102 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Maech, 
of sharp vinegar. Lamb and green peas is the rule, 
but any vegetable nicely served will be acceptable. 
Meat for Children. —Many persons consider 
meat injurious to children, but I allow my children 
a little beef or mutton whenever we have it for din¬ 
ner, which is about four times a week; even the 
baby must have a piece as large as a finger, from 
which he pretty effectually extracts the juice. 
While I consider that meat in moderate quantities 
gives tone and vigor to the constitution, its indis¬ 
criminate use by children should be forbidden. 
My mother always gave her children milk and 
bread for breakfast, and bread and butter for tea. 
I reverse that order, giving them a few warmed-up 
potatoes, and bread and butter for breakfast, with 
a bowl of milk and bread for supper. They are 
at table at breakfast and dinner, but not at tea. 
Veal Pie.— Take a deep baking-dish, and place 
some small pieces of veal in it, allowing any little 
bones to remain. The neck pieces may be used if 
desired. Nearly cover with water, and sprinkle with 
salt and pepper, adding little bits of butter. Cover 
with a paste, and bake. When the crust is done, 
open the oven door and let the pie remain an hour 
or more, to cook the meat. Is delicious eaten cold. 
Minced Veal or Hash.— Take any cold veal 
which may be left from the roast, and cut up into 
very small pieces, but do not chop ; cover with wa¬ 
ter, adding a little pepper, salt, and butter; bring 
to a boil, and thicken with a teaspoonful of flour. 
Toast a few slices of bread freed from crust, butter 
and place them around the dish, and pour the mince 
nicely in the center. It is a most acceptable dish. 
Raised Dumplings.— Edward is very fond of 
dumplings made of dough, and we often have 
them. I reserve a small quantity of dough from 
the bread pan and place in the pantry until about 
an hour before dinner, when I make them of a 
round shape, and about as large as an orange, and 
set to rise. Wheu light, I drop them into a pot of 
boiling water, cook until done, and serve with 
drawn butter sauce and syrup, or sugar. I con¬ 
sider this an agreeable and wholesome dessert. 
Apple Dumplings. —Take one apple pared and 
aored, surround it with a very thin paste; tie sep¬ 
arately in a clean cloth and boil for 40 minutes. 
Aunt Hattie on the Bread Question.— I 
hardly know whether I was amused or annoyed the 
most at Miss-, on Tuesday evening. She 
called with a young gentleman to whom rumor says 
she is engaged to be married. The truth of this 
report, for his sake, I hope is unfounded. As they 
had had a long walk—nearly a mile and a half—I 
thought an evening luncheon would be just the 
thing. Edward had gone to a trustee meeting, and 
Bridget also was out, so I went myself to the pan¬ 
try to prepare a lunch. I covered a large tray with 
a napkin, and placed on it some cold meat, knives 
and forks, plates, etc., some little patty-pan mince 
pies, and a loaf of bread uncut, and carried it into 
the sitting-room, because they seemed to enjoy so 
much the cheerful, open fireplace. Mr. B. cut a 
little of the meat for each, and before he was quite 
through doing so, the young lady asked him if he 
would also cut some of the bread. “You know,” she 
added, “ I never cut bread.” I felt surprised, as I 
knew that she was the oldest of several children, 
and that they were often without a girl, and while 
I cut some of the bread, for I had risen to do so, I 
expressed aloud my astonishment and incredulity. 
“ Why,” she said, laughing, “ I never cut a slice of 
bread in my life.” .... “ Is it possible!” I said_ 
“ Not only possible, but a fact; I never cut a slice 
of bread nor part of a slice in my life.”_“ Who 
cuts bread for the children and for the family ?”.... 
