Practical homemaking; a textbook for young housekeepers

Preface

" What you would have appear in the life of the people that you must put into the schools."

The aim of this book is to perfect the future housewife by arousing an interest in homemaking, by imparting a knowledge of the important theoretical and practical questions that arise in housekeeping, and by promoting habits of industry, order, cleanliness, and thrift.

Homemaking has now taken its place among the great professions, precisely because it has been discovered that housekeeping is an art dependent upon skilled labor and effective tools in the same way that any manufacturing business is so dependent.

The nurse and the doctor are skilled laborers trained to relieve physical suffering and to cure disease. The homemaker is to be a skilled worker trained to rear children and prevent disease. She is to create centers of order, health, and happiness. She must realize that the way the dishes are washed, the beds aired, the food cooked, may save or ruin the important business of making a home.

The skilled housekeeper does even the smallest duty perfectly; she plans carefully and executes her plans in the manner best calculated to save time, energy, and money. Out of the very smallest house she can create a home.

NOTES TO TEACHERS

This book is designed for girls in their first year of domestic-science studies. It contains a complete year's course in homemaking, and is to be followed by a more advanced, second-year course.

Lessons.

These lessons are to be given in housekeeping centers, or model homes. Such centers are to be built in the school-building, and modeled as nearly as possible upon the homes of pupils ; or they may be actual apartments, or small houses, rented near the school-building.

Furnishing.

The furnishing of these centers, or model homes, is a lesson in color, beauty, economy, comfort, and sanitation. Each center should be completely equipped for a family of five or more persons. When possible all work incidental to the furnishing of a Housekeeping Center should be done by the pupils under the direction of a teacher. This will be an experience in the selection of color ; will give many lessons in such hand work as sewing, simple carpentry work, staining and painting. The knowledge and value of materials and the planning for the economy of space can be best learned if the children themselves do as much of the furnishing as is practical.

NOTES TO TEACHERS

How to Use this Book.

In most cases, a chapter is one complete lesson. At the rate of one lesson a week, a group of pupils should complete the book in one school year.

Object of Teaching Homemaking in a Model Home.

To build up a home, orderly, beautiful, comfortable — as nearly as possible what a home should be ; so that all the persons who see this home can use it as a model. Also, by lessons in actual home activities to awaken in every school-girl a sense of home-responsibility and a love for homemaking.

Instruction.

The instruction is to consist of practical lessons in furnishing, sweeping, cooking, cleaning, laundry-work, sewing, and accounting; in home, municipal, and personal hygiene; in the chemistry of food; in the distribution of the income; in reading, and in social life at home, including hospitality. All of these subjects are to be taught in such home surroundings as the pupils are accustomed to.

Method.

The method of teaching is by groups of pupils; preferably no group to exceed ten pupils for one teacher at one time.

Pupils' Costume.

White cap.

Apron — to cover dress entirely, but without long sleeves.

NOTES TO TEACHERS

Towel — One for each pupil, with tape to pin at side.

Dress — A light-colored wash dress is the best kind for the kitchen. This is not always possible for the pupils, but in the teacher's use of this sort of dress the ideal costume will be observable.

The teacher's dress is to have elbow sleeves, if possible. Long sleeves are uncomfortable to work in, and hard to keep clean. Teachers' uniforms vary according to the schools from which they have been graduated, but are always easily laundered.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I HOUSEHOLD HYGIENE AND FURXISHING • • • 3

II CARE OF THE STOVE lO

Chapter I Household Hygiene And Furnishing

The home is the most important workshop in the world. It is there our babies grow strong or weak; it is from there our fathers and brothers go forth good workers or bad; and there at home we find mothers who are happy or nervous. It is all conditioned by the atmosphere, the order, and the intelligence that girls and women put into a home. It is in the place you call " my house " that the greatest business of life is carried on.

Surely in this wonderful workshop we cannot have useless things about. Every article of furnishing must add to the usefulness of the home or to the comfort of the family, or contribute real beauty. Do not give space to anything that is not necessary in at least one of these three ways. Give it away if it can be of use to any one else. Throw it away if it serves no purpose.

Remember that space, uncluttered, empty space, is beautiful, restful, and very important to health and happiness. Strive to have space in your house rather than to have things in your house.

Every girl should have a definite opinion about every article in her home. We must be careful not to hurt the feelings of other people, but every girl has a right to know whether she does or does not like every single object in her home. By thinking for herself a girl forms her taste. There is good taste and bad taste. If you learn to like beautiful things and to dislike bad colors, crowded rooms, and useless objects, you have good taste. The poorest home can be in good taste. The richest house is often in very bad taste.

