Cookery in the 
 PUBLIC Schools 
 
 SALUE JOY WHITE 
 
^eva fork 
 Hatt (S,alltQR of Agriculture 
 
 At QlorneU MniaeraitH 
 
 StJjata, N. % 
 
 IGibracg 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924003576315 
 
COOKERY IN 
 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS 
 
 BY 
 
 SALLIE JOY WHITE 
 
 Author of "House Keepers and Home Makers.' 
 
 Illustrated 
 
 BOSTON 
 D LOTHROP COMPANY 
 
 WASHINGTON STREET OPPOSITE BROMFIELD 
 
Copyright, 1890, 
 
 BY 
 
 D. LoTHROP Company. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In sending out this little book, the result of a careful 
 watchfulness of the public school kitchen work, from its 
 inception to the piesent time, the hope has been to inter- 
 est communities beyond Boston in the idea of industrial 
 training in the public schools, and to give the girls them- 
 selves some idea of the value of the teaching. Only a 
 hint has been given of the real amount of work, but I 
 hope it is sufficient to make all who read feel the need of 
 increasing it. I am deeply indebted to Miss Homans, 
 who has given me access to the schools, allowed me the 
 use of the rules, and the privilege of copying the charts 
 and tables. If the work of establishing cookery as a 
 branch of training in the schools generally is perma- 
 nently successful, it will be because of the devoted work 
 of this noble woman, who has carried to the finest and 
 fullest completion the plans of Mrs. Mary Hemenway, 
 who supported the first school kitchen, and now supports 
 the Normal Training School for preparing teachers in 
 cooking for the public schools. 
 
 Sallie Joy White. 
 AsHCROFT, Dedham, 
 
 Alarch 15, 1890. 
 
TO 
 
 AMY MORRIS ROMANS, 
 
 WITH THE GRATITUDE AND REGARD OF 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 MASTER ALLEN'S PROPHECY ... 7 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 FIRE-BUILDING 22 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 SOME SIMPLE USES OF THE OVEN ... 40 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A LESSON IN BOILING £3 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 GOING TO MARKET . ... 69 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 MEATS AND MADE-OVERS 83 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SOUPS AND STEWS 98 
 
 5 
 
6 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 A LESSON IN BATTERS 1 14 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 BREAD-MAKING . 1 28 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 FISH AND EGG DISHES . . . I39 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 IhTVALID COOKERY 149 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 NORMAL TRAINING -164 
 
COOKERY 
 
 IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS' 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 MASTER ALLEN S PROPHECY. 
 
 WENTY-FIVE years 
 ago, Master Allen, the 
 head of the Hancock 
 School in Boston, 
 said contemptu- 
 ously: "Teach 
 sewing in the pub- 
 lic schools ! The 
 next thing we know 
 they will be for setting 
 up cook-stoves in our 
 schoolrooms, and asking us to teach the girls to 
 make bread and broil beefsteak!" 
 7 
 
8 MASTER Allen's prophecy. 
 
 To Master Allen's mind, that was the very 
 height of impossibility ; the very remotest con- 
 tingency; and in rnaking the remark he felt that 
 he was giving full expression to the fine scorn 
 with which he regarded the innovation of needle 
 and thimble. 
 
 And yet, what he considered as impossible 
 has come about. What do you suppose Master 
 Allen would say could he take a peep now, 
 during any school day, into the finely-appointed 
 kitchen in the basement of the Tennyson Street 
 Schoolhouse in Boston, and see the interested 
 girls in white caps and aprons, learning how to 
 become good housekeepers and cooks ? He 
 would be utterly bewildered with it all ; and 
 unless he has grown much wiser in his new 
 environment, he would think, no doubt, that 
 a backward step had been taken in the modes 
 of education. 
 
 But people have had time and opportunity to 
 learn many things since the stubborn principal 
 of the large North End School held such des- 
 
MASTER Allen's prophecy. 9 
 
 potic sway ; and among the things that have 
 been learned is a lesson that it has taken much 
 time to impress upon the minds of those who 
 have had the public schools and their manage- 
 ment in charge. 
 
 It was this : that the education being given 
 to the children was a very one-sided one, and 
 that while it gave a great deal of information 
 that might, or might not, be of value to those 
 who obtained it, there was a decided lack of 
 practical instruction, so that when the boys and 
 girls left the schools, they had absolutely no 
 working capital. 
 
 The few people who first felt this truth, and 
 dared to speak about it, and to suggest that 
 there should be some change in the plan of 
 instruction, were laughed at as "silly folk" who 
 must find fault with something. The word 
 " crank " had not then taken its place in the 
 current vocabulary ; but you know nowadays it 
 is shouted derisively after every one who dares 
 to advance an opinion that differs from the one 
 
lO MASTER ALLEN S PROPHECY. 
 
 held by the majority. That is what the early 
 advocates of industrial education would have 
 been called had the word then existed with its 
 present significance. 
 
 But all the scorn that was heaped upon the 
 advocates of the new education, and all the 
 ridicule, could not make them believe them- 
 selves anything but right; and by degrees they 
 drew other people to their own way of thinking, 
 until, before the great public knew anything 
 about it, there was a large number of persons, 
 including the wisest men and women of the 
 time, protesting against this one-sided instruc- 
 tion that trained the head at the expense of 
 the hands. What these far-sighted people be- 
 lieved in, was a school-system that would pro- 
 vide an " all round " education. 
 
 The first result of the agitation was the intro- 
 duction of sewing into the public schools, as a 
 two-hours exercise each week. There were a 
 great many protestants against the innovation 
 beside Master Allen ; but the reason his protest 
 
MASTER ALLEN S PROPHECY. H 
 
 is specially remembered is on account of the 
 prophecy which it contained. No doubt he 
 would have been as unwilling a prophet as he 
 was an unconscious one, but a prophet he was, 
 notwithstanding. 
 
 Well, the sewing was introduced, and it did 
 not overturn the schools, nor demoralize the 
 pupils. But the sharp little needles, in the 
 hands of the willing girls, went on pricking 
 individual prejudices, until by and by the very 
 people who had opposed it, were its warm 
 friends and advocates. The teachers said that 
 the children worked better at their books for 
 the change of employment; that the heads 
 rested while the hands worked, and that a deal 
 of dangerous nervous restlessness was carried 
 off through the stitches. Mothers were proud 
 of the work their girls could do, and the girls 
 themselves grew particular about the appear- 
 ance of their clothing, taking better care of it 
 since they knew the labor of making, and had 
 acquired the knack of repairing. 
 
12 MASTER Allen's prophecy. 
 
 It is no wonder when the experiment of sew- 
 ing was found to be a success, that the people 
 who had been instrumental in bringing it about, 
 should look around for another department of 
 industry to introduce. But it is a wonder that 
 it was going to be as necessary to convert the 
 public to the new work, as it had been to the 
 sewing. 
 
 But a wise woman who has proven her wis- 
 dom in many ways in forwarding education, and 
 helping boys and girls to become useful men 
 and women, decided that it was better to prove 
 the usefulness of the measure first, then, should 
 it be necessary, to argue about it afterwards. 
 Mrs. Mary Hemenway, who had supported the 
 Old South Free Lectures for the children of the 
 Boston schools, who had founded schools for 
 the poor children in the South, who had offered 
 and bestowed the prizes for the essays in Ameri- 
 can History to be written by the graduates of 
 the High Schools, had also for a number of 
 years supported a summer school in the Tenny- 
 
MASTER Allen's prophecy. 13 
 
 son Street Schoolhouse, where girls have been 
 taught several branches of industry, including 
 even light carpentering and cabinet-making. 
 After watching her experiments for several sea- 
 sons, Mrs. Hemenway decided that the best 
 industry to introduce into the public schools 
 would be cooking. She did not talk much about 
 her plan ; she asked the School Committee to 
 let her keep the kitchen she had so beautifully 
 fitted up, and to allow classes of girls from sev- 
 eral of the schools to be sent during the year 
 for instruction in cooking, which she would pro- 
 vide at her own expense. 
 
 It may be that the School Committee were 
 rather anxious to have such an experiment tried. 
 At any event, they gave Mrs. Hemenway ready 
 permission to keep the kitchen, and heartily ac- 
 cepted the very generous proposition that she 
 made them. 
 
 So the school was begun. There were two 
 classes, of fifteen girls each, that met every day 
 to learn the mysteries of cooking. Each girl 
 
14 MASTER ALLEN'S PROPHECY. 
 
 who came to the school took only one half a 
 day each week from her book-studies ; and no 
 girl was allowed to attend whose mother did not 
 fully approve o£ her doing so. 
 
 The pupils were marked for tardiness or for 
 absence, exactly as they were at the school it- 
 self ; for the cooking, like the sewing, was con- 
 sidered a part of the school-training, and a 
 regular school-exercise, at which the girls were 
 still held under the rules. 
 
 At first the pupils themselves did not quite 
 know whether to like the new departure or not. 
 It was something so new, so utterly out of the 
 every-day school routine. But as most girls 
 have the natural instinct of the housewife, that 
 waits only occasion to arouse, they soon found 
 that the new duty was very pleasant. 
 
 In the first place, they had such a perfectly 
 appointed kitchen to work in ! It was a real 
 delight to be in it, and to be allowed to handle 
 all the convenient implements at will, with the 
 feeling of absolute proprietorship. There were 
 
MASTER ALLEN'S PROPHECY. 15 
 
 closets and cupboards filled with stores, and 
 .vith pretty dishes ; a large range, always kept 
 bright and shining, and that looked cheerful 
 from very cleanliness, even when there was no 
 fire in it ; an abundance of towels and dish- 
 cloths, and, best of all, a large circular table, 
 divided into compartments, each one having its 
 own gas stove, its spoons, its mixing dishes and 
 measuring cups, its bread-board and rolling-pin, 
 its egg-beaters and strainers — all the conven- 
 iences, indeed, that could be needed for per- 
 sonal use in cooking. Each girl had her cap and 
 apron, usually a long tier with sleeves, that cov- 
 ered her from the throat of her dress to the 
 hem, protecting it from all traces of the work in 
 which she was engaged. With her apron and 
 cap, her holder and towel pinned to her side, 
 she was ready to begin her work, and, as a gen- 
 eral thing, every one of the pupils felt a real 
 enthusiasm after the first strangeness was over. 
 For three years Mrs. Hemenway continued 
 her experiment ; now the city has taken the 
 
1 6 MASTER Allen's prophecy. 
 
 school, and established others as well in differ- 
 ent parts of the city, so that during the year 
 eighteen hundred and eighty-eight eighteen hun- 
 dred girls received good training in cooking. 
 There has been no need for argument ; the 
 experiment has been proof, as Mrs. Hemenway 
 was sure it would be ; everybody is praising the 
 cooking as they have before praised the sewing. 
 
 But the best of it all is to hear the mothers 
 talk about it ; they are so delighted with the 
 results that they have nothing but thankfulness 
 toward the system. You see the girls do not 
 merely learn their lessons in theory, but they 
 really do the work themselves, and then go 
 home and cook the same dishes for the family 
 meals, so that the mothers and fathers have an 
 opportunity of testing for themselves the value 
 of the teaching. And they are very proud when 
 they can treat some visitor to a specially nice 
 dish and say, — 
 
 " It was made by daughter ; she learned it 
 at school." 
 
MASTER ALLEN S PROPHECY. 17 
 
 A mother said to me while telling about some 
 trouble she had had with a servant, which 
 resulted in her sending the girl away : 
 
 "Annie" — that was her daughter who had 
 graduated from the grammar school a little less 
 than a year before — ■ " says I shall not be both- 
 ered with another servant ; she is going to do 
 the family cooking. And oh ! it is such a com- 
 fort and rest to have her do it. She is so eco- 
 nomical, and so nice about it, and she really 
 enjoys it herself so much ! I would much rather 
 she did this than went out of her home to work, 
 as she would. So I have told her that I would / 
 pay her just what I had been paying a girl. 
 She will have her own income, and we will have 
 good cooking and nice housekeeping. I feel 
 the relief already." 
 
 Wasn't that a jolly, comfortable way of fixing 
 things ? And wouldn't many a girl like it, if 
 she could be the mother's helper in such a 
 fashion ? And that is just what the cooking- 
 schools are making possible, both for mothers 
 
i8 MASTER Allen's prophecy. 
 
 and daughters ; and, between you and me, I 
 think it is going some way in solving the per- 
 plexing question of domestic service and ineffi- 
 cient help, that we all hear so much about in 
 these days. There is a chance for a good long 
 look ahead in this subject, and one day you and 
 I will look back over the ground that has been 
 trodden, and wonder that the public teaching 
 of cookery wasn't thought about earlier. 
 
 In the schools now, whenever there is a sew- 
 ing exhibition, there is a cooking exhibition as 
 well ; and after the visitors have admired the 
 nicely made under-clothing, bed and table linen, 
 and wondered at the skill and proficiency which 
 made it possible for such young needlewomen 
 to compass the dresses, complete infants' ward- 
 robes, and boys' suits, that are spread out for 
 them to see, each with the name and age of the 
 youthful seamstress pinned to it, they are asked 
 to another room. And there they are shown 
 fine loaves of bread, nicely cooked meats, fish 
 and vegetables, gruels and beef tea, jellies and 
 
MASTER ALLEN S PROPHECY. I9 
 
 blanc-manges, that are also labelled with the 
 name and age of the makers. You will not find 
 many loaves of cake, or pies, or much " fancy 
 cooking," for the school teaches the comrnon- 
 sense of cookery; believing if the pupils learn 
 the principles thoroughly they can do very much 
 themselves with practice. 
 
 Now as there are so many young people who 
 have not the opportunity of learning what is 
 taught the fortunate girls in the Boston schools, 
 I propose telling you a little bit of what these 
 same girls really learn, trusting that it may 
 interest you so much that you will all become 
 earnest advocates of a system of education 
 that shall embrace some of the industries, and 
 shall place value on the work of the hands as 
 well as of the head. 
 
 Because you are not where you have the ad- 
 vantage of the training of these schools, you 
 need not think it is of no use for you to want 
 it. By no means. Other cities and towns are 
 following the example of Boston, and are intro- 
 
20 MASTER ALLEN S PROPHECY. 
 
 ducing the teaching of cooking into their public 
 schools; and if you are really in earnest in your 
 desire, you may impart your interest to others, 
 and out of the growth of this interest may come 
 the very thing you want. Public-spirited girls 
 have a chance to make a great many advance 
 steps in any good movement. There is no tell- 
 ing what they may bring about by talking with 
 their parents over the morning coffee. 
 
 There are teachers in training now to take 
 positions in schools as teachers of cookery, and 
 those already graduated have found places in 
 New England cities, and in the South and West. 
 One young colored woman came from the Tus- 
 kagee College in Alabama to prepare herself to 
 take the department of cooking in that institu- 
 tion, and she has finished her course and gone 
 to her work full of enthusiasm for it. 
 
 In most of the cities the school is supported 
 from the school-fund, a special appropriation 
 being made for it ; in other places it is carried 
 on by private generosity. Mr. Augustus Hem- 
 
MASTER Allen's prophecy. 21 
 
 enway, the son of Mrs. Hemenway who began 
 the work in Boston, has followed his mother's 
 example and has established a school in 
 Canton, Mass., the town in which he lives, and 
 still another in Easton, Mass. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 FIRE-BUILDING. 
 
 THE roll is called, the girls are in their 
 uniforms — that is, the apron, the cap, 
 the holder suspended by a tape from the belt, 
 always in readiness for use, and the hand-towel 
 pinned to the side. Rings and bracelets — if 
 any one is so thoughtless as to wear them to a 
 cooking-lesson — are laid aside, the hands are 
 washed, and the nails looked after ; for an im- 
 portant feature of the first lesson, as well as of 
 every succeeding one, is that of personal clean- 
 liness. And it is repeated all the way along 
 too. The hands are washed as often as needed ; 
 and always before touching any food they are 
 wiped on the towel at the side. That is why 
 the towel hangs there. 
 
 22 
 
FIRE-BUILDING. 23 
 
 The three housekeepers are chosen ; out of 
 each class of fifteen, three are called housekeep- 
 ers, while the rest are cooks. The three house- 
 keepers do the kitchen work, and each one has 
 her own special set of duties. 
 
 The lists of duties for the housekeepers are 
 printed plainly on a blackboard, so that each 
 knows just what she has to do, and there is no 
 interference of tasks between the three. In 
 this way everything is done at its own proper 
 time, and by the proper person. The rules for 
 the housekeepers are like this:* 
 
 HOUSiEKEEPER NUMBER ONE. 
 
 Get kindlings and coal. 
 
 Build the fire. 
 
 Regulate the dampers. 
 
 Empty ashes into sifter. 
 
 Brush the stove under and around it. 
 
 Blacken the stove. 
 
 Light the fire. 
 
 Polish the stove. 
 
 Regulate the dampers. 
 
 * These rules are copied from the blackboard of School Kitchen 
 No. I, where they were placed in October, 18S6. 
 
24 FIRE-BUILDING. 
 
 Fill tea-kettle and reservoir with fresh water. 
 
 Wash the hearth or zinc under the stove. 
 
 Wash the cloth and put to dry. 
 
 Sift the ashes. 
 
 Bring the cinders to the kitchen. 
 
 This is what Housekeeper Number One has 
 to do in the morning class. The Afternoon 
 Housekeeper Number One must 
 
 Regulate the fire. 
 Replenish the kettles. 
 
 Empty the kettles and copper boiler, and turn them 
 over to dry. 
 
 The last things, of course, are to be done 
 when the lesson is ended. 
 
 HOUSEKEEPER NUMBER TWO. 
 
 Dust the room thoroughly. Begin at one corner, and 
 take each article in turn. Dust from the highest things 
 to the lowest, taking up the dust in the cloth, but not 
 brushing it off on the floor. Shake the duster occasion- 
 ally in a suitable place, and when through, wash and 
 hang it to dry. 
 
 Bring the stores to teacher when directed. 
 
 Scrub the dresser and teacher's desk. 
 
A SCHOOL KITCHEN. 
 {Showing compartments around iahle with gas stoves, etc.) 
 
FIRE-BUILDING. 27 
 
 Keep the dresser in perfect order. 
 
 Wipe dishes if needed. 
 
 Sweep the room when the lesson is over, beginning at 
 one side, and sweeping toward one place. Hold the 
 broom close to the floor; sweep with short strokes, and 
 let the broom take the dust along the floor, instead of 
 tossing it into the air. 
 
 HOUSEKEEPER NUMBER THREE. 
 
