Marion Harland
The Dinner Year-Book
Enriched edition. A Culinary Journey Through 19th Century Dining Customs
In this enriched edition, we have carefully created added value for your reading experience.
Introduction, Studies and Commentaries by Courtney Middleton
Edited and published by Good Press, 2022
EAN 4057664606549
Table of Contents
Introduction
Synopsis (Selection)
Historical Context
The Dinner Year-Book
Analysis
Reflection
Memorable Quotes
Introduction
Table of Contents
At its heart, The Dinner Year-Book turns the nightly question of what to serve into a year-long practice of attentive planning, seasonal judgment, and hospitable economy, inviting cooks to think not only about recipes but about rhythm, resources, markets, and the daily art of making a household feel fed, orderly, and at ease.
Written by Marion Harland, the pen name of American author and domestic adviser Mary Virginia Terhune, this work stands at the crossroads of cookbook and household manual in the late nineteenth-century United States. It belongs to a moment when practical guides for the home flourished, addressing readers navigating changing urban markets, expanding transportation, and enduring regional habits. The book’s scope is dinner, approached not as a single occasion but as a repeating responsibility. Within that historical context, it offers a structured answer to the pressures of time, budget, and season that shaped everyday meals for a broad, aspiring middle-class readership.
As its title suggests, the book is organized with the calendar in mind, aligning menus and recipes with the ebb and flow of the seasons. Harland’s voice is practical and companionable, favoring clear directions and workable routines over grand culinary display. The experience it offers is methodical rather than flashy: planning ahead, shopping with purpose, and cooking with an eye to timing and sequence. Readers encounter guidance that moves from market to kitchen to table with calm authority, presenting a steady cadence meant to make dinner both predictable and pleasurable, even when resources are limited or time is short.
Several themes anchor its enduring appeal. Seasonality encourages cooks to adapt meals to what is freshest and most affordable, while economy frames thrift as a form of care rather than deprivation. Hospitality appears not as extravagance, but as the disciplined practice of feeding well within one’s means. The book elevates domestic labor as craft, highlighting how small, repeated decisions—what to buy, how to combine, when to serve—become the structure of a household’s comfort. Flexibility is prized: substitutions, sensible portioning, and the intelligent reuse of ingredients turn constraints into opportunities for nourishment and variety.
Readers encounter a blueprint for translating intention into daily action. The instructions emphasize forethought, from selecting complementary dishes that share preparation steps to planning how leftovers can anchor future meals. Ingredients are treated with respect, with suggestions that favor availability and sound judgment over extravagance. The tone is reassuring, nudging the cook toward consistent habits that reduce waste, control costs, and keep the table interesting across the year. Rather than prescribing rigid rules, the book models a way of thinking—observant, frugal, and adaptable—that makes dinner manageable without sacrificing satisfaction or social grace.
The Dinner Year-Book also reflects its cultural moment, when domestic advice literature offered authority and companionship to readers seeking steadiness amid social change. It captures the texture of American household life as it balanced regional foodways with growing access to wider markets. The work acknowledges, by implication, the gendered realities of its era, yet it also treats domestic judgment as serious expertise. In doing so, it stands alongside other nineteenth-century guides that translated experience into method, giving readers tools to coordinate time, taste, and circumstance in an age before widely standardized recipes and mass-produced convenience foods.
For contemporary readers, its relevance is striking. The emphasis on seasonal planning aligns with current interests in sustainability and local sourcing; its economies of time and money speak to busy schedules and careful budgets; its patient tone counters decision fatigue with steadiness and clarity. As a reading experience, it offers both practical counsel and historical perspective, revealing how households have long met the same recurring problem with ingenuity and care. Approached as a guide, a companion, or a window into domestic history, The Dinner Year-Book invites a mindful approach to dinner that still nourishes body and household alike.
Synopsis (Selection)
Table of Contents
The Dinner Year-Book, by Marion Harland, is a practical guide that organizes dinner menus and recipes across an entire calendar year. It addresses household managers who need reliable, seasonally appropriate plans, emphasizing economy, variety, and order. The book sets out to reduce daily uncertainty by supplying complete bills of fare for every day, linked to detailed instructions. Harland frames the work as a method, not merely a collection, pairing menus with notes on timing, quantities, and substitutions. The central purpose is to systematize dinner, harmonizing market availability with family nutrition and taste, so that consistent, well-served meals become routine rather than exceptional.
Harland opens with introductory counsel on how to use the calendar format, then proceeds month by month. Each month begins with remarks on the season, prevailing prices, and what meats, fish, and vegetables are in best condition. Following this overview, daily menus are listed, typically comprising a soup or first course, a principal dish, one or more vegetables or relishes, and a sweet. The associated recipes and notes appear with the day’s entry, enabling cooks to assemble the meal as a coordinated whole. Guidance on shopping lists, expected quantities, and approximate preparation sequences helps align kitchen work with household schedules.
Seasonality anchors the plan. The book identifies which ingredients are abundant, economical, or scarce as weather shifts, and adapts menus accordingly. Winter weeks feature hearty roasts, sustaining soups, and preserved fruits, while spring and summer emphasize lighter courses, fresh greens, and chilled dishes. Harland explains how to judge freshness in market stalls, how to store perishable goods, and how to maintain a dependable pantry of staples. She recommends substitutions when supply is irregular, encouraging flexibility without sacrificing balance. The result is a yearly rhythm that links the table to the market, moderating cost and ensuring variety without excess.
Across the months, the book places particular weight on soups and broths, presenting them as economical foundations for dinner. It details methods for making clear stocks, thickened purees, and cream-based soups, using bones, trimmings, and vegetables to extract flavor. Instructions emphasize skimming, seasoning, and timing, with suggestions for preparing base stock in advance. Harland shows how first courses prepare the appetite without overwhelming the meal, and how simple relishes can accompany them. These recipes model the book’s method: careful planning, practical thrift, and results that can be repeated. Soups exemplify how attention to process yields consistent comfort and economy.
Main courses range from boiled and roasted meats to stews, poultry, fish, and occasional game, presented with precise temperatures, carving notes, and suitable gravies or sauces. Harland discusses browning, basting, and moist cooking for tougher cuts, and advises on marinades to improve flavor and tenderness. Frying is treated cautiously, with direction on fats, heat control, and drainage. Fish is handled with attention to freshness and delicate seasoning. Throughout, the recipes integrate with the menus, indicating accompaniments and order of serving. The focus remains on dependable outcomes in ordinary kitchens, using common equipment and methods that conserve time and fuel.
Side dishes and breads receive sustained attention to complete the plate. The book outlines methods for boiling, baking, and glazing vegetables to preserve color and texture, and suggests pairings that contrast richer meats with crisp or acidic sides. Bread, rolls, and biscuits are treated as daily necessities, with yeast management, kneading, and oven cues explained. Salads appear regularly, dressed simply or with mayonnaise, and garnished from the season. Pickles and relishes introduce brightness that stretches heavier menus. Harland's notes describe how these elements stabilize the table, using reliable staples to carry the meal and minimize waste between market days.
Desserts close each dinner with measured indulgence. The collection includes custards, puddings, pies, cakes, jellies, and frozen creams, chosen to suit weather and occasion. Summer menus favor fruit, ices, and light gelatins; colder months turn to steamed or baked puddings and spiced confections. Instructions address thickening agents, baking times, and unmolding techniques, with care to avoid needless extravagance. Coffee and tea service is considered part of the cadence, often paired with simple sweets. By aligning confections with the rest of the bill of fare, the book keeps dinner coherent, reserving elaborate pastries for company days and suggesting plainer options for routine.
Economy and management recur as guiding themes. Harland devotes space to reheated dishes and planned-overs, transforming remnants of roasts into croquettes, hashes, pies, and stews. She proposes time-saving sequences, such as baking multiple items while the oven is hot, and outlines adaptations for small households or limited help. Special days appear within the calendar, including fast or Lenten dinners built around fish and vegetables, and holiday menus with more courses. Contingency advice covers substitutions when markets disappoint. The emphasis is steady competence: organize tasks, anticipate needs, and use yesterday’s work to secure today’s dinner without loss of quality.
Company dinners and table service are treated with straightforward instruction. The book offers sample progressions of courses, suggestions for spacing and temperature, and hints on arranging the table, carving neatly, and serving without confusion. It closes with indexes that group recipes by ingredient and course, enabling quick reference beyond the daily plan. The overall message is practical self-reliance shaped by the seasons: a household can maintain variety, thrift, and hospitality by following a consistent method. The Dinner Year-Book functions as a working calendar and a reference in one, turning the recurring problem of dinner into an organized routine.
Historical Context
Table of Contents
Marion Harland’s The Dinner-Year Book, first published in New York in 1878, belongs to the domestic culture of the American Gilded Age. Written by Mary Virginia Terhune (1830–1922), a Virginian who had resettled in the urban Northeast, the book organizes a year of dinners around seasonal markets and the realities of late nineteenth-century kitchens. Coal and early gas ranges, home iceboxes supplied by the commercial ice trade, and expanding urban markets like New York’s Washington Market shaped its practical advice. It presupposes a middle-class household with access to city vendors and rail-borne produce, reflecting the pace, abundance, and constraints of metropolitan life circa 1870–1890.
Post–Civil War Reconstruction (1865–1877) reconfigured American society through emancipation and constitutional change: the Thirteenth (1865), Fourteenth (1868), and Fifteenth (1870) Amendments, alongside federal enforcement measures like the Enforcement Acts (1870–1871). Economic dislocation in the South, migration, and the politics of reunion altered the nation’s foodways. Harland, raised in Virginia but publishing for a Northern market, translated Southern household knowledge—cornmeal breads, beaten biscuits, hominy, and long-simmered meats—into menus intelligible to Northern readers. The Dinner-Year Book thus mirrors reunion-era exchange: it normalizes regional dishes within a national table, softening sectional boundaries through shared methods, measured thrift, and seasonality forged in postwar scarcity.
Rapid urbanization and mass immigration transformed American markets between 1870 and 1900. New York City’s population rose from 813,669 (1860) to over 1.5 million (1890), supplied by arrivals processed at Castle Garden (1855–1890) and, after 1892, at Ellis Island. Irish, German, Italian, and Eastern European Jewish communities diversified stalls at Fulton Fish Market and Washington Market, enlarging access to macaroni, sausages, pickled fish, and fresh herbs. The Dinner-Year Book reflects this marketplace pluralism in its familiarity with macaroni, ragouts, and cured meats, while prescribing seasonally prudent buying. By instructing readers how to shop and cook within such markets, Harland embeds immigrant-era abundance—and its required discernment—into everyday domestic routines.
