The easiest way in housekeeping and cooking

Front matter

The

Lasiesf t I I

iousek8eping"and Cooking e en

PART FIRST. Chapter

I. The House : Situation and Arrangement

II. The House : Its Ventilation

III. Drainage and Water-supply .

IV. The Day's Work

V. Fires, Lights, and Things to work with

VI. Washing-Day and Cleaning in General VII. The Body and its Composition VIII. Food and its Laws ....

IX. The Relations of Food to Health X. The Chemistry of Animal Food XL The Chemistry of Vegetable Food XII. Condiments and Beverages

Page 5

PART SECOND. Stock and Seasoning 119

Fish

4 CONTENTS.

PAGE

Eggs and Breakfast Dishes 180

Tea, Coffee, &c 193

Cake 221

Custards, Creams, Jellies, &c 245

Pickles and Catchups 257

Candies 259

Lessons for Practice Class 282

Twenty Topics for Class Use 285

List of Authorities referred to 286

Examination Questions 287

Bibliography 288

Index 289

Introductory.

THAT room or toleration for another " cook-book " can exist in the public mind, will be denied at once, with all the vigor to be expected from a people overrun with cook-books, and only anxious to relegate the majority of them to their proper place as trunli-linings and kindlingmaterial. The minority, admirable in plan and execution, and elaborate enough to serve all republican purposes, are surely sufficient for all the needs that have been or may be. With Mrs. Cornelius and Miss Parloa, Marion Harland and Mrs. Whitne}^, and innumerable other trustworthy authorities, for all every-day purposes, and Mrs. Henderson for such festi\dty as we may at times desire to make, another word is not only superfluous but absurd ; in fact, an outrage on common sense, not for one instant to be justified.

Such was my own attitude and such my language hardly a year ago ; yet that short space of time has shown me, that, whether the public admit the claim, or no, one more cook-book Must Be. And this is why : —

A year of somewhat exceptional experience — that involved in building up several cooking-schools in a new locality, demanding the most thorough and minute system to assure their success and permanence — showed the inadequacies of au}' existing hand-books, and the necessities to be met in making a new one. Thus the present book has a twofold character, and represents, not only the ordinar}^ receipt or cook book, usable in any part of the country and covering all ordinary household needs, but covers the questions naturally arising in every lesson given, and ending in statements of the most necessary points in household science. There are large books designed to cover this ground, and excellent of their kind, but so cumbrous in form and execution as to daunt the average reader.

Miss Corson's " Cooking- School Text-Book" commended itself for its admirable plainness and fullness of detail, but was almost at once found impracticable as a S3'stem for my purposes ; her dishes usually requiring the choicest that the best city market could afford, and taking for granted also a taste for French flavorings not yet common outside of our large cities, and to no great extent within them. To utilize to the best advantage the foodresources of whatever spot one might be in, to give information on a hundred points suggested by each lesson, yet having no place in the ordinary cook-book, in short, to teach houseJwld science as well as cooking^ became my year's work ; and it is that year's work which is incorporated in these pages. Beginning with Raleigh, N.C., and lessons given in a large school there, it included also a sevenmonths' course at the Deaf and Dumb Institute, and regular classes for ladies. Straight through, in those classes, it became m^^ business to sa}^, '' This is no infallible system, warranted to give the whole art of cooking in twelve lessons. All I can do for you is to lay down clearly certain fixed princi})les ; to show you how to economize thoroughly, yet get a better result than by the expenditure of perhaps much more material. Before our course ends, 3'ou will have had performed before you ever}" essential operation in cooking, and will know, so far as I can make you know, prices, qualities, constituents, and physiological effects of ever}^ type of food. Beyond this, the work lies in your own hands."

Armed with manuals, — American, English, French, — bent upon S3^stematizing the subject, yet finding none entirely adequate, gradually, and in spite of all effort to the contrary, I found that my teaching rested more and more on my own personal experience as a housekeeper, both at the South and at the North. The mass of material in man}^ books was found confusing and paralyzing, choice seeming impossible when a dozen methods were given. And for the large proportion of receipts, directions were so vague that onl}" a trained housekeeper could be certain of the order of combination, or results when combined. So from the crowd of authorities was gradually eliminated a foundation for work ; and on that foundation has risen a structure designed to serve two ends.

