3532. To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals.

3533. Tongue double, brings trouble.

3534. He's the best physician that knows the worthlessness of most medicines.

PART XII.

THE FAMILY AT HOME.

A Good Table-Bread, etc.-Meats-Vegetables-Household Management-Beverages-Useful Receipts, etc.-Maxims, Dietetic and Moral-Tool-Chests-Dressmaking, etc.— Pets-Swimming—Riding—Amusements—Children—Letter-Writing-Debt-Flowers-Time-Air-Laws - Phrenology-Historical-Words of Washington.

3535. A good table is necessary to health and domestic comfort.

3536. Nearly every family in our Republic has, or might have, the means of living very comfortably; if nothing was wasted, and all food was properly cooked, good tables would abound.

3537. In my "New Cook Book" these subjects are so fully treated that little can be added.

3538. Still a few " Choice Receipts" on Cookery will be found in this volume, at page 319 and on. I shall add such other directions in this chapter as seem necessary to complete the system and first of the staff of life-bread.

3539. Bread. To make good bread, or to understand the process of making it, is the duty of every woman; indeed, an art that should never be neglected in the education of a LADY.

3540. The Lady derives her title from "dividing or distributing bread:" the more perfect the bread the more noble the lady

3541. In "Mrs. Hale's New Cook Book," and in the following directions, the art is made plain; and the process may, by practice, be easily acquired.

3542. Proportions of Nutriment in articles of Food.-See "Mrs. Hale's New Cook Book-Introductory," etc.

3543. Bread contains eighty nutritious parts in one hundred; meal thirty-four in one hundred; French beans, ninetytwo in one hundred; common beans, eighty-nine in one hundred; peas, ninety-three in one hundred; lentils, ninety-four in one hundred; cabbages and turnips, the most aqueous of all the vegetables compared, produce only eight pounds of solid matter in one hundred pounds; carrots and spinach produce fourteen in the same quantity; while one hundred pounds of potatoes contain twenty-five pounds of dry substance.

3544. From a general estimate it results, that one pound of good bread is equal to two pounds and a half or three pounds of potatoes; that seventy-five pounds of bread and thirty of meat may be substituted for three hundred pounds of potatoes.

3545. The other substances bear the following proportions: four parts of cabbage to one of potatoes; three parts of turnips to one of potatoes; two parts of carrots and spinach to one of potatoes; and about three parts and a half of potatoes to one of rice, lentils, beans, French beans, and dry peas.

3546. To test flour, people in the trade generally knead a small quantity by way of experiment; if good, the flour immediately forms an adhesive elastic paste, which will readily assume any form that may be given to it, without danger of breaking.

3547. Pure and unadulterated flour may likewise be easily distinguished by other methods: seize a handful briskly, and squeeze it half a minute; it preserves the form of the cavity of the hand in one piece, although it may be rudely placed on the table; not so that which contains foreign substances, it breaks in pieces more or less; that mixed with whiting being the most adhesive, but still dividing and falling down in a little time.

3548. Indian Bread.-One quart of buttermilk, one quart of Indian-meal, one quart of coarse flour, one cup of molasses; add a little soda and salt.

3549. Bread making is an art, the importance of which is too frequently overlooked or underrated. Heavy, sour, bard bread should never be tolerated, because good bread is more palatable, more healthy, and it should be borne in mind, is really much less expensive. There is great saving in baking bread at home, and this saving is greatest when flour is cheapest.

3550. Good flour and good yeast are requisites, but the goodness of the bread depends much on the kneading: the more the dough is turned and pressed and worked, the lighter and better the bread will be.

