88 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[MaivCH, 
quence, :iiid though I may let off a little harmless 
fuu at some of them, 1 trust none will think it ill- 
natured. One great cause of our indifferent cook¬ 
ery, as a people, is, that we have regarded eating as 
a necessity of our nature, but something unworthy 
of any serious thought. Now, as we are obliged to 
have three meals a day, I consider thatthej’ should 
not merctly serve the wants of the system and ajj- 
pease hunger, but that they should be made aetually 
enjoyable. The whole family are g.athered at the 
table ; indeed in many eases the hours spent there 
are the only ones of family reunion. Here is the 
family council, the place where lessons of wisdom 
are taught, and all home ties strengthened, and it is 
too much to expect of poor hum.an nature to be 
good, wise, or happy over poor and indigestible 
food. If some Girard or Cooper would found a 
school for ladies, in which cookery should be r.aiscd, 
if not to the dignity of an exact science, at least to 
that of a useful art, it would be a national blessing. 
You ask me to contribute occasionally to the 
columns of your department. I make no promises, 
but if I do write for you sometimes, I must have 
leave to say my say in my own way, and no lady 
must be offended.” i 
-•-«-—-►-«.- 
What Shall I get for Variety ? 
“ Are you awake ?” said I to my wife, as the clock 
struck five. “ Yes,” she replied quickly ; and, “ I 
have been thinking for nearly two hours what I can 
get up for a variety on the table. It is nothing 
but beef, pork, mutton, fish, and chicken; and 
then, chicken, fish, mutton, pork and beef.”—“Do 
you need a better variety than that?”—“If our 
boarders (two bachelors) were not so observing 
and very particular about every dish that would do.” 
“ Let me give you a programme for a week. Now, 
if you have beefsteak and mutton for breakfast, 
make a meat pie, just as a chicken pie is made, for 
dinner; and, slice up some cold ham, or mutton, for 
those who think meat pie is not enough. For a 
dessert, make apple dumplings instead of so much 
pie, pie, at every meal. That’s good enough 
for one day. To-morrow, for breakfast, cook fresh 
fish, and make fresh-pork dumpling, by dipjiing 
the thin slices in a batter made of eggs and flour. 
This dish may be varied by using salt pork, some¬ 
times, instead of fresh. For dinner, have roast 
beef, or mutton, with baked beans, and salt pork. 
“ What shall we have for supper ?”—“ In addition 
to good white bread, and Graham bread, have white 
bisc'jit one evening; Graham biscuit the next 
evening ; the next evening make buckwheat cakes; 
the next, make Canaille cakes. (Canaille is the 
coarse part of wheat flour.) At another time, make 
cakes of equal quantities of Indian me.al and Gra¬ 
ham flour, and bake on a griddle, and serve with 
butter, or cream and syrup. For variety in the line 
of sweetening, dissolve a few pounds of maple su¬ 
gar, in hot water. These dishes w’ill always be ex¬ 
cellent. One day have apple pie; the next, mince 
pie; the next, pumpkin pie; the next, custard pie; 
and, for Sunday, nothing will eat better than a pie 
made of a Hubbard squash. The next morning 
fried chicken, and baked potatoes, and pork, and, 
if potatoes will not be enough, add turnip, or 
squash. At noon, make a me.at pie. It appears to 
me, that so many good dishes can be varied so that 
none of us need get tired of either of them. 
Suggestions about Houses. 
Molly Greenfield writes to the American Agricul¬ 
turist : “ Published plans of houses .are all well 
enough, as being suggestive, but a person should 
not follow them heedlessly. A house well adapted 
to one situation, may be very illy suited for another. 
