softened, then remove with gasolene, alcohol, or chloroform. Chloroform
is the thing for fine fabrics of delicate colors. Use alcohol on white
stuff, swabbing with an upward motion. Varnish requires little beyond
the turpentine treatment. Earth paints and calcimine demand washing in
soapsuds to get rid of the color. Remove paint from floors or windows
with strong hot soda water or else a cloth well wet in turpentine.
Gasolene will likewise remove it, but is more apt to smear. Plate glass
or fine mirrors should be polished with whiting and alcohol after the
spots have been removed. Wet to a cream, rub on, let stand awhile, then
rub off with clean cloths.
=Ice-cream and Gelatine=: Such spots must be soaked in clear cold water
for at least an hour. If on garments that forbid soaking, lay the spot
upon a folded damp cloth, put another over it, and press with moderate
weight for an hour. Then wipe off on both sides with borax water, weak
and cold, followed by several rinsings in clear cold water. Shift the
spot to a clean place now and then. When clean pin it smooth between
thick clothes and press dry with a moderate iron. Wash fabrics, of
course, can be laundered after soaking.
=Fruit Stains=: Soak fresh fruit stains half an hour in cold water, then
pour boiling water through them and dry quickly. If they have been set
by soap and boiling, touch them with Javelle water (see section
Renovators), washing it out quickly. Use only on white things—it takes
out color as well as stains. Some stains on colored things can be taken
out harmlessly by covering with salt and vinegar and leaving two hours
in the sun. Tomato juice and salt in sunshine is another
prescription—with a bright tin underneath. An apple cut in half and laid
under a set stain in sunshine is likewise effectual. Take care, though,
to wash the material well in cold water so there may not be a fresh
apple stain.
Ammonia removes acid discolorations; it also mitigates perspiration
marks. Use the spirits, and follow with alcohol and water, dabbed on
lightly.
=Wine Stains=: Wet wine stains with alcohol or whisky and soak an hour
in cold water, else pour boiling water through them with the fabric held
taut, and dry before laundering. This for table linen. Stained silk or
cloth must be dabbed many times with tepid water, pressing with dry
cloths between dabbings. Do not make wet enough to leave circles. Shake
finely powdered chalk on thickly when the dabbing is done, let it lie
for a day, then brush off, and if a mark remains dab with alcohol and
water, blood warm, or hold the stain with the wrong side next a steaming
spout, wiping it off well as soon as it is damp.
=Ink Stains=: If ink is spilled on a carpet, take up every bit possible
with warm, damp cloths, letting them lie to absorb it. Follow with
cloths wet in cold, sweet milk, rubbing and dabbing vigorously. Wash
afterward with clear hot water, then sift on, while damp, cornmeal or
dry sawdust and let stand a day, brush off, and wipe the spot over with
alcohol. Lacking cloths, crumpled paper, newspaper, or blotting-paper
can be used to take up the ink. Never wipe it, and take up about the
edges first, to save spreading.
Take stains from wood with oxalic-acid solution (see section
Renovators). Reduce one-half with boiling water, wet the stain, wipe off
with clear, hot water; if stain remains, repeat the acid. Use the acid
on white things ink-stained, wetting them first with boiling water and
holding the stain in steam or close to a very hot iron for a minute or
two after dipping in the acid. Wash out the acid with clear water, as
hot as can be borne.
Take ink stains from paper by laying it on a thick cloth, putting on a
drop or two of acid, covering with another cloth, and pressing with a
hot iron. Remove to a clean, wet cloth, cover, and press again.
Oxalic acid must not be used full strength on silk or woolens. Weaken
two-thirds with boiling water, and pour boiling water through the stain
after wetting with the acid. Test the color; if the acid destroys it,
try either covering the stain with a paste of French chalk and alcohol,
letting dry and brushing off, or dropping blazing tallow through from
the wrong side, and later removing it with gasolene or chloroform, the
same as an ordinary grease mark. The tallow must be left on several days
so it may combine with the ink.
=Tar and Asphalt=: Rub tar spots with soft grease, let lie, and remove
with gasolene or by washing in hot suds. Asphalt should be well wet with
kerosene, left to stand, then washed out in turpentine or alcohol. Soap
sets it hopelessly if applied at first.
=Grass Stains=: Rub molasses well into the stains, let lie overnight,
then wash out with tepid water, repeating if the stain still shows. If a
brown mark is left, wet with weak chloride of lime water (see section
Renovators) and hang in hot sunshine or close to a fire.
