MARY'S COLLECTION OF RECIPES (continued 4)

Should very thick, sour cream be used in making "Aunt Sarah's salad dressing," use a mixture of sour cream and sweet milk, instead of all sour cream.

"DUTCH" CUCUMBER SALAD

Thinly slice one large green cucumber and one medium-sized onion (if liked). Sprinkle over about one teaspoonful of salt. Allow to stand a short time, then place in a piece of cheese-cloth and squeeze out all the moisture possible. Place cucumbers, when drained, in the dish in which they are to be served, add a couple tablespoonfuls of sour vinegar, mix well. Then pour over enough thick sour cream to half cover and a dust of pepper. Cucumbers are considered less unwholesome, prepared in this manner.

CARROT SALAD

Aunt Sarah pared and cut 1½ cups of uncooked carrots in thin strips, not much larger than common match sticks, and cooked in salted water until tender. When drained, pour over them a couple of tablespoonfuls of vinegar. Allowed to stand until cold. When ready to prepare the salad she drained off vinegar remaining. Lined a salad bowl with lettuce leaves or parsley, placed inside this a border of halved or sliced cold hard-boiled eggs; mixed the carrots lightly with salad dressing, placed them in the centre of the bowl and served ice cold. This is a particularly delicious, as well as an appetizing looking, salad. I have never eaten this elsewhere than at Aunt Sarah's home.

"AN OLD RECIPE" FOR CHICKEN SALAD

Two dressed chickens were cooked tender. When cold, meat was removed from bones and cut in dice (not too fine). Cut half the amount of celery you have of meat into small pieces.

Dressing for salad was composed of the following: Three well-beaten yolks of eggs. Pour over these 1 pint of boiling hot cider vinegar, stand on back of range to thicken. Place in a bowl 3 freshly boiled and finely mashed white potatoes, add 1 tablespoonful of dry mustard, 6 teaspoonfuls of olive oil, 1 tablespoonful of salt, 1 tablespoonful of pepper. Mix all well together, then add the thickened vinegar. Beat together until creamy and stand aside until chilled.

Drop the three whites of eggs in hot water, remove when cooked, chop fine and when cold add to the chicken meat and celery.

Pour the dressing over all the ingredients, stir lightly with a fork and stand in a cold place until chilled before serving.

GERMAN POTATO SALAD

Boil one dozen small potatoes without paring. Remove the skin and cut potatoes size of dice, also a small onion, finely minced. Put small pieces of bacon in a pan and fry brown and crisp. Add a large tablespoonful of vinegar and a pinch of salt. Pour the hot bacon fat and vinegar over the diced potatoes, toss them up lightly with a fork and serve hot.

GERMAN TURNIP SALAD

This is the manner in which Aunt Sarah made turnip salad: She pared and sliced thin on a slaw cutter 5 large, solid turnips, put them in a stew-pan which she placed on the range, adding about ¼ cup hot water, 1 teaspoonful of butter and ¼ teaspoonful of sugar (no more). She covered the stew-pan closely and steamed about half an hour until the turnips were tender. Then mixed together 1 teaspoonful of flour with 1 tablespoonful of vinegar and yolk of one egg. This was poured over the stewed turnips, just allowed to come to a boil, then removed from the fire. Add a little salt and serve hot.

GERMAN SALAD DRESSING

For dandelion, watercress, endive or lettuce, a dressing was made thus: The leaves of vegetables used for salad, after being carefully rinsed and looked over, were cut fine, and the following dressing poured over hot and served at once.

A small quantity of bacon was finely minced and fried crisp. To about 2 tablespoonfuls of bacon and fat after being fried, 3 tablespoonfuls of vinegar and 1 of sour cream, were added pepper and salt and a very little flour mixed with cold water, to make it the consistency of cream. The yolk of one raw egg may be added to the dressing if liked. An easier way for the busy housewife to do is to simply add a couple of tablespoonfuls of Aunt Sarah's Salad Dressing, add also a small quantity of water, flour and fried, diced bacon; serve hot at once.

MARY'S POTATO SALAD

A bowl of cold, boiled, diced or thinly-sliced potatoes, three hard boiled eggs, also diced, and about half the quantity of celery chopped in half-inch pieces, and a little minced onion, just enough to give a suspicion of its presence. She mixed all together lightly with a silver fork and mixed through some of the following salad dressing, which is fine for anything requiring a cold salad dressing.

MARY'S SALAD DRESSING

One tablespoonful of flour, 1 tablespoonful of mustard, 2 cups of sweet or sour cream, 1 tablespoonful of sugar, ½ cup of good sharp vinegar, yolks of four eggs, small teaspoonful of salt. Omit sugar when using the dressing for potato or chicken salad. This salad dressing may also be used for lettuce.

"FRUIT" SALAD DRESSING

Three tablespoonfuls of olive oil to 1½ tablespoonfuls of vinegar. Season with salt and pepper. Use this quantity for 1 pint of salad.

GRAPE FRUIT SALAD

Cut the pulp from one grape fruit into small pieces, add an equal amount of chopped apples, a few English walnuts chopped coarsely. Serve on lettuce leaves with fruit salad dressing. This recipe was given Mary by a friend who knew her liking for olive oil.

Grape fruit is delicious, served cut in halves with the addition to each half; of a couple tablespoonfuls of pineapple juice, a tablespoonful of orange juice or tiny pieces of orange pulp, topped with a marachino cherry. A small quantity of sugar should have been added. The sections of grape fruit should each have been cut loose from the white skin inclosing pulp with a small knife or scissors.

A GOOD, INEXPENSIVE SALAD DRESSING

1 tablespoonful flour.

1 tablespoonful butter.

1 tablespoonful mustard.

½ tablespoonful sugar.

1 teaspoonful salt.

1 egg.

¾ cup milk.

¾ cup vinegar.

Use a double boiler, put in it the first five articles, stir together until smooth; add the well-beaten egg and the milk. Let cook, stirring hard. Then add vinegar, and beat all with an egg-beater until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Let cool before using.

Aunt Sarah frequently used this salad dressing over sliced, cold, hard boiled eggs when other salad materials were not plentiful. Serve on lettuce leaves.

IMITATION LOBSTER SALAD

A bowl was lined with crisp lettuce leaves, over this was spread a layer of cold boiled potatoes, cut in dice, a little finely minced onion, a layer of chopped celery, another layer of diced potatoes, then a layer of sliced tomatoes and one hard boiled egg, thinly sliced. Pour a good salad dressing over and serve ice cold.

"GERMAN" HORSERADISH SAUCE

A sauce to serve with boiled meat was prepared by Aunt Sarah in the following manner: She put half a cup of milk in a stew-pan, let come to a boil, added one large tablespoonful of cracker crumbs, 1 large teaspoonful of butter, 2 large tablespoonfuls of freshly grated horseradish, seasoned with pepper and salt. Also a pinch of salt, sugar and pepper added to grated horseradish, then thinned with vinegar, is an excellent accompaniment to cold meat.

MAYONNAISE DRESSING IN WHICH OLIVE OIL IS USED

Before making this dressing for salads, Mary placed a large soup plate or a shallow bowl in the refrigerator, also a bottle of olive oil and two egg yolks. All should be quite cold. Put the yolks on the cold plate, add ¼ teaspoonful of salt, the same of mustard. Mix well and then, with a fork, stir or blend the olive oil into it drop by drop. After about ½ cup of oil has been blended in, add lemon juice, a drop or two at a time. Then more oil, and when it becomes very thick add more lemon juice. A pint or even more oil may, with care, be blended into two yolks. Care must be taken not to mix oil in too fast, or the egg and oil will separate, making a mixture resembling curdled custard. If this should happen, take another plate, another egg yolk, and begin over again, blending a drop or two at a time in the curdled mixture. Then add more oil and lemon juice as before.

MUSTARD DRESSING TO SERVE WITH SLICED TOMATOES

Two tablespoonfuls mustard, 1 tablespoonful of sugar, ½ cup cream, 1 tablespoon salt, yolks of two eggs and ½ cup of vinegar. Beat all well together, first mixing the mustard until smooth with a small quantity of cream, then add the other ingredients. (Mary used only 1 tablespoonful of mustard, and substituted 1 tablespoonful of flour instead of the second tablespoonful of mustard and thought it improved the dressing.) This mustard dressing may also be served at table, to be eaten with lettuce.

CHICKEN SALAD

The meat of one boiled chicken cut in small pieces, three-fourths as much celery, also cut in small pieces. Three hard boiled eggs cut in dice. Take 2 teaspoonfuls salt, 2 teaspoonfuls pepper, 4 teaspoonfuls mustard, 1 cup of sweet cream and 1 raw egg. Use vinegar to thin the mustard. Beat the raw egg, add to cream, egg and butter (mash yolks of hard boiled eggs and butter together). Mix all the ingredients together and cook until it thickens (all except chicken meat, celery and hard boiled whites of eggs, which should be placed in a large bowl after cutting in small pieces). The salad dressing should he put in another bowl and stood on ice until cold, then mix the salad dressing carefully through the chicken meat, celery, etc., one hour before using. Cover with a plate until ready to serve. Or "Aunt Sarah's Salad Dressing" could be used over the chicken, celery, etc. This is a very old but an excellent recipe used by Aunt Sarah's mother for many years.

PEPPER HASH

Chop fine with a knife, but do not shred with a slaw cutter, 1 pint of finely chopped cabbage, adding 1 teaspoonful of salt, 2 teaspoonfuls of sugar, 1 teaspoonful of whole mustard seed, ½ a chopped red, sweet pepper, a pinch of red cayenne pepper and ½ pint of vinegar. Mix all well together and serve with fried oysters, oyster stew and deviled oysters.

This "pepper hash" is delicious if a couple tablespoonfuls of thick cream be added just before serving.

Should very sour cider vinegar be used in this recipe, the housewife will, of course, dilute it with water.

GERMAN BEAN SALAD

Use small green or yellow string-beans, which snap when broken, called by some "snap beans." String them carefully. (If quite small and tender this should not be necessary.) Rub well with the hands through several waters. This removes the strong bean taste. Have your kettle half filled with boiling water on the range over a brisk fire. Put a tablespoon of butter in the water, add beans by handfuls until all are in and cook until tender. Turn the beans in a colander to drain. When cool add a chopped onion, salt and pour enough good vinegar over to cover, and allow to stand two days, when strain vinegar from beans. Boil vinegar, add water if vinegar is quite sour and pour hot over the beans. Fill quart glass jars with the beans and pour vinegar over, within an inch of top of jar; pour pure olive oil over top of beans, screw on jar covers tightly and stand in a cool place until wanted to use. In the winter, when fresh salads were scarce, Aunt Sarah opened a can of these beans. If they were very sour she poured cold water over, allowed to stand an hour, drained and added a little fresh olive oil. Every one called her "bean salat," as the Pennsylvania Germans call it, delicious. The instructions regarding the preparing and cooking of string beans for salad will answer for beans used as a vegetable, omitting vinegar, of course. There is a great difference in the manner of cooking vegetables. Aunt Sarah always added an onion and a sprig of parsley when cooking beans to serve as a vegetable.

