The Pattern cook-book

One cupful of oatmeal. Four cupfuls of water. One tea-spoonful of salt. Place the meal in the double boiler with the water and salt, and do not stir it. Cover the kettle tightly, and keep the water in the under kettle boiling. The mush should cook three hours. This length of boiling is not possible before breakfast if done in the morning ; therefore, the mush should be cooked the day before it is needed. Leave it in the kettle over night, and in the morning add half a cupful of boiling water, replenish the hot water in the lower kettle, and set the whole to heat while the remainder of the breakfast is being prepared. If steamed or rolled oats are liked, they can be cooked in the morning in half an hour, allowing a cupful of meal to one quart of water and a tea-spoonful of salt. Stir up two or three times, and during the last five minutes remove the cover from the kettle to allow the steam to escape, so that the mush will not be too moist when served. WHEAT GERM MUSH. Wheat Germ is the name given a fine meal obtained from the heart of the wheat. Place a quart of boilingwater in the upper portion of the double boiler, having water boiling also, in the lower portion. Gradually sprinkle in a cupful of the germs, add a tea-spoonful of salt, and stir constantly until the mixture boils. Cook twenty minutes, and serve with sugar and cream or milk, or with syrup. This makes a pleasant change from oatmeal and cracked wheat. Any of the mush left over may be fried like corn meal mush or hominy. GRITS OR SMALL-HOMINY MUSH. Buy only the fine white hominy. Wash a cupful of the hominy in three waters, stir it into a quart of boiling water, add a tea-spoonful of salt, and boil for half an hour. FRIED GRITS. Pour the hominy mush while hot into a deep dish that has just been dipped in cold water. When the mush is cold, cut it into slices, sprinkle these with flour, and fry in just enough fat to keep them from burning. This mush requires a long time to brown, and the pan should be covered, as the fat spatters. CORN MUSH. This is usually made by gradually sprinkling a pint of corn meal into three pints of boiling water, stirring constantly, adding two tea-spoonfuls of salt, and boiling slowly for three hours. Keep the kettle covered during the boiling, and add water if the mush becomes too thick. Serve with milk and sugar. Place all the mush that is left after the first meal in an earthenware dish which has been previously wet with cold water, to be fried when cold. One of the large baking-powder tins is also a very convenient receptable to use for this purpose, as the mush when cold can be easily slipped out of it and the slices wdll be round and most inviting. The tin should be wet before the mush is poured in. Another method of cooking corn mush is as follows : Put on a quart of water to boil. Stir a pint of cold milk with a pint of corn meal and a tea-spoonful of salt. When the water boils pour this mixture gradually into it, stirring all the time. There is less likelihood of the mush being lumpy when mixed in this way. FRIED CORN MUSH.