KITCHENS.--THE KITCHEN A WORKSHOP.--WORK TO BE DONE IN A
KITCHEN.--A PLAN.--FITTINGS.--DISH-WASHING CONVENIENCES.--SINK AND
TABLES.--CHINA-CLOSET.--PANTRY.--COMBINATION PANTRY.--PANTRY
FITTINGS.--WORK IN A PANTRY.--A DOUGH-BOARD.--FLOUR-BIN.--PANTRY
STORES.--CUPBOARD.--REFRIGERATOR ARRANGEMENTS.--PANTRY UTENSILS.--A
DRY-BOX.--SOAP-BOX.--VENTILATION OF KITCHEN.--GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF
KITCHEN PLANNING.
The kitchen existed in its state of greatest cleanliness and order a
good many years ago in New England, where it was largely used as a
sitting and dining room. As people became more prosperous, they moved
out of the kitchen; they had a separate sitting-room. It was then that
the kitchen began to decline. After this it was often literally as well
as figuratively separated from the living part of the house.
The public has not suffered through lack of information on cookery and
general housekeeping topics. Little has been said, however, about the
house itself, with regard to its arrangements for facilitating the
manifold operations of housekeeping. The subject is a broad one, and may
be treated with some respect to detail. As the heart of the house, the
kitchen may be given serious consideration.
In the modern house the kitchen is merely the place where the food is
prepared for the table. The controlling idea and its arrangements should
be to afford facilities for doing the work with as little labor as
possible.
The kitchen is the workshop of the house. It should be arranged and
planned according to the same general principles as any other workshop.
A manufacturer arranges his foundry, his mill, or his printing-house,
with reference to the saving of labor, for the purpose of saving money.
When we save labor in a kitchen, we save the energy of the housekeeper,
and, possibly, money.
An article on this subject was probably never written that did not
pretend to describe the "model kitchen." It is safe to say that no such
kitchen was regarded as "model" by all readers. A model kitchen is
something which is out of reason. No two housekeepers have the same
requirements. Housekeeping practice varies greatly. Again, the kitchen
that can be built to one floor-plan cannot be built to another. In
describing a kitchen, it is in mind to set forth certain general
principles for the benefit of those interested.
There is little difference between the requirements of a kitchen for a
house of moderate cost and an expensive house. Work of the same general
character is done in every kitchen. The conveniences are more a matter
of thought than of money. Elaborate details add much to the cost, but
little to the convenience. There is little or no difference between the
cost of a well-planned kitchen and one which is poorly planned.
To state the case broadly, a kitchen should be arranged solely with
reference to the work which is to be done in it: the cooking,
dish-washing, the care of the kitchen itself, and possibly the laundry
work. This latter work should be removed from the kitchen--in any event,
the washing should be done elsewhere--when it is at all possible. The
steam and odor from the washing, which not only fill the kitchen but
permeate the house, are enough to render whatever food there is in the
kitchen unfit for use. It is altogether possible to arrange in the
cellar of any house that is being built, and in many that are already
built, at a trifling cost, a laundry in which the washing and ironing
may be comfortably done. Of course this does not contemplate set tubs;
but set tubs are not found in houses where the washing and ironing are
done in the kitchen, and it is possible to do this work both well and
easily without their use. There is little or no objection to doing the
ironing in a well-ventilated kitchen. It is clean work, and while doing
it the servant may attend to any cooking which is necessary, and see
that the other work of the house moves forward.
[Illustration: Fig. 2.]
The kitchen the plan of which is here given (Fig. 2) has been in use for
three years under the varying conditions of one or two servants, and at
times none at all. These are the conditions under which most
housekeepers operate. There have been no emergencies in which the
kitchen and pantries have not proven themselves ample, and none in which
the housekeeper thought that they were too large and complicated. It is
as necessary in houses where the means for maintenance is simply
moderate, that a kitchen should not be too large as that it should
afford ample facilities for accomplishing any work which may be done.
The kitchen itself is thirteen and one-half by fourteen and one-half
feet. In it are placed the range, tables, sink, drain-board, etc., and
the kitchen safe. The room has been found large enough for the work
which is to be done there, and not so large that the tables, range, and
safe are so far apart that time and strength are wasted moving from one
to another. The kitchen has one large window in it, which is three feet
from the floor. This permits the placing of a table, ironing-board, or
chair under it, and thus gives additional wall space. There are two
windows in the pantry, and a draught is secured through them, the
kitchen window, and the transom over the door. The door is glazed.
