W Practical housekeeping Estelle Woods Wilcox 1 ' GANBtVOORT-LANbINU COLLECTION 1 PRACTICAL HOUSEKEEPING, A CAREFUL COMPILATION OF TRIED AND APPROVED RECIPES. "Prove all things and hold fast that which is good." THREE HUNDREDTH THOUSAND DAYTON, OHIO: BUCKEYE PUBLISHING COMPANY, Cforthveatern Office, Minneapolis, Minn.) 1887. PUBLISHER'S NOTICE. This book is a revised and enlarged edition of "Buckeye Cookery and Practical Housekeeping." which has reached a sale of over One Hundred Thousand copies since its publication, three years ago. The first edition was published for a benevolent object, and necessarily had many purely local features. Since then the book has been four times revised and en- larged, and all its local features dropped, and with them now disappears that part of the title which identified the book with the state where it originated. . Preita of Job Printing Dcp't, t,x troy, .Ohio. Holered according to act of Congress, In tbe year 1881, by Buckeye Publishing Com pant ALL RIGHTS RE8ERVED. TO THOBB PLUCKY HOUSEWIVES WHO MASTER THEIR WORK INSTEAD OF ALLOWING IT TO MASTER TREK, THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED. TABLE OF CONTENTS. /^read-making .............. 7-58 Cake-making 69-101 Creams and Costaeds ............. 102-112 Conpectionery 113-118 Canning Fruits. Catsups and Sauces. Dri.n 119-127 128-136 137-14* Eggs 146 150 Fish 151-158 Fruits - 159-166 Oaks 167-173 Ices and Ice-cream 174-180 Jellies and Jams 181-189 Meats 190-209 Pastry . Puddings and Sacc Preserves . Pickles Poultry Bala , 210-224 . 225-242 . 243-253 . 254-270 . 271-286 287-294 8HEU.KISH. :: :S£53 Vegetarles ££55 Ornamental Icing, Illustrated SEES Bills of Fare for every day in thb year HESS Fragments . ITrait Blanks for additional Recipes "7,i Cook's Time-Tarle "J Table of Weights and Measures . . . • • • • • • 2 When Food is in Season iii Comparative Valur of Furl J-J Housekeeping Dining-room *«-4j» Kitchen Kitchen Luxuries, Illustrated VAjSi Household Conveniences, Illustrated . ........ JJ™"S5 Management of Help • • mjSn Marketing ™2-510 Carving, Illustrated How to Cut and Cure Meats, Illustrated m!lm2 Hints on Butter-making «SLlS Laundry grtg Cellar and Ice-house two-c«u Home-thing arout Baries Hints for the Well Hrf"s for the Sick-room The arts of the Toilet, accidents and Sudden Flora . 641-555 . 556-661 . 502-573 . 674-581 . 582-583 . 680-591 Chemistry of Food . Dress-making at Home . Coloring and Bleaching Medical .... Miscellaneous . Alpharetical Index. . 692-597 . 698-619 620-028 (iei-072 PREFACE. Fortunately it is becoming fashionable to economize, and housekeepers are really finding it a pleasant pastime to search out and stop wastes in household expenses, and to exercise the thou- sand little economies which thoughtful and careful women under- stand so readily and practice with such grace. Somebody has said that a well-to-do French family would live on what an Amer- ican household in the same condition of life wastes, and this may not be a great exaggeration. Here, the greatest source of waste is in the blunders and experiments of the inexperienced. Women are slow to learn by the experience of others. Every young house- keeper must begin at the beginning (unless her mother was wise enough to give her a careful training), and blunder into a know- ledge of the practical, duties of the household, wasting time, tem- per and money in ,mistakes, when such simple instructions as any skillful housewife might readily give would be an almost perfect guide. Lately there have been attempts to gather such instruc- tions as are needed into a book, but they have been partial fail- ures, because the authors have been good book-makers, but poor bread-makers, or because, while practically familiar with the sub- jects treated, they have failed to express clearly and concisely the full processes in detail. In compiling this new candidate for favor, the one aim has been to pack between its covers the greatest possible amount of practical information of real value to all, and especially to the inexperienced. It is not a hap-hazard collection of recipes, gathered at random from doubtful sources, but has (▼) vi PREFACE. been made up, without sparing time, labor, or expense, from the choicest bits of the best experience of hundreds who have long traveled the daily round of household duties, not reluctantly like drudges, but lovingly, with heart and hand fully enlisted in the work. Those housewives, especially, whose purses are not over-ple- thoric will, it is believed, find its pages full of timely and helpful suggestions in their efforts to make the balance of the household ledger appear on the right side, without lessening tne excellence of the table or robbing home of any comfort or attraction. The arrangement of subjects treated, whenever practicable, has been made in the simple order of the alphabet, and for the sake of still more ready reference a very full alphabetical index has been added. The instructions which precede the recipes of each department have been carefully made up, and are entirely trust- worthy, and the recipes themselves are new to print and well in- dorsed. Several suggestive articles have also been introduced, which, though not belonging strictly to cookery, bear such close relations to it that the fitness of their appearance in the connection is evident. There has been no attempt at display or effect, the only purpose being to express ideas as clearly and concisely as possible, and to make a thoroughly simple and practical work. In the effort to avoid the mistakes of others, greater errors may have been com- mitted; but the book is submitted just as it is to the generous judg- ment of those who consult it, with the hope that it may lessen their perplexities, and stimulate that just pride without which work is drudgery and great excellence impossible. BREAD-MAKING. The old saying, "bread is the staff of life," has sound reason in it. Flour made from wheat, and meal from oats and Indian corn, are rich in the waste-repairing elements, starch and albumen, and head the list of articles of food for man. Good bread makes the bomeliest meal acceptable, and the coarsest fare appetizing, while the most luxurious table is not even tolerable without it. Light, crisp rolls for breakfast, spongy, sweet bread for dinner, and flaky biscuit for supper, cover a multitude of culinary sins; and there is no one thing on which the health and comfort of a family so much depends as the quality of its home-made loaves. Opinions as to what constitutes good bread differ, perhaps, as much as tastes and opinions concerning any thing else, but all will agree that bread, to be good, ought to be light, sweet—that is, free from any perceptible acid or yeasty taste—flaky, granular or not liable to become a doughy mass, and as white as the grade of flour used will allow. If members of the family have delicate digestive powers, they will not use new bread, and therefore must have such as will keep with little change of texture and none of quality or taste, for several days. To obtain these qualities in bread, use the be3t flour, as in families where no bread is wasted, the best is cheap- est. The good old Genesee Valley white winter wheat, of Western New York, makes a flour unsurpassed in quality. The Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Missouri white winter wheat grades are much the same, but the Minnesota hard spring wheat "new process" flour is the equal of the best, and is so much superior in strength that one-eighth less is used in all recipes for bread and cake. The common or "straight" brands are used by the great majority of families, and from all of them good, uniform and palatable bread may be made. (7) 8 BREAD-MAKING. Housekeepers seldom select flour by examination. They usually take some tried brand, or select on the recommendation of their fur- nisher. No rule can be given by which an inexperienced person can determine the grade of flour with accuracy, but a few hints will enable any one to know what not to buy. Good flour adheres to the hand, and, when pressed, shows the imprint of the lines of the skin. Its tint is cream white. Never buy that which has a blue- white tinge. Poor flour is not adhesive, may be blown about easily, and sometimes has a dingy look, as though mixed with ashes. Flour should be bought in quantities corresponding to the num- ber in the family, that it, may not become damaged by long keeping. In a family of five, a barrel, or even a half-barrel sack of flour, excellent when first bought, will become much deteriorated before being used up. A small family should always buy in twenty-five pound, or at largest, fifty pound sacks. Flour should be kept dry, cool and entirely l)eyond the reach of marauders, big or little, especially the latter, for the infinitesimal meal moth is far more to be dreaded than rats or mice. Therefore every receptacle of flour should be thoroughly and frequently cleansed, to guard against ani- mal as well as vegetable parasites. A single speck of mold, coming from old or damp flour in an obscure corner of the flour-box, will leaven the whole as rapidly and strongly as ten times its weight in yeast. In no event should flour be used without being sifted. Bread-making seems a simple process enough, but it requires a delicate care and watchfulness, and a thorough knowledge of all the contingencies of the process, dependent on the different qualities of flour, and the varying kinds and conditions of yeast, and the change of seasons; the process which raises bread successfully in winter making it sour in summer. There are many little things in bread-making which require accurate observation, and, while valu- able recipes and well-defined methods in detail are invaluable aids, nothing but experience will secure the name merited by so few, though earnestly coveted by every practical, sensible housekeeper— "an excellent bread-maker." Three things are indispensable to success: good flour, good yeast, and watchful care. Never use flour without sifting ; and a large tin or wooden pail with a tight- fitting cover, kept full of sifted flour, will be found a great conven- BREAD-MAKING. 9 : \ fence. All kinds of flour and meal, except buckwheat and Graham— and Graham, too, when coarse—need sifting, and all, like wheat flour, should be bought in small quantities, as they become damp and musty by long standing. The Yeast. After the flour, the yeast or leaven is the next essential element in bread. For regular fare most, especially women, prefer "yeast, bread," but men who can not forget " how their mother used to cook," have a liking for "salt-rising" bread, and the latter deserves the acquaintance of the housekeeper and a frequent welcome on the family table. The dry hop yeast, such as Twin Bros., Stratton's, National, Eagle, Gillett's, and many others, are all good, if fresh, and always available, for they are found in every grocery. Many housekeepers use baker's yeast, and buy for a penny or two what will serve each baking of bread. Potato yeast has two advantages over other kinds; bread made from it keeps moist longer, and there is no danger that an excess of yeast will injure the flavor of the bread. The Sponge. This is made from warm water or milk, yeast and flour (some add mashed potatoes) mixed together in the proportion of one pint wet- ting (water or milk) to two pints of sifted flour. If milk is used it should be new, and must be first scalded, and then cooled to blood heat. The scaiaing tenas to prevent souring, in using witer onng it to blood heat. If the "wetting" is too hot, the bread will be coarse. When water is used a tablespoon* of lard or butter makes the bread more tender. Bread made from milk is, of course, more tender and nutritious, but it has not the sweet taste of the wheat, and will not keep as long as that made from water. When mixed with milk it requires less flour and less kneading. In summer, care must be taken not to set sponge too early, at least not before eight or nine o'clock in the evening. (Sponge mixed with bran water, warm in winter and cold in summer, makes sweeter bread. Boil bran in the proportion of one pint to a quart of water and strain.) In very hot weather, sponge may be made with cold water. In winter, mix the batter with water or milk, at blood warmth, testing •Whenever, In this book, the words cupful, coffee-cupful, tea-cupful, table-spoonful, ate, occur, the termination " ful " is dropped, for the sake of brevity. 10 BREAD-MAKING. it with the finger, and making it as warm as can be borne; stir in the flour, which will cool it sufficiently for the yeast; cover closely and place in a warm and even temperature. A good plan is to fold a clean blanket several times, and cover with it, providing the sponge is set in a very large crock or jar, so that there is no danger of its running over. As a general rule, one small tea-cup of yeast and three pints of "wetting" will make sponge enough for four ordinary loaves. In all sponges add the yeast last, making sure that the sponge is not hot enough to scald it; when placed to rise, always coverclosely. In cold weather the temperature runs down very quickly, in many kitchens, after the fire is out, and the bread should be set earlier in the evening, and in a warmer place; a temperature of eighty or ninety degrees is right. When it rises well for the first two hours, it will go on rising unless the temperature falls below the freezing point. It is an improvement to beat the sponge thoroughly, like batter for a cake, for fifteen minutes. Never set sponge in tin, but always in stoneware, because a more steady and uniform heat can be maintained in a stone jar than in tin. TO MAKE GOOD BREAD, Always be "Up in the morning early, just at the peep of day," in summer time, to prevent the sponge becoming sour by too long standing, and in winter to be getting materials warmed and in readi- ness for use. A large, seamless tin dish-pan with handles and a tight-fitting cover, kept for this purpose alone, is better than a wooden bowl for bread. It should be thoroughly washed and scalded every time it is used. Measure and sift the flour. It is convenient to keep two quart cups, one for dry and the other for liquid measuring. In winter always warm the flour (by placing it in a pan in a warm oven for a few minutes or by setting it over night where it will be kept at the same temperature as the sponge) and also the sponge. Put the flour in a bread pan, make a large well in the cen- ter, into which pour the sponge, adding two level tea-spoons of salt (this is the quantity for four loaves of bread); mix well, being careful not to get the dough too stiff; turn out on the bread-board, rub the pan clean, and add the "rubbings" to the bread. Knead for from forty-five minutes to one hour, or until the dough ceases to stick to BREAD-MA KINO. either the board or hands. Do not stop kneading until done. Any pause in the process injures the bread. The process of kneading is very important. Use just as little flour in kneading as will prevent sticking, and practice will enable one to make a little flour go a great way. Some good bread-makers knead with the palm of the hands until the dough is a flat cake, then fold once, repeating this operation until the dough is perfectly smooth and elastic; others- close the hands and press hard and quickly into the dough with the fists, dipping them into the flour when the dough sticks; or, after kneading, chop with the chopping knife and then knead again; others still knead with a potato-masher, thinking it a great saving of strength. Another method, used by good bread-makers, is to raise the whole mass and drop or dash it with considerable force upon the mixing-board or table for several minutes. No exact directions can be given, but experience and practice will prove the best guides. After the bread is thoroughly kneaded, form into a round mass or large loaf, sprinkle the bread-pan well with flour, and, having placed the loaf in it, sprinkle flour lightly on the top (some grease the top with salted lard or butter instead of sprinkling with flour); cover closely, and set to rise in a warm temperature; let it rise to twice its original size this time, say from one to two hours, differing in time with the season of the year. Then knead down in the pan, cat into equal parts, place one at a time on the board, mold each iato a smooth, oblong loaf, not too large, ana put one after anotner into a well-greased baking-pan; grease the tops of the loaves with salted lard or butter, and set to rise. Or the loaves may be made by buttering the hands, and taking enough from the mass to form a loaf, molding it into shape in tiie hands, without using flour. This insures a nice, brown, tender crust. Loaves made in the French style, long and narrow, are about half crust, and more easily di- gested, the action of heat anticipating part of the digestive process. In molding, do not leave any lumps or loose flour adhering to the outside, but mold until the loaves are perfectly smooth. No par- ticular directions can be given in regard to the time bread should stand after it is molded and placed in the pans, because here is the point where observation and discretion are so indispensable. In hot weather, when the yeast is very good and the bread very light, it 12 BREAD-MAKING. must not stand over fifteen minutes before placing to bake. If it is cold weather, and the yeast is less active, or the bread not perfectly raised, it may sometimes stand an hour in the pans without injury. When it is risen so as to seam or orack, it is ready for the oven; if it stands after this it becomes sour, and even if it does not sour it loses its freshness and sweetness, and the bread becomes dry sooner after baking. Bread should undergo but two fermentations; the saccharine or sweet fermentation, and the vinous, when it smells something like foaming beer. The housewife who would have good, sweet bread, must never let it pass this change, because the third or acetous fermentation then takes place. This last can be remedied by adding soda m the proportion of one tea-spoon to each quart of wetting; or, which is the same thing, a tea-spoon to four quarts of flour; but the bread will be much less nutritious and healthful, and some of the best elements of the flour will be lost. Always add salt to all bread, biscuit, griddle-cakes, etc., but never salt sponge. A small quantity of white sugar is an improvement to all bread dough. Bread should always be mixed as soft ae it can be handled, but in using the "new process" flour, made from spring wheat, the dough requires to be much harder than is necessary when using that made from winter wheat. To Bake Bread. Here is the important point, for the bread may be perfect thus far and then be spoiled in baking. No definite rules can be given that apply equally well to every stove and range; but one general rule must be observed, which is, to have a steady, moderate heat, such as is more minutely described in the directions for baking large cakes. The oven must be just hot enough; if too hot, a firm crust is formed before the bread has expanded enough, and it will be heavy. To test the heat, place a teaspoon of flour on an old piece of crockery (to secure an even heat), and set in middle of the oven; if it browns in one minute the heat is right. An oven in which the bare hand and arm can not be held longer than to count twenty moderately, is hot enough. The attention of stove-makers seems aever to have been directed to the fact that there is no accurate means of testing the heat of ovens, but it is to be hoped that in the BREAD-MAKING. 13 near future some simple device may be found which will render unnecessary such inaccurate and untrustworthy tests as must now be used, and thus reduce baking to a science. To test whether the bread is done, break the loaves' apart and press gently with the finger; if elastic it is done, but if clammy, not done, and must be returned to the oven; or, If the loaves are single, test with a straw plucked from a broom. Break off the branches and thrust the larger end into the loaf; if it is sticky when withdrawn, the bread is not done, but if free from dough it is ready to be removed from the oven. The little projections on the straw, where the branches have been broken off, catch and bring out the dough, when not thoroughly baked. The time required for baking is not less than three-quarters of an hour, and bread baked a full hour is more wholesome and is gen- erally considered more palatable. "The little fairy that hovers over successful bread-making is heat, not too little nor too much, but uniform." When removed from the oven, take the loaves out of the pan, grease the entire outer crust with melted butter, and tilt them on edge, so as to secure a free circulation of air. It is better not to cover bread while warm, unless with a light cloth to keep off flies. Thoroughly exposed to the air the surface cools first, insuring a crisp crust and the retention of the moisture in the loaf. There are those, however, who follow successfully the plan of wrapping the bread, as soon as it is removed from the oven, in a coarse towel or bread-cloth. Never put warm bread next to wood, as the part in contact will have a bad taste. Spread a cloth over the table before placing the bread on it Good bread-makers differ widely as to the number of times bread should rise, some insisting that the rule of our good grandmothers, who only allowed it to rise once, insures the sweetest and most nutri- tious bread, and that in all subsequent fermentations, a decomposi- tion takes places that is damaging to the wholesome qualities of the "staff of life." If by accident or neglect the bread is baked too hard, rub the loaf over with butter, wet a towel and wrap it in it, and cover with another dry towel. In winter, bread dough may be kept sweet 14 BREAD-MAKING. several days by placing it where it will be cold without freezing, or by putting it so deep into the flour barrel as to exclude it entirely from the air. When wanted for use, make into bread, or, by add- ing the proper ingredients, into cake, rusk, biscuit, apple dump- lings, chicken pie, etc. When Vie bread is cold, place in a stone jar or tin box, which must be thoroughly washed, scalded and dried each baking day. A Btill better receptacle for bread is a tin wash-boiler with a close cover, kept for this purpose alone. When small, single loaf pans are used, the bread may be removed to cool, the pans washed and dried, and the loaves afterwards replaced each in its pan, and then set away in a box or boiler. The pan helps to keep the bread moist and palatable for several days. The best pan for bread is made of Russia iron (which is but little more costly than tin and will last many times as long), about four by ten inches on the bottom, flaring to the top, and about four and one-half inches deep. The pan should be greased very lightly for bread. Attention to neatness, important in all cookery, is doubly im- portant in bread-making. Be sure that the hair is neatly combed and put up (which ought to be done before the dress is put on every morning), and that the hands, arms and finger-nails are scrupulously clean. A neat calico apron with bib, and sleeves of dress well-tucked up and fastened so that they will not come down, add much to the comfort of this the most important task of the kitchen queen. There are three critical points in the process of bread-making: the condition of the yeast, which must never be used if sour; the temperature where the bread is set to rise, which must not be so hot as to scald; and the temperature of the oven, which must be uni- form, neither too hot nor too cold. In cutting warm bread for the table, heat the knife, and, whether hot or cold, cut only as much as will be eaten. It is better to replenish the bread-plate once or even twice during a meal than to have slices left over to dry up and waste. When using coal, put into the fire-box enough to finish the baking; adding more during the process is apt to render the oven-heat BREAD-MAKING. 