MEAT PIE
Put a layer of cold roast beef or other bits of meat, chopped very fine, in bottom of dish, and season with pepper and salt, then a layer of powdered crackers, with bits of butter and a little milk, and thus place alternate layers until dish is full; wet well with gravy or broth, or a little warm water; spread over all a thick layer of crackers which have been seasoned with salt and mixed with milk and a beaten egg or two; stick bits of butter thickly over it, cover with a tin pan, and bake half to three-quarters of an hour; remove cover ten minutes before serving, and brown. Make moister if of veal. Or, another way of making the pie is to cover any bits or bones, rejected in chopping, with nearly a pint of cold water, and let them simmer for an hour or more; strain and add a chopped onion, three tablespoons Chili-sauce, a level table-spoon of salt, and the chopped meat; let simmer a few minutes, thicken with a table-spoon of flour mixed in water, let boil once, take off and let cool; put a layer of this in a pudding-dish, then a layer of sliced hard-boiled eggs and a few slices from cold boiled potatoes, then the rest of the meat, then eggs, etc.; cover with pie-crust or a baking-powder crust, make an opening in the center, and bake forty minutes.
TO STUFF A HAM, wash and scrape the skin till very white, cut out a piece from thick part (use for frying), leaving the skin on the ham as far as possible, as it makes a casing for the stuffing; put in a boiler and steam for three hours; take out and score in thin slices all around the skin; fill the space cut out with a stuffing made of bread-crumbs, same as for poultry, only not quite so rich, seasoned rather highly with pepper and sage; wrap around a strip of cotton cloth to keep in place, and bake in the stove one and a half hours, turning so as to brown all sides nicely. The last half hour sift lightly with powdered sugar and cinnamon. (Some peel off the skin after steaming, stuff and roast as before.) What remains after once serving is delicious sliced down cold. The first we ever ate was at a thanksgiving dinner, cooked in a Southern kitchen, by an old-fashioned fire-place, in an iron bake-oven, and the savory flavor lingers still in our memory. Nicely cured boiled ham is a never-failing source of supply, from which quite a variety of dishes may be prepared. GRATED HAM is one of the nicest relishes for supper or lunch, or for sandwiches. Cut a good-sized piece from the thickest portion of a boiled ham, trim off the fat, grate the lean part, and put in the center of a platter; slice some tiny slips of the fat and place around the edge, together with some tender hearts of lettuce-heads, and serve for supper or lunch.
To economize the scraps left from boiled ham, chop fine, add some of the fat also chopped, and put in a baking-plate, first a layer of bread-crumbs, then a layer of mixed fat and lean, then another layer of crumbs, and so on till all is used, putting a few bits of fat over the top; pour over it a little water, or a dressing of some kind, and set in oven till a nice brown. This is delicious for breakfast, or for a "picked up dinner," after having made a soup from the bone, well cracked and simmered for three hours with a few sliced potatoes and rice, or dried corn and beans which have first been soaked and parboiled. In boiling hams, always select an old ham; for broiling, one recently cured. After boiling and skinning a ham, sprinkle well with sugar and brown in oven.
THE CARE OF FAT AND DRIPPINGS is as necessary in any family as the care of last year's garden seeds or the "Family Record." Especially when much meat is used, there is a constant accumulation of trimmings of fat, drippings from meats, etc., which should be tried out once in two or three days in summer-in winter once a week will do. The fat which rises after boiling beef, pork, and poultry, is used for shortening or frying. Cut up in small pieces, put in skillet, cover, try out slowly, stir occasionally, and skim well; add the cakes of fat saved from the top of meat liquor, slice a raw potato and cook in it to clarify it (some add a pinch of soda), strain all the clear part into a tin can or stone jar, or pour over drippings a quart of boiling water and strain through muslin or a fine sieve, let cool, take out the cake which forms on the top, scrape the refuse from the bottom, pour again into a skillet and heat until all the water is out, then pour into a jar, and you will find it very nice to use either alone or with butter and lard in frying potatoes, doughnuts, etc. The leaf fat of mutton should always be tried out by itself, and used for chapped hands and such purposes. The fat which is not nice enough for any of the above uses, should be tried out and placed in a jar, kettle, or soft wood cask of strong lye, to which all soap grease should be consigned. Remember that the fat from boiling ham or from boiling meats with vegetables is never fit for cooking purposes, but should be thrown into the soap grease. After skinming and trimming the boiled hans, the fat which remains may be tried out and used for drippings, and is as sweet as butter. Observe never to use for this soap grease lean meat or raw fat. Keep a stick with which to stir occasionally, and it will need but little boiling to make the best of soft soap.
