Lettuce
Take the coarser part of lettuce not delicate enough for a salad, boil in salted water until soft, then drain thoroughly. Slightly brown a tablespoonful of butter and a dessertspoonful of flour in a saucepan, put in the lettuce, let it cook up once or twice, then add a half-cup of stock and boil thoroughly, just before serving add a gill of cream and give a sprinkle of nutmeg if the flavor is liked.
LETTUCE SALAD.
Lettuce leaves whole or shredded are served with vinegar, salt, pepper, mustard and a little sugar, or with a French or mayonnaisedressing; or it is shredded and mixed with veal and egg, sweetbreads, shrimps, cress, cucumber, tomatoes or other salad material and is treated with the various salad dressings, mentioned above.
STEWED GREEN PEAS WITH LETTUCE.
Shell a half peck of peas, and shred two heads of lettuce; boil together with as little water as possible to keep it from burning, and stir often for the same purpose. Stew one hour, set back on the stove, and add one tablespoonful of butter, one teaspoonful of sugar, salt, and a dash of cayenne pepper and just as it is taken up, one well beaten egg, which must not be allowed to boil. Serve at once.
STUFFED LETTUCE.
Use five clean heads of lettuce, wash thoroughly, open up the leaves and fill between with any highly seasoned meat—sweetbreads, chicken or veal preferred—or make a forcemeat stuffing. Tie up the heads, put into a saucepan with any good gravy, stock or sauce and cook until thoroughly heated through; serve in the gravy.
LETTUCE SOUP.
Use three small lettuce heads, clean, drain, chop and put into a saucepan with a tablespoonful of butter, cover and let steam for a few minutes, then add two quarts of good soup stock or one quart each of stock and milk, add a half-cup of rice and boil until the rice is soft. Strain through a sieve, or not, as one fancies, season with salt, pepper, return to the fire, add a pint of cream, let it come just to the boiling point and serve.
MANGOES.
Mangoes are made from cucumbers, melons, peppers, tomatoes and peaches. The following recipe applies to all but the peaches. Select green or half grown melons and large green cucumbers, tomatoes, or peppers. Remove a narrow piece the length of the fruit, and attach it at one end by a needle and white thread, after the seeds of the mango have been carefully taken out. Throw the mangoes into a brine of salt and cold water strong enough to bear up an egg, and let them remain in it three days and nights, then throw them into fresh cold water for twenty-four hours. If grape leaves are at hand, alternate grape leaves and mangoes in a porcelain kettle (never a copper one) until all are in, with grape leaves at the bottom and top. Add a piece of alum the size of a walnut, cover with cider vinegar and boil fifteen minutes. Remove the grape leaves and stuff the mangoes. Prepare a cabbage, sixtomatoes, a few small cucumbers and white onions, by chopping the cabbage and tomatoes and putting all separately into brine for twenty-four hours and draining thoroughly. After draining chop the cucumbers and onions. Drain the mangoes, put into each a teaspoonful of sugar, and two whole cloves. Add to the vegetable filling, one-fourth ounce each of ground ginger, black pepper, mace, allspice, nasturtium seed, ground cinnamon, black and white mustard, one-fourth cup of horseradish and one-fourth cup sweet oil. Bruise all the spices and mix with the oil, then mix all the ingredients thoroughly and stuff the mangoes, fit the piece taken out and sew in with white thread or tie it in with a string around the mango. Put them into a stone jar and pour over them hot cider vinegar sweetened with a pound or more of sugar to the gallon to suit the taste. If they are not keeping properly pour over again fresh hot vinegar.
MARTYNIAS.
Gather the pods when young and tender enough to thrust a needle through them easily, later they become hard and useless for pickles. Leave half an inch of stem on each, and lay them in salt water a couple of days, then cook in weak vinegar until tender, but not so long as to break them. Drain well from this, place them in jars and prepare vinegar for them in the proportion of an ounce each of cloves, allspice and black pepper to a gallon of vinegar; scald all these together with half a teaspoonful of prepared mustard. Pour hot over the martynias, cover closely and keep in a cool place. They will soon be ready for use.
Mrs. Hood.
MELON, MUSK.
Musk melon
It is said a muskmelon can be chosen by its odor. If it has none, it is not good, if sweet and musky it is quite sure to be ripe. Another indication of ripeness is when the smooth skin between the rough sections is yellowish green. To serve, cut the melons crosswise and fill with chopped ice an hour before using. Try pouring a little strained honey into the melon when eating.
CANTALOUPE FRAPPE.
