Jessie Conrad

“ You must not leave the kitchen while the cooking is going on—unless of necessity and only for a very few minutes at a time.
The bane of life in a small house is the smell of cooking. Very few are free from it. ”

“ Cooking ought not to take too much of one’s time. One hour and a half to two hours for lunch, and two and a half for dinner is sufficient, providing that the servant knows how to make up the fire in order to get the stove ready for use. Most girls will quickly learn to do that and how to put a joint properly in the oven. For my part I never went into the kitchen before half-past eleven for a half-past one lunch of three dishes. But once the cooking is begun one must give all one’s attention and care to it. No dish, however simple, will cook itself. ”

“ One often finds that if by accident a knife used for cutting an onion has been overlooked and it comes in contact with any article of food the flavour of the onion will spoil everything. It is also a fact that if an onion is cut before it is put into soup or sauce, the soup at once becomes cloudy, while on the other hand if it is merely peeled and put in whole, soup or sauce will remain perfectly clear. Then again for onion sauce or soup which would be made with milk, you must never put in any salt or any other ingredient till after the milk has boiled. ”

“ Victims of gloomy imaginings, they lived in abject submission to the wiles of a multitude of fraudulent medicine men—quacks—who haunted their existence with vain promises and false nostrums from the cradle to the grave. ”

“ There is this golden rule that must always be observed: Never attempt to make an omelette unless your fire is hot enough to cook it with the top ring of the stove on. This rule of course applies also to the pancakes, fritters, or to any form of frying. For if you are frying a steak or cutlets, fish, potatoes or bacon, you will require to put the top of the stove on after the first few minutes. Otherwise your meat or fish will be liable to burn on the surface and remain raw inside. ”

“ No joint should be baked in a tin which is too small for it.
No vegetables should be cooked without a sufficient amount of water in the saucepan and no green vegetables should be cooked with the lid on.
No frying pan while in use should be allowed to remain on the fire with only the fat in it. A piece of whatever you are frying, bacon, fish, fritters should be left in till another piece is placed in the fat.
The pan must be removed directly finished with.
No fat once used for frying should be kept for future use. The economy is not worth making. ”

“ Half a calf’s head is more than enough for three or four persons. The best plan is to soak the head in a bowl of cold water and a little salt all night, previously removing the brains. It will take from two and a half to three hours’ gentle boiling and care must be taken that the cooking vessel is large enough to allow the head to lie flat and the water to cover it. It must be put into cold water with a good piece of salt, a knob of loaf sugar, one onion (large and whole) , two carrots (whole) , and two teacupfuls of white wine. ”

“ It will often be much easier to make a successful cake or light pastry if the butter and lard are reduced to a cream before being added to the other ingredients. Put your proportion of butter and lard (half of each) into your pastry basin. Stir with the hand, one way only, till it has become the consistency of a thick cream. Mix the rest of the ingredients for your cake into it and moisten either with milk or water. Cakes mixed by hand are much more satisfactory than those mixed with a spoon. One is also much more sure of success if the mixture is kept very stiff. ”

“ Serve in a rather deep dish with croutons of fried bread or dry toast round the edge. A tin of prawns can be used instead of chicken in which case a small teaspoonful of anchovy sauce may be added at the last, instead of salt, as the prawns may be already a little salt.
Potatoes are to my mind one of the most ill-used vegetables we have. They require simple care to make them a useful and welcome addition to at least two meals in the day. Too often I have found the greatest carelessness in the cooking of a simple potato. ”

“ It is often found inconvenient to cook a joint in a hurry (or the joint may be found to be too large) when the following recipe will be found useful. Cut a slice of about an inch thick off the round of beef or fillet of veal, cut that into five or six pieces and flatten well with a knife. Chop finely about half a Spanish onion, a few sweet herbs, and pepper and salt, and put a little of these on each piece of meat and cover with half a rasher of bacon. Tie each piece securely with string. Melt one ounce of fresh butter in a frying pan over a clear fire and when ready lay the olives in it. ”

“ Tomatoes are always very useful and can be accommodated in many different ways. For a breakfast dish—take, for two persons, four nice sound tomatoes. Place in a large basin and scald with boiling water over them. The skin will then peel off quite easily leaving the tomatoes perfectly whole. Cut into slices and put into a cold pan with a piece of butter about the size of a tablespoon and a pinch of salt and pepper. Place on the fire and break the tomatoes in the butter as they cook. Let them fry frequently and serve under poached eggs. ”

“ When required for the table take some good dripping—either beef or mutton according to which joint you wish to cook—put it into a baking tin and when quite hot place the meat in it and cook in a nice hot (but not fierce) oven for three-quarters of an hour to one hour. Place the meat on a hot dish, turn out the fat which is no longer of any use. For the gravy put four or five tablespoonfuls of the marinade into the hot baking tin with a teaspoonful of bovril and bring to a boil. ”

“ Raw fish should be kept in an uncovered dish in the icebox. Always wash in a little vinegar and water before cooking. Smoked fish such as haddock should be boiled always in a deep frying pan allowing the water to cover it.
Kippers are difficult to cook without smell and to keep moist. The best way is to lay the kipper on its back in a flat meat dish. A small piece of butter should be always put into the dish first and a larger piece on the open side of the kipper, with a little white paper. Put into a quick oven for fifteen to twenty minutes. ”

“ Peel your potatoes and cut them into slices about one-half an inch thick, then into strips, each slice let us say into four, let them lay in a bowl of cold water till wanted for frying. Take a large deep frying pan in which you have melted one-fourth pound of best tub lard, place over a quick fire taking care not to let it burn, and when it is ready (which is easily found out by dropping one piece of potato into the fat—it should sizzle at once) , take the potatoes out of the water by hand and drop straight into the boiling lard. Turn carefully from time to time with a knife blade. ”

