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The Story Of Foods: Making A Cake Making Preserves All About Nuts Desserts Cookery For Invalids The Head Of The House - Which Is It? Kitchen And Laundry The Simple Home Living Hints For The Miad Never To Late To Learn A Little Chemistry For The Cook Breakfast Foods More Articles About Food |
( Originally Published 1904 ) UNLIKE the Englishman, who confines the word dessert to fruits and nuts, and would call what we talk about here " sweets " pure and simple, we Americans make the term embrace everything that is served at the close of the meal, and this idea has become so firmly fixed that even. Webster defines the word as—" A service of pastry, fruit, or sweetmeats at the close of an entertainment; the last course at the table after meat." We shall not, however, class pastry in this division of the art of cookery. Not because it does not come within the definition of the term as given by Webster's Dictionary, but because it ought to stand alone in a division by itself, covering the idea that it would be good for the health of America if more of us left it alone. There is not much to say about the subject of desserts in general. There are hardly any general rules to be laid down, in making the class of sweets " in this division. They are individual dishes, and must be made according to the individual recipes. The average American girl, when she comes to face the fact that she doesn't know how to broil, boil, or bake meat, bread, or vegetables, omits the fact that she knows something about making " sweets," for it is the province of every girl to know about them, and she at least may consider herself no cook, even if she is, well up on " sweets." For the benefit of those, however, if any, who know not the how and when of such little delicacies as ice creams, ices, and short cakes, refer to the alphabetical index for a very comprehensive list of recipes in this division which are many of them suited to the beginner, easily made, and will enable to bring forth a new one every day. |