Molly had intended showing Marta how to fry potatoes, so as to have them crisp. If she gave directions merely, the girl would naturally think, being so much smaller than other things, they would be cooked as soon, and the result would be brown and flabby. She had waited to do this until some other dish needed her in the kitchen till the last minute before dinner, and to-day, as the sauce for the pudding had to be made, she could direct the one while she made the other, and she was anxious, too, to see to the taking up of the beef and making the gravy. She went to the kitchen in good time to attend to this. Half an hour before the meat was to come out, the oven was allowed to get very hot. When the paste was removed from the crock, the savory steam filled the air. The beef was lifted from the crock, put in the dripping-pan and set on the top shelf of the oven, now quite sharp, for half an hour, to brown, while Marta prepared the cabbage. The potatoes, peeled and cut into thin slices, had been lying in ice-water since morning. They were now drained and dried thoroughly, and the kettle of lard was put on the range to heat. Then Molly skimmed the fat from the gravy in the crock and poured it through a strainer into a small saucepan, and she then set Marta to rub as much of the vegetables through as possible.
“Marta, you need not chop the cabbage to-night; for a change you will press all the water you possibly can from it, cut it across pie-fashion when it is in the dish, and make a gill of nice white sauce, using, remember, half a table-spoonful of butter, half one of flour and a gill of milk.”
Molly was draining the cold water from the cabbage as she spoke, and put it into the boiling water; then, as it was too soon to make the sauce, she went to arrange the dining-table—which was something she found quite impossible to teach Marta.
When she returned Marta had rubbed the greater part of the vegetables through. Molly put a cup of boiling water into the crock, stirred it well round the sides, then poured it through the remains of the vegetables in the strainer into the saucepan, and then set it on the range to boil fast; it was still thick with fat.
“Marta, when that boils throw in a little cold water, then skim it; do that three or four times till it is quite clear of fat, then set it where it will boil rapidly, to get rid of the water you have thrown in. When the grease is entirely off it, you can stir in a dessert-spoonful of brown thickening.”
Molly needed for the polka sauce one table-spoonful of butter, well washed to remove salt, two large table-spoonfuls of powdered sugar, and a glass of wine, and the directions were as follows:
“Beat sugar and butter till very light and white, make the sherry quite hot, add it gradually to the butter and sugar, beating all the time, stand it in a saucepan of boiling water, and do not cease beating till all are at the boiling-point.”
Molly had to content herself with beating the sugar and butter to a very light cream and measuring the wine; she must trust Marta to finish it while they were at dinner, as it was evidently a sauce that could not stand.
When Marta had thickened the gravy for the meat, Molly seasoned it with pepper and salt, let it boil fast till very rich, then took it from the range and left it to stand for a few minutes. Marta had the soup on, and the noodles in the bottom of the tureen.
“Now, Marta, try the fat, and put in the potatoes if it is as hot as for your noodles. You must leave them till the fat recovers the heat—it is of course chilled by the cold potatoes going into it. If you were frying for a large family you would only put in part at a time, but for our little dish you may safely put in all.”
In about one minute they were drawn away from the intense heat.
“That is because they take at least eight minutes to cook. They will be tender before, but not crisp, and if they were kept in the hottest part they would be dark in color long before ten minutes. Understand, you must not put them where they will cook slowly, but where they will cook more slowly than right on the fire, and you can safely make your white sauce while they cook. As I am here I’ll take up the meat, but I want you to notice that the gravy has still a little fat which has formed on it like a skin, and can be lifted with a fork. One way of clearing very greasy stock or gravy is to boil it fast, let it stand, then remove the skin that forms, repeating this process several times if necessary. Where there is time, this is really the best way, for there is no need to watch it; simply put it on the fire and remove it as you go about your other work.
“Now those potatoes are done—lift them out with the skimmer, lay them on that brown paper I have put ready, sprinkle salt on them and then turn them into a dish. The beef is brown now—you can take it up, pour part of the gravy round it and put the rest in a sauceboat. Now I’ll leave the rest to you.”
The polka pudding Harry pronounced delicious, and exactly to his taste, but Molly thought she would have preferred it slightly sweetened; but the combination of hot and cold, eccentric as it seemed, was very pleasant.
After dinner Mrs. Lennox came in for a chat, as she occasionally did, leaving Mr. Lennox at home with the children. She wanted to tell Molly that she expected her new maid by the next Inman steamer. Her sister was going to meet her on its arrival and bring her right out.
“Make up your mind to possess yourself in patience for the first few days,” said Molly, “for you will no doubt need it, and then you may have real comfort.”
“Oh yes, I think I am patient. To-morrow I am going to make a cake; can you give me a good recipe? Better than the one I have, I mean.”
“That depends on what it is. Do you want a cup cake?”
“Yes, the one I have is what they call feather cake, and very light and nice, but I would like a change, I confess. The recipe is one table-spoonful of butter, one cup of sugar, one cup and a half of flour, half a cup of milk, one quarter tea-spoonful of soda, half one of cream of tartar, two eggs and a pinch of salt. Then I stir butter, sugar and eggs together, beating them hard, then add flour in which the cream of tartar is mixed and milk by degrees, and I dissolve the soda in the least drop of boiling water, and bake it in a good steady oven. I use the same recipe for jelly cake.”
“I know that cake,” said Molly; “it is an old favorite, and for a quite plain one it is very good indeed, and for children or where it is quickly eaten up I should use it; but I have to make a richer cup cake, using very much more butter or butter and lard, because for one thing I like a cake that is more like pound than sponge, and, for another, I want it to keep fresh. One loaf made with a cup and a half of flour lasts us a fortnight, and by using nearly half as much butter as flour it is better the last day than the first.”
“I thought so much butter would make it heavy.”
“No, if properly made you may use equal quantities of butter and flour as in pound cake, or half a pound of butter to one of flour as in queen cake; but a cake with much butter needs more care in baking, and it takes longer than one with less—pound cake takes from two to three hours.”
“I am fond of pound cake, but I never aspire to make one.”
“It is easy enough to make, but not so easy to bake; While eggs and butter keep fairly cheap, I think I shall make one to keep, so that it will be always on hand, for the minute eggs and butter get more expensive I shall use as few as possible and make only fruit cake.”
“Why don’t you get eggs now while they are cheap? I get eggs from a farmer at twenty-two cents, but he tells me they will be twenty-five by the end of the month.”
“I pay that now at the store, but if I can get a few dozen at twenty-two cents, it will be an economy to take them. I will put them down in lime.”
“That is what I have wanted to do, but I tried once, and put ten dozen down when they were fifteen cents, and they did not keep at all.”
“We’ll do them together if you like; but to return to the cake, I don’t believe you can improve on feather cake for your purpose, but you can vary it ad infinitum. By leaving out a good table-spoonful flour and adding grated chocolate and flavoring with vanilla you have a very nice chocolate cake, or by stirring in it a cup of grated cocoanut or one of walnut meats it is delicious, or even by grating the peel of an orange and part of the juice, or lemon-peel. If you add fruit you need more butter, say two table-spoonfuls, or it will be crumbly and dry.”
“Thank you; I never thought of chocolate cake. I shall try it to-morrow.”