186 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[May, 
disposing of their contents. But there is great 
comfort in a strong, tidy, well-hung rag-bag. 
A smaller, ornamental scrap-bag hanging near 
the sewing-machine is a great convenience. This 
can be emptied into the larger bag every day or 
every week. 
Bags for different kinds of pieces—one for pieces 
of worsted, one for unbleached cotton, one for 
bleached cotton, one for linen pieces, one for 
scraps of silk, one for bits of velvet—all help to¬ 
ward order and comfort in housekeeping. These 
may be large or small, as needed, and may be as 
tastily made as you please. They can be laid toge¬ 
ther, labeled if you like, in drawers or trunks, or 
hung in rows in your closet. Crocheted cotton 
bags arc much in vogue; but, dear girls and women, 
run up gingham and delaine and calico bags in¬ 
stead, I pray you, and give the time stolen from 
crocheting to something that will yield a mental 
#r physical gain. Better play ball, or climb the 
hills, or read history and philosophy, than bend 
over patch-work embroidery or crocheting when 
you could be employing yourself in a more healthy 
manner. So much for rag-bags. Aunt Jane. 
Home Topics. 
BY FAITH ROCHESTER. 
The Recipe-Book. —The public seemed taken 
by surprise when Marion Harland, the story-writer, 
published her “ Common-Sense in the Household.” 
What could site know about housekeeping? Yet 
her recipe-book is probably the most popular one 
now in use. It is a great mistake to suppose that 
a woman who is a genius in practical cookery is 
the best person to instruct a novice. Experience 
is a good thing if good common-sense goes with 
it; you can find women who have been engaged in 
cooking daily for a score of years, but who do 
everything in about the poorest way possible. 
Just before I was about to assume the care of my 
mother’s housekeeping for several weeks, I hunted 
up a recipe-book in a city where I was waiting 
half-an-hour for a railroad train. I selected one 
written by a “practical housekeeper” of twenty- 
five years’ experience. The author said she was 
induced to make the book because of a conviction 
that a recipe-book written by a practical house¬ 
keeper was much needed. 
But I quickly quarreled with this recipe-book. 
I had made bread pretty successfully with my 
mother at my elbow, but when I was left alone all 
my fancied skill was gone, and I wanted help. In 
vain did I seek it from my new book. It said, 
“ The day of hop-yeast has gone by,” and taught 
how to make bread only with water-risings!—and 
that in such vague terms that no novice could hope 
for success in following them, unless by pure 
“luck.” When I wanted to prepare beefsteak for 
the table.she only told me how to fry it! 
Miss Beecher’s Recipe-Book has proved very 
helpful to many young housekeepers. In some 
respects it seems rather behind the times (I write 
with one beside me published in 1864. A new 
edition, altered and improved, was promised 
lately, but I have not heard of its publication). 
There is much general information about market¬ 
ing, cutting up and preserving meat, remarks 
about healthful food and drink, convenient uten¬ 
sils, care of the sick, etc. 
Mrs. Cornelius’s Recipe-Book is much liked by 
many. I have not used it. There are others in 
common use, but none seems to meet with such 
general commendation as Marion Harland’s. 
“Common-Sense in the Household” is its name. 
Its cheerful, chatty style is «piite “taking.” I see 
that a “kitchen edition ” has been published, with 
strong oiled covers, and with blank pages for copy¬ 
ing recipes. Get this edition by all means if you 
purchase a copy. You will find that the author 
did not know everything, any more than we do. 
In her directions for making “bread-sponge” 
(plain) she gives the ingredients thus: “ One quart 
of warm water; six table-spoonfuls of baker’s- 
yeast; two table-spoonfuls of lard; two table- 
spoonfuls of white sugar; one teaspoonful of soda; 
flour to make a soft batter.” I can not help shak¬ 
ing my head over the lard and the soda. The very 
best bread I have ever tasted has been made every 
time (I am thinking now of three different house¬ 
keepers each of whom makes perfect bread) without 
either of these ingredients, and it has been so 
sweet in its own sweetness as to need no sugar. 
But they mixed with new milk, I must confess. 
If the yeast is really good, I can see no possible 
use in putting in soda, unless the presence of the 
sugar is pretty sure to cause acidity. Better leave 
out both, and secure sweetness by greater care. 
Other criticisms might be made, but it is not 
wortli while. I am glad to have the book, and it 
is consulted here almost daily. It would be still 
more useful to those who do much fancy cookery. 
Yet there is no lack in the more practical depart¬ 
ments. The author does not take it for granted 
that her readers already have “judgment,” but 
gives very plain directions about putting things 
together, etc. 
“ The Health-Reformer’s Cook-Book,” by Mrs. 
Lucretia Jackson, is very sensible, though very 
small. It gives a good and pleasing variety of re¬ 
cipes, which one may follow without conscientious 
scruples about doing injury to her family. 
Look Out fok Comfort in Hot Weather.— 
Is there a piazza or porch over at least one of your 
doorsj No ? Can not you supply the lack imme¬ 
diately ? Piazzas are more needed than parlors in 
summer. Women need more fresh air and sun¬ 
shine. The more we get of it the more we want; 
but we sometimes get so in the habit of stepping 
round and round in an in-door treadmill, that we 
almost lose the instinct for light and air. Almost 
all of our sewing ought to be done on the 
piazza when the weather is bright and the sun is 
right. If this were carried out the world would 
gain in neighborliness as well as in good health. 
We ought to have more low and easy benches un¬ 
der l he shade-trees, and some of us should suggest 
to our “ men folks” the need of more trees. We 
can carry out cushions when we need them. 
