Weekly Roundup - Living On Nothing Edition [Survival Today

http://thedepressionkitchen.blogspot.com/

[snipped]

Here’s that recipe for “Peach Dainty,” from the 1927 edition of Radio Recipes. We are pretty sure it was not featured on the “For Those Who Would Be Slender” episode.

1 quart sliced peaches
1 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons butter
1 pint whipping cream
A few grains of salt

Cream the sugar, butter, and yolks together. Add the whipped cream and sliced peaches. Serve over angel or sponge cake.

*Note: although many sources, including the introduction to Selections from Aunt Sammy’s Radio Recipes and USDA Favorites, state that the name “Aunt Sammy” was no longer used after c.1934, our perusal of historical newspapers showed her to be alive and well through 1940.

Selected Sources:
“Aunt Sammy to Give Best Cooking Recipes,” Southtown Economist (Nov. 2, 1926).
“Composite Aunt Sammy Plans Dinners Served by Many American Housewives,” The Billings Gazette (Oct. 23, 1927).
Haskin, Frederic J. “Millions Aided by Aunt Sammy,” The Los Angeles Times (Oct. 30, 1926).
——“Aunt Sammy’s Success,” The Salt Lake Tribune (Dec. 20, 1927).
Stringfellow, Sam. “Browsing Around the Mainland,” Galveston Daily News (Oct. 13, 1940).
Posted by 1930s Girls About Town at 12:41 PM 2 comments
Labels: Aunt Sammy’s Radio Recipes

http://www.google.com/search?q=Aunt+Sammy%E2%80%99s+Radio+Recipes&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

A collection point for magazine articles, several that I have read for years, WorkBasket being an old favorite.
granny

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/subject/hobbies-crafts

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/subject/home-garden

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/subject/food-cooking-nutrition

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/archive/4523-sunset.html

http://www.typeamom.net/amino-acids-how-they-affect-the-brain-and-nervous-system.html

Amino Acids and How They Affect the Brain and Nervous System
Print

Written by Caroline Collard

Mom Topics - Safety and Health
User Rating: / 0
PoorBest

Amino acids are very important in the correct functioning of the brain. A generalized deficiency in them can lead to symptoms such as apathy, concentration difficulties, loss of interest, insomnia, mood swings, anxiety, depression, self mutilation and aggression. Amino acids are considered to be the building blocks of protein and are essential for neurotransmitter production which is a requirement for an effective nervous system. A poor diet can lead to a deficiency of amino acids, but also there can be a genetic predisposition to amino acid deficiency.

Eight amino acids are considered essential: phenylalanine, valine, threonine, tryptophan, isoleucine, methionine, leucine and lysine. All other amino acids can be made from these. However, sometimes there are metabolic problems which means that the other amino acids are not produced.

In order to have the correct amount of amino acids a good intake of protein is necessary. Meat is the main individual item that contains the full balance of amino acids. However even on a vegan (meat and dairy free) diet, it is possible to get the full range by ensuring that the diet contains at least two of the following food groups: nuts and seeds, grains, pulses. Supplementation is also possible, generally a supplement containing the whole range is ideal, but sometimes it is considered better to supplement just individual ones. The better quality adult supplements contain amino acids, but usually the children’s supplements do not, so would have to be taken separately. They can be obtained in powder and liquid form as well as capsules. Please check with a doctor or a qualified nutritional therapist before taking supplements.
Individual Amino Acids

Research on DMG (dimethylglycine), suggests that this amino acid can help epilepsy and autism and it is popularly used by veterinarians for treating seizures in cats and dogs. It helps blood circulation to the brain and this leads to improved brain and nerve function. Research in 1965 showed that DMG led to improvements in the speech of 12 out of 15 children with severe learning difficulties who had been unable to communicate before the treatment.

Taurine is an amino acid sometimes supplemented in cases of epilepsy and is also known to be linked to the female hormones. According to TC Birdsall in his article Therapeutic Applications of Taurine “Clinically, taurine has been used with success in the treatment of a wide variety of varying conditions, including: cardiovascular diseases, hypercholesterolemia, epilepsy and other seizure disorders, macular degeneration, Alzheimer’s disease, hepatic disorders, alcoholism and cystic fibrosis.” There have also been claims that it can increase IQ levels in Down Syndrome.

Other amino acids of interest are:

* L-carnosine, which protects against aging, has neurotransmitter properties and may improve language and behaviour in children on the autistic spectrum.
* Phenylalanine, which may brighten mood, stimulate energy and improve memory. A deficiency can lead to eczema and slow intellectual progress.
* Glutamine, which may help depression, sugar cravings, IQ levels, epilepsy, schizophrenia and senility. Glutamic acid, which is a form of glutamine is sometimes used to treat autism and behavioral problems.
* Methionine, which may help the accumulation of heavy metals in the brain.
* GABA, which is used with ADD, ADHD, stress, anxiety and depression. It also may help with manic behavior, schizophrenia, epilepsy and high blood pressure.
* Glycine, which may help sugar cravings calm down aggression.
* Tryptophan, which raises serotonin levels and balances the brain.
* Lysine is related to the absorption of calcium and may help tiredness, concentration and irritability. It is important for the growth and development of children. A deficiency can lead to fatigue, dizziness, anaemia, visual disorders and nausea.
* Valine, which may help muscle coordination and calm down emotions.
* Leucine and isoleucine, which stimulate the upper brain and therefore increase alertness.
* Tyrosine, which may help depression, memory, mental alertness and various glandular functions. It is also sometimes used to treat hayfever.

Obviously the functioning of amino acids is a complex subject which needs to be well researched if you consider it relevant to your case. For those of you who would like to know more I recommend Leon Chaitow’s Thorson’s Guide to Amino Acids.

This is not intended to constitute medical advice. Please contact your medical professional if you are concerned about health issues or wish to take supplements.

http://www.typeamom.net/treating-parasites.html

Treating Parasites
Attention: open in a new window. PDFPrintE-mail

Written by Caroline Collard

Mom Topics - Safety and Health

The realization that their child (or themselves) has worms comes as a shock to parents. However, worms are very common, and one theory says that we all have them, although often we don’t know this. Over the counter medication is often quite effective and works by paralyzing the creatures, but many of us don’t want to be taking something of that nature. Worms are usually quite harmless, the main problem being lack of sleep since they tend to come out more at night, and so a natural method might be considered more appropriate.

The most common symptoms of worms are an itchy bottom, but cystitis, bedwetting and vaginitis are also common as well as various abdominal problems. They can often be diagnosed simply by looking at the child’s bottom when it is itching or by looking at the feces.

There are a range of natural treatments that can be used. I have found the Black Walnut and Wormwood Tincture to be very effective, but there are many other herbs that can help including cloves, which have been used since ancient times to kill parasites and their eggs, and garlic which has long been used for expelling worms. Something else that has worked well for me is citricidal which is grapefruit seed extract and is easy to be given even to small children since it can be disguised in drinks.

Most, if not all of the complementary treatments may make the itching worse in the short run since the worms are escaping an unpleasant environment. There may also be discomfort and fatigue due to toxin release as they die. Therefore I recommend starting with a small dose and increasing it slowly.

Foods that can help are garlic, a cup of grated carrot first thing in the morning, coconut, chewing a couple of teaspoons of raw brown rice first thing in the morning and pumpkin seeds. Foods to avoid are those with a high sugar content, overly processed foods, caffeine and alcohol, since these can make the digestive system more comfortable for the worms.

Threadworms are by far the most common type of worm. They are also called pinworms and look like small pieces of white thread being about 1 centimeter long. They are very easy to catch. The eggs are easily passed on by touching hands, door handles or other infested surfaces. When the egg is put into the mouth it takes about four weeks to grow to adult size and reproduce. The eggs are laid around the anus as the worm dies, this causes itching then the scratching leads to eggs on the fingers and under the nails which are then transferred to the mouth and the whole thing starts again.

It is recommended that whatever treatment you follow, you take it for two weeks, which should kill off all the existing worms and then have a break for two weeks and then follow again for two weeks to kill off all those which were just eggs before.

There are also hygiene rules to follow to minimize the risk of reinfecting yourself. These include showering every morning to remove eggs from the bottom, washing hands thoroughly first thing in the morning, after going to the toilet and before meals. Ideally you should use a nailbrush to ensure that everything is removed from under the nails. Wear underwear at night and change it every day and don’t share flannels and towels. Try to eliminate nail biting and thumb sucking. If these rules are followed strictly it should be possible to eliminate the parasites without any further intervention but using other methods will probably make it easier.

http://www.typeamom.net/coping-when-your-child-has-cancer.html

Coping When Your Child Has Cancer
Attention: open in a new window. PDFPrintE-mail

Written by Beth Mancuso

Mom Topics - Safety and Health

Coping When Your Child Has Cancer

Last week, I cried in a complete strangers arms. I had gone to cancel my gym membership to save money, she asked the reason for the cancellation. I told her my son has cancer, I saw her eyes well up at my pain, and I choked up, and found my self in the embrace of a complete stranger.

This is a nightmare. I keep waiting for someone to nudge me, to wake me up, tell me I am having a bad dream.

When at the toy store with Rowan last week, I had an epiphany. As we walked around, I saw all of these people smiling and laughing. It upset me. I wanted to scream… “Why are you laughing and smiling, don’t you know my baby has cancer!!!”

Yes, my story may sadden you, may cause a moment of pause and reflection in your day. But, your days go on, you can donate, blog, and say a prayer….but your lives go on.

Only our world has screeched to a halt. The sky is only falling over my house.

I look for answers, where there are none. I want to blame something, only there is nothing to blame. So my questions go unanswered.

Around 3,500 kids are diagnosed with leukemia a year. That number is tiny, a grain of sand on the beach. Why my sweet little boy? Why do children even get cancer? It’s just not right.

When the first Dr. mentioned leukemia, I got nauseous. I thought I was going to throw up. Leukemia... it even sounds like vomit.

Every time I would read a sad story on the web about another parent’s heart ache over a sick or lost child, I would count my blessings. Thankful, it was not me. For I knew that if it was me, I wouldn’t be able to handle it. It would cause me too much heart ache and pain, and my bipolar disorder would eat me alive.

Here I am though, trudging through it, remaining strong. You have to. You have no other choice.

So to cope, I cry.

I cry a lot.

I cry when I peek in on Ezra and see him sleeping so soundly, so innocently.

I cry when he screams “NO!”

I cry when Rowan acts out, because I know it is causing him pain, too.

I cry when Ezra cries on the way to the hospital, because he recognizes the route.

I cry when someone offers me condolence.

I cry laying in bed at night, alone with my thoughts.

I cry because my mind wanders where it shouldn’t.

I cry at the compassion of complete strangers.

I cry for the loss of Ezra’s early childhood.

I cry when I think too far ahead.

I cry at the unfairness of it all.

I cry because my husband is the most amazing man ever.

I cry because none of our lives will ever be normal again.

I cry because Ezra doesn’t understand why we keep letting people hurt him.

I cry because I can count on one hand how many times I have seen him smile in the last week.

I cry for the loss of all of our freedom.

I cry for the loss of his laughter.

I cry because I can’t make it better with a kiss and a band-aid.

I cry when I see Ezra walk, his bones so stiff.

I cry because there is an enormous elephant in my room.

I cry because I don’t have the answers.

I cry for his curls.

I cry because I don’t think my house is safe or clean enough.

I cry because the world has become a scary germ-infested place that could kill my son.

I cry for the loss of all control.

I cry because I am tired.

I cry.

The crying has tapered off now, since the initial shock is over. I am slowly putting the pieces of myself back together.

I know it will become easier for all of us, as this becomes our new normal.

You never know what you are truly capable of, until it is thrown at you. I have amazed myself.

We will be strong, and we will conquer cancer.

[And I think many Freeper’s prayers will help....granny]

http://www.loc.gov/nls/tbt/2008/3mayjun.txt

Talking Book Topics
May-June 2008
Volume 74, Number 3

National Library Service for the Blind and Physically
Handicapped

_Talking Book Topics_ is published bimonthly in large-
print, cassette, and computer diskette formats and
distributed free to blind and physically handicapped
individuals who participate in the Library of Congress
free reading program. It lists recorded books and magazines
available through a network of cooperating libraries and
covers news of developments and activities in library
services.
The annotated list in this issue is limited to titles
recently added to the national collection, which contains
thousands of fiction and nonfiction titles, including
classics, biographies, gothics, mysteries, and how-to and
self-help guides. To learn more about the wide range of
books in the national collection, readers may order
catalogs and subject bibliographies from cooperating
libraries. Librarians can check other resources for titles
and answer requests for special materials.
To order books, contact your local cooperating
library. Correspondence regarding editorial matters should
be sent to: Publications and Media Section, National
Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped,
Library of Congress, Washington, DC 20542

[continues, long list of tapes.]

http://books.google.com/books?id=UvgPXli4RBgC&pg=PR7&lpg=PR7&dq=Housekeeping+journals+of+the+depression+era&source=bl&ots=lleb848B7x&sig=IvpqKnMzkYwDWT8yD85UrvBMlpo&hl=en&ei=rMSWSvS4OcaFtgeynqi_Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6#v=onepage&q=Housekeeping%20journals%20of%20the%20depression%20era&f=false

1,001 Old-Time Household Hints: Timeless Bits of Household Wisdom for Today ...
By Editors of Yankee Magazine

[Considered to be a good book of tips and hints]

http://books.google.com/books?ei=rMSWSvS4OcaFtgeynqi_Dg&ct=result&q=+journals+of+the+depression+era&btnG=Search+Books

1,600 Google books with the depression as the topic.

http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/foreman/menu.html

Richard Foreman and Jas. W. Mahoney (James W.)
The Cherokee Physician, or Indian Guide to Health, as Given by Richard Foreman, a Cherokee Doctor; Comprising a Brief View of Anatomy, With General Rules for Preserving Health without the Use of Medicines. The Diseases of the U. States, with Their Symptoms, Causes, and Means of Prevention, are Treated on in a Satisfactory Manner. It Also Contains a Description of a Variety of Herbs and Roots, Many of which are not Explained in Any Other Book, and their Medical Virtues have Hitherto been Unknown to the Whites; To which is Added a Short Dispensatory.
Asheville, N.C.: Edney & Dedman, 1849.
Image
Full Text (308, 5 p., ca. 750K)

* HTML file
* XML/TEI source file

Illustrations

* Title Page
* Title Page Verso
* List of Illustrations

Subjects

* Botany, Medical — North Carolina.
* Cherokee Indians — Medicine.
* Herbs — Therapeutic use.
* Indians of North America — Medicine.
* Medicine, Popular.
* Medicine, Preventive.

Funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this title.

http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/mason/mason.html#p169

The Young Housewife’s Counsellor and Friend:
Containing Directions in Every Department of Housekeeping.
Including the Duties of Wife and Mother:
Electronic Edition.
Mason, Mary Ann Bryan, 1802-1881

Page 169

Beef Soup No. 1.

Take a shank of beef, crack the bone in several places, wash it clean, and put it in a pot, with half a cup of rice; fill your pot with cold water, cover it, and set it over a brisk fire. As soon as it begins to simmer, draw it somewhat off the fire, where it will only continue to simmer. Skim it well, and put in your vegetables: Lima beans, green corn, a little chopped turnip, cabbage, and small, young potatoes. Keep your soup boiling slowly for seven hours, when the meat will be partially dissolved, and a thick mucilage or broth formed. When the last hour has arrived, add tomatoes, a bunch of marjoram, savory, or thyme, or, if you choose, a small sprig of each. Then add your okras, already boiled to a mucilage in a porcelain stewpan. Let it boil up once more, and serve immediately. Add salt and red pepper before serving.

Remember to stir your soup frequently well from the bottom during the whole process of boiling. If the vegetables are suffered to adhere to the bottom of the pot, they are apt to burn, and thus you have had all your labor for naught—your soup is ruined.

Skim off the fat before sending the soup to table. Soup that is boiled properly has imbibed all the substance of the meat, and if any bits of meat remain undissolved, they should be removed before serving.
Page 170

Beef Soup No. 2.

This soup is made as No. 1, though of bits of meat other than the shank. It will not be quite as rich or gelatinous, but very good, if taken pains with.

In winter, when fresh vegetables cannot be obtained, those which have been dried will answer as well, though it is necessary to introduce them at the first, when the water is cold, as otherwise they are not apt to dissolve perfectly. Chopped celery, or even the seed, will improve your soup very much.
Bean Soup.

Put your beans on early, with a few slices of ham and beef. Boil them till entirely dissolved, then strain them through a colander; return the soup to the pot, with a little chopped onion, celery, and a bunch of herbs, with salt and pepper to your taste.

Let your soup boil for a short time slowly, strain it again, and serve it in a tureen. If too thick, add a little hot water before the last boiling.
Turtle Soup.

Kill your turtle at night, and hang it up to bleed by the hind fins. In the morning separate the upper and under shell carefully. Do not break the gall-bag, or it will be ruined. Now take out all the flesh, fins, and eggs, and lay them in clean water. Some persons save the liver also.

Take off all the black skin from the fins, put your turtle in a pot of water, let it boil till tender,
Page 171

skim it well, then add a few slices of ham, a large lump of fresh butter, rubbed in flour, with onion, chopped celery, marjoram, thyme, savory, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg. Boil a handful of chopped Irish potatoes, with half a teacupful of rice, in a small stewpan, till dissolved, and add them to the soup with a pint of Madeira wine. Let it boil up, and pour your soup into the tureen.
To Clean a Calf’s Head.

Scald it in weak lye, scrape off the hair, and, after washing it thoroughly, soak it overnight in clean, cold water.
Calf’s Head Soup.

This soup is called mock-turtle, because of its so nearly resembling that preparation in taste. It is made precisely in the same manner.

Turtle soup and calf’s head soup are both eaten with force-meat balls.
Force-meat Balls.

Chop up fine, as for sausage-meat, veal or tender beef, with sweet herbs, salt, pepper, and bread-crumbs moistened with eggs. When your force-meat is well mixed, make of it little balls with the hands, flour them, and fry them brown, then drop them in the soup after it is placed in the tureen.
Okra Soup.

This soup is made in the same way as beef soup No. 1, and when the vegetables are boiled to a mash, they are taken out with a perforated skimmer,
Page 172

and half a gallon of okras, cut up, is added to the soup. Let it boil till very thick, and pour it into the tureen.
Chicken Soup.

