The furnishing of the kitchen is so important that I must here say a
few words on the subject. First, the housekeeper must have a good
stove or range, and it is well for her to have the dealer at hand when
it is put up, to see that it draws well. Besides the utensils
furnished with the range or stove, she must provide every kitchen
utensil needed in cooking. She must have a kitchen safe,--a bread
block in the corner, furnished with a heavy iron beater; trays,
sifters (with iron rims) steamers, colanders, a porcelain preserving
kettle, perforated skimmers and spoons, ladles, long-handled iron
forks and spoons, sharp knives and skewers, graters, egg beaters (the
Dover is the best), plenty of extra bread pans, dippers and tins of
every kind, iron moulds for egg bread and muffins, wash pans, tea
towels, bread towels, and hand towels, plates, knives, forks and
spoons for use of the servants, a pepper box, salt box and dredge box
(filled), a match safe, and last, but not least, a clock. Try as far
as possible to have the utensils of metal, rather than of wood. In
cases where you cannot have cold and hot water conveyed into the
kitchen, always keep on the stove a kettle of hot water, with a clean
rag in it, in which all greasy dishes and kitchen utensils may be
washed before being rinsed in the kitchen wash pan. Always keep your
cook well supplied with soap, washing mops and coarse linen dish rags.
I have noticed that if you hem the latter, servants are not so apt to
throw them away. Insist on having each utensil cleaned immediately
after being used. Have shelves and proper places to put each article,
hooks to hang the spoons on, etc. If you cannot have an oilcloth on
your kitchen floor, have it oiled and then it may be easily and
quickly wiped over every morning. Once a week, have the kitchen and
every article in it thoroughly cleaned. First clean the pipe of the
stove, as the dust, soot and ashes fly over the kitchen and soil
everything. Then take the stove to pieces, as far as practicable,
cleaning each part, especially the bottom, as neglect of this will
prevent the bread from baking well at the bottom. After the stove is
thoroughly swept out,--oven and all, apply stove polish. I consider
"Crumbs of Comfort" the best preparation for this purpose. It comes in
small pieces, each one of which is sufficient to clean the stove once,
and is thus less apt to be wasted or thrown away by servants than
stove polish that comes in a mass. Next remove everything from the
kitchen safe and shelves, which must be scoured before replacing the
utensils belonging to them, and these too must first be scoured,
scalded, and wiped dry. Then wash the windows, and lastly the floor,
scouring the latter unless it is oiled, in which case, have it merely
wiped over.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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