For the j^oung housekeeper, beginning with little or no knowledge, but eager to do and know the right thing, not alone for kitchen but for the home as a whole, the list of topics touched upon in Part I. became essential. That much of the knowledge compressed there should have been gained at home, is at once admitted : but, unfortunatel}^ few homes give it ; and the aim has been to cover the ground concisel}' yet clearly and attractively. As to Pnrt IT., it doo'^ not }!]'ofoss to he the ulioU'

« INTRODUCTORY.

art of cooking, but merelj^ the line of receipts most needed in the average family, North or South. Each receipt has been tested personally b}' the writer, often many times ; and each one is given so minutel}' that failure is well-nigh impossible, if the directions are intelligentl}' followed. A few distinctivel}' Southern dishes are included, but the ground covered has drawn from all sources ; the series of excellent and elaborate manuals b}' well-known authors having contributed here and there, but the majority of rules being, as before said, the result of years of personal experiment, or drawn from old family receiptbooks.

To facilitate the work of the teacher, however, a scheme of lessons is given at the end, covering all that can well be taught in the ordinary school 3'ear : each lesson is given with page references to the receipts emploj^ed, while a shorter and more compact course is outlined for the use of classes for ladies. A list of topics is also given for school use ; it having been found to add greatl}^ to the interest of the course to write each week the story of some ingredient in the lesson for the da}', while a set of questions, to be used at periodical intervals, fixes details, and insures a certain knowledge of what progress has been made. The course covers the chemistry and physiology of food, as well as an outline of household science in general, and may serve as a text-book wherever such study is introduced. It is hoped that this presentation of the subject will lessen the labor necessary in this new field, though no text-book can fully take the place of personal enthusiastic work.

That training is imperatively demanded for rich and poor alike, is now unquestioned ; but the mere taking a course of cooking-lessons alone does not meet the need in full. The present book aims to fill a place hitherto unoccupied ; and precisel}" the line of work indicated there has been found the only practical method in a year's successful organization of schools at various points. Whether used at home with growing girls, in cookingclubs, in schools, or in private classes, it is hoped that the system outlined and the authorities referred to will stimulate interest, and open up a new field of work to many who have doubted if the food question had any interest be^'ond the day's need, and who have failed to see that nothing ministering to the best life and thought of this wonderful human bodj^ could ever by any chance be rightfully called '' common or unclean." We are but on the threshold of the new science. If these pages make the w^ay even a little plainer, the author will have accomplished her full purpose, and will know that in spite of appearances there is '' room for one more."

HELEN CAMPBELL.

The Easiest Way.

Chapter I. The House: Situation And Arrangement

FROM the beginning it must be understood that what is written here applies chiefly to countr}- homes. The general principles laid down are applicable with equal force to town or city life ; but as a people we dwell mostly in the country, and, even in villages or small towns, each house is likely to have its own portion of land about it, and to look toward all points of the compass, instead of being limited to two, as in cit}^ blocks. Of the comparative advantages or disadvantages of city or country life, there is no need to speak here. Our business is simply to give such details as may apply to both, but chiefl}^ to the owners of moderate incomes, or salaried people, whose expenditure must always be somewhat limited. With the exterior of such homes, women at present have very little to do ; and the interior also is thus far much in the hands of architects, who decide for general prettiness of effect, rather than for the most convenient arrangement of space. The young bride, planning a home, is resolved upon a baywindow, as large a parlor as possible, and an effective spare-room ; but, having in most cases no personal knowledge of work, does not consider whether kitchen and dining-room are convenient!}" planned, or not, and whether the arrangement of pantries and closets is such that both rooms must be crossed a hundred times a day, when a little foresight might have reduced the number certainly by one-half, perhaps more.

Inconvenience can, in most cases, be remedied ; but unhealthfulness or unwholesomeness of location, ver}' seldom : and therefore, in the beginning, I write that ignorance is small excuse for error, and that every one able to read at all, or use common-sense about an}" detail of life, is able to form a judgment of what is healthful or unhealthful. If no books are at hand, consult the best phj^sician near, and have his verdict as to the character of the spot in which more or less of 3'our life in this world will be spent, and which has the power to affect not only your mental and bodil}' health, but that of 3'our children. Because your fathers and mothers have been neglectful of these considerations, is no reason why you should continue in ignorance ; and the first duty in making a home is to consider earnestl}' and intelligently certain points.

Four essentials are to be thought of in the choice of an}^ home ; and their neglect, and the ignorance which is the foundation of this neglect, are the secret of not only the chronic ill-health supposed to be a necessitj" of the American organization, but of many of the epidemics and m3'sterious diseases classed under the head of ' ' visitations of Providence."