15 irregular. When wood is used, make a good hot fire, see that the stove has a good, free draft, and let it cool to an even, steady heat before putting the bread in the oven. The finest bread may be com- pletely spoiled in baking, and a fresldy-made fire can not be easily regulated. The patent iron shelves, made to be attached to the pipes of stoves and ranges, are very convenient places for placing bread to rise. They give the necessary warmth, and the height is conven- ieat for watching. The proportion of gluten in wheat, and consequently in flour, varies greatly in different varieties. Flour in which gluten is abundant will absorb much more liquid than that which contains a greater proportion of starch, and consequently is stronger; that is, will make more bread to a given quantity. Gluten is a flesh-former, and starch a heat-giver, in the nutritive processes of the body. Flour containing a good proportion of gluten remains a compact mass when compressed in the hand, while starchy flour crumbles and lacks adhesive properties. Neither gluten or starch dissolve in cold water. The gluten is a grayish, tough, elastic substance. In yeast-bread, the yeast, in fermenting, combines with the sugar in the flour and the sugar which has been added to the flour, and car- bonic acid gas and alcohol are produced. The gas tries to escape, but is confined by the elastic, strong gluten which forms the walls of the cells in which it is held, its expansion changing the solid dough into a light, spongy mass. The kneading process distributes the yeast thoroughly through the bread, making the grain even. The water used in mixing the bread softens the gluten, and cements all the particles of flour together, ready for the action of the car- bonic acid gas. In baking, the loaf grows larger as the heat ex- pands the carbonic acid gas, and converts the water into steam and the alcohol into vapor, but it, meantime, loses one-sixth of its weight by the escape of these through the pores of the bread. Some of the starch changes into gum, the cells of the rest are broken by the heat, the gluten is softened and made tender, and the bread is in the condition most easily acted upon by the digestive fluids. There is a great difference of opinion as to the comparative mer- its of bread made from fine flour, and Graham, or whole wheat 16 BREAD-MAKING. flour. The latter is undoubtedly best for persons who lead seden- tary lives, as the coarse particles stimulate the digestive organs, causing the fluids to flow more freely; while for those who follow active, out-of-door pursuits, the fine flour bread is probably best, as being more nutritious and economical, because wholly digested. There is an old and true saying, that "she who has baked a good batch of bread has done a good days work." Bread-making should stand at the head of domestic accomplishments, since the health and happiness of the family depends immeasurably upon good bread; and there is certain to come a time in the experience of every true, thoughtful woman when she is glad and proud of her ability to make nice, sweet loaves, free from soda, alum, and other injurious ingredients, or bitter regret that she neglected to learn, or was so unfortunate as not to have been taught, at least the first requisites of good bread-making. Graham and Corn Bread. It is very desirable that every family should have a constant supply of bread made of unbolted flour, or rye and. Indian com. Most persons find it palatable, and it promotes health. For these coarse breads, always add a little brown sugar or molasses, and the amount given in the recipes may be increased according to taste. They rise quicker and in a less warm atmosphere than without sweetening. A little lard or butter improves bread or caKes made of Graham or Indian meal, rendering them light and tender. Graham rises rather more quickly than fine flour (as the whole wheat flour contains a larger proportion of gluten, and fermentation is more rapid), and should not be allowed to rise quite as light. The pans should be greased more thoroughly for Graham and corn bread than for that made from fine flour. The fire should be steady and sufficient to complete the baking, and the oven hot when the bread is put in. A fresh blaze will burn the crust, while a steady fire will sweeten it. Graham bread bakes more slowly than fine- flour bread, and corn bread requires more time and a hotter oven than either. Use either yellow or white corn, ground coarse, for mush, and white, ground fine, for bread, etc. In cutting the latter while warm, heat the knife, and hold it perpendicularly. Rye is BREAD-MAKING. 17 said to absorb more moisture from the air than any other grain; hence, all bread from this meal needs a longer application of heat, and keeps moister after being baked than that made from other grain. Sponge for Winter Use. Peel and boil four or five medium-sized potatoes in two quarts of -water (which will boil down to one quart by thet ime the potatoes are cooked): when done, take out and press through a colander, or mash very fine in the crock in which the sponge is to be made; make a well in the center, into which put one cup of flour, and pour over it the boiling water from the potatoes; stir thoroughly, and when cool add a pint of tepid water, flour enough to make a thin batter, and a cup of yeast This sponge makes very moist bread. Bread Sponge. Six potatoes boiled and mashed while hot, two table-spoons of while sugar, two of butter, one quart tepid water; into this stir three cups flour; beat to a smooth batter, add six table-spoons yeast; set over night, and, in the morning, knead in sufficient flour to make a stiff, spongy dough; knead vigorously for fifteen min- utes, set away to rise, and, when light, knead for ten minutes; mold out into moderate-sized loaves, and let rise until they are like deli- cate or light sponge-cake.—Mrs. George H. Rust Bread Sponge and Bread. Five pints warm water, five quarts sifted flour, one coffee-cup yeast; mix in a'two-gallon stone jar, cover closely, and set in a large tin pan, so that if the sponge rises over the top of the jar, the drippings may fall into the pan. Set to rise the evening before baking. In winter be careful to set in a warm place. In the morn- ing sift six quarts flour into a pail, pour the sponge into a bread- pan or bowl, add two table-spoons of salt, then the flour gradually; mix and knead well, using up nearly all the flour. This first kneading is the most important, and should occupy at least twenty minutes. Make the bread in one large loaf, set away in a warm place, and cover with a cloth. It ought to rise in half an hour, when it should be kneaded thoroughly again for ten minutes. Then 2 18 BREAD-MAKING. take enough dough for three good-sized loaves (a quart bowl of dough to each), give five minutes kneading to each loaf, and place to rise in a dripping-pan well greased with lard. The loaves will be light in five or ten minutes, and will bake in a properly heated oven in, half an hour. Make a well in the center of the remaining dough, and into it put a half tea-cup of white sugar, one tea-cup of lard, and two eggs, which mix thoroughly with the dough, knead into one large loaf, set in a warm place about fifteen minutes to rise, and, when light, knead five minutes and let rise again for about ten minutes, when it should be light. Take out of pan, and knead on bread-board, roll about an inch in thickness, cut out with a biscuit- cutter, and place in dripping-pan; let rise five minutes and bake twenty minutes. In winter more time must be allowed for rising. This makes three loaves and ninety biscuit. Bread with Buttermilk. The evening before baking, bring to the boiling point two quarts of buttermilk (or boil sour milk and take the same quantity of the whey), and pour into a crock in which a scant tea-cup of sifted flour has been placed. Let stand till sufficiently cool, then add half a cup of. yeast, and flour to make a thick batter; the better and longer the sponge is stirred the whiter will be the bread. In the morning sift the flour into the bread-pan, pour the sponge in the center, stir in some of the flour, and let stand until after break- fast; then mix, kneading for about half an hour, the longer the better; when light, mold into loaves, this time kneading as little as possible. The secret of good bread is having good yeast, and not baking too hard. This makes four loaves and forty biscuit.—Mrs. M. C. Moore, Good Bread. For four small loaves boil four large potatoes; when done, pour off the water, and when it cools add to it a yeast cake; mash the potato very fine, put through a sieve, pour boiling milk on as much flour as is needed, let stand until cool, add the potato and yeast, a large tea-spoon of salt and one table-spoon of sugar; stir very stiff, adding flour as is needed. Let stand in a warm place until light, BREAD-MAKING. 19 dissolve one tea-spoon of soda in a little hot water, mix well through with the hands, mold into loaves, and let rise again. When suffi- ciently raised place in a moderately hot oven, keeping up a steady fire.—Mrs. Governor Hardin, Missouri. Hop-Yeast Bread. One tea-cup yeast, three pints warm water; make a thin sponge at tea time, cover and let it remain two hours or until very light. By adding the water to the flour first and having the sponge quite warm, it is never necessary to put the sponge over hot water or in an oven to make it rise. Knead into a loaf before going to bed; in the morning mold into three loaves, spreading a little lard between as they are put in the pan. When light, bake one hour, having oven quite hot when the bread is put in, and very moderate when it is done. (Bread made in this way is never sour or heavy.) To have fine, light biscuit, add shortening at night, and in the morning make into biscuit and bake for breakfast. By this recipe bread is baked before the stove is cold from breakfast, and out of the way for other baking. To cool bread there should be a board for the purpose. An oaken hoard, covered with heavy white flannel, is the best; over this spread a fresh linen bread-cloth, and lay the bread on it right side up, with nothing over it except a very thin cover to keep off the flies. It should be placed immediately in the fresh air or wind to cool; when cool, place immediately in a tin box or stone jar, and cover closely. Bread cooled in this way will have a soft crust, and be filled with pure air.—Mrs J. T. Liggett, Detroit, Bread with Potato Sponge. Pare and boil four or five potatoes, mash fine, and add one pint of flour; pour on the mixture first boiling water enough to moisten well, then about one quart of cold water, after which add flour enough to make a stiff batter. When cooled to "scarcely milk warm," put in one-half pint (or more will do no harm) of yeast, and let it stand in a warm place over night; in the morning add to this sponge one cup of lard, stir in flour, and knead well. The more kneading the finer and whiter the bread will be; pounding also with a potato-masher improves the bread greatly, and is rather 20 BREAD-MAKING. easier than so much kneading. When quite stiff and well worked and pounded, let it rise again, and when light, make into loaves or biscuit, adding no more flour except to flour the hands and board— merely enough to prevent the bread from sticking. Let it rise again, then bake; and immediately after taking from the oven, wrap in a wet towel until partly cold, in order to soften the crust. If yeast suxd flour are good (essentials in all cases), the above process will make good bread.—Mrs. Clara Morey Poor-Man's Bread. One pint of buttermilk or sour milk, one level tea-spoon soda, a pinch of salt, and flour enough to make as stiff as soda-biscuit dough; cut into three pieces, handle as little as possible, roll an inch thick, place in dripping-pan, bake twenty or thirty minutes in a hot oven, and, when done, wrap in a bread cloth. Eat while warm, breaking open like a biscuit. Each cake will be about the size of a pie.— Mrs. D. B. Bread with Potatoes. To one quart of blood-warm water or milk (if milk is used, it must first be scalded and then cooled to blood heat), take two quarts sifted flour and one teacup fresh potato yeast. Put the milk or water into a one-gallon stone crock and stir the flour gradually into it, then add the yeast, beating it vigorously for fifteen minutes; set to rise in a warm place, putting the crock in a pan (to catch the drippings if it should run over). If in winter, mix it as early as six or seven o'clocK in tne evening. Cover very closely with a clean white cloth, with a blanket over it, kept purposely for this (the cloths used for bread should not be taken for any thing else). In the morning, sift three quarts of flour into the bread-pan, setting it in the oven for a few minutes to bring it to the same temperature as the sponge. Pare six medium-sized potatoes, and boil them in three pints of water; when thoroughly cooked, remove the potatoes and pour the boiling hot water (which will now be about one quart) over the flour, stirring it with a spoon. Mash the potatoes very fine, and beat them as if for the table; mix them in the flour, and when cooled to blood heat, pour in the sponge, and mix well. Add more wetting or flour if needed, rub off all that adheres to the sides BREAD-MAKINO. 21 I of the pan, and mix with the dough, kneading it from forty-five minutes to one hour; then place the pan to rise, cover closely with the cloth and blanket, setting it where there is no draft (this is im- perative). When it has risen to twice its size, knead down in the pan, take one quart of dough for each loaf, knead each five min- utes with quick, elastic movements, grease the sides of the loaves with sweet, melted butter if two or more are placed in the same pan; or the loaves may be greased all over lightly before placing in the pan, a process which adds much to the sweetness of the crust. The pan should be thoroughly but lightly greased. Let rise until as large again as when molded, then bake. Have your oven mod- erately heated at first, with a fire in the stove that will keep it of a uniform temperature. (For manner of testing oven, see general instructions for bread-making.) Bake from three-quarters of an hour to one hour and a quarter, according to the size of the loaves, during which time the bread should be carefully watched to see that the proper degree of heat is steadily kept up. Before browning they will have risen to double their size when placed in the oven. The heat of the oven ie all important, for if too hot the loaves will not rise sufficiently; if too cold they will rise too much, and the bread will be coarse and porous. When done, place on side, and cool without covering. Never use flour without sifting, as sifting enlivens and aerates the flour, and makes both mixing and rising easier and quicker. Quick rising makes whiter bread, and it is very necessary that in all its different risings, bread should be mixed as soon as ready.—Anldan, mneooygan, Me. Bread Raised Once. No other yeast is made with so little trouble as potato yeast. Bread made from it keeps moist longer, and there is no danger of injuring the flavor of the bread by using too much. When plen- tifully used, a beautiful, light, sweet, fine-grained bread is produced by only one rising, thus saving not only time and trouble, but also, what is more important, the sweet flavor and nutritious qualities which greatly suffer by the second fermentation, almost universally practiced. When this fact is thoroughly understood, every one will appreciate the importance of checking excessive fermentation, din> 22 BREAD-MAKING. iug which decomposition actually takes place, and the delicate, foamy loaves, "yeasted to death," which so many families now use and call the "staff of life," will give place to the sweet, substantial home-made loaves, such as our good mothers and grandmothers kneaded with their own skilled hands. Take care that the yeast is good and "lively," for, without this, failure is certain. To make three loaves of bread, warm and lightly grease the baking-pans, sift three quarts or more of flour into the bread-pan, press down the middle, and into it put two small table- spoons of fine salt; pour in slowly one quart of milk-warm water, constantly stirring with one hand in the flour, until a thin batter is formed; add a pint or more of potato yeast or one tea-cup of hop yeast. (If compressed yeast is used, a yeast cake, dissolved in warm water, or a piece of compressed yeast as large as a walnut, dissolved in the same manner, is sufficient.) Mix thoroughly, add- ing more and more flour, until a stiff dough is formed; place on the bread-board, knead vigorously for twenty minutes or more, flouring the board frequently to prevent the dough from sticking to it, divide into loaves of a size to suit pans, mold into a comely shape, place in pans, rub over the top a light coating of sweet, drawn butter, set in a warm, not too hot place to rise, cover lightly to keep off dust and air, watch and occasionally turn the pans around when necessary to make the loaves rise evenly; when risen to about double the original size, draw across the top of each length- wise with a sharp knit'e, making a slit half an inch deep, place them in a moderately heated oven, and bake one hour, watching carefully from time to time to make certain that a proper degree of keat is kept up. Before browning they will rise to double the size of loaf which was placed in the oven, and pans must be provided deep enough to retain them in shape. Bake until well done and nicely browned. Nothing adds more to the sweetness and digesti- bility of wheaten bread than thorough baking. When done, re> move from pans immediately, to prevent the sweating and softening of the crust—Mrs. L. B. Lyman, Antioch, Cal. BREAD-MAKING. 23 Bread Raised Twice. Measure out four quarts of sifted flour, take out a pint in a cup, and place remainder in a bread-pan. Make a well in the middle, into which turn one table-spoon sugar, one of salt, and one cup of jeast; then mix in one pint of milk which has been made blood- warm by adding one pint of boiling water; beat well with a strong spoon, add one table-spoon lard, knead for twenty to thirty minutes, and let rise over night; in the morning knead again, make into loaves, let them rise one#hour, and bake fifty minutes. Water may be used instead of the pint of milk, in which case use twice as much lard. Bread Raised Three Times. Begin about 5 p. m., plan for six loaves, somewhat larger than bakers' loaves; take two little cakes of yeast, put them into a pint of tepid water, and, when soft, beat in thoroughly enough flour to make a thick batter, and put in a warm place. If the excellent "Farmer's Yeast," the recipe for which is given hereafter, is used, take half a tea-cup and stir into the batter. A good dish for this purpose is a large bowl, a broad open pitcher, or a bright three- quart tin pail, and it should be clean in the strictest sense. This should rise in about two hours; and when nearly light, take six or eight medium-sized potatoes, pare neatly, rinse clean, and boil m three pints of water till well done, mash very fine in the water while hot. Have ready a bread-pan of sifted flour, into which put a tea-spoon of salt, half a cup of white sugar, and a bit of lard as large as an egg; then riddle the potato mash, hot as it is, through a sieve or fine colander into the flour, and stir with a kitchen spoon into a stiff dough. This scalds about half the flour used in the batch «f bread. This mass must cool till it will not aetdd the yead, which may now be mixed in and put in a warm, not hot, place for second rising, which will be accomplished by morning, when the kneading may be done. Kneading is the finest point of bread-mak- ing, and contains more of the art than any other; it requires skill, time, patience, and hard work. Work in flour no faster than is re- quired to allow thorough kneading, which can not be done in less than forty-five minutes, but should not be worked much over an 24 BREAD-MAKING. hour; one hour is a good uniform rule. The mechanical bakers use sets of rollers driven by steam power, between which the dough is passed, coming out a sheet an inch thick; it is folded together several times and rolled again and again. This process should be imitated somewhat by the hands in the family kitchen. The work- ing of the dough gives grain and flak in ess to the bread. The dough -when kneaded should be soft, but not sticky—stiff enough to retain its roundness on the board. Put back into the pan for the third rising, which will require but little time, and when light, cut off enough for each loaf by itself. Knead but little, and put into the baking-pans. If the first kneading has been well done, no more flour will be needed in molding into loaves. These must remain in the baking-pans till nearly as large as the loaves ought to be, when they may be put into a well-heated oven. If the oven is a trifle too hot, or if it tends to bake hard on the top, a piece of brown paper may be put over the loaves (save some clean grocer's paper for this purpose), and from forty to sixty minutes will cook it thor- oughly. After the loaves are put into the baking-pans, avoid jar- ring them, as it will make portions of them heavy. If the yeast is "set" at 5 p. m., the bread will be ready for dinner next day; if in the morning, the baking will be done early in the evening, or tvelve hours after, with fair temperature and good yeast. Bread made in this way will be good for a week, and, with fair weather *ind careful keeping, even two weeks. When dry, a slice toasted will be as crisp, sweet, and granular as Yan- kee ginger-bread.— Mrs. H. Young, Phead, in Summer or Wintep. In summer take three pints of cold or tepid water, four table- spoons of yeast, one tea-spoon of salt; stir in flour enough to make a thick sponge (rather thicker than griddle-cakes). Let stand until morning, then add more flour, mix stiff, and knead ten minutes; place in a pan, let rise until light, knead for another ten minutes; mold into four loaves, and set to rise, but do not let it get too light; bake in a moderate oven one hour. If bread is mixed at six o'clock in the morning, the baking ought to be done by ten o'clock. In winter take one pint of buttermilk or clabbered milk; let it BREAD-MAKING. 25 I scald (not boil); make a well in the center of the flour, into it turn the hot milk, add one tea-spoon of salt, enough flour and water to make sufficient sponge, aud one tea-cup of yeast; let stand until morning, and then prepare the bread as in summer. This is more convenient to make in winter, since a hot fire is needed to heat the milk.