=Iron Rust=: Take out with oxalic acid the same as ink stains. Else
cover thickly with salt after wetting in boiling water, lay in sunshine
over bright tin, and squeeze on lemon juice or that of a ripe tomato.
Wash out in hot water, repeating if necessary.
=Mildew=: Wet with boiling water, wring dry, then dip in sour milk, lay
in sun, and cover thickly with salt. Or beat a raw, ripe apple to a
pulp, mix with salt liberally, and spread on the spots in the sun. Salt
and lemon, salt and tomato, or oxalic acid will likewise remove mildew.
The advantage of fruit processes is that they do no harm to the fabric,
which the oxalic acid weakens somewhat, no matter how carefully used.
Very fine and choice mildewed fabrics should be covered with a paste of
sifted starch and laid on the grass in sunshine. Wash off paste and
repeat till mildew disappears.
=Wax Spots=: Soften, dip in warm oil, let lie an hour, keeping warm,
wash in turpentine, then in alcohol or gasolene.
=Perspiration Marks=: Try dry-cleaning, sifting upon them over and over
and over corn starch, magnesia, and French chalk. Rub lightly after each
sifting. If the mark remains, try ether. Make a swab of soft white silk
filled with the powder, pour on the ether a little at a time, and dab
the swab. Put a drop or so of ammonia spirit upon the swab—not enough to
change colors. If ether fails, deluge with chloroform, rubbing inward
hard until it evaporates. Such marks are the problem of amateur
cleaning—the hardest of all to remove.
=Smoke Stains=: Shave half a bar of soap into a cup of boiling water,
dissolve, add a cup of turpentine, a cup of kerosene, and a half cup of
ammonia spirit. Mix, and cover close. Spread on the stain, let stand
five minutes, then rub hard with the lead swab (see section Equipment)
and wash off with hot water and a thick cloth. If the stain is on
plaster, as around a grate, use a brush instead of the swab, which is,
for stone, brick, or marble, a sovereign thing.
=Care of Iron=: Rust is the bane of iron; grease, its salvation. Coat
anything not in use well with hot tallow, and shake over it, still hot,
either fine sifted wood ashes or powdered unslaked lime. Wrap in clean
newspaper and keep dry. When wanted, brush hard with a stiff brush;
there will be a beautiful surface. Anything pitted with rust may as well
be thrown away. A merely rusty surface must be greased with clear fat,
left standing two days, wiped, washed in clear, very hot water, and
greased again. Three greasings should bring it into condition for
polishing. Wipe dry, coat with oil, shake on lime, and brush off after
twenty-four hours. Any alkali without grease predisposes iron to rust.
Eschew soap and soda in cleaning it. Use gasolene or turpentine or even
kerosene. A cloth wet in either will take off smut. Polish with crumpled
newspaper and a handful of hot sawdust.
=Brass and Copper=: Remove tarnish from brass and copper with salt and
strong vinegar or oxalic acid (see section Renovators). Rub hard till
bright all over, wash in clear, very hot water, then while still hot
polish with a clean chamois skin dipped in sweet oil, and a pinch of
either whiting or very fine sand. Rub quickly, wipe with soft paper,
heat moderately, and set away. This gives the mellow old look. Copper
cooking-vessels must be scoured inside and out, first with the salt and
vinegar, then with soap and sand. A greasy cloth rubbed over the outside
protects them without being dangerous. If stains are deep enough to
demand oxalic acid, be sure to wash afterward with boiling water and
borax.
=Bronze=: Wash bronze with a soft brush in hot, weak borax water, dry
quickly, keep warm, and rub all over with a clean cloth wet in
turpentine with the barest suspicion of wax. It must not coat the metal,
hardly even film it. Make bone-dry before setting away.
=Pewter=: Remove spots with a swab of whiting lightly dipped in oil.
Wash in weak suds, rinse well with boiling water, dry, and polish with
hot sand and a stiff brush.
=Silver Tarnish=: Tarnish, like a bad habit, must be checked in the
beginning. Prevention is better than cure. Keep big things, when not in
use, well wrapped in wax paper with blue paper outside that, and
absorbent cotton added. Put inside canton-flannel bags, tie tight, and
keep dark and dry. Watch all things not thus ambushed closely. Remove
spots as soon as visible, either with salt and whiting wet with borax
water or ammonia and French chalk. Rub hard and quickly, wash off, wipe
dry, and polish with dry whiting or plate powder, or what you will.
