The Project Gutenberg eBook, The American Frugal Housewife, by Lydia M.
Child
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: The American Frugal Housewife
Author: Lydia M. Child
Release Date: September 18, 2004 [eBook #13493]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AMERICAN FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE***
E-text prepared by Audrey Longhurst, William Flis, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
THE AMERICAN FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
by
MRS. CHILD,
Author of "Hobomok," "The Mother's Book," Editor of the "Juvenile
Miscellany," &c.
1832
DEDICATED TO
THOSE WHO ARE NOT ASHAMED OF ECONOMY.
A fat kitchen maketh a lean will.--FRANKLIN.
"Economy is a poor man's revenue; extravagance a rich man's ruin."
[Illustration: MUTTON.
1. Leg.
2. Loin, best end.
3. Do. Chump do.
4. Neck, best do.
5. Do Scrag do.
6. Shoulder.
7. Breast.
Saddle, 2 Loins.]
[Illustration: PORK.
1. The Sperib.
2. Hand.
3. Belly, or Spring.
4. Fore Loin.
5. Hind do.
6. Leg.]
[Illustration: VEAL.
1. Loin, best end
2. Do Chump do
3. Fillet.
4. Knuckle, hind.
5. Do. fore.
6. Neck, best end.
7. Do. scrag do.
8. Blade Bone.
9. Breast, best end.
10. Do. Brisket.]
[Illustration: BEEF.
Hind Quarter.
1. Sir Loin.
2. Rump.
3. Aitch Bone.
4. Buttock.
5. Mouse do.
6. Veiny piece.
7. Thick Flank.
8. Thin do.
9. Leg.
Fore Quarter.
10. Fore Rib, 5 Ribs.
11. Middle do 4 do.
12. Chuck, 3 do.
13. Shoulder, or Leg Mutton piece.
14. Brisket.
15. Clod.
16. Neck, or Sticking piece.
17. Shin.
18. Cheek.]
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER
ODD SCRAPS FOR THE ECONOMICAL.
SOAP.
SIMPLE REMEDIES.
GRUEL.
EGG GRUEL.
ARROW-ROOT JELLY.
CALF'S FOOT JELLY.
TAPIOCA JELLY.
SAGO JELLY.
BEEF TEA.
WINE WHEY.
APPLE WATER.
MILK PORRIDGE.
STEWED PRUNES.
VEGETABLES.
HERBS.
CHEAP DYE-STUFFS.
MEAT CORNED, OR SALTED, HAMS, &c.
CHOICE OF MEAT.
COMMON COOKING.
VEAL.
CALF'S HEAD.
BEEF.
ALAMODE BEEF.
MUTTON AND LAMB.
PORK.
ROAST PIG.
SAUSAGES.
MINCE MEAT.
BEANS AND PEAS.
SOUSE.
TRIPE.
GRAVY.
POULTRY.
FRICASSEED CHICKEN, BROWN.
FRICASSEED CHICKEN, WHITE.
TO CURRY FOWL.
CHICKEN BROTH.
FISH.
PUDDINGS.
BAKED INDIAN PUDDING.
BOILED INDIAN PUDDING.
FLOUR OR BATTER PUDDING.
BREAD PUDDING.
RENNET PUDDING.
CUSTARD PUDDINGS.
RICE PUDDINGS.
BIRD'S NEST PUDDING.
APPLE PUDDING.
CHERRY PUDDING.
CRANBERRY PUDDING.
WHORTLEBERRY PUDDING.
PLUM PUDDING.
HASTY PUDDING.
CHEAP CUSTARDS.
COMMON PIES.
MINCE PIES.
PUMPKIN AND SQUASH PIE.
CARROT PIE.
CHERRY PIE.
WHORTLEBERRY PIE.
APPLE PIE.
CUSTARD PIE.
CRANBERRY PIE.
RHUBARB STALKS, OR PERSIAN APPLE.
PIE CRUST.
COMMON CAKES.
GINGERBREAD.
CUP CAKE.
TEA CAKE.
CIDER CAKE.
ELECTION CAKE.
SPONGE CAKE.
WEDDING CAKE.
LOAF CAKE.
CARAWAY CAKES.
DOUGH-NUTS.
PANCAKES.
FRITTERS.
SHORT CAKE.
INDIAN CAKE.
BREAD, YEAST, &c.
PRESERVES, &c.
CURRANT JELLY.
CURRANT WINE.
RASPBERRY SHRUB.
COFFEE.
CHOCOLATE.
TEA.
PICKLES.
BEER.
GENERAL MAXIMS FOR HEALTH.
HINTS TO PERSONS OF MODERATE FORTUNE
[FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE MASSACHUSETTS JOURNAL.]
FURNITURE.
EDUCATION OF DAUGHTERS.
TRAVELLING AND PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS.
PHILOSOPHY AND CONSISTENCY.
REASONS FOR HARD TIMES.
HOW TO ENDURE POVERTY.
APPENDIX
TO THE
AMERICAN FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
CARVING.
INDEX.
APPENDIX.
It has become necessary to change the title of this work
to the "_American_ Frugal Housewife," because there is an
_English_ work of the same name, not adapted to the wants of
this country.
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER
The true economy of housekeeping is simply the art of gathering up all
the fragments, so that nothing be lost. I mean fragments of _time_,
as well as _materials_. Nothing should be thrown away so long as it
is possible to make any use of it, however trifling that use may be;
and whatever be the size of a family, every member should be employed
either in earning or saving money.
'Time is money.' For this reason, cheap as stockings are, it is good
economy to knit them. Cotton and woollen yarn are both cheap; hose
that are knit wear twice as long as woven ones; and they can be done
at odd minutes of time, which would not be otherwise employed. Where
there are children, or aged people, it is sufficient to recommend
knitting, that it is an _employment_.
In this point of view, patchwork is good economy. It is indeed
a foolish waste of time to tear cloth into bits for the sake of
arranging it anew in fantastic figures; but a large family may be kept
out of idleness, and a few shillings saved, by thus using scraps of
gowns, curtains, &c.
In the country, where grain is raised, it is a good plan to teach
children to prepare and braid straw for their own bonnets, and their
brothers' hats.
Where turkeys and geese are kept, handsome feather fans may as well be
made by the younger members of a family, as to be bought. The sooner
children are taught to turn their faculties to some account, the
better for them and for their parents.
In this country, we are apt to let children romp away their existence,
till they get to be thirteen or fourteen. This is not well. It is not
well for the purses and patience of parents; and it has a still worse
effect on the morals and habits of the children. _Begin early_ is the
great maxim for everything in education. A child of six years old can
be made useful; and should be taught to consider every day lost in
which some little thing has not been done to assist others.
Children can very early be taught to take all the care of their own
clothes.
They can knit garters, suspenders, and stockings; they can make
patchwork and braid straw; they can make mats for the table, and mats
for the floor; they can weed the garden, and pick cranberries from the
meadow, to be carried to market.
Provided brothers and sisters go together, and are not allowed to go
with bad children, it is a great deal better for the boys and girls
on a farm to be picking blackberries at six cents a quart, than to be
wearing out their clothes in useless play. They enjoy themselves just
as well; and they are earning something to buy clothes, at the same
time they are tearing them.
It is wise to keep an exact account of all you expend--even of a
paper of pins. This answers two purposes; it makes you more careful in
spending money, and it enables your husband to judge precisely whether
his family live within his income. No false pride, or foolish ambition
to appear as well as others, should ever induce a person to live one
cent beyond the income of which he is certain. If you have two dollars
a day, let nothing but sickness induce you to spend more than nine
shillings; if you have one dollar a day, do not spend but seventy-five
cents; if you have half a dollar a day, be satisfied to spend forty
cents.
To associate with influential and genteel people with an appearance of
equality, unquestionably has its advantages; particularly where there
is a family of sons and daughters just coming upon the theatre of
life; but, like all other external advantages, these have their proper
price, and may be bought too dearly. They who never reserve a cent
of their income, with which to meet any unforeseen calamity, 'pay too
dear for the whistle,' whatever temporary benefits they may derive
from society. Self-denial, in proportion to the narrowness of your
income, will eventually be the happiest and most respectable course
for you and yours. If you are prosperous, perseverance and industry
will not fail to place you in such a situation as your ambition
covets; and if you are not prosperous, it will be well for your
children that they have not been educated to higher hopes than they
will ever realize.
If you are about to furnish a house, do not spend all your money,
be it much or little. Do not let the beauty of this thing, and the
cheapness of that, tempt you to buy unnecessary articles. Doctor
Franklin's maxim was a wise one, 'Nothing is cheap that we do not
want.' Buy merely enough to get along with at first. It is only by
experience that you can tell what will be the wants of your family. If
you spend all your money, you will find you have purchased many things
you do not want, and have no means left to get many things which you
do want. If you have enough, and more than enough, to get everything
suitable to your situation, do not think you must spend it all, merely
because you happen to have it. Begin humbly. As riches increase, it
is easy and pleasant to increase in hospitality and splendour; but
it is always painful and inconvenient to decrease. After all, these
things are viewed in their proper light by the truly judicious and
respectable. Neatness, tastefulness, and good sense, may be shown in
the management of a small household, and the arrangement of a little
furniture, as well as upon a larger scale; and these qualities are
always praised, and always treated with respect and attention. The
consideration which many purchase by living beyond their income, and
of course living upon others, is not worth the trouble it costs.
The glare there is about this false and wicked parade is deceptive;
it does not in fact procure a man valuable friends, or extensive
influence. More than that, it is wrong--morally wrong, so far as
the individual is concerned; and injurious beyond calculation to
the interests of our country. To what are the increasing beggary and
discouraged exertions of the present period owing? A multitude of
causes have no doubt tended to increase the evil; but the root of the
whole matter is the extravagance of all classes of people. We never
shall be prosperous till we make pride and vanity yield to the
dictates of honesty and prudence! We never shall be free from
embarrassment until we cease to be ashamed of industry and economy.
Let women do their share towards reformation--Let their fathers
and husbands see them happy without finery; and if their husbands
and fathers have (as is often the case) a foolish pride in seeing
them decorated, let them gently and gradually check this feeling,
by showing that they have better and surer means of commanding
respect--Let them prove, by the exertion of ingenuity and economy,
that neatness, good taste, and gentility, are attainable without great
expense.
The writer has no apology to offer for this cheap little book of
economical hints, except her deep conviction that such a book is
needed. In this case, renown is out of the question, and ridicule is a
matter of indifference.
The information conveyed is of a common kind; but it is such as the
majority of young housekeepers do not possess, and such as they
cannot obtain from cookery books. Books of this kind have usually
been written for the wealthy: I have written for the poor. I have said
nothing about _rich_ cooking; those who can afford to be epicures
will find the best of information in the 'Seventy-five Receipts.'
I have attempted to teach how money can be _saved_, not how it can
be _enjoyed_. If any persons think some of the maxims too rigidly
economical, let them inquire how the largest fortunes among us have
been made. They will find thousands and millions have been accumulated
by a scrupulous attention to sums 'infinitely more minute than sixty
cents.'
In early childhood, you lay the foundation of poverty or riches, in
the habits you give your children. Teach them to save everything,--not
for their _own_ use, for that would make them selfish--but for _some_
use. Teach them to _share_ everything with their playmates; but never
allow them to _destroy_ anything.
I once visited a family where the most exact economy was observed; yet
nothing was mean or uncomfortable. It is the character of true economy
to be as comfortable and genteel with a little, as others can be with
much. In this family, when the father brought home a package, the
older children would, of their own accord, put away the paper and
twine neatly, instead of throwing them in the fire, or tearing
them to pieces. If the little ones wanted a piece of twine to play
scratch-cradle, or spin a top, there it was, in readiness; and when
they threw it upon the floor, the older children had no need to be
told to put it again in its place.
The other day, I heard a mechanic say, 'I have a wife and two little
children; we live in a very small house; but, to save my life, I
cannot spend less than twelve hundred a year.' Another replied,
'You are not economical; I spend but eight hundred.' I thought to
myself,--'Neither of you pick up your twine and paper.' A third one,
who was present, was silent; but after they were gone, he said, 'I
keep house, and comfortably too, with a wife and children, for six
hundred a year; but I suppose they would have thought me mean, if I
had told them so.' I did not think him mean; it merely occurred to me
that his wife and children were in the habit of picking up paper and
twine.
Economy is generally despised as a low virtue, tending to make people
ungenerous and selfish. This is true of avarice; but it is not so
of economy. The man who is economical, is laying up for himself the
permanent power of being useful and generous. He who thoughtlessly
gives away ten dollars, when he owes a hundred more than he can pay,
deserves no praise,--he obeys a sudden impulse, more like instinct
than reason: it would be real charity to check this feeling; because
the good he does maybe doubtful, while the injury he does his family
and creditors is certain. True economy is a careful treasurer in the
service of benevolence; and where they are united respectability,
prosperity and peace will follow.
* * * * *
ODD SCRAPS FOR THE ECONOMICAL.
If you would avoid waste in your family, attend to the following
rules, and do not despise them because they appear so unimportant:
'many a little makes a mickle.'
Look frequently to the pails, to see that nothing is thrown to the
pigs which should have been in the grease-pot.
Look to the grease-pot, and see that nothing is there which might have
served to nourish your own family, or a poorer one.
See that the beef and pork are always _under_ brine; and that the
brine is sweet and clean.
Count towels, sheets, spoons, &c. occasionally; that those who use
them may not become careless.
See that the vegetables are neither sprouting nor decaying: if they
are so, remove them to a drier place, and spread them.
Examine preserves, to see that they are not contracting mould; and
your pickles, to see that they are not growing soft and tasteless.
As far as it is possible, have bits of bread eaten up before they
become hard. Spread those that are not eaten, and let them dry, to be
pounded for puddings, or soaked for brewis. Brewis is made of crusts
and dry pieces of bread, soaked a good while in hot milk, mashed up,
and salted, and buttered like toast. Above all, do not let crusts
accumulate in such quantities that they cannot be used. With proper
care, there is no need of losing a particle of bread, even in the
hottest weather.
Attend to all the mending in the house, once a week, if possible.
Never put out sewing. If it be impossible to do it in your own family,
hire some one into the house, and work with them.
Make your own bread and cake. Some people think it is just as cheap
to buy of the baker and confectioner; but it is not half as cheap.
True, it is more convenient; and therefore the rich are justifiable
in employing them; but those who are under the necessity of being
economical, should make convenience a secondary object. In the first
place, confectioners make their cake richer than people of moderate
income can afford to make it; in the next place, your domestic, or
yourself, may just as well employ your own time, as to pay them for
theirs.
When ivory-handled knives turn yellow, rub them with nice sand paper,
or emery; it will take off the spots, and restore their whiteness.
When a carpet is faded, I have been told that it may be restored, in
a great measure, (provided there be no grease in it,) by being dipped
into strong salt and water. I never tried this; but I know that silk
pocket handkerchiefs, and deep blue factory cotton will not fade, if
dipped in salt and water while new.
An ox's gall will set any color,--silk, cotton, or woollen. I have
seen the colors of calico, which faded at one washing, fixed by it.
Where one lives near a slaughterhouse, it is worth while to buy cheap,
fading goods, and set them in this way. The gall can be bought for a
few cents. Get out all the liquid, and cork it up in a large phial.
One large spoonful of this in a gallon of warm water is sufficient.
This is likewise excellent for taking out spots from bombazine,
bombazet, &c. After being washed in this, they look about as well as
when new. It must be thoroughly stirred into the water, and not put
upon the cloth. It is used without soap. After being washed in this,
cloth which you want to _clean_ should be washed in warm suds, without
using soap.
Tortoise shell and horn combs last much longer for having oil rubbed
into them once in a while.
Indian meal and rye meal are in danger of fermenting in summer;
particularly Indian. They should be kept in a cool place, and stirred
open to the air, once in a while. A large stone, put in the middle of
a barrel of meal, is a good thing to keep it cool.
The covering of oil-flasks, sewed together with strong thread, and
lined and bound neatly, makes useful tablemats.
A warming-pan full of coals, or a shovel of coals, held over varnished
furniture, will take out white spots. Care should be taken not to hold
the coals near enough to scorch; and the place should be rubbed with
flannel while warm.
Spots in furniture may usually be cleansed by rubbing them quick and
hard, with a flannel wet with the same thing which took out the color;
if rum, wet the cloth with rum, &c. The very best restorative for
defaced varnished furniture, is rotten-stone pulverized, and rubbed on
with linseed oil.
Sal-volatile, or hartshorn, will restore colors taken out by acid. It
may be dropped upon any garment without doing harm.
Spirits of turpentine is good to take grease-spots out of woollen
clothes; to take spots of paint, &c., from mahogany furniture; and
to cleanse white kid gloves. Cockroaches, and all vermin, have an
aversion to spirits of turpentine.
An ounce of quicksilver, beat up with the white of two eggs, and put
on with a feather, is the cleanest and surest bed-bug poison. What
is left should be thrown away: it is dangerous to have it about
the house. If the vermin are in your walls, fill up the cracks with
_verdigris_-green paint.[1]
[Footnote 1: There are two kinds of green paint; one is of no use in
destroying insects.]
Lamps will have a less disagreeable smell if you dip your wick-yarn in
strong hot vinegar, and dry it.
Those who make candles will find it a great improvement to steep the
wicks in lime-water and saltpetre, and dry them. The flame is clearer,
and the tallow will not '_run_.'
Britannia Ware should be first rubbed gently with a woollen cloth and
sweet oil; then washed in warm suds, and rubbed with soft leather and
whiting. Thus treated, it will retain its beauty to the last.
Eggs will keep almost any length of time in lime-water properly
prepared. One pint of coarse salt, and one pint of unslacked lime, to
a pailful of water. If there be too much lime, it will eat the shells
from the eggs; and if there be a single egg cracked, it will spoil
the whole. They should be covered with lime-water, and kept in a cold
place. The yolk becomes slightly red; but I have seen eggs, thus kept,
perfectly sweet and fresh at the end of three years. The cheapest
time to lay down eggs, is early in spring, and the middle and last
of September. It is bad economy to buy eggs by the dozen, as you want
them.
New iron should be very gradually heated at first. After it has become
inured to the heat, it is not as likely to crack.
It is a good plan to put new earthen ware into cold water, and let it
heat gradually, until it boils,--then cool again. Brown earthen ware,
in particular, may be toughened in this way. A handful of rye, or
wheat, bran, thrown in while it is boiling, will preserve the glazing,
so that it will not be destroyed by acid or salt.
Clean a brass kettle, before using it for cooking, with salt and
vinegar.
Skim-milk and water, with a bit of glue in it, heated scalding hot, is
excellent to restore old, rusty, black Italian crape. If clapped and
pulled dry, like nice muslin, it will look as well, or better, than
when new.
Wash-leather gloves should be washed in clean suds, scarcely warm.
The oftener carpets are shaken, the longer they wear; the dirt that
collects under them, grinds out the threads.
Do not have carpets swept any oftener than is absolutely necessary.
After dinner, sweep the crumbs into a dusting-pan with your
hearth-brush; and if you have been sewing, pick up the shreds by hand.
A carpet can be kept very neat in this way; and a broom wears it very
much.
Buy your woollen yarn in quantities from some one in the country, whom
you can trust. The thread-stores make profits upon it, of course.
It is not well to clean brass andirons, handles, &c. with vinegar.
It makes them very clean at first; but they soon spot and tarnish.
Rotten-stone and oil are proper materials for cleaning brasses. If
wiped every morning with flannel and New England rum, they will not
need to be cleaned half as often.
If you happen to live in a house which has marble fire-places, never
wash them with suds; this destroys the polish, in time. They should be
dusted; the spots taken off with a nice oiled cloth, and then rubbed
dry with a soft rag.
Feathers should be very thoroughly dried before they are used. For
this reason they should not be packed away in bags, when they are
first plucked. They should be laid lightly in a basket, or something
of that kind, and stirred up often. The garret is the best place to
dry them; because they will there be kept free from dirt and moisture;
and will be in no danger of being blown away. It is well to put the
parcels, which you may have from time to time, into the oven, after
you have removed your bread, and let them stand a day.
If feather-beds smell badly, or become heavy, from want of proper
preservation of the feathers, or from old age, empty them, and wash
the feathers thoroughly in a tub of suds; spread them in your garret
to dry, and they will be as light and as good as new.
New England rum, constantly used to wash the hair, keeps it very
clean, and free from disease, and promotes its growth a great deal
more than Macassar oil. Brandy is very strengthening to the roots of
the hair; but it has a hot, drying tendency, which N.E. rum has not.
If you wish to preserve fine teeth, always clean them thoroughly after
you have eaten your last meal at night.
Rags should never be thrown away because they are dirty. Mop-rags,
lamp-rags, &c. should be washed, dried, and put in the rag-bag. There
is no need of expending soap upon them: boil them out in dirty suds,
after you have done washing.
Linen rags should be carefully saved; for they are extremely useful in
sickness. If they have become dirty and worn by cleaning silver, &c.,
wash them, and scrape them into lint.
After old coats, pantaloons, &c. have been cut up for boys, and are no
longer capable of being converted into garments, cut them into strips,
and employ the leisure moments of children, or domestics, in sewing
and braiding them for door-mats.
If you are troubled to get soft water for washing, fill a tub or
barrel half full of ashes, and fill it up with water, so that you may
have lye whenever you want it. A gallon of strong lye put into a great
kettle of hard water will make it as soft as rain water. Some people
use pearlash, or potash; but this costs something, and is very apt to
injure the texture of the cloth.
If you have a strip of land, do not throw away suds. Both ashes and
suds are good manure for bushes and young plants.
When a white Navarino bonnet becomes soiled, rip it in pieces, and
wash it with a sponge and soft water. While it is yet damp, wash it
two or three times with a clean sponge dipped into a strong saffron
tea, nicely strained. Repeat this till the bonnet is as dark a straw
color as you wish. Press it on the wrong side with a warm iron, and it
will look like a new Leghorn.
About the last of May, or the first of June, the little millers, which
lay moth-eggs begin to appear. Therefore brush all your woollens, and
pack them away in a dark place covered with linen. Pepper, red-cedar
chips, tobacco,--indeed, almost any strong spicy smell,--is good to
keep moths out of your chests and drawers. But nothing is so good as
camphor. Sprinkle your woollens with camphorated spirit, and scatter
pieces of camphor-gum among them, and you will never be troubled with
moths. Some people buy camphor-wood trunks, for this purpose; but they
are very expensive, and the gum answers just as well.
The first young leaves of the common currant-bush, gathered as soon as
they put out, and dried on tin, can hardly be distinguished from green
tea.
Cream of tartar, rubbed upon soiled white kid gloves, cleanses them
very much.
Bottles that have been used for rose-water, should be used for nothing
else; if scalded ever so much, they will kill the spirit of what is
put in them.
If you have a greater quantity of cheeses in the house than is likely
to be soon used, cover them carefully with paper, fastened on with
flour paste, so as to exclude the air. In this way they may be kept
free from insects for years. They should be kept in a dry, cool place.
Pulverized alum possesses the property of purifying water. A large
spoonful stirred into a hogshead of water will so purify it, that in
a few hours the dirt will all sink to the bottom, and it will be as
fresh and clear as spring water. Four gallons may be purified by a
tea-spoonful.
Save vials and bottles. Apothecaries and grocers will give something
for them. If the bottles are of good thick glass, they will always be
useful for bottling cider or beer; but if they are thin French glass,
like claret bottles, they will not answer.
Woollens should be washed in very hot suds, and not rinsed. Lukewarm
water shrinks them.
On the contrary, silk, or anything that has silk in it, should be
washed in water almost cold. Hot water turns it yellow. It may be
washed in suds made of nice white soap; but no soap should be put upon
it. Likewise avoid the use of hot irons in smoothing silk. Either rub
the articles dry with a soft cloth, or put them between two towels,
and press them with weights.
Do not let knives be dropped into hot dish-water. It is a good plan
to have a large tin pot to wash them in, just high enough to wash the
blades, _without wetting_ the handles. Keep your castors covered with
blotting-paper and green flannel. Keep your salt-spoons out of the
salt, and clean them often.
Do not wrap knives and forks in woollens. Wrap them in good, strong
paper. Steel is injured by lying in woollens.
If it be practicable, get a friend in the country to procure you a
quantity of lard, butter, and eggs, at the time they are cheapest, to
be put down for winter use. You will be likely to get them cheaper
and better than in the city market; but by all means put down your
winter's stock. Lard requires no other care than to be kept in a dry,
cool place. Butter is sweetest in September and June; because food is
then plenty, and not rendered bitter by frost. Pack your butter in a
clean, scalded firkin, cover it with strong brine, and spread a cloth
all over the top, and it will keep good until the Jews get into Grand
Isle. If you happen to have a bit of salt-petre, dissolve it with
the brine. Dairy-women say that butter comes more easily, and has a
peculiar hardness and sweetness, if the cream is scalded and strained
before it is used. The cream should stand down cellar over night,
after being scalded, that it may get perfectly cold.
Suet and lard keep better in tin than in earthen.
Suet keeps good all the year round, if chopped and packed down in a
stone jar, covered with molasses.
Pick suet free from veins and skin, melt it in water before a moderate
fire, let it cool till it forms into a hard cake, then wipe it dry,
and put it in clean paper in linen bags.
Preserve the backs of old letters to write upon. If you have children
who are learning to write, buy coarse white paper by the quantity, and
keep it locked up, ready to be made into writing books. It does not
cost half as much as it does to buy them at the stationer's.
Do not let coffee and tea stand in tin. Scald your wooden ware often;
and keep your tin ware dry.
When mattresses get hard and bunchy, rip them, take the hair out, pull
it thoroughly by hand, let it lie a day or two to air, wash the tick,
lay it in as light and even as possible, and catch it down, as before.
Thus prepared, they will be as good as new.
It is poor economy to buy vinegar by the gallon, Buy a barrel, or half
a barrel, of really strong vinegar, when you begin house-keeping.
As you use it, fill the barrel with old cider, sour beer, or
wine-settlings, &c., left in pitchers, decanters or tumblers; weak tea
is likewise said to be good: nothing is hurtful, which has a tolerable
portion of spirit, or acidity. Care must be taken not to add these
things in too large quantities, or too often: if the vinegar once
gets weak, it is difficult to restore it. If possible, it is well to
keep such slops as I have mentioned in a different keg, and draw them
off once in three or four weeks, in such a quantity as you think the
vinegar will bear. If by any carelessness you do weaken it, a few
white beans dropped in, or white paper dipped in molasses, is said
to be useful. If beer grows sour, it may be used to advantage for
pancakes and fritters. If very sour indeed, put a pint of molasses and
water to it, and, two or three days after, put a half pint of vinegar;
and in ten days it will be first rate vinegar.
Barley straw is the best for beds; dry corn husks, slit into shreds,
are far better than straw.
Straw beds are much better for being boxed at the sides; in the same
manner upholsterers prepare ticks for feathers. Brass andirons should
be cleaned, done up in papers, and put in a dry place, during the
summer season.
