Chapter 7

Take the yolks of 2 eggs, beat lightly, and add to them a teaspoonful cold water. Whisk in a saucepan, add a tablespoonful lemon juice, same of cream, and a little pepper and salt. Stir over slow heat till it thickens.

Egg Sauce.

Prepare white sauce as above, and when ready add one or two hard-boiled eggs, very finely minced. The sauce may be made with white stock instead of milk. A pinch cayenne and other seasoning may be added.

Celery Sauce.

Make a sauce with the water or stock in which a head of celery has been boiled. Pulp part of the finest of celery through a sieve and add.

Horse Radish Sauce.

To quantity required of white sauce, add one or two tablespoonfuls finely scraped horse radish, and the juice of a lemon or a little vinegar.

Mustard Sauce.

Add teaspoonful or more made mustard to each 1/4 pint white sauce.

Onion Sauce.

Boil 1/2 lb. or 3/4 lb. Spanish onions in milk and water till tender. Drain and make sauce with the liquor. Rub the onion through sieve and add.

Brown Sauce.

With brown stock or gravy, make a sauce in same way as white sauce. If browned flour is used the colour will be better. Add also a little Carnos or Marmite.

Hasty Brown Sauce

can also be made by using water, in which a teaspoonful Carnos or 1/2 teaspoonful Marmite to the teacupful has been dissolved, instead of the brown stock. Some mushroom ketchup is a good addition.

Sauce Piquante.

Stew some shallots in butter till quite cooked. Stir in a dessert spoonful flour and allow to brown. Add juice of a lemon and seasoning of cayenne, clove, &c., or a spoonful Worcester or other sauce, also 2 teacupfuls diluted extract or ketchup and water. Boil gently for 10 to 15 minutes, then strain.

Walnut Gravy.

This excellent sauce will be new to many, and some who, like the immortal "Mrs Todgers," are at their wit's end to provide the amount of gravy demanded, "which a whole animal, not to speak of a j'int, wouldn't do," may be glad to give it a trial. Take 2 ozs. grated walnuts. These should be run through a nut mill. Make 1 oz. butter hot in saucepan, add the walnuts and stir till very brown, but be careful not to burn. Add a tomato peeled and chopped, or a little of the juice from tinned tomatoes, a teaspoonful grated onion, and a very little flour. Mix well over the fire, and add slowly a breakfastcup brown stock or prepared Extract. Simmer gently for about 20 minutes. It may be strained or not, as preferred.

Tomato Sauce.

Peel and chop up 1/2 lb. tomatoes, or take a cupful tomato pulp. In a saucepan melt 1 oz. butter and add a little grated onion and the tomatoes. Simmer till cooked. Stir in a little flour or cornflour, and when that is cooked rub through a sieve. A little ketchup or lemon juice may be added to taste.

Mayonnaise Sauce.

Put the yolk of an egg in a basin and mix in a teaspoonful mustard and 3 or 4 tablespoonfuls salad oil, by a few drops at a time, beating all the while with a fork. Add the juice of a lemon, a little Tarragon vinegar and castor sugar, pinch cayenne, and if liked, the white of egg beat stiff, or a little cream at the last.

Mint Sauce.

Melt 1 tablespoonful castor sugar in a gill boiling water. When cold add same quantity vinegar, then 3 or 4 tablespoons freshly pulled mint, chopped small.

Curry Sauce.

Add 2 teaspoonfuls curry powder or paste and a little chutney to 1/2 pint Brown Sauce or Piquant Sauce.

Bread Sauce.

Put a teacupful fine crumbs in a basin, add a tablespoonful grated onion, and pour over 2 cupfuls white stock or milk and water. Let stand for a little with plate over, then cook gently till quite smooth. Add seasoning of white pepper, ketchup, mace, &c., and if wished very smooth add a yolk of egg or a little cream, and rub through a coarse sieve.

Sweet White Sauce.

To 1/2 pint melted butter add 2 ozs. sugar and a little of any flavouring preferred. A yolk of egg beat up is an improvement.

Cocoanut Sauce.

To above sweet white sauce add when cooking, 2 ozs. cocoanut cream. Stir till dissolved. A little dessicated cocoanut will do, but the cream is much handier and nicer, as one has the rich cocoanut flavour without the tough fibre.

Almond Sauce.

1/4 lb. fresh butter or 3 ozs. almond butter, 2 ozs. sifted sugar, 1 oz. almond meal, or same of almonds blanched and chopped, 2 tablespoons water, 2 teaspoonfuls lemon juice.

