Lamar-Statewide County AlArchives News.....RECIPES FROM 1879 - 1880 (in newspaper) 1879
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Veneta McKinney http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00016.html#0003775 May 7, 2006, 7:30 pm

The Vernon Clipper 1879
RECIPES FROM THE VERNON CLIPPER
1879 – 1880


AUGUST 8, 1879
PICKLING BEANS – Boil the beans until half cone for table use.  Pack in small 
jars, and cover with salted vinegar.  The wax or butter bean is best for 
pickling.

DARK STEAMED PUDDING – To be steamed 3 hours.  1 cup molasses, 1 of sweet 
milk, 2 of butter, 4 of flour, 1 teaspoon soda, Ύ cup of fruit and spice to 
taste.  To be eaten with sour sauce.

STEWED SQUASH – Pare, slice, lay in cold water 15 minutes.  Cook tender in 
boiling water, salted, drain well and mash with pepper, salt and butter, 
pressing out all the water.

KING’S PUDDING – Beat 6 eggs, add 1 quart of sweet milk, 1 pound white sugar, 
1 dozen soda crackers, 4 large apples cut in this slices, a little salt and 
spice to taste; bake 2 hours.

STEWED TOMATOES WITH ONIONS – Loosen the tomato skin with boiling water.  Peel 
and slice them and put into a saucepan with a sliced onion, a good piece of 
butter, pepper, salt, and a little sugar.  Stew gently for ½ hour.

HUGE CHUNK CUT OUT OF PAPER

ORANGE ICE – Juice of 6 oranges and grated peel of 3; juice of 2 lemons; 
squeeze out every drop of juice, and let the grated peel steep in juice 1 
hour; strain well through a fine cotton cloth, mix in 1 pint of sugar, then 1 
pint of water.  Freeze as you would ice cream.

GOOSEBERRY TART – Top and tail a quart of green gooseberries.  Put into a tin 
or porecelain saucepan with enough water to prevent burning, and stew slowly 
until they break, stirring often.  Sweeten abundantly and set by to cook.  
When cold pour into a pie-dish lined with puff paste, cover with a top crust 
and bake in a good oven.  Eat cold bu fresh, with powdered sugar sifted over 
the top.

FRENCH CREAM CAKE – Boil scant pint of milk, take 2 eggs and 2 tablespoonfuls 
corn-starch, dissolved in a little milk; when the milk boils, stir this in 
slowly with a scant cup of sugar, 1 tablespoonful of butter and 2 teaspoonfuls 
essence of lemon.  Make a cake of 3 eggs, 1 cup of sugar, 1 ½ cups flour, 2 
teaspoonfuls baking powder and 2 tablespoonfuls water.  Bake in 3 layers, and 
while warm spread with the cream.

BAKED TOMATO PUDDING – Take a deep pudding dish, and butter the inside of it 
well; first put in a large layer of bread crumbs, then a layer of peeled 
sliced tomatoes, then a small onion cut very thin; dredge on a little flour, 
salt and pepper and lay a few small bits of butter over it, proceed in this 
way until they dish is filled, having a layer of bread-crumbs, pepper, salt 
and butter on top; put it in the over, keep it covered with a tin plate for 1 
hour, then remove the plate and let it brown slowly; the oven must not be too 
hot; it will take 2 hours to bake.

ICE CREAM WITHOUT A FREEZER – Beat the yolks of 8 eggs very light, and add 
thereto 4 cups sugar and stir well.  Add to this, little by little, 1 quart 
rich milk that has been heated almost to boiling, bearing all the while; then 
put in the whites of 8 eggs beaten to a stiff froth.  Then boil the mixture in 
a pail set inside another containing hot water.  Boil about 15 minutes or 
until it is as thick as a boiled custard, stirring steadily meanwhile.  Pour 
into a bowl to cool.  When quite cold, beat into it 3 pints of rich sweet 
cream and 5 teaspoonfuls of vanilla, or such other flavoring as you prefer.  
Put it into a pail having a close-fitting cover and pack in pounded ice and 
salt – rock salt, not the common kind.  When packed, before putting the ice on 
top of the cover, beat the custard as you would batter, for 5 minutes steady; 
then put on the cover, put the ice and salt over it and cover the whole with a 
thick mat, blanket or carpet, and let it stand for an hour.  Do not let the 
salt get inside, or it will spoil the cream.  Carefully uncover and scrape 
from the bottom and sides of the pail, the thick coating of frozen custard, 
making every particle clear, and beat again hard until the custard is a 
smooth, half congealed paste.  Do this thoroughly.  Put on the cover, ice, 
salt and blanket, and leave it for 5 or 6 hours, replenishing the ice and salt 
if necessary.

CHERRY PUDDING – Take 1 pound of cherries, remove the pits, lay them in a hair 
sieve, place the sieve over an earthen dish to collect the juice; sprinkle 
over them ½ pound of sugar.  In the morning make a rich batter of eggs, milk 
and flour, stir in the cherries, without the juice; it will take 1 hour to 
bake, or 2 to boil.  When ready, beat the juice with butter and sugar, and use 
it as sauce for the pudding.

AUGUST 22, 1879
DOMESTIC ECONOMY
CREAM PIE – 1 pint thick, sweet, cream; 1 cup of sugar; 1 tablespoon corn-
starch; season well with nutmeg; bake with an upper crust.

CLEANING SILVER SPOONS – The disagreeable discoloration of egg can be readily 
taken from silver spoons by washing them in potato water – water in which 
potatoes have been boiled.  It is much better than salt, as it does not 
scratch the metal.

POTATO PIE – Yolks of 6 eggs, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup butter, 1 pint of sweet 
cream, 1 cup fresh milk, 1 cup mashed potatoes; mix potatoes and butter well; 
add other ingredients; bake with only an under-crust; frost with the whites of 
6 eggs and 6 tablespoons sugar; flavor to suit.

ICE CREAM PIE – Make a smooth paste of flour and cold water; add boiling water 
to it, stirring until it is about like cream; when cool add an egg; sweeten to 
taste; put in a small lump of tartaric acid and flavor; bake crust; put in a 
small lump of tartaric acid and flavor; bake crust (sic); put in the mixture 
and bake a little frost on top.

FOR THE TOILET – Of white wax, oil of sweet almonds, spermaceti and white soap 
each Ό ounce; 1 pint of rose water or elderflower water; best cologne 3 
ounces.  Cut the wax, sperm and soap very fine; put into an earthen vessel 
with a gill of the rose water, set into a dish of boiling water and let stand 
until dissolved.  Then add first the oil of almonds, then the rose water and 
cologne.

OATMEAL PUDDING – Mix 2 ounces of Scotch oatmeal in Ό pint of milk; sweeten to 
taste, and stir over the fire for 10 minutes; then put in 2 ounces of sifted 
bread-crumbs, stir until the mixture is stiff; then add 1 ounce of shret suet 
(sic), and one or two well beaten eggs; add a little lemon flavoring or grated 
nutmeg.  Put the pudding into a buttered dish, and bake slowly for an hour.

BREEZE PUDDING – Dissolve ½ box of gelatin in a pint of boiling water; add 2 
cups of sugar and the juice of 2 lemons; after this has become cool (not 
cold), break into it the white of 3 eggs; beat all to a stiff froth; make a 
soft custard with the yolks of the eggs, adding 3 others, and a quart of milk; 
pour the whites into molds, and, when ready for use, turn them out, pouring 
the custard over.

STUFFED EGGS.  6 hard-boiled eggs, cut in two, take out the yolks and mash 
fine; then add 2 teaspoonfuls of butter, 1 of cream, 2 or 3 drops of onion 
juice, and salt and pepper to taste; mix all thoroughly and fill the eggs with 
this mixture; put them together.  Then there will be a little of the filling 
left, to which add 1 well beaten egg.  Cover the eggs with this mixture and 
then roll in cracker crumbs.  Fry a light brown in boiling fat.

NEW WAY TO COOK CHICKENS – Cut the chicken up, put it in a pan and cover it 
over with water; let it stew as usual, and when done, make a thickening of 
cream and flour, adding a piece of butter and pepper and salt.  Have made and 
bake a pair of short cakes, made as for pie crust, but roll thin and cut in 
small square.  This is much better than chicken pie and more simple to make.  
The crusts should be laid on a dish and the chicken gravy poured over while 
both are hot.

TO CAN TOMATOES – I have found it cheaper (says a lady) to can my own tomatoes 
than to buy them canned.  I do not scald my tomatoes, but put them in bake 
pans, just as they are; of course I have washed and dried them first.  I let 
them bake 15 minutes, then I take them out and pour off all the fluid which 
has come from them; this liquid I throw away; then I peel my tomatoes when 
they are cold;  I now cook them in a large kettle for a full hour and a half; 
when scalding hot I put them in my tins and solder; I generally warm my tins, 
so that is cooling the vacuum is more perfect; I put neither salt nor pepper 
in the tomatoes.

MEAT HASH – Chop fine any kind of cold meat (before chopping dredge with salt 
and pepper.  This is always the best manner of seasoning hash, as by this 
means all parts will be seasoned alike.)  If you have cold potatoes, chop fine 
and mix with the meat; if they are hot, mash.  Allow ½ meat to 2/3 potato.  
Put this mixture in the frying pan, with a little water to moisten it, and 
stir in a spoon of butter, or, if you have nice beef drippings, use that 
instead of butter.  Heat slowly through, cover and let stand on a moderately 
hot part of the stove or range 20 minutes.  When ready to dish, fold as you 
would an omelet, and dish.  Save all the trimmings and pieces that are left of 
all kinds of meat, and have a hash once or twice a week.  It does not hurt 
hash to have different kinds of meat in it.  Avoid having a hash greasy.


AUGUST 29, 1879
OATMEAL PUDDING. – To a quart of milk allow four tablespoonfuls of Irish oat-
meal, four tablespoonfuls of flour, and a little salt.  Bring the milk to a 
boil – using a farina-kettle or a tin-pail set into a kettle of boiling water –
 and stir in the meal and flour made smooth in cold milk.  Stir constantly for 
fifteen or twenty minutes, then set back for fifteen minutes before turning 
out.  Eat with cream and sugar.

