LIKE-MOTHERUSEDTO'MKE 
 
 CHRISTINE TERHUNE- HERRICK 
 
 DAUGHTER OP 
 
 nARION MAINLAND 
 
ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY 
 Cornell University 
 
 Gift of 
 Thomas Bass 
 
 
 
 
 
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 From Home Bakings, by Edna Evans 
 San Francisco, 1912. 
 
 
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The original of tliis book is in 
 tlie Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924086682782 
 
LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE 
 
LIKE MOTHER 
 USED TO MAKE 
 
 BY 
 CHRISTINE TERHUNE HERRICK 
 
 Author of Sunday Night Suppers, The Expert Maid 
 Servant, The Chafing Dish Supper, etc., etc. 
 
 BOSTON, DANA ESTES & 
 COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 
 
n/2- 
 
 Copyright, igis 
 By Dana Estes & Company. 
 
 ^// rights reserved 
 
 Electrotypedand Printed by 
 THE COLONIAL PRESS 
 C. H. Simonds & Co., Boston, U. S. A. 
 
TO 
 
 M. V. V. 
 
 THE BEST OF COOKS, THE BEST OF HOUSEKEEPERS, 
 
 THE BEST OF MOTHERS, 
 
 WITH tOVE, GRATITUDE, ADMIRATION 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CH^P™ PAGE 
 
 I Breads of Various Sorts i 
 
 II Oysters and Terrapin lo 
 
 III "Hog and Hominy" 23 
 
 IV Chicken Cookery 34 
 
 V Salads and Vegetables 42 
 
 VI Southern Sweet Dishes 53 
 
 VII Pickling and Preserving 60 
 
 VIII Old-Time Thanksgiving Fare 68 
 
 IX Christmas Cheer 74 
 
 X A Few Christmas Candies 81 
 
 XI Easter Dainties 90 
 
 XII Uncommon Ways to Cook Common Vegetables 97 
 
 XIII Cooking of Dried and Smoked Meats and Fish 108 
 
 XIV Hot Weather Suggestions . . . 
 
 XV Hot Weather Recipes .... 
 
 XVI System in Housekeeping . . . 
 
 XVII Home-made Aids to Housekeeping 
 
 XVIII Home Dinners Without a Servant 
 
 XIX Entertaining Without Service . 
 
 XX The Stag Repast Without Service 
 
 XXI Home-made Cakes for Afternoon Tea 
 
 116 
 122 
 130 
 144 
 158 
 170 
 181 
 194 
 
"LIKE MOTHER USE TO MAKE" 
 
 I 
 
 BREADS OF VARIOUS SORTS 
 
 In the first place the mother did not make all the 
 things herself. At least, my mother did not, ex- 
 cept when an emergency arose in the kitchen. But 
 she knew how it all ought to be done, and when a 
 dish came to the table and was not what it should 
 have been she could go out to the cook afterwards 
 and tell her just what was the matter and how the 
 trouble was to be avoided the next time. If the 
 failure occurred again she would make the dish her- 
 self and let the cook follow her movements and see 
 what had caused the difficulty. 
 
 There were certain things that she always made 
 with her own hands or else had done directly under 
 her personal supervision. She never dreamed of 
 entrusting pickling or preserving to the unassisted 
 efforts of Aunt Lucindy or Mammy Rachel or who- 
 ever else reigned in the kitchen, but presided over 
 every step in the operations until the finished prod- 
 
2 "LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 
 
 ucts were sealed, marked and safely stowed in the 
 storeroom under lock and key. 
 
 Likewise she made or superintended the sponge- 
 cake and the pound-cake and the mince-meat and 
 the salad and the syllabubs and the calves'-foot jelly 
 and like dainties. Even if she did not compound 
 personally the varieties of hot bread that came to 
 the table she knew the ins and outs of the proc- 
 esses from start to finish, — a knowledge eminently 
 desirable in the days when a cook might " get her 
 han' out " on light bread for a month at a time. 
 
 Every one knows the reputation of the Southern 
 cook for " hot breads," as they call them down in 
 the Old Dominion. Nowadays digestions are con- 
 sidered to an extent which prescribes toast and cold 
 bread for the first meal of the day, but in the times 
 " befo' de wah," — and since then, too, — it was a 
 common thing to have four or five varieties of 
 warm bread on the breakfast-table. The tall loaf 
 of rolls, muffins or beaten biscuit or both, batter 
 bread, " egg bread," Sally Lunn, waffles, " batter 
 cakes!" That was what they called them, — not 
 " griddle cakes " or " pancakes." We ate of them 
 all as though there were no gastronomic hereafter! 
 
 The old time darky cook is practically extinct, 
 
"LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 3 
 
 alas! but her secrets live in the memory of the 
 mothers of some of us, and should be put into con- 
 crete form for the benefit of all daughters. That, 
 with befitting diffidence, I shall try to do in this 
 and the following chapters. 
 
 MOTHER'S BREAD 
 
 Boil three potatoes and mash them fine while hot. 
 Work into them a tablespoonful each of lard and 
 sugar and stir in a pint of the water in which the 
 potatoes were boiled. This should be lukewarm. 
 Wet up a pint of flour with a little of the potato 
 water, and add this to the water, sugar, lard and 
 potatoes. Whip or stir until the batter is smooth 
 — ■ with no lumps. Then add half a cake of yeast, 
 dissolved in four tablespoonfuls of warm water and 
 a pinch of soda. (In the old time three tablespoon- 
 fuls of home-made yeast would have been used.) 
 Turn into a deep bowl and cover and set to rise 
 over night in a warm corner. 
 
 Early the next morning sift a quart of dry flour, 
 slightly scalded, into the bread-tray and turn the 
 sponge into this, and with the hands work the two 
 together. The dough should be just as soft as it 
 can be molded, and can be stiffened or softened by 
 
4 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 the addition of lukewarm water or a little more 
 flour. Flour the hands lightly to keep them from 
 sticking. When you can make the dough into a 
 ball, lift it out on a well-floured board, rinse out the 
 bowl in which it was mixed with a little warm 
 water, so as to get all the sponge, and work this 
 into the dough. Knead it well then, from the out- 
 side towards the center, turning the ball often. 
 Twenty minutes is none too much to give. Put 
 the dough back into the bowl, cover, and leave in a 
 place of even temperature. It should rise to three 
 times its original size and will take from four to 
 six hours in the process. At this stage knead it 
 again for five or six minutes and make into loaves. 
 Each pan should be about half-full. In an hour, 
 if the pans are left in a moderate warmth, the bread 
 will have risen to nearly twice its original size and 
 may be baked. If you can hold your bare arm in 
 the oven while you count thirty the heat is right. 
 Keep it steady during the hour the bread takes to 
 bake. If the top crust browns too quickly, cover 
 with a sheet of white or brown wrapping paper un- 
 til about ten minutes before the loaf is done. 
 
 BREAKFAST ROLLS 
 
 Mix together three-quarters of a cup of mixed 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 5 
 
 lard and butter melted with one quart of milk, 
 slightly warmed. Add a couple of tablespoonfuls 
 of white sugar, a teaspoonful of salt and half a 
 yeast-cake dissolved in warm water, stir in enough 
 flour to make a soft dough, work all together well 
 and set to rise at night. In the morning, knead 
 thoroughly and make up into rolls ; set these closely 
 together in a tin, — it should be a round tin to be 
 " like mother used to make," — let them rise to 
 twice their original bulk, and bake in a steady oven. 
 
 SALLY LUNN 
 
 Beat four eggs stiflf, add to them half a cupful of 
 melted butter, a teaspoonful of salt and a pinch of 
 soda, a cupful of warm milk and a cupful of warm 
 water in which has been dissolved half a yeast-cake. 
 Into this stir four cupfuls of flour, beating hard, 
 and set to rise in a well-greased tin. Mother used 
 to bake it in a pudding-dish and it was sent to table 
 in this, but it looks uncommonly well when turned 
 out of a well-buttered pan. Cover it closely and 
 set it to rise for from six to eight hours — the latter 
 if it is kept in a cool place. Bake steadily for forty 
 minutes, keeping it covered for twenty-five minutes. 
 Eat hot with butter — and thank Heaven for the 
 gift of cooks. 
 
6 "LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 
 
 RAISED APPLE BISCUIT 
 
 Scald a cupful of milk, put into it a tablespoonful 
 of butter and set aside until lukewarm. Add a ta- 
 blespoonful of sugar and half a yeast-cake dissolved 
 in warm water. Sift a teaspoonful of salt in a cup- 
 ful of flour and stir the liquid into this. Beat into 
 a batter and set aside to rise. At the end of four 
 hours add to it a cupful of apple, pared and grated, 
 and another cupful of flour, through which half a 
 teaspoonful of baking soda has been twice sifted. 
 Let this rise an hour in a warm place, then form 
 into round, flat cakes, put them close together in a 
 pan, let them rise to twice their bulk, and bake in a 
 steady oven. Split while hot and eat with butter 
 and sugar. 
 
 MOTHER'S MUFFINS 
 
 Melt a tablespoonful of butter and one of lard 
 and put with a quart of milk. Add two beaten eggs 
 and half a compressed yeast-cake, dissolved in warm 
 water. Stir in flour to make a rather stiff batter, 
 and a teaspoonful of salt. Set to rise overnight 
 and in the morning turn int6 muffin-tins, let 
 them rise twenty minutes in a warm corner and 
 bake. 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 7 
 
 EGG MUFFINS 
 
 Beat the yolks and whites of three eggs separ- 
 ately and very stiff. Add three cupfuls of milk and 
 a quart of flour. Beat very hard, and bake in 
 greased and warmed muffin-tins, 
 
 HOME MUFFINS 
 
 Make a batter of four cupfuls of milk, two ta- 
 blespoonfuls of sugar and one of butter, a teaspoon- 
 ful of salt, half a yeast-cake dissolved in warm 
 water, and flour. Let this rise overnight. In the 
 morning whip in four eggs. Bake about twenty 
 minutes. 
 
 RISEN WAFFLES 
 
 Mix a quart of milk, two tablespoonfuls of 
 melted butter, a teaspoonful of salt, a quart of flour 
 and half a yeast-cake overnight. Let them rise un- 
 til morning, add two beaten eggs and bake in a reg- 
 ulation waffle-iron. 
 
 MOTHER'S WAFFLES 
 
 Sift two heaping teaspoonfuls of baking-powder 
 and half a teaspoonful of salt into three cupfuls of 
 flour. Put together two cupfuls of milk, a table- 
 spoonful of melted butter and two well-beaten eggs. 
 
8 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 Add the flour and beat light, putting in a little more 
 milk if the batter is too stiff to pour easily. Bake 
 in waffle-irons. 
 
 RICE WAFFLES 
 
 To one cupful of cold boiled rice add half a table- 
 spoonful of melted butter, two cupfuls of milk, a 
 teaspoonful of salt, two teaspoonfuls of baking- 
 powder, two eggs whipped light, and flour to make 
 a thin batter. Beat all the ingredients well to- 
 gether, and bake as you would other waffles, taking 
 pains to grease the irons very thoroughly, so that 
 the rice may not stick. 
 
 RAISED BUCKWHEAT CAKES 
 
 To four cupfuls of buckwheat flour add one cup- 
 ful of corn meal and a teaspoonful of salt, two ta- 
 blespoonfuls of thick molasses, half a cake of yeast 
 dissolved, and warm water enough to make a thin 
 batter. After beating it thoroughly set in a warm 
 place overnight. Sometimes the batter has the 
 least sour taste in the morning which can be rem- 
 edied by the addition of a pinch of soda dissolved in 
 hot water. 
 
 CORN-MEAL CAKES 
 
 Four cupfuls of milk, a teaspoonful of salt, half 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 9 
 
 a yeast-cake and flour for a batter should be put 
 together overnight and left to rise. In the morn- 
 ing a tablespoonful of butter melted, and two eggs, 
 should be added to it. For some reason I have 
 never understood, these were sometimes called 
 " flannel cakes " — perhaps because they were 
 warming in their effect ! 
 
 BREAD-AND-MILK CAKES 
 
 Two cupfuls of stale bread crumbs worked 
 smooth with four cupfuls of milk, a tablespoonful 
 of melted butter, three eggs, a teaspoonful of salt 
 and just enough flour to bind the mixture. More 
 milk can be added if the batter is too thick. Bake 
 on a very well-greased griddle. 
 
 BEATEN BISCUIT 
 
 Work a tablespoonful of lard into three cupfuls 
 of flour, to which has been added a scant teaspoon- 
 ful of salt. Stir into this milk and water in equal 
 parts to make a stiff dough — as stiff as can be han- 
 dled. Lay this on a block of wood and beat stead- 
 ily fifteen minutfes with rolling-pin or with the flat 
 side of a hatchet. Cut into round cakes, prick on 
 top and bake in a rather quick oven. 
 
II 
 
 Oysters and Terrapin 
 
 Show me the man or woman of Virginia birth or 
 breeding who believes it is possible to get as good 
 oysters at the North as you can find at the South! 
 In vain may you dilate upon the merits of Shrews- 
 burys or Blue Points or Buzzard's Bay oysters. 
 Arguments and proofs go for naught. At the end 
 of the discussion the reply will match the statement 
 made at the beginning : " There are no oysters I 
 have ever eaten equal to York River and Chesa- 
 peake Bay oysters." And there is likely to be the 
 further statement, "They don't know how to cook 
 them up North as they do down home." In other 
 words, they don't taste " like mother used to make." 
 
 I do not hold a brief for the Virginia oysters, 
 although it is my own private opinion that there 
 are no others like them! But I do know that the 
 Northern and Southern ways of cooking them are 
 entirely different and to make them taste as they 
 should to me you must either have a Southern cook 
 
"LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" ii 
 
 at the stove or mother or mother's directions to 
 guide you. 
 
 How I recollect Virginia oysters and Virginia 
 cookery thereof since my childhood, — stewed oys- 
 ters, fried oysters, roast oysters, scalloped oysters, 
 broiled oysters, pickled oysters ! There was no talk 
 in that time of " milk stew " and " water stew." 
 Oysters were just stewed, that was all. Of course 
 they had milk with them. Mother would not have 
 thought of stewing them without milk — > or cream. 
 And broiled oysters were not smothered in batter, 
 either, nor was batter used in cooking fried oysters. 
 It would have seemed an- outrage. But now I have 
 to go all the way to Virginia to get real fried oys- 
 ters, — and I am told that even in the Old Dominion 
 are to be found cooks who have forsaken old cus- 
 toms and fry their oysters in a coating of batter. 
 
 Terrapin was not so everyday an affair as oys- 
 ters, by any means, but the " diamond backs " were 
 plenty in the low grounds along the James River 
 and no one could consider herself an experienced 
 cook who did not know one or two ways in which 
 to prepare it. 
 
 STEWED OYSTERS 
 
 Not oyster stew, if you please! It was never 
 
12 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 called that in the old times and I don't believe it has 
 that name applied to it at the South even now, ex- 
 cept by outsiders. 
 
 Add a half pint of hot water to the liquor drained 
 from two quarts of oysters. Put a little salt and 
 pepper with it, set over the fire and let it boil up 
 once. Turn in the oysters and let them cook for 
 not more than five minutes or until the gills begin 
 to crimp. Watch carefully for this stage, as every 
 second beyond it means injury to the flavor of the 
 oyster. Add two tablespoonfuls of butter and a 
 large cupful of boiling milk. Take from the fire 
 immediately and serve as soon as possible. Never 
 let them stand at the back of the stove and keep 
 warm unless you prefer them tough and tasteless. 
 
 FRIED OYSTERS 
 
 For this you must select fine large oysters and 
 have them nearly uniform in size. Discrepancies 
 in dimensions may be permitted with stewed oys- 
 ters that could not be tolerated with the fried bi- 
 valves. Drain them from the liquor and lay them 
 on a soft cloth to dry, pressing them lightly with 
 another to remove all the moisture possible. 
 
 Roll each oyster in fine cracker crumbs, coating 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 13 
 
 it fully and lay them carefully in the frying pan, 
 where there should be enough good butter, boiling 
 hot, to immerse the oysters. Fry quickly to a deli- 
 cate brown and take at once from the pan, with a 
 fork or a split spoon and lay on a hot plate. These 
 too should be eaten promptly, although they are not 
 as irretrievably spoiled by standing as is the stewed 
 oyster. Pass sliced lemon with fried oysters. 
 
 BROILED OYSTERS 
 
 For these too you must select large oysters, as 
 you would if you were to fry them. Wipe them, 
 dry as you would the oysters for frying, sprinkle 
 salt and pepper lightly upon them and broil them on 
 a small gridiron which has the bars close together. 
 Special oyster broilers are made. If you cook them 
 over the fire be careful they do not smoke if any of 
 the drippings from them catch fire. Cook quickly 
 and after you have laid them on a hot plate put a 
 bit of butter on each one. 
 
 PANNED OYSTERS 
 
 For this we had special small pans at home, made 
 to order and of a size to accommodate six or eight 
 good sized oysters comfortably. You can, how- 
 
14 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 ever, use nappies of the right size or small casse- 
 roles, a little deeper than those sold for cooking 
 shirred eggs. Cut a round of bread to fit the bot- 
 tom of your pan, trimming oflf the crust. Toast 
 and lay in the pan and moisten with a little oyster 
 liquor. Lay the oysters on the toast, sprinkle 
 lightly with salt and pepper and put over the oys- 
 ters half a dozen bits of butter. Set the pans 
 in an oven of steady heat and cook until the oysters 
 " rufHe " or crimp, take from the fire and serve at 
 once in the pans in which they are cooked. Pass 
 lemon with these. They are an excellent supper 
 or luncheon dish. 
 
 ROAST OYSTERS 
 
 Have the shell oysters carefully washed. If you 
 have a coal stove you may roast them on the top or 
 in the oven as you choose, but if you cook by gas, 
 the oven will have to be used. In either case they 
 will declare when they are done by opening. Pile 
 on a large dish, taking care not to turn them on one 
 side lest the juice run out. It takes a stout knife 
 and some dexterity to open them entirely without 
 spilling the liquor. Season as you eat with salt, 
 pepper and butter. Those who shrink from the 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 15 
 
 "messiness" of opening the cooked oysters may 
 have the work done while they are raw by a pro- 
 fessional hand and may then set the opened oysters 
 in the lower shell in a baking pan and put these into 
 the oven to bake in their own liquor, serving them 
 in the shell as soon as they are done. In either 
 case have a big platter of thin brown and white 
 bread and butter to eat with the oysters. 
 
 VIRGINIA CREAMED OYSTERS 
 
 Down on the Eastern Shore they have big clam 
 shells, — at least, I suppose they are clam shells, for 
 they are broad and shaped like a clam shell, al- 
 though much larger than those we usually see, — 
 and in these the oysters should be creamed if one 
 would compass perfection in this dish. In default 
 of these shells, however, one may use nappies or 
 ramequins. Lay three or four oysters in each 
 nappy or shell. Have ready a sauce made by cook- 
 ing together two tablespoonfuls each of butter and 
 flour until they bubble and pouring on them than a 
 cup of oyster liquor and one of cream, — add a tiny 
 pinch of baking soda to the cream, — and stir over 
 the fire in a double boiler until you have a thick 
 smooth sauce. Season to taste with salt and white 
 
1 6 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " / 
 
 . i, 
 
 i 
 
 pepper, beat up hard once and pour over the oyg'- 
 ters in the shells or the nappies. Set in the oveji, 
 and after the shells or dishes are hot bake for ab(^ut 
 five minutes. Serve in the dishes in which they are 
 cooked. 
 
 SCALLOPED OYSTERS. NO. i 
 
 Butter a pudding dish and cover the bottom of it 
 with a layer of crushed cracker crumbs and moisten 
 them with oyster liquor and a little milk. On this 
 put a layer of oysters, dotting it with bits of butter 
 and seasoning with salt and pepper. Cover these 
 with another layer' of crumbs, repeat that of the 
 oysters, continuing in this order until the dish is full 
 and making the top layer of crumbs. Strew thickly 
 with bits of butter, bake covered for twenty min- 
 utes and brown. 
 
 SCALLOPED OYSTERS. NO. 2 
 
 Make a cream sauce by cooking together a heap- 
 ing tablespoonful of flour and two of butter until 
 smooth and then adding to them a cupful of cream 
 or rich milk and a half cupful of the oyster liquor. 
 Stir until it thickens, put at the side of the stove, 
 add a beaten egg, the raw oysters, and salt and white 
 pepper to season sufficiently. Turn into a greased 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 17 
 
 pudding dish, strew crumbs thickly over the top, 
 dot with flakes of butter, put in the oven and brown. 
 As all the ingredients are hot, — except the oysters 
 and crumbs, — 1 ten or twelve minutes in a good oven 
 will be enough to cook the oysters and to brown the 
 crumbs. 
 
 OYSTER PIE 
 In the old time a shallow pudding dish was lined 
 with good puff paste, filled with crusts of bread, 
 these covered with a top of the paste and baked. 
 The edges of the dish were well buttered so that 
 the crust would not adhere to them too closely and 
 when the pastry was baked this top was lifted off 
 carefully, the bread crusts removed and in their 
 place were put oysters, prepared just as for oyster 
 scallop in the preceding recipe, except that the oys- 
 ters were allowed to cook in the sauce for three 
 minutes after they went in. Then the crust was 
 laid back on the dish and the whole sent to table. 
 The argument against lining the pie dish with raw 
 paste, putting in the uncooked oysters and baking 
 all together was that by the time the paste was ready 
 to eat the oysters were overdone and insipid. 
 
 OYSTER FRITTERS 
 
 Make a thin batter of flour, two beaten eggs and 
 
i8 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO' MAKE " 
 
 equal quantities of milk and oyster liquor, adding! 
 a little salt. The batter should be just thick enougW 
 to mask the back of a spoon. Chop oysters fine/ 
 in the proportion of two cups of the oysters to one 
 of the batter, stir the oysters into the batter and 
 drop it by the spoonful into deep boiling fat. Do 
 not have less than a pound of lard in your frying 
 pan and try one fritter first to see if the heat is 
 right. The fritter should not take more than two 
 minutes to cook and should not be too brown. 
 Move a little away from the fiercest heat of the 
 stove, so that the inside of the fritter may have a 
 chance to cook before the outside is over brown. 
 
 PICKLED OYSTERS 
 
 Put two quarts of stewing oysters over the fire 
 in their own liquor and leave them there until just 
 before the liquor comes to a boil. Take them off 
 and put to one side to cool, removing the oysters 
 from the liquor with a strainer. Put the liquor back 
 on the stove with a cupful of white vinegar, twelve 
 whole cloves and as many whole black peppers, 
 half a dozen blades of mace and a red pepper broken 
 into small pieces. Boil up well and turn over the 
 oysters. Cover and set aside. If you wish to keep 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 19 
 
 them for more than a day or two put them into 
 glass jars with screw tops and set in a cool dark 
 place. Exposure to the light changes their color. 
 They will keep for a week or so but to my mind 
 are at their best two or three days after they have 
 been pickled. 
 
 These are excellent for late suppers or for cold 
 collations and will probably be welcomed by those 
 who are tired of endless salads and sandwiches. 
 
 TERRAPIN. NO. i 
 
 Plunge the terrapin head downwards into boiling 
 water, as you would a live lobster, and let him cook 
 until the meat begins to loosen from the skin. Take 
 the terrapin from the water, let him drain until cool 
 enough to handle and then remove from the shell, 
 taking great pains not to break the gall, as the least 
 particle of this would ruin the meat. Remove the 
 gall and entrails. All the rest of the terrapin is 
 eatable. 
 
 Cut him up into small pieces. Keep the juice 
 that runs from the meat, put with it a tablespoon ful 
 of currant jelly, two tablespoonfuls of butter, a 
 wJneglassful of sherry and two wineglassfuls of 
 port, a teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce and a 
 
20 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 pinch of cayenne and salt to taste. Stew all to- 
 gether for fifteen minutes, put in the terrapin and 
 cook for ten minutes longer. At the last add a cup- 
 ful of rich cream, boil up once and serve. 
 
 TERRAPIN. NO. 2 
 
 Prepare the live terrapin as already directed and 
 cut up into small pieces. Stew the juice with the 
 meat for fifteen minutes, add to it a large table- 
 spoonful of butter rolled in one of browned flour, 
 and two tablespoonfuls of sherry, salt and pepper 
 to taste and last stir in the beaten yolk of an egg, 
 taking care that it does not curdle. Boil up once 
 and serve. 
 
 TERRAPIN. NO. 3 
 
 After taking the terrapin from the shell and cut- 
 ting it up put it into a saucepan and cover closely. 
 Simmer fifteen minutes. Rub three tablespoonfuls 
 of butter and the yolks of six hard boiled eggs to 
 a smooth paste. Have ready in another saucepan a 
 cupful of cream to which has been added a wee 
 pinch of soda and work this into the egg and butter 
 paste, a little at a time. Season to taste with salt 
 and pepper and add the sauce to the hot terrapin. 
 Cook two minutes, add a gill of sherry and serve. 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 21 
 
 TERRAPIN IN CHAFING DISH 
 
 Cut up the cooked meat and put into the double 
 boiler of a chafing dish with three tablespoonfuls of 
 butter, and pepper and salt to taste. Cover and al- 
 low it to simmer for ten minutes. At the last mo- 
 ment, you may, if you wish, add a couple of table- 
 spoonfuls of sherry, but you get the flavor of the 
 terrapin better without it. 
 
 "CHAD'S" TERRAPIN 
 
 I cannot in this connection refrain from quoting 
 from that delightful book, " Colonel Carter of Car- 
 ter sville," the directions given by the old negro cook 
 Chad for the proper enjoyment of terrapin. He 
 had removed the upper shell from the terrapin to 
 serve as a dish for the Major's meal. 
 
 " Tar 'pin jes like a crab. Major, on'y got mo' 
 meat to 'em. But you got to know 'em. Now dis 
 yer shell is de hot plate, an' you do all yo' eatin' 
 right inside it," said Chad, dropping a spoonful of 
 butter, the juice of a lemon, and a pinch of salt into 
 the impromptu dish. 
 
 " Now, Major, take yo' fork an' pick out all dat 
 black meat an' dip it in de sauce, an' wid ebery 
 
22 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 mou'ful take one o' dem little yaller eggs. Dat's 
 de way we eat tar'pin. Dis yer stewin' him up in 
 pote wine is scan'lous. Can't taste nuffin but de 
 wine. But dat's tar'pin." 
 
Ill 
 
 "Hog and Hominy" 
 
 The phrase " hog and hominy " has been em- 
 ployed more or less in contempt by those who do 
 not know how wide a scope the two words may 
 possess. To the Southerner, who includes spare- 
 rib, shoat, sausage, chine, ham — 'boiled, baked or 
 barbecued — and like dainties under " hog," and 
 who knows that batter bread, egg bread, corn 
 bread, com pone, johnny-cake, ash-cake and a va- 
 riety of griddle-cakes " like mother used to make " 
 are among the products rather scornfully summed 
 up as " hominy," the classification is a synonym for 
 savory and appetizing food combinations little 
 known north of Mason and Dixon's line. 
 
