Miss Beecher's Domestic Receipt Book / Designed as a Supplement to Her Treatise on Domestic Economy

When it is risen in the pans so as to crack, it is ready for the oven, and if it stands after this it loses sweetness, and then turns sour. A great deal of bread is spoiled by standing too long after it is put in the pans. The only way to prevent this is for the housekeeper to ascertain, by experiment, how soon her yeast ordinarily raises bread to the right point, so as to make that full lightness which does not destroy the sweetness of the flour, and yet is complete. When this is secured, the bread should not stand more than fifteen minutes after moulding, unless it is very cold weather. Those who trust entirely to raising the bread after it is put into the pans, are much less likely to have the best kind of bread, and far more risk is run than in the way here given.

In summer, if the milk is not new, it should be scalded, or the bread will turn sour by keeping. Bread is never as good which has turned sour, and been sweetened with saleratus, as if it had risen only just enough. In using saleratus, take a teaspoonful to each quart of wetting used; or, which is the same thing, a teaspoonful to four quarts of flour.

The proportion of yeast is about a tablespoonful of brewer’s or distiller’s yeast for every quart of wetting, or twice as much home-brewed yeast. In warm weather, pour the wetting boiling hot into the flour, and the bread keeps better. But be careful not to kill the yeast by putting it in before the mixture is sufficiently cooled. About blood warmth is the right temperature.

The eastern brown bread rises faster than the wheat bread, and in hot weather cannot be made over night; and if made with other bread, must be set to rise in a cool place.

It is always best to keep bread several hours before eating, until it can be cut without making it clammy. Biscuits, and small cakes of bread, are best baked in the morning to use for tea, and in the evening for breakfast. When cake is to be made of bread dough, it ought to be wet up with milk.

Most of the rules which have been given in other books for making cream tartar bread and cakes allow too much of the acid and alkali, and this affects the health.

Three pints of flour to one teaspoonful of soda and two of cream tartar is about right. Domestics are often careless in getting right proportions, and thus health is injured. It is probable that this can be remedied by getting an apothecary to combine the two powders in the right proportions when very dry, and keeping them in a glass bottle, with a ground glass stopper, so as to be air-tight. The dampness of the air would make them combine, and neutralize them. There are yeast powders for sale of this kind. The way to use them is first to mix them thoroughly in the flour, and then put in the wetting.

In regard to yeast, the distillery rises fastest, the brewer’s nearly as fast, and the home-brewed slowest of all. Sometimes distillery yeast will raise bread in an hour. Every housekeeper must learn by trial the time necessary to raise bread, and by this calculate the time to put her oven heating.

For large loaves of bread or cake, the oven must be heated with hard wood, so as to soak thoroughly. For smaller things lighter wood is as good, and more economical. After a housekeeper has tried her oven, her yeast, and her oven wood, she can make out very minute directions for her domestics. But with poor domestics she ordinarily will need to persevere in superintending this matter herself, if she would always have good bread.

CHAPTER XXVI.
DIRECTIONS FOR DINNER AND EVENING PARTIES.

The following directions for a dinner-party are designed for a young and inexperienced housekeeper, in moderate circumstances, who receives visiters at her table from the most wealthy circles.

They are not intended for what would be called a stylish dinner-party, but what in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, in the most respectable society, would be called a plain, substantial dinner, and as complete and extensive as any young housekeeper, with the ordinary supply of domestics, ought to attempt anywhere. Anything much more elaborate than this, usually demands the services of a professed cook. The details will be given with great minuteness, that a novice may know exactly what to do in every particular.

It is generally the case, that, at dinner-parties for gentlemen, no ladies are present but those who are members of the family. The gentleman of the house invites his friends the day previous, and then gives notice to his wife who are to come, and consults with her as to the articles to be provided, which of course he aids in purchasing.

The housekeeper then makes a list of all the articles to be used, either for table furniture or cooking, and then examines her cupboard, store-closet, and cellar, to see if everything is at hand and in order. All the glass and silver to be used is put in readiness, and the castors, salts, and every thing of the kind arranged properly. In order to be more definite, the exact dishes to be provided will be supposed to be these:

Soup. Fish. A boiled ham. A boiled turkey, with oyster sauce. Three roasted ducks, and a dish of scolloped oysters. Potatoes, Parsnips, Turnips, and Celery. For dessert, Pudding, Pastry, Fruit, and Coffee.

