258 LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF EVERYTHING. 1349. LASTLY, THE BEDSTEAD must not be placed too low on the floor; nor is it proper to let children sleep on a couch which is made without any elevation from the ground; because the most mephitic and pernicious stratum of air in an apartment is that within one or two feet from the floor, while the most wholesome, or atmospheric air, is in the middle of the room, and the inflammable gas ascends to the top. 1850. Cookery for Children. 1851. FOOD FOR AN INFANT.-Take of fresh cow's milk, one tablespoonful, and mix with two tablespoonfuls of hot water; sweeten with loaf sugar, as much as may be agreeable. This quantity is sufficient for once feeding a newborn infant; and the same quantity may be given every two or three hours, -not oftener,-till the mother's breast affords natural nourishment. 1852. MILK FOR INFANTS SIX MONTHS OLD.-Take one pint of milk, one pint of water; boil it, and add one tablespoonful of flour. Dissolve the flour first in half a teacupful of water; it must be strained in gradually, and boiled hard twenty minutes. As the child grows older, one-third water. If properly made, it is the most nutritious, at the same time the most delicate food that can be given to young children. 1853. BROTH, made of lamb or chicken, with stale bread toasted, and broken in, is safe and wholesome for the dinners of children when first weaned. 1854. MILK, fresh from the cow, with a very little loaf sugar, is good and safe food for young children. From three years old to seven, pure milk, into which stale bread is crumbled, is the best breakfast and supper for a child. into a quart of milk, then stir it quickly into a quart of boiling water, and bol it up a few minutes till it is thickened: sweeten with sugar. Oatmeal, where it is found to agree with the stomach, is much better for children, being a mild aperient as well as cleanser; fine flour in every shape is the reverse. Where biscuit-powder is in use, let it be made at home; this, at all events, will prevent them getting the sweepings of the baker's counters, boxes, and baskets. All the waste bread in the nursery, hard ends of stale loaves, &c., ought to be dried in the oven or screen, and reduced to powder in the mortar. 1857. MEATS FOR CHILDREN.Mutton, lamb, and poultry are the best. Birds and the white meat of fowls are the most delicate food of this kind that can be given. These meats should be slowly cooked, and no gravy, if made rich with butter, should be eaten by a young child. Never give children hard, tough, half-cooked meats, of any kind. 1858. VEGETABLES FOR CHILDREN. --EGGS, &c.-Their rice ought to be cooked in no more water than is necessary to swell it; their apples roasted, or stewed with no more water than is necessary to steam them; their vegetables so well cooked as to make them require little butter, and less digestion; their eggs boiled slowly and soft. The boiling of their milk ought to be directed by the state of their bowels; if flatulent or bilious, a very little currypowder may be given in their vegetables with good effect. Turmeric and the warm seeds (not hot peppers) are also particularly useful in such cases. 1859. POTATOES AND PEAS.-Potatoes, particularly some kinds, are not easily digested by children; but this may be remedied by mashing them very fine, and seasoning them with sugar and a little milk. When peas are dressed for children, let them be seasoned with mint and sugar, which will take off the flatulency. If they are old, let them be pulped, as the skins are perfectly indigestible by children's stomachs. Never JOY OFTEN COMES AFTER SORROW, LIKE MORNING AFTER NIGHT. 259 give them vegetables less stewed than would pulp through a cullender. 1860. RICE PUDDING WITH FRUIT. —In a pint of new milk put two large spoonfuls of rice, well washed; then add two apples, pared and quartered, or a few currants or raisins. Simmer slowly till the rice is very soft, then add one egg beaten, to bind it: serve with cream and sugar. 1861. PUDDINGS AND PANCAKES FOR CHILDREN.-Sugar and egg, browned before the fire, or dropped as fritters into a hot frying-pan, without fat, will make a nourishing meal. 1862. To PREPARE FRUIT FOR CHILDREN.-A far more wholesome way than in pies or puddings, is to put apples sliced, or plums, currants, gooseberries, &c., into a stone jar, and sprinkle among them as much sugar as necessary. Set the jar in an oven on a hearth, with a teacupful of water to prevent the fruit from burning; or put the jar into a saucepan of water till its contents be perfectly done. Slices of bread or some rice may be put into the jar, to eat with the fruit. 1863. RICE AND APPLES.