A LITTLE GIRL’S COOKERY BOOK
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A LITTLE GIRL’S
COOKERY BOOK
BY
CAROLINE FRENCH BENTON
AND
MARY FLORENCE HODGE
MILLS & BOON, LIMITED
49 RUPERT STREET
LONDON, W.
_Published 1911_
CONTENTS
PART I
PAGE
BREAKFAST DISHES 3
PART II
LUNCHEON OR SUPPER DISHES 43
PART III
DINNER AND TEA DISHES, SAUCES AND SWEETS 89
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 cookery books, and she made dreadful messes,
and spoiled her frocks, and burned her fingers till she cried and cried.
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
her about cooking.
“What is a roux,” she said, “and what’s a mousse and what’s an entrée?
What are timbales and sautés and ingredients, and how do you mix them
and how long do you bake them? 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 cook yet”;
and her grandmother said, “Just wait a year or two, and I’ll teach
you myself”; and her Other Aunt said, “Some day you shall go to the
cookery-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 cookery-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 away, 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 aprons, and make her a little cookery-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 cookery-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 oil-cloth
cover and castors, which would push right under the big table when it
was not being used. Over a chair her grandmother’s present, three nice
gingham aprons, 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 cookery-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 round them, and the real egg-beater in front of
all, just like a picture, and then she read a page in her cookery-book,
and began to believe it was all true. So she danced for joy, and put on
a gingham apron and began to cook that very minute, and before another
birthday she had cooked every single thing in the book.
This is Margaret’s cookery-book.
PART I
_BREAKFAST DISHES_
PORRIDGE
1 quart of boiling water.
4 tablespoonfuls of oatmeal.
1 teaspoonful of salt.
When you are going to make porridge, always begin to cook it the
night before. Put a quart of boiling water in the outside of a double
saucepan, and another quart in the inside, and in this last mix the
salt and oatmeal. Put the saucepan on the back of the kitchen range,
where it will 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 saucepan is cold,
fill it up with hot, and boil hard for an hour without stirring the
mixture. Then turn it out in a hot dish, and send it to the table with
a jug of cream.
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 a porridge saucepan with hot water, and put in the rice,
salt, and water, and cook for forty minutes, but do not stir it.
Then take off the cover from the saucepan, 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 saucepan into a hot dish, and put a cover on and serve with
cream.
RICE CROQUETTES
1 cup of milk.
Yolk of 1 egg.
¼ cup of rice.
1 large tablespoonful of powdered sugar.
Small half-teaspoonful of salt.
½ cup of raisins and currants, mixed.
½ teaspoonful of vanilla.
Wash the rice and put it in a double saucepan with the milk, salt, and
sugar and cook till very thick; beat the yolks of the eggs and stir
into the rice, and beat till smooth. Sprinkle the washed raisins and
currants with flour, and roll them in it and mix these in, and last
the vanilla. Turn out on a plate, and let all get very cold. Then make
into pyramids, dip in the yolk of an egg mixed with a tablespoonful of
water, and then into sifted bread-crumbs, and fry in a deep saucepan of
boiling fat, using a wire basket. As you take these from the fat, put
them on paper in the oven with the door open. When all are done, put
them on a hot plate and sift powdered sugar over them, and put a bit of
red jelly on top of each. This is also a nice sweet for luncheon.
EGGS
TO BOIL EGGS
When the water boils, allow three and a half minutes for a lightly
boiled egg, four minutes for better done, and five minutes for
hard-boiled.
POACHED EGGS
Take a pan which is not more than three inches deep, and put in as many
muffin-rings as you wish to cook eggs. Pour in boiling water till the
rings are half covered, and scatter half a teaspoonful of salt in the
water. Let it boil up once, and then draw the pan to the edge of the
stove, where the water will not boil again. Take a cup, break one egg
in it, and gently slide this into a ring, and so on till all are full.
While they are cooking, take some toast and cut it into round pieces
with the biscuit-cutter, then butter them. When the eggs have cooked
ten minutes, take a slice and slip it under one egg with its ring, and
lift the two together on to a piece of toast, and then take off the
ring; and so on with all the eggs. Shake a very little salt and pepper
over the dish, and put parsley round the edge. Sometimes a little
chopped parsley is nice to put over the eggs, too.
