The Library of Work and Play: HousekeepingGilman, Elizabeth Hale
General
The Library of Work and Play: Housekeeping
Gilman, Elizabeth Hale
Home economics
This metre is in an especially instructive condition, because the
1,000's dial gives no reading. The hand has not yet reached 1.
THE REFRIGERATOR
A refrigerator serves its purpose better if it is placed in a pantry or
on an enclosed porch. If it must be put in the kitchen, it should have
the place farthest from the fire.
The drain pipe of the refrigerator, which carries off the water from
the melting ice, sometimes empties into a pan, sometimes connects with
other pipes which carry the water out of the house. It should never
connect with the other drainage of the house, nor lead to any well or
sewer which receives other drainage. No traps or plumbing contrivances
are perfect enough to protect food which is shut up closely with the
opening of a pipe connecting even remotely with the drainage system.
Properly the drain pipe of the refrigerator should empty into an open
basin or sink in the cellar, which in turn drains off into the ground.
The next point of importance after the disposal of its drainage, is
to keep the refrigerator clean. Guard against spilling things on its
shelves, wash the ice before it is put in, if it is not clean, and do
not keep in it things with a strong or penetrating smell--An innocent
dish of cold-slaw unthinkingly put into the refrigerator produces an
odour which will startle the person who next opens the door.
A refrigerator needs cleaning once or twice a week. It should not be
cleaned oftener than is necessary because cleaning wastes the cold. For
this same reason wash it with cold water unless something greasy has
been spilled in it, and never leave the doors open one second longer
than is necessary.
Collect beforehand everything required for the cleaning, that, when the
work is once begun, it may be finished quickly. One needs cold water in
which there is baking soda, borax or boracic acid (2 oz. to the qt.),
a brush for scrubbing, cloths for wiping, something long and slim with
which to clean the drain pipe and a tray or pan to hold the ice while
the ice compartment is being cleaned.
Take the food out of the refrigerator, then the ice. Quickly but
thoroughly scrub and wipe dry the compartment for the ice, not
forgetting the drain pipe. In many refrigerators the drain pipe can be
removed for cleaning. Replace the ice and shut it in. Then scrub and
wipe the other compartments or shelves, and include the pan and the
floor under the refrigerator in this cleaning.
It is hardly necessary to say that rubbish and unsightly objects
ought not to be tucked away behind or under the refrigerator. Its
surroundings should be as clean and well-aired as possible.
A refrigerator is at its best when it is full of ice. To keep it full
is usually found economical as well as sanitary. If the ice is gone and
it will be some hours before a new supply will be brought, keep the
doors of the refrigerator open until it can be refilled. Without ice
the refrigerator becomes the very worst sort of crowded, unaired food
closet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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