—Mrs. D. Buxton, Salt-Rising Bread. The leaven for this bread is prepared thus: Take a pint of warm water—about 90°—(if a little too hot defeat is certain) in a per- fectly clean bowl and stir up a thick batter, adding only a tea-spoon of salt; a thorough beating of the batter is important. Set in a pan of warm water to secure uniformity of temperature, and in two to four hours it will begin to rise. The rising is much more sure if coarse flour or "shorts" is used instead of fine flour. When your "rising" is nearly light enough, take a pint of milk and a pint of boiling water, (a table-spoon of lime water added is good, and often prevents souring), mix the sponge in the bread-pan, and when cooled to about milk-warm, stir in the rising. 'The sponge thus made will be light in two to four hours, with good warmth. The dough requires less kneading than yeast-raised dough. The bread is simpler, but not so certain of rising, and you leave out all the ingredients save the flour, water (milk is not essential), and a pinch of salt. It should be made more frequently as it dries faster than bread containing potatoes. Some object to it because of the odor in rising, which is the result of acetous fermentation, but the more of that the more sure you are of having sweet bread when baked.—Mrs. H. Young, Another Salt-Rising Bread. In summer take at night one (scant) pint of new milk, half as much hot water, a tea-spoon salt, one of sugar, and a very little soda. Mix all in a nice, sweet pitcher (it must be perfectly clean and sweet), stir in one table-spoon of corn meal, and add flour enough to make a medium batter; stir well, place the pitcher in an iron kettle with quite warm water, using so much water that the pitcher will barely rest on the bottom of the kettle; cover closely and leave all night (on the stove if the fire is nearly out) where it will be 26 BREAD-MAKING. kept warm, not hot, for an hour or two. If the pitcher is not to» huge, it will probably be full in the morning; if not, add a spoon of flour, stir well, warm the water in the kettle, replace the pitcher, cover, and keep it warm until light Have ready two quarts of sifted flour in a pan, make a hole in the center, put in an even tea-spoon of salt, a tea-cup of nearly boiling water; add one pint of new milk, and stir a batter there in the center of the flour, add the "emptyings" from the pitcher, and stir well (there will be a good deal of flour all round the batter; this is right); cover with another pan, keep warm vintil light—it will rise in an hour or even less—when it is ready to be well kneaded, and made directly into loaves, which place in the baking-pans, keep well covered and warm until light, when it is ready to bake. The secret of success is to keep it warro.but not at all hot. This bread is good if no milk is used; indeed, some prefer it made with water alone instead of milk and water. In cold weather, if kitchen is cold at night, do not set "emptyings" over night, but make early in the morning.—Hawltoh, Farina, Boston Brown Bread. One heaping coffee-cup each of corn, rye and Graham meal. The rye meal should be as fine as the Graham, or rye flour may be used. Sift the three kinds together as closely as possible, and beat together thoroughly with two cups New Orleans or Porto Rico mo- lasses, two cups sweet milk, one cup sour milk, one dessert-spoon soda, one tea-spoon salt; pour into a tin form, place in a kettle of cold water, put on and boil four hours. Put on to cook as soon as mixed. It may appear to be too thin, but it is not, as this recipe has never been known to fail. Serve warm, with baked beans or Thanksgiving turkey. The bread should not quite fill the form (or a tin pail with cover will answer), as it must have room to swell. See that the water does not boil up to the top of the form; also take care it does not boil entirely away or stop boiling. To serve it, remove the lid and set it a few moments into the open oven to dry the top, and it will then turn out in perfect shape. This bread can be used as a pudding, and served with a sauce made of thick sour cream, well sweetened and seasoned with nutmeg; or it is good toasted the next day.—Mrs. H. S. Stevens, Minneapolw, Minn. BREAD-MAKING. 27 Eastern Brown Bread. One pint each of rye or Graham and Indian meal, one cup mo- lasses, three-fourths cup sour milk, one and one-half tea-spoons soda, one and one-half pints cold water. Put on stove over cold watei (all brown breads are better when put on to steam over cold water, which is afterwards brought to the boiling point and kept con- stantly boiling until bread is done); steam four hours, and brown over in the oven. Brown Bread. Two and one-half cups sour milk, and one-half cup molasses; into these put one heaping tea-spoon soda, two cups corn meal, one cup Graham flour and one tea-spoon salt. Use coffee cups. Steam three hours, and afterwards brown in oven.—Mrs. D. Bassett, Miru teapolis, Minn. Brown Bread with Horsford's Bread Preparation. One and a fourth cups sweet milk, one cup each corn meal and Graham, one-half cup molasses, and one measure (measures are furnished with the Horsford) each of Horsford's Bread Preparation. Use coffee cups. Bread with Mush. Pour two quarts hot corn-meal mush, made as for eating, over two quarts flour (wheat or Graham); when cool, add one quart sponge, one coffee cup molasses, one tea-spoon salt, half tea-spoon Boda; mix well together; add more flour if needed, and knead thoroughly; mold into small loaves; let rise and bake in small dripping pans (a loaf in a pan), or pie-tins, in a moderate oven; when done, rub over with butter, place on the side, wrap in a cloth, and when cold put in a jar or box. This recipe makes three good- sized loaves and keeps moist longer than all Graham bread.—Mrs. W. W. Woods, Marysvilk, Ohio. Boston Corn Bread. One cup sweet milk, two cups sour milk, two-thirds cup molas• ses, one cup flour, four cups corn meal, two tea-spoons soda; steam three hours, and brown a few minutes in the oven.—Mrs. Canby, Bellefontaine, Ohio. 28 BREAD-MAKING. Mrs. B.'s Corn Bread. One quart sour milk, three eggs, two table-spoons lard or butter (or half and half), one table-spoon sugar, a pinch of salt, handful of wheat flour, and enough corn meal (sifted) to make a good bat- ter; add one heaping tea-spoon soda, stir thoroughly, and bake in long dripping pan. Boiled Corn Bread. t One and one-fourth pints each of sweet milk and buttermilk or sour cream, half a pint molasses, one tea-spoon soda, three tea- spoons cream tartar, one even table-spoon salt, one and a fourth pints each of corn meal and flour; sift the soda and cream tartar in the flour; mix all the ingredients thoroughly together and put in a buttered tin pail; cover closely, place in a kettle two-thirds full of boiling water; cover, and boil steadily for three hours, replenish- ing when needful with boiling water. To be eaten hot with butter. —Mrs. I. N. Burritt in "In the Kitdien." Corn Bread. One pint corn meal sifted, one pint flour, one pint sour milk, two eggs beaten light, one-half cup sugar, piece of butter size of an egg; add, the last thing, one tea-spoon soda in a little milk; add to the beaten egg the milk and meal alternately, then the butter and sugar. If sweet milk is used, add one tea-spoon cream tartar; bake twenty minutes in a hot oven.—Mrs. H. B. Sherman, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Corn Bread. Take one quart buttermilk, and one heaping pint corn meal, one tea-spoon soda, one of salt, one table-spoon sugar and three eggs; have the stove very hot, and do not bake in too deep a pan. The batter seems too thin, but bakes very nicely.—Mrs. J. H. Shearer, Marysville, Ohio. The Bread of our Forefathers. Put in a pan two quarts of meal, a half-pint of flour, stir up well; pour in the center a pint of boiling water, stir up enough of the meal to make a thin batter; when cool, put in a cup of yeast, a tea-spoon of salt and enough warm water to make a thick batter; let rise, then place in a deep, well-greased pan, cover with another BREAD-MAKING. 29 pan, and place in a moderate oven. When nearly done, remove the cover, and bake slowly until done. Excellent when cold. All baking-pans for bread should be made with covers, made of the same material, and high enough to permit the bread to rise to its full size. If pan is deep enough to permit the bread to rise without touching it, a flat piece of tin or sheet-iron will answer for the cover, or a cover may be made of paper, or another pan may, be inverted over the bread. The office of the cover is to prevent the crust from browning hard before the expansion of the gases has made the bread light and porous.—Mrs. C. V. Collier, Litchfield, Minnesota. Plain Corn Bread.' One well-heaped pint corn meal, one pint sour or buttermilk, one egg, one tea-spoon soda, one of salt; bake in dripping or gem pans. If preferred, one heaping table-spoon of sugar may be added. Steamed Corn Bread. Two cups each corn meal, Graham flour and sour milk, two- thirds cup molasses, one tea-spoon soda; steam two hours and a half.—Mrs. Jennie Gvthrie Cherry, Newark. Graham Bread. Take a little over a quart of warm water, one-half cup brown sugar or molasses, one-fourth cup hop yeast, and one and one-half tea-spoons salt; thicken the water with unbolted flour to a thin bat- ter; add sugar, salt and yeast, and stir in more flour until quite stiff. In the morning add a small tea-spoon soda, and flour enough to make the batter stiff as can be stirred with a spoon; put it into pans and let rise again; then bake in even oven,,not too hot at first; keep vxirm while rising; smooth over the loaves with a spoon or knife dipped in water.—Mrs. H. B. Sherman, Plankinton House, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Graham Bread. Mix three quarts Graham flour, one quart warm water, half pint yeast, a quarter-pint molasses, and one table-spoon salt, thoroughly; put in well-buttered pans, and leave in a warm place to rise, or let it rise over night at 60°. If left to rise slowly, let it remain in the bowl in which it was mixed, and unless very light when put iD 30 BREAD-MAKING. pans, let it stand fifteen or twenty minutes before putting in the oven. Graham Bread. To one and a half pints of tepid water add one heaping tea-spoon of salt and one-half cup of sugar; stir in one-half pint or more of the sponge made of white flour, as in recipe for "Bread with Potato Yeast;" add Graham flour until almost too stiff to stir; put in the baking-pan and let rise well, which will take about two hours, bake in a moderate oven, and when done, wrap in a wet towel until cool. —Mrs. Clara Woods Morey. Quick Graham Bread. One and a half pints sour milk, half cup New Orleans molasses, a little salt, two tea-spoons soda dissolved in a little hot water, and as much Graham flour as can be stirred in with a spoon; pour in well-greased pan, put in oven as soon as mixed, and bake two hours.— Mrs. E. J. W. Rye and Indian Bread. One quart of rye meal or rye flour, two quarts of Indian meal, scalded (by placing in a pan and pouring just enough boiling water over it, stirring constantly with a spoon, to merely wet it, but not enough to make it into a batter), one-half tea-cup molasses, two tea- spoons salt, one of soda, one tea-cup yeast; make as sthT as can be stirred with a spoon, mixing with warm water, and let rise all night; then put in a large pan, smooth the top with the hand dipped in cold water, let it stand a short time, and bake five or six hours. If put in the oven late in the day, let it remain all night. Graham may be used instead of rye, and baked as above. In tha. olden time it was placed in kettle, allowed to rise, then placed on the hearth before the fire, with coals on top of lid, and baked.—- Mrs. Cliarles Fvllington, Marysville, Ohio. Bye Bread. Make a sponge of one quart warm water, one tea cup yeast, thickened with rye flour; put in warm place to rise over night; scald one pint corn meal; when cool add it to sponge, and add rye flour till thick enough to knead, hiead but little, let rise, mold into BREAKFAST AND TEA CAKES. , 31 • loaves, place in deep pie-tins or small pudding-pans, let rise and bake; or, thicken the sponge with rye flour, and proceed as above. Wheat sponge may be used instead of rye.—Mrs. Elim T. Carson, Delaware, Ohio. Rye Bread. Make sponge as for wheat bread, let rise over night, then mix it up with the rye flour (not so stiff as wheat bread), and bake. BREAKFAST AND TEA CAKES. To make biscuit, take a part of the dough left from bread-making when it is ready to mold into loaves, work in the lard and any other ingredients desired, such as butter, eggs, sugar, spice, etc., also using a little more flour; let rise once, then mix down and let rise again, turn out on -".he bread-board, knead a few minutes, roll, and cut out with a biscuit-cutter or mold with the hand. Place in a well-greased dripping-pan, and when light bake in a quick oven from fifteen to twenty minutes. To make them a nice color, wet the top with warm water just before placing in the oven. To glaze, brush lightly with milk and sugar, or the well-beaten yolk of a^n egg sweetened, and a little milk added. Biscuit may be baked in eight minutes by making the oven as hot as can be without burning, and allowing it to cool off gradually as they bake; this makes them very light, but one has to watch closely to keep them from being scorched. Any kind of bread or pastry mixed with water requires a hotter fire than that mixed with milk. Biscuit and rolls should be allowed to rise one-half longer than bread loaves, because the loaves of the former, being smaller, are penetrated sooner by the heat, and, of course, the fermentation is stopped sooner, and the rolls do not rise so much in the oven. Biscuit for tea at six must be molded two hours before, which will give ample time for rising and baking. Parker House rolls for breakfast at eight must be made ready at five. Many think it 32 , BREAKFAST AND TEA CAKES. • unnecessary to knead down either bread or biscuit as often as hero directed; but if attention is given to the dough at the right time, and it is not suffered to become too light, it will be much nicer, whiter, and of a finer texture if these directions are followed. The almost universal custom is to set the sponge at night, but many excellent bread-makers differ widely from this in practice, and their objections deserve candid consideration in this nineteenth cen- tury, when so much is written of dyspepsia and its causes. Some medical authorities assert that cancer in the stomach has its origin in dyspepsia, which, in the beginning, is caused by the use of indi- gestible yeast bread, in which the process of fermentation has been allowed to go so far that a certain amount of actual decomposition has taken place. This is not the fault of such recipes as are giveu in this volume, but from failure to mix the bread at each suc- cessive rising at the proper time. The objection to setting sponge at night is, that it stands too long. Bread, to be white, sweet, and digestible, must be mixed immediately after the sponge has risen to the proper point, which may be known by its puffy appearance, umaliy rising higher in the middle titan at the sides of the crock; if it sinks in the center, it has stood too long. The process of bread-making discovered by Prof. Horsford, of Harvard College, deserves the attention of all housekeepers. It is claimed, and with good reason, that the Horsford process prevents all decomposition, saves all the nutritious properties of the bread, and, by the addition of acid phosphate, renders it more easy of digestion. Besides this, the use of Horsford's Bread Preparation saves times, simplifies the whole process of bread-making, save3 labor, and reduces the chances of failure to the minimum. These are considerations of great moment, especially to inexperienced housekeepers, leaving entirely out of consideration the fact that this bread may be eaten with impunity, by persons whose delicate di- gestive organs are impaired by the use of ordinary yeast bread. It is certain that for rolls, biscuits, griddle-cakes, and the whole list of "Breakfast and Tea Cakes," the "Bread Preparation" is supe- rior to yeast or soda, or any of the baking-powders in common use. Soda biscuit must be handled as little and made as rapidly as possible; mix soda and cream tartar or baking-powder in the flour BREAKFAST AND TEA CAKES. 33 (with sweet milk use baking-powder or soda and cream tartar, with sour milk soda alone), so that the effervescence takes place in the mixture. One tea-spoon soda and two of cream tartar, or three tea-spoons baking-powder, to every two pints of flour, is about the right proportion. Bake in a quick oven as soon as made, and they rise more quickly if put into hot pans. Gems of all kinds require a hot oven, but the fire should be built some time before they are put into the oven, and allowed to go down by the time they are light, as the heat necessary to raise them will burn them in baking if kept up. All biscuit and bread, except brown and Graham bread, should he pricked with a fork before putting them in the oven. Soda and raised biscuit and bread or cake, when stale, can be made almost as nice as fresh by plunging for an instant into cold water, and then placing in a pan in the oven ten or fifteen minutes; thus treated they should be used immediately. Waffle-irons should be heated, then buttered or greased with lard, and one side filled with batter, closed and laid on the fire or placed on the stove, and after a few minutes turned on the other side. They take about twice as long to bake as griddle-cakes, and are delicious with a dressing of ground cinnamon. Muffins are baked in muffin-rings. In eating them, do not cut but break them open. The success of these recipes, and all others in this book in which «oda and cream tartar are used, will depend on the purity of these ingredients. Always buy the pure English bicarbonate of soda, and the pure cream tartar. They are higher-priced, but cheaper in the end, and are free from injurious substances. When not found at the grocer's, they may generally be had at the druggist's. Baking Powder. Sixteen ounces corn starch, eight of bicarbonate of soda, five of tartaric acid; mix thoroughly.—Mrs. Dr. Allen, Oberlin, Ohio. Eight ounces flour, eight of English bicarbonate of soda, seven of tartaric acid; mix thoroughly by passing several times through a sieve.—Mrs. Trimble, Mt. Gilead, Ohio. 3 84 BREAKFAST AND TEA CAKES. Breakfast Cake. Two table-spoons sugar, two of butter, two eggs, one cup milk, one (scanty) quart flour, one tea-spoon soda, two of cream tartar; bake twenty minutes in a quick oven.—Mrs. Emily L. Burnham, South Noruxdk, Conn. Cinnamon Cake. When yeast bread is ready to knead from the sponge, knead and roll out three-fourths of an inch thick, put thin slices of butter on the top, sprinkle with cinnamon, and then with sugar; let rise well and bake.—Mix. M. E. Wilcox, Selma, Alabama. Buns. Break one egg into a cup and fill with sweet milk; mix with it half cup yeast, half cup butter, one cup sugar, enough flour to make a soft dough; flavor with nutmeg. Let rise till very light, then mold into biscuit with a few currants. Let rise a second time- in pan; bake, and, when nearly done, glaze with a little molasses and milk. Use the same cup, no matter about the size, for each measure.—Mrs. W. A. James. Buttered Toast. Although toast is commonly used, few know how to prepare it nicely. Take bread not too fresh, cut thin and evenly, trim off the crustodges for the crumb-jar; first warm each side of the bread, then present the first side again to the fire until it takes on a rich, even, brown color; treat the other side in the same way; butter and serve immediately. The coals should be bright and hot. Toast properly made is very digestible, because all the moisture is ex- tracted, and the bread has become pure farina of wheat; but when it is exposed to a hot fire and the outside charred, the inside remains as moist as ever, and butter applied to it while warm does not pene- trate, but floats on the surface in the form of rancid oil. Or, beat one cup of butter and three table-spoons flour to a cream, pour over this one and a half pints boiling water ; place over a kettle of boil- ing water for ten minutes, dip into it the toast, and serve hot. Or, dip each slice of toast in boiling hot water (slightly salted), spread with butter, cover and keep hot BREAKFAST AND TEA CAKES. 86 Excellent Toast. Cut slices of a uniform thickness, of half an inch; move around over a brisk fire, to have all parts toasted alike; keep only so near the coals that the pieces will be heated through when both sides are well browned. If the slightest point is blackened or charred, scrape it off, or it will spoil the flavor of the whole. If covered with an earthen bowl, it will keep both warm and moist. A clean towel or napkin will answer if it is to go at once to the table. Stale bread may be used for milk-toast; sour bread may be improved by toast- ing it through, but sweet, light bread, only a day old or less, makes the best toast. Breakfast Toast. Add to one-half pint of sweet milk two table-spoons sugar, a little salt and a well-beaten egg; dip in this slices of bread (if dry, let it soak a minute), and fry on a buttered griddle until it is a light brown on each side. This is a good way to use dry bread.— Mrs. Dr. Morey, Mennonite Toast. Beat up three eggs well, add a pint of sweet milk and a pinch of salt; cut slices an inch thick from a loaf of baker's bread, remove crust, dip slices into the eggs and mHk, fry like doughnuts in very hot lard or drippings, till a delicate brown, butter and sprinkle with powdered sugar, and serve hot.—Mrs. J. P. Rea, Bread Puffs. If the wheat bread is light enough for the oven at breakfast time, have ready some hot lard in a deep kettle; with the thumb and two fingers pull up some of the dough quite thin, and cut it some two or three inches in length; as these pieces are cut, drop them in the lard and fry like doughnuts. At table they are eaten like biscuit; they may also be served in a vegetable dish with a dressing of hot cream, seasoned with pepper and salt.—In the Kitchen. Lucy's Pop-overs. Two tea-cups sweet milk, two tea-cups sifted flour, heaped a little, butter size of a walnut, two eggs, and one table-spoon sugar, a little salt; bake in hot gem-pans, filled half full, for twenty minutes, and serve immediately.—Mrs. W. A. James, Marshall, 86 BREAKFAST AND TEA CARES. Pocket-Books. Warm one quart new milk, add one cup butter or lard, four table- spoons sugar, and two well-beaten eggs; stir in flour enough to make a moderately stiff sponge, add a small cup of yeast, and set in a warm place to rise, which will take three or four hours; then mix in flour enough to make a soft dough and let rise again. When well risen, dissolve a lump of soda size of a bean in a spoon of milk, work it into the dough and roll into sheets one-half inch in thick- ness; spread with thin layer of butter, cut into squares, and fold over, pocket-book shape; put on tins or in pans to rise for a little while, when they will be fit for the oven. In summer the sponge can be made up in the morning, and rise in time to make for tea. In cool weather it is best to set it over night. —Mrs. J. H. Shearer. Rusk. Two tea-cups raised dough, one tea-cup sugar, !