MEAT SALADS

To quote from the Farmers' Bulletin: "Whether meat salads are economical or not depends upon the way in which the materials are utilized. If in chicken salad, for example, only the white meat of chicken, especially bought for the purpose, and only the expensive inside stems of expensive celery are used, it can hardly be cheaper than plain chicken. But, if portions of meat left over from a previous serving are mixed with celery grown at home, they certainly make an economical dish, and one very acceptable to most persons. Cold roast pork or tender veal, in fact, any white meat, can be utilized in the same way. Apples cut into cubes may be substituted for part of the celery. Many cooks consider that with the apple the salad takes the dressing better than with the celery alone. Many also prefer to marinate (i.e., mix with a little oil and vinegar) the meat and celery or celery and apples before putting on the final dressing, which may be either mayonnaise or a good boiled dressing."

Celery should not be allowed to stand in water. To keep fresh until used it should be wrapped in a piece of damp cheese-cloth and placed in an ice box or cool cellar.

Lettuce should be broken apart, carefully rinsed, and put loosely in a piece of damp cheese-cloth and placed on ice to crisp before using.

BEVERAGES—COFFEE

Scald coffee pot well before using (never use metal). Place in it five tablespoons ground coffee. (A good coffee is made from a mixture of two-thirds Java to one-third Mocha.) Beat up with the ground coffee one whole egg. Should the housewife deem this extravagant, use only the white of one egg, or peel off the white skin lining inside of egg shells and use. Add three tablespoons cold water and mix well together. Stand on range to heat; when hot add one quart of freshly-boiled hot water. Allow coffee to boil to top of coffee pot three times (about eight minutes), pour over one tablespoon cold water to settle. Stand a few minutes where it will keep hot, not boil. Place a generous tablespoon of sweet thick cream in each cup and pour coffee through a strainer over it. Always serve hot.

A larger or smaller amount of coffee may be used, as different brands of coffee vary in strength and individual tastes differ, but five tablespoons of coffee, not too coarsely ground and not pulverized, to one quart of water, will be the correct proportions for good coffee. Use cream and you will have a delicious, rich, brown beverage not possible when milk is used. Better coffee may be made if whole grains of roasted coffee be bought, reheated in oven and freshly ground whenever used, rather finely ground but not pulverized. Coffee, when ground for any length of time, loses strength. If coffee is ground when purchased, always keep it in closely covered cans until used. Or buy green coffee berries and roast them in oven; when coffee has been roasted, stir one whole raw egg through the coffee berries; when dry, place in covered cans, then no egg will be needed when preparing coffee. As a substitute for cream, use yolk of fresh egg mixed with a couple tablespoonfuls of milk.

COCOA

Mix four tablespoonfuls of cocoa to a smooth paste with one cup of boiling water. Add one more cup boiling water and boil fifteen or twenty minutes. Add four tablespoonfuls of sugar, then add 4 cups of hot boiled milk. A few drops of essence of vanilla improves the flavor. Add a couple tablespoonfuls whipped cream on top of each cup when serving, or, instead of cream, place a marshmallow in each cup before pouring in cocoa. This quantity is for six cups of cocoa.

CHOCOLATE

One square of Baker's unsweetened chocolate shaved thinly or grated, mixed to a smooth paste with 1 cup of boiling water. Boil from fifteen to twenty minutes. Add 1 cup of boiling milk and 2 even tablespoonfuls of sugar. Flavor with a few drops of vanilla, if liked, and add whipped cream to each cup when serving. This is for 2 cups of chocolate.

BOILED WATER

It sometimes becomes necessary to boil drinking water, which usually has a flat, insipid taste. Do young housewives know it is said that after water has been boiled and when quite cool if a bottle be half filled and shaken well the water will become aerated, and have the taste of fresh spring water?

TEA

To make tea always scald the teapot, which should be agate, earthenware or china, never metal. Always use water that has been freshly boiled, and use it boiling hot. Never, under any circumstances, boil tea, as tannin is then extracted from the leaves, and the tea will have a bitter taste. Do not allow tea to stand any length of time unless strained from tea leaves. Use one teaspoon of tea for each cup, unless liked stronger, when add one extra teaspoon to each three cups of tea. Some contend that tea is better, if at first a small quantity of boiling water is poured over the leaves, allowing it to steep three minutes—then pour over the remaining quantity of boiling water and let stand about four minutes, when it is ready to serve with cream and sugar, if liked. Should any tea remain after serving do not throw away, but strain at once from tea leaves and when cool place in a glass jar in refrigerator to be used as iced tea.

ICED TEA

For two quarts of delicious iced tea, place in an agate teapot one generous tablespoon of good tea (never buy a cheap, inferior grade of tea). Pour over the tea leaves one quart of freshly boiled, scalding hot water; let stand five minutes, keep hot (not boil), strain from the leaves into a pitcher, then pour over the tea leaves another quart of hot water, allow it to stand a few minutes, then strain as before. Add the juice of one lemon and sugar to taste. When cooled stand on ice and add chipped ice to tumblers when serving.

PUDDINGS

To boil a pudding in a bag, dip the bag, which should be made of thick cotton or linen, in hot water, dredge the inside well with flour before putting batter into the bag. When the pudding has boiled a long enough time, dip the bag quickly in cold water, and the pudding will turn out easily. Allow five large eggs to 1 quart of milk usually to make custard solid enough to keep its shape when turned from the mold. One teaspoonful of extract will flavor one quart. Always stand individual cups in a pan partly filled with hot water. Place pan containing custard cups in a moderate oven and bake slowly forty minutes. Always sift flour over beef suet when chopping it to be used in puddings. Pour boiling water over Pecans (nuts), allow to stand several hours. When cracked, the shell may be easily removed, leaving the nuts whole.

Blanch almonds by pouring boiling water over them. Allow them to stand a short time, when the brown skin may be easily removed. Dry thoroughly by standing in a rather cool oven, then put in glass jars and they are ready to use. Almonds are used particularly by the Germans in various ways. One hausfrau adds chopped almonds to cooked oatmeal for her children's breakfast and they are frequently used as an ingredient; also to decorate the tops of raised cakes. When dried currants and raisins are bought by the frugal housewife they are quickly washed in cold water, carefully picked over, then turned on to a sieve to drain. Raisins are seeded, then spread over pans, placed in a warm oven about 15 minutes, then spread on a plate and allowed to stand in a dry place for several days. When thoroughly dried place in glass jars and stand aside until required. Currants or raisins should always be well floured before adding to cake or pudding. The "German hausfrau" usually serves stewed prunes or raisins with a dish of noodles or macaroni.

RICE PUDDING

One of the simplest and cheapest of desserts depends partly on the quality of the ingredients used, but chiefly on the manner of making for its excellence. If prepared according to directions, you will have a pudding both rich and creamy. Use 1 quart of good sweet milk (do not use either skimmed milk or water), 3 tablespoonfuls of whole uncoated rice (no more), 2½ tablespoonfuls of sugar, pinch of salt, vanilla or almond flavoring.

Wash the rice well, mix all together in a pudding dish, bake from 2½ to 3 hours in an oven with a slow, even heat. When a skin forms on the top of the pudding, carefully stir through the rice. Do this frequently. This gives the pudding a rich, creamy consistency. When grains of rice are tender allow pudding to brown over top and serve either hot or cold. Raisins may be added, if liked, or raisins may be stewed separately and served with the rice, which many think a great improvement to the pudding. Many think rice pudding should always be flavored with grated nutmeg. Aunt Sarah, while using nutmeg flavoring in various other dishes, never used it for her rice pudding.

When mixing a boiled pudding Aunt Sarah frequently substituted a large tablespoon of fine dried bread crumbs instead of the same amount of flour. She said, "'Twas a small economy," and, she thought, "the pudding's improved" by the use of bread crumbs.

FRAU SCHMIDT'S APPLE DUMPLINGS

Prepare a syrup of 1 cup sugar, 2 cups of hot water and 1 tablespoon of butter. Pour all into an agate pudding dish. Add to this syrup 2 heaping cups of pared, sliced sour apples.

Let all come to a boil. For the dumplings, sift together one cup of flour and two even teaspoons of baking powder. Add a pinch of salt. Mix into a soft dough or batter with about ¾ cup of sweet milk or cream. Drop six or eight spoonfuls of this batter into the boiling syrup on top of apples. Cover closely and cook on top of range twenty minutes without uncovering. Serve hot. These dumplings should be light as puff balls. Peaches may be substituted for apples and are delicious.

CARAMEL CUSTARD (AS MARY PREPARED IT)

1 pint of milk.

2 eggs.

½ cup granulated sugar.

Melt ½ cup of sugar in an iron pan on stove and allow it to brown. Add a part of the hot milk, stirring constantly until brown sugar is dissolved. Add balance of the pint of hot milk. Stir all together, then stand aside to cool. When cold, add eggs and bake in oven in custard cups. Stand cups in hot water while baking.

AUNT SARAH'S BREAD PUDDING

Pour 1 quart of boiling milk over 1½ pints of soft bread crumbs. Put the mixture into a buttered pudding dish with 1 teaspoonful salt. Cover closely with a plate and let stand about half an hour. At the end of that time beat into it three eggs, 1 teaspoonful lemon extract, and beat until perfectly smooth. Bake in a moderately hot oven three-quarters of an hour. Serve with the following sauce: 6 tablespoonfuls pulverized sugar, 2 tablespoonfuls butter, 1 tablespoonful lemon juice. Beat all together to a cream; when it is ready to serve. No sugar is needed in this pudding if this sweet sauce is used.

STEAMED BREAD PUDDING

Place 1 cup of fine dried bread crumbs in a bowl. Pour over the crumbs 2 cups of milk and allow to stand a short time. Beat together 2 eggs and scant ½ cup sugar, add 1 tablespoon of butter. Mix all the ingredients together thoroughly; then add ½ cup of chopped raisins, which have been seeded and floured. Pour the batter in the well-buttered top part of a double boiler over hot water. Steam about 2½ to 3 hours. Serve hot with sauce used for cottage pudding, or serve with sugar and cream.

AN ECONOMICAL BREAD AND APPLE PUDDING

Into a well-buttered pudding dish put a layer of sliced sour apples. On the top of these a layer of stale bread crumbs with small bits of butter and sugar sprinkled over them, more sliced apples and bread crumbs, having the crumbs for the top layer. To about three apples use 1 cup of bread crumbs, ½ cup sugar, piece of butter size of walnut and bake in oven until apples are tender. Serve with cream.