For practice every girl should go about her own home and looking at every article in it ask the question: "Is this of any use?" To broken china you would have to answer " No." To a clock that can't keep time, no matter how beautiful it is, you must answer " No." To paper ornaments you must answer " No." Let every pupil try this in one house, and see what a long list of " No's " she will have.

You are now going to work in a model home.

The workman has a model to copy when he sets to work. If a girl is making flowers the factory provides a model. If a girl wants to trim a hat, she finds a hat that she likes and copies it. And so, to-day we are beginning a course of study in how to make a home ; and we start out with a perfect home as a copy ; not a rich house, or a large house, but a home that would be a good place to live in.

The lesson to-day is the study of this model house and its furnishings.

The first thing a good workman does when entering a new shop is to look about the shop and note its

HOUSEHOLD HYGIENE 5

construction; he examines the tools he is to work with, to see if he understands them, if he can handle them intelligently; and learns where each has to be kept when not in use. That is exactly what you must do in this home workshop to-day.

Floors.

The floors have no carpets on them. Why? Think of all the grown people and children who walk from the dirty streets into your home; every pair of shoes brings in some dirt and leaves it on the floor. Then dust comes in through the window and gathers on the floor. H we have carpets, the dirt and dust gradually get under the carpet and no matter how hard you work, unless you take up the carpet very often, the floor is never really clean. Dust is alive; that is, it has germs in it. Some of these germs do no harm; some are poison and carry disease to the people who breathe them in. We must do everything we can to get rid of dust. Therefore, we have no carpets, but stained floors, and these we can wipe up with a damp cloth.

In every good workshop it is desirable to make the best use of time. Sweeping carpets takes a great deal of time that can be better spent in other ways.

Walls.

The walls in this model home are painted, and painted a light color. Paint washes and paper does not. A light color is cheerful and better for the eyes. In many homes the windows do not let in enough light to make it easy to read in all parts of the room or to see dirt in all corners. Walls painted a light yellow do much to lighten the room. But no one rule can be laid down. For example, Italian people like brighter colors than Jewish people. Each family must follow out its own taste.

Kitchen Furnishing.

Now that we have talked about the floors and the walls, the kitchen furnishing seems the most important observation to make next.

In the kitchen the floor is always plain wood or oilcloth. It must always be possible to scrub the kitchen floor. The walls of the kitchen must be painted and washable, even if the other rooms are papered. In every kitchen, no matter how large or how small, there will be always some ironware, tinware, woodenware, cleaning-cloths, dish-towels, implements for washing and ironing, brooms and brushes, dry groceries and jars to contain them; each one of these things must have, so to speak, a home of its own so that it can be found in the dark, if necessary.

A nail here or there, a little thought as to where to put things in the first place, and a determination always to put each article back in its own place will make housekeeping a pleasure and the kitchen so comfortable and orderly that it will be a good room in the house to dine in.

Now, examine everything in the kitchen, telling its use and why it is where it is.

HOUSEHOLD HYGIENE 7

In this same way go through each room giving careful attention to:

Beds.

Have iron beds, never wooden ones.

Bureaus.

See that the bureau has drawers that open and shut easily; that the handles are wooden or good brass (not light cheap handles) ; that there is a mirror over the bureau.

Chairs.

Look at each chair and see that it can be thoroughly dusted with a damp duster. We do not want any part of any chair to hold dust.

Tables.

A table can be beautiful even if it is of plain wood. It does not need a dusty cloth to make it pretty. Any table can be stained and waxed. The use of a table is to hold things.

Curtains.

In a later lesson we will take up the various curtain materials. To-day we notice that the curtains are thin, so that the light may come through; short, so that the dust from the floor cannot reach them; and made of washable material.

As in the kitchen, closets were found for china, pots and pans, kitchen linen, and everything connected with cooking, in the other rooms there must be places for bed linen, table linen, closets for clothes, shelves for books, and a desk of some kind. Also, boxes or racks for toys and stationery, boots and shoes. A large sideboard takes up a great deal of room, and is a useless piece of furniture.

As we go through a model home, we will notice other articles such as scrap-baskets, lamps, and ornaments. The scrap-basket should add to the beauty of the home. Every ornament must have some good reason for being in our house. A vase holds flowers ; brass candlesticks hold candles that give light; picture frames hold photographs of our family or friends : a copper bowl can be used for fruit ; a samovar is very beautiful as well as useful. If an article has no use do not let it clutter up your house.

Every girl will carry home from this furnishing-lesson four strong impressions :

First. As far as possible have all parts and all articles in the house washable or capable of being cleaned.

