hair should be neatly arranged at breakfast as at dinner, but the headdress should be very simple.

"For morning work a dress that can be washed is most desirable, although for winter something warmer may be necessary. My fancy was once much pleased by a gray cloth basque worn by a friend of mine. Such an article can be as easily dusted as a gentleman's coat.

"Pies should never be eaten at breakfast, but it is now the style to have fruit on the breakfast-table.

"In pouring coffee, the sugar and cream should first be put into the cup, and the coffee poured on. If milk is used for coffee, it should be brought to the table scalding hot. I like the 'Old Dominion Coffeepot,' as, with good materials, it is impossible to make poor coffee in it, if the directions are followed. If I lived in the country, as I do not chance to do just now, I would have cream very rich and thick for coffee, and the coffee made strong and weakened with scalded milk; but as it is, I am compelled to be content with only the milk. For tea the sugar and cream should be put in the cup after it is filled. I do not like brown sugar in coffee, any better than in tea; it injures its delicate purity.

"It is not customary, in good society, to load a tea-table with all that can be placed upon it; one or two kinds of cake and sweetmeats, with bread and butter or biscuit, are sufficient for most occasions. A little dried beef, or thinly-sliced tongue, is not out of place after an early dinner, but where a family dines late it is wholly unnecessary. "Bread for tea should be cut in very thin slices. In many In many families the loaf is placed upon the table, and cut from as it is needed. prevents the waste of bread or the accumulation of dry pieces. It is convenient to have a bread-board for this purpose. A bread-knife is much like a carving-knife, but the thinner the blade the better. Cup-plates are out of date. Coffee and tea are drank from the cup, not from the saucer. The spoon should be placed in the saucer while

drinking."

This

DETAILS OF PRACTICAL COOKERY.

In this department of our work we shall not give the thousand and one different methods of doing the same thing; but shall confine our attention to those valuable and reliable recipes and directions which are needed in every well-regulated household, and on which dependence can be placed.

BREAD AND BREAD-MAKING.-First among the duties of every mistress of a family, is to know how to make light, sweet, and healthy bread.* The "staff of life" forms so large a part of the food of every

* Bread contains eighty nutritious parts in one hundred; meal thirty-four in one hundred; French beans ninety-two in one hundred; common beans eighty-nine in one hundred; pease ninety-three in one hundred; lentils ninety-four in one hundred; cabbages and turnips, the most watery of all the vegetables we here name, produce only eight pounds of solid matter in one hundred; carrots and spinach produce

family, that economy, health, and comfort alike dictate that the best process of making it should be well and generally understood and practiced. The first and indispensable requisite of good bread is good flour; and to have this, and avoid the mixtures and adulterations so

common among flour, and all other manufacturers and dealers, is to grow or buy your own wheat, make your own yeast, and bake your own bread; and for all which we give ample and reliable directions. If you buy flour, the following simple method of testing it may be useful:

To Test Flour, people in the trade generally knead a small quantity by way of experiment; if good, the flour immediately forms an adhesive elastic paste, which will readily assume any form that may be given to it without danger of breaking. Pure and unadulterated flour may likewise be easily distinguished by other methods; seize a handful briskly and squeeze it half a minute; it preserves the form of the cavity of the hand in one piece, although it may be rudely placed on the table; not so that which contains foreign substances, it breaks in pieces more or less; that mixed with whiting being the most adhesive, but still dividing and falling down in a little time.

Whiting can be detected, by dropping into the flour lemon-juice or strong vinegar, when, if whiting be mixed with it, a fermentation, like the effect of yeast, is produced, otherwise the flour remains at rest.

To Discover whether Flour be adulterated with Chalk, Plaster of Paris, or Mineral Powders.-If containing these admixtures, it will be

fourteen in the same quantity; while one hundred pounds of potatoes contain twenty-five pounds of dry substance. From a general estimate, therefore, it results, that one pound of good bread is equal to two pounds and a half or three pounds of potatoes; that seventy-five pounds of bread and thirty of meat are as nutritious as three hundred pounds of potatoes. The other substances bear the following proportions: four parts of cabbage to one of potatoes; three parts of turnips to one of potatoes; two of carrots and spinach to one of potatoes; and about three and one half parts of potatoes to one of bread, beans, lentils, and pease.

