ON THE CARE OF THE KITCHEN, CELLAR, AND STOREROOM.
If parents wish their daughters to grow up with good domestic habits,
they should have, as one means of securing this result, a neat and
cheerful kitchen. A kitchen should always, if possible, be entirely
above ground, and well lighted. It should have a large sink, with a
drain running under ground, so that all the premises may be kept sweet
and clean. If flowers and shrubs be cultivated, around the doors and
windows, and the yard near them be kept well turfed, it will add very
much to their agreeable appearance. The walls should often be cleaned
and whitewashed, to promote a neat look and pure air. The floor of a
kitchen should be painted, or, which is better, covered with an
oilcloth. To procure a kitchen oilcloth as cheaply as possible, buy
cheap tow cloth, and fit it to the size and shape of the kitchen. Then
have it stretched, and nailed to the south side of the barn, and, with a
brush, cover it with a coat of thin rye paste. When this is dry, put on
a coat of yellow paint, and let it dry for a fortnight. It is safest to
first try the paint, and see if it dries well, as some paint never will
dry. Then put on a second coat, and at the end of another fortnight, a
third coat. Then let it hang two months, and it will last, uninjured,
for many years. The longer the paint is left to dry, the better. If
varnished, it will last much longer.
A sink should be scalded out every day, and occasionally with hot ley.
On nails, over the sink, should be hung three good dish-cloths, hemmed,
and furnished with loops; one for dishes not greasy, one for greasy
dishes, and one for washing pots and kettles. These should be put in the
wash every week. The lady who insists upon this, will not be annoyed by
having her dishes washed with dark, musty, and greasy, rags, as is too
frequently the case.
Under the sink should be kept a slop-pail; and, on a shelf by it, a
soap-dish and two water-pails. A large boiler, of warm soft water,
should always be kept over the fire, well covered, and a hearth-broom
and bellows be hung near the fire. A clock is a very important article
in the kitchen, in order to secure regularity at meals.
_On Washing Dishes._
No item of domestic labor is so frequently done in a negligent manner,
by domestics, as this. A full supply of conveniences, will do much
toward a remedy of this evil. A swab, made of strips of linen, tied to a
stick, is useful to wash nice dishes, especially small, deep articles.
Two or three towels, and three dish-cloths, should be used. Two large
tin tubs, painted on the outside, should be provided; one for washing,
and one for rinsing; also, a large old waiter, on which to drain the
dishes. A soap-dish, with hard soap, and a fork, with which to use it, a
slop-pail, and two pails for water, should also be furnished. Then, if
there be danger of neglect, the following rules for washing dishes,
legibly written, may be hung up by the sink, and it will aid in
promoting the desired care and neatness.
_Rules for Washing Dishes._
1. Scrape the dishes, putting away any food which may remain on them,
and which it may be proper to save for future use. Put grease into the
grease-pot, and whatever else may be on the plates, into the slop-pail.
Save tea-leaves, for sweeping. Set all the dishes, when scraped, in
regular piles; the smallest at the top.
2. Put the nicest articles in the wash-dish, and wash them in hot suds,
with the swab or nicest dish-cloth. Wipe all metal articles, as soon as
they are washed. Put all the rest into the rinsing-dish, which should
be filled with hot water. When they are taken out, lay them to drain on
the waiter. Then rinse the dish-cloth, and hang it up, wipe the articles
washed, and put them in their places.
3. Pour in more hot water, wash the greasy dishes with the dish-cloth
made for them; rinse them, and set them to drain. Wipe them, and set
them away. Wash the knives and forks, _being careful that the handles
are never put in water_; wipe them, and then lay them in a knife-dish,
to be scoured.
4. Take a fresh supply of clean suds, in which, wash the milk-pans,
buckets, and tins. Then rinse and hang up this dish-cloth, and take the
other; with which, wash the roaster, gridiron, pots, and kettles. Then
wash and rinse the dish-cloth, and hang it up. Empty the slop-bucket and
scald it. Dry metal teapots and tins before the fire. Then put the
fireplace in order, and sweep and dust the kitchen.
Some persons keep a deep and narrow vessel, in which to wash knives with
a swab, so that a careless domestic _cannot_ lay them in the water while
washing them. This article can be carried into the eating-room, to
receive the knives and forks, when they are taken from the table.