These essentials are : a wholesome situation, good ventilation, good drainage, and a dry cellar. Rich or poor, high or low, if one of these be disregarded, the result will tell, either on your own health or on tliat of your fam ily. Whether palace or hut, brown-stone front or simple wooden cottage, the law is the same. As a rule, the ordinary town or village is built upon low land, because it is easier to obtain a water-supply from wells and springs. In surh a case, even where the climate itself may be tolerably health}^, the drainage from the hills at hand, or the nearness of swamps and marshes produced by the same cause, makes a dry cellar an impossibility ; and this »hut-in and poisonous moisture makes malaria inevitable. The dwellers on low lands are the pill and patent-medicine takers ; and no civilized country swallows the amount of tonics and bitters consumed by our own.

If possible, let the house be on a hill, or at least a rise of ground, to secure the thorough draining-away of all sewage and waste water. Even in a swampy and malarious country, such a location will insure all the health possible in such a region, if the other conditions mentioned are faithfully attended to.

Let the living-rooms and bedrooms, as far as may be, have full sunshine during a part of each day ; and reserve the north side of the house for store-rooms, refrigerator, and the rooms seldom occupied. Do not allow trees to stand so near as to shut out air or sunlight ; but see that, while near enough for beauty and for shade, they do not constantly shed moisture, and make twilight in 3'our rooms even at mid-day. Sunshine is the enemy of disease, which thrives in darkness and shadow. Consumption or scrofulous disease is almost inevitable in the house shut in by trees, whose blinds are tightl}" closed lest some ray of sunshine fade the carpets ; and over and over again it has been proved that the first conditions of health are, abundant supply of pure air, and free admission of sunlight to every nook and cranny. Even with imperfect or improper food, these two allies are strong enough to carry the day for health ; and, when the three work in harmony, the best life is at once assured.

If the house must be on the lowlands, seek a sandy or gravelly soil ; and avoid those built over clay beds, or even where clay bottom is found under the sand or loam. In the last case, if drainage is understood, pipes maj^ be so arranged as to secure against an}^ standing water ; but, unless this is done, the clammy moisture on walls, and the chill in every closed room, are sufficient indication that the conditions for disease are ripe or ripening. The only course in such case, after seeking proper drainage, is, first, abundant sunlight, and, second, open fires, which will act not only as drjing agents, but as ventilators and purifiers. Aim to have at least one open fire in the house. It is not an extravagance, but an essential, and economy may better come in at some other place.

Having settled these points as far as possible, — the question of water-supply and ventilation being left to another chapter, — it is to be remembered that the house is not merel}^ a place to be made pleasant for one's friends. They form only a small portion of the daily life ; and the first consideration should be : Is it so planned that the necessar}^ and inevitable work of the day can be accomplished with the least expenditure of force? North and South, the kitchen is often the least-considered room uT the house ; and, so long as the necessary meals are served up, the difficulties that may have hedged about such serving are never counted. At the South it is doubly so, and necessarily ; old conditions having made much consideration of convenience for servants an unthought-of thing.

With a throng of unemplo3^ed women and children, the question could only be, how to secure some small portion of work for each one ; and in such case, the greater the inconveniences, the more chance for such employment. Water could well be half a mile distant, when a dozen little darkies had nothing to do but form a running line between house and spring ; and so with wood and kindling and all household necessities.

To-day, with the old service done away with once for all, and with a set of new conditions governing every form of work, the Southern woman faces diflSculties to which her Northern or Western sister is an utter stranger ; faces them often with a patience and dignity beyond all praise, but still with a hopelessness of better things, the necessar}^ fruit of ignorance. Old things are passed away, and the new order is 3^et too unfamiliar for rules to have formulated and settled in any routine of action. While there is, at the North, more intuitive and inherited sense of how things should be done, there is on many points an almost equal ignorance, more especialty among the cultivated classes, who, more than at any period of woman's history, are at the mercy of their servants. Every science is learned but domestic science. The schools ignore it ; and, indeed, in the rush toward an early graduation, there is small room for it.

''She can learn at home," say the mothers. "She will take to it when her time comes, just as a duck takes to water," add the fathers; and the matter is thus dismissed as settled.

In the mean time the '' she " referred to — the average daughter of average parents in both city and country — neither "learns at home," nor "takes to it naturally,"

save in exceptional eases ; and the reason for this is found in the love, which, like much of the love given, is really onl}' a higher form of selfishness. The busy mother of a famil}', who has fought her own wa^^ to fairly successful administration, longs to spare her daughters the petty cares, the anxious planning, that have helped to eat out her own youth ; and so the 3^oung girl enters married life with a vague sense of the dinners that must be, and a general belief that somehow or other they come of themselves. And so with all household labor. That to perform it successfully and skillfull}', demands not onl}^ training, but the best powers one can bring to bear upon its accomplishment, seldom enters the mind ; and the student, who has ended her course of chemistry or ph^^siology enthusiasticall}', never dreams of applying either to every-day life.

