THE FAMILY AT HOME

_A Good Table--Bread, etc.--Meats--Vegetables--Household Management--Beverages--Useful Receipts, etc.--Maxims, Dietetic and Moral--Tool-Chests--Dressmaking, etc.--Pets--Swimming--Riding--Amusements--Children--Letter-Writing --Debt--Flowers--Time--Air--Laws--Phrenology--Historical--Words of Washington._

3535. A good table is necessary to health and domestic comfort.

3536. Nearly every family in our Republic has, or might have, the means of living very comfortably; if nothing was wasted, and all food was properly cooked, good tables would abound.

3537. In my "New Cook Book" these subjects are so fully treated that little can be added.

3538. Still a few "Choice Receipts" on Cookery will be found in this volume, at page 319 and on. I shall add such other directions in this chapter as seem necessary to complete the system: and first of the staff of life--_bread._

3539. _Bread._--To make good bread, or to understand the process of making it, is the duty of every woman; indeed, an art that should never be neglected in the education of a LADY.

3540. _The Lady_ derives her title from "dividing or distributing bread:" the more perfect the bread the more noble the lady.

3541. In "Mrs. Hale's New Cook Book," and in the following directions, the art is made plain; and the process may, by practice, be easily acquired.

3542. _Proportions of Nutriment in articles of Food._--See "Mrs. Hale's New Cook Book--Introductory," etc.

3543. _Bread_ contains eighty nutritious parts in one hundred; meal thirty-four in one hundred; French beans, ninety-two in one hundred; common beans, eighty-nine in one hundred; peas, ninety-three in one hundred; lentils, ninety-four in one hundred; cabbages and turnips, the most aqueous of all the vegetables compared, produce only eight pounds of solid matter in one hundred pounds; carrots and spinach produce fourteen in the same quantity; while one hundred pounds of potatoes contain twenty-five pounds of dry substance.

3544. From a general estimate it results, that one pound of good bread is equal to two pounds and a half or three pounds of potatoes; that seventy-five pounds of bread and thirty of meat may be substituted for three hundred pounds of potatoes.

3545. The other substances bear the following proportions: four parts of cabbage to one of potatoes; three parts of turnips to one of potatoes; two parts of carrots and spinach to one of potatoes; and about three parts and a half of potatoes to one of rice, lentils, beans, French beans, and dry peas.

3546. _To test flour_, people in the trade generally knead a small quantity by way of experiment; if good, the flour immediately forms an adhesive elastic paste, which will readily assume any form that may be given to it, without danger of breaking.

3547. Pure and unadulterated flour may likewise be easily distinguished by other methods: seize a handful briskly, and squeeze it half a minute; it preserves the form of the cavity of the hand in one piece, although it may be rudely placed on the table; not so that which contains foreign substances, it breaks in pieces more or less; that mixed with whiting being the most adhesive, but still dividing and falling down in a little time.

3548. _Indian Bread._--One quart of buttermilk, one quart of Indian-meal, one quart of coarse flour, one cup of molasses; add a little soda and salt.

3549. _Bread making_ is an art, the importance of which is too frequently overlooked or underrated. Heavy, sour, hard bread should never be tolerated, because good bread is more palatable, more healthy, and it should be borne in mind, is really much less expensive. There is great saving in baking bread at home, and this saving is greatest when flour is cheapest.

3550. _Good flour_ and good yeast are requisites, but the goodness of the bread depends much on the kneading: the more the dough is turned and pressed and worked, the lighter and better the bread will be.

3551. _Proportions._--Two gallons flour, half pint strong fresh yeast; if home-made, add more.

3552. _The Process._--Make a hole in the flour, in which pour the yeast mixed with half a pint warm water. Stir in the flour round the edge of this liquid with a spoon to form a thin batter. After stirring it well for two minutes, sprinkle a handful of flour over the top of this batter, lay a warm cloth over it, and set it to rise in a warm place. When it rises so as to crack on the top add four spoonsful fine salt, and begin to form the mass into dough, pouring as much soft, lukewarm water as is necessary to make the flour mix with the batter. When the flour and batter are thoroughly mixed, knead and work the whole till it is light and stiff. Roll into a lump, sprinkle dry flour over it, cover and put into a warm place, when in half an hour it will rise enough for baking. See "Mrs. Hale's Cook Book," page 375. _The quality_ depends much on the time of putting the dough in the oven. Dough readily runs into three stages of fermentation. It should be put in the oven during the first or _saccharine_, when if sufficiently baked it will be sweet and wholesome. It afterward becomes sour and heavy. If put in too soon, it will be light and as tasteless as saw-dust.