Industrial transport and cold-chain innovations changed what urban cooks could serve. The Transcontinental Railroad (joined at Promontory Summit, Utah, in 1869) linked Pacific produce to Eastern tables. Mechanical refrigeration on rails advanced after Gustavus Swift’s refrigerated car (commercialized in 1877), enabling Chicago’s Union Stock Yards (opened 1865) to ship dressed beef nationwide. California citrus and Florida vegetables rode new routes by the 1880s, while the American ice trade peaked in the 1870s–1880s, sustaining urban iceboxes. The Dinner-Year Book presupposes this infrastructure: it offers fish, meats, and winter greens as obtainable and advises on ice management and storage. Its month-by-month menus embody the synthesis of seasonality with railroad-enabled reach.
The domestic science movement, led by figures such as Ellen Swallow Richards (MIT, class of 1873), pressed for sanitary kitchens, measured recipes, and economical nutrition. Experiments in practical nutrition and public kitchens—the New England Kitchen (Boston, 1890) and the Rumford Kitchen at the World’s Columbian Exposition (Chicago, 1893)—popularized standards of cleanliness, portioning, and fuel efficiency. Though predating some institutional milestones, The Dinner-Year Book aligns with this ethos: Harland specifies orderly kitchen routines, careful timing, and economies in using leftovers, bones, and broths. Her insistence on reliable measures, ventilation, scalding of utensils, and methodical planning anticipates home economics’ codification, translating emerging hygienic science into workable, daily menus for household managers.
Food purity and temperance campaigns shaped late nineteenth-century kitchens. Urban adulteration scandals—most notoriously swill milk in New York—encouraged state-level laws (e.g., Massachusetts, 1882) and, later, federal oversight led by USDA chemist Harvey W. Wiley (appointed 1883), culminating in the Pure Food and Drug Act (1906). The Women’s Christian Temperance Union (founded 1874), under Frances Willard (president from 1879), promoted sober, healthful households. The Dinner-Year Book participates in these concerns by favoring trustworthy sources, boiling milk, emphasizing cleanliness in meat and fish handling, and offering menus that minimize spirits or provide substitutes. Its purchasing cautions and sanitary directives register middle-class anxieties about adulteration and moral reform in the pantry.
Economic turbulence and new consumer systems framed household budgeting. The Panic of 1873 triggered a prolonged downturn through 1879, sharpening demand for economical cuts, thrifty stews, and re-use of roasts—strategies the book makes routine. Gas service spread in the 1870s–1880s, complementing coal ranges; mass-produced cookware and mail-order retail (Montgomery Ward, 1872; Sears, 1893) standardized tools and ingredients. National rituals also guided menus: Thanksgiving, made a recurring national observance by Lincoln in 1863 and recognized in the 1870 federal holidays law, and Decoration Day (Memorial Day) established by the Grand Army of the Republic in 1868. Harland’s calendared dinners accommodate such civic feasts with seasonal poultry, pies, and cold collations for summer observances.
As a social document, The Dinner-Year Book critiques Gilded Age excess by institutionalizing prudence, sanitation, and ethical consumption. It elevates the household manager—typically a woman without political rights before 1920—into a rational economic actor, validating female expertise in supply chains, budgeting, and public health. Its warnings about adulterated goods and insistence on reputable butchers and dairymen anticipate consumer-protection politics. By integrating Southern dishes with Northern market habits, it rebukes sectional chauvinism through practical reconciliation at table. Finally, its parallel menus for modest family dinners and company meals expose class divides while proposing competence, not ostentation, as the period’s domestic ideal and civic contribution.
The Dinner Year-Book
Main Table of Contents
Familiar Talk with the Reader.
Touching Saucepans.
JANUARY.
Beef Soup.
Chicken smothered with Oysters.
Celery Salad.
Cauliflower au gratin .
Mashed Potatoes.
Stewed Tomatoes.
Blanc Mange.
Cocoa.
Sponge Cake.
Soup À l’Italienne.
Breaded Mutton Chops—Baked.
Macaroni with Tomato Sauce.
Potato Puff.
Corn-starch Hasty Pudding.
Coffee.
Scotch Broth.
Rolled Beefsteaks.
Cabbage Salad.
Browned Potatoes.
Baked Beans.
Apple and Tapioca Pudding.
Hard Sauce.
Split Pea Soup.
Halibut Steaks—Fried.
Leg of Mutton—Boiled.
Caper Sauce.
Spinach.
Stewed Potatoes.
Cottage Pudding.
Sauce for Cottage Pudding.
Vermicelli Soup.
Scalloped Oysters.
Mince of Mutton with Potato Frill.
Potato Frill.
Baked Tomatoes.
Celery—Raw.
Tipsy Trifle.
Apples and Nuts.
Soupe Maigre.
Boiled Cod.
Sauce.
Roast Duck.
Bread Sauce.
Mashed Potatoes.
Rice Croquettes.
Stewed Celery.
Apple Pie.
Macaroni Soup.
Ham and Eggs.
Salmi of Duck.
Fried Parsnips.
Stewed Salsify.
Sweet Potatoes—in Jackets.
Rosie’s Rice Custard.
Soupe au Julienne.
Roast Turkey.
Cranberry Sauce.
Mashed Potatoes—Browned.
Stewed Corn.
Celery
Tropical Snow.
Next Day’s Soup.
Turkey Scallop.
Panned Oysters.
Roast Potatoes.
Tomato Sauce.
Floating Island.
Tea.
Mutton Soup with Tapioca.
Salmon Pudding.
Sauce for the above.
Beefsteak.
Potatoes à la Lyonnaise.
Macaroni with Cheese.
Susie’s Bread Pudding.
Bean Soup.
Fillet of Veal—Stuffed.
Baked Corn.
Potato Cakes.
Canned String-Beans.
Baked Apple Dumplings.
Brandy Sauce.
Veal and Sago Soup.
Jugged Rabbit.
Scalloped Potatoes.
Sweet Potatoes—Fried.
Minced Celery with Egg Dressing.
Macaroni and Almond Pudding.
Fish Chowder.
Fricasseed Chicken—White.
Potatoes à l’Italienne.
Tomatoes Stewed with Onion.
Cheese Fondu.
Sponge Gingerbread.
Chocolate.
Clear Gravy Soup.
Oyster Salad.
Calf’s Liver à la Mode.
Salsify Fritters.
Potatoes à la Duchesse.
Corn-Meal Fruit Pudding.
Tomato Soup.
Roast Beef, with Yorkshire Pudding.
Yorkshire Pudding.
Macaroni al Napolitano.
Potatoes au Naturel
French Beans, Sauté.
Apple Sauce.
Made Mustard.
Narcissus Blanc-mange.
Variety Soup.
Beef Pudding.
Scored Potatoes.
Canned Peas.
Apple Méringue.
Celery Soup.
Veal Cutlets and Ham.
Cauliflower with Cream Sauce.
Stewed Potatoes.
Mixed Pickles,
Jam Pudding.
Tea, and Albert Biscuits
Sheep’s-head Soup.
Roast Hare.
Macaroni and Ham.
Stuffed Potatoes.
Turnips.
Fig Pudding.
Veal and Rice Broth.
Mutton à la Jardinière.
Potato Puff.
Pork and Beans.
Minced Pudding.
Apples, Nuts, and Raisins
Purée of Peas.
Fried Bass.
Mashed Potatoes
Roast Chicken.
Crab-apple Jelly
Stewed Celery.
Fried Salsify.
Margherita Lemon Custard.
English Soup.
Mutton Chops—Broiled.
Sweet Pickles
Browned Potato.
Stewed Tomatoes.
Orange Fritters.
Beehive Sauce.
Coffee
German Sago Soup.
Boiled Turkey and Oyster Sauce.
Oyster Sauce.
Savory Rice Pudding.
Potatoes au Maître d’Hôtel.
Celery and Grape Jelly
Mince Pie.
Bananas and Oranges
Combination Soup.
Mince of Fowl.
Turkey Salad.
Sweet Potatoes—Baked.
Brussels Sprouts.
Sweet Macaroni.
Chocolate .
Mother’s Soup.
Beefsteak with Onions.
Mixed Pickles
Sweet and Irish Potatoes—Chopped.
Corn and Tomatoes Stewed.
Crème du Thé, Café et Chocolat.
Lexington Soup.
Boiled Chickens and Macaroni.
Chow-Chow,
Parsnip Cakes.
Whipped Potatoes.
Jam Roley-Poley.
Wine Sauce.
Apples and Nuts,
White Soup.
Langue de Bœuf, or Beef’s Tongue.
Sauce Piquante.
Fried Brains and Green Peas.
Hominy Croquettes.
Cold Slaw.
Brown Betty.
Potato Soup.
Fried Oysters.
Roast Mutton.
Spinach à la Crème.
Potatoes Stewed Whole.
French Tapioca Custard.
Old Hare Soup.
Hot Pot.
Cucumber Pickles
Turnips with White Sauce.
Boiled Rice au Genève.
Cabinet Pudding.
Cabinet Pudding Sauce.
FEBRUARY.
Clear Vermicelli Soup.
Stewed Ducks.
Fried Apples and Bacon.
Potatoes à la Reine.
Mashed Carrots.
Potato Pie.
Oranges and Bananas.
Blanche’s Soup.
Duck Paté.
Sweet Potatoes, Boiled.
Succotash.
Cup Custards—Boiled.
Cut, or Fancy Cake,
Family Soup.
Rolled Beef.
Browned Potatoes—Whole.
Baked Tomatoes.
Apple Sauce.
Unity Pudding.
Cream Sauce.
Split Pea Soup.
Fricasseed Chicken—Brown.
Ladies’ Cabbage.
Baked Potatoes.
Stewed Salsify.
Soft Gingerbread.
Café au Lait.
Dundee Broth.
Baked Calf’s Head.
French Beans and Fried Brains.
Stewed Tomatoes.
Potatoes in Cases.
Snowballs.
Sweet Cream.
Calf’s Feet Soup.
