WHAT MAKES AN IDEAL KITCHEN?

It is a mistake to suppose that any room, however small and unpleasantly
situated, is "good enough" for a kitchen. This is the room where housekeepers
pass a great portion of their time, and it should be one of the brightest and
most convenient rooms in the house; for upon the results of no other department
depend so greatly the health and comfort of the family as upon those involved in
this 'household workshop'.

Every kitchen should have windows on two sides of the room, and the sun should
have free entrance through them; the windows should open from the top to allow
a complete change of air, for light and fresh air are among the chief
essentials to success in all departments of the household. Good drainage should
also be provided, and the ventilation of the kitchen ought to be even more
carefully attended to than that of a sleeping room. The ventilation of the
kitchen should be so ample as to thoroughly remove all gases and odors, which,
together with steam from boiling and other cooking processes, generally invade
and render to some degree unhealthful every other portion of the house.

There should be ample space for tables, chairs, range, sink, and cupboards, yet
the room should not be so large as to necessitate too many steps. Undoubtedly
much of the distaste for, and neglect of, "housework," so often deplored,
arises from unpleasant surroundings. If the kitchen be light, airy, and tidy,
and the utensils bright and clean, the work of compounding those articles of
food which grace the table and satisfy the appetite will be a pleasant task.

It is desirable, from a sanitary standpoint, that the kitchen floor be made
impervious to moisture; hence, concrete or tile floors are better than wooden
floors. Cleanliness is the great desideratum, and this can be best attained by
having all woodwork in and about the kitchen coated with polish; substances
which cause stain and grease spots, do not penetrate the wood when polished,
and can be easily removed with a damp cloth.

The elements of beauty should not be lacking in the kitchen. Pictures and fancy
articles are inappropriate; but a few pots of easily cultivated flowers on the
window ledge or arranged upon brackets about the window in winter, and a window
box arranged as a jardiniere, with vines and blooming plants in summer, will
greatly brighten the room, and thus serve to lighten the task of those whose
daily labor confines them to the precincts of the kitchen.

The kitchen furniture. 
---------------------

The furniture for a kitchen should not be cumbersome, and should be so made and
dressed as to be easily cleaned. There should be plenty of cupboards, and each
for the sake of order, should be devoted to a special purpose. Cupboards with
sliding doors are much superior to closets. They should be placed upon casters
so as to be easily moved, as they, are thus not only more convenient, but admit
of more thorough cleanliness.

Cupboards used for the storage of food should be well ventilated; otherwise,
they furnish choice conditions for the development of mold and germs. Movable
cupboards may be ventilated by means of openings in the top, and doors covered
with very fine wire gauze which will admit the air but keep out flies and dust.

For ordinary kitchen uses, small tables of suitable height on easy-rolling
casters, and with zinc tops, are the most convenient and most easily kept
clean. It is quite as well that they be made without drawers, which are too apt
to become receptacles for a heterogeneous mass of rubbish. If desirable to have
some handy place for keeping articles which are frequently required for use, an
arrangement similar to that represented in the accompanying cut may be made at
very small expense. It may be also an advantage to arrange small shelves about
and above the range, on which may be kept various articles necessary for
cooking purposes.

One of the most indispensable articles of furnishing for a well-appointed
kitchen, is a sink; however, a sink must be properly constructed and well cared
for, or it is likely to become a source of great danger to the health of the
inmates of the household. The sink should if possible stand out from the wall,
so as to allow free access to all sides of it for the sake of cleanliness. The
pipes and fixtures should be selected and placed by a competent plumber.

Great pains should be taken to keep the pipes clean and well disinfected.
Refuse of all kinds should be kept out. Thoughtless housekeepers and careless
domestics often allow greasy water and bits of table waste to find their way
into the pipes. Drain pipes usually have a bend, or trap, through which water
containing no sediment flows freely; but the melted grease which often passes
into the pipes mixed with hot water, becomes cooled and solid as it descends,
adhering to the pipes, and gradually accumulating until the drain is blocked,
or the water passes through very slowly. A grease-lined pipe is a hotbed for
disease germs.

THE PRINCIPLES OF SCIENTIFIC COOKERY

It is not enough that good and proper food material be provided; it must have
such preparation as will increase and not diminish its alimentary value. The
unwholesomeness of food is quite as often due to bad cookery as to improper
selection of material. Proper cookery renders good food material more
digestible. When scientifically done, cooking changes each of the food
elements, with the exception of fats, in much the same manner as do the
digestive juices, and at the same time it breaks up the food by dissolving the
soluble portions, so that its elements are more readily acted upon by the
digestive fluids. Cookery, however, often fails to attain the desired end; and
the best material is rendered useless and unwholesome by a improper preparation.

It is rare to find a table, some portion of the food upon which is not rendered
unwholesome either by improper preparatory treatment, or by the addition of some
deleterious substance. This is doubtless due to the fact that the preparation of
food being such a commonplace matter, its important relations to health, mind,
and body have been overlooked, and it has been regarded as a menial service
which might be undertaken with little or no preparation, and without attention
to matters other than those which relate to the pleasure of the eye and the
palate. With taste only as a criterion, it is so easy to disguise the results
of careless and improper cookery of food by the use of flavors and condiments,
as well as to palm off upon the digestive organs all sorts of inferior
material, that poor cookery has come to be the rule rather than the exception.

Methods of cooking. 
------------------

Cookery is the art of preparing food for the table by dressing, or by the
application of heat in some manner. A proper source of heat having been
secured, the next step is to apply it to the food in some manner. The principal
methods commonly employed are roasting, broiling, baking, boiling, stewing,
simmering, steaming, and frying.

Roasting is cooking food in its own juices before an open fire. Broiling, or
grilling, is cooking by radiant heat. This method is only adapted to thin
pieces of food with a considerable amount of surface. Larger and more compact
foods should be roasted or baked. Roasting and broiling are allied in
principle. In both, the work is chiefly done by the radiation of heat directly
upon the surface of the food, although some heat is communicated by the hot air
surrounding the food. The intense heat applied to the food soon sears its outer
surfaces, and thus prevents the escape of its juices. If care be taken
frequently to turn the food so that its entire surface will be thus acted upon,
the interior of the mass is cooked by its own juices.

Baking is the cooking of food by dry heat in a closed oven. Only foods
containing a considerable degree of moisture are adapted for cooking by this
method. The hot, dry air which fills the oven is always thirsting for moisture,
and will take from every moist substance to which it has access a quantity of
water proportionate to its degree of heat. Foods containing but a small amount
of moisture, unless protected in some manner from the action of the heated air,
or in some way supplied with moisture during the cooking process, come from the
oven dry, hard, and unpalatable.

Boiling is the cooking of food in a boiling liquid. Water is the usual medium
employed for this purpose. When water is heated, as its temperature is
increased, minute bubbles of air which have been dissolved by it are given off.
As the temperature rises, bubbles of steam will begin to form at the bottom of
the vessel. At first these will be condensed as they rise into the cooler water
above, causing a simmering sound; but as the heat increases, the bubbles will
rise higher and higher before collapsing, and in a short time will pass
entirely through the water, escaping from its surface, causing more or less
agitation, according to the rapidity with which they are formed. Water boils
when the bubbles thus rise to the surface, and steam is thrown off. The
mechanical action of the water is increased by rapid bubbling, but not the
heat; and to boil anything violently does not expedite the cooking process,
save that by the mechanical action of the water the food is broken into smaller
pieces, which are for this reason more readily softened. But violent boiling
occasions an enormous waste of fuel, and by driving away in the steam the
volatile and savory elements of the food, renders it much less palatable, if
not altogether tasteless. The solvent properties of water are so increased by
heat that it permeates the food, rendering its hard and tough constituents soft
and easy of digestion.

The liquids mostly employed in the cooking of foods are water and milk. Water
is best suited for the cooking of most foods, but for such farinaceous foods as
rice, macaroni, and farina, milk, or at least part milk, is preferable, as it
adds to their nutritive value. In using milk for cooking purposes, it should be
remembered that being more dense than water, when heated, less steam escapes,
and consequently it boils sooner than does water. Then, too, milk being more
dense, when it is used alone for cooking, a little larger quantity of fluid
will be required than when water is used.

Steaming, as its name implies, is the cooking of food by the use of steam.
There are several ways of steaming, the most common of which is by placing the
food in a perforated dish over a vessel of boiling water. For foods not needing
the solvent powers of water, or which already contain a large amount of
moisture, this method is preferable to boiling. Another form of cooking, which
is usually termed steaming, is that of placing the food, with or without water,
as needed, in a closed vessel which is placed inside another vessel containing
boiling water. Such an apparatus is termed a double boiler. Food cooked in its
own juices in a covered dish in a hot oven, is sometimes spoken of as being
steamed or smothered.

