The Home Cook Book E-Book

anonymous

• Herausgeber: Passerino
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

This cookbook is considered to be an important part of Canadian culinary history. It is both a cookbook and guide to home management. It is the first " community" cookbook to be published in Canada (1877).

Canadian cuisine consists of the cooking traditions and practices of Canada, with regional variances around the country. First Nations and Inuit have practiced their own culinary traditions in what is now Canada since time immemorial. The advent of European explorers and settlers, first on the east coast and then throughout the wider territories of New France, British North America and Canada, saw the melding of foreign recipes, cooking techniques, and ingredients with indigenous flora and fauna. Modern Canadian cuisine has maintained this dedication to local ingredients and terroir, as exemplified in the naming of specific ingredients based on their locale, such as Malpeque oysters or Alberta beef.  Accordingly, Canadian cuisine privileges the quality of ingredients and regionality, and may be broadly defined as a national tradition of "creole" culinary practices, based on the complex multicultural and geographically diverse nature of both historical and contemporary Canadian society.

Divisions within Canadian cuisine can be traced along regional lines and have a direct connection to the historical immigration patterns of each region or province. The earliest cuisines of Canada are based on Indigenous, English, Scottish and French roots. The traditional cuisines of both French- and English-Canada have evolved from those carried over to North America from France and the British Isles respectively, and from their adaptation to Indigenous customs, labour-intensive and/or mobile lifestyles, and hostile environmental conditions. French Canadian cuisine can also be divided into Québécois cuisine and Acadian cuisine. Regional cuisines have continued to develop with subsequent waves of immigration during the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, such as from Central Europe, Southern Europe, Eastern Europe, South Asia, East Asia, and the Caribbean. There are many culinary practices and dishes that can be either identified as particular to Canada, such fish and brewis, peameal bacon, and ginger beef, or sharing an association with countries from which immigrants to Canada carried over their cuisine, such as pierogies, roast beef, and bannock.

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Table of contents

HOUSEKEEPING.

TABLE TALK.

DINNER ETIQUETTE.

SOCIAL OBSERVANCES.

THE LITTLE HOUSEKEEPERS.

OUR SUSAN’S OPINION OF A KITCHEN.

UTENSILS NECESSARY IN THE KITCHEN OF A SMALL FAMILY.

SOUPS.

FISH.

SHELL FISH.        

POULTRY AND GAME.

MEATS.

DOMESTIC RECEIPTS

SALADS, SAUCES, AND PICKLES.

SAUCES FOR MEAT OR FISH.

SWEET PICKLES.

SOUR PICKLES.

BREAKFAST AND SUPPER.

VEGETABLES.

PUDDINGS.

PUDDING SAUCES.

PIES.

CUSTARDS, CREAMS, ETC.

ICES.

FRUITS.

CANDY.

BREAD AND YEAST.

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

CAKES.

DRINKS.

MISCELLANEOUS.

THE SICK ROOM.

MEDICINAL RECEIPTS.

BILLS OF FARE.

HOUSEKEEPING.

Word of grace to women; word that makes her the earthly providence of her family, that wins gratitude and attachment from those at home, and a good report of those that are without. Success in housekeeping adds credit to the woman of intellect, and lustre to a woman’s accomplishments. It is a knowledge which it is as discreditable for any woman to be without as for a man not to know how to make a living, or how to defend himself when attacked. He may be ever so good an artist, ever so polished a gentleman; if deficient in these points of self-preservation you set him down for a weakling, and his real weight in society goes for very little. So, no matter how talented a woman may be, or how useful in the church or society, if she is an indifferent housekeeper it is fatal to her influence, a foil to her brilliancy and a blemish in her garments.

Housekeeping ought not to be taught in classes and by professors; though when early training is lacking they may be of use. It is one of those things to be imbibed without effort in girlhood, instead of being taken up at marriage and experimented on with varying certainty for the rest of one’s natural life. There is no earthly reason why girls, from eight to eighteen, should not learn and practice the whole round of housekeeping, from the first beating of eggs to laying carpets and presiding at a dinner party, at the same time that they go on with music, languages, and philosophy. The lessons would be all the better learned if, instead of sitting down at once out of school hours, the girl was taught to take pride in keeping her room nice, or in helping about such work as canning fruit for the season, hanging clean curtains, or dusting every day. The wealthiest women of the oldest families in society are not above seeing to these things themselves, and they know how it should be done. They were bred to it as part of a lady’s duty. But if a woman finds herself ignorant or half taught how to keep house, there is nothing so difficult to learn that she may not be proficient in a year or two at most. An intelligent woman will succeed in most duties at first trying. Housekeeping is an exact science, and works like the multiplication table if one only has learned it. But if one is shaky in figures how is he ever to keep accounts? There is no chance about housekeeping. If Mrs. Smith’s sitting room is always neat and fresh, it is because she sweeps it with tea leaves, and sponges the carpet with ox gall, and dusts it with a damp cloth, and keeps a door mat on the porch, and sends the boys back every time to use till they get the habit of keeping clean. While you hang a newspaper before the what-not and throw one over the work table, sweep with a soft broom, butting the broad side of it at every stroke against the moulding; instead of carrying all the dust clean from the crevice next the wall by one lengthwise sweep with the corner of the broom, you blow the dust off some places and give a hasty rub at others; pass the stove with a touch from the hearth brush instead of blacking it, and let the boys track in mud and dust enough to deface a new carpet its first season, while you take it out in scolding—which was never known to brighten rooms yet. So, when your feather cake fails, though you made it precisely by the rule which the other day came out like bleached sponge, there is a very good reason for it, you did not stir it as much as the first time, or you beat it a little too long and lost the best effervescence of your soda, or your baking powder had been left open a few minutes at a time on baking days and lost strength. By practicing the same recipe carefully all these and other points fix themselves in your mind, so that success is certain. Those clever cooks, whose success is so much a matter of instinct, observe all these points unconsciously each time, and lay it to luck! There’s no such word in housekeeping.

