NYPL RESEARCH LIBRARIES 3 3433 00353406 6 WHAT TO EAT AND HOW TO COOK IT. VETERUS THE NEW * IBRARY FOUNDATION Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by JOHN Cowan, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. CONTENTS. PAGE Preface, . . . . . . . . . . . . Wheat and its Preparations, . . . . . . . . . Corn and Rye, and their Preparations, . . . . . . . Oats and its Preparations, . . . . . . . . . Buckwheat and its Preparations, . . . . . . . . . Barley and its Preparations, . . . . . . . . . Sago, Tapioca and Arrowroot, and their Preparations, . . . . Potatoes and their Preparations, . . . . . . . . Peas and Beans and their Preparations, . . . . . . . Turnips, Carrots, Parsnips and Artichokes, and their Preparations, : Onions, Leeks, Garlic, etc., and their Preparations, . . . . . Asparagus and its Preparations, . . . . . . Cabbage, Cauliflower, Spinach, Greens, etc., and their Preparations, Apples, Pears, Quinces, Grapes, etc., and their Preparations, .. Pies, . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gravies and Sauces, . . . . . . . . . . . Food and Drink for the Sick, Water, · · · · · · · · · · · · · Rules for Eeating · · Objectionable Articles of Diet, . . . . . . . . Poisons in Daily Use, . . . . . . . . . . Preserving, Canning and Drying Fruits and Vegetables, . . . 5 9 22 30 33 35 38 40 45 48 50 76 79 85 88 90 95 99 奇怪​。 | IO HYGIENIC COOK BOOK. . . Starch. Gluten, Sugar, · Gum, Bran, - Water, Winter or Hard Wheat. . . 56.5 55 8.48 . . 4.90 - - 2.30 . - 12.00 Summer or Soft Wheat. 62.00 12.00 7.56 5.80 1. 20 10.00 . . - . • 98.73 98.56 The best wheat for the purpose of bread-mak- ing is the hard, winter variety, the berries of which are plump and sound. To make of this perfect bread, it should first be thoroughly cleansed from dust, cockle, smut, chaff, etc., etc. Washing the wheat and thorough)drying it in- volves considerable labor, but is an effective way of cleaning it. It should then be ground on sharp stones, so as to cut the grain instead of mashing it. When the mill fails to cut the grain into fine particles, good bread can never be made from it. The bran should never be separated from the rest of the grain, by bolting or otherwise, for the do- ing of this greatly lessens its nutritive value; and it should be understood that the finer and whiter the flour is, the lower is its nutritive value. The part of the wheat that is discarded by bolting holds the phosphate of lime, silica, iron, etc.-ma- terials that are essentially required in the building up of the bones, muscles, nerves, brain, etc., while the woody fibre of the bran serves by its bulk and stimulating action to facilitate digestion. No per- WHEAT AND ITS PREPARATIONS. II son regularly using unfermented bread, made from unbolted flour, ever suffered from indigestion, cos- tiveness, or piles. It has been stated by an English chemist that bread made out of wheat meal, the bran in part sifted out by a common meal-sieve, contains the elements of - - - - - - - - - 160 pounds. Muscle, Fat, Bone, - - - - - - - - 30 . . - - - - - 175 . . . . . - - - - - Fat, Bone, e . 20 60 . Total, . . . . . . 365 pounds. Whereas fine flour contains the elements of Muscle, - - - - - - - - - 130 pounds. . . . . . . . . Total, . . . . . . 210 pounds leaving a balance in favor of the whole flour of 153 pounds, the fine having lost just that amount of nutrition out of 1,000 pounds. In addition to this there is a loss of from five to seven per cent. when the bread is fermented. Chemical analysis and experience attest the fact that eighty bushels of wheat coarsely ground, and made into unleav- ened bread, will sustain one hundred men as long, and in a better condition, than can one hundred bushels finely ground, bolted and fermented. It is a question whether fermented bread made from fine four, and used entirely as an article of 12 HYGIENIC COOK BOOK, diet, would support human life for any length of time. Those who uphold this kind of bread as the “staff of life,” would do 'well to try its exclusive use for a season. They would find that it would not be long ere they would take a thorough re- pugnance and loathing to it, and if they were so placed as to be prevented from using any other kind of food, they would after a time die die surrounded with this factitious “staff of life ; for it has been proven by experiment on animals by Majendie and others that bread made from fine flour will not sustain life more than a month, but when the animals were fed exclusively upon whole wheat-meal bread they lived and thrived. The use of flour made into bread from which the bran has been removed is especially noticeable in its effects on the bony structure of the body, and is the prime cause of bad teeth, rickets, and other deformities of the bony framework. This has been demonstrated by experiment ; for M. Chossett, a learned and careful French physiolo- gist and chemist, fed a number of pigeons exclu- sively on wheat from which every particle of the covering or shell had been removed. He found that this diet answered well enough for three months, after which diarrhea set in, and the birds died between the eighth and tenth month; but the most remarkable point in the experiment related has bedeformime ca WHEAT AND ITS PREPARATIONS. 17 should always be heated before putting in the batter. All reference to flour in the following pages will be understood as applying only to the unbolted, made from whole grain, or, as usually termed, that known as Graham flour. 1. Dr. Bellows' IDEAL LOAF. Bread-light, sweet, delicious, and eminently wholesome-may be made by mixing good unbolted wheat meal with cold water, making a paste of proper consistence, which can only be determined by experiments, pouring or dropping it quickly into a heated pan (that with concave departments is best), and placing it quickly in a hot oven, and baking it as quickly as possible without burning. The heat of the oven and pan suddenly coagulates the gluten of the outside, which retains the steam formed within, and each particle of water being inter- spersed with a particle of flour, and expanded into steam, separates the particles into cells, and being retained by the gluten, which is abundant in this natural flour, till it is cooked, the mass remains porous and digestible, and containing no carbonic acid gas, is wholesome when eaten immediately, and of course equally so when becoming cold. 2. Mrs. JOHNSON'S BEST BREAD. The first requisite is good white winter wheat, such as is raised abundantly in the Middle, Western and Southern States. If any families are unable to procure this, we know by trial that very good bread that tastes quite as well, though it is not so nice, can be made from spring wheat, such as is raised in New England, and in many localities not considered favorable to wheat growing. It is well to bake the cakes early in the morning, or just after the stove has been cleaned of ashes, as then less wood and less heat in the room will make the oven hot. Enough bake beans of the right form should be procured to fill the floor of the oven, so as to economize heat and time. All things being in readi- ness, flour may either be sifted from the hand into cold water, and mixed with it with a spoon until the latter is of a consistence a little firmer than for griddle cakes, or so firm as can be just poured from the spoon; or the flour may be put dry into the mixing pan and water poured to it. After heating the pans fill them even full with the batter, and immediately place in a hot oven. About twenty minutes will suffice to brown them nicely, when they should be taken out of the cups, carefully set so as not to touch each other, on a plate or board to cool, when they are ready for the table. Whoever has any appreciation of good food, and has once become accustomed to this light, sweet, unfermented bread, will deem it indispensable. 3. MRS. TRALL'S PREMIUM BREAD. Mix unbolted meal of any grain preferred, or a mixturc of two or more kinds, in any proportions which may be preferred, with pure water, either cold or hoc. 22 HYGIENIC COOK BOOK. tea cup of rusk, with sugar to sult the taste. Bake in a moderate oven. This pudding is improved by the addition of good sour apples quartered, or sweet ones chopped, and is very good made with water instead of milk. Set the rusk to swell in water in the pudding dish, then add sugar and fruit, and bake. 23. PLAIN TOAST Is made by cutting in two the cakes or slicing the loaves, then browning the pieces over a quick fire, either on a griddle or grate. It can be made soft by dropping it as soon as toasted into hot water, and when tender eaten with milk, gravy, or apple sauce. 24 TRAVELERS' BREAD. Take wheat meal and currants-or figs, dates, or raisins may be used by chop- ping them; stir quite stiftly with the coldest water-as briskly as possible so as to incorporate air with it; then knead in all the wheat meal you can. Cut in cakes or rolls one-half inch thick, and bake in a quick oven. 25. WEDDING CAKE. Mix one pint of boiled cracked wheat: one cocoanut, grated : half pint cocoa- nut milk; half pint dried currants; one quart stewed sweet apples, or figs soft- ened with hot water; and wheat meal sufficient to make a moderately stiff dough. Bake, in loaves, from one and a half to two hours. CORN AND RYE, AND THEIR PREPARATIONS. Corn. Next to Wheat comes Indian Corn, or Maize, in importance, as furnishing nourishing and healthy food. In its different varieties it will do for the coldest as well as for the warmest climates. The Esquimaux will live upon it, and the hot Sea Islanders, and all intermediate populations. Corn contains a small amount of gluten when compared with wheat, and hence in its ground state will not • HYGIENIC COOK BOOK. 24 in its sweetness. Therefore it should always be cooked and eaten in a perfectly fresh state, while it is tender, milky, and sweet to the taste. Rye is cultivated and largely used by the North- eastern nations of Europe. It is scarcely ever absent from the tables of the noble and wealthy, because two sorts of bread are considered by them more nourishing and more wholesome than the exclusive use of one. With the exception of wheat, it contains more gluten than any other grain, and for this reason is well-adapted for bread-making, and especially so when used in connection with corn. The composition of rye meal, as given by Per- eira, is- Starch, . 