COOKS.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2555, 16 June 1882, Page 3

COOKS.

[From the “Queen."]

The duties ot a cook depend greatly upon the scale of establishment to which she belongs. In the case of a professed cook, the elementary portion of the cooking in done by the kitohenmaid, as also the plain cooking. A man cook takes even a higher position, a»d undertakes still loss of the plain cooking of the house, than a woman cook does. Some ladies who keep a professed cook consider that all responsibility is taken off their hands, and do not trouble themselves to see the cook respecting the arrangements for the day, but leave them entirely to her discretion, scarcely doing more than glance at the menu submitted to them, and suggesting trifling alterations. But however high the capabilities of a cook may be, the relations between her and her mistress are on a much more satisfactory footing if she confers with her each morning, instead of merely approving the menu. A professed oook makes out a menu for the day’s dinner and for the day’s luncheon on a slate, and in accordance with the contents of the larder, with due regard to variety. In some households the servants’ hall dinner in alia written on a slate ; in others, it is left to the management of the oook. Some mistresses have the slate brought to them by a footman at about eleven o’clock, and make any alteration they may think proper, and return it by him to the cook. Other mistresses have the slate brought to them by the oook, in place of having it sent up, and consult with him or her respecting any change in the menu for the day. This is the most practical mode ot proceeding, as, if the mistress has any suggestions to make in this direction, she can urge them upon the oook, or if she has a remark to offer, or a fault to find with the cook’s mode of serving any particular dish, the opportunity is given for so doing. . In email households where only a cook is kept, with a scullery maid, or a girl in the scullery under her to do the rough work, her duties are many and heavy if the family is a large one, and if there is a great deal of cooking ; but if the family is a small one the contrary is the case. No responsibility as regards ordering or arranging for the meals of the house rests with her, though, if she is conscientious and careful of the interests of the family, she can materially assist her mistress in suggesting dishes, with a view to using the cold moat, Ac., or in making suggestions for the servants’ dinner. A mistress of a house expects to find the kitohen and all connected with it in perfect order by the time she is ready to order dinner ; and a oook who unites method with cleanliness —two points of paramount importance in a oook—always keeps the kitohen in thorough order. A plain cook in a small household, where no kitchen or scullery maid is kept, and where the work of the house is done by a housemaid who also acts as parlor maid, has other duties. Plain cooking makes but very little work in comparison with the work of a professed cook. Copper stowpans, saute pans, a hot stove, a charcoal fire, a hotplate, a gas stove, are not in every-day use, and oftener than not the oook has a kitchener instead of a range to oook at. There are, ot course, exceptions to be met with in this class of cooks, and exceptions to the routine of plain living in small households 5 and unstresses occasionally meet with what is termed a plain cook who has a talent for cooking, and who is superior to others of her class in this respect. Ladies in search of a moderately good cook, and not willing to pay the high wages asked by a professed cook, generally find that a young woman who has been a head kitohenmaid under a good cook is far preferable to one who has been plain cook in a small family. A kitohen maid who has assisted in the beet stylo of cooking, and has served her apprenticeship In a good school, has_ had a great deal of practice in the principles of cooking ; she knows how things ought to be done, and how they should taste, aud how they should look. She is not so extravagant in her notions and ideas as fire many professed cooks, She is not impatient pi interference from his mistress, and is inclined to in with the ways of the house. However, one who has been kitohen maid in a largo establishment does not much care to take a situation in a small family where there is no one under her in the kitohen, and still loss in a household where she is expected to assist in the housework. Thus plain cooks in small families are rarely those who have learnt the art of cooking in largo households, but are iu a great measure self-taught, and have often as much to unlearn as to learn. j But to return to the duties of cooks in general, commencing with the professed cook. She attends to and superintends the breakfast tor the family, and the management of it is kept in her hands to provide what she judges best, according to her knowledge of the style of breakfast that the family prefer. In town, j the cook gives the necessary orders to the j tradespeople who serve the house. If she is housekeeper and oook she gives out the stores required. During the morning the soup is made, and the sweets in the way of pastry, jellies, creams, As. After her own dinner she dishes up the luncheon. The afternoon is very much at the cook’s disposal, except on the occasion of a dinner party, or when guests are staying in the house, when there is naturally more work to be done. Five to nine is always a very busy time with the cook; dishing up a large dinner is an arduous duty, the greatest order and regularity being maintained in the kitchen, while perfect silence is enjoined, sa-vo when an order is given concerning the work in hand. It would be on advantage if, in small establishments, this rule ot silence existed, as where gossiping in the kitchen is encouraged by the oook, hindrance and consequent delay in the work is the natural result. When the dinner has been duly served the cook’s duties for the day are over, and the remainder of the kitohen work is performed by the kitohen maids. In households where three are kept in the kitchen —cook, kitohen maid, and scullery m oid—the oook is less of an artist, and more of the general cooking falls to her share, she having but one kitohen maid to assist her ; and whore but one kitchen maid is kept, she does not undertake ai much of the cooking as where two are kept, the head kitohen maid in largo establishments being practically a second oook. . In households where only two are kept in the kitohen —cook and kitohen maid—the cook unites the duties of head kitchen maid to those ot cook, while the kitchen maid performs those ot kitohen maid and scullery maid. This is a very large class of household, and here the mistress personally superintende things. Instead of the menu being prepared for her inspection, she herself inspects the contents of the larder, attended by the oook. She makes her own suggestions as to what she will hare for dinner and luncheon, and for the servants’ hall dinner, and writes down her orders for the oook to carry out.