POACHED EGGS WITH WHITE SAUCE
Poach what number of eggs you require. Place on rounds of buttered
toast. Have ready a nice creamy sauce as follows:
1 tablespoonful of butter; when melted put in 1 oz. of flour. Mix both
together, add enough milk to the thickness you require, stirring it all
the time. A little cream added greatly improves it; serve with chopped
ham, tongue, or parsley sprinkled over the eggs.
SCRAMBLED EGGS
4 eggs.
2 tablespoonfuls of milk.
½ teaspoonful of salt.
Put the eggs in a bowl and stir till they are well mixed; add the milk
and salt. Make the frying-pan very hot, and put 1 oz. of butter in it;
when it melts, stir it well from side to side, till the bottom of the
pan is covered. Put in the eggs, and stir them, scraping them off the
bottom of the pan until they begin to get a little firm; then draw the
pan to the edge of the stove, and scrape up from the bottom all the
time till the whole looks alike, creamy and firm, but not hard. Put
them in a hot, covered dish.
SCRAMBLED EGGS WITH PARSLEY
Chop enough parsley to make a teaspoonful, and mince half as much
onion. Put the onion in the butter when you heat the pan, and cook the
eggs in it; when you are nearly ready to take the eggs off the fire,
put in the parsley.
After Margaret had learned how to make these perfectly, she began to
mix other things with the eggs.
SCRAMBLED EGGS WITH TOMATO
When Margaret had a few tomatoes she would take them, add a
half-teaspoonful of salt, two shakes of pepper, and a teaspoonful
of chopped parsley, and simmer it all on the fire for five minutes;
then she would cook half a teaspoonful of minced onion in the butter
in the hot frying-pan as before, and turn in the eggs, and when they
were beginning to grow firm put in the tomato. This made a very nice
breakfast dish.
SCRAMBLED EGGS WITH CHICKEN
Chop fine a cup of cold chicken, or any light-coloured meat, such as
veal, and heat it with a tablespoonful of water, a half-teaspoonful
of salt, two shakes of pepper, and a teaspoonful of chopped parsley.
Cook a half-teaspoonful of minced onion in the butter you put in the
hot frying-pan, and turn in the eggs, and when they set, mix in the
chicken.
Sometimes Margaret used tomato, as in the previous recipe, and the
chicken in the eggs, when she wanted to make a large dish.
EGGS BALDWIN
Boil 5 or 6 eggs hard. Put them into cold water, then shell them, make
a white sauce the same as already described on page 8, with pepper and
salt to taste. Remove the yolk from the whites, cut up the whites in
slices, and put into the sauce to boil up for a minute. Pass the yolks
through a wire sieve, put the sauce and egg mixture into a dish, and
decorate the top with the yolk and some chopped parsley.
CREAMED EGGS IN BAKING-DISHES
Cut six hard-boiled eggs into bits, mix with a cup of white sauce, and
put in small baking-dishes which you have buttered. Cover over with
fine, sifted bread-crumbs, and dot with bits of butter, about four to
each dish, and brown in the oven. Stick a bit of parsley in the top of
each, and put each dish on a plate, to serve.
BIRDS’ NESTS
Sometimes, when she wanted something very pretty for breakfast,
Margaret used this recipe:
Break six eggs, putting the whites together in one large bowl, and the
yolks into six cups on the kitchen table. Beat the whites till they
are stiff, putting in half a teaspoonful of salt afterwards. Divide
the whites, putting them into six patty-pans, or small baking-dishes.
Make a little hole or nest in the middle of each, and slip one yolk
carefully from the cup into the place. Sprinkle a little salt and
pepper over them, and put a bit of butter on top, and put the dishes
into a pan and set in the oven till the egg-whites are a little brown.
OMELETTE
Making an omelette seems rather a difficult thing for a little girl,
but Margaret made hers in a very easy way. Her recipe said:
Break four eggs separately. Beat the whites till they are stiff, and
then wash and wipe dry the egg-beater, and beat the yolks till they
foam, and then put in half a teaspoonful of salt. Pour the yolks over
the whites, and mix gently with a large spoon. Have a frying-pan hot,
with a piece of butter melted in it, and spread the butter over the
whole surface; pour the eggs on and let them cook for a moment. Then
take a kitchen palette-knife and slip under an edge, and look to see
if the middle is getting brown, because the colour comes there first.