3553. _Good bread_ is marked by fine pores and a sort of network of uniform appearance.

3554. _Keep bread_ wrapped in a coarse towel, and where it will not dry up, or in a tight box.

3555. _If sour_, from being mixed over night, melt a teaspoon of pearlash in a little milk-warm water, sprinkle it over the dough, and in half an hour knead it again.

3556. _Frozen_ dough is spoiled.

3557. _Indian_ is a good addition to wheat, and requires more water, or make mush of it and then mix in.

3558. _The bitterness_ of yeast may be remedied by putting in a little charcoal and then straining it.

3559. _Rye and Indian Bread._--Mix two quarts of each with three pints boiling milk, table-spoon salt, and stir well. Let it stand till lukewarm, then stir in half pint good yeast. Knead to a stiff dough and put to rise near the fire. When the top is cracked over, make into two loaves and bake moderate two and a half hours.

3560. _Common Yeast._--Boil a large handful hops in two quarts of water twenty minutes. Strain and pour the liquid into three pints flour. Stir in half a pint strong yeast. Its strength is increased by five tea-spoons brown sugar or five large spoons molasses. Cork the bottles loose till next day, and then tight.

3561. _If turning sour_ put tea-spoon pearlash in each bottle.

3562. _Another._--Boil, peel and mash mealy potatoes, which reduce with water or ale as thin as common yeast. To every pound add two ounces coarse sugar, and when just warm stir in two spoons of yeast. Keep warm till fermentation is over and in twenty-four hours fit for use. Let sponge eight hours before baking.

3563. _Yeast._--Boil one pound of good flour, a quarter of a pound of brown sugar, and a little salt, in two gallons of water for one hour. When milk-warm, bottle it close; it will be fit to use in twenty-four hours. One pint of this will make eighteen pounds of bread.

3564. _Pulled Bread._--Take from the oven an ordinary loaf when it is about _half baked_, and with the fingers, while the bread is yet hot, dexterously pull the half-set dough into pieces of irregular shape, about the size of an egg. Don't attempt to smooth or flatten them--the rougher their shapes the better.

3565. Set upon tins, place in a very slow oven, and bake to a rich brown. This forms a deliciously crisp crust for cheese. If you do not bake at home, your baker will prepare it for you, if ordered. Pulled bread may be made in the revolving ovens.

3566. It is very nice with wine instead of biscuits.

3567. _A great increase on home-made bread_, even equal to one-fifth, may be produced by using bran water for kneading the dough. The proportion is three pounds of bran for every twenty-eight pounds of flour, the bran to be boiled for an hour, and then strained through a hair-sieve.

3568. Indian cake made with buttermilk, or sour milk with a little cream or butter rubbed into the meal, and a tea-spoonful of pearlash in the milk, is very light and nutritious.

3569. _Use of Lime-water in making Bread._--It has lately been found that water saturated with lime produces in bread the same whiteness, softness and capacity of retaining moisture, as results from the use of alum; while the former removes all acidity from the dough, and supplies an ingredient needed in the structure of the bones, but which is deficient in the _cerealia_.

3570. The best proportion to use is, five pounds of water saturated with lime, to every nineteen pounds of flour. No change is required in the process of baking.

3571. The lime most effectually coagulates the gluten, and the bread weighs well; bakers must therefore approve of its introduction, which is not injurious to the system, like alum, &c.

3572. _Cheap Bread._--Indian meal is the cheapest, and a bushel furnishes more nutriment than the same quantity of wheat. It is also a generally healthy diet, and those who wish to practice close economy should use much of this meal in their families.

3573. It makes excellent puddings and warm cakes, which are much less apt to oppress the stomach than hot wheat bread or short cakes of any kind. And good, light, nourishing bread may be made by using five parts of Indian and one of rye or wheat flour, (see receipts for "Rye and Indian Bread;") which is better than to cook it hot at every meal.

