Among the early spring vegetables, asparagus may be regarded as the most wholesome and delicious, yet few housekeepers understand the art of serving it with variety. The following recipe will be useful for such:

Stewed Asparagus - Wash the asparagus, cut in pieces, reject the tough ends. Put in a saucepan, cover with boiling water, let boil half an hour and drain. Return to the saucepan with half a pint of cream, a tablespoonful of butter and a little salt and pepper; let come to a boil, take up and serve.

Boiled Asparagus – Wash several bunches of asparagus in cold water and cut off the tough ends. Scrape and put in cold water to soak for half an hour. Put into a kettle of boiling water, to which add a teaspoonful of salt, and let boil twenty minutes. When done, take up, drain and arrange on squares of buttered toast; pour over cream sauce and serve hot.

Asparagus in Ambush – Wash a quart of asparagus tops and boil for fifteen minutes. Take a dozen stale, light rolls, cut off the tops and take out the crumb; put in a pan and set in the oven to dry. Put a pint of milk on to boil. Beat four eggs and stir in the boiling milk, add a tablespoonful of butter rolled in flour, season with salt and pepper and take from the fire; chop the asparagus tops and add them to the milk. Fill the rolls with the mixture, put on the top crusts and serve hot.

Fried Asparagus – Cut the tops from asparagus stalks, put in boiling water, and cook until tender; drain and mix in thick egg batter, season with salt and pepper, drop in spoonfuls in boiling lard, fry brown on each side and serve very hot.

Asparagus Soup – Wash a bunch of asparagus, tie, put in a saucepan, cover with boiling water and let boil for half an hour. Take from the fire, drain and cut off the tops. Put a quart of milk on to boil. Rub the asparagus stalks through a colander and add them to the milk. Thicken with a tablespoonful of butter rolled flour and stir for five minutes over the fire. Add the asparagus tops, season with salt and pepper and serve.

Asparagus Salad – Boil a quart of asparagus tops in salt water for fifteen minutes, drain, throw in ice water and let stand until needed. When ready to serve, drain, wipe on a soft towel, put in a salad bowl, pour over a teacupful of French dressing, stand on ice ten minutes and serve.

After many trials and errors, Mary Lawton revealed her recipe in 1893 for the perfect sponge cake.

It has been said some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them. It is through the achievements of greatness that one woman points, with wooden spoon, to the cake bowl and baking pan. From her lips come the encouraging words: “There lie the elements of my fame, achieve it too who can!”

There are women who brew,
And women who bake,
Yet women who fail
When they make a Sponge cake!

And so did this self-same woman, though to her, in turn, had been committed her grandmother’s recipe; a true and tried recipe too, that had been handed down with the old gold-rimmed cake platter, through six generations of grand-daughters, “beginning life.”

It was absurdly easy. Nothing was simpler than to put in five eggs; weigh out the half pound of soft sugar; sift the large tea-cup of prescribed flour; add the teaspoonful of baking powder and the same of rose-water.

The mere fact of this simplicity, made failure more maddening. The “guid man” smiled at tea and from the cracker jar took a ginger snap. That ginger snap fixed my purpose; I was determined to grapple with those elements, until like many an x, y, z, in algebra, they should be brought to terms.
In the same proportions, like ingredients went into one cake; and into another, and another, but the results were sadly depressing. I would not cast away the recipe, which, as I have said, was an heirloom; it should have a fair trial.

At last the sickening, deferred hope became a noble realization and the woman who “stirred” her way to family fame, gladly passes on the key-note to other aspirants.  Experience will reveal the fact that there is a certain philosophy in cake mixing, let her deny the fact who will.

It is not enough, haphazard, to cast in the ingredients a recipe demands and expect a good product. There must be a regular order preserved, in incorporating materials of a cake, if the result is to be satisfactory.

Not until I discovered the philosophy of mixing, did I succeed in the recipe that had done good service for so many years; and so I enjoin upon those interested, that to succeed in making and baking a creditable sponge cake, the following details must be carefully observed:

Break the five eggs, separating yolks and whites. With a wooden spoon stir yolks to a cream. To this add one pint of granulated sugar. Rub this at least ten minutes. Then add one-half pint of sifted flour into which has also been sifted a large teaspoonful of good baking powder.

Rub! Rub! Rub yet another ten minutes. Grate in the rind of one lemon, or instead may be used a teaspoonful of vanilla essence. Lastly, put one-half teaspoonful salt in the egg-white, which, being beaten with a wooden fork, becomes firm in a trice. Stir this in well and the dough is delicious.

It may be baked in pans of any shape, but in every instance they should be well heated and buttered before the dough is poured in.

The baking, perhaps, is the most difficult feature of success. The oven must be hot and the fire on the increase.

After twenty-five to thirty minutes, according to the degree of heat commanded, a delightful aroma will encourage the baker, that she may, very gently, open the oven door to test her cake. Should the top be a rich brown, pierce it with a broom straw. Uncooked dough in the center would naturally cling to this. Then take a piece of stout paper, cover the pan, thus preventing a charred crust.