CUP CUSTARDS

1 quart of sweet milk.

5 large eggs.

3 tablespoons sugar.

Grated nutmeg or vanilla flavoring.

Scald milk. Beat whites of eggs separately. Add milk when cooled to the beaten yolks. Add sugar and flavoring. Stir in stiffly beaten whites of eggs, pour into custard cups, stand them in a dripping pan half filled with boiling water. Stand the pan in a moderate oven about twenty minutes, or until custard is "set." This quantity fills about eight small custard cups. The water surrounding the custard cups should not be allowed to boil, but the custard should cook slowly.

Grate nutmeg thickly over top of each custard before placing in the oven. Scalding the milk before using improves the custard.

FRAU SCHMIDT'S GRAHAM PUDDING

Sift into a bowl ¼ cup of pastry flour and 1 teaspoonful of baking powder. Add 1 cup Graham flour, pinch of salt and ½ cup granulated sugar. Mix all thoroughly, then add ½ cup of finely chopped kidney suet. Add 1 cup of seedless raisins mixed with one extra tablespoonful of white flour. Mix into a batter with 1 cup of sweet milk, to which add yolk of one egg. Lastly, add the stiffly beaten white of egg. Flavor with either a little grated nutmeg or essence of vanilla.

Make a strong, unbleached muslin bag 7 by 12 inches. Pour the batter into the bag, which had been previously dipped in cold water, the inside of the bag sifted over with flour, and tie bag at top with a string, allowing room for the pudding to swell. Place the bag in the perforated compartment of a steamer, over boiling water, and boil continuously 1½ hours, or longer, without removing lid of steamer oftener than absolutely necessary.

Serve Graham Pudding hot with sauce used for "cottage pudding," or serve simply with sugar and cream, or a sauce may be served composed of ½ cup of pulverized sugar, creamed with ¼ cup of butter. Add 1 tablespoonful of lemon juice or flavor with vanilla. Stand sauce in a cool place a short time and serve cold on hot pudding.

SPONGE BREAD PUDDING

Place 1¾ cups of soft stale (either white or graham) bread crumbs in a pudding dish. Pour 2 cups of hot milk over the crumbs, cover with a plate and allow it to stand about thirty minutes, then add yolks of 2 eggs, ½ teaspoonful of salt, 1 tablespoonful of sugar and grated yellow rind of orange or lemon for flavoring. Beat the mixture until perfectly smooth, add the stiffly beaten whites of two eggs. Bake in a moderately hot oven. Serve hot with the following sauce:

SAUCE.

Three large tablespoonfuls of pulverized sugar and 1 tablespoonful of butter were beaten together until smooth and creamy, 1 teaspoonful of lemon juice was added. The sauce, when quite cold, was served with the warm pudding.

AUNT SARAH'S COTTAGE PUDDING

Cream together 1 cup of sugar, 2 tablespoonfuls of butter, 1 egg, white beaten separately, and added last, 1 cup of sweet milk, pinch of salt, 2 cups of flour, sifted with 2 heaping teaspoonfuls of Royal baking powder, ½ cup of dried currants, well floured. Add stiffly beaten white of egg. Bake in a small oblong bread pan.

SAUCE.

One cup of milk, ½ cup of water, 1 large teaspoonful of butter, a scant tablespoonful of flour moistened with a small quantity of water, before adding. Sweeten to taste, add ½ teaspoonful of grated nutmeg. Cook all together a few minutes, allow the mixture to partly cool, then stir in the yolk of one egg; stand on stove to heat, but not to cook. Serve hot over freshly baked, warm cottage pudding, cut in squares.

APPLE "STRUDEL"

Aunt Sarah pared and quartered six medium-sized tart apples, placed in the bottom of an agate pudding dish, poured over them one cup of hot water and 2 tablespoonfuls of sugar. She allowed this to stand on the range and cook while she mixed the following dough.

Into a bowl she sifted 1 pint of flour with 2 teaspoons baking powder, one teaspoonful of sugar, a little salt. Cut 1 tablespoonful of butter through the flour. Lightly mixed all together into a soft dough with about ¾ cup sweet milk. Should she have a left-over yolk of egg, that was added to the milk. She rolled dough out lightly on the bread board, cut vents in the crust to allow steam to escape and spread it over the top of the dish containing the hot apples; placed in a hot oven to bake until light brown on top. Serve with sugar and cream.

Aunt Sarah called this "Apple Strudel," but the German recipe for "Apple Strudel," handed down by her Grandmother, was quite different. An ordinary noodle dough was made, placed on a clean cloth on the table and rolled as thin as tissue paper. Small bits of butter were scattered over this, covered with tart apples, thinly sliced, sprinkled with cinnamon, sugar and chopped raisins, rolled up and baked in the oven until brown on top, basting frequently with a thin syrup composed of sugar, butter and water.

"LEMON MERINGUE" PUDDING

1 pint of milk.

½ cup of sugar

1 cup bread crumbs.

Juice and grated rind of one lemon.

2 eggs.

⅓ cup of butter.

3 tablespoonfuls of pulverized sugar used for top. Soak the bread crumbs in milk. Beat the butter and sugar together. Add yolks of eggs, soaked bread crumbs and grated lemon rind and about ¾ of the juice of the lemon. Bake in a buttered pudding dish until firm, then cover the pudding with a meringue composed of the stiffly beaten whites of eggs, 3 tablespoonfuls of pulverized sugar and the remaining lemon juice. Place in oven to brown. Stand on ice; serve cold.

SUET PUDDING

1 cup suet, chopped fine.

1 cup sugar.

1 cup sweet milk.

2 eggs.

1 teaspoonful cinnamon.

1 cup raisins.

1 cup currants.

3 cups flour sifted with 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder.

Steam 2½ hours, then place in oven two or three minutes. This quantity will partly fill three empty 1-pound baking powder cans; allowing room to swell. These puddings are equally as good as when freshly prepared if placed in a steamer a short time before serving until heated through.

SAUCE FOR SUET PUDDING.

One cup of pulverized sugar and 1 large tablespoonful of butter creamed together. One teaspoonful of vanilla. Add one whole egg or the yolks of two eggs, or the whites of two eggs, whichever you happen to have.

STEAMED FRUIT PUDDING

1 cup sweet milk.

1 cup chopped suet.

1 cup molasses.

1 cup raisins.

1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in a little water.

1 teaspoonful salt.

SAUCE FOR PUDDING.

A small quantity of cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and a very little clove. Flour to make a batter a little thicker than that of ordinary cake. Steam about 3 hours. This pudding is also inexpensive and equally as good as the former recipe.

Beat 1 egg very light, add 1 cup brown sugar, 1 teaspoonful vanilla. Beat all together until creamy. Serve at once.

CORNMEAL PUDDING

Scald 1 quart of sweet milk. While hot stir in 3 tablespoonfuls of cornmeal, 3 tablespoonfuls of flour mixed smooth with a little cold milk. Add 1 tablespoonful of butter. Let cool. Then add to the mixture ½ cup sugar, ¼ cup molasses, 1 well-beaten egg, ½ teaspoonful of ginger, ½ teaspoonful cinnamon, ¼ pint cold milk, a small pinch of soda and ½ cup of floured, seeded raisins. Bake 2 hours in a moderate oven. Serve with sugar and cream.

HUCKLEBERRY PUDDING

Two eggs and 1 small cup of granulated sugar creamed together. Four tablespoonfuls of cold water. Add 1 cup of sifted flour containing 1 teaspoonful of baking powder, and 1 cup of huckleberries, pitted cherries, or raisins and bake. Serve with milk or any sauce liked. This recipe was given Mary by a friend, who called it her emergency pudding, as it may be easily and quickly prepared from canned sour cherries from which liquid has been drained, or any tart fruit, when fresh fruit is not in season.

TAPIOCA CUSTARD

Four tablespoonfuls of pearl tapioca soaked in cold water over night. The next morning drain the tapioca, boil 1 quart of sweet milk, beat the yolks of 4 eggs light, stir them into the tapioca, adding 4 tablespoonfuls of sugar. Beat all together and gradually add the hot milk. Return to the fire and stir until it commences to boil. Take from the range and pour in a glass dish. Flavor with 1 teaspoonful of vanilla. Whip the whites of the eggs to a standing froth and stir into the cooling pudding When cold stand on ice until ready to serve. One-half cup of shredded cocoanut may be added if liked.

DELICIOUS BAKED PEACH PUDDING

For the dough place in a bowl 1 pint of flour sifted with 2 teaspoonfuls of Royal baking powder and a pinch of salt. Cut through this a scant ½ cup of butter. Mix this with sufficient sweet milk to make a soft dough. Roll out dough half an inch thick, cut in strips and in case whole, ripe, pared peaches, leaving top and bottom of the peach exposed. Or solid canned peaches may be used. Put two halves of peach together and place a strip of dough around the peach. Pinch dough well together, place in a bake dish. Prepare a syrup of 2 cups of sugar and 1 cup of water. Let come to a boil, pour around the dumplings and bake a half hour in a moderately hot oven. These are delicious. The recipe was given Mary by a friend who was an excellent cook. From this dough may also be baked excellent biscuits.

CARAMEL CUSTARD

Place 1 pint of milk on the range in a double boiler. Melt half a cup of sugar in an iron pan over the fire until a golden brown. When melted add four tablespoonfuls of boiling water. Allow mixture to cook one minute, then add it to the milk. Remove from the fire and add 1 teaspoonful of vanilla. When cool stir in 4 well-beaten eggs with 2 tablespoonfuls of sugar. Pour the mixture in a small pudding dish. Stand in a pan of boiling water, place in oven to bake until a jelly-like consistency. When cooled serve plain or with whipped cream.

"AUNT SARAH'S" RHUBARB PUDDING

Remove skin from stalks of rhubarb, wash and cut into half-inch pieces a sufficient quantity to half fill a medium-sized agate or earthenware pudding dish. Place in a stew-pan on range, cook slowly with a couple tablespoons of sugar and a very small amount of water. Sift together in a bowl 1 pint of flour, 1½ teaspoons of baking powder and a pinch of salt. With a knife cut through the flour 2 tablespoonfuls of butter, moisten with one beaten egg and sufficient milk added to make a soft dough or batter. Drop tablespoons of this thick batter over top of dish containing hot stewed rhubarb. Place at once in a hot oven, bake quickly until crust is a light brown. Serve on individual dishes, placing over each a couple tablespoonfuls of the following sauce. The combined flavor of rhubarb and vanilla is delicious.