3574. Remember that _four_ loaves of _cold bread_ will go as far in a family as _five loaves of hot bread_.

3575. _Excellent paste_ for fruit or meat pies may be made with two-thirds of wheat flour, one-third of the flour of boiled potatoes, and some butter or dripping; the whole being brought to a proper consistence with warm water, and a small quantity of yeast added when lightness is desired. This will also make very pleasant cakes for breakfast, and may be made with or without spices, fruit, &c.

3576. _Picnic Biscuits._--Take two ounces of fresh butter, and well work it with a pound of flour. Mix thoroughly with it half a salt-spoonful of pure carbonate of soda; two ounces of sugar; mingle thoroughly with the flour; make up the paste with spoonfuls of milk--it will require scarcely a quarter of a pint.

3577. Knead smooth, roll a quarter of an inch thick, cut in rounds about the size of the top of a small wine-glass; roll these out thin, prick them well, lay them on lightly floured tins, and bake in a gentle oven until crisp. When cold put into dry canisters.

3578. Thin cream used instead of milk, in the paste, will enrich the biscuits. Caraway seeds or ginger can be added, to vary these at pleasure.

3579. _Rye and wheat flour_, half and half, makes excellent household bread.

3580. _Common Black Cake._--Beat separately the whites and yolks of three eggs. Mix half a pound of butter with one pound of flour; one tumbler of milk; one tumbler of molasses; one pound of sugar. Then put in the eggs and one and one-half teaspoonful of soda. Wine, currants, raisins and citron to your taste.

3581. _Maize Cake._--Take six eggs, a paper of Oswego corn starch, one pound of loaf sugar, half pound of butter, half teacup of milk, half a teaspoon of soda, one teaspoon of cream of tartar, the grated rind of the lemon; dissolve the soda in half the milk, and add it the last thing. Bake in an oven as quick as you can make it, without burning.

3582. It is a very delicate cake to bake well. Use flat pans, a little deeper than Spanish bun pans, and put paper over the top.

3583. _Composition Cake._--Take three pounds of flour, half pound of butter, one and three-quarter pounds of sugar, three eggs--beat the eggs--add half a pint of yeast to them, half a pint of new milk, three spoonsful of rose-water, and a little cinnamon and cloves; put the butter in the flour and half the sugar, the other half mix with the eggs; make a hole in the flour, pour the ingredients into it; set it to lighten in the morning by the fire; after it is made out into rolls, you may put it into tins, and set it before the fire for an hour or two; when sufficiently risen, bake it in rather a slow oven.

3584. _Ginger Biscuits and Cakes._--Work into small crumbs three ounces of butter, two pounds of flour; add three ounces of powdered sugar and two of ginger, in fine powder; knead into a stiff paste, with new milk, roll thin, cut out with a cutter; bake in a slow oven until crisp through; keep of a pale color.

3585. Additional sugar may be used when sweeter biscuit is desired. For good ginger-cakes, butter six ounces, sugar eight, for each pound of flour; wet the ingredients into a paste with eggs; a little lemon-grate will give an agreeable flavor.

3586. _Loaf-cake._--Six pounds of flour, three and one-half pounds of butter, three and one-half pounds of sugar, three pints of milk, six eggs, four pounds of fruit, one-half pint of yeast, three gills of wine, four nutmegs, and one and one-quarter ounce of mace citron. Stir butter and sugar to a froth; boil the milk, and turn in the wine; put the curds and whey _warm_, but not _hot_, into the flour; then add the eggs and yeast, and only one-third of the beaten butter and sugar; let it rise until very light, and then add the remainder of the butter and sugar, and let it rise _again_; when light, put in the spices, fruit, &c., bake it in a _not_ very hot oven.

Another receipt leaves out one-half pound of butter and also one-half pound of sugar to the same quantity of flour, fruit, eggs, &c.

3587. _Sponge-Cake._--Take three-quarters of a pound of white sugar, and pour one-half tumbler of cold water into it, and set it over the fire until it _boils clear_; beat up seven eggs, the whites and yolks separately, and, after the sugar and water has cooled, add the yolks, stirring them well; flavor it with the peel of a lemon, and half the juice of the same; add the whites of the eggs, and then sift in one half pound of flour. This cake has the advantage of remaining moist and spirited, longer than other sponge-cake.