 Polish the boiler. 
 
 Clean knives and spoons in dresser drawer. 
 
 Wash and wipe dishes. 
 
 Wash dish towels. 
 
 Scrub sink outside and in with hot suds. 
 
 Wash cloth and hang to dry. 
 
 I think it wouldn't be a half-bad idea to have 
 a set of similar rules, condensed for family pur- 
 poses, printed and hung in every kitchen ; 
 though I'm not at all sure that you could get 
 the girls to read them. The home-girls would, 
 but the hired ones wouldn't. 
 
 Of course the same girls do not act as house- 
 keepers all the time. It is arranged that these 
 duties are shared in alternation, in order that 
 
28 FIRE-BUILDING. 
 
 every pupil may learn both the cooking and the 
 kitchen work. 
 
 When everything is in readiness the teacher 
 gives the pupils a little preliminary talk about 
 cooking in general, and they bring out their 
 note-books and pencils, and write down all the 
 points she gives them, so that they may be 
 ready to answer the questions at the next les- 
 son. And more than this, they must remember 
 it, for they have to be examined in their knowl- 
 edge of this branch of study as in any other, 
 and are marked by the same system of per- 
 centage. 
 
 In the first place the teacher gives them the 
 definition of cooking ; and they are told that it 
 is the preparation of food by the aid of heat to 
 nourish the human body : Food is cooked to ren- 
 der it more palatable, and more easy of diges- 
 tion ; to make it assimilate with our bodies, and 
 do us good by giving us strength. Among the 
 agents necessary for cooking, the most impor- 
 tant are heat, liquid and air. Then follows 
 
FIRE-BUILDING. 29 
 
 a short lesson on practical chemistry, giving 
 special information about the four most impor- 
 tant elements, namely, oxygen, nitrogen, hydro- 
 gen and carbon. 
 
 Then follows the lesson on fire-building, the 
 teacher superintending and giving the directions, 
 and Housekeeper Number One following them, 
 while the rest of the class look on and listen. 
 It is only in the early lessons that the instruc- 
 tion is needed ; after a while the girls get to 
 be the most expert fire-builders that can be im- 
 agined, and what is quite as much to the pur- 
 pose, as every housekeeper of experience will 
 tell you, they know how to tend it and keep it 
 with economy ; something, by the way, that a 
 good many housekeepers themselves do not un- 
 derstand. You see the mere " knowing how " 
 to do anything, isn't all there is of a lesson. 
 You must understand how to make the' knowl- 
 edge attained available ; that is the true educa- 
 tion. A person may acquire a knowledge of a 
 great many things, but if she doesn't know what 
 
 IN 
 
30 FIRE-BUILDING. 
 
 use to make of it she might as well be without 
 it, for all the real good it does her. She is not 
 educated ; she is merely hampered with a lot of 
 useless facts that lumber her intellect with cum- 
 bersome stufif. 
 
 But we are learning to make a fire ; and the 
 first thing to be done is to remove all the covers 
 from the stove, and brush all the ashes from the 
 top of the inside into the fire-box ; this keeps 
 the heat channel clear, and makes the oven easier 
 to heat, and keeps the stove in constant cleanli- 
 ness. Then the covers are replaced and the 
 dampers closed. This, you will understand, is 
 done to keep the fine dust from escaping when 
 you empty the contents of the fire-box into the 
 pan. Most kitchen girls neglect this precaution, 
 and then wonder why they have so much dust in 
 their kitchens. The Boston public school-girls 
 could tell them all about it. When the stove 
 has been closed as tightly as possible, the direc- 
 tions are to turn over the grate, letting the con- 
 tents fall into the ash-pan below. Turn the 
 
FIRE-BUILDING. 3 1 
 
 grate back to its place, after clearing it of any 
 clinging substance. Brush out the oven after 
 the dust has ceased to rise, and then it will be 
 clean for use and free from dust when you are 
 ready to bake in it. If there should not be a 
 double grate, as there is not except in some of 
 the newest ranges, remove the ashes and cin- 
 ders together and sift them. Always take out 
 the ashes before lighting the fire, for if they 
 are left in the pan, sparks and lighted coals 
 will drop into them. It is then very unsafe to 
 remove them unless you have a fire-proof ash- 
 receiver. Fires are often traceable to the care- 
 less disposition of hot ashes. You can readily 
 see what mischief might occur from putting 
 ashes containing live coals into a wooden barrel 
 or box. 
 
 And now that the stove is cleaned and the 
 ashes and cinders taken care of the next thing 
 is to make the fire. Of course you all know 
 without telling that the fire box is the part of 
 the stove or range that holds the fire. Now 
 
32 FIRE-BUILDING. 
 
 into this fire box you want to put, first of all, 
 loose pieces of newspaper, that have been torn 
 in strips ; these go at the very bottom, resting 
 on the grate ; use plenty of paper, so that the 
 kindling may have a chance to light before the 
 paper is burned out. Next, lay small pieces of 
 light wood across the box, leaving little spaces 
 between the pieces ; on these put a layer of kind- 
 ling a little larger than the first layer, putting 
 the sticks at right angles with the lower ones ; 
 on these again place fine hard wood kindling, 
 then larger hard wood, and finally a thin layer 
 of small coal. In this way you will have little 
 trouble in making the fire burn. Each layer, as 
 it burns, heats the one above it. Now you see 
 there is a distinction between building a fire and 
 lighting it. 
 
 Now the fire is built, and the covers are re- 
 placed. The housekeeper starts to light the 
 fire, but on being referred to her rules, she finds 
 that the next thing to be done is to open the 
 dampers, remove the ash-pan and sift the ashes, 
 
BUILDING A FIRE. 
 
ias^^ssEfiSRSs 
 
 Yl^ V «'1H/Tt S^I».t *ATP>Kll 
 
FIRE-BUILDING. 35 
 
 replace the pan, and brush the dust off the 
 stove. Then she blackens her stove, first mois- 
 tening the polish with water, then rubbing the 
 polish on with a cloth kept for such use. Then 
 it is time to light the paper from under the 
 grate, and while the fire is beginning to burn she 
 polishes the stove with her dry brush. Here is 
 something else to remember : blacken the stove 
 while it is cold, but polish it as it begins to heat. 
 Watch well while the wood and coal are kind- 
 ling, so as to be ready to add more coal as soon 
 as it is necessary, since if you do not, it will 
 refuse to kindle when you do put it on, and then 
 you will have the fun — and it isn't such good 
 fun either — of doing your work all over again. 
 But if you give the necessary thought and care 
 to it, you need never have this trouble. After 
 your first coal has well kindled, you should add 
 enough to come nearly to the top of the fire box, 
 and then you may feel assured that everything 
 is right. Here you see one of the homely old 
 proverbs verified, " More haste, less speed." 
 
36 FIRE-BUILDING. 
 
 You cannot make a coal fire at hap-hazard ; 
 you must go about it systematically. If you 
 have charcoal or Franklin coal, it may be put 
 on at first with the wood. 
 
 When the blue flame is no longer seen, close 
 the oven damper; and as soon as the coal is 
 burning freely, shut the front damper. Then 
 regulate the fire by the slide or damper in the 
 pipe. While making and watching the fire, 
 empty the tea-kettle, wipe out the inside, fill it 
 and the reservoir with fresh water — never fill 
 either from the hot-water tank — doesn't it seem 
 absurd to have to say this? — finish polishing 
 the sides and back of the range, and brush up 
 the hearth and floor. 
 
 Now we are ready for some cooking. But 
 stop a minute ; there is more to be said before 
 that is begun. We must keep the fire, now it is 
 made, and you will need some directions for that. 
 So we will listen while the teacher gives them : 
 
 Somebody has said that it " takes a wise man 
 to build a fire and a philosopher to keep it." 
 
FIRE-BUILDING. 37 
 
 We have shown that it requires judgment if not 
 real wisdom to get our fire well going, and cer- 
 tainly it requires thought to keep it. It needs 
 attention, not in a fussy, but in a common-sense 
 way. In the first place, one thing to be well 
 borne in mind is that the coal should never come 
 above the top of the lining of the fire box. It 
 chokes the entrance to the oven channel, making 
 it impossible for a steady heat to circulate freely 
 there ; and it spoils the stove by warping the 
 covers and cracking them. So you see it is bad 
 economy. The fuel is wasted and the stove is 
 spoiled. If you need a steady hot fire for 
 some time, replenish often and add but a little 
 coal at a time. . 
 
 If you do not need to use the fire, but wish to 
 keep it along, add fresh coal, and when the gas 
 is burned off, which will be as soon as the blue 
 flame dancing over it disappears, close all the 
 dampers, so there will be no draught, and your 
 fire will keep a long time. When you wish to 
 quicken your fire again after it has been closed 
 
38 FIRE-BUILDING. 
 
 a long time, open all the dampers, to give 
 draughts to enliven it. If some of the coal re- 
 mains black on the top, you may poke away the 
 ashes underneath with the poker, then when it 
 is burning add coal and shake it gently to clear 
 the grate. But if the coal is red, then you must 
 not poke it, or you will put it out. Add a few 
 coals at a time, but not enough to choke it or 
 cool it. When your first pieces are kindled add 
 a few more, and when these are burning you 
 may then venture to give a gentle shake or 
 quiet poke to the fire, but be very careful that 
 you do not shake or poke too much, lest you 
 deaden your fire again, possibly putting it out 
 altogether. 
 
 With all this instruction the teacher gives lit- 
 tle lessons in chemistry, that are illustrated by 
 the work that is done in the fire-building, and in 
 this way the pupils are taught not only the how 
 but the why ; for you see in a thorough drill of 
 this kind it is very important to " mind the whys 
 and wherefores." 
 
FIRE-BUILDING. 39 
 
 I think, after these explicit directions, any 
 girl can build and keep a fire even if she hasn't 
 been to the cooking school. And this is a very 
 important lesson, you may be sure, because no 
 other lesson can well be given until the fire- 
 building is fully understood, for what good will 
 all the rules for dishes do, if you haven't the fire 
 to cook them by ? 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 SOME SIMPLE USES OF THE OVEN. 
 
 A SHORT time since the mother of a poor 
 family died. The father was a hard- 
 working sober man, and there were three chil- 
 dren, the oldest a bright girl of thirteen. She 
 had been a pupil in the Boston public cooking 
 school for a year, and had been taught sewing 
 since she entered the grammar department. 
 When the mother died this young daughter 
 stepped to the front, and took the housekeep- 
 ing into her brave capable little hands. She 
 kept the house tidy, the little children's clothes 
 mended and clean, and she had always some- 
 thing well cooked for her father. She con- 
 stantly surprised him with some special dish 
 that was different from the ordinary food. 
 40 
 
SOME SIMPLE USES OF THE OVEN. 41 
 
 The father enjoyed it all, but he looked troubled 
 and care-worn. One day, when she had cooked 
 something particularly nice he praised it, then 
 as if afraid of hurting her feelings he said, " I 
 don't like to say anything, Mary, you are doing 
 so nicely, but I am afraid we can't aiiord to 
 have all these things. They are nice, but you 
 must remember we are poor people." 
 
 Mary's hour of housekeeping triumph had 
 come. " Indeed, father," she said, " it costs no 
 more than the old way." 
 
 To prove it, she brought her little account- 
 book, which she had kept very carefully, and 
 showed him that she had not expended one 
 cent over her allowance. The father was very 
 proud and happy over his little daughter's 
 achievement, and you may be sure he told all 
 his acquaintances about it; and you may be 
 sure also, that the industrial training in public 
 schools has no more earnest advocate than this 
 same man who has seen for himself the result 
 of the training. 
 
42 SOME SIMPLE USES OF THE OVEN. 
 
 I tell this because it is always pleasant to 
 know some of the practical good that comes 
 of this kind of teaching, especially if you are 
 inclined in any degree to advocate it. There 
 will always be somebody sure to pop up and 
 say, as so many do, " Yes, it is all very well to 
 talk about the value of such training — but 
 what has it ever done for anybody } We want 
 the cold facts." 
 
 So here is one ready-made for use. It is not 
 such a "cold" fact either, it is quite a heart- 
 warming one. 
 
 Mary, with all the rest of the girls, learned 
 how to make the fire, and to perform a house- 
 keeper's duty. Next came a lesson in the sim- 
 plest form of cooking — that of baking, or cooking 
 by direct heat. The very first things the class 
 was set to do was to bake potatoes, to prepare 
 croutons, and to brown bread-crumbs. 
 
 All this seems easy, doesn't it ? Ah ! but I 
 would like to know how many of you can bake 
 a potato perfectly, so that it shall be just mealy 
 
SOME SIMPLE USES OF THE OVEN. 43 
 
 and white all through, with a crust that is not 
 burned nor hardened. Tell me, now, are not 
 the majority of baked potatoes that you see 
 brought to the table so shrivelled and dried-up 
 that half the contents are wasted, and the residue 
 soggy and heavy ? If that is not your experience 
 it is mine ; and as I particularly like baked 
 potatoes, I don't mind putting on cap and apron, 
 and coming to the class, hoping to find out 
 something that I didn't know before. 
 
 The fire is built — there are no directions 
 this time, for the fire-maker is supposed to have 
 learned all about it at the last lesson. A few 
 questions are asked to the remainder of the 
 class, and if anything is done in the wrong 
 place, or is omitted, the correction or the sup- 
 plying the omission must come from the class. 
 When the fire is built the lesson for the day 
 begins. 
 
 The first step is baking without measurements 
 or mixtures. Potatoes are cooked by themselves 
 and do not require any combination with other 
 
44 SOME SIMPLE USES OF THE OVEN. 
 
 ingredients. Select the potatoes of uniform size ; 
 that is so that all may be done at the same time. 
 Should they vary in size, then some will be 
 cooked before others, and these will burn or 
 spoil while the others are cooking. Medium- 
 sized potatoes are better for baking than either 
 large or small. Having selected them, wash 
 and scrub them well, so that the skins will be 
 perfectly clean. Very many persons like to eat 
 the skin of a baked potato, but it is not safe 
 to do so unless you know they are thoroughly 
 scrubbed, and are baked in a clean oven. That 
 you must look out for as well. Do not place 
 them directly upon the bottom of the oven, but 
 upon the grate, which has been laid across the 
 middle of the oven. The hot air gets all about 
 them on every side, and they are cooked evenly. 
 They must be baked until they are soft ; this 
 will take from half an hour to three quarters, 
 according to the size of the potato, and the heat 
 of the oven. When they are just done they will 
 be plump, smooth and soft, and when opened 
 
SOME SIMPLE USES OF THE OVEN. 45 
 
 they will be mealy. As soon as they are done 
 break the skins to let the steam escape. It 
 is this steam or gas that often makes a potato 
 bitter when it is confined in the close skin for 
 along lime, and it tends also to make the potato 
 "soggy.'' Baked potatoes should be served at 
 once, in an uncovered dish, as the steam that 
 is generated in a covered dish will make them 
 heavy. They can be warmed over as well us 
 boiled potatoes ; so if in cooking at home you 
 have any left, peel them at once, as they will be 
 in a better condition to warm over. No little 
 thing betrays the unthrifty housekeeper more 
 quickly than the habit of setting potatoes away 
 unpeeled. Not only is much of the potato 
 wasted when it is peeled after standing some 
 time cold, but it cannot be prepared and served 
 as daintily. 
 
 There is one thing that the school-training 
 does, and that is to show girls the right way, and 
 to prove that it is the best way. If only the girls 
 who do not have the advantage of such training 
 
46 SOME SIMPLE USES OF THE OVEN, 
 
 would take the hints that are given in these 
 papers, they too might feel that they have 
 achieved something, even without the school and 
 the teacher. If a thing seems small to you, 
 and of little significance, do not on that account 
 neglect it, but remember that the sum of suc- 
 cessful living is made up of an aggregate of 
 trifles, and that each one must be scrupulously 
 attended to, or the whole will go wrong. Isn't 
 that a solemn sermon with a left-over baked 
 potato for a text ? 
 
 The next things are the croiitons. There is 
 probably little need to explain that these are 
 browned slices of bread to serve with soups or 
 stews in place of toast. Sometimes they are 
 fried, but now we are only just learning how to 
 use the oven, and frying is ever so far away. 
 The brown croutons which the girls in the cook- 
 ing class are preparing to make are very delicate 
 and nice for the purpose for which they are 
 used. The bread knives are got ready, the 
 girls see that they are sharp, then slices half an 
 
SOME SIMPLE USES OF THE OVEN. 47 
 
 inch thick are cut from the loaves of bread. 
 The crusts are removed from these slices, and 
 they are then cut into half-inch cakes, put into 
 a shallow pan, set in the oven and baked until 
 they are brown. But what becomes or che 
 crusts ? Are they thrown away ? That would 
 be waste, and waste is not tolerated in the 
 class. Now is the time to give the first lesson 
 in economy ; in the thrift that made our grand- 
 mothers such wonderful housekeepers. And 
 just here it is quite in order to say to the girls 
 who are reading this, that the same use may be 
 made of all bits of stale bread — no matter how 
 small the pieces — that is being made of the 
 crusts that were cut from the slices of bread for 
 the croutons. These are put into a pan and, 
 when the oven is moderately hot so that there 
 is no danger of the bread scorching, placed in 
 the oven and heated until dry all through and 
 crisp. Then remove the bread from the oven 
 and roll it as fine as you possibly can. You will 
 not be able to crush it uniformly, and some of 
 
48 SOME SIMPLK USES OF THE OVEN. 
 
 the crumbs will be finer than the rest. It is 
 best to separate the fine crumbs from the coarse, 
 as they may be used advantageously for different 
 purposes. To separate them, sift the crumbs, put 
 the fine ones into one jar or bottle, the coarse ones 
 into another, cork them and keep them in a dry 
 place. They will keep a long time, and be a 
 great convenience as they will be always ready 
 for use. What will be done with them, do you 
 ask .' Well, they will be used for breading veal, 
 lamb chops, oysters, or anything that is to be 
 cooked in crumbs with beaten egg. By and by, 
 when we come to it, you will be told how you 
 are to use them ; in the meantime you close 
 them tight and put them where they will keep dry. 
 You see you have learned the simplest form 
 of cooking, in which you have been given your 
 fire and a simple article of food with no com- 
 bination of ingredients. Now comes the next 
 step. This is also baking, but with a little lesson 
 in measuring and in preparation. Before going 
 to work at the cooking there are some things to 
 
SOME SIMPLE USES OF THE OVEN. 49 
 
 be learned that will prove valuable to you as 
 long as you shall be called upon to cook, and 
 you will be glad that you have learned them 
 when it shall become your turn to teach. For 
 that is going to happen surely. I wonder how 
 many of you girls have ever thought of this : 
 that when you are learning anything it is not 
 for yourself alone ; but that by and by you will 
 be obliged to impart what you know to some 
 one else. That is why the thoughtful women, 
 who have had this training in charge, have 
 given so much care to the best way of teaching 
 the pupils. I am sure you will all see before 
 we finish, that the methods are as natural as 
 those employed in any science, and that every 
 step is taken with reference, not only to the 
 one that preceded it, but to all that are to 
 follow. A great deal of wisdom and experience 
 has gone into the planning of the course of train- 
 ing, and it is as nearly perfect as it is possible 
 to be at the present. 
 