If you have a large family, it is well to keep white rags separate
from colored ones, and cotton separate from woollen; they bring a
higher price. Paper brings a cent a pound, and if you have plenty of
room, it is well to save it. 'A penny saved is a penny got.'
Always have plenty of dish-water, and have it hot. There is no need
of asking the character of a domestic, if you have ever seen her wash
dishes in a little greasy water. When molasses is used in cooking, it
is a prodigious improvement to boil and skim it before you use it.
It takes out the unpleasant raw taste, and makes it almost as good as
sugar. Where molasses is used much for cooking, it is well to prepare
one or two gallons in this way at a time.
In winter, always set the handle of your pump as high as possible,
before you go to bed. Except in very rigid weather, this keeps the
handle from freezing. When there is reason to apprehend extreme cold,
do not forget to throw a rug or horse-blanket over your pump; a frozen
pump is a comfortless preparation for a winter's breakfast. Never
allow ashes to be taken up in wood, or put into wood. Always have your
tinder-box and lantern ready for use, in case of sudden alarm. Have
important papers all together, where you can lay your hand on them at
once, in case of fire.
Keep an old blanket and sheet on purpose for ironing, and on no
account suffer any other to be used. Have plenty of holders always
made, that your towels may not be burned out in such service.
Keep a coarse broom for the cellar stairs, wood-shed, yard, &c. No
good housekeeper allows her carpet broom to be used for such things.
There should always be a heavy stone on the top of your pork, to keep
it down. This stone is an excellent place to keep a bit of fresh meat
in the summer, when you are afraid of its spoiling.
Have all the good bits of vegetables and meat collected after dinner,
and minced before they are set away; that they may be in readiness
to make a little savoury mince meat for supper or breakfast. Take the
skins off your potatoes before they grow cold.
Vials, which have been used for medicine, should be put into cold
ashes and water, boiled, and suffered to cool before they are rinsed.
If you live in the city, where it is always easy to procure
provisions, be careful and not buy too much for your daily wants,
while the weather is warm.
Never leave out your clothes-line over night; and see that your
clothes-pins are all gathered into a basket.
Have plenty of crash towels in the kitchen; never let your white
napkins be used there.
Soap your dirtiest clothes, and soak them in soft water over night.
Use hard soap to wash your clothes, and soft to wash your floors. Soft
soap is so slippery, that it wastes a good deal in washing clothes.
Instead of covering up your glasses and pictures with muslin, cover
the frames only with cheap, yellow cambric, neatly put on, and as near
the color of the gilt as you can procure it. This looks better; leaves
the glasses open for use, and the pictures for ornament; and is
an effectual barrier to dust as well as flies. It can easily be
re-colored with saffron tea, when it is faded.
Have a bottle full of brandy, with as large a mouth as any bottle you
have, into which cut your lemon and orange peel when they are fresh
and sweet. This brandy gives a delicious flavor to all sorts of
pies, puddings, and cakes. Lemon is the pleasantest spice of the
two; therefore they should be kept in separate bottles. It is a good
plan to preserve rose-leaves in brandy. The flavor is pleasanter
than rose-water; and there are few people who have the utensils for
distilling. Peach leaves steeped in brandy make excellent spice for
custards and puddings.
It is easy to have a supply of horse-radish all winter. Have a
quantity grated, while the root is in perfection, put it in bottles,
fill it with strong vinegar, and keep it corked tight.
It is thought to be a preventive to the unhealthy influence of
cucumbers to cut the slices very thin, and drop each one into cold
water as you cut it. A few minutes in the water takes out a large
portion of the slimy matter, so injurious to health. They should be
eaten with high seasoning.
Where sweet oil is much used, it is more economical to buy it by the
bottle than by the flask. A bottle holds more than twice as much as a
flask, and it is never double the price.
If you wish to have free-stone hearths dark, wash them with soap, and
wipe them with a wet cloth; some people rub in lamp-oil, once in a
while, and wash the hearth faithfully afterwards. This does very well
in a large, dirty family; for the hearth looks very clean, and is not
liable to show grease spots. But if you wish to preserve the beauty
of a freestone hearth, buy a quantity of free-stone powder of the
stone-cutter, and rub on a portion of it wet, after you have washed
your hearth in hot water. When it is dry, brush it off, and it will
look like new stone. Bricks can be kept clean with redding stirred up
in water, and put on with a brush. Pulverized clay mixed with redding,
makes a pretty rose color. Some think it is less likely to come
off, if mixed with skim milk instead of water. But black lead is far
handsomer than anything else for this purpose. It looks very well
mixed with water, like redding; but it gives it a glossy appearance
to boil the lead in soft soap, with a little water to keep it from
burning. It should be put on with a brush, in the same manner as
redding; it looks nice for a long time, when done in this way.
Keep a bag for odd pieces of tape and strings; they will come in use.
Keep a bag or box for old buttons, so that you may know where to go
when you want one.
Run the heels of stockings faithfully; and mend thin places, as well
as holes. 'A stitch in time saves nine.'
Poke-root, boiled in water and mixed with a good quantity of molasses,
set about the kitchen, the pantry, &c. in large deep plates, will kill
cockroaches in great numbers, and finally rid the house of them. The
Indians say that poke-root boiled into a soft poultice is the cure for
the bite of a snake. I have heard of a fine horse saved by it.
A little salt sprinkled in starch while it is boiling, tends to
prevent it from sticking; it is likewise good to stir it with a clean
spermaceti candle.
A few potatoes sliced, and boiling water poured over them, makes an
excellent preparation for cleansing and stiffening old rusty black
silk.
Green tea is excellent to restore rusty silk. It should be boiled in
iron, nearly a cup full to three quarts. The silk should not be wrung,
and should be ironed damp.
Lime pulverized, sifted through coarse muslin, and stirred up
tolerably thick in white of eggs, makes a strong cement for glass
and china. Plaster of Paris is still better; particularly for mending
broken images of the same material. It should be stirred up by the
spoonful, as it is wanted.[2]
[Footnote 2: Some think it an improvement to make whey of vinegar and
milk, and heat it well up with the eggs before the lime is put in. I
have heard of iron mended with it.]
A bit of isinglass dissolved in gin, or boiled in spirits of wine, is
said to make strong cement for broken glass, china, and sea-shells.
The lemon syrup, usually sold at fifty cents a bottle, may be made
much cheaper. Those who use a great quantity of it will find it worth
their while to make it. Take about a pound of Havana sugar; boil it
in water down to a quart; drop in the white of an egg, to clarify it;
strain it; add one quarter of an oz. of tartaric acid, or citric acid;
if you do not find it sour enough, after it has stood two or three
days and shaken freely, add more of the acid. A few drops of the oil
of lemon improves it.
If you wish to clarify sugar and water, you are about to boil, it is
well to stir in the white of one egg, while cold; if put in after it
boils, the egg is apt to get hardened before it can do any good.
Those who are fond of soda powders will do well to inquire at the
apothecaries for the suitable acid and alkali, and buy them by
the ounce, or the pound, according to the size of their families.
Experience soon teaches the right proportions; and, sweetened with
a little sugar or lemon syrup, it is quite as good as what one gives
five times as much for, done up in papers. The case is the same with
Rochelle powders.
When the stopper of a glass decanter becomes too tight, a cloth
wet with hot water and applied to the neck, will cause the glass to
expand, so that the stopper may be easily removed.
Glass vessels in a cylindrical form, may be cut in two, by tying
around them a worsted thread, thoroughly wet with spirits of
turpentine, and then setting fire to the thread. Court plaster is
made of thin silk first dipped in dissolved isinglass and dried, then
dipped several times in the white of egg and dried.
When plain tortoise-shell combs are defaced, the polish may be renewed
by rubbing them with pulverized rotten-stone and oil. The rotten-stone
should be sifted through muslin. It looks better to be rubbed on by
the hand. The jewellers afterwards polish them by rubbing them with
dry _rouge powder_; but sifted magnesia does just as well--and if the
ladies had rouge, perhaps they would, _by mistake_, put it upon their
cheeks, instead of their combs; and thereby spoil their complexions.
The best way to cleanse gold is, to wash it in warm suds made of
delicate soap, with ten or fifteen drops of _sal-volatile_ in it. This
makes jewels very brilliant.
Straw carpets should be washed in salt and water, and wiped with a
dry, coarse towel. They have a strong tendency to turn yellow; and
the salt prevents it. Moisture makes them decay soon; therefore they
should be kept thoroughly dry.
Rye paste is more adhesive than any other paste; because that grain is
very glutinous. It is much improved by adding a little pounded alum,
while it is boiling. This makes it almost as strong as glue.
Red ants are among the worst plagues that can infest a house. A lady
who had long been troubled with them, assured me she destroyed them in
a few days, after the following manner. She placed a dish of cracked
shagbarks (of which they are more fond than of anything else) in
the closet. They soon gathered upon it in troops. She then put some
corrosive sublimate in a cup; ordered the dish to be carried carefully
to the fire, and all its contents brushed in; while she swept the few
that dropped upon the shelf into the cup, and, with a feather, wet
all the cracks from whence they came, with corrosive sublimate. When
this had been repeated four or five times, the house was effectually
cleared. Too much care cannot be taken of corrosive sublimate,
especially when children are about. Many dreadful accidents have
happened in consequence of carelessness. Bottles which have contained
it should be broken, and buried; and cups should be boiled out in
ashes and water. If kept in the house, it should be hung up high, out
of reach, with POISON written upon it in large letters.
The neatest way to separate wax from honey-comb is to tie the comb
up in a linen or woollen bag; place it in a kettle of cold water, and
hang it over the fire. As the water heats, the wax melts, and rises to
the surface, while all the impurities remain in the bag. It is well
to put a few pebbles in the bag, to keep it from floating. Honey may
be separated from the comb, by placing it in the hot sun, or before
the fire, with two or three colanders or sieves, each finer than the
other, under it.
* * * * *
SOAP.
In the city, I believe, it is better to exchange ashes and grease for
soap; but in the country, I am certain, it is good economy to make
one's own soap. If you burn wood, you can make your own lye; but the
ashes of coal is not worth much. Bore small holes in the bottom of a
barrel, place four bricks around, and fill the barrel with ashes. Wet
the ashes well, but not enough to drop; let it soak thus three or four
days; then pour a gallon of water in every hour or two, for a day or
more, and let it drop into a pail or tub beneath. Keep it dripping
till the color of the lye shows the strength is exhausted. If your
lye is not strong enough, you must fill your barrel with fresh ashes,
and let the lye run through it. Some people take a barrel without
any bottom, and lay sticks and straw across to prevent the ashes from
falling through. To make a barrel of soap, it will require about five
or six bushels of ashes, with at least four quarts of unslacked stone
lime; if slacked, doable the quantity.
When you have drawn off a part of the lye, put the lime (whether slack
or not) into two or three pails of boiling water, and add it to the
ashes, and let it drain through.
It is the practice of some people, in making soap, to put the lime
near the bottom of the ashes when they first set it tip; but the lime
becomes like mortar, and the lye does not run through, so as to get
the strength of it, which is very important in making soap, as it
contracts the nitrous salts which collect in ashes, and prevents the
soap from _coming_, (as the saying is.) Old ashes are very apt to be
impregnated with it.
Three pounds of grease should be put into a pailful of lye. The great
difficulty in making soap '_come_' originates in want of judgment
about the strength of the lye. One rule may be safely trusted--If your
lye will bear up an egg, or a potato, so that you can see a piece of
the surface as big as ninepence, it is just strong enough. If it sink
below the top of the lye, it is too weak, and will never make soap;
if it is buoyed up half way, the lye is too strong; and that is just
as bad. A bit of quick-lime, thrown in while the lye and grease are
boiling together, is of service. When the soap becomes thick and ropy,
carry it down cellar in pails and empty it into a barrel.
Cold soap is less trouble, because it does not need to boil; the sun
does the work of fire. The lye must be prepared and tried in the usual
way. The grease must be tried out, and strained from the scraps. Two
pounds of grease (instead of three) must be used to a pailful; unless
the weather is very sultry, the lye should be hot when put to the
grease. It should stand in the sun, and be stirred every day. If it
does not begin to look like soap in the course of five or six days,
add a little hot lye to it; if this does not help it, try whether it
be grease that it wants. Perhaps you will think cold soap wasteful,
because the grease must be strained; but if the scraps are boiled
thoroughly in strong lye, the grease will all float upon the surface,
and nothing be lost.
* * * * *
SIMPLE REMEDIES.
Cotton wool, wet with sweet oil and paregoric, relieves the ear-ache
very soon.
A good quantity of old cheese is the best thing to eat, when
distressed by eating too much fruit, or oppressed with any kind of
food. Physicians have given it in cases of extreme danger.
Honey and milk is very good for worms; so is strong salt water;
likewise powdered sage and molasses taken freely.
For a sudden attack of quincy or croup, bathe the neck with bear's
grease, and pour it down the throat. A linen rag soaked in sweet oil,
butter, or lard, and sprinkled with yellow Scotch snuff, is said to
have performed wonderful cures in cases of croup: it should be placed
where the distress is greatest. Goose-grease, or any kind of oily
grease, is as good as bear's oil.
Equal parts of camphor, spirits of wine, and hartshorn, well mixed,
and rubbed upon the throat, is said to be good for the croup.
Cotton wool and oil are the best things for a burn. A poultice
of wheat bran, or rye bran, and vinegar, very soon takes down the
inflammation occasioned by a sprain. Brown paper, wet, is healing to a
bruise. Dipped in molasses, it is said to take down inflammation.
In case of any scratch, or wound, from which the lockjaw is
apprehended, bathe the injured part freely with lye or pearl-ash and
water.
A rind of pork bound upon a wound occasioned by a needle, pin, or
nail, prevents the lock-jaw. It should be always applied. Spirits of
turpentine is good to prevent the lock-jaw. Strong soft-soap, mixed
with pulverized chalk, about as thick as batter, put, in a thin cloth
or bag, upon the wound, is said to be a preventive to this dangerous
disorder. The chalk should be kept moist, till the wound begins to
discharge itself; when the patient will find relief.
If you happen to cut yourself slightly while cooking, bind on some
fine salt: molasses is likewise good.
Flour boiled thoroughly in milk, so as to make quite a thick porridge,
is good in cases of dysentery. A tablespoonful of W.I. rum, a
table-spoonful of sugar-baker's molasses, and the same quantity of
sweet oil, well simmered together, is likewise good for this disorder;
the oil softens the harshness of the other ingredients.
Black or green tea, steeped in boiling milk, seasoned with nutmeg,
and best of loaf sugar, is excellent for the dysentery. Cork burnt
to charcoal, about as big as a hazel-nut, macerated, and put in a
tea-spoonful of brandy, with a little loaf sugar and nutmeg, is very
efficacious in cases of dysentery and cholera-morbus. If nutmeg
be wanting, peppermint-water may be used. Flannel wet with brandy,
powdered with Cayenne pepper, and laid upon the bowels, affords great
relief in cases of extreme distress.
Dissolve as much table-salt in keen vinegar, as will ferment and work
clear. When the foam is discharged, cork it up in a bottle, and put it
away for use. A large spoonful of this, in a gill of boiling water, is
very efficacious in cases of dysentery and colic.[3]
[Footnote 3: Among the numerous medicines for this disease, perhaps
none, after all, is better, particularly where the bowels are
inflamed, than the old-fashioned one of English-mallows steeped
in milk, and drank freely. Everybody knows, of course, that
English-mallows and marsh-mallows are different herbs.]
Whortleberries, commonly called huckleberries, dried, are a useful
medicine for children. Made into tea, and sweetened with molasses,
they are very beneficial, when the system is in a restricted state,
and the digestive powers out of order.
Blackberries are extremely useful in cases of dysentery. To eat
the berries is very healthy; tea made of the roots and leaves
is beneficial; and a syrup made of the berries is still better.
Blackberries have sometimes effected a cure when physicians despaired.
Loaf sugar and brandy relieves a sore throat; when very bad, it is
good to inhale the steam of scalding hot vinegar through the tube of
a tunnel. This should be tried carefully at first, lest the throat be
scalded. For children, it should be allowed to cool a little.
A stocking bound on warm from the foot, at night, is good for the sore
throat.
An ointment made from the common ground-worms, which boys dig to bait
fishes, rubbed on with the hand, is said to be excellent, when the
sinews are drawn up by any disease or accident.
A gentleman in Missouri advertises that he had an inveterate cancer
upon his nose cured by a strong potash made of the lye of the ashes of
red oak bark, boiled down to the consistence of molasses. The cancer
was covered with this, and, about an hour after, covered with a
plaster of tar. This must be removed in a few days, and, if any
protuberances remain in the wound, apply more potash to them, and the
plaster again, until they entirely disappear: after which heal the
wound with any common soothing salve. I never knew this to be tried.
If a wound bleeds very fast, and there is no physician at hand, cover
it with the scrapings of sole-leather, scraped like coarse lint. This
stops blood very soon. Always have vinegar, camphor, hartshorn, or
something of that kind, in readiness, as the sudden stoppage of blood
almost always makes a person faint.
Balm-of-Gilead buds bottled up in N.E. rum, make the best cure in the
world for fresh cuts and wounds. Every family should have a bottle of
it. The buds should be gathered in a peculiar state; just when they
are well swelled, ready to burst into leaves, and well covered with
gum. They last but two or three days in this state.
Plantain and house-leek, boiled in cream, and strained before it is
put away to cool, makes a very cooling, soothing ointment. Plantain
leaves laid upon a wound are cooling and healing.
Half a spoonful of _citric acid_, (which may always be bought of the
apothecaries,) stirred in half a tumbler of water, is excellent for
the head-ache.
People in general think they must go abroad for vapor-baths; but a
very simple one can be made at home. Place _strong_ sticks across
a tub of water, at the boiling point, and sit upon them, entirely
enveloped in a blanket, feet and all. The steam from the water will
be a vapor-bath. Some people put herbs into the water. Steam-baths are
excellent for severe colds, and for some disorders in the bowels. They
should not be taken without the advice of an experienced nurse, or
physician. Great care should be taken not to renew the cold after; it
would be doubly dangerous.
Boiled potatoes are said to cleanse the hands as well as common soap;
they prevent _chops_ in the winter season, and keep the skin soft and
healthy.
Water-gruel, with three or four onions simmered in it, prepared with
a lump of butter, pepper, and salt, eaten just before one goes to
bed, is said to be a cure for a hoarse cold. A syrup made of
horseradish-root and sugar is excellent for a cold.
Very strong salt and water, when frequently applied, has been known to
cure wens.
The following poultice for the throat distemper, has been much
approved in England:--The pulp of a roasted apple, mixed with an ounce
of tobacco, the whole wet with spirits of wine, or any other high
spirits, spread on a linen rag, and bound upon the throat at any
period of the disorder.
Nothing is so good to take down swellings, as a soft poultice of
stewed white beans, put on in a thin muslin bag, and renewed every
hour or two.
The thin white skin, which comes from suet, is excellent to bind upon
the feet for chilblains. Rubbing with Castile soap, and afterwards
with honey, is likewise highly recommended. But, to cure the
chilblains effectually, they must be attended to often, and for a long
time.
Always apply diluted laudanum to fresh wounds.
A poultice of elder-blow tea and biscuit is good as a preventive to
mortification. The approach of mortification is generally shown by
the formation of blisters filled with _blood_; water blisters are not
alarming.
Burnt alum held in the mouth is good for the canker.
The common dark-blue violet makes a slimy tea, which is excellent for
the canker. Leaves and blossoms are both good. Those who have families
should take some pains to dry these flowers.
When people have a sore mouth, from taking calomel, or any other
cause, tea made of low-blackberry leaves is extremely beneficial.
Tea made of slippery elm is good for the piles, and for humors in the
blood; to be drank plentifully. Winter evergreen[4] is considered good
for all humors, particularly scrofula. Some call it rheumatism-weed;
because a tea made from it is supposed to check that painful disorder.
[Footnote 4: This plant resembles the poisonous kill-lamb, both in the
shape and the glossiness of the leaves: great care should be used to
distinguish them.]
An ointment of lard, sulphur, and cream-of-tartar, simmered together,
is good for the piles.
Elixir proprietatis is a useful family medicine for all cases when the
digestive powers are out of order. One ounce of saffron, one ounce of
myrrh, and one ounce of aloes. Pulverize them; let the myrrh steep
in half a pint of brandy, or N.E. rum, for four days; then add the
saffron and aloes; let it stand in the sunshine, or in some warm
place, for a fortnight; taking care to shake it well twice a day. At
the end of the fortnight, fill up the bottle (a common sized one) with
brandy, or N.E. rum, and let it stand a month. It costs six times as
much to buy it in small quantities, as it does to make it.
The constant use of malt beer, or malt in any way, is said to be a
preservative against fevers.
Black cherry-tree bark, barberry bark, mustard-seed, petty
morrel-root, and horseradish, well steeped in cider, are excellent for
the jaundice.
Cotton wool and oil are the best things for a burn. When children are
burned, it is difficult to make them endure the application of cotton
wool. I have known the inflammation of a very bad burn extracted in
one night, by the constant application of brandy, vinegar, and water,
mixed together. This feels cool and pleasant, and a few drops of
paregoric will soon put the little sufferer to sleep. The bathing
should be continued till the pain is gone.
A few drops of the oil of Cajput on cotton wool is said to be a great
relief to the tooth-ache. It occasions a smart pain for a few seconds,
when laid upon the defective tooth. Any apothecary will furnish it
ready dropped on cotton wool, for a few cents.
A poultice made of ginger or of common chickweed, that grows about
one's door in the country, has given great relief to the tooth-ache,
when applied frequently to the cheek.
A spoonful of ashes stirred in cider is good to prevent sickness
at the stomach. Physicians frequently order it in cases of
cholera-morbus.
When a blister occasioned by a burn breaks, it is said to be a good
plan to put wheat flour upon the naked flesh.
The buds of the elder bush, gathered in early spring, and simmered
with new butter, or sweet lard, make a very healing and cooling
ointment.
Night sweats have been cured, when more powerful remedies had failed,
by fasting morning and night, and drinking cold sage tea constantly
and freely.
Lard, melted and cooled five or six times in succession, by being
poured each time into a fresh pail-full of water, then simmered with
sliced onions, and cooled, is said, by old nurses, to make a salve,
which is almost infallible in curing inflammations produced by taking
cold in wounds.
Vinegar curds, made by pouring vinegar into warm milk, put on warm,
and changed pretty frequently, are likewise excellent to subdue
inflammation.
Chalk wet with hartshorn is a remedy for the sting of bees; so is
likewise table-salt kept moist with water.
Boil castor-oil with an equal quantity of milk, sweeten it with a
little sugar, stir it well, and, when cold, give it to children for
drink. They will never suspect it is medicine; and will even love the
taste of it.
As molasses is often given to children as a gentle physic, it will be
useful to know that West India molasses is a gentle cathartic, while
sugar-baker's molasses is slightly astringent.
If a fellon or run-round appears to be coming on the finger, you can
do nothing better than to soak the finger thoroughly in hot lye. It
will be painful, but it will cure a disorder much more painful.
Whiskey, which has had Spanish-flies in soak, is said to be good for
ring-worms; but I never knew an instance of its being tried. Unless
too strong, or used in great quantities, it cannot, at least, do
any harm. Washing the hands frequently in warm vinegar, is good for
ring-worms.
When the toe nails have a tendency to turn in, so as to be painful,
the nail should always be kept scraped _very thin_, and as near the
flesh as possible. As soon as the corner of the nail can be raised up
out of the flesh, it should be kept from again entering, by putting a
tuft of fine lint under it.
As this book may fall into the hands of those who cannot speedily
obtain a physician, it is worth while to mention what is best to be
done for the bite of a rattlesnake:--Cut the flesh out, around the
bite, _instantly_; that the poison may not have time to circulate
in the blood. If caustic is at hand, put it upon the raw flesh; if
not, the next best thing is to fill the wound with salt--renewing it
occasionally. Take a dose of sweet oil and spirits of turpentine,
to defend the stomach. If the whole limb swell, bathe it in salt and
vinegar freely. It is well to physic the system thoroughly, before
returning to usual diet.
GRUEL.
Gruel is very easily made. Have a pint of water boiling in a skillet;
stir up three or four large spoonfuls of nicely sifted oat-meal, rye,
or Indian, in cold water. Pour it into the skillet while the water
boils. Let it boil eight or ten minutes. Throw in a large handful of
raisins to boil, if the patient is well enough to bear them. When put
in a bowl, add a little salt, white sugar, and nutmeg.
EGG GRUEL.
This is at once food and medicine. Some people have very great faith
in its efficacy in cases of chronic dysentery. It is made thus: Boil
a pint of new milk; beat four new-laid eggs to a light froth, and pour
in while the milk boils; stir them together thoroughly, but do not
let them boil; sweeten it with the best of loaf sugar, and grate in
a whole nutmeg; add a little salt, if you like it. Drink half of it
while it is warm, and the other half in two hours.
ARROW-ROOT JELLY.
Put about a pint of water in a skillet to boil; stir up a large
spoonful of arrow-root powder in a cup of water; pour it into the
skillet while the water is boiling; let them boil together three or
four minutes. Season it with nutmeg and loaf sugar. This is very
light food for an invalid. When the system is in a relaxed state, two
tea-spoonfuls of brandy may be put in. Milk and loaf sugar boiled, and
a spoonful of fine flour, well mixed with a little cold water, poured
in while the milk is boiling, is light food in cases of similar
diseases.
CALF'S FOOT JELLY.
Boil four feet in a gallon of water, till it is reduced to a quart.
Strain it, and let it stand, till it is quite cool. Skim off the fat,
and add to the jelly one pint of wine, half a pound of sugar, the
whites of six eggs, and the juice of four large lemons; boil all these
materials together eight or ten minutes. Then strain into the glasses,
or jars, in which you intend to keep it. Some lay a few bits of the
lemon-peel at the bottom, and let it be strained upon them.
TAPIOCA JELLY.
Wash it two or three times, soak it five or six hours; simmer it in
the same water with bits of fresh lemon-peel until it becomes quite
clear; then put in lemon juice, wine and loaf sugar.
SAGO JELLY.
The sago should be soaked in cold water an hour, and washed
thoroughly; simmered with lemon-peel and a few cloves. Add wine
and loaf sugar when nearly done; and let it all boil together a few
minutes.
BEEF TEA.
Beef tea, for the sick, is made by broiling a tender steak nicely,
seasoning it with pepper and salt, cutting it up, and pouring water
over it, not quite boiling. Put in a little water at a time, and let
it stand to soak the goodness out.
WINE WHEY.
Wine whey is a cooling and safe drink in fevers. Set half a pint of
sweet milk at the fire, pour in one glass of wine, and let it remain
perfectly still, till it curdles; when the curds settle, strain it,
and let it cool. It should not get more than blood-warm. A spoonful of
rennet-water hastens the operation. Made palatable with loaf sugar and
nutmeg, if the patient can bear it.
APPLE WATER.
