The inn was made famous by members of the King's household stopping there while in the town during the Summer months, which was certainly a compliment to her good cooking.

One of the things in which she particularly excelled was potato cakes raised with yeast.

Frau Schmidt had been given a number of these valuable recipes by her mother, all of which she offered to Mary.

One recipe she particularly liked was "Fast Nacht Cakes," which the Professor's wife baked always without fail on Shrove Tuesday (or "Fast Nacht" day), the day before the beginning of Lent.

This rule was as "unchangeable as the law of Medes and Persians," and it would have been a very important event, indeed, which would have prevented the baking of these toothsome delicacies on that day..