Clean and draw your chicken, wash it in several waters, then put it in a pot, with a large spoonful of rice; cover it, and let it boil; skim it carefully. When done, add a teacupful of new milk, a sprig of thyme, with a little pepper (either red or black, as you like) and salt.
Green Pea Soup.

Boil a quart of shelled green peas in two quarts of water till soft, then take them out of the water and mash them with a wooden spoon; return them to their liquor, with a few slices of cold ham, a few slices of cold beef, pepper, salt, parsley, marjoram, and thyme. Boil it up briskly, and serve it very hot. This is a dainty soup.
Oyster Soup.

Take two quarts of the finest oysters you can get, take them carefully out of their liquor, and divest them of any bits of shell that may adhere to them, strain the liquor, and use it or not, as you like, for the soup. Now put a quart of sweet milk into a clean saucepan, with a few grains of allspice and a few bits of mace. Let it come to a boil, then stir in gradually a quarter of a pound of butter, previously rubbed with a spoonful of flour, and mixed with a few spoonfuls of the boiling milk. Put in your oysters, and let them simmer till plump;
Page 173

then take them out, put them in the tureen, and when the milk has boiled up again, pour it over the oysters in the tureen, and serve hot. Toast some thin slices of bread, cut them in inch squares, and throw them on the soup. A cup of sweet cream improves oyster soup very much.

If you have not the milk, cream, or butter, season your oysters with slices of boiled ham, and thicken it slightly and smoothly with wheat flour; add a little onion, parsley, or spice.
Clam Soup

Is made as oyster soup, except that the clams must be chopped up very fine and boiled till tender, before the seasoning is put in. A little chopped celery and onion will improve this soup very much.
Fish.

If a fish is fresh and good, the eyes will appear prominent and bright, the gills of a bright red, the body firm, and the bones elastic. If blue at the gills, the eyes dull, and the flesh flabby, do not buy the fish.

To clean fish of all kinds, the scales should be carefully removed, every one, the fish should be opened, and every particle of the entrails taken out. The blood should be all scraped and washed out. Great care should be taken that the gall is not broken. The fish should be well and carefully washed before being seasoned for cooking.

A large fish, intended for baking or boiling, should be opened for drawing in front, just
Page 174

over the entrails; but if intended for broiling or frying, they are usually opened down the back, and laid flat, when the entrails can be removed without difficulty. Open your large fish, intended for boiling or baking, as little as possible; cut it from the gills downward about two inches, insert the finger, and draw the entrails up.

After cleaning and washing out well, cutting off the vent and gills, stuff with bread, butter, pepper, salt, and onion, as you like.

Pan fish, such as perch, robins, etc., must be opened from the gills to the vent, which latter cut off. They may be scored on both sides, at regular distances of an inch or an inch and a half, then peppered, salted, and fried.

Fish in summer are never good on the second day, unless kept in ice; in winter it does not matter so much; but care should be taken to cook them as soon as possible, unless they are well salted, as fish is never good stale.
To Boil Fish.

Put them in boiling water (with a little salt) inclosed in a bag or towel, well secured. A towel is best, because you can unroll it over the dish with less danger of breaking the fish. Weigh your fish, and allow a quarter of an hour to each pound. If the water boils steadily on to the last, it will be well done. If you have any suspicions that it is not done, run a needle into the thick part to the bone in the back, move the point about, and be sure the flesh is loosened from the bone, otherwise return it
Page 175

to the boiler for a little while longer. Egg sauce is usually an accompaniment for boiled fish.

All small fish are best fried, such as perch, robins, spotted-fish, etc. Mackerel, mullets, and flounders, when fresh, are excellent fried crisply, and eaten with butter and tomato or mushroom sauce. When salted, they are best broiled and buttered.
To Stew Eels.

Get them very fresh, skin them, and, having washed them well, stew them in pure water till tender; then rub a spoonful of butter, with the same quantity of flour; stir this in with the water and fish, then add a sliced onion, a sprig of marjoram and thyme, with salt and red pepper. Let the whole stew till well done.
To Prepare Shad for Broilng.

Scale your shad perfectly, clean it nicely, then split it down the back, and lay it flat on your board or tray; now remove the entrails perfectly, taking care not to break the gall. Wash out all the blood, and lay your shad in clean water till you are ready to place it over the fire.
To Prepare a Shad for Breakfast.

First, with a sharp knife, remove all the bones from your shad, sprinkle it with salt and a little Cayenne pepper, after which dredge on a thin coat of flour. Have ready a greased tin sheet (not a pan), lay on it your shad, and put it in your stove or oven; let it brown slowly, and when done slip it
Page 176

carefully off the tin sheet to a hot dish. Butter it well, and serve it immediately.
To Broil a Fresh Shad.

Grease your gridiron, put your shad on it, over bright coals for five minutes, just to give it the taste of the fire, then transfer it to a tin sheet, and having dredged on flour, pour on a large spoonful of melted butter, and bake.
Court Bouillon.

This dish may be made of either rockfish or sheepshead. For one fish, sliced, weighing about six or seven pounds, take

Three spoonfuls of butter.

Four spoonfuls of flour (brown the flour).

One pint of chopped onions.

One quart of chopped tomatoes.

One quart of water.

One pint of claret wine.

Two tablespoonfuls of chopped parsley.

One tablespoonful of chopped thyme.

One teaspoonful of pounded cloves.

One teaspoonful of allspice.

Fry the onions in the butter, then add the browned flour, then the tomatoes, water, wine, spices, and herbs. Let the whole come to a boil, add the sliced fish, and let it simmer forty minutes, then add pepper and salt.
Page 177

To Fry Fish.

If a large fish, cut it into four- or five-inch squares, pepper, salt, and flour it, then fry it in boiling lard. Your fish should swim in lard, or it will be scorched at the under side, and this will spoil its fine appearance. Serve it hot, with melted butter in a boat.
To Pickle Fish.

Rock, salmon, or sheepshead will be very nice pickled thus: Cut your fish in six- or eight-inch pieces, boil these till thoroughly done, that is, till easily parted from the bone, and bloodless; then take them out carefully, lay them in a stone jar, with alternate layers of spice, pepper, salt, and sliced onion; cover them with vinegar and a little water, say a pint to two quarts of vinegar. Cover the jar, and set it in a cool place.

Pickled fish is excellent for breakfast, tea, or supper. Do not keep it long.
To Broil Fish.

Fresh fish should remain on the gridiron barely long enough to acquire the taste belonging to broiled fish, then it should be transferred to a tin sheet, and set in an oven to brown slightly. When done, butter, and serve hot.
To Prepare Salt Herrings for Breakfast.

Either broil or fry them. Soak and wash them overnight, and in the morning, early, hang them up to dry. Sift flour or meal over them, and fry
Page 178

them a light brown, or broil them on a gridiron over dull coals. If the coals are bright, your herrings will burn and blister before being done within.
To Fry Perch or Robins.

Clean, scale, and draw your perch neatly, wash them thoroughly from the blood, take out the gills, and trim the tails and fins; salt and flour them, then fry them in boiling lard a handsome brown. Some cooks score them on both sides before flouring them. Serve them very hot, with drawn butter or boiled egg sauce.
To Roast a Shad on a Board.

Take a fat, fresh shad, clean it neatly, lay it open on the back, as for broiling, salt and pepper it, then nail it to an oaken board or barrel top, first heating the board thoroughly. Set the board up on its side before the fire, turn it frequently, first one side up, then the other, to preserve the juice. Flour and butter it while roasting, and, when done, lay the board with the fish on a dish, and send it to the table hot, with drawn butter and chopped eggs.
To Broil or Bake a Salt Shad or Mackerel.

Take it from the pickle overnight, lay it in water to soak till morning, when quite early wash it, scrape it, and lay it in fresh, cold water for a short time, then wipe it dry, and hang it up till all your breakfast is ready for the fire, then lay it on the gridiron over the fire, as directed for fresh shad, or on a tin sheet to be baked. Serve it hot.
Page 179

To Bake Fish.

Having cleaned and washed your fish, salt it a little, and stuff it with slices of buttered bread sprinkled with red pepper, and chopped onion or garlic; cover it with bread-crumbs or pounded cracker, after having brushed it over with yelk of egg. Put it in a pan or Dutch oven, with some water in the bottom, to prevent the fish from becoming dry. Baste it frequently with butter. When it is of a handsome brown color on the upper side, take off the lid of the oven, that the water may evaporate; let your fish remain in the butter to brown on the under side, and serve it hot, with gravy made of the butter in the oven, with a little browned flour and water, pepper, salt, and onion.
To Stew Fish.

Cut your fish into pieces, four or five inches square, put it in a stewpan with water; let it boil gently, then rub a lump of fresh butter, with half its quantity of flour, moisten it with a little of the boiling water, and mix it gradually and smoothly with the water around the fish; then season your stew with salt, pepper, onion, or parsley. Add a cup of rich, sweet milk or cream when your fish is done, and serve hot.
Chowder.

Slice your fish in pieces about six inches long; add slices of fat pork, salt, pepper, onions, and pounded crackers, with a cup of milk, then a little
Page 180

flour rolled in butter, with parsley, and a glass of wine. Simmer this gently for an hour in a closely covered Dutch oven, and serve it hot.

Fish of any kind stewed in this way, with the addition of mushrooms and spices, makes a very excellent and handsome dish for company.
Codfish.

Boil it tender, prick it from the bones, and mix it with equal quantity of mashed Irish potatoes, a spoonful of butter, onion, salt, pepper, parsley, a glass of white wine. Bake it in a baking-dish, with nice, rich paste, above and below, or make it into balls a little flattened, and fry them in lard.
Sturgeon.

Parboil your sturgeon, cut it in slices, and stew it with butter, pepper, salt, onion, and parsley, or stuff it, season it, and bake it as veal.
Salmon,

When in season, should be of a pinkish gray, and when cooked almost rose colored. The small-headed salmon is the best. Salmon is best boiled in thick slices; when done, dress them with melted butter and sprigs of parsley.
To Bake Sturgeon.

Take out the bones and stuff the vacancies with bread, butter, onion, thyme, and marjoram. Place bits of butter on it in a baking-dish, dredge on flour, and having poured a few spoonfuls of boiling
Page 181

water on it from the teakettle, bake it as you would veal.

Or cut it in pieces, and stew it in water sufficient to cover it, with butter rubbed in flour, onion, pepper, salt, and thyme or marjoram.
Crabs and Lobsters

Are best simply boiled, and the meat cut up, and dressed with salad dressing. (See receipts in this book.)
Oysters.

Do not buy oysters in the shell; unless they will close firmly and quickly on the knife-blade when inserted into their mouths. If the oysters yield at once to the knife, or the mouths are open, you may be sure they are dead. Do not buy them,—they are worthless, unwholesome.

Do not buy opened oysters if they are of a creamy-white color, and begin to acquire a tainted odor. They are spoiled or spoiling.

Good oysters have a transparent appearance, even when very fat, and of a whitish color, whereas the spoiled ones are of a thick, dead white, and somewhat like a plumped oyster, unless they are very poor.
Fried Oysters.

Take your oysters one by one out of their liquor, laying them on a clean towel to drain, then shred up bread-crumbs, or have ready pounded crackers, into which beat up several eggs, whites and yelks together, with a little salt and pepper. Have ready a frying-pan with boiling lard, take up one oyster
Page 182

at a time, with a fork or spoon, lay it first on one side and then on the other in the egg and bread-crumbs or cracker, after which drop it in the hot lard. Drop in as many as your pan will conveniently hold without one oyster touching another. Fry them a light brown.

Another way.—Drain your oysters as above, sift Indian meal over them, and fry them brown.

Another.—Fry them in a common batter, of milk, eggs, and flour, as above.
Stewed Clams.

Prepare them as you would oysters, except that they should be cut up, and allowed more time to stew.
Clam Fritters.

Chop your clams fine, and pour them in a batter of eggs, milk, and flour, with a little pepper and salt: drop them from a spoon in boiling lard.
To Stew Oysters.

Take them out of their liquor, put them in a stewpan, with new milk sufficient to cover them, add butter, pepper, and salt to your taste; simmer them till plump, and serve them immediately. Oysters are often spoiled by too much cooking. It renders them tough and tasteless.

Another way.—Take them from their liquor till it is strained, to divest it of bits of shell or other objectionable things, then return them, and stew them in their own liquor; simmer till plump, with butter, pepper, salt, a cup of cream, and a few pieces of whole mace.
Page 183

Some persons rub a little flour into the butter before adding it to the oysters; but in this case it is best to remove the oysters till the liquor and flour are well amalgamated, and thoroughly done.
Scolloped Oysters.

Cover the bottom of a baking-dish with bread-crumbs, mixed with butter, pepper, and salt; add a layer of oysters, then another covering of bread-crumbs and butter, sprinkled with salt and pepper, then oysters again and bread - crumbs, till the pan is full. Let the last layer be of bread-crumbs, butter, etc. Bake brown, and send them to table hot.

Scolloped oysters are sometimes baked in scollopshells, prepared as above, and thus has the name been obtained for this mode of dressing oysters. They may be prepared in little patty-pans.
Oyster Pie.

Cover a baking-dish with puff paste, fill it with oysters, butter, pepper, and salt; the butter rubbed up with a spoonful of flour. Cover the dish with puff paste, and bake of a light brown. You may ornament the top crust with paste leaves.
Pickled Oysters.

Pick your oysters, strain their liquor, then boil the liquor with a little salt, a pod of red pepper, and a little mace. While boiling, put in the oysters, let them boil till plump, then take them out, put them in your jar; throw in the liquor a
Page 184

pint of good vinegar to two quarts of oysters, let the vinegar and liquor boil up, and pour it on the oysters. They are now done. Do not use them till they are cold.

If you wish to keep the oysters for some time, boil them rather more, make them quite salt, and cork them, then put them in a cool place or in ice.
Broiled Oysters.

Drain the liquor from them, and lay them on oyster-irons over bright coals. Butter them, and send them to table hot.
Oyster Fritters.

Take your oysters out of their liquor, and chop them a little. Have ready a batter of eggs, milk, and flour, add to this a little of the oyster liquor, strained; let your lard boil, and put your fritters in, one spoonful at a time. Fry them a yellow brown. Very little salt is necessary, if any.
To Roast Oysters.

Have a bright wood fire, wash your oysters clean, and lay them on the fire; as soon as their mouths open, turn them. Allow them to remain till the shells are dry on both sides, and they are done. Open them near the fire, over a heated deep dish, and serve with butter, pepper, and salt.
Roasted Clams.

Clams are roasted in the same manner as oysters, and served in like manner. Indeed, clams are
Page 185

roasted, stewed, fried, and broiled in the same manner as oysters, except that they should be chopped up very fine, if stewed or fried in batter.
Shrimps.

Pick and boil your shrimps, then cover the bottom of a baking-dish with pounded cracker and butter; add a layer of shrimps and another of butter and crackers till the dish is full, the crackers forming the last layer. Then pour over the whole a cup of sweet cream, with a little salt, pepper, and mace.
Terrapins.

Cut open your terrapins, and having extracted the eggs, feet, and legs, wash them in pure water, and stew them till tender, then stir in butter and flour rubbed together; mace, onion, salt, and pepper to your taste, with a cup of wine.

http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/mason/mason.html#p169

Page 186

ROASTING.

THERE is no such thing as roasting without exposure to actual fire. There can be no intermediate agent. If one is used, then the article intended to be roasted is baked, boiled, fried, or stewed. That noble old dish, “roast beef,” is poorly represented by baked beef, that is, beef done in an oven or stove.

I remember, in my young days, seeing a piece of beef or a turkey hung up by a string before the fire, with a dripping-pan beneath it to catch its juices as they fell. The cook or her assistant frequently turned the string to keep her meat or turkey revolving slowly before the fire, while with a basting-mop, moistened with butter or lard and flour, she rubbed it as it turned. When done, it was usually a beautiful and delicious dish, vastly superior to your baked meats of this age of improvements.

Again, I have seen roasting done to the same perfection by means of a roasting-jack or spit and crank, so constructed of iron as to turn the meat horizontally before the fire instead of vertically. This also was more convenient than the first-mentioned mode.

Next came a still greater improvement, the tin-kitchen. It roasted equally well, while to the housekeeper or cook it was a great convenience.
Page 187

But this did not satisfy the spirit of expediency, and again the inventive genius of man went to work, and the cooking-stove came into existence. Being decidedly more economical in fuel, labor, and time, it has superseded all other modes of cooking, to a vast extent, in this rapidly advancing age.

It is seldom a really roasted joint of meat or fowl of any kind is to be found at the present day. But I do assure my reader, who is only acquainted with baked beef or baked fowl, there is a great enjoyment in store should she or he determine for once to break through this modern idea, and go back to primitive roasting. The difference is astonishing, and well worth the experiment.

Venison, mutton, veal, lamb, and pork should be dressed by the same rules.

The same rules by which a joint of meat is roasted will apply to poultry of every kind, and therefore I shall only give general directions for this application of heat. Of course the preparatory directions must be different, such as cleaning, trussing, stuffing, etc.

When you are about to roast a joint of meat, first wash it clean, then having prepared a bright, glowing fire, spit your joint, and after slightly salting it, and dredging an even thin coat of flour all over it, place it in your tin-kitchen at a distance of two feet from the fire. Throw a little water into your dripping-pan to prevent the juices from burning as they fall from the meat. From time to time baste your meat with a basting-mop, and lard
Page 188

or butter. Gradually move your meat, inch by inch, nearer to the fire, and, as it begins to brown, dredge on more flour; let it brown, and rub it when brown with the basting-mop, then with a spoon sprinkle it with water from the dripping-pan; as this returns to the dripping-pan, it takes down with it the browned flour, which is sufficient to color the gravy.

Let your meat become of a bright yellow-brown color; then, on pricking it with a fork, if no red juice follows, the meat is done. If it is preferred rare, remove it from the fire sooner.

Roast Beef of Old England.

When King James I. ascended the English throne it is probable he had never, in all his royal Scottish lifetime partaken of this noble dish, for such was his delight, on taking the first morsel into his mouth, that he instantly drew out his sword and bestowed the honor of knighthood on the object of his admiration,—a loin of beef. Thenceforth it was “Sir Loin” on the royal board, and has ever since retained that name or title.

To Roast a Sirloin of Beef.