This will make a dinner for about ten or twelve persons. The pastry should be baked the day before, and the soup boiled down.

In the morning of the day for the dinner-party, every article should be on hand from market, and the cook have extra help, so as to get breakfast and the dishes out of the way early.

Then, the first thing, let her stuff and truss the turkey and ducks, and set them away to use when the time comes. Be sure that they are trussed so that the legs and wings will be tight to the body, and not come sprawling on to the table.

Suppose the dinner hour be three o’clock, as this is the earliest hour at which such a dinner could be comfortably prepared.

At nine o’clock, let the ham be washed, and put to boil. Then let the vegetables be prepared, ready for cooking. Next prepare the pudding. The pastry ought to be baked the day before. If not, it should be done very early in the morning, and be out of the way.

The pudding should be one of those put in the list of rich puddings, which does not require long baking or boiling. The receipt will be the guide as to time for cooking it. Next, prepare the oysters. One large cannister (or three pints) will be needed for the dish of scolloped oysters, and a small cannister (or a pint) will be needed for the sauce for the turkey. This last is simply drawn butter, with the oysters put in it, and simmered a few minutes. Be sure and follow the receipt for drawn butter exactly, as cooks are very apt to spoil this kind of sauce.

Put the turkey to boil at one, if it is tender, as it ought to be, and sooner, if it is not. Put the ducks to roast at two. Ducks are best cooked rare, but the turkey must be boiled through entirely, so that all parts look the same color when carved.

The gravy for the ducks, and the drawn butter, must be prepared half an hour before taking up dinner. The fish must be put to boil in a fish kettle. The time depends on the size.

The soup should be boiled down the day before. Let it be, for example, the receipt named Macaroni Soup. In this case, any convenient time before dinner-time, put the macaroni to boil in a sauce-pan by itself, and when cooked enough, set it aside. Then, just before dinner is to be served, pour the cold soup into the kettle, add the seasoning and macaroni, and give it such a heat as just boils it for a minute or two, and then it is ready to serve.

The vegetables should be put to boil at such times as will have them cooked just right at the dinner hour, and this the housekeeper must calculate, according to their size and age.

Unless there is an experienced cook, who can be trusted with everything, the lady of the house must superintend herself in the kitchen, until it is time for her to dress; and as the company will not arrive till the hour appointed, she can, by arranging her dress, all but the finish, remain until it is nearly time to send up the dinner.

Setting the Table.

The table should be set early in the forenoon, by the waiter, under the direction of the lady of the house, and in the manner exhibited in Fig. 7.

The table rug must first be laid exactly square with the room, and the tables also set exactly parallel with the sides of the room. If the tables are handsome ones, put on two white table-cloths, one above the other. If the tables are not handsome, cover them with a colored table-cloth, and put two white ones over.

Then set the castors in the exact centre of the table. Some prefer to have them on a side-table, and the waiter carry them around, but the table looks better to have them put in the centre. If they are put on the side-table, the celery stand may be placed in the centre of the table.

Next place the plates and knives as in Fig. 7, with a napkin and tumbler at the right of each plate, as in the drawing. If it is cold weather, set the plates to warm, and leave them till wanted. Set the salt stands at the four corners, with two large spoons crossed by each, as in the drawing.

Then place table-mats in the places where the dishes are to be set. The host is to be seated at one end, and the hostess at the other, and at their plates put two knives and two forks. Put a carving knife and fork, and carver stand, at each place where a dish is to be carved. Put the jelly and pickles at diagonal corners, as marked on the drawing. If wine is to be used, put two wine-glasses by each tumbler. Just before dinner is to be served, a bit of bread, cut thick, is to be laid with a fork on each napkin.

