The Fun of Cooking: A Story for Girls and Boys

"No dampers! Isn't that just like a girl!" he exclaimed. "See, here they are, tucked under the edge of the stove. You pull them out – so – and then you shut the draft at the top, opposite the coal, and open the one at the bottom, so the air will blow right up through the fire and make it go like everything. And you have to turn the dampers in the pipe, too, to let the heat go up the chimney."

"Good!" said his mother. "I didn't know you knew so much about stoves. Now suppose you shake the fire down and put the coal on – that's a man's work."

"All right," said Jack; "I don't mind things like that; but boys don't cook, you know."

His mother put both hands over her ears. "Jack, if I hear you say that once more, I shall believe you are turning into a parrot! And you are all wrong, too, and some day I am going to give you some special lessons myself. But to-day you may just tend the fire and bring us things from the refrigerator as we need them, to save time. Now, Mildred, we will begin with the custards, because they must be nice and cold. Brownie, you bring the spoons and bowls and such things, and, Jack, you get the milk and eggs."

BAKED CUSTARDS

1 quart of milk.

Yolks of four eggs.

4 teaspoonfuls of sugar.

½ teaspoonful of vanilla.

1 pinch of salt.

½ teaspoonful of grated nutmeg.

Put the sugar in the milk; beat the eggs light, and add those, with salt and vanilla. Pour into the cups, sprinkle with nutmeg, and arrange the cups in a shallow pan. Bake half an hour, or till, when you put the blade of a knife in one, it comes out clean.

It took just a few moments to make these, and then came the next rule:

CURRANT CAKES

½ cup of butter.

1 cup of sugar.

1 cup of milk.

1 egg.

2 cups of flour.

2 rounded teaspoonfuls of baking-powder.

½ cup of currants.

1 teaspoonful of vanilla.

Wash the currants and rub them dry in a towel. Put the flour in a bowl; take out a large tablespoonful and mix with the currants, and then mix the baking-powder with the rest of it. Rub the butter to a cream, add the sugar, then the milk, then the egg, beaten without separating, then the flour mixed with the baking-powder, then the flavoring, and, last, the currants. Grease some small tins, fill them half full, and bake in an oven not too hot.

"You must always mix some flour with raisins or currants to keep them from sinking to the bottom of the cake; but do not add any to the rule – just take a little out from what you are going to use in the cake. Now, Jack, please get me two cans of salmon from the pantry and open them; and we will need butter and milk from the refrigerator, too. It's fine to have a 'handy man' around to help us cook! Now, Mildred, double this rule, because there will be so many at supper."

SCALLOPED SALMON

1 good-sized can of salmon, or one pint of any cooked fish.

1 cup of white sauce.

1 cup of cracker crumbs.

Butter a baking dish, put in a layer of fish, then one of crumbs; sprinkle with a little salt and pepper, and dot the crumbs with butter; then put on a layer of white sauce. Repeat till the dish is full, with the crumbs on top; dot with butter and brown well in the oven; it will take about twenty minutes.

Brownie rolled the crackers for this, while Mildred made the white sauce by the rule she said was so easy it was exactly like learning a bc.

"That is so queer," laughed her mother, "because cooks call it just that – the a b c of cooking! It is the rule you use more often than any other."

WHITE SAUCE

1 rounded tablespoonful of butter.

1 rounded tablespoonful of flour.

1 cup of milk.

½ teaspoonful of salt.

2 shakes of pepper.

Melt the butter; when it bubbles, put in the flour, stirring it well; when this is smooth, slowly add the milk, salt, and pepper; stir and cook till very smooth; you can make it like thin cream by cooking only one minute, or like thick cream by cooking it two minutes.

"Sometimes you want it thicker than others," said her mother, "so I just put that in to explain. To-day make it like thin cream. Now, Mildred, you can put it all together while Jack brings in the cold boiled potatoes and Brownie cuts them up."

CREAMED POTATOES

Cut eight large boiled potatoes into bits the size of the end of your thumb. Put them in a saucepan and cover them with milk; stand them on the back of the stove where they will cook slowly; watch them so they will not burn. In another saucepan make white sauce as before. When the potatoes have drunk up all the milk and are rather dry, drop them in the sauce; do not stir them; sprinkle with pepper.

"Now for the muffins, for it is after five o'clock. Brownie, you find the muffin pans and make them very hot. Do you know how to grease them?"

"Yes, indeed!" said Brownie, proudly. "This is the way." She got a clean bit of paper, warmed the pans, and dropped a bit of butter in each, and then with the paper rubbed it all around.

MUFFINS

2 cups of flour.

1 cup of milk.

1 rounded tablespoonful of butter.

2 eggs, beaten separately.

1 teaspoonful of baking-powder.

½ teaspoonful of salt.