Scappi's Cookbook

1895

What They Ate and How the Dishes Were Served In 1570.

Scappi's book is illustrated, and the drawings represent the state of culinary affairs even more forcibly than the text. There is scarcely a kitchen utensil now in use among us that is not to be found among Scappi's diagrams. It is true that some of them are clumsily fashioned, especially in the matter of hinges, but their practical efficiency cannot be doubted. The menus of dinners given to exalted personages, a single one often filling six pages, form part of these books and show that profusion without any particular design as to sequence or harmony was their chief characteristic.

A novelty presents itself here in the credenza, or buffet. This was no doubt partly brought about by the acquisition of magnificent gold and silver plate, goblets and vases of Venetian glass. Trophies of these beautiful things were associated with a credenza service, which consisted of antipasti in variety, highly decorated cold pieces montees, all sorts of fruits, pickles, preserves, both savory and sweet, roes of fish, etc., and contributed greatly to the grandeur of the banqueting hall. A service from the credenza preceded each great division of courses of hot dishes (servizio di cucina), and the feast ended with sweet-meats and confectionery, which were handed round after the removal of the cloth.

It should be specially noted that forks formed part of the table equipment; that perfumed water was handed round after each course; that napkins of the finest damask linen were deftly folded and laid before each guest, with a minute del pranzo, and that the utmost cleanliness was maintained both in the table appointments and cookery. As for the dishes themselves, it need scarcely be said that few of them would be considered nice nowadays.

Sauces, as we understand them, clear soups and delicate entrees, in which the savory character of the ingredients is maintained with scrupulous care, had not yet been discovered. Meats were covered with spices and sprinkled with sugar, wines were sweet, and savories and sweets were mixed promiscuously, showing that no very great discrimination prevailed in regard to their distinct characteristics. — National Review.

Poisons of the Kitchen

1895

Some Things That Should Be Closely Watched by All Housewives.

In face of the frequent accounts of accidental poisoning the following facts may prove both interesting and useful. In the first place, all copper vessels should be retinned directly the surface shows signs of being worn. Neither acid, salt nor fatty bodies will attack well cleaned copper vessels. Vinegar may be even boiled in them with safety, but should it be allowed to cool in the vessels it will dissolve enough copper to become dangerous. The advantage in copper poisoning is that one of the first symptoms is vomiting — that is to say, the poison is rejected from the system.

Zinc, though it conceals itself so often under the name of "galvanized iron," is still more dangerous than copper. No acid foods or liquids should ever be allowed to remain in galvanized vessels. Lead, from a culinary point of view, is the least to be recommended of all the metals, as it poisons slowly without producing vomiting, while tin, iron, steel and nickel are practically harmless.

But it is not only these vessels used in preparing food which are dangerous. Many foods in themselves are legitimate objects of suspicion. For instance, the potato becomes unfit for food when it has commenced to germinate or when it is green from having been partially exposed to the air while growing. The green parts and the "eyes" contain an undoubted poison, which has a sharp taste and is capable of producing paralysis or even death. At the end of the winter many pigs are unhealthy through having been fed on these green potatoes or on potatoes from which the eyes containing the germs have not been carefully cut.

Mushrooms should always be carefully verified by a person thoroughly acquainted with their peculiarities. Some cooks put a silver coin with them when cooking. If the coin turns black, they reject the mushrooms. This is really no test at all, as many of the poisonous fungi will not blacken silver. All animal food in an advanced state of decomposition is more or less poisonous. For this reason tinned fish is never to be trusted, as the fish are often stale when tinned. Smokers especially should be careful, as their taste is often not so fine as that of a nonsmoker, and they are consequently less likely to detect a tin of doubtful fish. Mussels, again, are always poisonous, although the seat and nature of the poison have never been discovered. — Philadelphia Press.

