea, which, with a slight protection, will also :
the daily, than which no rose is hardier : the moss,
somewhat difficult of culture, if not in a rich sandy
soil ; but if fairly established in a rich deep loam,
its permanency is sure : the prairie rose, "whose
constitution is such," says Buist, "that it will
bear the icy breezes of the St. Lawrence, or the
melting vapours of the Mississippi." It is adapted
for covering rock-work, old buildings, &c. It
also delights in a procumbent posture, and can be
used to make a flowery carpet of every shade of
colour. Last, but not least, I can recommend the
hermosa as being most desirable. The exquisitely
13*
150 THE HOUSE BOOK.
cupped form of the flower, blooming on and on,
through the autumn, renders it a perfect charm
round a cottage, or in a city yard.
These varieties may be obtained of Landreth &
Son, 21 South Sixth street.
Grape Vines. — Every one can, with ease, have
a rich supply of grapes. A grape vine is orna-
mental, even without its fruit. But a few feet of
ground are needed — ^under a window, beside a
door or lattice, in a corner of the yard, close under
a fence : or, if in the country, near the roots of
some old stump or tree, or on some hill-side, amid
rocks and ledges, where, for other purposes, the
ground is useless ; on the bank of some dancing
brook, or down on the sunny side of some old
rock, where beneath its grey mossy side gushes
forth a spring of crystal water, near which the
grape almost always does well. Many kinds of
them are so easily cultivated, and so hardy, that it
seems wrong to find a dwelling without one.
The Isabella, Catawba and Elsinburg, best repay
culture. Previous to planting the vines, care
should be taken that the ground be well prepared
for some distance around, for the roots to spread.
The soil should be deep and dry, and some rich
compost, or vegetable mould, should be used
around the roots in filling in : a handful or two of
wet ashes may be added : plant in 3d mo. (March.)
It has been proved repeatedly, that the best ma-
nure for vines, is the branches pruned from the
vines themselves, cut into small pieces, and mixed
with the soil by means of a garden hoe. Dr. Lie-
big mentions several instances of vines being
kept in a thriving condition for from ten to thirty
yearSj by the trimmings of vines alone. If guano
APPLES, PEAES AND PEACHES, ETC. 151
is used, 4 lbs. to 33 gallons of water is quite
strong enough. A very good manure for vines is
said to be made by saving all the leaves, and dig-
ging them in. In the vicinity of Philadelphia, a
southern exposure is best. There are various me-
thods of training and pruning the vine : it having
a tendency to produce its most vigorous shoots at
the extremities of the branches, and particularly
so at those which are situated highest ; it generally
happens when it is trained high, that the greater
portion of the fruit is borne near the top : and
the fruit produced on the vigorous shoots is gene-
rally more abundant, and of finer quality than that
produced on the short lateral ones, from which
circumstance high training seems best calculated
for city gardens. It is said that ripe grapes,
gathered in dry weather, if placed between layers
of cotton, and kept at a temperature just above
the freezing point, will keep till spring.
Apples, Pears and Peaches. — Having
visited an orchard near Philadelphia, where the
yield of fine apples and peaches was wonderful, I
was induced to inquire the method of culture.
The owner (Edward Garrett) informed me, that
in the spring he bathes the trunk, and far into the
branches, with soft soap thinned with lye. When
the late frosts (which destroy the peach blossoms
in so many parts of our country,) touch the open-
ing flowers, he sprinkles plaster upon these flowers,
carefully going over the whole orchard. These
peach trees have been in fine bearing for 1*7 years !
He finds that corn and potatoes do well in this
orchard, while wheat, sown in a corner of it one
season, he believes was the means of killing several
fine peach trees.
152 THE HOUSE BOOK.
Garden Vases. — Purchase the earthenware
garden vases, which may be had at the principal
potteries ; paint them several coats of white, mar-
bling at the last, if you like it, and you have
vases which are just as beautiful as the costliest
ware.
Another. — Take empty kegs in which white lead
comes, have two colours paint ready, (one white,)
paint the hoops on both ends white, and half the
staves alternately ; when three coats of this are
dry, paint the other staves drab or green : drab is
prettiest ; and you have a neat garden tub, which,
in the country, has a pretty effect, and serves
either for plants, or as a receptacle for weeds,
which may be pulled up about the grounds.