found to be heavier, measure for measure, than pure flour. That is to say, a pint of pure flour would be overbalanced in the scales by a pint of adulterated flour. Slice the soft part of a loaf, and put it into a large quantity of water in an earthen vessel. Place it over a slow fire for three hours. Scoop up the pap, and let the water stand. When perfectly settled pour off the water, and a chalky sediment will be found to cover the bottom of the vessel. Heart-burn, after eating impure bread, is a sign of its impurity. Put some flour upon a table, and blow it gently with the breath. If little heaps remain upon the table, resisting the action of the breath, and differing manifestly from the indications given by other portions when blown upon, the substance thus remaining is impure. Potato flour, and indeed all white flours, are heavier than pure wheat. Bake a small quantity of the suspected flour, until it is of a full brown. Then take it and rub in your hands or on a table, and white particles will be seen, if chalk or plaster of Paris be present. Run into a loaf that is one day old a knife made very hot; if there be alum present it will adhere in very small particles to the blade of the knife, and will indicate its presence by a peculiar smell. If bread looks unnaturally white, and if it gives off a good deal of water, and becomes very brittle and dry when toasted, alum may be regarded as being present.

To Discover whether Bread be adulterated with Pea or Bean Flour.— Pour boiling water upon it, and if the flour is mixed with the farina of pease or beans, the strong smell of those grains will become manifest.

YEAST.-Having good flour the next requisite is good yeast. Boil two ounces of the best hops in four quarts of water for half an hour, strain it, and let the liquor cool down to new-milk warmth, then put in a small handful of salt, and half a pound of sugar; beat up one pound of the best flour with some of the liquor, and then mix all well together. The third day, add three pounds of potatoes, boiled and then mashed, to stand till the next day; then strain it and put it into bottles, and it is ready for use. It must be stirred frequently while it is making, and kept near the fire. Before using, shake the bottle up well. It will keep in a cool place for two months, and is best at the latter part of the time. The beauty of this yeast is, that it ferments spontaneously, not requiring the aid of other yeast; and if care be taken to let it ferment well in the earthen bowl in which it is made, you may cork it up tight when bottled. The quantity above given will fill four seltzer-water bottles. The writer of the above receipts has used this yeast and never had lighter bread than it affords, and never knew it to fail.

Domestic Yeast.-Ladies who are in the habit (and a most laudable and comfortable habit it is), of making domestic bread, cake, etc., are informed, that they can easily manufacture their own yeast by attending to the following directions:-boil one pound of good flour, a quarter of a pound of brown sugar, and a little salt, in two gallons of water, for one hour. When milk-warm, bottle it, and cork it close. It will be fit for use in twenty-four hours. One pint of this yeast will make eighteen pounds of bread.

Yeast-Cakes.-Make a thick batter of a pint of good yeast, a teaspoonful of salt, and rye or wheat flour. When risen, stir in Indian meal till

of the right consistency to roll out. When risen again, roll them out very thin, cut them into cakes with a tumbler, and dry them in the shade in clear, windy weather. Care must be taken to keep them from the sun, or they will ferment. When perfectly dry, tie them up in a bag, and keep them in a cool, dry place. To raise four or five loaves of bread, take one of these cakes and put to it a little lukewarm milk or water. When dissolved, stir in a couple of tablespoonfuls of flour; set it near the fire. When light, use it for your dough. Yeast-cakes will keep good five or six months. They are very convenient to use in summer, as common yeast is so apt to ferment.

To Make Prime Yeast.-Boil twelve clean-washed, middle-sized potatoes; and at the same time boil, in another vessel, a handful of hops in a quart of water; peel and mash the potatoes fine; pour part of the hop-water, while hot, upon the potatoes, and mix them well; then add the remainder of the hop-water, and a spoonful of sugar; beat all well; add a small portion of leaven to bring on fermentation, and set it in a cool place. One cupful of the above potato-yeast will answer for two quarts of flour.

