TX
UC-NRLF
SB
REESE LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.
^Received LfTA^^-l^ , 180 7
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Accessions Nn.wlfvOf . Class No.
THE HANDBOOK
OF
HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT
AND COOKERY
;
COMPILED AT THE REQUEST OF
WITH AN APPENDIX OF RECIPES USED BY THE TEACHERS OF THK
NATIONAL SCHOOL OF COOKERY
BY
W. B. TEGETMEIER
AUTHOR OF i: A MANUAL OF DOMESTIC ECONOMY
(JTWIVERSITY)
H o n tr o n
MACMILLAN AND CO.
AND NEW YORK
1894
The Right of Translation and Reproduction is Reserved
RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED,
LONDON AND EUNGAY.
First Edition printed 1876.
Reprinted 1877, 1879, 1882, 1888, 1890, 1891, 1894.
PREFACE.
THE present work was written at the request of THE
SCHOOL BOARD FOR LONDON. It was designed to
supply a want which has:iong been felt by practical
teachers ; that of a handbook on the general principles
on which the processes of Cookery and the sanitary
management of a home depend.
No work on the subject at present exists which
can be advantageously placed in the hands of the
pupils in ordinary schools. A mere collection of
recipes, however valuable in themselves, does not
constitute a book fit for use in schools, where the
pupils should be instructed in the first principles
adapted to all cases, and not have the memory
burdened by details applicable only to each indivi-
dual case. The " Manual of Domestic Economy," *
published by the Author for the use of students in
female Training Colleges, is adapted for the instruc-
tion of teachers, by whom it has been used with so
1 "A Manual of Domestic Economy," by W. B. Tegetmeier.
Tenth Edition. Hamilton and Adams, 1877.
PREFACE.
much success that Her Majesty's Commissioners,
appointed to Investigate the Education in Mining
Districts, in their Report on the Industrial Schools
founded by Messrs. Baird at the Iron Works at
Gartsherrie, stated that "The girls, in three months,
can be taught plain cooking, washing, and cleaning,
enough to prepare them for service, or to make
them useful to their mothers at home. They are
all instructed in Tegetmeier's ' Domestic Economy '
at school, so that their minds have been directed
to many useful principles. On going to service
after such a course, a girl would probably get i/.
more wages for the first half-year's service."
The value of the present work has been greatly
increased by an Appendix of upwards of 150
recipes prepared for the use of those teachers of
the NATIONAL TRAINING SCHOOL OF COOKERY, South
Kensington, who inaugurated the teaching at the
Cookery Centres, established by the SCHOOL BOARD
FOR LONDON. For the permission to use these
recipes the author has to express his sincere thanks,
Finchley, N.
CONTENTS.
PART I. FOOD.
CHAP. PAGH:
I. THE NATURE AND USES OF FOOD .... II
II. MEAT : ITS COMPOSITION ....... 15
III. MEAT : THE PROCESSES OF COOKERY . . . 2O
IV. FISH : ITS VALUE AS FOOD, AND COOKERY . 34
V. EGGS : THEIR COMPOSITION, VALUE AS FOOD
AND COOKERY 37
VI. MILK : ITS CONSTITUENTS AND PRODUCTS
BUTTER AND CHEESE 41
VII. FLOUR : ITS CONSTITUENTS, STARCH, SUGAR
BREAD-MAKINGPASTRY, ETC 47
VIII. PULSE, PEAS, BEANS, AND FRESH VEGE-
TABLES AND FRUITS . 56
IX. CONDIMENTS : SALT, PEPPER, SPICES, ETC. . 60
X. BEVERAGES : TEA, COFFEE, COCOA, BEER., ETC 63
CONTENTS.
PART II.
HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT.
CHAP. PAGE
XL THE HOME : CONDITIONS NECESSARY TO
HEALTH 66
XII. WATER SUPPLY : QUALITIES OF WATER,
INFLUENCE ON HEALTH, WASHING,
COOKING, ETC 72
XIII. AIR AND VENTILATION 76
XIV. FIRING: STOVES, RANGES, AND ECONOMI-
CAL MANAGEMENT OF FUEL 80
XV. LIGHTING : CANDLES, PETROLEUM, BENZO-
LINE, AND GAS LAMPS. THEIR MANAGE-
MENT, ETC 85
XVI. CLEANING, WASHING, AND GENERAL HOUSE-
WORK 91
XVII. CLOTHING 99
APPENDIX.
LESS. PAGE
J. LIGHTING A FIRE, MILK AND EGGS, CHIL-
DREN'S FOOD 103
II. ROASTING, AND THE PUDDINGS EATEN
WITH ROAST MEAT . ., 105
III. BOILING 106
IV. SOUPS AND BROTHS . , . IO8
V. STEWS ...... \ ....... 109
VI. BAKING . . . * . \ v , * ; . . . . IIO
VII. FRYING , 112
VIII. BROILING , . . 113
IX. USING UP COLD MEAT ....... 114
X. AUSTRALIAN MEAT .....'.... 115
XL FISH 117
XII. VEGETABLES . Il8
XIII. PIES AND BAKED PUDDINGS . . . , . JJ9
APPENDIX.
LESS. PAGE
XIV. BOILED PUDDINGS I2O
XV. BREAD AND CAKES 122
XVI. INVALID COOKERY 123
XVII. FARINACEOUS FOODS , . 125
XVIIL CHEAP SAUCES 126
XIX. CHEAPEST DISHES WITHOUT MEAT . . . 127
XX. CHEAPEST DISHES WITH MEAT . . . . 128
^A/fyX
OF THE Y \
UNIVERSITY)
THE HANDBOOK
OF
HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT
AND COOKERY.
PART I. FOOD.
CHAPTER I.
THE NATURE AND USES OF FOOD
1. Milk is almost the only example of a substance
which is to be regarded as a naturally prepared food ;
other articles of diet serve other purposes. Seeds
grow, plants and animals live ; but milk is expressly
formed for food, and for food alone.
2. The young animal fed on milk grows or increases
in weight daily. It forms or secretes several sub-
stances, such as the saliva of the mouth, the bile of
the liver, the tears from the eye, &c. ; it keeps itself
warm, and exercises its strength in moving the limbs ;
all of which it is enabled to accomplish only by means
of materials derived from the milk which is its sole
food
12 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
3. Hence, as milk supplies every requisite for the
body, and enables a young calf to grow into a heifer
and a baby into a child, we may regard it as a model
food ; it is, in fact, the most perfect food that exists
in nature.
4. It is desirable, therefore, to examine milk and
ascertain the materials of which it is composed. A
very large proportion of milk consists of water, which
is necessary to supply the fluids of the body.
The cream which rises to the top when the milk is
allowed to stand at rest consists of fat, which is
chiefly consumed or burnt away in breathing, and
maintains the warmth natural to the young animal,
and, like the coal in a steam-engine, is the source of
the force or strength that it exercises ; when more
cream is taken than is required for immediate use it
is stored up in the body in the form of fat.
If milk is allowed to become sour the solid part
separates in the form of curd. It is this portion
which supplies the materials for the growth of the
flesh, skin, hair, heart, lungs, &c., of the young animal,
and for replacing the daily loss arising from the
wearing out of the different parts of the body.
The whey, or liquid left after the separation of
the curd, contains dissolved in it salt and other saline
bodies necessary for digestion, and the earthy materials
of which the bones are formed. It also contains some
sugar, which acts like the cream in keeping up the
warmth and maintaining the strength of the body.
5. In preparing our food we must endeavour to
imitate as far as possible the composition of milk ;
for any one simple substance, such as starch, arrow-
root, fat, gelatine, &c., which only fulfils one of the
CHAP, i.] THE NATURE AND USES OF FOOD. 13
purposes required in our food will not alone support
life; hence it is necessary we should arrange the
articles of food according to their uses.
6. The substances that when eaten go to supply the
materials of our bodies, and in this respect resemble
the curd of the milk, are sometimes termed flesh-
forming foods ; and, from containing nitrogen, are
sometimes called nitrogenous ; but as they resemble
white of egg (albumen) in many properties, they are
better termed albumenoid, or albumen-like.
The most important albumenoid articles of our
food are the solid parts of the flesh of animals, the
curd of milk, which when dried becomes cheese, the
albumen of eggs, gelatine, the gluten of flour, and the
curdy matter that forms a large portion of many seeds,
as peas, beans, &c.
7. The foods that are used to keep up the warmth
natural to the body, and by being consumed in the
breathing are the source of the strength we exercise,
are sometimes termed warmth-giving foods; as they
contain a great amount of carbon or charcoal they have
also been termed carbonaceous; and as they resemble
oil in being combustible they are frequently termed
oleaginous foods.
The most important of these foods are fats, oils,
starch, sugar, gum, and the softer and more digestible
fibres of plants.
8. Many of the articles used as food do not con-
tain a proper proportion of these two kinds of sub-
stances, and in economical cooking it is desirable that
the defects in one article of diet should be supplied
by using it with some other which contains that which
is wanting in the first.
14 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
_ ___
For example, rice and potatoes consist chiefly of
starch, and of themselves are bad foods unless com-
bined with fatty and albumenoid matters; therefore
we endeavour to use rice in puddings with milk, eggs,
and butter, which supply all that is wanting, and it
thus becomes a valuable article of food. Potatoes
are most useful and economical if eaten with milk,
fat meats ; alone they are barely able to support life
and cannot sustain health and strength. Beans,
which are chiefly albumenoid, are eaten with bacon.
Bread, which is wanting in fat, with butter or bacon,
&c. &c.
CHAPTER II.
MEAT: ITS COMPOSITION.
9. Meat, or the flesh of animals used for food,
consists of several very distinct substances, each of
which possesses different qualities. Some of these
substances are hardened, others softened by heat ;
some dissolved, and others rendered tough by boiling
water. It is therefore necessary to understand the
nature of these different substances, in order to per-
form the different operations of cooking in the best
and most economical manner.
10. If we take some small shreds of lean meat
and wash them repeatedly in clean water, rubbing
them at the same time, we shall wash away all the
soluble part, and at last there will remain nothing
but some white threads which constitute the fibrous
part of the flesh of the animal from which they were
obtained. We could in this manner obtain about
fifteen pounds from every hundred pounds of flesh.
This substance of which these threads are composed
is termed fibrin ; it is an albumenoid (6) article of
food. Fibrin also exists dissolved in the blood of
1 6 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
living animals ; and when the fresh blood of a pig
or other animal is stirred, as is done in making black
puddings, the fibrin separates and adheres to the stick
in long fibres.
The action of heat on fibrin is very important. It
is hardened and contracted by a heat as great as that
of boiling water : this is easily shown by pouring some
perfectly boiling water on the threads obtained by
washing meat, or by cutting a thin shred of meat in
the direction of the fibres, boiling it for a few minutes,
and then noticing the alteration in its size and the
hardening it has undergone.
In water that is considerably less hot than boiling,
the fibres of meat become soft, consequently any
meat, even if old and tough, can be rendered useful
for food by long continued stewing, at a heat much
less than that of boiling water.
ii. When meat is thoroughly washed to obtain the
fibrin, a soluble substance, similar to the white of egg,
passes away in the water; this is termed albumen.
There are from three to five pounds of albumen in
every hundred of meat; it also forms a very large
proportion of the brain and of the blood. In cold
or warm water it is easily dissolved, but if heated to
near the boiling point of water it becomes solid. If
a piece of fresh meat is suddenly plunged for a few
minutes into water quite boiling, the albumen at the
outside is hardened and becoming solid prevents the
escape of the juices which form the gravy. Exposed
to a heat greater than that of boiling water albumen
becomes very horny and indigestible, but when pro-
perly cooked it is one of the most valuable articles of
diet.
CHAP, ii.] ME A T: ITS COMPOSITION. i ^
1 2. The tendinous or gristly parts of the flesh, such
as cow's heel, the sinewy parts about the joints, also
the skin and the nutritive parts of the bones, consist
chiefly of a peculiar substance termed gelatin. This
is a valuable album enoid article of food when used
with other substances. Gelatin and gelatinous articles
of food may be dissolved by boiling, and the solution
becomes a jelly when cold. Gelatin is rendered hard
and horny by a dry heat, and therefore the sinewy
and tendinous parts of meat are better adapted for
stewing or boiling, than for roasting, broiling, or
frying.
13. If a quantity of lean meat be chopped up small,
and placed in a closely-covered earthen pot, without
water, and the pot be then put in a saucepan of water
by the side of the fire so as to be very gradually heated,
the juice of the flesh will escape. At first this will
be of a red colour, being tinged with a little blood,
but if heated to a greater degree it will become brown.
The juice of the flesh contains many substances of
the greatest value as food, and meat from which it is
extracted is of very inferior value.
All operations of cookery should be conducted so
as to prevent as far as possible any loss of this
valuable fluid. When meat is salted a large propor-
tion of the juice of the flesh is extracted and forms
the brine. This contains so much albumen as to
become partly solid if heated. It is from the loss of
this valuable juice that salted meats are so much less
nutritious and wholesome than those that are used
in a fresh state. What is termed extract of meat
is merely the juice of the flesh from which the water
has been evaporated so that it is nearly solid.
1 8 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
14. Almost all flesh used for food contains a con-
siderable proportion of fat, which when eaten main-
tains the warmth of the body. Hence we have a much
greater appetite for fat in cold seasons and climates
than in those that are warm. Fat is one of the olea-
ginous foods (7) which are the source of the force
we exert ; it is also essential to the proper action of
the digestive organs. When taken in too great a
quantity it accumulates in the body, which thus be-
comes fattened.
15. The quantity and quality of these different
substances vary very much in the different kinds of
meat. The flesh of very young animals is not nearly
so nutritious as that of those which are of mature age.
Lamb and veal contain much less solid food than
mutton or beef, and are consequently not so econo-
mical, even if purchased at the same cost per pound.
Mutton, if in good condition, is one of the most easily
digested of the ordinary flesh meats. Pork is not so
easily digested as beef or mutton, consequently is
unfitted for sick persons, and from the unwholesome
manner in which pigs are often kept, is more subject
to be diseased than the flesh of sheep or oxen.
1 6. Some of the internal parts of animals are ex-
ceedingly useful as food. The stomach of the ox
when cleaned and partially boiled is sold as tripe, an
easily digestible and nutritious food. In the tongue
the fibres of the flesh are very small and delicate,
and if stewed slowly, become very soft and digestible ;
but tongues are frequently much hardened by salting
for a long time. The flesh of the heart of the ox and
of the sheep is very firm and solid, and though nutri-
tious, is not very easily digested. Kidney and liver,
CHAP, ii.] MEAT: ITS COMPOSITION. 19
except in the case of those of young animals, are also
hard and firm when cooked, and are not very digest-
ible. The brain consists chiefly of albumen and water,
and if properly prepared is a useful food. The blood
contains a very large proportion of nutritive albu-
menoid substances, but it is not a favourite food, and
except in the form of " black puddings," which are
made from the blood of the pig, is rarely used in this
country.
CHAPTER III.
MEAT: THE PROCESSES OF COOKERY.
17. Roasting is a mode of cooking meat that is
more common in this than in any other country. It
is, however, not an economical or advantageous mode
of cooking small joints, as they become dried up ; and
it is exceedingly wasteful in the case of sinewy or
tendinous pieces of meat, as it renders a very large
proportion of them quite uneatable. Roasting is an
advantageous mode of cooking only in cases where
the joints are large and where the cost of a large fire
is not of importance. Consequently it is not the best
suited to the circumstances of the working classes.
When a piece of meat is hung before a fire, part of
the fat melts and forms the dripping which should be
carefully and cleanly preserved, as it constitutes a
valuable article of food. During the process some of
the water of the juice of the flesh is dried up ; from
these two causes the meat loses in weight. In some fat
joints more than one quarter of the weight is lost, in
others much less, as in the case of a leg of mutton
which is covered by a skin, and has but little fat to
melt away.
Ctt. in.] MEAT : TtfE PROCESSES OF COOKERY. 21
To roast well the meat should be hung up before a
brisk bright fire, the first effect of which is to harden
the albumen in the outer parts and thus prevent the
escape of the nutritious juices. The heat should then
be continued until it has penetrated the inside. When
it is heated the natural red colour of the flesh is
changed, and from the hardening of the albumen the
meat becomes firm and can be cut in thin slices.
