Aunt Sarah's preserved cherries were fine, and this was her way of preparing them: She used 1 pound of granulated sugar to 1 quart of pitted cherries. She placed the pitted cherries on a large platter and sprinkled the sugar over them. She allowed them to stand several hours until the cherries and sugar formed a syrup on platter. She then put cherries, sugar and juice all together in a preserving kettle, set on range, and cooked 10 minutes. She then skimmed out the cherries and boiled the syrup 10 minutes longer, then returned the cherries to syrup. Let come to a boil. She then removed the kettle from the fire, spread all on a platter and let it stand in the hot sun two successive days, then put in glass air-tight jars or in tumblers and covered with paraffin. A combination of cherries and strawberries preserved together is fine, and, strange to say, the flavor of strawberries predominates.

A fine flavored preserve is also made from a combination of cherries and pineapple.

One tablespoonful of granulated gelatine soaked in enough milk to cover. Place 2 cups of sugar and ¾ cup of milk in a stew-pan on the range and boil until it spins a thread; that is, when a little of the syrup is a thread-like consistency when dripped from a spoon. Allow it to cool. Add dissolved gelatine and 1 quart of sweet cream. One box of strawberries, or the same amount of any fruit liked, may be added to the mixture; freeze as ordinary ice cream.

This dessert as prepared by Aunt Sarah was delicious as any ice cream and was used by her more frequently than any other recipe for a frozen dessert.

Frau Schmidt gave Mary this simple recipe for making any variety of sherbet:

2 cups of sugar, 1 tablespoonful of flour, mixed with the sugar and boiled with 1 quart of water; when cold, add 1 quart of any variety of fruit.

Freeze in same manner as when making ice cream.

When preparing this ice cream Mary used the following: Three cups of cream and 1 cup of milk, 1 egg and 1 cup of pulverized sugar (were beaten together until light and creamy). This, with 1 teaspoonful of vanilla flavoring, was added to the milk and cream. The cream should be scalded in warm weather. The egg and sugar should then be added to the scalded milk and cream, stirring them well together. When the mixture has cooled, strain it into the can of the freezer. Three measures of cracked ice to one of salt should be used. The ice and salt, well-mixed, were packed around the freezer. The crank was turned very slowly the first ten minutes, until the mixture had thickened, when it was turned more rapidly until the mixture was frozen.

This recipe for ice cream is simple and the ice cream is good. A boiled custard was prepared, consisting of 1 quart of milk, 4 eggs, between 3 and 4 cups of granulated sugar. When the custard coated the spoon she considered it cooked sufficiently. Removed from the fire. When cold she beat into the custard 1 quart of rich cream and 1 teaspoonful of vanilla, turned the mixture into the freezer, packed outside tub with ice and salt. It was frozen in the ordinary manner.

Mary was told by her Aunt of a friend in a small town, with a reputation for serving delicious ice cream, who always made ice cream by beating with a paddle, instead of making it by turning a crank in a freezer.

One quart of rich, sweet milk, 2 tablespoons of corn starch, 4 eggs, 1 cup of sugar, small tablespoon of vanilla. Cook the milk in a double boiler, moisten corn starch with a little milk. Stir it into the hot milk until it begins to thicken. Beat sugar and eggs together until creamy, add to the hot milk, cook a minute, remove from fire, add the vanilla, and when cool freeze. Crush the ice into small pieces, for the finer the ice the quicker the custard will freeze, then mix the ice with a fourth of the quantity of coarse rock salt, about 10 pounds ice and 2 pounds salt will be required to pack sides and cover top of a four-quart freezer. Place can in tub, mix and fill in ice and salt around the can, turn the crank very slowly until the mixture is thoroughly chilled. Keep hole in top of tub open. When mixture is cold, turn steadily until it turns rather hard. When custard is frozen, take out inside paddle, close the freezer, run off the salt water, repack and allow to stand several hours. At the end of that time it is ready to serve.

Mary made ice cream when peaches were plentiful; she used 1 quart of sweet cream, sweetened to taste (about 2 cups sugar) and 2 quarts of ripe peaches mashed and sweetened before adding to cream. Freeze in ordinary manner. If peaches were not fine flavored, she added a little almond flavoring.

