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“ Cut two pounds of the upper round of beef into inch squares, dredge them with salt and pepper and roll them in flour. Put into a saucepan some butter and some drippings, or a little suet, and let it fry out, using enough only to cover the bottom of the saucepan; when the grease is hot, turn in the pieces of meat and let them cook until well browned on all sides; watch and turn them as soon as browned, then draw the meat to one side of the pan and add a tablespoonful of flour; let the flour brown, and add a cupful of stock or water, and stir it until it comes to a boiling point ”

“ The simplest methods of cooking and serving vegetables are generally the best. The most common method of cooking them is in boiling water. All green vegetables, bulbs and tubers should be crisp and firm when put on to cook, and should, of course, be thoroughly cleaned before being cooked.
Almost all vegetables may be served in the form of salad. Our most common green salad plant is lettuce; celery is next, but endive, chicory and dandelion, with many others, may be used to advantage in this way, and furnish pleasing variety to the menu. ”

“ Make a stuffing of minced liver or chicken in these proportions; to one pound of meat one third of a cupful of gravy milk or cream, one half-cupful of fine bread crumbs, one egg, pepper and salt and some of the onion taken from the centers, mix well and fill the onion shells, dust over a few bread crumbs, dot with butter and bake until brown. Put the remaining onion into a stew pan, with a tablespoonful of butter, a half-tablespoonful of flour, and after it boils up once, add a half-cup of milk, a teaspoonful of parsley, salt and pepper, boil up again, pour over onions and serve. ”

“ Peel and slice onions under water to keep the volatile oil from the eyes. A cup of vinegar boiling on the stove modifies the disagreeable odor of onions cooking. Boil a frying pan in water with wood ashes, potash, or soda in it to remove the odor and taste of onions. To rub silver with lemon removes the onion taste from it. Leaves of parsley eaten like cress with vinegar hide the odor of onions in the breath. Onions to be eaten raw or cooked will lose their rank flavor if they are pulled and thrown into salt water an hour before use. Two waters in boiling accomplish the same purpose. ”

“ Use one can of corn for one quart of soup. Crush it thoroughly with pestle or potato-masher to free the pulp from the tough outside coating; rub through a fine colander, then through a sieve. Add one teacupful of cream to the strained pulp and enough milk to make a quart altogether. Put in a dash of cayenne pepper, a piece of butter the size of a filbert, and salt to taste--it requires a surprising amount of salt to bring out the flavor. Use a double boiler as it burns easily. Serve very hot stirring well before taking up. ”

“ One-half pound prunes, one-half cup sugar, one-fourth teaspoonful lemon juice, white of one egg. Beat white of egg to stiff froth, add slowly three teaspoonfuls prunes, pressed through a sieve, then the lemon juice and sugar. The prunes should be soaked over night in enough water to cover; cook in same water till soft. Remove stones and force through a strainer (use the yolk of egg for custard sauce) . One egg yolk, one-half cup milk, one tablespoonful sugar, pinch of salt, nutmeg. Beat egg and sugar, heat milk, pour over egg, cook in double boiler till it coats the spoon, about five minutes. ”

“ Wipe each piece with a damp cloth, dip in slightly beaten egg; then roll in seasoned fine bread crumbs. Arrange in a deep dish, and bake in a very hot oven for forty-five minutes, basting every ten minutes with melted butter. While the chicken is baking chop one cup full of cold boiled corn fine, add to it one beaten egg, one-quarter of a teaspoonful of salt, a dash of pepper, one tablespoonful of milk, two tablespoonfuls of flour and one-quarter of a teaspoonful of baking powder. Heat one tablespoonful of drippings in a pan, drop the batter in in spoonfuls, and brown quickly on both sides. ”

“ Old potatoes are improved by paring before baking. Irish or sweet potatoes, if frozen, must be put into bake without thawing. Onions should be soaked in warm salt water an hour before cooking to modify their rank flavor. Lettuce, greens, and celery are sometimes best cleaned by using warm water, though they must be thrown at once, when cleaned, into cold water. To steam vegetables is better than to boil them, their flavors are held better, they are less liable to be water-soaked and their odors are confined instead of escaping through the house. ”

“ Scraped beef is very nutritious, and is served raw between slices of bread and butter. Baked and broiled fish are nice, and generally relished by sick people.
Soft boiled and scrambled eggs are quite safe to give, as a rule.
If potatoes are liked, have them baked. Other vegetables may be given, but it is always best to consult the physician before serving things about which one is doubtful. Food that will not be harmful in some cases may be decidedly so in others. Generally, it is best to avoid fried and warmed-over meats, and pork should not be served to the sick. ”

“ Salt, and slightly sweeten if needed boiling water, drop the peas so slowly into the water it will not stop boiling. Boil the peas until tender without covering and they will keep their color. They will generally cook in about twenty minutes, take them up with a little of the liquor in which they were boiled, butter and pepper them, and they are much better to add a little sweet cream, but will do without. If they are cooked immediately upon gathering, they will need no sugar; if allowed to remain twelve hours or more, a tablespoonful of sugar will be found an addition. ”

“ Instead of retaining the cold and keeping out the heat, the fireless cooker does the opposite by keeping food which has been brought to a boiling point at a temperature high enough to continue the process of cooking for many hours.
Every one has wrapped up ice in a newspaper or carpet to keep it from melting. In making the fireless cooker the material used for packing around the boiling food is paper, hay, wool or cork, because any one of these things is a poor conductor of heat--that is, the heat can not go through them easily. ”