Underdone meat is not, as is generally supposed,
more nutritious than that which is properly cooked.
The heat of the fire causes the production of pecu-
liar flavours and odours which distinguish one kind of
meat from another.
1 8. In roasting it is important that the meat be put
down before a bright, clear fire, sufficiently large to
heat the whole of the joint at once. If possible,
skewers and spits should not be thrust into the meat,
as they make holes through which the gravy escapes.
The time usually allowed for roasting is a quarter of
an hour or twenty-minutes for every pound, but this
depends on the thickness and also on the size of the
joint.
The usual plan of making gravy for roast meat is,
to sprinkle a little salt on the joint after it is placed in
the dish, and then pour some boiling water over it ; this
washes off some of the brown and makes a coloured
liquid in the dish.
A much better plan is to collect the dripping in a
flat pan, and when the meat is dished to leave as much
as may be required for making the gravy ; and then to
dredge in some flour and place the pan over the fire
or stove until the flour is browned. A little cold water
is next added, which is to be well mixed with the brown
22 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
flour so as to avoid leaving any lumps. Boiling water,
or still better, broth made by stewing any scraps of
bones from the joint, is then poured on in sufficient
quantity, the whole being constantly stirred ; the whole
is allowed to boil for a few minutes and poured
over the joint. In this manner a large quantity of
very good, rich, nutritious gravy is produced which
is very economical, as it renders potatoes and other
vegetables much more acceptable, especially to child-
ren, and in this mode saves the consumption of meat.
If a joint is to be eaten cold it is better that it
should not be cut whilst warm, as the contraction of
the fibres forces out the gravy; but if not cut until cold
the gravy is retained and the meat is much more tasty
and tender.
19. Baking is a more economical mode of cook-
ing than roasting, especially in small families where
economical stoves or ranges with side ovens are used,
In baking there is less loss of weight than in roasting
as the joint is less dried. Care should be taken that
the floor of the oven is not too much heated or the
fat may be burnt, which causes a bad flavour. A great
advantage in baking is that it requires less attention
than roasting, and that potatoes, or a batter or York-
shire pudding, can be cooked under the meat. This
latter may be made by taking four tablespoonfuls of
flour, and rubbing them into a smooth batter with a
pint of milk, which has previously had a well-beaten
egg mixed with it. If eggs are abundant two or three
may be employed with advantage, the quantity of
flour being lessened. The milk and egg must be
added gradually, the batter being rubbed until uni-
formly smooth after each addition.
CH. m.] ME AT: THE, PROCESSES OF COOKERY. 23
20. Broiling is the rapid cooking of a small
piece of meat, as a chop or a steak, by exposing it to
the heat of a fire ; in large kitchens the gridiron on
which the meat is cooked is usually placed over a
large, clear fire, but in smaller houses it is generally
hung up before the fire. Broiling has very nearly the
same effect on meat as roasting. The albumen of the
outer portions is hardened, and forms a kind of skin
retaining the juices.
In order that this may be done most perfectly, the
meat should be rapidly turned so as to prevent the
juices escaping on the side furthest from the fire.
A fork should not be thrust into the flesh, as it makes
holes through which the juices escape.
In large chop-houses, the chops are turned over very
quickly with broiling-tongs.
Broiling is a good mode of cooking thick fleshy
chops and steaks, but is a wasteful method of pre-
paring thin pieces such as are often purchased when
cheap meat is required.
Success in broiling depends on having a thick, fleshy
piece of tender meat, a clear fire, a clean gridiron, and
on the meat being turned repeatedly. Broiled meat
should not be sprinkled with salt until after it is
cooked, and it should never be cut into in order to
ascertain whether it is done ; as if again put down
to the fire the juice escapes from the cut, and the
meat becomes dry and much less nutritious.
21. Frying is the cooking of meat in melted fat
heated in a frying or stew-pan over a fire or stove.
If the frying-pan is placed over an open fire, the fat
is usually over-heated, and gives out a very disagree-
able smell ; meat when placed in overheated fat ha.
24 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
its fibrin hardened and contracted, so that it becomes
very tough ; therefore fried meat is usually regarded as
inferior to such as is broiled.
If, however, the fat is not over-heated, and there
is sufficient to prevent burning, and to cover the
piece to be cooked, meat may be fried of a very light
brown colour without being hardened.
22. Boiling may be performed in various modes.
If the joint is put in cold water and placed on the
fire, and the heat very slowly raised to the boiling-
point, after which the saucepan is pulled back from
the fire so as to be kept hot without boiling until the
joint is thoroughly done ; the meat will be tender in
proportion to the length of time and slowness with
which it has been cooked, but a considerable propor-
tion of the gelatin and albumen will be dissolved in
the water, and unless this be used for soup or broth
will be wasted.
This dissolved albumen coagulates or hardens as
the water approaches the boiling-point, and forms the
scum, which should be removed by skimming just
before the water boils, or it is carried down by the
boiling and discolours the meat.
A different mode of boiling is sometimes adopted
when the liquor is not required for soup. It is to
place the joint in perfectly boiling water for a quarter
of an hour ; this hardens the outside and prevents the
escape of the nutritious juices ; the water is then
cooled, either by adding a quantity of cold water or
by drawing the vessel back from the fire, and the
process continued at a low heat until the whole is
thoroughly cooked.
If the water is made to boil during the whole time
CH. ill.} ME AT: THE PROCESSES OF COOKERY. 25
the meat is being cooked, the fibrin is rendered hard,
and the meat becomes tough and stringy.
To have meat tender it is important not to expose
it to the heat of boiling water for any length of time.
In what is termed a Norwegian kitchener the water
in which the meat is placed is made to boil. Then
the vessel is placed in a box thickly lined with
layers of woollen felt ; this prevents the escape of the
heat, and the largest joints will be perfectly and most
tenderly cooked after having been taken away from
the fire for three or four hours.
In all cases of boiling it is desirable to avoid
thrusting a large fork or skewers into the joint, as
these, by passing into the interior where the albumen
is not hardened, make holes through which the juice
escapes, and the meat becomes dry and less nutritious.
If necessary, it is better to tie the joint round with
string than to employ skewers.
Ham and the lean of bacon, which is usually hard
and tough, may be cooked so as to be perfectly tender
and without waste of fat, by not allowing the water to
boil. At the large ham and beef shops in London,
where the meat is always very tender, the hams are
placed in large coppers of cold water, a small fire is
lighted under the copper, and the water gradually
raised to the boiling-point, when the fire is imme-
diately raked out, the copper covered over, and the
hams allowed to remain in the water until it is nearly
cold. In this manner they are several hours in cook-
ing, and are never heated to the boiling-point, conse-
quently the flesh becomes exceedingly tender, and
there is no loss of fat.
23. Stewing is a much more advantageous and
26 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AtfD COOKERY.
economical mode of cooking than boiling : by its use
the flesh of old animals, and tough, sinewy joints that
would otherwise be wasted, can be used for food.
Stewing consists in cooking meat in a small quantity
of liquid, by a very moderate heat, which is continued
for a very considerable time. By this long-continued
action of a gentle heat the fibres are softened and the
toughest joints become tender and eatable. In cook-
ing meat by stewing it must be remembered that
length of time is much more important than extra
heat; and that the cooking of the food cannot be
hastened by increasing the heat, which if raised to the
boiling-point only hardens the fibres and renders the
meat tough.
In the houses of the working classes in England
stewing is not so much employed as it should be.
By its use small pieces of meat may be cooked with
vegetables, and made into the most savoury and
nourishing dishes, and the coarsest and cheapest
joints may be made almost equal in flavour and quite
as nutritious as the dearest.
The stews best known in this country are stewed
steak, haricot mutton, Irish stew, and jugged hare.
The value of these is recognized, and it is only
prejudice or ignorance which prevents the English
housewife applying the same mode of cooking to
other joints, and using the French plan of always
having a stewing pipkin or pot-au-feu by the side of
the fire.
24. As examples of different modes of stewing, the
following recipes are given :
Stewed Steak. Take a clean, well-tinned stew-
pan, which is much better for the purpose than an
CH. in.] MEAT: THE PROCESSES OF COOKERY. 27
ordinary saucepan, put in a little butter or dripping,
and melt it; then place in the steak, cut into conve-
niently sized pieces, and fry each of a very light brown,
frying a sliced onion at the same time; when suffi-
ciently fried, add the seasoning, such as pepper and salt.
The salt must not be added at first, as it would draw
out the gravy and prevent the meat browning. The
meat should then be barely covered with cold water
and allowed to stew slowly for four or five hours,
the greatest care being taken that it does not boil.
The vegetables, such as turnip, carrot, celery, &c.,
should be cut up and boiled in a separate saucepan
of water until tender, and them added to the stewed
meat. The object of cooking the vegetables separately
is to prevent the necessity of boiling the meat, which
would harden it. Half an hour before serving, add a
little flour and water, mixed into a very thin paste, and
let the stew just simmer so as to thicken the gravy.
Haricot Mutton is made in precisely the same
manner, using small cutlets from the neck of mutton
instead of steak.
Irish Stew is a popular dish ; it is usually made
by placing in a stew-pan alternate layers of pieces of
mutton and sliced potatoes and onions, with pepper
and salt, barely covering them with water, and allow-
ing the whole to stew for some hours. If a large
quantity of potatoes are required, it is desirable to
partially boil some small ones and place them on the
top of the stew half an hour or more before serving,
as they then become perfectly cooked and acquire the
flavour of the stew. If too many potatoes are added
at first, so much water is required to cover them
that the stew is spoiled.
28 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
Jugged Hare is a very good example of the
utility of stewing. If a hare is too old and tough to
be eaten when roasted, it is cut up and placed in an
earthenware vessel with a little bacon, onions, cloves,
lemon peel, sweet herbs, pepper and salt, and
a little water; the earthen jar is then to be very
closely covered over and placed in a large sauce-
pan of cold water, taking care the water is not
sufficiently high to run into the jar. The saucepan
is allowed to boil for four hours, or the jar may be
placed in a very slow oven. Before serving, the
gravy is thickened by adding a little flour and water.
Stewed Rabbits. A very economical and useful
mode of cooking rabbits is used in Spain. Alternate
layers of pieces of rabbits and sliced onions are
placed with a little seasoning and flour in a stew-pan
without any water, the whole is closely covered down,
and placed by the side of the fire for three or four
hours.
Vinegar is sometimes used in the preparation of
stews, as directed in the following recipe, which, if
strictly followed, produces a most excellent dish :
" Take shin or leg of beef, cut it into slices or
pieces of two or three ounces each ; dip it in good
vinegar, and with or without onions, or any other
flavouring or vegetable substances, put it in a stew-
pan, and without water, let it stand on a stew-hearth,
or by a slow fire for four or six hours, when it will
be thoroughly done, will have yielded plenty of gravy,
and be perfectly tender. Great care must be taken
that the heat is sufficiently moderate. Leg or shin
of beef makes the richest and most nutritious stew,
and., may be had at a low price \ but any other meat
CH. in.] MEAT: THE PROCESSES OF COOKERY. 29
or fish may be so dressed. A pound and a half of
leg of beef, without bone, so dressed, and plenty of
potatoes, will dine four people luxuriously."
25. The Stewing Pipkin or Pot-au-feu is the
general mode of cooking amongst the working classes
in France. Its use effects a great saving of fuel,
trouble, and skill. Careme, one of the most celebrated
French cooks, gives the following directions :
"The good housewife puts her meat into an
earthen pot, and pours cold water on it, in the pro-
portion of two quarts to three pounds of the beef.
She sets it at the side of the fire.
" The pot grows gradually hot, and as the water heats
it dilates the muscular fibres of the flesh by dissolving
the gelatinous matter which covers them, and allows
the albumen to detach itself easily, and rise to the
surface of the water in light foam or scum, while the
savoury juice of the meat, dissolving little by little,
adds flavour to the broth.
" By this simple proceeding of slow cooking, the
housewife obtains a savoury and nourishing broth,
and tender boiled meat, and with a good flavour. But
by placing \hzpot-aii-feu on too hot a fire, it boils too
soon the albumen coagulates and the fibre hardens ;
the sad result is that you have only a hard piece of
boiled meat, and a broth without flavour or goodness.
A little fresh water poured into the pot at intervals
helps the scum to rise more abundantly."
Whatever vegetables are in season may be added to
the ste wing-pot, as celery, onions, carrots, turnips, and
salt, pepper, and sweet herbs. The broth may be
poured over toasted bread, or rice or Scotch barley
may be added so as to make it more nutritious.
30 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
The great precaution to be taken in stewing is not
to allow the heat to rise too high. This is quite pre-
vented in Captain Warren's cooking-pots. These
consist of one saucepan within another, like a car-
penter's glue-pot, the outer being filled with water.
By this arrangement the inner cannot become over-
heated to the boiling point ; consequently the meat
is cooked slowly and without becoming hard. In
Warren's cooking-pots, meat, fowls, ham, bacon, &c.,
can all be cooked perfectly without any water
being placed in the inner vessel, so that the whole of-
the gravy flowing from the meat is preserved in the
richest form.
26. Soups and Broths are not so generally
used among the working classes in this country as is
desirable. They furnish, when properly prepared,
very economical and nutritive articles of food.
Pea Soup is that which is most generally used in
England. It may be prepared either with or without
meat ; the latter is hardly required, except for the
flavour, as the peas are remarkably rich in albumenoid
substances. The following directions may be fol-
lowed. Soak a quart of split peas over night, place
them in a stewpan with half a pound of lean bacon,
or some bones from roast meat broken small, and
three quarts of cold water, or the liquor in which
some fresh meat has been boiled ; place on a very
slow fire and add celery, onions, and sweet herbs, and
simmer for two or three hours until the peas and
vegetables are sufficiently soft to pass through a
colander, when pepper and salt should be added and
the whole reheated, and eaten with toasted bread cut
into small square pieces. If no meat can be obtained
CH. m.] MEAT: THE PROCESSES OF COOKERY. 31
the soup may be rendered much more savoury by
frying the onions and celery in a little dripping before
adding them to the soup ; and if dripping is plentiful,
the bread may be fried instead of toasted.
Scotch Broth is very generally used among the
middle and working classes in Scotland. It is very
economical, as both broth and meat are used. The
following are the directions : Put into a pot three
quarts of cold water, along with a cupful of Scotch
barley, and let it boil. Add two pounds of neck of
mutton. Allow it to stew gently for an hour, skim-
ming occasionally. Then add turnips cut in squares,
and onions sliced, and carrots and turnips uncut. The
half of a small cabbage chopped in moderately sized
pieces may be put in instead of all these vegetables,
and leeks may be used instead of onions. Stew the
whole for an hour longer. The broth is now ready.
Season with salt, and serve in a tureen. The meat
is served in a separate dish, with the uncut pieces of
turnip and carrot, and a little of the broth as gravy.
Any meat may be employed in the same way, which
is not unlike that followed in preparing the French
Pot au feu (25).
27. Salting Meat is in most cases a very waste-
ful process ; salt when applied to fresh meat extracts
a very large proportion of the nutritious juice of the
flesh, and at the same time hardens the fibres and
renders them much less easily digestible. The brine
that runs from salted meat contains so much nutri-
tious albumen that it becomes nearly solid on being
heated, and as there is no means of extracting the
salt, it is necessarily wasted.
The salting of meat before cooking is an English
32 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
prejudice which is not followed in any other country,
nor is there any good reason why beef and pork should
be salted before boiling, and mutton and veal boiled
without salting. The plan followed on the Continent
of slowly stewing a joint of beef without first salting
it, yields a much more nutritious, tender, and well
flavoured food.
In cases where it is necessary to preserve meat, as
on shipboard, salting may be useful, but .health can-
not be preserved for any length of time on meat from
which the most valuable part, the nutritious juice>
has been extracted by salting.
In the case of very fat meats, as bacon, salting is
not objectionable, as in them the most valuable con-
stituent is the fat, which is not injured by the process.
In the case of ham a peculiar flavour is produced
during the process of salting which is highly esteemed)
but it should be remembered that the value of the
flesh of ham as food is very much less than that of
the meat from which it is produced.
28. Preserved Meats. The meats imported in
tins from Australia and South America are exceed-
ingly valuable articles of diet ; and are at the present
time much cheaper than fresh butcher's meat. The
only drawback to their value is that they are rather
overcooked in the process for preparing them, it is
therefore more advantageous to use them cold than in
any other manner.