“ Oh, the girl, always.”... .“But she is away some¬ 
times, and at times you have none.”....“Well, 
mother is always at home, and then she docs it; she 
does not care how her hands look.”_“Then you 
cannot make bread ?” I said, hesitatingly. A litlle 
light, rippling laugh, and an amused and significant 
glance passing between the two was all the answer 
I received, but I read plainly that she considered 
bread-making and bread-cutting as arts belonging 
to old women, mothers, and mortals less refined 
than she. Ah, well! she may laugh now, and he 
may laugh with her and admire her delicate 
hands, but by and by, when they are older, when 
mother is gone, and the strain of life comes on, 
and perhaps adversity sets in, when servants are 
scarce, and impudent, and ignorant,—what think 
you ? will he laugh then when sour, heavy, clammy, 
half-baked bread is presented? Will he cut the 
loaf then for her and the children ? Speaking not 
from experience but from observation, I can but 
say no, but I can assure them that dark looks, 
angry frowns, and unpleasant words, often arise 
from nothing more serious than sour, bad bread. 
-- -- m — - 
The Table—Order and Ornament. 
Last month a neat way of setting a family table 
was given, and we proposed to follow it with some 
hints upon serving the food. Soup was provided 
for with the hope that this excellent form of food 
might become more popular than it now is. Soup 
ought not to be too hot when served ; it should be 
just at that tempearture at which it can be eaten 
without inconvenience. In eating soup, the side 
of the spoon should be used; it will sometimes be 
necessary to use the end of the spoon if the soup 
contains bits of meat or vegetables, but it is better 
to avoid it as far as maybe. The waiter should re¬ 
move the soup plates when all are done, and if 
there is no waiter it should be the business of some 
member of the family to rise and take them away 
quietly, and bring the meat and place it before the 
head of the family. The vegetables, if in covered 
dishes, may be placed on with the soup ; otherwise 
they must be brought in with the meat. A good 
carver will know the tastes of all who sit regularly 
at the table, and serve them accordingly as far as 
may be ; he will ask the preferences of a guest, as 
to rare or well done, fat or lean, etc. He will not 
serve gravy without first learning if it is acceptable. 
Where no waiter is at hand to pass the dishes, each 
one should contribute to the general comfort by 
promptly passing plates, helping those vegetables 
that may be nearest, etc. Where the table is waited 
upon, the vegetables, in some families, are passed 
for each person to help himself, and in others the 
waiter takes the plate and procures those which 
are desired. Individual deportment has much to 
do with the general enjoyment of a meal, and a 
word on this may not be out of place. Some time 
ago we read in a Western paper an injunction not 
to pick the teeth with the fork. We wondered 
what kind of readers the writer could be addressing, 
but since then we have actually seen it done. Wc 
do not think it necessary to repeat this injunction, 
but there is a use of the knife which we may allude 
to. It is not considered the proper thing to carry 
food to the mouth with the knife. The knife is 
for cutting, and the fork is the proper implement to 
use in taking the food. We have heard it said that 
no one who cats with his knife can be a gentleman, 
which is all nonsense, it being moral qualities 
which make a gentle man, and not forms, which are 
matters of early education. Still we say to those 
who wish to conform to the best usages, eat with the 
fork instead of the knife. One’s own knife should 
not be put into the butter or salt, unless in cases 
where butter-knives and salt-spoons arc not pro¬ 
vided. At table where it is necessary to help one 
another, one should not be so absorbed in his own 
eating as not to observe what is going on and bo 
ready at the right moment to supply such things 
near him as may be needed. When through eating 
lay the knife and fork side by side upon the plate; 
do not cross them, nor push the plate from you. 
