Miss Beecher's Housekeeper and Healthkeeper. Catharine Esther Beecher
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boil half an hour. Boil the milk by itself, and add it liberally when taken up. For the shells of cocoa, use a heaping tea-cupful for a quart of water. Put them in over night and boil a long time.
Cream for Coffee and Tea.—Heat new milk, and let it stand till cool and all the cream rises; this is the best way for common use. To every pint of this add a pound and a quarter of loaf-sugar, and it will keep good a month or more, if corked tight in glass.
Chocolate.—Put three table-spoonfuls when scraped to each pint, boil half an hour, and add boiled milk when used.
Delicious Milk-Lemonade.—Half a pint of sherry wine and as much lemon-juice, six ounces loaf-sugar, and a pint of water poured in when boiling. Add not quite a pint of cold milk, and strain the whole.
Strawberry and Raspberry Vinegar.—Mix four pounds of the fruit with three quarts of cider or wine vinegar, and let them stand three days. Drain the vinegar through a jelly-bag and add four more pounds of fruit, and in three days do the same. Then strain out the vinegar for summer drinks, effervescing with soda or only with water.
White Tea, and Boys’ Coffee for Children.—Children never love tea and coffee till they are trained to it. They always like these drinks. Put two tea-spoonfuls of sugar to half a cup of hot water, and add as much good milk. Or crumb toast or dry bread into a bowl with plenty of sugar, and add half milk to half boiling water.
Dangerous Use of Milk.—Milk is not only drink, but rich food. It therefore should not be used as drink with other food, as is water or tea and coffee. Persons often cause bilious difficulties by using milk in addition to ordinary food as the chief drink. It is a well-established fact that some grown persons as well as young children can not drink milk, and in some cases can not eat bread wet with milk, without trouble from it.
Simple Drinks.—Pour boiling water on mashed cranberries, or grated apples, or tamarinds, or mashed currants or raspberries, pour off the water, sweeten, and in summer cool with ice.
Pour boiling water on to bread toasted quite brown, or on to pounded parched corn, boil a minute, strain, and add sugar and cream, or milk.
Simple Wine Whey.—Mix equal quantities of milk and boiling water, add wine and sweeten.
Toast and Cider.—Take one third brisk cider and two thirds cold water, sweeten it, crumb in toasted bread, and grate on a little nutmeg. Acid jelly will do when cider is not at hand.
Panada.—Toast two or three crackers, pour on boiling water and let it simmer two or three minutes, add a well-beaten egg, sweeten and flavor with nutmeg.
Water-Gruel.—Scald half a tumblerful of fresh ground corn-meal, add a table-spoonful of flour made into a paste, boil twenty minutes or more, and add salt, sugar, and nutmeg. Oat-meal gruel is excellent made thus.
Beef-Tea.—Pepper and salt some good beef cut into small pieces, pour on boiling water and steep half an hour. A better way is to put the meat thus prepared into a bottle kept in boiling water for four or five hours.
Tomato Sirup.—Put a pound of sugar to a quart of juice, bottle it, and use for a beverage with water.
Sassafras Jelly.—Soak the pith of sassafras till a jelly, and add a little sugar.
Egg Tea, Egg Coffee, and Egg Milk.—Beat the yelk of an egg in some sugar and a little salt; add either cold tea or coffee or milk. Then beat the whites to a stiff froth and add. Flavor the milk with wine. Some do not like the taste of raw egg, and so the other articles may first be made boiling hot before the white is put in.
Oat-meal Gruel.—Four table-spoonfuls of grits, (unbolted Oat-meal,) a pinch of salt and a pint of boiling water. Skim, sweeten, and flavor. Or make a thin batter of fine Oat-meal, and pour into boiling water; then sweeten and flavor it.
Pearl Barley-Water.—Boil two and a half ounces of pearl barley ten minutes in half a-pint of water, strain it, add a quart of boiling water, boil it down to half the quantity, strain, sweeten, and flavor with sliced lemon or nutmeg.
Cream Tartar Beverage.—Put two even tea-spoonfuls cream tartar to a pint of boiling water, sweeten and flavor with lemon-peel.
Rennet Whey, (good for a weak stomach after severe illness.)—Soak rennet two inches square one hour, add half a gill of water and a pinch of salt; then pour it into a pint of warm (not hot) milk. Let it stand half an hour, then cut it, and after an hour drain off the liquid. Let it stand awhile, and drain off more whey.
Refreshing Drink for a Fever.—Mix sprigs of sage, balm, and sorrel with half a sliced lemon, the skin on. Pour on boiling water, sweeten and cork it.
CHAPTER XX.
THE PROVIDING AND CARE OF FAMILY STORES.
The art of keeping a good table consists not in loading on a variety at each meal, but rather in securing a successive variety, a table neatly and tastefully set, and every thing that is on it cooked in the best manner.
There are some families who provide an abundance of the most expensive and choice articles, and spare no expense in any respect, yet who have every thing cooked in such a miserable way, and a table set in so slovenly a manner, that a person accustomed to a really good table can scarcely taste a morsel with any enjoyment.
On the contrary, there are many tables where the closest economy is practiced; and yet the table-cloth is so white and smooth, the dishes, silver, glass, and other table articles so bright, and arranged with such propriety; the bread so light and sweet; the butter so beautiful, and every other article of food so well cooked, and so neatly and tastefully served, that every thing seems good, and pleases both the eye and the palate.
A habit of doing every thing in the best manner is of unspeakable importance to a housekeeper, and every woman ought to aim at it, however great the difficulties she may have to meet. If a young housekeeper commences with a determination to try to do every thing in the best manner, and perseveres in the effort, meeting all obstacles with patient cheerfulness, not only the moral but the intellectual tone of her mind is elevated by the attempt. Although she may meet many insuperable difficulties, and may never reach the standard at which she aims, the simple effort, persevered in, will have an elevating influence on her character; while, at the same time, she actually will reach a point of excellence far ahead of those who, discouraged by many obstacles, give up in despair, and resolve to make no more efforts, and let things go as they will. The grand distinction between a noble and an ignoble mind is, that one will control circumstances; the other yields, and allows circumstances to control her.
It should be borne in mind that the constitution of man demands a variety of food, and that it is just as cheap to keep on hand a good variety of materials in the store-closet, so as to make a frequent change, as it is to buy one or two articles at once, and live on them exclusively, till every person is tired of them, and then buy two or three more of another kind.
It is too frequently the case that families fall into a very limited round of articles, and continue the same course from one year to another, when there is a much greater variety within reach of articles which are just as cheap and as easily obtained, and yet remain unthought of and untouched.
A thrifty and generous provider will see that her store-closet is furnished with such a variety of articles that successive changes can be made, and for a good length of time. To aid in this, a slight sketch of a well-provided store-closet will be given, with a description of the manner in which each article should be stored and kept, in order to avoid waste and injury. To this will be added modes of securing a successive variety within the reach of all in moderate circumstances.