Cooks usually allow a quarter of an hour to a pound in roasting or baking; but as a sirloin is much thiner than it is broad and long, a less time will be required to cook it.

If your beef does not weigh more than ten pounds, an hour and a half will suffice; if twelve or fifteen, two hours and a half will do.
Page 189

First, wash your meat carefully, rub it with a little salt, dredge on a thin coat of flour, and having spitted it lengthwise, place it before the fire at a distance of two feet. Have your fire briskly and clearly burning. Put a cup of water in your dripping-pan to prevent the burning of the juices which will drop from your meat. It will become warm through, but will cook slowly. Turn it frequently. When it begins to fry and drop its juice freely, turn it around more rapidly. When it has been doing three-quarters of an hour, move it a few inches nearer to the fire. Baste it frequently with butter or lard, or, if very fat, with the dripping from the pan. After basting, dredge on more flour till it is brown; baste again, and continue this throughout the process. Prick your meat now with a fork, and if no bloody juice follows, it is done; then draw it nearer to the fire for the last half hour. Baste it often, to prevent burning. When it is covered with a rich, brown crust, take it from the spit, but keep it near the fire, covered, till your dinner is dished. Now pour your dripings into a saucepan, skim off most of the fat, and let it boil to a proper consistency. Serve in a gravy-boat, and not with the roast in the dish.

To Bake a Sirloin of Beef.

This is a very nice and difficult process, seeing this dish is intended to represent genuine roast beef in both appearance and quality.

Be very particular to follow all the directions for roast beef as closely as possible, considering there
Page 190

is to be no roasting about it. Take care it is not suffered to burn, or become dry and hard; that it is basted well and frequently; that it is of a handsome brown all over. Be sure and have no bits of uncolored flour about it, and that it is thoroughly done.

As the dish is intended for dinner, it must be presumed that there is a substantial and active fire in your stove. Your fire cannot be graduated to suit one article more than another. This can only be done by placing some things nearer and some at a greater distance from the fire-chamber, or by opening a door. This latter must be done in the case of baking meats, indeed, any other article. Place your sirloin in a dripping-pan with water, dredge on flour, and draw your beef to the farthest side of the stove from the fire. Do this, if your sirloin is a large one, about two hours and a half before it is intended to be served. If a medium size one, two hours will do. Leave the stove door open partially till your water is hot, as well as your beef. Baste frequently with a larded mop and with flour. When on pricking your beef with a fork, no bloody juice follows, you may conclude your baked meat is nearly done; now, after basting well, close your door, and allow it to become of a yellow-brown color. When this is the case, take out your beef, place it near the stove to keep warm, and boil down your gravy to a proper consistency. Send your sirloin to the table in a heated dish, and the gravy in a gravy-boat. No seasoning is necessary but a little salt. Mustard and horseradish are agreeable condiments.
Page 191

Some persons like their beef only partially done, so that when cut the juice will retain a red color. If this is desired, an hour is sufficient for a sirloin of a moderate size.

Beefsteak.

Beefsteaks should be taken from the tenderloin; but if this cannot be done, then from the tongue side of the joint which bounds the larger round. If this cannot be procured, then take your steak from the round itself, nearest the hip-joint. These steaks will require to be beaten with a meatmallet, taking care not to make them ragged by too much beating.

Now wash your steaks well in pure water, grease your gridiron with sweet lard, and put it over a bright, glowing bed of lively coals.

Sprinkle your steaks on both sides with sifted flour, and lay them on the gridiron. Cover them with a tin or sheet-iron pan, about the size of your gridiron. This will prevent their drying too rapidly.

When brown on one side, turn the other, and as soon as that is brown remove your steaks from the gridiron to the pan which covers them; set it on the gridiron, add a good piece of sweet butter, and pour in from your teakettle a few spoonfuls of boiling water, cover with another pan, and let your steaks so remain till your dinner is dished, after which serve them in a hot dish, with cover.

No salt will be needed in the cooking, it only makes the steak hard; add this and other usual
Page 192

condiments after you are helped to the steak. Your plates should be hot to eat beefsteak in perfection.

If bits of your steak remain after dinner, add them to your soup-pot on the following day. They impart a pleasant tone to soup, if not scorched in broiling.

Beef Alamode.

Take a Dutch oven that has been carefully cleaned, and put it over a few lively coals. Drop into it a spoonful of good lard; as soon as it is melted, dredge in sufficient flour to cover the bottom of the oven. Leave it to brown. When every appearance of whiteness has disappeared from the flour, draw the coals out, for fear of burning, till your round is ready.

Wash a fine round of beef, then lay it on a board, and with a sharp knife gash it vertically all over, taking care to move the point of the knife so as to make the incisions larger within the meat than at the surface, so as to contain the stuffing the better. Then prepare your stuffing:

One onion, chopped.

One handful of fat pork or bacon, chopped fine.

One tablespoonful of sugar.

One teaspoonful of salt.

Half teaspoonful of red pepper.

Spoonful of powdered savory, thyme, and celery seed.

One spoonful of spices, mixed.

Mix all well together, and fill up the gashes in the round.
Page 193

Sift flour over the meat, and now place it in the oven, and replace the coals. Pour boiling water into the oven, around the meat, till it approaches the upper surface, but do not let it overflow the meat. Heat the cover of the oven, put a few embers on it, and let the beef stew for seven hours. Keep a kettle of boiling water near, and fill up, from time to time, as the gravy diminishes. Do not suffer it to become dry, as alamode beef is a rich stew, not a baked meat. If suffered to become dry, it will be hard.

When you open your oven to fill up with water, throw some of the gravy over the meat, and rub the flour about that it may not form a crust. Loosen the round from the bottom occasionally.

Just before you remove the round from the oven, pour over it a good glass of port wine, let it remain covered for a few moments, and then serve. Put your gravy in a gravy-boat. If your gravy is not quite of the consistency of cream, let it boil a few minutes more; if too thick, add boiling water.

This is a very handsome dish for a cold supper, and what is left of it after supper will make, with some of the gravy, a fine hash for breakfast.

Alamode beef, cold, and cut up fine, makes a delicious salad, prepared in the same way as chicken salad, that is, provided it is prepared in a proper manner, when it will be as tender as chicken; but if suffered to become hard in stewing, it will not answer for a salad.
Page 194

Hash Alamode.

Slices of alamode beef stewed with some of the gravy, with the addition of a glass of wine, and a lump of butter. Serve in a hot, covered dish.

Calf’s Head Fried.

Boil a calf’s head, after well cleaning, as directed before. When done, and quite tender, cut it in pieces, cover each piece with egg, and bread-crumbs or pounded cracker, seasoned with salt and pepper, as directed for oyster fritters, and fry them till of a light brown. This a very nice dish.

Boned Beef Roll.

With a sharp knife take the ribs out of a piece of fat beef, then stuff the cavities with bread and butter, pepper, salt, sweet herbs, onions, and a little mace. Roll the beef, tie it securely with a strong twine, and roast or bake it in the usual way, taking especial care that it is colored lightly, and not allowed to dry. This is a handsome and delicious dish. Remove the string before serving.

Baked Tenderloin.

Take a tenderloin, whole, out of a large beef, flour it well, set it in an oven, with a cup of water, to keep it from burning. When it begins to bake, baste it frequently with flour and butter rolled together, and occasionally with the water from the dripping-pan. When it is done of a light brown, with a crust all over the surface, dish it up, make the gravy, and pour it over the tenderloin.
Page 195

If your family is large, you will scarcely get as much as you wish of this delicious and delicate dish.

Collared Beef.

Take a flank of fresh beef, draw out the bones, lay it on a tray or dish, and salt it slightly, adding a small spoonful of saltpeter. Let it remain two days, then wash off the salt, sprinkle it with pounded mace, cinnamon, allspice, and a spoonful of brown sugar. Roll it up tightly, tie a towel over it closely, and boil it for three hours rapidly; then take it out of the pot; place a weight on it till cold. On the following day unroll the towel, take out your beef, and slice it for breakfast or tea.

To Stew Beef.

Cut your beef into thin slices, wash it clean, put it in a stewpan, and cover it with water; let it boil till tender, then rub a large spoonful of butter, with a moderate one of flour, stir it into the water containing the beef, with a seasoning of salt, pepper, a little onion, and a small sprig of marjoram. If you have any cold, boiled Irish potatoes, slice them in your stew; it will improve it.

Hunters’ Beef.

With one quart of salt mix

Two ounces of saltpeter.

Half ounce of cloves.

Half ounce of mace.

Half ounce of allspice.

Half ounce of nutmeg.

One tablespoonful of sugar.
Page 196

Take the bone from the middle of a large, fat, tender round of beef; fill the hole with the above mixture, and rub it well over the whole round. Have ready a wooden tub, which will just hold the round; sprinkle in some salt, with a handful of the above mixture, put in the round, and cover the top with the remainder of the mixture. Cover the tub closely, set it in a cool place for two weeks, when it will be ready for use.

Cover the bottom of a Dutch oven with paste, lay your round in, cover it with paste also, then pour a cup of water in the bottom of the oven, cover it close, and bake it slowly five hours. When done, take off the crust, shave off a thin slice from the top of the round. Serve it cold. A very excellent dish for a supper.

Hash.

Cut your meat into small pieces with a knife and fork; do not chop it fine; then put it in a saucepan, with a little water, salt, pepper, and butter rolled in flour; stir it frequently, and let it stew till the gravy is of a proper consistency. Then dish your hash in a covered dish.

Cold turkey or any other kind of poultry, cold beef or any other kind of meat, will make good hash for breakfast.

To Broil Ham.

Cut it in thin slices, lay them in cold water to extract the salt, wipe the slices, and lay them on a clean, greased gridiron over dull coals. Turn them when they appear slightly browned on one
Page 197

side, and brown the other. Do not suffer them to remain till dry and hard.

Browning for Soup or Gravies.

Melt a spoonful of sugar with a spoonful of butter, and let the mixture remain over the fire till quite brown, then add a glass of water; stir it well together, and bottle it for use. A tablespoonful is sufficient to brown a tureen of soup.

To Boil a Ham and Serve it.

Lay your ham in cold water overnight. In the morning scrape it clean, and lay it in fresh water till time to boil it. Weigh your ham, and put it on in time to allow a quarter of an hour for every pound, and a quarter of an hour to be heated through. Let it boil slowly. If you allow it to boil hard, it may be done before the time, and will become by the time appointed too much done. This should be looked to; and if, on piercing it with a fork, there is difficulty in drawing it out, the ham is not yet done; but if the fork comes out readily, take your ham from the fire, it is done. There is another way to know if your ham is done. If the bone attached to the thigh-joint is loose and easily withdrawn, your ham is certainly done.

When your ham is done, take the pot off the fire till it is time to prepare your ham for table. The usual way is to draw off the skin, and send the ham to table hot. If you wish to dress your ham, there are several handsome modes of doing this. First, leave on the skin, and, while your ham is warm, with a sharp-pointed penknife cut a bunch of
Page 198

flowers and leaves on the skin, then draw off care fully all the superfluous bits of skin. This is a very handsome mode, and shows well, particularly after the ham is cold. Another way is to brush it over with a batter made of the yelks of eggs and milk, to sift pounded cracker over this, and stick cloves over the ham in any fanciful manner, then set the ham in an oven and brown it. When you dish your ham, dress the hock with fringed white paper.

To Boil a Round of Corned Beef.

If your round has been long in the pickle, soak it several hours before boiling. Weigh it, and allow it the same time to boil as for a ham. Keep a kettle of boiling water near for the purpose of filling up your pot as it boils down. The water should cover the meat well throughout the boiling. Skim your pot often, and when your meat is done wash it well, that no appearance of the scum defaces it; then with a sharp knife shave off a thin slice from the upper surface before sending it to table. This displays its fresh, ruddy complexion.

To Boil a Smoked Tongue.

It should be soaked overnight, and boiled till, on piercing it with a fork, it is found quite tender and does not cling to the fork in drawing it out.

Venison Pasty.

Take a shoulder of venison, wash it clean, and soak it well, to free it from the blood; then put it in cold water, and let it boil till perfectly tender;
Page 199

take it out of the pot and cut the meat off in convenient slices. Strain the water in which it was boiled into a clean stewpan.

Now line a deep baking-dish with puff paste, place a large, clean towel, folded up to rise in the center, in the baking-dish, cover it with a sheet of puff paste, and ornament the borders of the pie with a wreath of paste leaves cut out with a jagging-iron. Place your pie in a slow oven, and bake it lightly. Take a half pound of fresh butter and rub into it a spoonful of flour, then melt the mixture with a tablespoonful of mixed spices, that is to say, a little cinnamon, mace, allspice, and nutmeg, with the rind of a lemon, grated, thyme, and marjoram. Mix this with the boiling water in the stewpan along with the sliced venison. Let all boil together well, then add a couple of glasses of best Madeira wine, and having removed the towel from the inside of the baking-dish, pour in the contents of the stewpan, put on the top crust again, and set the pie in the oven for a few moments

Stuffed Leg of Venison.

As venison is usually a winter dish, take care that it is not frozen when it is put to roast. Observe your venison overnight, and if frozen, put it to soak during the night in a large tub of cold water. See that it is entirely submerged. In the morning, when it is thoroughly thawed, wipe it dry, and lay it on a dish or tray. Make incisions of an inch and a half apart with a sharp knife, moving the point inside the meat, so as to contain
Page 200

the more stuffing. Now mix together in a bowl—

One handful of fat pork or bacon, chopped fine.

One small silver-skinned onion, chopped fine.

One tablespoonful of sugar.

One tablespoonful of mixed spices, ground fine.

One handful of marjoram, thyme, and parsley, all chopped fine.

One teaspoonful of salt.

Half teaspoonful of red pepper.

A lump of butter the size of an egg, and moisten all with one egg.

Stuff your venison, dredge on flour, and roast or bake as directed for beef. When it is done, pour over it a glassful of Madeira wine.

A leg of mutton dressed in this way is excellent.

A Stuffed Leg of Venison No. 2.

Cut deep incisions all over your leg of venison, then stuff it with the following mixture:

A handful of chopped fat pork.

A handful of bread-crumbs.

A spoonful of sugar.

A spoonful of salt.

A spoonful of spices (mixed).

A teaspoonful of celery seed, or a handful of chopped celery.

Then place the venison in a Dutch oven, with a little water in the bottom, and a thick sheet of white paper on the top.

Put a little fire under the oven, and a little
Page 201

on the heated lid, let the vension cook slowly for an hour, and then gradually increase the heat till you find the paper quite brown, and the water dried in the oven. Now take off the paper, put a large spoonful of butter rubbed in flour in the oven; let it fry brown; then pour in water from the boiling kettle, stirring all the while. Move your venison about frequently to prevent it sticking. Cover it up, but from time to time open the oven and baste the meat with the gravy. When it has remained two hours and a half, pierce it to the bone with a fork; if no blood exudes, it is done. Pour over it a glass of Madeira wine, let it remain a little, and then serve.

To Dress Venison in a Chafing-dish.

Set your chafing-dish on the table, and light your spirit-lamp. Rub a teaspoonful of flour into a tablespoonful of fresh butter, and place it in the hot chafing-dish. Let it fry till of a light-brown color. Then add a few spoonfuls of water, with a little mace, cinnamon, nutmeg, a few cloves, and grated rind of a lemon in its juice. Now add some thin slices of venison, and put on the cover of the chafing-dish for a little while, then open it and turn the steaks. Cover the venison again for a few minutes more, then open the chafing-dish again, and sprinkle over the steaks a little salt and red pepper. Pour over them a glass of Madeira wine, cover them up again for a few more minutes, and then eat them with currant jelly.
Page 202

Venison Steaks in the Woods.

Cut some large, thin slices off the ham, lay them over bright coals; when brown on one side turn them, and as soon as both sides are brown, salt, pepper, and butter them; then eat them immediately with your hunters’ loaf, and water from the spring.

Boiled Leg of Mutton.

Have ready a pot of boiling water, wash your leg of mutton, cut off the hock, and drop it in the boiling water. Boil it gently, allowing a quarter of an hour for every pound. Skim the water frequently, and keep the pot well covered; fill up the pot with hot water from your teakettle as it boils down; to fill up with cold water will harden the meat. When you think your meat is done, prick it with a fork, and if no bloody water follows, you have judged rightly. If you like it rare, then dish it up somewhat sooner.

Make a sauce of drawn butter and hard-boiled eggs, chopped up, and serve a portion of it in a boat, the remainder pour over your leg of mutton. Garnish it and the sides of the dish with sprigs of fresh parsley.

Mutton Stew.

Take a leg of mutton which has been served the day previous, and put it in a pot without cutting it up. Cover it with water, and let it simmer, and then add a spoonful of butter rubbed up with as much flour, and stir it smoothly; then cut up boiled Irish potatoes, with a pod of pepper, a little
Page 203

salt, and a bunch of thyme, if you like it. Let the stew simmer for an hour, and when you have placed it in the dish, lay the potatoes around it, and pour the gravy over the whole. It should be a deep dish.

Mutton-steaks.

Take them from the thigh, saw through the bone, and have your steaks of a fine oval shape. Broil them as beefsteaks; butter, pepper, and salt them, and serve hot.

Mutton Soup

May be made from the water in which mutton is boiled the previous day, in winter. It requires high seasoning and a quantity of vegetables.

Soyer’s Crab-shaped Mutton-chops.

Take a medium-sized saddle of mutton, and saw through the backbone, between each pair of opposite ribs. This will give you a crab-shaped chop. Trim off the superfluous ends of the ribs; wash, salt, and flour your chops, and broil them nicely on a gridiron over bright coals. When they are done, place them two in a dish, and butter them well while hot; or, as soon as they are browned, place them in a covered frying-pan, with a lump of butter rubbed in a little flour. Let them brown. Take them out, pour in the pan a little water from your teakettle, stir it about, let it boil up, and pour the gravy over your chops in the dish which goes to table.

The crab-shaped chop will make two ordinary
Page 204

chops if parted at the backbone. These are to be dressed in the same manner as above.

Veal Cutlets.