Boxes for Boots ;ind (Shoes. —“ Gen- 
eseo” says: “Will some kind reader who is not 
fortunate enough to live in a ‘ mansion,’ tell me 
how to put away boots and shoes to make them 
look orderly and in place ? Having two or three 
children with their ‘Sunday,’ ‘ Monday,’ and over¬ 
shoes, besides my own and husband’s, it becomes 
quite an item, at least to me.”—Lack of sufficient 
and proper closet room is as much felt by those 
who live in “ mansions ” as by dwellers in humbler 
houses; it is a striking fault of the great majority 
of house plans. A friend of ours proposed to his 
wife to make the apple pies in a pitcher, bo that he 
could get plenty of apple with his crust. With 
something the same feeling we sometimes wish for 
a house in which the closets bear about the same 
proportion to the other rooms as would the apple 
have borne to the crust in our friend’s pie. The 
best remedy we can suggest to “Geneseo” is to 
make some shoe boxes. Get packing boxes of con¬ 
venient size and of a bight suitable for a low seat; 
hinge the cover so that it will open readily—leather 
hinges will do—then cover the sides with chintz 
or other material tacked on. Make a thin cushion 
and fasten it to the lid, and put around the edges of 
the lid a narrow flounce or fringe ; this will quite 
conceal the box and with a little taste the whole 
may be made a very pretty ottoman. A box of this 
kind is a neat and most useful piece of bed-room 
furniture, for besides keeping boots and shoes in 
order and out of sight, it serves as a convenient 
place on which to sit while dressing the feet. 
Indefiniteness in Recipes. 
Ability to teach others what one perfectly under¬ 
stands himself or herself is a rare accomplishment. 
If you doubt it, ask your boy or girl, wdio knows 
every inch of the road, the way to Neighbor B’s. 
Many hundreds of recipes come to us in the course 
of a year, some of which we use, some are omitted 
because an important article is quite forgotten, 
and others are not used, for the reason that though 
everything may be enumerated we are not told 
what to do with the mixture when wo have all the 
ingredients together. As an example of indefinite¬ 
ness, and not by any means a bad one, we give the 
following. We trust the lady who sent it will for¬ 
give the use we make of her recipe, ns we can 
assure her that the selection was entirely accidental. 
“ Aj>ple Tea.cnke.—Eour apples pared 
and cut in quarters, 1 egg, 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of 
milk, 4 cups of flour. Stir the apples in the batter the 
last thing; 1 teaspoonful cream of tartar, of soda.” 
Now this is commendable, inasmuch as it enu¬ 
merates at the outset all the things required, ex¬ 
cept the cream of tartar and soda, but is faulty in 
its directions. We suppose that a batter is to be 
made with the flour, sugar, egg, and milk; we are 
directed to stir in the apples the last thing, and then 
comes soda and cream of tartar, which are probably 
intended to be the very last things. What is to be 
done with the mixture we are not told. “Any 
body would know it ivas to be baked.” The prob¬ 
abilities are that it should be, but as wc have recipes 
for bread that is to be boiled several hours in a 
kettle, and other things where the compound is to 
be steamed, it is just as well to say so. In writing a 
recipe or giving a direction of any kind it is the 
best way to assume that the person to whom it is 
addressed has no knowledge whatever 011 the sub¬ 
ject. It is seldom that directions are too explicit, 
and it is much easier for us to cut out such as may 
be superfluous than it is to supply omissions. 
'Tiia saniul BBrltiaio&iss, Ware. —A cor¬ 
respondent says : “ No dishes fare harder at the 
hands of the inexperienced housekeeper, or care¬ 
less help, than tin dishes. Though sooner tarnished 
than china by cold, greasy, dish-water, they are usu¬ 
ally left the last on the list to be washed, are but 
partially dried, and, as a consequence, soon become 
dull and rusty. Then when the “ claring-up time ” 
comes, they are scoured with ashes or sand, taking 
off in the process the outer coat of tin, and very 
soon look worse than before. Let me give a 
better way. Rub the dish thoroughly with soft 
soap, wash in hot, clean suds, and rinse with boil¬ 
ing water, dry with a clean towel, and there will be 
no occasion for scouring. This is equally good t reat¬ 
ment forarticles of wliite metal or Britannia Ware.” 
■ r-a-4-—»»-»-0-- 
ISLyc ff&rop CaSies.—By M. E. E.— 1 pint 
of milk, 3 eggs, one tablespoonful of sugar, alittlo 
salt. Stir in sifted rye until of about the consistency 
of pancakes. Bake in buttered cups one half hour. 
