80 2 
THE 
RURAb 
NEW-YORKER 
June 2T, 
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Food That Tastes Good 
jj Is What We Call For || 
. The Farm Provides It — 
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Brown Sugar and Hard-tack. 
I HAVE been stirred up by your sym¬ 
posium on “eating.” It recalls the 
gastronomical efforts of 75 years. Any 
healthy boy who has worked as all boys 
ought, will come to dinner with a raven¬ 
ous and glorious desire to clean off the 
table, and a capacity that no figures in¬ 
volving height, length, breadth and thick¬ 
ness can account for. Indeed, where the 
solids are deposited is as unsoluble as was 
that of the Kansas farmer’s pig which 
had eaten clean a pailful of buttermilk, 
and the awestricken owner took the pig 
by the tail and dropped him into the 
bucket; it was not full. So the circle 
around the waist of a healthy young man 
cannot be square. 
In all regions in America I have eaten 
my way through or left a devastation. 
The natives have certain national and 
traditional dishes in which they excel. 
No people on earth can equal chicken 
pie, dried beef and cream, or baked beans 
put together by the real New England 
housewife. To my taste no cornbread, 
fried chicken and beaten biscuit quite 
reach the perfection attained by the old 
black mammy of the South. I have nev¬ 
er seen so good oysters as along the Gulf 
of Mexico, where also I have found the 
best bread, spaghetti and gumbo. If I 
could be translated bodily to Boston I 
should call for fresh codfish, lobster and 
hulled corn and milk, and grumble at the 
parsimony of nature that gave me one 
mouth only to absorb them. After all, 
this proves nothing but my individual 
taste, and that each locality excels in its 
peculiar products which generations have 
brought to perfection. Many of our 
tastes are acquired and sweetened by 
youthful remembrances. 
I observe some of your correspondents 
refer to the “best meal” they ever had, 
such gorgeous reminiscences probably 
emanating from the hunger of that par¬ 
ticular period. Let me recall the “best 
meal” I ever had. 
On the 17th day of May, 1863. I was 
a youth with good teeth, a splendid set 
of internal arrangements, sitting down 
beside the road near the Big Black Riv¬ 
er in Mississippi. A regiment in front 
was busy clearing away the skirmishers on 
the opposite side of the river, prepara¬ 
tory to laying down a pontoon bridge. It 
was the day after the great battle of 
Champion Hill, and the climax of the 
Vicksburg campaign. I was captain of a 
company in an Illinois regiment that left 
its dead in many States. The men were 
very short of provisions, trains far in 
rear and country cleaned up by those in 
advance with the usual diligence of the 
15th Corps. One of my men had, for¬ 
tunately, among the first comers, found 
a hogshead of damp brown sugar in a 
little tumble-down shed near. He ran 
back to me and asked if I wanted some 
sugar. I loosed a two-quart pail from 
my belt, my entire cooking outfit, and 
handed it to him. I had eaten nothing 
since the day before but one “hard tack,” 
for the good reason that I could get noth¬ 
ing else. He soon returned me the pail 
about half full of brown sugar. Just 
then some troops came marching up from 
a rear division and I bought from a pri¬ 
vate three hard crackers for $1. Just 
there and then I enjoyed the best meal 
of my life. The combination of hunger, 
good teeth and the appetite of youth gave 
to commonplace things all the luxuries 
I can recall. The sound of the cannon 
nor the whistle of rifle balls interrupted 
the enjoyment, as I began to feel the 
expansion press against my sword belt. 
The environment was such as historians 
write about and poets put such events 
into epics. No dramatic thoughts en¬ 
tered my brain. No romance thrilled me, 
but the satisfaction experienced while 
sitting there on the ground with no drink 
except a canteen of warm river water, 
tired and dusty, as I ate a quart of 
brown sugar and three hard-tack, has not 
been forgotten. This was 51 years ago, 
almost to a day, yet I recall it was the 
most enjoyable meal I ever surrounded— 
it was because I needed it more. 
Hlinois. L. B. CROOKER. 
The Professor’s Best Meal. 
HE request for a description of my 
best meal raises an impossible situ¬ 
ation, because I have eaten so many 
meals, in so many places, and so many 
of them have been so good. I have en¬ 
joyed my meals. It is one of the sat¬ 
isfactions of life to eat well and to sleep 
well. These are fundamental necessities 
and all the exotic interests that are com¬ 
ing to us with our increasing complex¬ 
ities of living do not take the place 
of them or make them less import¬ 
ant. The greater the variety of our acti¬ 
vities and the more numerous the kinds 
of our goods, the greater is the neces¬ 
sity that we eat well and sleep well; and 
to this should be added the great joy of 
working well. 
