A second course in homemaking, with two hundred inexpensive cooking receipts

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I PRESERVING FRUITS 3

II CITY REFUSE 12

CHAPTER I PRESERVING FRUITS Note to Teachers

In this lesson make the head learn through the hands. One week the class can study the dried fruits, and cook at least one of them. Another week the lesson will be canning ; then preserves and marmalade, and in a fourth week the class can make the fruit into jelly. Before beginning to work, the kitchen table should be prepared with all needed fruit and working utensils. The material and jars, for this preserving, should be brought from home by the pupils, and the filled jars or glasses, being the property of the girls, can be taken home by them. All utensils, including jelly-bag, must be on hand before beginning the work.

The method of learning this lesson on canning will be by doing the work in the fruit season, not by studying about it during the months of the year when the fruits are out of season. Certain fruits are in season in the spring and others in the autumn. It is, therefore, well to divide all fruitpreserving lessons between these two seasons. Plave two or three lessons at the beginning of the school year, and lWO or three more before school closes. For our autumn lessons we will buy pears, peaches, plums, or grapes, as this is the season when they are ripe and most plentiful in the markets. For the spring lessons we will buy berries, cherries, or pineapple.

Different Ways of Preserving Fruits.

Fruits are best liked when served ripe, and in season, but the season is a short one, and when winter comes fruits are not only difficult to get, but are too expensive for the majority of people to buy. We do well to store fruits for winter when they are cheap in summer.

There are different ways of preserving fruits in season so that they may be used out of season. They may be dried in ovens or in the sun, so that all water is evaporated. Dried fruits, such as apples, peaches, apricots, dates, raisins, when boxed and sealed, keep an indefinite length of time. They can be purchased by the pound at any grocery store. Other ways of keeping fruits are to preserve them in a heavy sugar solution, to reduce them to juice, or jelly, and still another way is canning.

Food Value of Fruit.

Most fruits have but little nutritive value, the average amount of water being 85 per cent., but our systems need this water. We need also the mineral properties of fruit, and the odor and flavor act as a stimulant to the appetite and as an aid to digestion.

There are a few fruits that have a high nutritive value, and these are the dried ones : dates, figs, prunes, and raisins. Raisins have the highest per cent, of nourishment, and prunes the next highest.

The dried date is a staple article of diet in Egypt. Half a pound of dates and half a pint of milk are food enough for a meal for a man.

Half a pound of dried figs is more nourishing than half a pound of bread. A pint of milk and six ounces of figs are a hearty meal.

Prunes are dried plums ; they not only have a high value as food, but have a laxative quality which is one

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reason why they are given to children as a means of regulating the bowels.

Fruits are dried in great sheet-iron stoves, which look like tall towers. These stoves have a number of wirenetting shelves, one on top of the other. The freshcut fruit is laid on these shelves. A fire is built at the bottom of the stove, and the fruit is bathed in steam vapor until all moisture has passed out of it in the form of steam, leaving the fruit dry. In this dried condition it is packed into boxes and sealed.

The receipts for cooking dried fruits are on page 220. Cook one or more in class. Try the others at home.

Cooked fruit is more digestible than raw fruit. It takes the stomach over three hours tO' digest two raw apples, while a cooked apple will digest very quickly. The acid in raw fruit, if at all unripe, causes irritation to the intestines. Diarrhoea and colic are often the result of eating unripe fruit.

Canning.

In canning fruits the flavor of the fruit is preserved better than in any other way, since less sugar is used in canning than in preserving. Therefore, this means o-f preservation gives us the best substitute for fresh fruit. Canning fruit is simply putting sterilized fruit into sterilized jars, and making the jars air-tight and water-tight. Sugar may be used or omitted. When we use the word sterilize, we mean killing all bacterial life by means of heat. To sterilize our jars we simply boil them until all possible bacterial life has disappeared.

Buying in quantity is the cheapest way to buy fruits. Much better value can be obtained for your money by buying by the crate or the basket rather than by the pound. Do not buy from stands or from carts, as it is very necessary to have fresh fruit for all cannhig and preserving. Fruits for canning should be firm, fresh, and ripe, but never overripe, as overripe fruit ferments, even though it has been boiled and put up in air-tight jars.

After purchasing the fruit, the sugar, and as many one-quart jars as will hold the fruit desired, the next thing to do is to prepare the table, as we would in a cooking-lesson. Surely every girl who reads this chapter in the homemaking course has learned the lesson, that she must never begin to cook until everything she needs is ready on the kitchen table.