Salt Mackerel, with Cream Sauce.
Mashed Potatoes,
Larded Sweetbreads, Stewed.
Stewed Celery.
Omelette Soufflé.
Tea and Toasted Crackers.
Gravy and Sago Soup.
Boiled Corned Beef.
Mashed Turnips.
Cauliflower, with Sauce.
Sauce for the above.
Baked Macaroni.
Jelly Tartlets.
Apples and Nuts,
Mock Turtle Bean Soup.
Haunch of Venison.
Mashed Potatoes—Moulded.
Lima Beans.
Sweet Potatoes—Browned.
Wine Jelly with Whipped Cream.
Coffee and Macaroons
“Second Thoughts” Soup.
Larded Venison.
Scalloped Tomatoes.
Fried Sweet Potatoes.
Raspberry and Currant Jelly Tart.
Clam Soup.
Ragoût of Veal.
Rice and Cheese.
Potato Puff.
Celery Salad.
A Mere Trifle.
Hotch-Potch.
Stewed Pigeons.
Potatoes à la Lyonnaise.
Kidney Beans.
English Tapioca Pudding.
Celery Soup.
Mutton Cutlets—Fried.
Mashed Potatoes.
Stewed Corn and Tomatoes.
Brussels Sprouts.
Apple Méringue Pie.
Friars’ Soup.
Oyster Pie.
Calf’s Liver à l’Anglaise.
Potatoes au Gratin.
Stewed Parsnips.
Picklette and Apple Sauce.
Chocolate Custard.
Macaroni Soup.
Baked Ham.
Cheese Fondu.
Spinach with Eggs.
Stewed Potatoes.
Seymour Pudding.
Beef and Barley Soup.
Steamed Turkey.
Cranberry Sauce
Naples Rice Pudding.
Boiled Sweet Potatoes.
Pumpkin Pie.
Giblet Soup.
Turkey and Ham.
Corn Puddings.
Baked Potatoes.
Farina Custard.
Plain Calf’s Head Soup.
Boiled Mutton.
Minced Cabbage.
String Beans.
Beet-root Salad.
Corn-meal Puffs.
Marie’s Soup.
Ragoût of Calf’s Head and Mushrooms.
Mashed Turnips.
Creamed Potatoes.
Tomato Soy
Sponge-cake Pudding.
Nuts and Raisins.
Potage au Riz,
English Pork Pie.
Mock Stewed Oysters.
Potato Balls.
Lemon Jelly and Light Cake.
Lobster Bisque.
Stewed Chicken.
Rice Croquettes.
Winter Squash.
Apple Snow.
Tea and Macaroons.
Ayrshire Soup.
Mutton Chops and Tomato Purée.
Potato Strips.
Boiled Beans.
Macaroni Pudding.
Potato Soup.
Roast Beef.
Sweet Potatoes—Baked.
Baked Hominy.
Cabbage Salad.
Arrow-root Pudding—(Cold) .
Coffee
Bread Soup.
Cannelon of Beef.
Chow-chow
Potato Stew.
Pork and Beans.
Peach Batter Pudding.
Cream Soup.
Roast Breast of Veal.
Stewed Tomatoes.
Plain Boiled Potatoes.
Celery.
Essex Pudding.
Jelly Sauce.
Julienne Soup.
Halibut Steaks—Broiled.
Scalloped Potatoes.
Veal and Ham Pie.
Stewed Cauliflower.
Pancakes with Preserves.
Chicken Broth.
Chickens and Rice.
Potato Croquettes.
Boiled Sweet Potatoes.
Cold Slaw—Cream Dressing.
Poor Man’s Plum Pudding.
Wednesday’s Soup.
Boiled Cod.
Chicken Patés.
Cheese Fingers.
Mashed Potatoes and Mashed Turnips.
Sweet Potato Pudding.
Bean and Celery Soup.
Jugged Pigeons.
Shred Macaroni.
Brussels-Sprouts.
Sponge-Cake Fritters.
MARCH.
Mushroom Soup.
Roast Ducks.
Green Peas
Savory Scotch Pudding.
Spinach in a Mould.
Turret Cream.
Coffee.
Tomato and Bean Soup.
Ham and Eggs.
Fricassee of Duck.
Stewed Corn.
Glazed Potatoes.
Queen’s Pudding.
German Sago Soup.
Beefsteak and Onions.
French Beans Garnis with Sausages.
Hot Slaw.
Hasty Farina Pudding.
Baked Soup.
Devilled Lobster.
Calf’s Liver à la Mode.
Baked Celery.
Potatoes au Gratin, with Vermicelli.
Lemon Pudding.
Beef Soup with Barley.
Stuffed Loin of Veal.
Baked Tomatoes.
Kidney Beans with Sauce.
Plain Boiled Pudding.
Hard Sauce.
Oyster Soup.
Brown Fricassee of Chicken.
Ladies’ Cabbage.
Potatoes au Naturel.
Sliced Apple Pie.
A Plain Soup.
Breaded Mutton Chops.
Milanaise Potatoes.
Green Peas.
Cocoanut Sponge Pudding.
Tapioca Soup.
Roast Beef and Potato Balls.
Sliced Sweet Potatoes.
Cauliflower au Gratin.
Southern Rice Pudding—Méringued.
Hasty Soup.
Larded Beef.
Stewed Parsnips.
Browned Potatoes.
“Brown Betty.”
Tea and Albert Biscuit.
White Soup.
Boiled Shoulder of Mutton with Oysters.
Creamed Potatoes.
Baked Beans.
Cottage Puffs.
Giblet Soup.
Smothered Chickens.
Macaroni with Tomato Sauce.
Potato Chips.
Apple Cake.
Filling.
Coffee
Chicken Broth.
Rolled Beefsteak.
Salsify Fritters.
Scalloped Tomatoes.
Fig Custard Pudding.
Split Pea Soup, without Meat.
Baked Halibut.
Chicken and Ham Pudding.
Mashed Potatoes.
Mixed Pickles
Cottage Pudding.
Wine Sauce.
Bone Soup.
Pigeon Pie.
Roast Sweet Potatoes.
Baked Hominy.
Willie’s Favorite Pudding.
Macaroni Soup.
Roast Mutton.
Potato Rissoles.
Lettuce Salad.
Spinach à la Reine.
Transparent Puddings.
Coffee,
Savory Porridge.
Minced Mutton and Eggs.
Potatoes au Maître d’Hôtel.
String-Beans—Sauté.
Jaune Mange.
Quick Lobster Soup.
Roast Tenderloin of Beef.
Mashed Potatoes.
Canned Succotash.
Apple Trifle.
Lady’s-Fingers,
Mock-Turtle Soup.
Veal Cutlets and Brains.
Potatoes au Gratin.
Stewed Tomatoes and Onion.
Lettuce.
Steamed Bread Pudding.
Curry Soup.
Stewed Beef.
Bermuda Potatoes—au Naturel.
Baked Macaroni.
White Puffs.
Custard Sauce.
Clam Chowder.
Fried Weak Fish.
Braised Duck.
Purée of Green Peas.
Cauliflower à la Crème.
Corn-Meal Pudding without Eggs.
Chicken Broth.
Paté of Salt Cod.
Boiled Chicken and Rice.
Egg Sauce.
Mashed Turnips.
Ambrosia.
Café au Lait and Sponge-Cake.
A Good Stock Soup.
Beef à la Mode de Rome.
Potato Puff.
Hominy Croquettes.
Spinach.
Snow Custard.
Nuts and Raisins
Vermicelli Soup.
Browned Mince of Beef.
Stewed Potatoes—Creamed.
Broccoli.
Canned Peaches and Cream.
Myrtle’s Cake,
Barley Broth.
Boiled Leg of Mutton.
Oyster Sauce.
Kidney Beans.
Bermuda Potatoes—Baked.
Cocoanut Pudding.
Tomato Soup.
Salmon Pudding.
Swiss Turnovers.
Mashed Potatoes.
Lettuce Salad with Cream Dressing.
Wayne Pudding.
Ox-tail Soup.
Irish Stew.
Corn Pudding.
Potatoes à la Lyonnaise.
Queen’s Toast.
Réchauffé Soup.
Lobster Croquettes.
Chickens with Mushroom Sauce.
Cabbage Sprouts.
Boiled Macaroni.
Nursery Plum Pudding.
Dresden Soup.
Boiled Blue Fish.
Baked Calf’s Head.
Canned Succotash.
Casserole of Rice with Tomato Sauce.
Belle’s Dumplings.
APRIL.
Clear Soup.
Fricasseed Chickens—White.
Buttered Parsnips.
Savory Potatoes.
Lettuce Salad—Plain.
Pie-Plant (April) Fool.
Coffee and Cake
Milk and Bread Soup.
Larded Mutton Chops.
Green Peas.
Mashed Potatoes.
Corn-Meal Hasty Pudding.
Bean and Corn Soup.
Beefsteak Pudding.
Stewed Potatoes.
Mashed Turnips.
Cold Slaw.
Baked Chocolate Custards.
Fancy Cakes,
“Red Pottage.”
Boiled Cod with Caper Sauce.
Scalloped Chicken.
Mashed Potatoes—Browned.
Split Pea Pancakes.
Queen of Puddings.
Chicken Soup.
Mayonnaise of Fish.
Veal Chops with Tomato Sauce.
Macaroni with Eggs.
Potato Strips.
Jelly-Cake Fritters.
Graham Soup.
Scalloped Oysters.
Stewed Sweetbreads—Brown.
Moulded Potato.
Lettuce.
Quaking Custard.
Vermicelli Soup.
Glazed Ham.
Spinach à la Parisienne.
Chow-chow
Baked Potatoes.
Rhubarb Tart.
Pea and Rice Soup.
Fillet of Veal with Ham.
Potato Balls.
Stuffed Cabbage.
French Beans.
Charlotte Cachée.
Bird’s Nest in Jelly.
Ham and Egg Soup.
Veal Patés.
Creamed Parsnips.
Salad of Lettuce and Veal.
Mashed Potatoes.
Corn-Starch Hasty Pudding.
Mélange Soup.
Ragoût of Mutton.
Canned Corn Pudding.
Baked Tomatoes.
Peach Batter Pudding.
Eel Soup.
Boiled Chicken.
Potatoes à la Crème.
Rice Croquettes.
