Variety  and  Justice. 
WE  realize  that  our  friends,  and  especially  those 
who  have  contributed  to  the  competition,  are 
more  deeply  interested  in  that  than  in  any  other  mat¬ 
ter  which  we  can  now  present.  Yet,  for  the  sake  of 
variety,  and  in  order  that  matter  in  connection  with 
early  spring  topics  may  not  become  unseasonable  be¬ 
fore  use,  we  shall  find  it  necessary  to  devote  the  next, 
and  possibly  a  following  issue  to  general  matter.  We 
shall,  however,  publish  other. papers  of  the  three  series 
as  soon  as  possible. 
*  #  * 
The  articles  given  in  this  week’s  issue  are  among  the 
best  that  were  sent  in.  Unfortunately,  two  of  these 
exceeded  the  1,000  word  limit.  Our  friends  must  re¬ 
member  that  conditions  are  laid  down  to  be  conformed 
to  with  exactness;  it  would  be  unjust  to  those  who 
have  been  faithful  to  the  conditions,  to  admit  those 
who  have  not  been  thus  faithful,  on  equal  terms. 
Hence  these  articles  were  excluded  from  competition 
for  the  prize,  although  in  some  points  better  than  the 
prize  article.  *  *  * 
Wii.r,  “  Sylvia  Urey  ”  send  her  exact  address  to  the 
editor  of  this  Department  ? 
Dainty  Cookery  for  the  Farm  Table. 
WE  trust  more  to  variety  than  to  dainties  to  keep 
the  table  attractive,  and  often  it  depends  more 
on  the  variety  of  the  ways  of  cooking  than  on  the 
articles  used.  To  arrange  this  matter  properly  re¬ 
quires  forethought  and  sometimes  even  extra  work. 
Those  who  burn  gas  have  the  advantage  of  a  self-keep¬ 
ing  or  automatic  fire. 
Fresh  cooking,  especially  in  pies,  is  essential.  Where 
is  the  man  who  does  not  appreciate  a  warm,  well-made 
apple  pie  ?  The  custard  pie  is  a  great  favorite  with 
our  men.  Of  course,  it  must  be  eaten  the  day  it  is 
baked.  Boiling  the  milk,  and  allowing  it  to  cool  before 
using  pays  well  for  the  extra  trouble  by  making  the 
custard  more  firm  and  not  so  apt  to  get  watery  if  the 
oven  is  too  hot,  as  sometimes  happens. 
We  have  come  to  the  poorest  apples  by  March  ;  and 
I  find  steaming  and  baking  are  the  best  ways  to  cook 
them.  To  steam,  pare  and  quarter  the  apples  and  lay 
them  on  a  plate  and  set  it  in  the  steamer  ;  steam  about 
40  minutes.  Make  a  m6ringue  of  a  white  of  an  egg  and 
powdered  sugar  and  spread  over  them.  Set  in  the 
oven  a  few  minutes.  Serve  with  cream.  Apple  snow 
is  also  nice  :  take  baked  apple  pulp  ;  allow  the  beaten 
white  of  one  egg  to  a  cupful  of  apple  and  a  half  cupful 
of  sugar.  Beat  well  10  minutes.  Tt  may  be  served 
with  boiled  custard  or  alone.  When  the  custard  is 
used,  we  call  it  apple  float.  Steamed  apples  and  rice 
make  another  nice  dessert.  Cook  rice  as  usual  and  fill 
cups  about  one-fourth  full,  lining  the  sides  also  with 
it ;  then  put  in  a  layer  of  steamed  apples.  Cover  with 
more  of  the  rice.  When  cold,  turn  out  into  the  dessert 
dishes  and  serve  with  sugar  and  cream. 
Can  anything  be  more  delicious  than  steamed  cus¬ 
tard  ?  Make  as  usual,  pour  into  cups,  and  steam  until 
solid.  A  folded  cloth  should  be  placed  over  the  steamer 
before  the  tin  cover  is  put  on.  You  will  see  that  1  be¬ 
lieve  in  the  steamer,  and  1  think  it  is  neglected  in 
many  kitchens. 