 In point of fact, it was impossible in the old times 
 to get most of these dishes at the North. For one 
 thing, they do not cut pork at the North as they 
 do at the South. The chine, instead of being 
 cut as a saddle of mutton would be, is split 
 lengthwise. All the meat, except one thin layer, is 
 
 23 
 
24 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 taken from the inside of the sparerib for bacon, — 
 although I am told that in what is called " country 
 sparerib " this is not done. This cut is seldom 
 found in city markets, however, and the sparerib, 
 as usually sold, is a poor, dry thing. Still, in some 
 places it may yet be possible to find the old-fash- 
 ioned chine and sparerib. 
 
 In the former days it was also out of the question 
 to buy the Southern meal at the North, and the 
 products of the two sections are entirely different. 
 I have heard the yellow corn-meal described by 
 Southern housekeepers as " chicken feed," and I 
 have known a few Northerners who cared little for 
 the fruit of the Virginia mills and kitchen. To 
 the Virginia " raised " child or the one who is for- 
 tunate enough to have had Virginia cookery in her 
 home there are no hot breads quite likfe those with 
 the corn-meal foundation. 
 
 To-day it is possible to obtain the Southern meal 
 at the North and the gospel of batter bread is 
 spreading. 
 
 ROAST CHINE 
 
 Although you cannot generally find the whole 
 chine in the Northern markets, you can purchase a 
 fair substitute in half a chine. The spine has been 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 25 
 
 split and the cut has a one-sided look, but it makes 
 an excellent roast. Lay the meat in your baking- 
 pan, brush it over with raw egg and strew thickly 
 with cracker-crumbs, which you have seasoned well 
 with pepper and salt, and bake in a good hot oven. 
 When the meat is heated through, baste it with but- 
 ter and water. The basting after that, which 
 should be tolerably frequent, may be done with the 
 gravy from the meat. After you take up the meat, 
 set the gravy in cold water and remove the fat 
 which rises to the top. Thicken the gravy which is 
 left with browned flour, boil up once, season with 
 catsup or Worcestershire sauce and send to the 
 table in a gravy boat. 
 
 ROAST SPARERIB 
 
 It may be possible, in some market where they 
 cut their own pork, to secure a sparerib from which 
 most of the meat on the inside has not been re- 
 moved. If so, this recipe is worth trying. Cover 
 the meat closely until it is about half done, then un- 
 cover and dredge with flour. Baste it often, the 
 first time with butter and water, and after that with 
 its own gravy. Five minutes before taking it out 
 strew it thickly with fine bread-crumbs, to which 
 
26 "LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE^ 
 
 you have added a teaspoonful of onion minced very 
 fine, salt, pepper and a very little powdered sage. 
 Let the meat cook five minutes longer, basting again 
 with butter. Proceed with the gravy as directed in 
 the recipe for roast chine. Both with chine and 
 sparerib it is well to have the butcher cut the joints 
 before it is sent home, as this will simplify carving. 
 
 BOILED HAM 
 
 Put the ham to soak over night in cold water and 
 in the morning wash and scrub it well. Put it 
 over the fire in plenty of cold water to cover it, and 
 let it boil slowly fifteen minutes to the pound. It 
 is a mistake to buy too large a ham, as the smaller 
 hams usually come from younger pork. 
 
 The best grade of Virginia hams are those which 
 come from the county of Smithfield, where the pigs 
 are fattened upon peanuts. The printed directions 
 sent out with these hams by one firm which makes 
 a specialty of them order that the ham shall be put 
 into cold water with the skin side downwards, and 
 that when it is cooked enough the ham will turn 
 over of its own accord. Of course this sounds in- 
 credible, and savors a bit- of the black art, — but the 
 prediction comes true ! At the time when it should 
 be taken from the fire the ham does turn over in the 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 27 
 
 water. I have never tried this with any ham but 
 the Smithfield, but I dare say the same plan would 
 work in the same way with pork that was not pea- 
 nut-fed ! 
 
 Let the ham get cold in the water and then re- 
 move the skin. If you choose you can send it to 
 table, " naked," as I have heard one housekeeper 
 describe hams served with the fat uncovered, or 
 you may brush it over with beaten egg, and cover it 
 with a crust made by working cracker-crumbs into 
 a thick paste with milk or cream and a little melted 
 butter. This should be spread over the ham 
 smoothly in a coating about a quarter of an inch 
 thick, and the crust then lightly browned in the 
 oven. 
 
 BARBECUED HAM 
 
 Cut rather thick slices of cold boiled ham and 
 lay them in a frying-pan. Cook on both sides un- 
 til they begin to crisp at the edges and then put on a 
 hot dish. Add to the fat in the pan four table- 
 spoonfuls of vinegar, a saltspoonful of English 
 mustard, a teaspoonful of white sugar and a few 
 dashes of black pepper. Boil up once, pour over 
 the ham, let it stand covered for a couple of minutes 
 
28 "LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 
 
 and send to the table. There is no more savory 
 method of cooking ham than this, and it wins al- 
 most universal approbation. 
 
 BACON AND APPLES 
 
 Have the bacon cut very thin, lay it in a hot pan 
 and fry it quickly in its own fat. Keep it hot on 
 a plate after taking it up, and fry in the fat left in 
 the pan thick slices of cored but unpeeled apples. 
 When cooked tender, serve in the dish with the 
 bacon, the latter laid about the edge of the platter. 
 If the apples are very tart sprinkle a little granu- 
 lated sugar upon them just before taking them from 
 the pan. Sweet or semi-sweet apples are best for 
 this dish. 
 
 PORK POTPIE 
 
 Use lean pork for this, that from the chine by 
 preference, and have the bones well cracked. 
 Choose a wide pot, grease it thoroughly that the 
 crust may not stick, and line it with a good plain 
 paste. Parboil and slice potatoes; put a layer of 
 pork in the pot on the paste, then a layer of potatoes. 
 Season each layer judiciously with pepper and salt. 
 When the materials are all used, pour a quart of 
 cold water into the pot, lay a round of paste over 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 29 
 
 the top, leaving a hole in the middle of the round 
 through which more water may be added if the 
 gravy cooks away too rapidly. If you desire 
 dumplings you can mingle small squares and strips 
 of the paste with the meat and potatoes. Cover 
 the pot and boil slowly for two hours. At the end 
 of the time take off the crust, pour the meat and 
 gravy into another dish and remove the lower crust 
 carefully. Put this on a hot platter, arrange the 
 meat and potatoes upon it and pour the gravy over 
 all, last putting on the top crust. This may have 
 been browned by laying it on the top grating of the 
 oven while dishing the meat and the lower crust. 
 
 ROAST PIG 
 
 Almost always one may procure a small pig by 
 ordering it in advance from a butcher, who will 
 clean and prepare and deliver it ready for stuffing. 
 The roasting pig should never be more than a month 
 or six weeks old. 
 
 The dressing may be made by seasoning a cupful 
 of dry bread-crumbs with two teaspoonfuls of pow- 
 dered sage, a tablespoonful of chopped onion, half 
 a teaspoonful of salt, a saltspoonful of pepper and 
 three tablespoonfuls of melted butter. Mix all well 
 
30 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 together and add two eggs well beaten. Stuff the 
 pig, doing your best to give him his original figure. 
 Sew up the opening by which the dressing went in 
 and truss him for cooking, tucking his fore legs 
 under him bent backward, and his hind legs drawn 
 forward. Skewer and bind them in place. Wipe 
 the pig off, dredge him well with flour and put him 
 in the dripping-pan with a little hot water poured 
 about him. Baste him three or four times with 
 butter and water and afterwards with the gravy. 
 When the skin shows signs of beginning to brown 
 rub him over with a cloth dipped in melted butter 
 and repeat this process every five or ten minutes 
 in order to keep the skin tender. Your pig will 
 require about two hours in a steady oven and the 
 skin, when done, should be crisp " crackling." 
 
 " The first one of these weaklings and flowers " 
 — to quote Charles Lamb — " that I ever saw was 
 at my grandfather's when I was a small child; and 
 to this day I recall the impression he made as he 
 lay in his bed of parsley, cranberries for eyes and a 
 lemon in his mouth." 
 
 For a gravy you can skim the dripping in the pan, 
 thicken with browned flour and season with cat- 
 sup, lemon juice and wine. But, to my mind, he 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 31 
 
 is better cold than hot, and he is good as long as 
 there is a bit of him left ! 
 
 JOHNNY-CAKE 
 
 Mix a teacupful of sweet milk with one of sour 
 or buttermilk, add a teaspoonful of baking-soda 
 dissolved in hot water, a teaspoonful of salt and a 
 tablespoonful of melted butter. Stir into this 
 enough corn-meal to make a soft dough which can 
 be handled. Roll it out in a sheet about half an inch 
 thick and lay in a biscuit-tin. Bake in a rather slow 
 oven for forty minutes, brushing it over frequently 
 with a bit of cloth dipped in melted butter. This 
 should be done four or five times after the bread 
 begins to brown. 
 
 In the old days this bread was baked on a hard- 
 wood plank in front of the open fire. The board 
 was tipped up at such an angle that the full heat 
 was secured, but not far enough to permit the dough 
 to slip off. The basting with butter was performed 
 so frequently that the bread when done was deli- 
 ciously crisp. 
 
 VIRGINIA CORN PONE 
 
 Stir a teaspoonful of salt and a tablespoonful of 
 melted lard into a quart of corn-meal and add 
 
32 "LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" / 
 
 / 
 
 enough cold water to make a soft dough. Shape 
 with the hands into oblong rolls like little loaves and 
 bake quickly in a well-greased pan. Serve hot, 
 break open and eat with butter. 
 
 BATTER-BREAD 
 
 Sift two cups Southern corn-meal — that in com- 
 mon use at the North will not answer at all — stir 
 into it a good teaspoonful of salt and work into it 
 a tablespoonful of melted butter. Beat two eggs 
 light, put with them a quart of milk, stir in the meal 
 and bake in well-greased tin pie plates. The bread 
 is cut into triangles, split open and buttered and 
 eaten very hot. It may also be baked in muffin- 
 tins, but the genuine Virginia batter-bread of my 
 childhood was always baked in the shallow pie 
 dishes. 
 
 EGG BREAD 
 
 Beat three eggs light and add to three cups of 
 milk, stir into this two cups of the Southern water- 
 ground corn-meal, a teaspoonful of salt, a tiny pinch 
 of soda, a tablespoonful of melted butter and a cup^ 
 ful of well-boiled cold rice. Whip all together for 
 two or three minutes and bake like the batter-bread. 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 33 
 
 RAISED CORNBREAD 
 
 Dissolve a yeast-cake in a pint of lukewarm 
 water. Measure three pints of Southern corn- 
 meal, add to this a teaspoonful of salt and a table- 
 spoonful of melted butter and stir into it the warm 
 water in which the yeast-cake has been dissolved. 
 Turn into a greased baking-tin, set to rise overnight 
 and in the morning bake, covering it until done 
 through and then uncovering to brown. 
 
 Or you may set the dough in a bowl overnight 
 and the next morning bake in muffin-tins. 
 
IV 
 Chicken Cookery 
 
 Poultry was no special treat in the Old Domin- 
 ion, but was rather a staff of life. " Butchers' 
 meat," so-called, was not always attainable, but the 
 chicken supply was plentiful and cheap; you could 
 buy a pair of roasting chickens in the market for 
 fifty cents. 
 
 The birds were always ready dressed. The old- 
 fashioned Southern housekeeper held that the craw 
 and intestines absolutely poisoned the meat if al- 
 lowed to remain ip long after the fowl was killed. 
 Nowadays we are told that poultry keeps better 
 when the internal arrangements are not exposed to 
 the air. Both theories may be true, and the dis- 
 crepancy is possibly due to the difference in climate. 
 But the poultry my mother used to supervise in 
 preparation was cooped up for a day or two before 
 it was to be killed, and was picked and dressed as 
 soon as possible after its execution. It must not be 
 cooked, however, for six or eight hours after this, 
 
 34 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 35 
 
 and I well recall the disgust of my mother, when 
 as a child I read her a story in which a New Eng- 
 land housekeeper tells her husband to hurry out into 
 the yard and kill a chicken, as supper must be ready 
 in an hour. 
 
 Fried chicken is, of course, my chief recollection 
 of the poultry dishes mother used to make. We 
 had roast chicken, besides, and barbecued and 
 smothered and boiled chicken, and roast and boiled 
 turkey and roast duck. But fried chicken was as 
 regular an article on the Virginia bill of fare as 
 beefsteak is in some Northern homes, — chicken 
 fried plain or with cream gravy, with bacon or with- 
 out. Broiled chicken appeared pretty often, — we 
 always had it for breakfast Sunday morning, — 
 but it was not such a real Virginia dish as fried 
 chicken. The Southern cook of old time might 
 fail on anything else in the culinary line, but I don't 
 believe I ever heard of one who got her " han' 
 out " in cooking poultry. 
 
 FRIED CHICKEN WITH CREAM GRAVY 
 
 For this you must have young chickens, broiling 
 size, and they must be cut apart as for fricassee, 
 rinsed, wiped dry, peppered lightly and then rolled 
 
36 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 in flour, a piece at a time. Meanwhile half a pound 
 of salt pork should have been sliced and cooked in 
 a frying-pan long enough to make the fat flow, but 
 not enough to brown the pork. In this fat lay the 
 pieces of chicken and fry to a good brown, turning 
 the pieces as they cook. When all are done take 
 out with a fork, so as to free from grease, and lay 
 in a hot dish. Set this in the open oven and pour 
 into the gravy left in the frying-pan a cupful of 
 rich milk, — half cream is better, — add a table- 
 spoonful of flour rubbed smooth with a tablespoon- 
 ful of butter, stir until the sauce has boiled smooth 
 and thick, add a tablespoonful of minced parsley 
 and pour over the chicken. 
 
 THE OLD-FASHIONED SMOTHERED 
 CHICKEN 
 
 Split young chickens as you would for broiling, 
 washing and wiping them inside and out. Lay 
 them then skin downwards on the grating of the 
 covered roaster. Put on the cover and set in a very 
 hot oven. After ten minutes, uncover and baste 
 the chickens with spoonfuls of melted butter. A 
 half-cupful is none too much. When they begin to 
 color on the inside turn them over and baste again. 
 In about twenty-five minutes dredge them well with 
 
^ LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 37 
 
 flour, baste again and cook five or ten minutes 
 longer. If they are young and tender less than 
 three-quarters of an hour should suffice for making 
 them brown and juicy. Frequent basting is essen- 
 tial. Put on a hot dish, thicken the gravy in the 
 pan with a tablespoonful of browned flour, add half 
 a cupful of boiling water, boil up once and pour 
 over the chicken. 
 
 Before the days of covered roasters, my mother 
 used to lay a small gridiron in the dripping-pan, to 
 serve as a grating, and turn another pan over the 
 top. She herself can remember that in her childish 
 days the cooking was all done before a huge open 
 fire. Then there was a metal oven standing on feet 
 which raised it high enough from the ground to per- 
 mit of fire being put under it. The coals were put 
 on top and the chicken was cooked in this. If there 
 was no gridiron small enough to fit into the pan, 
 clean hickory sticks were laid in it to make a grating 
 on which to raise the chicken from the surface of 
 the pan. She says smothered chicken tasted better 
 in those days than when cooked in a stove, but it 
 is good enough for any one now, whether it comes 
 from a wood or a coal or a gas range, if cooked by 
 mother's recipe. 
 
38 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 DELICIOUS CHICKEN POTPIE 
 
 For this you will need a tender roasting chicken, 
 which should be cut up as for fricassee. Have 
 sliced also half a pound of salt pork. Make a pie- 
 paste, butter the bottom and side of a pot thor- 
 oughly, — • be careful with this, to prevent sticking, — 
 and line the pot with your paste. Have some of the 
 paste cut into squares for dumplings. Put a layer 
 of the sliced pork in the bottom of the pot, on the 
 paste, sprinkle it with pepper and put in a layer of 
 the chicken. Mix with this the pastry squares. 
 Follow this with another layer of pork, then more 
 chicken and so on until all are used. Cut a round 
 of pastry quite thick, make a couple of slits in it and 
 lay it over the top of the contents of the pot. Let 
 these contents heat very slowly and cook from two 
 to three hours. 
 
 Sometimes the bottom crust — i which had a trick 
 of burning — 'was omitted and only a top crust 
 used. When this was the case, mother heated the 
 shovel red hot and held it over the top of the pot 
 until the paste was well browned and then lifted it 
 off carefully and put it to one side until the chicken 
 was dished; then the crust was laid on top of the 
 chicken. 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 39 
 
 HOW TO FRICASSEE CHICKEN 
 
 Young chickens were used for this dish and were 
 cut up in the usual fashion, and laid in cold water 
 for half an hour before they were put in a saucepan 
 with just enough cold water to cover them. Half 
 a pound of salt pork, cut into strips, was fried 
 crisp, chopped fine and put into the pot with the 
 chicken, and into the fat in which the pork had been 
 fried was put a good-sized onion, sliced. When 
 this had been fried it, too, was added to the chicken, 
 as well as a saltspoonful each of allspice and cloves. 
 The pot was covered and all stewed together very 
 slowly for about an hour. When the test of a fork 
 proved that the chicken was tender it was taken out 
 and closely covered in a dish. A spoonful of wal- 
 nut or mushroom catsup was added to the gravy, 
 two heaping tablespoonfuls of browned flour, a lit- 
 tle chopped parsley, and last of all a glassful of 
 brown sherry or madeira. The gravy was boiled 
 up once, all floating bits of pork or onion removed 
 with a strainer, the chicken put back into it for a 
 minute and all brought to a boil and then dished. 
 
 THE FAMOUS BRUNSWICK STEW OF 
 CHICKEN 
 
 Cut into joints a large fowl. Have ready a 
 
40 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 broad pot or saucepan, — one of generous size. In 
 the bottom of this put a layer of chopped salt pork, 
 and upon this strew a teaspoonful of minced onion. 
 Next should come a layer of thinly sliced, parboiled 
 potatoes, one of green corn, cut from the cob, one 
 of lima beans, and last the chicken. Begin then 
 again with the salt pork and continue in the same 
 order as before, repeating the process until all the 
 materials are used up. There should have been 
 half a dozen potatoes, three large onions, three ears 
 of corn, a pint of lima beans and a half-pound of 
 salt pork. Pour over all three quarts of boiling 
 water, cover closely and stew steadily and slowly 
 for three hours. Uncover then and put in a quart 
 of peeled and sliced tomatoes, two teaspoonfuls of 
 white sugar, a tablespoonful of salt and a half tea- 
 spoonful of black pepper. Cook an hour more, put 
 in four tablespoonfuls of butter rubbed smooth with 
 two of flour, boil five minutes longer and serve. 
 
 This is, in reality, the famous squirrel stew 
 named for the county of Brunswick in Virginia, 
 where it had its birth, — or its discovery, or its in- 
 vention, or whatever is the correct name to apply 
 to a work of culinary genius. But squirrels were 
 not always attainable in our home and chickens 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 41 
 
 made so admirable a substitute that we were in dan- 
 ger of forgetting the real genesis of our favorite 
 dish. I have never known any one to eat Bruns- 
 wick stew, properly made, who did not enjoy it. 
 
Salads and Vegetables 
 
 In the old times in the South they knew little of 
 green salads, and a French dressing was in many- 
 regions practically an unknown quantity. Mayon- 
 naise, too, was not to be reckoned with then, al- 
 though I was quite a young girl when I first rec- 
 ollect its appearance. 
 
 But the chicken salad " mother used to make " 
 was better to rpe than any compounded by modern 
 methods, good as this often is. The cold slaw of 
 those days also was different from that which we 
 have now, and more appetizing, and I recall a po- 
 tato salad which was delicious and not in the least 
 like the dish which is usually served under that 
 name in the North. 
 
 All of these were made with special dressings 
 and had their appointed place on the supper-table, 
 although they were sometimes served as a side dish 
 at dinner. This was where lettuce and cucumbers 
 and tomatoes appeared. The idea of making a 
 
 42 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 43 
 
 separate course of lettuce or of any one of the other 
 salads, and breaking for it the sequence of the 
 heavy, old-fashioned dinner, would have been 
 deemed absurd. 
 
 Vegetables, too, were cooked in different style 
 under mother's regime of that day and that place. 
 They had longer cooking, for one thing, which to 
 my mind is an improvement, and green vegetables 
 nearly always had a bit of pork or bacon boiled with 
 them. There was not so large a variety then as we 
 have in our markets now, but those in use were 
 cooked so differently that they seemed like other 
 products. The methods then in service might be 
 introduced with advantage by those housekeepers 
 who wish diversity and can not afford forced veg- 
 etables. 
 
 Both of salads and vegetables there are too many 
 to attempt to give anything like all, but I have made 
 a selection of certain ones which stand out in my 
 memory as of especial excellence. 
 
 CHICKEN SALAD 
 
 Cut the white meat of cold roast chicken or tur- 
 key into neat small pieces (never chop it), picking 
 out all bits of skin or gristle. When it is all cut, 
 
44 "LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 
 
 measure it and allow three-quarters as much celery 
 as you have meat, cutting the celery, too, into small 
 bits. Mix them and put them into a large dish. 
 Make a dressing by rubbing smooth the yolks of 
 two hard-boiled eggs with a teaspoonful each of 
 salt, pepper and white sugar. Add a half -teaspoon- 
 ful of made mustard and then four tablespoonfuls 
 of salad oil, a drop at a time and stirred in thor- 
 oughly, the yolk of a raw egg, well beaten, and 
 then a scant half-cupful of vinegar, a little at a time, 
 beating well while this is going in. After you have 
 sprinkled the meat and celery with a little salt and 
 pepper, pour the dressing over them and stir it in 
 well and then put into the salad bowl, garnishing 
 the top with the rings of the boiled whites of eggs 
 and celery tops. 
 
 LOBSTER SALAO 
 
 For the dressing of lobster salad put the yolks 
 of four hard-boiled eggs in a china bowl and rub 
 smooth and free from lumps with the back of a 
 spoon. Work into them two teaspoonfuls of white 
 sugar, one teaspoonful of salt and one of made 
 mustard, a saltspoonful of red pepper, two table- 
 spoonfuls of salad oil, one teaspoonful of anchovy 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 45 
 
 sauce and the coral from the lobster. This coral 
 should have been broken fine. Cut the mixture 
 with vinegar until it is thin enough to pour. Ar- 
 range the lobster, cut with a sharp knife in pieces 
 of convenient size, on lettuce leaves, and pour the 
 dressing over it just before sending to table. 
 Have dressing and salad alike ice cold. 
 
 COLD SLAW OR CABBAGE SALAD 
 
 Put into a saucepan a cup of vinegar, a table- 
 spoonful each of sugar and of butter, a pinch of 
 pepper and a teaspoonful of salt. Set over the fire 
 and stir until the ingredients come to a boil. Have 
 shredded fine a head of white cabbage, rejecting 
 the green outer leaves, and pour the dressing over 
 the cabbage while scalding hot. Set it aside to 
 cool and when chilled put it on the ice. Just before 
 using stir into the salad two tablespoonfuls of sour 
 cream, beaten light with a fork. 
 
 LETTUCE SALAD 
 
 Rub to a paste the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs, 
 half a teaspoonful each of salt and made mustard, 
 a teaspoonful each of sugar and of white pepper, 
 and two teaspoonfuls of salad oil. If you do not 
 care for the oil substitute melted butter. Beat in 
 
46 "LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 
 
 four tablespoonfuls of vinegar and after cutting the 
 lettuce up with a sharp knife, pour the dressing 
 over it. A better way to present-day ideas would 
 be to tear the lettuce or break it into small pieces, 
 but in the old time it was always cut into strips with 
 the help of a knife and fork. Do not let it stand 
 after the dressing is poured over it, but have both 
 lettuce and dressing well chilled before mixing 
 them. 
 
 COLLARDS 
 
 For this dish the tender shoots of the cabbage 
 are taken in the spring when the roots which have 
 been left in the ground over winter begin to send 
 up leaves and stalks. Pick them over carefully 
 and lay in salted cold water for half an hour. 
 Drain and put in a saucepan with boiling water and 
 cook them fast until they are tender. Often a piece 
 of pork or bacon is boiled with them. Put the meat 
 in first and let it boil ten minutes before adding the 
 vegetables. Drain and chop the coUards and dress 
 with butter, pepper and salt. 
 
 BEET TOPS 
 
 To prepare this dish young beets must be sacri- 
 ficed. While little thicker than the finger they 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 47 
 
 must be pulled, shaken from the dirt, well washed 
 and put over the fire in salted boiling water. Boil 
 until the beets are tender, drain and serve hot, 
 dressed with salt and pepper and plenty of butter. 
 A delicious dish, and, while not attainable by dwell- 
 ers in the city, is within reach of those who own gar- 
 dens. 
 
 ASPARAGUS 
 
 Wash and scrape the asparagus and throw into 
 cold water. Tie up loosely with a soft string and 
 put over the fire in boiling salted water. Cook until 
 tender, take from the stove and drain. Trim the 
 crust from slices of stale bread, toast and butter it 
 and lay it in the bottom of a vegetable dish. Soften 
 it with a few spoonfuls of the liquor in which the 
 asparagus was boiled ; lay the asparagus evenly upon 
 this and butter it plentifully. In the old times white 
 sauce was the exception rather than the rule for as- 
 paragus — at least, in Virginia. 
 
 BUTTERED PARSNIPS 
 
 Boil the parsnips tender and scrape of? the skin, 
 slice lengthwise less than half an inch thick and put 
 into a saucepan. Add to them three tablespoonfuls 
 of melted butter, a little chopped parsley, and salt 
 
48 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 and pepper to taste. Shake over the fire until the 
 butter bubbles and boils, then take out the parsnips 
 carefully, add a tablespoonful of cream to the sauce 
 left over the fire, boil up once and pour on the pars- 
 nips in the dish. 
 
 SALSIFY FRITTERS 
 
 Scrape the skin ofif the salsify (which in the old 
 days at the South no one dreamed of calling oyster- 
 plant) and throw into cold water for twenty min- 
 utes. Put over the fire in boiling salted water, stew 
 until tender, drain and set aside to cool. When 
 cold, mash smooth, removing the fibrous portions, 
 and moisten with a little milk. To every cupful of 
 this paste add one egg and a tablespoonful of butter, 
 beating the eggs light before putting them in. Salt 
 and pepper to taste, make the paste into cakes of 
 uniform size, dredge them with flour and fry to a 
 good brown in shallow fat. 
 
 CORN PUDDING 
 
 Grate corn from the cobs of a dozen good-sized 
 ears and put with it the well-beaten yolks of five 
 eggs. Stir well, add two tablespoonfuls of melted 
 butter, beat in a quart of milk, a tablespoonful of 
 sugar and a teaspoonful of salt. Beat hard and at 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 49 
 
 the last put in the whites of the five eggs, whipped 
 to a stiff froth. Turn into a buttered baking-dish, 
 bake covered for twenty-five minutes, uncover and 
 brown. A delicious vegetable. 
 
 CORN FRITTERS 
 
 To every two cupfuls of corn, grated from the 
 ear before cooking, allow two eggs and three table- 
 spoonfuls of cream or milk. Whip the eggs light, 
 beat in the corn a little at a time, add a tablespoon- 
 ful of butter for two cupfuls of the corn. Salt to 
 taste, add the cream or milk, and lastly, put in a 
 couple of tablespoonfuls of flour, — enough to hold 
 the fritters together. Cook upon a griddle as you 
 would pancakes or by the tablespoonful dropped in 
 boiling fat. 
 