Mother has many other valuable ideas on how to stop the numberless little "leaks," which keep many a family in want, while a little care and economy in these minor details would insure a fair competency; but she thinks it better to have the ideas she has already given thoroughly digested before clogging them with others. She says a neat clean home, a tidy table, and well cooked palatable meals, are safeguards against the evils of the alehouse, the liquor saloon, and the gambling-table. So that we may, with our frying-pans and soup-kettles, wage a mighty war against intemperance, for seldom is a well-fed man a drunkard; and thus our attempts at palatable and economical cooking may "kill two birds with one stone."
By the way, she has just taken up a paper from which she reads this item by Prof. Blot: "Wasting is earried on so far and so extensively in American kitchens that it will soon be one of the common sciences." "Just as I told you," says mother, as she folds her hands complacently together, looks down at the bright figures of the carpet, and repeats in her slow-measured way "After all, whether we save or spend, the life is more than meat, and the body more than raiment."
Housekeeping, whatever may be the opinion of the butterflies of the period, is an accomplishment in comparison to which, in its bearing on woman's relation to real life and to the family, all others are trivial. It comprehends all that goes to make up a well-ordered home, where the sweetest relations of life rest on firm foundations, and the purest sentiments thrive. It is an accomplishment that may be acquired by study and experiment, but the young and inexperienced housekeeper generally reaches success only through great tribulation. It ought to be absorbed in girlhood, by easy lessons taken between algebra, music and painting. If girls were taught to take as much genuine pride in dusting a room well, hanging a curtain gracefully, or broiling a steak to a nicety, as they feel when they have mastered one of Mozart's or Beethoven's grand symphonies, there would be fewer complaining husbands and unhappy wives. The great lesson to learn is that work well-done is robbed of its curse. The woman who is satisfied only with the highest perfection in her work, drops the drudge and becomes the artist. There is no dignity in slighted work; but to the artist, no matter how humble his calling, belongs the honor which is inseparable from all man's struggles after perfection. No mother, who has the happiness of her daughter at heart, will neglect to teach her first the duties of the household; and no daughter who aspires to be queen at home and in her circle of friends, can afford to remain ignorant of the smallest details that contribute to the confort, the peace and the attractiveness of home. There is no luck in housekeeping, however it may seem. Every thing works by exact rule, and even with thorough knowledge, eternal vigilance is the price of success. There must be a place for every thing and every thing in its place, a time for every thing and every thing in its time, and "patience, patience," must be written in glowing capitals all over the walls. The reward is sure. Your husband may admire your grace and ease in society, your wit, your school-day accomplishments of music and painting, but all in perfection will not atone for an ill-ordered kitchen, sour bread, muddy coffee, tough meats, unpalatable vegetables, indigestible pastry, and the whole train of horrors that result from bad housekeeping; on the other hand, success wins gratitude and attachment in the home circle, and adds luster to the most brilliant intellectual accomplishments.
One of the first ideas the young housekeeper should divest herself of is, that because she is able, or expects some time to be able, to keep servants, it is therefore unnecessary to understand household duties, and to bear their responsibility. "Girls" are quick to see and note the ignorance or the incapacity of the mistress of the house, and few are slow to take whatever ad- (369) vantage it brings them, but the capacity of a mistress at once establishes discipline. The model house should not be large, nor too fine and pretentious for daily use. The mistress of many a fine mansion is the veriest household drudge. A great house, with its necessary retinue of servants, is not in keeping with the simplicity of a republic where trained servants are not known, and is seldom pleasant for the family or attractive to friends. Furniture should be selected for comfort rather than show. Most modern chairs put their occupants to torture, and throw them into attitudes any thing but graceful. Comfortable chairs should have broad seats, and a part at least, low seats for women and children. Nothing is more out of taste and "shoddy" than to crowd rooms with furniture, no matter how rich or elegant it may be. Nor is it by any means necessary to have things in suites; variety is preferable, and each room, especially, should have an individuality of its own. Just now the "Eastlake" style is in high favor, and perhaps there is danger of too strong a reaction from the "modern styles," most of which, however, are a hap-hazard collection of styles, without any unity of idea in them. The "Eastlake" is, in the main, a protest against the falsehoods and shams of modern fine furniture, and so far it is a real reform. In a table, for example, we usually have a foundation of pine, put together mostly with glue; this is covered with a veneer of mahogany, walnut, or other wood, and ornamented with carvings, which may mean something or nothing, and which are glued to the work. In a few years the pine framework warps and shrinks out of shape, the veneer peels, the carving gets chipped, and the whole becomes "shabby genteel." Eastlake and his followers would have the table honest, and be throughout what it appears to be on the surface, hence the table is made solid; and if a costly wood can be afforded-well; if not, take a cheaper wood, but let the table be just what it pretends to be; if