First principles of household management and cookery : a text-book for schools and families

Preface

The object of this little volume is to spread a knowledge of the common things of every-day life among all the people. Physicians, and others qualified to give an opinion, testify that the foundation for disease, intemperance, and crime is nearly always impure air and water, food improperly cooked, or uncleanly and disorderly homes. The author has long had a desire to help remedy these evils, and while studying the South Kensington, and the Board Schools in London, last year, was convinced that the English people had solved the question as to how and where the reform should begin.

In the city of London there are twenty-one practice kitchens, where girls of eleven years of age and upward are sent for practice lessons in the preparation of the plainest dishes. Before these lessons, however, they study a manual of the composition of food, and the principles underlying its preparation. They also learn the simplest rules for the care of the body

IV

PREFACE.

and dwelling. The schools have been in successful operation for two years, and have done a wonderful amount of good. The same method is followed with marked effect in the manufacturing and mining districts.

After seeing all this, the determination was taken to write a book that could be used in, the schools and families of America with like beneficial results. In this work the aim has been to state clearly the causes of disease and the prevention of the same through sanitary laws ; the order of household work ; the com position and preparation of food, with sick-room cookery ; and to give a few hints on the care of the sick. In treating subjects of such importance, it has been difficult to decide what to omit, and yet make the work complete ; but the kind reception of the Appledore Cook-Book, and the generous support given it during the past seven years, lead the author to hope that this volume may, too, find favor with the public.

Boston, August 23, 1879.

NOTE TO THE TEACHER.

Six dishes are all that can be cooked in a lesson. That the pupils might be able to prepare a variety of food in their own homes, more than that number has been given.

The teacher will use her judgment in selecting from each lesson.

CHAPTER X. The Bread we eat 46

Wheat, New and Old Process. — Graham. — Indian Corn. — Oatmeal. — Rye. — Rice. — Pearled Barley.

— Buckwheat. — Bread Making. — How Bread changes in the Baking. — Leaven. — Salt-Rising Bread. — Aerated Bread. — Baking Powders.

CHAPTER XI. The Condiments, Spices, and Flavors we use . 56

Condiments (Salt, Pepper, Mustard). — Spices (Ginger, Nutmeg, Cinnamon, Clove, Mace, Allspice). — Flavors (Lemon, Orange, Vanilla, Bitter Almond).

CONTENTS.

IX

CHAPTER XII. Tea, Coffee, Chocolate, Etc 61

Tea. — Coffee. — Boiled Coffee. — Filtered Coffee. — Steamed Coffee. — Cocoa. — Chocolate.

COOKERY.

FIRST LESSON.

Hop Yeast. — Yeast Bread. — ■ Hints on Bread Making.

— Graham Bread.

SECOND LESSON.

Beef Stew. — Dumplings. — Roast Meat. — Broiling. — Boiled Potatoes. — Graham Muffins. — Bread Pudding.

THIRD LESSON.

Pot-au-Feu. — Baked Fish. — Tomato Soup. — Potato Soup. — Baked Indian Pudding 8 1

FOURTH LESSON.

Meat Hash. — Fish Balls. — Fish Hash. — Oatmeal Mush. — Hominy. — Minute Pudding. — Vinegar Sauce.

— Brown Bread . 85

FIFTH LESSON.

Fish Chowder. — Beef Olives. — Veal Olives. — Boiled Rice Pudding. — Baked Rice Pudding. — Apple Dowdy.

X

CONTENTS.

SIXTH LESSON.

Soft Molasses Gingerbread. — Sponge-Cake. — Cieam Pies. — Filling for Cream Pies. — Washington Pies.

— Whitpot Pudding. — Vegetables. — Time-Table for Cooking Vegetables 94

SEVENTH LESSON.

Salads. — French Salad Dressing. — Boiled Salad Dressing. — Vegetable Salad. — Potato Salad. — Lettuce Salad. — Rich Salad Dressing. — Lobster Salad. — Chicken Salad. — Baked Beans. — Stewed Beans .......... 98

EIGHTH LESSON.