A house just right on a North-and-South road, 
mignt be just wrong on an East-and-West one, or 
even on the opposite side of the same road. One 
tiling, I think, receives less attention than it de¬ 
serves, that is, the lighting of various parts of a 
dwelling. Now I want a kitchen with light from 
the East. I would like it to be bright and sunshiny 
to the morning, when I have to work there. I want 
no room that is to be much used for sitting or 
sleeping, to have only North windows. A pantry, 
if to be used for milk in summer, should be lighted 
from the North, and the next preference is from 
the East. From the South and West the sun is 
very hot on summer afternoons. If only for a 
W'inter milk room, it may be lighted from those 
directions. I would have opportunity to enjoy the 
glories of sunset from a Western window in my 
sitting room or parlor, and would have the soft 
dawn of morning enter my sleeping room. A little 
right calculation will make a great difference in the 
pleasantness of a house.—The family sleeping 
room should be large enough for two beds, or have 
a seeond bedroom adjoining, and be arranged for 
warming. I would prefer a fire-place. It ought 
also to have, as adjuncts, at least a small dressing 
room, with clothes-press, and a bath closet. Ad¬ 
joining the sitting room, I would have a small study, 
and somewhere, if I eould, a convenient place for 
house plants, and, when building, would get in all 
the closets possible, at least one for every large room. 
About the wood-house. My plan is to have this 
located at a little distance from the dwelling, say 
a rod or tivo, eonnected, perhaps, with a dairy, or 
other workhouse, and with the dwelling by a 
covered passage. The wood yard is to be on the 
opposite side, away from the dwelling, and filled 
from that side, but with a door toward the house, 
through which to carry the prepared ivood. This 
might take some more steps than the usual method, 
but would they not be fully repaid by the tidiness 
around the dwelling, and, perhaps, its increased 
healthfulness? Who knows what disease m.ay 
not have found its w.ay to the household from the 
decaying chip manure, at the very b.ack door? 
With this iflan, you can have flowers and shrub¬ 
bery, and vines, all around your house.” 
*1 < »■ n ( P in— f 1 
How to Make Hard Soap. 
The request in the February Agriculturist for 
direetions to make hard soap, has been answered 
by a generous pile of letters, for which our thanks 
and those of our readers are due. More than a 
dozen send No. 1, following; one sends a sample 
of the article, which is superior to much that is 
sold at the stores, and is quite cheaply made. 
No. 1. Pour 4 gallons of boiling water over 6 
pounds of w.ashmg soda (sal soda) .and 3 pounds of 
unslacked lime. Stir the mixture well, and let it 
settle until it is perfectly clear. It is better to let 
it stand all night, as it takes some time for the 
sediment to settle. When clear, str.ain the water, 
put 6 pounds of fat with it and boil for 2 hours, 
stirring it most of the time. If it does not seem 
thin enough, put another gallon of water on the 
grounds, stir and drain oil', and add as is wanted to 
the boiling mixture. Its thickness can be tried by 
occasionally putting a little on a plate to eool. Stir 
in a h.andful of salt just before taking off the fire. 
Have a tub ready soaked, to prevent the so.ap from 
sticking, pour it in, and let it settle until solid, 
when you will have from the above quantity of in¬ 
gredients about forty pounds of nice white so.ap. 
No. 2 . Dissolve 1 pound coneentrated potash, 
in 2 quarts of boiling water, in a small kettle by 
itself. In another kettle, boil about 5 pounds of 
clean fat, or tallow, or its equivalent of soap gre.ase, 
with 2 gallons of soft w.ater. As soon as the grease 
is melted, gradually add the dissolved lye from the 
small kettle, about a gill at a time, until all the lye 
is used, constantly boiling and stirring over a slow 
fire until the whole becomes thick and as trans¬ 
parent .as honey. During this process, sufficient 
w.ater should be added occasionally to replace what 
has boiled out. If using fresh grease, add 4 ounces 
of salt. Let it stand till it gets cold, then cut into 
bars, and put aw.ay to dry. The concentrated pot¬ 
ash, or lye, can be obtained at any drug store, and 
usually in country stores where medicines are kept. 
No. 3. Another correspondent writes : “Hard 
so.ap is m.ade the same as good soft soap, by the 
union of grease and strong lye; the clearer the 
grease, the better the soap. They are boiled up 
together; when they boil up thick, then add salt in 
the proportion of 2 quarts to 8 gallons of soap. Let 
it boil up thoroughl 3 q set it away to cool, when it 
can be cut out and dried ready for use.” 
