-
I f
-
I









•



,--'





THE
merican Kitchen Magazine.
A Domestic Science Monthly.
Volume IV.
October, 1895 — March, 1896.

THE HOME SCIENCE PUBLISHING COMPANY,
BOSTON, MASS.


Copyrighted by
The Home Science Publishing Co.

The Pinkham Press,
boston, mass.


MANUAL TRAINING AS A FACTOR IN HOME LIFE.
5
keenness of observation, quickness in
hearing, deftness in touch and also
develop the senses of smell and taste.
The duty of the state toward the indi-
vidual is not fulfilled until he is taught
to care for himself through life. He
must be able either to prepare his own
food and clothing, or through some
trade which is of equal service to the
community he may employ others to
provide for him in return. Every indi-
vidual should be trained to select his
food wisely and should know how to
prepare it properly. Children should
be taught the laws which govern their
own bodies. Having learned to obey
nature's laws in childhood there is less
danger of rebellion against the law of
the land in later life. Taste is the first
sense through which a child reaches the
outside world, and much of his future
well-being depends upon the way his
appetite is trained. Yet this important
sense receives little or no education.
The whims and notions of young people
in boarding-schools and colleges are
enough to show that the cultivation of
the sense of taste and the formation of
correct appetites are proper subjects for
education. The position of steward in
such schools is more responsible than
that of any professor. The time will
come when it will be so recognized and
as careful preparation be required for
the one office as for the other. Much
of the so called over-work of students is
the result of improper feeding. In-
temperance also has to begin through
uneducated appetites.
Having noted the duties of manual
training in the development of the indi-
vidual, let us see how it may aid in the
life of the home.
The individual must be developed but
notatthe expense of the home. Rather
let the schools train him for the home
and the state. Home life gives an
opportunity for unselfish living which is
impossible when the individual only is
considered.
The modern tendency toward special
lines of work has made men and women
one sided. In the pressure of business,
and the struggle for daily bread, duties
toward our fellows in society and in the
home are forgotten.
In the past, household science was
unrecognized and the whole trend of
education was away from the home.
Good citizenship and good government
are only possible as the result of good
homes, and our public schools can have
no higher aim than to aid in placing the
home life of the nation upon a higher
plane. Non scholae sed vitae- The
family is the unit of society; how shall
its condition be bettered?
Home science is the meeting ground
of all the arts and sciences and involves
a more or less thorough acquaintance
with them all.
Manual training popularizes the
home sciences and serves as a connect-
ing link between the school and home.
Sloyd and wood working have many
applications in home life and convey in-
direct suggestions regarding the build-
ing and furnishing of a home. Fingers
trained in the use of the saw and chisel
may find many ways of making a home
more comfortable by slight repairs.
Light upholstery—a combination of
sewing and wood-working—is a valu-
able acquirement for home life.
The everyday life of the home shows
the need of training in all kinds of hand-
craft. Most of the annoyances we meet
daily are occasioned by ignorance on
the part of some one who should know
better. In no part of our life or its sur-
roundings, have tradition and credulity
so strong a hold as in the kitchen, and
these are by no means confined to the
servants. One, if not the chief, reason
why domestic affairs have fallen into
disrepute is that the knowledge of one
generation has been passed to another
without adaptation to changed condi-
tions.
The branch of manual training hav-
ing the most direct bearing on the well
being of the home is that taught in the
school kitchens, which comprises far
more than the cookery of food.
Housekeeping handed down by tradi-
tion becomes narrow and empirical.
Processes are followed according to the
methods of our great grandmothers


6
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
without any attempt to find a better way.
The experience of our foremothers must
furnish the basis for the housekeeping
of the present and future, but dead cus-
toms must be discarded and old and new
tested by scientific methods.
Heretofore there has been no defined
standard of good housekeeping; "my
way is the right way" has been the un-
spoken rule with this as with religious
matters.
It is hardly possible to over estimate
the beneficial changes that might result
to our national life from the training of
one or two generations in the home arts.
Food is the pivot on which the tem-
perance and labor questions revolve.
A better use of money in providing
wholesome, well cooked food would do
much toward the solution of both prob-
lems. Foods which stimulate rather
than nourish tend to produce intemper-
ance, strikes, and anarchy. The French
Revolution has been ascribed to the half
starved condition of the people. What
a man eats that he is, or as the French
have it, Cest la soupe qui fait le soldat.
Intemperance among the poor is
caused mainly by lack of nourishing and
well-seasoned food, while an over sup-
ply of stimulating dishes, often is the
cause of this evil among the rich. In all
cases it is the result of an ungoverned
appetite. There is an old proverb to the
effect that more dig their graves with
their teeth than with the tankard. We
are unaccustomed to this view of the
matter, but it may be left an open ques-
tion whether as much misery and wrong
doing is not caused by the ill temper
and false judgment which is due to im-
proper food or to over indulgence in
eating.
One of the greatest evils in our home
and national life is extravagance, and
nowhere can this be combated to better
advantage than in the cooking school
since food takes the larger part of the
income of the average family. The
question of economy applies not only to
the individual and the home, but to the
nation, since he that is faithful in that
which is least is faithful also in much.
Higher wages come when the lesser
sum is wisely adjusted to our needs.
The division of the denominator is
equivalent to the multiplication of the
numerator.
Thrift and economy are commonly
considered to be synonymous with
meanness. A large business pays
handsome profits because fractions of a
cent are saved, but in our homes nickels
and dimes are wasted through ignor-
ance. Statisticians claim that half the
income of the average family goes for
food, and the smaller the income the
larger the proportion thus used. The
figures for actual waste are difficult to
obtain because little attention has been
given to this subject, but from our indi-
vidual knowledge each of us can accept
Edward Atkinson's statement that five
cents a day per head is a low estimate of
what may be saved by more skilful
cookery, yet in a community of six
thousand persons this would give a total
of over one hundred thousand dollars
each year.
Such a sum would go far toward pro-
moting philanthropic causes and public
improvements which always advance
slowly for lack of funds. More method
in our household accounts would have
a wholesome effect in our municipal and
national system of housekeeping.
Instruction in sanitary science will
affect not only the individual but the
home, the tenement house, public build-
ings, and lead us to demand cleanliness
in our city streets. We have been in-
clined to make clean the outside of the
house, to decorate our public grounds
without due regard to the sanitary con-
ditions of our buildings.
The field of handcrafts in the schools
grows wider every year and if the daily
life can be made healthier and happier
what matter if a little arithmetic and
language get crowded out? The next
department to receive attention will be
the school garden. Many European
countries already give instruction in
this, the oldest of all arts, and the
schools in this land will soon follow
their example.
The agricultural colleges supported
by the government are leading the way


MANUAL TRAINING AS A FACTOR IN HOME LIFE.
7
and making exact sciences of agricul-
ture and horticulture. State and local
agricultural societies, public schools and
even the Sunday schools are giving the
children plants to care for and some-
times offer prizes for those which show
the best results at the end of a given
period. The general adoption of the
''Pingree potato plan" indicates a strong
popular reaction toward agriculture.
Many cities are looking out for larger
play grounds for the schools. We may
expect soon to see tracts of land set
apart near large cities for summer
schools of agriculture where during the
long vacations pupils of the public
schools will be taught how to make
plants grow and the crops, large or
small, will be valuable food. This is
quite as practicable as the potato plan.
It would take no more time and might
prove slightly more valuable to the com-
munity and quite as healthful for the
individual as the athletic sports which
now demand so much energy. As
Emerson says: "We must learn the
homely laws of fire and water, we must
feed, wash, plant, build. These are the
ends of necessity, and first in the order
of nature. Poverty, frost, famine,
disease, debt are the beadles and guards-
men that hold us to common sense."
The chief criticism to be made upon
our present system of manual training
is that the different branches are not
well fitted together and adjusted to
other school studies. If we take the
home as the centre and focus all
branches upon that, they will gradually
settle to their proper places.
While all these home sciences demand
mental as well as manual effort there is
a tendency toward too much theory and
too little practical work. The strong
point of manual training is the tangible
result it gives. The pupil actually
makes a garment, cooks a loaf of bread.
He does not dream over some impos-
sible financial transaction such as he
may do some day, as may be the case
with the arithmetic lesson.
In the day nurseries the babies are
started in the right way and the kinder-
garten follows with its wise plan of
organized play. The kitchen garden
scheme might be expanded and joined
with the paper folding and clay model-
ling, with a view toward the wood work-
ing and cooking and sewing to follow.
Leather work, printing, laundry work
should have their places.
There should be no distinction of sex
—the girls should learn carpentry and
the boys cookery. While these lessons
are in progress the arithmetic lessons
should be in the line of household
accounts, and measurements of the
grocery and workshop. Geography,
also, may be adapted to such lessons.
Each of these home sciences must be
reduced to its lowest terms, that no un-
necessary steps be taken. It is quite
possible to teach the fundamental prin-
ciples of cookery in a dozen lessons,—as
a business it is another matter that may
be left for the trade schools,—but so
long as human beings have to eat, every
boy and girl should be taught how to
select and prepare simple foods.
Each child's bent may be discovered
and thus he can be directed to the proper
trade school. Meanwhile in the absence
of trade schools the start given by the
manual training school often aids in
placing the boys and girls where they
may earn their living by an occupation
for which each is adapted by nature.
When hand and brain are evenly
trained and the boys and girls are
taught that home is the place to use
their best efforts, and economy and
thrift are made popular, there will be
few social problems to be solved.


NATURAL SCIENCE IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS.
From the report of Dr. W. T. Harris, LL. D., upon Correlation of Studies in Elementary Schools.
NATURAL science claims a place
in the elementary school not so
much as a disciplinary study side
by side with grammar, arithmetic, and
history, as a training in habits of ob-
servation and in the use of the tech-
nique by which such sciences are ex-
pounded. With a knowledge of the
technical terms and some training in
the methods of original investigation
employed in the sciences, the pupil
broadens his views of the world and
greatly increases his capacity to acquire
new knowledge. For the pupil who is
unacquainted with the technique of sci-
ence has to pass without mental profit
the numerous scientific allusions and
items of information which more and
more abound in all our literature,
whether of an ephemeral or a perma-
ment character.
In an age whose proudest boast is the
progress of science in all domains, there
should be in the elementary school,
from the first, a course in the elements
of the sciences. And this is quite possi-
ble; for each science possesses some
phases that lie very near to the child's
life. These familiar topics furnish the
doors through which the child enters
the various special departments. Sci-
ence, it is claimed, is nothing if not sys-
tematic. Indeed, science itself may be
defined as the interpretation of each fact
through all other facts of a kindred
nature. Admitting that this is so, it is
no less true that pedagogic method be-
gins with the fragmentary knowledge
possessed by the pupil and proceeds to
organize it and build it out systematical-
ly in all directions. Hence any science
may be taken up best on the side nearest
the experience of the pupil and the in-
vestigation continued until the other
parts are reached. Thus the pedagogi-
cal order is not always the logical or
scientific order. In this respect it
agrees with the order of discovery,
which is usually something quite dif-
ferent from the logical order; for that
is the last thing discovered.
The natural sciences have two general
divisions; one relating to inorganic mat-
ter, as physics and chemistry, and one
relating to organic, as botany and
zoology. There should be a spiral
course in natural science, commencing
each branch with the most interesting
phases to the child. A first course
should be given in botany, zoology, and
physics, so as to treat of the structure
and uses of familiar plants and animals,
and the explanation of physical phe-
nomena as seen in the child's play-
things, domestic machines, etc. A sec-
ond course, covering the same subjects,
but laying more stress on classification
and functions, will build on to the
knowledge already acquired from the
former lessons and from his recently ac-
quired experience. A third course of
weekly lessons, conducted by the teach-
er as before in a conversational style,
with experiments and with a compari-
son of the facts of observation already
in the possession of the children, will go
far to helping them to an acquisition of
the results of natural science. Those
of the children specially gifted for ob-
servation in some one or more depart-
ments of nature will be stimulated and
encouraged to make the most of their
gifts.
In the opinion of your committee,
there should be set apart a full hour
each week for drawing and the same
amount for oral lessons in natural sci-
ence.
The oral lessons in history have al-
ready been mentioned. The spiral
course, found useful in natural science
because of the rapid change in capacity
of comprehension by the pupil from his
sixth to his fourteenth year, will also be
8


PSYCHOLOGY APPLIED TO TEACHING COOKERY.
9
best for the history course, which will
begin with biographical adventures of
interest to the child, and possessing an
important historical bearing. These
will proceed from the native land first to
England, the parent country, and then
to the classic civilizations (Greece and
Rome being, so to speak, the grand-
parent countries of the American colo-
nies). These successive courses of oral
lessons adapted respectively to the
child's capacity will do much to make
the child well informed on this topic.
Oral lessons should never be mere lec-
tures, but more like Socratic dialogues,
building up a systematic knowledge
partly from what is already known, part-
ly by new investigations, and partly by
comparison of authorities.
The best argument in favor of weekly
oral lessons in natural science and gen-
eral history is the actual experience of
teachers who have for some time used
the plan. It has been found that the
lessons in botany, zoology, and physics
give the pupil much aid in learning his
geography, and other lessons relating
to nature, while the history lessons as-
sist very much his comprehension of
literature, and add interest to geogra-
phy.
It is understood by your committee
that the lessons in physiology and hy-
giene (with special reference to the ef-
fects of stimulants and narcotics) re-
quired by state laws should be included
in this oral course in natural science.
Manual training, so far as the theory
and use of the tools for working in wood
and iron are concerned, has just claims
on the elementary school for a reason
similar to that which admits natural
science. From science have proceeded
useful inventions for the aid of all man-
ner of manufactures and transporta-
tion. The child of to-day lives in a
world where machinery is constantly at
his hand. A course of training in wood
and iron work, together with experi-
mental knowledge of physics or natural
philosophy, makes it easy for him to
learn the management of such ma-
chines. Sewing and cookery have not
the same, but stronger claims for a place
in school. One-half day in each week
for one-half a year each in the seventh
and eighth grades will suffice for man-
ual training, the sewing and cookery
being studied by the girls, and the wood
and iron work by the boys. It should
be mentioned, however, that the advo-
cates of manual training in iron and
wood work recommend these branches
for secondary schools, because of the
greater maturity of body, and the less
likelihood to acquire wrong habits of
manipulation, in the third period of four
years of school.
PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY APPLIED TO TEACHING
COOKERY.
Graduating Essay at the Boston Cooking School, 1895.
BY HARRIET LEZLA SMITH.
LIKE all other sciences, psychology
is founded on the very necessary
belief that things will behave in the
future as they have in the past. This
law cannot be proven, but we believe
it because we cannot do otherwise; it is
an accepted law; overthrow it and you
overthrow the universe itself, for the
laws we have ascribed to nature depend
on the truth of this assertion.
Psychology, simply stated, is the sci-
ence of mental facts; a mental fact is a
fact known directly to but one person and
that the one experiencing it. Mental
facts are first studied introspectively as
far as is possible, and then through
the knowledge gained of our own
minds, we infer what is passing in the
minds of others—for instance, those we
wish to teach—and so we are able to
judge inferentially of their motives and
actions.
Any science is a "piled-up" life—per-
haps the accumulated result of many


12
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
rest, and a leather covered "blacking
stool" is not only ornamental, serving
as a foot rest, if desired, but the lifted
cover reveals all implements which may
be of practical use in this line.
A dish of fruit in its season, with the
delicate individual plate and fruit knife,
resting upon a neatly folded doily, has
often been most refreshing, while the
hostess, who has been careful for you
"with all this care"would doubtless pro-
vide a tray with small pitcher of ice
water.
We recall brilliant and intellec-
tual women, who, withal, know
the influence of attention to what may
be called "little things"; who are careful
to place upon the writing table of their
guest rooms a late paper or magazine, a
Bible with good plain print and other
books suited to the tastes of their
guests, in order that moments of quiet
and rest may be pleasantly occupied.
Such a model hostess will see that the
most comfortable bed is provided, that
the pillow shams, if used, are removed
as evening advances, and that the cover-
let is laid back for the convenience of
her guest.
A prettily decorated calendar of do-
mestic arrangements may adorn the
guest room. This is tied by ribbons,
corresponding in shade with the pre-
vailing color of the room, and often
ornamented by the brush of the hostess,
who adds, in her own handwriting, the
times for family meals, bells, etc. This
calendar is frequently fastened to the
door by which visitors enter the room.
Many of these attentions are of com-
mon usage, yet how few guest rooms
bear the evidence of all those feminine
touches which a busy woman of the
nineteenth century is tempted to forget.
If remembered, they carry warmth, wel-
come, comfort, and rest to the heart of
one who occupies the guest room, for a
longer or shorter period.
OCTOBER.
OSUNS and skies and clouds of June,
And flowers of June together,
Ye cannot rival for one hour
October's bright blue weather;
When loud the bumble-bee makes haste,
Belated, thriftless vagrant,
And goldenrod is dying fast,
And lanes with grapes are fragrant;
When gentians roll their fringes tight,
To save them for the morning,
And chestnuts fall from satin burrs
Without a sound of warning;
When on the ground red apples lie
In piles like jewels shining,
And redder still on old stone walls
Are leaves of woodbine twining;
When all the lovely wayside things
Their white-winged seeds are sowing,
And in the fields still green and fair,
Late aftermaths are growing;
When springs run low, and on the brooks,
In idle golden freighting,
Bright leaves sift noiseless in the hush
Of woods, for winter waiting;
When comrades seek sweet country haunts
By twos and twos together,
And count like misers, hour by hour,
October's bright blue weather.
O suns and skies and flowers of June,
Count all your boasts together,
Love loveth best of all the year
October's bright blue weather.
— Helen Hunt Jackson.


FESTIVALS OF THE YEAR —OCTOBER.
BY PAMELA MC ARTHUR COLE.
FRUMENITY or "furmity" (its chief
ingredients wheat boiled with milk
and sugar, and flavored with
spices) was the dish, which though
reckoned among the Christmas dainties
was also popular on the eleventh day of
this month once dedicated to Ethel-
burga, an early Saxon saint, whose
name is now seldom heard.
The church still commemorates on
the eighteenth, St. Luke, the "beloved
physician," and on the twenty-eighth,
SS. Simon and Jude.
The best known and most popular of
the festivals of October is the thirty-first,
the Eve of All Saints, generally known
as All Hallow E'en. It is a night when
according to ancient superstition, all
spirits are busy, and when the good and
beneficent endeavor to foil the efforts of
those evil beings who plan the sorrows
and discomfort of mankind.
Of the divinations associated with
Hallow E'en, perhaps it need hardly be
said that matrimony is the chief subject.
With most of these spells readers of the
present day are familiar, and many
have been tried with more or less suc-
cess. Some of them are likely to affect
the nerves enough to produce a vision
of some sort. Few persons are willing
to eat an apple before a mirror at mid-
night in a lonely room beyond call of
any one. The "charm of the rig" re-
quires the person trying it to stand on
the twelfth furrow (from the entrance)
of a ploughed field alone at midnight,
when the character of the sounds borne
on the wind presage his future, whether
joyful or sorrowful. It has often had a
powerful effect.
Among those charms which are less
"fearsome," as they may be tried in so-
ciety—"the more the merrier"—is the
spell of the nuts, when two nuts named
privately are laid side by side before an
open fire. An old author sees in their
conduct the symbolism of life and char-
acter :—•
These glowing nuts are emblems true
Of what in human life we view.
The ill-matched couple fret and fume,
And thus in strife themselves consume;
Or from each other wildly start,
And with a noise forever part.
But see the happy, happy pair
Of genuine love and truth sincere,
With mutual fondness while they burn,
Still to each other kindly turn;
And as the vital sparks decay,
Together gently sink away,
Till life's fierce ordeal being past,
Their mingled ashes rest at last.
Nuts and apples are the proper feast
for Hallow E'en, dainties that have been
for ages popular.
Wild apples were indigenous to
British soil, and many new varieties
were from time to time introduced dat-
ing from the days of Roman rule. "The
masters of the world" were extremely
fond of apples, and from the fact that
their meals often began with eggs and
ended with their favorite fruit, came
their proverb, "ab ovo usque ad mala"—
from eggs to apples; i. e., from begin-
ning to end.
Of the hundreds of varieties of apples,
the pearmain is one of the oldest. It is
mentioned as one of the conditions of a
tenure in Norfolk, about the year 1200,
that "two hundred pearmains and four
hogsheads of pearmain cyder should be
paid yearly at Michaelmas."
An apple popular in the reign of
Elizabeth was named, for her, the queen
apple. Another whose name is vari-
ously spelled—janetting, jenneting, and
june-eating, was originally, we are in-
formed, "Joanneting," after St. John
the Baptist, on whose festival day, June
twenty-fourth, it was generally expected
to be ripe.
The apples, however, were supposed
to be under the special patronage of St.


14
THE AMERIC AN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
James, and were formally blessed on his
day, now July twenty-fifth.
Apple pies have long been popular.
The following recipe "To make tartis in
applis" is five centuries old. "Take
gode applis and gode spycis and figgs
and reysons, and when they are well
ybrayed, coloure with safron well, and
do it in a cofvn, and do it forthe to bake
well."
The word tart, writers on ancient
cookery tell us, was originally applied
to crust "twisted" into various forms
(the French tourte, from the Latin
torta)- Plain pastry uncovered was "an
open pie," when covered a "coffin." The
last word used in this sense may be found
in old writers, Shakespeare says, for
example—
"And of this paste a coffin I will rear."
"A tarte that is a courage to man or
woman" must surely be a dish of value,
and the directions for making it are thus
given in modern spelling: "A boiled and
strained mess of quinces, vegetables,
roots, yolks of eggs, and brains of spar-
rows, highly qualified with wines and
spices."
"Warden-pye" was much esteemed;
it was named from a certain famous pear
called Warden, from the place where it
was originally produced. The follow-
ing recipe is a few years later than
Shakespeare's day: "Bake your war-
dens or pears in an oven with a little
water and good quantity of sugar, let
your pot be covered with a piece of
dough; let them not be fully baked by a
quarter of an hour; when they are cold
make a high coffin and put them in
whole, add to them some cloves, whole
cinnamon, sugar with some liquor they
were boiled in, so bake it."
"Eating humble pie" is now only a
metaphorical phrase, but was once a
serious matter. Humble pie was made
of the humbles (entrails) of deer, and
sometimes other animals. At first con-
sidered good fare, it was afterwards
given only to those persons "whose
quality did not entitle them to the best
food," and to sit at the inferior table and
there eat humble pie was sometimes a
punishment inflicted on disobedient
children or insolent favorites.
AMONG THE APPLES.
RED, and russet, and yellow,
Lying here in a heap —
Pippins, rounded and mellow;
Greenings for winter keep;
Seek-no-furthers, whose blushing
The soul of the saint would try,
Till his face showed the crimson flushing
The cheek of a Northern Spy.
Each seems to hold a vagrant
Sunbeam lost from the sky
When lily blooms were fragrant
Walls for the butterfly;
And when the snow was flying,
What feast in the hoarded store
Of crimson and yellow lying
Heaped high tin the sandy floor!
Fruitage of bright spring splendor,
Of leaf and blossom-time,
That no tropic land can mend or
Take from this frosty clime —
Fruit for the hearthstone meeting,
Whose flavor naught can destroy,
How you make my heart's swift beating
Throb with the pulse of a boy!
Apples, scarlet and golden,
Apples juicy and tart,
Bringing again the olden
Joy to to the weary heart.
You send the swift thoughts sweeping
Through wreckage of time and tears,
To that hidden chamber keeping
The gladness of youth's bright years.
— Thomas S. Codlier.
i


MEXICAN PREPARATIONS OF CORN.
BY ALICE D. LE PLONGEON.
WHERE corn is not only a staple
article, but the almost exclu-
sive diet of some classes, the
people naturally learn to prepare it
in a variety of ways. In Yucatan,
that Mexican state so interesting
for its old ruins, the native soldier
going to the frontier on his com-
pulsory service of two months, every
year, carries a hempen bag filled with
home-made dainties, of maize. The
laborer starts out in the morning to toil
till dusk in the hemp fields. Having
breakfasted on corn, he carries with
him a provision of the same cereal for
midday lunch.
Tortillas serve as bread. For these,
the maize is first boiled about fifteen
minutes in lye, then thoroughly washed
and separated from the skins. The
corn is ground between a stone rolling-
pin and a square stone, sufficient water
being gradually added to make a paste
of about the same consistency as dough
made of wheat flour. By hand the
paste is moulded into very thin cakes
four or five inches in diameter; these are
baked on a metallic or clay disk over a
wood fire. They are nice when steam-
ing hot. The corn used for this pur-
pose is quite mature. Tortillas can be
made of any thickness, and as thin ones
become tough when cold, those with
more body to them are preferable if to
be kept three or four days and warmed
over. From less ripe corn, sweet,
nicely flavored tortillas are made and
served as cakes.
Posole is tortilla paste made up in
balls and wrapped in a cloth. Work-
men take this in the middle of the day,
and nothing else. Dissolved in water
it serves as food and beverage. Mixed
with sugar posole is quite palatable. The
natives prefer to season it with red pep-
per and sour orange juice. If the paste
has been soured by keeping, they mix
salt with it. Those who work hard all
day, with no other refreshment, find it
cooling and nutritious.
Atole is a hot drink of maize flour,
prepared in the same way as arrow root:
the flavor is quite different from what
is commonly called corn starch.
Pinole is a pleasant substitute for cof-
fee and is more nourishing. The grain
is roasted and ground in the same way
as the more expensive berry and the
beverage is similarly prepared, but the
corn is stirred up and consumed with
the liquid.
Nice meat pies are made, with a crust
of corn flour. The grain is also con-
verted into numerous rich delicacies for
the festal board of the wealthier classes.
Corn is not eaten on the cob, except in
a very mature state, and instead of be-
ing boiled, it is roasted in very hot
ashes.
The Yucatan kitchen is generally a
separate building several paces back of
the residence. The floor is of earth or
concrete. In the middle of it, three
stones are placed in a triangle, serving
as fireplace, and wood is the fuel always
used. At certain hours the three
stones support a large olla (clay pot)
in which black beans are kept boiling
a great part of the day. When these
are thoroughly cooked the olla is
shifted to the floor and the baking disk
is placed over the fire. This disk is like
those used by the Arab women.
The woman of the family, always
dressed in clean white cotton garments,
sits on a stool not more than ten inches
high, close by, and attends to the baking
of the tortillas, at the same time busying
herself in shaping them, on a round
three-legged stool upon which is spread
a piece of baked banana leaf. Only a
tender young leaf can be used for the
purpose because, owing to their great
size when mature, the wind rapidly tears
15


QUAINT RECIPES FROM AN OLD ENGLISH BOOK.
SELECTED BY FANNIE L.^FANCHER.
* ' T SET great store by this old book
1 published just seventy years ago,
for it was a present to me in Mer-
rie England," said Grandma R. when
she loaned me her valued cook-book.
From its timeworn pages I have
gleaned several quaint recipes, some of
which may afford acceptable sugges-
tions for our latter-day cuisine. These
recipes are interesting by their contrast
to those found in our modern cook-
books. No wonder that the young
housekeepers were disheartened by the
indefiniteness regarding measurements.
''Judgment-' seems to be an essential
part of every formula. But house-
keepers who are familiar with ordinary
processes will find some hints in the
accompanying oldtime recipes.
Oyster Pie.—As oysters are opened,
separate from the liquor and strain;
parboil them after removing the beards.
Parboil sweetbreads, and cut them in
slices, lay them and the oysters in layers,
season lightly with salt, pepper, and
mace. Then put half a tea-cup of liquor
and the same of gravy. Bake in a slow
oven and before serving, put a teacup
of cream, a little more oyster liquor, and
a cup of white gravy, all warmed but not
boiled.
Veal Pie.—Take some of the middle
of a small neck, season, and add if liked,
a few slices of lean bacon, or ham. If
a high relish is desired, add mace, cay-
enne, and nutmeg to salt and pepper,
also force meat and eggs; and if you
choose add truffles, mozels, mush-
rooms, sweetbreads cut into small bits,
and cocks-combs blanched, if liked.
Have a rich gravy ready to pour in after
baking. It will be very good without
any of the latter additions.
Partridge Pie.—Pick and singe four
partridges, cut off the legs at the knee;
season with pepper and salt, chopped
parsley, thyme, and mushrooms. Lay
a veal steak and a slice of ham at the
bottom of the dish; put in the par-
tridges, and half a pint of broth. Put
puff paste on the edge of the dish and
cover with the same; brush over with
egg and bake an hour.
Prune Tart.—Scald the prunes, take
out the stones and break them; put the
kernels into a little cranberry juice with
the prunes and sugar, simmer, and
when cold fill tart crusts.
Lemon Tart.—Pare, rather thick, the
rind of four lemons, boil tender and
beat fine. Add to it four ounces of
blanched almonds, four ounces of lump
sugar, the juice of the lemons. Simmer
to a syrup; when cold turn into a shal-
low tin tart dish lined with a rich puff
paste. When paste is baked take from
the oven.
National Plum Pudding. — Mix
suet, jar raisins, and currants, one
pound each, four ounces of bread
crumbs, two tablespoonfuls of sugar,
one of grated lemon peel, half a nut-
meg, a blade of mace, a teaspoonful of
ginger, and six beaten eggs. Boil it
five hours, and serve with rich pudding
sauce. (This is the genuine English
Plum Pudding.)
Prune Pudding.—-Take a few spoon-
fuls of milk, and mix slowly with four
spoonfuls of flour, two spoonfuls of gin-
ger, a littie salt, six yolks, and three
whites of eggs, add a small quart of
milk, a pound of prunes or damsons.
Tie up in a wet cloth, or pour in a basin,
and boil an hour. Serve with melted
butter and sugar.
Oxford Dumplings. — Of grated
bread two ounces, currants and sliced
suet, four ounces each, two heaping
spoons of flour, a great deal of grated
lemon peel, a bit of sugar, and a little
pimento in fine powder. Mix with two
eggs and a little milk, into five dump-
lings, and fry a light brown. Serve
with sweet sauce.
17


"ANYTHING TO GET WELL."
BY FRANCES J. DYER.
HOW often we hear persons who are
partially ill exclaim, in tones as if
they felt themselves abused, "I
would do anything to get well." Yet,
when we come to probe their mode of
living, we find that self-gratification in
some form, and usually that of the appe-
tite, lies at the root of their ailments.
The sufferer seeks change of scene and
climate, flees to Nice or Los Angeles, or
wherever the fountain of health is sup-
posed to be situated, ignoring the fact
that the fundamental change must be-
gin with themselves and not with exter-
nal conditions.
Perhaps the system cannot receive
coffee without detriment. Yet let the
physician prohibit its use and at once
the patient cries out: "O doctor, don't
ask me to give up my coffee. Why, I
couldn't make a meal without that!"
Or perhaps an excess of sweets is un-
dermining the constitution. We know
a woman who buries her morning
cereal with sugar, finishes her break-
fast with doughnuts or cake, uses three
times as much sweetening in her bever-
ages as she ought, and as a consequence
is troubled with nervousness, constipa-
tion, irritability, and sleeplessness.
Friends remonstrate in vain. She re-
sents interference and insists that her diet
has no connection whatever with her
condition. She will take medicine
when prescribed by a physician, but she
will not deny herself the pleasure of eat-
ing sweets.
A certain business man in Boston is
what is called "a high liver." He uses
neither wine nor tobacco in any form,
but his table is loaded with a variety of
the choicest food. He claims that his
active life demands a generous diet, and
that so long as the viands are properly
cooked no harm can result from what—
to speak plainly—is refined gluttony.
But every few months he has an acute
attack of intestinal disorder accompa-
nied by excruciating suffering.
The wise old specialist who is called
to attend him, and who charges an
enormous fee for his services, prescribes
but a modicum of medicine, and limits
his patient to a strict diet of dry toast
and water for several days. Nature
thus has a chance to throw off the super-
fluity which has deranged the system.
A teacher in the sciences in a private
school in New York was demonstrating
to her pupils the indigestibility of a cer-
tain toothsome dish when one of the
young ladies said deprecatingly, "Oh,
but it tastes so good. You couldn't ask
us to give up eating that."
Such cases could be multiplied indefi-
nitely, but these are sufficient to show
that people are willing to do "anything
to get well"— or to keep well—except
to surrender their pet tastes in food and
drink. If they do not break down alto-
gether in health they are only half well,
and are forever making some outward
application or taking some internal
remedy to improve their condition.
The price of health is obedience to
natural laws, and that often means the
sacrifice of desires which are in danger
of enslaving the life with fetters like
iron. But law will not compromise. It
says: Eat and drink indiscreetly if you
will, give the rein to passion, cheat your
lungs out of their quota of fresh air,
dress unhygienically; but know that
for all these things, sooner or later,
you will be brought into judgment.
With the greater intelligence which
prevails to-day in respect to dietetics
there is need also of developing more
power of self control over the appetite.
Lack of this is like the little crevice in
the dyke which lets in a devastating
flood of physical ills.


SOUTHERN COOKERY.
BY CELIA LOTT.
IF the northerner could be initiated
into a knowledge of southern cookery
through the medium of the private
family, some of his prejudices against it
would never be formed. The average
New Englander usually gets his ideas of
the food prepared in southern kitchens
from what he has served to him in some
southern hotel or restaurant. This is
as unfair to the southern housewife as to
judge the New England cook by the
food found on the table of a village
hotel.
Although the cookery of the South
is not always enjoyed by an outsider, to
one "to the manner born," it has a
piquancy and a relish which the dishes
of other regions never possess.
Pork, bacon, and ham enter largely
into the cooking, and give to the meats
and vegetables with which they are
combined, an appetizing flavor that
could not be attained without them.
All of the varieties of greens are boiled
with some kind of porcine product,
salted or smoked. Turnip leaves, gath-
ered with the young turnips clinging to
the stalks, are thus boiled and eaten.
Poke leaves, used in the season when
they are young and tender, form an ex-
cellent substitute for asparagus. Okra
is a vegetable much prized in the far
South where it grows abundantly.
The pods are picked when very young
and boiled in the same way as greens.
It is a most wholesome vegetable.
Green peas and beans are boiled with
either pork or bacon, no butter being
used in preparing them.
The fried chicken, for which the old
negro cook is so famous, is plunged
into a skillet of hot lard and fried. The
chicken to be roasted is covered with
slices of bacon; stewed chicken and
chicken-pie are well seasoned with salt
pork.
Gumbo is a dish indigenous to the
Gulf states. It is usually prepared with
chicken, but oyster or crab gumbo is
equally delicious. When made with
chicken it is prepared exactly as for
chicken stew, except that just before
serving, a small quantity of the dried
and powdered leaves of the sassafras
tree is stirred into the stew. This gives
it a thick, ropy appearance. It is al-
ways eaten with boiled rice. Some-
times, instead of the powdered sassafras
leaves, okra pods are used for thicken-
ing. In whatever way it is made, it is a
concoction fit for the gods or the old
time southerners—nearly synonymous
terms.
Chitterlings, which are the small in-
testines of the hog cooked while fresh,
are an item of diet much prized by the
country people. After being thorough-
ly cleaned, they are braided together
and fried in hot lard. Served with hot,
baked sweet potatoes and a toothsome
corn-cake, they furnish a most palatable
breakfast. Sometimes they are boiled
and eaten cold with vinegar and pepper.
Beef's heart, stuffed with garlic and
baked, is another favorite dish. The
craw-fish is found around the fresh
water streams in great numbers, and is
boiled and eaten very much as shrimp
are eaten elsewhere.
A great variety of game abounds in
the country sections of the South. A
rabbit pie, a venison steak, a roasted
wild turkey or partridge, a broiled quail
or rice bird, all are delicious when pre-
pared by the southern cook.
The white'corn only, is used for the
table. Corn-pone and hoe-cake are
two of the most common ways of using
it. The pone is made of the meal
mixed with eggs, water, and salt, and
is baked a golden brown. The hoe-
cake is mixed in a similar manner but is
baked on a hoe. This utensil of primi-
tive southern cookery consists of a
'9


20
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
smooth, round, iron surface supported
by three iron legs about four inches
long. When used, it is placed over a
bed of hot coals in an open fireplace,
the corn batter being spread over it to
the depth of an inch. When one side
is cooked, a knife is dextrously run
under it and the cake turned, so that
the other side may have an equal share
of heat.
The negro cook is an adept in turn-
ing or "flopping" a hoe-cake, which
act requires a certain amount of skill in
order to keep it intact.
Potato-pone is one of the favorite
sweets of the South. It is made of
grated sweet potatoes, spices, eggs, mo-
lasses, and pork fat. It is baked in a
brisk oven and eaten hot. Another
sweet is made from the skin of the wild
orange which is soaked several days in
cold water, after which it is cooked till
tender with an equal amount of sugar,
making a delicious preserve.
Egg-nog, a drink prepared at Christ-
mas time, and in antebellum days
served to blacks and whites alike, is
compounded of eggs, milk, sugar,
spices, and whiskey. To be perfect, the
eggs must be whipped with a peach
twig bent bow-shaped. Instead of
whiskey, wine or brandy is sometimes
used.
Coffee is the universal drink. It is
served morning, noon, and night.
When callers drop in, they are given a
cup of coffee and a bit of cake. It
seems much more hospitable and
social than the weak tea and emaciated
lettuce sandwiches to which visitors are
often treated in a more frigid climate.
Still, what one likes to eat is largely a
matter of training, and a taste for a
certain style of cooking may be ac-
quired in childhood which no amount
of travel in later years can change. To
one accustomed to southern cooking, it
possesses a charm and a flavor, the
memory of which cannot be dimmed by
time or absence.
THE SWEET POTATO.
THIS representative of the Convol-
vulacese or morning glory family,
becomes a more popular food
every year. Though some authorities
ascribe its origin to the East Indies,
it is probably a native of America.
Early explorers in America carried it
to Europe, and all allusions to the po-
tato made by Shakespeare and other
writers of the same period refer to this
rather than the white tuber. The word
potato is probably derived from "ba-
tata," the native and Spanish name for
the sweet potato.
Of the nearly fifty million bushels
raised annually in the United States,
the larger number is produced in Geor-
gia, North and South Carolina, Ala-
bama, Mississippi, Texas, Virginia, and
New Jersey. Though it may be culti-
vated in the northern states the yield is
meagre.
There are many different varieties un-
der cultivation, and much confusion
arises from indiscriminate naming and
the use of the word yam. Some of the
choicest varieties must be eaten on their
native heath, as they are too delicate
to bear transportation satisfactorily.
The southern consumer usually prefers
a sugary variety, while a dry, starchy
kind is in greater demand in the north-
ern markets. Since sweet potatoes are
palatable as soon as they are large
enough for the table, they are often
sent to the market before they are fully
matured. This is not objectionable if
they are to be used soon after digging,
but these do not keep as well as those
which are allowed to become fully ripe.
When broken and exposed to the air
ripe potatoes retain their original color,
while the broken surfaces of the unripe
ones grow greenish or dark-colored.


THE SWEET POTATO.
21
About two-thirds of the weight of the
sweet potato is water. It contains less
nitrogenous matter than the white po-
tato, but has a larger proportion of
starchy and sugary substances. Sweet
potatoes therefore, should be eaten with
meat, eggs, beans or any foods that con-
tain a high proportion of proteid mate-
rial. Three pounds of sweet potatoes
will yield as much dry matter as one
pound of corn, but there is less than half
as much proteid matter as is to be found
in the corn.
The sweet potato is little used abroad,
for there it is considered too sweet to
serve with meat and not quite sweet
enough for desserts. It is an important
food in the southern portion of the
United States, and when the northern
markets offer "ten pounds for a quar-
ter" the thrifty housekeeper uses it free-
ly. Therefore during the autumn it is
desirable to gather together a variety of
recipes for its use.
Whatever may be said for or against
paring the white potato before cooking,
there is only one way to preserve the
full sweetness of the yellow one. Its
sweet juices so readily dissolve in water
that the surface should be cut as little
as possible if it is to be boiled, while
baking and steaming are the best meth-
ods if all its richness is to be retained.
The oven for baking sweet potatoes
should not be intensely hot, for they will
burn far quicker than the white ones
because of the greater amount of sugar
they contain. When only very large
potatoes are at hand, they may be par-
boiled or steamed until nearly done and
the cooking finished in the oven. Some
cooks put the sweet potatoes in the
oven, in a dripping pan, with a small
quantity of water which evaporates
shortly, but prevents burning.
Another method of baking potatoes
is to pare or scrape them and bake them
in the pan with a roast of meat, basting
them with its drippings. A similar
effect is gained by cutting parboiled
potatoes in slices about a half-inch
thick, dipping in melted butter and
broiling before a bright fire until tender
within and well browned outside.
For many persons, sweet potatoes are
improved by a second period of cook-
ing. They may be fried or warmed
according to any of the methods used
for white potatoes. A southern method
is to cut the potatoes in halves length-
wise, placing the round side up in a bak-
ing pan, then sprinkle with sugar, or
baste with a thin syrup containing a lit-
tle butter; by this means the outer sur-
face is coated with a rich brown glaze.
Another variation is to cut boiled
sweet potatoes in balls or olive shapes.
Heat quickly in a covered saucepan
containing a little butter and water until
both are absorbed by the potatoes.
Turn into a vegetable dish and sprinkle
with chopped chives, parsley, powdered
lobster coral, or any garnish of good
flavor and contrasting color.
In texture and flavor the sweet po-
tato resembles squash more closely than
any other vegetable, and it may be
cooked and used in much the same way
in pies and muffins. A special recipe
for sweet potato pie is hardly necessary,
since the boiled and mashed vegetable
is to be combined with milk, sugar,
eggs, and spices as if a squash pie were
to be made. To make muffins or rolls
mix a cupful of mashed sweet potato
with an equal quantity of milk and pro-
ceed as for ordinary rolls.
Sweet Potatoes Souffled. — "Cut
them up raw into quarter inch slices,
pare them oval shaped, two and three-
quarters by one and a half inches, then
fry slowly in white fat to have them
cook without coloring or stiffening;
drain, and ten minutes later throw them
back into the hot fat; they should puff
out considerably."—From Ranhofer's
Epicurean.
Sweet Potato Croquettes:—Boil the
potatoes, mash thoroughly or put
through the ricer. With one pint of the
mashed potato put one tablespoonful of
butter, one teaspoonful of salt, and one
beaten egg. Mix and moisten accord-
ing to the dryness of the potato with
one-fourth to one-half cupful of hot
milk. Shape as usual, roll in crumbs,
beaten egg, and crumbs again, and fry
in smoking hot fat.


22
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
Sweet Potato Pudding.—"Peel and
wash a large sweet potato, wipe it dry,
and then grate it on a large grater;
while the potato is being grated, heat a
quart of milk; stir a cupful of the grated
potato into the hot milk and let it boil.
Meantime beat four eggs to a cream,
add a heaping tablespoonful of butter
to the milk and potatoes, and take them
off the lire. Stir the beaten eggs with
the milk and potatoes, season the pud-
ding palatably with salt and pepper,
put it into an earthen dish, and bake
it for twenty minutes, or until the cus-
tard is firm, in a moderate oven; serve
it hot as a vegetable. The same pud-
ding may be sweetened, and baked to
use for dessert."—From "Practical
American Cookery," by Juliet Corson.
A subscriber in Indian Territory
sends us the following recipe. She
says: "This method of cooking sweet
potatoes was new to me, a northern
woman, but it is a great favorite here
and in Arkansas. I hope the readers
of your magazine will find it as delicious
as I have."
Sweet Potato Pudding.—Make a
rich biscuit crust. Roll out about one-
half inch thick. Put a layer of crust in
the bottom of a pan, then a layer of
raw sliced sweet potato sprinkled with
sugar and a few bits of butter; then an-
other layer of crust and potato until the
dish is nearly full. Bake or steam, as
most convenient, until the crust is
cooked and the potatoes are tender.
Serve with sweetened cream or a good
pudding sauce.
Sweet Potato Sweetmeats.—Make a
syrup with one cupful of water and one
pound of sugar. Pare, boil, and mash
six fine sweet potatoes and gradually
add the syrup to them, beating until
smooth. Put back on the stove and
cook slowly, stirring until thick and
quite clear; add one teaspoonful of
orange flower water or other flavoring.
Drop spoonfuls on a plate which has
been sprinkled with sugar and dust
more sugar over top. Or the mixture
may be rolled in balls and wrapped in
pieces of paraffine paper like candy.
The "Virginia Cookery-Book" says:
"The finest sweet potatoes are grown in
the tide-water regions of lower Virginia,
where the soil is sandy and the winters
mild. Almost all families there have a
pit dug in some cellar where sweet po-
tatoes are kept without difficulty all the
winter through; but the most prized
variety is too delicate for transportation,
and is kept for home consumption.
"Sweet potatoes are frequently used
in Virginia, with the accompaniment
of a rich glass of milk, as a sort of plain
dessert at the winding up of the meat
dinner."
The following suggestions relative to
the preservation of this vegetable are
given in a bulletin on "Sweet Potatoes:
Culture and Uses," recently issued by
the United States Department of Agri-
culture :—
"Uncooked sweet potatoes may be
sliced and then dried either in the sun
or in evaporators. They are prepared
for the table by soaking and baking.
Dried sweet potatoes were exhibited
among the products of Japan at the
Columbian Exposition. Their prepa-
ration is described as follows: 'Cleanly
washed potatoes are placed in a suitable
basket and immersed in boiling water
for a short time; when taken out of the
basket they are cut into thin slices and
spread over mats and exposed to the
sun for two or three days. In order to
make a superior quality the skin of the
potato is peeled off before slicing.'
"In some countries the young leaves
and tender sprouts of the sweet potato
plant are prepared and eaten like spin-
ach.
"Within recent years sweet potatoes
have been canned in a few localities.
In 1893 a factory in Mississippi canned
about 1,000 bushels, using 3-pound cans
which sold in Chicago at 95 cents per
dozen delivered. A bushel of sweet
potatoes was sufficient for 15 cans.
Farmers were paid 40 cents per bushel.
This firm expected to can about 8,000
bushels of sweet potatoes in 1894."


24
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
ery tips and cucumber pickles, and serve
cold.
Fowl Sandwiches (an English
recipe).—Take slices from any cold
roast fowl, trim free of fat, skin, and
gristle, mince fine, season with salt and
cayenne, and moisten with sauce tar-
tare. Butter thin slices of stale bread,
spread with the meat. Cover with an
upper slice, spread with grated cheese,
press together, cut into squares or fancy
shapes, and garnish with slices of to-
mato.
Turkey Sandwiches.—Cut very thin
slices of cold turkey breast about two
inches wide and four long, dip in thick
remoulade sauce, and place on a slice
of buttered bread the same size; add a
top slice, fold each sandwich in waxed
paper, pile on a napkin and serve.
Mixed Sandwiches. — Chop fine
equal quantities of cold boiled ham,
tongue, and chicken; mix with a fourth
as much dressing, made of melted but-
ter, the yolks of hard-boiled eggs, salad
oil, mustard, and lemon juice. Season
with salt and cayenne. Spread between
slices of buttered bread, and garnish
with lettuce leaves.
Potted Rabbit Sandwiches (an old
Virginia recipe).—Split light biscuit,
spread one half with butter, the other
with potted rabbit, and press together.
Lay each sandwich on a large lettuce
leaf and serve.
Anchovy Sandwiches. —- Soak a
dozen anchovies for three hours, drain,
scale, and remove the bone. Butter
thin slices of stale bread, place three
split fish on each one, sprinkle with
minced celery, cover with other but-
tered slices of bread, press together, cut
each in two, and serve.
Sardine Sandwiches. — Skin and
scrape eight or ten sardines, put them in
a mortar and pound to a paste with the
yolk of a hard-boiled egg; add a dessert
spoonful of Worcestershire sauce, half
a teaspoonful of essence of celery, and
a tablespoonful of minced cucumber
pickle. Spread between slices of stale
bread, press them together, quarter
them, and serve on a napkin. Sardines
may be split in two, seasoned with
lemon juice, placed on crisp lettuce
leaves, and laid between slices of bread
spread with French mustard.
Salmon Sandwiches.—Take six ta-
blespoonfuls of cold boiled salmon free
from skin and bone, pick into pieces,
mix with a teaspoonful of butter, a
tablespoonful of thick cream, a table-
spoonful of mayonnaise dressing, a tea-
spoonful each of chopped capers and
shrimp essence, and a little cayenne and
lemon juice; pound all together to a
smooth paste. Cut thin slices of bread
into rounds, fry very lightly, spread
with the mixture, and lay slices over.
Arrange on a dish, and garnish with
cress.
Cheese Sandwiches. — Mix three
'ounces of Roquefort cheese with a table-
spoonful of butter, and a teaspoonful
of finely minced parsley. Spread the
mixture between dessert crackers, press
together, lay each on a fresh crisp let-
tuce leaf in serving.
Curry Sandwiches. — Pound to-
gether in a mortar the yolks of three
hard-boiled eggs, a tablespoonful of
butter, a teaspoonful of anchovy es-
sence, a tablespoonful of curry powder,
half a teaspoonful of salt, and a table-
spoonful of stale bread crumbs. Moist-
en with a little tarragon vinegar. Spread
the mixture on thin slices of buttered
• bread, press together. Garnish jwith
nasturtium leaves and blossoms.
Egg Sandu'iches. —Mash the hard-
boiled yolks of four eggs, add two
tablespoonfuls of cress leaves chopped
very fine, season with salt, cayenne, a
little oil and vinegar, and work to a
smooth paste. Butter thin slices of
Boston brown bread, spread a layer of
the mixture over, sprinkle with the fine-
ly chopped whites of the eggs. Cover
with top slices of bread, press together.
Cut each sandwich in quarters, place on
a dish, drop half a teaspoonful of mayon-
naise in the centre of each, and serve.


FROM DAY TO DAY.
Department of Notes, Queries and Correspondence.
CONDUCTED BY MRS. LINCOLN.
ABOUT MENUS.
It is a gratifying and significant fact
that but few if any requests have come
to us for menus for the entire month.
Indeed we have heard many expres-
sions of pleasure that our pages have
not been filled with these usually unsat-
isfactory details. It is seldom that one
can follow such menus, and they are
probably of more help to the newspaper
correspondent than they are to the aver-
age housekeeper.
Many a time I have laid out a plan for
the week's meals, only to be thwarted
by failure to find what I wished at the
market, or by the temptation to buy
something more desirable than that on
my list. Sometimes the capricious ap-
petites of the family would upset all my
calculations as to the "left overs," one
day leaving me so large an amount that
new food could not be used without
great waste of the old; and at another
time consuming all that I depended
upon for the next meal. Perhaps unex-
pected company would appear, or our
number would be lessened at short no-
tice.
It is an easy matter for one to learn
and keep in mind the times when the
different fruits, vegetables, fish, and
meats are in season in her own market;
for though in many places we have
some things all the year round, there
are certain times when, either from the
advantage of climate, the cost of pro-
duction, our own physical condition or
some other good and well established
reason, certain foods are better pur-
chased than at other times.
A list of seasonable foods for each
month is helpful, and with this as a re-
minder, and some knowledge of the
laws of combination, the housekeeper
can generally make plans for her own
meals more satisfactorily than to follow
those of another person. We shall give
from time to time menus for special oc-
casions, suitable combinations of food,
and suggestions for seasonable mar-
keting.
At one of the western markets an en-
terprising dealer gave to his customers
his business card on the back of which
was printed a list of the kinds of meat
suitable to buy for breakfast, for lun-
cheon, for dinner and for supper. At
another market I saw a card on which
were arranged lists of the various kinds
of meat suited to the different modes of
cooking, under the heads—"What to
buy for roasting," "What to buy for
baking," and so on through broiling,
stewing, boiling, frying, for soups, for
pie meat, and for beef tea.
In some future number we may ar-
range such lists as suggestions for
housekeepers.
FOODS IN SEASON.
I want to protest against this unwise
demand for foods out of season. We
as a nation carry the rush and hurry of
business even to our tables, and instead
of waiting for the full enjoyment of food
in its best condition when in season, we
pay high prices for inferior quality and
thus lose all appetite for it when it is at
its best.
This is especially true in regard to our
summer fruits and vegetables. By
yielding to this impatient spirit we en-
courage the gardeners to make time
and quantity of more account than qual-
ity in the selection and cultivation of
their products. Take our delicious
summer vegetables: many of them are
unfit to eat unless cooked the day they
are gathered. But we begin early in
the spring to buy the poor, wilted speci-
mens sent us from remote gardens, and
try to imagine that the sour, yes, worse
25


20
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
than sour berries, the hard, tasteless
peas, and tough cucumbers are worthy
of the name of fresh vegetables. Then
by the time our own gardens are yield-
ing their produce we are tired of peas,
and are tempted to buy the first unfilled
ears of sweet corn, only to find them a
snare and a delusion; and so we rush
on and seek cabbage, cauliflower, and
celery long before the season and our
own condition demands such food.
It would be far better to begin in the
early spring and use our canned fruits,
oranges,* bananas, and stewed dried
fruits; substitute macaroni and rice for
potatoes; eat freely of lettuce, spinach,
and1 such other green produce as can be
raised under glass and which forcing
does not harm; wait for the parsnips
that have been kept in the ground all
winter and have received the sweeten-
ing effects of the frosts, instead of eating
them in the fall; let the hothouse cu-
cumbers and tomatoes alone until after
the lettuce, and greens, and asparagus
are past their best condition; eat the
rhubarb and asparagus while they last
even if it be every day; wait for the full
enjoyment of green peas fresh with the
bloom on the pods; pluck the summer
squashes while the skin is so thin and
tender that you can hardly handle them
without bruising it, and the seeds are not
too large to eat; and take the fresh ber-
ries in their natural order of ripening.
This will give one sufficient variety
for the early summer, for there are other
vegetables like young beets, young car-
rots, onions, string beans, etc., which do
not lose their flavor so quickly, and
which can be used as occasion demands.
Cucumbers and tomatoes may well take
the place of lettuce, and melons come
in between the berries and early fall
fruits.
In the later summer and early fall the
sweet corn if it can be procured" fresh, is
in its prime, and there are many varie-
ties of shelled beans which are good
only now, as they are too strong and
rich for the intense heat of the early
summer, and will be too old for use
later. Peaches, pears, and plums are
found now in great abundance. We
have a foretaste of winter in the delicate
cauliflower which can be enjoyed in
September; the sweet potatoes are also
just the thing these chilly fall days; but
let us leave the cabbage and celery until
the frosts have done their work in ripen-
ing the cellular tissue and making them
crisp in texture and less pungent in
flavor.
Later we find the hard squashes, tur-
nips, salsify, beets, carrots, and some
other vegetables which our good moth-
er nature has planned may be stored for
our use in the long winter months and
which from their texture and quality are
more suitable for food at that time. The
dried fruits, nuts, winter apples, and
foreign fruits, oranges, and bananas
take the place of the summer berries
and small fruits.
This is the way to have the variety
which is the spice of life; not a variety
of vegetables at each meal, but a varia-
tion from week to week and month to
month, taking each in its own time and
season.
If housekeepers would carry out this
thought in planning their meals we
might have vastly more variety in food,
more enjoyment in eating, and more
wholesome results. A greater demand
would be made for quality rather than
variety in our vegetable foods. Market
gardeners would then cut their aspara-
gus about half the usual length, giving
us only that which can be cooked ten-
der, and not exhaust their plants by al-
lowing them to grow too high before
cutting. Peas would be selected for
their sweetness and tender quality in-
stead of their early or prolific yield,
would be planted at such intervals of
time as would give a continuous supply
for two months, and be picked only
when just right. Cucumbers would not
be allowed to grow so large that one
must discard the seeds if housekeepers
would insist upon having only those of
small size.
"Well, you ain't like some women,"
said my Long Island grocer when I
carefully selected the smallest summer
squashes in the lot. "Most women
want the biggest, so to get more for


28
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
The square of delicate linen between
the bowl and plate is partly for protec-
tion and partly for ornamentation. It
saves the finger bowl from scratching or
marring the elegant china and prevents
the noise and clicking of dishes which is
so objectionable at a well regulated ta-
ble. It is removed with the bowl to the
table on the left of the plate. On spe-
cial or ceremonious dinners this is the
only doiley which accompanies the
bowl; the large napkin is not to be used
again and therefore may be used for the
fingers and lips and then left loosely
massed beside the plate.
But in everyday family life each
housekeeper must decide for herself
whether to provide a small fruit doiley
for this purpose or to use the large nap-
kin. The doiley if very wet must be
dried, and if soiled would serve for only
one occasion, and this also makes extra
washing. If a fringed doiley be used
the labor of ironing is more than that
for a plain napkin. Napkins should be
changed twice and often three times
each week, or whenever soiled or they
have an unpleasant odor. Much de-
pends upon the way a person uses them.
These changes should be regulated so
that fresh ones are supplied at the next
meal following a dinner where finger
bowls were specially required.
If the saving of labor be the chief
consideration, it would be better to pare
the juicy fruits like peaches and plums
before serving, or eat them away from
the table. But a better way would be to
cultivate a dainty habit of eating, mak-
ing the fork and spoon take the place
of fingers. Learn to pare an apple or
pear by dividing into quarters and re-
moving the core first, thus leaving the
skin as a sort of protector to the hand
until the last. Halve a peach before
paring and if large divide again. (Cling-
stone peaches or those with woolly skins
should never be served whole at the ta-
ble.) Then the peach may be eaten
from the skin as from a shell, without
any loss of the juice. Plums may be
peeled on one side, the skin on the lower
side serving as a holder if they cannot
be divided. Oranges are more neatly
managed if cut across the carpels and
eaten with a spoon. Grapes may be
eaten without much mussing, and sweet
corn, also, if one use a little thought and
care. Then when the finger bowls are
passed use them daintily, just to remove
the stickiness from lips and fingers and
not as a means of complete ablution. If
done in this way there will be no need of
over wetting the napkin. In dog days it
will be necessary to hang the napkins
where they will dry quickly before fold-
ing them or even putting them with the
soiled clothes, as the slightest damp-
ness will cause mildew. I have seen
elegant napkins ruined by being left in
the laundry over night when damp.
Everyone, I think, who has any de-
gree of sensitiveness in the finger tips,
feels the need of something more than
a dry napkin after a meal. Even if
bread be the only food handled it causes
a sticky and often a greasy sensation
which nothing but water will remove.
Therefore finger bowls are one of the
most sensible and useful fashions of our
table appointments, and where they are
not provided some other means of
cleansing the fingers should be fur-
nished immediately after the meal is fin-
ished. A set bowl in a passageway near
the dining room is a great convenience,
and when strangers are present it is a
graceful courtesy to give them the op-
portunity to use this, or direct them to
the bathroom. Books, clothing, and deli-
cate bric-a-brac are often needlessly
soiled for lack of this precaution.
FOLDING OF NAPKINS.
Thinking of napkins reminds me of
the folding of these and many other arti-
cles of clothing, bed linen and table
linen, but if I begin to write all that I
have often wanted to on that subject I
shall go beyond the limit of this paper.
So only a few words about napkins;
they should be well dampened, shaken,
and straightened on the edges and
ironed straight, then folded through
the middle just as we fold a long towel,
table cloth, or sheet, from hem to hem,
not from selvedge to selvedge, always


FROM DAT TO DAT.
29
regarding the hem end as the length of
the napkin even though it be square.
Fold again, bringing the upper sel-
vedge not quite to the under one, and
when you iron the fold down you will
find the inner edge slips along and
comes just to the edge instead of be-
yond as is the case when the edges are
on a line at first. Then fold one hem
end over not quite to the other, letting
the selvedge be outside, and press the
folds down firmly. If your napkin be
marked, plan to have that corner come
uppermost after the last folding. Keep
the edges straight and avoid ironing the
corners out into points. Fold again
together, bringing this middle fold over
to the hem edge.
Some people prefer to fold each hem
end toward the middle, to avoid making
so thick a fold, but when the folds are
pressed well this is no objection and the
disadvantages of this style are more
than the advantages. It makes a
double fold on one edge which is incon-
venient in sorting or arranging them in
the linen drawer, making one napkin
seem like two; and it is awkward to fold
one in that way at the table. Children
should be taught to fold the napkin in
the original creases for then it may be
kept in much better condition.
Keep the clean napkins in the drawer
in orderly piles, the folded edge toward
the front of the drawer that they may be
counted and selected readily. Napkins
are seldom ironed nicely at a public
laundry, and nothing gives an orderly
woman the shivers more quickly than
to take up a napkin with the edges un-
even and the selvedges which are the
border or really ornamental part, folded
inside.
TOWEL LOOPS.
I spent more than two minutes this
morning trying to untwist the loop on
a kitchen towel that I might hang it in
place and as my attention has often
been called to the right and wrong way
of this simple thing, I will tell you how
to put on a loop, either on towels, or
dresses, bags, etc., so that your patience
will not be taxed when trying to hang
up things when in haste. Instead of
putting the two ends of the tape to-
gether and sewing them on the towel
as one end, thereby causing them to
twist so closely that after washing it is
difficult to find the loop end, put one
end of the tape on at the right of the
middle of the hem end of the towel and
the other at the left, with at least an
eighth of an inch space between the
ends. Be careful to have the same side
of the tape on the outside at each end;
this will make the loop stand out open
and always ready to catch easily on the
hook. It may take twice as long to sew it
on in this way, but you sew it only once
and you hang it many times a day.
Kitchen towels should have a loop at
each end, but dish towels I prefer to
hang on a rack, that they may air and
dry quickly. Put loops on in the same
way at each shoulder seam of dress
waists, but on skirt bindings put them
on so the tape lies flat on the binding,
as a tailor puts a loop at the neck of a
coat.
BRUSSELS SPROUTS.
Mrs. G. writes: "Having been an ar-
dent follower of the recipes in your Bos-
ton Cook Book and an attentive listener
at many of your lectures, I take the lib-
erty of asking a favor of you. My hus-
band is anxious for me to cook Brussels
sprouts and I cannot find the recipe for
them, so if you will kindly add that to
the many I have used I will esteem it a
great kindness."
Brussels sprouts are a variety of small
cabbage produced in the axils of the
leaves. They are really little clusters
of leaves which close together and form
miniature cabbages of delicate fibre and
flavor. They are about the size of the
largest nutmegs, and are ready for use
in the fall and winter. In our eastern
markets we do not find them in any
great quantity, but they are easily culti-
vated and as they become better known
and more in demand the supply will
doubtless increase. This is one of the


30
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
vegetables that we found in abundance
in California markets, and we had them
at table frequently, served in various
ways.
The close, compact little heads make
secure hiding places for insects, as I
found to my dismay when harvesting
the crop I thought I had so carefully
tended through one summer. Every
little sprout was pierced with holes,
which told only too surely of the pres-
ence of the foe within, and which had
escaped my notice in the early part of
the season, proving again that there is
a bug or worm for everything that
grows.
Examine the sprouts carefully, there-
fore, remove the wilted leaves and im-
perfect heads, and let them soak in cold,
salted water for at least half an hour;
this will free them from insects. Rinse
again in clear water, drain them well,
turn them into a kettle of rapidly boil-
ing water, slightly salted, and cook
them uncovered until tender, twelve, fif-
teen or twenty minutes according to the
size. They should be tender to the core
but not cooked enough to be mushy or
shapeless. Turn them into a colander
and let cold water run through them.
This removes much of the strong flavor
which many people dislike. When well
drained put them back into the stew pan
and for one quart of sprouts, allow a
heaped tablespoonful of butter, a salt-
spoonful of pepper, and salt to taste;
the amount will depend upon the butter
and the amount of salt used in soaking
and boiling. They are easily spoiled
by over salting. Some people like a lit-
tle sugar with the other seasoning. Let
them get thoroughly hot again in the
butter and then serve on a hot dish.
This is the simplest form of serving.
Another way is to prepare a pint of
drawn butter sauce and serve it sepa-
rately, or poured over the sprouts if you
know the taste of your family. Sprin-
kle fine chopped parsley over the sauce.
Cream sauce and Hollandaise sauce
may be used also. They may be gar-
nished with sausages round the edge of
the dish if you fancy the Spanish style
of serving; or you may turn them into
a deep baking dish with alternate layers
of grated Parmesan cheese and drawn
butter and heat again in the oven.
Here are other ways of using this
vegetable:
Brussels Sprouts with Chestnuts.
Clean and cook them as directed un-
til nearly tender, then drain and add to
them an equal amount of chestnuts
which have been shelled, blanched and
boiled until nearly tender. Add cream
sufficient to moisten them, season with
salt and a slight grating of nutmeg, and
let them simmer until both are tender.
Puree of Brussels Sprouts.
Boil the sprouts as directed and drain
them very dry. Then rub them through
a puree sieve and add sufficient thick
cream sauce to make it the consistency
you desire; add salt, pepper and nutmeg
to taste and serve very hot. When the
puree is to be used as a garnish it should
be quite thick; use less cream or cook it
until it boils away.
The whole sprouts may be used as a
garnish if care be taken to cook them
slowly and not quite done, so they will
be whole and firm. Then drain them
and toss about in a hot pan with butter
sufficient to moisten them, and season
them with salt and pepper. Arrange
them in little bunches or piles around a
dish of chops, cutlets, bacon, or sau-
sage.
CAULIFLOWER.
Mrs. S., from St. Louis, writes for
recipes for cooking cauliflower.
Cauliflower should be selected with
care, avoiding those that have wilted
leaves and brownish spots on the top.
When fresh the little bunches of flow-
erets are creamy white.
Trim off any dark spots and the outer
leaves. If to be served whole you may
leave a row of green stalks round the
outide, first trimming off the bottom so
it will stand upright.
Soak it, top down, in strongly salted
water half an hour. Drain and tie it in
a twine or cheese cloth bag, immerse it
in a kettle of rapidly boiling salted
water, top down, and cook twenty min-


FROM BAY TO BAY.
31
utes or until tender. If not boiled in a
bag remove the scum before it settles on
the cauliflower. Take it up as soon as
tender as it darkens if allowed to remain
in the water. Drain and invert it into
a hot, deep, round dish, and pour a
cream sauce flavored with lemon, or a
Hollandaise sauce, or a tomato sauce
over it. Some cooks add milk to the
water in which it is cooked to whiten the
cauliflower.
Cauliflower au Gratin.
Prepare and boil a cauliflower as di-
rected, cut off the tender flowerets and
lay them aside. Pick the stalks into
small pieces and put them in a shallow
baking dish, sprinkle with pepper,
grated cheese and cracker crumbs mois-
tened in melted butter, add a little milk
to moisten, then put on a layer of the
flowerets, another sprinkling of cheese,
pepper, and more milk, and cover with
a thin layer of buttered crumbs. Bake
until the crumbs are brown.
Cauliflower with Browned Butter.
Separate the cauliflower into uniform
flowerets and trim the stalks. Cook
them slowly until tender, being careful
to remove them before they break.
Drain them very dry, arrange them on
a shallow dish, and sprinkle them with
coarse crumbs browned in hot butter
and seasoned with salt and pepper; or
serve them as a garnish around fried or
broiled chicken.
Cauliflower a la Cumberland.
Select small young cauliflowers, soak
them, top down, in cold salt water half
an hour. Trim off the leaves except those
nearest the head. Put them on in cold
salt water to cover, and when the water
boils skim them out, rinse in cold water
and put them on again in fresh boiling
water, slightly salted and cook until
tender. Then turn into a strainer to
drain. This is an English method, and
takes away much of the flavor, which is
sometimes too pronounced for a deli-
cate stomach.
Arrange the cauliflower in a shallow
dish, pour the sauce over and garnish
with two hard-boiled eggs cut into quar-
ters lengthwise.
Sauce for Cauliflower.
Heat one and a half cups of chicken
stock and half a cup of cream. Take
some thin slices of cold boiled ham and
cut into slivers about two tablespoon-
fuls, put this and one tablespoonful of
minced onion and a teaspoonful of pars-
ley into the stock and let them simmer
while the cauliflower is cooking. Then
thicken the stock smoothly with two
tablespoonfuls of flour cooked in two
tablespoonfuls of hot butter, add a salt-
spoonful of paprika and serve it without
straining.
Cauliflower is very attractive when
served whole with its own garnish of
leaves around it, but only very perfect
specimens should be served in that way
on account of the danger of retaining
insects between the stalks. But when
it is necessary to divide the flowerets
before cooking the effect of a whole
head may be obtained by putting the
flowerets into a small bowl, top down,
and pressing them close together, then
inverting on to a hot dish and pour the
sauce over them. If it is to be used as
a garnish, trim the flowerets first, then
cook not quite done, and arrange in
bunches at the ends of a dish of fried
chicken, or sweetbreads, and pour the
sauce around not over them.
Cauliflower Salad.
Soak, trim, and boil the cauliflower
as directed in preceding recipe. Drain
very dry and set away till quite cold.
Pick apart into small flowerets and cut
the stalks into slices keeping them by
themselves. Mix with the stalks one
tablespoonful of fine chopped parsley
and one of minced onions to one quart
of the cauliflower. Make a dressing
with one saltspoonful of mustard, one
of paprika, half a teaspoonful of salt,
nine tablespoonfuls of oil, and three of
Tarragon vinegar. Pour this over the
cauliflower, mix carefully, and arrange
it with the stalks at the bottom and the
flowerets on top; garnish with over-
lapping slices of lemon and a little pars-
ley, or with dashes of hard-boiled egg
yolk here and there.


32
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
The following recipes are requested
by various correspondents:
LITTLE LAYER PUDDINGS.
Mix one heaped cup of pastry flour,
one rounded teaspoonful of baking
powder, and one-fourth teaspoonful of
salt; stir in milk enough to make a soft
dough, too stiff to pour but not stiff
enough to knead.
Grease three earthen custard cups.
Put in a tablespoonful of the dough,
then a tablespoonful or enough to make
a thick layer of blueberries, blackber-
ries, strawberries, sliced apple, peach or
apricot, or any other fruit preferred.
Then cover the fruit with another
spoonful of dough. Set them in a
steamer and cook half an hour. Add
no sugar as the sauce sweetens them
sufficiently.
SPONGE SAUCE FOR LAYER PUD-
DINGS.
Beat the whites of two eggs very stiff;
then beat into them one cup of powdered
sugar. Beat the yolks until lemon
colored and thick, and beat this into the
whites until it is a foamy spongy mass.
Flavor with a scant teaspoonful of Ja-
maica rum, or if this be objectionable
use lemon juice, or fruit syrup like the
fruit in the pudding. When ready to
serve thin it to a pouring consistency
with cream. If fruit syrup be used thin
it with that. Serve it on the hot pud-
dings.
COFFEE CUSTARDS.
Mix one cup of strong coffee with one
pint of scalded milk. Beat the yolks of
six eggs until light, add four table-
spoonfuls of sugar and a little salt and
beat well; then stir in the hot milk. Fill
custard cups three-quarters full and set
them in a pan of boiling water on the
stove to thicken. When done fill the
cups with the whites which have been
sweetened, flavored and beaten stiff.
Or one may use the whites for cake
and when the custards are cool fill the
cups with whipped cream.
HERMITS.
l£ cups sugar,
£ cup butter,
2 eggs,
2 cups seedless raisins,
3 tbsp. milk,
I teasp. soda,
I teasp. each of spices,
cinnamon, nutmeg and
clove,
Flour to roll.
Cream the butter and sugar, add the
eggs well beaten, then the milk. Mix
the soda, and spices, (cinnamon, nut-
meg and clove) with one cup of flour;
add the raisins which must be washed,
boiled until tender in water to cover and
drained, cut in halves or chopped and
floured. Then add flour to roll about
a quarter of an inch thick, cut out in
fancy shapes and bake quickly.
SQUASH MUFFINS
I cup sifted squash,
1 cup milk,
2 tbsp. sugar,
I tbsp. butter, melted,
> egg,
1 pt. flour,
2 teasp. baking powder,
£ teasp. salt.
Mix the milk, sugar and butter with
the squash, add the well beaten egg.
Mix the baking powder and salt with
the flour and then stir this into the first
mixture and beat thoroughly. Bake in
round muffin pans, about half an hour.
BROWN FRICASSEE OF PARTRIDGE.
Dress and clean a pair of partridges,
split them through the back and breast
as for broiling. Fry two slices of salt
pork in a Scotch bowl or other deep
iron kettle. Remove the scraps, lay the
pieces of partridge in, and brown them
carefully. Then add one cup of boiling
water; cover the kettle closely and let
it cook very slowly. Keep that amount
of water in the kettle all the time adding
a little as it boils away. Cook until
very tender, about two hours. Then
take out the meat, remove the fat from
the gravy and pour in half a cup of to-
mato ketchup; thicken it with a little
flour mixed with cold water. Add
more salt if needed, put the meat in
again and when heated through, serve
on a shallow dish with browned sweet
potatoes.


A SHORT COURSE IN COOKERY.
BY ANNA BARROWS.
LESSON HI.
HAVING considered fire and water
in our first lesson and something
of the classification of foods in our
second, we are ready to group all dishes
to be prepared, in these lessons, accord-
ing to the composition of their principal
ingredients. It seems to be a natural
order to begin with milk, which is the
first food of the human race.
The egg is similar to milk in compo-
sition, since both contain water, fat, and
proteids, without starch; and as there
are many simple dishes in which milk
and eggs are combined, both may be
studied in one lesson. Although many
lessons would not exhaust the list of
dishes dependent on these materials,
still in one lesson we may learn the
principles which govern all.
Of distinctively milk dishes there are
several which may be used in this les-
son or hereafter; such are the rennet
custard, the sour milk cheese, white
sauce, milk soups and blanc mange.
The egg has many offices in the
kitchen. It may be used as food by it-
self and take the place of meat, it thick-
ens milk as in custards, it makes doughs
light. Moreover it clarifies coffee or
soups by gathering to itself all floating
solid particles, and used with crumbs
makes a firm crust on croquettes, etc.
The two last named are rather extrava-
gant uses of the egg and will not be
touched upon here.
Special Topics.
Quality of Food Materials.
Economy in Buying.
Care in Details.
Effect of Moderate Heat.
Illustrations.
i. — Dropped Eggs on Toast.
Riced Eggs.
Boiled Salad Dressing.
Snow Pudding.
2. — Omelet.
Cheese Pudding.
Pop Overs.
Caramel Custard.
Materials. Cost.
Loaf stale bread $0.05
1 lb. butter 08
-j box gelatine 06
2 lemons 05
1 doz. eggs 30
I lb. cheese 04
1 qt. milk 08
Sugar, spice, etc 04
$0.70
The above estimate covers materials
enough to make small quantities of all
the dishes mentioned in the two groups
of illustrations but either will be suf-
ficient for a full lesson. It is usually
better to have two lots of each dish
made than to introduce a greater va-
riety in a single lesson. The pupils
learn each process more thoroughly and
there is often an opportunity to con-
trast the results of careful and careless
work.
The estimate is higher than in pre-
vious lessons but can be reduced by
making smaller quantities and would be
much lower at some times than at oth-
ers, according to market prices.
Impress upon the pupils the fact that
the quality of our common food mate-
rials is variable and that it is necessary
to learn reliable tests. A fresh egg is
heavier than a stale one and sinks when
put in water, while the stale egg floats
because some of the water it originally
contained has evaporated through the
tiny air holes in the shell.
An inferior egg injures all other ma-
terials with which it is combined, there-
fore it is never economy to buy poor
eggs. When eggs are high do with-
33


34
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
out them, making dishes which require
few if any; then when they are again
plenty they will be all the more appetiz-
ing.
It is not economy to make cheap
cake, where baking powder is substi-
tuted for a proper number of eggs.
While eggs are cheap use them freely
in sponge and cream cakes and cus-
tards, but when they are high-priced
make buns, raised cakes, molasses gin-
gerbread and shortcakes. With proper
conditions for keeping eggs, it may be
economy for some housekeepers to buy
a large quantity in the fall and pack
them carefully in an upright position,
but many find it better to give the
grocer a few cents more than to take the
time and risk of loss. Eggs at their
cheapest are a valuable substitute for
meat and at their highest price are not
relatively more expensive than the
choicer portions of meat, if the differ-
ence in waste is considered.
Nothing better illustrates the need of
care in details than the'use of the egg
in the many different processes of cook-
ery. If carelessly broken and the yolk
and white are mixed it is impossible to
make the latter do its full work in en-
tangling air. When beaten too long
before using, the white goes back to its
liquid condition. For some purposes
it is quite possible to beat eggs too much
thus wasting time and strength.
Often in beating an egg and adding
it to a pudding much is lost because the
bowl and beater are not rinsed off with
the milk.
An egg beater is not an absolute ne-
cessity for eggs can be beaten satis-
factorily with a fork, but some time and
effort will be saved by the beater. The
wire whisks of various patterns to use
with a platter or shallow dish are best
for beating the whites, because thus
more air is entangled in the egg. A
beater with cog wheels must be care-
fully washed; the water need not touch
the wheels at all, simply rinse the lower
portion in cold or lukewarm water then
wipe quickly.
A double boiler or a pail or pan set
in or over water is essential for the best
results in making custards and pud-
dings containing milk and eggs, since
they cook too rapidly if placed nearer
the fire. Even aluminum ware is not
a sufficient safeguard.
If the first group of dishes is chosen
for the evening lesson the snow pud-
ding is the first thing to be prepared.
Here is an opportunity to review the
first lesson, for the basis of the pudding
is the same as the jelly made then. For
variety and to show how to make an
orange basket, oranges may be used
instead of lemons or part orange and
part lemon. When the jelly is cold and
has begun to thicken, but is not hard,
the whites of two or three eggs are to be
beaten stiff and then the jelly gradually
beaten with them. Use half the quan-
tity of jelly given in the previous les-
son.
After the snow is finished and
moulded make a soft custard with the
yolks of the eggs to serve as a sauce for
the snow.
A single dropped egg may show the
whole class that water need not boil in
order to cook an egg. Even if a ther-
mometer is not available, it can be seen
that the white of the egg instantly
changes in appearance when it comes
in contact with water far below the boil-
ing point. A muffin ring placed in the
water assists in keeping the egg in good
shape. A little salt and lemon juice or
vinegar in the water makes it harden
quickly on the outside instead of
mingling with the water. As the pupils
are presumably all familiar with
dropped eggs on toast, instead of serv-
ing this egg, its cooking may be con-
tinued for twenty minutes, never al-
lowing the water to reach the boiling
point, until the yolk is firm and mealy.
Two or three other eggs may be boiled
in their shells till hard. Separate the
yolks and whites, chop the latter very
fine or put them through a potato ricer.
Have ready four slices of toast cut in
rounds and half a cupful of hot milk.
Dip the toast in the milk quickly, then
heat the chopped whites in the remain-
der, add a teaspoonful of butter and a
little salt and pepper and pour over the


A SHORT COURSE IN COOKERY.
35
toast. Rub the yolks through the ricer
over the top. A strainer and a spoon
may take the place of the ricer.
The boiled salad dressing can be
made after the other things are served,
for it is to be kept for another lesson.
The principle is the same as the soft
custard combined with that of the
sauces to be given in the following les-
son.
The white and yolk of eggs cook at
different temperatures and these ap-
pear to vary slightly with the freshness
of the egg. For general use it is suffi-
cient to remember that 150° to 1800 F.
is ample heat for dishes composed main-
ly of eggs and milk. Where starch is
used a higher temperature is required
and whenever possible this should be ob-
tained before combination with the
eggs. Having learned this we have
the key to the successful cooking of all
custards and the like. A custard that
has curdled or wheyed or settled in the
centre has cooked too long or in too
hot an oven. The custom of setting a
custard in a pan of water in the oven is
wise, for the moisture lowers the tem-
perature of the oven. Excessive beat-
ing of eggs may aid the curdling of the
custard; it certainly is a waste of effort
here, however it may be in cake making.
Average custards are made with three
to six eggs to a quart of milk; naturally
the larger number makes a firmer cus-
tard, but the other is quite palatable.
Often gelatine or corn starch is used to
assist in thickening milk when eggs are
expensive but these combinations are
not real custards.
In using the second group of dishes
for a lesson, make the caramel custard
first that it may be served cold, next the
popovers and cheese pudding and last
the omelet.
Caramel Custard.—Put a cupful of
sugar in a smooth frying pan aiH stir
until it melts and becomes a rich golden
brown, then add a half cupful of water
and stir until dissolved. Use about
one-fourth of this to sweeten and flavor
a custard made with one pint of hot milk
and two or three eggs. Add a
speck of salt and a half teaspoonful of
vanilla and strain into a mould and bake
or steam until firm. Serve with the re-
mainder of the syrup as a sauce.
Silver and Gold Custards.—Mix the
whites of four eggs with one-fourth cup-
ful of sugar and a little milk and beat
slightly till smooth but not frothy, then
add one pint of warm milk. Flavor
with one-half teaspoonful of vanilla or
a few drops of almond and a little salt.
Strain and bake or steam till firm. Turn
from the moulds when cold and serve
with a soft custard made with the four
yolks and one pint of milk and one-
fourth cupful of sugar.
Soft or Boiled Custard.—One pint
of milk, two whole eggs or three yolks,
two tablespoonfuls of sugar, one-half
teaspoonful of flavoring and a speck of
salt. Scald the milk, beat the eggs, mix
part of the egg with the milk and then
turn back with the remainder of the
milk. Cook until it thickens and the
foam disappears from the top, stirring
constantly. Take from the fire, add the
sugar and flavoring, strain, cover and
cool. A soft custard stiffened with
gelatine is called by many fancy names.
Cheese Pudding.—One cupful each
of grated or chopped cheese, bread
crumbs and milk, one egg beaten, one
teaspoonful of butter, salt and pepper
to season and mustard if liked. Cook
in a double boiler until well mixed and
thickened. Or butter a pudding dish,
put cheese and bread in alternate layers,
mix the egg, milk and seasoning and
pour over and bake until firm like a
custard.
Omelet.—Three eggs, three table-
spoonfuls of milk, salt and pepper to
season, one teaspoonful of butter. Sep-
arate yolks and whites of eggs, beat
whites stiff, drop in the yolks and beat
again, add the milk and seasoning.
Pour immediately into a medium-sized
frying pan in which the butter has been
heated but not burned. Shake the pan
gently to prevent the egg from sticking.
When nearly firm put in the oven or
hold under the gas oven flame to dry
off on top. Fold carefully and serve at
once. Two or three tablespoonfuls of
cooked meat or vegetable may be


36
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
heated and folded up in the omelet.
Pop Overs.-—One cupful flour, one
saltspoonful salt, one egg, one cupful
milk. Put all together in a bowl, mix
with an egg beater and then beat well.
Pour quickly into buttered gem-pans or
earthen cups and bake in a quick oven
thirty minutes or longer. If taken from
the oven before they are thoroughly
cooked they shrivel and are doughy
inside.
Fruit Fritters and Timbal Cases.—
Two eggs, one-half cupful milk, one
cupful flour, one saltspoonful salt, one
teaspoonful sugar, one tablespoonful
oil or melted butter. For timbals do
not separate the eggs but mix like pop-
overs as this makes smoother case with
few air bubbles in it. But for fritters
beat the whites stiff and fold in last be-
fore dipping the fruit. A half tea-
spoonful of baking powder is often
added to a fritter batter.
Sponge Cake.—Separate the yolks
and whites of two eggs. To the yolks
after thorough beating add one scant
half cupful of sugar and beat again.
Flavor with a little grated lemon rind
and one tablespoonful of juice or with a
few drops of lemon extract and use a
tablespoonful of water to keep the right
proportion of liquid. Next beat the
whites of the eggs stiff and add part to
the yolks then sift in gradually a scant
half cupful of flour with which is a
speck of salt. Then carefully fold in
the remainder of the whites. If pre-
ferred a part of the flour may be re-
served till the last. The mixture should
be stiff from the stiff whites not from
the amount of flour which is used. Stir-
ring will break the air bubbles in the
egg and make the dough thin and less
spongy before cooking and therefore
less light and tender afterward. Be-
cause egg cooks at a low temperature
the oven must not be very hot or the
dough will harden before the air has
time to expand. This quantity may be
baked in one round tin and when cool
split and filled with cream, or it may be
dropped on a pan to form lady fingers
and sponge drops.
Filling for Cream Cakes or Pie.—
Scald one cupful of milk reserving
enough to make a smooth paste with
one tablespoonful of flour. Mix this
with the scalded milk and stir till it
thickens. Let it cook five minutes stir-
ring occasionally. Then mix the
thickened milk with one beaten egg or
the yolks of two, and cook for a few
moments longer till the egg thickens.
Take from the fire, add one-fourth cup-
ful of sugar and one teaspoonful of but-
ter if skimmed milk has been used.
When carefully put together straining
is unnecessary.
A SWEET GIRL GRADUATE.
WHEN she read the valedictory
Her parents gazed with pride,
That knowledge all, she held in thrall,
They felt quite satisfied;
But later grieved she'd thus refuse
Her father's favorite dish—
"No tripe, papa—I thought you knew
I never liked that fish."
—Kate M. deary, in Milwaukee Journal.


