(Continued frompage 257)
It is to be supposed that when a man gives up the comforts of town apartments and hies him to the country, it is the garden, the outdoors, which lures him.
Why is it, then, that he seems to take particular pains to arrange his garden so that it is about as much his own as Central Park is?
It might give the average man a great deal of pleasure to be able to say to all the passersby on the Mall, "This little bit of the Park belongs to me! I cut that grass, I weed those flower beds in the evening when I come home from the office; and every Saturday afternoon I take the hose and thoroughly soak that bit of lawn there, you may see me at it any week in the summer."
But then, we are not dealing with the fictitious average man, and we firmly believe that many "commuters" wonder deep down in their hearts why it is they get from their gardens so little of the pleasure they anticipated when they came to live out of the city.
Any one who has traveled abroad, has admired and perhaps coveted the gardens of England, France, and Italy. Their charm is undeniable, and thought to be too elusive for reproduction on American soil without the aid of landscape gardeners and a fair-sized fortune.
Just why we, as a nation, are beset by the idea of reproducing instead of originating beautiful gardens is a question apart from this discussion. But as soon as we try to develop, to their fullest extent, the advantages of our climate, and soil, in combination with our daily life as a people, we shall produce gardens which will equal, without necessarily resembling, those of other countries.
In every case we must, however, follow the same procedure which every successful garden is built upon, whether it be in Mesopotamia or in Long Island City. That is, we must study the place, the people, and the circumstances.
The most general fault in American gardens is their lack of privacy.
No one claims that the high walls of Italy and France or the impenetrable hedges of England would invariably suit the climate here. But there are many ways to obtain seclusion without in any way depriving us of much-needed air in summer and sun in winter. One way is by placing the house rationally upon its lot. Our custom has been to invariably build so that we had a "front yard," "back yard," and two side yards, all equally important, equally uninteresting, unbeautiful and useless.
Of course, we have the porch which in a way takes the place of the outdoor living room, always so attractive in foreign gardens. And recently some laudable efforts are being made to incorporate the porch into the house, where it belongs, as a real American institution, instead of leaving it disconsolately clinging to the outside and bearing no resemblance to the house either in shape or detail.
But after all, a porch is a porch, and a garden is a garden, and one does not take the place of the other.
Especially is this true of the tiny property.
If you have only ten feet of ground to spare outside your tiny house, plan it so that every foot contributes to your joy at being in the country. Arrange it so that on a warm summer evening when the porch seems a bit close and dark, you wander out into your garden and sit beneath the stars in quiet as profound as on the Desert of Sahara. And in the winter, let your garden provide a warm corner out of the wind, where on a bright Sunday morning you may sit and blink in the sun.
Once you have got the desire for aroom outdoors, a real garden, which is neither flower beds, nor lawns, nor hedges, nor trees, but a place for your comfort, with all these things contributing to its beauty, you will know as by divine inspiration where to put each flower and bush and path. Your planting will be no longer a problem for landscape architects, but a pleasant occupation for yourself and family.
So then will your successful tiny house stand forth in its real garden, an object of pride to the community and a tribute to one man who has refused to be the impossible average, and has dared to build and plant for his own needs.
May he live forever and ever happy in his tiny house!
The idea for the party came to Polly one night as she was washing the dinner dishes, and that very evening she waved away the boys' objection that Thanksgiving was a family affair pure and simple.
"I'm not planning to have any one in for dinner," she said, "though there's nothing that would suit me better, if the apartment boasted a larger dining room. But there are three girls in my Sunday School class that can't possibly go home this year, and I've no doubt you boys could find somebody that won't be invited anywhere. Thanksgiving is such a cheerless place in a boarding house! If we ask a few young people in for a party in the evening, it will liven things up a bit for them, and I think it will be pretty good fun for us, don't you?"
In the end Polly had her way, and just a week before Thanksgiving, she sent invitations to three girls and to two boys whom Rupert and Harry suggested.