Steamed Corn-Meal Pudding.
Cream Almond Soup.
Beefsteak.
Chopped Potatoes.
Chicken Salad.
Moulded Spinach.
Soft Gingerbread.
Chocolate.
Oyster Soup.
Fillets of Halibut.
Paté of Sweetbreads.
Lima Beans.
Boston Cream Cakes.
Soup Verte.
Baked Mutton Cutlets.
Hominy Pudding.
Potato Cakes.
Lettuce.
Tapioca Pudding.
Calf’s Head Soup.
Imitation Turtle.
Chopped Macaroni.
String-Beans and Fried Brains.
Bermuda Potatoes.
Alice’s Pudding.
Coffee and Whipped Cream.
A Good White Soup.
Ham and Eggs.
Succotash.
Oyster Salad.
Stewed Potatoes.
Plain Macaroni Pudding.
Pot-au-feu.
Boiled Leg of Mutton.
Caper Sauce.
Potatoes à la Lyonnaise.
Stewed Pie-Plant.
Peach Lèche Crèma.
Scotch Broth.
Mutton Pie.
Stewed Tomatoes.
Cabbage Salad.
Lemon Puffs.
Soup à la Bonne Femme.
Corned Beef.
Mashed Turnips.
Scalloped Cauliflower.
Fried Potatoes.
Orange Cream Pie.
“Peas Porridge Hot.”
Baked Shad.
Miroton of Beef.
Cresses.
Spinach with Eggs.
An Ambushed Trifle.
Clam Soup.
Beefsteak.
Scalloped Tomatoes and Corn.
Whole Bermuda Potatoes.
Boiled Custards.
Ox Head Soup.
Roast Breast of Mutton.
Hominy Fritters.
Browned Potatoes.
Lettuce Salad.
Pine-apple Ambrosia.
Next Day Soup.
Pilau of Mutton.
Green Peas.
Cheese Fondu.
Farina Hasty Pudding with Sauce.
Crust Soup.
Mock Pigeons with Mushroom Sauce.
Baked Potatoes.
Cabbage Sprouts and Eggs.
Bread and Raisin Pudding.
Bouillon of Beef.
Tomato Omelette with Cheese.
Savory Rice Pudding.
Corn-Starch Custard Pie.
Frugal Soup.
Calf’s Liver à l’Anglaise.
Potato Croquettes.
Spinach and Eggs.
Cocoanut Pudding.
Onion Soup.
Salmon Croquettes.
Mutton Chops—Broiled.
Squeezed Potatoes.
Parsnip Fritters.
Almond Blanc-Mange.
White Cake.
Okra and Tomato Soup.
Beef’s Heart.
Ramakins.
Potatoes à la Crème.
Lima Beans.
Newark Pudding.
MAY.
Clear Soup.
Roast Lamb.
Mint Sauce.
Green Peas.
Asparagus upon Toast.
Potato Eggs.
Rice and Tapioca Pudding.
Yesterday’s Soup.
Cold Lamb.
Savory Macaroni.
Sea-Kale.
Potato Salad.
Coffee and Sister Mag’s Cake.
Veal and Tapioca Broth.
Baked Beefsteak.
Young Onions Stewed.
Potatoes Baked with Steak.
Lettuce Salad.
Oatmeal Pudding with Cream.
Hot Pot.
Stewed Breast of Veal with Mushroom Sauce.
Spinach à la Reine.
Rhubarb (or Pie-plant) Sauce.
Browned Potatoes—Mashed.
Burnt Custard.
Italian Minestra Soup.
Chicken Pudding.
Batter for the Pudding.
Boiled Potatoes.
Asparagus and Eggs.
German Puffs.
Canned Corn Soup.
Boiled Shad.
Scalloped Roes.
Potato Snow.
Green Peas.
Cress Salad.
Lemon Trifle.
Tea and Cake.
Minced Beef Soup.
Ragoût of Mutton.
Broiled Potatoes.
French Beans with Force-meat Balls.
Boiled Rice.
Neapolitan Pudding.
Soup à l’Italienne.
Beef à la Mode.
Asparagus upon Toast, and Green Peas.
Mashed Potatoes.
Tropical Snow.
Jelly Cake,
Macaroni Soup.
Pressed Beef.
Spinach.
Potato Puff.
Southern Rice Pudding.
Green Pea Soup.
Breaded Mutton Chops.
Mashed Potatoes.
Stewed Tomatoes.
Lettuce.
Batter Pudding.
Fine White Soup.
Calf’s Liver, Larded.
Green Pea Pancakes.
Asparagus in Ambush.
Bermuda Potatoes en robe de chambre .
Pine-Apple Pie.
Mulligatawny Soup.
Chicken Patés.
Sea-Kale.
Potatoes au Maître d’Hôtel.
Lettuce and Cress Salad.
Queen of Puddings with Strawberry Méringue.
A Soup Maigre.
Fried Shad.
Roe Croquettes.
Mashed Potatoes.
Stewed Tomatoes with Onion and Bread.
Cup Custards—Baked.
Corn-Starch Cake.
Sweetbread Soup.
Beefsteaks.
Baked Rice.
Green Peas.
Roast Potatoes.
Omelette aux Confitures.
Tea and Albert Biscuits
Sago Soup.
Stuffed Shoulder of Mutton.
Potato Edging.
Boiled Asparagus.
Purée of Green Peas.
Neapolitan Blanc-Mange.
Clam Soup.
Cold Mutton.
Brussels Sprouts.
Raw Tomatoes.
Stewed Potatoes.
Oranges and Bananas.
Coffee and Cake.
Brown Beef Soup.
Veal Cutlets and Ham.
String-Beans.
Chopped Potatoes.
Lettuce.
Graham Hasty Pudding.
Green Asparagus Soup.
Stewed Chicken.
Scalloped Tomatoes.
Corn Fritters.
Marmalade Roll.
Sheep’s Head Soup.
Roast Beef.
Fried Potatoes.
Spinach upon Toast.
Asparagus with Eggs.
Corn-Starch Blanc-Mange with Preserves.
Purée of Tomatoes.
Boiled Bass with Mushrooms.
Roast Sweetbreads.
Mashed Potatoes.
Succotash.
Strawberry Méringue.
Amber Soup.
Ham and Omelette.
Ladies’ Cabbage.
Buttered Rice.
Summer Salad.
Irish Potato Pie.
German Sago Soup.
Roast Lamb.
Green Peas.
Young Onions—Stewed.
Potato Puff.
Strawberries and Cream.
Silver Cake.
Baked Hotch-Potch.
Minced Lamb.
Poached Eggs.
Potato Cakes.
Raw Tomatoes.
Bread Pudding.
Cracker Soup.
Beefsteak and Onion.
Green Peas.
Baked Corn.
Cress-Salad.
Jersey Puffs.
Scotch Broth.
Roast Chickens and Pork.
Asparagus Pudding.
Mashed Potatoes.
Tomato Salad.
Chocolate Blanc-Mange.
Mock Turtle Soup.
Boiled Corned Beef.
Young Turnips.
Casserole of Rice with Calf’s Brains.
Green Pea Fritters.
Bananas, Oranges, Nuts and Raisins.
Tea, Toasted Crackers, and Cheese.
Yesterday’s Soup.
Lobster Fricassee.
Potato Pasty.
String-Beans.
Boiled Asparagus.
Strawberry Shortcake with Cream.
Pea and Potato Soup.
Stewed Mutton Cutlets.
Green Peas.
Raw Tomatoes.
Potato Scallops.
Fig Pudding.
JUNE.
All-night Soup.
Roast Beef and Round Potatoes.
Boiled Macaroni.
Green Peas.
Snow Custard.
Tomato Soup.
Larded Beef.
Stewed Cream Potatoes.
Spinach Dressed with Egg.
Strawberries and Cream.
Martha’s Cake.
Quick Beef Soup.
Lamb Chops.
Purée of Potatoes.
Asparagus Rolls.
Lettuce.
Rosie’s Rice Custard.
Chicken Broth.
Fried Shad au Gratin.
Milanaise Pudding.
Mashed Potatoes.
Navy Beans.
Cottage Pudding.
White Asparagus Soup.
Stuffed Fillet of Veal with Bacon.
Scooped Potatoes.
Tomato Salad.
Hominy Pudding.
Cocoanut Puddings.
Clam Chowder.
Baked Pickerel.
Veal Scallop.
Mashed Potatoes—Browned.
Green Peas.
Strawberry Shortcake.
Tea,
Marlowe Soup.
Beef’s Tongue—(Langue du Bœuf) .
Squeezed Potatoes.
French Beans—Sautés.
Young Beets.
Cherry Pie.
Tomato and Pea Soup.
Stewed Lamb with Mushroom Sauce.
Lima Beans.
Green Peas.
Stewed Turnips.
Lemon Blanc-Mange.
Coffee and Cake.
“Once-Again” Soup.
Cold Lamb.
Cheese Fondu.
Raw Tomatoes.
Potatoes en Robe de Chambre.
Floating Island.
A Summer Mélange Soup.
Rolled Beef.
Boiled Onions.
Stuffed Tomatoes.
Baked Omelette aux Fines Herbes.
Strawberries and Cream.
Broiled Bones Soup.
Boiled Chickens.
Rice Croquettes.
Asparagus upon Toast.
Potato and Beet Salad.
Raspberry Shortcake—Hot.
Chicken Panada Soup.
Larded Mutton Chops.
Green Pea Cakes.
Stewed Tomatoes.
String-Beans.
Strawberry Trifle.
Purée of Potatoes.
Salmon Scallops.
Fricassee of Sweetbreads.
Raw Tomatoes.
Roasted Potatoes.
Baked Cherry Dumplings.
Ox-head Soup.
Corned Beef.
Mashed Turnips.
Mashed Potatoes.
Green Peas.
Raspberries and My Lady’s Cake.
Rice and Tapioca Soup.
Smothered Chicken.
Mashed Squash.
String-Beans.
Beets Sautés.
Cream Pudding.
Green Pea Soup.
Beef Miroton.
Asparagus Omelette.
Tomato Salad.
Green Peas.
Mountain Custard, or “Junket.”
Tea and Fancy Biscuits.
Vermicelli Soup.
Beefsteak.
Young Onions.
Spinach.
Potato Puffs.
Strawberries and Cream.