-Core as many nice apples as will fill the dish; boil them in light syrup; prepare a quarter of a pound of rice in milk with sugar and salt; put some of the rice in the dish, put in the apples, and fill up the intervals with rice; bake it in the oven till it is a fine colour. 1864. A NICE APPLE CAKE FOR CHILDREN. Grate some stale bread, and slice about double the quantity of apples; butter a mould, and line it with sugar paste, and strew in some crumbs, mixed with a little sugar; then lay in apples, with a few bits of butter over them, and so continue till the dish is full; cover it with crumbs, or prepared rice; season with cinnamon and sugar. Bake it well. 1865. FRUITS FOR CHILDREN. That fruits are naturally healthy in their season, if rightly taken, no one who believes that the Creator is a kind and beneficent Being can doubt. And yet the use of summer fruits appears often to cause most fatal diseases, especially in children. Why is this? Because we do not conform to the natural laws in using this kind of diet. These laws are very simple, and easy to understand. Let the fruit be ripe when you eat it; and eat when you require food. Fruits that have seeds are much more wholesome than the stone fruits. But all fruits are better, for very young children, if baked or cooked in some manner, and eaten with bread. The French always eat bread with raw fruit. Apples and winter pears are very excellent food for children,-indeed, for almost any person in health, but best when eaten for breakfast or dinner. If taken late in the evening, fruit often proves injurious. The old saying, that apples are gold in the morning, silver at noon, and lead at night, is pretty near the truth. Both apples and pears are often good and nutritious when baked or stewed, for those delicate constitutions that cannot bear raw fruit. Much of the fruit gathered when unripe might be rendered fit for food by preserving in sugar. 1866. RIPE CURRANTS are excellent food for children. Mash the fruit, sprinkle with sugar, and with good bread let them eat of this fruit freely. 1867. BLACKBERRY JAM.-Gather the fruit in dry weather; allow half a pound of good brown sugar to every pound of fruit; boil the whole together gently for an hour, or till the blackberries are soft, stirring and mashing them well. Preserve it like any other jam, and it will be found very useful in families, particularly for children, regulating their bowels, and enabling you to dispense with cathartics. It may be spread on bread, or on puddings, instead of butter and even when the blackberries are bought, it is cheaper than butter. In the country every family should preserve at least half a peck of blackberries. 1868. TO MAKE SENNA AND MANNA PALATABLE.-Take half an ounce, when mixed, senna and manna; put in half 262 A GOOD WORD IS AS SOON SAID AS AN ILL ONE. milk, one pint, or twenty ounces: bake one hour in a quick oven. 1881. NICE PLUM CAKE.-Take of flour one pound; bicarbonate of soda, quarter of an ounce; butter, six ounces; loaf sugar, six ounces; currants, six ounces; three eggs; milk, about four ounces; bake for one hour and a half in a tin or pan. 1882. LEMON BUNS.-Take of flour one pound; bicarbonate of soda, three drachms; muriatic acid, three drachms; butter, four ounces; loaf sugar, four ounces; one egg; essence of lemon, six or eight drops: make into twenty buns, and bake in a quick oven for fifteen minutes. 1883. SODA CAKE.-Take of flour half a pound; bicarbonate of soda, two drachms; tartaric acid, two drachms; butter, four ounces; white sugar, two ounces; currants, four ounces; two eggs; warm milk, half a teacupful. 1884. EXCELLENT BISCUITS.-Take of flour two pounds; carbonate of ammonia, three drachms, in fine powder; white sugar, four ounces; arrowroot, one ounce; butter, four ounces; one egg mix into a stiff paste with new milk, and beat them well with a rollingpin for half an hour; roll out thin, and cut them out with a docker, and bake in a quick oven for fifteen minutes. 1885. WINE BISCUITS.-Take of flour half a pound; butter, four ounces; sugar, four ounces; two eggs; carbonate of ammonia, one drachm; white wine, enough to mix to a proper consistence. Cut out with a glass. 1886. GINGER CAKES.-To two pounds of flour add three quarters of a pound of good moist sugar, one ounce best Jamaica ginger well mixed in the flour; have ready three quarters of a pound of lard, melted, and four eggs well beaten : mix the lard and eggs together, and stir into the flour, which will form a paste; roll out in thin cakes, and bake in a moderately heated oven. Lemon biscuits may be made in a similar way, by substituting essence of lemon for ginger. 1887. Sponge Cake.