1902 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
823 
Farmhouse Cooking. 
Another Comment from New York. 
The painful experiences of the man 
and wife so minutely narrated on page 
713, w r ould, one may safely assert, cause 
many a mile of travel to fine their dupli¬ 
cate. Doubtless there are poor cooks in 
■the country, but, whisper it not in Gath, 
this class is well represented in town. 
’Tis the fault of the woman, and not the 
circumstance that she is a farmer’s wife, 
that causes her to serve lumpy, half- 
cooked potatoes and musty bread. 
Though I do not live on a farm now, I 
was brought up on one, and I protest 
against such wholesale condemnation of 
the cooking of a farmer’s wife. As the 
article referred to is one evidently of 
actual experience, this reply, in all fair¬ 
ness, is founded on actual experiences, 
which need no fancy touches before I 
dare present what I know of the pro¬ 
ficiency of the farmer’s wife in culinary 
matters. 
Briefly, my own experience of farm 
life recalls well cooked vegetables prop¬ 
erly seasoned, good, juicy roasts, tender 
boiling pieces, sweet “country” pork 
served in various ways; broiled porter¬ 
house steak, chickens, ducks and tur¬ 
keys, roasted, fried and boiled, not to be 
forgotten genuine chicken pies into 
whose making went good sweet cream; 
oysters and mushrooms in their season. 
The latter grew abundantly in the mea¬ 
dows on the “flats.” Ah, the puddings, 
cakes, fried cakes, jellies, pickles, 
canned fruit, and the pies of flaky crust 
and toothsome filling that really deserv¬ 
ed to have been “town made,” the light 
wholesome breads and biscuits are but 
feeble pictures of the good things that 
used to be made in the large airy kitchen 
on the old Hartford farm. 
I have tried in vain to recall one farm¬ 
house where aught but good coffee and 
real cream was served for breakfast 
The menu of that breakfast (page 743), 
tasteless beef and worse gravy, fresh 
codfish and musty bread and cheap tea! 
Alas, I never ate its counterpart. But 
the breakfast that many a farmer sits 
down to for seven days in the week, 
week in and week out, I will not picture 
too closely, for fear of arousing the 
envy of the town man, whose wife is a 
sister in cooking to the woman of page 
713. But we know some of the items of 
a Winter breakfast, for instance; well 
browned savory sausage, the kind never 
found in a town market, potatoes warm¬ 
ed up quickly, the buckwheat cakes and 
maple syrup, good bread, fried cakes and 
coffee. Several years ago I was invited 
to spend a day at a farm. To be brief, 
we had real country chicken, tender, 
browned to a turn; vegetables as nearly 
perfect as possible in all respects; 
a dish of delicious apple butter, jelly and 
pickles that came in the same category. 
The bread, butter and apple pis were of 
the best quality. Like Oliver Twist, we 
would like another dinner just like it. 
At another farmhouse I recall a supper 
perfect in every respect; the raised bis¬ 
cuits, light, delicately browned, sweet 
with real golden country butter, were 
not despised. The canned peaches had 
been prepared when just ripe, and the 
real peach flavor had been kept. I never 
yet in town or country was served with 
spoiled fruit. One other item was a 
chocolate cake which could evoke no un¬ 
kind criticism unless one is a food crank 
and objects to all sweets on principle, 
and doubtless has the dyspepsia into 
the bargain. I recall many other farm¬ 
houses in another part of the State but 
I fail to call to mind even one where the 
meals resembled the ones that the trav¬ 
elers on page 743 discovered. 
As I understand said article this dire 
ignorance and sinful waste of good ma¬ 
terial were described as the rule and 
not the exception among the farming 
community. Living in the country will 
not make a good cook of a woman, 
neither will living in town save her from 
being a poor one. The key to the situa¬ 
tion is held by the woman herself. On 
the principle that one story is good till 
another is told, I mention some sins of 
a cook who lives in a town; a lemon 
pie, which had been thickened with flour 
till it wa.s stiffer than a pumpkin pie, 
the meringue, guiltless of sugar, was as 
flat as a pancake. This will offset the 
apple pie of page 743. Really I could go 
on, but let charity cover the faults of 
some .town cooks. Surely, “why don’t 
our town women learn to cook” is just 
as apropos as the query, “why don’t our 
farmers’ wives learn to cook.” 
IIDLLN C. ANDREWS. 
North Carolina Speaks Up. 
A question was asked in The R. N.-Y. 
a few weeks ago relative to the poorly 
cooked food found upon the table of the 
average farmer. If he is uneducated and 
very poor this may hold true, but is this 
the condition of say half the farmers in 
the land? Surely the majority of them 
send daughters and sons to academies, 
and they learn somewhat of the chem¬ 
istry of food, importance of ventilation 
and the germ theory. Wherever my 
journeys in life have led me, either in 
the North, South or East, I have always 
found the farmer’s daughter a better 
cook than her sister of the town or city. 
In order to do the question full justice 
it must be looked at from the stand¬ 
points of location, education, environ¬ 
ment and individuality. As to location, 
if you enter fertile valleys where you see 
marked signs of prosperity, the butter 
will smell rosy and tne farmer’s wife 
will broil her steak, and you will feel 
like coming to board with her through 
the Summer. Along watercourses, near 
large towns or cities also you will find 
this condition among well-to-do farm¬ 
ers, who work intelligently. Now in 
mountainous sections of the country 
North and South you find the average 
farmer’s food improperly prepared, and 
but little variety in its daily menu. In 
a typical mountainer’s family here 
bread is unknown; their staple diet is 
fried pork, turnips boiled with pork, but¬ 
termilk biscuit, soggy cornbread (or 
pone), buttermilk and sorghum. But, 
where this food is served the sons can 
hardly write their own names, and the 
one ambition of the daughters is to “get 
a fellow” by the time .they don a longer 
dress. The art or science of cookery is 
several generations behind such inferior 
development as this. But one should 
not place those splendid tables of up-to- 
date farmers in the same category with 
these; it is unfair. So much there is in 
location, education and environment. 