VANILLA SAUCE FOR RHUBARB PUDDING.

Beat 1 egg very light, add 1 cup of light brown sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla flavoring. Beat all together until foamy. Serve at once, cold, on the hot pudding.

RICE CUSTARD

Add 1 cup of cold boiled rice to 2 cups of sweet milk, mix together slowly. Add ¼ cup sugar, the well-beaten yolks of 2 eggs, let all cook together a few minutes. Remove custard from the fire and pour over the stiffly-beaten whites of two eggs. Beat well with an egg-beater. Place in a glass dish and serve cold.

MARY'S CUP PUDDING (FROM STALE BREAD)

One quart of finely crumbled stale bread (not dried crumbs). Fill buttered cups two-thirds full of crumbs and pour over the following custard, composed of one pint of milk and three eggs. Allow to stand a few minutes, then place the cups in a pan partly filled with hot water, place the pan in a moderately hot oven and bake thirty minutes. No sugar is required in this pudding if the following sweet sauce be served with it:

SAUCE FOR PUDDING.

Mix one tablespoonful of cornstarch with a half cup of sugar. Pour over one cup of boiling water, add one generous teaspoonful of butter. Cook all together until clear, take from the fire and add one well-beaten egg and one teaspoonful of vanilla. Serve hot.

"BUCKWHEAT MINUTE" PUDDING

Pour three cups of milk in a stew-pan, place on range and let come to a boil. Then stir slowly into the boiling milk 1¼ cups of buckwheat flour and ¼ teaspoonful of salt. Keep stirring constantly until a thick mush. Serve at once with sugar and cream. I have never eaten this pudding anywhere except in "Bucks County." It is cheap, quickly and easily prepared and well liked by many country folk in Bucks County.

PEACH TAPIOCA

One cup of tapioca soaked in 1 quart of cold water several hours. Place in stew-pan, set on stove and cook until clear. Add sugar to taste and 1 pint can of peaches. Boil two or three minutes, remove from range and pour into the dish in which it is to be served. Stand aside to cool.

AUNT SARAH'S PLAIN BOILED PUDDING

One cup of beef suet chopped fine or run through a food-chopper, ½ cup sour milk, 1 egg, 1 teaspoonful soda, pinch of salt. ½ cup sugar, 1 teaspoonful cinnamon, 1 cup raisins, seeded and floured. Flour enough to make as stiff as ordinary cake batter. Boil or steam in a muslin bag three hours. This is a very inexpensive and good pudding. Dust a small quantity of flour over suet before chopping. Serve with the following sauce:

PUDDING SAUCE.

One large tablespoonful of butter, 1 teacup water, ½ teacup milk, scant tablespoonful of flour, grated nutmeg to flavor. Sweeten to taste, add a pinch of salt. Cook and let cool. Beat up yolk of egg, add to sauce, stand on back of stove to heat, not cook. Serve hot over the pudding.

APPLE TAPIOCA

Pour 1 pint of cold water over ½ cup tapioca. Allow to stand until the following morning, when cook until clean. Slice 6 tart apples. Place in bottom of pudding dish, strew sugar over, then pour over the tapioca; place over this a layer of thinly sliced apples over which dust sugar. Place in oven and bake until the apples are cooked. Serve with sugar and cream. Several thin slices of lemon added before baking impart a fine flavor.

STEAMED WALNUT PUDDING

Place in a bowl ½ cup butter and 1 cup of granulated sugar. Beat to a cream. Add yolks of 2 eggs and ½ cup of syrup molasses or maple syrup, in which had been dissolved 1 teaspoonful baking soda. Then add 1 cup sweet milk, alternately, with about 3½ cups flour, ½ cup of walnut meats, run through food-chopper or crushed with rolling pin, ¾ cup of seeded raisins, ½ teaspoonful ground cinnamon, ½ teaspoonful grated nutmeg, ¼ teaspoonful ground cloves, a pinch of salt and the stiffly beaten whites of the two eggs.

The batter should be placed in two empty one-pound tin coffee cans, about two-thirds full, covered tightly with lid and placed in a pot of boiling water which should be kept boiling constantly for three hours; when steamed the pudding should almost fill the cans. If the cans were well buttered and flour sifted over, the pudding when steamed may be easily removed to a platter. Slice and serve hot with the following sauce:

Beat one cup of pulverized sugar to a cream with 2 heaping tablespoonfuls of butter. Add white of one egg (unbeaten). Beat all together until creamy. Add ¾ of a teaspoonful of lemon extract and stand sauce in a cold place or on ice one hour before serving on slices of hot pudding. This is a delicious pudding.

"CORNMEAL SPONGE" PUDDING

Crumble cold corn muffins, or corn cake, a quantity sufficient to fill two cups. Soak in 1 quart of sweet milk three or four hours, then add 3 well-beaten eggs, 3 tablespoonfuls of sugar and a pinch of salt. Beat all well together. Place in a pan and bake 1 hour in a moderately hot oven. Serve hot with whipped cream and sugar or with a sauce made by beating to a cream a heaping tablespoonful of butter, 1 cup of granulated sugar, 1 egg and a very little vanilla flavoring.

MARY'S CORN STARCH PUDDING

1½ quarts of milk.

5 eggs.

2 heaping tablespoonfuls of corn starch.

1 scant cup of sugar.

1 teaspoonful of vanilla.

Pour milk in a double boiler and place on range to cook. Moisten cornstarch with a little cold milk and add to remainder of the milk when boiling hot. Stir thoroughly, then beat yolk of eggs and sugar until light, stir in stiffly beaten whites and when all are mixed stir into the scalding milk. Let come to a boil again and add vanilla or almond flavoring. Pour into individual molds to cool. Serve cold with a spoonful of jelly or preserved strawberry with each serving.

APPLE JOHNNY CAKE (SERVED AS A PUDDING)

This is a good, cheap, wholesome pudding.

1 cup corn meal.

2 tablespoonfuls of sugar.

1 teaspoonful of soda.

1 tablespoonful of melted butter.

¼ teaspoonful of salt.

⅔ cup flour.

1 cup sour milk.

Mix batter together as you would for cake, then add 4 pared, thinly sliced, tart apples to the batter. Stir all together. Bake in a quick oven in a bread pan and serve hot with cold cream and sugar. Raisins may be substituted for apples if preferred.

A GOOD AND CHEAP "TAPIOCA PUDDING"

Soak over night in cold water 3 even tablespoonfuls of pearl tapioca. In the morning add tapioca to one quart of milk, 3 tablespoonfuls of sugar, a pinch of salt. Grate nutmeg over top. Bake in a moderate oven about three hours, stirring occasionally.

"GOTTERSPEISE"

Partly fill an earthenware pudding dish with pieces of sponge cake or small cakes called "Lady Fingers;" cut up with them a few macaroons. Place one pint of wine over fire to heat, add to the wine the following mixture, composed of 1 spoonful of cornstarch mixed smooth with a little water, 3 yolks of eggs and 3 spoonfuls of sugar. Mix all together and stir until thickened. Pour the thickened mixture over the cake. When cooled cover with the stiffly-beaten whites of the 3 eggs, spread sliced almonds thickly over top and brown in oven a few minutes. Serve cold.

SPANISH CREAM

Half a box of Knox gelatine, 1 quart of milk, 4 eggs. Put gelatine in milk, let stand 1 hour to dissolve. Set over fire to boil, then add beaten yolks of eggs with 1 cup granulated sugar. Remove from fire while adding this. Stir well. Return to range and let boil. Stand aside to cool. Beat whites of eggs to a froth and beat into custard when cooled. Pour into a glass dish in which it is to be served. Stand in a cold place and serve with cream.

GRAHAM PUDDING

One cup of molasses, 1 egg, 1 cup sweet milk, ½ teaspoonful soda, 1 teaspoonful of salt, 1 tablespoonful brown sugar, 1 cup raisins, 2½ cups Graham flour. Mix all ingredients together. Steam three hours.

"PENNSYLVANIA" PLUM PUDDING (FOR THANKSGIVING DAY)

One cup milk, 2 eggs, 1 cup molasses, ½ teaspoonful nutmeg, ½ teaspoonful salt, 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder, 1 cup bread crumbs, ½ cup corn meal, 1 cup chopped beef suet, ¼ cup finely minced citron, 1 cup seeded raisins, ½ cup currants. Flour to make a stiff batter. Steam fully three hours, turn from the mold, strew chopped almonds over top. Serve pudding hot with sauce for which recipe is given.

Aunt Sarah invariably served this pudding on Thanksgiving Day, and all preferred it to old-fashioned "English Plum Pudding."

SAUCE FOR PUDDING.

Cream together 1 cup of pulverized sugar, scant ½ cup of butter, beat whites of 2 eggs in, one at a time, and one teaspoonful of lemon flavoring; stand on ice a short time before serving. Serve sauce very cold.

"SLICE" BREAD PUDDING

Line the sides of a pudding dish holding two quarts with seven slices of stale bread from which crust had been removed. Beat together 3 eggs, 3 tablespoonfuls of sugar and 3 cups of sweet milk (and add the juice and grated rind of one lemon, or half a grated nutmeg). Pour in the centre of pudding dish. With a spoon dip some of the custard over each slice of bread. Bake about 30 minutes and serve hot with the following sauce:

One cup of water, ½ cup milk, 1 teaspoonful butter, scant tablespoonful of flour mixed smooth with a little water before adding it. Sweeten to taste, add grated nutmeg or vanilla to flavor. Cook all together, then add the yolk of one egg. Place on stove a minute to heat. Add a pinch of salt. Serve hot over the pudding in individual dishes.

CEREALS—OATMEAL PORRIDGE

Oatmeal to be palatable and wholesome should be thoroughly cooked, that is, steamed over a hot fire two hours or longer. Use a double boiler of agateware. Place in the upper half of the boiler about 5 cups of water and stand directly over the hottest part of the range. When the water boils furiously, and is full of little bubbles (not before), stir into the boiling water about 2 cups of oatmeal (if porridge is liked rather thick), and about 1 teaspoonful of salt. (Tastes differ regarding the thickness of porridge.) Let stand directly on the front of the range, stirring only enough to prevent scorching, and cook ten minutes, then stand upper part of double boiler over the lower compartment, partly filled with boiling water; cover closely and let steam from two to three hours. In order to have the oatmeal ready to serve at early breakfast the following morning, put oatmeal on to cook about five o'clock in the evening, while preparing supper, and allow it to stand and steam over boiling water until the fire in the range is dampened off for the night. Allow the oatmeal to stand on range until the following morning, when draw the boiler to front part of range, and when breakfast is ready (after removing top crust formed by standing), turn the oatmeal out on a dish and serve with rich cream and sugar, and you will have a good, wholesome breakfast dish with the flakes distinct, and a nutty flavor. Serve fruit with it, if possible. A good rule for cooking oatmeal is in the proportion of 2½ cups of water to 1 cup of oatmeal.