When it is a nice even colour, slip the knife well under, and turn the
omelette half over, covering one part with the other, and then slip the
whole off on to a hot plate.
The cook had to show Margaret how to manage this the first time, but
after that she could do it alone.
OMELETTE WITH MUSHROOMS
Take a few mushrooms or a bottle of _champignons_, and slice half of
them into thin pieces. Make a cup of very rich white sauce, using cream
instead of milk, and cook the mushrooms in it for one minute. Make the
omelette as before, and cover with the sauce when you turn it over.
EGGS IN CASES
Butter some ramekin cases (china or paper) and put a small piece of
butter and a pinch of chopped parsley, pepper and salt, and break an
egg carefully into each case; add a tablespoonful of cream and a few
browned bread-crumbs. Bake about five minutes.
EGGS WITH CHEESE
6 eggs.
2 full tablespoonfuls Parmesan cheese.
½ teaspoonful salt.
Pinch of red pepper.
Beat the eggs without separating till light and foamy, and then add
the cheese, salt, and pepper. Put a tablespoonful of butter in the
frying-pan, and when it is hot put in the eggs, and stir till smooth
and firm. Serve on small pieces of buttered toast.
Parmesan cheese is very nice to use in cooking; it comes in bottles,
all ready grated to use.
FRIED EGGS AND BACON
Take some bacon and put in a hot frying-pan, and cook till it crisps.
Then lift it out on a hot dish and put in the oven. Break six eggs in
separate cups, and slide them carefully into the fat left in the pan,
and let them cook till they are rather firm and the bottom is brown.
Then take a strainer and take them out carefully, and put in the middle
of the dish, and arrange the bacon all around, with parsley on the edge.
HAM AND EGGS, MOULDED
Take small, deep tins, such as are used for timbales, and butter them.
Make one cup of white sauce; take a cup of cold boiled ham which has
been put through the mincing-machine, and mix with a tablespoonful
of white sauce and one egg, slightly beaten. Press this like a lining
into the tins, and then gently drop a raw egg in the centre of each.
Stand them in a pan of boiling water in the oven till the eggs are
firm--about ten minutes--and turn out on a round dish. Put round them
the rest of the white sauce. You can stand the little moulds on circles
of toast if you wish.
This recipe was given Margaret by her Pretty Aunt, who got it at the
cookery-school; it sounded harder than it really was, and after trying
it once Margaret often used it.
SCOTCH EGGS
3 hard-boiled eggs.
½ lb. of sausages.
1 raw egg.
Bread-crumbs.
Shell the eggs and put them in cold water for a few minutes, then take
out and dry them. Roll them out in flour, then coat each over with
sausage meat, keeping the shape. Next break an egg on a plate, brush
the eggs over with the raw egg and roll them in bread-crumbs, and fry
in the hot fat till a golden brown. To be served on fried bread.
DEVILLED EGGS
Fry four eggs lightly, then trim them neatly with a round cutter and
dish them up. Pour over them the following, put together in a stewpan:
1 oz. of butter, 1 tablespoonful cream, 1 teaspoonful of mustard, 1
teaspoonful of flour, 1 tablespoonful chutney, 1 teaspoonful Worcester
sauce, 4 tablespoonfuls stock. Stir till it comes thick, and pour over
the eggs.
FISH
One day some little fish came home from market, and Margaret felt sure
they must be meant for her to cook. They were called smelts, and, on
looking, she found a recipe for cooking them, just as she had expected.
FRIED SMELTS
Put a deep kettle on the fire, with two cups of lard in it, to get very
hot. Wipe each smelt inside and out with a clean wet cloth, and then
with a dry one. Have a saucer of flour mixed with a teaspoonful of
salt, and another saucer of milk. Put the tail of each smelt through
its gills--that is, the opening near its mouth. Then roll the smelts
first in milk and then in flour, and shake off any lumps. Throw a
bit of bread into the fat in the kettle, and see if it turns brown
quickly; it does if the fat is hot enough, but if not you must wait.