Then prepare the side-table thus:

As the party, including host and hostess, will be twelve, there must be one dozen soup plates, and one dozen silver spoons. Then there must be two dozen large knives, and three dozen large plates, besides those on the table. This is to allow one plate for fish, and two for two changes of meat for each guest. Some would provide more. Then, there must be three dozen dessert plates, and two dozen dessert knives and forks. One dozen saucers, and one dozen dessert spoons. One or two extra of each kind, and three or four extra napkins, should be added for emergencies. (At a side stand, or closet, should be placed, at dinner-time, a wash dish of hot water, and two or three wiping towels.)

On the side-table, also, is to be placed all articles to be used in helping the dessert; and unless there is a convenient closet for the purpose, the dessert itself must be set there, and covered with napkins.

All the dishes and plates to be used, except those for desserts and soups, must, in cold weather, be set to warm by the waiter. If coffee is to be served at the dinner-table, the furniture for this must be put on the side-table, or in an adjacent room, or closet.

Taking up the Dinner.

Such a dinner as this cannot usually be prepared and served easily, without two to cook and serve in the kitchen, and two waiters in the dining-room. One waiter will answer, if he is experienced and expert in such matters.

When the hour for dinner arrives, let the cook first take up the soup and fish. The soup and soup plates are to be set by the hostess, and the spoons laid near. Potatoes and drawn butter, or fish sauce, are to be sent up with fish.

The fish is to be set before the host, and the fish knife and sauce placed by it, and then the waiter is to inform the lady of the house that dinner is ready. She rises, and informs her husband, or the guests, that dinner is ready, and then the gentleman for whom the party is made, or some other one of the invited guests, conducts the lady to the table, and takes his seat at the first plate at her right hand. She then helps the soup, beginning at the right, and passing it around in order, without inquiring whether each one wishes it. If any one prefers fish, he passes the soup to the next. Meantime the host either helps the fish to all who wish it, or leaves it covered till the soup is removed, and the plates changed. The plates for fish are set on, around the table, and the soup plates are set on to them, while soup is served.

While soup and fish are served above, the cook below proceeds thus:—The ham can be taken up some time before dinner, prepared for the table, and set aside, covered, as it is not injured by standing. Of course this is done at any convenient time. The turkey and ducks may first be taken up, prepared for table, and then covered, and set where they will be kept warm. Then the gravies and drawn butter are to be put in the gravy boats. The vegetables must be taken up the last thing, and the potatoes last of all, as the excellence of all depends on their being served hot, especially potatoes. Some would prepare a dish of mashed potatoes, but this increases the complexity of the business, which should, as much as possible, be avoided.

After soup and fish, and the plates are removed by the waiters above, and clean plates put around, wine or conversation will fill up the time, while the meats are brought on, which are to be placed on the table, covered, and in the order marked in the drawing, Fig. 7.

When all are prepared, the host gives a sign to the waiters, and the covers are all to be removed, and so adroitly that no steam be spilt on the table-cloth or guests. To do this, the covers must be first inverted, holding them directly over the dishes they cover, and this the hostess must teach the waiter to do beforehand, if need be. He is to be taught, also, to offer each article to guests on their left side, to observe when guests have done eating, and then to change their plate, knife, and fork, and never to speak except to answer questions, or to offer the articles he serves.

The host carves the dish before him. The hostess helps the dish opposite to her, and the gentlemen guests carve the dishes opposite to them. As soon as ready to help, the lady asks the gentleman at her right to what he will be helped, and never makes excuses for, or praises any particular dish. The host commences at his right hand, and does the same, till all are helped. Every person begins to eat as soon as helped. The waiters are to observe if bread, water, or anything is wanting to any guest, and offer a supply. The hostess should, if possible, be at ease, so as to converse, and if she has occasion to direct the waiters (which, by previous instructions, should be avoided), she should do it as quietly and easily as possible. After all the guests are helped, the host helps the hostess, and then himself.

If wine is used, it is served by the host immediately after soup and fish, and any other times during the dinner he chooses. If the lady of the house is asked to drink wine, it is deemed uncourteous to refuse. She is expected to have a little poured into her glass, and raise it to her lips, looking at and slightly bowing to the guest who makes the request, and as soon as he has filled his glass. Whenever any other makes the same request, a very little wine is to be poured into her glass, as the ceremony is incomplete without this.

