closet at hand, meat may be purchased . which will not only keep but prove better for being kept several days. In the depth of the winter market trips may be well arranged for 4 Vol. 2 74 THE HOME COOK BOOK Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Except in large cities the markets of Monday are not altogether attractive ; they sug- gest that the careful vender is trying to dispose to the best ad- vantage of Saturday's left-overs. It is an excellent thing to market at the earliest hours of the morning. At that time there is the largest choice of meat, fish, fruit, and vegetables ; besides, you are apt to receive more attention than later in the forenoon when the place grows thronged. THE MARKET BASKET If you have good common-sense you will carry a market basket. I am not of so doubting a humor as one housewife I know, who markets accompanied by a rubber stamp, brand- ing her name upon a convenient part of all fish, flesh, or fowl she purchases. I feel sure, however, with a market basket on my arm, I am receiving what I have selected. This plan has another advantage : in summer you will not receive meat or fish slightly tainted from long exposure to the sun in a de- livery wagon, or in winter frozen almost to the very point of being spoiled. In the coldest weather if I can not carry home such tender vegetables as lettuce, cress, parsley, or celery I do not buy them. I have been taught this lesson by the ap- pearance of too many wilted, frost-bitten vegetables. There is a third good reason for the housewife's market basket. With her purchases carried straight home, there is no waiting for an erratic delivery wagon. I am not the only housewife who can tell of afternoons spent in watching for the butcher's wagon and the roast or leg of lamb for which a hot oven anxiously yawned. The dinner which followed was frequently made memorable by a makeshift dish of frizzled beef or ham and eggs! MUTTON When it comes to the subject of reasonable priced meats which provide nourishing and appetizing dishes they are many and of large variety. A leg of mutton might be placed in the front rank as a wise purchase for a large family. Where ECONOMY IN MARKETING AND COOKING 75 . there are only two or three at the family table the mutton would grow tedious by virtue of its many visits. If it can be used, however, in a few meals it is excellent boiled very slowly and served with caper sauce. It also provides a pot of excellent stock, which, with barley and vegetables, makes a tureen of the best mutton broth. Usually a good leg of nuitton — remember, it is of mutton I am speaking, not lamb — can be purchased for ten or twelve cents a pound. Another good way to cook a rather tough leg of mutton is by braizing it. Brush the meat over with butter, sear it quickly over a hot fire, then put with three cups of boiling water in a closely covered soup pot. It should be well sea- soned with cloves and peppercorns, carrots, turnips, celery and onions cut in dice, also parsley and a bit of bay leaf. Fasten the lid on the soup pot with a thick paste of flour and water, and allow it to cook for five or six hours in an oven about at the temperature required for baked beans. Mutton prepared in this fashion is tender and delicious.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

closet at hand, meat may be purchased . which will not only keep but prove better for being kept several days. In the depth of the winter market trips may be well arranged for 4 Vol. 2 Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Except in large cities the markets of Monday are not altogether attractive ; they suggest that the careful vender is trying to dispose to the best advantage of Saturday's left-overs. It is an excellent thing to market at the earliest hours of the morning. At that time there is the largest choice of meat, fish, fruit, and vegetables ; besides, you are apt to receive more attention than later in the forenoon when the place grows thronged. THE MARKET BASKET If you have good common-sense you will carry a market basket. I am not of so doubting a humor as one housewife I know, who markets accompanied by a rubber stamp, branding her name upon a convenient part of all fish, flesh, or fowl she purchases. I feel sure, however, with a market basket on my arm, I am receiving what I have selected. This plan has another advantage : in summer you will not receive meat or fish slightly tainted from long exposure to the sun in a delivery wagon, or in winter frozen almost to the very point of being spoiled. In the coldest weather if I can not carry home such tender vegetables as lettuce, cress, parsley, or celery I do not buy them. I have been taught this lesson by the appearance of too many wilted, frost-bitten vegetables. There is a third good reason for the housewife's market basket. With her purchases carried straight home, there is no waiting for an erratic delivery wagon. I am not the only housewife who can tell of afternoons spent in watching for the butcher's wagon and the roast or leg of lamb for which a hot oven anxiously yawned. The dinner which followed was frequently made memorable by a makeshift dish of frizzled beef or ham and eggs! MUTTON When it comes to the subject of reasonable priced meats which provide nourishing and appetizing dishes they are many and of large variety. A leg of mutton might be placed in the front rank as a wise purchase for a large family. Where ECONOMY IN MARKETING AND COOKING 75 . there are only two or three at the family table the mutton would grow tedious by virtue of its many visits. If it can be used, however, in a few meals it is excellent boiled very slowly and served with caper sauce. It also provides a pot of excellent stock, which, with barley and vegetables, makes a tureen of the best mutton broth. Usually a good leg of mutton — remember, it is of mutton I am speaking, not lamb — can be purchased for ten or twelve cents a pound. Another good way to cook a rather tough leg of mutton is by braizing it. Brush the meat over with butter, sear it quickly over a hot fire, then put with three cups of boiling water in a closely covered soup pot. It should be well seasoned with cloves and peppercorns, carrots, turnips, celery and onions cut in dice, also parsley and a bit of bay leaf. Fasten the lid on the soup pot with a thick paste of flour and water, and allow it to cook for five or six hours in an oven about at the temperature required for baked beans. Mutton prepared in this fashion is tender and delicious.

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