LEMON TEA.  Green tea, cool, and with half a lemon squeezed  into it.  Makes 
an excellent drink.

SEPTEMBER 5, 1879

LETTUCE – Pick apart the heads and pile upon pounded ice on a glass dish.  
Pass vinegar, pepper, salt and powdered sugar with it.

TO CAN CHERRIES – Six ounces of sugar to one quart of cherries; boil 
moderately for five minutes; have the cans hot and seal while warm.

TO BROWN FLOUR – Spread upon a thin plate and place upon the stove or in a 
very hot oven and stir continually after it begins to color until it is brown 
all through.  Keep it always on hand for gravies.  Do it at odd moments and 
keep in a glass jar covered closely.  Shake it up every few days to prevent 
lumping.

MILK TOAST FOR INVALIDS – Toast your bread a nice brown, dip each slice as it 
comes from the toaster in boiling water, butter and salt lightly, and lay in a 
covered dish.  Have ready in a saucepan enough boiling milk, slightly 
thickened, about like cream, and pour over your dish of toast, cover closely 
and let stand five minutes.  It is improved by using a part of Graham bread.  
This will be found nice for tea.

PINE-APPLE ICE CREAM – Slice one large pine-apple thin and scatter one pound 
of sugar between the slices; cover it and let the fruit steep three hours; 
then cut or chop fine in the syrup and strain through a sieve; beat gradually 
into one quart of cream and freeze rapidly.  If you like, reserve a few slices 
of pine-apple unsugared, cut into squares and stir through the cream when half 
frozen.

SWEET POTATO PONE – Take four large sweet potatoes, peel and grate them, then 
add two cups of water or milk, a lump of butter the size of an egg, melted, 
three eggs well beaten, a teaspoonful each of allspice and cinnamon, one and 
ha half teaspoonfuls of ginger, and half a (sic) nutmeg, grated; mix all the 
ingredients well, butter a pudding pan, pour in your pone and bake in a 
moderate over.

VEAL LOAF – One pound of veal, one-half pound of salt fat pork, three small 
crackers, one egg, salt and pepper.  Chop the veal raw to a fine mince, chop 
the pork and add to it; roll the crackers fine, beat the egg, and mix 
altogether thoroughly; put in a quart pan and bake about two hours, slowly at 
first, and having it a nice brown when it comes from the oven.  This should be 
set aside and thoroughly cooled, or placed in the refrigerator.  When wanted 
for use cut in slices with a sharp knife; this will be found nice for tea, 
lunch or picnics.

TO STEW RHUBARB – At this season of the year, before fruit is fairly in the 
market, rhubarb, if properly cooked, is excellent and wholesome.  The art of 
cooking rhubarb so as to retain its color and pleasant acid depends on the 
same principles as in stewing fruit.  As soon as the rhubarb is cleaned and 
sliced, cook it.  If allowed to remain any time after it has been cut, it 
becomes dark, just as would apples.  Put the sliced rhubarb in cold water, not 
too much water, and bring it gently to the boil.  No exact amount of sugar, as 
the sweetness is according to taste.  To one quart of cut rhubarb by weight 
add one-quarter of white sugar.

SPINACH – Wash and clean spinach enough for tow or three days, put in boiling 
water with a teaspoonful of salt, boil it briskly for ten minutes, turn it 
into a colander, drain it, press all the water out of it, and set to chopping 
it with a big knife just as long as you have patience for the work.  Now if 
you wish to serve this, take a portion and put it on the fire with a piece of 
butter, a half a pint of good broth, and let it simmer just as long as you 
please.  Spinach, so that it is not dry or burned, can never be cooked too 
much.  Slice a hard boiled egg and serve with it.  A very little fried onion, 
perfectly cooked, chopped fine improves, according to some tastes, the flavor 
of spinach.

MUTTON HAMS – Take the hind or fore legs of a sheep and rub them with the 
following:  Mix two tablespoonfuls of sugar with the same quantity of 
tablesalt and half a tablespoonful of saltpeter.  Place the hams in separate 
pans and rub each one with the same quantity.  Turn twice a day for three 
days, and rub thoroughly with the hand at each time, turning away the liquor 
which flows from the meat.  Then make a new mixture and turn and rub daily for 
ten days.  At each rubbing take care to leave that side uppermost which was 
under before.  Then smoke the hams like those made from pork and boil in the 
same way.  Hams prepared in this way will be relished so much that you will 
always have a good supply of them in the larder.

SEPTEMBER 12, 1879

HOUSEHOLD HINTS
ICED APPLES, PEACHES OR ORANGES – Grate fine, sprinkle with white sugar, and 
freeze them.

STRAWBERRY ICE CREAM – Mash one quart of berries with one pound of sugar, rub 
through a colander, add one quart of sweet cream and freeze as usual.

PUFF CAKES – Two cups of white sugar, one-half cup butter, one cup sweet milk, 
three eggs, well beaten, three cups flour, one tablespoonful baking powder, 
thoroughly mixed the flour; season with lemon.

WHITE CORN DODGERS  - Take one pint of white corn meal and turn over it one 
pint of boiling water; add a little salt, and a well beaten egg tot he batter 
when nearly cold.  Butter some sheets of tin and drop your batter by 
tablespoonfuls all over them and bake in a hot oven twenty-five minutes.

SALAD DRESSING – Three eggs, tablespoonful of sugar, oil, mustard, and salt, 
one cup of vinegar and one of milk; beat the eggs, then add the other 
ingredients, and stir all together over a kettle of boiling water to the 
consistency of boiled custard.  If put in a closed bottle and kept in a cool 
place it will keep two weeks.

SHORTCAKE – Prepare the dough as for biscuit, only much richer; roll out two 
crusts nearly as thin as for pie crust; put them together, spreading a little 
butter between them; bake in a quick oven.  When done, place the fruit or 
preserves between the crusts.  When it is not in the fruit season, dried fruit 
or preserves make a very good substitute.

STEWED SALSIFY – Scrape the roots, dropping each into cold water as soon as 
cleaned, for exposure to the air blackens them; cut in inch pieces; put in a 
sauce-pan hot water enough to cover and stew until tender; then turn off the 
water and add a cup of cold milk.  Stew ten minutes after this begins to boil; 
put in a large lump of butter, cut in bits and rolled in flour; pepper and 
salt to taste.  Boil up at once and serve.

PEAS AND LETTUCE – Blanch a quart of peas for about five minutes and drain 
them; blanch a head of lettuce for one minute (blanching is only boiling or 
steeping in boiling water); put peas and lettuce in a saucepan with one ounce 
of butter; stir gently on the fire for about one minute, and then add a little 
broth or water, two or three sprigs of parsley, salt and pepper; boil slowly 
until done; and serve warm.  The parsley may be served or removed just before 
serving, according to taste.  The lettuce is served with the peas.

TONGUE SOUP – Put a small tongue into a stewpan with trimmings of any bones of 
fowl or veal, and stew for four hours, removing the scum; take out the tongue, 
skin and clean it, and leave it to cool; put back the trimmings and the root, 
with a carrot, a turnip, a head of celery and an onion, half a teaspoonful of 
cayenne, and stew one hour more; then strain the soup, and when cool remove 
the fat. and set it on to heat, with a turnip and carrot cut in squares; and 
two tablespoonfuls of grated tongue; let it simmer slowly for an hour, and 
serve with boiled rice.

GREEN PEAS – There is a vast difference in the peas in the same pod.  Those 
nearest to the stem are the oldest and toughest, being the most fully 
matured.  In Paris peas are sorted in this way.  Not more than once or twice 
in a whole season are good green peas sent to table.  Either the peas are old 
and flavorless, or they have been badly prepared.  This is a good recipe, as 
M. Bios taught it to me:  Take a saucepan and put in a half teaspoonful of 
salt; at the very first boil drop in two quarts of peas; boil gently and 
drain; put in a colander, shake then, turn them into a hot dish; put into that 
four ounces of butter, a little salt and white pepper, and put the dish with 
peas in an oven for not over two minutes.


SEPT 29, 1879
Page 4
HOUSEHOLD RECIPES
ICED TEA – Make the teas in the same way, only without the milk.  Some people 
pour hot tea on a lump of ice and think they have an excellent tea, but there 
is a great difference between the two.

TOMATO RELISH. – Twenty-five tomatoes (ripe and peeled), four onions, eight 
peppers (seeds taken out) and chopped fine with onions, eight cups of vinegar, 
four tablespoonfuls sugar, two of salt.  Boil gently one hour.

ICED COFFEE – Make more coffee than usual at breakfast time and stronger.  Add 
one-third as much hot milk as you have coffee, and set away.  When cold, put 
into ice.  Serve as dessert, with cracked ice in each tumbler.

TO COOK SALSIFY – Wash and scrape, then cut from the end slices ½ inch thick; 
put them in the kettle with water enough to cook, add a little salt; then when 
thoroughly done, season with one pint sweet cream, pepper and butter, do not 
drain before seasoning.

BLUEBERRY CAKE – One cup of milk, one of sugar, three cupfuls of flower (sic), 
two teaspoon of cream-tarter, a piece of butter the size of an egg, and two 
eggs.  Beat them well together and add the blueberries having rolled them in a 
little flour first.  This is very nice.

SPICED PLUMS – Take one pint of vinegar and add three pounds of sugar, one 
tablespoonful each of cloves, cinnamon and allspice; boil all together; have 
ready four quarts of plums; repeat the boiling of the liquor each day for nine 
days and each time while hot pour over the plums.

RASPBERRY VINEGAR – Put one quart of good vinegar over two quarts of berries; 
let them stand over night; strain and pour the juice over two more quarts of 
berries; stand over night; then strain again; let it come gently to a boil; 
then bottle for use in small necked bottles.  One tablespoonful in a glass of 
ice water on a hot summer day is refreshing.

