Things Mother Used to Make/Miscellaneous

by Lydia Maria Gurney

MISCELLANEOUS

Boston Baked Beans

Pick over and wash three cupfuls of small white beans; cover with cold water and soak over night. In the morning, put them on the stove, just to scald, not boil, in the same water. Pour off the water and put into an earthen bean-pot. Add seven teaspoonfuls of sugar, one teaspoonful of salt, one half-pound of salt pork, fat and lean mixed. Cover with water, and bake from eight A. M. until six A. M. As the water boils away add more.

A Breakfast Dish

Take stale brown bread, no matter how dry, and boil until it is soft like pudding. Serve hot, with cream.

Cracker Tea for Invalids

Take four Boston crackers, split open, toast to a delicate brown on each side. Put these into a bowl, or earthen dish of some kind, pour over them a quart of boiling water. Let it stand on the back of the stove half an hour. When cold, give two or three teaspoonfuls to the patient. It is nourishing, and the stomach will retain it when absolutely nothing else can be taken.

Crust Coffee

Take the crusts, or any pieces of stale brown bread, and bake in the oven until hard and brown. Put them into an agate or earthen tea-pot, pour over them boiling water and boil ten or fifteen minutes. Strain and serve hot like any coffee, with cream and sugar.

Grape Juice

10 Pounds of Grapes⁠	1 Cupful of Water
3 Pounds of Sugar

Pick from the stems, and wash clean, ten pounds of grapes. Put them on the stove in a kettle, with a little water, and cook until tender. Strain through a flannel bag. Do not squeeze it. Return juice to the kettle, add sugar, and boil for five minutes. Seal in glass jars when boiling hot. Slant the jars, when filling, to prevent cracking. When serving, add nearly the same amount of water.

Mince Meat

4 Cupfuls of Chopped	1½ Cupfuls of Molasses
⁠Meat	6 Teaspoonfuls of
12 Cupfuls of Chopped	⁠Cinnamon
⁠Apples	3 Teaspoonfuls of Cloves
2 Cupfuls of Chopped	1 Teaspoonful of Nutmeg
⁠Suet	¼ Pound of Citron
1 Cupful of Vinegar	Rind and Juice of One
3 Cupfuls Seeded Raisins	⁠Lemon
1 Cupful of Currants	Butter the size of an Egg
5 Cupfuls of Brown Sugar⁠	⁠and Salt

Moisten with cold coffee or strong tea. Cook slowly two hours.

Home-made Potato Yeast

4 Good-Sized Potatoes	⅓ Cupful of Salt
1 Quart of Boiling Water⁠	1½ Cupfuls of Old
⅔ Cupful of Sugar	⁠Yeast

Boil, peel and mash the potatoes; add the boiling water, sugar and salt. If old yeast cannot be obtained, use one and one-half cakes of compressed yeast. Put this into a pitcher or dish which will hold three pints; place in a warm spot to rise; keep covered. Use two-thirds of a cupful to one quart of flour. This recipe has been in use over fifty years.