Another test and, perhaps, your cake is ready to whisk out of the oven; to wrap in a dry towel; to be kept out of draughts until it is cold and, lastly to serve.

Thus will be achieved a fame, in exchange for which one finds herself called on to make sponge cake for church and state affairs; for festivals public and private, and finds delight therein, as one woman testifies.

Mary Lawton, 1893

A cooling beverage on a hot day is most refreshing, and, when taken slowly and in moderation, is not injurious to the normal stomach. The thoughtful hostess remembers this, and on a hot, sultry day provides some such refreshment, not only for the invited guest and her own family, but also for the “drop-in” caller, who is sure to appreciate the attention. When serving such refreshment it should be remembered that the eye as well as the palate must be pleased. The daintiest glasses should be used and their contents made as attractive as possible. In the case of “thin” drinks, straws should be provided.

From time out of mind lemonade has been the popular summer beverage. It remained for the resourceful twentieth century housewife to evolve the numerous delicious and refreshing palatible drinks known under various names, but all having for the basic ingredient or foundation a strong, well-flavored lemonade.

To make good lemonade the first essential is the fruit itself. The lemons must be firm and thoroughly ripe, yet not over-ripe. The slightest hint of decay taints the whole lemon and will rob the beverage of the delicacy of flavor which should be one of its characteristics. Again, a lemon which to the eye appears perfect often has a bitter taste which no amount of sweetening will overcome. To ward off this possible danger, each lemon should be tasted before it is used.

The proper proportions for a well-flavored drink are one-half lemon for each tumblerful of water, with sugar to taste. Some lemons contain more acid than others; then, too, some prefer a sweet drink; others enjoy the sour taste. For these reasons, it is impossible to give an explicit rule for the quantity of sugar required.

Lemonade

Wash the lemons clean, then grate off the thin yellow peel, taking care not to grate into the white membrane, which is bitter. Mix the grated peel with a little sugar, mashing the two ingredients with a wooden spoon to extract the flavor which is stored in the peel, and which is sacrificed when the latter is thrown away. Then add the strained juice and the desired quantity of freshly-boiled water. Stir up well, add the sugar and stand aside to cool.

Strain and serve in glasses half filled with crushed ice. When lemonade is wanted immediately, cold water may be used, but the best-flavored drink is made of boiling hot water.

So much for plain lemonade. The changes which may be rung upon it are only limited by the resourcefulness of the person who concocts the beverage. A can of grated pineapple, or the fresh fruit added to a quart of strong lemonade, gives a delicious pineapple-lemonade. Fruit juices, such as strawberry, raspberry and cherry, added to lemonade, produce most satisfactory results. Allow a pint of strained juice to a quart of lemonade. The grape juice of commerce, combined with lemonade, makes an exceptionally delicious drink. These beverages become doubly attractive to the eye when daintily served and prettily garnished with tiny crescents of lemon or berries floating upon the surface.

Delicious Drinks

May be concocted from fruit juices alone. An excellent one is made as follows: Strain one quart of strawberry, raspberry or cherry juice; add a pint of granulated sugar and stand aside in a cool place for six hours. Then put over the fire and let boil up well; skim and drip through a jelly bag. To serve, add two or three tablespoonfuls of the fruit syrup to half a glassful of crushed ice, then fill the glass with ice-water. Fruit juices may also be combined with good results. In preparing them, use the foregoing formula.

Iced Russian Tea

A very satisfying summer drink, especially to the devotees of “the cup that cheers.” For this a strong infusion of tea is necessary; four teaspoonfuls of tea, good tea, to four cupfuls of water is about the right proportion. Fill the porcelain teapot with boiling water and let stand until the pot is very hot; then empty, put in the tea and fill up with fresh boiling water at once. Stand the pot where it will keep hot, but not boil, for four minutes. Strain and pour into a glass half filled with crushed ice.  Drop a slice of lemon into each glass.

Fruit Punch

A popular summer drink on occasions when something more elaborate than a simple fruit or lemonade is in order. An excellent formula for it, one to be found in many modern cook books, is the following: Boil two cupfuls of sugar in one cupful of water ten minutes; add a cupful of strong tea, one pint of strawberry juice, one can of grated pineapple, the juice of six oranges and four lemons. Stand aside to cool; then turn over a block of ice in a large punch bowl and add half a pint of maraschino cherries. The given quantity may be increased or diminished, provided the proportions are preserved.

Chilled Chocolate is an acceptable addition to a luncheon menu on a hot day, or with sweet wafers it is quite sufficient for light refreshments at an informal gathering.

Notwithstanding many recipes to the contrary, good chocolate is made entirely of milk. If the milk is very rich, one-third water may be used without great detriment to the beverage. For six cupfuls, one quart of fresh milk and two ounces of chocolate shaved very fine will be required. Put the milk over the fire in a double boiler. To the chocolate add three tablespoonfuls of hot milk, and stir over the fire until the ingredients are incorporated. When the milk comes to a boil, add the chocolate mixture, beating it in vigorously with a whisk. Take from the the fire and thoroughly chill on ice. Serve in tall glasses, with a garnish of whipped cream sweetened to taste and flavored with vanilla.

Katherine E. Megee, 1909