CHOW-CHOW – Take one peck of green tomatoes and eighteen small onions; slice 
both onions and tomatoes; add one-half pint white mustard seed, one-half ounce 
allspice, one-half ouce cloves (the spices whole); one-half dozen bell peppers 
(ripe) or a tablespoonful of cayenne, salt enough to season.  Cover the whole 
with vinegar and boil two hours.

GREEN PEA SOUP – Boil until tender one pint of shelled peas in just enough 
water to cook them; remove from the fire and wash very fine; then mix 
thoroughly with two pints of milk, strain through a sieve and return to the 
fire.  Season with butter, pepper and salt to suit the taste, and when it 
boils serve with crackers, the same as oyster soup.  String beans can be 
prepared in the same manner.

BROWNED TOMATOES – Take large, round tomatoes and halve them; place them, the 
thin skin down, in a frying pan in which a small quantity of butter has been 
previously melted; sprinkle them with salt and pepper and dredge them well 
with flour; place the pan on a hot part of the fire and let them brown 
thoroughly; then stir them and let them brown again and so on until they are 
quite done. They lose their acidity and the flavor is superior to stewed 
tomatoes.



OCTOBER 10, 1879

HOUSEHOLD HINTS.
THE TABLE.  A spoonful of stewed tomatoes in the gravy of either roasted or 
fried meats is an improvement.

OATMEAL CAKE: To a pint of meal add enough water to make it stir like pancake 
batter, season with a little salt and bake in a shallow pan for 20 minutes in 
a hot oven.

OATMEAL PUFFS: To a quart of sweet milk allow 3 well beaten eggs, 2 ½ teacups 
of German flour and a little salt; beat all thoroughly together and bake in 
hot gem irons.

STUFFED TOMATOES: Cut in halves and hollow out in center; take whatever cold 
meat you have, chop with onion, some herbs, crumbs of bread, and add to it 2 
yolks of eggs; fill up your tomatoes and put in a buttered pan; let them bake 
slowly.

EFFERVESCING LEMONADE:  Put into each bottle two drachmas of sugar, two drops 
of essence of lemon, one-half drachma bicarbonate of potash, and water to fill 
the bottle; then drop in thirty-five grains of citric or tartaric acid in 
crystals, and cork immediately, tying the cork and placing the bottle in a 
cool place or in iced water.

PEACH PRESERVES:  To every pound of peaches that have had the stones and 
peeling removed, add three-fourths pound load sugar, and let them remain over 
night.  The next morning pour off the syrup that has been formed, and let it 
cook for an hour; then put the peaches in, cook until the fruit is thoroughly 
done, but not cooked to pieces; put in an airtight jar and it if ready for use 
at any time.

MUFFINS:  Beat 1 teacup of butter and 1 of sugar to a stiff cream; beat 4 eggs 
very light – yolks and whites separately – and beat them into the sugar and 
butter until quite light.  To 4 quarts of flour put a half teaspoonful of 
salt.  Pour into the middle of the flour a cup of good home-made yeast, or 
whatever yeast you are accustomed to use – as much as you usually take for 4 
quarts of flour’ then stir in the sugar, butter, and eggs, with 2 quarts of 
sweet milk.  Let it rise over night, and bake in well buttered muffin-risers 
in the morning.

FIG PRESERVES:  Pick the figs half ripe with the stems on, weigh them, then 
put them in a tub of alum water made moderately strong; after being in alum 
water about half an hour remove them; put them in the preserving kettle and 
pour cold water in enough to cover the fruit; let it come almost to a boil, 
the take the fruit out, put it in a large dish or water in the sun and tip it 
up so as to drain all the water off; make a syrup by taking as many pounds of 
white loaf sugar as there are of figs, and add a pint of water for each pound 
of sugar; let the syrup boil until of the consistency of honey, then add the 
figs.  It takes them about four hours to cook; about an hour before removing 
from the kettle add lemon or green ginger, whichever is preferred for 
flavoring.

SOFT GINGER BREAD:  Put 1 teaspoon of salt into 2 quarts of flour, and 1 
teaspoon quite full of soda; then sift them with the flour together.  Beat 1 
cup of butter to a cream, and then beat to it 1 cup of fine brown sugar, 2 
teaspoonfuls of ginger.  Pour this, when well beaten to the butter, into the 
middle of the flour.  Stir 1 full cup of sour milk to the same quantity of 
molasses; when well combines, pour this into the flour, and mix as quickly as 
possible to a soft dough.  Have on hand more sour milk, to be poured in 
quickly if the molasses and milk do not make it soft enough.  Spread the dough 
on a tin sheet, or drop into gem-pans, or patty-pans; set into a baking pan; 
sprinkle fine brown sugar over the tope, and bake crisp, taking care not to 
scorch it.

A NICE WAY TO COOK CRUSHED WHEAT:  Put two teacups of crushed wheat to 4 cups 
of boiling water.  Stir it till all the lumps disappear, then put it into a 
steamer, or double boiler, or farina kettle.  It can be cooked so as to be 
palatable in 30 minutes, but is much nicer cooked 3 or 4 hours, and in a 
steamer or double boiler it can be cooked that long without burning; but if 
simply boiled it cannot cook to perfection without drying on the kettle, 
occasioning much waste.  Crushed wheat, if steamed, may be cooked in milk 
instead of water, and be improved.  Serve warm or cold, and eat with sugar and 
cream.  After it becomes cold it may be rewarmed in a steamer; but never break 
it up.  It is not nice fried, but it may be cut in slices and put into a quick 
oven till brown.

MISCELLANEOUS:  You can get a bottle or barrel of oil off any carpet or woolen 
stuff by applying dry buckwheat plentifully and faithfully.  Never put water 
to such a grease spot, or liquid of any kind.

TO RENOVATE BLACK GRENADINE: Take strong cold coffee, strain it, and wring the 
grenadine out of it, quite tightly, after which shake out and fold up.  Iron 
with a moderate hot iron, over a piece of black material.

STAINS FROM DRESSES:  Stains from fabrics may be removed by moistening the 
spot with a solution of epsom salts in a few drops of hot water.  Rub it in 
well the first time, and then moisten again.  Next, fill a tin vessel with 
boiling water, and set on the stained place for a few minutes, and afterwards 
wash out in soft water.  It is advisable to have articles thus treated washed 
immediately.

OCTOBER 17, 1879
APPLE OMELETTE.  Take about six large apples, pare and stew them as for sauce, 
beat them smooth white hot, adding one tablespoonful of butter, five 
tablespoonfuls of sugar, nutmeg to taste, or lemon should you prefer; when 
cold add the beaten yolks, and lastly whites of three eggs, pour into a 
buttered dish, and bake in a moderately hot oven, and serve for tea with 
graham bread.


OCTOBER 17, 1879
DOMESTIC ECONOMY
TOMATO SAUCE – Take eight ripe tomatoes; cut them up, skins and all, and stew 
them until they are soft; pour them through a sieve; season with pepper and 
salt; add five tablespoonfuls of brown gravy; stir it well together and heat 
it.

TOMATO PASTE FOR SOUP – Skin the tomatoes and stew them quite dry; then put 
them on plates and stand in the sun to dry; when dried into a paste, put it 
into jars and tie them down’ this can be kept all winter if put in a cool, dry 
place.

GRAPE CATSUP – Nine pounds of grapes and six pounds of brown sugar.  Boil the 
grapes until soft; rub through colander; add sugar and boil until quite thick, 
then add three pints of vinegar, one tablespoonful each of cloves, cinnamon, 
allspice and black pepper.

BOILED PUDDING – Six eggs, well beaten; seven tablespoonfuls of flour, one 
quart of milk, nutmeg; boil in a pudding-boiler one hour.  Sauce:  Cream, one 
cup butter, and two cups of fine sugar; add one claret-glass of sherry or 
currant wine.

BUTERMILK PANCAKES – One quarter of a pound of rice flour, one small 
teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda, made into a light batter, with buttermilk; 
must be put in the pan at once, with very little butter or lard, and fried as 
other pancakes.

BAKED TOMATOES – Peel them and put into a baking dish with breadcrumbs, 
butter, pepper and salt, one onion, if you like it; sift corn meal over the 
top of them and bake slowly; they will take between two and three hours to 
bake; if they are acid, use sugar instead of salt.

MIXED PICKLES – Two quarts of small cucumbers, one quart of small onions and 
one large cauliflower.  Put the cucumbers in brine one day; scald the onion 
and cauliflower in salt and water; put in three green and three red peppers 
and anything else that will pickle.  Mixture for pickles:  To three quarts of 
vinegar add two cups of sugar, on-half cup of flour and twelve tablespoonfuls 
of mustard with a few sticks of cinnamon.  Put the pickles in a jar and pour 
the mixture over boiling hot; when cold add one cup of grated horse-radish.

ICE CREAM WITH EGGS.  One quart of milk, four eggs – the whites and yolks 
beaten separately and very light – four cupfuls of sugar, three pints of sweet 
cream, five teaspoonfuls of vanilla; heat the milk to boiling; have your yolks 
well beaten; pour the milk into the yolks; add the sugar, then the whites, 
beating all the while; return to the fire and heat again, stirring and 
watching carefully until it begins to thicken like custard; then set aside to 
cool.  When cold, beat in your cream and flavoring.  Freeze as soon as 
possible after it is thoroughly cool.

BUTTERMILK POP – Boil one quart of fresh buttermilk; beat one egg, a pinch of 
salt and a heaping tablespoonful of flour together, and pour into the boiling 
milk.  Stir briskly and boil for two or three minutes, and serve while warm 
with sugar, or better still, maple syrup.  Although this is an old-fashioned 
and homely dish, eaten and relished by our grandparents before cornstarch, sea 
moss, farina, desiccated cocoanut and other similar delicacies were ever heard 
of, it is perhaps as nutritious as any of them, and often far more easily 
obtained.