NEWS FROM THE FIELD.
Items about the Work and Workers in Domestic Science.
MISS KATE E. WHITTAKER,
Superintendent of Cookery in the
Public Schools of San Francisco,
writes,—"I commenced my summer
campaign at Pacific Grove, Chautauqua,
on July 2,bya free public demonstration
at which several hundred people were
present. The same enthusiasm as last
year, and large classes, eager for in-
struction was the result. I think this
Chautauqua work is one of the pleasant-
est parts of always pleasant work, you
feel the great help that your instruction
is to so many who are at other times
debarred from it by distance from cen-
tres of life.
I finished on the 13th of July and then
journeyed over four hundred miles
north and there we inaugurated a new
Chautauqua, almost in the shade of glo-
rious Mt. Shasta, truly a cooking school
with most romantic surroundings. The
heat there was intense but despite that
I had quite large and interesting audi-
ences, to whom I demonstrated one
hour each day, and concluded with
many invitations to return next year.
My experience is that wherever I go, the
people are ripe and eager for instruc-
tion."
[It was my happy privilege to meet
Miss Whittaker in San Francisco, and I
am glad to testify to the efficient work
she has done on the Pacific slope.
Miss Whittaker is a graduate from the
South Kensington school, and it is a
singular coincidence that the work both
in Boston and in San Francisco should
be under the direction of English
teachers.
Being of a resolute, independent na-
ture, and possessing remarkable execu-
tive ability and high intellectual power,
it was natural that when cherished life
plans failed Miss Whittaker should take
up a work that would give her great
opportunity for usefulness and engage
all her energies. She was thoroughly
fitted at South Kensington and did con-
siderable work in England. Then com-
pelled to a change of climate, she
sought a home in Southern California,
and soon found friends whom she inter-
ested in the work so dear to her heart.
After a year or more of teaching there
she went to San Francisco, taught in
the industrial schools connected with
some of the charitable associations, and
it was largely through her efforts that
cooking was introduced into the public
schools there. She has taught several
seasons at the Pacific Chautauqua, and
is also training teachers. She reports
the addition of new schools this season
and the prospect of others in the near
future.
While loyal to the best English meth-
ods she is emphatic in her approval of
the Boston text books.
We hope to welcome her to the
"Hub" next spring on her way to Eng-
land, and give our Boston teachers an
opportunity to meet and hear her, and
perhaps to give her a different impres-
sion of American methods and results
from that which she has gained in other
sections of our country, impressions
which she frankly confesses have not
been altogether favorable.
On one of her trips over from Eng-
land, Miss Whittaker gave a demon-
stration lecture which was greatly en-
joyed by the passengers. So far as I
know this is the only cooking lecture
ever given in mid ocean.
Mary J. Lincoln.]
¥
There is world of wisdom in this pithy
saying by Principal Fairbairn: "Boys
were given to educate homes as much
as homes were given to educate boys."
37


38
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
The School of Domestic Science and
Christian Workers at the B. Y. W. C. A.
will begin its work this fall with a larger
class than usual. Many calls are re-
ceived for trained women to act as sec-
retaries for newly organized associa-
tions or as matrons in boarding houses.
This school has sent its graduates to
fill such positions, and others are teach-
ing cooking and sewing or doing gen-
eral missionary work. The objects of
the school are to train young women
for these various lines of work and for
home life. Opportunities are provided
for practice teaching throughout the
course and for a practical knowledge
of marketing and housekeeping. This
year the school will be in charge of
Miss L. L. Sherman, formerly princi-
pal of Mr. Moody's training school at
Northfield, Mass. Miss Sherman will
also have classes in rhetoric and Bible
study. Rev. James M. Gray, Rev. F.
L. Chapell and Miss Gregg are the
other teachers in the Christian worker's
section. Miss Julia F. Hubbard, a
former graduate of the school, who af-
ter several years successful work in Du-
luth, Minn., returned to take the classes
in cooking last year, will continue in
the same position. Mrs. James O. Jor-
dan gives the lessons in chemistry and
psychology, and Miss Alice A. Cutting
has the classes in sewing and dressmak-
ing. A list of able lecturers supple-
ments the work of the regular instruc-
tors. For outside pupils as well as the
regular members of the school are of-
fered courses on home nursing, both
practical and scientific, by Eunice D.
Kinney, M. D.
¥
The insane hospitals recognize the
influence of diet in cases of mental dis-
ease. Mrs. Mary L. Wade of Atlantic
will spend September and October at
the State Insane Asylum at Fergus
Falls, Minn., arranging the dietary for
the hospital and teaching the nurses
practical cooking for invalids.
The Massachusetts Woman's Chris-
tian Temperance Union, hold their an-
nual State Convention at Salem, Octo-
ber i, 2, and 3. An exhibition of
domestic science will be given at the
convention, with noonday talks on
household topics by Marion A. Mc-
Bride, State Superintendent of domes-
tic science for the W. C. T. U.
Storer College at Harper's Ferry,
West Virginia, is doing excellent work
for the colored people of that section
and during the vacation season be-
comes a delightful resort for summer
boarders. Miss M. J. Baker the
teacher of cookery has remained during
the summer as clerk of the hotel. Her
cooking classes the past year have been
very successful, and a class of young
men was a new feature likely to be con-
tinued.
¥
During August, Miss Cornelia C.
Bedford gave a series of cooking les-
sons at the Chautauqua Assembly at
Silver Lake, N. Y. Her next engage-
ment was for two lectures before the
American Pharmaceutical Convention
in Denver. Since that she has given
daily lectures at the exposition in St.
Louis.
¥
In 1891 a free industrial school was
opened in Woburn, Mass., which has
increased its circle of helpfulness every
year. The school is in session only
during the summer months. There
are three departments, wood-working
or sloyd, sewing and cooking with one
hundred or more pupils in each.
The cooking classes have been in-
structed by Miss Helen A. Heustis and
at the exhibition held at the close of the
term showed marked progress. There
has been more home practice by the
pupils than in previous years. The pu-
pils served a dinner at the exhibition
in proof of their skill.


/
AT DREXEL INSTITUTE.
A Two Years' Course in Domestic Science.
THE normal course in domestic
science at Drexel Institute, Phila-
delphia, means two years of earnest
work. The course is designed for those
who wish to become teachers in this
department of educational work in
public and private schools and colleges,
and the training is comprehensive and
liberal. The importance of domestic
science in its economic and social rela-
tions becomes daily more fully recog-
nized, and the demand for teachers pos-
sessing the requisite qualifications is
constantly increasing. The instruction
is thoroughly scientific and practical,
and its bearings upon domestic life are
kept in view throughout the course.
Miss Helen M. Spring is the director
of this department, and she has the
assistance of a dozen lecturers in various
branches. The gymnasium is a large,
well lighted, and well ventilated hall.
In connection with the gymnasium,
there are suites of dressing-rooms, and
finely appointed marble baths which are
supplied with hot and cold water.
The appointments and equipment for
the various branches of instruction are
unsurpassed. The chemical and physi-
cal laboratories are supplied with the
newest and most approved forms of
apparatus; the biological laboratory has
every convenience for the prosecution of
experimental work; there are two large
school kitchens furnished with every
convenience, and intended to serve as
models in all their sanitary arrange-
ments.
The library is supplied with an exten-
sive collection of books, and the read-
ing-room with the best periodicals
relating to the subjects taught in the
course.
Courses of lectures in subjects con-
nected with domestic science are given
during the year, by distinguished
specialists.
The course is as follows:
JUNIOR YEAR.
1. Theoretical and Practical Cookery.
2. Household Economics.
3. Chemistry: general and qualitative.
4. Physics: heat.
5. Biology: types of animal life; human
physiology.
6. Physical Training.
7. Observation and Practice in Teach-
ing.
SENIOR YEAR.
1. Theoretical and Practical Cooker}'.
2. Laundry Work.
3. Chemistry: quantitative and organic;
the chemistry of foods.
4. Biology: bacteriology; hygiene and
sanitation.
5. Economics: general principles and
their application to social questions.
6. History and Institutes of Education.
7. Physical Training.
8. Observation and Practice in Teach-
ing.
Theory and Practice of Cookery.—
Construction and special features of
ranges, gas-stoves, and Atkinson
cooker; combustion, fuel; the care of the
kitchen; the composition and dietetic
value of food materials; buying and care
of food supplies; the cutting of various
kinds of meat; preparation of separate
dishes; preparation of menus for break-
fast, lunch, and dinner; fancy dishes;
care of the dining-room and serving;
invalid cooker}'; preparation of dietaries
in connection with the study of the
chemistry of foods; cost of different
kinds of food and of simple meals in
relation to their nutritive value.
The practical work continues
throughout both years, consisting of
several courses which are given in their
logical order. The class work in the
institute and in the school-kitchens con-
39


40
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
nected with the public schools affords
ample opportunity for observation.
The practice classes are composed of
children sent to the institute from some
of the homes or asylums in the city, and
further opportunities are afforded by the
cookery classes conducted in connection
with church guilds during the winter
months.
Frequent visits are made to the im-
portant manufacturing establishments
in which the processes involved in the
various lines of work are carried on.
If ousehold Econom ics- — Parallel
with the systematic work in cookery,
lectures are regularly given on the
various subjects related to the eco-
nomics of the house. These include:
classification of food principles; water;
salts; carbohydrates; fats; proteids;
food adjuncts; baking powders; fermen-
tation; the preservation of food mate-
rials; national and state laws regarding
the adulteration of food and the inspec-
tion of meat; manufactured food mate-
rials; scientific kitchens (public kitchens,
school kitchens, and home kitchens);
care of the house according to hygienic
laws; disposal of waste.
Laundry Work.—The instruction in
laundry work occupies twelve lessons.
The exposition of the scientific prin-
ciples involved in the various processes
is followed by actual practice in the
laundry. Soaps, washing fluids, bleach-
ing powders, bluings, and starch are dis-
cussed in their scientific and practical
relations to laundry work.
Chemistry-—The study of chemistry
is begun in the junior year with an
elementarv course giving a full exposi-
tion of the principles of the science and
including the study of the most import-
ant elements and their chief compounds.
There are two lectures a week, and two
laboratory periods of at least two hours
each.
In the senior year (first term), organic
chemistry is taken up, one lecture a
week being given, with one laboratory
period in which the student prepares
and studies a typical compound of each
class. During the second term, a
course of lectures in the chemistry of
foods is given, the lectures being supple-
mented by laboratory work. The lec-
tures cover the following topics: the
proximate food principles, their compo-
sition, and the changes they undergo in
the process of metabolism; fermentation
and the action of organized and un-
organized ferments; food adjuncts,
such as spices, condiments, and bever-
ages; the question of diet, with practice
in the construction of dietaries.
Printed syllabuses are made the basis
of the work in chemistry, during the
senior year.
Physics.—The instruction in physics
is given during the junior year, and is
confined to the theory of heat and its
more common applications to practice.
At the close of the lectures, work begins
in the laboratory and continues through
the remainder of the term. The labora-
tory work, which consists of one period
of two hours each week, includes the
following subjects: thermometry, con-
ductivity, radiation and absorption, ex-
pansion (of liquids), fusion and vapor-
ization, calorimetric methods, determi-
nations of specific heat.
Biology.—In the junior year, the
laboratory exercises include a practical
study of the structure of types of animal
life generally employed as food, and a
microscopical study of the structure of
animal and vegetable tissues. The lec-
tures embrace the following topics: the
chemical composition and the physio-
logical properties of foods and their
relative values as nutritive agents; the
general process of digestion and the
various chemical changes that foods
undergo; the elaboration of food into
blood and the relation of the latter to
the life of the bodily tissues; the circula-
tion of the blood; respiration; animal
heat; excretion and secretion.
During the senior year, the labora-
tory exercises include the following sub-
jects: the structure and properties of the
various moulds and fungi associated
with foods; bacteria and their relation to
fermentation and putrefaction; pto-
maines and leucomaines and their in-
fluence in the production of disease; the
parasites associated with animal foods.


WOMAN'S COUNCIL OF BAY VIEW.
41
The lectures cover the following topics:
modes of infection of drinking water,
milk, and meat, and the propagation of
infectious diseases; peptonization of
foods; hygiene with reference (i) to the
care of the individual, (2) to the environ-
ment, e. (J-, the filtration of water, house-
hold drainage, ventilation, disposal of
garbage, etc.
Economics- —- During the second
term, a course of lectures is given in the
principles of economic science and their
application to practical social questions
of present importance. The course is
designed to awaken an intelligent inter-
est in questions of vital concern to every
member of society, and to aid in the for-
mation of rational opinions upon them.
History and Institutes of Educa-
tion.—During the second term, a
course of lectures is given by the presi-
dent of the institute in the history of
theories of education, attention being
concentrated upon the progress of edu-
cation during the past three hundred
years. The practical organization and
management of school work is also fully
discussed, and the special relations of
technical and industrial training to
general education are carefully elabo-
rated.
In connection with the lectures, meet-
ings for the discussion of the leading
topics presented are held, and students
are required to prepare papers which
form the basis of these discussions.
Physical Training.—Students tak-
ing this course have the privilege of at-
tending the institute classes in physical
training twice a week. The close con-
nection between bodily training and the
instruction in physiology and hygiene
is kept in view throughout the entire
course.
ADMISSION.
For admission to the normal course
in domestic science, at least a high
school education or its equivalent is re-
quired. The diploma of approved in-
stitions is accepted in lieu of an examin-
ation. A diploma is given to students
who finish the course. The number of
students that can be received is limited.
The first term for 1895-96 begins
September 18.
THE WOMAN'S COUNCIL OF BAY VIEW, MICH.
SUMMER assemblies vary little in
essentials, — widely in particulars.
Chautauqua and Bay View have
two features scarcely found elsewhere,
the former its woman's club, the latter
a woman's council. This is in no wise a
branch of the National Council holding
its triennial sessions at Washington, but
rather a department for instruction and
conference about matters pertaining to
home and social life.
Audiences at Bay View contain
representatives from almost every state
in the Union, and are noticeable for
thoughtful earnestness. It is more than
summer pleasuring that brings the ma-
jority of people to Bay View. The uni-
versity numbers some eminent instruc-
tors and attracts teachers and students;
the school for writers draws the aspiring
journalist; the conservatory, musicians
and singers; the assembly entertainment
and lecture course, intelligent people
from every walk of life.
Cottage life is simple, and the cool,
crisp air most invigorating. No one
can appreciate the charm of the place
who has never seen the sun set behind
the waves of the beautiful bay, or felt the
brain weariness of a crowded life fanned
away by the pine-scented breezes from
the deep woods which crown the last
terrace of the three on which the cot-
tages are built.
Evelyn Hall, the most imposing and
complete of the assembly structures,
was the gift of Mrs. Evelyn Peters, and
is almost entirely set apart for woman's


42
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
work. The parlor and lecture room on
the first floor accommodate three hun-
dred people. An art studio occupies
one wing, and above are a large parlor,
attractive balconies, and thirty or more
sleeping rooms held exclusively for
women. The Woman's Council and
other called meetings of woman's or-
ganizations are held here, besides all the
important work of the W. C. T. U. The
auditorium accommodates easily twen-
ty-five hundred people, and twice daily
is filled with large and attentive audi-
ences to listen to lectures, concerts, or
entertainments planned for the assem-
bly season.
Many interesting things could be
written of the work done in the different
departments during the season just
closed, but it is the Woman's Council
only that is to be described here.
Six years ago Marion Harland and
Margaret Sangster held the first session,
and followed that with a second the next
year. Miss Mary A. Green of Boston
succeeded them, giving a course of lec-
tures on legal questions as affecting
women. Three years ago, Mrs. Irma
T. Jones of Lansing, Mich., was invited
to have charge of the council and plan
its work. Last summer Mrs. Helen
Campbell and Mrs. Ellen Henrotin
were the leading speakers.
The programme this year has in-
cluded Mrs. Helen Campbell, Dr. Sarah
Hackett Stevenson, Lucy A. Leggett,
and Jane Addams of Hull House, Chi-
cago. Morning sessions were held
each day for discussion of the lecture of
the previous afternoon.
Household economics was the gen-
eral subject considered, and great inter-
est was aroused by Mrs. Campbell's lec-
tures on the "Evolution of the House,"
"Decoration," "Nutritive Function of
the Household," and "The Servant
Question."
Jane Addams in "Women in Two
Belated Trades," spoke from the side of
the employe. All these subjects were
discussed from an impersonal and sci-
entific standpoint, and the talks were
exceptionally earnest and intelligent.
It argues well for the future that more
and more women are able to look ex-
isting evils squarely in the face and talk
and work intelligently for their right-
ing.
There is a possibility that from this-
council may result a cooperative New
England kitchen for instruction in-
scientific and heathful cookery. It is-
evident that food thus prepared would
find a quick and profitable market, for
the food supply on the resort grounds
scarcely equals the demand. Whatever
may be attempted will be in the line of
practical instruction for every-day
needs, and more healthful diet, rather
than rich and elaborate bills of fare. So-
large a proportion of Bay View visitors
are women, that the results of a success-
ful venture of this sort could not fail to
be wide-reaching and beneficent.
Michigan's State Federation of Wo-
men's Clubs has a standing committee
on household economics which is ar-
ranging plans to stimulate interest and
study of that science among the fifty or
more clubs of which the Federation is
composed. The need for more exact
knowledge on these themes and more
healthful diet is so universal, that federa-
tions of women's clubs and summer as-
semblies the country over could do no
greater service to humanity than to ex-
tend opportunities of gaining help and
stimulus to its acquisition.


EDITORIAL.
43
The American Kitchen Magazine.
A Domestic Science Monthly.
PUBLISHED BY
The Home Science Publishing Co.,
485 Tremont Street, Boston, Mass.
Editors.
Mrs. Estelle M. H. Merrill (" Jean Kincaid").
Miss Anna Barrows.
Advisory Committee.
Mrs. Mary J. Lincoln, Chairman, First Principal Boston
Cooking School,
Mrs. Ellen H. Richards, Instructor in Chemistry, Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology.
Miss Amy Morris Homans, Director Boston Normal
School of Cookery.
Mrs. Laura S. Wilkinson, Acting President National
Household Economic Association.
Mrs. Frances E. Owens, Chicago.
Mrs. Ella L. Breed, Advertising Department, Home
Office.
Branch Offices.
NEW YORK:
47 Times Building.
CHICAGO:
Miss Ella S. Bass, 124 Hartford Building.
Foreign Correspondent.
Miss Ada M. Fkedekiksen.

"FROM DAY TO DAY."
MRS. LINCOLN writes, "My sum-
mer's work is over, and now I am
free to begin our long-talked-of
department for correspondence."
In response to the urgent requests of
many of our subscribers for a more di-
rect and personal avenue for exchange
of thought and experience, we open in
this number a special department con-
ducted by Mrs. Lincoln. She has given
it the happy heading, "From Day to
Day," and in it she will reply to some
of the correspondence from subscribers
which comes to us, pay special attention
to seasonable marketing, give new
recipes, prepare occasional menus, and
in short, discuss such subjects pertain-
ing to housekeeping and home making
as may be included under the general
term of home science and which are
suggested by each day's experience and
observation.
Any subscriber desiring to seek or
impart such information may communi-
cate directly with Mrs. Lincoln by ad-
dressing her at our office. If imme-
diate, private answers are desired, a fee
of one dollar must be mailed with the in-
quiry. Otherwise communications will
be noticed in the next issue of the maga-
zine.
Remember we go to press nearly a
month before the date of issue, and in-
quiries received after the first of the
month cannot be answered until the sec-
ond month following.
WOMEN'S ORGANIZATIONS AT
ATLANTA.
WE go to press before President
Cleveland presses the button
which sets in motion the Cotton States
and International Exposition at At-
lanta, Ga. Everyone is familiar by this
time with the plan and the scope of this
exposition, and everyone is certainly
warmly interested in it. We hope to
meet many of our friends there.
In the line of domestic science there
promises to be a good deal which we
shall find it well worth our while to de-
scribe in later issues.
One of the most attractive features to
women is the series of congresses
which will be held throughout the Ex-
position. The auditorium, seating
three thousand people, and the assem-
bly hall in the Women's Building seat-
ing two hundred, will be used for the
congresses, for which no extra admis-
sion fee is to be charged.
Following are some of the dates of
these congresses:
Oct. 2-4, Woman's Press Association.
Oct. 7-12, National Council of Women,
Mrs. Mary Lowe Dickinson, presi-
dent.
Oct. 14, The King's Daughters.
Oct. 17, National American Women's
Suffrage Association.
Oct. 18, Daughters of the American
Revolution.
Oct. 19, The Colonial Dames.


44
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
Oct. 22, World's Fair Board of Lady
Managers.
Oct. 22-26, National Women's Press
Association.
Oct. 26-30, Educational Congresses.
Oct. 30, 31, National Household Eco-
nomic Association.
Nov. 1, 2, General Federation of Wo-
men's Clubs, Mrs. Ellen M. Hen-
rotin, president (Council meeting).
Nov. 4, Association for the Advance-
ment of Women.
Nov. 5, Woman's Christian Temper-
ance Union.
Nov. 6, New England Woman's Press
Association.
Nov. 13, International League of Press
Clubs.
Nov. 28, 29, Women Librarians of the
United States.
Nov. 30, Bee-keepers.
Dec. 18, Religious Congresses.
Dec. 31, International Folk Lore Asso-
ciation.
¥ ¥
A NOVEL SCHOOL-YARD.
THE new Henry Street school house,
in New York City, is to have some
decidedly novel features. On ac-
count of the small size of the lot the play-
ground for the children is to be on the
roof. It will contain 10,000 square feet
of space, equal to four city lots. On the
south, east, and west sides, the play-
ground will be protected by the roof,
which will extend fifteen feet above the
level of the playground; but to the south
the view will be unobstructed, and
covered only by a wire netting to pre-
vent children from throwing missiles
into the street. The playground on the
roof will only increase the cost of the
structure about $4,000, and as the total
cost is to be about $200,000, the addi-
tional outlay is a mere trifle, when the
benefit to the pupils is taken into con-
sideration.
The first floor will contain an indoor
playground, with floor of asphalt.
The second, third, and fourth stories are
to be devoted to classrooms, with six-
teen on each floor. On the fifth floor
will be the manual training school.
Here there will be a gymnasium, and
kitchens for the girl pupils, who will be
inducted into the mysteries of the
culinary art.
*» *
AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN.
An exhibition of food products and
appliances is to be held in Madison
Square Garden, New York, during the
month of October which promises to
surpass all previous affairs of the kind.
The manager of the company is Mr.
Frank W. Sanger, the director of the
exhibition is Mr. Charles Benton.
Mrs. A. Benton-Barnes is the executive
officer of the woman's department, and
has succeeded in interesting many or-
ganizations in the exhibition. These
associations will make exhibits, and on
special days will take active part in
luncheons and "high teas."
¥¥
THE Woman's Council at Bay View,
Michigan, is a most helpful gath-
ering as is shown by the report
given elsewhere. Much of its useful-
ness is due to the good judgment and
efficiency of its leader Mrs. Irma T.
Jones of Lansing, Mich., and the unani-
mous wish of the council was expressed
before it disbanded, that she should
continue her work. When intelligent
women from different sections of the
country gather under wise leadership,
and questions of home science are dis-
cussed much light is gained on puzzling
problems. The motto of the Bay View
Council has been "Though love to
light."
* *r
Mrs. Annie Jenness-Miller, the beau-
tiful exponent of healthful, sensible,
and artistic dress, is to give a course of
five lectures in Association Hall, Bos-
ton, at 2 P. M., on the afternoons of
October 22, 23, 24, 25, and 26, 1895.
Her topics will be "Dress for Health
and Beauty," illustrated with changes
of costume; "Developing Physical
Beauty and Charm"; "The Nature, Care
and Preservation of the Skin"; "The
Nature, Care, and Health of the Hair,
Teeth, and Nails"; "Foods —How to
Eat and What to Eat."


BOOKS AND MAGAZINES.
A Handbook on Tuberculosis among Cattle.
— By Henry L. Shumway. Roberts Brothers,
Boston.
A very timely and valuable, as well
as interesting, book comes to us as a
result of newspaper work in following
the investigations of the Massachusetts
Cattle Commission. Mr. Shumway be-
came so penetrated with the knowledge
of the importance of the subject to the
general public, that he was led to com-
pile the results of his studies in this very
readable form. The illustrations are
carefully chosen and add much to the
interest. Those not owners of cattle
should be quite as much instructed re-
garding the dangers to be incurred
from the unrestricted disease of cattle,
used directly or indirectly for food; for
perhaps the most fruitful subject of sur-
mise and doubt is the question of the
inspection of milk when obtained from
animals suffering from tuberculous af-
fections elsewhere than in the udder.
The chapter on "Necessary Measures
for Protection" is worthy of several
readings in order to impress the facts
upon the memory. Instead of quoting
from the pages that tempt so often, we
must refer the reader to the book itself
and advise all who can spare its small
price to obtain it for reference and
reminder. Public opinion already
aroused needs strengthening and main-
taining. Such conscientious and pains-
taking a volume as this is an important
aid to that end.
School Hygiene.— By Arthur Newsholme, M. D.
D. C. Heath & Company, Boston.
The Making of the Body.—By Mrs. S. A. Bar-
nett. Longmans, Green & Company, London.
Primer of Hygiene.— By Ernest S. Reynolds,
M. D. Macmillan & Company, London.
Nowadays both physician and lay-
man agree that children should be
taught some measure of information
about the body upon which rests the -
duty of housing the mind. For the old
monkish idea that the flesh must be
ignored to the verge of destruction, has
been relegated to the Middle Ages,
where it belongs, and we have decided
that the Roman pagan poet was nearer
right when he intimated that a sound
mind needed the concomitant of a
sound body. Indeed, the more re-
search we undertake the more we see
that, with rare exception, a mind to be
sound must have the assistance of a
body the functions of which are in good
running order.
It is due to women who began the
work in the interest of temperance, that
a sufficient agitation has been caused to
induce various school boards to add the
study of hygienic physiology, in some
form, to the curriculum. As time goes
on the field will be more fully occupied.
Of the three books here under consid-
eration, one, that on "School Hygiene,"
by Dr. Newsholme, in Heath's Peda-
gogical Library, is wholly commend-
able.
It is not a text book for pupils but for
parents, teachers, school boards, and all
connected with schools, public or pri-
vate. The various desiderata and the
various troubles to be guarded against
in the school are plainly, carefully, brief-
ly noted under the following heads:
Site, Construction, Furniture, Lighting,
Ventilation, Ventilation and Warming,
Drainage Arrangements. Then follows
Part II devoted to the pupils to be
placed in the buildings. The chapters
on "Mental Exercise" and "Excessive
Mental Exercise" are full of good sug-
gestion and reminder of what teachers
and parents too often forget, though
the teachers are generally not properly
blamable since they are obliged to con-
form to rules laid down for them by
those in authority. The chapter on
"Children's Diet" is very satisfactory.
It expresses the hope for cheap lun-
cheons to be provided at the schools, a
system that last year was found to work
most admirably in the Boston schools.
It is pleasant to notice that filtered
water is taken for granted as a neces-
sity.
Of the other two books that by Mrs.
45


46
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
Barnett "The Making of the Body," is
excellent. It would seem calculated to
excite the interest of children and young
people both by the simple and clear
style of presentation of the rather diffi-
cult topics and by the illustrative anec-
dotes and pictures interspersed. The
special aim and tendency of the teaching
is toward abstention from the use of beer
and alcoholic stimulants, giving good
reasons and expressing more by indi-
direct than direct dogmatic statements.
It is in this respect a book that would
please the W. C. T. U. Only one para-
graph seems open to question and the
slip is an unintentional one since on
previous and subsequent pages it is neu-
tralized. The phrase should read (page
152) "A full-grown man . . . should
drink not less than three or four pints
of liquid each day." Instead of liquid
"water or tea, coffee or cocoa" is the
specification. The immoderate use of
tea and coffee is very much to be de-
plored and although less injurious than
beer, children should be taught that
water or cocoa is to be preferred. The
book, prepared as a school text-book
yet in colloquial style, is advantageous
reading for "children of a larger
growth."
The third book is the Primer by Dr.
Reynolds. He is a member of the
Royal College of Physicians of London,
Physician to several hospitals, a Uni-
versity Extension lecturer, and an Ex-
aminer on Hygiene, hence is supposed
to be thoroughly competent to expound
the facts of Hygiene. He proves him-
self to be an authority until he touches
the subject of food and there his state-
ments are open to serious criticism.
All the other chapters are excellent and
based upon generally accepted facts or
theories; but when, to preserve milk
after boiling, the addition of a little
sugar is advised, or the addition of sal-
eratus, a few grains, to each pint, or a
few grains of boracic acid, the sugges-
tions can hardly be called hygienic!
That milkmen do add bicarbonate of
soda and boracic acid to milk is unfor-
tunately true and boards of health are
watching and trying to prevent such ac-
tion. The continued use of boracic
acid is injurious and greatly to be depre-
cated, although it is a powerful antisep-
tic. The proper recommendation to
those desiring to preserve milk is "pas-
teurization" or "sterilization" (methods
which have been fully explained in the
pages of this magazine).
He also speaks of it being "doubtful
if fish is a true brain food." We had
supposed it now to be undoubted that
the advantage of fish lies in the phos-
phorus and that only appears when the
fish is unfit for eating, hence its advan-
tageonsness as brain-food is unavaila-
ble.
A very remarkable statement occurs
on page 48: "Oysters eaten raw arevery
nutritious and digestible, ten oysters be-
ing sufficient to supply the necessary
daily amount of nitrogenous food." To
be sure Dr. Pavy does regard oysters as
valuable in a dietary; but he wrote be-
fore chemistry had dealt so exhaustive-
ly with foods and many of his state-
ments are the results of observation
rather than exact scientific knowledge.
Dr. Edward Smith in his valuable work
on Foods distinctly says, "The oyster is
not a food of high nutritive value."
Many biologists have stated that they
had studied the oyster too much to be
willing to eat it as food. According to
one of the latest authorities oysters con-
sist of six per cent albuminoids, three
per cent nitrogenous extractives, one
per cent fat, two of minerals, and eighty-
eight of water. Moreover cooking ren-
ders tough and insoluble most of the
nitrogenous matter, and in American
households the larger proportion of the
oysters served are cooked in some man-
ner. The researches of the United States
Department of Agriculture sustain
other authorities in assigning low nutri-
ent value to the tasty bivalve. English
and American dietary standards require
from four to seven per cent of nitroge-
nous compound in proportion to the
other nutrients.
Dr. Reynolds places too little empha-
sis upon the uses of fruits and vegetables,
does not point out the disadvantages
resultant from considerable or excessive


48
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
THE SEPTEMBER MAGAZINES.
The North American Review has a
very interesting table of contents for
September. One should devote a page
instead of a paragraph to a proper com-
ment thereon. The Bishop of Albany
attempts to explain "Why Women do
not want the ballot," and his argument
is worth reading as an exhibit of the lit-
tle the best of them can do in this way.
Sir Wm. H. Flower, a friend of forty
years' standing, gives a chapter of remi-
niscences of Professor Huxley. Papers
on the Christian Endeavor movement
by Rev. F. E. Clark, on "The African
Problem," by the Siberian minister to
the court of St. James's, on "Our Reviv-
ing Business" by the Comptroller of the
Currency, on "The Cuban Situation"
by the late Mayor of Havana and on
"The Outlook for Ireland" by the Earl
of Crewe are a few others among the
many timely and valuable articles
which are given in this issue. -
Babyhood, as everyone knows, is "de-
voted exclusively to the care of infants
and young children, and the general in-
terests of the nursery," and well does it
fulfil its task. Every mother should
read it. In the September num-
ber the "Cause of Sleeplessness in In-
fants and Young Children" is treated by
D. G. Milton Miller, M. D., and there
are others on "Travelling Outfits and
Precautions," on "Reform in Infant
Clothing," on the "Spirit of the Age in
Education," beside the regular depart-
ments "Nursery Problems," "Mothers'
Parliament," etc. Recreation opens
with a riding story by Katherine M.
Baxter which makes one long to
bound into the saddle and speed
away. "A Baldfaced Grizzly in
Camp," "Crossing the Rockies in '61,"
"Where Leaps the Ouananiche," "A
Half-hour with the Quail," etc., suggest
the variety in its contents. With this
issue Recreation completes its first
year, the initial number having been is-
sued in October, '94. It started with
orders for less than 1,000 copies, and
now has an actual paid circulation of
12,000. The output has doubled in
the last five months, and will double
again in less than four months.
The Union Signal publishes in a recent
number some very just "American Ob-
servations" by Lady Henry Somerset.
The same number embodies recent age-
of-consent legislation in tabular formi Womankind has an interesting ar-
ticle on Hull House, Chicago, one of the
largest and most interesting of the col-
lege or social settlements in the coun-
try. The Household News considers
events of the day, "Skin Affections of
Summer Weather," "Nathaniel Haw-
thorne and his Contemporaries," and the
question of more holidays, beside Mrs.
Rorer's department of September work
and cookery, menus, and recipes.
The Trained Nurse and Hospital Re-
view is valuable reading for every
mother of a family as well as for the
professional nurse to whom it more es-
pecially appeals. It is edited by Mrs.
Annette Sumner-Rose and published
by the Lakeside Publishing Co., New
York. The Colonial Magazine
proves the exception to the well-known
rule that first numbers are always dis-
appointing. This new-comer "devoted
to the interests of the patriotic organiza-
tions of America," has a handsome ex-
terior, though the colonial buff and blue
might be copied more exactly in the
cover, and an interesting table of con-
tents. Such a publication has a large
field certainly, for the patriotic societies
are many and constantly increasing in
enthusiastic membership, so that the
subscription list of the new magazine
ought to roll up accordingly. We bid
our new exchange a cordial welcome.
May it "live long and prosper" as dear
old Rip says. The Popular Health
Magazine has valuable articles on "The
Death Rate in Our Large Cities," and
"The Eyesight of Schoolboys," as well
as much interesting and useful matter in
the regular departments on healthy
habitations, personal hygiene, "till the
doctor comes," etc. A very useful
periodical in every home.


WHAT GOOD AUTHORITIES SAY OF US.
( ( T TS pages are filled with the cream
1 of domestic science."—Union Sig-
nal.
"An admirable publication, beautiful-
ly printed, finely illustrated, and replete
with information that will interest every
family and housekeeper."—Republican
Journal, Belfast, Me.
*'A valuable domestic science month-
ly."—The Morning Star.
"This magazine is unique in the field
of literature and supplies a long felt
want."—The Republican, Dover, N. H.
"The best of the cooking magazines."
—Food, Home and Garden.
"One of the handsomest magazines
and certainly the most practical which
comes to us."—The Citizen, Boston.
"This magazine is becoming an indis-
pensable addition to the library table."
—Cambridge (Mass.) Chronicle.
"As neat as a model kitchen, and as
attractive as the culinary products of
such an establishment."—Evening Wis-
consin.
"This magazine is one of the most de-
sirable publications for the household,
as all its departments are devoted to dis-
cussions of questions of domestic sci-
ence."—Cambridge Press.
"It is devoted to domestic science and
there isn't a word in its pages but what
will be of intense interest to every thrifty
housewife who believes in keeping up
with the times in all that pertains to do-
mestic economy. It is handsomely
printed, and the series of lessons in
cookery by Anna Barrows, under the
head of 'A Short Course in Cookery,' is
well worth the subscription price."—
Bridgeport (Conn.) Union.
"This magazine is handsome to look
at and eminently sensible and useful in
its contents. Housekeepers and all con-
cerned in the promotion of domestic
prosperity will find it helpful."—The
Congregationalist.
"The contents of this magazine of
scientific cooking are so varied and
numerous that we cannot print the ,
whole, but there is no one who has seen
a copy but is a constant reader of it."—
Boston Times.
"Only a housekeeper can appreciate
the value to housekeepers of such a
magazine, and every one of that omni-
present class ought to have it for a
monthly visitor."—Easthampton News.
"The current number is full of good
things for the household as it is every
month. This magazine seems each
month to improve in interest and popu-
larity."—Maine Farmer.
"It leads all other magazines and pa-
pers in this department and will be a
great educator in the family."—Whit-
man (Mass.) Times.
"This comparatively young publica-
tion improves with every issue; it is en-
gaged in the most commendable work
of introducing some common sense into
the kitchen and it is winning the success
it deserves."—Womankind.
"This magazine is doing a splendid
work toward the elevation of the culi-
nary science and towards making home-
makers and housekeepers see how
great is the field in which they daily
work."—Milwaukee Journal.
"The monthly visit of this most de-
lightful, most useful, most practical of
magazines is always hailed with de-
light."—Duluth Press.
"The 'outing number' of this popular
periodical is a capital issue."—Detroit
Free Press.
"'Domestic Education for Men' is as
sensible and suggestive an article on the
subject as we have ever read. There
are seasonable recipes, editorials, and
correspondence, to make the number
complete. This magazine is doing
more practical good than can be esti-
mated."—Boston Courier.
49


AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
A Housekeeper's Library
FREE!
A NY woman's club or any teacher of cookery sending us sixty new subscribers at $1.00
each before Jan 1st, 1896, will receive these books free of charge; or by sending
forty new names and $40.00, may select from this list books to the value of $10.00.
Publishers'
Price
Practical Cookery. E. Duret £1.50
The Boston Cook-Book. Mary J. Lincoln . . . . . . . . . 2.00
The Science of Nutrition. Edward Atkinson ......... .50
The Easiest Way. Helen Campbell .......... 1.00
Chemistry of Cooking and Cleaning. Ellen H. Richards .50
Young Housekeeper. Maria Parloa .......... 1.00
Fruits and How to Use Them. Hester M. Poole ........ 1.00
Practical, Sanitary and Economic Cookery. Mary H. Abel ...... 40
The Expert Waitress. Anne Frances Springsteed . . . . . . . 1.00
Primer of Hygiene. Ernest S. Reynolds, M.D. . . . . . . 35
The Dietetic Value of Bread. John Goodfellow ........ 1.50
Food Adulterations. Ellen H. Richards .75
Cook Book and Household Hints. Frances E. Owens ....... 2.00
The Chafing-Dish Supper. Christine Terhune Herrick ....... .75
Invalid Cooking. Mary A. Boland ........... 2.00
Receipts Arranged for the Gas Stove. Lucy C. Andrews ....... .50
Cooking School Recipes. Amy Barnes .......... .50
Eggs, Facts and Fancies About Them. Anna Barrows ....... 1.00
Bound Volumes 1 and 2 of the New England Kitchen Magazine .... 2.00
Total, .... 20.25
The New England Kitchen Magazine offers every
subscriber a Binder which will hold the
Magazine for an entire year.
Each new number is
easily fastened in
place by a wire.
There are no strings
to tie, and no per-
foration of the
Magazines.
Such binders usually cost $1.00. Subscribers to
this Magazine can have it for 50 cts., with ten
cents additional for postage, or by sending
two new subscribers and $2.00.
5°





THE
American Kitchen Magazine.
Vol. IV. NOVEMBER, 1895. No. 2.
GREAT-GRANDMOTHER'S YEAR.
(THIRD PAPER.)
BY MRS. H. M. PLUNKETT.
SINCE the time when the great
preacher drew the portrait of the
perfect wife in Proverbs, saying,
"She seeketh wool and flax, and work-
eth willingly with her hands," up to the
end of the last century, the world had
made no advance in the materials for
textile fabrics. But his description of
the instruments of her industry—"She
layeth her hands to the spindle, and her
hands hold the distaff"—would no
longer apply, for at some time in the
interim, the great wheel for wool and
the little wheel for flax had been in-
vented, and we may say perfected, up
to the point where they were left behind
by the machinery that supersedes the
human hand in spinning.
Cloth of all sorts was scarce and prec-
ious in the time we are considering, and
the supplying of the clothing of the
household was such a regular, ingrained
part of household labor, as to have been
reduced to a system; so that some wo-
men, unmarried but by no means super-
fluous, who earned their living by pass-
ing about and spinning from house to
house, knew exactly how many "knots"
constituted what was esteemed a full
day's work. So large and pressing
were the demands in this respect that
there were usually no idle hours for any
of the women, for all the intervals be-
tween the more paroxysmal operations
of washing, ironing, churning, and bak-
ing, were filled in by spinning. So
much a "regulation" affair was it, that
a woman who could not spin a certain
number of knots in a given time was
thought "shiftless"; and so surely was it
looked upon as a measure of capacity,
that a jocose proverb was invented, that
no woman was fit to marry till she had
filled a pillow-case with stockings of her
own spinning and knitting.
Where there were several girls in a
neighborhood, they varied the monot-
ony of the labor by spinning at each
others' houses, where the homes were
not widely separated.
Mr. Theodore G. Huntington, in
writing of the girlhood of the Bishop's
sisters said, "Singing was a favorite pas-
time with the sisters, and as they had
excellent voices, they enlivened their
work with song. . . . They used to
have their regular morning tasks in
spinning woollen yarn. In the sum-
mer they used to place their wheels in
the corn-house and make it sing with
their music until it seemed as though
every skein of the yarn had a thread of
harmony woven into its very fibre."
To make a smooth, uniform thread
needed quiet nerves, and a woman
could be teased and fretted into such a
"wrought up" frame, as to produce poor
yarn. Many other circumstances con-
tributed to perfect conditions, such as a
good light from the window, a certain
proximity to the fire, a level floor to
walk back and forth over, etc. Among
a room full of young "spinsters," we can
imagine that now and again there would
5"


52 THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.

FLAX-WHEEL.
be one who was experiencing an inward
storm, and her thread would break, or
would not twist evenly.
This would call out a
stream of "chaff" from the
companions, who could I III
easily recog-
nize this out-
w a r d and
visible sign
of an in-
w a r d tem-
p e s t. The
vexed and
mortified
spinner
would move
her wheel
to a new lo-
cation, and
perhaps the
p s yc ho l o g-
ical conditions would finally change.
There were a number of proverbs
connected with spinning, that revealed
the consensus of opinion as to where
the true inwardness of bad spinning lay,
such as
"Every spot, lose a knot,"
"The fault is not in the wheel, nor in the band,
But in the girl, that takes a wheel in hand."
The constant and gentle walking to
and fro, with the occasional pauses to
"reel off," and to get fresh "rolls,"
formed an incomparable system of
household gymnastics, beside which the
"constitutional," even if it prolongs it-
self to that "ten miles, that every girl
must prove she can do, before she joins
our college pedestrian club"—sinks to
nothingness. As Mr. Huntington well
says: "Dancing is vapid in comparison,
for though a graceful exercise it is pur-
poseless, except as a selfish amusement;
but in spinning there is the unequal but
measured tread backward and forward,
and the independent action of each arm
—(the right turned the wheel, the left
drew out the thread) but behind all
there was the purpose that gave power
to each movement."
The wise mothers often stimulated the
daughters' industry, by giving them all
they could produce beyond a certain
quantity which constituted the stated
day's work; and the fame of the girl who
had a good pair of blankets that she had
won in this way, or two pairs of good
linen pillow-cases, was quite sure to
reach the ears of the discriminating
and thrifty youths, who were seeking
companions of the true scriptural pat-
tern.
The wool from which the yarn was
made had been the fleeces of sheep that
yielded so little in comparison with
those grown on the backs of modern,
improved animals that the wool-grower
of to-day would scorn and repudiate
them; but it was the best our fore-
mothers could do, heroic souls that they
were. The coloring of this wool was a
serious task. Much of the men's cloth-
ing was "butternut," dyed with the pig-
ment found in the bark of that tree, and
when indigo was produced in South
Carolina from a wild plant, and after-
wards from imported seed, it was a
great reenforcement of domestic re-
sources. It is written of the women of
the Revolution—"Indigo, either wild or
tame, enables them to give a beautiful
blue to their homespun."
Flax was raised on every large farm,
and on some small ones, and our great-
grandfathers had no light task in cut-
ting, rotting, and heckling it; but once
ready, it was spun to make all the sheets,
pillow-cases, towels, and tablecloths for
household use, and all the underwear of
the family.
Not till after the opening of this cen-
tury did "cotton-cloth" make its appear-
ance. It came to America, via Eng-
land from India, and was an uneven
sort of cloth, the thread for it being spun
by hand on distaffs. Poor as the fabric
was, it cost $1.25 a yard, but was hailed
nevertheless by American housewives
as the first step of a true emancipation—
a deliverance from the slavery of the
spinning-wheel.
Weaving was done in the houses
where the fabrics were to be used, save
for the fact that a few women became
specially skilled in certain kinds of cloth.
One, for example, would put in the


GREAT-GRANDMOTHER'S YEAR. 53
cross bars in blankets, more accurately
than another. If there were unwed
spinsters there were also weavers who
either came to the house or took the
yam home. In an old diary we find—
"Mrs. H. here to weave our camblet"
camblet being a heavy wool cloth for
men's wear.
Nothing was wasted. The coarsest
outer bark of the flax-plant was brought
into subjection, and woven
into a material not unlike
the "burlap" that now is
used in baling wool and
cotton. It was used then
for what our grandmothers
called a "straw-tick."
Let us take a look at a
bed—say in 1750. The
wooden frame itself might
be a carved mahogany
four-poster, or it might be a
simple pine frame; the
foundation was the same, of
ropes running from end to
end about nine inches apart
and these crossed by similar
ones at right angles, the two
being woven together
basket-fashion. On this
was placed a sack of the
above straw-tick, in which
had been placed a filling
of clean rye straw. Above
this came the feather bed,
and the production of this,
both outside and inside, was
a labor indeed. The cloth
must be of the firmest and
closest texture possible to
prevent the escape of the
feathers, and these feathers
were the fruit of the annual
plucking of "live geese."
The geese were caught, an
old stocking foot was
drawn over their heads, and
their natural covering rapt from them by
ruthless hands; but hair mattresses and
the society for the prevention of cruelty
to animals had not been invented then.
The way in which the true New Eng-
lander resolutely seasoned his physical
toil with intellectual enjoyment is well
illustrated by the experience of a Massa-
chusetts man, still living, who has been
her senator at Washington for many
years. We have it from his own lips,
that when the novels of Dickens were
coming from the press, he used to sit in
the barn and read them to his sisters
while they were picking geese.
Superior as a "wire-woven" and a
good hair mattress is, let us pay a

CoriBluiiT, 1S76, MY Lee and Shei'AED
"THE GREAT WHEEL."
deserved tribute to the industry of the
women who made these huge bags of
feathers, and to the beds as well. In an
unwarmed house, where buttons and
pins and hooks and strings had been as
far as possible loosened by the kitchen,
or possibly the keeping-room, fire, and


54
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
the transition was to a room glittering
with frost sparkles, and windows com-
pletely curtained by congealed mois-
ture, no greater contrivance for com-
fort can be imagined than this bed, into
which the occupant had "hustled," as it
puffed up on both sides and clasped his
shivering self in its warm embrace.
Man occasionally determines some
features of his environment to splendid
purpose.
The cloth once woven, a peripatetic
tailoress came and cut and sewed it.
The weeks when she was to be in the
house were carefully planned for, so
that the women could be at liberty to
help, and we may be certain that there
was no great surplus of garments pro-
duced.
When the colonists first began to
appreciate the struggle that was before
them in the Revolution, they foresaw
the lack of clothes for the soldiery. , In
this case it might have been properly
written cloths. One patriotic man in
Pittsfield (Mass.) sold two farms in the
state of New York, and with the pro-
ceeds hired a Philadelphia "breeches-
maker" to come and work all through
the winter of 1774 converting the leather
he had bought into durable garments.
Under the date of Aug. 13, 1775, the
grandmother of Bishop Huntington
writes in her diary, "Friday, went down
to Mr. Thomas Smith's to get Lydia to
show me how to make a pair of
breeches; for the soldiers' people are
sent to, to find 'em clothes."
Women's garments were mostly
made from flan-
nel, or linsey-
woolsey — a
fabric whose
name explains
i t s e l f—cut by
standard p a t-
terns. A ging-
ham, or "check"
as they called it,
of blue and
white, supplied
the summer
wants and
made aprons.

Carpets in the house there were none,
but even here home invention utilized
every rag and scrap of cloth, in the
production of rugs, made by cutting
woollen garments, past all usefulness
in their original form, into strips,
braiding them into ropes, and then
sewing them together. With the
aid of some red flannel, a little blue
check, and occasionally a bold intro-
duction of a trifle of white, there were
shown the early buddings of an aesthetic
feeling. The thread with which the
ropes were sewed was the product of
the little wheel, and the rug was a
blessed interposition between the bare
floor and the feet of the person who had
been sweetly enfolded in the feather-
bed, when he left it the next morning,
in a room where the mercury had sunk
steadily all night.
As if the production of all these
things were not enough to fill up the
year, with a permanent background of
labors, there were various domestic
crises—sickness, weddings, funerals,
each bringing its added toils.
There really was very little of formal
visiting, but certain operations were
seized upon as occasions of neighbor-
hood merrymaking — such as corn-
husking, apple-paring for the great
kettle of cider apple-sauce, the sweeten-
ing of which was to be the boiled cider
that had occupied several days in prepa-
ration. When well made no finer
relish for a pork sparerib can be imag-
ined; but the watchfulness lest it burn,
which went to its making, as it sim-
mered and gave
forth its pun-
gent fragrance,
was another link
in the endless
chain of yearly
toil and care.
When the
archaeologist of,
say, the year
A. D. 8000, un-
earths the mag-
azines and news-
papers of the
present time


GREAT-GRANDMOTHER'S YEAR. 55
he will declare that the overmaster-
ing desire of all Americans was to
obtain the best possible brand of soap,
because it was mentioned a hundred
times to anything else. They do wish
to be clean, and how did our fore-
mothers meet this need? They leeched
the ashes that came from the great
wood fires, they saved every smallest
iota of fatty material for soap-grease,
and a few days in spring were devoted
to soap making.
Our great-grandmothers had a mild
season of house-cleaning in the spring,
but they knew that the flies would work
their wicked will during the summer
time, and house-cleaning reached its
grand climax in the autumn when, day
after day, the walls would be scrubbed,
every curtain and tester and valance
and blanket would be washed, and no
nook or corner be left unsearched for
.dust.
The domestic pharmacopoeia formed
a perpetual care when snow was not on
the ground, for herbs must be gathered
at just the right moment to be effica-
cious. Here is a partial list of those
that were hung from beams in the gar-
ret, against the time of need: yarrow,
mayweed, pennyroyal, thoroughwort,
sage, coltsfoot, hoarhound, elecampane,
snake-head; and when we add the aro-
matics that had been carefully culti-
vated during summer time—marjoram,
thyme, summer savory, dill, fennel, car-
away, and coriander—we need not
wonder that the bare thought of that
compound odor, will call up spirits of
the past as can no earthly thing.
So we see great-grandmother's year
—in winter attending to the meats; in
spring making soap, picking geese,
planting the garden that provided the
bealing and aromatic herbs; in sum-
mer seeing to it that the men were well
fed; in autumn, cleaning house, drying
apples, making apple sauce, pickles,
preserving, caring for all the winter
supplies, and with little time for rest—
approaching the great annual festival
of Thanksgiving, when life and all its
.interests reached high-water mark. It
has been so often described, that every-
body knows all about it, but in some
houses there was a beautiful touch
added—a special Thanksgiving feature
—that foreshadowed a little our prepa-
rations for Christmas. We recall the
practice of one very busy housewife,
whose daughters were sent to the woods
to bring back the running "ground-
pine," the "prince's pine" and the yellow
bittersweet berries. These were twined
into a long wreath by the hands of the
housemother herself, and then hung on

A LOOM
three brass "curtain-pins," permanently
inserted in the wall above the keeping
room fireplace, so that the wreath
formed two festoons with long ends
hanging down pearly to the mantel
beneath, making a decoration which no
colonial mouldings can approach in
beaurv and festive significance. Was
it the instinct that makes the Anglo-
Saxon "emigrate in the line of green"
that also made this great-grandmother
fill the keeping-room fireplace with'
evergreen branches in summer?
Our great-grandmother yearned for
beauty, but had no time to mourn its
absence, and when her last year came
to its close, and her tireless hands were
folded over her stilled heart, she was
laid to rest in a graveyard that Whittier
describes as—
"The dreariest spot in all the land."


A CHINESE WEDDING.
BY J. LYNNE COFFIN.
IT is at the time of the Harvest Moon
Festival, when all the country side is
"en fete," that the event is celebrated.
It is the middle of autumn, a most
propitious time. The days and nights
are of nearly equal length; the autumn
harvests are garnered; the moon, the
occasion of festivities, is now at its full,
giving brilliant nights, so the people
with one accord abandon themselves to
festive pleasures and joyful congratula-
tions.
During the night hours the radiant
moon is worshipped in the temples by
the priests, and at hillside altars by the
people. The bakeshops furnish won-
derful moon cakes at this season, big
and round, although some of the cakes
have the fantastic forms of fishes, horses,
and pagodas, which the little children
buy, and the toy shops are full of quaint
toys of mud, wood, and paper.
The old, old white pagoda that has
stood for more than nine hundred years
on the little hill within the walled city,
has been illuminated for many evenings
with beautiful colored lanterns. Viewed
at a distance across the river it has an
unearthly appearance, with its pyramid
of lights towering toward the stars and
no visible support—so luminous, so
illusive, so like the fairy work of some
giant juggler.
The astrologer, having been con-
sulted, has decided that the lucky day
for the marriage ceremony shall be the
'fifteenth of the harvest moon, the most
joyous season of the year.
At last the preliminaries have been
arranged by the gossipy old "ch'io tie,"
house mother, the official go-.between,
who, after many journeys between the
two families, has completed final nego-
tiations. Cards, with family history
have been exchanged, fortune tellers
consulted, and formal assent made by
both families to the betrothment.
How fortunate it was that during the
three days of indecision, no bowls were
broken, nor anything lost in either of
the families. Such an unlucky omen
would at once have broken off all nego-
tiations.
King Hwa, "Golden Flower," has
laid safely away under the censer, stand-
ing in front of the ancestral tablets in
her father's great reception hall, the
betrothal card sent by her husband's
family many months ago, as a token
that the engagement is complete.
It is a queer token to be sure. It is
of pasteboard, and resembles a book
cover, lined within and without with red
paper, with a gilt dragon pasted on the
outside. Inside are written the ances-
tral name of the groom and certain
other family affairs. The covers are
sewed together with red silk thread.
The groom has a similar card, but
with a phoenix on the outside and King
Hwa's ancestral name written within.
These they preserve as indisputable
proofs of engagement.
For many days together presents of
every description have been arriving at
the home of the bride. There are whole
sedans of gifts; hampers of cakes and
oranges, always oranges, so lucky and
plentiful; roast pigs and ducks; dried
fruits; goats and fowls, wine and can-
dles; rich and costly headdresses; brace-
lets of gold, jade, and pearls; bolts of
silk, crape, and satin; and two hand-
some white geese—those patterns of
concord and fidelity in the married
state.
These last have been most carefully
fed on millet seed cakes and other
dainties, for months, and their lovely
feathers tended with care. The very
day of the presentation their bills,
feathers, and feet were anointed with
finest oil, after which they were placed
in new baskets which were covered with
S«





68
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
red paper, lined with down, and carried
by two coolies in great state through
the streets.
Feasting has been going on at the
bride's house for several days. The
ladies are banqueted in the inner apart-
ments, the gentlemen in the handsome
courts, where the tables are spread near
the lotus beds, under the shade of the
banyans. The sound of trickling water
from the artificial grotto; the perfume of
"muh le hwa" and acacia; the merry
thrum, thrum of the musicians in the
outer court; the waving lanterns in the
night time,—all mingle pleasantly with
the laughter, samshu, pipes, congratula-
tions, and propitious sayings.
The morning of the fifteenth arrives
with the household of the bride long
astir. The bride makes a pretence of
eating the breakfast customary on such
occasions, that of fowl and vermicelli.
The hair is dressed in the style of a
married woman. Her women servants
now attire her in the gorgeous red
bridal robe, which is richly embroidered
with gold dragons; a gaudy headdress
is added, and when everything is
finished, as a final act, the mother
arranges over her head and face the
heavy thick bridal veil, through which
none may peer at the lovely face be-
neath.
That the evil spirits may not trouble
her during the process of robing, her
tiny feet have rested in a bamboo
basket cover, upon which joss paper has
been pasted. For the same reason does
she walk on red cloth to the sedan.
The hour appointed by the astrologer,
seven A. M., has arrived, and King
Hwa is led to the bridal sedan, gaily
covered with red broadcloth and gilt
figures, which is waiting for her in the
reception room. The band is playing
joyously and fire crackers add their con-
fusion. The groom's friends having
arrived to escort her to his house the
procession now forms.
Two men, with large lighted lanterns
with the groom's name thereon, lead the
way; a large red umbrella, carried by a
servant, is followed by men bearing
lighted torches; then the musicians, the
bridal chair, with four bearers, relatives,
friends, and servants. Fire crackers
are exploded continually.
Half way to her new home the pro-
cession halts, the ceremony of "receiv-
ing the bride" is transacted, and cards
are exchanged with a profusion of
oriental courtesies.
This is the real marriage ceremony,
for now King Hwa's friends turn back
and she goes on alone, excepting two
women servants, with her husband's
friends. The groom's residence is
finally reached amid great noise and
confusion. The bridal chair is lifted
over a pan of charcoal and deposited in
the reception room. A woman stands
at the door and repeats felicitous sen-
tences, while a little boy approaches and
invites her to leave the chair, and she
walks on red cloth to her room.
Meanwhile the groom hastily leaves
his guests and proceeding to the bridal
chamber, takes up his position by the
bed to await the bride. As she is guided
to her place by attendants, still closely
veiled, the groom tries to secure some
portion of her dress to sit upon, hoping
thus to gain a submissive wife for the
remainder of her life. But she adroitly
draws her robe aside, at the same
moment attempting to sit upon some
portion of his clothing, meaning thus to
gain a submissive husband. As she
reaches his side they sit down upon the
bed simultaneously.
They sit thus in profound silence for
a few moments, when the groom leaves
the room, and they next appear in the
reception room, where the religious
part of the ceremony is performed, con-
sisting of worshipping heaven and
earth and the groom's ancestral tablets
in which the souls of his ancestors are
supposed to reside. They stand by a
table on which a small quantity of food
is arranged, and drink the wedding
wine, the last act of the ceremony. Two
goblets of wine and honey are provided,
the goblets tied together by a red silk
cord. Their contents are carefully
poured back and forth, then the attend-
ants place them to the lips of bride and
groom, who sip from them, after which


ELECTRICITY IN THE KITCHEN.
BY ESTELLE M. H. MERRILL.
THE world has accepted electricity
so completely as a source of light
for streets and buildings that the
marvel of it has become a common-
place. All are familiar with it also as a
motive power in driving machinery of

all sorts, and in propelling street cars
and railway trains; indeed it does not
need very much prophetic talent to see
our ordinary vehicles, from baby car-
riages to bicycles, and from tally-hos to
tip carts, using the electrical "horse
power" instead of that now generally
understood by the term as a means of
progress.
But it is in the latest application of
electricity to the generation and utiliza-
tion of heat that women and housekeep-
ers are most deeply interested. We
may appreciate the merits of the "trolley"
•car, and the electrically run elevator; we
may rejoice in the blaze of soft light
-which makes our nights as the day; but
it is for but a portion of our time that
these uses of electricity appeal to us,
while the kitchen range and the furnace
fire are ever with us.
Anything therefore which will do
away with these two monsters in the
house—anything which will save the
carrying up of coal, the carrying down
of ashes, the noise and dust and dirt and
odor and heat and hard labor and time
consumed in attending to fires and get-
ting the desired amount of comfort and
work from them, will do nothing short
of revolutionizing the domestic life of
the day. When the tilings enumerated
above are subtracted from the house-
work nothing remains, practically, but
what my lady herself, with some as-
sistance from a little maid or some
friend perhaps, will find it her pleasure
to attend to; and then we shall be vexed
no longer with proffered solutions of the
domestic problem, for there will be no
domestic problem to solve.
^ Many visitors to the Columbian Ex-
position at Chicago got their first
glimpse of cooking by electricity in the
section of the electrical building which
showed the domestic work of this
modern genie. But electricity travels
fast, and to-day the electric kitchen
is a possibility in any home by the door
of which pass the ordinary light and

power circuits, either direct or alter-
nating.
Nor is this a luxury to be enjoyed by
60


ELECTRICITY IN THE KITCHEN.
61
the dwellers in cities alone; for, as we
have already shown in previous papers
on this topic, the isolated plant of the
sub urban
town, or the
water power
n 6 w r u n-
n i n g t o
waste near
the country
villages, will
furnish the
electric fluid



* I ARINA fVXtR
V1 351
-[&, Kettle*.,,
as easily, and
even more
cheaply,
than the cen-
tral power
station of the
metropolis.
Leavin g
the subject
of electricity
as a substi-
tute for furnace and grate fires in warm-
ing the house to another writing, let us
examine the electric appliances already
made for kitchen use.
We shall find here all the utensils
needed by the cook.
A soapstone or metal slab with
switchboard and wires attached above
takes the place of the ordinary range.
On this may be seen the utensils used—
coffee pot, tea pot, chafing dish, sauce-
pans, tea kettle, spider, plate stove,
broiler, frying kettle, farina boiler, etc.,
etc. These are connected to the circuit
through the switchboard above the slab.
When one of these dishes is needed one
has only to pick up the connecting
wire, insert the plug switch into the
receptacle provided for it in the utensil,
"press the button" and the work has
begun.
Imbedded in cement below each uten-
sil and with a metal plate above, is a coil
of German silver wire. This metal is
not a good conductor of electricity, and
the efforts of the current to pass through
it, the "friction" as one might say, of the
fluid on the wire, produces the heat re-
quired. This peculiar construction
brings the fire as it were, into the very
base of each utensil as it is used. Thus
all of the heat generated is utilized at
once in accomplishing the work desired,
and none of it, practically speaking, is
wasted or escapes into the room to make
its occupants uncomfortable. Above
each wire is a tiny electric lamp, which
blazes out brilliantly or shines dimly ac-
cording as one regulates the switches
for a quick or slow heat.
The electric oven shown at the Co-
lumbian Exposition was of Russian
iron, lined with wood and asbestos to
prevent radiation. The heating plates
were so placed that the heat could be
applied either from above or below, or
both at the same time, this and the de-
gree of heat being controlled by an out-
side switch. An incandescent lamp
lighted the oven and through the glass
door in front observations could be


02
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.

'ft3-!01'
taken of the process of cooking going
on within.
It can be seen at once that such ovens
will give a steadier and more effective
heat than the ordinary range oven.
Meats particularly are cooked more
evenly and in much less time, while re-
taining a larger percentage of their nu-
tritious and delicious juices. The ovens
are made with one, two or three com-
partments- as desired.
It is in the broil-
ing and toasting
that the electric
utensils are most
severely tested, for
there is no more
difficult work done
in cooking. The
electric grills and
broilers are ready
whenever needed,
can be made "just
right" always, and
do the work with-
out the food being
singed, smoked,
gas flavored, or
burned.
Some highly ar-
tistic effects are
possible in the
toasting of bread
as well as in frying
buckwheats, etc.,
as monograms,
borders, the club,
restaurant, or
family name, can
be done thereon
"with neatness and
despatch."
The many other utensils require no
special word of description, with the
possible exception of the steam cookers
and Aladdin Ovens, which may be ope-
rated by electricity as readily as by
coal, gas, or lamp heat. Hot-air cham-
bers, plate warmers, hot water service
tank, clothes boiler, flat irons—all these
are now arranged for the electric current.
A final convenience which regulates
the electric oven, and in fact can be
made to apply to any of these utensils,


is a clock arrangement by means of
which the current may be turned on or
off automatically. Thus the roast for
dinner may be placed in the oven when-
ever convenient, the clock set to turn
on the current at the right time, and no
more thought given to the affair; or, if
one wishes to go off for a spin on the
bicycle before the bread has finished
baking, it is only necessary to set the
clock ahead to the required hour and
the fire goes out when the work is done.
And now as to the question of cost.
W. T. Hadaway, Jr., of the Central
Electric Heating Company of New
York, an acknowledged authority, says
on this point:—
"It is found in practice that the com-
mercial efficiency of the coal cooking
range is somewhere between 3 and 6 per
cent; these limits are stated by Tyndall.
Mr. Beaumont gives the efficiency of
the cooking range from experiments of
his own as 3.7 per cent, or roughly 4 per
cent, indicating that of every 27 pounds
of coal burned, 26 pounds are thrown
away. We have seen that the heat effi-
ciency of the average moderate size cen-
tral station is about 6 per cent. There
is sufficient margin between a heat effi-
ciency of 3.7 per cent and one of 6 per
cent to warrant the use of electricity as
a source of heat in domestic life, and a
further extension with apparatus of
larger size and higher working economy
would give a still greater margin. . . .
Thus with the use of only 1 \ lbs. of coal
per horse-power hour he would secure a
commercial efficiency of 12.2 per cent or
3.3 times the efficiency of the range.
"At the outset, of course, the cost of
electrical energy as fuel under average
conditions at the power rate will be
greater than fuel directly burned. But
there are compensating advantages
gained which more than offset the addi-
tional cost. This has been abundantly
proved in actual practice. The saving
of attendance and of time, freedom from
dirt, coolness of the kitchen, absolute
uniformity of heat and ability to regu-
late it, appeal at once to the household-
er. There is merit aside from novelty
in such practice. ... It may be fair-


ELECTRICITY IN THE KITCHEN.
iy stated that people who could afford
to do their own lighting by electricity
could afford to do their cooking and
ironing by the same means."
The most interesting and valua-'
ble testimony on this point, how-
ever, is given by the careful esti-
mates and reports made of cooking ac-
tually done for a term of months at the
offices of the Central Electric Heating
Company. A room was fitted up as a
kitchen here, and a luncheon or dinner
was served each day to those belonging
to the company's staff. By the courtesy
of the manager, Mr. Tarns, the reports of
this work were placed at the service of
the writer. From these we have chosen at
random the detailed report of one week's
work and the condensed summary for
one month, which will be found below.
CENTRAL ELECTRIC HEATING
COMPANY.
DINNER SERVED MAY 5.
Food prepared: 10 lbs. roast lamb,
sweet potatoes, biscuit, beef soup, green
peas, coffee.
Utensils used: Oven, No. 2 and 3
portable stove, coffee pot, plate warmer,
tea kettle.
Total watt hours used in heating . .
"" ""cooking .
"horse power hours used ....
"cost at sc. per H. P. H. (Central
Station)
"cost at 24c. per H. P. H. (Water
Power)
"cost at ic. per H. P. H. (Isolated
Plant) ....
Number of persons at dinner ....
""watt hours per person . .
Cost per person at 5c. per H. P. H.
"" "24c.""
i< u tt Ic u tt
4397
5.894
.294c.
.147c.
.058c.
12
366
.024c.
.012c.
.004c.
DINNER SERVED MAY 7.
Food prepared: 8 lbs. beefsteak, bis-
cuit, mashed potatoes, pudding, ome-
lettes, coffee.
Utensils used: Oven, broiler, No. 2
and 3 portable stove, coffee pot, plate
warmer, tea kettle.
Watt hours used in heating .... 1082
"" "cooking .... 5272
Total watt hours 6354
Total horse power hours 8.517
"cost at 5c. per H. P. H. (Central
Station) .425c.
"cost at 24c. per H. P. H. (Water
Power) .212c.
"cost at ic. per H. P. H. (Isolated
Plant) 085c.
Number of persons at dinner .... 13
""watt hours per person . . 489
Cost per person at 5c. per H. P. H. . . .032c.
"" "24c"" . .016c.
"" "ic."" . .006c.
DINNER SERVED MAY 8.
Food prepared. Roast veal 8£ lbs.,
biscuit, lima beans, mashed potatoes,
coffee.
Utensils used: Oven, No. 2 and 3 por-
table stove, coffee pot, plate warmer,
tea kettle.
Watt hours used in heating .... 899
"" "cooking .... 3527
Total watt hours 4426
"horse power hours 5*932
"cost at 5c. per H. P. H. (Central
Station) .296c.
"cost at 24c. per H. P. H. (Water
Power) .148c.
"cost at ic. per H. P. H. (Isolated
Plant) . .• 059c.
Number of persons at dinner .... 13
""watt hours per person . . 340
Cost per person at 5c. per H. P. H. . .022c.
"" "24c."" . .one.
'ic."" . .004c.
DINNER SERVED MAY 9.
Food prepared: 10 lbs. roast mutton,
biscuit, beef soup, mashed potatoes,
coffee.
Utensils used: Oven, No. 2 portable
stove, coffee pot, plate warmer, tea
kettle.
Watt hours used in heating .... 766
"" "cooking .... 3422
Total watt hours 4188
"horse power hours 5-6i3
"cost at 5c. per H. P. H. (Central
Station) 280c.
"cost at 24c. per H. P. H. (Water
Power) .140c.
"cost at ic. per H. P. H. (Isolated
Plant) 056c.
Number of persons at dinner .... 14
""watt hours per person . . 299
Cost of current per person at 5c. per
H. P. H 020c.
Cost of current per person at 24c. per
H. P. H oioc
Cost of current per person at Ic. per
H. P. H 004c.


THE DECORATION OF ROOMS.
MRS. ELLEN COIT ELLIOTT, LELAND STANFORD UNIVERSITY.
IN a discussion of the decoration and
arrangement of a room in a dwelling-
house, there are to be considered two
elements; first, the architectural features
of the room, such as walls, windows,
doors, fireplaces; and secondly, the
furniture and other articles which the
room contains.
Beginning with a consideration of the
ceiling and side-walls, one realizes that
the ceiling in the finished house is
mainly beyond our control. Almost
the only movable ceiling ornament is
the Japanese umbrella or an arrange-
ment of fans above the chandelier.
Provided the colors be not too bold,
these may be suitable and effective, and
fans might be used at the corners of the
ceiling as well as in the centre.
As to the walls, the frieze, that is, the
space above the picture-moulding, is an
ornamental feature of the room, and
should be kept always distinct from the
wrall below it. All decoration of the
wall proper should stop at the bottom
line of the frieze, and if a decoration of
the latter is attempted it should have its
own separate arrangement. To speak
in very general terms, the frieze will be
suitably treated if it is decorated in such
a way as to accent its horizontal, or
band-like effect. A parlor with a plain
tint upon the walls might have a frieze
of peacock's feathers arranged in a dec-
orative band running entirely around
the room. It is possible that drapery of
a light texture might be arranged in
long horizontal curves above the mould-
ing in such a way that the effect would
please and satisfy the eye. When the
room is papered, and sometimes when it
is tinted, the decoration of the frieze is
accomplished in the pattern of the
border and the only thing further to do
is to let it alone.
In the decoration of the wall below
the frieze one side of the room would
naturally be considered as the unit-
space; but as architects frequently
throw in doors and windows regardless
of the laws of artistic composition, one
must often deal with many smaller divi-
sions instead. For instance, if you
have a door or window or fireplace in
the middle of one side of the room you
can arrange pictures or other objects
around it as a natural centre. If the
side of the room contains simply two
windows symmetrically placed you can
still, if you choose, treat the whole of
that wall as one composition, arranging
the decorations to make one harmoni-
ous grouping. But if you have an ir-
regular arrangement of a door and a
window, or a window and a fireplace, it
is not always easy to arrange the whole
side according to a single idea. In this
case you must take smaller divisions for
your bases of arrangement.
These divisions, which I have called
units of wall-space, must be treated ac-
cording to certain universal rules of art.
Articles placed in them must, to use a
technical term, "compose." Up to a
certain point we all observe the laws of
composition instinctively, as when we
arrange pictures symmetrically rather
than with entire irregularity, but a study
of the subject far beyond this point
would well repay its cost to all who
must, perforce, be house-decorators.
One may say, as a suggestion, that the
laws of composition include such ele-
ments as order, symmetry, balance, rep-
etition, contrast. When three pictures
are arranged in a triangle, both order
and symmetry are observed. When
two objects of equal size are placed in
the same position on each side of a
door, the principle of balance is ob-
served. When a number of objects are
arranged in a row for decorative pur-
poses you have repetition. When you
place a low broad table beside a tall
65


66
TRE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
piano lamp you have the decorative
effect resulting from contrast.
In regard to the articles suitable for
use in wall decoration, pictures are the
first to suggest themselves. Yet it is
possible that pictures, as such, are ad-
missible as a makeshift to cover bare
walls, but are not, in reality, the best
material for purely decorative purposes.
Good decoration appeals to the mind
through the senses rather than through
the reason; it is felt rather than ana-
lyzed. Hence its special appropriate-
ness to the home, where one expects re-
lief, serenity, repose, unconscious liv-
ing, as the complement of the keenly
conscious intellectual activity which
goes on outside. But most pictures
tell each a distinct story. A special in-
tellectual effort is put forth in the appre-
ciation of each one. Also, because of
this effort, a picture, however fine, loses
its first sharp effect upon any one who
has it before his eyes continually from
day to day. One grows indifferent.
Decoration proper, on the other hand,
has for its special mission the creation
of a mood, the production of an effect,
which shall always be the same to the
inmates of the house.
Accordingly, it may be that the
proper place for all pictures which are
not purely decorative in their character,
is in a separate special room or in
portfolios. Then, as we take our books
from the book-case when we want
them, instead of having their contents
spread forever before our eyes, so we
could go and look at our pictures when
we were in an attitude to appreciate
them, and they would gain by not being
forced upon us at all times.
After pictures what is there for the
wall? More than at first appears.
Decorative painting upon the walls
themselves is of course a time-honored
method of tempering their blankness,
but for various reasons it is not avail-
able for the average modern house.
Of the things we may ourselves use,
Japanese banners frequently have great
decorative value, and are likely to be of
shapes and sizes suitable for an artistic
arrangement. If the space to be cov-
ered be narrow, one alone may be used;
a larger space may be filled by several
banners placed side by side in such a
way as to form in effect a single large
ornamental panel; or two may grace-
fully balance each other on either side
of a door, or window, or grate. Good
mirrors, large and small, with their
polished surfaces and their changing
reflections may be used so as to be ex-
tremely effective. At night they add
unexpected gleams of brilliancy, and by
day and night they give elegance,
spaciousness, and variety to the rooms.
They should be placed at such a height
and angle that they may reflect the best
part of the room opposite to them. If
high and flat against the wall they give
back only the image of the upper part
of the opposite wall—frequently a bar-
ren subject. Also much ingenuity may
be used in arranging them so that their
reflections shall be such as to help in
the greatest degree the general effect
of the room. For example, a large
mirror opposite a large window gives to
the room a second out-door vista effec-
tively balancing the first; a mirror op-
posite the grate doubles the cheer of the
hearth.
Good tapestry is material for decora-
tion par excellence, the picture element
in it being subordinated to the purely
decorative arrangement of figures and
colors. It is beyond the reach of mod-
erate purses, but substitutes for it oc-
casionally may be devised. A small
floor rag of good coloring and pattern
might be decidedly effective, fastened
flat and firmly against a wall-space
which it naturally fitted. In a large
room a chenille curtain, carefully
selected to harmonize with the rest of
the room, might be fastened flat in a
suitable wall-space with good result.
In the house of a woman whose income
does not permit of real tapestry, a
square chenille table cover of good pat-
tern has been very effectively used to
fill the space between the moulding be-
low the frieze and the mantel above a
grate.
Drapery is an important element in
decoration, its soft folds contributing


DECORATION OF ROOMS.
67
much to a room in dignity and grace.
Curtains and portieres at doors and
windows may be heavy and rich or thin
and airy, according to the requirements
of their position and of the room.
Probably it may not be necessary to
caution the average woman against an
absurdity which is in evidence in at
least one elegant house, where those
doors of the parlor which open inward
are provided like the others with por-
tieres, only the poles are fastened not to
the door frame on the hall side, but
to the door itself on the parlor side.
When one enters the room, the sinecure
curtain, whose natural purpose should
be to cover the doorway, rides gaily
back and forth upon the door!
Aside from curtains and portieres,
drapery may be used for itself alone—
solely for the beauty of its own texture
and for the exquisite play of light,
shadow, and tint, in its broken lines and
dissolving curves. When used in this
way the piece of fabric used must be
large enough to fill its place upon the
wall with dignity, else we have a mere
insignificant patch or scrap. It must
be large enough to fall in lines and
curves of sufficient character to form
true and beautiful drapery, else we have
that thing called a "throw," which is a
blind and ineffectual groping after the
satisfaction of drapery proper. And
it must be placed where its folds shall
always fall freely and not be presently
flattened into ancient history by some-
thing or someone pressing against
them.
The ornamentation of doors and of
the glass of windows is not essential.
Windows of clear glass fulfil their own
mission and need decoration only under
exceptional circumstances. Doors also
justify themselves, and are usually suf-
ficiently broken by panelling to relieve
the plainness of their surfaces. If one
wishes to ornament a door, decorative
designs exactly filling the panels are
suitable. Decorative banners fitting
into the panels serve the same purpose.
In all such additions the panels must
be kept as the fundamental divisions of
the decoration.
The fireplace is the most significant
feature in a room. Before even the
roof was stretched on poles for shelter,
the hearth-stone was the centre of pri-
meval family life. It was the religious
and domestic centre of the Roman
house, and by its very nature it must
have been to all peoples through all
ages the most indispensable element in
the home. At present the fireplace is
greatly curtailed as to practical useful-
ness. We no longer cook over it, and
only a most fatuous idealist could main-
tain that it is an adequate and economi-
cal method of heating. Yet as an
aesthetic addition to our homes we are
appreciating it more and more.
The grate aglow with quivering flame
needs no manipulation to enhance its
beauty; but an empty grate seems to be,
to the majority of housewives, nothing
but an eye-sore. Banks of greenery
and little silk curtains are accepted de-
vices for hiding its unsightliness. Yet
one is moved to say a word in defence
of the empty grate. In the first place,
is it ugly? The coating of soot upon
the bricks is as soft in surface as new-
fallen snow. Its dull, rich, velvety
black, relieved by the delicate gray and
white of the fallen ashes, adds a piquant
note of contrast to the color scheme of
the room. Secondly, its associations
are so wonderfully rich that even if it
were ugly, one might well question the
propriety of concealing it. If there
were a historical ruin in the back yard
how carefully one would preserve it, in
whatever ungraceful shape it might be;
but with this black throat of the chim-
ney standing in our houses with the
same general shape and characteristics
which it had in the first rude fireplaces
built by our forefathers in prehistoric
times, with its bed of ashes carrying the
mind back across centuries of hearth-
fires,—we hasten to draw the curtain!
If one must obliterate the empty grate,
drapery seems inappropriate drawn
across a space devoted to fire. Even
when one is sure there are no slumber-
ing sparks, the mind still receives an un-
pleasant impression by the proximity of
drapery which might be burned to a


68
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
place where there might be a fire. A
screen, large or small, placed upon the
hearth would hide the opening, sin-
cerely reveal its own purpose, and add
by its own beauty a decorative feature
to the room.
Mantels, whether over the grate or
elsewhere, offer a suitable resting place
for a limited amount of bric-a-brac, and
this must be disposed carefully accord-
ing to the laws of composition before
referred to. The shelf should not be
covered with hanging drapery, unless it
be in the shape of a scarf projecting
over the shelf only at the ends. The
idea of a falling cover is that it falls
evenly on all sides of the table or other
surface upon which it rests, and in so
doing it remains in stable equilibrium;
but drapery falling from the front edge
of a mantel only, and not balanced by a
fall upon the other side, must suggest
insecurity. That it is firmly tacked on
makes no difference with the aesthetic
fault; the impression—before we rea-
son about it— is that it is going to slip
off. Moreover, as mantels are projec-
tions from the wall, and as such require
to be supported, the eye is better satis-
fied to see the brackets which hold them
in place, and which are hidden by a fall
of drapery.
The furniture of a room, whether it
be useful or ornamental or both,
should be managed with the same re-
gard for order, balance, "composition,"
that has been recommended for wall
decoration. The fad of strewing both
furniture and bric-a-brac up and down a
room regardless of any law has suffered
much ridicule and would seem to con-
demn itself. Yet it is a method which
seems to have immense staying powers,
and appears in houses where one might
expect better things. It can only be
said that disorder does not give the ef-
fect of grace and ease, nor quantity
alone the effect of richness. The only
excuse for a break in the laws of sym-
metrical composition is that the funda-
mental order of the arrangement may
be accented by an unexpected departure
from it, producing contrast. A single
article set at variance with the general
idea of the arrangement may serve well
to heighten its effect, but when every-
thing in a room is awry with everything
else, contrast is lost, and the result is
not beauty but confusion.
Large pieces of furniture will natur-
ally be placed in appropriate wall-
spaces, while smaller articles will fall
into subordinate positions where they
shall aid in forming effective groups.
In general, it is better to place pieces
against the wall rather than projecting
out from it, since the first arrangement
may be made to add to the wall decora-
tion, while the second is frequently ob-
trusive if not inconvenient. A piece set
diagonally across a corner, however, in
other than very small or crowded
rooms, sometimes makes a variation
from the rectangular which is pleasant
and permissible because it is a sym-
metrical and orderly one.
Small rugs are- accessories. They
should not be laid indiscriminately and
in great numbers, for then they thrust
themselves upon the attention in a con-
fusing and unpleasant way. Where the
object is to cover the floor the large
floor rug should be used, then the
lesser ones may each have its own place
and manifest purpose. They may lie
before fireplaces, doors, large articles of
furniture, and under large chairs and
small tables, and they ought to lie
square in front of or under the object to
which they belong, not askew.
The ornamental articles used to
adorn the room must be arranged with
discrimination and taste and, again, in
accordance with the general laws of ar-
tistic composition. Certain of these
articles have an especial decorative
value. A folding screen, with its sev-
eral planes set at angles to one another,
can scarcely fail to add to the pictur-
esqueness of a room. A piano lamp,
if its shade be not too vivid, is excellent
ornamental material. So also is a large
palm, especially if it grows from a beau-
tiful bowl. Vases, especially if large
enough to stand upon the floor and
hold their own with dignity among the
other articles of furniture, have great
value, and casts and statues if they


DECORATION OF ROOMS.
69
are properly used add a unique charm.
All the arrangement and decorations
of a room should be in unison, and the
room as a whole should be more promi-
nent than any article in it. In other
words, details should be strictly subor-
dinated to the general effect. This is
the principle which led to the sugges-
tion that pictures, because requiring in
themselves a separate intellectual appre-
ciation, might not be the most perfect
material for wall-decoration. If pic-
tures are used, they should be of such
a character that they may be distinctly
seen and understood from every point
in the room. An etching which is
beautiful at a distance of a yard from the
eye may become an unintelligible blotch
of black and white when looked at from
the other side of the room. Accord-
ingly it injures, instead of contributing
to, the general effect of the room. This
does not mean that pictures must neces-
sarily be large: a simple head three
inches by three, boldly done, can be
seen perfectly well from any point in an
average living room.
The crowding of many minor objects
in a room will usually detract from its
unity. A few fine ornaments, care-
fully placed, may add a delightful qual-
ity of richness and variety, without in
the least obtruding themselves upon the
notice, while very many of these smaller
articles, even when artistically ar-
ranged, are almost sure to rouse in the
mind that nervous, restless, bewildered
feeling which we have when presented
all at once with more items than our
senses can manage. Even the large
and more essential pieces of furniture
may well be reduced to their minimum
number.
It is a good thing to remember that a
room well proportioned by the archi-
tect, properly decorated on walls and
ceiling, and hung with good draperies,
may be beautiful and complete without
the addition of a single article of furni-
ture. A reception-room might be
made thus beautiful in itself, and the
only addition need be the chairs or other
seats necessary for the accommodation
of callers. A dining-room is often
left in this simplicity, having in it only
the strictly necessary dining-table and
chairs, and gains in dignity thereby.
Extra pictures may be hung in special
rooms or kept in portfolios. Extra
bric-a-brac may be kept in a cabinet, or
in a set of cabinets, or in a special curio
room, extra furniture may be stored or
given to poor relations, but our living
rooms should be left uncluttered.
The apartments of a dwelling house
exist as a background for the human
life which goes on within them. All
arrangement and decoration which in-
terferes with personal convenience and
comfort, which contravenes common
sense, or which has the effect of thrust-
ing the individuality of the room for-
ward at the expense of the individuality
of the people in it, is false. This is why
walls should be tinted with the reserved
shades which serve best as backgrounds
for the human face and the colors of
garments. This is why furniture is
more appropriately placed against the
wall—that we may have a spacious
place in the middle of the room to live
in, to walk around in, to sit and stand
in, at our own convenience. A tea-
table with precious and fragile china
set right across the direct route from the
piano to the book-case is out of place.
Bric-a-brac placed upon tables or
shelves where a sudden movement of
the hand, or the unexpected whisk of a
wrap, would send it to destruction, is
an impertinent restraint upon the free-
dom of humanity. The woman who is
content to pick her way continually
among her furniture and mind her el-
bows for the sake of her vases, will find
herself ultimately bound hand and foot
—a slave to things. The background,
however rich and fair, must not over-
shadow or interfere with the human ac-
tivities of the household.


