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AUNT LEISURELY’S CHATS WITH HER 
ERIENDS. 
MARYLAND BISCUITS. 
One of tike advantages of reading and visiting is 
the opportunity it gives one of becoming acquainted 
with articles of cookery new to them. I believe there 
is no neighborhood but has some edible for the table 
peculiar to it, and I think it a pleasant duty to sow 
our grains of knowledge broadcast, and aid each other 
to obtain that variety so conducive to appetite. 
I do not pretend to say that the biscuits of which I 
set out to give you the recipe are anything new or 
rare. I don’t know but they may be manufactured in 
every State in the Union, but, never having seen a 
recipe for them in any book or paper, nor met with 
them in my travels through other States, either in 
hotels or private houses, I have come to the conclu¬ 
sion they are indigenous to our State, and are Mary¬ 
land biscuits and nothing else. 
I do not speak of them as possessing all the virtues, 
neither would I wish them as a standby, for I think 
nothing should take the place of sweet, wholesome, 
light bread, raised with yeast; but they are certainly 
nice for a change, convenient—being good either warm 
or cold—invaluable for sandwiches for lunch, travelling, 
picnics, &c., and will keep fresh a long time. 
But the trouble was, I could not obtain a correct re¬ 
ceipt for making them ; everybody said they were 
easily made; the main thing was to pound them well, 
as that was what made them light; but they could not 
give the exact proportions for mixing. In despair, I 
applied to an old colored woman, who made them to 
perfection, and, en passant, I will give you the result 
of our conference: 
“Aunt Dinah, will you please-tell me how you 
make your biscuit? Yours are so nice that I want 
the recipe.” 
“ Wy, bless yer heart, honey, dey’s nuffin to make; 
ole Diner don’t have no ’ceit nor nuffin, and her bixits 
is alius good.” 
“Yes, I know, Aunty; but there are some people 
have such a genius for cooking that, no matter how 
they mix anything, it always comes out right; but 
I’me not one of that kind, and I know I won’t get 
them right, unless you tell me exactly how much of 
everything to put in.” 
“ Well, honey, jest yer take a pan of flour—and it 
must be good flour, too—and a clever-sized lump o’ 
shortnin’ and a small; pinch o’ salt, and some water, 
and tote it to de bixit block, and poun’ it as if ole Nick 
hisself was in it, make dem out de size of a cake o’ 
sassage, hab yer stove ’jis so, shove ’em in, and when 
dey’s done take’em out, and dat’s all.” 
I was disappointed; hut, after all, her recipe was as 
definite as that “oh de white folks,” for all had told 
me to take a pan of flour and a lump of lard. 
Grammar informs us that “a” 
or “ an ” are the only 
weighing, and experimenting, and spoiling, I can at 
last make them as good as Aunt Diner’s, and if any 
lady tries my recipe and succeeds, I shall be gratified. 
To two pounds of flour add two ounces of lard, well 
rubbed in, one table-spoonful of salt, and enough of 
cold water to make a dry dough, (it takes about a 
pint), put the water in a little at a time, so as to be 
sure not to get it too moist. Then work the dough 
until in shape, lay it on a solid place, like a meat- 
block, and pound with the back of an axe, for half an 
hour or more ; if it cuts through the dough at every 
stroke, so much the better. When it is flattened by 
the blows, fold it up and pound again, but don’t add a 
sprinkle of flour after it is first mixed. After being 
pounded awhile it will blister, and, if you pull off a 
piece, will snap, which shows it is getting light. 
When ready to mould, do not cut them, but pull off 
pieces about the size of an egg, mould them in round 
balls, and flatten them with your hand, stick with a 
fork, and bake in a quick oven about half an hour. 
Some persons are careful not to brown them, hut I do 
not object to seeing them a little browned, aud they 
must be thoroughly halted to be good. 
The biscuit-block and pounder are as necessary to a 
Maryland kitchen, in any county below Cecil, as the 
coffee-mill; many have pounders for that particular 
purpose, made of a short bar of iron, with a long 
wooden handle; but many use an axe, and it answers 
just as well. 
I cannot say that pounding biscuits is a sovereign 
remedy for back-ache or weak wrists, but I think they 
are worth a little toil, and if I happen to see any that 
I consider better than my own, I will try to capture 
the recipe, and if it has no lumps, nor pans, nor 
pinches in it, I will share it with my Cabinet 
friends. 
indefinite articles we have, but I have found out an¬ 
other, and that is “lump ;” for, after wavering between 
one the size of a walnut and one the size of your fist, 
you are in a miserable state of indecision whether, 
after all, one the size or your head was not intended. 
So, in our recipes, dear friends, don’t let us have any 
lumps, please, for some of us are so stupid we don’t 
know how much it is. 
So, having exhausted all available sources of infor¬ 
mation, with about the same result, I set to work to 
find out by mself, and, by dint of measuring, and 
English Muffins.—I have tried several times to 
make English muffins, hut have not succeeded very 
well. If any of our Cabinet friends could tell me, 
they would greatly oblige, S. J. B. 