Mother’s Cup-Cake.
Julienne Soup.
Lamb Cutlets.
Purée of Green Peas.
Potato Strips.
Lettuce.
Ristori Puffs.
Jelly Soup.
Stewed Sheep’s Tongues.
Potatoes à la Louise.
Spinach.
Lima Beans.
Raspberry Shortcake with Cream.
Halibut Chowder.
Chicken Pot-pie, with Dumplings.
Sea-Kale.
Baked Tomatoes.
Charlotte Russe.
Cream Soup.
Boiled Mutton.
Hot Slaw.
Buttered Potatoes.
Mashed Squash.
Cherry Roley-Poley.
Mutton, Rice, and Tomato Broth.
Glazed Ham.
Green Peas.
Potatoes au Gratin.
Stewed Lima Beans.
Tomato Salad.
Spanish Cream.
Coffee and Macaroons.
Bisque of Lobster.
A Good “Pick-up” Dish.
Baked Potato Balls.
String-Beans.
Lettuce.
Strawberries and Cream, and Wine Cake.
Bread-and-Cheese Soup.
Breast of Lamb with Macaroni.
Whole Baked Tomatoes.
Stewed Peas and French Beans.
Corn-Bread Pudding.
A Stew Soup.
Stuffed Beef’s Heart with Horseradish Sauce.
Scalloped Squash.
Beets.
New Potatoes.
Gooseberry Tart.
String-Bean Soup.
Breaded Mutton Chops.
Stewed Tomatoes with Onion.
Green Corn Boiled Whole.
Mashed Potatoes.
Cherries.
Raspberries and Cream, with Light Cakes.
Convent Soup.
Boiled Salmon.
Fried Chicken—Whole.
Stewed Onions.
Green Peas.
Potatoes à la Duchesse.
Cherry Pie.
Gravy Soup.
Lemon Veal.
Stewed Squash.
String-Beans.
Raw Cucumbers.
Bananas and Oranges.
Cherries.
JULY.
Clear Sago Soup.
Larded Shoulder of Mutton.
Scalloped Tomatoes.
Boiled Corn.
New Potatoes—Stewed.
Raspberry and Currant Jelly with Whipped Cream.
Jugged Soup.
Potato Batter Pudding.
Mashed Squash.
Chopped Corn and Potatoes.
Corn-Starch Custard Pudding.
Veal Broth.
Beefsteak.
Boiled Onions.
Mashed Potatoes—Moulded.
String-Beans Sautés.
Raspberries, Cream, and Cake.
French Potage.
Beef à la Mode.
Macaroni with Tomato Sauce.
Lima Beans.
Fried Cucumbers.
Lemon Trifle.
Italian Paste Soup.
Broiled Spanish Mackerel.
Cold Beef à la Mode.
Mashed Potatoes.
Green Peas.
Raw Tomatoes.
Cream Raspberry Pie.
Tomato Soup without Meat.
Chicken—Stewed Whole.
Baked Squash.
Rice Croquettes.
Potato Omelette.
Cherry Bread Pudding.
Consommé Soup.
Braised Veal.
Cauliflower, with Sauce.
Raw Cucumbers.
Green Corn Pudding.
Cottage Puffs.
Béchamel Soup.
Boiled Mutton.
Chicken Rissoles.
String-Beans.
Green Peas and Raw Tomatoes.
Self-freezing Ice-Cream.
Brown Soup.
Ragoût of Mutton.
Squash à la Crême.
Mashed Potatoes.
Lettuce Salad.
Raspberries, Cream, and Cake.
Iced Coffee.
Cabbage Soup.
Mock Pigeons.
Green Peas.
Lima Beans.
Cucumber Salad.
Farina Pudding—Cold.
Crab Soup.
Savory Calf’s Head.
Stewed Tomatoes.
Potato Puff.
Boiled Corn.
Cherry Soufflé.
Plain Calf’s Head Soup.
Fried Chickens.
Fried Kidney-Beans.
New Potatoes.
Beets Sautés.
Lettuce Salad.
Blackcap Shortcake—Hot.
Soup à la Bonne Femme.
Roast Ducks.
Mashed Potatoes.
Green Peas.
Raw Tomatoes.
Currant and Raspberry Tart.
Pea and Tomato Soup.
Salmi of Ducks.
Mashed Squash.
String-Beans.
Cucumbers.
Almond Corn-Starch Blanc-Mange.
Rice Soup.
Stuffed Veal with Garnish of Green Peas.
New Potatoes.
Boiled Corn.
Bean Salad.
Orange Snow.
Iced Tea and Cake.
Summer Squash, or Cymbling Soup.
Scalloped Veal.
Mashed Turnips.
Stewed Tomatoes.
Potatoes, Boiled Whole.
Bananas, Oranges, and Cherries.
Iced Coffee and Fancy Biscuits.
Bread-and-Cheese Porridge.
Lamb Chops.
Purée of Peas and Onion.
Lima Beans.
Moulded Potato.
Currants and Raspberries.
Unity Cake.
Ox-tail Soup.
Beefsteak with Wine Sauce.
Cream Onions.
Baked Squash.
Raw Tomatoes.
Ambrosia Custard.
Yesterday’s Soup.
Roast Chickens.
Stewed Potatoes.
Stuffed Tomatoes.
Green Corn Pudding.
Lemon Méringue Pie.
Giblet Soup.
Halibut à la Royale.
Chicken Cutlets.
Mashed Potatoes.
Green Peas.
Lettuce Salad.
Coffee Cream.
Julienne Soup.
Mutton Stew with Peas.
Potato Croquettes.
Boiled Corn.
Raw Cucumbers.
Cream-Cake and Chocolate.
Chicken Soup with Eggs.
Braised Beef.
Stewed Onions.
Whipped Potatoes.
Cream Squash.
Tomato Salad.
Claret Jelly and Cake.
A Baked Soup.
Chicken Scallop.
Green Peas.
New Potatoes.
Lettuce.
Huckleberries, Cream, and Cake.
Potage aux Croûtons.
Devilled Crab.
Corned Beef and Turnips.
Lima Beans.
Beets.
Plain Boiled Pudding.
Butter (or Lima) Bean Soup.
Breaded Veal Cutlets.
Mashed Potatoes.
Succotash.
Devilled Tomatoes.
Baked Huckleberry Pudding.
Bean and Tomato Soup.
Fricasseed Chicken.
Boiled Onions with Sauce.
Green Pea Cakes.
Potatoes à la Lyonnaise.
Baked Cup Custards.
Corn Soup.
Mayonnaise of Lobster.
Beefsteak au Maître D’Hôtel.
Stewed Lima Beans.
Fried Cucumbers.
Boiled Potatoes.
Blackberry Pie.
Iced Tea.
Kilkenny Soup.
Mutton Chops.
Ragoût of Vegetables.
Stewed Tomatoes.
Indian Pudding.
AUGUST.
Macaroni Soup.
Stewed Ducks.
Green Peas.
Boiled Corn.
Fried Egg-plant.
Potato Salad.
Almond Custard, with Cocoanut Frost.
Clam Soup.
Ragoût of Duck and Green Peas.
Onions.
Potatoes, with Cheese Sauce.
Blackberries, Huckleberries, and Cream.
A Summer Soup.
Veal Collops.
Tomato Sauce.
String-Beans.
Raw Cucumbers.
Apple Compote au Gratin.
Beef Noodle Soup.
Boiled Chickens and Tongue.
Fried Egg-plant.
Lima Beans.
Potato Puffs.
Peaches and Cream.
Chicken and Corn Soup.
Game Mutton.
Green Peas.
Beets.
Mashed Potatoes.
Huckleberry Shortcake.
Sister Anne’s Soup.
Boiled Bass.
Cold Mutton.
Boiled Potatoes.
Tomato Salad.
Green Corn Pudding.
Apple Custard Pie.
Pot au Feu.
Broiled Ham and Eggs.
Casserole of Potato.
String-Beans.
Cream Squash.
Jelly Omelette.
Noodle Soup.
Braised Chicken.
Fried Egg-plant.
Green Corn Sauté.
Baked Tomatoes.
Ice Cream and Cake.
A Monday Soup.
Scallop and Baked Eggs.
Mashed Potatoes.
Green Peas.
Raw Cucumbers.
Huckleberry Cake.
Iced Coffee.
Tapioca Soup.
Beefsteak.
Tomatoes and Corn, Stewed.
Potatoes in Jackets.
Mashed Squash.
Peaches and Cream.
Cream Soup.
Baked Calf’s Head, with Mushrooms.
Spinach.
Succotash.
Lettuce.
Apple Pudding.
Beef Bouillon.
The Beef and Vegetables.
Mashed Potatoes.
Raw Tomatoes.
Peach Pie.
Eel Soup.
Broiled Chickens.
Broiled Tomatoes.
Scalloped Squash.
Nutmeg and Water Melons.
Vegetable Soup with Eggs.
Larded Mutton Chops.
Green Peas.
Boiled Green Corn.
Potatoes Boiled Whole.
Blackberry Roley Poley.
Tomato Soup.
Fillet of Veal.
Chopped Potatoes.
Green Corn Pudding.
String-Beans.
Peach Lèche-Crêma.
Quick Soup.
Dijon Paté.
Lima Beans.
Mashed Potatoes.
Raw Tomatoes.
Pears, Peaches, and Bananas.
Iced Coffee, Crackers, and Cheese.
Mutton Broth.
Brunswick Stew.
Onions Stewed Brown.
Potatoes à la Duchesse.
Cucumbers.
Peaches and Cream, with Sponge-Cake.
Ox-cheek Soup.
Roast Beef.
Mashed Squash.
Green Corn cut from the Cob.
Fried Egg-plant.
Open Apple Custard Tart.
Mrs. B.’s Corn Soup.
Smothered Chicken.
Stuffed Tomatoes.
Scalloped Potatoes.
Beets.
Cottage Pudding.
Fish Chowder.
Omelette with Gravy.
Boiled Corn.
Potato Salad.
Peach Batter Pudding.
White Mock Turtle Soup.
Calf’s Liver and Bacon.
Breaded Egg-plant.
String-Beans.
Corn and Tomatoes.
Nutmeg Melons and Peaches.
Clear Soup.
Larded Ducks.
Succotash.
Stewed Squash.
Boiled Potatoes.
Peach Ice-Cream.