Poultry 103

To clean Poultry. — Roast Turkey. — Roast Chicken.

— Roast Goose. — Roast Duck. — Roast Partridges.

— Roast Grouse. — Roast Pigeons. — Small Birds.

NINTH LESSON.

Sauces 107

Drawn Butter. — Egg Sauce. — Oyster Sauce. — Celery Sauce. — Caper Sauce. — Mint Sauce. — Cream Sauce. — Bread Sauce for Game. — Tomato Sauce.

— Hollandaise Sauce. — Milk Sauce for Fish. — Apple Sauce. — Baked Pears — Stewed Prunes. — Coddled Apples. — Cranberry Sauce.

TENTH LESSON.

Omelets. — Quaker Omelet. — Oyster Stew. — Oyster Soup. — Scalloped Oysters. — Fried Oysters. — Broiled Oysters. — Macaroni Boiled. — Milk Toast. — Baked Custard. — Steamed Custard 112

CONTENTS.

XI

•ELEVENTH LESSON.

Beef Tea. — Sack Posset. — Chicken Broth. — Oatmeal Gruel. — Indian Meal Gruel. — Plum Porridge. Corn Tea. — Wine Whey. — Vinegar Whey. — Sour ' Milk Whey.

TWELFTH LESSON.

Sick-Room Cookery. — [Continued.) . ... 121

Beefsteak. — Mutton or Lamb Chop. — Cream Toast.

— Rice Coffee. — Flour Gruel. — Custard. — Eggnog.

— A Good Drink for the Lungs. — Other Drinks. — Lemonade. — Cure for Hoarseness. — Burns. — Unfailing Cure for Constipation.

MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES.

Remarks on Digestion 125

FIRST PRINCIPLES

OF

HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT.

Chapter I. The Air We Breathe

x. The earth is surrounded by an atmosphere of air, the height of which is about forty-five miles. We could not live a moment without this air, for we take it into our bodies with every breath we draw. It is a mixture of several kinds of gases, four of which are necessary to its composition.

2. Two of the four elemeirts form nearly its entire bulk ; these are oxygen and nitrogen, one fifth being oxygen and nearly four fifths nitrogen. The other two elements are carbonic acid and watery vapor.

3. Oxygen comprises one fifth of the air, three fourths of all animal bodies, eight ninths of the water and about one half of the crust of the earth.

4. It has neither taste nor smell, but it keeps the air pure and healthy, and is the chief supporter of animal life. Fires and lights burn only because of oxygen.

5. After a hall or lecture room has been occupied for any length of time, if the ventilation is not good the lights will begin to burn dimly, ?lnd the people will begin to feel drowsy and oppressed. But if the windows are opened, the pure air filled with oxygen rushes in, and the poisoned air filled with carbonic acid gas rushes out. The people begin to breathe easier and feel better, and the lamps burn brighter.

6. In breathing we take air into our lungs; there the blood absorbs the oxygen and carries it through the body, where it burns up all the waste tissue, and so keeps our bodies warm, strong, and healthy.

7. It is oxygen which makes fruit and vegetables decay, and meat and fish “ spoil.” For this reason, when we wish to keep any of those things for any length of time, we make them boiling hot, to free them from the oxygen, and then seal them in a jar so tight that no air can enter. If kept perfectly free from this gas they will keep for years.

8. You will ask what is the use of nitrogen in the air ? The nitrogen dilutes the air. If the air were undiluted oxygen, animal and vegetable life would burn out too rapidly. “ A mixture of the fiery oxygen and the inert nitrogen gives us the golden mean. The oxygen now quietly burns the fuel in our stoves and keeps us warm ; combines with the oil in our lamps and gives us light ; corrodes our bodies and gives us strength ; cleanses the air and keeps it fresh and invigorating; sweetens foul water and makes it wholesome ; works all around us and within us a constant miracle, yet with such delicacy and quietness we never perceive or think of it until we see it with the eye of science.” (Steele.)