No. 4. Take about 12 quarts good soft soap, 
add 1 teacupful of fine salt, bring it to a boil while 
stirring, and set away until cold; then take off the 
top, bring it up to a simmer, then strain, jiut it on 
a board to dry. Cut it up and turn while drying. 
Practical Odds and Ends. 
Contributed by Subscribers to the American Agri- 
cultxirist. Please send plenty more of the same sort. 
A Black Board should be in every kitchen, 
not to mark with chalk, but to place pots and ket¬ 
tles on when removing them from the fire. Make 
it about a foot square, and 1 inch thick. It need 
not be w.ashed often merely for looks, as the cor¬ 
ners will be unsoiled. Its use will save the ta¬ 
bles, floor, sink, etc., from many unsightly marks. 
To Peel Onions Cheerfully. —Sit before the 
draft of a fire on the hearth, or with the pan on the 
stove hearth, avith the front doors open, and you 
m.ay peel any quantity, without shedding a tear. 
To Keep Sausage Me.at. —Prepare it in small, 
round cakes, fry them as for the table, pack them 
closely in au earthen jar, pour the fat from frying 
over them, .and put a weight on them to keep them 
downuutil cold, then remove the weight, and cover 
the top over with lard. Keep in a cool, dry place. 
Geese Eggs carried to the cellar as soon as laid, 
and kept there, will hatch well. They should be 
turned over once a day. Above stairs, the temper¬ 
ature is uneven. Number the eggs as laid, that the 
first goose setting may have the eggs first laid. 
Varnished Furniture is sometimes disfigured 
by heat, which causes white, spots ; to remove these, 
touch them with flannel slightly dipped in alcohol, 
and rub till the whole surface is dry and warm. 
Apples, quartered and cored, sprinkled with 
sugar, and cooked in a close dish, in the oven, 
require less sw'eetening, and are preferable to those 
stewed in the ordinary way. 
------ 
Hints on Cooking, etc. 
Cream Pie. —Contributed by A. M. Turner, 
Litchfield Co., Conn. Mix 1 egg bc.aten, 2 table¬ 
spoonfuls eorn starch (flour will answer,) 2 table- 
spoonfuls sug.ar, a little salt, a tcaspoonful extract 
of lemon, and 1 pint of milk. Bake the two crusts 
scpar.atelj'; boil the custard, and when cold lay it 
on one crust and cover with the other. 
Aaotlaer Cream Pie. —Contributed by 
Mrs. H. Drinker, Susquehanna Co., P.a. Take 6 
eggs, two small cups of sug.ar, 2 cups of flour, 1 tea¬ 
spoonful of cream of tartar, teaspoonful ol 
soda. Dissolve the soda in a little hot w.ater; mix 
the flour, sug.ar, and cream of tartar; whip the 
eggs separately; mix all the ingredients w'cll to¬ 
gether, and pour into two plates of moderate size. 
Cream for the Fie .—Take 1 pint new milk, 1 small 
cup of sug.ar, 2}{ tablespoonfuls of flour, and 2 
eggs. Beat the eggs, sugar, and flour together; 
stir them into the milk when it boils ; let it remain 
over the fire until it thickens, but do not let it boil. 
Flavor with vanilla. A few minutes before dinner, 
split the c.ake, by cutting around the edge, .and 
pulling off the upper half; pour the custard on the 
lower half, and cover with the other. 
Spanisli Cream. —M.ake a soft custard of 1 
quart of new milk, and the yolks of 6 eggs, with 6 
tablespoonfuls of sugar. Dissolve % ounce of gel¬ 
atine in pint of water, add it to the custard 
when hot, flavor to the taste, jiour into moulds, 
and put in n cold place. 
Ciood Bread Pa<1dSia^, without eggs, 
may be made by stirring into it good, tart apples 
(pared and quartered, or sliced), when ready for 
the oven. 
Cliocolate ISlaitc MaiSR-e.— Take 1 quart 
of milk, and % pound of unsweetened chocolate 
made fine; boil together for a few-minutes, and 
sweeten to your taste while boiling. Put im 
