Cook

“ To-day cooking, with its incidentals, is a very serious business; the coaling, the ashes, the horrible moments of heat, the hot black things to handle, the silly vague recipes, the want of neat apparatus, and the want of intelligence to demand or use neat apparatus. One always imagines a cook working with a crimsoned face and bare blackened arms. ”

“ I now discovered that the copper-faced man, to whom I have drawn attention, was the new cook. I heard the men bandying jokes with him as they went in and out of the galley, carrying the steaming lumps of pork and reeking dishes of pea-soup into the forecastle, whence I concluded that they had either not yet discovered the quality of the provisions, or that they were more easily satisfied than their predecessors had been. ”

“ A flour-dredger and a pepper-pot, a potato-cutter, patty pans, and those little tall tins that you bake castle puddings in, the round wooden moulds with which dairy-maids imprint cows and swans upon pats of butter, the kitchen mortar, especially the big marble one, so heavy that cook does not care to use it, brown earthenware bowls and stewing-pots, the lids of tea-pots, clothes-pegs, jars that have held ginger, and jars that have held jam—especially the brownish corrugated kind of jar—all these things and many more you may glean in a kitchen whose Queen is kind. ”

“ In life one can see the change, if I may use a homely illustration, in the character of one's cook. The Victorian cook lived like a leviathan in the lower depths, formidable, silent, obscure, inscrutable; the Georgian cook is a creature of sunshine and fresh air ”

“ The difference between the elegance and refinement of one table and the vulgarity of another often lies merely in the manner of dishing and serving. Again, the step from plain to fancy cooking is very short. A simple and tasteful arrangement, or combination, of materials prepared in the ordinary way will make an ornamental dish. Minced chicken pressed into a ring mold to give it shape, and the center filled with a mushroom sauce, will make a more appetizing dish than if placed carelessly together with no regard to symmetry. ”

“ The chief employment of a kitchen maid, in France, where a man cook is kept, is to wash the vegetables; and you see her swinging the salad in a wire safe after washing it delicately in fresh water. The care bestowed on these minor morals of cookery, so often wholly neglected, adds the finishing touch to the excellence of a French dinner. ”

“ A French cook of parts would tear his hair if he could see how fats and drippings from meats are thrown away in many an American kitchen. They are poured into the sink till the drain pipes clog and, to complete the little serial of extravagance, the plumber has to be called. The French cook knows that this is the finest grease for frying in the world and that its use would save many a pound of butter. ”

“ If any professed cook or amateur succeeds in causing an abandonment of all that is coarse and unwholesome in the English kitchen, and in introducing all that is light, elegant, and varied in the French, he will have accomplished a great object, and have done the health of diners-out and dinner-givers equal service. ”

“ On a small side-table, clean, but uncovered, the breakfast dishes, washed, but not yet put away, stood, and the kettle on the hob by the dying fire led me to infer that the typewriting woman was her own cook. ”

“ The cook takes charge of the fish, soups and poultry; and the kitchen-maid of the vegetables, sauces and gravies. These she puts into proper dishes, while the scullery-maid waits on and assists the cook. Every dish must be timed so as to prevent its getting cold, whilst great care should be taken that no more time is lost between the courses than is absolutely necessary, for good serving, hot plates, gravy and sauces that have not been allowed to get cold and greasy, are vital factors in providing a good dinner. ”

“ One must use the cooker to realize the saving in work that it means. Think what it is to have a method of cooking involving no necessity for remaining in the kitchen to keep up a fire or watch the food! As most hay-box cooking takes a considerable length of time, and many articles are not specially injured by overcooking, this means that foods can often be placed in the box and left for hours, while the housekeeper is enabled to go out for a day’s work, or to occupy her time in other ways, with a mind free from all care of the meal that is cooking. ”

“ We have to secure an ancient roasting-jack and a large clear fire in our own kitchen, and to instruct our cook—since no woman has taught her what she ought to know—in the art of roasting and grilling, in the preparation of Yorkshire pudding, in the mystery of the marrow-bone and the proper and distinct use of garlic, onions, shalots, chives, chervil, tarragon, marjoram, basil, other herbs, and divers peppers, and finally to train her in the supreme accomplishment of the seasoning of a salad. ”

“ A great part of any company dinner can be prepared the day before. The vegetables can be prepared and put in cold water, the game or meat be larded, the meat or fish cooked for croquettes and salads, the salad dressing made ready, and jellies, creams and cold puddings be made. If a clear soup (and that is always best) is to be served, it also should be made. In the morning the bread and cake can be baked, and the fish and other dishes prepared. ”

“ I have taken much more pains than any of my predecessors, to teach the young cook how to perform, in the best manner, the common business of her profession. Being well grounded in the RUDIMENTS of COOKERY, she will be able to execute the orders that are given her, with ease to herself, and satisfaction to her employers, and send up a delicious dinner, with half the usual expense and trouble. ”

“ A really capable housekeeper will not be satisfied with good cookery only. She will be careful to have each dish nicely served, however plain it may be. Culture, or the want of it, will be seen at once in the appointment of her table. ”

“ To the modern cook some of his directions may appear somewhat vague, as when he bids his cook to boil something for as long as it takes to say a paternoster or a miserere; yet for clockless kitchens in a pious age what clearer indication could a man give? ”

“ Fancy cooking has an interest quite as engaging as other occupations of diversion. Fine cooking utensils, gas-stoves, and modern conveniences, make the well-appointed kitchen as attractive as the laboratory or workshop. Trying a new dish has the same interest as any other experiment. ”