*alf cup butter, two well-beaten eggs, flour enough to make a stiff dough; set to rise, and when light, mold into high biscuit, and let rise again; sift sugar and cinnamon over the top, and place in oven.—Mrs. Mary Lee Gere, Champaign, Rusk. One pint milk, three eggs.'one tea-cup each af butter and sugar, and one coffee-cup potato yeast; thicken with flour, and sponge over night; in the morning stir down, let rise, and stir down again; when it rises make into a loaf, and let rise again; then roll out like soda biscuit, cut and put in pans, and, when light, bake carefully. Or when baking take four cups dough, one-half cup butter, one cup sugar, three eggs; mix thoroughly, adding enough flour to mold easily; let rise, make into rather high and narrow biscuit, let rise again, rub the tops with a little sugar and water, then spriukle over them dry sugar. Bake twenty minutes. Lebanon Rusk. One cup mashed potatoes, one of sugar, one of home-made yeast, three eggs ; mix together; when raised light, add half cup butter or lard, and flour to make a soft dough, and, when quite light, mold into small cakes, and let them rise again before baking. If wanted for tea, set about nine a. m.—Mrs. J. S. Stahr, BREAKFAST AND TEA CAKES. 37 Biscuit. Dissolve one rounded table-spoon of butter in a pint of hot milk; -when lukewarm stir in one quart of flour, add one beaten egg, a little salt, and a tea-cup of yeast; work into dough until smooth. If winter, set in a warm place; if summer, in a cool one to rise. In the morning work softly and roll out one-half inch and cut into biscuit and set to rise for thirty minutes, when they will be ready to bake. These are delicious. Biscuit. Take one quart sifted flour (loosely put in), one measure each of the acid and soda (or two heaping teaspoons acid and one moder- ately heaping teaspoon soda) of Horsford's Bread Preparation, one teaspoon salt, three gills of water; shape with a spoon and the floured hand. Hard Tea Biscuit. Two pounds of flour, one-fourth pound butter, one salt-spoon salt, three gills milk; cut up the butter and rub it in the flour, add the salt and milk, knead dough for half an hour, cut cakes about as large as a small tea-cup, and half an inch thick, prick with a fork, and bake in a moderate oven until they are a delicate brown.—Mrs. Denmead, Columbus, High Biscuit. On baking days, reserve one small loaf and mix a rounded table- spoon butter, a level table-spoon sugar and one egg into it by pull- ing it to pieces with the hands; knead into a loaf, let it rise, then, by rolling between the hands, make into balls the size of a small hen's egg, place in rows in very well greased dripping-pan; when half full raise the end that is empty almost perpendicular, and shake gently until the balls slide compactly together, then add more, and continue doing so until the pan is full; rub over the top with melted butter, let rise until very light, and bake.—Mildred. Maple Biscuit. To the well-beaten yolks of twelve eggs, add half pound of powdered or granulated sugar and half a cup of sweet milk; mix one tea-spoon baking-powder in a (scant) half pound of sifted flour, then sift the 38 BREAKFAST AND TEA CAKES. flour gently into the batter and add flavoring, bake in biscuit pans, spreading the batter one and a half to two inches thick in the pan. If rightly made it will be very light. Do not bake too fast, and have the oven about as for sponge cake. When cold, cut into slices three inches long and one inch wide. Ice the sides, ends and top with white, pink and chocolate icing. Dry in oven, and then, if desired, the bottom may be iced. Build in square blocks and place on table. Serve a plate of the white, one of the pink, and one of the brown, or they may be mixed in building.—Mrs. J. S. Sperry, Nashville, Tenn. South Carolina Biscuit. One quart sweet cream or milk, one and a half cups butter or fresh lard, two table-spoons white sugar, one good tea-spoon salt; add flour sufficient to make a stiff dough, knead well and mold into neat, small biscuit with the hands, as our grandmothers used to do; add one good tea-spoon cream tartar if preferred; bake well, and you have good sweet biscuit that will keep for weeks in a dry place, and are very nice for traveling lunch. They are such as we used to send to the army, and the " boys" relished them " hugely."— Mrs. Colonel Moore, Soda Biscuit. Put one quart of flour, before sifting, into sieve, with one tea- spoon soda and two of cream tartar (or three of baking powder), 6ne of salt, and one table-spoon white sugar; mix all thoroughly with the flour, run through sieve, rub in one level table-spoon of lard or butter (or half and half), wet with half pint sweet milk, roll on board about an inch thick, cut with biscuit cutter, and bake in a quick oven fifteen minutes. If you have not milk, use a little more butter, and wet with water. Handle as little and make as rapidly as possible.—M. Parloa. Spoon-Biscuit. One quart sour milk or buttermilk, one tea-spoon soda, a little salt, two table-spoons melted lard, and flour enough for a stiff bat- ter; drop in a hot gem-pan and bake in a quick oven.—Mrs. A. B. Morey. BREAKFAST AND TEA CAKES. 39 Sally Lunn. Sift into a pan a pound and a half of flour, put in two ounces of butter warmed in a pint of new milk, one salt-spoon salt, three eggs well beaten, and two table-spoons of good yeast. Mix well to- gether, and put the whole into a tin pan well greased, and set to rise all night. Bake a little brown in a quick oven. Warm the milk and butter over water until the butter is melted; beat the eggs in a two-quart tin-pail, and if the milk is not hot pour it over them. Stir in half the flour, then add the yeast, stirring thoroughly with the rest of the flour. Let rise over night. Some add two table- spoons sugar and use a tea-spoon soda and two of cream tartar instead of the yeast.—Rhoda, BcdUville, Vcu Tea Cake. One quart flour, one cup sour milk, one tea-spoon soda, one-half pound lard, one-half pound chopped raisins or currants; roll two inches thick and bake in a quick oven; split open, butter, and eat while hot.—Mrs. Canby Breakfast Rolls. Mix the dough in the evening, according to directions in the recipe for "Bread Raised Once;" add a table-spoon of butter, and set where it will be a little warm until morning; cut off pieces, and carefully shape them into rolls of the desired size by rolling them between the hands, but do not knead them; dip the sides of each into drawn butter when they are shaped, and place them in the baking-pan (the butter prevents their sticking together when baked, and they will be smooth and perfect when separated,). Rub them over the top with drawn butter, and dust a little fine salt over the top; set in a warm place, and they will quickly rise ready for baking. These are delicious. Long Breakfast Rolls. Three and one-half cups sweet milk, one cup butter and lard mixed in equal proportions, one cup potato yeast, flour enough to make into dough. Let rise over night; in the morning add one beaten egg. Knead thoroughly, and let rise again. With the hands, make into balls as large as a small hen's egg; then roll 40 BREAKFAST AND TEA CAKES. between the hands to make long rolls (about three inches), place close together in even rows in the pans. Let rise until light, and bake delicately. Coffee Rolls. Work into a quart of bread dough a rounded table-spoon of but- ter, and a half tea-cup of white sugar; add some dried currants (well washed and dried in the oven), sift some flour and sugar over them, work into the other ingredients, make into small rolls, dip into melted butter, place in tins, let rise a short time, and bake. Dinner or French Rolls. Make dough as directed in recipe for "Long Breakfast Rolls," make into balls as large as a medium-sized hen's egg, place on a well-floured board, flour a small rolling-pin (three-quarters of an inch in diameter), press down so as nearly to divide each ball of dough in the center, place in baking-pans so as not to touch each other, grease the space made by the rolling pin with melted butter, let rise until light, and bake. These rolls are so small and bake so quickly, that they have the delicious sweet taste of the wheat. Some grease the hands with butter while making the rolls. Bread dough, by adding the other ingredients, may be used for these rolls. Egg Rolls. Two tea-cups sweet milk, two eggs, a little salt, three and a half scant cups of sifted flour. Bake in hot gem-pans.'—Mrs. L. S. W., Jamestown, N. Y. Every-Day Rolls. Take a piece of bread dough on baking day, when molded out the last time, about enough for a small loaf, spread out a little, add one egg, two table-spoons of sugar, and three-fourths cup of lard; add a little flour and a small tea-spoon soda if the least bit sour; mix well, let rise, mold into rolls or biscuits, set to rise again, and they will be ready for the oven in twenty or thirty minutes. French Rolls. Peel six medium-sized mealy potatoes, boil in two quarts of water, press and drain both potatoes and water through a colander; when cool enough so as not to scald, add flour to make a thick BREAKFAST AND TEA CAKES. 41 batter, beat well, and when lukewarm, add one-half cup potato yeast. Make this sponge early in the morning, and when light turn into a bread pan, add a tea-spoon salt, half cup lard, and flour enough for a soft dough; mix up, and set in a warm, even tempera- ture; when risen, knead down and place again to rise, repeating this process five or six times; cut in small pieces and mold on the bread-board in rolls about one inch thick by five long; roll in melted butter or sweet lard, and place in well-greased baking pan9 (nine inches long by five wide and two and a half in depth, makes a convenient-sized pan, which holds fifteen of these rolls; or, if twice the width, put in two rows); press the rolls closely together, so that they will only be about half an inch in width. Let rise a short time and bake twenty minutes in a hot oven; if the top browns too rapidly, cover with paper. These rolls, if properly made, are very white, light and tender. Or, make rolls larger, and just before putting them in the oven, cut deeply across each one with a sharp knife. This will make the cleft roll, so famous among French cooks. Italian Rolls. A pound of bread dough. quarter-Dound softened butter: work the butter well into the dough, and roll out about half an inch thick; cut into strips nearly an inch wide and seven or eight incnes long; sin over inem nne corn meal, place tnem apart on a buttered pan, and when light bake in a quick oven.—In the Kitchen. Maryland Rolls. Rub one-half table-spoon of lard into one quart of flour, make a well in the middle, put in one-half cup baker's yeast—or one cup of home-made—two tea-spoons sugar, one-half pint cold boiled milk; do not stir, but let stand over night; in the morning knead well, after dinner knead again, cut out, put in pans, and let rise until tea time. Bake in a quick oven.—Mrs. Judge W. Parker House Rolls. Rub one-half table-spoon of butter, and one-half table-spoon of krd into two quarts of sifted flour; into a well in the middle pour one pint of cold boiled milk, and add one-half cup of yeast, one-half 42 BREAKFAST AND TEA CAKES. cup of sugar, and a little salt. If wanted for tea, rub the flour and butter, and boil the milk, and cool it the night before; add sugar, yeast and salt, and turn all into the flour, but do not stir. Let stand over night; in the morning stir up, knead, and let rise till near tea-time; mold and let rise again, and bake quickly. To mold, cut with cake-cutter; put a little melted butter on oue-half and lap nearly over on the other half. Place them in the pan about three-quarters of an inch apart.—Mrs. V. G. Hush, Minne- apolis, Minn. Wedding Sandwich Rolls. Late in the evening make a rather stiff potato sponge (see direc- tions under " Bread-Making"), and in the morning mix in as much flour as will make a soft dough, knead well, and place to rise; when sufficiently light, knead down again, repeating the operation two or three times, remembering not to let the dough become sour by rising too light; mold into common-sized loaves, place in your dripping-pan to rise, and bake very carefully, so as to secure the very slightest brown crust possible. On taking out of the oven, roll in a cloth tightly wrung out of water, with a large bread-blanket folded and wrapped around all. Let cool three or four hours, cut lengthwise of the loaf (not using the outside piece), first spreading lightly with good sweet butter, then cutting in slices not more than a quarter of an inch, or just as thin as possible, using for this pur- pose a very thin, sharp knife; lay on cold boiled ham cut in very thin shavings (no matter if in small pieces), roll up very slowly and carefully, and place where it will not unroll. Treat each sandwich in the same manner, always spreading the bread with butter before cutting. If by chance the bread is baked with too hard a crust, cut off a thin shaving of the brownest part very smoothly before making into sandwiches. These sandwiches are truly delicious if properly made, but they require great care, experience, and good judgment. Served on an oblong platter, piled in pyramid style, row upon row, they will resemble nicely rolled dinner napkins. They must be made and served the same day.—Mrs. James W. Robinson. Winter Rolls. Put three quarts of flour into a large crock or jar, scald one quart of buttermilk, add one cup of lard, and pour all over the flour, BREAKFAST AND TEA CAKES. 43 beating it up well; then add one quart of cold water, stir and add one-half cup of potato yeast, or one cup of brewer's; beat in well and set in a warm place to rise over night. In the morning add salt and flour enough to make a moderately stiff dough; set in a warm place to rise, and, when risen, knead down and set to rise again. This time knead down and place in a large stone crock or bowl, covered tightly with a tin pan to prevent the surface from drying, and set away in a cool place. When needed, turn out on a bread-board, cut off a piece as large as you wish to use, roll out to the thickness of ordinary soda biscuit, cut, and put in the oven to bake immediately. Set away the rest of the dough as before, and it will keep a week in winter, and is very convenient for hot breakfast-rolls.— Mrs. D. Buxton. Vienna Rolls. Have ready in a bowl a table-spoon of butter or lard, made soft by warming a little, and stirring with a spoon. Add to one quart of unsifted flour two heaping tea-spoons baking powder; mix and sift thoroughly together, and place in a bowl with butter. Take more or less sweet milk as may be necessary to form a dough of usual stiflhess, according to the flour (about three-fourths of a pint), put into the milk half a tea-spoon of salt, and then stir it into the flour, etc., with a spoon, forming the dough, which turn out on a board and knead sufficiently to make smooth. Boll out half an inch thick, and cut with a large round cutter; roia each one over to form a half round, wetting a little between the folds to make them stick together; place on buttered pans, so as not to touch, wash over on top with milk to give them a gloss, and bake immediately in a hot oven about twenty minutes. It will do them no harm to stand half an hour before baking, if it is desired. Cracknells. To one pint of rich milk put two ounces butter and spoon of yeast. Make it warm, and mix enough fine flour to make a light dough; roll thin and cut in long pieces, two inches broad. Prick well, and bake in slow oven.—Effie A. Adams, Quincy, Ills. English Crumpets. One quart warm milk, one teaspoon salt, half cup yeast, flour enough for a not very stiff batter. When light add half a cup 44 BREAKFAST AND TEA CAKES. melted butter, let stand twenty minutes, and bake in muffin rings or cups.—Mrs. G. W. M. Wheaten Gems. Mix one tea-spoon baking-powder and a little salt into one pint flour; add to the beaten yolks of two eggs one tea-cup sweet milk or cream, a piece of butter (melted) half the-size of an egg, the flour with baking-powder and salt mixed, and the well-beaten whites of the two eggs. Beat well, bake immediately in gem-pans in a hot oven, and take out and send to the table immediately.—Mrs. Gib Hillock, Wheat Muffins. Mix one pint milk, two eggs, three table-spoons yeast, and salt- spoon of salt, with flour enough to make a stiff batter; let rise four or five hours and bake in muffin-rings in a hot oven, for about ten minutes. This recipe may be made with Graham flour, by adding two table-spoons of molasses, and is excellent.—Mrs. G. W. MarchanL Waffles. Take one quart of flour, a tea-spoon of salt, a table-spoon of melted butter, and milk enough to make a thick batter. Mix thor- oughly. Add two well-beaten egg3, and one measure each of acid and soda (or two heaping tea-spoons acid and one moderately heap- ing tea-spoon soda) of Horsford's Bread Preparation; stir well, and bake at once in waffle-irons. Quick Waffles. Two pints sweet milk, one cup butter (melted), sifted flour to make a soft batter; add the well-beaten yolks of six eggs, then the beaten whites, and lastly (just before baking) four tea-spoons baking- powder, beating very hard and fast for a few minutes. These are very good with four or five eggs, but much better with more.—Mrs. C. W. Marey. Raised Waffles. One quart flour, one pint sweet, luke-warm milk, two eggs, a able-spoon melted butter, tea-spoon salt, half tea-cup good yeast-— Mrs. L. S. IVilliston, Heidelburg, Germany. BREAKFAST AND TEA CAKES. 45. Rice Waffles. Boil half a pint of rice and let it get cold, mix with it one-fourth pound butter and a little salt. Sift in it one and a half pints flour, beat five eggs separately, stir the yolks together with one quart milk, add whites beaten to a stiff' froth, beat hard, and bake at once in waffle-iron.—Mrs. S. C. Lee, Baltimore, Md. Sweet Wafers. One pint flour, one tea-cup sugar, three eggs, one table-spoon butter, flavor with lemon, mix into a batter same as for cake, and bake in wafer-irons. French Crackers. One and a half pounds each of flour and sugar, three-fourths pound butter, whites of five eggs; before cooking wash over with egg and dip in sugar. Egg Crackers. Six eggs, twelve table-spoons sweet milk, six table-spoons butter, half tea-spoon soda; mold with flour half an hour, and roll thin.— Mrs. J. S. Robinson. Corn Dodgers. To one quart corn meal add a little salt and a small table-spoon lard; scald with boiling water and beat hard for a few minutes; drop a large spoonful in a well-greased pan. The batter should be thick enough to just flatten on the bottom, leaving them quite high in the center. Bake in. a hot oven. Corn Muffins. One quart sifted Indian meal, a heaping tea-spoon butter, one quart milk, a salt-spoon salt, a third cup yeast, a table-spoon of molasses; let it rise four or five hours, and bake in muffin-rings.— Mrs. G. W. Marehant, Buffalo, N. Y. Corn Rolls. One pint of corn meal, two table-spoons sugar, one tea-spoon salt, one pint boiling milk; stir all together and let stand till cool. Add three eggs well beaten, and bake in gem-pans.—Mrs. Capt. J. P. Rea, Minneapolis, Minn, .46 BREAKFAST SD TEA CAKE& Corn Mush. Put four quarts fresh water iu a kettle to boil, salt to suit the taste; when it begins to boil stir in one and one-half quarts meal, letting it sift through the fingers slowly to prevent lumps, adding it a little faster at the last, until as thick as can be conveniently stirred with one hand ; set in the oven in the kettle (or take out into a pan), bake an hour, and it will be thoroughly cooked. It takes corn meal so long to cook thoroughly that it is very difficult to boil it until done without burning. Excellent for frying when cold. Use a hard wood paddle, two feet long, with a blade two inches wide and seven inches long, to stir with. The thorough cooking and baking in oven afterwards, takes away all the raw taste that mush is apt to have, and adds much to its sweetness and delicious flavor.— Mrs. W. W. Woods. Fried Mush. A delicious breakfast relish is made by slicing cold mush thin and frying in a little hot lard. Or dip in beaten eggs salted to taste, then in bread or cracker crumbs, and drop in hot lard, like dough- nuts.—Miss A. W. S., Nashville, Term. Alabama Johnny-Cake. Cook a pint of rice till tender, add a table-spoon butter; when cold add two beaten eggs and one pint meal, and when mixed spread on an oaken board and bake by tipping the board up before the fire- place. When done on one side turn over. The dough should be spread half an inch thick. Johnny-Cake. Two-thirds tea-spoon soda, three table-spoons sugar, one tea-spoon cream of tartar, one egg, one cup sweet milk, six table-spoons Indian meal, three table-spoons flour, and a little salt. This makes a thin batter. Cold-Water Gems. "With very cold or ice-water and Graham flour, and a little salt, make a rather stiff batter; heat and grease the irons, and bake twenty minutes in a hot oven.—Mrs. 0. M Scott. Good Graham Gems. Three cups sour milk, one tea-spoon soda, one of salt, one table- spoon brown sugar, one of melted lard, one beaten egg; to the egg UREAKFAST AND TEA CAKES. 47 add the milk, then the sugar and salt, then the Graham flour (with the soda mixed in), together with the lard; make a stiff batter, so that it will drop, not pour, from the spoon. Have gem-pans very hot, grease, till, and bake fifteen minutes in a hot oven.—Mrs. J. H. S. Mrs. Buxton's Graham Gems. Take one egg and beat well, add pinch of salt, one quart butter- milk or sour milk, and Graham flour enough to make a stiff batter; add one heaping tea-spoon soda and stir thoroughly with a spoon; heat and grease gem-irons, and after dipping the spoon in cold water, drop a spoonful of batter in each pan, repeating until all are filled; bake in a quick oven half an hour. This measure will make a dozen. Sweet-Milk Gems. Beat one egg well, add a pint new milk, a little salt, and Graham flour until it will drop^ off the spoon nicely; heat and butter the gem-pans before dropping in the dough; bake in a hot oven twenty minutes.—Mrs. JR. L. Partridge. Graham Muffins. Two cups of sour milk, two table-spoons brown sugar, a little salt, one tea-spoon soda, sufficient Graham flour to make moderately stiff. If not convenient to use sour milk, use sweet, adding cream of tartar.