RECIPES SUITABLE FOR THE RURAL SCHOOL LUNCH

I found these recipes in an old teacher's manual on Household Science from 1918.  Enjoy ;o)

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191RECIPES SUITABLE FOR THE RURAL SCHOOL LUNCH

All the recipes given have been used with success in preparing rural school lunches. The number that the recipe will serve is generally stated and, where this number does not coincide with the number of pupils in any particular school, the quantities required may be obtained by division or multiplication. The recipes given in the lessons on cooking may also be used in preparing the school lunch, as each recipe states the number it will serve.

White Sauce

	1 c. milk	½ tbsp. butter
	2 tbsp. flour	¼ tsp. salt
⅛ tsp. white pepper

Reserve one quarter of the milk and scald the remainder in a double boiler. Mix the flour to a smooth paste with an equal quantity of the cold milk and thin it with the remainder. Stir this gradually into the hot milk and keep stirring until it thickens. Add the butter, salt, and pepper, and cover closely until required, stirring occasionally. This recipe makes a sauce of medium consistency. To make a thick white sauce, use 3 or 4 tablespoonfuls of flour to one cup of milk.

Cocoa

	6 tbsp. (18 tsp.) cocoa	6 c. milk
	6 tbsp. (18 tsp.) sugar	6 c. boiling water
½ tsp. salt

Scald the milk in a double boiler. Mix the cocoa, sugar, and salt, then stir in the boiling water and boil for 3 minutes. Add this mixture to the scalded milk. If a scum forms, beat with a Dover egg-beater for one minute. The preparation should begin at half-past eleven, to have the cocoa ready at twelve o'clock. (Will serve eighteen.)

192Potato Soup

	1 qt. peeled potatoes cut in thin slices	4 tbsp. flour
	3 qt. milk	⅛ tsp. black pepper
	2 tsp. salt	1 small onion
	4 tsp. butter	½ tsp. celery seed or a stock of celery

Before the opening of school, the potatoes should be pared and put into cold water; and the butter, flour, salt, and pepper should be thoroughly mixed. At eleven o'clock, the potatoes, onion, and celery should be put on to boil gently and the milk put into a double boiler to heat. When the vegetables are tender, they should be strained with the cooking liquid into the hot milk and the mixture bound with the flour. The soup should be closely covered until required. (Will serve ten.)

Cream of Pea Soup

	1 can peas or 1 qt. fresh peas	2 tbsp. flour
	1 pt. milk	1 tsp. salt
	2 tbsp. butter	¼ tsp. pepper

Heat the peas in their own water, or cook them in boiling salted water until tender. Put the milk to heat in a double boiler. When the peas are tender, rub them, with the cooking liquid, through a strainer into the scalded milk. Add the butter and flour rubbed to a smooth paste and stir until thickened. Season and cover until required. (Will serve six pupils generously.)

Cream of Tomato Soup

	1 pt. or 1 can tomatoes	1 qt. milk
	2 tbsp. butter	Sprig of parsley
	3 tbsp. flour	¼ tsp. white pepper
	1 tsp. sugar	½  tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt

Cook the tomatoes slowly with the seasonings for ten minutes and rub through a strainer. Scald the milk, thicken with the flour and butter rubbed to a paste, re-heat the tomatoes, and add the soda, mix with the milk, and serve at once. (Will serve six pupils generously.)

193Cream of Corn Soup

	2 pt. cans corn	2 slices onion
	1 pt. cold water	2 qt. of thin white sauce
Seasonings

The process is that used in making Cream of Pea Soup. When making the thin white sauce, place the onion in the milk and leave it until the milk is scalded. Then remove the onion to the other mixture and make the sauce. This gives sufficient onion flavour. (Will serve eighteen.)

Lima-bean Soup

	1 c. Lima beans	3 tbsp. butter
	2 qt. water	2 tbsp. flour
	2 whole cloves	3 tbsp. minced onion
	1 bay leaf	1 tbsp.     "      carrot
	1 tsp. salt	1 tbsp.     "      celery
¼ tsp. pepper

Soak the beans overnight in soft water or in hard water which has been boiled and cooled. If cold, hard water is used, add ¼ tsp. baking-soda to 1 qt. of water. In the morning, drain and put on to cook in 2 qt. of water. Simmer until tender. It takes 2 hours. Cook the minced vegetables in the butter for 20 minutes, being careful not to brown them. Drain out the vegetables and put them into the soup. Put the flour and butter into a pan and stir until smooth. Add this mixture to the soup. Add the cloves, bay leaf, and seasonings, and simmer for 1 hour. Rub through a sieve. One cup of milk may be added. Bring to the simmering point and serve. (Will serve eighteen.)