Select two large cantaloupes that are ripe and of fine flavor; cut into halves and scrape the pulp from same after removing the seeds (not using any of the rind); put the pulp through a potato ricer, which will keep out all the stringy parts; add to the pulp a pinch ofsalt, four tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar and a gill of cherry juice (sweetened with a spoonful of sugar), or use some other nice tart juice. Soak a tablespoonful of gelatine in a quarter-cupful of water; then set cup in pan of boiling water until it is dissolved; add this to the prepared cantaloupe and when cold turn into a freezer and freeze slowly. Serve in sherbet glasses.
Mrs. Sadette Harrington.
COOKED MUSKMELON.
Miss Corson, in one of her lectures, gives the following directions for making a very nice dessert from muskmelons:—Make a rich syrup from a pound of white sugar to half a pint of water. Pare and slice the melon and boil it gently in the syrup five to ten minutes flavoring with vanilla or lemon. Then take it up in the dish in which it is to be served, cool the syrup and pour it on the melon. To be eaten cold.
MELON MANGOES.(SeeMangoes.)
MUSKMELON PICKLE.
Use ripe muskmelons, pare, remove seeds, and cut in pieces and put into a stone jar. Cover with scalded vinegar and let them stand until the next day, when the vinegar must be reheated and poured over them again; repeat this until the fourth day, then weigh the melons and to every five pounds of the fruit allow three pounds of sugar and one quart of vinegar with spices to suit. Let all simmer together until the fruit is tender. The second day pour off this syrup, and boil down until it shall only just cover the melons. The result justifies the pains taken.
MELON, WATER.
The following is said to be an infallible sign of a ripe watermelon, it takes close inspection to find sometimes, but the sign is there if the condition for it exists. When the flesh of the melon changes color and its seeds begin to turn black a small scale or blister appears on the rind. They increase in number and size as the melon ripens, until a ripe one shows them thickly strewn over the surface. A small crop of blisters indicates unripe fruit. A melon must be served ice cold. Cut it through the middle, scoop out the flesh with a tablespoon in a circle as much as possible that the pieces may be conical or egg shaped. Cover the platter with grape leaves and pile the fruit upon them, allowing the tendrils of the grapes to wander in and out among the melon cones.
WATERMELON ICE.
Cut a watermelon in halves, scoop out the entire center, taking out the seeds; chop in tray; add a cup of sugar. Pack the freezer, turn a few minutes. It will be like soft snow and delicious.
WATERMELON PICKLES.
Eat the flesh and save the rind. Cut the rind into finger lengths and about an inch in width, pare and cut out all the red flesh, throw into a strong salt brine and let stand over night. In the morning drain, boil in water until the pickles are clear, drain again and put into a stone jar. To one gallon of fruit, allow one quart of sugar and one pint of vinegar. Do up cinnamon and cloves in little bags, in ratio of two of cinnamon to one of cloves and boil them in the syrup. Pour the boiling syrup over the pickles, tie up close and in a few days they are ready for use.
MINT SAUCE.
Four dessert spoons of chopped mint, two of sugar, one quarter pint of vinegar. Stir all together; make two or three hours before needed.
MINT VINEGAR.
Fill a bottle loosely with fresh, clean mint, pour over good vinegar, cork tightly and let stand two or three weeks. Then pour off and keep well corked. Use this vinegar as a condiment, or put a small quantity into drawn butter sauce for mutton.
MUSHROOMS.
Mushroom
The highest authorities say an edible mushroom can easily be distinguished from a poisonous one by certain characteristics;—a true mushroom grows only in pastures, never in wet, boggy places, never in woods, never about stumps of trees, they are of small size, dry, and if the flesh is broken it remains white or nearly so and has a pleasant odor. Most poisonous varieties change to yellow or dark brown and have a disagreeable odor, though there is a white variety which grows in woods or on the borders of woods, that is very poisonous. The cap of a true mushroom has a frill, the gills are free from the stem, they never grow down against it, but usually there is a small channel all around the top of the stem, the spores are brown-black, or deep purple black and the stemis solid or slightly pithy. It is said if salt is sprinkled on the gills and they become yellow the mushroom is poisonous, if black, they are wholesome. Sweet oil is its antidote.
BAKED MUSHROOMS.
Hold the mushrooms by the stems, dip them in boiling hot water a moment to help loosen the skin, cut off their stems. Boil the parings and stems and strain. Pour this water over the mushrooms chopped fine, add parsley and stew about forty minutes. Then add six eggs well beaten. Pour this mixture into buttered cups and bake quickly. Serve with cream sauce.
MUSHROOM CATSUP.
Boil one peck of mushrooms fifteen minutes in half a pint of water, strain, or not, through a sieve to get all the pulp; add a pint of vinegar to the juice, two tablespoonfuls of salt, one half a teaspoonful of cayenne pepper, two tablespoonfuls of mustard, one of cinnamon and one of cloves. Let the mixture boil twenty minutes; bottle and seal tightly.
FRIED MUSHROOMS.
