Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-09-26
household


spired by paragraph in which comment
was made upon the salary Vanderbilt
paid his cook While il would seem, at
/ first blush, strange that it should be any
body s business what man pays his en-
ploye, nom ent's thought will reveal a
reason for selecting a cook 5 salary as the
subject of comment.
That d Iaborer is worthy of his hire
does not in the minds of the majority APP
ply to Kitchen labor, neither is the hon
OraDleness asserted 10 belong TO all labor
/ supposed to refer TO one who labOrs in
the laboratory of food supply.
This writer very properly said that it
was better to spend money in the market
and pay the cook than
in the drug store and up
on physicians. If money is
to bring comfort and luxury where can
it be better applied than in the commits
sary department Of the home, and what
art or artist is more deserving of honor
than is the one who ministers by proper
means to the health, and thereby to the
happiness of the members of family?
Epicureanism, like all all gospels, has
in it an element of truth, the good the
gods provide man has q right to enjoy,
which does not mean abuse, and there is
tianity in contenting oneself, granting
that were possible in food badly prepared
and carelessly served. By a wise pro-
vision of nature, taste repels the disgust
ing, and the eye as well as the palate are
staunch defenders of the stomach.
But il is not paying professional cooks
high salaries nor is it to endeavor to show
readers that cooking is deservedly a fine
art that this is written. Where cooks are
Obtanable there is little doubt those who
can will pay TO have their services, and
cooks deserving the name are not prone
to be satisfied with insufficient supplies.
In Texas the majority are a plain
struggling people, people who forego
the comforts of an older civilization and
endure privatioH III a new country in the
hope of lettering their own fortunes,
and amassing at least Il competence for
old age. At the same time they bring
with them, and this is especially true of
the women, TemcmDrances of luXuries at
bone, of certain vanities in personal
adornment or household decoration,
and this memory is quickened
by the actual knowledge that
many OF these nom essentials can
be brought where they now are,
although the cost is much greater. This
and what with natural love for pretti-
ness and an equally natural vanity, the
housekeeper whose cash supply is
none too generous begins to cast about
for some way Of economiZiug in order to
obtain the desired possessions. To
woman beset by desire for bric-a-brac
or fine clothes the pleasures of the table
usually possess little attraction, and she
does not pause to reflect that an abund-
ance of good food well prepared is not
only bone and sinew for her growing
children but also the fuel absolute that is
necessary to run the engine that brings
supplies INTO the home, that without this
abundance and quality wan faces
and languid frames are likely to
gather around the meager board, and
the husband, who must and generally
will have what his appetite Graves spends
more than her mistaken economy can
possibly save from a household allow
auce. No, no; spend money for good
cooks and save wives, furnish the table
beautifully, and with tempting variety,
that husband and children may gather
strength from the generous fare. 1t is
better that the best dress, cloak and bon
net serve q series of years, that the
daughters have fewer tucks, puffs and
ruffies, that the time and money devoted
TO such things be spent in kitchen and
dining room, than to have a dispirited
husband because over worked and under
fed and neglected children, whose ply
steal condition viii forever unfit them
for the duties of after life.
That self qualification or love of f1nery
or niggardliness that would lead to re-
striction in supplying the righteous de-
mands of the body is not only reprehensi-
BILE, but is little short Of crimnality.
The want of appetizing, nutritious
food, and neglect of careful catering
for variety that shall please, an affected
Indifference to what Is on the table has
much to do with many of the nerve dis
eases and dyspepsia of American life.
Pay the cooks and pay good ones; let
the butcher, grocer ana baker know that
yours is home where the housekeeper
cares for her tale, and the doctors
visits will be cut down and drugs have
little market. Better brave fashions
sneer and look upon rooms bare of knick-
knacks than possess all at the cost of
plenty in the larder and of health in the
family.
RECIPES.
Tomato wine-To one gallon of juice
add three pounds of sugar and two table
SpoonfulS OF yeast. Let II ferment for
few days, then strain carefully, bung
up close and bottle in about six weeks.
Beef soup-Bou one small beef bone in
three quarts of water. When If has
boiled three hours add two onions, two
turnips, four potatoes chopped fine, two
tablespoonfuls each of barley and rice;
season with salt and pepper. Boil one
hour longer.
Orange cake-Two cupfuls sugar, four
eggs, leaving out whites of two; half
cupful of butter, one cupful of water,
two teasponfuls of baking powder, three
cupsful of flour, piece of grated rlnd and
pulp of one orange. Use remaining
whites for frosting the top.
Fingered apples-Take four pounds
each of apples and sugar; make a thick
syrup of the sugar; chop the apples with
one ounce of white ginger root, add TO
the syrup with the grated rind of four
lemons and boil slowly for an hour and
half.
Iced cake-Make 81 delicate sponge
cake and bake in a deep, square mold;
make frozen custard; take off the top of
the cake and take out the center, Ieav-
ing the bottom and sides an inch thick
Fill with frozen custard; put the top