Virginia Cookery-book

To have it in perfection, it should be made early in the morning, spread out thin on dishes to cool and rise, and only cut into little square cakes to fry just before dinnertime. Gruel. This is made from various grains; but if you ask for " gruel " in Virginia, it will be always understood that you mean Indian-meal gruel, as corn-meal is one of the staple articles of diet there. It is made thus : mix two spoonfuls of sifted corn-meal in a very little water ; have ready a clean skillet, with a pint of boiling water in it ; stir it gradually in, and let it stay over the fire until the meal is done ; then season it with salt to your taste, or sugar if you prefer it. Arrow-root. (E. B. Lea.) Bermuda arrow-root is the best. Moisten two teaspoonfuls of powdered arrow-root with water, and rub it smooth with a spoon ; then pour in a very little boiling water, and stir it well, and afterwards a teacupful of boiling water ; season it with lemon- juice, or wine apd nutmeg. In cooking arrow-root for children, it is a very good way to make it very thick, and thin it afterwards with milk. Tapioca Jelly. <B. E. Lea.) Wash the tapioca well, and let it soak for several hours in cold water ; put it in a saucepan with the same water, and let it boil slowly till it is clear and thick ; then season it with wine and loaf-sugar. The pearl tapioca will require less time to soak, and no washing. [illustration: VIRGINIA COOKERY-BOOK, 311] Sago. (S. E. Lea.) Wash the sago and soak it an hour ; boil it slowly till it thickens ; sweeten it with loaf -sugar, and season it with wine or lemon-juice. Bye Mush. (Mifls Leslie.) This is a nourishing and light diet for the sick, and is by some preferred to mush made of Indian-meal. Four large table-spoonfuls of rye-flour mixed smooth in a little water, and stirred into a pint of boiling water; let it boil twenty minutes, stirring frequently. Nervous persons, who sleep badly, rest much better after a supper of com or rye mush than if they take tea or coffee. Cremo. Two eggs, a pint of milk, three dessert-spoonfuls of flour, two even table-spoonfuls of white sugar. Beat the yolks of the two eggs with the sugar; put the milk on the fire in a stewpan, and when it boils pour it over the eggs and sugar, stirring rapidly. Meanwhile, mix the flour smoothly with a little cold milk; return the custard to the fire, and stir in the paste, continuing to stir until the whole is well thickened; add any delicate flavoring that you prefer. Place the cremo in a pretty china dish that will just hold it, and, when cold, wisk the two whites to a froth with a table-spoonful of pulverized sugar, and pile over the top meringue fashion; brown slightly by holding within an inch of it a shovel heated to a white heat. Eggnog. Beat the yolk of an egg until it is very light and thick; add a dessert-spoonful of sugar and a table-spoonful of French brandy; now pour to it a gill of milk or cream, and beating the white of the eg^ until it can stand alone, mix all well together, and serve to your patient as directed by his physician. Mint Julep. This is so valuable a remedy, especially in cases of cholera infantum^ that every garden should have growing a little patch of branch mint. Put a dessert-spoonful of fine white sugar in the bottom of a tumbler; beat up fine enough ice to fill it; add to it four or five sprigs of mint and a table-spoonful of brandy; mix all together well with a spoon, and administer to a child a very little at a time until it appears to be revived. Prunes.