29. Extract of Meat. The extracts of meat sold
in small jars are merely the juice of the flesh eva-
porated till it becomes nearly dry. It is useful as
means of making beef tea or soup quickly, but is by
no means an economical article of food.
CH.III.] MEAT: THE PROCESSES OF COOKERY. 33
Beef-tea, which is so valuable in cases of illness,
is usually made by boiling the meat in water ; this is a
very bad plan, as the fibres are hardened, and the
soluble portions less readily extracted. It should be
made by pouring a pint of cold water on half-a-pound
of finely-cut or chopped lean beef, and then placing it,
in a covered earthenware vessel, by the side of the fire
for an hour or two. By this means the whole of the
soluble nutritious portions are extracted and the
insoluble fibre alone remains. A small quantity of
salt and two or three cloves greatly improve the
flavour.
TEG.
CHAPTER IV.
FISH: ITS VALUE AS FOOD, AND COOKERY.
30. Fish although of great importance as yielding
a cheap supply of nutritious and easily digested animal
food, is not equal in value to the same weight of meat,
as it contains a much larger proportion of water and
less solid material.
Fish usually contain a very considerable proportion
of oil, in some kinds, as herrings, sprats, pilchards,
salmon, eels, mackerel, this is found in all parts of
the body, whilst in others, which are usually termed
white fish, the oil is contained in the liver, and the
rest of the body is almost entirely free from it. Such
is the case in cod, haddock, whiting, soles, plaice,
flounders, &c.
The fibre of the flesh of fish is very digestible, and
the juice though more watery than that of meat is of
considerable nutritive value. When boiled, a large
proportion of this escapes into the water and is lost ;
hence though so frequently practised, boiling is not
the most economical or advantageous mode of cooking
fish.
CHAP. iv.J FISH : ITS VA&UE AS . 3C
^
31. Salting, though often necessary to preserve
fish when caught in large quantities, is not a desirable
mode of preparing white fish. It extracts a very large
proportion of the nourishment and hardens the fibrin ;
and if the salt has to be extracted by soaking in water
before cooking, as in the case of salt cod, very little
nourishment remains. The fat of the oily fish, as
hearings, &c., is not removed by salting ; hence they are
very valuable as food when preserved in this manner.
32. The most advantageous modes of cooking fish
are those that retain the whole of the nutritious por-
tions. A plaice or" a sole placed on a buttered dish
covered over with a few bread-crumbs and seasoning
and baked retains the whole of the nutriment, and
furnishes a much more savoury meal than if boiled.
The following recipes give directions for the econo-
mical and advantageous cooking of fish.
Baked Fish. Almost any kind of fish, as
mackerel, haddock, whiting, soles &c. may be cooked
by being placed in a dish with bread crumbs, a little
chopped parsley, and other seasoning, as pepper, salt,
a few sliced onions, if desired, and baked in a side oven.
The more oily fish, as herrings, pilchards, sprats, may
be packed closed in a deep earthenware dish, seasoned
with pepper and salt, covered with vinegar and cooked
perfectly even by the side of the fire. Fish prepared
in either of these modes, are very good to eat cold, and
as they will keep good for some days furnish very
useful and cheap articles of food. Broiling fish is an
excellent mode of cooking them, there is no loss of
nourishment and the flavour is much better than
when they are boiled. A broiled mackerel, &c., is a
much more substantial meal than one that has been
B 2
36 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
cooked by boiling, and no sauce is required to be
prepared.
Frying is a useful mode of preparing fish, especially
soles, whitings, plaice, cod, and other white fish.
The chief precautions are to dry them thoroughly,
either to flour or dip them in a thin batter made of
flour and water, and fry in a deep pan with sufficient
fat or dripping to cover them if possible, and to take
care that the heat is not so great as to burn the fish,
which should be of a light brown colour.
Fish soups are largely used in some countries. In
the Channel Islands a very good and nutritious soup
is made of conger-eel according to the following
directions :
Cut up a moderate sized conger-eel in a stewpan
with three or four quarts of water, and let it simmer
two or three hours till it breaks to pieces. Rub it
through a sieve, and pour back into the stewpan with
a little butter. Throw in a small leek, the white heart
of a cabbage cut up, some parsley chopped small, and a
bunch of thyme. Mix two table- spoonfuls of flour in
a pint of milk, and when the cabbage is done, throw
it into the stewpan, stirring all the time, till it comes
to a boil ; then let it boil ten minutes to take off the
rawness of the flour. Before dishing up, season with
a little salt, as the salt is apt to curdle the milk if
added before. Have ready thin slices of bread in
your tureen, and pour the soup over.
CHAPTER V,
EGGS: THEIR COMPOSITION, VALUE AS
FOOD, AND COOKERY.
33- Eggs contain two distinct substances, the
white and the yolk. The solid part of the white is
almost entirely albumen which forms fifteen parts out
of every 100, the remaining eighty -five parts being
water. Albumen is a valuable flesh-forming food and
gives its name, albumenoid, or albumen-like, to the
class of foods to which it belongs. It possesses
peculiar properties, it dissolves in cold or warm water,
but in the white of egg it is in layers like those of an
onion, and these require to be broken up by beating
before the albumen can be dissolved.
If the beating is long continued a glairy fluid is
formed in which large quantities of air are contained
in bubbles; when used in pastry in this state eggs add
very much to the lightness or sponginess of the mass.
Heated to a point many degrees below that of boil-
ing water the albumen hardens, becoming solid and
of an opaque white, hence its name from the Latin
word, albus, white.
When an egg is boiled very hard and allowed to
38 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
become cold, the solid albumen may be separated into
the layers of which it consists.
The yolk contains a considerable quantity of
albumen, with nearly a third of its weight of oil, and
a very large proportion of sulphur and other mineral
matters. It is the sulphur which causes eggs to tarnish
silver, and produces their exceedingly offensive smell
when rotten.
34 The value of eggs as food is very great. Like
milk, they contain all the materials required for the
growth of the body. The entire of the young chick,
its bones, down or feathers, skin, internal organs, and
flesh are formed out of the materials contained in the
egg, which must therefore contain every substance
required for the support of the body.
35. The usefulness of eggs as food depends very
greatly upon the mode of cooking. When boiled
in the shell the outer portion of the white becomes
much hardened, and is of so solid a character, being
quite destitute of pores, that it is digested with ex-
treme slowness, and hence is not fitted for children
or persons of weak digestion. Eggs may be boiled
so as to render them much less difficult of digestion
by placing them in a saucepan of cold water, making
it boil, and then allowing the eggs to remain a few
minutes in the saucepan after it has been removed
from the fire, the time they have to remain in the
boiling water varies with that required to make the
water boil.
Poached eggs, if well prepared, are much less
hardened. The usual plan is to break each egg sepa-
rately into a tea-cup and pour it with the yolk un-
broken into a frying-pan or shallow stewpan of boiling
CHAP, v.] EGGS: THEIR COMPOSITION, <Sw. 3$)
water, removing it with a skimmer as soon as the white
is set Prepared in this mode the egg is much more
quickly cooked and the albumen less hardened th^n
in the process of boiling.
In frying, eggs are exposed to a very high tempe-
rature, and the thin edges of the white become very
horny and quite indigestible.
A much better plan is to cook the eggs on a plate
on which a little butter, % pepper and salt have been
placed ; this is first heated by the side of the fire or
on the stove, and when the butter is melted the eggs
are broken on to the plate and cooked by a gentle
heat.
Omelettes, which consist of eggs beaten up with
flavouring and other ingredients and fried very lightly,
are most valuable articles of food that are not properly
appreciated in this country. An omelette with herbs
may be made by melting a little butter in a small
frying pan, beating up three or four eggs with a dessert-
spoonful of milk, a little chopped parsley,, pepper and
salt, pouring it into the frying-pan and stirring till it
thickens, then allowing it to remain for a few moments
until it is firm, the pan being sharply shaken so as
to prevent the omelette sticking to the bottom.
Sweet omelettes are made by the addition of
sugar instead of herbs, pepper, &c. Cheese omelettes
by the addition of grated cheese, &c.
Custard, which consists of eggs beaten up mixed
with milk sweetened and set in a slow oven, is one of
the most easily digested and nutritive articles of food,,
especially adapted for chidren and invalids.
The use of eggs in pastry and cakes depends partly
on their nutritive value and partly on their rendering
40 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
the paste more tenacious and so retaining the gases
and vapour that by expanding make the paste light
in the process of cooking.
The preparations sold under the name of egg-pow-
ders consist merely of chemical substances that give
out a gas when moistened. They help to render the
dough light, but have no nutritive value whatever.
36. Preserving Eggs. As eggs are produced in
large numbers in spring and summer, it is desirable to
preserve them for winter use. They may be kept good
for many weeks by closing the pores of the shells, by
rubbing them with a little melted lard as soon as they
are laid, or they may be packed in a vessel and a mix-
ture of freshly-slaked lime in water, mixed to the
thickness of thin cream, poured over them. This
method will keep them, if fresh when laid down, for
many months, but it unfortunately renders the shells
very brittle.
37. From the great value of eggs many persons are
tempted to keep fowls in a confined space ; but this
plan cannot be recommended, as after a few weeks the
ground becomes tainted, the hens become diseased,
and cease to lay. But a few hens can always be kept to
great profit on the waste house scraps and a little corn,
provided they have a free range and can obtain a supply
of worms and insects.
CHAPTER VI.
MILK: ITS CONSTITUENTS AND PRODUCTS-
BUTTER AND CHEESE.
38. Milk, as it is obtained fresh from the cow,
is a white fluid, having a slight smell and taste. It
consists of several distinct substances, which partly
separate from one another on its being allowed to
remain at rest. These are Cream, Curd, and
Whey, the last consisting of water, which contains
dissolved in it the Sugar of Milk, and the saline
and earthy minerals necessary to supply the saline
materials of the blood, and those required for the
growth of the bones.
39. The Cream is formed of very small globules
of butter, invisible to the naked eye, but readily seen
with the aid of a microscope ; each of these globules
is surrounded by a very fine skin of curd. They are
dispersed in the milk when it is first drawn from the
cow, but as they are lighter than the whey, they slowly
rise to the top when the milk is allowed to rest,
and form the cream. This rising takes place more
quickly in warm than in cold weather. A larger
quantity reaches the top if the milk is placed in
42 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
very shallow pans than if it is in vessels several
inches in depth. The quantity of cream varies con-
siderably ; some cows give milk much richer in cream
than others. The quality of the food on which they
are fed also affects the quantity of the cream. Cows
feeding in rich pastures give richer milk than those
that graze on poor land ; and if they are fed upon
oil- cake, &c., the amount is greatly increased. The
quantity of cream is usually about 10 per cent., but
is much lessened if the cows are driven a long dis-
tance daily, and also by exposure to cold weather ;
in the first case the cream is consumed in producing
the force the animal exercises in walking, and in
the second by generating the heat necessary to resist
the cold (4).
40. Clotted Cream. The rising of the cream
can be hastened by heat, which causes it to separate
in a much more solid form, when it is called clotted
cream.
The milk, after standing ten or twelve hours in a flat
metal milk-pan, is placed, without disturbing the cream
that has risen, over a stove or clear fire, until a thick
scum or cake rises to the surface ; a small portion of
this is gently removed with the finger from time to time,
and when a few small air-bubbles are seen underneath,
the whole is immediately removed from the fire, and
allowed to stand twenty-four hours. The cream thus
obtained is much more solid than usual ; it can be
gathered off the milk with the fingers, and butter is
easily made from it by stirring for a few minutes with
the hand. This cream, which is called scalded or
clotted cream, will keep several days without turning
spur. It, however, requires to be carefully made ;
CH. vi.] MILK: ITS CONSTITUENTS, &c. 43
for if the milk is allowed to remain on the fire after
the bubbles appear beneath the cake of cream the
process fails.
The plan of scalding the cream is very useful in
small dairies, where only one or two cows are kept,
as the cream keeps much longer without becoming
sour, and may be kept until a sufficient quantity is
collected to make it into butter.
41. Skimmed Milk. The milk remaining after
the cream has been removed is termed skimmed
milk. If used before it becomes sour it is of great
value as food ; where new milk cannot be obtained,
its use is of very great importance ; for puddings it is
almost equal to fresh milk, as the place of the cream
that has been removed can be supplied by adding half
an ounce of suet or dripping to every pint of milk.
When fresh milk cannot be obtained for children, the
use of good skimmed milk is of the greatest benefit.
It is sometimes the case that the skimmed milk
has been so long kept, that, although not sour, it
will curdle when heated. This may be prevented by
adding a pinch of common carbonate of soda to it
before boiling ; and in the same manner unskimmed
milk that is " on the turn " may be boiled for bread
and milk or puddings, without curdling, by the use
of a very small quantity of carbonate of soda.
42. The Curd which is dissolved both in milk and
in skimmed milk separates in a solid form as they
become sour. The quantity of curd, like that of the
cream, varies considerably in different samples of
milk. The curd when separated from the milk by
the use of rennet (a fluid obtained by soaking in
water the digestive stomach of the calf), and pressed
44 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
out and dried, forms cheese, which varies very much
in quality and in its value as food. Cheese made
from fresh milk contains nearly the whole of the
cream, and is more digestible and useful as food
than that which is made from skimmed milk, which
is very hard and digested with difficulty, although it
contains a great amount of albumenoid substances.
In all situations in which milk can be obtained, it
is far preferable to use it as food in a fresh state
than to employ the cheese obtained from it. The
whey which remains after the separation of the curd
contains the sugar of milk and the mineral ingre-
dients. Where neither fresh nor skimmed milk can
be procured, whey is a useful article of food.
43. butter is obtained from cream by the operation
of churning; during this the thin skin of curd sur-
rounding each globule of butter is broken, and the
butter unites into a solid mass. Sometimes the
butter refuses to " come j " this usually arises from
the temperature being either too high or too low.
Butter can be obtained most readily from either milk
or cream at a temperature of 60 Fahrenheit, and
cold or warm water should be added to the cream or
milk, so as to obtain that degree of heat. When
churned, the butter should be well washed, so as to
remove every trace of curd, which, if left, soon
putrefies and renders it rancid, and then salted.
Butter may be made from scalded or clotted
cream by stirring briskly with the hand for a few
minutes.
Butter is an expensive article of food, and its
value is no greater than that of any other soft fat,
such as dripping, lard, or the melted fat of good
CH. vi.] MILK: ITS CONSTITUENTS, &c. 45
bacon. Hence, where economy is an object, these
may be advantageously substituted for it.
44. The use of milk for food is not sufficiently
valued in this country. Young children can hardly
be reared in health without it. When first swallowed
it is made into a soft curd by the acids of the
stomach, and in this state is readily digested. In
dairy countries skimmed milk should be largely used
by those children whose parents are unable to obtain
fresh miik, as it is, if not sour, the cheapest form in
which animal food can be obtained.
45. Milk is seldom adulterated with anything
except water, which may be detected with
sufficient accuracy by means of two instru-
ments termed milk-testers. The most useful
of these consists of a long tube, containing
100 parts of milk; this is numbered from
the top downwards. When filled with milk to
the upper line, and allowed to stand twenty--
four hours, the number of parts of cream
that have risen to the surface may be seen,
and the richness of the milk ascertained.
From the height of the glass tube all the cream
does not rise, so that the milk appears poorer than it
really is.
In some of the large Union houses the milk is paid
for according to the quantity of cream it contains,
10 parts in 100 being regarded as a fair quantity, and
a larger amount being paid for at a greater rate, and
a less amount at a smaller.
As rnilk is heavier than water in the proportion of
1030 to 1000, its quality is sometimes tested by an
instrument to ascertain its weight \ the stem of this
46 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
lactometer floats higher in the heavier pure milk than
it does if it is diluted with water. But this method
of testing is not so good as that first described, as
the milk is rendered heavier and apparently better by
the removal of the cream.
46. Preserved Milk is now largely used in cities,
on shipboard, and in situations where fresh milk
is not to be readily obtained. It is made by eva-
porating nearly the whole of the water of the milk,
and adding sugar. If well prepared it is perfectly
wholesome, and is very valuable as an article of diet
where fresh milk cannot be obtained.
