1080 
THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
Tested Cakes. 
Nutmeg Cake.—Whip first separately, 
then together, the yolks and whites of 
three eggs, stir in a half cupful of sugar 
and a cupful of well-sifted flour; add 
six tablespoonfuls of boiling water, then 
add, little by little, a cupful of flour in 
which has been sifted a teaspoonful of 
cream of tartar; another six table¬ 
spoonfuls of hot water, in one of which 
has been dissolved a half teaspoonful 
of soda. Beat all together for 10 min¬ 
utes, then break into the mixture an¬ 
other egg. Lastly, add a third of a 
cupful of melted butter and a half cup¬ 
ful of very finely chopped nuts, and sea¬ 
son with grated nutmeg. Bake in a 
loaf tin. 
Poor Man’s Fruit Cake.—This has no 
eggs, but is excellent. One-third cup of 
butter, one cup of yellow sugar, two 
cups of flour (whole wheat flour is 
best), one cup of seeded raisins or 
other fruit, one cup of sour milk, one 
teaspoonful each of powdered cinna¬ 
mon, cloves, allspice and one-half tea¬ 
spoonful of soda. Cream the butter, 
add •sugar, beat until creamy. Add 
one-half of the flour (in which all the 
spices have been put) and the raisins 
washed and dried. Mix well; then add 
your milk (in which the soda has been 
beaten); lastly, the remaining flour. 
Bake in a moderate oven until a broom- 
straw put in the cake will come out dry. 
If sweet milk is used, take a little less, 
and substitute one tablespoonful of bak¬ 
ing powder for the soda, sifted in the 
flour. 
Buttermilk Cake.—This is simple, but 
good. One cup sugar, one-half cup 
butter, one cup buttermilk, one egg, two 
cups flour, one-half teaspoon soda, one 
teaspoon baking powder sifted with 
flour, one-half cup raisins, one-half cup 
currants, one-half teaspoon cinnamon, 
one-fourth teaspoon each of cloves and 
nutmeg. Bake in loaf. 
Crisp Cookies.—Half a coffee cupful 
of butter, one cupful of sugar, 2 / cup¬ 
fuls of flour, two teaspoonfuls of bak¬ 
ing powder, one egg, quarter of a cup¬ 
ful of milk, and a very little ground 
mace. Cream together the butter and 
sugar, also adding the mace; then stir 
the baking powder in the flour, sift both 
together, and add alternately with the 
milk and eggs to the butter and sugar. 
It will form a soft dough. Thoroughly 
flour the pastry-board and rolling-pin, 
cut one-quarter of the dough and roll 
it as thinly as possible, or until it seems 
almost transparent. Cut the cakes with 
a small round biscuit ring and place 
them on a buttered tin, scarcely touch¬ 
ing each other. Bake them a light 
brown in a very quick oven. 
Soft Molasses Cake.—One cupful of 
sugar, two-thirds of a cupful of sour 
cream, one cupful of New Orleans mo¬ 
lasses, three eggs the grated rind of a 
lemon, and one and a third teaspoon¬ 
fuls of sod i. If sour milk is used in¬ 
stead of cream, use a whole cupful of 
butter. This cake can be flavored to 
suit, also fruit added, but in all cases 
it must not be turned out of the pan 
until nearly cold. 
Ginger Snaps.—Half a cupful of but¬ 
ter, one cunful of sugar, three cupfuls 
of flour, quarter of a cupful of mo¬ 
lasses, quarter of a cupful of milk, half 
a teaspoonful of ground ginger, and 
quarter of a teaspoonful each of cinna¬ 
mon, mace, allspice, cloves, a little 
grated nutmeg, and two teaspoonfuls of 
baking powder. Cream together the 
butter and sugar until light, add the 
spice, then the molasses, mixing all 
thoroughly. Sift the flour after stir¬ 
ring the baking powder through it, and 
add it alternately with one egg, which 
has been well beaten, and the milk. 
The dough is then to be rolled out as 
described for cookies, very thin, and cut 
with a small ring, or it may be cut in 
square cakes, marking them off with a 
knife. Place them in a buttered tin, 
not touching each other, and bake 
brown in a quick oven. They will be¬ 
come crisp as soon as cool. 
Soft Hermits.—Cream half a cupful 
of butter and gradually add one cupful of 
granulated sugar, half a cupful of 
seeded and chopped raisins, two table¬ 
spoonfuls of flour sifted with half a 
teaspoonful each of cinnamon, mace and 
nutmeg and one-fourth teaspoon fill of 
cloves. Lastly put in two well-beaten 
eggs, half a cupful of milk and enough 
flour sifted with two teaspoonfuls of 
baking powder to make a soft dough. 
Pat out a small piece of dough to the 
thickness of half an inch or less, cut in 
rounds and bake in a quick oven. 
The Puff-Ball as a Table Delicacy. 
Many a family would be glad to 
avail itself of the delicious mushrooms 
of our fields and woods if it were not 
for the well-founded fear of getting a 
poisonous kind. Such incidents as that 
recently reported by the Associated 
Press, of 14 guests at a birthday din¬ 
ner dying from the results of mush¬ 
room poisoning, do not tend to lessen 
the fear of mistakes, and it is well to 
emphasize that the popularly supposed 
“tests,” such as agreeable odor, pink- 
gills, failure to turn a silver spoon 
black, or what-not, are valueless and 
dangerous. 