Second. Have every article in good order, serving some purpose.

Third. Let nothing stay in the house that is not useful or beautiful.

Fourth. Have a place for every object; even if it is only a nail to hang it on.

Three of the New York Tenement-House Laws have direct connection with this first chapter on the Home.

HOUSEHOLD HYGIENE 9

"A tenement house Is any house or building, or portion thereof, which is either rented, leased, let or hired out, to be occupied, in whole or in part, as the home or residence of three families or more, living independently of each other, and doing their cooking upon the premises, and includes all apartment houses and flat houses."

" No room in any tenement house shall be so overcrowded that there shall be afforded less than four hundred cubic feet of air to each adult, and two hundred cubic feet of air to each child under twelve."

" No wall-paper shall be placed upon a wall unless all wall-paper shall be first removed and said wall thoroughly cleaned."

Chapter II Care Of The Stove

The most important possession of the home is the stove, for without it we should freeze and starve. If we have only a little money, the first we spend is for a home, so the rent is the expense we think of as the most pressing. Next we have to get warmth and food; therefore, the stove is the most necessary object in our house.

To understand your own stove will save you money ; you can waste a great deal of coal or gas simply by not knowing how to run a stove. You can waste more time and patience " fussing " over the fire than in any other way. You will waste good food-material if you don't know how to regulate the heat in the oven.

Every housekeeper has her fire to care for : making it, feeding it, watching it. This work can be very dull or very interesting work. This lesson is to show every girl what an interesting part of her house the kitchen stove is.

Before examining the stove, clean it thoroughly ^ remove the ashes over the oven-box, under the oven, and at the sides. Examine the picture in the book. Take the stove apart as far as is possible.

CARE OF THE STOVE

II

Each furnace, range, or stove is somewhat different, yet the principle of all is the same. Each has a damper, draught, and check. Each must have an escape for coal gas, and each must heat some water continually to pre- i g

tl vent the air from

becoming too dry.

In the case of a

kitchen stove, this

water is placed on

the top of the stove

in a bowl, which

must be washed and

refilled every morning.

The damper is a flat plate which, when shut, closes

the range where it connects with the chimney-flue.

When the damper is open much of the heat goes up the

chimney ; when it is closed the heat waves go over and

around the oven.

The damper is never entirely closed, as the coal gas must have an escape up the chimney.

The draughts are doors or slides that come below the fire-box. When they are open a strong current of

air passes up through the fire-box, making the fire

burn better. When the draught is closed the fire burns

more slowly. .

The check is a sHde or small door above the fire-box. When open it retards, or makes a slow fire.

In starting the fire, open damper and draughts, and close the check.

When the fire is started, close the damper and save heat.

For a hot oven, close the damper, open the draught, and see that the check is not open.

For a slow fire, close draughts and damper, and open the check.

As we learned in the furnishing-lesson, connected with a stove or near to it one must have a match-safe, a box for kindling, and a place for newspapers. A common packing-box divided into two parts will hold both wood and paper. One must also have an ash-can, a coal-scuttle, and a shovel; a stove-lifter, a shaker, a poker, and a rake for cleaning out soot from all airspaces under the oven as well as over it; a blackingdauber and brush, stove blacking, a whisk broom and an old glove to protect the hand. An oven-cloth should be near at hand to lift hot dishes with; a girl must never use her apron for this purpose.

All these things must be very near the stove. One should never have to look about for anything required in managing a range.

Making the Fire.

First take out the ashes, seeing that clinkers and fine ashes are removed from every part of the stove. These prevent a free circulation of air and absorb the heat. Lay the fire lightly — first paper, then wood.

•CARE OF THE STOVE 13

then a very little coal ; remember that a packed fire will not burn. Before lighting the fire the dust should be brushed from every part of the stove, and the stove blackened. When lighting the fire have all draughts open, damper open, and check closed. Put very little, if any, coal on at first ; and more coal when the fire is started. When it is really going well, close the damper. The children, not the teacher, must do all the work.

During the day it is better always to rake than to shake a fire. Never have the coal reach the lids of the stove, as this makes the lids crack. Never allow the stove to grow red-hot ; it warps the lids. To cool too hot a fire, open check or lift lids.

Before blacking the stove, rub it off with a damp newspaper. The range should be blacked every morning before the fire is lighted. Never black over dust. Throughout the day clean the stove with newspaper, if anything spills on it. If it is not thoroughly polished after blacking, the saucepans will become dirty. It is necessary, occasionally, to scrub the stove with soda water to remove old blacking.