CHAPTER VII.
FLOUR : ITS CONSTITUENTS, STARCH,
SUGAR BREAD-MAKING PASTRY, &c.
47. Flour. The flour of wheat is that usually
employed for making bread in this country. Wheaten
flour, like all valuable foods, consists of several dis-
tinct substances. These may be separated from each
other very readily.
If a little dough, made of moistened flour, is tied
up in a piece of muslin, and kneaded for some time
between the fingers in a large basin of water, the
latter becomes milky from the starch of the flour
being washed out into it. If this water is allowed to
stand at rest, the starch settles at the bottom in the
form of a fine white powder. The water contains
dissolved in it a small quantity of sugar, gum, and
the other soluble substances of the flour.
When the whole of the starch has been washed
through the muslin, a greyish tough substance, like
very soft indiarubber remains. This is gluten, which
forms about 10 per cent, of the flour, the starch being
nearly 70 per cent, and the sugar and gum 7 per cent,
the remaining parts being made up of water, mineral
substances, and indigestible fibre.
48 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
48. Starch is one of the most important of all
vegetable foods. It does not contain any albumenoid
substances and cannot therefore supply the materials
of which our bodies are formed ; taken by itself, it
would not long support life, nor enable a young
animal to grow ; but it is the source of the warmth
of our bodies and of the strength we exert, in this
respect resembling fat and the other oleaginous foods
with which it is classed.
As obtained in a pure state, it consists of very
minute grains, each covered with an outer skin which
is perfectly insoluble in and unchanged by water ;
hence pure starch is unaffected by moisture, and may
be washed without change.
In boiling water these grains crack, and the interior
of each dissolves in the water, forming a thick, gummy
solution. A similar change takes place if starch is
baked, when it becomes soluble and forms what is
called British Gum, which is used in stiffening muslins
and cementing postage stamps, &c. Several nearly
pure starches are largely used as food. Tapioca is
a very pure starch, which is slightly heated during its
preparation, and rendered partially soluble in cold
water.
Sago is a starch obtained from the interior of
the stem of a palm tree. It also is heated in its
preparation.
Arrowroot is a very pure starch, obtained in the
form of a white powder. Potatoe-starch may be
easily prepared by grating well washed large potatoes
into water and allowing time for the starch to settle
at the bottom, when the water with the vegetable fibre
may be poured away, fresh water being added, and
CH. vii.] FLOUR: ITS CONSTITUENTS, &c. 49
the starch washed repeatedly until the water can be
poured off perfectly clear, when the starch may be
dried on cloths and is ready for use.
Prepared in this manner, potato-starch may be used
in the place of arrowroot, for which it is often sold,
as food it is not at all inferior in value.
The preparations sold under the names of Corn-
flour and Maizena are pure starches obtained from
maize or Indian corn by the removal of all the
albumenoid and other substances. Their value as
food is precisely the same as that of arrowroot or other
starchy articles, and, like them, when combined with
milk and eggs, they form very advantageous articles
of diet.
All starches are useless for food, if taken alone.
To render them valuable they require the addition of
albumenoid and fatty substances. These may be fur-
nished by the addition of milk. By 'placing about two
ounces of tapioca, rice, or sago in the bottom of a
baking-dish, with a little sugar and butter, or dripping,
pouring over a quart of cold milk and baking for
about an hour in a slow oven, a very economical and
valuable pudding results.
49. Starch, in its uncooked insoluble state, is not
capable of digestion by the human stomach ; hence
all uncooked starchy articles should be avoided.
Seeds and fruits which consist chiefly of starch, espe-
cially if it is combined with oil, as is the case in
almonds, hazel and other nuts, are remarkably difficult
of digestion.
The perfect digestion of articles of food that con-
tain starch depends greatly on the action of the saliva
of the mouth with which they are mixed during
50 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
mastication, consequently, it is of great importance to
cause children to eat all starchy articles, as potatoes,
bread, rice, &c. slowly, and to masticate them
thoroughly. It is of much greater consequence to
chew potatoes and bread well than meat ; but all
substances are more easily digested if eaten slowly.
50. Sugar in its value as food closely resembles
starch, but being soluble and more readily digested,
is especially fitted for children, by whom it is
greatly relished. It is unfortunately not so econo-
mical as starch, and consequently, except with very
young children, is only to be regarded as a luxury.
Sugar was formerly obtained almost entirely from the
sugar-cane ; but at the present time very large quan-
tities are made on the continent of Europe from beet-
root. This sugar is now largely used in this country ;
but its power of sweetening is not as great as that
of cane-sugar. Treacle, which is an impure syrup
obtained in producing white or refined sugar from the
moist, or raw sugar, is largely used by the poor ; but
it is not so economic a food as sugar itself, though
convenient and useful in sweetening bread and for
making puddings, &c.
Sugar has a very great preservative power, con-
sequently is largely used in making preserves, and it
or treacle is most useful to assist in preparing hams,
bacon, &c.
51. Bread in this country is made of wheaten flour.
Wheat when ground produces what is calkd whole
meal. This may be separated by sifting into several
distinct substances. The outer skin, which is in large
scales, is called Bran. This, contrary to a very
prevalent opinion, has no nutritive value whatever.
CH, VIL] FLOUR: ITS CONSTITUENTS, &c. 51
It is not capable of being digested, but irritates the
digestive organs, sometimes to a very injurious extent.
The inner skins are called pollard, sharps, and
middlings. The pollard, or coarsest, should be re-
moved from the flour ; but the finer inner skins,
which constitute the middlings, contain a large pro-
portion of albumenoid and oily substances, and it is
economical to allow them to remain. The very finest
and most expensive flour from which all the outer
portions have been removed is termed pastry whites.
That which is not so finely sifted is termed house-
holds, or seconds, though the latter is usually made
from wheat of slightly inferior quality, and is
consequently cheaper.
In consequence of the tenacious character of the
gluten of the wheat, flour when mixed with water
forms a tough dough. If yeast is added with the
water a slight fermentation is caused, and gas is pro-
duced which cannot escape owing to the tough nature
of the dough. This gas fills the dough with air-
bubbles, which cause it to swell or rise, and form
when baked a light spongy bread.
52. Bread-making. In order to make the bread
as light and spongy as possible, bakers mix a small
quantity of the flour they are about to use with water
and the yeast and set it to rise some time before
mixing up the mass of dough ; this is called by them
" setting the sponge." The advantage of this plan
over that usually employed in making " home-made
bread " is that a smaller quantity of yeast is required ;
and, as the whole " sponge " acts as a ferment, the
bread is much better and softer than if made in the
ordinary manner. To increase the fermenting qualities
52 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
of the sponge, bakers always add a small quantity of
mashed boiled potato, which greatly quickens the
rising of the dough.
To make half a peck of flour into bread on this
system, take three-quarters of a pound of well-boiled
mealy potatoes and mash them through a cullender or
coarse sieve into a large pan, mix with them a pint of
flour ; take an ounce and a half of German dried yeast,
mix it in a separate basin with a pint and a half of
lukewarm water, 1 and strain into the flour and pota-
toes; beating the whole well into a batter. This should
then be covered with a blanket and set to rise by the
side of the fire, or in a warm place. If kept quite warm
it will be found to have risen greatly in two hours, con-
stituting the sponge. This, which is very tenacious or
gluey, should then be perfectly beaten or broken down
with the hand, and mixed with one pint and a half of
water nearly blood-warm ( 92 Fall.) and poured into
half a peck of flour, which has previously had one
ounce and a quarter of salt mixed with it. The whole
should then be kneaded into dough, and allowed to
rise in a warm place. In warm weather it will rise
sufficiently in two hours ; but in cold weather it will
take a longer time. After the dough has risen, it
should be turned out on a floured table or paste-board,
divided into pieces of the size required for loaves, and
lightly kneaded up into shape, with sufficient flour to
prevent its adhering to the table. 2
If required to be made into lighter bread, a portion
J The right temperature is 88 Fahrenheit thermometer.
2 Directions for making bread without setting the sponge will
be found in the Appendix.
CH. vii.] FLOUR : ITS CONSTITUENTS, &c. 53
of the dough, when ready for the oven, should be very
well kneaded, with sufficient flour to make it rather
solid, divided into small loaves or rolls, placed on a
slightly greased tin, and set in a very warm place to
rise again. The loaves are then washed over with a
little milk and baked immediately for about twenty
minutes. They should be covered over with cloth
after removal from the oven, to prevent the outside
becoming hard.
Bakers' bread sometimes contains a small propor-
tion of alum ; this is added to inferior flour, made
from wheat harvested in wet seasons, in order to
prevent it making sticky and uneatable bread.
Bread contains nearly half its weight of water ;
good freshly ground flour absorbing or taking up a
larger quantity than such as has been long exposed to
the air.
Newly baked bread is much less digestible than
that which has been baked the previous day. Stale
bread may be rendered soft and palatable by cover-
ing it closely with a tin and placing it for half an hour
in an oven very moderately heated.
Pulled Bread, which is very useful with cheese or
in place of biscuit, is made by pulling the crumb of
a loaf in pieces with two forks and baking them in a
slack oven until of a very pale brown colour.
Pastry differs from bread in being made with a
proportion of fat, as suet, dripping, lard or butter. It
is not as easily digested as bread, though very nutri-
tious, and is therefore not suited for invalids. Direc-
tions for making the most useful kinds will be found
in the Appendix.
53. Baking Powder is usually employed for
54 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
raising unfermented bread, and is also of great use in
making pastry, cakes, &c. It consists of substances
that effervesce or give out a gas when moistened. The
best baking powder may be very cheaply made by
mixing two ounces of bicarbonate of soda, one ounce
and a quarter of tartaric acid, and a quarter of a pound
of corn flour, or ground rice. These ingredients
should be quite dry, and perfectly mixed by passing
them twice through a sieve. The powder should be
kept in a canister or bottle closely corked, so as to
prevent its becoming moist. The preparations sold
as egg powder are of a similar character and use, but
they do not add to the nutritious value of the food in
the same manner as eggs. Patent and self-raising
flour is merely flour to which soda and tartaric acid
has been added.
54. Oatmeal. Oatmeal though highly nutritive
does not contain a tough and adhesive gluten like that
of wheat, and cannot therefore be made into fer-
mented bread. It is largely used in the north of
England and in Scotland in the form of oatcakes and
porridge. Oatcakes are made by moistening the meal,
so as to make it adhesive, and rolling it into thin cakes,
which are baked on a hot plate, The best method
of making porridge is to strew oatmeal with one hand
into a vessel of boiling water (to which salt has been
previously added), so gradually that it does not be-
come lumpy, stirring the mixture all the time with the
other hand. After about two large handfuls of coarse
oatmeal have been stirred in to a quart of boiling water,
the whole should be allowed to stand by the side
of the fire, so as to simmer gently and thicken for
twenty or thirty minutes. Porridge is usually eaten
CH. VII.] FLO UR : ITS CONSTITUENTS, &c. 55
with milk. It is excellent for children, being very
nutritious, wholesome, and economical.
Oatmeal should only be purchased at places where
there is a quick sale for it, as it absorbs moisture
from the air, and very quickly becomes rancid and
unpleasant.
Barley, when its husk is taken off, is termed Scotch
or pearl barley, which is very useful in soups and
broth, it requires from two to four hours' cooking,
Rice from its cheapness is very largely used in this
country. It contains a less amount of albumenoid
substances than other grains, and scarcely any oily
material, being chiefly starch, hence it should always
be used with milk, eggs, and fatty substances. (47.)
When rice is the same price as household flour the
latter is by far the more economical food.
Maize is one of the cheapest of the corn
plants, but as it does not yield a tenacious dough,
cannot be made into light fermented bread. In
America, where it is largely used, it is employed as
oatmeal is in Scotland in making cakes and a kind
of porridge.
CHAPTER VIII.
PULSE, PEAS, BEANS, AND FRESH VEGE-
TABLES.
55. Peas, Beans, and Haricots are valuable
articles of food. They differ greatly from grain in
containing a less amount of starch and fat, and a
much larger quantity of albumenoid matter, which so
closely resembles the caseine of curd of milk that
cheese can be made of it. From their very dry and
hard nature they require good cooking to render them
easily digestible, and even when well cooked they do
not agree with all persons.
Peas. These are often used in the green state.
Dried peas are chiefly used in making soup, and in
this form they furnish a very"economical dish for strong
healthy persons from the quantity of albumenoid sub-
stance they contain, the addition of animal food is
scarcely required; the liquor, however, in which
meat has been boiled or stewed may be used with
advantage. Pea-soup may also be made exceedingly
savoury without meat, by previously frying the
vegetables, the celery, carrots, onions, or leeks in
dripping, with a little flour, until of a brown colour,
and then adding them to the soup. The quality of
peas varies very much ; some are good boilers, others
even after long continued boiling, do not soften so as
CH. viii. j PULSE, PEAS, BEANS, &c. tf
to mix with the water, and are, therefore, unfit for
soup; good boilers readily dissolve in two or three
hours. Dried peas should not be used in the whole
state, as the shells or skins are exceedingly indigestible.
Haricots are the seeds of white kidney and run-
ner beans. They are greatly used on the continent
as a vegetable and in soups. When required as a
vegetable they should be placed in water the previous
night so as to soak thoroughly, they then require
less boiling and are softer; when cooked they are
eaten with meat, gravy, melted dripping or butter.
The seeds of any of the varieties of French bean
or scarlet runner may be employed in a similar man-
ner, but from the colour of the skins they are less
sightly on the table.
Lentils are largely used on the continent in the
same manner as dried peas are in England.
Ground lentil flour is sold as " Revalenta " for
the use of invalids, but it is only fitted for persons of
strong digestion.
56. Fresh Vegetables, The use of fresh green
vegetables is necessary to health. Persons deprived of
them for any great length of time, as sailors sometimes
are at sea, become subject to a very serious and fatal
disease termed scurvy. The number of fresh vege-
tables used as food is very great, but the most valuable
are potatoes, cabbages, turnips, carrots, parsnips, and
onions. Peas and beans are also largely used in a
green state.
57. Potatoes. The potato contains about three-
quarters of its weight of water. The solid matter is
principally starch ; the saline substances it contains,
however, render it valuable as a fresh vegetable ; the
58 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
addition of a few pounds of potatoes weekly to the
diet of sailors, &c., is most effectual in preventing
scurvy ; the potato also contains a peculiar sub-
stance, having an extremely nauseous and unplea-
sant taste ; this is in great part driven off by the heat
employed in cooking ; some, however, remains in the
water in which potatoes are boiled, giving it a dis-
agreeable taste and smell ; consequently in making an
Irish stew, or soup in which potatoes are used, it is
desirable to boil them by themselves in the first place
and throw away the water in which they are boiled.
Potatoes should be cooked with their skins on,
except when baked under meat ; for if peeled before
boiling, there is great waste, as well as considerable
loss of time; they can also be cooked to a much
greater degree of perfection when boiled unpeeled.
Many kinds of potatoes are much better steamed
than boiled, and there is less risk of their being badly
cooked. It should be borne in mind, however, that,
as the condensed steam runs back into the saucepan
underneath, the water becomes contaminated, and
imparts an unpleasant taste to any food boiled in it.
58. Cabbages. All the plants of the cabbage
tribe, such as savoys, greens, kail ; &c. 7 are very
valuable articles of food. Like most green vegetables
they contain only one tenth of their weight of solid
substance, the other nine-tenths being water. Cab-
bages when well boiled are very wholesome food.
They consist chiefly of albumenoid substances, with
no fat or oil and very little starch. Consequently
they should be eaten with fat substances, as dripping
or bacon, to supply the deficiency.
All green vegetables should be cooked in soft
CH. viii.] PULSE, PEAS, BEANS, &>c. 59
water ; where this cannot be had a very small quantity
of soda may be used; and in order to soften the
water as much as possible, it should be made to boil
rapidly before the greens are put in ; it should also
boil quickly during the whole time the green vegetables
are cooking, or they will become brown.
Turnips also contain about ninety per cent, of
water; the solid part is very nutritious, easily digested,
and wholesome. Turnips are used as fresh vegetables,
and flavour soups, broths, &c.
Boiled turnips pressed so as to get rid of the water,
and mashed up with a little butter or dripping, pepper
and salt, supply a very valuable article of food.