Put four smelts in the wire basket, and stand it in the fat, so that
the fish are entirely covered, for only half a minute, or till you can
count thirty. As you take them out of the kettle, lay them on heavy
brown paper in a pan in the oven, to drain and keep hot, and leave the
door open till all are done. Lay a folded napkin on a long, narrow
dish, and arrange the fishes in a row, with slices of lemon and parsley
on the sides.
FISH CAKES
2 eggs, bread-crumbs, and cold fish.
They are made from any cold fish, by making a nice white sauce, very
thick. Take all the fish from the bones and mash up with salt and
pepper, then put it into the sauce. Stir all up together, turn out in
a dish, and let it get quite cold and hard.
Have ready your boiling fat; roll the fish mixture in your hands the
shape you want the cakes; beat up 2 eggs and brush them over with the
eggs and place in the bread-crumbs. This must be done twice, as then
the fish cakes will not burst. Cook for five minutes.
SCALLOPED FISH
The fish is done just as the fish cakes are, in sauce, but it is turned
out into a dish or pie-dish, which must be buttered, and a layer of
bread-crumbs sprinkled over, with bits of butter put on the top. Place
in an oven till it browns on the top.
PICKLED HERRINGS OR MACKEREL
Split open four or five herrings. Wash them and remove the back-bone.
Roll up from the head end, with their roes inside. Place in a dish,
cover them with vinegar, two bay-leaves, and a few peppercorns and a
few slices of onions; put in the oven with a plate over the dish and
cook till the onion is done; turn them out in any dish and pour the
liquor over them.
DRIED HADDOCK
Place your haddock in a baking-tin and cover it with half milk and half
water. If there is no milk use only water. Put a plate or dish over the
top and put in the oven until it is done. Do not boil it over the fire,
as you lose half the flavour.
SCOTCH DRIED HADDOCK
Hold the haddock in front of the fire till it is warm, then remove the
skin at the back, beginning at the tail. Put it into a grill and let
it cook in front of the fire for five or six minutes. Put butter and
pepper; serve very hot.
FRIED PLAICE OR SOLE
Have the plaice filleted. Wash and dry it, then brush it over with raw
eggs and place it in bread-crumbs. Have your frying fat boiling and put
the plaice in to cook for five minutes. Take out and put on kitchen
paper to drain the fat off. Serve on hot dish, with fish paper under,
and decorate with parsley.
FILLETS OF SOLES WITH WHITE WINE SAUCE
Boil the fillets of soles till done, then make the white sauce. Add a
sherry glass of wine, then put the fillets into the sauce. Allow them
to simmer two or three minutes, then add the yolk of an egg to the
sauce and serve.
HOW TO GRILL ANY FISH FOR BREAKFAST
Split them open. Wash and dry any fish, such as herrings, mackerel,
fresh haddock; kippers are also done this way. Place in the grill and
do in front of the fire; put butter and pepper on to taste. They will
take about ten minutes.
HOW TO BOIL FISH
Rub the skin of the fish with lemon and put salt in water. Wash the
fish first and place it in the fish-kettle with enough water to well
cover it. Let it come up to the boil and afterwards let it gently
simmer until cooked.
FRIED BACON
Margaret’s mother believed there was only one very nice way to cook
bacon. It was like this: Slice the bacon very, very thin, and cut off
the rind. Put the slices in a hot frying-pan for about three minutes.
When both sides are cooked, lay it on a hot dish.
GRILLED CHOPS
Rub the grill with some of the fat, so that the chops will not stick.
Lay in the chops and put over a clear, red fire without flame, and
toast one side first and then the other; do this till they are brown.
Lay on a hot dish, and dust both sides with salt and a tiny bit of
pepper. Put bits of lemon and parsley round, and send to the table very
hot.
FRIED CHOPS
If the fire is not clear, so that you cannot grill the chops, you must
fry them. Take a frying-pan and make it very hot indeed; then lay in
the chops and cook one side very quickly, and then the other, and
after that let them cook more slowly. When they are done--you can tell
by picking open a little place in one with a fork and looking in the
inside--put them on a dish as before, with pepper and salt. If they
are at all greasy, put on kitchen paper in the oven first, to drain,
leaving the door of the oven open. Be careful not to let them get cold.
