Last Day
"Oh, Aunt Jane, must you really go next week? Can't you stay just a little longer? What shall we do without you?" "It's very hard for me to go, Gracie, but you must remember that there are some people waiting at home who have had to do without me all summer. And then Amy must be back in time for the opening of school." "I shall miss Amy so much!" said Mabel plaintively. "Oh, you and Amy must write to each other and tell all your experiences, and next summer I hope your mamma will bring you both to see us." "Don't you think it would be a good thing," said Mrs. Vernon, who came in at that moment, "to have one grand cooking frolic to close up with, and ask both the other families in? Considering what famous little cooks these girls have become, I think it would be quite exciting." "It's an excellent idea," replied Mrs. King. must look over our recipes and pick out the nicest, and "We try to show ourselves off to the best possible advantage.. I really think we can make a very creditable display." "What do you say to the day after to-morrow?" asked Mrs. Vernon. "That will give us time to get ready without crowding, and it won't carry the children's excitement about it over into another week." "That will suit me as well as any time," replied Mrs. King, "and I want to collect all my 'cooking-class' this afternoon to give them some additional recipes that they can try by themselves in the winter, and see how much they remember of what I have told them. I think they are pretty well grounded in the art."
Accordingly the class was called together for a general examination and review. They thought it great fun, and ranged themselves in a straight line just as they did at school in spelling-class, so that they could "go up and down" when anybody missed. Then Aunt Jane began her catechism, passing on the questions to the next in order if they were not answered promptly. "What is the first thing you must provide yourselves with when you are going to cook?" "Clean hands and nails and tidy hair." "Next?" "Clean aprons." "What must you have in the kitchen?" "A good fire and plenty of hot water." "What is the rule about dishes and other utensils?" "To use just as few as we possibly can, and manage so as to take the same one for several things when it won't spoil the taste of what we're making." "What ought you to do with flour?" "Sift it, always." "What must you do in breaking eggs?" "Break each one into a separate saucer before you put it with the rest." "And if you accidentally get one in that isn't fresh?" "Throw away the whole dishful!" "How about separating the yolks and whites?" "Break them separate for all kinds of delicate cake, or for anything that is to be very light. But the recipes generally give you directions." "Is there anything where it is best not to separate them?" "Baked custards, and gingerbread, and such things." "Rather indefinite, but no matter. When must you use 'cooking butter'?" "Never!" "And skim-milk?" "Never when you can get any other." "In making cake, what do you do first?" "Rub the butter to a cream, and then put the sugar with it, and then the yolks of the eggs (after you have beaten them.)" "How do you generally put in white of egg?" "Alternately with the flour, unless you have different directions." "And soda?" "The last thing, except flour, and then you must bake anything immediately and not let it stand." "How do you prepare the soda?" "Dissolve it in something-warm water, or sometimes, vinegar." "And cream tartar or baking-powder?' "Sift it with the flour." "What kind of things need salt?" "Almost everything except jelly or preserves." "When you pour milk out of a pitcher or bowl where it has been standing, what must you do?" "Be careful you do not pour out any dregs or black specks that may be at the bottom." "When you are going to use gelatine or tapioca, what then?" "Think of it a long time beforehand, and put it to soak." "How do you strain jelly?" "Pour it into a bag and then don't touch it till it has all run through." "Suppose it won't run through?" "Then you set it, very carefully, in a hotter place." "How do you make pastry?" "In a cold place, and hardly touching it with your hands." "And when there is more than one layer of it?" "Wet the parts that touch each other with ice-water." "What do you do with tea-pots and coffee-pots?" "Scald them before you begin, and empty and wash and wipe them as soon as they are done with." "Is there anything else that you heat before using it?" "All sorts of tins to bake cake in." "What is your rule in regard to seasoning and flavoring?" "Better put in too little than too much; you must keep trying it unless there is an exact quantity mentioned." "What must you be sure to do when you are cooking for sick people?" "Have everything ready at the time it is ordered, and be very neat and nice about serving it." "How do you keep flour from getting lumpy?" "By mixing it very smooth, first with a little milk or water, and afterward adding the rest to it slowly." "When you want to put eggs into boiling milk what do you do?" "Take the milk off the fire and pour it into the eggs, stirring them all the time." "What is your rule for baking cake nicely?" "Not to open the oven doors any more than you can help after the cake is in; only you must be sure not to let it burn." "How can you keep things from burning that are on top of the stove?" "Cook them inside another thing that has boiling water in it." "When you are poaching eggs or boiling them in their shells, how should the water be?" "Only simmering and not boiling violently." "How can you keep Indian meal from having that raw taste that is so common in things made with it?" "By scalding the meal so that no part of it is not wet with the boiling milk or water." "How can you make pie-crust look nice and as if it had been freshly baked?" "By heating it a little in the oven just before it is sent to table." "I must say," said Aunt Jane when all these questions had been asked and answerea, "I think you stand examination very well. I hope you won't let your knowledge rust out for want of practice. Now you know I've given you a mere sprinkling of recipes from among the thousands you might make if you had time and opportunity. Is there anything else you would like to have directions for?" "Doughnuts," exclaimed two or three voices at once. "Fortunately," said Aunt Jane, “I have an excellent recipe for them. When I was a little girl we did'nt know that doughnuts could be made in any other way than raised with yeast; but you can make such good ones with soda that one does'nt miss the yeast at all, and it is much less trouble."
No. 197-JENNY'S DOUGHNUTS.
Two cups sugar, four tablespoonfuls melted lard, four eggs, one pint sour milk, one heaping teaspoonful soda and one of nutmeg; flour enough to roll out with. " I ought to tell you also that risen bread dough with a lump of butter kneaded into it makes very nice crust for dumplings; and in my young days we used to think that plain dough made into balls about the size of an apple and boiled a long time, made the most delicious dumplings in the world when they were eaten hot with molasses." "Don't you think, Mrs. King," said Edith, "that it seems sometimes rather a pity to spend so much time and money on things that are used up so soon, and after all don't do you any more good than plain ones?" "If each one was cooking for herself alone I should think it a very poor business," answered Aunt Jane; "but when you think how much our social pleasure is increased by having nice things, and that when we make them we are gratifying our fathers and mothers and brothers, it doesn't seem so much like waste time. To enjoy cooking you must never think of your own satisfaction in eating what you make, but of the pleasure you are going to give others." "I read a very funny story about a man's cooking, lately," said Rose. "I think any of us would have more sense than he did, if we are little girls." "What was it, my dear?" asked her aunt. "It was about Lord Byron and some of his friends. They had a receipt for a very rich plum-pudding and wanted to have a great treat; they were in some foreign country, I forget exactly where, and they had to teach their cook how to make this dish which he had never heard of. So after going to great trouble to get the materials, and following the directions as precisely as they possibly could, finally the pudding came to table, but it was in the form of soup; they had forgotten the bag!"
The girls laughed heartily at this, and at the thought of Lord Byron's blank face when he took off the cover and looked into the tureen. "You never gave us any receipt for plum-pudding, Aunt Jane," they said. "Any common bread-pudding may be made as rich as you please by adding fruit almost ad libitum," replied she. "You can just mix in currants and raisins (well washed and well seeded always, remember), until it looks full enough. A real old-fashioned plum-pudding one seldom sees now except at Christmas, but I can give you a very fine recipe for one.