Tea

The bane of tea in many households is unboiled water, which can never extract the flavor it should. Be sure, then, that the water boils; put in your pot a teaspoonful of tea for each person, with one thrown in for a possible guest. Warm both tea and pot, then cover well with boiling water. Let this stand ten minutes (no longer) where it will keep very hot; this is steeping - the process always required before the larger quantity of water is added. It may just come to a boil, but boiling or too long steeping will give the Japan tea an "herby" flavor. Fill with boiling water and send to the table hot. the Oolong teas may steep one hour and a half without injury.

Coffee

In making coffee great care must be exercised in selecting the brand. I have found Hill's Bros. "Arabian Roast" to give the best satisfaction. It is what it pretends to be - a blending of " Old Government Java and "Genuine Mocha."

Stir a beaten egg into two teacups of ground coffee, cover with a pint of cold water and set upon the stove until it boils. Then pour a quart of boiling water into it and let it stand where it will keep, at the boiling point five minutes. Pour a half cupful from the spout to remove the grounds and it is ready to serve. Long boiling makes coffee strong but not agreeable. If you cannot have cream to send to the table use rich boiled milk, which gives coffee a pleasant flavor. Keep your coffee pot clean and dry. A musty pot will spoil the flavor of the best made coffee. When eggs are dear a well-cleansed bit of dried fish skin can be used instead of an egg.

Chocolate

An ounce of chocolate for one person; scrape and boil it from five to ten minutes, with about four tablespoons of water; when it is very smooth, add a pint of new milk, boil, stir it well and serve; if you wish to make it of water, use nearly a pint of water, instead of milk, and send rich cream to the table with it.

Cocoa

Boil two large spoonfuls of ground cocoa in a quart of water half an hour; pour in three gills of milk, and boil it up again; skim off the oil if too rich.

Refreshing Drink For The Sick

Raspberry vinegar or shrub. Cover berries with vinegar and soak over night. Drain off or squeeze out the juice, to every pint of which add one pound of sugar. Let it simmer about fifteen minutes; when cool, bottle, and when used as a drink put as much of it to a glass of water as is palatable to the invalid.

Raspberry Acid

Put twelve pounds of raspberries in an earthen jar; cover with two quarts of water with five ounces tartaric acid dissolved in water; let it remain forty-eight hours, then strain it and to each pint of juice add one and one-half pounds sugar; stir occasionally until dissolved; leave for a few days then bottle and cork lightly at first. If fermentation takes place leave the cork out a few days, then seal. The whole is made cold.

Currant Ice Water

Press the juice from ripe currauts, strain, add a pound of sugar to every pint of juice. The sugar may be dissolved either by stirring it in the juice in a saucepan over the fire, or by putting it in bottles, setting them over the fire in a saucepan of cold water, allowing them to become gradually heated to a boiling point. When cold they should be taken out, corked, sealed, and put in a cool, dry place. Mix with ice-water for a beverage. The juice of other acid fruits may be preserved in a like manner.

Ginger Pop

Five and one-half gallons water, one-quarter of a pound of ginger-root bruised, one-half ounce tartaric acid, two and a half pounds white sugar, one gill yeast, one teaspoonful lemon oil, the whites of three eggs, well beaten. Boil the root thirty minutes in one gallon water, strain off and put the oil in while the water is hot, then add the other materials. Make at night, and in the morning skim and bottle, keeping back the sediment.

Effervescing Fruit Drinks

Put strawberries, blackberries or raspberries into good vinegar, then strain off, adding fresh fruit until the flavor is agreeable. Bottle it and when about to use it, dissolve a small teaspoonful soda in a little water; when melted, nearly fill the tumbler with water, then add the fruit vinegar and drink immediately.

Beef Extract

Soak finely chopped lean beef in an equal weight of cold water for an hour, then gradually raise to a boiling point. Simmer for fifteen minutes and strain.

Beef Tea

Quickly Made.

Chop lean beef fine, and place it in a baking-pan, covering it with another pan, place it in a hot oven, and in fifteen minutes the juice will be ready to strain off.