Pare the mushrooms, cut off their stems, lay them on their heads in a frying pan in which a tablespoonful of butter has been melted, put a bit of butter into each cap, let them cook in their own liquor and the butter until thoroughly done. Season with salt and butter and serve hot.
MUSHROOMS WITH MACARONI.
Boil half a pound of macaroni. Put a pint of water, one small onion, a sprig of parsley, the juice of half a lemon, a teaspoonful of salt and a quarter as much pepper into a saucepan. When boiling add a quart of mushrooms and cook five minutes. Beat three eggs, stir in and take from the fire. Drain the macaroni, put a layer in the bottom of a baking dish, then a layer of the mushroom mixture, and thus alternately until the dish is full. Have mushrooms on top, and set in a hot oven for five minutes.
Mrs. Eliza Parker.
MARROW WITH MUSHROOMS.
Procure a shinbone and have the butcher split it; remove the marrow and cut it into inch-thick slices; then boil it one and one-half minutes in a quart of salted water, using a teaspoonful of salt. Into a frying-pan put a tablespoonful of butter; when hot add five tablespoonfuls of chopped mushrooms and toss for five minutes,sprinkling them with three shakes of salt and a speck of cayenne. Drain the marrow; squeeze over it ten drops of lemon juice; then mix with it the mushrooms; spread on slices of hot, crisp toast and serve immediately.
Chicago Record.
MUSHROOM OMELET.
Cook a dozen small, even sized mushrooms in a saucepan with half an ounce of butter and half a saltspoonful of salt sprinkled over them. Make ready a plain omelet, as it cooks at the edges place the mushrooms over one half of it, fold over the other half, slip from the pan on to a hot dish and serve immediately.
MUSHROOMS ON TOAST.
Prepare enough mushrooms to measure one half-pint when chopped, and enough of raw ham to fill a tablespoon heaping full. Mix these and add a teaspoonful of parsley, a trifle of chopped onion if liked, a teaspoonful of lemon juice, pepper and salt. Fry in two tablespoonfuls of butter, add a half-cupful of milk or cream, boil up again, and add an egg thoroughly beaten. Serve on small squares of toast. This with the addition of bread crumbs before the milk is added and with the use of some of the relishing herbs makes an excellent stuffing.
MUSHROOM SOUP.
Get your butcher to crack for you a shank of beef. Put over it four quarts of water. Let it boil hard for a few moments until all the scum has risen and has been removed. Set it back on the stove now to simmer five hours. At the end of the fourth hour add one carrot, one turnip, one small onion, one bunch of parsley, two stalks of celery, twelve cloves and two bay leaves. Let all these boil together one hour, then strain and set away until the next day, when all the grease must be skimmed off. To every quart of the stock add a quart of milk thickened with two tablespoonfuls of flour and two tablespoonfuls of butter, one saltspoonful of salt and a dust of pepper, add to this a half-pint of canned mushrooms or small mushrooms stewed thoroughly in the liquor obtained from boiling and straining the stems and parings.
MUSTARD.
In early spring the young leaves are used as a garnish, or, finely cut, as a seasoning to salads. The Cabbage Leaved Mustard makes an excellent green, and is treated like spinach.
AROMATIC MUSTARD.
Upon one tablespoonful of grated horseradish, an ounce of bruised ginger root, and five long red peppers pour half a pint of boiling vinegar. Allow to stand, closely covered, for two days; then take five teaspoonfuls of ground mustard, one teaspoonful of curry powder, and a dessertspoonful of salt, and mix well together. Strain the vinegar upon this, adding a dash of cayenne if wanted very pungent. Mix very smoothly and keep in a corked bottle or jar.
NASTURTIUM.
Nasturtium
The flowers are used to garnish salads, the young leaves and flowers make a lovely salad (SeeFlower Salad). The young buds and leaves when tender are made into pickles and are used like capers in sauces, salads and pickles.
NASTURTIUM PICKLES.
Gather the seeds as soon as the blossoms fall, throw them into cold salt water for two days, at the end of that time cover them with cold vinegar, and when all the seed is gathered and so prepared, turn over them fresh boiling hot vinegar plain or spiced with cloves, cinnamon, mace, pepper, broken nutmeg, bay leaves and horseradish. Cork tightly.
BOILED OKRA OR GUMBO.
Okra
The long seed pod is the edible part of this plant, it can be canned or dried for winter use. If dried let it soak an hour or so before using. To cook, cut the pods in rings, boil them in salted water until tender which will be in about twenty minutes. Add butter, salt, pepper and cream. Thin muslin bags are sometimes made to hold the whole pods without breaking. After boiling tender, pour them out, season with butter, salt and pepper and bake for five minutes.
FRIED OKRA.
Cut it lengthwise, salt and pepper it, roll it in flour and fry in butter, lard or drippings.
