Caroline French Benton

“ When it begins to grow tender, put in a half teaspoonful of salt. Take it out, and cut it up in nice, even pieces, and put all the bones back into the kettle, and let them cook till there is only about a pint and a half of broth. Add a little more salt, and a sprinkling of pepper, and strain this through a jelly bag. Mix it with the chicken, and put them both into a bread tin, and when cold put on ice over night. After it has stood for an hour, put a weight on it, to make it firm. Slice with a very sharp knife, and put on a platter with parsley all around. ”

“ Rub the butter and sugar to a cream, add the eggs, beaten together lightly, then the flour, in which you have mixed the baking-powder, and then the milk. It is easy to know when you have the batter just right, for you can put a tiny bit on the griddle and make a little cake; if it rises high and is thick, put more milk in the batter; if it is too thin, it will run about on the griddle, and you must add more flour ”

“ 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! ”

“ Whites of three eggs. 1 pint of cream. 1 teaspoonful vanilla.
Put the sugar and water in a nice enamelled saucepan and cook it without stirring. You must shake the pan often to prevent its burning, but if you stir it, it will make it sugary. After about five minutes hold your spoon up in the air and drop one drop back into the saucepan; if a little thread is made which blows off to one side, it is done, but if not you must cook till it does. If your fire is very hot it may make the thread in less time, so try it every few moments. ”

“ Most people think mayonnaise is very difficult to make, but, really, it is as easy as baking potatoes, after you have once learned how. Every salad given before is just as nice with mayonnaise as with French dressing, and you can try each one both ways; then there are these, which are better with mayonnaise.
Chicken Salad
1 cup of chicken cut in large bits. 1/2 cup of celery, cut up and then dried. 2 hard-boiled eggs, cut into good-sized pieces. 6 olives, stoned and cut up. 1/2 cup mayonnaise.
Mix all very lightly together, as stirring will make the salad mussy; put on lettuce. ”

“ Sometimes Margaret colored lemon jelly with red raspberry juice, and piled sugared raspberries around the mould. Lemon jelly is one of the best things to put things with; peaches may be used instead of prunes, in that rule, or strawberries, with plenty of sugar, or bits of pineapple.
Fruit Jelly
Make a plain lemon jelly, as before. Cut up very thin two oranges, one banana, six figs, and a handful of white grapes, which you have seeded, and sweeten them. Put in a mould and pour in the jelly; as it begins to grow firm you can gently lift the fruit from the bottom once or twice. ”

“ Cream of Potato
This is one of the best and most delicate soups.
5 freshly boiled potatoes. 1 slice of onion. 1 quart of hot milk. 1 small teaspoonful of salt. 1 teaspoonful chopped parsley.
This soup has no water in it, because that which has had potatoes boiled in it is always spoiled for anything else and must always be thrown away. This is why you must take a quart of milk instead of a pint. There is no thickening in the soup, because the potatoes will thicken it themselves. Put the parsley in at the very last, after the soup is in the tureen. ”

“ Cream Made from Confectioners' Sugar
Take the white of one egg, and measure just as much cold water; mix the two well, and stir stiff with confectioners' sugar; add a little flavoring, vanilla, or almond, or pistache, and, for some candies, color with a tiny speck of fruit paste. This is the beginning of all sorts of cream candy.
Candy Potatoes
Make the plain white candy just given, and to it add a tablespoonful of cocoanut, and flavor with vanilla. Make into little balls, rather long then round, and with a fork put eyes in them like potato eyes. Roll in cinnamon. ”

“ Margaret had a little ice-cream freezer which was all her own, and held only enough for two little girls to eat at a tea-party, and this she could pack alone. When she made ice-cream for all the family she had to use the larger freezer, of course, and this Bridget helped her pack. But the same rule was used for either the large one or the small. First break up the ice in a thick bag with a hammer until the pieces are as large as eggs, and all about the same size. ”

“ Take six cold boiled sweet-potatoes, slice them and lay in hot dripping in the frying-pan till brown. These are especially nice with veal cutlets.
Toast
Toast is very difficult for grown 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 quarter of an inch thick. If you are going to make only a slice or two, take the toasting-fork, but if you want a plateful, take the wire broiler. Be sure the fire is red, without any flames. ”

“ Always trim off all bits of skin and ragged pieces from the meat, and remove the cold fat, except on ham, and then you must trim it to a rather narrow edge. If you have a rather small dish for a large family, put slices of hard boiled eggs around the edge, or make devilled eggs, and put those around in halves. Sometimes you can cut lettuce in very narrow ribbons by holding several leaves in your hand at once, folding them lengthwise, and using a pair of scissors. ”

“ Have the whites of your eggs beaten very stiff, and slowly pour the syrup into them, beating hard with a fork all the time. You must keep on beating till this is cold. Have ready a pint of thick cream, whipped very stiff, either with a Dover egg-beater, or in a little tin cream-churn, and when the egg is cold, mix the two lightly and put in the vanilla. ”

“ Wash the beets but do not peel them. Boil them gently for three-quarters of an hour, or till they can be pierced easily with a straw. Then skin them and slice in a hot dish, dusting each layer with a little salt, pepper, and melted butter. Those which are left over may have a little vinegar poured over them, to make them into pickles for luncheon.
Once Margaret made something very nice by a recipe her Pretty Aunt put in her book. ”