This labour does not only mean keeping things clean, and having plenty to eat. It goes from the outside of the house to the inside of the travelling-bags of those who leave it. The mistress must observe the outside of her house regularly; on Saturday is the most convenient time to see if window-blinds need washing, if the catches are in repair, if the shades inside hang straight, and the curtains drape well, if the walks, steps, and piazzas are neat, and the door knobs and paint in order, making a note of every want, and having it attended to at once. Dexterity with tools is very convenient to any one, and I have known accomplished women who would set a pane of glass, put on a door knob, and hang a gate in the best style. One of the valued contributors to the New York press is a woman who reads Horace in Latin, and Bastiat’s political economy, makes point-lace and embroiders beautifully, who at the gold mines with her husband built the chimney to her house, and finished most of the interior with her own hands. A little care, weekly, keeps a place in that bright order that so attracts and welcomes one at sight. It looks as if whole people lived in it, with live sensibilities and intelligence. Indoors the same spirit is reflected. The bell-pull never is left for weeks after it gets loose, the gas burners are never suffered to leak, or grow dim; the kerosene lamps are large enough to give good light, and of the best pattern for safety, and for the eye. The stoves are the open “Fireside” kind, the modern version of the old Franklin stoves—giving the ventilation and delight of an open fire, burning either coal or wood, with bars and fender like a grate; yet, capable of being shut up as tightly as any base-burning heater by two tight fitting covers that may be removed and put away at pleasure. The health, the comfort, the luxury of such an addition makes up for many a deficiency beside. The carpet was well-chosen at first in small figure and warm colours of good quality, whether Brussels or three-ply, and it looks well as long as it lasts, and kept clean by shaking twice a year, laid straight and stretched smooth over a soft lining, which saves the carpet and saves noise; darned at the first break with wool, matching the pattern, it will not be shabby in ten years. It is pleasant to have things last with the family, and grow to seem a part of it. The true sentiment of the sharp, genteel woman, was expressed by the housekeeper who “liked to have her carpets wear out so she could have new ones.” She let lodgings to have company, and money to dress by, against her husband’s wish, and her only dread was that of “settling down and having a lot of children with no theatres, no opera, nobody to see.” The home feeling, the attachment that grows for the pleasant enduring objects of daily use is one of the rare plants of sentiment that the housekeeper does well to cherish. There should be care at first to have things agreeable and handsome as possible, that they need not be a daily eyesore, and there need be no reason for wishing them to wear out. Manufactures constantly add service to trade by placing better patterns in reach of moderate purses. Thus, the mottled carpets in oak and brown, ash and crimson, maroon and elm-leaf yellow, with borders to match, so admired in velvet and Brussels, are found in fine three-plys and ingrain, and in the newer Venetians of hemp and wool, like the old-fashioned stair carpet that lasts so long. A word for these new Venetians, which is on account of their artistic quality, likely to be overlooked, because they are so cheap. All the best colours and patterns of Brussels, in two shades, in mottled, moss or leaf designs, are afforded in this carpet, which is durable as the conscience of a housekeeper could exact. Two rules are enough for the looks of a carpet; choose small figures and avoid contrasts of colour. Small figures, however, have different meanings to different people. As a rule, a small figure is not more than three inches at most, any way across. Very, very few rooms there are, but look better with carpets of small design. Then the oil-cloth under the stove must match, if possible, and be bound with leather strips to keep the edge from getting unsightly. The woodbox or basket is covered with wool work on canvas, or applique of bright cloth on Turkish toweling, making a handsome bit of furniture. A scrap basket, with applique border, and a bright lining, goes far toward keeping a room tidy. The mistress will try to have her rooms in keeping with the style by a few pieces of furniture in the fashion of the day, a Turkish chair embroidered in wools, a straight-backed one in unbleached toweling and applique of crimson, blue, black and gold, a stand covered with velvet, or a home-made easel with the single good picture the house affords on it, a jardiniere of titles or wickerwork in the window, or a bamboo lounge, things not expensive in themselves, yet lending a graceful air to quiet surroundings. As for chairs, sofas and lambrequins, artists have been insisting on chintz for the last ten years, and women have as steadily bought woollen reps, which the doctors tell us harbours dust, absorbs vitiated matter from the air, and is absolutely dangerous in disease from the contagion it holds. But women of the best taste, who like to have their rooms pretty, will choose chintz, when they cannot afford silk and satin, and often when they can, for its intrinsic beauty.