The cereals which come ready prepared are taking the place of the old-time standby with which mothers fed their growing boys. If you wish your boys to have muscle and brawn, feed them oats. To quote an old physician, "If horses thrive on oats, why not boys who resemble young colts?"

For example, look at the hardy young Scot who thrives and grows hearty and strong on his oatmeal "porritch." Chopped almonds, dates or figs may be added to oatmeal to make it more palatable. Use cup measuring ½ pint for measuring cereals as well as every other recipe calling for one cup in this book.

COOKED RICE

Boil 1 cup of whole, thoroughly cleansed, uncoated rice in 3 quarts of rapidly boiling water (salted) about 25 minutes, or until tender, which can be tested by pressing a couple of grains of rice between the fingers. Do not stir often while boiling. When the rice is tender turn on to a sieve and drain; then put in a dish and place in the oven, to dry off, with oven door open, when the grains should be whole, flaky, white and tempting, not the soggy, unappetizing mass one often sees. Serve rice with cream and sugar. Some prefer brown sugar and others like crushed maple sugar with it. Or rice may be eaten as a vegetable with salt and butter. Rice is inexpensive, nutritious and one of the most easily digested cereals, and if rightly cooked, an appetizing looking food. It is a wonder the economical housewife does not serve it oftener on her table in some of the numerous ways it may be prepared. As an ingredient of soup, as a vegetable, or a pudding, croquettes, etc., the wise housekeeper will cook double the amount of rice needed and stand half aside until the day following, when may be quickly prepared rice croquettes, cheese balls, etc. On the day following that on which rice has been served, any cold boiled rice remaining may be placed in a small bake dish with an equal quantity of milk, a little sugar and flavoring, baked a short time in oven and served with a cup of stewed, seeded raisins which have slowly steamed, covered with cold water, on the back of the range, until soft and plump.

CORN MEAL MUSH

Place on the range a cook-pot containing 9 cups of boiling water (good measure). Sift in slowly 2 cups of yellow granulated corn meal, stirring constantly while adding the meal, until the mixture is smooth and free from lumps. Add 1¼ level teaspoonfuls of salt and ¼ teaspoonful of sugar, and cook a short time, stirring constantly, then stand where the mush will simmer, or cook slowly for four or five hours.

Serve hot, as a porridge, adding ½ teaspoonful of butter to each individual bowl of hot mush and serve with it cold milk or cream. Should a portion of the mush remain after the meal, turn it at once, while still hot, in an oblong pan several inches in depth, stand until quite cold. Cut in half-inch slices, sift flour over each slice and fry a golden brown in a couple tablespoonfuls of sweet drippings and butter. Or dip slices of mush in egg and bread crumbs and fry brown in the same manner. Some there are who like maple syrup or molasses served with fried mush.

This proportion of corn meal and water will make porridge of the proper consistency and it will be just right to be sliced for frying when cold. Long, slow cooking makes corn meal much more wholesome and palatable, and prevents the raw taste of cornmeal noticeable in mush cooked too quickly. The small quantity of sugar added is not noticed, but improves the flavor of the mush.

MACARONI

In early spring, when the family tire of winter foods and it is still too early for vegetables from the home garden, and the high price of early forced vegetables in the city markets prevent the housewife, of limited means from purchasing, then the resourceful, economical housewife serves macaroni and rice in various ways and makes appetizing dishes of the fruits she canned and preserved for Winter use, combined with tapioca and gelatine. Milk and eggs tide her over the most difficult time of the year for young, inexperienced cooks. When the prices of early vegetables soar beyond the reach of her purse, then she should buy sparingly of them and of meat, and occasionally serve, instead, a dish of macaroni and cheese, or rice and cheese, and invest the money thus saved in fruit; dried fruits, if fresh fruits are not obtainable.

Macaroni is such a nutritious food that it should be used frequently by the young housewife as a substitute for meat on the bill of fare. Also occasionally serve a dish of baked beans or a dish composed of eggs, or milk combined with eggs, instead of the more expensive meat dish, all equally useful as muscle-builders, and cheaper than meat. The wise housewife will learn which foods furnish heat for the body and those which produce fat and energy, and those which are muscle-builders, and endeavor to serve well-balanced meals of the foods belonging to the three classes and thus with fruit and vegetables she will make wise provision for her family.

BAKED MACARONI AND CHEESE

Put 2 cups or ½ pound of macaroni (either the long sticks broken in pieces or the "elbow" macaroni, as preferred) in a kettle holding several quarts of rapidly boiling, salted water, and cook about 25 minutes, or until tender. Drain in a colander and allow cold water to run over it for several seconds. This prevents the macaroni sticking together. Place the macaroni in a buttered baking dish and pour over a hot "cream sauce" composed of 1 cup of milk and 1 cup of water, 2 tablespoonfuls of flour, 2 even tablespoonfuls of butter and a pinch of salt. (Too much salt is apt to curdle the milk.) Spread over the top of macaroni about 3 tablespoonfuls of grated cheese, or, if preferred, sprinkle over the top 3 tablespoonfuls of well-seasoned dried bread crumbs and small bits of butter. Stand the bake-dish containing the macaroni in a hot oven ten or fifteen minutes, until lightly browned on top. Serve hot in the dish in which it was baked. Stewed tomatoes are a nice accompaniment to this dish. Double the quantity of macaroni may be cooked at one time and a part of it kept on ice; the following day serve in tomato sauce, thus utilizing any left-over tomatoes.

The macaroni may be cooked while the housewife is using the range, early in the morning. Drain the macaroni in a colander and stand aside in a cool place. It may be quickly prepared for six o'clock dinner by pouring over a hot cream sauce and grated cheese and quickly browning in the oven.

Or the macaroni, when cooked tender in salt water, may be quickly served by pouring over it a hot cream sauce, before the macaroni has become cold. Serve at once.

Housewives should be particular when buying macaroni to get a brand made from good flour.

CAKES—CAKE-MAKING

Sift flour and baking powder together several times before adding to cake batter. Aunt Sarah usually sifted flour and baking powder together four times for cakes. Flour should always be sifted before using. Baking powder should be sifted through the flour dry. Salaratus (or baking soda) should, usually, be dissolved before using in a teaspoonful of hot water, unless stated otherwise. Cream of tartar should be sifted with the flour. Flour should be added gradually and batter stirred as little as possible afterwards, unless directions are given to the contrary. Much beating after flour has been added is apt to make cake tough. Cake will be lighter if baked slowly at first After it has raised increase heat slowly so it will brown nicely on top. The batter, if heated slowly, will rise evenly. This does not mean a cool oven. To prevent cakes sticking to pans, grease pans well with lard, and sift a little flour lightly over pan. Use baking powder with sweet milk. Saleratus is always used with sour milk. Use 1 teaspoonful of saleratus to 1 pint of sour milk. Cream of tartar and saleratus combined may be used with sweet milk instead of baking powder. One heaping teaspoonful of Royal baking powder is equivalent to 1 teaspoonful of cream of tartar and ½ teaspoonful of saleratus combined. Either baking powder or a combination of saleratus and cream of tartar may be used in a cake in which sweet milk is used. Usually take 1½ to 2 scant teaspoonfuls of baking powder to two cups of flour. Saleratus should be used alone with sour milk. Put baking molasses in a stew-pan over fire and allow it to just come to boil; cool before using it. It will not sour as quickly in warm weather, and the cake baked from it will have a better flavor. The cup used in measuring ingredients for cakes holds exactly one-half pint. All cakes are improved by the addition of a pinch of salt. When lard is used instead of butter, beat to a cream and salt well. In mixing cakes, beat butter and sugar together until light and creamy, then add the beaten yolks of eggs, unless stated otherwise as for angel cake, etc., then the flavoring, then mix in the flour and liquid alternately. The baking powder, flour and salt should have been sifted together three or four times before being added. Lastly, fold in lightly the stiffly beaten whites of eggs. Fruit well dredged with flour should be added last, if used. Cool the oven if too hot for baking cakes by placing a pan containing cold water in the top rack of oven. Sponge cake particularly is improved by doing this, as it makes the cake moist. Stir sponge cake as little as possible after adding flour, as too much stirring then will make cake tough. Sift flour several times before using for sponge cake, as this causes the flour to become lighter. Layer cake, and most small cakes, require a quick oven. The oven door should not be opened for 12 minutes after cake has been placed in oven. Rich cakes, loaf cakes and fruit cakes must bake long and slowly. The richer the cake, the slower the heat required in baking. To test the oven, if the hand can bear the heat of the oven 20 or 25 seconds, the oven then is the right temperature. After placing a loaf cake in oven do not open the oven door for 20 minutes. If oven be not hot enough, the cake will rise, then fall and be heavy. Angel cake, sunshine cake and sponge cake require a moderate oven.

Raisins and dried currants should be washed and dried before using in cake. All fruit should be dredged with flour before being added to cake. Citron may be quickly and easily prepared by cutting on a slaw cutter or it may be grated before being added to cake. When a recipe calls for butter the size of an egg it means two tablespoonfuls. A tablespoonful of butter, melted, means the butter should be measured first, then melted. Aunt Sarah frequently used a mixture of butter and lard in her cakes for economy's sake, and a lesser quantity may be used, as the shortening quality of lard is greater than that of butter. When substituting lard for butter, she always beat the lard to a cream before using it and salt it well. If raisins and currants are placed in oven of range a few minutes to become warmed before being added to cake, then rolled in flour, they will not sink to bottom of cake when baked.

FRAU SCHMIDT'S LEMON CAKE

1½ cups sugar.

½ cup butter and lard.

3 small eggs or 2 large ones.

½ cup sweet milk.

2 cups flour.

½ teaspoonful saleratus.

1 teaspoonful cream of tartar.

Grated yellow rind and juice of half a lemon.

Beat sugar and butter to a cream and add the yolks of eggs. Add the milk, then the flour and cream of tartar and saleratus; and the flavoring. Lastly, the stiffly-beaten whites of eggs.

This makes one loaf cake. The original of this recipe was a very old one which Frau Schmidt had used many years. Every ingredient in the old recipe was doubled, except the eggs, when five were used. Mary thought this cake fine and from the recipe, when she used half the quantity of everything, she baked a fine loaf cake, and from the original recipe was made one good sized loaf and one layer cake. Thinly sliced citron added to this cake is a great improvement.

FINE "KRUM KUCHEN"

One cup sugar, ½ cup butter and lard, mixed; 2 cups flour and 2 teaspoonfuls of baking powder, 2 eggs, ½ cup sweet milk.

