A Little Cook Book for a Little Girl | Page 8

and stir again, and then put in one cup of hot milk. Shake in a little pepper, but no salt. As soon as it boils up once, it is done, and you can put it in a hot covered dish. If you like a change, stir in sometimes two beaten eggs in the milk instead of using it plain.
Veal Cutlet
Wipe off the meat with a clean wet cloth, and then with one that is dry. Dust it over with salt, pepper, and flour. Put a tablespoonful of nice dripping in a hot frying-pan, and let it heat till it smokes a little. Lay in the meat and cook till brown, turning it over twice as it cooks. Look in the inside and see if it is brown, for cutlet must not be eaten red or pink inside. Put in a hot oven and cover it up while you make the gravy, by putting one tablespoonful of flour into the hot fat in the pan, stirring it till it is brown. Then put in a cup of boiling water, half a teaspoonful of salt, and a very little pepper; put this through the wire sieve, pressing it with a spoon, and turn over the meat. Put parsley around the cutlet, and send hot to the table.
Margaret's father said he could not possibly manage without potatoes for breakfast, so sometimes Margaret let Bridget cook the cereal and meat, while she made something nice out of the cold potatoes she found in the cupboard.
Creamed Potatoes
Cut cold boiled potatoes into pieces as large as the end of your finger; put them into a pan on the back of the stove with enough milk to cover them, and let them stand till they have drunk up all the milk; perhaps they will slowly cook a little as they do this, but that will do no harm. In another saucepan or in the frying-pan put a tablespoonful of butter, and when it bubbles put in a tablespoonful of flour, and stir till they melt together; then put in two cups of hot milk, and stir till it is all smooth. Put in one teaspoonful of salt, and last the potatoes, but stir them only once while they cook, for fear of breaking them. Add one teaspoonful of chopped parsley, and put them in a hot covered dish. You can make another sort of potatoes when you have finished creaming them in this way, by putting a layer of them in a deep buttered baking-dish, with a layer of white sauce over the top, and break-crumbs and bits of butter for a crust. Brown well in a hot oven. When you do this, remember to make the sauce with three cups of milk and two tablespoonfuls of flour and two of butter, and then you will have enough for everything.
Hashed Browned Potatoes
Chop four cold potatoes fine, and add one teaspoonful of salt and a very little pepper. Put a tablespoonful of butter in the frying-pan, and turn it so it runs all over; when it bubbles put in the potatoes, and smooth them evenly over the pan. Cook till they are brown and crusty on the bottom; then put in a teaspoonful of chopped parsley, and fold over like an omelette.
Saratoga Potatoes
Wash and pare four potatoes, and rub them on the potato-slicer till they are in thin pieces; put them in ice-water for fifteen minutes. Heat two cups of lard very hot, till when you drop in a bit of bread it browns at once. Wipe the potatoes dry and drop in a handful. Have a skimmer ready, and as soon as they brown take them out and lay on brown paper in the oven, and put in another handful.
Potato Cakes
Take two cups of mashed potato, and mix well with the beaten yolk of one egg, and make into small flat cakes; dip each into flour. Heat two tablespoonfuls of nice dripping, and when it is hot lay in the cakes and brown, turning each with the cake-turner as it gets crusty on the bottom.
Fried Sweet Potatoes
Take six cold boiled sweet-potatoes, slice them and lay in hot dripping in the frying-pan till brown. These are especially nice with veal cutlets.
Toast
Toast is very difficult for grown people to make, because they have made it wrong all their lives, but it is easy for little girls to learn to make, because they can make it right from the first.
Cut bread that is at least two days old into slices a quarter of an inch thick. If you are going to make only a slice or two, take the toasting-fork, but if you want a plateful, take the wire broiler. Be sure the fire is red, without any flames. Move the slices of bread back and forth across the coals,