Beat butter and sugar to a cream. (It should be quite light and frothy.) Add water and lemon juice by a drop or two at a time while beating. It should look like clotted cream. Sprinkle the almonds over. Excellent with pudding or stewed fruit.

Lemon Sauce.

Make a teaspoonful cornflour smooth in saucepan with a little cold water. Add a gill of boiling water, juice of a lemon, and 2 ozs. sugar. Let boil a minute or two. If flavour of rind is liked, grate that in. Add a little Carmine to colour.

Apple Sauce.

Pare, core and mince 4 to 6 apples. Stew in jar with moist sugar and a few cloves or bit of lemon rind. Remove the latter before sending to table.

* * * * *

CARNOS THE VEGETARIAN FOOD AND MEAT SUBSTITUTE,

Is the Best Article of its kind upon the market, being an appetising wholesome extract entirely soluble and free from fat. Send 4d. in stamps for 1-oz. Sample and full particulars to

CARNOS CO., Great Grimsby, Lincs.

_N.B.--No chemicals used in the manufacture._

* * * * *

DAINTY COOKING!

Royal Pudding Mould Pure Earthenware.

Prices--1-, 1/6, 2/-, 2/6

Saucepan Brush Cleans a saucepan in a few seconds. Price 6d.

Pie Cup Price 4d. each.

NO CLOTH. NO STRING.

Opened and Closed instantly.

Water kept out; Goodness kept in.

Gourmet Boiler

Cooks Porridge, Meat, Beef Tea, Jellies, Fruit, &c.

No Stirring; No Burning; No Waste. Prices--9d., 1-, 1/3, 1/6, 1/8, 2/-, 2/3, 2/6, and upwards.

Egg Beater

For frothing Eggs and Foaming Cream Prices-- 9d., 1/-, 1/6, 2/-

Queen's Pudding Boiler

Prices--9d., 1/-, 1/6, 2/- 2/6, 3/-

Pudding Spoon

Handy to use; does its work well. Price 6d.

Stands inside any Saucepan

Egg Separator Instantly separates the white from the yolk. Price 3d. each.

Complete List Free on application to GOURMET & CO., Mount Pleasant, London, W.C.

* * * * *

THE "ARTOX" FLAVOUR

HAVE YOU HEARD OF IT?

It is that delicious, sweet, nutty flavour which you long for but seldom find. It is only to be found in

"ARTOX"

Wholemeal, which is made from the very finest wheat obtainable, carefully selected and blended, and ground by millstones in the good old fashioned way.

"ARTOX"

contains the whole of the wheat, so treated that the sharp, irritating particles of the bran, so prevalent in the ordinary meal, are rendered harmless and capable of digestion by the weakest stomach.

"ARTOX"

by a patent process is ground to such a marvellous degree of fineness that it can be used for all the purposes for which white flour is used. Therefore make all your Bread, Puddings, Cakes, Pies, and Pastry with "ARTOX." They will be much nicer, besides being more nourishing and satisfying, because "ARTOX" is a perfect natural food.

We have a dainty booklet--"Grains of Common Sense"--we should like to send you, crammed with novel and delicious recipes. It will be sent free on application.

"ARTOX" is sold by all the leading Grocers and Health Food Stores in 3 lb., 7 lb., and 14 lb. sealed linen bags, or 28 lbs. will be sent direct on receipt of P.O. for 4/6.

Send Post Card for Name and Address of Nearest Agent to

APPLEYARDS, Ld., ROTHERHAM.

* * * * *

BREAD.

One of the chief difficulties experienced by those trying to compass a complete scheme of hygienic dietary, is to get a pure, wholesome, easily digested, and, at the same time, palatable bread. We have long since exploded the idea that _whiteness_ is a test of superiority, for we know that this is attained by excluding the most wholesome and nutritious part of the wheat and by the use of chemicals. Even when we use brown bread, we are by no means sure of having a wholemeal loaf, for it is as often as not merely the ordinary flour with some bran mixed in. And bran is only one part--by no means the most important--of that in which the meal is lacking. We want to get as much as possible of the real "_germ_," the essential part of the grain, but I am informed by experts, that the process of drying and preparing this germ meal is so much more troublesome, and, in consequence, expensive, that the easier and cheaper method is that generally adopted. But, if we want a really good thing we must be willing to pay for it, and by creating a demand for the superior article make it worth while to manufacture it, and it were poor economy to save on the bread bill at the expense of health. It is well to know exactly what constitutes a really wholesome bread, for bakers and purveyors everywhere are ready to meet their customers' wishes. But if people are ignorant or unreasonable enough to demand a light-coloured, puffy loaf, when a pure whole-wheat loaf is rather dark and solid looking, they must be prepared to find that they are served with what pleases their taste, and to take the risks. Some may like to try baking their bread at home, and it may interest them to know that it is possible to make very good wheaten bread without any raising ingredients whatever, simply with wheatmeal and water, aerating it by beating air into it. This is best managed by the home baker in the form of

Wheatmeal Gems.