9. Carbonic Acid. — Carbonic acid, like oxygen

THE AIR WE BREATHE.

and nitrogen, is without color, but it has a slight odor and a sour taste. By mixing two parts cream of tartar and one of soda, and wetting them, you can obtain carbonic acid. When soda is added to vinegar, sour milk, lemon juice, or any liquid acid, carbonic acid is produced.

10. When bread is risen by yeast, carbonic acid is produced.

11. It is carbonic acid which gives soda water its peculiar taste, and also causes it to foam.

12. Carbonic acid is a poison to animals if they breathe in much of it, but it is the food of plant life, just the same as oxygen is the food of animal life, and vegetation could no more live without it than we could without the oxygen. This is one of the reasons why people are so much healthier in the country than they are in the city. The leaves of plants which are constantly in the sunlight and are their lungs, breathe in carbonic acid and breathe out oxygen. Thus, we see, vegetation is in great part fed with a gas which is poisonous to animal life. We are breathing in oxygen and breathing out carbonic acid all the time.

13. Watery Vapor. — By watery vapor is meant the steam, whether visible or not, which rises from the surface of water when exposed to the air.

14. If it were not for this vapor, vegetation would dry up, and animal life would soon perish also.

15. Besides the vapor which comes from water, there is the animal vapor which we throw out from our lungs and the pores of the skin. This is very impure, and causes much disease.

16. Now that we know what the great bulk of the air is composed of, and what is good for vegetation and what for animal life, we want to know how we can have pure air at all times.

17. When we are out-of-doors we nearly always have pure air, except it be in very crowded streets ; so in the houses where we work and mostly live we must consider ventilation, or letting out the bad air and letting in the good air.

Chapter II. The House We Live In

1. When possible, the house we live in should have the sunshine on every side of it some part of the day. Trees should not be so near as to shade it from the sun. Windows should open from top and bottom. On the top of a hill it is much more healthy than at the sides or bottom.

2. If there is a cellar under the house, great care must be taken that it is well ventilated, and kept perfectly clean and free from all decaying vegetation. If the house is built without a cellar, it should be raised from the ground at least two or three feet, that a current of air may pass freely under. This is the general mode of building in southern countries. In cold, northern climates a cellar is necessary, both to keep the house warm, and that there shall be a place to keep vegetables and fruit from freezing during the winter months.

3. There should be a supply of fresh air coming through a window or open fire-place in every room all the time, night and day. This is the only way by which the air in a room can be kept perfectly pure.

4. A full-grown person takes about one pound of air into his lungs every hour, so it would not take long to use up all the pure air in a room without ventilation, as in a room twelve feet square and eight feet high the air will weigh but ninety pounds ! Besides, every time a breath is taken and the oxygen breathed, carbonic acid is also thrown off ; animal vapors, too, from lungs and skin make the air impure. The fire burning in a close stove, the lamp or gas burning, all use up the oxygen.

5. In the summer, during the day, there is little trouble about ventilation, because it is pleasant to have windows and doors open. But at night there are people who sleep with closed windows because they don’t like to breathe night air, just as if they could breathe anything else at night. After a person becomes accustomed to sleeping with open windows, there is never danger of taking cold, winter or summer.

6. One safe way, where persons are very sensitive to cold, is to have a board the exact width of the window, and about three or four inches deep ; raise the lower sash and place this under it, and there will be an upward current of air which will be sufficient to purify the room, while no draught will be felt.

7. Every morning open the windows of the sleeping rooms, strip the beds; spreading the clothes over the chairs, and let them air at least an hour. There is no greater purifier than the sun. Bed-clothes and mattresses should be well sunned at least once a week.

8. In the kitchen, where cooking and other work is being done, the window should always be dropped from the top. Where wash-bowls are set in sleeping rooms, great care should be taken that the waste-pipe

THE HOUSE WE LIVE IN.

is kept closed when not being used, as poisonous gases often enter a room in that way, brought from the sewers, causing many diseases.

9. A bed that has been made up a week or more is not fit to sleep in, as moisture gathers, which often proves fatal to persons sleeping in one.

