“The white sauce you made last, Marta, although very smooth, had a little raw taste; this was because you added the milk before the flour was cooked sufficiently in the butter,—you put it in as soon as it bubbled.”
“I was afraid it would burn.”
“Of course you must not let it do that, but you see, once it bubbles, I draw the saucepan to a cooler part and stir till the flour is on the point of changing color, then I quickly add the milk or broth. The sauce will be an ivory white instead of the rather dead white that even fairly good sauce often is.”
She poured the stock to the flour and butter and stirred till smooth, and then added half a pint of milk,—“and, as I have no cream, Marta, I kept the egg left from the forcemeat balls—I used very little of it—to add to this soup the last thing, just as you do for the bisque of clams.” While the soup was all coming again to the boiling-point at the back of the range, Molly dropped the tiny forcemeat balls into boiling water, let them simmer half a minute, then strained them out and added them to the soup; then, with a caution to Marta not to let the egg curdle, she went to add a few touches to her toilette before Harry came home.
CHAPTER XVIII.
BROILED LAMB’S KIDNEYS—MRS. LENNOX STARTLED—CORN-BEEF HASH.
When Molly had said Marta was to make croquettes for breakfast, she had forgotten that she had kidneys in the house; but, remembering it before she went to bed, she told Marta she would come down and broil them herself, which she accordingly did, knowing kidneys are very easily spoiled by bad cooking.
She split each kidney down the back, or thick side, but did not sever the core or membrane, so that when opened they lay flat, but still in one. Then she ran a long skewer through the centre bit of fat and brought it out again, in such a manner that the kidney lay open flat under the skewer, which was attached to it only by that stitch through the middle; then a second kidney was run on in the same way till they were all threaded, the skewer lying across them all; but nowhere did it pierce the flesh of the kidney. This arrangement prevents the kidneys’ curling up in unsightly fashion and secures their being equally cooked.
They were laid on a hot gridiron, and a dish and plates made very hot to receive and serve them on; and while Molly cooked them, Marta carried in breakfast, for kidneys are things that are spoiled by waiting.