There are sets of thick iron gem pans to be had, which are very good for this purpose, but one can manage quite well with oven-plates made of sheet-iron or black steel.

Into a large basin put 2 cupfuls of the coldest water procurable. Aerate by pouring from one vessel to another several times, or by whipping up with a spoon or spatula. Take 4 cupfuls whole meal, and pass several times through a sieve. Sprinkle the meal into the water a little at a time, whipping vigorously all the while till about three-fourths are worked in, and continue whisking from 20 to 30 minutes till the mixture is full of air bubbles. Sprinkle in the rest of the wheatmeal and mix thoroughly. Meanwhile, see that the oven is very hot, as a strong steady heat is necessary. Make the gem pans or oven-plates also very hot and grease lightly. Half fill the pans and put at once in oven, so that the moist air may be as quickly as possible converted into steam, and thus puff up the bread. If oven-plates are used, put dessertspoonfuls some distance apart on these and put in oven. If the oven is hot enough, a crust will at once form, and the steam trying to force its way out will send them up like puff balls. Moderate the heat, if possible after 10 or 15 minutes, and allow to bake for about 30 minutes longer. It is very easy to regulate the heat if a gas stove is used; if a range, put on some small coal. When baked turn out on a sieve, and when quite cold split open and toast on the inside.

Another excellent kind of bread, which can be managed quite easily with a little trouble and practice, is raised with eggs. It is generally known as

Wallace Egg Bread,

and as I have the recipe direct from Mrs C. Leigh Hunt Wallace, the inventor of this kind of bread, I am able to pass it on at first hand.

Ten ounces wheatmeal, 1 large egg (weighing 2 ozs.), 1 gill milk and 1 gill water, the whole to be made into a batter, the white of egg being beaten separately to a stiff froth and incorporated with the batter very thoroughly but very quickly; the whole to be baked in 1 lb. cake or loaf tin, the tin being very hot and thoroughly oiled or buttered before the batter is turned into it. Put for 50 minutes in a very hot part of the oven (350 degrees to 380 degrees fahr.) and keep in another 50 minutes to soak. I can vouch for the excellence of this bread, and may say that I have managed it with very little difficulty. I use a gas oven and loaf pans made of black steel, as these take and retain the heat much better than tins. If any amateur, however, is doubtful as to how this loaf should be, she cannot do better than send for a sample loaf or two to the Wallace Bakery, 465 Battersea Park Road, London, S.W. There is also a depot in Edinburgh--Messrs Richards & Co., 7 Dundas Street, where these can be got. By comparing one's own achievements with these, one will be the better able to attain the desired result. In case any may think this egg bread sounds expensive, I may say that it is exceedingly economical to use; a small loaf going much farther than a large one of the ordinary puffed-up kind.

PASTRY.

"'Meat for Repentance'--Pork pies for supper--or otherwise!"

Short Crust.

Take 1/2 lb. flour, mix with it 1/2 teaspoonful baking powder and put two or three times through a sieve. Rub in 4 ozs. butter. If vegetable butter is used, 3 ozs. will do, as it contains much less water. Beat up an egg. Add a teaspoonful lemon juice to the flour, &c., nearly the whole of the egg, and mix into a very dry paste with cold water. The mixing is best done with a knife. Turn out on floured board and form into an oblong piece, still using a broad knife as much as possible. Roll out evenly a good deal larger than the dish to be covered, and cut off a piece all round, leaving it the exact size and shape. Wet the edges of the dish, put a band of paste on. Wet that again, and lay on the cover. Make the edges neat with a knife or pastry cutter. Brush over with egg and bake in very hot oven for thirty to forty minutes. If used for covering a fruit tart, dust over with sifted sugar before serving.

Rough Puff Paste.

Take same quantities as for short crust. Divide butter into pieces on floured board and flatten with the rolling-pin--a stoneware bottle, by the way, is much better than a wooden rolling-pin. Put the butter with the flour and mix as before with egg, lemon juice and water. Turn out on floured board, make into a neat, oblong shape, beat down with rolling-pin and roll out very evenly to about 1/8-inch thickness. Dust with flour and fold in three, turn half round so as to have open end in front of one, and roll out as before. Repeat this until it has got 4 turns, taking care to keep the edges as even as possible, and for the last time roll out a good deal larger than the dish. Put a band of paste on the dish, wet this and lay on the cover. Flute the edges neatly. Brush over with egg. Cut the trimmings of paste into leaves, &c., and decorate the pie, putting a rose in the centre. Brush these also with egg. Make one or two slits to let out the steam, and bake in hot oven. The oven should be made very hot _before_ the pastry is put in, and then the heat should be moderated. This can of course be managed best with a gas oven.

