The Lady's Country Companion; Or, How to Enjoy a Country Life RationallyLoudon, Mrs. (Jane)
General
The Lady's Country Companion; Or, How to Enjoy a Country Life Rationally
Loudon, Mrs. (Jane)
Cooking; Country life; Home economics
As your kitchen is large, you may perhaps be able to have a small
range of charcoal pans for French cooking, in addition to the
ordinary kitchen-range, if you have not something of the kind in the
housekeeper's room; and among your kitchen utensils you should have two
or three that will be useful in French cooking. One of these should
be a braising pan, with a deep concave rimmed lid, in which fire can
be put whenever you have any dish cooked that requires fire above and
below; another should be two saucepans, one going within the other,
like a gluepot, forming a _bain marie_. German saucepans, and other
enamelled articles for the kitchen, are very convenient in all dishes
where milk or cream is used; but it is a long time before any liquid
boils in them; and when it does boil, it continues to do so for a
minute or more after the saucepan is taken from the fire, on account
of the enamel retaining the heat. You ought also to have a cupboard
in the kitchen, for the cook to keep her spices and other articles
in, fitted up with shelves and canisters: and there should be another
closet for the flour tub and bread jar, which should stand on a board
raised at least six inches above the floor, to keep them from the
attacks of mice and black beetles. The egg-basket and the salt-box may
also find a place in this closet, so as to keep the general appearance
of the kitchen neat and clean. Of course you will have one or two
dressers for plates and dishes, made with drawers and cupboards below.
Every kitchen should also contain a clock, that the cook may see
exactly how the time goes, and have no excuse for not being punctual.
The _scullery_ should be as close to the kitchen as possible. It
should be paved with Yorkshire stone or brickwork, and it should have
a cistern of water closely adjoining it. In every scullery there
should be a stone sink, with a plate-rack at one end, and under the
plate-rack should be a slanting dripboard with a kind of gutter at the
base, to convey the water that drains from the plates and dishes to the
waste-pipe of the sink; and it will be found a great convenience to
have a pipe carried to it from the boiler behind the kitchen fireplace,
in order to afford a constant supply of hot water. The scullery should
also contain two coppers, one small, for boiling hams or large pieces
of beef, and another of a much larger size for brewing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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