A Medley Soup.
Casserole of Ducks and Macaroni.
Broiled Ham.
Stewed Onions.
Chopped Potatoes.
Watermelons and Pears.
Farina Soup.
Haricot of Mutton.
Moulded Potato.
Raw Tomatoes.
Baked Berry Dumplings.
Squirrel Soup.
Fricasseed Chicken.
Boiled Rice.
Scalloped Tomatoes.
Lima Beans.
Fruit.
Iced Coffee and Ellie’s Cake.
Ham and Veal Soup.
Beefsteak Pudding.
Stuffed Egg-plant.
Mashed Potatoes.
Summer Salad.
Peach Trifle.
Cauliflower Soup, without Meat.
Fillets of Halibut, with Potatoes.
Beef’s Tongue with Green Peas.
Green Corn Pudding.
Raw Cucumbers.
Melons, Peaches, and Pears.
Beef Stock Soup.
Boiled Ham.
Onion Tomato Sauce.
Squash au Gratin.
Stripped Potatoes.
Whole Peach Pie.
SEPTEMBER.
Vermicelli Soup.
Roast Beef and Browned Potatoes.
Browned Potatoes.
Fried Egg-plant.
Boiled Green Corn.
Raw Tomatoes.
Narcissus Blanc-Mange.
Iced Coffee and Sliced Cake.
Ham and Egg Soup.
Braised Larded Beef.
Chopped Potatoes and Corn.
Cucumber and Onion Salad.
Stewed Squash.
Peaches and Cream.
A Hash Soup.
Kidneys Sautés with Wine.
Baked Omelette aux Fines Herbes.
String-Beans.
Cauliflower au Gratin.
Syllabub and May’s Cake.
May’s Cake.
Ayrshire Broth.
Chickens à la Française.
Succotash.
Sweet Potatoes.
Apple Sauce.
Blackberry Shortcake—Hot.
Tomato Soup.
Boiled Leg of Mutton.
Caper Sauce.
Mashed Potatoes.
Stewed Egg-plant.
Lima Beans.
Peach Fritters.
Fish Soup.
Mutton Batter Pudding.
Stewed Tomatoes and Corn.
Cream Potatoes.
Apple Cake with Cream.
Filling.
Iced Coffee.
White Stock Soup.
Mock Quails.
Kidney-Beans.
Corn Fritters.
Potatoes à la Lyonnaise.
Cabinet Pudding.
Tapioca Soup.
Roast Ducks.
Stuffed Tomatoes.
Cauliflower with Sauce Tartare.
Sweet Potatoes.
Melons, Peaches, and Pears.
Black Coffee, Crackers and Cheese.
Vegetable Consommé.
Stewed Lamb à la Jardinière.
French Beans Sautés.
Mashed Potatoes au Gratin.
Peaches, Cream, and Cake.
Beef Gravy Soup.
Paté de Foie de Veau.
Stuffed Squash.
Succotash.
Baked Potatoes.
Baked Blackberry Pudding.
Soup à la Bonne Femme.
Roast Tenderloin of Beef.
Beets Sautés.
Lima Beans.
Fried Egg-plant.
Velvet Blanc-Mange.
Egg Soup.
Smothered Chickens with Mushrooms.
Scalloped Cauliflower.
Stewed Tomatoes.
Beet-root Salad.
Peaches and Cream.
Oberlin Soup.
Cream Pickerel.
Giblet Omelette.
Mashed Potatoes.
Boiled Corn.
Cucumbers.
Diplomatic Pudding.
Mutton Noodle Soup.
Baked Sheep’s Head à la Russe.
Sweet Potatoes.
Squash.
Tomatoes Stuffed with Corn.
Cream Peach Pie.
Rice and Tomato Soup.
Boiled Chickens and Tongue.
Breaded Egg-plant.
Boiled Cauliflower.
Lima Beans.
Frozen Custard and Cake.
Chicken and Corn Soup.
Casserole of Rice, with Chickens and Tongue.
Onions Stewed Brown.
Baked Sweet Potatoes.
Cold Slaw.
Corn-starch Hasty Pudding.
Tea and Fancy Biscuits.
St. Rémo Broth.
Beefsteak.
Potatoes au Naturel.
Kidney-Beans.
Raw Tomatoes.
Fruit Dessert.
Coffee and Cake.
Ox-Cheek Soup.
Stewed Calf’s Hearts.
Lima Beans.
Potatoes au Maître d’Hôtel.
Stewed Tomatoes and Onion.
Stewed Pears with Rice.
Rissole Soup.
Lamb Chops.
Potato Mound.
Fried Egg-plant.
Ladies’ Cabbage.
Damson Tart.
Potato Porridge.
Devilled Crabs.
Roasted Sweetbreads.
Potato Croquettes.
Boiled Green Corn.
Apple Soufflé Pudding.
Rule of Three Soup.
Veal and Ham Cutlets, à la Polonaise.
Stewed Potatoes.
Cream Squash.
Scalloped Tomatoes.
Bavarian Cream.
Fancy Macaroni Soup.
Fricasseed Chickens.
Spinach à la Crême.
Devilled Tomatoes.
Sweet Potatoes—Browned.
Baked Pears and Cream.
Orange Cake.
Giblet Soup.
Brown Beef Stew.
Mashed Potatoes.
Lima Beans.
Cucumber and Onion Salad.
Bananas, Oranges, and Apples.
Coffee and Albert Biscuit.
Quick Lobster Soup.
Roast Lamb.
Baked Squash.
Green Corn cut from the Cob.
Sweet Potatoes.
Rock-work.
Julienne Soup.
Cold Lamb.
Tomato Sauce.
Eggs and Mushrooms.
Breaded Egg-plant.
Potato Fritters.
Bread-and-Meat Soup.
Braised Breast of Veal.
Cauliflower with Sauce.
Stewed Squash.
Fried Potatoes.
Boiled Apple Dumplings.
Onion Soup Maigre.
Baked Blue Fish.
Imitation Oyster Scallops.
Potato Puff à la Genève.
Raw Cucumbers.
Cream Cakes.
Vegetable Soup à la Crécy.
Glazed Ham.
Lettuce Salad.
Potatoes à la Lyonnaise.
Cabbage au Gratin.
Peach Pudding.
OCTOBER.
Tapioca Soup.
Fricassee of Ducks.
Tomatoes in a Mould.
Sweet Potatoes.
Potato Rissoles.
Ruby’s Pudding.
Curry Soup.
Breaded Mutton Chops—Baked.
Spinach.
Whipped Potatoes.
Boiled Rice, with Sauce.
Apple Charlotte.
Coffee.
Barley Broth.
Stewed Beef.
Macaroni.
Mashed Turnips.
Kidney Beans.
Southern Rice Pudding.
Squirrel Soup.
Fricassee of Calf’s Tongues.
Fried Egg-plant.
Squash.
Stripped Potatoes, Stewed.
Jelly Custards and Cake.
Marrow-bone Soup.
Roast Chickens.
Lima Beans.
Broiled Potatoes.
Raw Tomatoes.
Squash Pie.
Cat-fish Soup.
Scalloped Oysters.
Roulettes of Chicken.
Beets.
Fried Sweet Potatoes.
Amber Pudding.
Ox-tail Soup.
Corned Beef.
Boiled Turnips.
Mashed Potatoes.
Horseradish Sauce.
Bubble Pudding.
Clear Soup.
Chickens and Mushrooms.
Squash au Gratin.
Creamed Potatoes.
Breaded Egg-Plant.
Spanish Cream.
Vermicelli Soup.
Mutton Chops.
Baked Sweet Potatoes.
Tomato Sauce.
Savory Rice Pudding.
Oranges, Bananas, and Pears.
Green Bean Soup.
Beef à la Reine.
Purée of Turnips.
Potato Cakes.
Lettuce Salad.
Custard Bread Pudding.
A Cheap Soup.
Cannelon of Beef.
Browned Sweet Potatoes.
Hominy Croquettes.
Cauliflower.
Claret Jelly.
Mrs. M.’s Sponge-Cake.
Egg Soup.
Larded Steak, Broiled.
Purée of Potatoes.
Baked Macaroni.
Bavarian Salad.
Lemon Cream Pie.
Turnip Soup.
Oyster Patés.
Rissoles of Sweetbreads.
Chopped Cabbage.
Mashed Potatoes—Browned.
Quince Soufflé.
Mock Turtle Soup.
Hot Pot.
Cauliflower à la Crême.
Mashed Parsnips.
Lima Beans.
Cocoanut Pudding.
Yesterday’s Soup.
Roast Leg of Lamb.
Potato Croquettes.
Sweet Potatoes.
Fried Egg-plant.
Rice Snow.
White Mountain Cake.
Sago Soup.
Lamb Pudding.
Stewed Corn.
Potatoes au Naturel.
Cabbage Salad.
Grapes, Pears, and Bananas.
Tea à la Russe.
Soup and Bouilli.
Stewed Potatoes.
Alice’s Pudding.
Poor Roger’s Soup.
Beefsteak and Onions.
Canned Succotash.
Potatoes à la Parisienne.
Spinach.
Baked Apple Dumplings.
Dieppe Soup.
Stewed Chickens.
Boiled Beans.
Browned Potatoes.
Stewed Tomatoes.
Tapioca Pudding.
Clam Soup.
Boiled Cod.
Sauce.
Purée of Eggs.
Mashed Potatoes.
Cauliflower au Gratin.
Coffee Custard Méringue.
Excellent Stock Soup.
Veal Collops with Tomato Sauce.
Rice Croquettes à la Princesse.
Boiled Potatoes.
Squash.
Lausanne Pudding.
White Broth.
Roast Beef.
Yorkshire Pudding.
Browned Sweet Potatoes.
Fried Parsnips.
Potato Pudding.
Macaroni Soup.
Réchauffée of Beef.
Potatoes au Gratin.
Kidney Beans—Fricasseed.
Grapes, Boiled Chestnuts, Apples.
Beef-olives Soup.
Mutton Stew, with Dumplings.
Baked Potatoes.
Stewed Tomatoes.
Beets Sautés.
Omelette Méringue.
Barley Cream Soup.
Boiled Ham.
Chopped Cabbage.
Corn Pudding.
Beet-root Salad.
Drunken Dominie.
A Western Soup.
Roast Chickens and Cresses.
