General Books

VALUE OF SOUP 1. SOUP is a liquid food that is prepared by boiling meat or vegetables, or both, in water and then seasoning and sometimes thickening the liquid that is produced. It is usually served as the first course of a dinner, but it is often included in a light meal, such as luncheon. While some persons regard the making of soup as difficult, nothing is easier when one knows just what is required... more...

INTRODUCTION Once upon a time there was a little girl named Margaret, and she wanted to cook, so she went into the kitchen and tried and tried, but she could not understand the cook-books, and she made dreadful messes, and spoiled her frocks and burned her fingers till she just had to cry. One day she went to her grandmother and her mother and her Pretty Aunt and her Other Aunt, who were all sitting... more...

REMARKS ON SALADS. Of the many varieties of food daily consumed, none are more important than a salad, rightly compounded. And there is nothing more exasperating than an inferior one. The salad is the Prince of the Menu, and although a dinner be perfect in every other detail except the salad, the affair will be voted a failure if that be poor. It is therefore necessary for those contemplating... more...

PREFACE. In presenting our friends and the public with the thirteenth edition of our "Home Comforts," we have the pleasure to remark that so greatly has the book been appreciated, that the large number of FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND copies has been called for. The value of the Jubilee Edition was enhanced by some new recipes; these are repeated in the present edition, to which, also, some valuable... more...

SOUPS ASPARAGUS SOUP. Take four large bunches of asparagus, scrape it nicely, cut off one inch of the tops, and lay them in water, chop the stalks and put them on the fire with a piece of bacon, a large onion cut up, and pepper and salt; add two quarts of water, boil them till the stalks are quite soft, then pulp them through a sieve, and strain the water to it, which must be put back in the pot; put... more...

Grace before Meat"Let me cook the dinners of a nation, and I shall not care who makes its laws." Women, if they did but know it, might well thus paraphrase a famous saying. Proper dinners mean so much—good blood, good health, good judgment, good conduct. The fact makes tragic a truth too little regarded; namely, that while bad cooking can ruin the very best of raw foodstuffs, all the arts of... more...

TEA Tastes differ as to which of the many kinds of tea is the best, and yet the general use of English Breakfast and Oolong warrants the recommending of these two teas as standard. The Chinese have taught us the correct idea of tea drinking; to have it always freshly made, with the water boiling, and to steep the leaves at table. The tea table can be easily equipped now with a boiler in silver or... more...

GENERAL DIRECTIONS. The following directions may appear trite and common, but it is of the greatest consequence that they be strictly observed: Attend to minute cleanliness. Never wipe a dish, bowl, or pan, with a half dirty napkin, or give the vessel a mere rinse in water and think that it is then fit for use. See that it be dried and pure from all smell before you put in any ingredient. Never use the... more...

Of the Manner of clarifying Sugar, and the different Ways of boiling it. Since the Ground-work of the Confectioner's Art depends on the Knowledge of clarifying and boiling Sugars, I shall here distinctly set them down, that the several Terms hereafter mentioned may the more easily be understood; which, when thoroughly comprehended, will prevent the unnecessary Repetitions of them, which would... more...

REMARKS ON BREAKFAST COOKERY. "Dinner may be pleasant, So may social tea;But yet methinks the breakfast Is best of all the three." The importance of preparing a variety of dainty dishes for the breakfast table is but lightly considered by many who can afford luxuries, quite as much as by those who little dream of the delightful, palate-pleasing compounds made from "unconsidered... more...