After any guest has finished eating, the waiter is to change his plate, knife, and fork, and the host or hostess asks to what he will be helped.

Soon after all the guests are done eating meats, the hostess directs the waiter, and every article is removed from the table, and the upper table-cloth taken off. Then the dessert knives, forks, and plates are set around, and the dessert is placed on the table. The pudding is to be set on a mat, before the hostess, and the dish of cheese before the host, and the pastry arranged in some regular order on the table, with knives and forks to help. These are divided and distributed by the host and hostess, assisted by the guests.

When these are finished, everything is removed again, and the other table-cloth taken off, leaving the bare table, or the colored cloth. Then the fruit is set on. After fruit, the coffee is brought to the table, or the company retire to the drawing-room, and take their coffee there.

Such a dinner-party as the above, may be got up and carried through comfortably by a housekeeper, if she is provided with an experienced cook and well-trained waiter. But without these, it is absolute cruelty for a husband to urge, or even to allow his wife to go through all the toil, anxiety, and effort needful for such an affair.

In all cases, it would be more consistent with the laws of health, and thus with the laws of God, to have a dinner including far less variety, and it is hoped that as true Christianity and true refinement advance, that the reform in regard to eating will advance, like the temperance reform in regard to drinking.

When men become so refined and cultivated, that they can supply wit and good sense, instead of the overflows induced by the excitement of wine, diluted by the stupidity resulting from excess in eating, a housekeeper will find the giving of a dinner-party a very different matter from what it ordinarily is found to be. As dining parties are often conducted, the number, and variety, and character of the dishes offered, tempt to an excess, which overloads the stomach, and thus stupifies the brain; so that all the wit and brilliancy that is obtained, is the simple product of vinous fermentation.

Tea Parties and Evening Company.

In one respect, fashion has aided to relieve a housekeeper of much care in providing evening entertainments. It is now fashionable to spread a table for evening parties, and not to serve tea and coffee, as was formerly done. As this is the easiest, and most rational way of entertaining evening company, no other method will be so minutely described.

If a lady designs to invite from forty to sixty friends to pass the evening, or even to have a much larger company invited, the following would be called a plain but genteel arrangement, for company in New York, Philadelphia, or any of our large cities.

Set a long table in the dining-room, and cover it with a handsome damask cloth. Set some high article containing flowers, or some ornamental article, in the centre. Set Champagne glasses with flowers at each corner. Set loaves of cake at regular distances, and dispose in some regular order about the table, preserves, jellies, lemonade, and any other articles that may be selected from the abundant variety offered in the collection of Receipts for Evening Parties in this book.

Where a very large company is to be collected, and a larger treat is thought to be required, then a long table is set in the centre of the room, as above, and on it are placed cakes, pastry, jellies, and confectionary. Then smaller tables are set each side of a mantle, or in corners, one of which is furnished with sandwiches, oysters, salad, celery, and wine, and the other with coffee, chocolate, and lemonade. Sometimes all are placed on one long table, and in this case, cakes, jellies, and confectionary are put in the centre, coffee and lemonade at one end, and oysters, sandwiches, celery, and wines at the other. A great deal of taste may be displayed in preparing and arranging such a table.

As it is often the case, that the old mode of serving tea and coffee will be resorted to, one modification is proposed, which decreases the labour and anxiety to the housekeeper, and increases the enjoyment of the company. It is this. Set a table in one of the parlors, and cover it with a damask cloth. Let the tea and coffee be served at this table, the lady of the house presiding. Then let the gentlemen wait upon the ladies around the room, and then help themselves. This is particularly convenient when it is difficult to get good waiters.

Most of the articles used for evening parties (with the exception of rich cakes, wine, and high-seasoned chicken salad) are not unhealthful, if taken moderately.

When these parties break up at seasonable hours, they may prove one of the most rational and harmless modes of securing social enjoyment; but when connected with highly exciting amusements, and late hours, they are sure to wear upon the constitution and health, and rational and conscientious persons, for these and other reasons, will avoid them.