Why a Lobster Turns Red

1895

Persons living at a remote distance from the natural home of the lobster think that red is the original color of that species of crustacean. The natural hue, however, is green, the beautiful bright brick color being the result of boiling, to which such creatures are subjected. Two explanations for this change in color are given, either of which appears to be tenable: Their shells contain a large per cent of iron, and the boiling process oxidizes that mineral, the change being almost exactly the same as that brought about in burning a brick. Such a change in the color of a lobster's shell can be brought about by the sun's action, but never while the lobster is living. As a rule, however, the sun's bleaching influence consumes the oxide almost as fast as it is formed, leaving the shell pure white.

The second explanation is that the original green color is due to the blue and red pigments, the blue being soluble and the red insoluble in boiling water. When the lobster is boiled, The blue pigment is dissolved, leaving the red to color the creature's shell. — St. Louis Republic.

Baked Beans

1895

Why You Can't Get the Genuine Outside of New England.

The reason why baked beans outside of New England are so unlike the genuine article is that they are not properly cooked, and more especially because they are not cooked in the old fashioned down east bean pot. There are probably no real bean pots on sale outside of New England. They are all about the same in appearance and are made of potter's clay, which is the material flowerpots are made of.

For some reasons beans baked in any other utensil are unlike those baked in a bean pot. Just why this is so is hard to determine, but the fact remains. Possibly the thick pottery ware affects the beans in a similar manner as a meerschaum pipe affects the flavor of tobacco.

Any one can have nice baked beans if he secures a bean pot and follows these directions: First get your beans. The large red kidney variety is largely used, but the small white pea bean is more generally popular.

One quart of beans is sufficient when cooked for two meals for an average family. They should be soaked in cold water for an hour or so. Then salt and pepper should be added, together with half a teaspoonful of mustard and half a teacupful of molasses. The molasses gives the beans a delicious flavor, and at the same time it is not too pronounced nor is it possible to detect the molasses. When the beans are in the pot, half or three-quarters of a pound of pork, well streaked with lean, should be placed on top and then enough warm water poured into the pot to just cover the beans.

Beans should be baked in an oven of even temperature for either a day or a night, or, in other words, about 12 hours. It is better to bake them in the daytime, for then they can receive more attention. As the water gradually evaporates more should be added from time to time, but care should be taken to keep the beans covered. This must be done until the beans are nearly ready to be taken out, when no more water should be added, so that they will not be so moist as to be come mashed or broken.

The pot can remain in the oven, where it will simply keep hot, for an indefinite time without injury. Beans should be served in a covered dish. Beans that have been left over are delicious warmed up in a stewpan with a little water added, and many bean epicures think the more times beans are warmed over the better they are. — Exchange.

The Dear, Worn Hand

1895

Few things are capable of touching one with a deeper sense of pathos than the shrunken, blue veined hand of one who is near and dear. Nothing brings a sharper pang of foreboding and a harder lump in the throat than the first time it strikes us that the gentle hand that soothed our childish pains and griefs and has gladly worn away its softness and beauty in our service is thin and withered, with purple veins that stand out like whipcords when it lies at rest. Such a hand ought to look more beautiful to those for whom it has toiled, whose suffering it has charmed away, than the fairest hand ever modeled by a sculptor. — Philadelphia Press.


She Felt Hurt.

Mrs. Wibble — I found my cook in the kitchen today crying because she had broken one of my choicest pitchers.
Mrs. Wabble — Was she so sorry?
Mrs. Wibble — Oh, yes! It fell on her foot. — New York Sun.

Sanitary Lid for Teakettle

1916

Safety Device That Prevents Burns When Refilling.

Many a housewife has sustained a bad burn from lifting the hot lid of the kettle she was attempting to refill. A teakettle lid has been invented which will render this impossible. The lid has an automatic valve in the center which opens as the flow of water is turned upon it and closes when the water is shut off. This valve is at the bottom of a depression in the lid, and the concave thus formed is a convenient place to set a cup or other small vessel containing butter to be melted or other ingredients requiring gentle heat. The lid is of aluminum, thoroly sanitary and indorsed by the cooking experts who have seen it.



Chickens and Electricity

1916

By treating young chickens with high frequency, high voltage currents of electricity a London experimenter has made them grow more rapidly than those of the same age reared without the treatment.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 9.