This is given as sustenance when the stomach is too weak to bear
broth, &c. It may be made thus,--Pour boiling water on roasted apples;
let them stand three hours, then strain and sweeten lightly:--Or it
may be made thus,--Peel and slice tart apples, add some sugar and
lemon-peel; then pour some boiling water over the whole, and let it
stand covered by the fire, more than an hour.
MILK PORRIDGE.
Boil new milk; stir flour thoroughly into some cold milk in a bowl,
and pour it into the kettle while the milk is boiling: let it all
boil six or eight minutes. Some people like it thicker than others;
I should think three large spoonfuls of flour to a quart of milk
was about right. It should always be seasoned with salt; and if the
patient likes, loaf sugar and nutmeg may be put in. In cases of fever,
little salt or spice should be put into any nourishment; but in cases
of dysentery, salt and nutmeg may be used freely: in such cases too,
more flour should be put in porridge, and it should be boiled very
thoroughly indeed.
STEWED PRUNES.
Stew them very gently in a small quantity of water, till the stones
slip out. Physicians consider them safe nourishment in fevers.
* * * * *
VEGETABLES.
Parsnips should be kept down cellar, covered up in sand, entirely
excluded from the air. They are good only in the spring.
Cabbages put into a hole in the ground will keep well during the
winter, and be hard, fresh, and sweet, in the spring. Many farmers
keep potatoes in the same way.
Onions should be kept very dry, and never carried into the cellar
except in severe weather, when there is danger of their freezing. By
no means let them be in the cellar after March; they will sprout and
spoil. Potatoes should likewise be carefully looked to in the spring,
and the sprouts broken off. The cellar is the best place for them,
because they are injured by wilting; but sprout them carefully, if you
want to keep them. They never sprout but three times; therefore, after
you have sprouted them three times, they will trouble you no more.
Squashes should never be kept down cellar when it is possible to
prevent it. Dampness injures them. If intense cold makes it necessary
to put them there, bring them up as soon as possible, and keep them in
some dry, warm place.
Cabbages need to be boiled an hour; beets an hour and a half. The
lower part of a squash should be boiled half an hour; the neck pieces
fifteen or twenty minutes longer. Parsnips should boil an hour, or
an hour and a quarter, according to size. New potatoes should boil
fifteen or twenty minutes; three quarters of an hour, or an hour, is
not too much for large, old potatoes; common-sized ones, half an hour.
In the spring, it is a good plan to cut off a slice from the seed end
of potatoes before you cook them. The seed end is opposite to that
which grew upon the vine; the place where the vine was broken off
may be easily distinguished. By a provision of nature, the seed end
becomes watery in the spring; and, unless cut off, it is apt to injure
the potato. If you wish to have potatoes mealy, do not let them stop
boiling for an instant; and when they are done, turn the water off,
and let them steam for ten or twelve minutes over the fire. See they
don't stay long enough to burn to the kettle. In Canada, they cut
the skin all off, and put them in pans, to be cooked over a stove,
by steam. Those who have eaten them, say they are mealy and white,
looking like large snow-balls when brought upon the table.
Potatoes boiled and mashed while hot, are good to use in making short
cakes and puddings; they save flour, and less shortening is necessary.
It is said that a bit of unslacked lime, about as big as a robin's
egg, thrown among old, watery potatoes, while they are boiling, will
tend to make them mealy. I never saw the experiment tried.
Asparagus should be boiled fifteen or twenty minutes; half an hour,
if old.
Green peas should be boiled from twenty minutes to sixty, according
to their age; string beans the same. Corn should be boiled from twenty
minutes to forty, according to age; dandelions half an hour, or three
quarters, according to age. Dandelions are very much improved by
cultivation. If cut off, without injuring the root, they will spring
up again, fresh and tender, till late in the season.
Beet-tops should be boiled twenty minutes; and spinage three or four
minutes. Put in no green vegetables till the water boils, if you would
keep all their sweetness.
When green peas have become old and yellow, they may be made tender
and green by sprinkling in a pinch or two of pearlash, while they
are boiling. Pearlash has the same effect upon all summer vegetables,
rendered tough by being too old. If your well-water is very hard, it
is always an advantage to use a little pearlash in cooking.
Tomatoes should be skinned by pouring boiling water over them. After
they are skinned, they should be stewed half an hour, in tin, with
a little salt, a small bit of butter, and a spoonful of water, to
keep them from burning. This is a delicious vegetable. It is easily
cultivated, and yields a most abundant crop. Some people pluck them
green, and pickle them.
The best sort of catsup is made from tomatoes. The vegetables
should be squeezed up in the hand, salt put to them, and set by
for twenty-four hours. After being passed through a sieve, cloves,
allspice, pepper, mace, garlic, and whole mustard-seed should be
added. It should be boiled down one third, and bottled after it is
cool. No liquid is necessary, as the tomatoes are very juicy. A good
deal of salt and spice is necessary to keep the catsup well. It is
delicious with roast meat; and a cupful adds much to the richness of
soup and chowder. The garlic should be taken out before it is bottled.
Celery should be kept in the cellar, the roots covered with tan, to
keep them moist.
Green squashes that are turning yellow, and striped squashes, are more
uniformly sweet and mealy than any other kind.
If the tops of lettuce be cut off when it is becoming too old for
use, it will grow up again fresh and tender, and may thus be kept good
through the summer.
It is a good plan to boil onions in milk and water; it diminishes the
strong taste of that vegetable. It is an excellent way of serving up
onions, to chop them after they are boiled, and put them in a stewpan,
with a little milk, butter, salt, and pepper, and let them stew about
fifteen minutes. This gives them a fine flavor, and they can be served
up very hot.
* * * * *
HERBS.
All herbs should be carefully kept from the air. Herb tea, to do any
good, should be made _very strong_.
Herbs should be gathered while in blossom. If left till they have
gone to seed, the strength goes into the seed. Those who have a little
patch of ground, will do well to raise the most important herbs; and
those who have not, will do well to get them in quantities from some
friend in the country; for apothecaries make very great profit upon
them.
Sage is very useful both as a medicine, for the headache--when made
into tea--and for all kinds of stuffing, when dried and rubbed into
powder. It should be kept tight from the air.
Summer-savory is excellent to season soup, broth, and sausages. As a
medicine, it relieves the cholic. Pennyroyal and tansy are good for
the same medicinal purpose.
Green wormwood bruised is excellent for a fresh wound of any kind.
In winter, when wormwood is dry, it is necessary to soften it in warm
vinegar, or spirit, before it is bruised, and applied to the wound.
Hyssop tea is good for sudden colds, and disorders on the lungs. It
is necessary to be very careful about exposure after taking it; it is
peculiarly opening to the pores.
Tea made of colt's-foot and flax-seed, sweetened with honey, is a
cure for inveterate coughs. Consumptions have been prevented by it. It
should be drank when going to bed; though it does good to drink it at
any time. Hoarhound is useful in consumptive complaints.
Motherwort tea is very quieting to the nerves. Students, and people
troubled with wakefulness, find it useful.
Thoroughwort is excellent for dyspepsy, and every disorder occasioned
by indigestion. If the stomach be foul, it operates like a gentle
emetic.
Sweet-balm tea is cooling when one is in a feverish state.
Catnip, particularly the blossoms, made into tea, is good to prevent a
threatened fever. It produces a fine perspiration. It should be taken
in bed, and the patient kept warm.
Housekeepers should always dry leaves of the burdock and horseradish.
Burdocks warmed in vinegar, with the hard, stalky parts cut out, are
very soothing, applied to the feet; they produce a sweet and gentle
perspiration. Horseradish is more powerful. It is excellent in cases
of the ague, placed on the part affected. Warmed in vinegar, and
clapped.
Succory is a very valuable herb. The tea, sweetened with molasses, is
good for the piles. It is a gentle and healthy physic, a preventive
of dyspepsy, humors, inflammation, and all the evils resulting from a
restricted state of the system.
Elder-blow tea has a similar effect. It is cool and soothing, and
peculiarly efficacious either for babes or grown people, when the
digestive powers are out of order.
Lungwort, maiden-hair, hyssop, elecampane and hoarhound steeped
together, is an almost certain cure for a cough. A wine-glass full to
be taken when going to bed.
Few people know how to keep the flavor of sweet-marjoram; the best
of all herbs for broth and stuffing. It should be gathered in bud or
blossom, and dried in a tin-kitchen at a moderate distance from the
fire; when dry, it should be immediately rubbed, sifted, and corked up
in a bottle carefully.
English-mallows steeped in milk is good for the dysentery.
* * * * *
CHEAP DYE-STUFFS.
A few general rules are necessary to be observed in coloring. The
materials should be perfectly clean; soap should be rinsed out in soft
water; the article should be entirely wetted, or it will spot; light
colors should be steeped in brass, tin, or earthen; and if set at all,
should be set with alum. Dark colors should be boiled in iron, and set
with copperas. Too much copperas rots the thread.
The apothecaries and hatters keep a compound of vitriol and indigo,
commonly called 'blue composition.' An ounce vial full may be bought
for nine-pence. It colors a fine blue. It is an economical plan to
use it for old silk linings, ribbons, &c. The original color should be
boiled out, and the material thoroughly rinsed in soft water, so that
no soap may remain in it; for soap ruins the dye. Twelve or sixteen
drops of the blue composition, poured into a quart bowl full of warm
soft water, stirred, (and strained, if any settlings are perceptible,)
will color a great many articles. If you wish a deep blue, pour in
more of the compound. Cotton must not be colored; the vitriol destroys
it; if the material you wish to color has cotton threads in it, it
will be ruined. After the things are thoroughly dried, they should be
washed in cool suds, and dried again; this prevents any bad effects
from the vitriol; if shut up from the air without being washed, there
is danger of the texture being destroyed. If you wish to color green,
have your cloth free as possible from the old color, clean, and
rinsed, and, in the first place, color it a deep yellow. Fustic
boiled in soft water makes the strongest and brightest yellow dye;
but saffron, barberry bush, peach leaves, or onion skins, will answer
pretty well. Next take a bowl full of strong yellow dye, and pour in a
great spoonful or more of the blue composition. Stir it up well with a
clean stick, and dip the articles you have already colored yellow into
it, and they will take a lively grass green. This is a good plan for
old bombazet curtains, dessert cloths, old flannel for covering a
desk, &c; it is likewise a handsome color for ribbons.
Balm blossoms, steeped in water, color a pretty rose-color. This
answers very well for the linings of children's bonnets, for ribbons,
&c. It fades in the course of one season; but it is very little
trouble to recolor with it. It merely requires to be steeped and
strained. Perhaps a small piece of alum might serve to set the color,
in some degree. In earthen or tin.
Saffron, steeped in earthen and strained, colors a fine straw color.
It makes a delicate or deep shade according to the strength of the
tea. The dry outside skins of onions, steeped in scalding water and
strained, color a yellow very much like 'bird of paradise' color.
Peach leaves, or bark scraped from the barberry bush, colors a common
bright yellow. In all these cases, a little piece of alum does no
harm, and may help to fix the color. Ribbons, gauze handkerchiefs, &c.
are colored well in this way, especially if they be stiffened by a bit
of gum-Arabic, dropped in while the stuff is steeping.
The purple paper, which comes on loaf sugar, boiled in cider, or
vinegar, with a small bit of alum, makes a fine purple slate color.
Done in iron.
White maple bark makes a good light-brown slate color. This should
be boiled in water, set with alum. The color is reckoned better when
boiled in brass, instead of iron.
The purple slate and the brown slate are suitable colors for
stockings; and it is an economical plan, after they have been mended
and cut down, so that they will no longer look decent, to color old
stockings, and make them up for children.
A pailful of lye, with a piece of copperas half as big as a hen's egg
boiled in it, will color a fine nankin color, which will never wash
out. This is very useful for the linings of bed-quilts, comforters,
&c. Old faded gowns, colored in this way, may be made into good
petticoats. Cheap cotton cloth may be colored to advantage for
petticoats, and pelisses for little girls.
A very beautiful nankin color may likewise be obtained from
birch-bark, set with alum. The bark should be covered with water,
and boiled thoroughly in brass or tin. A bit of alum half as big as
a hen's egg is sufficient. If copperas be used instead of alum, slate
color will be produced.
Tea-grounds boiled in iron, and set with copperas, make a very good
slate color.
Log-wood and cider, in iron, set with copperas, makes a good black.
Rusty nails, or any rusty iron, boiled in vinegar, with a small bit of
copperas, makes a good black,--black ink-powder done in the same way
answers the same purpose.
* * * * *
MEAT CORNED, OR SALTED, HAMS, &C.
When you merely want to corn meat, you have nothing to do but to rub
in salt plentifully, and let it set in the cellar a day or two. If you
have provided more meat than you can use while it is good, it is well
to corn it in season to save it. In summer, it will not keep well more
than a day and a half; if you are compelled to keep it longer, be sure
and rub in more salt, and keep it carefully covered from cellar-flies.
In winter, there is no difficulty in keeping a piece of corned beef
a fortnight or more. Some people corn meat by throwing it into their
beef barrel for a few days; but this method does not make it so sweet.
A little salt-petre rubbed in before you apply the common salt, makes
the meat tender; but in summer it is not well to use it, because it
prevents the other salt from impregnating; and the meat does not keep
as well.
If you wish to salt fat pork, scald coarse salt in water and skim it,
till the salt will no longer melt in the water. Pack your pork down
in tight layers; salt every layer; when the brine is cool, cover the
pork with it, and keep a heavy stone on the top to keep the pork under
brine. Look to it once in a while, for the first few weeks, and if the
salt has all melted, throw in more. This brine, scalded and skimmed
every time it is used, will continue good twenty years. The rind of
the pork should be packed towards the edge of the barrel.
It is good economy to salt your own beef as well as pork. Six pounds
of coarse salt, eight ounces of brown sugar, a pint of molasses, and
eight ounces of salt-petre, are enough to boil in four gallons of
water. Skim it clean while boiling. Put it to the beef cold; have
enough to cover it; and be careful your beef never floats on the top.
If it does not smell perfectly sweet, throw in more salt; if a scum
rises upon it, scald and skim it again, and pour it on the beef when
cold.
Legs of mutton are very good, cured in the same way as ham. Six pounds
of salt, eight ounces of salt-petre, and five pints of molasses, will
make pickle enough for one hundred weight. Small legs should be kept
in pickle twelve or fifteen days; if large, four or five weeks are not
too much. They should be hung up a day or two to dry, before they are
smoked. Lay them in the oven, on crossed sticks, and make a fire at
the entrance. Cobs, walnut-bark, or walnut-chips, are the best to use
for smoking, on account of the sweet taste they give the meat. The
smallest pieces should be smoked forty-eight hours, and large legs
four or five days. Some people prefer the mutton boiled as soon as it
is taken from the pickle, before it is smoked; others hang it up till
it gets dry thoroughly, and eat it in thin slices, like hung beef.
When legs of meat are put in pickle, the thickest part of the leg
should be placed uppermost, that is, standing upright, the same as the
creature stood when living. The same rule should be observed when they
are hung up to dry; it is essential in order to keep in the juices of
the meat. Meat should be turned over once or twice during the process
of smoking.
The old-fashioned way for curing hams is to rub them with salt very
thoroughly, and let them lay twenty-four hours. To each ham allow
two ounces of salt-petre, one quart of common salt and one quart of
molasses. First baste them with molasses; next rub in the salt-petre;
and, last of all, the common salt. They must be carefully turned
and rubbed every day for six weeks; then hang them in a chimney, or
smoke-house, four weeks.
They should be well covered up in paper bags, and put in a chest, or
barrel, with layers of ashes, or charcoal, between. When you take out
a ham to cut for use, be sure and put it away in a dark place, well
covered up; especially in summer.
Some very experienced epicures and cooks, think the old-fashioned way
of preparing bacon is troublesome and useless. They say that legs of
pork placed upright in pickle, for four or five weeks, are just as
nice as those rubbed with so much care. The pickle for pork and hung
beef, should be stronger than for legs of mutton. Eight pounds of
salt, ten ounces of salt-petre and five pints of molasses is enough
for one hundred weight of meat; water enough to cover the meat
well--probably, four or five gallons. Any one can prepare bacon, or
dried beef, very easily, in a common oven, according to the above
directions. The same pickle that answers for bacon is proper for
neat's tongues. Pigs' tongues are very nice, prepared in the same
way as neat's tongues; an abundance of them are sold for rein-deer's
tongues, and, under that name, considered a wonderful luxury.
Neat's tongue should be boiled full three hours. If it has been in
salt long, it is well to soak it over night in cold water. Put it in
to boil when the water is cold. If you boil it in a small pot, it is
well to change the water, when it has boiled an hour and a half; the
fresh water should boil before the half-cooked tongue is put in again.
It is nicer for being kept in a cool place a day or two after being
boiled. Nearly the same rules apply to salt beef. A six pound piece
of corned beef should boil full three hours; and salt beef should be
boiled four hours.
The saltier meat is, the longer it should be boiled. If very salt, it
is well to put it in soak over night; change the water while cooking;
and observe the same rules as in boiling tongue. If it is intended to
be eaten when cold, it is a good plan to put it between clean boards,
and press it down with heavy weights for a day or two. A small leg
of bacon should be boiled three hours; ten pounds four hours; twelve
pounds five hours. All meat should boil moderately; furious boiling
injures the flavor.
Buffalo's tongue should soak a day and a night, and boil as much as
six hours.
* * * * *
CHOICE OF MEAT.
If people wish to be economical, they should take some pains to
ascertain what are the cheapest pieces of meat to buy; not merely
those which are cheapest in price, but those which go farthest when
cooked. That part of mutton called the rack, which consists of the
neck, and a few of the rib bones below, is cheap food. It is not more
than four or five cents a pound; and four pounds will make a dinner
for six people. The neck, cut into pieces, and boiled slowly an hour
and a quarter, in little more than water enough to cover it, makes
very nice broth. A great spoonful of rice should be washed and
thrown in with the meat. About twenty minutes before it is done, put
in a little thickening, and season with salt, pepper, and sifted
summer-savory, or sage. The bones below the neck, broiled, make a good
mutton chop. If your family be small, a rack of mutton will make you
two dinners,--broth once, and mutton chop with a few slices of salt
pork, for another; if your family consist of six or seven, you can
have two dishes for a dinner. If you boil the whole rack for broth,
there will be some left for mince meat.
Liver is usually much despised; but when well cooked, it is very
palatable; and it is the cheapest of all animal food. Veal liver is
by some considered the best. Veal liver is usually two cents a pound;
beef liver is one cent. After you have fried a few slices of salt
pork, put the liver in while the fat is very hot, and cook it through
thoroughly. If you doubt whether it be done, cut into a slice, and see
whether it has turned entirely brown, without any red stripe in the
middle. Season it with pepper and salt, and butter, if you live on a
farm, and have butter in plenty. It should not be cooked on furiously
hot coals, as it is very apt to scorch. Sprinkle in a little flour,
stir it, and pour in boiling water to make gravy, just as you would
for fried meat. Some think liver is better dipped in sifted Indian
meal before it is fried. It is good broiled and buttered like a steak.
It should be cut into slices about as thick as are cut for steaks.
The heart, liver, &c. of a pig is good fried; so is that of a lamb.
The latter is commonly called lamb-fry; and a dinner may be bought for
six or eight cents. Be sure and ask for the sweet-bread; for butchers
are extremely apt to reserve it for their own use; and therefore
lamb-fry is almost always sold without it. Fry five or six slices of
salt pork; after it is taken out, put in your lamb-fry while the fat
is hot. Do it thoroughly; but be careful the fire is not too furious,
as it is apt to scorch. Take a large handful of parsley, see that it
is washed clean, cut it up pretty fine; then pour a little boiling
water into the fat in which your dinner has been fried, and let the
parsley cook in it a minute or two; then take it out in a spoon, and
lay it over your slices of meat. Some people, who like thick gravies,
shake in a little flour into the spider, before pouring in the boiling
water.
Bones from which roasting pieces have been cut, may be bought in the
market for ten or twelve cents, from which a very rich soup may be
made, besides skimming off fat for shortening. If the bones left from
the rump be bought, they will be found full of marrow, and will give
more than a pint of good shortening, without injuring the richness of
the soup. The richest piece of beef for a soup is the leg and the shin
of beef; the leg is on the hind quarter, and the shin is on the fore
quarter. The leg rand, that is, the thick part of the leg above the
bony parts, is very nice for mince pies. Some people have an objection
to these parts of beef, thinking they must be stringy; but, if boiled
_very tender_, the sinews are not perceived, and add, in fact, to the
richness of a soup.
The thick part of a thin flank is the most profitable part in the
whole ox to buy. It is not so handsome in appearance as some other
pieces, but it is thick meat, with very little bone, and is usually
two cents less in the pound than more fashionable pieces. It is good
for roasting, and particularly for corning and salting. The navel end
of the brisket is one of the best pieces for salting or corning, and
is very good for roasting.
The rattle rand is the very best piece for corning, or salting.
A bullock's heart is very profitable to use as a steak. Broiled just
like beef. There are usually five pounds in a heart, and it can be
bought for twenty-five cents. Some people stuff and roast it.
The chuck, between the neck and the shoulder, is a very good piece for
roasting,--for steaks, or for salting. Indeed, it is good for almost
anything; and it is cheap, being from four to five cents a pound.
The richest, tenderest, and most delicate piece of beef for roasting,
or for steak, is the rump and the last cut of the sirloin. It is
peculiarly appropriate for an invalid, as it is lighter food than any
other beef.
But if economy be consulted instead of luxury, the round will be
bought in preference to the rump. It is heartier food, and, of course,
less can be eaten; and it is cheaper in price.
The shoulder of veal is the most economical for roasting or boiling.
It is always cheap, let veal bear what price it may. Two dinners may
be made from it; the shoulder roasted, and the knuckle cut off to be
boiled with a bit of pork and greens, or to be made into soup.
The breast of veal is a favorite piece, and is sold high.
The hind-quarter of veal and the loin make two good roasting pieces.
The leg is usually stuffed. The line has the kidney upon it; the
fore-quarter has the brisket on it. This is a sweet and delicate
morsel; for this reason some people prefer the fore-quarter to any
other part.
Always buy a shoulder of pork for economy, for roasting, or coming to
boil. Cut off the leg to be boiled. Many people buy the upper part of
the spare-rib of pork thinking it the most genteel; but the lower part
of the spare-rib toward the neck is much more sweet and juicy, and
there is more meat in proportion to the bone.
The breast, or shoulder, of mutton are both nice, either for roasting,
boiling or broth. The breast is richer than the shoulder. It is more
economical to buy a fore-quarter of mutton than a hind-quarter; there
is usually two cents difference per pound. The neck of fat mutton
makes a good steak for broiling.
Lamb brings the same price, either fore-quarter or hind-quarter;
therefore it is more profitable to buy a hind-quarter than a
fore-quarter; especially as its own fat will cook it, and there is no
need of pork or butter in addition. Either part is good for roasting
or boiling. The loin of lamb is suitable for roasting, and is the most
profitable for a small family. The leg is more suitable for boiling
than for anything else; the shoulder and breast are peculiarly
suitable for broth.
The part that in lamb is called the loin, in mutton is called the
chop. Mutton chop is considered very good for broiling.
Pig's head is a profitable thing to buy. It is despised, because it is
cheap; but when well cooked it is delicious. Well cleaned, the tip of
the snout chopped off, and put in brine a week, it is very good for
boiling: the cheeks, in particular, are very sweet; they are better
than any other pieces of pork to bake with beans. The head is likewise
very good baked about an hour and a half. It tastes like roast pork,
and yields abundance of sweet fat, for shortening.
* * * * *
COMMON COOKING.
It is necessary to be very careful of fresh meat in the summer season.
The moment it is brought into the house, it should be carefully
covered from the flies, and put in the coldest place in the cellar.
If it consist of pieces, they should be spread out separate from each
other, on a large dish, and covered. If you are not to cook it soon,
it is well to sprinkle salt on it. The kidney, and fat flabby parts,
should be raised up above the lean, by a skewer, or stick, and a
little salt strewn in. If you have to keep it over night, it should be
looked to the last thing when you go to bed; and if there is danger,
it should be scalded.
VEAL.
Veal should boil about an hour, if a neck-piece; if the meat comes
from a thicker, more solid part, it should boil longer. No directions
about these things will supply the place of judgment and experience.
Both mutton and veal are better for being boiled with a small piece of
salt pork. Veal broth is very good.
Veal soup should be slowly stewed for two hours. Seasoned the same as
above. Some people like a little sifted summer-savory.
Six or seven pounds of veal will roast in an hour and a half.
Fried veal is better for being dipped in white of egg, and rolled in
nicely pounded crumbs of bread, before it is cooked. One egg is enough
for a common dinner.
CALF'S HEAD.
Calf's head should be cleansed with very great care; particularly
the lights. The head, the heart, and the lights should boil full two
hours; the liver should be boiled only one hour. It is better to leave
the wind-pipe on, for if it hangs out of the pot while the head is
cooking, all the froth will escape through it. The brains, after being
thoroughly washed, should be put in a little bag; with one pounded
cracker, or as much crumbled bread, seasoned with sifted sage, and
tied up and boiled one hour. After the brains are boiled, they should
be well broken up with a knife, and peppered, salted, and buttered.
They should be put upon the table in a bowl by themselves. Boiling
water, thickened with flour and water, with butter melted in it, is
the proper sauce; some people love vinegar and pepper mixed with the
melted butter; but all are not fond of it; and it is easy for each one
to add it for themselves.
BEEF.
Beef soup should be stewed four hours over a slow fire. Just water
enough to keep the meat covered. If you have any bones left of roast
meat, &c. it is a good plan to boil them with the meat, and take them
out half an hour before the soup is done. A pint of flour and water,
with salt, pepper, twelve or sixteen onions, should be put in twenty
minutes before the soup is done. Be careful and not throw in salt
and pepper too plentifully; it is easy to add to it, and not easy to
diminish. A lemon, cut up and put in half an hour before it is done,
adds to the flavor. If you have tomato catsup in the house, a cupful
will make soup rich. Some people put in crackers; some thin slices of
crust, made nearly as short as common shortcake; and some stir up two
or three eggs with milk and flour, and drop it in with a spoon.
A quarter of an hour to each pound of beef is considered a good rule
for roasting; but this is too much when the bone is large, and the
meal thin. Six pounds of the rump should roast six quarters of an
hour; but bony pieces less. It should be done before a quick fire.
The quicker beef-steak can be broiled the better. Seasoned after it is
taken from the gridiron.
ALAMODE BEEF.
Tie up a round of beef so as to keep it in shape; make a stuffing of
grated bread, suet, sweet herbs, quarter of an ounce of nutmeg, a few
cloves pounded, yolk of an egg. Cut holes in the beef, and put in the
stuffing, leaving about half the stuffing to be made into balls. Tie
the beef up in a cloth, just cover it with water, let it boil an hour
and a half; then turn it, and let it boil an hour and a half more;
then turn out the liquor, and put some skewers across the bottom of
the pot, and lay the beef upon it, to brown; turn it that it may brown
on both sides. Put a pint of claret, and some allspice and cloves,
into the liquor, and boil some balls made of the stuffing in it.