It is of more account to have broad seats and deep cushions to chairs and sofas, than to have them covered with rich material. See that there are plenty of low seats in your sitting-room, for much of the furniture seen is of very little use for rest and ease, points essential to the health and comfort of women and children. If a woman will only start with the intention of making her house comfortable, she will gain all the admiration she wants. There are many elegant rooms in private houses, where there are only one or two that come up to the idea of comfort. Now that is a very important word one that cannot be infringed on without losing health. The mistress of a house must see that it is ventilated from top to bottom, by having every window and the skylight, if there is one, open at least once a day—if possible when the sun is shining. She is responsible for the health of the household, and must allow no scent of decay, whether from vegetables or meat, barrels or refuse in the cellar, no slops anywhere about the premises, no mouldering food in closets, no confined bedrooms or closets with old clothes or soiled linen to taint the air, no dead, musty smell in any room, however seldom used, no sickly smell escaping from rooms where there is illness. She must see that fires are started as early in the fall and kept as late in the spring as the weakest, chilliest of her family desires, for these slow chilly days take more life, and play more mischief with nerves and blood than she could bear to think of, could she see their effects. She must look after the clothing from a hygienic view, to see that her children and family are warm enough and cool enough, so warding off many an attack of cramps, coughs and neuralgia. The food must be of the best quality, and she must know that it is. It pays to give an extra shilling on the half barrel for selected potatoes and apples, as they go farther and make more muscle than poor ones, and don’t poison anybody. Sharp scrutiny of eggs, meat, butter, and milk, is a benefit to others as well as her own family, by raising the standard of provisions, besides more direct gain. More disease comes into the world in the shape of tainted butter and milk, than any one dreams of but the doctors. If she gets the hygienic craze about food, don’t let her carry it to the verge of confounding things “healthful” with things uneatable, for badly cooked oatmeal and graham “gems” are as distressing to delicate organisms as the richest mince pie and old cheese together. That slight sour tinge, which nobody noticed, in the home-made bread, that solid pudding, which yet was not quite rejected at dessert, are responsible for the bad breath of the children and the beginning of a sick headache in their elders. Never be satisfied with any but the nicest cooking, with variety enough to make your table a delight as well as a necessity. And don’t let anybody lay it to you that you are pampering your family, and devoting yourself to a low sphere of action. You are doing no such thing, but are giving them strong, active bodies, steady nerves and tempers, and clear brains to meet their work with. By just so much as you neglect your part of the work, they will fail in theirs. You are the engineer to feed the fires, and keep the wheels oiled, and the whole family system depends on you. Don’t dare to call such work low.

There is a great work to be done in American kitchens. You may and ought to delegate as much to hired helpers as you can, but you must see that all is done as it should be. And one receipt for training service is given, that is the whole secret in a nut-shell. If child or servant leaves anything undone, or ill-done, don’t scold, but insist on having it done immediately as it ought to be. Put the badly ironed shirts in the basket to be done over, have the house-girl who left the china badly washed, take it out of the closet and do it right, time after time, and let her get tired of doing her work over before you get tired of telling her. It is no harder to do work nicely than to half do it, indeed the careless way is the hardest. Finally, let your housekeeping be as liberal as you can. Whether well-to-do, or in narrow circumstances, you will hold that waste is a sin, against yourself and the world. By keeping strict account of every cent received and paid out, you can gauge your means, laying by what is proper, but within that limit be good to yourself and yours. Make the most of your money. It was no less a divine than the orthodox Doctor John Hall, who said that, of the two faults, he had far rather see people extravagant than penurious. Stint nowhere in cleanliness, light, and warmth, and let what you have be the best and prettiest for the cost. By these things men live, in body at least, and the soul is very dependent on its surroundings, or at any rate greatly assisted by favourable ones. It is an every-day wonder to see how little rich people get for their money; the common-place houses, with so little that is light or striking or original in them, the dull service, the narrow round of enjoyments. In some sense housekeeping is making the most of life, bringing taste and variety into it, compassing difficult ends with invention. Those who disdain it lower themselves. Never think that anything is too good for you or yours that you can obtain. Everywhere there are people living in small common ways, because they are absolutely afraid of the expense or the notice which a pleasanter life would bring. Half the niceties of life involve only care to secure them, without a dollar of expense. Good manners cost nothing, good taste is saving, and good housekeeping actually makes money. Though this book is an aid to the ambitious housekeeper in one direction only, that is on the way to all the rest. People grow refined first in their eating. How is it that the most brilliant and cleverest nation in the world has also the best cooking? Put these things together, and do your best according to their result.

TABLE TALK.

In all attempts at refinement, one cardinal point should be kept in view—that manners were made for men, not men for manners. Nice customs courtesy to great kings, and the greatest of these is convenience. Most rules will be found to serve convenience, and there is no good breeding where etiquette is not observed for this end, the order and comfort of all concerned, not for the sake of defining one’s social position. When any one begins to study manners as a set of arbitrary rules, followed because every other desirable acquaintance does the same, politeness breeds a sort of pharisaism that the best bred persons look down on as supremely vulgar. If any mistress of a house looks here for rules that will aid her to affect a trifle more of style than her neighbours she will only be disappointed. If any woman wishes hints how to reduce her household to regularity and make her children neat and gentle in habits, it may be that she will not find this chapter in vain.