Crumb together with the hands the sugar, butter, flour and baking powder sifted together. Take out ½ cup of these crumbs to be scattered over top of cake. To the remainder add the yolks of the eggs, well beaten, and the sweet milk, and lastly the stiffly beaten whites of eggs. Put the mixture in a well-greased pan (a deep custard pie tin will answer), scatter the half cup of crumbs reserved over top of cake and bake about ¾ of an hour in a rather quick oven. When cake is baked, sprinkle over 1 teaspoonful of melted butter and dust top with cinnamon.

AUNT SARAH'S "QUICK DUTCH CAKES"

She creamed together 1 cup of sugar, 1 tablespoonful of lard, 1 tablespoonful of butter and added 1½ cups of luke-warm milk. Add 3 cups flour (good measure), sifted with three scant teaspoonfuls of baking powder. Add a half cup of raisins, seeded and cut in several pieces, if liked, but the cakes are very good without. Spread in two pans and sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on top and press about five small dabs of butter on top of each cake. Put in oven and bake at once. These are a very good substitute for "raised Dutch cakes," and are much more quickly and easily-made and, as no eggs are used, are quite cheap and very good.

A RELIABLE LAYER CAKE

1¼ cups granulated sugar.

3 eggs.

½ cup butter and lard mixed. (Use all butter if preferred.)

½ cup sweet milk.

2 cups flour sifted with 2 teaspoonfuls Royal baking powder.

Cream together sugar and shortening. Add yolks of eggs, beating well, as each ingredient is added. Then add milk and flour alternately, and lastly the stiffly beaten white of eggs. Stir all together. Bake in two square layer pans, and put together with chocolate or white icing. Or ice the cakes when cold and cut in squares.

BOILED ICING

Boil together 1 cup of granulated sugar and 5 tablespoonfuls boiling water ten or twelve minutes, or until a small quantity dropped from spoon spins a thread. Stir this into the stiffly-beaten white of one egg until thick and creamy. Flavor with lemon, almond or vanilla flavoring and spread on cake. Dip knife in hot water occasionally when spreading icing on cake.

A delicious icing is composed of almonds blanched and pounded to a paste. Add a few drops of essence of bitter almonds. Dust the top of the cake lightly with flour, spread on the almond paste and when nearly dry cover with ordinary icing. Dry almonds before pounding them in mortar, and use a small quantity of rose water. A few drops only should be used of essence of bitter almonds to flavor icing or cake. A pinch of baking powder added to sugar when making boiled icing causes the icing to become more creamy, or add a pinch of cream of tartar when making boiled icing. Or, when a cake iced with "boiled icing" has become cold, spread on top of icing unsweetened, melted chocolate. This is a delicious "cream chocolate icing."

A DELICIOUS "SPICE LAYER CAKE"

2 cups light brown sugar.

1 cup chopped raisins.

2 eggs.

1 cup sour milk.

½ cup butter.

2 cups flour.

1 teaspoonful each of soda, cloves, cinnamon, allspice and

a little grated nutmeg.

Cream sugar and butter together, add yolks of eggs, then the sour milk in which the soda has been dissolved, flour and spices, and lastly stir in the stiffly beaten white of eggs. Bake in two-layer pans.

ICING

Two cups sugar, ¾ cup of milk or cream, 2 tablespoonfuls of butter. Boil until it forms a soft ball when a small quantity is dropped in water, and flavor with vanilla. Beat until cold and spread between layers of cake. Also on top and sides.

AN INEXPENSIVE COCOA CAKE

This is a decidedly good cake and no eggs are required. Cream together 1 cup brown sugar, ¼ cup butter. Add 1 cup of sour milk, 1¾ cups flour, then sift over 1½ tablespoonfuls of cocoa. Add 1 level teaspoonful saleratus, dissolved in a little of the sour milk, and 1 teaspoonful vanilla. Bake in a small loaf. Use the following icing:

¼ cup of grated chocolate, ¾ cup milk, ½ cup sugar, boiled together until thick, and spread on cake.

AUNT SARAH'S WALNUT GINGERBREAD

½ cup of New Orleans molasses.

1 cup of light brown sugar.

½ cup of shortening (composed of butter, lard and sweet

drippings).

½ teaspoonful of ginger, cinnamon and cloves each.

2 teaspoonfuls of baking soda (saleratus), sifted with 3½

cups flour.

1 cup boiling water.

2 eggs.

Beat to a cream the sugar and shortening in a bowl; add molasses, then pour over all one cup of boiling water. Beat well. Add flour, soda and spices, all sifted together. Beat into this the two unbeaten eggs (one at a time), then add about ¾ of a cup of coarsely chopped black walnut meats or the same quantity of well-floured raisins may be substituted for the walnut meats.

The cakes may be baked in muffin pans. In that case fill pans about two-thirds full. The above quantity makes eighteen. They can also be baked in a pan as a loaf cake. This cake is excellent, and will keep fresh several days. These cakes taste similar to those sold in an Atlantic City bake-shop which have gained a reputation for their excellence.

AUNT SARAH'S "GERMAN CRUMB CAKES" BAKED IN CRUSTS

3 cups flour.

2½ heaping teaspoonfuls baking powder.

2 cups sugar (soft A or light brown).

½ cup lard and butter mixed.

2 eggs.

1 cup sweet milk.

Pinch of salt.

Flavoring—vanilla or grated orange rind.

Line three small pie tins with pie crust. Sift together into a bowl the flour and baking powder and add light brown or A sugar, and the butter, lard and salt. Rub this all together with the hands until well mixed and crumbly. Take out 1 cupful of these crumbs and stand aside. Add to the rest of the mixture the yolks of eggs, whites being beaten separately and added last. Add slowly 1 cup of sweet milk. Mix it in gradually until the mixture is creamed, then add a small quantity of grated orange peel, lemon or vanilla flavoring. Lastly, stir in the stiffly beaten whites of eggs. Pour the mixture into each one of the three unbaked crusts, then sprinkle the cup of crumbs thickly over the tops. Bake in a moderate oven. These are very good, cheap cakes for breakfast or lunch.

"SOUR CREAM" MOLASSES CAKE

½ cup molasses.

1 cup sugar.

½ cup thick sour cream.

½ cup sour milk.

½ cup finely chopped peanuts.

1 egg.

1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in little hot water.

2¾ cups flour.

1 cup seeded raisins.

Mix together like ordinary cake. Bake in a fruit cake pan in a slow oven about forty minutes. This excellent cake requires no shortening, as cream is used.

ECONOMY CAKE

1 egg.

1 cup sweet milk.

1 cup granulated sugar.

2 cups flour.

¼ cup butter.

2 teaspoonfuls baking powder.

Cream together sugar and yolk of egg, then beat into this mixture the butter and add the milk. Then stir the flour, a small quantity at a time, into the mixture, keeping it smooth and free from lumps. Add the stiffly beaten white of egg. Use any flavoring or spice preferred. Bake in a quick oven.

This is not simply a very cheap cake, but a decidedly good one, and made from inexpensive materials. Follow the recipe exactly or the cake may be too light and too crumbly if too much baking powder is used, or heavy if too much butter is used. By varying the flavor and baking in different forms it is as good as a number of more expensive recipes. It makes three layers of any kind of layer cake, or bake in Gem pans.

GINGER CAKE

½ cup brown sugar.

1 egg.

½ cup lard.

2 large cups flour.

½ cup New Orleans molasses.

1 tablespoonful of ginger.

1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in half cup lukewarm water.

Beat sugar and lard to a cream, then beat in the yolk of egg, molasses and flour and soda dissolved in water. Lastly, add the stiffly-beaten white of egg. Bake 45 minutes in hot oven.

A VERY ECONOMICAL GERMAN CLOVE CAKE

Place in a stew-pan the following ingredients:

1 cup brown sugar.

1 cup cold water.

2 cups seeded raisins.

⅓ cup sweet lard, or a mixture of lard and butter.

¼ grated nutmeg.

2 teaspoonfuls cinnamon.

½ teaspoonful ground cloves.

Pinch of salt.

Boil all together three minutes. When cold add I teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a little hot water. Add about 1¾ cups flour sifted with ½ teaspoonful of baking powder. Bake in a loaf in a moderately hot oven about thirty minutes. This cake is both good and economical, as no butter, eggs or milk are used in its composition. The recipe for making this excellent, cheap cake was bought by Aunt Sarah at a "Cake and Pie" sale. She was given permission to pass it on.

ICING.

1 small cup pulverized sugar.

2 tablespoonfuls of cocoa.

Mix smooth with a very little boiling water. Spread over cake.

CAKE ICING FOR VARIOUS CAKES

Cook together 2 cups of granulated sugar, 1¼ cups of water a little less than 12 minutes. Just before it reaches the soft ball stage, beat in quickly 25 marshmallows; when dissolved and a thick, creamy mass, spread between layers and on top of cake.

This is a delicious creamy icing when made according to directions. If sugar and water be cooked one minute too long, the icing becomes sugary instead of creamy. One-half the above quantity will ice the top of a cake nicely.

MARY'S RECIPE FOR "HOT MILK" SPONGE CAKE

For this cake was used:

2 cups granulated sugar.

4 eggs.

2⅛ cups flour.

1½ teaspoonfuls of baking powder.

1 cup boiling hot milk.

Separate the eggs, place yolks in a bowl, add the sugar and beat until creamy.

Add the stiffly beaten whites of eggs alternately with the sifted flour and baking powder; lastly add the cup of boiling hot milk; should the milk not be rich, add one teaspoon of butter to the hot milk. The cake batter should be thin as griddle cake batter, pour into a tube pan and place at once in a very moderate oven; in about 15 minutes increase the heat and in about 25 minutes more the cake, risen to the top of pan, should have commenced to brown on top.

Bake from 15 to 20 minutes more in a moderately hot oven with steady heat; when baked the top of the cake should be a light fawn color and texture of cake light and fine grained.

Mary was told by her Aunt that any sponge cake was improved by the addition of a teaspoon of butter, causing the sponge cake to resemble pound cake in texture.

CHEAP "MOLASSES GINGER BREAD"

1 cup New Orleans molasses.

1 cup sugar.

½ cup shortening (lard and butter mixed).

1 cup hot water.

1 large teaspoonful soda dissolved in the one cup of hot water.

1 teaspoonful of ginger.

½ teaspoonful of cinnamon.

1 quart of flour.

Stir sugar and shortening together. Add molasses, beat all thoroughly, then add hot water and flour. Stir hard. Bake in two layer pans in quick oven about 30 minutes. Use cake while fresh.

AUNT SARAH'S EXTRA FINE LARGE SPONGE CAKE

2 cups granulated sugar.

2¼ cups of flour.