This is the way Frau Schmidt taught Mary to make this dessert. She used for the purpose 1 quart of water, 5 lemons, 2 tablespoons gelatine, 2 large cups sugar. She soaked the gelatine in about 1 cup of water. She squeezed out the juice of lemons, rejecting seeds and pulp. She allowed a cup of water out of the quart to soak the gelatine. This mixture was put in an ice cream freezer and frozen.

• 1½ quarts milk.
• 2 cups sugar.
• 5 eggs.
• 2½ tablespoonfuls of flour.

Scald the milk in a double boiler. Moisten flour (she preferred flour to corn starch for this purpose) with a small quantity of cold milk, and stir into the scalded milk. Beat together egg yolks and sugar until light and creamy, then add the stiffly beaten whites of eggs and stir all into the boiling milk. Cool thoroughly, flavor with vanilla and freeze as you would ice cream. When partly frozen crushed strawberries or peaches may be added in season. A little more sugar should then be added to the fruit, making a dessert almost equal to ice cream. In Winter one cup of dried currants may be added, also one tablespoonful of sherry wine, if liked.

Scald one pint of sweet milk in a double boiler. Stir into it one cup of sugar and one rounded tablespoonful of flour, which had been mixed smoothly with a small quantity of the milk before scalding. Add two eggs which had been beaten together until light and creamy. At the same time the milk was being scalded, a fry-pan containing one cup of granulated sugar was placed on the range; this should be watched carefully, on account of its liability to scorch. When sugar has melted it will be brown in color and liquid, like molasses, and should then be thoroughly mixed with the foundation custard. Cook the whole mixture ten minutes and stand aside to cool; when perfectly cold add a pinch of salt, one quart of sweet cream, and freeze in the ordinary manner.

One quart of boiling water and 1 pound of sugar boiled together to form a syrup, then add 1 quart of juice or fruit and juice to measure exactly one quart. Mix together according to directions and freeze.

Grape sherbet was made in this manner: The grapes were washed, picked from the stems and placed in a stew-pan over the fire. When hot remove from the fire and mash with a potato-masher and strain through a jelly bag, as if preparing to make jelly. Boil together 1 pound of granulated sugar and 1 quart of water, about 12 minutes. While hot add 1 pint of grape juice and 1 teaspoonful of granulated gelatine, which had been dissolved in a very little cold water, to the hot syrup. When the mixture was partly frozen add the stiffly beaten white of 1 egg and 1 tablespoonful of pulverized sugar, beaten together. All were stirred together, covered and stood away until cold. Then placed in a freezer, iced as for ice cream, and frozen in the same manner as for cherry sherbet. The juice of all berries or fruits may be extracted in the same manner as that of grapes.

To 6 pounds of stemmed Concord grapes add 1 quart of water, allow them to simmer on range until grapes have become soft. Strain through a piece of cheese-cloth, being careful to press only the juice through, not the pulp of the grapes. Return the grape juice to the preserving kettle and add ¾ of a pound of sugar. Allow the juice to just commence to boil, as cooking too long a time spoils the flavor of the juice. Bottle at once, while juice is hot. Bottles must be sterilized and air-tight if you expect grape juice to keep. Cover corks with sealing wax.

"Aunt Sarah" Landis possessed the very finest flavored vinegar for cooking purposes, and this is the way it was made. She having a very plentiful crop of fine strawberries one season, put 6 quarts of very ripe, mashed strawberries in a five-gallon crock, filled the crock with water, covered the top with cheese-cloth and allowed it to stand in a warm place about one week, when it was strained, poured into jugs and placed in the cellar, where it remained six months, perhaps longer, when it became very sharp and sour, and had very much the appearance of white wine with a particularly fine flavor. This was not used as a beverage, but as a substitute for cider in cooking.

In Autumn, when cider was cheap and plentiful on the farm, 3 quarts of cider was boiled down to one, or, in this proportion, for use in mince meat during the Winter. A quantity prepared in this manner, poured while hot in air-tight jars, will keep indefinitely.

