1378 
THIS IS URAL NEW-VORKER 
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An Old-fashioned New England Dinner 
Cooking the Turkey and “Fixings” 
Reported by Edna S. Knapp || 
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Mrs. Cook answered, 
to steamed pudding. 
“I’m not partial 
Who wants to 
P LANNING THE MEALS.—Mrs. 
Cook came into her pleasant sitting- 
room smoothing down the folds of her 
pretty white apron. Sitting down in her 
favorite rocking-chair in the bay window 
she remarked: 
“Now I can sit down a minute and 
rest.” 
“What would you have, if you had 
just what you wanted for a Thanksgiv¬ 
ing dinner and had to do all the work 
yourself?” I asked. 
“Soup first; we all like it and I make 
lots of little broths and stows. I’d have 
oyster crackers with it. Turkey, of 
course, with dressing, that's the principal 
thing, don’t you think so? For veget¬ 
ables, have squash baked, shell down, you 
know, because the flavor is so much rich¬ 
er that way; turnips, onions, we eat 
those every day in the year; white po¬ 
tatoes, mashed I think ; cranberry sauce, 
jelly is not so good, the best part is in 
the skins. I think that is vegetables 
enough. It’s a regular nuisance to serve 
so much, and people don’t want it. Sweet 
potatoes taste a good deal like squash, 
so I never have them for Thanksgiving. 
I try to cook something that goes with 
the dinner, not something you get every 
day in the week.” 
“What would you have for bread?” 
“Rolls, I think. I’ve always made a 
good many,” answered Mrs. Cook. “Now 
about dessert. I always make a plum 
pudding with hard sauce. Some people 
have Indian pudding, but we have it 
once a week anyway, so don’t want it 
for Thanksgiving. You wouldn’t need 
more than one kind of pie; miiice pie is 
too hearty to serve after such a dinner 
and tastes a good deal like plum pud¬ 
ding. I guess I'd have pumpkin pie and 
grapes, pears and nuts. I don’t believe 
anybody’d feel like eating an apple after 
a hearty dinner.” 
“Would you serve coffee?” 
“Yes, I'd have the coffee poured any 
time during the meal folks wanted it. 
They used to drink it with their meals 
but now most people sip their coffee after 
they’re all through.” 
“Now please tell me how you would 
cook all these things and how you would 
manage your work.” 
“I'd make the pudding the day before, 
that is early enough in my opinion, and 
Thanksgiving Day I want the oven for 
the turkey. I don’t care for a steamed 
pudding. I’d cook the pumpkin the day 
before and mix up the crust; a pumpkin 
pie always has a better taste if eaten the 
day it is made, and who would mind fill¬ 
ing a pie or two Thanksgiving morning? 
You know yourself it isn’t any work at 
all. The cranberry sauce could be made 
early too.” She picked up from the table 
a yellowed old note book. 
“This looks as if it had kept its cen¬ 
tennial,” she laughed. “Here is my re¬ 
cipe for soup. It is an old timer. Take 
as much soup from the stock pot as you 
need, it may be any kind, but nothing 
is nicer than chicken broth. When I 
have a fowl, I boil it (parboil) the day 
before and let it stand over night in the 
water it was coo’ ed in. That makes it 
very tender, and the water can be used 
for broth, you can roast the fowl all 
right. To the strained stock, add a large 
cup of mashed potato, season to taste 
and cook five minutes. I like to add a 
few bits of vegetable, carrots especially, 
in their season. Are you fond of car¬ 
rots?” 
round cutter. Press across the center 
with the handle of the knife, brush with 
melted butter, butter the edges slightly, 
too. Fold the rolls over, let them rise a 
while and bake brown in a hot oven. 
Now don't they sound good?” 
“They certainly do.” 