Draw the table into the middle of the kitchen, away from the wall ; for the preservation of the wall and for the greater convenience of the cooks. Cover the table with a paper. Collect all materials, fruit, sugar, jars, and cooking utensils. These utensils are : pan, in which to sterilize the jars; kettle for cooking the fruit (this should be of agate or enamel, never of tin) ; wooden or silver spoon for filling the jars and for stirring the fruit; a working plate; a cloth for standing jars on and wiping them ; silver knife ; funnel for filling jars with small fruit (the larger fruit is dropped into the jars with the spoon); scales; measuring-cup; brush for cleaning the fruit; paring-knife; quart jars, and covers; rubber rings; colander for washing berries and draining the water from the fruit, as an excess of water will make the fruit tasteless.

Go carefully over the receipt and notice for yourself what utensils and what materials will be needed in this canning lesson. Not until these are on the kitchen table, and every girl wears a large apron and has perfectly clean hands, and the kitchen fire is at its best, is it time to begin work.

In canning we use glass jars with tight-fitting covers

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and rubber rings. The jars and covers may be used for years, but the rings should never be used but one year, as the rubber becomes porous, and will let in the air if used a second time.

To Test Jars.

Wash the jar, the cover, and the rubber ring in soapy water, and rinse. Fill the jar with clear water, put on cover and rubber ring, and turn it upside down, allowing it to stand in this position for some little time. If the water comes from under the cover, the jar is not water-tight, and it is useless to sterilize it, as the best sterilization will not make it fit to use for your canning. Remember it is by keeping all air from the- fruit from the time it is canned until the time it is used, that prevents fermentation.

After testing the jar in this way and finding it is not tight, it can sometimes be made air-tight by putting on a different rubber ring or a different cover, but never use a jar until it will stand this water test. After you have proved them air-tight, sterilize your jars.

To Sterilize Jars.

Wash the jars, and fill with cold water. Set them in a pan of cold water, having the entire jar well covered. Put this pan with jars on the fire and let the water slowly come to the boiling point. Boil for at least five minutes. While the jars are being sterilized, prepare the fruit for them, for they should be filled with the fruit while still hot.

The covers should stand in the boiling water at least five minutes, but the rubber rings should be dipped in and taken out at once. Never allow the rubber to boil in the hot water, as water softens it.

General Rules for Canning Fruit.

All fruit should be washed in cold water, never in hot or warm water. If berries are being canned, hull them after washing. Cherries may or may not be stoned. Pears are cut in half, pared, and the core taken out. Peaches are pared, and the stone taken out. Apples are pared, cut in quarters, and the core taken out. Plums are skinned by scalding them in boiling water. The stone of the plum need not be taken out for canning. Grapes are skinned for jelly and marmalade, but are not skinned for canning. Rhubarb is peeled before canning.

While thus preparing the fruit, the syrup can' be cooking on the stove. As has been said, sugar does not necessarily need to be used, but it help-s to keep the fruit from fermenting. For all fruits, such as plums, cherries, and berries, make a syrup of one cup of sugar and three cups of water. This amount of syrup is sufficient for each jar of fruit. For sweeter fruits, such as peaches and pears, use three-fourths of a cup of sugar and three cups of water for each jar. While the syrup is boiling, put the prepared fruit into the syrup carefully, so as not to break it. Cook until the fruit is tender. To know if the fruit is tender, the pupils can try it with a fork. Be sure that the fruit is well heated through, or it will spoil after being put into the jars.

Now that the jars and fruit are sterilized by boiling, the time has come to fill the jars with the fruit.

To Fill the Jars.

Remove sterilized jars from the water and place on a plate covered with a hot, wet cloth, so as to avoid all danger of the jar breaking.

Fill the jar with the boiling fruit until it overflows. If

PRESERVING FRUITS 9

it is large fruit, it should be put in with the spoon; if small fruit, put it in through a funnel. Run the blade of a silver knife around the outside of the fruit after it is in the jar ; dip the rubber in the boiling water for a moment, and put in place around the top of the jar ; then take the cover from the boiling water and screw on tightly.

Turn the whole thing upside down and let it stand on its head to cool. When it is cool, be sure that the cover is on so tight that no juice leaks from the can. Wipe ofif your jar with a damp cloth, and put it in a cool place until you are ready to use the fruit.

If the fruit has fermented when the time comes to use it, it will be for one of three reasons : the jar and the fruit were not perfectly sterilized ; the jar was not air-tight; or the fruit was overripe.

Marmalade.

The dictionary says that marmalade " is a pulpy consistence made from various fruits." Marmalade is the pulp and the juice of fruit with sugar, while jelly is the juice and sugar without the pulp.