Polenta.
Stewed Salsify.
Mashed Potatoes.
Apricot Trifle.
Peas Porridge.
Fried Pickerel.
Chicken Croquettes.
Purée of Potatoes.
Baked Squash.
Apple Fritters.
Tomato and Pea Soup.
Calf’s Liver and Bacon.
Parsnip Fritters.
Spinach.
Sweet Potatoes.
Bread-and-Raisin Pudding.
NOVEMBER.
Baked Soup.
Fillet of Veal.
Cannelon of Potatoes.
French Beans à la Crême.
Tomato Sauce.
Neapolitainoes.
Sago Soup.
Veal and Oyster Pie.
Boiled Potatoes.
Cold Slaw.
Dressing.
Stewed Celery.
Dessert of Fruit and Nuts.
Strong Broth.
Beefsteak.
Omelette, with Tomatoes.
Mashed Potatoes.
Lemon Puffs.
Beef Tea, with Noodles.
Smothered Chickens.
Salsify Sauté.
Macaroni au Gratin.
Brussels Sprouts.
English Tapioca Pudding.
Mutton Soup.
Roast Rabbits.
Cheese Custards.
Stewed Corn.
Lima Beans.
Cocoa Pudding.
Milk Soup.
Ragoût of Duck.
Canned Green Peas.
Mashed Potatoes.
Celery Salad.
Sponge Gingerbread and Chocolate.
Family Soup.
Killarney Stew.
Baked Tomatoes.
Fried Sweet Potatoes.
Stewed Carrots.
Boiled Pudding.
Tapioca Soup.
Roast Saddle of Mutton.
Potato Puff.
Salsify Fritters.
Kidney Beans à l’Anglaise.
Almond Blanc-Mange.
Cream Rose Cake.
Irish Broth.
Cotelettes à la Reine.
Stewed Potatoes.
Savory Bread Pudding.
Bean Salad.
Stewed Apples, Cream, and Cake.
Mutton and Oyster Soup.
Beefsteak au Maître d’Hôtel.
Baked Sweet Potatoes.
Stewed Onions.
Mashed Squash.
Orange Pudding.
Barley Cream Soup.
Roast Chine of Pork.
Peas Pudding.
Mashed Potatoes.
Apple Sauce.
Apple Pudding.
Game Soup.
Fricassee of Grouse.
Potatoes with Vermicelli.
Buttered Parsnips.
Stewed Tomatoes.
Quaking Custard.
Turnip Soup.
Boiled Cod.
Mashed Potatoes.
Fricasseed Eggs.
Canned Succotash.
Chocolate Tartlets.
Winter Pea Soup.
Ham and Eggs.
Macaroni with Cod.
Fried Beans.
Cold Slaw, with Cream Dressing.
Squash Pie.
Potage au Riz.
Roast Turkey.
Cranberry Sauce.
Mashed Potatoes—Browned.
Sweet Potatoes.
Queen’s Pudding.
Giblet Soup.
Turkey Scallop.
Boiled Rice.
Stewed Tomatoes.
Baked Potatoes.
Apple Méringue Pie.
Veal and Oyster Soup.
Beefsteak Pie.
Ladies’ Cabbage au Maître d’Hôtel.
Purée of Potatoes.
Canned French Beans.
Flour Hasty Pudding.
Cauliflower Soup.
Pork Chops, with Tomato Gravy.
Beets.
Potato Croquettes.
Apple Sauce.
Batter Pudding.
Chicken Cream Soup.
Ragoût of Rabbits.
Parsnip Fritters.
Stewed Celery.
Glazed Sweet Potatoes.
Orange Tartlets.
Egg Soup.
Panned Oysters.
Fowl and Rice Croquettes.
Potatoes à l’Italienne.
Canned Corn Pudding.
Boiled Custards and Cake.
Good Beef Soup.
Breaded Lamb Chops.
Fried Potatoes.
Scalloped Tomatoes.
Baked Onions.
Suet Dumplings.
Macaroni Soup.
Roast Goose.
Apple Sauce.
Sweet Potatoes.
Canned String-Beans.
Cauliflower.
Chocolate and Cocoanut Blanc-Mange.
White Cake.
Medley Soup.
Réchauffé of Goose.
Stewed Salsify.
Potato Cones—Baked.
Cranberry Sauce.
Apple Méringue.
Baked Bean Soup.
Veal Cutlets.
Fried Parsnips.
Sausage and Cabbage.
Celery Salad.
Macaroni Pudding.
Venison Soup.
Boiled Leg of Mutton.
Mashed Turnips.
Stewed Tomatoes.
Stuffed Potatoes.
Pancakes.
Mutton and Rice Soup.
Chickens à la Viennoise.
Hominy Croquettes.
Spinach.
Lima Beans.
Bread and Custard Pudding.
Graham Soup.
Fricassee of Salmon.
Chicken Dumplings.
Salsify Sauté.
Macaroni with Bacon.
Bean Salad.
Pumpkin Pie.
Ox-Head Soup.
Pork Steaks.
Apple Sauce.
Mashed Turnips.
Potatoes Scalloped with Eggs.
Apple Pie and Cream.
DECEMBER.
Soup à la Langue.
Roast Haunch of Venison.
Sweet Potatoes.
Moulded Potatoes.
Stewed Celery.
Barley Custard.
Martha’s Cake.
Tapioca Soup.
Venison Pasty.
Stewed Tomatoes.
Kidney Beans au Maître d’Hôtel.
Potato Cakes.
Apple Jelly.
Fruit, Nuts, and Raisins.
Canned Pea Soup.
Beefsteak.
Graham Savory Pudding.
Baked Potatoes.
Creamed Parsnips.
Susie’s Bread Pudding.
A Plain Soup.
Jugged Rabbits.
Macaroni with Cheese.
Cauliflower.
Beets.
Rusk Fritters.
Celery Soup.
Boiled Beef’s Tongue with Sauce Piquante.
Baked Beans.
Baked Tomatoes.
Chopped Potatoes.
Lemon Puddings.
Bread Soup.
Lobster Croquettes.
Braised Grouse.
Salsify Fritters.
Sweet Potatoes.
Indian Meal Pudding.
Mock Turtle Soup.
Baked Mutton Chops.
Macaroni Pudding.
Winter Squash.
Cold Slaw.
Cracker and Jam Pudding.
“That Soup” Again.
Roast Turkey, Garnished with Sausages.
Mashed Turnips.
Canned Corn Pudding.
Sweet Potatoes.
Cranberry Sauce.
Orange Snow and Snowdrift Cake.
Brown Giblet Soup.
Minced Turkey and Eggs.
Baked Tomatoes.
Stewed Potatoes.
Celery.
A Plain Rice Pudding.
Simple White Soup.
Stewed Fillet of Veal.
Spinach.
Boiled Beans.
Mashed Potatoes.
Queen’s Toast.
Beef Gravy Soup.
Cannelon of Veal, Oysters, and Sweetbreads.
Potatoes Sautés.
Succotash.
Cranberry Sauce.
Impromptu Plum Pudding.
Tomato Soup.
Glazed Ham.
Potato Puff.
Chopped Cabbage with Sauce.
Celery Salad.
Corn-Starch Cup-Cake.
Oyster Soup.
Boiled Chickens.
Browned Potatoes.
Baked Sweet Potatoes.
Scalloped Squash.
Baked Custards.
Chicken and Sago Soup.
Beefsteak Pudding.
Boiled Onions.
Mashed Potatoes.
Fried Hominy.
Sweet Potato Pie.
Ox-tail Soup.
Ducks à la Mode.
Canned Green Peas.
Mashed Turnips.
Scalloped Cauliflower.
Sponge-Cake Soufflé Pudding.
Second Edition Soup.
Boiled Corned Beef.
Roast Potatoes.
Scalloped Cabbage.
Horseradish Sauce.
Farina Pudding.
Split Pea Soup.
Larded Mutton Chops.
Tomato Sauce.
Lima Beans.
Macaroni à la Crême.
Apple and Tapioca Pudding.
Rabbit Soup.
Venison Steaks.
Oyster Salad.
Stewed Celery.
Potatoes à la Lyonnaise.
Cottage Pudding.
Vermicelli Soup.
Veal Cutlets à la Milanaise.
Stewed Beans.
Hominy Pudding.
Hot Slaw.
Pumpkin Pie.
Corn and Tomato Soup.
Baked Halibut.
Stewed Pigeons.
Mashed Potatoes.
Fried Salsify.
Dorchester Cracker Plum-Pudding.
Sheep’s Head and Barley Soup.
Bacon and Eggs.
Cheese Fondu.
Canned String-Beans.
Mashed Turnips.
Lemon Tartlets.
Clear Sago Soup.
Roast Beef.
Potato Balls.
Fried Sweet Potatoes.
Apple Sauce.
Celery.
Ribbon Blanc-Mange.
Cream Soup.
Larded Beef.
Mashed Potatoes.
Baked Tomatoes.
Apples, Oranges, and Nuts.
Tea and Crackers.
Baked Soup.
Mock Pigeons.
Spinach.
Potato Puffs.
Stewed Corn.
Arrowroot Pudding—Hot.
Sweetbread Ball Soup.
Chicken and Ham Pie.
Rice Croquettes.
Stewed Salsify.
Creamed Potatoes.
Cup Puddings.
Noodle Soup.
Roast Pig.
Mashed Potatoes.
Stewed Celery.
Mince Pie.
Lobster Soup.
Ragoût of Roast Pig.
Purée of Canned Peas.
Sweet Potatoes.
Cabbage Salad.
Rice Pudding Méringue.
Transparent Soup.
Larded Rabbits.
Scalloped Cauliflower.
Fried Parsnips.
Mashed Turnips.
Cabinet Pudding.
Company Dinners.
INDEX.
SOUPS.
FISH.
MEATS, ENTRÉES, ETC.
VEGETABLES.
EGGS.
CHEESE.
SALADS.
SAUCES FOR MEAT.
PIES, TARTS, ETC.
PUDDINGS, PUFFS, ETC.
DUMPLINGS, FRITTERS, ETC.
PUDDING SAUCES.
CUSTARDS, BLANC-MANGE, JELLY, ETC.
CAKES.
FRUIT DESSERTS.
DRINKS.
Familiar Talk with the Reader.
