Serve hot with the following sauce:
Remainder of the White Sauce 3/4 cupful milk 1/4 to 1/2 cupful cheese, cut in small pieces 1 pimento chopped
Dilute the White Sauce with the milk. Add the cheese and pimento. Heat and stir until the cheese is melted. If necessary, add seasoning. Serve hot over the cutlets.
FAT SAVING AND SOAP-MAKING.--The housekeeper who endeavors to waste no food may find that she has saved some fat which is not suitable for food. Such fat can be utilized in soap-making. By using "modern lye" soap-making is not the laborious task as was the preparation of soft soap in colonial days.
The fat for soap-making need not necessarily be decolorized. It should, however, be tried out (if it is meat fat) and clarified before using in the preparation of soap. (These processes are given above.)
Soap made at home differs somewhat from that made at a factory. When fat and lye are combined chemically, soap and glycerin are formed. A commercial soap-maker extracts the glycerin from soap, the housekeeper does not.
Homemade soap, however, usually proves very satisfactory. When the time consumed in making it is not needed for other duties or obligations, it is a saving to make soap at home.
SOAP
1 can Babbit's lye 1 quart cold water 6 pounds clarified fat 2 tablespoonfuls ammonia
Turn the lye into a granite kettle, slowly add the cold water, stirring with a stick or a wooden spoon. Work most carefully to avoid getting the lye or the lye solution on the hands. When the water is added to the lye, the mixture becomes very hot. Let it stand until it is cool.
Put the fat into a large kettle or dish pan. Heat it until it melts. Then remove it from the fire. Let it cool sufficiently to bear the hands in it. Slowly add the lye solution, stirring constantly. Add the ammonia and continue stirring until the mixture becomes about the consistency of thick cream. Then turn the soap into a wooden box lined with paper or into a granite dripping pan. When the soap becomes firm, cut into pieces of suitable size.
The materials above will make about 8 1/2 pounds of soap.
NOTE.--If desired one small cake of soap may be prepared by each pupil in the classroom. The following recipe may be used:
1 teaspoonful lye 4 teaspoonfuls cold water 2 tablespoonfuls fat 1/8 teaspoonful ammonia
Proceed as directed for the large quantity. Pour the mixture into one cup of a granite muffin pan or into a small pasteboard box.
QUESTIONS
How does unpolished rice differ from polished rice? Explain why the former takes a longer time to cook than the latter (see Polished and Unpolished Rice).
Explain why baked croquettes require a sauce to make them most tasty for serving, while fried croquettes do not.
State at least 3 advantages of baking croquettes rather than frying them. Under what conditions do you think it would be desirable to make soap at home?
RELATED WORK
LESSON XXXVIII
DINING ROOM COURTESY
THE VALUE OF GOOD TABLE MANNERS
No matter how cultivated in mind and spirit one may be, if there is an absence of refinement of manners, the higher qualities are likely to be overlooked. No one can afford to slight the study of good manners. The basis of all good manners is tact, i.e. a kindly consideration of others. This consideration may be shown at the dining table quite as well as at a social gathering. Graceful and easy table manners and a knowledge of how to serve and be served add to the comfort as well as to the pleasure of one's associates in the dining room.
Most of the rules of table conduct have been adopted because they lend ease and grace or because they are sensible; others have been established by custom and long usage.
SUGGESTIONS CONCERNING TABLE MANNERS
THE CHAIR.--If the chair is placed so that the front edge of the seat just touches the table-cloth, there is no necessity for moving the chair when taking one's seat or when rising. One should stand back of the chair until the hostess moves to seat herself and then move to the left of the chair to assume the seat assigned.