3588. _A Cheap and Quick Pudding._--Beat up four eggs, add a pint of milk and a little salt, and stir in four large spoonsful of flour, a little nutmeg and sugar to your taste. Beat it well, and pour it into buttered teacups, filling them rather more than half full. They will bake in a stove or Dutch oven in fifteen minutes; and if you have company to dinner, and wish to add a little dish, this is a good and cheap one.

3589. _Sago and Apple Pudding_ (very nice).--Let half a pound of sago steep in water enough to cover it until dissolved. This will take about half an hour. Pare and core eight nice apples without cutting them apart. Fill the middle with sugar, putting in each a little cinnamon. Arrange the apples in a pudding-dish, and pour over them the sago. Let it bake from one to two hours. This is equally as nice, although it does not look so well, if the apples are cut in quarters instead of being left whole, and the sugar and cinnamon sprinkled over them. It is good either cold or hot.

3590. _Pea Pudding._--Dry a pint or quart of split peas thoroughly before the fire; then tie them up loosely in a cloth, put them into warm water, boil them a couple of hours, or more, until quite tender; take them up, beat them well in a dish with a little salt (some add the yolk of an egg) and a bit of butter. Make it quite smooth, tie it up again in a cloth, and boil it an hour longer. This is highly nourishing.

3591. _Calves' Feet Jelly._--Boil four feet in four gallons of water till it comes to half a gallon; strain it, let it stand till cold, and skim off all the fat clean. Take the jelly up, leaving the settlings at the bottom. Put your jelly into a clean saucepan or skillet, and to every quart of jelly add one pint of wine, half pound of loaf-sugar beaten, the juice of a large lemon; beat up the whites of three eggs to a froth--put all in together--stir well till it boils, let it boil a few minutes, have ready a double flannel bag, pour it in again till it runs clear; have a china bowl with lemon-peel cut as thin as possible, let the jelly drip on the peel and it will give it a flavor, and a fine amber color; with a clean silver spoon fill your glasses.--(See "Mrs. Hale's Cook Book," p. 324.)

3592. _Calves' Feet Jelly made with Gelatine._--Take three quarts of water, one pint of white wine, six table-spoonsful of brandy; six lemons, peel and all; six eggs, the whites slightly beaten, the shells crushed, and the yolks not used; three pounds of white sugar, four ounces of gelatine. Soak for half an hour the gelatine in one quart of the water. Mix the other ingredients in the other two quarts. Put all together, and let them boil twenty minutes without stirring. Strain it through a flannel bag without squeezing. Wet the mould in cold water. Pour the jelly in, and leave it to cool. Three hours is generally sufficient.

3593. _Meats._--A few hints, or general rules will be given here. (See "Mrs. Hale's New Cook Book" for Receipts, &c.)

3594. _Animal food._--The quantity of animal food required to sustain the constitution, in its most perfect state, is greatest in the coldest countries, and, decreasing according to the warmth of the climate, when we reach the torrid zone, but a small quantity is needed.

3595. In temperate climates, like our own, the largest quantity is required during the winter.

3596. None should use it freely during the hottest weather, except it be those who labor hard in the open air; it rarely appears to injure such, yet probably it would be best for them to eat less meat and more bread and vegetables during summer. They would not then suffer so much from thirst, which often induces the desire for stimulating liquids.

3597. As a general rule, animal food is more easily and speedily digested than vegetable food of any kind--and this it is which makes meats more heating and stimulating.

3598. The great essentials for the easy digestion of animal food are that the fibres be tender and fine grained.

3599. Of the different sorts of butcher meat, _Pork_ is that of which the least quantity should be taken at a time. It requires longer to digest roasted pork than any other kind of meat.

3600. Beef agrees well with most constitutions; it is cheapest in the autumn, but best in the winter season. Many have a distaste to mutton; but for those who relish it, it is a nutritious food, and easy of digestion.

3601. Lamb, veal, and fowls are delicate and healthy diet for the young and sedentary; and for all who find fat meats and those of coarse fibre do not agree with them.

3602. The most economical way of cooking meat is to _boil_ it, if the liquid be used for soup or broth, as it always ought to be.

3603. Baking is one of the cheapest ways of dressing a dinner in small families, and several kinds of meat are excellent done in this way.

