CHAPTER II.

THE PLAN OF OPERATIONS.

As we have seen, the incomes of our three friends amounted altogether to £270 a year. In the winter months the accounts for the rent of the rooms, coal, gas, candles, and similar expenses came to £1 3s. 6d. each week, as the following accounts set forth—

£s.d.
Rent of rooms0120
Abigail's wages026
Gas-stove010
Oil for lamp004
Candles (½ lb. at 6d. a lb.)003
Coals for sitting-room0110
Washing-bills (personal)030
Washing-bills (house linen)027
£136

For about a month in the year the three were away, Marion in her own home in Nottinghamshire, and the Orlingburys staying with different friends and relations. Ada Orlingbury had only three weeks holiday in the summer, and not quite a week at Christmas, but was busy with her type-writing all the rest of the year. Jane had a far longer rest from her cookery classes than Ada from her work, and Marion had longer holidays than either. When all were away they paid rent for their rooms just the same, but, of course, had no other household expenses. Marion was a very economical housekeeper and understood how to keep down expenses as low as possible, whilst still having everything comfortable. We must admit that very acceptable "helps" arrived sometimes from their friends in the country. It might be a large box of eggs, or a "hand" of pork, or perhaps a bag of apples, but this did not happen very often. Once a week they had a dinner without meat, but this was no hardship to any of the three, for all liked vegetables, fruit and fish, and this arrangement made things much easier for the housekeeper.

Marion had quite grasped the fact that the best way to keep down the bills was to economise with the butcher's bill, for meat is the most expensive item of all. They had soup very often, as nice soup can be made for so little. They indulged largely in savoury dishes of macaroni and rice, some recipes for which we shall give in the course of this account of the girl-chums and their doings.

Once a week, on Wednesday evenings, they went to a choral society to which they belonged, and, as they had to start at seven o'clock, instead of sitting down to dinner at that hour, they found it more convenient to have a sort of "high tea" on that evening and to have hot milk and cake or porridge when they came back.

We must not forget to say that on alternate mornings they had porridge for breakfast, which Marion cooked the day before in a double saucepan, whilst she was seeing to her other cookery and which was warmed up in the morning. They generally supplemented this with scones, which Jane, with her superior knowledge of food-stuffs, pronounced to be very nourishing. On Sundays they dined at two o'clock. For this meal they often had meat pie, as that could be made the day before and heated, or eaten cold, as they preferred, or they chose something that did not take long to cook, such as cutlets.

Marion found her path made easy by some of the tradesmen with whom she dealt, who were very accommodating to her wishes, and never in the least resented her subtle knowledge of ways and means, as they undoubtedly did in the case of some other of their customers' housekeepers of many years' standing and very much Marion's seniors in years! Mr. Calvesfoot, the butcher, for instance, let her have fat for rendering down at 2d. a pound, and so she was able to have a constant supply of excellent dripping for frying and for pastry at the slightest possible cost. She started her stock with four pounds at the beginning, and by straining it each time after using it, and by rendering down one and a half pounds of fresh fat each week and adding it to the stock, she always had plenty of good dripping. To do this she cut up the fat and put it in a saucepan with a little water, and then let it cook until the water had boiled away and the fat had melted, leaving nothing but crisp little brown bits; the liquid fat was strained off and the crisp brown bits saved for Abigail, by whom they were esteemed a great luxury. To others Mr. Calvesfoot was adamant, and declined to part with the fat under double the sum, but Marion (who was asked the extra price at first) refused to take "No" for an answer, and asked him calmly why he could not let her have it cheaply as well as the soap-boilers whose carts she had seen waiting before his shop early in the morning, and who she knew only gave him a penny a pound for it.

At the exhibition of so much knowledge he was dumb, and fell in with her views with much meekness, as no doubt he would have done for his other customers if they had not allowed themselves to be beaten so weakly.

She always provided a hot dinner as she found that, with proper management, it cost no more than a cold one, and it was infinitely more appreciated. She had learnt just how much was required of any given thing, and so there was no waste. The little that was left over from their dinner was always worked into the next day's meals, or else was finished up by Abigail on the alternate days when she had dinner at "The Rowans."

Here we have the list of a week's dinners in February.

On Sunday they had a light supper at half-past eight, consisting of cocoa, boiled eggs, and bread and butter.

Saturday and Sunday were the only days on which they were at home to tea.

The breakfast for the week, on non-porridge mornings, consisted of brawn, which Marion had made a fortnight before, when they had had half a pig's face sent them from the country. The brawn was excellently flavoured.

Dinners for the Week.

Sunday.

Monday.

Tuesday.

Wednesday. (High Tea Night.)

Thursday.

Friday.

Saturday.

The beef pie which they had on Sunday and the beef pudding of Monday were both made out of a pound and a quarter of beef skirt, which, costing only ninepence a pound, makes just as good gravy as rump steak, and if cooked long enough is very tender. The half that was used for the pie was cut into rather thin pieces, and half the kidney was cut in dice; then all was dipped in pepper, flour, and salt, and put into a saucepan to stew gently for an hour before it was used for the pie. Marion always did this now, as she had noticed that if the meat was put raw into the pie, the pastry got overcooked before the meat was done. It was not necessary to do this with the pudding, however, as that could be boiled for a very long while—in fact, was all the better for long boiling.