Polly searched the shops for a card of two-eyed white buttons of the size of ten cent pieces. She carefully sewed a button on the upper part of a correspondence card, added eyebrows, nose and mouth with India ink, copied a body and cap from Palmer Cox's "Brownie Book," painted the drawing brown, and behold, a saucy brownie grinned at her from the invitation. Underneath the picture, she carefully printed a jingle.
"This Thanksgiving Brownie brings a message so gay,To visit our house on Thanksgiving Day,To help celebrate with all kinds of good cheerThe 'feast of the harvest' at the end of the year."
The boys took a walk into the country on Thanksgiving morning and came laden with sprays of high-bush cranberries. These, with the bunches of chrysanthemums which they bought, and Polly's fern and palm, gave the small living room a festive appearance.
Assisted by her brothers, Polly served the dinner early. After clearing the dining room table, she placed a pumpkin jack-o-lantern in the center, and arranged around it piles of apples, grapes, and oranges.
After the guests had been introduced to each other, Polly passed each one a paper plate containing a picture, cut and jumbled into small pieces, and a tiny paper of paste and a toothpick. Each girl and boy was asked to put the "pi" together and paste it on the inside of the plate. When arranged, the pictures were found to be of Thanksgiving flavor. "Priscilla at the Wheel," "The Pilgrims Going to Church," "The First Thanksgiving," and others of the same type. To the person making his "pi" first a small and delicious mince pie was awarded.
Pencils and paper were then passed. On one slip was written, "What I have to be thankful for," on the other, "Why I am thankful for it." The slips were collected, mixed up, and distributed again. Each guest was asked to read the first slip handed him with the answer. The result caused much laughter.
This was followed by a modification of the famous "donkey game." Polly had painted a huge picture of a bronze turkey, but minus the tail, and this was pinned to the wall. Real turkey feathers with pins carefully thrust through the quills were handed about, and each guest was blindfolded and turned about in turn. To the one who successfully pinned a feather in the tail was given a turkey-shaped box of candy, and the consolation prize was a copy of "Chicken-licken."
A pumpkin-hunt came next. Tiny yellow and green cardboard pumpkins were concealed about the apartment. The yellow pumpkins counted five and the green two points. At the end of the search a small pumpkin scooped out, and filled with small maple sugar hearts, was presented to the guest having the highest score, and a toy book of, "Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater" was awarded to the unfortunate holding the lowest score.
Polly had determined to keep the refreshments very simple. The day before Thanksgiving she made an easy salad dressing by beating two eggs, adding one-half a cup of cider vinegar, two tablespoonfuls of sugar, one teaspoonful of mustard and one-half a teaspoonful of salt, and a tablespoonful of melted butter. She placed the ingredients in a bowl, set in a dish of water on the front of the stove, and when they thickened she removed it from the fire and thinned with cream. To make sandwiches, she mixed the dressing with minced turkey, added half a fine-chopped pepper, and spread the mixture between dainty slices of bread.
The sugared doughnuts she made by beating two eggs, adding one cup of sugar, one cup of sour milk, three tablespoonfuls of melted butter and flour, sifted with one-half a teaspoonful of soda and two teaspoonfuls of baking powder, to make the mixture thick enough to roll without sticking to the moulding board. They were cut with a small cutter, fried in deep, hot fat, and sugared plentifully.
Rupert contributed "Corn Popped in a Kettle." A large spoonful of lard and a teaspoonful of salt were placed in the bottom of a large kettle over a hot fire. A cup of shelled popcorn was added and stirred briskly with a mixing spoon. When the kernels began to pop, the kettle was covered and shaken rapidly, back and forth, until filled with fluffy, white popcorn.
With the fruit and "grape-juice lemonade," the sandwiches, doughnuts and popcorn made a pleasing "spread," Polly felt. She served everything on paper plates and used paper napkins, decorated with Thanksgiving designs.
Oh, Little House, if thou a home would'st beTeach me thy lore, be all in all to me.Show me the way to find the charmThat lies in every humble rite and daily task within thy walls.Then not alone for thee, but for the universe itself,Shall I have lived and glorified my home.