LIVER AND BACON
Buy half a pound of calf’s liver and half a pound of bacon. Cut the
liver in thin slices and pour boiling water over it, and then wipe
each slice dry. Slice the bacon very thin and cut off the rind; put
this in a hot frying-pan and cook very quickly, turning it once or
twice. Just as soon as it is brown take it out and lay it on a dish.
Take a saucer of flour and mix in it a teaspoonful of salt and a very
little pepper; dip the slices of liver in this, one at a time, and
shake them free of lumps. Lay them in the hot fat of the bacon in the
pan and fry till brown. Put on a hot dish, and then put one slice of
bacon on each slice of liver. Put parsley all round, and sometimes use
slices of lemon, too, for a change.
BACHELOR BREAKFAST
Two slices of bacon fried. Place on them a fried egg and on the top a
cooked tomato which has been fried in a little butter.
GRILLED STEAK
See that the fire is clear and red, without flames. Trim off most of
the fat from the steak, and rub the wires of the grill with it and heat
it over the coals. Then put in the meat and turn over and over as it
cooks, and be careful not to let it get burnt. When brown, put it on a
hot dish, dust over with salt and a very little pepper, and dot it with
tiny lumps of butter. Put parsley round. Steak ought to be pink inside;
not brown and not red. Put a fork in as you did with the chops, and
twist in a little, and you can see when it gets the right colour.
VEAL CUTLET
Dust the meat over with salt, pepper, and flour. Put a tablespoonful
of dripping in a hot frying-pan, and let it heat till it smokes a
little. Lay the meat in and turn it over twice as it cooks, until it
is brown, for veal cutlets must not be eaten red or pink inside. Put
in a hot oven and cover it up while you make the gravy, by putting one
tablespoonful of flour into the hot fat in the pan, stirring it till
it is brown. Then put in a cup of boiling water, half a teaspoonful of
salt, and a very little pepper; put this through the strainer, pressing
it with a spoon, and pour over the meat. Put parsley round the cutlet,
and send hot to the table.
Margaret’s father said he could not possibly manage without potatoes
for breakfast, so sometimes Margaret made something nice out of the
cold potatoes she found in the larder.
CREAMED POTATOES
Cut cold boiled potatoes into pieces as large as the end of your
finger; put them into a pan on the back of the stove, with enough
milk to cover them, and let them stand till they have drunk up all
the milk; perhaps they will slowly cook a little as they do this, but
that will do no harm. In another saucepan, or in the frying-pan, put a
tablespoonful of butter, and when it bubbles put in a tablespoonful of
flour, and stir till they melt together; then put in two cups of hot
milk, and stir till it is all smooth. Put in one teaspoonful of salt,
and lastly the potatoes, but stir them only once while they cook, for
fear of breaking them. Add one teaspoonful of chopped parsley, and put
them in a hot covered dish. You can make another sort of potatoes when
you have finished creaming them in this way, by putting a layer of them
in a deep buttered baking-pan, with a layer of white sauce over the
top, and bread-crumbs and bits of butter for a crust. Brown well in a
hot oven. When you do this, remember to make the sauce with three cups
of milk and two tablespoonfuls of flour and two of butter, and then you
will have enough for everything.
HASHED BROWNED POTATOES
Chop four cold potatoes fine, and add one teaspoonful of salt and a
very little pepper. Put a tablespoonful of butter in the frying-pan,
and turn it so that it runs all over; when it bubbles put in the
potatoes, and smooth them evenly over the pan. Cook till they are brown
and crusty on the bottom; then put in a teaspoonful of chopped parsley,
and fold over like an omelette.
CHIPPED POTATOES
Wash and peel four potatoes and cut them into thin pieces. Heat two
cups of lard very hot, till when you drop in a bit of bread it browns
at once. Wipe the potatoes dry and drop in a handful. Have a slice
ready, and as soon as they brown take them out and lay on brown paper
in the oven, and put in another handful.
POTATO CAKES
Take two cups of mashed potato, and mix well with the beaten yolk of
one egg, and make into small flat cakes; dip each into flour. Heat two
tablespoonfuls of nice dripping, and when it is hot lay in the cakes
and brown, turning each with the slice as it gets crusty on the bottom.