Stewing is the prolonged cooking of food in a small quantity of liquid, the
temperature of which is just below the boiling point. Stewing should not be
confounded with simmering, which is slow, steady boiling. The proper
temperature for stewing is most easily secured by the use of the double boiler.
The water in the outer vessel boils, while that in the inner vessel does not,
being kept a little below the temperature of the water from which its heat is
obtained, by the constant evaporation at a temperature a little below the
boiling point.

Frying, which is the cooking of food in hot fat, is a method not to be
recommended Unlike all the other food elements, fat is rendered less digestible
by cooking. Doubtless it is for this reason that nature has provided those foods
which require the most prolonged cooking to fit them for use with only a small
proportion of fat, and it would seem to indicate that any food to be subjected
to a high degree of heat should not be mixed and compounded largely of fats.

THE CHEMISTRY AND ECONOMY OF SOUP-MAKING

Stock being the basis of all meat soups, and, also, of all the principal
sauces, it is essential to the success of these culinary operations, to know
the most complete and economical method of extracting, from a certain quantity
of meat, the best possible stock or broth. The theory and philosophy of this
process we will, therefore, explain, and then proceed to show the practical
course to be adopted.

As all meat is principally composed of fibres, fat, gelatine, osmazome, and
albumen, it is requisite to know that the fibres are inseparable, constituting
almost all that remains of the meat after it has undergone a long boiling. Fat
is dissolved by boiling; but as it is contained in cells covered by a very fine
membrane, which never dissolves, a portion of it always adheres to the fibres.
The other portion rises to the surface of the stock, and is that which has
escaped from the cells which were not whole, or which have burst by boiling.
Gelatine is soluble: it is the basis and the nutritious portion of the stock.
When there is an abundance of it, it causes the stock, when cold, to become a
jelly. Osmazome is soluble even when cold, and is that part of the meat which
gives flavour and perfume to the stock. The flesh of old animals contains more
osmazome than that of young ones. Brown meats contain more than white, and the
former make the stock more fragrant. By roasting meat, the osmazome appears to
acquire higher properties; so, by putting the remains of roast meats into your
stock-pot, you obtain a better flavour.

Albumen is of the nature of the white of eggs; it can be dissolved in cold or
tepid water, but coagulates when it is put into water not quite at the
boiling-point. From this property in albumen, it is evident that if the meat is
put into the stock-pot when the water boils, or after this is made to boil up
quickly, the albumen, in both cases, hardens. In the first it rises to the
surface, in the second it remains in the meat, but in both it prevents the
gelatine and osmazome from dissolving; and hence a thin and tasteless stock
will be obtained. It ought to be known, too, that the coagulation of the
albumen in the meat, always takes place, more or less, according to the size of
the piece, as the parts farthest from the surface always acquire that degree of
heat which congeals it before entirely dissolving it.

Bones ought always to form a component part of the stock-pot. They are composed
of an earthy substance, to which they owe their solidity, of gelatine, and a
fatty fluid, something like marrow. Two ounces of them contain as much gelatine
as one pound of meat; but in them, this is so incased in the earthy substance,
that boiling water can dissolve only the surface of whole bones. By breaking
them, however, you can dissolve more, because you multiply their surfaces; and
by reducing them to powder or paste, you can dissolve them entirely; but you
must not grind them dry. Gelatine forms the basis of stock; but this, though
very nourishing, is entirely without taste; and to make the stock savoury, it
must contain osmazome. Of this, bones do not contain a particle; and that is
the reason why stock made entirely of them, is not liked; but when you add meat
to the broken or pulverized bones, the osmazome contained in it makes the stock
sufficiently savoury.

In concluding this part of our subject, the following condensed hints and
directions should be attended to in the economy of soup-making:

Beef makes the best stock. Veal stock has less colour and taste; whilst mutton
sometimes gives it a tallowy smell, far from agreeable, unless the meat has
been previously roasted or broiled. Fowls add very little to the flavour of
stock, unless they be old and fat. Pigeons, when they are old, add the most
flavour to it; and a rabbit or partridge is also a great improvement. From the
freshest meat the best stock is obtained.

If the meat be boiled solely to make stock, it must be cut up into the smallest
possible pieces; but, generally speaking, if it is desired to have good stock
and a piece of savoury meat as well, it is necessary to put a rather large
piece into the stock-pot, say sufficient for two or three days, during which
time the stock will keep well in all weathers. Choose the freshest meat, and
have it cut as thick as possible; for if it is a thin, flat piece, it will not
look well, and will be very soon spoiled by the boiling.

Never wash meat, as it deprives its surface of all its juices; separate it from
the bones, and tie it round with tape, so that its shape may be preserved, then
put it into the stock-pot, and for each pound of meat, let there be one pint of
water; press it down with the hand, to allow the air, which it contains, to
escape, and which often raises it to the top of the water.

Put the stock-pot on a gentle fire, so that it may heat gradually. The albumen
will first dissolve, afterwards coagulate; and as it is in this state lighter
than the liquid, it will rise to the surface; bringing with it all its
impurities. It is this which makes the scum. The rising of the hardened albumen
has the same effect in clarifying stock as the white of eggs; and, as a rule, it
may be said that the more scum there is, the clearer will be the stock. Always
take care that the fire is very regular.

Remove the scum when it rises thickly, and do not let the stock boil, because
then one portion of the scum will be dissolved, and the other go to the bottom
of the pot; thus rendering it very difficult to obtain a clear broth. If the
fire is regular, it will not be necessary to add cold water in order to make
the scum rise; but if the fire is too large at first, it will then be necessary
to do so.

When the stock is well skimmed, and begins to boil, put in salt and vegetables,
which may be two or three carrots, two turnips, one parsnip, a bunch of leeks
and celery tied together. You can add, according to taste, a piece of cabbage,
two or three cloves stuck in an onion, and a tomato. The latter gives a very
agreeable flavour to the stock. If fried onion be added, it ought, according to
the advice of a famous French chef, to be tied in a little bag: without this
precaution, the colour of the stock is liable to be clouded.

By this time we will now suppose that you have chopped the bones which were
separated from the meat, and those which were left from the roast meat of the
day before. Remember, as was before pointed out, that the more these are
broken, the more gelatine you will have. The best way to break them up is to
pound them roughly in an iron mortar, adding, from time to time, a little
water, to prevent them getting heated. In their broken state tie them up in a
bag, and put them in the stock-pot; adding the gristly parts of cold meat, and
trimmings, which can be used for no other purpose. If, to make up the weight,
you have purchased a piece of mutton or veal, broil it slightly over a clear
fire before putting it in the stock-pot, and be very careful that it does not
contract the least taste of being smoked or burnt.

Add now the vegetables, which, to a certain extent, will stop the boiling of
the stock. Wait, therefore, till it simmers well up again, then draw it to the
side of the fire, and keep it gently simmering till it is served, preserving,
as before said, your fire always the same. Cover the stock-pot well, to prevent
evaporation; do not fill it up, even if you take out a little stock, unless the
meat is exposed; in which case a little boiling water may be added, but only
enough to cover it. After six hours' slow and gentle simmering, the stock is
done; and it should not be continued on the fire, longer than is necessary, or
it will tend to insipidity.

Note. It is on a good stock, or first good broth and sauce, that excellence in
cookery depends. If the preparation of this basis of the culinary art is
intrusted to negligent or ignorant persons, and the stock is not well skimmed,
but indifferent results will be obtained. The stock will never be clear; and
when it is obliged to be clarified, it is deteriorated both in quality and
flavour. In the proper management of the stock-pot an immense deal of trouble
is saved, inasmuch as one stock, in a small dinner, serves for all purposes.
Above all things, the greatest economy, consistent with excellence, should be
practised, and the price of everything which enters the kitchen correctly
ascertained. The theory of this part of Household Management may appear
trifling; but its practice is extensive, and therefore it requires the best
attention.

PREPARE AND COOK MACARONI

Macaroni is a product of wheat prepared from a hard, clean, glutenous grain.
The grain is ground into a meal called semolina, from which the bran is
excluded. This is made into a tasty dough by mixing with hot water in the
proportion of two thirds semolina to one third water. The dough after being
thoroughly mixed is put into a shallow vat and kneaded and rolled by machinery.
When well rolled, it is made to assume varying shapes by being forced by a
powerful plunger through the perforated head of strong steel or iron cylinders
arranged above a fire, so that the dough is partially baked as it issues from
the holes. It is afterwards hung over rods or laid upon frames covered with
cloth, and dried. It is called by different names according to its shape. If in
the shape of large, hollow cylinders, it is macaroni; if smaller in diameter, it
is spaghetti; if fine, vermicelli; if the paste is cut into fancy patterns, it
is termed pasta d'Italia. Macaroni was formerly made only in Italy, but at
present is manufactured to a considerable extent in the United States.

Good macaroni will keep in good condition for a long time. It is rough,
elastic, and hard; while the inferior article is smooth, soft, breaks easily,
becomes moldy with keeping. Inferior macaroni contains a large percentage of
starch, and but a small amount of gluten. When put into hot water, it assumes a
white, pasty appearance, and splits in cooking. Good macaroni when put into hot
water absorbs a portion of the water, swells to nearly double its size, but
perfectly retains its shape. It contains a much smaller amount of gluten.

