Catherine Owen

“ Framley, who said:—
“But you don’t seem to think the ordeal is as great for you, who are in the country all day. I’m afraid you spoil Mr. Bishop.”
“Oh dear, no,” laughed Molly; “but I do think it right to make life just as pleasant to him as I can.”
“My dear, don’t you think women do too much of that? Isn’t it just as much a man’s business to see that his wife enjoys herself as hers to cater to his amusement? You told me the other day you don’t care for chess; yet you make a point of playing it. Why shouldn’t Mr. Bishop make a point of doing something you like?” ”

“ RYE BREAD—OYSTER PATTIES—KNUCKLE OF VEAL, À LA MAÎTRE D’HÔTEL—A SAVORY DISH.
Molly knew the virtues of rye bread; and in perfection, as had she eaten it once in her life, she had enjoyed it much,—it had been so sweet, so light, and seemed to have the quality of never getting stale. She knew that to some people rye bread represented a loaf that cut like liver, that was sweet in flavor, but in wheaten bread would have been called heavy; and to others it was a sour, dark bread, much approved by Germans. But that rye bread need be neither of these she knew well, but she had no recipe. ”

“ A tea-spoonful more or less seems a trifle, and yet it will spoil many things. Remember, if you have a recipe that calls for a table-spoonful, it means just that, if the recipe is good for anything, and half a pint is exactly that measure full, not partly full.
“Gouffé, the celebrated French cook, who wrote a remarkable book for other cooks, was so particular that he explains exactly how much he means by weight when he says ‘a pinch of salt,’ and he directs one to weigh each carrot and turnip for soup till one’s eye is accustomed to the sizes.” ”

“ But people who have a very narrow income can enjoy very few of the advantages of city life, even if they live in it; so, for them, the country is undoubted gain.”
When they reached the house, Mrs. Welles was delighted with it and everything about it, and made Molly tell her all about her housekeeping and how she managed. When she had given her a sketch of her daily life, Mrs. Welles said, thoughtfully:
“That is all very nice, Molly; but it seems to me you must have a good deal to do, or else your Marta is a treasure.” ”

“ Marta, Molly’s servant, was a newly arrived German girl whom she had had the courage to take from Castle Garden.
“She will be as green as grass, Molly,” Harry had said.
“Yes, I know, but at least it is better she should know nothing than know how to do things badly; it is easier to teach than to unteach.” ”

“ Lennox and Molly had often talked again over the advisability of the former getting help in her house, or not; Molly was strongly of the opinion that, as her health was before everything, it certainly was advisable and truly economical, but she did not venture to urge it, because she knew everything would depend on the kind of girl they would get; yet it seemed that any one with but two good qualities, willingness and strength, must be a great gain to a woman situated as her friend was. ”

“ AT HOME.
On the 1st of September our young couple took possession of their new house.
It was a small house, or rather cottage, in the fashionable New Jersey town of Greenfield, and contained a dining-room, sitting-room and kitchen on the first floor, and four rooms above arranged as bed-room, guest-room, servants’ room and sewing-room. It was as slightly built as a house could be, probably, yet in better taste than most houses of its class, and Mrs. Winfield’s taste in furnishing was excellent, so that even Harry’s fastidious eye was satisfied. ”

“ This is the rule in all use of pastry: Leave the edges quite untouched; do not even smooth them with your finger. Smoothing them and pressing them with your thumb, which I have told you not to do, is the reason why your pies, even if I make the paste, are never as handsome as mine. You smooth the life out of the paste and squeeze all the air from between the leaves which one is at such trouble to make; and it is the air that causes the flakes.”
Molly put the pie in the oven, which was about the right heat for bread,—that is to say, she could count twenty-five while her hand was held in it. ”

“ But Molly knew it depended so entirely on great care, that the meat should be hacked thoroughly, yet not anywhere cut through, and then so very slowly simmered, so quickly browned, that she thought it one of [129] those dishes she would always have to cook herself. She was not expecting too much from Marta. If she profited by her instructions sufficiently to know the rules of cooking, and abide by them so far that she might be trusted not to spoil a dish if left to watch it, and be able to cook a few things well, so that she could do when necessary unaided,—that was all Molly looked for. ”