TO KEEP FRYING FAT
The fat can be used to fry in a great many times if strained after
using, and put in a clean jar.
How to know when fat is boiling: Drop a few bread-crumbs in the fat.
They should turn brown at once.
BUTTERED TOAST
Toast is very difficult for grown-up people to make, because they have
made it wrong all their lives, but it is easy for little girls to learn
to make, because they can make it right from the first.
Cut bread that is at least two days old into slices a third of an
inch thick. Be sure the fire is red, without any flames. Take the
toasting-fork and move the slices of bread backwards and forwards
across the coals, but do not let them brown; do both sides this way,
and then brown first one and then the other afterward. Trim off the
edges, butter a little quickly, and send to the table hot.
BAKING-POWDER BISCUIT
Margaret’s Other Aunt said little girls could never, never make
biscuits, but this little girl really did, in this way:
1 pint of sifted flour.
½ teaspoonful of salt.
4 teaspoonfuls of baking-powder.
¾ cup of milk.
1 tablespoonful of butter.
Put the salt and baking-powder in the flour and sift well, and then rub
the butter in with a spoon. Little by little put in the milk, mixing
all the time, and then lift out the dough on a floured board and roll
it out lightly, just once, till it is one inch thick. Flour your hands
and mould the little balls as quickly as you can, and put them close
together in a shallow pan that has had a little flour shaken over
the bottom, and bake in a hot oven about twenty minutes, or till the
biscuits are brown. If you handle the dough much, the biscuits will be
tough, so you must work fast.
MUFFINS
2 cups of sifted flour.
2 teaspoonfuls of baking-powder.
½ teaspoonful of salt.
1 cup of milk.
2 eggs.
1 large teaspoonful of melted butter.
Mix the flour, salt, and baking-powder, and sift. Beat the yolks of the
eggs, put in the butter with them and the milk, then the flour, and
last the stiff whites of the eggs. Have the muffin-tins hot, pour in
the batter, and bake fifteen or twenty minutes. These must be eaten at
once, or they will fall.
There was one little recipe in Margaret’s book which she thought must
be meant for the smallest girl who ever tried to cook, it was so easy.
But the little biscuits were good enough for grown people to like. This
was it:
CREAM CRACKERS
Quarter-pound of flour, yolks of two eggs; beat them well with a
quarter of a pint of cream and pinch of salt. Stir into the flour, roll
out very thin, cut into any shape with a knife, prick with a fork, and
bake a few at a time in a good oven. They must be straw colour. In a
good oven they should take five minutes. Put on a sieve till cold.
GRIDDLE-CAKES
2 eggs.
1 cup of milk.
1½cups of flour.
2 teaspoonfuls of baking-powder.
½ teaspoonful of salt.
Put the eggs in a bowl without separating them, and beat them with a
spoon till light. Put in the milk, then the flour mixed with the salt,
and last the baking-powder all alone. Bake on a hot, buttered griddle.
This recipe makes delicious cakes, especially if eaten with sugar and
thick cream.
Last of all the things Margaret learned to make for breakfast came
coffee, and this she could make in two ways; sometimes she made it this
first way, and sometimes the other, which is called French coffee.
COFFEE
First be sure your coffee-pot is shining clean; look in the spout and
in all the cracks, and wipe them out carefully, for you cannot make
good coffee except in a perfectly clean pot. Then get three heaped
tablespoonfuls of ground coffee, and mix in one tablespoonful of
cold water. Pour in one quart of boiling water, and let it boil up
once. Then stir down the grounds which come to the top, put in two
tablespoonfuls of cold water, and let it stand for a minute on the back
of the stove, and then strain it into the silver pot for the table.
This pot must be made very hot, by filling it with boiling water and
letting it stand on the kitchen table while the coffee is boiling. If
this recipe makes the coffee stronger than the family like it, take
less coffee, and if it is not strong enough, take more coffee.
FRENCH COFFEE
Get one of the pots which are made so that the coffee will drip
through; put three tablespoonfuls of very finely powdered coffee in
this, and pour in a quart of boiling water. When it has all dripped
through, it is ready to put in the hot silver pot.