Mary at the Farm and Book of Recipes Compiled during Her Visit Part 67

When peanuts have been blanched, are cold, dry and crisp, run them through a food chopper. Do not use the _very finest_ cutter, as that makes a soft ma.s.s. Or they may be crushed with a rolling pin. Season with salt, spread on thinly-sliced, b.u.t.tered bread. They make excellent sandwiches. Or run peanuts through food chopper which has an extra fine cutter especially for this purpose. The peanuts are then a thick, creamy ma.s.s. Thin this with a small quant.i.ty of olive oil, or melted b.u.t.ter, if preferred. Season with salt and you have "peanut b.u.t.ter," which, spread on slices of b.u.t.tered bread, makes a delicious sandwich, and may frequently take the place of meat sandwiches. Nuts, when added to salads, bread or cake, add to their food value.

A CLUB SANDWICH

On a thinly-cut slice of toasted bread lay a crisp lettuce leaf and a thin slice of broiled bacon. On that a slice of cold, boiled chicken and a slice of ripe tomato. Place a spoonful of mayonnaise on the tomato, on this a slice of toasted bread. Always use stale bread for toast and if placed in a hot oven a minute before toasting it may be more quickly prepared.

CANDIES-WALNUT MOLa.s.sES TAFFY

Place 2 cups of New Orleans mola.s.ses and 3/4 cup of brown sugar in a stew-pan on the range and cook; when partly finished cooking (this may be determined by a teaspoonful of the mixture forming a soft ball when dropped in water), add 1 tablespoonful of flour, moistened with a small quant.i.ty of water, and cook until a teaspoonful of the mixture becomes brittle when dropped in cold water; at this stage add 1 scant teaspoonful of baking soda (salaratus). Stir, then add 1 cup of coa.r.s.ely chopped black walnut meats; stir all together thoroughly, and pour into b.u.t.tered pans to become cool.

COCOANUT CREAMS

Grate 1 medium-sized cocoanut, place in a bowl, add 2 pounds of confectioners' sugar, mix with the cocoanut; then add the stiffly beaten white of 1 egg and 1 teaspoonful of vanilla; knead this as you would bread for 10 or 15 minutes. If the cocoanut is a large or a dry one, about 1/2 pound more sugar will be required. Shape the mixture into small b.a.l.l.s, press halves of English walnut meats into each ball, or have them plain, if preferred. Stand aside in a cool place a half hour. Melt a half cake of Baker's unsweetened chocolate, add a half teaspoonful of paraffin, roll the small b.a.l.l.s in this chocolate mixture until thoroughly coated. Place on waxed paper to dry. From the ingredients in this recipe was made 3 pounds of candy.

FUDGE (AS MADE BY MARY)

Two cups of granulated sugar, 1 cup of sweet milk, 1/4 cup of b.u.t.ter, 1/4 cake or 2 squares of Baker's unsweetened chocolate. Cook all together until when tried in water it forms a soft ball. Remove from fire, flavor with vanilla, beat until creamy, pour in b.u.t.tered pan and when cooled cut in squares.

A DELICIOUS "CHOCOLATE CREAM" CANDY

Place in an agate stew-pan 2 cups of granulated sugar, 1 cup of sweet milk, b.u.t.ter size of an egg. Cook all together until it forms a soft ball when a small quant.i.ty is dropped into cold water. Then beat until creamy. Add a half a cup of any kind of chopped nut meats. Spread on an agate pie-tin and stand aside to cool.

For the top layer take 1 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup milk and b.u.t.ter size of an egg, 2 small squares of a cake of Baker's unsweetened chocolate.

Cook together until it forms a soft ball in water. Beat until creamy.

Add half a teaspoonful of vanilla, spread over top of first layer of candy and stand away until it hardens and is quite cold.

MARY'S RECIPE FOR MOLa.s.sES TAFFY

Four tablespoonfuls New Orleans mola.s.ses, 9 tablespoonfuls sugar, 3 tablespoonfuls water, 2 teaspoonfuls b.u.t.ter, 1 teaspoonful vanilla.

Boil all together until it becomes brittle when a small quant.i.ty is dropped in water. Pour the mixture into b.u.t.tered pans and when cool enough to handle, pull with the hands until a light creamy yellow shade. Pull into long, thin strips, cut into small pieces with scissors. This taffy is fine if boiled a long enough time to become crisp and brittle, and you will be surprised at the quant.i.ty this small amount of sugar and mola.s.ses will make.