 SCALLOPED EGG PLANT 
 
 Cut the egg plant into slices, peel and boil until 
 soft, then arrange in a bake-dish with alternate lay- 
 ers of crumbs, pepper, salt and butter. Bake cov- 
 ered half an hour, uncover and brown. 
 
 STRING OR " SNAP " BEANS 
 
 String carefully, trimming off the ends and sides, 
 cut into inch lengths and lay in slightly salted water 
 
50 "LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 
 
 for ten or fifteen minutes. Drain the beans and put 
 them in a saucepan of boiling water with a cube of 
 salt pork or of bacon, cooking half an hour if the 
 beans are young and tender, from an hour to two 
 hours if they are older and firmer. The long boil- 
 ing improves them. Drain them, dress with a little 
 butter, pepper and salt, and serve. 
 
 TURNIP TOPS 
 
 These are the young shoots the turnips put up in 
 the Spring when they have been left in the ground 
 all Winter, as is done at the South. Even in the 
 North the turnips sprout in the root cellar, and these 
 shoots make excellent eating. Cut them off, wash 
 them well and put them over the fire in a plenty of 
 boiling water. Cook in this ten minutes. In an- 
 other vessel have a piece of corned pork stewing, 
 and when you have drained the turnip tops or " tur- 
 nip salad " as it was called in Virginia, put them in 
 with the pork and let them simmer twenty minutes 
 longer. Drain again, lay the pork in the middle of 
 the dish and arrange the greens about it. Eat with 
 the addition of lemon juice or vinegar. 
 
 Care must be taken to use an abundance of water 
 in the first boiling, to rid the turnip tops of the 
 
"LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 51 
 
 slight bitter flavor that would otherwise cling to 
 them. 
 
 BLACK EYED PEAS 
 
 When these are green they will not require pre- 
 liminary soaking, but when they are dry they must 
 be soaked overnight. Put them over the fire in hot 
 water with a piece of " middling " or bacon, and 
 boil until tender, — half an hour about for the green 
 peas, an hour and a half for the dry. Drain, mash 
 slightly with the back of a spoon, fry half a dozen 
 thin slices of bacon in a frying-pan, take them out 
 and lay to one side and put in the half mashed peas. 
 Cook until they are slightly crisped and browned on 
 one side and turn out on a dish. Lay the strips of 
 bacon about the beans. 
 
 LARGE HOMINY, BOILED 
 
 At the North this is termed samp. Soak it over- 
 night and in the morning put it over the fire with 
 plenty of water and boil three or four hours until 
 soft. Drain, turn into a vegetable dish and eat as 
 a vegetable with butter, salt and pepper. 
 
 LARGE HOMINY, FRIED 
 
 Put a large tablespoonful of bacon dripping or of 
 
52 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 butter into the frying pan, and as soon as this is hot 
 turn in enough of the large hominy, boiled as in the 
 preceding recipe, to cover the bottom of the pan two 
 or three inches deep. Cook until it is browned on 
 the under side and turn it out so that the browned 
 part is uppermost. This may be garnished with 
 fried bacon, if desired. 
 
VI 
 Southern Sweet Dishes 
 
 " Why do I never get such pound-cake as this any- 
 where but from a Southern kitchen? " I asked a 
 friend the other day. 
 
 The cake in question was even brown without, a 
 clear gold within, fine in texture and delicious in 
 flavor. 
 
 " I don't know why," she answered, " except that 
 I think the Northern cooks are not generous enough 
 with their eggs and butter. You know you just 
 can't be stingy when you are making pound-cake." 
 
 " It tastes * like mother — and grandmother — 
 used to make,' " I sighed, taking another piece. 
 
 Not only the pound-cake was better in those old 
 days, but sponge-cake and layer-cake and, indeed, 
 all cakes. I don't eat any gingerbread now like that 
 of the old time. Nor do I find such wine jelly, such 
 syllabubs, such whips, such pies! Those who are 
 on the lookout for new sweets might do worse than 
 takd a lesson from the dishes mother used to make 
 
 S3 
 
54 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 and set forth as a novelty something that seems new 
 just because it is so old. I can vouch for the ac- 
 curacy of the directions. 
 
 POUND-CAKE 
 
 One pound of eggs, one pound each of flour, of 
 butter, of sugar; half teaspoonful grated nutmeg, 
 one tablespoonful of best brandy. Wash the salt 
 out of the butter, and cream it with the sugar. Beat 
 the yolks and whites of the eggs separately and very 
 light. Work the spice and brandy into the creamed 
 sugar and butter, stir in the yolks of the eggs, and 
 when well mixed add the sifted flour alternately 
 with the whipped whites. Beat them in lightly, but 
 do not stir them after they have been added. Make 
 the batter for pound-cake as stiff as it can be stirred. 
 Bake in a steady oven in either brick or melon tins. 
 
 This is the genuine old-fashioned pound-cake and 
 is very rich. A simpler cake may be made by using 
 only three-quarters of a pound of butter, but the 
 other ingredients the same as in the recipe given. 
 
 OLD-TIME SPONGE-CAKE 
 
 Weigh ten eggs and take their weight in sugar 
 and half their weight in flour. Grate half the peel 
 of a lemon and put with it all the juice of the lemon. 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 55 
 
 Beat the yolks until thick and smooth and add the 
 sugar. Stir in the lemon- juice and peel, then the 
 flour and, last of all, the stiffly-beaten whites. Bake 
 in a steady oven, and take care that the kitchen is 
 not jarred and that the oven door is opened and 
 closed carefully while the cake is baking. 
 
 SOFT GINGERBREAD 
 
 One cupful each of butter, molasses, sugar and 
 sour milk, two eggs, one tablespoonful of ginger 
 and one teaspoon ful each of cinnamon and baking- 
 soda, four and a half cupfuls of flour. Put the but- 
 ter, molasses, sugar and spices together in a bowl 
 and set them where they will warm gradually. 
 When the butter softens, beat the contents of the 
 bowl to a cream. Dissolve the soda in a little boil- 
 ing water and stir this into the milk. Put this with 
 the warmed mixture, add the eggs, beaten light with- 
 out separating, and then put in the flour. If the 
 amount given does not bring the mixture to the 
 thickness of cup-cake batter, add a little more. Beat 
 very hard before turning into well-buttered pans. 
 Bake in a loaf or, if preferred, in small tins. 
 CHEESE-CAKES 
 Cream a half-pound of butter with a pound of 
 
56 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 sugar, beat in the yolks of six eggs, the grated rind 
 of two lemons and the juice of one, a grated nutmeg 
 and a tablespoonful of brandy; last of all, stir in the 
 whipped whites of the eggs. Line open patty-pans 
 with good puff-paste and fill with the mixture. Lay 
 strips of pastry in a lattice pattern across the top, 
 and bake. Eat cold. 
 
 TRANSPARENT PUDDINGS 
 
 Prepare your filling as for cheese-cakes and bake 
 in pie plates lined with rich pastry. Make a me- 
 ringue by beating together the whites of four eggs, 
 four tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar and the juice 
 of a lemon. Spread this over the tops of the pies 
 when they are baked and leave them in the oven long 
 enough to brown the meringue lightly. 
 
 SWEET POTATO PIE 
 
 Parboil a pound of good sweet potatoes and when 
 quite cold, grate them. Cream half a cupful of but- 
 ter with three-quarters of a cupful of white sugar, 
 stir in the beaten yolks of four eggs, a teaspoonful 
 each of cinnamon and grated nutmeg and the juice 
 and grated rind of a lemon. Whip in the grated 
 potato, a cupful of milk and two tablespoonfuls of 
 brandy, and, last, the beaten whites of the four eggs. 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 57 
 
 Bake in open pastry shells or as a pudding in a deep 
 baking-dish without a crust. Eat cold. 
 
 GOOSEBERRY TART 
 
 Pick over your gooseberries, " top and tail " them 
 and put into a saucepan with enough water to pre- 
 vent burning. Simmer until they break, and 
 sweeten to taste. If the gooseberries are green 
 they will stand a great deal of sugar. Set them 
 aside to cool and when cold pour into pastry shells. 
 Cover with a thickness of puff-paste and bake well. 
 
 SQUARE TURNOVERS 
 
 For these, cut squares of good pastry. Make 
 ready a filling by thickening a cupful of hot milk 
 with three tablespoonf uls of flour wet to a paste with 
 cold water. Let it boil for a minute, see that it is 
 free from lumps, take from the fire and pour on 
 three eggs, beaten well with a half cupful of pow- 
 dered sugar. Return to the fire and stir to a thick, 
 smooth cream. Flavor to taste. When cold put it 
 by the spoonful in the middle of a square of the 
 paste and fold the corners to the middle, pinching 
 them together there. Bake to a good brown and 
 eat cold. 
 
58 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 SYLLABUBS 
 
 Sweeten a pint of rich cream with a half cupful of 
 fine sugar, stirring until the sugar is thoroughly dis- 
 solved. Whip the cream light and then flavor with 
 a glassful of sherry and a teaspoonful of vanilla. 
 Serve at once, either in individual glasses or in a 
 big bowl. 
 
 WINE JELLY 
 
 Soak one box of gelatin in one cupful of cold wa- 
 ter for an hour, and then add to it three cupfuls of 
 sugar, the juice of two lemons and the grated peel 
 of one and a good pinch of cinnamon. Let all stand 
 together in a cool place for an hour. Turn over 
 them, then, a quart of boiling water, stir until the 
 gelatin is entirely dissolved; add a pint of good 
 sherry, strain through a flannel — do not squeeze it 
 — and turn into a mold wet with cold water. If 
 the gelatin does not dissolve, put it over the fire for 
 a moment until the liquid comes to a boil. Do this, 
 of course, before the wine goes in. 
 
 GOOSEBERRY FOOL 
 
 Stew a quart of ripe gooseberries in just enough 
 water to cover them, and when soft rub them 
 through a colander. Take the pulp that goes 
 
"LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 59 
 
 through and beat into it a tablespoonful of butter, 
 a cupful of sugar and the yolks of four eggs, well 
 beaten. Heap in a glass dish and put on top a me- 
 ringue made by whipping the whites of four eggs 
 stiff with three tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar. 
 
VII 
 Pickling and Preserving 
 
 My grandmother, who was a notable housekeeper, 
 did much of her conserving after dark. When the 
 heat of the Southern day was past she would cook 
 her jellies and preserved or pickled fruit in an out- 
 door kitchen. My mother practiced the same phi- 
 losophy and studied coolness of dress and conditions 
 when preparing and putting up provisions for her 
 jelly closet and preserve pantry. The example is 
 worth following, for even at the North there are 
 torrid days to be avoided when hot work over a 
 stove must be done. 
 
 MIXED PICKLES 
 
 For this you must lay the vegetables in brine. 
 
 The gherkins or small cucumbers should be packed 
 
 in a crock with alternate layers of salt, and left in 
 
 this, after pouring in water enough to cover the top 
 
 layer, for a full week, stirring them up from the 
 
 bottom every day or two. To keep the top layer 
 
 from floating, place a weighted plate on it. When 
 
 60 
 
"LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 6i 
 
 ready to put up the pickles, go over the cucumbers 
 carefully, rejecting all that are soft, and leave the 
 others in fresh water forty-eight hours, changing 
 the water once. 
 
 The cauliflower for your pickles may be cut into 
 small clusters and boiled in strong brine for three 
 minutes, taken out, sprinkled with salt, and, when 
 dry, brushed off and thrown into cold vinegar for 
 two days. Select young string-beans, radish pods 
 that are young and green, and " green " all the veg- 
 etables together by laying them in a broad kettle 
 which you have lined with vine leaves, sprinkling 
 the pickles with a very little alum ; fill with cold wa- 
 ter, covering with more vine leaves, and, after put- 
 ting a close top on the kettle, steam for five or six 
 hours. The water should not be allowed to boil. 
 After the pickles are well greened they may be 
 thrown into very cold water and left there half an 
 hour. 
 
 The vinegar for the pickles may be prepared by 
 allowing a cupful of sugar, three dozen each of 
 whole cloves and black peppers, a dozen blades of 
 mace and eighteen whole allspice to each gallon of 
 vinegar. Cook all together foi: five minutes, keep- 
 ing at a steady boil, and then, having arranged your 
 
62 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 prepared vegetables in a stone crock, pour the boil- 
 ing vinegar upon them, cover, and set aside. The 
 next day but one drain off the vinegar, make it 
 scalding hot again and pour over the pickles, and 
 do this on alternate days three times more. Close 
 tightly the crock or jars containing the pickles and 
 let them ripen for at least two months before you 
 serve them. 
 
 PEACH MANGOES 
 
 Select large free-stone peaches. Use them be- 
 fore they begin to mellow. Lay the fruit in a strong 
 brine for a week. Dry them, cut a slice from the 
 side of each peach and remove the stone, saving the 
 slice to replace after the peach is stuffed. Make a 
 stuffing of one teaspoonful each of ground nutmeg, 
 mustard, mace, white sugar, celery seed and salad 
 oil, a clove of garlic, chopped, a pinch of ginger, a 
 dozen whole pepper-corns, and a tablespoonful of 
 scraped horseradish. Mix all well and stuff into 
 the hole in the peach. Make it as full as it will 
 hold, replace the slice cut out, sew in with strong 
 linen thread and put the peaches into pickle. Make 
 this by adding a cupful of brown sugar to a gallon 
 of vinegar and a half-teaspoonful of cayenne. 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 63 
 
 Bring this to a boil and pour, while scalding hot, 
 over the peaches. 
 
 PEPPER MANGOES 
 
 Use large green peppers, cut a slit in the side and 
 remove the seeds with a knife or an oyster-fork. 
 Be careful not to touch them with your fingers at 
 the risk of a burning. Prepare a stuffing by the 
 same recipe as that for the peach mangoes ; fill the 
 peppers with this, sew up the slit, lay them in a 
 deep stone jar and pour boiling vinegar on them. 
 This must be drained off, reheated and poured over 
 the peppers again three times, with an interval of 
 two days between each scalding. Four months will 
 be required to ripen these for the table. 
 
 SLICED CUCUMBER PICKLE 
 
 Slice twelve large green cucumbers and boil them 
 in vinegar for an hour. Put aside in the vinegar 
 and prepare a further pickle as follows: allow a 
 half-tablespoonful each of sliced garlic, grated 
 horseradish, turmeric, ground black pepper, ginger, 
 cinnamon and celery seed, a teaspoonful each of 
 ground cloves, allspice and mace, a half-teaspoon- 
 ful of red pepper and a half-pound of sugar to each 
 half-gallon of vinegar; put in the cucumbers and 
 
64 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 simmer for two hours. Take from the fire and put 
 into jars. 
 
 GREEN TOMATO PICKLE 
 
 Slice without peeling four quarts of green to- 
 matoes; peel and slice a quart of onions and put 
 with these two cupfuls of sugar, a quart of vinegar, 
 a tablespoonful each of salt, ground mustard and 
 black pepper, and half a tablespoonful each of all- 
 spice and cloves. Put over the fire and stew until 
 the vegetables are tender, watching carefully that 
 the mixture does not scorch. This will be fit for 
 eating in about two months. 
 
 PICKLED PEACHES 
 
 Peel and weigh your fruit, and to every five 
 pounds of it allow two and a half pounds of sugar, 
 a pint of vinegar, and spices, — cloves, cinnamon 
 and mace, — to taste. Let the peaches lie in the 
 sugar for an hour and then drain off the syrup 
 which has flowed from them and put it over the fire 
 with a half-pint of water. As it boils, the scum 
 will rise and must be taken off. When the scum 
 does not rise any longer, put in the fruit. Boil for 
 about five minutes, remove the peaches with a skim- 
 mer and spread on dishes. Put the spices and 
 
LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 65 
 
 vinegar with the syrup and let it boil fifteen min- 
 utes. Arrange your fruit in glass jars and pour 
 the syrup over it. Pickled pears may be put up by 
 the same recipe. 
 
 FRUIT JELLIES 
 
 Cook your fruit, berries, apples, quinces, grapes 
 or damsons, until the fruit is broken to pieces. Put 
 the fruit through a vegetable press and let the juice 
 that runs from it strain through a flannel bag; 
 measure the strained juice and to every pint of it 
 allow a pound of sugar. Return the juice to the 
 fire in your preserving-kettle and put the sugar in 
 the oven in shallow pans. Let the juice boil twenty 
 minutes, removing any scum which may rise to the 
 top ; turn in the sugar and bring the jelly to a boil ; 
 cook just one minute and take from the fire. Have 
 the jelly-glasses ready in hot water, fill to the very 
 brim with the jelly (this shrinks in cooling) and set 
 aside. When cool pour melted paraffin on the top 
 and put on the covers. 
 
 FRUIT JAMS AND MARMALADES 
 
 Weigh your fruit, hulling or picking over berries, 
 peeling and slicing larger fruits, before the weigh- 
 ing is done. To each pound of the fruit allow 
 
66 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 three-quarters of a pound of sugar, — except with 
 green gooseberry jam, when pound for pound is 
 demanded. Put the fruit over the fire and let it 
 cook until tender, heating it slowly at first, and stir- 
 ring it from the bottom often. Let it boil three- 
 quarters of an hour. Dip out any superfluous 
 juice and either can it for pudding sauce or make 
 it into jelly. Put in the sugar and boil for five 
 minutes. Take off any scum which rises to the 
 surface. Put into small jars, or glasses, and seal. 
 
 BRANDIED PEACHES 
 
 Make a syrup of seven pounds of granulated 
 sugar and a little water, — enough to dissolve the 
 sugar. Put it over the fire in a preserving-kettle 
 and let it come to a boil. Have ready seven pounds 
 of firm white peaches, peeled but not stoned, lay 
 the fruit in the syrup and boil five minutes. Take 
 it out carefully, put it into jars, boil the syrup fif- 
 teen minutes longer or until it thickens, add three 
 half pints good brandy, pour the mixture at once 
 over the fruit in the jars and seal these. 
 
 BRANDIED PEARS 
 
 These may be put up in the same way and so may 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 67 
 
 plums. Peel the pears but only prick the plums, to 
 prevent their bursting. 
 
 PRESERVED PEARS AND PEACHES 
 
 Peel the pears without removing the stems; peel 
 and stone the peaches. Weigh them and allow a 
 pound of granulated sugar to every pound of the 
 fruit. Cover the bottom of a preserving-kettle 
 with a layer of the sugar, put fruit on this, an- 
 other layer of sugar, and proceed thus until all are 
 used. Let the kettle heat slowly at the side of the 
 stove and stew the fruit in the sugar until they are 
 clear and tender. This should not require much 
 over half an hour. The fruit must then be re- 
 moved from the syrup with a perforated skimmer 
 and spread out on large platters while the syrup is 
 again brought to the boil and cooked fast for about 
 a quarter-hour. Skim frequently and when clear 
 and thick arrange the fruit in wide-mouthed jars 
 and pour the syrup upon them. 
 
VTII 
 
 Old-Time Thanksgiving Fare 
 
 Despite the Southern training which made our 
 home cookery smack preeminently of the Old Do- 
 minion, there were other strains which helped to 
 give variety to the table. A New England connec- 
 tion familiarized us with delicacies of Puritan and 
 Pilgrim ancestry; a relation with the New Amster- 
 dam Dutch had introduced us to the good things 
 whose forebears had come from Holland. So 
 when we came to plan for a Thanksgiving dinner 
 we were not restricted to the dainties of any one 
 section of the country. The Thanksgiving bill of 
 fare is always much the same, and we would not 
 have it otherwise. In my young days the mince 
 pie was considered a Christmas dainty and was 
 served for that season. Pumpkin pie made its 
 bow, so to speak, at the Thanksgiving dinner, and 
 then, too, we usually had the first turkey of the 
 year. 
 
 The only variety in the turkey was his stuffing, 
 68 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 69 
 
 and while this was usually the good old dry and 
 buttery bread dressing, we varied it sometimes by 
 the addition of sausage or of oysters. The latter 
 was an especial favorite. Cranberry jelly or sauce 
 we always had, and the stock vegetables, turnips, 
 celery, sweet potatoes and a corn pudding. Then 
 there was a delicious Thanksgiving cake, but this 
 was generally saved until supper-time and served 
 after a salad which stimulated our overworked ap- 
 petites. 
 
 OYSTER STUFFING FOR TURKEY 
 
 Make a stuffing for turkey of a large cupful of 
 crumbs, seasoning with parsley, sweet marjoram 
 and thyme, and moisten with melted butter. Chop 
 twenty small oysters fine and mix with the dress- 
 ing. If you prefer you may leave the oysters 
 whole. With this stuffing fill the breast of the 
 turkey. 
 
 FRIED OYSTERS TO GARNISH TURKEY 
 
 For this you must select fine large oysters, take 
 them from the liquor carefully and dry on a soft 
 cloth. Dip each oyster in powdered crackers, roll- 
 ing it over and over until well coated. Fry them in 
 enough,hot butter to cover them when you put them 
 
70 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 in the frying-pan. Take out the moment they are 
 done and lay around the edge of the hot dish in 
 which the turkey is established. 
 
 CRANBERRY SAUCE 
 
 Put one quart of cranberries over the fire with 
 half a pint of cold water and let them cook until 
 broken to pieces. Add a pound of sugar and cook 
 until this melts, — no longer, as lengthy cooking 
 tends to make the sauce bitter. Take from the fire 
 and set aside to cool. 
 
 CORN PUDDING 
 
 Chop two cupfuls of canned corn and beat into 
 it two eggs, whipped light, half a pint of milk in 
 which has been dissolved a pinch of baking-soda, 
 a tablespoonful of melted butter, a tablespoonful of 
 sugar, a half-pint of milk and salt to taste. Turn 
 into a greased pudding-dish and bake covered fif- 
 teen minutes; then uncover and bake ten minutes 
 longer. Serve as a vegetable. 
 
 FILLING FOR PUMPKIN PIE 
 
 Press through a colander a quart of stewed pump- 
 kin and add to it two quarts of milk. Have this 
 rich and, if you can make it part cream, it will im- 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 71 
 
 prove the pie. Stir in a cupful and a half of granu- 
 lated sugar, a teaspoonful each of cinnamon, nut- 
 meg and mace, the yolks of nine eggs, well beaten, 
 and finally the whites of the eggs whipped to a 
 standing froth. Beat all well and turn into pie 
 dishes lined with good paste. 
 
 PASTRY FOR PUMPKIN PIE 
 
 Have your pastry-board, mixing-bowl, chopping- 
 knife and other utensils very cold, as well as the 
 ingredients. Chop three-quarters of a pound of 
 butter into a pound of flour ; when well mingled, — 
 the butter in bits no larger than a pea, — stir into 
 the mixture a small cupful of iced-water. Mix 
 together lightly with your chopping knife and just 
 as soon as blended turn out on your floured pastry- 
 board. Roll out lightly, fold in three, roll out 
 again, fold in three and roll out once more. Han- 
 dle the pastry as little as possible. After the third 
 rolling put the pastry on ice. If you can, it is bet- 
 ter to make it the day before it is to be used and 
 leave it in the cold until needed. When you roll it 
 out for the pies, cut it into rounds with a very sharp 
 knife, and when you spread it on the pie-plate do 
 not pinch the edges or press them. Press the pas- 
 
72 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 try down around the sides and the bottom of the 
 pie plate but leave the edge untouched. 
 
 THANKSGIVING CAKE 
 
 Cream three cupfuls of powdered sugar with one 
 cupful of butter; add one cupful of milk. Sift two 
 teaspoonfuls of baking-powder with four cupfuls 
 of flour and beat stiff the whites of ten eggs. Add 
 the flour and the whites of the eggs alternately to 
 the other ingredients. Flavor to taste with rose- 
 water. Have ready two cupfuls of citron shredded 
 fine and well dredged in flour, and stir this in last. 
 Bake in a loaf or in small cakes. 
 
 TURKEY SCALLOP 
 
 Remove and chop the meat from the bones of 
 the turkey, rejecting all gristle, though some of the 
 better pieces of skin may be retained, if tender. 
 Butter a pudding-dish and put in the bottom of it 
 a layer of crumbs, moistening them a little with 
 milk. On the layer of crumbs put one of the 
 chopped meat, mingled with fragments of the 
 dressing. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and dot 
 with bits of butter. Next comes another layer of 
 the milk-moistened bread-crumbs, and so on until 
 the dish is full. Keep back the last layer until you 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 73 
 
 have poured into the scallop the gravy from the 
 turkey. If there "has not been enough left to save 
 the scallop from dryness, dilute what you have with 
 hot water, adding butter, or make more stock from 
 the turkey bones. 
 
 The scallop is further enriched by a crust made 
 of bread-crumbs soaked in warm milk, seasoned 
 with salt and with two eggs beaten into it. This 
 crust is to be spread smoothly over the top of the 
 scallop, stuck thickly with bits of butter and cov- 
 ered by a deep plate after the scallop goes in until 
 the bubbles begin to boil up at the side of the dish. 
 The dish is then to be uncovered and the crust 
 browned. 
 
IX 
 
 Christmas Cheer 
 
 Christmas was the great festival of my youth. 
 The preparations for it began weeks in advance 
 with the making of mince-meat and " Christmas 
 cake " and continued from then until the great day. 
 There was enough Dutch blood in the family, as 
 I have already said, to insure our having crullers 
 as one of the items of the Christmas dinner or sup- 
 per ; but there was much besides — a turkey, of 
 course, and a dish of scalloped oysters and sweet 
 potatoes baked with sugar and butter, and celery 
 and cranberry jelly and plum pudding, as well as 
 the mince pies. The great feature of the occasion 
 was the little roast pig. 
 
 As the cooks themselves did, I shall begin with 
 the dishes that had to be made before the great day, 
 and give the direction for them as they have been 
 handed down to me by my mother, who in her turn 
 received them from her mother, and she from hers. 
 
 74 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 75 
 
 MINCE-MEAT 
 
 Chop fine two pounds of cold boiled lean beef, 
 and mince to a powder a pound of beef kidney suet, 
 sprinkling it with flour if it seems disposed to stick. 
 Seed and cut in half two pounds of raisins, and 
 wash and pick over carefully a pound of sultana 
 raisins and two pounds of cleansed currants. Be 
 sure that they are free from grit and dirt before 
 you let them out of your hands. Peel and chop 
 five pounds of apples, and shred three-quarters of 
 a pound of citron. Mix these all together, with 
 two tablespoonfuls each of mace and cinnamon, a 
 tablespoonful each of allspice and cloves, a tea- 
 spoonful of grated nutmeg, two and a half pounds 
 of brown sugar and a tablespoonful of salt. Put 
 with them a quart of sherry and a pint of brandy 
 and pack in a stone crock. If you do not use either 
 of these liquors put cider in its place. The mince- 
 meat should mellow for a week at least, or better, 
 for two or three, before it is used. When it is 
 made up it would not be the pie of my childhood 
 or family tradition if it were not baked in an open 
 crust with strips of paste, the edges zigzagged by a 
 " jigging iron," laid lattice pattern across the top. 
 In my younger days I thought all mince pies were 
 
76 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 born so, as it were, and although I have since then 
 eaten good mince pies with solid upper crusts they 
 never taste quite as they should. They lack the 
 crisscross top. 
 