The most disagreeable work of a kitchen, and that which takes much time,
is the dish-washing. It is possible to make this work lighter and
pleasanter than is usual. The necessary conditions are plenty of water,
hot and cold, a place where the dishes will drain themselves, an
abundance of table room for them both before and after washing. In the
kitchen given the sink is placed next the kitchen flue. This gives a
place for the pipe duct next the warm bricks, which prevent freezing
even in severe cold weather. During the three years in which this
kitchen has been in use they have never frozen, even when the
temperature was twenty degrees below zero. The exact construction of
this kitchen pipe-duct and other kitchen wood-work is given elsewhere.
The range, which is usually next the flue, is, in this instance, placed
at some distance from it. There is no reason why this should not be
done, as it has been in many instances, with no disagreeable results.
The sink is not enclosed, but stands upon legs. Enclosed sinks are
places which cannot be kept clean even with the utmost vigilance. The
brushes, scrub-rags, and buckets, which are usually kept there, are in
this kitchen provided a place elsewhere.
[Illustration: Fig. 3.]
At the left of the sink is a table; at the right, a drain-board, which
is inclined toward the sink, and provided with grooves. At the right of
this is a swing-table on the same level. The soiled dishes are placed on
the table at the left, washed in the sink, which is provided with cocks
for hot and cold water, drained on the drain-board, and, when wiped,
placed on the table at the right. A glance at the plan will show that
they are then beside the door which leads to the china-closet, and may
be quickly placed where they belong.
It may be well to say a few words about the china-closet. The shelves
are placed in a passage which leads from the kitchen to the dining-room,
and are separated from the passage by doors. This passage is lighted by
a window, and has two doors leading into it--one from the dining-room,
and one from the kitchen (Fig. 2). These doors are swung on double
swinging hinges, so that they may be opened by merely pushing against
them, and will then swing back noiselessly into a closed position. One
may pass through doors of this kind with a tray full of dishes without
touching them with the hand. This arrangement dispenses with the
necessity for a slide, and also does away with the noises and odors from
the kitchen, which so readily find their way to the rest of the house
where a slide is used. However, if a slide is really desired, it can be
placed over either the table at the left of the sink or over the
swing-table at the right, and be convenient from both kitchen and
dining-room.
The china-pantry could be readily enlarged into a butler's pantry, by
extending it across the end of the dining-room, and placing the end
window of this room on one side, thus bringing two windows on the same
wall. There is a movable shelf under one of the permanent shelves in
this china-closet, which can be drawn out in order to place a tray of
dishes on it while they are being put away, and which can be pushed out
of the way when not in use. This shelf is also of service as a place
upon which to arrange the different dishes needed for the several
courses of a meal, and in this way facilitates the table service.
In Fig. 4, the combination idea is carried out in pantry and
china-closet. The pantry-cupboard projects into the room in a way to
form a partition between the pantry and china-closet, and, at the same
time, admits of a passage between the kitchen and dining-room with a
separation of two doors.
Fig. 5 indicates an approved form of construction of china-closet and
pantry, such as may be used in most of the pantries and china-rooms
which are in this book.
[Illustration: Fig. 4.]
The work which takes the most time is the preparation of food, and every
well-planned kitchen has its arrangements for lightening this burden.
The first consideration is the location of the utensils, and the table
and sink where the meats and vegetables are prepared. All should be near
enough to the range so that there are no unnecessary steps to be taken.
The number that are taken where the sink is in one corner of the
kitchen, the table in another, and the range removed from both, is
innumerable. In this kitchen the table proper and the sink are together,
and they are but a step from the range.
There is a small swing-table attached to the wall at one side of the
range. This provides a place for utensils, such as spoons, and forks,
and dishes, such as those holding pancake batter, which are in constant
use during cooking, and which cannot be held in the hand while the
cooking is in progress. This alone saves many steps. The drain-board is
a good place for draining vegetables, and to place utensils which are
used in the preparation of food. Above the sink are hooks, etc., upon
which to keep small utensils. In localities where there is much dust
coming in from the outside these utensils must be kept elsewhere, behind
closed doors.
[Illustration: Fig. 5.]
For the preparation of bread, cake, pastries, etc., the pantry is
provided. In it are places for everything which can be used for such
preparation. One can go out of the heat and noise of the kitchen into a
little room which holds everything that can possibly be needed, and
there prepare those articles of food which take the most time and
careful attention. In Fig. 2 are two windows; under one is the
dough-board. This is a table fastened to the wall at a convenient
height for moulding and general work of this character. On one end is a
piece of marble, twelve inches wide by sixteen long, which is used for
moulding purposes. The advantages of such a piece of marble are
numerous. It is as easily cleaned as a dish and requires no scouring,
and, as dough does not readily stick to it, moulding can be done without
the trouble which comes from the use of a board. This piece of marble is
not fastened to the dough-board, as is sometimes done. Where it is set
into the board there will always be creases in which dough will lodge,
and it can only be cleaned with the greatest trouble. Where it is free,
it can be raised from the board occasionally, and everything thoroughly
cleaned.