Ruth Merton.
Home Ideas and Economies
Contributions to this department will be gladly received. Accepted items will be paid for at reasonable rates.
Elizabeth Goose of Boston bestowed a great blessing upon American posterity when she induced her good man, Thomas Fleet, to publish, in 1719, "The Mother Goose Melodies," many of which rhymes dated back to a similar publication printed in London two hundred years before. Is it strange that, with this ancestral nursery training, the cry against the use of pastry goes unheeded, when as children, we, too, have sung to us, over and over, the songs of tarts and pies?
The word tart comes from the Latin wordtortus, because tarts were originally in twisted shapes, and every country seems to have adopted them into their national menus. That they were toothsome in those early days is shown in these same nursery rhymes, and, that tarts seemed to have been relished by royalty and considered worthy of theft is evinced in the rhymes,
"The Queen of Hearts she made some tarts."
and,
"Little King Boggen he built a fine hall,Pie-crust and pastry-crust that was the wall."
Again this ancient lore speaks of "Five and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie," and, too, there was that child wonder, "Little Jack Horner" who, with the same unerring instinct of a water wizard with a willow twig, could, by the sole means of his thumb, locate and extricate, upon the tip of the same, a plum from the Christmas pie.
American tarts and pies are in a class of their own. Pies were very closely allied to pioneer, and the Colonial housewife of early days was forced to concoct fillings out of sweetened vegetables, such as squash, sweet potatoes, and even some were made of vinegar. Yet the children still doted on these tempting tarts, pies and turnovers, for were they not trotted in babyhood on a
"Cock horse to Banbury Cross,To see what Tommy can buy:A penny white loaf, a penny white cake,And a two-penny apple pie."
The next time you have a few varieties of vegetables left over, or wish a dainty luncheon side dish, try making a tray of vegetable tarts with various fillings, and they will prove as fascinating to choose from as a tray of French pastries.
While I have worked out these modern recipes in tempting ways of serving left-overs using common vegetables, I will lay all pastry honors to our fore-mothers, who passed on to us the art of pie-making. Proof as to the harmlessness of pies in diet is shown in the fine constitution of our American doughboy, who is certainly a great credit to the heritage of pastry handed down by the Daughters of the American Revolution.
The moral of this discourse is that, "The child is father of the man," and men dote on pies.
Line round muffin pans with pastry circles as for other preserve tarts, and fill with the following:
Dice cold-boiled potatoes, season with salt and pepper, moisten with white sauce, made of two tablespoonfuls of flour, two tablespoonfuls of lard, one cup of milk,one-half a teaspoonful salt. Mix with this grated cheese. Fill the shells and sprinkle grated cheese on top. Bake a light brown.
Parboil medium-sized onions in salted water. Cut half way down in quarters, add salt, butter, and pepper. Place each on a square of biscuit dough or pastry, rolled thin. Bring together opposite corners, twist, and place in a moderate oven to bake the onion tender. Serve with white sauce.
With a round cooky cutter make rounds of pastry. Cut an equal number with the doughnut cutter. Prick, sprinkle lightly with grated cheese and bake a light brown. Place a plain shell on a crisp lettuce leaf, add a slice of tomato, not larger, on top. Then pour on a little mayonnaise and place on top the tart shell with a hole in the center. Serve at once.
One peck of green tomatoes, put through a food chopper. Boil, drain and add as much water as juice drained out. Scald and drain again. Add water as before, scald and redrain. This time add half as much water, then the following:—
3 pounds brown sugar2 pounds raisins2 tablespoonfuls nutmeg2 tablespoonfuls cinnamon2 tablespoonfuls cloves2 tablespoonfuls allspice2 tablespoonfuls salt
Boil all together, and add one cup of vinegar. Cook till thick as desired. Put in jars and seal.
To one pint of this mixture add one cup of chopped apple and the juice and rind, grated or ground. Sweeten to taste, fill crust and bake as the usual mince pie.