braces or bars are needed for strength, let them show, and indicate why they are used; and if ornament is desirable, let it be worked in the material, and not glued on. A table of this kind will last, and may serve for several generations. Finding that our ancestors of a few centuries ago understood the matter of furniture better than the cabinet-makers of the present, Eastlake and the others reproduced many of the styles of bygone times, and with some dealers "Eastlake" is used for antique. But the matter does not depend so much upon antiquity of style, as solidity, honesty, and appropriateness. Sets are made of plain woods, such as ash and walnut, inlaid with procelain tiles, and ornamented with old-fashioned brass rings and handles. They are valued at from thirty to two hundred and fifty dollars. Bedroom sets of French and English walnut, with inlaid woods, gilt and bronze ornaments, and variegated marbles, are sold from thirty-five to fifteen hundred dollars. Parlor sets of rich, carved woods, and satin, damask, cashmere, brocade, and tapestry coverings, etc., range in price from one hundred to twelve hundred dollars. Ebony cabinets inlaid with ivory and richly ornamented, are worth from two to eighteen hundred dollars. Marquetry tables, work tables, library tables, Oriental chairs, lounges, easels, music racks, etc., of rich material and design, are valued at from ten to one hundred and fifty dollars. The principal woods used are walnuts of various kinds, ash, bird's-eye maple, satinwood and kingwood. Kingwood is almost crimson in color. Bookcases are of all prices from twenty to fourteen hundred dollars, and sideboards from seventy-five to one thousand dollars. It is a good rule in selecting furniture, not to buy any thing not actually needed, to buy the best of its kind, and to pay cash or not buy. Never get any thing because some one else has it, and do not be afraid to wait for bargains. Wise young housekeepers buy furniture in single pieces or small lots, as they have means, rather than expend more than they can afford in entire sets, which are really less attractive.
Carpets should, as a rule, be of small patterns. The stoves-if grates or fire-places are not used-should be of the kind that may be thrown open or closed at pleasure. If a furnace is used, great care must be taken that the rooms are not kept too hot in winter, and that there is most thorough ventilation, as the health of the family depends as much on the quality of the air they breathe as the food they eat. To waste heat is not so bad as to waste health and vigor, and fuel is always cheaper, on the score of economy, than doctors' bills. In furnace-heated houses-and the furnace seems to be accepted as the best heater, though apparatus for steam and hot water seems likely to be so perfected as to supplant it by furnishing a milder and more agreeable heat, entirely free from noxious gases-there should always be grates or fireplaces in living or sleeping rooms; and whenever the furnace heat is turned on, there should be a little fire, at least enough to start the column of air in the chimney and secure ventilation. It is a common mistake to buy too small a furnace or other heating apparatus. This ought to be ample for the coldest weather, so that ordinarily it need not be kept up to its full capacity. When a furnace is heated too hot, the little particles of dust afloat in the air are charred, and the air has a burnt flavor, as unwholesome as it is disagreeable. Without fire, chimneys are apt to draw down a current of cold air. If there are no grates or fire-places, do not rely on airing rooms from the halls, but throw open the windows and take in the outside air. This is especially necessary when a room is used as a study, or for an invalid. The air from the halls, although cold, is not pure. House-plants will not thrive in furnace-heated houses where gas is burned, and human beings, especially the young and delicate, need quite as pure air as plants. In a study, or other room much occupied, the windows may be dropped during meals, and the room warmed anew before it is needed again. There must also be plenty of sunlight, floods of it in every room, even if the carpets do fade; and the housekeeper must be quick to note any scent of decay from vegetables or meats in the cellar, or from slops or refuse carelessly thrown about the premises. Many a case of fatal diphtheria or typhoid fever may be traced directly to the noxious vapors arising from decaying matter in a cellar, the outside of which is fair to look upon, while the parlors and living rooms are kept with perfect neatness. 'Such houses are whited sepulchers, and the inmates are doomed to pay the penalty of ignorance or carelessness. Every room must be clean and sweet. In sickness, care in all these respects must be doubled. In damp and chill autumn and spring days, a little fire is comfortable morning and evening. The food for the family must be fresh to be wholesome, and it is economy to buy the best as there is less waste in it. No housekeeper ought to be satisfied with any but the very best cooking, without which the most wholesome food is unpalatable and distressing; and no considerations of economy should ever induce her to place on the table bread with the slightest sour tinge, cake or pudding in the least heavy or solid, or meat with the slightest taint. Their use means disease and costly doctor's bills, to say nothing of her own loss of repute as an accomplished housekeeper. If children and servants do work improperly, she should quietly insist on its being done correctly, and in self-defense they will soon do it correctly without supervision. Order and system mean the stopping of waste, the practice of economy and additional means to expend for the table and for the luxuries and elegancies of life-things for which money is well expended. It requires good food to make good muscle and good brain, and the man or woman who habitually sits down to badly cooked or scanty dinners, fights the battle of life at a great disadvantage.