Wash your cutlets, and parboil them, then wipe them dry with a clean towel. Have ready a frying-pan of hot lard, and a dish of pounded crackers. In another dish have two or three eggs beaten up with two or three spoonfuls of rich, sweet cream; lay your cutlets in the eggs first (both sides), then in the crackers, after which put them in the boiling lard. Be careful not to move your cutlets about in the frying-pan, as that will cause the crust to fall off. Turn them gently when brown on the under side. Salt and pepper your cutlets slightly, also the mixture of eggs and cream. After dishing your cutlets, add to the lard remaining in the frying-pan a lump of butter rubbed in very little flour, a little chopped parsley or celery, then pour in a cup of boiling water from your teakettle, stir it briskly till very smooth gravy, let it boil awhile, then serve it in a gravy-boat.

Your cutlet, if properly attended to, will present a very inviting appearance, being of a handsome yellow-brown color, with a crispy coat, which would be destroyed by pouring the gravy over it.

To Roast a Pig.

Take a fat pig, six weeks old, have it dressed carefully; wash it well in fair water. Trim out all the inside of the ears and mouth; cut out the tongue, and chop off the extremity of the snout.
Page 205

Wash your pig again thoroughly inside and out, then rub it throughout well with a mixture of salt, pepper, and sage.

Stuff your pig with bread, butter, salt, pepper, sage, and thyme, then sew it up carefully. Spit it lengthwise, and, having dredged it with flour, place it before the fire to roast. Put some water in your dripping-pan; have a larding-mop ready, with butter and flour mixed in a plate; mop over your pig frequently with these while it is roasting. Set your tin-kitchen two feet from the fire at first, but gradually draw it nearer till the pig is well browned. Do not bring it too near, or it will scorch.

When done take it up, and pour the gravy into a saucepan, let it boil to a proper consistency. Chop up the liver and toes (which must be previously boiled) in the gravy, and serve it in a boat.

To Roast or Bake a Leg of Pork.

Score it through the skin in diamonds or squares, and roast or bake it as beef or mutton. It will require more time. Season the gravy with sage, pepper, and salt.

To Bake a Pig.

Prepare and season it as for roast pig. Leave your stove door open when you first put it in. As your pig bakes, gradually close the door, as directed for baked beef, mopping it well, from time to time, with flour and butter, occasionally wetting it over with the gravy or water in the dripping-pan. Turn it frequently.
Page 206

To Bake Lamb.

There is no difference in baking lamb and any other fresh meat, except that it will take less time with the same fire, and requires close attention to prevent burning. The gravy is made, too, in the same way as for other meats.
Lamb Pie.

Cover the bottom of a baking-dish with crust, then fill it with slices of cold lamb, salting and peppering each larger slice, adding bits of butter rubbed in flour with every layer. When full, pour in water to cover the lamb, and over all lay a neat crust of good pastry. Let it bake slowly.

An excellent and plentiful Dinner for a poor Family.

Get a set of beef or calf’s feet from the butcher, clean them thoroughly, and put them in salt and water to soak overnight. In the morning quite early, say at six o’clock, wash them in several more waters, break the bones in several places, and put them in a pot full of water to boil. If they keep regularly boiling, they will be tender at eleven o’clock, when the bones can be easily withdrawn from the meat; take out the feet, and, without the bones, put them in a bowl of salt and water, with a little vinegar. Now add to the water in the pot a small cup of rice, a few small potatoes, cut up (Irish or sweet), with two grated carrots, a turnip, a few beans or peas, and a sprig of thyme. Set it boiling, and keep it so till near the time for your dinner, when cut the meat off the feet into nice
Page 207

pieces, salt, pepper, flour, and fry them a yellow brown in sweet lard. These in a dish, your soup in a tureen, with bread and potatoes, will make a very savory and acceptable dinner for a moderate-sized family.

Ox-tail Soup and Stew.

Two or three ox tails from the butcher make excellent soup in the same way as above, and when tender, the meat, with the marrow which will be found on the soup, will make a very nice stew.

An ox’s head also will be nice, prepared in the same manner, cleaned and baked.

These things cost but a few cents.

Pork and Beans.

Boil your pork till quite done, skin it, and score it in squares; sprinkle it with flour.

Boil also your beans till quite soft, place them in a baking-dish neatly, place your pork in the center, and brown them in a moderate oven.
Tripe.

Clean it thoroughly by scraping, soaking in salt water, and scalding, then boil it till very tender, after which lay it away in salt and water and vinegar till the following day; it will then be ready to cut in squares, and fried in lard. Flour and pepper it before frying.

Chitterlings

Are prepared in the same way, except that they require to be in salt water longer, and to have it changed oftener.

http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/mason/mason.html#p169

[I have skipped many good recipes, looking for the odd ones]

To make a Chicken Pie.

Cut up a pair of fat chickens, carefully cleaned, and drawn, put them in a saucepan, with water to cover them, and a little salt. Cover them, and let them boil till tender. Skim them well.

Make a nice crust, with a quart of flour and half a pound of butter or lard, wet up with sweet milk and water. Cover a baking-dish with the crust,
Page 221

then sprinkle your chickens with a little fine black pepper and a good deal of sifted flour; lay them in the crust, with bits of butter rolled in flour; fill up the pie with the water in which the chickens were boiled, then cover the pie with a neatly fitting crust.

Ornament the top of the pie with thin leaves of paste, cut out with a jagging-iron. Bake in a slow oven, and serve hot.

Partridge or Pigeon Pie.

This pie is made as chicken pie.

Gravy for Broiled Chickens or Partridges.

Melt a small spoonful of butter in a saucepan, and then dredge in a spoonful of sifted flour, let it brown in the butter, then add a little boiling water, with pepper, salt, and chopped hard-boiled egg. When this has boiled, pour it over your chickens after they are in the dish.

Potted Partridges.

Truss and stuff your partridges as you do fowls, then melt a spoonful of butter in a small pot, and then dredge in a spoonful of flour, and wait till it is browned; flour also your partridges, and put them in the pot, with a cup of water; set the pot over the fire, and when the birds begin to brown, shake the pot frequently, turning the birds from side to side till browned all over. When done, place them side by side neatly in the dish, and pour the gravy over them.

This is a dainty dish, good enough for a queen.
Page 222

To Roast or Bake a Goose.

Have a fat young goose nicely plucked and cleaned, then rub it well, outside and in, with a mixture of salt, sage, pepper, and marjoram, and stuff it with bread-crumbs, seasoned with the mixture above mentioned. Truss it neatly, dredge plenty of flour over it, and roast it or bake it as in directions already given for baked or roasted meats or fowl.

Ducks are usually prepared, seasoned, stuffed, and baked or roasted as above, except that they should be done quickly, rather underdone.

The juice of a lemon squeezed into the gravy will improve it very much. Currant jelly or cranberries are an agreeable sauce for ducks.

Canvas-back Ducks

Should be parboiled, with a carrot inside, to extract the fishy taste, in case they might have any, and then the carrot should be removed, the ducks stuffed with bread-crumbs, and butter, pepper, and salt.

Roast them as in the above receipt. Sauces the same, with a glass of wine poured over the ducks just before taking them from the fire.

Pelau No. 1.

Boil a pair of fat young fowls, and when done take them from the pot, and having thrown off half the water, put in a pint of best rice, well washed and picked. Let the rice boil till done, then stir into it a good spoonful of fresh butter,
Page 223

with a little pepper and salt. Lay some of the rice in a dish, place the fowls on it, and with the remainder of the rice form a mound. Brush it over with egg, and set it in the oven to brown.

Pelau No. 2.

Boil a pint of rice by the Carolina receipt, then mix butter, pepper, and salt with it, and stuff a fat, full-grown fowl with half of it, if necessary; then stew your fowl in water, with butter, flour, and the yelks of two eggs. When your fowl is done, place the remainder of your boiled rice in a dish, shape it into a mound, and place your fowl on the summit, after which pour the gravy in which it was stewed over the whole.

Pelau No. 3.

Half-grown chickens, cut up in the usual way, with a few slices of nice bacon or ham, then boiled with rice, as in above receipts, make a very nice pelau. When done, take out the chickens and bacon, add butter, pepper, and a little salt to the rice; put the chickens neatly on the rice in a dish, and pour drawn butter, with chopped hard-boiled eggs, over the whole.

Brunswick Stew.

Four hours before you intend to have dinner, put in a stewpan five quarts of water, with two or three slices of bacon, and an onion, sliced. Let the water boil for an hour, then add two quarts of peeled tomatoes, four or five ears of corn (cut off the cobs), four Irish potatoes, sliced, and a few
Page 224

butter-beans. As soon as the stew begins to boil, cut up a pair of tender chickens or squirrels, add them to the stew, and suffer it to boil till the flesh drops from the bone: then thicken with bread-crumbs, and it is ready to serve.

A Pot-Pie.

Line a small pot with pie-crust, fill it with chickens, cut up and season as for stewed chicken, cover the whole with a crust, cut a small hole in the center, and place it over a moderate fire till done. When done, put the soft top crust in the bottom of the dish, place the chicken neatly on it, pour on the gravy, and cover the whole with the crusts from the sides of the pot.

Boiled Turkey, with Oysters.

Having cleaned, drawn, and well rinsed your turkey, rub it well, inside as well as outside, with salt and pepper, then mix a quart of oysters, with bread-crumbs, butter, red pepper, salt, and a little thyme, as stuffing for your turkey. Fill it completely, sew up the opening, truss the wings and thighs neatly by the sides of the turkey, then inclose it in a towel, dipped in boiling water, and well floured; drop it in boiling water. Boil it a quarter of an hour for every pound.

The water should boil slowly, but steadily. When done, turn your turkey out of the towel on a hot dish; garnish with stewed oysters.

Egg sauce, with oysters, should be eaten with your boiled turkey.
Page 225

Guinea Fowls.

These should be parboiled before roasting, unless very young, and then they are better baked in a profusion of gravy, otherwise they are very dry. The Dutch oven is best for Guinea fowls, as the lid can be kept over them to prevent the steam from escaping, so that they are in a manner stewed. Brown them well. Prepare the gravy as for roast fowls or turkeys.

Chickens Fried with Cream.

After plucking, and cutting up your chickens, lay them for an hour in cold water, then, after wiping them dry, salting, peppering, and flouring, fry them in lard till of a handsome, light-brown color. Now take them from the frying-pan, and, after carefully taking out all the burnt bits of flour, pour into the pan a cup of rich, sweet cream, with a handful of chopped parsley, and half a teaspoonful of curry-powder. Let the gravy stew till the parsley is quite done, dish your chickens, and pour the gravy over them.

This is a very delicious dish.

To Fricassee Chickens.

Cut up two fat chickens, as for chicken pie, wash them, and take off the skins, then put them in a stewpan of water, with a little salt. Let them boil till tender. Now take them out of the water, and skim it well or strain it; add to the water a quarter of a pound of butter rolled in flour, stir it
Page 226

till well mixed; add a broken pod of red pepper, a handful of chopped celery or parsley, and a blade of mace, broken to pieces; return it to the stewpan, and let it boil, then return the chicken to the stewpan also, with a cup of sweet cream, and two hard-boiled eggs, chopped fine. Stir it for a minute, and serve it in a covered, deep dish.

Gumbo.

Prepare your chicken as for stewing, and fry it in a quarter of a pound of butter, after flouring well. Wait till it is fried perfectly brown, then add a quart of boiling water, cover it, and let it boil for half an hour, and then add twenty-five fresh oysters, and a spoonful of gumbo (powdered sassafras leaves), or dry and ground okra. Add both red and black pepper.

VEGETABLES.

To boil vegetables, take care and put them in boiling water; to bake them, in a hot oven.

All vegetables should be thoroughly done, if cooked at all. They should be always fresh from the garden, if possible.

Dried beans, peas, and corn should be soaked in warm water before cooking, and they require more time than those that are fresh gathered.

In gathering peas, beans, or cucumbers, take care to select such as are young and tender, though
Page 227

you must avoid, too, an extreme in this respect. Practice alone will guide aright.

Always gather your vegetables early in the morning; the hot sun withers and makes them tough or flabby.

Peas and beans should be boiled in just enough water to make them tender, and it should be allowed to dry into them, so that none of their sweetness should be lost. Uncover your pot or stewpan as soon as they are soft, and they will be dry the sooner. Add your seasoning before dishing them.

A little salt should be put in the water when vegetables are boiled.

To Boil Irish Potatoes.

Wash them very clean, but do not peel them. Put them in boiling water just sufficient to cover them. Let them boil steadily, and as soon as you can pierce them easily with a fork, pour off all the water, take the vessel from off the fire, but leave it near enough to be kept quite hot. Double a coarse, clean towel, and lay it over the potatoes till you are ready to serve them; then peel them, butter them well, and send them to table very hot.

http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/mason/mason.html#p169

Page 259

PUDDING SAUCES.
No. 1.

CREAM half a pound of fresh butter with three-fourths of a pound of sugar; add a glass of white wine, half a nutmeg, and the rind and juice of a lemon; then melt your sauce in a porcelain stewpan over a slow fire.

This should be done by your cook while the family are at dinner, as the sauce will need constant stirring. If this action is suspended, the butter will separate from the sauce, and become oil at the surface. If taken from the fire, it will become stiff and hard.

Another.—Cream half a pound of butter with three-fourths of a pound of sugar; add to this a cup of sweet, rich cream, a glass of wine, a spoonful of brandy. Season with spice or lemon to your taste.
Cream Sauce.

Whip rich cream to a syllabub, with sugar, wine, and the juice of a lemon or orange.

Another.—Boil one pound of sugar in a cup of water till it becomes a thick syrup, then add a quarter of a pound of butter, a glass of wine, the juice and rind of a lemon, half a grated nutmeg.
Page 260

PUDDINGS.

Boiling Puddings.

HAVE your water boiling when your pudding is put in; have a plate in the bottom of the pot to prevent burning your bag, or even if you use a tin boiler, it is best to have the plate. Keep your pot constantly boiling the number of hours designated, or your pudding may not be done in due time; besides, its lightness will be less if the boiling is suffered to subside at intervals.

Plum Pudding No. 1.

One dozen of eggs.

One quart of new milk.

One pound of flour, with a pound of beef suet rubbed into it.

Two pounds of raisins, stoned and chopped.

Two pounds currants, washed and picked.

One pound citron, cut up fine.

Two lemons, the rinds grated into the juice.

After all being thoroughly mixed, to be tied up tightly in a linen bag, which has been previously dipped in boiling water and rubbed with flour.

The water should be boiling when the pudding is put in, and kept boiling till it is removed to the dish in which it is to go to the table. Four hours should be allowed it to boil.
Page 261

Plum Pudding No. 2.

One pound of sugar.

One pound of butter.

One pound of flour.

One dozen eggs.

Cream your butter and sugar together; beat your eggs lightly, add them to the sugar and butter, gradually, with the flour, as in pound cake. Then add—

Two pounds of stoned and chopped raisins.

One pound of cut citron.

One pound preserved orange or lemon, chopped.

Quarter ounce of mace.

Quarter ounce of cinnamon; the same of cloves and nutmeg.

Boil five hours, and serve with boiled sauce, as for plum pudding No. 1.

Plum Pudding No. 3.

Scald a pound of light bread with one quart of boiling milk; let it swell, then mash it fine with a wooden spoon. And to this eight eggs, half a pound of butter, one pound of raisins, one pound of currants, one pound of citron, one pound of preserved plums or cherries. To be boiled three hours.

To be served with either of the foregoing sauces.

Rice Pudding No. 1.

One teacupful of rice flour.

One dozen of fresh eggs.

One quart of milk.
Page 262

Beat all well together, and boil in a linen bag, prepared as before directed. Two hours will be sufficient. Serve with hot boiled sauce.

Rice Pudding No. 2.

Beat six eggs with six tablespoonfuls of sugar, then add, gradually, two teacupfuls of boiled rice, and a spoonful of butter, with a little orange or lemon peel. One quart of milk added last.

Pour all in a baking-dish, and when baked serve hot.

Rice Pudding No. 3.

Wash and pick a pint of rice, put it in soak for an hour; stone and chop a cupful of raisins, put the rice, mingled with the chopped raisins, in a boiling-cloth, tying it so as to leave room for the rice to swell. At first you will be compelled to guess at it, the second time you will know how much space to allow.

Turn your pudding out on a dish to serve. Eat with cream and wine sauce.

Or, you may boil rice and milk as in boiled rice No. 3, with the cup of chopped raisins in it.

Turn it out from a form.

Boiled Indian Pudding.

One and a half quarts of sifted Indian meal, with a large spoonful of butter rubbed into it, six eggs, a quart of milk, and a teaspoonful of salt. Beat all well together, and boil in a scalded and floured bag, as before mentioned, three hours.
Page 263

Boiled molasses or white sugar and lemon-juice will serve as a sauce.

Plain Boiled Pudding.

One dozen eggs.

One quart milk.

One teacupful of flour.

Beat all well together; tie in a scalded and floured bag, and boil as directed in the receipt for plum pudding, except that two hours will be sufficient to boil it in.

Sauce.—Butter, sugar, wine, and nutmeg, beaten well together, make the best sauce for this pudding.

Plain Baked Pudding.

One quart of milk.

Eight eggs.

A pint of flour.

A teaspoonful of butter, and a little salt.

Beat the eggs well, alone, and then gradually add the flour and milk.

Sauce as for plain boiled pudding.

Preserve Pudding.

One cup of flour.

One cup of butter.

One cup of milk.

Two cups of sugar.

Four eggs.

One cup and a half of preserves of any kind, if you choose several kinds.

Sauce as above.
Page 264

Sunderland Pudding.

Six eggs, three tablespoonfuls of flour, one pint of milk, warmed, and a spoonful of butter melted in it; a little salt. Beat all well together. Bake in a quick oven.

Fosset Pudding.

Eight eggs, half a pound of sugar, one quart of milk, one cup of flour; leave out four whites of the eggs. While the pudding is baking, beat the four whites of eggs to a stiff froth, with six spoonfuls of sugar (white sugar). Pour this on the pudding when done, and let it brown. Eat it with butter.

Henrietta Pudding.

Beat six eggs very light, sift into them a pound of loaf sugar, and a light pound of flour; add a glass of brandy, and half a grated nutmeg. When well beaten together add a pint of cream. Pour it into a deep baking-dish and bake it. When done, sift sugar over it to serve. Eat it with butter.

Baked Indian Pudding.

Boil a quart of milk, mix in it two gills and a half of corn meal, very smoothly, seven eggs, a gill of molasses, and a small piece of butter. Bake it two hours.

Apple Pudding.

