COBV MXTBH

Put four quarts fresh water in a kettle to boil, salt to suit the taste ; when it begins to boil stir in one and one-half quarts meal, letting it sift through the' lingers slowly to prevent lumps, adding it a little &ster at the last, until as thick as can be oonvenientlj stirred with one hand ; set in the oven in the kettle (or take out into a pan), bake an hour, and it will be thoroughly cooked. It takes corn-meal so long to cook thoroughly that it is very difficult to boil it until done without burning. Excellent for frying when cold. Use a hard wood paddle, two feet long, with a blade two inches wide and seven inches long, to stir with. The thorough cooking and baking in oven afterwards, takes away all the raw taste that mush 18 apt to have, and adds much to its sweetness and delicious flavor. — Mm a. W. 8., NoAviUcy Tenn.

Alabama ^'Boe Cake."

One pint corn-meal, one-half tablenspoonful salt, and cold water to make a stiff batter; beat well; sprinkle a hot griddle with meal, let brown; then spread *'hoe cake" half an inch thick, let brown on both sides. Oood for dyspeptics. — Mrs. Sperry, NashviUe^ Tenn.

Alabama Johnny Cake.

Cook a pint of rice till tender, add a table-spoon butter; when oold add two beaten eggs and one pint meal, and when mixed spread on an oaken board and bake by tipping the board up before the fire- place. Whenr done on one side turn over. The dough should be q>read half an inch thick. — Mrs. Young, Ala.

Aunt Jennie's Johnny Cake. One cup each sweet milk and buttermilk, one tea-spoon each salt and soda, one table-spoon melted butter. Mix with enough meal to roll into a sheet half an inch thick. Spread on a clean, sweet board, set before fire at an angle that will prevent cake slipping off, until it hardens, then stand upright. Baste often with butter until

nicely crisped.

Good Graham Gems.

Three cups sour milk, one tea-spoon soda, one of salt, one table- spoon brown sugar, one of melted lard, one beaten egg; to the egg

BREAKFAST AND TEA CAKES, 47

ttdd the milky then the sugar and salt, then the Graham flour (with the Boda mixed in), together with the lard; make a stiiT batter, so that it will drop, not pour, from the spoon. Have gem -pans very hot, grease, fill, and bake fifteen minutes in a hot oven. — Mm. J, H. S.

Mrs. Buxton's Gbaham Gems. Take one egg and beat well, add pinch of salt, one quart butter- milk or sour milk, and Graham flour enough to make a stifi* batter : add one heaping tea-spoon soda and stir thoroughly with a spoon ; heat and grease gem-irons, and after dipping the spoon in cold water, drop a spoonful of batter in each pan, repeating until all are filled ; bake in a quick oven half an hour. This measure will

make a dozen.

SwEET-MiLK Gems.

Beat one egg well, add a pint new milk, a little salt, and Graham flour until it will drop ofi* the spoon nicely ; heat and butter the gem-pans before dropping in the dough ; bake in a hot oven twentj minutes. — Mn. R. L. Partridge.

Graham Muffins. Two cups of sour milk, two table-spoons brown sugar, a little salt, cue tea-spoon soda, sufficient Graham flour to make moderately stiff. If not convenient to use sour milk, use sweet, adding cream of tartar. — Mn, H. B. Sierman.

Graham Mush. Sift meal slowly into boiling salted water, stirring briskly until it is as thick as can be stirred with one hand ; serve with milk or cream and sugar, or butter and syrup. It is much improved by removing from the kettle to a pan as soon as thoroughly mixed, and steaming for three or four hours. It may also be eaten cold. or sliced and firied like com mush.

Oat-Meal Mush. To two quarts boiling water, well salted, add one and a half cups best oat meal (Irish, Scotch, Canadian or Akron are best) ; stir in meal by degrees, and after stirring up a few times to prevent its Bettling down in a mass at the bottom, leave it to cook three hours vrithout stirring. While stirring in meal put inner kettle directly on

46 BREAKFAST AlfD TEA (JAKES.

•love. (Cook in a custard-kettle with water in outer kettle). To oook for break&st it may be put on over night, allowing it tu boil an hour or two in the evening, but it is better when ireshly cooked. Serve with cream and sugar. This is unsurpassed as a break&st- dishy especially for growing children, who need bone and muscle- producing food. To be wholesome it must be weU cooked^ and not the pasty, half-cooked mass usually served at boarding-houses. There are a fow persons with very delicate digestive powers, who should eat oat-meal o\\\y when thoroughly pearled, as the outer husks of the grain irritate the coatings of the stomach. In lieu of a custard-kettle the mush may be made in a pan or small tin bucket, and then placed in a steamer and steamed two hours.

Steamed Oat-Meal.

To one tea-cup oat-meal add one quart cold water, teaspoon salt, put in steamer over a kettle of cold water, and steam one hour and a half after meal begins to cook.

Cracked Wheat.

Two quarts salted water to two cups best white winter wheat; boil two or three hours in a custard-kettle: Or, soak overnight and boil at least three-fourths of an hour: Or, put boiling water in a pan or small tin bucket, set on stove, stir in wheat, set in steamer and steam four hours : Or, make a strong sack of thick muslin or drilling, moisten wneat with cold water, add a little salt, place in sack, leav- ing half the space for wheat to swell in. Fit a -round sheet of tin, perforated with holes half an inch in diameter, to the inside of ordinary kettle, so that it will rest two or three inches from th^ bottom; lay sack on the tin, put in water enough to reach tin, and boil from three to four hours, supplying water as it evaporates. Serve with butter and syrup, or cream and sugar. When cold, slice and fry ; or warm with a little milk and salt in a pan greased with a little butter; or make in griddle-cakes with a batter of eggs, milk, and a little flour, and pinch of salt.