She brought out another cook book 
here; it looked nearly as old as the 
other one and was worn to holes in 
places. She continued : “I never use any 
egg in the turkey dressing. Some put 
in oysters, I never do. and I don’t like 
to use salt pork. It pays to singe the 
turkey, you know it has sort of hairs all 
over it. I like to cut the neck off short 
and get the crop out that way. I always 
bake my turkeys in a covered pan with 
a cover that shuts down tight. You don't 
have to baste it so often and the outside 
never gets hard. You have to look at 
it once in a while and haste it. you can 
steam one several hours when you can 
bake it so much quicker? This is the 
rule I use. Butter a two-quart pudding 
dish, split crackers and put in a layer 
of raisins, dot with butter and sprinkle 
with cinnamon and nutmeg, then another 
layer of crackers and continue until the 
dish is full or nearly full. I mean. You 
must remember that it swells. Have 
the last layer of crackers and dotted with 
butter. Beat two eggs light, dissolve two- 
thirds of a bowl of sugar and a scant tea¬ 
spoonful of salt in the milk, about three 
pints. Add the eggs and pour slowly 
into the dish so as not to disturb the 
layers. I fix this over night and put a 
plate on top to weight it down. Add 
more milk in the morning, if it is needed. 
Bake slowly for two or three hours. The 
sauce is one cup sugar and one-half cup 
butter creamed and an egg.” 
“How about the pumpkin pie?” 
“Well, to get the real pumpkin flavor, 
you want to cook the water all out of 
the pumpkin so it will be dry. The best 
way is to cook it on top of the stove all 
day. or you can bake it in the oven shell 
down like squash. To cook it on the 
stove, pare the pieces and cut fine and 
IIE MAY BE THANKFUL FOR GRANDMOTHER.” 
tell by looking. Try this way for the 
dressing, you'll have to judge by the 
size of the turkey how much you need. 
Use stale soft bread, baker’s bread is 
very good. Season lightly with salt, pep¬ 
per and onions and thyme. Moisten by 
tossing in hot butter "a the frying pan 
until it is brown and crisp. That is all 
you need do.” 
“Won’t that be rather dry?” 
“No. certainly not. The steam from 
the turkey will make it moist enough. 
It is very delicate. I just boil the onions 
and mash them, season with salt, pepper 
and butter, and treat the turnips the 
same. I always heat the milk for mashed 
potatoes and beat them up light, they 
look pretty dotted over with bits of but¬ 
ter. Our favorite way is to take small 
potatoes, or cut up large ones, and boil 
them in milk, watching 
won’t break. Then make 
and pour over and serve 
“That sauce would want to be pretty 
thick, wouldn’t it, so it wouldn’t run on 
the plate? And wouldn’t it be rather a 
job to watch the potatoes closely at the 
minute, when you had so much to do?” 
I asked. 
“In that case, maybe we’d better say 
mashed potato, that is always good.” 
them so they 
a white sauce 
at once.” 
steam until soft, then mash and cook 
uncovered on back of stove until the 
water is all out and it is dry and smooth. 
Have the milk hot for making the pie, 
you strain the pumpkin, of course, add 
the usual spice and egg. I always put 
a tablespoonful of molasses in each pie. 
it gives a good color and adds to the 
flavor. I always use lard in my pie 
crust. Is there anything more you want 
to know?” 
“I don’t think you told how you make 
cranberry sauce. That was extra good 
for dinner today.” 
“Well. I must tell you. We had six 
or seven quarts on our own bog this year, 
we haven’t had any for years. We would 
have had more hut the frost got there 
first. Wasn’t that too bad?” 
“It certainly was.” 
“Make the sauce like this. Put the 
cranberries in an earthen dish; no other 
kind will do. Use two cups of sugar 
to one quart of cranberries. Dover 
the dish tightly, set it on the stove 
for about 10 mniutes, anyway until the 
cranberries pop furiously. Then take 
from the fire still uncovered and set 
away. Don’t uncover them until you 
want them to eat. the steam does the 
cooking and that makes the jelly. This 
“Indeed I’m not. Sister is, father says 
he dislikes them and then eats them.” 
“Now, about my rolls. If. you follow 
these directions exactly, you’ll have love¬ 
ly rolls. You have to set them at night, 
of course, to bake them in the morning. 
Take a pint of milk scalded and cooled, 
one teaspoon salt, one tablespoon butter, 
you ought to melt this in the milk, one 
tablespoon sugar and half a yeast cake 
dissolved in one-third cup of lukewarm 
water and flour to mix. I mix this with 
a silver knife, set the dough to raise and 
in the morning roll out about three- 
eighths of an inch thick, and cut with a 
November 21, 
is the best way to cook them. I think 
that is all.” 