To three pints of stewed apples (passed through a sieve), half pound of butter, half pound of sugar, the yelks of ten eggs, and half a cup of rich, sweet cream. To be baked in puff paste.
Page 265

Tapioca Pudding.

Dissolve a teacupful of tapioca in a quart of water overnight. In the morning take it out of the water, and boil it in a quart of milk, with two teacupfuls of sugar.

Pare and core eight apples, filling the opening with a lump of sugar and a small piece of cinnamon; then put them in a baking-dish, and pour the tapioca over them. Bake them brown. Let them get cold before serving. Eat them with wine or milk, as you like.

Edgecombe Pudding.

Boil two tablespoonfuls of corn-starch in two cups of new milk. When cold, add the yelks of six eggs, half pound of sugar, a spoonful of butter, and the juice and grated rind of a fresh lemon. Pour it in puff paste, and cover it with icing. Bake in a moderate oven.

Eve’s Pudding.

Chop six large apples very fine, grate six ounces of stale bread, add six ounces of brown sugar, six ounces of currants, washed, picked, and sprinkled with flour. Mix all well together with six ounces of butter, and two tablespoonfuls of flour; beat six eggs very light, add these with a teaspoonful of cinnamon and half a nutmeg, grated. Boil for three hours.

To be eaten with cream sauce.
Page 266

Bread Pudding.

Half pound of stale bread, soaked in milk (one pint).

Half pound of sugar, beaten with six eggs.

Quarter pound of butter.

Half pound of raisins; mace or nutmeg.

Boil it as before directed, and eat it with butter, sugar, and wine, well creamed together, with nutmeg or lemon-peel.

The same pudding is good baked, with the addition of a cup of cream.

Puff Pudding.

Six eggs, six tablespoonfuls of flour, one quart of milk, two teaspoonfuls of yeast-powder. Bake quickly. Sauce as above.

Henderson Pudding.

Five eggs.

Two cups of sugar.

One cup and a half of butter.

One cup of cream.

Two cups of flour, with a teaspoonful of soda.

Beat all well together, and, just before pouring into the pudding-bag, add two teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar, or three of strong vinegar. To be eaten with cream sauce.

Cream Sauce.—Three-fourths of a pound of sugar, half as much butter, stirred together till very light, then put over the fire and melted, with a glass of Madeira wine, a cup of cream, and a few drops of essence of lemon.
Page 267

Confederate Pudding.

One cup of Indian-meal mush.

One cup of sugar, and one of cream.

Four eggs, well beaten.

Three ounces of butter.

One glass of wine, with cinnamon.

All to be well beaten together, and poured into crusts, which have been covered with apple jelly. Bake in a moderate oven.

Croatan Pudding.

One pound of boiled small hominy.

Six eggs.

Six spoonfuls of sugar.

One spoonful of butter.

One-fourth of a nutmeg, and a glass of wine.

Beat all well together, and bake in plates covered with puff paste.

Sweet Potato Pudding.

One pound of boiled and mashed potatoes.

One pound of butter.

One pound of sugar.

Nine eggs.

Nutmeg, cinnamon, or lemon.

Stir the butter into the potatoes while warm, then add the sugar and yelks of the eggs; beat the whites to a stiff froth, add them with the wine and spice. Bake in puff paste as above.
Page 268

Almond Pudding.

Half pound of blanched almonds, pounded with rose-water.

One pint of rich, sweet cream.

Half pound of fresh butter.

Half pound of white sugar.

Two large Naples biscuits, grated, and the yelks of five eggs.

Mix, and beat all well together, and bake in puff paste.

Neapolitan Pudding.

Take one cup of mush, and while hot stir into it a good spoonful of butter and one cup of sugar. Beat four eggs very lightly, and add them, with half a nutmeg, and the rind and juice of a lemon. Beat all well together, and bake in puff paste, with a layer of jelly at the bottom of the pudding.

Sponge Cake Pudding.

Make a sponge cake after receipt in this book, and boil in a tin pudding-case.

The water should be boiling hard when the pudding is put in, and should boil steadily at least two hours. The boiler should be well covered.

Turn out your pudding on a dish, serve it hot, and eat with a rich, boiled sauce of sugar, butter, wine, lemon-peel and juice.

Boiled Molasses Pudding.

One cup of butter.

One cup of molasses.
Page 269

One cup and a half of milk.

Five cups of flour.

Spices to your taste; one teaspoonful of soda, and two tablespoonfuls of sharp vinegar, or the juice of a lemon.

Boil it five hours in a tin mould. Turn it out on a dish, and serve with boiled sauce. Raisins or currants improve this pudding.

Boiled Cherry Pudding.

Rub a light pound of butter into a pound of flour, add three-fourths of a pound of preserved cherries, and three-fourths of a pound of chopped and stoned raisins; then beat six eggs very light, and mix them gradually.

Put this pudding in a form or cloth, at nine o’clock, and boil it till two; or at ten, if you dine at three.

This is an exceedingly nice pudding. Sauce as for plum pudding.

Orange Pudding.

One dozen and a half of eggs (six whites left out), three-fourths of a pound of butter, creamed with one pound of powdered white sugar, and the grated rind of four oranges, with their juice. Bake in puff paste.

Baked Pudding for two.

Three eggs.

Six spoonfuls of flour.

One pint of milk.
Page 270

Bake twenty minutes, and eat it with sauce of butter, sugar, wine, and nutmeg.

Blackberry Pudding.

Cream together half a pound of butter and a pound of brown sugar, add half a pound of flour, with four eggs, beaten till very light. When well compounded, pour the batter into a greased baking-dish, and lay a quart of ripe blackberries lightly on the top. Do not stir them in.

Bake this pudding as you would a pound cake, and serve it with cream sauce, with wine.

Citron Pudding.

The yelks of nine eggs, ten ounces of white sugar, six ounces of butter, and two tablespoonfuls of Indian meal mush.

Cut your citron in thin slices, lay it in puff paste, fill up your baking-dish or plate with the pudding, and bake in a moderate oven.

A very nice and cheap Potato Pudding.

A pound of grated raw sweet potato.

A spoonful of butter.

Two spoonfuls of sugar.

Two eggs.

A cup of sweet milk.

A little nutmeg or cinnamon.

Mix all well together, and bake in an earthen baking-dish. Serve hot.
Page 271

Alice’s Pudding.

Plates covered with puff paste, spread with jelly, and then filled with pound cake batter, and baked in a slow oven a light brown. Sift loaf-sugar over them before serving.

Jelly Pudding.

One cup of sugar.

One cup of butter.

One cup of eggs (measured), and well beaten together.

One cup of jelly.

To be baked in crusts of puff paste.

Dainty Pudding.

Dissolve two rolls in one cup of sweet milk, add six eggs, well beaten, reserving two of the whites.

One cup of butter.

One cup of raisins.

One cup of currants.

One grated lemon, with the juice.

After being baked, make an icing with the two reserved whites of eggs and half a pound of loaf-sugar; pour it on the pudding while hot, and return it to the oven for a few moments before serving. Cream sauce.

Lemon Pudding.

Grate the rinds of six fresh lemons into the juice of three; beat the yelks of sixteen eggs and sixteen tablespoonfuls of sugar together, add a like quantity of melted butter, and four crackers, finely pounded.
Page 272

Now add the lemon-juice and peel, and beat all well together till very light. Cover your baking-dishes with puff paste, fill them with the pudding batter, and bake in a moderate oven.

Pumpkin Pudding.

Grate half a pound of pumpkin, make a rich custard of milk, eggs, and sugar; add the grated pumpkin, with spices to your taste. Bake in puff paste. A little butter improves it.

A rich Ground Rice Pudding.

Take five tablespoonfuls of ground rice, and boil it in a quart of new milk, with a grated nutmeg and a little cinnamon, stirring it all the while. When it is done, pour it in a pan, and stir into it a quarter of a pound of butter and half a pint of cream. When it is cold, add the yelks of eight eggs, and whites of four; then add half a pound of clean currants, sprinkled with dry flour, and half a glass of rose-water; the same of wine and brandy.

Bake it in a deep dish, or boil it. Eat it with boiled sauce or cream sauce.

Barbadoes Bread Pudding.

Eight eggs and eight spoonfuls of sugar, beaten well together; after which add, gradually, one quart of milk. Pour all in a baking-dish, then butter three thin slices of bread, with the crusts off, lay them into the baking-pan till wet through with the eggs and milk. Turn the buttered sides
Page 273

of the slices up, and bake in a quick oven. When firmly set in the pan it is done. Serve hot.

Apple Pudding.

Beat one spoonful of butter, with four eggs, and half a pound of grated apple; add to this half a pound of sugar; spice and lemon to your taste. Bake in puff paste, as lemon pudding.

Cocoanut Pudding.

One grated cocoanut.

One dozen eggs, well beaten, with half a pound of butter and a pound of sugar.

To be baked in puff paste.

Some persons leave out the yelks of the eggs. In Barbadoes the whites are left out, and the cocoanut pressed in a dry towel till all the oil is extracted; butter is added instead. Best way.

Fig Pudding.

Three-fourths of a pound of grated bread, half a pound of figs, six ounces of suet, six ounces of sugar, one teacupful of milk, a little nutmeg, and other spices.

Figs and suet to be chopped fine. Mix the bread and suet first, then the figs and sugar, and then one egg, and the milk last. Boil one hour.

To be eaten with sauce made of sugar, butter, wine, and spices, or lemon.

Hague Pudding.

Juice of three lemons, the rinds grated in it.

One pound of sugar.
Page 274

Five eggs.

Quarter pound of butter.

Two spoonfuls of rich cream.

Stir these ingredients well, and simmer them in a stewpan until thick and clear as honey. Stir them all the while. When cool, put them in puff paste, and bake in a moderate oven.

Boiled Lemon Pudding.

Half pound of bread-crumbs.

Half pound of suet.

Half pound of sugar.

Yelks of four eggs, whites of two.

Grated rinds of two lemons and their juice.

Mix thoroughly, beat well, and boil one hour and a half

Sweet Potato Pudding No. 2.

One pound of boiled and strained potatoes, three-fourths of a pound of butter, the same of sugar, six eggs, one nutmeg, and a glass of wine or brandy. Bake in a crust.

Transparent Pudding.

The yelks of eight eggs, half a pound of sugar, the same of butter, the rinds of two oranges, and the juice of one. Bake in a rich, puff paste.

Raleigh Pudding.

Ten eggs, thirteen spoonfuls of sugar, five of flour, three-fourths of a pound of butter. Bake in a deep dish, and serve hot.
Page 275

Irish Potato Pudding.

Eight eggs, well beaten, one pound of sugar, half a pound of butter, and three-fourths of a pound of mashed and strained potatoes, lemon-peel and juice, with a glass of white wine.

Mock Cocoanut Pudding.

Made as lemon pudding, with four spoonfuls of sifted Indian meal in place of the four pounded crackers.

Most persons mistake this pudding for real cocoanut pudding.

Suet Pudding.

Rub half a pound of chopped suet into one quart of sifted flour; add to these one quart of sweet milk, and eight eggs, well beaten, with a little salt. Boil your pudding, either in a form or a floured cloth, four hours.

Any of the sauces of this book suit it.

Corn-starch Pudding.

Boil a quart of milk, and thicken it with three tablespoonfuls of corn-starch, then remove the mixture to a bowl, and beat into it four eggs, two cups of sugar, and one of butter. Beat all well together, and bake your puddings in plates, covered with puff paste. Flavor with lemon-peel or nutmeg.
Page 276

http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/mason/mason.html#p169

[NOTE: FROM THE CURES USED/GIVEN HERE, I DO NOT THINK THAT THE DISEASES OF THE 1800’S ARE THE SAME THAT WE USE THE NAMES FOR TODAY....NOTE THE CANCER CURE...
granny.......who is posting history, not todays styles]

Apees.

Rub together a pound of sugar and half a pound of butter, add a glass of wine, and spices such as you like, with caraway seed, and water sufficient to make a dough to roll out, and cut with a cake-cutter. Bake them in a quick oven till of a light-brown color.

Bath Cakes.

One pound of sugar.

One pound of flour.

Three-fourths of a pound of butter.

Six eggs, leaving out the whites of four.

The juice and rind of a lemon.

Stir all well together, and drop the batter by spoonfuls in a hot, greased pan, and bake quickly.

Spanish Buns.

Quarter pound of butter.

One cup of cream.

Three-fourths of a pound of flour.

Three large teaspoonfuls of yeast-powders.

Three spoonfuls of almond- or peach-water.

Half pound of sugar.

Four eggs.

Let the butter and cream melt together, then
Page 332

add the other ingredients, ending with the flour, which must have been sifted with the yeast-powders.

If you use soda and cream of tartar instead of the powders, add the soda to the flour and the acid with the cream.

Bake in a square pan, and cut in squares.

Carolina Buns.

Take a pound of well-risen dough from Premium Bread No. 1 of this book, knead into it a good spoonful of butter, then place it in a deep bowl, and, with the hand, mix in half a pound of sugar, and three eggs that have been well beaten; add raisins or currants, and the juice and rind of a lemon, and last of all a thimbleful of soda.

Grease a baking-pan, pour in your batter, and let it rise a second time; then bake it in a quick oven. Cut it into three-inch squares, sift white sugar over them, and pile them in your cake-basket for tea.

Sweet Biscuits.

A pound of flour.

Half a pound of sugar.

Half a pound of butter.

A glass of wine.

A little nutmeg.

Wet it with sweet milk, knead it well, roll out the dough, and cut it in shapes to suit yourself. Let the cakes be thin.
Page 333

Rusk.

Beat an egg and a spoonful of sugar together well, then add a half pint of well-risen yeast; to this add another egg, well beaten, a large cup of sugar, and one of butter; then make up a soft dough with sifted flour, let it rise till very light, then make out your rusks as you would ring-rolls; fill a pan with them, barely touching, and when well risen, so that all are joined, and tall in the pan, bake them in a quick oven.

Flavor with nutmeg or cinnamon.

This makes a very nice loaf cake, with raisins or currants.

Doughnuts

Are made as rusks, and, when very light, the dough should be rolled out in thin sheets, and cut in squares, then suffered to rise a second time, and fried in hot lard. As soon as you take them from the frying-pan, sift fine white sugar over them.

Naples Biscuits.

One pound of sugar, sifted fine.

One pound of flour, sifted and dried.

One dozen of eggs.

Mace or nutmeg.

Beat the yelks and whites of the eggs separately, as light as possible, then add the sugar to the yelks; when beaten well, add the whites, by spoonfuls, alternately with the flour. Bake them, in oblong pans, quickly, of a light brown, and sift white sugar over them before using them.
Page 334

Macaroons.

Blanch and beat, in a marble mortar, three-fourths of a pound of sweet almonds and one-fourth of a pound of bitter almonds, shelled and blanched, mix them with a pound of powdered white sugar, then beat to a stiff froth the whites of six eggs, add them, by little at a time, to the almonds and sugar, till of a proper consistency to roll in the hands little, round balls, about the size of a pigeon’s egg, then flatten them, lay them in pans over which sugar has been sifted, and bake them in a slow oven, having brushed them over with white of egg to make them smooth.

Ground-peas make very nice macaroons.

Ginger Snaps.

One pint of molasses.

One cup of sugar.

One cup of butter.

One cup of lard.

One teaspoonful of soda.

Four tablespoonfuls of ginger.

Add flour sufficient to make a moderately stiff dough. Roll the dough out very thin, and cut your snaps with a ring no larger than a cent.

Molasses Pound Cake.

One cup of butter.

Two cups of sugar.

Two cups of molasses.

One cup of milk.
Page 335

Six eggs.

One pound of flour.

One teaspoonful of soda.

Melt the butter in the milk over a few warm embers, then add the sugar, molasses, and eggs, the latter beaten very light. Sift the flour and soda together, and mix them lightly with the above ingredients. You may add raisins or currants, if you like. Bake in a brisk oven.

This cake makes a very nice dessert with cream sauce.

Molasses Cake.

One cup of molasses,—an ordinary teacup.

One cup of sugar.

One cup of butter.

One cup of cream.

Six cups (or a sifted quart) of flour.

One teaspoonful of soda, small.

Two teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar.
*

* If the cream is sour, use only one spoonful of cream of tartar.

Spices and fruits as you choose.

Four eggs.

Stir the sugar and butter together, add the yelks of the eggs, then the molasses, and then the cream and flour in small portions, alternately, till all the flour is in, and last of all add the whites of the eggs, beaten to a stiff froth. The soda should be sifted in the flour, and the cream of tartar added to the cream or milk. If the cream is sour, put
Page 336

half the quantity of cream of tartar. You may bake this cake in a large pan or in small patties.

Let it bake in a moderate oven, steadily. Try it with a straw before removing from the oven. If you take it out before it is done, it will fall, and never rise again.

Preserved Ginger Cakes.

Take a quart of New Orleans molasses, and boil it with a large cup of good brown sugar, then, while it is hot, add a pound of fresh butter, six well-beaten eggs, and a pint of East India preserved ginger, cut up fine, with a cupful of the syrup.

Pour all these ingredients into the middle of a tray of sifted flour, and knead them into a pliable dough that will roll out smoothly to cut. Cut them in round cakes, and bake them brown in a moderate oven.

These cakes are good enough for a queen.

Hager’s Cakes.

Boil a quart of molasses down to a pint, add one-fourth of a pound of butter, four spoonfuls of pounded ginger, and a little mace. Make these ingredients into a pliable dough, roll it out very thin, cut your cakes in oblong squares, cross them with your knife (the back of it), and bake them in a quick oven.

These cakes are excellent.
Page 337

Gingerbread.

Three-fourths of a pound of brown sugar in a quart of molasses.

One pound of melted butter.

Two spoonfuls of pounded ginger.

One teaspoonful of pounded cloves.

Of these make a moderately stiff dough with flour in which has been mingled, before sifting, a tea-spoonful of soda or saleratus. Roll out the dough thick, and cut in large, oblong squares.

New Year’s Cake.

Mix a pound of sugar with three-quarters of a pound of butter, then add six well-beaten eggs, a glass of brandy in which has soaked for an hour a spoonful of coriander seed.

Roll the dough out thin, and cut your cakes. Bake them quickly.

Another.—Rub two and a half pounds of sugar into one and a quarter pound of butter, then wet up five pounds of flour with the sugar, butter, half a tumbler of water, and half a tumbler of brandy in which two spoonfuls of coriander seed have been soaked half an hour. Knead well. Roll out your dough thick on a table, and cut out your cakes. Stamp them with fanciful figures. Bake them in a moderate oven of a very light color. If you find they are browning too much, throw a clean paper over them.

