The home cook book

Choose large cabbages with white heads, take off the outer leaves and shred the cabbages very fine. Lay the outer leaves round the sides and bottom of a cask or tub. Then put in the shredded cabbage in layers about three inches deep, sprinkling each layer with a handful of salt. Press down the layers and repeat the cabbage and salt till you have used your material. Then put on a layer of outer leaves, spread a cloth over the top and also a cover smaller than the top of the cask. Put a heavy weight on the cover — for instance, a perfectly clean stone. .Set the cask in a warm place till the cabbage begins to ferment, then set it in a cool place. In making the change skim off the scum, wash the cloth, and wash or replace the outer leaves. Let the fermentation go on between two and three weeks. The sauerkraut is then ready for use. TO COOK SAUERKRAUT Wash the sauerkraut well in water, drain and put in a pot holding boiling water. Cook till the sauerkraut is tender, which will be in from two to three hours. If the water boils out add boiling water. Sauerkraut is eaten with fresh and salt pork, with corned beef, with smoked sausage, and with similar hearty dishes. STEWED CARROTS Have your carrots tender and young, not hard and pithy, as they grow with age. Wash, scrape, and cut them in small dice, or cut in slices and the slices again in halves and quarters. So prepare a quart. Cover with boiling water and boil for nearly or quite an hour. Carrots are not apt to be tender with less cooking. Test to see, and boil longer if necessary. When tender, pour off the water, add a small pint of milk, a small teaspoon of salt, and stir in a heaping tablespoon of flour mixed with a heaping tablespoon of butter. Cook up and stir till the flour thickens the milk. Then serve. CARROTS WITH ONION Wash and scrape young carrots and cut them in slices and the slices again in halves and quarters. Cover with boiling water and boil an hour or until tender. Then pour off the water, put the carrots in a saucepan and to every pint of carrots stir in a tablespoon of butter blended with a tablespoon of flour and a pinch of salt. Let the carrots cook gently with this mixture, add a tablespoon of onion-juice or of minced onion and a dash of cayenne, allowing this quantity to a pint, and then serve hot. CAULIFLOWER Pick off all the outer leaves. Cut off some of the stalks, leaving enough to hold the cauliflower together while boiling. Wash it thoroughly in cold water. Put in a granite pot and cover with boiling water. Salt to taste, which will be near a tablespoon. Boil it steadily. It takes about fifteen minutes' steady boiling for a good-sized head of cauliflower, and ten minutes' for a small one. When done, take from the pot and carefully cut it apart. Lay it on a napkin in a hot vegetable dish. Turn the corners of the napkin over it. Serve with drawn butter. STEWED CELERY