AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
373 
boiled lamb or chicken they are not required. 
By this mode of cooking you have a high-flavored, 
delicious, most wholesome dish, fit for an epicure. 
By boiling it in water, you have only very nice, 
tender “greens."’ It is not suitable with ham. or 
oilier high-flavored or exciting meats. 
We had in the Spring a small bed about four feet 
by eight. We cut it at least a dozen times, giv¬ 
ing as much as we required till peas and beans 
came on. My husband cuts off the whole of the 
plant excepting a few under leaves as soon as it 
begins to show the first signs of “ heading.” 
The advantage is, it prevents the plant from go¬ 
ing to seed, and induces a great number of sprouts 
—four, five and six large succulent sprouts put 
forth almost immediately after cutting the first 
dish, and will keep doing so for ten or twelve 
times. Observe: Cut the spinach while the dew 
is on it, and plunge it in a vessel of pure water 
till required for use. I am, sir, 
Your obedient servant, 
Emma Newberv. 
Walden's Ridge , Term., Oct. 25, 1858. 
The Soda in-Bread Question. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist: 
Reading what you write about bread reminds 
me to say, that you cliem'sts will be the death of 
us all some day. You can probably see no good 
reason why bread baked from dough, that has 
been inflated by the introduction of carbonic 
acid gas, should be any worse for digestion than 
where the inflation is by gas evolved from the 
dough itself in the natural process of fermenta¬ 
tion. so long as the chemical residuum of the drugs 
used to fabricaie the gas is nothing more than a 
mild bit of medicine in small measure. Now. 
the bad effects of eating soda-raised bread may 
have no connection at all with the residuum, be it 
called tartrate of soda or Rochelle salts, and yet 
chemistry be none the wiser on the point than 
your unscientific humble servant. Science can 
tell 11 s very little about the aromatic parts of our 
food, and yet the digestibility of food so closely 
depends upon its aromatic quality, that if any¬ 
thing tastes badly we may be sure it will digest 
badly, let chemistry say what it may. 
In the fermentation of bread the peculiar flavor 
of the wheat is evolved in union with the car¬ 
bonic acid gas. In the decomposition of soda 
though the same gas is evolved, the flavor is ab¬ 
sent. Ferment your dough naturally and honest¬ 
ly, knead industriously, and bake thoroughly, and 
it will give forth an aroma which, as it tickles 
palate and nostril, will rouse into healthy action 
every digestive power from head to heel. Prac¬ 
tice, on the other hand, the modern shifts and 
fetches to evade labor and care, and compound 
with mildly purgative drugs—a batch which may 
well be called the bread of idleness—and you 
have a good looking, puffy, tasteless, good-for- 
nothing, indigestible lump, made without sweat of 
the brow or elbow' grease. It is no more like real 
bread than sham champagne concocted of Sau- 
terne wine and artificially-introduced carbonic 
acid gas. resembles the best of Cliquot, whose 
foam breathes forth odors that were born in the 
flower and dwelt in the bloom of the grape. 
Our French tenant’s little wife has a house and 
children, and cooks for eight farm-hands, yet finds 
time to knead her dough an hour and a-half. She 
disdains to use even yeast, relying solely on lea- 
,en and her two little doubled fists. Ah, you 
should taste her light, white, and truly wheaty 
loaves. 
We shall never be a healthy people till we learn 
to eat what " tastes good,” and our women learn 
to cook what shall please the palate as well 
as the eye. I would rather trust to the olfactory 
nerves to select what is wholesome than 
all the chemists and physiologists in the world. 
"William .1. Flagg. 
Cincinnati, Oct. 5th, 1858. 
Remarks— This subject is of no little import¬ 
ance, and it is desirable that correct views should 
be arrived at, for if the use of soda in cooking 
be anything like as dangerous as many writers 
would have us believe it is, several millions of 
families now using it more or less should know 
and be convinced of the fact. We are willing to 
hear both sides of the question, and cheerfully 
make room for the above communication, as we 
will for others—if not too long. We do not, how¬ 
ever, see what point is established by Mr. Flagg, 
The “ chemists’’ have no selfish end to secure by 
advocating the theory that a little carbonate of 
soda is no more poisonous than a little salt in 
bre^l. They only set forth facts developed and 
established by science and observation. 
The above theory, that smell and taste are to 
be the guides in selecting food, is not tenable, we 
think. Nine-tenths of the present human tastes 
are acquired ones. We venture that the person 
who has no previous habits, or is entirely unac¬ 
quainted with the taste of wines, will little appre¬ 
ciate the difference between the Sauterne and 
Cliquot. Who naturally loves tomatoes, sauer- 
krout, musk, and a thousand other things greatly 
relished by those accustomed to them. Sugar of 
lead, a virulent poison, would be ret-shed and 
freely eaten by a child who had never seen it. 
We would by no means, however, discourage 
the use of bread made as the “ French tenant’s lit¬ 
tle wife” makes it. For general common use it is 
to be recommended, but for occasional conve¬ 
nience we are not afraid of a few soda biscuits. 