3604. Legs and loins of pork, legs of mutton, and fillets of veal will bake to much advantage; especially if they be fat.

3605. Never bake a lean, thin piece, it will all shrivel away. Such pieces should always be boiled or made into soup.

3606. Pigs, geese, and the buttock of beef are all excellent baked.

3607. Meat always loses in weight by being cooked.--In roasting, the loss is the greatest. It also costs more in fuel to roast than to boil--still there are many pieces of meat which seem made for roasting; and it would be almost wrong to cook them in any other way.

3608. The other pieces of the animal are best salted and boiled; or if used fresh, stewed or in soups. Beef should rarely be fried.

3609. _Roasting beef._--Ten pounds of beef require from two hours to two hours and a-half roasting, eighteen inches from a good clear fire.

3610. Six pounds require one hour and a-quarter to one hour and a-half, fourteen inches from a good clear fire.

3611. Three ribs of beef, boned and rolled, tied round with paper, will require two hours and a-half, eighteen inches from the fire; baste once only.

3612. The first three ribs of fifteen or twenty pounds, will take three hours or three and a-half; the fourth and fifth ribs will take as long, managed in the same way as the sirloin. Paper the fat and the thin part, or it will be done too much before the thick part is done enough.

3613. When beef is very fat, it does not require basting; if very lean tie it up in buttered paper, and baste frequently and well.

3614. Common cooks are generally fond of too fierce a fire, and of putting things too near to it.

3615. Slow roasting is as advantageous to the tenderness and flavor of meat as slow boiling.

3616. The warmer the weather, and the staler killed the meat is, the less time it will require to roast it.

3617. Meat that is very fat requires more time than other meat.

3618. _Cooking meats._--The proper manner of preparation is, to cook it till it is entirely _separated from the blood_, and the fibres are rendered soft and easy of digestion.

3619. Lamb is a delicate and tender meat; but it requires to be kept a few days, when the weather will permit--and should be thoroughly cooked to be healthful. Never take lamb or veal from the spit till the gravy that drops is white.

3620. _Preserving meats._--Salt is the grand preservative of meats; but in using these, care should be taken to soak them if too salt. It is not healthy to eat our food very salt.

3621. In the summer season, particular attention must be observed, lest fresh meat be injured. In the country this care is very necessary.

3622. Be sure to take the kernels out of a round of beef; one in the udder, in the fat, and those about the thick end of the flank.

3623. To salt the meat thoroughly, rub in the salt evenly into every part, and fill the holes where the kernels were taken out.

3624. A pound and a-half of salt will be sufficient for twenty-five pounds of beef, if you only want to corn it to be eaten in a few days.

3625. In the summer, the sooner meat is salted, after it is cool, the better. In winter, it is better to be kept a few days before salting.

3626. Pork ought not to be allowed to freeze before it is salted for family use.

3627. If you wish beef to look red, rub it first with saltpetre and sugar; half an ounce of each mixed together, is sufficient for twenty pounds of meat.

3628. _Poultry._--No kind of animal food is so delicate and delicious as the flesh of fowls and birds, and no kind is so generally healthful. Rarely does it disagree with those who are well; even the feeble in constitution, or those debilitated by sickness, find this a most agreeable and nutritious diet.

3629. The white meat of a young turkey, when well boiled, is easier of digestion than that of any other fowl.

3630. In a young turkey, the toes and bill are soft.

3631. A young goose (a very old one is not fit to be eaten) is plump in the breast, and the fat white and soft--the feet yellow, the web of the foot thin and tender.

3632. Ducks, if young, feel very tender under the wing, and the web of the foot is transparent.

3633. The best fowls have yellow legs--if very old, the feet look stiff and worn.

3634. Pigeons should be quite fresh, the breast plump and fat.

3635. Poultry should lie one night after being killed in warm weather to make it tender; in cold weather it may be kept a much longer time to advantage.

3636. Take care of the liquor you have boiled poultry or meat in; in five minutes you may make it into soup.

3637. The good housewife never boils a joint without converting the broth into some sort of soup.

3638. If the liquor be too salt, only use half the quantity, and the rest water; wash salted meat well with cold water before you put it into the boiler.

