Suggestions

A few Suggestions with Regard to the Kitchen.

In the construction of a kitchen range—that is, one that is intended for cooking—
it is necessary to consider whether it is advisable or not to erect a stove for
each particular purpose or process, or whether a stove can be so constructed as it
will enable all processes to be carried on with it at one time, or independently. The
old-fashioned open stove, with boiler and oven attached, permitted the carrying out
of more processes at once than any other, such as roasting, baking, boiling, stewing,
frying, and, at the same time, keeping up a siipply of hot water for any purpose for
which it might be required. But for the perfection of modern cooking something
further is required in the way of a hot plate, upon which the contents of saucepans
and other vessels can be kept simmering or boiling fast at the cook’s discretion; and
this demand is not met with in the close-fire range. The evils of the open range
may be described as very great; the vessels used being exposed to the open fire become
dirty with soot, there is great loss of heat, the kitchen itself receiving more
than its fair share. Then, again, it is difficult on an open range to modify the heat
according to certain requirements, and the chimney requires sweeping frequently.
As rapidly as improvements are made in this country in stoves and ranges, there
would be some foundation for hoping that sooner or later this would be the most
expert of cooking countries, for in no other part of the world have such vast strides
been made, or have such clever inventions been placed before the public as in the United
States during the past quarter of a century. The excellence of style and perfection
of use have created for them a demand in all civilized portions of the globe. In
France, which may be considered the queen of cooking countries, American and
British stoves are preferred to all others, not only on account of their superior manufacture
and metal, but also because they do their work best.

A very important piece of furniture is the kitchen table. There are rriany dresser
.boards, shelves and flaps, but they are useless to the cook as compared with a good
kitchen table. It should be made of stout deal, as large as the size of the kitchen
will permit, fitted with a convenient drawer for holding knives, forks, spoons, clean
kitchen cloths, and other necessaries. Not only should the table be the most prominent
of the furniture in the kitchen, to which all other fittings must play a supplementary
part, but it should be kept at all times ready for immediate use, uncovered and scrupulously
clean. The practice of using the table for a chopping-board, trimming-
board, pot-board, or for making paste, cannot be too carefully avoided. In such
cases the surface soon becomes scratched and unsiglitly.

A well-ventilated kitchen is a pleasure to the cook and conducive to the health of
all concerned in or about it. Open windows are the best form of ventilators. When
the windows are opened, they should be pulled down from the top; but as some
kitchen windows open from pantries or entries or passages, some form of independent
ventilation should be adopted.

A very practical writer on kitchen management observes : “I would mention
the extreme importance of including among the list of household requisites a pair of
scales and a set of weights. There is no check so effectual against short weights as
the practice of weighing. With the butcher’s meats this is particularly important,
joints often being unaccountably changed, from one being so like another, except in
weight. Aside from this, it is almost impossible to cook meat accurately unless it is
previously weighed and timed. A pair of scales and a set of weights, large enough
for all domestic purposes, can be bought for three or four dollars, and I have no hesitation
in saying that they will defray their cost in less than a year’s use.”

There should be no such thing as waste in a well-ordered kitchen. The term is
often misapplied to the refuse that results from the preparation of vegetables and
other things for cooking. But the term ” kitchen waste ” is also oftentimes more
correctly applied than intended by the cook who uses it; that is, if the legitimate
meaning is to be accepted, of anything spoiled, destroyed or thrown away. Waste is
the outcome of extravagance, hence it is advisable for those in authority carefully to
calculate the return from the foods supplied for kitchen use. Kitchen cloths are often
objects of indiscriminate use. Dresser cloths, tea cloths and dusters, pudding-cloths
and window rags are frequently misappropriated, thus leading to waste. Remnants
of food and drippings are invariably wasted by an untidy servant. Scraps of meat,
bones and shanks can be put into the stockpot, which should be found in every
kitchen. Something may be added to the stockpot daily and this prevents, by using
up, accumulations that otherwise would be troublesome and offensive. Small quantities
of cold vegetables—potatoes, carrots, turnips, cauliflower, spinach, etc.—-are
used for thickening and flavoring plain soups, and cold cabbage and potatoes can be
fried for the kitchen dinner. Dripping, melted down and put into jars, keeps well,
and is very useful. The fat’ skimmed off- cold broth is good for adding to vegetables
when mashed, and for other purposes. Strong paper and wooden skewers are handy
at any time; but it must not be forgotten that heaps of grocers’ and other papers are
often the cause of cockroaches swarming in the kitchen. When there is no use at
home for so-called ” kitchen waste,” it should be carefully sorted, and either sold or
given away.