Evaporated apples may be used, but grind before soaking and do not cook.
These pies will not harm children, and are very inexpensive, as compared to those made of mincemeat.
Make a circle as big as a saucer, or a square equal in area. Fill the center with plum tomato preserve and fold over matching edges, either as a half circle, or a triangle. Prick and bake.
Turnovers are especially ideal as pies for fitting into lunch boxes, and may be made of any sweetened vegetable preserve for school lunches.
Use cabbage, which has been boiled in salted water and seasoned with salt and pepper to taste. Make a white sauce and pour over, mixing well with the cabbage. Fill round muffin pans lined with pastry circles, sprinkle with cheese over the top and bake. Carrots may be used the same way, omitting the cheese and using latticed strips of pastry over the top. These will be hardly recognizable as such common vegetables.
M. K. S.
While probably the best way of using milk is to drink it in its raw or pasteurized state, many children and adults will not use it in that form. In that case, the problem is to disguise or flavor the milk in some way so that the food value will not be changed or destroyed, and yet be more palatable than the natural product.
It has been found that children will drink flavored, sweetened milk when they will simply not touch pure milk. In order to demonstrate how universal the craving for sweetened, cold drinks has become, and how easy it is for the milkmen to cater to this demand, Prof. J. L. Sammis of the Wisconsin College of Agriculture conducted a booth at the 1921 Wisconsin state fair and dispensed milk in twenty-five new, pleasing, and attractive ways over a soda fountain.
Thousands of these milk drinks wereconsumed, and a report from a Tennessee county fair also revealed that 10,000 similar drinks were sold there by an enterprising dairyman. There is nothing elaborate about the proposition. If these drinks are to be prepared in the home, and the whole question is largely one of increasing the home consumption of milk, Professor Sammis declares:
"Take any flavor that happens to be on the pantry shelf, put a little in a glass, add sugar to taste, fill the glass with milk, and put in some ice. That is all there is to it. Be sure that the milk is drank very cold, when it is most palatable. Vanilla is a very good flavor."
It is not even necessary that whole milk be used, as condensed milk will do very well. Simply dilute the condensed milk with an equal volume of water, and use as whole milk. Condensed milk, however, has a cooked flavor found objectionable by many, and, in that case, a suitable substitute is powdered milk, which has no such cooked flavor.
To prepare a powdered milk drink, put the flavor into the receptacle first, then the sugar, and then the powdered milk with a little water. Beat the powdered milk with an egg beater until it is wet through, and then add the rest of the water, finishing with the ice.
By adding fruit colors these various milk drinks can be given a changed external appearance, and wise is the mother who will prepare them often when her children show an inclination not to drink enough milk. Served at the table, they attract every member of the family. These milk drinks are no more expensive than many of the more watery and less useful compounds, so often substituted.
Soda fountains might well consider these various forms of sweetened and flavored milk to attract new trade. At the fountains the various flavoring syrups would naturally be used, and no sugar is necessary. And instead of clear water, carbonated water is used. The variety of these drinks is limited only by the ingenuity of the dispenser.
W. A. F.
Wash seven pounds of fruit and let boil with a little water until soft enough to press through a colander. Add three pounds of sugar, three pints of vinegar, and cloves and cinnamon to taste, and let the mixture boil, slowly, until it is thick and jelly-like.
Pare a medium-sized pumpkin and cut into inch cubes. Let steam until tender, but not broken. Or cut the pumpkin into large pieces and let steam a short time and then cut the cubes.
Prepare a syrup of sugar and water, about three pounds of sugar and a pint-and-a-half of water, in which simmer the juice and rind (cut into strips) of two lemons. Drop the pumpkin cubes into the syrup and let simmer, carefully, until the pumpkin is translucent. Dip out the pumpkin and pack in ordinary preserve jars; pour over the syrup and lemon and close the jars.