MUTTON AND LAMB.
Six or seven pounds of mutton will roast in an hour and a half. Lamb
one hour. Mutton is apt to taste strong; this may be helped by soaking
the meat in a little salt and water, for an hour before cooking.
However, unless meat is very sweet, it is best to corn it, and boil
it.
Fresh meat should never be put in to cook till the water boils; and it
should be boiled in as little water as possible; otherwise the flavor
is injured. Mutton enough for a family of five or six should boil an
hour and a half. A leg of lamb should boil an hour, or little more
than an hour, perhaps. Put a little thickening into boiling water;
strain it nicely; and put sweet butter in it for sauce. If your family
like broth, throw in some clear rice when you put in the meat. The
rice should be in proportion to the quantity of broth you mean to
make. A large table spoonful is enough for three pints of water.
Seasoned with a very little pepper and salt. Summer-savory, or sage,
rubbed through a sieve, thrown in.
PORK.
Fresh pork should be cooked more than any other meat. A thick shoulder
piece should be roasted full two hours and a half; and other pieces
less in proportion. The slight sickness occasioned by eating roasted
pork may be prevented by soaking it in salt and water the night before
you cook it. If called to prepare it on short notice, it will answer
to baste it with weak brine while roasting; and then turn the brine
off, and throw it away.
ROAST PIG.
Strew fine salt over it an hour before it is put down. It should not
be cut entirely open; fill it up plump with thick slices of buttered
bread, salt, sweet-marjoram and sage. Spit it with the head next the
point of the spit; take off the joints of the leg, and boil them with
the liver, with a little whole pepper, allspice, and salt, for gravy
sauce. The upper part of the legs must be braced down with skewers.
Shake on flour. Put a little water in the dripping-pan, and stir it
often. When the eyes drop out, the pig is half done. When it is nearly
done, baste it with butter. Cut off the head, split it open between
the eyes. Take out the brains, and chop them fine with the liver and
some sweet-marjoram and sage; put this into melted butter, and when
it has boiled a few minutes, add it to the gravy in the dripping-pan.
When your pig is cut open, lay it with the back to the edge of the
dish; half a head to be placed at each end. A good sized pig needs to
be roasted three hours.
SAUSAGES.
Three tea-spoons of powdered sage, one and a half of salt, and one of
pepper, to a pound of meat, is good seasoning for sausages.
MINCE MEAT.
There is a great difference in preparing mince meat. Some make it
a coarse, unsavory dish; and others make it nice and palatable. No
economical house-keeper will despise it; for broken bits of meat and
vegetables cannot so well be disposed of in any other way. If you
wish to have it nice, mash your vegetables fine, and chop your meat
very fine. Warm it with what remains of sweet gravy, or roast-meat
drippings, you may happen to have. Two or three apples, pared, cored,
sliced, and fried, to mix with it, is an improvement. Some like a
little sifted sage sprinkled in.
It is generally considered nicer to chop your meat fine, warm it in
gravy, season it, and lay it upon a large slice of toasted bread to be
brought upon the table without being mixed with potatoes; but if you
have cold vegetables, use them.
BEANS AND PEAS.
Baked beans are a very simple dish, yet few cook them well. They
should be put in cold water, and hung over the fire, the night before
they are baked. In the morning, they should be put in a colander, and
rinsed two or three times; then again placed in a kettle, with the
pork you intend to bake, covered with water, and kept scalding hot,
an hour or more. A pound of pork is quite enough for a quart of beans,
and that is a large dinner for a common family. The rind of the pork
should be slashed. Pieces of pork alternately fat and lean, are the
most suitable; the cheeks are the best. A little pepper sprinkled
among the beans, when they are placed in the bean-pot, will render
them less unhealthy. They should be just covered with water, when put
into the oven; and the pork should be sunk a little below the surface
of the beans. Bake three or four hours.
Stewed beans are prepared in the same way. The only difference is,
they are not taken out of the scalding water, but are allowed to stew
in more water, with a piece of pork and a little pepper, three hours
or more.
Dried peas need not be soaked over night. They should be stewed slowly
four or five hours in considerable water, with a piece of pork. The
older beans and peas are, the longer they should cook. Indeed, this is
the case with all vegetables.
SOUSE.
Pigs' feet, ears, &c., should be cleaned after being soaked in water
not very hot; the hoofs will then come off easily with a sharp knife;
the hard, rough places should be cut off; they should be thoroughly
singed, and then boiled as much as four or five hours, until they are
too tender to be taken out with a fork. When taken from the boiling
water, it should be put into cold water. After it is packed down
tight, boil the jelly-like liquor in which it was cooked with an equal
quantity of vinegar; salt as you think fit, and cloves, allspice, and
cinnamon, at the rate of a quarter of a pound to one hundred weight:
to be poured on scalding hot.
TRIPE.
Tripe should be kept in cold water, or it will become too dry for
cooking. The water in which it is kept should be changed more or less
frequently, according to the warmth of the weather. Broiled like
a steak, buttered, peppered, &c. Some people like it prepared like
souse.
GRAVY.
Most people put a half a pint of flour and water into their
tin-kitchen, when they set meat down to roast. This does very well;
but gravy is better flavored, and looks darker, to shake flour and
salt upon the meat; let it brown thoroughly, put flour and salt on
again, and then baste the meat with about half a pint of hot water (or
more, according to the gravy you want.) When the meat is about done,
pour these drippings into a skillet, and let it boil. If it is not
thick enough, shake in a little flour; but be sure to let it boil,
and be well stirred, after the flour is in. If you fear it will be too
greasy, take off a cupful of the fat before you boil. The fat of beef,
pork, turkeys and geese is as good for shortening as lard. Salt gravy
to your taste. If you are very particular about dark gravies, keep
your dredging-box full of scorched flour for that purpose.
POULTRY.
There are various ways of deciding about the age of poultry.
If the bottom of the breast bone, which extends down between the
legs, is soft, and gives easily, it is a sign of youth; if stiff, the
poultry is old.
If young, the legs are lighter, and the feet do not look so hard,
stiff, and worn.
There is more deception in geese than in any other kind of poultry.
The above remarks are applied to them; but there are other signs
more infallible. In a young goose, the cavity under the wings is very
tender; it is a bad sign if you cannot, with very little trouble, push
your finger directly into the flesh. There is another means by which
you may decide whether a goose be tender, if it be frozen or not.
Pass the head of a pin along the breast, or sides, and if the goose be
young, the skin will rip, like fine paper under a knife.
Something may be judged concerning the age of a goose by the
thickness of the web between the toes. When young, this is tender and
transparent; it grows coarser and harder with time.
In broiling chickens, it is difficult to do the inside of the thickest
pieces without scorching the outside. It is a good plan to parboil
them about ten minutes in a spider or skillet, covered close to keep
the steam in; then put them upon the gridiron, broil and butter. It
is a good plan to cover them with a plate, while on the gridiron.
They may be basted with a very little of the water in which they were
broiled; and if you have company who like melted butter to pour upon
the chicken, the remainder of the liquor will be good use for that
purpose.
An hour is enough for common sized chickens to roast. A smart fire
is better than a slow one; but they must be tended closely. Slices of
bread, buttered, salted, and peppered, put into the stomach (not the
crop) are excellent.
Chickens should boil about an hour. If old, they should boil longer.
In as little water as will cook them. Chicken-broth made like
mutton-broth.
FRICASSEED CHICKEN, BROWN.
Singe the chickens; cut them in pieces; pepper, salt, and flour them;
fry them in fresh butter, till they are very brown: take the chickens
out, and make a good gravy, into which put sweet herbs (marjoram or
sage) according to your taste; if necessary, add pepper and salt;
butter and flour must be used in making the gravy, in such quantities
as to suit yourself for thickness and richness. After this is all
prepared, the chicken must be stewed in it, for half an hour, closely
covered. A pint of gravy is about enough for two chickens; I should
think a piece of butter about as big as a walnut, and a table-spoonful
of flour, would be enough for the gravy. The herbs should, of course,
be pounded and sifted. Some, who love onions, slice two or three, and
brown them with the chicken. Some slice a half lemon, and stew with
the chicken. Some add tomatoes catsup.
FRICASSEED CHICKEN, WHITE.
The chickens are cut to pieces, and covered with warm water, to draw
out the blood. Then put into a stew-pan, with three quarters of a
pint of water, or veal broth, salt, pepper, flour, butter, mace, sweet
herbs pounded and sifted; boil it half an hour. If it is too fat, skim
it a little. Just before it is done, mix the yolk of two eggs with a
gill of cream, grate in a little nutmeg, stir it up till it is thick
and smooth, squeeze in half a lemon. If you like onions, stew some
slices with the other ingredients.
TO CURRY FOWL.
Fry out two or three slices of salt pork; cut the chicken in pieces,
and lay it in the stew-pan with one sliced onion; when the fowl
is tender, take it out, and put in thickening into the liquor, one
spoonful of flour, and one spoonful of curry-powder, well stirred
up in water. Then lay the chicken in again, and let it boil up a few
minutes. A half a pint of liquor is enough for one chicken. About half
an hour's stewing is necessary. The juice of half a lemon improves it;
and some like a spoonful of tomatoes catsup.
CHICKEN BROTH.
Cut a chicken in quarters; put it into three or four quarts of water;
put in a cup of rice while the water is cold; season it with pepper
and salt; some use nutmeg. Let it stew gently, until the chicken falls
apart. A little parsley, shred fine, is an improvement. Some slice up
a small onion and stew with it. A few pieces of cracker may be thrown
in if you like.
A common sized goose should roast full three quarters of an hour. The
oil that drips from it should be nearly all turned off; it makes the
gravy too greasy; and it is nice for shortening. It should first be
turned into cold water; when hardened, it should be taken off and
scalded in a skillet. This process leaves it as sweet as lard.
Ducks do not need to be roasted more than fifteen or twenty minutes.
Butter melted in boiling flour and water is proper sauce for boiled
lamb, mutton, veal, turkeys, geese, chickens, and fish. Some people
cut up parsley fine, and throw in. Some people like capers put in.
Others heat oysters through on the gridiron, and take them out of the
shells, and throw them into the butter.
A good sized turkey should be roasted two hours and a half, or three
hours; very slowly at first. If you wish to make plain stuffing, pound
a cracker, or crumble some bread very fine, chop some raw salt pork
very fine, sift some sage, (and summer-savory, or sweet-marjoram,
if you have them in the house, and fancy them,) and mould them all
together, seasoned with a little pepper. An egg worked in makes the
stuffing cut better; but it is not worth while when eggs are dear.
About the same length of time is required for boiling and roasting.
Pigeons may be either roasted, potted or stewed. Potting is the best,
and the least trouble. After they are thoroughly picked and cleaned,
put a small slice of salt pork, and a little ball of stuffing, into
the body of every pigeon. The stuffing should be made of one egg
to one cracker, an equal quantity of suet, or butter, seasoned with
sweet-marjoram, or sage, if marjoram cannot be procured. Flour the
pigeons well, lay them close together in the bottom of the pot, just
cover them with water, throw in a bit of butter, and let them stew an
hour and a quarter if young; an hour and three quarters if old. Some
people turn off the liquor just before they are done, and brown the
pigeons on the bottom of the pot; but this is very troublesome, as
they are apt to break to pieces.
Stewed pigeons are cooked in nearly the same way, with the omission of
the stuffing. Being dry meat, they require a good deal of butter.
Pigeons should be stuffed and roasted about fifteen minutes before a
smart fire. Those who like birds just warmed through, would perhaps
think less time necessary. It makes them nicer to butter them well
just before you take them off the spit, and sprinkle them with nicely
pounded bread, or cracker. All poultry should be basted and floured a
few minutes before it is taken up.
The age of pigeons can be judged by the color of the legs. When young,
they are of a pale delicate brown; as they grow older, the color is
deeper and redder.
A nice way of serving up cold chicken, or pieces of cold fresh meat,
is to make them into a meat pie. The gizzards, livers, and necks of
poultry, parboiled, are good for the same purpose. If you wish to
bake your meat pie, line a deep earthen or tin pan with paste made of
flour, cold water, and lard; use but little lard, for the fat of the
meat will shorten the crust. Lay in your bits of meat, or chicken,
with two or three slices of salt pork; place a few thin slices of your
paste here and there; drop in an egg or two, if you have plenty. Fill
the pan with flour and water, seasoned with a little pepper and salt.
If the meat be very lean, put in a piece of butter, or such sweet
gravies as you may happen to have. Cover the top with crust, and put
it in the oven, or bake-kettle, to cook half an hour, or an hour,
according to the size of the pie. Some people think this the nicest
way of cooking fresh chickens. When thus cooked, they should be
parboiled before they are put into the pan, and the water they are
boiled in should be added. A chicken pie needs to be cooked an hour
and a half, if parboiled; two hours, if not.
If you wish to make a pot pie instead of a baked pie, you have only to
line the bottom of a porridge pot with paste, lay in your meat, season
and moisten it in the same way, cover it with paste, and keep it
slowly stewing about the same time that the other takes. In both
cases, it is well to lift the upper crust, a little while before you
take up the pie, and see whether the moisture has dried away; if so,
pour in flour and water well mixed, and let it boil up.
Potatoes should be boiled in a separate vessel.
If you have fear that poultry may become musty before you want to
cook it, skin an onion, and put in it; a little pepper sprinkled in is
good; it should be kept hung up in a dry, cool place.
If poultry is injured before you are aware of it, wash it very
thoroughly in pearlash and water, and sprinkle pepper inside when you
cook it. Some people hang up poultry with a muslin bag of charcoal
inside. It is a good plan to singe injured poultry over lighted
charcoal, and to hold a piece of lighted charcoal inside, a few
minutes.
Many people parboil the liver and gizzard, and cut it up very fine, to
be put into the gravy, while the fowls are cooking; in this case, the
water they are boiled in should be used to make the gravy.
FISH.
Cod has white stripes, and a haddock black stripes; they may be known
apart by this. Haddock is the best for frying; and cod is the best
for boiling, or for a chowder. A thin tail is a sign of a poor fish;
always choose a thick fish. When you are buying mackerel, pinch the
belly to ascertain whether it is good. If it gives under your finger,
like a bladder half filled with wind, the fish is poor; if it feels
hard like butter, the fish is good. It is cheaper to buy one large
mackerel for ninepence, than two for four pence half-penny each.
Fish should not be put in to fry until the fat is boiling hot; it is
very necessary to observe this. It should be dipped in Indian meal
before it is put in; and the skinny side uppermost, when first put
in, to prevent its breaking. It relishes better to be fried after salt
pork, than to be fried in lard alone. People are mistaken, who think
fresh fish should be put into cold water as soon as it is brought into
the house; soaking it in water is injurious. If you want to keep it
sweet, clean it, wash it, wipe it dry with a clean towel, sprinkle
salt inside and out, put it in a covered dish, and keep it on the
_cellar_ floor until you want to cook it. If you live remote from the
seaport, and cannot get fish while hard and fresh, wet it with an egg
beaten, before you meal it, to prevent its breaking.
Fish gravy is very much improved by taking out some of the fat, after
the fish is fried, and putting in a little butter. The fat thus taken
out will do to fry fish again; but it will not do for any kind of
shortening. Shake in a little flour into the hot fat, and pour in a
little boiling water; stir it up well, as it boils, a minute or so.
Some people put in vinegar; but this is easily added by those who like
it.
A common sized cod-fish should be put in when the water is boiling
hot, and boil about twenty minutes. Haddock is not as good for boiling
as cod; it takes about the same time to boil.
A piece of halibut which weighs four pounds is a large dinner for a
family of six or seven. It should boil forty minutes. No fish put in
till the water boils. Melted butter for sauce.
Clams should boil about fifteen minutes in their own water; no other
need be added, except a spoonful to keep the bottom shells from
burning. It is easy to tell when they are done, by the shells starting
wide open. After they are done, they should be taken from the shells,
washed thoroughly in their own water, and put in a stewing pan. The
water should then be strained through a cloth, so as to get out all
the grit; the clams should be simmered in it ten or fifteen minutes;
a little thickening of flour and water added; half a dozen slices
of toasted bread or cracker; and pepper, vinegar and butter to your
taste. Salt is not needed.
Four pounds of fish are enough to make a chowder for four or five
people; half a dozen slices of salt pork in the bottom of the pot;
hang it high, so that the pork may not burn; take it out when done
very brown; put in a layer of fish, cut in lengthwise slices, then a
layer formed of crackers, small or sliced onions, and potatoes sliced
as thin as a four-pence, mixed with pieces of pork you have fried;
then a layer of fish again, and so on. Six crackers are enough.
Strew a little salt and pepper over each layer; over the whole pour a
bowl-full of flour and water, enough to come up even with the surface
of what you have in the pot. A sliced lemon adds to the flavor. A cup
of tomato catsup is very excellent. Some people put in a cup of beer.
A few clams are a pleasant addition. It should be covered so as not
to let a particle of steam escape, if possible. Do not open it, except
when nearly done, to taste if it be well seasoned.
Salt fish should be put in a deep plate, with just water enough to
cover it, the night before you intend to cook it. It should not be
boiled an instant; boiling renders it hard. It should lie in scalding
hot water two or three hours. The less water is used, and the more
fish is cooked at once, the better. Water thickened with flour and
water while boiling, with sweet butter put in to melt, is the common
sauce. It is more economical to cut salt pork into small bits, and try
it till the pork is brown and crispy. It should not be done too fast,
lest the sweetness be scorched out.
Salted shad and mackerel should be put into a deep plate and covered
with boiling water for about ten minutes after it is thoroughly
broiled, before it is buttered. This makes it tender, takes off
the coat of salt, and prevents the strong oily taste, so apt to be
unpleasant in preserved fish. The same rule applies to smoked salmon.
Salt fish mashed with potatoes, with good butter or pork scraps to
moisten it, is nicer the second day than it was the first. The fish
should be minced very fine, while it is warm. After it has got cold
and dry, it is difficult to do it nicely. Salt fish needs plenty of
vegetables, such as onions, beets, carrots, &c.
There is no way of preparing salt fish for breakfast, so nice as to
roll it up in little balls, after it is mixed with mashed potatoes;
dip it into an egg, and fry it brown.
A female lobster is not considered so good as a male. In the female,
the sides of the head, or what look like cheeks, are much larger,
and jut out more than those of the male. The end of a lobster is
surrounded with what children call 'purses,' edged with a little
fringe. If you put your hand under these to raise it, and find it
springs back hard and firm, it is a sign the lobster is fresh; if
they move flabbily, it is not a good omen.
Fried salt pork and apples is a favorite dish in the country; but it
is seldom seen in the city. After the pork is fried, some of the
fat should be taken out, lest the apples should be oily. Acid apples
should be chosen, because they cook more easily; they should be cut in
slices, across the whole apple, about twice or three times as thick as
a new dollar. Fried till tender, and brown on both sides--laid around
the pork. If you have cold potatoes, slice them and brown them in the
same way.
* * * * *
PUDDINGS.
BAKED INDIAN PUDDING.
Indian pudding is good baked. Scald a quart of milk (skimmed milk
will do,) and stir in seven table spoonfuls of sifted Indian meal, a
tea-spoonful of salt, a tea-cupful of molasses, and a great spoonful
of ginger, or sifted cinnamon. Baked three or four hours. If you want
whey, you must be sure and pour in a little cold milk, after it is all
mixed.
BOILED INDIAN PUDDING.
Indian pudding should be boiled four or five hours. Sifted Indian meal
and warm milk should be stirred together pretty stiff. A little salt,
and two or three great spoonfuls of molasses, added; a spoonful of
ginger, if you like that spice. Boil it in a tight covered pan, or a
very thick cloth; if the water gets in, it will ruin it. Leave plenty
of room; for Indian swells very much. The milk with which you mix it
should be merely warm; if it be scalding, the pudding will break to
pieces. Some people chop sweet suet fine, and warm in the milk; others
warm thin slices of sweet apple to be stirred into the pudding. Water
will answer instead of milk.
FLOUR OR BATTER PUDDING.
Common flour pudding, or batter pudding, is easily made. Those who
live in the country can beat up five or six eggs with a quart of milk,
and a little salt, with flour enough to make it just thick enough to
pour without difficulty. Those who live in the city, and are obliged
to buy eggs, can do with three eggs to a quart, and more flour in
proportion. Boil about three quarters of an hour.
BREAD PUDDING.
A nice pudding may be made of bits of bread. They should be crumbled
and soaked in milk over night. In the morning, beat up three eggs
with it, add a little salt, tie it up in a bag, or in a pan that will
exclude every drop of water, and boil it little more than an hour.
No puddings should be put into the pot, till the water boils. Bread
prepared in the same way makes good plum-puddings. Milk enough to make
it quite soft; four eggs; a little cinnamon; a spoonful of rose-water,
or lemon-brandy, if you have it; a tea-cupful of molasses, or sugar to
your taste, if you prefer it; a few dry, clean raisins, sprinkled in,
and stirred up thoroughly, is all that is necessary. It should bake or
boil two hours.
RENNET PUDDING.
If your husband brings home company when you are unprepared, rennet
pudding may be made at five minutes' notice; provided you keep a piece
of calf's rennet ready prepared soaking in a bottle of wine. One glass
of this wine to a quart of milk will make a sort of cold custard.
Sweetened with white sugar, and spiced with nutmeg, it is very good.
It should be eaten immediately; in a few hours, it begins to curdle.
CUSTARD PUDDINGS.
Custard puddings sufficiently good for common use can be made with
five eggs to a quart of milk, sweetened with brown sugar, and spiced
with cinnamon, or nutmeg, and very little salt. It is well to boil
your milk, and set it away till it gets cold. Boiling milk enriches it
so much, that boiled skim-milk is about as good as new milk. A little
cinnamon, or lemon peel, or peach leaves, if you do not dislike the
taste, boiled in the milk, and afterwards strained from it, give a
pleasant flavor. Bake fifteen or twenty minutes.
RICE PUDDINGS.
If you want a common rice pudding to retain its flavor, do not soak
it, or put it in to boil when the water is cold. Wash it, tie it in
a bag, leave plenty of room for it to swell, throw it in when the
water boils, and let it boil about an hour and a half. The same sauce
answers for all these kinds of puddings. If you have rice left cold,
break it up in a little warm milk, pour custard over it, and bake it
as long as you should custard. It makes very good puddings and pies.
BIRD'S NEST PUDDING.
If you wish to make what is called 'bird's nest puddings,' prepare
your custard,--take eight or ten pleasant apples, pare them, and dig
out the core, but leave them whole, set them in a pudding dish, pour
your custard over them, and bake them about thirty minutes.
APPLE PUDDING.
A plain, unexpensive apple pudding may be made by rolling out a bit of
common pie-crust, and filling it full of quartered apples; tied up in
a bag, and boiled an hour and a half; if the apples are sweet, it will
take two hours; for acid things cook easily. Some people like little
dumplings, made by rolling up one apple, pared and cored, in a piece
of crust, and tying them up in spots all over the bag. These do not
need to be boiled more than an hour: three quarters is enough, if the
apples are tender.
Take sweet, or pleasant flavored apples, pare them, and bore out the
core, without cutting the apple in two Pill up the holes with washed
rice, boil them in a bag, tied very tight, an hour, or hour and a
half. Each apple should be tied up separately, in different corners of
the pudding bag.
CHERRY PUDDING.
For cherry dumpling, make a paste about as rich as you make
short-cake; roll it out, and put in a pint and a half, or a quart of
cherries, according to the size of your family. Double the crust over
the fruit, tie it up tight in a bag, and boil one hour and a half.
CRANBERRY PUDDING.
A pint of cranberries stirred into a quart of batter, made like a
batter pudding, but very little stiffer, is very nice, eaten with
sweet sauce.
WHORTLEBERRY PUDDING.
Whortleberries are good both in flour and Indian puddings. A pint of
milk, with a little salt and a little molasses, stirred quite stiff
with Indian meal, and a quart of berries stirred in gradually with a
spoon, makes a good-sized pudding. Leave room for it to swell; and let
it boil three hours.
When you put them into flour, make your pudding just like batter
puddings; but considerably thicker, or the berries will sink. Two
hours is plenty long enough to boil No pudding should be put in till
the water boils. Leave room to swell.
PLUM PUDDING.
If you wish to make a really nice, soft, custard-like plum pudding,
pound six crackers, or dried crusts of light bread, fine, and soak
them over night in milk enough to cover them; put them in about three
pints of milk, beat up six eggs, put in a little lemon-brandy, a whole
nutmeg, and about three quarters of a pound of raisins which have been
rubbed in flour. Bake it two hours, or perhaps a little short of that.
It is easy to judge from the appearance whether it is done.
The surest way of making a light, rich plum pudding, is to spread
slices of sweet light bread plentifully with butter; on each side of
the slices spread abundantly raisins, or currants, nicely prepared;
when they are all heaped up in a dish, cover them with milk, eggs,
sugar and spice, well beat up, and prepared just as you do for
custards. Let it bake about an hour.
One sauce answers for common use for all sorts of puddings.
Flour-and-water stirred into boiling water, sweetened to your taste
with either molasses or sugar, according to your ideas of economy; a
great spoonful of rose-water, if you have it; butter half as big as a
hen's egg. If you want to make it very nice, put in a glass of wine,
and grate nutmeg on the top.
When you wish better sauce than common, take a quarter of a pound of
butter and the same of sugar, mould them well together with your hand,
add a little wine, if you choose. Make it into a lump, set it away to
cool, and grate nutmeg over it.
HASTY PUDDING.
Boil water, a quart, three pints, or two quarts, according to the
size of your family; sift your meal, stir five or six spoonfuls of it
thoroughly into a bowl of water; when the water in the kettle boils,
pour into it the contents of the bowl; stir it well, and let it boil
up thick; put in salt to suit your own taste, then stand over the
kettle, and sprinkle in meal, handful after handful, stirring it very
thoroughly all the time, and letting it boil between whiles. When it
is so thick that you stir it with great difficulty, it is about right.
It takes about half an hour's cooking. Eat it with milk or molasses.
Either Indian meal or rye meal may be used. If the system is in a
restricted state, nothing can be better than _rye_ hasty pudding and
_West India_ molasses. This diet would save many a one the horrors of
dyspepsia.
* * * * *
CHEAP CUSTARDS.
One quart of milk, boiled; when boiling, add three table spoonfuls
of ground rice, or rice that is boiled, mixed smooth and fine in cold
milk, and one egg beaten; give it one boil up, and sweeten to your
taste; peach leaves, or any spice you please, boiled in the milk.
* * * * *
COMMON PIES.
MINCE PIES.