—Mrs. II. B. Sherman. Graham Mush. Sift meal slowly into boiling salted water, stirring briskly until it is as thick as can be stirred with one hand; serve with milk or cream and sugar, or butter and syrup. It is much improved by removing from the kettle to a pan as soon as thoroughly mixed, and steaming for three or four hours. It may also be eaten cold, or sliced and fried like corn mush. Oat-Meal Mush. To two quarts boiling water, well salted, add one and a half cups best oat meal (Irish, Scotch, Canadian or Akron are best) ; stir in meal by degrees, and after stirring up a few times to prevent its settling down in a mass at the bottom, leave it to cook three hours without stirring. While stirring in meal put inner kettle directly on BREAKFAST AND TEA CAKES. ■tove. (Cook in a custard-kettle with water in outer kettlej). To cook for breakfast it may be put on over night, allowing it to boil an hour or two in the evening, but it is better when freshly cooked. Serve with cream and sugar. This is unsurpassed as a breakfast- dish, especially for growing children, who need bone and muscle- producing food. To be wholesome it must be well cooked, and not the pasty, half-cooked mass usually served at boarding-houses. There are a few persons with very delicate digestive powers,, who should eat oat-meal only when thoroughly pearled, as the outer husks of the grain irritate the coatings of the stomach. In lieu of a custard-kettle the mush may be made in a pan or small tin bucket, and then placed in a steamer and steamed two hours. Steamed Oat-Meal. To one tea-cup oat-meal add one quart cold water, tea-spoon salt, put in steamer over a kettle of cold water, smd steam one hour and a half after meal begins to cook. Cracked Wheat. Two quarts salted water to two cups best white winter wheat; boil two or three hours in a custard-kettle: Or, soak over night and boil at least three-fourths of an hour: Or, put boiling water in a pan or small tin bucket, set on stove, stir in wheat, set in steamer and steam four hours: Or, make a strong sack of thick muslin or drilling, moisten wneat with coid water, add a little salt, place in sack, leav- ing half the space for wheat to swell in. Fit a round sheet of tin, perforated with holes half an inch in diameter, to the inside of ordinary kettle, so that it will rest two or three inches from the bottom; lay sack on the tin, put in water enough to reach tin, and boil from three to four hours, supplying water as it evaporates. Serve with butter and syrup, or cream and sugar. When cold, slice and fry; or warm with a little milk and salt in a pan greased with a little butter; or make in griddle-cakes with a batter of eggs, milk, and a little flour, and pinch of salt. Fine White Hominy oh Grits. Take two cups to two quarts salted water, soak over night, and boil three quarters of an hour in a custard kettle; serve with milk and sugar, or when cold slice and fry. FRITTERS. 49 FRITTERS. Make fritters quickly and beat thoroughly. A good rule for them is two eggs, one half-pint milk, one tea-spoon salt, and two cups flour; have the lard in which to cook them nice and sweet and hot Clarified fat boils at about five hundred degrees—more than double the heat of boiling water—and fat actually boiling will burn to a cinder any thing that is dropped into it. The proper cooking heat is three hundred and seventy-five degrees, and is indicated by a blue smoke arising from the surface of the fat. When this point is reached, the fat may be held at that degree of heat, and pre- vented from burning by dropping into it a peeled potato or a piece of hard bread, which furnishes something for the fat to act on. The heat may also be tested by dropping in a tea-spoon of the bat- ter; if the temperature is right it will quickly rise in a light ball with a splutter, and soon brown; take up carefully the moment they are done, with a wire spoon; drain in a hot colander, and sift pow- dered sugar over them; serve hot. Pork fritters are made by dipping thin bits of breakfast-bacon or fat pork in the batter: fruit fritters by chopping any kind of fresh or canned fruit fine and mix- ing it with batter, or by dipping quarters or halves in batter. The fruit may be improved in flavor by sprinkling sugar and grated lemon peel over it, and allowing it to remain two or three hours, after which drain and dip as above. Batters for fritters should be made an hour before using, as the grains of flour swell by standing after being moistened, and thus become lighter. Add the whites of eggs just before frying. It is better not to use sugar in batter, as it tends to make it heavy. Sprinkle over them in the dish when just ready to serve. Alabama Rice Fritters. Four eggs beaten very light, one pint milk, one cup boiled rice, three tea-spoons baking-powder in one quart flour; make into a batter; drop by spoonfuls into boiling lard. Sauce: One pound of sugar, one and a half cups water, stick of cinnamon; boil until clear.—"Ruth Royal," Atlanta, Ga. 50 FRITTERS. Apple Fritters. Make a batter in proportion of one cup sweet milk to two cups flour, a heaping tea-spoon baking powder, two eggs beaten sep- arately, one table-spoon sugar, and salt-spoon salt; heat the milk a little more than milk-warm, add slowly to the beaten yolks and sugar, then add flour and whites of eggs; stir all together, and throw in thin slices of good sour apples, dipping the batter up over them; drop in boiling lard in large spoonfuls with piece of apple in each, and fry to a light brown. Serve with maple syrup or a nice syrup made of sugar.—Mrs. James Henderson. Clam Fritters. Take raw clams, chopped fine, and make a batter with juice, an equal quantity of sweet milk, four eggs to each pint of liquid, and flour sufficient to stiffen; fry like other fritters.—Mrs. H. B. S. Corn Oysters. To one quart grated corn add three eggs and three or four grated crackers, beat well and season With pepper and salt; have ready in skillet butter and lard or beef-drippings in equal proportions, hot but not scorching; drop in little cakes about the size of an oyster {for this purpose using a tea-spoon); when brown turn and fry on the other side, watching constantly for fear of burning. If the fat is just the right heat, the oysters will be light and delicious, but if not, heavy and "soggy." Serve hot and keep dish well cov- ered. It is better to beat whites of eggs to a stiff froth and add just before frying.—Mrs. V. G. Hush, Minneapolis, Minn. Cream Fritters. One and a half pints flour, one pint milk, six well-beaten eggs, one-half nutmeg, two tea-spoons salt, one pint cream; stir the whole enough to mix the cream; fry in small cakes.—Mrs. M. K. P. Lemon Fritters. One-fourth pound of eggs, one-half pound flour, one-fourth pound sugar (pulverized); beat the yolks well, add the flour and enough fresh milk to make a stiff batter (about a gill of milk); beat the whites stiff with the sugar, the juice of a lemon and some of the yellow peel grated off, or a spoon of extract of lemon. GRIDDLE-CAKES. 51 When ready to cook beat the whites well into the batter and pro- ceed to cook. Have plenty of good lard, heated slowly; just as it begins to smoke, after bubbling, drop in by spoonfuls enough fritters to fill the vessel without crowding. The cold batter will lower the temperature of the fat sufficiently to keep it at proper cooking heat. The fritters will begin to brown very quickly, and should be turned with a wire spoon. If they begin to color dark brown check the heat immediately. If these directions are followed ac- curately, they may be lifted from the fat and laid upon a napkin or folded paper comparatively free from grease. Dust the fritters well with sugar and nutmeg, if agreeable. For supper eat them so, but for dinner some nice sauce should be served. Some persons substitute honey or maple syrup for sauce. Fritters bear a bad reputation, but when properly made, and eaten occasionally for a change, are quite as wholesome as many of the messes recommended as food for dyspeptics. Vanities. Beat two eggs, stir in a pinch of salt and a half tea-spoon rose-water, add sifted flour till just thick enough to roll out, cut with a cake-cutter, and fry quickly in hot lard. Sift powdered sugar on them while hot, and when cool put a tea-spoon of jelly in the center of each one. Nice for tea or dessert.—Mrs. D. C. Har- rington, GRIDDLE-CAKES. Griddle-cakes should be well beaten when first made, and are much lighter when the eggs are separated, whipping the yolks to a thick cream, and adding the whites beaten to a stiff froth just before baking. Some never stir buckwheat cakes after they have risen, but take them out carefully with a large spoon, placing the spoon when emptied in a saucer, and not back again into the batter. In baking griddle-cakes have the griddle clean, and, if the cakes stick, sprinkle on salt and rub with a coarse cloth before greasing. Some prefer griddles made of soap-stone, which need no 52 GRIDDLE-CAKES. greasing. They need to be very hot, but greasing spoils them. They are more costly and more easily broken than iron. Iron griddles, if properly cared for, need washing but seldom. Imme- diately after use they should be carefully wiped and put away out of the dust, never to be used for any other purpose. Never turn griddle-cakes the second time while baking, as it makes them heavy, and serve the same side up as when taken from griddles. Buckwheat Cakes. Buckwheat flour, when properly ground, is perfectly free from -griU. The grain should be run through the smutter with a strong blast before grinding, and the greatest care taken through the whole process. Adulteration with rye or corn cheapens the flour, but injures the quality. The pure buckwheat is best, and is un- surpassed for griddle-cakes. To make batter, warm one pint sweet milk and one pint water (one may be cold and the other boiling); put half this mixture in a stone crock, add five tea-cups buckwheat flour, beat well until smooth, add the rest of the milk and water, and last a tea-cup of yeast. Or, the same ingredients and propor- tions may be used except adding two table-spoons of molasses or sugar, and using one quart of water instead of one pint each of milk and water.—Mm S. A. Melclving. Horsford Buckwheat Cakes. Mix "over night," with warm water, a little salt, and a table- spoon molasses, one pint buckwheat flour, to the usual consistency of griddle-cakes. When ready to bake for breakfast, add one meas- ure each of acid and soda (or two heaping tea-spoons acid and one moderately heaping tea-spoon soda) of Horsford's Bread Prepara- tion—thinning the batter if necessary—and bake immediately on a hot griddle. French Pancakes. Beat together till smooth six eggs and half a pound of flour, melt four ounces butter and add to the batter, with one ounce of sugar end half a pint of milk, and beat until smooth. Put a table-spoon at a time into a hot frying-pan slightly greased, spreading the batter evenly over the surface of the pan by tipping it about, fry to a light G RIDDLE-CAKES. 53 brown, spread -with jelly, roll it up, dust it with powdered sugar, and serve hot. Batter Cakes. Make a batter of one quart each of flour and sour milk, three eggs beaten separately, a table-spoon of butter, and two level tea- spoons soda. Pulverize the soda very fine before measuring, then thoroughly mix with the flour. Add whites of eggs just before baking on the griddle. Sweet milk may be used (with the other ingredients in same quantity) with Horsford's Bread Preparation, one measure each of soda and acid, which must be thoroughly mixed with the flour. These may also be made without eggs. Bread Cakes. Take stale bread and soak over night in sour milk; in the morn- ing rub through a colander, and to one quart add the yolks of two eggs, one tea-spoon salt, one tea-spoon soda, two table-spoons sugar, and flour enough to make a batter a little thicker than for buck- wheat cakes; add last the well-beaten whites of the eggs, and bake. Crumb Griddle-Cakes. The night before using put some bread crumbs to soak in one quart of sour milk; in the morning rub through a sieve, and add four well-beaten eggs, two tea-spoons soda dissolved in a little water, one table-spoon melted hutter, and enough corn meal to make them the consistency of ordinary griddle-cakes. It is hetter to beat yolks and whites separately, stirring the whites lightly in just before baking.—Mrs. W. E. Scobey, Kankakee, HI. Corn Cakes. One pint corn meal, one of sour milk or buttermilk, one egg, one tea-spoon soda, one of salt. A table-spoon of flour or corn starch may be used in place of the egg; bake on a griddle. Flannel Cakes. Make hot a pint of sweet milk, and into it put two heaping table- spoons butter, let melt, then add a pint of cold milk, the well- beaten yolks of four eggs—placing the whites in a cold place—a tea-spoon of salt, four table-spoons potato yeast, and sufficient flour to make a stiff batter; set in a warm place to rise, let stand three 54 YEAST. hours or over night; before baking add the beaten whites; fry like any other griddle-cakes. Be sure to make batter just stiff enough, for flour must not be added in the morning unless it is allowed to rise again. Graham Griddle-Cakes. One quart Graham flour, one tea-spoon baking powder, three eggs, «ud milk or water enough to make thin batter. Indian Pancakes. One pint Indian meal, one tea-spoon salt, small tea-spoon soda; pour on boiling water until a little thinner than mush; let stand until cool, add the yolks of four eggs, half a cup of flour in which is mixed two tea-spoons cream tartar; stir in as much sweet milk or water as will make the batter suitable to bake; beat the whites well, and add just before baking.—Mrs. W. W. Woods. Rice Griddle-Cakes. Boil half a cup rice; when cold mix one quart sweet milk, the yolks of four eggs, and flour sufficient to make a stiff batter; beat the whites to a froth, stir in one tea-spoon soda, and two of cream tartar; add a little salt, and lastly the whites of eggs; bake on a griddle. A nice way to serve is to spread them while hot with but- ter, and almost any kind of preserves or jelly; roll them up neatly, cut off the ends, sprinkle them with sugar, an««il and rub them m 62 CAKE-MAKING. this until as clean as rubbing will make them; then pick over care- fully, remove any stems or other defects which may be left. The raisins should be prepared before the cake, and added the last thing before putting in the oven, as, being heavy, they sink to the bottom if allowed to stand. To seed, clip with the scissors, or cut with a eharp knife. .Do not chop too fine; if for light fruit cake, seeding is all that is necessary. Slice the citron thin, and do not have the pieces too large, or they will cause the cake to break apart in cut- ting. Currants should be kept prepared for use as follows: Wash in warm water, rubbing well, pour off water, and repeat until the water is clear; drain them in a sieve, spread on a cloth and rub dry; pick out bad ones, dry carefully in a cool oven or in the "heater" (or in the sun and wind, with a thin gauze over them to keep off flies, insects and dust), and set away for use. When the fruit is all mixed, cream the butter and sugar—this is very im- portant in all cakes—add the spices, molasses, or liquors, then the milk (if any used), next the eggs well beaten, adding whites with the flour, as previously directed. Always beat whites and yolks separately if many eggs are used, but if only a few, it is just as well to beat both together. Next add the flour (which in making black fruit cake may be browned), prepared with baking powder or soda and cream tartar, then the flavoring (lemon and vanilla, in equal parts, make the best flavoring), and lastly the fruit dredged with a very little flour. Some prefer to mix the fruit with all the flour. When but little fruit is used it may be dropped into the dough after it is in the pan, and pushed just beneath the surface, which pre- vents it from settling to the bottom. The batter for fruit cake should be quite stiff. In making very large cakes that require three or four hours to bake, an excellent way for lining the pan is the following: Fit three paliers carefully, grease thoroughly, make a paste of equal parts Graham and fine flour, wet with water just stiff enough to spread easily with a spoon, place the first paper in the pan with the greased, side down, and spread the paste evenly oVer the paper about as thick as pie-crust. In covering the sides of the pan, use a little paste to stick a portion of the paper to the top of the pan to keep it from slipping out of place, press the second paper carefully into its CAKE-MAKING. 63 place, with the greased side up, and next put in the third paper as you would into any baking-pan, and pour in the cake. Earthen pans are used by some, as they do not heat so quickly and are less liable to burn the cake. When using a milk-pan or pans, without stems, a glass bottle filled with shot to give it weight, and greased, may be placed in the center of the pan, or a stem may be made of paste-board, rolled up, but the latter is more troublesome to keep in place. The cake is apt to burn around the edges before it is done unless there is a tube in the center. All except layer cakes should be covered with a paper cap, (or a sheet of brown paper, which the careful housewife will save from her grocers' packages), when first put into the oven. Take a square of brown paper large enough to cover well the cake pan, cut off the corners, and lay a plait on four sides, fastening each with a pin so as to fit nicely over the pan. This will throw it up in the center, so that the cover will not touch the cake. Save the cap, as it can be used several times. Before commencing, clean out the stove, take off the lids and brush inside, rake it out underneath, get all the ashes out of the corners, have the best of fuel at hand. Don't build a baking fire before it is needed, have it only moderate, and add the extra fuel in time to get it nicely burning. THE OVEN. Too much care can not be given to the preparation of the oven, which is oftener too hot than too cool; however, an oven too cold at first will ruin any cake. Cake should rise and begin to bake before browning much, large cakes requiring a good, steady, solid heat, about such as for baking bread; layer cakes, a brisk hot fire, as they must be baked quickly. A good plan is to fill the stove with hard wood (ash is the best for baking), let it burn until there is a good body of heat, and then turn damper so as to throw the heat to the bottom of oven for fully ten minutes before the cake is put in. In this way a, steady heat to start with is secured. Gener- ally it is better to close the hearth when the cake is put in, as this stops the draft and makes a more regular heat Keep adding wood in small quantities, for if the heat becomes slack the cake will be 64 CAKE-MAKING. heavy. Great care must be taken, for some stoves need to have the dampers changed every now and then, but as a rule more heat is needed at the bottom of the oven than at the top. Many test their ovens in this way: if the hand can be held in from twenty to thirty- five seconds (or while counting twenty or thirty-five), it is a "quick" oven, from thirty-five to forty-five seconds is "moderate," and from forty-five to sixty seconds is " slow." Sixty seconds is a good oven to begin with for large fruit cakes. All systematic housekeepers will hail the day when some enterprising, practical "Dixie" girl shall invent a stove or range with a thermometer attached to the oven, so that the heat may be regulated accurately and intelligently. If necessary to move the cake while baking, do it very gently. Do not open the oven door until the cake has had time to form, and do not open it oftener than necessary, then be careful to close it -quickly and gently, so as not to jar the cake. Be sure the outside door of the kitchen is closed so that no cold air may strike it If the oven bakes too hard on the bottom, place the grate under the pa"n; if too hot on top, set a pie-pan of water on the top grate. If one side bakes faster than the other, turn very gently. Be careful not to remove from the oven until done; test thoroughly before re- moving, for if the cooler air strikes it before it is done, it is certain to fall. Allow about thirty minutes for each inch of thickness in a quick oven, and more time in a slow one. Test with a broom- splint or knitting-needle, and if the dough does not adhere, it is clone. Settling away from the pan a little, and stopping its "sing- ing," are other indications that the cake is ready to leave the oven. When removed, set the cake, while in the pan, on an inverted sieve to cool; this secures a free circulation of air all round it, and cools it evenly. It should remain in the pan at least fifteen minutes after taking from the oven, and it is better to leave the "cap" on until the cake is carefully removed from the pan and set away, alioays right side up. A tin chest or stone jar is best to keep it in. Coffee oake should be put away before it is cold, and so closely wrapped in a large napkin that the aroma will not be lost. Sponge and White Cakes. The good quality of all delicate cake, and especially of sponge cake, depends very much upon its being made with fresh eggs. It ca* CAKE-MA KINO. 65 never be perfect unless pulverized sugar is used. It must be quickly put together, beaten with rapidity, aud baked in a rather quick oven. It is made "sticky " and less light by being stirred long. There is no other cake so dependent upon care and good judgment in baking as sponge-cake. In making white cake, if not convenient to use the yolks that are left, they will keep for several days if iharougldy beaten aud set in a cool place. The whites of eggs, when not used, must not be beaten, but will keep for several days if set in a cool place. The white or yolk of a medium-sized egg weighs one ounce, a fact that it is convenient to know, as sometimes the white or yolk of one or more eggs is wanted from several that have been put away together. Whenever it is necessary to cut a cake while warm, do it with a tuann knife. To prepare cocoa-nut, cut a hole through the meat at one of the holes in the end, draw off the milk, pound the nut well on all sides to loosen the meat, crack, take out meat, and set the pieces in the heater or in a cool, open oven over night, or for a few hours, to dry, then grate; if all is not used, sprinkle with sugar (after grating) and spread out in a cool, dry place, and it will keep for weeks. Angel's Food. Use the whites of eleven eggs, one and a half tumbler of sifted granulated sugar, one tumbler sifted flour, one tea-spoon of vanilla, one tea-spoon of cream tartar; sift the flour four times, then add the cream tartar and sift again—but measure it before putting in the cream of tartar—sift the sugar and measure it; beat the eggs to a stiff froth on a large platter; on the same platter add the sugar lightly, then the flour very gently, then the vanilla; do not stop beating until you put it in the pan to bake. Bake forty minutes in a moderate oven, try with a straw and if too soft let it remain a few minutes longer. Do not open the oven until the cake has been in fifteen minutes. Turn the pan upside down to cool, and when cold, take out by loosening around the sides with a knife, and then ice; use a pan that has never been greased. The tumbler for meas- uring must hold two and one-fourth gills. The pans have feet. Icing.—Whites of two eggs, two tea-cups granulated sugar; boQ the sugar until clear with just enough water to moisten it Having beaten the eggs to a stiff froth, pour boiling syrup very 66 CAKE-MAKING. slowly over them. Dissolve one-half tea-spoon of citric acid in a email table-spoon of water, and put enough in to make a pleasant tart—add a little essence of lemon. Buford Cake. One cup butter, two of white sugar, four of sifted flour, five eggs beaten separately, one cup sour milk, tea-spoon soda, pound seeded raisins chopped a little; beat the butter and sugar to a cream, add the yolks and milk, and stir in the flour with soda well mixed through it; then add the white of«the eggs beaten to a stiff froth, and lastly the raisins dredged with a little flour; bake one and one- half hours. Use coffee-cups to measure. This makes a cake for a six quart pan.