Do not wash macaroni. Break into pieces of convenient size if it is long.
Always put to cook in boiling liquid, taking care to have plenty of water in
the saucepan (as it absorbs a large quantity), and cook until tender. The
length of time required may vary from twenty minutes, if fresh, to one hour if
stale. When tender, turn into a colander and drain, and pour cold water through
it to prevent the tubes from sticking together. The fluid used for cooking may
be water, milk, or a mixture of both; also soup stock, tomato juice, or any
preferred liquid.

Macaroni serves as an important adjunct to the making of various soups, and
also forms the basis of other palatable dishes.

9 SALMON RECIPES

Boiled salmon. 
-------------

Ingredients: 6 oz. of salt to each gallon of water, sufficient water to cover
the fish.

Mode: Scale and clean the fish, and be particular that no blood is left
inside; lay it in the fish-kettle with sufficient cold water to cover it,
adding salt in the above proportion. Bring it quickly to a boil, take off all
the scum, and let it simmer gently till the fish is done, which will be when
the meat separates easily from the bone. Experience alone can teach the cook to
fix the time for boiling fish; but it is especially to be remembered, that it
should never be underdressed, as then nothing is more unwholesome. Neither let
it remain in the kettle after it is sufficiently cooked, as that would render
it insipid, watery, and colourless. Drain it, and if not wanted for a few
minutes, keep it warm by means of warm cloths laid over it. Serve on a hot
napkin, garnish with cut lemon and parsley, and send lobster or shrimp sauce,
and plain melted butter to table with it. A dish of dressed cucumber usually
accompanies this fish.

Time. 8 minutes to each lb. for large thick salmon; 6 minutes for thin fish.

Note. Cut lemon should be put on the table with this fish; and a little of the
juice squeezed over it is considered by many persons a most agreeable addition.
Boiled peas are also, by some connoisseurs, considered especially adapted to be
served with salmon.

Salmon and caper sauce. 
----------------------

Ingredients: 2 slices of salmon, 1/4 lb. batter, 1/2 teaspoonful of chopped
parsley, 1 shalot; salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg to taste.

Mode: Lay the salmon in a baking-dish, place pieces of butter over it, and add
the other ingredients, rubbing a little of the seasoning into the fish; baste it
frequently; when done, take it out and drain for a minute or two; lay it in a
dish, pour caper sauce over it, and serve. Salmon dressed in this way, with
tomato sauce, is very delicious.

Time. About 3/4 hour.

Collared salmon. 
---------------

Ingredients: A piece of salmon, say 3 lbs., a high seasoning of salt, pounded
mace, and pepper; water and vinegar, 3 bay-leaves.

Mode: Split the fish; scale, bone, and wash it thoroughly clean; wipe it, and
rub in the seasoning inside and out; roll it up, and bind firmly; lay it in a
kettle, cover it with vinegar and water (1/3 vinegar, in proportion to the
water); add the bay-leaves and a good seasoning of salt and whole pepper, and
simmer till done. Do not remove the lid. Serve with melted butter or anchovy
sauce. For preserving the collared fish, boil up the liquor in which it was
cooked, and add a little more vinegar. Pour over when cold.

Time. 3/4 hour, or rather more.

Curried salmon. 
--------------

Ingredients: Any remains of boiled salmon, 3/4 pint of strong or medium stock,
1 onion, 1 tablespoonful of curry-powder, 1 teaspoonful of Harvey's sauce, 1
teaspoonful of anchovy sauce, 1 oz. of butter, the juice of 1/2 lemon, cayenne
and salt to taste.

Mode: Cut up the onions into small pieces, and fry them of a pale brown in the
butter; add all the ingredients but the salmon, and simmer gently till the onion
is tender, occasionally stirring the contents; cut the salmon into small square
pieces, carefully take away all skin and bone, lay it in the stewpan, and let
it gradually heat through; but do not allow it to boil long.

Time. 3/4 hour.

Salmon cutlets. 
--------------

Cut the slices 1 inch thick, and season them with pepper and salt; butter a
sheet of white paper, lay each slice on a separate piece, with their ends
twisted; broil gently over a clear fire, and serve with anchovy or caper sauce.
When higher seasoning is required, add a few chopped herbs and a little spice.

Time. 5 to 10 minutes.

Salmon a la genevese. 
-------------------

Ingredients: 2 slices of salmon, 2 chopped shalots, a little parsley, a small
bunch of herbs, 2 bay-leaves, 2 carrots, pounded mace, pepper and salt to
taste, 4 tablespoonfuls of Madeira, 1/2 pint of white stock, thickening of
butter and flour, 1 teaspoonful of essence of anchovies, the juice of 1 lemon,
cayenne and salt to taste.

Mode: Rub the bottom of a stewpan over with butter, and put in the shalots,
herbs, bay-leaves, carrots, mace, and seasoning; stir them for 10 minutes over
a clear fire, and add the Madeira or sherry; simmer gently for 1/2 hour, and
strain through a sieve over the fish, which stew in this gravy. As soon as the
fish is sufficiently cooked, take away all the liquor, except a little to keep
the salmon moist, and put it into another stewpan; add the stock, thicken with
butter and flour, and put in the anchovies, lemon-juice, cayenne, and salt; lay
the salmon on a hot dish, pour over it part of the sauce, and serve the
remainder in a tureen.

Time. 1-1/4 hour.

MOUTH-WATERING LOBSTER RECIPES

To boil lobsters. 
----------------

Ingredients: 1/4 lb. of salt to each gallon of water.

Mode: Medium-sized lobsters are the best. Have ready a stewpan of boiling
water, salted in the above proportion; put in the lobster, and keep it boiling
quickly from 20 minutes to 3/4 hour, according to its size, and do not forget
to skim well. If it boils too long, the meat becomes thready, and if not done
enough, the spawn is not red: this must be obviated by great attention. Hub the
shell over with a little butter or sweet oil, which wipe off again.

Time. Small lobster, 20 minutes to 1/2 hour; large ditto, 1/2 to 1/3 hour.

Hot lobster. 
-----------

Ingredients: 1 lobster, 2 oz. of butter, grated nutmeg; salt, pepper, and
pounded mace, to taste; bread crumbs, 2 eggs.

Mode: Pound the meat of the lobster to a smooth paste with the butter and
seasoning, and add a few bread crumbs. Beat the eggs, and make the whole
mixture into the form of a lobster; pound the spawn, and sprinkle over it. Bake
1/4 hour, and just before serving, lay over it the tail and body shell, with the
small claws underneath, to resemble a lobster.

Time. 1/4 hour.

Lobster salad. 
-------------

Ingredients: 1 hen lobster, lettuces, endive, small salad (whatever is in
season), a little chopped beetroot, 2 hard-boiled eggs, a few slices of
cucumber. For dressing, equal quantities of oil and vinegar, 1 teaspoonful of
made mustard, the yolks of 2 eggs; cayenne and salt to taste; 3 teaspoonful of
anchovy sauce. These ingredients should be mixed perfectly smooth, and form a
creamy-looking sauce.

Mode: Wash the salad, and thoroughly dry it by shaking it in a cloth. Cut up
the lettuces and endive, pour the dressing on them, and lightly throw in the
small salad. Mix all well together with the pickings from the body of the
lobster; pick the meat from the shell, cut it up into nice square pieces, put
half in the salad, the other half reserve for garnishing. Separate the yolks
from the whites of 2 hard-boiled eggs; chop the whites very fine, and rub the
yolks through a sieve, and afterwards the coral from the inside. Arrange the
salad lightly on a glass dish, and garnish, first with a row of sliced
cucumber, then with the pieces of lobster, the yolks and whites of the eggs,
coral, and beetroot placed alternately, and arranged in small separate bunches,
so that the colours contrast nicely.

Note. A few crayfish make a pretty garnishing to lobster salad.

Lobster (a la mode francaise). 
----------------------------

Ingredients: 1 lobster, 4 tablespoonfuls of white stock, 2 tablespoonfuls of
cream, pounded mace, and cayenne to taste; bread crumbs.

Mode: Pick the meat from the shell, and cut it up into small square pieces;
put the stock, cream, and seasoning into a stewpan, add the lobster, and let it
simmer gently for 6 minutes. Serve it in the shell, which must be nicely
cleaned, and have a border of puff-paste; cover it with bread crumbs, place
small pieces of butter over, and brown before the fire, or with a salamander.

Time. 1/4 hour.

Lobster curry (an Entree). 
-------------------------

Ingredients: 1 lobster, 2 onions, 1 oz. butter, 1 tablespoonful of
curry-powder, 1/2 pint of medium stock, the juice of 1/2 lemon.

