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flannel cloth. The eggs will be done in six minutes, but are not harmed by ten.

2. Put the eggs into cold water and bring slowly to a boil. They are done when the water begins to boil.

Hard boiled eggs.

To boil an egg hard it is no more necessary to expose it to a high degree of heat than in the case of the soft boiled; the heat must simply be much longer continued, twenty minutes to a half-hour. The egg will then be solid, but not horny as when cooked in boiling water. A great many attractive dishes can be made of cold boiled eggs.

Scrambled,

let, and baked

These are but different modes of cooking eggs soft poached, ome-or solid. The taste will be more delicate, and they will be more digestible if in these cases also only the low degree of heat above mentioned be applied, more time being given them than is usually allowed.

eggs.

EGG DISHES.

These dishes, under many names and in many forms, are of next importance after meats, composed, as they generally are, of eggs and vegetables or some preparation of the grains, while numberless additions and flavors are used to give variety and make the dish tempting to the eye and palate. Eggs so prepared have their full nutritive value; not so in rich puddings and cakes, where they are mixed with more sugar and fat than the system can take up in any quantity.

The following are a few recipes that have not been included under other heads. Many others will be found under the Cooking of the Grains :

Bread omelet.

One cup of hard bread partly softened in hot water and milk, or in cold water (in which case press in a cloth and crumble), add one half of a chopped onion, one tablespoonful chopped parsley, one egg, salt and pepper. Heat in the frying pan, or square baking pan, some bits of suet or beef fat, and pour in the omelet. Cover and bake five minutes, then uncover and brown. Or, it may be cooked slowly on top of the stove. Cut in pieces, and serve around the meat or with a gravy. Bread, fresh or stale, is cut in long strips, or in squares or rounds with a cake cutter. Let them soak

Egged bread.

till soft but not broken, in one pint of salted milk into which

Bake a nice brown or fry on a grid

two eggs have been beaten.
dle in half suet and half butter.

(May be made with one egg.)

Fry a small onion, sliced, in a teaspoonful of butPotato omelet. ter or fat; fill the pan with two cups of cold sliced potatoes, salt and pepper them, and pour over them two beaten eggs. Bake slowly till it is just solid, and turn out carefully on Or, one cup potatoes and one cup bread crumbs may

a platter. be used.

One cup cold boiled rice, two teaspoonfuls milk, Rice omelet. one egg, one half teaspoonful salt. Mix and pour into a pan in which a tablespoonful of butter has been heated. Fry and double over when done. potato omelet.

Flour omelet.

Or, it may be baked

like

One egg, one cup milk, two tablespoonfuls flour, pinch of salt, add the beaten white of the egg last. This is the "Yorkshire Pudding" which is cooked in the pan over which beef is roasting; it is cut in squares, and served around the meat. It may also be baked in a buttered pan with

out meat.

Three eggs, one cup flour (scant), a tablespoonful Tomato omelet. fine herbs, salt and cayenne pepper, one tablespoonful sugar, juice of two large tomatoes, and one cup warm milk. Bake under roasting meat, or alone in a buttered pan.

CHEESE DISHES.

Almost any cheese will give a good result in these dishes. Crumbly cream cheese is richer in taste, and has also been shown to be more quickly digested. Skim cheeses are as nutritious except in fat, and in some dishes, as in "fondamin," give a betGrate old cheeses, chop new and soft ones.

ter result.

Grated cheese.

Grate old cheese, and serve with bread and butter. It is also a good addition to mashed potato, to flour porridges, to oatmeal and wheat flour porridges, to rice, sago, tapioca, and indeed to any starchy foods; it should be stirred in while these are quite hot. Its use with macaroni is given else

where.

Cooked cheese with bread.

The basis of these dishes is toasted bread (white or graham) arranged on a platter, and enough salted water poured on to soften it.

1. Grate enough old cheese to cover the toast prepared as above. Set in the oven to melt, and put the slices together as sandwiches. This is the simplest form of " Welsh Rarebit.”

2. One half pound cheese, one tablespoonful butter, and one cup milk. Stir till smooth over a gentle fire or in a water bath, and spread over the toast.

3. One fourth pound cheese, one tablespoonful butter, two egg yolks, one half teaspoonful mustard, a pinch of cayenne pepper. Stir to smooth paste, spread on the toast, and set in a hot oven for four minutes.