—- Almond, Hickory-nut or Cocoa-nut Cake. One pound flour, half tea-spoon salt, fourth pound butter, pound1 of sugar, tea-cup sour cream, four eggs, lemon flavor to taste, and a tea-spoon soda dissolved in two tea-spoons hot water; mix all thoroughly, grate in the white part of a cocoa-nut, or stir in a pint of chopped hickory-nuts, or a pint of blanched almonds pounded. —Mrs. J. W. Grubbs, Richmond. Black Cake. One pound powdered white sugar, three-quarters pound butter, pound sifted flour (brown or not as preferred), twelve eggs beaten separately, two pounds raisins stoned and part of them chopped, two of currants carefully cleaned, half-pound citron cut in strips, quarter ounce each of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves mixed, wine- glass wine and one of brandy; rub butter and sugar together, add yolks of eggs, part of flour, the spice, and whites of eggs well beaten; then add remainder of flour, and wine and brandy; mix all thoroughly together; cover bottom and sides of a four-quart milk-pan with buttered white paper, put in a layer of the mixture, then a layer of the fruit (first dredging the fruit with flour), until pan is filled up three or four inches. A small cup of Orleans mo- lasses makes the cake blacker and more moist, but for this it is not necessary to add more flour. Bake three and one-half or four hours in a slow oven. This is excellent.—Mrs. M. M. MunaeU, Del' aware. CAKE-MAKIb'G. 67 Black Cake. One pound flour, one of currants, one of raisins, one of sugar, half pound citron, half pound chopped figs, three-fourths pound butter, ten eggs leaving out two whites, tea-cup molasses, one of sour cream and soda, one gill brandy or good whisky, half cup cin- namon, two table-spoons allspice and cloves, four table-spoons jam. —Mrs. Gov. Kirkwood, Iowa. Black Cake. Two cups brown sugar, one and one-half cups of butter, six eggs beaten separately, three cups flour (brown the flour), two table- spoons molasses, one of cinnamon, one tea-spoon mace, one of cloves, two cups sweet milk, two pounds raisins, two of currants, a half pound citron, one tea-spoon soda, two of cream tartar. Bake three hours.—Mrs. A. B. Morey. Bread Cake. Three coffee-cups yeast dough, light enough to bake for bread, two and two-thirds cups sugar, one cup butter, three eggs, one nutmeg; put all together, and work with the hands until smooth as pound-cake. It is very important that all should be mixed very thoroughly with the light dough. Add raisins and as much fruit as desired, and let rise half an hour in the pans in which you bake. The oven should be about right for bread. This is easily made, and is quite as nice as common loaf-cake.—Mrs. C/tas. FvllingUm. Bread Cake. Two cups light bread dough, one and one-half cups sugar, half cup butter, three table-spoons sour milk in which has been dis- solved half tea-spoon soda, half a grated nutmeg, tea-spoon cinna- mon, cup raisins chopped a little and floured; stir all well together, adding fruit lastly; let rise half an hour and bake in a moderate oven.—Mrs. Hartle, Massillon. Bride's Cake. Whites of twelve eggs, three cups sugar, small cup butter, a cup sweet milk, four small cups flour, half cup corn starch, two tea- spoons baking powder, lemon to taste. Adding a cup citron sliced 68 CAKE-MAKING. thin and dusted with flour, makes a beautiful citron cake.—Mn, Harvey Clark, Piqua. Whtpped-Cream Cake. One cup sugar, two eggs, two table-spoons softened butter and four of milk; beat all well together; add a cup of flour in which has been mixed tea-spoon cream tartar and half tea-spoon soda. Bake in rather small square dripping-pan. When cake is cool have ready a half pint sweet cream whipped to a stiff froth, sweeten and flavor to taste, spread over cake and serve while fresh. The cream will froth easier to be made cold by setting on ice before whipping. —Mrs. Wm. Brown, Corn-Starch Cake. Two coffee-cups pulverized sugar, three-fourths cup butter, cup corn starch dissolved in a cup of sweet milk, two cups flour, whites of seven eggs, two tea-spoons cream tartar, tea-spoon soda mixed thoroughly with the flour; cream butter and sugar, add starch and milk, then add the whites and flour gradually until all is used. Flavor with lemon or rose.—Mrs. W. P. Anderson. Coffee Cake. Two cups brown sugar, one of butter, one of molasses, one of strong coffee as prepared for the table, four eggs, one tea-spoon saleratus, two of cinnamon, two of cloves, one of grated nutmeg, pound raisins, one of currants, four cups flour.—Mrs. Wm. Skinner, Battle Greek, Coffee Cake. One cup brown sugar, cup molasses, half cup butter, cup strong coffee, one egg or yolks of two, four even cups flour, heaping tea- spoon soda in the flour,,table-spoon cinnamon, tea-spoon cloves, two pounds raisins, fourth pound citron. Soften the butter, beat with the sugar, add the egg, spices, molasses, and coffee, then the flour, and lastly the fruit dredged with a little flour. Bake one hour in moderate oven, or make in two small loaves which will bake in a short time. This may be made without the egg.—Mrs. D. Buxton. CAKE-MAKING. 69 Cocoa-nut Cake. One cup butter, three of sugar, one of sweet milk, four and a half of flour, four eggs with whites beaten to a stiff froth, a tea- spoon soda, two of cream tartar, one grated cocoa-nut.—Mrs. J. Holland, Caramel Cake. One cup butter, two of sugar, a scant cup milk, one and a half cups flour, cup corn starch, whites of seven eggs, three tea-spoons baking powder in the flour; bake in a long pan. Tike half pound brown sugar, scant quarter pound chocolate, half ',up milk, butter size of an egg, two tea-spoons vanilla; mix thoroughly and cook as syrup until stiff enough to spread; spread on cake and set in the oven to dry.—Mrs. George Bever. Cincinnati Cake. Pour over one pound fat salt pork, chopped fine and free from lean and rind, one pint boiling water, let stand until nearly cold; add two cups brown sugar, one of molasses, one table-spoon each of cloves and nutmeg, and two of cinnamon, two pounds raisins, fourth pound citron, half glass brandy, three tea-spoons of baking powder, and seven cups of sifted flour. Bake slowly two and a half hours. This is excellent, and requires neither butter or eggs. —Mrs. G. E. Kinney. Chocolate Cake. One cup butter, three of brown sugar, one of sweet milk, four of flour, yolks of seven eggs, nine table-spoons grated Baker's choco- late, three tea-spoons baking powder. This may be baked as a layer cake, making a white cake of the whites of the eggs, baking in layers, and putting them together with frosting, alternating the layers.—Mrs. Frank Woods Robinson, Kenton. Delicate Cake. Three cups flour, two of sugar, three-fourths cup sweet milk, whites of six eggs, half cup butter, tea-spoon cream tartar, half tea-spoon of soda. Flavor with lemon. Good and easily made.— Miss Mary E. Miller. 70 CAKE-MAKING. Everlasting Cake. Beat together the yolks of six eggs and three-fourths of a pint white sugar, add one and a half pints blanched and shelled almonds, half pound sliced citron well floured, and the whipped whites with one and a half pints sifted flour; pour oue and a half inches thick in well-greased dripping pans, bake in a quick oven, and, when done, cut slices one inch thick across the cake, turn each slice over on its side, return to oven and bake a short time. When cold place in a tin box. These will keep a year and a half or more, and are nice to have in sto.e.—Mrs. J. S. Williams, Brooklyn. 'Egoless Cake. One and a half tea-cups sugar, one of sour milk, three (level) of sifted flour, half cup butter, tea-spoon soda, half tea-spoon cinna- mon, half tea-spoon grated nutmeg, tea-cup raisins chopped and well floured.—Miss Louise Skinner. Old Hartford Election Cake. Five pounds sifted flour, two of butter, two of sugar, thre gills distillery yeast or twice the quantity of home brewed, four eggs, gill of wine, gill of brandy, one quart sweet milk, half an ounce of nut- meg, two pounds raisins, one of citron; rub the butter and flour together very fine, add half the sugar, then the yeast and half the milk (hot in winter, blood-warm in summer), then add the eggs, theu remainder of the milk, and the wine; beat well and let rise in a warm place all night; in the morning beat a long time, adding brandy, sugar, spice, and fruit well floured, and allow to rise again very light, after which put in cake pans and let rise ten or fifteen minutes; have the oven about as hot as for bread. This cake will keep any length of time. For raised cakes use potato yeast if fresh made; it is always a perfect success. This recipe is over one hun- dred years old.—Mrs. Eliza Burnlwm, Milford Center. Apple Fruit Cake. One cup butter, two of sugar, one of milk, two eggs, tea-spoon soda, three and a half cups flour, two of raisins, three of dried apples soaked over night and then chopped fine and stewed two hours in two cups molasses; beat butter and sugar to a cream, add milk, in which dissolve soda, then the beaten eggs and flour, and CAKE-MAKING. 71 lastly the raisins and apples well stirred in; pour in pan and bake an hour and a half.—Mrs. C. M. Ingman. Fruit Cake. One cup butter, one of brown sugar, half pint molasses, two eggs, cup sour milk, tea-spoon soda, pound of flour, one of currants, one and a half pounds raisins. Flavor to taste. This has been thor- oughly tested, and is a great favorite.—Mrs. M. E. Nicely. Fruit Cake. Twelve eggs, one and a half pounds each of butter, sugar and flour, two pounds each of raisins and currants, one pound citron, one half-pint molasses, one ounce each of nutmeg, mace and cloves, one and a half glasses of jelly (grape is best), one-fourth pint each of wine and brandy, more flour if needed. Put dough in pans, set in steamer, taking care that the cover is made to fit very tight; if necessary put cloth under the lid and shut it down on it, taking care that it does not touch the cake, or lay several thicknesses of cloth over the lid. Steam two hours and bake one hour.—Owls. Cyphers, Minneapolis, Minn. Fruit Loaf Cake. One cup butter, two of brown sugar, one of New Orleans molas- ses, one of sweet milk, three eggs, five cups sifted flour, two tea- spoons cream tartar in the flour, tea-spoon soda in the milk, table- spoon cinnamon, one nutmeg, one pound raisins, one of currants, quarter pound citron (citron may be omitted, and half the quantity of raisins and currants will do). Put flour in a large crock, mix well with cream tartar, make a well in the center, put in other ingre- dients, having warmed the butter and molasses a little; mix well together with the hands, putting in the fruit last after it has been floured; bake two hours in a moderate oven. This will make two common-sized loaves.—Mrs. N. S. Long. Fruit Cake. Three pounds butter, three of brown sugar, beaten to a cream, three of flour, six of currants, six of raisins, after seeds are removed, one of citron sliced thin, three glasses brandy, twenty-eight eggs, one ounce cinnamon, one of grated nutmeg, three-quarters ounce cloves, half ounce mace; roll the raisins, currants and citron in part of the flour.—Miss H. D. M 72 OAKE-MAKINQ. Fruit Cake. One pound brown sugar, one of butter, one of eggs, one of flour, two of raisins, two of currants, half pound citron, a nutmeg, table- spoon cloves, one of allspice, half pint brandy, and two tea-spoons baking-powder. After baking, while yet warm, pour over cake a half pint wine. This makes the cake delicious.—Miss Angle Skinner, Somerset. Excellent Fruit Cake. One and a half pounds raisins, one and a fourth pounds currants, three-fourths pound citron, pound butter, pound sugar, one and a fourth pounds flour, ten eggs, two table-spoons lemon, two tea-spoons yeast powder; mix a fourth pound of the flour in the fruit.—Mrs. J. W. Grubbs, Poor Man's Fruit Cake. One and a half cups brown sugar, two of flour, one each of but- ter and chopped raisins, three eggs, three table-spoons sour milk, half tea-spoon soda, half cup blackberry jam. This is excellent as well as economical.—Mrs. J. S. Robinson, Scotch Fruit Cake. A cup butter, two of white sugar, four of sifted flour, three- fourths cup sour milk, half tea-spoon soda, nine eggs beaten separ- ately, one pound raisins, half pound currants, a fourth pound citron; crenm the butter aud sugar, add milk gradually, then beaten yolks of eggs, and lastly, while stirring in flour, the whites well whipped. Flavor with one tea-spoon lemon, and one of vanilla extract, and have raisins chopped a little, or, better still, seeded, and citron sliced thin. Wash and dry currants before using, and flour all fruit slightly. In putting cake in pan, place first a thin layer of cake, then sprinkle in some of the three kinds of fruit, then a layer of cake, and so on, always finishing off with a thin layer of cake. Bake in a moderate oven for two hours. Tested by many and has never failed. —Mrs. J. H. Shearer. Thanksgiving Fruit Cake. Six pounds flour, three of butter, three and a half of sugar, an ounce mace, two glasses wine, two glasses brandy, four pounds raisins, half pound citron, six eggs, one pint yeast, small tea-spoon CAKE-MAKING. 73 soda put in at last moment. After tea, take all the flour (except one plate for dredging raisins), a small piece butter, and a quart or more of milk, and mix like biscuit; then mix butter and sugar, and at nine o'clock in the evening, if sufficieutly light, put one-third of butter and sugar into dough; at twelve add another third, and very early in the morning the remainder; about eleven o'clock, if light enough, begin kneading, and continue for an hour, adding mean- while all the other ingredients. This will make seven loaves.— Mrs. Woodworth, Springfield. Choice Fig Cake. A large cup butter, two and a half of sugar, one of sweet milk, three pints flour with three tea-spoons baking-powder, whites of six- teen eggs, a pound and a quarter of figs well floured and cut in strips like citron; no flavoring.—Mrs. A. B. 'Morey. Groom's Cake. Ten eggs beaten separately, one pound butter, one of white sugar, one of flour, two of almonds blanched and chopped fine, one of seeded raisins, half pound citron, shaved fine; beat butter to a cream, add sugar gradually, then the well-beaten yolks; stir all till very light, and add the chopped almonds; beat the whites stiff and add gently with the flour; take a little more flour and sprinkle over the raisins and citron, then put in the cake-pan, first a layer of cake batter, then a layet of raisins and cttroh, then eakfc, and so on ti!I all is used, finishing off with a layer of cake. Bake in a moderate oven two hours.—Mary Wilcox, Dalton. Hard-Money Cake. Gold Part.—Yolks of eight eggs, scant cup butter, two of sugar, four of flour, one of sour milk, tea-spoon soda, table-spoon corn starch; flavor with lemon and vanilla. Silver Part.—Two cups sugar, one of butter, four (scant) of flour, one of sour milk, tea-spoon soda, table-spoon corn starch, whites of eight eggs; flavor with almond or peach. Put in pan, alternately, one spoonful of gold and one of silver.—Miss Emma Fisher. Old Hickory Cake. One cup sugar, half cup butter, three eggs beaten well together, level tea-spoon soda stirred in half cup sour milk, two small cups 74 CAKE-MAKINO. , - i flour; flavor with lemon, pour in small dripping-pan, bake hair on hour, and cut in squares. This cake is always elected for a "second term."—Miss Flora Ziegler, Oolumbm. Hickory-nut Cake. Two cups sugar, one of milk, two-thirds cup butter, three of flour, three eggs, two tea-spoons baking-powder, a cup nut-kernels cut fine. Tried, and not found wanting.—Mrs. Judge West, BeUefontaine. Hickory-nut Cake. A cup butter, two of sugar, three of flour, one of sweet milk, whites of seven and yolks of two eggs, a tea-spoon soda, two of cream tartar, one pint hickory-nut meats rolled and sprinkled with flour; beat the whites to a stiff froth. Rich and excellent—Mrs. A. B. Morey. Imperial Cake. One pound butter and one of sugar beaten to a cream, one pound flour, the grated rind and juice of a lemon, nine eggs, one and a quarter pounds almonds before they are cracked, half pound citron, half pound raisins; beat the yolks light, add sugar and butter, then the whites beaten to a stiff froth, and the flour, reserving a part for the fruit, and, lastly, the nuts blanched, cut fine and mixed with fruit and the rest of the flour. This is very delicious, and will keep for months.—Mrs. E. R. May, Minneapolis, Minn. Lady's Cake. One-half cup butter, one and a half of sugar, two of flour, nearly one of sweet milk, half tea-spoon soda, one of cream tartar, whites of four eggs well beaten; flavor with peach or almond.—Miss M. E. W-, Madison. Yellow Lady's Cake. One and a half cups flour, one of sugar, half cup butter, half cup sweet milk, tea-spoon soda, two tea-spoons cream tartar, yolks of four eggs, tea-spoon vanilla.—Olivia S. Hinman, Battle Greek, Mich. Lemon Cake. One pound flour, one of sugar, three-fourths pound butter, seven eggs, juice of one and rind of two lemons. The sugar, butter and yolks of eggs must be beaten a long time, adding, by degrees, the CAKE-MAKING. 75 Hour, and the whites of egga last. A tumbler and a half of sliced citron many be added. This keeps well.—Mm M. B. Fullington. Aunt Hettie's Loaf Cake. Two cups sugar and one of butter beaten to a cream, three eggs, the whites beaten separately, three cups flour with one tea-spoon cream tartar stirred in, yolks of the eggs stirred well with the sugar and butter; now add two cups more flour with one tea-spoon cream tartar, one cup sweet milk and the whites of the eggs, and then stir again; add one nutmeg, one pound raisins or currants dredged with flour, one tea-spoon soda dissolved in four table-spoons of water. This makes two nice loaves, and is excellent. French Loaf Cake. Five cups sugar, three of butter, two of milk, ten of flour, six eggs, three nutmegs, pound seeded raisins, a grated lemon, small tea-spoon soda, wine-glass wine, one of brandy, or, two-thirds of a cup of Orleans molasses.—Mrs. A. S. Chapman. OLD-FA8HIONED LOAF CAKE. Three pounds (three quarts sifted and well heaped) flour, one and a fourth pounds (a rounded pint of soft) butter, one and three- fourths pounds (one quart) sugar, five gills new milk, half pint yeast, three eggs, two pounds raisins, tea-spoon soda, gill of brandy or wine, or a fourth pint of molasses, two tea-spoons cinnamon and two ot nutmeg, bcatd the milk, c^ii w hloua warm, mill the yehov, then the flour, to which all the butter and half the sugar have been added; then mix together, and let rise until light. It is better to set this sponge over night, and in the morning add the other ingre- dients (flouring raisins), and let rise again. When light, fill baking- pans and let rise again. Bake in a moderate oven. This recipe makes three large loaves, and is a standard, economical loaf-cake.— Mrs. Ex-Gov. John J. Bagley, Mich. Marble Cake. White Part.—Whites of seven eggs, three cups white sugar, one of butter, one of sour milk, four of flour, sifted and heaping, one tea-spoon soda; flavor to taste. Dark Part.—Yolks of seven eggs, three cups brown sugar, one of butter, one of sour milk, four of flour, sifted and heaping, one 76 CAKE-MAKING. table-spoon each of cinnamon, allspice and cloves, one tea-spoon soda; put in puns a spoonful of white part and then a spoonful ot dark, and so on. Bake an hour and a quarter. Use coffee-cups to measure. This will make one large and one medium cake. The white and dark parts are alternated, either by puttiug iu a spoonful of white, then of dark, or a layer of white and then of dark part, being careful that the cake may be nicely "marbleized."—Mrs. M E. Smith, Cleveland., Marbled Chocolate Cake. Make a batter as for white cake, take out one tea-cup, add to it five table-spoons of grated chocolate, moisten with milk, and flavoi with vanilla; pour a layer of the while batter into the baking-pan, then drop the chocolate batter with a spoon in spots, and spread the remainder of the white batter over it.—Mrs. Sarah Plidps, Spring- field, Ohio. One-Egg Cake. One half cup butter, one and a half cups sugar, three of flour, one of sweet milk, one egg, tea-spoon soda, two tea-spoons cream tartar in the flour, cup raisins chopped fine.—Mrs. A. S. C. Orange Cake. Two cups sugar, four eggs, leaving out the whites of two, half cup butter, one of water, two tea-spoons bakiug-powder, three cups flour, juice, grated rind, and pulp of one orange; use the remain- ing whites for frosting the top.—Mrs. D. B Citron Pound Cake. One pound sugar, one of flour, three-fourths pound butter, eight large or ten small eggs, one and a fourth pound citron finely shredded; cream butter and sugar, add the yolks, the nthe flour and well-whipped whites; put layer of batter in cake-pan and sprinkle thickly with citron, then another layer of batter, etc., till pan is filled. Bake slowly one and a half to two hours.—Mrs. J. M. Southard. Pyramid Pound Cake. One pound sugar, one of butter, one of flour, ten eggs; bake in a dripping-pan one inch in thickness; cut when cold into pieces three and a half inches long by two wide, and frost top and sides; CAKE-MAKINO. 77 form on the cake stand in pyramid before the icing is quite dry by laying, first in a circle, five pieces with some space between them; over the spaces between these lay five other pieces, gradually draw- ing in the column and crowning the top with a bouquet of flowers. —Mrs. Dr. Thompson. White Pound Cake. One pound sugar, one of flour, half pound butter, whites of six- teen eggs, tea-spoon baking-powder sifted thoroughly with the flour; put in cool oven with gradual increase of heat. For boiled icing for the cake, take three cups sugar boiled in one of water until clear; beat whites of three eggs to very stiff froth, and pour over them the boiling liquid, beating all the time for ten minute; frost while both cake and icing are warm.—Mrs. Ada Estette Bever, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Rice Cake. One pound sugar, a pound of ground rice, half pound butter, nine eggs, rose-water to taste; add a little salt, beat butter and sugar together, add rose-water, salt and eggs, lastly the rice; bake in shallow pans.—Governor Rice, Mass. Sponge Cake. Three eggs, one and a half cups powdered sugar, two of sifted flour, two tea-spoons cream tartar, half cup cold water, tea-spoon soda, grated rind and half the juice of one lemon; bake in dripping- pan.—Mrs. Eliza J. Starr. Sponge Cake. Twelve eggs, pint pulverized sugar, one of flour, measured before sifting, small tea-spoon salt, heaping tea-spoon baking powder, es- sence of lemon for flavor; beat the whites to a very stiff froth, and add sugar; beat the yolks, strain and add them to the whites and, sugar, and beat the whole thoroughly; mix baking-powder and salt in the flour and add last, stirring in small quantities at a time; bake one hour in a six-quart pan in a moderate oven. This makes one very large cake. By weight use one pound pulverized sugar and three-fourths pound flour.—Miss S. Alice Melching. Sponge Cake. One pound sugar, one of flour, ten eggs; stir yolks of eggs and sugar till perfectly light; beat whites of eggs and add them with 78 CAKE-MAKING. the flour after beating together lightly; flavor with lemon. Three tea-spoons baking-powder in the flour will add to its lightness, but it never fails without. Bake in a moderate oven.