 SUGARED SWEET POTATOES 
 
 Boil and peel sweet potatoes and cut them into 
 slices. Lay these in a buttered bake dish, sprin- 
 kling each layer with light brown sugar and bits of 
 butter, allowing a tablespoonful of butter to each 
 layer and at least the same quantity of sugar. 
 When the dish is full make the top layer of butter 
 and sugar, pour in about half a cupful of water, — 
 just enough to keep the potatoes from sticking, 
 cover closely and bake in a steady oven for half 
 an hour. Uncover and brown lightly. 
 
 ROAST TURKEY WITH CHESTNUT 
 STUFFING 
 
 Wash the turkey out with cold water to which 
 you have added a little soda. Neglect of this pre- 
 caution often gives a strong taste to the stuffing. 
 Make a chestnut dressing by boiling one quart of 
 the large Italian or French chestnuts, shelling and 
 peeling them and mashing them smooth. Rub into 
 them a couple of tablespoonfuls of butter, season 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " -j-j 
 
 to taste with salt and pepper and stuff the turkey 
 with this as you would with any other dressing. 
 When it is in the bird, sew up the body and tie the 
 skin covering the craw opening securely, so that the 
 dressing will not ooze out. It is well to cover the 
 breast of the fowl with slices of fat salt pork. Put 
 into the pan, turn over it a cover or a pan, pour 
 over it and around it a cup of boiling water, and 
 roast fifteen minutes to the pound: baste several 
 times with the gravy in the pan. For the gravy 
 take out the turkey and keep it hot, while to the 
 liquid left in the pan you add a tablespoonful of 
 browned flour wet up in a little cold water, salt and 
 pepper to taste, and the giblets, which you should 
 have boiled separately. Stir all well together and 
 if not of a good color add a little caramel or 
 kitchen bouquet. Boil up for a minute and put into 
 a gravy dish. 
 
 CHESTNUTS STEWED IN GRAVY 
 
 Boil the large chestnuts for ten minutes, take 
 them out, shell and peel them, having care to break 
 them as little as possible. Skim and strain the 
 liquor in which the giblets were boiled, season it 
 to taste with salt and pepper, and to a pint of it 
 
78 "LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 
 
 add a tablespoonful of browned flour rubbed 
 smooth with a teaspoonful of butter. In this gravy 
 place the peeled chestnuts and let them simmer ten 
 or fifteen minutes at the side of the stove. Serve 
 as a vegetable. 
 
 SCALLOPED OYSTERS 
 
 Drain the oysters, arrange them in the bottom 
 of a buttered pudding dish and strew over them 
 fine bread-crumbs. Sprinkle with pepper and salt 
 and dot with bits of butter. Wet with a little 
 oyster liquor. On this put another layer of oys- 
 ters, similarly seasoned, then more crumbs, more 
 seasoning, and so proceed in alternate layers until 
 the dish is full. The last layer should be of crumbs, 
 and the amount of butter on this must be twice as 
 much as on the previous layers. Bake, covered, 
 for half an hour. 
 
 EGG-NOGG 
 
 One of the features of the old time Christmas 
 festivity was a big bowl of egg-nogg which was on 
 tap, so to speak, all during Christmas. This did 
 not mean on Christmas Day alone but all during the 
 week between Christmas and New Year's, when 
 merry-makings were constant and a round of visits 
 
LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 79 
 
 and calls was in order. The egg-nogg was brewed 
 early in the action and the supply was renewed as it 
 was exhausted. The old time proportions were as 
 follows: One quart of rich milk, six eggs, half a 
 cup of sugar, half a pint of the best brandy. The 
 whites and yolks were beaten separately, the whites 
 to a standing froth. The yolks and sugar were 
 put together after the former had been whipped 
 smooth and thick, the milk was added, the brandy 
 stirred in and last the yolks were whipped in lightly. 
 A little nutmeg was grated over the top of the egg- 
 nogg after it was all mixed. 
 
 CHRISTMAS CAKE 
 
 This was always served with the egg-nogg and 
 the richness of the combination was enough to have 
 driven those who partook of it into dyspepsia. The 
 fact that the cake was eaten in small quantities may 
 have helped save them. 
 
 Cream together a half pound of butter and half 
 a pound of sugar. Whip six eggs stiff, whites and 
 yolks separately, and add to the butter and sugar. 
 A teaspoonful each of cloves, cinnamon and grated 
 nutmeg is then stirred in, a cupful of sifted flour, 
 a quarter of a pound of citron, shredded and 
 
8o " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 dredged with flour, a half pound of currants, thor- 
 oughly washed, picked over and dried and the same 
 amount of seeded and halved raisins. Bqth raisins 
 and currants are dredged with flour. Last of all a 
 small glassful of brandy is added and the cake is 
 baked in a loaf. The pan must be well greased 
 and the cake baked slowly, covered, until it is nearly 
 done. This cake will keep for months, if well 
 wrapped up and in a tin box. 
 
 CRULLERS 
 
 Cream together half a pound of butter and three- 
 quarters of a pound of powdered sugar, add to 
 them six eggs, beaten light, nutmeg to taste and 
 enough flour to make a dough which can be rolled 
 out into a thin sheet. Cut into shapes, and fry in 
 boiling lard. Have plenty of this in the pan and 
 test the heat before beginning to cook. The crul- 
 lers of my youth were cut with a jigging iron 
 which gave them adorable crinkly edges and were 
 made in shapes like gridirons as well as in rounds. 
 It is not only childish association which makes me 
 declare crullers prepared by the foregoing direc- 
 tions the best I ever tasted. 
 
X 
 
 A Few Christmas Candies 
 
 Who could imagine a Christmas without candy? 
 Who would want to imagine it? 
 
 Yet the candies are a serious item in the holiday 
 expenses. That is, if you get good ones, and you 
 don't want the cheap sort. Better make them at 
 home, not only for yourself but also for Christmas 
 presents. I know a family of girls who possess 
 more good-will than pocket-money and who always 
 make up quantities of delicious candies for Christ- 
 mas gifts. The sweets are put into pretty holly 
 boxes, tied with bright ribbons and are received 
 with enthusiasm. Here are gifts that not every 
 one can buy. The shops do not hold them, and the 
 prices asked for them at Woman's Exchanges dis- 
 courage most would-be purchasers. 
 
 So make your Christmas candies at home. You 
 need have no lack of variety, but I would recom- 
 mend your concentrating your attention upon two 
 or three kinds and make them your specialty. 
 Candy cookery is not the simple thing some persons 
 
 8i 
 
82 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 think; it requires judgment and experience as much 
 as any other kind of cooking. Try your products 
 on the family and intimate friends before you 
 reckon on them as Christmas presents and don't 
 put off making them until a day or two before 
 Christmas. Have wax paper a-plenty in which to 
 wrap them, and you may trust to their keeping as 
 well as those made by a confectioner. 
 
 The candies mother used to make in my long 
 ago childhood were nothing like those I see now. 
 They were not made in the easy modern fashion 
 but were boiled and pulled. First among them 
 stood 
 
 MOLASSES CANDY 
 
 For this a quart of good molasses is put over the 
 fire with a cup of sugar and a half-cup of vinegar. 
 Genuine molasses must be used, — not light syrup. 
 The mixture must cook together over the fire until 
 a little of it hardens when dropped into 
 cold water. In my youthful days the molasses 
 would sometimes stew for a couple of hours before 
 it reached this point and the elders would say it 
 was because the molasses was raw. In these later 
 days the molasses is in a more advanced stage of 
 preparation and such long cookery is not required. 
 
"LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 83 
 
 When the hardening point is reached with the 
 syrup a lump of butter the size of an egg is stirred 
 in and a teaspoonful of baking-soda, dissolved in 
 hot water. The syrup is poured into buttered plat- 
 ters and as soon as it is cool enough to handle with- 
 out absolutely blistering the skin it is pulled with 
 buttered finger tips. The longer it is pulled the 
 whiter it gets. I have seen it pulled into long rope- 
 like strands of glistening whiteness and then 
 braided into beautiful shining sticks, — but that was 
 by the hands of those who had made an art of such 
 work, and we children stood by and wondered at 
 the grandmother and aunts who could accomplish 
 such wonders. 
 
 If taffy is preferred to the pulled candy, the mo- 
 lasses may be poured in a shallow sheet into but- 
 tered pans and as it cools be marked into squares 
 with a buttered knife. Nuts or grated cocoanut 
 may be added to different portions of the stewed 
 molasses. 
 
 SUGAR CANDY 
 
 This is made by cooking together three cups of 
 granulated sugar, half a cup of vinegar and water 
 for an hour without stirring, or until a little of it 
 dropped from a spoon crisps in cold water. A 
 
84 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 tablespoonful of butter and a teaspoonful of soda 
 dissolved in hot water are then turned in and the 
 candy taken from the fire, to be pulled or made 
 into taffy as preferred. 
 
 While no other candy can seem quite the same 
 to me as the sweets of my youth I have found many 
 good modern bonbons of various kinds which are 
 easily made at home. 
 
 To my mind, the cooked candies are preferable 
 to the so-called French candies, and I accordingly 
 give more space to them. 
 
 SEA FOAM FUDGE (CHOCOLATE) 
 
 Put over the fire in a clean saucepan one cupful 
 of light-brown sugar, a half-cupful of water and 
 a third of a cupful of grated chocolate and boil with- 
 out stirring until it spins a thread from the point of 
 a spoon. Have beaten light the white of an egg; 
 pour the boiling mixture upon it and stir until it 
 begins to stiffen. Drop from a spoon on waxed 
 paper in little bonbons, or pour into a greased pan 
 before it begins to stiffen and mark into squares or 
 diamonds with a buttered knife. 
 
 SEA FOAM FUDGE (NUT) 
 
 Put into a saucepan three cupfuls of light-brown 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 85 
 
 sugar, a cupful of cold water and a tablespoonful of 
 vinegar. Bring this to the boil gradually and do 
 not stir after it is once heated. Boil steadily and 
 when a little of it dropped into cold water forms 
 a hard ball take it from the fire. Whip stiff the 
 whites of two eggs and when the syrup has stopped 
 bubbling pour it on these and beat well. When it 
 begins to stiffen, flavor with one teaspoonful of 
 vanilla and add a cupful of chopped nut kernels, — ■ 
 hickory, pecan or English walnuts. Drop on paper 
 or turn into a greased pan and mark off in squares 
 or triangles. 
 
 " DIVINITY FUDGE " 
 
 Boil together two cupfuls of granulated sugar, 
 one cupful of maple-syrup, one cupful of water and 
 a tablespoonful of vinegar until a little of it hardens 
 when dropped in cold water, and then add a tea- 
 spoonful of vanilla and take from the fire. While 
 this mixture has been cooking, a cupful of granu- 
 lated sugar should have been put over the fire in 
 another saucepan, with a half cupful of cold water, 
 and boiled until the mixture spins a thread from the 
 tip of a spoon. The compound should at this 
 stage be beaten up with the stifHy-whipped whites 
 
86 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 of two eggs, and this stirred into the first prepara- 
 tion, which should by now have cooled slightly. 
 Beat the two hard until they begin to stiffen, when 
 turn in two cupfuls of chopped nut kernels. Drop 
 on paper or pour into pans and cut in shapes de- 
 sired. 
 
 PEANUT BRITTLE 
 
 Boil together a cupful of brown sugar, one of 
 molasses, two tablespoonfuls of butter and a table- 
 spoonful of vinegar. When a little of the syrup 
 is brittle if dropped in cold water, add a cupful of 
 peanuts from which the inner skins have been re- 
 moved. Take from the fire, stir in a teaspoonful 
 of baking soda dissolved in a little cold water, beat 
 well and turn into greased pans. 
 
 POPCORN BALLS 
 
 Make some old-fashioned molasses candy and 
 just before taking from the fire stir in enough pop- 
 corn to thicken it. After stirring the mixture for 
 a minute set the kettle at the side of the stove, take 
 the mixture from it by the large spoonful and lay 
 each on greased paper or a greased tin. As it 
 hardens roll each spoonful into a ball, greasing the 
 hands well first and roll each ball over and over in 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 87 
 
 freshly-popped corn until this ceases to adhere to 
 the surface. Wrap in waxed paper. 
 
 FONDANT FOR CANDIES 
 
 Put a pound of granulated sugar into a saucepan 
 with a cupful of cold water and boil without stir- 
 ring until the mixture spins a thread from the tine 
 of a fork dipped into it. Cook a little while after 
 this until you can make a soft ball with the fingers 
 of a little of the syrup dropped into cold water. 
 Turn then into a greased bowl and beat hard until 
 it is smooth and white and can be kneaded like 
 dough in the hands. This can be put away and 
 kept until needed. Formed into balls, nuts may be 
 put on either side of it; dates or raisins may be 
 stuffed with a bit of it, citron or figs may be mixed 
 with it. It may also be used as the centers of ordi- 
 nary chocolate creams. 
 
 CHOCOLATE CREAMS 
 
 Melt chocolate, either sweetened or unsweetened, 
 as you prefer, in a double boiler, until it is thick 
 and smooth. Make your fondant into balls of the 
 size you wish, and stick a skewer into each in suc- 
 cession and immerse the ball in the melted choco- 
 late. Dip each in several times until the coating 
 
88 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 is as thick as you wish and then lay to dry on waxed 
 paper or a greased pan. 
 
 NUT CREAMS 
 
 Stir confectioners' sugar into the sHghtly-beaten 
 white of an egg until you have a mixture you can 
 handle. Add a little cold water or S little cream, 
 working it with the fingers until the mixture is 
 putty-like in consistency. Flavor to taste with va- 
 nilla, rose, almond, lemon — what you will — add- 
 ing more sugar if the flavoring softens the mixture 
 too much. Form into balls with the fingers and 
 press half a walnut kernel on each side of the ball. 
 You can color this pink with a few drops of cochi- 
 neal. There are French vegetable colorings with 
 which you can tint your fondant or cream any hue 
 you desire. 
 
 MARSHMALLOWS 
 
 To four ounces of pulverized gum arable allow 
 a teacupful of cold water and let them stand to- 
 gether for two hours. Put into a double boiler, 
 bring the cold water in the outer kettle to the boil- 
 ing point slowly and when the gum arable is dis- 
 solved, strain it through coarse muslin. Put it 
 back into the double boiler with a full cupful of 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 89 
 
 powdered sugar and cook until the mixture is stiff 
 and white, stirring all the while; take from the 
 stove, beat hard for a minute before adding vanilla 
 to taste and then beat hard again, until the flavor- 
 ing is well blended. Have square tins ready, the 
 insides rubbed thickly with cornstarch and turn the 
 mixture into these. When it is cool cut it into 
 squares with a knife. Make a mixture of corn- 
 starch and powdered sugar, in the proportion of 
 three parts of the cornstarch to one of the sugar, 
 and roll the squares of marshmallow in these. If 
 they are not to be eaten at once put them into a tin 
 box or they will dry out and become tough. 
 
 CHOCOLATE MARSHMALLOWS 
 
 Proceed as in making marshmallows for the first 
 preparation. After straining the gum arable and 
 returning it to the double boiler put with the sugar 
 added to it then two tablespoonfuls of grated choc- 
 olate. Let this cook for over half an hour and 
 then go on as with plain marshmallows. 
 
XI 
 
 Easter Dainties 
 
 If one would introduce novelties into the Easter 
 entertainments or functions they must lie in the 
 deliciousness of the cookery, in new designs in fa- 
 vors, and in unusual forms of decoration. New 
 Easter dishes are hard to find. In old or new, the 
 egg plays a prominent part, and, fortunately, it 
 can be employed in making all kinds of toothsome 
 dainties, recipes for some of which are found be- 
 low. 
 
 An Easter function at which one may have many 
 pretty addenda is a luncheon and for this what can 
 be prettier and more seasonable than light green 
 and pale gray, or silvery white ? A table with these 
 decorations has the centerpiece outlined by a circle 
 of maidenhair ferns. In the middle of the center- 
 piece stands a slender vase of pussy willow. A 
 half dozen sprigs of these are tied with streamers 
 of wide, pale-green satin ribbon, and at each corner 
 
 of the table is laid one of these bunches, — one end 
 
 90 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 91 
 
 of the ribbon hanging over the corner of the table 
 almost to the floor, and the other end hiding under 
 the centerpiece. Here and there on the table may 
 be dainty bits of Easter china, for bonbons^ salted 
 almonds, etc., while at each place may stand a 
 souvenir in the shape of a bonbonni^re in some 
 Easter design. All sorts of designs are found for 
 these favors. One looks like a china bell, but when 
 the bell is lifted it discloses a small rabbit rampant. 
 Another is an egg-shaped receptacle, the handle 
 consisting of a china ribbon holding down the 
 pretty heads of three babies bursting from the shell. 
 Others show Japanese maidens, each wrestling with 
 a bird that has just emerged from an egg. 
 
 The bonbons may be in an egg wheelbarrow pro- 
 pelled by a gnome; olives in two broken eggshells, 
 held by a small Dutch girl sitting between them. 
 Perhaps the daintiest of all these novelties are 
 salted-nut holders, one of which is a Dutch child 
 carrying on each arm an egg-shaped pail, and the 
 other a rabbit bearing a yoke from which hang two 
 egg-shaped holders. One of these may contain 
 salted almonds, the other salted peanuts. 
 
 The prettiest dessert for such an affair would be 
 ice-cream eggs in spun sugar. Any good confec- 
 
92 "LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 
 
 tioner prepares these. Where this dessert is out 
 of the question substitute blancmange eggs, in a 
 nest of wine jelly and candied orange straws. 
 
 Even the Easter breakfast may be a reminder of 
 the glad feast day, and the Easter Sunday night 
 supper characterized by some egg dainty. As at 
 this season the egg is ruler of the feast, the house- 
 wife should remember that there are dozens of ways 
 of preparing it, — ^some time-tried, others rather 
 unusual. 
 
 STUFFED EGGS 
 
 Boil six eggs for twenty minutes, then throw 
 into cold water to loosen the shells. Peel care- 
 fully; cut a bit from each end of the egg so that it 
 will stand upright, then cut the egg in half. Mash 
 the yolks smooth with a little melted butter, finely 
 shredded anchovies, and pepper to taste. Form 
 this mixture into balls, and fit into the halved 
 whites. Stand these on end in a fireproof dish and 
 set in the oven until very hot. Pour a well- 
 seasoned brown sauce about the ^gs and serve. 
 This is a very appetizing way of preparing eggs. 
 
 EGGS POACHED IN CREAM 
 
 Cut rounds of bread, toast and butter them. 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 93 
 
 Dip quickly in cream and arrange on a platter. In 
 salted boiling cream poach eggs, one at a time, and 
 lay carefully upon the rounds of toast. Set in the 
 oven for a minute, pour the heated cream that is 
 left over all, and sprinkle with salt and white 
 pepper. 
 
 RICE AND EGGS 
 
 Boil rice, and mix with it a little butter. Put 
 in a pudding dish, sprinkle thickly with grated 
 cheese, and break on top of this as many eggs as 
 will lie side by side. Sprinkle with grated cheese 
 and dot with bits of butter. Bake in the oven until 
 the eggs are set, then serve. 
 
 EGGS WITH TOMATO SAUCE 
 
 Boil eggs hard, throw into cold water and re- 
 move the shells. Cut in half, lengthwise, sprinkle 
 with salt and pepper, lay on a heated dish, and 
 cover with a well-seasoned tomato sauce. 
 
 CREAMED EGGS IN NAPPIES 
 
 Cook together a tablespoonful of butter and half 
 as much flour, and when they bubble pour upon 
 them a cup of rich milk, or half milk and half 
 cream. Stir to a smooth white sauce, season to 
 
94 "LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 
 
 taste and pour into heated nappies. Have the 
 sauce reach a third of the way up the inside of the 
 nappies. Drop an egg in each, put a bit of butter 
 on top, and set in the oven until the white is set. 
 Send at once to the table. 
 
 CHEESE AND EGGS 
 
 Make a pint of white sauce as directed in the 
 above recipe, and when smooth and thick, stir in 
 six heaping tablespoonfuls of grated cheese. Pour 
 into a deep china-plate, and break on top of this 
 cheese seven eggs. Set in the oven for five min- 
 utes, and take out. Garnish with sprigs of water 
 cress and serve at once. 
 
 EGGS IN TOAST NESTS 
 
 Cut six thick slices of bread, remove the crusts 
 and press a biscuit cutter half through each slice. 
 Take out the round of crumbs, and toast the hol- 
 lowed slice to a golden brown, then butter. Beat 
 the whites of six eggs very stifif, and fill the 
 " nests " in the toast with this, heaping it high. 
 With a spoon make a hollow place in the middle of 
 each heap of froth and drop the yolk of an egg in 
 this. Put on each yolk a little butter, pepper, and 
 salt, and set in the oven until the white is a delicate 
 brown, then serve on a parsley-garnished dish, 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 95 
 
 EGG AND CREAM CHEESE SALAD 
 
 Boil eggs hard and cut into quarters. With but- 
 ter paddles make Philadelphia cream cheese into 
 small balls. Line a salad bowl with crisp lettuce 
 leaves, lay the cheese balls and eggs in this, and pour 
 a French dressing over all. Some people think that 
 this salad is improved by having finely-cut celery 
 sprinkled over eggs and cheese. 
 
 TUTTI-FRUTTI OMELET 
 
 Beat six eggs, whites and yolks separate, then 
 mix lightly together and pour into an omelet pan. 
 Have ready-mixed blanched and chopped almonds 
 of English walnuts, minced citron, candied orange- 
 peel, a few crystalized or Maraschino cherries, a 
 very little minced crystalized ginger, and three or 
 four seeded and chopped raisins. When the omelet 
 is set and ready to fold spread with the mixed 
 fruits, sprinkle with powdered sugar, fold over, 
 sprinkle with more powdered sugar, and transfer 
 to a hot platter. Pour over it, or around it, a hot 
 wine or Maraschino sauce, and eat immediately. 
 
 AN EASTER NEST 
 Make a blancmange with a quart of milk, an 
 ounce of gelatine, and a scant cup of sugar. Di- 
 
96 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 vide into three portions, color one brown by the 
 addition of two tablespoonfuls of melted chocolate, 
 the second pink with a little cochineal and leave 
 the other white. For several days in advance egg- 
 shells should have been saved, after the contents to 
 be used in cooking have been emptied through a 
 small hole in the end of the ^g. Rinse these out 
 with cold water and fill with the blancmange. 
 Make a good wine jelly, fill a dish two-thirds full 
 of it, lay in the blancmange eggs, when they are 
 firm, breaking the shells from them carefully, pour 
 the rest of the jelly over them, garnish with pre- 
 served orange peel, laying it pretty thickly over the 
 top and when ready for the dish, which should be 
 kept in a cold place until then, turn it out on a flat 
 salver or platter. 
 
XII 
 
 Uncommon Ways to Cook Common 
 Vegetables 
 
 When summer ends the difficulties of the house- 
 keeper in catering for her household begin ; that is, 
 of the housekeeper who lives in the country, or who, 
 living in the city, has little money to spend on her 
 table. The woman with a full purse can buy 
 forced vegetables all the year round, the woman 
 who lacks either the money or the opportunity to 
 purchase these must study to devise variety in the 
 ways of preparing what she has. 
 
 The supply of winter vegetables is necessarily 
 limited, unless one turns to canned articles. This 
 seems almost an extravagance when the cellar is 
 stocked with carrots, parsnips, turnips, potatoes, 
 beets, onions, and cabbages, with perhaps a small 
 lot of celery, salsify, cauliflower and the like. 
 There are dried vegetables, too, peas, lima beans, 
 and possibly corn, that has been salted down or 
 otherwise preserved. How is one to cook these 
 
 97 
 
98 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 so that the eaters shall not weary of the sequence ? 
 The following recipes are designed especially to 
 meet this want. They are neither elaborate nor 
 expensive and deal with what the most moderate 
 housekeeper is likely to have in the house or to be 
 able to secure in the country or the small town. 
 Even the dweller in cities may try some of the 
 dishes with a surety of being Satisfied with the re- 
 sults. 
 
 STEWED CARROTS 
 
 Wash the carrots, scrape off the skin, and cut 
 into bits. 'Lay in cold water for an hour, then 
 place, still wet, in a double boiler, and stew gently 
 until thoroughly tender. Season with salt and pep- 
 per, and turn into a deep dish. Cover with a white 
 sauce. 
 
 MASHED CARROTS AND TURNIPS 
 
 Prepare the carrots as in the preceding recipe, 
 cover with salted water and boil until tender. 
 Dfain and mash very soft with a little butter. Cook 
 turnips and mash them. Beat the two vegetables 
 together to a soft mass, heap in the center of a 
 dish, set in the oven until smoking-hot, and serve. 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 99 
 
 FRIED TURNIPS 
 
 Peel and slice the turnips, and throw into cold 
 water. At the end of half an hour drain and put 
 over the fire in the saucepan with a little salted 
 water. Cook until they begin to get tender, or un- 
 til a fork pierces them easily. Be careful not to 
 break them; drain and, when cold, pat them dry 
 between the folds of a towel. Dip first in cracker- 
 crumbs, then in beaten egg, then in cracker- 
 crumbs. Lay on a dish in the ice-box for the crust 
 to harden. Fry in butter to a light brown. Serve 
 very hot. 
 
 SCALLOPED CELERY 
 
 The coarse outer stalks of celery may be used for 
 this dish. Cut into inch lengths, and cover with 
 salted water. Stew until tender. Drain, and keep 
 hot while you make a white sauce by cooking to- 
 gether a tablespoonful each of butter and flour, and 
 when these bubble, pouring upon them a cup of 
 milk. Stir to a smooth white sauce, put the celery 
 into this, and turn into a buttered pudding dish. 
 Dust the top with buttered crumbs, and set in the 
 oven until lightly browned. This is a simple and 
 very palatable dish. 
 
loo " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 SALSIFY FRITTERS 
 
 Scrape the salsify and grate fine. Make a bat- 
 ter of a cup of milk, two beaten eggs, and two 
 tablespoonfuls of flour. Beat hard, then whip in 
 the salsify. Season with salt and pepper, and drop 
 by the spoonful into deep, boiling fat. Fry to a 
 golden-brown. 
 
 RICED POTATOES 
 
 Boil white potatoes until tender, then mash, 
 adding a little butter as you do so. When very 
 smooth rub through a colander or strainer upon a 
 heated dish, mounding them high upon this. Set 
 in the oven until the apex of the mound begins to 
 brown lightly, then serve. 
 
 STUFFED POTATO BOATS 
 
 Bake potatoes and cut them with a sharp knife 
 in halves, lengthwise. Scoop out the insides, and 
 mash with a little cream, melted butter and salt 
 and white pepper to taste. Pack this mixture back 
 into the halved cases, laying them in rows on a 
 platter. On the top of each potato " boat " thus 
 made put a great spoonful of meringue made by 
 beating the whites of two eggs very light. Set at 
 
LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " loi 
 
 once in the oven and leave there just long enough 
 for the meringue to color at the edges. 
 