Note.—If desired, the vegetables may be used without browning and the cloves and bay leaf omitted.

Milk and Cheese Soup

	4 c. milk	1⅓ c. grated cheese
	2 tbsp. flour	Salt and pepper to taste

Thicken the milk with flour, cooking thoroughly. This is best done in a double boiler, stirring occasionally. When ready to serve, add cheese and seasoning. (Will serve six.)

194Cream of Rice Soup

	4 tbsp. rice	½ small onion
	4 c. milk	4 stalks celery
	3  tbsp. butter	½ bay leaf
Salt and pepper to taste

Scald the milk, add the well-washed rice, and cook for 30 minutes in a closely covered double boiler. Melt the butter and cook the sliced onion and celery in it until tender, but not brown. Add these, with the bay leaf, to the contents of the double boiler, cover, and let it stand on the back of the stove for 15 minutes. Strain, season with salt and pepper, re-heat, and serve. Note that the bay leaf is added and allowed to stand, to increase the flavour, and may be omitted if desired. (Will serve six.)

Rice Pudding

	3 c. rice	2 c. sugar
	6 c. water	4 eggs
	6 c. milk	2 tsp. salt
3 c. fruit (chopped raisins) if desired

Wash the rice in a strainer placed over a bowl of cold water, by rubbing the rice between the fingers. Lift the strainer from the bowl and change the water. Repeat until the water is clear. Put the water in the upper part of a double boiler directly over the fire, and when it boils rapidly, gradually add the rice to it. Boil rapidly for 5 minutes, then add the milk, to which has been added the sugar, salt, and eggs slightly beaten. Cover, place in the lower part of the double boiler, and cook until kernels are tender—from 45 minutes to 1 hour. If raisins are used, add them before putting the rice in the double boiler. Serve with milk and sugar as desired. (Will serve eighteen.)

Rice Pudding

	2 c. rice	4 qt. milk
	1 c. raisins	1 c. sugar
	1 tsp. salt	1 tsp. cinnamon

Prepare the rice and raisins and put them, with the other ingredients, in a buttered pan. Bake all forenoon, stirring 195occasionally during the first hour. Serve with milk or cream. (Will serve ten.)

Cream of Wheat

	1½ c. cream of wheat	1½ tsp. salt
	10 c. boiling water	1½ c. dates (chopped)

Put the boiling water and salt in the upper part of the double boiler directly over the heat. When boiling, add the cereal slowly. Stir constantly until the mixture thickens. Add the dates and cook for 5 minutes. Place in the lower part of the double boiler and cook at least 1 hour. Serve with milk and sugar. (Will serve eighteen.)

Scrambled Eggs

	9 eggs	2 tbsp. butter
	1 c. milk	1 tsp. salt
Pepper

Beat the eggs until the yolks and whites are well mixed. Add the seasonings and milk. Heat the frying-pan, melt the butter in it, and turn in the egg mixture. Cook slowly, scraping the mixture from the bottom of the pan as it cooks. As soon as a jelly-like consistency is formed, remove at once to a hot dish or serve on toast. (Will serve nine.)

Creamed Eggs

	6 hard-cooked eggs	2 c. milk
	4 tbsp. butter	4 tbsp. flour
Salt and pepper

Melt the butter, add the flour, and stir in the milk gradually. Cook well and season with salt and pepper. Cut hard-cooked eggs in small pieces and add them to the white sauce. It may be served on toast. (Will serve six.)

Egg Broth

	6 eggs	1 c. hot milk
	6 tbsp. sugar	Few grains salt
Vanilla or nutmeg

196Beat the eggs and add the sugar and salt. Stir in the hot milk gradually, so that the eggs will cook smoothly. Flavour as desired. (Will serve six.)

Soft-cooked Eggs

Wash the eggs and put in a sauce-pan, cover with boiling water, remove to the back of the stove or where the water will keep hot, but not boil. Let them stand, covered, from 7 to 10 minutes, according to the consistency desired.

Baked Shirred Eggs

Butter small earthen cups. Break an egg in each and sprinkle with a few grains of salt and pepper and bits of butter. Bake in a moderate oven until the white is set. For Shirred Eggs proceed as above, but to cook, place in a pan of hot water on the back of the stove, until the white is set.

