This is the whole wheat just crushed or cut like the
coarse oat meal, but unlike the meal. It will keep a long
time. It is cooked the same as oat meal. That which is
cut makes a handsomer dish than the crushed, but the latter
cooks more quickly.
Hominy.
This is made from corn, and it comes in a number of
sizes, beginning with samp and ending with a grade nearly
as fine as coarse -granulated sugar. The finest grade is
really the best, so many nice dishes can be made with it
which you cannot make with the coarse. Hominy will keep
a long time, and it can be bought in five-pound package or
by the barrel.
Sugar.
The fine-granulated sugar is the best and cheapest for
general family use. It is pure and dry ; therefore, there is
more in one pound of it than in a damp, brown sugar,
besides its sweetening power being considerably greater.
The price of sugar at wholesale is not much less than at
retail, but time and trouble are saved by purchasing by the
barrel.
GROCERIES. 59
Spice.
It is well to keep on hand all kinds of spice, both whole
and ground. They should not be in large quantities, as a
good cook will use them very sparingly, and a good house-
keeper will have too much regard for the health of her
family and the delicacy of her food to have them used
lavishly. For soups and sauces the whole spice is best,
as it gives a delicate flavor, and does not color. A small
wooden or tin box should be partly filled with whole mace,
cloves, allspice and cinnamon, and a smaller paste-board
box, full of pepper-corns, should be placed in it. By this
plan you will have all your spices together when you season
a soup or sauce.
English Currants.
These keep well, and if cleaned, washed and well dried,
will improve in flavor by being kept.
Raisins.
In large families, if this fruit is much used, it is well to
buy by the box. Time does not improve raisins.
Soda, Cream of Tartar, Baking- Powder.
There should not be so much of these articles used as to
require that they be purchased in large quantities. Cream
of tartar is expensive, soda cheap. If one prefers to use
baking powders there will be no need of cream of tartar,
but the soda will still be required for gingerbread and brown
bread, and to use with sour milk, etc. The advantage of
baking powder is that it is prepared by chemists who know
just the proportion of soda to use with the acid (which
should be cream of tartar) , and the result will be invariable
if the cook is exact in measuring the other ingredients.
When an inexperienced cook uses the soda and cream of
tartar there is apt to be a little too much of one or the
60 MISS PAKLOA'S NEW COOK BOOK.
other. Just now, with the failure of the grape crops in
France, from which a greater part of the crystals in use come,
cream of tarter is extremely high, and substitutes, such as
phosphates, are being used.
To be Always Kept on Hand.
Page 20
Presented as published in 1880. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
This is the whole wheat just crushed or cut like the coarse oat meal, but unlike the meal. It will keep a long time. It is cooked the same as oat meal. That which is cut makes a handsomer dish than the crushed, but the latter cooks more quickly.
Hominy.
This is made from corn, and it comes in a number of sizes, beginning with samp and ending with a grade nearly as fine as coarse -granulated sugar. The finest grade is really the best, so many nice dishes can be made with it which you cannot make with the coarse. Hominy will keep a long time, and it can be bought in five-pound package or by the barrel.
Sugar.
The fine-granulated sugar is the best and cheapest for general family use. It is pure and dry ; therefore, there is more in one pound of it than in a damp, brown sugar, besides its sweetening power being considerably greater. The price of sugar at wholesale is not much less than at retail, but time and trouble are saved by purchasing by the barrel.
GROCERIES. 59
Spice.
It is well to keep on hand all kinds of spice, both whole and ground. They should not be in large quantities, as a good cook will use them very sparingly, and a good housekeeper will have too much regard for the health of her family and the delicacy of her food to have them used lavishly. For soups and sauces the whole spice is best, as it gives a delicate flavor, and does not color. A small wooden or tin box should be partly filled with whole mace, cloves, allspice and cinnamon, and a smaller paste-board box, full of pepper-corns, should be placed in it. By this plan you will have all your spices together when you season a soup or sauce.
English Currants.
These keep well, and if cleaned, washed and well dried, will improve in flavor by being kept.
Raisins.
In large families, if this fruit is much used, it is well to buy by the box. Time does not improve raisins.
Soda, Cream of Tartar, Baking- Powder.
There should not be so much of these articles used as to require that they be purchased in large quantities. Cream of tartar is expensive, soda cheap. If one prefers to use baking powders there will be no need of cream of tartar, but the soda will still be required for gingerbread and brown bread, and to use with sour milk, etc. The advantage of baking powder is that it is prepared by chemists who know just the proportion of soda to use with the acid (which should be cream of tartar) , and the result will be invariable if the cook is exact in measuring the other ingredients. When an inexperienced cook uses the soda and cream of tartar there is apt to be a little too much of one or the
other. Just now, with the failure of the grape crops in France, from which a greater part of the crystals in use come, cream of tarter is extremely high, and substitutes, such as phosphates, are being used.
To be Always Kept on Hand.