Martinet regularity as to hours and minutes is no longer held the saving virtue in a household. The rule in many families keeps all the rest waiting for a meal if one is tardy. Modern custom both for the family and for dinner parties takes the sensible course of sitting down to table when the hour comes, and the principal part of those expected. No guest should feel affronted, if he is late, and finds the party at dinner, provided the indispensable care has been shown to keep his portion warm over dishes of hot water, by which they neither grow cold or are dried up in the oven. Order the table daily with the same care as for a dinner party. This is the only way to insure success for hostess and servants when one does come off, and gives mistress and waiter the luxury of getting used to nice style, so that it is just as easy as common ways, and no sudden visitor can put them out. Home tables do not always compare to advantage with those at the restaurant or club, and the housemother should see that a man finds as careful service at home as he does anywhere else. Unlimited laundry work should be one of the indulgence’s of one’s own house, and it should be of the utmost nicety. Why should it be too much to provide clean napkins and table-cloth daily at home as well as at a hotel? They would cost half an hour’s extra work a day, and this is not too much for the refinement it gives. We should then expect to see the table spread with a snowy cloth, less starched than many housekeepers think necessary, finish and pliancy given by plenty of wax in the starch, which will keep it clean the longer. It should fall below the table half a yard all round, and be pinned up at the corners to keep it from the floor if necessary. For ceremonious occasions a common white cloth is laid under the table-cloth to protect a handsome table, keep the upper cloth from wearing, and because dishes make less noise when set down on it.

For breakfast the coffee is set before the mistress, the cups and spoons ranged in their saucers in front of it, in two rows if there are many of them; the meat and plates, which should be warm, before the master; salt, butter and castor at the corner to the right of both, head and foot, if the table is a large one, when two sets of these things will be convenient. Otherwise put them in the centre with the dishes in regular order around them, and relishes at the corners. To meet this order, it is a trifle to have dishes in pairs of the same size, and use them always together for different things. Fruit, whether berries, baked apples, or pears, is served first at breakfast, then oatmeal or wheaten grits, now found on every good table in cities at least, then meats and vegetables, with toast, hot cakes and coffee following. Hot rolls come wrapped in a napkin to keep them warm, griddle cakes between two hot plates, and all meats covered. Baked potatoes are scrubbed with a manilla brush, the ends cut off, rinsed twice, and eaten without paring, as the best flavour goes with the skin. This is the custom with the best society in this country and abroad. Eggs are washed with a cloth in cold water before boiling, and eaten in egg cups from the shell, chipping the small end off, or broken into larger glasses, or held in the napkin and eaten from the shell with entire good form, in either method. Where individual salt-cellars are used they should be emptied after each meal, and the salt thrown away, that one person may not use it after another, and they should be very small, that there be less wasted. Butter should be piled round a lump of ice in little pats. To be very nice, as many have learned to like it from living abroad, it should be churned daily from perfectly sweet cream, worked without being touched by the hands or with water, and without a particle of salt. Thus it has the delicate flavour of cream at its best. Honey is especially a breakfast delicacy, and so is maple syrup, which should be served in small saucers to be eaten with hot biscuit. A basket of crisp cakes, toasted rusk and crackers, will accompany coffee.

For lunch the coloured table cloths may be used if ever, though their use is gradually dropped because the colours do not wash well. White cloths with striped border in colours, or fine gray or unbleached damask, with napkins to match, assist the easy half-dress style of this repast. Cups of broth and thick chocolate, with light meats, hashes, croquettes, and stews. Salad and fruit are the staple variety, and rather more attractive than the cold meat, tea and cracker fare too often set apart for this hurried meal. Nowhere is negligence more annoying than at luncheon, and the cloth, glasses, and arrangements should be fastidiously neat to do away with the disagreeable feeling that everybody is too busy with drudgery to look after comfort. Insist that the girl who waits on the table has her hair neat, her hands washed, and a clean apron and collar on. An unkempt servant will spoil the best dinner appetite was ever sharp-set for. Ceremonious lunches mean an hour’s visit with a meal, at which salads, shell-fish, chops, in paper frills, and broiled chicken play a part, with ices, tarts, and fancy cakes for dessert. Mixed drinks, like Regent’s punch, or claret sup, with ale and beer, are more in keeping at lunch than wines. These drinks are served from the side-board, the malt liquors in common goblets, the claret cup in tumblers, the punch in small cups. Beef tea is taken from cups held in small saucers, or in small Chinese bowls, with little saucers. The absence of all ceremony with the presence of light charming detail makes the luncheon attractive.

For dinner, the family table wants to have less the air of hotel arrangements. More delicate napery and ware, whether the latter is only “seconds,” or the finest egg-shell china; lighter, more convenient, knives and forks, and heavier teaspoons, nice thin glass for drinking, thick cut crystal for sweets, with above all things a well kept cruet stand, make the difference in favour of home taste and home comfort. Keep all cracked and nicked ware from the table. Buy nothing that cannot be replaced without regret, but let each article be the best of its material. There is choice in the quality of stone ware and blown glass as well as in the shapes of each. The plainest is always most satisfactory of inexpensive things. The old fashion of furnishing dining-rooms in dark and heavy styles is reversed. The room is light, cheerful, warm in colour, the chairs broad and substantial, the table lower than it used to be, two points which add sensibly to the comfort of those who use them. Have the chair feet shod with rubber tips which come for the purpose, or if on castors, cover the wheel with rubber so that they can move without noise. See that the room is light and especially warm, for people want comfort at meals of all times, and they feel the cold more in sitting.

