Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 March 1881 — HOUSEHOLD HELPS. [ARTICLE]

HOUSEHOLD HELPS.

Cookies. —One cup of sugar, one ol syrup, one of shortening, half cup of hot water, pinch of salt, half teaspoonful of soda; bake quickly. Chocolatate Kisses. —One ounce of sugar, two ounces of chocolate pounded together and finely sifted; mix whites of eggs well beaten to a froth; drop on buttered paper and bake slowly. Gold Cake. —The yolks of eight eggs, two cups of brown sugar, one cup of butter, half cup of sweet milk, three cups of flour, one teaspoonful of baking powder; flavor with orange extracts. Toffee. —Quarter pound of butter; when melted put in one pound of brown sugar; boil and stir fifteen minutes; put in a spoonful of ground ginger, boil and stir again. Pour into buttered tins. Silver Cake. —The whites of eight eggs, two cups of white sugar, half cup of butter, half cup of sweet milk, three cups of flour, one teaspoonful of baking powder; flavor with extract of almond. Old-fashioned Molasses Candy.— One quart of the best New Orleans molasses, and a piece of butter half the size of a hen’s egg. When it will snap in water it is sufficiently done; stir in a little soda to whiten it; pour into buttered dishes, and when cool enough pull until white. Cocoanut Cake. —One pound of white sugar, half pound of butter, the yolks of five eggs beaten up together; beat the whites to a stiff froth; mix three-fourths of a pound of flour, two teaspoonfuls of baking-powder, and grate one good-sized cocoanut; mix together with one cup of milk. Add the cocoanut just before baking. Citron Cake. —One cup of butter, two of sugar, three of flour, four eggs, one cup of milk, one fceaspoonfuj of soda, two of cream tartar, and a pinch of salt. Make the cake as above, put in the pan, cut the citron thin and put in the cake endways; this will prevent the citron from falling to the bottom of the pan. Snow Cream. —Allow two tablespoonfuls of fine white sugar and two of rich, sweet cream to each person for whom you are making the desert. Then get a quantity of tine, dry snow and stir in; after waiting a minute stir in more—adding enough to make it of sufficient stiffness. Flavor to suit the taste. It does not require more than two minutes to make, and should not be made until needed, as it soon melts. Broiled Beefsteak. —To cook a good, juicy beefsteak, never pound it, but slash it several times across each way; have a nice, bright fire and broil as quickly as possible, without burning; if the coals blaze from the drippings, sprinkle on a little salt, which will instantly extinguish the flames.. Steak should be turned constantly while broiling, and to be rare should not cook over three minutes; butter and salt after taking up. This should be served very hot.

Tart Crust. —One cup of lard, onehalf teaspoonful of salt, the white of an egg, one-quarter teaspoonful of cream tartar, one tablespoonful of sugar, oneeighth teaspoonful of saleratus, three tablespoonfuls of ice- water; flour to roll; mix lard with one cup of flour; add salt, Bugar and cream tartar; beat egg; mix with water and saleratus, all together; keep the dough cold; add flour to roll, one-quarter of an inch thick. The above makes eighteen tarts. Prum Pudding.— One pound of raisins, one of currants, one of suet chopped fine, and add three-quarters of a pound of stale bread crumbs, one-quarter pound of flour, one-quarter pound of brown sugar, rind of one lemon (chopped thin), one-half nutmeg grated, five eggs, onehalf pound mixed candied peel, one-half pint of brandy; mix well the dry ingredients; beat the eggs with the brandy; pour this over the other things and thoroughly mix; to be boiled in a basin or mold,* for six hours at the time of making, and six hours when wanted for use. Icma for Cakes. —Whites of four eggs, one pound of pulverized sugar, with lemon; break the whites into a broad, cool, clean dish; throw a small handful of sugar upon them and begin to whip it in with long, even strokes of the beater. A few minutes later throw in more sugar and keep adding it at intervals until it is all used up. Beat until the icing is of a smooth, fine, and firm texture; if not stiff enough, put in more sugar; use at least a quarter of a pound of sugar for each egg. To spread it, use a broad-bladed knife dipped in cold water. 0 “If.(Jones undertakes to pull my ears,” said a loud-mouthed fellow on a street comer, “ he’ll just have his hands full.” The crowd looked ftf- the man’s •am gnd smiled. y

How Some Famous Authors Worked. The fluent and graceful literature the world admires was by no means as. easy to make as it is to read. Pop© is affirmed to have kept his manuscript a year or two for study and alteration, and even then bis printer’s proofs were so full of alterations that on one occasion, Dodsley, his publisher, thought it better to have the whole recomposed than to make the necessary corrections. Goldsmith considered four lines a day good work, and was seven years in beating out the pure gold of the “ Deserted Village.” Hume wrote his “History of England ” on a sofa, but he went quietly on correcting every edition till his death. Robertson used to write out his sentences on small slips of paper; and, -after rounding them and polishing them to bi.-t satisfaction, hd entered them in a book, which, in its turn, underwent considerable revision. _ Burke had all his principal works printed two or three times at a private Eress before submitting them to his pubsher. Akenside and Gray were indefatigable correctors, laboring every line; and so was our prolix and more imaginative poet, Thomson. On comparing the first and latest editions of the “ Seasons,” there will be found scarcely a page which does not bear evidence of his taste and industry. Johnson thinks the poems lost much of their racinesa under this severe regimen, but they were much improved in fancy and delicacy. Johnson and Gibbon were the least laborious in arranging their copy for the press. Gibbon sent the first and only MS. of his stupendous work (the “Decline and Fall”) to his printer; and Johnson’s high-sounding sentences were written almost without an effort. Both, however, lived and moved, as it were, in the world of letters, thanking or caring of little else—one in the heart of busy London, which he dearly loved, and the other in his silent retreat at Lausanne. Dryden wrote hurriedly, to provide for the day. St. Pierre copied his “Paul and Virginia” nine times. Rousseau was a very coxcomb in these matters; he wrote on fine gilt-edged card-paper when he could get it. Sheridan watched long and anxiously for bright thoughts, as tho MS. of his “School for Scandal,” in its various stages, proves. Burns composed in the open air, the sunnier the better ; but he labored hard, and with almost-unerring taste and judgment, in correcting. Lord Byron was a rapid compose*, but made abundant use of the pruningknife. Sir Walter Scott evinced his love of literary labor by Undertaking the revision of the whole of the “Waverly Novels.” The works of Wordsworth, Southey, Coleridge and Moore, and the occasional variations in their different editions, mark their love of retouching. Southey was unwearied after his kind a true author of the old school. The bright thoughts of Campbell, which sparkle like polished lances, were manufactured with almost equal care; [From the St. Louis Republican.] It is very rare that the Republican consents to editorially forward the interests of advertisers of what are known as patent medicines, as it does not frequently fall out that we can have positive knowledge of their merits, However, we take pleasure in saying of St. Jacobs Oil, from individual experiment, that it is a most excellent remedial agent, and as such we can heartily recommend it.