 But what is it you are to learn ? It is some- 
 
50 SOME SIMPLE USES OF THE OVEN. 
 
 thing about measurements. You may all im- 
 agine, if you like, that with caps and aprons on, 
 you are standing before your table while the 
 teacher tells you the important things for you 
 to remember. They are these : 
 
 Accurate measurement is necessary to insure success 
 in cooking. 
 
 All dry materials should be sifted before measuring. 
 
 A cup holding just half a pint is the standard measur- 
 ing cup. 
 
 A cupful is all the cup will hold without running over 
 — full to the brim. A scant cupful is within a quarter o£ 
 an inch of the top. 
 
 A tablespoonf ul of flour, sugar and butter is a rounded 
 spoonful. 
 
 A teaspoonful of salt, pepper and spice, is a level tea- 
 spoonful. 
 
 A heaped spoonful is all the spoon will hold. 
 
 Half a spoonful is measured by dividing through the 
 middle — lengthwise. 
 
 A speck is what you can take on the tip of a penknife. 
 
 Now we may go on and try a little baking 
 with some simple combination of ingredients. 
 It shall be baked apples. For these you will 
 
SOME SIMPLE USES OF THE OVEN. 51 
 
 use to each apple one teaspoonful of sugar, and 
 one tablespoonful of water. Pick out nice fair 
 apples, unspecked and of uniform size. Wipe 
 them nicely with a clean, dry cloth, remove the 
 cores, and put them in an earthen dish. Put 
 the sugar in the centre of each apple, in the 
 cavity whence you have removed the core, and 
 the water in the dish. Bake in a hot oven from 
 twenty to thirty minutes, or until soft, but not 
 until broken. 
 
 This is a good time to learn to brown crackers 
 to serve with soups or oyster stews. For this 
 you will use one half a teaspoonful of butter to 
 each whole cracker. Split round crackers in 
 halves, spread the inside with a thin layer of 
 butter. Put them, buttered side uppermost, into 
 a pan, and brown in a hot oven. Serve at once, 
 and they will be found delightfully sweet and 
 crisp. 
 
 A nice lunch dish is made of these same 
 crackers, by preparing them in the way just 
 given, then for every cracker mix one table- 
 
52 SOME SIMPLE USES OF THE OVEN. 
 
 spoonful of grated cheese, one half a salt-spoon- 
 ful of salt and one quarter of a salt-spoonful 
 of pepper. Spread the hot crackers with this 
 mixture of cheese and seasoning, return to the 
 oven, and warm until the cheese is melted. Or 
 you may make a brewis for tea by preparing the 
 crackers and cheese in this way, putting them 
 into a shallow earthen dish, adding a quarter 
 of a cup of milk to each cracker, and baking 
 until it is brown, or until the milk is absorbed. 
 
 Now this is all very easy, but, I assure you, it 
 is nice, and will impart a relish for tea or lunch- 
 eon that is inexpensive and easily prepared. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A LESSON IN BOILING. 
 
 THE little girls were folding up their aprons 
 and putting away their caps after one of 
 the lessons, and making ready to go home. I 
 asked a bright miss of about twelve what she 
 had learned. 
 
 " Oh ! " she replied, " I have learned to make 
 a fire and take care of it, to put away my things 
 neatly after I am through my work, to look after 
 my utensils and my towels, to bake potatoes 
 and apples, and to make buns." 
 
 She told off the list of accomplishments with 
 a pardonable air of pride. 
 
 " But you have learned to do these things 
 here," I persisted ; " have you done any of them 
 at home .' " 
 
 53 
 
54 A LESSON IN BOILING. 
 
 What a sparkle there was in the bright blue 
 eyes! 
 
 " Yes, indeed," she said ; " why, only this 
 morning I took my mother's receipt-book and 
 made the gems for breakfast by her rule. I not 
 only mixed them, but I attended to the baking. 
 I arranged the dampers, and no one but myself 
 even looked at the oven once. My father said 
 the gems were the nicest he ever tasted, and my 
 mother said that was real cooking ; that it was 
 easy enough merely to mix things together, but 
 the test of a good cook was in the baking." 
 
 And " mother " was right. Now I dare say 
 all the lessons we have gone over have seemed 
 very simple, and it may be that some of you are 
 inclined to look with a little feeling of contempt 
 on the small number of rules that have been 
 given. But you must remember that we are 
 learning principles, and that when these are 
 well understood you can take any one's receipt- 
 book and do anything you please, just as the 
 little girl I have told you about made successful 
 
A LESSON IN BOILING. 5$ 
 
 gems when she had learned how to manage 
 her oven with such simple things as potatoes 
 and apples. 
 
 I have a friend who is a very fine and very 
 successful singing-teacher. He trains the voices 
 of his pupils very carefully, with exercises that 
 are best calculated to develop them. Now and 
 again some pupil gets impatient over these ex- 
 ercises and begs to know when she can have a 
 song to learn. 
 
 " When you know how to sing," is the invari- 
 able reply. " You must first know how to use 
 your voice, then you may buy out the music 
 store if you wish." 
 
 There it is again, you see ; principles first, 
 afterwards achievement. And so it is in every- 
 thing, and so it must be. Theories are very 
 fine, no doubt, but they do not always take the 
 place of principles. Not very many days ago, I 
 was reading one of the many theoretical articles 
 that are written on the subject of housekeeping. 
 The writer in advising housekeepers how to 
 
56 A LESSON IN BOILING. 
 
 keep ahead of their work, said that every night 
 before retiring, the fire in the kitchen stove 
 should be laid for the morning, and the tea-kettle 
 filled. Fancy using water for tea or coffee or 
 cocoa that has stood in a kettle for twelve hours. 
 Why, any housekeeper, no matter how inexpe- 
 rienced she was, would know better, and cer- 
 tainly every schoolgirl would, after she had 
 taken the present lesson on boiling. 
 
 We have a fashion of speaking about boiling 
 food, such as potatoes, and other vegetables, 
 grains and some meats. Now the proper way 
 would be to speak of them as cooked in boiling 
 water ; the articles themselves do not boil, only 
 the water in which they are cooked. Baking is 
 cooking by a dry heat ; boiling is cooking in a 
 boiling liquid. This is one of the most common 
 forms of cooking, and the liquid that is most 
 usually employed is water. By trying experi- 
 ments with the water, that is, by watching it as it 
 boils and testing it to find the temperature — 
 these facts are discovered : 
 
COOKING IN FOILING WATER. 
 
A LESSON IN BOILING. 59 
 
 That water boils at 212°, or when it bubbles 
 all over the top. That when once it boils all 
 over it will become no hotter, and that fuel and 
 heat are wasted when it boils at a galloping rate. 
 This is a very good thing to know, because 
 many people imagine that the more furiously 
 anything boils, the hotter it gets and the more 
 rapidly it cooks. That is a false notion, as you 
 can tell by testing the water during boiling by a 
 thermometer that is made on purpose for testing 
 the heat of liquids. So here is something that 
 it is well, in the interests of economy, to 
 remember. 
 
 The kettle should never be so full that the 
 water will boil over as it expands in heating. 
 There is danger of injuring the stove if this 
 is allowed, and, too, there is always danger 
 of somebody getting scalded, which is, as you 
 probably know, the most painful of all ways of 
 burning the flesh. 
 
 You find too, what so many people who cook 
 forget to remember — that there is a wide distinc- 
 
6o A LESSON IN BOILING. 
 
 tion between " boiled water " and " boiling 
 water,'' and that the freshness is lost by long 
 boiling, so that the sooner water is used after 
 once boiling the better it will be. Indeed if it 
 stands it loses all its vitality, and cannot be 
 used with good results. That is why tea and 
 coffee are often so lifeless ; not because the 
 leaves and berries are not good, but because 
 they are improperly made with " boiled water " 
 instead of freshly "boiling water." You see 
 there is a wide disiinction between the two. 
 
 The lesson in boiling takes up the boiling of 
 vegetables, potatoes being taken as the demon- 
 strating article. The principles for cooking all 
 vegetables are the same, and if the pupil learns 
 to cook one kind well, she can, by following the 
 particular directions, cook any kind as occasion 
 may require. As in baking, select the potatoes 
 for boiling of a uniform size. This is to insure 
 all being cooked at a time. Wash and scrub 
 them. Pare, and cover with cold water. Put 
 them in boiling salted water, using one quart of 
 
A LESSON IN BOILING. 6i 
 
 water and one tablespoonful of salt for six large 
 potatoes. Cook until done, whicli will be in 
 half an hour or a trifle over. Drain off every 
 drop of water. Place the kettle, uncovered, at 
 the back of the stove to let the water pass off 
 in steam. Shake gently, and serve the potatoes 
 very hot. 
 
 Potatoes, when pared, turn brown if exposed 
 to the air, and each should be covered with 
 cold water as soon as pared, and should not be 
 pared long before using. If they are left, even 
 a short time, uncovered after paring, the action 
 of the air will turn them brown, and they will 
 not lose this discoloration in the cooking, so 
 they are not so appetizing. They should be 
 taken up the moment they are done ; this is one 
 of the most important steps of all. When a 
 fork will pierce them easily they are ready ; 
 drain them, too, at once. 
 
 And now, since some of you may like to vary 
 your plain boiled potato, we will see what else 
 may be done with it, and how it may be served 
 
62 A LESSON IN BOILING. 
 
 to be more tempting. Of course there is always 
 " mashed potato," which is very nice when well 
 prepared, and not at all good when carelessly 
 done. It is like so many simple things ; a little 
 more thought and a trifle more labor, turn into 
 success what might prove a failure. To one 
 pint of hot boiled potatoes, add one tablespoon- 
 ful of butter, one half teaspoonful of salt, a 
 dust of pepper, and enough hot milk to moisten. 
 Mash in the sauce-pan in which they were 
 boiled ; beat with a fork until light and creamy, 
 then turn out carefully and lightly into a hot 
 dish. 
 
 Sometimes there is mashed potato left over, 
 and it can be made very nice for breakfast by 
 using it for potato cakes, which are prepared in 
 the following way : Make the cold mashed potato 
 into small round cakes about one half an inch 
 thick. Put them on a baking tin, and brush 
 them over with milk ; then bake in a hot oven 
 until the cakes are a golden brown. 
 
 If you like a more ornamental dish than you 
 
A LESSON IN BOILING. 63 
 
 will get with simple mashed potato, you may, 
 when the potatoes are mashed and beaten and 
 seasoned, rub them with a wooden masher 
 through a strainer into a hot dish and then you 
 will have " rice potatoes." 
 
 Having learned how to cook the potatoes by 
 boiling, you can undertake other vegetables, but 
 there are some general rules that you may first 
 learn. And first about the preparation, which is 
 always important. 
 
 Potatoes : scrub and pare when necessary. It is not 
 always necessary to pare new potatoes, and the thin, deli- 
 cate skin, not yet grown tough, will come off by rubbing. 
 
 Parsnips : scrub till white, and trim off the fine, thread- 
 like roots. 
 
 Carrots : scrub, and scrape off the thin outer surface. 
 
 Turnips : scrub, cut in slices and pare. 
 
 Beets : wash carefully, for if the skin be broken the 
 sugary juices will escape. 
 
 Cabbage and cauliflower : trim and soak, top down, to 
 draw out any insects. 
 
 Celery : wash and scrape off any rusty portions. 
 
 Spinach and other greens : pick over very carefully, and 
 wash in several waters. 
 
 Onions : peel and soak. 
 
64 A LESSON IN BOILING. 
 
 Green corn : husk with clean hands, but do not wash it. 
 
 Peas and beans : shell with clean hands and wash 
 quickly. 
 
 Soft-shell squashes : wash, pare, and cut as desired. 
 
 Hard-shell squashes : wash, split, and cook in the shell. 
 
 Asparagus : wash, and break off the tough ends, tie in 
 bundles, and break into inch bits. 
 
 String beans : strip off the ends and strings on each 
 side, cut or break into small pieces and wash. 
 
 Fresh vegetables do not require any soaking in cold 
 water, and it is better not to prepare them until you are 
 ready to cook them. But if they are wilted, soaking will 
 freshen them, and if they must be prepared long before 
 cooking, they should be covered with cold water to pre- 
 vent them from wilting or from becoming discolored. 
 
 For all fresh green vegetables use soft water, salted and 
 freshly boiling. Cook rapidly until soft. The time will 
 depend upon the age or freshness of the vegetable. 
 
 With green peas, shelled beans, green corn, asparagus, 
 celery and spinach, use as little water as possible, and let 
 it boil away, leaving just enough to moisten and thus save 
 all the desirable soluble mattei'that may have been drawn 
 out. 
 
 Cook cabbage and cauliflower uncovered, in a large 
 kettle of rapidly-boiling, salted water, with a salt-spoonful 
 of soda in it. 
 
 Onions, scald and change the water twice. 
 
 All others, cook in water enough to cover, and drain it 
 off after cooking. 
 
A LESSON IN BOILING. 65 
 
 Green summer squash, cabbage and other watery vege- 
 tables should be pressed in a cloth or strainer, and well 
 drained. 
 
 And now the ways of preparing the vegetables 
 being quite understood, the next thing in order 
 is the time of coolcing. The following formula 
 for boiling meats and other things besides vege- 
 tables, is given the pupils to learn. 
 
 Eggs (soft), coffee, clams, oysters . 3 to 5 minutes 
 
 Green corn, small fish and thin 
 
 slices of fish . . . 5 to 10 " 
 
 Rice, sweet breads, peas, tomatoes, 
 
 asparagus, hard boiled eggs J5 to 20 " 
 
 Potatoes, macaroni, squash, celery, 
 
 spinach, cabbage . . 20 to 30 " 
 
 Young beets, carrots, turnips, 
 
 onions, parsnips, cauliflower 30 to 45 " 
 String beans, shelled beans, oyster 
 
 plant 45 to 60 " 
 
 Winter vegetables, oatmeal, hom- 
 iny and wheat, chickens and 
 
 lamb I to 2 hours 
 
 Fowls, turkey, veal . . . 2 to 3 " 
 
 Corned beef, smoked tongue, beef 
 
 a la mode . . . . 3 to 4 " 
 
66 
 
 A LESSON IN BOILING. 
 
 Ham 
 
 4 to S 
 
 hours 
 
 Small pieces of meat, allow fifteen 
 
 
 
 minutes to warm through, 
 
 
 
 then for every pound 
 
 15 
 
 minutes 
 
 Halibut and salmon, in cubical 
 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 it 
 
 Blue fish, bass, etc., per pound 
 
 10 
 
 It 
 
 Cod, haddock and small fish per 
 
 
 
 pound .... 
 
 6 
 
 » 
 
 For the benefit of the mothers who may 
 think either I or the cooking school have gone 
 astray on the matter of cooking cabbage, I 
 want to emphasize here the advantage of the 
 new way over the old. I was as sceptical over 
 the notion of cabbage being properly cooked in 
 half an hour, as any one of you can be ; but 
 my first experiment corrected me, and all who 
 tasted this maligned vegetable served after the 
 new method declared themselves surprised. 
 
 Have plenty of salted, boiling water, in which 
 a teaspoonful of soda has been dissolved, plunge 
 the cabbage in, top downward, leave it uncov- 
 ered and let it boil until tender, that will be, as 
 
A LESSON IN BOILING. 67 
 
 given in the time table, from twenty minutes to 
 half an hour. Take it out into a colander, 
 drain well, put into a hot dish, put in bits of 
 butter, some salt and pepper, and serve at once. 
 It will be as delicate as cauliflower ; the color 
 will be retained and there will not be an un- 
 pleasant odor over the house, such as is always 
 associated with boiling cabbage. Try it once, 
 and then see if the School Kitchen Learning 
 has not gotten several steps in advance of your 
 old, traditional methods. 
 
 And now for the seasoning after once the 
 vegetables are cooked. One pint of vegetables, 
 mashed or sliced, or one pint of small whole 
 vegetables requires one tablespoonful of butter, 
 one half teaspoonful of salt, and one half salt- 
 spoonful of pepper. Squash, peas and beans 
 are improved by one teaspoonful of sugar. 
 Milk or the vegetable liquid may be used to 
 moisten such as are too dry. 
 
 Eggs come naturally into a lesson in boiling, 
 and so the way for doing them is given. For 
 
68 A LESSON IN BOILING. 
 
 soft-boiled eggs, you will put the eggs in a sauce- 
 pan, cover with boiling water, and let them stand 
 from six to ten minutes where the water will 
 keep hot, but not boiling. The white will be 
 soft and jelly-like and the yolk soft but not liquid. 
 Eggs cooked in this manner are really " coddled 
 eggs," but they will be found as nice, and more di- 
 gestible, than when cooked in the usual fashion. 
 Or if one prefers the white hardened while the 
 yolk remains soft, the eggs may be cooked in 
 boiling water about three minutes. If you wish 
 the eggs hard boiled cook for twenty minutes in 
 water just bubbling. The yolk will be dry and 
 mealy and adjustable, where if it is cooked only 
 ten minutes it will simply be hard and tongh, 
 and will not digest easily. Try these for your- 
 self and see. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 GOING TO MARKET. 
 
 THE next lesson in cap and apron is on 
 cooking meats ; but before the meats 
 are cooked they must be bought; and it is 
 quite important that the cooks should know 
 how to buy them. It is all very well to order 
 hap-hazard of one's provision-man, but how is 
 one to know whether she gets what she orders 
 unless she has learned the different cuts of 
 meat, where they are situated, and what she 
 ought to pay for them ? 
 
 So one day the school kitchen is deserted, 
 and the class is taken by the teacher down to 
 the big markets, and there they are initiated into 
 the mysteries of rumps and rounds and loins, of 
 shoulders and fillets, of briskets and rattle rounds, 
 69 
 
70 GOING TO MARKET. 
 
 of ribs and flanks, of saddles and shins, and the 
 rest of the long list of cuts, which all their lives 
 they have heard talked about, without under- 
 standing or knowing one part from another. 
 