Treat egg-stained spoons with wet salt. Fortnightly at least wash every
bit of silver in sight in warm borax soapsuds, rinse in boiling water,
dry with clean towels, and rub lightly with sifted whiting. Cover
chasings and engraving with wet whiting, let dry, and brush it off. For
things in high relief fold chamois skin over the point of a blunt
skewer—thus you can rub the deeps. Count at each washing and keep sets
together. Upon a damp cleaning day lay a trayful of small things in a
half-warm oven, letting them stay till hot and dry.
Clean toilet silver with oxalic acid of one-third strength, taking care
to touch with it nothing but the metal. Wipe with a cloth wrung very dry
out of hot water, and polish with a chamois dipped in alcohol and
whiting. Wrap a cloth about the bristles in cleaning brush backs, and
wipe with old silk after the polishing.
=Things Gilded=: Wipe dust carefully from anything gilded with a soft
silk cloth, then polish with a clean chamois sprinkled lightly with
alcohol and dipped in thrice-sifted whiting. Rub steadily but not hard.
Blow dust from deep carvings with a hand bellows unless a vacuum cleaner
is in use.
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CHAPTER VIII
FOOD: CHOOSING AND KEEPING
=Flour=: Perfect flour has a slight yellow tinge and a faint, pleasant
smell, especially after wetting. Dazzling whiteness indicates bleaching;
a gray tinge or minute black specks, showing only under the microscope,
grinding from spoiled grain. Test by gripping a handful—if it remains
the shape of the hand and shows the lines of the palm, buy it. Gluten is
a most desirable element. Test for it by wetting a pinch to a stiff
dough, and washing the starch out of it in cold water. The greater and
tougher the stringy residue the greater the gluten content. Wet another
pinch very soft, take it betwixt thumb and finger, and try to spin a
thread. If it spins, all well; if it does not, but makes only blobs on
the finger tips, there is likely to have been corn ground with the
wheat. Another test for corn admixture is to dry a pinch, but not scorch
it, and rub between the finger tips. Pure wheat flour will not feel
gritty, but corn, no matter how finely ground, remains a little rough.
Set flour barrels a little above the floor, and do not use the same one
continuously. Any wooden container may become a harbor for insects. A
japanned tin can, emptied and aired monthly, is best for keeping flour,
meal, or oatmeal in bulk. All should be kept where it is dry, airy, and
free of smells, as all take up taints very readily.
=Cornmeal=: Fresh water-ground cornmeal has a pleasant smell, and runs
through the fingers without caking or clotting. A musty odor shows it is
too old. Meal from white flint corn is much the most desirable. Sift it
at need—the bran helps to keep it. Cornmeal kiln-dried and bolted, as it
has to be for the grocers to save it from spoiling, is, in a sort a
libel on the real thing. In it there is not much choice save between
fine and coarse grinding. Fine-ground makes clammy bread, hence is to be
avoided. But even kiln-drying should not quite take away the original
fragrance. Perfect meal shows under the microscope round white grains
like fairy hail.
=Oatmeal=: Beware that which has much grain dust between the grains.
Examine carefully a double handful before buying in quantity; if you
find even one trace of weevil, reject it. Weevil and sundry
mites—_Acari_ in scientific parlance—are the bane of grain foods if they
are kept over long. Hence the caution of keeping them in bright metal
away from dampness and molds.
=Buckwheat Flour=: Fresh buckwheat flour is of a slightly tawny cast and
a lively velvet feel. Mustiness means age—at first there is hardly any
smell. Clotting or caking indicates dampness either of grain or storage,
hence a product below grade.
=Grits and Hominy=: Judge by the absence of grain dust and the even
grinding; grains the same size approximately cook evenly. Examine a
sprinkle through a magnifying-glass, and if there are signs of weevil or
mites do not buy at any price. A pocket magnifier is cheap and handy,
also it may save you many times its cost in a single month.
=Coffee=: Green coffee beans break with a clean fracture, and if the
break is ragged or spongy there has been mold or heating. Roasted beans
should show one-half very dark brown, the other half black but not
scorched. Crack between the teeth; you can taste scorching. Fresh-ground
coffee is stronger and more flavorous than that ground in bulk. Also
there is less chance of adulteration. To test for adulteration, stir a
pinch of ground coffee into a glass of cold water. Pure coffee settles
to the bottom, leaving hardly a trace of color. Chicory will rise to the
top, also making a kind of scum. Adulteration with roasted grain or
bread or the artificial beans will color the water more or less deeply.
Keep coffee in bright tin or glass, tightly closed, away from light,
where it is dry and cool.