DINNER ETIQUETTE.

Directions for a ceremonious dinner naturally include those for the family table, as much form in serving being kept as may be convenient. The number of guests for a state dinner rarely exceeds twelve.

Written invitations are always complimentary and in finer style than any other for small parties, but persons who entertain often, have engraved cards with blanks left for the name of guest, and date, for convenience. The following is a form adopted for dinner cards, a large, nearly square form being used:

Mr. and Mrs. ____________________

Request the pleasure of

_____________________________ Company (name.)

________________________________ date and No.

________ o’clock.

The favour of an answer is requested.

(or) R. s. v. p.

For a gentleman’s party the host’s name alone appears on the invitation. An early answer must be sent in all cases, either to accept or decline. Not to do so is the grossest rudeness.

Invitations are always sent to persons in the same town by private messenger. Outside envelopes are necessary only when sent by mail to another city. No particular excuse need be sent. It is enough to say “Mr. and Mrs. —— regret that they are unable to accept Mr. and Mrs. —— kind invitation for the date named.” When the dinner is to meet any particular guest or distinguished person, it is made known by the words, “To meet So-and-So,” at the head of the invitation, or after the name of the invited person before the date.

Written invitations are on note sheets of mill-finished paper with side fold, the fancy rough and the highly glazed papers of eccentric shapes and fold being out of use. The large envelope, nearly square, allows the sheet to be doubled once to fit. Cards have the same finish, neither dull nor highly polished. The cipher of initials entwined is preferred to the monogram, and occupies the corner of the note sheet.

Guests arrive at any time during the half hour before dinner, and after leaving wraps in the dressing room, are met by the host and hostess at the door of the drawing room. Introductions follow if the guest is a stranger. If the party is given in honour of any distinguished person, or favourite visitor, the other guests are brought up to him or her and presented. It is an omen of success for her evening if the hostess can make conversation general before dinner. To this end, have some novelty at hand, either in the shape of a personage whom everybody wants to meet, or a new picture, a grotesque group, a rare plant in the drawing-room, the latest spice of news to tell, or a pretty girl to bring forward. Whatever the attraction, bring it on at once, to prevent that very stupid half hour. At the hour, the servant comes in and tells the hostess dinner is served. The arranging of the guests has all been considered beforehand. If she wishes people to think her dinner a pleasant one, the hostess will see that the likings of her guests are consulted in pairing off for the table. Host and hostess intimate to the gentlemen whom they are to escort. “Mr. Lance, will you be kind enough to take Miss Dart in to dinner. Mr. Curtis, be so good as to see Mrs. Vane. Jermingham, I know you’d prefer Miss Olney, she’s such a good listener. Mr. King, if you want to finish telling that story to Mrs. Capron, suppose you give her your arm,” and so on. If the guest to be honoured is a lady, the host offers her his arm and goes out first, the hostess last. If a gentleman, he escorts the hostess, and the host follows the company. Before dinner is announced, after the guests have arrived, the host has the names of each person written on a card and laid on the plates at the place where he or she is to sit. This does away with that awkward moment when the guests are in the dining room waiting to be told their places. The method long used at public dinners is now adopted for private ones in the best circles.

The standard size for dinner tables is four and-a-half feet wide, by any length desired. Round tables for gentlemen’s dinners, where all are wanted in the conversation are made seven feet across. Dining chairs should have cushioned seats covered with fine leather, but no arms, or very low ones, that will not impede the flow of ladies’ dresses. People who make a study of entertaining are particular on such points. Each gentleman offers his right arm to the lady he takes to dinner and seats her on his left, which gives occasion for a pretty piece of attention on his part. On reaching their places, he draws out her chair for her, and as her hand leaves his arm he takes the tips of her fingers and hands her to her seat, relinquishing his touch with a slight bow or glance of acknowledgment. Of course, the honoured guest, if a lady, takes the right hand of the host; if a gentleman, he is at the right of the hostess.

Small can-shaped pitchers of engraved crystal, holding about a quart, are placed with ice water between each pair of guests. The napkins are folded flat, with a thick piece of bread on each, a cruet-stand and silver salt cellar is at each corner, and a silver butter dish at each end. The small individual salt-cellars and butter plates, have an air of hotel arrangements which it is desirable to avoid at home dinners, though entirely admissable and convenient at breakfast. If wax lights are used, there should be as many candles as guests, according to the old rule. These are in branches held by Sevres and Dresden figures, above the heads of the guests. Nor are wax lights by any means the extravagance they seem. Dinner napkins are from three-quarters to seven-eighths of a yard square, and should match the cloth, for which Greek, Moresque, and Celtic filigrees and diaper patterns are preferred to large arabesques and fruit pieces. French napkins of fine fringed damask, with crimson figures of lobster and crawfish woven in the centre, are sometimes used at first and removed with the fish. Decorations must be choice and used with discretion. Flowers should be fine but few, for cultivated senses find their odor does not mingle pleasantly with that of food. All artificial contrivances, like epergnes and show-pieces, tin gutters lined with moss and filled with flowers for the edges of a table, or mirror plates to reflect baskets of blossoms, are banished by the latest and best taste. The finest fruit grouped in the centre of the table, set off with leaves, the garnished dishes, the lustre of glass and silver, and the colours of delicately painted china, need no improvement as a picture. A low silver basket of flowers at the sides, and a crystal bouquet holder with a delicate blossom and leaf, sparingly introduced, are all that is allowed for ornament’s sake. Large dinner services of one pattern are no longer chosen. The meats and large dishes are in silver or electrotype ware, the sweets come in heavy English cut crystal, and each course brings with it plates of a different ware.