_Kitchen Furniture._
_Crockery._ Brown earthen pans are said to be best, for milk and for
cooking. Tin pans are lighter, and more convenient, but are too cold for
many purposes. Tall earthen jars, with covers, are good to hold butter,
salt, lard, &c. Acids should never be put into the red earthen ware, as
there is a poisonous ingredient in the glazing, which the acid takes
off. Stone ware is better, and stronger, and safer, every way, than any
other kind.
_Iron Ware._ Many kitchens are very imperfectly supplied with the
requisite conveniences for cooking. When a person has sufficient means,
the following articles are all desirable. A nest of iron pots, of
different sizes, (they should be slowly heated, when new;) a long iron
fork, to take out articles from boiling water; an iron hook, with a
handle, to lift pots from the crane; a large and small gridiron, with
grooved bars, and a trench to catch the grease; a Dutch oven, called,
also, a bakepan; two skillets, of different sizes, and a spider, or flat
skillet, for frying; a griddle, a waffle-iron, tin and iron bake and
bread-pans; two ladles, of different sizes; a skimmer; iron skewers; a
toasting-iron; two teakettles, one small and one large one; two brass
kettles, of different sizes, for soap-boiling, &c. Iron kettles, lined
with porcelain, are better for preserves. The German are the best. Too
hot a fire will crack them, but with care in this respect, they will
last for many years.
Portable furnaces, of iron or clay, are very useful, in Summer, in
washing, ironing, and stewing, or making preserves. If used in the
house, a strong draught must be made, to prevent the deleterious effects
of the charcoal. A box and mill, for spice, pepper, and coffee, are
needful to those who use these articles. Strong knives and forks, a
sharp carving-knife, an iron cleaver and board, a fine saw, steelyards,
chopping-tray and knife, an apple-parer, steel for sharpening knives,
sugar-nippers, a dozen iron spoons, also a large iron one with a long
handle, six or eight flatirons, one of them very small, two iron-stands,
a ruffle-iron, a crimping-iron, are also desirable.
_Tin Ware._ Bread-pans, large and small pattypans, cake-pans, with a
centre tube to insure their baking well, pie-dishes, (of block-tin,) a
covered butter-kettle, covered kettles to hold berries, two sauce-pans,
a large oil-can, (with a cock,) a lamp-filler, a lantern, broad-bottomed
candlesticks for the kitchen, a candle-box, a funnel or tunnel, a
reflector, for baking warm cakes, an oven or tin-kitchen, an
apple-corer, an apple-roaster, an egg-boiler, two sugar-scoops, and
flour and meal-scoop, a set of mugs, three dippers, a pint, quart, and
gallon measure, a set of scales and weights, three or four pails,
painted on the outside, a slop-bucket, with a tight cover, painted on
the outside, a milk-strainer, a gravy-strainer, a colander, a
dredging-box, a pepper-box, a large and small grater, a box, in which to
keep cheese, also a large one for cake, and a still larger one for
bread, with tight covers. Bread, cake, and cheese, shut up in this way,
will not grow dry as in the open air.
_Wooden Ware._ A nest of tubs, a set of pails and bowls, a large and
small sieve, a beetle for mashing potatoes, a spad or stick for stirring
butter and sugar, a bread-board, for moulding bread and making
pie-crust, a coffee-stick, a clothes-stick, a mush-stick, a meat-beetle
to pound tough meat, an egg-beater, a ladle for working butter, a
bread-trough, (for a large family,) flour-buckets, with lids to hold
sifted flour and Indian meal, salt-boxes, sugar-boxes, starch and
indigo-boxes, spice-boxes, a bosom-board, a skirt-board, a large
ironing-board, two or three clothes-frames, and six dozen clothes-pins.
_Basket Ware._ Baskets, of all sizes, for eggs, fruit, marketing,
clothes, &c.; also chip-baskets. When often used, they should be washed
in hot suds.
_Other Articles._ Every kitchen needs a box containing balls of brown
thread and twine, a large and small darning needle, rolls of waste-paper
and old linen and cotton, and a supply of common holders. There should
also be another box, containing a hammer, carpet-tacks, and nails of all
sizes, a carpet-claw, screws and a screw-driver, pincers, gimlets of
several sizes, a bed-screw, a small saw, two chisels, (one to use for
buttonholes in broadcloth,) two awls, and two files.
