PEPPER HASH

Chop fine with a knife, but do not shred with a slaw cutter, 1 pint of finely chopped cabbage, adding 1 teaspoonful of salt, 2 teaspoonfuls of sugar, 1 teaspoonful of whole mustard seed, 1/2 a chopped red, sweet pepper, a pinch of red cayenne pepper and 1/2 pint of vinegar.  Mix all well together and serve with fried oysters, oyster stew and deviled oysters.

This “pepper hash” is delicious if a couple tablespoonfuls of thick cream be added just before serving.

Should very sour cider vinegar be used in this recipe, the housewife will, of course, dilute it with water.

GERMAN BEAN SALAD

Use small green or yellow string-beans, which snap when broken, called by some “snap beans.”  String them carefully. (If quite small and tender this should not be necessary.) Rub well with the hands through several waters.  This removes the strong bean taste.  Have your kettle half filled with boiling water on the range over a brisk fire.  Put a tablespoon of butter in the water, add beans by handfuls until all are in and cook until tender.  Turn the beans in a colander to drain.  When cool add a chopped onion, salt and pour enough good vinegar over to cover, and allow to stand two days, when strain vinegar from beans.  Boil vinegar, add water if vinegar is quite sour and pour hot over the beans.  Fill quart glass jars with the beans and pour vinegar over, within an inch of top of jar; pour pure olive oil over top of beans, screw on jar covers tightly and stand in a cool place until wanted to use.  In the winter, when fresh salads were scarce, Aunt Sarah opened a can of these beans.  If they were very sour she poured cold water over, allowed to stand an hour, drained and added a little fresh olive oil.  Every one called her “bean salat,” as the Pennsylvania Germans call it, delicious.  The instructions regarding the preparing and cooking of string beans for salad will answer for beans used as a vegetable, omitting vinegar, of course.  There is a great difference in the manner of cooking vegetables.  Aunt Sarah always added an onion and a sprig of parsley when cooking beans to serve as a vegetable.

MEAT SALADS

To quote from the Farmers’ Bulletin:  “Whether meat salads are economical or not depends upon the way in which the materials are utilized.  If in chicken salad, for example, only the white meat of chicken, especially bought for the purpose, and only the expensive inside stems of expensive celery are used, it can hardly be cheaper than plain chicken.  But, if portions of meat left over from a previous serving are mixed with celery grown at home, they certainly make an economical dish, and one very acceptable to most persons.  Cold roast pork or tender veal, in fact, any white meat, can be utilized in the same way.  Apples cut into cubes may be substituted for part of the celery.  Many cooks consider that with the apple the salad takes the dressing better than with the celery alone.  Many also prefer to marinate (i.e., mix with a little oil and vinegar) the meat and celery or celery and apples before putting on the final dressing, which may be either mayonnaise or a good boiled dressing.”