Boil a tender, nice piece of beef--any piece that is clear from
sinews and gristle; boil it till it is perfectly tender When it is
cold, chop it very fine, and be very careful to get out every particle
of bone and gristle. The suet is sweeter and better to boil half an
hour or more in the liquor the beef has been boiled in; but few people
do this. Pare, core, and chop the apples fine. If you use raisins,
stone them. If you use currants, wash and dry them at the fire. Two
pounds of beef, after it is chopped; three quarters of a pound of
suet; one pound and a quarter of sugar; three pounds of apples; two
pounds of currants, or raisins. Put in a gill of brandy; lemon-brandy
is better, if you have any prepared. Make it quite moist with new
cider. I should not think a quart would be too much; the more moist
the better, if it does not spill out into the oven. A very little
pepper. If you use corn meat, or tongue, for pies, it should be
well soaked, and boiled very tender. If you use fresh beef, salt
is necessary in the seasoning. One ounce of cinnamon, one ounce of
cloves. Two nutmegs add to the pleasantness of the flavor; and a bit
of sweet butter put upon the top of each pie, makes them rich; but
these are not necessary. Baked three quarters of an hour. If your
apples are rather sweet, grate in a whole lemon.
PUMPKIN AND SQUASH PIE.
For common family pumpkin pies, three eggs do very well to a quart of
milk. Stew your pumpkin, and strain it through a sieve, or colander.
Take out the seeds, and pare the pumpkin, or squash, before you stew
it; but do not scrape the inside; the part nearest the seed is the
sweetest part of the squash. Stir in the stewed pumpkin, till it is as
thick as you can stir it round rapidly and easily. If you want to make
your pie richer, make it thinner, and add another egg. One egg to a
quart of milk makes very decent pies. Sweeten it to your taste, with
molasses or sugar; some pumpkins require more sweetening than others.
Two tea-spoonfuls of salt; two great spoonfuls of sifted cinnamon;
one great spoonful of ginger. Ginger will answer very well alone for
spice, if you use enough of it. The outside of a lemon grated in is
nice. The more eggs, the better the pie; some put an egg to a gill
of milk. They should bake from forty to fifty minutes, and even ten
minutes longer, if very deep.
CARROT PIE.
Carrot pies are made like squash pies. The carrots should be boiled
very tender, skinned and sifted. Both carrot pies and squash pies
should be baked without an upper crust, in deep plates. To be baked an
hour, in quite a warm oven.
CHERRY PIE.
Cherry pies should be baked in a deep plate. Take the cherries from
the stalks, lay them in a plate, and sprinkle a little sugar, and
cinnamon, according to the sweetness of the cherries. Baked with a top
and bottom crust, three quarters of an hour.
WHORTLEBERRY PIE.
Whortleberries make a very good common pie, where there is a large
family of children. Sprinkle a little sugar and sifted cloves into
each pie. Baked in the same way, and as long, as cherry pies.
APPLE PIE.
When you make apple pies, stew your apples very little indeed; just
strike them through, to make them tender. Some people do not stew
them at all, but cut them up in very thin slices, and lay them in
the crust. Pies made in this way may retain more of the spirit of the
apple; but I do not think the seasoning mixes in as well. Put in sugar
to your taste; it is impossible to make a precise rule, because apples
vary so much in acidity. A very little salt, and a small piece of
butter in each pie, makes them richer. Cloves and cinnamon are both
suitable spice. Lemon-brandy and rose-water are both excellent. A
wine-glass full of each is sufficient for three or four pies. If your
apples lack spirit, grate in a whole lemon.
CUSTARD PIE.
It is a general rule to put eight eggs to a quart of milk, in making
custard pies; but six eggs are a plenty for any common use. The
milk should be boiled and cooled before it is used; and bits of
stick-cinnamon and bits of lemon-peel boiled in it. Sweeten to your
taste with clean sugar; a very little sprinkling of salt makes them
taste better. Grate in a nutmeg. Bake in a deep plate. About 20
minutes are usually enough. If you are doubtful whether they are done,
dip in the handle of a silver spoon, or the blade of a small knife; if
it come out clean, the pie is done. Do not pour them into your plates
till the minute you put them into the oven; it makes the crust wet
and heavy. To be baked with an under crust only. Some people bake the
under crust a little before the custard is poured in; this is to keep
it from being clammy.
CRANBERRY PIE.
Cranberry pies need very little spice. A little nutmeg, or cinnamon,
improves them. They need a great deal of sweetening. It is well to
stew the sweetening with them; at least a part of it. It is easy to
add, if you find them too sour for your taste. When cranberries are
strained, and added to about their own weight in sugar, they make very
delicious tarts. No upper crust.
RHUBARB STALKS, OR PERSIAN APPLE.
Rhubarb stalks, or the Persian apple, is the earliest in gradient for
pies, which the spring offers. The skin should be carefully stripped,
and the stalks cut into small bits, and stewed very tender. These are
dear pies, for they take an enormous quantity of sugar. Seasoned like
apple pies Gooseberries, currants, &c., are stewed, sweetened and
seasoned like apple pies, in proportions suited to the sweetness of
the fruit; there is no way to judge but by your own taste. Always
remember it is more easy to add seasoning than to diminish it.
PIE CRUST.
To make pie crust for common use, a quarter of a pound of butter is
enough for a half a pound of flour. Take out about a quarter part of
the flour you intend to use, and lay it aside. Into the remainder of
the flour rub butter thoroughly with your hands, until it is so short
that a handful of it, clasped tight, will remain in a ball, without
any tendency to fall in pieces. Then wet it with cold water, roll it
out on a board, rub over the surface with flour, stick little lumps
of butter all over it, sprinkle some flour over the butter, and roll
the dough all up; flour the paste, and flour the rolling-pin; roll it
lightly and quickly; flour it again; stick in bits of butter; do it
up; flour the rolling-pin, and roll it quickly and lightly; and so
on, till you have used up your butter. Always roll from you. Pie crust
should be made as cold as possible, and set in a cool place; but be
careful it does not freeze. Do not use more flour than you can help in
sprinkling and rolling. The paste should not be rolled out more than
three times; if rolled too much, it will not be flaky.
COMMON CAKES.
In all cakes where butter or eggs are used, the butter should be very
faithfully rubbed into the flour, and the eggs beat to a foam, before
the ingredients are mixed.
GINGERBREAD.
A very good way to make molasses gingerbread is to rub four pounds and
a half of flour with half a pound of lard and half a pound of butter;
a pint of molasses, a gill of milk, tea-cup of ginger, a tea-spoonful
of dissolved pearlash stirred together. All mixed, baked in shallow
pans twenty or thirty minutes.
Hard gingerbread is good to have in the family, it keeps so well. One
pound of flour, half a pound of butter and sugar, rubbed into it; half
a pound of sugar; great spoonful of ginger, or more, according to the
strength of the ginger; a spoonful of rose-water, and a handful of
caraway seed. Well beat up. Kneaded stiff enough to roll out and bake
on flat pans. Bake twenty or thirty minutes.
A cake of common gingerbread can be stirred up very quick in the
following way. Rub in a bit of shortening as big as an egg into a
pint of flour; if you use lard, add a little salt; two or three great
spoonfuls of ginger; one cup of molasses, one cup and a half of cider,
and a great spoonful of dissolved pearlash, put together and poured
into the shortened flour while it is foaming; to be put in the oven in
a minute. It ought to be just thick enough to pour into the pans with
difficulty; if these proportions make it too thin, use less liquid the
next time you try. Bake about twenty minutes.
If by carelessness you let a piece of short-cake dough grow sour, put
in a little pearlash and water, warm a little butter, according to the
size of the dough, knead in a cup or two of sugar, (two cups, unless
it is a very small bit,) two or three spoonfuls of ginger, and a
little rose-water Knead it up thoroughly, roll it out on a flat pan,
and bake it twenty minutes. Every thing mixed with pearlash should be
put in the oven immediately.
CUP CAKE.
Cup cake is about as good as pound cake, and is cheaper. One cup of
butter, two cups of sugar, three cups of flour, and four eggs, well
beat together, and baked in pans or cups. Bake twenty minutes, and no
more.
TEA CAKE.
There is a kind of tea cake still cheaper. Three cups of sugar, three
eggs, one cup of butter, one cup of milk, a spoonful of dissolved
pearlash, and four cups of flour, well beat up. If it is so stiff it
will not stir easily, add a little more milk.
CIDER CAKE.
Cider cake is very good, to be baked in small loaves. One pound and
a half of flour, half a pound of sugar, quarter of a pound of butter,
half a pint of cider, one teaspoonful of pearlash; spice to your
taste. Bake till it turns easily in the pans. I should think about
half an hour.
ELECTION CAKE.
Old-fashioned election cake is made of four pounds of flour; three
quarters of a pound of butter; four eggs; one pound of sugar; one
pound of currants, or raisins if you choose; half a pint of good
yeast; wet it with milk as soft as it can be and be moulded on a
board. Set to rise over night in winter; in warm weather, three hours
is usually enough for it to rise. A loaf, the size of common flour
bread, should bake three quarters of an hour.
SPONGE CAKE.
The nicest way to make sponge cake, or diet-bread, is the weight
of six eggs in sugar, the weight of four eggs in flour, a little
rose-water. The whites and yolks should be beaten thoroughly and
separately. The eggs and sugar should be well beaten together; but
after the flour is sprinkled, it should not be stirred a moment longer
than is necessary to mix it well; it should be poured into the pan,
and got into the oven with all possible expedition. Twenty minutes is
about long enough to bake. Not to be put in till some other articles
have taken off the first few minutes of furious heat.
WEDDING CAKE.
Good common wedding cake may be made thus: Four pounds of flour, three
pounds of butter, three pounds of sugar, four pounds of currants,
two pounds of raisins, twenty-four eggs, half a pint of brandy, or
lemon-brandy, one ounce of mace, and three nutmegs. A little molasses
makes it dark colored, which is desirable. Half a pound of citron
improves it; but it is not necessary. To be baked two hours and a
half, or three hours. After the oven is cleared, it is well to shut
the door for eight or ten minutes, to let the violence of the heat
subside, before cake or bread is put in.
To make icing for your wedding cake, beat the whites of eggs to an
entire froth, and to each egg add five teaspoonfuls of sifted loaf
sugar, gradually; beat it a great while. Put it on when your cake is
hot, or cold, as is most convenient. It will dry in a warm room, a
short distance from a gentle fire, or in a warm oven.
LOAF CAKE.
Very good loaf cake is made with two pounds of flour, half a pound
of sugar, quarter of a pound of butter, two eggs, a gill of sweet
emptings, half an ounce of cinnamon, or cloves, a large spoonful of
lemon-brandy, or rose-water; if it is not about as thin as goad white
bread dough, add a little milk. A common sized loaf is made by these
proportions. Bake about three quarters of an hour.
A handy way to make loaf cake is, to take about as much of your white
bread dough, or sponge, as you think your pan will hold, and put it
into a pan in which you have already beat up three or four eggs, six
ounces of butter warmed, and half a pound of sugar, a spoonful of
rose-water, little sifted cinnamon, or cloves. The materials should be
well mixed and beat before the dough is put in; and then it should be
all kneaded well together, about as stiff as white bread. Put in half
a pound of currants, or raisins, with the butter, if you choose. It
should Stand in the pan two or three hours to rise; and be baked about
three quarters of an hour, if the pan is a common sized bread-pan.
If you have loaf cake slightly injured by time, or by being kept in
the cellar, cut off all appearance of mould from the outside, wipe
it with a clean cloth, and wet it well with strong brandy and water
sweetened with sugar; then put it in your oven, and let the heat
strike through it, for fifteen or twenty minutes. Unless very bad,
this will restore the sweetness.
CARAWAY CAKES.
Take one pound of flour, three quarters of a pound of sugar, half a
pound of butter, a glass of rose-water, four eggs, and half a tea-cup
of caraway seed,--the materials well rubbed together and beat up. Drop
them from a spoon on tin sheets, and bake them brown in rather a slow
oven. Twenty minutes, or half an hour, is enough to bake them.
DOUGH-NUTS.
For dough-nuts, take one pint of flour, half a pint of sugar, three
eggs, a piece of butter as big as an egg, and a tea-spoonful of
dissolved pearlash. When you have no eggs, a gill of lively emptings
will do; but in that case, they must be made over night. Cinnamon,
rose-water, or lemon-brandy, if you have it. If you use part lard
instead of butter, add a little salt. Not put in till the fat is very
hot. The more fat they are fried in, the less they will soak fat.
PANCAKES.
Pancakes should be made of half a pint of milk, three great spoonfuls
of sugar, one or two eggs, a tea-spoonful of dissolved pearlash,
spiced with cinnamon, or cloves, a little salt, rose-water, or
lemon-brandy, just as you happen to have it. Flour should be stirred
in till the spoon moves round with difficulty. If they are thin, they
are apt to soak fat. Have the fat in your skillet boiling hot, and
drop them in with a spoon. Let them cook till thoroughly brown. The
fat which is left is good to shorten other cakes. The more fat they
are cooked in, the less they soak.
If you have no eggs, or wish to save them, use the above ingredients,
and supply the place of eggs by two or three spoonfuls of lively
emptings; but in this case they must be made five or six hours
before they are cooked,--and in winter they should stand all night.
A spoonful or more of N.E. rum makes pancakes light. Flip makes very
nice pancakes. In this case, nothing is done but to sweeten your mug
of beer with molasses; put in one glass of N.E. rum; heat it till it
foams, by putting in a hot poker; and stir it up with flour as thick
as other pancakes.
FRITTERS.
Flat-jacks, or fritters, do not differ from pancakes, only in
being mixed softer. The same ingredients are used in about the same
quantities; only most people prefer to have no sweetening put in them,
because they generally have butter, sugar, and nutmeg, put on them,
after they are done. Excepting for company, the nutmeg can be well
dispensed with. They are not to be boiled in fat, like pancakes; the
spider or griddle should be well greased, and the cakes poured on as
large as you want them, when it is quite hot; when it gets brown on
one side, to be turned over upon the other. Fritters are better to be
baked quite thin. Either flour, Indian, or rye, is good.
Sour beer, with a spoonful of pearlash, is good both for pancakes and
fritters.
If you have any cold rice left, it is nice to break it up fine in warm
milk; put in a little salt; after you have put milk enough for the
cakes you wish to make, (a half pint, Or more,) stir in flour till
it is thick enough to pour for fritters. It does very well without an
egg; but better with one. To be fried like other flat-jacks. Sugar and
nutmeg are to be put on when they are buttered, if you like.
SHORT CAKE.
If you have sour milk, or butter-milk, it is well to make it into
short cakes for tea. Rub in a very small bit of shortening, or three
table-spoonfuls of cream, with the flour; put in a tea-spoonful of
strong dissolved pearlash, into your sour milk, and mix your cake
pretty stiff, to bake in the spider, on a few embers.
When people have to buy butter and lard, short cakes are not
economical food. A half pint of flour will make a cake large enough to
cover a common plate. Rub in thoroughly a bit of shortening as big as
a hen's egg; put in a tea-spoonful of dissolved pearlash; wet it with
cold water; knead it stiff enough to roll well, to bake on a plate,
or in a spider. It should bake as quick as it can, and not burn. The
first side should stand longer to the fire than the last.
INDIAN CAKE.
Indian cake, or bannock, is sweet and cheap food. One quart of sifted
meal, two great spoonfuls of molasses, two tea-spoonfuls of salt, a
bit of shortening half as big as a hen's egg, stirred together; make
it pretty moist with scalding water, put it into a well greased pan,
smooth over the surface with a spoon, and bake it brown on both sides,
before a quick fire. A little stewed pumpkin, scalded with the meal,
improves the cake. Bannock split and dipped in butter makes very nice
toast. A richer Indian cake may be made by stirring one egg to a half
pint of milk, sweetened with two great spoonfuls of molasses; a little
ginger, or cinnamon; Indian stirred in till it is just about thick
enough to pour. Spider or bake-kettle well greased; cake poured in,
covered up, baked half an hour, or three quarters, according to
the thickness of the cake. If you have sour milk, or butter-milk,
it is very nice for this kind of cake; the acidity corrected by a
tea-spoonful of dissolved pearlash. It is a rule never to use pearlash
for Indian, unless to correct the sourness of milk; it injures the
flavor of the meal.
Nice suet improves all kinds of Indian cakes very much.
* * * * *
Two cups of Indian meal, one table-spoonful molasses, two cups milk,
a little salt, a handful flour, a little saleratus, mixed up thin,
and poured into a buttered bake-kettle, hung over the fire uncovered,
until you can bear your finger upon it, and then set down before the
fire. Bake half an hour.
* * * * *
BREAD, YEAST, &C.
It is more difficult to give rules for making bread than for anything
else; it depends so much on judgment and experience. In summer, bread
should be mixed with cold water; during a chilly, damp spell, the
water should be slightly warm; in severe cold weather, it should be
mixed quite warm, and set in a warm place during the night. If your
yeast is new and lively, a small quantity will make the bread rise;
if it be old and heavy, it will take more. In these things I believe
wisdom must be gained by a few mistakes.
Six quarts of meal will make two good sized loaves of _Brown Bread_.
Some like to have it half Indian meal and half rye meal; others prefer
it one third Indian, and two thirds rye. Many mix their brown bread
over night; but there is no need of it; and it is more likely to sour,
particularly in summer. If you do mix it the night before you bake it,
you must not put in more than half the yeast I am about to mention,
unless the weather is intensely cold. The meal should be sifted
separately. Put the Indian in your bread-pan, sprinkle a little salt
among it, and wet it thoroughly with scalding water. Stir it up while
you are scalding it. Be sure and have hot water enough; for Indian
absorbs a great deal of water. When it is cool, pour in your rye; add
two gills of lively yeast, and mix it with water as stiff as you can
knead it. Let it stand an hour and a half, in a cool place in summer,
on the hearth in winter. It should be put into a very hot oven, and
baked three or four hours. It is all the better for remaining in the
oven over night.
_Flour Bread_ should have a sponge set the night before. The sponge
should be soft enough to pour; mixed with water, warm or cold,
according to the temperature of the weather. One gill of lively yeast
is enough to put into sponge for two loaves. I should judge about
three pints of sponge would be right for two loaves. The warmth of the
place in which the sponge is set, should be determined by the coldness
of the weather. If your sponge looks frothy in the morning, it is a
sign your bread will be good; if it does not rise, stir in a little
more emptings; if it rises too much, taste of it, to see if it has any
acid taste; if so, put in a tea-spoonful of pearlash when you mould in
your flour; be sure the pearlash is well dissolved in water; if there
are little lumps, your bread will be full of bitter spots. About an
hour before your oven is ready, stir in flour into your sponge till it
is stiff enough to lay on a well floured board or table. Knead it up
pretty stiff, and put it into well greased pans, and let it stand in
a cool or warm place, according to the weather. If the oven is ready,
put them in fifteen or twenty minutes after the dough begins to rise
up and crack; if the oven is not ready, move the pans to a cooler
spot, to prevent the dough from becoming sour by too much rising.
Common sized loaves will bake in three quarters of an hour. If they
slip easily in the pans, it is a sign they are done. Some people do
not set a soft sponge for flour bread; they knead it up all ready to
put in the pans the night before, and leave it to rise. White bread
and pies should not be set in the oven until the brown bread and beans
have been in half an hour. If the oven be too hot, it will bind the
crust so suddenly that the bread cannot rise; if it be too cold, the
bread will fall. Flour bread should not be too stiff.
Some people like one third Indian in their flour. Others like one
third rye; and some think the nicest of all bread is one third Indian,
one third rye, and one third flour, made according to the directions
for flour bread. When Indian is used, it should be salted, and
scalded, before the other meal is put in. A mixture of other grains is
economical when flour is high.
_Dyspepsia Bread_.--The American Farmer publishes the following
receipt for making bread, which has proved highly salutary to persons
afflicted with that complaint, viz:--Three quarts unbolted wheat meal;
one quart soft water, warm, but not hot; one gill of fresh yeast; one
gill of molasses, or not, as may suit the taste; one tea-spoonful of
saleratus.
This will make two loaves, and should remain in the oven at least
one hour; and when taken out, placed where they will cool gradually.
Dyspepsia crackers can be made with unbolted flour, water and
saleratus.
_To make Rice Bread_.--Boil a pint of rice soft; add a pint of leaven;
then, three quarts of the flour; put it to rise in a tin or earthen
vessel until it has risen sufficiently; divide it into three parts;
then bake it as other bread, and you will have three large loaves.
Heating ovens must be regulated by experience and observation.
There is a difference in wood in giving out heat; there is a great
difference in the construction of ovens; and when an oven is extremely
cold, either on account of the weather, or want of use, it must be
heated more. Economical people heat ovens with pine wood, fagots,
brush, and such light stuff. If you have none but hard wood, you must
remember that it makes very hot coals, and therefore less of it will
answer. A smart fire for an hour and a half is a general rule for
common sized family ovens, provided brown bread and beans are to be
baked. An hour is long enough to heat an oven for flour bread. Pies
bear about as much heat as flour bread: pumpkin pies will bear more.
If you are afraid your oven is too hot, throw in a little flour, and
shut it up for a minute. If it scorches black immediately, the heat is
too furious; if it merely browns, it is right. Some people wet an old
broom two or three times, and turn it round near the top of die oven
till it dries; this prevents pies and cake from scorching on the top.
When you go into a new house, heat your oven two or three times, to
get it seasoned, before you use it. After the wood is burned, rake the
coals over the bottom of the oven, and let them lie a few minutes.
Those who make their own bread should make yeast too. When bread is
nearly out, always think whether yeast is in readiness; for it takes
a day and night to prepare it. One handful of hops, with two or three
handsful of malt and rye bran, should be boiled fifteen or twenty
minutes, in two quarts of water, then strained, hung on to boil again,
and thickened with half a pint of rye and water stirred up quite
thick, and a little molasses; boil it a minute or two, and then take
it off to cool. When just about lukewarm, put in a cupful of good
lively yeast, and set it in a cool place in summer, and warm place
in winter. If it is too warm when you put in the old yeast, all the
spirit will be killed.
In summer, yeast sours easily; therefore make but little at a time.
Bottle it when it gets well a working; it keeps better when the air
is corked out. If you find it acid, but still spirited, put a little
pearlash to it, as you use it; but by no means put it into your bread
unless it foams up bright and lively as soon as the pearlash mixes
with it. Never keep yeast in tin; it destroys its life.
There is another method of making yeast, which is much easier, and I
think quite as good. Stir rye and cold water, till you make a stiff
thickening. Then pour in boiling water, and stir it all the time, till
you make it as thin as the yeast you buy; three or four table spoons
heaping full are enough for a quart of water. When it gets about cold,
put in half a pint of lively yeast. When it works well, bottle it; but
if very lively, do not cork your bottle _very_ tight, for fear it will
burst. Always think to make new yeast before the old is gone; so that
you may have some to work with. Always wash and scald your bottle
clean after it has contained sour yeast. Beware of freezing yeast.
Milk yeast is made quicker than any other. A pint of new milk with a
tea-spoonful of salt, and a large spoon of flour stirred in, set by
the fire to keep lukewarm, will make yeast fit for use in an hour.
Twice the quantity of common yeast is necessary, and unless used soon
is good for nothing. Bread made of this yeast dries sooner. It is
convenient in summer, when one wants to make biscuits suddenly.
A species of leaven may be made that will keep any length of time.
Three ounces of hops in a pail of water boiled down to a quart; strain
it, and stir in a quart of rye meal while boiling hot. Cool it, and
add half a pint of good yeast; after it has risen a few hours, thicken
it with Indian meal stiff enough to roll out upon a board; then put it
in the sun and air a few days to dry. A piece of this cake two inches
square, dissolved in warm water, and thickened with a little flour,
will make a large loaf of bread.
Potatoes make very good yeast. Mash three large potatoes fine; pour
a pint of boiling water over them; when almost cold, stir in two
spoonfuls of flour, two of molasses, and a cup of good yeast. This
yeast should be used while new.
* * * * *
PRESERVES, &C.
Economical people will seldom use preserves, except for sickness.
They are unhealthy, expensive, and useless to those who are well.
Barberries preserved in molasses are very good for common use. Boil
the molasses, skim it, throw in the barberries, and simmer them till
they are soft. If you wish to lay by a few for sickness, preserve them
in sugar by the same rule as other preserves. Melt the sugar, skim it,
throw in the barberries; when done soft, take them out, and throw in
others.
A pound of sugar to a pound of fruit is the rule for all preserves.
The sugar should be melted over a fire moderate enough not to scorch
it. When melted, it should be skimmed clean, and the fruit dropped
in to simmer till it is soft. Plums, and things of which the skin is
liable to be broken, do better to be put in little jars, with their
weight of sugar, and the jars set in a kettle of boiling water, till
the fruit is done. See the water is not so high as to boil into the
jars.
When you put preserves in jars, lay a white paper, thoroughly wet
with brandy, flat upon the surface of the preserves, and cover them
carefully from the air. If they begin to mould, scald them by setting
them in the oven till boiling hot. Glass is much better than earthen
for preserves; they are not half as apt to ferment.
CURRANT JELLY.
Currant jelly is a useful thing for sickness. If it be necessary to
wash your currants, be sure they are thoroughly drained, or your jelly
will be thin. Break them up with a pestle, and squeeze them through
a cloth. Put a pint of clean sugar to a pint of juice, and boil it
slowly, till it becomes ropy. Great care must be taken not to do it
too fast; it is spoiled by being scorched. It should be frequently
skimmed while simmering. If currants are put in a jar, and kept in
boiling water, and cooked before they are strained, they are more
likely to keep a long time without fermenting.
CURRANT WINE.
Those who have more currants than they have money, will do well to use
no wine but of their own manufacture. Break and squeeze the currants,
put three pounds and a half of sugar to two quarts of juice and
two quarts of water. Put in a keg or barrel. Do not close the bung
tight for three or four days, that the air may escape while it is
fermenting. After it is done fermenting, close it up tight. Where
raspberries are plenty, it is a great improvement to use half
raspberry juice, and half currant juice. Brandy is unnecessary when
the above-mentioned proportions are observed. It should not be used
under a year or two. Age improves it.
RASPBERRY SHRUB.
Raspberry shrub mixed with water is a pure, delicious drink for
summer; and in a country where raspberries are abundant, it is good
economy to make it answer instead of Port and Catalonia wine. Put
raspberries in a pan, and scarcely cover them with strong vinegar. Add
a pint of sugar to a pint of juice; (of this you can judge by first
trying your pan to see how much it holds;) scald it, skim it, and
bottle it when cold.
COFFEE.
As substitutes for coffee, some use dry brown bread crusts, and roast
them; others soak rye grain in rum, and roast it; others roast peas in
the same way as coffee. None of these are very good; and peas so used
are considered unhealthy. Where there is a large family of apprentices
and workmen, and coffee is very dear, it may be worth while to use the
substitutes, or to mix them half and half with coffee; but, after all,
the best economy is to go without.
French coffee is so celebrated, that it may be worth while to tell how
it is made; though no prudent housekeeper will make it, unless she has
boarders, who are willing to pay for expensive cooking.