Preserves, marmalades, and jams .are virtually the same, being the preservation of fruit in a strong sugar solution ; but marmalade is usually made from the more acid and bitter fruits. Marmalade is less apt to spoil than canned fruits, because of the quantity of sugar used.

It is economy to put up marmalade when fruits are in season, for the expense at that time is comparatively slight, and later this preserve can be used on bread in place of butter ; it is delicious in sandwiches, and adds much to a dinner if served with meat.

Receipts for marmalade are on page 224.

Jellies.

Jellies are made of cooked fruit-juice and sugar, there being an equal proportion of juice to the sugar.

Not all fruits can be made into jelly. There is a certain quality in fruit called pectose, and only when this is present will .the fruit jellify. In overripe fruit this quality is lost. If the fruit and juice cook too long the power to make the juice firm is gone. Consequently, if you fail to obtain a firm jelly, it can be explained by one of these reasons : the fruit was too ripe or it was cooked too long. Sometimes, when fruits are picked directly after a rain, the juice will not harden into jelly. The best fruits for jelly are grapes, quinces, crab-apples, and currants.

Jelly-glasses.

These should be prepared in the same way as the jars were prepared for canning: sterilized by placing them in cold water and allowing this water to come to a boil, and boiling at least five minutes. After the jelly is poured into the glass, cover with paraffin. Paraffin may be bought by the cake, melted, and poured over the jelly.

If the glass has not a tin cover, a piece of paper, cut round, and placed over the top, and pasted down over the edge of the glass, with mucilage, will do as well.

Fig. I. Jelly-bag

Jelly-bag.

A jelly-bag is necessary to strain the juice

PRESERVING FRUITS ii

of the fruit from the pulp. To make this bag, take cheese-cloth, fold it double, then fold two opposite corners together ; round the pointed end, and sew, making it the shape of a cornucopia. Bind the top with tape, and sew on two or three loops of tape by which to hang it. Jelly receipts on page 225.

CHAPTER II CITY REFUSE Note to Teachers

In " Practical Homemaking," the subject of the disposition of New York City's garbage, ashes and refuse is discussed in full. This chapter takes up a larger view of the street-cleaning problem ; — and the final disposition of refuse is considered from a more scientific point of view.

The reason why school-girls need to be educated on this subject is because the thoughtlessness of citizens is keeping back this disease-prevention work. Look down any airshaft, or in the alleys back of the tenement houses, and see the absolute disregard of the law which reads: "No person shall place ashes, rubbish, garbage, refuse or other matter in the yards, open areas or alleys connected with or appurtenant to any tenement house, except in suitable receptacles provided for the same." Until this law is known to every individual, and kept, the Street Cleaning Department and the Health Department combined cannot make a city healthy.

We have a contemp.t for persons who break such a law as " Thou shalt not steal " ; we should also have a contempt for the' housekeeper who breaks a law by throwing bundles of rubbish from the window.

Why is it difficult to make individuals do their part in this daily, municipal house-cleaning? Because so many lack the necessary imagination to take an interest in things out of sight. As soon as garbage or refuse is out of her house many a woman ceases to feel any responsibility for the harm it may do. Only education can create this interest, and only a social spirit can make men and women regard the work of the municipality as a personal obligation.

The material in this chapter should be studied before and while the pupils are working, for there is much actual work for the girls in the class to do in connection with the subject of the sanitary care and disposition of the city waste.

The teacher can ask the girls to get for her, from the Street Cleaning, the Health, and the Tenement departments of the city, the laws governing the care of all city waste. Each city has different laws, and they are free to any one.

Take up these laws, one by one, and see for yourself how many are kept and how many are broken, and whether it is the householder's or the city's fault if a law is broken.

An interesting way to do this will be for the entire class to walk around the block, each with a pencil and paper, making notes of what they see. Are the cans placed where they should be? Report on cleanliness of cans. Are they covered according to law? Is any law of cleanliness broken in connection with the yards, courts, passages, areas or alleys within the block on which the school stands? After walking over the ground carefully, and making notes, each girl should report to the teacher the condition of the street on which she lives, also, the condition of the sidewalks and the sewers.

Be sure before beginning this lesson that the laws relating to street cleaning and city waste are at hand.

The work in the house is to clean the water-closet, sink, and all pipes connected with them; also the garbage can. If it is necessary to refresh one's mind on this subject, review Plumbing-lesson, Chapter XIV, " Practical Homemak-

ing."

Waste matter, enough to make a great river, flows down our pipes every day; it is the city's responsibility to care for this waste after it reaches the sewers; but it is our business to have it reach the sewers and to see to it that none of it remains in our pipes or in our house receptacles.