“ If it be the cook, whenever she turns her back, throw a lump of soot, or a handful of salt, in the pot, or smoking coals into the drippingpan, or daub the roast meat with the back of the chimney, or hide the key of the jack. If a footman be suspected, let the cook daub the back of his new livery; or when he is going up with a dish of soup, let her follow him softly with a ladle full, and dribble it all the way up stairs to the dining-room, and then let the housemaid make such a noise, that her lady may hear it. ”

“ It is the French cook's knowledge of the subtleties, the nuances of seasoning that stands him in good stead. The American woman who has essayed to use some spice or savory unfamiliar to her and has turned out a dish which her family has declared “tasted like medicine” is, naturally enough, discouraged from wandering after that particular strange god again. ”

“ Make a stuffing of parsley, boiled onion, breadcrumbs, dripping, salt, pepper and one egg; stuff the breast first,then fill the body.
The young cook will do well to study her cookery book, not merely to take recipes from it, but to learn the different seasonings, flavorings and stuffings that go with the various meats, and having mastered such details, experiment on her own account. If economy is necessary in the household, she must learn to make up all cold meats and to utilize cold vegetables and scraps of dry bread, in fact, every morsel of food that comes under her hand. ”

“ Nevertheless, the cook is one of the most important of personages; and even appetite, without him, would not be of the value that it is at present. A great artiste knows his vocation. When the cook of Louis XVIII. was reproached, by His Majesty’s Physician, with ruining the royal health by savoury juices, the dignitary of the kitchen sententiously remarked, that it was the office of the cook to supply His Majesty with pleasant dishes, and that it was the duty of the doctor to enable the King to digest them. ”

“ We must not omit the praise due to our cook, a woman taken from the 'field hands,' and whose only instructors have been our hosts, neither of whom can boast of much knowledge of the art of cooking. It would, however, be hardly safe to trust to an untutored field hand, as I once learned to my cost, when my contraband of the kitchen department called me to dinner by announcing that the eggs had been boiling for an hour, and the oysters stewing for twice that time! ”

“ When the dinner has been served, the most important feature in the daily life of the cook is at an end. She must, however, now begin to look to the contents of her larder, taking care to keep everything sweet and clean, so that no disagreeable smells may arise from the gravies, milk, or meat that may be there. These are the principal duties of a cook in a first-rate establishment. ”

“ This necessity is well recognized by every good cook, and such a one tries to give dishes the inviting appearance justly demanded by epicures. It is not necessary that the dish belong to the category which in cooking parlance is termed “high class,” for the simplest one comes under the same rule and is capable of being raised to a higher rank by careful dishing and tasteful garnishing. The greatest cooks are renowned for such specialties. ”

“ Have the kitchen quite clear from all litters before you begin to work. No one can cook well in a muddle. Then commence operations by making up the fire and putting a saucepan of stock, or water, on to boil for the chicken. ”

“ In the middle ages, the cook of a house of any note always seated himself in a high arm chair to give his orders; he held a long wooden spoon in his hand, with which he tasted, without quitting his place, the various dishes that were cooking on the stoves and in the saucepans, and which served him also as a weapon with which to chastise the idle and gluttonous. ”

“ In a still bigger house, the second cook cooks for the servants always, and for the children sometimes, and assists the cook by preparing certain plainer portions of the meals, the cook preparing all dinner dishes, sauces and the more elaborate items on the menu. Sometimes there are two or more kitchen-maids who merely divide the greater amount of work between them.
In most houses of any size, the cook does all the marketing. She sees the lady of the house every morning, and submits menus for the day. ”

“ The construction of ornamental pieces is as interesting as other fancy work. Making puff-paste, ice-creams, fancy molding of desserts and salads, boiling sugar, etc., are in reality simple processes, and with very little practice found to be as easy to prepare as dishes which from familiarity have come to be called plain cooking. Skill and dexterity of hand may be enjoyed in boning, trussing, and larding, and taste shown in decorating with truffles and other articles, in molding with flowers and fruits, in [39] icing cakes, in spinning sugar, and in making bonbons. ”

“ A glance through these pages will show that they are confined to the simpler every-day dishes that make up the staple menu of the average American family. In cookery, as in other things, one should begin at the beginning and serve one's apprenticeship before passing on to the more complex mysteries of the craft. ”

“ Because cooking a good dinner takes all the brains a cook has—I ought to know. You can't be thinking about whether you're going to [178] get a spot on your frock or whether the last hook is caught or left open. And if you're too warm, as you will be in a velvet dress in that hot kitchen and you all excited anyway, or if your feet hurt you, you're not going to be able to give your attention to what you are cooking. And I may not know much about teachers, but I imagine they're like anybody else—when they're hungry, a brown velvet dress won't make up to them for soggy potatoes and underdone meat. ”

“ The accomplished cook considers the work on cold pieces an opportunity for giving examples of his skill, and the ornamentation of molds and chaud-froids a kind of fancy work which requires nicety and taste. Under the head of cold dishes come all the salads, the pâtés, galantines, cold fish dishes, ices, and sweets. ”

“ Cook.—The cook almost always lives in the forecastle, though sometimes in the steerage with the steward. He stands no watch, sleeping in at night, and working at his business throughout the day. He spends his time mostly in the cook-house, which is called the 'galley,' where he cooks both for the cabin and forecastle. This, with keeping the galley, boilers, pans, kids, &c., clean and in order, occupies him during the day. He is called with all hands, and in tacking and wearing, works the fore sheet. ”

“ There is nothing which so quickly indicates the grade of the cook as the manner in which she serves her dishes. One who has no pride in her work seldom takes time for ornamentation, though garnishing is the simplest part of her duty. When, however, attention is given to this branch, even though the result may not be perfect, it gives promise of better things, and one may confidently predict for the cook who thus shows desire to do well that she will attain a higher degree of excellence in her profession. ”