10. If carpets are used on the floors, far better is it that the colors should fade from letting the sunlight in upon them, than the bright hues remain with the sunshine shut out. Remember, always, that the sunshine is one of God’s best gifts to use, and that it is sinful to shut it out of our houses for the sake of a carpet or curtains.

11. Flowers brighten, cheer, refine, and make our homes healthful j they grow particularly well in the kitchen, where the heat is even and the air moist from the steam, and here the sun is seldom shut out.

Chapter III. The Water We Use

1. The water we use is of as great importance as the air we breathe. It forms three fourths of the surface of the earth, and about three fourths the weight of living animals and vegetables.

2. Pure water is composed of oxygen and hydrogen, eight ninths of its weight being oxygen, and one ninth hydrogen. Hydrogen, like oxygen, has, when a pure gas, neither color, taste, nor smell.

3. In the waters of our wells and rivers there are also vegetable, animal, and mineral substances, beside the gases of the air. The animal and vegetable substances are considered unhealthy by nearly all chemists and physicians, but there is a great difference of opinion in regard to the mineral. The gases from the air give the water a bright, pleasant taste.

4. The purest water we have is rain water collected in the country ; after a shower has cleared the air and washed off the roofs of the houses, it is run into cisterns, where sometimes it is filtered. The cisterns should always be exposed to pure air, as the air not only gives flavor to the water, but oxygen, which purifies it by burning up all decaying animal and vegetable matter. Cisterns are divided into two parts ; the one where the water first enters being divided from the other by a filter, which is made of iron, sponge, charcoal, and sand, purifying the water for use.

5. In large towns and cities we do not have wells, because there would not be water enough for all the people, and also the water would be very bad, causing all kinds of dreadful diseases.

6. There are water companies who bring water through pipes from rivers and lakes in the country into reservoirs in towns and cities. In the reservoirs it is strained or filtered, and exposed to the air ; and if it is located on a high hill, when it is let into pipes it will run to the upper stories of houses not higher than the reservoir.

7. It is the wells and cisterns in the country that we want to know most about, as we have no control of the water used in large towns or cities.

8. Well Water. — We dig a deep hole in the ground and it fills with water. In some places we must dig very deep indeed before we reach water, which makes the well cost much money. But it is better to pay a good deal of money for a deep well where the water is pure, than to pay doctors for trying to cure us of sickness caused by drinking water from a shallow well which gathers impurities from the soil.

9. Where does the water that flows into the wells come from ? You will answer, Out of the earth. Yes, but how does it get into the earth ? You will notice that when there has been no rain for a long time the water in the wells gets very low, and some wells grow entirely dry. The wells that dry first are always the shallow ones, and the last ones are the deep ones. Thus we see that the rain waters the earth, and filters into the wells. It is just like pouring a liquid which we wish to make clear into a sieve. If the sieve is coarse, the liquid is not perfectly clear ; if we keep on pouring it through one sieve after another, and each sieve be finer than the last, we will soon have it nearly pure ; if there is anything dissolved in it, of course that will go through the finest sieve. Now the deeper the well the purer the water, because the earth is like the sieves, which keep back all the undissolved impurities. In light sandy soils the wrater filters through very rapidly, and carries with it much impure matter. If the well is near the house, and there are soap-suds or slops, etc., thrown on the ground near it, the rain will carry those impure washings through the earth into the well water. Water from a well so situated is like slow poison, causing many diseases, the most common being fevers. Many people sicken and die from drinking it. Thoughtless people often do their washing near their well, throwing the dirty water upon the ground ; or they have no sink-drain, so all the waste water is thrown out of doors and windows, to be finally washed into their well, keeping it poisonous all the time, while they wonder what makes so much sickness in their family.

10. We can see that the rain that falls within a few feet of the well would not be enough to keep the well full of water, but that it must come from some distance, so manure heaps should be at a great distance to prevent them from rendering the well foul.