This rough puff paste is very suitable for small sausage rolls. Roll out for last time quite square. Divide into nine equal squares, put a small quantity of sausage meat on centre, wet edges and press together. Brush over with egg and bake. Remember never to brush the edges with egg, as that would stick them together and prevent rising.

Rich Puff Paste

suitable for patties, vol-au-vent, &c., is made as above, but with 6 ozs. butter to 8 ozs. flour. For patties leave the paste at last rolling out 1/2 inch thick. Stamp out into rounds with lid or biscuit-cutter, about 2-1/2" or 3" diameter, and with a smaller cutter mark about half-way through the paste. Brush with egg and put on oven-plate. See that the oven is specially hot, and yet regulated so that the pastry will not scorch before thoroughly risen, as the oven door must not be opened for fifteen to twenty minutes after putting in. They should rise to three or four times the thickness of the paste. Allow to bake some time longer, remove from oven, and with a sharp-pointed knife remove the centre lid. Fill in with the mushrooms, tomatoes, &c., replace top, and make very hot again before using.

Vol-au-Vent

is done exactly in same way, only all in one. Cut out the whole of the paste round, oval or square, and with a sharp-pointed knife mark half-way through all round about an inch from the edge. Bake as for patties, but the larger piece of pastry will require longer to bake through and through. Remove lid carefully, put in filling and replace lid.

Raised Pie Crust.

This paste is most wholesome and economical. For a good-sized pie take 3/4lb. flour and 3 ozs. butter or Nut Butter. Put the flour in a basin. Bring the butter to boiling point with a teacupful water. Pour in among the flour, stirring all the time till thoroughly mixed, then knead well. When nearly cold take off about a third and make the rest into a ball, flatten and work up by hand till the case is about 2-1/2 inches high, and slightly narrower at the top--Melton-Mowbray shape. Slip on to greased oven-plate, and when quite firm, fill rather more than half-full with haricots, tomatoes, &c. Roll out the bit of paste remaining, cut out lid, wet the edges of it and the pie-case and pinch together. Brush all over with egg. Ornament with the trimmings, brush again and bake in good steady oven for at least three-quarters of an hour. When ready, pour in some more gravy, or if to be used cold, some dissolved savoury jelly.

Should there be difficulty at first in raising this entirely by hand, it might be moulded round a jar or round tin. Another way is to use a tart ring, but a very simple and handy way, which finds favour especially with children, is to make bridies. Divide the paste into ten or twelve pieces. Roll out a nice oval, put some savoury mixture on one half, wet edges with egg or water, press together and pinch into neat flutes, brush over with egg and bake.

Suet Paste.

Allow 3 ozs. vegetable suet to 8 ozs. flour. Chop the suet or run through nut-mill. Add to flour along with salt and pepper, and if liked, a little grated onion and chopped parsley. Make into a firm paste with water, which may have a little ketchup or "Extract" diluted in it.

This is, of course, for savoury pies, &c. If for sweet dishes--roly-poly, apple dumpling, &c.--omit all seasonings and add sugar and any flavouring preferred, such as clove, ginger, or cinnamon.

CAKES, SCONES, &c.

Only a few cakes, &c., are given here, as there are a number of excellent ones among the contributed recipes in last section, under heading of Bazaar contributions, and, besides, there is nothing about them peculiar to food reformers. Those who are studying wholesomeness and digestibility, however, will avoid as far as possible the use of chemicals for raising, and fats of doubtful purity such as hog's lard. The injurious character of carbonate of soda, tartaric acid, &c., if used at all to excess, is now fully recognised, and those whose health is not quite normal should avoid them entirely. When such cannot be dispensed with, use very sparingly and in the exact quantities and proportions of acid and alkali, which will neutralise each other by converting into a gas which passes off in baking, if the oven, &c., is all right. But the latter point is rather a big and very essential "if," and many cooks try to make up for deficiencies in mixing and firing, by putting in an extra allowance of baking powder. There is considerable diversity of opinion still as to the exact nature and place of these chemicals in the economy of the body, and where "doctors differ" the amateur cook or hygienist dare hardly dogmatise, but all are agreed that the slightest excess is hurtful. Cakes, scones, pastry and the like, should depend rather for lightness upon cool, deft handling, and skilful management of the various details which contribute to successful baking.