 Of course if one is going to be a good house- 
 keeper one must know what to buy, and how to 
 make the best use of what she buys. She must 
 learn, too, to do her marketing according to the 
 needs of her family. If she is providing for 
 persons who do a great deal of out-of-door work 
 she will want the heavier kinds of food. If for 
 persons who are in-doors a great deal and whose 
 work is sedentary, she will want to provide lighter 
 food. Whether light or heavy it must be nour- 
 ishing, but it will differ in quality. 
 
 In the buying of meat a lesson in economy is 
 given. And now, my young housekeepers in 
 prospective, don't turn up your noses at this 
 word, and above all, don't get a wrong idea of 
 the meaning of the term. The notion that pre- 
 vails the most popularly is a very mistaken one. 
 I have had occasion to talk about this very thing 
 
GOING TO MARKET. 7 1 
 
 to older people than you, and I have found that 
 pretty nearly all of them had fallen into the 
 same fault. Now please remember this — it is 
 the very same thing I told them — economy 
 does not imply meanness. It is only another 
 word for good, honest thrift. It means doing 
 the very best you possibly can with the money 
 at your command. It is a moral obligation. It 
 is care-taking in its best and highest sense. You 
 will have respect for the word as soon as you set- 
 tle it in your mind that it islnot by any means 
 connected with stinginess. So in learning abouf 
 meats and the way to buy them to the best ad- 
 vantage, you are learning "economy" because 
 you are taking lessons in wisdom of selection, 
 and the ways to get the most good with the 
 money you have to use. You will learn, too, 
 when the different meats are in season, which 
 is needed knowledge, as you will find when you 
 come to be put to the test. 
 
 The first part of the lesson at the stall is about 
 beef, and the market-man, who has come to 
 
72 GOING TO MARKET. 
 
 know the bright-faced, eager-eyed girls very well, 
 and evidently has an unbounded admiration for 
 the teacher, has put down upon the table half a 
 beef, and as the teacher explains he cuts, in 
 order to show the different pieces as she names 
 them. They have already taken a preliminary 
 lesson from the diagram at the school, but it is 
 more satisfactory to see the meat — they under- 
 stand it much better. 
 
 Good beef, the teacher tells them, should be 
 bright-red when it is first cut, and this red flesh 
 should be well marbled with yellowish fat, and 
 there should be a thick layer of fat on the out- 
 side. If it does not present this appearance, it 
 is safe to assume that the ox was not well-fatted, 
 was too young, or was not in good condition. 
 All these things one can see for herself; by them 
 she will know when the beef is good. Also she 
 is told that the flesh should be firm, and no mark 
 should be left when it is pressed with the finger. 
 The suet should be dry and crumble easily. 
 
 The first thing that is to be done, is to 
 
fc It, 
 
 < fe. 
 
GOING TO MARKET. 75 
 
 divide the beef into tlie hind and fore-quarters. 
 The hind-quarter contains the finest and most 
 expensive cuts of the meat. Here are found 
 the sirloin, the tenderloin, the rump and the 
 round. The cheapest portions of the hind- 
 quarter are the shin and the flank. In the 
 fore-quarter are the ribs, the shoulder, the shin, 
 the rattle round and the brisket. The ribs are 
 the top of the back nearest to the loin, join it, 
 in fact, when the animal is whole. The first five 
 ribs are what are called the "prime" ribs; these 
 are used for roasts or steaks ; the next are the five 
 chock ribs lying between the prime ribs and the 
 neck; the meat is of a finer quality than on 
 the " prime " ribs, although they are used for the 
 same purposes. The neck is used for beef teas, 
 for stews, and for boiling. Below the rib-cuts, 
 running along the side of the animal, is the rat- 
 tle round. This is used for corning. The under 
 part of the animal's body is called the brisket, 
 and this is also used for corning. The shoulder 
 is used for steaks and corning, though the less 
 
76 GOING TO MARKET. 
 
 said about the tenderness of a shoulder steak 
 the better. The shin, both in the front and the 
 back, is used for soups and soup-stock. 
 
 In the hind-quarter come the first roasts and 
 steaks, as well as the juciest meats for making 
 beef tea, meat pies, beef k la mode or potted 
 beef. Sirloin, of course, gives the very choicest 
 roasts and steaks ; next comes the rump ; this 
 is cut in three parts. The back, the middle 
 and the face are good roasting pieces ; but the 
 most economical is the middle cut, as it is free 
 from bone, and has not a scrap of waste on it. 
 Good steaks are cut from the top of the round ; 
 some people go so far as to say that the flavor 
 of a round steak is superior to that of any other. 
 The lower portion of the round is used for brais- 
 ing and for beef tea. 
 
 The tenderloin has the most tender meat, but 
 it is neither so juicy nor so well-flavored as other 
 portions that are not so tender, and it is not 
 nearly so nutritious as portions that require much 
 cooking. The sirloin comes next in tenderness 
 
GOING TO MARKET. 77 
 
 and delicacy, These cost more than any other 
 cuts, but there is less nutritive value than is 
 found in the cheaper parts. Indeed the cost of 
 the meat seems to be in an inverse ratio to its 
 real food-value. Of course this is so because 
 of the much smaller proportion of the so-called 
 choicer cuts. It is one of the wise economies of 
 nature that it should be so. The harder-work- 
 ing class of people, those who do a great deal of 
 manual labor, and particularly those whose 
 occupation takes them a great deal into the open 
 air, need the nourishment and sustaining quality 
 of the heavier meats. And these are found in 
 the cheaper parts, particularly where there is a 
 great deal of juice in the meat and rich marrow 
 in the bone. Stews, and braised meats, or those 
 that are steamed in their own juices over the 
 fire, as pot-boiled meats, give the most nutriment, 
 and add the physical strength that is needed, as 
 well as in cold weather supplying a deal of 
 warmth by furnishing the carbon for the body. 
 In this last cause is found the reason why one 
 
78 GOING TO MARKET. 
 
 cares less for food of this kind in the summer. 
 Stimulation and heat are to be avoided when 
 the weather is warm, and that is why vegetables 
 nd fish are more palatable in the summer than 
 n the colder weather. One very important 
 point to be learned is how one is to vary the 
 foods to suit the seasons, and so come as nearly 
 as possible to an ideal diet. It is not within the 
 jurisdiction of these papers to dwell much upon 
 these points, but perhaps the few hints given 
 now and then will set you all thinking, and per- 
 haps send you to the proper sources for all the 
 necessary information. 
 
 Mutton, like beef, is good all the year round, 
 and the younger it is the more delicate. Still 
 the nicer meat is gotten from a larger animal, 
 and there should be a good deal of flesh on the 
 bones. -For buying lamb or mutton you may 
 have the saddle, or the whole hind-quarter, the 
 leg, loin, and shoulder. The saddle is roasted ; 
 the leg is roasted or boiled ; the loin is roasted 
 or cut into chops; and the shoulder is roasted. 
 
a: 
 
 ft; 
 
GOING TO MARKET. 8 1 
 
 The hind-quarter costs more than the fore- 
 quarter ; but the shoulder-piece, boned and 
 stuffed, makes a very nice and inexpensive 
 roast. The shoulder and neck piece are also 
 used for lamb stews and fricassees. 
 
 Chops are cut two ways ; there is the long 
 chop and the short chop. The long chop has 
 the flank-end left on, while in the short chop it 
 is cut off and only the loin-part left. The long 
 chop costs less by the pound, but really it is no 
 cheaper since the flank-piece adds to the weight, 
 and there is but very little meat on it. It takes 
 so much more to make the amount needed, that 
 in the end it costs about as much as the lesser 
 number of pounds of short chops. 
 
 The heart and liver of beef are both used 
 for food, and the heart of mutton. The liver is 
 either broiled or braised, and the heart is braised. 
 
 Only by experience can one learn to tell 
 exactly the cuts when she sees them, and it 
 would be a good thing if after the lesson on 
 marketing the mothers would trust the daughters 
 
82 GOING TO MARKET. 
 
 to buy some of the family supplies of meat, thus 
 giving them the opportunity to put this lesson 
 into practise. Of course they would begin with 
 the cheaper prices, in which there is little risk, 
 and every time they made a selection it would 
 be an added lesson. Almost every family has 
 its own market-man, and when he saw the 
 interest, he would no doubt give the little pur- 
 chaser a great deal of valuable information, 
 thus supplementing what her teacher has given 
 in this marketing lesson. There is no danger in 
 putting a certain amount of responsibility upon 
 a child ; it makes her careful and thoughtful, 
 and gives her a certain discretion that is a 
 valuable addition to the character. I don't 
 mean to make a little prig of her, for no one dis- 
 likes a prig worse than I, but a young girl can 
 be thoughtful and useful and discreet without 
 being priggish, and without losing any of the 
 sweet youthfulness that is so desirable. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 MEATS AND MADE-OVERS. 
 
 ID you ever notice what 
 a little thing it takes, 
 sometimes, to set the 
 whole current of a 
 life in a certain direc- 
 tion ? Sometimes it 
 is so slight that we 
 cannot see it, and 
 then we talk about 
 "happenings," 
 just as though any- 
 thing in the world 
 * ever merely hap- 
 
 pened. All this comes of a visit one of the 
 mothers of a girl, graduated the year before, 
 83 
 
 'CHOPPING IT FINE.' 
 
84 MEATS AND MADE-OVERS. 
 
 made to the teacher of the cooking school. She 
 said, " I could not help coming to tell you what 
 the cooking class means for my daugliter." 
 
 She was a colored woman who had been a 
 cook in a Southern family, but had married and 
 come to Boston, where she had brought up a 
 family of children, giving them the benefit of a 
 public school training. All this she told the 
 teacher. Then she said : 
 
 "My daughter was very much interested in 
 the cooking, and I used to let her try her lessons 
 over at home. I was delighted with what she 
 did, because not only was the food that she 
 cooked good, but she did it in such a nice 
 handy way. Last Sunday I let her cook all the 
 dinner, and I'll tell you what she had. Roast 
 goose and apple sauce, mashed potatoes, squash, 
 turnips, and apple pie. Every thing was so 
 good. We had company, and they didn't stop 
 praising Ada all day. I tell you I was prouder 
 than she was, and she was proud enough. She 
 just loves it, and now I'll tell you what I'm going 
 
MEATS AND MADE-OVERS. 85 
 
 to do. I'm going to send her through the Nor- 
 mal School, then I want her to go through the 
 Normal Cooking School, then go South and 
 teach her people. She's just wild to do it, and 
 now we're going straight ahead because we 
 know just what we're working for, thanks to 
 you, and the ladies who started the school." 
 
 It is a good thing to have one's vocation fixed, 
 so as to know"justwhat oneis working for," isn't 
 it? I think Mrs. Hemenway will be glad she 
 was impelled to start this movement, even for 
 this one girl's sake, whose future lies before her, 
 a straight path clearly cut. 
 
 In the subject of this chapter we have a full 
 day's work ; work for two classes, and this is the 
 way it is managed in the school. The lesson for 
 " meats " comes in the morning, the lesson on 
 " made-overs " in the afternoon. This is because 
 the meat being cooked in the first lesson it is 
 ready for use in the second, so the same material 
 really does service for both lessons and a saving 
 is made in this way. For you must see that 
 
86 MEATS AND MADE-OVERS. 
 
 unless a great deal of care is exercised, the 
 expenses of providing material for so many to 
 work with, might easily be increased so that the 
 outlay would exceed the appropriation. This 
 would never do; for one of the first things to 
 be learned is how to make the sum in hand 
 cover all the expense of buying. Of course 
 this is a matter that must rest with the teacher ; 
 but in preparing the course of instruction Miss 
 Homans was very particular in having every 
 thing tested, and every expense brought down 
 to the lowest figure. In this she was adTnirably 
 seconded by Miss Hope the teacher of the 
 Tennyson Street School, and it is that system, 
 tested and well proven, that is the basis of all 
 the teaching in the schools of Boston and vicinity ; 
 and, indeed, of all the schools which have sprung 
 from the Boston experiment. I shall have some- 
 thing to say about the expenses of a year's work 
 later, as well as something about the Normal 
 Training, and the kind of teachers that are 
 required to make this work a success. 
 
MEATS AND MADE-OVERS. 87 
 
 But to come back to our lessons : as one 
 class comes only half a day at a time, it becomes 
 quite evident that the class which learns about 
 meat in the morning isn't the one that has to 
 take the instruction about made-over dishes in 
 the afternoon and vice versa. But every girl 
 must have all the lessons, so these two are 
 repeated for the next day and the classes are 
 changed about. The one that learned about 
 meats comes in the afternoon, and takes the 
 lesson in made-overs, and the class that was 
 the afternoon class before is the morning class 
 this time. So you see all get the instruction, 
 and the cost of the four lessons is put into 
 the cost of two ; a little household manage- 
 ment, such as you all will have to put into 
 practise one day or other, and it is just as well 
 to take }Our lesson early. 
 
 There are many ways of cooking meat, roast- 
 ing, boiling, braising, broiling, and frying or 
 saut^eing. The ways of cooking depends upon 
 the pieces of meat that are to be cooked. If 
 
»8 MEATS AND MADE-OVERS. 
 
 the fibers are tough it should be boiled or 
 braised. It is the tender meat only which can 
 be either roasted or broiled to be palatable, 
 comfortably eaten and well-digested. 
 
 One of the simplest ways of preparing meat 
 is to boil it. The piece to be boiled should be 
 well wiped, then put at once into boiling water 
 that has been salted. The water should cover 
 the meat, and it should boil for a few minutes, 
 when it may be set back on the fire, and simmer 
 gently until the meat is done. If the water is 
 boiling when the meat is put in. the intense 
 heat sears the surface and prevents the juice 
 of the meat from flowing out and wasting, and 
 the meat when done is juicy and well-flavored, 
 having lost very little in the process of cooking. 
 During the boiling a scum arises to the surface, 
 and this should be carefully removed; the kettle 
 should be kept covered except when it is uncov- 
 ered for skimming the surface of the water, as 
 the steam assists greatly in sjoftening the tough 
 fibers, and the flavor is also better preserved. 
 
MEATS AND MADE-OVERS. 89 
 
 It would escape into the air with the steam if it 
 were not kept in. 
 
 The length of time that the meat should be 
 boiled depends upon its weight. It takes about 
 twenty minutes for the heat to pierce through a 
 piece of meat so that it is ready to begin to 
 cook ; reckoning from that time, twelve or fif- 
 teen minutes should be allowed to a pound. If 
 the meat is cut thick the longer time will be 
 required ; but if it is a flat, thin piece, the 
 shorter time will be found sufficient. 
 
 Roasting meat is, properly, cooking it before 
 the open fire, by subjecting it to a high degree 
 of heat ; but as this is rarely done in these days 
 of ranges and cooking stoves we bake it in a 
 hot oven and call it "roasted" by courtesy. 
 
 Braising is cooking in the oven in a covered 
 pan, smothering the meat in its own juices and 
 having a good deal of seasoning in the dish 
 with the meat. 
 
 Broiling is cooking directly over hot coals, 
 and is the quickest, as well as the hottest way 
 
go MEATS AND MADE-OVERS. 
 
 of cooking. In nothing is the article to be 
 cooked subjected to such an intense heat as in 
 this process, and it would be quickly burned if 
 the cook did not see to it that it was turned 
 very often. I sometimes think that the majority 
 of people who broil a beefsteak think they 
 must do it literally. I suppose those of you 
 who are French scholars know that the word 
 comes from the French word brukr, " to burn ; " 
 it also means "to sear," and that is what should 
 be done, the surface seared — not burned — so 
 that all the juices shall be kept inside the meat. 
 Turning it frequently, so that the surface shall 
 cook and not burn, and in this way keeping the 
 juices flowing from side to side, but not escaping, 
 is the true way of making a successful broiled 
 dish. Food cooked in this way should be served 
 at once, on hot plates, from a hot platter. 
 
 This much in a general way. I think you 
 will understand from the above, what are the 
 underlying principles of the various processes, 
 and why they are practised. Now for some of 
 
MEATS AND MADE-OVERS. 9 1 
 
 the particular rules. We will suppose that you 
 are ready to begin, and that you are to boil a 
 leg of mutton for dinner. You will wipe the 
 meat, remove all the fat, and put the meat into 
 boiling, salted water, after you have weighed it. 
 Allow ten or fifteen minutes for the heat to 
 penetrate the meat, taking the longer time for a 
 large piece ; then skim off whatever may have 
 risen to the top of the water, set the kettle back 
 where the water will simmer, and cook in this 
 way until the meat is done, allowing twelve 
 minutes to each pound. Serve it with parsley 
 or caper sauce. The latter is usually preferred 
 with mutton. To make this sauce or gravy, the 
 following rule will be used. To each cup of 
 boiling water in which the mutton was cooked, 
 add one teaspoonful of flour moistened with a 
 little cold water, one teaspoonful of vinegar, 
 one half a saltspoonful of salt and a speck of 
 pepper. Boil five minutes stirring constantly 
 until smooth, then add one tablespoonful of 
 capers, or of finely chopped parsley. 
 
92 MEATS AND MADE-OVERS. 
 
 I think boiled mutton is as easy a dinner to 
 begin with as any meat dish I know of. My 
 own little eleven-year-old daughter came to 
 me one day, when it chanced that the cook 
 had taken a day to visit some friends, and 
 begged to be allowed to cook the dinner. I 
 had planned for something else, but remember- 
 ing that the mutton was in the cold closet, I 
 got it out and gave her the directions. She 
 followed them implicitly, and with the tyranny 
 for which cooks are famous forbade me the 
 kitchen. So I was compelled to give directions 
 from the library, and Missy got all the dinner, 
 including vegetables and a rice pudding which 
 was stuffed very full of plums to meet Missy's 
 notion and papa's taste. Of course I enjoyed 
 the dinner, and need I tell you that I felt very 
 proud of the little body who had been so glad 
 and proud in helping "mamma" through a very 
 busy morning ? And let me whisper here, there 
 is a sequel to this dinner which I will tell you 
 about farther on. 
 