 BEETS STUFFED WITH LIMA BEANS 
 
 Choose the small dried beans and soak all night ; 
 in the morning boil until tender in salted water and 
 drain. Boil large red beets of uniform sizes, and, 
 wrhile hot, hold firmly with a cloth and rub ofif the 
 skins. Set aside until cold, then scoop out the in- 
 sides. Leave the beans and beets on the ice for sev- 
 eral hours before using. Mix the beans with a 
 French dressing, fill the hollowed beets with them, 
 and set each beet on a leaf of lettuce, pouring the 
 French dressing over all. Serve very cold. 
 
 LENTILS 
 
 Soak the lentils in water overnight. Drain, and 
 cover with salted boiling water. Boil for an hour, 
 drain, and cover with more boiling water and cook 
 until quite soft, but not broken. Drain very dry, 
 melt a heaping tablespoonful of butter in a frying 
 pan, and, when slightly browned, put in an onion 
 cut into tiny bits. Stir for several minutes, then 
 turn in the lentils. Add a tablespoonful of 
 browned flour, and a teaspoonful of. vinegar. 
 Cook, stirring to a smooth mass, and serve. 
 
I02 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 STUFFED CABBAGE 
 
 Wash a cabbage, and lay it in salted water for an 
 hour, pulling the leaves apart, but not breaking 
 them off. Then place it in salted boiling water 
 and cook for ten minutes. Drain, and when cold, 
 stand on end and put between the leaves a force- 
 meat made by mixing a cup of chopped roast meat, 
 — beef, mutton or veal, — with half as much fine 
 crumbs, and moistening all with weak stock. Be- 
 gin this stuffing process at the center of the cabbage, 
 filling all interstices carefully. When the force- 
 meat is all used, press the leaves into place and 
 wrap the cabbage in a strip of cheese cloth. Put 
 carefully into boiling water and boil for a little 
 over an hour. Lay the cabbage on a platter, care- 
 fully remove the cheese cloth and pour over the 
 cabbage a good brown sauce. 
 
 SAVORY CABBAGE LEAVES 
 
 Choose the large firm leaves of a cabbage. In 
 the center of each leaf put a spoonful of minced 
 beef mixed with a little minced ham. Fold the leaf 
 about this mixture and skewer with a tiny toothpick 
 so that it will not come open. Lay all the leaves 
 thus prepared side by side in a baking-pan and pour 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 103 
 
 a little stock about them. Cover and bake for 
 twenty minutes. With a cake turner lift each leaf 
 carefully from the pan to a heated platter and keep 
 this hot while you add a little strained tomato to 
 the liquor in the pan and thicken it with browned 
 flour. Season to taste and pour over the cabbage- 
 leaves on the dish. 
 
 CABBAGE AND CHEESE 
 
 Boil the cabbage in two waters, drain and, when 
 cold, chop it. Put a layer of it, well seasoned with 
 salt and pepper, in a buttered bake dish. Pour 
 on this a white sauce, made by cooking together a 
 tablespoonful each of butter and flour until they 
 bubble, mixing with these a cupful of milk and stir- 
 ring all until thick and well blended. Season with 
 salt and pepper. On the white sauce, when it has 
 been poured over the cabbage, sprinkle a heaping 
 tablespoonful of grated cheese. Put in more cab- 
 bage, and repeat the sauce and cheese until the dish 
 is filled, making cheese with a few fine crumbs the 
 last layer. Bake, covered, about half an hour, then 
 uncover and brown. 
 
 FRIED CAULIFLOWER 
 
 Boil a cauliflower until just done, then drain. 
 
I04 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 When cold cut into tufts of uniform size. Make a 
 batter of a gill of milk, a beaten egg, two table- 
 spoonfuls of grated cheese, and one or two table- 
 spoonfuls of flour, — or enough to make the batter 
 of the right consistency for frying. Dip each tuft 
 of cauliflower in this batter, turning it over and 
 over to coat thoroughly, then drop in deep boiling 
 lard. As soon as they are light brown in color, re- 
 move with a perforated spoon, and lay on brown 
 paper to drain dry. Serve very hot. 
 
 CAULIFLOWER BOILED WITH TOMATO 
 SAUCE 
 
 Soak a fine cauliflower in cold salt water for an 
 hour, then plunge in salted boiling water and cook 
 for a half hour or until tender. Transfer to a hot 
 dish. Bring the contents of a half can of tomatoes 
 to a boil, cook for a minute, strain, season with 
 onion-juice, salt and pepper, and thicken with a lit- 
 tle flour rubbed into a tablespoonful of butter. 
 Stir until smooth. Break the cauliflower into bits 
 of uniform size, put into a deep dish, and pour the 
 tomato sauce over it. 
 
 STUFFED ONIONS 
 
 Boil until tender, but not broken, large Bermuda 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 105 
 
 onions. Drain, and when cool enough to handle, 
 take out the centers with a small knife. Chop 
 enough ham to make a cupful, add to it half as much 
 fine crumbs, and mix all to a soft paste with a little 
 cream, and one beaten egg. Season to taste, and 
 put this mixture into the centers of the onions. 
 Put in the top of each onion a bit of butter. Place 
 the onions in a buttered pudding dish and bake 
 slowly until tender all through. Three-quarters of 
 an hour should be time enough. Serve with or 
 without a white sauce. 
 
 BROWNED ONIONS 
 
 Peel onions and boil until tender. Pack in a but- 
 tered pudding dish. Pour melted butter over each 
 onion, then sprinkle very lightly with sugar. This 
 will not affect the taste if used sparingly, and will 
 assist in the browning process. Now cover each 
 onion with fine cracker-dust, and sprinkle this with 
 bits of butter. Set in a quick oven and cook until 
 very brown. 
 
 FRIED APPLES AND ONIONS 
 
 These form a novel dish, but are delicious if 
 eaten with strips of fried bacon. Do not peel the 
 apples but slice them crosswise, having the slices 
 
io6 "LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 
 
 a half-inch thick. Have the onions parboiled, and 
 cold. With a sharp knife slice these rather thinner 
 than the apples. Cook slices of bacon crisp in a 
 pan, and remove them to a hot platter. Fry the 
 onions and apples side by side in the bacon-fat, un- 
 less there is not enough of this, in which case add 
 a little butter. When brown, put the onions and 
 apples on a hot platter and arrange strips of fried 
 bacon about the edge of the platter. Serve very 
 hot, and as free from grease as possible. To at- 
 tain this end it is well to lay each one of the fried 
 slices on tissue paper for a minute after taking it 
 from the pan. 
 
 PARSNIP BALLS 
 
 Boil parsnips and mash them as you would po- 
 tatoes. To two cups of the mashed parsnips add 
 two tablespoonfuls of melted butter and one tgg. 
 Form this mixture into small balls and set in the ice- 
 chest. Leave for two hours, then drop in boiling 
 fat and fry. These are a nice accompaniment to 
 roast or broiled meat. 
 
 SWEET POTATO PUFF 
 
 Boil sweet potatoes, peel them, and, while hot, 
 mash. Add melted butter and milk until you have 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 107 
 
 a soft mass, then whip in two well-beaten eggs, and 
 enough cream to make a very soft mixture. Add 
 salt and turn into a buttered pudding dish and bake 
 to a golden-brown. This is delicious. 
 
 SAVORY POTATOES 
 
 Peel and cut into small cubes eight large pota- 
 toes. Boil until tender in salted water, into which 
 you have stirred two stalks of celery, cut up small, 
 and half a minced onion. Drain the potatoes from 
 the water, and stir them into a cup-and-a-half of 
 white sauce, seasoning with salt and pepper. Turn 
 into a buttered pudding-dish and bake to a light 
 brown. 
 
 SCALLOPED SWEET POTATOES AND 
 BACON 
 
 Parboil and peel sweet potatoes. Chop six slices 
 of cold fried bacon small. Put the sliced potatoes 
 into a bake-dish, sprinkling them, as you proceed, 
 with the minced bacon. Sprinkle the top of the 
 potatoes with buttered crumbs, and pour a cupful 
 of soup stock over all. Bake for three-quarters of 
 an hour. 
 
XIII 
 
 Cooking of Dried and Smoked Meats 
 and Fish 
 
 Fresh meat is by no means an every-day affair in 
 the country or the village during the winter. The 
 butcher makes his rounds in the more closely set- 
 tled districts, but his visits are few and far between 
 in the farming regions when the drifts are high. 
 The farmer's family must fall back upon dried and 
 smoked meats and fish, and try to make these so 
 savory that the lack of fresh meat may not be too 
 much felt. 
 
 Not for a moment am I advocating meats and 
 fish preserved in this fashion as equal in digesti- 
 bility or nourishing qualities to the fresh products. 
 But when one can not get what one wants, it is the 
 part of wisdom to make the best of what one has, 
 and there is no sense in taking it for granted that 
 variety is impossible when one must rely upon 
 corned or smoked pork in some of its several forms, 
 and must make salt cod or finnan haddie or herring 
 take the place of fresh fish. 
 
 io8 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 109 
 
 STUFFED CORNED HAM 
 
 Soak a corned ham for several hours, putting it 
 into warm (not hot) water to soften a little. At 
 the end of the two hours, remove the bone with a 
 long, sharp knife, and fill the cavity thus left with 
 a stuffing made of bread-crumbs moistened with 
 soup stock or with hot water into which a great 
 spoonful of butter has been stirred. Season with 
 pepper, salt, onion- juice, and a dash of tomato cat- 
 sup. When the cavity is packed tightly with this 
 mixture, sew a piece of cheese cloth about the ham 
 and put over the fire in cold water. Bring slowly to 
 a boil and cook until done, allowing twenty minutes 
 to each pound of the meat. Let the meat get cold 
 in the liquor, then transfer to a platter, remove the 
 cloth, and cut off the skin carefully. Sprinkle wtih 
 pepper, and serve garnished with parsley. 
 
 ROAST HAM 
 
 Scrub a smoked ham well and soak all night, then 
 boil according to the foregoing recipe, skin, but do 
 not remove the bone. When thoroughly cold, rub 
 well with cooking sherry and put into a covered » 
 roaster. Make a paste of flour and water, and 
 plaster this thickly over the skinned side of the 
 
no " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 meat. Put in the bottom of the roaster a sauce 
 made of a gill of sherry, a cup of water, and a table- 
 spoonful of molasses. Cover the roaster, and cook 
 for half an hour, uncovering it half a dozen times 
 to baste with the liquid. At the end of half an 
 hour leave uncovered long enough to brown lightly. 
 Serve hot or cold. 
 
 APPLES AND BACON 
 
 Wipe off large pippins or other firm apples and 
 slice, but do not peel them. Fry in a pan a dozen 
 thin slices of bacon until crisp, then transfer to a 
 hot platter and keep warm in the open oven while 
 you fry the sliced apples in the bacon fat until 
 lightly browned. Put the apples in the center of 
 the platter, and arrange the slices of bacon around 
 them. 
 
 FRIED PORK WITH CREAM SAUCE 
 
 Soak salt pork for an hour, then cut into slices. 
 Boil for three minutes in a little water, drain, and 
 wipe dry. Place in a frying-pan and fry until 
 done, but not dried. Transfer to a hot dish, and 
 thicken the grease left in the pan with a tablespoon- 
 ful of flour. Stir until you have a smooth paste, 
 then pour on slowly a cup of cream to which a 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " iii 
 
 pinch of baking soda has been added, and stir to a 
 smooth white sauce. Season with a dash of pepper, 
 and pour over the sliced pork. Serve very hot. 
 
 SAUSAGE AND POTATO ROLL, BAKED 
 
 Fry sausage until done, then chop fine. Boil and 
 mash six potatoes, beating out all lumps ; add a cup 
 of milk, a teaspoonful of melted butter, and enough 
 salted flour to make a dough. Put upon a floured 
 pastry board, roll into a sheet, and place the 
 .sausage-meat in the center of the sheet. Roll the 
 dough up with the meat in the center, as one would 
 prepare a roly-poly pudding. Put in a baking-pan 
 brush with melted butter, and bake. Serve as soon 
 as done. 
 
 PORK AND BEANS WITH TOMATO 
 SAUCE 
 
 Soak a pint of beans all night in water that is 
 warm when poured over them. In the morning 
 boil until tender. Chop half a pound of parboiled 
 salt pork very fine. Make a tomato sauce by stir- 
 ring into a cup of tomato liquor from canned or 
 fresh tomatoes a tablespoonful of butter rolled in 
 one of flour, and, when this is thick, seasoning well 
 
112 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 with sugar and salt, and with onion- juice and pepper 
 to taste. 
 
 In the bottom of a deep baking dish put a layer 
 of the minced pork, then a thick layer of the beans, 
 and over these pour a little tomato sauce. Put in 
 more pork, more beans and more sauce, and pro- 
 ceed in this way until the dish is full. Sprinkle the 
 top of the mixture with very finely minced salt 
 pork. Add enough tomato- juice, poured in care- 
 fully, to prevent the contents becoming dry. Bake, 
 covered closely, for two and one-half hours, then 
 uncover and brown. 
 
 SALT PORK PIE 
 
 Soak a half pound of salt pork all night. In the 
 morning boil until done, putting in the cold water 
 which is poured over it a sliced onion and two sliced 
 turnips. Simmer until the onion is a soft pulp and 
 the turnips are very tender. Take out the pork and 
 cut into small dice, and strain out the onion and 
 turnips. Put a layer of the pork in a deep dish, 
 cover with a layer of sliced boiled potatoes, sprin- 
 kle these with bits of butter, and with a little flour 
 and salt and pepper to taste, then put in the sliced 
 turnips. Add enough of the liquor in which the 
 
LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 113 
 
 pork was boiled to fill the dish. Cover with a light 
 pastry and bake to a golden-brown. 
 
 BARBECUED HAM 
 
 Fry slices of boiled ham until done to the desired 
 crispness, then keep hot while you add to the fat in 
 the pan a teaspoonful of made mustard, a teaspoon- 
 ful of sugar, a wineglassful of vinegar and a dash 
 of pepper. Boil up and pour over the ham. 
 
 SCALLOP OF CORNED BEEF AND 
 CABBAGE 
 
 Chop fine enough cold corned beef to make a 
 pint. Chop an equal quantity of boiled cabbage. 
 Cook together a tablespoonful of butter and one of 
 flour and pour upon them a cup of tomato liquor. 
 Stir to a smooth sauce, and season with a half-tea- 
 spoonful of onion- juice, a little kitchen bouquet, and 
 a dash of pepper. Mix the cabbage and the corned 
 beef together, and stir the tomato sauce thoroughly 
 into them. Turn into a buttered pudding-dish, and 
 sprinkle with buttered crumbs. Set in the oven, 
 covered, for fifteen minutes, then uncover and 
 brown. Serve very hot. 
 
 FISH BALLS 
 
 Soak salt codfish overnight in cold water. Drain 
 
114 "LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 
 
 and put over the fire in cold water, and bring slowly 
 to a boil. Cook, changing the water once for fresh 
 hot water, for half an hour. Mash to a cream half 
 as much potato as you have fish, with a tablespoon- 
 ful of melted butter and one of cream. Mix in a 
 double boiler over the fire, that the mixture may get 
 very hot. Whip in gradually a well-beaten egg, 
 and beat hard for several minutes. Set aside until 
 cool, form into balls, and set on ice for an hour at 
 least before frying to a golden-brown in deep fat. 
 Drain in a heated colander. These are very good, 
 and much more delicate than the traditional " cod- 
 fish ball." 
 
 CREAMED CODFISH 
 
 Soak and boil the cod as directed in the foregoing 
 recipe, and flake to small bits with a silver fork. 
 Cook together a tablespoonful of butter with one 
 of flour, and pour upon them a cup of milk. Sea- 
 son with salt and pepper, and beat in, gradually, the 
 fish. Stir over the fire until heated through, then 
 serve on a platter and surround the mound of fish 
 with triangles of toast. 
 
 BROILED SALT MACKEREL 
 
 Soak the mackerel and wash well. Put over the 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 115 
 
 fire in cold water and bring to a boil; then change 
 the water for fresh, which should be boiling when 
 poured on. At the end of twenty minutes drain 
 the fish, and lay in a mixture of two parts salad oil 
 and one part vinegar or lemon-juice. Leave for 
 ten minutes, then broil over a clear fire. Serve 
 with a white sauce. 
 
 FINNAN HADDIE 
 This may be cooked according to the recipe for 
 broiled salt mackerel. 
 
 SCALLOPED CODFISH AND POTATOES 
 
 Mash enough potatoes to make a pint; soak, boil 
 and flake a pint of codfish. Make a white sauce, 
 and stir into a pint of this a cup of grated cheese. 
 Put a layer of the fish in a pudding dish, or in small 
 individual nappies, cover with a stratum of mashed 
 potatoes, and pour some of the white sauce over 
 this. Put in another layer of codfish, and another 
 of the potatoes, then more white sauce until the 
 dish is full. Strew grated cheese over the top 
 layer, which should be the cream sauce, and bake 
 for fifteen minutes, or until very hot. 
 
XIV 
 Hot Weather Suggestions 
 
 It is much easier to keep good-natured in cold 
 weather than in hot. One may be uncomfortable 
 in cold weather, but there is seldom the active irri- 
 tability present that there is when the thermometer 
 begins to soar. Sometimes it seems as if one's for- 
 titude and powers of endurance and self-control 
 had exuded with the perspiration, or as if they 
 were of those chemical compounds which evaporate 
 and disappear with a high degree of heat. 
 
 This would not be so bad if the capability for vig- 
 orous expression were to vanish with them; but 
 whereas the cold may have the effect of numbing 
 and checking the flow of eloquence, hot weather 
 seems to encourage an outpouring of language. The 
 woman who will attain a state of deadly quiet in a 
 zero temperature will express herself only too freely 
 when the nineties are reached. 
 
 I don't wish to condemn such persons. My heart 
 
 opens with unfeigned sympathy to those who detest 
 
 hot weather and whose tempers show this detesta- 
 
 ii6 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 117 
 
 tion by putting forth thorns. The cold blasts of 
 winter may not tend to amiability, but, compared 
 with the torrid breath of summer, they are as noth- 
 ing in the way of provocation of plain, old-fash- 
 ioned crossness. All the beauties of the green 
 things " agrowing and ablowing " can not make up 
 to some of us for the agonies of the heated term. 
 
 Since there has yet been no practical discovery 
 made by which the temperature may be lowered to 
 suit the tastes of the heat-haters, the only thing that 
 one who suffers from the excessive warmth can do 
 is to make an attempt to keep the temper, at least, 
 in cold storage. It doesn't sound like an easy feat, 
 perhaps — though it sounds easier than it is. Yet 
 this, or something like it, is the only means by which 
 one may render life tolerable to herself and to those 
 about her during the dog days. 
 
 In the first place, don't begin to lose your temper. 
 Avoid occasions of provocation. Stop arguments. 
 Don't put yourself into a position where you will be 
 subject to irritation. There is neither rhyme nor 
 reason in pleading " Lead us not into temptation," 
 and then putting a leading rope into the possession 
 of a person or of a set of circumstances ! 
 
 The housekeeper should make an especial study 
 
ii8 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 of hot-weather tactics. She should resolve to take 
 life coolly and not to do so much for her family 
 that she will be worn out and make them more un- 
 comfortable by her depression or crossness than she 
 has made them comfortable by her good cookery. 
 The much bepraised, much bejeered simple life 
 should be followed as far as possible. " Fussy " 
 dressing should be abjured. All living should be 
 done on the most agreeable plan. 
 
 I know this is against the principle, — and, alas ! 
 against the practice, — of our Puritan ancestors and 
 of too many of their descendants. But bear in mind 
 that, while it may be well enough to seek troubles 
 when you think life is too pleasant, you will have no 
 need of going in search of annoyance during the hot 
 weather. The summer insects, the summer heat and 
 the summer dust will provide you with a fine assort- 
 ment of trials while you wait. You need not go out 
 of your way to look for them. 
 
 This may seem like rank nonsense to the summer 
 worshipers, who are never happier than when the 
 mercury starts on a steady climb. How we others 
 envy them! But let me say to those thrice-fortu- 
 nate souls — and bodies : — Have patience with 
 those who are less lucky ! You may not be able to 
 
"LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 119 
 
 understand the peculiarly trying experience of wilted 
 collars, stringy, curlless hair, shining and moist face, 
 and perspiring body, but at least try to appreciate 
 what the effect of these must be upon the sufferers. 
 Make allowances for their irritability in hot weather. 
 Remove from them, as far as you can, occasions of 
 oflFense. Aid them to convert the hot-weather tem- 
 per into something less terrifying than it is in many 
 cases. Be indulgent to them and help them to keep 
 cool by encouraging them to be indulgent with them- 
 selves. 
 
 If you are a housekeeper seek means for keeping 
 the members of your family comfortable in the 
 summer. 
 
 Make your food simple. Try to establish for 
 your table a different standard than that of heavy 
 plenty. The merest tyro in dietetics knows that 
 meat and fats are not essential to the system during 
 the heated term. Most people understand, too, that 
 less food is needed when the mercury is in the nine- 
 ties than when it is hovering about the freezing 
 mark. 
 
 Don't overwork your digestion when it is so hot 
 that you spare the rest of your physical mechanism 
 as much hard labor as possible; and when you fill 
 
I20 "LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 
 
 your stomach give it something it can take care of 
 easily. The very indications of the season are so 
 many finger posts teUing what food is convenient for 
 us at this time of year. Now is the day and the 
 hour of fruits and vegetables. Never are they so 
 plentiful, so cheap, or so good as in midsummer, — 
 and this is an exception to the general rule that 
 makes things cheap and nasty or delicious and costly. 
 So, eat vegetables. I do not advise you to turn 
 vegetarian, for we are, as a rule, carnivorous enough 
 to crave a bit of meat for a relish, if no more. For 
 the benefit of those who think work can not be ac- 
 complished except upon a meat diet, no matter what 
 the season, I will repeat the statement of an expert in 
 dietetics, who informed me, a good deal to my dis- 
 comfiture, that one can work longer without getting 
 hungry on a meal of vegetables than on one of flesh. 
 The latter is rapidly digested, but a meal of vegeta- 
 bles is said to stay by the eater for six hours. I 
 dare say its abiding power varies with the rapidity or 
 slowness of the individual eater's digestive processes, 
 but the mere fact that it will linger by anyone for 
 that space of time is encouraging to those who ofifer 
 vegetables to their families in hot weather. There is 
 relief in the thought that one can supply craving na- 
 
"LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 121 
 
 ture and cut down the butcher's bills with the same 
 action. 
 
 Cook your vegetables carefully, as a matter of 
 course. Don't serve them watery and overdone. 
 Give a little attention to them and don't think that 
 anyone can cook vegetables. Anyone can't ! There 
 is as much difference between vegetables well cooked 
 and poorly cooked as betWeen steak or pastry under 
 similar conditions. It is worth while to add that 
 well-served vegetables demand so much butter in 
 their dressing that no one need be afraid of not re- 
 ceiving a sufficient proportion of fat in a vegetable 
 diet. 
 
 Study simplicity in the make-up of your meals. 
 Summer is not the season for long sessions at table 
 and for heavy course meals once you are there. 
 Have fruit a-plenty at breakfast, — berries, peaches, 
 pears, plums, and, above all, melons, which are the 
 best of breakfast fruits. Have a cereal and omit 
 meat altogether. Dwell lightly upon it at the later 
 meals. Use salads freely, and more fruit, as well 
 as the vegetables. I know of one family where a 
 regular dinner is abjured in summer, and in its place 
 are offered a substantial lunch at noon, and a heavy 
 supper at night. The plan may be worth trying. 
 
XV 
 Hot Weather Recipes 
 
 ICED AND JELLIED CHICKEN 
 BOUILLON 
 
 Cover a large jointed fowl with cold water. Set 
 at the side of the range where it will come slowly to 
 a boil, and simmer steadily for four hours. At the 
 end of that time, take from the fire, season with cel- 
 ery salt, onion juice, and white pepper and set away 
 to get very cold. Skim off all fat, and strain out 
 the bones and meat, and return to the fire with a 
 quarter-box of gelatine that has soaked for an hour 
 in a gill of cold water. As soon as the gelatine is 
 thoroughly dissolved, take the soup from the fire, 
 strain through a flannel jelly bag, and set aside to get 
 cool. When, cold, put in the ice chest. Serve this 
 jellied bouillon in chilled cups, laying a sprig of pars- 
 ley on each cup. Bouillon prepared and served in 
 this way is nourishing and palatable without being 
 heating. 
 
 ICED CLAM AND CHICKEN BOUILLON 
 
 This is a pleasant variation of the above recipe. 
 
 122 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 123 
 
 After carefully washing the shells of a dozen hard- 
 shelled clams, lay them in a stewpan, add a half gill 
 of scalding water, cover closely, and set at the side 
 of the range until the shells are wide open and the 
 clam juice flows freely. Strain this off, boil up 
 once, set aside until cold, and strain through cheese 
 doth. Set in the ice until very cold. Have ready 
 iced chicken bouillon made according to the forego- 
 ing recipe, omitting the gelatine. Stir the clam juice 
 into this, season to taste, and serve in chilled cups 
 with a heaping tablespoonful of whipped cream on 
 the surface of each cup. 
 
 CREAMED AND WHIPPED CODFISH 
 
 Flake into tiny bits enough cold boiled cod to 
 make two cupfuls of the fish. For this amount al- 
 low two cups of rich milk and one cup of cream. 
 Heat the milk and stir the fish gradually into it. 
 Bring to the scalding point, and whip in a heaping 
 tablespoonful of butter rubbed into one of flour. 
 Beat steadily until the fish becomes very thick, then 
 put in the cream, to which has been added a pinch 
 of baking soda. Stir until the boiling point is 
 again reached, take from the fire and whip hard for 
 a minute before pouring on rounds of heated toast 
 
124 "LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 
 
 from which the crust has been pared. Lay a slice 
 of hard-boiled egg on top of each mound of the 
 creamed fish. This is a delicious dish. 
 
 LOBSTER OR CHICKEN SOUFFLE 
 
 Into two cups of finely minced boiled salmon or 
 lobster, stir the whipped yolks of four eggs, a cup 
 of cream, and a teaspoonful of melted butter. Add 
 a dash of cayenne, salt to taste, and flavor with a 
 little lemon- juice. Beat hard for five minutes. 
 Have ready stiffened the whites of the eggs, fold 
 these in lightly and quickly, pour all into a buttered 
 pudding-dish and bake for half an hour in a steady 
 oven. Serve at once. 
 
 BROILED SARDINES 
 
 Select large, firm sardines for this dish. Drain 
 off the oil. Place the sardines on an oyster-broiler 
 and cook over a clear fire just long enough to heat 
 them through. Lay each sardine on a long and 
 narrow strip of toast that has been spread with an- 
 chovy paste. 
 
 CHEESE, RICE AND EGGS 
 
 Into a pint of rice, boiled so that every grain 
 stands separate, beat five eggs. Cook, stirring, for 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 125 
 
 three minutes. Whip to a light mass, season to 
 taste, turn into a hot dish and pour a white sauce 
 made thick with grated cheese over the mixture. 
 