For the pastry for the pie she used half a pound of flour mixed with a good teaspoonful of baking powder, and three ounces of dripping rubbed in lightly. Her hands seldom got hot, so she made delicious pastry, and as she was careful not to pour in too much water, when mixing the flour and dripping to a dough, it was not tough. She mixed in the water quickly and lightly, using a knife to begin the mixing and finishing with her hands, keeping it as cool as possible while it was being made, and being very careful not to squeeze it, or work it about more than was absolutely necessary. The pastry was rolled out quickly and lightly, and the pie was baked in a good hot oven, and it was voted a great success. The pineapple needed no cooking, being the contents of a sixpenny tin turned on to a glass dish. The ground rice mould was made with a pint of milk brought gently to the boil with two ounces of castor sugar and a bay leaf to flavour, two ounces of ground rice were mixed smoothly with a little cold milk while this was happening, and stirred into the milk on the fire; the mixture was stirred and cooked for a few minutes and the bay leaf taken out, then it was poured into a wetted mould to be turned out when cold.

On Monday Marion made the quarter of a large cabbage do for the soup, and the rest she cooked as a vegetable. The cabbage for the soup was cut up small and put into boiling water for three minutes to take away the disagreeable smell; then it was drained and put with a small onion sliced, a bunch of herbs, a small piece of butter, a teaspoonful of salt, and simmered for twenty minutes; half a pint of warm milk was added, and a beaten-up egg strained in. The soup was then stirred over the fire for a few minutes to cook the egg, but was on no account allowed to boil for fear of its curdling, as happened, alas! on one occasion when Marion left her handmaid Abigail to watch it for a minute or two.

All stews were done in a brown earthenware stewing jar that was one of her most cherished possessions. While the stew within it was cooking, the jar stood in a dripping tin containing water in the oven; by this means the contents of the jar never boiled, though the water outside it might do so, and if the stew cooked long enough it was always perfectly tender. As the heat of the fire did not hurt the look of the jar, the stews were always served in it, which arrangement had the double advantage of saving time and keeping the dish hot. The Irish stew of Tuesday was made with one and a half pounds of scrag of mutton, three pounds of potatoes, and half a pound of onions, all sliced and cooked gently for two hours. There was a good deal over, so it was used on Thursday, with the addition of a few more potatoes, half a pint of water, a gill of milk, and a piece of celery, to make a delicious potato soup. The milk was added last after the soup had been rubbed through a sieve and re-heated. For the apple pie a pound of apples of a good cooking sort were used, and these turned a beautiful amber colour in the pie. They had such a good flavour of their own that no cloves were needed to assist them.

The herrings on Wednesday were boned, spread with veal stuffing, rolled up, brushed with milk and rolled in brown crumbs, then packed in a greased dripping tin and baked for twenty-five minutes. They made a substantial meal; on the next day there were one and a half one over, which were sliced up and put into the curried fish. The scones were mixed with milk that was slightly sour, as they are always lightest when so made.

The forcemeat balls that went with the rabbit on Friday were made of veal stuffing, fried separately, and served on a hot plate instead of going in the jar with the rabbit. The Swiss roll was made in the morning before the rabbit was put to cook. The brown soup of Saturday was made by frying lightly some pieces of carrot, onion, turnip and celery in a little dripping, and then pouring in the gravy from the rabbit, and adding any pieces or bones that were left. The lid was put on, and the soup simmered an hour and a half; then it was rubbed through a sieve, returned to the fire, brought to the boil, and thickened with an ounce of flour mixed with a little cold gravy.

When Marion looked through her accounts (which she kept scrupulously) on Saturday, she found that her food expenses had been as follows:—

£s. d.
1¼ lbs. beef skirt01 0
½ lb. ox kidney00 5
½ lb. mutton suet00 3
1½ lbs. scrag of mutton0010½
1 lb. fat for rendering00 2
1¼ lbs. buttock steak01 3
Rabbit01 5
6 herrings00 6
8 lbs. potatoes00 8
1 lb. sprouts00 2
1 lb. artichokes00 1
1 large cabbage00 2
Tin cocoa00 6
1 lb. cod (tail end) for curry00 5
12 eggs01 0
Milk01 9
1½ lbs. fresh butter at 1s. 4d.02 0
1 lb. brown sugar001¾
1 lb. loaf sugar00 2
½ lb. bacon (to cook with rabbit)00 4
Flavouring vegetables00 2
½ lb. tin mixed coffee and chicory00 9
¼ lb. tea00 6
8 loaves at 3¾d.02 6
1 quartern household flour005½
Sundries (ground rice for mould, etc.)00 6
£018 1¾

With this account of her expenditure she was perfectly content. Her aim was to keep the money spent on food below ten shillings a head, and this week she was well within the margin.

(To be continued.)

[ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.]