MEATS AND MADE-OVERS. 93 
 
 And now for the lesson in roasting. Suppose 
 we take a calf's heart, and make a dish which 
 for economy and delicac)' is not half well enough 
 known, although it will be after a few hundred 
 more girls have learned how to prepare it. You 
 must wash the heart thoroughly in cold water, 
 to remove the blood, and cut out the veins and 
 arteries. This may not be a pleasant task to 
 every one, still it is no more unpleasant than 
 preparing fowls or game. Make a stuffing 
 with one tablespoonful of bread crumbs, one 
 tablespoonful of chopped onions, one saltspoon- 
 ful of powdered sage, one half a saltspoonful of 
 salt, and a tiny bit of pepper. This you may 
 moisten with milk or water. After it is prepared 
 put it into the cavity caused by the removal of 
 the arteries, and sew the edges together. Slice 
 an onion and brown it in a tablespoonful of 
 clarified dripping ; skim out the pieces of 
 onion, reserving them for use, brown the heart 
 in the seasoned fat, then put it with the onion 
 in a deep dish, and half cover with boiling 
 
94 MEATS AND MADE-OVERS. 
 
 water. Bake in a hot oven one hour, basting 
 every ten minutes, add more water if necessary. 
 When the heart is done you may make a gravy 
 by thickening the water that is left in the dish 
 with a Httle flour wet in cold water, just as you 
 did in the mutton gravy. You will find this a 
 very nice occasional dish for dinner, and a very 
 inexpensive one. 
 
 You will observe that the rule gives clarified 
 drippings as a proper fat for browning the 
 onion and meat. You will, perhaps, like to 
 know how the fat is clarified. Save any pieces 
 of fat — excepting mutton — cut into half-inch 
 cubes, and put them in a pan, covering them 
 with cold water. Put the pan in the oven and 
 cook slowly for four or five hours, or until the 
 scraps are quite brown and the water evaporated. 
 Slices of raw potato put in with the fat, also 
 assist in the clarifying. When it is slightly 
 cooled, but not beginning to harden, strain 
 into an earthen jar or bowl and set aside for 
 use. 
 
MEATS AND MADE-OVERS. 95 
 
 And now suppose you wish to cook a beef- 
 steak for breakfast. You will wipe the slice 
 with a clean damp cloth — always, you see, this 
 must be done with all meat, for you do not 
 know what hands may have touched it — reserve 
 the superfluous fat, and the bone. Grease the 
 bars of the gridiron with some of the fat. Broil 
 over a clear fire, not letting the gridiron out of 
 your hands, and turning every time you count 
 ten. If you like your steak rare cook it about 
 four minutes, that is if it is of the right thickness, 
 which is from three quarters of an inch to one 
 inch ; but taking a longer time if you wish it 
 well done. Serve at once on a hot platter, and 
 season with salt, butter, and a little pepper. You 
 must give your undivided attention to steak if 
 you wish it good. In fact its price, like that of 
 liberty, is "eternal vigilance." 
 
 There is another way of broiling, that is called 
 "pan broiling." This is done in a frying-pan 
 or on a griddle. It is heated hissing hot, the 
 meat is put on it, without any fat, cooked one 
 
g6 MEATS AND MADE-OVERS. 
 
 minute, then turned the other side round, then 
 cooked until done, turning very often. When 
 properly done it has the flavor of steak or chops 
 cooked over the coals. 
 
 And now for some of the ways of warming 
 over the meats ; preparing the " made-overs " 
 or rechaffes, as the French call them. We will 
 suppose we have some of our boiled mutton 
 left. I will give you three ways in which you 
 may use it. First is minced mutton on toast. 
 Remove all the fat and gristle from the cold 
 mutton, and chop it fine. To one cup of the 
 meat, add one saltspoonful of salt, a speck of 
 pepper, and one half a cup of the thickened 
 gravy. Heat quickly in a saucepan, and pour 
 over slices of toast. Serve hot. 
 
 The second way is a "cottage pie," and this, 
 by the way, the cooking-school girls are very 
 fond of doing at home. Prepare the meat as 
 for the minced mutton or toast. Boil and mash 
 some potatoes — you have already learned how 
 to do that ; to every cup of meat add one half 
 
MEATS AND MADE-OVERS. 97 
 
 a saltspoonful of salt, a bit of pepper, a little nut- 
 meg — or if preferred a teaspoonful of chopped 
 onion — and one half a cup of gravy. Put the 
 meat, seasoning and gravy in a pie dish, cover 
 it with mashed potato and bake in the oven 
 until the potato is a golden brown. 
 
 Next comes scalloped mutton. Cut the cold 
 mutton into small thin pieces, removing all the 
 fat and gristle. Put a layer of bread crumbs 
 in the bottom of a shallow baking dish, then a 
 layer of meat, a very thin layer of crumbs, then 
 gravy. Alternate these layers until the dish is 
 full, spread buttered crumbs on the top and 
 bake until the crumbs are brown. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SOUPS AND STEWS. 
 
 IN talking with the English-trained teacher of 
 one of the cooking schools, she said that 
 very early in her American experience she was 
 struck with the absence of soup from the tables 
 of the ordinary American family. 
 
 " It seems to me," she said, " that here in 
 America you regard soup as a luxury, and leave 
 it entirely to the rich people, putting out of sight 
 the fact that it is one of the most nourishing and 
 least expensive forms of food. Now can you 
 tell me why it is ? " 
 
 I told her what I really thought, what I have 
 
 found indeed to be the fact: that people do not 
 
 at all regard it from any economical standpoint; 
 
 that they have grown to think the making of 
 
 98 
 
SOUPS AND STEWS. 99 
 
 soup involves a deal of labor — which is quite 
 a mistaken notion, as our white-capped and 
 aproned girls quickly learn. To be sure there 
 is a little more work in making a soup than in 
 leaving it unmade ; but it is one of the things 
 that pay for themselves, and after all, the dread 
 of it is much greater than the doing. 
 
 But a prominent feature of the School-Kitchen 
 work is the preparation of soups, both with and 
 without stock, and the cooking of savory stews. 
 And how good they both are, when one comes 
 home with a keen appetite after a morning at 
 school ! The odor is enough to make a hungry 
 boy or girl hungrier than ever. There is nothing 
 I like better than going to the school when I 
 know they are learning in this special line of 
 cookery. 
 
 Let us go together to-day to Tennyson street, 
 and take the lesson in soup and stew-making. 
 Caps and aprons are on, the "cutting boards " 
 are taken out from under desks and tables and 
 laid upon them, and knives are examined to 
 
lOO SOUPS AND STEWS. 
 
 see if they are sharp. The " cutting board " 
 is a small board that is like a bread-board in 
 miniature, and is used to cut meat upon, thus 
 protecting the work-table. You will find that it 
 is much easier to wash a small board like that, 
 than to have your whole table to scour. These 
 little economies of time and labor are among 
 the most valuable of the things that are taught 
 in the School Kitchen — just ask your mother if 
 they are not ; she has probably learned their 
 worth by this time. 
 
 Now comes the explanation of the difference 
 between a soup and a stew. In the first, the 
 object is to extract all the goodness and the 
 nourishing qualities from the meat, and having 
 seasoned this extract properly to serve it in its 
 liquid form. The simple, plain extract of the 
 meat, when it is prepared, is called " stock," 
 and it serves as a basis for several kinds of 
 soup. For instance : if you add to your head- 
 stock bits of macaroni that have been boiled in 
 salted water, then cut into short pieces, you 
 
SOUPS AND STEWS. lOI 
 
 have a macaroni soup ; if you add carrot, turnip 
 and other vegetables cut in small dice or fanciful 
 designs, you have a Julienne soup ; if you add 
 barley you have "barley soup;" if you clear the 
 stock and serve it plain you have a consomme. 
 But in them all the stock or basis is the same. 
 
 You will see from the pieces of meat that the 
 teacher places before you, that she has not 
 selected the finest and the most expensive cuts, 
 but that she has taken the coarser, heavier 
 parts, with a good deal of bone. Listen, and she 
 will tell you why. 
 
 " These pieces," she says, " are not available 
 for roasting or broiling, yet they are full of 
 nutriment, and are more strengthening than the 
 finer cuts. We must use them in some way ; it 
 will not do to throw away the best part of the 
 beef. So we extract the nourishment and make 
 it into a soup. The way to get all the strength 
 from the meat is to put it — after cutting it into 
 small pieces and cracking the bones — into a 
 kettle and cover it with cold water; letting it 
 
102 SOUPS AND STEWS. 
 
 Stand a little while on the back of the stove or 
 range, then bringing it forward where it will heat 
 very slowly." 
 
 What you will want for the stock is the follow- 
 ing list of ingredients : Two pounds of the hind- 
 shin of beef, two quarts of salt water, six whole 
 cloves, six peppercorns, one bunch of pweet- 
 herbs, one blade of mace not more than an inch 
 long, two teaspoonfuls of salt, one small onion, 
 half of a small carrot, half of a small turnip, one 
 sprig of parsle}'. The herbs are sage, savory, 
 marjoram, thyme and bay. If you are buying 
 them for yourself, buy the whole herbs, dried, 
 and not the sifted ones put into boxes. You 
 don't know exactly what you are getting in these 
 boxes, but you may feel pretty sure that it is 
 something beside what you are paying for. If 
 you are where you can have a bit of ground, just 
 have your own herb-bed. But I shall have some- 
 thing more to say about that another time, so I 
 won't stop for anything but the suggestion now. 
 
 The ingredients are together now, and the real 
 
SOUPS AND STEWS. I03 
 
 work begins. Wipe the meat carefully and cut 
 it in small pieces, break the bone, and put meat, 
 bones and marrow into the soup kettle ; cover 
 with the cold water and let it soak for half an 
 hour or so, while you are preparing the vegeta- 
 bles. Stick the cloves into the onion, put a 
 tablespoonful of butter or clear beef dripping 
 into a sauce pan and set it over the gas stove ; 
 brown the onion in this, being very careful not to 
 burn it; cut the carrot and turnip fine ; then add 
 them, the browned onion, the spices and herbs, 
 to the meat and water. You will let this simmer 
 if possible for five or six hours. Perhaps some 
 one says that the session of the school will not 
 be long enough to allow of giving this time to 
 it. I will tell you how they manage in the 
 School Kitchen. The class that comes in the 
 morning prepares the soup and puts it over to 
 cook, and it is finished by the class which comes 
 in the aftern-oon. The lessons are repeated the 
 next week when the classes are changed, so that 
 the afternoon class gets the morning lessons of 
 
104 SOUPS AND STEWS. 
 
 the week before, and the morning class in its 
 turn gets the afternoon lessons, so that each 
 class has the entire process of soup-making. 
 
 When the soup is sufficiently cooked, strain it 
 through a fine strainer, over which you have laid 
 a piece of strainer-cloth. Then set it aside to 
 cool. When you wish to use it, take off the 
 hard cake of fat which has formed on the top, 
 and you will find beneath a thick, rich jelly, 
 which is the stock or basis of any soup in the 
 list of brown soups you may choose to make. 
 
 I have already told you how by using 
 different materials with this stock you may vary 
 your soup. I will now give you one or two rules 
 for special soups taught at the school. 
 
 Take first rice soup, which is a great favorite. 
 To make this, you will use the materials in the 
 following proportions : to every cup of stock 
 allow one half tablespoonful of rice and one salt- 
 spoonful of salt ; cook the rice in boiling salted 
 water for half an hour, or until it is tender, then 
 drain it and add it to the boiling stock. 
 
SOUPS AND STEWS. IO5 
 
 For the mixed vegetable or (as it is called on 
 hotel bills-of-fare) Julienne soup : to every cup of 
 stock one tablespoonful each of carrot and tur- 
 nip, and the usual saltspoonful of salt ; wash 
 and scrape the carrot, pare the turnip, and cut 
 them both into tiny dice about a quarter of an 
 inch square, put them into boiling salted water 
 and cook them until they are tender, drain them, 
 and add them to the boiling stock to which the 
 salt has been previously added. It probably is 
 unnecessary to tell you that all soups should be 
 served hot — nothing is more depressing to the 
 stomach or mind than half-chilled soup. 
 
 Now a word about soups without stock ; these 
 are made from vegetables, enriched by the addi- 
 tion of butter, milk and. cream, and savory by 
 the judicious addition of seasonings. Indeed 
 one of the first things you will be taught in the 
 School Kitchen, is the value of herbs and spices 
 as related to food. If any one were to ask me 
 the secret of good cooking, I should say " sea- 
 soning first, seasoning last, and seasoning all the 
 
Io6 SOUPS AND STEWS. 
 
 time." It is this that makes food palatable and 
 enjoyable. 
 
 The simplest of these soups without stock, as 
 well as one of the most nourishing, is the potato 
 soup ; it it also inexpensive and easily prepared. 
 The proportions and ingredients are as follows : 
 for every three potatoes use one pint of milk, or 
 if milk is not easily obtainable and you are 
 obliged to be sparing of it, you may use one 
 half pint of milk and one half pint of water ; one 
 tablespoonful of chopped onion, one teaspoon- 
 ful of salt, a speck of white pepper — you will 
 find out how much " a speck " is by referring 
 back to your table of measurements that was 
 given in one of the earlier chapters — one half 
 tablespoonful of flour, one half tablespoonful of 
 dripping or butter; unless the butter is very 
 good use clear beef dripping in preference. So 
 much for the ingredients ; now for the soup. 
 Wash and pare the potatoes and cook them in 
 boiling water until they are soft ; while the pota- 
 toes are cooking put the milk over in the double- 
 
PARSLEY AND THYME. 
 
SOUPS AND STEWS. IO9 
 
 boiler with the onion. When the potatoes are 
 done drain and mash them, add the boihng milk 
 and the seasoning, rub them through a strainer, 
 put them back, in the double-boiler to boil 
 again. Then melt the dripping in a small sauce- 
 pan, add the flour, stirring it constantly as it 
 thickens. When the flour is well cooked, which 
 will be in three or four minutes, add it to the 
 boiling soup, stirring it well in ; letting it boil 
 five minutes, add one tablespoonful of finely 
 chopped parsley and serve it hot, with croutons 
 which you learned to make in the chapter on 
 baking. 
 
 I have given so much time to soups that I am 
 afraid I cannot say as much as I would like 
 about stews, but I will have time to tell you 
 enough so that you, like the girls in the School 
 Kitchen, may dare to try to make a simple stew 
 at home. 
 
 In a soup all the nutriment of the meat is ex- 
 tracted, and it is served in the liquid form ; in 
 making stews the goodness of the meat is to be 
 
no SOUPS AND STEWS. 
 
 preserved, while a portion of the nutriment is 
 to go into the sauce or gravy ; less water is 
 used than in making soup and it is cooked at 
 a moderate heat for a long time. The pieces 
 of meat best adapted for stewing are the pieces 
 from the upper part of the shin, the aitch bone, 
 the flank and the shoulder ; it is better to use 
 meat that has some fat and bone, as the stew 
 will be richer. 
 
 You will be surprised to find under how many 
 fanciful names the homely stew masquerades. 
 We all know the plain Irish stew with its vege- 
 tables and dumplings cooked with the meat ; I 
 dare say many of you have often wondered, as 
 I used to do when a little girl, while puzzling 
 over the queer names in the cookery books, what 
 a ragout might be. Well, it is nothing more 
 or less than our friend, the stew, highly flav- 
 ored with wine. A salmi is a stew of game, 
 usually made from the left-o\ er pieces of a game 
 dinner ; this is also quite highly flavored often- 
 est with currant jelly. A haricot is a stew with 
 
SOUPS AND STEWS. Ill 
 
 the meat and vegetables cut fine. Of course 
 you all know that a chowder is a stew of fish, 
 clams or oysters ; and that a fricassee is a stew 
 in which the meat is browned in fat, either be- 
 fore or after cooking in the hot water, and is 
 served Without vegetables. A pot-pie is a stew 
 in which the dough is put on as a crust, cover- 
 ing the whole top of the kettle in which it is 
 cooked instead of being used in balls as dump- 
 lings. 
 
 The vegetables that are principally used with 
 stews are onions, potatoes, carrots and turnips; 
 these should be cut small and added to the stew 
 about half an hour before it is to be served. 
 While the vegetables are boiling the kettle 
 should be drawn toward the front of the stove, 
 so that the water will more than simmer. If 
 you have used the bones and fat in the prepa- 
 ration of the stew, you should remove them be- 
 fore adding the vegetables. (Dumplings will 
 be taught in the next lesson, which will be on 
 "batters.") 
 
112 SOUPS AND STEWS. 
 
 Now for one simple stew, one called in the 
 Liverpool School, an " Exeter Stew." Use for 
 every half pound of beef, half of an onion, one 
 quarter each of turnip and carrot, two potatoes, 
 salt and pepper to taste, a little flour, and water 
 enough to cover. Wipe the meat, cut it into 
 small pieces, removing any bits of crumbly bone 
 that may adhere to it. Put the larger bones 
 into a kettle and cover with cold water, melt the 
 fat of the meat, brown the sliced onion in it and 
 skim them out as soon as they are a fine yellow 
 brown ; dredge the bits of meat with flour, sprin- 
 kle them with salt and pepper and brown them 
 in the onion-seasoned fat. Put them and the 
 onions into the kettle in which the bone is boil- 
 ing and add enough boiling water to cover. 
 Simmer from two to three hours, or until the 
 meat is tender ; half an hour before serving add 
 the other vegetables, which should have been 
 cut in small dice ; twenty minutes before serv- 
 ing add the potatoes, which have been washed 
 and pared and cut into quarters, and parboiled 
 
SOUPS AND STEWS. 
 
 113 
 
 five minutes. You should take out the fat and 
 bone before adding the vegetables. When ready 
 to serve, skim out the meat and potatoes upon 
 a hot platter, thicken the gravy if you think it 
 necessary, add seasoning, then pour it over the 
 meat. Half a cup of stewed tomato, that has 
 been strained, is an excellent addition. If you 
 make this stew successfully you will no doubt 
 eat it with as keen a relish as did the girls in 
 School Kitchen No. i on the memorable day 
 when they and I learned how to make an "Exe- 
 ter Stew." 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 A LESSON IN BATTERS. 
 
 "T usually happens 
 that the first thing 
 the young cook 
 undertakes to do 
 is to make cake. 
 I think this will 
 be found to be 
 the experience of 
 fully nine tenths 
 of the women who 
 have struggled up 
 through experi- 
 ment and endeav- 
 or until they have pretty well mastered the 
 difficulties of the art., I couldn't tell you 
 114 
 
 BEATING EGGS. 
 
A LESSON IN BATTERS. II5 
 
 why it is so, but the fact remains undisputed 
 and undisputable. I dare say, however, the 
 reason is that every detail follows so quickly 
 one upon another, that the result is very quickly 
 attained. It usually happens, too, that after 
 the cake is compounded, it is left by the maker 
 in more experienced hands to be baked. 
 