11. Another source of poisoning is the leaves which fall into the water and decay in the well. It is best

THE WATER WE USE.

i r

to build a roof over the top, keeping it open at the sides for the air to enter, while the leaves are kept from blowing in. If what I have said about wells will make plain to thousands of people who are daily drinking poisoned water the necessity of keeping the well pure, that they may keep their health, I shall feel well repaid for the labor of writing this little book.

12. Many people living in the country are not rich enough to have a good system of drainage, and many can have none at all. To these the trees and plants do good service, vegetation using for its food what would otherwise serve to poison animal life.

13. A good plan is to have a large tub or barrel placed on a strong wheelbarrow and set in a convenient place where the sun does not shine, and throw into this all slops, which can be easily carried to grove or orchard for watering the trees, and enriching the soil.

14. Remember that you are poisoning people slowly, but as surely, every time you throw dirty water near a well, as if you deliberately put arsenic into it.

15. The usual criterion of pure water is that it

shall be “ perfectly free from color, taste, or smell , be cool, soft, bright, well aerated, and entirely free from all deposit.” This standard is a good general one, but will not always hold true. >

16. The city of Savannah, Georgia, is supplied from the Savannah River, which flows through a great deal of yellow clay country, and the water, as we found it on the hotel tables, retained its muddy, dark appearance. The water that you get at hotels and restaurants in Paris, France, is perfectly clear, bright, and pleasant to the taste, but people fear to drink it. Where there is any doubt of the purity of the water, it is always safest to boil it before drinking, because this destroys the vegetable and animal life it may contain ; and if it holds mineral matter, boiling causes that to fall to the bottom of the vessel, allowing the pure water to be poured off. But in boiling you lose the gases, so the water is tasteless and flat.

17. Hard and Soft Water. — Soft water is considered by many as the most healthful. Tea and coffee made with soft water are much stronger and better flavored. Vegetables and meats boil more quickly and are more tender when boiled in soft water. Clothes wash more easily and are whiter, needing less soap and labor to cleanse them, when using soft water.

18. In using water for washing, cleansing, cooking, therefore, soft water is the best. Some physicians and chemists claim that hard water is very unhealthy, while others think that persons drinking it have stronger muscles. The French authorities supply the city of Paris with hard water, preferring it to soft, because they found that more conscripts from the soft-water districts are rejected for lack of muscle than from the hard-water districts.

19. Water that has minerals dissolved in it, however, affects different people differently. The water filtering through the earth dissolves some of the minerals over which it flows, the most common of which are lime, salt, magnesia. Where there is a great deal

THE WATER WE USE.

*3 of lime in the water it curdles the soap, produces a fur on the kettles, and clings to the clothes boiling in it, giving them a dark, dingy look.

20. Washing soda and borax are used to soften the water for washing and cleansing, when too hard.

Chapter IV. House Work

1. We know now that to be perfectly healthy our houses must be kept entirely clean, and have plenty of fresh air and sunlight. The first thing in the morning, then, is to open the windows wide in the sleeping rooms, and take all the clothes from the beds, spreading them upon chairs, where the air can pass through them freely and carry off the impurities which were thrown out from the body through the pores of the skin during the night. The bed and bedding should be aired not less than one hour.

2. While the rooms are being purified by fresh air, the breakfast should be prepared, the table set, the kitchen and sitting-room put in order.

3. First build your kitchen fire, brush off and blacken the stove or range ; then sweep the floor and dust the room. Rinse out the tea-kettle, fill with fresh water, and put upon the stove. Set the breakfast plates into the heater. Take out the ashes and sift them.