An Ample Kitchen

1901

What is said to be the largest kitchen in England is that of Raby castle, the seat of the Duke of Cleveland. It is 30 feet square, having three chimneys, one for the grate, a second for the stoves and the third for the great cauldron. The roof is arched, with a small cupola in the center. It has five windows, from each of which steps descend, but only in one instance to the floor, and a gallery runs round the whole interior of the building. The ancient oven has a diameter of 15 feet.

Vast as this kitchen is, it must have been sometimes taxed by the hospitality of former ages, for in one of the apartments of the castle 700 knights were upon one occasion entertained at the same time, and the knights of that day were men of brawn and sinew, who would think lightly of demolishing, each man of them, five pounds of beef, half a suckling pig and a venison pasty or two, washed down with huge flagons of brown October.

Too Extravagant By Half

1901

The manner in which one defaulting cashier was detected was rather peculiar. It was all due to the curiosity of the women of his neighborhood. He went to no expense in the way of dressing, they never heard of his gambling or drinking to any extent, he was a model husband, but he loved a good table. There was nothing unusual in this, but one day when the ladies of the vicinity were discussing the best method of cooking meats the wife of the cashier declared very innocently that her husband doted on ham, but he would not eat it unless it had been boiled in champagne. "Boiled in champagne!" exclaimed the listeners. "Heavens, how expensive! We couldn't afford to have ham on our table often if we cooked it that way."

It was soon noised all around the neighborhood that Cashier Blank was a high liver indeed, and the men began telling of his uplifted ideas of cookery. This soon reached the ears of the directors of the bank, and they concluded it might be wise to investigate the accounts of such an epicure. Plain water was all they could afford for their hams, so the champagne lover was called up and subsequently relegated to the pen, where he had to forgo his pet dish for many, many weary days. — Louisville Times.


Human Nature

It is human nature to deride what we cannot possess, to deny what we cannot understand and to insult those we envy. — Chicago News.

How to Cook a Coon

1910

In preparing to cook a coon see that the kernels have been thoroughly cut out of the arm pits, groins and from under the root of the tail after it has been skinned. Coons' kernels are similar to musk glands. The carcass should be hung up in the frost for two or three days to freeze by night and thaw by day until properly tendered and then parboiled and baked. Some use a dressing of bread, sage and onions; others use oysters and crackers; still others use sweet potatoes or persimmons. All use a basting rich in butter, red pepper and vinegar. A coon beyond all other flesh absorbs any other flavor put with him, so sweet herbs are occasionally used. Not too fat nor too lean, he makes a fine repast for a hunter's supper.

Poisons Long In Use

1910

Some poisons have been known for ages. Prussic acid, then called "the poison of the peach," was used by the Egyptians before the pyramids were built. They were the first to distill the poison from peach pits.

Corrosive sublimate was one of the favorite poisons of Charles IX of France. He offered a large prize for any one who would find an antidote for it. A physician came to him one day to claim the reward. The king sent for his cook, who had burned the meat that day, and made him take a fatal dose of corrosive sublimate. The antidote was administered immediately, but the cook died, notwithstanding. The king had the doctor taken out and hanged, so his spirit followed the cook's in less than a quarter of an hour.

How to Cook Rice

1905

Physicians and others who have eaten rice cooked by a Hindoo, a Chinaman or a southern darky must have remarked the difference between the results obtained by these artists and those of the benighted cooks of the north. We learn from an authoritative source that the secret lies in the following recipe:

The rice should be carefully washed and placed in a kettle of boiling water, which should be set on the back of the range over a low fire, where the rice should simmer slowly until done. Stirring is not only useless, but harmful. If there is any water left, it should be drained off carefully and the rice should then stand in a hot place for some time.

Nothing should be added during the cooking, no salt, sugar, milk or butter. If the cooking has been done properly, each grain of rice will stand out by itself, plump, dry and beautiful. Served very hot at the table the rice should then be reverently treated with cayenne pepper and butter, after which, will be revealed to the consumer one of the secrets of the success of the Japanese army. — New York Medical Journal.