The coffee should be roasted more than is common with us; it should
not hang drying over the fire, but should be roasted quick; it should
be ground soon after roasting, and used as soon as it is ground. Those
who pride themselves on first-rate coffee, burn it and grind it
every morning. The powder should be placed in the coffee-pot in the
proportions of an ounce to less than a pint of water. The water should
be poured upon the coffee boiling hot. The coffee should be kept at
the boiling point; but should not boil. Coffee made in this way must
be made in a biggin. It would not be clear in a common coffee-pot.
A bit of fish-skin as big as a ninepence, thrown into coffee while
it is boiling, tends to make it clear. If you use it just as it comes
from the salt-fish, it will be apt to give an unpleasant taste to the
coffee: it should be washed clean as a bit of cloth, and hung up till
perfectly dry. The white of eggs, and even egg shells are good to
settle coffee. Rind of salt pork is excellent.
Some people think coffee is richer and clearer for having a bit of
sweet butter, or a whole egg, dropped in and stirred, just before it
is done roasting, and ground up, shell and all, with the coffee. But
these things are not economical, except on a farm, where butter and
eggs are plenty. A half a gill of cold water, poured in after you take
your coffee-pot off the fire, will _usually_ settle the coffee.
If you have not cream for coffee, it is a very great improvement to
boil your milk, and use it while hot.
CHOCOLATE.
Many people boil chocolate in a coffee-pot; but I think it is better
to boil it in a skillet, or something open. A piece of chocolate about
as big as a dollar is the usual quantity for a quart of water; but
some put in more, and some less. When it boils, pour in as much milk
as you like and let them boil together three or four minutes. It is
much richer with the milk boiled in it. Put the sugar in either before
or after, as you please. Nutmeg improves it. The chocolate should be
scraped fine before it is put into the water.
TEA.
Young Hyson is supposed to be a more profitable tea than Hyson;
but though the _quantity_ to a pound is greater, it has not so
much _strength_. In point of economy, therefore, there is not much
difference between them. Hyson tea and Souchong mixed together, half
and half, is a pleasant beverage, and is more healthy than green
tea alone. Be sure that water boils before it is poured upon tea. A
tea-spoonful to each person, and one extra thrown in, is a good rule.
Steep ten or fifteen minutes.
PICKLES.
Musk-melons should be picked for mangoes, when they are green and
hard. They should be cut open after they have been in salt water ten
days, the inside scraped out clean, and filled with mustard-seed,
allspice, horseradish, small onions, &c., and sewed up again. Scalding
vinegar poured upon them.
When walnuts are so ripe that a pin will go into them easily, they are
ready for pickling. They should be soaked twelve days in very strong
cold salt and water, which has been boiled and skimmed. A quantity
of vinegar, enough to cover them well, should be boiled with whole
pepper, mustard-seed, small onions, or garlic, cloves, ginger, and
horseradish; this should not be poured upon them till it is cold. They
should be pickled a few months before they are eaten. To be kept close
covered; for the air softens them. The liquor is an excellent catsup
to be eaten on fish.
Put peppers into strong salt and water, until they become yellow;
then turn them green by keeping them in warm salt and water, shifting
them every two days. Then drain them, and pour scalding vinegar over
them. A bag of mustard-seed is an improvement. If there is mother in
vinegar, scald and strain it.
Cucumbers should be in weak brine three or four days after they are
picked; then they should be put in a tin or wooden pail of clean
water, and kept slightly warm in the kitchen corner for two or
three days. Then take as much vinegar as you think your pickle jar
will hold; scald it with pepper, allspice, mustard-seed, flag-root,
horseradish, &c., if you happen to have them; half of them will spice
the pickles very well. Throw in a bit of alum as big as a walnut;
this serves to make pickles hard. Skim the vinegar clean, and pour
it scalding hot upon the cucumbers. Brass vessels are not healthy
for preparing anything acid. Red cabbages need no other pickling than
scalding, spiced vinegar poured upon them, and suffered to remain
eight or ten days before you eat them. Some people think it improves
them to keep them in salt and water twenty-four hours before they are
pickled.
If you find your pickles soft and insipid, it is owing to the weakness
of the vinegar. Throw away the vinegar, (or keep it to clean your
brass kettles,) then cover your pickles with strong, scalding vinegar,
into which a little allspice, ginger, horseradish and alum have been
thrown. By no means omit a pretty large bit of alum. Pickles attended
to in this way, will keep for years, and be better and better every
year.
Some people prefer pickled nasturtion-seed to capers. They should
be kept several days after they are gathered, and then covered with
boiling vinegar, and bottled when cold. They are not fit to be eaten
for some months.
Martinoes are prepared in nearly the same way as other pickles. The
salt and water in which they are put, two or three days previous to
pickling, should be changed every day; because martinoes are very
apt to become soft. No spice should be used but allspice, cloves,
and cinnamon. The martinoes and the spice should be scalded _in_ the
vinegar, instead of pouring the vinegar _over_ the martinoes.
BEER.
Beer is a good family drink. A handful of hops, to a pailful of
water, and a half-pint of molasses, makes good hop beer. Spruce mixed
with hops is pleasanter than hops alone. Boxberry, fever-bush, sweet
fern, and horseradish make a good and healthy diet-drink. The winter
evergreen, or rheumatism weed, thrown in, is very beneficial to
humors. Be careful and not mistake kill-lamb for winter-evergreen;
they resemble each other. Malt mixed with a few hops makes a weak kind
of beer; but it is cool and pleasant; it needs less molasses than hops
alone. The rule is about the same for all beer. Boil the ingredients
two or three hours, pour in a half-pint of molasses to a pailful,
while the beer is scalding hot. Strain the beer, and when about
lukewarm, put a pint of lively yeast to a barrel. Leave the bung loose
till the beer is done working; you can ascertain this by observing
when the froth subsides. If your family be large, and the beer will be
drank rapidly, it may as well remain in the barrel; but if your family
be small, fill what bottles you have with it; it keeps better bottled.
A raw potato or two, cut up and thrown in, while the ingredients are
boiling, is said to make beer spirited.
Ginger beer is made in the following proportions:--One cup of ginger,
one pint of molasses, one pail and a half of water, and a cup of
lively yeast. Most people scald the ginger in half a pail of water,
and then fill it up with a pailful of cold; but in very hot weather
some people stir it up cold. Yeast must not be put in till it is cold,
or nearly cold. If not to be drank within twenty-four hours, it must
be bottled as soon as it works.
Table beer should be drawn off into _stone_ jugs, with a lump of
white sugar in each, securely corked. It is brisk and pleasant, and
continues good several months.
Potato cheese is much sought after in various parts of Europe. I do
not know whether it is worth seeking after, or not. The following is
the receipt for making:--Select good white potatoes, boil them, and,
when cold, peel and reduce them to a pulp with a rasp or mortar; to
five pounds of this pulp, which must be very uniform and homogeneous,
add a pint of sour milk and the requisite portion of salt; knead the
whole well, cover it, and let it remain three or four days, according
to the season; then knead it afresh, and place the cheeses in small
baskets, when they will part with their superfluous moisture; dry them
in the shade, and place them in layers in large pots or kegs, where
they may remain a fortnight. The older they are, the finer they
become.
This cheese has the advantage of never engendering worms, and of being
preserved fresh for many years, provided it is kept in a dry place,
and in well closed vessels.
* * * * *
GENERAL MAXIMS FOR HEALTH.
Rise early. Eat simple food. Take plenty of exercise. Never fear a
little fatigue. Let not children be dressed in tight clothes; it is
necessary their limbs and muscles should have full play, if you wish
for either health or beauty.
Avoid the necessity of a physician, if you can, by careful attention
to your diet. Eat what best agrees with your system, and resolutely
abstain from what hurts you, however well you may like it. A few days'
abstinence, and cold water for a beverage, has driven off many an
approaching disease.
If you find yourself really ill, send for a good physician. Have
nothing to do with quacks; and do not tamper with quack medicines. You
do not know what they are; and what security have you that they know
what they are?
Wear shoes that are large enough. It not only produces corns, but
makes the feet misshapen, to cramp them.
Wash very often, and rub the skin thoroughly with a hard brush.
Let those who love to be invalids drink strong green tea, eat pickles,
preserves, and rich pastry. As far as possible, eat and sleep at
regular hours.
Wash the eyes thoroughly in cold water every morning. Do not read or
sew at twilight, or by too dazzling a light. If far-sighted, read with
rather less light, and with the book somewhat nearer to the eye, than
you desire. If nearsighted, read with a book as far off as possible.
Both these imperfections may be diminished in this way.
Clean teeth in pure water two or three times a day; but, above all, be
sure to have them clean before you go to bed.
Have your bed-chamber well aired; and have fresh bed linen every week.
Never have the wind blowing directly upon you from open windows during
the night. It is _not_ healthy to sleep in heated rooms.
Let children have their bread and milk before they have been long up.
Cold water and a run in the fresh air before breakfast.
Too frequent use of an ivory comb injures the hair. Thorough combing,
washing in suds, or N.E. rum, and thorough brushing, will keep it
in order; and the washing does not injure the hair, as is generally
supposed. Keep children's hair cut close until ten or twelve years
old; it is better for health and the beauty of the hair. Do not sleep
with hair frizzled, or braided. Do not make children cross-eyed, by
having hair hang about their foreheads, where they see it continually.
* * * * *
HINTS TO PERSONS OF MODERATE FORTUNE
[FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE MASSACHUSETTS JOURNAL.]
* * * * *
When clouds are seen, wise men put on their cloaks.--SHAKSPEARE.
* * * * *
FURNITURE.
The prevailing evil of the present day is extravagance. I know very
well that the old are too prone to preach about modern degeneracy,
whether they have cause or not; but, laugh as we may at the sage
advice of our fathers, it is too plain that our present expensive
habits are productive of much domestic unhappiness, and injurious
to public prosperity. Our wealthy people copy all the foolish and
extravagant caprice of European fashion, without considering that we
have not their laws of inheritance among us; and that our frequent
changes of policy render property far more precarious here than in the
old world. However, it is not to the rich I would speak. They have an
undoubted right to spend their thousands as they please; and if they
spend them ridiculously, it is consoling to reflect that they must,
in some way or other, benefit the poorer classes. People of moderate
fortunes have likewise an unquestioned right to dispose of their
hundreds as they please; but I would ask, Is it _wise_ to risk your
happiness in a foolish attempt to keep up with the opulent? Of what
_use_ is the effort which takes so much of your time, and _all_ of
your income? Nay, if any unexpected change in affairs should deprive
you of a few yearly hundreds, you will find your expenses have
_exceeded_ your income; thus the foundation of an accumulating debt
will be laid, and your family will have formed habits but poorly
calculated to save you from the threatened ruin. Not one valuable
friend will be gained by living beyond your means, and old age will be
left to comparative, if not to utter poverty.
There is nothing in which the extravagance of the present day strikes
me so forcibly as the manner in which our young people of moderate
fortune furnish their houses.
A few weeks since, I called upon a farmer's daughter, who had lately
married a young physician of moderate talents, and destitute of
fortune. Her father had given her, at her marriage, all he ever
expected to give her: viz. two thousand dollars. Yet the lower part of
her house was furnished with as much splendor as we usually find among
the wealthiest. The whole two thousand had been expended upon Brussels
carpets, alabaster vases, mahogany chairs, and marble tables. I
afterwards learned that the more useful household utensils had been
forgotten; and that, a few weeks after her wedding, she was actually
obliged to apply to her husband for money to purchase baskets, iron
spoons, clothes-lines, &c.; and her husband, made irritable by the
want of money, pettishly demanded why she had bought so many things
they did not want. Did the doctor gain any patients, or she a single
friend, by offering their visiters water in richly-cut glass tumblers,
or serving them with costly damask napkins, instead of plain soft
towels? No; their foolish vanity made them less happy, and no more
respectable.
Had the young lady been content with Kidderminster carpets, and
tasteful vases of her own making, she might have put _one_ thousand
dollars at interest; and had she obtained six per cent., it would have
clothed her as well as the wife of any man, who depends merely upon
his own industry, ought to be clothed. This would have saved much
domestic disquiet; for, after all, human nature is human nature; and a
wife is never better beloved, because she teases for money.
* * * * *
EDUCATION OF DAUGHTERS.
There is no subject so much connected with individual happiness and
national prosperity as the education of daughters. It is a true, and
therefore an old remark, that the situation and prospects of a country
may be justly estimated by the character of its women; and we all
know how hard it is to engraft upon a woman's character habits and
principles to which she was unaccustomed in her girlish days. It is
always extremely difficult, and sometimes utterly impossible. Is the
present education of young ladies likely to contribute to their own
ultimate happiness, or to the welfare of the country? There are many
honorable exceptions; but we do think the general tone of female
education is bad. The greatest and most universal error is, teaching
girls to exaggerate the importance of getting married; and of course
to place an undue importance upon the polite attentions of gentlemen.
It was but a few days since, I heard a pretty and sensible girl say,
'Did you ever see a man so ridiculously fond of his daughters as Mr.
----? He is all the time with them. The other night, at the party,
I went and took Anna away by mere force; for I knew she must feel
dreadfully to have her father waiting upon her all the time, while the
other girls were talking with the beaux.' And another young friend of
mine said, with an air most laughably serious, 'I don't think Harriet
and Julia enjoyed themselves at all last night. Don't you think,
nobody but their _brother_ offered to hand them to the supper-room?'
That a mother should wish to see her daughters happily married, is
natural and proper; that a young lady should be pleased with polite
attentions is likewise natural and innocent; but this undue anxiety,
this foolish excitement about showing off the attentions of somebody,
no matter whom, is attended with consequences seriously injurious. It
promotes envy and rivalship; it leads our young girls to spend their
time between the public streets, the ball room, and the toilet; and,
worst of all, it leads them to contract engagements, without any
knowledge of their own hearts, merely for the sake of being married as
soon as their companions. When married, they find themselves ignorant
of the important duties of domestic life; and its quiet pleasures
soon grow tiresome to minds worn out by frivolous excitements. If they
remain unmarried, their disappointment and discontent are, of course,
in proportion to their exaggerated idea of the eclat attendant upon
having a lover. The evil increases in a startling ratio; for these
girls, so injudiciously educated, will, nine times out of ten,
make injudicious mothers, aunts, and friends; thus follies will be
accumulated unto the third and fourth generation. Young ladies should
be taught that usefulness is happiness, and that all other things are
but incidental. With regard to matrimonial speculations, they should
be taught nothing! Leave the affections to nature and to truth, and
all will end well. How many can I at this moment recollect, who have
made themselves unhappy by marrying for the sake of the _name_ of
being married! How many do I know, who have been instructed to such
watchfulness in the game, that they have lost it by trumping their own
tricks!
One great cause of the vanity, extravagance and idleness that are
so fast growing upon our young ladies, is the absence of _domestic
education_. By domestic education, I do not mean the sending daughters
into the kitchen some half dozen times, to weary the patience of the
cook, and to boast of it the next day in the parlor. I mean two
or three years spent with a mother, assisting her in her duties,
instructing brothers and sisters, and taking care of their own
clothes. This is the way to make them happy, as well as good wives;
for, being early accustomed to the duties of life, they will sit
lightly as well as gracefully upon them.
But what time do modern girls have for the formation of quiet,
domestic habits? Until sixteen they go to school; sometimes these
years are judiciously spent, and sometimes they are half wasted;
too often they are spent in acquiring the _elements_ of a thousand
sciences, without being thoroughly acquainted with any; or in a
variety of accomplishments of very doubtful value to people of
moderate fortune. As soon as they leave school, (and sometimes
before,) they begin a round of balls and parties, and staying with
gay young friends. Dress and flattery take up all their thoughts. What
time have they to learn to be useful? What time have they to cultivate
the still and gentle affections, which must, in every situation
of life, have such an important effect on a woman's character and
happiness?
As far as parents can judge what will be a daughter's station,
education should be adapted to it; but it is well to remember that it
is always easy to know how to spend riches, and always safe to know
how to bear poverty.
A superficial acquaintance with such accomplishments as music and
drawing is useless and undesirable. They should not be attempted
unless there is taste, talent, and time enough to attain excellence. I
have frequently heard young women of moderate fortune say, 'I have not
opened my piano these five years. I wish I had the money expended upon
it. If I had employed as much time in learning useful things, I should
have been better fitted for the cares of my family.'
By these remarks I do not mean to discourage an attention to
the graces of life. Gentility and taste are always lovely in all
situations. But good things, carried to excess, are often productive
of bad consequences. When accomplishments and dress interfere with
the duties and permanent happiness of life, they are unjustifiable and
displeasing; but where there is a solid foundation in mind and heart,
all those elegancies are but becoming ornaments.
Some are likely to have more use for them than others; and they are
justified in spending more time and money upon them. But no one should
be taught to consider them valuable for mere parade and attraction.
Making the education of girls such a series of 'man-traps,' makes the
whole system unhealthy, by poisoning the motive.
* * * * *
In tracing evils of any kind, which exist in society, we must,
after all, be brought up against the great cause of all
mischief--_mismanagement in education_; and this remark applies
with peculiar force to the leading fault of the present day, viz.
extravagance. It is useless to expend our ingenuity in purifying the
stream, unless the fountain be cleansed. If young men and young
women are brought up to consider frugality contemptible, and industry
degrading, it is vain to expect they will at once become prudent and
useful, when the cares of life press heavily upon them. Generally
speaking, when misfortune comes upon those who have been accustomed to
thoughtless expenditure, it sinks them to discouragement, or, what is
worse, drives them to desperation. It is true there are exceptions.
There are a few, an honorable few, who, late in life, with Roman
severity of resolution, learn the long-neglected lesson of economy.
But how small is the number, compared with the whole mass of the
population! And with what bitter agony, with what biting humiliation,
is the hard lesson often learned! How easily might it have been
engrafted on _early habits_, and naturally and gracefully 'grown with
their growth, and strengthened with their strength!'
Yet it was but lately that I visited a family, not of 'moderate
fortune,' but of no fortune at all; one of those people who live
'nobody knows how;' and I found a young girl, about sixteen,
practising on the piano, while an elderly lady beside her was darning
her stockings. I was told (for the mother was proud of bringing up her
child so genteelly) that the daughter had almost forgotten how to
sew, and that a woman was hired into the house to do her mending! 'But
why,' said I, 'have you suffered your daughter to be ignorant of so
useful an employment? If she is poor, the knowledge will be necessary
to her; if she is rich, it is the easiest thing in the world to lay it
aside, if she chooses; she will merely be a better judge whether her
work is well done by others.' 'That is true,' replied the mother; 'and
I always meant she should learn; but she never has seemed to have any
time. When she was eight years old, she could put a shirt together
pretty well; but since that, her music, and her dancing, and her
school, have taken up her whole time. I did mean she should learn
some domestic habits this winter; but she has so many visiters, and is
obliged to go out so much, that I suppose I must give it up. I don't
like to say too much about it; for, poor girl! she does so love
company, and she does so hate anything like care and confinement!
_Now_ is her time to enjoy herself, you know. Let her take all the
comfort she can, while she is single!' 'But,' said I, 'you wish her
to marry some time or other; and, in all probability, she will marry.
When will she learn how to perform the duties, which are necessary
and important to every mistress of a family?' 'Oh, she will learn
them when she is obliged to,' answered the injudicious mother; 'at all
events, I am determined she shall enjoy herself while she is young.'
And this is the way I have often heard mothers talk! Yet, could
parents foresee the almost inevitable consequences of such a system, I
believe the weakest and vainest would abandon the false and dangerous
theory. What a lesson is taught a girl in that sentence, '_Let
her enjoy herself all she can, while she is single_!' Instead of
representing domestic life as the gathering place of the deepest and
purest affections; as the sphere of woman's _enjoyments_ as well as of
her _duties_; as, indeed, the whole world to her; that one pernicious
sentence teaches a girl to consider matrimony desirable because 'a
good match' is a triumph of vanity, and it is deemed respectable to
be 'well settled in the world;' but that it is a necessary sacrifice
of her freedom and her gayety. And then how many affectionate
dispositions have been trained into heartlessness, by being taught
that the indulgence of indolence and vanity were necessary to their
happiness; and that to have this indulgence, they _must_ marry money!
But who that marries for money, in this land of precarious fortunes,
can tell how soon they will lose the glittering temptation, to which
they have been willing to sacrifice so much? And even if riches last
as long as life, the evil is not remedied. Education has given a wrong
end and aim to their whole existence; they have been taught to look
for happiness where it never can be found, viz. in the absence of
all occupation, or the unsatisfactory and ruinous excitement of
fashionable competition.
The difficulty is, education does not usually point the female heart
to its only true resting-place. That dear English word '_home_,'
is not half so powerful a talisman as '_the world_.' Instead of
the salutary truth, that happiness is _in_ duty, they are taught to
consider the two things totally distinct; and that whoever seeks one,
must sacrifice the other.
The fact is, our girls have no _home education_. When quite young,
they are sent to schools where no feminine employments, no domestic
habits, can be learned; and there they continue till they 'come out'
into the world. After this, few find any time to arrange, and make
use of, the mass of elementary knowledge they have acquired; and fewer
still have either leisure or taste for the inelegant, every-day duties
of life. Thus prepared, they enter upon matrimony. Those early habits,
which would have made domestic care a light and easy task, have never
been taught, for fear it would interrupt their happiness; and the
result is, that when cares come, as come they must, they find them
misery. I am convinced that indifference and dislike between husband
and wife are more frequently occasioned by this great error in
education, than by any other cause.
The bride is awakened from her delightful dream, in which carpets,
vases, sofas, white gloves, and pearl earrings, are oddly jumbled up
with her lover's looks and promises. Perhaps she would be surprised
if she knew exactly how _much_ of the fascination of being engaged
was owing to the aforesaid inanimate concern. Be that as it will, she
is awakened by the unpleasant conviction that cares devolve upon her.
And what effect does this produce upon her character? Do the holy and
tender influences of domestic love render self-denial and exertion a
bliss? No! They would have done so, had she been _properly educated_;
but now she gives way to unavailing fretfulness and repining; and
her husband is at first pained, and finally disgusted, by hearing,
'I never knew what care was when I lived in my father's house.' 'If
I were to live my life over again, I would remain single as long as
I could, without the risk of being an old maid.' How injudicious, how
short-sighted is the policy, which thus mars the whole happiness of
life, in order to make a few brief years more gay and brilliant! I
have known many instances of domestic ruin and discord produced by
this mistaken indulgence of mothers. _I never knew but one, where
the victim had moral courage enough to change all her early habits._
She was a young, pretty, and very amiable girl; but brought up to be
perfectly useless; a rag baby would, to all intents and purposes,
have been as efficient a partner. She married a young lawyer, without
property, but with good and increasing practice. She meant to be a
good wife, but she did not know how. Her wastefulness involved him in
debt. He did not reproach, though he tried to convince and instruct
her. She loved him; and weeping replied, 'I try to do the best I can;
but when I lived at home, mother always took care of everything.'
Finally, poverty came upon him 'like an armed man;' and he went into
a remote town in the Western States to teach a school. His wife folded
her hands, and cried; while he, weary and discouraged, actually came
home from school to cook his own supper. At last, his patience, and
her real love for him, impelled her to exertion. She promised to
learn to be useful, if he would teach her. And she did learn! And the
change in her habits gradually wrought such a change in her husband's
fortune, that she might bring her daughters up in idleness, had not
experience taught her that economy, like grammar, is a very hard and
tiresome study, after we are twenty years old.
Perhaps some will think the evils of which I have been speaking are
confined principally to the rich; but I am convinced they extend to
all classes of people. All manual employment is considered degrading;
and those who are compelled to do it, try to conceal it. A few years
since, very respectable young men at our colleges, cut their own wood,
and blacked their own shoes. Now, how few, even of the sons of plain
farmers and industrious mechanics, have moral courage enough to do
without a servant; yet when they leave college, and come out into the
battle of life, they _must_ do without servants; and in these times
it will be fortunate if one half of them get what is called 'a decent
living,' even by rigid economy and patient toil. Yet I would not that
servile and laborious employment should be forced upon the young.
I would merely have each one educated according to his probable
situation in life; and be taught that whatever is his duty, is
honorable; and that no merely external circumstance can in reality
injure true dignity of character. I would not cramp a boy's energies
by compelling him always to cut wood, or draw water; but I would teach
him not to be ashamed, should his companions happen to find him doing
either one or the other. A few days since, I asked a grocer's lad to
bring home some articles I had just purchased at his master's. The
bundle was large; he was visibly reluctant to take it; and wished very
much that I should send for it. This, however, was impossible; and he
subdued his pride; but when I asked him to take back an empty bottle
which belonged to the store, he, with a mortified look, begged me to
do it up neatly in a paper, that it might look like a small package.
Is this boy likely to be happier for cherishing a foolish pride, which
will forever be jarring against his duties? Is he in reality one
whit more respectable than the industrious lad who sweeps stores, or
carries bottles, without troubling himself with the idea that all the
world is observing his little unimportant self? For, in relation to
the rest of the world, each individual is unimportant; and he alone
is wise who forms his habits according to his own wants, his own
prospects, and his own principles.
TRAVELLING AND PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS.
There is one kind of extravagance rapidly increasing in this country,
which, in its effects on our purses and our _habits_, is one of the
worst kinds of extravagance; I mean the rage for travelling, and
for public amusements. The good old home habits of our ancestors are
breaking up--it will be well if our virtue and our freedom do not
follow them! It is easy to laugh at such prognostics,--and we are well
aware that the virtue we preach is considered almost obsolete,--but
let any reflecting mind inquire how decay has begun in all republics,
and then let them calmly ask themselves whether we are in no danger,
in departing thus rapidly from the simplicity and industry of our
forefathers.
Nations do not plunge _at once_ into ruin--governments do not change
_suddenly_--the causes which bring about the final blow, are scarcely
perceptible in the beginning; but they increase in numbers, and in
power; they press harder and harder upon the energies and virtue of a
people; and the last steps only are alarmingly hurried and irregular.
A republic without industry, economy, and integrity, is Samson
shorn of his locks. A luxurious and idle _republic_! Look at the
phrase!--The words were never made to be married together; every body
sees it would be death to one of them.
And are not _we_ becoming luxurious and idle? Look at our steamboats,
and stages, and taverns! There you will find mechanics, who have left
debts and employment to take care of themselves, while they go to take
a peep at the great canal, or the opera-dancers. There you will find
domestics all agog for their wages-worth of travelling; why should
they look out for 'a rainy day?' There are hospitals enough to provide
for them in sickness; and as for marrying, they have no idea of that,
till they can find a man who will support them genteelly. There you
will find mothers, who have left the children at home with Betsey,
while they go to improve their minds at the Mountain House, or the
Springs.
If only the rich did this, all would be well. They benefit others, and
do not injure themselves. In any situation, idleness is their curse,
and uneasiness is the tax they must pay for affluence; but their
restlessness is as great a benefit to the community as the motions of
Prince Esterhazy, when at every step the pearls drop from his coat.
People of moderate fortune have just as good a right to travel as the
wealthy; but is it not unwise? Do they not injure themselves and their
families? You say travelling is cheap. So is staying at home. Besides,
do you count _all_ the costs?
