"In these days, when so many women are managing with a smaller domestic
staff than usual, and often doing much of the actual work themselves,
they might try the experiment with advantage of 'cooking mornings,' a
plan already mentioned several times by you. It is a method which makes
for efficiency and better results with less work.
"In the first place, to give up the whole of Friday morning and a
couple of hours on Tuesday to the preparation of food alone, means that
one has not to leave the housework or sewing on other days to mix one
odd dish or so, thereby effecting a certain saving of time; secondly,
much less fuel is used than would have been required to heat the stove
for the same number of dishes prepared separately; thirdly, the labour
of washing up and cleaning culinary utensils is much reduced. A really
good manager can always plan the meals well for several days ahead, so
if provisions and stores are ordered in beforehand, that again is far
better than constant daily marketing for small supplies.
"My personal plan, which answers very well, is to sketch out menus
roughly, order meat, etc., on Thursday, and prepare _so far as I can_
on Friday, something after this fashion.
"The range, being well heated, will cook both in the oven and on the
top as fast as I can get things ready, and I can usually make two sorts
of soup (two meals' supply in each), a milk soup for immediate use, and
a vegetable, lentil, or haricot purée which will keep a day or two;
then any remains of meat, game, or ham are minced and used to stuff
tomatoes, onions, or potatoes, and put aside for breakfast or lunch
dishes; fish is flaked and made into rissoles or a pie; beef steak or
shin of beef, cutlets or rabbit or a pigeon can be prepared and cooked
_en casserole_ ready for reheating when required; a cold dish for
Sunday supper, which will come in also for breakfast or lunch, such as
a small meat mould, or a beef galantine is prepared; next, a batch of
scones, which keep well in a tin, and some rock cakes or a plain ginger
loaf or sultana cake (for present use), and either a good chocolate or
cherry cake or some little fancy 'petits fours,' which will be ready in
case of emergency, and, if not required earlier, will be just as good
towards the end of the week.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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