“ Molly’s own dinner being soup, veal cutlets, potato croquettes, Lima beans, and apple pudding, and the soup ready, all but heating it, she meant to make the pudding and prepare the croquettes, and leave Marta to her own resources for the vegetables and breading cutlets,—she, herself, would be back in time to see the actual cooking of her own meat. ”

“ Lennox now does the cooking and the sewing; Maggie does the work. She will never do more in the cooking way than boil potatoes, make mush and bread (the latter well, for she knows only one way and that is the way she does it) , and burn or smoke a beefsteak. But Mrs. Lennox will soon have either to pay her more, or take another new arrival; that is inevitable.
It must not be thought that all Molly’s neighbors were as fond of her as Mrs. Lennox. No one can live up to a higher ideal than the average (even when the ideal is only cooking) , without hurting some one’s corns. ”

“ He was pleasure-loving only in the sense of seizing life’s enjoyments,—even his generous impulses were part of them,—and he was too fastidious for a poor man; and Molly could quite realize that he might not be a loving husband to some women just as good as she was, and yet she knew his faults were faults of temperament. ”

“ Again Molly thanked her, and promised to avail herself of the book.
“Yes, and you’ll find your money goes a deal further; my receipts don’t call for eggs and butter as if they grew out on the bushes.”
“Well, you see,” said Molly timidly, “we need so little of anything that even a recipe which calls for what seems many eggs or much butter can generally be divided by four for us, and the four eggs or half pound of butter become only one egg and two ounces of butter; so we can have the good things and still spend little.” ”

“ A girl of quicker wits might have been less faithful, or, if so bright as to learn all Molly could teach, she would naturally and rightly wish to take a place as professed [275] cook, with her thirty or forty dollars a month wages, and no washing. So Marta remained, a very devoted servant; very exasperating sometimes, but at all times valuable.
Mrs. Lennox has only one thing to say; she does not regret taking Maggie; she is no worse off in her pocket, and is better off in nerves and muscles; the tired, overworked look is no longer conspicuous. ”

“ Welles.
“No,” laughed Molly; “I meant only to have the iced jelly cakes, and though Genoese is so delicious I don’t know that that difference will be understood, but your bringing the almond paste tempted me into the macaroons, and then to make use of the yolks; of course they led to the jumbles.”
“Yes, but they would pass; it is the ‘Frenchy’ look of the iced cakes that will seem costly, but you can tell your friends what the cost really is.”
“I know, only I hate to seem to lay myself out; yet when things can be made so pretty one can’t resist doing it.” ”

“ Suddenly Molly remembered something she had forgotten, and stopped short, very much vexed.
“I have no cake to eat with the peaches, and Harry is so fond of cake! I’ve just time to make a ‘fifteen minutes’ cake,’ and I will. No, I wont! it will make getting dinner on time a scramble; I shall go in flushed and heated, and Harry will think I am killing myself, and Marta will think she may scramble ever after. We will do without cake.”
Marta returned with the cream, which was put in the ice-box, and she was then set at chopping the leaves of some mint for mint sauce. ”

“ And, by and bye, this suet crust is the foundation for several good puddings,—rolled out and spread with jam, and boiled one hour and a half as a roly-poly, it is excellent; with a cup of currants added, before wetting the flour and suet, it makes the ‘spotted Dick’ dear to English children; or, in place of currants, the juice of a lemon and the grated rind of two, with half a cup of sugar, makes a nice plain lemon pudding, but long, steady boiling is absolutely necessary to lightness. Excuse my telling you all this, but you know I am so fond of cooking, I can’t help it. ”

“ Molly had chosen a cheap part of corned beef—the plate—in preference to the round, at double the price: properly boiled, she liked it better. A small piece of four or five pounds of round of beef is very dry, even if the careful boiling prevents its being hard; therefore she got four pounds and a half at eight cents. She knew, from her cooking-school experience, the New York price was seven cents; but she had learned that most things were a little dearer in Greenfield. As she wrote down the recipes for cooking the heart, the corned beef, the flounders, and steak, I give them in that form. ”