S. A. R.
Take seven pounds of apples, all green, if possible; wash and remove any imperfections, also the blossom and stem. Cut, but do not core nor peel. Cut in very small pieces. Three oranges; wash and remove peel, which put through finest knife of food-chopper, after discarding the inner white peeling, also seeds. Put the apple on to boil, adding water till it shows among the fruit, and boil to quite soft; mash fine and put in jelly bag to drain over night. Boil the juice with the orange pulp, cut in very small pieces; add the orange peel and cook for twenty minutes, or till the orange is cooked. Add five (5) pounds of granulated sugar and let boil until a little in a cold saucer will jell.
This recipe has never been in print to my knowledge and will prove very satisfactory to the majority of people.
B. F. B.
Queries and Answers
This department is for the benefit and free use of our subscribers. Questions relating to recipes and those pertaining to culinary science and domestic economics in general, will be cheerfully answered by the editor. Communications for this department must reach us before the first of the month preceding that in which the answers are expected to appear. In letters requesting answers by mail, please enclose address and stamped envelope. Address queries to Janet M. Hill, Editor.American Cookery, 221 Columbus Ave., Boston, Mass.
Query No. 4241.—"I wish you would let me have a good recipe for Caramel Icing, the kind that does not call for the whites of eggs."
Add two cups and one-half of dark brown sugar to three-fourths a cup of milk, and let boil thirteen minutes. When nearly done add three tablespoonfuls of butter and one teaspoonful of vanilla. Beat until nearly cold, then spread on top of cake. It may also be used between the layers. If a sugar thermometer be used, the syrup should be boiled to the soft-ball stage, or between 235 deg. Fah. to 240 deg. Fah.
Query No. 4242.—"Please let me have a recipe for Spiced Pineapple."
Weigh six pounds of pineapple, after paring, coring, and cutting in rather small pieces. Cook in a porcelain kettle with three cups of the best white vinegar, until the pineapple is softened, keeping the kettle closely covered, and turning the fruit once in a while so that the pieces may be equally exposed to the action of the vinegar. Tie in cheesecloth or netting one ounce, each, of whole cloves, previously bruised, and stick cinnamon, broken into small pieces; add these to the kettle with five pounds of granulated sugar, and let cook until the mixture is of the consistency of marmalade, being careful to avoid burning. The spices may be removed as soon as they have given the flavor desired.
Query No. 4243.—"Will you kindly answer the following in your Department of Queries and Answers? Should Boiled Potatoes be started in cold or boiling water? Should Corn on the cob be put on in cold water and allowed to simmer for several minutes after it comes to a boil, or be put on in boiling water and boiled five minutes? Should Chicken, Turkey, or other Fowl be covered during roasting? Can you give a clear and up-to-date article on correct Table Service?"
Very young, new potatoes—the kind hardly bigger than walnuts, should be put on in cold water and brought quickly to a boil, for potatoes so young as to be immature contain more or less of a bitter principle, which is desirable to get rid of in the cooking. Potatoes in their prime, as from September to March, are best put on in boiling, salted water. Later in the spring, when the potatoes begin to sprout and shrivel they ought to be put on in cold water and brought, as slowly as possible, to a boil, or allowed to stand in cold water for some hours before cooking.
It is usually preferred to put on the corn in cold water, bring to a boil, and let simmer until done. But to steam the ears will give, in our opinion, the best results.
Decidedly not; it spoils the flavor not only of chicken and turkey, but of anyprime joint of meat to bake it in a covered pan. The covered pan is properly used for braising only, for the tough cuts which have to be braised call for the combination of baking and steaming which results from the covered pan. All kinds of poultry, and all prime joints of meat should be placed on a rack in an uncovered roasting pan, put into a very hot oven for the first ten or fifteen minutes, and then have one or two cups of water poured over them, mixed with fat if the meat is lean, this water to be used for basting every ten or fifteen minutes. The rack in the pan serves both to allow a circulation of air around the meat, and to keep it from touching the water. It is this circulation of air that gives the fine flavor of the properly roasted meat, and the frequent opening of the oven door for the basting serves to supply the fresh air needed for the best results.
