Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1889-07-03
KITCHEN JUGGlERY,

| UorS OOucuul.
KITCHEN JUGGLERY.
How the Plain Yankee Restaurant Cook
Brings Much Out of Little.
People who are accustomed to draw
thoir comparisons for economy OF
space from a ships cabin, or for MAX
ing much out of little from u wizard,
or for surprising results in cooking
from the French, might find more
striking smiles for all of these from
visit to the kitchen of some of the
plain, cheap, American restaurants so
plentiful in Now York. Take a look
at the bill Of fare first, before you
penetrate into the realm of the
necromanccr who juggles with the
edibles in the rear. Here you have
four or five kinds of soup. us many,
perhaps, of fish, half dozen roasts,
and an ample array of made dishes,
pies, buildings. etc., and all the
vegetables, canned or fresh, in ordi-
nary use anywhere. One who did not
know might suppose that to cook and
keep ready in quantities such an array
of dishes would require an immense
range, several cooks and plenty OF
space for the plates, etc., to serve on.
! Surprise is natural, then, when it is
discovered that the entire kitchen is no
bigger, or is even smaller, than that OF
an ordinary house, and one, or at most
two, assistants to wash dishes is all the
help the one plain Yankee cook re-
quires. How is this possible? Stand
aside and see. Here comes waiter
with an order for vegetable soup. The
cook lifts the lid of a big boiler of clear
soup, made by boiling bones and scraps
of beef, mutton, chicken, veal, etc.
Whether these bones have once been
picked by the customers at the tables
outside it would be better, per-
haps, not to inquire. To enjoy
yourself at a restaurant where
you do not want to spend much money
you must have, first of all, faith. Out
OF this boiler the cook dips a bowlful
of clear soup and into it he pops in
quick succession a. little from each pot
OF boiled vegetables he is serving for
that day. He gives it all stir, and
presto! There is your vegetable soup.
Notice all the orders for soup that
come in aud for every one you will see
him go first to the big boiler.
Is it consomme? From big pitcher
he pours into the clear stock some
brown thickening fluid. Is it macca-
roni? A pot of boiled maccaroni is near
! at hand and he forks a few strings in.
to the bowl. It is ox-tail? A big tin
of condensed ox-tail soup stands
on handy shelf, and a spoon.
tul lends it's flavor to the
stock. Is it chicken? He thrusts a
pair of tongs into the boiler and
brings up morsels from the depths
until enough scraps of chicken are
found to pass muster. Is it tomato:
A squirt of weak but thick tomato
catsup does the business. Is it rice?
Some of the rice pudding is available.
More rice, some thickening and fist
full of curry-powder and you have a
curry. A little thicl1ening and kid
ney from another pot makes the kid
ney stew always in demand. That is
pretty good, is it not for one ''illu-
sion," and yet that plain man does
not call himself a necromancer, much
less a ''chef."
See him next lift that magic wand
that looks so much like carving
knife. Roast lamb and roast mutton
come from the same joint at its touch,
and by the aid of an unctuous sauce
and some jelly, so will roast venison
at a pinch. Roast rib or roast loin
from the same piece of beef depends
altogether on his carving. The veal is
veal, or it is chicken for salad, or it is
turkey for fricassee, or it is rabbit for
stew, or,it is lamb for pie, just as he
fdesires The plain old cod, too, il
boiled, is turned into boiled halibut,
or paddock, or bluefish; and if baked,
becomes baked halbut, or bluefsh, OF
haddock at his simple touch. With
the aid of a few biting sauces they be-
como almost any thing one can name
in the way of fish.
When it comes to desserts, the dis
tinction between fruit cake and plum
pudding is with him only the differ
ence between hot and cold and van
ishes before the blast from his oven.
The boiled rice of the curry or the
soup, with milk, sugar and little
nutmeg, is straightway rice pudding.
Tapioca and sago come out of the
same dish, and it is wonder how he
remembers all the names he calls his
cottage pudding by. A boiled egg is
one of the few things that defy his
magic, but after watching him for
awhile one would hardly be surprised
to see him bring it out of the poi
where he gets his potatoes or his on
ions.-N. Y. Tribune.
A Deep, Dark Problem.