Salt in Sickness. —Dr. Scudder remarks ; “ I am 
satisfied that I have seen patients die from deprivation 
of common salt during a protracted illness. It is a 
common impression that the food for the sick should 
not be seasoned, and whatever slop may be given, it is 
almost innocent of this essential of life. In the milk 
diet that I recommend in sickness, common salt is used 
freely, the milk being boiled and given hot. And if 
the patient cannot take the usual quantity in his food, 
I have it given in his drink. This matter is so impor¬ 
tant that it cannot be repeated too often, or dwelt upon 
too long. The most marked example of this want of 
common salt I have ever noticed has been in surgical 
disease, especially in open wounds. Without a supply 
of salt the tongue would become broad, pallid, puffy, 
with a tenacious, pasty coat, the secretions arrested, 
the circulation feeble, the effusion at the point of in¬ 
jury serious, with an unpleasant watery pus, which at 
last becomes a mere sanies or ichor. A few days of a 
free allowance of salt would change all this, and the 
patient get along well.” 
Cottage Pudding.— Two eggs, half cup sugar, 
well beaten together, add five tablespoonfuls melted 
butter, stir well, then add cup of sweet milk, teaspoon 
of soda, two of cream of tartar, two and one-half cups 
of flour ; hake in square tins and serve with sauce 
made as follows, which is nice for almost any pudding: 
teacup of sugar, teacup of vinegar, teacup of water; 
set over the fire and when it boils add a tahlespoonful 
of flour and butter rubbed together. 
Borax used in Washing. —Quarter of a pound of 
refined borax to five gallons of water ; powder the bo¬ 
rax ; dissolve it in boiling water, in the above propor¬ 
tion, and use. It is an excellent bleacher, and may be 
used for the most delicate laces even; it also saves 
soap. A little pipe-clay dissolved in the hot water cleans 
very dirty linen with half the soap required without it. 
To remove Ironmoulds. —Wet the spot; lay it 
over a hot-water plate, or strain it over a basin with 
hot water in it; put a little salts of lemon on the spot; 
wash it as soon as the spot is removed. 
To take out Mildew. —Mix soft-soap, powdered 
starch, half as much salt, and the juice of a lemon. 
Paint both sides of the linen with a brush; put it out 
on the grass till the stain comes out. 
Cleaning Coat Collars. —Mrs. C. Montrose writes: 
“For cleaning coat collars and all woolen goods, I 
recommend the Soap-tree hark (Quillaya saponaria), 
which can he procured at the drug stores. Break a 
piece about two inches square, into small hits, and 
pour over it a half pint of boiling water; let it stand 
an hour or two, then sponge the collar well with the 
liquor; a second sponging with clear water will clean 
it nicely. Both washing and rinsing water should be 
as warm as for flannel. We have, by using this hark, 
washed black and blue Empress cloths successfully and 
have cleaned hair-cloth chairs, which had been soiled 
by contact with the head. 
Eruit Pudding. —One bowlful of nice thick cream, 
two eggs, teaspoon saleratus; mix and roll it nearly 
an inch thick, then spread with fruit and roll up and 
boil or steam in a sack for two hours. Eat with cream 
and sugar. 
Tapioca Pudding. —Put eight large spoonfuls of 
tapioca to three pints of milk and let it become milk- 
warm and soak till it becomes soft, then mix with it 
two spoonfuls of butter, three eggs, well beaten, half 
cup of sugar, half a nutmeg, and bake immediately. 
Excellent, hot or cold. 
Eor a Cough, roast a large lemon very carefully 
without burning it; when it is thoroughly hot, cut 
and squeeze it into a cup upon three ounces of pxdver- 
ized sugar; take a teaspoonful whenever your cough 
troubles you. It is as good as it is pleasant. 
Two ounces of common tobacco boiled in a gallon 
of water is used by the Chatham street dealers for ren¬ 
ovating old clothes. The stuff is rubbed on with a 
stiff brush. The goods are nicely cleaned, and, strange 
to add, no tobacco smell remains. 
Unslaked Lime is excellent for cleaning small 
steel articles, such as jewelry, buckles, and the like. 
Baked Indian Pudding. —Boil one quart of milk, 
and while boiling stir in corn meal till quite thick and 
well scalded; sweeten with molasses to taste, say one 
cup. Put in a baking dish, pour on one quart of cold 
milk, drop several pieces of butter on as many points, 
add salt, and put in the oven and bake from one and a 
half to two hours. A little experience will get it just 
right. This pudding has the merit of cheapness as 
well as ease of making, and great excellence; eaten 
without sauce, and cold or hot. 
Before washing almost any colored fabrics, soak 
them in water, to each gallon of which a spoonful of 
oxgall has been added. A teacupful of lye in a pail of 
water is said to improve the color of black goods. A 
strong tea of commou hay will improve the color of 
French linens. Vinegar in the rinsing water, for pink 
and green, will brighten those colors; and soda answers 
the same end for both purple and blue. 