61.07 Gum, 11.09 Gluten, Albumen, Saccharinc matter, . . Husk, . Undetermined acid and loss, . . . . . . 5.42 Unbolted rye meal is an excellent laxative in obstinate cases of constipation, but in those unac- customed to its use it is apt, at first, to occasion diarrhea. The black bread so universally used in Germany is made from rye meal. Unbolted rye meal, when made into bread, may be kept for a great length of time without losing its flavor, or being otherwise changed, and hence the country . . . . . . . • . - - - 9.48 3.28 3.28 6.38 • • • • CORN AND RYE. Fittle larger at the top. The quantity here given will take a vessel which holds five or six quarts; place it immediately in the oven, after smoothing over the top with a spoon frequently dipped in cold water. Cover with a stone or iron plate, and have but little heat in the oven. It should take three hours to begin to bake; then bake slowly four hours. Leave the loaf in until the oven cools off, if it is several hours longer. It should be dark-colored, light and firm, with a good soft crust. A round-bottomed iron kettle will do to bake in, but the bread will not be as good. 39. BROWN BREAD. (ANOTHER MODE.) Take hot water, though not scalding, and stir into it corn meal until it is about half thick enough for a good batter; then cool it with cold water, and make a thick batter by adding unbolted wheat meal ; after which give the whole a good stirring, and put it into pans two or three inches deep. It is better to let it stand an hour or so, then put it into a hot oven, and bake steadily two hours and a half. Take it out, and cover with thick cloths for an hour or two, and it is ready for the table. When rightly prepared it is light, tender, moist and sweet. 40. NEW ENGLAND BROWN BREAD. Mix together with water equal quantities of rye and corn meal to a firm con- sistency, kneading it until the dough cleaves from the fingers. It may stand sey- eral hours or all night, and then be baked in loaves, in a moderate, steady oven, about three hours, or, much better, be steamed two or three hours in a steamer, and then set in the oven to be baked one hour. This prevents a hard crust from forming. If it be baked, smooth the top with the hand wet in water until it shines. This also prevents a thick crust. If baked late in the day, it is improved by standing covered in the oven all night, or until the oven shall cool 41. STEAMED BREAD. Take one-half corn meal, one-fourth wheat meal, one-fourth oat meal; mix to- gether, and pour on boiling water, stir stiff, and steam five hours. It is improved by putting into it fruit. 42. CORN CAKE. Mix corn meal to the consistency of a stiff batter, with lukewarm water, and pour into baking pans or cake moulds, and bake thoroughly and quickly. The meal must be coarsely ground, and if white corn is used, it must be a little stiffer than when made of yellow corn. 43. CORN MEAL BREAKFAST CAKE. For two baking pans, take one and a half pints of coarsely ground corn meal ; add water nearly boiling, but not enough to wet quite all of the meal; add cold water, a little at a time, stirring thoroughly between times, until you have it so thin that it has a tendency to settle as you pour it into your pans. It should not be more than half an inch deep in the tins, and it should be baked quickly in a HOT oven. 28. HYGIENIC COOK BOOK. 44. JOURNEY CAKE. Wet coarse-ground corn meal with boiling water; make into good-sized balls, and flatten them on a griddle with the hand dipped in water; they may also be cooked in an oven, or spread about a half inch thick on a board and baked before the fire. 45. Sweet Rolls. Mix about a quarter part of corn meal with the dry flour to shorten it: then dissolve sugar or molasses in water enough to wet the whole, and make in the same form as Yankee Rolls (No. 16.) Bake in a quick oven. 46. INDIAN BANNOCK. One pint of corn meal, one quart of sweet milk ; boil half of the milk and scald the meal; mix with it, while hot, half a cup of cream; add two well-beaten eggs and the remainder of the milk; bake in shallow pans in a quick oven. 47. HOE CAKE. Make a soft dough of coarsely ground yellow corn meal and cold water; form into small cakes less than half an inch thick, with the hands frequently wet in cold water, and bake quickly on the oven bottom, already heated Hot and made clean. 48. CORN AND RYE BISCUIT. Pour boiling water on coarse yellow corn meal, and stir to the consistency of a thick batter; immediately add coarse rye meal to make into a very soft dough; form into small, flat biscuits (fifteen to a baking pan), with the hands frequently wet in cold water, and bake immediately in a hot oven. They are very nice for variety, and are best made of equal parts of corn and rye. Bake thirty minutes or more. 49 Snow CAKE. Mix a little corn meal and pulverized sugar with dry flour, and then stir in the snow: bake in a Hot oven until well browned. This makes a short and tender, as well as light, sweet cake. 50. CORN MEAL CRACKERS Wet the corn meal with boiling water, flatten out the dough very thin with the hand, and cut with a tin or tumbler Bake in a hot oven. Or the dough may be flattened in a large pan, and marked in convenient squares with a knife. Sprinkle corn meal in the pan to prevent sticking. 51. BAKED INDIAN PUDDING. Two quarts sweet milk, one heaping tea cup full of Indian meal, one-half cup HYGIENIC COOK BOOK. SAGO, TAPIOCA AND ARROWROOT, AND THEIR PREPARATIONS. for one apioca and . Starch STARCH, Sago, Tapioca and Arrowroot are only synonyms for one and the same substance, that of starch, the difference between them being mainly that occasioned by the differing propor- tions of the constituents, and the presence of more or less foreign matter. Sago is a farinaceous substance, prepared from the pith of a species of palm growing on the islands and main land of the Indian Archipelago. Tapioca is prepared from the root of the man- dioca or cassava, grown in the West Indies, South America, and some parts of Africa. Arrowroot is a term loosely applied to the starch extracted from a number of roots and cereal pro- ducts—as the maranta, mondioc, arrum, potato, etc. That from the maranta of the East and · West Indies is the true arrowroot, but much of that in commerce is from other substances. 87. Sago APPLE PUDDING. One dozen tart apples, medium size, and one and a half cups of sago. Soak the sago a couple of hours, or until it is soft and pulpy; then add a little sugar to suit the taste. Peel and quarter the apples; put them in a pudding dish, and pour the sago over them. Bake an hour, or until the apples are cooked through. 88. Sago APPLE PUDDING. (ANOTHER WAY.) A very delicious preparation for dessert is made by slicing tender ripe apples SAGO, TAPIOCA, ETC. 39 into a pudding dish, and sprinkling over them a cup or two of unsoaked tapioca, filling the dish with water, and setting to bake slowly for two hours; to be served with a nicely flavored sauce. 89. Sago Bird's Nest PUDDING Is made by laying quartered fresh apples, or stewed dried ones, or cored and pared apples filled with sugar and raisins, in a pan about half full, and pouring over them the sago prepared as for thin pudding. Then bake in a moderate oven till the apples are cooked-say an hour or more, according to the size of the pudding 90. Sago JELLY. Soak a tea cup of sago in cold water one half hour; pour off the water; add fresh water and soak another half hour; then boil, by setting in a dish in boil- ing water until thickened; add a little white sugar, or currant or other acid jelly, and let it boil a few minutes longer, and then turn it out into cups. 91. Sago PUDDING And gruel are excellent articles for the sick, and are made by scattering slowly and stirring sago into boiling water, and cooking about twenty minutes, or until it becomes clear. These may be eaten with cream or sugar. 92. TAPIOCA GRUEL. Soak tapioca over night in twice the quantity of water; then add milk and water, and boil until soft. 93. TAPIOCA AND APPLE PUDDING. One tea cup of tapioca and three pints of water; let itstand four or five hours where it will be quite warm, but not cook; slice half a dozen good-sized green- ings, or other nicest cooking apples; add one tea cup of sugar, and mix all to- gether : bake an hour and a hall, or until it is all like jelly. Sago can be used in- stead; it is very palatable. 