The money you pay for stages and steamboats is the smallest of the
items. There are clothes bought which would not otherwise be bought;
those clothes are worn out and defaced twenty times as quick as they
would have been at home; children are perhaps left with domestics,
or strangers; their health and morals, to say the least, under very
uncertain influence; your substance is wasted in your absence by those
who have no self-interest to prompt them to carefulness; you form an
acquaintance with a multitude of people, who will be sure to take
your house in their way, when they travel next year; and finally, you
become so accustomed to excitement, that home appears insipid, and
it requires no small effort to return to the quiet routine of your
duties. And what do you get in return for all this? Some pleasant
scenes, which will soon seem to you like a dream; some pleasant faces,
which you will never see again; and much of crowd, and toil, and dust,
and bustle.
I once knew a family which formed a striking illustration of my
remarks. The man was a farmer, and his wife was an active, capable
woman, with more of ambition than sound policy. Being in debt, they
resolved to take fashionable boarders from Boston, during the summer
season. These boarders, at the time of their arrival, were projecting
a jaunt to the Springs; and they talked of Lake George crystals, and
Canadian music, and English officers, and 'dark blue Ontario,' with
its beautiful little brood of _lakelets_, as Wordsworth would call
them; and how one lady was dressed superbly at Saratoga; and how
another was scandalized for always happening to drop her fan in the
vicinity of the wealthiest beaux. All this fired the quiet imagination
of the good farmer's wife; and no sooner had the boarders departed to
enjoy themselves in spite of heat, and dust, and fever-and-ague, than
she stated her determination to follow them. 'Why have we not as good
a right to travel, as they have?' said she; 'they have paid us money
enough to go to Niagara with; and it really is a shame for people to
live and die so ignorant of their own country.' 'But then we want the
money to pay for that stock, which turned out unlucky, you know.' 'Oh,
that can be done next summer; we can always get boarders enough, and
those that will pay handsomely. Give the man a mortgage of the house,
to keep him quiet till next summer.' 'But what will you do with the
children?' 'Sally is a very smart girl; I am sure she will take as
good care of them as if I were at home.'
To make a long story short, the farmer and his wife concluded to go
to Quebec, just to show they had a _right_ to put themselves to
inconvenience, if they pleased. They went; spent all their money; had
a watch stolen from them in the steamboat; were dreadfully sea-sick
off Point Judith; came home tired, and dusty; found the babe sick,
because Sally had stood at the door with it, one chilly, damp morning,
while she was feeding the chickens; and the eldest girl screaming
and screeching at the thoughts of going to bed, because Sally, in
order to bring her under her authority, had told her a frightful
'raw-head-and-bloody-bones' story; the horse had broken into the
garden, and made wretched work with the vegetables; and fifty pounds
of butter had become fit for the grease-pot, because the hoops of the
firkin had sprung, and Sally had so much to do, that she never thought
of going to see whether the butter was covered with brine.
After six or eight weeks, the children were pretty well restored
to orderly habits; and the wife, being really a notable and prudent
woman, resolved to make up for her lost butter and vegetables, by
doing without help through the winter. When summer came, they should
have boarders, she said; and sure enough, they had boarders in plenty;
but not profitable ones. There were forty cousins, at whose houses
they had stopped; and twenty people who had been very polite to them
on the way; and it being such a pleasant season, and _travelling so
cheap_, everyone of these people felt they had _a right_ to take
a journey; and they could not help passing a day or two with their
friends at the farm. One after another came, till the farmer could
bear it no longer. 'I tell you what, wife,' said he, 'I am going to
jail as fast as a man can go. If there is no other way of putting
a stop to this, I'll sell every bed in the house, except the one we
sleep on.'
And sure enough, he actually did this; and when the forty-first cousin
came down on a friendly visit, on account of what her other cousins
had told her about the cheapness of travelling, she was told
they should be very happy to sleep on the floor, for the sake of
accommodating her, for a night or two; but the truth was, they had but
one bed in the house. This honest couple are now busy in paying off
their debts, and laying by something for their old age. He facetiously
tells how he went to New York to have his watch stolen, and his boots
blacked like a looking glass; and she shows her Lake George diamond
ring, and tells how the steamboat was crowded, and how afraid she was
the boiler would burst, and always ends by saying, 'After all, it was
a toil of pleasure.'
However, it is not our farmers, who are in the greatest danger of this
species of extravagance; for we look to that class of people, as the
strongest hold of republican simplicity, industry, and virtue. It is
from adventurers, swindlers, broken down traders,--all that rapidly
increasing class of idlers, too genteel to work, and too proud to
beg,--that we have most reason to dread examples of extravagance. A
very respectable tavern-keeper has lately been driven to establish a
rule, that no customer shall be allowed to rise from the table till
he pays for his meal. 'I know it is rude to give such orders to honest
men,' said he, 'and three years ago I would as soon cut off my hand
as have done it; but now, travelling is so cheap, that all sorts of
characters are on the move; and I find more than half of them will get
away, if they can, without paying a cent.'
With regard to public amusements, it is still worse. Rope-dancers,
and opera-dancers, and all sorts of dancers, go through the country,
making thousands as they go; while, from high to low, there is one
universal, despairing groan of 'hard times,' 'dreadful gloomy times!'
These things ought not to be. People who have little to spend, should
partake sparingly of useless amusements; those who are in debt
should deny themselves entirely. Let me not be supposed to inculcate
exclusive doctrines. I would have every species of enjoyment as open
to the poor as to the rich; but I would have people consider well how
they are likely to obtain the greatest portion of happiness, taking
the whole of their lives into view; I would not have them sacrifice
permanent respectability and comfort to present gentility and love
of excitement; above all, I caution them to beware that this love of
excitement does not grow into a habit, till the fireside becomes a
dull place, and the gambling table and the bar-room finish what the
theatre began.
If men would have women economical, they must be so themselves. What
motive is there for patient industry, and careful economy, when the
savings of a month are spent at one trip to Nahant, and more than the
value of a much desired, but rejected dress, is expended during the
stay of a new set of comedians? We make a great deal of talk about
being republicans; if we are so in reality, we shall stay at home,
to mind our business, and educate our children, so long as one or the
other need our attention, or can suffer by our neglect.
* * * * *
PHILOSOPHY AND CONSISTENCY.
Among all the fine things Mrs. Barbauld wrote, she never wrote
anything better than her essay on the Inconsistency of Human
Expectations. 'Everything,' says she, 'is marked at a settled price.
Our time, our labor, our ingenuity, is so much ready money, which
we are to lay out to the best advantage. Examine, compare, choose,
reject; but stand to your own judgment; and do not, like children,
when you have purchased one thing, repine that you do not possess
another, which you would not purchase. Would you be rich? Do you think
_that_ the single point worth sacrificing everything else to? You may
then be rich. Thousands have become so from the lowest beginnings by
toil, and diligence, and attention to the minutest articles of expense
and profit. But you must give up the pleasures of leisure, of an
unembarrassed mind, and of a free, unsuspicious temper. You must learn
to do hard, if not unjust things; and as for the embarrassment of a
delicate and ingenuous spirit, it is necessary for you to get rid of
it as fast as possible. You must not stop to enlarge your mind, polish
your taste, or refine your sentiments; but must keep on in one beaten
track, without turning aside to the right hand or the left. "But,"
you say, "I cannot submit to drudgery like this; I feel a spirit above
it." 'Tis well; be above it then; only do not repine because you are
not rich. Is knowledge the pearl of price in your estimation? That too
may be purchased by steady application, and long, solitary hours of
study and reflection. "But," says the man of letters, "what a hardship
is it that many an illiterate fellow, who cannot construe the motto on
his coach, shall raise a fortune, and make a figure, while I possess
merely the common conveniences of life." Was it for fortune, then,
that you grew pale over the midnight lamp, and gave the sprightly
years of youth to study and reflection? You then have mistaken your
path, and ill employed your industry. "What reward have I then for all
my labor?" What reward! A large comprehensive soul, purged from vulgar
fears and prejudices, able to interpret the works of man and God. A
perpetual spring of fresh ideas, and the conscious dignity of superior
intelligence. Good Heaven! what other reward can you ask! "But is it
not a reproach upon the economy of Providence that such a one, who is
a mean, dirty fellow, should have amassed wealth enough to buy half a
nation?" Not in the least. He made himself a mean, dirty fellow, for
that very end. He has paid his health, his conscience, and his liberty
for it. Do you envy him his bargain? Will you hang your head in his
presence, because he outshines you in equipage and show? Lift up your
brow with a noble confidence, and say to yourself, "I have not these
things, it is true; but it is because I have not desired, or sought
them; it is because I possess something better. I have chosen my lot!
I am content, and satisfied." The most characteristic mark of a great
mind is to choose some one object, which it considers important, and
pursue that object through life. If we expect the purchase, we must
pay the price.'
'There is a pretty passage in one of Lucian's dialogues, where Jupiter
complains to Cupid, that, though he has had so many intrigues, he was
never sincerely beloved. "In order to be loved," says Cupid, "you must
lay aside your aegis and your thunder-bolts; you must curl and perfume
your hair, and place a garland on your head, and walk with a soft
step, and assume a winning, obsequious deportment." "But," replied
Jupiter, "I am not willing to resign so much of my dignity." "Then,"
returned Cupid, "leave off desiring to be loved."'
These remarks by Mrs. Barbauld are full of sound philosophy. Who has
not observed, in his circle of acquaintance, and in the recesses
of his own heart, the same inconsistency of expectation, the same
peevishness of discontent.
Says Germanicus, 'There is my dunce of a classmate has found his
way into Congress, and is living amid the perpetual excitement of
intellectual minds, while I am cooped up in an ignorant country
parish, obliged to be at the beck and call of every old woman, who
happens to feel uneasy in her mind.'
'Well, Germanicus, the road to political distinction was as open to
you as to him; why did you not choose it?' 'Oh, I could not consent to
be the tool of a party; to shake hands with the vicious, and flatter
fools. It would gall me to the quick to hear my opponents accuse me of
actions I never committed, and of motives which worlds would not tempt
me to indulge.' Since Germanicus is wise enough to know the whistle
costs more than it is worth, is he not unreasonable to murmur because
he has not bought it?
Matrona always wears a discontented look when she hears the praises of
Clio. 'I used to write her composition for her, when we were at school
together,' says she; 'and now she is quite the idol of the literary
world; while I am never heard of beyond my own family, unless some one
happens to introduce me as the friend of Clio.' 'Why not write, then;
and see if the world will not learn to introduce Clio as the friend of
Matrona?' 'I write! not for the world! I could not endure to pour my
soul out to an undiscerning multitude; I could not see my cherished
thoughts caricatured by some soulless reviewer, and my favorite
fancies expounded by the matter-of-fact editor of some stupid paper.'
Why does Matrona envy what she knows costs so much, and is of so
little value?
Yet so it is, through all classes of society. All of us covet some
neighbor's possession, and think our lot would have been happier, had
it been different from what it is. Yet most of us could obtain worldly
distinctions, if our habits and inclinations allowed us to pay the
immense price at which they must be purchased. True wisdom lies
in finding out all the advantages of a situation in which we _are_
placed, instead of imagining the enjoyments of one in which we are
_not_ placed.
Such philosophy is rarely found. The most perfect sample I ever met
was an old woman, who was apparently the poorest and most forlorn of
the human species--so true is the maxim which all profess to believe,
and which none act upon invariably, viz. that happiness does not
depend on outward circumstances. The wise woman, to whom I have
alluded, _walks_ to Boston, from a distance of twenty-five or thirty
miles, to sell a bag of brown thread and stockings; and then patiently
foots it back again with her little gains. Her dress, though tidy, is
a grotesque collection of 'shreds and patches,' coarse in the extreme.
'Why don't you come down in a wagon?' said I, when I observed that she
was soon to become a mother, and was evidently wearied with her long
journey. 'We h'an't got any horse,' replied she; 'the neighbors are
very kind to me, but they can't spare their'n; and it would cost
as much to hire one, as all my thread will come to.' 'You have a
husband--don't he do anything for you.' 'He is a good man; he does
all he can; but he's a cripple and an invalid. He reels my yarn, and
_specks_ the children's shoes. He's as kind a husband as a woman need
to have.' 'But his being a cripple is a heavy misfortune to you,'
said I. 'Why, ma'am, I don't look upon it in that light,' replied
the thread-woman; 'I consider that I've great reason to be thankful
he never took to any bad habits.' 'How many children have you?' 'Six
sons, and five _darters_, ma'am.' 'Six sons and five daughters! What
a family for a poor woman to support!' 'It's a family, surely, ma'am;
but there an't one of 'em I'd be willing to lose. They are as good
children as need to be--all willing to work, and all clever to me.
Even the littlest boy, when he gets a cent now and then for doing a
_chore_, will be sure and bring it to ma'am.' 'Do your daughters spin
your thread?' 'No, ma'am; as soon as they are old enough, they go out
to _sarvice_. I don't want to keep them always delving for me; they
are always willing to give me what they can; but it is right and fair
they should do a little for themselves. I do all my spinning after the
folks are abed.' 'Don't you think you should be better off, if you
had no one but yourself to provide for?' 'Why, no, ma'am, I don't. If
I hadn't been married, I should always have had to work as hard as
I could; and now I can't do more than that. My children are a great
comfort to me; and I look forward to the time when they'll do as much
for me as I have done for them.'
Here was true philosophy! I learned a lesson from that poor woman
which I shall not soon forget. If I wanted true, hearty, well
principled service, I would employ children brought up by such a
mother.
* * * * *
REASONS FOR HARD TIMES.
Perhaps there never was a time when the depressing effects of
stagnation in business were so universally felt, all the world over,
as they are now.--The merchant sends out old dollars, and is lucky if
he gets the same number of new ones in return; and he who has a share
in manufactures, has bought a 'bottle imp,' which he will do well to
hawk about the street for the lowest possible coin. The effects of
this depression must of course be felt by all grades of society. Yet
who that passes through Cornhill at one o'clock, and sees the bright
array of wives and daughters, as various in their decorations as the
insects, the birds and the shells, would believe that the community
was staggering under a weight which almost paralyzes its movements?
'Everything is so cheap,' say the ladies, 'that it is inexcusable not
to dress well.' But do they reflect _why_ things are so cheap? Do they
know how much wealth has been sacrificed, how many families ruined, to
produce this boasted result? Do they not know enough of the machinery
of society, to suppose that the stunning effect of crash after crash,
may eventually be felt by those on whom they depend for support?
Luxuries are cheaper now than necessaries were a few years since; yet
it is a lamentable fact, that it costs more to live now than it did
formerly. When silk was nine shillings per yard, seven or eight yards
sufficed for a dress; now it is four or five shillings, sixteen or
twenty yards will hardly satisfy the mantuamaker.
If this extravagance were confined to the wealthiest classes, it would
be productive of more good than evil. But if the rich have a new dress
every fortnight, people of moderate fortune will have one every month.
In this way, finery becomes the standard of respectability; and a
man's cloth is of more consequence than his character.
Men of fixed salaries spend every cent of their income, and then
leave their children to depend on the precarious charity and reluctant
friendship of a world they have wasted their substance to please.
Men who rush into enterprise and speculation, keep up their credit
by splendor; and should they sink, they and their families carry with
them extravagant habits to corrode their spirits with discontent,
perchance to tempt them into crime. 'I know we are extravagant,' said
one of my acquaintance, the other day; 'but how can I help it? My
husband does not like to see his wife and daughters dress more meanly
than those with whom they associate.' 'Then, my dear lady, your
husband has not as much moral dignity and moral courage as I thought
he had. He should be content to see his wife and daughters respected
for neatness, good taste, and attractive manners.' 'This all sounds
very well in talk,' replied the lady; 'but, say what you will about
pleasing and intelligent girls, nobody will attend to them unless they
dress in the fashion. If my daughters were to dress in the plain, neat
style you recommend, they would see all their acquaintance asked to
dance more frequently than themselves, and not a gentleman would join
them in Cornhill.'
'I do not believe this in so extensive a sense as you do. Girls may
appear genteelly without being extravagant, and though some fops may
know the most approved color for a ribbon, or the newest arrangement
for trimming, I believe gentlemen of real character merely notice
whether a lady's dress is generally in good taste, or not. But,
granting your statement to be true, in its widest sense, of what
consequence is it? How much will the whole happiness of your
daughter's life be affected by her dancing some fifty times less
than her companions, or wasting some few hours less in the empty
conversation of coxcombs? A man often admires a style of dress, which
he would not venture to support in a wife. Extravagance has prevented
many marriages, and rendered still more unhappy. And should your
daughters fail in forming good connexions, what have you to leave
them, save extravagant habits, too deeply rooted to be eradicated.
Think you those who now laugh at them for a soiled glove, or an
unfashionable ribbon, will assist their poverty, or cheer their
neglected old age? No; they would find them as cold and selfish
as they are vain. A few thousands in the bank are worth all the
fashionable friends in Christendom.'
Whether my friend was convinced, or not, I cannot say; but I saw her
daughters in Cornhill, the next week, with new French hats and blonde
veils.
It is really melancholy to see how this fever of extravagance rages,
and how it is sapping the strength of our happy country. It has no
bounds; it pervades all ranks, and characterizes all ages.
I know the wife of a pavier, who spends her three hundred a year
in 'outward adorning,' and who will not condescend to speak to her
husband, while engaged in his honest calling.
Mechanics, who should have too high a sense of their own
respectability to resort to such pitiful competition, will indulge
their daughters in dressing like the wealthiest; and a domestic would
certainly leave you, should you dare advise her to lay up one cent of
her wages.
'These things ought not to be.' Every man and every woman should
lay up some portion of their income, whether that income be great or
small.
* * * * *
HOW TO ENDURE POVERTY.
That a thorough, religious, _useful_ education is the best security
against misfortune, disgrace and poverty, is universally believed
and acknowledged; and to this we add the firm conviction, that,
when poverty comes (as it sometimes will) upon the prudent, the
industrious, and the well-informed, a judicious education is
all-powerful in enabling them to _endure_ the evils it cannot always
_prevent_. A mind full of piety and knowledge is always rich; it is a
bank that never fails; it yields a perpetual dividend of happiness.
In a late visit to the alms-house at ----, we saw a remarkable
evidence of the truth of this doctrine. Mrs. ---- was early left
an orphan. She was educated by an uncle and aunt, both of whom
had attained the middle age of life. Theirs was an industrious,
well-ordered, and cheerful family. Her uncle was a man of sound
judgment, liberal feelings, and great knowledge of human nature. This
he showed by the education of the young people under his care. He
allowed them to waste no time; every moment must be spent in learning
something, or in doing something. He encouraged an entertaining,
lively style of conversation, but discountenanced all remarks about
persons, families, dress, and engagements; he used to say, parents
were not aware how such topics frittered away the minds of young
people, and what inordinate importance they learned to attach to them,
when they heard them constantly talked about.
In his family, Sunday was a happy day; for it was made a day of
religious instruction, without any unnatural constraint upon the
gayety of the young. The Bible was the text book; the places mentioned
in it were traced on maps; the manners and customs of different
nations were explained; curious phenomena in the natural history of
those countries were read; in a word, everything was done to cherish
a spirit of humble, yet earnest inquiry. In this excellent family Mrs.
---- remained till her marriage. In the course of fifteen years, she
lost her uncle, her aunt, and her husband. She was left destitute, but
supported herself comfortably by her own exertions, and retained the
respect and admiration of a large circle of friends. Thus she passed
her life in cheerfulness and honor during ten years; at the end of
that time, her humble residence took fire from an adjoining house in
the night time, and she escaped by jumping from the chamber window.
In consequence of the injury received by this fall, her right arm was
amputated, and her right leg became entirely useless. Her friends were
very kind and attentive; and for a short time she consented to live
on their bounty; but, aware that the claims on private charity are
very numerous, she, with the genuine independence of a strong mind,
resolved to avail herself of the public provision for the helpless
poor. The name of going to the alms-house had nothing terrifying or
disgraceful to _her_; for she had been taught that _conduct_ is the
real standard of respectability. She is there, with a heart full of
thankfulness to the Giver of all things; she is patient, pious, and
uniformly cheerful. She instructs the young, encourages the old,
and makes herself delightful to all, by her various knowledge and
entertaining conversation. Her character reflects dignity on her
situation; and those who visit the establishment, come away with
sentiments of respect and admiration for this voluntary resident of
the alms-house.
* * * * *
What a contrast is afforded by the character of the woman who occupies
the room next hers! She is so indolent and filthy, that she can with
difficulty be made to attend to her own personal comfort; and even the
most patient are worn out with her perpetual fretfulness. Her mind
is continually infested with envy, hatred, and discontent She thinks
Providence has dealt hardly with her; that all the world are proud
and ungrateful; and that every one despises her because she is in the
alms-house. This pitiable state of mind is the natural result of her
education.
Her father was a respectable mechanic, and might have been a wealthy
one, had he not been fascinated by the beauty of a thoughtless, idle,
showy girl, whom he made his wife. The usual consequences followed--he
could not earn money so fast as she could spend it; the house became a
scene of discord; the daughter dressed in the fashion; learned to play
on the piano; was taught to think that being engaged in any useful
employment was very ungenteel; and that to be _engaged to be married_
was the chief end and aim of woman; the father died a bankrupt; the
weak and frivolous mother lingered along in beggary, for a while, and
then died of vexation and shame.
The friends of the family were very kind to the daughter; but her
extreme indolence, her vanity, pertness, and ingratitude, finally
exhausted the kindness of the most generous and forbearing; and as
nothing could induce her to personal exertion, she was at length
obliged to take shelter in the alms-house. Here her misery is
incurable. She has so long been accustomed to think dress and parade
the necessary elements of happiness, that she despises all that is
done for her comfort; her face has settled into an expression which
looks like an imbodied growl; every body is tired of listening to her
complaints; and even the little children run away, when they see her
coming.
May not those who have children to educate, learn a good lesson from
these women? Those who have wealth, have recently had many and bitter
lessons to prove how suddenly riches may take to themselves wings; and
those who _certainly_ have but little to leave, should indeed beware
how they bestow upon their children, the accursed inheritance of
indolent and extravagant habits.
* * * * *
APPENDIX
TO THE
AMERICAN FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
Those sentences marked with a star relate to subjects mentioned in
other parts of the book.
To PRESERVE GREEN CURRANTS.--Currants maybe kept fresh for a year or
more, if they are gathered when green, separated from the stems, put
into dry, clean junk bottles, and corked very carefully, so as to
exclude the air. They should be kept in a cool place in the cellar.
CANDLES.--Very hard and durable candles are made in the following
manner: Melt together ten ounces of mutton tallow, a quarter of an
ounce of camphor, four ounces of beeswax, and two ounces of alum.
Candles made of these materials burn with a very clear light.
*VARNISHED FURNITURE.--If you wish to give a fine soft polish to
varnished furniture, and remove any slight imperfections, rub it once
or twice a week with pulverized rotten-stone and linseed oil, and
afterward wipe clean with a soft silk rag.
CREAM.--The quantity of cream on milk may be greatly increased by the
following process: Have two pans ready in boiling hot water, and when
the new milk is brought in, put it into one of these hot pans and
cover it with the other. The quality as well as the thickness of the
cream is improved.
*TEETH.--Honey mixed with pure pulverized charcoal is said to be
excellent to cleanse the teeth, and make them white. Lime-water with a
little Peruvian bark is very good to be occasionally used by those who
have defective teeth, or an offensive breath.
TAINTED BUTTER.--Some good cooks say that bad butter may be purified
in the following manner: Melt and skim it, then put into it a piece
of _well-toasted_ bread; in a few minutes the butter will lose its
offensive taste and smell; the bread will absorb it all. Slices
of potato fried in rancid lard will in a great measure absorb the
unpleasant taste.
TOMATOES PIE.--Tomatoes make excellent pies. Skins taken off with
scalding water, stewed twenty minutes or more, salted, prepared the
same as rich squash pies, only an egg or two more.
*It is a great improvement to the flavor of PUMPKIN PIES to boil the
milk, stir the sifted pumpkin into it, and let them boil up together
once or twice. The pumpkin swells almost as much as Indian meal, and
of course absorbs more milk than when stirred together cold; but the
taste of the pie is much improved.
Some people cut pumpkin, string it, and dry it like apples. It is a
much better way to boil and sift the pumpkin, then spread it out thin
in tin plates, and dry hard in a warm oven. It will keep good all the
year round, and a little piece boiled up in milk will make a batch of
pies.
*Most people think BRASS KETTLES for washing are not as likely to
collect verdigris, if they are never cleaned in any other way than by
washing in strong soap suds just before they are used.
INK SPOTS.--If soaked in warm milk before the ink has a chance to dry,
the spot may usually be removed. If it has dried in, rub table-salt
upon it, and drop lemon-juice upon the salt. This answers nearly as
well as the salts of lemon sold by apothecaries. If a lemon cannot
be easily procured, vinegar, or sorrel-juice, will answer. White soap
diluted with vinegar is likewise a good thing to take out ink spots.
STARCH.--Frozen potatoes yield more flour for starch than fresh ones.
The frost may be taken out by soaking them in cold water a few hours
before cooking; if frozen very hard, it may be useful to throw a
little saltpetre into the water.
FEATHERS.--It is said that tumbled plumes may be restored to
elasticity and beauty by dipping them in hot water, then shaking and
drying them.
ICY STEPS.--Salt strewed upon the door-steps in winter will cause the
ice to crack, so that it can be easily removed.
FLOWERS.--Flowers may be preserved fresh in tumblers or vases by
putting a handful of salt in the water, to increase its coldness.
WHITE-WASHING is said to last longer if the new-slaked lime be mixed
with skim-milk.
HORSE-FLIES.--Indigo-weed stuck plentifully about the harness tends
to keep flies from horses. Some make a decoction of indigo-weed, and
others of pennyroyal, and bathe horses with it, to defend them from
insects.
PINE APPLES will keep much better if the green crown at top be twisted
off. The vegetation of the crown takes the goodness from the fruit, in
the same way that sprouts injure vegetables. The crown can be stuck on
for ornament, if necessary.
*THE PILES.--Those who have tried other remedies for this disorder in
vain, have found relief from the following medicine: Stew a handful
of low mallows in about three gills of milk; strain it, and mix
about half the quantity of West India molasses with it. As warm as is
agreeable.
WARTS.--It is said that if the top of a wart be wet and rubbed two
or three times a day with a piece of unslaked lime, it cures the wart
soon, and leaves no scar.
*CANCERS.--The Indians have great belief in the efficacy of poultices
of stewed cranberries, for the relief of _cancers_. They apply them
fresh and warm every ten or fifteen minutes, night and day. Whether
this will effect a cure I know not; I simply know that the Indians
strongly recommend it. Salts, or some simple physic, is taken every
day during the process.
EAR-WAX.--Nothing is better than ear-wax to prevent the painful
effects resulting from a wound by a nail, skewer, &c. It should be put
on as soon as possible. Those who are troubled with cracked lips have
found this remedy successful when others have failed. It is one of
those sorts of cures, which are very likely to be laughed at; but I
know of its having produced very beneficial results.