OKRA FRITTERS.
Boil the okra, cut in slices, make a batter as for batter cakes, dip the okra in and fry in plenty of hot lard.
Mrs. E. C. Dubb.
OKRA GUMBO SOUP.
Use two quarts of tomatoes to one quart of okra cut in rings; put them over the fire with about three quarts of water and let the mixture come to a boil; take one chicken; cut it up and fry brown with plenty of gravy; put it in with the okra and tomatoes; add several small onions chopped fine, a little corn and lima beans, if they are at hand, and salt and pepper. Let all simmer gently for several hours. To be served with a tablespoonful of rice and a green garden pepper cut fine to each soup plate.
ONIONS.
Peel and slice onions under water to keep the volatile oil from the eyes. A cup of vinegar boiling on the stove modifies the disagreeable odor of onions cooking. Boil a frying pan in water with wood ashes, potash, or soda in it to remove the odor and taste of onions. To rub silver with lemon removes the onion taste from it. Leaves of parsley eaten like cress with vinegar hide the odor of onions in the breath. Onions to be eaten raw or cooked will lose their rank flavor if they are pulled and thrown into salt water an hour before use. Two waters in boiling accomplish the same purpose.
ONION FLAVORING.
To prepare onion flavoring for a vegetable soup, peel a large onion, stick several cloves into it and bake until it is brown. This gives a peculiar and excellent flavor.
FRIED APPLES AND ONIONS.
Take one part onion to two parts apple. Slice the apples without paring, and slice the onions very thin. Fry together in butter, keeping the frying pan covered, to hold the steam which prevents burning. A very slight sprinkling of sugar seems to give an added flavor. Add just as it is to be taken up or else it will burn.
ONION OMELET.
Put a lump of butter or dripping in a frying pan, then put in sliced onions, salt and pepper, cook slowly until done, but not brown. Beat the eggs, allowing two for each person, pour in the frying pan, add a little salt and stir until set. Serve hot.
ONION PICKLES.
Choose small uniform onions; make a brine that will hold up an egg, and pour over the onions boiling hot. Let them lie in this twenty-four hours, then drain and wipe dry and put into bottles. Pour over them cold cider vinegar, seasoned with sliced horseradish, whole pepper and mace. Put in bottles and seal.
BAKED ONIONS.
Boil in milk and water until just done, then drain and put them in a buttered frying pan. Put a bit of butter, salt, and pepper on each one, and add a little of the water in which the onions have boiled. Brown them quickly and serve at once.
CREAM ONIONS.
Boil onions in two waters and drain; pour over them a little boiling milk and set over the fire, add butter, cream, salt and pepper and serve hot.
ESCALLOPED ONIONS.
Boil onions in salted water with a little milk until they are tender. Put a layer of onions in a baking dish, scatter bread crumbs over them, dot with butter, season with pepper and salt and a dash of powdered sage, repeat this until the dish is full, pour over a half-cup of cream or milk. Cover the top with bread crumbs dotted with butter. Bake a light brown and serve.
STUFFED ONIONS.
Boil onions one hour in slightly salted water, and remove the centers. Make a stuffing of minced liver or chicken in these proportions; to one pound of meat one third of a cupful of gravy milk or cream, one half-cupful of fine bread crumbs, one egg, pepper and salt and some of the onion taken from the centers, mix well and fill the onion shells, dust over a few bread crumbs, dot with butter and bake until brown. Put the remaining onion into a stew pan, with a tablespoonful of butter, a half-tablespoonful of flour, and after it boils up once, add a half-cup of milk, a teaspoonful of parsley, salt and pepper, boil up again, pour over onions and serve. This is a good second course after soup served with apple sauce.
PARSLEY.
Parsley is the prime favorite of the garnishes. Its pretty curled leaves are used to decorate fish flesh and fowl and many a vegetable. Either natural, minced or fried, it is an appetizing addition to many sauces, soups, dressings and salads.
FRIED PARSLEY.
Wash the parsley very clean, chop fine and fry in butter in the proportion of one tablespoonful of butter to one pint of minced parsley. When soft, sprinkle with bread crumbs, moisten with a little water, and cook ten or fifteen minutes longer. Garnish it with sliced boiled egg. To be eaten with pigeon.
PARSLEY VINEGAR.
Fill a preserving bottle with parsley leaves, freshly gathered and washed, and cover with vinegar. Screw down the top and set aside for two or three weeks. Then strain off the vinegar, add salt and cayenne pepper to taste, bottle and cork. Use on cold meats, cabbage, etc.
PARSLEY SAUCE.(SeeSauces.)
BOILED PARSNIPS.
Wash, scrape and cut them into slices about an inch thick, put them in a saucepan with salted water and cook until tender, drain, cover with good rich milk, season with butter, pepper and salt to taste, bring to a boil and serve.