40 HYGIENIC COOK BOOK. POTATOES AND THEIR PREPARATIONS. THE potato, next to the cereals, is the most im- portant and valuable of the esculent foods. It contains more nutritive matter than all other foods that grow under the surface of the earth. "Indigenous to South America, it was not gen- erally cultivated in England until the middle of the eighteenth century. It is found abundantly in the wild state in Chili and Peru; and the ground nut, which is found in all the wilderness part of North America, is supposed by many to be the original from whence all our fine varieties of pota- toes are derived by cultivation. * “ According to chemical analysis, the best pota- toes are almost, if not quite as nutritive, pound for pound, as the best flesh meat; and certainly twenty or thirty pounds of them can be raised at the expense that will fatten a single pound of beef or pork.” That kind should be preferred which becomes mealy on boiling, and which when cooked can be thoroughly crushed with the finger. The potato which is known as “waxy," and those which re- main somewhat hard when boiled, do not digest so readily as the mealy kind, and are altogether inferior POTATOES. 41 . Potatoes should be pared very thin, for the most valuable and nutritious part of the potato is near the surface, so that a very thick peel would take the largest part of the nutriment. This is at once made obvious by examining a thin slice of potato with a microscope, when the starch gran- ules will be found lying in great numbers in a belt just under the skin, and decreasing toward the centre. If it is worth while to eat the potato at all, it is obviously foolish to throw away the nutri- ment and save only the water cells. Care should be taken to select potatoes for cook- ing that are alike in size, and always remember that if you let the potatoes remain in the water a moment after they are done enough, they will be- come waxy and watery. After pouring off the water, the saucepan containing the potatoes should be uncovered, and set at such a distance from the the fire as will secure it from burning; their su- perfluous moisture will evaporate, and the potatoes will be perfectly dry and mealy. You may after- wards place a napkin, folded up to the saucepan's diameter, over the potatoes, to keep them hot and mealy till wanted. 94. To Boil Potatoes WITH THE SKIN ON. After the potatoes are properly washed, and a little of the skins taken off at the ends, place them in a kettle of boiling water, allowing no more water than is sufficient to cover them. They should boil slowly, as the agitation of the water in rapid boiling dissolves and breaks the potatoes before they are done, and PEAS AND BEANS. 45 - 109. SWEET POTATOES. Sweet potatoes may be boiled with their skins on, or peeled and boiled, and then browned a little in the oven, or simply boiled. They are excellent sliced and browned the next day after having been boiled. PEAS AND BEANS, AND THEIR PREPARATIONS. PEAS and Beans are not only the most nutritious of vegetables, but they are among the cheapest articles of diet used. They are similar in proxi- mate elements to the cereal grains. Their com- position, as determined by Einhof, is as follows: Peas. Garden Beans. 34.17 15.89 Starch, - : Amy glaceous fibre, .. Legumine, • .. Gum, - - - Albumen, . Sweet extractive matter, Membrane, - Water, . . 32 45 21.88 14.56 6.37 1 72 2.11 10. 86 4.61 8.81 3.54 10.05 15.63 3 46 0.98 Kidney Beans. 35.94 II.07 20.81 19.T7 1.35 3.41 7:50 • (dried.) 0.55 Salts, 14.06 6.56 0.29 • Loss, . . - . . 100.00 100.00 100.00 46 HYGIENIC COOK BOOK, Green peas and beans, to realize fully their del- icate flavor and sweetness, should be picked and immediately cooked. The more stale they are the less palatable will they be. 110. Dried BEANS. Soak in water over night; pour off the water, and put them in plenty of cold water over the fire to scald; just before boiling pour off this water, and add enough more cold water to cover about an inch or so; let these come to boiling, and set them back on the stove to cook slowly four or five hours. This renders them more digestible than the ordinary mode of cooking. If baked, they may be boiled an hour, and baked two or three in milk and cream and a little sugar 11. GREEN BEANS. Drop them into boiling water, and cook until tender, and they are good, with- out any seasoning If any is desirable, a little cream or sugar is admissible. 112. To Cook STRING BEANS. Select varieties that have tender, fleshy pods. They should be fresh gathered for cooking. Wash the pods thoroughly. String and break or cut them into small pieces. Boil in a closed vessel in a large quantity of soft water for three or four hours. They should be well cooked to pieces. A little flour stirred to a smooth paste, with cold water added five minutes before removing from the fire, is an improvement. Or a little good rich milk may be added a few moments be- fore removing from the fire, with or without the flour paste. 113. BOILED GREEN PEAS. Shell, but do not wash them. Boil in water barely sufficient to cook them; then season with cream and sugar, and they are very palatable without salt. They can be boiled'and served with new potatoes as a variety, and will be found to make a pleasant dish. 114. BAKED BEANS (WITHOUT Pork.) Take one quart of clean, plump white beans; put them in a pan with sufficient water to keep them covered while soaking over night (ten or twelve hours) ; pour off the water and put them in an iron kettle to boil half an hour, or until they can be crushed by a squeeze of the thumb and finger; they are then ready to be poured into the baking pan, with sufficient water in the pan to keep them from burning at the bottom, and if the pan is covered it will prevent the beans at the top from being scorched. Bake from three to four hours. PEAS AND BEANS. 47 115. SUCCOTASH. One dozen ears sweet corn to a quart of shelled garden beans. Limas are best. Some like a large proportion of corn, some less. Put the beans into a large quantity of boiling water. While they are boiling cut the corn from the cob, as already described in No. 27, and throw the cobs in with the beans to boil fifteen or twenty minutes; then take them out; when the beans are tender add the cut corn, and let all boil together twenty minutes more; then add milk, a little cream and sugar, scalding it in, and it is ready to serve. 116. WINTER SUCCOTASH. Take equal quantities of dried sweet corn and of dried green beans. Wash and soak them separately over night in warm water. Add more water if neces- sary in the morning. Boil the beans slowly four or five hours, adding water oc- casionally. Cook the corn as in receipt No. 27 ; then add it to the beans, and cook slowly long enough to combine them well. This is an excellent article of food, if carefully prepared, although not equal to succotash in the summer. 117. BEAN PORRIDGE Is made by cooking dried beans in plenty of water till they are quite boiled to pieces; then thicken the broth with wheat meal flour or Indian meal in a batter with milk. 118. To Cook Split PEAS. Select those that are not old or strong. Wash and soak them several hours in soft cold water. Drain off the water, wash them, and cover them with boiling water to stand over night. In the morning add more water, and boil them very slowly in a covered vessel for six or eight hours. 119. Split Pea Soup. Wash and soak over night one quart of split peas in four quarts of water, and boil very slowly five or six hours. Strain through a fine colander; bits of toasted bread, tomatoes or onions can be added. 120. GREEN PEA SOUP. Take three pints of peas, three common sized turnips, one carrot, and the shells of the peas. Boil one quart of the largest of the peas, with the shells or pods, till quite soft; rub through a fine colander; return the pulp into the pan; add the turnips, a carrot sliced, and a quart of boiling water; when the vege- tables are perfectly soft, add the young or smaller peas previously boiled. 121. SPLIT PEAS AND BARLEY Soup. Take three pints of split peas, half a pint of pearl barley, half a pound of stale bread, and one turnip sliced. Wash the peas and barley, and steep them in fresh water at least twelve hours; place them over the fire ; add the bread, tur- TURNIP.S, CARROTS, ETC. 49 Carrots.—As with the Turnip, many varieties of the Carrot are produced by climate and culture. It is very sweet, containing about ninety-five parts of sugar to one thousand. It is also more nutri- tive than the turnip. Parsnips.—The Parsnip is even sweeter and more nutritious. than the Carrot, and to most per- sons much more palatable. The volatile oil which the carrot and parsnip contain renders their flavor unpleasant to many. The best parsnips are of a brittle texture, very tender, and of a sweet and slightly aromatic flavor, entirely devoid of bitter- ness. Artichokes.-The Jerusalem Artichoke, a native of Brazil, is used in Europe as a substitute for the potato, to which it is inferior in nutritive power, as well as in flavor. The Garden Artichoke is lit- tle used. 124. How to Cook TURNIPS. Select good, fair turnips, and cut into pieces of uniform size, and place in a steamer over boiling water. Allow about an hour for cooking, though some tur. nips require a much longer time. Mash them without pressing, season with a little milk or cream and white sugar. They are good served without mashing or seasoning of any kind. If boiled in water there should be plenty of it, and they should be taken up as soon as done, because too long boiling, or in too small quantity of water, makes them bitter. Another way is to pour off the water, cut them up in small pieces in the kettle, add milk and a little cream and a little white sugar, and let it remain over the fire to simmer a few minutes. 125. To Cook PARSNIPS. Scrape or pare off the skin, or peel after they are boiled; they will cook ten- der in half an hour. Then set them in the oven for ten minutes, and send to the ASPARAGUS. 