=Tea=: Tea is largely a matter of taste and brands, also prices. Very
cheap tea is undesirable, being commonly adulterated with spent tea
leaves. Tests vary as much as brands. A safe and easy one is to infuse a
pinch of tea one minute in boiling water, pour off one-half, and let the
other half stand, keeping at almost boiling heat for ten minutes. Pour
off and compare in smell and taste with the first. Artificial color, if
present, will show as dregs in the long steeping and reveal itself
further in a faint metallic taste. Various copper salts are the
commonest coloring matters, and, though the quantities are too small to
be immediately dangerous, constant use may develop stomach trouble. Tea
is best kept air-tight, dark, dry, and warm.
=Butter=: Beware butter too yellow, especially if winter-packed. Butter
colors are harmless in the main, but some constitutions are intolerant
of them. Look for firm texture slightly grained and a lively, agreeable
smell. A sour smell and white specks show something to let alone. Keep
tightly covered, dark, and cool, away from any possibility of taints.
=Lard=: If you do not know, experimentally, good fresh lard, get leaf
fat, try it out, taking care not to scorch it, and use the product as a
standard. Lard must be firm, but not hard, even-textured throughout, and
with almost no smell. Your nose, if permitted, will tell you if it is
either scorched or rancid—the two unpardonable faults. From grain-fed
pork it is clear white, with now and then a faint cream tinge. Keep in
glass or bright tin, tightly closed, where it is cool and dark.
=Cheese=: As to choice of cheese one cannot dogmatize; so much depends
on individual palates. Get the best you can afford of your chosen sort.
Good cheese cuts grainy rather than waxy—it is not too greasy,
reasonably solid, and free, of course, of mites or weevil. Cut a section
from a whole cheese, then butter well the cut surfaces, cover with wax
paper, and keep dark, dry, and cool. Wrap the cut-out section in wax
paper likewise, and keep in a covered crock for daily use. Keep fancy,
strong-smelling cheeses well wrapped in tinfoil, then in wax paper, and
laid inside a covered crock, set in a cool place.
=Beef=: Prime beef comes only from well-fatted animals, neither too
young nor too old. Fat and suet are white, inclining faintly to cream;
lean a dark, healthy red, which becomes brighter by hanging. Very yellow
fat and scarlet lean indicate a condition below first class. The meat
should not cut dry when raw, but neither should liquid follow the
cleaver.
=Mutton and Lamb=: The fat over the ribs is the best index of quality;
if it is half an inch or more, the animal was thriving. The fat should
be white with hardly a trace of yellow, the lean a fine purply red, not
too deep. Follow your nose in buying all manner of butcher’s stuff,
remembering cooking will never work the miracle of making sound the
unsound. Good spring lamb has very white fat, with lean inclining to
pinkish red. If the rib fat covers the whole surface, all is well. The
caul fat should be in lumps as big as the finger end. A strong sheepy
smell of either lamb or mutton shows animals badly dressed, or, in case
of mutton, too old. Press a bare finger hard upon the outer surface; if
the meat feels grainy there has probably been treatment with some
preservative.
=Pork=: Clear white fat and lean of a lively pink-red show perfect pork.
It cannot well be too fat, yet if there are lumps or inflamed spots in
the kidney fat, let it alone. Press hard on the skin; it should be
elastic, and be sure there is only a fleshy smell. Sniff the big
joints—spoiling begins there. Sniff sausage likewise, and reject if too
highly seasoned. The seasoning may disguise less pleasant smells. It
should be red and white speckled, the color predominant; five pounds of
lean to three of fat is the best proportion.
=Salt Meats=: Streaky bacon should have white fat and dark-red
lean—yellow fat is undesirable. It must smell lightly of smoke and have
also a tang of salt. Salt pork must be very white and firm, the lean of
it showing a dull-pale red. Hams must have white fat, thick and firm,
and lean of a rich, clear red just the least inclined to purple. Look
close around the bone; if the fat there is white and firm the ham is all
right. It must, of course, have been well smoked. But too thick smoke,
shown by a black-brown color, is undesirable. Corned beef should be
clear red, firm, and clean-smelling. Dried beef should have a firm, dark
outside and be a dark, clear red within. If it shaves to slivers partly
transparent, it is very nearly perfect.
=Poultry=: All poultry save capons can be too fat. But it had better be
too fat than too lean. Choose light-colored fat and firm pinky-white
flesh. See that combs are fresh-colored, leg joints flexible, and skin
soft. Much hard, deep-yellow fat indicates age. Milk-fed poultry, so
called, is mainly so called—it may have got milk, but much else went
with it. With ducks and geese, pull open the eyelids; if the eyes are
filmed the birds are likely to have been killed too long. Freezing
injures the quality of poultry. Dry-picked poultry is much more
desirable than that which is scalded. To test for age look at the
legs—scaliness is a sure mark of age. Press hard upon the breast bone;
in a young fowl it bends a little, in an old one it is rigid.
