i- 
*=*_ 
OCT. SO 
Jfjmttejstfy ^onomg. 
IMPERFECT COOKERY. 
Some level-headed writer in the N. Y. Trib¬ 
une has subjected him or herself to a vote of 
thanks from people of a good appetite and 
digestion by perpetrating the following : 
To ascertain just how much really good 
material is spoiled in the cooking would form 
an interesting and quite fruitful subject of 
research, and set some housekeepers at least 
to thinking. If every loaf of bad bread 
manufactured from good flour, every over¬ 
done or underdone piece of meat prime in 
original quality, every mass of potatoes 
ruined in the kettle, every muddy cup of 
coffee made, every dish of every sort that 
might be palatable and nutritious, bat which 
by carelessness, ignorance, or neglect is 
made tasteless and mediocre—if all these 
could be written down in a book, with dates 
and specifications, and the average cook con¬ 
fronted with them once a year, what con¬ 
sternation would or should fill her heart, and 
what a fearful aggregate of material wasted 
beyond redemption would appear in the 
account. 
The fact is that cookery is entitled to rank 
among the exact sciences, arid that happy 
accidents are of rare occurrence in the 
culinary domain, while unhappy accidents 
are constantly happening. There is continu¬ 
ally the golden mean to be sought in the ad¬ 
mixture of ail the elements that are to make 
up a savory meal, and such is “the total de¬ 
pravity of materal things,” as one of our 
witty writers once phrased it, that if there, 
is one chance in ten of things going wrong 
that chance is sure to befall. 
To cook a potato exactly right, so that it 
will he just done, and no more, be mealy, 
white, perfect, requires an exercise of that 
talent little short of genius, so one would 
think who eats that vegetable at ordinary 
tables. The same is true of onions, that odo¬ 
rous bulb, which is almost always served 
underdone ; of beans, which are cither burn¬ 
ed in the baking or dried to a choking con¬ 
sistency. Now a hungry epicure even can 
make a good meal off three or four things— 
nicely cooked meat., perfectly prepared 
potato, a dish of ripe fruit, and exemplary 
bread and butter. It is not variety or quan¬ 
tity that is so important as quality, and if 
those who cook could only realize this and 
precipitate all their powers upon the perfect 
preparation m only two dishes at each meal, 
those who feed at their hands would cer¬ 
tainly be the gainers. It is a great deal 
easier, when one has really made np her 
mind to it, to have everything just right than 
it is to let things drift, for one right thing tits 
into another right thing and then the whole 
is right, Badly cooked food is not onlv 
sheer waste in nerve, muscle, soul power. 
The hungry body vainly attempts recuper¬ 
ation in trying to digest end assimilate food 
not “convenient” for it, so that what might 
have been accomplished had the food been 
right remains undone. 
Apropos hereto and for the help of careless 
cooks the following extract from an unpub¬ 
lished business letter is given:—“Having 
written an hour or so i found the inner 
roomineis large and descended to breakfast. 
The order was scrambled eggs, steak, codfish 
cake, corn cake, muffins, stewed chicken and 
choclate. The eggs were so old they smelt, 
the chicken even worse, the corn cakes 
tasted like sawdust, and butter was oleomar¬ 
garine or worse. The muffins turned out to 
be one small but good graham biscuit, burn¬ 
ed to a cinder ut the top ; the chocolate was 
flat aud bitter. But the hotel is central and 
elegant; the furniture is costly ; the walls 
are frescoed ; the mirrors are large ; the 
darkies are clever ; the bills are ample ; the 
lady boarders wear scant skirts with ruffled 
humps; and how rude it .would be to 
snivel about the mere victuals ! I won’t 
do it. 1 went without my breakfast, paid 
for it with effusive cheerfulness, tipped my 
hat jauntily, in taking leave of the handsome 
cashier, and knew that I had just as good a 
time as the other fellows !” 
-♦ ♦ » 
COMMON SENSE vs. ECONOMY. 