Mode: Pick the meat from the shell, and cut it into nice square pieces; fry
the onions of a pale brown in the butter, stir in the curry-powder and stock,
and simmer till it thickens, when put in the lobster; stew the whole slowly for
1/2 hour, and stir occasionally; and just before sending to table, put in the
lemon-juice. Serve boiled rice with it, the same as for other curries.

Time. Altogether, 3/4 hour.

Lobster cutlets (an Entree). 
---------------------------

Ingredients: 1 large hen lobster, 1 oz. fresh butter, 1/2 saltspoonful of
salt, pounded mace, grated nutmeg, cayenne and white pepper to taste, egg, and
bread crumbs.

Mode: Pick the meat from the shell, and pound it in a mortar with the butter,
and gradually add the mace and seasoning, well mixing the ingredients; beat all
to a smooth paste, and add a little of the spawn; divide the mixture into pieces
of an equal size, and shape them like cutlets. They should not be very thick.
Brush them over with egg, and sprinkle with bread crumbs, and stick a short
piece of the small claw in the top of each; fry them of a nice brown in boiling
lard, and drain them before the fire, on a sieve reversed; arrange them nicely
on a dish, and pour bechamel in the middle, but not over the cutlets.

Time. About 8 minutes after the cutlets are made.

Lobster patties (an Entree). 
---------------------------

Ingredients: Minced lobster, 4 tablespoonfuls of bechamel, 6 drops of anchovy
sauce, lemon-juice, cayenne to taste.

Mode: Line the patty-pans with puff-paste, and put into each a small piece of
bread: cover with paste, brush over with egg, and bake of a light colour. Take
as much lobster as is required, mince the meat very fine, and add the above
ingredients; stir it over the fire for 6 minutes; remove the lids of the
patty-cases, take out the bread, fill with the mixture, and replace the covers.

Potted lobster. 
--------------

Ingredients: 2 lobsters; seasoning to taste, of nutmeg, pounded mace, white
pepper, and salt; 1/4 lb. of butter, 3 or 4 bay-leaves.

Mode: Take out the meat carefully from the shell, but do not cut it up. Put
some butter at the bottom of a dish, lay in the lobster as evenly as possible,
with the bay-leaves and seasoning between. Cover with butter, and bake for 3/4
hour in a gentle oven. When done, drain the whole on a sieve, and lay the
pieces in potting-jars, with the seasoning about them. When cold, pour over it
clarified butter, and, if very highly seasoned, it will keep some time.

Time. 3/4 hour.

MACARONI RECIPES

Home-made macaroni. 
-----------------

To four cupfuls of flour, add one egg well beaten, and enough water to make a
dough that can be rolled. Roll thin on a breadboard and cut into strips. Dry in
the sun. The best arrangement for this purpose is a wooden frame to which a
square of cheese-cloth has been tightly tacked, upon which the macaroni may be
laid in such a way as not to touch, and afterwards covered with a cheese-cloth
to keep off the dust during the drying.

Boiled macaroni. 
--------------

Put a larg cup of macaroni into boiling water and cook until tender. When done,
drained thoroughly, then add a pint of milk, part cream if it can be afforded, a
little salt and one well-beaten egg; stir over the fire until it thickens, and
serve hot.

Macaroni with cream sauce. 
------------------------

Cook the macaroni as directed in the proceeding, and serve with a cream sauce
prepared by heating a scant pint of rich milk to boiling, in a double boiler.
When boiling, add a heaping tablespoonful of flour, rubbed smoothed in a little
milk and one fourth teaspoonful of salt. If desired, the sauce may be flavored
by steeping in the milk before thickening for ten or fifteen minutes, a slice
of onion or a few bits of celery, and then removing with a fork.

Macaroni with tomato sauce. 
-------------------------

Drop a cup of macaroni into boiling milk and water, equal parts. Let it boil
for an hour, or until perfectly tender. In the meantime prepare the sauce by
rubbing a pint of stewed or canned tomatoes through a colander to remove all
seeds and fragments. Heat to boiling, thicken with a little flour; a
tablespoonful to the pint will be about the requisite proportion. Add salt and
if desired, a half cup of very thin sweet cream. Dish the macaroni into
individual dishes, and serve with a small quantity of the sauce poured over
each dish.

Macaroni baked with granola. 
--------------------------

Cook a large cup of macaroni until tender in boiling milk and water. When done,
drain and put a layer of the macaroni in the bottom of a pudding dish, and
sprinkle over it a scant teaspoonful of granola. Add a second and third layer
and sprinkle each with granola; then turn over the whole a custard sauce
prepared by mixing together a pint of milk, the well beaten yolks of two eggs
or one whole egg, and one-fourth of a teaspoonful of salt. Care should be taken
to arrange the macaroni in layers loosely, so that the sauce will readily
permeate the whole. Bake for a few minutes only, until the custard has well
set, and serve.

Eggs and macaroni. 
----------------

Cook a cup of macaroni in boiling water. While the macaroni is cooking, boil
the yolks of four eggs until mealy. The whole egg may be used if caught so the
yolks are mealy in the whites simply jellied, not hardened. When the macaroni
is done, drain and put a layer of it arranged loosely in the bottom of a
pudding dish. Slice the cooked egg yolks and spread a layer of them over the
macaroni. Fill the dish with alternate layers of macaroni and egg, taking care
to have the top layer of macaroni. Pour over the whole a cream sauce prepared
as follows: Heat one and three fourths cup of rich milk to boiling, add one
fourth teaspoonful of salt and one heaping spoonful of flour rubbed smooth in a
little cold milk. Cook until thickened, then turn over the macaroni. Sprinkle
the top with grated bread crumbs, and brown in a hot oven for eight or ten
minutes. Serve hot.

IMPORTANCE OF FOOD ELEMENTS

The purposes of food are to promote growth, to supply force and heat, and to
furnish material to repair the waste which is constantly taking place in the
body. Every breath, every thought, every motion, wears out some portion of the
delicate and wonderful house in which we live. Various vital processes remove
these worn and useless particles; and to keep the body in health, their loss
must be made good by constantly renewed supplies of material properly adapted
to replenish the worn and impaired tissues. This renovating material must be
supplied through the medium of food and drink, and the best food is that by
which the desired end may be most readily and perfectly attained. The great
diversity in character of the several tissues of the body, makes it necessary
that food should contain a variety of elements, in order that each part may be
properly nourished and replenished.

The food elements. 
------------------

The various elements found in food are the following: Starch, sugar, fats,
albumen, mineral substances, indigestible substances.

The digestible food elements are often grouped, according to their chemical
composition, into three classes; vis., carbonaceous, nitrogenous, and
inorganic. The carbonaceous class includes starch, sugar, and fats; the
nitrogenous, all albuminous elements; and the inorganic comprises the mineral
elements.

Starch is only found in vegetable foods; all grains, most vegetables, and some
fruits, contain starch in abundance. Several kinds of sugar are made in
nature's laboratory; cane, grape, fruit, and milk sugar. The first is obtained
from the sugar-cane, the sap of maple trees, and from the beet root. Grape and
fruit sugars are found in most fruits and in honey. Milk sugar is one of the
constituents of milk. Glucose, an artificial sugar resembling grape sugar, is
now largely manufactured by subjecting the starch of corn or potatoes to a
chemical process; but it lacks the sweetness of natural sugars, and is by no
means a proper substitute for them. Albumen is found in its purest, uncombined
state in the white of an egg, which is almost wholly composed of albumen. It
exists, combined with other food elements, in many other foods, both animal and
vegetable. It is found abundant in oatmeal, and to some extent in the other
grains, and in the juices of vegetables. All natural foods contain elements
which in many respects resemble albumen, and are so closely allied to it that
for convenience they are usually classified under the general name of
"albumen." The chief of these is gluten, which is found in wheat, rye, and
barley. Casein, found in peas, beans, and milk, and the fibrin of flesh, are
elements of this class.

Fats are found in both animal and vegetable foods. Of animal fats, butter and
suet are common examples. In vegetable form, fat is abundant in nuts, peas,
beans, in various of the grains, and in a few fruits, as the olive. As
furnished by nature in nuts, legumes, grains, fruits, and milk, this element is
always found in a state of fine subdivision, which condition is the one best
adapted to its digestion. As most commonly used, in the form of free fats, as
butter, lard, etc., it is not only difficult of digestion itself, but often
interferes with the digestion of the other food elements which are mixed with
it. It was doubtless never intended that fats should be so modified from their
natural condition and separated from other food elements as to be used as a
separate article of food. The same may be said of the other carbonaceous
elements, sugar and starch, neither of which, when used alone, is capable of
sustaining life, although when combined in a proper and natural manner with
other food elements, they perform a most important part in the nutrition of the
body. Most foods contain a percentage of the mineral elements. Grains and milk
furnish these elements in abundance. The cellulose, or woody tissue, of
vegetables, and the bran of wheat, are examples of indigestible elements, which
although they cannot be converted into blood in tissue, serve an important
purpose by giving bulk to the food.