“ Molly did not want to let her little lecture on croquettes grow cold in Marta’s mind, and therefore meant to have them again very soon. To that end she made a tour of the butcher-shops in Greenfield, of which there were several, in order to find, if she could, a knuckle of veal. This would kill two or three birds with one stone. Veal is not plentiful in September, yet is sometimes in market, and for the knuckle she knew she would have to pay very little, for in this country it is looked upon as only good for stock, while in Europe it is very choice. ”

“ Another time, if you make this cake, you may put rose-water or peach-water instead of the wine, and chopped candied lemon-peel instead of the grated peel. You see the batter is much thicker than for the cup cake you made, but if at any time you use flour that absorbs more moisture, you must add another egg; this is, as it should be, as thick as pound-cake batter,—which means, as thick as can be stirred. It is more a paste than a batter. Will you remember that, when you have a recipe which says ‘thick as pound-cake batter’? Any cake with baking-powder made as thick as this would be spoiled. ”

“ But Molly had eaten excellent ones in which ground rice, boiled to thick mush, was the foundation; others in which bread crumbs were substituted, the object being to get a body of some plain material other than flour, with which the rich ones could be incorporated; but her own favorite way was to use rolled cracker. She put two heaped table-spoonfuls in a bowl, and three table-spoonfuls of sugar. She beat two table-spoonfuls of butter, from which the salt had been washed, till it creamed, added the yolks of two eggs, and the juice of half a lemon, and the peel of one, grated. ”

“ Every member having a house is supposed to have the meeting once in the season, and as all our members are householders, and some very hospitable, when anything occurs to make such reception inconvenient it is gladly taken by some one else; but as some are much wealthier than others, a rule was made that no ice-cream, oysters or bought cakes were to be allowed, only sandwiches, tea, coffee and home-made cake, and I am glad to say one lady, one of the most wealthy, has nothing but home-made wafers and coffee. ”

“ Marta, I want you to come and look at the result of banging the oven door in that way when cake is in the oven,—and you must remember, too, never to set a pot heavily on the range; when a cake has once risen, until quite done, any sudden jar will cause it to settle down. ”

“ Cut some bacon in thin slices, remove the rind and fry it crisp but don’t burn it; then lay in the liver, only enough to cover the bottom of the pan; when nicely brown turn each slice; brown the other side and take it up on a hot dish with the bacon around it. Now if the fat is not burned (and to prevent that, it should be fried where the fire is good but not too fierce) stir into it a scant dessert-spoonful of flour, mashing all the brown bits and lumps with the back of a spoon; when it is all a fine brown, have a cup of boiling water ready, and pour it quickly into the pan. Stir till smooth. ”

“ You haven’t convinced me, though, because my opinions are founded on principle, and the conviction that women ought, out of self-respect and for the sake of other women, to expect that a husband should sacrifice his tastes and pleasure, and consider it his duty to amuse and entertain his wife as much as she does him, and not consider his duty done if he provides for her and treats her as well as he would a favorite horse. ”

“ You see how one thing leads to another in cooking.”
The custard was now cold, the bananas were stirred into it and they were put into the freezer, and ice and salt in the proportion of one third salt were packed round it. After it had stood a few minutes, Marta turned it for a quarter of an hour, when it was frozen.
Just as Molly was about to begin to write directions for the scalloped potatoes, concluding she herself would need to make only the Hollandaise sauce, and could leave the dinner to Marta, a hack drove up to the door, and Molly saw Harry’s mother and father in it. ”

“ When it is strained each time, you can use it a dozen times; so you see it is not extravagant to fry in deep fat. Now you have a very greasy cloth and saucepan, but pour a quart of boiling water and a piece of washing-soda as big as a walnut on them, stir them, and you see you have no more grease, only some nice soapy water and a clean saucepan!”
Marta’s interest had been all alive since she had seen the chops, and she explained how often she had seen cooks in Germany bread cutlets, and they came out of the pan only breaded here and there. ”