BROILED PARSNIPS.
After parsnips are boiled, slice and broil brown. Make a gravy as for beefsteak.
BROWNED PARSNIPS.
Put two or three thin slices of salt pork in the bottom of a kettle and let them brown, scrape and slice the parsnips and pare about the same amount of potatoes, leaving them whole if they are small. Place in alternate layers in the kettle, and add sufficient water to cook them, leaving them to brown slightly. They must be closely watched as they burn very easily. Requires about one and a half hours to cook and brown nicely. Remove the vegetables and thicken the gravy with a little flour; add pepper and salt, and a small lump of butter. Serve pork and vegetables on a large, deep platter and pour over the gravy.
FRIED PARSNIPS.
Scrape and wash parsnips, cut off the small end and cut the thick part into half-inch-thick slices. Put them in boiling water with a tablespoonful each of salt and sugar. Boil an hour or until nearly done and drain; beat two eggs, four tablespoonfuls of flour and half a pint of milk together, season with salt and pepper. Dip the slices of parsnip into the batter, then in bread crumbs and fry in boiling lard or drippings until a golden brown. Pile them in a heap on a napkin and serve very hot.
PARSNIP FRITTERS.
Scrape and halve the parsnips, boil tender in salted water, mash smooth, picking out the woody bits; then add a beaten egg to every four parsnips, a tablespoonful of flour, pepper and salt to taste, and enough milk to make into a thin batter; drop by the tablespoonful into hot lard, and fry brown. Drain into a hot colander and dish.
MASHED PARSNIPS.
Boil parsnips tender in salted water, drain and mash them through a colander. Put the pulp into a saucepan with two or three tablespoonfuls of cream and a small lump of butter rubbed in flour, stir them over the fire until the butter is melted and serve.
MOCK OYSTERS.
Use three grated parsnips, three eggs, one teaspoonful of salt, one teacupful of sweet cream, butter half the size of an egg, three tablespoonfuls of flour. Fry as pancakes.
PARSNIP PUFFS.
Take one egg, well beaten, and add (without stirring until the ingredients are in) one teacupful each of cold water and flour, one heaping teaspoonful of baking powder, half a teaspoonful of salt, one teacupful of well-mashed, boiled parsnips; stir very lightly and only enough to mix. Do not let it stand long. Drop by the tablespoonful into hot, melted fat in a frying pan, and cook until a delicate brown.
Chicago Record.
AMBUSHED PEAS.
Green peas
Cut the tops off of biscuits or buns twenty-four hours old. Scoop out the inside and put both shells and tops into the oven to crust. Pour into them peas after they have been boiled and mixed with a cream sauce to which an egg has been added, also minced parsley or mint if liked. Cover carefully with the tops and serve hot.
BOILED PEAS.
Do not shell peas until ready to cook. Salt, and slightly sweeten if needed boiling water, drop the peas so slowly into the water it will not stop boiling. Boil the peas until tender without covering and they will keep their color. They will generally cook in about twenty minutes, take them up with a little of the liquor in which they were boiled, butter and pepper them, and they are much better to add alittle sweet cream, but will do without. If they are cooked immediately upon gathering, they will need no sugar; if allowed to remain twelve hours or more, a tablespoonful of sugar will be found an addition. A sprig of mint or a little parsley may be added. Pea-pods are sometimes boiled in a small quantity of water, then are skimmed out and the peas are boiled in this liquor.
PEAS AND BUTTERED EGGS.
Stew a pint of young peas with a tablespoonful of butter, a little salt, pepper and chopped parsley, until they are tender; beat up two eggs and pour over them the boiling peas. Serve at once on toast before the eggs harden.
CANAPES OF PEAS.
These form a dainty entree. To prepare the canapes take some slices of stale bread about two inches thick and cut into neat rounds with a large biscuit cutter. With a smaller cutter mark a circle in the center of each round and scoop out the crumbs from it to the depth of one inch. This must be carefully done, so there will be a firm bottom and sides. Lay these around in a shallow dish and pour over them a half-pint of milk in which one egg has been thoroughly beaten. This proportion of egg and milk is sufficient for six canapes. Let them lie in this for a few minutes; then take up very carefully and slip into very hot lard. When of a pale golden brown remove with a skimmer and drain on blotting paper. Boil a pint of freshly cleaned peas in unsalted water until tender; drain well. Put into a saucepan with two spoons of butter, dredge in a dessertspoonful of flour and add a saltspoon of salt and a quarter of a pint of milk. Let it come to a boil; then fill the canapes with this, give a dusting of pepper on the top of each, arrange on a platter and garnish with parsley and slices of lemon.
Chicago Record.
PEAS AND LETTUCE.