PICKLED MANGOES – Young musk or nutmeg melons:  English mustard seed, two 
handfuls, mixed with half cup scraped horse-radish,  pounded mace or nutmeg, 
one teaspoonful; chopped garlic or onion, two teaspoonfuls; one teaspoonful 
ginger; one dozen whole pepper corns; half tablespoonful ground mustard to 
each pint of the mixture; one tablespoonful best salad oil to same quantity; 
one teaspoonful celery seed; cut a slit in the side of the melon; insert your 
finger and take out all the seeds.  If you can not get them out in that way 
cut a round piece from the top, saving it to replace.  Lay the mangoes in a 
strong brine for three days.  Drain off the brine and freshen in pure water 
twenty-four hours, green as you would cucumbers, and lay in cold water until 
cold and firm.  Fill with the stuffing.  Sew up the slit or tie on the piece 
with pack thread; put them into a deep stone jar and pour scalding vinegar 
enough to cover them.  Repeat this process three times at intervals of two 
days, then tie up the jar and set in a cool, dry place.  They should not be 
eaten for three months but will keep years.

OCTOBER 31, 1879
PEAR PICKLES – One peck of pears, three pounds of sugar, one pint of good 
cider vinegar; steam the pears over water until tender; then boil in the 
sirup, with spices, same as for peaches.  I always peel the pears for 
pickling, but do not peaches.

MIXED PICKLES – Slice green tomatoes and cover with salt and water, let them 
stand three or four days; then boil tender in water and a little vinegar.  
Drain well after boiling; then put a layer of tomatoes in a jar and sprinkle 
with (whole) allspice, cinnamon, cloves and thinly sliced horse radish; a 
layer of shredded cabbage, slightly salted; a layer of onions, and so repeat 
until the jar is filled; put spices between each layer; cover the whole with 
boiling, hot vinegar.

PEACH PICKLES – To one peck of peaches allow four pounds of sugar and a pint 
of sharp cider vinegar; use nice yellow peaches if you can get them.  Take a 
coarse towel and rub them until smooth or the fur is removed.  Put two or 
three cloves in each one; when your sirup is melted and boiling hot, add a 
small bag of ground cinnamon and enough peaches to boil without crowding.  Let 
them boil from two to five minutes, skim out, place in a jar, and continue 
until all are boiled.  Cook sirup until thick as desired and pour on them 
(hot) three times.

RAGAN PICKLES – Two gallons of cabbage, sliced fine; one gallon of chopped 
green tomatoes; twelve onions, also chopped; one gallon best vinegar; one 
pound brown sugar; one tablespoonful of black pepper; half an ounce turmeric 
powder; one ounce celery seed; one tablespoonful ground allspice; one 
teaspoonful ground cloves, one-fourth pound white mustard, one gill of salt.  
Boil all together, stirring well, for two hours.  Take from the fire, and add 
the spices; then put in air-tight jars.  Set in a cool, dry place, and this 
delicious pickle will keep all winter.

PICKLED BUTTERNUT OR WALNUTS – Gather them when soft enough to be pierced with 
a pin.  Lay them in strong brine for five days, changing this twice in the 
meantime.  Drain and wipe dry; pierce each by running a large darning needle 
through it, and lay them in cold water for six hours.  To each gallon of 
vinegar allow one cup of sugar, three dozen each of whole cloves and black 
pepper corns, half as much allspice and a dozen blades of mace.  Boil five 
minutes; pack the nuts in small jars and cover with the scalding vinegar.  
Repeat this twice within a week; tie up and set away.  Good to eat in a month.

TOMATO CATSUP – Take a bushel of ripe tomatoes; rub them with a damp cloth; 
cut out the hearts and place them over the fire with two heaping handfuls of 
peach leaves, one dozen large onions (cut in small pieces) and one quart of 
water.  Boil until soft and strain through a coarse sieve.  It will take about 
two hours to boil soft enough.  Put the liquid in the boiler again over the 
fire, adding a half gallon of strong vinegar.  Have ready two ounces ground 
allspice, two ounces ground black pepper, two ounces cayenne pepper, two 
ounces mustard, and, if preferred, two ounces celery seed, one ounce ground 
cloves, two grated nutmegs, two pounds brown sugar and one pint of salt; mix 
the ingredients thoroughly before putting them in the boiler.  Boil two hours 
and when cool put in bottles, cork, seal and keep in a cool place.

CANNED PUMPKINS – Wash the pumpkin (do not peel, as the sweetest part lies 
next the rind); but up in rings, then in small squares; fill your kettle and 
put in a few spoonfuls of water to start it; cover closely and let it steam 
until tender.  Remove the cover and let it cook until as dry as possible 
without burning (stirring often) whether it be half or a whole day.  Seal 
while hot in tine cans (it must be kept dark).  When wanted for pies remove 
from the can to the colander and thoroughly sift; allow two eggs for three 
pies; make quite sweet with brown sugar; flavor with ginger and make thin as 
sweet cream with equal parts of milk and water, or two-thirds water (I prefer 
it to all milk); bake slowly in a good crust until it is solid like custard.  
If properly baked it will be a rich brown, shiny to look at and delicious to 
the palate.

NOVEMBER 7, 1879
HINTS ON PICKLING, PRESERVING, CANNING, ETC., ETC.
from The Detroit Free Press
	In preparing catsups, pickles, etc., vessels of earthenware, stoneware 
or well-tinned copper pans should alone be used, as salt, vegetable juices and 
vinegar rapidly corrode copper and render the results poisonous.  Nothing in 
the shape of copper, lead, or pewter should be allowed to come in contact with 
them at any time.  Even a plated copper spoon left in a bottle of catsup of 
some time will render its contents dangerous.  A porcelain kettle is always 
best for this purpose, though many prefer the granite ware, and I see that is 
the kind Miss Dod uses in her cooking operations in her school.
	In making pickles use none but the best cider vinegar.  Never keep 
pickles in glazed earthenware, but in glass or hard stoneware, and well 
covered with vinegar.  They should be examined every month or two and soft 
pieces removed.  If there is much tendency to soften it is advisable to strain 
off the vinegar, add to each gallon a cupful of sugar, boil it and return it 
to the pickle jar while hot.  The occasional addition of a little sugar keeps 
pickles good and improved them.  Spices in pickles should be used whole, 
slightly bruised, but preferably not ground; if ground they should be tied up 
in thin muslin bags.  Most pickles, if well kept, improve with age by the 
vinegar losing its raw taste and the flavor of the spices improving and 
blending.
	To strengthen weak vinegar, if in pickles, turn it off, heat it 
scalding hot, put it on the pickles and when lukewarm put in a small piece of 
alum the size of a filbert and a brown paper four inches square wet with 
molasses.  If it does not grow sharp in two weeks it is past recovery and must 
be thrown away.  If in winter freeze it and remove the ice on the surface, for 
the water alone freezes, leaving the vinegar.  
	To keep up a constant supply of vinegar:  Before the barrel is quite 
out, fill the barrel with one gallon of molasses to every eleven gallons of 
soft water.  This mixture will become good vinegar in about three weeks.  If 
the barrels stand on end, there must be a hold made in the top, protected with 
gauze to keep out insects.  If standing on the side the bunghole must be left 
open and similarly protected.
	Meat can be preserved with vinegar by washing the meat, drying it and 
laying in strong vinegar, or by being boiled in the vinegar, leaving it in 
until cold and then set aside in a cool cellar.
	Fish can be preserved for a long time by sprinkling with sugar, 
keeping the fish in a horizontal position, so that the sugar may penetrate as 
much as possible.  Salmon thus treated has a more agreeable taste, and this 
method does not destroy the flavor of any fish if so treated.
	To insure success in canning fruit, select that which is perfectly 
ripe and at the same time sound.  To can fruit in tin cans, fill them full of 
the fruit and solder securely, then pierce a small pin hole in the top of each 
can to allow the air to be expelled; place the cans in a boiler as deep as the 
cans are high, pour boiling water into the boiler until within one-half inch 
of the top of the cans.  Keep the water hot over a moderate fire, but not 
boiling, until the air ceases to escape from the cans, and then seal the air-
holes with solder before removing the cans from the water.  The cans should 
then be taken out, wiped dry and allowed to cool.  When cold, if the cans have 
been closed perfectly air-tight, the vacuum inside will cause the top and 
bottoms of the cans to become concave, or hollowed inwards.  Tomatoes are also 
canned in this manner.  Meat can be canned in the manner by removing the 
bones, parboil the flesh, put into cans and fill up with rich seasoned soup.  
Proceed as above.  No water should be used with fruits, except in cases where 
a little is necessary to dissolve the sugar.  Small fruits are kept in better 
condition by adding one-half pound of white sugar to each pound of fruit, 
letting them come to the boil and then filling the cans quite full, soldering 
the lid of the can immediately. Most vegetables can be kept in this way, 
omitting the sugar and scalding them in water sufficient to cover them.
	To can peaches by the cold process, pare and halve the peaches, pack 
them as closely as possible in a can without any sugar.  When the can is full, 
pour in sufficient cold water to fill all the interstices between the peaches 
and reach the brim of the can.  Let it stand long enough for the water to soak 
into all the crevices – say six hours – then pour in the water to replace what 
has sunk away.  Seal up the can and all is done.  Canned in this way, peaches 
retain all their freshness and flavor.  There will not be enough water to 
render them insipid.  If preferred, a cold sirup could be used instead of pure 
water, but the peaches taste most natural without sweetening.
	Glycerin of purest quality has been recommended for the preservation 
of fruits (have not tried it), previous to eating which, the glycerin should 
be removed, by immersing the fruit in water.  To keep apples and pears fresh, 
gather the fruit during a dry day, and put it at once into earthen, glazed 
pans, deep enough to contain two or three layers of fruit, and each one having 
a tightly fitting lid.  If the fruit sweats, the exudation dries on the fruits 
surface, and helps to keep in the moisture and flavor.  The cover helps to do 
the same, and to exclude the light.  Keep the pans in a cool, dry place, and 
never wipe the fruit until required for dessert.  Pears may be kept in the 
same way, but require constant watching.  After fruit in has been allowed to 
lay on the shelves in the fruit room, and sweat, they should be wiped dry and 
packed in boxes, with dry sawdust enough to exclude the air from them.  The 
sawdust from resinous woods should not be used.  If they were packed in dry 
sand they would keep equally well, but it is difficult to clean them from the 
sand, and therefore they are gritty, which is unpleasant.