4. To each person allow one egg, one tablespoonful grated cheese, one half teaspoonful butter or one tablespoonful milk, a little salt and pepper (cayenne best). Cook like custard in a pail set in a kettle of hot water, stirring till smooth; it may then be used on toast or poured out on a platter. It may also be steamed five minutes in little cups, or baked very slowly for ten minutes.

5. Slices of bread lightly buttered, 3 eggs, one and one half cups milk, one teaspoonful salt, one cupful grated cheese. Soak the bread in the milk and egg till soft but not broken. Lay the pieces in a pan, cover with the cheese, and bake or steam.

Fondamin or

This is a famous foreign dish, and although it may fondue. seem to have a good many ingredients, it is really not much trouble to make. One fourth pound grated cheese (skim better than cream), add to one gill of milk, in which is as much bicarbonate of potash as will lie on a three cent piece, one fourth teaspoonful mustard, one half saltspoonful white pepper, a few grains of cayenne, one ounce butter, a grating of nutmeg, and two tablespoonfuls baked flour. Heat carefully till the cheese is dissolved. Add three beaten eggs, and stir till smooth. This mixture should be baked separately for each person in patty pans or paper cases, and eaten immediately. All cheese dishes should be served very hot.

Uor M

MILK.

Milk is sometimes called the one perfect food, containing all the constituents in their right proportions. This is true only for the requirements of a baby, but it remains for any age a valuable food when rightly supplemented. Milk contains on the average 3.31 per cent proteids, 3.66 per cent fat, 4.9 per cent carbohy drates, 87.41 per cent water, and .70 per cent salts. The housewife, if she wishes to use milk with economy, will not in cooking use it as such, but with due regard to the different values of the cream and the skimmed parts. In cities skimmed milk is sold for about one half the price of full milk, and is well worth it if pure, but it is too often mixed with water.

Boiling milk.

As soon as milk comes into the house it should be boiled, as it is a notorious carrier of disease germs which only in this way can be killed. Use an earthen ware pitcher, and let the milk remain standing in the same after cooking. The next day remove the cream for the morning's coffee, and use the skimmed part during the day for cooking, with or without the addition of a little butter.

Keeping milk.

To keep milk sweet in warm weather is a serious question to the housekeeper who has no cellar or refrigerator. It is of first importance that the vessels used to contain it should be scrupulously clean. Boiling, as above mentioned, and cooling it rapidly afterwards, will keep it sweet for twenty-four hours, unless the weather is very warm, and the time may be further extended by keeping the milk pitcher set in a dish of cold water. A quarter of a teaspoonful of baking soda to a quart of milk, added while it is still sweet, may be used in case of necessity, but this is not to be commended for common use. A method that the writer has employed is this: Canning milk. simply canning the milk as one would can fruit. Fill glass jars and screw down the lids, then place them in a steamer over cold water; heat the water gradually and steam the jars for an hour, then tighten the tops. I have never kept milk so treated for more than a week, but see no reason why it should not keep much longer.

Sour milk.

However, if you find yourself with sour milk on your hands, do not throw it away, it has many uses.

Buttermilk is also very valuable to the housewife; it can be kept a long time in good condition for mixing doughs by covering with water, which must, however, be often changed for fresh.

Bonny clabber.

USES FOR SOUR MILK AND BUTTERMILK.

Put skimmed milk into a glass dish or into teacups and set away until it becomes solid, then eat with sugar and powdered cinnamon sprinkled over it. Cottage cheese.

Set thick sour milk where it will heat gradually till the curd separates, then pour into a bag and let it drip till dry. Salt well, and add a little cream or milk and melted butter.

Buttermilk. 1. As a drink. For this it should be very fresh. 2. Buttermilk soup.

Uses of both. Both buttermilk and sour milk can be used:

1. In making soda biscuit dough.

2. In pancakes of all kinds.

3. In corn bread.

4. In some kinds of cake, as in gingerbread, cookies, and doughnuts, where they are by many cooks preferred to sweet milk; and in almost any kind of cake sour milk may be substituted for sweet, remembering always to use only half the quantity of cream of tartar called for in the recipe.

FATS AND OILS.

The third food principle, fats, stands between the two great nutrients, proteids on the one hand and carbohydrates on the other, and we find that we can indulge in considerable latitude as to its use. When we wish to get our food in a more condensed form, we can use fats freely in connection with proteids and lessen the amount of carbohydrates. In army dieíaries the amount of fat is largely increased for marching, and for great exertion the amount becomes three times that allowed in garrison life. For instance, the daily rations served out to the German

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