RECIPE FOR MAKING HARD SOAP WITHOUT BOILING

To make hard soap without boiling, empty a can of "Lewis Perfumed Lye"

(or any other good, reliable brand of lye) into a stone jar with 1 tablespoonful powdered borax. Add 2-1/2 pints of cold water to the lye. Stir until dissolved. Be very careful not to allow any of the lye to touch hands or face. Wear old gloves when emptying can and stirring lye. Stand the dissolved lye in a cool place. The tin cans containing the fat to be used for soap (which have acc.u.mulated, been tried out, strained, and put in empty tin cans at different times) should be placed in the oven of range for a few minutes. When warm they may be turned out readily into a large stew-pan. Put over fire and when all has dissolved and melted, strain through cheese-cloth bag into an agate dish pan. When weighed you should 5-1/2 pounds of clear fat. A recipe telling exact quant.i.ty of fat and lye usually comes with can of lye. When temperature of fat is 120 degrees by your thermometer (luke-warm), the lye should have been allowed to stand about 1 hour from the time it was dissolved. It should then be the right temperature to mix with strained, luke-warm fat or grease not over 80 degrees by thermometer. Now slowly pour the dissolved lye over the fat (a half cup of ammonia added improves soap), stir together until lye and grease are thoroughly incorporated, and the mixture drops from the stirrer like honey. The soap may be scented by adding a few drops of oil of cloves, if liked. Stir the mixture with a small wooden paddle or stick. Stir slowly from 5 to 10 minutes, not longer, or the lye and fat may separate. Pour all into a large agate dish pan lined with a piece of clean muslin. Throw an old piece of carpet over the top and stand near the range until evening, when, if made early in the morning, a solid cake of soap, weighing 8-1/2 pounds, may be turned out on a bake-board (previously covered with brown paper) and cut into 20 pieces of good hard soap. Lay the pieces of soap in a basket, cover to protect from dust, and stand in a warm room to dry thoroughly before using. Soap made according to these directions should be solid and almost as white as ivory if the fat used has not been scorched.

This soap is excellent for scrubbing and laundry purposes. The greater length of time the soap is kept, the better it will become. The grease used may be clarified by adding water and cooking a short time. Stand away and when cool remove fat from top, wiping off any moisture that may appear. Soap-making is a _small economy_. Of course, the young housewife will not use for soap _any fat_ which could be utilized for frying, etc., but she will be surprised to find, when she once gets the saving habit, how quickly she will have the quant.i.ty of fat needed for a dollar's worth of soap by the small outlay of the price of a can of lye, not counting her work. The young, inexperienced housewife should be careful not to use too small a stew-pan in which to heat the fat, and should not, under any circ.u.mstance, leave the kitchen while the fat is on the range, as grave results might follow carelessness in this respect.

TO IMITATE CHESTNUT WOOD

Before painting the floor it was scrubbed thoroughly with the following: One-half cup of "household ammonia" added to four quarts of water. The floor, after being well scrubbed with this, was wiped up with pure, clean water and allowed to get perfectly dry before painting. For the ground color, or first coat of paint on the floor, after the cracks in floor had been filled with putty or filler, mix together five pounds of white lead, one pint of turpentine and about a fourth of a pound of yellow ochre, add 1 tablespoon of j.a.pan dryer.

This should make one quart of paint a light tan or straw color, with which paint the floor and allow it to dry twenty-four hours, when another coat of the same paint was given the floor and allowed to dry another twenty-four hours, then a graining color, light oak, was used.

This was composed of one pint of turpentine, one teaspoon of graining color and two tablespoons of linseed oil, and 1 tablespoon of j.a.pan dryer, all mixed together. This was about the color of coffee or chocolate. When the wood had been painted with this graining color, before drying, a fine graining comb was pa.s.sed lightly over to imitate the grain of wood. This was allowed to dry twenty-four hours, when a coat of floor varnish was given. The room was allowed to dry thoroughly before using. The imitation of natural chestnut was excellent.

MEASURES AND WEIGHTS

When a recipe calls for one cup of anything, it means one even cup, holding one-half pint, or two gills.

One cup is equal to four wine gla.s.ses.

One wine gla.s.s is equal to four tablespoons of liquid, or one-quarter cup.

Two dessertspoonfuls equal one tablespoonful.

Six tablespoonfuls of liquid equal one gill.

Two tablespoonfuls dry measure equal one gill.

Two gills equal one cup.

Two cups, or four gills, equal one pint.

Four cups of flour weigh one pound and four cups of flour equal one quart.

One even cup of flour is four ounces.

Two cups (good measure) of granulated sugar weigh one pound and measure one pint.

Two cups b.u.t.ter equal one pound.

A pint of liquid equals one pound.

A cup of milk or water is 8 ounces.

Two tablespoonfuls liquid equal one ounce.

One salt spoonful is 1/4 teaspoonful.

Four tablespoonfuls equal one wine gla.s.s.

Piece of b.u.t.ter size of an egg equals two ounces, or two tablespoons.

A tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter melted means the b.u.t.ter should be first measured then melted.

One even tablespoonful of unmelted b.u.t.ter equals one ounce.

One tablespoonful sugar, good measure, equals one ounce.

Ordinary silver tablespoon was used for measuring, not a large mixing spoon.