“Did you notice, Marta, that the croquettes last night were not quite right?”
“Yes, they were harder, but I went exactly by the directions.”
“I want you to tell me just what you did, and then we will see where the mistake came in. You managed everything else so nicely.”
Marta repeated the recipe correctly and Molly was puzzled.
“Are you sure you did just as you say?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Then show me how you measured half a pint.”
“Ah, there it is; you have really only a little more than a gill. Did you measure like that yesterday?”
Marta confessed that she had, and the puzzle was solved, and more understandable still when Molly saw what she called a table-spoonful of flour; it was really near two, for she had used the large kitchen basting-spoon, and used it heaped.
“Now, Marta, I want to tell you something. You are anxious to cook like the man cook you once knew; that is, you want everything you do to turn out always right, and they will only do that by your being very exact about measuring and weighing. A tea-spoonful more or less seems a trifle, and yet it will spoil many things. Remember, if you have a recipe that calls for a table-spoonful, it means just that, if the recipe is good for anything, and half a pint is exactly that measure full, not partly full.