This may seem a digression ; and jet^ in the ver}^ outset, it is necessary to place this work upon the right footing, and to impress with all possible earnestness the fact, that Household Science holds every other science in tribute, and that only that home which starts with this admission, and builds upon the best foundation the best that thought can furnish, has an}^ right to the name of '' home." The swarms of drunkards, of idiots, of insane, of deaf and dumb, owe their existence to an ignorance of the laws of right living, which is simply criminal, and for which we must be judged ; and no word can be too earnest, which opens the 3'oung girl's eyes to the fact that in her hands lie not alone her own or her husband's future, but the future of the nation. It is hard to see beyond one's own circle ; but if hght is sought for, and there is stead}' resolve and patient effort to do the best for one's Individual self, and those nearest one, it will be found that the shadow passes, and that progress is an appreciable thing.

Begin in 3'our own home. Study to make it not only beautiful, but perfectl}^ appointed. If your own hands must do the work, learn ever}^ method of economizing time and strength. If you have servants, whether one or more, let the same laws rule. It is not easy, I admit ; no good thing is : but there is infinite reward for every effort. Let no failure discourage, but let each one be only a fresh round in the ladder all must climb who would do worthy work ; and be sure that the end will reward all pain, all self-sacrifice, and make you truly the mistresses of the home for which every woman naturall}^ and rightfully hopes, but which is never truly hers till every shade of detail in its administration has been mastered.

The house, then, is the first element of home to be considered and studied ; and we have settled certain points as to location and arrangement. This is no hand-book of plans for houses, that ground being thoroughly covered in various books, — the titles of two or three of which are given in a list of reference-books at the end. But, whether you build or buy, see to it that your kitchens and working-rooms are well lighted, w^ell aired, and of good size, and that in the arrangement of the kitchen especially, the utmost convenience becomes the chief end. Let sink, pantries, stove or range, and working-space for all operations in cooking, be close at hand. The differ- ^" ence between a pantr}^ at the opposite end of the room, and one opening close to the sink, for instance, may seem a small matter ; but when it comes to walking across the room with every dish that is washed, the steps soon count up as miles, and in making even a loaf of bread, the time and strength exiDended in gathering materials together would go far toward the tliorough kneading, which, when added to the previous exertion, makes the whole operation, which might have been only a pleasure, a burden and an annoj^ance.

Let, then, stove, fuel, water, work-table, and pantries be at the same end of the kitchen, and within a few steps of one another, and it will be found that while the general labor of each day must alwaj^s be the same, the time required for its accomplishment will be far less, under these favorable conditions. The successful workman, — the type-setter, the cabinet-maker, or carpenter, — whose art lies in the rapid combination of materials, arranges his materials and tools so as to be used with the fewest possible movements ; and the difference between a skilled and unskilled workman is not so much the rate of speed in movement, as in the abilit}" to make each motion tell. The kitchen is the housekeeper's workshop ; and, in the chapter on Hoiise-icork^ some fuither details as to methods and arrangements will be given.

Chapter II. The House: Ventilation

HAVING settled the four requisites in an}' home, and suggested the points to be made in regard to the first one, — that of wholesome situation, — Ventilation is next in order. Theoreticallj^, each one of us who has studied either natural philosophy or ph3'siology will state at once, with more or less glibness, the facts as to the atmosphere, its qualities, and the amount of air needed by each individual ; practically nullifying such statement b}' going to bed in a room with closed windows and doors, or sitting calml}^ in church or public hall, breathing over and over again the air ejected from the lungs all about, — a practice as cleanly and wholesome as partaking of food chewed over and over by an indiscriminate crowd.

Now, as to find the Reason Why of all statements and operations is our first consideration, the familiar ground must be traversed again, and the properties and constituents of air find place here. It is an old story, and, like other old stories accepted by the multitude, has become almost of no efifect ; passive acceptance mentally, absolute rejection physically, seeming to be the portion of much of the gospel of health. " Cleanliness is next to godliness,*' is almost an axiom. I am disposed to amend it, and assert that cleanliness is godliness, or a form of godliness.

At any rate, the man or woman who demands cleanliness without and within, this cleanliness meaning pure air, pure water, pure food, must of necessit}^ have a stronger body and therefore a clearer mind (both being nearer what God meant for bod}^ and mind) than the one who has cared little for law, and so lived oblivious to the consequences of breaking it.