THE INTELLIGENCE OFFICE.
BY FLORENCE HUNT.
THE problem of domestic service is
always with us, and daily becomes
more vexatious and more difficult
of solution. The perplexed house-
keeper changes from one nationality to
another and finds the domestic in each
equally unfaithful, dishonest, untidy,
and disrespectful, and with no idea of
fulfilling her part of the contract upon
which she entered when she agreed
to work for the aforesaid housekeeper
for the maximum amount of wages for
which it would seem she has mentally
determined to perform the minimum
amount of service. In despair, the mis-
tress asks herself if it is possible that all
the kingdoms and tribes of the earth
which continually send representatives
to our shores have nothing but dishon-
est subjects, and foster all the vices and
none of the virtues?
Why is it that the majority of "girls"
are so unreliable?
There are several answers to this
question, as there are several phases of
it. The one under consideration in this
article is the way in which "help" is
hired, and the agencies by which em-
ployer and employed are brought
together. By this is meant the so-
called intelligence office, which, it is be-
lieved, is the fountain-head of many
abuses in our present system of do-
mestic service, and the very place where
many of the lamentable deceptions and
dishonesties are taught to the girls,
whose often untutored minds are the
most receptive soil in which these nox-
ious weeds could be planted. Many of
the facts given below were gathered by
a student of our present system, while
others were the result of the writer's
own experience.
Girls often get their first lessons in
dishonesty from the keepers of intelli-
gence offices themselves. Under the
new (Massachusetts) law which pre-
tends to govern these places, they are
not allowed to receive fees from the
applicant for work until work of the
kind demanded is found. Yet this is
constantly done. If the girls are young
and green, they are sent to places they
cannot fill, and if they do not remain a
second fee is demanded when another
situation is obtained. They soon learn
this trick of the office keepers, however,
and this may be one reason why they
ask so many disagreeable questions
about a place before they will agree to
take it, an experience every house-
keeper has had, no doubt, many times.
In fact, an office-keeper, after receiving
fees from both employer and employed,
was overheard saying to the girl,—
"Try it a week, and if you don't like it
you can leave, and I'll find you another
place."
"An' get another dollar, I suppose,"
answered the quick-witted Irish girl.
She saw through the attempt to cheat
both, and that she did not follow the
example was due either to nature or to
the grace she had received.
In another case a young "greenhorn
girl" came for a position as general
housework girl. She was asked for
her office fees—as green girls almost
always are—and was sent to a place out
of the city, "just what you want," she
was told. When she reached there she
found, instead of a small, private family,
a large roadside boarding house, or inn,
in which she was expected to do the
work of three. She stayed for one
night and then came back to the office.
The manager told her that she had pro-
vided her with a situation and that she
could not get her another one unless
she paid another office fee. The girl,
in good faith, gave her a second fifty
cents. The same experience was re-
peated; and at the end of a week the
office had in its possession three fees


THE INTELLIGENCE OFFICE.
71
from this young girl, who had as yet
been provided with no work.
A favorite method of deception is to
tell the girl at the time of registration,—
"Yes, I have just the place you want,
and the lady will be here in a little while.
You sit down and wait for her."
The girl waits through a long morn-
ing, and then goes out for a hasty
luncheon at noon time. When she
comes back she is greeted thus:
"Why did you go away? The lady
came in to see you but you were not
here. She couldn't wait and I had to
send her another girl in your place.
You don't want to go out, if you don't
want to miss your chances."
And then a second fee becomes pay-
able before a situation can be procured.
Another reason why they are able to
do this dishonest act is that the offices
are not inspected either frequently or
thoroughly, and this-neglect leads to all
sorts of violations of the law.
Of course, as intelligence offices are
opened for the purpose of making
money, it is desired to obtain as many
fees as possible, and so a method is used
by some keepers with which many
housekeepers must be familiar. Post-
als are sent about bearing the following
"confidential" communication:
"Madam: Should your present girl
not suit you, there are here now three
very competent Protestant girls who are
familiar with such duties as you require,
with personal references close by. Ei-
ther can begin work now or later, as re-
quired, if you could conveniently call
and see which would be most suitable."
A gentleman to whom one of these
postals was addressed sought out the
office, and met with the following expe-
rience:
"I was ushered into a room dark,
crowded, ill-smelling, and piloted to its
end. A door opened out of the room.
We entered the doorway and passed
through two small, box-like compart-
ments, to a third. I was asked to sit
down and told that the girls would be
sent to talk with me. Then one after
another came crowding in, a number of
frowsy, insolent, unkempt-looking wo-
men. I was told that they were all
high-grade family cooks. In despair I
looked about me for some means of
escape. I felt suffocated, trapped; as if
I were caught and should never escape
alive. The office woman kept asking
me if I liked this one and that one, until
I said desperately, 'No, I don't see any
one I like.' She scowled darkly. 'But
I will pay my office fee,' I said, 'and
come in again.' Then she graciously
escorted me to the desk and became
deference itself, as she asked me to be
sure and come in to-morrow."
Another way of obtaining fees from
employers is practised to some extent in
this city. A young, strong, attractive
girl with a glib tongue, is engaged by
the office-keeper to sit in the office, and
to talk with any employer who may
come in. She is usually engaged by
the unsuspecting employer; they both
inform the office-keeper of the arrange-
ment; the employer pays the fee — and
the girl does not come. In this way she
secures to the office a number of fees.
Of course, such an office stands in
danger of ruining its own cause; but a
way out of the difficulty is suggested to
the sharper who has entered the doubt-
ful business. The irate employer is
told that the girl has not been seen since
she engaged to go to the place she se-
cured, and that the office will do all in
its power to find her.
Thus it will be seen that the ignorant
girl from "over the sea" soon learns to
think every man's hand is against her,
and so her hand becomes against every
man. She learns to look on offices and
employers as on the same plane, and
what should become one of the pleas-
antest relations becomes almost a war
between employer and employed.
Such girls soon grow into the terrible
creatures that haunt the dens described
above, and are fit to occupy no position
in a respectable family.
While the abuse of the law governing
the fees of employment offices is very
grave, still there are abuses of another
nature much more far-reaching and
subtle in the harm they do, and there-
fore the very hardest to discover.


72
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
While the student of the subject may
argue from one very evident abuse of
the law to another, it is most difficult for
such a one to bring to light any facts re-
garding the immoral traffic in young
girls carried on from year to year in the
heart of the city of Boston. Yet this
evil has become so apparent as to re-
quire the interference of the strong arm
of the law. The text of the statute
covering this point says:—
"Any office holder who shall send
persons asking employment to houses
of ill-fame, shall be required to pay a
fine of not less than $50 nor over $100."
In proof of this illegal practice we
have the testimony of many girls who
have very nearly fallen into the clutches
of these people. Reliable and respect-
able firms, moreover, are from time to
time visited by the keepers of houses of
ill-fame and their services asked. The
head'of one of the largest philanthropic
bureaus reports that sometimes these
women come to her and ask her if she
has any pretty girls. Alleged widowers
frequently require the services of young
and attractive housekeepers. The of-
ficers in charge of one of the most reli-
able bureaus have told of repeated en-
counters with such women and the
evident surprise with which the refusal
to comply with their request is met.
The irreproachable looking men in
search of housekeepers are the hardest
to detect.
It is reported of two bureaus in
Boston that it is a regularly understood
thing between the houses of ill-fame and
these bureaus that they shall have the
"pick of the girls on hand." New ar-
rivals are continual victims to this traf-
fic, while oftentimes respectable women,
looking for the position of housekeeper,
are insulted by men ostensibly in search
of such a worker, in the office, without
the slightest interference from its head.
In Carroll D. Wright's State Bureau
Report of Massachusetts for the year
1886, he says, "Out of 170 working
girls who entered houses of ill-fame
sixty of them were girls in service.
This comprises both work in -private
families and hotel work."
Again it is small wonder that do-
mestic service is held in disrepute, when
the headquarters for service introduces
its clients to a life of shame, as in the
cases above mentioned, or puts them in
the way of it by sending them to ill-paid
places where, as in some large stores, a
pretty girl is supposed to support herself
in a manner other than by reputable
work.
Many instances might be given, all
tending to show that the disrepute into
which offices have fallen because of this
abuse is well founded, although but one
case is on record of a girl's suing an
office for such illegal practice. Usually
the girls are too ignorant and too fearful
to use the weapons the law places in
their hands. They will tell their stories
to sympathizers and friends, sometimes
to reliable office-keepers who have after-
wards secured them good places, and
the would-be reformer hears of these
cases at third or fourth hand long after
they occurred.
All the same it is none the less true,
that many girls who are naturally in-
clined to service are on this account
turned from it. They seek employment
easier to secure, and without the ser-
vices of middlemen. The good offices
find it difficult to secure competent
workers.
Not long ago a conversation was
overheard in one of our oldest employ-
ment offices. It was between the pro-
prietor of a cheap boarding house and
some of the young women in the office.
He asked if they did not want to come
and be waitresses and chambermaids in
his hotel. They did not seem inclined
to think that they did; so he made the
final appeal—
"You better come, it's a fine chance
for the pretty girls to meet all the fel-
lows."
He laughed loudly over this sally,
with one of the men in charge, and the
girls did not seem to resent the remark
in any way whatever. They only asked
what wages he paid.
"A good sight more than you are
worth," rejoined the wicked proprietor,
an answer provoking louder laughter.


THE INTELLIGENCE OFFICE.
73
I recently heard of a case of a young,
green girl, new to this country and to
the city, who was sent from an employ-
ment office to a house of ill-fame.
They had given her the address of this
house on a slip of paper, and she, not
knowing where to find it, inquired of an
older woman whom she met in passing.
The woman was horrified when the
street and number fell from the girl's
lips.
"Why are you going to that place?"
she asked.
"It's to do general housework," the
girl replied proudly. "I got the situa-
tion from "naming the employ-
ment office.
The woman immediately informed
her to what she was going, and the girl
thanked her with tears in her eyes.
"They told me it was a nice boarding
house, and the work easy," she said.
The woman reported the girl as very
pretty indeed, and said she couldn't help
thinking what an attraction she would
prove in a house of that sort.
A young, respectable woman from
the Provinces applied for the position of
working housekeeper in a widower's
home, in answer to the advertisement
issued by an intelligence office. When
she reached the office she found some
one before her, who was talking with
the man. She waited to see if there
were still any chance for her. Pres-
ently the first woman emerged from her
interview flushed and indignant.
"Well, did you take it?" said the wo-
man at the desk.
"No, I didn't, and neither would you,
if he said to you what he said to me."
"Oh, you musn't be too uppish,"
said the office-keeper carelessly, "you
have lost a good place by being too
particular."
This made the second woman think a
little, but she determined to see for her-
self what was wrong. She had talked
for a very few minutes with the man
when he gave her to understand, in
terms most unmistakable, that he ex-
pected her not only to take charge of
his house, but to become his mistress.
She was too indignant for any remon-
strance with the woman in charge, and
hurried away covered with shame and
confusion, to a reliable office, and ob-
tained a place which she now holds as
housekeeper in a private family.
It seems a terrible thing to say, but
there can be no doubt that even more
crying abuses than these are instigated
by some of the keepers of these places.
People owning large estates in the
country frequently desire to hire a man
and his wife, the one for outdoor, the
other for indoor work. Such, osten-
sibly, are provided them; but how hor-
rified such employers would be if they
knew the "respectable couple" they had
engaged were comparative or even,
until that day, utter strangers to each
other, that the only marriage ceremony
that sanctified the union was the desire
of both to obtain "a place," and that the
instigator and abettor of the crime was
the keeper of the office where they were
engaged.
The forged letters of recommenda-
tion are old tricks, and too well known
to need comment.
The above are a few of many inci-
dents that might be given to show the
tendency of the present system, and to
warrant any one in declaring that these
flagrant abuses form a part of the foun-
dation of the evils in domestic service
from which society suffers. Of course,
there are reliable offices, but they are in
a minority.
Can these evils be remedied? This
question would be an admirable one for
women's clubs to discuss, and would be
sure of the interest of many a suffering
housewife.
In a future article the writer will sug-
gest a remedy that has been partially
effective in other localities.


LENTILS.
BY MARIE ADA MOLINEUX, A. M., PH. D.
AVALUABLE food, too little
known and appreciated in the
United States, is named by botan-
ists Ervum lens, and by English-speak-
ing people, the lentil.
It is a plant of the Leguminosae fam-
ily which also boasts beans, pease, and
lupins. No New Englander needs to
be told of the nutritious and agreeable
qualities of beans, and any member of
the family should receive a welcome
proportionate to relationship. How-
ever, it is often found in families that
one individual is worthy of our best re-
gard while a second very properly is
to be excluded from our acquaintance.
Hence to some extent all must be
judged by personal experience on the
recommendation of those who have
proved their value.
In the case of the lentil we must go
far to find its first friends, and shall then
learn that its renown has only grown
with time and that at present it is known
to be more serviceable than "even its
relatives the bean and pea.
To earliest antiquity we turn and
find lentils grown and used in Egypt
and along the Mediterranean. Proba-
bly everyone who speaks of them men-
tions that the mess of red pottage which
Esau received from Jacob was made of
red lentils.
There are many colors, red, yellow,
green, white, and black, and the little
flat seeds measure variously in diameter
from three to eight millimeters, accord-
ing to the variety. There is also a wild
lentil or vetch that is cultivated in Ger-
many. Many varieties of vetches grow
in Great Britian where they are known
as wild pease.
In Egypt one-sixth of the food of
the common people is formed of lentils,
and they are also an article of consider-
able export. The Egyptian lentils are
somewhat more highly esteemed than
those grown in other countries since
they are considered to be more nour-
ishing. All the farmers raise them for
themselves as a matter of course, as
the Irish raise potatoes. In one year
from Egypt there are exported more
than eight thousand, indeed nearer nine
thousand^ tons of lentils. When we
remember that each pod contains but
two seeds we have a more realizing
sense of what an immense crop must be
raised over and above what is needed
for home consumption.
In France a great many lentils are
used, but lately they are not much cul-
tivated because of a fly pest that de-
stroys the seeds and renders the plant
difficult to propagate. Most of what
are consumed are imported from Mor-
avia, Chile, Spain, and Bohemia. Chile
exports from one to three thousand
tons annually.
In India there are many fields of the
pulse and the seed is sown for the most
part on alluvial soils after a great in-
undation. It is what is known as a
winter crop, being planted in Decem-
ber. The natives of India eat the len-
tils prepared with various aromatic
herbs that are supposed to prevent their
causing flatulence, a blame that is at-
tached by some people to both beans
and pease.
In Germany the crop is considerable,
but it is used perhaps more as forage
for cattle, although there, as in other
countries, the peasants and less well-to-
do classes take advantage of the inex-
pensiveness and concentrated nourish-
ment combined in this food.
The best lentils, after the Egyptians,
are grown in Austria and her provinces,
particularly in Moravia and Bohemia,
but in the latter province the exporta-
tion has fallen within twenty years from
five thousand to about six hundred tons
a year. Probably one reason is the fly
74


LENTILS.
75
pest and another the rate of duty put
upon them by importing countries.
In Russia the peasants are fond of
lentils and use them liberally, but need
instruction as to their cultivation and
care; hence the government has taken
especial pains to distribute seed and
information, with interesting results.
In the future they will be more largely
cultivated since the demand for export
is great and increasing.
The Department of Agriculture at
Washington has of late been taking an
interest in gathering and disseminating
information regarding the growth and
uses of the crop, and we may soon see
this cheap and at the same time intrin-
sically valuable food more generally
used. At present it is prized for forage,
either the straw alone or the unthreshed
plant. Dr. Hassall of London drily
says that the rich and poor agree in re-
gard to the desirability of lentils as an
addition to the dietary; only the rich
pay in proportion to their riches, for
they buy the food in the form of a flour
or powder and pay for this preparation
vastly more than it is worth; while the
peasant pays only about eight cents a
quart the man of wealth pays from
twenty-five to seventy-five cents a
pound for "Patent Flour of Lentils," or
"Revalenta," or "Ervalenta." Of the
two latter it may be noted that in times
past there was a very amusing quarrel
between the manufacturers, each de-
nouncing the other as fraudulently of-
fering the public an injurious article of
diet. One of the firms convicted itself
in its own handbill in which it expa-
tiated upon the valuelessness, indeed
the cruel deceptiveness, of the other's
preparation, explaining that it was
nothing but ground lentils and hence
very harmful to delicate stomachs.
Upon analysis its own much-vaunted
preparation proved to be the very flour
so denounced, mixed with barley flour.
The worst of the matter was that a
famous analyst and chemical authority
gave both these manufacturers, and
also some other smaller firms, equally
indorsing analyses for publication.
In earlier days the lentil was not so
much valued as now, but modern die-
tary researches show it should be recom-
mended to notice. Already it serves
the less wealthy classes and there is no
reason why all should not profit.
There are many ways of preparing
the seeds. In Russia they are made in-
to a sort of jelly; in other countries they
are boiled and served like pease.
Dried, they must be boiled slowly for
about three hours. In Austria to the
boiled lentils are added minced fried
onions and plenty of butter. Some
people consider them a delicacy. They
make excellent soup, and a delicious
thick gravy is prepared from them to be
served with partridges. Sometimes
the boiled lentils are mixed with sour-
kraut, and in many foreign restaurants
they are served with certain dishes just
as bread or potatoes would be served in
America. A few ounces of these little
seeds swell to a large dishful during the
cooking. The French add them to the
famous pot-au-feu, and eat them too in
the form of a thick porridge; also
ground to flour they make a kind of
bread of them, as do the Italians.
In America we have eaten them in
soup, as a vegetable, and baked like
baked beans. They taste something
like dried green pease. There is a
great amount of casein in them and a
greater of starch; of "flesh-formers"
there is one part to about two and a
quarter parts of "heat-givers."
The tables of foods prepared by
"grahamites" and vegetarians have long
voted lentils as highest in nutritive value
of any vegetable, outranking both
beans and pease; but to many they have
been only a name without any embodi-
ment. The most economical citizens of
the old world appreciate them as food,
for the reason above stated—because
they combine cheapness with nutritive
value. Americans cannot afford to be
behindhand in such matters, and it de-
pends upon the housewife to prepare a
palatable dish that shall recommend
lentils to the taste of the family.


CHAUTAUQUA COOKING SCHOOL.
'BY ANNETTE BRAGGINS.
THE Chautauqua School of Cookery
was established in 1883 under the
very able management of Mrs.
Emma P. Ewing, whose care and skill
have brought it to its present efficiency.
To write the whole history of the study
of cooking at the popular assembly,
however, we must go back of that date
a year or two. In 1880 or 1881 Miss
Parloa gave the first course of lessons
in cooking ever given at Chautauqua,
but no attempt to organize a school
was made at that time.
For the first three years Mrs. Ewing
met her classes in a mission chapel, a
building about as inadequate and as
inconvenient for the purpose as can be
imagined. Finding the work difficult
under such circumstances, Mrs. Ewing
decided not to return until the assembly
was able to provide better accommoda-
tions. As a result of this decision no
cooking lessons were given at Chau-
tauqua for three years following.
In 1889 the promise of a suitable
building induced Mrs. Ewing to return,
but by some unavoidable change in the
arrangements the building was still a
thing of promise. That summer the
lessons were given in a large tent, which
was so unfortunately placed that the sun
beat mercilessly upon it at almost all
hours of the day. Neither was it water
proof. The rain sometimes poured
through until all the audience raised
unbrellas, and it was no uncommon
sight to see Mrs. Ewing giving a lesson
with an attendant holding an umbrella
over her head as she worked.
Anxious to provide for the cooking
school in some better way the manage-
ment instructed Mr. and Mrs. Ewing to
prepare plans for a suitable building
which they accordingly did. The plans
included the raised seats necessary for
a good view of the platform, and a room
opening from the latter where needful
preparations could be made behind the
scenes.
The model lecture room was ready at
the opening of the season of 1890, and
it was with pardonable pride that Mrs.
Ewing came before her classes that
summer. But the trials of the cooking
school were not yet over. Prof. Wil-
liam Harper, president of the Chau-
tauqua College of Liberal Arts, was
delighted with the arrangement of the
hall, and thinking the best none too
good for his work, coveted the place for
a college chapel. As in everyday life
we see the kitchen receiving only
secondary consideration from men of
learning so it was in this instance, and
Professor Harper prevailed upon Mrs.
Ewing to give up this model lecture
room to him, and the cooking school
made its final move to the present
quarters.
These quarters consist of two large
airy rooms in the Children's Temple.
While not as perfect as those built on
purpose for the work, the present school
is admirably arranged, and well sup-
plied with cupboards, tables, and all
other conveniences. The situation is
better in some respects than the former
location from the fact that it is on the
main street, fronting the park, and any-
body going anywhere on the grounds
is sure to see it.
So much for the home of the school.
The work has succeeded from the first.
Bishop Vincent said that this school
came nearer to paying expenses the first
year than any other department ever es-
tablished at Chautauqua. The receipts
have increased each year and now the
profits are well up in the hundreds.
A few words about the plan of work
followed the past summer. Two depart-
ments are in successful operation, the
usual classes for anyone wishing general
instruction and the normal classes for
76


CHAUTAUQUA COOKING SCHOOL.
77
teachers of cookery. Miss Mary C.
Thompson, for several years a success-
ful teacher in Minneapolis, has been
associated with Mrs. Ewing in all the
work of the season. Miss Thompson is
a graduate of the Boston Cooking
School, of the B. Y. W. C. A. School of
Domestic Science, and of Mrs. Ewing's
normal class. She taught very success-
fully for the Central Woman's Christian
Temperance Union, in the Summer
School of the State Agricultural Col-
lege of Minnesota, and for the past year
has conducted the Minneapolis School
of Cookery. Mrs. Ewing and Miss
Thompson have been assisted in the
work by Miss Maude E. Pike, teacher
of cookery in the Mechanics' Institute
at Rochester, N. Y., and in the normal
department by Miss J. L. Shepperd,
Miss Grace W. Braggins, and Mrs. B.
H. Campbell.
Miss Shepperd is entitled to write the
initials A. B. and A. M. after her name,
having taken the degrees indicated be-
fore she began the study of cooking.
She has had successful experience in
the western states where she taught
under the direction of Farmers' Insti-
tutes and in Dakota State Agricultural
School. At present she has charge of
the culinary department of the Jackson
Sanitorium at Dansville, N. Y.
Miss Braggins has given demonstra-
tion lessons in various towns in northern
Ohio, has had charge of department of
cookery in the Mechanics' Institute of
Rochester, N. Y., and at present is prin-
cipal of one of the cooking schools in
connection with Cleveland public
schools.
Mrs. Campbell is one of Mrs. Ewing's
graduates who has taught very success-
fully at her home in Wichita, Kansas,
and neighboring cities.
In the general department of the
school three courses of ten lessons each
were given, covering a wide range of
subjects. For several years this depart-
ment was the whole of the school.
The Normal Department has a little
history of its own. Like Topsy it
simply "growed." From the first year
of the school, teachers of cookery came
asking for some instruction especially
adapted to their needs. No provision
had been made for this work, but Mrs.
Ewing gave them such help as she
could outside the regular classes.
Three years ago she found that she had
eight such pupils and she then applied
for a department that should meet their
requirements. The result is the suc-
cessful school of the present time. The
plan of the past season was a most com-
plete one. Three courses of lessons
were arranged and the pupils divided
into three classes under the teachers
mentioned above, one class beginning
the first course, another the second, and
the last the third and changing about
until each class had taken the three
courses. In addition to that Mrs.
Ewing, Miss Thompson, and Miss Pike
gave demonstration lessons several
times a week. Abundant opportunity
for practice was afforded the members
of the normal classes, and the food pre-
pared was used at a boarding house
under the same management as the
school, where the bill of fare was so
arranged as to use the materials
furnished by the practice lessons.
One event of particular interest to
teachers of cooking at Chautauqua the
past season was the engagement of a
lecturer on the chemistry of cooking
and kindred subjects. Professor At-
water of Watertown, Conn., was the
man chosen this year, and it is expected
that much more can be done in that line
next season.
Another event of greater interest to
teachers of cookery all over the country
was the formation of an association to
be known as the Cooking School
Teachers' League. It came about
quite naturally. Some one remarked
one day about the number of teachers
of that branch at the assembly, and an
outsider inquired if they ever had a con-
vention. The matter was talked over a
little, finally resulting in a call to all
interested. About twenty persons re-
sponded, representing ten different
states. The organization was effected
and the following officers were chosen:
President, Miss J. L. Shepperd; vice-


78
THE AMERIC AN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
presidents, Miss Maude E. Pike and
Mrs. M. L. Jenkins of Le Moine Insti-
tute, Memphis, Tenn.; secretary and
treasurer, Miss Souther of St. Louis,
Mo.
Invitations will be sent to teachers
of cookery in all parts of the United
States to join this society, and a conven-
tion will be held at Chautauqua next
summer, probably the second Tuesday
in August, at which time the league will
have charge of the programme for the
entire day. The following interesting
problem has been proposed for discus-
sion at that time, or before then in fact,
as each member, present or prospective,
of the league is asked to bring a solu-
tion to the convention next summer.
The question and conditions are these:
Given a family of five consisting of
father, mother, daughter of seventeen,
son of twelve, and a baby one year old,
with a yearly income of a thousand
dollars, required to plan and furnish a
model home for such a family. This
being done to decide what proportion
of the thousand dollars should be spent
for each of the following requirements:
rent, food, dress, education, entertain-
ment, hired service, and charity, in
order that the family may receive the
greatest possible good from the income.
It is understood that if the family owned
the house an amount should be saved
equal to the proportion set apart for
rent. The problem is certainly one of
great interest, and it is proposed to in-
vite an expert in each department to
give his views of the subject, as for in-
stance someone who has studied do-
mestic economy could tell about the
food problem, someone who has studied
the matter of dress thoroughly will be
asked to give advice on that subject,
and so with each subject.
The question will surely interest a
great many people and ought to furnish
a day of profit and entertainment. It
is proposed to build at Chautauqua a
house from the best plan presented to
the convention, or embracing the best
points of several plans.
The management has promised to
arrange for lectures and laboratory
work for the teachers of cookery who
visit the assembly as soon as sufficient
demand is made to warrant such a
departure.
The Cooking School Teachers'
League ought to be a source of helpful-
ness and strength to the members. In
these days when everything is organ-
ized, or associated, it will be strange if
it does not receive most hearty support
from teachers in all parts of the coun-
try and eventually become a national
organization.
MY LITTLE MAID.
BY CORA STUART WHEELEK.
LOOKING into her clear gray eyes,
My Little Maid,
I watch their changeful lights arise
Not undismayed;
For should I wrong her gentle trust—
Serene, complete—
What keenest loss forever must
My future meet.
We walk through ways with danger fraught,
Of naught afraid,
In sweet exchange of inmost thought;
My Little Maid.


NOT MUSHROOM GROWTH.
BY JULIUS A. PALMER, PRESIDENT BOSTON MYCOLOGICAL CLUB.
WHEN the politician wishes to
speak contemptuously of an op-
ponent's success, or the real es-
tate operator desires to belittle the
scheme of a rival speculator, the favorite
term to use is that referring adjectively to
the mushroom; when any movement is
so characterized, its sudden appearance,
transient existence, and speedy decay
are all declared and defined in one con-
venient word. It is quite useless to
quarrel with the fitness of the term; the
very name cryptogam indicates the se-
crecy in which the fungi are propagated
and grown, but the eye of the superficial
observer sees only the result, so for the
careless seeker for pasture mushrooms
or handy similes this typical use of the
word will doubtless be continued.
Adapting, then, our language to pop-
ular usage, it may be authoritatively
stated that progress in the use of mush-
rooms and toadstools has not been of
mushroom growth. It has been a very
gradual and cautious development, and
it is yet in its infancy. Over twenty
years ago, being in London, I procured
the best manuals on the subject, and be-
gan the study, unaided by a single com-
panion, unsought by a single corres-
pondent. There was a gentleman in
Boston who had been a correspondent
of Dr. Curtis, the most noted of Ameri-
can mycologists. Seeking his ac-
quaintance, I was most courteously re-
ceived and shown a large collection of
dried fungi, these being supplemented
by careful botanical descriptions. But
when inquiring of their properties, I
was told by the collector of them that
he never ate any mushrooms excepting
those bought at the groceries in tin cans.
The Lowell Institute advertised a
course of lectures on the subject to be
delivered by an expert; not the least al-
lusion to the poisonous or esculent char-
acter of the plants was made; micro-
scopes of wonderful power had been
provided, and all the various moulds
appeared like immense growths of
forest trees.
Turning to the books, I found (and
this is still true in the standard hand-
books of British fungi) that the object
of the compilers had been to trace out
and define species with botanical exact-
itude, without regard to their chemical
or economical uses. Taking up, then,
the popular manuals, where the warn-
ing "poisonous" appeared, it was ap-
plied indiscriminately to the deadly
white summer mushroom, the little false
champignon, the acrid russula or the
peppery milk mushroom; and even of
late this usage has changed but in a
trifling degree, as can be seen by refer-
ence to the pamphlets issued at Wash-
ington.
In 1876, a very remarkable case of
poisoning took place in this country,
and from the physicians in attendance
and the sole survivor, I procured the
most exact details; these were so re-
markable that in common with medical
men, it seemed to me that there must
have been some of the better known
poisons unwittingly eaten on the occa-
sion of the fatal repast; but taking this
one case as a basis, and applying by let-
ter to each medical man who by news-
paper report had had a case of mush-
room poisoning, as well as by experi-
ments in a limited degree upon myself,
I was enabled in 1878 to issue an article
on "Amanitine and its Antidote," for
which a publisher was sought in vain.
Editors may be forgiven that they were
no more omniscient than their contribu-
tors. The most notable instance of this
was in Scribner's, from whose publish-
ers came a personal letter refer-
ring me to an article just printed
by them exhausting the same sub-
ject; I procured the number to
79


80
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
which reference was made only
to discover that there was not one single
hint of the matter of which I had treated,
nor any evidence of originality in re-
search; that on the contrary, I could
have gone through the contribution and
shown the text-books from which each
statement had been taken. A recent
article in Harper's is in marked con-
trast with that of the earlier date;
the latter containing about as fine
illustrations of the Amanita in its vari-
ous stages of growth as have appeared
in print. My article was welcomed on
the other side of the water, and being
published by the Moniteur Scientifique
in Paris soon found its way amongst the
medical magazines of this country.
In the meantime my letter box was
daily inundated with correspondence,
and few were the- weeks during the sea-
son of the growth of fungi when visitors
failed to appear with specimens for iden-
tification; the interest had grown so that
the lithographic publishers, Messrs.
Prang & Co., were encouraged to at-
tempt the illustration of the subject in
an incomplete but popular manual.
The credit of this work should be given
to Mr. Louis Prang and not to me. He
came to me as a perfect stranger; I ad-
vised him to the best of my ability, but
even after I had gathered the specimens,
assisted his artists in the preparation of
the plates, and prepared the written mat-
ter, five years or more elapsed before
the work was published. It appeared
in 1885. Segregating the deadly Aman-
ita from all its fellows, showing how the
puff-balls, russulse and boleti may be
properly used for food, this work was
original in its conception and still re-

mains the most useful one to those who
wish to begin the use of mushrooms as
an addition to the food products of the
land. Its very incompleteness is an evi-
dence of the progress made.
But the greatest growth of all is to be
seen in the number of those now inter-
ested in the use of fungi as food. Is it
considered at all obligatory that he who
eats of the fruits of the trees of the gar-
den should decide botanically upon the
apple, the pear, or the quince? Is it
not enough that each child should learn
the identity and use of esculent vege-
tables, leaves, herbs, and fruits? Some-
thing of this common sense has at last
made its appearance in the use of mush-
rooms. At one of the meetings of the
Boston Mycological Club, a gentleman
making no pretence to botanical knowl-
edge, showed the Polyporus betulinus
to be when properly cooked and served
one of the most delicious of edibles; it
is most easily identified, growing only
on the birch, and having no poisonous
relative; now in thus adding one more
to the list of useful mushrooms, this in-
dividual has done more for his fellows
thtan if he had devoted a lifetime to
botanical classification. It is necessary
that each person should be able to pick
from a basket of assorted fungi the very
mushroom of which he intends to eat;
it is essential that he should say whether
it is a lactarius, a russula, a puff-ball or
a boletus; discrimination should be cul-
tivated, exact botanic analysis is out of
the question, if for no other reason be-
cause each scientist gives to any indi-
vidual specimen a name, chosen by him-
self for the occasion.


GOSSIP FROM GOTHAM.
BY DINAH STURGIS.
WHEN we are dead and turned to
clay it will not matter in the
least whether in November,
1895, our dinner cards were 2^x3^
inches, or the size of a bill poster
for a forty-horse-power melodrama.
But so long as we are alive and giving
dinners it helps to make trade brisk, if
nothing more, to patronize every new
wrinkle that has the prestige of being
considered "good form."
Both that given above and 2x2$
inches are quite correct sizes for dinner
cards, and Tiffany is cutting no others
save for large official functions. The
day of the highly decorated dinner card
has gone by, and the one now in vogue
on elegant private tables is a plain white
card with a gilt edge, or the edge may be
bevelled and gilded. The family crest
or the monogram of the family name
appears on some dinner cards, but often-
er no decoration at all is employed. The
names are never put on in the gilt let-
tering formerly seen in good society, but
are either written or engraved. The
latter custom of very "smart" hostesses
upon very formal occasions necessitates
of course having a die engraved for Mr.
Jones-Smith, and another for Miss
Brown-Robinson, and others for each
of the other guests. But inasmuch as
these good people, at least the men and
the married women, are likely to remain
upon one's visiting list, the dies are
equally useful for future occasions when
these same people are again entertained
at dinner.
¥ ¥
I notice that the invitations to the
fashionable weddings that have been
issued thus far are upon square sheets
that fold once into oblong envelopes.
The square envelope and oblong sheet
that have obtained so long in stationery
for polite correspondence are giving
way to the innovation noted in the wed-
ding invitations, and the square sheet
and long envelope for the next few
months at any rate, will be considered a
shade nearer to the perfection of style
than any other shape.
White or cream unglazed paper with
a parchment surface is the correct thing
in note paper. Colored papers may
come, and colored papers go, but they
are not used by elegant people. There
is a faint gray-blue shade so light as
hardly to be called colored, that holds
its own from season to season. Ruled
paper is of course relegated to book-
keepers' ledgers and the back woods,
and all emblems of every kind save a
possible crest or monogram are tabooed
on fashionable paper, except in the
yachting season; then the little mes-
sengers bidding to peas and hominy,
or what does duty on the fashionable
deck for these modest treats, bear the
private signals and club colors of the
yacht from which its owner issues the
invitations.
Very many fashionable people omit
from their note paper the crest they have
an inherited right to use, and have
merely the address engraved upon each
sheet. The lettering is the simplest
possible; the colors most in vogue are
black, silver, and blue; red and also gold
are used but not so much as the other
colors.
Tiffany takes a good many orders
still for monograms or initials as a head-
ing for note paper, but the best taste has
never sanctioned their use; they are too
much like an avowed substitute for a
crest. Where monograms are em-
ployed on nice note paper they are set
this season within a tiny circle, or a
double one. Sometimes there is an
oval background, and occasionally a
finely engraved and embossed wreath
encircles the lettering. Where a crest
Si


82
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
or monogram appears on paper bearing
the street address in town or the name
of the country place, the address is at
the upper right side, and the crest at the
upper left side, and neither is very con-
spicuous.
Sealing wax is in quite general use,
but half the women who use it make the
blunder of first sticking the mucilaged
flap down. Fashionable women have
their note paper made to order and the
mucilage is omitted from the flap of the
envelope altogether. This gives a gen-
uine excuse for using sealing wax which
is more dignified, suggesting elegant
leisure, and altogether nicer than
the "stickum" envelopes. Women who
use sealing wax properly always first
put a drop under the edge of the tip of
the flap. This fastens the envelope.
Then add a smooth circular drop of
wax, stamp it with the crest or mono-
gram on the seal, and the process is
complete, the result elegantly neat, and
the letter safely enclosed. Sealing wax
on a mucilaged envelope is ridiculous.
* ¥
A loud and noisy hunt for wedding
presents breaks upon the stillness of
the town. (Stillness by poetic license
at present; by the mercy of the gods
some day, perhaps. Truly the street
noises in New York are of infernal
magnitude, worse than those of any
other city on the globe!)
Do you wish to buy her a watch? Well,
then, the dearest one, in more senses
than that of the feminine appellation
for lovely, has covers of transparent
enamel through which tracery beneath
shows daintily. Incrustations of dia-
monds and other gems about the edge,
and on a diagonal strip across the upper
case add to the impressions these up-to-
date time pieces make upon your appre-
ciation and your check book.
There is a new notion in cutting
stones to the fore. Rubies, emeralds,
sapphires, and precious gems of their
ilk are cut "en cabochin" which means
like a plain nail head, with no facets.
This is a test of the beauty of the color-
ing and the depth of the stone. An-
other notion for spending money and
indulging one's love of jewels is to have a
chain, say, for the lorgnette, studded full
with all sorts of jewels, no two cut or
set alike. By the way, the best test I
know for blood royal is one's ability to
handle a lorgnette without giving one's
self the airs of an impertinent sales-
woman. Some saleswomen have the
manners of a real queen. But there is
nothing so impertinent anywhere on
earth as an impertinent saleswoman.
Most women fail utterly to use a lorg-
nette with the air of a gentlewoman.
Tiffany and the other leading jewel-
lers say that ear rings are coming in as
surely as nature makes little apples!
This relic of barbarism was thought to
have passed forever. But! Of course
the pain of having the ears pierced isn't
comparable to that of wearing a tight
shoe, but it is the idea of mutilating the
body in order to display ornaments that
is so revolting. Still I tell the tale as it
is told to me; ear rings are coming "in"
again. I'm sorry.
Don't buy her even diamond studded
side combs. Side combs are already
passe.
She will probably appreciate some of
the new strawberry forks, with their
short gold handles, and graceful slender
silver tines. Butter knives with silver
handles and gold blades are novel, and
do not look daubed as soon as used
once. The proper way to present a set
of butter knives (they are individual
knives) is to send them with a set of
bread and butter plates in solid silver.
A beautiful design now being made to
order has gold centres for the plates and
filigree open or pierced rims on the
plates. Orange sets either in pairs for
tete a tete sets or in dozens have the
pointed bowl spoons and knives with
one saw edge made in the same style.
The new asparagus sets, for the idea
of which we are indebted to a clever
London silversmith, are delightfully
useful and ornamental. In solid silver
they come high, but the best plate is


GOSSIP FROM GOTHAM.
83
fairly reasonable. There are several
designs in the dishes themselves, all
of them with racks of one or another
description. A nice design has a sup-
port at one side for the sauce pitcher,
and the asparagus tongs all have one
blade pierced in order to drain the de-
licious stalks. There are also indi-
vidual tongs for eating asparagus to be
had not for love but for money.
The decorative enamel in colors has
been superseded by niello, a composi-
tion substance in various colors which
is as pretty as the enamel, and does not
easily chip or break as that does.
The most novel dinner coffee service
at Tiffany's includes a tray, coffee pot,
tongs and sugar bowl of silver orna-
mented with niello and black copper.
The cups and saucers are to be selected
of china of course. For the thick
Turkish coffee, of which very little is
served at a time, the newest design for a
service has a crescent-shaped tray hold-
ing pot, bowl, tongs, spoons and pierced
silver stands for the tiny china cups
which are removable.
¥ *
The Parisians, for want of something
better to do, have been experimenting
with tin, and have turned out a ware
which they call "Etain," a cast tin, which
is unique, and really ornamental for
placques, vases, and similar decorative
models. An idea of the detailed work
in some of the designs may be had from
picturing to yourselves one of the most
ornate patterns: a vine wreathed wall,
lizards creeping in and out of the leaves,
one peeping out of a crevice, playing at
peek-a-boo with a lazy grasshopper.
Bronzes are in demand for wedding
presents for people with taste sufficient-
ly cultivated to appreciate the beauty
of the wonderfully perfect bas-reliefs on
the fine examples.
The lustre of the Massier faience may
please the bride elect. Or her fancy
may be caught by the Swedish pottery
which is not handsome but is novel and
petted by fashion just at present. Visions
of lovely coloring and graceful form are
wrought in the glassware of the day, but
a maid made to order ought to accom-
pany each gift of it, so utterly is its
superlative delicacy and beauty at vari-
ance with the heavy-handed person who
passed her early years stumbling over
peat bogs or among the immovable
machines of some factory.
¥ ¥
When you have selected your wed-
ding present, whether it be an Oriental
baroque pearl, its rough crudity set ele-
gantly in gold, or a Texan pony all sad-
dled and bridled and ready to ride, bear
in mind that the visiting card which you
send with it has changed in style of late.
It is as always of unglazed white card,
but it is so thin this winter it is
little more than a wafer, and smaller
than ever before. Roman lettering is
thought to be the most exclusive style
of lettering, although script is more in
evidence.
It used to be de riguer for the bride
to acknowledge each gift by a personal
note, and she must do so nowadays
when the gift comes from a personal
friend or a well known acquaintance.
But there are so many gifts of form that
it becomes a physical impossibility for a
fashionable bride to write in person to
each one who sends her a present, and
instead of having a secretary reply,
which is not much of a compliment to
the donor, it is the fashion to have for-
mal cards of polite acknowledgment
engraved and sent to each one who does
not come within the pale of friendship,
but whose connection with one or the
other branch of the family through re-
lationship, or profession, or business, or
what not, has prompted paying the
bridal the honor of a present to signa-
lize the good wishes. How the lists of
presents would be cut down though if
nobody gave save those who really
wished to do so, and how the magni-
tude of the gifts would be reduced in
commercial value if only those gave
presents who could afford to do so and
such presents as they could afford. If
the millennium were here—but it isn't.


THANKSGIVING—OUR AMERICAN FESTIVAL
The Day Before—The Dinner—The Recipes.
BY MARY J. LINCOLN.
THIS is the month when many in-
quiries come in for a new menu for
the Thanksgiving dinner. It seems
strange that any one can question what
to have at this time. However much
one may desire to vary her bill of fare
from week to week, or for those special
occasions where the dinner or the
guests, and not the day itself, are the dis-
tinctive features, on this occasion cer-
tain dishes have been so long and so in-
timately associated with the day, that
they are naturally suggested, at least to
those who have from childhood known
all that the day means. And it would
appear that the only question could be
not what, but how much to have. This
must be determined by the depths of
one's purse and heart, the number to be
entertained, and the amount of service
needed and help obtainable.
It ought to be a pleasant change for
those who are accustomed every day to
the regulation elaborate dinner of many
courses, to go back for this one day at
least, to the informal yet bountiful feast
of the olden time, with its hearty cheer,
good-will, sociability and limitless hos-
pitality. Those whose daily fare may
be somewhat stinted should have on
this day of gladness, if they can afford
them, some of the luxuries of the table,
or a little more elaborate serving than
usual, and it would be well if those who
always have an abundance would give
less thought and money to their own
dinner, and make the day a time of gen-
uine thanksgiving to some of the count-
less lonely, homeless, friendless people
who are all about us.
For this day means something more
than feasting; it means friends and
plenty of them, and if you haven't as
many of your own kith and kin as used
to gather round the hearth in the dear
old home, then join hands with others
who may have even less than you have.
As was said recently to the newcomers
in one of our churches, "Don't consider
yourself as the stranger, and wait to be
spoken to or invited; but as the host or
hostess, and seek out and greet the
others with all the heartiness you can
express."
The day is so associated with the old-
time life in the country, and with the
farm, that the special products of the
farm that are gathered in at this time,
have come to be considered as particu-
larly belonging to the day's dinner. In
our great-grandmother's day, the chick-
ens of November were long past the
broiler age and just in the condition
for prime roasting, and any that were
too old for that form of cooking were
made to do service in the chicken pie,
or simply boiled. The turkeys were
usually not fattened and ready until
then, and many families would have
thought it wholly out of place to dress
and cook one before Thanksgiving.
Sometimes the first pigs were killed
about this time and the spare-ribs were
roasted for the dinner, or the fresh chops
were fried for the breakfast, but I do not
remember at all the many places where
I was entertained during my childhood,
ever to have seen a boiled or baked salt
ham served at a Thanksgiving dinner,
although it may have been common in
some parts of the country. If ducks
formed a part of the poultry stock and a
large number of guests were to be en-
tertained, these often accompanied the
chickens, but never held the place of
honor as did the turkey. In towns not
too far inland, oysters were included in
the feast, but it was not common to have
anything so foreign as macaroni, or so
common as roast or boiled beef or mut-
ton.
The green peas, sweet corn, shelled
84


THANKSGIVING — OUR AMERICAN FESTIVAL.
85
beans and other summer and early fall
vegetables were eaten in their season,
and as there was no canning in those
days, no summer vegetables except
dried sweet corn and beans for the win-
ter succotash, and such vegetables and
fruits as were pickled, jellied, or pre-
served, were ever seen on the tables in
the winter months. But the winter
vegetables, especially the turnips,
squashes, and onions, and the pumpkin,
which was then eaten as a vegetable as
well as in pies, were safely stored in the
capacious cellar, the cranberries which
were to take the place of the summer
berries were spread out on the shed
chamber floor, and many a barrel of
apples—Greenings, Baldwins, Peck's
Pleasants, Russets, and other varieties
were garnered to furnish food through
the long cold winter. Occasionally
some ambitious farmer hid away in the
hay mow a choice watermelon, or care-
fully stored some grapes or late pears to
be brought out as a surprise on the last
of November for a favorite grandchild.
These vegetables and fruits and the nuts
which the children gathered during the
frosty October days—chestnuts, butter-
nuts, common walnuts, shagbarks or
shellbarks as we are taught to call them
now, beechnuts, and even the tiny hazel
nuts, were the staple articles of food at
Thanksgiving time. And so all of us
who are old enough to remember the
Thanksgiving dinners before the civil
war, will always associate the turkey,
chicken, cranberry sauce, winter vege-
tables, mince and pumpkin pies, and the
New England plum pudding with this
day.
I fancy the good housewives of those
days would look askance at a modern
Thanksgiving table, with its bisques
and purees, its French peas and salmon,
its sweetbreads and sweet potatoes, its
salads, pistachio ice creams, salted pea-
nuts and Roquefort cheese.
Therefore it would seem to every
loyal American and especially to every
New England heart, not the time or the
occasion to have something new, but to
honor the old; not the day to use for-
eign products but our own seasonable
national foods; not the place for any
crushed strawberry or "greenery-yel-
lowy" silk and satin decorations, or to
introduce any senseless methods of serv-
ing merely because they are the latest
fad. For this day at least let us dis-
pense with all formality that will be in
any way awkward or unpleasant for any
of our guests.
Make the occasion one to be remem-
bered for its generous consideration for
others, the kindly lending of hands and
interchange of thought and interests,
rather than for the amount of food, the
number of courses, or the style in which
they were served. Make it a day of
genuine thanksgiving for home, for
friends, for country, and for all the in-
numerable host of smaller blessings
which we can easily find if we look for
them.
But we must not forget that the times
have changed in many ways; the condi-
tions of life in city and country are quite
unlike those of the early Thanksgiving
days. There is more money in circula-
tion and it is more easily obtained by
some and less so by others. There are
more varieties of food cultivated, and
the produce of our distant states and of
every foreign country is at our doors for
almost the entire year. A large part of
our population are strangers to the sen-
timents and associations which have
been the birthright of many of our peo-
ple. The family ties are not so strongly
knit now that the younger members
have the whole continent from which to
choose a place to "settle and build up
new homes," and it is no longer the cus-
tom for all to return to the old home in
the country at least once a year. Coun-
try homes have been broken up, fami-
lies scattered, and thousands of city chil-
dren have never known the delight of a
Thanksgiving day at Grandma's; and
so it is difficult to keep up the spirit and
custom of the old day even at the dinner.
We no longer plan to cook enough at
that time to last all winter or to pur-
chase a winter's supply of vegetables,
fruits, etc. We have learned that it is
extremely unwise to gorge ourselves,
even on that day, and if Grandma does


86
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
urge us so persuasively, "Do have
something more." Therefore we com-
bine some of the new foods and new
methods with the old, and while keeping
a few distinctive dishes, add such others
as will make a harmonious whole, and
adapt our serving to the varied circum-
stances of modern life.
I have been interested to learn how
the Thanksgiving dinner has varied in
different sections of the country, and in
response to my inquiries a large num-
ber of menus have been received, some
of which I have inserted in this number.
I have arranged one quite elaborate
menu for those who prefer such a din-
ner, another more simple and adapted
to people who are tired of the old stereo-
typed dinner, and care more for suita-
ble combinations and refined serving
than for mere feasting, and still another
for the average family of small means
which yet desires dishes appropriate for
this day.
A MODERN THANKSGIVING DINNER.
Raw Oysters. Thin Brown Bread.
Consomme. Bread Sticks. Radishes.
Roast Turkey. Chestnut Stuffing. Cranberry Sauce.
Boiled Potatoes. Squash. Glazed Sweet Potatoes.
Chicken Pie. Fringed Celery.
Lemon Ginger Sherbet.
Baked Quail. Cauliflower.
Lettuce Salad.
Edam Cheese. Wafers.
Plum Pudding. Snowflake Sauce.
Pumpkin Pie. Apple Pie.
Butternuts. Shellbarks. Pop Corn. Raisins.
Apples. Pears. Grapes.
Coffee.
Although poultry is the distinctive
dish for a Thanksgiving dinner, do not
carry it to the extreme of having boiled
turkey and roast turkey, or boiled
chicken and chicken pie, nor have any
dish or sauce repeated. We sometimes
see menus which have evidently been
arranged with but little thought, and
which suggest oyster soup and scal-
loped oysters or oyster stuffing, celery
stuffing and celery salad, or squash as
a vegetable and squash pie, etc.
If you wish to carry out the old time-
honored customs, have no scheme of
color or ribbon decorations on your
Thanksgiving table. Where would
have been the room for ribbons on
grandmother's bountifully spread table,
and what need of color other than the
rich browns of the frequently basted
MENU FOR A THANKSGIVING
DINNER.
(Not a feast but just enough to eat and enjoy.)
Oyster Soup. Browned Crackers.
Olives. Salted Chestnuts.
Boiled Fowl. Maize Sauce. Potato Balls.
Roast Ducks. Cranberry Jelly.
Browned Sweet Potatoes.
White Bread. Boiled Onions. Brown Bread.
Celery and Apple Salad.
Brie Cheese. Wafers.
Pumpkin Pie.
Grapes. Nuts. Pears.
Coffee.
PLAIN DINNER OF FIVE COURSES.
Tomato Soup.
Roast Spare Rib. Apple Sauce.
Boiled Potatoes. Turnips.
Pumpkin Pie.
Apples. Nuts. Pop Corn.
Coffee.
PLAIN DINNER —TWO COURSES.
Roast Chicken. Bread Stuffing. Giblet Gravy.
Mashed Potatoes. Turnips. Onions.
Brown Bread. Currant Jelly. Salted Peanuts.
Bread and Fruit Pudding. Lemon Sauce.
Squash Pie. Cranberry Tart.
Apples. Nuts. Raisins.
birds, or the lighter shades of pies and
nuts, the golden hues of squash and
pumpkin, the ruby jelly, and the ming-
ling of all in the dish of fruits, nature's
own tints for this season of the year?
We will choose for our decorations
for this dinner, a centre piece of fruit,
tastefully arranged , in a low dish, on a
reflector if you have one, and flanked
by the dishes of radishes, cranberry
sauce, celery, and the usual table ap-
pointments of decorated china, silver,
and brilliant glass. We will be particu-
lar to select the rosy and yellow apples,
the green and purple grapes, the golden-
brown pears, and these with our vivid
radishes and jellies will blend and har-
monize with the deep browns of the
principal dishes, just as these rich shades
have been mingled in the woods during
the late autumn days.


THANKSGIVING — OUR AMERICAN FESTIVAL.
87
Or we may not care to have the fruit
on the table during the service, as many
people think the sight of it for so long a
time destroys the appetite for it; but this
is one of the occasions when but little
fruit would be taken on account of the
abundance preceding it and so that ob-
jection is not of much weight. But if
so, autumn leaves will be an appropriate
decoration. Gather them when in their
full beauty of color, cover them with a
sheet of paper, press with a hot iron
upon which paraffine has been rubbed,
then dry them between papers. They
will keep their bright color some time.
They may be arranged on and around
the reflector and scattered carelessly
and yet with design over the table, and
two small leaves may be tied with bright
baby ribbon and attached to the menu
or the name card. This bit of ribbon
would surely be allowed.
Unless there be snow on the ground
or a long time of frosty weather in the
weeks preceding, you may perhaps find
in the woods some of the green vines,
fall St. John'swort, and the fall rosettes
which Mr. Gibson has described in
"Sharp Eyes." If in the city, you have
unlimited resources at the florists, but
let your choice be suitable to the season,
for flowers associated with spring would
seem out of place on this day.
In serving the dinner do not attempt
more than your waitress can do success-
fully. If you are accustomed to full
service in your daily living and have all
the appointments you do not need any
suggestions from me, and there is not
room in this number for explicit direc-
tions for those who do need them. In
some other number we shall have an
article devoted to this subject. I will
give only a brief outline of the service.
If you have not a full complement of
waiters, part of the service may be
rather informal. The oysters are placed
on the table before the guests are seated.
On each bread and butter plate put two
triangles of the brown bread, two or
three short soup-sticks, and two narrow
wafers for the salad course, with the
ball of butter. The latter is not needed
really, but as some people never eat
gravies they may prefer to use butter
on their potato; and it is more hospita-
ble, even if not "stylish," to serve it.
Two dishes of radishes, the cranberry
sauce, and fringed celery may be placed
in spaces convenient to the guests and
where they will not interfere with the
principal dishes. These may all be
passed informally, and as they are ar-
ranged before the company assemble,
it will help materially in the serving and
make the dinner more social.
The host will carve the turkey and
serve the stuffing, and the maid will
place the plate before the guest and then
pass the vegetables and gravy at the left.
The chicken pie is set before the hostess
and is served on separate and smaller
plates; or it may be served as a course
by itself. Then all this course is re-
moved and the sherbet, served in low
glass cups, is brought in from the side.
This should be eaten very leisurely for
there is much to follow.
The quail may be served alone by the
host, or at the same time that the host-
ess serves the salad. If with the salad,
then the cheese should be served after
the dessert. When the salad course is
finished remove everything except such
of the decorations as belong to the des-
sert, remove the crumbs with a crumb
knife, and arrange the fruit and nuts in
the middle or about the table, and place
the pudding before the host, the pies
before the hostess, and the necessary
silver before each guest. After these
are served and removed the maid brings
to each guest a fruit plate with a finger
bowl resting on a small doiley and a nut
pick and fruit knife beside it.
The coffee may be poured by the
hostess, or served from the side, or if
possible, in the parlor after the party
adjourn there.
Remember this is not a time for the
formalities that we extend to strangers,
or to some special guests to whom
others wish to listen,- and where hosts
and guests prefer not to be diverted by
any attention to the service. But it is a
dinner for the family, where those who
come from afar want to feel that they
are at home again and can help without


88
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
its being considered an interference,
where grandpa can discuss his crops or
his son's business prospects and grand-
ma will not think it "not in good form"
but will blush with pleasure if you com-
pliment her culinary skill or covet her
antique china. Perhaps grandpa, or
Uncle John if he be the host, will not
object if some member of the party
does watch him intently and try to re-
member all his dexterous turns of the
carving knife. Cousins and young folks
will compare notes on their progress in
school work or discuss books and
operas, and children will have a good
share of attention and enjoyment. And
so in the happy interchange of experi-
ence, reminiscence, and courtesies, the
dinner should go on to the end.
THE DAY BEFORE.
Housekeepers who live remote from
markets often are obliged to dress poul-
try, sometimes to kill it. Even if this
be not the case, it is something every
one should know how to do, or they
may be in the position of one lady I
knew who, when company came unex-
pectedly during the absence of her help,
had to serve ham and eggs instead of a
pair of the fat chickens in her own poul-
try yard, simply because neither she
nor any of her guests dared to kill and
dress them.
If it should be your lot to be the ex-
ecutioner you may hold the fowl over a
chopping block and with a quick stroke
of the hatchet, sever the head from the
body, but I will not guarantee that life
will be extinct instantly, or that you
will riot witness some unexpected gym-
nastics. Or you may prefer to hold the
bird firmly and cut the vein in the neck
and let it bleed to death. Hang it up
by the feet.
Poultry when dressed at the market
needs careful inspection as soon as re-
ceived.
The practice of sending poultry to
market undressed is one that demands
as earnest opposition from housekeep-
ers as that of the adulteration of food.
The meat is rendered unfit to eat, is
sometimes infected with poison; and the
increase in weight makes poultry a very
expensive food.
With game that is intended to be
hung some time it is customary not to
pluck the feathers even, until ready to
be cooked. It is said there is less dan-
ger of its spoiling if it is not opened.
It would be better on many accounts
if all American people were as scrupu-
lous about this matter as those of some
other nations.
All poultry should be dressed as soon
as killed. The feathers come out more
easily when the fowl is warm, and when
stripped off toward the head. If the
skin be very tender, pull the feathers
out the opposite way. Use a knife to
remove the pin feathers.
Singe the hairs and down over blaz-
ing paper. Then wash the skin of the
turkey thoroughly in warm water in
which a little soda has been dissolved.
It is better to do this before the bird has
been cut. The drumstick of a turkey
is greatly improved by removing the
tendons, which always become hard and
bony in baking. Cut carefully through
the skin below the leg-joint, but do not
cut the tendons; bend the leg at the cut
by pressing it on the edge of the table,
and break off the bone. Then pull out
the tendons, one at a time, with the fin-
gers; or, all at once, by putting the foot
of the fowl against the casing of a door
that opens towards you, then pressing
the door hard against the foot, and pull-
ing on the leg. The tendons will come
out attached to the foot, but if they are
once cut they can never be removed.
There is an advantage in breaking the
leg below instead of at the joint, as the
ends of the bones afford more length
for trussing, and, after roasting, this is
easily broken off, leaving a clean un-
burned joint for the table.
Cut off the head. Slip the skin back
from the neck and cut the neck off half
way down, or close to the body if
you prefer, but always leave the skin
longer than the neck, so it may be
folded over on the back. Remove the
wind-pipe and turn the skin over; pull
the crop away from the neck and breast


THANKSGIVING — OUR AMERICAN FESTIVAL.
89
and cut it off close to the opening into
the body. If the bird be not drawn at
the market make a circular cut around
the vent to free the end of the intestine.
Cut out the oil bag in the tail. Make a
horizontal incision through the skin
one inch above the vent and wide
enough to insert the two fingers. Keep
the fingers close to the breast bone until
you can reach in beyond the gizzard
and heart, and loosen the membranes on
either side down toward the back.
Then draw out the whole mass, and
afterward remove the lungs which lie
close to the ribs and the soft brown kid-
neys found in the hollow of the back.
Now I am free to confess that I can-
not do this without soiling my hands,
for the poultry in this section has more
or less of blood or colored liquid left in
these internal organs, and there is a
great quantity of greasy fat and slimy
mucus, which must be removed, even if
the fowl has been bled. Possibly there
are varieties of fowls in other places
that are destitute of these as I have
heard it said that "there is no occasion
to soil even the tips of the fingers." It
may be possible when the first part of
the process has been done at the market,
but I prefer to wash my hands. Have
a large piece of brown paper under the
bird to protect the table, and gather the
waste up in the paper and put it into the
fire.
Wash the bird quickly in warm soda
water and then in cold water and wipe
dry. Washing does not mean soaking
in a pan of water, but a quick rubbing
all over and rinsing.
Place the fowl in a deep bowl and put
in the stuffing at the end of the neck
until the breast is filled round and
plump. Draw the neck skin together
at the end and sew it over on the back.
Put the remainder of the stuffing into
the body at the other opening. Use
enough to fill in lightly.
The best and most wholesome stuff-
ing is made by crumbling the soft inside
of a loaf of stale bread; moisten the
crumbs slightly with melted butter, and
season with salt, pepper and slightly
with thyme. The steam from the fowl
will furnish sufficient moisture, and the
stuffing will be light and delicate in-
stead of soggy, rank and heavy. Do
not use sage, or sausage, or season
highly with any herb, if you wish to pre-
serve the natural flavor of the turkey.
The giblets, or oysters, celery, or chest-
nuts make an agreeable variety.
Draw the thighs close to the body and
put a long skewer through the thigh
into the body and out through the op-
posite thigh. If the incision be made
as directed, the ends of the drumsticks
may be put through the opening and
out at the vent, and then fastened to the
tail with a skewer or with twine; but,
if made in the usual way, cross the
drumsticks over the tail. Turn the tips
of the wings back and keep them in
position close to the body (not up on the
breast) by running a skewer through
one wing, under the breast and out
through the other wing. Wind a string
from the tail to the skewer in the thigh,
then up the back to the one in the wing,
across the back to the other wing, then
down to the opposite thigh and tie firm-
ly at the tail.
Put the turkey on a rack in a pan,
rub well with butter, salt, and flour.
Put the nice pieces of turkey fat on the
breast.
Put it into a hot oven for five minutes
or until the flour begins to color; then
reduce the heat and add a pint of water.
Melt one-quarter cupful of butter in a
cupful of hot water and baste with it
often, until some of the fat of the turkey
has been drawn out into the pan; or
spread a piece of clean paper with soft
butter and lay it over the turkey. When
the paper is dry and brown lay on an-
other piece, and when this is dry baste
with the dripping and add more water
as it boils away. Baste often and when
half done dredge again with flour, to
give the outside a frothy appearance.
Cook the turkey slowly after the first
slight browning, and quicken the fire
the last half hour if the bird be not suf-
ficiently browned. An eight or ten
pound turkey will cook in two or three
hours. It is done if the thigh seems
tender when pierced with a small fork,


90
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
and appears as if it would separate easily
from the body.
Remove the turkey to a small pan and
keep it warm while you make the gravy.
Pour off nearly all the fat from the drip-
ping pan. The water will be nearly if
not wholly gone. Set the pan on the
stove, and stir two tablespoonfuls of
dry flour into the fat. Scrape off all
the brown fat that has adhered to the
edges and add more flour till the fat is
all absorbed. When the fat and flour
are brown, and not until then, add grad-
ually the boiling water. As it thickens,
at first it will seem as if the fat and flour
would separate, but continue to add
boiling water; stir constantly and you
will soon have a smooth, brown gravy,
free from grease. Add more salt and
strain it before serving. Heat the
chopped giblets in a little of the water
in which they were boiled, and add half
of the gravy. Serve the remainder of
the gravy plain.
To clean the giblets slip off the thin
membrane round the heart, and cut out
the veins and arteries. Remove the
liver, and cut off all that looks green
near the gall bladder, being careful not
to break it. Trim the fat and mem-
branes from the gizzard; cut through
the thick part, open it and remove the
inner lining without breaking. Cut off
all the white gristle, and use only the
thick fleshy part. Rinse them all in
cold water, then put them into fresh
cold water and simmer until tender.
The neck and tips of the wings are often
cooked with the giblets.
If the giblets be not desired in the
gravy, they may be boiled, chopped fine,
and mixed with the stuffing; or make
them into force-meat balls, with an
equal amount of soft bread crumbs.
Moisten, and season highly, and brown
them in hot butter.
On this day before Thanksgiving we
will also prepare the chickens and game,
make the consomme, the cranberry
sauce, and the pies. The pudding also,
unless we have two ranges or room to
bake it on Thanksgiving day. Look
over all the table appointments and see
that everything needed is in order.
RAW OYSTERS.
Allow not more than five small or
medium-sized oysters for each person.
Blue Points are generally preferred.
Scrub the shells and keep them on ice
until ready to open. In opening them
leave the oyster on the deep or rounded
half of the shell, and free the hard mus-
cle from the shell so the oyster can be
taken up easily with the fork. Half fill
a small soup plate with fine chipped ice,
arrange the oyster shells on the iec
with a lengthwise section of a lemon in
the centre. Salt, cayenne or paprika
and horse radish are usually passed with
raw oysters, but it is a pity that all do
not enjoy them with their own delicate
flavor simply developed by salt and
lemon, instead of disguising it with hot
condiments. Oysters served in this
way may be placed on the table before
the dinner is announced.
If the old style oyster plates are used,
the oysters must be removed from the
shells, and be thoroughly chilled and
the plates also. Then put one oyster
in each hollow in the plate with the
lemon in the centre and serve after the
guests are seated. The soup plate with
the ice is the better way as then the
oysters are kept cold to the last.
But whether served in the shell or out
they should be purchased in the shell
and not opened until about ready to be
served. They are always more attrac-
tive when each oyster is distinct in its
own or imitation shell than when served
in a mass in a small dish.
THIN BROWN BREAD AND BUTTER.
Use the usual Boston brown bread
made from either of the recipes given in
August number, or stale Graham bread.
Remove the crusts and leave the bread
in a square or rectangular form. Slice
very thin and spread slightly with but-
ter. Put two slices together and cut
each square into triangles, arrange
them neatly on a plate and serve them
with raw oysters.
RADISHES.
Select the smooth round radishes
rather than those that are long and


THANKSGIVING — OUR AMERICAN FESTIVAL.
91
pointed. Wash, trim off the fine roots
and leaves, but leave about an inch of
the green stems as this makes a pretty
contrast and is convenient in holding
them. Put them in a pan of ice water.
With a sharp knife cut from the point
down about half way merely through
the skin, making six or eight cuts ac-
cording to the size of the radish. Slip
the point of the knife under the skin of
these points and press them over slight-
ly, then leave the radishes in the ice
water and when ready to serve you will
find them partly open, like a flower, at
the cut end. Drain and arrange in a
cut glass or small fancy dish.
CHESTNUT STUFFING.
Cut off the shells from one quart of
large chestnuts. Pour on boiling water
and let them stand until the inner brown
skin will peel off easily. It may be nec-
essary to add the boiling water twice.
Look them over carefully and reject all
that are not fresh. Put them into boil-
ing water slightly salted or into stock
and cook until soft. Then mash them
very fine with a wooden potato masher.
Take half for the stuffing and reserve
the remainder for the gravy. Mix with
the chestnuts one cup of fine cracker
crumbs, and season with one teaspoon-
ful salt, one saltspoonful pepper, one
teaspoonful chopped parsley, and the
grated yellow rind of half a lemon.
Moisten with one-third of a cup of
melted butter and hot water sufficient
to swell the crumbs. Add half a cup
of California seedless raisins which have
been stewed until well swollen.
CHESTNUT SAUCE FOR ROAST TUR-
KEY.
Remove the fat from the gravy in the
dripping; if there be only a little water
let it boil nearly away, leaving about
two tablespoonfuls of fat; stir two table-
spoonfuls of dry flour into this fat and
stir well until browned, scraping all
the glaze from the sides and corners to
aid in the browning. Then stir in a
pint of hot water or enough to make it
quite thin as the chestnuts will help to
thicken it. Add more salt and pepper
if needed, and if not smooth strain it
before adding the chestnuts. If the
gravy is largely water, then remove as
much of the oil as possible and simply
thicken the liquid with flour wet to a
smooth paste in a little cold water.
If preferred, you may divide the
chestnuts before they are mashed and
cut those intended for the gravy into
thin slices.
CRANBERRIES.
How seldom we find cranberry sauce
in perfection either in private families,
hotels or restaurants. It is usually pur-
ple, either too sour or sweetened with
molasses, or it is a mass of tough skins
and seeds in a thin syrup, or if sifted, it
is a thin, dark colored, uninviting look-
ing* and tinny tasting mixture, neither
a sauce nor a marmalade and surely
ought never to be called a jelly. Some
of these objectionable qualities may be
avoided by always using granite or
porcelain stewpans, silver or wooden
spoons, and sifting through a porcelain
colander or a hair sieve. It does no
good to stew the cranberries in porce-
lain and then sift them through a tin
strainer.
Cranberry Pie.
Select large ripe cranberries and cut
each one in halves with a sharp knife.
For a cup and a half of the berries,
which is enough for one pie, mix a
tablespoonfnl of flour with one cup of
sugar, add half a cup of water and the
berries, and mix well. Line a pie plate
with plain pastry, fill with the cranber-
ries, cover with a crust, and bake in a
moderate oven about half an hour.
Cranberry Pie No. %.
One cup cranberries, one cup of
sugar mixed with two teaspoonfuls of
flour. Pick over, wash and chop the
cranberries, sprinkle on the sugar and
flour, and turn into a dish lined with
pastry. Cover and bake about half an
hour.
Plain Pastry for Pumpkin and Cranberry Pies.
One cup of pastry flour, one salt-
spoon of salt, one-quarter cup of lard,


THANKSGIVING — OUR AMERICAN FESTIVAL.
93
fully a little more milk. Bake slowly.
Some people prefer to sweeten pump-
kin with molasses.
Ginger, nutmeg, mace, cloves, wine,
brandy, and lemon are recommended
by many cooks, but I prefer to have
nothing but the cinnamon. Part cream
with the milk makes the pies richer.
Many eggs make the pie more like a
custard which is not what we desire
when making pumpkin pies.
CHICKEN PIE.
Clean, disjoint, and parboil the
chickens, and remove the largest bones.
Thicken the liquor and season with salt
and pepper. Put a rim of baking pow-
der pastry round the side of a broad
shallow earthen dish (first butter the
sides). Then wet the top of the crust.
Fill the dish with the pieces of chicken,
putting them in so that light and dark
meat will be evenly distributed, and with
the bones all pointing toward the centre
so they will not be in the way when
serving it. Invert a small cup in the
centre, cover with the liquor, and re-
serve the remainder to add after baking.
Put two tablespoonfuls of butter cut
small over the chicken. Cut a large
cross in the centre of the crust, lay it
loosely over the pie and press the edge
close to the rim. Bake an hour in a
slow oven.
NEW ENGLAND THANKSGIVING PUD-
DING.
I pt. cracker crumbs,
3 pts. milk,
I cup sugar,
I teasp. salt,
4 teasp. cinnamon,
4 teasp. nutmeg,
2 tbsp. butter,
6 eggs,
2 cups Cal. seedless rais-
ins.
Soak the cracker crumbs in the milk
half an hour. Wash and boil the
raisins in water to cover while the
crumbs are soaking; let the water boil
away and add them to the milk. Mix
the sugar, salt, and spices, add the but-
ter softened and rub till creamy. Beat
in one egg at a time, until you do not
see any of the yolk, then stir this mix-
ture into the milk. Butter a deep
earthen pudding dish thick with cold
butter, turn in the pudding, cover it and
put it into a moderate oven. During
the first hour stir the pudding up from
the bottom but not on the sides, until
the raisins will stay at the top, then
cover and bake three hours in all.
Remove the cover toward the last that
the top may brown. Let it stand awhile
before turning out. It should have a
little whey when just right and the
raisins should on no account be cut
before cooking as it is not worthy the
name of a plum pudding if they are not
whole and tender enough to melt in the
mouth. It is not at all like an English
or Christmas plum pudding and was
not intended to be, so do not think it a
failure because unlike that time-hon-
ored compound.
Serve with hard sauce, made by
creaming half a cup of butter, then add-
ing gradually one cup of powdered
sugar and flavor to taste with lemon,
vanilla, or a very little mace. Pile it
up roughly in a pretty dish, and set away
to harden. Or you may make a pretty
effect by pressing it through a potato
ricer into a shallow dish just before
serving. Or you may make a smooth
mound of it and stamp it with the bot-
tom of a cut glass dish. If you prefer a
soft sauce simply beat into this the white
of one egg or three tablespoonfuls of
thick cream.
GLAZED SWEET POTATOES.
Select potatoes of uniform size, pare
and trim them into long oval shape.
Cook in boiling salted water until nearly
tender. Mix quarter of a cup of sugar
and the same of butter and melt them in
half a cup of hot water. Arrange the
potatoes in a granite pan. Moisten
them with the sugar mixture. Set them
into the oven and baste frequently with
this syrup. Cook until they are cov-
ered with a rich brown glaze, but be
careful not to let them burn.
Fringed Celery.—Recipe for this
was given in November number, 1894,
and for Lettuce Salad in February
number, 1895.


FROM DAY TO DAY.
Department of Notes, Queries and Correspondence.
CONDUCTED BY MRS. LINCOLN.
A subscriber from W. sends the fol-
lowing as her "Mother's Thanksgiving
Dinner":—
Roast Turkey, Brown Gravy.
Potatoes. Squash. Turnips. Onions.
Cranberry Sauce. Cucumber Pickles.
Sweet Cider.
While Bread. Brown Bread.
Mince Pie. Pumpkin Pie. Apple Pie.
Cranberry Tart Pie.
Apples. Raisins. Butternuts. Hickory Nuts.
The same subscriber sends also their
family dinner for the last quarter of a
century on Thanksgiving day:—
First course: Roast turkey, mashed
potato, squash and turnip, scalloped
oysters, macaroni creamed with cheese,
celery, cranberry jelly, sweet pickled
peaches, olives, salted almonds, white
and rye bread, and claret. Second
course: Chicken pie, roast ducks, boiled
cider apple sauce. Third course:
Chicken salad, bread, sweet cider.
Fourth course: Mince, apple, pumpkin,
lemon meringue, cranberry tart and
apple pudding pies. Fifth course:
Election cake, apples, oranges, pears,
grapes, nuts and raisins. Sixth
course: Cheese, water wafers, coffee.
Sometimes we omit the chicken pie in
the second course, and have an Am-
herst College pudding with the fourth
course. Again we omit the apple pud-
ding pie and have a lemon cream sher-
bet served as a separate course after the
roast, or with the fifth course. We
never have a plum pudding, as we con-
sider that as especially belonging to the
Christmas dinner.
Mrs. L. T. J. sends the following
recipes which have been used in her
family for many years. Her method of
roasting a duck or a goose has given
her such a local reputation, that friends
beg for invitations to dinner whenever
these are to be served. The oily taste
is entirely removed and the meat is
made very sweet and delicious. This
method is especially desirable when the
duck is strong or not young, and there
is no occasion for parboiling it. The
person whose duty it is to carve it need
have no dread of finding refractory
joints, if these directions have been
carefully followed in the cooking.
ROAST DUCK.
Pick, singe, and remove the crop, en-
trails, oil bag, legs, and pinions. The
legs and wings being very tough and
mostly bone, are better removed before
roasting, but they need not be wasted,
as they may be boiled and used in a sal-
mi made from the remnants of the roast
duck. Wash and wipe carefully, and
stuff with from two to three cups of
stale bread crumbs according to the
size of the ducks. Do not have them
quite full. Moisten the crumbs with
one tablespoon of butter, and hot water
enough to swell the bread. Season to
taste with salt, pepper, and a very little
prepared herb seasoning.
Truss and dredge with salt, pepper,
and flour. Place on a rack in a pan
and turn in from one to two cups of hot
water, enough to keep the bottom of
the pan well covered. Use the rack so
the ducks may be kept out of the water.
Cook in a moderately hot oven two
hours, or three if the ducks are large.
Baste every fifteen minutes with boiling
water salted to the taste, and which is
kept in an enamelled sauce pan on the
top of the stove for this purpose.
Dredge with flour after each basting.
After they have cooked an hour re-
move the water from the pan and re-
place with fresh hot water, and Fgain
after the next hour if large ducks are
94


THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
The American Kitchen Magazine.
A Domestic Science Monthly.
PUBLISHED BY
The Home Science Publishing Co.,
485 Tremont Street, Boston, Mass.
Editors and Proprietors.
Mrs. Estelle M. H. Merrill ("Jean Kincaid")
Miss Anna Barrows
Mrs. Mary- J. Lincoln. Author Boston Cook Book, &c.
Editorial Contributors.
Mrs. Ellen H. Richards, Instructor in Chemistry, Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology.
Miss Amy Morris Homans, Director Boston Normal
School of Cookery.
Mrs. Laura S. Wilkinson, Acting President National
Household Economic Association.
Mrs. Frances E. Owens, Chicago,;Author Mrs. Owen's
Cook Book, &c.
Advertising Department.
Mrs. Ella L. Breed, Home Office.
Branch Office.
NEW YORK: Dinah Sturgis and Louis V. Urmy.
47 Times Building.
Foreign Correspondent.
Miss Ada M. Frederiksen.