“ Faith Rochester ” in the Agriculturist 
has some excellent and common sensible 
advice reprehending an excessive and mis¬ 
calculating economy which seems to be one 
of the importunate legacies left us by the 
Philosophy of Poor Richard. She says : 
“Why need you buy' yeast cakes when 
you cau make just as go od yeast ?” says the 
old-fashioned housekeeper ; and the modern 
housekeeper feels condemned for extrava¬ 
gance, unless she stops to count the cost of 
% 
— — - - - - - — - - - ■ — - — - - - - - - - - — - - — • 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER. 287 
home-made yeast and compares the differ¬ 
ence between that and the purchased pack¬ 
ages. I am told by those who have reckon¬ 
ed th3 expense of home-made yeast, that it 
is no cheaper than the. yeast cakes sold at 
shops, not counting the time and the trouble 
caused by yeast making at home. The 
trouble of making and keeping yeast is con¬ 
siderable, so it seems to me that house 
keeper's who have plenty of useful occupation, 
need not feel at all conscience stricken on 
account of buying good yeast. For more 
than a year.I have relied exclusively upon 
3 r east cakes, and I have learned to place 
great confidence in them. Those that I 
uso are made in a neighboring city, and have 
a good reputation in this part of the country. 
By observing the directions printed upon the 
wrapper, one may be sure of good bread, 
provided the flour is good and the kneading 
and baking properly done. 
And there is the clothes-line. I leave mine, 
o common fine rope, tied to the posts, week 
after week. 1 used to feel condemned for 
wastefulness, knowing that sunshine and vain 
would make the rope decay. But now T 
justify myself in this course. It takes too 
much time to put out and take in the clothes¬ 
line every week ; it is not worih the trouble. 
1 am told t hat one rope will last a house¬ 
keeper's lifetime, if properly cared for. But 
I feel sure that ray lifetime would be a very 
short one, if 1 should pick up and carry every 
burden of that, kind which 1 can see lying 
around, for the sake of saving here a penny 
aud there a penny. I refuse to sacrifice my¬ 
self to that clothes-line. Besides 1 like to 
have it where l can use it at any moment, 
for wiring bed clothes or drying anything 
washed between regular washings. 
Economy is an excellent thing, and very 
Decessary for most of us to practice, but 
good judgement must go along with it. I 
often express my gratitude that I am not 
cumbered with many “nice things,” while 
my hands are busy with the babies ; it is 
so hard to take care of things that cannot 
well be kept beyond the reach of children, 
but which children can easily despoil. 
— — - -»-»-♦ - 
KITCHEN CONVENIENCES. 
A new convenience for housekeepers is 
mentioned as exhibited at the Fair of the 
American Institute, in which places are pro¬ 
vided for a multiplicty of articles which gen¬ 
erally go astray about the kitchen. Besides, 
it offers to the cook the same advantages as 
the proscription counter does to the druggist. 
There are drawers for the sugar, spices, and 
ingredients, a hinged dough board in the 
front, a convenient receptacle for flour or 
meal in the top (with a hopper below fitted 
with a valve so that exactly as much flour as 
is needed may bo measured off), a sifting 
arrangement, and plenty of extra closet 
room for rho thousand little things needed in 
culinary operations. 
-♦« » 
SAVING WORK. 
House maids can save themselves a great 
deal of work by using care in various ways, 
A particular nail for each cloth used about 
the sink, makes it easier to keep the table 
at hand, in order, and to cleanse the pots 
and kettles perfectly, aud to make the 
pantry shelves neat. When water is slopped 
upon the floor, If it i3 wiped up, the rest of 
the floor is saved from soiling. Whole 
days may be saved in the course of the 
year, and any amount of irritated temper 
spared, if every dish and kitchen untensil is 
pub away in its place. An intelligent girl 
will save her time and strength by using 
her head along with her hands. 
IM'W (information. 
LOSS OF NUTRITION. 
Fermentation, says the Science of Health 
is a process of decay which destroys nutri¬ 
tion. The first part of the fermentation of 
yeast bread affects the sugar which has 
been produced from the starch, and breaks 
it up into alcohol and carbonic acid gas. 
The latter, as it expands, makes the bread 
light, a result which is attained in hygienic 
bread by the imprisonment and expansion 
of atmospheric air. The quantity of alcohol 
and carbonic acid gas developed, is a measure 
of the nutrition destroyed. That these are 
desirable, is evident from the lightness of 
the bread, and from its indigestibility when 
new. As these are very volatile, they are 
both entirely dissipated in the course of 34 
hours. 
So large is the amount of alcohol, that the 
attempt has been made repeatedly to collect 
and preserve it during the process of baking, 
which expels the most of it from the loaf. 