—Mrs. Marp Reynolds, Hamilton. > Mrs. Jennison's Sponge Cake. One lemon, three gills flour, one pint sugar, eight eggs; beat the yolks of the eggs thoroughly, add the sugar little by little, and the grated rind of the lemon; beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, and add them alternately with the flour, beating very gently and barely long enough to mix well; when part of the flour is in, add the lemon juice. Bake twenty minutes, in small loaves.—In the Kitchen. Phil Sheridan Cake. Four cups fine white sugar, five of sifted flour, one of butter, one and a half of sweet milk, one tea-spoon soda dissolved in the milk, two of cream tartar, whites of sixteen eggs; stir sugar and butter to a cream, then add whites of eggs beaten to a stiff froth, next add flour, then the milk and soda; stir several minutes, and then add cream tartar and flavoring. This makes a large cake.—Mrs. Mary S. Moore, Granville. Spice Cake. Three pounds seedless raisins, one and a half pounds citron, one pound butter, two and a half coffee-cups sugar, two of sweet milk, four of flour, six eggs, two large tea-spoons baking-powder, three tea-spoons cinnamon, two of mace.—Mrs. Gov. Potts, Montana. Snow Cake. Half tea-cup butter, one of sugar, one and a half of flour, half cup sweet milk, whites of four eggs, tea-spoon baking-poWder; flavov with lemon.—Mrs. Wm. Patrick, Midland, Mich. Snow Cake. Whites of ten eggs beaten to a stiff froth, sift lightly on this one and a half cups fine white or pulverized sugar, stir well, and add cup flour mixed with tea-spoon cream tartar; flavor with lemon or vanilla.—Mrs. Dr. Koogler, Connersville, Ind. CAKE-MAKING. 79 Ten-Minute Cake. One-fourth pound butter, a little less than a pound flour, the same of sugar, six eggs beaten separately; flavor with mace and bake in muffin-rings.—Mrs. S. C. Lee, Baltimore, Md. Tilden Cake. One cup butter, two of pulverized sugar, one of sweet milk, three of flour, half cup corn starch, four eggs, two tea-spoons baking- powder, two of lemon extract. This is so excellent that a '' bar- rel" would not be too much of it.—Mrs. T. B., Chimgo, III. Tin-Wedding Cake. Rub one cup butter and three of sugar to a cream; add one cup milk, four of flour, five eggs, one tea-spoon cream tartar, half tea- spoon soda, one-fourth pound citron. This makes two loaves.— Mrs. J. H. Ferris, South Norwalk, Conn. Watermelon Cake. White Part.—Two cups white sugar, one of butter, one of sweet milk, three and a half of flour, whites of eight eggs, two teaspoons cream tartar, one of soda dissolved in a little warm water. Red Part.—One cup red sugar, half cup butter, third cup sweet milk, two cups flour, whites of four eggs, tea-spoon cream tartar, half tea-spoon soda, tea-cup raisins; be careful to keep the red part around the tube of the pan and the white around the edge. It requires two persons to fill the pan. This is a very attractive and ornamental cake.—Mrs. Baxter. Wedding Cake. Fifty eggs, five pounds sugar, five of flour, five of butter, fifteen of raisins, three of citron, ten of currants, pint brandy, fourth ounce cloves, ounce cinnamon, four of mace, four of nutmeg. This makes forty-three and a half pounds, and keeps twenty years. This cake is unequaled.—Mrs. C. H. D., Northampton, Mass. White Cake. One cup butter, two of sugar, one of sweet milk, three of flour, whites of five eggs, two tea-spoons baking powder. Easily made, and very good.—Mrs. Daniel Miller. 80 LAYER-CAKES. White Perfection Cake. Three cups sugar, one of butter, one of milk, three of flour, one of corn starch, whites of twelve eggs beaten to a stiff froth, two tea-spoons cream tartar in the flour, and one of soda in half the milk; dissolve the corn starch in the rest of the milk, and add it to the sugar and butter well beaten together, then the milk and soda, and the flour and whites of eggs. This cake is rightly named "Perfection."— Mrs. C. Jones, Bradford, Vt. LATER-CAKES. In baking layer-cakes it is important to thoroughly grease the tins—to make it emphatic, we will say thoroughly grease and then grease again—and after using rub off with a coarse towel, taking care that they are perfectly free from all small particles of cake, grease and fill again, thus obviating the necessity of washing every time they are filled. If jelly is used to spread between the layers, it is a good plan to beat it smoothly and spread it before the cakes are quite cool. In "building," an inverted jelly-tin furnishes a perfectly level surface on which to lay and spread the cake, and it may be allowed to remain on it until perfectly cold, when it should be set away in a tin cake-box, in a cool place. In cutting, it is better to first make a round hole in the center, with a knife, or a tin tube, about an inch and a quarter in diameter. This prevents the edge of the cake from crumbling in cutting. In making the custard or "filling" for layer-cake, place in a custard-kettle or in a tin pail. Set in boiling water to cook, to avoid all danger of burning. To blanch almonds, pour boiling water over them, let stand a moment, drain and throw them into cold water, slip off the skins, and pound. Almond Cake. Two cups sugar, three-fourths cup butter, one of sweet milk, two of flour, and one of corn starch well mixed, whites of six eggs, two LAYER-CAKES. 81 tea-spoons cream tartar in the flour, one tea-spoon soda in the milk; cream the butter and sugar, add milk gradually, then the whites of eggs together with the flour, and bake in jelly-tins. To put between' layers, take two pounds almonds, blanch and pound fine in a mor- tar (or a cloth will do), beat whites and yolks of two eggs together lightly, add a cup and a half sugar, then the almonds, with one table-spoon vanilla.—Mrs. Harvey Wood. Almond Cream Cake. On beaten whites of ten eggs, sift one and a half goblets pulver- ized sugar, and a goblet flour through which has been stirred a Heaping tea-spoon cream tartar; stir very gently and do not heat it; bake in jelly-pans. For cream, take a half pint sweet cream, yolks of three eggs, table-spoon pulverized sugar, tea-spoon corn starch; dissolve starch smoothly with a little milk, beat yolks and sugar together with this, boil the cream, and stir these ingredients in as for any cream-cake filling, only make a little thicker; blanch and chop fine a half pound almonds and stir into the cream. Put to- gether like jelly cake while icing is soft, and stick in a half pound of almonds split in two.—Mrs. Paris Gibson, Minneapolis, Minn. Boston Cream Puffs. Put half pint hot water and two-thirds cup butter over the fire; when boiling, stir in one and a half cups flour, and continue stirring until smooth and the mixture leaves the sides of the sauce-pan; remove from fire, cool, and beat thoroughly into it five well-beaten eggs. Drop on warm greased tins (or a dripping-pan), a table- spoon in a place, leaving space between to prevent touching, brush over with the white of an egg, and bake ten or fifteen minutes in a quick oven. When cakes are done, they will be hollow. When cold, slice off the top, fill space with the cream, and replace top. Cream for Inside.—Take one pint milk, place one-half in a tin pail and set in boiling water; reserve from the other half two table- spoons to mix with eggs, and into the rest, while cold, mix one cup of flour until smooth; when the mdk is hot, pour in the flour, and stir until thicker than boiled custard; then beat well together the two table-spoons milk, two eggs, one cup granulated sugar, a level 6 82 LaYER-CAKES. table-spoon butter, and a tea-spoon vanilla or lemon; add gradually, and continue stirring briskly until so thick that when cold it will drop, not pour, from the spoon. The puffs may be kept on hand. Make the cream fresh, let it cool, and fill as many as are wanted. —Mrs. Ex- Governor Noyes, Cincinnati, Ohio. Dexie Cream Puffs. Five eggs, whites and yolks beaten separately, one and a half cups each of white sugar and sifted flour, two tea-spoons baking powder in the flour; bake in tea-cups, filling about half full. The cream is prepared by placing a small tin pail containing a pint sweet milk in a kettle of boiling water; beat the whites and yolks of two eggs separately; stir in the milk while boiling, a half tea-cup sugar, a large table-spoon corn starch dissolved in a little sweet milk, then the beaten yolks and a piece of butter the size of a large walnut; flavor with lemon or vanilla. When done, cut the cakes open, put in a spoonful of the cream, place together again, roll in the whites, and then in coarse granulated sugar.— French Cream Cake. Three eggs, one cup granulated sugar*, one and a half cups flour, two table-spoons cold water, tea-spoon baking powder. This is enough for two cakes baked in pie-pans, to be split while warm, spreading the hot custard between them, or for four cakes baked in jelly-pans, with the hot custard spread between them, the latter being the preferable plan. For custard, boil nearly one pint sweet milk; mix two table-spoons corn starch with a half tea-cup sweet milk, add two well-beaten eggs; when milk has boiled add nearly a cup sugar, and add gradually the corn starch and eggs, stirring briskly; add a half cup butter, stirring until dissolved, flavor with one tea-spoon vanilla, and spread between cakes while hot. This cake can be used as a pudding by pouring over each piece a spoonful of the custard that is left.—Mrs. Charles Morey. Golden Cream Cake. Cream one cup sugar and one-fourth cup butter, add half cup sweet milk, the well beaten whites of three eggs, one and a half cups flour, with half a tea-spoon soda, and a tea-spoon cream tartar LAYER-CAKES. 83 rifted with it; bake in three deep jelly-tins; beat very light the yolks of two eggs, one cup sugar, and two table-spoons rich sweet cream, flavor with vanilla, and spread on cakes; or to yolks add one and a half table-spoons corn starch, three-quarters cup sweet milk and small lump butter; sweeten and flavor to taste, cook in a custard-kettle till thick, let cool, and then spread.—Mrs. J. M. Southard. Ice-Cream Cake. , Make good sponge-cake, bake half an inch thick in jelly-pans, and let them get perfectly cold; take a pint thickest sweet cream, beat until it looks like ice-cream, make very sweet, and flavor with vanilla; blanch and chop a pound almonds, stir into cream, and put very thick between each layer. This is the queen of all cakes. —Miss Mattie FuUington. Ice-Cream Cake. One-fourth pound each butter and powdered sugar, half pint milk, half pound flour, six eggs, one glass wine, one nutmeg; bake quickly in iron gem-pans. They raise light with hollow center. When cold, cut a round hole in top (as you would "plug" a melon), fill with ice-cream just before serving, so that it will not have tim« to melt.—Mrs. A. C. Glazier Cocoa-nut Cake. To the well-beaten yolks of six eggs, add two cups powdered white sugar, three-fourths cups butter, one of sweet milk, three and a half of flour, one level tea-spoon soda and two of cream tartar, whites of four eggs well beaten; bake in jelly-cake pans. For icing, grate one cocoa-nut, beat whites of two eggs, and add one tea-cup powdered sugar; mix thoroughly with the grated cocoa-nut, »nd spread evenly on the layers of cake when they are cold.— Miss Nettie Miller, Columbus. Caramel Cake. One and a half cups sugar, three-fourths cup butter, half cup milk, two and a fourth cups flour, three eggs, one and a half heap- ing tea-spoons baking-powder, or a small tea-spoon soda, and two tea-spoons cream tartar; bake in jelly-tins. Make caramel as fol- lows: Butter size of an egg, pint brown sugar, half cup milk or 84 LAYER-CAKES. water, half cake chocolate; boil twenty minutes (or until thick enough),and pour over cakes while warm, piling the layers one upon the other. For frosting for top of cake, take whites of two eggs, one and a half cups sugar, tea-spoon vanilla, three heaping tea- spoons grated chocolate.—Mrs. Ella Snider, Minneapolis, Minn. Delicious Chocolate Cake. The whites of eight eggs, two cups sugar, one of butter, three' full cups flour, one of sweet milk, three tea-spoons baking-powder; beat the butter to a cream, stir in the sugar, and beat until light; add the milk, then the flour and beaten whites. When well beaten, divide into equal parts, and into half grate a cake of sweet choco- late. Bake in layers, spread with custard, and alternate the white and dark cakes. For custard for the cake, add a table-spoon of butter to one pint of milk, and let it come to a boil; stir in two eggs beaten with one cup of sugar, add two teaspoons of corn starch dissolved in a little milk.—Mrs. J. M. Riddle, Bellefontaine. Chocolate Cake. One cup butter, two of sugar, one of milk, five eggs, leaving out the whites of three, four cups sifted flour, two tea-spoons baking- powder, or one small tea-spoon soda and two of cream tartar in the flour; bake in three layers in deep jelly-tins. For icing, take whites of three eggs, beaten stiff, one and a half cups powdered sugar, six table-spoons grated chocolate, two tea-spoons vanilla.—Mrs. J. H. Slwarer. Cup Cake. Three cups sugar, one of butter, six of flour, two-thirds pint sour cream, seven eggs (leaving out the whites of two for icing), one even tea-spoon soda in the cream, tea-spoon soda in the flour, one of cream tartar, and one of lemon or vanilla. Bake in pans one inch deep, and when done spread one with icing, and lay the other on top of it, allowing two layers for each cake.—Mrs. Dr. Thompson. Dominoes. Make "Mrs. Jennison's sponge cake," bake in long pie-tins (twe such tins will make twelve dominoes, and if no more are required, the rest of the batter may be baked in a loaf). The batter in the pie-tins should not be more than one-third of an inch deep; spread it evenly, and bake in a quick oven. Have a brown paper nearly LAYER-CAKES. 85 twice the size of the cake on the table, and the moment one of the cakes comes from the oven turn it upside down in the center of the paper, spread it with a thin layer of currant jelly, and lay the other cake on it upside down, cut it with a hot, sharp knife lengthwise, directly through the center, then divide it across in six equal parts, push them with the knife about an inch apart, and ice them with ordinary white icing, putting a large dessert-spoonful on every piece; the heat of the cake will soften it, and with a little help the edges and sides will be smoothly covered. All of the icing that runs over on the paper may be carefully taken up and used again. It must then dry, which it will do very quickly. Make a horn of stiff white paper about five inches long, one and a half inches across the top, and one-eighth of an inch at the other end; put in it a dessert-spoon of dark chocolate icing, close the horn at the top, and pressing out the icing from the small opening, draw a line of it across the center of every cake, and then make spots like those on ivory dominoes; keep the horn supplied with icing.—In the Kitchen. Fig Cake. Silver Part.—Two cups sugar, two-thirds cup butter, not quite two-thirds cup sweet milk, whites of eight eggs, three heaping tea- spoons baking-powder thoroughly sifted, with three cups flour; stir sugar and butter to a cream, add milk and flour, and last white of eggs. Gold Part.—One cup sugar, three-fourths cup butter, half cup sweet milk, one and a half tea-spoons baking-powder sifted in a little more than one and a half cups flour, yolks of seven eggs thoroughly beaten, and one whole egg, one tea-spoon allspice, and cinnamon until you can taste it; bake the white in two long pie-tins. Put half the gold in a pie-tin, and lay on one pound halved figs (previ- ously sifted over with flour), so that they will just touch each other; put on the rest of the gold, and bake. Put the cakes together with frosting while warm, the gold between the white ones, and cover with frosting.—Miss Tina Lay, Hard-Times Cake. Half a cup of butter, two of sugar, one of sour cream, three of flour, three eggs, half tea-spoon of soda; bake in layers and spread with jelly.—Mrs. R. M. Henderson. 86 LAYER-CAKES. Hickory-nut Custard Cake. Cream one pound sugar and half pound butter; add five eggs beaten separately, one cup sweet milk, one pound flour, three tea- spoons baking powder, flavor with lemon, and bake in jelly-pans. For custard, place one pint milk in a tin pail and set in boiling water; add a table-spoon of corn starch dissolved in a little milk, two eggs, one-half cup sugar, two cups chopped hickory-nut meats, well mixed together to the boiling milk; stir, and put between the layers of the cake, while both cake and custard are warm. This is excellent. Rolled Jelly Cake. Beat twelve eggs and one pound pulverized sugar together very lightly, then stir in three-fourths pound of flour, making batter as light as for sponge-cake, and thin enough to spread nicely when poured; make up as quickly as possible. Have shallow tin-pans prepared (about twelve by eighteen inches and an inch deep) by lining with thin brown paper, using no grease on pan or paper; pour in batter, spread out with a knife as thin as possible (about half an inch thick), and bake in solid oven. When done, remove from oven, let cool a few minutes, and while still warm, but not hot, turn out of pan upside down. With a brush or soft cloth wet in cold water, brush over the paper and pull it off; spread cake thin with jelly and roll it up, being careful to place the outer edge of roll against something so that it will not unroll until cold. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve. If baked in pans such as are described above, the recipe will make two rolls, each twelve inches long, which should be cut in two, making four rolls. Use no baking-powder, as it makes the cake too brittle. Many use none in sponge-cake. The paper lining should be larger than pan, to lift out the cake by taking hold of the projecting edges. This never fails.—C. W. Cyphers, Minneapolis. Kelly Island Cake O/ie cup butter, two of sugar, three of flour, four eggs, half cup milk, three tea-spoons baking-powder; bake in jelly-tins. For filling, stir together a grated lemon, a large grated tart apple, an egg, and a cup sugar, and boil four minutes. A very excellent cake.—Mm Greeley Qrvbbt. LAYER-CAKES. 87 Lemon Cake. One nnd one-half cups sugar, one of butter, two and one-half of flour, five eggs beaten separately, four tea-spoons sweet milk, tea- spoon cream tartar, half tea-spoon soda. For Jelly.—Take coffee-cup sugar, two table-spoons butter, two eggs, and the juice of two lemons: beat all together and boil until the consistency of jelly. For orange cake use oranges instead of lemons.—Miss Minnie Brown. Lady's Fingers. One and one-eighth pound of flour, one of powdered sugar, ten eggs; beat eggs and sugar as light as for sponge-cake; sift in with flour one tea-spoon baking-powder and stir slowly. Make a funnel- shaped bag of heavy ticking or strong brown paper; through the hole in the small end push a funnel-shaped tin tube, one-third inch in diameter at small end and provided with a flange at the other to prevent it from slipping quite through; tie the small end of bag firmly around the tube, and you have a funnel-shaped sack with a . firm nozzle projecting slightly from the small end. Into this bag pour the batter, over which gather up the bag tightly so that none will run out, press and run the dough out quickly through the tube into a pan lined with light brown paper (not buttered), mak- ing each about a finger long, and about as thick as a lead-pencil, being careful not to get them too wide. Sprinkle with granulated sugar, bake in a quick oven, and, when cool, wet the under side of the paper with a brush, remove and stick the fingers together back to back. The bag, when made of ticking, will be useful in making macaroons and other small cakes. Unsurpassed.—Charles W. Cyphers, Minnehaha Cake. One and a half cups granulated sugar, half cup butter stirred to a cream, whites of six eggs, or three whole eggs, two tea-spoons cream tartar stirred in two heaping cups sifted flour, one tea-spoon soda in half cup sweet milk; bake in three layers. For filling, take a tea-cup sugar and a little water boiled together until it is brittle when dropped in cold water, remove from stove and stir quickly into the well-beaten white of an egg; add to this a cup of stoned 88 LAYEBrCAKES. raisins chopped fine, or a cup of chopped hickory-nut meats, and place between layers and over the top. A universal favorite.— Mrs. E. W. H&rrkk, Metropolitan Cake. Two cups sugar, one of butter, one of milk, nearly four cups flour, whites of eight eggs, three tea-spoons baking-powder, flavor with lemon. Take a little more than three-fifths of this mixture in three jelly-tins, add to the remaining batter one table-spoon ground allspice, one and a half table-spoons cinnamon, tea-spoon cloves, fourth pound each of sliced citron and chopped rai- sins; bake in two jelly-tins and put together with frosting, alter- nating dark and light.—Mrs. Dr. D. H. Moore, Wesleyan College, Cincinnati. Neapolitan Cake. Black Part.—One cup brown sugar, two eggs, half cup butter, half cup molasses, half cup strong coffee, two and a half cups flour, one of raisins, one of currants, a tea-spoon each of soda, cinnamon and cloves, and half tea-spoon mace. White Part.—Two cups sugar, half cup butter, one of milk, two and a quarter of flour, one of corn starch, whites of four eggs, small tea-spoon cream tartar; make frosting of whites of two eggs to put between the layers.—Mrs. Calista Hawks Cortner, Goshen, Orange Cake. One cup butter, one of water, two of sugar, four of flour, three eggs, three tea-spoons baking-powder; bake in layers. Take the juice of two large or three small oranges, coffee-cup pulverized sugar, one egg; mix yolk of egg, sugar, and juice together; beat whites to a stiff froth, stir in and spread between the layers.—Mrs. W. B. Brown, Washington D. C. Orange Cake. Two cups sugar, half cup butter, three and a half cups sifted flour, half cup sweet milk, three eggs beaten separately, three tea- spoons baking-powder mixed in flour; bake in jelly pans. For jelly take the juice and grated rind of two oranges, two table-spoons cold water, two cups sugar; set in a pot of boiling water, and, when scalding hot, stir in the yolks of two well-beaten eggs, and LA YE&CAKES. 89 just before taking from the fire stir in the white of one egg slightly beaten, and when cold put between the layers of cake. Frost the top with the other egg.—Miss Mardie Dolbear, Cape Girardeau, Mo. Orange Cake. Two-thirds cup butter, two small cups sugar, one cup milk, three -tea-spoons baking-powder, the yolks of five eggs, three small cups -flour; bake in jelly-tins. Whites of three eggs beaten to a stiff froth, juice and grated peel of one orange, sugar to consistency; put this between the layers with white frosting on the top.—Mrs. Gov. Pillsbury, Minnesota. Peach Cake. Bake three sheets of sponge-cake as for jelly cake; cut peaches in thin slices, prepare cream by whipping, sweetening and adding -flavor of vanilla if desired, put layers of peaches between the sheets -of cake, pour cream over each layer and over the top. This may also be made with ripe strawberries.—Mrs. Woodworth, Springfield, Ribbon Cake. Two and a half cups sugar, one of butter, one of sweet milk, tea-spoon cream tartar, half tea-spoon soda, four cups flour, four -eggs; reserve a third of this mixture, and bake the rest in two loaves of the same size. Add to third reserved, one cup raisins, fourth pound citron, a cup of currants, two table-spoons molasses, tea-spoon each of all kinds of spice; bake in a tin the same size as -other loaves; put the three loaves together with a little icing or -currant jelly, placing the fruit loaf in the middle; frost the top and sides.