 But in the school-kitchen the cake-making, or 
 indeed the mixing of any batters, does not come 
 until the pupils have mastered the stove, learned 
 to make and keep a fire, and to cook simple food 
 without mixing. Those of you who have care- 
 fully watched the lessons from the beginning 
 will see thaf they came along in sequence, and 
 that each step taken prepares the pupils for the 
 next one. In this way the teaching is systematic 
 and, as in other studies, a principle is not taken 
 up until the one which goes before it is thoroughly 
 understood. Now, at last, the girls in caps and 
 aprons have come to a real mixing-lesson ; a 
 lesson in which flour is used for the first time. 
 The teacher gives a little practical talk in chem- 
 
Il6 A LESSON IN BATTERS. 
 
 istry, and shows them why the baking powder 
 or the soda and cream of tartar, or the sour milk 
 and soda are necessary in these compounds. I 
 have no time, nor indeed is this the place to 
 talk chemistry ; all I can tell you is that the gas 
 which is made by the acid and alkalies being 
 mixed together is needed to make the batter 
 light. I dare say most of you already know 
 that. By her careful questioning the teacher 
 sees that her pupils understand this bit of chemi- 
 cal teaching, a practical illustration of which they 
 are to have in the lesson that is to follow the 
 lecture and examination. 
 
 Batters are thin mixtures of liquid and flour, 
 with the addition of the ingredients that are to 
 make the gas. They are to be quickly prepared, 
 and cooked at once, and, as a rule, are better 
 eaten as soon as they are cooked, since they are 
 likely to lose some of their lightness by stand- 
 ing. Batters also should be baked in a very 
 quick oven. Indeed the lightness and delicacy 
 of a batter-mixture, when cooked, depends upon 
 
A LESSON IN BATTERS. I17 
 
 the quickness with which it is prepared and 
 baked. 
 
 You will learn, before you are through, that 
 the term " batters " is a very elastic one, and 
 covers all mixtures from griddle-cakes to muffins, 
 taking in everything that comes between. Peo- 
 ple speak incorrectly of " frying " griddle-cakes 
 Really they are baked on two sides on a heated 
 surface. When anything is fried, it is dropped 
 in hot fat, so that it is completely immersed. 
 Doughnuts are fried, and pan-cakes, and some 
 kinds of muffins ; drop-cakes and griddle-cakes 
 are baked on a hot griddle, one side being 
 browned, then the cake turned and browned 
 on the other side. Muffins, loaf-cake and gems, 
 all of which come under the head of batter- 
 mixtures, are baked in an oven. 
 
 Just a word here about frying, as possibly 
 there may be no other place where it can so 
 well be said. Of course you will understand 
 that it is quite impossible to put within the 
 limits of a series of chapters like this, the whole 
 
Il8 A LESSON IN BATTERS. 
 
 detail of a year's work. The best that could be 
 done was to take the more prominent features, 
 and give those, passing over other processes, or 
 at the most merely hinting at them. The chief 
 idea of this book is to show, as far as may be 
 possibly done, the, scope and thoroughness of 
 the work, the systematic methods by which it is 
 treated and the full arousal of a half-awakened 
 interest all the country over, so that everywhere 
 the school-kitchen will become as successful a 
 feature of the school-system as it has grown to 
 be in Boston. So about "frying": it is quite 
 the habit of people to speak of frying, when 
 they really mean something else. As in the 
 griddle-cakes, when really the mixture is baked, 
 so it is with other things. One often hears 
 about frying fish or meat, when the process is 
 sauteing, or browning one side at a time in a 
 little fat. Frying is, as the teacher has told you, 
 cooking by immersion, in very hot fat. I think 
 you will understand the distinction in the terms, 
 and will know when they are correctly used. 
 
A LESSON IN BATTERS. 
 
 119 
 
 But to return to the lesson on batters. I 
 had great fun, one day, in hearing this very 
 lesson given as a practical lesson by one of 
 the normal class to her classmates. These 
 bright young women were "making-believe be 
 little girls " with all their might ; but such pre- 
 cocious little girls — how they did puzzle the 
 teacher with their questions ! One girl was set 
 to build the fire. She had been taught just 
 how to do it, but she had a theory of her own, 
 evidently, that she had been longing for the 
 opportunity to apply, and here it came. Well, 
 she made her experiment and it was a disastrous 
 failure ; the fire refused to burn. It simply 
 wouldn't ; and the more she tried the more it 
 refused, and all the dozen girls had the most 
 mischievous twinkle in their eyes, and only 
 waited for the lesson to be over to rally her in 
 her theories. Which proved, my dear little 
 amateur cooks who read this, that common 
 sense is better than theory, and that there 
 are some old-fashioned*ways which we can't 
 
120 A LESSON IN BATTERS. 
 
 improve upon. The end of it was that the fire 
 had to be made over from the very beginning, 
 and at least half an hour of lesson-time was 
 lost. It may be that it wasn't lost, after all; 
 it has borne in upon this class of girls, that it 
 won't do to try experiments in fire-building if 
 one wants breakfast on time. 
 
 The simplest of all the batter-mixtures is the 
 griddle-cake. This may be made with sweet 
 milk and baking-powder, or with sour milk and 
 soda. Some persons add an egg, but it really 
 is not necessary; the cakes are just as light 
 and toothsome without it as with it. Just here, 
 as a preliminary to all batters, it will not be 
 amiss to give the proportions of acids and alkalies 
 in any mixture. If you are using soda and cream 
 of tartar you will allow for every quart of flour, 
 one teaspoonful of soda and two teaspoonfuls of 
 :ream of tartar. In measuring remember that 
 the teaspoonfuls of soda must be level-full, while 
 the cream of tartar should be rounded-full. The 
 latter is always a fine" smooth powder, velvety 
 
A LESSON IN BATTERS. 121 
 
 to the touch, while the former is apt to grow 
 lumpy. So it should be pulverized, then sifted 
 before using, as you will then have more nearly 
 correct proportions. 
 
 When you use sour milk you do not need the 
 acid of the cream of tartar, but you want the soda 
 to counteract the acidity in the milk, and the 
 correct proportion is one level teaspoonful of 
 soda to every pint of milk. In soft ginger- 
 breads and some batter-puddings you will use 
 molasses, and as this, in spite of its heavy clog- 
 ging sweetness, contains acid you will need the 
 soda to counteract it. If you are making a 
 batter, the proportion of soda is one level tea- 
 spoonful to one cup of the molasses ; if the 
 dough is to be stiff — those will be considered 
 later — one half a teaspoonful of soda is suffi- 
 cient for the cup of molasses. If you use baking- 
 powder, in place of cream of tartar and soda, 
 the proportion will be one level teaspoonful of 
 baking powder to each cup of flour or meal, 
 whichever you use. 
 
122 A LESSON IN BATTERS. 
 
 And now for the griddle-cakes. The rule on 
 the school-kitchen cards, by which the class is 
 cooking, gives the following proportions : one 
 cup of flour ; one saltspoonful of salt ; one tea- 
 spoonful of baking powder ; one scant cup of 
 sweet milk, and one teaspoonful of melted but- 
 ter. This may be varied by using sour milk 
 in the same proportion as the sweet, and soda 
 in place of baking powder. If any one is so 
 fortunate as to live on a dairy farm, butter- 
 milk may be substituted for the sour milk, in 
 which case the tablespoonful of melted butter 
 may be omitted. Sift the dry ingredients to- 
 gether, that is, the flour, baking powder (or 
 soda) and salt ; then add the milk, making a 
 batter about like thick cream. Add the melted 
 butter last. Cook on a well-greased griddle that 
 is hot enough to bake the cakes without burn-, 
 ing them. When the upper side has filled with 
 bubbles turn the cake over and brown the other 
 side. 
 
 There are some persons who object to the 
 
A LESSON IN BATTERS. 1 23 
 
 use either of baking powder or soda and cream 
 ■yt tartar, but who make batters light without 
 them by excessive beating. Among the quick 
 cakes prepared by them in this way are " pop- 
 overs;" these are as light as vanity and there 
 is just about as much to them. If you wish to 
 try them you may use one cup of flour, one cup 
 of milk, an egg, and one salt-spoonful of salt. 
 Sift the salt and flour together and add half of 
 the quantity of milk slowly, making a smooth 
 paste ; when it is well mixed and no lumps of 
 flour, no matter how tiny, are left, add the 
 remainder of the milk and the egg, which has 
 been beaten to perfect lightness. Beat the 
 whole together thoroughly, and cook at once in 
 hot buttered gem pans or earthen cups, for half 
 an hour or until the cakes are well " popped 
 over," inventing their name, and of a delicious 
 golden brown. You may use these as breakfast 
 cakes, eaten with butter like muffins, or you 
 may serve them for dessert with a rich, hot 
 sauce. You will like them either way. 
 
124 A LESSON IN BATTERS. 
 
 When the " big blizzard " struck New York, a 
 lady well-known as an editor and writer, got 
 snow-bound in a little town just outside the 
 city ; so prisoned were the residents by the 
 elements, that neither " butcher nor baker, nor 
 candlestick- maker " could get at them, and as 
 there were quite a number of persons in the 
 house at which this lady was staying, the pro- 
 visions soon grew scanty. Among the neces- 
 sary articles which gave out were eggs ; and 
 there were none to put in the muffins for break- 
 fast, when suddenly some body remembered 
 " snow pan-cakes," and they were speedily con- 
 cocted, and so successful were they that every 
 body went away, when the blockade was raised, 
 singing their praises. The story got into all 
 the papers, and so did the receipt ; but the 
 cooking schools were ahead of the papers, for 
 they had already taught the girls how to make 
 them. Use one half cup of flour, and one salt- 
 spoonful of salt (sifted together), add one half a 
 cup of milk and beat very thoroughly ; when it 
 
A LESSON IN BATTERS. 1 25 
 
 is beaten stir lightly in a heaping tablespoonful 
 of newly-fallen snow. Cook like large griddle- 
 cakes, and while hot spread with butter, sugar 
 and nutmeg, or with jam, roll them over and 
 over like a jelly roll, and eat them at once ; 
 don't talk until the last mouthful is finished, 
 then be as ecstatic as you please. 
 
 And now I am going to tell you, just as Miss 
 Hope did the girls in School-Kitchen No. i, 
 how to make an old-fashioned molasses ginger- 
 bread. The following are the proportions : one 
 half cup of molasses, one half tablespoonful of 
 ginger, one saltspoonful of salt, one half tea- 
 spoonful of soda, one tablespoonful of clear 
 beef dripping — or you may use butter — one 
 quarter of a cup of hot water (boiling) and one 
 cup of flour. The ginger, soda and salt are 
 added to the molasses ; the softened dripping is 
 then put in, and the mixture beaten well to- 
 gether ; next the boiling water is added, then 
 the flour ; beat again thoroughly, pour into a 
 well-greased shallow pan and bake in a hot 
 
126 A LESSON IN BATTERS. 
 
 oven. It will take about twenty minutes to 
 bake the loaf. 
 
 And now for the dumplings which I promised 
 you when we had the stew. To a pint of flour, 
 use half a teaspoonful of salt, two teaspoonfuls 
 of baking-powder and one scant cup of milk. 
 Sift together the flour, baking-powder and salt. 
 Stir in the milk to make a soft dough. Drop 
 them, with the spoon, into the boiling stew. 
 They will rest on the meat and potato ; cover 
 them, and let them cook ten minutes. Do not 
 lift the cover in that time. Serve as soon as 
 done. You will find them very nice and light. 
 
 I will give you the School corn-cake, and that 
 must finish the batters, although there is more 
 that might be said. 
 
 Don't you wish the School-Kitchen was an 
 accomplished fact in your town ? And are you 
 all working toward that end ? You know you 
 have something to do about making public 
 opinion in all the matters in which you are 
 deeply interested. Fathers and mothers are 
 
A LESSON IN BATTERS. 1 27 
 
 pretty sure to feel what their children feel, and 
 to desire to give them that they want, when 
 they feel that the " want " is sensible and right. 
 And who is the " public " that is so much talked 
 about if it isn't the aggregate of fathers and 
 mothers all through the community? 
 
 But we'll never get to the corn-cake if we don't 
 go on. We'll make ready with one cup of flour, 
 one half cup of fine yellow cornmeal, one 
 quarter of a cup of sugar, one half teaspoonful 
 of salt, one tablespoonful of cream of tartar — ■ if 
 you use sweet milk, omit it if the milk is sour — 
 one half teaspoonful of soda, one cup of milk 
 — either sweet or sour — one egg, one table- 
 spoonful of dripping or butter. Mix all the 
 dry things together; beat the egg, add the milk 
 to it, put it into the mixed dry ingredients, mix 
 well together, and last of all add the melted 
 butter. Beat well and bake in muffin rings or a 
 shallow pan for about twenty minutes. Then 
 you have a corn-cake that is good enough for 
 your breakfast, or mine, or Queen Victoria's. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 BREAD-MAKING. 
 
 AS I sit writing 
 floats in fro 
 
 ig there 
 from the 
 pantry beyond the 
 kitchen a sweet girl- 
 ish voice singing the 
 dear old hymn, 
 
 " O mother dear, Jeru- 
 salem," 
 
 and as a sort of ac- 
 companiment comes 
 a soft thumping 
 sound. This pecu- 
 liar sort of accompaniment I have learned to 
 know is made by the slipping of the bread-board 
 on the table, as the fourteen-year-old daughter 
 128 
 
 KNEACING. 
 
BREAD-MAKING. 1 29 
 
 kneads the dough that she is just setting for 
 to-morrow morning's baking. 
 
 She took the task of making the family bread 
 during one of the domestic emergencies that 
 occur in every family, and she has kept it for 
 three months, until she is an accomplished bread- 
 maker, and enjoys her work, not minding it at 
 all, nor considering it a hard task. She does 
 not go to the Public School Cooking Classes 
 because she does not live in Boston ; but she 
 has learned to do a good many things, and likes 
 trying experiments. It is odd, isn't it, that I 
 should write this chapter on bread to the accom- 
 paniment of the kneading and the little glad 
 song of the maker ? 
 
 But you and I must run away from the Ded- 
 ham kitchen and its happy occupant, and find 
 ourselves one of the class in the School-Kitchen. 
 It is an important day in the school when bread 
 is to be made. The girls really believe then 
 that they are genuine cooks. They put on 
 their aprons and caps with greater alacrity than 
 
1^0 BREAD-MAKING. 
 
 usual, full of the importance of the occasion 
 and anxious to begin. 
 
 Of course the rules for yeast and for bread 
 that I am going to give you are the ones in use 
 at the school, and as I have seen and tasted 
 the bread made there, I think them very good. 
 The yeast really used is the compressed yeast 
 that is so universally liked by housekeepers, but 
 as there are liable to be occasions when this 
 yeast is not obtainable, it has been considered 
 wise to teach the pupils to make their own yeast. 
 Of course this is not at all likely to occur in 
 towns where shops are convenient and one can 
 run out and fill one's household needs at an 
 instant's notice. But if one lives at a distance 
 from stores, it is quite a convenience to have 
 one's own yeast jug to go to whenever bread is 
 to be made. Most housekeepers living on farms 
 and far away from shopping centers keep their 
 own yeast constantly on hand, never allowing 
 themselves to be quite out of it, generally using 
 the last cupful to start the new supply with. 
 
BREAD-MAKING. 131 
 
 It is not a difficult matter to malte tlie yeast, 
 as you shall see. But first I must tell you that 
 there is a good deal of practical chemistry in 
 this lesson, which you and I must omit as we 
 have not the space for more than the practical 
 working facts. Indeed, there is a scientific rea- 
 son for everything that is done in practical cook- 
 ing, some of which I dare say you may have 
 found out for yourself. If you haven't you must 
 manage somehow to get the school-training, and 
 then you will know all about it. 
 
 And now for the yeast, made by using the 
 following ingredients in these proportions : 
 
 One large potato, one tablespoonful of hops 
 loose, one pint of boiling water, one heaping 
 tablespoonful of flour, one heaping teaspoonful 
 of sugar, one heaping teaspoonful of salt, one 
 quarter of a teaspoonful of ginger, one half a 
 yeast cake dissolved in half a cup of lukewarm 
 water, or one half a cup of yeast. Wash the 
 potato well, pare it and put it in cold water to 
 soak. Steep the hops in the boiling water. 
 
132 bread-mAking. 
 
 Mix the flour, sugar, ginger and salt in a large 
 bowl, then grate the potato into this flour mix- 
 ture ; let the hop-water boil for one minute, then 
 strain it over the potato and flour, and mix it as 
 quickly as possible. If it does not thicken like 
 starch place it over the fire for a few minutes. 
 If it is too thick add boiling water until it is as 
 thick as cream ; set it aside to cool, and when 
 it is lukewarm add the yeast. Set in a warm 
 place to rise, until it is frothy and light. Beat 
 it down every half-hour. When it is risen suffi- 
 ciently put it in a jar or a glass bottle, and keep 
 it cool. When you have to take some of the 
 yeast out do not take the jar into a warm place, 
 but pour it out where it is kept, and mind that 
 the cork is replaced at once. 
 
 You will see that the potato is not cooked, 
 but is grated raw. Now many of the rules that 
 are in use in families call for boiled potatoes. 
 I do not suppose that the yeast itself is any 
 better made with the uncooked potatoes, but it 
 keeps better. It will sour quicker when the ceoked 
 
BREAD-MAKING. I33 
 
 potato is used, just as any cooked vegetables 
 spoil more quickly than the uncooked ones. 
 Perhaps some of you may be able to give your 
 mothers a point just here in regard to yeast- 
 making. It is more trying both to fingers and 
 temper to grate the raw potato than to mash 
 the cooked one, but the result will be better, and 
 that is worth taking a little extra trouble for, 
 isn't it ? In fact, my little cooks, you will find 
 as you go along that the trouble taken does re- 
 pay you, no matter what it is that you are doing. 
 And in nothing does one get so satisfactorily 
 rewarded for the extra care as in cooking. Ask 
 your mother if it isn't so, you little doubter ; 
 and you too, who think " it's all nonsense to 
 take such pains ; it won't be any better for it." 
 All this will be borne in upon you in the School 
 Kitchen, and you will soon become assured that 
 there is no royal road to anything that is worth 
 doing, and that learning to cook is very much 
 like all the rest. 
 