“ It is an advantage to housekeepers to know that meat need not be the highest in price to be nutritious and palatable.
BAKED BREAST OF MUTTON.
Sew up breast of mutton in a thin cloth, put into a stewpan, nearly cover with cold salt water, and let simmer, allowing ten minutes to each pound. Take out of pan and cloth, put into baking dish, rub over with mutton drippings, butter or fat, sprinkle with flour and bake one-half hour in hot oven, basting frequently with its own broth. Just before removing from oven, strew with bread crumbs and butter and let brown. ”

“ Turn hot boiling water on to the tomatoes to peel them, cut slices at least three-quarters of an inch thick, and small tomatoes in halves, rub a piece of fat pork on the gridiron, put on the tomatoes, and broil on both sides, or dip in sweet oil and broil, or cover both sides with cheese and broil, or slice the tomatoes with their skins on and broil, and pour melted butter over them. In all cases season nicely with salt and pepper, garnish with parsley or cress and serve hot on a hot dish. ”

“ Nearly all foods may be cooked in the fireless cooker except those which have to be crisp or brown, though roast meat may be browned either before placing in the cooker or when the process of cooking is nearly finished. Cereals, one of the most wholesome foods known, are greatly improved by use of the fireless cooker. The long cooking makes them more digestible and gives them a flavor which they lack when cooked only fifteen or twenty minutes. ”

“ Make the oyster sauce first. Take twenty-five large oysters, put them in a saucepan over a moderate fire, and cook slowly until the gills are curled. Drain, save the liquor, add enough milk to make a pint. Take a tablespoonful flour and one of butter and cream them. Put the liquor in a pan and when it begins to boil stir in the flour and butter. Stir until boiling, add a teaspoonful salt and a dash of paprika. Stand in a warm place until you make the omelet. ”

“ Cream together half a cup of butter and one cup of sugar; add the well beaten yolks of five eggs, the juice and grated peel of one lemon, and whip until very light, then add the whites beaten to a froth alternately with two full cups of flour, through which must be sifted two even teaspoonfuls of baking powder. Butter a mold lavishly, line it with strips of preserved citron, using a quarter of a pound for a pudding of this size, put in the batter, cover and set in a pan with boiling water in a good oven. Keep the pan nearly full of boiling water and bake steadily one and one half hours. ”

“ They are usually cooked whole and served with white (cream) sauce as Asparagus, or may be chopped up and cooked like celery and served in the same manner. It has a nice buttery flavor of its own, that has to be tasted to be appreciated, a flavor that will take with the household. We do not hesitate to say that if once grown the demand will soon exceed the supply.
Vegetables are at their best in their own season, just as nature develops them, not as man forces them. ”

“ Take cauliflower cooked the day before, divide into small tufts, dip in egg and roll in cracker or bread crumbs, or make a batter in the proportion of one egg, two tablespoonfuls of milk and one tablespoonful of flour. Beat the eggs very light before adding to the milk and flour, and into this dip the cauliflower. Have the butter boiling hot in the frying pan, put in the cauliflower and fry a light brown, garnish with parsley. ”

“ A garden of herbs with its varying flavors is a full storehouse for the housekeeper, it gives great variety to a few materials and without much expense of money, time or space as any little waste corner of the garden or even a window box, will afford a fine supply. Besides use as flowers the young sprouts of most of the herbs are available as greens or salads, and are excellent with any plain salad dressing; among them might be mentioned mustard, cress, chervil, parsley, mint, purslane, chives, sorrel, dandelions, nasturtiums, tarragon and fennel. ”

“ A pinch of pearl ash put into boiling peas will render old yellow ones, quite tender and green. A little sugar improves beets, turnips, peas, corn, squash, tomatoes and pumpkins, especially if they are not in prime condition. A little lime boiled in water improves very watery potatoes. A piece of red pepper the size of a finger nail, a small piece of charcoal or even a small piece of bread crust, dropped in with boiling vegetables will modify unpleasant odors. Vegetables served with salt meats must be boiled in the liquor of the meat after it has been boiled and removed. ”

“ Eat the flesh and save the rind. Cut the rind into finger lengths and about an inch in width, pare and cut out all the red flesh, throw into a strong salt brine and let stand over night. In the morning drain, boil in water until the pickles are clear, drain again and put into a stone jar. To one gallon of fruit, allow one quart of sugar and one pint of vinegar. Do up cinnamon and cloves in little bags, in ratio of two of cinnamon to one of cloves and boil them in the syrup. Pour the boiling syrup over the pickles, tie up close and in a few days they are ready for use. ”

“ Wipe with a clean, wet cloth and sear all over by placing in a hot frying pan and turning until all the surface is browned. Put it in a kettle with one-half pint of water, and place it where it will keep just below boiling point. Add just enough water now and then to keep meat from burning. Have close-fitting cover to keep in the steam. Cook until very tender. Serve hot or cold.
SPANISH STEAK.
Get round steak one and one-fourth inch thick. Cook the same as veal cutlets, only instead of using soup stock use one cup strained tomato juice and a little onion; a few mushrooms add to the flavor. ”