—Miss Alice Trimble, Mt. Gilead. Favorite Snow-Cake. Beat one cup butter to a cream, add one and a half cups flour -and stir very thoroughly together; then add one cup corn starch, and one cup sweet milk in which three tea-spoons baking-powder have been disserved; last, add whites of eight eggs and two cups sugar well beaten together; flavor to taste, bake in sheets, and put together with icing.— Walter Moore, Hamilton. Thanksgiving Cake. Make batter as for cocoa-nut cake (Miss Nettie Miller's). Bake five layers in jelly-tins; make frosting of whites of three eggs, three 90 LATEBrCAKES. tea-spoons baking powder, and three-fourths pound of pulverized sugar; with frosting for first layer mix rolled hickory-nut meats, with that for second layer mix fine-sliced figs, for third with hickory-nut meats, for fourth with figs, and on the top spread the plain frosting, and grate cocoa-nut over thickly.—Mrs. J. S. Robinson. Velvet Sponge Cake. Two cups sugar, six eggs leaving out the whites of three, one cup boiling hot water, two and one half cups flour, one table-spoon baking-powder in the flour; beat the yolks a little, add the sugar and beat fifteen minutes; add the three beaten whites, and the cup of boiling water just before the flour; flavor with a tea-spoon lemon extract and bake in three layers, putting between them icing made by adding to the three whites of eggs beaten to a stiff froth, six dessert-spoons of pulverized sugar to each egg, and lemon to flavor. —Mrs. Wm. Brown, Mamllan. Vanity Cake. p'ne and a half cups sugar, half cup butter, half cup sweet milk, one and a half cups flour, half cup corn starch, tea-spoon baking- powder, whites of six eggs; bake in two cakes, putting frosting be- tween and on top.—Olivia S. Hinman, Battle Creek, White Mountain Cake. Two cups pulverized sugar, half cup butter beaten to a cream; add half cup sweet milk, two and a half cups flour, two and a half tea-spoons baking-powder in the flour, whites of eight eggs; bake h> jelly-tins and put together with icing made by boiling a half tea- cup of water and three tea-cups sugar till thick; pour it slowly over the well-beaten whites of three eggs, and beat all together till cool- Beat before putting on each layer. Sprinkle each layer thickly with grated cocoa-nut, and a handr some cocoa-nut cake will result.—Mrs. Dr. Stall, Union (My, Ind. DIRECTIONS FOR FROSTING. 91 DIRECTIONS FOR FROSTING. Beat whites of eggs to a stiff froth, add powdered sugar grad- ually, beating well all the lime. (There are various opinions about the length of time frosting should be beaten, some giving half an hour, others a much shorter time). Or, break the whites into a broad plat- ter, and at once begin adding powdered and sifted sugar, keep add- ing gradually, beating well all the while until the icing is perfectly smooth (thirty minutes beating ought to be sufficient); lastly, add flavoring (rose, pineapple or almond for white or delicate cake, and lemon or vanilla for dark or fruit cake). Have the frosting ready when the cake is baked; beat the white of one egg to a stiff froth, then stir in ten heaping tea-spoons pulverized sugar (well heaped, but not all that you can lift on the spoon) and one of com starch; he sure that it is thoroughly beaten before taking the cake from the oven. If possible, have some one beating while you take out the cake. Now invert a common tin milk-pan, placing it on a clean paper, so if any falls off it can be used again, then place the cake -on the pan and apply frosting; it will run over the cake, becoming -as smooth as glass, and adhere firmly to it. If but one person is engaged in preparing cake and frosting, and must necessarily stop heating while getting the cake in readiness, it will be best to beat the frosting a few minutes again before placing on cake. As eggs vary in size, some common sense must be used in the quantity of the sugar. Practice only will teach how stiff icing ought to be. In preparing for a large party, when it is inconvenient to frost each cake as it is taken from the oven, and a number have become cold, place them in the oven to heat before frosting. If the cake is rough or brown when baked, dust with a little flour, rub off all loose par- ticles with a cloth, put on frosting, pouring it around the center of the cake, and smooth off as quickly as possible with a knife. If the frosting is rather stiff, dip the knife in cold water. If the flavor is lemon juice, allow more sugar for the additional liquid. It is nice, when the frosting is almost cold, to take a knife and mark the cake in slices. Any ornaments, such as gum drops, candies, orange flowers 92 DIRECTIONS FOR FROSTING. or ribbons should be put on while the icing is moist. When dry ornament with piping, which is a stiff icing squeezed through a paper funnel, and may be tinted with colored sugars. If the above directions are followed, the icing will not crumble. The recipe for "Centennial Drops" (see index) is excellent for icing. In frosting sponge-cake it is an improvement to grate orange peel over the cake- before frosting. Almond Frosting. Blanch half pint sweet almonds by putting them in boiling water, stripping off the skins, and spreading upon a dry cloth, until cold; pound a few of them at a time in a mortar till well pulverized; mix carefully whites of three eggs and three-quarters- pint powdered sugar, add almonds, flavor with a tea-spoon vanilla or lemon, and dry in a cool oven or in the open air when weather is pleasant. Boiled Frosting. Whites of three eggs beaten to a stiff froth, one large cup granulated sugar moistened with four table-spoons hot water; boil sugar briskly for five minutes or until it "jingles" on the bottom of the cup when dropped into cold water, or " ropes" or threads when dropped from the end of the spoon. Then, with left hand, pour the boiling syrup upon the beaten eggs in a small stream, while beat- ing hard with right hand. This is an excellent frosting. If pre- ferred, add half pound sweet almonds blanched and pounded to a paste, or a cup of hickory-nut meats, chopped fine, and it will be perfectly delicious. This amount will frost the top of two large cakes.—Mrs. A. S. C. Chocolate Frosting. Six rounded table-spoons grated chocolate, one and a half cup* powdered sugar, whites of three eggs; beat the whites but very little (they must not become white), add the chocolate, stir it in; then pour in the sugar gradually, beating to mix it well.—In the- KUclien. Frosting. Beat whites of two eggs to a stiff froth, add gradually half pound best pulverized sugar, beat well for at least half an hour,, flavor with lemon juice (and some add tartaric acid, as both DIRECTIONS FOR FROSTING. 93 whiten the icing). To color a delicate pink, use strawberry, currant or cranberry; or the grated peeling of an orange or lemon moistened with the juice and squeezed through a thin cloth, will color a handsome yellow. This amount will frost one large cake. —Mrs. W. W. W. i Frosting with Gelatine. Dissolve large pinch gelatine in six table-spoons boiling water; Wain and thicken with sugar and flavor with lemon. This is enough to frost two cakes.—Mrs. W. A. J. Frosting without Eggs. To one heaping tea-spoon Poland starch and just enough cold water to dissolve it, add a little hot water and cook in a basin set in hot water till very thick (or cook in a crock; either will prevent ita burning or becoming lumpy). Should the sugar be lumpy roll it thoroughly, and stir in two and two-thirds cups while the starch is hot; flavor to taste, and spread on while the cake is a little warm. This should be made the day before using, as it takes longer to harden than when made with eggs, but it will never crumble in cutting. This is excellent.—Mrs. Ola Kellogg Wilcox. Minnesota Frosting. Beat whites of three eggs until frothy, not white, add one and a third pints powdered sugar gradually with one hand, beating briskly with the other. Flavor with a tea-spoon of vanilla. It is better not to beat the whites of the eggs until stiff before adding sugar, as it makes the icing very hard to dry.—Mrs. C. J., Winona, Minn. Ornamental Frosting. \ Draw a small syringe full of the icing and work it in any design you fancy; wheels, Grecian borders, flowers, or borders of bead- ing look well.—Mrs. M. J. W. Yellow Frosting. The yolk of one egg to nine heaping tea-spoons pulverized sugar, and flavor with vanilla. Use the same day it is made.—Mrs. J.8.W. Rose Coloring. Mix together one-fourth ounce each of powdered alum and cream tartar, one ounce powdered cochineal, four ounces loaf-sugar, and 94 CRULLERS AND DOUOHyUTS. a salt-spoon soda. Boil ten minutes in a pint pure soft water; when cool bottle and cork for use. This is used for jellies, cake, ice-cream, etc.—Mrs W. E. H., Minneapolis. CRULLERS AND DOUGHNUTS. To cook these properly the fat should be of the right heat. When hot enough it will cease to bubble and be perfectly still; try with a bit of the batter, and if the heat is right the dough will rise in a few seconds to the top and occasion a bubbling in the fat, the cake will swell, and the under side quickly become brown. Clarified drippings of roast meat are more wholesome to fry them in than lard. A good suet may be prepared as follows for those who are sensible enough not to like greasy doughnuts or who He- braically oppose lard. Use only beef suet, which is quite as cheap, cleanly, and healthy. Buy from the meat markets, speaking before haud, and securing nice, whole, clean leaves, which cut up in small pieces, put into a dinner-pot, which will hold well about ten pounds. Put in a pint of water, and after the first hour stir frequently; it takes about three hours with a good heat to render it. Drain through a coarse towel, and if the suet is good it will require but little squeezing, and leave but little scrap or cracklings. Put to cool in pans or jars, and you have an element into which, when well heated, you can drop the twisted goodies, with the assurance that they will not only be "done brown," but that they will emerge with a flavor and grain that will commend them to the favor of an epi- cure. Doughnuts thus cooked are more digestible and of better flavor than if cooked in lard, and the most fastidious will not need to peel them before eating. Make the dough as soft as it can be handled; if cut about half an inch thick, five to eight minutes will be time enough to cook, but it is better to break one open as a test. When done, drain well in a skimmer, and place in a colander. The use of eggs prevents the dough from absorbing the fat. Doughnuta should be watched closely while frying, and the fire must be regu- CRULLERS AND DOUGHNUTS. lated very carefully. When you have finished frying, cut a potato in slices and put in the fat to clarify it, place the kettle away until the fat " settles," strain into an earthen pot kept for this purpose, and set in a cool place. The sediment remaining in the bottom of the kettle may be used for soap-grease. Fry in an iron kettle, the common skillet being too shallow for the purpose. Do not eat doughnuts between April and November. Crullers are better the day after they are made. If lard is not fresh and sweet, slice a raw potato, and fry before putting in the cakes. Crullers. Two coffee-cups sugar, one of sweet milk, three eggs, a heaping table-spoon butter, three tea-spoons baking-powder mixed with six cups flour, half a nutmeg, and a level tea-spoon cinnamon. Beat eggs, sugar and butter together, add milk, spices and flour; put another cup flour on molding-board, turn the dough out on it, and knead until stiff enough to roll out to a quarter inch thick; cut in squares, make three or four long incisions in each square, lift by taking alternate strips between the finger and tftumb, drop into hot lard, and cook like doughnuts.—Mrs. A. F. Ziegler, Co- lumbus, Fried Cakes. One coffee-cup of not too thick sour cream, or one of sour milk and one table-spoon of butter, two eggs, a little nutmeg and salt, one tea-cup sugar, one small tea-spoon soda dissolved; mix soft.—Mrs. S. Watson, Corn Meal Doughnuts. A tea-cup and a half boiling milk poured over two tea-cups meal; when cool add two cups flour, one of butter, one and one-half of sugar, three eggs; flavor with nutmeg or cinnamon; let rise till very light; roll about half an inch thick, cut in diamond shape, and boil in hot lard. Cream Doughnuts. Beat one cup each of sour cream and sugar and two eggs to- gether, add level tea-spoon soda, a little salt, and flour enough to roll.—Mrs. Sattie Meade, 96 CRULLERS AND DOUGHNUTS. Doughnuts. One egg, a cup rich milk,' a cup sugar, three pints flour, three tea-spoons baking powder, (or one and a half measures Horsford's Bread Preparation). These are made richer by adding one egg, and one tea-spoon butter.—Mrs. Jenks, North Star Doughnuts. One and a half cups sugar, one of sour milk, half cup butter, three eggs, a level tea-spoon soda, spice to taste, and flour to roll.—- Mrs. A. J. Palmes, Raked Doughnuts. Peel and boil four good sized potatoes; mash fine, and pour boil- ing water over them until of the consistency of gruel; let cool, add a yeast cake, and a little flour; let rise till light, then add one pint sweet milk, one and a half cups sugar, one-fourth cup (large meas- ure) lard, a salt-spoon salt, a little nutmeg and cinnamon; stir in flour until stiff, let rise again, then add a half tea-spoon soda dis- solved in a little milk, pour out on molding board, mix stiff enough to cut out, and roll to half an inch thickness; cut in long strips two inches wide and divide diagonally into pieces three inches long, set where it is warm, let rise on the board until light, and then fry. These do not cook through as easily as others, and it is safer to drop in one, and, by breaking it open, learn the time required for them to fry. A very nice variation of this recipe may be made as follows: Roll part of the dough about half an inch thick, cut into small biscuit, let rise, and when light, roll down a little, lay a few raisins rolled in cinnamon in the center, wet the edges by dipping the finger in cold water and passing it over them; draw them together and press firmly, and drop them in the hot fat. A tea-spoon of apple- butter or any kind of jam may be used instead of the raisins. When made with the raisins, they are the real German "Oily Koeks."—Mrs. J. L. H., Berlin Pancakes. Roll out dough slightly sweetened and shortened, as if for very plain doughnuts; cut in circles like biscuit, put a tea-spoon currant jam or jelly on the center of one, lay another upon it, press the «dges tightly together with the fingers, and fry quickly in boiling COOKIES AND JUMBLES. 97 fat They will be perfect globes when done, a little smaller than an orange.—Mrs. L. S. Williston, Heidelberg, Germany. Trifles. A quart flour, a cup sugar, two table-spoons melted butter, a little salt, two tea-spoons baking powder, one egg, and sweet milk sufficient to make rather stiff; roll out in thin sheets, cut in pieces about two by four inches; make as many cuts across the short way as possible, inserting the knife near one edge and ending the cut just before reaching the other. Pass two knitting-needles under every other strip, spread the needles as far apart as possible, and with them hold the trifles in the fat until a light brown. Only one can be fried at a time.—Miss Ettie Dalbey, Harrisburg. COOKIES AND JUMBLES. These require a quick oven. A nice "finishing touch" can be given by sprinkling them with granulated sugar and rolling over lightly with the rolling pin, then cutting out and pressing a whole raisin in the center of each; or when done a very light brown, brush over while still hot with a soft bit of rag dipped in a thick syrup of sugar and water, sprinkle with currants and return to the oven a moment. Ada's Sugar Cakes. Three cups sugar, two of butter, three eggs well beaten, one tea- spoon soda, flour sufficient to roll out. Cookies. One cup butter, two of sugar, one of cold water, half tea-spoon soda, two eggs and just flour enough to roll.—Mrs. Mary F. Orr. Egoless Cookies. Two cups sugar, one of milk, one of butter, half tea-spoon nut- meg, half tea-spoon soda, flour to make thick enough to roll. 7 98 COOKIES AND JUMBLES. Good Cookies. , , Two cups sugar, one of butter, one of sour cream or milk, three eggs, one tea-spoon soda; mix soft, roll thin, sift granulated sugar over them, and gently roll it in.—Mrs. Judge West, Beliefoniaine, Ohio. Lemon Snaps. A large cup sugar, two-thirds cup butter, half tea-spoon soda dissolved in two tea-spoons hot water, flour enough to roll thin; flavor with lemon.—Mrs. E. L. ft, Springfield. Nutmeg Cookies. Two cups white sugar, three-fourths cup butter, two-thirds cup sour milk, nutmeg or caraway seed for flavor, two eggs, half tea- spoon soda, and six cups of flour, or enough to roll. Roll thin, and bake in a quick oven. Pepper-nuts. One pound sugar, five eggs, half pound butter, half tea-cup milk, two tea-spoons baking-powder, flour enough to roll.—Mrs. Emma G. Rea. Sand Taets. Two cups sugar, one of butter, three of flour, two eggs, leaving out the white of one; roll out thin and cut in square cakes with a knife; spread the white of egg on top, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar, and press a blanched almond or raisin in the center.—Miss Clara G. Phellis. Cocoa-nut Jumbles. Two cups sugar, one cup butter, two eggs, half a grated cocoa- nut; make just stiff enough to roll out; roll thin.—Mrs. Ida M. Donaldson, Springdale, Col. J UMBLE8. One and a half cups white sugar, three-fourths cup butter, three eggs, three table-spoons sweet milk, half tea-spoon soda and one of cream tartar; mix with sufficient flour to roll; roll and sprinkle with sugar; cut out and bake.—Mrs. Mollie PUcher, Jackson, Mich. GINGERBREAD. 99 GINGER-BREAD. If in making ginger-bread the dough becomes too stiff before it is rolled out, set it before the fire. Snaps will not be crisp if made on a rainy day. Ginger-bread and cakes require a moderate oven, snaps a quick one. If cookies or snaps become moist in keeping, put them in the oven and heat them for a few moments. Always use New Orleans or Porto Rico molasses, and never syrups. Soda is used to act on the "spirit" of the molasses. In making the old- fashioned, soft, square cakes of ginger-bread, put a portion of the dSugh on a well-floured tin sheet, roll evenly to each side, trim off evenly around the edges, and mark off in squares with a floured knife or wheel cutter. In this way the dough may be softer than where it is necessary to pick up to remove from board after rolling and cutting. Always have the board well covered with flour before rolling all kinds of soft ginger-breads, as they are liable to stick, and should always he mixed as soft as they can be handled. Alum Ginger-bread. Pint molasses, tea-cup melted lard, table-spoon ginger, table-spoon salt, tea-cup boiling water; in half the water dissolve table-spoon pulverized alum, and in the other half a heaping table-spoon soda; stir in just flour enough to knead, roll about half inch thick, cut in oblong cards, and bake in a tolerably quick oven.—Mrs. Wm. Patrick, Midland, Mich. Ginger-bread. One gallon molasses or strained honey, one and a quarter pounds butter, quarter pound soda stirred in a half tea-cup sweet milk, tea- spoon alum dissolved in just enough water to cover it, flour to make it stiff enough to roll out; put the molasses in a very large dish, add the soda and butter melted, then all the other ingredients; mix in the evening and set in a warm place to rise over night; in the morning knead it a long time like bread, roll into squares half an inch thick, and bake in bread-pans in an oven heated about right for bread. To make it glossy, rub over the top just before putting 46650k 100 GINGER-BREAD. it into the oven the following: One well-beaten egg, the same amount or a little more sweet cream, stirring cream and egg well together. This ginger-bread will keep an unlimited time. The recipe is com- plete without ginger, but two table-spoons may be used if preferred. —Over fifty years old, and formerly used for general master days. Excellent Soft Ginger-bread. One and a half cups Orleans molasses, half cup brown sugar, half cup butter, half cup sweet milk, tea-spoon soda, tea-spoon all- spice, half tea-spoon ginger; mix all together thoroughly, add three cups sifted flour and bake in shallow pans.—Mrs. S. W Sponge Ginger-bhead. One cup sour milk, one of Orleans molasses, a half cup butter, two eggs, one tea-spoon soda, one table-spoon ginger, flour to make as thick as pound cake; put butter, molasses and ginger together, make them quite warm, add the milk, flonr, eggs and soda, and bake as soon as possible.—Mrs. M. M. M Ginger Cookies. Two cups molasses, one of lard, one of sugar, two-thirds cup sour milk, table-spoon ginger, three tea-spoons soda stirred in the flour and one in the milk, two eggs.—Miss Tina Lay, Ginger Cookies. One egg, one cup sugar, one cup molasses, one table-spoon soda, one of vinegar, one of ginger; roll thin and bake quickly. Ginger Cakes. One quart Orleans molasses, pint lard or butter, pint buttermilk, two table-spoons soda, two table-spoons ginger, flour enough to make a stiff batter; pour the molasses and milk boiling hot iuto a large tin bread-pan in which have been placed the ginger and soda (the pan must be large enough to prevent running over); stir in all the flour possible, after which stir in the lard or butter; when cold, mold with flour and cut in cakes. Care must be taken to follow these directions implicitly or the cakes will not be good; remember to add the lard or butter last, and buttermilk, not sour milk, must be used; boil the molasses in a skillet, and after pouring it into the pan, put the buttermilk in the same skillet, boil and pour it over GINGER-BREAD. 101 the molasses, ginger and soda. This excellent recipe was kept as a secret for a long time by a professional baker.—Mrs. R. M. Hen- derson. GrNGER Drop-Cakes. Take three eggs, one cup lard, one of baking molasses, one of brown sugar, one large table-spoon ginger, one table-spoon soda dissolved in a cup of boiling water, five cups unsifted flour; drop table-spoons of this mixture into a slightly greased dripping-pan about three inches apart.—Mrs. L. McAllister. Best Ginger-drops. Half cup sugar, a cup molasses, half cup butter, one tea-spoon each cinnamon, ginger and cloves, two tea-spoons soda in a cup boiling water, two and a half cups flour; add two well-beaten eggs the last thing before baking. Baked in gem-tins or as a common ginger-bread, and eaten "arm with a sauce, they make a nice des- sert.—Mrs. C. Hawks, Ginger-snaps. Two cups molasses, one of lard, one table-spoon soda, one of ginger, flour to roll stiff.—Miss Mary GaUag/ier. Ginger-snaps. One pound and six ounces flour, four of sugar, eight of butter, six of preserved orange peel, half pint of molasses, one tea-spoon soda dissolved in two table-spoons boiling water, one tea-spoon cloves, two of ginger. Soften the butter and mix it with the sugar and molasses, add the spices, orange peel and soda, beat well and stir in the flour, flour the board and roll the pa.