51 pungent qualities, are owing to the acrid volatile oil they contain. It is this oil which contains sul- phur that communicates the well-known odor of the breath after eating onions or garlic. Persons with weak stomachs should avoid their use. 130. Boiled ONIONS. Clean them of their outer skin, and boil an hour in clear water; then pour oft the water and serve whole. Or they may be partly boiled and cooked slowly in new milk. 131. SreweD ONIONS. Clean and slice thinly in a spider ; add half a pint of water; cover tight, and cook slowly three-fourths of an hour. ASPARAGUS AND ITS PREPARATIONS. THE Common Asparagus is a light, delicious and wholesome kind of food. It should be cooked soon after being picked.. 132. To Cook ASPARAGUS. After cutting off all that is is tough, put the stalks in cold water, and let them boil twenty or thirty minutes, or until tender without being soft. 133. To Cook ASPARAGUS. (ANOTHER Way.) Wash and cut into small pieces; put into a kettle, pour in water sufficient to cover, and boil about half an hour, adding a little cream before taking from the fire, and it is ready to serve. This is very palatable when poured over toasted bread or biscuits laid in deep dishes. CABBAGE. ETC. 53 dandelion and the cowslip—which impairs their. flavor, though not existing in sufficient degree to affect materially their dietetic qualities. “A variety of plants coming under the present head are employed as salads, the principal of which are lettuce, garden cress, water cress, rape, celery, lamb lettuce, endire, chickory, succory, etc. Most of them are too strong and acrimonious to be healthful; and those who avoid strong, rank animal foods, and eschew alcohol and tobacco, can hardly desire them.” The rhubarb, which is strongly though pleas- antly acid, is employed both as a spinach and in making tarts and pies. 134. To Cook CABBAGE. Carefully wash and look over the heads; remove the outer leaves, and slice or quarter, and boil an hour and a half in as much water as will then be nearly boiled away, and serve without dressing. 135. ANOTHER MODE. Boil the cabbage in plenty of water for an hour, or until tender; pour it off, and add thin sweet cream or milk gravy. It may be left to simmer a few minutes, or be seasoned in the dish in which it is serveda 136. ANOTHER STYLE. Chop the cabbage middling fine, and boil slowly in milk one hour; then add a thickening of cold milk and fine flour, and boil one minute. 137. To Cook CAULIFLOWER. Wash and cut into large pieces, and boil or steam; when done put into dishes, and pour over it a dressing as for cabbage. 138. GREENS Require to be carefully washed and cleaned. Spinach should be washed in several waters. All the cooking requisite is cooking until tender, and draining on a colander. 54 HYGIENIC COOK BOOK. APPLES, PEARS AND QUINCES, AND THEIR PREPARATIONS. FRUITS—in their ripened beauty, their inviting complexion, and delicious flavor-are, of all that is designed by the Creator for man's subsistence, the purest and best. “Aromatic and luscious, they hold their delights loosest of all, and give them away at the first solicitation. Their nectars claim instant kindred with the tongue and with the oral saliva. Nature has cooked them, and they need no mixture, no artificial fire; the grape and pine-apple are a sauce unto themselves, and are baked and roasted and boiled in sunlight. They are at the top of their life at the table; their niceness is not foreign, nor does their beauty de- pend upon disguise. By feeding the eyes with bloom and loveliness, they call forth a chaster sa- liva into the mouth to welcome and introduce them; different from the carnal gush which savory meats engender. They are flasks of the spiritual blood of the earth, of the kith of our tree of life, one nearer to it than aught beside, unless it be the mother's milk. The term FRUIT implies that which is for use, or which has attained its own ob- ject, and seeks its place in another system. Fruits therefore hang before our mouths, and tempt us APPLES, PEARS, ETC. 57 145. STEWED APPLES. (ANOTHER Way.) A better way is to quarter them, and simmer slowly in a close vessel ; the richer the fruit the more juice you may allow. If the fruit is poor and abundant, cook one mess, pared or not, strain it through a cloth, and cook the next mess in the juice. Perfectly fresh cider may also be used, but not after it is two or three days old. If the apples are so tender that they will break, mash them up evenly, • and if you choose pass them through a colander. It improves their flavor to add a little lemon juice, but not the essence or skin. both of which contain the un- wholesome acrid oil. 146. APPLE DUMPLINGS. Apple dumplings are not in very good repute for wholesomeness, but the fault lies with the pastry rather than with the fruit. They are much improved when made properly with good wheat meal (coarse Graham flour], although it should be remembered that boiled farinaceous preparations require more care in mastica- tion than those which are baked. If you have tins large enough to hold a good- sized apple, and an inch and a half deep or more, you can make dumplings with a batter crust. Oil the tins slightly, make a batter as for wheat meal batter-bis- cuit, or a trifle thicker; put a spoontul of batter in the tin, press down into it an apple, pared ard cored; cover it with batter, and put it into a steamer and steam three-fourths of an hour. Serve warm with a pudding sauce made with lemon juice, sugar, and water, and thicken with wheat meal-one large lemon or two small ones to a pint of sauce. This sauce can also be made with the juice of ap- ples or other fruits. 147. APPLE DUMPLINGS. (ANOTHER MODE.) Dumplings can be made with a scalded crust by pouring boiling water into good wheat meal, and stirring it (as little as possible) into a dough as soft as can be handled; roll out a quarter of an inch thick; inclose a pared and cored apple in it, and steam forty minutes. Serve as above. 148. APPLE DUMPLINGS. (ANOTHER STYLE.) Boil peel and mash a quantity of white mealy potatoes. then work in flour enough to form a dough; roll it out to a quarter of an inch in thickness, and use a medium-sized apple, pared and cored, to each dumpling. Boil them about an hour. 149. Pan DUMPLINGS. In making pan dumplings, crust, scaldod as above, can be spread in a basin or pudding dish, the cored and quartered apples put in, an inch or more deep, with other fruits if desired, such as blackberries, whoi tleberries, etc. A similar crust is spread over the top, and it is steamed an hour, care being taken in all these cases not to let the steaming cease until it is done. The pan dumpling is not so likely to be light as the others-probably from the accumulation of juice within. APPLES, PEARS, ETC. 59 and sweeten the apples, cut into pie-quarters, and serve. Instead of the batter crust, pour boiling water into wheat meal and stir lightly, making a dough just firm enough to roll out; make it one-third of an inch thick, spread over the ap- ple, and bake thirty minutes, or until the apples are tender; invert and serve as above. 155. BIRD'S Nest PUDDING. Stewed apples may be mixed in equal quantities with scalded sago or soaked tapioca, with currants, stewed raisins, or seedless raisins to the taste. Sweeten and bake forty minutes. Or stuff pared and cored apples with the raisins from the soaked and sweetened tapioca, or sago and apple over them; bake till the ap- ples are tender, and you have a showy and delicious Bird's Nest Pudding. 156. CocoANUT PUDDING. Take lwo-thirds grated apple and one-third grated cocoanut, sweetened to the taste, and a very little grated nutmeg-one-third of a teaspoonful to a quart of pudding-just enough to flavor it, without giving the “tang' of the nutmeg. This is the proper way to use flavors when used at all. The result will be there, and evident, though the partaker may not be able to trace its origin, Bake this pudding half an hour. 157. DRIED APPLES. Dried apples, when they have been made of good fruit and carefully prepared, are very nice-really much richer, when gently stewed till perfectly tender, than the fresh fruit. They make good puddings, with sago and tapidca, as well as with bread, lemon, and Zante currants. For stewed sauce, a fine variety can be obtained by putting with them quinces, green grapes, and rhubarb, either canned or fresh, and lemon pulp; and some use prunes, raisins, and other fruits, both domestic and foreign. Sweet dried apples, usually so hard to dispose of, go off briskly when stewed with cranber- ries, rhubarb, and other sour articles, when nice dried apples can be had. 158. OTHER PUDDINGS Can be made with uncooked chopped apple mixed with equal quantities of cooked pearl-barley, or cracked wheat or hominy. To one pint of each of these ingredients add one gill of sugar, and, if you wish it, one-half pint of stewed raisins or Zante currants, and the juice of one lemon (with two spoonfuls more of sugar to sweeten it); mix thoroughly, and bake an hour or more. This style of pudding is generally preferred to the bread puddings; but it requires more time for its preparation, as the pearl barley, etc., must be cooked first. It can be made more expeditiously with sago, as that will require scalding only before mix- ing. Measure after scalding. 159. BAKED APPLE PUDDING. Pare, core and slice about two quarts nice tart apples. Add to them one tea APPLES, PEARS, ETC. 61 gether to prevent the juice escaping. If the apples are hard, they had better be first stewed? Bake till the fruit and crust are thoroughly cooked. 