The wire and iron garden furniture, are great
embellishments to our city yards : from the grape-
vine arbour to the flower stand and cypress trainer :
while the iron sofas add much to comfort and
beauty. Yery elegant articles in this line may be
had at No. 233 Market street.
Rock Work. — This has a very pleasing effect
in our city yards, especially if a fountain be the
central ornament. There is, in Philadelphia, a
most refreshing one, where the water, dripping
over and through the rock work, moistens and
keeps alive a variety of mosses and ferns gathered
from interesting localities in Europe. These rock-
eries are made by arranging stones or rocks in
such shapes as will be agreeable to the eye, leav-
ing room between them for the growth of ferns,
climbers, mosses, and other plants, which natu-
rally flourish among rocks.
INDEX.
-*♦>-
PAGE
Acid, Oxalic 112
Apples, Iced 61
Tapioca 62
Float 62
Crab 76
to Keep 95
Pare 98
Apples, 151
Ants, to Kill 107
Annuals, 146
Almanac, 142
Arrow Root, 89
Asparagus, 33
Bark, Slip. Elm 85
Baskets, Rustic 121
Bandoline, 100
Barley Water, 89
Basket, Moss 122
Bake Irons, 141
Beer, Penny 80
Ginger 80
Horehound 81
Bee^ Frizzled and Liver 16
Hashed 19
Boileau 21
Alamode 21
Boast 21
Steak 29
Pickled 44
Beans, String 34
Lima 85
Pickled 43
Biscuit, Milk 8, 9
Tea 60
Blancmange in Eggs, 96
Bleaching Liquid, 104
Blackberries, 89
Blackberry Syrup, 89
Broth, Mutton and Beef. 88
Bonnet Case, 124
Bread, Moist 142
Wheat 6
Rye and Bran 7
Butter, 7
Drawn 39
PAGE
Buns, Philadelphia 51
Burlington 51
Buena Vista 51
Buns, 55 4
Bulbs, 147
Burns, Cold Water for 90
Cake, Soda 10
Batter 10
Flannel 10
Buckwheat 11
Buttermilk 11
Corn Batter 12
Cornmeal 12
without Eggs 12
Lady 50
Golden 50
Silver 50
Poor Man's 51
Cocoa Pound 61
Bread... 51
Cocoa-Nut 51
Sponge 52
Grafton. 52
Albany 52
Meat 27
Pound 52
Cup 53
Black 54
1, 2, 3, 4 54
Kisses 54
Jelly 54
Scotch 54
Loaf. 54
without Eggs 54
Crullers 54
Calf's Head, 24
Cauliflower,..., 35, 40
Carrigen, 66
Cabbage, Boil 35
Calicoes, to Wash 104
Cap, Infant's 134
Candy, Molasses 70
Cans, Self-Sealing 77
Carbonated Drink, 80
Carpets, Cleansed 106
(153)
154
INDEX.
