The efficient kitchen : definite directions for the planning, arranging and equipping of the modern labor-saving kitchen; a practical book for the home-maker

Front matter

See Teer s

Bihan fecger

PoeecrPICIENT KITCHEN

Introduction

EN years ago my husband and I started home-making in a Western city. We had youth, ideals and a college education apiece; and while, like many other young people, we had no experience of married life, our early training as members of large families had given us a respect for practical work and a great love of home. After graduating from college I had kept house for two years for my father and mother, and for seven years had been business manager of a daily newspaper which my sister and I owned and ran. My husband was a technical chemist for a large Trust which had plants in different parts of the country.

Our income at the time was scarcely $1,300. But with a generous trousseau to solve the problem of clothes, and wedding presents to make our little home artistic and attractive, we were able to live very comfortably during the first year on less than $1,000.

We started our married life in one of the charming five-room cottages which have been so largely developed in Colorado and California, and which ease the physical burden of the care of the house in such a wonderful way. We had, even in those Vii

Vill INTRODUCTION | days, a washing machine, an electric iron, one of the labor-saving roasting pans, and several other efhcient labor-saving devices. Therefore our housekeeping problems were reduced to the simplest possible proportions.

In the four years during which babies one, two and three arrived, we were fortunate in securing excellent help, and doubly fortunate in having our income increase to meet the extra expense involved. From that time on, however, with three babies to claim the lion’s share of all my work and care, our living expenses jumped from less than $1,000 to $2,000 a year, without any change in our standard of living. During those years the cost of living began also to steadily advance, so that the purchasing power of the fixed income must be increased by constant study in buying more wisely and working more effectively. College and business training had taught me the advantage of systematic methods, of effective ways of arranging work and of diplomatic and considerate treatment of help. So our little home always ran smoothly. And when hard pulls came, as they often did, I had always the loving cooperation of my husband in overcoming them. We would take “ shifts” with the night care of the babies, or he would run the washing machine for an hour before he went to work if the laundress failed me. Thus, like the noble Gareth, we were forced to win our knighthood through apprenticeship in “ villain kitchen vassal-

INTRODUCTION ix age ’’; nor did we find it any undue hardship. Indeed had it lasted only for “a twelve-month and a day” this little book would never have been written.

But as the years went on and we moved East and lived in awkward, badly arranged Eastern houses, and tried to do efficient work in kitchens diabolically contrived to waste every human effort; as we found ourselves unable to get gas for cooking in country houses, and did not know of any resource to take its place; as help of the right sort became almost impossible to secure; and as the “high cost of living’’ made constantly heavier demands upon us, we decided at last that we would have a Fourth of July, that we would make a great and final effort to free ourselves from the power of a tyrant that only seemed to tighten his hold the more sacrifices we made to his inordinate demands.

In this spirit we started on a determined quest for information and new resources. We took lessons in cooking to see whether the Domestic Science schools had any wonderful wisdom to impart in the direction of “better food for less money.” We studied courses in Home Economics. We read books. We visited cooking laboratories and practise houses. Finally we came to the Housekeeping Experiment Station at Darien, Conn.

Here at last we found what we had been seeking: an inexpensive but charming home which had been so transformed by engineering skill that it x INTRODUCTION could be cared for with the minimum expense, and so equipped that it could be operated with the smallest possible amount of effort. Here we learned of two wonderful resources for preparing food, adapted to the income of the average home. Here we heard of Taylor’s wonderful book on Scientific Management, which has been revolutionizing the business world. And here we saw two old people living happily an ideal life in which labor and culture each had its rightful place. At last science and high ideals had transformed “ villain kitchen vassalage ”’ into the noble profession of home-making.

The resources which Mr. and Mrs. Barnard had developed were suited to the needs of two people living simply in the country, free from the demands of city life, and free from all the subtle complications which constantly arise in larger households, particularly in homes where there are little children. But back of their work was a great idea, and this idea was applicable to any home and to any income. ‘Do _not try to do efficient work in an inefficient house. ‘First transform your conditions.” This is one of the first principles of engineering; and, strange as it may seem, the very last principle applied in the average home.

By good fortune the opportunity came to us to join Mr. Barnard in his work and to.spend a year in further study of equipment. We must know the best equipment for each kind of fuel, the equip-

INTRODUCTION Xi ment which was best suited to the needs of the average home. We must work out better ideas in kitchen planning. And all this information must be catalogued and arranged so that it would be available to other home-makers.