With the exception of gluten, none of the food elements, when used alone, are
capable of supporting life. A true food substance contains some of all the food
elements, the amount of each varying in different foods.

Uses of the food elements. 
-------------------------

Concerning the purpose which these different elements serve, it has been
demonstrated by the experiments of eminent physiologists that the carbonaceous
elements, which in general comprise the greater bulk of the food, serve three
purposes in the body;

1. They furnish material for the production of heat;

2. They are a source of force when taken in connection with other food elements;

3. They replenish the fatty tissues of the body. Of the carbonaceous elements,
starch, sugar, and fats, fats produce the greatest amount of heat in proportion
to quantity; that is, more heat is developed from a pound of fat than from an
equal weight of sugar or starch; but this apparent advantage is more than
counterbalanced by the fact that fats are much more difficult of digestion than
are the other carbonaceous elements, and if relied upon to furnish adequate
material for bodily heat, would be productive of much mischief in overtaxing
and producing disease of the digestive organs. The fact that nature has made a
much more ample provision of starch and sugars than of fats in man's natural
diet, would seem to indicate that they were intended to be the chief source of
carbonaceous food; nevertheless, fats, when taken in such proportion as nature
supplies them, are necessary and important food elements.

The nitrogenous food elements especially nourish the brain, nerves, muscles,
and all the more highly vitalized and active tissues of the body, and also
serve as a stimulus to tissue change. Hence it may be said that a food
deficient in these elements is a particularly poor food.

The inorganic elements, chief of which are the phosphates, in the carbonates of
potash, soda, and lime, aid in furnishing the requisite building material for
bones and nerves.

Proper combinations of foods. 
----------------------------

While it is important that our food should contain some of all the various food
elements, experiments upon both animals and human beings show it is necessary
that these elements, especially the nitrogenous and carbonaceous, be used in
certain definite proportions, as the system is only able to appropriate a
certain amount of each; and all excess, especially of nitrogenous elements, is
not only useless, but even injurious, since to rid the system of the surplus
imposes an additional task upon the digestive and excretory organs. The
relative proportion of these elements necessary to constitute a food which
perfectly meets the requirements of the system, is six of carbonaceous to one
of nitrogenous. Scientists have devoted much careful study and experimentation
to the determination of the quantities of each of the food elements required
for the daily nourishment of individuals under the varying conditions of life,
and it has come to be commonly accepted that of the nitrogenous material which
should constitute one sixth of the nutrients taken, about three ounces is all
that can be made use of in twenty-four hours, by a healthy adult of average
weight, doing a moderate amount of work. Many articles of food are, however,
deficient in one or the other of these elements, and need to be supplemented by
other articles containing the deficient element in superabundance, since to
employ a dietary in which any one of the nutritive elements is lacking,
although in bulk it may be all the digestive organs can manage, is really
starvation, and will in time occasion serious results.

It is thus apparent that much care should be exercised in the selection and
combination of food materials. Such knowledge is of first importance in the
education of cooks and housekeepers, since to them falls the selection of the
food for the daily needs of the household; and they should not only understand
what foods are best suited to supply these needs, but how to combine them in
accordance with physiological laws.

HYGIENE OF DIGESTION

With the stomach and other digestive organs in a state of perfect health, one
is entirely unconscious of their existence, save when of feeling of hunger
calls attention to the fact that food is required, or satiety warns us that a
sufficient amount or too much has been eaten. Perfect digestion can only be
maintained by careful observance of the rules of health in regard to habits of
eating.

On the subject of Hygiene of Digestion, we quote a few paragraphs from Dr.
Kellogg's work on Physiology, in which is given a concise summary of the more
important points relating to this:

"The hygiene of digestion has to do with the quality and quantity of food
eaten, in the manner of eating it.

If the food is eaten too rapidly, it will not be properly divided, and when
swallowed in coarse lumps, the digestive fluids cannot readily act upon it. On
account of the insufficient mastication, the saliva will be deficient in
quantity, and, as a consequence, the starch will not be well digested, and the
stomach will not secrete a sufficient amount of gastric juice. It is not well
to eat only soft or liquid food, as we are likely to swallow it without proper
chewing. A considerable proportion of hard food, which requires thorough
mastication, should be eaten at every meal.

Drinking Freely at Meals is harmful, as it not only encourages hasty eating,
but dilutes the gastric juice, and thus lessens its activity. The food should
be chewed until sufficiently moistened by saliva to allow it to be swallowed.
When large quantities of fluid are taken into the stomach, digestion does not
begin until a considerable portion of the fluid has been absorbed. If cold
foods or drinks are taken with the meal, such as ice-cream, ice-water, iced
milk or tea, the stomach is chilled, and a long delay in the digestive process
is occasioned.

The Indians of Brazil carefully abstain from drinking when eating, and the same
custom prevails among many other savage tribes.

Eating between Meals. 
--------------------

The habit of eating apples, nuts, fruits, confectionery, etc., between meals is
exceedingly harmful, and certain to produce loss of appetite and indigestion.
The stomach as well as the muscles and other organs of the body requires rest.
The frequency with which meals should be taken depends somewhat upon the age
and occupation of an individual. Infants take their food at short intervals,
and owing to its simple character, are able to digest it very quickly. Adults
should not take food oftener than three times a day; and persons whose
employment is sedentary say, in many cases at least, adopt with advantage the
plan of the ancient Greeks, who ate but twice a day.

Simplicity in Diet. 
------------------

Taking too many kinds of food at a meal is a common fault which is often a
cause of disease of the digestive-organs. Those nations are the most hardy and
enduring whose dietary is most simple. The Scotch peasantry live chiefly upon
oatmeal, the Irish upon potatoes, milk, and oatmeal, the Italian upon peas,
beans, macaroni, and chestnuts; yet all these are noted for remarkable health
and endurance. The natives of the Canary Islands, an exceedingly well-developed
and vigorous race, subsist almost chiefly upon a food which they call gofio,
consisting of parched grain, coarsely ground in a mortar and mixed with water.

Eating when Tired. 
----------------

It is not well to eat when exhausted by violent exercise, as the system is not
prepared to do the work of digestion well. Sleeping immediately after eating is
also a harmful practice. The process of
digestion cannot well be performed during sleep, and sleep is disturbed by the
ineffective efforts of the digestive organs. Hence the well-known evil effects
of late suppers.

Eating too Much. 
--------------

Hasty eating is the greatest cause of over-eating. When one eats too rapidly,
the food is crowded into the stomach so fast that nature has no time to cry,
'Enough,' by taking away the appetite before too much has been eaten. When an
excess of food is taken, it is likely to ferment or sour before it can be
digested. One who eats too much usually feels dull after eating."

FRUIT COCKTAILS.

Cocktails made of a combination of fruits are often served as the first course
of a meal, usually a luncheon or a dinner, to precede the soup course. In warm
weather, they are an excellent substitute for heavy cocktails made of lobster
or crab, and they may even be used to replace the soup course. The fruits used
for this purpose should be the more acid ones, for the acids and flavors are
intended to serve as an appetizer, or the same purpose for which the hot and
highly seasoned soups are taken. Fruit cocktails should always be served ice
cold.

Grapefruit cocktail. 
-------------------

The cocktail here explained may be served in stemmed glasses or in the shells
of the grapefruit. If the fruit shells are to be used, the grapefruit should be
cut into two parts, half way between the blossom and the stem ends, the fruit
removed, and the edges of the shell then notched. This plan of serving a
cocktail should be adopted only when small grapefruits are used, for if the
shells are large more fruit will have to be used than is agreeable for a
cocktail.

2 grapefruits 
2 oranges 
1 c. diced pineapple, fresh or canned Powdered sugar

Remove the pulp from the grapefruits and oranges. However, if the grapefruit
shells are to be used for serving the cocktail, the grapefruit should be cut in
half and the pulp then taken out of the skin with a sharp knife. With the
sections of pulp removed, cut each one into several pieces. Add the diced
pineapple to the other fruits, mix together well and set on ice until
thoroughly chilled. Put in cocktail glasses or grapefruit shells, pour a
spoonful or two of orange juice over each serving, sprinkle with powdered
sugar, garnish with a cherry, and serve ice cold.

Summer cocktail. 
--------------

As strawberries and pineapples can be obtained fresh at the same time during
the summer, they are often used together in a cocktail. When sweetened slightly
with powdered sugar and allowed to become ice cold, these fruits make a
delicious combination.

2 c. diced fresh pineapple 
2 c. sliced strawberries 
Powdered sugar

Prepare a fresh pineapple, and cut each slice into small pieces or dice. Wash
and hull the strawberries and slice them into small slices. Mix the two fruits
and sprinkle them with powdered sugar. Place in cocktail glasses and allow to
stand on ice a short time before serving.

Fruit cocktail. 
--------------

A fruit cocktail proper is made by combining a number of different kinds of
fruit, such as bananas, pineapple, oranges, and maraschino cherries. Such a
cocktail is served in a stemmed glass set on a small plate. Nothing more
delicious than this can be prepared for the first course of a dinner or a
luncheon that is to be served daintily. Its advantage is that it can be made at
almost any season of the year with these particular fruits.

