Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 April 1882 — HOUSE AND HOME. [ARTICLE]

HOUSE AND HOME.

KITCHEN WASTE. Some Hints on Economy and Systematic Ways in cooking. A lamentable waste of meat takes place in almost every household. For example, when a sirloin of beef is roasted, the courser end is left attached to it, and this, in the process of cooking, becomes a dry and shriveled mass, which is never eaten, either in Earlor or kitchen. The meat, when rought home, should have this coarser end carefully divided from it, and be roasted without it, the piece laid by should be stewed for three hours in a large sized China-lined pan, with close-fitting cover; and, if properly done (never being suffered to approach % boil,) it will be perfectly tender, and, with the addition of well dressed vegetables, served either around it or in separate dishes, will make a dinner “lit for a prince.” In a small family the oft repeated question, “What shall be done with the cold mutton?”can be readily avoided by never cooking a leg or loin whole. It is an old fashioned and mistaken idea that it spoils a leg to cut it. Divide it evenly in two, remove the bone from the fillet end and fill the cavity with a carefully prepared veal then cord the lap hearty around it, putting portions of stuffing wherever there appears to be a hollow, and roast or bake, to be served with good brown gravy. The shank eDd, boiled slowly with turnips and carrots, and served with caper sauce, makes an excellent dish. When a loin of mutton comes from the butcher’s remove the center of it for roasting, and cut up the whole of the tail end, adding to it the two or three first chops, for an Irish stew, which is a dish made in many households of the neck and breast, and is consequently neither so good or substantial as that which is composed of pieces from the loin. It is a good plan, and a saving of much trouble in households, to have supplies ready at hand of things which are required for frequent use. Currents picked, washed and stowed away in a dry place; raisons stoned, baked and grated breadcrumbs preserved in bottles for fish and cutlets; thyme for stuffings picked and stored; suet shred and chopped, etc. By pursuing this course delay and confusion are avoided in the preparation of the day’s dinner, luncheoD, or supper, as the case may be. It is a noteworthy plan to keep a supply of ready-made plum puddings in the store room. These, if properly made, with the due allowance of spices and brandy—and boiled for lour hours, will keep gocsl for six months; and it is often a good convenience, if a side dish is required in a hurry, to have something to slice from ready at hand. In a well regulated household nothing Is suffered to go to waste; cheese, when it becomes too hard for table use, is grated down to serve with macaroni, and bread which has grown stale is dried on a pan in the oven, and rolled out fine with a strong wooden roller, for crumbing chops, cutlets, or soles. Everything, even the smallest atom, is turned to account; nor are the poor forgotton when the household has been fed.—Exchange,

When cakes are made without yeast or eggs, soda and powder being the substitutes, they require quick baking in a moderately hot oven, and should be drawn directly they are done or they get dry and tasteless. For a plain cake made with one pound of flour, etc., the time to be allowed in baking would be from forty to fifty minutes, at the outside not more than one hour. Yeast cakes take longer, say from ten to fifteen minutes, and will bear being left in the*oven rather over the time without much injury. Very rich cakes, in which butter arid eggs predominate, take, of course, very much longer time to cook, a pound cake taking from an hour and a half or two hours, and a bride cake three and a half. On ' no account should an oven be too hot when the cake is put in—that is, hot enough to brown at once; if so, in five minutes the whole outside will be burned and the interior will stand little chance of being cooked. The old plan of feeling the handle of the oven door to test the heat is not always successful; if at the end of that time it is of a rich light brown the cake may be put in, but if burned the heat must first be lessened. Unless pigeons are quite young they are better braised or stewed in broth than cooked in any other manner. Many consider it always the best way ot cooking them. Tie them in shape; place slices of bacon at the bottom of a stew-pan, lay in the pigeons side by side, all their breasts uppermost; add a sliced carrot, an onion with a clove stuck in, a teaspoonful of sugar some parsley, and pour over enough stock to cover them. If you have no stock use boiling water. Now put some thin slices of bacon over the tops of the pigeons; cover them as closely as possible, adding boiling water, or stock when necessary. Let tnem simmer until they are very tender. Serve each pigeon on a thin piece of buttered toast, with a border of spinach ; or, if you choose, make little nests of spinach on most pieces of toast, putting a pigeon into each nest. Place a little heap of mixed salad in the dish, sprinkle a little powdered white sugar over it,a little pepper and salt, a little vinegar and olive oil, garnish with beetroot. To use up cold meat. —Prepare the meat as for hash; flli a deep dish with boiled maccaroni; on the top of that place the hash ; cover it with tomatoes, over which sprinkle bread crumbs with a little butter: bake until nicely browned.