Armour's Monthly Cook Book, Volume 2, No. 12, October 1913

Unfortunately, it is not always possible to have grapes on our table but wise manufacturers have found a way by which the juice of the grape may be possible at all times of the year and in every corner of the land. They have built large factories right in the very heart of the country where the best grapes grow and there the grapes are taken while the dew is still on them and their luscious fragrant deliciousness is squeezed out, poured into bottles and quickly sealed to prevent any escape of the exquisite bouquet.

Nothing is added – no water to weaken and adulterate, no sugar to sweeten, no coloring essence to deceive the eye. It is just the pure, natural juice of earth's best offering. This bottled concentration of earth's sweetness and richness with all the life and warmth of the sunshine is Armour's Grape Juice.

Start the day right with DEVONSHIRE FARM SAUSAGE

Baked Beans – A National Dish

To many people baked beans means just one thing – baked beans, served hot or cold. To the woman, however, who is really interested in furnishing variety in diet, and this in a very economical way, baked beans offers boundless possibilities. First of all, she lays in a stock of Veribest Baked Beans – Veribest, because she knows that in this particular brand the beans are even more thoroughly cooked than she herself could do them. There are two kinds of Veribest Baked Beans, plain, and with tomato sauce, and with both the mellow richness of the bean is preserved with all its natural flavor, making it a most toothsome dish as well as nutritious and economical. Having a good stock to draw from the economical housewife proceeds to serve baked beans to her family every day for a week, varying the dish each day.

For Monday there is a New England Supper – baked beans with hot Boston brown bread. Drop the can of baked beans into hot water and boil for 20 minutes. Turn out, garnish with parsley and serve with mustard pickles.

Tuesday, for lunch. – Bean Croquettes. Drain Veribest Pork and Beans (without tomato sauce), and pass them through a colander. Measure and allow one teaspoon of dry bread crumbs to each cup of beans. Season with cayenne pepper and a little minced parsley. For a pint of the mixture, beat one egg. Save enough of the egg to dip the croquettes in, and add the remainder to the beans. Mix and form into small croquettes, or balls, then roll in fine bread crumbs. Dip them in egg and again in the crumbs, and fry in deep boiling Simon Pure Leaf Lard. Border with slices of dill pickles or sweet green peppers.

Wednesday, School Lunches. – Bean Sandwiches. Cut some thin slices from a loaf of brown bread, butter and put crisp lettuce leaves, with a teaspoon of mayonnaise, on each half of the slices, and on the others spread a layer of Armour's Veribest Pork and Beans, which have been mashed until smooth. Put the slices together and wrap each sandwich separately in paraffin paper.

Thursday. – Bean Celery Salad. Mix one can of Veribest Pork and Beans, four tablespoons of celery cut in one eighth inch rings, two tablespoons of finely chopped onions, and one fourth cup of good boiled dressing. Marinate thoroughly, but stir slightly. Rub the salad dish with a cut clove of garlic. Arrange lettuce leaves around the salad bowl and in the center make a mound of the salad mixture, to which one fourth cup of whipped cream has been added. Garnish with stuffed olives cut in rings.

Friday. – Attractive Luncheon Dish. Heat one can of Veribest Pork and Beans (without tomato sauce), tossing about with fork to prevent breaking or mashing the beans. Season to taste. Serve in beet shells which have been previously prepared as follows: Wash the beets carefully, so as not to break the skins, and boil rapidly until tender. Then cover with cold water, and with the hands remove the skins. Scoop out the centers and fill the cases with the beans. Garnish with young celery leaves.

Saturday. – Puree of Beans. To one can of Armour's Veribest Beans and Tomato Sauce add two cups of milk; boil for a few minutes and pass through a sieve. Add salt and pepper to taste, a dash of sage, dry mustard and more water if required. Strain over croutons in the tureen and sprinkle with chopped parsley.

Sunday Night Supper. – Bean Loaf. Two cups of Veribest Pork and Beans, mashed to a pulp, one fourth cup of chopped nuts, one cup of browned bread crumbs, two teaspoons of grated onion, two eggs, one half cup of cream or rich milk, one teaspoon of salt. Mix thoroughly and put into a greased bread pan. Brush with the beaten yolk of egg, milk or cream and bake one half hour. Serve with tomato sauce.

Homely Virtues"Scorn not the homely virtues. We are proneTo search through all the world for something new;And yet sometimes old-fashioned things are best —Old-fashioned work, old-fashioned rectitude,Old-fashioned honor and old-fashioned prayer,Old-fashioned patience that can bide its time,Old-fashioned firesides sacred from the world,Old-fashioned satisfaction, with enoughOld-fashioned candour and simplicity,Old-fashioned folks that practice what they preach."