THE AMERICAN KITCHEN.
NOT long ago a letter came to a
member of the editorial force of
this magazine addressed in care of the
office of "Kitchens of the World." At
first it caused amusement, but the sec-
ond thought showed that our corres-
pondent was not far out of the way for
the magazine already reaches kitchens
in every quarter of the globe.
The American kitchen is after all cos-
mopolitan, the concrete result of the
customs of all the ages and of all races of
men. Our national motto is quite as
applicable here as in any part of the
national life.
Hitherto this conglomerate mass of
tradition and knowledge has not been
assimilated into a methodical routine
for wholesome life, but with modern
science as a guide and by the applica-
tion of common sense to these practical
problems we may hope to develop a
system of living which shall be not only
"one from many" but also the "survival
of the fittest." Citizens of the old
world seeking a home in the new do not
forget their former habits of life, but
adapt them to changed conditions.
American women who have lived
abroad bring home new ideas to give
fresh life to old established customs.
New foods are discovered, old ones are
prepared in new forms demanding new
methods in the kitchen to make them
ready for the table.
The kitchens of the past in spite of
their excellent qualities were fixed in
ruts from which they have not been lifted
easily. The kitchen of the future,
though "elect from every nation," must
have simplicity and cleanliness as its
uniform foundation principles.
¥¥
THE SUBJECT OF RECIPES.
WE are constantly receiving hearty
expressions of pleasure and sat-
isfaction with our management
of this Magazine; expressions which de-
light us because of their appreciation
of our aims and purposes. Some sub-
scribers have offered suggestions
which we gladly carry out, and we are
ready at all times to do what we feel as-
sured will be for the best interests of the
majority of our readers. But occa-
sionally a complaint comes in like this:
"You do not give enough definite in-
formation. I wish you would print
more new recipes. Why don't you do
as such and such a magazine does?"
We are glad to have these criticisms;
there would be no incentive to growth
and improvement if we satisfied every-
body, or even ourselves.
We number among our readers many
classes of people; cooking teachers, lec-
turers on domestic science, and experi-
enced, intelligent housekeepers, who
need only a hint or suggestion of an
improved method or combination; and
others who require that every picture
hung before their mental vision be


EDITORIAL.
97
plainly labelled "this is a horse," and
therefore need the "delicious definite-
ness of a saltspoonful of this," or an
ounce of that, or the exact number of
strokes to each egg, etc. Most, how-
ever, care more to learn how to build
the foundation, and then having mas-
tered the principle they can construct
and combine as simply or elaborately as
they fancy.
In looking through our files we feel
assured that they contain a vast amount
of "definite information," on a great va-
riety of subjects affecting the highest
interests of the home.
It is not our purpose to fill our pages
with recipes, those belong more to cook
books; nor to make new, novel or com-
plicated recipes a specialty. There are
thousands of people who do not yet
know the simplest forms of cookery and
who must be informed as to the best
methods of preparing bread, coffee,
meat and vegetables, before they learn
about fancy dishes; and there are multi-
tudes of older housekeepers still follow-
ing the unscientific or traditional meth-
ods who need to forget some of their
present knowledge and to learn princi-
ples rather than new dishes.
Another pronounced and distinctive
feature in our work is the interchange
of experience and opinions among
teachers of cookery, of whom we al-
ready number hundreds on our sub-
scription list. We make no claim to
being "the only recognized autho-
rity on culinary science or diete-
tics." We believe that every stu-
dent and every teacher, and every
housekeeper who gives any earnest
thought to her work in the kitchen, the
home, the school or the laboratory may
have experiences or make discoveries
that will be new and helpful to others,
and we aim to gather these in from all
the sources possible.
As to the complaint that we "do not
do as other magazines do," (which we
consider more a compliment than a criti-
cism) we assure our readers that noth-
ing is further from our intention than
to copy our contemporaries. We oc-
cupy a field of our own which we shall
strive to fill in our own way, and this
way we hope will be a good way for all
our readers.
In looking over the pages of some of
our late exchanges, and particularly
those with which our complainant com-
pared us, we find some points in which
we are very glad to be "not like other"
magazines.
For instance, one of our aims is to
educate people into a taste for plainer
food, more simply prepared and com-
bined in the most helpful ways, so that
housewives will have more time and
energy for other interests; and as teach-
ers of scientific cookery we do not rec-
ommend our readers to destroy the
sweet, delicious, distinctive flavor of
green peas by "combining them into a
puree with chicken stock, onions, car-
rots, bay leaf and parsley." How much
of the real flavor of the peas would be
left after such disguising? Neither do
we counsel flavoring baked beef with
"ham, salt pork, onions, carrots, parsley,
curry powder, bay leaf, beef extract,
butter, milk, kitchen bouquet, and
fresh mushrooms."
Some of the above ingredients might
better enrich the dish, consisting of only
"a bunch of watercress, steeped for
twenty minutes in one quart of boiling
water, seasoned with salt, pepper, and
lemon juice, strained, and served with
croutons," under the name of soup.
A pupil who is looking through an-
other late magazine exclaims,—"Well
if it were not for wasting so much mate-
rial I would like to try this ridiculous
recipe for ice cream!" Said recipe calls
for "four quarts milk, two pounds gran-
ulated sugar, six eggs (broken shells
and all); place on the fire, stir constantly
and when about to boil remove it and
strain through a hair sieve; flavor and
when cool freeze as usual."
Now this may be a novel and origi-
nal recipe, but we prefer to furnish our
readers with those which have sufficient
guarantee of their excellence and relia-
bility. An ice cream made with one egg
and a half to one quart of milk would
not harm the most delicate stomach
on account of its richness, but why cook


08
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
the egg shells? Surely if the mixture is
cooked on the fire until about to boil,
then strained through a sieve, the egg
would be too hard to go through the
sieve. Probably the purpose of the egg
and shell is simply to flavor, not to en-
rich or thicken the milk.
What sort of a potato soup would
this be? "One part of mashed potatoes
and two parts of chipped bread both
well soaked and thoroughly stewed to-
gether. Salt and pepper to taste, and
flavor with fried onion."—Soaked in
what?
Again it is rather disappointing to see
a novel name at the head of a paragraph
and after reading through what appears
to be very elaborate directions, discover
that it is only another form of our com-
mon cream cakes. But we would pre-
fer that a part of the "five tablespoon-
fuls of corn or potato starch" which,
with one egg and one and a half cups of
sugar is to thicken and sweeten one cup
of milk and one of good cream, were
apportioned to the recipe for ice cream.
We surely do not care to furnish our
readers with such "novel recipes," even
though they appear, as do the above, in
long established and well-known culi-
nary authorities.
¥¥
FORWARD MOVEMENTS.
NOTWITHSTANDING the unpop-
ularity of the subject a few brave
women like Mrs. Livermore, Mrs.
Plunkett, and Mrs. Richards have
striven to arouse women to a more
thorough study of household problems
and greater cooperation for their solu-
tion. Already a new day begins to
dawn, and it seems as if another decade
would see some of these puzzling ques-
tions in a fair way toward adjustment.
In this age there is a kind of instinct
impelling the human race to form or-
ganizations of all sorts and kinds.
Some of these accomplish the purpose
for which they were formed and others
fail, yet the most carping critic must
admit that more is accomplished by
united effort than by individual action
however energetic. Moreover it is no-
ticeable that whenever a great reform is
needed a similar inspiration comes to
persons far apart and in different
though it may be affiliated lines of
work.
The W. C. T. U. has led the way for
all women's clubs for whatever purpose
formed, by showing what can be accom-
plished by systematic organization
under wise leadership. Though tem-
perance applies to eating as well as
drinking the W. C. T. U. has hardly
touched upon the wide fields of food
and sanitation, hence new organizations
already are attacking these questions.
The purpose of the National House-
hold Economic Association is well
known to the readers of this magazine.
Many of the women's clubs originally
formed for the study of literature, art,
and science now are leaving these topics
for a season to devote their efforts to
home science.
During the past season, through the
efforts of Mrs. Ewing at Chautauqua,
N. Y., a Cooking School Teachers'
League has been formed. Chautauqua
is a fitting place for the organization of
such an association; it represents prog-
ress in all phases of civilized life and is
not bounded by any petty lines of caste
or creed. The Chautauqua assemblies
ever have been alive to the importance
of the mission of the cooking school,
and it has been a leading feature at
many of their gatherings. The teach-
ers of cookery already have clubs in
several of the larger cities, and it is quite
time to plan for further union.
Thus it is evident that all over our
land there is an increased interest in
home science. These two organizations
representing the housekeepers on one
hand and the teachers on the other can
work independently and yet together
like the two wings of a great army.
Surely there are few women who are
not directly interested in this movement
Let us each make this a personal mat-
ter. Are we progressing, or is the ma-
chinery of our household in a hopeless
rut or perhaps retrograding? If the
latter is the case let us immediately join
some organization that will give us new
light.


BOOKS AND MAGAZINES.
99
Dishonesty and Caste. — By Ethel Davis.
l6mo, cloth, 118 pps., price 60 cents. Home
Science Publishing Company, 485 Tremont St.,
Boston, Mass.
The Home Science Publishing Co.
has just issued a short series of essays
on sociology, as applied to daily life, a
reprint from the American Kitchen
Magazine, in which a study is made of
the way in which caste feeling and in-
sincerity govern Americans of the up-
per classes in ordering their affairs, from
the most exterior matters, such as house
furnishing and entertaining, to those of
the mind and soul, like education and
religion.
Of this book some of our contempo-
raries write as follows:
"The author is evidently a woman of
experience in her chosen field and a
close observer in the social pasture.
Her thoughts are true and clearly ex-
pressed; she is up to date on the subjects
enumerated, and her book is worth
money to every thinking woman in the
land."—Burlington Hawkeye.
Of the essay on entertaining, the Bos-
ton Saturday Gazette says, in comment-
ing on an able novel, "When Love is
Done," by the same author; "Those
who read Dishonesty and Caste: in En-
tertaining, could hardly help perceiving
that the author, Miss Ethel Davis, had
the equipment for a novelist of more
than ordinary skill. It is no particular
distinction, nowadays to tell a story
well, and it was of no great conse-
quence that she could do it very cleverly,
but it was evident that here was one
whose eye was able to pierce through
appearances to essentials, and whose
reasoning powers were not dulled by
egotism or conceit, and such a woman
does not long observe society without
accumulating valuable impressions. It
was easy to perceive, also, that here was
one to whom high principle was dearer
than brilliant success proceeding from
ignoble effort, and one who had learned
to accept the world as it is, striving to
make it better, but not quarrelling with
its lack of correspondence with her
ideal. Knowledge of this kind does not
come to a woman whose aim is simple
CHOCOLATE; VIENNA STYLE.
Use four ounces of W. Baker & Co.'s vanilla
chocolate, one quart of milk, three tablespoonfuls
of hot water, and one tablespoonful of sugar.
Cut the chocolate in fine bits. Put the milk on
the stove in the double-boiler, and when it has been
heated to the boiling-point, put the chocolate, sugar,
and water in a small iron or granite-ware pan, and
stir over a hot fire until smooth and glossy. Stir
this mixture into the hot milk, and beat well with a
whisk. Serve at once, putting a tablespoonful of
whipped cream in each cup and then filling up with
the chocolate.
The plain chocolate may be used instead of the
vanilla, but in that case use a teaspoonful of vanilla
extract and three generous tablespoonfuls of sugar
instead of one.
waiter BaKer & Go. Lunitea,
f-f, fa The Largest Manufacturers of
|^,PURE, HICH CRADE
jjlPCocoasanauliolates
j^k on this continent, have received
J \ HIGHEST AWARDS
Ml \ \ from the great
iLjllUSTRIALandFOPD
EXPOSITIONS
In Europe and America.
A TTrwi ~ff\ ~\T • In view of the many
\jJ3L %J JL -LXJJJt • unitationsof the labels
and wrappers on our goods, consumers should
make sure that our place of manufacture,
namely, Dorchester, Mass.. k printed
on each package.
SOLD BY GROCERS EVERYWHERE.
WALTER BAKER & CO. LTD.
DORCHESTER, MASS.


100
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
enjoyment, or to one whose sole interest
is her own mental and spiritual advance-
ment, or even to those who are filled
with simple charity, but only to those
who are studying the world with a view
to reflecting a fragment of it in litera-
ture. It was plain that this writer was
well advanced in her analysis."
The Minneapolis Tribune says:
"There is something Ruskinish about
the style and broadness of the views ex-
pounded, and dishonesty and caste form
the woof on which is woven the root of
evil. ... In the chapter on domestic
service the author sets forth a very logi-
cal and practical solution of this ques-
tion which it would pay our housewives
to read and reflect on."
"One of the best treatments the sub-
ject has ever received is found in a series
of articles by Miss Ethel Davis, entitled
Dishonesty and Caste: in Domestic
Service."—The Art of Living.
"A very clever and suggestive
book. . . . The author is eminently
practical and her talk about home-mak-
ing shows what a large and true woman-
ly heart she has."—Minneapolis Jour-
nal.
"As for the chapter on education, it
ought to be read by every American
parent, for it says a great deal and says
it wisely in a few words."—The Beacon,
Boston.
"A fine article on the education of
children. . . . The subject is treated
in a masterly way and a most important
side is touched upon which is seldom
noticed in real life."—Easthampton
News.
"A strong paper on Dishonesty and
Caste: In Religion, which will be read
by those who have followed her ideas
in regard to other things with the deep-
est interest"—Milwaukee Journal.
The Courtship of Miles Standish. — By
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Illustrated Edi-
tion. With designs by George H. Boughton,
Frank T. Merrill, and others; Fac-similes, and
Notes on Colonial Plymouth. I vol. crown 8vo,
attractively bound, $1.50.
This is a charming edition of Long-
fellow's famous poem of the Pilgrims,
in a general way uniform with "Snow-
Bound," "Dorothy Q.," etc. The de-
signs are from the pencils of artists pe-
culiarly familiar with old Colonial life,
and competent to depict those features
which this delightful poem celebrates;
and the mechanical execution is equal
in excellence to the high character of the
poem and the illustrations.
European and American Cuisine.—By Gesine
Lemcke, author of "Desserts and Salads," and
Principal of the Brooklyn Cooking College.
Small 8vo, cloth $2.
About fifteen hundred recipes are ar-
ranged under their appropriate heads
on the six hundred pages of this vol-
ume. It therefore appeals to that large
class of housekeepers who constantly
are in pursuit of new recipes, and also
supplies the need of the cook whose em-
ployers demand constant variety. This
is preeminently a hand book for the
trained cook rather than a guide for be-
ginners, having too much recipe and
too little of the "reason why" for the
young housekeeper who has never
attended a school of cookery.
Mrs. Lemcke has performed a great
task in thus bringing together Euro-
pean and American methods. The
teachers of cookery will appreciate this,
for the works of chefs often have been
so complex that recipes could not be
adapted easily to simple class work, or
to ordinary home life.
Few American palates will be ready
to accept some of the foreign com-
pounds here described, and there are
other minor points, like browning
onions on the stove cover, to which
housewives in this land would hardly
agree. But as a whole this is a valuable
handbook for every housekeeper's li-
brary and presents many ideas that will
prove useful as well as novel in the
American household.
This volume gives little space to
sweet dishes as the author already has
published a work on desserts and
salads. There are no illustrations, but
the book is well printed and has an ex-
cellent index.
{Continued on page xxvi.)


"(Bars aulb claes looft amaist as weel's tbe new."
Crepons Dye Well
AND RETAIN THEIR CRINKLY APPEARANCE.
LIGHT COLORS BROWNS, BLUES, GREENS AND BLACK
DYED DARKER. Vg/Vg/ THE FASHIONABLE COLORS.
DRESSES DYED WHOLE.
Your Last Spring's Dress, if Dyed or Cleansed, would look nearly as well as new.
Blankets Cleansed,
$1.00 per pair.
Lace Curtains Cleansed,
$ 1.00 per pair ar?<I upwards.
EQUAL TO NEW.
LEWANDOS
French Dyeing and Cleansing Establishment
Established 1829. LARGEST IN AMERICA.

PRINCIPAL OFFICES:
17 TEMPLE PLftGE, BOSTON. 365 FIFTH ftVE., NEW YORK.
BRANCH OFFICES:
BOSTON, BACK BAY, 284 Boylston Street. BOSTON, HICHLANDS, 2206 Washington Street.
SOUTH BOSTON, 393 Broadway. CAMBRIDCE, 1274 Massachusetts Ave..
(Formerly 412 Harvard St.)
Our Laundry WorK is tbe Best in Boston.
SHIRT WAISTS, LAUNDERED, 15 CENTS EACH.
1
BUNDLES CALLED FOR AND DELIVERED. Please mention this Magazine.


BOOKS AND MAGAZINES.
{Continued from page 100.)
The Boston Picture Book. — Paper 50 cents,
cloth $1. Irving P. Fox, 8 Oliver St., Boston,
Mass.
Here, in compact form, are grouped
a hundred views of notable places and
buildings in and around Boston. Fan-
euil Hall, the old North Church, Copp's
Hill burial ground, and some ancient
dwelling houses show the Boston of the
past, which is in marked contrast to the
city of the present day, as here repre-
sented by its finest public buildings.
There are also groups of pictures
showing Longfellow, Emerson, and
other noted men with the scenes they
have made famous.
This cannot fail to be a popular sou-
venir among the thousands of strangers
who have visited the city this season.
An Interesting Story.
The "Ranch Book" which the
Cudahy Pharmaceutical Co. of South
Omaha, Neb., send free to all who will
write requesting the same and mention-
ing the American Kitchen Magazine as
authority in the matter, is a handsome
booklet. It is profusely illustrated and
shows the entire process of converting
a steer on the plains into various forms
of manufactured product such as beef
extract, canned meat, etc. The reading
matter is interesting and not of the
usual kind of "puffing" affected by
many advertisers. It is a simple,
straightforward descriptive story of a
remarkable industry — instructive to
old and young alike. Housekeepers
and cooking school teachers will find
valuable information in its pages.
A Phrase - Book from the Poetic and
Dramatic Works of Robert Browning.
To which is added an index containing the
significant words not elsewhere noted. — By
Marie Ada Molineux, A. M., Ph. D. I vol.
crown 8vo.
It is believed that this book, which
originated in the Browning Society of
Boston, contains all the quotable pas-
sages of Browning's works, arranged
and indexed under leading words; also
a list of all the notable proper names,
compounds, rare words, and peculiari-
ties of Browning's diction, with refer-
ences to the poems and passages in
which they occur. These references
are to the Riverside Edition of Brown-
ing in six volumes, and to the new Cam-
bridge Edition in one. The Phrase-
Book furnishes in compact, convenient,
and comparatively inexpensive form all
the important and interesting informa-
tion that would be found in a bulky and
costly concordance; and it is virtually
indispensable to all students of Brown-
ing.
LATE MAGAZINES.
The Jenness-Miller Monthly im-
proves constantly and the October num-
ber is varied, interesting, and valuable.
Mrs. Miller writes of mechanical treat-
ment for the nerves in her series on
"Law, Order and Art in Dress"; there
is another installment of the cleverly
written story, "A Foregone Conclusion,"
by Mary Worswick; Jeannette A. Grant
writes things about "The Clubs of
Women" which every club woman
should read; the autumn fashions are
described by Geraldine Gower, and
adapted to the needs of Jenness-Miller
disciples; Dinah Sturgis' "Afternoon
Tea" is more entertaining than the real
thing ever was; Belle Aubrey writes
about Journalism in the "Occupations
for Women" in a manner that reveals
an experienced and able hand; Ainsley
Crawley's article on the "Social Side of
Women's Colleges" is good reading,
and so on to the end. The Inde-
pendent devoted a number of pages in
a recent issue to a most remarkable se-
ries of papers on Modern Surgery.
Each phase of the subject was treated
by a well known specialist and the series
would make a valuable volume by itself.
—The Manual Training Teachers' As-
sociation of America has adopted Art
Education, J. C. Witter & Co., Pub-
lishers, New York City, as its official
organ. The Horn-Book of Periodi-
cal IAterature is a new claimant of pub-
lic favor, and it should win it too. It is
a daintily gotten up little skit, bi-month-
ly, and aims to give the news about peri-
odicals, writing from the standpoint of
the reader, and primarily for his benefit,
xxvi


I AC- ■ ': •-•-•!' r



THE LAST FLOWERS.


THE
American Kitchen Magazine.
Vol. IV. DECEMBER, 1895. No. 3.
THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES.
BY ELLEN H. RICHARDS.
THE syllabus given elsewhere in
this magazine was issued recently
by the regents of the University
of New York for a course in "Home
Science" which is to receive credits,
•or in other words for a course con-
sidered on a par educationally with
botany and other scientific subjects.
This marks an epoch in the education
of women, and in the standing of so-
called manual training as applied to
the domestic arts. The news of the
success of this new offer of the regents
will be warmly welcomed by all those
who have been striving to impress
school boards and school teachers
with the changed condition of things
necessitating a different attitude
toward the topics suitable to be treated
of in public education. Buffalo,
among other places in New York
State, has several classes already at
work, and while experience will
doubtless improve the course it is at
least a beginning.
While there is progress in the ele-
mentary schools there is also life stir-
ring in the universities. Lecture
courses and a general mention of the
subject in all quarters show that the
leaven is working. It behooves all
who have the improvement of the
"home at heart to see to it that the work
done shall be substantial and built on
a permanent foundation of science.
The president of One of our st&te
universities has said:—
"I am sometimes invited to address
agricultural bodies, and would much
prefer telling them how farm life can
be made happier than how it can be
made profitable. If farm life could
be so managed that a man could
make a living and make that
living comfortably, farm life would
become more attractive. To this
end we need, it seems to me,
more attention to horticulture, poul-
try raising, [farm] dairy work,
fish culture, and particularly to the
lightening of housework for women
and to the improvement of cooking
in quality.
"I believe that the fare is poor on the
average farm, and that the labor of
household work is immense. This is
caused by the fact that men devote
their time and energy to raising cattle,
hogs, mules, corn, wheat, cotton, and
consider horticulture, dairy work, the
care of poultry, and the equipment of
kitchens to be beneath their dignity.
These things are relegated to the
women whose energy is exhausted
by housework with poor appliances.
The result is that with little fruit
and poor gardens and few conven-
iences for cooking the diet of the
people falls below good standard.
They eat too much bacon and too lit-
tle fruit, vegetables, eggs, poultry,
and fish."
This may be the first step toward
that Utopian condition of things de-
103


104
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
scribed by the present writer in a lec-
ture befofe the Franklin Institute
of Philadelphia in 1888 as follows:
"Why should there not be training
schools for home sanitarians, or better
yet, since beside a general knowledge
of the laws of health there is needed
for this work a practical knowledge
of the laws of chemistry and physics,
why should there not be a course in
sanitation in the technical schools and
colleges? I believe that the Univer-
sity of Edinburgh does confer the de-
gree of bachelor of science in the de-
partment of public health, and why
should there not be a department of
home health in American universities?
Let the scores of young women who
are looking to medicine as a wide
field of usefulness go a step farther
and add to their medical course a
thorough training in preventive med-
icine and home sanitation. When
this is done we shall soon see a reform
in daily living worthy to usher in the
twentieth century."
Housekeepers' clubs are becoming
more numerous and are doing sys-
tematic work, as is attested by the de-
mand for "Home Sanitation" as a text-
book.
The Society to Encourage Studies
at Home already has five students in
the section of sanitary science.
The Woman's Education Associa-
tion, through its committee on public
schools, has sent in a petition to the
Boston school board to establish a
course for girls in the manual training
High School.
Meantime municipal housekeeping
is being taken up by the Boston
Branch of the Collegiate Alumnse
and schedules are already printed and
in the hands of the workers to be filled
out for each of the 178 schoolhouses
of Boston as to all points in their con-
dition as to heating, ventilation,
plumbing, and general care. An ex-
pert has been retained to take up such
cases as may be considered beyond
the reach of the somewhat amateur
workers, yet the preparation required
for the work is pretty thorough. Each
head of division is either an old mem-
ber of the original Sanitary Science
Club of the Alumnse to which we owe
"Home Sanitation/' or she has fitted
herself by similar study for her posi-
tion. She is responsible for her eight
or ten workers and instructs them in
each detail.
Another encouraging report must
be made and that is that perseverance
in well doing succeeds if the persist-
ence is long enough continued and the
doing is well done. Most of us get
discouraged too soon when we attack
the food problem, but two widely
differing experiments seem to have
passed the critical point.
The Central Kitchen of the Women's
Dormitories at the University of Chi-
cago now seems to be fairly established
and to furnish results more satis-
factory than could have been ex-
pected. The carefully kept statistics
are furnishing material for study and
will in time be the basis on which much
future work can be more easily done.
A far different case was that of At-
lanta University; where the question
of food had to be considered from the
point of view of race as well as of
habit and prejudice, and where the
cost of living had to be reduced one-
third from that at Chicago. The in-
troduction of northern dishes was a
difficult matter, and we were not.sur-
prised when a friend brought back
word last winter that the boys liked
the matron very much but they "wished
she would not 'speriment with beans."
On my recent visit to Atlanta I went
over the dietary very carefully and it
seems to be the greatest triumph we
have had over unreasoning habit and
natural distaste. After a summer
spent in old haunts the students came
back only too glad to get beans and
other good things, and this second
year is showing how much may be
accomplished for health as well as
for taste. I count my day at Atlanta
University as a red-letter day for the
courage it inspired to keep on through
darkness and in spite of numerous
failures.


HOME SCIENCE.
Syllabus issued by the Regents of University of New York.
THIS course presupposes a knowl-
edge of fundamental principles
in physics, chemistry and biology.
It is planned to require twenty weeks'
work of five hours each week, and
consists of lessons, laboratory work
and written exercises on means of
maintaining life and health. Both
theoretic and practical work are re-
quired in connection with the special
subjects which must be considered in
the daily administration of every home.
The following with reference to this
work is from one who has devoted
much attention to the solution of
domestic problems:
"Many still think that domestic
science is covered by a course of cook-
ing lessons where the teacher does all
the work and the pupils look on either
taking notes or not as they choose.
The kitchen laboratory means small
classes of from eight to twelve pupils
in which each one or a small group
is supplied with utensils and appara-
tus, and does the actual work under
supervision of the teacher. It also
covers a knowledge of the proper loca-
tion for a home, the heating, lighting,
ventilating, plumbing, drainage, in
short everything that pertains to the
science of right living and the welfare
of the family. As yet those undertak-
ing this study are largely educated,
cultivated women who realize the
great need of such a profession and
are fitting themselves for teachers,
housekeepers, and managers of hotels
and boarding houses, sometimes com-
manding salaries equal to those of
college professors.
Ellen H. Richards who has done so
much in this country to bring about
the scientific study of foods writes as
follows: "The prosperity of a nation
depends on the health and morals of
its citizens; and the health and morals
of a people depend mainly on the food
they eat and the homes they live in."
Commenting on this, Emma O.
Conro, director of the department of
domestic science at Pratt Institute,
says: "If the national life thus depends
on the individual homes, the home
demands the exercise of woman's best
powers, broadly and carefully trained.
It is a matter of common observation
that a purely intellectual culture has
failed to accomplish the needful
preparation for the many-sided and
serious demands of daily life. No
one believes that the culture is at fault
or that it is superfluous; it is felt rather
that something more is necessary.
If, then, to a broad culture we add
special instruction bearing mainly on
health and living, the desired end is
perhaps attainable.''
The examination will include:
I. Foods.—Classes and kinds of
food material, with special reference
to their relative importance, modes
of preparation and preservation, and
to the detection of fraudulent addi-
tions and substitutions. Vegetable
foods—seeds, fruits, roots, leaves, and
fungi; geographic distribution. Ani-
mal foods—animals and such ani-
mal products as butter, cheese, milk;
geographic distribution. Preserving,
canning, salting, drying, and cold
storage. Use and abuse of spices and
condiments. Uses of food in the hu-
man body; quantity and relative pro-
portion of each food principle needed
to sustain life, and to give power for
physical and mental work; reasons
for varying food according to season,
age, or occupation. Laboratory work
in the school kitchen illustrating the
above topics, the chemistry of cook-
ing and methods of preparing typical
dishes, bills of fare for given occasions
with quantities and costs.
105


106
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
2. Emergencies, Home Nursing and
Hygiene.—The work of bandaging,
producing artificial respiration, appli-
cation of splints, lifting helpless pa-
tients, preparing and applying poul-
tices. Special topics: Heart and cir-
culation of the blood. General di-
rection of main arteries. Various
bleedings and ways of arresting them.
Immediate treatment of persons faint-
ing, apparently drowned, or otherwise
suffocated, or suffering collapse from
injury. Immediate treatment of
burns, scalds, wounds, and bruises.
Observing and recording pulse, res-
piration, and temperature. Furnish-
ing, warming, and ventilating the
sick-room. Bathing, dressing, and
administering food and medicines to
patients. Practical bandaging, bed-
making, and lifting and propping
helpless patients. Carrying the sick
and injured. Prevention and man-
agement of bed-sores. Treatment of
fevers; bathing, sponging, diet, use of
disinfectants. Nursing special dis-
eases; immediate treatment of frac-
tures, sprains, unconsciousness, epi-
lepsy, hysteria, poisonous bites, sun-
strokes, frost-bites; poisons, and
their antidotes. Practical preparation
and application of poultices, blisters
and stupes; packs and vapor-baths.
Hygiene of infancy and childhood;
growth, food, and artificial feeding,,
teething, clothing, exercise. Outlines,
of physiology and hygiene for adults;
care of eyes, ears, skin, digestion and;
lungs, illustrated by rough dissec-
tion of animal heart, lungs and
eyes.
3. Household Science. — Essential'
principles of house sanitation and of
household economy. Special topics:
Home sanitation—situation of the
house, surroundings and cellar; re-
moval of wastes, plumbing and care
of fixtures; substitutes for water-car-
riage; water supply; ventilation, heat-
ing, lighting; sanitary furnishing and
general care of the house. House-
hold economy—arrangement of work
and furnishings; care, in detail, of
every portion of the house; house-
cleaning; household accounts; mis-
tress and maid; household amenities.
4. Public Hygiene.—The courses de-
voted to the consideration of house
sanitation, and to individual hygiene,,
culminate naturally in the study of
problems concerning the public
health, or the care of the body politic.
Precautions against the spread of con-
tagious diseases. Quarantine disin-
fection. The laws and the reasons;
for the same, concerning the inspec-
tion of milk, butter, meat, etc. School
hygiene.
THE YULE LOG.
WHEN the Yule log burns upon the hearth,
With carol, chime and Christmas cheer,
A fire should kindle in each soul
To gladden all the coming year;
A flame to brighten heart and home,
And shine as well for other eyes,
Fed by good deeds which still glow on
When dim and cold the Yule log lies.
No life so poor but it may know
A spark of this divinest fire.
No life so beautiful and rich
But still, flame-like, it may aspire.
Then kindle Yule logs far and wide
To burn on every happy hearth,
Fit symbols of the faith and love
That purify and bless the earth.
— Louisa M. Alcott.



By MARY J. LINCOLN.
Menu No. 1.
Oyster Soup.
Celery. Olives. Gherkins.
Boiled Turkey. Celery Sauce.
Boiled Rice.
Roast Goose. Potato Stuffing. Apple Sauce. Creamed Turnips.
I.ettuce Salad. Wafers.
English Plum Pudding. Yellow and Hard Sauce.
Mince Pie. Nuts. Raisins. Apples. Grapes. Coffee.
Menu No. 2.
Cream of Onion Soup.
Fried Smelts. Sauce Tartare. Potato Balls.
Roast Loin of Pork. Roast Apples. Carrots Hominy Croquettes.
Celery Salad.
Mince Pie. Deep Apple Pie. Cheese. Nuts. Fruit. Coffee.
Menu No. 3.
Raw Oysters.
Olives, Salted Almonds. Celery.
Boiled Turkey. Chestnut Puree. Glazed Sweet Potatoes. Onions.
Quail on Toast. Spinach and Tongue Salad.
Marlboro Pie.
Cheese. Wafers. Nuts. Confections. Fruit. Coffee,
Menu No. 4.
Consomme. Olives. Radishes.
Browned Creamed Oysters. Brown Bread.
Roast Turkey, Chestnut Stuffing. Potato Croquettes
Cranberry Jelly. Stewed Celery.
Shaddocks. Roast Ham. Cider Sauce. Brussels Sprouts.
Apple Salad. Cheese. Wafers.
Plair Plum Pudding. T^emon Jelly. Sponge Cream Cak .
Nuts. Coffee.


THE CHRISTMAS DINNER.
BY MARY J. LINCOLN.
THE menu for Christmas dinner
is similar to that for Thanksgiv-
ing. People who are fond of it
usually substitute a roast goose for the
turkey, but this custom is not so com-
mon here as in England.
ROAST GOOSE.
Select a green goose, one that is
tender and not more than a year old.
It should have white soft fat, smooth
yellow feet, wings supple and tender
at the pinions, the flesh thick and hard
on the breast, and the end of the breast
bone soft and pliable. The wind-
pipe should break easily when pressed
with thumb and finger, but be careful
to notice that this and the breast bone
have not been broken to make you
think they are on a young bird.
Singe the bird and remove all the
pin feathers. The skin of a goose is
usually very uninviting, and being so
oily, dust adheres to it easily. It is
always safer to give the bird a thor-
ough washing (many authorities to
the contrary notwithstanding), and be-
fore it is drawn if possible, as the out-
side needs it more than the inside.
Use warm soap. suds to open the
pores, soften the fat and aid in draw-
ing out the oil. Cold water would
make no impresssion on them.
Scrub it thoroughly as you would any-
thing you really meant to clean.
Then rinse in clear water and wipe dry.
Draw as directed for turkeys in
November number. Wash the inside
quickly and wipe dry. If drawn when
you purchase it you should scrub the
skin just as thoroughly, but be careful
not to get the soapy water inside.
A roast goose is usually stuffed
with a potato stuffing, made with
mashed potatoes, highly seasoned
with boiled onions, salt, pepper, but-
ter and very slightly with sage; and
it is sometimes made richer with the
yolk of egg, two eggs to a pint of
potato. Others prefer to use equal
parts of bread crumbs, chopped ap-
ples, seedless raisins, and boiled
onions, seasoned with salt, pepper,
and butter.
Put in the stuffing, sew and truss
the goose as directed for turkey. Put
it on a rack in the pan and cover the
breast with several slices of fat salt
pork. It is unnecessary to season or
flour it now, for we wish first to draw
out some of the oil—and the pork fat
being quickly drawn out by the heat,
flows over the goose and aids in draw-
ing out the oil. It also keeps the
skin moist and no basting is required.
After cooking one hour remove the
pan from the oven and pour off the
fat. Remove the pork and dredge
the goose with flour and place again in
the oven. When the flour is browned
add hot water enough to cover the pan
and baste frequently. Dredge with
flour after basting, and cook until ten-
der in the joints and nicely browned.
It will take from one and a half to
three hours, and the oven should not
be hot enough to brown it much until
toward the last. If you have any
doubt as to its greenness cook it more
slowly, but on no account baste it at
first with any of the oily drippings.
Make a gravy if you like, but it is not
needed in this menu. Garnish the
bird with water cresses, and serve
apple sauce or roast apples or apple
fritters with it.
Christmas is the time when house-
keepers vie with each other to produce
something that shall be nearest like
an English plum pudding, and of
course each housekeeper considers
her own recipe handed down through
many generations as the only genuine
method. Here is the recipe for one
which I made in my first public dem-
108


THE CHRISTMAS DINNER.
109
•onstration in 1879, and while I can-
not vouch for the Queen's approval
•of it, it is "thoroughly English, you
know," and has been pronounced de-
licious by competent judges. This
pudding and a roast goose are closely
associated with my agony of mind
over my first lecture, and as I have
always considered the one an indiges-
tible compound, and the other a costly
mass of bone, fat, and stuffing, such
a Christmas dinner does not tempt me
as does our Thanksgiving turkey and
New England plum pudding.
ENGLISH PLUM PUDDING.
14 pints bread crumbs
1 pint chopped suet
I pint raisins
1 cup currants
4 cup citron
4 one candied lemon
peel
.5 eggs
1 cup sugar
4 tsp. salt
4 tsp. grated nutmeg
4 tsp. cinnamon
2 leveltbsp. flour
2 tbsp. milk
4 glass brandy or fruit
juice
Use only the inside of a loaf of stale
bread grated or crumbled finely.
Wash and stone the fruit as directed
in another column, or, if you can pro-
cure them, use the California seedless
raisins and the best prepared currants,
as the flavor is delicious and the labor
much less. Shave the citron and
lemon in small thin slices. Mix the
sugar and spices, make a thin batter
with the flour and milk, then beat the
eggs. Have three melon moulds,
smallest size, or several small moulds
•or pails well greased with cold butter,
and a large kettle of boiling water,
with a perforated tin in the bottom,
over the fire. Mix the suet and fruit
thoroughly with the bread crumbs, add
the sugar mixture, then the well
beaten eggs, the batter, and lastly the
brandy, turn into the moulds, place
them in the boiling water and let them
cook four hours if small and six if
large. Keep the water boiling stead-
ily and replenish as needed. It is
better to make this pudding some
time before Christmas, as that day
brings so much extra work, and the
pudding, like wedding cake, improves
with age. As but little of it can be
•eaten, or should be eaten if we have
any respect for our stomachs, it is al-
ways better to cook it in small forms.
Steam it again in the mould the day
it is to be served for at least three
hours. Serve it with a plain hard
sauce and with a rich yellow sauce.
Decorate it with sprigs of holly, and
if you approve you may pour brandy
over it and light it just as it comes to
the table.
It would be more English to boil
the pudding in a cloth, but the moulds
are to be preferred, as there is much
less chance of failure and much less
labor.
YELLOW SAUCE.
Cream \ cup butter and f cup
brown sugar and stir over hot water
until liquid, then add the well beaten
yolks of two eggs and cool until it
thickens, stirring constantly. Add a
little grated nutmeg and \ cup brandy
or wine. The juice from whole
canned cherries or peaches may be
substituted for the brandy in this and
in the pudding.
Here is the recipe for a plum pud-
ding which to my taste is better than
all the Christmas plum puddings that
were ever made or dreamed of (or
dreamed on), because it can be eaten
without any danger of the horrors
that usually follow our Christmas feast-
ing. It is easily made and inexpen-
sive, and may be served simply with
a sauce of thick cream, or with a rich
pudding sauce if you prefer.
PLAIN PLUM PUDDING.
2 cups coarse flour
4 tsp. soda
4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
Use the best
4 cup molasses
I cup milk
1 cup raisins
1 cup nuts
quality of Graham
flour sifted before measuring. Mix
the salt, soda, and baking powder with
the flour. The soda is to neutralize
the acid in the molasses and as this
varies it sometimes happens that not
enough carbonic acid gas is produced
to lighten the dough. Molasses now-
adays is not like that we used to buy,
therefore I use the baking powder
also to be sure that the pudding will


THE CHRISTMAS DINNER.
Ill
I lb. suet chopped fine
4 lbs. raisins stoned
I qt. molasses
i pt. boiled cider
I tsp. white pepper
I tsp. allspice
I tsp. cloves
4 cup rose water
of taking mush, meat, and fruit sepa-
ately. Possibly others could break-
fast on this much misjudged food if
they took more oxygen during the
day. But do not infer from this that
I recommend it as a part of our daily
breakfast.
MINCE PIE MEAT.
4 lbs. beef chopped fine
I peck Greening apples
chopped
1 lb. brown sugar
2 qts. sweet cider
4 cup salt
1 tbsp. mace
tbsp. cinnamon
2 nutmegs
This is a convenient rule for a large
quantity of mincemeat. It will keep
all winter. Boil the cider, molasses,
sugar, spices, and raisins thirty min-
utes, pour it over the meat and apple.
If you prefer you may omit the apple
when the mixture is made and when
you make it into pies use twice as
much fresh chopped apple as you
have of meat mixture and mix it well
with the meat. Do not add the rose
water until the mixture is scalded.
Currants and citron may be used if
you like, two pounds of each, but I
prefer to use only the raisins, and if
you care to enjoy the pies as did little
Jack Horner you will have half of
the amount of the California seedless
raisins.
PLAIN MINCE PIE.
1 cup cooked meat I cup brown sugar
2 cups apple I tsp. salt
4 cup raisins 4 tsp. cinnamon
4 cup jelly or marma- 4 tsp. allspice
lade 4 nutmeg
I lemon
Chop the meat, which may be any
remnants of steak or other cooked
beef, stewed until tender, chop the ap-
ple and then mix all thoroughly, and
bake between two crusts.
DEEP APPLE PIE.
Fill a deep earthen or granite dish
with apples, pared, quartered, and
cored. Sprinkle over them half a
cup of brown sugar mixed with one
saltspoonful of allspice; or you may
use maple sugar, or half sugar and
half molasses. Roll a strip of paste,
one inch wide, wet the edge of the
dish, put the paste on the edge, wet
the rim of paste, then cover with a
piece of paste a little larger than the
dish, with the extra fullness thrown
back into the centre. Press the cover
to the rim but not on the outer edge.
Bake half an hour, or until the apples
are soft.
APPLE PUDDING PIE.
i saltsp. salt
4 pt. cream
I pt. grated sour apples
I pt. gran, sugar
I heaping tbsp. butter
4 eggs
I nutmeg
Rub the butter (softened) into the
sugar. Whip the cream to a froth but
not stiff. Beat the eggs without sepa-
rating, very light. Then grate the
apple quickly and mix all together.
Pour into two deep pie plates lined
with paste, cover with a nice paste,
and bake until the crusts are well
done. This rule makes two pies and
they are delicious.
BAKED QUAIL.
Pick, draw, and wipe the birds out-
side and inside with a wet cloth. Be
careful to remove any shot in the flesh.
Cut the wings and neck off close to the
body but leave the feet on. Take two
oysters to each bird, dip them in
melted butter, then in cracker crumbs
seasoned with salt and pepper. Put
them into the body, tie the feet and
fasten them through the tail with a
small wooden skewer so they will
cover the opening. Rub the breasts
with softened butter and dredge with
flour. Pin a thin piece of fat salt pork
on the breast, arrange them in a bak-
ing pan so they will keep breast up.
Place them in a hot oven and bake
twelve minutes. Baste with melted
butter and water three times during
the baking. They have a dry white
meat and should be well done and be
basted frequently to make them
delicious.
Have ready a small slice of nicely
toasted bread, no crusts, and moisten


112
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
it slightly with hot salt water. Dish
the birds on the toast without spilling
any of the juice from the inside as this
is needed on the toast. Remove the
skewers and pork and garnish with
cauliflower. (See recipe for cauli-
flower with browned butter, in Octo-
ber number).
PUREE OF CHESTNUTS.
I pt. chestnuts I tbsp. butter
I pt. milk Salt and pepper
I cup cream I egg
Shell and blanch the chestnuts.
Cook in boiling salted water to cover,
till very soft. Mash them in the
water left in the pan, and rub them
through a fine strainer into the milk.
Heat again, add the cream, salt and
pepper to taste, and when ready to
serve stir the beaten egg in quickly
and serve at once with croutons.
Add more milk if too thick, and a little
sugar if preferred.
In our eager preparation for the
Christmas festivities, with its inter-
change of gifts, reunion of friends,
the family or the Sabbath-school
Christmas tree, and the dinner, we are
liable to forget about another anni-
versary day which occurs in this
month and which should have a place
in the memory of every native of New
England, even if now living remote
from the old home. In some places
Forefather's Day, December 22, is
honored by public celebrations and
banquets, and many families plan to
have a special dinner on that occasion
which shall be fashioned after those
prepared by our Pilgrim ancestors.
Succotash occupies the place of honor
on the menu at these public and pri-
vate dinners, and the following is the
method used by one family for over
fifty years in the old Pilgrim town of
Plymouth.
SUCCOTASH FOR FOREFATHERS'
DINNER.
One quart of large white beans (not
the pea beans); six quarts of hulled
corn,—the smutty white Southern
corn; six to eight pounds of corned
beef, from the second cut of the rattle
rand; one pound of salt pork, fat and
lean; chicken weighing from four to
six pounds; one large white French
turnip; eight or ten medium-sized
potatoes.
Wash the beans, and soak over
night in cold water. In the morning
put them on in cold soft water.
When boiling, change the water, and
simmer until soft enough to mash to
a pulp and the water is nearly all ab-
sorbed. Wash the salt pork and the
corned beef, which should be corned
only three or four days. Put them
on about eight o'clock, in cold water,
in a very large kettle, and skim as
they begin to boil. Clean, and truss
the chicken as for boiling, and put it
with the meat about an hour and a
quarter before dinner time. Allow a
longer time if a fowl be used, and keep
plenty of water in the kettle. Two
hours before dinner time, put the
beans, mashed to a pulp, and the
hulled corn into another kettle, with
some of the fat from the meat in the
bottom to keep them from sticking.
Take out enough liquor from the meat
to cover the corn and beans and let
them simmer where they will not
burn. Stir often, and add more liquor
if needed. The mixture should be
like a thick soup, and the beans should
absorb all the liquor, yet it must not
be too dry.
Pare and cut the turnip into inch
slices; add it about eleven o'clock,
and the potatoes (pared) half an hour
later. Take up the chicken as soon
as tender, that it may be served whole.
Serve the beef and the pork together,
the chicken, turnip, and potatoes each
on separate dishes, and the beans and
corn in a tureen. The meat usually
salts the mixture sufficiently, and no
other seasoning is necessary. Save
the water left from the meat, to use in
warming the corn and beans the next
day, serving the meat cold. This will
keep several clays in cold weather;
and, like many other dishes, it is better
the oftener it is warmed over, so there
is no objection to making a large
quantity. The white Southern corn
is considered the only kind suitable
for this ancient dinner.


THE CHRISTMAS DINNER.
113
PART II.
CARVING THE TURKEY AND GOOSE.
It is as absurd to expect any one to
carve well without any conception of
the internal structure of what may be
placed before him, as to expect one
to amputate a limb successfully who
has no knowledge of human anatomy.
If you have some notion of the names
and the relative position of the bones,
joints and muscles, you will not look
for the oyster behind the wing, or the
pope's nose near the head, or for white
meat on the thigh. The best way to
learn about carving poultry or game is
to cut them up for a stew or fricassee,
provided care be taken not to chop
diem but to disjoint them skilfully.
And as practice makes perfection in
carving, as well as in every other art,
never allow yourself to be careless
about it.
An essential aid to easy carving,
and one often overlooked, is that the
platter be large enough to hold the
portions of meat as they are carved,
as well as the whole fowl. The per-
sistency with which some house-
keepers cling to a small dish for fear
the fowl will look lost on a larger one
often makes successful carving impos-
sible, and inward cursing abundant.
The platter should be placed near the
carver that he may easily reach any
part of the fowl without turning the
fowl around. The carver may stand
or sit as suits his convenience.
The knife should be made from the
best steel, and have a narrow, thin,
pointed blade, and a handle easy to
grasp, and be of a size adapted to the
article to be carved and to the person
using it. Be as particular to keep it
sharp as to have it bright and clean,
and never allow it to be used to cut
bread or for any other than its legiti-
mate purpose. There should be a
crook or guard on the end of the
handle to enable the carver to grasp
it more securely and use all the
strength necessary. The handle
should be long enough to reach from
the tip of the forefinger to an inch
beyond the side back of the hand so
that the edge of the hand, about an
inch above the wrist, rests against the
handle of the knife. In dividing a
difficult joint the manipulations
should be made, not by turning the
hand, but by turning the knife with
the fingers. In this way the position
of the point of the blade can be more
easily changed as the joint may re-
quire.
The fork should have two slender,
curving tines about three-eighths of
an inch apart and two and a half
inches long, and should have a guard.
After cooking, remove all the
skewers and the strings from the neck
and apron; free the ends of the drum-
sticks from the body and trim them
with a paper ruffle. Take a piece of
thin white paper 8 inches long by
inches wide, fold it lengthwise and be-
gin at the folded edge and cut half
way across the width in narrow strips
J of an inch apart. Open the paper
and paste one uncut edge slightly be-
low the other so the cut portion will
have a rounded appearance. When
dry, take one end and coil it around
the end of the drumsticks. This will
enable the carver to touch the drum-
sticks, if necessary, without soiling
his hands.
Skilful carvers do not agree as to
the position of a bird on the platter.
Some prefer to have the neck at the
right hand, but the majority prefer to
have it at the left. Some can cut more
easily toward the right than toward
the left hand, just as some women can
needle a thread more easily than they
can thread a needle. The carving will
be done with more grace if the one
who carves works easily and natur-
ally, instead of attempting to follow
an arbitrary rule. The position of the
bird in these directions is with the neck
at the left.
But all who carve, whether skilfully


114
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
or awkwardly, do agree that the lar-
gest platter that can be found is none
too large for a turkey. Should the
turkey fill the space within the rim of
the platter, provide an extra dish, also
a fork for serving.
It facilitates the work of carving to
remove the drumsticks first. Take
the end of the drumsticks, protected
by the ruffle, in the left hand, and cut
it off at the joint. The joint in the
leg is not quite in the middle of the
curve but a trifle nearer the thigh. It
requires some practice to strike this
joint in the right spot, and if the bird
be very tender or overcooked the sec-
ond joint or side bone even may come
off with the drumsticks. So be care-
ful not to pull the leg away from the
body but make a straight cut from the
top of the joint, down and through the
joint, then lay the leg to one side.
This is not a common method of
carving but I have often seen it done
very skilfully. It is much easier than
to hold the drumstick with the fork
while separating it from the second
joint after they have been taken from
the body, and if it be taken off before
the end of the bone or the ruffle be-
comes moistened by contact with the
juice of the cut meat, the fingers will
not be soiled. If the turkey be very
large, slice the meat from the leg as
soon as it is cut off and then lay the
bone aside on the extra dish. The
drumsticks are often not used at the
first serving of the turkey, but are
deviled and broiled for another mea!.
Put the fork in firmly as far as it
•will go across the middle of the breast
bone, and if the whole bird is to be
carved do not remove it until the
"breast is separated from the back.
Opinions vary as to which should
be removed first, the wing or the leg,
but it is safe to follow this general
rule: If the wing be so long, or the
bird to be trussed in such a way that
the end of the wing comes close to the
thigh, remove the wing first and then
it will not be in the way when remov-
ing the second joint.
Cut through the flesh on the top of
the shoulder, work the point of the
knife into the joint and press it out-
ward, and when the joint separates
cut through the flesh close to the body
but do not take any of the breast with
the wing. Then cut through the skin
between the thigh, or second joint,
and the body. Bend the leg over with
the knife and the joint will be dis-
closed. Cut through the flesh from
above down toward the tail and if the
joint does not separate easily turn the
knife and cut from the tail toward the
joint. Make a clean cut, not a jagged
one, and leave a generous portion of
the meat on the side bone. Then re-
move the wing and second joint on the
other side.
Sometimes the side bone will sepa-
rate from the back and come off with
the second joint, and many prefer to
take it off at this time. It can be done
by cutting the skin above and press-
ing the knife close "to the backbone,
cutting along the edge and prying it
off. But if the bird be tough, do not
attempt it at this stage of the process.
The side bone is by many considered
the choicest portion, and is often left
untouched because the carver is too
negligent to offer it, or the guest does
not like to express a preference for it
for fear of exposing the host's inability
to carve it easily.
Shave off the breast in thin slices,
beginning just above the wing and
slanting slightly from the front of the
breast bone down toward the wing.
Be careful to take a portion of crisp
outside on the edge of each slice.
The knife must have a very keen edge
to enable you to do this neatly. By
cutting in this slanting direction the
meat is cut across the grain instead of
with the grain, as is the case when the
cuts are parallel with the breast bone.
After the breast is carved, cut across
the crisp skin near the neck and below
the breast in order to reach the stuff-
ing. Insert the point of the knife at
the front of the breast bone, turn back
the wish bone and separate it. Press
the point of the knife through the
cartilage at each side of the front of


THE CHRISTMAS DlNNER.
115
the breast bone, separating the collar
bones from the breast. Tip the body
slightly, slip the knife under the end
.of the shoulder blade (it lies close to
the backbone not quite half way down
from the neck) and turn it over
toward the wing joint. Repeat this
process on the opposite side. Cut
across the thin ribs, or through the
cartilage which divides the ribs, on
«ach side, separating the breast bone
from the back. Lay the breast bone
to one side, and now remove the fork
from it. Take the stuffing from the
back. Turn the back over, place the
knife midway just below the ribs and
with the fork lift up the tail end, sepa-
rating the back from the upper part
of the body. Place the fork in the
middle of the back bone and cut close
to the back bone from one end to the
other on each side, freeing the side
bone.
It is not often necessary to cut up
the whole body of the turkey, and even
if the meat will be needed, it can be
taken off without disjointing the
bones. After the breast is sliced and
the wish bone removed (which some
child is always sure to want), tip the
bird over slightly and with the point
of the knife remove the oyster lying
in the hollow of the side bone, and also
the small portion of dark meat found
on the lower end of the side bone.
The pope's nose is a choice bit relished
by many. Then remove the fork and
divide the wings at the joints; if the
drumsticks were not taken off at first,
separate them from the second joint.
Cut off the meat from the second
joint of the wing and also from the
thigh, as these, when large, are more
than one person requires, and it is in-
convenient to have so large bones on
one's plate. If no preference be ex-
pressed, help equally to both light and
dark meat and stuffing.
If the family be small and the turkey
is to be served for a second dinner,
carve only from the side n.earest you.
Then the turkey will be left with one
half entire, and, if placed in a clean
platter with the cut side nearest the
carver and garnished with parsley,
will present nearly as fine an appear-
ance to all but the carver as when first
served.
The second or third serving of a
turkey depends very much upon the
care taken in putting it away. Do
not, as is so often done, leave it on the
platter just as it came from the table
but put the crumbs of stuffing back
into the body, put the slices of cut
meat together, and cover them with
the skin or protect them from the air
so they will not become hard. Should
there be nothing left apparently but
the bones, do not let them become dry-
by being exposed to the air, but scrape
off every particle of the meat and stuff-
ing at once. Cover the meat until
you are ready to use it, and put the
bones on to boil for soup or gravy. •
Often from a seemingly bare carcass
enough may be obtained to make a
savory dish of scalloped meat suffi-
cient for another meal.
A green goose neatly trussed and
"done to a turn" looks very tempting
on the platter, but there is so little
meat in proportion to the size of the
bird that unless it be skilfully carved
only a small number can be served.
The breast of a goose is broader and
flatter than that of a turkey. It
should be carved differently, although
many writers give the same directions
for carving both. The ligaments con-
necting the bones are usually very
tough, and much more skill and
strength are required than for carving
other fowls.
Place it on the platter with the head
at the left. Insert the knife firmly
across the ridge of the breast bone.
Cut through the flesh where the wing
joins the body, work the point of the
knife into the joint and with the side
of the knife press the wing over from
the body, and cut until the joint sepa-
rates. Then cut through the flesh and
separate it from the body. Cut be-
tween the leg and the body, press the
leg over with the side of the knife until
you see the joint. Then cut through
the flesh close to the body. If it be a


ne
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
tender bird the joint will separate
easily as soon as the leg is bent over,
but if it be old and tough you will have
to feel with the knife for the joint.
This thigh joint is tougher and re-
quires more skill in separating than
the second joint of a turkey. It lies
farther under and nearer the back
bone. But practice and familiarity
with its location will enable one to
strike it accurately.
In carving the breast, begin at the
wing and cut straight down through
the meat to the bone the whole length
of the breast. Cut down in the same
way in parallel slices as thin as can be
cut until you come to the ridge of the
breast bone. Cut down between the
wish bone and the breast to the wing,
then slip the knife under the slices at
. the lower end of the breast and sepa-
rate them from the bone. Lay them
aside, then cut in the same manner
on the other side of the breast. Make
several cuts at right angles with the
breast bone through the skin and
stuffing between the breast and tail,,
and remove the stuffing.
With the fork still in the breast
bone, tip the bird over slightly and
with the point of the knife remove the
delicate portion in the hollow of the
side bone; a little may be shaved off
from the lower edge of the side bone.
Separate the wish bone from the point
of the breast. It will be found to be
more curving than that of a turkey,,
and exceedingly difficult to separate
at its junction with the wing joint.
The collar bone, shoulder blade,,
breast bone, and side bone may be
separated according to the directions,
for carving a turkey.
A CALIFORNIAN AND AN ENGLISH PLUM PUDDING.
BY KATE E. WHITAKEK.
Superintendent of San Francisco Public Schools of Cookery.
WHEN the writer was a little girl
in an English country home,
one of her favorite stories was
entitled "The Story of a Christmas
Plum Pudding." Its purpose was to
illustrate how many countries had
been called upon to contribute the
materials for the said Christmas pud-
ding. For instance, France or Spain
was asked for raisins, Zante for cur-
rants, Italy for lemons, citron and
oranges, Spain and Southern France
for almonds, America for sugar, the
Spice Islands for spices. Probably
the bread and flour were made from
American wheat, the suet came from
American beef, and the eggs from
France.
Now let us tell the story of a Cali-
fornian Christmas pudding made un-
der the following circumstances.
The classes in cooking in the San
Francisco Normal School requested
to be allowed to make an English
plum pudding prior to Christmas,
1894, and their teacher granted this,
the condition being that they provide
the materials; this they cheerfully did.
After the puddings were made and
the recipe read through by the class,
the teacher in making comments upon
it, asked them to look down the list
of materials and tell where each had
been produced. It was found that
with the exception of the spices every
ingredient was a Californian produc-
tion. Bread, suet, flour, sugar, eggs,
almonds, raisins, currants, lemons,
oranges, citron, were all home pro-
ductions. This tells its own tale.


THE SOURING OF MILK.
Report of E. W. Allen, Acting-Director Government Agriculture Experiment Stations.
THE souring of milk is due to the
action of minute organisms known
as bacteria. These bacteria are so
minute that they can be seen only by the
aid of a powerful microscope, but the
result of the concerted action of myriads
of them in souring milk is a familiar
sight to every housewife. Besides the
ordinary souring of milk, there are many
other changes which may take place—
as the ripening of cream, the ripening of
cheese, butter becoming rancid, and
many others less common. These
changes are called fermentations, be-
cause they are similar to the fermenting
of cider to vinegar, the fermentations
produced by yeast in beer making, etc.
The term includes many changes due to
other micro-organisms or ferments be-
sides bacteria; and so here fermentation
is used to cover all the changes which
occur in milk, such as curdling, souring,
and putrefaction, most of which are
caused by bacteria. The great import-
ance of these fermentations of milk is
being realized. It is only by a proper
control of them that good butter or
cheese can be made. It is important
that they should take place, but it is
equally important that they should not
be allowed to get the upper hand. To
insure an understanding of these fer-
mentations of milk some knowledge of
the chemical composition of milk is
necessary.
While the composition of milk ob-
tained from different cows and produced
under different conditions shows wide
variations, a fair average composition
may be given as follows: Water, 87 per
cent; solids, 13 per cent. The solids
include fat, 3.6; casein, 3.3; albumen,
0.7; milk sugar, 4.7; and ash, 0.7 per
cent. The casein and albumen are the
materials containing nitrogen, and are
of special importance in cheese making.
In general, the! ash, sugar, and albumen
are in solution, the casein in partial
solution, and the fat in suspension, but
not dissolved in the milk.
Milk fat consists of a mixture of
several fats. As its composition begins
to undergo changes almost immediately
after the milk is drawn, its exact condi-
tion at any moment is very uncertain.
It is distributed throughout the milk in
the form of minute globules, varying in
size. On standing, or by treatment in
a separator, the fat globules, being
lighter than the rest of the milk, sepa-
rate and form cream, the skim milk con-
taining casein, sugar, and all other milk
constituents. The whiteness of milk
has usually been attributed to the pres-
ence of these globules of fat, but it is
probably due largely to other ingred-
ients of the milk, in part to the phos-
phate of lime which milk contains.
The organisms and substances con-
cerned in the fermentation of milk may
be divided into two distinct classes,
namely, organized and unorganized
ferments. The former include the
minute living organisms (micro-organ-
isms), such as bacteria, yeasts, etc.,
which by their growth cause changes
or fermentation.
The unorganized or chemical fer-
ments, on the other hand, are sub-
stances devoid of life, which are capable
of causing certain chemical changes in
other substances without themselves
being changed. Rennet and pepsin are
familiar examples of unorganized fer-
ments.
Bacteria proper, which have most to
do with milk and cream, are found in
immense numbers everywhere, and play
an important part in nature. They are
all extremely minute. In shape they
show three chief varieties, which may be
compared, respectively, to a lead pencil
(bacillus), a ball (coccus), and a cork-
screw (spirillum)- With the highest
117


118
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
powers of the microscope they appear
as scarcely more than simple dots and
lines. They are to be classed with
plants rather than animals, in spite of
the fact that many of them are endowed
with motion.
The isolation and cultivation of a
single kind of bacteria is a matter re-
quiring the greatest care. Although
imperfectly studied as yet, many differ-
ent forms are known, which are distin-
guished by their habits of growth, the
substances in which they thrive, and the
changes which they produce in various
substances as a result of their growth.
Bacteria are cultivated in beef broth,
gelatin, and other substances, which,
when used for these purposes, are called
cultures. What is known as a pure
culture contains only one kind of bac-
teria.
Yeasts are also plants of a low order,
which grow very rapidly in certain sub-
stances, and thus cause changes, which
are commonly called fermentations.
The most common kind of yeast is that
used in making beer and raising bread.
Yeasts have very little to do with dairy
processes.
It has long since been ascertained
beyond question that pure milk, drawn
from a healthy cow, contains no bac-
teria, and that all bacterial contamina-
tion of the milk comes from external
sources. While this fact has been re-
demonstrated by the most recent work,
it has appeared that the statement must
be for practical purposes quite consider-
ably modified. In the first place, the
difficulties which lie in the way of ob-
taining milk from the cow without
bacterial contamination are extremely
great and sometimes seemingly insur-
mountable. Of the many attempts
which have been made to obtain milk
in this way which shall from the first be
sterile, most have proved failures.
Enough of them have met with success
to demonstrate the general position;
but so many of them have been unsuc-
cessful as to show the extreme difficulty
of obtaining sterile milk in this way.
In spite of cleanly methods, of sterilized
vessels, and of the greatest care to pre-
vent dirt and dust from falling into the
milk, the milk when first drawn from
the cow has in the large majority of
cases contained bacteria. The expla-
nation of this fact has proved to be in
the ease with which the milk is con-
taminated in the milk duct. The milk
duct is, of course, open to the air, and it
will contain at the close of the milking
a considerable amount of milk adherent
to its walls. Bacteria from the air have
no difficulty in making their way into
the duct, growing there, and becoming
extremely numerous. The result is that
by the time of the next milking the milk
ducts contain bacteria in great numbers,
and these will inevitably contaminate
the milk. It has been suggested that
the bacteria not only enter into the milk
ducts between the milking, but that
some of them actually make their way
into the very depths of the milk gland
itself, and there grow and multiply.
Undoubtedly the milk gland of the
healthy cow produces milk which is un-
contaminated with bacteria, but the
large caliber of the milk duct makes it
possible for the bacteria to grow in the
duct to considerable extent, so that it
becomes a matter of extreme difficulty
to obtain milk from the cow, even with
the greatest precautions, which shall
not be contaminated.
Of late the air has come to be re-
garded as a less important source of
contamination than formerly. It is of
course true that milk does receive some
bacteria from the air during the milk-
ing. In an ill-ventilated stall, filled
with dust from hay, bacteria will be
floating in the air. When the milking
occurs quantities of dirt and dust are
brushed from the undersides of the
cow's body and fill the air in the imme-
diate vicinity with bacteria; but such
contamination is to be charged to the
hay or dirt on the cow rather than the
air.
The milk vessels themselves are an
important source of contamination, as
are also the hands and clothing of the
milker. The milker seldom makes a
cleanly toilet before milking, and any
dirt upon his hands or upon his clothing


THE SOURINQ OF MILK.
119
will have abundant chance to get into
the milk vessels. The ordinary water
in which the milk vessels are washed,
and especially with which the milk is too
frequently diluted, is also regarded as a
very important source of bacteria con-
tamination, particularly in connection
with certain disease germs, like those of
typhoid fever. But a more careful con-
sideration of the work of the last few
years shows that the great sources of
bacteria contamination are from the
cow itself, not, as we have seen, from
internal, but from external sources.
Anyone who has noticed the uncleanly
condition in which the cow is kept on
the ordinary farm will readily appreciate
this possibility.
The other sources of dirt are very
great. The hairs of the cow are always
covered with dirt and dust, and it is
impossible for the milker to avoid a
considerable amount of this dirt falling
into his milk pail. Every one of these
hairs which finds its way into the milk
will furnish large quantities of bacteria
for contamination. Milk drawn into a
sterilized vessel was found to contain
520 bacteria per cubic centimeter, but
when drawn into a flaring pail, with
considerable disturbance of the udder
and bedding, the number rose to 30,000
per cubic centimeter. When we ex-
amine the amount of solid material
which finds its way into the milk we
are amazed at the results. If ordinary
milk'is allowed to stand for a number of
hours a sediment may be collected
which is wholly extraneous matter, and
must be regarded as dirt contamination.
This dirt is largely composed of manure,
and most of the rest can be traced
directly to the cow.
We must, then, regard external con-
ditions connected with the cow as the
great and the most important source of
bacteria that contaminate milk. We
must also recognize that occasionally
diseased udders are a source of milk
contamination. In such cases there is
probably active bacteria multiplication
in the interior of the gland, and conse-
quently abundant internal sources of
milk contamination.
There is now also abundant evidence
for the conclusion that the milk of tuber-
culous cattle, at least in certain stages of
the disease, may be contaminated with
the tuberculosis germ. This appears to
be true at all events after the disease has
attacked the milk glands, and possibly
before. The great prevalence of tuber-
culosis among cattle makes this source
of milk contamination one of consider-
able importance. There is also evi-
dence that diphtheria may affect the
cow, and that at least under some con-
ditions the cow thus affected may serve
as a source of diphtheria contamination
to the milk.
It will be seen in general, then, that in
dealing with healthy herds the greatest
source of contamination is the bacteria
in the milk duct and the dirt on the hairs
of the cow. The next greatest source
is the milk vessels and the milker him-
self. Lastly, and to a very slight ex-
tent, we must look upon air as a source
of contamination, but if care be taken of
the food and dirt on the cow little need
be feared from the air itself.
The work of the last few years has
emphasized the fact that the number of
bacteria present in milk is of very little
significance. The widest possible var-
iations in these numbers seem to be
found under almost identical condi-
tions. While it is true that the general
purity of the milk can be estimated by
the number of bacteria that it contains,
this is only true to a limited extent, and
not infrequently the presence of large
numbers of bacteria is possible even in
very good quality of milk. At no time
in the history of the milk can anything
like uniformity in the numbers be given.
Immediately after milking the number
may vary from zero to over 10,000,000
in a single cubic inch of milk. The
number depends upon various condi-
tions of cleanliness. After the milk is
drawn the bacteria begin to multiply
rapidly, and the number present at any
moment subsequently will depend
simply upon the temperature at which
the milk is kept and upon the species of
bacteria present. Some species seem
to multiply rapidly and to reach higher


120
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
numbers than others. The favorable
influence of warmth on the growth of
bacteria makes more evident the value
of keeping milk as cool as possible from
the very outset, if we wish to avoid the
troublesome growth of bacteria. For
a day or two the bacteria increase with
great rapidity, then their multiplication
is checked, and finally they entirely
cease to grow. This can not, of course,
be due to a lack of food, for there is
plenty of food in the milk at all times.
It is rather to be attributed to the accu-
mulation of the products of their action.
Those growths which produce an acid
will soon be checked by this, for bac-
teria can not grow in an acid medium.
The amount of acid formed before the
growth is checked will vary, however,
for some species of bacteria are very
sensitive to acid, while others will en-
dure a larger amount without injury.
In regard to the milk supply of cities
and towns, the number of bacteria
varies very greatly. An important
factor is the time between milking and
delivery to customers. In large cities
this often amounts to twenty-four or
thirty-six hours. When this is the case
it is necessary to keep the milk on ice,
and by doing so the milk is kept fairly
fresh. Judging from tests thus far
made, city milk, which contains not
more than three or four million bacteria
per cubic centimeter may be regarded
as exceptionally good for European
cities. No general average of Ameri-
can cities can be made, but the prob-
ability is that the milk supply delivered
in our large cities, by the free use of ice,
is in general superior to that of the milk
supply of European cities. The milk of
large cities contains more germs than
that of small communities, but is prob-
ably no more harmful.
Considerably over two hundred dis-
tinct types of ordinary milk bacteria
have been described in literature up to
the present time, and all of these will be
found, in the descriptions given, to
differ from each other. Most of them
have been named or numbered by the
persons who describe them. They
have been found in various dairy pro-
ducts, in fresh milk, in old milk, in
butter, cream, and cheese.
Some produce very pleasant flavors
in the milk and cream; others produce
decidedly unpleasant flavors; some of
them are excessively troublesome to the
milkman, but favorable to the butter
maker; others are troublesome wher-
ever they appear. In short, the effect
of the different bacteria upon milk is
extremely varied, so that the forms of
fermentation are almost as numerous as
kinds of bacteria themselves.
When an acid, as acetic acid (the acid
of vinegar), is added to milk the milk
curdles, and we have the phenomenon
of sour milk. Popularly it may be said
that in the common souring of milk
organisms in the milk act upon its con-
stituents, notably the milk sugar, and
produce from it acids, which give the
milk a sour taste and curdle the casein,
making the milk thick. Commonly,
lactic acid is the principal acid formed,
although smaller quantities of a number
of other acids usually accompany it.
Hence the normal souring of milk is
spoken of as lactic fermentation. While
the spontaneous souring of milk is an
almost universal phenomenon, it is not
always produced by the same or even
very closely allied organisms. Occa-
sionally the milk in a large number of
dairies in one locality will be found to
be soured by the same species of bac-
teria, while in other cases the spontan-
eous souring may be produced by dif-
ferent species in dairies at no great dis-
tance from each other. Sometimes,
indeed, this spontaneous fermentation
is absent. Certain herds of cattle have
been noted whose milk does not sour,
but will after a time undergo other types
of fermentation. It is also a fact that
not infrequently in the winter months
milk is found not to undergo the sour-
ing spontaneously, but may be kept for
a long time without curdling, and when
it does show signs of fermentation the
type is entirely different from that of
normal milk souring.
It is probable that the decomposition
of milk may take place in a number of
different ways. While we are certain


HIS REASON.
121
that the fermentation of milk, com-
monly known as souring, is caused by
bacteria, we have yet much to learn re-
garding the details of the process.
A consideration of the subject of the
souring of milk would not be complete
without reference to the effect of elec-
tricity. The popular belief that thunder-
storms will sour milk is so widespread
that it would seem as if there must be
some foundation for it. It has been
asserted by many that the ozone pro-
duced in the air by electricity causes the
milk to become sour. In experiments
in which electric sparks were discharged
over the surface of the milk, however,
little or no effect has been produced by
it. The conclusion is that electricity is
not of itself capable of souring milk or
even of materially hastening the pro-
cess. Nor can the ozone developed
during the thunderstorm be looked up-
on as of any great importance. It
seems probable that the connection be-
tween the thunderstorm and the souring
of milk is one of a different character.
Bacteria certainly grow most rapidly in
the warm, sultry conditions which
usually precede a thunderstorm, and it
frequently happens that the thunder-
storm and the souring occur together,
not because the thunder has hastened
the souring, but rather because the cli-
matic conditions which have brought
the storm have at the same time been
such as to cause unusually rapid bacteria
growth. This fact has been verified by
many experiments which have shown
that without the presence of lactic
organisms there can be no spontaneous
souring of milk. Milk deprived of bac-
teria will certainly keep well during
thunderstorms. Dairymen find no diffi-
culty in keeping milk if it is cooled im-
mediately after being drawn from the
cow and is kept cool. Milk submerged
in cool water is not affected by thunder-
storms. Dairymen find that during
"dog-day" weather, even when there is
no thunder, it is just as difficult to keep
milk as it is during thunderstorms; and
they also find that scrupulous cleanli-
ness in regard to the milk vessels is the
best possible remedy against souring
during a thunderstorm. It is safe to
conclude, therefore, that in all cases it
is the bacteria which sour the milk, and
if there seems to be a casual connection
between the thunder and the souring it
is an indirect one only; climatic condi-
tions have hastened bacteria growth
and have also brought on the thunder-
storm. The same conditions would
affect the milk in exactly the same way
even though no thunderstorm were pro-
duced, and this effect, our dairymen tell
us, is frequently observed during the
warm, sultry autumn days.
HIS REASON.
BY JAMES COURTNEY CHALLISS.
YOU ask me why I love you so.
Is it your pretty face,
Your voice so sweetly soft and low,
Is it your queenly grace?
Is it your modesty I prize,
Your disposition sweet?
Is it the magic of your eyes
That draws me to your feet?
Ah, no! Nor yet your music grand,
Nor yet again your art.
'Tis none of these, pray understand,
That captivates my heart,
But simply this (and I will stake
Upon it my last "red"):
I love you, dear, because you make
Such sweet delicious bread!


THE ALADDIN OVEN
AT THE TUSKEGEE, ALA., INSTITUTE.
SEVERAL months since Principal
Booker T. Washington of the
Tuskegee (colored) Institute
called to consult me upon the right
method of improving the nutrition
of the six hundred or more stu-
dents in that Institute, referring to the
tough and rather poor condition of the
ordinary beef and mutton of the
South, and the strong tendency to de-
pend mainly upon bacon and hominy.
His idea had been to set up a battery
of Aladdin Ovens, which I should
have been very glad to sell him but
which I could not afford to give and
which I told him he could not afford
to buy. I advised him to construct
one or more ovens of pine plank,
thickly plastered with ordinary lime
mortar on the inside; to place them
either on a stone, earth or brick floor,
so that in the very remote contingency
of the wood being slowly carbonized,
or being set on fire by accident, no
harm could come and no injury
would be done except to the oven.
He acted upon this suggestion; and
it is with great satisfaction that I am
enabled to give the account of his
success, which has been sent me by
the Rev. R. C. Bedford, of Rockton,
1ll., one of the trustees, together with
the reports of one of the instructors
and his assistant. It may be remem-
bered that while some of the trustees,
Mr. B. included, are white men, the
whole corps of instructors and all the
pupils are of the colored race. In
this application of economic principles
to the subsistence of a large number
of mainly adult persons congregated
together, the colored man is in ad-
vance of the white man.
Mr. Edward ^.tkinson.
Dear Sir:—At Mr. Washington's
request I send you the enclosed article
on the "Aladdin Oven." I have
taken pains with this, and it has been
a great pleasure to me. The oven is
certainly a wonder. Pork baked in
it seems like a different meat. The
fat is like marrow. We had some for
dinner to-day. I hope you can make
some use of this. We have tried to
meet your wants; but if we have
failed, if you will indicate it, we will
try again. Yours,
(Signed.) R. C. BEDFORD.
Tuskegee, Ala., March 7, 1895.
REPORT ON THE ALADDIN OVEN.
About a year and a half ago, while
Mr. Washington was in Boston, mak-
inquiries in regard to the best and
most economical way of cooking, es-
pecially for large numbers of people,
a friend suggested that he call on Mr.
Edward Atkinson. Mr. Atkinson be-
came interested, and advised a trial of
his "Aladdin Oven." He freely gave
the school the privelege of making
it, and furnished plans for a trial
oven. The matter was placed in
charge of Prof. R. H. Hamilton; and
he had a small oven made for one
lamp, as shown in Figures 1 and ia.
This oven is twenty-six inches long
by seventeen inches wide, and six-
teen inches high. It is made of well-
seasoned hard-pine, one and three-
fourths inches thick, covered inside
with wire lathing, on furring strips of
iron, one-fourth inch in diameter, on
which is a coat of lime mortar, one-
half inch thick. The table A is made
of iron, one-fourth inch by one inch,
and covered at a and b with galvan-
ized iron. A layer of mortar (c), one-
half inch thick, all around the bottom
of the oven, serves to protect the wood
from the heat.
Mr. Hamilton took this oven into
his kitchen, and there put it to a prac-
tical test for more than a year. He
122





124
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
says: "My experience with the oven the frame is made of wood instead of
is satisfactory in every way. I cook iron. The chain (d) is used to sup-
in it all my meats. I find it especially port the door (e) as a shelf; (z) repre-
adapted to fish, baked beans, our sents the bar for closing the door.
p. s 2 ng z a rig & b

Southern peas, possum and sweet
potatoes, and rice pudding. It is a
great labor-saver. Articles require
no attention from the time they are
put in till ready to take out, unless it
is something that you wish to brown,
when, a little while before taking out,
the cover is removed from the vessel
and a beautiful brown is given to
whatever may be in it. There no per-
ceptible heat or odor. It is small,
and can stand in a corner out of the
way. The toughest meat is made ten-
der, juicy and palatable. Anything
cooked on an ordinary stove can be
cooked in this oven. A one lamp
oven can be run twelve hours on a
quart of kerosene oil." Mrs. Hamil-
ton says: "I have baked bread, bis-
cuit and pies in it. I frequently make
tea in it, heat dish-water, and, at night,
find it a quick way to warm the baby's
milk or heat a little water."
Encouraged by Mr. Hamilton's ex-
perience, an oven with two lamps, as
shown in Figs. 2, 2a and 2b, was made
for the teachers' kitchen. This has
been in use for six months. It is
made the same as Fig. i, except that
The oven is three feet and three inches
long, one foot and five inches wide,
and one foot and five inches deep.
Mr. Charles Diggs, steward in
charge of the Teachers' Home, says:
"I have given the oven a thorough
trial with most excellent results. I
can cook one hundred pounds of meat
at a time with the use of two quarts of
oil. With this oven I have no odor
or heat, no burning of the hands by
handling of the vessels, or bending
over a hot stove for basting purposes.
Both teachers and guests are de-
lighted with all the food cooked in the
Aladdin Oven."
Mrs. J. L. Kaine, of Milwaukee,
Wis., a lady of lady of long experience
in cooking, and who has given much
attention to the dietary of this school
and of many public institutions, says
of it: "I very heartily endorse all that
can be said in favor of the Aladdin
Oven, planned by Mr. Atkinson for
the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial
Institute. The two in use have been
under my observation for four
months. In the students' kitchen
a large supply of beef is cooked daily,


THE ALADDIN OVEN.
125
and comes from the oven as deli-
ciously tender as spring chicken, and
with all its flavor preserved. I con-
sider it indispensable where meats are
to be cooked in large bulk and cannot
be selected. The toughest parts,
cooked long enough, are invariably
tender. The oven once tried will not
be abandoned. It recommends it-
self."
But the greatest and most marked
experience is with the five-lamp oven,
shown in Figs. 3, 3a, 3b, and 3c. It is
five feet and six inches by one foot and
six inches, by one foot and eight
inches. The accompanying sectional
drawings, Figs. 3a and 3b, explain its
ri
lathing (q) is nailed on these, and a
coat of mortar (h) one-half inch thick
placed on the lath. The platform (m)
on which the lamps rest, and the top
of the table (n) are made of galvan-
ized-iron, strengthened by wooden
strips (g), one inch by three inches.
The vessels in which the food is
cooked rest on a grate (k) of galvan-
ized-iron, raised one inch from the top
of the table. This grate is punched
with half-inch holes, about four inches
apart. Over each lamp is a hole (p)
two inches in diameter.
The piece (r) on Fig. 3 is dovetailed
into the door, to prevent warping.
Drawing (s) of Fig. 3 shows method
5 3
«


construction. It is made of hard pine
as described in Fig. 1. On the wood
are one-fourth inch furring iron rods
(f) about three inches apart. Wire
of rebating side-piece for door; (w) of
Fig. 3 is a piece six inches wide be-
tween the two doors. The doors are
hung on the side for convenience.