The  flagging  spring  appetites  are  kept  well  in  mind 
when  opening  canned  fruit  during  the  fall  and  winter  ; 
and  it  is  used  sparingly  while  the  apples  last.  Pre¬ 
serves,  jams,  butters  and  jellies  are  considered  more 
suitable  for  winter  use  ;  and  the  tart  fruits  and  pickles 
for  spring.  In  spite  of  all  that  The  Rurai,  has  said, 
there  are  many  farmers  who  do  not  raise  enough  fruit 
for  their  own  tables.  But  the  wives  can  generally 
manage  to  have  plenty  of  tomatoes  and  rhubaib.  We 
think  tomatoes  never  taste  so  good  as  for  breakfast 
these  April  mornings.  The  rhubarb,  canned  uncooked, 
tastes  like  the  fresh  article  these  days,  in  pies;  and 
some  that  was  stewed  and  canned  last  harvest  we  find 
makes  a  highly  appetizing  sauce.  I  like  to  see  the 
half-gallon  cans  used ;  for  I  feel  that  it  won’t  be 
“  make  believe  ”  when  we  have  fruit  for  dinner. 
Cranberries  come  under  the  head  of  tart  fruits. 
Cranberry  jelly  and  blanc-mange  make  a  nice  dessert. 
Make  the  blanc-mange  and  pour  into  cups,  putting  in 
layers  of  each,  about  one-fourtli  as  much  jelly  as  blanc¬ 
mange.  Serve  when  cold  with  sugar  and  cream. 
One  is  generally  safer  in  judging  a  dinner  by  its 
appearance  than  a  man  by  his  clothes.  I  overheard 
some  school  children  debating  whether  they  would 
rather  have  their  dinners  well-cooked  or  to  look  nice, 
and  I  agreed  with  the  boy  who  said  he  would  rather 
have  both. 
Sometimes  when  we  find  some  thing  that  takes  well 
we  overdo  it.  To  illustrate,  a  young  lady,  in  giving 
her  first  experience  as  a  boarder,  said:  “  I  happened 
to  remark  to  the  lady  with  whom  I  boarded  that  I  was 
very  fond  of  fried  potatoes  ;  and  what  do  you  think 
she  did?  Why,  had  fried  potatoes  every  breakfast 
and  supper  during  the  two  months  I  was  with  her;  I 
ate  cold  lunch  at  school.  After  my  long,  warm  walk, 
how  I  hated  the  sipht  of  those  greasy  fried  potatoes  ! 
She  was  lavish  with  her  lard — and  then  to  be  confronted 
with  them  again  the  first  thing  at  breakfast!  Well,  I 
consider  myself  cured  of  the  fried-potato  habit.’’ 
Favorite  dishes  should  be  treated  like  the  children’s 
choicest  playthings — not  be  allowed  to  become  common 
by  every-day  use.  Occasionally  we  have  sponge  cake 
served  warm  with  a  sauce,  and  it  is  considered  very 
fine.  But  sponge  cake  is  really  not  very  expensive 
with  eggs  as  cheap  as  they  usually  are  in  the  spring. 
Bananas  and  oranges  are  always  a  treat  to  country 
children,  and  a  dime’s  worth  of  either  will  make  a 
healthful  desseit  for  six  persons,  without  any  work  in 
preparing.  These  ought  to  be  indulged  in  after  a  trip 
to  the  city,  which  often  doesn’t  occur  oftener  than 
once  a  month.  I  feel  like  calling  all  fresh,  good 
cooking,  dainty,  when  daintily  served.  Cold  tongue 
is  tempting  when  not  seen  too  often;  and  even  a  cheap 
piece  of  beef  becomes  so  when  made  into  pressed  beef 
and  served  in  thin  slices  with  lemon  sliced  over  it. 
Good  bread  is  our  stronghold  or  should  be.  The  use 
of  Graham  and  rye  flour  helps  to  give  variety.  A  young 
friend  of  mine  watches  the  fire  and  is  as  careful  to 
have  the  oven  just  right  for  her  biscuits  as  for  the 
party  cake  ;  and  her  bread  is  the  pride  of  her 
father,  and  a  pleasure  to  all  who  partake  of  it. 
The  best  is  not  too  good  for  every  day.  But  I  feel 
sure  I  know  a  few  cooks  whose  company  cooking  is 
quite  a  thing  apart  from  the  every-day  article.  Not 
much  wonder  if  their  children  have  company  man¬ 
ners  !  “  Best  cook  in  the  county,”  was  the  remark 
of  a  farm  hand,  referring  to  the  daughter  of  the  farmer 
for  whom  he  worked.  I  confess  I  was  rather  disap¬ 
pointed  in  the  first  dinner  of  hers  of  which  I  ate  ; 
and  she  seemed  much  worried  and  said  she  got  ex¬ 
cited  when  she  had  company,  she  thought,  for  it 
seemed  that  she  couldn’t  manage  things.  But  1  thought 
her  reputation  was  more  to  be  coveted  than  many 
another's.  Thinking  of  this  calls  to  mind  two  lines  of 
a  verse  many  will  remember  learning  at  school  : 
Do  your  best,  your  very  best, 
And  do  It  every  day.  It  AY 
A  Plea  for  “Fancy  Plain”  Cookery. 