The following chapter should be studied before class by every pupil. Then the method of teaching will be to treat this chapter as a reading lesson in class; the teacher explaining any new words.

Care of City Refuse.

" The individual needs fresh air, pure water, good food, safe shelter, and should have a clean body, and something beautiful to look at."

When any person, desiring these healthy surroundings, becomes a part of a city, he must assume his share of obligation. Take, for example, the matter; of the removal of w^aste.

We say, it is the business of the municipality to remove promptly all offensive and dangerous city refuse, but the burden is too heavy for any city departm.ent to carry alone ; without the help of the individual it is impossible. A great deal is said of those diseases that could be prevented if the surroundings were cleaner. No city board alone can control this preventive work. The street cleaners are the doctors keeping down the death-rate, but until every person who desires health is willing to do his or her part, no number of doctors can prevent disease.

There are in New York City 6,500 men employed in keeping clean 1,359 ii^iles of streets. The great majority of citizens are so absolutely uninterested in this work that day after day they not only do- nothing to help make the city beautiful and healthy, but they actually hinder the men, whom they are taxed to pay to do the work.

If the refuse of New York City for one year were put into a pile it would fill the entire area of Bryant Park, or one large city block, and the pile would be 1,200 feet high, or nearly twice as high as the Singer building ; and if the sewage of New York was collected into one stream it would make a continuous flowing river as large as the Hudson in summer. Surely, with a problem as great as is the disposition of this huge amount of waste matter, every man, woman and child must be trained to do his part ; there must be. no possibility for the excuse :

" I did not know the law," or " I did not know it was my business." Action is created through interest, and what we are interested in we take care of.

In studying the disposition of the city refuse, it is necessary constantly to keep in mind the two sides of the question, — the sanitary and the business side.

All city waste should be taken care of by the city, rather than by persons or companies. The municipal method is more systematic, more sanitary, cheaper for the people, and easier for the street cleaners. No city is in the first class where the municipality is not responsible for the disposition of its garbage and refuse.

City Refuse or Waste.

This is composed of

Sewage, or night soil.

Street sweepings' — that Is, the soot and air dust; the rubbish falling from refuse-cans ; manure ; pavement dirt ; leaves ; droppings from carts ; bits of material from building construction.

Garbage — which includes animal and vegetable matter, and, in many cities, dead animals.

Ashes — including unburnt coal.

Rubbish — which consists of paper-boxes, rags, bedding, leather, rubber, metals, bottles and glass, papersweepings from houses, etc.

Snow.

Waste is matter whose present usefulness is over. It must be so taken care of as to do no harm, and must be changed or reduced into by-products as valuable as is consistent with the health of the community. Health is so closely allied with the disposition of waste that this side of the subject is of the greatest importance to every person.

The expense to a city of keeping its streets clean is so great that the matter of the by-products becomes very important. They must help to pay the cost of cleaning.

A by-product is a secondary product. It is something produced in addition to the principal product. As, for example, food is the principal product or use of animal or vegetable matter, but when that matter becomes garbage it may be turned into a secondary by-product, as grease.

Danger and Loss.

A short study of every kind of city waste will show clearly where the danger lies if this waste is not properly cared for, and the economical loss is not reduced to its maximum of value or its most marketable by-products.

First. Liquid waste or sewage.

Sewage is house sewage and street refuse and area drainage.

There is an average of one hundred gallons of sewage per person to be disposed of each day. The burden of caring for this falls on the city, and there is no profit to be derived from this liquid waste.

Inland communities must burn or bury the sewage ; this is both costly and unsatisfactory. In cities situated near water, where the sewage can be carried into the rivers, ocean or lakes, the great danger is the pollution of the water.

In the last few years there has been much progress made in the purification of domestic sewage, which can be so disinfected and filtered that all danger is removed. Engineers, sanitarians and chemists are constantly working on the subject of the safe disposal of sewage, — but there is much municipal house-cleaning still to be done.

Second. Street sweepings.

Country-road dust . is composed principally of ground-up rock, and is comparatively clean, because the country roads are but little used for travel. There is a natural fouling of the city streets which comes from the animal manure, wear from the pavements, soot, dust from the air, leaves, slobbering of animals. This dirt cannot be avoided ; it can only be scientifically taken care of. There is also the unnatural, unnecessary dirt: sputum from human beings, scattered garbage, house-sweepings, and droppings from carts. The danger comes when this mixture, of natural and unnecessary filth, becomes pulverized by the action of traffic. In this condition it is mud or slime in wet weather, and dust in dry weather. The slimy mud sticks to the feet and clothing of the people, and in this way is carried into homes and stores ; where it dries and mixes with the air, which, being filled with dust and disease germs, finds a lodgment in the lungs of the occupants. This is a constant danger. Man can do without food for three weeks; without water for three days; but he cannot do without air for three minutes. So it is safe to say that dust is the greatest enemy of man, not only when it contains actual disease germs, but because it is, an irritant of the lungs. It also settles on and contaminates food.

