These good people had an income from
a fortune of two hundred thousand dol-
lars; they were amiable, generous to an
extreme ; the lady was sunshine itself in
spite of poor meals; they deserved really,
to live in a good hotel and enjoy the best
of cookery and yet in fact they had noth-
ing but Mary Jane and a kitchen, that
was little more than a board on a barrel.
As for my own three days' work that did
not concern me, for I had a separate room
and everything needful, but then I could
see the gentleman was not happy. He
was intended by nature to be a man o( a
large and portly presence ; the frame was
broad, but there was not much upon it ;
his vest was not filled out and could not
be with such poor cooking as a board on
a barrel affords. I could not see without
some concern their Mary Jane trying to
broil large and thick beefsteaks over the
holes of a stove filled with soft coal, doing
the same thing three times each day and
sending them in half cooked, half raw,
blackened with coal smoke, dirty. Car-
rot croquettes she tried to make and they
melted down in the grease, (not hot
enough) and were sent in that way, soft
and disgusting and a dozen such blunders
or more I should have liked to correct but
the contract would have been too large,
and, besides; there was no convenience.
When their Mary Jane made^ bread she
mixed up a pan of dough, using for her
table a board set on top of the barrel of
flour. When she wanted a handful of
flour she had to set the pan over on the
dish sink and remove the board, and then
set them back again — and it was a fine
painted, grained and ornamented kitchen
too — and when she made rolls she could
not knead the dough, but seized a hand-
tul, squeezed it and pinched off the little
dumpling shape that rose up out of her
fist. Well, they were not very bad rolls,
and not very good; just the commonest
of the common although the people were
rich and might as well have had the
finest; and neither Mary Jane nor I could
roll out the pastry on a board on a barrel
that tipped over.
We may take Mr. Toots' view of such
a matter saying, *'it's of no consequence,"
for health and strength may be kept up
on very plain food, if one will be an as-
cetic and philosopher, but that is what vei^
few will be. In this family were four
daughters, young ladies for whose pleasure
this party was given, and the mischief of
the situation is, that having grown up with
nothing better before their eyes they will
go out to their own housekeeping think-
ing that a board on a barrel is all that is
needed to set up a kitchen, and that the
miserable ways of Mary Jane which
they have seen are the ways they must
remember and carry on as all that is
necessary to know about cooking.
Page 198
Presented as published in 1886. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
These good people had an income from a fortune of two hundred thousand dollars; they were amiable, generous to an extreme ; the lady was sunshine itself in spite of poor meals; they deserved really, to live in a good hotel and enjoy the best of cookery and yet in fact they had nothing but Mary Jane and a kitchen, that was little more than a board on a barrel. As for my own three days' work that did not concern me, for I had a separate room and everything needful, but then I could see the gentleman was not happy. He was intended by nature to be a man o( a large and portly presence ; the frame was broad, but there was not much upon it ; his vest was not filled out and could not be with such poor cooking as a board on a barrel affords. I could not see without some concern their Mary Jane trying to broil large and thick beefsteaks over the holes of a stove filled with soft coal, doing the same thing three times each day and sending them in half cooked, half raw, blackened with coal smoke, dirty. Carrot croquettes she tried to make and they
melted down in the grease, (not hot enough) and were sent in that way, soft and disgusting and a dozen such blunders or more I should have liked to correct but the contract would have been too large, and, besides; there was no convenience. When their Mary Jane made bread she mixed up a pan of dough, using for her table a board set on top of the barrel of flour. When she wanted a handful of flour she had to set the pan over on the dish sink and remove the board, and then set them back again — and it was a fine painted, grained and ornamented kitchen too — and when she made rolls she could not knead the dough, but seized a handtul, squeezed it and pinched off the little dumpling shape that rose up out of her fist. Well, they were not very bad rolls, and not very good; just the commonest of the common although the people were rich and might as well have had the finest; and neither Mary Jane nor I could roll out the pastry on a board on a barrel that tipped over.
We may take Mr. Toots' view of such a matter saying, *'it's of no consequence," for health and strength may be kept up on very plain food, if one will be an ascetic and philosopher, but that is what vei^ few will be. In this family were four daughters, young ladies for whose pleasure this party was given, and the mischief of the situation is, that having grown up with nothing better before their eyes they will go out to their own housekeeping thinking that a board on a barrel is all that is needed to set up a kitchen, and that the miserable ways of Mary Jane which they have seen are the ways they must remember and carry on as all that is necessary to know about cooking.