Assuming  the  term  “fancy  cookery”  to  mean, 
dainty  dishes,  delicate  custards,  etc.,  seldom  found  on 
the  average  farmer’s  table,  and  realizing  that  such 
dishes  take  a  vast  amount  of  time,  uninterrupted  at¬ 
tention,  careful  study,  and  experience,  founded  on 
unnumbered  failures,  I  should  say  that  the  cost  would 
far  exceed  the  benefit  to  those  who,  having  plenty  of 
pure  air  and  healthy  exercise,  have  therefore  strong 
and  healthy  appetites. 
Take  the  first  requisite,  time,  into  consideration.  As 
the  majority  of  farmers’  wives,  within  the  limit  of  my 
observation,  do  all  of  their  own  work,  including  wash¬ 
ing,  making  and  mending,  time  is  the  one  article  that 
they  are  just  out  of.  And  I  greatly  fear  that  success 
in  the  fancy  cookery  line  would  be  at  the  expense  of 
the  substantials  and  that  would  never  do.  For  what 
hard-working,  hungry  farmer  would  accept  an  egg¬ 
shell  cup  of  the  choicest  bouillon  as  an  apology  for  a 
dry,  tough,  neglected  roast?  or  the  daintiest  of  cream 
puffs  or  cheese  cakes  as  a  substitute  for  good  whole¬ 
some  bread?  or  the  whitest  of  snow  puddings,  or 
delicate  slices  of  the  most  angelic  of  angel  cake,  for 
the  every-day  dessert  of  fruits,  pies,  puddings,  etc., 
that  he  is  not  afraid  will  evaporate  before  he  gets 
them  to  his  mouth?  The  fact  is  that  the .  farmer  and 
also  his  wife  must  have  good,  nourishing  food  ;  some¬ 
thing  that  will  stand  by  them,  as  the  saying  goes, 
until  the  next  meal  time  rolls  around. 
If  the  zest  for  food  is  destroyed,  it  is  safe  to  conclude 
that  this  was  brought  about  as  much  by  means  of  im¬ 
properly  cooked  food,  as  from  a  lack  of  variety.  By 
all  means  let  us  have  variety,  but  let  that  term  apply 
as  much  to  methods  of  cooking  each  article  as  to  the 
articles  themselves.  And  another  thing,  let's  not  try 
to  have  everything  available  for  one  meal,  but  aim  to 
make  the  quality  of  fewer  dishes  atone  for  their  lack 
in  number,  then  we  can  easily  vary  the  bill  of  fare. 
I  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  as  undervaluing 
these  dainty  dishes  that  arrange  themselves  under  the 
head  of  fancy  cookery  ;  for  they  are  delicious  and  help 
to  beautify  the  table ;  which  is,  in  itself,  a  real  ap¬ 
petizer,  and  will  help  as  much  as  anything  to  bring 
about  a  normal  condition  of  the  disordered  appetites 
just  spoken  of.  But  successful  results  in  this  line  can¬ 
not  be  expected  until  the  would-be  culinary  adept  has 
mastered  the  art  of  plain  cooking,  and  as  to  expense, 
no  class  of  society,  that  I  am  familiar  with,  lives  so  well 
every  day,  as  the  average  farming  class,  and  no  class 
considers  so  little  the  expense  of  a  single  meal.  The 
difference  would  be  in  the  amount  of  time,  thought 
and  energy  expended,  and  I  think  if  the  same  propor¬ 
tion  of  these  were  intelligently  brought  to  bear  on 
plain  cookery,  we  might  be  able  to  strike  a  middle 
course  and  call  it,  if  you  please,  “  fancy  plain  cook¬ 
ery  ”  ;  for  there  is  such  a  thing  as  cooking  plain  dishes 
in  a  fancy  way. 
Even  the  boiling  of  prosaic  potatoes  may  be  done  in 
such  a  way  that  the  result  will  astonish  those  who 
think  that  it  is  no  matter  whether  they  are  put  into 
hot  or  cold  water  ;  whether  they  stand  and  soak  in 
the  water  after  they  are  done  or  not ;  and  they  will 
be  sure  to  say,  after  eating  those  that  the  cook  has 
prepared  under  our  new  system,  “  Why,  how  nice  your 
potatoes  are  !  ours  are  poor  this  year,”  when  the 
chances  are  that  the  original  quality  was  the  same. 
