The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-05-15
Cooking.

hOiO th"h pioJihS VII IhO PiohO VI
painting on velvet does. Yet, just as
there are people with correct ear who
find it very little trouble to learn to
play, or with taste for drawing who
can make pretty pictures or clever
caricatures without much knowledge of
the principles of art, so there are women
who, after the first elementary instruc-
ton, which they imbibe almost uncon-
sciously, develop a skill that amounts
to talent for cooking. But genius is
a rare gift in this workaday world, and
heaven-born cooks are not more COM
mon than are poets and painters with
the divine spark. Owen Meredith says,
in " Lucille -:
I'VE may live without poetry music and art;
We may live without conscience and live without
We may live without friends, we may live without
But civilized man can not live without cooks.
He may live without books-what is knowledge but
He seI MAY 1--WE without hopewh"t is hope but de-
lie may live without love-what is passion but pin
But where is the that live without dining2"
And if he must dine, there is in many
cases no one but his wife, daughter or
sister to cook his dinner. If she does
not know how to serve it comfortably
and produce palatable meal from the
materials at her command, it is hard for
both of them. A silly mother of the
last generation boosted that her three
daughters did not even know the way
to the kitchen. 1t never seemed to oc-
cur to her how much more easy and
pleasant it would be for them to learn
the best way of doing everything neces-
sary to be done there while there was
no actual need of putting the knowl.
edge into practice than to wait until,
in home of their own, some domestic
interregnum forced them to undertake
this work without teacher and under
every disadvantage. knowledge is
power in the kitchen as well as in
the council-chamber, and the woman
who is mistress of the art of cook
ing has a sense of calm superiority
which no irate cook, departing at an
hours warning, can shake. Cooking
clubs and classes have become popular
of late, and have made smattering of
the art fashionable; but, though there
are some wise exceptions, as rule they
begin at the wrong end. Ice-cream
and sponge cake are delicious in their
proper place, but that is at the end
not the beginning, of dinner. The
pupils should first be taught how to
prepare joint of meat for roasting
stuff and dress pair of chickens, make
rich, smooth gravy without Jumps, and
learn the length of time required to
cook different vegetables. What girl
who has had no experience knows how
long to boil green peas, and whether
they take more or less cooking than
green beans? These seem trifles when
they are read off in the dignified Sc
clusion of the drawing-room, with COM
Portable consciousness that there is
some one in the kitchen that knows
all about such things and will attend to
them. 1t is far otherwise when the
poor young mistress herself stands in
the place of cook, knowing that dinner
must be ready at certain hour, yet
unable to solve the problem and I'M
willing to have her handiwork spoiled
by being underdone or cold and tough
from long waiting. Mark Twain gives
in his Tramp Abroad " a short list,
extending over two or three pages, of
the various delicacies he intends to
order in the steamer returning to New
York to compensate for the depriva-
tons he has undergone in Europe, and
he concludes by saying that no man
can make out satisfactory bill of fare
for another person, for, after all the de-
licious things he had enumerated, a
Scotchman would still say, Where is
the haggis?" and Fijian would sigh
for missionary Tastes differ, OF
course, in cooking as in other things.
but there is right way and a wrong
way of doing everything. No one, for
instance, who is accustomed to sweet,
light bread likes it when it is sour and
heavy. 1t takes as much flour to make
the one as the other, and as much
labor and as much pains. All
that is wanted to produce the salts
factory result is what the famous
painter mixed his colors with-brains
Fresh yeast, diligent kneadng, and
knowing the exact moment to put the
dough into the oven makes the differ
ence, and this certainty comes from
experience and not by intuition. Ii
takes many disheartening failures and
much spelling of good ingredients be.
fore the amateur discovers by export
ment that eggs which will generally
CuTule WIEN tney are put luto uolllnS
milk will remain smooth and passive
if the hot milk is gradually poured on
them; or that dry substance, like
flour or arrowroot, which is to be mixed
with milk or water will not coagulate
into Jumps if it is first made into q
paste with few drops of the liquid
and the rest added by degrees. These
and many other little things that seen
so self-evident to the experienced cool
as to be scarcely worth mentioning OIL
paper, and are seldom even alluded tC
in the best recipes, are all-importanl
to the success of the dish. Every
young girl should devote half an houl
a day to learning to cook. 1t can be
made IA pleasure and not task, fol
there is nothing children are more fond
of exercising than the creative faculty
She may never require to use he
knowledge in after life, but even so sh'
is none the worse for having it, and il
the large majority of cases she will
many times bless the wise mother wht