“ Yes, quite light; if it is made quickly, rolled only once—just as you would biscuit dough, only not so soft—brought quickly to the boiling-point when in the saucepan, and then kept gently simmering an hour, not allowed to soak in the gravy without cooking. But if you choose you can add baking-powder; it makes a much more crumbly crust. Made as I have made it, it is considered very wholesome and nourishing, as beef fat and wheaten flour are two of the best kinds of food; lard and flour and baking-powder are by no means so wholesome a combination. ”

“ Get a good table-spoonful of butter,—lard would do, but I use it as little as possible for health’s sake—put it near the fire to warm a very little; add to the dough two tea-spoonfuls of sugar; now the butter is pliable, work it in; it will take five minutes’ constant kneading to make the butter and dough quite smooth. Now you see it is softer than bread dough; if a crisp crust is wanted, work in gradually a little more flour, almost a table-spoonful,—if the weather is cold have it warm; if a soft crust is preferred leave it as it is. ”

“ Molly knew that many very good cooks, who turned out excellent dishes, never measured, could never tell how they did it, or give an intelligible recipe. Such cases had been often quoted to her as a reason why the precision of scientific cooking, as taught in cooking-schools, was nonsense; but she knew that those who cooked thus, although they might produce excellent results four times out of five, the fifth time might make a failure; they are always subject to good and bad “luck” with their cooking ”

“ Molly had arranged to have for dinner just such things as Marta could cook, but the substantial part of it was to be Irish stew, that good old savory dish. Excellent as it is when well made, there is nothing more “poverty seeming” than the same thing carelessly done; therefore she meant to see it all on to cook before leaving the kitchen.
Irish Stew.—Half a dozen lean chops from the neck were floured and put in a saucepan with two onions and a tea-spoonful of butter, and quickly browned; but the onion was not allowed to burn, and therefore it was all kept moving about. ”

“ While the cooking was going on, Molly got out the Madeleine cake, cut side slices from it the third of an inch thick, cut the dark crust off as thin as possible, and spread three of the slices with the lemon paste she had made yesterday. The other three she laid on these, sandwich-fashion.
“Now, Marta, I’ll show you what I am going to do with my fondant icing.” As she spoke she put a table-spoonful of it in a cup which she set in boiling water over the fire. “You see I stir this, because, if I simply left it to melt, it would go back to clear syrup; by stirring, it keeps opaque like cream. ”

“ Lennox’s olfactories are offended; he will forgive you anything, since through you we have lived [91] better and spent a dollar less in three days. There is nothing truer than that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”
“Then we must take that path,” said Molly merrily. “The cabbage needs a table-spoonful of salt added to the water and a scant half tea-spoonful of soda.”
“I shall wait and see the success of the cabbage,” added Molly, laughing, when she had seen it boiling furiously, “although the meat is done, so I may iron another piece or two.” ”

“ We live about as comfortably as if we kept two servants, because I do much of the lighter work; I have no drudgery. Marta does that. I have very few social duties. I have plenty of time to read and do my little sewing and we live as I like to live; I should not be so happy any other way. When I have children I shall have less time, but [218] I expect Marta will be able to go on pretty well with an hour of my time in the kitchen. ”

“ When Marta was ready to put the dinner on the table, Molly turned the whites of the eggs on the yolks, and mixed them very gently, lifting the yolks as it were over the whites with the spoon, not stirring them; any quick movement with whites of eggs tends to liquefy them; then she buttered an oval dish and heaped the mixture lightly on it, a table-spoonful at a time, piling always towards the middle; then she sifted powdered sugar over it, and just before she went in to dinner she put it in the oven, which was moderately hot. ”

“ The girl would be able to make croquettes with one meat as easily as another, and although for the sake of practice she meant to repeat the dishes, she did not care to have them in the same order. The bisque of oysters she would have in place of clams for the sake of variety and of showing Marta that the principle was the same in both, and that another time she might substitute lobster instead of either, and yet the process would not change. ”