BREAD-DIFFERENT KINDS-Home-made Bread.-To three pounds and a half of flour add a dessert-spoonful of salt, and mix them well; mix about two tablespoonfuls of good fresh yeast (see ante) with half a pint of water a little warm, but not hot; make a hole with your hand in the middle of the flour, but not quite touching the bottom of the pan; pour the water and yeast into this hole, and stir it with a spoon till you have made a thin batter; sprinkle this over with flour, cover the pan over with a dry cloth, and let it stand in a warm room for an hournot near the fire, except in cold weather, and then not too close; then add a pint of water a little warm, and knead the whole well together, till the dough comes clean through the hand; some flour will require a little more water, but in this experience must be your guide; let it stand again for about a quarter of an hour, and then bake at pleasure. French Bread and Rolls.-Take a pint and a half of milk; make it quite warm; half a pint of small-beer yeast; add sufficient flour to make it as thick as batter; put it into a pan; cover it over, and keep it warm: when it has risen as high as it will, add a quarter of a pint of warm water, and half an ounce of salt-mix them well together; rub into a little flour two ounces of butter; then make your dough, not quite so stiff as for your bread; let it stand for three-quarters of an hour, and it will be ready to make into rolls, etc.-Let them stand till they have risen, and bake them in a quick oven.

A Great Increase on Home-Made Bread, even equal to one-fifth, may be produced by using bran-water for kneading the dough. The proportion is three pounds of bran for every twenty-eight pounds of flour, to be boiled for an hour, and then strained through a hair-sieve.

Economical and Nourishing Bread.-Suffer the miller to remove from the flour only the coarse flake bran. Of this bran boil five or six pounds in four and a half gallons of water; when the goodness is extracted from the bran, during which time the liquor will waste one-half or threequarters of a gallon, strain it and let it cool. When it has cooled down to the temperature of new milk, mix it with fifty-six pounds of flour, and

1

as much salt and yeast as would be used for other bread; knead it exceedingly well; let it rise before the fire, and bake it in small loaves: small loaves are preferable to large ones, because they take the heat more equally. There are two advantages in making bread with branwater instead of plain water; the one being, that there is considerable nourishment in bran, which is thus extracted and added to the bread -the other, that flour imbibes much more of bran-water than it does of plain water; so much more, as to give, in the bread produced, almost a fifth in weight more than the quantity of flour made up with plain water would have done. These are important considerations to the poor. Fifty-six pounds of flour, made with plain water, would produce sixty-nine and a half pounds of bread; made with bran-water, it will produce eighty-three and a half pounds.

Boston Brown Bread.-A person once accustomed to this bread will never willingly live without it. To make it, take one quart of rye meal, two quarts of Indian meal-if not fresh, scald it-half a teacupful of molasses, two teaspoonfuls of salt, one teaspoonful of saleratus, one teacupful of home-brewed yeast, or half the quantity of distillery yeast; make it as stiff as can be stirred with a spoon, with warm water, and let it rise from night till morning. Then put it into a large, deep pan, smooth the top with the hand, dipped in cold water, let it stand a few minutes, and then bake it in an oven five or six hours. If put in late in the day, it may remain in the oven over night.

Premium Bread.-The Rhode Island Society for the Promotion of Industry gave the first premium on domestic bread to Mrs. Hiram Hill, of Providence. The following is Mrs. Hill's recipe for making the bread exhibited by her: for two loaves of the ordinary size, take two potatoes, pare them, slice very thin, and boil quick until quite soft; then mash it to a fine pulp, and add, little by little, two quarts of boiling water, stirring until a starch is formed; let this cool, and then add one-third of a cup of yeast. This forms the "sponge," which should remain in a moderately warm place for ten or twelve hours, or over night, until it becomes very light and frothy; even if a little sour, it is of no consequence. When the "sponge" is ready, add flour, and work it in until you have formed a stiff, firm mass. The longer and more firmly this is kneaded, the better the bread. Let the kneaded mass remain, say from half to three-quarters of an hour to rise, then divide into pans, where it should remain, say fifteen minutes; care being taken that it does not rise too much and crack; then put the loaves into a quick oven, and bake, say three-quarters of an hour. If the oven is not hot enough, the bread will rise and crack; if too hot, the surface will harden too rapidly, and confine the loaf.

Brown Graham Bread.-One quart superfine flour, one quart unbolted flour, and one pint Indian meal, sifted and scalded. Add a little molasses, if preferred. Mix as wheat, using yeast, salt, etc. Bake when light.

A Rich Corn Bread.-Take one egg, well beaten; half a pint of thick cream; Indian meal sufficient to form a thick batter; a small quantity of salt; add half a teaspoonful of saleratus, dissolved in a small quantity of water; after mixing thoroughly, put it into the pans or oven, and bake immediately.