Anonymous

“ Roast meat drippings and the liquor that meat is boiled in, should stand until cold to have the fat harden so that it can be taken off easily. Cut your scraps of fat into small pieces, and melt them slowly without burning, together with the fat from your drippings. When melted, strain it and let it remain until nearly cold, then pour in a little cold water. When the fat forms into a hard cake, take it up and scrape off the sediment that adheres to the under side, melt it again and when lukewarm sprinkle in a little salt. The dregs of fat are good for soap grease. ”

“ Most ovens require heating an hour and a half for bread, some will heat sufficiently in an hour, a brisk fire should be kept up, the doors in the room should be kept shut in cold weather. Pine, and ash, or birch mixed, are the best wood for heating an oven. To ascertain if your oven is of the right temperature, when cleared throw in a little flour, if it browns in the course of a minute, it is hot enough, if it turns black wait several minutes before you put in your things, if not hot enough, set in a furnace of live coals, after you have put your things in. ”

“ Boil your meat till perfectly tender, then take it up, clear it from the bones and gristle, chop it very fine and mix it with double the quantity of chopped apple; if the meat is not fat, put in a little suet or melted butter, moisten it with cider, add cloves, mace, or nutmeg, and cinnamon, to your taste, sweeten it with molasses and sugar, add a little salt. If you wish to have your pies very rich, put in wine or brandy to your taste, the juice and peel of a lemon, the peel should be grated, and stoned raisins and citron cut in small strips. ”

“ A leg of veal, after enough has been cut off for cutlets, makes a soup nearly as good as calves head. Boil it with a cup two thirds full of rice, a pound and a half of pork, season it with salt, pepper, and sweet herbs, if you like, a little boiled celery cut in slices, or a little essence of celery improves it, parsly, carrot, and onions, boiled in the soup, are liked by some people. ”

“ It is intended for all classes of society and embracing both the plainest and richest cooking, joined to such minuteness of directions as to leave as little as possible to the judgment of the practitioner, proving to the unskilled quite a desideratum, while in the hands of the head of the culinary department, it will prevent that incessant running to and fro for directions, with which housekeepers' patience are too often tried. ”

“ The utter inefficiency of most works of the kind, are well known to every experienced housekeeper, serving but to lead the uninitiated astray, who following implicitly the directions given have to lament in the language of that homely but not inapt proverb, that their cake is all dough. ”

“ The best way to cook liver, is to pour boiling water on it, dip it in salt and water, then broil it till nearly done, with two or three slices of salt pork previously dipped in flour, cut up the meat and pork into strips about two inches long, lay the whole into a pan with a little water, salt and pepper, put in a little butter, stew it four or five minutes. It is more economical to fry or broil it, but it is not as nice. ”

“ In summer meat should be kept in a cool airy place, away from the flies, and if there is any danger of its spoiling sprinkle a little salt over it. When meat is frozen it should be put in cold water and remain in it till the frost is entirely out, if there is any frost in it when put to the fire, it will be impossible to cook it well. Fresh meat should not be put into the pot until the water boils. When meat is too salt, soak it in lukewarm water for several hours, change the water before boiling it. ”

“ Brown sugar answers for most kinds of cakes, if rolled free from lumps, and stirred with the butter, until it is a very light color. The flour should be sifted and if damp, it should be dried perfectly, or it will make the cake heavy. Where sifted flour for cake is measured, it should be shaken down in the measure to be accurate; if there is not flour enough in cake, it will not be light. The eggs should be beaten to a froth, on a shallow plate, and for very nice cake the whites and yolks, should be beaten separately. ”

“ If pieces of bread are put in the oven and dried, several hours after baking in it, they will keep good a long time. They are good as fresh bread for dressing to meat, and for puddings, if soaked soft in cold water. Rich cake with wine or brandy in it, will keep good several months in winter, if kept in a cool place. The day it is to be eaten, it should be put in a tin pan, and set in a bake pan that has a tea cup of water in it, when heated thoroughly through take it up. ”

“ Pickles of all kinds should be stirred up occasionally, and if there are any soft ones among them, they should be thrown away, and the vinegar scalded; if very weak, it should be thrown away and fresh added. The vinegar when scalded, should not be allowed to cool in brass. Another method of pickling cucumbers, which is very good, is to put them in salt and water, as you pick them, change the water once in three days; when you have done picking your cucumbers, take them out of the salt and water, and put them in cold vinegar, with alum, salt, and pepper corns in it. ”

“ Some people boil onions in the soup, but as they are very disagreeable to many persons, it is better to boil them and put them in a dish by themselves. Take bread soaked soft, mash it well and put in a little of the boiled beef chopped fine, a couple of eggs, a very little flour, season it highly with salt, pepper, cloves, and mace, do it up in small balls and boil them in the soup fifteen minutes. ”

“ When perfectly light, beat four eggs with a pound and a quarter of sugar, and work them into the sponge, with a wine glass of wine, and one of brandy, three tea spoonsful of cinnamon, a little mace, or nutmeg. Work the whole well with the hand for ten minutes, then set it where it will rise again. When risen the second time, work it with the hand for fifteen minutes, then stir in gradually a pound of stoned raisins, and quarter of a pound of citron cut into small strips, fill your cake pans about half full, put them near the fire for half an hour, to rise again in the pans. ”

“ Veal, lamb and mutton, are good cut in small strips, and warmed with boiled potatoes, cut in slices, and pepper, salt, and gravy. Roast beef and mutton, if not cooked too much, are nice cut in slices, and just scorched on a gridiron. Meat when warmed over, should only be on the fire just long enough to get heated well through, if on the fire long, most of the nourishment of the meat will be extracted, and it will be very indigestible. ”

“ The white of an egg, egg shells, and isinglass, are all good to settle coffee. The best kind of coffee is old Java, and Mocha; before it is roasted, it should be hung over the fire two or three hours to dry, if dried in the oven it looses its strength, it should be hung at such a distance from the fire, as to be in no danger of burning. When dry put it on hot coals, and stir it constantly till done, which is ascertained by biting one of the lightest kernels, if it is brittle, the whole is done. ”

“ Put soap into boiling water and beat it till it is all dissolved, and forms a strong lather when at a hand heat, put in the article that is to be washed and if strong it may be rubbed hard; when clean squeeze out the water without wringing, and rinse it in warm water. Rinse it in another water and for bright yellows, crimsons, maroons and scarlets, put in oil of vitriol, sufficient to give the water an acid taste, for oranges, fawns, browns or their shades use no acids, for pinks, rose colors, and their shades, use tartaric acid, lemon juice or vinegar. ”

“ Hot soft soap or soap suds, does very well to wash hearths in, provided you have no objections to their looking dark. For brick hearths use redding mixed with thin starch and milk. Varnished stoves should have several coats of varnish put on in summer so as to get quite hard before being used. They should be washed in warm water without any soap, a little oil rubbed on once or twice a week, improves the looks of them. Black lead is good to black stoves that have never been varnished, but it will not do where they have been. ”