Carrots and Parsnips are more nutritive than
turnips ; they can be kept many months if the tops are
cut out and they are placed in damp sand.
Onions. Onions and leeks owe their flavour to a
volatile pungent oil ; if eaten uncooked they are not
easily digested, but when boiled or roasted, they are
nutritious and wholesome they contain a large amount
of albumenoid matter. They are also largely used
for flavouring stews and soups.
59. Fresh Fruits, such as apples, gooseberries,
oranges, pears, &c., are very important foods ; the
health of children can hardly be preserved without
their use, and they suffer greatly if deprived of
them.
Nuts and dried fruits, such as figs, raisins, &c., do
not possess the beneficial action of fresh fruits, and
nuts are very difficult of digestion.
CHAPTER IX.
CONDIMENTS: SALT, PEPPER, SPICES, &c.
60. THE most important condiments are salt, pep-
per, and mustard of these salt alone is a necessary
of life. The others are useful if used in small
quantity to render food more palatable, but employed
in large quantity they are injurious, and not required
by the young, whose powers of digestion are good.
6 1. Salt is absolutely essential to health, and even
to life. It is one of the most abundant of all
minerals \ in many places it is found in the earth in
great quantities. Sea water contains three parts in
every hundred ; it is found in small amount in all
soils, in spring and river water, and in all those
vegetables which are used for the food of man and
animals.
Salt when taken in the food supplies two substances,
an acid which helps to form the sour fluid of the
stomach that digests our food, and soda, which is the
bile, a fluid which must be added to the dissolved or
softened food before the nourishment can be extracted
from it. If persons are compelled to live without
salt, or on such food as does not contain a sufficient
quantity, they become ill. The quantity of salt each
CH. ix.] CONDIMENTS: SALT, PEPPER, &c. 61
person requires is between a quarter to half an
ounce daily. A large part of this is contained in the
various articles of food and drink.
Salt possesses the power of preserving meat and
other substances. It acts by removing a large pro-
portion of the liquid parts. The injurious effect of
salted meat, when used for a lengthened period, has
already been described (27).
Salt is largely employed in some countries in pre-
serving green vegetables for winter use. Thus French
beans may be kept for many months by cutting them
in slices, packing them in a jar with layers of salt, and
pressing them down so that no part comes above the
brine, which flows out. If tied over and placed in a
cool situation they will keep a long time, and are ready
for use as soon as the salt brine is washed away. In
many countries cabbages and cucumbers and other
vegetables are preserved in the same manner.
Salt should always be taken with our meals, for a
sufficient quantity does not exist in our food to supply
the wants of the body.
62. Vinegar. Vinegar is an acid liquid, obtained
in this country by allowing a kind of weak beer to
become sour.
It has the power of preventing substances putrefy-
ing, and is used for this purpose in making pickles.
If taken with our food in small quantity it helps us
to digest many substances that are difficult of diges-
tion ; in large quantity it is very injurious. It is
employed in cookery to assist in softening the fibres
of tough meat, 1 and to pickle fish, vegetables, &c.
1 See directions for making Brazilian Stew in Appendix,
Fifth Lesson.
62 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
Pickled vegetables, as onions, cabbage, &c., are very
difficult of digestion, and if taken in large quantity are
decidedly injurious.
63. Mustard is one of the most common condi-
ments. If used in small quantity it promotes the
appetite and increases the digestive power, but taken
too freely it irritates the stomach and is very injurious.
As a medicine mustard is of very great use, spread on
calico and applied to the skin it relieves internal
inflammation, by drawing the blood to the surface,
in this manner it often relieves the most violent pain,
and may be safely used in the absence of medical
aid.
64. Pepper is the spice most frequently employed
in this country ; like other spices it is useful in sea-
soning, but great care should be taken not to use it in
large quantity, as it injures the stomach and renders
the digestion of plain food difficult. Children should
not be accustomed to highly spiced and seasoned
dishes.
CHAPTER X.
BEVERAGES : TEA, COFFEE, COCOA, BEER, &c.
65. Tea is more used in this country than any
other unintoxicating beverage. Taken in moderate
quantity it is not injurious, but in large quantity it
is hurtful, especially to persons who are not well
fed. Tea is best made in an earthenware teapot,
which should be kept dry, for if allowed to remain
damp after use it acquires a musty flavour. The
water should be boiling, and, if possible, soft; when
hard water is used, it may be softened by being
kept boiling for half-an-hour, when the lime which
causes the hardness is partly thrown down, forming
what is called fur or rock on the kettle ; or a very
small quantity of carbonate of soda may also be used,
or the tea may be allowed to remain soaking for half-
an-hour by the fire-side, or be covered over with a
woollen cover to prevent the escape of heat. As a
general rule, the harder the water the longer the tea
should be allowed to remain before use, care being
taken to keep its temperature as near as practicable
to that of the boiling point.
66. Coffee is more stimulating than tea. If taken
immediately after a meal, it appears to assist the
^HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY*
digestion. Like tea, if drunk strong, it produces
wakefulness, which sometimes lasts for many hours.
Coffee contains a bitter principle, but its flavour
.mainly depends upon a volatile substance which
is driven off by boiling ; to preserve its taste, it
should therefore be made without boiling. The
French coffee-pots, made of two Cylindrical vessels, the
upper having a metal strainer on which the ground
coffee is placed, and through which the clear infusion
runs into the lower one, are the best. The flavour of
coffee is also very greatly improved by the employment
of hot boiled milk.
Chicory is the root of a plant. When roasted it is
used with ground coffee to give colour and flavour ; it
is most advantageous to purchase it separately and
mix it in the proportion of one part to three or four
of coffee.
67. Cocoa. Cocoa and chocolate are prepared
from the crusted seeds of an American plant. The
kernels contain nearly half their weight of fat. Cocoa
is much more nutritious than tea or coffee, but not so
stimulating. Chocolate is made of the pure kernels
ground in a mill with sugar. Cocoa should con-
tain the ground kernels only, but the husks are
ground up with the cheaper kinds, which also contain
potato-starch, and earthy substances, as red ochre, &c.
Soluble cocoa contains a large proportion of starch,
which thickens when boiling water is poured upon it.
Genuine ground cocoa unmixed with other substances
cannot be sold under one shilling to fourteenpence
per pound.
Cocoa is a very wholesome and nutritious beverage,
and does not produce those effects which render tea
CH. x.] BEVERAGES: TEA, COFFEE, &c. 65
and coffee objectionable to some people; and is far
better for working men and for children.
68. Beer and other intoxicating drinks are taken
as luxuries. There is no doubt that they are not
necessaries of life. To children all stimulants are
particularly injurious ; and they are never taken
willingly, unless the child has been trained to use
them. If children are brought up without them their
strength and health are much better than those of
children who take them, and they can do more work
and endure more fatigue.
There is more support and strength to be obtained
from a pint of milk than a gallon of beer. To old
persons who have been accustomed to the use of
spirits and beer for many years they often become
necessary, but it is exceedingly wrong to teach children
to use them.
TEG.
PART II.
HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT,
CHAPTER XI.
THE HOME: CONDITIONS NECESSARY TO
HEALTH.
69. Good health and the power of working so as to
gain a comfortable living are impossible when persons
dwell in unhealthy and overcrowded homes. Many
circumstances render a house or dwelling unhealthy.
The neighbourhood of an overcrowded churchyard, or
a place where any unwholesome trade is carried on,
is always injurious to health. If a house is in a
narrow dark street, and the rooms face the north so
as not to be warmed by the sunshine, or if they are
closely shaded by trees, they always remain damp and
cold, and the health of the persons inhabiting them
suffers.
Houses in low situations, where the ground is
always damp, are never healthy, and fevers, rheuma-
tism, colds, and other diseases, are much more frequent
than in drier situations.
CH. XL] THE HOME, 6*. 67
70. In London and other large towns where the
houses are drained into the sewers, no house should
ever be lived in which is built over or near a cess-
pool, nor in which the drains allow an unpleasant
smell to escape, as fever is certain to attack the
inhabitants sooner or later. If cesspools are neces-
sary, as is the case where there are no sewers, they
should be placed at as great a distance as possible
from the house.
Earth closets are much more healthy than cesspools,
as, if well managed, they do not give out any offensive
smell ; the use of any patent apparatus is not neces-
sary; any outdoor closet may be made into an earth
closet by placing a stout well-pitched drawer or box
beneath the seat, arranged so as to pull out behind
when required to be emptied, and a box of dried
earth, with a scoop in the inside, is all else that is
necessary. Or the seat may be made to lift up, and
a large galvanized iron pail placed below, which can
be removed and emptied when necessary ; very little
earth is required if no slops are thrown into the pail.
Slops should not be thrown into an earth closet.
71. The homes of working men in London and
other large towns are generally greatly overcrowded,
and without proper sleeping-rooms. When a family
is obliged to dwell in one or two rooms, it is impos-
sible that they can live healthily or decently. Bed-
rooms should be of good size, and each one should
have a fire-place and chimney, which should never be
closed by a board, as the current of air passing up the
chimney helps to ventilate the room. It is not possible
to state any exact size for bedrooms as the air in a small
room properly ventilated may be purer than a large
68 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
one that is closed up. A room 12 feet square by
10 feet in height, would contain 1,440 cubic feet of
air. In barracks this would only be regarded as
space for two men, and in the best hospitals for
one patient.
In the country every cottage for a working man
with a grown up family should have three bedrooms
one for the husband and wife, one for the elder boys,
and a third for the girls. One of these bedrooms at
least should have a fire-place, to be used in case of
illness ; and for the sake of ventilation, it is better
that each one should be so provided.
Every cottage should have a living-room not less
than 12 feet square, and a small scullery or wash-
house. A small pantry for food is necessary ; this
should have a window able to be opened outside
of the cottage into the air. A place for tools, and
another for fuel, are desirable. Every house should
have a back as well as a front door, so that by open-
ing both in summer thorough ventilation may be
effected. If the front door opens into the sitting-room,
there is in cold weather a great loss of heat each
time the door is opened, and the sudden change of
temperature often gives rise to colds and coughs,
tiie front door should always be made to open into
a porch or lobby.
72. The following designs for a pair of cottages for
agricultural labourers, show the smallest accomoda-
tion that is necessary for health. 1
73. Furniture. Good well-made articles of furni-
1 They are from the publications of " The Society for Im-
proving the Condition of the Labouring Classes." Exeter Hall,
W.C.
CH. XI.]
THE HOME,
69
ture are much more lasting than those of inferior
quality, and are really the cheapest. Therefore it
is much better to purchase furniture of a durable
kind, although the first cost is greater.
Articles purchased at cheap shops are always made
of bad materials and are very much the dearest.
DOUBLE COTTAGES FOR THE COUNTRY.
It is desirable in a working man's house not to use
furniture which requires much time and trouble in
cleaning; glass and earthenware are more readily
cleaned than any other substances, and, for many
purposes, are preferable to metal.
Iron bedsteads are better than wooden ones, as they
do not harbour insects, are easily cleaned, and very
70 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
durable. The laths may be prevented from becom-
ing rusty by laying a piece of coarse canvas or old
GROUND FLOOR PLAN.
UPPER FLOOR PLAN.
carpet over them ; waterproof materials should not
be used under the mattress as they prevent the damp
CH. XL] THE HOME, &c. 71
escaping, when the bedding decays quickly and the
bed remains cold and damp. On getting up in the
morning the bed-clothes should be thrown across the
foot of the bed or on the backs of some chairs, and
aired for two or three hours before the bed is made ;
making the bed immediately on rising is a very
bad plan, as the sheets are charged with the moisture
of the perspiration which has passed out of the skin
during the night.
Mattresses are cheaper and more healthy to use than
soft feather beds; and curtains which keep the foul
air that has been breathed round the sleepers should
not be used.
74. It is very undesirable to buy furniture or cloth-
ing of the hawkers known as Tallymen, who call at
working men's houses, and sell showy and inferior
goods, to be paid for by small payments of sixpence
or a shilling per week. The articles are generally
purchased by the wife, often without the knowledge
of the husband, who becomes liable for the debt.
Should the payments not be kept up, the husband is
summoned to the County Court, and ordered to pay
so much a week or month ; after a judgment has been
obtained, if only one of these instalments be left
unpaid, the whole balance becomes instantly due,
and everything the debtor has can be seized by
the brokers and sold by auction immediately.
CHAPTER XII.
WATER SUPPLY: QUALITIES OF WATER,
INFLUENCE ON HEALTH; WASHING,
COOKING, &c.
75. THE goodness of the water used by us is of
very great importance. Many more diseases are
caused by bad water than even by bad food. Water
forms three-quarters of our weight, and before any part
of our food can be taken into our bodies it must be
dissolved in the watery fluids of the stomach. All
fresh vegetables contain a very large proportion of
water. Thus potatoes consist of three-quarters, and
turnips and cabbage of upwards of nine-tenths, of their
weight of this liquid. Even the driest vegetable sub-
stances contain a large proportion. Dry wheaten flour
has fifteen pounds of water in every hundred ; this is
driven off by the heat when it is baked in making
infant's food ; 1 and bread contains one third of its
weight of water.
76. Water has so great a power of dissolving other
substances, that it is not found anywhere in a perfectly
pure state, but has always in it mineral substances,
sometimes decaying vegetable and even animal mate-
rials derived from the soil or earth thrcugh which it
flows, and gases and odours absorbed from the air.
1 See Appendix, First Lesson.
OF THE
CH. xii. ] WA TER SUPJ&y[g?&g$ *&$ 73
77. In large towns water is usually supplied by the
water companies through pipes, having been obtained
from rivers. The water is generally supplied only for
a short time each day, and the quantity received has
to be stored up in cisterns or water-butts. These
should be very frequently cleaned out, as the impurities
of the water settle at the bottom and are stirred up
each time the fresh water comes in. Water-butts and
cisterns should never be placed near any decaying
matters, such as manure heaps, or in close underground
cellars, or near cesspools or drains, as the water very
quickly absorbs the gases and bad smells arising from
such substances, and becomes unwholesome. Water
standing for a night in a close or crowded room
absorbs the impure air and becomes unpleasant to
the taste and injurious to health. When the waste or
overflow pipe from a cistern runs into a drain the foul
air rises up the pipe and renders the water unwhole-
some, and the same evil arises if the cistern supplies
a water-closet.
78. River water varies very much in quality, that
from some rivers contains a great amount of decaying
matter from the sewers and drains that run into them ;
such water should not be used if it is possible to
avoid it, but if no other can be obtained, it should be
filtered and boiled before being drunk, or used in
preparing food.
All river water contains a small proportion of chalk,
or carbonate of lime, dissolved in it. If the quantity
is large the water is said to be hard the greater the
proportion of chalk the harder the water. The water
of the river Thames, with which the greater part of
London is supplied, contains fourteen grains of chalk
74 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
in each gallon. Very little chalk (only two grains in
every gallon) can be dissolved by pure water. The
large quantity found in river and spring water is dis-
solved by means of a gas, called carbonic acid gas,
which is always present. When the water is heated
this gas is driven off in small bubbles, which may be
seen just before the water reaches the boiling point ;
the chalk is then thrown down in a solid form,
rendering the water slightly cloudy or turbid, and
afterwards it settles down on the sides and bottoms
of boilers or kettles forming the rock or fur which
is always found in old boilers.
When green vegetables are boiled in hard water,
the chalk causes them to be of a dull colour ; and
when clothes are boiled in hard water, as is sometimes
done in washing, the rock or fur settles on them,
causing them to be of a bad colour, the dirt being
fixed in the clothes.
When hard water is used for cooking or washing it
is best to boil it for a few minutes before using it, as
then the fur is thrown down on the sides of the
boiler, and not on the food or clothes. Hard water
is not good for making tea, as the strength of the
tea-leaves is very slowly extracted.
The bad effects of hard water in cooking may be
partly remedied by using a small quantity of carbonate
of soda, or even common washing soda, this softens
the water, but if much be added it gives a soapy, un-
pleasant taste ; as much as would cover a sixpenny-
piece may be added to a large saucepan of greens,
and about a quarter as much to a large teapot of tea.
79. Spring or well water differs very much in
purity, that which is collected in shallow wells should
CH. xii.] WATER SUPPLY QUALITIES, &c. 75
never be used in places that are thickly populated or
highly manured, for the water is rendered impure by
the decaying animal and vegetable substances in the
soil, and becomes very unwholesome.