Use a pint of peas and two young lettuces cut small. Put in as little water as possible to use and not burn, let them boil until tender, then add a square of sugar, the yolks of two eggs well beaten and two tablespoonfuls of cream. Stir together a short time but do not boil.
PEAS AU PARMESAN.
Grate one and one-half ounces of cheese, add to it two tablespoonfuls of cream, a gill of milk, a tablespoonful of butter, saltspoonful of salt and four shakes of pepper. Place in an enameledpan and stir over the fire until the butter and cheese are dissolved. Then put in a pint and a half of fresh young peas, previously boiled until tender, drained and seasoned with a half-teaspoonful of salt. Stir the mixture a few moments. Serve as hot as possible.
Chicago Record.
GREEN-PEA SALAD.
Shred some lettuce and add to it the peas—they should be boiled with a little mint, and be quite cold. Add the salad dressing just before serving.
PEA AND NUT SALAD.
Use one cupful of chopped pecan nuts to three cupfuls of French peas. Serve on lettuce with mayonnaise.
PEA SOUP.
Use chicken, mutton, or beef broth, or water for a liquor in which to boil two cups of green peas, add to them one minced onion, one carrot cut fine, a teaspoonful of chopped parsley, a stalk of celery cut fine, a bay leaf and two cloves. When the peas are tender, rub all through a sieve. Return the soup to the pot and add two tablespoonfuls of butter, a teaspoonful of salt, two well beaten yolks and half a cupful of cream. Let come to a boil and serve with croutons. Croutons are little squares of bread hard baked in the oven, or fried in oil or butter.
DEVILED PEPPERS.
Red peppers
Use green bell peppers, cut off the stem end and remove the inside. Chop cooked cold ham, and with it as many eggs as one wishes, or chop tongue, veal or chicken, and use the following salad dressing:—To a pint of meat use the yolk of a hard boiled egg, rubbed smooth in a scant tablespoonful of melted butter, a half teaspoonful of made mustard, half a teaspoonful of sugar, add enough vinegar to make it thin and stir in the meat. Fill the pepper shells with this mixture rounding it up high. It is an excellent lunch dish.
PEPPER MANGOES.(SeeMangoes.)
PICKLED PEPPERS.
Remove the seeds from large green peppers, slice them and lay them in a jar alternating each layer of peppers with a layer of cabbage, then cover them with salt and let stand over night. In the morning drain off the water. For the pickle use enough vinegarto cover the peppers, an ounce each of black and white mustard seed, juniper berries, whole cloves and allspice, one half-ounce of celery seed and one large onion chopped fine or one head of garlic if that flavor is liked. Let this come to a boil and pour over the peppers. Pack tightly in a jar, cover with horseradish leaves, and close up tightly.
PEPPER SALAD.
Shave as fine as possible one head of cabbage, use an ounce of mustard seed, or an ounce of celery seed as one prefers either flavor; cut one or two yellow peppers into thin shavings if mustard seed is used, or four if celery seed is used. Pour cold cider vinegar over all, add a little salt and sugar and let stand a day or two to really pickle the cabbage and peppers. Pack in jars or cans and it will keep all winter. Serve with oysters and cold meats.
STUFFED PEPPERS.
Cut off the stem end of green bell peppers. Mince cooked chicken or use a can of shrimps, and mix with it almost an equal weight of bread crumbs, a large lump of butter, two or three tablespoonfuls of cream, salt and a sprinkle of parsley. Fill the pepper shells with the mixture, sprinkle bread crumbs over the tops, dot with butter, and brown in the oven.
OAKLAND STUFFED PEPPERS.
Cut off the tops and scoop out the seeds of six peppers, chop an extra pepper without seeds, mix with it a small onion chopped, a cupful of chopped tomato, two tablespoonfuls of butter or salad oil, a teaspoonful of salt, and an equal measure of bread crumbs. Stuff the peppers, replace the stem ends, and bake the peppers for half an hour, basting them with butter or salad oil two or three times. Serve them hot as a vegetable.
BROWNED MASHED POTATOES.
Whip up mashed potatoes with an egg-beater, add a few tablespoonfuls of cream, the yolks of two eggs, a tablespoonful of butter, pepper and salt. Cover with the whipped whites of the two eggs, bake until browned and with a pancake knife transfer them to a hot dish and serve at once.
POTATOES WITH CHEESE SAUCE.
Use twelve good sized potatoes, mash, add pepper, salt, milk and butter. Make a cup of drawn butter, (milk, butter and a very little corn starch as thickening, with pepper and salt) into it stir twobeaten eggs, and two tablespoonfuls of grated cheese. Put a layer of potatoes on a pie tin, cover with a thin layer of the drawn butter sauce, cover this in turn with more potato and repeat until there is a mound, cover with the sauce, strew thickly with cheese and brown in a quick oven.
