GIRL***


This eBook was prepared by Stewart A. Levin.



A LITTLE COOK-BOOK FOR A LITTLE GIRL




by
CAROLINE FRENCH BENTON
Author of ``Gala Day Luncheons''
Boston, The Page Company, Publishers


Copyright, 1905
by Dana Estes & Company


For
Katherine, Monica and Betty
Three Little Girls
Who Love To Do
``Little Girl Cooking''


  Thanks are due to the editor of Good Housekeeping for
permission to reproduce the greater part of this book
from that magazine.





INTRODUCTION




Once upon a time there was a little girl named Margaret, and she
wanted to cook, so she went into the kitchen and tried and tried,
but she could not understand the cook-books, and she made dreadful
messes, and spoiled her frocks and burned her fingers till she just
had to cry.

One day she went to her grandmother and her mother and her Pretty
Aunt and her Other Aunt, who were all sitting sewing, and asked
them to tell here about cooking.

``What is a roux,'' she said, ``and what's a mousse and what's an
entrée?  What are timbales and sautés and ingredients, and how do
you mix 'em and how long do you bake 'em?  Won't somebody please
tell me all about it?''

And her Pretty Aunt said, ``See the flour all over that new frock!''
and her mother said, ``Dear child, you are not old enough to cooks
yet;'' and her grandmother said, ``Just wait a year or two, and
I'll teach you myself;'' and the Other Aunt said, ``Some day you
shall go to cooking-school and learn everything; you know little
girls can't cook.''

But Margaret said, ``I don't want to wait till I'm big; I want to
cook now; and I don't want to do cooking-school cooking, but little
girl cooking, all by myself.''

So she kept on trying to learn, but she burned her fingers and
spoiled her dresses worse than ever, and her messes were so bad
they had to be thrown out, every one of them; and she cried and cried. 
And then one day her grandmother said, ``It's a shame that child
should not learn to cook if she really wants to so much;'' and her
mother said ``Yes, it is a shame, and she shall learn!  Let's get
her a small table and some tins and aprons, and make a little
cook-book all her own out of the old ones we wrote for ourselves
long ago,--just the plain, easy things anybody can make.'' And both
her aunts said, ``Do! We will help, and perhaps we might put in
just a few cooking-school things beside.''

It was not long after this that Margaret had a birthday, and she
was taken to the kitchen to get her presents, which she thought
the funniest thing in the world.  There they all were, in the
middle of the room: first her father's present, a little table
with a white oilcloth cover and casters, which would push right
under the big table when it was not being used.  Over a chair her
grandmother's present, three nice gingham aprons, with sleeves and
ruffled bibs.  On the little table the presents of the aunties,
shiny new tins and saucepans, and cups to measure with, and spoons,
and a toasting-fork, and ever so many things; and then on one corner
of the table, all by itself, was her mother's present, her own
little cook-book, with her own name on it, and that was best of all.

When Margaret had looked at everything, she set out in a row the big
bowl and the middle-sized bowl and the little wee bowl, and put the
scalloped patty-pans around them, and the real egg-beater in front of
all, just like a picture, and then she read a page in her cook-book, and
began to believe it was all true.  So she danced for joy, and put on a
gingham apron and began to cook that very minute, and before another
birthday she had cooked every single thing in the book.

This is Margaret's cook-book.





PART I.

THE THINGS MARGARET MADE FOR BREAKFAST

A LITTLE COOK BOOK FOR A LITTLE GIRL




CEREALS


1 quart of boiling water.
4 tablespoonfuls of cereal.
1 teaspoonful of salt.

When you are to use a cereal made of oats or wheat, always begin
to cook it the night before, even if it says on the package that
it is not necessary.  Put a quart of boiling water in the outside
of the double boiler, and another quart in the inside, and in this
last mix the salt and cereal.  Put the boiler on the back of the
kitchen range, where it will be hardly cook at all, and let it
stand all night.  If the fire is to go out, put it on so that it
will cook for two hours first.  In the morning, if the water in
the outside of the boiler is cold, fill it up hot, and boil hard
for an hour without stirring the cereal.  Then turn it out in a
hot dish, and send it to the table with a pitcher of cream.

The rather soft, smooth cereals, such as farina and cream of rice,
are to be measured in just the same way, but they need not be cooked
overnight; only put on in a double boiler in the morning for an hour. 
Margaret's mother was very particular to have all cereals cooked a
long time, because they are difficult to digest if they are only
partly cooked, even though they look and taste as though they were done.


Corn-meal Mush

1 quart of boiling water.
1 teaspoon of salt.
4 tablespoons of corn-meal.

Be sure the water is boiling very hard when you are ready; then
put in the salt, and pour slowly from your hand the corn-meal,
stirring all the time till there is not one lump.  Boil this half
an hour, and serve with cream.  Some like a handful of nice plump
raisins stirred in, too.  It is better to use yellow corn-meal in
winter and white in summer.


Fried Corn-meal Mush

Make the corn-meal mush the day before you need it, and when it
has cooked half an hour put it in a bread-tin and smooth it over;
stand away overnight to harden.  In the morning turn it out and
slice it in pieces half an inch thick.  Put two tablespoons of
lard or nice drippings in the frying-pan, and make it very hot.
Dip each piece of mush into a pan