PAGE I PAGE
Cherry Vinegar, 79 'Flavors, Peach and Rose 56
Cherries, Sweet Pickled 44 'Floating Island, r4
Chocolate, 86] Flour, Patent 30
Chops, Mutton 27 I Flummery, Rice C7
Cheese Head, 30 [ Floors, &c., staining 107
Flies, 141
Fowls, Boiled 23
Fricassee 31
Fritters, ciam 16
Corn 16
?tale Bread 63
Snow 67
Bun 97
Chapped Hands, 143
Lips 90
Chicken Fricassee, 34
Chicken, Broiled 23
Clams, Fried 27
Climbers 149
Clothes Dryer, 104
Corns, to Prevent 91
Court' Plaster, 92
Cottage Furniture, 123
Cologne, 100 Furniture, Polish-
Corn, to Keep 93
Coffee, 14
Cork from a Bottle, IDS
Coral Twigs 120
Combs, Cleansing 107
Corn, Green, to Boil 34
Cookery for the Sick >. 85
Croquettes, 29
Cream, Ice 66
Snow 66
Whipped 67
Fruit, Frosted 75
142
Cold 112!Gravy, Turkey
Gas Cooking, 83
Gaiters, to Make 133
Gingerbread, Hard 50
Mountain 49
GJngerlbreadNuts, 49
Goose, Roast 25
Gruei; Corn 88
Oatmeal 88
Grasses, Crystalize 112
Grape Tines, 150
Cutlets, Veal 2
Cucumbers, Pickled 40
Custard, Apple 60
Cold 63
Boiled 86
Baked 97
Custard Pudding,...: 63
Dentrifices, 91, 143
Divan, 124
Dolls' Hats, 126
Dolls, Boy 12S
Door Knobs, 143
Doughnuts, 54, 55
Dress, Make 126
Drawings, to Preserve 115
Dressing, 39
Dumplings, Drop 20
Ducks, Roast 26
Edging, Tidy 135
Eggs, Boiled 14
to Keep 94
Egg Plant 16
Extracts, Cooking 143
Fish, Rock 31
Fry Fresh 32
Jioil 32
22
Gutta Percha, 127
Guard, a Round 134
Ham, Fried 16, 24=
Bake a 24
Hams, Salt 45
Premium 45
House Plants, Re-pot 145
Hominy, Boil 33
Fry. 33
Icing, 55
Ironing, 106
Iron Holders, 142
Ink, Durable 110
Jam, Quince 96
Jelly, Calves' Foot 68
Gelatine 69
Tapioca 68
Currant 69
Apple 69
Rice 69
Quince 69
Jumbles, 60
Ketchup, Tomato 43
Lamp Shades, 121
INDEX.
155
PAGE
Laundry Iron, 1*2
Leather Work, 119
Lemonade, 80
Mock 80
Portable 81
Liver, Fried 27
Dried 45
Liquid Polish, 142
Loaf, Cinnamon 50
Macaroni, 39
Marmalade, Quince 74
Mixed 74
Marble Mantles Cleansed, 109
Manuscripts Renovated, 115
Mangoes, Pickled 41
Martinoes, Pickled 40
Meat Pudding under, 23
Measures, 49
Meringue Apple, 61
Medicine, 83
Medals, to take Impression of 120
Mitten Wash, 135
Milk and Earina Boiler, 98
Moths, 141
Mutton, Roast 23
Mufflers, 133
Needles, 141
Nuts at Table, 142
Nurse's Home,.....* 83
Nursing, 84
Oil-cloth Wash, 109
Okra, 93
Omelet, Baked 15
Tomato 16
Onions, Boil 37
Pickle 42
Oysters, Stew 47
Plant 16
Fry 27
Scalloped 28
Pickled 47
Parsnips, 35
Pastry, 56
Another, simpler, 57
Paste for Papering, HI
Painting, HI
Paint, Economical HI
Panada, 86
Panada, Egg 87
Barley 87
C. F. B. M 87
Chicken Water 87
Peas, 35
PAGE
Peaches, Spiced 43
Pickled 44
Uncooked 97
Pears,. 151
Peaches, 151
Picture Frames, 122
Pigeons, 26
Pig, Roast 2-2,
Pie, Oyster 57
Pot 5S
Mince 58
Apple 58
Pie Plant 59
Planting Seeds, 144
Plants coming into Flower, 146
Plant, Egg 38
Plums, 44
Plums, Crystalized 75
Pork, Pickled 44
Potatoesj Sweet 94
White 95
Potato Masher, 98
Potochomania, 122
Pot Plants 144, 146
Preserved Limes, 73
Cocoa-Nut, 71
Pine Apple, 71
" " grated,.. 71
Common Cherries,... 71
Gooseberries, 72
Quinces, 72
Citron Melon, 72
Pears, 76
Peaches, 76, 151
" Uncooked,.. 97
Prints, Cleaning 115
Pudding, C. Feet 96
Winter 96
Apple ,..97, 59
Pumpkin 59
Potato 59
Green Corn 59, 60
Flemish 60
Save All 60
Cocoa-Nut eo
Custard 60
Soda Cracker 60
Rice 61
Macaroon 61
Adelaide's 62
Cup Batter 62
Boiled Batter 62
Bread 63
Delightful 63
Cottage 63
Bird's Nest 65
Apple 65
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