126
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
This is used in the students' kitchen.
It has a capacity of two hundred
and fifty pounds of meat at a baking,
or enough for one thousand people.
This can be cooked with about five
quarts of oil.
Dock Mitchell, cook in the students'
kitchen, an old-time negro, and deeply
prejudiced against new methods, has
become thoroughly converted to the
F"i«. 3a

Aladdin Oven. He has used the oven
six months, and this morning gave me
the following statement: "Last night
I weighed out one hundred and fifty
pounds of beef for the students' break-
fast, about six hundred and fifty of
them. I put it into three vessels,
seasoned properly, and added about
one and one-half gallons of water to
each. I covered the vessels tightly,
and about eight o'clock put them in
the oven. I started the fire, No. 2
Rochester lamps, turning them up to
a moderate height; and I then went
home. This morning at four o'clock
the meat was perfectly cooked. In
the dishes were nearly six gallons of
very strong liquid, almost equal to
beef-tea. To this I added five gallons
of water, a little flour with a dust of
burned sugar, and I had eleven gal-
lons of most beautiful French gravy.
This, with the meat, corn-bread and
coffee, furnished a breakfast that was
greatly enjoyed by the students, and
not a scrap of it was wasted. When
I came this morning the outside of the
oven was scarcely warm, and there
was no odor from the meat in the
room. The five lamps had used a lit-
tle over one gallon of oil." The con-
trast between this and the amount of
wood, heat, smell and labor by the
old method, is most striking.
We are contemplating a still larger
oven with side doors, as shown in
Fig. 3, instead of in the end, or a
shorter oven with two rows of lamps
and door in the end. Instead of sup-
plying each family on the school-
grounds, it is thought that a large cen-
tral oven, in which all could cook their
food on a co-operative plan, might be
of advantage.
Beans, peas, sweet potatoes, onions
and rice are the only vegetables thus
far cooked in the oven. They are all
greatly improved in flavor.
The oven can be made exceedingly
plain and inexpensive, or the frame
and oven can be ornamented to any
degree at a corresponding increase of
expense. As made here, very plain,
the one-lamp oven costs about $5.00;
the two-lamp, $8.00; and the five-
lamp, $18.00. This is aside from the
lamps. We have thus far used the
No. 2 Rochester lamp, costing about
$1.50 each at wholesale.
The drawings and ' descriptions
illustrating this article were prepared
by Prof. Robert R. Taylor, Instructor
in Architectural and Mechanical
Drawing in the Tuskegee, Ala., Nor-
mal and Industrial Institute.
REMARKS ON THE FOREGOING REPORT.
At the time when I sent this report
to the printer, together with the plans
and methods of making an oven of
wood plastered inside, subject to the
positive warning that such an oven must
never be used except on a floor and
in a place where in the remote con-
tingency of the wood becoming slowly



I27


128
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
carbonized and then igniting, no
harm can come except to the oven,
I did not anticipate the possibility of
preparing an oven in any other way
at so low a cost or of so effective
kind; it is probably true that there
may not be any other method which
can be adopted at so very low a cost.
But a recent invention to which my
attention has been called within the
last three months is now being applied
to the construction of ovens on the
Aladdin principle which may make it
possible to construct large ovens at
a very low cost, and to put the Stand-
ard Aladdin Oven on sale at a much
lower price than any yet offered.
How long this will take and when
this can be accomplished is uncertain,
but the matter has been taken up on
a commercial scale by strong parties.
In the meantime I think it judicious
to call the attention of persons who
are interested in providing food of a
wholesome and nutritious kind for the
inmates of asylums, reformatories and
the like, to the progress which has
been made at Tuskegee on these lines.
The cost of such an oven is trifling,,
and it is in the power of the managers,
of such establishments to put such
ovens upon brick floors under con-
ditions which will give absolute assur-
ance of safety. It may therefore hap-
pen that experimental work of this-
kind will be undertaken, ending per-
haps in the establishment of large
ovens made on the methods which are
now being applied under my direction.
There are very many places far dis-
tant from centres of population where
ovens of the kind described in the
Tuskegee Institute would be of great
service—notably in lumber camps
and in places where large numbers of
workmen are gathered in the con-
struction of heavy works, where they
may not long remain, and where such
ovens could be built upon the ground
protected only by a shed, for the
preparation of wholesome food of dif-
ferent kinds for laborers who need it
most.
EDWARD ATKINSON.
FiS 3c


THE DOMESTIC PROBLEM.
BY "HULDAH."
IT has been long and loudly deplored
that our native American girls are
so unwilling to do housework in
order to earn a living. Has it ever
been even hinted that our American
mothers are largely to blame for this
state of affairs? Many mothers say
openly: "My daughter shall never be
anybody's drudge! She shall teach
school, learn the milliner's trade or
anything but that!" Fortunately for
one of these girls her father and
mother were blessed with a large
share of good sense in the proper ad-
justment of social spheres. She was
taught from earliest childhood that no
occupation, if respectable, was be-
neath one's dignity, and that the char-
acter of the individual determined his
worth in society regardless of his
."station" in life. Still it must be con-
fessed that the mother did desire to
have her daughter teach school, and
after a high-school education was se-
cured one term was taught. But the
daughter was wretchedly homesick,
and convinced of the fact that she was
an inefficient teacher she began her
apprenticeship in the practice shop of
culinary life. Here she was in her
real element. The production of a
fine delicate loaf of bread, dishes of
summer vegetables suitably seasoned,
a palatable pudding, afforded her the
same degree of pleasure as a finished
picture to an artist. The pleasure
shown by the families as they ate these
products of her skill was an additional
joy to her. Gradually the mistress
left the work more and more in her
care until finally she assumed the en-
tire charge of the kitchen affairs.
Knowing that she was slow in the ex-
ecution of her work especial care was
taken to do it well, and as a result,
there was a constant demand for her
services in her own village and she
was often engaged for weeks ahead.
Her former schoolmates said her
high-school education was thrown
away because she did housework for
a living. But she knew better, real-
izing that intelligent service in any
department was an advantage without
estimate, and she often declared "a
collegiate course would have been
more desirable." After nine years of
varied experience for more than a
score of mistresses these are some of
the conclusions verified as facts in the
practical lessons thus secured.
The mistress who is continually
changing "help" is often largely to
blame. Sometimes she is ignorant of
housework herself and does not real-
ize the unnecessary burdens she adds
by reason of this ignorance.
Mrs. Brown began keeping house
in this country village as the wife of a
bank teller with the finest of china and
the fairest of prospects, but she could
find no good help. It was soon dis-
covered that Mrs. Brown neither
knew nor cared to know even so sim-
ple a thing as how to wash dishes
properly. Brought up in a hotel in
her girlhood she was really like the
lilies of the field that toil not, but un-
like them in causing others to toil.
She attempted to retain the customs
of city life by having a lunch at noon
and dinner at 7 P. M. Garments that
were scarcely soiled and elaborate
white skirts made the week's washing
seem like a laundry. Perhaps the
very day of a large wash or ironing
the girl would be still further bewild-
ered by directions for other kinds of
work that would occupy an entire day
by itself. No girl would stay more
than a week or two, and what might
have been a well-appointed household
fast declined into a makeshift of a
home.


130
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
If Mrs. Brown had had the real
knowledge herself of the necessary
details, or had been content to secure
a competent housekeeper, leaving the
management to her discretion, how
different might have been the result.
It is to be hoped that the public cook-
ing schools of to-day will produce in-
telligent mistresses as well as maids.
Much of the friction between mistress
and maid might be avoided if the
mistress would remember that the
maid has a woman's nature like her-
self, and is not a mere machine war-
ranted to turn out a certain amount
of work for a certain amount of
money.
Mrs. Jones, whenever her "girl" had
an afternoon caller (always a woman),
would open the kitchen door and
thrust her head out, saying nothing.
What would Mrs. Jones have thought
if the girl had done the same in the
parlor as she entertained her own
company? But pray why is it rude-
ness in the one case and not in the
other? Whatever courtesy one lady
owes to another is not cancelled by
the fact that the one is served by the
paid offices of another. Every lady
owes it to herself never to forget the
fact that she is a lady in the kitchen
as well as the drawing room.
Do you wish you could have a ser-
vant faithful to your interest who
would only leave when she had a
home of her own? Suppose you try
the experiment of being faithful to her.
If you have unexpected company
after a hard day's work in the kitchen,
try to lend a helping hand, making her
feel that you realize she is already tired
so you will put your own shoulder to
the wheel for a vigorous push.
Men do not think of treating an
office boy with the cool indifference
that many a mistress does her maid.
Notice the sense of comradeship that
makes the boy talk of our firm and our
business until one would suppose he
was at the head of some department
instead of being at the foot.
Why it should be disgraceful to
work in somebody's kitchen and per-
fectly proper to do the same thing in
one's own kitchen is a question that
has never been solved. American
girls will be glad to do housework
when their mothers instil the right
ideas concerning labor into their
minds. The most enduring of life's
friendships were formed by the writer
in the position of servant to some kind
mistress with whom she has borne
the "burden" of many days.
NOT KNOWING.
AS a fond mother, when the day is o'er,
Leads by the hand her little child to bed,
Half smiling, half reluctant to be led,
And leaves his broken playthings on the floor,
Still gazing at them through the open door,
Nor wholly reassured and comforted
By promises of others in their stead,
Which, though more splendid, may not please him
more;
So Nature deals with us, and takes away
Our playthings one by one, and by the hand
Leads us to rest so gently that we go,
Scarce knowing if we wish to go or stay,
Being too full of sleep to understand
How far the unknown transcends that we
know.
— Longfellow.


FROM DAY TO DAY.
Department of Notes, Queries and Correspondence.
CONDUCTED BY MRS. LINCOLN.
MRS. J. A. J. writes: "May I ask
about a statement on page 287,
(September) in regard to soda.
After giving the recipe, which calls for
sour milk and molasses, it states that
'if sweet milk be used the soda is to be
measured level.' Should not the
recipe mention that in the first place a
rounding teaspoonful should be used?
Otherwise those who hold to the Bos-
ton standard would never think of
rounding it."
Thank you for calling attention
to the omission. The recipe was sent
me by a lady whom I knew to be a
most excellent cook, and I gave it as
it was written, knowing that it was a
reliable rule, but I did not notice the
variations from our measures, or an-
alyze the recipe as carefully as I do
those with which I am unfamiliar.
The recipe should read "two level tea-
spoonfuls of soda or one if sweet milk
be used." Our Boston standard
measure is always level for a teaspoon-
ful of salt, spice, soda and baking
powder, and rounding (which is equal
to two level spoonfuls) for sugar, flour
and butter. The last three are always
measured in a tablespoon unless
otherwise ordered.
Mrs. H. of Arlington writes: "I
would like some one who knows to
tell me why when mixing plain cake,
after beating the butter and sugar to a
cream, then adding the milk (after
the eggs), it always curdles, and then
my cake is always very coarse-grained.
Kindly let me know through the col-
umns of your very valuable (to me)
magazine, and oblige a subscriber."
In rubbing butter and sugar to a
cream the warmth of the bowl, or the
hand if that be used, or from the fric-
tion, causes the butter to soften and
become almost a liquid or like thick
cream; that is why we call it "cream-
ing the butter." Some of the sugar
also is melted and combines with the
soft butter. When milk is added, es-
pecially if it be colder, and it usually
is many degrees colder than the
creamed butter, it immediately chills
the butter and causes it to harden
again in tiny lumps. It also unites
with the sugar which has melted and
dissolves any that may be still in a
crystallized form and separates it from
the butter. The milk does not be-
come sour as it does when curdled by
an acid, but the hardened butter sepa-
rates from the liquid and gives it a
curdled appearance. Probably the
fat in the butter unites with the fat
and with the casein of the milk, but as
fat does not unite readily with water,
the whey or water of the milk sepa-
rates from the other parts.
In beating the eggs we make bub-
bles of air similar to soap bubbles
when air is blown into soapy water;
the albumen of the egg forms the
tough, tenacious wall of the air cell,
When the eggs are beaten into the
butter the fat combines with the albu-
men and helps to entangle and hold
the air, but when we stir a watery
liquid, like milk, into the mixture, we
break up some of these fine bubbles
and this makes large cells and the re-
sult is a coarse-grained cake; unless
we beat in at the last enough more air
to make another lot of bubbles.
This may be avoided by simply
pouring the milk into the bowl and
not stirring it until the flour is added;
or better still, by adding a few spoon-
fuls of flour first, then a little of the
milk, and then a little flour, beating
'31


134
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
foods and the purchasing of materials,
but has given much excellent advice
on house-furnishing, making up of
garments, and home decoration.
The advantages of a thorough and
skilful knowledge of sewing in all its
branches have been ably advocated
by Mrs. Adele Strawbridge, the chair-
man of the committee on sewing.
All our plans to establish a cooking
school on a permanent basis have
failed; but Mrs. Olive Cotton's efforts
in the same direction last October,
underaken upon her own responsi-
bility, resulted in the evolution of a re-
markably attractive programme which
nevertheless, from a lack of sufficient
financial support, she was reluctantly
compelled to abandon. She is now
pursuing other lines of work in the
same general category.
In the call for the meeting, you will
observe, it is proposed to drop all
standing committees but the press
committee. This is in order to make
our work more national in its scope.
Up to the present time all chairmen,
with one exception, have lived in this
city. While we recognize the neces-
sity for each of these committees, they
should be embodied in each state
branch, and a report of their labor ac-
complished made to each state vice-
president.
As I have said earlier in this report,
we have members residing in thirty-
two different states, although but
twenty-four states have a vice-presi-
dent, and it frequently happens that
this officer is the state's sole repre-
sentative. We have in Maine two
members, in Massachusetts nineteen,
in New York twenty-two, in New
Hampshire three, in Rhode Island
one, in Connecticut four, in New Jer-
sey one, in Maryland three, in Vir-
ginia one, in Pennsylvania one, in Ala-
bama one, in Iowa three, in Indiana
four, in North Carolina one, in Ar-
kansas one, in California eleven, in
Colorado two, in Texas one, in
Wyoming one, in Utah three, in Ne-
braska three, in Ohio two, in Georgia
one, in Louisiana one, in Kansas four-
teen, in Missouri seven, in Michigan
six, in Minnesota three and in Illinois,
outside of Cook County, twelve. This
does not mean that these are at present
members.but that, at some time dur-
ing three years, they have been identi-
fied with the work. Neither does this
include those who have joined as
delegates from clubs.
Our first idea was to make our
work national, with headquarters in
Chicago, but we are convinced that
until we have a strong organization in
each state, we cannot command inter-
est enough in the work to ensure us
material for an enthusiastic annual
meeting. In accordance with our by-
laws, vice-presidents are appointed at
the annual meeting, and due notice
sent to the appointees by the corres-
ponding secretary. Sometimes a re-
ply has been received within ten days,
but more often a month or more has
been allowed to elapse, necessitating
more correspondence, before we were
assured of a favorable or unfavorable
answer. In the latter case, the whole
matter must be gone over again, or the
state left unrepresented. It is the
duty of the acting president to issue
a call for a semi-annual meeting, when
reports are requested from all state
vice-presidents of the work accom-
plished under their supervision. It
has been my experience that often
when this call was sent out, it re-
sulted immediately in a generous crop
of resignations, since the vice-presi-
dent had been unable to compass the
work required in her state in so lim-
ited a period of time. Therefore in
reviewing my work as acting presi-
dent for the past three years, I am
strongly in favor of substituting a bi-
ennial for an annual meeting. This
would give the state vice-presidents
ample time to have their work well in
hand. Each state should have an annual
meeting in addition to reporting pro-
gress at the national board of directors
at each quarterly meeting, a full report
being rendered at the biennial meet-
ing.
At our last semi-annual meeting,


NATIONAL HOUSEHOLD ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION.
135
April ii, we found in the reports sent
in a demand for some plan of work
which would be uniform in all
branches; therefore we voted to have a
committee appointed to draw up sets
of programmes to be ready to submit
for approval at the directors' meeting
in June, at the same time asking for
cooperation in all home departments
of women's clubs belonging to the
General Federation. A circular letter
was prepared and sent to chairmen
of such departments informing them
of the course of action contemplated,
and that the formulation of the gen-
eral programme was in the hands of
the following ladies: Dr. Mary E.
Green of Michigan, Mrs. Louise
Prosser Bates of Rhode Island, and
Mrs. Kate H. Watson of Chicago.
It further conveyed the hope that we
should find at least ten women in each
home department who would take up
the kind of work outlined in our pro-
gramme, or make one of their own.
When the directors' meeting assem-
bled in June, it was learned that Mrs.
Bates had withdrawn from the Asso-
ciation, and her place on the pro-
gramme committee was worthily
filled by Mrs. Helen Campbell of the
University of Wisconsin, who was at
the same time appointed lecturer at
large on household economics. A
copy of her syllabus, which was the
first accepted of the sets of pro-
grammes, was given to each member
of the Association who applied for it.
Dr. Green's programme was also ac-
cepted and printed by the General
Federation, being distributed by their
corresponding secretary. Mrs. Wat-
son's programme, which was also ac-
cepted, was published in the American
Kitchen Magazine for September. We
deem it a great disappointment that
we cannot print these combined pro-
grammes as a leaflet, under our offi-
cial stamp, but not having the ready
money to do this it becomes impossi-
ble, since we would certainly not be
willing to pose as an economic club,
and commit so grave an inconsistency
as running in debt!
During the session of our semi-
annual meeting, we received a tele-
gram inviting us to hold our annual
meeting at Atlanta. We had several
other places in view at this time, as
friends had been thoughtful of our
needs earlier in the year; but as this
was to be the rallying point for all
national organizations this year, we
felt it would afford us an excellent
opportunity for propagating our ideas
and thus enlarging our future possi-
bilities, and so concluded to accept
the invitation.
In May, some of the leading ladies
of Atlanta came to Chicago, to learn
what could be done toward an exhibit
of household economics, in the shape
of a model home, etc. We called a
special meeting to consider this mat-
ter, but succeeded in gathering but
few members; then sent out letters on
the subject, which met with still fewer
responses, so that, although the South-
ern visitors had made a most pleasing
impression, and quite fascinated us with
their vivid descriptions of the showing
which the Cotton States were about to
make to the world, we were forced to
give up the idea, after a long and pains-
taking canvass of all available re-
sources.
In June, when our regular board
meeting convened, we cherished hope
again of being able to still put in an
appearance at the Southern Exposi-
tion. We concluded that the best we
could do would be to send our lectur-
ers to speak there on their special
topics. A number of committee
meetings were held to devise ways
and means, and though some of our
indefatigable workers labored long
and earnestly, we were again handi-
capped by lack of financial backing,
and, much against our will, were
forced to acknowledge a final defeat.
As the time drew near for the open-
ing of the Exposition it was discov-
ered that not one of the general offi-
cers could be in Atlanta on October
30. It was therefore decided not to
hold the annual meeting there, but a
special meeting, for which we would


NATIONAL HOUSEHOLD ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION.
137
was it rare in women's organizations,
but in many conducted by men, to find
so systematic a piece of work. Lastly,
but by no means in less degree, I wish
to remember the splendid assistance
rendered by the press committee, the
labor of which has fallen wholly upon
Mrs. Maria S. Orwig. The work has
been a gratifying surprise, since it has
opened channels of information hither-
to closed to our appeals.
Respectfully submitted,
LAURA Sr WILKINSON,
Acting President.
The report of the recording secre-
tary followed:—
Your recording secretary would
beg to report the number of directors'
meetings held during the year was
two. The number of regular and spe-
cial meetings was ten. Principal
events of the year's proceedings were:
First, appointment of a press com-
mittee, whose most active member,
Mrs. Maria S. Orwig, has succeeded
in gaining for the work of the Associa-
tion a new interest and tone of respect
on the part of the newspaper press.
Second, reports of Mrs. Kate H.
Watson, chairman of committee on
food supply, seven in number, have all
been of great interest, and several
have been published in the American
Kitchen Magazine and other places.
These have been the principal literary
contributions to the regular monthly
meetings.
Third, the Association joined the
Illinois State Federation of Clubs,
and appointed delegates to attend the
annual meeting at Peoria.
Fourth, the exhibitions of new
cooking utensils and materials, by
Miss Kate Will, have been interesting
and instructive.
Fifth, papers bv Mrs. Phoebe M.
Butler, on "Comfort and Expenditure
in the Home"; by Mrs. F. Von A.
Cabeen of Philadelphia on "The
Proper Disposal of Household
Refuse"; and by Mrs. Strawbridge on
"Sewing Schools," have been of nota-
ble value.
Sixth, endorsement of three pro-
grammes of study, for use in home de-
partments of women's clubs, prepared
respectively by Mrs. Helen Campbell,
Dr. Mary E. Green, and Mrs. Kate
H. Watson; also circular letter, ad-
dressed to women's clubs, urging de-
sirability of such study. Favorable
answers have been received in many
cases, and there are prospects of a
more general introduction into the
clubs later.
Respectfully submitted,
ANNA B. McMAHON,
Cor. Sec. N. H. E. A.
The annual report of treasurer,
for year ending October i, 1895, was
as follows:—
Balance on hand, October I, 1894 . . . $14.53
Receipts.
Rec'd for Membership Fees . . $117.00
Sale of Aladdin Oven 6.00
Sale of Programmes 22
Commission on Sale of Spice Books, 10.25
13347
$148.00
Expenditures.
Printing $53-n
Rent 30.00
Helen Campbell's Programmes, 15.00
Postage:
Acting President . . . $6.09
Corresponding Secretary, 10.83
Cooking School Com-
mittee 4.50
Press Committee . . . 1.50
Treasurer 2.22
Recording Secretary . . .50
-— 25-54
123-75
Balance on hand, October I, 1895 • • . $24 25
Frances E. Owens, Treasurer.
Audited and found correct.
A. B. McMahan, Finance Committee.
Report of the corresponding secre-
tary :—
Your corresponding secretary for
the past year belongs decidedly to the
list of things unexpected, which none
the less, upon the authority of the late
Abraham Lincoln, are continually
happening. My election to the office
dates from the January meeting, and
was such a thorough surprise that ere
I had time to collect my scattered


NATIONAL HOUSEHOLD ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION.
139
4. Cooperative Housekeeping, Mrs.
Mary Colman Stuckert, Colorado.
5. Economy in the Home, Mrs.
Kate H. Watson, Chicago.
6. Altruism in the Home, Mrs.
Helen H. Backus, Brooklyn, N. Y.
The National Household Economic
Association during the early part of
the year joined the State Federation
of Women's Clubs, and now belongs
to both General and State Federa-
tions. They sent as fraternal dele-
gates to the National Council of
Women at Washington, Dr. Mary E.
Green, of Michigan and Mrs. Estelle
M. H. Merrill, editor of the American
Kitchen Magazine, of Boston. Mrs.
John Wilkinson, Mrs. Maria S. Or-
wig, and Mrs. Frank B. Orr were ap-
pointed delegates to represent the As-
sociation at the meeting of the State
Federation of Women's Clubs at
Peoria.
Since our principles are being advo-
cated, and the lines of work which we
have indicated are being adopted so
readily by the home departments which
are being formed in women's clubs in
all parts of the United States, it seems
as if the active duties of the national
organization were over. After Presi-
dent Cleveland pressed the button at
his home, which set in motion the
ponderous machinery at the Exposi-
tion in our magnificent southern sister
city, his duty was ended, and although
he paid no further attention to the
matter, the consequences of his act, the
great pulsing heart which his finger-
touch had set throbbing, kept beating
and giving the impulse of life and
energy to the whole grand system of
manufactures in that new wonder-
centre of the world. So it will be with
us. The magic touch has already
been felt outside the confines of our
own land, as letters from across the
ocean testify; and as the ripples widen
and widen until lost to sight, when a
pebble is cast into the placid waters of
the lake, so the good influence of this
Association will continue to expand
until, through the medium of the
General Federation of Clubs, it will
form a mighty circle whose circum-
ference will enclose every hamlet with-
in the borders of this "land of the free
and home of the brave."
Despise not the day of small things,
for no one can foresee to what vast
dimensions they may grow. The in-
fluence we have set in motion will
never cease, though none of us may
hope to live to realize its full fruition.
A limpid stream, so tiny that upon a summer's
day,
A single ox might drink it dry, goes trickling on
its way;
Adown the Alleghany's side, it gathers strength
and pride,
Till, in Ohio's river fair, it stretches deep and
wide;
On, on, it sweeps, still gaining strength from
many a kindred stream;
Till, in the Mississippi's tide, its garnered waters
gleam;
Here, borne along, with giant force, though slow
its current be,
It pours a vast, resistless flood into the inland sea.
Thus may our efforts find success, from a begin-
ning weak;
New friends rise up, and courage take, at every
word we speak;
Till, step by step and inch by inch, our cause
shall grow and spread,
That coming generations may be wisely clothed
and fed;
That homes shall reach perfection, and our farthest
goal be won,
While the future reaps the harvest of our work so
well begun.
Respectfully submitted,
ALICE J. WHITNEY,
Cor. Sec. N. H.E.A.
These reports were accepted in the
order in which they were read. A
digest of the letters from vice-presi-
dents and others in reply to the call
for the meeting, was read by the cor-
responding secretary:—
Mrs. Jennie R. Green, 4556 Cooli
Ave., St. Louis, resigns her positiol
as vice president for Missouri.
Miss Emma O. Conro, of Pratt In


140
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
stitute, Brooklyn, New York, sent fee
for annual dues, and an interesting
prospectus of the Institute.
Mrs. Katharine S. B. Dunn, of
Jamaica, L. I., sent fee for yearly dues,
also prospectus for the Brooklyn In-
stitute. Stated that two copies of the
American Kitchen Magazine had been
sent her regularly, but she had tried
to do missionary work with the extra
copy.
Mrs. Mary A. Moody, of Indianap-
olis, regrets she cannot attend the an-
nual meeting for several days. Would
not ask that the Atlanta meeting be
postponed on her account, but at the
date upon which she will be there,
Dec. 10, the weather will be lovely,
and one can take advantage of the
closing prices at the Exposition.
Favors annual over biennial meeting.
Mrs. H. G. Freeman, of St. Louis
Park, Minn., representing the Minne-
sota Household Economic Associa-
tion, would vote for an annual meet-
ing, and on other matters would agree
with the majority.
Mrs. E. M. H. Merrill sent a line to
inform us that the reports ordered
would be delivered in time for dis-
tribution at the annual meeting.
Mrs. Theodosia Stiles Doty, of Pat-
terson, our vice-president for New
Jersey, sends greetings to the meeting
as well as yearly dues. Had no for-
mal report, and had not yet succeeded
in getting in touch with the work
throughout the state, though much in-
terested. In Hoboken and Passaic,
cooking is a branch of public instruc-
tion, and the people of other cities and
towns are considering the matter.
New Jersey has about forty clubs,
studying almost everything but what
pertains to the home, so there is a rich
field for labor and our responsibility
will not be wholly met until we cover
it and make it bring forth fruit.
Mrs. M. C. Hall, of Syracuse, N. Y,
asks for a copy of Helen Campbell's
syllabus, sends Household Register,
and copy of programme of the Syra-
cuse Household Economic Club, of
which she is ex-president. She as-
sures us of her continued earnest de-
sire for the progress of the work, and
would have been glad to retain her
office but sickness in her family for-
bade.
Mrs. Ellen M. Henrotin will be un-
able to attend either session of the an-
nual meeting, although she hopes to
be in Atlanta on Thursday, October
31. She favors Mrs. Harbert's candi-
dacy for acting president, and will do
what she can to uphold her adminis-
tration if elected.
Mrs. Mary Newberry Adams, of
Iowa, sent her annual dues, but cannot
attend.
Telegram from Mrs. Henry S.
Jaynes, of Omaha, our vice-president
for Nebraska, regretting her enforced
absence from the meeting.
Postal card from Mrs. C. F. Wilder,
of Manhattan, our vice-president for
Kansas, reports a revival of interest
throughout the state, and her own in-
terest on the increase. Requests the
corresponding secretary to vote for
her as she thinks best on the proposed
changes in the by-laws. She would
vote for Mrs. Wilkinson for acting
president, she does such excellent
work, for Mrs. A. J. Whitney for cor-
responding secretary, and for other
officers as the corresponding secretary
thinks best.
Mrs. Mary Stuckert acknowledges
appointment to speak at Atlanta.
Mrs. John J. Abel writes to take ad-
vantage of her proxy vote. All the
changes proposed in by-laws meet
with her approval. Has no choice for
general or state officers, except for her
own state, for which she proposes the
name of Mrs. James Lake, as one who
knows all about state work. Can only
report the work in the Arundel Club,
which seems to be well attended to.
The fourth order of business, was a
vote on changes in by-laws, as fol-
lows: By-law I, opening sentence
changed to read: "The management of
this association shall be vested, in a
board, consisting of sixteen directors,
the state vice-presidents and general
officers. Five shall constitute a quo-


142
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
After the close of the meeting, the
following letter was received, from
Mrs. John H. Converse, our vice-pres-
ident for Pennsylvania, enclosing a
check for five dollars, for annual dues,
and to liquidate any dues which might
be in arrears. We regarded the en-
closure as quite a munificent con-
tribution, and forwarded it to the
treasurer.
The vice-president for Pennsylvania
regrets that she cannot report any
progress made in the formation of
Household Economic Clubs through-
out the state of Pennsylvania. Her
efforts have been confined, so far, to
the city of Philadelphia. In connec-
tion with the Civic Club of Philadel-
phia, the committee on household
economics has done good work dur-
ing the past year. Monthly meetings
have been held, at which papers have
been read and discussions carried on
upon various subjects connected with
the household. Mrs. Von Cabeen,
the secretary of the committee, pre-
sented an excellent paper, on "The
Disposal of Household Refuse," and
Miss Katherine B. Davis reported on
the establishment of a People's Kitchen
similar to the New England Kitchen
of Boston. At the last meeting, the
enclosed pamphlet was drawn up, to
be submitted to the Civic Club for
consideration during the present sea-
son. We hope the outcome may be
some form of united action, to obtain
the recognition of household labor as
an industry, having the same rights
and honors as other trades and occu-
pations. Yours respectfully,
ELIZABETH P. CONVERSE.
The pamphlet spoken of is ad-
dressed to the social science section of
the Civic Club of Philadelphia, and
made returnable to Mrs. John H. Con-
verse, Rosemont, Philadelphia. We
commend a perusal of this little leaf-
let to every Household Economic
Club in the country. We are wont, in
comparing her with our high-pres-
sure, break-neck methods, to speak of
our sister city as slow; but in the plan
outlined above she has struck the key-
note of domestic service reform which
we have vainly sought in emergency
bureaus and similar directions. If
we are offered something for noth-
ing, we may well be wary of the ob-
ject of the giver, but if we have to pay
for our knowledge, we value it at its
uttermost worth.
ALICE J. WHITNEY,
Cor. Sec. N. H. E. A.
CHRISTMAS CONFECTIONS.
BY BARBARA ALLEN.
THE amateur candy maker who
wishes to bestow sweetmeats
upon her friends at the holiday
season will do well to study the de-
signs of the best confectioners. Be-
fore beginning her work she may
find it wise to purchase a box of the
best styles and use them as models
for tint and shape. Home-made can-
dies are often too large, especially
those which are dipped in another
mixture, and are thus less attractive
than those made by experienced
hands. Another reason why home-
made candy is less desirable than the
trade article is that cane-sugar is so
very sweet. Confectioners generally
use part glucose, but if this is not
easily obtained vinegar or cream of
tartar in small quantities will aid in
removing the excessive sweetness.
Chafing-dish candy parties are
among the latest popular entertain-
ments. By aid of this favorite uten-


CHRISTMAS CONFECTIOXS.
143
sil as large a party as can gather
around a dining table may join in the
candy-making. Each young woman
is provided with a chafing-dish, while
the young men make themselves use-
ful in preparing the accessories, shell-
ing nuts, and popping corn. At such
parties it often happens that some
confection comes out a totally differ-
ent product from what it was intended
to be. One young woman turns all
failures of fondant into peppermints,
as fondant re-boiled is never quite
equal to the result of a single boiling.
Prizes may be awarded for the best
original design for a single piece of
candy and for successful combinations
of color and flavor.
Fruit Candies.—One class of can-
dies less popular than they should be
have fruit jellies or jams as a founda-
tion. Into a spoonful of jam stir
confectioner's sugar until it is stiff
enough to shape easily, then combine
with nuts or after shaping dip in fon-
dant of a contrasting color. Almost
any marmalade or jam can be used
in this way or any stiff jelly.
Popcorn.—Though hardly to be
classified as a sweetmeat, popcorn
frequently figures at Christmas fes-
tivities. It is so ethereal that a large
quantity can be consumed with no ill
effects and therefore it combines well
with rich candies. Strings of pop-
corn are a pretty garnish for Christ-
mas trees and give employment to the
small people anxious to assist in the
ceremonies, and are eagerly scram-
bled for afterward even if the filling of
the candy bags consisted largely of
the same viand.
Sugared Com.—For this innocent
confection make a plain sugar syrup
and boil until it will candy in cold
water. A cupful of sugar is enough for
three quarts of popped corn. Mix
the corn quickly with the warm syrup
until each kernel gets its share.
Sprinkle a part of it with red sugar
before it cools.
Popcorn Balls.—For this purpose
the corn must be carefully popped
and sorted and all the hard kernels
removed. It is often chopped fine,
or the light fluffy kernels may be left
as they are. The syrup to bind them
together may be made of sugar or
molasses and the addition of a small
quantity of butter makes the balls
more tender. Here less corn is used
than for the sugared kernels, as it is
desirable to have a greater proportion
of syrup to hold the corn together in-
stead of having each kernel distinct.
If the corn is warm the syrup does
not cool as rapidly and the balls will
keep in shape better. When the corn
is chopped and mixed with the syrup,
bars or cakes can be made instead
of balls by packing the mixture in
buttered pans. Syrup of any color
or flavor may be used, and chopped
nuts or grated cocoanut combined
with the corn.
Cream Candy.—In a granite sauce-
pan put one pound of sugar, one-half
cupful of water, and one-fourth tea-
spoonful of cream of tartar. Stir
till dissolved, then boil without stir-
ring till it is brittle when dropped in
cold water. Add one teaspoonful of
butter and one teaspoonful of flavor-
ing; pour on a buttered platter to
cool; as soon as cool enough pull till
light colored. Twist in fancy shapes
or cut in bars. Part may be tinted
pink by softening a little red gelatine
and adding to the warm candy until
the desired shade is reached. Flavor
this with checkerberry or rose.
Mince Pie or Christmas Pudding
Candy.—This consists of a little of
everything in the way of nuts or fruits
held together by some simple founda-
tion candy. The boiled fondant or the
raw white of egg mixed with pow-
dered sugar is suitable for this pur-
pose. The fruits may be the candied
cherries, plums, and pineapple, or
seedless raisins and citron, and the
flavor may be a blending of spices
similar to that used in mince pies.
After the materials are thoroughly
mixed pack in a box lined with par-
affine paper and leave for awhile to
ripen, then cut with a sharp knife into
cubes the size of caramels.


144
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
The American Kitchen Magazine.
A Domestic Science Monthly.
PUBLISHED BY
The Home Science Publishing Co.,
485 Tremont Street, Boston, Mass.
Editors and Proprietors.
Mrs. Estelle M. H. Merrill ("Jean Kincaid")
Miss Anna Barrows
Mrs. Mary J. Lincoln, Author Boston Cook Book, &c.
Editorial Contributors.
Mrs. Ellen H. Richards, Instructor in Chemistry,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Miss Amy Morris Homans, Director Boston Normal
School of Cookery.
Mrs. Laura S. Wilkinson, Acting President National
Household Economic Association.
Mrs. Frances E. Owens, Chicago, Author Mrs. Owen's
Cook Book, &c.
Advertising Department.
Mrs. Ella L. Breed, Home Office.
Branch Office.
NEW YORK: Dinah Sturgis and Louis V. Urmy,
47 Times Building.
Foreign Correspondent.
Miss Ada M. Frederiksen.

OUR CHRISTMAS NUMBER.
THIS month as usual the Ameri-
can Kitchen Magazine offers
its readers an attractive and varied
table of contents. The holiday fes-
tivities occupy a large space, and Mrs.
Lincoln's menus with minute details
for the preparation of the standard
dishes will be found extremely helpful
to houskeepers, while the younger
members of the family will delight in
the suggestions for Christmas candies.
The widespread and rapidly increas-
ing interest in home science is shown
by Mrs. Richards. Edward Atkinson
presents an extremely practical use of
the Aladdin oven as described more
fully in his new edition of "The
Science of Nutrition." The govern-
ment report on the souring of milk is
quite as valuable now as in midsum-
mer, since milk is often improperly
cared for in winter. The proceedings
of the National Household Economic
Association show how much work
there is for earnest women to do. The
usual departments afford practical in-
formation for everyday life and in-
spiration for progress.
¥ ¥
PIONEER WORK IN HOUSEHOLD
ECONOMICS.
An enthusiastic subscriber writes:—
"In looking over a file of old papers,
I found the programmes for a course of
lectures on cooking and household
management which Mrs. Lincoln
arranged to give at the B. Y. W. C. A.
School of Domestic Economy, in
1889. I attended the first lectures and
deeply regretted that protracted illness
compelled her to give them up. Have
those lectures been published?"
As Mrs. Lincoln reports having re-
ceived many calls for that programme,
which is now out of print, and in-
quiries when she would deliver or
print those lectures, we print the pro-
gramme in this issue.
Demonstration Lectures on Cookery.
No 1. The A. B. C. of Cookery:
Heat; Fuel; Fire; Construction of a
Stove or Range; Building and care of
a Fire; Kitchen Furnishing and
Cooking Utensils; Measuring and
Weighing.
No. 2. Food: Its Form, Origin,
Purpose, and Composition. Effect of
Heat, Water and Air upon Food.
No. 3. The Chemistry of Food:
Chemical Changes in the Cooking
and Digestion of Food. Composi-
tion of the Human Body. Nutrition.
No. 4. Methods of Cooking Food:
Cooking of Water or Boiling. Bev-
erages. Invalid Cookery. Cooking
of Vegetables and Grains.
No. 5. Cooking of Meats in Water:
Boiled Meats; Soups; Stews.


EDITORIAL.
146
No. 6. Cooking by Hot Air and
Direct Heat: Baking, Roasting,
Broiling, and Toasting.
No. 7. Cooking in Fat: Batters and
Doughs.
No. 8. Bread Making. Pastry
Making.
No. 9. Cooking of Fish and Eggs.
No. 10. Sauces: Warming Over
and other Frugalities.
No. 11. Seasoning and Flavoring:
Salads, Condiments, and Relishes.
No. 12. Desserts and Frozen Dain-
ties.
No. 13. Cooking of Fruits: Can-
ning, Preserving, and Jelly Making.
No. 14. Selection of Food: Suita-
ble combinations. Proper Propor-
tion in Daily Diet. Cost of Food.
No. 15. The family Table: Serving
of Food; Table Manners.
Lectures on Household Management.
No. 1. Choosing the Home: Rent-
ing; Buying; Building; Location;
Surroundings; Drainage; Plan of
House; Ventilation; Heating; Light-
ing.
No. 2. Furnishing the Home: Es-
sentials; Conveniences; Luxuries.
No. 3. Moving. Getting Settled.
No. 4. Daily and Weekly Routine
of Work: Monday, Tuesday, Wednes-
day, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
No. 5. Laundry Work: Washing;
Drying; Folding; Ironing; Airing;
Putting Away.
No. 6. Sweeping and Dusting:
Care of Parlors, Library, Dining
Room, Hall, and Chambers.
No. 7. General Cleaning: Marble;
Brass; Silver; Faucets; Bathtubs;
Lamps; Gas-Fixtures; Windows;
Mirrors; Pictures; Hard Floors; Oil
Cloth.
No. 8. Attic, Closets, Cellar, Back
Door and Garden.
No. 9. Purchase of Family Sup-
plies: Fuel; Lights; Provisions;
Groceries; Utensils; Sundries; Soap
Making.
No. 10. The Care of Household
Stores: Making and Repairing; Bed-
ding; Table Linen; Clothing; Rugs;
Mats.
No. 11. The Family Purse and Ac-
count Book: The Business of the
Home.
No. 12. House Cleaning: House-
hold Pests; Cleaning Carpets; Re-
pairing Furniture.
No. 13. Entertaining, Travelling,
Visiting.
No. 14. Servants.
No. 15. Family Government, Ha-
bits, Manners, Etc.: The Sick Room.
It is interesting to see how thor-
oughly the field was covered by this
plan, long before women's clubs and
other organizations had given much
thought to lectures on "household
economics." The course as thus out-
lined by Mrs. Lincoln would be an
admirable one for some club to take
up now for study or research. Mrs.
Lincoln says that since she has been in
the harness again after her experience
of the dangers of over-work, so much
needing immediate attention has been
given her to do, that there has been no
opportunity to take up any unfinished
work. She will not make any prom-
ises as to time, but it is her intention
to complete this course, and add to it
much of the experience of the last
seven years, as soon as she can do it
without overtaxing her strength.
¥ ¥
"Enclosed please find one dollar for
volumes one and two of the American
Kitchen Magazine. I shall not be
happy without the initial numbers of
your choice magazine. May success
be yours."—Mrs. B., 1ll.
* ¥
"I am glad to do what I can to ad-
vance the sale of your magazine as I
enjoy it myself and feel that it should
be in every home."—Miss M. F., Ver-
mont.
¥ ¥
"This magazine has a fine mission,
and will elevate household and cul-
inary labors."—Toledo Journal.


BOOK REVIEWS.
Food Products of the World.— By Mary E.
Green, M. D. Illustrated by Grace Green
Bohn. Cloth; 250 pages. Published by the
Hotel World, Chicago.
As a member of the jury of awards
on food products at the World's
Columbian Exposition, Dr. Green had
especial facilities for studying the food
products of the globe. This work
is the result of her study there and
elsewhere, and is a valuable con-
tribution to this branch of knowledge,
bringing it in touch with the latest
inventions and manufactures. Dr.
Green has been a successful physician
for years, graduating from the
Woman's Medical College in Phila-
delphia in 1868, and hence is well
fitted to deal with the subject of foods.
In the preface she acknowledges her
indebtedness to the standard author-
ities on food, but there is much in this
volume which clearly shows original
investigations on the part of its author.
Moreover the food products are
described in a bright, breezy way that
makes the pages interesting to the
general reader as well as to the house-
keeper and teacher of cookery. The
account of articles exhibited at Chi-
cago will make many persons wonder
that they could have passed by such
interesting sights.
On every page we can read between
the lines that Dr. Green is a true
American and justly proud of Ameri-
can products, but this does not pre-
vent her from condemning shams and
improper methods of manufacture
wherever they are found, for example
—"Sardines, genuine American sar-
dines (which are only little herring)
put up in genuine cotton-seed oil,
took their place with the others.
There is no objection to these as an
article of food, especially when put up
in a pure vegetable oil, but to be given
the name of sardines, a French
label and a high price, seems very
unworthy the American nation. Call
them herring in vegetable oil, make
them so good that rich and poor want
them and so cheap that all can buy,
and another name may be added to
our list of distinctly American pro-
ductions."
In regard to cotton-seed oil, after
quoting figures to show the marvel-
lous increase in the consumption of
this product and that much is exported
to the very countries where olive oil
is produced, Dr. Green says,—"Just
how much of it returns to our shores
in dainty wicker flasks, labelled
"Luile d'Olive," we shall never know;
yet it is a fact that at all the Mediter-
ranean ports from which olive oil is
exported, hundreds of barrels of cot-
ton-seed oil are annually unloaded.
... It argues a snobbishness quite
unworthy of democratic America to
sell this product to European coun-
tries and then buy it from them six
months later, transferred from barrel
to bottle, re-named, and with the price
many times doubled."
Many persons who refuse to eat
canned foods and butterine through
unreasoning prejudice, will be sur-
prised at the commendation Dr. Green
bestows upon the establishments for
their manufacture. Some attention
should be paid to her words since she
admits that when she first began to
investigate the artificial butters she too
was prejudiced against them but is
now convinced that the product is
produced in the most cleanly manner
according to scientific principles, and
prefers butterine to butter when she
does not know the history of mak-
ing it.
After describing some of the
strange delicacies of the half-civilized
races, the author well says, "But is
this any more barbaric than the hang-
ing of game until tender from decay
before cooking? It half persuades
one that the cycle of gastronomic
tastes is being completed in this re-
turn to the customs of the savage, for
when man feasts upon partially de-
composed flesh his taste is not an
iota in advance of that of the rudest
of his ancestors."
146





THE
American Kitchen Magazine.
Vol. IV.
JANUARY, 1896.
No. 4.
THE GREAT MARKETS OF THE WORLD.
FULTON MARKET, NEW YORK.
BY DINAH STURGIS.

Weighing the Turtle.
EW YORK is
a great city.
It follows
that its markets
are great. New
York is not a
great city thanks
to Man, but
thanks to Nature.
Given a
geological
upheaval
that should
surround
New York
City with
land in-
s te a d of
leaving it
a slender peninsula with a navigable
river on each side and one of
the best harbors in the world spread
at its feet, and the prop to the
greatness of the metropolis would
be knocked from under more quickly
than barriers were ever burned
away. Thanks to the geographical
position of the city which has given it
notable shipping .facilities and per-
mitted it exceptional railroad benefits,
the markets of New York in common
with the other main features of the
city are on a large scale. It has many
large markets, and two of them are
-the largest in the country—the Wash-
ington and the Fulton.
For some reason that is unex-
plained, Fulton Market is the one
which popular opinion within and out-
side the city seems to consider repre-
sentative. In point of fact the Wash-
ington Market, on the lower west side
opposite the main steamship piers, is
the largest market in these United
States for the distribution of meats
and vegetables. Fulton Market, on
the lower east side right across the
town, must take second place in the
rank of general markets, being merely
a very large, well equipped and well
conducted market, with its stalls
rented by individuals or firms who
deal severally in all manner of meats,
poultry, game, fish, vegetables, and in
butter, cheese and eggs. But Fulton
Market is in two parts and one of its
parts is unique. This is the Fulton
Fish Market. It is the largest fish
market in this country, one of the
largest in the world, and it is decidedly
one of the most interesting sights of
the city not only from the housewife's
point of view, but from that of the
general sightseer.
In 1833 the city of New York set
aside a certain section of its lower east
side water front for a general fish mar-
ket, renting out to all comers up to the
limits of the space the privilege of
there conducting their business. This
location is "just the other side" of
where the Brooklyn Bridge now
makes its metropolitan landing, be-
tween it and the foot of Fulton Street
149


FULTON MARKET.
151
freight house of a big railroad termi-
nus, running the length of the offices.
Through these eighteen offices a
great deal of the fish business of North
America is handled. The year round
it takes an average of 300,000 pounds
of fish to supply the New York mar-
ket, and a single dealer thinks nothing
of handling 30,000 pounds in a day.
As may be guessed this is exclusively
a wholesale market, buying from fish-
ermen, and companies handling fish-
ing catches, and selling to retail deal-
ers. The majority of the fish dealers
in the Fulton Market, all of whom are
members of the corporation control-
ling the market, own fishing vessels
of their own, or are part owners with
captains of the vessels. This con-
duces in good seasons to increasing
their profits and in bad seasons to re-
ducing them, for no matter how poor
the catch of the vessel, the expenses
for repairs and for the wages of the
crews go on just the same.
Dry as you may find these random
jottings about the famous Fulton Mar-
ket's fish domain, despite my desire to
give you at least some inkling of how
interesting the place really is in itself,
the market is never dry, unless it be on
a very hot or very cold night from six
o'clock P. M. to midnight. In busi-
ness hours—and these range variously
from 1 A. M. to late afternoon—-the
market is a swamp except in the cuddy
holes of offices, and these have no in-
terest for the sight-seer. Pick your
way through the snarl of teams on
South Street and as far as one end of
the market which is roofed over but
open in front and on both ends; you
face a vista of men who at this season
look more like Esquimaux than like
"New Yorkers." They are done up
in rubber boots because the floor is a
sea of mud and water, and in sweaters
and overcoats and caps because it is
cold so near the water, and they are
handling iced goods for hours on the
stretch. The work is not conducive
to neatness (though cleanliness, as
cleanliness in a fish market goes, is
strictly insisted upon), and the men all
look as if they had been out in a
shower of salt spray and various other
addenda of their calling from fish
scales to ice flakes.
Do you know fish when you see
them? You will see them all here in

A Street Market.


FULTON MARKET.
153
arrives the next morning, saving more
than twenty-four hours over the transit
of even a few years ago. In the early
days of Fulton Market most of the
fish were brought merely from Long
Island or Sandy Hook; now a great
deal of it comes all the way across the
continent, haddock for example com-
ing in large amounts from Van-
couver. Fancy paying duty on most
of the haddock eaten; but this is just
what the dealers have to do and what
we do indirectly who eat it, because it
is caught outside of United States
waters.
Fresh fish all the way from Van-
couver! Seven days at the least cal-
culation overland, and not unlikely
three, five or seven out of the water
before it started! Precisely, and in
this fact lies the germ of an interesting
fact. Fish are not at their best when
first taken from the water! You
thought they were. Most people do.
If they cannot be cared for properly—
as they cannot when caught where
there is no ice—they must be eaten if
at all when first caught in order to be
good. But fish that can be properly
cared for are better when they are a
day or two or three days old, and
much of the haddock and some other
fish are kept several days after they
are dead without detriment. To keep
fish, to make them fit to eat, and as
good eating as possible, they should
be cleansed the minute they strike the
deck after they are caught and then
should be packed in ice.
Some of the fish brought to Fulton
Market are placed as soon as caught
in a well in the vessel and brought in
alive; but if you are buying fish, unless
they are alive when sold to you, be
sure that they come out of a bed of ice
in which they were placed as soon as
cleaned. Do not, if you value the
testimony of fish experts, consent to
eat fish that is not cleaned till you find
it in the market, or which in your zeal
as a fisherman you have carried about
in your boat on a long fishing jaunt
without being dressed. It is very
interesting and practical to hear about
the seasons of the various fishes (much
the same the country over nowadays
wherever they are to be had at all); to
learn that terrapin should not be

Poultry for the "Yiddish" Trade.


154
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.

Oh — rhan — ges — s — s —
cooked with wine; that the Pompano
which comes from Florida and sells
from fifteen to forty cents a pound is
counted by connoisseurs the best fish
extant; but if I take space to tell a tithe
of what is to be learned in a walk, no,
no, a slippery flop and a waddle
through Fulton Market in business
hours, then somebody's else composi-
tion will be crowded out altogether.
Reluctantly you leave the gay red
snappers which are not such good eat-
ing as the sheepheads, and all their
finny friends and relations, and slip
and slide your way along past the
shiny wriggling live eels, past the
mammoth turtles, in and out and round
about through the drays, and head
toward the hurrying world which is
not stopping to think or care whether
southern shad comes in with January,
or whether striped bass season is com-
ing or gone. You are nearly run
down by an extraordinary individual
laden with—what are they? Oranges.
So they are, but not to eat. They are
made of colored paper and stuffed
with wool, and they are to win the
last penny from the pockets of the
youngsters who throng hereabouts in
all the cross streets. The Hebrew
peddler under full sail with his gay
colored cargo tacks to the left. You
yourself nearly run down the lady
with the shawl over her head who is
patronizing one and another of the
venders who get in under the shadow
of the general market to sell every-
thing from poultry with their feathers
on, to bread, including eggs, dry
goods, jews' harps, and every
other known commodity. Deceptive
scamps! they yell their small prices,
but if they have anything worth hav-
ing and you make any attempt to be-
come its possessor, you find if you
know enough that the price of it in
every case is higher than it would be
in any first-class shop. They make
their money off the people who don't
know it. The New York street ven-
dors are a marvellous lot. They are
worth volumes.
Market methods and manners vary
surprisingly in different cities. New
York has the unflattering distinction
of being the only city I know of that
so determinedly defies the legal meas-
ures. The wholesalers sell by the
barrel, and the retailers in the large


FULTON MARKET.
155

How Much?
markets who do a large volume of busi-
ness recognize barrels and bushels and
pecks. But the retail dealers over the
city have an antipathy to anything
more imposing than a quart measure.
From the shops that cater to the Mur-
ray Hill trade
to those that
supply the
tenement
dwellers o n
and around
Ninth Avenue,
it is amusing
to one brought
up, say in Bos-
ton, to see
what conster-
nation the
mention of a
peck strikes to
the hearts of
the shop keep-
ers.
"How much
are your cook-
ing apples?"
say you.
"Ten cents a
quart," says
the Murray Hill
dealer.
"Eight cents,"
or perhaps a lit-
tle less, says the
less fashionably
patronized deal-
er.
"How much a
peck?" you ask,
not liking to pay
at the rate of two
cents apiece for
apples for cook-
ing.
He asks the
next man, and
he asks the pro-
prietor, and he
says, "Peck!
eight, sixteen,
thirty-two — we
can sell you a peck
for sixty cents."
This is not fiction, but fact, and a
dialogue that will be repeated in thirty
out of thirty retail shops, even those
that supply first-class trade. Apples
as I write sell in the Fulton and Wash-
ington Markets for $2 and from that

A Poultry Vista in the Market.


156
THE AMERIC AN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
to $2.75 a barrel for Baldwins of first
grade, good for both eating and cook-
ing. There isn't a shop up town that
makes any pretension to being a first-
class shop that will sell you a quart of
those apples for less than eight cents,
and most of them wish from sixty to
eighty cents a peck! This variation
in price between the down-town mar-
kets and the up-town shops, and the
shops in the various residential sec-
tions, is more marked than in any
other city in the country. Boston
sells sweet potatoes by the pound, as
they should be sold. New York's
retail unit of measurement for them
is the inevitable quart.
New York grocers sell most of the
vegetables and fruits, by the way, the
average small market in the residen-
tial sections preferring to handle only
meats, game and poultry, and fre-
quently fish.
It is repeated far and wide that foods
are cheap in New York, speaking
comparatively. They are cheaper
than in most cities if bought in the
large markets, and of the large dealers
in groceries in the heart of the business
section, miles from the homes of even
the middle classes. They are higher
when purchased in the shops in and
about the residential section than in
many other cities. Theoretically the
domestic science movement is sending
more housekeepers themselves into
the large centres of supply. In prac-
tice, the custom of sending shop em-
ployees from house to house to take
orders which are subsequently deliv-
ered is on the increase, and servants,
from the single maid of all work to
the chief of large corps of servants,
earn pretty commissions in return for
their favor and custom. The house-
keeper who has been caught up on the
tide of domestic information is not
going to make very great economical
progress at any rate until she learns
to market at headquarters, or to send
someone competent to do so. Order-
ing from the kitchen is extravagant
and unsatisfactory, and nowhere quite
so much so as in New York City.

Too High!


HOUSEHOLD INVENTIONS.
BY HANNA OTIS BRUN.
ONE phase of household econom-
ics which should be made more
prominent is that of household
inventions. If the lawlessness of our
housekeeping in regard to waste of
time, material, and nerve-force, and in
regard to inaccuracy of methods and
uncertainty of results, is to be changed,
if our makeshift methods and expedi-
encies are to give place to a system
founded on principles, inventions are
certainly destined to play an important
part in bringing this about.
Comparing housework with other
industries it is obviously belated in
respect to using mechanical devices
and labor-saving appliances; for, while
farming has been transformed by sci-
ence and invention, and the life of the
agriculturist changed from one of
plodding drudgery to one of progres-
sive enterprise, the main processes of
housework are done to-day just as
they have been for many years.
While the present generation has seen
the triumph of machinery in farm
work, it has seen but one great inven-
tion take its place in the house—the
sewing machine — and that alone has
gained universal favor as a saver of
time and labor in household industry.
Much hard work has been elimin-
ated, it is true, by mechanical arrange-
ments in the building of our houses;
by means of waterworks and heating
apparatus the heaviest part of the
work, the lifting of wood and water, is
dispensed with; and much heavy
work has gone out of the house to be
done by machine operatives in fac-
tories; but, confining our attention to
the appliances to be daily handled in
the inevitable rotary processes of
house-cleaning, food-preparing, etc.,
we find these generally done in the old
ways practised by our fore-mothers,
and the mechanical devices employed
to be few and simple.
The scrub-board, the dish-pan, the
kneading-board and rolling-pin, the
chopping-tray and knife, the broom,
the mop, the cook-stove, the coal-
scuttle or wood-box still linger. The
potatoes are peeled, the peas shelled,
the berries hulled and the fruit seeded
by hand in most households, yet in-
vention waits at our doors.
There are endless devices for saving
steps, for avoiding dust, for transport-
ing things up and down, which might
be studied out in the building of our
homes and go in with the laths and
plaster. The housewife must have
her eyes open to this and "boss the
job," since the architect views the
home chiefly as a social rather than an
industrial centre, and the carpenter is
guided by other considerations than
planning to save woman's time. The
perfection of a home plant for house-
work will only be known when the
housewife has a head if not a hand in
the building.
There are many small, inexpensive
appliances to be had—carpet-sweep-
ers, meat-mincers, salad-washers, peel-
ing machines, fruit-seeders of different
sorts; one who has them all will be in
danger of being "cumbered with con-
veniences," but they give better results
with less toil than the old ways and
should be always at hand.
There are also machines for wash-
ing things in the aggregate instead of
piece by piece; these save much time,
wear, and breakage, and are generally
successful in the hands of intelli-
gent operatives. Clothes-washers and
dish-washers are favorites with the
housewife who does her own work,
and will be placed in the hands of
household laborers when we learn to
estimate intelligence and time value in
the kitchen. Speaking from experi-
'57


158
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
ence, we believe the dish-washer saves
more time in the average household
than the sewing machine and does
better work than the average servant.
Besides these it is our privilege to
bring into use a new order of inven-
tions which mean more to the house-
wife than all that have preceded.
These inventions tend to reduce the
processes of housework to scientific
accuracy and to eliminate the uncer-
tain factors in the kitchen. The slav-
ish part of housework has been its law-
lessness; "watch a kettle and it never
boils," "try to time yourself in the
kitchen and the bread does not rise or
the stove acts up"; even a lifetime of
experience fails to calculate for the
freaks of fuels and temperature. The
housewife who is also wife and mother
is much the prey of circumstances; a
household of irregular habits, some-
one always late at meals, a baby with
unseasonable demands, an unreliable
cook-stove, fuel of uncertain heating
power, bread which rises at variable
times according to unknown laws—
these things are prolific sources of ner-
vous prostration and mental disorder.
One who carries the burdens of wife
and motherhood as well as house-
keeper must have her resources well in
hand to keep her sanity. Now it is
quite possible to bring to lawful terms
the cook-stove and the bread if not the
baby.
The use of liquid fuel in the form of
coal-oil, gasoline, gas, or electricity is
now practicable everywhere for cook-
ing and water heating. The construc-
tion of heat savers, or non-conducting
cases to surround the heating appa-
ratus and prevent loss of heat by radi-
ation, gives us the reins by which we
may hold our heat supply and control
it at will. To have at command a uni-
form supply of heat without toil or
vigilance, to have such perfect control
of the heat used that it can be in-
creased or diminished at a moment's
notice, and to have the facility for util-
izing all the heat generated so that
there is no waste to raise the tempera-
ture of the kitchen and the temper of
the cook, goes far toward rectifyingthe
lawlessness of the kitchen.
The inventions for the lawful use of
heat "mark an era" in housewifery.
They not only save the annoyance of
uncertain calculations and waste heat
but are of inestimable value in promot-
ing scientific cooking, the meaning of
which is unknown to the votary of the
cooking range. The Aladdin Oven
and similar inventions which may be
constructed for using lamp power and
conserving heat by encasing the heat-
ing chest in some non-conducting
medium, as asbestos paper, are avail-
able for all; they may be adapted to
cooking on a large or small scale, as
the Scientific Kitchen at Chicago Uni-
versity and the Tea-Box Oven for
bachelor use both testify.
A cooking thermometer is one of
the indispensables of the scientific
kitchen, since the exact temperature at
which the different food preparations
should be cooked is being taught by
the new methods instead of trusting to
the uncertain tests of experience or
sensation to tell when the oven is hot
enough. The process of bread-mak-
ing is reduced to an exact science since
by means of the bread-raiser and the
new ovens, the temperature at which
the dough should be kept during the
rising and the baking may be perfectly
regulated. Material being reliable
the bread-maker can depend upon her
calculations for uniform success with-
out the eternal vigilance of the old
method.
The canning of fruit may be made a
delightful pastime by using the steam
cooker or Aladdin Oven with a lamp.
The old killing process of cooking the
fruit in open vessels on a heated range,
syrup, cans, cook, and kitchen raised
to the same temperature, while the
flavors float through the house and
into the street, is a thing of the past to
the progressive household economist.
We have used a steam cooker which
held three two-quart jars, and have
seen those which hold nine quart jars,
while the Aladdin Oven will hold six
two-quart and twelve one-quart jars.


160
THE AMERIC AN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
feet working by much practice. Turn-
ing the hand frequently from one thing
to another works against intelligent
methods, as much force is wasted in
breaking threads and starting again.
She did not know how to combine
with her neighbor to utilize the effi-
ciency of her machines. Then again
the financial and educational advan-
tages of using inventions did not ap-
peal to her, for the parental and social
interests of her position must crowd to
the background the industrial. Be-
hold the gist of the matter demon-
strated in the experience of one house-
wife!
The considerations which stand in
the way of household inventions are
not, however, insurmountable as we
come to face them. First it requires
more mental effort to use almost any
machine than to do a thing in a tread-
mill, stupid fashion. This is especially
true at the outset in getting used to a
new appliance. The first few trials
fail, and one is sure "the thing is more
bother than it is worth." Ingenuity
on the part of the operative is, of
course, the first requisite, for any ma-
chine may be misused, and it takes
some gumption to keep in running
order even a carpet sweeper or a
clothes wringer.
Women who have many lines of
work in hand, many roles to play, are
spent in many directions, become
slaves to habit, and find painful any
change which involves a new train of
thought or brings into play a new set
of muscles. The change from an up
and down motion to that of turning a
crank, as in washing and churning, is
too much for some persons. Many
inventions require a change in calcula-
tions which is taxing at first. Some
inventions of great value in house-
work can be made profitable only
when work is done on a large scale, so
that enterprise and cooperation are
needed to make them available, for
example the inventions for bakery and
dairy work.
Above all, the industrial spirit which
has enabled the farmer to take hold of
inventions and use them to his profit,
therefore coming in touch with scien-
tific methods and the progressive
movements of the times, is wanting in
the average housewife. She does not
look for profit in her work as much as
nicety, and views it rather as an art
than an industry. This view has
doubtless much to do with the "be-
lated industry" and the skepticism
which prevails in regard to the success
of machinery in the household. The
conviction held by many intelligent
women, that no relief can come from
applying invention to the household
problems, is quite phenomenal, while
they are looking for a perpetuation of
human machines to keep up house-
keeping as a fine art. One objects to
the clothes-wringer because it leaves
creases in the clothes, to liquid fuel
because it is dangerous, to a chain
cleaner because it is noisy, to the
steam cooker because of the trouble of
cleaning it; so small prejudices pre-
vail and overrule the larger good in
the saving of time, cost, and care.
The old adage has been verified by the
case of the woman who bought an
incubator to save her sitting hens time
but would not buy a dishwasher to
save her own.
Women may not be less ingenious
than men but probably have cultivated
less the ability to comprehend the
principle of things and so have faith in
their ultimate working. That faith in
a theory which comes with a knowl-
edge of the principle involved is just
what we need in the household to help
us out of the rut. We have noticed
men who look at a machine, take in
the principle, and calculate what the
results must be, while women look at
it helplessly and query, "Will it do this,
and this?" For example, the oven
with a greater or less heat applied at
will and entirely under control, may
be so managed as to do anything in
the range of cookery, but such ap-
paratus has often been thrown aside
as inefficient after a few trials by the
skeptical housewife who will not be
imposed on by new-fangled notions.


SLOW AND SURE.
161
Now it seems to us there is too
much at stake in household economics
to treat any phase of it slightingly, for
at present the home-maker must con-
cern herself about housekeeping, and
just so far as her role in that line is
elaborate or harassing, just so much
less she has to give to the higher life
of the home.
We may prate of housekeeping as a
fine art while it is steadily drifting into
the hands of a class of labor inferior to
that employed in any decent industry;
we may believe that the spirit of the
worker can make "drudgery divine"
and yet offer them such conditions as
no other free labor in a democratic
country will accept. We may as well
recognize the fact that the way out of
industrial degradation is along the
lines of industrial development, and
that means in part, the efficiency of
labor doubled and trebled by using
inventions, reducing all processes to
scientific accuracy, and eliminating
uncertain factors.
The great cry of our day is "Edu-
cation in the work," "Reward in the
doing,'" "The consummation of all
things now and here," "No running
bank accounts to be settled in a misty
future." Meanwhile the educating
influence of work is in proportion as it
uses our intelligence and gives play
to our faculties. We have got about
to the end of the educating influence
in housework by the old methods;
it is not up to our chemistry, our
physics, our economics, or our me-
chanics of the present day. The edu-
cating effect of machinery is nowhere
more needed than in housework.
The daily treadmill gone through in
a mechanical fashion with little men-
tal effort is stultifying; introduce the
factor of machinery and an awaken-
ing is inevitable. One feels a peg
higher in the scale of intelligence for
using even a dishwashing-machine
and many a housewife finds relief in
her sewing-machine, others have
taken up telegraphy, type-writing,
and bicycling as recreation because
these pursuits tax the unused faculties.
This opportunity is found to a great
extent in the work when scientific
methods are adopted and work which
has always been thought menial be-
comes congenial.
The conquest of the housewife's
domain by labor-saving inventions is
one of the battles to be fought in the
near future. Against its approach
are opposed all the prejudices of ig-
norant unskilled labor, of art, of the
theorists, and the great phalanx of
cheap home labor, wives, mothers,
daughters, whose time has no market
value.
However the prize is great and
the calling high, so in the interest
of the sacred hearth we have es-
poused the genius of inventions, and
welcome all time, waste, and toil
savers as deliverers from the incubus
which rests upon home-making.
SLOW AND SURE.
IN forty years of steady work, so eastern travelers say,
The Chinese make a porcelain cup of Oriental clay,—
In Bagdad they form easily a hundred in a day;
But princes seek and prize the one — the other's thrown away.
The chicken walks from out its shell and goes its food to find,
While helpless lies for months and years the child of human kind,
Which yet by gradual growth o'ertops all else in strength and mind.
O slow of thought! remember this,—be thankful and resigned.
Saadi, translated by James Freeman Clarke.


THE KITCHEN.
BY MARY B. JAMES.
A paper read before the Household Economic Club of Minneapolis, Minn.
"When any thing is done
People see not the patient doing of it,
Nor think how great would be the loss to
man
If it had not been done."
PUBLIC speakers have, uninten-
tionally no doubt, done much
harm when they have spoken of
the domestic and home-making duties
in a manner that has seemed to belittle
and class them with drudgery. Work
becomes drudgery whenever one's
mind is not interested in it, and the
results to be achieved. Such speakers
have left the impression that such
work was only fit for the uncultivated
or ignorant, who can do nothing else,
and have thus created a feeling of dis-
satisfaction in the minds of many who
by force of circumstances have been
obliged to perform household duties.
Because of this general sentiment,
whenever it has been possible women
have turned over the management of
the kitchen to persons who have only
been willing to do this work, which
they in turn call menial, until such
time as they can obtain other and what
they call more suitable employment,
using this work only as a stepping-
stone to something believed to be bet-
ter. Such workers have no incentive
to fit themselves for doing their work
well and intelligently.
For these and similar reasons the
kitchen has fallen into disrepute, and
the parlor has far outstripped it in the
march of civilization; for much more
attention has been given to the ar-
rangement and furnishing of the par-
lor than to the kitchen. Persons plan-
ning for a house seem to think that
any room not needed for some other
purpose will answer for a kitchen;
hence the kitchen is very seldom as
well arranged as the other rooms in a
house. Yet the room in which the
food is prepared has more to do with
the real welfare of the family than per-
haps any other room of the house; for
do not the "issues of life and death"
proceed from this source?
Some one has said that ''the kitchen
is the stomach of the house." This
seems to be an apt illustration, for all
understand that whenever the stomach
is out of order the whole body suffers.
It is equally true that when the kitchen
is in disorder or badly managed the
whole house suffers, and until the
kitchen is gotten into a normal state
there can be no comfort for the in-
mates of the house.
The kitchen is the head centre of our
system of housekeeping, and the
sooner the idea obtains a firm hold
upon our common sense that the work
planned and executed here has a very
important influence upon the welfare
of the family, upon its physical, intel-
lectual, moral and spiritual well-being,
the more unwilling will women be to
turn over its management to those
who are untrained and therefore un-
fitted for the work.
Women will find here an ample op-
portunity for putting into practical
operation all the knowledge that they
obtained during their years of study
of chemistry, botany, physiology and
hygiene. No better use could be
made of such knowledge, for it will
add very much to the sum of human
happiness. And what is the purpose
of education if not to make the world
brighter and happier? It may be well
to change the word kitchen into do-
mestic-laboratory; for then it might
be a more interesting place to our col-
lege graduates, though now it seems
to be the most uninteresting part of
the house to many of them.
; 62


THE KITCHEN.
163
The science of ventilation needs to
be understood, for the room where
food is prepared, should be very care-
fully ventilated. Air, either pure or
impure, is beaten and cooked into all
the food that a family consumes, and
it makes a vast difference with the
wholesomeness as well as the flavor
of the food if it is prepared in a room
where air loaded with unpleasant
odors is constantly replaced with fresh,
pure air. In the familiar example of
beating an egg, all know that when
beaten near an open window it becomes
much lighter, that is, it contains more
and larger air cells, consequently the
food into which it enters is lighter and
more digestible. One does not enjoy
breathing over and over the impuri-
ties breathed out by other people, yet
if we looked into the kind of air beaten
into our food we should in many cases
enjoy it far less.
Again, the quality of the water used
in the preparation of food. In these
days there is usually a plentiful supply
in the kitchen, such as it is, and there
is no necessity of using it as is often
done. Every one knows that there is
a vast difference in the taste of fresh
and stale water. Stale water has been
deprived of the very gases that make
it a valuable food and drink material,
and has also taken from the surround-
ing air many of its impurities. Water
is often left in the teakettle over-night,
and in the morning more stale water
is added and re-heated for the making
of tea and coffee. This matter can
easily be tested by making tea or cof-
fee from freshly boiled water and com-
paring it with that made from stale
water. The custom of using the
water from the hot-water tank, be-
cause already heated, for cooking
vegetables, cereals and the like has the
same effect upon the food as the stale
water upon the tea and coffee. To
the use of fresh or stale water in cook-
ing may be attributed the different
flavor of the same vegetables upon
different tables.
The habit of using water that has
been standing in lead pipes overnight
—without drawing off a goodly quan-
tity in order to get it as fresh from the
fountain as possible—cannot be too
strongly condemned; not only because
the water is stale, but the danger from
lead poisoning is considerable. It is
a slow poison, of course, but is poison
nevertheless.
The kitchen should be well lighted
as well as ventilated. All of the sun-
shine possible, with its penetrating
and purifying rays, should enter the
kitchen, which is the real receiving
and discharging depot of the house.
Everything intended for family con-
sumption is brought here; household
rubbish, sweepings, and often soiled
linen pass through the kitchen, and
too often remain here for a consider-
able length of time; and if the one who
has the care of the kitchen is an igno-
rant person particles from them may
easily come in contact with the food
prepared here.
A whole book might be written
upon the subject of kitchen microbes,
but only a few suggestions can be
given in a paper of this kind. The
words microbe and bacteria are often
used interchangeably. They are both
friends and foes to the human race.
When they become matter out of place
they are dangerous; when they reach a
point of development beyond a certain
limit, whether it be in our kitchens,
our systems, or in fruit once luscious
but now decayed because of the activ-
ity of these same microbes, they are
dangerous; harmless when all is as it
should be, when perfect cleanliness is
observed. Scientists tell us that sun-
light and air are our best protection
against the deadly microbe. From
the same source we learn that these
enemies enter our system very largely
by means of our food and drink, and
that our efforts for protection from
them should be mostly directed to the
kitchen, as the disbursing department
of the delectable microbe. Science
has also revealed to us their favorite
lodging places; that they revel in dust,
dirt, polluted water, decaying matter,
filth found in sewer pipes, kitchen


104
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
grease and refuse, and wherever else
animal life is responsible for putrefac-
tion. The greasy dishcloth, or "dish-
rag," as some people persist in calling
it—and which is applicable in many
cases, but which should never be al-
lowed in a well furnished kitchen—the
closet under the sink, where the sun
never penetrates, yet where some of
the utensils used for cooking are kept,
are among the harvest fields of the
kitchen microbe.
Let us remember that however pure
food or water may be at one moment,
if it is exposed to air that contains
these busy little creatures it soon loses
its purity and becomes unfit for food
or drink. If a particle of decayed
matter—so small that it would take a
very strong microscope to reveal it—
reaches our blood we may become a
victim of typhoid, diphtheria or some
other dread disease. We should
guard against such contingencies by
strict cleanliness and hygienic meas-
ures. The possibility of contamina-
tion of our food with kitchen dirt
should be zealously guarded against.
Public attention should be called
to such matters, and in no way could
it be done more effectually than, as
has been done in some cities in the
East, notably in Philadelphia, by the
"University Extension," in giving
popular lectures on health and hy-
giene. The field chosen was the most
crowded portion of the city. The lec-
tures were fully illustrated with charts,
specimens and stereopticon views, and
dealt with the fundamental principles
of physiology and hygiene in simple
language. It is related that the people
came in large numbers and listened
with marked attention, then went
home to practice, and that the result
in the matter of cleanliness alone was
far beyond what any "board of health"
could secure.
The story is told of John G. Whit-
tier that at one time he wished to have
an objectionable building removed
from a certain locality, and as the
quickest way to accomplish this pur-
pose he gave a man one dollar a day
on condition that he should do noth-
ing else from morning till night but
talk with various persons interested
on the subject of having the building
removed. It is unnecessary to add
that the building was removed. Agi-
tation upon any subject for the good
of the people always tends to insure
success.
DOUGHNUTS.
BY JOHN S. BARROWS.
OH, my goodness, I kin smell
Som'pin drefful good, I guess!
Don't you wist 'at you c'ud tell
Well as I kin, an' say jes
What they's makin' good to eat?
Tell you what, my ma she takes
Two big eggs, an' when they's beat
Mixes sugar—jes' like cake—
'N' 'en she puts in flour jes' so,
'N' cin'mon—'at she calls "spice,"
'N' pats, 'n' rolls it into dough.
My, I guess it tastes real nice,
Mos' as good as if 'twas cooked—
How'd I know? Now don't you tell.
"Hope to die"? 'Cause oncet I hooked
A little piece; like to fell
Off the platform when I run.
'N' my ma she said she knew
What her little boy 'ad done:
Wondered what she'd have to do,
'Cause she c'udn't let him take
Dough 'at she was workin' on.
'N' 'en my ma she'd go an' make
A big boy-cake while I was gon'.
'N' my ma she stoops 'n' makes
The kitchen fire burn awful hot,
'N' 'en she chucks the twisted cakes
In the hot fat in the pot.
Don't you know now what it is
'At makes 'at delicious smell?
Guess if you c'ud see 'em fizz.
An' splutter round 'at you c'ud tell
'At ma she's fryin' doughnuts!


166
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAG A ZINE.
back stairs communicating with the
court, cellar, and attic.
In the houses with but one entrance
the arrangement is decidedly inferior.
The first room to be passed on enter-
ing the front and only entrance is the
kitchen, because all supplies have to
be carried up the front stairs. In or-
der to reach the parlor one must go
through a long hall, pass all the bed-
rooms, bathroom and kitchen, and
must know exactly what has been
cooking for dinner; that is, if one can
distinguish the fresh odors from those
that have been prevalent for the past
week. In both kinds of flats the
rooms are always light, but the halls
are usually dark. Some light is ad-
mitted through ground-glass panels
in the bedroom doors, and occasion-
ally a small balcony at the end of the
hall on the court takes the place of an
end room, and the glass doors opening
upon it give plenty of light and possi-
bility for good ventilation.
All the houses are furnished with
the city water, which is excellent, fairly
good plumbing, and gas. The out-
side halls and court are kept clean by
a porter, who lives in the basement,
and who usually carries on a little
business of some sort, so that all the
houses, even in the purely residential
parts of the city, have shops under
them. The porter locks up at ten
each evening, and unless the occu-
pants of the apartments carry their
night keys when they are out in the
evening the porter must be aroused,
generally with great difficulty, and a
fee must be given for his trouble.
Each tenant has a small locked bin
in the cellar in which to keep his coal
and wood, and a small attic room for
the storage of trunks. There is but
one pantry in a Berlin flat, and that is
in the kitchen. Wardrobes must be
used in all the rooms, and cupboards
must stand in the dining room and
halls. The better Berlin apartments
are handsomely finished and deco-
rated, having really beautiful inlaid
hard-wood floors in the parlors and
dining room, stained floors in the bed-
rooms, and tiled floor and lower walls
in the kitchen.
In heating apparatus the Berliners
are far behind the "Americans."
Steam heat and hot air are practically
unknown. All the rooms are heated
by large stoves, reaching from floor to
ceiling, made of colored or white
porcelain tiles, with brass or nickel
doors and trimmings, some of the
stoves being exceedingly artistic and
ornamental, while others are painfully
suggestive of a family monument.
Brickets of pressed coal are burned,
and the fire must be made every morn-
ing, and in very cold weather twice or
three times a day. The fireplace which
is small, is in the lower part of the stove,
while the whole upper part is filled
with a long coil of iron pipe. A little
paper and a few small bits of kindling
wood are laid in the fireplace, and
from ten to twenty brickets placed on
top of them. This is lighted, and al-
lowed to burn with open door until
the brickets are all aglow and just
ready to crumble. The double doors
are then closed and screwed up tight
with a key, so that no draught can
enter. In a short time the tiles begin
to radiate a gentle heat, communicated
to them by the coil of iron pipe, which
holds the heat for some hours. At no
time is the stove so hot that one cannot
bear his hand on it, and these "Berline
Oefen," as they are called, are made
with ornamental mantels on them.
With these stoves the rooms may be
kept very comfortable, but the floors
are usually very cold.
The kitchen stove is a curious struc-
ture to American eyes. It is made of
white porcelain tiles, with polished
brass doors and trimmings and cast-
iron top. The ordinary German
"Kochmachine" has but one hole,
which is directly over the grate, but
this is covered by a series of concentric
rings, so that it may be made to suit a
pot of any size. Directly over the
grate and around this hole the
stove becomes very hot, but on any
other part of the stove dishes may be
set with perfect safety. A mixture of


HOUSEKEEPING IN BERLIN.
167
coke and soft coal is burned, and the
fire is allowed to go out after each
meal, since it is so easily lighted and
burns so freely that one can make a
fresh fire and have boiling water in
from fifteen to twenty minutes.
The baking ovens, two in number,
are back of the stove, and are heated
by a separate fire. The oven may be
heated in about twenty minutes, and is
admirably adapted for meats; but the
heat from below is so great that pud-
dings, cakes, etc., will burn black on
the bottom before they are half baked
through or browned on top. I found
after considerable experiment that a
sheet of asbestos paper a quarter of
an inch thick served to cut off the di-
rect heat and diffuse it more generally
throughout the oven, and rendered it
possible to bake all our popular Amer-
ican delicacies with success, but bread
could not be well baked in our Ger-
man oven. Water for dishwashing,
etc., must usually be heated in kettles
on the stove, and a separate fire must
be made under a large boiler in the
bathroom when hot water is desired
there.
Rents are moderate in Berlin; for
less than forty dollars a month one can
get a flat of at least eight rooms and
bath, all large, well lighted and fin-
ished, and surpassing in every particu-
lar a flat of the same price in New
York, and the house will be located in
a most desirable part of the city, con-
venient to all car lines, fine markets,
and shops. Furniture also may be
rented at very reasonable rates, the
prices, of course, varying with the
style and quantity selected.
Having obtained a flat, the next
question to be settled by one planning
to reside in Berlin would be that great
one, "the servant question." Until I
went to Germany to live, and heard the
German housewives condole with one
another over their domestic troubles,
I had supposed that in the "Father-
land," if anywhere, the good old condi-
tions of domestic felicity existed, and
that servants in Germany were as a
rule trustworthy and permanent; but,
alas! observation has fully convinced
me to the contrary. Fortunately, very
fortunately, I had little or no trouble
myself, for by some lucky chance I
had to come in contact with but two
maids during my fifteen months' ex-
perience; but when I saw no less than
eight servants come and go in a neigh-
boring flat, inside of five months, I felt
sure that something was radically
wrong somewhere. I do not care to
discuss the servant question of Ger-
many or of the United States, but, like
every question, it has two sides. There
is the side of the maid and that of the
mistress; and I think that if the ques-
tion should come to an issue in either
country, in Germany I would side with
the maid, and at home with the mis-
tress. Much might be said of the re-
lation of the maid to her German mis-
tress, the result of observation, but I
do not purpose to give anything but
the result of experience; hence I shall
tell only the conditions as I found
them, and as every Berlin resident
must find them.
The work which must be required
of a servant in a Berlin apartment is
hard. All the coal and wood has to
be carried by her from the cellar to the
floor occupied by the family she serves,
no elevators being provided even for
this purpose. In cold weather she
must keep sufficient fuel on hand for
the stoves, from five to ten in number,
and must light these stoves daily,—
some of them before the family are
up,—so that the rooms may be warm
when they arise. The brass and
nickel on the stoves must be polished,
the hard-wood floors waxed and pol-
ished, the rugs shaken, and the large
windows, all of which have double
sashes, frequently washed. All this
is outside the kitchen. Washing may
be done in the house, for a large laun-
dry is usually to be found in the base-
ment, and a drying room in the attic.
But the American resident usually
prefers to send the washing out to a
laundry or washwoman. Besides the
housework, the housekeeper is obliged
to make a demand upon her servant


168
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
rarely made here; viz., the going to
market. Every mistress must either
go to market or send her maid, for
goods are not delivered as they are
here, without a fee to the carrier, and
the servant must daily take her big
basket and net with handles and walk
behind her mistress, taking all her
purchases, and carrying often a very
heavy load.
The room provided for a servant
in the flats is usually very small and
inconvenient, and in many of the older
houses the accommodation made for
them would not be tolerated here by
either mistress or servant. I have
been in many houses where the ser-
vant's room, if it could be so called,
was only a sort of loft made by putting
a floor half way up to the ceiling in the
bathroom. This loft was lighted by
half of the bathroom window, and was
reached by a short ladder. I have
been in a flat where the kitchen pantry
was divided in the same way; and in
one case I saw a loft built in the cor-
ner of the kitchen to furnish a sleeping
place for a third servant, when the one
over the bathroom, about five by ten
feet, was used by two others. The
American housekeeper will not give
her maid such a room, and she will
give her good furnishings for the
room she does have. I once heard
a German lady say, and she was a
kind, large-hearted woman, too, "Why,
can you believe it? Frau lets
her servant have a washstand in her
room, and white sheets on her bed!"
This was, perhaps, an exceptional re-
mark, yet much observation made me
feel that there were good reasons why
the American housekeepers kept their
servants a good while and found them
honest and faithful.
The average wages for the "maid
of all work" is from twelve to sixteen
marks, or from three to four dollars
per month, but a good servant may
earn four dollars and a half or even
five dollars. In some cases they are
given higher wages, but are then ex-
pected to feed themselves; but in ar-
rangements of this kind the wages are
not proportionally high enough, and a
girl is sometimes found to be dishon-
est. The faithful servant who remains
some time in her place expects, and
receives, a present of about three or
five dollars at Christmas. The ser-
vants are usually paid in "thalers" or
three-mark silver pieces, and I had al-
ways supposed they preferred these
large pieces to smaller coin, until one
time being unable to get the thalers
readily our servant was paid with a
gold piece. She clapped her hands
and danced for joy like a little child,
and told me excitedly it was the first
gold piece she had ever owned. Most
servants expect that if they break
things their wages will be reduced by
the value of the article broken, but
the regulation of this matter lies whol-
ly in the hands of the mistress. A
servant rarely expects more than one
"evening out" in two weeks.
In Berlin certain police regulations
exist, which are strictly enforced, and
which protect both servant and em-
ployer from any imposition on the part
of either party, if the other chooses to
complain. In the first place every ser-
vant is required to register at the po-
lice station of the district into which
she comes. This must be done within
three days after change of residence,
and must be accompanied by formal
dismissal from the district which she
leaves. Every servant is obliged to
keep a book, which must contain her
references and recommendations, and
in which her mistress must write, if she
discharges her, the grounds she had
for so doing. A mistress may not
discharge a girl under fifteen days'
notice when she is engaged by the
month, nor may a servant leave on
shorter notice; but if the maid be en-
gaged by the year, as is often the case,
change can be made only at the end of
the quarter. If a mistress insists on a
servant's leaving before the end of the
quarter, she must pay her wages
until the end of the quarter, un-
less it can be proved that the
girl has been dishonest, in which
case she is dealt with by the police.