=Keeping Fresh Meat and Poultry=: Never put meat or poultry in contact
with ice, neither lay them flat in dish or pan. Put a rack under the
meat, then set the pan in the refrigerator, first wiping the meat with a
damp (not wet) cloth. This until cooking-time. Things to be kept several
days should be well wiped, laid on waterproof paper, have lumps of
charcoal put round and about, then wrapped, tied, put in cheesecloth
bags, and hung where it is cool and airy. Lacking such hanging space,
lay them on racks close to ice.
=Salt Fish=: Keep salt fish, whether dry or in brine, well away from all
else. A good place for them is a big box with a tight cover, the cracks
filled inside with putty and covered outside with paper. Put a shelf
across for boxes and cartons; stand kits on the floor. Hinge on the top
as a door, and fasten with hook and staple. Set the box on short legs,
else put bricks under the corners.
=Things in Glass=: Glass jars, whether of preserves, fruit, or
vegetables, had better be wrapped in paper, held on by a rubber band,
and set so as not to touch. They should be kept where it is dark, dry,
clean, and cool, on slat shelves or plank ones bored full of half-inch
holes. Light, through its weird actinic rays, plays hob with flavors,
and may even induce worse things. Yet jellies set in full sunlight for,
say, ten days gain a richer texture and keep better ever after.
=Fruit and Vegetable Storage=: With a cool, dry, airy cellar have
movable bins of slats with firm, low legs, whitewashed yearly inside and
out. Store in them apples, potatoes, sweet and Irish, turnips, carrots,
beets, what not. Lay grapes, choosing perfect bunches only, upon
swinging slat shelves and cover with cheese cloth. In a temperature
around forty degrees there will be no rotting nor drying up, provided
only sound things have been brought in.
=Canning Things=: The secret of success in canning things is perfect
sterilization. Do the work if possible in bright, windy weather, out
doors if you can; if not, in a kitchen very clean and well aired. Bring
into it no specked or rotten things—decay is a ferment the same as
yeast, and spores of it spread through the air. It is better to prepare
things outside. Drop apples, pears, or peaches in water as pared or
hulled, and keep them covered until ready to cook. Have two kettles of
syrup, one bubbling, the other barely simmering. Have a boiler of
boiling water for the jars. Empty a jar just at the moment of using,
fill it running over with boiling-hot fruit and seal instantly. The
simmering-kettle is for filling up the other. Keep the bubbling-kettle
filled with syrup to capacity, drop in barely fruit enough to fill a
jar, cook for five minutes, then seal. A few cloves and a blade of mace
in the top of each can improve flavor. Use at least half weight of sugar
to fruit—three-fifths is better. Invert after sealing and screw tops
harder when cool. If a can leaks, empty it, reheat, fill, and seal
securely. Set hot jars away from draughts until cool. Remember, though,
the fruit which comes out of your cans will be just as good and no
better than what went into them. Therefore spend your time and strength
only on good fruit, ripe, but not over-ripe.
=Outdoor Pantries=: Save in the very hottest weather edibles, cooked or
raw, keep better in fresh air than in a refrigerator. An outdoor pantry
can be set on a back porch or on legs in a shady yard, or even made fast
to the wall. A goods box, whitewashed, set firmly about waist high,
furnished with shelves inside and a door of screen wire, will hold meat,
milk, cakes, pies, bread, surplus fruit, raw or cooked, and keep them to
the queen’s taste. Have clean bags with drawstrings to slip over dishes
of meat, as hams, roasts, a fowl in wait for Sunday dinner. Lay raw meat
upon lumps of charcoal, put other lumps over it, and wrap tight in clean
cloth, then lay upon a rack or slat shelf. Put milk in a bright tin
bucket with a tight cover, stand it in a pan, put in half inch of water,
then wrap the milk bucket with a thick cloth, letting it touch the
water. It will keep damp and, by evaporation, cool the milk.
Where ice is hard to get have holes made with a post-hole digger, a foot
across and four feet deep. Fit stout wooden tops to them big enough to
lap an inch all round. Put a handle on firmly and screw a stout hook in
the middle underneath. Suspend things from this hook by a cord or light
chain, as a bucket of milk, or butter, a bottle of wine, water, or grape
juice, or a bag of fruit. Fresh meat even can be kept several days, of
course wrapping it well before hanging it. Rain ruins this form of cold
storage, but for camps, summer bungalows, and so on it is a very present
help.