The order of wines is sometimes perplexing, and the novice should remember that Chablis or Sauterne comes with the small oysters before soup, and that Sherry is drank after soup. Claret may be taken by those who prefer it during a whole dinner with entire propriety. Champagne comes with the roast, and Burgundy with game. The French and Germans reserve champagne for a dessert wine, but we drink it with both roast and dessert. After dessert comes coffee, which should be served, however, in the drawing-room. Fingerbowls with warm water are placed on the napkin on the dessert plate, and removed by the guest to the left, to be used by dipping the fingers in lightly and drying them on the d’oylay. When the ladies are quite through with dessert the hostess catches the eye of each or raises her gloved hand slightly, as a signal, and they leave the table, the oldest lady going first, the youngest last, followed by the hostess—the youngest gentleman, or the one nearest the door, taking it on himself to hold the door open. After half an hour a guest is at liberty to withdraw, but a dinner party rarely breaks up till half-past ten or later, if cards and dancing follow.

As to the individual etiquette of the table, on seating himself a guest draws off his gloves, and lays them in his lap under the napkin, which should be spread lightly not tucked in the dress. The raw oysters are eaten with a fork; the soup, only a ladleful to each plate, is sipped from the side of the spoon, without noise, or tilting the plate. The head should never stoop toward the plate or cup, but the shoulders kept straight and the food lifted to the mouth, the head bent naturally a little. A quiet celerity in eating is preferable to the majestic deliberation which many people consider genteel. Bread should be broken, never cut at table, and should be eaten morsel by morsel, not crumbed into soup or gravy. Food should not be mixed on the plate. Sweet corn is brought on, tied in its husk by a strip of leaf, and should be eaten from the cob, breaking the ear in two, and holding the piece in the left hand. Asparagus should not be touched with the fingers, but the tender part cut up, and eaten with the fork. Fish is eaten with the fork, assisted by a piece of bread in the left hand. Macaroni is cut and taken with the fork, unless served with the tomatoes, when a teaspoon is allowed, as with green peas, and stewed tomatoes alone. Cheese is crumbled with the fork and eaten with it, never touched by the fingers. Pastry should be broken by the fork without the aid of a knife. Game and chicken are cut up, never picked with the fingers, unless in the indulgence of a family dinner, when the bone may be held in one hand and eaten. Pears are held by the stem to be pared, and then cut and eaten like apples, beginning to remove the skin at the blossom end. Oranges are held on a fork while peeled and divided without breaking the skin. Cherries in pie, or natural, should have the stones passed to the napkin held at the lips and returned to the plate, and grape seeds and skins are disposed of in the same way. Salt is left on the edge of the plate, not on the table. Ladies take but a single glass of any wine at most, having their glasses half-filled with champagne a second time. It is beginning to be the custom to take soft bread as well as ice-cream with cake. Cocoanut pudding looks like pie, but is helped and eaten with a spoon. Small meringues are best eaten with a spoon, though the practice is to take them in the fingers.

SOCIAL OBSERVANCES.

The simplest society duty is, that of making calls. A new comer should return each call within two weeks after it is made. After this, a call once in six months, or a year, serves to keep up acquaintance. Calls are due to a hostess two days after a dinner party, and two days after a ball, and a week after a small party, though these are amply fulfilled by leaving one’s card in the case of a gentleman, a personal call being polite from a lady who has more time.

In town, leaving a card with the corner bent signifies that it was left by its owner in person, not sent by a servant. Bending the edges of a card, means that the visit was designed for the young ladies of the house, as well as the mistress of it. If there is a visitor with the family whom you wished to see, a separate card should be left for that person, naming him or her to the servant. A card should also be left for the host, if the call was designed as a family matter, but more than three are not left at one house.

Visits of condolence are paid within a week after the funeral, and are as well expressed by leaving a card and kind inquiries of the servant. This is the only proper thing to do in case of sickness, beside asking if one can be of use. Visits of congratulation are paid in person. After the birth of a child, cards and inquiries are left at the door, when the lady is able to receive her friends, she sends her card in return “with thanks for kind inquiries,” after which calls are made on her in person.

Bending the corners of the cards to signify “condolence,” “felicitation,” “to take leave,” etc., is not used so much as a penciled word or two, to express one’s “kind inquiries,” if there is trouble in the house, or “best wishes,” if there is a wedding, or engagement.

The P. P. C. card when one is going away, is a convenient way of letting friends know of your absence, the initials of “pour porendre conge” being often relinquished for the plain English “to take leave.” On returning, cards are sent to all the friends one wishes to see, with one’s address, and receiving day, when one day of the week is set apart for company.