NOVEMBER 14, 1879
APPLE CUSTARD – Take a half cup of melted butter, two cups sugar, three cups 
stewed apples, four eggs, whites and yolks separately beaten.  Bake in pie-
plates in bottom crust.

DOMESTIC ECONOMY

VIENNA CHOCOLATE – Put into a coffee-pot set in boiling water, one quart of 
new milk (or a pint each of cream and milk); stir into it three heaping 
tablespoons of grated chocolate, mixed to a paste with cold milk; let it boil 
two or three minutes, and serve at once.

BUTTER SCOTCH CANDY – One pound of sugar, one-half pint of water.  Boil as 
hard as possible without graining.  When done add half a cup of butter, and 
lemon juice for flavor, if desired.  Turn on a buttered dish, or better, a 
marble slab, and when partly cool, cut with a knife into small squares, and 
when cool a slight tap will break them off.

POTATO CAKES – Take potatoes – mashed are best, but boiled ones can be mashed –
 immediately after dinner, before getting too cold; add about an equal amount 
of flour and a small piece of butter or lard; rub thoroughly together, roll 
out and cut as for biscuit – not too thick – and bake in a rather quick oven.  
When done to a light brown, cut open, butter and eat warm.

ROLLS  - Into two quarts of flour, put a piece of butter size of an egg, a 
little salt, one tablespoonful of white sugar, one pint of milk, scalded, and 
add while warm; half a cup of yeast, or one small cake.  When the sponge is 
light, mold for fifteen minutes; let it rise again; when light roll out, cut 
into round cakes; place a piece of butter on top, and fold each over itself 
when light; bake in a quick oven.

MIXED PICKLES – Take one pound of ginger-root and one-half pound of garlic 
(both previously salted and dried); two gallons vinegar; one-half ounce 
turmeric; and one-quarter pound long pepper.  Digest together tow or three 
days near the fire in the stone jar; or gently simmer them in a pipkin or 
enameled saucepan.  Then put in almost any vegetable, except red cabbage and 
walnuts, all previously salted and dried.

HOMINY MUFFINS – Take two cups of very fine hominy boiled and cold; beat it 
smooth and stir in three cups of sour milk, half a cup of melted butter, two 
tablespoonfuls of salt and two tablespoonfuls of white sugar; then add three 
eggs, well beaten, one teaspoonful of soda dissolved in hot water, and one 
large cup of flour; bake quickly.

CORN MEAL GEMS – Take two cups of corn meal, two cups of wheat flour, a couple 
tablespoonfuls molasses, water enough to wet it thoroughly; let it stand over 
night; in the morning have your gem irons hot; put in a pinch of salt, a small 
teaspoonful of salertus and a piece of butter as large as a nutmeg; stir well, 
drop in the gem-irons and bake in a quick oven.

SALMON PIE – Take a can of Oregon salmon; empty it carefully from the can so 
as not to break it; prepare a crust in a high dish beforehand; take a spoonful 
of flour, half as much butter, and as much ground mace as will go on a pen-
knife, a tablespoonful of salt, and work it well together; thin it with some 
of the liquor from the fish, add some chopped parsley to it, with a few 
peppercorns; stew the sauce, stirring it so that it shall be smooth; wen the 
sauce is done put on the fish; pour the whole carefully into the crust; bake 
for ten minutes until it is hot enough and serve.  Sufficient for four or five 
people.

MOCK OYSTERS – Take one-half dozen of good-sized cars of corn; put them in 
cold water, and when it begins to boil set it on the back of the range, and 
let it simmer for one-half hour.  Then put the corn in cold water.  When cool, 
wipe the ears with a dry towel and grate them; then put them through a hair 
sieve to rid them of the shells of the corn.  Have two eggs well beaten, two 
tablespoonfuls of cream, two of grated crackers, one teaspoonful of salt, one-
fourth teaspoonful pepper; beat this all well together.  Have a lump of good 
butter about the size of half an egg; put it in a frying pan.  When hot, put 
the corn mixture in, in tablespoonfuls, allowing space that they do not run 
together.  When they are a nice brown turn them over and fry the other side.  
It requires about five minutes to cook them.  This will make about two dozen 
oysters, serve them hot.

SWEET PICKLES – A correspondent of the Country Gentleman says:  I have been 
preparing some blackberries for pickling, and as it is our favorite method of 
preserving this fruit, I will tell how it is done.  To nine pounds of fruit 
add three pounds of sugar, one pint of pure cider vinegar, and spices to suit 
the taste.  I prefer cloves and cinnamon, and shall use four ounces of each 
for a four-gallon jar of pickles, containing about thirty pounds.  Some grind 
the spices and others break the cinnamon in bits and add it with the cloves, 
but I dislike to be continually finding sticks in the sauce, and shall sew 
them firmly into a thin muslin bag, and boil them up with the fruit, allowing 
them to remain in the jar until emptied.  Last year I boiled the vinegar and 
sugar, and turned it over the berries, poured it off next morning, scaled and 
returned, and repeated the process again, but as the sauce commence fermenting 
and had to be scalded over, I shall, this fall, boil up the berries before 
turning them into the jar.  This mode is a good one for sweet apples, crab 
apples, pears, or green tomatoes.  I steam the apples and pears until soft 
enough to admit a spike of broom corm.  Lay carefully in a jar and pour the 
spiced and sweetened vinegar over them.  For crab apples, I prefer whole 
cloves and broken cinnamon bark, thinking it gives a delightful color tot he 
almost transparent sauce.  If sweet apples are pickled, either whole with the 
stems on, or if larger, peeled and quartered, a few sliced lemons with the 
pips removed will give them a mild acidity and delightful flavor to the whole.

NOVEMBER 28, 1879

POTATO SALAD – Pare and slice some cold boiled potatoes.  Peel and slice thin 
one onion.  Mix on a salad dish, and pour over them the following dressing:  
Stir together one saltspoon of salt, quarter of a saltspoon of pepper, one 
tablespoonful of vinegar, and three of oil.  Dress the salad with this 
mixture, and serve with chopped parsley.

POTATO SOUP – Boil two or three pounds of potatoes well, mash them, add slowly 
good broth sufficient for your tureen.  Let this well boil, and then add some 
spinach, sorrel, a little parsley, lemon thyme, mint, and sage, all chopped 
fine.  Boil all five minutes.  Pepper and salt to taste.  Just before taking 
off the fire add two well beaten eggs.

PICKLED ONIONS – Take some small onions, peel and throw them into a stew pan 
of boiling water.  Set them over the fire, and let them remain until quite 
clear.  Then take them out quickly, and lay them between two cloths to dry.  
Boil some vinegar with ginger and a whole pepper, and when cold pour it over 
the onions in glass jars, and tie them closely over.

SALAD CREAM – Take the yolks of three fresh eggs.  Whisk them well up with ten 
grains of cayenne pepper.  Then take an ounce of mustard, salt one dram and a 
half, salad oil half an ounce.  Mix well with half a pint of the best vinegar, 
and then add the two lots together.  Shake them well, and you will have an 
excellent mixture, which will keep for twelve months.

FRIED POTATOES – Pare some potatoes so as to give each the form of a cylinder, 
then cut each cylinder in slices the eighth of an inch thick.  By this means 
all the pieces of potato will be the same size.  Dry them thoroughly in a 
napkin.  Put them in the frying basket, and plunge it in boiling hot lard.  
Shake the basket continually, and as soon as the potatoes have acquired a 
light yellow color, turn them out on a cloth in front of the fire and sprinkle 
them with fine salt.

BARONESS PUDDING – Shred one-half pound of suet, and chop fine.  Seed and chop 
one-half pound raisins.  Mix the suet and raisins with half a pound of stale 
bread-crumbs, four ounces of sugar, and a pint of milk.  Wring a pudding cloth 
out of boiling water, dust thickly with flour, tie the pudding up in it, put 
into a large pot of boiling water, and boil steadily for four hours.  Turn out 
of the cloth, dust thickly with powdered sugar, and serve hot with any pudding 
sauce.

ENGLISH APPLE TART – Lay a disk of puff paste n a round time, and place a 
strip of paste all round it, as for an ordinary jam tart.  Spread on the 
inside a layer of apple marmalade a quarter of an inch thick.  Peel and core 
some apples, cut them in slices a quarter of an inch thick, trim all the 
slices to the same shape, dispose these slices over the marmalade, overlapping 
each other, and in some kind of pattern; strew plenty of sugar over, and bake 
in a quick oven till the apples are a good color.

FRENCH PANCAKES – Beat two ounces of granulated sugar, and two ounces of 
butter to a cream.  Beat two eggs separately, the yolks to a cream and the 
whites to a froth, and add the yolks to the butter and sugar.  Stir a half-
pint of milk into these ingredients.  Butter six tin pie-plates.  Sift two 
ounces of flour with a teaspoonful of baking powder, and stir it quickly into 
the above mixture with the whites of the eggs.  Put the batter quickly upon 
the buttered plates, and bake the pancakes brown in a quick over.  Dust with 
powdered sugar, lay them one over the other, with a little jelly between, and 
serve hot.

CODFISH WITH CREAM – Pick out carefully in flakes all the flesh from the 
remnants of some boiled codfish.  Melt a piece of butter in a saucepan, and 
add to it a large pinch of flour and a gill of milk or cream, with pepper, 
salt, and grated nutmeg to taste, also the least bit of cayenne.  Stir well, 
put in the fish, and gently shake it in this sauce until quite war,.  If the 
composition be too dry, add a little milk or cream.  Then dry, add a little 
milk or cream.  Then add, off the fire, the yolks of two eggs beaten up with a 
little milk, and serve.