3639. Fish is much less nutritious than flesh. The white kinds of fish, cod, haddock, flounders, white fish, &c., are the least nutritious; the oily kinds, salmon, eels, herrings, &c., are more difficult to digest.

3640. Shell-fish have long held a high rank as restorative food; but a well-dressed chop or steak is much better to recruit the strength and spirits.

3641. _Hashes._--All the pieces and bits of cold meat should be minced and warmed; if this is rightly done, the dish is generally a favorite one.

3642. It is best to chop the meat very fine, (gristles and gelatinous matter from the bones may be included;) then make a gravy by putting a lump of butter (what you judge necessary) into a stewpan; when it is hot, add a little flour, and stir it into the butter; then add a teacupful of the broth the meat was boiled in, and a little catsup. Let this boil up, then put in the mince meat, with a little chopped parsley, pepper and salt.

3643. Let it stand and simmer a few minutes covered, but do not let it boil--it hardens the meat to boil it. Lay slices of toasted bread in the dish, and pour the meat and gravy over.

3644. _Meat_ may be kept several days in the height of summer, sweet and good, by lightly covering it with bran, and hanging it in some high or windy room, or in a passage where there is a current of air.

VEGETABLES.

3645. The importance of using a portion of vegetable food can hardly be overrated, though to make this our only diet does and must prove injurious, because contrary to man's nature and the arrangements of the Creator.

3646. The farinaceous (or mealy) are far more nutritious than other vegetables; but none are sufficiently so to sustain the constitution under the cares and labors necessary to the full development of the energies of body and mind.

3647. And unless these can be developed and sustained, the rational and moral character of the human race will never be perfected.

3648. Still, though animal food is never, except in peculiar cases of disease, to be wholly abandoned, we must be quite as scrupulous not to neglect the vegetable part of our diet. This is necessary in order to prevent the concentrated diet of flesh from too sudden and stimulating action.

3649. Besides, our nature demands a portion of vegetables to keep the system in proper and healthy order. A _mixed diet_ is the only right regimen--the proportions of the different kinds of food vary, with different ages and constitutions, in different climates and seasons; still, in some degree, this rule should never be abandoned.

3650. The very young require a large portion of mild farinaceous vegetables, such as rice, sago, tapioca, and potatoes; the two first are very easy of digestion.

3651. There are three things to be attended to in cooking vegetables; make them sufficiently soft, develop their best flavor, and correct any rank or disagreeable taste they may have.

3652. These things are very easily accomplished--boil them sufficiently; change the water if they are rank or unpleasant, and add a little salt, sugar or spice, as the case may require.

3653. Vegetables are always best when newly gathered, except the potato; that is better in winter, if well kept.

3654. They are in greatest perfection when in greatest plenty; that is, in their proper season.

3655. Except spinach, all vegetables should be boiled quickly (soft water is much the best) in an open vessel, and carefully skimmed.

3656. _To Clear Vegetables of Insects._--Make a strong brine of one pound and a half of salt to one gallon of water, into this place the vegetables with the stalk ends uppermost, for two or three hours; this will destroy all the insects which cluster in the leaves, and they will fall out and sink to the bottom of the water.

3657. _Potatoes._--There are few articles in families more subject to waste, both in paring, boiling, and being actually thrown away, than potatoes; and there are few cooks but what boil twice as many potatoes every day as are wanted; and fewer still that do not throw the residue away as totally unfit in any shape for the next day's meal.

3658. Yet if they would take the trouble to beat up the despised cold potatoes with an equal quantity of flour, they would find them produce a much lighter dumpling or pudding than they can make with flour alone; and by the aid of a few spoonfuls of good gravy, they will provide a cheap and agreeable appendage to the dinner table.

3659. _Bad Butter_ may be improved greatly by dissolving it thoroughly in hot water; let it cool, then skim it off, and churn again, adding a little good salt and sugar. A small quantity can be tried and approved before doing a larger one. The water should be merely hot enough to melt the butter or it will become oily.--(See "Mrs. Hale's Cook Book.")

3660. _Dinners._--The appearance a dinner-table presents does not depend so much upon a profuseness of viands, as upon the neatness, cleanliness, and well-studied arrangement of the whole. Taste, if well directed, may produce a handsome dinner; whereas three times the amount of money may be expended upon another, and yet not make even a respectable appearance.