CHAPTER XXVII.
ON SETTING TABLES, AND PREPARING VARIOUS ARTICLES OF FOOD FOR THE TABLE.

To a person accustomed to a good table, the manner in which the table is set, and the mode in which food is prepared and set on, has a great influence, not only on the eye, but the appetite. A housekeeper ought, therefore, to attend carefully to these particulars.

The table-cloth should always be white, and well washed and ironed. When taken from the table, it should be folded in the ironed creases, and some heavy article laid on it. A heavy bit of plank, smoothed and kept for the purpose, is useful. By this method, the table-cloth looks tidy much longer than when it is less carefully laid aside.

Where table napkins are used, care should be taken to keep the same one to each person, and in laying them aside, they should be folded so as to hide the soiled places, and laid under pressure.

The table-cloth should always be put on square, and right side upward. The articles of furniture should be placed as exhibited in figures 7 and 8.

The bread for breakfast and tea should be cut in even, regular slices, not over a fourth of an inch thick, and all crumbs removed from the bread plate. They should be piled in a regular form, and if the slices are large, they should be divided.

The butter should be cooled in cold water, if not already hard, and then cut into a smooth and regular form, and a butter knife be laid by the plate, to be used for no other purpose but to help the butter.

Small mats, or cup plates, should be placed at each plate, to receive the tea-cup, when it would otherwise be set upon the table-cloth and stain it.

All the flour should be wiped from small cakes, and the crumbs be kept from the bread plate.

In preparing dishes for the dinner-table, all water should be carefully drained from vegetables, and the edges of the platters and dishes should be made perfectly clean and neat.

All soiled spots should be removed from the outside of pitchers, gravy boats, and every article used on the table; the handles of the knives and forks must be clean, and the knives bright and sharp.

In winter, the plates, and all the dishes used, both for meat and vegetables, should be set to the fire to warm, when the table is being set, as cold plates and dishes cool the vegetables, gravy, and meats, which by many is deemed a great injury.

Cucumbers, when prepared for table, should be laid in cold water for an hour or two to cool, and then be peeled and cut into fresh cold water. Then they should be drained, and brought to the table, and seasoned the last thing.

The water should be drained thoroughly from all greens and salads.

There are certain articles which are usually set on together, because it is the fashion, or because they are suited to each other.

Thus with strong-flavored meats, like mutton, goose, and duck, it is customary to serve the strong-flavored vegetables, such as onions and turnips. Thus, turnips are put in mutton broth, and served with mutton, and onions are used to stuff geese and ducks. But onions are usually banished from the table and from cooking, on account of the disagreeable flavor they impart to the atmosphere and breath.

Boiled Poultry should be accompanied with boiled ham, or tongue.

Boiled Rice is served with poultry as a vegetable.

Jelly is served with mutton, venison, and roasted meats, and is used in the gravies for hashes.

Fresh Pork requires some acid sauce, such as cranberry, or tart apple sauce.

Drawn Butter, prepared as in the receipt, with eggs in it, is used with boiled fowls and boiled fish.

Pickles are served especially with fish, and Soy is a fashionable sauce for fish, which is mixed on the plate with drawn butter.

There are modes of garnishing dishes, and preparing them for table, which give an air of taste and refinement, that pleases the eye.

Thus, in preparing a dish of fricasseed fowls, or stewed fowls, or cold fowls warmed over, small cups of boiled rice can be laid inverted around the edge of the platter, to eat with the meat.

Sweetbreads fried brown in lard, and laid around such a dish, give it a tasteful look.

On Broiled Ham, or Veal, eggs boiled, or fried and laid, one on each piece, look well.

Greens and Asparagus should be well drained, and laid on buttered toast, and then slices of boiled eggs be laid on the top, and around.

Hashes, and preparations of pig’s and calve’s head and feet, should be laid on toast, and garnished with round slices of lemon.

Curled Parsley, or Common Parsley, is a pretty garnish, to be fastened to the shank of a ham, to conceal the bone, and laid around the dish holding it. It looks well laid around any dish of cold slices of tongue, ham, or meat of any kind.