Still in the Kindergarten

1905

Those Who Can Be Interested in Nothing That Is Not a "Game"

After an intelligent and watchful mother had sent her children to a famous kindergarten for several months she withdrew them because she found that they were being ruined by "getting the attitude of regarding everything as a game" — that is, instead of learning through games how to go about the serious business of life, they were learning to approach everything in the careless, make-believe spirit of play.

There is a hint in this for our colleges. There is a hint in it for all those who do puzzles, and play chess, and ride to hounds, and fool with rings and bars to develop their minds and bodies. The world is cursed with tens of thousands of human beings who have the best natural advantages, but can get up the steam of enthusiasm only for some "game" that is useless in its aim, and no more useful in its method, than its corresponding reality would be.

It is as certain as cause and effect that he who takes play seriously will take serious things playfully. — Saturday Evening Post.


Sour Expression Caused Divorce

Carrie Fields has been granted a divorce from Dr. L. S. Fields at Sanborn, Iowa, because the husband did not like her make of pancakes and ridiculed them. She testified that the expression upon the doctor's face when eating the cakes was such it might work permanent injury to her health.

Joke Is Played on Peddler

1915

Victim Makes Queer Discovery Next Morning

A peddler arrived one evening at a small town and went to the only hotel there. Every room had already been engaged, but the hotel-keeper offered him a room which he could share with a negro. The peddler agreed, and asked to be awakened early the next morning.

Several jokers overheard the proceedings, and while the peddler slept blackened his face.

The next morning, being in a hurry to catch a train he made straight for the station when he was awakened. While passing the mirror in the waiting-room he stopped suddenly and exclaimed: "Hang it all! They've called the wrong guy!"


True to the Last

"Yes," said the traveler, "my wife's mother was the most admirable housekeeper that ever lived. Poor soul, she was eaten by cannibals in Africa."
"You don't mean it!"
"Alas! it's true. Why, when the savages had thrust her into the cauldron and she was beginning to cook, she cried out faintly with her last breath, 'Don't forget the salt and pepper.'"


Can't Look the Part Now

"John, dear," said his wife, "there was a poor man here today asking for old clothes and I gave him that shabby old overcoat of yours that was hanging in the attic. You didn't want it, did you?"
"Of course I wanted it!" exclaimed John wrathfully. "That's the one I always wear when I swear off my taxes."


About Five

[From the Pea Ridge (Ark.) Pod]

Mr. French who lived one mile south of town died Tuesday, of last week, and was buried at Siloam Springs, Wednesday. He leaves a wife and about five children to mourn his death.


Detects Smokeless Powder

United States naval officers have developed a colored glass which renders visible the fumes from smokeless powder.

A Salute Wasted — Was Old Negro Cook, Not the General

1900

The flag-ship Monongahela was anchored off the navy-yard at Pensacola Bay in 186—, and Admiral Farragut, who was then in command, was on board. He had been very busy the week before paying official calls on the mainland, and among those who had entertained him was General Canby. When, therefore, word was received that the general would visit the ship the next day, the admiral was determined to have everything ready to receive him in a style becoming his rank.

The old boat was scrubbed and holystoned from stem to stern, the bright work was given an extra rub, and things generally were put into the best of order. Captain Heywood, now brigadier-general commandant of the marine corps, had a special inspection of his company of marines, and not a spot of rust or a dull helmet spike escaped his notice. When night closed in, darkness settled down over a very clean ship and a very tired ship's company.

Bright and early the next morning the admiral's launch was sent off to bring the general aboard. At the last moment it was discovered that there was no fruit for luncheon, and Pompey, the admiral's cook, was sent in the dingy to get some.

Pompey was a character in his way, and had been with the admiral for many years. He was very proud of what he called his military bearing, and wore his beard carefully trimmed to a point. His hair and beard were nearly white, and although he was sixty years old, he ruled the other negroes with a rod of iron.

By ten o'clock every one was standing by in full dress, when the quartermaster came aft and reported that the admiral's launch was returning.