But to eat well requires a simple and 
a substantial diet; and this is the diet 
that I have found at so many farmers’ 
tables. It is a great source of satis¬ 
faction to have one’s eatables in sight, 
with as many eatables as there are dish¬ 
es, and with the eatables more import¬ 
ant than the service. A person is able to 
plan his eating and to judge his meal 
as a whole. This is the farmer’s meal. 
The members of the farm family under¬ 
take the meal with the same directness 
and simplicity that they undertake the 
work and the duties of the day. This 
is worth while, in these days of much in¬ 
directness and of many intermediaries. 
The farmer’s meal also has in it the 
close connection with the earth and with 
the locality. It is not all assembled from 
boxes, and bottles and tin packages. It 
partakes of the open fields and of the 
home oven, carrying a kind of personal 
quality. The regular hotel meals are 
about the same the world around, but 
every farmer’s meal is of his farm and his 
household. It is with much satisfaction 
that I sit at a farmer’s table. 
L. H. BAILEY. 
Baked Beans in Nebraska. 
NDER the circumstances, here is the 
bill of fare that I would like to sit 
up to. In fact, it is w’liat I usually 
order when at a restaurant or hotel, if 
I can get it: Roast beef (well done) 
with brown gravy, baked potatoes, whole 
wheat bread, butter, cold or hot water, 
according to season; fruit, and a pleas¬ 
ant companion to share the meal. If 
that first item is not available, cold 
baked beans and some hot flour gravy 
for the potatoes makes a very good sub¬ 
stitute. In fact, except for the roast 
beef with brown gravy I have simply 
given our regular dinner menu. It must 
be about a balanced ration, for I do lots 
of hard work on it nearly the year 
around, and am in fine health. 
Nebraska. j. n. tubbs 
What a Veteran Would Use. 
F I could have the appetite of a boy 
or young man, and could have it 
fully satisfied, also the judgment as to 
what was best for me in view of the ex¬ 
perience of a life of nearly 70 years, I 
would say the following: First of all, I 
would want good light bread, made from 
cream-colored flour, as the mainstay, 
with a change of whole wheat light 
bread. Graham gems or muffins, corn 
bread made of stone-ground meal, butter¬ 
milk and soda; an occasional mess of 
cream biscuits and pancakes made from 
buckwheat flour, whole wheat flour or 
cornmeal, or a mixture of the two latter, 
with plenty of butter and honey. 
Vegetables and fruits of all kinds that 
can be grown, both cooked and raw, 
would come next. The cooked vegetables 
I would want boiled in nearly every case 
and very rarely fried. Smothered in 
cream, butter or olive oil would be a 
good way to cook them occasionally. 
Fruits cooked into plain sauce without 
much sugar, or baked, suit my taste and 
judgment best. Fresh berries and peach¬ 
es. with cream and sugar, are always 
acceptable, and next to them in this 
form would be canned, with a little 
sugar, and served with plenty of cream. 
I would have but few pies, and these I 
would want thick, “fat” ones, stuffed 
full of fruit. As to meats, I would want 
some tender beef, mutton, pork, chicken 
and game of all kinds, boiled, baked, 
broiled or smothered, and never fried 
in grease, is the way to cook them. Fish 
fried in bacon grease or olive oil, baked 
or made into chowder is all right. Ba¬ 
con or ham and fried eggs would be 
rarely indulged in, but soft-boiled and 
poached eggs I would want often for 
breakfast. Of cereals, give me plain 
rolled oats, wheat, rice and hominy for 
breakfast, with all the rich cream to go 
with them that can be afforded and a 
little soft brown sugar. Occasionally a 
full supper of old-fashioned cornmeal 
mush and whole milk would be wanted. 
Not one of the fancy cereals would come 
into the house, because they cost too 
much, and are no better in any way than 
the plain oat, wheat, corn and rice thor¬ 
oughly cooked that cost about one-fourth 
as much. h. e. van deman. 
A Truck Grower’s Feast. 
WOULD have first a heaping dish of 
asparagus, all extra large green 
stalks—no white, cooked until it was 
tender, and covered with a home-made 
dressing. This dressing is made by mix¬ 
ing flour with the water in which the as¬ 
paragus was cooked, together with a 
good-sized lump of butter aud a little salt. 