The Up-to-Date Waitress, by Janet M. Hill, or Breakfasts, Luncheons, and Dinners, by Mary D. Chambers, both contain clear and up-to-date directions for table service. We can supply these books if you wish to have either of them.
Query No. 4244.—"Will you tell me in your paper why my Lemon Pies become watery when I return them to the oven to brown the meringue? Also give me some suggestions for Desserts for Summertime, other than frozen dishes."
A lemon pie may become watery when put in the oven to brown the meringue, if it be left in the oven too long; or it may water because the filling was not sufficiently cooked before putting into the pastry shell; or it may be from an insufficiency of flour being used in making the filling. If you had told us just how your pies are made, we would be better able to solve your problem.
In future we hope to answer queries as soon as they reach us, and by direct reply to each individual questioner; but up to the present we have answered most of them in this department of the magazine, and since it takes two or three months to get the manuscript into print many of the questions are answered too late. So it happens with your inquiry regarding desserts for Summertime. Any of the cold desserts, such as gelatines, custards, blancmanges, or fresh fruits with cream, are suitable for summer and are easily prepared.
Query No. 4245.—"Will you oblige me by an answer to the following in the pages ofAmerican Cookery? How shall I make Tartare Sauce? What should be the temperature of the fat for French Fried Potatoes or for Potato Chips? Mine are never crisp, can you tell me why? Also tell me how to Broil Fish, how to make a good Cream Dressing for fish, meat, or croquettes, and how to make Soft Gingerbread with a sauce to put over it."
A Tartare Sauce or Sauce Tartare is merely a mayonnaise dressing with pickles chopped into it, a tablespoonful, each, or more, of chopped cucumber, cauliflower, and olives, with a tablespoonful of capers and two teaspoonfuls of red pepper to a pint of the mayonnaise. There is, however, a hot Tartare Sauce which is made by adding to one cup of thick white sauce the following ingredients: One tablespoonful, each, of chives, parsley, pickled gherkins, olives, and capers, all put through the food chopper. Stir into the white sauce; heat while stirring constantly, but do not allow the mixture to boil, and add one tablespoonful of vinegar just before serving.
We think your trouble is not so much the temperature of the fat, which should be about 350 deg. to 375 deg. Fah., as it is that potatoes, to be crisped by deep frying, should first be soaked in cold water for twenty to thirty minutes, then dried perfectly before immersing in the fat. Also, they should be removed from the fat the moment they are done, and drained dry.
Wipe the fish dry, and brush it lightlywith oil or melted butter. Place it in a double wire broiler, and cook over a clear fire, turning every other minute until both sides are a light, even brown. Remove carefully from the broiler, using a sharp boning knife to free it from adhesions. If the fish is thoroughly oiled, it should not adhere to the broiler.
Sunsweet Ad
I never knew what prunes and apricots could do until—
I came to analyze the flavor-and-health values of these two fruit-foods. At first their use seemed rather limited but with each new dish others immediately suggested themselves.
The chief nutritive element in both prunes and apricots, of course, is fruit sugar. But you derive great value, too, from their mineral salts and organic acids. These improve the quality of the blood and counteract the acid-elements in meat, eggs, cereals and other high-protein foods.
Also, they are rich in tonic iron and other mineral and vitamine elements needed for body tone. Nor should I forget to mention that prunes especially provide a natural laxative made in Nature's own pharmacy.
But aside from these essential health values, I found that Sunsweet Prunes and Apricots offer wonderful possibilities—varying from the most delicate soufflé to the more substantial cobbler, pie or pudding.
—Belle DeGraf
The new 1922 Sunsweet Recipe Packet—edited by Mrs. Belle DeGraf—will be nothing less than a revelation to you. The recipes are printed ongummed slips[5×3"] for easy pasting in your cook book. And it's free! California Prune & Apricot Growers Inc., 1196 Market St., San Jose, Cal.