Answers to Correspondents

Please tell me the proper way to send wedding announcements. In a family where there are several young men and women do I send each a separate one?

If economy is no object send each a separate card. If you do not care to do this and they are brothers and sisters you may say "The Misses Brown" and "The Messrs. James and John Wilson."

I would like very much to be able to help other housekeepers, but I always feel that I only know the simple things of my rather humdrum life in the country.– Mrs. D., Ohio.

What you know is not known to everyone, nor is what any housekeeper knows a matter of everyday use with other housekeepers. Everyone has some short cut or recipe, or personal way of doing things that would lighten the way for others. Your recommendation of butterine for instance, would carry weight with some housekeepers who had never before thought of trying it and they would be grateful always for being shown how to cut their butter bill. So with the other suggestions in your good letter from which I have taken extracts for the other pages. I want just such letters as yours. We must not forget that the younger generation of housekeepers are starting housekeeping and scanning columns like these for "the things everyone knows."

Yellow and white scheme for coming-out party.– H. M. B.

Many thanks for the nice things you say about the Cook Book. Am very glad you have enjoyed it so long. The color scheme you mention could be carried out further by wearing white dresses with yellow sashes and hair ribbons. Have yellow ices and cakes with white and yellow frosting. Egg sandwiches, potato salad garnished with hard boiled eggs halved and yellow flowers, which are quite plentiful now would all help to carry out the idea.

What is the seventh anniversary of a wedding called? and is the celebration of these anniversaries out of style?– E. G. T., Boise City.

It is perfectly proper to celebrate and you can have a merry time with little expense. Have tiny woolly toy sheep for favors and serve lamb salad (made after a chicken salad recipe). Wear a woolen dress and your husband white flannels.

I belong to a little card club and have to entertain the other members one afternoon soon. Can you suggest something which is easily prepared and can be served as a lap lunch?– Mrs. F. T., Huntington, W. Va.

Ham mousse in individual moulds with thin bread and butter sandwiches. Ice cream served in cantaloupe. Iced tea with a slice of lemon and Armour's Grape Juice, which needs no flavoring.

What can I put with my silverware when packing it away to keep it from tarnishing?– Mrs. S.

Pack in bags of Canton flannel before putting into the drawers or boxes and place with them a few pieces of camphor gum.

Please tell me if it is proper to eat cake with the fingers or must a fork be used?

It depends on the cake. If one with a soft filling, a fork will be necessary.

Requested RecipesFor G. HMolasses Custard

Take one cup molasses (ribbon cane is the best; I have never tried corn syrup), add one half cup sugar, stir well and put on fire to boil for at least five minutes. Let cool for a short time, than add three well-beaten eggs, stirring constantly to keep the eggs from curdling. Add a tablespoonful of cornstarch. Bake in pie crust in the regular way but slowly. To keep from browning too quickly I sometimes place a tin in oven over pie.

Many thanks to Mrs. F. A. F., Jacksonville, Texas.

For Mrs. T. H., Oswego, N. YBoiled Bacon

Place the bacon in a saucepan with sufficient cold water to cover it. Bring the water to the simmering point and simmer gently until done (time, about half an hour for a pound for large pieces, less for smaller). Add to the water an onion with two or three cloves stuck in it, one carrot, one turnip and some sticks of celery. Skim carefully several times. When done, remove the skin and cover with browned bread crumbs.

Found Out!

When making shells for custard and lemon pies prick the crust all over with a fork before baking. Bake the shells over an inverted pie plate, then place them in pie plate as usual before filling. – Mrs. D. H., Media, Pa.

If a cake gets scorched on top when baking, grate lightly with a nutmeg grater rather than try to scrape it with a knife. You will have a better surface for frosting. – C. K., Hurley, Texas.

When your tablecloths begin to wear out make napkins out of the best parts and get a new tablecloth.

Save your old newspapers and when you sweep soak the papers in water in which a tablespoonful of ammonia has been dissolved. Squeeze out and throw the paper pulp on the floor you are about to sweep. It will keep the dust from flying and at the same time brighten the carpets.

Save all soap scraps and put them into an empty baking powder can that you have turned into a soap shaker by the help of a hammer and nail. Punch eight or ten small holes in the top and bottom, run a piece of wire from lid to bottom to hang it up by. When washing dishes shake the box in the water and you will have a nice suds.

Do not throw away the small pieces of paraffin that you take from the tops of jelly glasses. They can be melted and used again. If you do not make jelly, use them to mix with the kindling. They start a fire like coal oil. Ends of candles may be used in the same way. If the wick in the lamp is short and you are out of coal oil, fill the lamp with water. The oil will rise to the top and the wick will burn as long as there is oil to burn.