 GREEN CORN OMELET 
 
 Grate the kernels from six ears of boiled corn. 
 Heat in a saucepan with a gill of milk and two ta- 
 blespoon fuls of melted butter. Take from the fire 
 and set aside to cool. When cold, beat into the 
 corn mixture the whipped yolks of five eggs, salt 
 and pepper to taste, and turn into a heated and 
 greased omelet pan, folding in the stiffened whites 
 just before doing this. Cook until set, then double 
 over and serve. 
 
 FRIED TOMATOES 
 
 Wipe, but do not peel, large tomatoes. Cut into 
 thick slices with a very sharp knife, sprinkle with 
 salt and pepper, dip in egg and then in cracker-dust, 
 and set in the ice chest for an hour before frying 
 in hissing butter. 
 
 STUFFED AND BAKED TOMATOES 
 
 Cut a slice off the stem end of large firm toma- 
 toes. Scoop out the inside, leaving a thick wall of 
 the tomato. Mix the pulp with half a green pep- 
 
126 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 per, chopped fine, a tablespoonful of rice, and salt 
 and pepper to taste. Return this mixture to the 
 tomatoes, and place a thick bit of cheese on the top 
 of the tomato. Bake until tender. The cheese 
 melting and running down into the tomato-mixture 
 imparts a delicious flavor. 
 
 ANCHOVY AND TOMATO TOAST 
 
 Toast slices of bread, spread thickly with an- 
 chovy paste or with minced anchovies. Place on a 
 hot dish and pour a well-seasoned tomato sauce 
 over all. 
 
 BAKED EGGPLANT 
 
 Boil an eggplant for fifteen minutes, drain, and 
 when cold, cut into halves, lengthwise, and scoop 
 out the insides. Chop the pulp and mix with it an 
 equal quantity of cold minced chicken, veal, or ham, 
 a handful of bread-crumbs, salt, pepper, celery salt 
 and lemon-juice to taste, and a generous spoonful 
 of melted butter. Mix thoroughly, return to the 
 halved vegetable, and cover the top with browned 
 crumbs. Put into a baking-pan, pour in seasoned 
 stock deep enough to come one- fourth up the side 
 of the eggplant, and bake for nearly an hour, bast- 
 ing frequently. Transfer to a hot dish, add onion- 
 
"LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 127 
 
 juice, salt and pepper to the sauce in the pan, thicken 
 with a brown roux, and pour about the eggplant. 
 
 BAKED CUCUMBERS 
 
 Wipe off large cucumbers, and split them from 
 end to end. Take out the pulp from the centers, 
 not stopping to reject the seeds. Put the pulp into 
 a chopping bowl and add half a tomato, one-half a 
 green pepper and seasoning to taste. Chop all very 
 fine, add a tablespoonful of buttered crumbs, and a 
 little melted butter. Return this mixture to the cu- 
 cumbers, place a bit of butter on the rounded top of 
 each, and bake for an hour. Serve, if you wish, 
 with melted butter sauce. 
 
 EGG AND ANCHOVY SALAD 
 
 Remove the skin from six anchovies. Peel and 
 cut into halves six hard-boiled eggs. Rub the an- 
 chovies to a paste with a little butter, and add the 
 yolks of the eggs. Season to taste, adding butter 
 or salad oil until you have a smooth, soft mass. 
 Roll this mixture into balls the size of egg-yolks 
 and replace these in the halved whites. Stand these 
 on end, heaping the anchovy mixture on them. 
 Place in a bed of crisp lettuce and serve with a 
 mayonnaise dressing. 
 
128 "LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 
 
 MIXED SALAD 
 
 Mix together a quarter cup of boiled and peeled 
 potatoes, cut into dice a quarter cup of turnips, pre- 
 pared in the same way, the same quantity of boiled 
 beets and celery, cut into small bits of uniform size, 
 and a half-cup of cold boiled peas and a half-cup 
 of string beans, cut into quarter-inch lengths. Stir 
 well together, add six stoned and chopped olives, 
 three small pickles, minced, and stir in a good 
 French dressing. Line a salad bowl with lettuce 
 and heap this mixture in the center. 
 
 TOMATO AND CRESS SALAD 
 
 Wipe lafge tomatoes and scoop out the insides. 
 To three parts of this pulp add one part of chopped 
 green peppers, from which all seeds and white 
 membrane have been removed, and two parts of 
 water cress that has been quickly broken, not 
 chopped, into tiny bits. Return this mixture to 
 the tomato shells, stand each tomato on a leaf of 
 lettuce, and pour a great spoonful of mayonnaise 
 over each. In the top of each tomato stick a sprig 
 of water cress. 
 
 ORANGE AND BANANA SALAD 
 
 Those who are fond of the sweet fruit salad now 
 
"LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 129 
 
 so popular will like the following combination : Peel 
 and slice four oranges and three bananas. Place in 
 a chilled bowl in alternate layers, and pour over 
 them a dressing made of a wineglassful of sherry, 
 two tablespoonfuls of Maraschino, three tablespoon- 
 fuls of powdered sugar, and, if it is wished, a little 
 lemon-juice. Decorate the dish with Maraschino 
 cherries. Serve at once. 
 
 PEACH WHIP 
 
 Soak a half-box of gelatine in a gill of cold water, 
 then cover with a cup of boiling water. Rub a 
 pint of stewed peaches through a sieve, and add the 
 liquor or syrup in which they were cooked. Stir 
 this into the dissolved gelatine, and flavor to taste 
 with lemon-juice. Set in the ice chest until thor- 
 oughly cold. As it begins to stiffen beaf in the 
 whipped whites of three eggs. When you have a 
 thick mass, turn into a mold wet with cold water, 
 and set in the ice until wanted. Serve with whipped 
 cream. This_ dessert may also be made of apricots 
 or any other stewed fruit. 
 
XVI 
 System in Housekeeping 
 
 This is the day of housekeeping made easy. The 
 old-fashioned housekeeper gasps with wonder when 
 she goes through a modern house-furnishing shop. 
 Everything seems to have been done to simpHfy 
 and adorn the work of keeping house, and a mere 
 man, or a woman lacking in experience, might 
 think the life of a home maker should be nothing 
 but a round of gayety and pleasure. 
 
 Yet with all this there seem to be no more hours 
 
 in a day than there were before so many of the 
 
 fairy tales of inventions were realized. There are 
 
 still hordes of women who do nothing but keep 
 
 house and never finish with that. Sometimes there 
 
 appear to be even more of them than in the days 
 
 before cookery by gas or electricity was heard of, 
 
 when meat-choppers, egg-beaters, cream-churns, 
 
 and all the other labor-savers were unknown. Still 
 
 is there an endless succession of tasks placed before 
 
 woman, and still she makes her plaint that while 
 
 130 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 131 
 
 men's work may end with set of sun, a woman's 
 work is never done. 
 
 It is very easy to declare what must be the fault 
 — to lay it to over-elaborateness of living, to an 
 eagerness to keep up with one's neighbors and to 
 get ahead of them, to raise a cry for enforcing sim- 
 plicity of life and discarding draperies, bric-a-brac, 
 course dinners, and afternoon tea. We all attempt 
 too much, — there is no doubt of that. Our desires 
 are larger than our abilities in most directions. And 
 yet, my own impression is that much of the hurried 
 and harassed character of the housekeeper's life is 
 due to the lack of system in planning work and exe- 
 cuting it. 
 
 There is nothing new in this suggestion. But 
 like a good many old truths, it will stand repetition. 
 I do not intend to weaken the suggestion by declar- 
 ing housekeeping to be an exact science. No 
 women that have ever kept house would believe me. 
 They know better. The Prayer-book phrase, 
 " Changes and chances of this mortal life," might 
 have been framed to apply to housekeeping. The 
 only other avocation that can compare with it is 
 that of the farmer, who must be dependent upon 
 the elements for the success of his harvest as much 
 
132 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 as upon the work he puts into it. He, too, may do 
 his utmost and have little to show for it. 
 
 One great objection to considering housekeeping 
 as a science is that in it so much allowance has to 
 be made for the human equation. Sometimes one 
 has to allow for two or three of them. When a 
 woman does all her own work she has to make pro- 
 vision only for her own physical and mental wear 
 and tear — and those of her family, — but when 
 she has to employ maids the situation becomes 
 complicated. 
 
 In spite of all the checks and disasters that are 
 almost bound to occur in every household sooner 
 or later, I still hold firmly to the faith that system, 
 more than anything else, will come nearest to solv- 
 ing the difficulties. Housekeeping cannot be con- 
 ducted to advantage on a hit-or-miss plan. " Let 
 us not anticipate " may be an admirable motto so 
 far as most of life's trials are concerned, but it 
 does not serve when one comes to housekeeping. 
 That is a section of existence in which intelligent 
 planning and fulfillment count for much. 
 
 The majority of American wives keep their own 
 houses — ^ when they do not board. A hired house- 
 keeper is an exception. The wife must have the 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 133 
 
 ends of all the threads in her hands, and must know 
 where each one leads. 
 
 There is little use in trying to lay down a stated 
 outline for keeping house. Each housekeeper must 
 work out her own salvation in the domestic line. 
 Now and then one meets a woman who was born 
 systematic, but many more have achieved system. 
 It is really not so difficult a business, after all, when 
 one goes about it in the right fashion. 
 
 One of the first things for the woman struggling 
 for system to do is to try to get the work of her 
 house in perspective. This is not easy. It is a 
 truism that women are lacking in a sense of propor- 
 tion, and it is not a simple matter for one of them 
 to get herself mentally far enough from her work 
 to decide the relative importance of each item. But 
 she must do it, if she is to develop her system of 
 work in the right way. She should mentally range 
 her duties in order, and divide them into what must 
 be done and what may be done if circumstances 
 permit. The first list will be long enough, but the 
 second will exceed it. The chief trouble with 
 housekeepers is that they get the items of the two 
 lists mingled and confused. 
 
 For instance: washing and ironing and baking 
 
134 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 and sweeping and scrubbing must be done. Enter- 
 taining and making fresh curtains and trying a new 
 kind of cake or salad may be done. The first can- 
 not be crowded out, except in extreme cases. The 
 second may be postponed, if necessary, without im- 
 periling the health and happiness of any member of 
 the family. 
 
 After the two sets of duties are tabulated with 
 tolerable correctness, comes the planning as to how 
 and when they shall be done. This is pleasanter 
 work than the first, but it takes a good deal of 
 thought. 
 
 Our duties must dovetail and fit into each other. 
 Certain things must be done early or they will be 
 an annoyance to us all day. Of these are dusting, 
 dish-washing, bed-making, and all the other neces- 
 sary straightening and putting to rights of the 
 house. To go at other work while these tasks are 
 undone is sure to make confusion. Yet in how 
 many homes do you see just this fault? The dishes 
 are left standing while some piece of fancy cooking 
 is undertaken, and I have even known homes where 
 the beds stood unmade while the mistress of the 
 house sat calmly down with a bit of sewing which 
 could just as well have waited until later. I do not 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 135 
 
 deny that there is a certain agreeable sense of lux- 
 ury and dissipation in doing this sort of thing — 
 just as there is in settling yourself to finish a thrill- 
 ing story or dip into a new magazine while there is 
 work waiting for you. But we are not talking of 
 what brings passing enjoyment, but of the true com- 
 fort that follows the practice of system. It is fun 
 to do the untimely things that are easy and pleas- 
 ant, but it is most tiresome to turn about after- 
 wards and dispose of the hard things. 
 
 The system that the housekeeper tries to practice 
 herself she should insist on with her servants. They 
 do not always take kindly to it, and very often life 
 is a good deal of a grind until they have been drilled 
 into the habits of the house. The line upon line 
 and precept upon precept principle must be followed 
 and the maid told daily, if needful, that she must 
 brush down the stairs, sweep out the halls, dust this 
 room or that, clean the bath-room, wash the dishes, 
 and do the bedroom work in a certain fixed se- 
 quence. To keep her in this, the mistress must be 
 rigorous with herself and go to the kitchen to in- 
 spect supplies and to give her orders at a stated time 
 each day. 
 
 Orderliness is a part of this same system. The 
 
136 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 rule of " a place for everything and everything in 
 its place " must be enforced. The maid must keep 
 her kitchen cupboards in as good order as her 
 china-closets, and if she does, in a little while she 
 will become so familiar with the location of each 
 utensil and each piece of china or glass that she 
 could find it in the dark. There should be no lib- 
 erty allowed of keeping a thing in one place at one 
 time and in another some other time. This may 
 seem a trifle, but all these trifles do their part in 
 creating an orderly and systematic habit of mind. 
 Do not permit the maid to leave the dishes standing 
 around after they have been washed, but teach her 
 that it is as essential to put these away as soon as 
 they are clean as it is for her to wash her dish 
 towels and hang them out to dry once a day or to 
 keep the sink spotless and odorless. 
 
 Try to cultivate system in your maid in other 
 ways. Impress it upon her that she must let you 
 know as soon as the supply of any article is ex- 
 hausted, and not wait till there is need for it again 
 before she discloses to you the fact that it is wanted. 
 To help her in this hang in your kitchen a small 
 pad of paper and a pencil, and instruct her that as 
 soon as she uses the last of any provision she is to 
 
"LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE'* 137 
 
 write the name of this on the slip, that it may serve 
 as a memorandum when you go to market. 
 
 If the maid's memory is poor, encourage her to 
 make notes of the items of the work she has to per- 
 form. In a way, this may not develop her memory 
 so well as charging her mind with the details, but 
 there are many of us whose remembrances need a 
 crutch now and then. One of the most competent 
 and systematic housekeepers I know makes out her 
 bills of fare for a week in advance, writes them 
 down and pins up the list in the kitchen pantry to 
 serve as a reference both for herself and for the 
 maid. This does not commend itself to me espe- 
 cially, in spite of my respect for the judgment of 
 this systematic friend. My own experience has 
 been that any plan for meals is modified greatly by 
 circumstances. One cannot always know how 
 much will be eaten of this or that, what will be left 
 over and may be used to supplement other pro- 
 visions. Still the plan is worthy of consideration. 
 
 There is an acknowledged system in the days and 
 seasons for performing certain duties. The first 
 two days of the week are for laundry work, some 
 sweeping is done on Wednesday, Thursday is 
 usually the maid's afternoon out, and the morning 
 
138 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 may be given to cleaning the silver and brasses. 
 Friday there is more sweeping to be done, and per- 
 haps washing of windows, while Saturday is given 
 over to finishing off undone cleaning and making 
 the house and the larder ready for Sunday. All or 
 any of these regulations the housekeeper may fol- 
 low or modify to suit her own convenience. The 
 only inevitable thing is that she must determine 
 upon some special routine of work, and having 
 adopted it, stick to it, unless there is some excellent 
 reason for changing. 
 
 I am not trying to put housekeepers into a tread- 
 mill or fit them in a machine from which they can- 
 not escape. I hold very strongly that the woman 
 should keep the house, and not the house the woman. 
 Yet I think that the practice of system, and a pretty 
 strict system, too, tends to make the care of the 
 house far less of a burden and exaction than the 
 happy-go-lucky, go-as-you-please plan — or lack of 
 plan — when the only thing that seems to be sure is 
 that much will be left undone until just the time 
 when one least wants to do it. 
 
 Once started in the path of system, the house- 
 keeper will find that her facility in simplifying and 
 classifying work grows. She will discover new 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 139 
 
 ways and means for making her work scientific and 
 orderly and for saving time. The planning ahead 
 is a great thing. The thrifty housekeeper does not 
 wait until she actually needs something before she 
 secures it, but sees that her life-boats and life-pre- 
 servers are in good working order while the fine 
 weather holds. 
 
 A forehanded housekeeper learns to make pro- 
 vision for emergencies. She carries into other 
 lines of housekeeping the principle of the old woman 
 who, when she lay dying, beckoned her daughter 
 to her and, as the mourner bent above her for a 
 parting message, whispered with her last breath, 
 "Always keep hot water in the kettle." (I won- 
 der what she would have said if she had known a 
 gas-stove!) The housekeeper with foresight is not 
 taken by surprise when emergencies present them- 
 selves. Perhaps she is like a clever woman I have 
 heard of who keeps an " emergency cupboard." 
 She lives at some distance from shops and she has 
 a cupboard stored with dainties that are never to be 
 used except in an emergency. Sardines are here, 
 and potted chicken and biscuits of various sorts, 
 and a jar or two of jelly and jam and good pre- 
 serves, and a small pot of cheese, and other things 
 
I40 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 that will help to make out a meal in case of unex- 
 pected guests. As soon as one of the articles has 
 been used it is immediately replaced, and the closet 
 is never invaded except for a real emergency. That 
 is a systematic woman! 
 
 Or the housekeeper of this type may show her 
 system in another way. She may plan her work 
 so as to do in odd moments the task that otherwise 
 she would have to set aside for a special season. 
 Such a woman takes advantage of a cool morning 
 when work is light to go into her kitchen and pre- 
 pare dainties that may be required at a future time. 
 She conducts her housekeeping on the plan that 
 was followed by Nicholas Nickleby when " he dis- 
 tended his stomach with a bowl of porridge — not 
 that he needed it now, but that he thought he might 
 need it later when he couldn't get it.'' So the 
 housekeeper makes pastry on Wednesday that she 
 may not need until pie-making time on Saturday, 
 and puts it away on the ice. Or she prepares may- 
 onnaise for a near future. She always has fondant 
 for icing on hand, and jars of white roux and 
 brown roux, so that she does not have to bother 
 with measuring out her butter and flour when she 
 is in a hurry for a white or brown sauce. She 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 141 
 
 makes maitre d'hotel butter, too, in advance, and 
 glaze, and lemon honey for filling layer cakes, and 
 caramel for coloring soups and gravies, and all the 
 other little adjuncts of delicate cookery. It would 
 be a good deal of an undertaking to give a couple 
 of days to the compounding of all these, but by her 
 system she is able to fit in half an hour there and 
 fifteen minutes somewhere else and thus see that 
 her larder is always kept supplied with these ar- 
 ticles. Yet she never misses the time she gives to 
 the work. 
 
 One woman I know puts up most of her jelly 
 in this way. She does her own work, and while 
 she is getting the breakfast she will slice a few ap- 
 ples and put them over the fire, or start to sim- 
 mering at the side of the stove a small amount of 
 grapes or berries, or whatever fruit is in season. 
 By the time she has eaten her breakfast and done 
 her dishes the fruit is ready to be put in the jelly- 
 press and she returns the juice to the fire, brings 
 it to a boil, adds the sugar, and has the jelly in the 
 glasses before the morning is much more than 
 fairly begun. She does not make more than two 
 or three or four glasses at a time. Sometimes it 
 is only a single glass made from fruit that is left 
 
142 "LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 
 
 over from a meal, which will not keep until the 
 next day. But little by little she does it, and by 
 the end of the fruit season she has a good array 
 of jams and jellies on her pantry shelves, and they 
 have all come there a few at a time. 
 
 This same kind of system enables its possessor 
 to spare herself in a multitude of ways. If she 
 is to have company for dinner she plans the meal 
 so that she can make many of the preparations 
 early in the day and allow herself to rest in the 
 afternoon and come fresh to the table. There are 
 always things that cannot be done until the last 
 moment, but that is all the more reason for getting 
 the others out of the way betimes. We have heard 
 of that dinner at which the first course was " hot 
 hostess," and many of us have been at such func- 
 tions. There is a different kind of an appetizer at 
 the dinner of the systematic housekeeper. 
 
 One does not achieve a perfect method in a mo- 
 ment, and as I have said before, there is always 
 the personal equation to be reckoned with. Maids 
 will fall sick or lose relatives or become recalci- 
 trant. Accidents will occur now and then. But 
 with system even these tribulations may be reduced 
 to a negligible quantity. Possibly not the least 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 143 
 
 valuable part of system is the eflfect it has upon its 
 possessor in the way of enabling her to keep a 
 calmness of spirit and a control of nerves in the 
 face of contretemps. 
 
XVII 
 
 Home-made Aids to House- 
 keeping 
 
 The chapter upon " Systematizing the House- 
 keeping " mentions a number of articles the 
 housekeeper may prepare in odd moments. It is 
 one thing to read over a list of such things; it is 
 quite another to know how to prepare them. The 
 average housekeeper is the possessor of one, pos- 
 sibly two, or even three cook-books. To these she 
 flies when the unfamiliar dish is prescribed. If 
 she fails to find it in one of these volumes, she 
 is absolutely at a loss. For most women have not 
 yet formed the habit of going to a reference li- 
 brary to hunt up this or that unusual recipe from 
 the cook-books marshaled there. 
 
 The most up-to-date cook-books contain many of 
 
 the small foreign adjuncts to cookery that are so 
 
 essential to the housewife who desires to set on 
 
 small means a " dressy table," as I once heard a 
 
 woman call it. The adjective did not apply to the 
 
 144 
 
"LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 145 
 
 literal table, but to the menu that included entrees 
 and made dishes. For the proper compounding 
 of these the housekeeper must have a store of con- 
 diments in her pantry — not only the articles she 
 buys at the fancy grocery, but those she can make 
 herself in the odd moments above referred to. 
 They are real labor and time-savers in the end, 
 and if she prepares them one or two at a time, she 
 never misses the minutes she puts into them — ' and 
 it costs far less to make them than to buy them. 
 
 Prominent among the aids to housekeeping come 
 the white and the brown roux. 
 
 To make the first of these, which is more popu- 
 larly known as " white thickening," melt together 
 half a pound each of butter and flour in a porce- 
 lain-lined saucepan, stirring them constantly to pre- 
 vent scorching. As soon as the mixture is hot 
 through, and well blended — as it will be if the 
 stirring is unremitting, — pack it into small jars; 
 cover these to keep out the dust and set in a cool 
 place. Jelly-glasses with tops are excellent to keep 
 it in. When you wish a white sauce, all you have 
 to do is to take two tablespoonfuls of this roux, 
 put it into a half-pint of milk over the fire, and 
 stir until the sauce is the consistency of double 
 
146 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 cream. Season with salt and white pepper. To 
 make it a Httle richer stir in a tablespoonful of but- 
 ter just before the sauce goes to table. 
 
 A brown roux is made with the same proportions 
 of butter and flour, but the mixture is stirred un- 
 til it is of a bright brown. It is then put away 
 as the white roux has been. This rouXj or " brown 
 thickening," is used as the white roux would be, 
 except that it is dissolved in a half-pint of broth 
 or of meat stock, instead of in milk. Suitable 
 seasonings, such as onion- juice, catsup, and the 
 like, can be added to taste. 
 
 Sometimes the gravy made in this fashion is not 
 the rich brown one desires. To produce this color 
 it is well to have a little caramel coloring at hand. 
 To prepare it put in a small granite saucepan over 
 the fire three tablespoonfuls of water with six of 
 granulated sugar. Boil them quickly for ten min- 
 utes. At the end of this time the compound will 
 become yellow, and then go to brown and black. 
 When it is very black and looks like molasses, pour 
 into it two-thirds of a cup of boiling water and stir 
 until it is dissolved. There will be more or less 
 sputtering at first, but when this has quieted down 
 let the mixture boil to a syrup, and bottle it. A 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 147 
 
 few drops of this will color a gravy a shade of deep 
 brown, and the caramel will keep for any length of 
 time. Because of the sputter and smell of burnt 
 sugar it is well to make it when company is not im- 
 mediately expected. 
 
 Tomato paste is another good thing to have in 
 the house, and may be made when tomatoes are 
 plenty. Half a peck of tomatoes, a carrot, and an 
 onion may be sliced together, and to them is added 
 a good-sized bunch of celery cut into pieces, leaves 
 as well as stalks. Boil all very slowly until they 
 are a soft paste that can be put through a vege- 
 table-press. Return this pulp to the fire with a 
 tablespoonful of salt and a teaspoonful of black pep- 
 per, and cook slowly once more until a little spread 
 to cool in a saucer thickens to a jelly. Spread it 
 out on pie-plates in layers about half an inch 
 thick and let it dry in the sun or in a cool oven. 
 When it is dry it may be packed in boxes or wide- 
 mouthed jars. To use, cook together a tablespoon- 
 ful each of butter and flour until they bubble, pour 
 half a pint of water upon them, with a piece of the 
 paste about three inches square, and stir until the 
 sauce is thick and smooth. Or make the sauce 
 with the roux, as described above, and add the to- 
 
148 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 mato paste to it. A little seasoning may be re- 
 quired. 
 
 Celery vinegar is often useful for sauces. Put 
 half a pound of celery seed and a teaspoonful of 
 salt into a pint of good vinegar, bottle, and cork 
 the bottle, and let it stand for about a month. At 
 the end of that time the vinegar may be poured off 
 and will be ready for use. 
 
 Bread crumbs are often prepared in advance, by 
 grating stale bread and packing the crumbs away 
 in jars. But not every one knows that bread may 
 be cut into dice or into small fancy shapes for soup, 
 dried slowly in a cool oven, and if put away in a 
 tightly closed jar or tin box, will keep for a month 
 in cool weather. 
 
 The housekeeper who has a kitchen garden — 
 and I have known of women who conducted a 
 quite successful herb-garden in a box on a window- 
 sill — need not be dependent upon the put-up herbs 
 for seasoning. The herbs she raises are much 
 more pungent if she will dry them, and when thor- 
 oughly dry crumble them up and pack them in air- 
 tight receptacles. Fresh mint may be put away to 
 dry when it is plentiful, and if kept in a closed 
 glass jar will serve as well as the fresh mint when 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 149 
 
 this is out of the market or is sold at out-of-season 
 prices. 
 
 Maitre d'hotel butter is an excellent stand-by for 
 the housekeeper who wishes a sauce in a hurry. 
 For this a half-pound of good butter is needed, a 
 tablespoonful of fresh parsley, chopped, a small 
 tablespoonful of lemon-juice, and a little salt and 
 white pepper. All are mixed together and then 
 packed into a jar. The jars in which Dundee mar- 
 malade comes are good for this, as well as for the 
 rouXy because of their wide tops. This butter is 
 a delicious addition to fish of any kind, to potatoes 
 boiled and served whole or sliced, to stewed po- 
 tatoes. A tablespoonful of it may be put upon any 
 of these or upon a steak. If the same quantity 
 is put with an equal quantity of flour and stirred 
 into a cup of hot milk or hot water, it makes an 
 excellent sauce. A pretty way to serve it with 
 fish is to pack it into halved lemon rinds from which 
 the pulp has been scooped out. These are laid 
 about the dish of fish and serve as a garnish. One 
 is given with each portion of fish. 
 
 For the benefit of those who are fond of good 
 gravies and do not always have stock in the house, 
 it is well to prepare a supply of glaze. This is a 
 
ISO " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 little troublesome, but it is cheaper in the end than 
 any good meat extract. Four pounds of leg of 
 beef and three pounds of knuckle of veal will be 
 demanded to make a good stock. Cut the meat in 
 pieces about the size of an egg and put with them 
 half a pound of ham, cut up small. Take a large 
 pot or preserving-kettle, which will hold at least 
 two gallons, rub the bottom of it with a half cup of 
 butter, and then put in the meat with one cupful of 
 water, a small head of celery, a carrot, a turnip, 
 and a couple of onions. Set the pot over a hot fire 
 and stir for a while. When the bottom of the pot 
 is covered with a thick glaze which sticks to the 
 spoon, fill it up with cold water and bring this to a 
 boil. After this point is reached move the pot over 
 a slow flame, if you are cooking with gas; to the 
 back of the stove, if you burn coal. It should sim- 
 mer very slowly for about five hours, the scum that 
 comes to the top being removed with a spoon. 
 
