Mrs. QS.Iiel This Is a Reproduction of a Book from the Mcgill University Library Collection
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
m /or /io use^ooks An Jndi'spensalfle Than ual for ^ouseJicepers y^ffTtten by Mrs. QS.iiel This is a reproduction of a book from the McGill University Library collection. Title: Ten shillings a head per week for house books Edition: New and rev. ed. Author: Peel, C. S., Mrs. Publisher, year: London : Constable, 1916 The pages were digitized as they were. The original book may have contained pages with poor print. Marks, notations, and other marginalia present in the original volume may also appear. For wider or heavier books, a slight curvature to the text on the inside of pages may be noticeable. ISBN of reproduction: 978-1-77096-092-3 This reproduction is intended for personal use only, and may not be reproduced, re-published, or re-distributed commercially. For further information on permission regarding the use of this reproduction contact McGill University Library. McGill University Library www.mcgill.ca/library j/^ fi:1H'f /^PO^y^i^ict> i-)f^ BOOKS WHICH EVERY WOMAN WANTS. By MRS. C. S. PEEL. Learning to Cook Published in response to a correspondent who wrote " I want a cookery book for a woman who knows nothing." Marriage on Small Means If every girl waited for a rich man there would be but few marriages. This book teaches you how to make the most of what you have. How to Keep House Is, as its name implies, a storehouse of domestic knowledge. CONSTABLE & COMPANY, LTD. TEN SHILLINGS A HEAD PER WEEK FOR HOUSE BOOKS NEW AND REVISED EDITION TEN SHILLINGS A HEAD PER WEEK FOR HOUSE BOOKS By MRS C. S. PEEL NEW AND REVISED EDITION LONDON CONSTABLE & COMPANY LTD 10 ORANCI STRUT LIICESTIR SQUARE tv.c I916 Contents PAGB Chapter A TEN SHILLINGS A HEAD AT INCREASED PRICES xi Chapter I SOME HINTS ON GENERAL MANAGEMENT . 1 LIST OF KITCHEN UTENSILS 11 Chapter II MENUS FOR THE TEN-SHILLINGS-A-HEAD HOUSE KEEPER AND THE SINGLE-HANDED PLAIN COOK 16 These Menus will now cost from 12/6 to 15/6 per head. WINTER 16 SPRING 19 SUMMER 23 AUTUMN 26 KITCHEN MENUS TO CORRESPOND ... 30 vii CONTENTS Chapter III SHOWING HOW THE MENUS MAY BE MANAGED 44 Chapter IV SOUPS • • . ...... 60 Chapter V SAUCES , , • . 77 Chapter YI ECONOMICAL WAYS OF COOKING FISH ... 88 Chapter VII LUNCHEON DISHES ...,.,,. 104 Chapter VIII SOME SUBSTANTIAL COLD SUPPER DISHES . 114 Chapter IX ECONOMICAL ENTREES 121 Chapter X SOME MORE ECONOMICAL ENTREES . , , . 139 viii CONTENTS FAGB Chapter XI VEGETABLE DISHES AND SALADS , , . 142 Chapter XII PUDDINGS AND SWEETS ..... 157 Chapter XIII SAVOURIES .... • • * 178 Chapter XIV SANDWICHES . 203 Chapter XV BREAKFAST DISHES ....,,,, 208 Chapter XVI CAKES, SCONES, BISCUITS AND BUNS . , . 228 Chapter XVII SOME VERY ECONOMICAL IDEAS .... 246 INDEX 267 IX CHAPTEE A Ten Shillings a Head at Increased Prices H, but one cannot keep house on IO5. a O head now," cries my reader. But one can ! I admit that it is no longer possible to provide the menus set forth in Chapter II for IO5. a head : to give them in their entirety and manag ing with the modicum of economy to which most English women of the servant-keeping class have become accustomed, they would now cost 125. 6d. to I5s. 6d. a week per head. But by simplifying the biUs of fare, choosing all provisions personally and paying cash, permit ting no waste, making the best of everything, eschewing expensive joints, using a considerable proportion of cheap meatless foods, substituting margarine for butter (for cooking at all events), home-made for bought bread, condensed milk xi TEN SHILLINGS A HEAD (for soups, sauces and puddings) instead of fresh milk, and employing egg powder and custard powder where possible, still you may live nourish- ingly and not unattractively at a cost of 105. per head per week. Having made this statement let me try and show that I do not deviate from the truth in so saying. THE PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICAL CATERING In the first place, please read this book care fully and learn from it the principles of economic catering. These have not changed since the book was first written. Let us proceed to deal with the question of PERSONAL SHOPPING " I haven't time," is the objection. Then you must make time, for unless you do give time and also thought to the catering you will not be able to live cheaply. The advan tages of personal shopping are that— You taJce advantage of the marJcet. Prices fluctuate considerably: if there is a glut of cauliflowers, cauliflowers will be cheap. Sometimes bananas are cheap and oranges dear, and vice versa. To-day cod is relatively Xll AT INCREASED PRICES inexpensive and to-morrow you can buy sprats or herrings at bargain prices. You buy just what