Creamed Potatoes

	White sauce (medium consistency)	3 tbsp. butter
	3 tbsp. flour	1½ c. milk
Salt and pepper

Make a white sauce of the butter, flour, milk, and seasonings. Cut cold potatoes (about eight) into cubes or slices and heat in the sauce. Serve hot. (Will serve nine.)

Mashed Potatoes

Boil the potatoes, drain, and mash in the kettle in which they were boiled. When free from lumps, add to each cup of mashed potatoes:

1 tsp. butter

1 or more tbsp. hot milk

¼ tsp. salt

Beat all together until light and creamy. Re-heat, and pile lightly, without smoothing, in a hot dish.

Baked Potatoes
Use potatoes of medium size.

197Scrub thoroughly in water with a brush. Place in a pan in a hot oven. Bake from 45 to 60 minutes. When done, roll in a clean napkin and twist until the skin is broken. Serve immediately. (If no oven is available, place a wire rack on the top of the stove. Put the potatoes on this rack and cover them with a large pan. When half cooked, turn.)

Macaroni and Cheese

	3 c. macaroni (2 pieces)	3 qt. boiling water
	3 tsp. salt	6 c. white sauce (medium)

Cook the macaroni in boiling salted water until tender. Drain, pour cold water over it, and drain it once more. Put the macaroni into a baking dish, sprinkling a layer of grated cheese upon each layer of macaroni. Pour in the sauce and sprinkle the top with cheese. Cook until the sauce bubbles up through the cheese and the top is brown. To give variety, finely-minced ham, boiled codfish, or any cold meat may be used instead of the cheese. (Will serve ten.)

Cornstarch Pudding

	1 qt. milk	½ tsp. salt
	¾ c. cornstarch	¾ c. sugar
Vanilla

Scald the milk in a double boiler. Mix the sugar, cornstarch, and salt together. Gradually add to the hot milk and stir constantly until it thickens. Cover, cook for 30 minutes, add vanilla, and pour into cold, wet moulds. When set, turn out, and serve with milk and sugar. (Will serve nine.)

Apple Sauce

	9 tart apples	6 whole cloves (if desired)
	¾ c. water	¾ c. sugar
Piece of lemon rind (if desired)

Wipe, pare, quarter, and core the apples. Put the water, apples, lemon rind, and cloves into a sauce-pan. Cook covered until the apples are tender, but not broken. Remove the lemon 198peel and cloves. Add the sugar a few minutes before taking from the fire. The apples may be mashed or put through a strainer. (Will serve nine.)

Note.—The lemon and the cloves may be used when the apples have lost their flavour.

Stewed Prunes or Other Dried Fruit—Apricots, Apples, Pears

	¾ lb. fruit (about)	⅓ c. sugar
	1½ pt. of water	1 or 2 slices lemon or
a few cloves and a piece of cinnamon stick

Wash the fruit thoroughly and soak overnight. Cook in the water in which it was soaked. Cover, and simmer until tender. When nearly cooked, add sugar and lemon juice. The cloves and cinnamon should cook with the fruit. All flavourings may be omitted, if desired. (Will serve nine.)

Soft Custard

	2 c. milk	2 eggs
	6 tbsp. sugar	½ tsp. vanilla
A few grains of salt

Scald the milk in a double boiler. Add the sugar and salt to the eggs and beat until well mixed. Stir the hot milk slowly into the egg mixture and return to the double boiler. Cook, stirring constantly, until the spoon, when lifted from the mixture, is coated. Remove immediately from the heat, add vanilla, and pour into a cold bowl. To avoid too rapid cooking, lift the upper from the lower portion of the boiler occasionally. (Will serve six.)

Tapioca Custard Pudding

	3 c. scalded milk	4 tbsp. pearl, or minute, tapioca
	2 eggs slightly beaten	6 tbsp. sugar
	2 tbsp. butter	A few grains of salt

Minute tapioca requires no soaking. Soak the pearl tapioca one hour in enough cold water to cover it. Drain, add to the milk, and cook in a double boiler for 30 minutes. Add to remaining ingredients, pour into buttered baking-dish, and bake for about 25 minutes in a slow oven. (Will serve eight.)

199Rice and Tomato

2 c. cooked rice

2 tbsp. butter

2 tbsp. flour

2 c. unstrained or 1 c. strained tomato

1 slice of onion minced

Salt and pepper

Cook the onion with the tomato until soft. Melt the butter, and add the flour, salt, and pepper. Strain the tomato, stir the liquid into the butter and flour mixture, and cook until thick and smooth. Add the rice, heat, and serve. (Will serve six.)