As it would be impossible to organize a system of keeping kitchen accounts that
would be found perfect enough to meet all purposes, something must be left to the
cook and the master, each of whom will prove his ability to deal with the subject by
formulating a system to meet his own requirements, based upon a few suggestions we are
able to make for general guidance. We here have to deal with accounts, and not
with losses from indiscreet marketing or bad cooking; these matters have to be treated
on their own merits.

Every cook should have an order book, with counterfoils, upon which an exact
copy of the order issued should be taken. With each parcel of goods, care should
be taken to receive an invoice, and no goods should be received without one. The
invoice should coincide with the counterfoils of the order book, and be marked with
the weight and measure and price of each article. After the weights and measures
have been corroborated by actual weighing and measuring, which is so often neglected,
and the price is ascertained to be correct, according to the markets, the invoice is
to be filed for future reference, or, where a kitchen clerk is kept, it may be entered
up fully in the invoice book kept for the purpose. This is your check upon the tradesman,
whose petty defalcations are not in all cases a fable. When once it is understood
that the goods are weighed and measured when received, the necessity for
it will disappear; but the system should not be relaxed, for all that. Instead of an
order form, books are sometimes used, in which the order is written and signed and
filled up with prices and quantities by the tradesmen, and returned with the goods.
This system saves much writing, but it is open to this objection, the book might be
lost, and then the cook would have no existing check upon the account of the tradesman.

The cook should also keep a journal or diary—that is to say, a book in which
can be jotted down at any moment circumstances worthy of note, especially such as
cash paid out or received for kitchen purposes, orders received and executed, memoranda
for a future day, and notes of new ideas. Besides this there should be an account
or cash book in which tradesmen’s bills, wages and cash transactions generally
are entered; a petty cash book in which small sums under a certain amount can be
quickly entered without reference to the account book, and a slate hung up in a
convenient spot.

Cooks in large kitchens have a style of bookkeeping convenient to themselves,
as also have proprietors and managers of hotels ; but the small householder is often the
victim of the fraudulent tradesman, because the cook is not expected to keep accounts,
and the mistress is too indolent or careless to do so. If the amount of money
wasted yearly could be calculated, it is certain that the total would be astonishing.

Every good housekeeper will have a room in which stores can be kept under
lock and key. Groceries should always, if possible, be bought in quantity, and it
is well to remember that at certain times of the year, some goods are cheaper than
at others; all these details should be carefully noted, and a book kept to enter dates
of purchase, quantities and prices paid.

A dry room should be chosen for keeping stores, and this should be amply
fitted with drawers, shelves and nails or hooks. There should be earthenware jars
for sugar, tins for tea, coffee, biscuits and loaf-sugar, and a net for lemons. Jams,
pickles, and preserves should be kept in the coolest part of the room. Soap should
be cut up and stood with spaces between the pieces, being turned at regular intervals
of time. Starch must be kept very dry. Rice, tapioca and sago must be kept in
covered vessels or insects will get into them. Flour is usually kept in the pantry m
a flour box Onions, shallots, leaks, etc., should not be kept in a storeroom for obvious
reasons. Dried herbs in separate bags may be conveniently suspended from
the ceiling or walls. Apples must be stored in a near-by room, etc.