The proper mode of setting a dinner-table is shown at Fig. 7, and the proper way of setting a tea-table is shown at Fig. 8. In this drawing of a tea-table, small-sized plates are set around, with a knife, napkin, and cup plate laid by each, in a regular manner, while the articles of food are to be set, also, in regular order. On the waiter are placed the tea-cups and saucers, sugar bowl, slop bowl, cream cup, and two or three articles for tea, coffee, and water, as the case may be. This drawing may aid some housekeepers in teaching a domestic how to set a tea-table, as the picture will assist the memory in some cases. On the dinner table, by each plate, is a knife, fork, napkin, and tumbler: on the tea-table, by each plate is a knife, napkin, and small cup-plate.

CHAPTER XXVIII.
ON SYSTEMATIC FAMILY ARRANGEMENT, AND MODE OF DOING WORK.

Nothing secures ease and success in housekeeping so efficiently as system in arranging work. In order to aid those who are novices in these matters, the following outlines are furnished by an accomplished housekeeper. They are the details of family work, in a family of ten persons, where a cook, chambermaid, and boy, are all the domestics employed, and where the style of living is plain, but every way comfortable. The mistress of this family arranges the work for each domestic, and writes it on a large card, which is suspended in the kitchen for guidance and reference. On hiring a new cook, or chambermaid, these details are read to her, and the agreement made, with a full understanding, on both sides, of what is expected. The following is copied, verbatim, from these cards prepared for the cook and chambermaid.

Directions for the Cook.

Sunday.—Rise as early as on other days. No work is to be done that can be properly avoided.

Monday.—Rise early in hot weather, to have the cool of the day for work. Try to have everything done in the best manner. See that the clothes line is brought in at night, and the clothes pins counted and put in the bag. Put the tubs, barrel, and pails used, on the cellar bottom.

Inquire every night, before going to bed, respecting breakfast, so as to make preparation beforehand.

Tuesday.—Clean the kitchen and sink-room. Bake, and fold the clothes to iron the next day.

Wednesday.—Rise early in warm weather, so as to iron in the cool of the day.

Thursday.—Fold off the clothes. No other special work.

Friday.—Clean all the closets, the kitchen windows, the cellar stairs, and the privies. Try up all the grease, and put it away for use.

Saturday.—Bake, and prepare a dinner for Sunday.

Every day but Monday, wipe the shelves in the pantry and kitchen closet.

Be careful to have clean dish towels, and never use them for other purposes.

Keep a good supply of holders, both for cooking and ironing, and keep them hung up when not in use.

Keep your boiler for dish water covered.

Sweep and dust the kitchen every day.

Never throw dirt, bones, or paper around the doors or yard.

Never give or lend what belongs to the family without leave.

Try to keep everything neat, clean, and in order.

Have a time for everything, a place for everything, and everything in its place.

The hour for going to bed is ten o’clock. Those who work hard should go to bed early, or else health and eyesight will fail.

Directions for the Chambermaid.

Sweep the sitting-room before breakfast on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

Wednesday, give all the chambers a thorough sweeping, and wash down the stairs.

Thursday, sweep the bedroom and nursery, and wipe the paint. Put up the clean clothes, after the cook folds them.

Friday, wash the windows and the piazzas.

Saturday, sweep the chambers, wash the bowls and pitchers in hot suds, and scald the other vessels, unless they are washed in hot suds daily, when they will not need it.

After doing the daily chamber-work, collect the lamps, and fix them in this manner:

First pick up the wicks, and cut them off square (and for this purpose keep sharp scissors), then clean all the black sediment from the tubes. Wash them in suds as hot as you can bear your hand in, and wipe them dry with a cloth kept clean for the purpose, and used for nothing else. Be careful not to fill them full, lest the oil swell and run over. Screw them very tight, and see that the little air-hole is kept open, or the lamp will not burn.

Wash the outside of the oil filler, and wipe the scissors clean. Wash the cloths used in fresh, clean suds, dry them, and then put them in their place. Wipe the basin used, and put it in its place.