*BURNS.--If a person who is burned will _patiently_ hold the injured
part in water, it will prevent the formation of a blister. If the
water be too cold, it may be slightly warmed, and produce the same
effect. People in general are not willing to try it for a sufficiently
long time. Chalk and hog's lard simmered together are said to make a
good ointment for a burn.
*BRUISES.--Constant application of warm water is very soothing to
bruised flesh, and may serve to prevent bad consequences while other
things are in preparation.
SORE NIPPLES.--Put twenty grains of sugar of lead into a vial with one
gill of rose-water; shake it up thoroughly; wet a piece of soft linen
with this preparation, and put it on; renew this as often as the linen
becomes dry. Before nursing, wash this off with something soothing;
rose-water is very good; but the best thing is quince-seed warmed in
a little cold tea until the liquid becomes quite glutinous. This
application is alike healing and pleasant.
A raw onion is an excellent remedy for the STING OF A WASP.
CORNS.--A corn may be extracted from the foot by binding on half a raw
cranberry, with the cut side of the fruit upon the foot. I have known
a very old and troublesome corn drawn out in this way, in the course
of a few nights.
HEART-BURN.--Eat magnesia for the heart-burn.
CHLORIDE OF LIME.--A room may be purified from offensive smells of
any kind by a few spoonsful of chloride of lime dissolved in water.
A good-sized saucer, or some similar vessel, is large enough for
all common purposes. The article is cheap, and is invaluable in the
apartment of an invalid.
EGGS IN WINTER.--The reason hens do not usually lay eggs in the winter
is that the gravel is covered up with snow, and therefore they are
not furnished with lime to form the shells. If the bones left of meat,
poultry, &c. are pounded and mixed with their food, or given to them
alone, they will eat them very eagerly, and will lay eggs the same
as in summer. Hens fed on oats are much more likely to lay well than
those fed on corn.
PEARLS.--In order to preserve the beauty of pearl ornaments, they
should be carefully kept from dampness. A piece of paper torn off and
rolled up, so as to present a soft, ragged edge, is the best thing to
cleanse them with.
VARNISHING GILDED FRAMES.--It is said that looking-glass frames
may be cleansed with a damp cloth, without injury, provided they
are varnished with the _pure white alcoholic varnish_, used for
transferred engravings and other delicate articles of fancy-work. This
would save the trouble of covering and uncovering picture-frames with
the change of the seasons. I never heard how many coats of varnish
were necessary, but I should think it would be safe to put on more
than one.
COLOGNE WATER.--One pint of alcohol, sixty drops of lavender, sixty
drops of bergamot, sixty drops of essence of lemon, sixty drops of
orange water. To be corked up, and well shaken. It is better for
considerable age.
GREASE SPOTS.--Magnesia rubbed upon the spot, covered with clean
paper, and a warm iron placed above, will usually draw out grease.
Where a considerable quantity of oil has been spilled, it will be
necessary to repeat the operation a great many times, in order to
extract it all.
RECEIPT FOR MAKING EXCELLENT BREAD WITHOUT YEAST.--Scald about two
handsful of Indian meal, into which put a little salt, and as much
cold water as will make it rather warmer than new milk; then stir in
wheat flour, till it is as thick as a family pudding, and set it down
by the fire to rise. In about half an hour, it generally grows thin;
you may sprinkle a little fresh flour on the top, and mind to turn the
pot round, that it may not bake to the side of it. In three or four
hours, if you mind the above directions, it will rise and ferment as
if you had set it with hop yeast; when it does, make it up in soft
dough, flour a pan, put in your bread, set it before the fire, covered
up, turn it round to make it equally warm, and in about half an hour
it will be light enough to bake. It suits best to bake in a Dutch
oven, as it should be put into the oven as soon as it is light.
RICE JELLY.--Boil a quarter of a pound of rice flour with half a
pound of loaf sugar, in a quart of water, till the whole becomes one
glutinous mass, then strain off the jelly and let it stand to cool.
This food is very nourishing and beneficial to invalids.
APPLE MARMALADE.--Scald apples till they will pulp from the core; take
an equal weight of sugar in large lumps, and boil it in just water
enough to dip the lumps well, until it can be skimmed, and is a thick
syrup; mix this with the apple pulp, and simmer it on a quick fire for
fifteen minutes. Keep it in pots covered with paper dipped in brandy.
QUINCE MARMALADE.--To two pounds of quince put three quarters of a
pound of nice sugar, and a pint of spring water. Boil them till they
are tender; then take them up and bruise them; again put them in the
liquor, and let them boil three quarters of an hour, then put it into
jars, covered as mentioned above. Those who like things very sweet put
an equal quantity of quince and sugar; but I think the flavor is less
delicious.
RASPBERRY JAM.--Take an equal quantity of fruit and sugar. Put the
raspberries into a pan, boil and stir them constantly till juicy and
well broken; add as much sugar, boil and skim it till it is reduced to
a fine jam. Put it away in the same manner as other preserves.
BLANC-MANGER.--Boil two ounces of isinglass in one pint and a half of
new milk; strain it into one pint of thick cream. Sweeten it to your
taste, add one cup of rose-water, boil it up once, let it settle, and
put it in your moulds.
Some prefer to boil two ounces of isinglass in three and a half pints
of water for half an hour, then strain it to one pint and a half of
cream, sweeten it, add a teacup of rose-water, and boil up once.
Isinglass is the most expensive ingredient in blanc-manger. Some
decidedly prefer the jelly of calves' feet. The jelly is obtained
by boiling four feet in a gallon of water till reduced to a quart,
strained, cooled, and skimmed. A pint of jelly to a pint of cream; in
other respects done the same as isinglass blanc-manger. Some boil a
stick of cinnamon, or a grated lemon-peel, in the jelly. The moulds
should be made thoroughly clean, and wet with cold water; the white of
an egg, dropped in and shook round the moulds, will make it come out
smooth and handsomely.
PORK JELLY.--Some people like the jelly obtained from a boiled hand
of pork, or the feet of pork, prepared in the same way as calf's-foot
jelly; for which see page 31.
The cloths, or jelly-bags, through which jelly is strained, should be
first wet to prevent waste.
CRANBERRY JELLY.--Mix isinglass jelly, or calf's-foot jelly, with a
double quantity of cranberry juice, sweeten it with fine loaf sugar,
boil it up once, and strain it to cool.
RICH CUSTARDS.--Boil a pint of milk with lemon-peel and a stick of
cinnamon. While it is boiling, beat up the yolks of five eggs with
a pint of cream. When the milk tastes of the spice, pour it to the
cream, stirring well; sweeten it to taste. Give the custard a simmer,
till of a proper thickness, but do not let it boil. Stir the whole
time one way. Season it with a little rose-water, and a few spoonsful
of wine or brandy, as you may prefer. When put into cups, grate on
nutmeg.
TO PRESERVE PEACHES.--Scald peaches in boiling water, but do not let
them boil; take them out and put them in cold water, then dry them in
a sieve, and put them in long, wide-mouthed bottles. To a half dozen
peaches put a quarter of a pound of clarified sugar; pour it over the
peaches, fill up the bottles with brandy, and stop them close.
COCOA-NUT CAKES.--Grate the meat of two cocoa-nuts, after pealing
off the dark skin; allow an equal weight of loaf sugar, pounded and
sifted, and the rind and juice of two lemons. Mix the ingredients
well; make into cakes about as big as a nutmeg, with a little piece of
citron in each. Bake them on buttered tin sheets about twenty minutes,
in a moderately hot oven.
*TO CLARIFY SUGAR.--Put half a pint of water to a pound of sugar; whip
up the white of an egg and stir it in, and put it over the fire. When
it first boils up, check it with a little cold water; the second time
set it away to cool. In a quarter of an hour, skim the top, and turn
the syrup off quickly, so as to leave the sediment which will collect
at the bottom.
*RICH WEDDING CAKE.--One pound three quarters of flour, one pound
one quarter of butter, do. of sugar, one dozen eggs, two pounds
of currants, one gill of wine, half a gill of brandy, one pound of
citron, cut in slices, a wine-glass of rose-water, three quarters
of an ounce of nutmeg, quarter of an ounce of cloves, the same of
allspice. The rind of two lemons grated in. See page 72 for baking.
STILL RICHER WEDDING CAKE.--Three pounds of flour, three pounds
of butter, three pounds of sugar, twenty-eight eggs, six pounds of
currants, and six pounds of seeded raisins; one ounce of cinnamon, one
ounce of nutmeg, three quarters of an ounce of cloves, half an ounce
of mace, one pound of citron, two glasses of brandy, two glasses of
rose-water, and one glass of wine. For baking, see page 72.
*FROSTING FOR CAKE.--It is a great improvement to squeeze a little
lemon-juice into the egg and sugar prepared for frosting. It gives
a fine flavor, and makes it extremely white. For frosting, see
directions, page 72.
WHIP SYLLABUB.--One pint of cream, one pint of wine, the juice and
grated peel of a lemon, and the white of two eggs; sweeten it to your
taste, put it into a deep vessel, and whip it to a light froth. Fill
your glasses with the froth as it rises. It is a good plan to put some
of the froth in a sieve, over a dish, and have it in readiness to heap
upon the top of your glasses after you have filled them. Some people
put a spoonful of marmalade or jelly at the bottom of the glasses,
before they are filled.
LOBSTER SALAD.--The meat of one lobster is extracted from the shell,
and cut up fine. Have fresh hard lettuce cut up very fine; mix it with
the lobster. Make a dressing, in a deep plate, of the yolks of four
eggs cut up, a gill of sweet oil, a gill of vinegar, half a gill of
mustard, half a teaspoonful of cayenne, half a teaspoonful of salt;
all mixed well together. To be prepared just before eaten. Chicken
salad is prepared in the same way, only chicken is used instead of
lobster, and celery instead of lettuce.
ESCALOPED OYSTERS.--Put crumbled bread around the sides and bottom
of a buttered dish. Put oysters in a skillet, and let the heat just
strike them through; then take them out of the shells, and rinse them
thoroughly in the water they have stewed in. Put half of them on the
layer of crumbled bread, and season with mace and pepper; cover
them with crumbs of bread and bits of butter; put in the rest of the
oysters, season and cover them in the same way. Strain their liquor,
and pour over. If you fear they will be too salt, put fresh water
instead. Bake fifteen or twenty minutes.
FRIED OYSTERS.--After they are prepared from the shell, they are
dipped in batter, made of eggs and crumbs, seasoned with nutmeg, mace
and salt, stirred up well. Fried in lard till brown.
VEGETABLE OYSTER.--This vegetable is something like a parsnip; is
planted about the same time, ripens about the same time, and requires
about the same cooking. It is said to taste very much like real
oysters. It is cut in pieces, after being boiled, dipped in batter,
and fried in the same way. It is excellent mixed with minced salt
fish.
PARTRIDGES should be roasted ten or fifteen minutes longer than
chickens, that is, provided they are thick-breasted and plump. Being
naturally dry, they should be plentifully basted with butter.
* * * * *
EXTRACTS FROM THE _ENGLISH_ FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
[It was the intention of the author of the _American_ Frugal
Housewife, to have given an Appendix from the _English_ Frugal
Housewife; but upon examination, she found the book so little
fitted to the wants of this country, that she has been able to
extract but little.]
CHEESE is to be chosen by its moist, smooth coat; if old cheese
be rough-coated, ragged, or dry at top, beware of worms. If it be
over-full of holes, moist and spongy, it is subject to maggots. If
soft or perished places appear, try how deep they go, for the worst
part may be hidden.
EGGS.--To prove whether they are good or bad, hold the large end of
the egg to your tongue; if it feels warm, it is new; but if cold, it
is bad. In proportion to the heat or cold, is the goodness of the
egg. Another way to know is to put the egg in a pan of cold water; the
fresher the egg, the sooner it will fall to the bottom; if rotten, it
will swim. If you keep your eggs in ashes, salt or bran, put the small
end downwards; if you turn them endways once a week, they will keep
some months.
VEAL.--If the vein in the shoulder look blue or bright red, it is
newly killed; but if black, green, or yellow, it is stale. The leg is
known to be new by the stiffness of the joint. The head of a calf or a
lamb is known by the eyes; if sunk or wrinkled, it is stale; if plump
and lively, it is fresh.
MUTTON.--If it be young, the flesh will pinch tender; if old, it will
wrinkle and remain so. If young, the fat will easily part from the
lean; if old, it will stick by strings and skins. Strong, rancid
mutton feels spongy, and does not rise again easily, when dented.
The flesh of ewe mutton is paler, of a closer grain, and parts more
easily.
BEEF.--Good beef has an open grain, and a tender, oily smoothness;
a pleasant carnation color, and clear white suet, betoken good meat;
yellow suet is not so good.
PORK.--If young, the lean will break in pinching, and if you nip the
skin with your nails, it will make a dent; the fat will be soft and
pulpy, like lard. If the lean be tough, and the fat flabby and spongy,
feeling rough, it is old, especially if the rind be stubborn, and you
cannot nip it with your nails. Little kernels, like nail-shot, in the
fat, are a sign that it is measly, and dangerous to be eaten.
To judge of the age of POULTRY, see page 53.
* * * * *
CARVING.
[WRITTEN FOR THE _AMERICAN_ FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.]
TO CARVE A TURKEY.--Fix the fork firmly on one side of the thin bone
that rises in the centre of the breast; the fork should be placed
_parallel_ with the bone, and as close to it as possible. Cut the
meat from the breast lengthwise, in slices of about half an inch in
thickness. Then turn the turkey upon the side nearest you, and cut off
the leg and the wing; when the knife is passed between the limbs and
the body, and pressed outward, the joint will be easily perceived.
Then turn the turkey on the other side, and cut off the other leg and
wing. Separate the drum-sticks from the leg-bones, and the pinions
from the wings; it is hardly possible to mistake the joint. Cut the
stuffing in thin slices, lengthwise. Take off the neck-bones, which
are two triangular bones on each side of the breast; this is done
by passing the knife from the back under the blade-part of each
neck-bone, until it reaches the end; by raising the knife, the other
branch will easily crack off. Separate the carcass from the back by
passing the knife lengthwise from the neck downward. Turn the back
upwards, and lay the edge of the knife across the back-bone, about
midway between the legs and wings; at the same moment, place the fork
within the lower part of the turkey, and lift it up; this will make
the back-bone crack at the knife. The croup, or lower part of the
back, being cut off, put it on the plate, with the rump from you, and
split off the side-bones by forcing the knife through from the rump to
the other end.
The choicest parts of a turkey are the side-bones, the breast, and
the thigh-bones. The breast and wings are called light meat;
the thigh-bones and side-bones dark meat. When a person declines
expressing a preference, it is polite to help to both kinds.
A SIRLOIN OF BEEF.--Place the curving bone downward upon the dish. Cut
the outside lengthwise, separating _each slice_ from the chine-bone,
with the point of the knife. Some people cut through at the chine,
slip the knife under, and cut the meat out in one mass, which they
afterward cut in slices; but this is not the best, or the most proper
way. The tender loin is on the inside; it is to be cut crosswise.
A HAM.--Begin in the middle of a ham; cut across the bone, and take
thin slices from either side.
A GOOSE.--A goose is carved nearly as a turkey, only the breast should
be cut in slices narrow and nearly square, instead of broad, like
that of turkey; and before passing the knife to separate the legs and
wings, the fork is to be placed in the small end of the leg-bone or
pinion, and the part pressed close to the body, when the separation
will be easy. Take off the merrythought, the neck-bones, and separate
the leg-bones from the legs, and the pinions from the wings. The best
parts are the breast, the thigh-bones, and the fleshy parts of the
wings.
A PIG.--If the pig be whole, cut off the head, and split it in halves
along the back-bone. Separate the shoulders and legs by passing the
knife under them in a circular direction. The best parts are the
triangular piece of the neck, the ribs, legs and shoulders.
A FILLET OF VEAL.--This is the thick part of the leg, and is to be cut
smooth, round and close to the bone. Some prefer the outside piece. A
little fat cut from the skirt is to be served to each plate.
MUTTON.--A saddle of mutton is the two loins together, and the
back-bone running down the middle to the tail. Slices are to be cut
out parallel to the back-bone on either side.
In a leg of mutton, the knife is to be entered in the thick fleshy
part, as near the shank as will give a good slice. Cut towards the
large end, and always to the bone.
INDEX.
Page
Advice, General, 3 to 8
Alamode Beef, 49
Apple Pie, 67
Apple Pudding, 63
Apple Water, 82
Arrow-root Jelly, 31
Ashes, Care of, 16
Ashes for Land, 13
Asparagus, 34
Balm of Gilead, 28
Batter Pudding, 61
Beans and Peas, cooked, 51
Bed-bug Poison, 10
Beef, cooked, 48
Beef, corned, 40
Beef, salted, 40
Beef Soup, 48
Beef Tea, 32
Beer, 86
Bees, Sting of, 29
Bird's Nest Pudding, 63
Bleeding Wounds, 26
Blisters of Burns broken, 29
Bottles of Rose-water, 14
Bottles, Vials, &c., 14
Brass Andirons, &c., 11
Brass Kettles, 11
Brasses in Summer, 16
Bread, Yeast, &c., 76 to 80
Bread Pudding, 62
Brine, 40, 41, 42
Britannia Ware, 10
Brooms, 17
Broth, 49
Bruises, 36
Buffalo's Tongue, 43
Burdock Leaves, 37
Burns, 28
Butter, 15
Cabbages, 34
Cakes, 70 to 76
Calf's-foot Jelly, 31
Calf's Head, 47
Cancers, 26
Canker, 28
Carpets, 11
Carrot Pie, 67
Castor Oil, boiled, 29
Catsup, 35
Celery, 35
Cement, 19
Cheapest Pieces of Meat, 43 to 46
Cheeses, 14, 86
Cherry Pie, 67
Cherry Pudding, 63
Chickens, 53
Chicken Broth, 55
Chicken fricasseed, 54
Chicken Pie, 56
Chilblains, 27
Chocolate, 83
Cholera Morbus, 25, 29
Chopped Hands, 27
Chowder, 59
Cider Cake, 71
Clams, 58
Clothes Line, &c., 17
Clothes washed, 17
Cockroaches, 19
Cod, 57
Coffee, 82
Colds, 27, 36
Coloring, 38 to 40
Combs, 9, 20
Cooling Ointments, 29, 26
Corn, 34
Coughs, 36, 37
Court Plaster, 20
Cranberry Pie, 68
Cranberry Pudding, 61
Croup, or Quincy, 24
Cucumbers, 18
Cucumbers, pickled, 85
Cup Cake, 71
Currant Jelly, 81
Currant-leaf Tea, 13
Currant Wine, 82
Curry Fowl, 54
Custards, cheap, 65
Custard Pie, 68
Custard Pudding, 62
Cut Wounds, 25
Dandelions, 34
Diet Bread, 71
Dish-water, 16
Dough Nuts, 73
Ducks, 55
Dye Stuffs, 38 to 40
Dysentery, 25, 29, 37
Dyspepsia, 24, 37, 65
Dyspepsia Bread, 78
Ear-ache, 24
Earthen Ware, 11
Education of Daughters, 91
Eggs, 11
Egg Gruel, 31
Election Cake, 71
Elixir Proprietatis, 28
Faded Carpets, Cloth, &c., 9
Feathers, and Feather Beds, 12
Fevers, 28, 37
Fish, fried, 58
Fish, salt, 59, 60
Flour Pudding, 61
Fresh Meat in Summer, 17, 47
Fresh Wounds, 27
Fried Pork and Apples, 60
Fritters, or Flatjacks, 74
Furniture, 89
Geese, 55
Gingerbread, 70
Ginger Beer, 86
Glass, cut, 20
Glass Stoppers, 20
Gloves, white, 10, 13
Gold cleansed, 21
Gravy for Fish, 58
Gravy for Meat, 52
Gravy for Poultry, 57
Green Peas, 34
Gruel, 30
Haddock, 57, 58
Hair, 12
Hams, cured, 41, 42
Hasty Pudding, 65
Head-ache, 26, 36
Hearths, 18
Herbs, 36 to 37
Honey, 22
Horseradish, 18
Horseradish Leaves, 18
How to endure Poverty, 111
Icing for Cake, 72
Indian Cakes, 75, 76
Indian Puddings, 61
Inflamed Wounds, 29
Inflammation, 24
Iron, 11
Ironing, 17
Jaundice, 28
Knife Handles, 9
Knives, washed, 14
Lamb, cooked, 49
Lard, 14, 15
Leaven, 80
Lemon Brandy, 18
Lemon Syrup, 20
Lettuce, 35
Loaf Cake, 72
Lobster, 60
Lockjaw, 24
Mackerel, 53, 59, 60
Mangoes, 84
Marble Fireplaces, 12
Martinoes, 85
Mats for the Table, 10
Mattresses, 15
Maxims for Health, 87 to 88
Meal, 9
Meat, Choice of, 43 to 46
Meat, corned and salted, 40 to 43
Meat Pie, 56
Meat in Summer, 17, 47
Milk Porridge, 32
Mince Meat, 50
Mince Pies, 66
Molasses, 16, 29
Mortification, 27
Moths, 13
Mutton, corned and dried, 41
Mutton and Lamb, cooked, 49
Nasturtion-seed, pickled, 85
Navarino Bonnets, 13
Nerves, excited, 37
Night Sweats, 29
Ointment of Elder Buds, 29
Ointment of Ground Worms, 26
Ointment of House Leek, 26
Ointment of Lard, 29
Ointment of Lard and Sulphur, 28
Oil, sweet, 18
Old Clothes, 13
Onions, 33, 36
Ovens, heated, 78
Pancakes, 74
Paper, 15
Parsnips, 84
Pastry, 69
Peas, dry, 51
Peas, green, 34
Philosophy and Consistency, 104
Pickles, 84, 85
Pictures, covered, 17
Pie Crust, 69
Pig, roasted, 50
Pigeons, 56
Piles, 28, 37
Plum Puddings, 64
Potatoes, 34
Potato Cheese, 86
Pork, cooked, 49
Pork, salted, 40
Poultry, injured, 57
Poultry, young or old, 53
Preserves, 81
Provisions, 17
Prunes, stewed, 33
Puddings, 61 to 65
Pump Handle, 16
Pumpkin Pie, 66
Rags, 12, 16
Raspberry Shrub, 82
Rattlesnake-bite, 30
Reasons for Hard Times, 108
Red Ants, 21
Rennet Pudding, 62
Rhubarb or Persian Apple Pie, 69
Rice Bread, 78
Rice Pudding, 63
Ring-worms, 30
Run Rounds, 30
Rusty Crape, 11
Rusty Silk, 19
Rye Paste, 21
Sage Jelly, 32
Salt Fish, 59
Salt Fish, warmed, 60
Sauces for Pudding, 65
Sausages, 50
Short Cake, 75
Silk, washed, 14
Sinews, contracted, 26
Soap, 22, 23
Soda Powders, 20
Sore Mouth, 28
Sore Throat, 26
Soup, 48
Souse, 52
Sponge Cake, 71
Spots on Furniture, Cloth, &c., 10
Sprain, 24
Squashes, 34, 35
Squash Pie, 66
Starch, 19
Stewed Prunes, 33
Sting of Bees, 29
Stockings, 19
Straw Beds, 16
Straw Carpets, 21
Suet, 15
Sweet Marjoram, 37
Swellings, 27
Tapioca Jelly, 31
Tea, 84
Tea Cake, 71
Teeth, 12
Throat Distemper, 27
Toe Nails, 30
Tomatoes, 35
Tongue, 42, 43
Tooth-ache, 29
Tortoise-shell Combs, 20
Towels, 17
Travelling and Public Amusements, 99
Tripe, 52
Turkeys, 55
Vapor Bath, 27
Veal, cooked, 47
Vegetables, 33 to 36
Vials, 17
Vinegar, 15
Walnuts, pickled, 84
Wash-leather Gloves, 11
Water, purified, 14
Water, soft, 13
Wax, 22
Wedding Cake, 72
Wens, 27
White Kid Gloves, 10, 13
Whortleberry Pie, 67
Whortleberry Pudding, 64
Wicks of Lamps, Candles, &c., 10
Wine Whey, 32
Woollens, washed, 14
Woollen Yarn, 11
Worms, 24
Yeast, 79, 80
APPENDIX.
Apple Marmalade, 118
Beef, 122
Blanc Manger, 118
Brass Kettles, 115
Bread without yeast, 117
Bruises, 116
Burns, 116
Butter, tainted, 114
Cancers, 116
Candles, 114
Carving, Directions for, 122, 123
Cheese, 121
Chloride of Lime, 117
Cocoa-nut Cakes, 119
Cologne Water, 117
Corns, 117
Cranberry Jelly, 119
Cream, 114
Currants, green, preserved, 114
Custards, rich, 119
Ear-Wax, 116
Eggs, 121
Eggs in winter, 117
Feathers, 115
Flowers, 115
Frosting for Cake, 120
Furniture, 114
Grease Spots, 117
Heart-Burn, 117
Horse-Flies, 115
Icy Steps, 115
Ink Spots, 115
Lobster Salad, 120
Mutton, 121
Oysters escaloped and fried, 120
Oysters, Vegetable, 121
Partridges, 121
Peaches, preserved, 119
Pearls, 117
Piles, 116
Pine Apples, 115
Pork, 122
Pork Jelly, 119
Pumpkin Pies, 115
Pumpkin, dried, 115
Quince Marmalade, 118
Raspberry Jam, 118
Rice Jelly, 118
Sore Nipples, 116
Starch, 115
Sugar, clarified, 20, 119
Teeth, 114
Tomatoes Pie, 114
Varnishing Gilded Frames, 117
Veal, 121
Warts, 116
Wasp-Sting, 116
Wedding Cake, rich, 119, 120
Whips, 120
White-washing, 115
***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AMERICAN FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE***
******* This file should be named 13493.txt or 13493.zip *******
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/4/9/13493
Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.
Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project
Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you
do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is
subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
redistribution.
*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
https://gutenberg.org/license).
Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic works
1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works. See paragraph 1.E below.
1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the
collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an
individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in
a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check
the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning
the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
States.
1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
copied or distributed:
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
1.E.9.
1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked
to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
Gutenberg-tm License.
1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or
distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
that
- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is
owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments
must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License. You must require such a user to return or
destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
Project Gutenberg-tm works.
- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
of receipt of the work.
- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the
Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
1.F.
1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
your equipment.
1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGE.
1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with
the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy
is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
opportunities to fix the problem.
1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any
provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists
because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
people in all walks of life.
Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
Foundation
The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at
809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
[email protected]. Email contact links and up to date contact
information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
page at https://pglaf.org
For additional contact information:
Dr. Gregory B. Newby
Chief Executive and Director
[email protected]
Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation
Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
status with the IRS.
The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To
SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
particular state visit https://pglaf.org
While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
approach us with offers to donate.
International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works.
Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily
keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
https://www.gutenberg.org
This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