165. PLAIN APPLE PIE For crust, boil white mealy potatoes, and mash smooth with milk as for the ta- ble, and let it cool. Stir in Graham flour sufficient to roll out, kneading only just enough to mix well. Stew nicest cooking apples soft and smooth, with very little water; let it cool; bake in an under crust, and ornament the top with bars of crust. Pears.—Many good pears are spoiled by being eaten too soon. Like apples—but unlike most other fruits—they ripen naturally after being gath- ered; that is the pulp perfects its sweet juices and exquisite flavors after the seeds are ripe, and the fruit has parted readily from the tree. But pears are much shorter lived than most apples, and much more precise as to the exact time when they should be eaten. A single day often makes a great dif- ference. They must not be very warm or they will rot, and they will ripen faster in the dark than in the light. Very few pears are sufficiently juicy to be served raw with sugar like peaches. They are generally preferred from the hand, and they make an excel- lent dessert, if housekeepers would only be con- tent to have no other dessert with them. This eating a full dinner, and then a full dessert, and then fruit after that, makes the fruit (?) very un- wholesome in the estimation of some people. If the latter had the wit to reverse the process, and 62 HYGIENIC COOK BOOK. eat the fruit first, they might find a new. idea or two. “Cooking pears" are often poor, hard, flavorless things—at least this is the usual character of those sold for that purpose-not so much because they are better than others when cooked, as that they are good for nothing unless cooked. Some of the finer flavored pears are delicious when cooked, taken either hard or mellow, though in the latter case they need but little cooking. The poorest varieties are almost as flavorless after cooking as before, and the molasses they are sometimes boiled in does not improve them to my taste. I suppose, however, it is quite as wholesome as sugar-per- haps more so, only it is commonly used too freely. 166. How to Cook PEARS. Pears may be cooked whole with stems and skins on, or pared or quartered, or both. But in any case they should be steamed gently until perfectly tender, Test with a straw. Very palatable flavoring for poor pears is sliced green gin- ger or broken cinnamon, in small proportions-say an ounce of either to half a peck of pears, with sugar to the taste. Remove the spices as soon as the juice is delicately flavored with them. But the most wholesome flavorings are other tart fruits with which they can be cooked-as lemons or apples, or quinces or cranberries. With lemons in sections, pared or unpared, the pears, whole or quartered, but with the skins still on, make a very pretty dish. With other fruits they should be fully dressed, or rather undressed. With apples the pears may need cooking awhile first, and in all cases the cooking should be very gen- tle, to preserve the aroma of the fruit, and to prevent its breaking. With cran- berries stem the latter fruit first, and if wanted extra nice strain out the skins and stew the pears in the juice. Of course any of these preparations may be canned. Pears are of very little value baked, unless they are of the more juicy varie- ties. Even then, with all but the best, it is desirable to pour over them a thin syrup when they are taken from the oven. With the dryer kinds there should be water and sugar in the dish while baking. 64 HYGIENIC COOK BOOK. yellowish green opposite. They are divided into Freestones and Clingstones. The former, in which the flesh easily separates from the stone, is gener- ally regarded as the best flavored variety.” The varieties of the peach are almost innumerable. The Nectarine is a variety of the peach, and only differs from it in having a smooth skin. 168. UNCOOKED PEACHES. The best method of eating peaches is in their natural state and form, when they are fresh and ripe. Another mode is to peel them; cut the fruit off the stones in quarters or smaller pieces; after placing in a dish, stir in a little white sugar, and sprinkle a little more over the top. 169. BOILED PEACHES. When peaches are not well ripened, or too sour to be eaten without cooking, boiling improves them very much. They should be pared-except when the skins are very smooth, clean and tender-but not stoned; boil moderately till sufficiently cooked, and then sweeten. 170. PEACH AND PEAR PIE. Pare and mash nice mellow peaches, pears or sweet apples, and bake, without any previous cooking, in any plain crust, either using an under crust alone, or an under crust and an upper crust and no sugar. Very few persons would refuse these on account of their plainness. 171. STEWED GREEN PEACHES. Pare them, and take out the stones; add a very little water, a sufficient quan- tity of sugar, and boil very siowly until well cooked. Plums.-Fresh, ripe plums, taken in moderate quantities, are wholesome and nutritious. Prunes are prepared from the larger and sweet- er variety of plums by drying them, either by solar or artificial heat. WHORTLEBERRIES, ETC. 67 one pint of corn meal, and a large tablespoonful of fine flour; wet with boiling water : bake in cakes about half an inch thick on a griddle, or in an oven, twenty minutes. 198. WHORTLEBERRY JOURNEY CAKE. Stir sufficient boiling water with corn meal to make a stiff dough; add one. half good, ripe whortleberries; flatten, with the hand wet in cold water, to half an inch thick, upon a piece of sheet iron, and bake before the fire or in a hot oven till well cooked. 179. Fruit Toast. Prepare the bread as for dry toast, and pour over it sufficient boiling water to soften; have ready a dish of stewed whortleberries, cherries, currants, apples, or other fruit, and, while boiling not, place it with the toast in layers, in a deep dish. The fruit should be quite juicy, as the bread will absorb a large portion. Cover the dish, and send immediately to the table. 180. Fruit JUICE Gems. Mix wheat meal with the freshly expressed juice of any ripe fruit, or the juice of stewed raisins or currants; stir to a stiff batter, and bake as gems or drop cakes, or knead in more meal and bake as rolls or loaf bread. If figs or dates are chopped and put in, or a few raisins or currants used, it will make a superb cake 181. Rich Fruit Cake. • Stew good, ripe, sweet apples with sufficient water to make them quite juicy: when soft, mash, and add one-third sweet currants; mix while boiling hot with wheat meal; roll, and bake as diamonds. 182. COCOANUT-MILK WAFERS. Mix wheat meal with cocoanut milk (nothing else) to a thin batter, and drop a small spoonful to a cake, and bake in a hot oven. They bake so quickly as to require watching to prevent burning. 183. COCOANUT GEMS. Grate up a cocoanut, and mix it with its milk and sufficient cold water and wheat meal for twenty-four gems or drop cakes. If desirable put in a few cur. rants or chopped figs, dates or raisins. 184. FRUIT PUDDING. Cut nice, pared apples into pieces; mix with these a few currants, raisins, GRAPES, ETC. 69 ries or whortleberries, stewed tender, one quart boiling water or milk; stir all to- gether and steam three hours. 191. CURRANT PUDDING. Take a pint of washed, dried currants; mix these through two quarts of Gra. ham flour, pour into this sufficient boiling water to make a. soft dough, tie in a cloth, and boil one hour. Grapes.-Says Julia Colman, in a recent contri- bution to the Rural New-Yorker : “ There is probably no fruit more wholesome than grapes. The simplest mode of eating is the best-fresh, without any preparation. The common practice of extracting the pulp and rejecting the skin is not in the least objectionable. There has been much dispute about the propriety of swallowing the seeds. The objectors allege that they are not di- gested. True, but that is also the case with many small seeds and other substances which still are not hurtful. It is, indeed, indispensable to have some debris in our food which shall so distend and rub against the walls of the lower part of the aliment- ary canal as to promote healthful action. The seeds of the grape are well adapted to this office. 192. To STEW GRAPES For the table, clip out the green or decayed fruit, and if the clusters need wash- ing, lay them on a sieve and apply a stream of water with what force you can command, and then drain and dry them. In this way, if carefully handled, the bloom will remain almost unimpaired. Of course, for use fresh, they should be perfectly ripe. But grapes are often marketed too soon, though they may show 70 HYGIENIC COOK BOOK. color. In this case they should be cooked. Simply stemmed, stewed with a lit- tle water and sweetened, they make very good fruit sauce for dinner or tea. To remove some of the seeds, cook them in a flat porcelain kettle, remove them trom the fire when nearly done, stir a minute, then return them, and let them boil up briskly on one side; many of the seeds will appear here, and may readily be re- moved with a skimmer. Green grapes--those which have been removed from the vines to perfect the with oatmeal, say about two spoonfuls to a quart, they will require less sugar. Add occasionally a little broken cinna- mon. They are also very good stewed with two-thirds prunes or ripe tomatoes. If canned, they will be very acceptable in the winter, with dried apples. Per- fectly ripe grapes can also be stewed or canned to great advantage. 