Evora Bucknum Perkins

“ To aid fermentation, a little sugar may be used in starting bread, but not enough to cover the sweet taste of the flour.
At a great altitude, bread rises very quickly; and requires less yeast.
Do not allow bread to get over light, even if it does not become sour; for the sweet taste will be destroyed, and if in the loaf, it will fall in the oven.
Whole wheat and graham bread will be lighter if 1⁄3 white flour is used; and if white flour alone is used for the sponge the bread will not be so apt to sour. ”

“ I can think of no luncheon more delightful than a nut chowder with finger croutons, beaten biscuit or whole wheat wafers, with fruit or other not too rich, dessert.
Raw nut butter may be used in all these chowders in place of butter or oil, giving a meaty flavor. ”

“ When we start to make a roast, we gather up the suitable ingredients: for instance, a few baked beans or mashed lentils, a little cold boiled rice, some tomato macaroni, a nut cutlet or two, perhaps one or two croquettes, a spoonful or so of tomato, some boiled onions, a few peas or string beans or baked peanuts, may be a little corn, and the vegetables strained out of a soup from the day before; throwing them one after another into a pan. Then we often add a handful of nut meats, chopped or whole, a little sage, sometimes sliced celery or chopped onion, occasionally a little browned flour ”

“ They may be served with the Salad Entrée dressing, Improved Mayonnaise or French dressing, with oil or lemon juice or with Chili sauce, but they all spoil that delightful bean flavor in the rich, thick juice. Beans have a characteristic flavor which is destroyed by the addition of anything but salt and water. Molasses, cream, nut butter and tomato are all good in their place, but that is not in baked beans if we attain to the keenest enjoyment of the bean flavor. We get the rich red color, without the rank molasses taste, by prolonged baking. ”

“ The different preparations of grains may all be parched the same as sweet corn and corn meal in the preceding recipes. If more convenient they may be done in the oven but the flavor is not as good. Some of them are tender enough to be eaten dry or in milk without any further preparation; others are better to be ground before adding the milk or cream, and some need to stand in the milk, hot or cold, for a time, before serving, while others (rice especially) require cooking after parching. Some are better cooked in milk. ”

“ Pies are not necessarily unwholesome articles of diet. They may be just good rich unleavened bread and fruit. Perhaps the greatest objection to pies occasionally, is the length of time it takes to make them, for paste that will make a tender crust cannot be rolled out in a hurry. It is better to have something else for dessert when one has not time to make a good pie.
Suggestions
Always use pastry flour (winter wheat) for pie crust. Bread flour requires more shortening, creeps together when rolled and does not make a nice, tender crust when you have done your best with it. ”

“ If you feel that you must eat at night, take a drink of cold water and in the morning you will feel much better for not having eaten.”
“It is not well to eat fruit and vegetables at the same meal. If the digestion is feeble, the use of both will often cause distress, and inability to put forth mental effort. It is better to have the fruit at one meal and the vegetables at another.” ”

“ Put dried sweet corn into a corn popper, iron frying pan or round bottomed iron kettle; cover, and shake over the fire until the grains are browned and puffed up nearly round. Served plain, this corn supplies a complete and satisfying food, as any one will find who sits down with a nice fresh-parched porridge dish of it and chews it until it is fine and creamy in the mouth. It is much more delicious than the finest popcorn. It may be ground and eaten in cold or hot milk, nut or dairy, and it may have a little salt and sterilized butter mixed with it while it is warm. ”

“ The Essentials of Success in making unleavened breads are, after good materials (the flour must be of the best) ; (a) that the ingredients be as nearly ice cold as possible; (b) that the breads stand or rest before baking, in a cold place for from 20 m. to 3 or 4 hrs., or over night; (c) that the oven is not too hot when they are first put in—not that they must be beaten very vigorously.
Iron is the best material for batter bread pans as it gives a firm, steady heat. ”

“ Some cooks prefer flour that has been delicately browned for setting the sponge for bread.
A good bread kneader is one of the best investments in cooking utensils. It saves time and strength and makes better bread.
“In the making of raised or yeast bread, milk should not be used in place of water. The use of milk is an additional expense and it makes the bread much less wholesome. Milk bread does not keep sweet so long after baking as does that made with water and it ferments more readily in the stomach.” ”

“ Mix the sugar, flour and salt for each pie in a bowl by itself. When the bottom crust is on the pan, spread about half the sugar mixture over it, put in a generous quantity of apples so that when baked the pie will be level, not depressed, and sprinkle the remainder of the mixture over, taking pains to have a little more at the edges because of not having any underneath there. It is very disappointing to find the last mouthfuls of pie near the crust less sweet than the first from the center. ”

“ Not enough should be used to give a positive garlic flavor.
Pine nuts and sour cream give the cheese flavor. A good quality of macaroni is good without any sauce, just cooked in salted water and eaten slowly with nuts; but it may be served with any desired, tasty sauce. The mushroom sauces, Italian or Boundary Castle are especially delightful with it, but many others are excellent, olive and nut butter, old-fashioned milk gravy, lentil gravy, a good cream sauce, cream of tomato sauce, or any of the nice, meaty flavored sauces, or parsley butter. ”

