The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-11-05
AN IMPERIAL COOK.
THH EMPRESS OF rs FOND
or THE KITCHEN.


Cheerful Idea of a Chicago G~irl-Lighten
M Burdens Biackbirds in
Hats.
The Empress of Austria is the best
royal housekeeper in Europe. She is as
thoroughly acquainted with the details
of the imperial Austrian kitchen as her
husband is with the details of the impe.
rial Austrian Government. She superin-
tends the household affairs of the big
palace at the Austrian capital with the
greatest care. She receives personally,
reads and acts upon reports from cooks.
buffers, keepers Of the plate and keepers
of the linen. Cooking devices which have
become inconvenient or a~ntiquated are
abolished only at her command. New
methods of preparing or serving food are
adopted only at her suggestion, Changes
in the personnel of the establishment are
made for the most part only in obedience
to her orders. Consequently a person can
eat, drink. sleep and be served better in
her house than In any other in Europe,
The kitchen in which the food for the
bluest blood of Austria is cooked is q huge
room with all the arrangements at each
end for preparing fish, fowl and beast for
the table. Fifty chickens can be cooked
at once on one of the big, whirling spits.
Against the side walls, from floor TO cell
ing, stand scores upon scores OF chaing
dishes. In these dishes, all of which are
self-warming, the meats are carried to
the carving-room whence they are re-
turned to the kitchen ready to be served.
The boiling and baking, and frying and
carrying and cutting occupy a small regi-
ment of servants. Twenty-Five male
cooks, in white clothes, dress, spit, season
and stuff the meats. AS many female
cooks prepare the vegetables. the pud-
dings and the salads. A dozen or more
boys hurry the birds, fish and joints from
the kitchen to the carving room, Where
long lines of carvers slice and jointevery-
thing laid before them.
The kitchen utensils fill a big room
opening into ths kitchen. This is
the ideal of German housewives. The
high walls are covered with pans, ket-
ties, griddles and covers, which shine as
only German hands and German muscle
could make them shine. There are SOUP
tureens iii which a big boy might be
drowned. kettles in which twins could
play house, and pans which could hold
half a dozen little Hanses and Gretchens.
In short, about every culinary utensil on
the walls is of the heroic size, suggestive
rather of the Missouri barbecue than of
the feasts of crowned heads and diplo-
mats at one of the first of courts.
For days before the great court festi-
walls the whole Austrian court kitchen
staff, from the ''head court cooking mas
teri down to the youngest scullion, work
like mad. The chefs hold repeated 0 n
sultations in their council chamber, often
debating hour after hour with all the
earnestnesS of a Parliament or Congress
concerning the best methods of preparing
fowls, sauces, cakes and soups. The
menu, as selected by the chefs, Is sub
mitted to the master of the provision de-
partment, so that he may Immediately
order from the city whatever the cellars
of the castle lack.
The Austrian court dinners are famous
on the Continent. The delicaeies which
result from the protracted meetings in the
council chamber of the chefs are OF tense
fine that favored guests not infrequently
observe the old German fashion of taking
a choice hit home to their friends in the
name of the Empress and with her best
wishes. All that remains of q court feast
or dinner, Is sent to the VienneSe hospi-
tails. On the days just after the banquets
the Empress is very busy looking over the
reports and inventories of the frau head
keeper of the napkins, and the fraulien
head keeper of the tablecloths, and the
herr head guardian of the imperial china,
and a dozen other like f~unctionaries with
jointed titles. She reviews all these COM
m~unications with conscientious care, and
orders with strict attention to minute de-
tails the replacement of all that has been
lost, broken or defaced.
Girls Fancies.
"It takes a girl to think UP something
pleasant" said a young gentleman yester-
day; Something thatll yank your heart
up into your mouth all of a sudden when
you don't expect it. I've had considera-
BILE experience with EN-, and I've about
opa M tba aounlr1ainn that fh0 npdin rx Z
girl hasn't any sort of compass or direc-
ton except her impulses. She just does
whatever the spirit move her to do with
out rhyme or reason. Here's az instance:
/ took a girl | thought u good deal of to
the theatre the other night. We had q
jolly good time and after the play, went
over to the Tacoma Cafe for oysters. We
had been chatting along rs pleasantly as
anything you could imagine while wait
ing for our orders, and / was thinking
that she was one girl in ten thousand
when our supper came and my thoughts
were directed in another channel. I
hadn't taken more than three bites when
she looked at me kind of sp~eculatively
and said
"tHow many stories in this building?'
"'Thirteen,' / said.
Thirteen besides the basement?'
"'Yes, thirteen above the ground.
Why?'
"'Oh, | was just wondering"
"'Wondering what!' / asked. / could
see she was thinking of something un-
usual.
"sWell,' she says, Il was wondering
how it would be if the thirteen stories
were to fall in on u.s.
"Then she looked pensive, as though it
was something to ponder on dreamily, I
couldn't eat another bit. / hustled her
out of there and took her home, and when
she asked me with tears in her voice. as |
left her at the door, why ! acted so cross
ali at once, / looked her in the eye be-
meath the hall lights feeble flicker and
went out whistling "A Nickel in the Slot.
/ don't think Ill ever get much interested
in her again, "-Chicdgo Mail,
Women's Burdens.
The San Francisco Cal suggests a soci-
ETY. for tightening the burdens of women
who have houses to keep in order, and
says
Does the shoemaker try to tighten
woman's work by sewing the buttons ON
honestly or ~''tipping'' the footwear with
honest leather? Does the tailor who
makes the pants with his boosted benevo-
lence of double knees" ever put them
on the right knee or large enough2 Does
the carpenter ever put the nails and
hooks where a medium-sized woman, let
alone a child, can reach them2
Ii there ever but the fewest possible
shelves that a woman can reach without
standing on a chair at the risk of break