One Dr. Hicks of London, undertook this 
once, at an expense of some 8100,000 for 
machinery and bakery, and would have 
made n flue success of it. but that the other 
bakers circulated so many false reports 
about the matter that the people refused to 
purchase the bread. One of these was, that 
Dr. Hicks extracted all the spirit from his 
bread, while theirs contained the whole, 
which, of course, must be far more nutri¬ 
tious and wholesome. This “ blow the cap 
off from his still,” as he says, otherwise the 
alcohol collected, and which is ordinarily 
entirely wasted, would have remunerated 
him handsomely 
-♦♦♦-- 
‘‘ WHY k.OSQUITOES WERE CREATED.” 
“ A. F.”— who is evidently a close observer 
—condemns, in last week’s Rural, Mr. Car¬ 
man’ s theory that mosquitoes were created 
to protect individuals against chills and 
fever by inoculating them with its virus, 
upon the grounds that he once visited a 
family, every member of which, young and 
old, was suffering from this dread disease, in 
spite of mosquitoes which were so many 
and near between as to annoy him incessantly 
during his visit. 
This reasoning, which struck us forcibly at 
first, grew inconclusive as wo pondered over 
it. A. F. i3 certain that the mosquitoes bit 
him; but he does not say that he saw them 
bite the members of the afflicted family— 
nay, has he not observed that mosquitoes 
nc>er bite people thus afflicted >■ But if 
otherwise, A. F. must consider that the 
members of this family may have contracted 
the chills and fever previous to the advent 
of the mosquitoes for that season, and that 
mosquito inoculation must be effected before 
the contraction of the disease the same as 
vaccination against small pox. The thorough 
inoculation which he himself received on 
the occasion of which ho speaks, ought cer¬ 
tainly to have protected him against chills 
and fever during that year at least—though 
the malaria of the locality must have been 
poisonous and potent in the extreme. If so, 
his statement, n.sit stands, is rather favorable 
than opposed to the efficacy of the mosquito- 
inoculation theory. 
-- 
MOTHER WITH SLEEPLESS BABE. 
The Herald of Health contains the follow¬ 
ing question and answer; 
How is a mother with a restless babe to 
obtain that sleep you advise ? I have not 
slept more than four hours a night for the 
past year. I am losing flesh and am nearty 
broken down. 
Ans.—F ind out, the cause of the sleepless¬ 
ness of the babe, and remove it. If you can¬ 
not do this, then get some one to help you, 
and take your sleep. If you don’t the con¬ 
sequences will be serious. No doubt the 
child has been wrongly managed in some 
way. Young babies ought to pass the first 
months of their lives in the country, lor its 
stillness no less than its freril air. But where 
silence is not to be commanded, baby may 
be toothed by folding a soft napkin wot with 
warmish water lightly over the top of its 
head, its eyes and ears. It Is the best way 
to put nervous babies asleep ; we have tried 
it hundreds of times. A fine towel would be 
wet and laid over its head, the ends twisted 
a little till it made a sort of skull-cap, and 
though baby sometimes .fought against be¬ 
ing blindfolded in this way, five minutes 
usually sent him off into |deep] and blissful 
slumber. The compress cooled the little, 
feverish brain, deadened sound in his ears, 
and shut out everything that took his atten¬ 
tion, so that sleep took him unaware. Teeth¬ 
ing babies find this very comforting ; for 
their heads are always hot, and there is fever 
beating in the arteries each side. 
-♦» »■ — - 
HEALTH OF FARMERS. 
According to the opinion of those con¬ 
cerned in the preparation of the elaborate 
Report of the Massachusetts Board of Health, 
farmers, whose longevity has been much 
extended during the past twenty years, 
might live much longer than they do, by 
exercising more Care in choosing, cooking, 
and eating their food, in avoiding overwork 
aud exposure to change of weather, and the 
use of foul drinking water. Their food con¬ 
sists too much of pork, pies, and saleratus 
bread and cakes. The cookery is bad, and 
meals are eaten too quickly for good diges¬ 
tion, when work hurries. More vegetables 
and fruit should bo eaten, and more rest 
taken. More cleanliness as regards out¬ 
houses, sinks aud backyards, should be 
observed, and more care taken to avoid 
leading cesspools, -inks, etc., nearer to a 
well than thirty feet at least. 
and Useful. 