2 bananas 
1 c. canned pineapple 
2 oranges 
1 doz. maraschino cherries 
Lemon juice 
Powdered sugar

Peel the bananas and dice them. Dice the pineapple. Remove the pulp from the
oranges in the manner, and cut each section into several pieces. Mix these
three fruits. Cut the cherries in half and add to the mixture. Set on ice until
thoroughly chilled. To serve, put into cocktail glasses and add to each glass 1
tablespoonful of maraschino juice from the cherries and 1 teaspoonful of lemon
juice. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.

5 FISH SOUPS

Fish stock. 
----------

Ingredients: 2 lbs. of beef or veal (these can be omitted), any kind of white
fish trimmings, of fish which are to be dressed for table, 2 onions, the rind
of 1/2 a lemon, a bunch of sweet herbs, 2 carrots, 2 quarts of water.

Mode: Cut up the fish, and put it, with the other ingredients, into the water.
Simmer for 2 hours; skim the liquor carefully, and strain it. When a richer
stock is wanted, fry the vegetables and fish before adding the water.

Time. 2 hours.

Note. Do not make fish stock long before it is wanted, as it soon turns sour.

Crayfish soup. 
-------------

Ingredients:

50 crayfish
1/4 lb. of butter
6 anchovies
the crumb of 1 French roll
a little lobster-spawn
seasoning to taste
2 quarts of medium stock or fish stock

Mode: Shell the crayfish, and put the fish between two plates until they are
wanted; pound the shells in a mortar, with the butter and anchovies; when well
beaten, add a pint of stock, and simmer for 3/4 of an hour. Strain it through a
hair sieve, put the remainder of the stock to it, with the crumb of the rolls;
give it one boil, and rub it through a tammy, with the lobster-spawn. Put in
the fish, but do not let the soup boil, after it has been rubbed through the
tammy. If necessary, add seasoning.

Time. 1-1/2 hour.

Eel soup. 
--------

Ingredients:

3 lbs. of eels
1 onion
2 oz. of butter
3 blades of mace
1 bunch of sweet herbs
1/4 oz. of peppercorns salt to taste
2 tablespoonfuls of flour
1/4 pint of cream
2 quarts of water

Mode: Wash the eels, cut them into thin slices, and put them in the stewpan
with the butter; let them simmer for a few minutes, then pour the water to
them, and add the onion, cut in thin slices, the herbs, mace, and seasoning.
Simmer till the eels are tender, but do not break the fish. Take them out
carefully, mix the flour smoothly to a batter with the cream, bring it to a
boil, pour over the eels, and serve.

Time. 1 hour, or rather more.

Note. This soup may be flavoured differently by omitting the cream, and adding
a little ketchup.

Lobster soup.
------------

Ingredients:

3 large lobsters, or 6 small ones
the crumb of a French roll
2 anchovies
1 onion
1 small bunch of sweet herbs
1 strip of lemon-peel, 
2 oz. of butter
a little nutmeg
1 teaspoonful of flour
1 pint of cream
1 pint of milk
forcemeat balls
mace
salt and pepper to taste
bread crumbs
1 egg
2 quarts of water

Mode: Pick the meat from the lobsters, and beat the fins, chine, and small
claws in a mortar, previously taking away the brown fin and the bag in the
head. Put it in a stewpan, with the crumb of the roll, anchovies, onions,
herbs, lemon-peel, and the water; simmer gently till all the goodness is
extracted, and strain it off. Pound the spawn in a mortar, with the butter,
nutmeg, and flour, and mix with it the cream and milk. Give one boil up, at the
same time adding the tails cut in pieces. Make the forcemeat balls with the
remainder of the lobster, seasoned with mace, pepper, and salt, adding a little
flour, and a few bread crumbs; moisten them with the egg, heat them in the soup,
and serve.

Time. 2 hours, or rather more.

Oyster soup - 1
------------

Ingredients: 

6 dozen of oysters
2 quarts of white stock
1/2 pint of cream
2 oz. of butter
1-1/2 oz. of flour
salt, cayenne, and mace to taste

Mode: Scald the oysters in their own liquor; take them out, beard them, and
put them in a tureen. Take a pint of the stock, put in the beards and the
liquor, which must be carefully strained, and simmer for 1/2 an hour. Take it
off the fire, strain it again, and add the remainder of the stock with the
seasoning and mace. Bring it to a boil, add the thickening of butter and flour,
simmer for 5 minutes, stir in the boiling cream, pour it over the oysters, and
serve.

Time. 1 hour.

Note. This soup can be made less rich by using milk instead of cream, and
thickening with arrowroot instead of butter and flour.

Oyster soup - 2 
-------------

Ingredients: 

2 quarts of good mutton broth
6 dozen oysters
2 oz. butter
1 oz. of flour

Mode: Beard the oysters, and scald them in their own liquor; then add it, well
strained, to the broth; thicken with the butter and flour, and simmer for 1/4 of
an hour. Put in the oysters, stir well, but do not let it boil, and serve very
hot.

Time. 3/4 hour.

Prawn soup. 
----------

Ingredients: 

2 quarts of fish stock or water
2 pints of prawns
the crumbs of a French roll
anchovy sauce or mushroom ketchup to taste
1 blade of mace
1 pint of vinegar
a little lemon-juice

Mode: Pick out the tails of the prawns, put the bodies in a stewpan with 1
blade of mace, 1/2 pint of vinegar, and the same quantity of water; stew them
for 1/4 hour, and strain off the liquor. Put the fish stock or water into a
stewpan; add the strained liquor, pound the prawns with the crumb of a roll
moistened with a little of the soup, rub them through a tammy, and mix them by
degrees with the soup; add ketchup or anchovy sauce to taste, with a little
lemon-juice. When it is well cooked, put in a few picked prawns; let them get
thoroughly hot, and serve. If not thick enough, put in a little butter and
flour.

Time. 1 hour.

DIFFERENT WAYS TO COOK RICE

Rice needs to be thoroughly washed. A good way to do this is to put it into a
colander, in a deep pan of water. Rub the rice well with the hands, lifting the
colander in and out the water, and changing the water until it is clear; then
drain. In this way the grit is deposited in the water, and the rice left
thoroughly clean.

The best method of cooking rice is by steaming it. If boiled in much water, it
loses a portion of its already small percentage of nitrogenous elements. It
requires much less time for cooking than any of the other grains. Like all the
dried grains and seeds, rice swells in cooking to several times its original
bulk. When cooked, each grain of rice should be separate and distinct, yet
perfectly tender.

Steamed rice. 
------------

Soak a cup of rice in one and a fourth cups of water for an hour, then add a
cup of milk, turn into a dish suitable for serving it from at table, and place
in a steam-cooker or a covered steamer over a kettle of boiling water, and
steam for an hour. It should be stirred with a fork occasionally, for the first
ten or fifteen minutes.

Boiled rice (japanese method). 
-----------------------------

Thoroughly cleanse the rice by washing in several waters, and soak it
overnight. In the morning, drain it, and put to cook in an equal quantity of
boiling water, that is, a pint of water for a pint of rice. For cooking, a
stewpan with tightly fitting cover should be used. Heat the water to boiling,
then add the rice, and after stirring, put on the cover, which is not again to
be removed during the boiling. At first, as the water boils, steam will puff
out freely from under the cover, but when the water has nearly evaporated,
which will be in eight to ten minutes, according to the age and quality of the
rice, only a faint suggestion of steam will be observed, and the stewpan must
then be removed from over the fire to some place on the range, where it will
not burn, to swell and dry for fifteen or twenty minutes.

Rice to be boiled in the ordinary manner requires two quarts of boiling water
to one cupful of rice. It should be boiled rapidly until tender, then drained
at once, and set in a moderate oven to become dry. Picking and lifting lightly
occasionally with a fork will make it more flaky and dry. Care must be taken,
however, not to mash the rice grains.

Rice with fig sauce. 
-------------------

Steam a cupful of best rice as directed above, and when done, serve with a fig
sauce. Dish a spoonful of the fig sauce with each saucer of rice, and serve
with plenty of cream. Rice served in this way requires no sugar for dressing,
and is a most wholesome breakfast dish.

Orange rice. 
----------

Wash and steam the rice. Prepare some oranges by separating into sections and
cutting each section in halves, removing the seeds and all the white portion.
Sprinkle the oranges lightly with sugar, and let them stand while the rice is
cooking. Serve a portion of the orange on each saucerful of rice.

Rice with raisins. 
------------------

Carefully wash a cupful of rice, soak it, and cook as directed for Steamed
Rice. After the rice has began to swell, but before it has softened, stir into
it lightly, using a fork for the purpose, a cupful of raisins. Serve with cream.

Rice with peaches. 
-----------------

Steam the rice and when done, serve with cream and a nicely ripened peach pared
and sliced on each individual dish.