When shallow wells are situated near cesspools or
drains, the water becomes quite poisonous, and gives
rise to cholera, fevers, and other fatal diseases. The
water of wells situated in large cities, or near grave-
yards, is always to be avoided.
80. The water from deep wells is generally free
from any decaying vegetable matter or drainage, and
is wholesome as a beverage, but it most frequently is
excessively hard from containing a large amount of
chalk dissolved in it.
8 1. Rain water is very pure if collected in country
districts where there is but little smoke, but in towns
it is always blackened by soot It is very soft, being
perfectly free from mineral substances, and if collected
in proper tanks free from leaves of trees and other
decaying substances is very well fitted for cooking,
drinking and washing.
CHAPTER XIII.
AIR AND VENTILATION.
82. The Air we breathe is necessary to purify the
blood and to support life. Air, though invisible, is a
material substance, a quantity of it in a bladder or air-
tight bag prevents the sides being pressed together ; it
also possesses weight ; a box, each side of which is one
foot square (or one cubic foot), contains one ounce
and a quarter of air. The air in a room twelve feet
square and ei & ht feet in height weighs ninety pounds.
83. Air is not a simple substance, but a mixture of
several gases. The most important of these is oxy-
gen, which forms one-fifth part of its bulk. It is the
oxygen which purifies the blood when we breathe, and
it also enables combustible substances to burn when
set on fire. The remaining four-fifths of the air consist
chiefly of nitrogen, which serves to dilute the oxygen
and render it milder, otherwise both our breathing
and the burning of fires would go on too rapidly.
84. The breathing of men and animals and the
burning of fuel take away part of the oxygen of the
air, and its place is supplied by a gas called carbonic
CH. xiii.] AIR AND VENTILATION. 77
acid. This is very injurious if breathed. Air con-
taining only one-thousandth part ( 10 1 00 ) of carbonic
acid destroys health if breathed for any length of time.
In crowded places, or in bed or sitting-rooms when
the doors and windows have been kept closed for
some time after they have been occupied, the air often
contains two or three times as much of this poisonous
gas, or from two to three parts in a thousand. If this
air is breathed for any length of time it speedily causes
headache, weariness, and loss of strength. Persons
who spend great part of their lives in rooms filled
with bad air become pale and sickly, and are liable
to many more diseases than those living in pure air.
85. The air always contains a considerable quantity
of moisture, which varies very much at different times
of the year and in different places. When the quan-
tity of moisture is so great that it settles upon objects
and makes them damp, it is injurious to health ; and
houses in which the walls and foundations are damp
are always unhealthy.
A large quantity of moisture passes away from the
body in the air that is breathed out from the lungs,
and a great amount is produced by the burning of
gas and other lamps.
86. Not only is the air of close rooms and houses
rendered injurious by the carbonic acid and water
produced, but it is made still more poisonous by the
decaying animal matter which passes off in our
breath, and which is also given out by the walls and
floors of unclean houses, by dirty clothes, and by
that air which comes into the house through drains
or passes over stinking dust-bins and heaps of decaying
refuse.
^HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
Whenever a house smells close and fusty to a
person coming in out of the open air, it is always
unhealthy, and sooner or later will produce illness
in those who live in it. The good health that
persons who live in houses in open country places
enjoy is entirely owing to the pure air they breathe.
But even in country villages the air is often rendered
unwholesome by cesspools or dung-heaps being kept
close to the house, or by the filthy habit of throwing
the house-slops and dirty water on the ground close
to the door.
87. A full-grown person takes into his lungs about
two-thirds (f ) of a pint of air every time he breathes,
and when not breathing quickly, from running or
hard work, he usually does so about eighteen times
every minute ; this is equal to twelve cubic feet every
hour. This quantity of air weighs nearly one pound,
so that we actually take into our lungs nearly twenty-
four pounds of air every day, a greater weight than
our food and drink taken together.
88. The air that passes out of our lungs is quite
unfit to support life if breathed again, even when
mixed with ten times its bulk of pure air, therefore
the air in our living and sleeping rooms must be con-
stantly changed, or it would soon become poisonous.
Persons have often been killed by being shut up in
close rooms or in ships during storms.
The burning of a candle renders the air nearly as
impure as the breathing of a single person, and every
gas burner consumes a very much larger quantity.
89. The impure air that passes off from our bodies
and that produced by the burning of lamps and fires,
is always, from being heated, lighter than before, it
CH. xiii.] AIR AND VENTILATION. 79
therefore rises and at first collects in the upper part
of the room, unless it is allowed to escape.
In a room that has a fire-place a stream of air is
usually passing up the chimney, fresh air coming in
by the cracks round the doors and windows. No bed-
room should be slept in without a fire-place unless
ventilation is otherwise provided for ; even the quan-
tity of air coming in round the window and door is
not sufficient, it is therefore much better to sleep with
the window open. This may be done without causing
a draught, by placing a board three inches wide on its
edge under the lower sash, which is thus raised, caus-
ing a space between the two sashes in the centre of
the window ; through this the air enters and being
directed upwards does not cause a draught.
90. It is much more desirable to let the air come
into a bedroom through the window than through the
door, as the house being closed at night the air often
comes through the drains or damp cellars, and is not
as pure as that which comes from outside the house.
Gas is not desirable in close sitting or bedrooms, its
effect on the air being much more injurious than
candles or lamps.
CHAPTER XIV.
FIRING: STOVES, RANGES, AND ECONOMICAL
MANAGEMENT OF FUEL.
91. The fuel used for cooking our food and
warming our dwellings is usually coal or coke ; in some
parts wood or peat is employed, and occasionally
coal gas.
92. The heat produced during the burning of fuel
is given out when the carbon of the fuel unites with
the oxygen of the air, and carbonic acid gas is pro-
duced, as it is by the breathing of men and animals.
This poisonous gas usually passes up the chimney with
some unburned carbon which forms the smoke.
When charcoal is burnt, the carbonic acid is pro-
duced without smoke, and therefore it is often used in
stoves without chimneys, and the carbonic acid escap-
ing into rooms is frequently the cause of fatal accidents.
All stoves without flues or chimneys to carry off the
carbonic acid are dangerous, and many persons have
been poisoned by their having been used.
93. The heat produced by the burning of any kind
CH. xiv.] FIRING: STOVES, RANGES, &c. 81
of fuel makes the air in and around the fire much
lighter, and it rises rapidly over the fire, usually passing
up the chimney. More than nine-tenths ( T V) of the heat
of a common grate passes up the chimney in this
manner, and is wasted. If the grate is constructed of
thick solid metal, this conducts away a large quantity
of the heat so that it is impossible to keep in a very
small fire in an iron range, whereas a mere handful of
fuel can be kept alight in a grate lined with fire brick
or fire-clay which does not cool the burning fuel in the
same manner metal does. Part of the heat produced
is thrown out by the fire, and passes into the room. In
ordinary grates the amount of heat passing off in this
manner is very much lessened by the thick bars which
are frequently placed in the front of the grate.
94. Ordinary fire-grates are most extravagant modes
of using fuel, and are not employed by the people of
any other nation. Not only is a good deal of the
heat carried away up the chimney, and by the con-
ducting power of the iron, but the shape of the grate
and the bars also prevents much being thrown out
into the room.
95. An ordinary grate may^however, be made more
economical. If it be lined with bricks, tiles, or fire-
clay, and the open bars underneath be closed, either
by fire-clay or a piece of tin plate, the air will have
to enter in front where the fire will be brightest, and
no heat will be thrown down into the ash pit.
96. Cooking ranges with an oven on one side are
very useful in a small family. If well constructed they
will bake bread, meat, and pies or puddings very
perfectly.
Even when there is a low fire the oven can be used
82 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
for stewing, and slow cooking can be done on the top
much better than over a common fire.
A boiler by the side is not so important as an oven.
Boilers are liable to get filled with the deposit or rock
from the water ; and if they are of cast iron, they are
apt to crack.
As an example of a good cheap open range, the
following may be taken ; it has a fire-clay back to
IftltHtHHtt
prevent the heat passing away where it is not required,
a good sized oven with the door to let down in front,
and a boiler. Grates of this kind are now made by
many manufacturers, and are sold at a low price.
97. Cooking stoves are much more convenient
and economical in use than ranges. They are used by
almost all persons in America, and are now very largely
CH. xiv.] FIRING: STOVES, RANGES, &>f.
employed in this country. A very good pattern is
shown in the engraving. It has an open fire which
can be used for broiling and toasting. This fire is
quite under control, and can be raised or lowered in
a few minutes by opening or closing the doors so as
to cause a strong current of air to pass through the
burning fuel or over it as required. The size shown
will bake a joint as large as a leg of mutton, or two
tins of bread admirably.
The cooking vessels can be put down on the fire or
placed on the hot iron top, and shifted so as to receive
as much heat as required.
The stove can also be used as a hot plate for
84 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY,
preserving or stewing. The open fire is cheerful,
and the stove is a good heating stove as well as
cooking stove. Any large boiler placed on the top
will furnish an unlimited supply of hot water. If
placed in front of an open fire-place these stoves
require about six feet of iron pipe to be placed up the
chimney. Being perfectly movable they can be carried
by the owner from one house to another and placed
in front of any fire-place. They are sold by Smith
and Welstood, Ludgate Circus.
98. Gas-stoves. Gas when employed as ordinary
fuel is exceedingly expensive, being at least five or six
times as dear as coal. When the gas is burned inside
the oven in which meat is to be baked the vapour
arising from the burnt gas renders the meat sodden
and unpleasant, and quite different from the meat
cooked in an ordinary oven or before the open fire.
Gas can however be used as an occasional source
of heat with great economy as it is instantly lighted
and put out ; there is no waste of fuel or loss of time.
The best small gas stoves are those that can be placed
on a table and burn the gas mixed with air; when it
produces a pale blue flame which does not smoke
any vessel placed within it. These stoves are particu-
larly useful in heating a kettle of water in the summer
time, or when there are no fires in the house.
CHAPTER XV.
LIGHTING: CANDLES, PETROLEUM, BENZO-
LINE, AND GAS LAMPS, THEIR MANAGE-
MENT, ETC.
99. Flame, which gives the light employed in our
houses during the absence of the light of the sun, is
always produced by the burning or combustion of
inflammable gas.
When a candle is lit, the fat, wax, or other material
of which it is formed, is melted, then drawn upwards
into the flame by the attraction of the wick, it is there
heated so strongly that it is converted into gas, which
burns as fast as it is made, thus producing the flame.
In oil lamps the same happens, and in gas burners the
gas burns as it escapes.
100. The gas which is burnt to give us artificial
light, whether obtained from coals and supplied through
pipes, or produced in the burning of a lamp or candle,
consists chiefly of two substances, namely, hydrogen,
which is always a gas, and carbon, which when not
united with hydrogen or any other substance is usually
a black solid, like charcoal or soot.
86 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
i o i . Both these substances burn in the flame, uniting
with the oxygen of the air. The hydrogen in burning
forms water, a large quantity of which passes off from
every flame in the form of vapour or steam. Many
gas lights in a close room make the air very damp,
and the moisture they produce may often be seen
settling on the cold glass of the windows, or even run-
ning down the walls. The carbon or charcoal when
burnt forms carbonic acid, an invisible gas. When
there are many gas lights in a badly ventilated room,
or even one in a room that is not ventilated at all, the
air becomes very unwholesome from the presence of
carbonic acid gas.
102. If there is not enough air to enable both the
carbon and the hydrogen to burn, the hydrogen burns
first, and part of the carbon passes oft in the form
of smoke. By putting any cold pieces of metal, glass,
or earthenware into a flame, the carbon is prevented
from burning and settles on the metal or glass, cover-
ing it with black soot.
103. Candles, which were formerly very generally
used, give out very little light and are the dearest mode
of producing light.
Much may be learned of the nature of flame by
watching attentively that of a common candle ; at the
bottom is a pale blue light which is caused by the
fresh air rising against the flame and producing the
perfect burning of both the carbon and the hydrogen ;
in the interior of the flame is a dark centre which
consists of the unburnt inflammable gas rising from
the wick ; this cannot burn until it reaches the air
outside. The outside of the flame is very bright it is
there only the gas burns.
CH, xv.] LIGHTING. 87
If a small slip of wood be held for a moment
steadily across the centre of a flame, it will be seen
that the part in the middle is not burnt, only that
which was at the outside of. the flame.
104. The oil used in lamps is of two distinct
kinds. The fat greasy oils, such as seal or whale oil
from animals, and olive or colza oil from vegetables.
To obtain a good light from these fat oils it is necessary
to make the flame hollow, and admit air into the in-
terior, as is done in what is termed an Argand burner.
In order to cause a strong current of air through
the flame of an Argand, a tall glass chimney is requisite.
105. The mineral oils, called paraffin or petro-
leum oils, are the cheapest oils in use They contain a
very great amount of carbon or charcoal, and if they are
burned without a chimney this escapes into the air in
dark clouds of black smoke. These oils, therefore,
require to be burned in a properly constructed lamp,
so that sufficient air shall be sent against the flame to
consume all the carbon.
The best paraffin lamps are those with a single flat
wick, which is able to be turned to any required height
above the wick tube A, by small toothed wheels turned
by a handle, B. The large quantity of air required by
the flame rises up through the cone or cap c, and is
directed against the sides of the flame, producing a
complete combustion of the carbon, and a very
brilliant light.
Paraffin or petroleum oils were formerly sold con-
taining much volatile inflammable spirit. At the
present time no mineral lamp oil must be sold which
is dangerous.
Petroleum lamps are perfectly free from danger if
88 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
properly used. The oil-holder should be of glass, as
if made of metal, it is apt to become heated. The
lamps should always be filled before dark, and never
after being lighted.
Any oil spilled on the outside should be carefully
wiped off, or it will produce a disagreeable smell when
DIETZ'S FLAT WICK BURNER.
the lamp is used. To light a petroleum lamp the
glass chimney should be removed, then the wick turned
above the slit in the cone, and when lighted instantly
turned down again ; the chimney should then be put on
and the wick turned up so as to produce a large bright
flame without smoke, but so as to produce the full
flame, when the lamp burns without smell. -If the
flame is turned down low, there is no saving of oil,
CH. xv.] LIGHTING.
as a large quantity is sent off in vapour and produces
a most disagreeable smell.
1 06. Sponge or spirit lamps are made for using
the very inflammable spirit termed benzoline. They are
rilled with sponge or cotton wool which is moistened
with benzoline, the wick-holder is then screwed on and
the wick turned up level to the top; when lighted a
small flame, rather greater than that of a candle, is
produced. As the benzoline is very inflammable these
lamps should never be trimmed after dark, or near a
fire, as the vapour may take light. If trimmed in the
day-time, and only enough spirit poured in to moisten
the cotton wool, they are quite safe, and are the cheap-
est source of a small light. When used as night
lights they should always be placed under a chimney as
the vapour escapes and smells when they are turned
down low.
Coal gas is unquestionably the cheapest source of
light, but its economy is not so great as is generally
imagined ; the flame cannot always be brought
where it is wanted, consequently a much greater
amount of light is necessary than when movable
lamps are employed.
For small rooms, the two-hole, or fish-tail burner is
best, being cheap, simple, and capable of causing a
very perfect combustion of the gas. With this burner
the flame is spread out into a thin, flat sheet, by the
two currents of gas striking against one another. In
a fish-tail burner the gas should always be turned on
so as to cause a full-sized flame without flickering, as
otherwise the gas is not perfectly burnt. A large-sized
burner should not be used where a smaller one will
answer. The flame gives a much brighter and steadier
go HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
light when placed horizontally, with the flat sides
turned up and down, than when burned upright in a
glass globe, when the flame always flickers and is
injurious to the eyes. An ordinary- si zed fish-tail con-
sumes from three to four cubic feet of gas per hour,
and gives the light of from six to nine candles.
Where a great amount of light is required a circular
or Argand burner is more economical than the fish-tail.
In most burners the chimney is too high ; this causes
too strong a current of air, and a great loss of light
ensues. An Argand with a ring having fifteen holes,
should not have a chimney more than seven inches
high. Such a burner will consume about five cubic
feet of gas in an hour, and give an amount of light
equal to that of fifteen sperm candles.