LYONNAISE POTATOES.
Put a large lump of butter in a saucepan and let it melt; then add one small onion chopped fine or sliced thin, when it is nicely browned but not scorched, put in slices of cold boiled potatoes, salt and pepper and cook until well browned. Just before taking up add a teaspoonful of parsley.
POTATO PANCAKES.
Grate eight large pared potatoes, add to them one and one half-teacupfuls of milk, the beaten yolks of two or three eggs, a lump of butter the size of a walnut, pepper, salt, enough flour to make a batter, and lastly add the whites of two or three eggs beaten stiff. Add a heaping teaspoonful of baking powder if only one egg is used. Fry in butter or drippings to a rich brown.
RINGED POTATOES.
Peel large potatoes, cut them round and round as one pares an apple, fry in clean, sweet, very hot lard until brown; drain on a sieve, sprinkle salt over them and serve.
POTATO TURNOVERS.
Use ten tablespoonfuls of whipped mashed potatoes with a little salt added gradually, six tablespoonfuls of flour and three tablespoonfuls of butter. When thoroughly mixed lay the mass upon a floured board and roll out about an inch thick, cut in circles with a small bowl, lay upon each circle minced meat, poultry or fish. Season the meat, wet the edges of the circle with beaten egg and close each one like a turnover, pinch them around the edges and fry to a light brown, or brush them with egg and brown them in the oven.
POTATO SOUFFLE.
Choose large, smooth, handsome, uniform potatoes, allow an extra potato for any waste. Bake and with a very sharp knife cut them in two lengthwise. Remove the inside, season with butter, cream, pepper and salt and fill the potato skins with the mixture; glaze them with the beaten whites of eggs and over the top spread the whites of eggs beaten to a stiff froth. Brown in the oven.
POTATO SOUP.
Use the water in which the potatoes were boiled, add three tablespoonfuls of mashed potato to a pint of water, and as much rich milk as there is water used, season with salt and a dust of cayenne pepper, a little juice of lemon or a little minced parsley or tarragon. Serve with crackers or croutons.
STUFFED POTATOES.
Bake handsome, uniform potatoes, cut off the tops with a sharp knife, take out the inside. Add to the scraped potato, butter, milk, pepper, salt and a little grated cheese, fill the empty shells and heap above the top. Grate a little cheese over this and set in the oven to brown. Serve hot.
POTATOES USED TO CLEANSE.
Small pieces of raw potato in a little water shaken vigorously inside bottles and lamp chimneys will clean them admirably. To clean a burned porcelain kettle boil peeled potatoes in it. Cold boiled potatoes not over-boiled, used as soap will clean the hands and keep them soft and healthy. To cleanse and stiffen silk, woolen and cotton fabrics use the following recipe:—Grate two good sized potatoes into a pint of clear, clean, soft water. Strain through a coarse sieve into a gallon of water and let the liquid settle. Pour the starchy fluid from the sediment, rub the articles gently in the liquid, rinse them thoroughly in clear water and then dry and press. Water in which potatoes are boiled is said to be very effective in keeping silver bright.
BAKED PUMPKIN.
Pumpkin
Slice the pumpkin a quarter of an inch thick, peel and put a layer in the bottom of a baking dish, then a layer of sugar with a sprinkle of cinnamon and dot with butter, repeat this until the pan is full. Let the top be well covered with sugar. Bake in a moderate oven until the sugar becomes like a thick syrup. Or cut the pumpkin in squares and do not peel, bake, and when soft enough, scrape it from the shells, season with butter and salt and serve like squash.
CANNED PUMPKIN.
Stew pumpkin as for pies, put while hot in cans and seal.
PUMPKIN LOAF.
Take one quart of stewed pumpkin mashed fine, one teaspoonful each of salt and baking soda, one tablespoonful sugar, three pints of meal. Stir all together while boiling hot; steam four hours, or steam three hours and bake one. To be eaten hot with cream, or butter and sugar.
PUMPKIN MARMALADE.
Take ripe yellow pumpkins, pare and cut them into large pieces, scrape out the seed, weigh and to every pound take a pound of sugar and an orange or lemon. Grate the pieces of pumpkin on a coarse grater and put in the preserving kettle with sugar, the orange rind grated and the juice strained. Let it boil slowly, stirring frequently and skimming it well until it forms a smooth, thick marmalade. Put it warm into small glass jars or tumblers and when cold cover with a paper dipped in alcohol and another heavy paper pasted over the top of the glass.
PUMPKIN PIE.
To one quart of rich milk take three eggs, three big tablespoonfuls of sugar, a little salt, and a tablespoonful of ginger, a teaspoonful of cinnamon and a grated nutmeg if one likes it highly spiced, add enough finely stewed pumpkin to make a thin mixture. This will make three pies. A good pumpkin pie will puff up lightly when done.