Fortunately there is one group of 
edible fungi which cannot be mistaken, 
and which should be much more widely 
AN EDIBLE PUFF-BALL. Fig. 443. 
known. These are the puff-balls, com¬ 
mon in our fields and woods in late 
Summer and Autumn. Though lacking 
the delicate flavor of some of the fine- 
est mushrooms, they are fully equal to 
many of them, and properly prepared 
cannot be distinguished except by an 
expert. While they vary in edible quali¬ 
ties, none is poisonous and only very 
small ones could by any possibility be 
mistaken for injurious species. Very 
small specimens it might be possible 
through the greatest carelessness to 
confuse with the youngest or “button” 
stage of certain mushrooms or “toad¬ 
stools.” The distinguishing characters 
are perfectly obvious, but until you 
know your specimen thoroughly a per¬ 
fect safeguard is to discard the very 
small puff-balls. Do not experiment 
with specimens smaller than a hen*s 
egg. 
The puff-balls are so-called because 
when ripe they are filled with a mass 
of dark brown spores which scatter 
like powder when the ball is handled. 
It is only in the immature, unripe con¬ 
dition that they are edible. At this 
stage they may be found on the ground 
as stalkless, oval, rounded, or pear- 
shaped bodies of a chalky-white, or 
tawny color, varying in size from that 
of an egg or smaller up to that of a 
big head of cabbage or even larger 
(Fig. 434). They are yielding to the 
touch, and on cutting them open they 
are found to be of a uniform, cheese¬ 
like consistency, and in the edible stage, 
of a chalk-white color throughout. The 
older ones, recognized by a yellowish 
or darker tinge of the interior, must be 
discarded. Puff-balls may be cooked 
in a variety of ways. In any case they 
should be carefully peeled and any 
wormy parts thrown away. The fol¬ 
lowing recipes are some of the most 
popular ways of preparing them. 
Fried Puff-ball.—Peel and cut in 
slices one-third inch thick, salt anc 
pepper and fry in butter till nicely 
browned. Or, peel and cut in slices 
one-tnird inch thick, dip in beaten yolk 
of egg and fry in butter. 
Creamed Puff-ball.—Turn one quart 
of carefully peeled and diced puff-ball 
into two tablespoons of hot butter, salt 
and pepper and stir until slightly 
browned. Stir together two tablespoons 
flour and one cup milk and add to 
puff-1 a. and allow to boil up thor¬ 
oughly. Serve on hot buttered toast. 
Escalloped Puff-ball.—Line a bake 
dish with bread or cracker crumbs, add 
a thick layer of diced puff-ball and a 
layer of rich white sauce. Repeat until 
dish is full, having a layer of crumbs 
on top. Bake in moderate oven one- 
half hour. 
Smothered Puff-ball.—Line a bake 
dish with mashed potatoes, fill up the 
dish with creamed puff-ball, cover over 
the top with a good layer of mashed 
potatoes and bake in moderate oven for 
20 minutes. mae f. riley. 
Treatment for Falling Hair. 
Can you toll me what to do for falling 
hair in an 18-yoar-old girl? For several 
months the hair has come out every time it 
is comhed and now is very thin. There 
ddes not appear to bo any dandruff and the 
hair looks greasy. e. f. 
Where a young girl’s hair falls badly 
we should try to learn, % first, whether 
the general health was good. Poor 
nutrition or anaemia, such as occurs 
sometimes in the case of a girl making 
growth rapidly, is usually accompanied 
by a poor condition of the hair, and 
this is especially marked where hard 
study causes nervous strain. A dull 
and lifeless appearance of the hair is 
often noted in cases of worry or ner¬ 
vous anxiety, and sometimes a con¬ 
scientious student worries in a way 
hardly suspected by her elders. Open 
air exercise without a hat (but not in 
the burning heat of Summer) gives 
the hair a chance. The whole scalp 
should be carefully massaged with the 
tips of the fingers every day, gently rub¬ 
bing and pinching up the skin. You 
will probably find that the skin seems 
very tight upon the skull, which the 
professionals say is a sign of poor cir¬ 
culation, but there is no doubt this 
treatment improves the circulation, and. 
thus brings nourishment to the hair. 
After this brush the hair very carefully 
with long even strokes; the old-fash¬ 
ioned rule was to part the hair and 
give 50 strokes on each side. Twice a 
week rub in red vaseline and quinine 
pomade, sold by all druggists. You will 
say the hair is already oily, but you do 
not rub it on the hair; take a little 
on the finger, or on a bit of soft flannel, 
and, parting the hair, rub it thoroughly 
into the scalp. Once a week you could 
alternate the vaseline with 'bay rum and 
Peruvian bark. Add one ounce of pow¬ 
dered Peruvian bark to half a pint of 
bay rum; let stand 10 days, shaking at 
intervals; then let it settle, pour off the 
clear bay rum, add another half pint of 
bay rum, and use rubbed on the scalp, 
not on the hair, like the vaseline. With 
these tonics, the massage, and careful 
attention to the general health, the 
trouble should be removed, so long as 
there is no disease of the scalp calling 
for special treatment. Some serious 
forms of indigestion affect the hair very 
badly; we have known actual baldness 
to result from complicated gastric 
trouble, but in the case of a young girl 
it is probable that the simple treatment 
suggested will be entirely satisfactory. 
Tincture of cantharides (Spanish fly) 
is much used in hair tonics, and a fam¬ 
ily physician should be able to give a 
suitable prescription for its use; it is 
very stimulating. 
November 4, 
When you write advertisers mention Thh 
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