Mrs. Lincoln's Boston cook book

Rub the butter to a cream ; add salt, pepper, parsley, and lemon juice. Spread it on hot beefsteak. The Boston Cook Book, Maitre d'Hotel Sauce (Hot). Add the beaten yolks of two eggs to the cold Maitre d'Hotel butter, and when ready to serve add one pint of drawn butter^ made with strong white stock. Sauce for Fish BaUs (Cold). 2 teaspoonfuls dry mustard. 1 teaspoonful salt. 1 teaspoonful sugar. 1 teaspoonful flour. 1 teaspoonful soft butter. 2 tablespoonfuls vinegar. Mix in the order given, in a granite saucepan ; add half a cup of boiling water, and stir over the fire till it thickens and is smooth. Serve it cold. Mint Sauce (for Lamb). 1 cup fresh chopped mint. I cup vinegar. ^ cup sugar. | Use only the leaves and tender tips of the mint. Let it stand an hour before serving. Use more sugar if the vinegar be very strong. The Boston Cook Book. EG-GS. Whatever else you may economize in, do not limit your family in respect to eggs. They are nutritious, and even at four cents each are cheaper than meat. The}^ should be used freely by all except those who know they cannot digest them. Using freely does not mean their unnecessary or extravagant use in rich cakes, custards, etc., nor in the indigestible form of fried or what is ordinarily called hardboiled eggs ; but it means the frequent use of them in any of the simple forms of boiling, baking, omelets, plain cake, and other wholesome combinations. It is very poor economy, especially for those who keep hens, to exchange eggs for corned beef or salt fish : or to use soda and cream of tartar as a substitute for eggs in sponge cake, or halfcooked flour in an omelet. The}^ may be served in an unlimited variety of styles, are especially suitable for breakfast or lunch, attractive as a garnish, and when combined with sugar and milk make the most healthful puddings, desserts, or tea dishes. But though a type of perfect food, eggs are not intended to be eaten exclusively, any more than other foods. They are one of the most highly concentrated forms of food, and, being wholly destitute of starch, should be eaten with bread or rice The white of the egg has but a trace of fat in it, and requires the addition of butter, milk, or fat meat, like bacon or ham. The white of egg contains water, mineral ingredients, and soluble albumen ; the 3^olk has, in addition to these, oil and sulphur. The albumen is enclosed in layers of thin-walled cells. When beaten, these walls break, and the albumen, owing to its glutinous nature, catches and holds the air, and increases to many times its original bulk. 198 The Boston Cook Book. Do not use an egg till it has been laid ten hours, as the white does not become set or thick till then, and cannot be beaten stiff. Eggs for poaching or boiling are best when thirty-six hours old. Albumen, when heated, becomes a dense solid ; if mixed and heated with a liquid, it hardens and entangles in its meshes any solids or impurities in the liquid, and rises to the surface with them as scum, or precipitates them. It is thus the white of egg clears soups, jellies, and coffee. Strong acids, corrosive sublimate, and creosote will also coagulate albumen; and therefore, if any of these poisons be taken into the system, the white of egg, swallowed quickly, will combine with the poison and protect the stomach.