HOUSEKEEPING IN BERLIN.
169
The law requires that every servant
shall be insured against sickness or in-
ability to work, by the purchase of
government stamps weekly. These
stamps are pasted in a book, their
value varying with the wages received;
they are in some cases paid for by the
servant and in others by the mistress,
according to the arrangement when
the engagement is made.
A society exists for the protection
of the mistress in cases where the
maid has been engaged for a long
period, and for any reason becomes
disabled; for the mistress is obliged
to care for the servant until the expira-
tion of the period, when the govern-
ment becomes responsible. By pay-
ing seventy-five cents a year to this
society a mistress may be relieved at
once of the care of her disabled ser-
vant. When the American lady goes
to Berlin she has to find out all these
things by degrees, and often by bitter
experience. She must learn what is
expected of her as a mistress, and what
she may and must expect of her Ger-
man maid; but it is safe to say that she
can readily obtain a good honest girl,
and that the latter will be contented
and happy, and will have never en-
joyed such privileges and had so much
consideration shown her as she will
find in her home with an American
mistress.
Having secured an apartment and
competent help, housekeeping in Ber-
lin is easily carried on, and a very
good table, and a good American ta-
ble, may be set without extraordinary
efforts at catering. If the family ca-
tered for like German dishes the variety
may be greater, and of course the
American lady who keeps house in
Berlin must herself superintend the
cooking if it is to be done in American
fashion; and my experience was that
all cakes, desserts, etc., must be made
and cooked by oneself, since the aver-
age German servant has never done
anything but plain cooking, and has
never seen any such things made in
the German households in which she
has lived. The average servant in Ger-
many seems much more dependent
than the servant in this country, this
dependence being, doubtless, the result
of the close personal supervision of the
German mistress. The American lady
must keep a strict watch and give
many lessons, else the family will fare
badly, for the meats and vegetables
will receive remarkable treatment in
some cases. Our servants had neither
of them ever seen anything broiled,
had never heard of mashed potatoes,
and had never seen toast made; and
as for a pie or a boiled fruit pudding,
the idea had never entered their heads
that such things could be, although
both maids were exceedingly capable
and well-trained in most respects.
Bread, as I said before, cannot be
baked in the ordinary German kitchen
stove, and hence one must buy all the
bread used. Most Americans learn to
like the German "black bread," made
of rye and wheat, and all like the de-
licious little crusty rolls, or "Broed-
chen." Besides these, good white
bread can be obtained at all the bak-
eries, which are numerous, since all
Berliners buy their bread. Milk is
readily obtained, and good, pure milk.
One man, C. Bolle, has the monopoly
of the milk trade of the city, and a
visit to the headquarters of the estab-
lishment at 99 Alt Moabit is well
worth the effort. Milk raw and steri-
lized, skimmed milk, cream, whipped
cream and butter, are delivered by
Bolle's wagons, and all of the very
best. The raw milk is sold for five
and one-quarter cents a liter, a liter
being a little less than a quart.
Skimmed milk is two and one-half
cents, sterilized milk is eleven and one-
quarter cents, cream twenty cents a
liter, and butter is sold at from thirty-
five cents to forty-five cents a pound, the
price being regulated by the age, the
highest in price being that sold on the
day it is made.
i Groceries are obtained in shops,
and most of our standard groceries
can be had. Canned goods, such as
peas, beans, etc., are inferior to the
American goods, corn cannot be


170
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
found, and tomatoes are strained and
made into a kind of sauce, good for
flavoring soups, but for- no other
purpose. One will look in vain for
the fancy biscuits and crackers so
abundant and in such variety here, and
will sigh over some prices. Most of
the staple groceries bring the same
prices as they do here, but flour is sold
at the rate of sixteen dollars a barrel.
Sugar costs about a cent a pound
more than it does here, and is all beet
sugar. Coffee when roasted is al-
ways burned perfectly black. Good
Java coffee is worth forty cents a
pound, and unless one roasts one's
own coffee it must be made in the
German fashion, which demands the
burning that is always given to the
bean.
Berlin is well supplied with markets.
There are in the city twelve large
covered "Markthallen," and several
open-air markets are held on market
days in various parts of the city. The
market halls are open daily from six
A. M. until one P. M., and then closed
for cleaning, and reopened from five
until eight, and on Saturdays from
five until nine. Tuesday and Friday
are market days, and on these days
especially fine fruit, vegetables, and
poultry may be found, since the peas-
ants come in from the country with
their produce. In all the Berlin mar-
ket halls one may buy fresh and
smoked meats and fish, poultry, do-
mestic and foreign fruits, vegetables,
eggs, butter, cheese, lard, sausages
in immense variety, bread and cakes,
flowers, baskets, wooden ware,
brushes, ropes, twines, and staple gro-
ceries; and moreover pigeons, canary
birds, white mice, gold fish and rab-
bits are offered among the other at-
tractions. Nearly all the stalls are
attended by women, even the butchers
being of the gentler sex, and old
women with large baskets strapped to
their backs wait around the door, and
for a few cents may be hired to carry
home the purchases of the lady who
has no maid with her.
The lady who would do her market-
ing successfully and get good prices,
must be wholly indifferent to smiles
and flattery, and must know what she
wants, and know what is good or the
contrary. One is called "my gracious
lady," "my dear lady,'" "my beautiful
Fraulein," "my bright-eyed little lady,"
and is urged in the most insinuating
terms to buy "this wonderfully beauti-
ful pickled herring" or "extraordina-
rily delicious sauerkraut" by a dozen
energetic market women, most of
whom speak "Plattdeutsch," a knowl-
edge of which is exceedingly helpful
in marketing. One must know too
about the cuts of meat, and learn the
peculiarities of the German "cuts," and
must learn by experience that the
terms carefully looked up in the dic-
tionary before starting out are not the
ones by which the articles are com-
monly called. I do not know how
the German butchers cut their beeves,
but I do know that one can buy nei-
ther a sirloin nor a porterhouse steak,
and that the fillet is aways cut out and
sold at a higher price by itself.
Meats are expensive. Beef for
roasting costs twenty-two and a half
cents a pound, round of beef twenty
cents, veal twenty-five, mutton aver-
ages eighteen and three-quarter cents
and pork twenty-two. Boiled ham is
forty cents and boiled tongue fifty, and
all are much smaller and inferior to
our American meats.
The smaller fish are kept alive in the
markets in tanks of water. The "gra-
cious Fraulein" who wishes to buy,
looks into the tank and picks out her
fish; the market woman then catches
him in a scoop net and drops him,
wriggling and flopping, into a deep
scale pan. Shad, bluefish, halibut and
smelts are unknown, but soles, floun-
ders, herring and many other good but
unnamable pan fish may be had at an
average price of twenty cents. Nor-
way salmon is thirty-seven and a half
cents a pound, and Rhine River sal-
mon brings seventy-five cents. Shell-
fish are rarely seen; the oysters are
small and tasteless, and clams are un-
known. Shrimps are occasionally


AT THE GAP.
171
seen, and lobsters, very, very small
ones, are to be had occasionally at
thirty-seven and a half cents a pound,
and the shells are, of course, included
in the weight.
During the winter months vegeta-
bles are scarce in the Berlin markets.
Very few things except the members
of the cabbage family can be found,
but this family is well represented.
The summer vegetables are abundant
and cheap. New potatoes are twenty
cents a peck, peas twenty-five cents a
peck, wax beans five cents a quart, etc.
Tomatoes are scarce and poor, and are
worth ten cents a pound. Squash is
never seen; cucumbers are abundant
and cheap.
At no time of the year is fruit as
cheap and abundant as it is in any of
our cities. In winter, apples, oranges,
and lemons are the only fruits to be
obtained. Bananas are never seen in
the markets, but may be bought in the
delicatessen shops at the fabulous price
of twenty-five cents apiece. Straw-
berries rarely get below fifteen cents a
quart; red raspberries are about the
same, and currants are seven cents
when cheapest. The cherries and
plums surpass our fruit in quality and
quantity.
In spite of some drawbacks, Berlin
offers more attractions than hin-
drances to those Americans who wish
to go abroad and reside for a time, and
who desire to enjoy the comforts and
pleasures of home life in the midst of a
foreign people. An American can
keep a truly American home in a Ber-
lin flat, and come back to his home on
this side of the water with his head full
of pleasant memories and his heart
full of tender recollections of the
Kaiser stadt.
AT THE GAP.
BY MRS. IDA AHLBORN WEEKS.
A maiden stands at the gap
To keep the cattle away,
While the racks with golden load
Pass through the livelong day,
She sings little melodies,
She braids of the straw a braid,
And plays, though with vigilant eye,
Lone games in the chestnut-shade.
A weary watch? 'Tis over at last,
And the "Harvest Home" is sung,
And the maiden has a place
The reapers strong among.
*****
She stands at the gap again—
A woman at the door
Of a home that she guards as well
As she guarded the gap of yore.
Like a Roman sentinel,
Who scorned the enemy's lure,
She keeps her watch, a heroine,
Whose final reward is sure.


PHANTASY.
175
tenth supper, in which stuffed dates,
lady fingers, dandy pudding, and rusk
were the only dishes unlike those
usually served.
As the night for the eleventh supper
approached, the desire to increase the
funds by some extra attractions, could
not be resisted by the enthusiastic
hostess. An art gallery was arranged
with a mirth-provoking catalogue, a
delicious supper was provided for all
who were not members, and every-
body was invited. The menu for the
members consisted of, fish a la creme
{served on the half shell), lettuce and
radishes, sandwiches, bread and but-
ter, cake and sherbet. The menu was
printed on a large correspondence
card. In the left-hand upper corner
was a disc of tin foil with an impres-
sion of a silver dollar; below it a
silhouette of a porter on the dining car
ringing his bell—"Lars' call for din-
ner." On the right was the menu and
on the other side were these lines:—
Kindly greetings to all who are with us to-
night.
May your blessings be daily increased.
For your presence gives promise of future
success
To our fortnightly movable feast.
Each member received a pretty
souvenir of a hand-painted half shell,
the work of the hostess. The table
decorations were all in red; a little hat
made of red crimped paper twisted on
a spool with a tiny banner of stars and
stripes, at each plate; red bonbon
dishes filled with red peppermints and
red sugared almonds; red lamp shades,
red glass tumblers, red carnations and
red picture frames on the little tables.
Seventy-five people were present,
and they all came with well filled
pocket books and went away filled
with pleasure at the results of the sales.
Sister W then said next time knock at
her door,
And that all the men should come if she had
fourscore.
I certainly think she is something of a Jew,
For the traps she sprung for money num-
bered not a few.
Five cents for this, five cents for that,
And five cents for a spool without thread we
know to be a fact,
But certainly, ladies, we cannot complain
When we count the amount of her ill-gotten
gains.
At the twelfth supper, which was a
"rose tea," dried beef and honey were
served with the usual bread and cake.
It was found on counting up the
gains that nearly one hundred dollars
could be added to the treasury as the
result of this novel attempt at com-
bining business with pleasure.
PHANTASY.
ALL day long your face before me
Hovered, like a sweet dream o'er me,
And whene'er I raised my head
I gazed into your eyes and read
Things unfathomed yet by speech,
Thoughts that words could never reach.
Till at last for one caress
Longing, mad, I leaned to press
Eager lips upon your own,
But, alas! the dream had flown.—
Now I grieve that in this fashion
My consuming, hasty passion
Shattered in this soul of mine
Vision clear it had of thine.
JEAN KINCAID.


VARIOUS FORMS OF MILK FERMENTATION.
Report of E. W. Allen, Acting-Director Government Agricultural Experiment Station.
PART SECOND.
STUDENTS have not recognized
until within recent years that a
great variety of fermentations
may occur in milk. The reason for
the tardiness of this discovery is easily
seen. Under ordinary conditions
milk always undergoes some sort of
lactic fermentation (souring). Only
under rare conditions is this absent.
The production of lactic acid soon
curdles the milk and immediately ob-
scures all other forms of fermentation
which have occurred during the pro-
cess. The acid also stops the growth
of all bacteria, so that no subsequent
effect can be seen. Hence in normal
milk clear evidence of fermentation of
any other sort than souring is rarely
noticed.
The later studies of this subject,
however, have shown the great variety
of form of organisms in milk, and the
many different results of their action.
Thus, while one class of organisms, as
we have seen, curdles milk by the pro-
duction of lactic acid, another class
gives it an alkaline reaction at the same
time curdling it; others impart to it a
deep blue, violet, yellow, green, or red
color by the production of pigments in
the milk; others give it a bitter or
other unpleasant taste; another class
produces alcohol from the milk sugar,
which fact is taken advantage of in the
preparation of such beverages as
koumiss and kefir, and still others
cause putrefaction. Some of these
forms of fermentation will be briefly
noticed.
The characteristic of butyric acid
fermentation is the production of
butyric acid. In the ordinary hand-
ling of the milk this class of organ-
isms is of little importance, but it has
been supposed that they have an im-
portant effect upon the keeping
properties of butter. Rancid butter
contains considerable quantities of
butyric acid, and the development
of the rancidity is simultaneous
with the appearance of the buty-
ric acid. When it became known that
many species of bacteria produce buty-
ric acid and that there are many bac-
teria in butter, it was a natural infer-
ence that the rancidity is produced by
them. It is probable that the ordinary
rancidity of butter is the result both
of fermentation and chemical oxida-
tion, although rancidity may occur
when bacteria are entirely absent.
The fermentation of milk is not al-
ways accompanied by the production
of an acid, as there is an alkaline fer-
mentation. Everyone who has had an
extended experience with milk has
seen instances of milk curdling with-
out the usual acid taste, and it is a
familiar fact that curdled milk is by no
means constant in character. There
is the greatest variety in the stiffness
of the curd, the amount of the whey, the
taste, odor, etc., and all these differ-
ences are due to varying numbers and
species of bacteria other than the lac-
tic acid class.
The milk may become coagulated
into a soft, slimy mass, which usually
possesses a bitter taste. The taste is
never sour, and the milk, instead of
having an acid reaction, is either alka-
line or neutral. After a day or two
the curd begins to dissolve into a
somewhat clear liquid, and, if the ac-
tion is allowed to continue long
enough, may become completely dis-
solved into a semi-transparent liquid
having no resemblance to milk.
In the ordinary handling of milk the
class of organisms included under this
head of alkaline ferments is of little
importance. They grow slowly, and
the lactic-acid-forming species usually
get the start of them, producing their
176


VARIOUS FORMS OF MILK FERMENTATION.
177
own marked effect on the milk, so
that the action of the alkaline species
is entirely obscured. Moreover, the
acid-forming species soon produce so
much acid that the growth of all bac-
teria is checked. At the same time
these species are of the greatest im-
portance in dairy matters. In the first
place, many of them form resisting
germs which will endure high tem-
perature and render the process of
sterilizing milk by heat very difficult.
They are always present in milk which
has been standing for a short time, and
sometimes their abundance is great
enough to produce noticeable effects.
A slimy fermentation of milk is a
somewhat common occurrence, and
occasionally produces great trouble
in dairies, since it destroys the milk
for all ordinary uses. Slimy milk will
furnish no cream. It cannot be
churned, and it is ruined for drinking
purposes. Slimy fermentation, how-
ever, is made use of in the manufac-
ture of Edam cheese.
There has been the greatest variety
of theories as to the cause of slimy
milk. Diseases of the mammary
glands, variations in the food of the
cow, and differences in conditions sur-
rounding the dairy have all come in
for a share in the explanation. But
the slimy fermentation of milk has
been found to be connected with a
large variety of organisms. Some of
them give to the milk only a slight
sliminess, while others render it tena-
cious almost beyond belief. One, de-
scribed by Conn, renders milk so
slimy that it can be drawn into threads
ten feet long and so small as to be
hardly visible. Some of the organ-
isms render milk slimy in their early
growth, others only after several days,
and some do not render the fresh milk
slimy at all, but first curdle it and then
dissolve the curd into slimy solution.
A fermentation, characterized by
the deep blue color which has given it
its name, occurs sometimes as an iso-
lated trouble in individual dairies, and
sometimes it has become so prevalent
in certain localities as to be almost an
epidemic. The explanation now
given for blue milk is a double one.
Ordinary milk contains some of the
lactic acid organisms, and these, act-
ing in connection with another species
of bacteria, produce the brilliant blue
color which characterizes this infec-
tion. When growing in ordinary milk
the effect of this organism is very
marked. For a few hours no change
is noticed, but just about the time
when the the milk begins to become
acid some intense blue patches make
their appearance. The faster the acid
forms the quicker the coagulation ap-
pears and the smaller are the blue
patches, while if the acid is produced
more slowly the blue patches are
larger and of a better color.
Where the blue-milk organism
comes from is unknown, nor have we
any knowledge of the causes of the
occasional epidemics of blue milk.
There can be little doubt that the
cause is always some unknown source
of filth. In some cases the trouble has
been traced to a single cow in a large
dairy, and has been stopped easily by
isolating the individual found to be the
cause, or by carefully washing the
cow's teats with a little weak acetic
acid solution. Blue milk is always an
infection due to outside contamina-
tion, and its remedy is always to be
found in care and cleanliness. It does
not occur in the carefully kept dairy.
Blue milk appears to be harmless.
It has been fed to animals, which eat
it readily and without harm. Within
a few years blue cheese has been
brought to the attention of scientists,
and has been attributed to the same
organism which produces the trouble
in milk.
Several organisms have been de-
scribed which impart a bitter taste to
milk. Recently two new forms have
been isolated from bitter cheese and
bitter cream. The bitter taste appears
to be due to the production of a special
bitter substance produced by the or-
ganisms. This substance has been
isolated, but its nature is not definitely
known. In one instance bitterness in


FROM DAY TO DAY.
Department of Notes, Queries and Correspondence.
CONDUCTED BY MRS. LINCOLN.
ONE of our young cooking teach-
ers asks, "How can I explain
the distinction between a fruit
and a vegetable?"
The terms fruit and vegetable are
tised indiscriminately and often incor-
rectly. All fruits may be called vege-
tables in the sense that they are pro-
ducts of vegetable growth, or belong
to the vegetable kingdom, and all
vegetables may be termed fruits if we
use the word as "the produce of our
gardens," "the result or fruit of our
labors," etc.
But botanically speaking, the fruit
is only that part of a plant, shrub, vine
or tree, in which the seeds are con-
tained; or the matured ovary and all
it contains or that is connected with it;
as the fleshly enlarged calyx, the peri-
carp, the flower stalk and flower leaves
and the receptacle.
Vegetables, as the term is common-
ly used, may be any part of such plants
as are cultivated for culinary purposes,
viz., the roots, tubers, bulbs, stems,
leaves, leaf-stalks, flower-stalks, green
seed-vessels or pods, and dried seeds
of leguminous plants, or the fleshy
seed-vessels which are sometimes
called vegetables and sometimes
fruits.
And it is just here in these seed ves-
sels where the confusion of terms oc-
curs. But we can easily learn how to
distinguish them if we remember that
fruit is the seed or seed vessel of trees,
.shrubs or vines, or those forms of veg-
etable life which have woody fibre in
their stems, or which live more than
one season; and vegetables or vege-
table-fruits, if we may coin the term,
are the seeds or seed vessels of plants
which have soft stalks, with no woody
fibre, and that die down at the close of
one season. I have never seen this
distinction given and it may not hold
good in every instance, but after care-
ful consideration of our common veg-
etable foods this seems to me to be the
distinguishing feature.
For example, under vegetables
proper we have: Roots—Carrot, tur-
nip, parsnip, beet, salsify, radish, etc.
Tubers—Potato, yam, artichokes.
Scaly bulbs—Onion, leek, garlic, etc.
Stems-—Asparagus. Leaves—Let-
tuce, endive, spinach, parsley, cab-
bage, greens, etc. Leaf stalks—Cel-
ery, rhubarb. Flower stalks—Cauli-
flower, globe-artichoke.
Under vegetable fruits which are the
fruit or seed part of a plant we have:
Pulpy seed-vessels with thin skins—
Tomato. Pulpy seed-vessels with
a' hard rind—Squash, pumpkin,
melon, egg-plant, cucumber, etc.
Seed pods—String bean, peppers.
Seeds used green and dried or ripened
—Corn, peas, beans, lentils.
Very small seeds are called grains,
and those containing much oil and
having a woody pericarp are called
nuts. These are of vegetable nature
and really the fruit, but common usage
has given them these special names,
therefore there is no confusion of
terms as there is with melons, toma-
toes or pumpkins.
Under fruits proper we have:
Pulpy seed-vessels with thin skins—
grapes, gooseberries, blueberries,
cranberries, currants, etc. Pulpy seed-
vessels with thick leathery rind—
oranges, lemons, grape-fruit, etc.
Fleshy enlarged calyx—checkerber-
ries, quinces, apples, pears. Stone
fruits or the outer part of the peri-
carp—peaches, plums, apricots, cher-
ries, olives, etc. Hollow flower
179


180
THE AMERIC AN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
stalks—figs. Pulpy flower-leaves and
stalks of tiny multiple flowers—mul-
berries. The same on a larger scale—
pineapples. Pulpy receptacle bearing
tiny seed vessels on its surface—straw-
berries. Pulpy receptacle with clus-
ters of stone fruits—blackberries. Clus-
ters of stone fruits without the recep-
tacle—raspberries.
Strawberries and checkerbe'rries
may at first thought seem to be excep-
tions to the rule, but while strawber-
ries are usually called plants and the
green vines die at the close of the sea-
son, the roots live through the winter
and the underground stem or rootstalk
has more or less woody fibre; and
checkerberry vines live from year to
year. Rhubarb is classed as a fruit
sometimes because we use it with
sugar as a sauce, but it is a leaf stalk
not a fruit. There may be other ex-
ceptions to this rule, but it applies to
all the fruits and vegetables common
to this part of the country.
The same teacher asks: "When
would you use cracker and when
bread crumbs and why? Also, when
a dish is to be covered with buttered
crumbs would you not use dried bread
crumbs?"
I prefer to use cracker crumbs for
broiled oysters, scalloped oysters, fish,
meat and other scalloped dishes which
have a covering of buttered crumbs;
also for oysters, scallops, veal cutlets,
sweetbreads and other delicate food
which is to be sauted or browned in a
little hot fat. They give a more deli-
cate flavor and texture to the crust of
sauted food, and being softer than
dried bread crumbs, they do not ab-
sorb so much of the moisture from the
food to be fried or from the sauce in
scalloped dishes. For thickening
some kinds of puddings they are supe-
rior to bread crumbs.
But I do not use cracker crumbs,
although many people do, for crumb-
ing croquettes, fish and other articles
which are to be immersed in deep hot
fat; because here we wish to make a
very crisp crust, and the food is so
quickly cooked the crumbs do not
swell or absorb any moisture from the
food. Dried bread crumbs are much
better for this form of frying, as well
as being much cheaper, than crackers.
The crust formed from crackers is
more liable to be greasy as the crack-
ers usually have more or less of fat in
their makeup; it is thin and of a papery
texture, and of quite a different flavor
and color from that made from bread
crumbs. It is found generally that it
requires a hotter oven to brown quick
biscuit, raised with baking powder,
than for those raised with yeast, and
the crumbs from the two breads are
quite unlike in texture. Possibly the
change of the starch into sugar by the
yeast causes the crust to caramelize
more quickly than in the quick breads.
Dried bread crumbs are generally
made from yeast bread which has al-
ready considerable dextrine in the
crusts, while in crackers the flour has
not been changed into sugar. This
may explain why the bread crumbs
make a browner crust and more quick-
ly than do the cracker crumbs.
As a matter of economy there is no
objection to the use of the bread
crumbs in sauted food; I simply give
that as my preference.
In all scalloped dishes which are to
be covered with buttered crumbs, we
do not desire a hard, dry crust, free
from grease, as we do in fried food,
but we seek to have a crust that shall
be crisp yet moist, rich in the fat of the
butter and the moisture of the sauce.
The butter is also used to help the top
to brown quickly, and therefore we
melt and mix it with the cracker
crumbs that all may brown uniformly.
If bread crumbs must be used for this
purpose it would be better that the
crumbs be merely stale, not oven-
dried.
The following recipes for bread
crumbs may help you to remember the
distinction which I make.
CRACKER CRUMBS.
Save all the crumbs and broken
crackers and roll them rather coarsely.
Use them for crumbing oysters which


FROM BAY TO BAY.
181
are to be broiled or sauted, for scal-
lops, veal cutlets, sweetbreads and
fried chicken. Mix them in the pro-
portion of one-fourth or one-third cup
of melted butter to one cup of crumbs,
and use them as a cover for baked
macaroni, scalloped fish, oysters, meat
or other dishes which having been pre-
viously cooked need only to be heated
and browned.
STALE BREAD CRUMBS.
These are made from the odds and
ends of stale bread, that have not been
dried, and may be crumbled finely or
grated on a coarse grater. They
should be used immediately, and are
suitable for stuffing meat, fish, or
poultry, Tor brewis, bread sauce,
bread griddle cakes, bread puddings,
berry charlottes, and wherever bread
is to be usKi as a thickening material,
or to unite other substances, as in scal-
loped torn?, roes and moulds of minced
meats.
DRIED BRDAD CRUMBS.
Put all the crumbs made when cut-
ting the bread, and those left on the
bread plate, together with any broken
pieces not suitable for toast, and any
crusts or trimmings of toast, into a
pan, and keep it in the hot closet or a
moderate oven until thoroughly dried
and crisp, but not brown. Roll them
on an old bread board, sift through a
gravy strainer, and put in a glass jar.
If the coarse crumbs left in the
strainer are larger than pearl tapioca,
roll them once more, then keep them
separate from the finer crumbs. They
will be all ready to brown in butter and
use for garnishing roast duck, creamed
oysters, and other dishes where the
effect of a browned crust is desired,
without actual frying or browning in
the oven.
These crumbs will not keep indefi-
nitely, because it is impossible to keep
them air tight after the jar has been
opened. They will not mould, but
will smell musty and rancid after
a time; therefore use them as soon
as possible in some of the many
ways in which they are suitable.
When these crumbs are carefully
prepared they are nice soaked in milk,
as a substitute for cracker or bread, for
the Sunday night supper.
Fine dried crumbs may be used for
covering anything which is to be
dipped in egg and crumbs and then
fried—cutlets, croquettes, fish, etc.
But as they absorb a great deal of milk
they are not to be used for griddle
cakes, bread puddings, or scalloped
dishes.
ROAST DUCK.
Miss S. C. S. of St. Louis sends me
the following recipes for roast duck:—
"The compliment which you paid
me in asking for the recipe for the
roast duck which you ate at my
mother's table last November, I think
was scarcely deserved, but if the ducks
were particularly good, it was proba-
bly due to the faithful basting done by
our dear old darkey servant, for no
one but a negro will perform that ar-
duous duty perfectly. If I remember
rightly she (to use her own expression)
'chucked' the range so full of coal, that
as often was the case, the oven would
have been too hot had the door been
closed, and so the roasting was done
with the door open, wasting of course
a large amount of fuel but securing the
advantages of a free circulation of air.
The ducks were basted almost con-
stantly after the first five minutes.
Roast Mallard or Teal Ducks.
"Singe, draw and remove all the tiny
pinfeathers. Then wash very quickly
both inside and out with cool water
and wipe perfectly dry. For the stuff-
ing, take equal parts of chopped tart
apples, of bread crumbs which have
been browned in the oven and sifted,
and of boiled onions. Season highly
with salt and pepper, and a little sage
and moisten with two or three table-
spoonfuls of melted butter. Stuff the
ducks, sew and truss. Put on a rack
in a pan, sprinkle with salt, pepper and
a little flour. Cover with small slices
of salt pork and put into a very hot
oven. In about five minutes the


182
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
ducks will be light brown. Now re-
duce the heat and pour into the pan a
very little water. The dripping fat
will burn unless a little hot water is
added. Baste every four or five min-
utes. In forty minutes the ducks will
be sufficiently cooked if liked a trifle
rare, but many prefer a longer cook-
ing. When nearly done, the pork
must be removed and the birds evenly
browned on all sides. Serve with
Olive Sauce.
"Skim off some of the fat in the drip-
ping pan until only four tablespoon-
fuls remain. To this add four table-
spoonfuls of browned flour, stir, then
add slowly one and a half cups of boil-
ing water. Let it boil until slightly
thickened, stirring constantly, then
add four tablespoonfuls of olive pulp
cut in small pieces, one teaspoonful of
lemon juice and one teaspoonful of
caramel.
Roast Duck No. 2.
"Prepare as directed in first recipe,
and stuff with stale bread crumbs, sea-
soned with a little melted butter, salt,
pepper and three fourths of a cup of
chopped celery. Place the duck on
the bottom of the pan and not on the
rack, and put close around it a sweet
potato, a carrot and a parsnip, each of
them pared and cut in halves. When
the duck is basted, baste the vegeta-
bles also, and when the duck has been
taken from the pan mash the vegeta-
bles in the drippings and press
through the sieve. Add about one
and a half cups of boiling water, sea-
son and serve in a gravy boat. The
vegetables take the place of flour in
thickening, help to flavor, and we
think this is a very good everyday
gravy for ducks.
"I wish I had some new recipes to
send but I think of nothing which has
not already appeared under some
guise in the magazine. I heartily ap-
prove of the sentiment expressed in
the November number of the Ameri-
can Kitchen Magasine, that we need to
be taught to cook and to enjoy simple
dishes; outlandish ones have run ram-
pant long enough."
CELERY AND APPLE SALAD.
Mrs. asks for the recipe for
the celery and apple salad mentioned
in the menu for Thanksgiving dinner.
Have the celery nicely cleaned and
crisped by keeping it in a damp nap-
kin on the ice until just before ready to
use. Then cut it into thin crescent-
shaped slices. With a silver knife pare
and core some mildly tart apples, cut
into eighths or narrower, if very large
apples are used, and then cut across
the sections into thin slices. Use
equal parts of celery and apple. Mix
in sufficient mayonnais-; Ht*ssing to
hold the pieces togef Arrange
crisp cup-shaped lettu • ^aves on a
pretty shallow dish, p '". portion of
the mixture on each It 'dot the top
with a teaspoonful of th mayonnaise,
and serve quickly. Do t pare the
apple until ready to p" e mixture
together. A simple F; \i dressing
may be used if preferrec A by many
would be thought mor table for a
dinner salad. *
CHESTNUT AND LIV k SAND-
WICHES.
Boil the livers from t\ fowls or a
turkey. When tender, ash them
fine. Boil one pint of s Jed chest-
nuts until soft. Blanch and mash
them to a smooth paste. Rub the
chestnuts and liver through a puree
strainer. Season to taste with salt,
pepper, and lemon juice, and moisten
with melted butter, sufficient to hold
the mixture together. Spread a thin
layer of the paste on sliced bread, put
two slices together and cut into tri-
angles.
CHESTNUTS AS A GARNISH.
Shell one pound of chestnuts, scald
until the skins will slip off, peel them
and boil in water with one teaspoon of
sugar, until tender. Then drain and
dip them in boiling syrup; roll in dry
sugar, if for a sweet garnish or toss
them in a pan of hot butter until
colored, if for a meat garnish.


FROM DAT TO DAT.
183
CHESTNUT ICE CREAM.
Shell one pint of chestnuts, blanch
and boil half an hour, then drain and
mash to a pulp, rub through a strainer,
and stir them into the cream, made
after Recipe No. i or 2 in Boston
Cook Book. Then freeze as usual. If
you like you may add some of the
cooked nuts cut in halves, when partly
frozen.
ITALIAN CHESTNUTS (Lia Rand).
Two pounds of large chestnuts, the
shells taken clean off with a very sharp
knife. Pour boiling water over them
and the under skin will come off read-
ily. Peel and cut up four red onions,
stew them m abutter until soft but not
brown. / *he peeled chestnuts and
pour over;t" u enough soup stock to
keep thenn oist without burning.
Salt them 1 :;not too much. When
the chesto/' v are nearly done add
to them .'ft ti large apples peeled,
cored, and' 'ned. Add them to the
chestnuts k ilet them simmer until
done. The dd sugar to taste.
This dish > a very rich flavor, and
may be wi -orth trying by those
who want,: ^ combination.
Many p\ families in Italy derive
their princ 1 sustenance from the
fruit of the hestnut trees. The nuts
are peeled; tried in the sun, ground
into flour, „. '.id made into bread. The
chestnuts ;are used also in soups,
sauces, purees, forcemeats, entrees,
and sweet dishes for dessert.
SPONGE CREAM CAKE.
A subscriber from the western part
of the state writes: "Here is a recipe
for sponge cream cake which I made,
baked, filled, and decorated in just
twenty-five minutes.
Two eggs and three-fourths of a
cup of granulated sugar beaten to-
gether very light. Add five table-
spoonfuls of boiling water (be sure the
water is boiling) as quickly as possi-
ble, beat slightly, then add one cup
flour sifted twice with one teaspoonful
baking powder and a saltspoonful of
salt. Flavor slightly with lemon or
vanilla or nutmeg. Beat until the
flour is absorbed, no longer. Bake
in two jelly-cake pans twelve minutes
in a quick oven. The batter is so
thin the whole process of mixing can
be done with the egg beater.
Whip one cup of cream stiff,
sweeten with pulverized sugar, adding
it a spoonful at a time while you are
beating, until you have it sweet
enough. Flavor to taste. Put part
of it on the bottom of one cake, lay
the other cake on with the top up,
and put the remainder of the cream in
a pastry bag containing a star tube in
the end, and decorate the surface with
dots of the cream.
LEMON SHERBET.
4 lemons. I pt. sugar. I qt. boiling water.
Shave off the peel from two lemons
in thin, wafer-like parings, being care-
ful to take none of the lighter colored
rind below the oil cells. Put the par-
ings into a bowl, add the boiling water
and let it stand ten minutes, closely
covered. Cut the lemons in halves,
remove the seeds, squeeze out the
juice and add it with the sugar to the
water. Add more sugar if needed.
When cold strain it through a fine
strainer into the can and freeze.
LEMON-GINGER SHERBET.
Cut four ounces of candied ginger
in fine pieces and steep it with the
lemon, as directed above.


AN ENGLISH SCHOOL OF COOKERY.
THE National Training School of
Cookery was founded at South
Kensington in 1874 but removed
in 1889 to Buckingham Palace Road.
The Prince of Wales stands as its
patron, while its president is the Duke
of Westminster, and the Marquis of
Northampton is vice-president. Mrs.
Charles Clarke is the lady superin-
tendent.
There are classes for training
teachers in artisan and household
cookery for the teachers' diploma rec-
ognized by the education department.
Practical classes are arranged at mod-
erate fees for ladies and cooks, for
boys and men, for soldiers, sailors,
and volunteers, as well as for classes
of children from elementary schools.
Dishes cooked at the school are on
sale daily. Teachers are sent to all
parts of the Kingdom for private les-
sons at moderate fees, and to cook for
dinner parties by the day.
The following is a syllabus of
the knowledge required of students
trained in the school, to be examined
for plain cookery and high-class cook-
ery diplomas.
Practical Knowledge of Scullery
Work: The best method of lighting
and managing a fire; of cleaning a
fire-place; regulating the flues; man-
aging the oven, etc.; the management
of patent ranges in general use for
cooking; the difference between a
close and open range. The best
method of cleaning pots and pans and
all kitchen utensils; and of removing
stains from enamel; burnishing cop-
pers, etc.
Practical Knowledge of the Principles
of Plain Cookery: How to roast, boil,
stew, broil, and fry; to make soups,
broths, gravies, sauces, puddings,
cakes, bread, and some sick-room
cookery, such as beef-tea, gruel, etc.
High Class Cookery: Bread and
cakes, soups and purees, entrees and
sauces, braising and boning, etc.;
vegetables and savories, omelets and
soufflees, pastry, puddings, jellies and
creams; fish entrees.
General Knozvledge: Things in sea-
son; general rules for marketing;
cleanliness and economy in cooking;
calculations for cheap dinners for the
poor; lists, together with probable
cost of utensils, for plain cookery
kitchen; to explain the "whys" of the
various processes of cookery.
High class cookery includes the
above with the following additions:
a knowledge of the meanings of the
French terms commonly used in high
class cookery, e. g., entree, saute, etc.;
garnishing, order of courses; season-
able dinners.
A test of teaching ability in the
teacher is to be able to teach a class
of school children, both a practice
class and a demonstration class. To
be able to give in a clear and concise
form the outline of a lesson on some
cookery subject chosen by the ex-
aminer from the school routine. This
lesson will not be valued as a cookery
demonstration merely, but the general
information it is likely to convey will
be taken into consideration.
Theoretical Knowledge.
1. The meaning of the chemical
terms—Element, Compound, Mix-
ture.
2. The constituents of air and of
water.
3. The names of the several com-
pounds contained in food, and the
elements of which they are composed.
4. Classification and uses of the sev-
eral compounds contained in food.
5. Water: its impurities and its
purification by boiling, filtration, and
Clark's softening process.
6. Fats and oils: their composition,
properties, and uses in the body.
184


NEWS FROM THE FIELD.
Items about the Work and Workers in Domestic Science.
THE Domestic Science department
of the Omaha Woman's Club has
issued the following interesting pro-
gramme for 1895-96. This section of
the club has for its motto, "The nation
will take care of itself, our homes
never." Mrs. Maty M. Pugh is the
leader of this division of the club work.
October 24: The Advantages and
Disadvantages of a Meat Diet, paper
by Mrs. H. S. Jaynes; Milk as a Food,
Mrs. Lowe; Butter and Butterine, Mrs.
Carleton; Oysters and Oyster Culture,
Mrs. Adams.
November 7: Current Events in Do-
mestic World, Club; Nutritious Food
for Children, Mrs. Patrick; Foods
Eaten to Nourish the Body, Not to
Fill up; The Food We Eat, and the
Food We Breathe, Mrs. Smith.
November 21: Selections, Depart-
ments; Thanksgiving, A few Thoughts
upon its Observance, Mrs. Tracy;
Chicken, Pumpkin and Apple Pies,
Mrs. Misner; How Do You Cook
Your Turkey? Mrs. Ross; Question
Box.
December 5: An Exchange of
Christmas Ideas, Department; Gifts
and Gift Making, Mrs. Powell; How
We Spent Christmas, an idyl, Mrs.
Carleton.
December 19: Good Cooking as a
Civilizing Factor and Moral Agent,
Mrs. Haller; Home Development as
an Agency of Social and Moral Prog-
ress, Mrs. Bryans; Demoralizing and
Devitalizing Tendency of Impure and
Badly Cooked Food, Mrs. Cornish.
January 2, Waste and Economy in
the Home; Waste of Time and
Strength; Practical Demonstration of
Chafing Dish Cooking, Miss La Rue.
January 16: Bread, Its Nutritive
Value; Bread of Different Nations;
Chemistry of Bread Making; How to
Select Flour for Its Food Value.
January 30: Drinks we Enjoy. Cof-
fee, Its History and Usage; Tea, Its-
History and Usage, Mrs. Pugh;
Chocolate and Cocoa.
February 6: Pure Water versus Dis-
ease; Water as a Cleansing Agent; Ice
and Our Ice Supply; Selections from
American Kitchen Magazine.
February 20: Invalid Cookery;
Demonstration by a Trained Nurse;
Care of Invalid Room; Discussion.
March 5: Cooperative Housekeep-
ing; Jane Club of Chicago; Personal
Incidents Relating to Cooperation;
Selections from American Kitchen
Magazine.
March 19: Economy in the Use of
Food; Adulteration of Food; House-
hold Science in Our Schools; Discus-
sion.
April -: The Life and Work of
Count Rumford; Housekeeping in the
Twentieth Century; Selections.
April -: Marketing; The Care of
Food—Cold Storage; Care of Refrige-
rator; Transmission of Disease by
Food.
May -: The Annual Cleaning; Art
of Scrubbing; Scientific Cleaning;
Personal Cleanliness; Art Outside the
Home, in the Back Yard and Shed;
A Plea for Plants and Vines.
May -: What Have We Gained
from the Department This Year? Elec-
tion of Officers; A Social Hour.
¥ ¥
The Pratt Institute Monthly reports
that the following positions have been
taken by graduates of the normal class
in domestic science of that institu-
tion: Miss Vail in the Manual Train-
ing School at Indianapolis, Ind.; Miss
Everett in that of Brookline, Mass.;
Miss Clarke in the Syracuse (N. Y.)
Industrial Mission; Miss Bridges in
the Brooklyn Mission; and Miss Mer-
rill in Pratt Institute.
187


188
THE AMEUICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
The College Settlement, 617 St.
Mary St., Phila., the members of which
devote themselves to the improvement
of the "slum district" in the neighbor-
hood of Seventh and St. Mary Sts.,
has embarked in a new undertaking.
They purpose to provide at the lowest
possible price substantial food, pre-
pared in the most scientific way. The
new enterprise is known as the College
Settlement Kitchen and Coffee House,
and is situated at the southwest corner
of Seventh and Lombard Sts. The
kitchen and coffee house are on the
first floor of a new four-story brick
building.
The entrance to the dining room is
at the corner. This room is neatly
fitted with tables and chairs of light
colored wood, and the walls are rough
plaster, tinted in coffee color, and pro-
tected by a light wood wainscoting.
At one end of the room is a dresser
filled with attractive dishes, and in an
opposite corner is a pretty open fire-
place, with brass andirons and blue
tiling. Above this hangs an engrav-
ing of the Madonna and Child.
Adjoining the dining room is a com-
modious kitchen, provided with ovens
for baking beans, steamers for brown
bread, two large soup cauldrons and
other apparatus. In the basement is
a large oven capable of baking 160
loaves of bread at a time.
In the second story of the building
is a large well lighted room which will
be fitted as a branch of the Free Li-
brary on Chestnut St. Back of this
will be a reading room.
The Kitchen and Coffee House are
under the direction of Miss Alice John-
son, who is a graduate of Drexel Insti-
tute, class of '94.
* ¥
Miss Maria Austen Parks, a mem-
ber of the first class in the Boston Nor-
mal School of Cookery, was united in
marriage to Mr. Charles Lincoln
Jenks, early in October. The wed-
ding party made a pretty picture in
the Emanuel Church, on Newbury
Street, Boston; the bride, tastefully
gowned in the regulation costume of
white, looked composed and happy
as she passed up the aisle, attended by
her sisters also in white, a maid of
honor in blue and two little misses in
pink, carrying baskets of flowers. A
large company of friends, among them
some of her pupils, witnessed the cere-
mony. Mrs.Jenks will reside in New-
ton, and she will doubtless preside in
her new home with the same quiet
grace, dignity, and faithfulness which
have characterized her work as a
teacher.
¥ ¥
On Saturday, Dec. 7, the New York
Association of Teachers of Cookery
gave a reception at the Teachers' Col-
lege in New York City to Mrs. Mary
J. Lincoln. The cooking room was
prettily decorated for the occasion,
and between forty and fifty of the
members and their friends were pres-
ent to greet Mrs. Lincoln. After a few
words of welcome by the president, an
original poem dedicated to cooking
teachers was read by Margherita Ar-
lina Hamm, editor of the woman's col-
umn in the Mail and Express. Mrs.
Lincoln was then introduced, and re-
sponded in a brief talk which was most
enthusiastically received. Refresh-
ments were served and the afternoon
was greatly enjoyed by all.
¥ ¥
Miss Theodora Wessels, a graduate
of Drexel Institute, class of '94, has
been appointed to take charge of the
new school kitchen in Philadelphia.
* ¥
Staunton, Va., introduced a cook-
ing department in the public school
course last year. This was accom-
plished largely through the influence
of W. P. Tarns, the president of the
board of trustees. This year the
school is in charge of Miss Mary T.
Dowd of Somerville, Mass.


190
THE AMERIC AN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
"Behind the snowy loaf is the mill-
wheel; behind the mill is the wheat
field; on the wheat field rests the sun-
light; above the sun is God."
An exchange says that a long cake
tin with a partition in the middle is a
convenience where two kinds of cake
are wanted for a small family. Make
any white cake desired, put half the
batter in one end of the tin; to the re-
mainder add spices, raisins and other
fruit according to taste and bake in the
other half of the tin.
Why not use two small pans? The
loaves or sheets of cake will then bake
more evenly and are easily moved in
the oven if necessary. Moreover a
long tin with a partition in it is not an
easy utensil to wash.
The window-sill is a favorite haunt
of the bacilli, therefore it is a danger-
ous place to put food unless it is care-
fully protected. It is amazing that so
few people realize the advantage of
scalding, and thus sterilizing, foods
which have been exposed to the air
for any length of time.
Dr. Goodfellow, speaking of the
flavoring of bread, says that of the
three kinds of yeast, brewer's, distil-
ler's and patent, the last has the great-
est modifying effect upon the flavor
of the bread in the baking of which it
is used. Distiller's yeast has a flav-
oring quality which distinguishes it
from all others. Another important
factor in the flavoring of bread is the
length of time it requires to ferment,
but the flavor in this direction is pro-
duced mainly by the formation of or-
ganic acids and the partial pepton-
ization of the original gluten.
The pig is thought to be going out
of fashion because he has been little
exhibited of late at the agricultural
fairs. The ultra hygienic people will
delight in this, but some others are not
ready to give up the savory flavor
pork gives to many dishes. This ani-
mal has a special mission in utilizing"
skim-milk and vegetable refuse, and
yields a large amount of food in pro-
portion to the actual expense of his
support. When pork is thoroughly
cooked and not used in excess, it is a
valuable cold-weather food.
Candling eggs, says an authority, is
the one infallible way to test them.
This is done in a dark room with a
candle, gas or electric light. When
the egg is held closely to the light if
fresh it will appear a pinkish yellow,
and if otherwise will be dotted with
opaque spots or be entirely dark.
Never leave creams or fruit acids
long in tin moulds or copper recep-
tacles, and at no time above freezing
point. The melting cream through
decomposition develops lactic acid,,
and this or the fruit acids, acting on
the metal, forms compounds which
are disagreeable and even sometimes
poisonous.
According to the New York
Tribune, in Cuba, where the most de-
licious coffee obtainable anywhere is
to be found, it is prepared by first half
filling a coarse flannel bag with finely
pulverized, roasted coffee, and sus-
pending it from a hook over the pot
or other vessel. Cold water is poured
on the bag at intervals until the en-
tire mass is well saturated, then the
first drippings, which have fallen into
the receptacle, are poured again over
the bag until the liquid becomes al-
most thick and very black. One tea-
spoonful of this extracted liquid,
placed in a cup of boiling milk, will
yield a draught of coffee that is simply
delicious. In Cuba this flannel bag
hangs day and night on the wall, the
process of pouring on the cold water
and allowing it to drip being almost
ceaseless in its operation. All classes,
ages, and conditions there drink coffee
as freely as we do water.


J§ ^ EDITORIALS v §
FOR 1896.
THE prompt renewals of former
subscriptions and the rapidly in-
creasing lists of new subscribers
confirm the managers of this magazine
in the belief that the housekeepers of
America were ready for a more educa-
tional periodical than had heretofore
been offered them.
We have never issued a glowing
prospectus for the future but have pre-
ferred to let the magazine speak for it-
self each month. It is fitting, how-
• ever, at this time to make some an-
nouncement as to what may be ex-
pected in the coming year.
Every number of the magazine will
- offer something helpful for the teach-
ers and pupils in schools of domestic
science, for the club women who are
studying the same problems in a dif-
ferent way, for the housekeeper who
must manage her domain through the
hands of others and for her equally
fortunate sister who is independent of
servants, for the individuals who from
choice or necessity "board themselves"
or do light housekeeping, and also for
the directors of institutions where large
numbers of persons must be fed.
CORRESPONDENTS.
THE editors of this magazine wel-
come all suggestions from its
readers for its improvement and
will carry them out so far as is possible.
We are especially glad to receive short
accounts of personal experiments along
new lines. All reports of work in
schools and clubs pertaining to the
great questions of home science are
desired. Mrs. Lincoln will answer
questions through her department
""From Day to Day." Whenever a
subscriber thinks of friends who would
be interested in the work of the Ameri-
can Kitchen Magazine, send us their
names and we will forward them a
sample copy.
OUR TABLE OF CONTENTS.
WE present this month a full bill
of fare for our readers. Dinah
Sturgis opens a series of
articles upon the great markets
of the world by describing Ful-
ton Market, and the many illustra-
tions from photographs also tell sto-
ries of the daily scenes in that great
food supply station. Hanna Otis
Brun writes of the inertia of woman
with relation to household inventions,
with the spirit of the future which
might be expected from anyone living
in the shadow of the progressive Stan-
ford University. The paper by Mrs.
James places a high standard for the
kitchen, but none too high for the best
interests of the home.
The bright picture of "Housekeep-
ing in Berlin" by Miss Ethel Paton ap-
peared in the Wellesley Magazine but
now reaches a larger circle of readers,
and brings new ideas concerning the
ever interesting subject of domestic
service.
January first causes many pocket
books to contract, and Mrs. Lincoln's
account of some poverty parties will
be helpful to those who find retrench-
ment necessary but do not wish to deny
themselves the pleasures of hospitality.
The usual departments are full of
suggestions and a new one appears
this month for the first time. "Kitchen
Craft," as its name denotes, will furnish
each month pertinent items showing
modern tendencies in culinary affairs
i9i


192
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
and hints concerning minor details
which make the housekeeper and cook
mistress of her handicraft.
OUR PERIODICAL FILES.
Our readers and friends are cordial-
ly invited to visit our offices at 485
Tremont Street, Boston, whenever
they may wish to consult the House-
keepers' Library to be found there.
The latest works on domestic science
may be examined, and periodicals
covering every portion of the field of
household economics—food, cooking,
catering, health, sanitation, dietetics,
architecture and decoration, heating,
plumbing, ventilation, the care of chil-
dren—in short every branch of house-
keeping and home-making. These
will be of special value to teachers of
cookery, and all such are especially
welcome at our office.
Among these periodicals may be
mentioned:
The Epicure (London), Le Pot-au-
Feu (Paris), Le Gourmet (Paris), Table
Talk, Good Housekeeping, House-
hold News, Ladies' Home Journal,
Ladies' Home Companion, The
Household, Youth's Companion,
Health Culture, Dietetic and Hygienic
Gazette, The Trained Nurse, Baby-
hood and Mother's Nursery Guide,
Woman's Medical Journal, Popular
Health Magazine, International Con-
fectioner, Canadian Baker and Con-
fectioner, National Provisioner, Amer-
ican Grocer, The New England Gro-
cer, American Gas Light Journal, The
Hotel, The Chef, The Hotel Monthly,
The Hotel Mail, North American Re-
view, The Congregationalist, The Ad-
vance, The Union Signal.
MRS. LINCOLN'S name as first
principal of the Boston Cooking
School, is so indissolubly con-
nected with that institution that al-
though it is nearly eleven years since
she resigned from that position and
engaged in the broader work of lec-
turer and writer, it seems to be the
impression among many, that it is still
Mrs. Lincoln's school. More than
thirty letters of inquiry as to terms,
classes, etc., addressed directly to her,
have been received this last autumn,
from all parts of the country, including
even Boston. All this shows how
deep, strong and lasting, were the
foundations which she laid in those
years of pioneer work, which teachers
of the present day know but little
about. The course of instruction
which she arranged is still in use in
Boston, with some slight changes, and
has been copied extensively by schools
in other cities, and her books are
standard textbooks in many schools.
The following letter shows how even
those who are personally unknown to
her and who have had no cooking-
school training have been helped and
come to her for suggestions:—
"One year ago I organized two
classes in cookery. Permit me to ex-
press my sincere gratitude for the
practical suggestions contained in
your 'Boston Cook Book.' I was
a fairly good housekeeper. I made a
study of your book and it helped me
much. It has made the struggle to
live much lighter. Is it out of order
to ask a reply to the following ques-
tions? I have a class of seven young
ladies from eighteen to twenty years
of age, and give a course of twelve
lessons for $6. Is it better to give
each pupil a separate dish to prepare,
or to have them work in unison? I
prefer the latter course but fear very
little will be accomplished in so short a
course. Will you advise me? Again,
can I ask for the course tuition in ad-
vance? Last year I found some diffi-
culty in making collections, although
my classes were made up of people
financially and socially well equipped.
I shall be most grateful for any sug-
gestions you may be kind enough to
make. Believe me yours with com-
pliments."
Mrs. Lincoln has answered this let-
ter personally, but we would be glad if
our cooking teacher subscribers would
send us any suggestions gained from
their experience in these two methods
of conducting classes.


BOOK REVIEWS.
The Century Cook-book. By Mary Ronald.
Cloth, 600 pp., 150 illustrations, price $2. The
Century Co., New York.
The public has learned that any
book issued from the DeVinne Press by
the Century Company is a model of the
printer's art. This volume is no ex-
ception and is embellished by illustra-
tions of the different dishes described
in various stages of preparation, as
well as the principal utensils used in
their manufacture. Indeed the special
value of this work lies in its illustra-
tions, for here we find everything, from
the bean pot to the forms of growth of
the yeast plant; from the leg of a
chicken with the sinews drawn to the
most elaborate salads and desserts.
All these are from photographs of the
actual thing itself, and thus the book
is a perpetual demonstration lecture,
for more than a recipe is required be-
fore a novice can produce the best re-
sults. The author says in the preface
that many of the illustrations are given
to attract attention to very simple
dishes which otherwise might be over-
looked in a hasty perusal of the text.
The introductory chapters are more
like the chatty newspaper article than
an ordinary cook-book'and the general
arrangement of the volume leads one
to infer that the author though familiar
with the laws of good living is an ama-
teur rather than a trained housekeeper
or teacher of cookery. The size of the
volume is not in its favor and while
the general reader might not find any-
thing to spare many topics might have
been condensed into smaller space.
One chapter is filled by Susan
Coolidge with directions for preparing
the standard dishes of a New England
kitchen of the olden time. Another
chapter treats of distinctively Southern
dishes, and further on very inexpen-
sive dishes have due attention.
It is interesting to note the growth
of certain subjects in popular favor;
where the cook-books of half a dozen
years ago had little or nothing to say
of mushrooms or of the chafing dish,
each of these topics here has six or
eight pages devoted to it.
A work of this sort must appeal to
all sorts and conditions of housekeep-
ers, and while considerable space is
given to the minor kitchen economies
too often neglected by cook-books,
such as the use of left-over cereals,
clarifying fats, etc., elaborate dishes
also receive due attention.
It is doubtful whether the most intel-
ligent housekeepers will care to color
poached eggs to imitate daisies and
wild roses, or whether they would
think it a fair use of roses to mould
them in jelly or even use them in gar-
nishing such desserts.
This is a more readable volume than
the average cook-book and will be wel-
comed especially by the young house-
keeper in pursuit of dainty novelties.
The directions for table setting and
service will be helpful and interesting,
though as the author says, "The
pleasure of adorning the dining room
will be found secondary to that of
preparing artistic dishes when that art
has once been learned." And further:
"When the preparation of a new or
fancy dish comes to be looked upon as
a pastime instead of a task, there may
be discovered in America Savarins and
Bechamels. We have already had a
Sam Ward, but to the women should
belong the honor of raising our
standard of cooking, and though they
need not agree with the terrible senti-
ment expressed by Margaret Fuller
that a woman to have influence must
cook or scold, still it must be conceded
that the former accomplishment will
enable her to wield a potent sceptre."
193


104
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
-Swain Cookery with Health Hints. By
Rachel Swain, M. D. Enamelled cloth, 220
pp., price $1. Fowler & Wells, New York.
Iii marked contrast to some other
cook-books of the season is this un-
pretending volume yet it is quite as de-
sirable for the library of the average
housekeeper. Dr. Swain dedicates
her work to the friends of her Sanitary
Home in Indianapolis, Ind., and states
that the recipes have been gathered
during an experience of twenty years
in dealing with sick and well.
Though hygienic in her style of
.cooking, Dr. Swain is less advanced in
that direction than her sister, Dr.
Susanna W. Dodds of St. Louis, and
hence her book will appeal to those
who begin to see the merits of simple
living yet are not ready to join the
ranks of the vegetarians.
Considerable space is devoted to
the cookery of vegetables, a subject too
often neglected in the ordinary cook-
book. Meats are treated in an appen-
dix for the benefit of those who have
not yet attained to a more rational
dietary. Of such foods Dr. Swain says
in the preface: "Meat, as I believe,
should occupy a subordinate place in
a rational or scientific dietary. . . .
Persons who have been sick and are
convalescing sometimes crave meat,
or the flavor of it. It seems to be a
ready and almost harmless stimulant
in such cases, at least it is convenient."
On the Chafing-Dish. - By Harriet M. Bailey.
G. W. Dillingham, New York.
New Things to Eat. By H. A. DeSalis. Two
volumes in one. Paper, 150 pp., price 50 cents.
This reprint of two very popular lit-
tle handbooks will doubtless find many
purchasers. The first furnishes many
recipes adapted to the chafing dish, in
concise form yet sufficiently clear for
the beginner to use them safely. Mrs.
DeSalis usually presents rather elabo-
rate compounds, and these "savouries"
are no exception. The dishes here de-
scribed are entrees mainly, or those
suitable to serve at a ladies' luncheon.
Even when the materials named are
not available the recipes here given
will suggest many dainty ways of serv-
ing every-day articles of foods.
WHAT OUR SUBSCRIBERS SAY.
"I should be defrauding you of a
just right did I not acknowledge the
most valuable help your magazine has
been to me. All my most helpful
ideas I have culled from it for my pub-
lic work, organizing a school of cook-
ery."—Mrs. S., Montreal, Canada.
"I enclose check in payment for
your magazine to the close of 1896. I
wish all success for your handsome
and useful publication."—Mrs. B.,
Chicago, 1ll.
"Enclosed find one dollar for The
American Kitchen Magazine. I like it
very much and will try to interest my
friends in it."—Mrs. M. B., Natick,
Mass.
"I am learning by experiment and
minute details are very helpful. That
is the beauty of the information in the
magazine—it is definite, detailed and
accurate."—Miss T., Damariscotta,
Maine.
"I cannot say that it is the best mag-
azine of its kind for there is no other
like it. It is invaluable both to the
teacher of cookery and the housekeep-
er."—Miss K., New York City.
"The magazine is excellent and of
great use to me."—Mrs. S., Brookline,
Mass.
"I congratulate you on having
changed the name of your magazine
to something less restricted than New
England."—Mrs. P., Pittsfield, Mass.
"The program of our work for the
Home Dept. of the Woman's Club was
suggested by your magazine. We
have found it so helpful and inspiring
that we wish every member would
take it and read it carefully."—Mrs.
H., Denver, Col.
"Mrs. Lincoln's 'From Day to Day'
has made the American Kitchen Mag-
azine perfect for me."—Mrs. L., East
Somerville, Mass.


1 rN "»X * .0





108
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
five cents for the "little breakfast" as it
is called, soup and bread at the eleven
o'clock or noon breakfast follows as a
matter of course, at four cents more'.
This nine cents' expenditure leaves the
ample allowance of twenty-one cents
for dinner to the seeker after thirty cent
table board. One such dinner would
include soup, three cents; bread, one
cent; roast leg of mutton with white
beans included (delicious, too), eight
cents; a big bowl of watercress salad,
three cents; a good-sized bit of Roque-
fort cheese, three cents; coffee, two
cents. This would even leave an extra
penny for a further supply of bread, if
desired.
Surprising as all this is one is more
surprised when one figures out the liv-
ing problem under one's own vine and
fig tree. Here for instance, is this little
place in Asnieres, which we have
rented by the month for the purpose
of living the life of the suburban resi-
dents, keeping house as they keep
house, economizing as they economize
and eating as they eat. For this modest
little house, or rather two sister houses,
for they are genuine Siamese twins and
have been named "Les Jumeaux" in
consequence, the astounding price of
twelve dollars a month is required.
Three and a half miles from Paris it
lies, is in an excellent •neighborhood
and is decently furnished. Twelve
dollars a month! Just why so great
and beautiful a city should have sub-
urbs so cheap is a problem too great
to be answered in a hurry. It must be
because all but few Frenchmen so love
their Paris that they must be in the
very flame of the candle.
Ten minutes' walk in one direction
will bring one into one of the oldest
villages around the metropolis where
the high stone walls surround chateaus
that date back to the time of the Louis,
and there are spots where the Siege of
Paris laid the fine old masonry in pic-
turesque ruins. At almost any hour
of the day or night one may hear in
the street outside one's own high wall,
the clatter of the wooden shoes on the
pavement, the braying of a produce-
laden donkey, or the jangling of the
sleigh-like bells upon the horses draw-
ing the pea-green arks of the farmers
to market or towards home. A score
of times a day one may hear the cry of
some leather-lunged mother who has
run out while the children or the
grandchildren are in school, perhaps,
to sell a basketful of stuffed snails, of
frog's legs or green figs. Everyone
within a radius of a half-mile knows
when this vigorous old lady is coming
and is ready when she follows her lusty
voice around the corners. If she were
in the city she would be likely to have
a little push-cart neatly lined with
white paper and her wares spread out
thereon with a fine French eye for
effect, and it wouldn't surprise anyone
who had been in Paris a couple of days
to see her, when the shadows of even-
ing come closing in, trundling home
her husband who, mayhap, is having
a bad week with his rheumatism.
Sometimes the family dog, harnessed
under the wagon, helps in this loyal
service; sometimes he rides too, but
oftener the old man huddles alone with
no one to share the anxious watch he
keeps upon his weaker half and the
intricate maze of wagons, carriages
and tramways before them.
The articles peddled around in this
way are always appetizing, and are
probably clean. They even at times
have an extensive reputation and are
eagerly awaited by the less successful
cooks along her route. Tripe a la
mode de Caen is sold all cooked in little
brown crocks and is usually delicious.
Enough for the meat portion of a fam-
ily dinner is sold in this way for six-
teen cents, but if anyone chooses to
make it, it is an even cheaper dish yet.
To amuse any who may not have the
courage to try this really excellent plat,
I give the recipe, "as 'twas told to me."
Tripe a la mode de Caen.—Cut the
cooked tripe in squares, and place it to
cook again in a casserole (a copper or
clean iron stewpan or kettle answers
every purpose), with some grated salt
pork, a bit of carrot, a big onion or
two, a couple of cloves, a bay-leaf, a


200
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
decently trained to bonrgeoise habits of
cleanliness. For seven dollars a
month she will get a clever cook, as
well as an accomplished general ser-
vant.
Besides these admirable maids who
would bear transplanting excellently,
one would think, there is one thing in
her domain which ought to go too,
and that is the plaything which is
called "the furnace." The chimney is
open and beneath it is a blue and white
tile box with a drawer beneath for
wood. In the top of the "stove" are
two fire boxes in which one burns
charcoal at the rate of about five cents
a day, on really busy days. A piping
hot fire can be made in one of these
boxes in about three minutes, there is
no waste of heat or fuel, and there is
many a weary American mother who
would rejoice and be glad if she could
find in her Christmas stocking, a stove
she could keep clean with a dish-cloth,
fuel she could put in with a spoon, and
ashes she could carry out in a saucer.
It wouldn't be long either before she
would sprout that French thrift which
would set on one corner of the "fur-
nace" a teacupful of moistened ashes
to spread over the fire if it showed
signs of "prodigal sunniness."
Over the fire, or on the side next its
heart, there is always the never-failing
soup-kettle; a wholesome custom, an
economical one, and one which every
American woman who discovers it
clings to faithfully. A bowl of soup
to a hungry child, or to a beggar, a
cupful when the mother herself is tired
and has a hysterical lump in her throat,
that is good sense. When a French
housekeeper makes her clear bouillon,
it is a matter for rule, but into the every-
day soup kettle goes every scrap of
food in perfect condition and unsweet-
ened. A crust of bread, a slice of
apple, a bit of cauliflower, a shred of
cabbage, a piece of bacon, a couple of
chicken wings, one follows the other,
day in and day out, until by some un-
lucky chance it runs dry, or discretion
suggests a new start.
With the coffee and bread first
breakfast established as a matter of
national custom, soup or at least the
foundation for soup ready for both
luncheon and dinner, the kitchen and
the cook stove lose half their terror for
the French woman. With ways - of
cooking meats, whereby they almost
cook themselves, good cheap bread
and cakes from the baker, salad, cheese
and fruits for dessert, that is why life
sits more lightly on the shoulders of
the mothers who live on the banks of
the Seine than on many who dwell on
the other side of the Atlantic.
It leaves them time for other things
too. I have yet to see a French
woman, no matter how poor, with but-
tons off her shoes; a child with a torn
apron; a drunken husband; or a house
with soiled or sagging sash-curtains.
Carpets, on the floors of the poor, are
rare. They wear wooden shoes or
heavy leather ones here in the country
—which they drop off at the door as
we shed our rubbers. The dirt that
does get tracked in is easily shaken off
the rugs or mats.
Washing is almost as cheap at a
laundry as at home, averaging up
about eighteen cents a dozen, or may
be done by the servant, if there is one,
at a public wash house.
Every little end is kept up, saved and
put to use. Even to the coffee is this
foresight and carefulness extended.
"Make coffee every morning," said
the dear little old gentlewoman who
has been good enough to establish her-
self as our household angel. "What
extravagance that would be! This is
the way I do it: Take two coffee-mills
full of coffee, about six tablespoonfuls
when ground; add a tablespoonful of
chicory and place in a hot coffee pot;
pour through it a quart of boiling
water; when it is all dripped through,
bottle it and keep it standing always on
the cork. When anyone wants coffee
in the morning, heat the milk until it
boils up; heat about one-fifth as much
coffee scalding hot and mix in a hot
cup. You will find you will use about
one-third as much coffee as you would
if you made it fresh every morning,


THE ALADDIN OVEN.
201
and that it will be good as long as you
need it."
And as ineverythingelse this shrewd
little old lady has used in her conver-
sion of me to the belief that French
women are wise in many things, she
was right. The result was the real
cafe-au-lait,—all that was admirable.
Yet how some of us would walk and
how we would coax or impoverish our-
selves if we knew some place to-night
where we could get some cold chicken
pie, some baked beans and some baked
Indian pudding such as I remember
having first under the shadow of old
Monadnock!
FRANCES B. MERRILL.

THE ALADDIN OVEN.
SCIENCE, whose penetrating gaze
Things more or less remotely helpful
scans,
Hath in the past explored some devious ways,
But only peeped at Dinah and her pans.
One glance within the kitchen's open door
Revealed a lawless, autocratic queen;
And like the mistress with her Biddy Club,
She thought it wisest to vacate the scene.
* * * * *
Now nature aids the fittest to survive —
The cook amid her waste of fiery wealth,
As time goes on, will shrink and disappear
Or with the victuals cooked, include herself.
The name, Aladdin, given at the "Hub"
Is proof that genius felt the pinch or rub;
And aiming to refine a method sloven
The Gods approved and sent the Aladdin
Oven.
*****
Whate'er of inspiration marks this lay
Came from a luncheon caught en route;
A simple menu — peas, potatoes, chops
And a peach pie, such flavor to the fruit;
Aud such a crust — my soul with joy doth
quiver;
It must digest itself as does the oyster's liver!
Such cooking gives new health and power,
It means contentment, peace within,
And gastronomic pleasures rare;
Right independence in our lives
And thoughts for better things than fare.
*****
What former methods vainly sought and
moped for,
This automatic cook returns in "substance
hoped for."
— The Health Magazine.


THE OLD AND THE NEW REGIME IN THE SOUTH.
BY PAULINE CARRINGTON RUST.
ASTUDY of the processes of de-
velopment is always interesting,
whether it be of individual prog-
ress or the advancement of a nation.
Both are somewhat interdependent,
and the study of one leads to the con-
sideration of the other. We like to
watch the gradual changes effected by
climatic conditions and observe with
interest the effect of intersectional
intercourse upon
social and domes-
tic habits and
customs.
In a country
including so
many degrees of
temperature a s
our own, there is
necessarily a vast
difference in the
manner of life
among the peo-
ple, and the for-
e i g n traveller
who visits the
Northern, West-
ern, and South-
ern sections of
the United States, ..
r . ,. ,. Mammys
finds three dis-
tinct phases of American life. The
caption of this article commits one to a
consideration of the causes and a brief
survey of the results of two contrasting
eras in the history of that region of the
Union known as "the South." This
unique phase of American life is of
special interest now that its pristine
glory lives only in memory and tradi-
tion, and this would be a sufficient
reason alone, for the preservation in
fiction and in art of an essentially pic-
turesque social condition, for "old
times are gone, old manners changed"
indeed, in the land where of old men
danced and rode, made love and

fought duels, and where women had
nothing to do but to be lovely and gra-
cious and hold gentle sovereignty in
their little courts.
Thirty-five years ago a New Eng-
lander would have felt almost, if not
quite, a foreigner in New Orleans, Sa-
vannah, Mobile, Atlanta or Richmond.
The tropical skies, luxuriant vegeta-
tion, the cotton, rice, and sugar fields,
the hordes of
African slaves,
the lavish expen-
diture of the
planter, whose
hospitality was
mediaeval in its
prodigal profu-
sion, might have
appeared almost
barbaric in effect
to the cultured
Bostonian or
practical New
Yorker. But after
all, it was rather
pleasant to sit out
on the long
verandas at night,
bathed in a flood
of fragrant moon-
light, and drinking in the exultant,
ecstatic melody of a nightingale that
was singing of the joy of bird life from
the leafy shadow of some neighboring
magnolia tree; or, perhaps, in the
pauses of this feathered prima donna's
warblings, the distant scrape of a fiddle
from the slave quarters came to his
ears, followed by a burst of spontane-
ous singing from little groups of ne-
groes sitting before theircabin doors—
singing such as is heand nowhere in the
world to-day, for the half plaintive, half
barbaric music of the plantation songs
was lost with those conditions from
which it was evolved.
Charge.


THE OLD AND THE NEW REGIME IN THE SOUTH.
203
The Northern visitor wondered how
people who worked all day could sing
all night, and went to bed pondering
upon the inconsistencies and anoma-
lies of life. He wondered at the mirth,
happiness and inconsequent content-
ment of a race living in bondage; at
the loyal devotion of the oppressed to
the oppressor; at the protecting love of
the master for the slave. "Mammy's"
inexorable and tyrannical dominion
over her little white charges, whom she
loved as her own, and whose creed was
that "Mammy was the most beautiful
woman in the world and Mama next,"
was totally incomprehensible to him.
The intimate relations of "de little
Misses an' Master" and the diminu-
tive, long-headed inhabitants of the
quarters seemed phenomenal to his
sense of the fitness of things, and yet,
undoubtedly, there was love and faith
abounding in the days of the old
regime. From the kitchen, where Aunt
Kizzie held supreme and undisputed
sway, to the cotton fields where the
"pickers," in home-braided straw hats
and scant raiment, sang, and worked,
and chatted between the cotton rows
as their nimble fingers filled the great
cotton baskets that dotted the fields,—
there was the law of protection and
obedience binding in one common
bond the interests and affections of
master and slave.
The climate, and the institution of
slavery were the causes of this unique
social condition; both combined to
produce a sort of American feudalism.
The Southern planter was the baron,
possessing vast territories of land and
with hundreds, sometimes thousands,
of vassals at his beck and call. The
planter's wife was a lady bountiful, and
the heirs to all these acres and swarms
of servitors and retainers were young
knights and ladies of high degree.
Naturally, work of any sort was un-
known among the gentle-folks of this
section, and all labor-saving inven-
tions and conveniences were regarded
as vulgar by those who had a special
servant for each department of house-
hold service. No lady would have al-
lowed a turkey or roast of beef on her
table that had been baked in that
despised innovation, the "cooking
stove," and any old cook would have
sniffed with indignation at the idea of
"roastin' er fowl in a po' folks' 'cook-
merchine.'"
In spite of the apparent dolce far
niente of Southern life, however, con-
scientious slaveholders were not really
idle, for the health and welfare of a
large community was their inalienable
burden of responsibility. If the ma-
tron did not busy herself with the de-
tails of culinary science or household
drudgery she had a score or more of ir-
responsible servants to guide, train and
direct, which was, perhaps more diffi-
cult to accomplish. If cholera or fever
broke out on the plantation then the
lady bountiful became the friend, the
consoler, the dispenser of creature
comforts, the hospital nurse, for the
negroes could not be trusted to ad-
minister the medicines. It was
"Mistis" only who could wrap old
Dinah's throat or persuade Uncle
Jerry to take his chicken broth. It
was "Mistis" who joined in the last
prayers of the struggling soul ready
to start on the strange, inevitable jour-
ney, leaving forever its black tenement,
yet faithful and loyal to the last!
Is there not a beautiful significance
in those clasped hands? But the pic-
ture belongs to the old regime, not the
new.
The old picturesque effects have
been lost in the struggle against pov-
erty, and the new regime has inaugu-
rated practical comforts, lacking cer-
tainly in the abounding luxury and ele-
gance of ante-bellum customs but sensi-
ble and convenient for all that, and
within the grasp of the multitude.
The local color still exists, and for
many decades the influence of genera-
tions of social culture and luxurious
living will pervade Southern homes
and especially Southern kitchens.
Grandma, and Mammy and Aunt
Ceres and old Uncle Jerry, all remem-
ber the old days and still scorn the
"new-fangled way of doin' things."





THE OLD AND THE NEW HEGIME IN THE SOUTH.
205
"La, chile," remarks Aunt Ceres, as
she beats up her Sally Lunn for
second rising, "gimme de ole time hop
yeastwhatOle Missuseter hev de bread
mek up wid an' den I mek you some
sho nuff bread. I ain't got no yearthly
use fer dese little hunks what dey calls
yeast!"
"But Aunt Ceres," I venture, being
naturally argumentative, "the com-
pressed yeast saves so much trouble
and besides, it doesn't get sour as
easily as yours."
"Well," says Aunt Ceres, mournfully
and with a touch of contempt, "I neber
thought Ole Miss' gran'chile w'd hev
sech noshuns." And I blush furiously
at my own degeneracy.
But spinning wheels, and spits, and
fireplace kitchens went out with tourna-
ments and duelling and slave labor!
Bandanna turbans, and cob pipes, and
musical dialect are still seen and heard
in the cotton states and in Virginia, but
the mirth and careless laughter and
joyous song of the Southern negro is
silent. Education in the common
schools has awakened a sense of ambi-
tion. With freedom, the responsi-
bility of citizenship and of earning a
support not only for the present but for
the future has devolved upon a race of
people naturally indolent, emotional,
affectionate and unreasoning. The
institution which was enervating to
both races, has passed away, leaving
traces of a mode of life full of romance,
color and pathos—material the artist
and author can find nowhere else in
this or any other country.
From the struggle and through the
painful period of transition the South
has arisen with renewed vitality to
await a future of brilliant possibilities.
With the romantic glamor of old chiv-
alric days still upon her, she has
stepped from the grace of repose
to the dignity of action. Forlorn
chimney-stacks and countless un-
marked graves stand as mute witnesses
of a national tragedy within her boun-
daries, and across the crimson line
dividing the two epochs of her history,
she has emerged from the old into the
new regime.
The International Cotton States Ex-
position just concluded in the city of
Atlanta, is a significant fact in Ameri-
can history. It means that a section
hitherto merely productive is now to
take its stand as a compeer in commer-
cial, mechanical and manufacturing in-
dustries. It means that the unsur-
passed natural resources of this vast
territory are at last, by the aid of
mechanical agencies, to be brought to
their full measure of force and power.
It means that the cotton grown in
the Southern fields will'be transformed
into fabrics of delicate finish and ex-
quisite texture before it is exported to
other marts. It means prosperity,
success, wealth to the new regime!
Northern visitors have been warmly
welcomed to the Cotton States Expo-
sition, for their neighbors in "Dixie"
were eager to show them the measure
of their progress, and it is pleasant to
think how much of sincere regard and
friendly appreciation may be stimu-
lated by this gathering together, from
distant quarters of the Union, of the
diverse elements of American citizen-
ship. It is only by intersectional inter-
course that the distinctive and equal
merit of each locality will be mutually
felt and understood. The Northern
visitor has realized the quick tact,
ready sympathy and generous spirit of
his entertainer; the Southern host has
learned the earnest sincerity, the truth,
the dignity of his guest. If Tenny-
son had been writing about our North
and South, his lines, I am sure, would
have run like this:
Oh, Swallow, fly and tell her
That warm, and dark, and tender is the South,
And stern, and true, yet tender is the North.
But at Atlanta where the old tradi-
tions were contrasted with the new
activities, could we not respectfully ad-
mire and admiringly respect, each for
its own distinctive charm and worth,
the gracious past and the successful
present of both the old and the new
regime of the South!