Buy advertised Goods—Do not accept substitutes
Blend together butter and flour, and add to hot milk; keep stirring until the whole has boiled for at least one minute. Add seasonings to taste, at the beginning of cooking. The proportions for a thin, a medium, and a thick sauce are, respectively: One, two, and four tablespoonfuls of flour to one cup of milk. And an equal volume of butter, or one-third less than the flour, is called for.
To two beaten eggs in a mixing-bowl add two tablespoonfuls of butter, melted, three-eighths a cup of sour milk, and one cup of molasses. Beat all together; add two cups of flour, sifted with one-half a teaspoonful of salt and one teaspoonful of baking powder, and one tablespoonful of ginger. Lastly, add one teaspoonful of baking soda, dissolved in two teaspoonfuls of water. Bake in a sheet, and serve with whipped cream for a simple dessert.
Query No. 4246.—"Can you give me a recipe for Deep-Dish Apple Pie? It has a thick top covering, I cannot call it a crust, for it is something between a cake and a biscuit dough—not at all like pie crust."
This is the genuine English Apple Pie—they would call ours an apple tart. It is made in oval baking-dishes of thick yellow ware, about two and one-half or three inches deep, and with flat rims an inch in width. The first thing to do is to invert a teacup—preferably one without a handle—in the bottom of the dish, then core and pare sour, juicy apples—any number, from six to a dozen, depending on the size of the family and the dish—and divide them in eighths. Arrange these in alternate layers with sugar in the dish, with a generous sprinkling of whole cloves over each layer, and pile, layer on layer, until not another bit of apple can go in anywhere without toppling out. The apples are piled up as high again as the depth of the dish, or higher. Now lay over all a very rich biscuit dough, lightly rolled out to one-fourth inch in thickness. Decorate this with leaves, or other cut-out designs, and arrange them over the covering and moisten the under sides with water, to make them adhere during the baking. Place long strips of the dough over the brim of the pie-dish, and press with the bowl of a spoon in concentric designs. Bake in a moderate oven for an hour. Pieces of the crust are cut off for serving, and spoonfuls of the apple pulp are served with them on the plate, then, as soon as convenient the inverted cup is removed, and the rich liquid collected under it is spooned over each serving of crust and apples.
Query No. 4247.—"I wish very much to know the right temperature for Baking both layer and loaf, white, butter Cakes, also for chocolate Cake. Should the Baking begin with a cold or a warm oven? How long should each kind of cake bake?"
The usual time and temperature for baking layer cakes is 400 deg. Fah., for twenty minutes. Loaf cakes, made with butter, with or without chocolate, take a temperature of from 350 deg. to 375 deg, Fah. for from forty minutes to an hour. These temperatures are approximate, and are in accordance with the general rules for oven temperature, but this has to be adapted to the recipe. The more sugar used the lower should be the temperature, to avoid burning, and especially when molasses is used does the need to decrease temperature become imperative. The more butter used the higher should be the temperature, at least, until the cake is "set," to keep it from falling. Cakes with much butterneed the greatest heat at first, and then a reduced temperature. So do all cakes of small size. Large cakes are better at a uniform temperature, not so high as the average. A different flavor is produced, especially in very rich cakes with a good many eggs, when put into a cool oven and baked with gradually increasing heat, from that developed by a high initial temperature and then a decreased heat. The quality of the flour and shortening also affect the temperature and time needed in baking. It is a good safe thing to follow the rules, and to temper them with judgment. When the cake is just firm in the center, and has shrunk from the sides of the pan, it is done, no matter what the temperature has been or how long it has baked. But you will always get your cake at this condition, more surely and safely, by following the rules, though you must be on the alert to use them with flexibility.
Mystery Cake
Can You Name It?