Cracker Pudding

	6 soda crackers	3 eggs
	3 c. milk	6 tbsp. sugar
½ tsp. salt

Roll the crackers and soak them in milk. Beat the yolks and sugar well together and add to the first mixture, with some salt. Make a meringue with white of eggs, pile lightly on top, and put in the oven till it is a golden brown. Serve hot. (Will serve six.)
Note.—Dried bread crumbs may be used in place of the crackers.

One Fancy Chicken Coop...

You say Poultry-House.  I say Chicken Coop...but it sure is fancy - too fancy for the Hollow!  This is from the same Rural Architecture book from 1852.

POULTRY LAWN 

THE POULTRY-HOUSE.

As poultry is an indispensable appendage to the farm, in all cases, the poultry-house is equally indispensable, for their accommodation, and for the most profitable management of the fowls themselves, and most convenient for the production of their eggs and young. Indeed, without well-arranged quarters for the fowls of the farm, they are exceedingly troublesome, and of doubtful profit; but with the proper buildings devoted to them exclusively, they become one of the most interesting and agreeable objects with which either the farm or the country house is associated.

GROUND PLAN.

It is hardly worth while to eulogize poultry. Their merits and virtues are written in the hearts of all provident housekeepers; and their beauty and goodness are familiar to every son and daughter of the rural homestead. We shall, then, proceed at once to discuss their proper accommodation, in the cheapest and most familiar method with which we are acquainted.

The hen-house—for hens (barn-door fowls, we mean) are the first and chief stock, of the kind, to be provided for, and with them most of the other varieties 268can be associated—should be located in a warm, sheltered, and sunny place, with abundant grounds about it, where they can graze—hens eat grass—and scratch, and enjoy themselves to their heart's content, in all seasons, when the ground is open and they can scratch into, or range over its surface. Some people—indeed, a good many people—picket in their gardens, to keep hens out; but we prefer an enclosure to keep the hens in, at all seasons when they are troublesome, which, after all, is only during short seasons of the year, when seeds are planted, or sown, and grain and vegetables are ripening. Otherwise, they may range at will, on the farm, doing good in their destruction of insects, and deriving much enjoyment to themselves; for hens, on the whole, are happy things.

We here present the elevation of a poultry-house in perspective, to show the principle which we would adopt in its construction, and which may be extended to any required length, and to which may be added any given area of ground, or yard-room, which the circumstances of the proprietor may devote to it. It is, as will be seen, of a most rustic appearance, and built as cheaply, yet thoroughly, as the subject may require. Its length, we will say, is 20 feet, its breadth 16, and its height 10 feet, made of posts set into the ground—for we do not like sills, and floors of wood, because rats are apt to burrow under them, which are their worst enemies—and boarded up, either inside or outside, as in the case of the ice-house previously described, though not double. Plates are laid on these posts, to connect them firmly together; and the rafters 



rest on the plates, as usual. The chamber floor is
9 feet high, above the ground, and may be used either for laying purposes by the fowls, or reserved as a storage-room for their feed. The roof is broadly drawn over the body of the building, to shelter it, and through the point of the roof, in the center, is a ventilator, with a covered top, and a vane significant of its purpose. It is also sufficiently lighted, with glass windows, into which our draughtsman has put the diamond-paned glass, contrary to our notions; but, as he had, no doubt, an eye to the "picturesque," we let it pass, only remarking, that if we were building the house on our own account, there should be no such nonsense about it. The front windows are large, to attract the warmth of the winter's sun. A section of picket fence is also attached, and trees in the rear—both of which are necessary to a complete establishment; the first, to secure the poultry in the contiguous yards, and the trees to give them shade, and even roosting-places, if they prefer such lodgings in warm weather—for which we consider them eminently wholesome.

The wooden floor is dispensed with, as was remarked, to keep rid of the vermin. If the ground be gravelly, or sandy, it will be sufficiently dry. If a heavy or damp soil be used, it should be under-drained, which will effectually dry it, and be better for the fowls than a floor of either wood, brick, or stone. Doors of sufficient size can be made on the yard sides of the house, near the ground, for the poultry to enter either the living or roosting apartments, at pleasure, and hung with butts on the upper side, to be closed when necessary.

INTERIOR ARRANGEMENT.