193. GRAPE MARMALADE Is made by stewing grapes with half or two-thirds apple, and then let it be strained and sweetened. 194. GRAPE MARMALADE PUDDING. An excellent marmalade pudding may be made by placing this marmalade in a pudding dish in alternate layers, with wheat meal batter biscuit (any other wheat bread will do, but it is not so rich); bake in a slow oven thirty or forty minutes. A more juicy pudding may be made with the bread and grapes only, stewed or whole 195. GRAPE Toast. Grape toast is one of the most harmless dishes that can be offered to an inva. lid. It is made by dipping a few spoonfuls of stewed grapes over half a batter biscuit, and letting it stand till soft, serving either warm or cold. It is far more wholesome than the dry toast, buttered toast, or milk toast, usually given to in. valids. 196. Jellied GRAPE. Jellied grape, a very delicate dish, is made of one-third cup rice, two cups grapes, and one-half cup water (with or without two spoonfuls șugar.) Sprin- kle the rice (and sugar) among the grapes while placing them in a deep dish, pour on the water, cover close and simmer two hours slowly in an oven. Serve warm as sauce, or cold as pudding. If served warm as pudding increase slightly the proportion of rice and water. 197. GRAPE BATTER Pie. For batter pie, make a batter as for batter biscuit (stirring slowly, and sifting in about two cups good wheat meal into one and a half cups water): cover with this the bottom of a pudding dish half an inch deep; place on this a layer of . 76 HYGIENIC COOK BOOK. 215. TOMATO PIE. Peel and slice ripe, or fully grown but green tomatoes, and lay them on dishes as for apple pie. Sprinkle on a little flour, and sugar to suit the taste. Bake with two crusts, in a moderate oven. This can be made with one crust only, by stewing the tomatoes before putting into the pies. 216. TOMATO SOUP. Peel fresh, ripe tomatoes ; add a little water, and stew them one hour; strain through a coarse sieve; stir in a little flour, or crumb in toasted biscuit, and add a teaspoonful of brown sugar to a quart of soup; then boil five minutes. 217. BEETS. : Wash carefully, but do not cut them. In summer they will boil in an hour or less. In winter they require iwo or three hours. When done drop them into cold water, and the skins can be readily slipped off by the hand. Cut in slices and set upon the table. A very nice dish is made by boiling young beets and new potatoes, and after peeling cut them up in small pieces, mix well together in a deep dish, and pour over them thin, sweet cream for a dressing, or if cream is not to be had, a thin milk gravy will answer. Another way is to pare and slice the beets and boil them in a little water, so when they are cooked it will be nearly boiled away; then add a thickening of flour and milk, and let them simmer ten or fifteen minutes. They may also be cooked by baking four or five hours in an oven. 218. VEGETABLE SOUP Is made by boiling two parts of potatoes, one part of cabbage, one of onions, one of carrots, and one of turnips, in water sufficient for soup. The cabbage, carrot and turnip should be put in a half hour before the onions and potatoes. Sweet potato is an improvement to this soup. PIES. PIES, as they are usually made and eaten, are a · fruitful source of derangemeut to the human or- 78 HYGIENIC COOK BOOK. 222. Pie Crust_WITH CORN Meal. Make a rather thin batter, by mixing one cup of corn meal with boiling water; when cold, add sufficient wheat meal to roll. To avoid making it tough it must be rolled without kneading. 223. BERRY PIE. Blackberry, Raspberry, Strawberry, Cherry, Green Currant, Whortleberry and Cranberry Pies are all made after the same general plan. A little thin bat. ter should be poured in, or a little dry flour sprinkled over the fruit after it is laid in the dishes, to thicken the juice; and should be sweetened in proportion as the fruit is more or less acid. 224. Pie-PLANT Pie. Strip the skins from the stalks, and cut into pieces about a quarter of an inch long; lay the pieces on the crust, sweeten well, add a little water, cover with a crust, and bake in a moderate oven. 225. PIE-PLANT Pie. (ANOTHER METHOD.) Prepare the stalks as above; cover with boiling water and let it stand about fifteen minutes, then pour off; or steam in a dish without water and pour off the juice, which can be used for jelly Roll baker's crackers and mix with the stalks, allowing one large cracker to a pie. This requires less sugar, and hence is less rich. 226. DRIED FRUIT PIES. Apples Peaches, and indeed all dried fruits, are prepared in the same manner. They should be carefully looked over, washed, and set to soak in cold or tepid water for two or three hours. Then stew in the same water till soft. Sweeten just before taking from the fire, and when done stir in a little flour to thicken the juices. The fruit is now ready for the crust, and may be covered with an upper crust at pleasure. Many pleasant combinations can be made by mixing the different fruits-as peaches with apples, raspberries with apples, raspberries with blackberries, etc. 227. STRAWBERRY Pie. Place the under crust upon a deep plate, and the upper one, cut just the right size, on a flat tin or sheet iron; prick, to prevent blistering, and bake. Fill the deep dish while hot with strawberries, and cover with the flat crust. If the fruit is rather hard, replace in the oven till heated; if quite ripe, the crust will steam them sufficiently. GRAVIES AND SAUCES. 79 228. GREEN CURRANT Pie. Pick over the fruit carefully, rejecting all diseased ones ; add an equal quantity of stewed sweet apples, or other sweet fruit, and bake as Apple Pie. 229 BERRY Tarts. Cover gem pans with crust, as for pies, and bake; when nearly done fill up with berries, and replace in the oven for a few minutes. 230. CUSTARD PIE WITHOUT MILK OR EGGS. Boil Iceland moss in water till it will make a jelly; flavor with lemon or berry juice (not extracts), and pour into a crust previously baked. Set away to cool before eating. 231. LEMON PIE. Grate the yellow part of the peel of one large lemon, and add it, with the juice, to two-thirds of a cup of sugar; mix smoothly one and one-half table- spoonfuls of flour in three-quarters of a tea cup of water; stir all together, and add the well-beaten yolks of two eggs; bake, with only an undercrust, to a nice, golden brown color; when done, pour over the top the whites of two eggs beaten to a stiff froth with two tablespoonfuls of powdered white sugar; set in the oven for a few minutes to harden. GRAVIES AND SAUCES. 232. GRAPE JUICE SAUCES. Grape juice makes delicious pudding sauces. Cook and drain the grapes (you get more and richer juice than by bruising them tresh]; mix with more or less water, as you please—with most grapes, half-and-half is a good rule; boil, sweet. en and thicken to the taste with flower or wheat meal. This grape juice is very different from wine, which will not answer to take its place, because it is not so rich. HYGIENIC COOK BOOK. . necessity to speedy recovery, perfect rest—rest of the stomach as much as rest of the brain and body; and when food is used it should be of the plainest and simplest kind, and of a nature easily digested by the stomach and easily assimilated by the absorbents, and that will renew the blood with pure, clean, sweet cells. The materials from which the food is made should be the freshest and best of its kind, and the utensils used should be perfectly clean. The food should be served in a tasteful and inviting manner; the water, also, should be fresh and pure. 243. Bran Tea. Take of fresh wheat bran one pound, and of water three quarts; boil down to one quart; strain and sweeten to suit the taste, 244. WHEAT FLOUR GRUEL. Mix smoothly a tablespoonful of flour with a gill of water; set on the fire in a saucepan a gill of new milk (slightly sweetened if desired), and when it boils add the flour and water; simmer together a quarter of an hour, stirring constantly. 245. INDIAN MEAL GRUEL. Sift the Indian meal through a fine sieve; wet two tablespoonfuls with cold water, and stir till there are no lumps; then stir into a pint and a half of boiling water, and boil half an hour, stirring all the time. Sweeten to suit the taste. 246. Oat MEAL GRUEL Boil one or two ounces of oat meal with three pints of water to a quart. Strain and let it stand till it cools, and then pour off and use the clear liquor. Drinks. The best drink for the sick at all times is pure water; but in some diseases there is a de- 84 HYGIENIC COOK BOOK. 250. ELDERBERRY SYRUP. Elderberries, when very ripe and large, made into a syrup the same as above, are equally as desirable as blackberries. 251. CURRANT SYRUP. Currar.ts-white, red or black-prepared after the same formula, are equally good. The juice of the different kinds of currants may be mixed to good ad- vantage; or, which is better still, combined with raspberry, blackberry, or elder- berry juice in any proportion convenient. 