The best place to take a nap on a warm summer 
day is in a hammock swung up in the shade some¬ 
where out of doors. Hammocks of different kinds 
can be purchased in most cities for a few dollars 
each. They are especially desirable for invalids; 
but we should probably have fewer invalids if ham¬ 
mocks were more used by hard-working people 
who need an hour of quiet out-door rest every 
summer day. 
About making Cake.— Success in this art de¬ 
pends much upon the method of putting the in¬ 
gredients together. In the first place, you must 
have good materials—nice flour, fresh eggs, good 
sugar or molasses, and good butter. No flavoring 
will atone for the use of rancid butter. Beat the 
eggs thoroughly, keeping them as cool as possible. 
The nicest cakes are made by beating the yolks 
and whites separately. In that case beat the whites 
upon a large plate, and do not give over until you 
can cut the froth in pieces with a knife. Beat the 
yolks in an earthen bowl until they cease to foam 
and begin to look a little thick. The whites are 
the last thing to put in your cake, and keep them 
cool while they wait. For my part, I seldom beat 
the whites and yolks separately, for only the very 
jdain kinds of cake form a part of our every-day 
fare; hut the plainest cake is excellent if carefully 
made and baked, and if of good materials. 
Never use unsifted flour if you would have cake, 
or anything else, as light as possible. When Gra¬ 
ham flour is used for cake, it should be sifted, and 
the bran can be mixed again with th* sifted flour. 
If baking-powder is used it should be mixed with 
the flour and sifted with it. The more thoroughly 
these are mixed together before putting with the 
other ingredients of the cake, the more fine and 
even will be the pores of the cake when done. 
Roll the sugar with a rolling-pin if it is lumpy in 
the least. Warm the butter a little if it is hard, 
but do not melt it. 
The butter and sugar go together first, and should 
be stirred or beaten—“with a silver or wooden 
spoon,” we are always told. I wonder if there is 
any sense in this direction. I mean to test it some 
day; but I usually stir with a silvcr-( plated!) 
spoon. Stir the butter and sugar to a cream con¬ 
siderably lighter colored than it appeared when 
you began to beat it. Then add the eggs—only 
the yolks at this time if you beat the whites and 
yolks separately. In the latter case, keep the 
whites cool, and put them into the cake the very 
last thing. Beat the eggs in with the sugar and 
butter thoroughly before going further. Then you 
may put in the milk, with the soda, if “ soda and 
cream-of-tartar” form a part of the recipe. If 
flavoring or spices are used, they come next in 
order; then the flour, mixed already with baking- 
powder or with cream-of-tartar. If the whites of 
eggs are waiting, they must bo thoroughly stirred 
in at the last moment. When all is well mixed 
together it should go into an oven that is “just 
right” for it. 
Poor little novice! How can you “ use judg¬ 
ment ” if you have none to use? Well, practice 
on the plainest cakes while yum cultivate “judg¬ 
ment.” The cake should rise to its full height 
before the crust begins to harden. If you fear that 
the oven is too hot, slip a grate under the cake (if 
it stands upon the bottom), and cover the top with 
a paper. You can turn the damper so that no 
more heat will go into the oven for a few minutes, 
if you sit close by to turn the damper back at the 
right moment. If the oven cools suddenly, by an 
open door or any other cause, before the cake is 
done, the cake may fall. 
To tell when the cake is done, pierce it with a 
clean, fine straw (one broken from a clean broom 
is best) in the thickest part, and if nothing sticks 
to it the cake is done. 
Last summer I heard a housekeeper boasting 
that she never used recipes, and she was a woman 
who generally has “good luck” with her baking, 
I presume. That is, she seldom makes an absolute 
failure, but she quite as seldom reaches any high 
point of attainment. It often becomes necessary 
for us to vary a recipe in some respect if we use it 
at all. At least, it is so in the country, where we 
depend upon our own hens for eggs, and our own 
cows for butter and milk. This can be done safely 
if a few general principles are remembered. 
Eggs are not necessary to make light cake. With 
baking-powder (seldom more than a teaspoon ful 
for a single loaf), or with soda and cream-of-tartar 
exactly measured (always exactly half as much 
soda as cream-of-tartar), lightness may be insured, 
with reasonable care in other respects. 
That the cake may be tender (or “short”), 
cream or butter becomes essential. New milk 
will answer for shortening if the cake is to be used 
with cream or canned-fruit dressing for a dessert. 
Many kinds of cake that are sweet to the palate 
are positively wicked to the stomach, they are so 
saturated with “grease.” A table-spoonful of 
butter with half a cup of milk is really enough 
shortening 10 make any single moderate-sized loaf 
of cake “ tender.” 
That the cake may be sweet, we use sugar or 
molasses, or both together. To get some desired 
flavor we use spices or extracts in small quantities. 
I have heard persons of weak digestion complain 
of the cloves or the cinnamon or nutmeg used in 
cake. Strong flavoring seems to me as vulgar as 
the use of strong perfumes. They are not necessary 
to good cake, and should he used with delicacy. 
It is the safest way, especially for the inexpe¬ 
rienced, to follow good recipes accurately, but a 
person who has some knowledge of the chemistry 
of cooking may vary these or invent others with¬ 
out much risk of failure. In saying this I do not 
mean to justify the old loose way of putting things 
together pretty much as it happens, “a little” of 
this and “ a pinch ” of that, without much idea of 
how it will all “turn out.” 
Steamed C«>fii-lBrea<I. —By Mrs. C. W. 
B.—One quart corn-meal; one pint flour; one quart 
sour milk; one teaspoon salt; one teaspoon soda; 
half-cup molasses. Mix well. Steam three hours. 
This is very nice for dinner at any time, particu¬ 
larly with pork or sausages. 