Put a tablespoonful of salt in your lamp and the blaze will be twice as bright. – C. L. E., Dayton.

A damp or slightly oily cloth is all that is necessary to polish oak furniture if it is in good condition. Marks made by wet glasses should be rubbed with a mixture of nine parts olive oil and one part paraffin. – Mrs. W., Stilesboro, Ga.

A very simple, attractive and inexpensive gift may be made by crocheting a simple edge for bath towels of the silk finished crochet cotton, and working the monogram or initial in cross stitch, using the same thread. The washrag should have a tiny edge to match. – Mrs. J. H. M., New Mexico.

My linen dress had a tear and as it was bought ready made there were no left over pieces. I drew a few threads from the under hem and darned it with these and when laundered it could scarcely be seen. – Mrs. J. E. F.

Hints for October

A Hot Drink with the School Lunch

Whether the individual drinking cup is a requirement in all public schools, or not, its use is a habit which should be encouraged. A collapsible cup takes up little room in the lunch basket. With it place one of the Armour Bouillon Cubes. At lunch time this cube dropped into a cup of hot water provides a drink of bouillon that is refreshing, stimulating and healthful.

Armour's Bouillon Cubes, chicken and beef flavor, are sold in tins of 12, 50 and 100 – each cube wrapped separately in tin foil.

Fruit Out of Season

The tonic value of pure fruit juices makes them desirable all the year around, and the caloric properties of grape juice place it at the head of the list. Just now the Armour factories, in the heart of the grape-growing sections of New York and Michigan, have their presses at work extracting the pure juice from the season's luscious Concords. This juice, undiluted, unfermented and unsweetened, is immediately bottled, retaining all the delicious fragrance and flavor of the grape.

For household use there are cases of bottles in quarter-pint sizes and larger. Armour's Grape Juice is a splendid flavor for desserts and ices.

Government Inspection

Housewives realize, more than ever before, their responsibility in selecting for their families foods that are wholesome and healthful. One of the strictest Government inspections is on butterine. In using Glendale Butterine there is a saving of fully one third over the cost of butter, and there is no question about its cleanliness, purity and wholesomeness.

Armour's Glendale Butterine is carefully wrapped and sold in paraffined cartons.

The Family Cupboard

Anyone in the family can serve on short notice a meal that is sure to please, — if the cupboard is well stocked from the extensive variety of Veribest Soups, Meats and Food Specialties. All are as thoroughly cooked and seasoned as in the home kitchen, and it's a simple matter to heat the contents of the cans and serve.

Best grocers in all parts of the country sell Veribest goods.

A Simple Lesson in Soup Making

The usual process of simmering meats and vegetables is so tedious and troublesome that frequently soup is omitted from the bill of fare when there is good reason for its presence. It is especially beneficial in preparing the way for the easy digestion of heavier foods. Veribest Soups are scientifically cooked and seasoned. For use, heat the soup and dilute it to the preferred consistency.

The Choice of the Many

It is the greatest satisfaction to know of one breakfast dish that is always welcomed by guests. Whether they come from North or South, they relish sweet, crisp bacon. Armour's Star Bacon is a mild sugar cure, hickory smoked, and is most delicate.

Star Bacon is sold in glass jars and paper cartons.

Keeping Household Accounts

Buying ham by the single slice is necessarily much more expensive than buying a whole ham, for there is the cost of cutting besides the waste by this method. After slices are cut from the whole ham, considerable meat will be left on the bone. These bits can be used in many ways, and the bone can be boiled with vegetables or for soup.

Armour's Star Ham is cured and smoked by special process which has given it the famous flavor.

Little But Efficient

No product is better known or more highly appreciated than the little jars of Armour's Extract of Beef. This Extract has many uses, and a little goes far in making soup stock, beef tea, flavoring the cheaper cuts of meat, gravies and vegetables.

Most druggists and grocers can supply Armour's Extract of Beef in two sizes of jars.

Women Who Succeed

To have light, flakey pastry, doughnuts that are neither heavy nor grease-soaked, and fried dishes that are just right, our successful cooks have found that the first essential is good, old-fashioned pure leaf lard, tried out in open kettles, just as our grandmothers made it. Such is Armour's Simon Pure Leaf Lard, which is sold only in pails. Best dealers can supply it.

A Luncheon Innovation

A piquant meat filling for sandwiches – one that is already prepared and requires only careful slicing – is Armour's Summer Sausage. Each of the several kinds is a careful blending of meats and seasoning. Packed in casing, they will keep indefinitely and therefore it is possible to have a supply at hand ready for any emergency.