From three to six are proper calling hours, and a visit may be from five minutes to half an hour, never longer, unless with a very intimate friend. A gentleman leaves his umbrella in the hall, but carries hat and cane with him, keeping the former in his left hand, never venturing to lay it on table, or rack, unless invited to do so by the lady of the house. Her not doing so is a sign that it is not convenient for her to prolong his call.

A soft hat is tolerated, but the dress hat is usually carried.

The lady of the house rises to receive any guest, unless it be a very young one, and gives her hand. After the visit, she receives a gentleman’s bow, and if disposed to be very polite, walks with him to the door of the room. She sees a lady visitor to the street door, if the parlour is on the same floor. If not, going to the head of the stairs is sufficient courtesy except to elderly guests. A gentleman must escort a lady who makes him a business call to the outer door, and to her carriage, if she has one. A caller should take leave as soon as possible on the arrival of another visitor, unless asked to stay.

Where a lady has a large acquaintance, it is most convenient for her to set apart a day for receiving their calls, of which she admonishes them by her visiting card on which the day of the week is pencilled.

Unless specially invited otherwise, her friends will confine their visits to that day of the week.

To these afternoons the hostess appears in usual afternoon dress; her rooms are attractive with flowers and pictures, but no refreshments are served. Her guests find her, not sitting at the receipt of customs, but busy with some elegant trifle of lace or wool-work, writing letters, or touching a sketch, to be laid aside on the entrance of visitors.

The set afternoon reception is announced by this form of card, the hostess usually preferring to have some young lady with her to add to the attractions of her house.

Mrs. L. Persifer,

Miss Arnold,

At Home,

Saturday, January thirteenth,

from three until six.

(Name and No. of street.)

If there be a card receiver in the hall, the visitor’s card is left in it, that the hostess may have the pleasure afterward of recalling all the friends who favour her with their presence.

Coffee, chocolate, cake and ices, are to be found in a side room at such receptions.

The form of card for afternoon tea, which means ladies in visiting or carriage dress, a harlequin tea service, each cup different, or a set of choice East India China, rooms cosy with warm curtains, and signs of womanly occupation, everything in short to have the daintiest home-look possible, are issued in this fashion:

             Mrs. Bradley Cowles,

                   Friday, January 18th,

                         Tea at 4 o’clock.

(Name and No. of street.)

Guests arrive in the five minutes before the hour, or the five minutes after. The tea is brought in punctually and placed on the hostess’ table in the corner, where are the urns of black, green and Russian tea for those who like each, a basket of wafers, delicate sandwiches of chicken or thin sliced meats, and a basket of fancy cake. If the English style is followed, the cups of tea are carried to the guests on a tray, and a tiny table to rest the cups on placed in reach of each group.

Cards are issued for dinner parties and afternoon receptions in distinction from evening parties and weddings, invitations to which are engraved on notepaper. Written invitations are more complimentary than printed ones, but the idea of cards and engraved requests is to save the labour of writing notes for a large party, or where one entertains continually. Written invitations for the honour and style of the thing, cards and engraving for convenience, though this is perhaps contrary to the popular notion. Written invitations should be as fastidiously correct as printed ones, on mill-finished side-fold note sheets with cipher in the corner, and written in the same form as cards, unless to a familiar friend, when such precision would be absurd. Outside envelopes are only used when invitations are sent by mail. And whether so requested in the note or not, answer to accept or decline should be sent as soon as possible, no matter how slight the invitation may be, even to dine with a gentleman, or go to a picture gallery. It will not do to present oneself without a word to announce one’s coming, or to stay away and apologize the first time of meeting. Good breeding is hardly shown in nicer points than this.

The person entering a room is the one to salute the company by a good morning, or how do you do, and to make his adieus, to which the rest respond. Where a stranger enters a small company, each one should be separately presented. The guest salutes hostess and host before speaking to anyone else, and if the party is large, is introduced to two or three convenient persons that he may have somebody to talk to, though in a private house guests may accost each other without formal presentation. Near the close of a party, the host and hostess usually are to be found near the door of the parlour, and guests take leave of them with a bow and compliment for a pleasant evening, then pass to the dressing rooms after wraps and vanish without further ceremony. In small circles a bow should be given to each person about one, and leave taken of any special friend whose conversation has been particularly pleasant.

A gentleman does not shake hands with a lady not of his kindred, unless she offers to do so. Unmarried ladies do not give their hands in salute to any but gentlemen relations. Ladies in any case give the hand, the gentleman respectfully presses it without shaking. It is a piece of stupid bad breeding, however, not to take the hand of anyone offered in ignorance of the rule. The best breeding always adapts itself to the customs of those about one.

When a gentleman escorts a lady to a party, he waits for her near the door of the ladies’ dressing-room till she shows herself, gives her his right arm, or gives it to the elder lady if he takes two, and goes up to the hostess with her to make salutations, then after a sentence or two, turning away to join the company. After a dance with any lady it is proper to take half a turn round the room in promenade with her, and take her to the refreshment room if she wishes, always leaving her with her chaperone. An unmarried lady does not ask gentlemen to call, but the gentleman asks permission for the favour of her, or waits to be invited by her father or mother.

