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Ten Dollars Enough.: Keeping House Well on Ten Dollars a Week; How It Has Been Done; How It May Be Done Again
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
294 pages, Paperback
First published November 21, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 12, 2020
I like a bit of didacticism in my storytelling, and apparently I also like a bit of storytelling in my didacticism.
In this 1880s book -- originally a serial in "Good Housekeeping" -- Molly, a new bride and educated amateur cook, convinces her husband to ditch the boarding house and head out for the suburbs to take up housekeeping on a budget. Recipes, cooking techniques, and shopping for meat are explained through the story process.
The story is admittedly a bit thin, but it keeps everything moving. Molly explains cooking to her rather dense German servant and her inept neighbor, and benefits from instruction in turn. She hosts antagonistic in-laws and friendly overseas guests. I tend to skip a lot of recipes in historical cookery books, but here I diligently read everything, and enjoyed it. A nice feature is the presentation of how to make a meal concurrently, which is missing from most cookbooks. For example, while you are roasting the lamb, you should stir the soup with dumplings made from the leftover pie crust from the pie you made earlier, etc.
An index of recipes is available at the end.
Many of the recipes seem adaptable without too much effort -- technique, as mentioned before, is described in detail and cookbook quantities have become more precise by the time of Owen's writing. Note that a gill = 1/2 cup. You'll need to bring your own experience to figure out at what temperature everything needs to be cooked, though.
4/5. Freely available from Project Gutenberg.
In this 1880s book -- originally a serial in "Good Housekeeping" -- Molly, a new bride and educated amateur cook, convinces her husband to ditch the boarding house and head out for the suburbs to take up housekeeping on a budget. Recipes, cooking techniques, and shopping for meat are explained through the story process.
The story is admittedly a bit thin, but it keeps everything moving. Molly explains cooking to her rather dense German servant and her inept neighbor, and benefits from instruction in turn. She hosts antagonistic in-laws and friendly overseas guests. I tend to skip a lot of recipes in historical cookery books, but here I diligently read everything, and enjoyed it. A nice feature is the presentation of how to make a meal concurrently, which is missing from most cookbooks. For example, while you are roasting the lamb, you should stir the soup with dumplings made from the leftover pie crust from the pie you made earlier, etc.
An index of recipes is available at the end.
Many of the recipes seem adaptable without too much effort -- technique, as mentioned before, is described in detail and cookbook quantities have become more precise by the time of Owen's writing. Note that a gill = 1/2 cup. You'll need to bring your own experience to figure out at what temperature everything needs to be cooked, though.
4/5. Freely available from Project Gutenberg.
January 6, 2011
Apparently this started off as a serial in Good Housekeeping magazine in the early 1880's, thus you have the element of the fictional heroine whose husband had married her against his parents' wishes. (They had a more affluent candidate in mind for the post of daughter-in-law.)
In spite of that it's actual intent, the instruction of housekeeping (specifically cooking) on a limited budget is done in such a fashion that modern readers get an understanding of cooking techniques and food tastes in the late nineteenth century, whether it be how mayonnaise was made in the days before food processors or determining whether the lard was hot enough for deep frying before thermometers took over the job, even the sealing of meats in lard as a preservative until it was needed.
And yes, in the end the heroine triumphantly wins the admiration of her father-in-law. Her mother-in-law remains a ..... um, mother-in-law.
In spite of that it's actual intent, the instruction of housekeeping (specifically cooking) on a limited budget is done in such a fashion that modern readers get an understanding of cooking techniques and food tastes in the late nineteenth century, whether it be how mayonnaise was made in the days before food processors or determining whether the lard was hot enough for deep frying before thermometers took over the job, even the sealing of meats in lard as a preservative until it was needed.
And yes, in the end the heroine triumphantly wins the admiration of her father-in-law. Her mother-in-law remains a ..... um, mother-in-law.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews