A practical cook and text book for general use

Cereals with Figs. For this use the figs should be thoroughly washed, then steamed and sliced, and added when the food is ready to serve. With Fresh Fruits. When these are added they should be lightly stirred in, after the cereal has slightly cooled. All cereals are more healthful and the flavor more pronounced if allowed to cool a little before serving. And in all cases where fruit or nuts are added this rule should be observed. Cereals with Nuts. The various forms of wheat and gluten are best to use with nuts. After they are cooked sufficiently to be pronounced done, let them cool a while and then stir in the nuts. Half a cup of nuts to a pint of the food is really a large proportion and from this the quantity can be graded by individual judgment. English walnuts, pecans and hickory nuts are best for this purpose. Fruit Hush. This is an excellent breakfast or dessert dish. Raspberries, strawberries, blackberries or any other kind may be used. Stew a quart of berries in sufficient water to cover them and thicken with entire wheat flour or corn starch, to the consistency of mush. Serve warm, or mold and serve cold with fruit juice. Jellied Cereals. All cereals may be served in the form of jelly either plain or with fruits. When used with fruit, the cereal should be of a consistency that will retain its form when cold. Wet a mold in cold water and then put in the cereal in alternate layers of cooked dried apricots or peaches, or if in season, with fresh fruit. If cherries or plums are used they should be carefully washed, and when the stones are removed be careful to injure the shape of the fruit as little as possible. Serve with raspberry or grape juice. CEREALINE. This is a light and delicate preparation of white corn and has a peculiarly dainty look both before and after cooking. As many recipes come wiih each package and most of them contain butter or eggs, they are not quoted here, but a very delicate mush can be made of it, and it can also be mixed with entire wheat in making unleavened rolls, etc. The grains being more finely ground for mush, should go in to cook in boiling water. When done they must be thicklike bread sponge, neither thin enough spread much, but dish up clear and freely. They may served plain, with fruit or fruit juice, wafers, crackers rolls ; or mold and dress with fruit as for cereals. [illustration: CEREALs. 99] Graham and Rye Mush. About two cups of meal of either kind desired will be sufficient for two quarts of boiling water. Sift the meal slowly into the water with the hand, stirring with a spoon to prevent lumping. Boil slowly from twenty to thirty minutes. Oatmeal Mush. Purchase the best oatmeal in bulk, as it gives better satisfaction than that put up in packages. . To one cup of coarse oatmeal add five cups of boiling water ; cook in double boiler or steamer from one and a half to two hours without stirring. Or it may slowly boil on the back of the range for two hours, stirring as little as possible. Corn Meal Mush. Put two quarts of boiling water in a granite ware kettle, and sift into it with the hand, sufficient of the best corn meal, white or yellow, to make a thick gruel ; stir it to remove the lumps and set on the back of the range to slowly cook three hours ; or steam it four hours, this being the better way. Owing to its oily nature, it is fattening and heating, and is a better winter than summer food. The U. S. Government has been sending people to Europe to teach the value and uses of corn meal, and it might be well to support a few home missions in that line. GRUELS.