Table of Contents
“Do not laugh when I tell you that one of the most serious perplexities of my every-day life is the daily recurring question, ‘What shall we have for dinner?’” writes a correspondent.
I do not smile at the naïve confession. I feel more like sighing as I recollect the years during the summers and winters of which the same query advanced with me into the dignity of a problem. There were several important ends to be compassed in the successful settlement of the question. To accomplish an agreeable variety in the family bill of fare; to accommodate appetites and individual preferences to the season and state of the local market; to avoid incongruous associations of meats, vegetables, sauces, entrées and desserts; to build fragments into a structure about which should linger no flavor of staleness or sameness; so to manage a long succession of meals that yesterday’s repast and the more frugal one of to-day should not suggest the alternation of fat and lean in the Hibernian’s pork, or the dutiful following of penance upon indulgence; to shun, with equal care, the rock of parsimony and the whirlpool of extravagance;—but why extend the list of dilemmas? Are they not written in the mental chronicles of every housewife whose conscience—be her purse shallow or deep—will not excuse her from a continual struggle with the left-overs? Such uncompromising bits of facts do these same “left-overs” appear in the next day’s survey of ways, means, and capabilities, that timid mistresses are the less to blame for often winking at the Alexandrine audacity with which the cook has disposed of the knotty subject by emptying platters and tureens into the swill-pail,—which should stand for the armorial bearings of her tribe wherever found,—or satisfied indolence, and what goes with her for humanity, by tossing crusts, bones, and “cold scraps” into the yawning basket of the beggar at the basement door.
One of these days I mean to write an article, scientific and practical, upon the genus, “basket-beggar.” For the present, take the word of one who has studied the species in all its varieties,—who has suffered long, and certainly not been unkind in the acquisition of experience upon this head,—and prohibit their visits entirely, and at all seasons. “Cold cuts” and the “heels” of loaves belong to you as certainly as do hot joints and unmutilated pies. Issue your declaration of independence to the effect that you choose to dispense charity in your own way, and that, as an intelligent Christian woman, you can better judge by what methods to relieve want and aid the really worthy poor, than can the ignorant, irresponsible creature who lavishes what costs her nothing upon every chance speculator whose lying whine excites her pity. Sympathy which, by the way, would generally lie dormant, were the listener to the piteous tale obliged to satisfy the petitioner from her own purse or wardrobe.
Returning from what is not, although it may seem to be a digression, let us talk together more briefly than is our wont in these familiar conferences, of the considerations that have moved and sustained me in the preparation of this volume, and which will, I hope, make it a welcome and useful counsellor to you. First, then, the suggestion and interrogation of sincere seekers for helpful advice pertaining to that most important of the triad of daily meals—“The Family Dinner,” superadded to my own observation and experience of the difficulties that beset the subject. Secondly, the discovery, that so far as I have been able to push my investigations—and my searching has been keen and extensive—no directory upon this particular branch of culinary endeavor has been published, at least none in the English language. We have had books, some of them admirable helps to skilful, no less than to inexperienced housekeepers, upon dinner-giving, and company dinners, and “little dinner” parties, not to refer to the mighty mountain of manuals upon cookery in general; but, up to the time of the present writing, I have found nothing that, to my appreciation, meets the case stated by the friend whose plaint heads this chapter.
My aim has been to write out, for seven days of four weeks in each month, a menu adapted, in all things, to the average American market; giving meats, fish, vegetables, and fruits in their season, and, so far as I could do so upon paper, rendering a satisfactory account of every pound of meat, etc., brought, by my advice, into the kitchen. I have taken the liberty accorded me by virtue of our long and intimate acquaintanceship, of inspecting not only the contents of your market-basket, but each morning the treasures of larder and refrigerator; of offering counsel concerning crumbs, bones, and such odds-and-ends as are held in contempt by many otherwise thrifty managers—to wit, other cold vegetables than potatoes, and dry crusts of bread and cake, while of gravy and dripping I have made specialties. I have tried, moreover, to inspire such respect for made-over dinners, as we feel for the pretty rugs made of the ravellings of Axminster carpets. We do not attempt to impose them upon ourselves or our friends as “pure Persian.” But neither do we blush for them because Mrs. Million Aire across the way would scorn to give them house-room. Let “Consistency” be stamped upon every appointment of your household, and even the parvenue opposite cannot despise you. Once learn the truth that moderate, or even scanty means do not make meanness or homeliness a necessity, and act upon the lesson, and you can set criticism at defiance. Apropos to this point of consistency, let me say, in explanation, not apology, for the small space devoted to company-dinners, that I have dealt with them upon the principle that ten times one makes ten. Having, in emulation of the Eastern beauty, carried the calf with ease for four weeks, you will hardly appreciate the difference in the weight of the cow you lift upon the fifth. In plainer phrase, give John and the children good dinners, well-cooked, and daintily served, every day, and the entertainment of half-a-dozen friends in addition to the family party will cease to be a stupendous undertaking. They have a saying in the Southern States that aptly expresses the labor and excitement attendant upon such an event in too many families; the straining after Mrs. Million Aire’s diners à la Russe, which presuppose the despotism of a chef in the kitchen, and the solemn pomp of a Chief Butler in the salle à manger. The Southern description of the frantic endeavor is—“Trying to put the big pot into the little one,” and it is invariably used with reference to preparations for company. Be content, my dear sister, to put into your little pot only so much as it will decently hold, and be thankful that you have in it a sure gauge of responsibility.
I have spoken of dinners for four weeks in each month. I have written receipts for this number, not in forgetfulness of the fact that there is but one February per annum, but because the need of adapting the bills of fare to the days of the week, instead of the month, was absolute, and if I wished the Dinner Year-Book to be a perpetual calendar, I must say nothing of the broken week that sometimes ends and sometimes begins the month. The difficulty of disposing satisfactorily of the two or three odd days brought to my mind, while blocking out my work, the summary manner in which one of my baby-girls once dismissed a somewhat analogous difficulty.
“My dear,” I said to her one night as she concluded her prayer at my knee, “you have forgotten to pray for your little cousins. How did that happen? Don’t you want our Heavenly Father to take care of them?”
She made a motion of again bending her knees, yawned sleepily, and tumbled into bed.
“Can’t help it, mamma! Baby is too tired! Horace and Eddie must scuffle for themselves just this one night!”
I have given you twenty-eight—nay, counting your possible company-meal—twenty-nine dinners in succession to little purpose if you cannot collate from previous receipts one or two for yourself, and be the better for the practice. I need hardly say that I do not anticipate or desire slavish adherence to the plan sketched for your day or week. I have sketched—that is all—not worked out a sum in which addition or subtraction would materially affect the sum-total. The framework is, I would fain hope, symmetrical. I expect you to build thereupon as convenience or discretion may dictate.
Touching Saucepans.
Table of Contents
While it is true that the finest tools will not impart skill to the untrained workman, it is equally a matter of fact that the best artisan is he who cares most jealously for the quality and condition of his instruments as well as for the finish of his workmanship.
A visitor once asked permission to witness the operation of cooking a beefsteak in my kitchen, saying that her husband had spoken in terms of commendation of those he had eaten at my table. Like the good wife she was, she desired to “catch the trick,” whatever it might be, of preparing them to his liking. I willingly acceded to her request, and upon her return to the parlor her husband inquired eagerly: “Did you learn the secret?”
“Yes,” was the smiling answer. “You must buy me a gridiron!”
Up to that time, she then explained, fried steaks had been the rule in her house, and gridirons a thing unheard or unthought of.
A fried beefsteak being, as I have elsewhere stated, a culinary solecism, I have, perhaps, selected an extreme case as the test of my discourse upon the necessity of a supply of fitting utensils for the proper prosecution of home-cookery. Mrs. Whitney’s idea of the “art-kitchen,” so charmingly set forth in “We Girls,” may not be so chimerical (with limitations) as most practical housewives—practised in nothing more than in the exercise of patience—are apt to suppose. They tell us the tale—known already too sadly well to each of us—of the impossibility of inducing “girls” who are tractable and respectful in most things, to accept labor-saving machines, and the thousand-and-one ingenious contrivances for making cooking easier and even graceful; of the hard usage to which expensive implements are subjected in rude hands, the motive-power of which is the untilled brain, unrestrained by the conscienceless will; of how innovations are openly flouted, or secretly sneered at, “until,” say they, “we find it easier to let the cook have her own way down-stairs, and reconcile ourselves, as best we may, to obstinate stupidity and unmerciful breakages. As to art-kitchens”—a shrug and a groan,—“we are thankful if our tenderest care can keep the upper stories free from the vandalism that rages below.”
Nevertheless, acknowledging, as I have, personally, reasons for doing—the truth of all these things—I make answer, “Have an art-kitchen for yourself[1q]!” First, give your cook, or maid-of-all-work, a fair trial. It is a duty you owe to humanity and to her to prove, conclusively, whether her careless or destructive habits be ingrain and wilful, or merely the result of ignorance and bad training. There are bad mistresses, let us remember,—and more still who are indifferent or incompetent. If “our girl” has a heart or a conscience, let us find it. Make her understand the value and usefulness of the appliances you have furnished for her work, where and how they are to be kept, and set her the example of always looking for and putting them in their proper places. If they are misused, show your regret decidedly, but still kindly. Should all means of civilizing her taste up to your standard fail, make, as I have advised, an art-kitchen for your own use. Appropriate one corner of the room, where cooking is done, for your operations, and arrange there your pet tools. Have your scoop flour-sifter; your patent pie-lifter and oyster-broiler; your star-toaster; your pie-crimper, vegetable and nutmeg graters; gravy-strainer, colander, biscuit-cutter, skimmers, larding needles, wire, and perforated, and slit and fluted spoons; your weights and measures, and the tidy, serviceable tinned and enamelled saucepans, Scotch kettles, frying-pans, etc., that will retain tidiness and serviceable qualities so long in your care, and so soon come to grief in boorish clutches. Set all these, and as many others as you like and can afford to buy—always including the Dover egg-beater and its “Baby” (made for whipping one egg to more purpose than one egg, or anything else as small was ever whipped before)—in array upon walls and shelves,[A] and let the logic of daily events prove how far they will deprive work of the wearing vexations attendant upon long searches for the right article, and its wrong condition when found. Make your helpers—one and all—comprehend that these are your especial property, to be used—and kept clean