Boil two cups of granulated sugar and one cup of water together for a few minutes until the sugar is dissolved, then add the juice of six well-scrubbed, medium-sized lemons; let come to a boil and add the grated yellow rind of three of the lemons. Be careful not to use any of the white skin of the lemons, which is bitter. Put in air-tight glass jars. This quantity fills one pint jar. A couple tablespoonfuls added to a tumbler partly filled with water and chipped ice makes a delicious and quickly prepared drink on a hot day.

Gather one quart of rose leaves, place in a bowl, pour over one quart of boiling water, let stand nine days, then strain, and to each quart of strained liquid add one pound of granulated sugar. Allow to stand until next day, when sugar will be dissolved. Pour into bottles, cork tightly, stand away for six months before using. Aunt Sarah had some which had been keeping two years and it was fine.

Four good quarts of dandelion blossoms, four pounds of sugar, six oranges, five lemons. Wash dandelion blossoms and place them in an earthenware crock. Pour five quarts of boiling water over them and let stand 36 hours. Then strain through a muslin bag, squeezing out all moisture from dandelions. Put the strained juice in a deep stone crock or jug and add to it the grated rind and juice of the six oranges and five lemons. Tie a piece of cheese-cloth over the top of jug and stand it in a warm kitchen about one week, until it begins to ferment. Then stand away from stove in an outer kitchen or cooler place, not in the cellar, for three months. At the end of three months put in bottles. This is a clear, amber, almost colorless liquid. A pleasant drink of medicinal value. Aunt Sarah always used this recipe for making dandelion wine, but Mary preferred a recipe in which yeast was used, as the wine could be used a short time after making.

Four quarts of dandelion blossoms. Pour over them four quarts of boiling water; let stand 24 hours, strain and add grated rind and juice of two oranges and two lemons, four pounds of granulated sugar and two tablespoonfuls of home-made yeast. Let stand one week, then strain and fill bottles.

Two cups of grape juice, 4 cups of water, 1½ cups of sugar, juice of 3 lemons and 3 oranges, sliced oranges, bananas and pineapples. Serve the punch in sherbet glasses, garnished with Marachino cherries.

A very excellent substitute for maple syrup to serve on hot griddle cakes is prepared from 2 pounds of either brown or white sugar and 1¾ cups of water, in the following manner: Place the stew-pan containing sugar and water on the back part of range, until sugar dissolves, then boil from 10 to 15 minutes, until the mixture thickens to the consistency of honey. Remove from the range and add a few drops of vanilla or "mapleine" flavoring. A tiny pinch of cream of tartar, added when syrup commences to boil, prevents syrup granulating; too large a quantity of cream of tartar added to the syrup would cause it to have a sour taste.

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 mass. Or they may be crushed with a rolling pin. Season with salt, spread on thinly-sliced, buttered 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 mass. Thin this with a small quantity of olive oil, or melted butter, if preferred. Season with salt and you have "peanut butter," which, spread on slices of buttered 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.

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.

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 ½ pound more sugar will be required. Shape the mixture into small balls, 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 balls 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.

Two cups of granulated sugar, 1 cup of sweet milk, ¼ cup of butter, ¼ 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 buttered pan and when cooled cut in squares.

Place in an agate stew-pan 2 cups of granulated sugar, 1 cup of sweet milk, butter size of an egg. Cook all together until it forms a soft ball when a small quantity 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.

Four tablespoonfuls New Orleans molasses, 9 tablespoonfuls sugar, 3 tablespoonfuls water, 2 teaspoonfuls butter, 1 teaspoonful vanilla. Boil all together until it becomes brittle when a small quantity is dropped in water. Pour the mixture into buttered 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 quantity this small amount of sugar and molasses will make.

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 quantity 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 circumstance, leave the kitchen while the fat is on the range, as grave results might follow carelessness in this respect.

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 glasses.

One wine glass 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 butter 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 ¼ teaspoonful.

Four tablespoonfuls equal one wine glass.

Piece of butter size of an egg equals two ounces, or two tablespoons.

A tablespoonful of butter melted means the butter should be first measured then melted.

One even tablespoonful of unmelted butter equals one ounce.

One tablespoonful sugar, good measure, equals one ounce.

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

COOKING SCHEDULE TO USE WITH THE OVEN THERMOMETER OF A GAS STOVE

THE END.