Browned rice. 
------------

Spread a cupful of rice on a shallow baking tin, and put into a moderately hot
oven to brown. It will need to be stirred frequently to prevent burning and to
secure a uniformity of color. Each rice kernel, when sufficiently browned,
should be of a yellowish brown, about the color of ripened wheat. Steam the
same as directed for ordinary rice, using only two cups of water for each cup
of browned rice, and omitting the preliminary soaking. When properly cooked,
each kernel will be separated, dry, and mealy. Rice prepared in this manner is
undoubtedly more digestible than when cooked without browning.

COOKING OF GRAINS

All grains, with the exception of rice, and the various grain meals, require
prolonged cooking with gentle and continuous heat, in order to so disintegrate
their tissues and change their starch into dextrine as to render them easy of
digestion. Even the so-called "steam-cooked" grains, advertised to be ready for
use in five or ten minutes, require a much longer cooking to properly fit them
for digestion. These so-called quickly prepared grains are simply steamed
before grinding, which has the effect to destroy any low organisms contained in
the grain. They are then crushed and shredded. Bicarbonate of soda and lime is
added to help dissolve the albuminoids, and sometimes diastase to aid the
conversion of the starch into sugar; but there is nothing in this preparatory
process that so alters the chemical nature of the grain as to make it possible
to cook it ready for easy digestion in five or ten minutes. An insufficiently
cooked grain, although it may be palatable, is not in a condition to be readily
acted upon by the digestive fluids, and is in consequence left undigested to act
as a mechanical irritant.

Water is the liquid usually employed for cooking grains, but many of them are
richer and finer flavored when milk is mixed with the water, one part to two of
water. Especially is this true of rice, hominy, and farina. When water is used,
soft water is preferable to hard. No salt is necessary, but if used at all, it
is generally added to the water before stirring in the grain or meal.

The quantity of liquid required varies with the different grains, the manner in
which they are milled, the method by which they are cooked, and the consistency
desired for the cooked grain, more liquid being required for a porridge than
for a mush.

All grains should be carefully looked over before being put to cook.

In the cooking of grains, the following points should be observed:

1. Measure both liquid and grain accurately with the same utensil, or with two
of equal size.

2. Have the water boiling when the grain is introduced, but do not allow it to
boil for a long time previous, until it is considerably evaporated, as that
will change the proportion of water and grain sufficiently to alter the
consistency of the mush when cooked. Introduce the grain slowly, so as not to
stop the sinking to the bottom, and the whole becomes thickened.

3. Stir the grain continuously until it has set, but not at all afterward.
Grains are much more appetizing if, while properly softened, they can still be
made to retain their original form. Stirring renders the preparation pasty, and
destroys its appearance.

In the preparation of all mushes with meal or flour, it is a good plan to make
the material into a batter with a portion of the liquid retained from the
quantity given, before introducing it into the boiling water. This prevents the
tendency to cook in lumps, so frequent when dry meal is scattered into boiling
liquid. Care must be taken, however, to add the moistened portion very slowly,
stirring vigorously meantime, so that the boiling will not be checked. Use warm
water for moistening. The other directions given for the whole or broken grains
are applicable to the ground products.

Place the grain, when sufficiently cooked, in the refrigerator or in some place
where it will cool quickly (as slow cooling might cause fermentation), to remain
overnight.

CIRCUMSTANCES IMPACTING THE QUALITY OF MEAT

During the period between the birth and maturity of animals, their flesh
undergoes very considerable changes. For instance, when the animal is young,
the fluids which the tissues of the muscles contain, possess a large proportion
of what is called albumen . This albumen, which is also the chief component of
the white of eggs, possesses the peculiarity of coagulating or hardening at a
certain temperature, like the white of a boiled egg, into a soft, white fluid,
no longer soluble, or capable of being dissolved in water. As animals grow
older, this peculiar animal matter gradually decreases, in proportion to the
other constituents of the juice of the flesh. Thus, the reason why veal, lamb
are white, and without gravy when cooked, is, that the large quantity of
albumen they contain hardens, or becomes coagulated. On the other hand, the
reason why beef and mutton are brown, and have gravy , is, that the proportion
of albumen they contain, is small, in comparison with their greater quantity of
fluid which is soluble, and not coagulable.

The quality of the flesh of an animal is considerably influenced by the nature
of the food on which it has been fed ; for the food supplies the material which
produces the flesh. If the food be not suitable and good, the meat cannot be
good either. To the experienced in this matter, it is well known that the flesh
of animals fed on farinaceous produce, such as corn, pulse, &c., is firm,
well-flavoured, and also economical in the cooking; that the flesh of those fed
on succulent and pulpy substances, such as roots, possesses these qualities in a
somewhat less degree; whilst the flesh of those whose food contains fixed oil,
as linseed, is greasy, high coloured, and gross in the fat, and if the food has
been used in large quantities, possessed of a rank flavour.

It is indispensable to the good quality of meat, that the animal should be
perfectly healthy at the time of its slaughter. However slight the disease in
an animal may be, inferiority in the quality of its flesh, as food, is certain
to be produced. In most cases, indeed, as the flesh of diseased animals has a
tendency to very rapid putrefaction, it becomes not only unwholesome, but
absolutely poisonous, on account of the absorption of the virus of the unsound
meat into the systems of those who partake of it. The external indications of
good and bad meat will be described under its own particular head, but we may
here premise that the layer of all wholesome meat, when freshly killed, adheres
firmly to the bone.

Another circumstance greatly affecting the quality of meat, is the animal's
treatment before it is slaughtered . This influences its value and
wholesomeness in no inconsiderable degree. It will be easy to understand this,
when we reflect on those leading principles by which the life of an animal is
supported and maintained. These are, the digestion of its food, and the
assimilation of that food into its substance. Nature, in effecting this
process, first reduces the food in the stomach to a state of pulp, under the
name of chyme, which passes into the intestines, and is there divided into two
principles, each distinct from the other. One, a milk-white fluid, the
nutritive portion, is absorbed by innumerable vessels which open upon the
mucous membrane, or inner coat of the intestines. These vessels, or absorbents,
discharge the fluid into a common duct, or road, along which it is conveyed to
the large veins in the neighbourhood of the heart. Here it is mixed with the
venous blood (which is black and impure) returning from every part of the body,
and then it supplies the waste which is occasioned in the circulating stream by
the arterial (or pure) blood having furnished matter for the substance of the
animal. The blood of the animal having completed its course through all parts,
and having had its waste recruited by the digested food, is now received into
the heart, and by the action of that organ it is urged through the lungs, there
to receive its purification from the air which the animal inhales. Again
returning to the heart, it is forced through the arteries, and thence
distributed, by innumerable ramifications, called capillaries, bestowing to
every part of the animal, life and nutriment. The other principle the
innutritive portion passes from the intestines, and is thus got rid of. It will
now be readily understood how flesh is affected for bad, if an animal is
slaughtered when the circulation of its blood has been increased by
over-driving, ill-usage, or other causes of excitement, to such a degree of
rapidity as to be too great for the capillaries to perform their functions, and
causing the blood to be congealed in its minuter vessels. Where this has been
the case, the meat will be dark-coloured, and become rapidly putrid; so that
self-interest and humanity alike dictate kind and gentle treatment of all
animals destined to serve as food for man.

CEREALS AND THEIR PREPARATION

Cereal is the name given to those seeds used as food (wheat, rye, oats, barley,
corn, rice, etc.), which are produced by plants belonging to the vast order
known as the grass family. They are used for food both in the unground state
and in various forms of mill products.

The grains are pre-eminently nutritious, and when well prepared, easily
digested foods. In composition they are all similar, but variations in their
constituent elements and the relative amounts of these various elements, give
them different degrees of alimentary value. They each contain one or more of
the nitrogenous elements, gluten, albumen, caseine, and fibrin, together with
starch, dextrine, sugar, and fatty matter, and also mineral elements and woody
matter, or cellulose. The combined nutritive value of the grain foods is nearly
three times that of beef, mutton, or poultry. As regards the proportion of the
food elements necessary to meet the various requirements of the system, grains
approach more nearly the proper standard than most other foods; indeed, wheat
contains exactly the correct proportion of the food elements.

Being thus in themselves so nearly perfect foods, and when properly prepared,
exceedingly palatable and easy of digestion, it is a matter of surprise that
they are not more generally used; yet scarcely one family in fifty makes any
use of the grains, save in the form of flour, or an occasional dish of rice or
oatmeal. This use of grains is far too meager to adequately represent their
value as an article of diet. Variety in the use of grains is as necessary as in
the use of other food material, and the numerous grain preparations now to be
found in market render it quite possible to make this class of foods a staple
article of diet, if so desired, without their becoming at all monotonous.

