Common Sense in the Household: A Manual of Practical Housewifery

The best pieces for roasting are the sirloin and rib pieces. The latter are oftenest used by small families. Make your butcher remove most of the bone, and skewer the meat into...

One word as to the manner of roasting meats and fowls. In this day of ranges and cooking-stoves, I think I am speaking within bounds when I assume that not one housekeeper in fi...

Clean a pair of nice rabbits; soak in cold salt and water for an hour, to draw out the blood; put on in a large saucepan with cold water enough to cover them, salt slightly, and...

Boil the unsalted meat for two hours, slowly, in a covered vessel. Soak the rice in enough warm water to cover it, and at the end of this time add it, water and all, to the boil...

Cut some slices of cold underdone mutton or lamb; put them in a frying-pan with enough gravy or broth to cover them. Or, if you have neither of them, make a gravy of butter, war...

Put the fruit into a stone jar; set this in a kettle of tepid water, and put it upon the fire. Let it boil, closely covered, until the fruit is broken to pieces; strain, pressin...

Chop or grind the meat, and mix the seasoning well through it. Pack it in beef-skins (or entrails) prepared as you do those of pork. In the city, you can have these cleaned by y...

No, my dear madam! nor do you know who makes the baker’s bread, or confectioner’s cakes, creams, jellies, salads, etc. Nor, for that matter, how the flour is manufactured out of...

Some sprigs of green mint, slightly bruised in a tumbler with a teaspoon. Put in a generous teaspoonful of white sugar; add gradually, stirring and rubbing lightly, enough water...

And it is just at this juncture—when you are called to fifty points of attention and labor at once, and are on the verge of despair at the conglomeration worse conglomerated ari...

This is made of green corn and Lima beans, although you can substitute for the latter string or butter beans. Have a third more corn than beans, when the former has been cut fro...

Take a pound of salt pork, cut into strips, and soak in hot water five minutes. Cover the bottom of a pot with a layer of this. Cut four pounds of cod or sea-bass into pieces tw...

Yet it is a savory and not unwholesome article of food in winter, if the cabbage be boiled in two waters, the second being the “pot liquor” from the boiling meat. Drain thorough...

But since unlooked-for visitors will occasionally drop in upon the best regulated families, make it your study to receive them gracefully and cordially. If they care enough for...

To a cupful of cold boiled hominy (small kind) allow two cups of milk, a heaping teaspoonful of butter, a teaspoonful of white sugar, a little salt, and three eggs. Beat the egg...

4 calf’s feet, cleaned carefully. 4 quarts of water. 1 pint of wine. 3 cups of sugar—or sweeten to taste. Whites of 3 eggs, well beaten. 2 teaspoonfuls of nutmeg. Juice of 1 lem...

Having set your sponge over night, or, if you bake late in the afternoon, early in the morning, sift dry flour into a deep bread-tray, and strew a few spoonfuls of fine salt ove...

The resemblance in taste to the real _pâté de foie gras_ is remarkable, and the domestic article is popular with the lovers of that delicacy. Pigs’ livers make a very fair _pâté...

Save the cold remnants of the fish and what sauce is left until next morning. Pick out as you would cod, mix with an equal quantity of mashed potato, moisten with the sauce, or...

But it will sometimes happen that when you have heated your pitch, or swabbed your deck, or made your pudding according to the lights set before you, the result is a failure. Th...

Rub the butter into the sugar, add the beaten eggs, and work all to a creamy froth. Wet the corn-starch and put in next with the spice—finally, pour in by the spoonful the boili...

Stew the gooseberries ten minutes—very slowly, not to break them. Cut your slices of bread to fit your pudding-dish, and toast to a light brown on both sides. (Cut off all the c...

1 fine lobster, boiled and when cold picked to pieces, or two small ones. 1 cup of best salad oil. ½ cup sweet cream, whipped light to a cupful of froth. 1 lemon—the juice strai...

There is a marked difference between the corn-meal ground at the South, and that which is sent out from Northern mills. If any one doubts this, it is not she who has persevering...

“I thought you were one of the favored few who had no trouble with them,” says another housekeeper, sighingly. “There is real comfort,—excuse me, my dear Mrs. Sterling—but it is...

4 ounces butter. 1 tablespoonful flour. 2 anchovies. 1 teaspoonful chopped capers, or nasturtium seed, or green pickle. 1 shallot. Pepper and salt to taste. 1 tablespoonful vine...

Butter a deep dish, and put a layer of the chopped apple at the bottom; sprinkle with sugar, a few bits of butter, and cinnamon; cover with bread-crumbs; then more apple. Procee...

2 lbs. lean fresh beef, boiled, and when cold, chopped fine. 1 lb. beef-suet, cleared of strings and minced to powder. 5 lbs. apples, pared and chopped. 2 lbs. raisins, seeded a...

Scald the churn, and cool with ice or spring water; pour in the thick cream. Churn rather fast, until the butter-flakes, left by the dasher upon the top, show that the end to be...

1 heaping teacup of sugar. ¾ teacup of butter. ¼ teacup sweet milk. 2 eggs, well beaten. 2 teaspoonfuls cream-tartar. 1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water. Flour sufficient...

Equal weight of rind and white sugar. ½ ounce white ginger to a gallon of pickle. 1 pint vinegar to every pound of sugar. 1 tablespoonful turmeric to a gallon of pickle. Mace, c...

Cream your sugar and butter, measure milk, spices, etc., before beginning work. For fruit-cake it is best to prepare the materials the day before. Let your icing dry thoroughly...

“We go upon the practical mode of teaching, Nickleby. When a boy knows this out of book, he _goes and does it_. This is our system. What do you think of it?”—_Nicholas Nickleby._

Following this section is a collection of receipts for Cake, embracing several hundred different sorts, many of them new and original, and all carefully tested and of prime exce...

Bind the cut with cobwebs and brown sugar, pressed on like lint. _Or_, if you cannot procure these, with the fine dust of tea. When the blood ceases to flow, apply laudanum.

_Baked Puddings_ 372 Alice’s pudding 381 Apple, pudding, baked 372 —— dumplings baked 376 —— batter pudding 374 —— méringue pudding 372 —— and plum pudding 375 —— sweet pudding...

Artichokes 229 Asparagus, boiled 214 —— in ambush 215 —— and eggs 214 Beans, butter, or Lima 226 —— (_dried_) 227 —— French, string or “snap” 226 —— kidney, and other small 226...