A fine essential is to have good, reliable flour. See that it is perfectly dry, and pass several times through a fine sieve to aerate and loosen it. Try to bake in a cool, airy place, and be provided with all the necessary tools for accomplishing the work in expert and expeditious fashion, for the success of many things depends upon the celerity with which the process is performed. Have the oven at just the right heat, at the right time. A cake which would otherwise be excellent may be heavy or tough by having to wait till the oven cools down or heats up to the proper temperature. With a gas oven, one can regulate at will, and a safe general rule is to have the oven thoroughly hot _before_ the cakes are put in, and then to moderate the heat very considerably. With a coal fire, if the oven is too hot, put on a quantity of small coal.

Artox Gingerbread.

One and a half pounds Artox wholemeal, 10 oz. golden syrup, 9 oz. butter, 4 oz. sugar, 1/2 oz. carbonate of soda, 1/2 oz. ginger, 2 eggs, little milk. Cream together the butter and sugar, add the eggs, well beaten, and the syrup, stir until dissolved. Add the Artox wholemeal with the soda and ginger previously sifted in, and a little milk if necessary, to make a stiff batter. Put into greased tins, and bake in a moderate oven.

Artox Seed Cake.

Beat 10 ozs. of fresh butter to a cream, add 6 ozs. sugar and beat into the butter. Separate yokes and whites of 4 eggs and beat each mass separately. Then mix well with the butter and sugar, adding the yokes first and the whites last. Add 1 teaspoonful carraway seeds and 10 ozs. Artox wholemeal. Mix thoroughly, put into butter papered tins and bake in a quick oven.

Artox Shortbread.

One and a quarter pounds Artox wholemeal, 10 ozs. butter, 4 ozs. sugar, 1 egg, 1/4 oz. baking powder. Rub the Artox wholemeal, sugar, and butter together, add the baking powder, and make into a stiff paste with the egg. Mould it into cakes, crimp the edges, and bake in a moderate oven.

French Layer Cake.

1/4 lb. butter or fine nut butter. Four eggs, 1/2 lb. flour, 6 ozs. fine sugar, 1/2 teaspoonful baking powder, 1/2 teaspoonful essence vanilla, 4 ozs. grated chocolate, 2 ozs. icing sugar.

Butter 3 sandwich tins. Dissolve 1 oz. chocolate in pan, with 1 tablespoonful milk, over the fire. Beat butter and sugar to a cream. Beat up eggs very light, laying aside one white for icing, and add. Sift flour and baking powder, and mix in, then flavouring. Put a third in one tin, another in pan with chocolate, and put a few drops carmine in that left in bowl. Put these into the different tins and place at once in hot oven. They should be ready in 10 minutes. Put remaining chocolate with the icing sugar in pan with a tablespoonful water. Boil a minute with constant stirring. Turn out cakes on a towel. Put half of chocolate mixture on one, put another on the top, then the rest of chocolate, and, last, the third cake. Coat with the following

Icing.

Beat up white of 1 egg till quite stiff. Mix in 6 ozs. icing sugar. Put on very smoothly with a broad knife dipped in water. Sprinkle over with grated cocoanut, or decorate with pink icing put through a forcing-bag.

Cocoanut Icing

might be used instead. Dissolve about one fourth of a square of cocoanut cream with a little boiling water. When cool mix thoroughly with half of the above icing.

Gingerbread.

1/2-lb. flour, 1 oz. good cocoanut butter, 1 oz. sugar, and same of syrup or treacle--if the latter use more sugar. Two ozs. stoned raisins or sultanas, 1 teaspoonful ground ginger, and same of mixed spice. Half teaspoonful baking powder. One egg.

Mix all the dry things. Rub in butter, then add syrup, fruit, and egg, and make into a thick batter with milk. Bake in moderate oven half-an-hour or longer. Very good, if made with half wheatmeal, or a proportion of oatmeal or rolled oats.

Jumbles.

1/2-lb. flour, 1/4 lb. butter, 2 ozs. sifted sugar, 1 egg. Pinch baking powder. Beat butter and sugar to a cream, add egg, well beaten, then flour, &c. Knead into a stiff paste, divide into 12 or more pieces, and roll out pipe-wise with the hands, about a foot long. Curl round, or form into letters, &c. Lay on floured oven plate. Brush with egg. Sprinkle with sugar, and bake 15 minutes in hot oven.

Orange Rock Cakes.