In olden times the grains were largely depended upon as a staple food, and it
is a fact well authenticated by history that the highest condition of man has
always been associated with wheat-consuming nations. The ancient Spartans,
whose powers of endurance are proverbial, were fed on a grain diet, and the
Roman soldiers who under Caesar conquered the world, carried each a bag of
parched grain in his pocket as his daily ration.

Other nationalities at the present time make extensive use of the various
grains. Rice used in connection with some of the leguminous seeds, forms the
staple article of diet for a large proportion of the human race. Rice, unlike
the other grain foods, is deficient in the nitrogenous elements, and for this
reason its use needs to be supplemented by other articles containing an excess
of the nitrogenous material. It is for this reason, doubtless, that the Chinese
eat peas and beans in connection with rice.

We frequently meet people who say they cannot use the grains, that they do not
agree with them. With all deference to the opinion of such people, it may be
stated that the difficulty often lies in the fact that the grain was either not
properly cooked, not properly eaten, or not properly accompanied. A grain,
simply because it is a grain, is by no means warranted to faithfully fulfil its
mission unless properly treated. Like many another good thing excellent in
itself, if found in bad company, it is prone to create mischief, and in many
cases the root of the whole difficulty may be found in the excessive amount of
sugar used with the grain.

Sugar is not needed with grains to increase their alimentary value. The starch
which constitutes a large proportion of their food elements must itself be
converted into sugar by the digestive processes before assimilation, hence the
addition of cane sugar only increases the burden of the digestive organs, for
the pleasure of the palate. The Asiatics, who subsist largely upon rice, use no
sugar upon it, and why should it be considered requisite for the enjoyment of
wheat, rye, oatmeal, barley, and other grains, any more than it is for our
enjoyment of bread or other articles made from these same grains? Undoubtedly
the use of grains would become more universal if they were served with less or
no sugar. The continued use of sugar upon grains has a tendency to cloy the
appetite, just as the constant use of cake or sweetened bread in the place of
ordinary bread would do. Plenty of nice, sweet cream or fruit juice, is a
sufficient dressing, and there are few persons who after a short trial would
not come to enjoy the grains without sugar, and would then as soon think of
dispensing with a meal altogether as to dispense with the grains.

Even when served without sugar, the grains may not prove altogether healthful
unless they are properly eaten. Because they are made soft by the process of
cooking and on this account do not require masticating to break them up, the
first process of digestion or insalivation is usually overlooked. But it must
be remembered that grains are largely composed of starch, and that starch must
be mixed with the saliva, or it will remain undigested in the stomach, since
the gastric juice only digests the nitrogenous elements. For this reason it is
desirable to eat the grains in connection with some hard food. Whole-wheat
wafers, nicely toasted to make them crisp and tender, toasted rolls, and
unfermented zwieback, are excellent for this purpose. Break two or three wafers
into rather small pieces over each individual dish before pouring on the cream.
In this way, a morsel of the hard food may be taken with each spoonful of the
grains. The combination of foods thus secured, is most pleasing. This is a
specially advantageous method of serving grains for children, who are so liable
to swallow their food without proper mastication.

BARLEY, THE NUTRITIOUS GRAIN

Barley is stated by historians to be the oldest of all cultivated grains. It
seems to have been the principal bread plant among the ancient Hebrews, Greeks,
and Romans. The Jews especially held the grain in high esteem, and sacred
history usually uses it interchangeably with wheat, when speaking of the fruits
of the Earth.

Among the early Greeks and Romans, barley was almost the only food of the
common people and the soldiers. The flour was made into gruel, after the
following recipe: "Dry, near the fire or in the oven, twenty pounds of barley
flour, then parch it. Add three pounds of linseed meal, half a pound of
coriander seeds, two ounces of salt, and the water necessary." If an especially
delectable dish was desired, a little millet was also added to give the paste
more "cohesion and delicacy." Barley was also used whole as a food, in which
case it was first parched, which is still the manner of preparing it in some
parts of Palestine and many districts of India, also in the Canary Islands,
where it is known as gofio*

In the time of Charles I, barley meal took the place of wheat almost entirely
as the food of the common people in England. In some parts of Europe, India,
and other Eastern countries, it is still largely consumed as the ordinary
farinaceous food of the peasantry and soldiers. The early settlers of New
England also largely used it for bread making.

Barley is less nutritious than wheat, and to many people is less agreeable in
flavor. It is likewise somewhat inferior in point of digestibility. Its starch
cells being less soluble, they offer more resistance to the gastric juice.

There are several distinct species of barley, but that most commonly cultivated
is designated as two-rowed, or two-eared barley. In general structure, the
barley grain resembles wheat and oats.

Simply deprived of its outer husk, the grain is termed Scotch milled or pot
barley . Subjected still further to the process by which the fibrous outer coat
of the grain is removed, it constitutes what is known as pearl barley . Pearl
barley ground into flour is known as patent barley . Barley flour, owing to the
fact that it contains so small a proportion of gluten, needs to be mixed with
wheaten flour for bread-making purposes. When added in small quantity to
whole-wheat bread, it has a tendency to keep the loaf moist, and is thought by
some to improve the flavor.

The most general use made of this cereal as a food, is in the form of pearl, or
Scotch, barley. When well boiled, barley requires about two hours for digestion.

THE ABC's OF SOUP MAKING

Lean, juicy beef, mutton, and veal, form the basis of all good soups; therefore
it is advisable to procure those pieces which afford the richest succulence, and
such as are fresh-killed. Stale meat renders them bad, and fat is not so well
adapted for making them. The principal art in composing good rich soup, is so
to proportion the several ingredients that the flavour of one shall not
predominate over another, and that all the articles of which it is composed,
shall form an agreeable whole. To accomplish this, care must be taken that the
roots and herbs are perfectly well cleaned, and that the water is proportioned
to the quantity of meat and other ingredients. Generally a quart of water may
be allowed to a pound of meat for soups, and half the quantity for gravies. In
making soups or gravies, gentle stewing or simmering is incomparably the best.
It may be remarked, however, that a really good soup can never be made but in a
well-closed vessel, although, perhaps, greater wholesomeness is obtained by an
occasional exposure to the air. Soups will, in general, take from three to six
hours doing, and are much better prepared the day before they are wanted. When
the soup is cold, the fat may be much more easily and completely removed; and
when it is poured off, care must be taken not to disturb the settlings at the
bottom of the vessel, which are so fine that they will escape through a sieve.
A tamis is the best strainer, and if the soup is strained while it is hot, let
the tamis or cloth be previously soaked in cold water. Clear soups must be
perfectly transparent, and thickened soups about the consistence of cream. To
thicken and give body to soups and gravies, potato-mucilage, arrow-root,
bread-raspings, isinglass, flour and butter, barley, rice, or oatmeal, in a
little water rubbed well together, are used. A piece of boiled beef pounded to
a pulp, with a bit of butter and flour, and rubbed through a sieve, and
gradually incorporated with the soup, will be found an excellent addition. When
the soup appears to be too thin or too weak , the cover of the boiler should be
taken off, and the contents allowed to boil till some of the watery parts have
evaporated; or some of the thickening materials, above mentioned, should be
added. When soups and gravies are kept from day to day in hot weather, they
should be warmed up every day, and put into fresh scalded pans or tureens, and
placed in a cool cellar. In temperate weather, every other day may be
sufficient.

Various herbs and vegetables are required for the purpose of making soups and
gravies. Of these the principal are, Scotch barley, pearl barley, wheat flour,
oatmeal, bread-raspings, pease, beans, rice, vermicelli, macaroni, isinglass,
potato-mucilage, mushroom or mushroom ketchup, champignons, parsnips, carrots,
beetroot, turnips, garlic, shalots and onions. Sliced onions, fried with butter
and flour till they are browned, and then rubbed through a sieve, are excellent
to heighten the colour and flavour of brown soups and sauces, and form the
basis of many of the fine relishes furnished by the cook. The older and drier
the onion, the stronger will be its flavour. Leeks, cucumber, or burnet
vinegar; celery or celery-seed pounded. The latter, though equally strong, does
not impart the delicate sweetness of the fresh vegetable; and when used as a
substitute, its flavour should be corrected by the addition of a bit of sugar.
Cress-seed, parsley, common thyme, lemon thyme, orange thyme, knotted marjoram,
sage, mint, winter savoury, and basil. As fresh green basil is seldom to be
procured, and its fine flavour is soon lost, the best way of preserving the
extract is by pouring wine on the fresh leaves.

For the seasoning of soups, bay-leaves, tomato, tarragon, chervil, burnet,
allspice, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, clove, mace, black and white pepper,
essence of anchovy, lemon-peel, and juice, and Seville orange-juice, are all
taken. The latter imparts a finer flavour than the lemon, and the acid is much
milder. These materials, with wine, mushroom ketchup, Harvey's sauce, tomato
sauce, combined in various proportions, are, with other ingredients,
manipulated into an almost endless variety of excellent soups and gravies.
Soups, which are intended to constitute the principal part of a meal, certainly
ought not to be flavoured like sauces, which are only designed to give a relish
to some particular dish.

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