THE LITTLE HOUSEKEEPERS.

It often happens that a good deal of knowledge which we are not conscious of possessing—but which finds its way somehow into the brains of big and little people as well—comes very readily to hand when it is needed. It so happened with Annie and Jennie, whose first practical lessons in housekeeping began after breakfast, one morning when Bridget was absent, at her sister’s funeral, and in consequence of an accident by which mamma sprained her ankle.

And the doctor had said, with a very wise shake of his head, and any amount of wisdom in his eye, that “Little Mother” must not step on that foot for three days, she grew still whiter with dismay, for Bridget would not be back until quite late in the day, and how was all the house work to be done and nobody to do it?

It was thus that Annie’s and Jennie’s first practical experiences in housekeeping began, and as our object in telling you how and what they did is to give you some ideas how you should manage in similar circumstances. I must not pass over their mother’s first caution: Before commencing your work prepare yourselves for it. This they did by putting long sleeved aprons over their dresses, rolling back their sleeves when it was evident the right place to begin with was

THE DINING ROOM.

The first thing here to do, was the clearing of the table. In this, all the clean silver, china, and dishes that had not been used, were first put away in the silver drawer, the china closet and on the side-board. Next, the dishes to be cleaned were collected together; the silver and the knives were first put into a pitcher of hot water, with the bowls and blades downwards. Next, the water was emptied from the glasses, and the coffee from the cups into a basin, and while Annie took these into the kitchen and placed them there on the table, Jennie gathered the plates in a pile, the cups and the saucers, each by themselves, in which way they were quickly and easily carried to the kitchen.

They were careful not to take too many at once, as they would be liable to break them. Then the table-cloth was folded and laid in the side-board; the napkins were put in the napkin basket; the dining room floor was nicely swept and the furniture dusted; the coal stove was attended to, that the fire was not too lively and not too low; and then, after kissing and petting mamma a few minutes, the little housekeepers set about

THE WASHING OF THE DISHES.

This, of course, with “Little Mother” at the head of affairs, was no disagreeable work, you may be sure. The large tin dish-pan, as bright as silver, was placed in the sink; the hot and cold water faucets turned on until the temperature of the water was hot enough for cleansing the dishes, and not too hot for the hands; then the suds was made by stirring about in the water the soap-shaker (a little tin box with soap in it, and perforated with holes having a long handle like a dipper). Then the glasses were first washed and quickly wiped on clean dry towels; then the silver; then the pretty china cups, saucers, plates and other dishes, which were then rinsed by pouring clear hot water over them in another pan, from which they were wiped with the coarser towels. This finished, Jennie removed the dishes from the kitchen table, putting the silver, glass and china away, while Annie washed the saucepans and the tins, putting them in their places in the kitchen; then brushed the range and swept the kitchen floor; after which they washed their hands well and dried them on the roller-towel; and then our little housekeepers set themselves about preparations for

THE CHAMBER WORK.

First, the two little girls went into mamma’s room, and put on over their bright glossy curls two little Martha Washington dusting-caps of pink and blue cambric, trimmed around the edges with scalloped ruffles, and ornamented with pretty little fanciful bows of pink and blue cambric, with scalloped edges. Then Annie took the pails and cloths, and Jennie the brushes, and brooms, and went up stairs.

The first rule of chamber work is to open the windows and turn down the bed clothes to air them well; beating up the pillows and the mattress. As Annie and Jennie always did this the first thing after dressing in the morning, and before going down to breakfast, the first thing now to do was to make up the bed. While Annie went to the further side, Jennie remained on the other, and thus, each sheet and blanket was brought up and laid over straight and smooth, with not a wrinkle in sheet or blanket, or a single article out of line. When all was done, the spread and blankets were turned neatly back, with the pretty ruffled sheet lying back on the nice white counterpane; the clothes were all neatly tucked and folded at the sides and the corners, and the pillows put up against the headboard. Then, while Annie washed the bed-room service, first emptying the waste water, and then washing out the cleanest dishes in warm suds, Jennie brushed the room, dusted the furniture and put the hair and clothes-brushes in order, and arranged the bureau and toilet table. They followed the same order in their brother John’s room, which was all of the chamber work to be done that day, and then went down stairs.

By this time the little housekeepers began to feel tired, and so they rested a while in their two little easy chairs in mamma’s room, talking to mamma and each other until it came the time for getting ready for the

LUNCHEON.

As John took his dinner with him to school, and papa ate his luncheon down town, and would not be home until the five o’clock dinner, there was only mamma and the two little girls to partake of this repast together; and as mamma’s luncheons were such cosy, tasteful though simple meals, we may gain some suggestions from the way our little housekeepers prepared them. The first thing to do in getting any meal, is to decide upon the various dishes to be served. A look at the supply of prepared food was quite disheartening to the ambitious desires of the little housekeepers, as there was bread and cake and cold meat in plenty, and it seemed as though there would be no opportunity for practicing their skill in cooking. But mamma, who saw the troubled look on the little faces, made out the following

BILL OF FARE:

Tea.

White Bread. Brown Bread. Crackers.

Ham.

Cheese Sandwiches.

Jumbles. Preserved Strawberries.

Whipped Cream.