Last and not least comes individuality. 
Is every woman born a cook? Are all 
cut off the same material? Hardly, 
no more than all men are born carpen¬ 
ters, shipbuilders or artists. It is cer¬ 
tainly very unfair even to think or say 
that because a man marries he should 
build his own home. Why Is it supposed 
or expected that all women were created 
cooks from the beginning? If a person 
has not talent or genius he cannot paint 
a picture that anyone wants; therefore, 
if women have to cook when they have 
not the aptitude we must accept their 
failures with the best grace we can. 
I must pay a tribute to the majority 
of cooking one gets upon a farm; for I 
owe the training of my life to a farmer’s 
wife, and there are many who envy my 
possession of the art. Is a woman who 
fails in cooking any worse than the man 
who fails in his work? Both undertook 
that which they had no talent for, conse¬ 
quently prove failures. Skill comes only 
through real natural aptitude, and 
the education or training of this quality. 
Poor, uneducated farmers’ wives cook 
just as well as poor uneducated mer¬ 
chants’ wives in very rural districts. 
MARGARET DARE. 
MOTHERS.—Be sure to use “Mrs.Wins- 
low’s Soothing Syrup” for your children 
while Teething. It is the Best.— Adv. 
Rag Carpets Again. 
My pretty” rag carpet is a matter of 
pride with me, and after reading Elsie 
Gray’s suggestions on page 672 I am im¬ 
pelled to give my way of sewing the 
rags, which I consider much easier. Take 
old pillow cases or sheets or other 
material for this use. Suppose you have 
six old pillow cases; after opening up, 
lay edge of number one on to edge of 
number two, lapping flat about half or 
one-third of an inch, use short stitch 
on sewing machine, and stitch across 
twice very close together; keep on un¬ 
til all the pieces are stitched together 
in one long strip; join the two ends of 
the strip together, forming a continuous 
ring. When I sew strips together for the 
last time I leave the width of a carpet 
rag projecting, which is where I begin to 
tear. My very nicest black stripe is 
In each pound package of 
from now until Christmas will 
be found a free game, amusing 
and instructive—50 different 
kinds. 
Get Lion Coffee and a Free Game 
at Your Grocers. 
made of stockings cut round and round, 
not too narrow, as they stretch. Of 
course any fine stocking may be used, 
and I have brown, tan and striped of 
all kinds cut ready to sew. 
Lay aside till evening if you wish, 
then sit down to rest and wind a ball 
of carpet rags. Begin to tear where 
the edge projects; when you come to 
a stitched seam cut through and go on 
winding, tearing spirally in this way 
you will soon have a ball; no trouble at 
all. Hit and miss can be sewn the 
same way, simply alternating first one 
color, then another, and of course can 
be any size as to the length, so long as 
all are same width. When I took my 
rags to the weaver, she said: “Oh, my 
way of sewing is much better than 
yours,” and she told me of same method 
used by Elsie Gray. After I had shown 
360 DAYS AP ?^ AL 
Send for Free Catalogue No. 114. 
KALAMAZOO STOVE CO. 
Manufacturers, 
KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN. 
WATER CLOSET C0MBINATI0HS, 
her how mine had been sewed she 
said: “Well, the idea! To think of my 
living all these years and not having 
learned that way! Just think of the 
time I could have saved.” 
MABEL H. MONSEY. 
The mothers and daughters need to 
realize that woman’s life and liberty do 
not consist in the multitude of avenues 
that lead from the home to the outside 
world, but in the number of avenues by 
which she may bring the best from the 
outside world into the home.—W. F. 
Richardson. 
In comparing Grain-O and coffee 
remember that while the taste is 
the same Grain-O gives health and 
strength while coffee shatters the 
nervous system and breeds disease 
of the digestive organs. Thinking 
people prefer Grain-0 and its ben¬ 
efits. 
TRY IT TO-DAY. 
At grocers everywhere ; 15c. and 25«. per package, 
Porcelain Bowl. Hardwood Seat and Tank, 
Nickel Plated flush and supply pipes, com¬ 
plete,each $11.00. 
Cast Iron Roll Rim Bath Tubs, 
length 6 ft. Complete 
with full set of nickel 
plated lutings, each, 
Sll.OO. 
They are new goods, 
ask for free catalogue 
No. 57 on plumbing 
_ and building material. 
ihicsro Hautt Wrecking Co.. W. 35th and Iron Sts..Chicago 
MADE $ 105 THE FIRST MONTH 
writes FRED. BLODGETT, of N. Y. J. L. 
BARRICK, of La., writes: “Am making 
$3.00 to $8.00 every day I work.” MRS. L. 
M. ANDERSON, of Iowa, writes: “I 
made $3.80 to $6.50 a day.” Hundreds 
doing likewise. So can you. 
$5.00 to $10.00 daily made pla¬ 
ting jewelry, tableware, bicy¬ 
cles, metal goods with gold, sil¬ 
ver, nickel, etc. Enormous de¬ 
mand. We tench you F5PP 
Write—offer free. IllCCa 
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We’ll sell you a better hatcher 
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GEO. H. STi’ti! Quincy, 111. 
« •vgi—i, 
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$15.20 
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EIGHT DOLLARS 
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