DOMESTIC SCIENCE AT THE ATLANTA EXPOSITION.
MUCH has been written during
the past year of the Atlanta Ex-
position, first of its promise,
then of its performance, and already it
is a thing of the past and its history
may be recorded. Yet there is a larger
story which can never be told, certainly
not in this generation. How far the
pulses of the people will be quickened
and their lives made fuller and happier,
it is difficult to determine.
The woman's exhibit at the Centen-
nial Exposition in 1876 was disap-
pointing and left a general impression
that much time had been wasted in an
attempt at, decoration which never
could be beautiful. The effort to
unite use and beauty as shown by the
"butter woman," a beautiful head
carved or moulded from butter, was
pathetic, but did not indicate that home
arts had at length received due recogni-
tion. Cooking schools were then un-
known in America and home sanita-
tion had not received any special atten-
tion.
At Chicago in 1893, there was a
distinct advance, and woman's prog-
ress in educational work was manifest.
Yet the casual observer might have
thought that the energy of womankind
had exhausted itself on elaborate
needle work which was not always or-
namental. Cookery received some at-
tention but far less than it deserved,
and except during lecture hours the
so-called model kitchen gave little in-
struction to the crowds of eager house-
keepers who were just beginning to
see that housekeeping might be made
both an art and a science.
The Rumford Kitchen, which was
the best exponent of modern food
study on the grounds, was quite apart
from the woman's exhibit.
So little time elapsed between the
expositions at Chicago and Atlanta
that little advance could be expected,
and yet the latter was distinctly en-
couraging, though it is unjust to both
to make any comparison between the
two expositions.
From a glance at the official cata-
logue of the Atlanta Exposition it
might seem as if the women's depart-
ment was mainly a collection of ances-
tral relics, so much space was occupied
there by the colonial exhibits. But
these were less apparent in the building
than on the pages of the catalogue,
though many women in the South as
well as in other parts of our land find
more pleasure in contemplating the
roots of the family tree than in the
active life of the present generation.
The Woman's Building, designed
by a woman architect, was interesting
in all its departments. The life of the
women of the past was recalled by the
old portraits and articles of wearing
apparel and household furniture in the
colonial exhibit. The corner repre-
senting an oldtime kitchen, where the
American Kitchen Magazine welcomed
old and new friends, represented an-
other phase of woman's life in the past.
Many of the present generation
stopped there to question how cooking
could be done before an open fire, or
what the foot-stove was. The wheel,
the crane, the bellows were un-
familiar to many, and the long-
handled warming pan was generally
supposed to be an old-fashioned fry-
ing pan. Habits of life change so
rapidly that the next generation will be
more familiar with the electrical cook-
ing apparatus than their mothers were
with the coal range.
Several exhibits that formed a part
in the original plan of the board of
managers of the woman's department
did not materialize. Among these
was an experiment similar to that
shown at the World's Fair in 1893,
where a family lived in a small house
on the grounds to prove that the
average family may live comfortably


DOMESTIC SCIENCE AT THE ATLANTA EXPOSITION.
207
on the average workingman's income.
The Creole Kitchen, which was fully
supplied with the best possible outfit
of gas ovens, steam cookers and other
appliances, was started under the
auspices of the woman's board of
managers. But it changed hands, and
was not as well conducted as it prom-
ised to be before the fair opened, and
thus was a great disappointment to the
visitors from other parts of the coun-
try who hoped there at least to obtain
a taste of genuine Southern cookery.
The present activity of women was
displayed in the Woman's Building in
many directions. The library was
well filled with the works of
women authors, beautiful embroi-
deries showed the skill of women in
needlework, a creditable collection of
canned fruits and jellies tempted pass-
ers-by, while the busy lace-makers
hinted at a future industry for Ameri-
can women.
The series of congresses brought
together many notable women whose
words were helpful and inspiring.
Closely connected with the exhibit
of woman's work but in separate build-
ings were the kindergarten and cook-
ing school, both teaching useful les-
sons to hundreds of mothers who had
never seen either before.
The room set apart for the lectures
on cookery was well furnished for its
purpose, but simply and with no super-
fluous appliances. It was on the
ground floor of the Woman's Annex
which was provided after the main
building was found to have no appro-
priate place for this important industry
so generally left to the hands of
women.
Some months before the exposition
opened the efficient chairman of the
department of cookery, Mrs. A. V.
Gude, arranged a course of demonstra-
tions in Atlanta which were given by
Miss Lucy C. Andrews. These lec-
tures aroused enthusiasm among the
Atlanta ladies, and the proceeds aided
in raising the amount required for the
lectures at the exposition.
Miss Andrews is a graduate of the
University of Michigan, a classmate of
Mrs. Alice Freeman Palmer, and
formerly was instructor in the depart-
ment of ethics at Wellesley College.
But realizing that philosophy is often
influenced by physical causes, she be-
gan work upon first principles, the
preparation Of food. She has studied
her new occupation at the best schools
and with some of the most successful
teachers in this country. As a demon-
strator Miss Andrews is pleasing and
treats her subjects in an interesting
manner, making everything attractive,
yet thoroughly educational.
The demonstrations were given
daily, beginning at eleven o'clock, and
seldom lasted over one hour. It was
the design of the committee and Miss
Andrews to make simple, economical
dishes popular rather than to astonish
the spectators with elaborate com-
pounds, or give high-sounding names
to dishes which differed but slightly
from those prepared by our grand-
mothers. Therefore each day, while
there might be one fancy dish, there
were two or three others such as could
be prepared in the homes of the people
at any time.
The table before the lecturer was of
medium size, and at the rear of the
platform was one of the patent kitchen
tables with spaces for utensils and sup-
plies. Two medium-sized gas stoves
were placed, one on either side of the
table. Behind a screen on the extreme
left of the platform was a small desk.
At the right a door opened into the
tidy storeroom. Just below the plat-
form on the right was the refrigerator,
and on the wall on the opposite side of
the room was a long blackboard.
Here each day were written the recipes
for the dishes which were prepared,
and these were copied eagerly by those
who saw the dishes take form under
Miss Andrews' deft fingers, and also
by those who visited the room at a
later hour in the day.
The lectures have been well at-
tended, yet probably few were present
at more than two or three during the
entire season, since the crowds at such


DOMESTIC SCIENCE AT THE ATLANTA EXPOSITION. 209
for nourishment depends upon the
quantities of flesh formers which are
measured by weight and upon the fuel
value which is measured by heat units
or calories.
THE FOOD THE NEGRO HAS.
The food of the negro of the black
belt consists largely of cornmeal, mo-
lasses and bacon. One pound of
cornmeal has .08 lb. flesh formers, and
1,725 units fuel value. One pound of
molasses has .00 lb. flesh formers and
1,300 units fuel value. One pound of
bacon has .08 lb. flesh formers and
2,890 units fuel value. Cornmeal and
bacon have little and molasses has
none of the flesh formers. No com-
bination of these materials can make a
well balanced diet for a man at ordi-
nary labor.
THE FOOD THE NEGRO SHOULD
HAVE.
In addition to the above, the negro
should have foods containing more
flesh formers, as wheat, peas, milk and
beef. One pound of wheat flour has
.13 lb. flesh formers and 1,655 units
fuel value. One pound of cow peas
has .21 lb. flesh formers and 1,590
units fuel value. One pound of milk
has .04 lb. flesh formers, and 325 units
fuel value. One pound of beef has .15
lb. flesh formers and 695 units of fuel
value.
WHAT THE NEGRO OF THE GREAT
BLACK BELT EATS.
The following, selected from a num-
ber of investigations, illustrates the
errors in the diet of the negro in the
South. One day's food of a field la-
borer consisted of bacon .7816, flour
.4216, cornmeal .9516, molasses
.4216. This furnished .17 lb. flesh
formers, and 5,240 units fuel value.
One day's food of a farmer consisted
of bacon .0516, lard .0516, flour .3116,
cornmeal .6816. This furnished .09lb. of
flesh formers and 2,095 units fuel value.
One day's food should furnish .28 lb. of
flesh formers and 3,500 units fuel
value.
The farmer and his family were
underfed. The food had only one-
third of the flesh formers and two-
thirds the fuel value needed. The other
family were both under-fed and over-
fed. The food contained too little
flesh formers and too much fuel value.
THE NEEDED REFORM.
Less corn, pork and molasses, more
wheat, peas, milk and beef.
If a copy of this diagram could have
been given every visitor at the exposi-
tion to take home, the lesson might
have been more effectual. What is
true of the food of the negro is doubt-
less true of the food of the poor whites,
and there can be no full development
of the resources of the South until the
people are better fed.
Each successive exposition of this
kind brings the progress of the whole
nation before the individual in a form
more easily grasped than any other, in
a short period of time. Years of
travel would not bring a man or
woman in contact with the phases of
the life of the world which are pre-
sented at such a place.
As the household arts or home
science or whatever name we choose to
give to the making of daily life more
healthful and happy, as these branches
of science and industry are developed,
they must from time to time be pre-
sented to the masses through such
means.
Hereafter may we not hope that
these branches will receive more and
more recognition and suitable appro-
priations be made for their advance-
ment, whether in the public schools or
at these mammoth fairs which are
schools for the grown-up people.
One lady connected with the board
of management at Atlanta when asked
what women would do at the next
world's fair to distance their attain-
ments at Chicago and Atlanta, re-
sponded that next time they would not
attempt a separate building but would
take their place beside men in the de-
partments where they might wish to
be represented. Without doubt many
other women are of the same mind,
and this spirit will prevail in the
twentieth century.


BACTERIA AFFECTING BUTTER AND CHEESE.
Report of E. W. Allen, Acting-Director Government Agricultural Experiment Station.
PART THIRD.
TO those dealing with milk itself in
any form the various fermenta-
tions are especially undesirable
and are constant sources of trouble.
Such persons want the milk pure and
sweet, and any of the various forms of
fermentation injure the milk for their
purposes. Our study of milk fermen-
tations has taught us that the cause of
all these fermentations, even the com-
mon souring, lies in the contamina-
tion of the milk from without, and that
the remedy lies in the exercise of ex-
treme cleanliness. If there has been
anything taught in regard to these
matters it is the extreme necessity for
cleanliness. Poor milk, poor butter,
and poor cheese are, in a vast majority
of cases, to be attributed to uncleanli-
ness in the barn or dairy. The great
source of bacterial contamination of
the milk is the cow herself. This does
not mean the bacteria from the mam-
mary gland, but those connected with
the exterior of the cow. It is true
that there are other sources of im-
portance. The food that the cow eats
(indirectly), the cow stall itself, the
water with which the cans are washed
or with which the milk is adulterated,
the hands of the milker as well as his
clothes, are all occasionally the sources
of bacteria contamination. But after
all we must look upon the cow herself
as the cause of the most trouble.
From the cow the bacteria get into the
milk during the milking, partly from
the milk ducts, partly from the dirt that
is attached to the cow. We thus learn
that the important point toward which
to direct the cleanliness is the cow her-
self. The farmer never appears to feel
that it is necessary for him to keep his
cows as clean as he does his horse.
But there is very much more real need
for cleanliness in the case of the cow.
Upon such cleanliness will depend his
ability to obtain a pure, wholesome
milk, while as sure as he allows his
cow to become covered with dirt and
manure so sure will he be liable to
have trouble with the milk. So it is
well to repeat that the last few years
have taught us, above all things, that
the great secret of obtaining a proper
supply of milk is to have a healthy cow
and to keep that cow clean.
Another fact of importance which
has been emphasized is the value of
cooling the milk as thoroughly as pos-
sible as soon as milked. When drawn
from the cow, milk is at a high tem-
perature, and, indeed, at just the tem-
perature at which the majority of bac-
teria will grow the most rapidly. Under
the influence of the atmospheric tem-
perature, especially in the summer, the
milk will become cool very slowly, but
never becomes cooler than the air.
The bacteria which have gotten into
the milk will therefore have the very
best opportunity for rapid multiplica-
tion and the milk will sour very rapid-
ly. If, however, the milk is cooled to
a low temperature immediately after
it is drawn, the bacteria growth is
checked at once and will not begin
again with much rapidity until the milk
has become warmed once more. This
warming will take place slowly, and
therefore the cooled milk will remain
sweet many hours longer than that
which is not cooled. A practical
knowledge of this fact will be of great
value to every person handling milk.
Early cooling to as low a temperature
as is practicable is the best remedy for
too rapid souring of milk.
It is well to notice that certain ab-
normal odors and tastes in milk may
be produced directly by the food eaten
by the cow. If a cow eats garlic or
turnip the flavor of the milk is directly
affected. Various other foods may,
212


BACTERIA AFFECTING BUTTER AND CHEESE.
213
in a similar manner, affect the taste of
milk, but this class of taints may
be readily distinguished from those
due to bacteria growth. The odors
and taints due to the direct influence
of the food are at their maximum as
soon as the milk is drawn, never in-
creasing afterwards. But the taints
due to bacteria growth do not appear
at all in the fresh milk, beginning to be
noticeable only after the bacteria have
had a chance to grow. If, therefore,
a dairyman has trouble in his milk,
which appears immediately after the
milking, he may look for the cause in
something the cow has eaten. But
if the trouble appears after a few hours,
and then grows rapidly worse until it
reaches a maximum, he may be as-
sured that the cause is some form of
fermentation, and that the remedy is
to be sought, not in changing the food
of the cow, but in greater care in the
management of the dairy or barn.
In this connection the desirability
of an inspection of the dairies and
herds furnishing milk for cities and
towns may be mentioned. Our laws
have furnished us with a milk inspec-
tion which protects our pocketbooks,
but we are learning that the adultera-
tion of milk by water is really of far
less importance to the public in general
than the contamination of the milk by
improper types of micro-organisms.
We have learned, as already pointed
out, that milk is occasionally contami-
nated with disease germs, such as
tuberculosis, typhoid fever, diphtheria,
scarlet fever, etc., but that such organ-
isms come only from cases of disease,
either diseased cattle, which directly
contaminate the milk, or diseased per-
sons, who indirectly are a source of
such contamination. There is no need
of milk becoming contaminated by
any of these disease germs, with a pos-
sible exception of tuberculosis, if care
and scrutiny is used by the milk pro-
ducer to prevent the milk from dis-
eased cattle being distributed, and to
prevent its being placed under condi-
tions for secondary contamination
from diseased persons.
With all these facts in mind, it be-
comes plain that the proper public pre-
caution against the evils resulting from
such contamination is to be found in
some system of dairy inspection, by
means of which the public may have a
direct knowledge and direct control
over the conditions of its milk supply.
Already such a dairy inspection in one
form or another has been attempted in
several places. In some other places
it is being demanded by State boards
of health.
The chief advantage in such dairy
inspection is to the milk producer. In
Switzerland and in the United States
the plans started with the dairymen.
Of course the advantage is also largely
to the public community, but the pro-
ducer of the milk will in the end gain
the greatest advantage in increased
confidence which the public may have
in his product. At the present time the
public is rapidly becoming suspicious of
the healthful qualities of our milk sup-
ply, and just so far as this suspicion can
be allayed by the inauguration of a
proper dairy inspection just so far will
the milk industry be benefited.
It is the custom of butter makers to
allow their cream to "sour," or "ripen,"
for a number of hours before churning.
This is accomplished by allowing it to
stand in a warm place for twelve to
twenty-four hours. As it is every-
where recognized to-day, the ripening
of cream is simply a matter of bacteria
growth, and whether the cream is
ripened in a proper (normal) or in an
improper (abnormal) manner depends
upon the number and kinds of bacteria
that chance to be in it at the beginning
of the ripening.
Among the number of kinds of bac-
teria found in the cream there are a few
species whose growth in the cream
produces there a pleasant, desirable
aroma and flavor. These species are
seemingly fewer in number than the
others, but it is to their presence that a
good butter is due, and it is with little
doubt largely the presence of these
species in June cream and their ab-


214
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
sence in January cream that gives June
butter a better flavor than winter but-
ter. Now, the butter maker in ripen-
ing his cream will always produce in it
a certain amount of acid from the lac-
tic organisms, and even if he has no
proper flavor-producing species pres-
ent the butter that he obtains will be a
moderately good product, provided he
does not happen to have any of the
mischievous species present. He
knows well enough that during certain
seasons in the year he can obtain a but-
ter that has no very bad taste, and yet
that does not have the desirable flavor.
No method at his disposal will enable
him at these times to give his butter
the flavor he desires. Under such con-
ditions his cream is affected with the
neutral class of bacteria, while mis-
chievous ones are absent as well as the
desirable flavor-producing species.
By proper care in barns and dairies
the mischievous species, in general
may be kept out of the cream. By the
use of cleanly methods in the cow stall
and dairy we may depend upon the
milk and cream containing a small
quantity of bacteria and only whole-
some ones.
Conn has found that winter cream
and June cream contain a distinct bac-
teria flora in the same creamery; that
the species of bacteria in different
creameries differ at identical dates; that
the species furnished a creamery by
different patrons differ, and that, in
short, the bacterial flora of the cream-
ery is undergoing constant change.
It is, of course, largely a matter of luck
whether the cream at a given creamery
chances at a certain time to have
the high flavor-producing species
present.
To eliminate this factor of luck from
the ripening of cream pure cultures
have been prepared in laboratories of
the bacteria that sour and give the de-
sired flavor and aroma to cream, and
these cultures have been used in prac-
tical experiments. When inoculated
into the cream they sour it rapidly and
produce at the same time a desirable
aroma. The use of these organisms
has extended from the laboratories
where they started, in Denmark and in
Germany, and at the present time they
are used somewhat widely in Euro-
pean countries. In other cases forms
of bacteria have been selected which
impart a desirable flavor and aroma
without materially aiding in souring
the cream. In this case the lactic or-
ganisms commonly present in the
cream are relied upon for giving it the
desired acidity. An organism isolated
by-Conn, and named by him Bacillus
No. 41, has given very promising re-
sults, and has been adopted in a num-
ber of creameries for ripening the
cream. In the use of Bacillus No. 41
a large culture of the organism is
added directly to the ordinary cream,
and the ripening is carried on as usual.
The result has been that the souring
is delayed, and the ripening may be
continued longer and thus the flavor
be improved, and a noticeably better
product is obtained. The peculiar
effect of this organism appears to be
to add to the butter a flavor which the
butter maker describes as a "quick
grass" flavor, such as he looks for in
June butter. The aroma is not much
affected. The pleasant flavor appears
to be added to the butter in all condi-
tions in which the experiments have
thus far been made. It has been tried
upon poor cream and upon good
cream; upon fresh cream and stale
cream; upon separated cream and
upon gravity cream; in creameries of
the very highest character and cream-
eries of a very much lower grade, and
the verdict in all the cases has been
uniform. Wherever it has been added
to the cream for ripening in the proper
way there has been an improvement in
the quality of the butter made in the
individual creamery. The butter of a
poor creamery has not, indeed, been
brought up to the quality of gilt-edged
butter, but it has been improved; and
even the gilt-edged butter of our high-
est class creameries has been pro-
nounced better after the use of this
bacillus in the ripening of its cream.
Indeed, up to the present time it has


BACTERIA AFFECTING BUTTER AND CHEESE.
216
been chiefly the better creameries
which have adopted its use.
There is very little doubt that the
ripening of cream by pure cultures of
bacteria is sure to become more popu-
lar, for they make it possible for the
butter maker to obtain uniformity all
the year round. Both the acid fer-
ments and Bacillus No. 41 are now
put up in such form that they can be
readily distributed to the creameries
of the country. Their use is rapidly
growing, and in the opinion of some
of our best butter makers it will not be
long before it will become almost uni-
versal.
If bacteria are desirable allies of the
butter maker, they are absolute neces-
sities to the cheese manufacturer.
Without their agency in ripening
cream, the butter, though it may taste
flat, is still usable, but cheese is worth-
less without them. New cheese is not
palatable; it tastes like fresh milk curd,
and is not at all pleasant. The proper
flavor of cheese appears only as a re-
sult of a ripening process which is al-
lowed to continue for several weeks or
months, the flavor slowly growing
stronger all the while. This ripening
is the result of the action of bacteria.
It is customary to recognize the nor-
mal ripening and the abnormal ripen-
ing of cheese, although no very sharp
line of distinction can be drawn be-
tween the two. The normal ripening
of cheese is the one that produces a
good marketable product, and the
abnormal ripening an abnormal pro-
duct.
Up to the present time we have very
much better knowledge of the types of
abnormally ripened cheese than of
normally ripened cheese. In the last
few years very many such cheeses have
been studied. It is a well-known fact
that such abnormally ripened cheeses
make their appearance in almost all
cheese factories. Sometimes as high
as 50 per cent of the cheeses made in a
factory are worthless, or comparatively
worthless, from the results of abnormal
ripening. Many investigators have
been studying the various types of
spoiled cheese for the purpose of dis-
covering the cause of the trouble.
The most common type of abnor-
mally ripened cheese is one in which
there is a large accumulation of gas,
chiefly carbonic acid, but sometimes
ammonia or free nitrogen. This ac-
cumulation of gas causes the cheese to
swell and produces large cavities. In
another special form of a similar in-
fection, known as "Nissler" cheese, the
cheese is filled with innumerable small
holes. This abnormal swelling has
been found to be produced by certain
species of bacteria or yeasts growing
in the cheese, which develop a super-
abundance of gas. Some twenty-five
species of micro-organisms up to this
time have been definitely proved to be
the cause of such an abnormal swelling
of cheese, including both bacteria and
yeasts. It would appear, however,
that much depends upon the condi-
tions in the cheese and the numbers of
the organisms present. It is certainly
true that some of these species
may be present in small quan-
tity in the cheese and it will ripen nor-
mally, while if they are present in large
quantities there will be an abnormal
swelling of the cheese. The sources
of the organisms in this long list are
of course variable. One important
source is the organisms that come
from cows suffering from udder in-
flammations. Other sources may be
in special lots of hay, or they may come
from sources that are entirely un-
known. So varied appear to be the
bacteria that no general directions can
yet be given for avoiding them, and so
little do we now know of the proper
conditions that very little can be done
to remedy the trouble.
Other types of abnormally ripened
cheese that have been studied are red
cheese, blue cheese, black cheese,
bitter cheese, and poisonous cheese.
In the last case the cheese becomes
impregnated with a poisonous
ptomaine (tyrotoxicon), produced by
organisms as yet entirely unknown.
In short, all the types of abnormally


216
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
ripened cheese which are distinctly
recognized in the cheese factory have
been studied, and practically all of
them at the present time have been
traced to an origin in certain micro-
organisms.
Studies of the bacteria in normally
ripened cheese have consisted in the
examination of the bacteria in the
cheese at intervals in the ripening from
the first day until the time the cheese
is fully ripened. It appears that the
multiplication of bacteria in cheese is
comparatively slow. In cream during
its ripening the bacteria multiply with
prodigious rapidity, increasing per-
haps six hundredfold to a thousand-
fold within twenty-four hours. In
cheese, however, while for some weeks
the bacteria do increase in number, the
increase is very slow. In one case an
increase was found of about sixty-
fold in eighty-five days; in another
about one hundred and sixty-
fold in twenty-eight days. After
a time, moreover, this increase in bac-
teria comes to an end, and later the
number of organisms present in a liv-
ing, active condition becomes less and
less, until finally, at the end of the
ripening, the number is very much less
than it was during the middle of the
ripening period, sometimes coming
down to nearly the original number.
There are, however, great irregularities.
At times the multiplication appears
to be very much greater and more
rapid than at others; sometimes the
number present at a given stage of
the ripening is ten times as great in
one specimen as it is in another, even
though the latter had the larger num-
ber to start with.
As for the species of bacteria pres-
ent, this, too, undergoes constant
change during the ripening. At the
beginning the number of species may
be considerable, depending, of course,
upon the number in the original milk
from which the cheese was made.
But as the ripening continues the num-
ber decreases, and finally, at the end of
the ripening, in many cases there has
been left a single species or a very
small number of species. Some species
originally in the milk disappear at
once and can have no share in the
ripening process.
Whether the normal ripening and
the flavor of properly ripened cheese
is due to a single species in each kind
of cheese, or to the combined action
of several, or whether it may not be
produced by a number of different
species equally well, as in the case of
the butter flavor, we do not at present
know. There is a growing belief that
the flavor of different types of cheese is
due to different species of bacteria, and
that when we have mastered the prob-
lem we shall be able to produce any
given type of cheese by simply inocula-
ting the milk with the proper quantity
of definite species of bacteria. But
this belief is at present based upon gen-
eral inferences, and not upon demon-
strated facts. The fact that such
definite types of abnormally ripened
cheese can be produced by inoculating
the milk with certain species of bac-
teria shows the great influence of bac-
teria. The fact that a given locality will
produce a uniform product of cheese
for a long time indicates that this local-
ity has probably become impregnated
with a certain species of micro-organ-
ism. Moreover, it is known that when
a new cheese factory is started pre-
cautions are frequently taken to carry
some of the cheese from an old factory
to the new one, and to rub over the
shelves and vats and the other appurte-
nances in the factory with the old
cheese, in order to infect it with the
proper ripening organisms.
Many species of bacteria are known
to produce desirable cheese' flavors
when growing in milk. In some
cases the use of pure cultures has beea
adopted in cheese making, although
not from the bacteriological stand-
point. One method of making Edam
cheese consists in inoculating the milk
with a slimy whey, which has been
found to contain a very nearly pure-
culture of a slimy organism. These-
facts indicate that the cheese ripening
is the result of distinct specific germs,.


BACTERIA AFFECTING
but what they are or how large a va-
riety we do not at present know.
The sources of cheese bacteria are
more variable than the sources of
bacteria in ripening the cream. Of
course we have in the first place many
organisms in the milk which is brought
to the cheese factory, but in addition to
this the cheese is inoculated with or-
ganisms from several other sources.
The cheese vats and the various ap-
paratus used in the cheese factory are
a prolific source of organisms. The
water that is used in the manufacture
of cheese is an important source. More
important than any of these is the
rennet which is used to curdle the
casein. Recent studies of rennet have
shown that the number of bacteria in
it is very great, especially in certain
forms of rennet. The rennet added to
the milk in considerable quantities is
thus a direct inoculation of the milk
with a large number of bacteria. It
has long been recognized that it makes
considerable difference in the character
of the cheese whether one or another
kind of rennet is used for curdling, and
after we have recognized that the va-
rious types of ripening are due to dif-
ferent kinds of bacteria, we see at once
that the addition of rennet to the milk
is to be regarded as an inoculation of
the cheese which will result in a vast
modification of its ripening. This
agency of the bacteria rennet in the
ripening of cheese is only just begin-
ning to be recognized, and is a subject
upon which much work needs to be
done.
We have, in short, at the present
time an insufficient knowledge of the
ripening of cheese to enable us to con-
trol the process. We can to a certain
extent avoid some types of abnormal
ripening by the following simple
method: If cheese ripens abnormally
it will probably be due to the milk from
one patron being impregnated with an
unfavorable species of bacteria. By
use of a simple apparatus samples of
milk of each patron may be set by
themselves and allowed to ferment
spontaneously. After two days an
-examination of the samples, a study of
BUTTER AND CHEESE. 217
the odor, the taste, and the amount of
gas produced enables the cheese maker
to judge somewhat accurately whether
the milk is safe to put in his cheeses.
If there is a superabundance of gas, or
if very vile odors are produced, the
milk of the patron in question should
be excluded from the cheeses. Of
course it takes a day or two to apply
this test, but this is a matter of no very
great importance in the cheese factory,
because the farm that is furnishing an
improper species of bacteria one day
will probably continue to do so for the
season. A method of preventing the
abnormal swelling of cheese has been
suggested by Freudenreich; i. e., the
salting of the milk. Another method
of remedying the abnormal swelling
also based upon bacteriological knowl-
edge, has sometimes been found to be
useful. When the cheese begins to
show signs of this abnormal produc-
tion of gas it is at once cooled to a very
low temperature, either by putting it
into a cold cellar or, if the cheese is a
large one, by the use of ice. This
lowering of the temperature at once
stops the fermentation which is going
on, and if the cheese is kept at this
temperature for some time the milk
sugar will gradually undergo such
changes that when subsequently the
temperature is increased the fermenta-
tion will not recommence. Beyond
these facts, however, little of practical
importance to the cheese maker has
as yet resulted from bacteriological
study.
In guiding the milk producer to the
best method of furnishing pure milk, in
aiding the butter maker in obtaining
a uniform and desirable flavor, and in
helping the cheese maker to avoid
some of his difficulties dairy bacteri-
ology has already done much. In the
immediate future we can see further
practical results. To the dairy interest
the bacteriologist holds out the hope
of uniformity. The time will come
when the butter maker may always
make good butter and the cheese,
maker may be able in all cases to ob-
tain exactly the kind of ripening that
he desires.


EXPERIMENTS WITH STARCH.
219
8. Mix equal quantities of starch
and sugar together so that the starch
sacs are separated by the sugar. Add
boiling water. Notice smoothness,
clearness, and firmness of the mixture.
Boil and find that it is smooth, clearer
and thicker as in fourth experiment.
9. Add to starch enough cold water
to moisten. Stir to separate the sacs,
and add boiling water. Note smooth,
clear, thick mixture as in second ex-
periment. Boil, and find that it is
smooth, clearer and thicker, as in
fourth and eighth.
From these experiments, the class
may deduce the following rule:
Starchy foods in the form of a pow-
der, like cornstarch or flour, to be
used as a thickening should first be
mixed wi$ba little cold water to form
a paste >
iOy,. popcorn in a sieve or corn
popj -^n^ad pupils to give the.rea-
son w(jj. L ^bursting open of the ker-
nels. V, -vjf;
11. Washi rice by rubbing hard be-
tween the ids in a small amount of
cold water. Ore milky (and perhaps
dusty) colj of the water. Remove
rice. Alio* Abater to stand, and note
sediment; ,-i>oil this and it thickens.
Why? 6.jA
12. Waihv a potato and pare it
thinly. When the knife is dry, notice
the white powdery starch on it, also
that the knife is discolored because of
a bitter acfid juice contained in potato.
13. Allow the potato to stand in
cold water. Sometimes a white sedi-
ment forms at the bottom of the dish
because of the starch.
14. Scrape the potato carefully and
a milky fluid is obtained, which ex-
amined under the microscope shows
starch.
15. Hold thin slices of raw potato
to the light. Note structure, and
allow the children to make drawings
of what they see.
16. Let thin slices of potato stand.
Notice that they become dry and dis-
colored; also a fine white powder glis-
tens on them.
17. Cut a potato into tiny bits. Put
these in a tumbler of cold water,
enough to cover. Stir well. Allow
them to stand, and notice sediment
Drain, dry, and compare with starch
in first experiment.
18. Wash a large potato. Pare
thinly. Grate into a bowl of cold
water. Stir the mixture in the bowl.
Allow it to stand. Drain. Add fresh
water. Repeat this process until the
starch is washed clean. As it dries, it
may be cut prettily into shapes, like
cubes, diamonds, etc.
19. Examine and dry a portion of
the dirty, threadlike mass (woody
fibre or cellulose) contained in cloth
or sieve remaining after eighteenth
experiment. Wash the other portion
well, and dry.
My girls bring in as a result of these
last experiments which they perform
at home, a box divided into four com-
partments in the first of which is the
dried potato skin (No. 18), in the sec-
ond the slices of potato (No. 16), in the
third the woody fibre (No. 19), and in
the fourth the starch (No. 18).
It is interesting to have starch and
woody fibre extracted from the sweet
potato to compare with that from the
white potato. The girls often like to
use the starch obtained in this way to
stiffen clothes, or to perform experi-
ments like those given for cornstarch.
From the fifteenth, eighteenth and
nineteenth experiments the class may
make this rule:
Starchy foods, like vegetables, whole
grains, macaroni, etc., should be put di-
rectly into freshly boiling salted water.
20. Wash two fresh, crisp potatoes.
Pare thinly. Put into boiling water.
Cook till soft. Take out one, and
cook the other longer. The first will
be "dry and mealy," while the second
will be soft and gummy. Why?
Let the pupils describe the swelling
and bursting of the starch sacs, laying
stress upon the fact that the starch is
cooked by the water contained in the
potato which receives its heat from
the outside boiling water. Allow
them to taste the water in which the
potatoes have cooked.


220
THE AMEBIC AN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
21. Wash and bake two potatoes in
a hot oven till soft. When soft, take
out one, and break the skin. Notice
the escape of steam, and then the "dry
and mealy" pulp. Over-bake the sec-
ond, and examine the pulp which will
be similar to the over-cooked potato
in twentieth experiment.
Allow the children to describe the
cooking of the starch in baking pota-
toes as in twentieth experiment.
22. Wash a potato, and put in boil-
ing water keeping the skin on. Just
before it is done, the skin breaks or
cracks. Why?
23. Problem. Which is the more
economical to buy, one pound of pota-
toes, or one pound of rice to use as a
vegetable food?
(a.) Give the composition of pota-
toes or measure the water and starch
contained in one pound potatoes as
in No. 18. Therefore, when we buy
one pound potatoes, we are really buy-
ing three-quarters of a pound water,
and the rest, one-quarter pound solid
food material (largely starch).
(b.) Give the composition of rice:
therefore, when we buy one pound rice,
we are really buying a little less than
nine-tenths of a pound solid food ma-
terial (largely starch).
(c.) Where do we get the water to
hydrate the starch in cooking the po-
tato? (See No. 20).
(d.) Where do we get the water to
hydrate the starch in cooking the rice?
When we steam or boil rice, what
makes the kernels swell, and where do
we get the water?
(e.) If the same bulk of potatoes
and rice be steamed or boiled, what is
the difference in amount of each after
cooking?
(f.) What is the cost of each per
pound?
(g.) Conclusion:—All starchy foods
need moisture and heat to cook them,
and if vegetables or grains do not con-
tain a sufficient amount it must be
added.
24. Moisten half a cup of wheat
flour with cold water sufficient to make
a dough. Work it through a fine
sieve into a bowl of cold water. Stir
this milky liquid. Let it stand, then
drain. The result is starch. The
sticky mass left in the cloth is gluten,
a gray, tough, elastic, gluey substance.
25. Heat starch in a small flat sauce-
pan. Then collect drops of water by
holding a glass plate over it, although
starch always seems to be a dry sub-
stance. So it becomes dry and hard.
26. Continue to heat the starch as in
twenty-fifth experiment. Dextrin, or
British gum, brittle, transparent, sweet
in flavor, soluble in water, and used on
postage stamps, is formed.
27. Continue to heat the starch. It
turns black, and becomes carbon.
28. Continue to heat. The carbon
turns gray or white and becomes ash
or mineral substance.
29. Put starch into a tumbler.
Moisten with cold water. Add sul-
phuric acid carefully. Mixture turns
black or into carbon. Put powdered
charcoal in a tumbler. Moisten with
a little cold water; add acid. No
change.
30. Heat carefully a small amount
of starch, stirring slowly. It browns.
Heat a few minutes longer. Add four
times its bulk of water, and boil. A
solution of dextrin is the result. Fil-
ter to free from unchanged starch.
To part of solution, add twice its bulk
of alcohol, and dextrin will be precipi-
tated.
31. Boil a small amount of corn-
starch, flour, arrowroot, bread, rice, or
potato in water in a test-tube. Add
several drops of iodine and the mix-
ture will turn purple, thus showing the
presence of starch.
Make a thin cornmeal gruel. Add
iodine and a blue color is shown pret-
tily because starch is present. I think
children seldom consider cornmeal a
starchy food, even when they know of
the corn flour commonly called "corn-
starch."
32. Chew slowly the crumb, or
white portion of a loaf. Chew slowly
the crust of a loaf. This last is sweet
compared to the crumb. Why? This
indicates caramelization, which is


EXPERIMENTS WITH STARCH.
221
sometimes considered as external di-
gestion.
33. Chew a piece of dry cracker
slowly for some time. It is first mois-
tened and softened, and after a while
acquires a sweet flavor. Why?
34. Make a very thin starch paste.
To a portion of it add iodine and a blue
color shows the presence of starch.
35. To a portion of paste in thirty-
fourth experiment add Fehling's solu-
tion (or one of Fehling's Test Tablets)
and boil. There is no red color to
show the presence of sugar in the
paste.
36. Collect saliva in a tube, and add
to it a portion of the paste of thirty-
fourth experiment. Mix well, and
warm it slightly. In time the mixture
becomes thinner and thinner, and
more and more transparent. This
change will not take place if heated too
much. The complete change seldom
has time enough to take place in the
mouth, and starch is mostly digested
in the intestines.
37. Add to a portion of the mixture
in thirty-sixth experiment when quite
transparent, iodine, and no color re-
action is shown; therefore no starch is
present.
38. Add to a portion of thirty-sixth
experiment when quite transparent,
Fehling's solution (or one of Fehling's
Test Tablets) and boil. A red brown
color is the result and shows presence
of dextrose or sugar.
The last three experiments will not
be successful if the saliva be not alka-
line. Raw starch is not acted upon
so easily or quickly because of the
coats of the sacs.
39. Make a thin starch paste. Put
into a tumbler set in water about 105°.
Add to it one-tenth as much Pancreatin
or Extract of Pancreas, and stir. The
mixture gradually becomes thinner
and more transparent. Add to it one-
quarter its bulk of Fehling's solution
(or one of Fehling's Test Tablets) stir,
boil, and a red brown color denotes
presence of sugar.
When teaching about starchy foods
which belong to the class called car-
bonaceous, and which give heat to the
body, let the class make out a list of
foods belonging to that class, as,
wheat contains starch, starch con-
tains carbon, therefore wheat is a car-
bonaceous food, and gives heat to the
body.
It seems to me unwise to use the
terms soluble, insoluble, solubility, in-
solubility, dissolve, etc., with starch,
because they do not convey the proper
meaning in the clearest way.


4
FRENCH SURNAMES OF DISHES.
From Thudichum's " Spirit of Cookery."
IN France there has been developed,
in a manner which should be inves-
tigated as part of the history of
culture, a habit of cooks to give names
to dishes which at the time of the in-
ception of the practice had some con-
nection with their origin, nature and
peculiarity. Gradually the newly-
coined names lost all meaning, and
became a means for gratifying small
ambit-ions for innovation, the practice
degenerating, as Dumas says, into
fantaisies de saucer, de mettre sur le
gril, et de faire rotir nos grands hommes.
A number of names are quite natural
by the fact that the dishes which they
indicate are derived from certain coun-
tries, nationalities, provinces or towns,
such as a I'Anglaise, a la Francaise, a la
Provencale, or a la Romaine; there were
also the names of a few patrons of the
culinary art, under whose influence
certain products had been invented,
such as a la Bechamel or a la Richelieu.
In all these names the expression is
really the result of an eclipse, meaning
originally a la maniere Anglaise, or a la
maniere patronises par M. le Marquis de
Bechamel, or le Marchal de Richelieu.
Such a nomenclature has its con-
veniences, and becomes very useful
when it is accepted as the symbol of
typical preparations, and adhered to
by convention as unchangeable. But
when the names are abused in the man-
ner in which we shall show below that
the expression cotelettes a la Maintenon
is abused or misused by French cooks,
of whom almost each has his own
formula for a dish of that name, which
differs greatly as regards external
features from the formulae of his neigh-
bors, they lose all significance, and had
better be omitted. It is therefore neces-
sary to make a selection from the great
number of such names occurring in lit-
erature, and to retain only those which
are symbols of typical forms of dishes,
and on the other hand to reject all those
which are neither attached to typical
preparations nor recognized by con-
vention over a large area. Many ap-
parent names of dishes are mere ad-
jectives derived from sauces, with
which the dishes are to be graced, and
have no reference to the joint or piece
of meat to which they are attached;
these also, if derived from standard
sauces, should be retained.
We will now review a number of
culinary names which have something
like general circulation, and can be
used for generalization in such a mode
that many different materials when
prepared in the typical manner may
bear the same surname. This kind
of nomenclature has the additional ad-
vantage that it aids in the classifica-
tion of dishes and of the recipes for
them, which would otherwise be, as in
cookery-books they always were,
mere items in an incoherent, unor-
ganized collection.
A I'Anglaise generally implies that
the dish is roast or boiled in the plainest
manner, or is prepared in a manner
peculiar to this country without neces-
sarily being plain; thus, hare soup is
specifically English, and in French
cookery-books bears the surname as
properly as does the roast sirloin.
A I' Italienne generally implies that
the dish is made of, or garnished with,.
savory macaroni, or paste of that kind,
or with ravioli, or is made savory with
Parma cheese. Of this wide expres-
sion, the surnames derived from
Italian towns, such as a la Milanaise,
a la Florentine, a la Napolitaine, etc., are
mere subordinate variations of no par-
ticular significance.
A la Francaise is, curiously enough,
a surname which is applied to the least
typical preparations, some of them not
233


FRENCH SURNAMES OF DISHES.
223
rarely the result of a fanciful eclecti-
cism. It should be more and more
specialized and retained for the many
exquisitely French preparations which,
like omelettes, pates and cotelettes, are
distinctly autochthonous in France.
The French themselves love to sur-
name dishes after some peculiarities
favored in the ancient provinces; thus
we get:
A la Provencale, which generally
means a dish prepared with more or
less olive-oil, and flavored with garlic;
not rarely both ingredients are used at
the same time.
A la Perigord is applied to dishes
flavored with or consisting of truffles,
from the circumstance that these
mushrooms grow in that province of
excellent size and quality.
A la Normande generally indicates
that apples enter into the composition
of the dish in some shape or other; to
this rule the matelote only makes an
exception, which is a fish-ragout of
which a particular modification is pop-
ular in Normandy.
A la Dauphinoise generally implies
that a dish is braised, sauced over with
a thick sauce, crumbed, and perhaps
sauced or egged and crumbed twice
over, and then fried. This surname
was originally derived from the
Dauphinee, and not from the Dauphin,
a royal crown-prince of France, as has
been erroneously supposed by those
who have termed analogously prepared
dishes a la Royale, etc. This latter ex-
pression possesses no specific signifi-
cance at all.
A la Bourguignotte generally signi-
fied a dish prepared with the addition
of red wine of Burgundy or of Bor-
deaux or of the Midi—i. e., meridonial
provinces of France. At Bordeaux,
or when made elsewhere with Gironde
wine, the dish would of course bear the
surname a la Bordelaise.
Surnames derived from French
towns are numerous, but not very
significant, thus:
A la Parisienne is applied to dishes
which are generally luxuriously pre-
pared, and overladen with expensive
garnishes, as will be demonstrated by
several examples lower down; but
they possess little or no specificity.
The French kitchen has some ex-
quisitely descriptive and well-under-
stood surnames which ought to be
maintained, as being generally
adopted; such are the following:
A la jardiniere—this signifies a typi-
cal collection of cooked vegetables
given in soups, ragouts and removes.
A la printaniere—also implies a typi-
cal collection of cooked early vegeta-
bles, but has, contrary to origin, a
somewhat wider application than the
foregoing.
A la macedoine is also applied to
typical collections of green vegetables,
mostly in white sauce; it includes col-
lections of ripe fruit imbedded in jellies.
Such a dish may be called a macedoine
simply as a dish of vegetables may
also be termed a jardiniere; on the
other hand, a printaniere is not usual.
A la maitre d'hotel generally signi-
fies a dish prepared by a substantial,
but homely, modest sort of cooking.
A la Gerard is a surname derived
from the name of a culinary assistant
or under-cook, who, having prepared
a dish which was to have been placed
before and named after Madame de
Maintenon (like the otherwise nonde-
script cotelettes which are made to bear
her name nowadays), thought it not
good enough to bear that name, and
gave it his own. Hence a muddled or
miscarried dish is sometimes sarcas-
tically termed a la Gerard.
A la Soubise is generally applied to
dishes which contain onions in quan-
tity, or at least are strongly garnished
and flavored with them.
A la Crecy is similarly connected
with carrots, particularly in the form
of puree. A number of similarly
specific surnames, but applicable only
to a limited circle of dishes, occur
amongst the details of magiric litera-
ture.
A I'Allemande is a surname given to
dishes to which French cooks have ap-
plied German provincial peculiarities
©f preparation. The most frequent


224
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
application is to a dish with a garnish
of sauerkraut as given with pork or
partridges or pheasants; also prunes
stewed in wine, to German sweet sauce
for venison, or to quenelles of potatoes.
A la Polonaise is applied to every
effort to introduce red beetroot or red
cabbage, their juice, color and taste,
into various dishes, of which Polish
ragout, or Borsch, is the type.
A I'Irlandaise is applied to dishes
which contain potatoes in some form,
in mass or as a prevailing garnish.
A la chipolata is the surname of
dishes which contain an addition of the
strongly flavored Italian sausages, or
of the mince with which they are filled.
A la Flamande is a surname given to
dishes containing cabbage, but more
particularly Brussels-sprouts.
A /' Espagnole is not applied to any
typical dish, but to any preparation
made savory with the brown typical
sauce bearing that surname.
A la Viennoise is applied to dishes as
usually and typically prepared in the
Austrian capital, such as dumplings
termed Nuckerln, quenelles of pota-
toes, and others.
DINING ON
ALTHOUGH it is well known that
many kind of flowers are used in
medicine, the fact may not be
known to many that the blossoms of
certain plants are employed as articles
of food.
In many parts of India the flowers
of a sapotaceous tree (Bassia latifolia
or mahwah) form a really important
article of food. These blossoms,
which are succulent and very numer-
ous, fall at night in large quantities
from the tree, and are gathered early
in the morning and eaten raw. They
have a sweet but sickly taste and odor.
They are likewise dried in the sun and
sold in the bazaars. The Bheels dry
them and store them as a staple article
of food, and so important are they con-
sidered for this purpose that when in
expeditions for the punishment or sub-
jection of these tribes, when unruly, a
threat is made by the invading force to
cut down their Bassia trees, the men-
ace most commonly insures their sub-
mission. An ardent spirit like
whiskey is distilled from these flowers,
and is consumed in large quantities
by the natives of Guzerat, etc. The
Parsees and hill people eat the flowers
both raw and cooked, and often with
the addition of grain, and also make
FLOWERS.
sweetmeats of them. A single tree
will afford from two to four hundred
pounds of the flowers.
The blossoms of another species
(B. longifolia) are employed in a simi-
lar manner by the natives of Malabar
and Mysore, where it abounds. They
are either dried and roasted and then
eaten, or are bruised and boiled to a
jelly and made into small balls, which
are sold or exchanged for fish, rice and
various sorts of small grain. The
flower's of the Judas tree (Cercis
Siliquastrum) of Europe have an
agreeable acid taste, and are some-
times mixed with salads or made into
fritters with batter, and the flower buds
are pickled in vinegar. The flowers
of the American species (C. Canaden-
sis), the red bud, are used by the
French Canadians in salads and
pickles. The flowers of the Abutilon
esculentunt (bcn(;ao de deos) are used in
Brazil as a boiled vegetable. The
flowers of Moringa pterygosperme (the
horse-radish tree) are eaten by the na-
tives of India in their curries.
The large and showy flowers of
Tropaeolum majus (the Indian cress or
nasturtium) are frequently used along
with the young leaves as a salad. They
have a warm taste, not unlike that of


DINING ON FLOWERS.
225
the common cress, and it is from this
circumstance that the plant has ob-
tained the name of nasturtium. The
young calices of Dillenia scabrella and
D. speciosa, which are swollen and
fleshy, have a pleasantly acid taste, and
are used by the inhabitants of Chit-
tagong and Bengal in their curries and
also for making jelly.
The flowers of Rhododendron arbo-
reutn are eaten by the hill people of
India, and are made into a jelly by the
European visitors. Yet poisonous
properties are usually ascribed to the
species of this genus, and it has been
said that the R. Ponticum was the plant
from whose flowers the bees of Pontus
collected the honey that produced the
extraordinary symptoms of poisoning
described as having attacked the
Greek soldiers in the famous retreat of
the ten thousand. The flower buds of
Zygophyllum Fabago are used as a sub-
stitute for capers, and the flowers of
Melianthus major, a plant of the same
order, are so full of honey that the na-
tives of Good Hope, where the plant
grows wild, obtain it for food by shak-
ing the branches, when it falls in a
heavy shower. Coccoloba urifera is re-
markable from the peculiarity of the
calyx, which becomes pulpy and of a
violet color, whence the plant is called
the seaside grape. This pulpy calyx
has an agreeable acid flavor and is edi-
ble. The flower stalks of Hovenia
didcis become extremely large and suc-
culent, and are used in China as a fruit.
It is said that in flavor they resemble a
ripe pear. The flowers of the pump-
kin were cooked and eaten by some of
the tribes of the American Indians,
especially by the Aztecs, by whom
they were highly esteemed. The cauli-
flower, which has been known from re-
mote antiquity, differs in a remarkable
manner from all the other varieties of
the cabbage tribe, whose leaves and
stalks alone are used for culinary pur-
poses. Instead of the latter being
used, the flower buds and fleshy flower
stalks, which form themselves into a
firm cluster or head varying from four
to eight or more inches in diameter,
here become the edible portion and
one of the greatest of vegetable delica-
cies. The flower buds of Capparis
spinosa, a plant which grows on walls,
etc., in the south of Europe, are pickled
in vinegar in Italy and form what are
commonly known as capers. These
are chiefly imported from Sicily,
though the plant is largely cultivated
in some parts of France. The cloves
of commerce are the unexpanded flow-
er buds of Caryophyllus aromaticus
(Myrtaceae), a small evergreen, native
of the Moluccas, but cultivated in sev-
eral parts of the East and West Indies.
Before the expansion of the flowers,
which are produced in branched pani-
cles at the extremity of the branches
and are of a delicate peach color, the
buds are collected by hand, or else
sheets and mats are spread under the
tree and the buds brought down by
beating it with sticks. They are
cleaned and then dried in the sun. A
uniform brown color is imparted by
slightly smoking them over a wood
fire. The flower buds of Calyptranthes
aromaticus, another plant of the same
order, may be advantageously substi-
tuted. The flower buds and the ber-
ries of the myrtle (Myrtus communis)
were eaten as spices by the ancients,
and are still used in Tuscany instead of
pepper. Long pepper is furnished by
the immature spikes of flowers of
Chavica Roxburghii, which are gath-
ered and dried in the sun. In chemi-
cal composition and qualities it re-
sembles ordinary black pepper and
contains piperine.—Scientific Ameri-
can.


FROM DAY TO DAY.
Department of Notes, Queries and Correspondence.
CONDUCTED BY MRS. LINCOLN.
ROAST FOREQUARTER OF LAMB
AND MUTTON.
"What can we do with the fore quar-
ter of lamb?" writes Mrs. P. of Troy.
"We find it cheaper to buy a side of
lamb, and after it is too old to be
called 'spring lamb,' it is not good
broiled or baked, and we soon tire of
lamb stew. We prefer to use the loin
and ribs as far as the shoulder blade,
for chops, and to roast or boil the leg,
but the shoulder and neck we find it
hard to utilize in any appetizing way,
except for Scotch broth."
Recently at a friend's house where I
have visited since childhood, and al-
ways find the same delicious familiar
flavor in the food eaten there, we had
for dinner one day a roast shoulder of
lamb prepared as I learned to do it
years before I began teaching. It was
so tender and delicious and yet such a
simple, inexpensive dish, that I will tell
you about it, and perhaps this will help
you out of your dilemma. I often find
these old-fashioned dishes have a
flavor more enjoyable than those with
fancy names and disguised with a
variety of sauces or condiments.
Remove the shoulder blade, back
and leg bones, any fine crumbs of
bone or stringy membranes. Wipe
with a wet cloth and rub slightly with
salt. Roll or fold into shape and tie
securely. Put it into boiling salted
water to cover, remove the scum as
soon as the water boils again, then turn
the meat over and skim again. Let it
cook gently. When it is nearly tender
remove it from the water, drain it and
place it in a baking pan. Dredge with
salt, pepper, and flour and set it in the
oven. Bake until brown and crisp on
the surface. Baste occasionally with
some of the top of the water from the
kettle and dredge with flour after bast-
ing. The whole process will take from
two and a half to three hours.
When the meat is sufficiently
browned remove it to a hot dish and
put the pan on the stove and let the
water nearly boil out, leaving only fat
in the pan. Stir into this fat about
two tablespoonfuls of flour and let
them brown together. Scrape off all
the glaze from the edges, and when
well colored, add one pint of hot water
from that used in boiling the lamb, or
you may use half water and half
strained tomato. Stir well as it
thickens and season to taste with salt
and pepper. Serve in a gravy boat.
Remove the strings from the meat, and
in serving cut at right angles with the
back edge.
After putting the lamb in the oven
put the bones and trimmings in the
kettle with the water used in the boil-
ing, add one onion, and a few bits of
carrot and turnip if you happen to have
them, and let the whole simmer until
the bones are clear of all gristle or
meat Then strain the liquor and set
it away to cool, and the next day you
may remove the fat, heat it again, and
have a delicious lamb broth with
boiled rice or curry.
There is another way which I know
from recent testing to be good, but
these are only samples of the many
ways that may be tried.
FRICASSEE OF LAMB.
Wipe the meat, cut it into convenient
pieces, and remove the larger bones
and the bone chips, then cut again into
pieces for serving and reject all that is
objectionable. Often the fatty sub-
stance in the back bone is tainted, and
if so remove it. Put a tablespoon of
butter or a thin slice of fat salt pork
into a Scotch bowl, and when it is hot
326


230
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
MRS. L. T. J.'S BAKED BEANS.
One quart pea beans soaked over
night in cold water. In the morning
put them into fresh water and simmer
thirty minutes, then put them into fresh
hot water and cook until they burst
slightly on removing a few of them in
a spoon and blowing on them. Then
turn them into a colander and drain
thoroughly. Place them in the bean
pot, which must be a small-top earthen
pot, known everywhere as the Boston
bean pot. A shallow tin pan will not
answer, although used in some places
outside of New England. Wash one-
quarter of a pound of salt pork, part fat
and part lean, scrape the rind till white,
and cut it one inch deep in half-inch
strips. Bury the pork in the beans
leaving only the rind in sight. Mix
one teaspoonful each of salt and mo-
lasses, one-quarter cup each of butter
and sugar, add one cup of hot water,
mix until the sugar is dissolved, then
pour it over the beans. Add enough
more water to cover them, and keep
adding hot water as needed until the
last hour. Bake from eight to twelve
hours in a slow oven, the longer the
better, so long as the beans are kept
moist.
I must add this word of caution as so
many cooks are careless about it.
Every drop of water in which beans are
soaked or parboiled should be turned
on to the ground as far from the house
as possible, as there is nothing that will
give a sink so vile a smell as bean
water. But you ask, What are the
people who live in suites or who have
no ground, to do? Put a lump of
washing soda over the pipe and let the
water run until the pipes are thor-
oughly flushed.
BREAD STICKS.
I cup milk scalded 4 yeast cake
I tbsp. butter White of i egg
4 tsp. salt About 4 cups of flour
Put the butter and salt in the hot
milk, when cool add the yeast dis-
solved in one-fourth cup of warm
water. Then add flour enough to
make a thin batter and beat until
smooth. Beat the white of egg stiff
and beat it thoroughly into the batter.
Then add enough more flour to make
a stiff dough. Knead until smooth,
light, and fine-grained.
Let it rise until light and double its
bulk. Shape into small balls, then roll
these into smooth sticks about half an
inch thick and as long as the pans.
Use a pan made especially for sticks,
but if this cannot be obtained place
them some distance apart so they can-
not touch each other in rising. Let
them rise slowly and bake in a moder-
ate oven that they may be dried
through before browning and be crisp
when done. If you like them soft in-
side let them rise quickly and bake in
a hot oven.
OLD FASHIONED SOFT GINGER-
BREAD.
2 tsp. soda 2 tsp. ginger
4 cup cold water 2 tbsp. butter
I cup molasses Flour to roll
Dissolve the soda in the cold water,
add the molasses, ginger, the butter
(melted), and flour to roll out into a
sheet half an inch thick. Lay it into a
greased and floured pan, brush the top
over with molasses and bake in a
quick oven.
CRANBERRY SAUCE.
Miss H. asks for "a recipe for a cran-
berry sauce which is not very sweet."
Try this:—
Pick over a quart of nice fresh cran-
berries, pour boiling water over them
and let them stand till cool. Then
drain them and put them into a granite
or porcelain kettle with one cup of
cold water. Allow one and a half
cups of sugar if you like them tart
and from two and a half to three cups
if you want a sweet sauce. When the
water boils all round the berries,
sprinkle one half a cup of the sugar
over them. Do not stir them but press
the berries down with a wooden spoon.
Let it boil all over for a minute and
sprinkle over another half cup in the
same way, and when this has boiled
for one minute add more sugar, etc.,
until all the sugar is used. After you


FROM DAY TO DAY.
231
have sprinkled in three half cups of
sugar taste and then add more or not
as you prefer. Let it boil up once after
the last sugar is in, but do not stir or
mash the berries. They will be soft
and of much finer flavor than when
stirred or sifted. Less sugar is re-
quired when the berries are scalded
first with the boiling water.
Cranberry Marmalade.
Here are two recipes which are
highly recommended but I have not
tried them. They are so nearly the
opposite of my favorite recipe given
in November number that I shall be
interested to hear if any subscriber
finds them an improvement over that.
Put a quart of assorted and washed
cranberries into a stewpan with a cup
of cold water, stew slowly, stirring
often, and cook for at least an hour
and a half. It should be as thick as
marmalade. Remove from the fire
and sweeten immediately with white
sugar, as much as you like. When
the sugar is dissolved rub it through
a hair sieve (the recipe says coarse
netting but the seeds would go
through that) and turn it into a mould
wet with cold water.
Cranberry Sauce No. 2.
One quart of cranberries, one pint of
cold water, and one pint of sugar.
Pick over and wash the berries, put
them into a saucepan with the cold
water, cover and let them simmer until
each cranberry bursts open. Then re-
move the cover, sprinkle the sugar
over, and let them boil twenty minutes
without stirring.
Mrs. R. asks, "How long will cran-
berries keep uncooked?"
Our common cranberries may be
kept from becoming dry and shrivelled
by putting them in large stone jars
with cold water to cover and keep
them under the water by putting a
butter box cover or flate plate on top
of the berries and then cover the jar
and keep them in a cold place.
Change the water occasionally, and
they will keep all winter.
Mrs. A. from N. writes: "I have
often wished that I might find in our
markets a variety of cranberries that
grow on high land, I think they were
called bush cranberries. Several years
ago a friend from Maine sent me some.
They were small, with a slightly bitter
flavor, quite unlike those we have in
Massachusetts. We stewed them in a
little water until tender, then turned
them into large stone jars and they
kept all winter. Whenever cranberry
sauce was needed for dinner a portion
of the stewed berries was taken out,
sweetened to taste, and stirred until
the sugar was dissolved. The flavor
was delicious and much less sugar was
required than for our varieties. We
could have cranberry sauce any time
at a moment's notice."
Can any subscriber tell us where
such cranberries can be obtained?
A lady from Los Angeles writes:—
"This note I do not send officially to
the American Kitchen Magazine be-
cause I do not know that you will
wish to answer through its columns.
I want in particular to ask for some
preparations of brains. I find them
very scarce in the cook books; and
then I want to tell you of a recipe for
carrots which has won for that vege-
table a place on this family board.
SWEET CARROTS.
"The carrots are best cut in quarter
inch dice. Boil them in salt water
uncovered. When they are almost
tender, pour off all but perhaps a quar-
ter of a cup of the water, put them
back on the stove, sprinkle with two or
three tablespoonfuls of sugar and
allow them to cook until the water
has boiled away, shaking the pot occa- .
sionally and shifting the carrots from
top to bottom with a fork that they
may all come in contact with the
sweetened water. They should be de-
cidedly sweet. When the liquid is
absorbed, melt a tablespoonful of
butter in the carrots, and pour over a
teaspoonful of lemon juice and they
are ready.
"I hope it is not altogether too


232
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
childish and presuming to say that I
find it convenient to chop egg whites
and articles of like nature with a sharp
pronged fork rather than with a knife.
"Will you tell-me what you think of
this recipe. Is it healthful and does its
appearance admit of presentation upon
a table? Apples sliced thin, a slight
sprinkling of sugar, a quarter of a cup
of water containing a teaspoonful of
vanilla poured over carefully, and then
a little more sugar. Allow this to
stand quite a while, stirring and
sprinkling with more sugar from time
to time. I quite understand that this
is shamefully inaccurate for one who
was a pupil of one of your pupils."
We are pleased to hear from you.
Do not hesitate to write again when-
ever you have anything to contribute
or in which we can help you. Your
request for recipes for preparing brains
comes in opportunely, for another
subscriber is also interested in that
subject. Several recipes are given in
this article. Your recipe for carrots
is good, and offers a little variation
from those given in other numbers of
this magazine.
I see no objection to your dish of
apples if one likes the flavor of vanilla
with apple, but personally I prefer
lemon juice. I have prepared apples
in this way and they make a very at-
tractive and palatable dish. By being
careful to use a silver knife and not let
them stand long enough to change
color they will not look uninviting.
SLICED APPLES.
Cut four large tart apples in eighths,
pare and core, and cut across sections
in thin slices, less than an eighth of
an inch. Let the slices fall into a shal-
low earthen dish, and as soon as one
apple is sliced, sprinkle over it a very
little salt and an even coating of sugar.
Mix the juice of one small lemon with
half a cup of water, and put a quarter
of it over the apple. Then repeat until
all the apples and water are used.
After five minutes drain off the syrup
and toss the apples over and pour the
syrup over again. Repeat this at in-
tervals of five minutes for several
times, then taste and add more sugar
or lemon to the syrup as preferred.
This may be served as a sauce for
dessert or to eat with meat. Or you
may use less sugar, add a little paprika
and serve it on a bed of shredded let-
tuce as a salad. Those who cannot eat
oil, and who prefer sugar and lemon
on lettuce will find the apple a pleas-
ant addition. Raw apples are ren-
dered more digestible for some peo-
ple by the use of salt.
CALF'S BRAINS.
To Prepare for Cooking1.
Soak them in cold water for half an
hour, changing the water twice, and
to the last water add one teaspoonful
salt and one tablespoonful vinegar.
Free them from loose membranes and
if they are to be divided into uniform
portions, tie each portion in a small
square of cheese cloth to keep them in
shape. Then put them into boiling
water containing one teaspoonful salt,
one tablespoonful vinegar, one slice
onion, half a bay leaf, six pepper-
corns, and cook gently for twenty
minutes. Drain off the water and let
cold water run on them until they are
chilled and whitened. Remove all the
thin membrane possible without
breaking them, and wipe dry. They
are then ready to be cooked in any of
the following ways, or by any of
the recipes for sweetbreads, or used
with sweetbreads or chicken in cro-
quettes and other entrees.
Brains Breaded and Fried.
Cut the blanched brains into slices,
dip in beaten egg seasoned with salt
and pepper, then in crumbs, and cook
one minute in deep smoking hot fat.
Or brown them on each side in hot
butter enough to cover the bottom of
a frying pan or chafing dish, and when
done garnish with sliced lemon and
pour Hollandaise sauce around them.
Brains Scalloped.
Cut the blanched brains into small
pieces, make a cup of white sauce, and
put alternate layers of buttered cracker


FROM DAT TO DAY.
233
crumbs, brains and sauce in a baking
dish, have a thick layer of crumbs on
the top, and bake until brown.
Brains a la Poulette.
Cut the blanched brains in small
thin slices, add half the quantity of
mushrooms quartered, and heat the
mixture in a Poulette sauce. Make a
white sauce with one cup of chicken
stock, one tablespoonful each of butter
and flour. When ready to serve, beat
yolks of two eggs with half a cup of
cream and stir this into the sauce after
removing it from the fire. Season with
salt, pepper and two teaspoonfuls each
of lemon juice and chopped parsley.
Brain Fritters.
Cut the brains into inch cubes, dip
them in fritter batter and fry in hot
deep fat. Drain and serve with a Tar-
tare sauce.
Brains with Tomato Sauce.
Cut the blanched brains in halves,
brown slightly in hot butter, serve
them on a bed of boiled spaghetti, and
pour a tomato sauce over them, then
sprinkle fresh grated Parmesan cheese
over the whole.
CoqnlUe of Brains.
Cut them into small pieces, put a
few into some scallop shells or rame-
kins, cover with tomato sauce, a
sprinkling of grated cheese and fine
buttered crumbs and bake until slight-
ly colored. Serve on individual plates
protected by a dainty napkin.
Brains with Brown Butter.
Cut the blanched brains in halves
and brown quickly in hot butter, being
careful not to burn the butter. Lay
them on a hot dish, then add two table-
spoonfuls of vinegar to the butter, let
it boil up once and take up all the glaze,
then pour it over the brains.
A subscriber from Xenia, O., wishes
the recipe for
MAIZE SAUCE.
Scald one pint of milk and pour it
gradually on two tablespoonfuls butter
and one tablespoonful of cornstarch
cooked together. Season with one
level teaspoonful salt and a saltspoon-
ful of paprika. When ready to serve stir
into it one cup of popped corn. Serve
it with boiled fowl as a garnish around
the bird, and put a sprinkling of dry
popped corn on the edge.
A request has come in for
WHOLE-WHEAT BREAD.
This makes one loaf. Dissolve half
a yeast cake in quarter of a cup of
warm water, add one cup warm milk,
half a teaspoonful salt, one teaspoon-
ful of sugar and white flour sufficient
to make a batter that breaks when you
pour it. Let this rise an hour or until
light, keeping the bowl in a pan of
warm water, hot enough to bear the
hand. Then stir in fine, granulated
wheat (Health Food Company's) until
the dough will keep up round when
you stop mixing.
Mix it with a knife until smooth,
then rise again until double its bulk.
Cut it down, turn on to the board and
shape into a loaf with as little kneading
as possible. Let it rise in the pan until
double, then bake in a hot oven about
forty minutes.
Whole-wheat Bread No. 2.
The same as the first rule, only use
all fine whole wheat flour (Franklin
Mills), and mix at once into a dough
stiff enough to knead. Knead, rise,
shape, rise again and bake as above.


NEWS FROM THE FIELD.
Items about the Work and Workers in Domestic Science.
THESE programs of single lectures
are taken at random from the
weekly notices of the series of
demonstrations given by Miss Lucy C.
Andrews at the Atlanta Exposition.
They show the methods followed there
and also will be helpful to persons who
are arranging courses of lectures:—
Broiled Fish, Farina Croquettes,
Tomato Salad, Green Gage Ice Cream.
Mackerel Baked in Cream, Raised
Graham Muffins, Moulded Fruits.
Bean Soup, Hominy Flakes, Eggs
and Mushrooms in Chafing Dish,
Steamed Cottage Pudding.
Sweet Pepper Dolmas, Hudnut
Fritters, Milk Sherbet.
Spanish Omelet, Cream Corn Bread,
Peach Pudding.
Terrapin Stew for the Chafing-Dish,
Beaten Biscuit, Jam Pudding, Foam-
ing Sauce.
Boned Chicken, Cream Cookies,
Pear Ice Cream.
Chicken Gumbo, Boiled Rice,
Squash Biscuit, Chestnut Cream.
Mutton Chops, Cream Carrots,
Corn Bread, Gateau St. Honore.
Roast Turkey, Gluten Bread, Eng-
lish Plum Pudding.
¥ ¥
The school of cooking is one of the
most important branches of the work
of the Y. W. C. A. of Ottawa, Canada,
and is in charge of Miss Bessie Living-
stone, of the Boston School of Domes-
tic Science, who has associated with
her as demonstrator, Miss Millar, late
superintendent of the Montreal School
of Cookery.
The classes opened with a good at-
tendance. The practice lessons are
given on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and
the demonstration lesson on Wednes-
day. A course of lectures will also
be given in the towns around the Ot-
tawa district before W. C. T. U. and
other societies.
Miss Livingstone and Miss Millar
have prepared a number of short talks
with demonstrations for Farmers' In-
stitutes. Among their subjects for
such lectures are: The Food Value of
Milk, Diet for Children, The Cookery
of Vegetables, The Farm Kitchen,
Medicinal Properties of Fruits, The
Economical Cookery of Meats.
¥ ¥
Miss Marion D. Patterson, a recent
graduate of the Boston Cooking
School, gave a series of lessons in con-
nection with a teachers' institute at St.
Johnsbury, Vt., and has given some
successful demonstrations in that
vicinity.
¥ ¥
Mrs. Althea W. Somes, who since
her graduation from the Boston Cook-
ing School has been a successful
teacher in the public school kitchens,
was married in October to Mr. David
L. Lindenberg of Roxbury, Mass.
*• ¥
The Fortnightly Club of Winches-
ter, Mass., has been studying mush-
rooms and methods of cooking them.
At one of the regular meetings this
season, Mrs. Kate Tryon gave a talk
on mushrooms, and Miss Charlotte
Wills of the Boston Cooking School
showed how to cook and serve them.
* ¥
At the Milwaukee Food Fair held in
the autumn, the model kitchen was
furnished with the latest labor-saving
devices. The lectures were given by
Mrs. Lemcke of Brooklyn, N. Y., and
Miss Mary L. Clark of the Milwaukee
Cooking School.
* ¥
Mrs. Mary L. Wade has recently re-
turned to her home in Atlantic, Mass.,
after a successful series of demonstra-
tion lectures in Fergus Falls, Minn.
234


HOUSEHOLD ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION.
237
mind. Exercise in relation to health,
mental life, morals. Relation of in-
come to expenditure. The kitchen:
Location, structure, furnishing, rela-
tive to life of the family.
References: Home Handicrafts,
Charles Peters; Women Wage Earn-
ers, Mrs. Helen Campbell; Physiology
of Bodily Exercise, Ferdinand La-
grange; Physiology of Common Life,
James Johnston; The Easiest Way in
Housekeeping, Mrs. Helen Campbell.
VIII: Ventilation—Home, School,
Public Buildings. Sanitation: Who
is responsible for the sanitary condi-
tion of dwellings. Drainage, private
and public, its history, present methods
and tendencies.
References: Hygeia, A Model City
of Health, Dr. Benjamin W. Richard-
son; Women Plumbers and Doctors,
Mrs. H. M. Plunkett; Sanitary House
Inspection, W. P. Gerhard; How to
Drain a House, George E. Waring.
IX: Woman's work: As a wage
earner; as house mother in the com-
munity. How to simplify housekeep-
ing. The question of service; from
standpoint of mistress, from standpoint
of maid. Dress, in its relation to
beauty, health, comfort and morality.
References: The Servant Question,
Harriet Prescott Spofford; Domestic
Service, Mrs. C. L. Stone; Domestic
Service, E. P. Whipple; Prisoners of
Poverty, Helen Campbell; The Biddy
Club, Griffith Nicholas; Cooperation,
Mrs. C. L. Pierce; The Evolution of
Woman, Mrs. Edna Proctor Gamble.
HOUSEHOLD ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION.
MASSACHUSETTS BRANCH.
THE December meeting of the
Massachusetts Household Eco-
nomic Association was held in
the Grundmann Studio Building, Dec.
31, at 3 P. M. Mrs. Spooner, record-
ing secretary pro tern,, read the min-
utes of the last meeting, from the
American Kitchen Magazine. Mrs.
Spooner also read a communication
signed by the board of managers ex-
onerating the president in regard to
charges preferred by Miss D. C.
Phelps that Mrs. Tobey had used her
influence as president to further pri-
vate ends; and urging harmony and
peaceful relations within the associa-
tion.
At the close of the reading Miss
Phelps asked that her letter to the
board be read, as it would prove her
charges to be against a grocer's sales-
man, and not against Mrs. Tobey.
This reading was refused by Mrs.
Tobey, and she stated that Miss
Phelps was to have no further hearing.
Mrs. Tobey then read Mrs. Alice J.
Whitney's poem published in the De-
cember number of the American
Kitchen Magazine, as expressing the
hope for the Massachusetts branch as
well as for the National Association.
Mrs. Tobey also quoted from Dr.
Edson's article in the North American
Review as illustrating and emphasizing
her thought in regard to disease germs.
She begged the individual members of
the association to feel an increased
responsibility for extending its influ-
ence, and outlined a plan for working
by districts, thus getting better results
through the friendly rivalry between
districts.
After further discussion as to
whether the meeting should be ad-
journed on account of a motion by
Miss Phelps, Mrs. Tobey requested a
delay in order that Miss Tower might
speak of the work done by the North
End Union. An interesting account
of the union was given by Miss Tower,
and the help of the association was
sought for the support of a teacher of
kitchen garden. At the close of Miss
Tower's remarks Mrs. Tobey men-
tioned two other opportunities for
kitchen garden work, at Berkeley
Temple and at the Dorothea House.
The meeting then adjourned.


KITCHEN-CRA FT.
239
"It's the seasoning as does it," after
all for although slow cooking will ac-
complish wonders, that is not every-
thing which is needed. A bet was re-
cently made by two French gour-
mands, one of whom asserted that he
could detect the component parts of
any dish set before him, the other bet-
ting at great odds that he would not
be able to tell the material wherewith
his cook would prepare a "savory dish"
for them. The bet was taken, the one
confident in his quick, natural sense,
the other in the skill of his cook. The
cook—a Frenchman—of course ex-
erted all his talents and surpassed all
praise. The dish was placed before
the knowing epicure. He tastes,
smacks his lips, tastes again. Alas!
it is redolent of all rich odors; such
solids—so soft, so tender! What can
it be? A wondrous prepared tripe?
No. Calf's head in a new shape? No,
no, no! a thousand noes! The epicure
gives it up. "It is old white kid
gloves," is the cool explanation when
the bet is resigned as lost.
A French chef claims to have suc-
ceeded in evaporating sauces until so
dry that they can be preserved almost
indefinitely. When used the tablets
are placed in the right proportion of
cold water, which is stirred over the
fire until the water boils, and there is
the sauce with all its original flavor.
Perfumed butter is becoming fash-
ionable at breakfast and tea tables.
The butter is made into pats and
stamped with a floral design and is
then wrapped in thin cheese cloth and
placed on a bed of roses, violets or
carnations, arranged in a flat-bot-
tomed dish. Over these is placed a
layer of flowers, so that the butter pat-
ties are imbedded in flowers. They
are then placed on ice, where they are
allowed to remain for several hours.
This butter is eaten with crisp Vienna
rolls, accompanied only by a cup of
chocolate or delicious Mocha.
A clever invention, which makes
everyone wonder why it has not been
thought of before, has lately been
patented by an English hardware firm.
It consists in a corrugated upper rim
for saucepans and kettles, which are
covered in the ordinary way. The
corrugations leave a space for the es-
cape of steam, so that there is no
trouble from boiling over; moreover,
it becomes an easy matter to drain off
the water, when desired, without re-
moving the cover, and with no danger
of scalding the hands.
Another saucepan has a cover with
a small flap on one side fitting over a
corresponding spout. Under the flap
is a strainer and by raising the flap all
liquid is readily drained off, while the
solid substance remains in the pan.
A palatable and easily digested form
of milk is thus described in the Dietetic
and Hygienic Gazette as prepared by
Dr. Robert T. Edes. A pint of milk
is gently warmed. Into it is dropped,
very slowly and with constant stirring,
about twenty minims of the dilute hy-
drochloric acid of the United States
Pharmacopoeia. The milk should be
stirred until it cools. In this way a
very fine flocculent coagulum is pro-
duced, floating in the whey, which is
easily accessible to the digestive secre-
tions, while the whole fluid has lost
somewhat of the flat and cloying taste
which makes it unacceptable to so
many. It will be noticed that milk
prepared in this way differs from the
various "wheys" in the highly impor-
tant particular that the casein is re-
tained and used, instead of being sepa-
rated out as a distinct product, while it
avoids the bitterness of pancreatinized
milk.
Gold aluminum is a new substance
for table utensils. It is a solid metal
having no plating to wear off, and is
of uniform color throughout. An-
other advantage on its side is that it
will bear all sorts of hard usage.


O o O O O O ^"^ O ^"^ O O O — O O O O O O ^"^ O O O .
f§ >v EDITORIALS ^ §
THE frontispiece this month will
reward the careful student of its
lines, though the careless ob-
server may find it less attractive than a
more modern picture. It was taken
from the title page of Marx Rumpolt's
"Ein Newes Kochbuch," a folio vol-
ume, which was issued at Frankfort in
1581.
The expressions on the faces of cooks
are highly entertaining especially
that of the good woman who is tasting
one of her concoctions. The free and
easy way in which dishes and foods
are placed upon the floor may have
some relation to the serene expression
on the countenance of the cat basking
in the warm arch under the stove.
It is a bit mortifying to note that
many of the implements are practically
the same as those we use to-day. The
kitchen has not made the progress it
should have in three hundred years.
WITH the present issue of the
American Kitchen Magazine
many aspects of home science
are brought before the public. First,
there is a charming account of the
methods of housekeeping near Paris,
which makes us all want to fly to such
a paradise. Pauline Carrington Rust
gives a pleasant picture of Southern
life, ancient and modern. Some fea-
tures of domestic science shown at
Atlanta will interest both those who
did and who did not attend the expo-
sition.
Mrs. Ewing tells of the work pro-
posed for the Cooking Teachers'
League which all teachers are invited
to join. The Rumford Kitchen mot-
toes, more of which will appear in a
following issue, deserve a place in
every kitchen in the land. The last
part of the government report on milk
fermentations deals particularly with
butter and cheese.
Miss Weaver gives a helpful outline
of experiments with starch, some of
which may be used by every teacher
of domestic affairs. Dr. Thudichum's
chapter on the nomenclature of dishes
is reprinted to call attention to the
carelessness shown in that direction,
even by those who should know better.
Mrs. Lincoln's "From Day to Day"
is unusually full and helpful. Every
subscriber should feel free to ask ques-
tions and receive answers through this
department.
THE question proposed for discus-
sion by the Cooking Teachers'
League is a wide one, but it has
the merit of direct application to every
household in the land. Naturally it
arouses some criticism from the teach-
ers who would prefer to begin more
modestly and with a less complex sub-
ject.
It would be difficult, however, to
find a smaller topic on which all would
agree, while the different phases ofthis
subject will interest all teachers of
home science. Though it may not ap-
peal to the teacher who is not a house-
keeper, she should be mindful of the
young girls with whom she comes in
contact, many of whom within a
decade will be puzzling over this ques-
tion in their own homes. It really
strikes at the pivotal point around
which our home life revolves.
IN her recent lecture on "Food,"
Mrs. Jenness-Miller advocated giv-
ing more thought and study to
the composition of food, its effect on
the human system, and to the judi-
240


EDITORIAL.
241
cious selection of the foods best
adapted to certain conditions. "We
must not eat to-day the same as we
ate yesterday, or to-morrow what we
have eaten to-day, or next Monday re-
peat our menu of last Monday." In-
stead of priding ourselves on our
preference for plain cooking we must
learn to prepare richer food—not
richer in the sense of expensive mate-
rials, unwholesome combinations, etc.,
but richer in nutritive elements, com-
bined and compounded in such a man-
ner that they will make rich blood,
rich in something for every part of the
body. One of her quotations, "Plain
cooking is the bringing together of
flour, water, meat, vegetables and fire
and letting them fight it out," contains
many a grain of truth.
AN item has floated through many
papers recently to the effect that
some teacher of a cooking school
has said to her class: "It is no use pre-
tending that housekeeping is easy; it
isn't. It is hard work."
This statement may be true literally,
but it requires some qualification.
There is no trade or profession where
success can be attained without hard
work, and housekeeping is no harder
than any other occupation.
Moreover, if a trade is thoroughly
learned and constantly practised its
performance soon becomes easy. The
main reason why so many women con-
sider housekeeping hard work is be-
cause they have not learned their trade
and have acquired such knowledge as
they may possess by hard and round-
about methods which have made the
work disagreeable.
While it is unwise to represent
housekeeping as mere child's play,
teachers of this branch especially
should be careful not to allow them-
selves to present the subject too se-
verely, since in popular estimation
housekeeping is now one of the least
desirable occupations.
SOME statistician has shown that the
average salary of Congregational
ministers is about one thousand
dollars. On this sum they live in com-
fort, educate their children and give
liberally to charitable enterprises. To
accomplish this requires much care-
ful planning, usually on the part of the
house-mother, and yet there is seldom
a woman in the community who has
more social duties of one sort and
another than the minister's wife. This
is no new departure, though the "new
woman" is supposed to be the first to
attempt the combination of home and
outside life.
It is to such women, whose horizon
is not measured by the walls of a single
house, that we must look for the devel-
opment of a home life worthy of the
name.
MANY visitors at the offices of the
American Kitchen Magazine
have suggested that one of the
rooms was "just the place for a cook-
ing class."
We are happy to announce that for
a limited period it will be used for that
purpose by Miss Maria Daniell, who
is now forming classes for the month
of February, and who also will give
private lessons. Miss Daniell is a thor-
oughly practical teacher and has had a
wide experience in teaching.