Dust, in dry weather, requires neither clothing nor boots to carry it into our homes ; it blows in through windows, doors and the smallest crack. Mud, out of doors, is less objectionable than dust, but mud in warm weather is simply a breeding-place for germs.

There are three methods of cleaning the streets. It should be remembered that it is not enough to remove layer-dirt; it is the mud and dust underneath that hold the disease germs.

Method I — Hand-sweeping.

Method 2 — Machine sweeping.

Method 3 — Flushing.

SprinkHng paved streets does not in any way clean them ; it simply turns dust into mud, which soon dries and becomes dust again. It is believed by experts that if streets are properly cleaned, sprinkling will be unnecessary.

Disposition of Street Sweepings.

For the sake oi the city's health, street sweepings, being dangerous, should be disposed of every day. They and night-soil are the only refuse which have no value, and stre the most difficult of disposal. For example, it is not easy to burn street-dirt because the sweepings carry moisture and sand. This clogs furnaces, and adds virtually nothing to the heat. The animal manure is too often mixed with other rubbish to be of much value as a fertilizer.

In some places the street sweepings are disposed of in dumps, or are used to fill in roads, but this creates offensive odors, and the disease-laden material is blown into the air in the form of dust. In Columbus, Ohio, the sweepings are mixed with water and flushed down the sewers, and all danger is avoided. But a noxious deposit is formed at the sewer outlet, which must be cared for.

The care of the sewers is every person's responsibility. We have no right to take the time of our street-cleaners to work over a dammed-up sewer, clogged only because some one has thrown down sticks, stones or other solid material.

In 191 1, the expense of cleaning the streets of New York was $6,329,850.06, apart from the expense of removing the snow, which was $2,470,950.47. It is estimated that if the people would not throw litter on the streets or in the sewers, and would follow the laws regarding care of garbage, the cost of cleaning the streets would be reduced at least $400,000 a year. Other ways in which people can assist in keeping streets clean is to refrain from the filthy habit of spitting, and from shaking rugs and mats on the sidewalk or from the windows. Both are unlawful in many cities.

A desire for cleanliness is contagious. We can make it our habit to be clean, and others, almost unconsciously, will copy us. Each person should resolve that, " As an individual I will do nothing that will contribute to the disorder of the city streets, and wherever possible I will prevent others."

Is there anything more that the city can do to make the careless man and woman keep the street-cleaning laws?

The city can compel officials who have the power to arrest and fine all persons who will not keep the law. As it is at present, in almost all cases, this is a mere farce.

The municipality, also, can make the keeping of the law a possibility. For example, when it says " no person shall throw papers on the street," a receptacle, in which to throw the papers, should always be placed near-by.

The city's third waste, to be disposed of, is ashes. The ashes, which are dumped into the city ash-cans, contain much unburnt coal. This reclaimed coal has a heating value of fifty per cent, of new coal. The cost of obtaining this coal is collection and the labor of separating the coal from the ash. This combined labor is less than the fifty per cent, value. The fine ashes can be used to fill in low land, or ashes mixed with lime will make Portland cement. In certain combinations they make a common brick material ; in other combinations, ashes are used to make ornamental tiles, and an artificial stone used for sidewalks. In some communities, cesspool material and ashes together are used for fertilizing.

Fourth and Fifth. The city's largest refuse, Garbage and Rubbish.

As has been already stated, garbage means, simply, animal and vegetable waste matter that has served its usefulness as food.

Swill is another word for garbage. This word was used in Connecticut and Rhode Island, and is used to-day in some parts of Massachusetts. Slops was the word used for years in Philadelphia.

The reason why it is necessary to define exactly what is meant by these words is that the public may understand the laws, ^nd, also, that the contractors, who often are licensed to collect and dispose of garbage, may know the exact material for which they are contracting.

A Fev7 Laws about Garbage from Different Cities.

" Rain water, liquids, and dish-water must not be mixed with garbage." " Garbage must be kept in proper receptacles." " Wells, courts, passages, areas and alleys must be kept free* from same." In some places, " Garbage-cans must be outside in summer and inside in winter." In one city, *' Garbage-cans shall be placed two feet outside of lot line." In another, they *' shall stand outside of street line."