WHY AND WHEN LAMPS EXPLODE. 
At.r. explosions of coal-oil lamps are caused 
by the vapor or gas that collects in the space 
above the oil. When full of oil, of course a 
lamp contains no gas, but immediately on 
lighting the lamps, consumption of oil begins, 
soon leaving a space l’or gas, which com¬ 
mences to form as the lamp warms up, and, 
after burning a short, time, sufficient gas will 
accumulate to form an explosion. Tho gas 
in a lamp will explode only wliou ignited. 
In this respect It is like gunpowder. Cheap 
or inferior oil is always the most, dangerous. 
The flame is communicated to the gas in 
the following manner ;—The wick tube in all 
lamp burners is made larger than the wide 
which is to pass through it. It would not do 
to have tho wick work tightly in tile burner ; 
on tho contrary, it i s essential that it move 
up and down with perfect case: In this way 
it is unavoidable that space hi the tube is 
left along tho sides of the wick sufficient for 
the flame from the burner to pass down in¬ 
to the lamp and explode the gas. 
Many things may occur to cause the flame 
to pass down the wick, and explode the 
lamp. 
1. A lamp may be standing on a table or 
mantel, and a slight puff of air from the open 
window, or the sudden opening of a door, 
cause an explosion. 
3. A lamp may be taken up quickly from a 
table or mantel and instantly explode. 
8. A lamp is taken into an entry where 
there is a draft, or out of doors, aud an ex¬ 
plosion ensues. 
4. A lighted lamp is taken up a flight of 
stairs, or is raised quickly to place it on the 
mantel, resulting in an explosion. In all these 
cases tlio mischief is done by the air move¬ 
ment—either by suddenly chocking the draft, 
or forcing air down the chimney against the 
flame. 
5. Blowing down the chimney to extin¬ 
guish the light is a frequent cause of ex¬ 
plosion. 
fi. Lamp explosions have been caused by 
using a chimney broken off at the top, or 
one that has a piece broken out,whereby the 
draft is variable and the flame unsteady. 
7. Sometimes a thoughtless person puts a 
small-sized vvlek in a larger burner, thus 
leaving considerable space along the edges 
of the wick. 
8. An old burner, with its air-drafts clog¬ 
ged up, which rightfully should be thrown 
away, is sometimes continued iu use, and the 
final result is an explosion.— Sot. American. 
--- 
BOOTS IN WATER. 
A correspondent of the Indiana Farmer 
writes :—“ I have stood in mud and water 
two or three inches deep, for ten hours a 
day for a week, without feeling any damp¬ 
ness or having any difficulty in getting 
my boots on or off. If you would be 
equally successful, before wearing the boots 
give tho bottoms a good coating of tallow 
and tar and dry it in ; then oil the uppers 
with castor oil, about one tablegpoonful will 
be sufficient. If the weather should be 
rainy, or you are compelled to work in water 
during tho da>q wash your boots clean at 
night, hold them by the Are until quite warm, 
and oil them while quite wet, and you will 
have no troublo about your boots getting 
hard and shrinking up so that you cannot 
get them on. If the leather should become 
red, give a coat of ordinary shoe-blacking 
before oiling. The effect of castor oil is to 
soften the leather, while it tills the pores and 
prevents the water from entering. 
-«-»-*- 
CHLOROFORM FOR MILK. 
Experiments made by J. P. Barnes, of 
London, seems to have established the fact 
that a few drops of chloroform will preserve 
milk entirely pure and sweet for several 
days, by preventing tho lactic fermentation. 
Eight fluid ounces of milk placed in each of 
two vessels ; to one ten minims, and to the 
other twenty minims of chloroform wore 
added. They were kept in a warm place 
and several times agitated. At the expir¬ 
ation of five days, that containing ten min¬ 
ims had developed lactic acid in quantity 
sufficient to separate the easeine, while 
that containing twenty, remained perfectly 
fresh. Some of our readers may find it con¬ 
venient to preserve milk in this manner. Be¬ 
fore using, the milk should he boiled to evap¬ 
orate the chloroform. 
Ammonia is the best and cheapest applica¬ 
tion to remove grease spots. 'Wash with 
clear, soft water after cleansing. 
