Part 19

Towards the middle of March sowings may be made out of doors of both cos and cabbage varieties. These sowings should be repeated about every three weeks through the spring and summer. As the plants come on they should be pricked out a foot apart in between other crops and in any odd corner. If lettuces be put out about May 14 between the third and fourth sowing of peas, it is a good way of ensuring succession to put out a main crop lettuce a foot apart and dib in the intervals a “Tom Thumb.” The latter will come to maturity and be off the ground well out of the way of the larger sort.

In hot, dry soils we find that the cos lettuce is very apt to run to seed without forming heart. On this account some such sort of cabbage lettuce as “Standwell” is preferred for these soils. In a good garden soil the White Paris cos cannot be beaten for general use.

About mid-July it is well to sow a row of cabbage lettuce on the ridge between celery trenches. This sowing should be made very thinly indeed. When the plants are nicely up they may be thinned to nine inches, and the thinnings transplanted if there be room for them. It will be found that the plants grown from first to last in the same place will stand summer heat better than those that are transplanted, and will also come in before them.

Early in August a last outdoor sowing of “Tom Thumb” should give plants that will, some of them, provide outdoor salad in October, and some, put into a cold frame, will last well into November or even to Christmas.

Lettuces require an open, rich soil and plenty of moisture to grow them in perfection. A slight dressing of nitrate in showery weather, as soon as they are well established from planting out, will push them forward rapidly, and is specially important for autumn lettuces. During dry weather water must be freely given; in order to facilitate the application of water it is well to prick out the later plants into shallow trenches or drills.

DISHES.

Lettuce forms the foundation of most salads.

=Cream of Lettuce Soup.=--Separate four heads of lettuce, wash thoroughly, and place in boiling salted water. Boil, and cover for ten minutes. Drain, and throw into a dish of cold water; allow them to remain for a few minutes, then drain. Chop finely, then rub through a sieve. Have ready one quart of hot milk. Rub one tablespoonful of butter and flour to a paste; add to the hot milk, and stir until it is thickened; mix a half spoonful of this with the lettuce pulp; stir until well blended, then add to the soup. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Let it simmer for about five minutes, and serve with toast cut in dice.

=An Italian Dish.=--Cut off the roots, and wash clean, five or six lettuce heads. Put them into boiling salted water for five minutes. Take out, and fill the inside with meat of walnuts. Tie the tops together and put them in a saucepan. Add one quarter pint of Marsala wine, and some good vegetable broth; salt and pepper to taste. Cover the dish with buttered paper, and cook in the oven for fifteen minutes. Place the lettuces on a hot dish, having untied them, pour the sauce over and serve hot.

MAIZE or INDIAN CORN (Zea Mays. Gramineæ).

Though this may be sown in the open in May, it is better practice to raise it in pots in the hotbed, sowing in April. The plants should be gradually hardened off and put out about the end of May or beginning of June in rows thirty inches apart. The plants eighteen inches in the row.

DISHES.

=Corn Omelette.=--Two eggs, a tin of sweet corn, pepper and salt, one ounce of butter. Beat the yolks of two eggs, add pepper and salt, and two tablespoonfuls of sweet corn. Beat the whites into a very stiff froth, and add to the yolks, and stir together. Put one ounce of butter in the omelette pan; when very hot put in the omelette. Stir round a few times until it begins to set. When brown at the bottom place under a grill or in front of a clear fire to brown the top. Sprinkle over some parsley which has been chopped; fold over in half, and serve quickly.

=Corn Wafers.=--Sift one pint of flour with a heaped teaspoonful of baking powder. Add one teaspoonful of salt, two well-beaten eggs, and one large cupful of milk. Beat the batter very lightly, then stir in one can of corn, and bake in waffle irons. Serve hot.

=Boiled Corn Bread.=--Mix together two cupfuls of corn meal, a cup of flour, two cups of sour milk, one cup of warm water, a tablespoonful of lard or butter, a tablespoonful of molasses, a teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda, and one of salt. Dissolve the soda in warm water, and add it to the milk. Beat all together and turn into a well-greased brown bread mould, with a tightly fitting top. Set this in a pan of boiling water and cook steadily for two hours, filling up the pan from the kettle as the water boils away. At the end of the time, take the mould from the water, turn out the bread, dip the tin for a moment in cold water if the bread is inclined to stick, and put in the oven for five minutes, so that the surface may be dry and a little crisp.