BOOKS AND MAGAZINES.
A Daily Staff for Life's Pathway. — Selected
and arranged by Mrs. C. S. De Rose. Illus-
trated by Izora C. Chandler. Cloth; pp. 380.
Price $1.00. F. A. Stokes, publisher, New
York and London.
This little book is singularly free
from the weaknesses of its class. The
sentimental and worn-out quotation is
absent, and a glance at the convenient
authors' index shows a list of men and
women whose thoughts must prove of
practical daily help to every reader.
The compiler has evidently spared no
effort that would make the book what
it aims to be.
Three Hundred and Sixty-six Dinners. —
Suggested by M. E. N. Published by G. P.
Putnam's Sons, New York.
The motto of this little hand-book,
"bis vivit qui bene," is exemplified by
the menus here given. Here are din-
ners enough even for 1896 with its ad-
ditional day in February. The din-
ners as here planned, every one of five
or more courses, are far too elaborate
and expensive for families of moderate
means, yet will be suggestive and by
the omission of half the list of dishes
may be adapted to almost any condi-
tion of life.
It is a hard task to plan so many din-
ners without frequent repetitions, yet
it seems unnecessary to include mutton
soup and mutton stew in a single meal,
or lamb broth and lamb chops. Often
articles are suggested at a season when
they could not be at their best and
must be expensive. Nevertheless this
is a book that will commend itself to
housekeepers who find it difficult to
think "what to have for dinner."
Beside the menu there is a quotation
from prose or poetry for every day,
though this seldom relates to food or
cookery.
Pilgrim Cook Book. — Issued by the ladies of
the Pilgrim Congregational Church, Lansing,
Mich. Price 25 cents.
This book contains a good collec-
tion of recipes well adapted for popular
use, which were contributed mainly
by the ladies who published it. There
is also a chapter on "Diet for the Sick,"
by Helen Campbell.
The Lottery Ticket.—By J. T. Trowbridge.
Eight full-page illustrations, cloth, price jjSi.oo.
Lee & Shepard, publishers, Boston.
Like all of Mr. Trowbridge's books
for youth, this one tells a most whole-
some story, while it possesses much
dramatic interest. The temptations
surrounding Weber Lockridge are
similar to those which have to be met
by many young men entering upon a
business life, and told in the author's
delightful style, the story is one that
cannot fail to have an elevating influ-
ence on the career of all young people
who read it. It originally appeared as
a serial in the "Youth's Companion,"
but in its present form it is consider-
ably enlarged: several chapters and
parts of chapters have been added in
order to introduce scenes deemed
needful for a satisfactory completion of
the narrative, but which could not be
conveniently brought within the lim-
ited space allowed to serials in the
"Companion."
Young Master Kirke. — By Penn Shirley.
Illustrated; cloth; pp. 156, price 75 cents.
This book, which is the first in the
Silver Gate series, is a continuation of
the adventures of the Rowe children
who are already well known to readers
of the "Little Miss Weezy Series." It
is a simple, wholesome little story
which children will enjoy.
242








246
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
madame's own particular property—
wedges of dripping honey, pats of but-
ter covered with cool, green leaves,
and a section of creamy cheese—rests
high upon this vegetable bed in order
that the connoisseur in such articles
may have no difficulty in deciding at
a glance as to their freshness and gen-
eral excellence. Odd nooks and cran-
nies are utilized for the display of
bunches of sage, thyme, parsley and

Bon Secours Market.
has to work with, to be sure! and how
artistically, either consciously or other-
wise, she sets forth her country wares!
An artist with truest eye for color ef-
fects could not improve upon her na-
tive cunning.
In the background, that is, just be-
hind the single high seat, which is all
this cart possesses, stands the rough
wicker cage containing the poultry—
chickens, hens, ducks, a goose per-
haps, and sometimes pigeons. A state
of excitement, consequent upon the
long ride, prevails here, and the air is
filled with a chorus of disturbed cluck-
ing, hissing and cooing, that dimin-
ishes only with the sacrifice, at irreg-
ular intervals, of the carefully fatted
prisoners.
In front of the cage, potatoes rise in
a neat brown mound which forms a
very effective setting for a bunch of
golden carrots. A heap of purple-
skinned onions is flanked by an equal
quantity of snowy turnips; great
glossy cabbages, whose leaves curl
outward like the petals of a full-blown
rose, have for neighbors a dozen or so
ripe tomatoes; the yellow necks of
summer squashes protrude from con-
venient corners; ears of green corn,
peas, beans, cucumbers, beets, have
each a carefully chosen space; while
those other fragrant herbs, without
which no Canadian soup or ragout is
considered palatable. Such fruits as
the farm may produce, and they are
not numerous, stand well toward the
front, which fact bespeaks the value in
which they are held. The berries and
eggs having exceeded perhaps the
capacity of the cart are set upon the
sidewalk, where may also repose a jar
of cream and a pail of fresh buttermilk.
And last there are the flowers—
those big, fragrant bunches of sweet-
peas, mignonette and nasturtiums,
which are scattered everywhere over
the homely merchandise, giving it a
gala air quite in keeping with the spirit
of the day and, better still, bringing
refreshing glimpses of sweet old coun-
try gardens into the dusty city street.
One rarely sees even the humblest
display without these dainty acces-


.1 LADY OF THE OLDES TIME.
249
butter needs no longer its leafy cover-
ing. A great blight seems to have
fallen upon everything, except indeed
the wearer of those layers of fur and
homespun, and she refuses to be im-
pressed by anything so intangible as
temperature. Her mother, her grand-
mother, and a long line of female an-
cestors tucked their feet in straw and
rode away over the snowy roads, and
it has not occurred to this modern
representative to depart from their
ways. As long as the good people of
Montreal continue to indulge in Sun-
day dinners, so long will she brave
wind and ice and snow in order to sup-
ply the essentials for that feast.
But it is on the Bon Secours of July
and August that the memory likes
best to dwell. And who having once
spent a Friday morning at that time of
the year in the midst of this busy scene,
can ever forget the picture?—the set-
ting of gloomy, time-stained stone, the
brilliant confusion of masses of lus-
cious fruits and vegetables, the outer
ring of primitive little carts, and be-
yond and surrounding all, the blue
reaches of the mighty St. Lawrence.
A visit to this place awakes thrills
of enthusiasm in the least domestic of
souls and fills one with a single over-
whelming desire—to seize a generous
basket and to buy and buy and buy of
those delicious green things, until its
lids shall refuse to close upon its super-
abundance.
A LADY OF THE OLDEN TIME —A. D. 1400.
HY PAMELA MCARTHUR COLE.
THE time had come when, in the
words of the great Master of Ro-
mance, "Saxon and Briton and
Norman and Fleming should learn to
call themselves by one name, and think
themselves alike children of the land
they were born in,"—and Dame Ur-
sula, of mingled Saxon and Norman
stock, was proud to call herself
"English."
Her home was in one of those feudal
castles of which the ruins here and
there are among the picturesque fea-
tures of "merrie England." The
changes of those troublous times re-
quired constant watch and ward, and
at early morning or late night, the first
and last sound that fell on Dame
Ursula's ear was the clatter of arms,
and the tread of the sentinel. The
large extent of the ground, some
thirty acres, allowed the division of dif-
ferent buildings, and court yard and
gardens gave space and air for the
exercise needed in a life which to us
seems narrow and confined. Not
more than three or four times in a life
of some sixty years did Dame Ursula
leave her dwelling.
Betrothed at the age of seven, she
had come from her own home to be
brought up under the eye of her future
mother-in-law, and had been carefully
trained in the branches of education
thought needful for her. She had
learned spinning and weaving, she was
skilled in embroidery, and she care-
fully instructed in its mysteries her
daughters and her attendants, young
damsels sent her for training. Their
needles were few, and those kept with
the greatest care, as they were brought
at great expense "from over seas."
Among their embroideries were their
own garments, "mantels" and robes for
festive occasions, the hangings and
counterpanes for beds, the banners
carried by husband and sons in battle;
and many a foreign foe had cause to
rue the day when he beheld Dame
Ursula's handiwork waving in the
breezes of France, or gleaming be-
neath the sun of Spain.
She was the physician of her house-


250
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
hold, and her remedies though simple
were usually efficacious. Prominent
among them were herbs gathered at
the full of the moon, and water from
a neighboring well dedicated to Saint
John the Baptist. Experience had
taught her skill in the dressing of
wounds, and some of the simplest
treatment of surgical cases. Of com-
plicated or serious illness when the ser-
vices of broader skill were required,
there are strange tales told. We hear
of the blacksmith's huge tongs being
used to remove an obstinate javelin or
arrow which common power had been
unable to withdraw from a wound, and
« a favorite method of treating that ter-
rible scourge, the small-pox, was not
only carefully to exclude all air from
the patient, but to surround him with
red objects; hangings, furnishings of
all sorts, even the dresses of the attend-
ants were to be of bright scarlet as if
"to stare the disease out of counte-
nance." This style of treatment was
called the "scarlet system or the red
cure," and having proved efficacious in
a few cases treated by the court physi-
cian, was adopted by all who could
afford it. It was long popular.
One of the few journeys of Dame
Ursula was made when during a long
absence of her husband she made a
pilgrimage to a convent twenty miles
distant to pray for his safe return and
make a vow therefor at the shrine of
Our Lady of Sorrows. How far the
costly robe embroidered by her own
hand, for the holy image, and the huge
wax tapers bestowed upon the altar,
influenced the result, we shall never
know, but when at last he returned
worn and broken by years of war and
hardship, she offered devout thanks
that her petitions had been heard, and
made liberal addition to the gifts
already promised. During such long
absence of her nearest and dearest, her
heart was cheered by no letters; no
public news-gatherer circulated the
tidings of the latest battle, or calculated
the probabilities of the destruction
wrought by the recently invented
death-dealing engines of war. Tid-
ings came only by some traveling mer-
chant or holy pilgrim who brought
news, or a wandering minstrel in his
song told whose names were best
known among the brave island war-
riors at the distant seat of war, and
what arm struck the heaviest blows on
the foreign foe.
The Dame was fashionable, and
might have been seen often in a style of
headgear greatly admired in those
days, an immense cap which rose some
two feet above the head and extended
to about the same width. It was of
gauze or tissue stretched over a light
frame of wire. These head dresses
kept their place in popular favor for
many years. The Church thundered
loudly against them, but in vain; they
were said to be the "moony tire" de-
nounced by the prophet; indeed there
is little doubt that they were of Orien-
tal origin.
On festal occasions the Dame's table
bore some form of "sotilties,"—in
modern parlance, "subtleties." These
were a creation of pastry moulded into
the form of figures, human and ani-
mal, so grouped as to express some
political or scriptural allusion. At a
marriage feast one sotiltie was an eagle
crowned; and "a tigre with a reason in
his mouth,"—the "reason" in that case
being a couplet expressing some ap-
propriate sentiment.
In all civilizations there has been
some method of marking the flight of
time. For Dame Ursula and her fam-
ily the great sun-dial did something
to show the course of the hours of the
day, but the old motto well said, "I
mark the hours that shine," and in
cloudy weather it was of but little use.
Habit, then, and the imperative calls
of hunger must have done their hum-
ble best to supply the want. For her
days, they were marked by the old
Runic calendar, or the "clogg," as it
is called. This was usually of wood,
a large block foursquare and with a
ring at the end by which it could be
hung up. On each side were marks
for the days of three months,—a short
horizontal mark stood for each week-


A LADY OF THE OLDEN TIME.
251
day, a longer mark signified Sunday,
while some appropriate symbol
marked saints' days and festivals.
These symbols were of various kinds.
Saint Valentine's day was marked by
a true-love knot. The days dedicated
to the Virgin Mary bore a heart, in
reference, presumably to the passages
of Scripture—"A sword shall pierce
through thine own heart also," and
"His mother kept these sayings and
pondered them in her heart." The
day of Saints Simon and Jude, October
twenty-eighth, bore a ship, "for they
were fishermen," while the day of
Saint Chad (March second), the hermit
whose labors were blest to the con-
version of many of Dame Ursula's
Saxon ancestors, was marked with a
small bush or twig, in reference to his
rustic dwelling.
Pictures are intelligible to any and
every capacity. Could the Dame have
read a calendar where words, not sym-
bols, designated memorable days? It
is doubtful, indeed. Printing was
then unknown, and her books, all
written, were rare and costly. If her
library comprised more than a de-
votional book, and perhaps a copy of
a few songs, it was a rare collection.
If so uncommon an event occurred as
that a letter was received or one re-
quired to be written, the services of a
priest might be called into requisition.
A domestic chaplain was usually to be
found in the castle of olden time, for
being the dwelling place of hundreds
of human beings it resembled a small
village in itself. Learning was re-
stricted to the clergy, and a man who
could prove himself capable of reading
was, even at the moment of execution,
entitled to claim a reprieve and be
given up to the ecclesiastical powers
who would protect him from any civil
tribunal. This was the ''benefit of
clergy."'
Much of the instruction received
was oral, but for those who had mas-
tered the difficulties of writing and
reading there were the old legends and
chronicles—not, as now, the beliefs of
distant ages, but the fresh and living
histories and poems—the legends of
Arthur, ''stainless knight and blame-
less man," the mythical stories of
Saxon history, the legends of saints
and martyrs.
The "morning star of the Reforma-
tion" had risen, the "well of English
undefiled" poured its waters, but not
to that generation was it given to enjoy
the pleasures reserved for a succeeding
race. Possibly from some traveled
gentleman (and such might appear at
her secluded home), Dame Ursula's
kinsfolk might hear of Chaucer and his
famous pilgrims who "to Canterbury
nolden ride,"—but her own range was
too narrow for her to sympathize with
his light comments on society, and
little would she have relished his
humorous criticisms on priest and
pardoner.
WE cannot bring Utopia by force:
But better, almost, be at work in sin,
Than in a brute inaction browse and
sleep.
No man is born into the world, whose work
Is not born with him; there is always work,
And tools to work withal, for those who will;
And blessed are the horny hands of toil!
The busy world shoves angrily aside
The man who stands with arms akimbo set,
Until occasion tell him what to do;
And he who waits to have his task marked
out
Shall die and leave his errand unfulfilled.
— yames Russell Lowell.


WOMEN OF JAMAICA.
253
the fire. This done she
cracks a few green cocoa-
nuts, and sitting on the
ground with her lazy hus-
band and bareheaded and
barefoot children partakes
of the simple meal.
Even in her benighted and
downtrodden condition she
possesses the true womanly
traits of wife and mother,
and without her the "provi-
sion ground" or vegetable
garden about the hut would
be overgrown with weeds.
She plants the yams and
trains their vines up the
poles, keeps the patches of
plantains and bananas free
from weeds, and sees that
nothing retards the growth
of the stalks of sugar-cane
that are always growing by the
doorway.
Not only this, but the Jamaica peas-
ant woman earns an honest shilling or
sixpence breaking stone with which to
macadamize the government roads;
and the traveler, as he rides along,
sees dozens of women sitting upon
heaps of the white, calcareous stone
peculiar to the island, while with
hammers they break up the large


pieces that are drawn to them in mule
carts, their husbands riding back and
forth on the overloaded carts, lazily
cracking their whips about the long
ears of the overworked mules, while
other women load and unload the
carts at each end of the route.
The Jamaica mule and the Jamaica
peasant woman have every reason to
commiserate each other upon their lot.
Saturdays the peasant woman varies
her duties by go-
ing to market,
carrying heavy
loads of plantains,
yams, bananas,
oranges, limes,
bread fruit and
avacado or "alli-
gator pears." It
is interesting and
curious to see
these women on
Saturday, trudg-
ing along the
winding roads, up
hill and down,
fording the
streams, with huge
trays or baskets
of" produce bal-
anced upon their


254
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
heads. They usually walk in groups
or in single file, scattered along
the roads for miles, and all headed for
the nearest village. Often the loads
on again. Whenever we met a party
of these simple black women, they
always stepped aside to let our horses
pass, and without pausing in their

upon their heads are so heavy that
they can neither place them there nor
remove them without help. When a
party of women stop to rest, as they
often do, they help each other take the
loads from their heads and put them
peculiar rapid walk, gave us a graceful
curtsey, which they accomplish by
simply bending the knee, at the same
time greeting us with a cheery "marn-
in', buckra" ("buckra" meaning white
man), or "marnin', marsa."


256
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
them to dry, she perhaps sits in the Poor woman! her lot is indeed
shade to rest and partakes of a joint of harder than she deserves, and on the
sugar-cane, which she chews for the streets of Kingston, a city of 40,000
sweet juices by wav of refreshment. inhabitants, I saw women working

These women are very skilful in with shovel and pick; but their black
fording the rivers, and I often saw faces always wear a cheerful smile,
them waist-deep in the Rio Grande and a merry "marnin', buckra" is
with their loads upon their heads, and always accorded the traveler,
perhaps a little black boy or girl under
one arm.


RUMFORD KITCHEN LEAFLET — NO. 6.
BY ELLEN H. RICHARDS.
Printed first in The American Kitchen Magazine by permission.
WATER and air are the two great
carriers of the world, without
which life as it is known on our
planet would be impossible. Growth
and decay require the presence of
moisture, and, in most instances, that
of air also. To preserve any organic
substance indefinitely, it is only neces-
sary to dry it completely and keep it
dry; but preservation is not living, and
life means change, and change means
the presence of water and air.
I. WATER AS A FOOD.
If a food material may be defined as
any substance which it is necessary to
take into the body daily in order that
life and health may be sustained, then
water is a food of the first importance,
since no metabolism or chemical
change Can take place in the body
without it. It is an almost universal
solvent, and as the digestive tract is a
closed sac, only such substances as
have been made soluble can pass
through the cell walls. As a rule,
dilute solutions dialyze more readily
than concentrated ones, and sufficient
water must be present in order that the
necessary interchange may take place
between the contents of the intestines
and the blood vessels, and between the
blood vessels and the cell walls.
Since the blood is the carrier of pro-
visions to all parts of the body, it must
flow freely and must have the property
of dissolving yet more material, since
it not only carries food but brings
away the waste. It must be kept at
about the same dilution in order to
retain its solvent power.
The fluids and tissues of the normal
human body contain seventy to seventy-
five per cent of water, and this amount
is to be maintained in spite of evapora-
tion and excretion if the normal pro-
cesses are to go on smoothly. In
order to maintain this proportion, more
or less water is to be taken according
to circumstances. Each person must
discover for himself the right amount,
only it is, as a rule, safer to take too
much than too little. The body has
several ways of getting rid of an ex-
cess, but if its calls for more are not
responded to, it trenches upon its re-
serves to the detriment of the whole
force.
One of the most important offices of
water in the body is apt to be over-
looked, that of heat regulator. It
goes without saying that the blood is
a heat distributer. If the feet are
plunged into hot water, the whole
body becomes warm; if the wrists are
held on cold marble the whole body is
chilled, because of the rapid circula-
tion; but the consequence of the evap-
oration from the surface of the body
of from one to three pounds of water
daily, is not so readily perceived.
There is always insensible perspiration
or evaporation, and if too much heat
is produced, as in rapid walking or
mountain climbing, perspiration is
more or less abundant, and the rapid
breathing also carries off a large
amount of water, so that two pounds
may be lost in an hour. The evapora-
tion of this amount means the carrying
away of 900 calories, or one-fourth as
much as is furnished by a day's ration.
Few people realize the importance
of an even temperature inside the
body, and many, if not most, diseases
are primarily caused by the lowering
of the temperature, which often allows
of changes inimical to health and
which permits the attacks of various
bacteria to which the body would
otherwise be proof. The use of the
chicken incubator has helped to
emphasize this fact, but man is in need
of the same uniformity of temperature
257


RVMFORD KITCHEN LEAFLET.
259
much danger of taking too much clear
water. The drinking of other liquids
may be easily overdone. The richer
the food, the more liquid is craved, and
to drink wine instead of water with
long, heavy dinners is a dietetic error
for which many men and women pay
with their lives. If wine is taken, it
should be, as was intended by the
gourmet, only a sip of the right kind
to prepare the way for the full
enjoyment of the flavor of the next
course.
The temperature of the water to be
drunk is often a vexed question. This
may be left to the individual, for the
quantity taken (one-half to one pint)
at any one time, can have but little in-
fluence upon the temperature of the
fourteen pints of blood circulating
rapidly about the seventy or more
pounds of water in the tissues which
are maintained at a temperature of
nearly one hundred.
For experiment two tumblers of ice
water have been slowly swallowed and
promptly siphoned out and found to
have attained a temperature of ninety-
five degrees in five minutes. It is true
that it is possible to swallow ice water
so rapidly and in such quantities that
the stomach receives a momentary
chill and disturbance sets in, but this
is no reason why all ice water should
be forbidden.
Dr. Gilman Thompson summarizes
the uses of water in the body as fol-
lows:—*
1. It enters into the chemical com-
bination of the tissues.
2. It forms the chief ingredient of
all the fluids of the body and maintains
their proper degree of dilution.
3. By moistening various surfaces
of the body, such as the mucous and
serous membranes, it prevents fric-
tion and the uncomfortable symptoms
which might result from their drying.
4. It furnishes in the blood and
lymph a fluid medium by which food
may be taken to remote parts of the
body and the waste material removed,
thus promoting rapid tissue changes.
* "Practical Dietetics," p. 31.
5. It serves as a distributer of body
heat.
6. It regulates the body tempera-
ture by the physical processes of ab-
sorption and evaporation.
2. AIR AS A FOOD.
Air is so important to animal life
that breathing is not left to caprice.
The animal must breathe, not two or
three times a day as it eats and drinks,
but every second or two, and it can-
not refrain at will for any length of
time as it may from eating. The lung
capacity of the human animal, in a
great measure, governs the length of
life and the state of health. How fool-
ish, then, to waste life by breathing
bad air. No one physical requirement
can be so readily increased as the
breathing capacity. Right habits of
breathing should be formed in child-
hood, so that a sufficient supply of this
food may be obtainable without exer-
tion.
The so-called food stuffs need not
only water to dissolve them, but oxy-
gen to "burn" them, or, in scientific
phraseology, to effect the chemical
changes needful for their assimilation.
About 2,000 cubic feet of air need to
pass through the lungs of an adult
daily in order to furnish oxygen in
sufficient quantity. If there is lack in
this most important food stuff (and
nothing else can take its place), starva-
tion as truly results as if other food
were withheld, for the changes re-
quired for nutrition cannot take place,
and furthermore incomplete decompo-
sition occurs, which may result in more
or less poisonous products.
Fresh air—air with its full quota of
oxygen—is, then, a prime requirement
in nutrition. This air should also be
clean, free from dust and noxious
gases, but the discussion of this factor
belongs to general sanitation rather
than to the food question.
It may be profitable to consider in
detail how the oxygen of the air serves
as a food and how much is required.
All force or energy comes from the
sun, the wind, the water-fall and


THE SOIL FACTOR IN THE DEVELOPMENT AND
PREVENTION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES.
BY EDWARD PLAYTER, M. D., OTTAWA, CANADA.
From a paper read before the American Public Health Association.
T N England, the health authorities in
\ abolishing the quarantines practi-
cally recognize, in a measure, at
least, the principle this paper is de-
signed to advocate: that, namely, of
taking into practical consideration in
preventive medicine in a much greater
measure than we do at present that
important and essential factor in the
development, growth, and spread of
infectious diseases, which has been
aptly termed soil;—the good soil, for
that infecting seed which does not fall
by the wayside nor upon rock. It is
true that even in England the prin-
ciple is not acted upon to that extent—
that personal or individual extent—
which it seems possible for us as
sanitarians to attain.
The importance in the development
of specific disease, and of epidemics
thereof, of the factor soil, is being
gradually more and more recognized;
but in all our efforts to prevent dis-
ease, it is yet kept quite in the back-
ground. True, in pamphlets distrib-
uted for preventing the spread of
diphtheria, for example, the public are
advised not to neglect a "sore throat,"
and in cholera pamphlets a few lines
of instruction are added respecting
the diet and general habits of life.
Nevertheless, almost the whole of the
instructions, like our preventive
measures, bear on the destruction of
the seed—the infection. The infec-
tion appears to be regarded as, and so
the people are taught that it is, the
one, the first and only cause of the
disease which it is our object to pre-
vent. Now are the specific germs the
first or most important cause? Are
they the immediate, exciting cause?
If it be true, as now seems probable,
if not almost certain, that the cholera
bacilli or vibrios will not live or de-
velop in a clean, healthy digestive
canal; if it be true, as seems more
than possible, that typhoid fever will
not spring up in a clean, healthy intes-
tine—one not in a condition like unto
a well-filled heated privy vault which
may transform the benign bacillus
coli communis into a virulent patho-
genic parasite; if the diphtheria
bacillus will not infect a sound, healthy
throat, and it is said it will not grow
when implanted on the sound mucous
membrane of a susceptible animal;
and if the tubercle bacillus will not
take root except in specially prepared
soil—probably, as I hope to be able
to show more clearly before many
months, a soil specially prepared by
defective respiration; then, are not the
so-termed "predisposing" conditions
of the body—of the intestinal canal, of
the throat, and of the tissues invaded
and colonized by the bacillus tuber-
culosis, respectively, in the diseases
above named, with probably in all
cases weakened phagocytes, or power
of resistance against the invading in-
fections, then are not these conditions,
rather than the disease germs, the
immediate, exciting causes of the
respective diseases?
The germs of typhoid fever, diph-
theria, and consumption are ubiqui-
tous in most countries, countless bil-
lions of them being cast off daily by
the diseased. With the majority of
persons they are harmless. Those
persons, therefore, who* furnish the
soil for the growth of the germs, and
so for the development and spread of
261


262
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
the diseases, furnish there and then the
immediate, exciting cause of them, the
most important of the two chief
causes in all infectious diseases.
Eighteen years ago, Dr. Alfred
Carpenter, the eminent English sani-
tarian, laid down the following ra-
tional hypothesis, respecting the de-
velopment of infectious diseases.*
He first remarked: "I much doubt if
these living organisms, the disease
germs, could have any effect upon the
body if the recipient were perfectly
healthy; if no impurity existed in the
fluids of the body; if the blood con-
tained nothing foreign to a healthy
and natural state."
Carpenter's theory is in exact ac-
cord with my own experience and
observation. Who are they who
most readily "take" infectious dis-
eases? Not the clean skinned, and
clean blooded. There is doubtless a
great deal yet to be learned, respect-
ing the chemical and physiological
changes, which take place in any
excess of waste material in the body,
what ptomaines, enzymes, or tonic
compounds may be thereby formed,
and what relations these bear to cer-
tain saprophytic microbes, or patho-
genic germs. The late Sir Andrew
Clark, some years ago, drew attention
to the effect, in the production of
asnema, of certain poisons arising
from the retention of fecal matter in
the intestines, as in constipation; and
it seems probable that the absorption
of certain ptomaines from the same
source, gives rise to certain so-called
"malarial" affections. In some of
these ptomaines formed from excess
of waste substances in the body it is
possible there may yet be formed es-
sential conditions, special essential
compounds, for the life and growth in
the body of the specific germs of infec-
tious diseases, when these have
gained an entrance into the body; and
possibly for the development of patho-
genic, or disease, germs from benign
organisms. The bacillus coli com-
* Canadian Health Journal, September, 1876. Vol.
II, p. 278.
munis is naturally doubtless a benign
organism. Yet it has long been sus-
pected that it may be transformed in
some way into the bacillus of true
typhoid fever.
If the bacillus coli communis may
be transformed in the body, as, prob-
ably, by a foul condition of the intes-
tine and some toxic substance evolved
therefrom, into the bacillus typhosus,
then we have a clear explanation of
the occasional, if not frequent, so
called de novo origin of typhoid fever,
concerning which there has been a
difference of opinion, and no little
controversy, during the last quarter of
a century, many of our most noted
scientists contending that it may and
does arise in this way.
However all this may be, we have
already learned enough, about which
there is no question, for a basis for safe
work in the direction indicated herein,
— that of giving in our preventive
efforts much more attention than here-
tofore to the soil factor.
Respecting the prevention of con-
sumption, for example, before we
shall succeed in greatly reducing the
mortality from this disease, much will
have to be done besides the destruc-
tion of the tubercle bacillus, toward
which nearly all preventive effort is
now directed.
Dr. Steven Smith Burt, of the New
York Post Graduate Medical School,
says: "Dealing with this disease it is
of primal consequence to keep in view
the goal for which we may reasonably
strive, namely, to elevate the tone of
the tissues and the fluids that bathe
them to a sanitary pitch, where they
themselves are the best germicides.
Bacteria do not thrive upon such
nourishment." And Dr. Blachader
of McGill Medical School last year
said: "We feel convinced that much
more can be done by us as physicians
in the way of prophylaxis, by strength-
ening the barriers that Nature raises
against the intruders, than can be
effected by any or all of our sub-
sequent therapeutic, antiseptic, or
germicidal measures."


SAYiyO GRACE.
•2^
Respecting infectious diseases gen-
erally, it is as Dr. E. Brown says:
"We ought to learn to keep our bodies
invulnerable to contagion as a fire-
proof building is impervious to fire;
that is, we should be able to resist such
moderate quantities of disease germs
as we ordinarily or necessarily en-
counter through life."
Let the people be brought to under-
stand that in the present state of so-
ciety, with its constant, close, and uni-
versal intercourse, it is impossible to
prevent the germs of disease getting
into the country; that such germs
exist everywhere, and cannot possibly
be all certainly destroyed; that indeed
it is possible they may be developed or
produced in a dirty body; and that
each individual must fortify his or her
own body by healthy living in order
that soil for the growth of the germs
shall not be available;—in brief, that
they must remove from their individ-
ual bodies as well as from their dwell-
ings, yards, and lanes, and prevent the
formation of, the exciting cause of in-
fectious or epidemic disease, used-up
waste matter,—dirt. The time is now
at hand when much more than hereto-
fore can be done in this direction, and
by the authorities. Public baths of
pure water must be more generally
provided,—the good effects of such in
Europe have been quite remarkable;
also public laundries; and if need be,
cooking establishments. Simplicity
in diet must be loudly preached or
enforced; — as well prohibit certain
tempting-to-over eat food concoc-
tions as alcoholic beverages. And,
perhaps most important of all, better
ventilation in dwellings, shops,
schools, etc., must be enforced, and
the people taught to breathe only
pure air, and in abundance with well-
developed respiratory organs. Thou-
sands die actually and practically from
"want of breath."
SAYING GRACE.
BY MRS. MARY L. WYATT.
Little Fay had accepted an invitation,
To dine with her little friend May,
And when dinner was done,
And they went out to run,
Fay asked in an innocent way,
•'What was it your papa was saying this
noon
When you folded your hands, just so,
And sat up so straight,
And bowed to your plate?
I couldn't quite hear him, you know."
Said May, " He was just saying ' Thank you'
to God,
For giving us food every day."
"Oh!" said Fay with surprise,
And with wide-open eyes,
'' My papa for ours has to pay!"


SOME ENGLISH COOKING SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS.
265
By this act an entirely new experiment
was set on foot, and educational pow-
ers were given to bodies of men quite
unaccustomed to the work; and very
naturally, and also very fortunately, as
they had, to a great extent, the power
of deciding on the instruction to be
given and the mode of giving it, many
different plans were tried, and they had
now the advantage of seeing the results
of the experiments. But in almost
every case, the subjects with which
they were concerned were chosen
amongst those in which instruction
.should be given, and this for two rea-
sons; one that their importance was
evident, and appealed to all; and the
other, a very important reason, that the
desirability of giving lessons in these
subjects was brought before the Tech-
nical Instruction Committees by insti-
tutions interested in the question, and
ready with their plans of teaching and
with the teachers—the older schools of
cookery, which had for years been do-
ing their utmost, with scanty funds, to
spread a knowledge of cookery and its
connection with health amongst all
classes of people.
Two results followed the adoption
of these subjects: Increased opportuni-
ties of instruction on matters concern-
ing their everyday life were put in the
way of women and girls past school
age; and an enormous impetus was
given to the profession of domestic
economy teaching, opening up fields
of work of which only the borders had
till then been touched.
The work in the County of London
was then described. As London was
one of the last of the counties to devote
funds to technical education, the ex-
perience of work in the counties was of
great use in deciding the best mode of
procedure for the London County
Council, different as were in many
ways the conditions under which it had
to work. What was to be done to
help, and not to hinder, all the work
which had been going on, and if pos-
sible, to help outsiders still untouched
by any agency? It was felt that to es-
tablish local committees in various
parts of London would be in almost all
cases useless. It was, therefore, de-
cided to work with existing voluntary
agencies, and to begin by engaging a
staff of teachers, and offering help in
the form of free instruction to any club
or institution for women or girls will-
ing to work under certain conditions,
which ensured the efficient manage-
ment of the classes, and yet made it
possible for pupils to attend who, by
the nature of their occupation, by the
irregular and late hours of their work,
or for other reasons, would be unlikely
to attend the School Board classes,
and for whose benefit the clubs
had been specially provided. On the
whole, the plans of the Technical Edu-
cation Board had worked well; the
audiences obtained had not as a rule
been large, but this was hardly to be
expected. The number of centres at
which lessons were given in 1893-4
was 96; in 1894-5, 113. But this
teaching of girls already at work, and
of married women, was after all only
making up leeway, and probably
would not go on; it certainly ought
not to be required to its present extent
for many more years. Already the
effect of elementary school lessons is
being felt.
From the first the board felt that if
the matter was to be dealt with seri-
ously, what was wanted was to catch
the children just when they were leav-
ing school, and give them for some
months (since a year's time could
rarely be spared) instruction in all the
branches of a housewife's duties, sup-
plementing the work of the elementary
schools in this direction, and giving the
girls teaching more thorough than is
possible under the conditions of
weekly lessons, either in school or in
evening classes. Therefore, grants
were offered to the three then existing
Polytechnic Institutes on condition of
their establishing schools of domestic
economy for girls on their leaving the
elementary schools, and taking two-
thirds of the pupils as free scholars
nominated by the board. The schools
were opened in February, 1894, and


270
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
ered and classes unsuccessful for the
want of a trained superintendent who
has the practical knowledge of exactly
the apparatus a class needs and of what
can be done. It is quite a mistake to
think that because a lady knows how
to manage her own household she will
know how to provide the necessary
apparatus for a cookery class. Local
committees fail so often in properly
providing requisite apparatus from a
want of technical knowledge.
Miss Fanny L. Calder, of Liverpool,
said that she had been asked to make
a few amendments upon some of the
previous excellent papers and speeches.
As the school which she represented
had the honor of originating the vari-
ous schemes of work of which they had
just heard, her experience justified the
few additions she would now make.
As to the success or non-success of
laundry work, that was quite a local
matter;' while some districts never
asked for a second course, others were
most eager to continue the lessons, and
one county which had engaged a
teacher for a two weeks' course had
kept her continuously employed for
two and a half years. She had been
also asked to mention the large de-
mand that existed for ladies trained in
laundry work to take the headship of
girls' small homes—a large field of
fairly good remunerative work. As to
the fear of monotony in the future de-
velopments of domestic science teach-
ing, she could only say that so far the
new schemes carried out afforded exer-
cise for the most varied talents in the
ladies appointed to carry them into
execution, and as far as remuneration
was concerned, ladies of "birth, refine-
ment, education, power and cheerful-
ness" had been found quite content to
accept the salaries offered, and looked
quite healthy and happy in their work.
Time failed, or she would wish to have
told of the various County Councils
which, from the very first, had laid
aside money for the women's branches
of technical education in response to
an appeal on behalf of women from the
Council of the National Union for the
Technical Education of Women in the
Domestic Sciences.
Mrs. F. E. H. Gordon, of the Na-
tional Health Society, described the
German schools of domestic economy.
The great point was that German girls
were taught how to buy, and how to
save money. Here they taught and
advocated thrift, but not wise money-
spending. The girls in German
schools were taught and sent to buy;
to judge quality and choose good
value for their money; they were also
taught how to manage small holidays,
instead of spending much and enjoy-
ing little from them. It would be a
great advantage if women of the
artisan class could be taught the art of
wise spending, of making the most of
the small sum with which they had to
do so much.
WHY fret thee, soul,
For things beyond thy small control?
Do but thy part, and thou shalt see
Heaven will have charge of these and thee.
Sow thou the seed, and wait in peace
The Lord's increase.
— Kate Putnam Osgood.


272
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
always have ready money except at
pay day. Separate articles are sold, or
a full lunch is furnished for fifteen
cents, of which the following are sam-
ples—tea or cocoa with bread and
butter being always given.
1. Pea soup, lamb pie, cottage
pudding.
2. Clam chowder, baked beans,
lemon jelly.
3. Fish chowder, baked fish with
potatoes, steamed pudding.
The educational value of the place,
which has been from the first the main
point with the New England Kitchen
work, is not overlooked by the com-
pany, and they treasure such remarks
as the following: "I never liked soup
before, now I want it every day and I
miss it if I do not get it." Another
man was heard to say, "I never had
such good food before in my life."
Another man said to a group of com-
panions, "I had such a good dinner at
the restaurant, I feel fine."
The aim of the firm is to furnish the
food at cost of preparation, and they
will undoubtedly enlarge the plant as
fast as the demand warrants. It is to
be hoped that other establishments
will take courage from this success
and that many will follow the example
so worthily set by the Clark Thread
Company.
STUDY OF A COLORED SERVANT.
BY MARY WAGER-FISHER.
T N the spring of 1893 a colored
| woman came into my employ
under circumstances—not neces-
sary to detail—that led me, however,
to regard her either as a person of ex-
traordinary veracity for one of her
class, or else extremely desirous of
securing a place outside of the city of
Philadelphia.
She said that her age was thirty-
eight, that her name was Calla Cun-
diff, but that her letters from her
mother would be addressed to Mrs.
Calla King, the name of her third
husband. Cundiff was her fourth,
but she did not wish her mother to
know that she had married again, as it
might hurt her feelings.
In physique Calla had a figure that
was not only slender, but even ele-
gant, and she dressed herself with a
quiet taste that would have been in
good keeping for a lady. It was rare
indeed that her speech indicated any-
thing less than perfect good breeding,
her voice being low and clear, and her
enunciation faultless. She was some-
thing more than a mulatto; and when
she said that her father was white and
a Scotchman, her freckled face and
stubbed features, entirely un-negro,
seemed to be explained. Her face
wore a tired look at all times, but she
said that she was never tired.
There seemed to be nothing that
she could not do, from laundering a
shirt to making a vol-au-vent, and one
of her first oracular utterances was
that she need never be told how to do
anything. Cook books she treated
with contempt. She had traveled in
Europe as lady's maid, and she had
worked at dressmaking; but sewing
her physician said was bad for her,
and he had ordered her to do house-
work in the country. She couldn't
abide servants about her, and only
accepted service where she would be
the only maid employed.
In addition to her various accom-
plishments she often alluded to her
"literary work" — her replies in the
newspapers to various articles on do-
mestic service reform, treatment of
domestics, etc., and one day she re-
ferred to her novel! Yes, she had
written a novel, as yet unprinted, but
several persons had seen it — Mr.
George W. Childs among others —
who said that it had merit, but not
enough to advise its publication.
Could I be allowed to see it? Oh,


8TUDY OF A COLORED SERVANT.
273
certainly!-—it was with a friend in
Germantown — she would go for it
some day—and she kept her word.
Naturally, as occasion offered, I
improved it to learn from my remark-
able maid something of her history.
Although her marital adventures had
been many she frankly avowed that
her mother was the only person in the
world for whom she cared a farthing,
and that she had supported her for
twenty years.
This mother had been a slave in a
leading Charleston, S. C, family, and
she still resided in that city. After the
emancipation she started a laundry,
and sometimes had as many as twenty
women in her employ. She and her
white Scotch husband had a large
family of children—some eight or ten.
Soon after the war, an Episcopal
clergyman from New England, visit-
ing Charleston, became interested in
the family, and consented to take
North with him two of the children, a
boy and a girl, to be educated.
The girl was Calla. They were
kept in the clergyman's family and at-
tended the public school. Calla de-
clared that if she had remained at
home and grown up like the other
children, she would never have had
such a violent temper as cursed her,
and would have been well enough
educated for a "nigger."
"It is all very nice," she once said,
"for you Northern people to say that
you respect colored people just as
much as you do whites so long as they
are honest and respectable. But you
don't. I'm just as much white as
black, but so long as one has a drop of
colored blood in his veins that shows,
just so long is he an outcast. Talk is
cheap, but the fact remains un-
changed. It makes my blood boil to
think of it. In that New England
school, because I was witty and smart,
I was allowed to have my own way,
and the result was I was spoiled for a
colored person. I used to go off in per-
fect rages of temper, and they would
only laugh and think it was smart! It
isn't thought smart now, but I go off
in the rages all the same. But I have
the comfort of despising the whites
just as much as you do the blacks."
She would never eat at the same
table with the gardener, who was
white, but during his meal she would
sit with her back toward him reading
a newspaper. At the end of each
month she always presented her bill
to me, faultlessly made out in copper
plate handwriting, and exact to the
last penny.
Her novel, which she had named
"Eliza," consisted of about one hun-
dred and fifty pages of finely written
foolscap paper, and with here and
there lapses into negro idioms, it was
a fairly grammatical production.
The story began with a slave family in
New England, a century or more ago,
and was transferred thence to South
Carolina, covering several generations
of families. The characters were the
slave owners, and the thread of the
tale, extremely slight and of small in-
terest, was the custom that had for
generations prevailed in the family for
the eldest son to marry the eldest
daughter, — this often involved the
marriage of rather nearly allied rela-
tives, the southern idea of the "family"
including all the collateral branches,
—but it was believed if this long ob-
served custom was broken a curse
would rest upon the marriage. The
greater part of the story was devoted
to the "cursed marriage" which took
place after seven generations of ob-
servance of the custom, and Eliza, the
ill-fated bride, came to a terrible end.
Calla declared that the story was true
—that it had all happened in two lead-
ing South Carolina families, and she
had heard the story from her mother's
lips.
As Calla appeared to have great
contempt for men, and still had made
various alliances, I was curious to
hear her explanation of her behavior.
She had one child, a grown daughter,
whom years before she had sent to
live with the grandmother. She said
that her first husband was sickly and
did not live long. Her second had


274
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
gone off with somebody else and she
didn't know his whereabouts. Her
third had an excellent position as a
coachman, and she thought with his
wages—$40 a month beside his board
—that she could live nicely and not
have to work. But he was a Roman
Catholic, very particular about mass
and Friday's meat, "terribly pious," as
she expressed it, and the meanest man
that ever breathed. She said that he
had so set her against religion that she
herself never went to church any
more. Number four she had married
to spite number three—and he was of
such small account any way, that he
didn't count!
There was something so uncanny
about the woman, and withal so much
that was remarkable, that I never
could free myself of the feeling that
she was rather a dangerous person to
have in the house. She had days
of sulking when she would speak
scarcely above a whisper, but perform
her work with unfailing exactitude.
She never displayed her anger in a
noisy way, being always quiet, al-
though often looking pallid with rage.
One of her grievances, which she had
aired in print, was that her employers
called her "Calla," instead of "Mrs.
King"—or whatever her last acquired
appellation might be.
Calla was an admirer of Dickens,
and a part of her impedimenta was a
bulky volume of his complete works,
which she read and read, and at
times sententiously criticised. Her
wit was keen as a two-edged blade,
and it was evident that whoever was
so unwary as to argue with her would
suffer ignominious defeat.
It was through an indiscretion on
my part that we lost her valuable ser-
vices, for desiring to have for lunch-
eon one day a cream omelette, for
which I had a rare and choice recipe
not to be found in cook books, I pre-
sumed to lay the directions before her
with the request that she follow the
rule in making it. The omelette ap-
peared deliciously concocted, but
hardly was the platter laid on the table
than Calla retreated to the kitchen,
and within ten minutes' time, the slide
from the butler's pantry was drawn and
her voice in condensed rage hissed:
"I'm leaving; my wages, please!
Cream omelette! Nothing but a
French scramble!"
As I paid no attention whatever to
her demand, she closed the slide and
I saw nor heard her more. Before
luncheon was over she had disap-
peared leaving no scrap of her belong-
ings behind. Some days later she ap-
peared at my husband's office in the
city for her wages which were ready
for her.
"Your temper rather got the better
of you the other day," he remarked to
her good naturedly.
"Yes, it did," she gravely admitted.
"You know what King Solomon
said," he went on. "'He that ruleth
his own spirit is greater than he that
taketh a city.'"
"Yes," she said, "but I rather take
the city."
Some months later we heard of
Calla, the most important fact being
that she wanted the loan of a dollar,
and that she had married her fifth
husband.
THE CREAM OMELETTE.
Beat the yolks and whites of two
eggs separately until very light. To
the yolks add two tablespoonfuls of
rich cream; add salt and then the stiff
whites. Heat and butter the omelette
pan and when very hot, pour in the
omelette. Stir frequently, as it thick-
ens in the bottom, and dip out the
thickened portions by spoonfuls and
lay on slices of bread that have been
toasted, dipped quickly in hot water,
buttered, neatly arranged on a hot
platter, and the whole kept hot in the
oven, for not over one minute—for
the omelette must be served immedi-
ately. Twelve eggs with proportion-
ate cream makes a notable omelette.
This recipe was given to me by an
ex-army officer's wife in Seattle,
Washington. As prepared by her
Chinese cook it was the most delicious
omelette of which I ever ate.


FROM DAY TO DAY.
Department of Notes, Queries and Correspondence.
CONDUCTED BY MRS. LINCOLN.
A subscriber from T. asks for "a
recipe for a white, frothy pudding
sauce, not too rich." Try this:—.
PUDDING SAUCE.
One tablespoonful corn starch wet
in two tablespoonfuls cold water.
Pour over it one cup boiling water, add
one-half cup sugar, one tablespoonful
butter, one-fourth teaspoonful salt,
rind of half and juice of one lemon.
Cook five minutes, stirring constantly.
While hot pour it over the beaten white
of one egg and beat it well. Add a
little grated nutmeg to flavor.
Mrs. H. B. writes: "Can you give
me a recipe for a cream salad dressing
and one for a plain spice cake."
CREAM SALAD DRESSING.
A small quantity of salad dressing
may be made very quickly in an emer-
gency, by simply mixing two tea-
spoonfuls of vinegar or lemon juice
with four tablespoonfuls of sweet or
sour cream, and seasoning with a
speck of cayenne and salt and pepper
to taste.
JACKSON CAKE.
4 cup butter and lard I cup milk
mixed I teasp. soda
4 cup sugar I tbsp. spice
4 cup molasses 2 cups flour
I egg
Soften the butter and mix it with the
lard and sugar. Add the molasses, the
beaten egg, the milk, which should be
a scant cup, and the flour mixed with
the soda and spice. Use nutmeg,
cinnamon and ginger, equal parts.
Mrs. L h sends the following
simple recipe for a small quantity of
LEMON OR ORANGE MARMALADE.
I lemon or sour orange j 2 cups sugar
I pint cold water
Slice the fruit very fine, put it in the
cold water and let it soak twenty-four
hours. Then boil it slowly twenty
minutes. Set it away for another
twenty-four hours and boil again for
twenty minutes. Then add sugar
and continue the boiling another
twenty minutes. Turn into a jar and
when cool cover.
The same subscriber asks for recipes
for vanity puffs and hot water ginger-
bread.
VANITY PUFFS.
Boil one cup milk and thicken it
w,ith flour to a stiff dough. Set away
to cool; then add three unbeaten eggs,
one at a time, and one tablespoonful
butter melted. Drop small spoonfuls
into hot fat and when fried brown,
drain and roll them in a mixture of
sugar and cinnamon.
HOT WATER GINGERBREAD.
4 teasp. salt
I tbsp. ginger
I teasp. cinnamon
4 cup boiling water
4 cup butter
4 cup sugar
4 cup molasses
1 teasp. soda
2 cups flour
Mix spices and soda with the flour.
Cream the butter and sugar; add the
molasses, then the flour mixture, and
lastly the boiling water.
PRUNE PUDDING.
I cup prunes
i box gelatine
I cup prune water
I cup sugar
i lemon
I pint cream
Wash the prunes in lukewarm water,
then soak them in cold water to cover
until swollen. Stew them in the same
water until very tender. Drain off the
syrup and strain it. Meanwhile have
the gelatine soaking in a quarter cup of
cold water. Put the strained water
from the prunes, which should be a
275


276
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
I teasp. corn starch,
Sugar to taste.
cupful, on the fire and when boiling
dissolve the gelatine in it. Add the
sugar and lemon juice and then the
prunes, having first removed the
stones and cut the pulp in quarters.
Turn into a wet mould and set away
to harden. Serve with whipped
cream.
Miss C. C. B. sends the following
recipes; the first one, being adapted to
the chafing dish, will be helpful to
those who are limited to that method of
cooking.
6 stale sponge cakes
I cup canned pineap-
ple juice
Use baker's sponge cakes, ten cents
a dozen, or stale sponge drops, or
home made if you have it. Halve the
cakes or cut in slices and saute a
golden brown in a little hot butter in
the chafing dish, and lay on a heated
platter. Wash the dish, set it over the
lamp and put in the pineapple syrup.
When boiling add the corn starch dis-
solved in a little of the syrup and
sweeten it to taste. Boil two minutes.
Put a spoonful of the pineapple on
each piece of toast, pour the sauce over
and serve at once.
CZARINA CREAM.
I pt. cream I teasp. vanilla
i box gelatine 4 tbsp. sherry
J cup powd. sugar i cup pistachio
4 cup chopped almonds
Soak the gelatine in one-quarter
cup cold water. Chill and whip the
cream, add the sugar gradually to the
cream, and color it a faint green with a
tiny bit of green color paste. Mix the
color first with a spoonful of the
cream and then use enough of this to
give only a faint tinge. Add the
flavoring, and if you do not approve of
the sherry use the juice from canned
white cherries. Dissolve the gelatine
in quarter cup boiling water and
strain it over the mixture. Stir
quickly as it thickens, that the gelatine
may be uniformly mixed with the
cream, and when nearly firm stir in the
almonds and half of the pistachios.
Turn into individual moulds of china
or paper, and sprinkle the remainder of
the pistachios over the top. The nuts
may be chopped fine or shaved into
long thin slivers and stuck into the
cream.
\ lb. chopped almonds
Whites 5 eggs
ALMOND SOUFFLES
I cup milk
4 tbsp. cold milk
3 leveltbsp.corn starch
Scald the milk, add the corn starch
mixed with the cold milk and stir till it
thickens. Cook three minutes, add
the almonds and take from the fire.
When cooled add the stiffly beaten
whites. Fill small souffle cups one-
third full, set them in a pan of hot
water and bake twenty minutes in a hot
oven. Serve with
SAUCE SABA YON.
Beat the yolks of the five eggs in a
small saucepan with five tablespoon-
fuls powdered sugar until light
colored and creamy; add half a cup of
canned cherry or peach juice. When
ready to serve place the saucepan over
hot water or a gentle heat and stir until
the sugar melts and the egg thickens.
HALIBUT ST. LAURENT IN CHAF-
ING DISH.
I tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. flour
1 cup thin cream
4 teasp. salt
Dash cayenne
I tbsp. lemon juice
I cup cold halibut
3 tbsp. Parmesan
cheese
Toast or wafers
1 tbsp. chopped pars-
ley
Have a cup of cooked halibut freed
from skin and bones and finely
chopped, the Parmesan cheese freshly
grated, the parsley chopped, and the
toast or wafers ready. Set the cup of
cream into the hot water until hot.
Melt the butter, stir in the flour and
seasoning, add the hot milk gradually,
then the lemon, the fish and cheese.
When thoroughly heated, spread it on
buttered toast and sprinkle a little
chopped parsley over the fish.


FROM DAY TO DAY.
277
H. A. P. writes:—
"I doubt if the 'high-bush cranberry'
asked about in the February Kitchen
Magazine can be found in the markets.
It would seem to be the fruit of Vibur-
num Opulus, described in Gray's
Botany as a tall shrub. It grows
wild in Canada and Northern New
England; flowers hydrangea-like and
showy; fruit bright red, juicy and acid,
used as a substitute for the real cran-
berry, which belongs to another
botanical family, the heaths, while the
high cranberry is a member of the
honeysuckle tribe. A commonly
cultivated form is the guelder-rose or
snowball bush. I have an impression
that I have seen the high cranberry
advertised as an ornamental shrub
bearing edible fruit, in some florist's
catalogue.
"And here is a hint about baked
beans which I found in a newspaper
hailing from Boston, the home of
beans and brains. I tried it and found
it good. It was to cover the bottom of
the earthen beanpot with thinly cut fat
pork. Very little trace of it is found
when cooked as it seems to be ab-
sorbed into the beans. It helps to
keep them from burning and is an
addition to the seasoning. I use only
half the salt then, adding one-half
teaspoonful to the teaspoon of dry
mustard I mingle with the one-third
cup molasses, for a quart of beans
measured before cooking."
Thank you for your interesting
account of this variety of cranberry.
There is another variety common in
Eastern Maine called the mountain or
high cranberry which grows on the
mountains, on bushes somewhat
higher than the common cranberry.
The berries are dark, somewhat bitter,
and smaller than those found in our
eastern markets. This is probably the
one referred to by Mrs. A. in the Feb-
ruary number, but I doubt if they have
more than a local sale, as I have never
seen them in Boston markets.
I will add to your suggestion about
baked beans these hints: Boil a piece
of red pepper, about a quarter, with
the beans, or put half a cup of tomato
ketchup into the pot before baking.
A subscriber from W g, Mo.,
writes:—
"Editors of American Kitchen Maga-
zine,
"Dear Friends: I cannot refrain
from addressing a few words to you as
I renew my subscription. Your paper
affords me intense pleasure and has
become indispensable. It deserves a
wide circulation.
"If you print requests allow me to
ask for something along the line of the
'Model Kitchen.' Previous attempts
by other household papers have not
been satisfactory, neither was the
Model Kitchen at Chicago, at least
not to us, for we failed to see anything
there but a range, a table and a tiled
floor, and no explanation was offered
us in response to our request for infor-
mation. Now if you discourse on the
kitchen do not put us off with such
meager information. We want to
know where and how to keep things,
the best arrangements possible with
reference to all the adjuncts and
details. Do not ignore the fact that
articles based wholly on city models
are discouraging if not wholly useless
to that noble majority of intelligent,
cultured women who live where public
sewerage, gas ranges, hydrant water,
etc., are impossibilities.
"I am heartily glad that the editors
have such admirable opportunities for
teaching the American public, but do
not forget that below the crowds that
come to your lectures are many, many
to be reached. Help the average to
possible things and the average will
leaven the mass below."
Your suggestion is acceptable and
timely. Helpful articles on the subject
of the kitchen for the average house-
keeper, and particularly for those re-
mote from cities, are among the many
good things which we have in store for
our readers in the near future.


278
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
Mrs. S. writes: "You may have
tried this stopper for an oil bottle be-
fore, but in case you have not, I
thought it would not be out of place
for me to send you one cut as I always
cut one when I am making dressing.
To my knowledge the idea was origi-
nal with me and I have told many of it.
By inserting this stopper in the oil
bottle and laying the bottle on the
table one can sit down and work un-
assisted, and get the oil a drop at a
time, or by turning the bottle a little
to one side or the other it can be made
to come faster or slower as one likes.
When you lectured in B r I at-
tended your lecture and being of a
bashful nature hardly dared to ask you
any question. Now I have made
many quarts of salad oil dressing, and
when I first began I put my dish in ice,
but afterwards gave it up, for by this
simple process I found it thickened
just as fast without it. Why is it better
to have it on the ice? I was rather
sorry you should not have given us
something besides salads and the
chafing dish while you were here, for
although we are 'way down east,' still
we do manage to have a salad now and
then. Hoping this stopper may be of
a little use to you, I remain, yours
sincerely."
This stopper which Mrs. S. so kindly
sends has four grooves cut in the outer
edge the whole length of the cork,
through which the oil flows when the
bottle is inclined. The idea will
doubtless be helpful to many so we
pass it along. The stopper is slightly
different from one that I formerly
used which, while adapted to home
use, was not convenient for demonstra-
tion work, where one must necessarily
stand and talk while at work instead of
keeping her eyes on the dressing.
I often make the mayonnaise suc-
cessfully without placing the bowl in
ice water, or even chilling the oil or
egg. I explained at my lecture that
experience had taught me that the
thickening quality of the yolk had
much to do with one's success, and that
if the egg thickened quickly by itself it
was wholly unnecessary to turn in the
oil drop by drop. A teaspoonful at a
time at first, turned into the lower part
of the bowl and stirred in gradually
and thoroughly, may be safely used,
increasing each time in the same pro-
portion as the made dressing accumu-
lates, and toward the last adding by the
quarter and half cupful.
In a demonstration where the lec-
turer has many things on her mind,
talking to her class, is limited in time,
and possibly not sure of the quality of
eggs or oil, and must run no risk of
failure, it is safer to use the ice or chill
the bowl and eggs.
I regret your disappointment in the
subjects of my lectures. It may not be
known to you that I was visiting at
some distance for pleasure only, and
had with me only my chafing dish
outfit, and that on account of the
limited notification and my inability to
meet the ladies before that afternoon,
there was no chance to learn the wishes
of all, or do the necessary marketing
for a more elaborate lesson; and as the
committee were satisfied I felt that
they must have had some notion of
what would please others. It is not
possible to teach all that every one
wishes to know in one short lecture, or
for one person to know all that is to be
known on any subject.
I hope that although a teacher I
shall always keep in the attitude of
willingness to learn from any one; I
know that I have never given a lecture
or talked with intelligent or observant
workers without learning something
new or having an old thought revived.
If your courage could have been suffi-
cient to voice your suggestion then
and there, I would gladly have helped
to make every one in the hall the wiser
for it. But probably through these
pages it will reach many more. I
thank you for your letter and the stop-
per. If you have any other useful
hints or labor-saving devices we will
help you to make them known to
others, if you will send them.


FROM DAY TO DAY.
279
"Do tell us something about grape
fruit in next month's number," writes
an early subscriber.
Only the latest encyclopaedias and
cook books have any information
about this new fruit which has so
rapidly made its way into favor. But
among our clippings we find several
articles which have appeared in differ-
ent papers without any signature, and
as some of them are evidently only a
revision of the first, and it is impossible
to tell which was the original article,
we will give one as it stands, without
attempting to tell the same facts with
another variation; adding other items
from the encyclopaedia and recent
papers and a few recipes, which we
have tried at different times. Al-
though many people have acquired a
liking for this fruit, doubtless some will
agree with one woman's verdict after
her first experience with it.
She was a motherly old lady from
the country. She looked around the
restaurant with round, appreciative
eyes, and when the young man who
was acting as her host said, "Shall we
begin with grape fruit, auntie?" she
bobbed her head with a pleased smile;
but when the grape fruit came she
looked at him reprovingly. "Why,
Tom!" she said. "This ain't no kind
of grapes. It's orange." Then when
she bore a spoonful of the fruit to her
lips she added hastily: "No, it ain't
either. It's lemon flavored with
quinine."
Grape fruit is a fruit of the citrus
family (citrus decumana), a tree which
is distinguished from the orange and
lemon by its large leaves and broad
winged leaf-stalk. It has very large,
white flowers and the fruit is also very
large, sometimes weighing ten and
even fourteen pounds; roundish, pale
yellow, the rind thick, white and
spongy; within, bitter, the pulp green-
ish and watery, sub-acid and sub-
aromatic.
Captain Shaddock, an Englishman,
engaged in the East India trade, first
brought the Chinese pumelo (citrus
decumana), to Europe, and the giant
orange, which was the wonder of
botanical gardens and conservatories,
was taken to the West Indies, where it
flourished as if in its native China.
The tree was valued as an ornament,
but its fruit was so coarse and tasteless
that it was considered only as a
curiosity.
Later, it was brought to the notice
of horticulturists in Florida who, by
careful growing and cultivation, suc-
ceeded in raising a pumelo superior in
many ways to the Asiatic variety.
The once dry and despised curio is
now a delicious and valuable table
fruit, and is esteemed also for a tonic
and for its alterative qualities that
make it a necessity at this time of the
year.
It came slowly into favor, but had a
great vogue at the time of the first
epidemic of grippe, when fruit venders
labeled and physicians prescribed it
as an excellent fruit for grippe con-
valescents. Many other notions ran
wild for a brief while, but the pumelo,
or grape fruit as it is called here, re-
mains fast fixed as a necessity.
Whether its peculiar kind of acid is
deadly to the grippe bacillus or not, the
pumelo is seriously extolled as a bene-
ficent spring tonic; and regular use of
it is claimed to be as sovereign as a
course of mineral waters, and it is quite
as bracing to the system as quinine,
while for counteracting bilious or
malarial tendencies it is highly valued.
Now, why or when the name of
grape fruit was ever applied to this
great orange nobody can tell. Fruit
dealers claim that it was first billed to
them under that name from Florida.
But the pumelo has neither the size,
color, taste, nor any quality of the
grape, and if its own Chinese name
could not be given it there was always
the botanical decumana at hand.
In China the pumelo is twice the size
of its American descendant, and its
rough rind is half an inch in thickness.
The pulp of the Amoy product has a
tinge of pink and is more juicy than
those grown anywhere else.
The Chinese have many fantastic


280
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
designs for preparing pumelos for the
table. They cut the thick leathery
rind into all sorts of shapes, or notch
it in the same way a pineapple cheese
is cut, so that the top may be lifted.
The loosened quarters of the pumelo
are repacked in their carved or net-
work rind, and a fork is offered to re-
move them when the fruit is passed
around. Each segment is a separate
affair, dry to the touch, and thickly en-
cased in the white membrane. One
must cut or tear this covering at its
angle, turn it back, and then pick the
pulp out in sizable bits. Each cell of
juice is firm and distinct, a transparent
globule that does not break at the
touch, as in the Florida pumelos. The
superior celestials who occupy boxes
in Chinese theatres take the pumelo
quarters for refreshments.
The Florida pumelo growers do not
seem to care to increase the size of the
fruit, but to improve its flavor and get
a juicy pulp. The thinner rind and
inner membrane necessitate its being
differently prepared for serving at the
table in this country. It is a most
refreshing breakfast fruit, and taken
for its best effects should be eaten
without sugar the first thing at that
meal. Fashion orders it as the sea-
sonable relish before the soup at dinner
or luncheon, and it may be served as a
sorbet or salad or a dessert.
The more manageable size of the
Florida pumelo allows half a fruit as a
sufficient portion for each guest. The
smooth yellow globe should be cut
across at its equator-line, the seeds re-
moved, and a space an inch in diameter
cut away with scissors in the heart of
the juicy hemisphere. If sugar be
sprinkled on the halves and let stand a
half hour this central reservoir will be
filled with clear amber juice. As the
juice so often precedes the spoon like
dashing spray, some housekeepers
have all the pulp removed with a sharp
knife, the partitions cut away, and the
pulp put back in the cup of rind.
A teaspoonful of rum or sherry is
often added when the pumelos are
served at dinner or luncheon, but for a
before-breakfast tonic only the best
sugar should be allowed. For pumelo
salad the pulp is cut out in as large bits
as possible and tossed with a plain
French dressing of oil, vinegar and
salt. Real lovers of the fruit will
admit that the pumelo is all right after
one has swallowed the condiments and
come to the pulp itself. Well-iced
pumelo dressed with sugar and rum
passes as a sorbet between the roast
and game of a dinner; or dressed
pumelo pulp and Malaga grapes
broken and seeded are dressed with
sugar and rum, half frozen, and served
in regular punch glasses.
But, however we serve this delicious
fruit, let it at least be dignified by either
one of its rightful names—let the
pumelo be the pumelo, or at the utmost
the decumana, and let Captains Brown,
Smith and Shaddock and the Florida
planters remember "what's in a name."
Mrs. K. from Connecticut writes:
"Will you send a sample copy of the
American Kitchen Magazine to
"I would like to have directions for
a carrot soup. I have tasted it served
in bouillon cups. It was creamy. I
do not know whether stock was used
or not, but I could see small particles
of carrot. I have taken your maga-
zine for a year and get many new and
good ideas from it."
CARROT SOUP.
Here are several recipes; the first is
probably like that which you describe.
Cream of Carrots.
i pint carrot pulp Salt and pepper to taste
I quart white stock 1 cUP cream
1 tbsp. butter 2 y°lks
2 tbsp. flour
Wash, scrape and cut into small
pieces enough carrot to make a quart,
loose measure. Cook in barely water
enough to cover, very slowly, until
quite soft. Lay aside half a cupful of
the red pieces, and rub the remainder
through a puree sieve. Add to the
pulp the stock (chicken or veal), and let


XEWS FROM THE FIELD.
281
it simmer half an hour. Cook the
flour in the hot butter, and add to the
mixture one cup of the boiling stock,
and when thickened stir it into the
stock. Season to taste, as the amount
will depend upon the seasoning in the
stock. Add a teaspoonful of sugar
and half of the cream. Beat the yolks
with the remainder of the cream, add
to them a little of the hot soup, and
when well mixed remove the soup
from the fire and stir in the egg
mixture quickly. Do not let it boil
after adding the egg. Have the re-
served red part of the carrot pressed
through a potato ricer into the tureen
and turn the hot soup over it.
Carrot Soap No. 3.
I pint carrot pulp
I quart water
I pint milk
1 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. flour
I tsp. salt
I saltsp. pepper
I tsp. sugar
I tsp. lemon
4 saltsp. nutmeg
Scrape the carrots, and grate
enough of the red part only to make a
pint. Let it simmer slowly in the
water until reduced one-half. Then
rub through a sieve, add the milk, the
seasoning, and the butter and flour
cooked together.
Carrot or Crecy Soup.
I quart rich, brown
stock
I pint carrot
I tsp. sugar
Wash and scrape the carrot; shave
off in thin slices a pint of the outer part.
Do not use the yellow centre. Cook
the carrot with the onion in boiling
salted water to cover, till very tender.
Rub the carrot through a squash-
strainer. Add the stock and heat
again. Add the sugar, salt and pep-
per, and when hot serve immediately
with croutons.
I tsp. salt
4 saltsp. pepper
I small onion, sliced
NEWS FROM
SIX lectures on domestic economy
will be given by Miss Maria
Parloa at the rooms of The
American Kitchen Magazine, 485 Tre-
mont Street, near Berkeley, beginning
Tuesday, March 10th, 1896, at 3 P. M.
The subjects will be as follows:
Tuesday, March 10th.—What is
Demanded of the Housekeeper: Keep-
ing the House in a Sanitary Condi-
tion; Beginning at the Foundation;
Wood-work and Painted Walls; Care
of Floors in Back Part of the House;
Oiling Hard Wood Floors; care of the
Plumbing.
Tuesday, March 17th.—Care of the
Main Part of the House: Removing
Stains from Furniture; Polishing
Woodwork and Furniture; Hard
Wood Floors: how to polish and keep
in good condition.
Tuesday, March 24th. —Fuel: Man-
agement of Fires; Lighting; Ventila-
tion; Beds and Bedding.
Tuesday, March 31st.—The Use of
Food: Selection and care of meat, fish,
THE FIELD.
eggs, etc.; Principles underlying the
cooking of meats, fish, and all albumi-
nous substances; Some savory and
economical dishes; How the French
housekeeper economizes.
Tuesday, April 7th.—The selection
of vegetables and groceries: How to
cook vegetables, giving some of the
best French methods; Starchy food
materials and how to use them; The
fats and the best methods of employing
them; Fruits.
Tuesday, April 14th.—The Laun-
dry: Preparing for Washing; Remov-
ing stains; Starching—various sub-
stances used for stiffening; Flannels,
Silks, Colored articles; Various kinds
of Draperies.
Course tickets three dollars. Single
admission seventy-five cents.
The lectures will last one hour, Miss
Parloa illustrating the subjects as she
goes on. At the close of the lecture a
half hour will be given for questions.
Ladies are requested to bring note-
books and pencils.


282
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
Mrs. Lincoln's plan for a quiet
winter in Boston, devoted to writ-
ing her new cook book, seems
to be difficult to carry out, for
several urgent applications for lectures
have come in that could not well be
refused. She has given one course to
a class from the Dorchester Women's
Club, and such interest was aroused
that now a second class has been
formed which will continue into
March. During January she lectured
in Lewiston, Brunswick and Bangor,
Me., and went from there to Pittsburg,
Pa., where she gave for the benefit of
the Central Y. W. C. A. an address on
"Scientific Cooking," and a lecture on
"The Chafing Dish." Afterwards she
was the guest of her cousin, Mrs. John
A. Bower of the East End. We quote
from a Pittsburg paper:
"Mrs. John A. Bower of Dithridge
Street gave a very delightful as well as
unique luncheon to a favored few of
the society women of the East End
yesterday. The dishes served at the
luncheon were prepared at the table by
the skilful fingers of Mrs. Lincoln of
Boston, the well known lecturer on
cooking, and were cooked on a chafing
dish. As her swift hands flew, busy
tongues asked questions grave and gay
about the preparation of the repast and
noted down the various recipes.
Among the guests invited to meet Mrs.
Lincoln were Mrs. C. J. McKee, Mrs.
O. M. Edwards, Mrs. John Walton,
Mrs. David Breed, Mrs. Edward Staf-
ford, Mrs. W. H. Siviter, Mrs. James
McCord, Mrs. J. L. Lewis, Mrs. John
Harwell, Miss Mary Breed, Miss
Pickersgill and others."
¥ ¥
At Mrs. Lincoln's lecture at the Bos-
ton Y. W. C. A. on "The Chafing
Dish" the room was crowded, in fact
there was not standing room, and so
many came from out of town who
could not even look inside that by
special request she will give an extra
lecture at the close of this course in the
gymnasium hall of the Association.
Mrs. Lincoln will also during the next
four weeks speak before women's clubs
in Manchester, Nashua, Somersworth
and Concord, N. H.
¥ ¥
Mrs. Lincoln reports a delightful
morning spent with Miss Spring and
Miss Coolidge at the Drexel Institute,
en route from Pittsburg. The com-
modious rooms with their perfect
appointments are well worth inspec-
tion by teachers and others interested
in this work. It is to be regretted that
Boston, the pioneer in cooking schools
and other household economic work,
should be so far behind some other
cities in a suitable building for a school
of domestic science. Is there not
someone among our many men of
wealth who will give us an institute
that will be for Boston what Pratt is
for Brooklyn and Drexel for Philadel-
phia? Boston may well be proud that
two of her trained pupils are at the
head of this work at Drexel.
¥ ¥
A graduate of the Philadelphia
School of Cookery, Sarah W. Landes,
is the teacher of that branch at the
O. S. and S. O. Home at Xenia, Ohio.
The course is arranged for two years
and requires two practice lessons each
week. This season there are sixty
pupils enrolled, the majority being
girls of over fourteen years.
¥ ¥
The meeting of the Massachusetts
Branch of the National Household
Economic Association was held in the
Grundmann Studio Building January
23. After the meeting had been called
to order and the minutes read, much
time was spent in the discussion of
various matters concerning the man-
agement of the branch. Following
this Mrs. Janet M. Hill read an inter-
esting paper on "The Ideal in Cook-
ery," at the close of which she prepared
oysters in the chafing dish to the evi-
dent enjoyment of the members.


f| EDITORIALS ^ ;|
THE SCIENCE OF HEALTHFUL
HOMES.
THE manner of living has been
warped by fashion, ignorance and
carelessness into many abnormal
conditions, and to restore it to a nor-
mal condition this latest born science
must come to the rescue, teaching the
laws of health as required by modern
surroundings. It is not surprising
that this epitome of the sciences should
be the latest in developing. It is not
many years since the laws upon which
it rests were distinctly formulated, and
even now it is in the growing stage;
the field is not covered, but that makes
it all the more interesting.
The father of sanitation, Edwin
Chadwick, recognizing the fact that it
is sometimes easier to move masses
in reform than individuals, began with
public sanitation. Mrs. Plunkett in
her book, "Women, Plumbers and
Doctors," struck boldly at the root of
the evil and showed the need of knowl-
edge in the house as well as in the city
health office. Whatever public meas-
ures may be taken, it is to the homes
that we must look for the perfection of
physical measures as well as moral
well-being.
Our domestic order is now like a
tree in June at the mercy of the canker
worms, and no amount of spraying or
shaking will effect an immediate
remedy. We must study, during the
period of enforced waiting, the life
history of the enemy, and be ready with
our girdle of printer's ink when the
March exodus of the next stage begins.
For this study we must consider two
points: the home, its meaning and re-
quirements; and the education of
women in relation to the home. To
study the progress of any idea it is
necessary to see a long distance along
the line, and the true naturalist will not
mistake the going to sleep of the pupa
in the chrysalis stage for the death of
the whole race.
When girls first began to study like
their brothers a great hue and cry was
raised that home would be abolished,
that such girls would never marry, and
that all such study was against all
order of nature, and for a time it
seemed as if there was truth in it, but
it is now seen that cause and effect
were somewhat mixed. The home
was not keeping pace with the outside
world, was not fulfilling its mission,
and the girls were only striving to fit
themselves for the reform which was
sure to come. Now the impetus
comes from these very girls, home-
keepers now themselves. They are as
yet only able to keep their own trees,
from canker worms and that not fully,,
for the neighboring trees are yet un-
cared for.
What then can the school do for
the home? It can raise the ideals in
the life as well as in the adornment—
the artistic side. With its resources it
can show the present state of progress
in each line. It can gather to itself
more help from architects, builders,
chemists, sanitarians; this help it
should put within the reach of all its
pupils. It can aid in that progress
directly as well as indirectly. For one
thing it is not hampered by the tradi-
tions of the family home. The stu-
dents have a quicker mental grasp than
those who have no stimulus out of
home life. It can show how these
ideals can be attained with the least ex-
penditure of time, money and strength,
for the aim of modern civilization
should be to make the most of life.
283


284
THE AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE.
In the school there should be given
first the scientific training which is the
basis of all progress; not only the
knowledge of certain facts of science,
but the mental discipline which enables
its possessor to turn to account the
knowledge possessed. All women are
not born home keepers any more than
all men are born blacksmiths. Hav-
ing the foundation laid of the elements
of chemistry, physics, physiology, the
school should then, by laboratory
methods, illustrate these principles as
applied to home life, keeping in sight
the original idea of home as a safe
place. It is as necessary to fortify the
home, in a manner to protect it, from
the inroads of the enemy of modern
times, the disease-producing bacteria,
as it was in the colonial days to pro-
tect it from the savages.
The house should be not only good
to look at but good to live in. Many
houses seem all right as they leave the
builders' hands, but after a few years
of occupancy they show their weak
points, and it is only because of the
long-suffering meekness of women
that architects and builders are suf-
fered to live after giving us such im-
possible problems as to keep in
decency such houses.
Let us include a little building
superintendence in our course. The
applied physics should include a
knowledge of the size and material of
air ducts for the ventilation and heat-
ing, a discussion of the different
methods of obtaining heat with the
relative cost and efficiency of each and
with the accompanying question of the
variation in ventilation necessitated by
the choice of the heating apparatus.
The two things are mutually depen-
dent. The one cannot be considered
without the other in an ordinary
private house.
MOST grocers know that the wo-
man of the house is the best cus-
tomer and unless she accepts a
new article its sale cannot be forced.
One reason why women are conserva-
tive and slow to accept new food prod-
ucts and utensils is because it takes time
to learn how to use a new thing unless
another's experience is available.
This is why manufacturers have found
it profitable to give exhibitions in
stores and fairs and to distribute hand-
books giving directions for the use of
their wares. Many practical women
have thus earned a living by showing
their neighbors an easier way to run
the domestic machinery.
Some dealers in stoves employ wo-
men to go to the homes of their cus-
tomers to show them the right arrange-
ment of drafts to regulate the heat.
One dealer in hardware found himself
unable to sell some new utensils until
he had taken one home; there his wife
found it so satisfactory that her neigh-
bors all wanted to buy them.
The next step will be for grocers to
employ women, graduates of cooking
schools, as order clerks. A woman
going over the same route week by
week will discover the family resources
more quickly than a man, and will be
able to make wise suggestions for the
bill of fare.
A young woman with her bicycle
doubtless would accomplish quite as
much in a day as a man with a horse,
and the latter combination would have
enough to do to deliver the orders
taken. With an average supply of
tact, a woman in such a position might
be a veritable home missionary and
save more than her salary both to her
employer and the customers.
Is there not an opportunity in this
direction for women to do an inde-
pendent business, at least in the subur-
ban towns? A woman who thor-
oughly understands the subject might
buy the provisions for a dozen families
almost as easily as for one. What a
relief it would be to many a weary
house-mother who cannot think of
anything for dinner, to have a compe-
tent person take this load from her
shoulders. The market men and
grocers also might find it to their ad-
vantage to deal with a woman who
knew what was wanted and could rec-
ognize the right thing when she saw it


EDITORIAL.
285
IT is unfortunate that so many wo-
men who write recipes and house-
hold suggestions for the news-
papers are not more careful in their
use of words.
Recipe and receipt are used indis-
criminately, although the latter has a
distinct meaning of its own in the busi-
ness world and therefore should not be
applied to a formula for cookery.
Melt and dissolve are misapplied often;
chocolate does not dissolve when
heated, nor does gelatine dissolve in
cold water, and a yeast cake is mixed
with cold water though some portions
may be in solution. Eggs beaten light
is an expression frequently used in
cases when lightness is undesirable,
smoothness being all that is required.
The position of words in a sentence
must be considered also. A spoonful
of butter melted is quite a different
quantity from a spoonful of melted
butter.
Though cookery as yet may be
more of an art than a science, at least
we may express our recipes in words
whose meaning cannot be misunder-
stood.
DECEMBER ioth. "I write to
say that I will not renew my sub-
scription to the American Kitchen
Magazine. I like it much but must
discontinue this with some others."
January ioth. "I enclose one dollar
to renew my subscription, I have come
to the conclusion that I cannot dis-
pense with it."
The above extracts from letters from
the same lady serve to show that the
American Kitchen Magazine has proved
so valuable to one housekeeper that
she could not do without it for even
one month. Nor is this a solitary
case. Another writes: "The maga-
zine is indeed a friend, it brings so
much that is of use to us." Yet an-
other says, "I would not be without it
after having it for a year."
If every enthusiastic subscriber
would send us another before April the
American Kitchen Magazine would
enter upon its third year of existence
with a subscription list of which many
an older publication might be proud.
ANOTHER of our series on the
Great Markets of the World is
the leading article in this number
of the American Kitchen Magazine.
Miss Cole presents a pen picture of the
life of women in the fourteenth cen-
tury, whose lot seems to have been far
happier than that of the women of
Jamaica to-day as described by Allan
Eric. By especial permission before
it appears in leaflet form, we print Mrs.
Richards' Rumford Kitchen Leaflet
on the place of Water and Air in our
daily life. This article and the "Soil
Factor in the Development and Pre-
vention of Diseases" we commend to
the thoughtful attention of all our
readers. Teachers will enjoy the
account of English Cooking Schools,
and students of the labor and the ser-
vant questions will be interested in "A
Factory Lunch Room" and "Study of
a Colored Servant." "From Day to
Day" is helpful for all.
THE rooms of the American Kitchen
Magazine received their social
christening Feb. 14, when the
Cooking Teachers' club gave a recep-
tion to Miss Maria Parloa who has just
returned from a two years' residence
abroad. Mrs. Lincoln received with
Miss Parloa, and Mrs. Merrill and
Miss Barrows presented the guests.
Refreshments were served and many
expressed the hope that this was only
the forerunner of similar enjoyable
evenings.


Paris, Housekeeping Near, Frances B. Merrill,
197.
Potato, Sweet, 20.
Poverty Suppers, Mary J. Lincoln, 172.
Psychology Applied to Teaching Cookery, Prin-
ciples of, Harriet Lezla Smith, 9.
Recipes from an Old English Book, Quaint,
Selected by Fannie L. Fancher, 17.
Rooms, Decoration of, Mrs. Ellen Coit Elliott,
65-
Rumford Kitchen Leaflet, Ellen H. Richards,
257-
Rumford Kitchen Mottoes, 211.
Sandwiches for Luncheons and Teas, Eliza R.
Parker, 23.
Short Course in Cookery. Lesson III. Milk
and Eg?s, Anna Barrows, 33.
Signs of the Times, Ellen H. Richards, 103.
Soil Factor in the Development and Prevention of
Infectious Diseases, Edward M. Playter, 261.
South, Old and New Regime in the (illustrated),
Pauline Carrington Rust, 202.
Southern Cookery, Celia Lott, 19.
Starch, Experiments with, Angeline M. Weaver,
218.
Thanksgiving — Our American Festival, with
Menus, Mary J. Lincoln, 84.
Turkey and Goose, Carving the, Mary J. Lin-
coln, 113.
Tuskegee Institute, Aladdin Oven at (illustrated),
Edward Atkinson, 122.
Woman's Council at Bay View, Mich., 41.
VERSE.
Among the Apples, Thomas S. Collier, 14.
At the Gap, Ida Ahlborn Weeks, 171.
Doughnuts, John S. Barrows, 164.
His Reason, James Courtney Challis, 121,
My Little Maid, Cora Stuart Wheeler, 78.
Not Knowing, Longfellow, 130.
October, Helen Hunt Jackson, 12.
Phantasy, Jean Kincaid, 175.
Saying Grace, Mrs. Mary L. Wyatt, 263.
Slow and Sure, Saadi, 161.
Sweet Girl Graduate, Kate M. Cleary, 36.
The Aladdin Oven, 201.
The Art of Cookery, From an Ancient Poem, 16.
The Yule Log, Louisa M. Alcott, 106.
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Aladdin Oven Diagrams, 123, 124, 125, 126, 12
128.
Bon Secours Church, 247.
Bon Secours Market, 246.
Chinese Reception Room, 57.
Electrical Apparatus, 60, 61, 62.
Flax Wheel, 52.
Fulton Market, 148.
Getting Ready for Business, 150.
Great Wheel, 53.
Heavy Load, 2.
How Much? 155.
Jamaica, Views in, 252, 253, 254, 255, 256.
Kitchen Three Hundred Years Ago, 196.
Last Flowers, 102.
Loom, 55.
Mammy's Charge, 202.
Oh-rhan-ges-s-s, 154.
Poultry for the "Yiddish" Trade, 153.
Poultry Vista in the Market, 155.
Priscilla at the Spinning Wheel, 50.
Reels, 54.
Street Market, 151.
Too High! 156.
Typical Scene on a Southern Plantation, 204.
Weighing the Turtle, 149.
Woman Merchant, 152.
INDEX TO RECIPES.
Almond Souffles, 276.
Anchovy Sandwiches, 24.
Apple Pudding Pie, III.
Apple Pie, Deep, III.
Apples Sliced, 232.
Apricot Pudding, 228.
Atole, 15.
B. B. B. Cakes, 229.
Beans, Mrs. L. T. J.'s Baked, 230.
Beef Sandwiches, 23.
Brains, Calf's, 232.
Breaded and Fried, 232.
With Brown Butter, 233.
Coquille of, 233.


INDEX.
Pie, Partridge, 17.
Pumpkin, 92, 229.
Veal, 17.
Pinole, 15.
Popovers, 36.
Pop Corn Balls, 143.
Sugared, 143.
Posole, 15.
Prune Tart, 17.
rudding, 17.
Pudding, Apricot, 228.
Cheese, 35.
Eddington, 227.
English Plum, 109.
Little Layer, 32.
National Plum, 17.
N. E. Thanksgiving, 93.
Plain Plum, 109.
Prune, 17, 275.
Steamed Bread and Fruit, 110.
Suet, 227.
Sweet Potato, 22.
How to Boil in a Cloth, 110.
Quail, Baked, III.
Radishes, 90.
Raisins, to Stone, 110.
Salad Dressing, Cream, 275.
Salad, Cauliflower, 31.
Celery and Apple, 182.
Sandwiches, Anchovy, 24.
Beef, 23.
Cheese, 24.
Chestnut and Liver, 182.
Chicken, 23.
Curry, 24.
Fowl, 24.
Ham, 23.
Sandwiches, Mixed, 24.
Mutton, 23.
Potted Rabbit, 24.
Salmon, 24.
Sardine, 24.
Tongue, 23.
Turkey, 24.
Veal, 23.
Sauce, for Cauliflower, 31.
Chestnut, 91.
Cranberry, 92, 230.
Lemon, 110.
Maize, 233.
Olive, 182.
Pudding, 275.
Sabayon, 276.
Sponge, for Little Layer Pudding, 32.
Yellow, 109.
Sherbet, Lemon, 183.
Lemon and Ginger, 183.
Squash Muffins, 32.
Stuffing, Chestnut, 91.
Succotash, 112.
Sweet Potato Croquettes, 21.
Glazed, 93.
Pudding, 22.
Souffled, 21.
Sweetmeats, 22.
Talmouses, 228.
Tart, Cranberry, 92.
Lemon, 17.
Prune, 17.
Timbal Cases, 36.
Tortillas, 15.
Vanity Puffs, 275.
Veal Pie, 17.
Whole Wheat Bread, 233.