PRESERVING PUMPKINS FOR WINTER USE.
A good way to prepare pumpkin for winter use is to cook and sift it as fine as for pies, then add nearly as much sugar as there is pumpkin; stir well and pack in crocks. Better than dried pumpkin for winter use.
PUMPKIN SOUP.
For six persons use three pounds of pumpkin; take off the rind, cut in pieces and put in a saucepan with a little salt and cover with water; let it boil until it is soft (about twenty minutes) and pass through a colander; it must have no water in it; put about three pints of milk in a saucepan, add the strained pumpkin, and let come to a boil; add a very little white sugar, some salt and pepper, but no butter. Serve hot.
HOW TO SERVE RADISHES.
Radishes
Let every housekeeper try serving radishes in this dainty way. Cut off the root close to the radish and remove the leaves, leaving about an inch of the stem. Then cut the skin of the radish from the root toward the stem, in sections, as is done in removing the skin of an orange in eighths. The skin can then be peeled carefully back to the stem by slipping the point of a knife under it, and pulling it gently away from the heart of the radish. The pure white heart,with the soft pink of the peeling and the green stem makes a beautiful contrast. If they are thrown into cold water as fast as they are prepared and allowed to remain there until the time for serving, they will be much improved, becoming very crisp and tender. The skin of the young radish should never be discarded, as it contains properties of the vegetable that should always be eaten with the heart; and, unless the radish is tough, it will agree with a delicate stomach much better when eaten with the peel on. They look very dainty when served in this way, lying on fresh lettuce leaves, or are beautiful to use with parsley as a garnish for cold meats.
RADISH, CUCUMBER AND TOMATO SALAD.
Slice a bunch of radishes, and a cucumber very thin, make a bed of cress or lettuce, over this slice three solid tomatoes, and cover with the cucumbers and radish. Pour over all a French or mayonnaise dressing.
BAKED RHUBARB.
Peel rhubarb stalks, cut into inch lengths, put into a small stone crock with at least one part sugar to two parts fruit, or a larger part if liked, but not one particle of water, bake until the pieces are clear; flavor with lemon or it is good without. It is a prettier sauce and takes less sugar than when stewed, and can be used for a pie filling if the crust is made first. To prevent burning, the crock may be set in a pan of boiling water. When done and while yet hot, beat up the whites of two eggs and whip into the sauce. It makes it very light and very nice.
BOTTLED RHUBARB.
Use perfectly fresh, crisp rhubarb, peel and cut in small pieces as for pies, fill a Mason jar with the fruit and pour over it freshly drawn water. Screw on the top and by the next morning the water will have settled in the jar. Fill the jars full with fresh water, seal again and the fruit is ready for winter's use. In making pies it takes less sugar than the fresh fruit. Or, boil the rhubarb a few moments, as for sauce, with or without sugar and put into jars while it is very hot just as other fruit is canned.
RHUBARB COBBLER.
Two cups of flour sifted with two teaspoons of baking powder and one-half teaspoon of salt. Rub in two tablespoons of butter. Beat one egg very light and add it to three-fourths of a cup of milk. Mix with the other ingredients, line the sides of a baking dish withthis crust. Take one quart of chopped rhubarb sweetened with three cups of sugar, fill the pudding dish with the rhubarb; roll out the remaining crust, cover the top of dish and bake one-half hour.
Mrs. Laura Whitehead.
CREAM RHUBARB PIE.
One cup of rhubarb which has been peeled and chopped fine; add one cup of sugar and the grated rind of a lemon. In a teacup place one tablespoonful of cornstarch and moisten it with as much cold water; fill up the cup with boiling water and add it to the rhubarb. Add the yolks of three eggs well beaten. Bake with an under crust. When cold cover with a meringue made of the whites of the eggs and one-half cup of sugar. Place in the oven to become a delicate brown. Very fine.
Mrs. Byron Backus.
RHUBARB JAM.
Use equal parts of rhubarb and sugar, heat the sugar with as little water as will keep it from burning, pour over the rhubarb and let stand several hours; pour off and boil until it thickens, then add the fruit and boil gently for fifteen minutes. Put up in jelly glasses. Apples and oranges may be put up with rhubarb allowing two apples or three oranges to a pint of cut up rhubarb.
RHUBARB TAPIOCA.
Soak over night two-thirds of a cupful of tapioca. In the morning drain; add one cupful of water and cook the tapioca until it is clear; add a little more water if necessary. Then add a cup and a half of finely sliced rhubarb, a pinch of salt and a large half-cup of sugar. Bake in moderate oven an hour. Serve warm or cold and eat with sugar if liked very sweet. Very nice.
Shirley De Forest.
RUTABAGAS BOILED.