PEA SOUP – Soak a pint of split peas in water for twelve hours, drain off the 
water, put the peas into a saucepan with three pints of cold water, a piece of 
bacon (about half a pound), two springs of dried mint, a bay leaf, some 
parsley, an onion stuck with two or three cloves, some whole pepper, and salt 
to taste.  Let the whole boil three hours, then pas the puree through a hair 
sieve, make it hot again, and serve with dice of bread fried in butter.

OMELET – Break three eggs, putting the whites in one dish, and the yolks in 
another.  Add quarter of a saltspoon of salt and a dash of pepper to the 
yolks, and beat half a minute.  Put a bit of butter as large as a chestnut 
into a clean omelet pan, and set over the fire to heat.  Beat the whites to a 
stiff froth, mix the yolks gently into it, and put the omelet into the pan.  
Stir the omelet with a fork, running it close to the bottom of the pan, and 
piling the omelet in a heap in the center.  When done enough, pile it on one 
side of the pan, hold a hot dish close to it, and toss the omelet out on it.  
Serve immediately.  An omelet of three eggs is large enough for two persons; 
if more are to be served, cook another the same size, as a larger one will not 
be so light.

DECEMBER 12, 1879

PRESERVING CITRON
	A correspondent at Richmond, Ky., furnishes the following recipe:
	Pare the citron, take out the seed, and cut it into small pieces.  Put 
it into cold water and let it boil very tender.  When about half done, put in 
one teaspoonful of dry saleratus and a piece of alum about the size of a very 
small walnut.  When perfectly clear, take them up and place them on a large 
dish to drain.  Then make the syrup and place them in.
	Directions for making syrup:  To every pound of sugar add one gil of 
water, and let stand until it is dissolved.  For every twelve pounds of sugar 
allow half an ounce of Russian isinglass; dissolve the isinglass by pouring 
over it a little boiling water.  Put it in with the sugar.  When cold, place 
the whole over the stove.  As soon as it begins to boil skim it until no more 
scum will rise.  The syrup is ready for the citron.
	To ten pounds of citron, take six lemons, which was and cut into thin 
slices, and, after removing all the seed, add them to the syrup, with one-
quarter of a pound of green ginger.  When done put in small tumblers or jars.  
Cover close and keep in a dry, cool place.

BUTTERSCOTCH – One pound of white sugar, three-fourths of a pint of water, 
once and a half teaspoonfuls of butter, lemon juice.  Boil sugar and water 
over a slow fire until it ropes; add butter and juice of lemon.  Pour on a pan 
to cool.  Any other flavoring can be used.

ICING – The white of an egg not beaten, one teaspoonful of cold water and a 
pint of powdered sugar, stirred together.  Will make icing for one cake.  Less 
sugar makes the soft icing on baker’s cake.

LEMON BUTTER – One and a half cupfuls of white sugar, whites of three eggs, 
yolk of one, grated rind and juice of a lemon and a half, or two small ones; 
cook over a slow fire twenty minutes, stirring all the while.  Very nice for 
tarts, or to be eaten as preserves.

MARYLAND STEWED OYSTERS – Put the juice into a saucepan and let it simmer, 
skimming it carefully.  Then rub the yolks of three hard-boiled eggs and one 
large spoonful of lour well together, and stir into the juice.  Cut in small 
pieces quarter of a pound of butter, half a teaspoonful of whole allspice, a 
little salt, a little cayenne, and the juice of a fresh lemon.  Let all simmer 
ten minutes, and just before dishing add the oysters.  This is for two quarts 
of oysters.

CROQUETTES OF CHICKEN – Put in a stewpan a piece of butter the size of an egg, 
one spoonful of flour, salt and pepper to taste, mix well and let it melt.   
One cold chicken well chopped and stirred in the mixture till hot.  When cold, 
add the yolk of one egg well beaten.  Take large spoonfuls and rub them into 
oblong shapes, and dip them in egg in which you have stirred a little pepper 
and salt.  Roll in cracker crumbs and fry in hot, lard.  These croquettes are 
very nice made of meal.

PIG’S FEET – If you have more than you want to use now, boil them until the 
bones drop out, them mince them coarsely and boil in a little of the same 
water.  Season well.   Pour into a crock.  Press down closely, and when cold 
cover with vinegar, and it will keep until warm weather.  It will be firm, 
like jelly, and can be cut into slices.  This is very good for laboring men 
who work out of doors.  There is no oil or grease for boots and shoes that can 
compare with the grease skimmed, when cold, off the kettle in which pigs’ feet 
have been oiled.  It is very softening, and there will be jut enough of the 
gluey substance in it to make a good mixture and give a nice “shine.”

WHEN AN EGG IS FRESH – An egg is said to be fresh, when in the summer it has 
been laid only a couple of days, and in the winter three to six.  The shells 
being porous, the water in the interior evaporates and leaves a cavity of 
greater or less extent.  To determine the exact age of eggs, dissolve about 
four ounces of common salt in a quart of pure water, and then immerse the 
egg.  If it be only a day or so old, it will sink to the bottom of the vessel, 
but if it be three days old it will float in the liquid.  If more than five it 
comes to the surface, and rises above in proportion to its increased age.

MARMALADE – Half a peck of pippin apples, a quarter of a peck of pears, half a 
peck of peaches, a quarter of a peck of quinces, two quarts of water and the 
peel of a large orange grated and added with the juice half an hour before the 
marmalade is done.  Put the parings and cores of the quinces into the water 
and boil a short time, closely covered to prevent evaporation.  Strain them 
out and put the water on the quinces and pears, all cut small.  Boil them for 
an hour.  Then add the other fruit and five pounds of sugar.  Boil gently two 
hours, stirring them to prevent burning.  Add the juice and rind of the 
orange, and boil half an hour longer.

DECEMBER 19, 1879

BAKING MEATS – In baking meat and fish, besides keeping the bottom of the pan 
covered with broth or water, place a piece of bettered paper over the object 
in the pan.  It not only prevents it from burning, but acts as a self-basting 
operation and keeps the top moist and juicy.

QUINCE MARMALADE – Gather the fruit when quite ripe; pare, quarter, and core 
it.  Boil the skins in the water measuring a teacupful to a pound of fruit.  
When they are soft, mash and strain them, and put back the water into the 
preserving kettle.  Add the quinces and boil them until they are soft enough 
to mash fine.  Rub through a sieve, and put three quarters of a pound of sugar 
to a pound of fruit.  Stir them well together, and boil them over a slow fire 
until it will fall like jelly from a spoon.  Pour it in pots or tumblers, and 
secure it, when cold, with paper sealed to the edge of the jar with the white 
of an egg.

TOMATO CATSUP – Mrs. Endicot says in the Rural New Yorker:  Select perfectly 
ripe sound tomatoes, cut in slices, and boil them until the pulp is cooked 
out.  Rub it through a sieve to take out the skins and seeds, and return to 
the kettle for cooking.  To each gallon of the pulp add three tablespoonful 
each of salt, ground pepper and mustard, and one each of ground cloves and 
allspice.  Cook it until it is thick enough to run slowly from a bottle.  Let 
it get cold, bottle and seal.  I made what we call “farmer’s rice,” for 
dessert for dinner today.  We all enjoyed it so much that there was not enough 
left for baby Katy’s supper, as I intended there should be.  It is so easily 
and quickly made, I wonder it is not oftener found on country tables.  I put 
about three quarts of milk on the stove in a pan.  While it was coming to a 
boil, I mixed two eggs with flour until it was dry enough to roll through my 
fingers in grains.  Then stirred it into the milk quickly, so as to keep it 
cooking all the time.  Five minutes are long enough to finish it.  Turn into a 
dish and eat while warm with plenty of cream and sugar.

JANUARY 9, 1880

TO REMOVE MILDEWS – Pour a quart of boiling water on two ounces of chloride of 
lime.  Then add three quarts of cold water, and soak the linen in it twelve 
hours.

CEMENT FOR GLASS AND CHINA
White of eggs mixed up with little quicklime (or chalk burned in the fire and 
powdered to dust) will make a capital cement.

CORN LOAF – Take one pint of sweet milk, half pint of sour milk, half cup of 
butter, one of molasses, three eggs, one of wheat flour, a little salt, corn 
meal to make a thick batter, one teaspoonful of soda.  Bake two hours slowly.

BROWN BREAD – Take on quart of buttermilk, one of sweet milk.  Thicken with 
half Indian meal, and half rye flour or wheat.  Add salt and molasses, if 
wished, a heaping teaspoonful of soda.

ENGLISH COOKIES – One cup of brown sugar, half cup butter, one egg, two 
tablespoonfuls sour cream, a little soda, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg.  Make hard 
enough with flour to roll out.  Cut in thin cakes.  

BROWN BREAD NO. 2 – Take one quart of corn meal, pour on boiling water or 
milk.  When cool add a cup of yeast, two spoonfuls of molasses, a little salt 
and one quart of rye flour, wet with milk, and stir with a spoon.  Pour in 
tins or pans to rise.  Bake slow.

TO REMOVE MILDEW FROM LINEN – Rub it over with soap; then scrape fine chalk or 
whitening, and rub on.  Lay it in the sun, wet it from time to time.  If not 
removed, repeat the process.  Lemon juice and salt is also good.

DRINK FOR THE SICK – Two tablespoonfuls arrow root in a quart pitcher with a 
little cold water; three tablespoonfuls white sugar, the juice of one lemon, 
and part of the rind.  Stir all quickly while pouring boiling water until the 
pitcher is full.  Drink cold.

OYSTER SAUCE – One pint of oysters boiled three or four minutes in their own 
liquor.  Stir in two tablespoonfuls of butter rolled in a spoonful of flour, 
the juice of half a lemon with pepper and salt to taste.  Heat a teacupful of 
milk, pour into the oysters and turn at once into the sauce-boat – Rural New-
Yorker.