The front door opens into the main living room. At each end, and in the rear, are tiers of boxes, one foot wide, one and a half feet long, and one and a half feet high—the lowest tier elevated two feet above the ground—and built one tier above the other, and snugly partitioned between, with a hole at one corner of each, ten inches high, and eight inches wide, for passing in to them; and a shelf, or passage-board, nine inches wide, in front. These are the nesting boxes, and should be kept supplied with short, soft straw, or hay orts, for that purpose. Hens love secrecy in their domestic economy, and are wonderfully pleased with the opportunity to hide away, and conceal themselves while laying. Indeed, such concealment, or the supposition of it, we have no doubt promotes fecundity, as it is well known that a hen can stop laying, almost at pleasure, when disturbed in her regular habits and settled plans of life. Burns says—

"The best laid schemes of mice and men
Gang aft agley;"

and why not hen's? We think so. If turkeys be kept in the premises, the females can also be accommodated in these boxes, as they are fond of laying in company with the hens, and frequently in the same nests, only that they require larger entrances into them; or, a tier of boxes may be made on the ground, for their convenience.

A door leads from the rear of this room into the roosting apartment, through which is a passage to
 the back side of the building, and a door opposite, leading out into the yard. On each side of this passage are roosts, rising, each behind and above the other, 18 inches apart. The lowest roosts may be three feet from the ground, and the highest six feet, that they may easily fly from one to the other; and in this way they may all be approached, to catch the fowls, when required. For the roosts, slender poles, two to three inches in diameter—small trees, cut from the woods, with the bark on, are the best—may be used; and they should be secured through augur holes in board slats suspended from the floor joists overhead. This apartment should be cleaned out as often as once a fortnight, both for cleanliness and health—for fowls like to be clean, and to have pure air. A flight of stairs may be made in one corner of the front room, to go into the chamber, if preferred; but a swing ladder, hung by one end, with hinges, to the joists above, is, for such purpose, a more cleanly mode of access; which, when not in use, may be hooked up to the under side of the floor above; and a trap door, shutting into the chamber floor, and also hung on hinges, will accommodate the entrance.

For feeding troughs, we have seen many ingenious contrivances, and among them, possibly, a Yankee patent, or two; but all these we put aside, as of little account. A common segar box, or any other cast-off thing, that will hold their food, is just as good as the most complicated invention; and, in common feeding, 


there is no better mode than to scatter abroad their corn, and let them pick it up at their pleasure—when spread on a clean surface. We think, also, that, except for fattening poultry, stated hours of feeding are best for the birds themselves, and that they be fed only such quantity as they will pick up clean. Water should, if possible, be kept constantly by them; and if a small running stream could pass through the yard, all the better.

If it be desirable to have fresh eggs during winter—and that is certainly a convenience—a box stove may be set in the living room, and properly protected by a grating around it, for warming the living apartment. It may be remarked, however, that this winter-laying of hens is usually a forcing business. A hen will lay but about a given number of eggs in a year; say a hundred—we believe this is about the number which the most observant of poultry-keepers allow them—and what she lays in winter must be subtracted from the number she would otherwise lay in the spring, summer, or autumn. Yet a warm house will, laying, aside, keep the fowls with less food, and in greater comfort, than if cold, and left to their own natural warmth.

There is usually little difficulty in keeping hens, turkies, ducks, and geese together, in the same inclosure, during winter and early spring, before the grass grows. But geese and turkies require greater range during the warm season than the others, and should have it, both for convenience to themselves and profit to their owners. For winter quarters, low shelters may be made for the water-fowls in the yards, and the turkies will 

frequently prefer to share the shelter of the hens, on the roosts in the house. Guinea-hens—cruel, vindictive things, as they are—should never be allowed within a common poultry yard. Always quarrelsome, and never quiet, they should take to the farmyard, with the cattle, where they may range at will, and take their amusement in fisticuffs with each other, at pleasure. Neither should peacocks be allowed to come into the poultry inclosures, during the breeding season; they are anything but amiable in their manners to other birds.

With the care and management of the poultry department, after thus providing for their accommodation, it is not our province to interfere; that is a subject too generally understood, to require further remark. Nor need we discuss the many varieties of poultry which, at the present time, so arrest the attention of many of our good country people; and we will leave so important a subject to the meditations of the "New England Poultry Society," who have taken the gallinaceous, and other tribes under their special cognizance, and will, doubtless, in due time, illumine the world with various knowledge in this department of rural economy, not yet "dreamt of in our philosophy." The recently published poultry books, too, with an amplitude and particularity in the discussion of the different breeds and varieties, which shuts all suspicions of self-interest into the corner, have given such a fund of information on the subject, that any further inquiry may, with entire good will, be turned over to their pages.