¾ cup of boiling water.

4 large eggs.

2 even teaspoonfuls baking powder.

1 teaspoonful lemon juice.

Put whites of eggs in a large mixing bowl and beat very stiff. Add sugar (sifted 3 times), then add the well-beaten yolks, flour (sifted 3 times with baking powder), add lemon juice. Lastly, add the hot water. Bake about 50 minutes in a tube pan in a moderately hot oven with a steady heat. Stand a pan of hot water in the upper rack of oven if the oven is quite hot. It improves the cake and causes it to be more moist. This is an excellent sponge cake and easily made, although the ingredients are put together the opposite way cakes are usually mixed, with the exception of angel cake. When this cake was taken from oven, powdered sugar was sifted thickly over the top. Use cup holding ½ pint, as in all other cake recipes.

ANGEL CAKE—AUNT SARAH'S RECIPE

Mary was taught by her Aunt, when preparing a dish calling for yolks of eggs only, to place the white of eggs not used in a glass jar which she stood in a cold place or on ice. When she had saved one even cupful she baked an angel cake over the following recipe:

One heaping cup of pulverized sugar (all the cup will hold), was sifted 8 times. One cup of a mixture of pastry flour and corn starch (equal parts) was also sifted 8 times. The whole was then sifted together 4 times. The one cupful of white of eggs was beaten very stiff. When about half beaten, sprinkle over the partly-beaten eggs one scant teaspoonful of cream of tartar, then finish beating the whites of eggs. Flavor with almond or vanilla. Then carefully sift into the stiffly beaten whites of eggs sugar, flour and corn starch. Fold into the whites of eggs rather than stir. Aunt Sarah always baked this cake in a small, oblong bread pan. This cake should be baked in a very moderate oven, one in which the hand might be held without inconvenience while counting one hundred; the oven should be just hot enough for one to know there was fire in the range. Do not open the oven door for 15 minutes, then increase the heat a little; if not too hot, open the oven door a moment to cool and bake slowly for about 55 minutes.

AUNT SARAH'S GOOD AND CHEAP "COUNTRY FRUIT CAKE"

1 cup butter and lard, mixed.

4 eggs.

1 cup New Orleans molasses.

1 cup sour milk.

1 pound dried currants.

¼ pound thinly sliced citron.

2 teaspoonfuls baking soda.

4 cups flour.

2 pounds raisins, seeded.

A little grated nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon and a very small quantity of cloves.

Bake in one large fruit cake pan or in two good sized pans about 1¾ hours. This cake should not be kept as long a time as a more expensive fruit cake, but may be kept several weeks. This was Aunt Sarah's best recipe for an excellent, inexpensive fruit cake.

A "SPONGE CUSTARD" CAKE

4 eggs.

2 cups granulated sugar.

3 cups flour.

1 teaspoonful baking soda.

1 cup cold water.

Juice of 1 lemon.

2 teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar and pinch of salt.

Beat eggs well, then sift in sugar and half of flour in which cream of tartar has been mixed. Dissolve the soda in a little water and add also the lemon juice and lastly add the balance of flour. Bake in layer cake pans two inches deep.

CUSTARD

Boil 1 pint of sweet milk and add to it, stirring constantly, the following mixture: Two tablespoonfuls corn starch, mixed with a little water before boiling, 1 cup of sugar and 1 well-beaten egg. Allow all to cook a few minutes in a double boiler about 15 minutes. Split the sponge cakes when baked and put custard between when cooled.

GRANDMOTHER'S EXCELLENT "OLD RECIPE" FOR MARBLE CAKE

LIGHT PART.

1¾ cups granulated sugar.

1 scant cup butter or a mixture of butter and lard.

Whites of 6 eggs.

1 cup milk.

3 scant cups flour sifted with 2 teaspoons of baking powder.

Flavor with essence of lemon.

DARK PART.

Yolks of 4 eggs.

½ cup of a mixture of butter and lard.

¾ cup milk (scant measure).

½ cup brown sugar.

1 tablespoon of molasses.

2 tablespoons of cinnamon.

1 tablespoon of cloves.

One cup or a little more flour sifted with one teaspoon of baking powder. Place spoonfuls of the dark and light batter alternately in a cake pan until all has been used.

Bake in a moderately hot oven from 45 to 50 minutes.

From this recipe may be made two good sized cakes.

I should advise using one-half the quantity for both dark and light part of cake called for in recipe, which would make one good sized cake. Should this whole recipe be used, the cake baked from it would be of the size of a very large fruit cake.

MARY'S MOLASSES CAKES

She creamed together 1 cup of light brown sugar and 2 tablespoonfuls of butter. Then added 1 cup of New Orleans molasses. The molasses had been allowed to come to a boil, then cooled.

She sifted into the mixture 4 cups of flour alternately with 1 cup of sweet milk in which 2 even teaspoonfuls of soda had been dissolved. She beat all well together, then added yolk of one large egg, and lastly the stiffly beaten white of the egg. Beat the mixture again and bake in 2 square layer cake pans in a hot oven about 25 minutes. This is an excellent cake if directions are closely followed.

CHOCOLATE ICING FOR MOLASSES CAKE.

Boil 1 scant half cup water with 1 cup sugar until it spins a thread, or forms a soft, firm ball in cold water. Pour slowly over the stiffly beaten white of egg, beating while it is being poured. Melt 2 squares or 2 ounces of unsweetened chocolate by standing the bowl containing it in hot water. Add 1 teaspoonful hot water to chocolate. Stir the egg and sugar mixture slowly into the melted chocolate. Beat until stiff enough to spread on cake.

HICKORY NUT CAKE

1½ cups sugar.

½ cup butter.

¾ cup milk.

Whites of 4 eggs.

1 cup hickory nut meats, chopped.

2 cups flour sifted with 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder.

Mix together as ordinary cake. Bake in a loaf.

"LIGHT BROWN" SUGAR CAKE

Three cupfuls of light brown sugar, ½ cup of sweet lard and yolk of one egg creamed together until light. Then add 1½ cups sour milk alternately with 4 cups of flour and 1½ teaspoonfuls of cinnamon; 1½ teaspoonfuls of ginger, ½ teaspoonful of cloves and half of a grated nutmeg, 1 tablespoonful of thinly shaved or grated citron is an improvement to cake, but may be omitted. Beat all together, then add 1 teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a small quantity of the sour milk. Lastly, add the stiffly beaten white of one egg and one cup seeded raisins dredged with a little flour. Put the cake batter in a large, well-greased fruit cake pan, lined with paper which had been greased and a trifle of flour sifted over, and bake in an oven with a steady heat about one hour and fifteen minutes. This is a very good, inexpensive cake and will keep moist some time if kept in a tin cake box. The fruit might be omitted, but it improves the cake.

"ANGEL FOOD" LAYER CAKE

1 cup and 2 tablespoonfuls granulated sugar.

1-1\2 cups flour.

1 cup and 2 tablespoonfuls scalded milk.

3 teaspoonfuls baking powder.

Pinch of salt.

Whites of 2 eggs.

Place milk in top part of double boiler and heat to boiling point. Sift dry ingredients together four times and then pour in the hot milk and stir well together. Lastly, add the stiffly beaten whites of eggs. Fold them in lightly, but do not beat. The batter will be quite thin. Do not grease the tins. No flavoring is used. Bake in two square layer tins, put together with any icing preferred. Bake in a moderate oven. This is a good, economical cake to bake when yolks of eggs have been used for other purposes.

MARY'S CHOCOLATE CAKE

One-half cup of brown sugar, ½ cup of sweet milk and ½ cup of grated, unsweetened chocolate. Boil all together until thick as cream; allow it to cool.

Mix ½ cup of butter with ½ cup of brown sugar. Add two beaten eggs, ⅔ of a cup of sweet milk and vanilla flavoring to taste. Beat this into the boiled mixture and add 2 cups of flour sifted with 2 teaspoonfuls of baking powder. Bake in three layers and put together with chocolate icing, or cocoa filling.

COCOA FILLING.

1½ cups pulverized sugar.

1 tablespoonful butter, melted.

2½ tablespoonfuls cocoa.

Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix to a smooth paste with cold coffee. Flavor with vanilla and spread on cake. This cocoa filling should not be boiled.

A CHEAP ORANGE CAKE

2 eggs.

1½ cupfuls sugar.

1 large tablespoonful butter.

1 cup milk.

2 cups flour sifted with 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder.

Juice and grated yellow rind of half an orange.

Bake in moderate oven in loaf or layers. If a loaf cake, ice top and sides with the following icing:

1½ cupfuls pulverized sugar, 1 tablespoonful warm water and grated rind and juice of half an orange. Mix all together to a cream and spread over cake.

FRAU SCHMIDT'S MOLASSES CAKE

1 pint of New Orleans molasses.

¾ cup butter and lard, mixed.

4 eggs.

1 cup sour milk

2 good teaspoonfuls soda.

4 cups flour.

Grated rind of 1 orange.

Bake in a long dripping pan, cut out in square pieces, or it may be baked in a large pan used for fruit cake. It will fill two medium sized cake pans.

APPLE SAUCE CAKE

¼ cup butter (generous measure).

1 cup light brown sugar.

1 cup apple sauce (not sweetened).

1 level teaspoonful soda.

2 cups flour.

1 teaspoonful cinnamon.

½ teaspoonful cloves.

1 small nutmeg, grated.

Pinch of salt.

1 cup raisins.

Cream together butter, sugar and spices. Add apple sauce and flour. (Dissolve the soda in apple sauce.) Add a cup of seeded raisins or raisins and currants, if preferred. This recipe may be doubled when it makes a very good, cheap fruit cake, as no eggs are required, and it both looks and tastes like a dark fruit cake.

ICING.

One cup pulverized sugar, piece of butter size of a walnut. Moisten with a little water and spread on cake.

"SCHWARZ" CAKE

This delicious black chocolate or "Schwarz" cake, as Aunt Sarah called it, was made from the following recipe:

1½ cups of sugar.

½ cup butter.

½ cup sweet milk.

1 even teaspoon of soda (saleratus).

3 eggs.

1 teaspoonful of vanilla.

2 cups flour.

1½ teaspoon of Royal baking powder.

Before mixing all the above ingredients place in a stewpan on the range ½ cup of grated chocolate and ½ cup sweet milk; allow them to come to a boil, then stand this mixture aside to cool and add to the cake mixture later.

Cream together sugar and butter, add yolk of eggs; soda dissolved in the milk, then add flour and baking powder sifted together alternately with the stiffly beaten white of eggs. Then beat in last the chocolate and milk mixture which has cooled. Bake in layer cake pans.

Use the following chocolate filling:

½ cup sugar.

½ cup milk.

Yolk of one egg.