 But now comes the bread-making, the yeast 
 
134 BREAD-MAKING. 
 
 having been made and bottled. (In regard to 
 the respective merits of the yeasts ; in general 
 results they are the same, but it must be ac- 
 knowledged that the compressed yeast makes 
 the bread finer and whiter than the home-made 
 yeast does, but it is no sweeter, nor has it a 
 better flavor.) The rule here given will make 
 either one loaf of bread or a pan of biscuits. 
 You increase the rule as you desire a larger 
 quantity. Use one cup of milk or water, luke- 
 warm, one half a teaspoonful of salt, one half a 
 teaspoonful of sugar, one quarter of a cup of 
 yeast, or one quarter of a yeast cake dissolved 
 in one quarter of a cup of water, and from three 
 to three and a half cups of flour. If you use 
 milk you must heat it to boiling in the double 
 heater ; mere scalding will not do ; it must be 
 boiled ; the bread will keep better, and the 
 dough will not turn sour in rising, as it often 
 will do in warm weather, even when great care 
 is exercised. But the School Kitchen girls are 
 taught to raise their bread dough with water. 
 
BREAD-MAKING. I35 
 
 Sift the flour into the mixing bowl, which should 
 be of earthen ware, as this holds the heat bet- 
 ter than tin, and makes the bread rise more 
 quickly. Mix the salt, sugar and yeast, then 
 add the milk or water, and pour into the bowl 
 which holds the flour ; mix it thoroughly with a 
 knife, and then, when it is well mixed, and is 
 stiff enough to knead, turn it out on to a well- 
 floured board, and knead it until it is soft and 
 elastic and can be worked without any flour. 
 You need not make hard work of the kneading; 
 it is lightness and quickness of touch rather 
 than an expenditure of strength which is re- 
 quired. What is wanted is to get it well-mixed, 
 so that every particle shall be permeated with 
 the yeast, and the whole mass shall be perfectly 
 smooth and free from lumps. 
 
 I once had a cook who was trying to teach 
 the second girl to make bread. She said to me 
 one day, after we had been treated to soifie 
 bread of the pupil's making that was far below 
 the standard : " Indeed, ma'am, and it's no use 
 
136 BREAD-MAKING. 
 
 trying to teach Nellie to make bread, she can- 
 not do it ; she is too heavy-handed ; she'll never 
 make a cook." 
 
 I didn't quite see what Maggie meant, but I 
 found out by watching. The girl moved clumsily ; 
 she touched things as though her hand was of 
 iron; she clutched rather than held; there was 
 no lightness, nor alertness to any of her move- 
 ments. She was hopelessly " heavy," and her 
 hands spoiled the bread rather than lightened 
 it. I have seen a few people like her since, and 
 I have found out in every case that they were 
 not good cooks. No matter how hard they tried, 
 they could not succeed. It was in the hope- 
 less heaviness of their movements. Now all 
 this won't be taught you in the cooking school, 
 because there it is the duty of the teacher to 
 make the pupils do things, and never let them 
 think they cannot. But I give you this infor- 
 mation out of my own experience ; it will per- 
 haps assist you in time to come when it shall fall 
 to your lot to look for the new servant girl. 
 
BREAD-MAKING. 
 
 137 
 
 The bread has been "put to rise" in the 
 bowl, neatly covered with a clean bread cloth, 
 with a pan closely put over it to keep out the air, 
 so that a crust may not form on the outside, but 
 that the whole mass may be kept soft. The lesson 
 is over. We are to come again for the baking. 
 
 We left our bread in a warm, sheltered place, 
 where it should be subject to no sudden change 
 of temperature, and we have come again to find 
 it beautifully risen, ready to make into loaf or 
 biscuit. When well-risen it should be double 
 its original bulk; work it over in the bowl, 
 doubling it from the edges toward the center 
 until it is smooth, let it rise again, which it will 
 do quickly, until it is double its bulk, then shape 
 into loaves and set to rise closely covered, in 
 the pans in which it is to be baked. Let it rise 
 until it is light, then bake in a hot oven, or one 
 so hot that you can hold the hand in twelve 
 seconds without getting too hot. It you have a 
 cooking thermometer, which, by the way, very 
 few do have, it should register four hundred de- 
 
138 BREAD-MAKING. 
 
 grees. At first you will have to take counsel with 
 some one to whom bread-baking is not a novelty. 
 
 Have any of you ever had anything to do with 
 those exasperating people, who, when asked for 
 any instruction, always say " use your own 
 judgment " ? Aren't they provoking ? Why, 
 how is the novice in anything to have any judg- 
 ment to use? What is "judgment" but the 
 outcome of experience ? Knowledge of any 
 kind doesn't come by intuition ; it is the result 
 of repeated experiment. Now the next time 
 any one tells you to "use your judgment " when 
 you ask them how long to bake the loaf, or how 
 hot to have the oven, or how much baking-pow- 
 der to put into the muffins — get them to define 
 judgment for you, and then ask them very re- 
 spectfully how you have had time or opportunity 
 to acquire it. 
 
 In the meantime bake your bread from forty 
 to sixty minutes ; see that it properly browns, 
 a lovely golden color, and that it has a hollow 
 sound when you thump it with your knuckle. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 FISH AND EGG DISHES. 
 
 IT is a part of the economical plan of the 
 School-Kitchen system, that the special les- 
 sons on fish and eggs should be given at the 
 time of the year when they are the most plen- 
 tiful, and the least expensive. Nature has a 
 wise way of arranging things, and it is quite in 
 accordance with her usual wisdom and fore- 
 thought that both these articles of food should 
 be the least costly at the season when the sys- 
 tem most demands them ; that is, in the spring 
 and summer. In the cold weather of winter we 
 need the heat-giving of meat; but in the summer, 
 and indeed in the spring, when the first warm 
 days are coming on, the meat in any quantity 
 is distasteful, and one likes best the fresh 
 139 
 
I40 FISH AND EGG DISHES. 
 
 eggs and the delicate fish. You will probably 
 understand, through your lessons in chemistry 
 and in physiology, that meat stimulates nerves 
 and brain, and that this stimulation should be 
 avoided in warm weather. 
 
 Fish and eggs are given in separate lessons, 
 but we take them together to save space. To 
 begin with the fish. There really is no more 
 valuable food in all the list. It is easy of 
 digestion, it is inexpensive, and it is plenty. It 
 has not the amount of nutrition which meat 
 possesses, but it has sufl[icient, and as it has a 
 large amount of phosphorus, it is very bene- 
 ficial. Fish should be eaten perfectly fresh, 
 while the flesh is yet firm ; otherwise all its 
 beneficent qualities are lost, and it becomes 
 poisonous. Never buy fish when the flesh is 
 soft and flabby, unless you desire a genuine fit 
 of indigestion, if not a severe and painful illness. 
 
 In one of the school-kitchens a class of boys 
 has been admitted during the winter just past, 
 and it has proven a very bright class. 
 
FISH AND EGG DISHES. 141 
 
 " We had a prime fish-chowder to day," said 
 one of these boys to his teacher, on coming to 
 the school in the afternoon. 
 
 " Did you malce it ? " queried tlie teacher. 
 
 " No. I gave my mother a cooking-school 
 lesson, and saw that she did it just right. 
 Father says it was the best he ever tasted." 
 
 And now I am going to give you the school- 
 kitchen rule for that " prime fish-chowder." 
 You will observe the following proportions in 
 preparing your ingredients : 
 
 To every pound of fish — cod or haddock is 
 the best — use a one-inch cube of salt pork, half 
 of an onion, two potatoes, a speck of pepper, 
 one tablespoonful of flour, one tablespoonful of 
 butter, one cup of milk and two crackers. 
 
 See that the fish is carefully cleaned and cut 
 into pieces after the bone is removed. You 
 may bone the fish yourself, or the marketman 
 will do it for you. Cook the bones of the fish 
 and the head for half an hour in boiling water, 
 then strain the water from it and save. Cut the 
 
142 FISH AND EGG DISHES. 
 
 salt pork and onion into dice, and fry until they 
 are a light brown. In the meantime slice the 
 potatoes, and let them scald for five minutes, 
 pour off the water and add to the scalded 
 potatoes the bone water and the pork fat, which 
 has been strained to remove the pieces of onion 
 and the solid bits of pork. Put this over the 
 fire in a stew-pan, and when it is boiling add 
 the fish, and simmer ten minutes or until the 
 potatoes are tender ; last of all add the pepper, 
 butter, milk and crackers. 
 
 I am sure if any of you try this receipt you 
 will find that it is delicious, even if you do not, 
 like myself, care much about the ordinary fish- 
 chowder. You see this is an extraordinary one. 
 
 There are a variety of ways of cooking fish, 
 but they are most generally baked or broiled ; 
 sometimes they are boiled, and sometimes fried ; 
 but the most wholesome ways are the two first 
 mentioned. 
 
 The fish which are the oftenest used for 
 baking are cod, haddock, blue-fish, bass, shad 
 
FISH AND EGC DISHES. 1 43 
 
 and small salmon. The fish should be well 
 cleaned — indeed that is necessary whatever 
 way it is to be cooked — wiped dry and rubbed 
 with salt. It should then be stuffed and the 
 edges sewed together. The stuffing will be 
 prepared by the following rule, and it is suffi- 
 cient for a fish weighing from four to six pounds. 
 Use one cup of cracker-crumbs, one salt-spoon- 
 ful of salt, one salt-spoonful of pepper, and one 
 tablespoonful of chopped onion, one teaspoonful 
 of chopped parsley, one teaspoonful of capers, 
 one teaspoonful of chopped pickles, and a quarter 
 of a cup of melted butter. The crackers should 
 be moistened with hot water if you desire a moist 
 stuffing, otherwise it will be dry and crumbly. 
 After the fish is stuffed cut gashes two inches 
 apart on each side. Put narrow strips of fat 
 salt pork in the gashes, and in the pan under 
 the fish. Place the fish upright in the pan by 
 skewering the head one way and the tail another. 
 Dredge the fish with flour. Put it into a hot 
 oven without water ; when the flour is brown, 
 
144 F'SH AND EGG DISHES. 
 
 baste with the pork fat, and baste often. It is 
 done when the flesh separates easily from the 
 bone. Remove it carefully to a hot platter, 
 draw out the strings or skewers and serve with 
 drawn butter or egg sauce. 
 
 You "don't know how to make either?" 
 Well, you will very soon, if you will only follow 
 the directions that the cooking-school teacher 
 will give you. Here is the drawn butter : 
 
 Use one pint of hot water or milk — the lat- 
 ter is by far the best, if you can get it — one 
 scant cup of butter, two tablespoonfuls of flour, 
 one half a teaspoonful of salt, and one half a 
 salt-spoonful of pepper. Put half the butter 
 into a sauce-pan over the fire ; let it melt, but 
 not burn ; when it is melted add the dry flour 
 and mix well. Add the hot water or milk, a 
 little at a time, and stir rapidly as it thickens. 
 When perfectly smooth add the remainder of 
 the butter by degrees, and stir until it is dis- 
 solved. Add the salt and pepper. When care- 
 fully made this sauce should be free from 
 
FISH AND EGG DISHES. 145 
 
 lumps ; but if not smooth, strain it before serv- 
 ing. Now egg sauce is simply this drawn 
 butter with two or three hard boiled eggs, 
 chopped or sliced, added to it. 
 
 The fish that are broiled are mackerel, white- 
 fish, blue-fish that are too small to bake, trout, 
 small cod, shad, or any other thin fish ; also slices 
 of halibut, salmon, and other thick fish. When the 
 entire fish is broiled it should be split down the 
 back, and the head and tail removed. It is a 
 good plan to remove the backbone also. If 
 the fish is oily it needs only to be sprinkled with 
 salt and pepper ; if it is dry, the fish should be 
 spread with half-melted butter before broiling. 
 
 The double wire broiler should be well- 
 greased ; put the thickest edge of the fish next 
 the middle of the broiler ; broil the flesh side 
 first until it is brown, lifting it up often that it 
 may not burn. The other side should be broiled 
 just enough to crisp the skin. Of course the 
 time the fish should cook will vary with its 
 thickness. When it is done the flesh will look 
 
146 FISH AND EGG DISHES. 
 
 white and firm, and will separate easily from 
 the bone. After the fish is cooked, season it 
 with butter, salt, and pepper, and lemon juice. 
 The latter may be omitted if preferred. 
 
 Now the lesson about eggs. 
 
 It is surprising how many people there are 
 who do not use eggs as a matter of course for 
 an article of diet. In the spring time, partic- 
 ularly, they are more healthful than heavy mat- 
 ter, and they are then at their cheapest, so it is 
 not extravagant to use them freely. Many per- 
 sons who do not care specially for them when 
 boiled, or who have grown tired of them from 
 constantly having them cooked in that way, 
 would like them if they v/ere made into an 
 omelet or dropped on toast ; they somehow 
 seem more delicate when cooked in either of 
 these ways, and they look very much nicer 
 coming to the table. It is not the easiest thing 
 in the world to make an omelet ; indeed it is a 
 little troublesome until one gets quite accus- 
 tomed to it. But practise will soon enable one 
 
FISH AND EGG DISHES. 147 
 
 to not only prepare, but to cook — which is the 
 difficult part — an omelet which shall rival that 
 of the experienced cook. For a small omelet 
 you will use two eggs, two tablespoonfuls of 
 milk, one salt-spoonful of salt, one salt-spoonful 
 of pepper. Beat the yolks of the eggs until 
 they are light and creamy, and to these beaten 
 yolks add the milk, salt and pepper. Beat the 
 whites until they are stiff and dry. Stir them 
 lightly into the yolks until they are just covered, 
 but do not beat them. When your smooth 
 omelet pan or small spider is hot, rub it round 
 the edge with a teaspoonful of butter ; let 
 the butter run over the pan, so that it is entirely 
 covered, and when it is bubbling turn in the 
 omelet quickly. Cook very carefully, not over 
 the hottest part of the fire, else it would burn, 
 until it is slightly browned underneath ; put it 
 in the oven, so that the top may dry, but do not 
 let it burn ; fold toward the right, put a hot 
 platter over the pan, then turn all over, so that 
 the omelet will drop evenly on to the platter. 
 
148 FISH AND EGG DISHES. 
 
 This is really the most difficult of all the egg 
 dishes, and the only one that it is necessary to 
 give, since all the others are so simple and in 
 such constant use that it would be like relating 
 an old story to tell about them. 
 
 It may seem to you that this chapter is largely 
 filled with " rules." Possibly ; but there is so 
 little to say in a general way about either of the 
 food articles, that the space may be given to 
 detailed work. Everything which has been de- 
 scribed is so simple that it may be tried at 
 home, and with little fear of failure. 
 
 In connection with the egg-lesson simple cake 
 batters are taught, and these lessons the girls 
 seem to enjoy very much. Somehow girls al- 
 most all like cake-making. That, and making 
 delicate desserts, are the fancy work of cooking. 
 It is all very well, too, in its way, and a certain 
 amount of it, but after all it is the every-day 
 substantial food that is the most necessary, and 
 that must be done. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 INVALID COOKERY. 
 
 THERE is no more important branch of 
 cookery than that which is devoted to 
 the sick room, and it shows wisdom on the part 
 of those in charge at the schools that they have 
 so emphasized this portion of the work, and laid 
 out the lessons pertaining to it so carefully. 
 
 Prob-^bly most of you know, from experience, 
 how very greatly trifles are magnified when 
 one is ill. Matters that are not of the slight- 
 est consequence in health, become very im- 
 portant when one is held down by sickness. 
 Things that would be passed over usually, will 
 then worry and fret one indescribably ; while 
 the least act that is kindly and thoughtful will 
 be magnified in the same proportion. 
 149 
 
15° 
 
 INVALID COOKERY. 
 
 One of the first things I remember in my 
 life, is being very ill with the measles. I could 
 
 not have been more 
 OS^^^^ than three or four 
 
 years old. I had a 
 nightdress, which in 
 addition to the ruf- 
 fles that ornament- 
 ed it, had a double 
 row of stitching on 
 the bands of neck 
 and sleeves. I was 
 particularly iond of 
 that stitching, and 
 I used to watch for 
 the day when it 
 would be the time 
 to wear that night- 
 dress. I really 
 grieved when I had 
 to take it off to have it washed. One morn- 
 ing I had been bathed, and I was waiting 
 
 CARING FOR THE SICK. 
 
INVALID COOKERY. 151 
 
 for the clean nightdress ; there wasn't much 
 anticipation about it, for I had worn the 
 stitched one the day before. I was lying list- 
 lessly, until the fresh robe should be brought. 
 As it came my childish eyes caught the sight of 
 stitching. I cried for very joy, I was so happy. 
 The dear mother, who always did the sweetest 
 and nicest things for her little girl, had sat up 
 after the nervous, troublesome child was asleep, 
 and had with her own kind fingers stitched the 
 little robe. After that she stitched them all, 
 and I know I got well much quicker for it. 
 Now I dare say this seems a silly little story to 
 tell, but it proves what I said — that trifles 
 affect sick people much more than they do those 
 who are well. 
 
 A friend was telling me, not long since, about 
 an experience she had while ill. " I was so 
 ashamed of myself," she said, "but I could not 
 help it. My nurse had gone out, and I took the 
 fancy that I wanted some cream toast. I asked 
 my daughter, a girl of about fifteen, to make it 
 
IS2 INVALID COOKERY. 
 
 for me. She did so, and when she brought it to 
 me I cried just as hard as I could cry. She 
 had put it on to a plate that I particularly hated, 
 and the very sight of it took away my appetite. 
 The child was as distressed as I was, for she 
 really wanted to serve me. I could have boxed 
 my own ears when I got better and thought it 
 over, but it was a very serious matter at the 
 time. However, it was a lesson my girl will 
 never forget, and I am sure the next time she is 
 called upon to serve an invalid, she will bring 
 the best china plate in the house." 
 
 Now part of the teaching at the school is how 
 to serve as well as how to cook. The tray for 
 the invalid must be carefully prepared ; the 
 tray cloth must be spotless, and the dishes nice 
 and fresh. Then, do not put on so much food 
 that it takes away the appetite to look at it; it 
 is easy to replenish if more is wanted. What 
 you are to do is to coax the unwilling appetite, 
 by literally making things look "good enough 
 to eat." Take care that nothing spills in carry- 
 
INVALID COOKERY. 153 
 
 ing, from cup, bowl or glass. If hot food is to 
 be served, cover it so that it may not be cooled 
 while it is taken from the kitchen to the sick 
 room. A little heed will enable you to do all 
 this, and you may be as adept at serving your 
 invalid as you are in cooking for her. 
 