252. PINE APPLE SYRUP. Pine apple juice makes a delicate drink when managed in the same way. Peaches and plums are both excellent, and cherries will do if nothing better can be obtained; but the syrup will not be so clear and lively as the others. These juices must all be bottled as carefully as canned fruits to keep them from the least degree of fermentation, UNFERMENTED WINE. Unformented Wine is the only wine that should ever be used, either at the Lord's Supper or elsewhere. The method of making it is to gather the grapes when well ripened, and carefully remove all decayed and unripe berries. Mixed varieties, or any one of the favorite varieties of grapes may be used. Press out the juice, and boil as long as any scum rises. Skim carefully from time to time. Do not boil to exceed an hour. Bottle while hot, and scal either in glass bottles, jugs, or air-tight casks. It is fit for use at any time, but after being opened it must not be allowed to ferment. It needs no sugar, and may be reduced when drank. This wine, when properly made, will be found a delightful and exhilara. ting drink, and especially serviceable as a drink for the sick. WATER. The principle on which the above filter is made can, with a little ingenuity, be embraced in any size or shape convenient or desirable. Cool water can be obtained by filling a porous earthen or stone pitcher, or other vessel, and plac- ing several folds of linen or cotton cloth around it. Wet them as often as they become dry, and the constant evaporation will gradually abstract the heat of the water within the vessel. When water. is cooled with ice, the vessel should be so arranged as to cool the water by contact, and not by the immersion of the ice in the water. How to Preserve Ice.—The keeping of ice for a considerable length of time for the sick room or domestic purposes is sometimes desirable. Make two bags of stout woolen fabric; the outer bag should be made at least two inches wider each way than the inner one. After placing one bag inside the other, stuff feathers between the two, and sew the two bags together at the top. Put a block of ice into a bag of this description, and it will be preserved from melting for nearly a week, when under exposure it would melt in less than an hour. 88 HYGIENIC COOK BOOK. RULES FOR EATING. Do not eat while exhausted in mind or body, for when the strength of nerve power is already worn out or used up, the digestion of food only makes a fresh demand upon it, and if it be unable to meet the demand, the food is only a burden. Be cheerful at your meals. The benefit derived from food taken depends very much on the condi- tion of the body while eating. If taken in a moody, cross, or despairing condition of the mind, digestion is much less perfect and slower than when taken with a cheerful disposition. Eat slowly and masticate thoroughly. The adoption and careful observance of this rule will insure better health and longer life. The very rapid and silent eating so common among us should be avoided, and some topic of interest in- troduced at meals that all may partake in; and if a hearty laugh is occasionally indulged in, it will be all the better. Avoid a great variety of dishes. An enjoyable meal can be made from two or three dishes. The more simple, plain, and the less varied the articles eaten at each meal, the better does good digestion follow and perfect health result. A well-founded objection to a great variety of dishes at our meals is that it leads to RULES FOR EATING. 89 Gluttony—a practice that, next to the moderate and immoderate use of alcoholic liquors, is the foundation-cause for most of the ills and evils that beset mankind. Concerning this desire for a great variety of food at each meal, and the gluttony that results, an observing Chinaman connected with Mr. Burlingame's late mission, in a letter written to his Government from Paris, says: “We have dined at their tables, where the stom- ach is expected to receive with pleasure some thirty different objects of food, and perhaps ten different liquids. The French and other foreign- ers eat until they feel very uncomfortable, and re- quire much medicine drugs, as may be seen by the many chemists' shops of this city. They had the same capacity as our pigs. Had you been here the other night, and observed how these peo- ple rudely scrambled for the food at the supper- table when we gave our fete! They put their hands violently on the dishes, and disputed with each other most roughly.” No fluids should be used while eating. Ignor- ing the fact of the existence of the salivary glands situated in the mouth for the express purpose of moistening the food masticated and flooding the stomach with water, tea, coffee, or other fluids, in- variably results ultimately in great harm. Two meals a day (breakfast at seven or eight 90 HYGIENIC COOK BOOK. o'clock, and dinner at two or three o'clock) is a practice that is gradually winning much favor.. All who try it long enough to establish the habit, and to experience the better health that results therefrom, have no desire to return to their old mode of living. When two mcals only are taken in the day, preparations of wheat meal (Graham flour) should always constitute a good proportion of each meal. Nothing should be eaten between meals-abso- lutely nothing—not even a nut, apple, raisin, or sweetmeat-and when apples, nuts, etc., are desi- red, they should be always eaten with the regular, meal, and never between meals. OBJECTIONABLE ARTICLES OF DIET. ALL so-called articles of food that do not go to repair and build up the tissues of the body that have been broken down or wasted by thought or 94 HYGIENIC COOK BOOK. such incidents as the following, resulting from its use, are constantly appearing in the papers : .“ A special from Belvidere, Illinois, states that three persons belonging to a family of Germans living twenty miles south of that city had died from eating trichina pork. Eight others are pros- trated from the same cause, and will probably all die. Trichina can be seen in immense numbers in the meat, and also in the flesh of those who have died.” Yet, notwithstanding these ever-recurring re- sults, people will persist in eating the flesh of the dirtiest and filthiest of animals—the scavenger for all creation, and fit only “to cast out devils" in. Do not touch the vile thing. Animal Food.—The best animal food is fresh beef or mutton, plainly cooked-roasting is the best method—without seasoning of any kind.. Salt ineats, sausages, salt fish, pickles, and mince pies, are all utter abominations, and wholly antag- onistic' to a healthy body. Fish, as an article of diet, is worthless. During a famine in Orissa, the coast people, who perished in the largest proportion of all, had an abundant supply of fish; but, without vegetable food, it failed to sustain nature, and they died as complete victims of starvation as those who had no food at all; in fact, the famine was most severe among POISONS IN DAILY USE. 95 them. This fact is vouched for by excellent au- thority. There are many other articles of diet in daily use that are objectionable, but the above are the most noticeable. POISONS IN DAILY USE. WHEN people, in eating, confine themselves to plain and simple food, cooked and eaten as nearly as possible in its natural condition, they can easily avoid the bad effects that frequently result from adulterations ; for nearly all the articles below mentioned as being more or less poisoned in their preparation and manufacture are not required as food by those who desire to live healthfully. Tea is adulterated with exhausted tea leaves; leaves of the beech, elm, horse-chestnut, hawthorn and sloe; excrements of silkworms; sand, earth, and gum combined, which are so treated as to take PRESERVING FRUITS, ETC. 99 all. Your modern tinman ekes out his expensive metal, the tin, by a generous admixture of lead, which is much cheaper The plan to adopt is to discard everything but iron, plain or enameled, for culinary articles. ON PRESERVING, CANNING AND DRYING FRUITS AND VEGETABLES. Preserving Fruit with Sugar..The old method of preserving fruit by using sugar in large or small proportions is greatly to be deprecated. The use of these “preserves," or sugar flavored with fruit, is very frequently the cause of disease-deranging the stomach and liver, obstructing the excretory department of the body, and causing innumerable petty ills. Especially are these effects noticeable when preserves are fed to children. No mother who has a just regard for the health and beauty of her children, should ever permit them to eat such an indigestible and unwholesome mass as preserves, 104 HYGIENIC COOK BOOK. glass jars, judgment and experience must decide which patent is the most desirable. CANNING VEGETABLES. Nearly all the above directions are equally ap- plicable in canning vegetables, except that it re- quires a much longer time to expel the air from vegetables than from fruit. Tomatoes, corn, beans, etc., when rightly managed, are more easily pre- served in tin cans than otherwise. A little prac- tice will enable any housekeeper possessed of ordi- nary ingenuity to do her own soldering. After soldering, to know whether they are tight, examine the ends; if they hollow in—are concave-they are all right; if they bulge out-are convex-bet- ter unsolder the hole and heat them over again. Tin cans can be opened by placing live coals upon the solder, when it will melt in a few minutes. Tomatoes.—Tomatoes intended for canning should be freshly picked, but should not be too ripe; put into a tin pan or earthen dish, and pour boiling water over them; this will loosen the skins, so they can be peeled quickly and without diffi- culty; next fill the cans with the peeled fruit as full as possible. (From a fourth to a third of the watery part of the tomato may be rejected.) Put on the covers and solder them on; with a fine 114 HYGIENIC COOK BOOK. should of course never be allowed to fall below the freezing point. If from the fact that the tempera- ture should be raised above fifty by reason of a heater, it must be counteracted by the admission of outside air. The fruit should be sorted over weekly. This is not nearly as troublesome as it appears to be when once adopted; and the fact that it will preserve “ winter" apples and pears until March and April, will render. the labor one of pleasure as well as profit. Preserving Apples-Another Method.