The Century Cook Book Part 7

To make plain cornstarch pudding, page 397.

A compote to serve with cornstarch pudding, page 535.

Cottage pudding, sabayon sauce, pages 435 and 446.

Cup cake, page 470.

Cookies, page 481.

Plain pie-crust, page 451.

Baked apple-dumplings, hard sauce, pp. 429 and 448.

Some variations of cornstarch pudding, page 398.

Plain wine-jelly, page 415.

When a woman has learned to do these few simple things perfectly, she will have no difficulty in following any ordinary receipt, and having a knowledge of the first principles of cooking, can then advance to more elaborate dishes.

Frying should not be attempted until she can roast, broil, and bake.

Croquettes of various kinds can then be made; to mold them uniformly requires a little practice--the care of the fat and the right degree of heat are the essential things to emphasize in frying.

In one month a woman of ordinary intelligence, with the desire to learn, should be able to make perfectly, and serve attractively, enough simple dishes to supply the family table with sufficient variety, without troubling the mistress to plan and think for her.

An insistence upon system and exactness will insure immunity from failures.

ECONOMICAL LIVING

A very pleasant book called "$10.00 Enough" explains how a family of two lived well on that sum per week, including house rent and wages of one servant. Mrs. Rorer says $2.00 per head a week is a liberal allowance. Articles are published giving directions for living on ten cents a day; also of dinners for six people costing twenty-five cents. In examining these formulae it is evident that in order to accomplish this very small cost of living, one must first understand the comparative values of foods, so as to select those which at low prices furnish the necessary nourishment, and secondly, to be able to cook them in such a way as to make them acceptable; in fact the rule holds good, however high the scale of living, that the proper cooking of food counts for more than the cost of it. The cheap and the expensive articles can be equally spoiled in the cooking; while the cheap ones, well cooked, are more esteemed than the high-priced ones poorly prepared. The first thing excluded from the list of cheap nutritive foods is white bread.

Refining the flour to the whiteness of the so-called best qualities takes out most of its nutritive elements, while the lower grades or brown flours retain the gluten, and make a bread which is preferred when one becomes familiar with it.

Beans, peas, and corn-meal have an important place on the list of accepted foods. They supply the wastes of the system and afford a hearty meal. Meat, which is the most expensive food, has come to be regarded here as a necessity, but in the old countries the cla.s.ses who perform the hardest labor consider it only as a luxury, and seldom use it oftener than once a week.

Often the cost of living is more in the waste than in the actual consumption of food. Another needless and unwise expense is buying more than is required, providing for three persons enough for six; and still another extravagance is in buying articles which are out of season. For instance, in the spring veal is a very cheap meat; in the autumn it is the most expensive one, but, at the right times, one may indulge in sweetbreads, calf's head, calf's brains, and liver. In its season game is frequently abundant and reasonably cheap. The idea prevails that, in order to have variety, it is necessary to buy whatever the market offers, whereas variety may be attained by variation in the ways of cooking, in serving with different sauces, and with different accompaniments, and in arranging the menu so that one course is in pleasing contrast to the preceding one, thus avoiding surfeit.

Many pieces of meat of the best quality are sold at low rates because not in shapes to be served as boiling or roasting pieces. These serve well for entrees and made-up dishes; other pieces, which are tough, but well flavored, can by slow cooking be made as tender as the prime cuts, such as a round of beef braised.

On page 249 will be found a number of menus and receipts for very inexpensive dinners.

[Sidenote: Mushrooms.]

Mr. Gibson, in an interesting article on "Mushrooms,"

published in "Harper's Magazine" for August, 1894, calls attention to the vast amount of wholesome and nutritious food that lies at the door of every country dweller. City people pay at least a dollar a pound for mushrooms, which are served at the finest dinners, and are considered as among the best articles for use in high-cla.s.s cooking. Therefore, why should they be scorned or overlooked by those who can have them for the gathering? Neglect to use them seems equal in wastefulness to the practice of some country butchers, who throw away calves' heads, brains, sweetbreads, fresh tongues, etc., because the people have not learned their value. A French family who moved into a western town reported that the cost of living there was nominal, because the foods which they most prized, not being recognized as belonging on the list of comestibles, were given away by the butchers as food for dogs.

Mushrooms are very distinctive in feature, and by the aid of descriptions given in books and colored charts, one can easily learn the edible varieties which grow in his neighborhood. By taking no risks in eating those not perfectly recognized, there is no danger of being poisoned. It is not thought difficult to learn varieties of the rose, nor to discriminate between the poison and the innocuous ivy. The form, color, and habitat of mushrooms make them equally easy to recognize. Care should be taken, however, to avoid any mushroom which is old or partly decayed, as its condition then is a.n.a.logous to that of putrid meat. In their season the edible fungi grow in great profusion; they are nitrogenous, containing the same nutritive elements as meat, and well serve as a subst.i.tute for it, giving a pleasant change to the limited bill of frugal fare.

Mr. Gibson speaks of them as beefsteaks. They seem from circ.u.mstances, therefore, to have a place in the dietary of the poor as well as the rich. Receipts for cooking mushrooms are given on page 314.

It is sometimes thought to be an extravagance to serve a roast to a small family, because so much meat is left over. When there is no way known of presenting it again except as cold meat or as hash, it may indeed be disagreeable to have the same meat served four times. A good cook, however, served turkey acceptably at four dinners to a family of three persons in this way:

FIRST DAY'S DINNER

10 lbs. turkey at 16 cents per lb. $1.60 1 quart sweet potatoes boiled .10 2 quarts apples (of which she used three for baked apple dumplings, sabayon sauce, page 446) .15 1 egg .03 1 lemon .02 1/2 cup sugar .01 -- .06 -- Cost of first day's dinner $1.91

SECOND DAY'S DINNER

2 lbs. codfish boiled .20

HOLLANDAISE SAUCE (page 281).

2 eggs .06 1/4 lb. b.u.t.ter .08 1/2 lemon .01 -- .15 6 croquettes made of one cupful of turkey meat .00

SAUCE TO MIX THEM

1/2 cup milk .01 1/2 tablespoonful b.u.t.ter .01 1 egg .03 -- .05

1/2 tablespoonful flour (see croquettes, page 293) 1 pint cranberries .09 Sweet potatoes left from day before, cut in strips and browned (see page 206) .00

BROWN BETTY PUDDING

Apples from day before .00 Mola.s.ses and crumbs .05 -- .05 -- Cost of second dinner .54

THIRD DAY'S DINNER

Soup made from carca.s.s of turkey .00

CHICKEN SOUFFLe (page 190).

1 cup turkey meat .00

SAUCE TO MIX IT

1 tablespoonful b.u.t.ter .02 1 cup milk .04 3 eggs .09 Other ingredients .02 -- .17

BAKED MACARONI

1/2 lb. macaroni .04 Cheese .05 -- .09

COTTAGE PUDDING

1 egg .03 1/2 cup sugar .01 1/2 cup milk .02 1 tablespoonful b.u.t.ter .03 Baking powder .01 -- .10

CHOCOLATE SAUCE (page 447).