-A lady favours us with the following simple receipt, which, she says, gives less trouble than any other, and has never been known to fail:-Take five eggs, and half a pound of loaf sugar, sifted; break the eggs upon the sugar, and beat all together with a steel fork for half an hour. Previously take the weight of two eggs and a half, in their shells, of flour. After you have beaten the eggs and sugar the time specified, grate in the rind of a lemon (the juice may be added at pleasure), stir in the flour, and immediately pour it into a tin lined with buttered paper, and let it be instantly put into rather a cool oven. 1888. Sponge Cake.--Take equal weight of eggs and sugar; half their weight in sifted flour; to twelve eggs add the grated rind of three lemons, and the juice of two. Beat the eggs carefully, white and yolks separately, before they are used. Stir the materials thoroughly together, and bake in a quick oven. 1889. Almond Sponge Cake is made by adding blanched almonds to the above. 1890. Yule Cake. Take one pound of fresh butter; one pound of sugar; one pound and a half of flour; two pounds of currants; a glass of brandy; one pound of sweetmeats; two ounces of sweet almonds; ten eggs; a quarter of an ounce of allspice; and a quarter of an ounce of cinnamon. Melt the butter to a cream, and put in the sugar. Stir it till quite light, adding the allspice and pounded cinnamon; in a quarter of an hour, take the yolks of the eggs, and work them two or three at a time; and the whites of the same must by this time be beaten into a strong snow, quite ready to work in. As the paste must not stand to chill the butter, or it will be heavy, work in the whites gradually, then add the orange peel, lemon, and citron, cut in fine strips, and the currants, which must be mixed in well, with the sweet almonds; then add the sifted flour and glass of brandy. Bake this cake in a tin hoop, in a hot oven, for three hours, and put twelve ONE KIND WORD MAY TURN ASIDE A TORRENT OF ANGER. sheets of paper under it to keep it from burning. 1891. Cake of Mixed Fruits.Extract the juice from red currants by simmering them very gently for a few minutes over a slow fire; strain it through folded muslin, and to one pound of the juice add a pound and a half of nonsuches, or of freshly gathered apples, pared, and rather deeply cored, that the fibrous part may be avoided. Boil these quite slowly until the mixture is perfectly smooth; then, to evaporate part of the moisture, let the boiling be quickened. In from twenty-five to thirty minutes, draw the pan from the fire, and throw in gradually a pound and a quarter of sugar in fine powder; mix it well with the fruit, and when it is dissolved, continue the boiling rapidly for twenty minutes longer, keeping the mixture constantly stirred; put it into a mould, and store it, when cold, for winter use, or serve it for dessert, or for the second course; in the latter case, decorate it with spikes of almonds, blanched, and heap solid whipped cream round it, or pour a custard into the dish. For dessert, it may be garnished with dice of the palest apple jelly.— Juice of red currants, one pound; apples (pared and cored), one pound and a halftwenty-five to thirty minutes. Sugar, one pound and a half-twenty minutes. 1892. Banbury Cakes.-Roll out the paste about half an inch thick, and cut it into pieces; then roll again till each piece becomes twice the size; put some Banbury meat in the middle of one side; fold the other over it, and pinch it up into a somewhat oval shape; flatten it with your hand at the top, letting the seam be quite at the bottom; rub the tops over with the white of an egg, laid on with a brush, and dust loaf sugar over them: bake in a moderate oven. The meat for this cake is made thus:-Beat up a quarter of a pound of butter until it becomes in the state of cream; then mix with it half a pound of candied orange and lemon peel, cut fine; one pound of curnts; a quarter of an ounce of ground 263 cinnamon; and a quarter of an ounce of allspice: mix all well together, and keep in a jar till wanted for use. 1893. Bath Buns.-A quarter of a pound of flour; four yolks and three whites of eggs, with four spoonfuls of solid fresh yeast. Beat in a bowl, and set before the fire to rise; then rub into one pound of flour ten ounces of butter; put in half a pound of sugar, and carraway comfits; when the eggs and yeast are pretty light, mix by degrees all together; throw a cloth over it, and set before the fire to rise. Mako the buns, and when on the tins, brush over with the yolk of egg and milk; strew them with carraway comfits; bake in a quick oven. 1894. Belvidere Cakes, for Breakfast or Tea.