A Little Cook Book for a Little Girl Part 1

A Little Cook Book for a Little Girl.

by Caroline French Benton.

INTRODUCTION

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Margaret, and she wanted to cook, so she went into the kitchen and tried and tried, but she could not understand the cook-books, and she made dreadful messes, and spoiled her frocks and burned her fingers till she just had to cry.

One day she went to her grandmother and her mother and her Pretty Aunt and her Other Aunt, who were all sitting sewing, and asked them to tell here about cooking.

''What is a roux,'' she said, ''and what's a mousse and what's an entree? What are timbales and sautes and ingredients, and how do you mix 'em and how long do you bake 'em? Won't somebody please tell me all about it?''

And her Pretty Aunt said, ''See the flour all over that new frock!''

and her mother said, ''Dear child, you are not old enough to cooks yet;'' and her grandmother said, ''Just wait a year or two, and I'll teach you myself;'' and the Other Aunt said, ''Some day you shall go to cooking-school and learn everything; you know little girls can't cook.''

But Margaret said, ''I don't want to wait till I'm big; I want to cook now; and I don't want to do cooking-school cooking, but little girl cooking, all by myself.''

So she kept on trying to learn, but she burned her fingers and spoiled her dresses worse than ever, and her messes were so bad they had to be thrown out, every one of them; and she cried and cried.

And then one day her grandmother said, ''It's a shame that child should not learn to cook if she really wants to so much;'' and her mother said ''Yes, it is a shame, and she shall learn! Let's get her a small table and some tins and ap.r.o.ns, and make a little cook-book all her own out of the old ones we wrote for ourselves long ago,--just the plain, easy things anybody can make.'' And both her aunts said, ''Do! We will help, and perhaps we might put in just a few cooking-school things beside.''

It was not long after this that Margaret had a birthday, and she was taken to the kitchen to get her presents, which she thought the funniest thing in the world. There they all were, in the middle of the room: first her father's present, a little table with a white oilcloth cover and casters, which would push right under the big table when it was not being used. Over a chair her grandmother's present, three nice gingham ap.r.o.ns, with sleeves and ruffled bibs. On the little table the presents of the aunties, shiny new tins and saucepans, and cups to measure with, and spoons, and a toasting-fork, and ever so many things; and then on one corner of the table, all by itself, was her mother's present, her own little cook-book, with her own name on it, and that was best of all.

When Margaret had looked at everything, she set out in a row the big bowl and the middle-sized bowl and the little wee bowl, and put the scalloped patty-pans around them, and the real egg-beater in front of all, just like a picture, and then she read a page in her cook-book, and began to believe it was all true. So she danced for joy, and put on a gingham ap.r.o.n and began to cook that very minute, and before another birthday she had cooked every single thing in the book.

This is Margaret's cook-book.

PART I.

THE THINGS MARGARET MADE FOR BREAKFAST

A LITTLE COOK BOOK FOR A LITTLE GIRL

CEREALS

1 quart of boiling water.

4 tablespoonfuls of cereal.

1 teaspoonful of salt.

When you are to use a cereal made of oats or wheat, always begin to cook it the night before, even if it says on the package that it is not necessary. Put a quart of boiling water in the outside of the double boiler, and another quart in the inside, and in this last mix the salt and cereal. Put the boiler on the back of the kitchen range, where it will be hardly cook at all, and let it stand all night. If the fire is to go out, put it on so that it will cook for two hours first. In the morning, if the water in the outside of the boiler is cold, fill it up hot, and boil hard for an hour without stirring the cereal. Then turn it out in a hot dish, and send it to the table with a pitcher of cream.

The rather soft, smooth cereals, such as farina and cream of rice, are to be measured in just the same way, but they need not be cooked overnight; only put on in a double boiler in the morning for an hour.

Margaret's mother was very particular to have all cereals cooked a long time, because they are difficult to digest if they are only partly cooked, even though they look and taste as though they were done.

Corn-meal Mush

1 quart of boiling water.

1 teaspoon of salt.

4 tablespoons of corn-meal.

Be sure the water is boiling very hard when you are ready; then put in the salt, and pour slowly from your hand the corn-meal, stirring all the time till there is not one lump. Boil this half an hour, and serve with cream. Some like a handful of nice plump raisins stirred in, too. It is better to use yellow corn-meal in winter and white in summer.

Fried Corn-meal Mush

Make the corn-meal mush the day before you need it, and when it has cooked half an hour put it in a bread-tin and smooth it over; stand away overnight to harden. In the morning turn it out and slice it in pieces half an inch thick. Put two tablespoons of lard or nice drippings in the frying-pan, and make it very hot.

Dip each piece of mush into a pan of flour, and shake off all except a coating of this. Put the pieces, a few at a time, into the hot fat, and cook till they are brown; have ready a heavy brown paper on a flat dish in the oven, and as you take out the mush lay it on this, so that the paper will absorb the grease. When all are cooked put the pieces on a hot platter, and have a pitcher of maple syrup ready to send to the table with them.

Another way to cook corn-meal mush is to have a kettle of hot fat ready, and after flouring the pieces drop them into the fat and cook like doughnuts. The pieces have to be rather smaller to cook in this way than in the other.

Boiled Rice

1 cup of rice.

2 cups of boiling water.

1 teaspoonful of salt.

Pick the rice over, taking out all the bits of brown husk; fill the outside of the double boiler with hot water, and put in the rice, salt, and water, and cook forty minutes, but do not stir it.

Then take off the cover from the boiler, and very gently, without stirring, turn over the rice with a fork; put the dish in the oven without the cover, and let it stand and dry for ten minutes. Then turn it from the boiler into a hot dish, and cover. Have cream to eat on it. If any rice is left over from breakfast, use it the next morning as--

Fried Rice

Press it into a pan, just as you did the mush, and let it stand overnight; the next morning slice it, dip it in flour, and fry, either in the pan or in the deep fat in the kettle, just as you did the mush.

Farina Croquettes

When farina has been left from breakfast, take it while still warm and beat into a pint of it the beaten yolks of two eggs. Let it then get cold, and at luncheon-time make it into round b.a.l.l.s; dip each one first into the beaten yolk of an egg mixed with a tablespoonful of cold water, and then into smooth, sifted bread-crumbs; have ready a kettle of very hot fat, and drop in three at a time, or, if you have a wire basket, put three in this and sink into the fat till they are brown. Serve in a pyramid, on a napkin, and pa.s.s sc.r.a.ped maple sugar with them.

Margaret's mother used to have no cereal at breakfast sometimes, and have these croquettes as a last course instead, and every one liked them very much.

Rice Croquettes

1 cup of milk.

Yolk of one egg.

1/4 cup of rice.

1 large tablespoonful of powdered sugar.

Small half-teaspoonful of salt.

1/2 cup of raisins and currants, mixed.

1/2 teaspoonful of vanilla.