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Title: A Little Cook Book for a Little Girl

Author: French Benton

Release Date: August 12, 2005 [eBook #16514]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO−8859−1

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A LITTLE COOK BOOK FOR A LITTLE

GIRL***

This eBook was prepared by Setwart A. Levin.

A LITTLE COOK−BOOK FOR A LITTLE GIRL

CAROLINE FRENCH BENTON

Author of ``Gala Day Luncheons''

Boston, The Page Company, Publishers

by Dana Estes & Company

For

Katherine, Monica and Betty

Three Little Girls

Who Love To Do

``Little Girl Cooking''

Thanks are due to the editor of Good Housekeeping for

permission to reproduce the greater part of this book

from that magazine.

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 entrée? What are timbales and sautés 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 aprons,

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 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 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 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 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 balls; 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 pass scraped 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.

Wash the rice and put in a double boiler 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 platter, 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 kettle 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 platter and sift powdered

sugar over them, and put a bit of red jelly on top of each. This is a nice dessert for luncheon. All white cereals

may be made into croquettes; if they are for breakfast, do not sweeten them, but for luncheon use the rule just

given, with or without raisins and currants.

Hominy

Cook this just as you did the rice, drying it in the oven; serve one morning plain, as cereal, with cream, and

then next morning fried, with maple syrup, after the rest of the meal. Fried hominy is always nice to put

around a dish of fried chicken or roast game, and it looks especially well if, instead of being sliced, it is cut

out into fancy shapes with a cooky−cutter.

After Margaret had learned to cook all kinds of cereals, she went on to the next thing in her cook−book.

EGGS

Soft Boiled

Put six eggs in a baking−dish and cover them with boiling water; put a cover on and let them stand where they

will keep hot, but not cook, for ten minutes, or, if the family likes them well done, twelve minutes. They will

be perfectly cooked, but not tough, soft and creamy all the way through.

Another way to cook them is this:

Put the eggs in a kettle of cold water on the stove, and the moment the water boils take them up, and they will

be just done. An easy way to take them up all at once is to put them in a wire basket, and sink this under the

water. A good way to serve boiled eggs is to crumple up a fresh napkin in a deep dish, which has been made

very hot, and lay the eggs in the folds of the napkin; this prevents their breaking, and keeps them warm.

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; wet these a very little with boiling water,

and butter them. When the eggs have cooked twelve minutes, take a cake−turner 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 around the edge. Sometimes a little

chopped parsley is nice to put over the eggs, too.

Poached Eggs with Potted Ham

Make the rounds of toast and poach the eggs as before. Make a white sauce in this way: melt a tablespoonful

of butter, and when it bubbles put in a tablespoonful of flour; shake well, and add a cup of hot milk and a

small half−teaspoonful of salt; cook till smooth. Moisten each round of toast with a very little boiling water,

and spread with some of the potted ham which comes in little tin cans; lay a poached egg on each round, and

put a teaspoonful of white sauce on each egg.

If you have no potted ham in the house, but have plain boiled ham, put this through the meat−chopper till you

have half a cupful, put in a heaping teaspoonful of the sauce, a saltspoonful of dry mustard, and a pinch of red

pepper, and it will do just as well.

Scrambled Eggs

4 eggs.

2 tablespoonfuls of milk.

1/2 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 a tablespoonful of butter in it; when it melts, shake it well from side to side, till all 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 to make these perfectly, she began to mix other things with the eggs.

Scrambled Eggs with Tomato

When Margaret found a cupful of tomato in the refrigerator, she would take that, 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. In summer−time she

often cut up two fresh tomatoes and stewed them down to a cupful, instead of using the canned.

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