-Take a quart of flour; four eggs; a piece of butter the size of an egg; a piece of lard the same size: mix the butter and lard well in the flour; beat the eggs light in a pint bowl, and fill it up with cold milk; then pour it gradually into the flour; add a teaspoonful of salt; work it for eight or ten minutes only: cut the dough with a knife the size you wish it; roll them into cakes about the size of a breakfast plate, and bake in a quick oven. 1895. To Make Gingerbread Cake.-Take one pound and a half of treacle; one and a half ounces of ground ginger; half an ounce of carraway seeds; two ounces of allspice; four ounces of orange peel, shred fine; half a pound of sweet butter; six ounces of blanched almonds; one pound of honey; and one and a half ounces of carbonate of soda; with as much fine flour as makes a dough of moderate consistence. Directions for making.-Make a pit in five pounds of flour; then pour in the treacle, and all the other ingredients, creaming the butter; then mix them all together into a dough; work it well; then put in three quarters of an ounce of tartaric acid, and put the dough into a buttered pan, and bake for two hours in a cool oven. To know when it is ready, dip a fork into it, and if it comes 260 A SMALL TEAR RELIEVES A GREAT SORROW. plan. 1872. GINGERBREAD SNAPS.—One pound of flour, half a pound of treacle, half a pound of sugar, quarter of a pound of butter, half an ounce of best prepared ginger, sixteen drops of essence of lemon, potash the size of a nut dissolved in a tablespoonful of hot water. This has been used in my wife's family for thirty years. a pint of boiling water; when the teaspoonful of carbonate of soda. The strength is abstracted, pour into the above is excellent. The cakes are alliquid from a quarter to half a pound ways baked in a common earthen of prunes and two large tablespoonfuls flower-pot saucer, which is a very good of West India molasses. Stew slowly until the liquid is nearly absorbed. When cold it can be eaten with bread and butter, without detecting the senna, and is excellent for children when costive. 1869. Discipline of Children. -Children should not be allowed to ask for the same thing twice. This may be accomplished by parents, teacher, or whoever may happen to have the management of them, paying attention to their little wants, if proper, at once, when possible. Children of a pound of pounded lump sugar, should be instructed to understand that when they are not answered immediately, it is because it is not convenient. Let them learn patience by waiting. 1870. My Wife's Little Tea Parties. My wife is celebrated for her little tea parties,—not tea parties alone, but dinner parties, pic-nic parties, music parties, supper parties-in fact, she is the life and soul of ALL PARTIES, which is more than any leading politician of the day can boast. But her great forte is her little tea parties-praised and enjoyed by everybody. A constant visitor at these little parties is Mrs. Hitching (spoken of elsewhere), and she remarks that she "never knew hany one who understood the hart of bringing so many helegancies together" as my wife. Nobody makes tea like her, and how she makes it she will impart at a future time. But for her little "nick-nacks," as she calls them, which give a variety and a charm to the tea table, without trenching too deeply upon our own pocket, she has been kind enough to give a few receipts upon the present occasion. 1873. DROP CAKES.-One pint of flour, half a pound of butter, quarter half a nutmeg grated, a handful of currants, two eggs, and a large pinch of carbonate of soda, or volatile salts. To be baked in a slack oven for ten minutes or a quarter of an hour. The above quantity will make about thirty excellent cakes. 1874. A VERY NICE AND CHEAP CAKE.-Two pounds and a half of flour, three quarters of a pound of sugar, three quarters of a pound of butter, half a pound of currants or quarter of a pound of raisins, quarter of a pound of orange peel, two ounces of carraway seeds, half an ounce of ground cinnamon or ginger, four teaspoonfuls of carbonate of soda; mixed well, with rather better than a pint of new milk. The butter must be well melted previous to being mixed with the ingredients. 1875. "JERSEY WONDERS."-The oddity of these "wonders" consists solely in the manner of cooking, and the shape consequent. Take two pounds of flour, six ounces of butter, six ounces of white sugar, a little nutmeg, ground ginger, and lemon peel; beat eight eggs, and knead them all well together; a taste of brandy will be an improvement. Roll them about the thickness of your wrist; cut off a small slice, and roll it into an oval, about four inches long and three inches wide, not too thin; cut two slits in it, but not trough either end, there will then be three |