While the fire is starting we can learn something about the history of stoves, coal, wood, and matches. You are never going to forget that the amount of interest you get out of a subject is in exact proportion to the amount of study you put into that subject. In this book there are a few facts about Coal, Wood, and Matches. Let every girl in the class find something in relation to these commodities that is not stated in the book and bring this information to the teacher.

Coal.

The first coal that was taken from the ground in America was in 1750, in Richmond, Virginia. At the time of the American Revolution coal was first used as fuel.

There are, in general, two kinds of coal: Anthracite, or hard coal; Bituminous, or soft coal.

The principal deposits of anthracite coal are found in Pennsylvania.

There are several kinds of anthracite coal:

White Ash, $6.75 a ton in 1913 Pink Ash, 7.00 a ton in 1913 Red Ash, 8.50 a ton in 1913

When coal is bought by the pailful it costs twice as much as when it is bought by the ton. It always saves money to buy coal in large quantities.

Bituminous, or soft, coal costs $10.00 a ton. It burns more quickly than hard coal and makes a great deal of smoke in the burning. For this reason, in most cities, factories are forbidden to use soft coal. The engines on many railroads use soft, or bituminous, coal, — but nowadays less and less of it, because of the smoke and the fact that soft coal sends forth sparks which, as the train rushes through the country, set the woods on fire.

Brickets are bricks made of coal-dust. They give a very hot fire but burn very quickly.

Charcoal is charred wood. It is not cheap ; it gives a very hot fire but burns out quickly. It is used by plumbers, tinsmiths, and other artisans. It is also

CARE OF THE STOVE 15

used for cooking" purposes, but this is expensive on account of the rapidity with which it is consumed.

Wood.

It is much cheaper to buy kindhng-wood by the bag than in bundles. It is necessary to use but very Httle kindling to start a fire if it is laid correctly, that is, Hghtly on the paper — and the paper loose. Never stuff a whole newspaper in at the bottom of the fire-box. Also remember that a clean stove is a saving of wood and coal ; for only in a clean stove will a fire burn well. If there are ashes on top of the oven or clinkers in the fire-box, these will take the heat which we need for our cooking and heating purposes.

Matches.

Before matches were manufactured, flint and steel were struck together and the sparks fell among tinder or on paper and set it afire. Many attempts were made to use chemicals for the production of a fire, but it was not until 1827 that a druggist in England made a really practical match. He sold matches at the high price of 84 matches for 25 cents. In 1833, a man called Preschel, of Vienna, opened the first factory for making phosphorus matches.

Find out all you can about the mining of coal, and how matches are manufactured.

Write any facts you can find on these two subjects into a composition and bring it to your teacher.

Chapter III Cocoa And How To Cook It

The stove is so important that you cannot possibly learn all about it in one lesson.

It will be necessary to begin all over again, and a second time make the kitchen fire; or, if you have a gas-stove, review the lesson about a kitchen-range. Going quickly over the points :

How to clean a stove.

How to lay a fire.

When to open and when to close the damper.

When to open and when to close the draught.

When to open and when to close the check. .

How can we save coal?

How do we waste coal ?

Now we do our first cooking, for it is of no use to know our stove unless we can use it.

Cocoa.

Cocoa is one of the simplest things to make and one of the most nourishing drinks; it takes the place of tea and cofifee, which no girl under fourteen years old should ever drink. Tea and coffee make her nervous and spoil her complexion; she cannot grow up to be strong and beautiful if she drinks stimulants, and tea and coffee are stimulants.

i6

COCOA AND HOW TO COOK IT

From to-day on, you will choose cocoa or milk instead of tea or coffee. There is a great deal of nourishment in cocoa, for it is made of

Milk,

Sugar.

Milk.

Milk has all the different kinds of building-material that your body needs.

You would have to eat two eggs, or half a pound of potatoes or one pound of cabbage, or nearly a quarter of a pound of round steak, to get as much strength as you can get from a cup of milk.

Cocoa.

Cocoa gives flavor and adds some protein.

Sugar.

Sugar is not only pleasing to the taste, but gives heat and force to the body while it is growing. That is why children, more than grown people, are eager for sugar. We call this the food-value of sugar; it is a carbohydrate, which yields energy. In four lumps of sugar we get as much energy as in a large potato.

i8

Just as we have learned that we can develop good or bad taste in the furnishing of a house, so we can

GRANULATED

Carboh yd rentes

100.0 form good and bad taste in foods. If you form the taste for tea and coffee it is hard to break it; but it is necessary to do so if you want to be a strong woman.

Making Cocoa.

Never begin to cook until everything you need is on the kitchen table.

Cover the table with a paper.