And  there  is  a  delicious  and  an  otherwise  way  of 
frying  even  homely  bacon,  as  those  can  testify  who 
have  tried  both  ways. 
And  bread — too  much  cannot  be  said  about  improv¬ 
ing  that  very  important  compound.  Let’s  not  rest 
satisfied  with  ourselves  until  we  attain  an  art  that 
may  be  reasonably  sure  of  producing  superior  bread  at 
each  baking.  After  beginning  with  the  best  of  mater¬ 
ials,  let  us  carefully  note  the  conditions  that  bring 
about  the  best  results;  not  relinquishing  our  vigilance 
until  the  product  is  taken  from  the  oven,  brown,  crisp, 
fit  for  what — a  king  ?  No — a  farmer. 
Speaking  from  an  experience  of  10  years,  I  can  say 
that  we  can  really  see  a  decided  improvement  in  the 
quality  of  our  daily  rations.  And  the  best  incentive 
and  help  I  have  had  has  been  a  husband  who,  blessed 
with  a  correct  taste  and  a  keen  appetite,  utterly 
refused  to  be  satisfied  with  poorly  cooked  food,  or 
inferior  bread ;  and  as  his  share  toward  producing 
the  desired  result,  provided  an  excellent  range,  always 
plenty  of  good,  dry  wood,  improved  kinds  of  cooking 
utensils,  the  best  and  an  abundance  of  raw  material  ; 
and  always  a  word  of  praise  when  my  best  efforts 
proved  successful.  f.  s.  a. 
Variety  for  the  Farmer’s  Table. 
AN  idea  seems  to  prevail  that  in  all  farmers’  fam¬ 
ilies,  all  else  must  give  way  to  farm  work. 
Blow  hot  or  cold,  come  sickness  or  health  the  farm 
work  must  swallow  up  everything  else.  Inside  the 
house  has  to  be  kept  neat,  the  babies  tended,  the 
washing  and  ironing  done,  the  mending,  and  the  mak¬ 
ing,  and  finally,  and  worst  of  all,  the  cooking!  The 
busy  wife  is  hurried  beyond  her  strength,  and  is  not 
this  the  reason  why  the  cooking  is  relegated  to  a 
back  seat,  and  the  same  old  fry  and  stew  and  stew  and 
fry  appear  over  and  over  again,  ad  nauseam.  In  most 
cases,  the  farmer’s  wife  is  not  to  blame  for  this;  she 
takes  no  extra  time  to  do  up  her  back  hair  of  an  after¬ 
noon,  or  sit  on  the  shaded  porch  and  rest  her  weary 
mind,  with  an  interesting  book.  Then  how  can  she 
take  time  to  study  up  a  new,  and  more  appetizing 
menu,  for  the  hungry  horde  who  swoop  down  upon 
her  three  times  each  day?  Still  it  could,  and  should  be 
done,  and  this  is  my  way. 
Let  something  else  go,  attend  to  this.  Something 
will  have  to  go,  or  it  cannot  be  done;  then  let  it  go, 
and  be  content.  First,  let  the  brain- weary  housewife, 
buy  for  herself  one  of  the  best  cook-books  to  be  had. 
She  deserves  such  a  present,  she  has  earned  it  over 
and  over  again.  I  would  suggest  “  Marion  Harland’s 
Common  Sense  in  the  Household,”  as  being  the  most 
practical,  economical,  wide-reaching  and  far-searching 
Scrofula  is,  in  the  main,  a  disease  of 
early  life.  Home  knowledge  is  all  astray 
about  it.  You  cannot  tell  whether  your 
child  has  it  or  not ;  your  doctor  will  know. 
We  do  not  prescribe.  We  are  chem¬ 
ists.  We  make  the  remedy,  Scott’s  Emul¬ 
sion  of  cod-liver  oil.  Your  doctor  must 
tell  you  when  to  use  it. 
A  book  on  careful  living  tells  what 
scrofula  is.  Shall  we  send  it  ?  Free. 
Scott  &  Bowne,  Chemists,  182  South  5th  Avenue,  New  York. 
Your  druggist  keeps  Scott’s  Emulsion  of  cod-llver  oil— all  druggists 
everywhere  do  $1 