In all cases where gas is used, the room should be
ventilated, or the air will become very unhealthy from
the great amount of carbonic acid and vapour of
water produced.
Explosions sometimes occur when gas has escaped
from a leaky pipe or a burner that has been left open.
The explosion is generally caused by some person
taking a lighted candle to discover the leakage, when
the escaped gas takes fire instantaneously, and burns
with a violent explosion. Whenever there is a strong
smell of escaped gas, the maincock at the meter should
be immediately turned, and the doors and windows
opened to allow the gas to escape. No attempt should
be made to search for the leak with a light, but notice
should instantly be given to a gas-fitter.
CHAPTER XVI.
CLEANING, WASHING, AND GENERAL
HOUSEWORK.
107. THE healthiness or unhealthiness of a house
depends very greatly upon its degree of cleanliness;
dirty, uncleaned houses are always more or less un-
healthy. In country places, where the ground around
a house is not paved with stone, care should be taken
that no puddles of dirty water remain close to the
house, as they not only render the air damp and
unwholesome, but cause much dirt to be brought in
on the feet.
Slops of dirty water, tea-leaves, coffee-grounds, &c.,
should never be thrown out near the house, as they
decay and are injurious.
All decaying vegetable and animal matter near a
house is injurious. Cabbage-leaves, potato and apple-
parings, and other waste vegetables should never be
thrown into the dust-bin, but should always be burnt ;
which can always be done if they are first dried by
throwing them at the back of the fire or in the ash-pit.
The dust-bins of houses in town should only be
92 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
used for ashes ; instead of using dust-bins, it is a
much better plan for the dust to be put into a
galvanized iron pail and carried away each day, as
is done in many towns.
1 08. The inside of the house not only becomes
dirty by the dust carried in by the air and the dirt
brought in by the feet, but from the odour or smell
given out by our skin, and by the lungs with the
breath.
This smell or odour is absorbed by all porous
substances, as the walls, floors, and ceilings ; it then
decays, and gives rise to that close, sickening, un-
wholesome smell, which is present in all dirty houses,
especially such as are overcrowded. No house with
such a smell can possibly be a healthy place to
live in. This animal effluvium, or smell of decay-
ing animal matter, is taken up by some substances
much more readily than others. Walls that are
covered with paper smell much more offensively than
those that are painted. And in rooms where one
paper has been pasted over another the whole thick-
nesses of paper become very offensive and injurious to
health. Painted or lime-washed walls are much
to be preferred to papered walls for crowded dwellings
and for all sleeping rooms.
Woollen garments, carpets, and curtains absorb
these smells freely, and give them out for a long
time. Rough wooden floors also take them up, and
consequently require frequent washing ; smoo thed
waxed, or painted floors are much preferable to rough
wooden ones.
109. The wholesomeriess of a dwelling is much
increased by its being frequently white-washed.
CH. xvi.] CLEANING, WASHING, &c. 93
White -wash is made by pouring water on cakes of
whiting, and stirring until the liquid is like a thin
cream, when a small quantity of warm size or dissolved
glue is then added, to prevent the colour from
rubbing off when dry. White- wash is applied with a
broad, flat brush, working in a uniform direction up
and down the wall. It is requisite first to remove the
dirt and the old white-wash by washing it away with
a brush and abundance of clean water.
no. Lime-washing is a much more effectual
mode of purification than white-washing, but is not so
often used, as few persons know how to make lime-wash.
If glue is used, it is destroyed by the lime, and the
wash easily rubs off the walls when dry. This also
happens if the lime be simply slaked in water and
used without any fixing material. Lime-wash should
be made by placing some freshly-burned quick-lime
in a pail, and pouring on sufficient water to cover
it; if the lime is fresh, great heat is given out;
boiled oil (a preparation of linseed oil, sold by all
oilmen) should then be added, one pint to each gallon
of wash. For cheapness, any refuse fat, such as
dripping, may be used instead of the boiled oil. The
whole should then be thinned with water. The brush
should not be left in the lime-wash or the bristles will
be destroyed. Should coloured wash be required,
one pound of green vitriol added to every two gallons
of wash gives a very pleasing drab.
Quick-lime slaked with skimmed milk, and after-
wards thinned with water, makes an excellent wash
for out-door walls, as it is not acted on by the
weather.
Lime- washing is strongly recommended as a means
94 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
of purification, more especially when any infectious
disorders are prevalent.
in. Floors should not be scrubbed so frequently as
is often recommended ; once a- week is generally quite
sufficient. In damp weather wet floors do not dry,
and the house remains damp and cold for a consid-
erable time ; it is better, in all cases, to defer the
scrubbing even for a week, than to wet the floors
on a rainy or foggy day. In cases of illness this is
particularly important ; so injurious is damp air to
invalids, that in some hospitals the floors are waxed,
and dry rubbing used instead of scouring, with great
advantage to the health of the patients.
It should be a fixed rule that floors, particularly
those of sleeping-rooms, are to be scrubbed only on
dry days, and, where the health of the inmates is
delicate, the drying should be quickened by lighting
a fire in the room.
Kneeling when scrubbing sometimes causes a pain-
ful disease of the knee-joint called " Housemaid's
Knee." In order to prevent, as much as possible,
this complaint, a thick soft mat should always be used
to kneel upon. In some parts the scrubbing is done
by men with a heavy stiff brush fixed to a long handle,
like house-brooms.
112. No dirty old lumber should ever be allowed to
collect in the house ; bones, old shoes and boots, old
dirty woollen clothes, and pieces of carpet, are often
kept : these render the air of the house impure, and
consequently unwholesome, are exceedingly apt to be-
come mouldy, harbour vermin, serve as breeding-places
for the clothes-moth, and retain most tenaciously any
infection to which they may have been exposed.
CH. xvi.j CLEANING, WASHING, &c. 95
Such things should always be got rid of; if not sold
at once, if of any value, they had better be given away,
or even burnt, rather than kept to render the air of
the house impure and unwholesome. The Jews are
remarkable for their good health and great freedom
from infectious and contagious diseases : this is doubt-
less in great part owing to the annual cleaning of the
houses, when every part of the dwellings is thoroughly
cleansed in the most perfect manner.
113. The washing of dirty clothes is usually done
with the aid of soap, soda, and washing preparations ;
chloride of lime being sometimes also used,
Washing-soda softens the water; it also possesses
great powers of cleansing, as it removes stains and
dissolves dirt and grease, rendering less rubbing
necessary.
Soda must not be used with coloured clothes, as it
changes many colours. If white clothes, after being
washed with soda, are not perfectly freed from it by
rinsing in pure water, they wilf turn very yellow
when heated or ironed, or even in drying or airing
before the fire. Once produced, this yellow colour is
very difficult to get rid of.
114. Borax is much better than soda for fine,
delicate things ; it is very much used by the French
laundresses, as it saves soap, and does not injure the
finest laces. It is used in the proportion of a hand-
ful to ten gallons of water.
115. Soap is made of caustic soda and fat: the latter
renders the soda less destructive, but does not take
away its power of loosening dirt. The best soap is by
far the cheapest to use, as the common kinds contain
a great deal of water, which makes the soap very
96 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
soft, and causes it to dissolve very quickly when used.
It is most economical to buy soap in bars, and then
cut it up into small pieces to dry before use.
1 1 6. Washing preparations and powders are
very similar to soda in their action, some of them being
very cleansing, and even corrosive in their properties.
When used, the greatest care should be taken to rinse
the clothes thoroughly after washing, so as to remove
every portion, or the clothes will soon be weakened
by their action.
117. Chloride of lime is often used to remove
stains, but it must be employed with great caution, as
it is corrosive, and destroys all the colours of almost
all dyed fabrics.
1 1 8. The following practical directions on wash-
ing were furnished by an experienced laundress :
" Wash as often as convenient. Dirty clothes put
by for weeks are more difficult to clean the longer
they remain dirty; they acquire a permanent bad
colour, and in damp places are apt to become mil-
dewed and rotten.
" Remove all stains as soon as possible ; leave
nothing long enough to fix itself thoroughly to the
cloth ; wash out grease, gravy, and fruit-stains, &c.,
before putting anything on one side. Fruit-stains
yield readily to bleachi ng-powder, especially if, after
being put on, it is moistened with a drop of some
acid, as vinegar or lemon ; but neither acids nor
bleaching-powder should be used to coloured things.
Inkstains should never be put into soapy or soda
water or lye, as they directly become iron-moulds ;
but should be instantly wetted with clean water, and
may be at once removed by the application of a little
CH. xvi.] CLEANING, WASHING, <Srv. 97
salt of lemon, or oxalic acid, which should be washed
out immediately.
" After making starch, cover it with a plate until
required for use ; otherwise it forms a useless skin on
the top. To prevent starch sticking to the irons,
the addition of a small piece of solid paraffin, as the
end of a paraffin-candle, will be found more cleanly
and efficacious than tallow.
" When water has once been made to boil, the fire in
the copper or grate may be very much lessened, as but
little heat is required to keep it at the boiling point.
There is no advantage whatever in making water boil
furiously, for it is not in the slightest degree hotter
than when merely simmering, as all the extra heat
given to boiling water goes off in the steam, without
raising the heat in the slightest degree.
" The shrinking and discoloring of woollen articles
may be in great part prevented by care in washing
them. They should never be washed in hard water,
nor in water softened by soda, nor should they be
rubbed with soap. The fibres of wool are covered
with little points, all directed one way; as the woollen
is rubbed, these become tangled together, and form a
kind of thick felt, by which means the article is shrunk
and thickened. For the same reason it is not desir-
able to wring woollen things. Before washing, they
should be well brushed and shaken, to get rid of the
dust ; rain, or soft river, water should have a strong
lather made in it with soap, or, if the things are very
greasy, ox-gall may be added, in the proportion of
half-a-pint to six quarts of water ; then boiling water
should be added to the lather, to make it as hot as it
is possible to bear the hand in, and thediry_^x)llen
TFG.
98 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
should be put in, and dipped and raised repeatedly for
several minutes. It should then be squeezed (not
wrung) as dry as possible from the dirty, slimy liquor,
and the process, if necessary, repeated with some
clean lather. If the article is not very dirty, and
becomes quite clean in the first washing, the second
washing may be in hot water only, without soap ; and
in either case, a blue bag should be used in the last
water. When gall has been used, a third water is
necessary to take off the smell. When the article is
finished, it should be squeezed as dry as it can be,
and dried as quickly as possible in the open air, if the
weather is fine."
CHAPTER XVII.
CLOTHING.
119. PROPER clothing is necessary to health, for
when the skin is cold, and we feel chilly, the blood is
sent to the internal organs of the body in increased
quantity, and the perspiration and proper action of
the skin being checked, ill-health is always caused ;
sometimes more serious results occur, and colds, and
even other more dangerous diseases, are produced,
f 120. All persons should be clothed so as to feel
warm and comfortable in cold weather; no person
who always feels chilly can ever be in good health.
"The clothes should be loose, so as not to impede
muscular movement, and in the case of young girls
nothing should be done to support the spine by stays
or other contrivances. To make a girl tightly brace
herself with stays is a great mistake. Her ribs should
have the fullest play, and her clothes should be as
loose as those of a boy, and for the same reason, viz.,
that every muscle may have unrestricted play, and
that the lungs may expand without impediment. For
both sexes girdles and belts, which especially bind
the lower ribs, should be avoided." 1
1 Dr. Parkes.
D 2
ioo HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
121. Keeping the feet dry and warm is exceedingly
necessary for all those persons predisposed to cold,
or whose constitutions are delicate ; wearing worsted
stockings in winter is, in such cases, particularly
desirable.
122. Cotton, being warmer and cheaper than linen,
is generally employed for under-clothes. Woollen
under-garments are, in this climate, essential to health
in cold weather : the warmth obtained by wearing
flannel next the body keeps up an action of the skin
very beneficial to health. Sailors, and all persons
much exposed to wet and cold, know the use of
wearing flannel next the skin. For delicate children
its use is extremely important ; the old practice of
trying to make children hardy by exposure to cold
when scantily dressed is very wrong; many weakly
ones die under the process.
123. Shoes, as generally made, are very faulty;
naturally the broadest part of the foot is towards the
front, and the great toe is in a straight line with the
inner side, as shown in the first figure in accom-
panying engraving. The boots and shoes are usually
pointed at the front, forcing the toes together, and
producing the deformity shown in the second figure ;
so general is this practice, that a natural-shaped foot
is never seen in any adult who has worn shoes. Corns
and bunions are the result of the constant pressure,
and the power of easy walking is greatly interfered
with.
The sole of the shoe should always be made with
the inner side straight, and not pointed, so as to
force the great toe over the adjoining toes. Shoes
of this form are now in very general use with the
CH. xvn.] CLOTHING. 101
richer classes. The shoes of the labouring classes
are unfortunately made in large numbers on lasts of
the old pointed shape, and it will probably be some
years before the right form of shoe reaches the working
classes of this country. The high heels which are
now used by some women are excessively injurious ;
the weight of the body is thrown forward on the toes,
which are tightly thrust into the fore part of the shoe,
and the foolish wearers are crippled.
In taking the measure of the foot, the person should
stand on a sheet of paper, and have a line drawn
Sole of Natural Foot. Sole of Foot deformed
by Tight Shoes.
round the foot with a pencil ; the shoe should then
be made to fit the foot, instead of endeavouring to fit
the foot to the shoe. Children, from the soft state of
their bones, have their feet and toes quickly deformed
by tight, narrow shoes a defect which lasts through
life, producing, to a greater or less degree, lameness,
and consequently inability to take active or long-con-
tinued walking exercise.
124. The wooden-soled clogs used in the manu-
facturing districts keep the feet perfectly dry an<2
102 HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT AND COOKERY.
warm in winter, and are exceedingly cheap and durable,
a pair costing from 3^. to 3^. 6</., lasting on the average
twelve months ; they are very easy and comfortable
to walk in ; for out-door labour in wet weather they
far surpass the ordinary shoes in dryness, comfort,
and durability ; the greatest objection against their use
arises from the noise they cause on stone or wood.
Unfortunately, like the boots of the working classes,
they are generally made pointed at the toes, and so
force the great toe over the others.
.- 125. For boots and shoes exposed to wet the
following composition is recommended :
" Linseed oil, one gill ; spirit of turpentine, one
ounce; beeswax, one ounce; Burgundy pitch, half-
an-ounce : to be melted together, and rubbed into
the leather when quite dry, before the fire or in the
hot sun." This composition will be found very
effectual in preserving the leather from both rain and
sea- water.
APPENDIX.
The following Notes of a course of Twenty Lessons have
been prepared by one of the teachers of THE NATIONAL
TRAINING SCHOOL OF COOKERY, South Kensington.
They are based on the principles taught in that In-
stitution, and were expressly arranged for the use
of teachers in the Schools established^ THE SCHOOL
BOARD OF LONDON.
FIRST LESSON.
LIGHTING A FIRE, MILK AND EGGS, CHILDREN'S
FOOD.
To Light a Fire. In a close stove the first thing is to empty
the fireplace. Take out the larger cinders and half-burnt coal
with your fingers, and lay them on one side for lighting the fire ;
then rake out all the ashes (this can be done with the lids on,
then it will not make so much dust). Next take off all the lids,
and sweep all the soot carefully out ; once or twice a week the
Hue pipe must be taken off and cleared out ; also the flues under
the oven. The soot should be carried away at once, as it blows
about. Then black-lead the stove ; put in a few cinders, lay on
them a piece of paper and a few sticks crossing one another, on
these lay very lightly some pieces of half-burnt coal and a few
cinders, leaving space for draught. Do not fill the grate full, put
the lids on, draw out the damper, light the fire, and shut the
front door. An open fire is lighted in much the same way.
There are no flues to clean out ; but the chimney as high as one
can reach, and behind the register door, should be cleared from
soot daily. Having lighted the fire, clean the fire-irons, carry
away the small cinders and dust to be sifted, and wash the
hearth.
I0 4 APPENDIX.
To Make Tea and Coffee. Rinse the kettle and fill it from the
tap (not the boiler). When it boils make your tea and coffee.