Collect materials, judging from the recipe what you will want.

In the cooking of cocoa you will need : cocoa, sugar, milk, salt, saucepan, tablespoon, knife, cup for measuring, a double boiler (or two saucepans which can be made into a double boiler), an egg-beater, a utensilplate. See that the kettle on the stove is filled and the water boiling.

All recipes are in the back of the book. Cocoa, page 129.

After the cocoa is made and served, scrape, pile, and wash dishes.

Chapter IV Milk-toast— Rules For Dishwashing

In the last chapter you learned how to prepare a kitchen table with the necessary cooking utensils, but the dishwashing was not thoroughly studied, because there was not time.

We cannot wash dishes until we have used them; this gives a chance to try a new recipe at each lesson.

Milk-Toast.

Again you have that valuable food, Milk^ and a second valuable food, Bread.

Bread

is one of the most nutritious of our everyday foods : three-fifths solid nutriment, only two-fifths water. There is no animal food and there are few cooked vegetable foods of which this can be said. Most foods have a great deal of water. But you could not live on bread alone. You would have to eat four pounds of bread, or five ordinary five-cent loaves, to derive enough energy and protein to get through the day. Protein is that element in bread which builds up and repairs the body. The carbohydrates, or starch, are the fuel that give heat and energy, and make us want to work. If you have milk and butter with bread you do not need to eat as much bread, and your body will get the right things to make it grow,

WEIOTIS ©IF^ia^© to keep it in repair and warm, and to give you a feeling of energy.

The recipe for milk-toast is on page 130 of this book, and you know now how to cover the

table and get out all needed materials before beginning

to cook.

Dishwashing.

The piling, scraping, and rinsing of dishes is quite as important as the washing. Dishes that stand unpiled and unrinsed require more time and more effort.

It is well to have the directions for dishwashing typewritten and tacked on the wall.

To Pile Dishes for Washing.

Scrape all bits of food from the dishes onto one plate — and empty this plate into garbage-pail, which should be lined with newspaper. Pile dishes in order of size, cups together, saucers together, plates together, etc., silver by itself. Never set one glass in another. Soak all cooking-dishes.

Soak all milk-dishes or dishes that have had dough in them in cold water. Soak egg-dishes in cold water. Soak all dishes that have had sugar in them in hot

DISHWASHING 21

water. Soak all cereal-dishes in cold water. Boil greasy dishes, putting in soda if necessary.

To Wash Dishes.

Use two dishpans, plenty of hot water, tray, dishcloth, and towels.

Always refill the kettle after taking water from it.

Make wash water soapy with soap-shaker. The Jewish people use soda instead of soap.

Take dishes from rinsing pan and set them on draining-tray.

Order of Washing Dishes.

Cleanest first.

Glasses, silver, teacups, saucers, rest of china, granite and tinware, pots and pTans.

Kitchen knives and forks should always be scoured with Sapolio or with ashes to take off the spots.

To Clean a Milk-Bottle.

First. Soak the bottle in cold water. Second. Wash with other glassware in hot, soapy water.

Third. Rinse with hot water.

Pans and Kettles.

Clean seams of pans with a match, stick, or wooden skewer. To clean kettles in which something has been burned, fill with water, add a small handful of soda, and boil — repeating this process if not entirely successful at first.

Dry tinware near the stove, woodenware in the sun.

Do not put the handles of knives or forks into water. Wipe them off with a wet cloth, and dry well ; soaking them in water loosens the handles.

After dishes are washed and wiped, empty and rinse both pans, dry them, and hang them up ; wipe off tubs where dishes are washed.

Kitchen Sink.

Near the sink there always should be kept a sink brush, a sink shovel, a soap-dish and washing soap, a soap-shaker, a drinking-glass, a strainer, a jar of soda, and a jar of wood ashes for cleaning knives.

Chapter V Cream-toast With Cheese— Rules For Washing Dish-towels

Cream-Toast with Cheese.

The recipe is in the back of the book, page 131.

Milk, cheese, and bread contain all the food necessary for a meal. Milk and bread we have discussed in previous chapters.

Cheese.

Cheese is one of the substitutes for meat; that is, if you have no meat, cheese will give you the same strength. A pound of cheese has as much value as a gallon of milk, for cheese has all the protein and fat of milk, with most of the water taken out.

Cook, and serve the cheese-toast. Pile dishes, as in last lesson. Now go more slowly and more carefully with the dishwashing; and we shall proceed to take up

Washing Dish-Towels.

Dish-towels must be washed every time they are used. If grease is allowed to dry on the towels they are hard to get clean. Dish-towels must be washed while still wet.