While we were doing this work together we were constantly trying out new ideas, first at the Housekeeping Experiment Station, and then in other people’s homes. At last we arrived at a simple system of coordination which we found could be adapted to every home and every condition. An interesting test of its efficiency was made when we were asked to plan a model kitchen for a Domestic Science Exhibition given in a large city.

All details were arranged in our office, and a list was sent covering directions for decoration and equipment. With this carefully grouped list in hand one of us went to the exhibition and in two hours had everything in place. Had the stove and sink been actually connected up a cook could have stepped in and served a very satisfactory dinner without loss of energy or time.

In the spring of 1911 Mr. Barnard retired from active participation in the Housekeeping Experiment Station.* His mantle fell on our younger shoulders. Through consultations and by means of lectures and pamphlets we have striven to make current his ideas on household economics, and those

* The Housekeeping Experiment Station is no longer open to visitors. The author has discontinued consultation. The results of the research work of the station will be published in book form.

Xi INTRODUCTION worked out by ourselves in association with him. But we have found that the help that the homemaker needed covered so wide a field that it was desirable to put the information. first into book form, so that each subject could be studied in its relation to the whole problem.

“The Efficient Kitchen” is intended as a book of practical directions showing how to so build new kitchens or transform old ones that the work of the home may be accomplished with a sense of mastery, instead of remaining the hopeless problem it has become.

While it records only the beginning of a new science, and while it deals with only the practical matters, still we believe it will serve as a starting point from which every man and woman may gain the broad survey of resources through which alone a satisfactory solution of the home-making problem is possible. The rest of the problem consists of work and patient study, line upon line and precept upon precept, till the subject is mastered and success is attained.

Does the task seem toilsome and weary? It is no more so than mastering the technique of any art, or the rudiments of any profession. Let us give up the delusion that there is any higher work in life for man or woman than really mastering the problems of the home to which in common they owe allegiance. Let us face facts as they are. If ninety per cent of the home-makers in this country must

INTRODUCTION Xiil live on incomes that make domestic service prohibitory, let us hasten to transform our manner of living so that we will not be carrying needless financial burdens. The apprenticeship to “ villain kitchen vassalage”’ will not last forever. Intelligence will develop new resources, new methods of doing work, better planned houses and better equipment. The home-maker will then have time to devote to the other side of life, to the things that bring inspiration and joy and peace into this little circle of love which we are proud to call “ our home.”

GEORGIE BOYNTON CHILD.

Preface To The Fifth Edition

EN years have gone since “The Efficient Kitchen’ was first offered to the public— momentous years, in which old things have

become new and many of the former things have passed away. In a changing world one thing remains fixed and changeless: the housekeeper’s daily round; the problem of home-making, with its potential happiness and its ever-pressing practical needs.

The principles upon which this little book is based remain the same, since they are fundamental ; likewise the elementary difficulties of the housekeeper, due to scarcity of help and the high cost of all the necessities of life. The revision therefore has involved few changes.

A new chapter has been written reviewing the progress since 1914 in housekeeping efficiency ideas, and in the perfecting of labor-saving equipment. Improvements in equipment, or improved methods to simplify the housekeepers’ task, have been described under appropriate headings throughout the book.

All prices have been carefully revised in the text; a good deal of new material added, several new illustrations furnished and a new index compiled.

‘This new edition of “ The Efficient Kitchen” goes forth as a real guide and text book to all who wish to lighten the burden of preparing “three meals a day’ by making the room in which the work is performed a convenient and well-equipped work-room. »

GEORGIE BoyNTON CHILD.

Marcu, 1925.

Contents

PAGE INTRODUCTION vil THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE I PLANNING THE KITCHEN 12 SCIENTIFIC GROUPING a7 BuiLt-IN CONVENIENCES 40 HEATING THE KITCHEN AND KEEPING

DisHES WARM ; 64 Hot WaTER HEATING SYSTEMS 70 CHOICE OF FUEL FOR COOKING 88 SELECTING THE FIXED EQUIPMENT 99 Lists oF NECESSARY EQUIPMENT . male 7, TIME AND LABOR-SAVING EQUIPMENT . 145 LicHTt HOUSEKEEPING EQUIPMENT 163 DISPOSAL OF KITCHEN WASTE . sa ds: DisH-WASHING AND DaILy CARE OF

THE KITCHEN . rae 4 THe LAUNDRY PROBLEM . 190 THE BUSINESS SIDE OF THE KITCHEN . I99 THe HomMe-MAKEr’s QUIET CORNER . . 219 PROGRESS SINCE I914 225 GLOSSARY : ea URS 3 a Pee 50