“ Dip ripe tomatoes quickly into perfectly boiling water, lift them out and drop into cold water, change the water two or three times if ice is not at hand, set them in a cold place, and peel just before serving.
Do not mix cut, colored fruits (like strawberries) with cream dressings. Lay the pieces between the layers and on top of the salad.
It is seldom suitable to serve fruit salads with lettuce; some glass dish with decorations of leaves, vines and flowers is prettiest.
As a rule, do not mix many kinds of fruit in one salad. One flavor often destroys another. ”

“ Large, plump bananas are far superior to small slender ones in wholesomeness and flavor, besides being cheaper.
There is no other way of using bananas to compare with eating them “out of hand” with the skin and fibres removed; but they may be served with sugar and lemon juice for luncheon or with whipped cream for dessert.
Almond cream is very harmonious with bananas. Peeled bananas with a little almond butter accompanying each mouthful make a complete and delightful luncheon. Brazil nut butter and cream are also excellent with bananas. ”

“ Always use pastry (never bread) flour for thickening cream or lemon pies. If cream pies are not to be used the day they are baked less flour will be required. Lemon pies should be used the day they are baked.
Apple and all fruit pies require a little flour in the filling, for the flavor as well as to absorb the juice. A little salt develops the flavors of fruits. Mix the flour, sugar and salt together and put enough of it over the under crust to cover it well in order to prevent the crust from soaking and to allow the sugar to cook up through the fruit. ”

“ I can think of nothing more interesting than a kitchen with the frequently used utensils decorating the walls where they can be reached with few steps; and such little things as spoons, egg beaters, can openers, spatulas, cork screws, potato mashers, measuring cups, funnels, soup dippers, wire strainers, pinchers and skimmers, not forgetting a small cushion with pins, hanging just over the table ”

“ Noodles may be dried thoroughly and stored in jars or close-covered box, almost indefinitely; but will require a much longer cooking.
★ Cream Noodles
Beat 1 egg light, add 1 tablespn. milk and a pinch of salt; then beat in 3–41⁄2 tablespns. flour.
Turn slowly in a slender stream into rapidly boiling soup, stirring constantly; boil up well and serve at once.
When the mixture is poured slowly from the point of a spoon, it will be in shreds, and when cooked will be firm enough to hold its shape, but not hard.
“Cooking is not drudgery—it is an art.... No one who stands by a hot stove ever cooks. ”

“ A delicate cream color, so light that you would hardly know there was any color except by comparing it with flour that had not been in the oven, gives a delightfully meaty flavor to some gravies and sauces. A light or medium brown is convenient to have at times, but the one most useful is the dark chestnut brown. The darker it is the longer it will last, as less of it will be required for flavoring. ”

“ To combine desserts and sauces properly requires true artistic skill. As a rule, a rich sauce should be served with a plain pudding and a simpler or neutral sauce with a richer pudding, or with one having a characteristic or delicate flavor. Cream—almond, Brazil nut, cocoanut or dairy is the only thing that will develop the flavor of some desserts, while some puddings are too good to be spoiled with any sauce.
★ Creamy (Apple Dumpling) Sauce 1⁄2 cup butter 1 cup sugar 1⁄2 cup milk 1 teaspn. ”

“ When taking cream, use fewer nuts and less butter and other oils.
Nut creams and butters may always be substituted for dairy cream and butter, with judgment as to flavors.
Peanut butter should be used sparingly and judiciously. No one enjoys, as one man expressed it, “that everlasting peanut flavor in everything.”
Oil and melted butter may be combined in equal quantities when the butter flavor is desirable, as in pilau and drawn butter.
Oil makes more tender pastry, raised cakes and universal crust.
“Stale” bread crumbs are those of a two or three days old loaf. ”

“ Put a strip of paste around the edge of a shallow pudding dish or deep pie pan, fill dish with prepared fruit, sugar and flour, cover with a lid of paste, press on to the strip and bake.
Fillings of squash, pumpkin or sweet potato pies may be baked on pie pans, in custard cups or in pudding dishes, without a crust, and with or without a meringue.
Serve fruit pies the day they are baked. Those that are unavoidably left over, put into the oven and just heat through before serving, to make like fresh pies. ”

“ Rye meal makes one of the most delightful porridges. Stir the meal slowly into boiling salted water, the same as graham flour, and cook for 1 hour at least.
Whole wheat is a very satisfying and inexpensive food. Some families buy it by the bushel and use large quantities of it in different ways. Some put the boiled wheat into bread sponge before mixing it up.
Different kinds of corn meal vary, too. Only about 2⁄3 or 3⁄4 as much granular meal is required for a given amount of liquid as of other kinds. ”

“ We make “fruit nectars” by adding lemon juice, sugar and water (the less sugar the better, a sugar syrup is preferable) to pure fruit juices and to combinations of fruit juices. Some, such as grape and black raspberry, will bear a good deal of water, but pineapple and other delicate flavored juices very little.
If pineapple is combined with another juice, let it be something without a strong, positive flavor (as orange or strawberry) , or the pineapple juice will be wasted. A strong and a neutral flavored juice, red raspberry and currant for instance, go well together. ”

“ Grains for breakfast may be cooked while you have a fire the day before, then all that is necessary in the morning is to set the inner boiler into the outer one containing boiling water and heat it through. If there should be water standing on top of the porridge, pour it off before heating, but under no circumstances stir the porridge, or add any more water while heating, or a pasty, tasteless dish will be the result. ”