“ If the vegetables are used for flavouring only, they may remain in the soup all the time it is cooking. If, on the other hand, they are intended to be dished in the soup they should be put in only in time to be cooked thoroughly.
Every kitchen should contain in a cupboard always a bottle of cooking sherry, a bottle of mushroom catsup, one of Worcester sauce, one of tomato (bottled) sauce, some fresh lemons, vinegar, the best salad oil, a packet of sweet herbs, bovril, nutmeg, cloves, and spice. ”

“ A good sponge powder is the very best and most reliable of all cake mixtures. Directions for use will be found on every packet and the only thing that to my mind improves it is the addition of a tablespoonful of cream after the beaten eggs are mixed to the cake-powder. Nothing could be easier than [Pg 130] the following, and I have never had a failure: Break two eggs into a large pudding basin, beat well with a fork, then stir the cake-powder into the eggs quite smoothly. Add the cream. Have ready the buttered tin, pour the mixture into it. Place in a quick oven and bake for about ten minutes. ”

“ Good cooking is a moral agent. By good cooking I mean the conscientious preparation of the simple food of every-day life, not the more or less skillful [Pg vi] concoction of idle feasts and rare dishes. ”

“ If the meat does not appear to be cooking satisfactorily at the end of fifteen minutes the baking tin should be stood on the stove over the fire (top off) after putting a little beef dripping into the tin.
While on the fire turn the joint over several times with the fork. At the end of ten to fifteen minutes the meat may be put back into the oven.
The dripping should be preserved as follows:—
After the meat is cooked, place the joint on the dish. Turn the fat out of the baking tin into a basin and dash into it at once a tablespoonful of cold water. ”

“ When the liver is nearly cooked (the little dishes having been placed each on the hot top plate of the stove) , drop a whole egg without breaking the yolk into each and allow to cook from three to five minutes. Serve in the dishes in which they have been cooked.
Eggs can be also poached in marmite dishes but instead of butter you must half fill each dish with fresh cream and add a pinch of salt and a pinch of chopped parsley at the last moment on top of each egg. ”

“ Put one ounce of fresh butter in an enamelled frying pan and make it hot. Lay the cutlets in the butter and put over a brisk fire for three minutes. Turn once and place on the stove with the top on. Cook for another fifteen minutes. If any doubt is felt as to their being done, it is well to cut one to see whether it is cooked perfectly. It should look red not purple, and the gravy should run. Arrange the mashed potatoes in a pyramid in the centre of the dish and stand the cutlets round it with a little paper frill on each bone. ”

“ The Noble Red Men were great warriors, great orators, great masters of outdoor pursuits; but the domestic life of their wigwams was clouded by the morose irritability which follows the consumption of ill-cooked food. ”

“ The object of the butter is not only to improve the taste and appearance but it also helps to prevent the sort of preserved taste [Pg 16] one so often gets in hotel cooking. As the potatoes get older it is better to put them to boil into cold water, and directly they are too old to scrape freely, no mint is necessary or advisable. Some potatoes are best strained before they are quite cooked and then shut down in the saucepan to finish in their steam. ”

“ Take half a pound of almonds peeled and dried in the oven, half a pound of powdered sugar, three or four whites of eggs, one grated lemon. Pound the almonds, moistening them from time to time with the beaten whites of eggs. When they are reduced to a fine paste add the lemon and sugar; work all perfectly together. Form the macaroons by putting small pieces the size of a walnut upon a buttered baking tin. Cook in a moderate oven till they have taken a beautiful brown tint. Let them cool before taking them off the tin. ”

“ Mix the two together with pepper and salt to taste, turn the whole contents of the pan into the crumbs and chop finely all together. In this way the stuffing will be found moist and will not repeat after eating.
In cooking green vegetables use common soda not bi-carbonate. They should be always put into boiling water.
Fresh peas should never be shelled over night and should be kept in a covered dish after shelling till it is time for them to be cooked. Peas will become quite tough if exposed to the air for any length of time. ”

“ In roasting or rather in baking, as is the general practice of small households (either in gas stove or coal) , attention should be paid that the oven is not too fierce as it reduces the joint greatly and of course spoils the taste and appearance. ”

“ Often toward the end of the year when one’s potatoes run large and we are anxious to give a dish a dainty appearance we find that the large potato served whole looks clumsy. If the potatoes are carefully peeled and any unsightly blemishes are removed such as the eye or as so often happens there are bluey patches due to a bruise perhaps on the potatoes otherwise perfectly sound, the following hint may be found both useful and economical. ”

“ Chop lightly with a knife in a dish any cold greens and potatoes you may have left. Melt in an enamelled frying pan one ounce more or less of fresh butter. Turn the vegetables into it. While cooking use a large dinner fork to press the vegetables into a smooth paste, turning it over and over with the fork all the time to prevent it sticking to the pan. ”

“ If they are exactly followed, and due regard is paid also to incidental remarks of the same nature contained in the body of the book, your little house need never be invaded by the smell of cooking, generally so offensive and always unnecessary, which too often meets one in the hall and in nine cases out of ten—if not in every case—means simply that good food is being spoiled in the kitchen. ”

“ It is to be remarked that the quack of modern civilisation, the vendor of patent medicine, preys mainly upon the races of Anglo-Saxon stock who are also great warriors, great orators, mighty hunters, great masters of outdoor pursuits. ”