Miss Cook came in from her day’s 
work in school and listened for a mo¬ 
ment to our conversation. “You make 
me hungry!” she said. 
Honey As a Substitute For Sugar In 
Cooking and Preserving. 
T HE rapid advance of sugar caused 
many to consider honey as a sweet 
in the matter of cooking and preserving. 
Mr. E. R. Root of Ohio, an authority 
on bees and their products, says: “Cakes, 
cookies and household delicacies may be 
kept much longer if honey is used for 
sweetening in place of sugar or the low- 
priced syrups. This of course is due to 
a disposition in honey to absorb moist¬ 
ure.” Mr. Root says: “I could tell the 
housewives about some honey cookies, or 
honey jumbles as they were called, that 
were kept for a very long time, in fact 
so long that I am afraid the ladies would 
have trouble in believing the statement.” 
In reply to the question which would 
arise in every woman’s mind regarding 
removing the sugar requirements from 
the recipe and using honey, Mr. Root 
says: “Danger lies in eliminating sugar 
from a recipe and substituting honey. It 
is apt to result in failure if no other 
change is made. The flavor of cakes or 
cookies made with honey is somewhat 
different from sugar, and some people may 
not like the flavor quite as well, while 
others may appreciate the change. Gin¬ 
ger cookies made with honey have a very 
different flavor from those made with 
Orleans molasses, and niue out of ten 
persons consider the cookies made with 
honey in the recipe very good.” 
What about the use of a cheap pro¬ 
duct? 
“The housewife will seek to purchase 
honey as reasonably as possible. Low 
price need not indicate impurity, but it 
does mean usually that honey is darker 
in color and stronger in flavor than the 
lighter, milder honey which sells at a 
higher price. Yet because honey is dark 
in color it does not mean that it is strong 
in flavor, but it is true that strong honeys 
are usually dark in color. One should 
select for cooking a reasonable priced 
honey, and one not too strong in flavor. 
Alfalfa honey is almost always quite 
light in color, and has a minty, cinna¬ 
mon-like flavor, which makes it quite de¬ 
sirable for cooking in my way of think¬ 
ing although some get tired of the minty 
flavor while others grow suspicious and 
feel that something has been added.” 
“Is honey an efficient sweet for pre¬ 
serving?” 
“I am very enthusiastic in regard to 
the use of honey in canning fruit. It is 
more healthful than cane sugar or New 
Orleans molasses when put to any use 
for sweetening. Strawberries or peaches 
especially when put up with honey re¬ 
tain their natural color longer and ac¬ 
quire richer flavor, approaching more 
nearly the flavor of the fruit when fresh. 
One must enjoy strawberries canned with 
honey to appreciate the richer and more 
natural taste, and the brilliant red color 
instead of the usual pale brown. In our 
home we have used both sugar and honey 
in putting up, say a bushel of peaches, 
and it is true that we can pick out the 
peaches canned with the honey by the 
brighter color.” 
The housewife may wonder if the fla¬ 
vor of the honey will survive at the ex¬ 
pense of that of the fruit. Regarding 
this point Mr. Root says: “ r J»he flavor 
of fruit canned with honey is most ex¬ 
cellent. Strange as it may seem, the 
flavor of the honey is not perpetuated to 
any marked degree. There is some dif¬ 
ference, and most people consider the 
fruit so put up, richer and nicer in every 
way.” 
“You may imagine that I lived a hap¬ 
py life for a few weeks, three or four 
years ago when my wife, my brother's 
wife and our three sisters were testing 
out some recipes in which honey sup¬ 
plants the use of sugar. I insisted that 
I should have samples of everything 
made with honey, and it was indeed very 
pleasant.” 
Roderick, aged six, became incensed at 
his mother, and declared he didn’t like 
her any more. His father suggested send¬ 
ing for Uncle Sam to take her away by 
parcel post. Thou Roderick w'himpored : 
“Well, I don’t like her, but I need her.”— 
Chicago Tribune. 