Ventilation, seemingly the simplest and easiest of things to be accomplished, has thus far apparently defied architects and engineers. Congress has spent a million in trying to give fresh air to the Senate and Representative Chambers, and will probably spend another before that is accomplished. In capitols, churches, and public halls of ever}^ sort, the same stor}^ holds. Women faint, men in courts of justice fall in apoplectic fits, or become victims of new and mysterious diseases, simply from the want of pure air. A constant slow murder goes on in nurseries and schoolrooms ; and white-faced, nerveless children grow into white-faced and nerveless men and women, as the price of this violated law.

What is this air, seemingly so hard to secure, so hard to hold as part of our daily life, without which we can not live, and which we 3'et contentedly poison nine times out often?

Ox^'gen, nitrogen, carbonic acid, and watery vapor ; tho last two being a small portion of the bulk, oxygen and nitrogen making up four-fifths. Small as the proportion of ox^^gen seems, an increase of but one-fifth more would be destruction. It is the life-giver, but undiluted would be the life-destroyer ; and the three-fifths of nitrogen act as its diluent. No other element possesses the same power. Fires and light-giving combustion could not exist an instant without oxygen. Its office seems that of universal destruction. B3' its action deca^^ begins in meat or vegetables and fruits ; and it is for this reason, that, to preserve them, all ox3'gen must be driven out b}' bringing them to the boiling point, and sealing them up in jars to which no air can find entrance. With only undiluted oxygen to breathe, the tissues would dry and shrivel, fuel burn with a fury none could withstand, and every operation of nature be conducted with such energy as soon to exhaust and destro}" all power. But '' a mixture of the fier}' ox3'gen and 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, 3'et with such delicacy and quietness, we never percdve or think of it, until we see it with the e3^e of science."

Food and air are the two means by which bodies live. In the full-grown man, whose weight will average about one hundred and fift^-four pounds, one hundred and eleven pounds is ox3'gen drawn from the air we breathe. Only when food has been dissolved in the stomach, absorbed at last into the blood, and b3^ means of circulation brought into contact with the ox3'gen of the air taken into our lungs, can it begin to realh' feed and nourish the bod3^ ; so that the lungs ma3% after all, be regarded as the true stomach, the other being not much more than the food-receptacle.

Take these lungs, made up within of branching tubes, these in turn formed b3^ m3'riads of air-cells, and each air-

X cell owning its network of minute cells called capillaries. To ever}^ air-cell is given a blood-vessel bringing blood from the heart, which finds its way through ever}' capillary till it reaches another blood-vessel that carries it back to tlje heart. It leaves the heart charged with carbonic acid and watery vapor. It returns, if pure air has met it in the lung, with all corruption destroyed, a dancing particle of life. But to be life, and not slow death, thirtj'-three hogsheads of air must pass daily into the lungs, and twenty-eight pounds of blood journey from heart to lungs and back again three times in each hour. It rests wholly with ourselves, whether this wonderful tide, ebbing and flowing with every breath, shall exchange its poisonous and clogging carbonic acid and water}' vapor for life-giving ox3'gen, or retain it to weigh down and debilitate every nerve in the bod}^

With ever}^ thought and feeling some actual particles of brain and nerve are dissolved, and sent floating on this crimson current. With every motion of a muscle, whether great or small, with everj^ process that can take place in the body, this ceaseless change of particles is going on. Wherever oxygen finds admission, its union with carbon to form carbonic acid, or with hydrogen to form water, produces heat. The waste of the body is literally burned up by the oxygen ; and it is this burning which means the warmth of a living body, its absence giving the stony cold of the dead. " Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? " may well be the literal question for each day of our lives ; and "• pure air " alone can secure genuine life. Breathing bad air reduces all the processes of the body, lessens vitalit}" ; and thus, one in poor health will sufiTer more from bad air than those who have become thoroughly accustomed to it. If weakened vitality were the only result, it would not be so serious a matter ; but scrofula is soon fixed upon such constitutions, beginning with its milder form as in consumption, but ending in the absolute rottenness of bone and tissue. The invc^'id may live in the healthiest climate, pass hours each day in the open air, and yet undo or neutralize much of the good of this b}^ sleeping in an unventilated room at night. Diseased joints, horrible affections of the eye or ear or skin, are inevitable. The greatest li\ing authorities on lungdiseases pronounce deficient ventilation the chief cause of consumption, and more fatal tJiaii all other causes put together; and, even where food and clothing are both unwholesome, free air has been found able to counteract their effect.