Cooking Books

INTRODUCTION This book is written with the object of laying before the public a cookery book which will be useful not only to vegetarians, but also to flesh eaters, who are often at a loss for recipes for non-flesh dishes. Nowadays most people admit that "too much meat is eaten"; but when the housewife tries to put before her family or friends a meal in which meat is to be conspicuous by its... 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...

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...

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...

COOKED FISH Canapés Cold boiled fish makes excellent canapés. To each half pint of fish allow six squares of toasted bread. If you have any cold boiled potatoes left over, add milk to them, make them hot and put them into a pastry bag. Decorate the edge of the toast with these mashed potatoes, using a small star tube; put them back in the oven until light brown. Make the fish into a creamed fish. Rub... 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...

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...

PENNSYLVANIA Dutch COOKERY In 1683 the Plain Sects began to arrive in William Penn’s Colony seeking a land of peace and plenty. They were a mixed people; Moravians from Bohemia and Moravia, Mennonites from Switzerland and Holland, the Amish, the Dunkards, the Schwenkfelds, and the French Huguenots. After the lean years of clearing the land and developing their farms they established the peace and... 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...

Cocoa and Chocolate The term "Cocoa," a corruption of "Cacao," is almost universally used in English-speaking countries to designate the seeds of the small tropical tree known to botanists as THEOBROMA CACAO, from which a great variety of preparations under the name of cocoa and chocolate for eating and drinking are made. The name "Chocolatl" is nearly the same in most European... more...