½ teaspoon of corn starch (good measure).

¼ cake of Baker's unsweetened chocolate.

Boil all together until quite thick and spread between layers of cake.

APPLE CREAM CAKE

2 cups Sugar.

2 tablespoonfuls butter.

1 cup sweet milk.

3 cups flour.

3 eggs.

2 teaspoonfuls Royal baking powder.

Add the stiffly beaten whites of eggs last and bake in two layers. Flavor with lemon or vanilla.

APPLE CREAM FILLING FOR CAKE.

Beat white of 1 egg very stiff. Add 1 cup of granulated sugar and beat well. Quickly grate one raw apple into the egg and sugar, add the juice of ¼ lemon and beat 20 minutes, when it will be light and foamy. This icing is soft and creamy. Coarsely chopped nut meats may be added if liked. Cake must be eaten with a fork, but is delicious.

A "HALF POUND" CAKE

Cream together ½ pound of sugar and ½ pound of butter. Beat into this the eggs separately, until five eggs have been used. Add flour and 1 small teaspoonful of baking powder. Bake in a moderate oven about 55 minutes; ½ pound of flour is used in this cake. This cake is extra fine.

A DELICIOUS ICING (NOT CHEAP).

Stir to a cream a half cup butter, 1½ cups pulverized sugar, 1 tablespoonful milk and 1 teaspoonful vanilla. It is then ready to use for icing a cake.

COCOANUT LAYER CAKE

2 cups sugar.

½ cup butter and lard, mixed.

3 eggs (yolks only).

1 cup milk.

3 cups flour, sifted several times with the

2 teaspoonfuls cream of tartar and 1 teaspoonful soda (saleratus).

Mix like an ordinary cake.

THE FILLING.

To the stiffly beaten whites of 3 eggs add 1 cup of pulverized sugar. Spread this on each one of the layers of the cake and on top. Strew a half of a grated cocoanut over. To the other half of grated cocoanut add 4 tablespoonfuls of pulverized sugar and strew over top of the cake.

GOLD LAYER CAKE

Yolks of 6 eggs.

½ cup butter.

1 large cup granulated sugar.

½ cup sweet milk.

2½ cups flour.

2 heaping teaspoonfuls baking powder.

Cream sugar and butter, add yolks. Beat well, then add milk and flour. Stir all together and bake in square pans in a hot oven.

SUNSHINE SPONGE CAKE

1 cup granulated sugar.

Whites of 7 small fresh eggs and 5 yolks.

⅔ cup of flour, or scant cup of flour.

⅓ teaspoonful cream of tartar and a pinch of salt.

Beat the yolks of eggs thoroughly, then beat the whites about half; add cream of tartar and beat until very stiff. Stir in sugar sifted lightly through your flour sifter. Then add beaten yolks, stir thoroughly, sift the flour five times. The last time sift into the batter, stirring only enough to incorporate the flour. Bake in a tube pan from 40 to 50 minutes in a very moderate oven. This is a particularly fine cake, but a little difficult to get just right. Place cake in a cool oven; when cake has risen turn on heat. This cake should be baked same as an angel cake.

AN INEXPENSIVE DARK "CHOCOLATE LAYER CAKE"

1 cup sugar.

½ cup butter.

2 eggs.

½ cup sweet milk.

2 cups flour sifted with

2 teaspoonfuls baking powder.

½ cup chocolate.

Grate the chocolate, mix with ¼ cup of milk and yolk of 1 egg, sweeten to taste; cook the chocolate; when cooled add to the above mixture. Bake in three layer tins. Put white boiled icing between the layers. The boiled icing recipe will be found on another page.

ANGEL CAKE

11 eggs (whites only).

1½ cups granulated sugar (sifted 3 times).

1 cup flour (sifted 5 times).

1 teaspoonful cream of tartar.

1 teaspoonful vanilla.

Place white of eggs in a large bowl and beat about half as stiff as you wish them to be when finished beating. Add cream of tartar, sprinkle it over the beaten whites of eggs lightly, and then beat until very stiff. Sift in sugar, then flour very lightly. Fold into the batter, rather than stir, with quick, even strokes with spoon. Put quickly in tube pan, bake in moderate oven from 35 to 50 minutes. Do not open oven door for first 15 minutes after cake has been placed in oven.

If cake browns before it rises to top of pan open oven door two minutes; when cake has risen to top of pan finish baking quickly. The moment cake shrinks back to level of pan remove from oven. This is an old, reliable recipe given Mary by her Aunt, who had baked cake from it for years.

MARY'S CHOCOLATE LOAF (MADE WITH SOUR MILK)

2 cups brown sugar.

¾ cup lard and butter, mixed.

2 eggs.

½ cup Baker's chocolate, melted.

½ cup sour milk.

½ cup warm water.

1 teaspoonful vanilla.

Pinch of salt.

1 teaspoonful saleratus.

3 cups flour.

Dissolve the saleratus in a little vinegar or warm water. Mix as an ordinary loaf cake.

INEXPENSIVE SUNSHINE CAKE

5 eggs.

1 cup granulated sugar.

1 cup sifted flour.

Beat whites of eggs very stiff and stir in thoroughly, then fold the flour, stirring only just enough to mix it in. If stirred too much, the cake will be tough. Bake in a tube pan. This is a delicious cake if carefully made according to directions. No butter or baking powder is used. Bake in a very moderate oven at first, gradually adding more heat until cake is baked.

MARY'S RECIPE FOR ORANGE CAKE

Grate outside rind of 1 orange into a bowl; 1½ cups sugar and ½ cup butter and lard, mixed. Cream all together. Add yolks of three eggs, 1 cup of sweet milk, 2½ cups flour, sifted with 2¼ teaspoonfuls of baking powder. Lastly, add the stiffly beaten whites of the eggs. Bake in two layers.

FILLING FOR ORANGE CAKE.

Grated rind and juice of half an orange, half the white of one egg, beaten stiff. Add pulverized sugar until stiff enough to spread between cakes and on top. (About two cups of sugar were used.)

ROLL JELLY CAKE

1 cup granulated sugar.

1¼ cups flour.

4 egg yolks.

Pinch of salt.

½ cup boiling water.

1 large teaspoonful baking powder.

The yolks of eggs left from making "Pennsylvania Dutch Kisses" may be used for this cake by the addition of an extra yolk of egg. Beat the yolks quite light, then add the sugar and beat until light and frothy. Add the flour sifted with the baking powder and salt. Lastly, add the half cup of boiling water. Bake in a rather quick oven from 25 to 30 minutes in two square layer cake pans. Cover cakes first ten minutes until they have risen. When baked turn cakes out of pans on to a cloth. Take one at a time from the oven, spread as quickly as possible with a tart jelly, either currant or grape, and roll as quickly as possible, as when the cakes become cool they cannot be rolled without breaking. Roll up in a cloth and when cool and ready to serve slice from end of roll. These cakes are very nice when one is successful, but a little difficult to get just right.

AUNT SARAH'S CINNAMON CAKE

1 cup sugar.

2 cups flour.

1 egg.

1½ teaspoons baking powder

Piece of butter the size of egg.

Pinch of salt.

1 cup milk.

A little grated nutmeg.

Beat the butter to a cream and gradually add the sugar. Then add the unbeaten egg and beat all together thoroughly. Add milk and flour and beat hard for five minutes. Add baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Pour into two small greased pie-tins and before putting in oven sprinkle sugar and cinnamon over top. This is an excellent breakfast cake, easily and quickly made.

"GELB KUCHEN"

Mary's Aunt taught her to make this exceptionally fine cake, yellow as gold, in texture resembling an "angel cake," from the following ingredients: The whites of 6 eggs, yolks of 3 eggs, ¾ cup of fine, granulated sugar, ½ cup of high-grade flour, ½ teaspoonful of cream of tartar (good measure), a few drops of almond extract or ½ teaspoonful of vanilla.

Mix ingredients together in the following manner: Sift sugar and flour separately 3 times. Beat yolks of eggs until light, add sugar to yolks of eggs and beat to a cream. The whites of eggs were placed in a separate bowl and when partly beaten the cream of tartar was sifted over and the whites of eggs were then beaten until dry and frothy. The stiffly beaten whites of eggs were then added alternately with the flour to the yolks and sugar. Carefully fold in, do not beat. Add flavoring, pour batter in a small, narrow bread tin, previously brushed with lard, over which flour had been dusted. The cake when baked may be readily removed from the tin after it has cooled.

Bake cake in a very moderate oven about 60 minutes. After cake has been in oven 15 or 20 minutes increase heat of oven. An extra fine, large cake may be baked from this recipe if double the quantity of ingredients are used.

DEVIL'S FOOD CAKE

2 cups brown sugar.

½ cup butter and lard, mixed.

2 eggs.

½ cup boiling water.

2 ounces Baker's chocolate.

2 cups flour.

1 teaspoonful soda.

½ cup sour cream or milk.

Cream butter and sugar and add yolks of eggs; then sour milk into which the soda has been dissolved. Add hot water, then the eggs. Bake in layers or loaf. Ice with boiled chocolate icing. If a little of the sour milk is saved until last, the soda dissolved in that, and then added to the cake batter, it will give a brick red appearance. This is an excellent cake.

A CHEAP COCOANUT LAYER CAKE

Cream together 1 cup sugar, ¼ cup butter, 1 egg (white of egg beaten separately), add ¾ cup milk, 2 cups flour sifted with 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder. The stiffly beaten white of egg added last. Bake in two layers. For the filling, to put between layers, beat the white of one egg to a stiff, dry froth; add one tablespoonful of sugar, mix together, spread between layers of cake and on top and over this strew freshly grated cocoanut Grate cocoanut intended for cake the day before using. After it has been grated toss up lightly with a fork and stand in a cool place to dry out before using.

LADY BALTIMORE CAKE

1 cup butter.

2 cups sugar.

3½ cups flour.

1 cup sweet milk.

Whites of 6 eggs.

2 level teaspoonfuls baking powder sifted with the flour.

1 teaspoonful rosewater.

Mix in the usual way and bake in three layers.

ICING FOR CAKE.

Dissolve 3 cups of sugar in a cup of boiling water. Cook until it spins a thread, about ten or twelve minutes. Take from fire and pour over three stiffly beaten whites of eggs, then add a cup of nut meats (blanched and chopped almonds). One cup of chopped raisins may also be added if liked. Stir until thick and creamy. Allow cake to get cold before icing.

One-half this recipe for icing will be sufficient for an ordinary cake.

AN INEXPENSIVE "WHITE FRUIT CAKE"

3 cups sugar.

3 eggs.

1 lb. seeded raisins.

1 cup milk.

1 cup butter.

1 lb. currants.

1 lb. chopped almonds.