Cream the butter; beat half the sugar into the butter, the other half into the egg, and beat the two together; beat in the melted chocolate; to the chocolate left in the dish add the three teaspoonfuls of sugar and the boiling water, and stir until smooth and boiling; let chill. Add the milk to the first mixture, alternately with the flour sifted with the baking powder, cinnamon and salt, and beat in the cooled chocolate mixture. Bake in a papered and buttered pan, 71⁄2 x 11 inches, about thirty minutes.

Mix in the usual manner. Bake in a large biscuit pan. Cover with Maple Frosting.

Maple Frosting

cup maple syrup 1 tablespoonful corn

syrup

1 egg-white

Cook all the ingredients together seven minutes, in a double boiler, over actively boiling water, beating constantly, meanwhile, with a Dover egg-beater.

Inexpensive Salads

French dressing is probably the most satisfactory dressing that can be made. For variety have about a cup of dressing made with scraped onion-pulp, finechopped parsley and paprika, stored in a fruit jar. Use considerable onion, paprika and parsley. If onion flavor is agreeable to the patrons you are serving, add one or two tablespoonfuls of this dressing to such portion of plain French dressing as you are to serve. Or add one or two tablespoonfuls of tomato catsup, or chili sauce, to the French dressing. Crisp heart-leaves of lettuce make the most satisfactory foundation possible for any variety of vegetable or fruit salad. With the lettuce use: beets stuffed with chopped cucumber, string beans, lima beans (fresh or dried), molded Swiss chard leaves, spinach, beet greens, with or without hard-cooked eggs.

For special salads, try halves of raw, very ripe (or canned) pears, with cottage cheese, or cubes of Young America, or similar cheese, with mayonnaise dressing, made with mustard, paprika and a little chili sauce; or lengthwise slices of lightly cooked prunes and pecan nut meats, with French dressing, or a dressing made of whipped cream and lemon juice.

To a pint of berries, picked from the stem (or canned), add one cup of sugar, two crackers rolled fine, half a teaspoonful of salt, and the juice of half a lemon or half a teaspoonful of cloves or cinnamon, or a mixture of these. Mix thoroughly and bake with two crusts about twenty-five minutes.

QUERY NO. 3972. "Kindly advise how Rice Flour may be used."

Uses for Rice Flour

One loaf of most excellent yeast bread, white, light and puffy, may be made by the following formula.

Rice Flour in Cake

In any favorite recipe for cake, use half a cup of rice flour for one cup of the wheat flour designated in the recipe. For a white cake retain the rest of the wheat flour.

If one's desire to serve her country is of more importance than the color of the cake served, use barley or rye flour to replace the wheat flour. Keep the usual proportions of all the other ingredients. The cake will not be quite as large as when made of wheat flour, but will be light and of good texture.

Other Uses for Rice Flour

Pastry, biscuits, etc., made of barley flour, are thought to be a little better when about one-third of the content is rice flour. For use in thickening sauces, soups, etc., a small bowlful sifted several times of one-third rice and two-thirds wheat, barley or rye flour works all right; in use we fill the spoon rather more than level of the last mixture.

QUERY NO. 3973.

"Recipe for Patty Shells for serving creamed chicken, etc."

Regarding Patty Shells

At this time the shortage of fats is too great to warrant the making of patty shells. We can account for the several calls for them at this time only on the ground that "blessings brighten as they take their flight." Plain pastry made of barley and rice flour with chicken or other obtainable fat as shortening may be baked on small inverted tins and used for holding creamed chicken, fish, vegetables, etc. However, much more appropriate and really good and attractive patties may be made of mashed potato, by the recipe given on page 578 of the March number of AMERICAN COOKERY.

QUERY NO. 3974. "Why am I not successful in making Maple Mousse with 1 cup milk, 4 eggyolks, 1 cup maple syrup and 1 pint thick cream. I always have four or five cups of liquid in the bottom of the can."

Trouble with Maple Mousse

In making any mousse or parfait two mixtures of about the same density are combined. One of these is whipped cream and the other mixture, usually the one which gives the name to the dish, must be of about the same solidity, so that the two will not separate before freezing is accomplished. We see no reason why the ingredients mentioned might not be made into a satisfactory mousse; at the same time there is more liquid than is needed. If the milk is used, the syrup will have to be boiled to the soft-ball stage. The simplest way is to leave out the milk; cook the yolks in the hot syrup as in making a custard; beat occasionally until cold, then fold in the beaten cream.

We append another recipe in which by using egg-whites the quantity of cream may be cut down a little.

Maple Parfait, with Egg-Whites

Boil one cup and a fourth of maple syrup to 236° F. on the sugar thermometer, or until a soft ball may be formed of a little of the syrup dropped into cold water; pour in a fine stream on the whites of two eggs, beaten very light, beating constantly meanwhile. Set the dish into ice water and beat the meringue occasionally until cold; then fold into it one cup and a half of cream, beaten very light, but not dry. Chill a quart mold in equal measures of salt and crushed ice, pour in the mixture to fill the mold to overflow; spread a paper over the top, press the cover over it, then cover with salt and crushed ice, using equal measures of each.

This is a delicate parfait, less rich than when made with egg-yolks. When these are selected, the number must be increased to four.

QUERY NO. 3975. "Recipe for Lemon Queen Cakes, and Orange Cocoanut Jumbles."

to

until tender. Remove the cover, potatoes, add to the water left from cooking, enough scalded milk to make two cups and one half of liquid; in it dissolve one or two tablespoonfuls of shortening and add one tablespoonful of sugar or syrup, one teaspoonful of salt, and one cup of the potato, pressed through a sieve or ricer. When lukewarm, take out half a cup of the liquid, crumble into it from one-third to a whole cake of compressed yeast (one-third at night, the whole cake if mixed in the morning), mix and return to the rest of the ingredients; again mix, then stir in half a cup of barley flour with wheat flour for a dough that may be kneaded. Knead until smooth. Cover and let become light. Shape into two loaves. When again light bake about one hour.

QUERY No. 3973. "Recipes for putting up Damson plums in several ways, and canning Bartlet pears."

Damson Plum Jelly

Wipe the plums, cover them with cold. water, cover the dish and let cook until soft throughout. Drain in a bag, pressing out all the juice at the last.

If the juice is to be canned and made into jelly when needed, heat the juice to the boiling point, and pour into jars taken from boiling water. Fill the jars to overflow, then adjust the rings and covers, dipping the rings in boiling water and taking the covers from the water in which they have been sterilized. To make into jelly, boil the juice fifteen minutes, add, for one quart of juice, three cups of sugar, made hot in the oven, and let boil till the syrup "beads" when dripping from the spoon, or to about 218° F.

Damson Plum-and-Apple Jelly

Cook equal measures of apples and plums. Wipe the apples, cut in quarters, discarding all imperfect portions, then finish as Damson plum jelly.

Canned Damson Plums Wipe the plums, prick each plum in several places, to keep the skin from bursting. Make a syrup by dissolving five cups of sugar in four cups of water; in this cook as many plums as the syrup will cover. Cook the plums about six minutes, covering the saucepan, but removing the cover often to gently push the plums below the syrup. Have the jars and covers sterilized, and standing in hot water; skim plums into a jar, putting in as many as possible; fill to overflow with the boiling syrup; dip the rubber ring in boiling water, and set it in place; adjust the cover and seal at once. Cook no more plums than will fill one or two jars at a time.