Fine White Homint'^r Grits.

Take two cups to two quarts salted water, soak over night, and boil three quarters of an hour in a custard kettle; serve with milk and sugar, or when cold slice and fry.

FRITTERS. 49

Make frittera quickly and beat thoroughly. A good rale for them 18 two eggs, one half-pint milk, one tea-spoon salt, and two eups flour; have the lard in which to cook them nice and sweet and hot. Clarified &t boils at about five hundred degrees — more than double the heat of boiling water — and fat actually boiling will burn to a cinder any thing that is dropped into it. The proper cooking heat is three hundred and seventy-five degrees, and is indicated by a Uue smoke arising from the surface of the fat. When this point is reached, the fat may be held at that degree of heat, and pre- vented from burning by dropping into it a peeled potato or a piece of hard bread, which furnishes something for the &,t to act on. The heat may also be tested by dropping in a teanspoon of the bat- ter ; if the temperature is right it will quickly rise in a light ball with a splutter, and soon brown ; take up carefully the moment they are done, with a wire spoon ; drain in a hot colander, and sift pow- dered sugar over them; serve hot. Pork fritters are made by dipping thin bits of breakfast-bacon or fat pork in the batter: fruit firitters by chopping any kind of fresh or canned fruit fine and mix- ing it with batter, or by dipping quarters or halves in batter. The fruit may be improved in flavor by sprinkling sugar and grated -lemon peel over it, and allowing it to remain two or three hours, after which drain and dip as above. Batters for fritters should be made an hour before using, as the grains of flour swell by standing after being moistened, and thus become lighter. Add the whites of eggs just before frying. It is better not to use sugar in batter, as it tends to make it heavy. Sprinkle over

just ready to serve.

At.at^ama Rice Fbittebs.

Four eggs beaten very light, one pint milk, one cup boiled rice, three tea-spoons baking-powder in one quart flour; make into a batter; drop by spoonfuls into boiling lard. Sauce: One pound of sugar, one and a half cups water, stick of cinnamon ; boil until clear. — **Riiik Royal" AUaiita, Ga.

50 FRITTERS.

Apfle Fritters.

Make a batter in proportion of one cup sweet milk to two cupe flour, a heaping tea-spoon baking powder, two eggs beaten sep- arately, one tablespoon sugar, and salt-spoon salt ; heat the milk a little more than milk- warm, add slowly to the beaten yolks and sugar, then add flour and whites of eggs; stir all together, and throw in thin slices of good sour apples, dipping the batter up over them; drop in boiling lard in large spoonfuls with piece of apple in each, and fry to a light brown. Serve with maple syrup or a nice syrup made of sugar. — Mrs. James Henderson,

Clam Fritters. Take raw clams, chopped fine, and make a batter with juice, an equal quantity of sweet milk, four eggs to each pint of liquid, and flour sufficient to stiflen ; fry like other fritters. — Mrs. H. B. S,

Corn Oysters. To one quart grated com add three eggs and three or four grated crackers, beat well and season with pepper and salt; have ready in skillet butter and lard or beef-drippings in equal proportions, liot but not scorching; drop in little cakes about the size of an oyster (for this purpose using a tea-spoon); when brown turn and fry on the other side, watx;hing constantly for fear of burning. If the flit is just the right heat, the oysters will be light and delicious, but if not, heavy and ** soggy." Serve hot and keep dish well cov- ered. It is better to beat whites of eggs to a stifl" froth and add just before frying. — Mrs. V. G. Husky Afirmeapolis, Minn.

Cream Fritters. One and a half pmts flour, one pint milk, six well-beaten eggs, one-half nutmeg,' two tea-spoons salt, one pint cream ; stir the whole enough to mix the cream ; fry in small cakes. — Mrs. M. K. P.

Lemon Fritters. One-fourth pound of eggs, one-half pound flour, one-fourth pound sugar (pulverized) ; beat the yolks well, add the flour and enough fresh mOk to make a stifl* batter (about a gill of milk) ; beat the whites stiff* with the sugar, the juice of a lemon and some of the yellow peel grated off, or a spoon of extract of lemon.

OBIDDLE-CAKES, 51

When ready to cook beat the whites well into the batter and pro- ceed to cook. Have plenty of good lard, heated slowly ; just as it ieffins to rnnoke, after bubbling, drop in by spoonfuls enough fritters to fill the vessel without crowding. The cold batter will lower the temperature of the &X sufficiently to keep it at proper cooking heat. The fritters will begin to brown very quickly, and should be tamed with a wire spoon. If they begin to color dark brown check the heat immediately. If these directions are followed ai - cnrately, they may be lifted from the fat and laid upon a napkin or folded paper comparatively free from grease. Dust the fritters well with sugar and nutmeg, if agreeable. For supper eat them so, but for dinner some nice sauce should be served. Some persons substitute honey or maple syrup for sauce. Fritters bear a bad reputation, but when properly made, and eaten occasionally for a change, are quite as wholesome as many of the messes recommended

as food for dyspeptics.

Beat two eggs, stir in a pinch of salt and a half tea-spoon rose-water, add sifted flour till just thick enough to roll out, cut with a cake-cutter, and fry quickly in hot lard. Sift powdered sugar on them while hot, and when cool put a tea-spoon of jelly in the center of each one. Nice for tea or dessert. — Mrs, D. C. Hat- TUkgUnif