Wash six large potatoes and scrub them with a little brush, till they are a nice clean light brown, and bake them for half an hour in a hot oven; or, if they are quite large, bake them till they are soft and puffy. Cut off one end from each and take out the inside with a teaspoon, holding the potato in a towel as you do so, for it will be very hot. Mix well this potato with two tablespoonfuls of rich milk or cream, a half-teaspoonful of salt and just as much butter, and put this back into the shells. Stand the potatoes side by side in a pan close together, the open ends up, till they are browned.
3 cups brown sugar. 2 cups maple syrup. 1 cup of milk. 1/2 cup of water. Butter the size of an egg. 1 cup English walnut meats, or hickory-nuts.
Boil the sugar and maple syrup till you can make it into a very soft ball when you drop it in water; only half as hard as you boil molasses candy. Then put in the milk, water, and butter, and boil till when you try in water it makes quite a firm ball in your fingers. Put in the nuts and take off the fire at once, and stir till it begins to sugar. Spread it quickly on buttered pans, and when partly cool mark in squares with a knife.
Wipe off the chops with a clean wet cloth and trim off the edges; if very fat cut rather close to the meat. Rub the wire broiler with some of the fat, so that the chops will not stick. Lay in the chops and put over a clear, red fire without flame, and toast one side first and then the other; do this till they are brown. Lay on a hot platter, and dust both sides with salt and a tiny bit of pepper. Put bits of lemon and parsley around, and send to the table hot.
6 eggs. 2 saltspoonfuls of dry mustard. 1/2 teaspoonful of salt. 1 saltspoonful of cayenne pepper. 1 teaspoonful of olive-oil or cream. 1 large tablespoonful of chopped ham. 1/2 teaspoonful of vinegar.
Boil the eggs hard for twenty minutes, and put them in cold water at once to get perfectly cold so they will not turn dark. Then peel, cut in halves and take out the yolks. Put these in a bowl, and rub in the seasoning, but you can leave out the ham if you like. With a small teaspoon, put the mixture back into the eggs and smooth them over with a knife.
If you do not serve these eggs with cold meat it is best to lay them on lettuce when you send them to the table.
Put one pint of milk on in a double boiler and let it heat. Melt one tablespoonful of butter, and when it bubbles stir in one small tablespoonful of corn-starch, and when these are rubbed smooth, put in one-third of the milk. Cook and stir till even, without lumps, and then put in the rest of the milk and stir well; add half a teaspoonful of salt, and put on the back of the stove. Make six slices of toast; put one slice in the dish and put a spoonful of the white sauce over it, then put in another and another spoonful, and so on till all are in, and pour the sauce that is left over all. If you want this extra nice, do not take quite so much butter, and use a pint of cream instead of the milk.
Make the rounds of toast and poach the eggs as before. Make a white sauce in this way: melt a tablespoonful of butter, and when it bubbles put in a tablespoonful of flour; shake well, and add a cup of hot milk and a small half-teaspoonful of salt; cook till smooth. Moisten each round of toast with a very little boiling water, and spread with some of the potted ham which comes in little tin cans; lay a poached egg on each round, and put a teaspoonful of white sauce on each egg.
If you have no potted ham in the house, but have plain boiled ham, put this through the meat-chopper till you have half a cupful, put in a heaping teaspoonful of the sauce, a saltspoonful of dry mustard, and a pinch of red pepper, and it will do just as well.
Scrape off all the skin from the sardines, and take out the bones and drain them by laying them on brown paper; mash them with a fork, and sprinkle with lemon juice, and spread.
Get one of the pots which are made so the coffee will drip through; put three tablespoonfuls of very finely powdered coffee in this, and pour in a quart of boiling water. When it is all dripped through, it is ready to put in the hot silver pot.