=Raised Corn Bread.=--Heat one pint of milk almost to boiling, and pour it on one and a half cupfuls of green meal. Let it stand until cool, then stir in half a yeast cake dissolved in half a cupful of warm water, with a tablespoonful of sugar, and half a cup of white flour. Let this rise overnight in a corner which is not too warm, for five or six hours in a kitchen of an ordinary temperature. It should rise to double its first size. Then stir, add one teaspoonful of salt and two beaten eggs, beat hard; turn into muffin tins, and set in a warm place to rise for fifteen minutes before baking. It will require about twenty minutes in a steady oven. To be eaten hot.

=Corn Cakes.=--Melt two tablespoonfuls of butter, and put with it three well-beaten eggs, beat lightly, add to this a teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda dissolved in a tablespoonful of boiling water, and stirred in two cupfuls of sour milk. Sift two cups of corn meal with a teaspoonful of salt, and mix with the liquid ingredients. Beat all together and put into a shallow tin; bake in a steady oven. This should be a thin sheet when done, and rather crisp.

=Plain Corn Muffins.=--Two cupfuls of white corn meal, one cup of white flour, two cupfuls of milk, three eggs, a tablespoonful each of melted butter and white sugar, a small teaspoonful of salt, two teaspoonfuls of baking powder.

Cream together the butter and sugar; mix in the eggs, milk, flour, meal, baking powder, and salt sifted with the meal and flour, and bake in muffin tins. This can also be baked in a loaf if preferred, as can also sweet corn muffins.

=Boiled Corn.=--Remove all the husks, except the inner layer. Strip the inner layer back far enough to remove the silk; then replace, and tie at the upper end. Boil steadily for fifteen or twenty minutes in boiling water to cover, or in equal parts of milk and water. Drain, remove the strings, and serve immediately in the husks.

=Escalloped Corn.=--Rub a can of corn through a sieve. Season it with salt, pepper, and sugar. Twelve tablespoonfuls of flour, blended with three tablespoonfuls of cream, and half a cupful of the liquid drained from the corn.

Put into a buttered baking dish; cover with crumbs, dot with butter, and bake for twenty minutes.

=Broiled Corn.=--Split the cobs, brush with melted butter and broil carefully, seasoning with salt and pepper, and serve.

=Baked Corn.=--Fill a baking dish with husked ears, pour over one pint of milk, sprinkle lightly with sugar; add water to cover, and bake for forty-five minutes.

=Baked Canned Corn.=--Put a can of corn into a buttered baking dish, season with salt and pepper. Add one cupful of boiling milk, or half a cupful of cream, and dot with two tablespoonfuls of butter broken into small bits. Cook for forty-five minutes in a hot oven, and serve in the same dish.

=Cream Corn.=--Remove the husks, and score each row of kernels deeply with a sharp knife. Press out the pulp with the back of a knife. Cook for twenty minutes in a double boiler. Season with salt and pepper, add butter and cream, or use cooked corn mashed. A little sugar may be added to the seasoning.

=Escalloped Corn.=--Butter a baking dish, and put in a layer of cracker-crumbs, then a layer of canned corn. Season with salt and bits of butter. Cover with sweet corn, and repeat until the dish is full, having crumbs on the top. Pour in enough milk to fill the dish, and bake for forty-five minutes.

=Corn Soufflé.=--Score each row of kernels deeply and press out the pulp with the back of a knife, using enough corn to make one cupful of pulp. Add one cupful of cream or hot milk, one tablespoonful of butter, pepper and salt to season, and three yolks of eggs well beaten. Cook in a double boiler until smooth and creamy. Keep stirring constantly. Take from the fire, cool, fold in the stiffly beaten whites of four eggs, turn into a baking dish, and bake in a hot oven for twenty minutes.