 Probably nothing — unless it be gruel — is 
 oftener used in the invalid's room than toast. 
 It seems a very simple thing to make and yet 
 nothing can be more easily spoiled. It may be 
 burned, when the scorched taste will make it 
 unpalatable ; or it may be so quickly done that 
 the outside will be hard, while the inside of the 
 slice will be clammy and consequently indigest- 
 ible. It should be neither; but should be dry 
 all through, and of a delicate golden brown. 
 Stale bread should be used, and it should be 
 cut in even slices, about a quarter of an inch 
 thick ; no thicker, certainly. When it is cut put 
 it on a toaster or fork, and move it gently over 
 the fire until it is dry ; then hold it nearer the 
 fire until it is a beautiful golden brown. If 
 
154 INVALID COOKERY. 
 
 plain toast is wanted serve it at once, hot and 
 dry. If plain water toast, or as it is oftener 
 called, " wet butter toast," is desired, you will 
 prepare the slices as for the dry toast ; have a 
 shallow pan with one pint of boiling water and 
 one half a teaspoonful of salt in it. Dip each 
 slice of dry toast quickly in the water, then 
 spread with butter and serve very hot. Perhaps 
 it will be milk toast your invalid will want; then 
 you will observe the following rules : Prepare 
 the bread, as if for the plain dry toast. For the 
 "dip" you will use materials in the following 
 proportion : 
 
 One cup of milk, scalded, one half a table- 
 spoonful of corn starch, or one tablespoonful 
 of flour ; one half a tablespoonful of butter, 
 and one half a teaspoonful of salt. Melt 
 the butter in a granite saucepan, add the dry 
 corn starch or flour, mix well together, taking 
 care that the mixture does not burn ; add one 
 third of the milk, which has been heated in the 
 double boiler, stir well as it boils and thickens. 
 
INVALID COOKERY. 155 
 
 then add half the remaining milk, stir again, 
 until it is smooth and entirely free from lumps ; 
 when it is quite smooth add the remainder of 
 the milk and the salt. Pour this dip between 
 each slice of toast, and over the whole. If 
 you want the slices to be soft, dip them in hot 
 salted water before pouring the dip or sauce 
 over them. 
 
 You will follow these same directions in mak- 
 ing toast for the family table. They are at once 
 the easiest and the most correct. You will find 
 them prove very nice, too, I am sure. 
 
 Perhaps this is as good a place as any to tell 
 you that the cream for the toast is the " white 
 sauce " or " cream sauce " that is used for so 
 many purposes in cooking. Whenever you have 
 a rule given you that says " make a white sauce," 
 you may turn to this cream dip, and there you 
 have it. Made a bit thicker it is used to mix 
 croquettes, to cream fish, to pour over vege- 
 tables that you serve a la creme, as it is called. 
 Like many another high-sounding article of 
 
156 INVALID COOKERY. 
 
 food, it is very simple when reduced to its low- 
 est terms. This sauce with egg boiled hard 
 and cut up in it is " egg sauce ; " with capers 
 added to it, it is " caper sauce ; " you may flavor 
 it in as many ways as you desire, with lemon, 
 onion juice, cayenne, the kind of seasoning you 
 use depending upon the use you are to make of 
 it. As you progress in your knowledge of cook- 
 ing you will soon come to know that many an 
 every-day dish is hidden under a fine, high- 
 sounding name. 
 
 Of course it is quite necessary that you shall 
 know how to make gruels, for they are much 
 used in sickness. One of the most commonly- 
 used gruels is that made from oatmeal. The 
 girls at the school kitchen get to the point 
 where they do this very nicely, and I think one 
 of the most satisfactory features of the cooking 
 exhibition that was given one spring in con- 
 nection with the sewing exhibition, was the 
 " invalid cookery." There were glasses of beef 
 tea and lemonade, molds of blanc-mange and 
 
INVALID COOKERY. 157 
 
 bowls of gruel. More comment was elicited by 
 these dishes than by any of the others. For 
 some reason or other the visitors seemed 
 surprised at seeing them ; they evidently had 
 not understood the full scope of the School 
 Kitchen work. 
 
 But we must make the gruel, and not content 
 ourselves with merely talking of it. Pound one 
 half a cup of coarse oatmeal until it is mealy ; 
 the best way to do this is to tie it in a coarse 
 cloth, and pound it with a wooden mallet. It is 
 thus bruised without waste. Put it into a 
 tumbler with cold water ; stir it well and when 
 the sediment has settled pour ofif the mealy 
 water into a saucepan. Fill it again with water, 
 stirring it, letting it settle and pouring off as 
 before. Do this a third time, being very careful 
 each time not to disturb the sediment in pouring. 
 Boil this water which you turned off for twenty 
 minutes, stirring it often. Add one saltspoonful 
 of salt, and if it is too thick add a little cream 
 or milk. 
 
158 INVALID COOKERY. 
 
 In making the gruel this way you get all 
 the nourishing quality of the meal, as that 
 mixes with the water, and only the hulls, or 
 coarse indigestible portion is left. It is not a 
 difficult piece of work, and I think you will find 
 it very satisfactory. 
 
 The old-fashioned "milk porridge " is another 
 of the invalid dishes that is taught. It is rarely 
 one finds anybody except the trained nurse or 
 the old-time housel;eeper who makes it nowa- 
 days. I don't think it is so palatable as either 
 the oatmeal or Indian meal gruel; but there are 
 some diseases in which it is better for the pa- 
 tient than either of these. The doctor will 
 always order it when he finds it needed, and all 
 you have to do is to follow the school rule for 
 making, and your invalid will get just what the 
 doctor meant she should have. You will use 
 two dozen raisins quartered, two cups of milk, 
 one tablespoonful of flour and one saltspoonful 
 of salt. Boil the raisins in a little water for 
 twenty minutes ; let the water boil away and 
 
INVALID COOKERY. 159 
 
 add the milk ; when this boils add the flour, 
 which you have rubbed to a thin paste with cold 
 water, and boll it for at least eight or ten min- 
 utes. Season it with salt, and strain before you 
 serve it. You see how very simple all this is. 
 Surely your sick-room cookery is not going to 
 prove very difficult. 
 
 The delicate appetite of the convalescent will 
 be tempted almost invariably by blanc-mange. 
 There are many preparations from which it may 
 be made — farina, corn starch or arrowroot ; 
 but that which is the most highly considered is 
 made from the Irish moss; the genuine blanc- 
 mange, as it was originally made. You will 
 take to a quarter of a cup of Irish moss one 
 pint of milk, one half a saltspoonful of salt, and 
 one half a teaspoonful of vanilla. Soak the 
 moss in cold water until it is soft ; pick it over 
 carefully and wash it, removing anything that 
 may adhere to it, so that it shall be perfectly* 
 clean. When it is thus prepared tie it in a thin 
 lace bag, and put it into the double boiler with 
 
l6o INVALID COOKERY. 
 
 the milk ; boil until you find that it will thicken 
 when it is dropped upon a cold plate. That is 
 your test for it. Then add the salt, strain it 
 and add the flavoring. Wet a mold or a cup 
 in cold water, and pour the blanc-mange into it; 
 when it cools put it upon the ice until you wish 
 to serve it ; when you are ready for it turn it 
 out into a pretty dish, and serve sugar and cream 
 with it. Like the toast, the blanc-mange may 
 be made in this way for tea, or for a dinner 
 dessert. It is " none too good " for any of us, I 
 assure you. 
 
 Irish moss also is used to make a jelly that is 
 at once palatable and delicate, and is very 
 grateful to the fever-parched lips of a sick per- 
 son. Use one half a cup of Irish moss,- four 
 figs, one pint of boiling water, one lemon or 
 orange, one third of a cup of sugar. Prepare 
 the moss as for the blanc-mange by soaking, 
 picking over and washing. Put it into the boil- 
 ing water, add the figs and the thin rind of the 
 lemon. Simmer until the moss is dissolved, 
 
INVALID COOKERY. l6l 
 
 then add the lemon or orange juice and the 
 sugar, and strain into a cold wet mold. 
 
 Beef tea is an important adjunct in the list of 
 invalid dishes. It is used to stimulate and 
 nourish when the system has need of quick 
 recuperation. This tea that is given here is the 
 genuine extract of beef, containing all the 
 strengthening properties, and the full nourish- 
 ment of the meat. It is not always given in its 
 full strength, but diluted with hot water until it 
 is at the strength desired by the physician. In 
 making it always select the juciest beef, quite 
 without regard to tenderness. Indeed, the ten- 
 derer the meat is, the less juicy it will be found. 
 The lower part of the round is usually found to 
 be the best for beef tea. It must be absolutely 
 free from fat, only the lean meat being available. 
 Cut the beef into quarter-inch dice-shaped 
 pieces, and put them in a wide-mouthed bottle ; 
 cover the bottle and set it on a tin in a kettle 
 of cold water. Set this over the fire and heat 
 it gradually. When it comes to a boil keep it 
 
1 62 INVALID COOKERY. 
 
 gently simmering until the meat is perfectly 
 white, looking like pieces of India rubber. 
 Then strain out the juice, press it all out from 
 the pieces of meat, and season to the taste with 
 salt. In making your tea this way you see that 
 you will get the actual juice of the beef; every 
 particle is extracted, so that the nourishing 
 properties are all obtained. 
 
 You should know how to make at least one 
 or two cooling drinks for the sick room. Sup- 
 pose we take lemonade and eggnog. For the 
 first use to every lemon one tablespoonful of 
 sugar, and one cup of boiling water. Remove 
 the peel in very thin parings, put them into a 
 bowl, add the boiling water, and let it stand ten 
 minutes, covered. Add the lemon juice and the 
 sugar, stir it well to dissolve the sugar. If hot 
 lemonade is desired, strain it at once and it is 
 ready ; if you wish it cold, set it aside and when 
 it is cool, strain it. You may add ice if you 
 desire, and the doctor allows it. To make an 
 eggnog, you will separate the white and yolk of 
 
INVALID COOKERY. 1 63 
 
 one egg, and beat the yolk with a tablespoonful 
 of sugar until it is light and creamy ; add to this 
 one half a cup of milk ; then beat the white of 
 the egg to a foam, and stir it lightly into the 
 beaten yolk, sugar and milk. It is a delicious 
 and a nourishing drink. Try it some day, when 
 hungry and tired, and see if I'm not right. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 NORMAL TRAINING. 
 
 IT has been quite impossible, within the 
 limits of these chapters, to give the entire 
 work of the school-kitchens for a year, but if I 
 have been successful in even indicating what is 
 done in the line of accomplishment I shall be 
 glad. I hope you don't find figures stupid, be- 
 cause I wish to give you a few facts to remem- 
 ber, and use ; for you know you are to be 
 earnest workers in the endeavor to have school- 
 kitchens introduced into every city and town in 
 the country. Do you think this a very hard 
 task ? Well, if any one of you had the entire 
 work to accomplish, you might hesitate before 
 beginning it. But there are a great many of 
 you to undertake the labor. Recall what I said 
 164 
 
NORMAL TRAINING. 1 65 
 
 not long since about forming public opinion. 
 It would be impossible for any one of you to 
 work for the establishment of school-kitchens 
 all over the United States, but each one may 
 use her influence in whatever place she chances 
 to be, and it will be the united effort of so 
 many that will tell in the result. 
 
 Of course it is quite necessary that you shall 
 be in possession of facts so that you may pre- 
 sent them to the people whom you wish to 
 convince. It does no good merely to make a 
 general statement — skeptical people have a 
 way of demanding proof of your assertion — 
 and I hope to give you something that shall 
 serve you well in your work as an advocate of 
 industrial training. 
 
 When the school-kitchens were first estab- 
 lished in Boston, some of the people who had 
 opposed them most earnestly said they would 
 interfere with the regular school-duties; and 
 that if so much time was given to outside work 
 the scholarship would suffer. But it has not ; 
 
l66 NORMAL TRAINING. 
 
 on the contrary, teachers say that the girls come 
 back to their studies refreshed from the change 
 of occupation. You will probably meet this 
 same argument — it is a favorite one — and 
 there is your reply ready. 
 
 After the school had been in operation about 
 a year, all the mothers who had daughters at- 
 tending the kitchens, were asked to give their 
 opinion of the school and its results. Out of 
 over eight hundred mothers who were seen, 
 only two expressed themselves as opposed or 
 indifferent. All the rest were pleased, and 
 grateful for the opportunity given to their 
 daughters. 
 
 Many of them said that they had not been 
 able to give their girls instruction at home for 
 lack of time, others could not risk the waste of 
 materials, and they were glad to have them have 
 the training because it was what every girl 
 needed ; every one testified to the good the teach- 
 ing had accomplished and told with pardonable 
 pride what the girls had done at home. Some 
 
NORMAL TRAINING. 167 
 
 of them had even taught their mothers better 
 ways of doing things than they had ever known, 
 and you would have been both pleased and 
 amused to hear the proud tone in the mother's 
 voice, as she told of her little girl's achieve- 
 ment. One poor Russian Jewess who could 
 with difficulty express herself in English, said 
 to the visitor : 
 
 "I wish much thank to the congregation for 
 give my girl to make so much of good." 
 
 She did well with her limited English, I 
 think. 
 
 And now about the cost, which is an im- 
 portant consideration. The greatest expense 
 comes in the fitting up of the kitchen. I can 
 really give you no idea what that will be, even 
 approximately, but I am sure if you were to 
 ask Miss Romans, No. 26 Berwick Park, Bos- 
 ton, she would give you all the information you 
 would need, and help you in any way in which 
 she could, for no one is more interested in this 
 work than she. 
 
l68 NORMAL TRAINING. 
 
 Then there would be the salary of the 
 teacher ; that would be the same as is paid to 
 any grammar-school teacher. Sometimes two 
 or three small towns that are near together em- 
 ploy the same teacher, each town paying a pro- 
 portionate part of the salary, and in this way 
 doing what they might not feel able to do if 
 each one had to bear the whole expense. Here 
 you see one of the practical workings of co- 
 operation, concerning which so much is said 
 nowadays. I can tell you this much about the 
 cost of material, however ; the cost for each 
 pupil for a lesson is a fraction less than two 
 cents. No one can complain much about that, 
 and be reasonable. If you are asked if it is 
 possible to keep the expense as small in other 
 places as in Boston, you can assure your ques- 
 tioner that it is. 
 
 The Boston normal training-school for cook- 
 ing-teachers provides that the teaching shall be 
 uniform, and the course studied is to be adopted 
 in every school, and this insures a uniform cost. 
 
NORMAL TRAINING. 169 
 
 This school has already graduated several pupils, 
 and every one has found a place waiting for her 
 when she has graduated. You can see by this 
 that the work is being carried forward as rapidly 
 as teachers can be got ready. The great danger 
 is in beginning the work before you are alto- 
 gether prepared. There is as much danger 
 in undue haste, as there is in delay. I am not 
 altogether certain that there isn't more. In any 
 important matter like this it is safe to make 
 haste slowly. No matter how anxious you are 
 to see this work begin in your own town, wait 
 until you can secure a teacher trained in the 
 normal school, and do not fall into the mis- 
 taken notion that anybody can teach cooking 
 who can cook. A mistake at the beginning 
 would be fatal, and you could never again 
 awaken interest in the subject. 
 
 Some of you may be specially interested in 
 this traiping-school and for such I will say a 
 little more about what is done there. In the 
 first place, every applicant for admission must 
 
170 NORMAL TRAINING. 
 
 be acquainted with the theory of teaching, and 
 it is considered a great point in her favor if she 
 is a graduate of some Normal school. She 
 should possess that particular qualification for 
 the work — a liking for it ; and she should deter- 
 mine to devote herself to it to the exclusion of 
 all other branches, and be a power in her line 
 of teaching, 
 
 There is no use in taking up any work in a 
 half-hearted way; and if a pupil does not show 
 herself disposed to do her best in the school, 
 her continuance in the class is not encouraged. 
 The teachers very soon discover if a student 
 is lacking in the ability to do the work, and 
 if there is any doubt of her ultimate success 
 as a teacher of cooker}' she is kindly ad- 
 vised to turn her efforts in another direction. 
 That is fair treatment, certainly, and kindly too. 
 For the whole future of a girl may be spoiled 
 by allowing her to make a failure when good 
 advice, honestly given, might ffave turned her 
 in the direction of success. And that is why 
 
NORMAL TRAINING. 171 
 
 I am SO glad of the interest and care that 
 the managers of this particular school give 
 to the pupils. 
 
 When a student has taken the course, passed 
 the examination, and received her certificate, 
 then she may feel that she is well equipped 
 for the work, for no certificate would be given 
 her had she not won it, you may be sure. The 
 course of study includes, beside cooking, les- 
 sons in chemistry by the most competent 
 teachers, and with the practice lessons in both 
 branches, there are frequent lectures by well- 
 know specialists. 
 
 And now for the results with the pupils of 
 the public schools. I have been often asked 
 whether any real good was accomplished by the 
 training — that is, whether the children did any 
 of the work at home which they were taught at 
 the school. I may best reply to this question 
 by quoting from the report made by the com- 
 mittee on manual training. During one year 
 the Boston Public School girls cooked over 
 
172 NORMAL TRAINING. 
 
 seventeen thousand dishes at home. There 
 were two thousand under instruction, so you 
 may easily reckon how much each girl did. Of 
 course some always do more than others, that 
 is so in everything, you know. But the pupils 
 of the schools are required to tell the teacher 
 what they do at home, and how successful the 
 work is, because only in that way is it possible 
 to get at the results of the general work. 
 
 If you could see into some of the homes, and 
 know what of comfort has come to them since 
 the girls have learned how to cook well, you 
 would be soon convinced that there is a moral 
 as well as a practical side to the matter. At 
 least one man has been led to give up his prac- 
 tice of going daily to the saloon at eleven 
 o'clock for the drink of whiskey to " set him 
 up," by the nice cup of chocolate and the corn- 
 cake which his little daughter gives him for 
 breakfast in place of the sloppy tea and dry 
 baker's bread which he used to have. It is 
 much easier to be good when one is comfortably 
 
NORMAl fRAINING. 173 
 
 fed than when one is put off with insufficient 
 and illy-cooked food. So you see you have .a 
 moral as well as a statistical argument. 
 
 And now, dear girls, whom I have come to 
 love very dearly, even without a glimpse of your 
 faces, good-b}', and, as Tiny Tim says, 
 
 "God bless us, every one!" 
 

 
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