ORANGE CAKE – The whites of six eggs beaten to a froth; three tablespoonful of 
melted butter; one cup of sugar; half a cup of milk; a cup and a half of 
flour, in which have been stirred two teaspoonful of baking powder and a very 
little salt.  This makes three thin cakes.  About half an hour before eating, 
take the juice of one large orange, the white of one egg, beaten stiff, and 
thicken with granulated sugar, spread between the three cakes, and dust 
powdered sugar over it.  I doubled these proportions making two cakes.   – 
[Mrs. Endicot]

JANUARY 16, 1880
TO WASH SILK STOCKINGS – One tablespoonful of lemon juice to a quart of tepid 
water.  Wash thoroughly, using no soap.  Dry quickly in the shade.  The flesh 
tint will be preserved.

RAISED BISCUITS – Take some light bread dough sufficient for two square tins 
of biscuit, mold in four ounces of butter, and let it rise again, and when 
light, pick up small bunches of dough and drop on buttered tins.  Let it rise 
a few minutes, then bake slowly.

CHILI SAUCE – Eighteen large, ripe tomatoes, three green tomatoes, two small 
onions, one cup of sugar, two and one half cups of vinegar, two-thirds of a 
cup of all kinds of spices, four teaspoonfuls of salt.  Boil one hour.

HAM CAKE – A capital way of disposing of the remains of a ham, and making an 
excellent dish for breakfast.  Take a pound and a half of ham, far and lean 
together – put it into a mortar and pound it, or pass it through a sausage 
machine.  Boil a large slice of bread in a half-pint of milk, and bear it and 
the ham well together.  Add an egg beaten up.  Put the whole into a mold, and 
bake a rich brown.

WHITE SOUP – This white vegetable soup will be found most excellent.  Take 
four or five good turnips, two heads of celery, four fine leeks, and wash then 
and slice them down.  Then put them into a stew pan with a piece of butter and 
a knuckle of ham.  Moisten with a quart of stock, and let them stew gently 
till tender.  Then add a pint of milk and crumbs of bread.  Give all a good 
boil up, strain, and send to the table very hot.

NURSERY POWDER – Take one ounce of pulverized hemlock-bark, one ounce of 
magnesia, and one ounce of laundry starch.  Pulverize finely by laying upon a 
platter and grinding with a knife.  Sift through a hair-sieve and put into a 
tight box, and you have the same article which costs you, if prepared by 
chemists, a dollar and a quarter per box.  Anyone can make a puff of swan’s 
down or scraped linen lint, if they think it better than a pinch sifted from 
between the thumb and finger.

OMELETTE SOFFLE – Separate 6 eggs, and beat them light; having added tot he 
yolks two tablespoonfuls of pulverized sugar and part of a grated nutmeg.  
Just before cooling stir in the whites and the yolks together.  Have on the 
fire a pan with a tablespoonful of lard, when boiling hot pour in the 
omelette.  Keep lifting the eggs greatly with a knife – allowing the top to 
run underneath – until done.  Then slip the knife under one side and fold the 
omelette.  Turn out on a warm dish.  Sprinkle with sugar and serve at once.

AUTUMN LEAVES FOR LAMP SHADES – Lamp shades made of autumn leaves are very 
beautiful.  To make them, cut the shade in stiff white paper, when the leaves 
which have been previously dried and pressed, are arranged on it in a wreath, 
and fastened down by gum.  It is then covered with a very coarse net, and the 
edges bound with gilt or colored paper.  The effect of the light shining 
through the shade is exceedingly pretty; and it is one of the cheap 
decorations which all persons possessed of a little taste and ordinary 
skillful fingers make for themselves.

BALED CALF’S HEAD – A calf’s head, a good one, will cost forty cents, and will 
last two days.  Boil the head until you can pick out all the bones, and mind 
you keep the water the head is boiled in.  Take your pieces and lay them in a 
dish, having cut them small.  Use some salt, pepper, a little parsley, a grate 
of nutmeg, a small piece of butter, and some dry bread crumbs, say a teacupful 
of the latter.  Moisten it all with some of the water the head has been boiled 
in.  Put in a baking dish, and let it bake half an hour.  When we can afford 
it, we take the yolks of two eggs and make a sauce with the boiled liquor.  We 
make soup of the rest of the liquor.

USEFULNESS OF BORAX – Borax water moderately used and afterwards followed by 
frequent brushings, makes the hair beautifully soft and flossy, and does not 
injure it in the least.  A little borax added to starch will impart a fine 
gloss to linen when ironed, which is considered by many so desirable.  Borax 
is very much to be preferred to soda as aid to the softening of water for 
washing purposes, making the clothes very clean and white, while being 
harmless to the fabric and hands.  It is a very useful addition to the 
household economy in many ways, and will keep perfectly sweet in solution for 
a long time. 

MEAT SCALLOP – Take pieces of cold beefsteak or roast veal.  Chop them very 
fine.  Butter a pudding dish, put a layer of meat then a layer of crackers.  
Season with salt, pepper, pieces of butter and moisten well with milk.  Then 
put in another layer of meat as before, and over the whole spread a thick 
layer of pulverized crackers, and moisten with an egg beaten in a cup of milk, 
or more, according to the size of the dish.  Scatter pieces of butter over the 
top and bake three quarters of an hour or an hour. This is a nice dish if made 
moist enough.

SOFT SOAP – Twenty pounds of pure grease to fourteen pounds of potash will 
make a clean fish barrel full.  The potash can be procured at any drug store.  
Dissolve it in water in a brass kettle over the fire.  Put the grease in the 
barrel.  First pour the solution of potash over the grease, and stir it with a 
stick.  Let it stand twenty-four hours, then pour a pail of cold water in the 
barrel, and stir it thoroughly.  Let it stand twelve hours, and as it 
thickens, add a pail of cold water and stir again, and add water every twelve 
hours, and stir until the barrel is full.  In cold weather we use barrel 
tight, as lye will leak through where water will not.  A barrel will not 
answer more than twice, as the lye destroys it.  

FEBRUARY 13, 1880

TOPICS FOR THE HOUSEHOLD
A girl that can cook a good square meal is better than two that can personate 
Josephine in “Pinafore.” – [Dr. J. G. Holland]

CORN BREAD – Take two quarts of Indian meal, one pint of bread sponge, water 
enough to wet it.  Mold in a half pinto of wheat flour, a tablespoonful of 
salt.  Let it rise, and knead a second time.  Bake an hour and a half.

CORN BREAD, No. 2 – Take three teacupfuls of corn meal, on eof wheat flour, 
two teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar.  Mix well while dry.  Dissolve one 
teaspoonful of soda in warm water.  Mix to a thin batter, and bake in a quick 
oven three-fourths of an hour.

Single cream is cream that has stood on the milk twelve hours.  It is best for 
tea or coffee.  Double cream stands on its milk twenty-four hours, and cream 
for butter frequently stands forty-eight hours.  Cream that is to be whipped 
should not be butter cream lest in whipping it change to cutter.

CUSTARD PIES WITHOUT MILK – Boil together five eggs, five tablespoonful of 
sugar, and a little salt.  Pour one pint of boiling water, stirring briskly 
while adding the water.  Flavor with spices most pleasing to the taste, and 
complete the pie the same as other custards.  The quantity is sufficient for 
two.

CORN FRITTER PUDDING – A teacupful of milk, three eggs, a pint of green corn 
grated, a little sugar, and as much flour as will form a batter.  Beat the 
eggs, yolks and whites, separately.  To the yolks, add  the corn, sugar, milk, 
and flour enough to form the batter.  Beat the whole well.  Stir in the 
whites, and drop the batter a teaspoonful at a time into hot lard.

BUCKWHEAT PANCAKES – Mix a large cupful of lukewarm milk with about a quarter 
of a pound of buckwheat flour.  Add to this three eggs and a little more milk 
to form it into a smooth batter.  Let it stand in a warm place for an hour.  
Add a teaspoonful of baking powder, and fry as usual.  Serve rolled up with 
sugar and lemon juice.

PICKLED OYSTERS – Take of oysters six quarts, salt, four tablespoonfuls; 
vinegar, half a pint; of black pepper, whole, allspice, and mace, each two 
tablespoonfuls; of cloves, two dozen.  Drain all the liquor from the oysters, 
add the spice to it.  Boil fifteen minutes, skimming carefully, then put in 
the oysters and boil till they are done, which will be when they are nicely 
plumped.

CORN BREAD NO. 3 – Take two quarts of corn meal wet with three pints of warm 
water.  Add a tablespoonful of yeast, the same of salt, two of sugar.  Let it 
stand in a warm place five hours.  Then add one and a half teacups of flour 
and a half pint of warm water.  Let it rise again an hour and a half.  Then 
pour it into a well-greased pan and when light, bake it in a hot oven.  It is 
best cold.

CABINET PUDDING – One-quarter of a pound of butter and one and a half pound of 
granulated sugar beaten to a cream.  Add the well-beaten yolks of five eggs 
and one-half0cupful of milk.  Then half a pound of flour, with the whites of 
five eggs.  Lastly half a pound of seeded and chopped raisins, with a quarter 
of a pound of well-washed and dried currants.  The fruit must be floured 
before mixing.  Use a buttered mold or floured bag.  Boil three hours.  Then 
plunge quickly into cold water.  Turn it out at once to prevent sticking.  
Serve hot with sweet sauce.

PRESSED CHICKEN – Two chickens boiled until the meat leaves the bones easily.  
Then pull to pieces and chop fine, letting the liquor in which they were 
cooked, boil away until only a cupful remains.  About half as much ham as 
chicken is then added, roll two soda crackers, season highly and pour the 
stock over.  Mix all well together, put in a deep, long pan, pressing down 
hard with the hand.  Fold a napkin several times over the top and put on a 
weight.  This should be prepared the day before using, when it will slice down 
easily.  I examined my pickles which are cucumbers made sweet, after the 
following recipe.  To one gallon of vinegar, add one quart of water, five 
pounds of sugar, a tablespoonful of salt, one stick of cinnamon.  Pour over 
boiling hot, let stand ten days, then pour over the liquor and boil again, 
after which they are ready to be set away for us.  I found them all right.  
[Mrs. Endicott] 

FEBRUARY 20, 1880

TOPICS FOR THE HOUSEHOLD

OATMEAL – One quart water, one and a half cups oatmeal, one-half teaspoon 
salt.  Let boil over a brisk fire for one hour, do not burn.  Set back on the 
stove and boil gently for another hour.  Serve in soup plates with sugar and 
milk.