This cake is delicious, and will keep for six months.
Page 338

Negro Ginger Cakes.

Sift three quarts of flour with three spoonfuls of ginger and three teaspoonfuls of soda or saleratus; melt half a pound of lard with a quart of molasses, mix these with the flour, and knead it well. Cut it in squares, or round cakes, and bake them quickly.

Brittle Ginger Cakes.

One cup of sugar—one and a half will improve them.

One cup of molasses.

One cup of butter.

Four eggs, beaten light.

Two spoonfuls of ginger.

One spoonful of cinnamon.

Mix all these ingredients well, and add flour sufficient to make a pliable dough that will roll out thin. Cut them round, and bake them in a quick oven. At first they will be crisp; if you keep them several days, they will be soft and tender, breaking at a touch.

Soft Gingerbread.

Three cups of molasses.

One cup of sour milk.

One cup of butter or lard, or half a cup of each.

Two tablespoonfuls of ginger.

One teaspoonful of soda.

Two teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar.

Flour sufficient to make a batter such as for a pound cake.

Bake in shallow pans, carefully, and when a straw can pierce it and come out dry, the gingerbread is done.
Page 339

THE SUPPER-TABLE.

Now, having ample and excellent receipts, you may provide as simple or as elegant a supper-table as you please.

If your company should number one hundred, and you have ample space, set two tables. One for meats and another for confectioneries.

Arrange your table after the pattern of your dinner- and dessert-table. Ornament it profusely with flowers, pyramids of cakes, ices, fruits, and so forth.

A candied tree, on a large iced cake, in the center of the table, is beautiful.

A meat supper should consist of a cold round of Alamode beef, ham, chicken salad, oysters, roasted turkeys or other fowls, smoked tongues, lobster, celery in glasses, rasped rolls, sandwiches, crackers, biscuits, etc.; wines if you choose, but take care the profusion is not too abundant, as you should, as a Christian entertainer, never provide for excess in so dangerous an article.

Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God. This can be done in all things where there is a will.
Page 340

WINES, CORDIALS, ETC.

Cherry Bounce.—A Cure for Diarrhoea.

FILL a jug with ripe wild cherries, and pour in French brandy till it will wet the cork. Stop it tightly, and set it away for six months. Pour off the brandy in bottles, well corked, for use.

A spoonful of the bounce in three spoonfuls of water, with sugar and a little nutmeg, will effect a cure, if administered two or three times a day to a child. Do not give all at once.

If an adult, two spoonfuls will be sufficient. Be careful not to make the beverage too strong.

Cherry Bounce.—A Cordial.

Fill a jug with cherries (half morellas and half wild cherries), then with brandy. Allow it to remain, well corked, for six months; then boil a thick syrup of loaf-sugar, with spices in proportion, agreeable to your taste. When the syrup is cold, fill your bottles two-thirds full with the cherry brandy, and add the spiced syrup till the bottles are full. Cork them well.

Blackberry Wine.

Have your berries gathered in the morning, and pounded to a pulp, then to every gallon of berries add a quart of boiling water. Strain the berries, and to every gallon of the juice add two pounds of white sugar.
Page 341

Fill a clean, sound cask, place it on its side on two pieces of scantling in your cellar, leaving the bung open for the wine to ferment and work over. In two or three weeks it will cease to ferment. Cork it lightly, and leave it till December. It would be better to remain a year.

Another receipt for blackberry wine is to add three pounds of sugar instead of two; but adhere to the above receipt in all other respects. This is stronger and better.

Wild Grape Wine.

The small, black, wild grape makes an excellent wine by the above receipt, but three pounds of sugar are necessary.

Catawba Wine

Requires three pounds of sugar.

Skuppernong Wine

Needs only two pounds of sugar.

The Elderberry

Makes an excellent wine. Particularly is it valuable for invalids and persons of feeble health as a tonic. Every family should have it.

Make it as blackberry wine, except that two quarts of water should be added to two quarts of berries.
Page 342

Blackberry Cordial.

Pound and strain a gallon of blackberries, and to every pint of juice add three-fourths of a pound of sugar (loaf), and to every two quarts of the juice add one-fourth of an ounce of mace, allspice, cinnamon, and cloves (whole or slightly bruised). Boil these ingredients to a rich syrup, and fill bottles with equal portions of French brandy and blackberry syrup. Bottle, and cork well.

This is almost a certain remedy for diarrhoea and dysentery. And for a delicate child, it should be used as a daily beverage, made with the cordial, water, and sugar.

Ratafia.

One gallon of best brandy, one quart of Madeira and one of Frontenac wine, one pint of orange-flower water, one pint of rose-water, three pounds of loaf-sugar, and twelve hundred peach kernels, and after having bruised and blanched half of them, put the brandy on them in a demijohn, and let it remain two or three months, shaking it occasionally, then add the other ingredients, and as soon as the sugar is dissolved, filter through a double blotting-paper, and bottle it.

Persico.

Take the peel of two dozen West India oranges, cut in very small pieces, put it in a gallon of water with ten pounds of loaf-sugar; boil fifteen or twenty minutes, skim until perfectly clear, and, while hot, add one gallon of best French brandy (not colored). Shake it repeatedly. In a fortnight it will be ready for use.
Page 343

Lemonade.

Cut into thin slices six fresh large lemons, put them in a bowl or pitcher, and with a wooden spoon crush out all the juice, then add a pint of white sugar and two quarts of ice-water.

Punch

Is made in the same way, with the addition of a pint of good whisky or brandy. Some persons like it hot.
Mint-julep.

Wash and pick clean a handful of fresh mint, put it in a tumbler, and after bruising it a little with the spoon, fill the tumbler not quite half full of brandy, and add an equal quantity of water, iced. Sugar to the taste.

Negus of Port Wine.

One pint of wine, one sliced lemon, a cup of white sugar, and a quart of boiling water. Grate half a nutmeg on it.
Page 344

ESSENCES.

Essence of Ginger.

FRESH, green ginger is best, if it can be had. This should be grated fine. If dry, it should be pounded in a mortar slightly.

To a pound of ginger put a pint of brandy, with the grated rinds of six lemons. Put the bottle in the sun for a week, then pour off the brandy, and fill the bottle with a pint of fresh brandy. Keep this brandy on the ginger for two weeks, and then pour it into the bottle with the brandy first poured off. Cork the bottle tight. A teaspoonful of this essence will be sufficient to flavor a ginger pound cake.

Essences may be made from all spices or sweet herbs by the above receipt. To a quart of brandy put three ounces of spice or ginger.

Herb Essences for Soup.

Fill a large-mouthed bottle with equal portions of marjoram, lemon, thyme, savory, eschalots, celery seed, and lemon-peel, then fill up the bottle with brandy.

Some employ vinegar instead of brandy.

Celery Essence.

Steep an ounce of celery seed in half a pint of good brandy. Keep it well stopped.

A teaspoonful will flavor a tureen of soup.
Page 345

Eschalot Essence.

Peel, and cut up into small pieces, a dozen heads of eschalots, or pound them in a mortar; put them in wide-mouthed bottles, and fill them with brandy or strong vinegar; let them remain a week, and then pour off the brandy or vinegar into a fresh bottle, and it is ready for use. A teaspoonful will flavor a gravy-boat of sauce, and will be found preferable to onions.

Essence of Vanilla.

Split up half a dozen vanilla beans, put them in a bottle with half a pint of brandy. This is all that is necessary. Cork it tightly.

Lavender Compound.

Pick off a pint of lavender flowers just before they bloom, put them in a quart bottle, fill the bottle with French brandy, and add mace, cloves, cinnamon, and orange-peel, each a teaspoonful, with a pinch of cochineal. Let these ingredients remain together for three weeks, and strain the liquor into another bottle, and cork it well. Pour a gill of water on the lavender blossoms, allow it to remain a day, and add it to the second bottle after straining as before.
Page 346

CANNING FRUITS AND VEGETABLES.

[NOTE DO NOT USE THESE FOR CANNING INSTRUCTIONS, RECIPES CONTENTS WILL WORK AS A GUIDE, BUT YOU MUST USE MODERN INFORMATION ON CANNING FOOD....
granny]

THESE should be fully ripe, without blemish, especially of decay.

In the first place, wash them and pick them clean, put them in the cans quite full, and having put on the covers loosely, set the cans in kettles of cold water over a moderate fire; let the water boil gently, then remove the cans, close them tightly, and set them in a cool place.

Glass cans are much used now; but as these admit light, which is supposed to injure the fruit, they should be placed at once in a dark closet.

Fruit keeps better without sugar, well sealed and kept cool.

Vegetables should be boiled longer than fruit, especially corn, peas, and beans.
Page 347

TO DRY FIGS, CHERRIES, DAMSONS, ETC.

SCALD them in syrup of common brown sugar, and put them in dishes in the sun. Keep the syrup, and repeat the scalding for two or three days, then put the dishes of fruit in the stove, after dinner, when the fire is low. This will very nearly complete the drying. After this, place them on the highest shelf in your pantry, cover them with a thin cloth for about two weeks, when you may dip them in sugar and water; place them in the sun again for a few days, and then pack them in boxes or jars.

A coating of white sugar will be formed on them, which will cause them to resemble the imported dried figs, etc.

To Dry Tomatoes.

Slice half-ripe tomatoes, and dip them in boiling syrup, then put them in the sun for a few days to dry, under thin muslin. When dry, pack them in jars. In winter, stew them as you usually do fresh tomatoes, with water, bread, butter, pepper, and salt.

Okra, Dried.

Cut crosswise, string on a thread, and dry your okra in the shade. The sun will spoil it all.

But the best way to keep okra is packed down with layers of salt. Soak them a little when you wish to use them, and omit salt in your soup or gumbo.
Page 348

MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS.

Diarrhoea.

CUT up a dozen green persimmons with an ounce of red oak bark, boil these in a pint of water till reduced one - half, then add one ounce of gum arabic and half a pound of white sugar. Boil the mixture with a teacupful of the syrup from black-berry preserves
*

* Take care that the preserves have not fermented.

down to a stiff candy. Sift coarse white sugar on a clean sheet of white paper, and drop the candy on it in the form of lozenges. Let the patient eat three or four each day.

This receipt is from a knowing friend.

Diet.—Rice flummery. Drink gum-arabic water and toast-water.
Cure for a bad Cough, Weak Lungs, etc.

One ounce of lignum-vitæ sawdust.

One ounce of hops.

One ounce of liquorice.

Boil these ingredients in three pints of pure water to one pint. Strain the liquor. Pour half a pint of water on the contents of the strainer so that all the strength of the ingredients is obtained; add this water to the pint of strong liquor. Boil this with a pound and a half of white sugar and one ounce of gum arabic down to a stiff candy. Pull it out in cords, cut them in lengths of a finger,
Page 349

and let the patient keep one about him, and eat it whenever the cough is troublesome, at all events three sticks per day.

If the lungs are affected, put an ounce of lignumvitæ in a pint of brandy or good whisky. Rub the chest, sides, and between the shoulders, with a flannel wet with the liquor, three times a day.

Cure for Scrofula.

Tea of dried whortleberries, taken regularly through the day for three or four weeks, has been known to cure entirely this disease. And why not internal cancers?

Osborne Syrup.

One quarter ounce of rhubarb.

Half ounce of annise seed.

Half ounce of liquorice root.

Half ounce of best manna.

Simmer these ingredients slowly in a porcelain stewpan, with three parts of a pint of water, till reduced one third. Strain the liquor, and while it is cooling burn one gill of best brandy in a cup with a tablespoonful of mixed spices, say a little mace, cloves, cinnamon, and allspice; place a wire frame or a few nails over the cup, and on them pile up four ounces of lumps of loaf-sugar; set fire to the brandy, and burn down all the sugar. This will make a rich syrup. Strain it and add it to the liquor previously boiled. After having poured all into a clean dry bottle, add to it half an ounce of paregoric and thirty grains of salts of tartar, with half an ounce of gum-arabic.
Page 350

This syrup, if administered in the early stages of diarrhoea, will arrest it at once, though sometimes, the stomach being acid, it may be necessary to administer a small dose of magnesia. This syrup should be administered three times a day. To an adult a large tablespoonful, and to a child a teaspoonful. And even when the disease is arrested I give it every night on going to bed for several nights. It is simple and innocent.

In 1833, when the Asiatic cholera first made its appearance in this country, the author of this work enjoyed the unspeakable pleasure of curing several patients with Osborne syrup: spirits of turpentine being applied externally to the whole surface of the body.

This syrup is no quackery, but was originally made after a prescription of an eminent physician who practiced in the family of the author of this work.

Hunter’s Bitters.

Four ounces of gentian root.

Three ounces of orange-peel.

One and a half ounces of cloves.

Two ounces of cinnamon.

Half ounce of cardamom.

Two ounces of fennel seed.

Cut these ingredients up in fine pieces, and bruise them in a marble mortar; then put them in a jug and add a gallon of best Cognac brandy. Place it in the sun for a few days, shaking it frequently.
Page 351

These receipts are in only one or two cases original; they are gathered from any reliable source, with the hope that they may serve a good purpose in emergencies, where persons are out of the way of medical advice or scientific directions.

Remedy for the Bite of Rattlesnakes.

The following receipt is claimed to be an unfailing remedy, and has been tried with success in two instances where soldiers were bitten by rattlesnakes, on the Plains, which came under the writer’s own immediate observation, and is now sent to the journal for the purpose of making it known to the large portion of our army now serving on the Plains, and other places where the rattlesnake is found.

Ribron’s antidote to the poison of the rattlesnake:

Iodide of potassium, four grains; hydrarg. chlor. corros. (corrosive sublimate), two grains; bromine, five drachms.

Ten drops of this mixture, diluted with a tablespoonful or two of brandy or wine or whisky, constitute a dose, to be repeated if necessary. It must be kept in glass-stoppered vials, well secured, as the air will affect it. This is an invaluable remedy.—Army and Navy Journal.

Another.—Whortleberry-juice applied to the bite, and a decoction taken internally, is a certain cure.
Page 352

Hydrophobia.

Pennyroyal leaves pulverized and mixed with honey. Give six tablespoonfuls a day, with sweet oil, for three days, and then no fears should remain.

Bromide of potassium is also a remedy for this poison.

Another.—Immediately wash the wound with warm vinegar or water, then wipe it dry, and pour on the wound a few drops of hydrochloric acid. Mineral acids neutralize animal poison.

To prevent dogs from going mad, mix a little sulphur in their food in the spring of the year.

Cure for a bad Cold or Cough.

Slice two or three onions in a bowl with alternate layers of sugar. Let them remain till a syrup is formed, and take a spoonful every hour through the day.

This is an excellent remedy.

To Cure a Cancer.

Pound up a handful of sorrel leaves, stew them with lard, and apply the poultice to the cancer, taking care to protect the well flesh by means of a large piece of adhesive plaster with a round hole cut in the center just sufficiently large to expose the cancer. This poultice should remain twenty-four hours.

Strong potash, applied in the same way, it is said, will destroy a cancer so that it can be pulled out as you would pull up a parsnip from the ground.
Page 353

Cure for Asthma.

Leaves of the Jamestown weed, or stramonium, dried in the shade, and saturated with a strong solution of saltpeter, then suffered to dry again, if smoked so as to inhale the fumes, will relieve the sufferer from asthma almost immediately. Gather the leaves before frost.

To Cure Dyspepsia.

Eat two baked apples (with skins on) for tea, and nothing else till breakfast, then a cup of coffee or tea, and dry toast, with thin sliced old ham. For dessert, at dinner, two baked apples, as for tea the night before. Walk after dinner.

Having witnessed the good effects of this remedy, the author has no hesitation in recommending it.

Cure for Dysentery.

A tablespoonful of sweet oil with twenty-five drops of laudanum.

One dose is often sufficient.

Another.—A glass of hot punch with plenty of lemon-juce.

Another.—A strong decoction of the strawberry plant, leaves and roots.

Another.—Dress cucumbers with vinegar, salt, and black pepper, and drink the vinegar.
To Cure Burns or Frostbitten Fingers or Feet, etc.

Make a poultice of Indian-meal, and cover the surface of it with green-tea leaves.
Page 354

To Cure a Tetter.

Take prickly ash bark, mint, root and tops, tobacco, tar, and pokeroot; stew all these together in hog’s lard; strain it, and, when nearly cold, sprinkle in a little sulphur.

Wash the tetter with vinegar and saltpeter before applying the ointment. Do this daily till well.

Before each application, wash the head with warm Castile soap.

A Sea-captain’s Remedy for Cholera.

Mr. G. S. Peabody, master of the packet-ship Isaac Wright, has written a letter giving an account of the treatment of cholera cases which occurred on his vessel in January last, during a trip from Liverpool to New York.

Captain Peabody says that within forty-eight hours after sailing, cholera appeared, and in ten days twenty-seven passengers had died of it, though they were treated “by the book.” The captain then applied a method of treatment that had been recommended by his predecessor in command, and did not lose another patient on that voyage or since. The remedy was this: A tablespoonful of salt and a tablespoonful of red pepper in a half pint of hot water. The captain says he was himself attacked by violent cholera, with cramps, etc., but the medicine “carried him through.” He adds: “The medicine acts quickly as an emetic, say in one or two minutes. It brings up a very offensive matter, which sticks like glue. It was given, among
Page 355

others, to one old woman of eighty-four years of age, who was on deck. Though weak, of course, she was well the very next day. I have known it to be successfully used on board their ships by at least a dozen shipmasters besides myself. Its use is quite general in Liverpool, where even some of the regular doctors find it to their advantage to resort to it. Provided with this simple receipt I no longer consider the cholera an unmanageable disease.”

Cure for the Small-Pox.

The following prescription is vouched for by the Eastport (Me.) Sentinel, as a cure for the small-pox:

Give to the patient two tablespoonfuls of a mixture of hop yeast and water, sweetened with molasses, so as to be palatable, equal parts of each, three times a day. Children under twelve years of age should take two teaspoonfuls three times a day.

Diet.—Boiled rice and milk, and toasted bread moistened with water, and without butter. Eat no meat. Give catnip tea as often as the patient is thirsty. Give physic when necessary.

If the above treatment is strictly followed, no marks of small-pox will remain.