At the right of the board is the flour-bin, which contains places for
various kinds of flour and meal. Next to it is the refrigerator. Over
the refrigerator is a window which opens on the porch, and through which
the ice may be placed without the iceman going through the kitchen with
his wet feet and dripping load.
At the left of the dough-board are shelves for keeping stores. The lower
shelves are enclosed by doors and provided with a lock, so that extra
stores may be placed there for safe keeping, where this is found
desirable. The upper shelves are exposed. On them are kept sugar, tea,
coffee, baking-powder, and kindred stores, which are in every-day use,
and can be reached easier if there are no doors to be opened and closed.
They should be kept in air-tight cans, which prevent their exposure to
dust, insects, and air. Back of the door opening into the kitchen are
hooks for the utensils which more properly belong in the pantry than the
kitchen.
Many housekeepers prefer to keep the refrigerator in the cellar, on
account of the waste in the ice. This waste, to the mind of the writer,
is a small matter. The time spent by either housekeeper or servant in
going into the cellar could much better be occupied in doing something
else which would save more than does keeping the refrigerator below.
Then, again, when it is kept in the pantry it can readily be provided
with a zinc drain to the outside, which saves some little labor. In the
cellar such a drain would only be possible where sand could be reached.
A refrigerator should never, under any circumstances, be drained into
the sewer, as is sometimes done.
The utensils which properly belong to the kitchen are kept in an
old-fashioned kitchen safe, rather than in a closet opening out from the
kitchen. A safe is more readily cleaned than a closet, and the
perforated metal doors render the upper part of it an excellent place
for storing cold food, which it is not desirable to keep in the
refrigerator. Then if, as may happen in any kitchen which is left to the
care of servants, vermin should take possession, the safe can be moved
from the room, and trouble from this source avoided.
The entrance to the cellar is near the table, as marked. At the head of
the cellar are placed brooms, mops, and dust-pans, and above these, well
away from the head when going below, is a shelf upon which two buckets
can be placed.
Back of the range is a small wooden box, thirty inches long by
twenty-two inches wide and twelve inches deep, which is provided with a
door and shelves. These shelves, as well as the top and bottom, have
holes bored through them in order to allow the passage of hot air. In
this box scrubbing-rags and brushes dry at once, and never have a bad
odor. The box is of the same wood as the other kitchen finish, and looks
as if it were a part of it.
A soap-box, with construction similar to the above, may be provided. It
should have a tin-pipe connection with flue or other ventilating
apparatus. It will dry the soap and render its use less wasteful.
The ventilation of the kitchen is an important matter. The ideal kitchen
has no rooms over it, and has ventilators in the ceiling. But this is
not possible in most houses, and a substitute must be provided. An
inverted sheet-iron hopper placed over the range, with an opening into
either the flue or the outside of the house, will carry out the odors
from cooking. An opening into the pipe-duct which holds the plumbing
pipes will keep them from freezing in cold weather at the same time that
it helps ventilate.
An important consideration in a kitchen is to build it so that it will
not readily accumulate dirt, and can be easily cleaned. A large amount
of time is spent in every well-kept house in cleaning the kitchen. The
floor should be of oak, maple, or other hard wood, oiled, waxed, or
finished with regular floor-finishing. The casings and doors are, of
course, kept in better condition, with less labor, when of hard wood.
Where this is not attainable, poplar, or other similar wood, finished
with a varnish which will stand warm water, will prove a very good
substitute. The tables should be either of oak, which requires little
scrubbing, or poplar, which is so easily scrubbed that it is always
white enough to delight the heart of the most particular housekeeper. A
kitchen finished in this way is much less care than when the floor is of
soft wood, and the finish a soft wood painted.
All kitchens in this book are planned according to the principles here
set forth. They do not pretend to be exactly like this one, but the same
general principle runs through all.
There are very good reasons why wainscoting should not be used in a
kitchen, and no compensating advantages. The bead-joints and extra
wood-work thereof make labor in the impossible task of keeping it clean.
The less wood-work there is in a kitchen, the better. There are various
kind of water-proof proprietary plaster finishes which may be used in
finishing the walls and ceiling of a kitchen. Where they are not used, a
white skim coat should be put on and painted after about a year's use.