BAKED BEETS – These excellent vegetables are quite as good baked as boiled, 
and the sugar is better developed by the baking process.  The oven should not 
be too hot, and the beets must be frequently turned.  Do not peel them until 
they are cooked, then serve with butter, pepper, and salt.

WHEAT CAKES – Three cups flour, two of Indian meal, white.  Dissolve one small 
cake compressed yeast in a cup of water, pour into a jar, add flour and meal.  
Mix to a stiff batter with lukewarm water, set in a warm place to rise over 
night.  In the morning add a tablespoon syrup, one teaspoon salt, one teaspoon 
soda, bake on a hot griddle.  Save a cup batter to commence next day.

SWEET POTATO PUDDING – Ingredients: Two pounds of raw sweet potato, half pound 
brown sugar, one-third pound butter, one gill cream, one grated nutmeg, a 
small piece of lemon-peel, and four eggs.  Boil the potato well and mash 
thoroughly, passing it through a colander.  While it is warm mix in sugar and 
butter.  Beat eggs and yolks together and add when the potatoes cold.  Add a 
tablespoonful of sifter flour.  Mix all in the grated lemon peel and nutmeg 
very thoroughly.  Butter a pan, and bake twenty-five minutes in a moderately 
hot oven.  May be eaten with a wine sauce.

FISH PIE – Boil one quart of potatoes in boiling water and salt.  Soak one 
pound of stale bread in cold water, and wring it dry in a clean towel.  Season 
it well with the pepper, salt, and a tablespoon of chopped parsley.  Cut two 
pounds of codfish in small pieces, and lay in cold water.  When the potatoes 
are done, peel them, mash them through a colander, and season them with salt 
and pepper.  Put the fish and bread in alternate layers in a pudding dish.  
Make a top crush of the potatoes, and bake the pie an hour in a moderate oven.

A QUEER POT-AU-FEU – The Courier des Etats Unis contains the following 
original recipes, which it declares may be found in an English cookery-
book:  “Pot-au-f-u-a-la Francaise – Put in an earthen-ware crock a pound of 
beef or mutton.  Boil it in from six to eight pints of water, with potatoes, 
onions, and chopped mint.  Let it boil an hour or two, and color it with three 
tablespoons of molasses.  It can now be understood why English people do not 
take kindly to French cooking.  Very possibly those who have tried this ragout 
must have entertained a very sad idea of our culinary tastes.”

CRANBERRY DUMPLINGS – One quart of flour, one teaspoon of soda, and two 
teaspoons of cream of tartar, sifted together; mix into a soft dough with 
sweet milk; roll the dough out very thin in oblong shapes, and spread over it 
one quart of cranberries picked and washed clean.  Add half a pound sugar, 
sprinkled evenly.  Fold over and over, then tie in a pudding cloth and put 
into steamer, where let it cook over a steady fire for one hour, with faith, 
never looking into the pot.  Serve with sweet meat sauce. – [Harper’s Bazaar]

MUTTON SOUP – A shoulder of mutton weighing about four pounds, remove skin and 
fat, then put in four quarts cold water, simmer two hours.   Boil one yellow 
turnip, one medium-sized carrot, four potatoes, two bulbs soup celery.  Cook 
the turnip and carrot one hour, the potatoes and celery half an hour.  When 
cooked put in cold water, peel, chop fine.  Remove the meat, add the 
vegetables and one cup boiled rice or barley.  Let simmer ten minutes, then 
add one tablespoon chopped onion and parsley.  Cook ten minutes more, as 
cooking onion or parsley too much destroys the flavor.

PORK AND BEANS - One quart white beans, put in three quarts water, let come 
slowly to a boil.  Cook three ours, do not boil rapidly or they will not cook 
evenly.  Season, teaspoon salt, half teaspoon pepper, and as much cayenne as 
will go on the end of a pen-knife blade.  Put in a deep baking pan; if they 
have not absorbed all the water, keep some of what they were boiled in as they 
will need it if too dry.  One and a half pounds bacon, nicer than port, skin 
and score.  After the beans have been baking in a slow oven four hours put on 
top of them the bacon, bake two hours; if too dry, add boiling water.

GOLDEN BUCK – A golden buck is simply a Welsh rarebit with a poached egg place 
d upon it.  Take fresh, but rather rich cheese, and cut into small even-sized 
pieces, the quantity to be regulated by the size or number of rarebits needed, 
and melt upon a rather slow fire.  If the cheese be dry, add a small quantity 
of butter.  A little (say a sherry-glass to each rarebit) sour ale, or in 
absence, ordinary bitter or fresh ale should be added as the cheese melts.  
After the cheese is thoroughly melted and the above ingredients stirred in, 
add a quantity of celery salt, and immediately pour upon a piece of toast 
previously placed upon a hot plate.  By placing a poached egg upon this 
becomes a golden buck, the further addition of a slice of boiled bacon renders 
it a Yorkshire buck.

MARCH 5, 1880

TOPICS FOR THE HOUSEHOLD

A mixture of chloride of lime and sweetened water of sweeten water will poison 
cockroaches and water bugs.

Cold plates at this time of year are execrable.  All of the dishes on which 
cooked food is served should be thoroughly warmed.

Color does not determine the quality of flour.  The best flour is that which 
absorbs the greatest amount of water.

To beat the white of eggs quickly, add a pinch of salt, which will cool and 
freshen them, as the cooler the eggs are, the quicker they will froth.

Don’t forget the birds when you eat celery.  Save the tender ends and greens, 
and if you dine at night place these in water to give the songsters for their 
morning refreshment.

Onions and potatoes that have a green tinge should be immersed in warm water 
one hour before cooking, that they may be easily digested.

A common sized tumbler holds half a pint.  A tablespoonful is equal to sixty 
drops, or half an ounce of liquids.  Four teaspoonful are equal to one 
tablespoonful.

TO BROIL A STEAK – Always butter your gridiron, cook the steak quickly over a 
bright fire, turning as often as they drip.  Lay upon a hot dish, season with 
butter and salt, cover with heated platter.

The popular maxim that “dirt is healthy,” has probably arisen from the fact 
that playing in the open air is very beneficial to the health of children, who 
thus get dirt on their person and clothes.

The importance of cleanliness in person and dress can never be fully realized 
by those ignorant of the construction of the skin, and of the influence its 
treatment has on the health of the body.

When seasoning remember that salt should always be cooked in food.  Pepper may 
be added when done, to suit the taste.  Black pepper is not healthful, but 
drying tot eh blood.  It is distasteful to many, and is considered vulgar by 
the majority of persons.  Cayenne pepper, used moderately, is wholesome.

A writer in the Live Stock Journal says:  “I have kept dogs all my life, but 
no fleas.  Take common tobacco stems, such as you can get at any cigar 
factory, and put it in the dogs bed and you will have no fleas.  In the winter 
I make beds of equal quantities of hay and tobacco stems, in the summer all 
stems.

The following measures will be found useful by housekeeper.  Wheat flour, on 
quart weighs 1 lb.; Indian meal, one quart weighs 1 lb. 2 oz.; butter, (when 
soft), one pint weighs 1 lb.: white sugar, (powdered), one quart weighs 1 lbs. 
1 oz.; brown sugar, (beat), one quart weighs 1 lb. 2 oz.; ten hen eggs weigh 1 
lbs. 

BUCKWHEAT CAKES – Pour on to one quart of buckwheat flour enough warm water to 
make a thin batter.  Add teaspoonful salt, two tablespoonfuls of molasses, a 
large handful of Indian meal, and four tablespoonfuls of yeast, or half a 
yeast cake well dissolved.  Set to rise over night in a  warm place.  In the 
morning stir in a scant teaspoonful soda well dissolved in tepid water, and if 
too thick a little warm water.

VEGETABLES – Miss M. Parlos, in her new book of “First Principles of Household 
Management and Cookery” gives the following general rule for cooking all kinds 
of vegetables.  Green vegetables should be thoroughly washed in cold water, 
then be dropped into water which has been salted, and is just beginning to 
boil.  There should be a tablespoonful of salt for every two quarts of water.  
If the water boils a long time before the vegetables are put in, it has lost 
all its gases, and the mineral ingredients are deposited on the bottom and 
sides of the kettle; so that the water is flat and tasteless; then the 
vegetables will not look of have a fine flavor.  The time for boiling green 
vegetables depends very much upon the age and how long they have been 
gathered.  The  younger and more freshly gathered, the more quickly they are 
cooked.  Below is a good time-table for cooking vegetables.
					min
Potatoes, boiled…………………………….30
Potatoes, baked…………………………….45
Sweet potatoes, boiled…………………….45
Sweet potatoes, baked…………………….60
Squash, boiled……………………………...25
Squash, baked………………………………45
Green peas, boiled……………………20 to 40
Shelled beans, boiled………………………60
Green corn……………………………25 to 60
Asparagus…………………………….15 to 30
Turnips, white………………………..45 to 60
				      hours
String beans, boiled…………………..1 to 2
Spinach…………………………………1 to 2
Tomatoes, fresh…………………………….1
Tomatoes, canned………………………… ½
Cabbage…………………………………3/4 to 2
Cauliflower……………………………..1 to 2
Dandelions…………………………….. 2 to 3
Beet greens…………………………………...1
Onions…………………………………..1 to 2
Beets…………………………………….1 to 5
Turnips, yellow………………………..1 ½ to 2
Parsnips………………………………..1 to 2
Carrots………………………………….1 to 2
Nearly all these vegetables are eaten with salt, pepper and butter, but 
sometimes a small piece of lean pork is boiled with them and seasons them 
sufficiently.







Additional Comments:
This is a collection of the recipes that were listed in The Vernon Clipper, 
Lamar County, AL from 1879 - 1880. 

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/lamar/newspapers/recipesf956gnw.txt

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