Instruction in cookery (Methuen's text-books, Thompson)

Stock and milk should both be boiled if there is any fear of their going sour, and here it must be remembered that milk in London is always 12 hours old before selling, and in hot weather very often arrives sour. It should be scalded at once, as it can never be made into milk puddings if at all sour. Sour milk may, however, be used for cakes or scones, and if some carbonate of soda is added, this will to a large extent take the place of baking-powder. If treacle or jam are used for anything in cold weather they should be warmed, and then less will be required. In making treacle rolls a few bread crumbs flavoured with ginger sprinkled over the treacle may be used, as this prevents the treacle oozing out when baking them. It cannot be too strongly impressed on children that if their jam tarts have too much jam in them the jam will boil over, and not only spoil the tart, but also be wasted in making a great mess in the tin. In making fruit jelly, either gooseberry or currant, a very good sound jam for tarts, etc., may be made from the fruit after the juice has been stewed out. Rhubarb jam is a very good, economical, and cheap jam for cooking-lecture use. I give the following recipe for it : Rhubarb Jam — Peel the rhubarb, and cut it up into pieces about 1 inch long. Weigh the fruit, and note weight. Allow it to stand all night with about quarter its weight in sugar. Next day add f lb. of sugar for every pound of fruit. Place in a large pan with the sugar and juice, and add about J pint of water and the rind and juice of a lemon to every 4 lb. Add also a little root ginger. Bring to the boil, and boil, stirring all the time, till it sets easily. Place in jars and tie down. In country districts a cheap jam is blackberry and apple. The children should be encouraged to bring the blackberries when they are picked. Sometimes in London there is an enormous glut of plums, and many teachers take advantage of this to make jam for storing. It is becoming increasingly difficult to buy vegetables where they are grown, as they are all poured into London, and so a teacher in the Metropolis has many opportunities of buying these products more cheaply than her colleagues in the country. There might be an economy in buying potatoes by the sack if she had anywhere to keep them, but there again the loss by petty pilfering may counterbalance her profit. Children think that it is there for them to help themselves, and it is astonishing what things they will take in case they may be useful. The ‘ acquisitive faculty ’ is largely developed in them. Poor little things, they have to live by their wits, and one child on being searched, I remember, disgorged coal, matches, potatoes, lumps of sugar, and a handful or two of starch. She was betrayed by the starch dropping out. It is well, therefore, to strictly confine small dainties, as currants, peel, etc., to the amount required for the lesson, and not to undo the bags until the right moment. And here may I add a word of caution to young teachers about leaving money about ? It is not right 6o