The officer of the deck walked to the rail and took a squint at the boat through his glasses. A man clad in a blue uniform was seated in the admiral's cane chair in the stern, but as the gunwale struck him just below the shoulder and the awning hid his head, the officer of the deck was not certain that it was General Canby until, as the wind lifted the edge of the awning, he caught a glimpse of a gray beard.

Word was passed that the general was coming off. The crew were beat to quarters, the marine guard paraded, and the gun squad, detailed to fire the salutes took their stations.

Everything was in readiness, and the admiral and his staff stood at the head of the gangway to receive the guest. A hush of expectancy settled over the ship.

The boat drew nearer. Just as the launch scraped alongside, boom! boom!! came the salute from the guns.

"Present arms!" came the command to the guard, and at a sign from the flag officer the band struck up "Hail to the Chief."

Amid all this military pomp and splendor the occupant of the launch was slowly clambering out, feet foremost, and just as the last gun was fired he stood erect at the top of the gangway.

Merciful heavens! It was Pompey, with a bag of fruit in each hand!

Confusion! The honors intended for a general had been rendered a negro cook! As the situation dawned on the men, even discipline could not check a general shout of laughter. The old admiral himself laughed until he could laugh no more.

It seemed that in some way the dingy had gone off and left the old negro, and that he had managed to convince the coxswain that "Marse Farragut was jes' bound to have dat fruit befo' the general came."

Pompey wanted to land at the port gangway, but the coxswain insisted that the admiral's launch never went to the port side, and that the old man would have to land on the starboard side, aft.

Had the awning been a little higher, the mistake in identification would not have occurred. As things were, no one could be blamed, and the affair was treated as a joke, while Pompey was nicknamed the "General."

When, an hour later, General Canby did come off, he was received with all due ceremony, and on being told the story, laughed till the tears rolled down his cheek; and demanded to see the man who had stolen his salute. — Youth's Companion.

Letting the Wife Know Guests Are Coming

1914

It is difficult for some men to see that it makes it much easier for a wife, in her domestic arrangements with the cook and behind the scenes, if her husband sends her word before the arrival of a guest that he intends bringing home for dinner or over night, ventures the Ladies' Home Journal.

Of course, in any well regulated family the latch string always hangs out, as the saying goes, and an extra plate is easily laid for the unexpected guest. But does a man in his business like to get an order that he cannot fill? Does he like to say he hasn't it in stock? Does he care to be caught shorthanded? Neither does a good housekeeper nor a good cook.

In households where there are money and food to throw away the case is different. But in most homes, where every penny — or every potato — counts, it is only fair for the office side to the let the distaff side know beforehand. It is the right of the wife to know.

Pumpkin Pies — The Vegetable Vagabond Makes a Great Pie

1876

We generally have them made of squash at our house, but always call them pumpkin, it sounds so much better. Squash is a dreadful name, and the man who invented it ought to have had a big Hubbard hurled at his head, as Ichabod Crane was served with a pumpkin, in the "Legend of Sleepy Hollow." But pumpkin is altogether a different word, whether it adorns a bill of fare, is woven into poetry, or is flattened into "pu-n-n-kin, as genial Robert Collyer does it. It is one of the old-fashioned vegetables, that has held its own among upstart rivals for a hundred years.

Precious little help has the pumpkin had from the propagating gardeners who are so intent on improving nature's productions in other fields The pumpkin is the, same honest, homespun self-made sort of vegetable vagabond it was when it straggled through the corn fields, and dotted the autumn landscape with spots of a golden color, in the pioneer days when luxuries were not necessities, and wants were few. They pretend to say that the quality has deteriorated, like some strains of blood in men whose heads this useful vegetable has most uncharitably been made to symbolize, and that the flesh is white and poor compared with what it was in former years. Yet this may be merely the croak of the old-time worshippers. But, whether made true to name or of sq——sh, a pumpkin pie, if rightly made, is a thing of beauty, and a joy, while it lasts.