After cleaning the lamps, wash and scour the knives, thus:

Wash them first, and be careful not to put the handles in the water. Wipe them dry, and then scour them with Bath brick, and a cork dipped in soft soap. Never rub a knife on a board in scouring it, as it wears it out very fast.

After scouring, do not wash them, but wipe them with a dry cloth, and be careful to get the brick out from between the fork tines. Use a small stick prepared for the purpose. If the handles are soiled by scouring, wipe them with a damp cloth.

Lay the large knives in one side of the knife basket, and the small ones the other side, and put the handles of the knives one way, and the handles of the forks the opposite way.

Always fill the boiler after you take out dish water, lest the cook be disturbed by your neglecting it.

Arrange the china-closet in order, after putting up the breakfast dishes. Dishes not often used must be wiped when used.

In doing chamber-work, turn up the vallance of the beds, set the windows open, brush down cobwebs, move every moveable article, to sweep under it, and sweep with short strokes.

Always hang the cloths kept for wiping bowls and pitchers on the towel frames, and use them for nothing else.

Have a dust cloth with a loop for every room, and put it in the wash once a fortnight.

Wash the breakfast dishes thus:—Rinse the cups, scrape the plates very clean, put the bits of butter on the butter plate, and empty all the slops into the slop bowl, and then empty it.

First wash the glass things with a swab in suds, as hot as possible, wiping each one as soon as taken out of the water. When glass is very cold, put a little warm water in it before putting it into the hot suds, or you will crack it.

Next wash the silver and Britannia, wiping each as soon as taken out. Then wash the other articles.

Keep the castors bright and clean, and well filled. Wipe the salt spoons dry, and do not lay them so as to touch the salt. If the salt is damp, take it out and dry it, mashing it to powder.

Wipe off the china-closet shelves every day, and Saturdays wash them.

Rub the silver and Britannia every Saturday, after washing them.

In the Domestic Economy, at p. 318, will be found directions for washing dishes in the kitchen, which are to be hung over the sink.

Every family must vary somewhat from all others in its routine of family work, and it often is the case, that such written directions will be of little or no use to domestics. But the fact of having them written, and the reading of them over to all new-comers, as what is expected of them, and occasional reference to them, as what was agreed on when making the bargain, often will be of much service. And it is an aid to the housekeeper herself, who is liable to forget many things in teaching new-comers their duties.

Odds and Ends.

There are certain odds and ends, where every housekeeper will gain much by having a regular time to attend to them. Let this time be the last Saturday forenoon in every month, or any other time more agreeable, but let there be a regular fixed time once a month, in which the housekeeper will attend to the following things:

First, go around to every room, drawer, and closet in the house, and see what is out of order, and what needs to be done, and make arrangements as to time and manner of doing it.

Second, examine the store-closet, and see if there is a proper supply of all articles needed there.

Third, go to the cellar, and see if the salted provision, vegetables, pickles, vinegar, and all other articles stored in the cellar are in proper order, and examine all the preserves and jellies.

Fourth, examine the trunk, or closet of family linen, and see what needs to be repaired and renewed.

Fifth, see if there is a supply of dish towels, dish cloths, bags, holders, floor cloths, dust cloths, wrapping paper, twine, lamp-wicks, and all other articles needed in kitchen work.

Sixth, count over the spoons, knives, and forks, and examine all the various household utensils, to see what need replacing, and what should be repaired.

A housekeeper who will have a regular time for attending to these particulars, will find her whole family machinery moving easily and well; but one who does not, will constantly be finding something out of joint, and an unquiet, secret apprehension of duties left undone, or forgotten, which no other method will so effectually remove.

A housekeeper will often be much annoyed by the accumulation of articles not immediately needed, that must be saved for future use. The following method, adopted by a thrifty housekeeper, may be imitated with advantage. She bought some cheap calico, and made bags of various sizes, and wrote the following labels with indelible ink on a bit of broad tape, and sewed them on one side of the bags:—Old Linens; Old Cottons; Old Black Silks; Old Colored Silks; Old Stockings; Old Colored Woollens; Old Flannels; New Linen; New Cotton; New Woollens; New Silks; Pieces of Dresses; Pieces of Boys’ Clothes, &c. These bags were hung around a closet, and filled with the above articles, and then it was known where to look for each, and where to put each when not in use.