They taste good. But more hereafter.— Ed. 
-■ m - 
Lima Beans—A New Use for Them. 
Every New Englander knows what “baked 
beans ” are, for they are one of the institutions 
under which he was born and bred. Not the com¬ 
mon “ pork and beans ” of the taverns and eat¬ 
ing-houses, where a measure of the little buck¬ 
shot, white field-beans of our shipping markets, 
is thrown into a pot of boiling water, a “chunk” 
of pork ditto, and after simmering and blubbering 
awhile, as the care, or carelessness of a lazy cook 
may determine , taken off, thrust into an oven, 
and baked, or burned to a dead crisp on the top, 
wdiile all below is just as the “boil” left them ; 
but the fine, large, kidney, bush-bean, bright and 
clean, properly prepared, as our good mothers al¬ 
ways knew how to do them, and our own good 
wives still do, with a piece of nice, salted, house¬ 
hold pork, turned out beautifully from the oven, 
with fresh rye or wheat, and Indian bread—and 
what a glorious Saturday afternoon dinner do 
they make ! But we must cut off their eulogy 
and attend to the Limas. 
This last season we had a superabundance of 
them in our garden. They were planted late, for 
the proper season was too wet to plant early, as 
a Lima bean always should be, and they did not 
get into eating so soon by three weeks, as usual 
They bore abundantly, and the frost holding off, 
the pods were full, although but. a part of them 
ripened. When the Autumn came we picked them 
all, took them in and shelled them, and laid them 
on broad shallow dishes to dry. We then—that 
is, our“ women folks ”—commenced baking them 
at our weekly baking, in the place of the kidneys, 
with the accompanying piece of pickled pork, and 
in the same manner, only that they required less 
preparation by way of “ soaking,” than the oth¬ 
ers. And they were capital—richer, every way, 
than the field bean, as much so as in “ green ” 
cooking. We have become a convert. We intend 
hereafter to plant and pole the Lima for our “ bak¬ 
ing ” beans, and although they may cost a trifle 
more in the raising, they are enough better—as a 
luxury—to pay for it. We don’t advise every¬ 
body to do so, understand. But only such peo¬ 
ple as really appreciate good baked beans, and are 
willing to stand by their country in times of peril 
—partly because it produces them, and their coun¬ 
terpart, pumpkin-pies—and who have the facili¬ 
ties for cultivating them up to the very point of 
perfection. * 
---—a o ■——- 
Contributed Recipes. 
A friend hands us the following three recipes, 
now first written out, which are in use by his 
family, and which are pronounced by him “ first 
rate.” 
Fruit Pudding —lb. each of flour, grated 
potatoes, and grated carrots, and £ lb. of suet. 
Salt and spice to taste. Boil 3 hours. To be 
eaten with wine-sauce. 
Boiled Bread Pudding. —(Good every day in 
the week, says our contributor.)—Half a loaf of 
stale bread soaked in a quart of milk ; 4 eggs ; 4 
tablespoonfuls of flour. Boil £ of an hour ; serve 
with wine-sauce. A little green or dried fruit 
mixed in is a good addition. 
“Wine-sauce” without Wine. —Butter and 
sugar thickened with corn starch, and flavored 
with the rind and part of the juice of a lemon. 
The following four are from Ellen U. Bacon, 
Bar Mills, Me : 
Pop-overs. —One cup of flour; 1 egg; butter 
the size of a nutmeg. Bake in small tin rounds. 
The same rule is good for nice drop-cakes, baked 
in cups ; or for boiled batter-pudding. 
Grandma’s Batter Pudding. —One quart of 
milk; 9 eggs, (if you have got ’em); 9 table¬ 
spoonfuls of flour, and a little salt. Steam l£ 
hours—if steamed just enough, the pudding will 
retain its form, and it can not be excelled for deli¬ 
cacy. 
Grandma’s Marlborough Pie,—13 spoonfuls 
each of sifted (stewed) apple, beaten egg, and 
melted butter—all thoroughly mixed, and flavored 
with lemon and sweetened to the taste. Bake 
without upper-crust. Less butter than the above 
will do. 
Apple Custard. —Take fine apple-sauce, flavor 
with lemon or rose, and half fill the pie-plates 
with it. Pour over a nice custard flavored with 
nutmeg or vanilla, and bake. 
A Turkey boiled and then baked, (from Mrs. 
A. S. Plummer, Portage Co., O.)—Prepare the 
turkey just as if for baking; then put in a kettle, 
covering it with water, aud closing in with a lid. 
Boil until quite tender. Then take it out and 
brown it in an oven for a few minutes. When 
put upon the table it will be found very tender and 
juicy instead of dry and tough. 
Deferred Recipes —A variety of good reci¬ 
pes received from time to time the present year 
will appear during the Winter. 
---- 
Vinegar Plant. —We have one communica¬ 
tion, and several queries respecting this plant. 
We have one under experiment, which will be re¬ 
ported upon, after sufficient time to test it and 
study its “ nature.” 
