Cookery for beginners

Make a nice custard ; let it get perfectly cold, and pile on it, instead of the whipped egg, a large cupful of grated cocoanut, sprinkling it on carefully, not to disturb the custard. Eat with sponge cake. Blanc-mange. Like custard, this is the base — the central idea, or fact — of numberless elegant compounds, and is delightful in its simplest form. One package of Cooper's gelatine. Three pints of fresh, sweet milk. One even cupful of white sugar. One half teaspoonful of salt. One teaspoonful of vanilla or other essence. Soda as large as a pea, put into the milk. Soak the gelatine three hours in a cupful of cold water. Then heat the milk (salted) in a farina kettle. When it is scalding, stir in without taking the vessel from the fire, the sugar and soaked gelatine. Stir three minutes after it is boiling hot, arid strain through a coarse cloth into a bowl. Let it get almost cold before adding the flavoring. Wet a clean mould with cold water; pour in the blanc-mange and set on ice, or in a cold place until firm. Dip a cloth in hot water, wring until it will not drip, wrap about the mould, turn bottom upward on a flat dish, and shake gently to dislodge the contents. Eat with powdered sugar and cream. Chocolate Custard. Five minutes before taking the custard from the fire, add to it three heaping tablespoonfuls of grated chocolate rubbed to a paste with a little cold milk. Stir until the mixture is of a rich coffee color. Turn out, and when cold, flavor with vanilla and put into glasses. Whip the whites of three eggs to a smooth meringue beat . in three tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, and heap upon the brown mixture. Chocolate Blanc-mange. (Our French scholars will say that this should be termed *^ Brun-mange*') Mix with the soaked gelatine four heaping tablespoonfuls of grated chocolate, and stir into the scalding milk, and treat as above directed. In straining, squeeze the bag hard to extract all the coloring matter. Flavor with vanilla. Coffee Blanc-mange. Soak the gelatine in a cupful of strong, clear black coffee, instead of the cold water, and proceed as with plain blanc-mange, using no other flavoring than the coffee. Tea Blanc-mange Is made in the same way by substituting for the water very strong, mixed tea. Eat with powdered sugar and cream. Pineapple Trifle. One package of gelatine. Two cups of white sugar. One small pineapple, peeled and cut into bits. One-half teaspoonful of nutmeg. Juice and grated peel of a lemon. Three cups of boiling water. Whites of four eggs. Soak the gelatine four hours in a cup of cold water. Put into a bowl with the sugar, nutmeg, lemon-juice, and rind and minced pineapple. Rub the fruit hard into the mixture with a wooden spoon, and let all stand together, covered, two hours. Then pour upon it the boiling water and stir until the gelatine is dissolved. Line a colander with a double thickness of clean flannel, and strain the mixture through it, squeezing and wringing the cloth hard, to get the full flavor of the fruit. Set on ice until cold, but not until it is hard. It should be just ''jellied*' around the ' edges, when you begin to whip the whites of the eggs in a bowl set in ice water. When they are quite stiff, beat in a spoonful at a time the gelatine. Whip, a minute after adding each supply to mix it in perfectly. Half an hour's work with the "Dover" will give you a white spongy mass, pleasing alike to eye and taste. Wet a mould with cold water, put in the sponge and set on ice until you are ready to turn it out. This is a delicious dessert. For pineapple substitute strawberries, raspberries, or peaches. A Simple Susan. * Two cups of fine, dry bread crumbs. Three cups of chopped apple.