Prevention of Lockjaw.

Peach leaves pounded, and applied immediately to a wound caused by sticking a nail in the foot or hand, will prevent lockjaw.
Page 356

Another Remedy for Small-Pox.

A correspondent of the Stockton (Cal.) Herald writes as follows:

I herewith append a receipt, which has been used to my knowledge in hundreds of cases. It will cure the small-pox though the pittings are filling. When Jenner discovered cow-pox in England, the world of science hurled an avalanche of fame upon his head, but when the most scientific school of medicine in the world—that of Paris—published this receipt as a panacea for small-pox, it passed unheeded. It is as unfailing as fate, and conquers in every instance. It is harmless when taken by a well person. It will also cure scarlet fever. Here is the receipt as I have used it, and cured my children of scarlet fever; here it is as I have used it to cure the small-pox; when learned physicians said the patient must die, it cured: Sulphate of zinc, one grain; fox-glove (digitalis), one grain; half a teaspoonful of sugar; mix with two tablespoonfuls of water. When thoroughly mixed, add four ounces of water. Take a spoonful every hour. Either disease will disappear in twelve hours. For a child, smaller doses, according to age. If counties would compel their physicians to use this, there would be no need of pesthouses. If you value advice and experience, use this for that terrible disease.

Important Medical Discovery.

A remarkable medical discovery has recently been made in the treatment of deafness, by Professor
Page 357

Scott, of the New York Medical University, by which the most apparently hopeless cases are radically cured. The method consists in introducing atomized oxide of phenyl directly into the cavity of the tympanum. No unpleasant sensations are produced, and a feeling of clearness seems to follow the application. Numerous cases are daily treated successfully at the university.

Diphtheria.

Dr. Revillout, in a paper presented to the French Academy of Medicine, asserts that lemon-juice is one of the most efficacious medicines that can be applied in diphtheria, and relates that when he was a dresser in the hospital, his own life was saved by this timely application. He got three dozen lemons and gargled his throat with the juice, swallowing a little at a time, in order to act on the more deep-seated parts. Dr. R. has noted eleven cases of complete success obtained by this method of treatment.

The Lockjaw can be Cured.

An experiment which has just taken place in one of the Paris hospitals appears to establish conclusively that lockjaw can be cured by means of the curare poison. A young man, twenty-four years of age, having had one of his toes carried off by a musket-shot, considerable injury having at the same time been inflicted on the adjoining ones by the projectile, was seized with lockjaw four days after the accident. Dr. Chassaignac (who supplies this account of the case) was called in,
Page 358

when the patient was already far gone. A potion, consisting of one hundred and twenty grammes of tea, with ten centigrammes of curare, was administered in the dose of one tablespoonful per hour; at the same time the wound, which was much jagged, and emitting a fetid pus, was moistened with a solution of twenty centigrammes (four grains) of curare in two hundred grammes of distilled water. Bottles of warm water were put into the patient’s bed. The first spoonful of the potion produced some effect at the end of an hour, and as the treatment went on so did the state of the patient improve. The solution of curare used for the local application was gradually strengthened to thirty, and at length to forty centigrammes of the poison; its proportion in the potion was also increased to fifteen, and then to twenty-five centigrammes. At the end of six days the patient was out of danger.

Scarlatina and Measles.

Mr. Witt, member of the Royal College of Surgeons, has published a pamphlet in which he states that carbonate of ammonia is a specific for the cure of scarlet fever and measles. He cites Dr. Pearl, of Liverpool, and other practitioners, who have never lost a case, out of hundreds, since adopting this remedy. Two drachms of the bicarbonate of ammonia are dissolved in five ounces of water, and two tablespoonfuls of the solution given every two, three, or four hours, according to the urgency of the symptoms. No acid drink must be taken, but
Page 359

only water, or toast and water. The system is to be moved by a dose of calomel, if necessary. The room must be well ventilated, but the patient protected from the slightest cold or draught. Gargles should also be employed for cleaning the throat. The ammonia, it is said, counteracts the poison which causes scarlatina, and also acts on the system by diminishing the frequency and at the same time increasing the strength of the pulse. As so many children die from these diseases in this country, this remedy ought to receive a fair trial from the profession.

Alleged Certain Cure for the Bite of a Mad Dog.

The editor of the Kent News, published at Chestertown, Md., in giving publicity to the following article, says “it may be proper to state, for the information of persons who are not acquainted with Mr. Dyre, that he is a highly respectable and intelligent farmer, residing near Galena, in this county.”

Elecampane is a plant well known to most persons, and is to be found in many of our gardens. Immediately after being bitten, take one and a half ounces of the root of the plant,—the green root is perhaps preferable, but the dried will answer, and may be found in our drug stores, and was used by me,—slice or bruise, put into a pint of fresh milk, boil down to a half pint, strain, and when cold drink, fasting for at least six hours afterward. The next morning, fasting, repeat the dose, using two ounces of the root. On the third morning take
Page 360

another dose prepared as the last, and this will be sufficient. It is recommended that after each dose nothing be eaten for at least six hours.

I have a son who was bitten by a mad dog eighteen years ago, and four other children in the neighborhood were also bitten; they took the above dose, and are alive and well at this day. And I have known a number of others who were bitten that applied the same remedy.

It is supposed that the root contains a principle which, being taken up by the blood in its circulation, counteracts or neutralizes the deadly effects of the virus of the hydrophobia.

I feel so much confidence in this simple remedy that I am willing you should give my name in connection with this statement.

FRANKLIN DYRE.

Cure for Drunkenness.

Sulphate of iron, five grains; magnesia, ten grains; peppermint-water, eleven drachms; spirits of nutmeg, one drachm. A wineglassful twice a day.

http://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/receipt/receipt.html

Confederate Receipt Book.
A Compilation of over One Hundred Receipts,
Adapted to the Times:

1863

MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS

PRESERVING MEAT WITHOUT SALT.—

We need salt as a relish to our food, but it is not essential in the preservation of our meats. The Indians used little or no salt, yet they preserved meat and even fish in abundance by drying. This can be accomplished by fire, by smoke or by sunshine, but the most rapid and reliable mode is by all these agents combined. To do this select a spot having the fullest command of sunshine. Erect there a wigwan five or six feet high, with an open top, in size proportioned to the quantity of meat to be cured, and protected from the winds, so that all the smoke must pass through the open top. The meat cut into pieces suitable for drying (the thinner the better) to be suspended on rods in the open comb, and a vigorous smoke made of decayed wood is to be kept up without cessation Exposed thus to the combined influence of sunshine, heat and smoke, meat cut into slices not over an inch thick can be thoroughly cured in twenty-four hours. For thicker pieces there must be, of course, a longer time, and the curing of oily meat, such as pork, is more difficult than that of beef, venison or mutton.

To cure meat in the sun hang it on the South side of your house, as near to the wall as possible without touching.

Savages cure fish by pounding it fine, and exposing it to the bright sun.

TO CURE BACON WITH LITTLE SALT.—

Take five gallons water, seven pounds salt, one pound sugar, or one pint molasses, one teaspoonful saltpetre, mix, and after sprinkling the flesh side of the hams in the salt, pack in a tight barrel, hams first, then shoulders, lastly middlings. Pour over the brine, and if not enough to cover, make another draft of the above, and
Page 17

repeat till all is covered, leaving the meat in brine from four to seven weeks, according to size.

TO PREVENT SKIPPERS IN HAM.—

In order to avoid the skipper, and all worms and bugs that usually infest and destroy bacon, keep your smoke house dark, and the moth that deposits the eggs will never enter it. Smoke with green hickory, this is important, as the flavor of the bacon is often destroyed by smoking with improper wood.

METHOD OF CURING BAD BUTTER.—

Melt the butter in hot water, skim it off as clean as possible, and work it over again in a churn, add salt and fine sugar, and press well.

TO CLARIFY MOLASSES.—

To free molasses from its sharp taste, and to render it fit to be used, instead of sugar, take twelve pounds of molasses, twelve pounds of water, and three pounds of charcoal, coarsely pulverized, mix them in a kettle, and boil the whole over a slow wood fire. When the mixture has boiled half an hour, pour it into a flat vessel, in order that the charcoal may subside to the bottom, then pour off the liquid, and place it over the fire once more, that the superflous water may evaporate, and the molasses be brought to their former consistence. Twelve pounds of molasses will produce twelve pounds of syrup.

SUBSTITUTE FOR CREAM IN TEA OR COFFEE.—

Beat the white of an egg to a froth, put to it a very small lump of butter, and mix well, then turn the coffee to it gradually, so that it may not curdle. If perfectly done it will be an excellent substitute for cream. For tea omit the butter, using only the egg.

SUBSTITUTE FOR COFFEE.—

Take sound ripe acorns, wash them while in the shell, dry them, and parch until they open, take the shell off, roast with a little bacon fat, and you will have a splendid cup of coffee.

Page 18

TO JUDGE THE QUALITY OF LAMB.—

If fresh the vein in the neck of a forequarter is bluish; if green or yellow it is stale. In the hindquarter if the knuckle is limp, and the part under the kidney smells slightly disagreeable, avoid it. If the eyes are sunken do not buy the head.

TO TEST FLOUR.—

Knead a small quantity by way of experiment. If good, the flour immediately forms an adhesive elastic paste, which will readily assume any form that may be given to it without breaking.

TO PREPARE SALT.—

Set a lump of salt in a plate before the fire, and when dry pound it in a mortar, or rub two pieces of salt together. It will then be free from lumps, and in very fine powder.

SOFT WATER.—

If you are troubled to get soft water for washing fill a tub or barrel half full of wood ashes, and fill it up with water, so that you may have lye whenever you want it. A gallon of strong lye put into a large kettle of hard water will make it as soft as rain water.

NUTMEGS.—

The largest, heaviest, and most unctuous nutmegs are the best. If you begin to grate nutmeg at the stalk end it will prove hollow throughout.

RICE GLUE.—

Mix rice flour smoothly with cold water, and simmer it over a slow fire, when it will form a delicate and durable cement, not only answering all the purposes of common paste, but well adapted for joining paper and card board ornamental work.

TO CEMENT BROKEN CHINA OR GLASS.—

Beat lime to the finest powder, and sift it through fine muslin, then tie some into a thin muslin, put on the edges of the broken china some white of egg, dust some lime quickly on the same, and unite them exactly.

Page 19

INK.—

To make five gallons of good cheap ink, take half a pound of extract of logwood and dissolve it in five gallons of hot water, and add half an ounce of bichromate potash. Strain and bottle it.

TO IMPROVE PALE BLACK INK.—

To a pint of black ink add one drachm of impure carbonate of potassa, and in a few minutes it will be jet black. Be careful that the ink does not run over during the effervescence caused by the potassa.

TO PRESERVE STEEL PENS.—

Metallic pens may be preserved from rusting by throwing into the bottle containing the ink a few nails or broken pieces of steel pens if not varnished. The corrosive action of the acid which the ink contains is expended on the iron so introduced, and will not therefore affect the pen.

FIRE BALLS FOR FUEL.—

Mix one bushel of small coal or sawdust, or both, with two bushels of sand and one bushel and a half of clay, make the mixture into balls with water, and pile them in a dry place to harden them. A fire cannot be lighted with these balls, but when it burns strong put them on above the top bar, and they will keep up a strong heat.

TO PURIFY RIVER OR MUDDY WATER.—

Dissolve half an ounce of alum in a pint of warm water, and stirring it about in a puncheon of water from the river, all the impurities will soon settle to the bottom, and in a day or two it will become quite clear.

TO GIVE A COOL TASTE TO WATER.—

A few leaves of sheep mint held in the mouth, or chewed, just before drinking water, will seemingly impart a degree of coolness to the draught.

TO PREVENT THIRST.—

Coffee grounds chewed at intervals on a march, or during any arduous service, will repress thirst.
Page 20

and satiate the cravings of hunger. When boiled over again, and the decoction becomes cool, it will quench thirst more effectively than water.

CHARCOAL TOOTH POWDER.—

Pound charcoal as fine as possible in a mortar, or grind it in a mill, then well sift it, and apply a little of it to the teeth about twice a week, and it will not only render them beautifully white, but will also make the breath sweet, and the gums firm and comfortable. If the charcoal is ground in a mortar, it is convenient to grind it in water to prevent the dust from flying about. Indeed the powder is more convenient for use when kept in water.

WAX FOR SEALING BOTTLES.—

Take equal parts of rosin and beeswax and melt over a fire, stir in some Spanish Brown, and while hot dip in the bottles.

CHEAP BLACKING.—

To a tea cup of molasses stir in lampblack until it is black, then add the white of two eggs, well beaten, and to this add a pint of vinegar or whiskey, and put it in a bottle for use. Shake it before using.

CHINESE METHOD OF RENDERING CLOTH WATERPROOF.—

To one ounce of white wax, melted, add one quart of spirits of turpentine, in which, when thoroughly mixed and cold, dip the cloth and hang up to dry. Try it.

TO CLEAN KID GLOVES.—

First see that your hands are clean, then put on the gloves and wash them, as though you were washing your hands in a basin of turpentine, then hang them up in a warm place, or where there is a good current of air, which will carry off all smell of turpentine. This method was brought from Paris, and thousands of dollars have been made by it.

TO BLEACH STRAW HATS, &c.—

Straw hats and bonnets are bleached by putting them, previously washed in pure water,
Page 21

into a box with burning sulphur, the fumes which arise unite with the water on the bonnets, and the sulphurous acid thus formed bleaches them.

TO REMOVE GREASE FROM CLOTH.—

Take soft soap and fuller’s earth, of each half a pound, beat them well together in a mortar, and form cakes. The spot first moistened with water is rubbed with the cake and allowed to dry, when it is well rubbed with a little warm water, and afterwards rinsed or rubbed clean.

TO REMOVE GREASE FROM BOOKS.—

Lay upon the spot a little magnesia or powdered chalk, and under it the same, set on it a warm flat iron, and as soon as the grease is melted it will all be absorbed, and leave the paper clean.

TO MAKE OLD SILK LOOK AS WELL AS NEW.—

Unpick the dress, grate two Irish potatoes into a quart of water, let it stand to settle, strain it without disturbing the sediment and sponge the silk with it. Iron on the wrong side.

POWDER TO CLEAN GOLD LACE.—

Rock alum (burnt and finely powdered,) five parts, levigated chalk one part, mix. Apply with a dry brush.

TO KEEP ARMS AND POLISHED METAL FROM RUST.—

Dissolve one ounce of camphor in two pounds of hog’s lard, observing to take off the scum, then mix as much black lead as will give the mixture an iron color. Fire arms, &c., rubbed over with this mixture, left twenty-four hours, and then dried with a linen cloth, will keep clean for many months.

TO MAKE ECONOMICAL WICKS FOR LAMPS.—

When using a lamp with a flat wick, if you take a piece of clean cotton stocking it will answer the purpose as well as the cotton wicks which are sold in the shops.

Page 22

TO DRY HERBS.—

Dry the gathered crop, thinly spread out and shaded from the sun, tie the herbs in small bundles, and keep them compactly pressed down and covered with white paper; or, after drying them, put each sort into a small box, and by means of boards fitted in it, and a screw-press, press the herbs into cakes or little trusses. These should be afterwards carefully wrapped up in paper and be kept in a dry place, when they will retain their aroma as perfectly as when they were put into the press, for at least three years. By the common method of hanging up herbs in loose bundles the odor soon escapes.

AN ILLUMINATED BOTTLE.—

By putting a piece of phosphorus the size of a pea into a phial, and adding boiling oil until the bottle is a third full, a luminous bottle is formed, for on taking out the cork to admit atmospheric air, the empty space in the phial will become luminous. Whenever the stopper is taken out at night, sufficient light is evolved to show the hour upon a watch, and if care be taken to keep it generally well closed it will preserve its illuminative power for several months.

A CHEAP TAPER FOR A SICK ROOM.—

Take a piece of soft pliant paper, part of newspaper for example, and form a circle of it, then gather the centre together and twist it into a wick, immerse the whole in a saucer of lard and light it, and you have a taper that will last some hours.

TO PREVENT BLISTERS ON THE FEET.—

Blistering or soreness of the feet may be prevented on long marches by covering the soles of the stockings with a coating of the cheapest brown soap. Coarse cotton socks are the best for walking.

TOUGH MEAT.—

Those whose teeth are not strong enough to masticate hard beef should cut their steaks the day before using into slices about two inches thick, rub over them a small quantity of soda, wash off next morning, cut them into suitable
Page 23

thickness, and cook according to fancy. The same process will answer for any description of tough meat.

CHEAP DOOR MATS.—

Cut any old woolen articles into long strips, from one to two inches broad. Braid three of these together, and sew the braid in gradually increasing circles till large enough.

ECONOMY IN CARPETS.—

In buying a carpet, as in everything else, those of the best quality are cheapest in the end. As it is extremely desirable that they should look as clean as possible, avoid buying a carpet that has any white in it. Even a small portion of white interspersed through the pattern will in a short time give it a dingy appearance.

If you cannot obtain a hearth rug that exactly corresponds with the carpet, get one entirely different, for a decided contrast looks better than a bad match.

VARIOUS HINTS.—

One flannel petticoat will wear nearly as long as two, if turned behind part before, when the front begins to wear out. If you have a strip of land do not throw away soapsuds. Both ashes and soap suds are good manure for bushes and young plants.

See that nothing is thrown away which might have served to nourish your own family, or a poorer one.

“Brewis” is made of crusts and dry pieces of bread soaked a good while in hot milk, mashed up, and eaten with salt.

Charcoal powder will be found a very good thing to give knives a polish.

A bonnet and trimmings may be worn a much longer time if the dust be brushed well off after walking.

A bowl containing two quarts of water, set in an oven when baking, will prevent pies, cakes, &c., from being scorched.