In a drawer, or cupboard, should be placed, cotton table-cloths, for
kitchen use, nice crash towels, for tumblers, marked, T T; coarser
towels, for dishes, marked, T; six large roller-towels; a dozen
hand-towels, marked, H T; and a dozen hemmed dish-cloths, with loops.
Also, two thick linen pudding or dumpling-cloths, a gelly-bag, made of
white flannel, to strain gelly, a starch-strainer, and a bag for boiling
clothes.
In a closet, should be kept, arranged in order, the following articles:
the dust-pan, dust-brush, and dusting-cloths, old flannel and cotton for
scouring and rubbing, sponges for washing windows and looking-glasses, a
long brush for cobwebs, and another for washing the outside of windows,
whisk-brooms, common brooms, a coat-broom or brush, a whitewash-brush, a
stove-brush, shoebrushes and blacking, articles for cleaning tin and
silver, leather for cleaning metals, bottles containing stain-mixtures,
and other articles used in cleansing.
ON THE CARE OF THE CELLAR.
A cellar should often be whitewashed, to keep it sweet. It should have a
drain, to keep it perfectly dry, as standing water, in a cellar, is a
sure cause of disease in a family. It is very dangerous to leave decayed
vegetables in a cellar. Many a fever has been caused, by the poisonous
miasm thus generated. The following articles are desirable in a cellar:
a safe, or moveable closet, with sides of wire or perforated tin, in
which cold meats, cream, and other articles should be kept; (if ants be
troublesome, set the legs in tin cups of water;) a refrigerator, or
large wooden box, on feet, with a lining of tin or zinc, and a space
between the tin and wood filled with powdered charcoal, having at the
bottom, a place for ice, a drain to carry off the water, and also
moveable shelves and partitions. In this, articles are kept cool. It
should be cleaned, once a week. Filtering jars, to purify water, should
also be kept in the cellar. Fish and cabbages, in a cellar, are apt to
scent a house, and give a bad taste to other articles.
STOREROOM.
Every house needs a storeroom, in which to keep tea, coffee, sugar,
rice, candles, &c. It should be furnished with jars, having labels, a
large spoon, a fork, sugar and flour-scoops, a towel, and a dish-cloth.
_Modes of destroying Insects and Vermin._
_Bed-bugs_ should be kept away, by filling every chink in the bedstead
with putty, and, if it be old, painting it over. Of all the mixtures for
killing them, _corrosive sublimate and alcohol_ is the surest. This is a
strong poison.
_Cockroaches_ may be destroyed, by pouring boiling water into their
haunts, or setting a mixture of arsenic, mixed with Indian meal and
molasses, where they are found. Chloride of lime and sweetened water
will also poison them.
_Fleas._ If a dog be infested with these insects, put him in a tub of
warm soapsuds, and they will rise to the surface. Take them off, and
burn them. Strong perfumes, about the person, diminish their attacks.
When caught between the fingers, plunge them in water, or they will
escape.
_Crickets._ Scalding, and sprinkling Scotch snuff about the haunts of
these insects, are remedies for the annoyance caused by them.
_Flies_ can be killed, in great quantities, by placing about the house
vessels, filled with sweetened water and _cobalt_. Six cents worth of
cobalt is enough for a pint of water. It is very poisonous.
_Musquitoes._ Close nets around a bed, are the only sure protection at
night, against these insects. Spirit of hartshorn is the best antidote
for their bite. Salt and water is good.
_Red_ or _Black Ants_ may be driven away, by scalding their haunts, and
putting Scotch snuff wherever they go for food. Set the legs of closets
and safes in pans of water, and they cannot get at them.
_Moths._ Airing clothes does not destroy moths, but laying them in a hot
sun does. If articles be tightly sewed up in linen, and fine tobacco be
put about them, it is a sure protection. This should be done in April.
_Rats and Mice._ A good cat is the best remedy for these annoyances.
Equal quantities of hemlock, (or _cicuta_,) and old cheese, will poison
them, but this renders the house liable to the inconvenience of a bad
smell. This evil, however, may be lessened, by placing a dish,
containing oil of vitriol poured on saltpetre, where the smell is most
annoying. Chloride of lime and water is also good.