We know there is an attempt made by certain super-civilized writers — of the sort who order for dinner "a little tea-ah and toast, wa-tah, and a chicken's wing" — to make abstinence from pie a test of refinement. Some of them haven't gastric juice enough to digest anything but a weak wash of some sort; but others are just putting on airs. We wouldn't trust some of the fellows who make a virtue of abhoring pie alone with a whole one behind the kitchen door — even at eleven o'clock at night. A well-made pie, of the right sort, is a good deal more wholesome than half of the modern masses concocted as a concession to dyspeptics, who charge upon healthful food the natural result of their own sin and ignorance in working without exercise, sleeping too little, and neglecting other normal conditions of right living.

But to return to our pies. We scorn to make a cook book of these columns, with our present supply of technical knowledge; but we do know that for a good pumpkin pie you want plenty of milk, just enough eggs, not too much pumpkin, a lump of butter, and a judicious sprinkling of spices — principally cinnamon and ginger. The concoction, when ready for the oven, should be about the consistency of good thick cream. Pies that cut out only a little less firm than a pine board — those that will "wabble" without breaking, like a piece of leather — and those that run around loose on your plate, are alike to be avoided. About an inch thick strikes us a good depth for the filling; two inches is better than the miserable thin plasters that one sometimes sees at boarding-houses, that look, for all the world, like pumpkin flapjacks. The expressive phrase "too thin" must have come from such lean parodies on pumpkin pies.

With the pastry light, tender, and not too rich, and a generous filling of smooth, spiced sweetness — a little "trembly" as to consistency, and delicately browned on top — a perfect pumpkin pie, eaten before the life has gone out of it (say three hours after baking), is one of the real additions made by American cookery to the good things of the world. We have our opinion of the man who could get up dissatisfied or cross from a dinner topped off with a quarter-section of such a pie. For the first pumpkin pie of the season, flanked by a liberal cut of creamy cheese and a glass of cider fresh from the press, we prefer to sit down, as the French gourmand said about his boiled turkey, "with just two of us — myself and the turkey!" Company is apt to distract the attention — and subtract from the pie.

A Sunlight Stove — Solar Energy For Warmth or Cooking

1878

A Sunlight Stove

It has been said that when we burn coal we really warm ourselves, or cook the dinner, by the rays of the sun which fell on the earth thousands of years ago — before the Pyramids of Egypt were erected, or Cleopatra's Needle cut out of the quarry. The heat and light of past ages are stored up in another form in the coal, which is fossil vegetation that when alive, as trees or gigantic ferns, owed its growth to the sun.

A successful attempt has now been made to store up the heat of the sun's rays for immediate and practical use. It was carried out in India, where the sun is, of course, much more powerful than here. The rays were first made to pass through glass fixed an inch away from the actual apparatus, which was consequently entirely surrounded by hot air. The enclosed apparatus, a copper receptacle, was blackened outside — a color which is well known to absorb heat, as any one may prove by wearing a black coat on a warm summer's day. The heat thus retained was further assisted by a conical reflector of silvered glass, and a quantity of mutton and vegetables placed within was perfectly cooked.

To further aid in retaining the absorbed heat when the apparatus was removed from the sunlight it was covered with a rug, as ladies place a "cosy" over the teapot to draw the tea. Since then the inventor has improved upon the process, and can now cook chops or steaks in the open air as quickly as by an ordinary fire, and entirely by the sun's rays. The most remarkable point is, perhaps, that the heat is kept in the apparatus for as long as three and a half hours.

In connection with this subject, just to test the power of the sun's rays in our own country, let any of our readers on a hot summer's day place their hand on the slate roofing of an accessible shed. Where they slope to the south, the slates will be found sometimes so extremely heated that the hand can hardly bear to touch them.

It's Time To Go Out On A Picnic

1919

Want to Have a Regular Picnic?
(By Ruth Baird.)

Do you know what fun it is to go picnicking? Take your family out to the woods the first pleasant evening and becoming acquainted with our glorious out-of-doors. They will tell you it is great fun and you, yourself, forgetting the hot routine task of preparing supper and washing dishes, will decide that after all, summer is a time to enjoy yourself.

There are picnics — and picnics, of course. You could spend all day preparing the lunch and then at the picnic small Billy might say, "My lemonade is warm and the creamed potatoes are going through my paper plate. What shall I do?"