Another excellent plan is for a housekeeper once a month to make out a bill of fare for the four weeks to come. To do this, let her look over this book, and find out what kind of dishes the season of the year and her own stores will enable her to provide, and then make out a list of the dishes she will provide through the month, so as to have an agreeable variety for breakfasts, dinners, and suppers. Some systematic arrangement of this kind at regular periods will secure great comfort and enjoyment to a family.

CHAPTER XXIX.
ON A PROPER SUPPLY OF UTENSILS AND CONVENIENCES FOR HOUSEKEEPING.

What is the proper supply of kitchen utensils, depends very much on the style of living adopted, and on the character of the domestics employed. Where a person’s means are small, there must be a sacrifice of time and convenience to save expense; and where domestics are in such habits that no proper care will be taken of utensils, the supply must be more limited.

But where a housekeeper has abundant means, and where she can, by a reasonable effort, secure proper attention to the care of utensils, it greatly contributes to the ease and success of housekeeping to have a full supply of them. And there is much economy, both of time and comfort, in securing such a supply. Where there are a few utensils, and these are to be used for a great variety of purposes, there is a loss of time in stopping to clean articles used for one thing, when wanted for another; there is a loss of time in running about to look for them; and there is a loss of patience in finding them out of the way at just the wrong time, so that good success is often thus entirely prevented.

Moreover, many processes of cooking and housekeeping are performed with much more success, when the cook is well provided with suitable utensils; while the use of the same article for various kinds of dishes, or for different modes of cooking, often destroys the delicate flavor of food, and makes all dishes taste very much alike. This is the case often, in steam and canal boats, where every article on the table seems to have imbibed one and the same flavor.

In pointing out the various conveniences to be used in housekeeping, reference will be had to those chiefly who have means to purchase everything they deem useful, and also who can obtain such domestics, that proper care will be taken of whatever is provided.

In the Domestic Economy at p. 319, is a list embracing a full supply of all those articles which some of the best housekeepers in our country deem useful and desirable, for the various processes of housekeeping, in a family of medium size, and of abundant means; where everything is done for comfort, and nothing for show.

Kitchen Furniture.

The kitchen floor should be covered with an oil cloth. Carpets, or bits of carpet, are not so good, because of the grease and filth that must accumulate in them, and the labor of sweeping, shaking, and cleansing them. Nothing is cleansed so easily as an oil cloth, and it is much better than a painted floor, because it can be removed to be painted.

If the cook is troubled with cold feet in winter, small bits of carpeting can be laid where she sits and stands the most. Otherwise they had better be kept out of the kitchen.

Directions for preparing a kitchen oil cloth will be found page 317 of the Domestic Economy.

There should always be a clock in the kitchen, as indispensable to success in cooking, and regularity of meals.

Two tables, a large one for cooking, and a small one for meals, should be provided.

Besides this, a settee ironing-table is a very great comfort and convenience, which is represented at Fig. 9, and is a better pattern than the one described in the Domestic Economy.

The back is made to turn on pivots at CC, and rests when turned on the sides. At AA, are projections, with a hole that meets the holes in the sides at BB, and then the peg at E is put in to hold it firmly. The box, or seat, is divided into two parts, with lids at DD, and in these boxes are kept, on one side the ironing sheet, wipers and holders, and on the other side, the irons, rings, &c., used in ironing. When the back is not used for ironing, it is put down, and the article is a good settee, and if provided with cushions, is as comfortable as most parlor sofas. It can be put on castors, and have handles at the sides, and then it can be moved up to the fire winter evenings for use; the back serving both to reflect the warmth of the fire, and to keep off draughts of air.

The following are the dimensions. Length, six feet. Width of seat, twenty inches. Height of seat, fourteen inches. Height of back, from the bottom, four feet. This makes the width of the table when it is turned down. Height of the ends where the table rests when turned over, two feet six inches.

In some families, it is sometimes necessary to have a domestic sleep in the kitchen. In this case, a bunk settee, like the one which is represented as open at Fig. 10, is very convenient.