Books and My Food: With Literary Quotations and Original Recipes for Every ..

AVERY good plain raisin cake is made by creaming together half a cup of butter and a cup and a quarter of sugar, then adding the beaten yolks of four eggs, a cup of water and about a quarter of a grated nutmeg. Take three cups of sifted flour in which has been stirred a full teaspoonful of baking-powder, sift again. Put part of the flour in a cupful of seeded raisins, stir into the tgg and sugar mixture, add the beaten whites, stir lightly and fold in the remainder of the flour. Bake in a slow oven. If the eggs are large add a little more flour. SEPTEMBER ioth "When I brought out the baked apples from the doset, and hoped our friends would be so very obliging as to take some, 'Oh!' said he, directly, 'there is nothing in the way of fruit half so good."' — ^Jane Austen ("Emma"). PARE and core apples tart but not sour ; put in a pan with a very little water, fill the core holes with chopped English walnuts and a little sugar, and bake in a rather quick oven, basting often. When the apples are done, which will be when they can be pierced with a straw, set them away where they will get cold. Serve with whipped cream, sweetened and flavored with sherry. SEPTEMBER iith "Then came a kind of gruel and when the repast had lasted an hour or more some hashed meat highly peppered." — Chakles Reade ("The Cloister and the Hearth")- COLD beef of any kind, roast, steak, or pot roast, is excellent made into croquettes and served with a brown or tomato sauce. Chop the beef fine, and to two cupfuls add a teaspoonful of onion juice, two tablespoonfuls of i6o fine dry bread-crumbs, and the yolks of two eggs, and mix thoroughly. Add one-fourth of a small nutmeg, grated fine, a little salt, and a generous seasoning of paprika. Heat the mixture and set aside to cool. When nearly cold, make into balls the size of an English walnut, roll in egg and then in breadcrumbs, and fry in deep fat. Serve with a brown sauce or one well-flavored with tomato. SEPTEMBER I2th "Fd a baking yesterday, Master Mamer, and the lard cakes turned out better nor common." — George Eliot (''Silas Mamer"). THE " lard-cake " of old England is the cruller of New England. This old-fashioned recipe may be trusted to produce a result "better nor common." Five cupfuls of flour, one of butter, two of sugar, four eggs, half a grated nutmeg. Rub the butter and sugar together, add the eggs, whites and yolks beaten separately, then the flour. Roll into a thin sheet, cut in narrow strips with a jagging iron, twist into any shape that commends itself, and fry in a deep pot of very hot lard. SEPTEMBER 13TH ''Some choice sous'd fish brought couchant in a dish." — Cartwright. SOUSED mackerel can easily be prepared at home and is a great improvement on the canned variety. Clean and skin half a dozen small mackerel. Cut into convenient pieces and remove all the larger bones. Pack the fish in a stoneware, not earthenware, jar. Sprinkle with a quarter of a cupful of salt, a saltspoonful of paprika, half a cupful of whole mixed spices, cloves, peppercorns, and allspice in about equal quantities. Cover with vinegar. The salt and spices should be strewed on the fish as it is put in the jar. Cover and bake in a slow oven six hours. Take off the cover while it cools, then cover again. Keep in a cool place. SEPTEMBER 14TH "If thou tastest a crust of bread, thou tastest all the stars and all the heavens." — ^Robert Browning ("Paracelsus"). [illustration: ]PULLED bread" is a gastronomic blessing to the dyspeptic American. Take a loaf of fresh bread while it is still warm, break it in P