I have said before that Molly had repeated, as often as she could, the dishes she had first taught Marta, so that she might not get confused, and might know thoroughly a few things. She hoped by this means to be able to depend upon her for certain dishes. At the beginning of this new month Marta seemed to have learned thoroughly how to make clear soup, white sauce, bread, and to fry; and to Molly this did not seem a bad result. In knowing how to make clear soup, she knew the principle of soup-making, and could make any other meat soup,—also in learning this she had learned what slow boiling really meant, and could therefore boil meat well. To make white sauce perfectly meant to do many other things of which that, or its modifications, are the foundation. Whether Marta’s intelligence was quick enough to show her the value of the key she held, that good white sauce meant good béchamel sauce, good celery sauce, lobster sauce, poulette and all the long list of sauces with high-sounding French names, that seem so hopelessly unattainable to ordinary cooks, as well as all kinds of white soups, and many sweet dishes,—that she would see and apply all this was a great deal too much to hope; but if she would only keep her execution of what she could do up to the mark, Molly would feel that her efforts were far from wasted.
“If she will only not be content with having accomplished these things a few times, and will not become careless as she gets familiar, I must be very thankful;” but this was just what Molly did fear. The bread, although light and good, was never twice alike, unless Molly superintended the making; which assured her that Marta had taken to “guessing” or, what was as bad, to measuring carelessly. Carefully she explained to her that a pint of flour did not mean all that could be taken up on a pint measure, or that a pint of water did not mean the larger half of a quart measure; but the bread still came to table, sometimes coarse-grained, sometimes very close, showing it was sometimes made very wet, at others stiff, but always light and sweet so far; but she feared this lack of exactness might run into other things. If so, it could not be helped. Molly knew that many very good cooks, who turned out excellent dishes, never measured, could never tell how they did it, or give an intelligible recipe. Such cases had been often quoted to her as a reason why the precision of scientific cooking, as taught in cooking-schools, was nonsense; but she knew that those who cooked thus, although they might produce excellent results four times out of five, the fifth time might make a failure; they are always subject to good and bad “luck” with their cooking; and she knew, too, there are a certain few who are gifted with such a correct eye for quantity that they could calculate the weight of a thing to a quarter of an ounce,—she herself had this gift to a certain extent, but she never trusted to it,—yet she understood that a cook with that exceptional gift might do as well without weighing as with it; the only misfortune was that the generality were not so gifted, but believed themselves to be so, and the result is the frequent uncertainty with which one so often awaits the appearance of Dinah’s or Delia’s efforts, that result depending on their “good” or “bad luck.”
However, Molly was convinced that she had done her part with Marta, and that if she failed in the things she knew, it would not be because she did not thoroughly understand; and she could now try to teach her several new dishes.
The bill of fare for the day was noodle soup, braised beef, cabbage with white sauce, fried potatoes, and polka pudding.
About a pint of clear soup was on hand, and Molly had many times intended to let Marta show her how to make the German noodles that had so pleased her when she first saw them; but on days when clear soup was made or used, something had always called her attention; and even to-day was ironing-day, but she helped Marta through with her work, so that there might be half an hour to spare without putting the ironing back, and then while Marta was finishing she prepared the dessert.
She had a recipe for polka pudding which she had often heard praised, and now, as she had the materials, would try. I say she had the materials; but Molly was very clever in “cutting her coat according to the cloth.” The recipe called for bitter almonds as well as sweet; she knew by flavoring a portion of the sweet almonds with the extract of bitter she would have the same effect. Rose-water also was called for; she poured a few drops of the extract of rose into a table-spoonful of water, and she had it, or at least the effect.
The recipe was as follows:—
Polka Pudding.—One pint of milk, boiling hot, two table-spoonfuls of corn starch mixed smooth in a little cold milk; then pour the boiling milk on it and stir all the time; thicken over the fire and mix, when cooked, with a table-spoonful of rose water, a table-spoonful and a half of thick cream; or stir in one and a half of butter, one ounce of bitter almonds and one of sweet ones blanched, and beaten with a little white of egg to prevent oiling; beat the yolk and the rest of the white with another whole egg very light. Mix all together, let it come to the boiling-point, put it into an oiled mould, and set in ice.
There were one or two peculiarities about this pudding; it was unsweetened, except by the sauce, which might make it a pleasant change from sweeter dessert, and it was to be served ice cold on hot plates with hot sauce.
The first thing was to blanch the almonds, which she did by putting them in a bowl and pouring water over them, which she was careful to have quite boiling; when they had stood two minutes, she took them out of the water with a fork, laid them on a coarse cloth, and pressed them between her thumb and finger, when they slipped easily out of their skins. She dropped them as they were done into cold water to keep them white. When all were finished, she dried and weighed them (two ounces of almonds blanched being very different from the same weight in their skins), and then, as she had no mortar, she took the chopping-bowl, assured herself it bore no odor or trace of herbs, and first chopped them fine; then with the potato-masher, which she never used for its legitimate purpose, pounded them.[2] One-half of these she flavored strongly with bitter almond and the rest of the recipe she followed exactly, using cream instead of butter, as she had it, having saved it from dessert the day before for this purpose.