4. Now set the table, while the breakfast is being cooked. Have everything clean, hot, and on time.

5. After breakfast, wash the dishes in clean hot soap and water, first washing the glass, which wipe perfectly dry with a clean soft towel ; then the silver,

HOUSE WORK.

next the cups, saucers, pitchers ; then the plates and other china dishes. All but the glass and silver ware should be rinsed in clean hot water. As soon as the dishes are finished and put away, wash the cooking dishes, being as careful to have clean water and towels for them, as for the china, and washing, rinsing, and wiping them as carefully. The tins and iron pans should be wiped with a dry towel, and then put on the hearth to dry perfectly, as they rust very easily and quickly. Pots, kettles, and fry pans should be put into the pan of hot water, and the outsides should be washed as carefully as the insides. Unless the water is very hard, there is no need of putting soda into the water for cleaning kitchen dishes, any more than for glass or silver. The wire dish-cloth helps wonderfully in cleaning cooking dishes, and does not scratch them. Using very coarse sand to scour with scratches the tin off in places, and then the dishes soon begin to rust. Wood ashes, for this reason, is better than sand, and sapolio, a soap which comes for cleaning, is better than either.

6. The dish towels should be washed and thoroughly rinsed every day, and when it is possible dried in the open air. The habit of drying the dish-water into the towel is a very filthy one. On wash days, a new set of towels should be taken for the week, and those that have been used should have a thorough washing and scalding. Let them, if possible, remain on the line over night.

7. When steel knives are used, they should be cleaned after every meal ; first by washing perfectly clean, then by placing on a board perfectly flat and

1 6 HO US Eli OLD MA NA CEMENT A ND COOKER Y.

rubbing with fine Bristol brick dust wet with water, applied with a large cork, until the blades are perfectly bright. Now wash again in clean warm water, and wipe dry. The handles of the knives should never be put into the water.

8. When all the dishes are washed, every part of the sink should be thoroughly washed with plenty of hot water and soap with a cloth kept for that purpose ; then rinse with hot water. So necessary for cleanliness is hot water, that a good housekeeper should keep the kettle or tank always well filled, that it may be ready for use.

9. Rule for Keeping Hot Water. — Every time you take water from the kettle fill with cold.

10. Now the dishes are all washed and put away, and everything is clean in the kitchen, the dining-room must be swept, dusted, and put in order. As soon as breakfast was over, the windows of this room should have been opened to air while the kitchen work was being done. After sweeping it, leave the dust time to settle, while the chamber work is being done.

11. Chamber Work. — The first thing to do after turning the mattresses and making the bed is to empty the slops, and with clean hot water wash out the glasses, pitchers, and bowls, and then the slop pans. Have separate cloths for the bowls, pitchers, etc., and the slop jars, and never use the toilet towels for this purpose. Now dust the room, put things in place, and, if in summer, close the blinds, and the room is finished.

12. Except upon sweeping days, which should be once a week, this is about the usual work for a sleep-

HOUSE WORK.

ing room. All the rooms and halls should be dusted ever)- day. Such rooms as are used by many people during the day should be thoroughly swept each morning.

13. The dining-room must next be dusted and closed. The reason why the dishes must be washed and the kitchen put in order first is that they wash more easily than if the food has time to harden on them, so time and labor are saved. Then if dishes and food are allowed to stand upon the tables they collect flies, and food left in the hot kitchen dries or spoils. This order of doing the work gives the beds time to air and the rooms to be purified.

14. To wash Floors and Tables. — All wood has what is called the “ grain of the wood.” It runs up and down the board, and not across it. To wash plain wood work, then, you must rub the cloth or brush up and down the board, not across. Too much soap makes white pine boards yellow. Have clean, coarse cloths, perfectly free from grease, and plenty of hot suds; also a scrubbing-brush. First wash the table with a cloth, then dip the brush into the hot suds and rub with the grain of the wood ; when you have thoroughly scrubbed it, wash off with the cloth, wiping off all the soapy water, then wash off with clean hot water, and wipe very dry. Wash white floors in the same manner. Floors should be washed only on bright days. Bedroom floors should be washed early in the day, as it is very dangerous to sleep in a damp room.

15. The cellar must be looked after every few days that nothing be left to decay or spoil there. Much

I 8 HO USE HOLD A/A HA GEM ENT AND CO ONER Y.

sickness comes from cellars that are not well aired, and where old vegetables Are allowed to decay. No poison in the air is more deadly than that from decaying vegetation. In the autumn many fevers arise from the poisoned air caused by the dying plants and falling leaves.