3551. Proportions.-Two gallons flour, half pint strong fresh yeast; if home-made, add more.

3552. The Process.-Make a hole in the flour, in which pour the yeast mixed with half a pint warm water. Stir in the flour round the edge of this liquid with a spoon to form a thin batter. After stirring it well for two minutes, sprinkle a handful of flour over the top of this batter, lay a warm cloth over it, and set it to rise in a warm place. When it rises so as to crack on the top add four spoonsful fine salt, and begin to form the mass into dough, pouring as much soft, lukewarm water as is necessary to make the flour mix with the batter. When the flour and batter are thoroughly mixed, knead and work the whole till it is light and stiff. Roll into a lump, sprinkle dry flour over it, cover and put into a warm place, when in half an hour it will rise enough for baking. SeeMrs. Hale's Cook Book," page 375. The quality depends much on the time of putting the dough in the oven. Dough readily runs into three stages of fermentation. It should be put in the oven during the first or saccharine, when if sufficiently baked it will be sweet and wholesome. It afterward becomes sour and heavy. If put in too soon, it will be light and as tasteless as saw-dust.

3553. Good bread is marked by fine pores and a sort of network of uniform appearance.

3554. Keep bread wrapped in a coarse towel, and where it will not dry up, or in a tight box.

3555. If sour, from being mixed over night, melt a teaspoon of pearlash in a little milk-warm water, sprinkle it over the dough, and in half an hour knead it again.

3556. Frozen dough is spoiled.

3557. Indian is a good addition to wheat, and requires more water, or make mush of it and then mix in.

3558. The bitterness of yeast may be remedied by putting in a little charcoal and then straining it.

3559. Rye and Indian Bread.-Mix two quarts of each with three pints boiling milk, table-spoon salt, and stir well. Let it stand til lukewarm, then stir in half pint good yeast. Knead to a stiff dough and put to rise near the fire. When the top is cracked over, make into two loaves and bake moderate two and a half hours.

3560. Common Yeast.-Boil a large handful hops in two quarts of water twenty minutes, Strain and pour the liquid into three pints flour. Stir in half a pint strong yeast. Its strength is increased by five tea-spoons brown sugar or five large spoons molasses. Cork the bottles loose till next day, and then tight.

3561. If turning sour put tea-spoon pearlash in each bottle.

3562. Another.-Boil, peel and mash mealy potatoes, which reduce with water or ale as thin as common yeast. To every pound add two ounces coarse sugar, and when just warm stir in two spoons of yeast. Keep warm till fermentation is over and in twenty-four hours fit for use. Let sponge eight hours before baking.

3563. Yeast.-Boil one pound of good flour, a quarter of a pound of brown sugar, and a little salt, in two gallons of water for one hour. When milk-warm, bottle it close; it will be fit

to use in twenty-four hours. One pint of this will make eighteen pounds of bread.

3564. Pulled Bread.-Take from the oven an ordinary loaf when it is about half baked, and with the fingers, while the bread is yet hot, dexterously pull the half-set dough into pieces of irregular shape, about the size of an egg. Don't attempt to smooth or flatten them-the rougher their shapes the better.

3565. Set upon tins, place in a very slow oven, and bake to a rich brown. This forms a deliciously crisp crust for cheese. If you do not bake at home, your baker will prepare it for you, if ordered. Pulled bread may be made in the revolving ovens.

3566. It is very nice with wine instead of biscuits.

3567. A great increase on home-made bread, even equal to one-fifth, may be produced by using bran water for kneading the dough. The proportion is three pounds of bran for every twenty-eight pounds of flour, the bran to be boiled for an hour, and then strained through a hair-sieve.

3568. Indian cake made with buttermilk, or sour milk, with a little cream or butter rubbed into the meal, and a tea-spoonful of pearlash in the milk, is very light and nutritious.

3569. Use of Lime-water in making Bread.-It has lately been found that water saturated with lime produces in bread the same whiteness, softness and capacity of retaining moisture, as results from the use of alum; while the former removes all acidity from the dough, and supplies an ingredient needed in the structure of the bones, but which is deficient in the cerealia.

3570. The best proportion to use is, five pounds of water saturated with lime, to every nineteen pounds of flour. No change is required in the process of baking.

3571. The lime most effectually coagulates the gluten, and the bread weighs well; bakers must therefore approve of its