The first Royal Mystery Cake Contest created a countrywide sensation. Here is another cake even more wonderful. Who can give it a name that will do justice to its unusual qualities?This cake can be made just right only with RoyalBaking Powder. Will you make it and name it?$500 For The Best NamesFor the name selected as best, we will pay $250. For the second, third, fourth, and fifth choice, we will pay $100, $75, $50, and $25 respectively. Anyone may enter the contest, but only one name from each person will be considered. All names must be received by December 15th. In case of ties, the full amount of the prize will be given to each tying contestant. Do not send your cake. Simply send the name you suggest With your own name and address, to theROYAL BAKING POWDER CO: 158 William Street, New York
The first Royal Mystery Cake Contest created a countrywide sensation. Here is another cake even more wonderful. Who can give it a name that will do justice to its unusual qualities?
This cake can be made just right only with RoyalBaking Powder. Will you make it and name it?$500 For The Best Names
ROYAL BAKING POWDER CO: 158 William Street, New York
Royal Baking Powder
HOW TO MAKE ITUse level measurements for all materials1/2 cup shortening2 1/3 cups flour1 1/2 cups sugar1/4 teaspoon saltGrated rind of 1/2 orange4 teaspoons Royal Baking Powder1 egg and 1 yolk1 cup milk1 1/2 squares (1 1/2 ozs.) of unsweetened chocolate (melted)Cream shortening, add sugar and grated orange rind. Add beaten egg yolks. Sift together flour, salt and Royal Baking Powder and add alternately with the milk; lastly fold in one beaten egg white. Divide batter into two parts. To one part add the chocolate. Put by tablespoonfuls, alternating dark and light batter, into three greased layer cake pans. Bake in moderate oven 20 min.
HOW TO MAKE ITUse level measurements for all materials
1/2 cup shortening2 1/3 cups flour1 1/2 cups sugar1/4 teaspoon saltGrated rind of 1/2 orange4 teaspoons Royal Baking Powder1 egg and 1 yolk1 cup milk1 1/2 squares (1 1/2 ozs.) of unsweetened chocolate (melted)
FILLING AND ICING3 tablespoons melted butter3 cups confectioner's sugar3 squares (3 ozs.) unsweetened chocolate2 tablespoons orange juice1 egg whiteGrated rind of 1/2 orange and pulp of 1 orangePut butter, sugar, orange juice and rind into bowl. Cut pulp from orange, removing skin and seeds, and add. Beat all together until smooth. Fold in beaten egg white. Spread this icing on layer used for top of cake. While icing is soft, sprinkle with unsweetened chocolate shaved in fine pieces with sharp knife (use 1/2 square). To remaining icing add 2-1/2 squares unsweetened chocolate which has been melted, Spread this thickly between layers and on sides of cake.
FILLING AND ICING
Baby
"Holds Like Daddy's"
Not only that, but it is made with thesame careand of the samequalityas Daddy's.
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Query No. 4248.—"Will you please give me a recipe for Canned Pimientoes?"
Cut round the stem of each, and with a small, sharp knife remove the seeds and the white partitions inside. Set on a baking sheet in a hot oven until the thin outside skin puffs and cracks, then remove it with a small, sharp knife. Or they may be scalded, then dipped into cold water and the skin be carefully removed. Sometimes the skin is left on. Now press each one flat, and arrange them in layers, alternately overlapping one another, in the jars, without liquid, and process for twenty-five to thirty-five minutes at 212 deg. Fah. During the processing a thick liquid should exude, covering the pimientoes.
Query No. 4249.—"I should like a recipe for New York Ice Cream."
There are three distinct classes of Ice Cream: The Philadelphia, which is supposed to be made of heavy cream; the French, which is made with eggs on a soft custard foundation; and the so-called American, which is made on the foundation of a thin white sauce. All three classes are made in New York, and in every other large city, but we have never heard that any special recipe for ice cream is peculiar to New York. The less expensive forms of cream, in that and every other city, are those based on a thin white sauce, sweetened, flavored, and frozen.
It was the custom of the congregation to repeat the Twenty-third Psalm in concert, and Mrs. Armstrong's habit was to keep about a dozen words ahead all the way through. A stranger was asking one day about Mrs. Armstrong. "Who," he inquired, "was the lady who was already by the still waters while the rest of us were lying down in green pastures?"