 There is now in the pot an excellent stock, but 
 it must be still further reduced for glaze. The 
 liquor must be poured from the meat and strained, 
 and the meat again covered with water. It should 
 be hot this time, and must boil five hours longer. 
 At the end of that time the first and the second 
 
"LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 151 
 
 stock may be strained together into a clean pot, 
 and boiled hard until reduced to three pints. It 
 should be stirred once in a while and skimmed. 
 Take it off once more, put it into another pot, and 
 boil down to a quart, cooking slowly now. When 
 this point is reached boil it more quickly again, 
 stirring it steadily until it begins to thicken and 
 turn yellow-brown. Watch that it does not scorch. 
 Reduce to a pint. The glaze thus made may be 
 kept in jars for use. A little of it added to a cup 
 of boiling water and seasoned makes a gravy, a 
 larger portion dissolved in hot water and thickened 
 with rice or sago or vermicelli makes a good broth. 
 As I have said — and shown, — it is troublesome 
 to prepare, but it is a comfort when it is done. It 
 will keep almost indefinitely. 
 
 Fondant for icing cakes or for home-made 
 French candies will also keep indefinitely, and is 
 little trouble to make, beyond the vigilance it re- 
 quires, and care in noting the exact stages of the 
 cooking. 
 
 Into a porcelain-lined or granite saucepan put 
 a pound of granulated sugar and a half a pint of 
 water and bring it to a boil. Do not stir. When 
 it has boiled about ten minutes, test a little of it 
 
152 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 in a cup of iced water. When it gets to the point 
 that you can take the deposit that falls to the bot- 
 tom of the water and make it into a ball that will 
 not stick to your fingers, it is at the right stage. 
 Take it from the fire and set in a cool place. If 
 the sugar ball is brittle, it has boiled too long; you 
 must put a little water in with it and then try it 
 again. If it is at the right stage set it aside to 
 cool, as I have said, and when it is blood-warm 
 begin to stir it with a spoon or paddle. It will 
 become white and soft, and you can handle it as 
 though it were pastry. This can be kept until it 
 is needed. To use it for icing, put some of the 
 fondant in a small bowl, set this in an outer vessel 
 of boiling water, and let it melt to the proper con- 
 sistency for icing the cake. Flavor it and color it 
 as you like. 
 
 Bear in mind that when fondant is heated a sec- 
 ond time it hardens much more quickly than it did 
 the first time, and keep it very hot until you are 
 entirely ready to use it. 
 
 Pastry will not keep as long as the preparations I 
 have already mentioned, and yet it may be kept 
 for from a week to ten days, or even more, in very 
 cold weather or on the ice. A fine pastry which 
 
"LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 153 
 
 contains only butter for shortening is the best, and, 
 although it is expensive, there are many who 
 think it better worth while to have it seldom and 
 to have it really good. 
 
 For pastry of any sort all the ingredients and 
 the utensils must be ice-cold, and if the mixing 
 can be done in a very cool room, so much the bet- 
 ter. A marble-slab is admirable for pastry; when 
 this is not attainable the zinc top of a table is the 
 next choice. If the ordinary pastry-board is em- 
 ployed, leave it in the ice-box for several hours 
 before using. 
 
 Put a pound of flour and three-quarters of a 
 pound of butter together into your chopping-bowl, 
 which should be as cold as the board. Qiop them 
 with a chilled chopping-knife until the butter is 
 in bits about the size of a green pea. When this 
 stage is reached, make a hole in the center of the 
 flour and butter, in which put a small cup of iced 
 watec. Mix with the chopping-knife, lightly, to 
 a stiff paste. When just mixed, turn out on the 
 board. If some of the bits of butter are not 
 blended, never mind; put them all out together. 
 They will mix in when you roll the paste. Roll it 
 with the rolling-pin, which should be as cold as 
 
154 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 everjd;hing else, into an oblong sheet, pressing it 
 lightly. Fold the sheet in three, turn it with the 
 end towards you and roll it again. Repeat this 
 process three times, always turning the end of the 
 roll towards you. Set it on the ice then until ready 
 for use. When that time comes, cut it with a 
 sharp knife, roll it slightly, and never let it get so 
 warm that the butter appears soft and oily. 
 
 This is known as rough puff paste and is almost 
 equal to the fine French puff paste. 
 
 Mayonnaise is so simple a thing to make that 
 one marvels it should be considered a task by many. 
 For this, too, everything used in mixing should be 
 ice-cold. Divide the white and yolk of an egg, 
 putting the yolk into a soup-plate. Put with it a 
 good pinch of salt and one of mustard and the juice 
 of a lemon. Begin stirring into this with a fork, 
 your salad oil, a drop at a time. Continue this for 
 several minutes, until the sauce begins to thicken. 
 You may then add the oil more rapidly, until you 
 are stirring it in by the teaspoonful. If the may- 
 onnaise becomes too thick to stir well, put in a 
 few drops of vinegar and reduce it to the right 
 consistency. Continue in the same way until you 
 have the desired amount of mayonnaise. One tgg 
 
"LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 155 
 
 will take a pint of oil. Should the mayonnaise 
 curdle before it is done, stir a piece of ice in with 
 it and it will probably come back to the right state. 
 If not, set the dish aside, take another egg, and 
 begin again from the beginning. When the second 
 stock is thick, work the curdled mayonnaise into it. 
 
 Just before serving beat the white of the egg 
 stiff and stir it into the mayonnaise. Do not do 
 this to the portion you expect to keep. You may 
 increase the original stock by adding more oil if 
 you need it. Mayonnaise dressing will keep for 
 a week on the ice. Sometimes it thins a little by 
 keeping, and in this case more oil can be worked in. 
 
 A good cake filling that will keep is the old-fash- 
 ioned preparation known as lemon honey, or lemon 
 butter. The yolks of three eggs are needed 
 for this, and the white of one, the juice and rind 
 of a large lemon, half a pound of sugar, and three 
 large tablespoonfuls of the best butter. The salt 
 must be washed from the butter, in the first place, 
 and then it is put into the saucepan with the sugar, 
 and melted. The eggs are beaten light, the grated 
 lemon peel and the juice put with them, and all 
 mixed together over the fire until of the consistency 
 of very thick cream. It must be watched to keep 
 
iS6 "LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 
 
 it from scorching. This may be put aside and 
 kept for some time, to be used as cake filling when 
 required. 
 
 Quince honey is also a good cake filling. Peel 
 and grate two good-sized quinces. Cook together 
 a pound of sugar and a pint of water until they 
 reach the state at which you take fondant from 
 th^ fire. (See previous page.) Add the quince 
 and boil, stirring constantly, for twenty minutes. 
 
 Tutti-frutti filling is too little known. For this 
 the tutti-frutti preserves, made by putting down 
 fruits of different sorts in alcohol with sugar, are 
 used. The fruits are chopped fine and then put 
 over the fire and boiled down to a thick syrup. 
 This makes a delicious filling, and is so rich that it 
 can be used with a very simple cake and yet be 
 suitable for a rather elaborate occasion. 
 
 A caramel filling may be prepared from fondant 
 by adding the burnt sugar, or caramel, made as 
 described above, to the fondant after this is re- 
 heated. Only a few drops will be needed to pro- 
 duce the desired color and flavor. As the fondant 
 hardens more with every heating, it is well to 
 soften it with the addition of a little boiling water 
 when it is to be employed for cake filling. 
 
"LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 157 
 
 It may be of interest to housekeepers to know 
 how to compound the tutti-frutti, referred to 
 which may be put up at almost any season of the 
 year. In summer berries may go into it, — straw- 
 berries, raspberries, blackberries, cherries, and sec- 
 tions of firm white peaches. In winter it may 
 be made of pineapple cut into dice, of divided sec- 
 tions of orange and mandarins or tangerines, white 
 and Tokay grapes. If you wish the two varieties, 
 summer and winter fruits may be combined. 
 
 Whatever the fruit it should be put into self- 
 sealing jars with broad tops, four tablespoon fuls 
 of sugar allowed to each quart jar, and this sprin- 
 kled over each layer of fruit. When this has been 
 done, the jar may be filled to the top with white 
 preserving brandy, pouring it in slowly enough to 
 allow it to filter into every crevice. Screw down 
 the tops and set the jars in a cool closet. The con- 
 tents will not be ready for use until they have 
 seasoned for several weeks. 
 
XVIII 
 
 Home Dinners Without a 
 Servant 
 
 The woman who does her own work has this 
 great boon — she is not dependent upon the moods 
 and tenses of servants. She can do as she pleases 
 in her own house without fear of trouble. Should 
 she choose to permit one member of the family 
 to breakfast late, or should she wish to have dinner 
 at an uncanonical hour she is not tormented by 
 the reflection that Bridget or Gretchen or Chloe 
 may be put out. Literally as well as figuratively 
 she is mistress in her own house. 
 
 Of course there are drawbacks to this state of 
 affairs. There are to most human conditions. It 
 is not always pleasant to have to get dinner on the 
 hot days, or to wash dishes when one is tired, or 
 to feel that if one is forced to stop through fa- 
 tigue or indisposition ever)rthing else about the 
 house stops too. But the marvelous law of com- 
 pensation works here, as everywhere else, and for 
 
 158 
 
"LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 159 
 
 my own part I don't think that the woman who 
 does her own work is an object of pity on that 
 ground alone. It would be melancholy if she were, 
 since there are nearly ninety-five per cent, of her 
 in the United States against the small remaining 
 fraction who hire help. 
 
 The woman who does her own work is wise 
 when she establishes conventions of her own and 
 says she will live as she pleases. I know one such 
 woman. She is a good housekeeper and a thrifty, 
 for she has to consider the dollars-and-cents ques- 
 tion very carefully. But she feels that she is of 
 more importance than rules and regulations laid 
 down for the use of those who have servants at 
 their command, and she rules her own home in 
 accordance with her theories. A happy home it 
 is, too, and one to which guests are always wel- 
 comed, with no word of apology for things being 
 a little different from what they are in some other 
 homes. Never had she a guest, to my knowledge, 
 who did not enjoy the difference and find it a cause 
 for praise and not for criticism. 
 
 To begin at the beginning, she does not have 
 the conventional breakfast. The family are fond 
 of fruit, and this, with a cereal, a cup of good 
 
i6o " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 cofifee, rolls, and bacon or eggs cooked in some sim- 
 ple way satisfy their needs for this meal. When 
 summer fruit is plenty breakfast will consist of 
 this, bread and butter, and cofifee for the grown- 
 ups, with milk and a cereal besides for the chil- 
 dren. These, by the way, are taught from the first 
 that part of the work of the house is as much theirs 
 as other portions are the share of their mother, and 
 they bear their part of the burden as a matter of 
 course and cheerfully, with no thought that they 
 are being imposed upon or overtasked. 
 
 The mother's morning is pretty busy, because 
 she has not only most of the work of the house 
 to do after the children are off for school, but some- 
 times, because she was tired the night before or 
 something interesting presented itself, she put most 
 of the dinner dishes in hot water, after scraping 
 them, covered them, and left them. The silver was 
 washed and put away, but the bulk of the dishes 
 were left to be done when she felt fresh and bright 
 and ready for her day's work. She is systematic 
 about her employments, too, in the line of sweep- 
 ing, cleaning, etc., but she tries to take things as 
 they come and not to worry. Lunch for the chil- 
 dren when they come home from school at noon is 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " i6i 
 
 plain and substantial, and her dinners are not the 
 function one usually associates with the name. If 
 she has stock in the house or if her meat course is 
 light, she serves soup, but if not she has her meat 
 course without preface, accompanying the meat 
 with a couple of vegetables and following it some- 
 times with a sweet — preferably fresh fruit — 
 sometimes with a salad, crackers, and cheese. On 
 rare occasions she may have all three courses, and 
 a cup of coffee invariably finishes the meal. What- 
 ever else she may have to economize upon, she in- 
 sists upon good food and abundance of it for her 
 household. There is never any omission of the 
 niceties of serving or arrangement, and the impres- 
 sion made upon the visitor is one of simple and 
 elegant plenty. 
 
 Granting that circumstances alter cases and that 
 the same rule cannot be followed by all house- 
 keepers, it may still be asserted that the woman 
 who gives to her home-making the careful thought 
 most women would bestow upon planning impor- 
 tant additions to their wardrobes, can make far 
 more of it and accomplish her duties with more 
 ease and success than the woman who runs her 
 house in haphazard fashion. Such thought and 
 
1 62 "LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 
 
 care may possibly be omitted by the woman who 
 has service at her command, although that they are 
 necessary in her case also is proved by the experi- 
 ence of every woman at the head of a domestic 
 force. But planning which will simplify her labors 
 and give her a degree of self-confidence that will 
 connote poise and ease of mind is indispensable to 
 the woman who does her own work. 
 
 The chief problem that comes to a housekeeper 
 in the daily round of her duties is dinner, as a 
 matter of course. Not a formal dinner — that 
 she may renounce as beyond her scope in existing 
 conditions — but the regular evening meal. 
 Breakfast is in most houses more or less of a scram- 
 ble, and melancholy as this may be, it is as true in 
 houses where there are competent servants as in 
 the homes without them. In the millennium it is 
 to be hoped that each member of a family will 
 breakfast apart, but until that longed-for period 
 one must resign one's self to a certain amount of 
 friction at the morning meal, or if not to friction, to 
 labored cheerfulness and obvious patience. Lunch- 
 eon, too, is an informal repast with, at its best, a 
 spice of picnic thrown in. 
 
 But dinner! Here at least the household must 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 163 
 
 gather about itself what shreds of dignity it pos- 
 sesses, and try to compass a meal that shall not be 
 altogether unworthy of the distinguished name of 
 dinner. And I contend that this is as possible in 
 a household where no maid is employed as in one 
 presided over by a butler — if only one goes about 
 it in the right way. 
 
 In the first place, however the bill of fare may 
 depart from the conventions, there must be no such 
 departure in the spreading of the table. The spot- 
 less linen, the shining glass, silver, and china, must 
 be as carefully arranged for the entirely domestic 
 meal as for that to which guests are expected. 
 When feasible there should be flowers or at least 
 a growing plant in the middle of the table. No 
 liberties or carelessness may be permitted with the 
 stage-setting. The first look at the table should 
 produce the impression of an orderly and dignified 
 occasion. 
 
 The same orderliness and dignity should con- 
 tinue throughout the meal. Since there is no maid, 
 the dishes for each course must all be put on the 
 table at once, instead of having the vegetables on 
 the side-table. But this was the universal custom 
 years ago, and is still followed by preference in 
 
i64 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 many homes where there are attendants to pass the 
 dishes. The meat in front of the carver, each 
 vegetable near some one who will serve it, a piece 
 of bread and a butter-ball on each bread-and-but- 
 ter plate, gravy or sauce, pickles or relishes, may all 
 be in place when the family comes in. 
 
 Once assembled and seated, a like orderliness 
 should be adhered to in serving the food. If 
 everything is on the table as it should be, there will 
 be no need for constant jumping up to repair de- 
 ficiencies. Nothing is more disturbing to the calm 
 that should wait upon digestion than such irregu- 
 larities. The butter has been forgotten and one 
 person rushes to the refrigerator. There are not 
 enough tablespoons and a relief expedition flies to 
 the silver-drawer. The vinegar-cruet is empty and 
 a third member of the family vanishes into the 
 pantry. We have all of us known such dinner- 
 tables and our gastronomic memories hold them in 
 bitter souvenir. 
 
 It is all so unnecessary! Thought and planning 
 can soon make second nature of the habit of put- 
 ting on the table in advance all that is likely to be 
 required, and when this has been done the meal 
 may progress in as pleasing a peace as would be 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " i6^ 
 
 possible with trained service. It does the different 
 members of the family no harm to wait on one an- 
 other, and arouses in them a quickness to notice 
 and anticipate the wants of others that is conspicu- 
 ously absent from the manners of those who have 
 always been served by attendants. 
 
 When the table is not large enough to accom- 
 modate without crowding the dishes that will be 
 needed at the meal, a serving-table may be pressed 
 into use and on this may be the overflow supply. 
 Here, too, may be the pitcher of water, the plates 
 for the salad or the dessert, with finger-bowls and 
 doilies complete, the vinegar and oil cruets when 
 these will be needed in preparing the salad dressing, 
 the after-dinner coffee cups and saucers and sugar- 
 bowl, and any other adjuncts which it is well to 
 have near the hand of the mistress of the house. 
 
 When the time comes to change the plates — 
 for no lack of service must be permitted to inter- 
 fere with the sequence of courses — the work 
 should be deputed to one member of the family. 
 The quiet of the earlier part of the meal should not 
 be rudely dispelled by permitting half the persons 
 at the table to be on their feet at once. If there 
 are daughters in the household each may take her 
 
1 66 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 turn at removing the plates, brushing the crumbs 
 from the cloth, and bringing in the next course. 
 Should there be only boys, it will do them no harm 
 to gain a little dexterity in the details of housekeep- 
 ing. Such instruction will cause their future wives 
 to arise and call the mother-in-law blessed. Or if 
 the task of changing the plates devolves upon the 
 mistress of the house she may do it with as much 
 calm and dignity as she would display in a less 
 homely occupation. She could arrange flowers or 
 fruit or dispense afternoon tea to guests with no 
 embarrassment or attempt at apology. Why 
 should she not clear her table with equal grace? 
 
 Again let me emphasize the importance of every- 
 thing being managed with the same precision when 
 the family is alone as when guests are expected. 
 In this manner only can the housekeeper be sure 
 that when company comes she will not be taken at 
 a disadvantage. 
 
 The woman who does her own work is some- 
 times in danger of gliding into an attitude of 
 shrinking from guests. Very mistakenly she feels 
 that when she cannot offer the perfection of em- 
 ployed service to her friends she does not care to 
 ask them to her table. Thus the man of the house 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 167 
 
 too often has to renounce the privilige, dear to his 
 heart, of bringing home a chance guest. When 
 young and inexperienced he cherishes the illusion 
 that he can do this at any time without warning, 
 and it takes a 'series of bitter lessons to convince 
 him that he is not free in this regard, and that 
 even if he sends word to his wife that one of his 
 old college friends has happened in and that he is 
 bringing him out to dinner he may be making a 
 terrible blunder. 
 
 It is always a pity when this stage is reached. 
 The man who comes to the point where he is 
 afraid to invite a friend home with him when he 
 pleases has lost something besides the privilege. 
 A certain degree of confidence in his wife's ability 
 to meet emergencies, in her eagerness to give him 
 pleasure, is gone. I say this without any wish to 
 minimize the inconveniences it often causes a wife 
 to have sudden guests, whether announced an hour 
 in advance or entirely unheralded. Yet, after all, 
 it is not such a calamity to have to share with a 
 friend that which the housekeeper has considered 
 good enough for her own, and it is ten to one that 
 if the guest is made welcome and given to feel that 
 his coming brought pleasure and bothered no one 
 
i68 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 he will be as well pleased as if his visit had been 
 planned for days ahead. 
 
 The woman who gives her husband the right — ■ 
 which should have been his already — to bring 
 home a friend when he pleases should have an 
 emergency cupboard to which she can turn if the 
 provision that was enough for six should seem slim 
 for seven. In this closet may be tinned soups that 
 need only heating and a little seasoning to be ready 
 for the table, a few cans of good fish, meat, and 
 preserves, jars of fancy cheeses, a supply of crack- 
 ers, olives, and a few other things whose addition 
 to the table will help out a plain meal. She may 
 seldom have to draw upon this stock, but the knowl- 
 edge that it is there will be a comfort to her. In 
 any case let her avoid the pitfall of apologies. 
 Their usual effect is to indicate faults or omissions 
 to a guest who never would have perceived them 
 had not the luckless excuse for their existence 
 forced them upon his attention. 
 
 A valuable aid in the housekeeping of the woman 
 with no servant is a selection of dishes for keeping 
 food hot. There are many of these. The chafing- 
 dish first — not only the one used for table cook- 
 ery, but the old-fashioned hot-water dish whose 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 169 
 
 chief function is a heat-preserver. This has a 
 cover, of course, and is usually large enough to hold 
 a medium-sized roast, to say nothing of steak or 
 chops. Next come the casseroles, of which there 
 are many styles and sizes. Some are much orna- 
 mented, others plain, and they may be used not only 
 for the preparation of food en casserole, but also 
 as bake-dishes for vegetables and puddings. Also 
 there are plates especially for hot breads, consist- 
 ing either of covers fitted over plates or else with 
 a hot-water reservoir in the lower part. These 
 may in a measure take the place of a servant in sup- 
 plying hot food to the family without hired service. 
 
XIX 
 
 Entertaining Without Service 
 
 The woman with one maid or no maid at all may 
 feel that she is debarred from dinner-giving. Or 
 she may feel that the trouble of the dinner out- 
 weighs the pleasure she grants or gains. The 
 luncheon, the supper, or the afternoon tea fits so 
 well into her capabilities as to kindle or strengthen 
 in her heart a belief in special Providence. 
 
 With these forms of entertaining, as with the 
 dinner, the preparation is much what the hostess 
 chooses to make it. I have spoken before of the 
 tendency to simplify meals. The rule which pre- 
 vails at dinners extends to luncheons. I have in 
 mind lunch-parties I have met where course after 
 course succeeded one another — appetizer, bouillon, 
 fish, entree, piece de resistance, more entrees, sor- 
 bet, game, salad, sweet, fruit, coffee — until the 
 women who began bravely under the impression 
 that the meal would be only an extension of 
 
 170 
 
LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 171 
 
 the light repast usual in the middle of the day 
 felt themselves on the verge of collapse from 
 plethora. 
 
 This sort of thing may once have been fashion- 
 able. Never vi^as it rational. It is a sign of the 
 increasing common sense of the entertaining com- 
 munity that it is no longer even a la mode. 
 
 Let me tell of two luncheons which stand out in 
 my memory, and might serve as models to the 
 woman without a maid. 
 
 The first was given in an old house dating back 
 to Colonial days. Need for economy, combined 
 with the difficulty of securing servants in a rather 
 remote country locality, had obliged the mistress of 
 the house and her daughters to do their own work. 
 They had all the traditions of elegant living, and 
 they carried these into effect when they waited on 
 themselves as when they had trained service. 
 Three of us fortunate guests took our places at a 
 dining-table of old mahogany, and ate and drank 
 from ancestral china, glass, and silver. The table 
 was laid with centerpiece and doilies of fine da- 
 mask, flowers were in the middle of the table, and 
 ever3d;hing was arranged in the usual conventional 
 fashion. 
 
172 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 It was summer, and the first course was jellied 
 bouillon. When this had been eaten one of the 
 daughters rose, with no word of apology, and re- 
 moved the cups, leaving our empty plates in front 
 of us. The next course, a cold meat of some sort, 
 a salad, and fresh rolls, was already on the table, 
 and we served ourselves, passing plates as we would 
 have done at the home table if without a maid. 
 Tea was made and poured by the hostess. 
 
 This course finished, the daughter again rose, re- 
 moved the plates, crumbed the table, and put on a 
 dish of superb strawberries, a pitcher of cream, 
 and a plate of cake. Again we waited on our- 
 selves. All through the meal the conversation was 
 easy and pleasant, with no word of apology for 
 the lack of a maid — and, indeed, her absence was 
 scarcely noted. When we left the house it was 
 with the memory of a delightful lunch, prepared 
 and served with a perfection that left no room for 
 criticism. 
 
 The other luncheon was eaten many miles from 
 the first, at the home of a young couple who were 
 obliged, for economy's sake, to dispense with a 
 maid. Five of us sat down to table and found at 
 each place a glass cup filled with ice-cold fruit 
 
LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 173 
 
 macedoine. As we finished this we followed the 
 example of our host and set our cups to one side. 
 The hostess had a serving-table at her elbow and a 
 chafing-dish in front of her, and proceeded to pre- 
 pare the hot dish of the meal. Light rolls and 
 Saratoga chips were on the table, and beside each 
 place when we sat down was a plate of salad. 
 Not until all the substantials had been eaten did the 
 hostess arise, quietly remove the plates, brush off 
 the crumbs, and put before each of us half a nut- 
 meg melon filled with ice-cream. On the veranda, 
 after lunch, she brewed us coffee in a Vienna coffee- 
 pot. 
 
 I have attended many large and elaborate lunch- 
 eons of which I have forgotten the details, but 
 every feature of these two delightful meals remains 
 with me. Only gentlewomen, too sure of their 
 position to be conscious or uncomfortable because 
 deprived of hired service, could have carried 
 through affairs with so much dignity and grace. 
 
 If I have made a long preamble it is because I 
 feel that the rehearsal of the success of two house- 
 keepers may be helpful to others similarly situated. 
 
 The table for a luncheon without a maid should 
 be prettily set, bare if the table-top warrants it. 
 
174 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 except for centerpiece and doilies, and covered with 
 a white cloth if the wood is not presentable. Some 
 luncheon cloths have a little color about them and 
 are very attractive. Smaller napkins are used for 
 luncheon than for dinner, and may be adorned with 
 drawn-work or plainly hemstitched. The napkin 
 is laid by the forks at the left of the plate, the knife 
 and spoon at the right, the tumbler near the latter. 
 Little dishes of candies, olives, and nuts may be on 
 the table, and the bread-and-butter plates, usually 
 omitted at a dinner, may be on the left of the place 
 in a position corresponding to the tumbler on the 
 right. 
 
 A luncheon may begin with beef or chicken 
 bouillon, hot or cold, or with clam or oyster soup. 
 Or this course may be omitted and a macedoine of 
 fruit or halved grapefruit or melon may be served 
 instead. If the macedoine is served, it may be in 
 cocktail or lemonade glasses, the fruit cut into dice 
 and very cold. This may be on the table when the 
 guests come into the room. 
 
 For the second course, if fish is to be served, 
 creamed fish au gratin is excellent, since this may 
 stand for some time after cooking without injury 
 to its excellence. Fish may be omitted, if one pre- 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 175 
 
 fers, and creamed chicken au gratin come next, or 
 chicken served in some other way, or chops. This 
 would be also the time to bring the chafing-dish 
 into service, and to cook in it oysters, or fish, or 
 meat, or cheese, or eggs, or any of the other dain- 
 ties known to the chafing-dish expert. These are 
 served directly from the chafing dish. 
 
 This course may be succeeded by a salad, or ac- 
 companied by it if one prefers, and there should 
 be an effort to have the salad something a little un- 
 usual. Salads without number are possible nowa- 
 days, and nearly every week brings the suggestion 
 of a fresh one. 
 
 Next, the sweet, and this, too, may be simple or 
 elaborate, as one pleases. Ice-cream is not indis- 
 pensable. Stewed figs, figs and green ginger, ber- 
 ries in jelly with whipped cream over them or au 
 naturel or with cream, tarts of fruit or anything 
 else, syllabubs, such as they know how to make in 
 the Old Dominion, and which may easily be made 
 at the North in a region where cream and eggs are 
 plenty — there is no need that I should make fur- 
 ther suggestions. To end, a cup of coffee, unless it 
 is preferred to serve this with the second course. 
 My description of the two luncheons in my intro- 
 
176 "LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 
 
 duction may supply suggestions for changing plates 
 and other service. 
 