Page 25

http://www.foodtimeline.org/fooddecades.html#greatwarcivilian

[snipped]

Food notes from the New York Times:

“Soup kitchens and the missions state that they can always get meat scaps and day-old bread, frequently for nothing and always for very little, but the vegetables that make up the bulk of the soups and stews which they serve are few and far between, and those they can afford are poor and stale. Arrangements are being made to have baskets at the Grand Central and Pennsylvania Station to recieve contributions of fruit and vegetables brough in on trains.”
-—”Urges Charity Gardens’,” New York Times, April 14, 1932 (p. 18)

“Three meals are served each day, including Sundays. Breakfast consists of coffee and a sweet roll, and dinner and supper of soup, bread and coffee, with a second or third helping permitted.”
-—”Capone Feeds 3,000 a Day in Soup Kitchen,” New York Times, November 15, 1930 (p. 4)

“Dozens of jobless men today received food from “soup kitchens” as the city opened temporary commisaries to care for hungry families. Mayor Hoan, a Socialist, ordered the old policy armory kitchen thrown open tomorrow as a municipal kitchen. Temporary headquarters gave bread, milk, cheese and coffee to the hungry today.”
-—”Milwaukee opens Soup Kitchens’,” New York Times, March 6, 1930 (p. 24)

“...families will be supplied with tickets entitling them to soup, and probably bread, every day. The meat and vegetables will be donated by other members of the district, and the funds to operate the kitchen have already been provided.”
-—”15th A.D. to Install a Soup Kitchen,” New York Times, February 21, 1933 (p. 21)
[NOTE: the 15th district was considered a wealthy neighborhood. That it was installing a soup kitchen for its residents was a sad sign of the times.]

About Chicago’s bread lines & food kitchens.

Why soup?
Throughout time, in almost every culture and cuisine, soups and have been the primary foods consumed by people with not much money. It is economical (can be composed of whatever the cook has on hand that day...can be stretched to feed more by adding liquid), simple to cook (one large pot, does not require much in the way of fuel/cooking appliances/utensils), easy to serve (requires only a bowl/cup and a spoon, in a pinch it can be sipped without a spoon) and requires minimal clean-up. Bread also has a long history of filling empty bellies during the worst of times.

Penny restaurants
“Penny Restaurants” were subsidized by social service organizations. The point was to provide good, hot meals to unemployed folks too proud to accept charity.

“Manhattan’s newest mid-town penny restaurant is doing a rushing business...Ont he two upper floors there is a sevice change of three cents a meal, and a chance to sit down at the gleaming white tables after the diners have collected the items of thier meal cafeteria fashion...But it is on the ground floor that the penny meal plan devised by the Bernarr Macfadden Foundation is seen in its full benefits for the white-collar worker whose self-respect will not permit him to beg so long as he can find occasional work. Of such men and women there are many thousands in New York City today who obtain an occasional day’s work that enables them to keep going...the Free Food Ticket Fund Committee...works in conjuction with with the penny restaurants. Mrs. Sprague said that in the las few weeks donations enough to provide 75,000 five-cent meals had been received. The organization hopes to provide 2000 meals a day for 250 days, which will require a fund of $25,000. Seventy-five per cent of the patrons of the penny restaurants are unemployed, it is estimated. At one cent an order the diners may obtain soup, cracked wheat, steamed cornmeal, steamed oatmeal, steamed hominy grits, bread pudding, stewed prunes, stewed raisins, honey, milk, tea, raisin coffee, black coffee, whole wheat doughnut, two slices of whole wheat bread or whole wheat raisin bread. For five cents...it is possible to obtain a filling lunch, for with soup, pudding and a beverage, accounted for at three cents, and order of creamed codfish on toast may be had for two cents more. Omit the pudding or the beverage, and your nickel will buy one of the three cent orders; a meat cake, fruit salad, half a grapefruit, sliced peaches, a whole wheat crumb cake, lettuce and tomates, tuna fish salad. To those who hadn’t a nickel, a total average for 1200 five-cent meals have been served without charge daily at the five penny restaurants now operating in New York City.

The total number of meals now being served in these restaurants averages more thean 10,000 a day. Today persons in need of one of these nickel meals must go to one of the 90 welfare organizations scattered about the city for a ticket. As some of these needy ones still have sufficient pride to dislike applying for charity in any guise, it is hoped by the penny restaurant managers that the city welfare department will soon see fit to relsease a license to permit applicants for tickets to sand in line near the mid-town restaurant, waiting their turn when a generous passer-by makes possible, by a donation of $1, for 20 of these men to eat.

From 500 to 800 men have been in the Forty-third Street twice daily, satisfied to wait an hour or more on the street for the pot-luck that will come to them in the crowd, a way of getting a meal ticket without asking sometone for it... Why is the City Welfare Department holding up the license forr this line? According to the best explanation obtainable, it is thought at City Hall that it “does not look well” at this time for such a line to be seen in a mid-town street.” “At this time” may be interpreted as covering vaguely a preelection period, during which Tammany would have the city wear as fair a face as possible. Thrusting a congregation of hungry men into the public eye twice daily, even on such an unfashionable thoroughfare as Sixth Avenue, is not precisely the best possible advertisment for the merits of the incumbent administration.”

-—”Penny Cafes That Pay Way With Hearty Nickel Meals Give Heart to Unemployed,” E.C. Scherburne, Christian Science Monitor, July 14, 1933 (p. 1)

NEW DEAL FOOD PROGRAMS

* CCC camp menus: Heyburn State Park (Idaho) & Camp Sawyer (Wisconsin)

FAMILY DINNERS: 1931

http://www.foodtimeline.org/fooddecades.html#greatwarcivilian

RECIPES FOR BUTTERLESS, EGGLESS, MILKLESS CAKE

[1914]
“Butterless-Milkess-Eggless Cake.
2 cupfuls brown sugar
2/3 cupful Crisco
2 cupfuls water
2 cupfuls sultana raisins
2 cupfuls seeded raisins
1 teaspoonful salt
2 teaspoonfuls powdered cinnamon
1 teaspoonful powdered cloves
1/2 teaspoonful powdered mace
1/2 teaspoonful grated nutmeg
2 teaspoonfuls baking soda
4 cupfuls flour
1 teaspoonful baking powder
1 1/2 cupfuls chopped nut meats
3 tablespoonfuls warm water
Put Crisco into saucepan, add sugar, water raisins, salt, and spices, and boil three minutes. Cool, and when cold add flour, baking pweder, soda dissolved in warm water and nut meats. Mix and turn into Criscoed and floured cake tin and bake in slow oven one and a half hours. Sufficient for one medium-sized cake.”
-—A Calendar of Dinners with 615 Recipes, Marion Harris Neil [Procter & Gamble:Cincinnati] 1914 (p. 120)
[NOTE: Procter & Gamble manufactured Crisco shortening. This company cookbook shows the home cook how easy it is to incorporate Crisco into everyday recipes, including cakes.]

[1944]
“Butterless, Eggless, Milkless Cake (No Eggs):
1 c. Brown sugar, firmly packed
1 1/4 c. Water
1/3 c. Vegetable shortening or lard
2/3 c. Raisins
1/2 teasp. Nutmeg
2 teasp. Cinnamon
1/2 teasp. Powdered cloves
1 teasp. Salt
1 teasp. Baking soda
2 teasp. Water
2 c. Sifted all-purpose flour
1 teasp. Baking powder
Boil brown sugar, 1 1/4 c. Water, shortening, raisins, and spices together for 3 min. Cool. Add salt and baking soda which has been dissolved in 2 teasp. Water. Gradually add the flour and baking powder which have been sifted together, beating smooth after each addition. Bake in a greased and floured 8”X8”X2” pan in a moderate oven of 325 degrees F. About 50 min., or until done. Needs no frosting.”
-—The Good Housekeeping Cook Book, New edition, completely revised 1944 [Farrar & Rinehart:New York] 1944 (p. 698)

http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcakes.html#icebox

We wonder if hummingbird cake was named in reference to how these birds eat. These tiny creatures are drawn to intensely sweet food sources. They engage the food source quickly and disperse when sated. Some of the descriptions we read regarding how this cake attracts people and is consumed quickly reminds us of hummingbirds eating patterns. PLEASE NOTE: This is our theory, not a documented fact.

Mrs. Wiggins’ recipe [1978]

“Hummingbird cake
3 cups all-pupose flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups salad oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple, undrained
2 cups chopped pecans or walnuts, divided
2 cups chopped bananas
Cream cheese frosting (recipe follows)
Combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl; add eggs and salad oil, stirring until dry ingredients are moistened. Do not beat. Stir in vanilla, pineapple, 1 cup chopped pecans, and bananas. Spoon batter into 3 well-greased and floured 9-inch cakepans. Bake at 350 degrees F. For 25 to 30 minutes; remove from pans, and cool immediately. Spread frosting between layers and on top and sides of cake. Sprinkle with 1 cup chopped pecans. Yield: one 9-inch layer cake.

Cream Cheese Frosting
2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 (16 ounce) packages powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Combine cream cheese and butter; cream until smooth. Add powdered sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Stir in vanilla. Yield: enough for a 3 layer cake.—Mrs. L.H. Wiggins, Greesnboro, North Carolina”
-—”Making the most of bananas,” Southern Living, February 1978 (p. 206)

The Kentucky Derby Cook Book [Kentucky Derby Museum:Louisville KY, 1986] contains a recipe for Hummingbird Cake on p. 204. A note printed in this book states “Hummingbird Cake. Helen Wiser’s recipe won Favorite Cake Award in the 1978 Kentucky State Fair.”

Ice Box Cake (aka Refigerator Cake)

Our survey of historic cookbooks confirms ice box recipes (cakes, pies, cookies) became popular in the 1920s. Cakes were promoted as festive party fare (they were easy to make and pretty to present); cookies as convenience items (think: slice and bake). As technology progressed and America became electrified, Ice Box items were renamed Refrigerator. Mainstream cookbooks generally made the name switch in the late 1930s/early 1940s. Recipes also evolved...from homemade cake and filling to box mixes with brand-name ingredients. Nabisco’s Famous Wafer chocolate cake is an excellent example of corporate promotion capitalizing on a trendy recipe.

Who invented the Ice Box Cake?
History does not record this person. Culinary experts agree most recipes evolve from extant formulas. Such is the case with Ice Box Cake. This rich confection descends from 19th century ice cream bombes which descended from Colonial Era Charlottes which descended from Renaissance-era Trifles. Notes here:

“Icebox cake is an adaptation of either a charlotte or Bavarian cream, or a mixture of both. It always calls for whipped cream in some form and freqently for butter. Nuts are often added and the mould is either decorated or put together with some sort of a cake mixture, as macaroons, sponge cake, angel cake, or lady fingers. In any case the dessert is so extremely rich that it should be served only in small quantities in a meal containing very little fat.”
-—Ida Bailey Allen’s Modern Cook Book, Ida Baily Allen [Garden City:New York] 1924 (p. 602)

A SURVEY OF CHOCOLATE REFRIGERATOR ICE BOX CAKES THROUGH TIME

[1917]
“An absolutely new confection is the refrigerator cake, which is being served occasionally at parties in Kansas City when the hostess takes a vacation from Hooverizing, for the ingredients are expensive. However, it makes a very large cake. The unique feature is that no baking is required, and the cake is served cut in wedge shaped pieces like pie. In fact, it is really more like a very sumptuous pudding. To make it, take half a pound of unsalted butter (which can be purchased at the larger markets), one half pound of powdered sugar, one-half pound of crushed macaroons, one-half pound of blanched almonds, one-half dozen eggs, and one and a half dozen lady fingers. Beat the egg yolks till thick and lemon colored; beat the whites till stiff; cream together the butter and sugar, chop the almonds and crush the macaroons. Mix all together. In a round loaf cake pan arrange the lady fingers, split in halves around the edge, so that they all form an upstanding border. The pour in the cake batter. The best pan to use is a large one that has removable sides and bottom. The success of the cake depends largely on the thorough beating given the yolks of the eggs. They would be beaten until as thick as mayonnaise. Instead of being baked the cake should stand in the refrigerator for at least thirty hours before being cut. Serve with whipped cream piled on top.”
-—”Ever Eat Refrigerator Cake? Instead of baking you put it in the ice box,” Kansas City Star, October 19, 1917 (p. 2)

[1919]
“Ice Box Cake
There are two recipes for icebox cake in the new Stevenson Memorial Cook Book whcih,a s we knwo, has been put out for one of the best of causes...

One dozen lady fingers; one tablespoonful sugar; three eggs, separated; one cake sweet chocolate. melt chocolate in double boiler with tablespoonful of warm water. Add mixture of yolks of eggs and sugar, well beaten, a little vanilla, and lastly, well beaten whites of eggs. Dip each ladyfinger in mixture, arrange in form which has been wet with cold water, and fill in. Place in icebox over night. Serve with whipped cream.”

The other recipe is for a larger cake ang gives fuller directions: “Three cakes sweet chocolate, three tablespoonfuls powdered sugar, three tablespoonfuls hot water, two dozne ladyfingers. Melt chocolate, sugar and water in double boiler and add half beaten yolks of six eggs. Line a mold with ladyfingers and pour half the mixture on them, then fill with ladyfingers, repeating with the chocolate mixture. Make twenty-four hours before serving. Just before serving whip one half pint of cream and put on top of cake. Grate a little chocolate over all.”
-—”Ice Box Cake,” Jane Eddington, Chicago Daily Tribune, December 1, 1919 (p. 24)

[1923]
“Ice Box Cake
(Rich but oh, so good! If you are trying to reduce, turn the page.)
One-fourth cup water
One-half cup sugar
Two squares chocolate
Four egg yolks
One cup butter
One cup powdered sugar
One teaspoon vanilla
Four egg whites
Two dozen lady fingers.
Cook the water, sugar and chocolate together in a double boiler until the mixture is smooth. Add the beaten egg yolks. Cook for one minute, beating constantly. Cream the butter, and slowly add the powdered sugar and vanilla. Add to the cooled chocolate mixture. Beat the egg whites very stiff and add to the first mixture. Line a square cake pan with waxed paper. Arrange lady fingers, split, around the sides and across the bottom. Add a layer of the cake mixture. Add another layer of the lady fingers and place the rest of the mixture on top. Set in an ice box with whipped cream. It is delicious but very rich.”
-—Bettina’s Best Desserts, Louise Bennett Weaver and Helen Cowles Le Cron [A.L. Burt Company:New York] 1923 (p. 36)

[1924]
Chocolate Icebox Cake
Follow the recipe for almond icebox cake, omitting the nuts and adding to the creamed butter and sugar a half pound of grated sweet chocolate, melted.”

“Almond Icebox Cake
3/4 cupful fresh butter
1 1/4 cupfuls sifted powdered or confectioner’s sugar
3 eggs
1 cupful finely chopped toasted almond meats
1/2 pint heavy cream
1/2 teaspoonful almond extracts
12 macaroons
1 1/2 dozen single lady fingers
Beat the butter to a cream and work in the sugar, almond extract, and egg yolks. The add the egg whites, whipped stiff, and the copped nut meats, and combine the mixture with the cream, which should be whipped stiff and folded in. Line a three-pint mould with waxed paper, put a layer of macaroons on the bottom, interspersing them, if desired, with whole toasted almond meats, to form a design. Line the sides of the mould with lady fingers, arranging them vertically, put half of the cream mixture in the mould, of this lay the remaining macaroons, adding the balance of the mixture, and set in the coolest part of the refrigerator for twenty-four hours. To serve, unmould and garnish with additional sweetened whipped cream, putting it on by means of the pastry bag and tube.”
-—Ida Bailey Allen’s Modern Cook Book, Ida Baily Allen [Garden City:New York] 1924 (p. 603)

[1931]
“Ice Box Cake.
To be made with Lady Fingers, Sponge Cake, or Angel Food and Custard. Line a bowl with wax paper. Place lady fingers (or slices of cake) around the sides and over the bottom. Put part of the custard into the bowl, then a layer of cake, then custard and last cake. Place the bowl in the refrigerator for 12 hours, or more. Invert the contents of the bowl onto a plate, cover the cake with whipped cream and serve it.

“Fillings for Ice Box Cakes...
Chocolate Custard:
3/8 pound sweet chocolate
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons water
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
Melt the chocolate, add the sugar, water and egg yolks. Cook this mixture over hot water or over a low flame until it is smooth, stirring it constantly over hot water or over a low flame. Cool the mixture and fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.”
-—Joy of Cooking, Irma S. Rombauer, fascimile 1931 edition [Scribner:New York] 1998 p. 266)
[NOTES: Also contains a rcipe for Cocoa Custard filling. The 1953 edition of this book calls this recipe “Refrigerator Cakes. The recipe & fillings are virtually unchanged.]

[1937]
“Chocolate Refrigerator Cake
2 squares unsweetened chocolate
1 1/3 cups sweetened condensed milk
1 egg, separated
1/3 cup chopped preserved ginger
2 tablespoons ginger syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Ladyfingers, split
Heavy cream, whipped
Melt chocolate in top part of double boiler, stir in condensed milk and cook until thickened. Stir 2 tablespoons chocolate mixture into beaten egg yolk; then add to remaining chocolate in double boiler and cook 3 minutes longer; cool. Stir in ginger, ginger syrup and vanilla and fold into stiffly beaten egg white. Line bottom and sides of mold or loaf pan with waxed paper, then with ladyfingers, round side out. Fill center with chocolate mixture, and if a loaf pan is used, arrange additional ladyfingers and chocolate mixture over top. Chill in refrigerator at least 4 hours. Unmold, slice and serve with slightly sweetened whipped cream. Approximate yield: 4 to 6 portions.”
-—America’s Cook Book, Compiled by the Home Institute of The New York Herald Tribune [Charles Scribner’s Sons:New York] 1937 (p. 710)

[1944]
“Chocolate Refrigerator Cake
(For a Party)
1 7 oz pkg. Semi-sweet chocolate
2 tablesp. Granulated sugar
3 tablesp. Cold water
3 eggs, separated
1 c. Heavy cream, whipped
1 teasp. Vanilla extract
1/2 teasp. Peppermint extract (optional)
18 lady fingers, split
Melt chocolate in top of double boiler. Add sugar and water, and mix well. Remove from heat. Stir gradually into egg yolks, and beat smooth with a spoon. Cool. Meat the egg whites stiff, and fold into the cooled chocolate mixture. Fold in the whipped cream and extracts. Arrange some of the lady fingers on the bottom of a loaf pan 10” X 5” X 3”, and pour in some of the chocolate and whipped cream mixture. Then alternate layers of lady fingers with the chocolate mixture until the loaf pan is full and all lady fingers and chocolate mixture have been used, having lady fingers on top. Chill in refrigerator fo 24 hrs., and serve with or without whipped cream. Serves 12.”
-—Good Housekeeping Cook Book, Completely Revised 7th Edition [Farrar & Rinehart:New York] 1944 (p. 653)