This dressing would be supplied in lib¬ 
eral amount. On the opposite side of the 
table there would be a dish of yellow 
Jersey home-grown sweet potatoes. I 
would have these sweets first boiled, then 
cut in halves, butter spread over them, 
sprinkled with a little sugar and browned 
in the oven before serving. Besides these 
two things I would have an abundant 
supply of mealy white potatoes, boiled, 
mashed, moistened with cream, and well 
beaten up until they looked like creamy 
white foam. I would also want a dish 
of sweet garden peas, picked while still 
young and tender, cooked just the proper 
length of time, and with a little butter 
“A FULL MEAL.” THE BOY CANNOT BE TEMPTED. EVEN 
BY GRANDMOTHER’S MINCE PIE! 
mixed through them in the way of sea¬ 
soning. They would be served swim¬ 
ming in their own essence. These four 
vegetables, together with good home¬ 
made bread and butter, would be the 
main part of the meal, and I would 
want all placed on the table at the be¬ 
ginning of the meal. There would be no 
side dishes. As a beverage, I would se¬ 
lect good sweet new r milk that had not 
been skimmed. For dessert, nothing could 
possibly suit me better than a large 
saucer of “Superb” or “Uncle Jim” 
strawberries together with sugar and 
CTe *>m. TRUCKER, JR. 
A Good Farm Breakfast. 
S INCE my good husband has been so 
extravagant in his praise of my cook¬ 
ing, I think I will get even with him by 
sending you his fancy breakfast which he 
can cook to a turn. 
W hole Wheat Rolls.—Beat two eggs to 
a froth, beat in two cups of milk (sweet), 
a little salt, two tablespoonfuls of soft 
brown sugar and whole wheat flour to 
make a batter—thinner than pancakes, 
about like thick cream. Drop into gem 
irons that are hissing hot and bake quick¬ 
ly and thoroughly. To be eaten with 
butter and maple sugar cream which is 
made by boiling maple sugar and water 
till it will almost spin a thread, let cool 
and stir till it grains. The quantity of 
sugar and water is immaterial, and white 
sugar can be used with the maple, enough 
water to dissolve the sugar and boil rap¬ 
idly to break up the grain. We make a 
quantity at a time as it keeps soft a long 
while. 
With boiled eggs, good dried beef, fresh 
pineapple, strawberries and other fruits 
in season, it makes a breakfast easy to 
prepare and fit for a king. 
MRS. CLARK ALLIS. 
Saving 1 By Process Canning. 
I T seems to me one of the greatest needs 
of farmers today is to save all there 
is raised, especially about gardens. How 
often we see gardens with asparagus, 
string beans, peas and other things go¬ 
ing to waste; yet all these may be suc¬ 
cessfully and easily canned so they will 
keep, forming a necessary addition to 
Winter diet. Years ago we found lima 
beans would not keep canned, yet by the 
process canning method they keep well, 
and are nicer than those we used to buy. 
Limas should be shelled, washed and 
boiled in salt water about 20 minutes, 
then place in glass jars; those with pat¬ 
ent fasteners are preferable for this work. 
Fill the cans full and cover with hot 
water, add a teaspoonful of salt, cover 
loosely and place in an ordinary wash- 
boiler so they do not touch each other. 
The bottom of the boiler should be covered 
with a piece of wire cloth, which only 
costs a few cents, from the hardware 
man, and lasts years. Then add about 
two or three inches of warm, not hot 
water, and boil with the cover on one 
hour. Take cover off and set boiler 
where it will cool. Clamp covers on 
tightly, and the next day repeat; the 
last day fill the cans full of hot boiled 
water before putting on to boil. The 
cans need not be taken from the boiler 
until the work is finished, and one can 
do eight or 16 cans at once, according to 
size of boiler. Make sure to have good 
can rubbers and leave them on the cans. 
The first day’s work will give any of the 
spores not ready to work a chance to do 
their fermenting, the third day catches 
them all and seldom indeed will a can 
spoil. 
Tender dandelion and beet greens, in 
fact any of the vegetables we used to 
think impossible to keep, may be had in 
abundance all the year. In using peas, 
shell and boil with a generous amount 
of water in which the pods have been 
boiled, and the peas will be finer in flav¬ 
or. Process three days. Pumpkin may 
also be used in the same way, as well 
as any kind of fresh fruit, although or¬ 
dinary care will keep fruit without pro¬ 
cessing, but the flavor and color this 
way is unexcelled. Care must be taken 
to loosen the covers each time one boils 
the cans, and to tighten them soon as 
they are slightly cooled to prevent any 
of the spores entering the cans. 
Ohio. MBS. JAMES LAMPMAN. 
“VViiat is your alma mater, Mr. Nu- 
rich?” “Well, if you insist, I’ll take a 
cigar.”—BufTa 1 o Express. 