 The supper, whether for Sunday night or some 
 other occasion, is conducted much along the lines 
 of the luncheon, and is even more informal. It 
 rarely begins with a soup or appetizer, unless it 
 may be toast or thin bread and butter with caviare 
 or anchovy paste or something of the sort. The 
 solid is usually prepared in the chafing-dish. The 
 suggestions for this are numberless. Eggs d, la 
 Newhurg, or curried, or deviled, or panned, or in 
 black butter, or poached in cream or tomato sauce, 
 or in combination with fish, flesh, or fowl, or in a 
 Scotch woodcock; cheese in a rarebit or a fondu 
 (and every man there will have his own view how 
 the rarebit should be made, agreeing upon one point 
 only, that his method differs entirely from the one 
 followed at the moment) ; oysters, or clams, or lob- 
 ster or crab meat a la poulette or a la Dewey or 
 a la Newhurg or deviled, chicken terrapin or au 
 supreme or in any one of a dozen other ways — 
 there is no limit to the dishes, and they may be as 
 inexpensive or as costly as one chooses to make 
 them. 
 
 The second course at such a supper should not 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 177 
 
 be elaborate. Cold meat, if one wants it, with a 
 salad, or, if the salad is rather heavy and substan- 
 tial food has been served from the chafing-dish, the 
 cold meat may well be left out. If it appears it 
 may be cold tongue or chicken, turkey or duck, 
 ham, lamb, veal, or beef, or veal loaf, galantine or 
 jellied chicken, and the salad may be suitable to ac- 
 company it. 
 
 The sweet should not be rich. Enough tax has 
 already probably been laid upon the digestion. 
 Fruit or cream cheese and jam or something of 
 equal simplicity should conclude the meal. Choc- 
 olate or cofifee may be served at the second course 
 in large cups, or at the end in demi-tasses. 
 
 For supper the table is spread as for luncheon. 
 The hors d'ceuvre are served or omitted, as one 
 pleases. The chafing-dish is on the table from the 
 first, and the cups and saucers may be put on the 
 table when it is set. 
 
 For a late-at-night supper, after a card-party or 
 similar affair, the supper is a little less substantial. 
 The chafing-dish preparation may be there, but the 
 second course may be left out altogether, or only a 
 salad, and that not rich or elaborate, given after 
 the chafing-dish dainty. This, by the way, in the 
 
178 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE 
 
 / 
 
 interests of humanity, should not be too deaaly. 
 Many a man will feel safe in taking liberties yith 
 his digestion on Sunday night — perhaps fancying 
 that the sanctity of the day may have a happy effect 
 upon the gastronomic apparatus — who would hes- 
 itate to run a like risk at the end of a social evening 
 which has followed a long working-day and a 
 hearty dinner. 
 
 In warm weather the chafing-dish is best dis- 
 missed, and the late supper may consist of a salad, 
 thin bread and butter or sandwiches, and iced 
 drinks of some sort. Fruit punches and similar 
 summer drinks are many, both with and without 
 alcohol. Whether the supper be early or late, Sun- 
 day or week-night, the services of a maid may well 
 be dispensed with. Part of the enjoyment of such 
 an occasion is due to its unconventionality, and the 
 men of the party may wait on themselves and on 
 the women present with no breach of decorum. 
 
 The hostess contemplating an afternoon tea has 
 even smoother sailing than when planning a supper. 
 Besides getting her house in fresh order and ar- 
 ranging her flowers, her chief preliminary work 
 will be making cake and sandwiches. Both are es- 
 sential at an afternoon tea where guests are enter- 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 179 
 
 tained, but the choice of what each shall be is un- 
 limited. The sandwiches are as much comme il 
 faut, when of thin bread and butter folded in two 
 and cut into squares or triangles or circles, as when 
 they are filled with pate de foie gras or anything 
 else equally costly. The medium between these ex- 
 tremes is taken by sandwiches of minced chicken 
 or tongue or ham, or of cheese and nuts, or cheese 
 and lettuce, or any one of a dozen other fillings, 
 and the bread may be white, brown, whole wheat, 
 graham, gluten, or any other variety. 
 
 The same license prevails about cake. Home- 
 made or fancy, either will serve, and may be one 
 or two kinds or a larger selection. Salted nuts and 
 bonbons may also be offered. 
 
 The tea must be the best and carefully brewed. 
 An excellent plan is to make it very strong early 
 in the afternoon, and, when it has drawn five min- 
 utes, to turn it from the leaves. It may then be 
 kept hot, and diluted with boiling water as one 
 pleases, with no dread that tannic acid is developing 
 by long steeping. 
 
 When the hostess intends to have more than half 
 a dozen or so guests at her tea, she should, unless 
 she has daughters to aid her, invite some one to 
 
i8o " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 help her pour the tea or the tea and coffee or choco- 
 late she offers her friends. In any case it is well 
 to secure the services of some young girls or inti- 
 mate friends who will supplement the activities of 
 the hostess and see that no one is overlooked. 
 
 At a small function where the tea is made by 
 the hostess or her daughter or friend in the draw- 
 ing-room, the tea-table is supplied with hot-water 
 kettle, tea-caddy, and tea-pot. When the table is 
 large enough the cups and saucers, sugar-bowl and 
 cream-jug and saucer of sliced lemon, may also 
 be here or on another small table. Several small 
 tables to be set in front of the guests, that they 
 may take their tea in comfort, will prove an addi- 
 tion to the coziness of the occasion. For such a 
 purpose the pretty and inexpensive folding-tables 
 are excellent, and are especially desirable for the 
 dweller in flats with small extra space at command. 
 
XX 
 
 The Stag Repast Without 
 Service 
 
 The home stag dinner is growing in popularity, 
 especially in small places and among men who wish 
 to show hospitality without extravagance. Once it 
 was almost unheard of in those circumstances. 
 The man of means who lived in a large city enter- 
 tained his men friends at his club or at a restaurant, 
 or not at all. In a small town, which boasted no 
 club or satisfactory hostelry, he gratified his long- 
 ings for social intercourse with other men by lodge 
 meetings, town meetings, the card club of the com- 
 muters' train, or the post-ofifice parliament and 
 corner-grocery council, according to his social 
 standing and his opportunities. The man who had 
 no such outlet contented himself with the mild 
 mixed society afforded by the occasional teacup 
 gatherings of his wife's friends and their husbands. 
 
 But now, at last, the long down-trodden man is 
 beginning to have a few chances to get his innings. 
 
 l8i 
 
i82 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 The wave of altruistic socialism that is sweeping 
 over the world has reached even to him, and wives 
 recognize the fact that mere men may like to meet 
 and talk, even although they may not be parsons, 
 lawyers, or doctors. For the benefit of these three 
 classes a convention has long existed, by virtue 
 of which it was considered right that they should 
 gather together at stated periods, presumably to ex- 
 change great thoughts upon the subjects to which 
 their lives were devoted. To-day, however, the 
 " common or garden variety " of business or pro- 
 fessional man has had accorded to him the right to 
 meet his fellows and chat with them over food as 
 women for generations have gossiped over their 
 tea. And from these deliberations it is agreed that 
 the opposite sex is best absent. 
 
 Preparations for the home stag party naturally 
 devolve upon the wife of the man who gives the 
 party. She may not preside over the board, as 
 in her secret soul she yearns to do, but she may 
 at least make ready for the guests, and if she is 
 the right kind of a woman she will probably do it 
 with genuine pleasure in the enjoyment she antici- 
 pates for her husband. Moreover, she would not 
 be a woman if with this altruistic joy there were 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 183 
 
 not mingled a pride in showing how well she can 
 do in the circumstances. A stag dinner or supper 
 is a simple affair in a home where there is a butler 
 or a waitress. It is quite another matter in an es- 
 tablishment where no maid is kept and the house- 
 keeper, knowing that every man at the festivity will 
 go home and tell his wife all about it, girds up her 
 loins and resolves to do mightily or perish in the 
 attempt. The fact that she is probably handi- 
 capped by the necessity for economy as well as by 
 lack of service is only an additional incentive. 
 
 Since the housekeeper is not to enter the dining- 
 room after the guests are assembled, ever)d:hing 
 that can possibly be needed must be there in ad- 
 vance. If her husband is like a majority of men- 
 folk he would be hard put to it to supply any de- 
 ficiency she might leave. The table itself must be 
 well stocked, and the serving-table must supply the 
 lack of the butler. 
 
 A regular dinner can hardly be planned for in 
 the conditions, and the skill of the caterer must be 
 expended to make a meal which will take so well the 
 place of the ordinary dinner that no one will notice 
 a defect in either omissions or commissions. 
 Should a soup be served, it must be in cups and 
 
i84 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 heavy in character — like mock turtle. Such pre- 
 ambles as oysters, clams, and fruit are out of the 
 question, and the woman is wise who boldly turns 
 her back upon all conventions connected with the 
 dinner hour and calls her husband's stag party a 
 supper. This name covers a multitude of short- 
 comings and disarms criticism. 
 
 In these days of an advanced higher education 
 for the masses there are few men who have not 
 a little knowledge of how to handle a chafing-dish. 
 If the man who is to give the party is lacking in 
 this branch of erudition it is well for his wife to 
 give him a few lessons in advance — ' unless he num- 
 bers among his prospective guests some one who 
 is considered by himself and others to be an adept 
 in that line. In this case let the housekeeper find 
 the details of the dishes in whose preparation the 
 adept especially fancies himself, procure from him 
 a list of the necessary ingredients, and leave the re- 
 sult on the knees of the gods. It is henceforth out- 
 side of her jurisdiction. 
 
 If her own man-body is to do the cooking, how- 
 ever, and if he has a faculty in this line, she should 
 have no difficulty in selecting a dish which will ap- 
 peal to the palates of the diners. Scotch woodcock 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 185 
 
 or some dish of oysters or chicken or cheese will 
 do to begin the feast. Should such a contingency 
 arise as that none of the men can conduct a chafing- 
 dish, she herself can prepare the dainty in the dish 
 just before the guests are summoned to the table. 
 The hot water in the lower pan will keep the con- 
 tents of the upper one warm. 
 
 When more than one hot dish is desired it is well 
 to have two chafing-dishes — not for cookery, but 
 to serve as bains-marie. In one of these may be a 
 savory vegetable — or one may contain a dish of 
 eggs, the other one of shell-fish or of poultry or 
 cheese. One or two vegetables may be kept hot in 
 covered bake-dishes. A supply of warm bread may 
 also be placed in a covered dish. Minor delicacies, 
 like olives, nuts, radishes, etc., are not strictly 
 needed at such a meal, although they will doubtless 
 be eaten if provided. The salad is a consideration, 
 and it should be something rather substantial. 
 Rare are the men who do not cherish a conviction 
 that there is no dish much better than chicken salad 
 — unless it may be lobster salad. If, however, the 
 early part of the supper has included either one of 
 these viands, a green salad may be served instead, 
 and there will surely be some man who prides him- 
 
,l86 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 self on his ability to mix a salad dressing, and will 
 gladly undertake this part of the work. 
 
 Cheese there must be, and of more than one kind. 
 Camembert and Swiss, perhaps, or Roquefort and 
 club-house. In these days, when so many of the 
 fancy cheeses are put up in glass jars, they may be 
 procured in all parts of the country, and no one 
 need be debarred because his home is far from a 
 large city market. 
 
 Sweets are less popular among men than among 
 women, and few of the guests would miss a dessert 
 from such a meal as this. Should one be served 
 it may be a charlotte-russe or a jelly or a tipsy cake 
 — I unless, indeed, one boldly defies the thought of 
 future retribution and rejoices the palates with a 
 pie — the more unwholesome the better ! 
 
 Coffee may be kept hot in an urn. Wines and 
 liquors are often served at such suppers, but this is 
 a matter to be determined by the host, who will 
 make his own selection of these beverages. 
 
 For such a supper much thought must be given 
 by the housekeeper, as I have already intimated, to 
 arranging provisions, dishes, etc., in such a fashion 
 that they will be ready to hand when they are 
 needed. To this main consideration many details 
 
"LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 187 
 
 must be subjected. At a gathering of men there 
 is little appreciation of delicate doilies, filmy center- 
 pieces, artistic candle shades, and the like and these 
 are out of place. The table may be bare except for 
 a round or a square in the middle and a doily under 
 each plate. The light would better come from over 
 the table than from candelabra, which take up space 
 and interfere with the men's .service of themselves 
 and one another. 
 
 Each cover or place should be supplied with a 
 water-glass, a bread-and-butter plate, a couple of 
 knives, two or three forks, two teaspoons, a napkin, 
 and two plates, one placed on the other. The upper 
 of the two should be heated for the product of the 
 chafing-dish. A piece of bread or a roll and a but- 
 ter-ball should be on each bread-and-butter plate. 
 At one end of the table may be the chafing-dish, at 
 the other the cofifee-urn. Around the latter may be 
 grouped the cups and saucers. About the chafing- 
 dish .should be placed the necessary spoons and 
 measuring-cup, the bowl for mixing, the seasonings 
 required. On one side of the table should be a plate 
 of hot bread, on the other the dish of salad, the fork 
 and spoon for serving it close at hand. 
 
 Should the host preside over either the chafing- 
 
i88 "LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 
 
 dish or the coffee-urn, his seat will naturally be at 
 one end of the table. In either case, close enough 
 to his right hand to be within easy reach without 
 impeding the movement of his arm in mixing or 
 pouring, should be a serving-table — or butler's 
 tray, or dinner wagon — whichever one chooses to 
 call it. One of the " double-deckers " is the most 
 useful in the circumstances, although the ordinary 
 table may be made to answer. 
 
 On this table should stand the sweet — if sweet 
 there be — with the necessities for serving it, a 
 few extra cups, saucers, and plates, knives, forks, 
 spoons, and napkins in case of accident to those al- 
 ready on the table, and any other articles for which 
 there is not space on the main board — crackers, 
 cheese, celery, etc. 
 
 A little drilling as to how to conduct matters will 
 not be out of place for the master of the revels, un- 
 less he has had a good deal of experience. When 
 he leads his friends out to the dining-room every- 
 thing should be in readiness for the first course, 
 so that it will be a simple matter for him to serve 
 his guests from the chafing-dish, the hot bake-dish 
 of potatoes om gratin, or scalloped tomatoes, or 
 baked onions, or whatever other vegetable has been 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 189 
 
 provided. The coffee can also be poured at this 
 stage. 
 
 After the first course has been eaten and there is 
 need for the lower clean plate for salad, cheese, etc., 
 it is a simple matter for the guests to pass their 
 plates, with the knives and forks that have been 
 used, up to the host, who sets them off on the lower 
 shelf of the serving-table, if it is a two-shelved af- 
 fair, or on the back of the table if a lower shelf is 
 lacking. The fresh plates are then in readiness for 
 the next course. Should the chafing-dish or any of 
 its appurtenances be in the way they also can be 
 set off on the side table by the host, and on the main 
 table, in place of the articles removed, he can put 
 the cheese and crackers. If there is a spirit-lamp 
 under the coffee-urn the second cup may be as hot 
 as the first. 
 
 The service of a sweet presents only a trifling 
 complication. Should the serving-table be large 
 enough to receive the second set of soiled plates 
 without crowding, there will be no trouble at all, 
 but it may be incumbent upon the host to pile some 
 of the plates on top of one another before he can 
 make space for all. The cheese need not go off 
 when the pie or other sweet comes on — indeed. 
 
I90 "LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE" 
 
 the ordinary niceties of removing all savory dishes 
 before the appearance of the dessert is honored in 
 the breach on such an occasion as this. If a third 
 fork was placed by the plate when the table was 
 spread the only changing to be done is to hand a 
 fresh plate to each guest, at the same time taking 
 from him the plate last used. The cheese may be 
 pushed to one side in order that there may be space 
 for the sweet. 
 
 As will be seen, this meal need not be a porten- 
 tous undertaking. The housekeeper who is accus- 
 tomed to preparing the meals for her family will 
 find little extra work in such a supper as I have 
 outlined. When the host is thoroughly at his ease, 
 as most men are in similar circumstances, the sup- 
 per is almost sure to go off well. The men may 
 feel at liberty to get up and move about the room, 
 replenish their own plates, or glasses or cups, and 
 all freedom is permitted in the way of passing 
 plates, reaching across the table for anything 
 needed, and similar informalities which would not 
 be tolerated at a dinner served in accordance with 
 ordinary conventions. 
 
 At such a " spread " as this the guests are prone 
 to sit late, but it may be remarked, as a gentle re- 
 
LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 191 
 
 minder, that if the host leads the party back to the 
 drawing-room at the close of the meal he furnishes 
 his wife a longed-for opportunity to come in and 
 remove the debris and restore the room to its nor- 
 mal condition. 
 
 Perhaps I have seemed to deal too much in glit- 
 tering generalities in outlining this bill of fare. If 
 I have done so it is because the choice of the items 
 is usually decided by the financial circumstances of 
 the hostess. When money is little or no object for 
 this special occasion, she may sally forth boldly to 
 make her choice of provisions in the markets with 
 her knowledge of what she knows her husband likes 
 and thinks his friends would fancy for guide. But 
 it is not likely so Utopian a state of affairs prevails 
 with the woman who is preparing a stag party to be 
 managed by herself alone.- The brains that must 
 devise contrivances to supply the lack of a butler 
 must also be put to work to achieve a high-priced re- 
 past — 'Or what produces the impression of being 
 such a meal — on a rather slim outlay of money. 
 
 Granting, for the sake of argument, that she can 
 indulge herself on this festive occasion, she can have 
 nothing better for the main dish of the feast than a 
 big platter of broiled or fried chicken, or an array 
 
^I 
 
 192 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO M 
 
 / 
 
 ; 
 
 of broiled birds, or a fine roast turkey. Any one 
 of these is sure to appeal to the palates of the men 
 assembled. But should economy be an essential 
 she may either buy a big steak (which is not so very 
 economical, after all), a stuffed shoulder of veal, 
 or else prepare a fine piece of beef a la mode, which 
 done the right way, is, by the way, a very different 
 article from the dish that masquerades at restau- 
 rants under that name. 
 
 A casserole is a godsend for such a meal as this. 
 Not only does it possess the merit of keeping its 
 contents hot, but it enables the hostess to devise 
 savory combinations at less cost than is possible 
 with choice cuts prepared after a plainer mode. 
 The products of a casserole, if properly managed, 
 are so appetizing that mere man will not stop to 
 count the cost while rejoicing his palate. 
 
 Steak en casserole is good, chops en casserole are 
 better, chicken en casserole is best. But here again 
 comes in the item of expense, for it takes a clever 
 woman to make good casserole of chicken out of 
 anything but a youngling of a flock, although with 
 care a fowl may be treated in such a fashion that 
 no one will conjecture its years. But chops en cas- 
 serole, if well prepared, with Parisian potato-balls, 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 193 
 
 mushrooms, peas, and plenty of savory gravy, will 
 leave no place for criticism in the minds of the eat- 
 ers. 
 
 The cost of the main dish and that of the salad 
 may offset each other. If a lobster salad has been 
 served a cheaper main dish may be offered, while 
 if the principal plat of the feast is costly the salad 
 may be something less expensive — like a mace- 
 doine of vegetables or a fruit salad, which, while a 
 little trouble to compound, is less costly than either 
 lobster or chicken. 
 
XXI 
 
 Home-Made Cakes for Afternoon 
 Tea 
 
 The afternoon tea has come to stay. It is too 
 convenient a function to be dispensed with. There 
 is no pleasanter or easier way of paying off a massi 
 of social obligations than by having a tea. To this 
 end elaborate afternoon receptions, still called 
 " teas," are given, and at these crowded affairs one 
 is served with salads, sandwiches, frappes, and 
 cakes of all kinds, while the beverages range from 
 tea and coffee to punches. 
 
 It is not, however, of such a function that the 
 housewife in modern means thinks when she would 
 entertain her friends. With little expense she may 
 have a " day " or a series of " days " during the 
 winter, without calling to her aid a caterer or an 
 army of servants. She and her one maid can make 
 all necessary preparations, and furnish the simple 
 refreshments required. 
 
 As the rooms would have to be lighted for the 
 
 early winter twilight, it is well to draw down the 
 
 194 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 195 
 
 shades at first and have the apartment illuminated 
 with shaded lamps and candles. There is nothing 
 prettier or more becoming than this subdued and 
 shaded effulgence. On the tea table may stand a 
 tall candelabrum, while its mate has its place upon 
 the top of the upright piano. A dainty little lamp 
 — what we used to call a " fairy lamp," when such 
 ones were first in vogue, — is on one end of the 
 chimney-shelf. A larger lamp with a soft pink 
 globe is on a table near the door. One may have 
 as many of such lights as she wishes, and yet there 
 will be no glare to try the eyes and call into evi- 
 dence unbecoming wrinkles, as do the merciless 
 electric lights. 
 
 Upon a tea table presided over by a friend of the 
 hostess are the teapot and the canister, the spirit 
 lamp and plates of dainty sandwiches cut in various 
 shapes, and fancy cakes of all sorts. Here, too, 
 may be served coffee. With the cups of the smok- 
 ing beverages will be passed sugar, cream, and thin 
 slices of lemon. The sandwiches may be of brown 
 bread and white, with delicious fillings, and the 
 fancy cakes simple or elaborate, as the hostess may 
 decree. 
 
 To the woman who will make herself mistress of 
 
196 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 the art of preparing homemade fancy cakes, the af- 
 ternoon tea has few terrors so far as expenses is 
 concerned. At first she may find it a little hard to 
 manufacture these toothsome dainties, but she will 
 soon become accustomed to the work, and will be 
 surprised to find how many varieties she can " turn 
 out." The essentials are suitable materials and an 
 abundance of patience. A novice must not be dis- 
 couraged if, at first, her boiled icing becomes granu- 
 lated or sugary, and if the cake is sometimes too 
 crumbly to cut into just the desired shapes. After 
 several trials she will learn when the correct point 
 in boiling the syrup is reached, and just how stiff 
 the batter must be. She must always have on hand 
 a supply of vegetable colorings, — especially pink 
 and green and violet, — and such nuts as almonds 
 and English walnuts, with a plentiful stock of cur- 
 rants and raisins. Citron, also, may play an im- 
 portant part in the decoration of the cakes. Al- 
 mond paste can be bought already prepared for the 
 macaroons. 
 
 Before giving the following recipes for fancy 
 cakes of various sorts, it may be well to tell just 
 how the boiled icing, essential to a well-frosted 
 fancy cake, must be prepared. 
 
" LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 197 
 
 BOILED ICING 
 
 Into a perfectly clean, porcelain-lined saucepan 
 put a pound of granulated sugar and a teacupful of 
 water. Bring to the boiling point, but do not stir. 
 At the end of fifteen minutes begin to test the 
 syrup by dipping into it the tip of a fork. When 
 the drops run from the fork slowly, leaving after 
 the last one a blunt end, the correct point is nearly 
 reached, and the syrup must be watched carefully. 
 As soon as there floats from this blunt bit what ap- 
 pears to be a very fine hair, the syrup -must be re- 
 moved immediately from the fire. Set in a cool 
 place until a little more than blood warm, and then 
 beat the mixture to a white mass. When too stiff 
 to stir it may be worked with the hands. This is 
 the fondant icing for the cakes. When it is to be 
 used, the vessel containing it is set in an outer vessel 
 of boiling water. The fondant icing is then beaten 
 until it is again a soft white mass. This may be 
 flavored and colored to suit the taste. A few 
 drops of spinach or other green vegetable coloring 
 will make a delicate shade of pale green, a little 
 cochineal will give an exquisite pink shade, while 
 melted chocolate may be added until you have the 
 desired brown. Spread quickly on the cakes with 
 
198 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 a knife dipped in boiling water. Small cakes that 
 are to be iced all over are thrust through with a 
 long-pronged pickle-fork and plunged into the fond- 
 ant, then quickly withdrawn and set on platters to 
 dry. A quantity of fondant may be prepared at a 
 time and set a,way in jelly glasses covered with 
 paper, until needed. A little may be softened over 
 boiling water and used as it is wanted. Each time 
 it is heated, the hardening process is quickened. 
 Use it briskly after making it hot. 
 
 SQUARE CHOCOLATE CAKES 
 
 Rub to a cream a half cup of butter and a tea- 
 cupful of sugar, add four well-whipped eggs and 
 seven tablespoonfuls of grated chocolate dissolved 
 in a half cup of scalding milk. Flavor with vanilla 
 and stir in lightly a pint of flour sifted with a heap- 
 ing teaspoonful of baking powder. Bake in a 
 square biscuit-pan. When done, and almost- cool, 
 cut the cake in halves. Spread the lower half with 
 a chocolate filling, or with chocolate icing. Lay 
 the other half on top of it, and, with a sharp knife, 
 cut into squares of a uniform size. Cover each of 
 these smoothly with chocolate icing. 
 
LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 199 
 
 NUT CAKES 
 
 Cream a half cup of butter with one cup of sugar, 
 add three well-beaten egg yolks, a gill of cold water, 
 and enough flour to make a rather thin batter alter- 
 nately with the stiffened whites of the eggs. Last 
 of all, stir in lightly a cup of chopped hickory-nut 
 kernels, plentifully dredged with flour. Bake in 
 small round tins. When cold, ice, and place half 
 of a nut on the top of each cake while the icing is 
 still soft. 
 
 MARSHMALLOW CAKES 
 
 Cream a cup of butter with two cups of powdered 
 sugar, add a small cup of sweet milk, and the stiff- 
 ened whites of five eggs alternately with a scant 
 quart of prepared flour. Bake in a large square 
 card, as directed in the recipe for chocolate cakes. 
 When cold, cut the cake into squares. Spread half 
 of them with a marshmallow filling and put the 
 other squares on top of these. Press the upper and 
 lower halves closely together. 
 
 MACAROONS 
 
 For this you will need six ounces of almond paste, 
 a cup and a half of powdered sugar and the whites 
 of two eggs. Beat the whites to a stiff froth, add 
 
200 " LIKE MOTHER USED TO MAKE " 
 
 the almond paste chopped fine and the sugar, make 
 the mixture into balls with the fingers and bake on 
 greased paper laid in pans. The oven should be of 
 moderate heat. They should brown delicately and 
 may then be ^aken from the oven, though they 
 should not be removed from the pan until they are 
 entirely cold. 
 
 JUMBLES 
 
 These are excellent to make at the same time with 
 the macaroons. They require half a cup of butter, 
 a heaping cup of flour, three-quarters of a cup of 
 sugar, the yolks of two eggs, two tablespoonfuls 
 of sherry, and flavoring extract to taste, — lemon, 
 rose or vanilla. Cream the butter and sugar, mix 
 with the beaten yolks, add the flour, the flavoring 
 and make into small balls with the fingers. Lay 
 them on buttered paper in a tin, putting them far 
 enough apart to allow for their melting and spread- 
 ing. A blanched almond or a raisin may be laid 
 on top of each and they should be baked to a pale 
 yellow, — >not until they brown. Take them from 
 the paper while still warm, before they become brit- 
 tle in cooling.