Or tragedy of tragedies, your husband might confess that he was too rheumatic to sit on grassy hummocks or picturesque rocks.

Simple Dishes, But Mighty Good.

A little forethought, however, will guard against such possible objections. A menu like this would not require a day for its preparation and brings no problem of creamed sauce on paper plates.

Meat Loaf, Potato Chips, Pickles, Vegetable Salad, Bread and Butter Sandwiches, Fruit Cookies, Lemonade.

If you desire a simpler supper, sandwiches, cookies, and fruit, with perhaps hard boiled or stuffed eggs, are always good.

An elaborate equipment is not necessary but if picnics become a family habit, one of the many kinds of convenient picnic outfits on the market would add much to the joys of picnicking. All that would be necessary for our picnic could be found about the house; a basket or carton, cups, paper plates and napkins, a little silver as possible, paraffin paper for wrapping the sandwiches and cookies, a carrier for the lemonade or coffee, and a tablecloth or some clean fresh wrapping paper to use in its place. A thermos bottle is excellent for carrying the drink, be it hot or cold, but it is not essential. Lemonade can be chilled by ice carried from home or it may be made fresh at the picnic if pure spring water is close at hand.

Cool Weather Even Better.

If the weather should turn cool and we should decide to change our menu to include eggs or a meat to be cooked over the fire, and coffee, one of the chief charms would be the coffee brewing over a camp fire in your "second best" coffee pot or kettle.

How to Make French Fries - From 1918 Mazola Ad

1918

French Fried Potatoes

Pare Potatoes and cut lengthwise into eighths. Soak in cold water 1 or 2 hours. Dry between 2 towels. Fry in Mazola. Drain on brown paper and sprinkle with salt.

—and you don't know how appetizing French Fried Potatoes can be until you have tried this Mazola recipe.

Crisp, golden brown "French Fries" are an adjunct to almost any meal. And since housewives began using Mazola, they are served more than ever.

—Bridgeport Telegram, Bridgeport, CT, Nov. 29, 1918, p. 4.

If Wives Were Better Cooks, There'd Be Less Divorce

1907

COOKING VS. DIVORCE

Mrs. H. L. Vail, of Oregon, comes out with a new remedy for the divorce evil. She thinks that if wives were better cooks there would be less domestic discord.

There is more truth than poetry in Mrs. Vail's argument. The way to a man's heart is well known to be through his stomach. No man would feel like commencing divorce proceedings after having dined well, especially if the cook were his wife. It would be a hard-hearted woman who could think of leaving a man whose heart had been reached by the most direct route, and whose happiness was for the moment bounded on the north, south, east and west by — his cook. The greatest domestic tyrant would tremble at the thought of letting any little family differences disturb the equilibrium of his kitchen arrangements.

Man is naturally a domestic animal. A wife may be flighty; and a domestic man and a flighty wife are not congenial. A cook who is busy with her own pans and kettles has neither the desire nor the time to seek excitement away from home. A good housewife should and does take her pleasure in contemplating the satisfied look on the face of the man whom she loves. A good husband, and one who can appreciate a good thing, will be perfectly willing to spend his evenings where he can keep both his eyes on the woman who is both a wife and a cook to him.

But, of course, there are flighty husbands; and the best way cure such men of their wandering propensities is to give them such dinners at home that will make all other dinners insipid and distasteful. A husband who is a good provider and a wife who a good cook constitute a combination that would give the divorce courts little trouble.

A little asperity of temper on the part of the wife would be more quickly smoothed and soothed away were good meals dependent on the success of a husband's diplomacy. A ruffled husband could be quickly brought to realize his helplessness were he threatened with a reduction of his daily diet. There is no better or more binding link between a husband and wife than a full larder of well-cooked food; and where such a link exists the divorce courts would have a hard time to get in any of their deadly work.

A perfect wife is one who can cook intelligently, and a perfect husband is one who is capable of appreciating intelligent cooking.

—The Centralia News-Examiner, Centralia, Wisconsin, September 20, 1907, page 12.