Cooking for profit

A pot is a pint silver or crockery-ware coffee pot that a person may order instead of 2 cups; the restaurants that charge 10c per cup furnish a pot of 2 cups for 15c or a pot for 2 of 4 cups for 25c of either coffee or tea, but 5c higher per pot for chocolate. French coffee, meaning coffee of double the common strength, dripped and not boiled is 25c per pot of 2 cups. French coffee with cognac per pot of 2 cups, 3-fourths coffee and 1-fourth brandy 50c. Some Necessary Explanations. As we are starting out to furnish a ready-reckoning book that may in the course of time show'the average or probable cost of everything from a pie to a grand banquet and as the selling prices of many dishes in the restaurants and elsewhere will often have to be quoted, for sufficient reasons, we wish to caution all readers against forming hasty conclusions as to the profits made in any case. There is not the least intention on our part of setting the buying and selling prices side by side for comparison, for in fact the cost of material is very often a very small part of the expenses of serving meals. What those expenses are made up of beside the cost of material it is outside of our present business to inquire and these remarks are made for fear of any false ideas being formed by some readers who have never been in business but think they ought to be, and by others who may not know the difference between gross receipts and net profits. As regards the accuracy of our estimates it is necessary to mention that great differences in the prices of raw provisions will be found to exist in different parts of the country, coffee is cheaper in San Francisco than in the east, salmon is not half the price of halibut, being only about 12c per pound when in Chicago it costs 40c and halibut only 20; eggs and butter take a wide range in prices, and so forth. Still as our prices are always stated upon which the estimates of cost are based each individual can change them and arrive at the result in his own locality. To cooks in particular who seldom trouble themselves about the cost of materials and who proverbially are sure to fail when they go into business alone through deficiency of that kind of knowledge, we hope to be of great use by showing the necessity of being exact in weights and measures if they would not double the cost of articles made and render profit impossible. 38— Tenderloin Steak For One. Price in first-class restaurants 55c, including bread, butter, potatoes and condiments. Cut a slice from the filet rather over than under ¼ pound, and in thickness according to the size of the filet, notch through the outside skin with the point of the knife, flatten the steak with a blow of the cleaver to rather less than an inch thick, lay it on a plate and brush over both sides with a slight touch of butter, broil over clear coals about 5 minutes, or as ordered, and season with a dredging of salt and pepper while it is cooking. Serve in a hot dish; pour over it 2 tablespoonfuls of melted fresh butter, garnish with a few sprigs of parsley and place ¼ a lemon at the edges. Serve potatoes as ordered ; if chips or French-fried they may be in the dish as a border, other kinds in a separate dish.