Gilded Age debutantes and young married women often took classes at the same New York Cooking School location as women who were from the tenements—the United Charities building on 22nd Street and Fourth Avenue. But the similarities typically stopped here. The wealthy girls took their classes during the day, whereas the working women attended in the evenings, after their workday was done. 

For the affluent, it was simply a way to pass the time. Not wanting to get their hands dirty, many wore dainty silk or satin dresses and left their bonnets on during the lessons. Others showed a genuine interest in cooking, including Margaret Vanderbilt Shepard’s daughter Edith, who was said to have “mastered the art of cooking everything from a soft-boiled egg to the most charming dish served by a Sherry or a Delmonico.” Emily Vanderbilt Sloane, granddaughter of William H. Vanderbilt, also attended New York Cooking School classes and was said to have been “an apt pupil,” even giving pointers to society club chefs. 

The cooking school quarters were light and spacious, “ideal in their arrangement for a cooking school, with their brick floors, skylights and many side windows, large pantries and closets,” enthused a New York Times reporter who visited the location. Classes were taught by Miss Emily Huntington, an author and home economics instructor who coined the phrase “kitchen-garden,” a system she used to help instruct students in domestic arts. She “had the experience cooking for years, and by her practical instruction, has turned many a thoughtless debutante into a capable young housekeeper,” wrote The New York Sun. Her focus was always on teaching the poor, and she smartly realized the value in the endowments and income derived from the well-to-do ladies who took her courses, using those payments to fund the mission classes.

Cream Carrots is one of the recipes featured in her 1885 book, The Cooking Garden, and is likely one of the recipes she would teach to both groups, as it fitting for either an everyday supper table or a fancy meal. It is also perfect for spring! Like many recipes from the nineteenth century, it is listed in paragraph form. Here’s the original:

Cream Carrots

Wash and scrape, cut into dice, put into boiling water slightly salted, and boil until tender; drain, and serve with a dressing made of one table-spoonful of butter, one of flour, rubbed together and stirred into a cup of hot milk. Let it come to a boil, and pour over the carrots. 

And here’s the modernized version:

Creamed Carrots 

• 1 pound carrots (about 2 ½ cups sliced)
• ½ tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 cup milk 
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon pepper

Bring a large pot of salted water to a low boil. While waiting for the water to boil, wash and peel the carrots, then cut into ¼ inch slices on the bias (diagonally). Add to the boiling water and cook until tender, about 4–5 minutes.  Drain and set aside.

Make the cream sauce by melting the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk until it forms a paste. Pour in the milk and cook until thickened, about 3–5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add salt and pepper.

Add carrots to a serving dish and pour cream sauce over. Garnish with some fresh mint if desired. Serve immediately. 

References:

“Cooking School Benefit,” The New York Times, Jan 15, 1896, Page 7

“Society Learns to Cook,” The Atlanta Constitution, Dec 26, 1900, Page 10

"A Cooking School: New York Society Leaders Learning a New Art," The Salt Lake Herald, Jul 1, 1894, Page 19