-Obtain refuse boxes, such as can be had from groceries or country stores. In the bottom of the box spread a layer of dry sawdust, and then a layer of apples placed in it so that they will not touch each other. Upon these place a little layer of sawdust, and so on until the box is filled. The boxes, after being packed in this way, should be placed on a shelf in a.cool, dry cellar, where they will keep perfectly, and retain their freshness and flavor until wanted. Preserving Apples—Another Mode. The follow- ing is a plan which is simple and efficacious. The. apples and pears should be placed in glazed earth- en vessels, each containg about a gallon, and sur- rounding each fruit with paper. These vessels, being perfect cylinders, about a foot each in height, stand very conveniently upon each other, and thus 116 HYGIENIC COOK BOOK. ples should be handled carefully, and the less they are moved about after having been picked, the better. A large part of the fruit sold in market has been so injured by careless gathering, pouring into barrels, and rough handling while on the way to market, that it soon decays, no matter what treatment it may be subjected to for the purpose of keeping Preserving Grapes.--Take boxes the size of candle-boxes; nail pieces across the ends to lay slats on; put in the bottom a newspaper. Have ready a dish of hot sealing wax, and dip the ends of stems in this. Put in a layer in the box care- fully, then a paper, then put in your slats, then a paper, then grapes again, and so on till full--not more than three layers in a box. Nail up tight; keep in a cool, dry place until cold weather; then place in a dry cellar. Grapes in this way will keep till March. Preserving Grapes-Another Mode.-Pick when thoroughly ripe, and after the end of the stem next to the wood has become ripe, hardy, and woody, so as not to bend. Allow them to remain in bulk in the open air two or three days to sweat, and then put in boxes—a layer of perfect grapes alter- nating with a layer of good, clean cotton. The lids of the boxes are then to be put on, and left partially open. Place in a dry, cool room, where 118 HYGIENIC COOK BOOK. closed, and no light admitted, except that of a lamp or lantern when entrance is required. Frames are to be placed around the walls, in which are in- serted numerous glass bottles, and so arranged as to be held firmly erect by means of a perforated board, through which the upper end of the bottle is passed. Long tables are set in the middle of the room, also, upon which are laid, horizontally, cylinders of earthenware or of iron, about three feet in length, and about two inches in diameter, and with two rows of perforations near the median line above, in which are cemented short glass tubes-about twelve on each side. A rather larger hole is placed at one end on the very top of the cylinder, into which likewise a tube is inserted. These vessels, both bottles and cylinders, are filled with water, into which a small amount of pow- dered charcoal has been put to keep it sweet.: The portion of vine-stem attached to the cluster is then inserted through the tube into the water, and al- lowed to remain until the grapes are finally re- moved for sale. ' A constant examination is made of the stock, and all defective or rotten bunches are carefully removed. The chamber is kept constantly dark, and warmed artificially only when the grapes are threatened with freezing. In this way grapes may be kept for months unchanged, and ready for use I 22 INDEX. Biscuit, Wedding, 22 - Whortleberry, 66, 67 Carrots, 50 Cauliflower, 53 Cabbage, Boiled, 53 Cement for Cans, 105 Chocolate, 93, 97 Cherries, 65 Coffee, 93, 95 Confectionery, 97 Cooking Vessels, 98 Corn, Cut from the Cob, 25 - on the Cob, 25 - Dried Green, 25 - Dried Sweet, 25 Green, Roasted, 25 - Green, to Dry, 105, 109, 110 Crisps, 20 - Oat Meal, 32 Cranberries, 66 - Pie, 66 Stewed, 66 Crackers, Corn Meal, 28 - Diamond, 20 Graham, 19 - Wheat and Oat Meal, 32 Cream, Patent, 80 - Mock, 80 Custard, Green Corn, 25 Cucumbers, 71 Stewed, 71 . Dates, 65 Drinks, 82 - Acidulous, 83 Hot, 93 - Unfermented, 83 Dumplings, Apple, 57 - Boiled, 58 - Turn Over, 57 Eating, Rules for, 88, Figs, 71 Fish, 94 Fruit, Drying, 107 Fritters, Green Corn, 26 Gems, Cocoanut, 67 - Fruit Juice, 67 - Wheat Meal, 19 Gooseberries, 66 Greens, 53. Gruel, Indian Meal, 82 O't Meal, 32, 82 Rice, 37 Tapioca, 39 - Wheat Flour, 82 Gravy, Milk, 80 Grapes, 69 Grape Batter Pie, 70 - Jelly, 70 - - Marmalade, 70 - Preserving, 115 - Stew, 69 Hominy, 29 Ice, How to Preserve, 87 Jelly, Potato, 44 - Sago, 39 Meats, Salt, 93 Melons, 71 Milk, 92, 95 -Gravy, 80 Mustard, 91 Mush, Oat Meal, 32 - Rice and Milk, 37 - Wheat Meal, 21 Onions, Boiled, 51 - Stewed, 51 Parsnips, 49 - - Browned, 50 Stew, 50 Peas, Dried Green, 48 - Green, Boiled, 46 . - To Dry Green, 111 Pears, 61, 62 Pepper, 91 Peaches, 63 Uncooked, 64 - Boiled, 64 - Green, Stewed, 64. Pickles, 94, 97 Pies, 76 Pan, 57 - Salt, 94 Flummery, 80 - Flour, 95 Potato, 44 Fruit, Preserving with Sugar, 99 - Canning, 100-107 Pie Crust, 37iato Shortening, 77 INDEX. 123 Pudding, Crusted, 58 Cocoanut, 59 Christmas, 68. - Currant, 69 Dried Fruit, 68 Fruit, 67, 68 7 Grape Marmalade, 70 Pearl Barley, 34 Rice Apple, 36 - Rusk, 21 - Rice and Apple, 60 Sago Apple, 38 , Sago Bird's Nest, 39 Sago, 39 Tapioca and Apple, 39 - Snowball, 60" Tomato and Bread, 75 - Tomato and Sago, 75 Rice (with Mik), 36 Tapwball and Sago? Quinces, 63 Quinsins, lied, 36 nge, 37 Pie Crust, Bean Shortening, 77 - Corn Meal Shortening, 78 Pie, Apple, 60, 61 Berry, 78 -- Cranberry, 66 - Custard, 79 Dried Fruit, 78 Green Currant, 78 Grape Batter, 70 Lemon, 79 Mince, 94 Peach and Pear, 64 Potato, 44 Pumpkin, 72 - Pie Plant, 78 - Strawberry, 78 - Tomato, 76 Pork, 93, Poisons in Daily Use, 95 Pone, Indian, 30 . Porridge, Oat Meal, 32 Bean, 47 Potatoes, Boiled, with the Skin On, 41 — Boiled, with the Skin Of, 42 Browned, 44 - Baked, 42 Crisped, 43 Escolloped, 43 Fried, 43 Mashed, 43 Pie, 44 Stew, 43 - Soup, 43 - Sweet, 45 Potato Flour, 44 Pumpkins, 72 - To Dry, 110, III Pumpkin Pie, 72 Pudding, Apple and Rice, 58 Apple, 60 Brother Jonathan, 20 Baked Indian, 28, 29 - Boiled Indian, 29 Barley and Apple, 34 - Brown Ben, 58 Bird's Nest. 59 - Baked Apple, 59 Rice, Boiled, 36 - Blanc Mange, 37 Gruel, 37 Rolls, American, 19 Rye, 29 Sweet, 28 Wheat Meal, 19 - Yankee, 20 Rusks, 21 Samp, 30 Sausages, 93 Sauces, 79 Apple, 81 Berry, 81 Cranberry, 80 Dumpling, 80 - Grape Juice, 79 Pudding, 80 Salt, 91 Sauerkraut, 52 Self-raising Bread Preparations, 92 Saleratus, 92 Soda, 92 Soldering, 106 Soup, Barley, 34 Green Pea, 47 - Pea and Vegetable, 48 124 INDEX. Soup, Split Pea, 47. - Split Pea and Barley, 47 - Tomato, 76 - Vegetable, 76 Succotash, 47 Sugar, 92, 97 Spinach, 52 Squash, 73. - - Baked, 73 Syrup, Blackberry, 83 - Currant, 84 - Elderberry, 84 - Pine Apple, 84 - Raspberry, 83 Tart, Apple, 60 - Berry, 79 Tea, 93, 95 Bran, 95 Toast, Brown Bread, 21 - Fruit, 67 - Grape, 70 Plain, 22 Tomatoes, 73 Tomatoes Baked, 74, 75 -Canning, 104 Fried, 74 - Raw, 74 Stewed, 74 - and Peaches, 74 - and Rice, 75 and Green Corn, 75 Tomato Pie; 76 - Soup, 76 Vinegar, 97 Vegetables, Drying, 107 - Canning 104 Water, 85, 98 - Barley, 35 - Cool, 87 Ice, 87 - Pure, 86 Wafers, Cocoanut, 67 Wheat and its Preparations, 9 - Cracked, 21 - Boiled (Whole Grains), 21 Wine, Unfermented, 84 THE USE OF TOBACCO, VERSUS PURITY, CHASTITY, AND SOUND HEALTH. BY JOHN COWAN, M.D. CONTENTS.—Introduction-Nature and Properties Its Effects Intellectu- ally- Its Effects Socially- Objections Considered M ode of Cure and Pre- vention. WHAT THE PAPERS SAY OF IT. The evil effects of tobacco have been often discussed; seldom more conclu- sively, however, than in the present volume. The book is well written, calcu- lated to do much good, and we heartily commend it to all friends of purity, good health, and true reform.—The Nation. A book which, if carefully perused and considered, would cure any one.—THE UNIVERSE It treats very ably of the weed's nature and properties, its effects physically intellectually, morally and socially, and every tobacco-user should send for the work. --STATE TEMPERANCE JOURNAL, Connecticut. “Tobacco" and, “Intemperance” are two companion volumes. Each is an earnest, manly protest against a foe to human weal; and we sincerely hope pa- rents everywhere will do their duty by putting both into their boys' hands. Moreover, the fathers themselves may study them with profit.-MOORE'S RURAL NEW-YORKER, The dangerous and demorallzlng habit of tobacco is making fearful inroads upon health and happiness. We bespeak for this a wide circulation.-PROGRESS, New York. It treats of the Nature and Properties, Effects, and Mode of Prevention and Cure. The poisonous properties of Tobacco, fully established by this work, are truly startling, and the numerous and deadly diseases occasioned by its use are of an alarming character. We heartily wish this valuable little volume could be placed in the hands, especially, of every young man and boy in our country.- THE ADVANCE. It is clearly printed from new type, on tinted paper, and handsomely bound. Price, in cloth, beveled edges, gilt side stamp, 75 cents; in paper, 30 cents. Address COWAN & COMPANY, Reform Book Publishers, New York.