you want. You see it weighed and in many cases bring it home with you. (Yes, a market basket will soon become quite the fashionable wear !) When you order from the man at the door you are often sent more of everything than you order, and you are often charged for more than you receive, for it is almost impossible to persuade cooks to weigh food, to com pare the quality sent with the docket, and to report inaccuracies. You buy at ready money prices. Credit and delivery prices are considerably higher. You vary the menus more because you see things and obtain new ideas from what you see. If your time is valuable it is by no means necessary to shop every day. With careful organization two shopping expeditions per week should suffice; on Monday and Friday for example. The greater part of the groceries can be ordered once a week if the numbers to be fed do not vary much. Only the perishable things need to be ordered twice or thrice a week, xiii TEN SHILLINGS A HEAD though of course I do not mean to say that an occasional extra visit to a shop may not have to be made, or an order sent by postcard or telephoned. Also let me suggest that it is not a law of the Medes and Persians that the catering should not be done in the afternoon. ORDERING IN ADVANCE If we are not to waste valuable time the menus must be planned in advance to some extent. Let us peruse the following week's bills of fare and see how, with organization, the time of caterer and cook and much fuel may be saved by taking thought for the morrow. los. A HEAD MENUS for a family of not less than five, including children and servants. The lOs. cover food, tea, coffee, cocoa and cleaning materials only. (See paragraph re cleaning materials on page XXV.) MEALS. Breakfast, luncheon, tea, dinner. Tea is given at breakfast on mornings when there is a fish, meat or egg dish, coffee or cocoa (more nourishing because of the greater quantity of milk used) when there is porridge only, which is on alternate mornings. xiv AT INCREASED PRICES Jfrtoas BREAKFAST Kippers Hot rolls (spread with margarine) Toast and marmalade LUNCH (Servants' and children's dinner) CasBerole of beef (shin or pieces) with haricot beans and onions Blanc-mange and stewed fruit DINNER Soup SemoUna rissoles Sweet Saturbas BREAKFAST Coffee or cocoa Porridge Toast Honey LUNCH Pudding or pie of beef Vegetables Milk pudding DINNER Soup. Grilled noisettes of mutton with savoury macaroni, rice or lentils Pudding or savoury Sun&ag BREAKFAST Tea Kedgeree Soonee LUNCH Roast shoulder of mutton, boned and stuffed Vegetables. Stewed fruit Custard (powder) SUPPER Soup Jelly pie Cold sweet XV TEN SHILLINGS A HEAD /IDon5aB BREAKFAST Coffee or cocoa Bread and milk Jam LUNCH Scotch broth made with the trimmings and scrag end of mutton Cold sweet DINNER Soup Haricot of mutton (Only 2 for dinner, so there would b3 2 or 3 noisettes left of the 7 on the neck) Plenty of vegetables Potato loaf Sweet or savoury Uues&as BREAKFAST Scrambled eggs and rice LUNCH Soup Cold mutton Potato Salad Pudding DINNER Soup Stuffed potatoes Sweet MeOnes&ai? BREAKFAST Porridge LUNCH Soup Suet pudding DINNER Soup Fish rissoles Saute potatoes Savoury toa-ib BREAKFAST Bacon and saute potatoes LUNCH Savoury macaroni Cornflour and jam pudding DINNER Soup Mince with poached eggs Vegetables Sweet or savoury xvi AT INCREASED PRICES On Friday you must plan the meals for Saturday, Sunday and Monday as far as luncheon, and give all your orders at the shops. You buy shin of beef and use part for a casserole, leaving enough for a beefsteak pudding, pie oT stew, and for a jelly pie for Sunday. You also order a fore-quarter of New Zealand mutton to come in on Saturday. (I take it that you have a good larder and that the weather is cool: dog day catering is a different matter.) On Monday you take stock again. There is some of the shoulder of mutton, possibly remains of jelly pie and of stew. Nothing must be thrown away, for even a few tablespoonfuls of mince will suffice for the stuffed potatoes for Tuesday night's dinner. On Wednesday, soup and a plain substantial suet pudding for lunch will serve, and there is fish for dinner. Planning the meals thus in advance you can see what to order, and make out your list of vegetables, pudding materials, fish, meat, etc., accordingly. Ordering in advance is labour and money saving, and it enables a sensible cook to arrange her time to the best advantage and to get the greater part of her cooking done on T.S. xvii b TEN SHILLINGS A HEAD COOKING MORNINGS, during which she prepares stock, makes a batch of pastry and cakes, planning to use the oven when it must be heated for roasting a joint, for it is most wasteful of fuel (be it coal or gas) to heat the ovens half a dozen times, when twice could be made to do.