Warm the teapot : allow one teaspoonful to each person and
one for the pot. After filling the teapot, let it stand five
minutes. Broken-leaf good tea is better than cheap tea ; it does
not take so much of it to make a good cup of tea. Warm your
coffeepot. One ounce or one tablespoonful of ground coffee will
make a pint. Pour on it one and a quarter pint of boiling water ;
let it stand five minutes ; clear by pouring in a little cold water and
letting it stand a few minutes. This coffee could have a little
more water added after the first pint had been poured off for
the children. Neither tea nor coffee is good if made with
water that has remained in the kettle for many hours.
To Boil an Egg. Put it gently into a saucepan full of boiling
water (and don't let it boil hard) for three minutes.
To Poach Eggs. Break the eggs one by one into a good-
sized saucepan of boiling water, with a teaspoonful of salt in it.
Draw the saucepan to the side of the fire and let them be in four
minutes. Take them out with a slice.
To Beat up an Egg for an Invalid. Choose a fresh one ; break
it into a cup and beat it lightly two minutes with a fork. Raw
eggs are considered more digestible with a spoonful of water or
milk added to them. Wine is frequently used.
Thick Milk. To one pint of milk stir one tablespoonful of
flour and a pinch of salt ; boil over the fire for ten minutes,
stirring all the time. An excellent breakfast for children.
Infants' Food. Flour baked in a slow oven till of a light
fawn, or put in a basin tied over with a cloth and boiled six
hours. Crush the lumps, mix smooth with cold water, and boil
three minutes. Add milk and sugar, Pap made with bread, being
fermented, is apt to turn sour, and that made from biscuits is
objectionable from the butter in them.
Teacup Puddings. One dessertspoonful of corn- flour, half pint
of milk, six lumps of sugar, a few grains of salt ; stir these on the
fire to boil five minutes, add one egg, beat up until well mixed ;
pour this into a buttered cup, and boil twenty-five minutes.
Milk Porridge. Put on one pint of skim-milk to boil, mix
one tablespoonful of oatmeal with two of milk very smoothly.
When the milk boils, pour it in and stir over the fire for ten
minutes.
Batter Pudding. Beat up an egg with one tablespoonful of
flour and a grain of salt, add by degrees a cupful of milk,
stirring vigorously. Boil half an hour in a greased cup.
APPENDIX. 105
Rice Milk. Put half a pint of milk on to boil, take from it two
tablespoonfuls to mix smooth with one dessertspoonful of ground
rice. Pour this into the boiling milk and stir over the fire ten
minutes. N.B. It is most essential that all farinaceous foods
should absolutely boil in the milk or water. Starchy foods
should never be given to children made with water alone, as they
are not nutritive without the albumenoid principles the milk
contains.
Materials required for Lesson : 6 eggs, 2 qts. of milk, 2 ozs.
of lump sugar, 2 oz. of moist ditto, 2 oz. of corn-flour, \ oz.
of ground rice, \ oz. of salt, I Ib. of flour, ^ oz. of tea, I oz. of
coffee, I oz. of oatmeal, |oz. of butter.
SECOND LESSON.
ROASTING, AND THE PUDDINGS EATEN WITH
ROAST MEAT.
To Roast a Joint. Have a clear fire and the stove and hearth
well swept up so that there is no occasion to make a dust while
the meat is down. Allow a quarter of an hour to each pound of
meat, and one quarter of an hour over. White meats, such
as pork and veal and very thick joints, want a little longer. Put
the meat close to the fire for five minutes, then draw it further
away. This is to close up the pores of the meat and keep the
gravy in. Baste it frequently ; see that it does not burn. If in
a Dutch oven turn it from time to time, so that it is equally done.
Some roast meats are stuffed.
Stuffing. Veal, heart, rabbit, and chicken, are stuffed with
the following : One tablespoonful of bread crumbs, one of
chopped suet, half of chopped parsley, one teaspoonful of lemon-
thyme and marjoram, a little pepper and salt, mixed together
with an egg or a little milk. Pork, geese, and ducks are stuffed
with sage and onions as follows : Boil two onions half an hour,
lay a thick slice of bread in the water five minutes, drain them
very dry, chop them finely with a teaspoonful of chopped sage
leaves, pepper and salt to taste.
To Make Gravy for Roast Meat. Take any bones, scraps of
cold meat, or trimmings of the joint, put them in a half pint of
water with a little salt and half an onion, let them stew all the
time the meat is roasting : colour with a little burnt sugar. When
the meat is done pour the dripping from it carefully into a basin,
leaving the gravy at the bottom of the tin ; strain the gravy you
have made to this, let it boil, and pour round (not over) the
106 APPENDIX.
meat. If the gravy is liked thick put a dessertspoonful of flour,
mixed into a smooth paste with two of cold water into the sauce-
pan five minutes before you strain it.
To Roast a Heart in a Stewpan. Clean and trim off the deaf
ears, and soak in warm water to draw out the blood. Stuff it
with veal stuffing, fasten it up, put it in a stewpan with two
ounces of dripping over a very slow fire, or on a hot plate, baste
frequently and turn over occasionally. A bullock's heart takes
two hours, and a calf's heart one hour. Make a gravy
trimmings ; a quarter of an hour before serving pour a 1 : y the
fat from the heart and pour the gravy in.
Yorkshire Pudding. To every quarter of a pound of flottl
allow one egg and half a pint of milk. Break the egg into the iiour
and mix quite smoothly with a little of the milk ; beat it well, let
there be no lumps in it ; add the remainder of the milk by
degrees ; put the pudding tin under the meat to catch some drip-
ping, then pour in the pudding and bake half an hour.
Suet Pudding. Chop fine half a pound of suet, mix it with one
pound of flour, one teaspoonful of baking powder, and a pinch of
salt ; make it into a stiff dough with cold water or milk. Dip a
pudding cloth in boiling water, dredge well with flour, put in
the pudding, tie it securely, but leave it room to swell. Boil in
plenty of water one hour and a half. Or grease a pint and a
half basin and put it in, tie a clolh over and boil two hours.
Norfolk Dumplings. Mix half a pound of flour with half a
teaspoonful of baking powder and a pinch of salt, make into a
light dough with cold water ; form into small balls, put them
into boiling water immediately, and boil for twenty minutes.
Materials required for Lesson : A joint, I heart, IO oz. of
suet, ^qtn. of flour, ^ pint of milk, 2 eggs, baking powder, a
small bunch of herbs, two sprigs of parsley, pepper, salt, and
bread.
THIRD LESSON.
BOILING.
To Boil Meat. To keep all the goodness in the meat it is
essential to put it into boiling water sufficient to cover it, to draw
the saucepan or pot to the side of the fire, and let it simmer
gently all the time it is cooking. When you boil meat to get the
goodness out, as in soups and broths, it is put into cold water and
very gradually brought to the boil. Allow a quarter of an hour
to each pound and a quarter of an hour over, for beef and
APPENDIX. 107
mutton ; veal and pork want twenty minutes to the pound.
Boiled meats are not stuffed. Vegetables that are eaten with
boiled meats are generally boiled with them ; this is a good plan,
as both are improved ; but cabbage must always be excepted as
it gives a strong flavour to anything boiled with it. The liquor
in which meat has been boiled should never be thrown away as it
can be made into many nice soups. Sauces or gravies of boiled
meat are always poured over them. Boil salt beef with carrots
and turnips. The carrot cut in four takes one hour to boil,
and the turnip half an hour. Always keep the saucepan in
which meat is boiling well skimmed.
Rabbit and Pickled Pork. Ostend rabbits are cheaper than
English ones. They come over skinned and cleaned. Eng-
lish rabbits require skinning and paunching. Wash the rabbit
well in cold water, cut off the legs at the first joint, clear
out all the blood from the head and neck, truss it into a proper
shape, put it into boiling water, and let it boil gently for
one hour, if a large one ; forty minutes will cook a small one.
Pickled pork to eat with rabbit is boiled in the same saucepan.
A thin piece of four pounds will be done in an hour, but a leg
of pork weighing eight pounds will take three hours. Wash it
and scrape it and put into the boiling water with the skin upper-
most. Keep it well skimmed. Pease pudding is generally served
with boiled pork, or in summer-time beans. Boiled rabbit is
served with parsley and butter or onion sauce.
Tripe. Wash it clean and put it on to boil in plenty of water
with four or six onions. Boil one hour and a half, strain off all
the liquor, mash the onions, pour in a cupful of milk thickened
with a dessertspoonful of flour, pepper and salt to taste, and a
piece of butter the size of a nut ; mix all well together and boil .
ten minutes.
Cow-heel. Get a ready-dressed cow-heel, put it on in a pint
and a half of milk with an onion in it ; let it boil till the bones
will slip out. The milk strained and sweetened is very nourishing
hot or cold for children. The heel is eaten with a little parsley
and butter made as follows : Put half an ounce of butter into
a little saucepan to melt, stir smoothly into it a quarter of an
ounce of flour, pour into it by degrees a quarter of a pint of the
liquor in which the meat was boiled (or plain water), stir till
it boils, move it to the side of the fire, chop a teaspoonful of
parsley, washed and dried, stir into it, and serve directly.
Materials required for Lesson : Meat, rabbit, 2 Ibs. of pickled
pork, I Ib. of tripe, a cow-heel, carrot and turnip, butter, floui,
milk, parsley, onions.
io8 APPENDIX.
FOURTH LESSON.
SOUPS AND BROTHS.
Soups can be made of anything that is eatable ; the most
sinewy pieces of meat, the heads, tails, and feet of anii
which contain much gelatine make good soup. So do bones,
and vegetables alone make very good soup. If you have any
pot liquor, in which meat, or even suet puddings, or carrots and
turnips, not greens ; have been boiled, use it instead of water to
make your soup. In making soups three things are specially to
be borne in mind. 1st. The scum must be taken off before it
boils, or it will boil down and thicken the soup. And all the __ t
should be taken off. 2nd. Simmer very softly ; if soup boils
rapidly it spoils. 3rd. Never let soup get cold in the saucepan,
turn it out into an uncovered shallow pan.
Bone Soup. Take three pounds of bones, cooked or un-
cooked, pieces of meat, or scraps or trimmings. Fry the pieces
of meat with an onion in dripping till brown, put them on with
four pints of water ; when near boiling throw in a dessert-
spoonful of salt to raise the scum, skim it well. When it boils
put in two carrots, two turnips, one parsnip, a bunch of herbs,
and two or three sticks of celery, a blade of mace, and fifteen
peppercorns. Let it simmer gently two hours. Strain it, and
return to the saucepan with the vegetables cut in slices, and
thicken it with corn-flour, or common flour, one dessertspoonful
to a pint. Colour, if liked, with burnt sugar.
Ox-tail. Cut the tails in joints, flour them, and fry brown in
a little dripping, with half an oniort cut in rings. Pour off the
dripping and put in four pints of cold water, two carrots, two
turnips, half a head of celery, all neatly cut. When near boiling
add half a teaspoonful of salt, skim well, put in a bunch of
herbs and ten peppercorns. Let it simmer four hours, thicken
with two tablespoonfuls of flour.
Leg of Beef Soup. Take four or five pounds of, leg of beef,
cut off the meat, break the bone and take out the marrow, fry
the meat in it a light brown, with two onions, one turnip, one
carrot, half a head of celery, all cut up, put in six pints of water
and let it boil, throw in a dessertspoonful of salt, skim, and let
it boil fifteen minutes ; then put in a bunch of herbs, ten pepper-
corns, and ten allspice berries. Let it simmer slowly five
hours. This soup is clear, so is not thickened.
Carrot, Onion, and Potato Soups. Boil six carrots, two or
three large onions, and three ounces of dripping, with a bunch of
herbs, a leaf of celery, half a parsnip, and a turnip in four quarts
APPENDIX. 109
of water or pot liquor an hour and a half. Take out the carrots,
pass them through a colander, strain the soup to them, season to
taste, boil five minutes and serve. Onion soup is made the same
way, only reversing the proportions of onions and carrots. For
potato soup, which is very good, the potatoes are boiled or
steamed separately, then mashed and added to the strained soup ;
four pounds would be required for four quarts of soup. All
vegetable soups are best eaten the day they are made.
Haricot Puree. Soak one pint of beans all night, boil them
four hours in two quarts of water, with an onion sliced, pass them
through a sieve or colander, season to taste, add one pint of milk,
let it boil five minutes and serve.
Materials required for Lesson : I oxtail, 4 or 5 Ibs. of leg
of beef, 4 Ibs. of bones, 12 onions, I bunch of carrots, \ of
turnips, 2 parsnips, herbs, head of celery, 4 Ibs. of potatoes,
I pt. ot haricots, \ pound of flour, J of an oz, each of peppereorns,
mace, and allspice, J Ib. of dripping, I pt. of milk, pepper
and salt.
FIFTH LESSON.
STEWS.
Stews are at once the simplest and most economical of all ways
of cooking, for whatever goodness is taken out of the meat in the
cooking we get in the gravy, and the most inferior parts of meat,
properly stewed, are palatable and nourishing. Stews can be
made hither in saucepans or stone jars, cooked on the hob or in
the oven ; in the latter case the vegetables are put in with the
meat in the cold water ; in the former they are added when it
comes to the boil, never between the two points. They are
flavoured with carrots, onions, herbs, &.c.^ and thickened with
rice, barley, r sago, flour, and potatoes. Stews must only simmer ;
they are spoilt by boiling.
Beef a la Mode. An ox-cheek, a cow-heel, six onions, three
carrots, one ounce of dripping, flour, pepper and salt. Cut the
cheek up, flour the pieces well, and put them with the dripping
into a saucepan to brown ; cut up the vegetables and the cow-
heel and put into the saucepan with cold water, one pint to a
pound, season to taste, cover close, and let it simmer for three
hours. Thicken the gravy with two tablespoonfuls of flour
mixed with one of ketchup and one of water into a smooth paste.
Brazilian Stew. This stew is made by dipping inferior parts
of beef or mutton into vinegar which has the power of soften-
ing the fibres and making them tender. Take four pounds of
shin of beef, clod, or sticking piece, cut it into small pieces.
APPENDIX.
dip each piece into vinegar, put them with four onions, two
carrots, two turnips, pepper and salt into a saucepan, without any
water, and let it simmer very gently three or four hours.
Giblets. Wash and pick two sets of chicken's or cluck's gib-
lets, scald the wings, heads, and feet to get the feathers off and
the skin and claws off the feet, roll them in flour ; put the gizzards
on first in half a pint of water with an oniun, six peppercorns,
and a little salt ; when they have stewed an hour put in the rest
of the giblets, with one pint more water and a bunch of herbs :
let them stew another hour.
Mutton Haricot. Cut the neck or scrag of mutton into chops,
fry them in a little dripping with one onion cut in thin slices,
pour off the dripping, and put in one pint of water thickened
with a tablespoonful of flour, one carrot, and one turnip cut in
slices, cover close and let it stew one hour.
Ragout of Rabbit. Wash and clean a good-sized Ostend
rabbit ; boil the liver and heart, chop them and mix with veal
stuffing, fill the rabbit, sew it up, and tie it into shape. Put a
piece of fat beef and one pound of bacon, cut in slices, into a
saucepan with one ounce of dripping, put in the rabbit to brown,
turning it over to brown both sides, pour off the dripping, and
put in one quart of water. Let it simmer gently an hour and a
half. A quarter of an hour before serving skin off all the fat
and thick en the gravy with a little corn-flour ; season with pepper
and salt, and, if liked, stew a bunch of herbs and half an onion
with it. Lay the rabbit on a dish, with the bacon round it, and
pour the gravy over.
Materials required for Lesson : Ox-cheek, cow-heel, shin of
beef, neck of mutton, rabbit, herbs, parsley, vinegar, dripping,
flour, ketchup, bacon, giblets, onions, carrots, and turnips.
SIXTH LESSON.
BAKING.
Baking is not the most economical way of cooking joints of
meat ; but as it requires very little attention, and is very savoury,
it is a favourite mode with many people. The best way of
baking meat, is enclosing it in crust, it makes a little meat go a
long way.
Baked Pork. We cut the rind of the pork through with a
sharp knife at regular distances ; stuff it with sage and onions,
and put it in a dish in the oven. Potatoes or batter pudding,
are better baked under any other meat than pork. Turn it
APPENDIX
about in the oven that every part gets equally baked, and allow
twenty minutes to the one pound for pork, and fifteen for beef or
mutton. Baste frequently, and when it is done, put it on a hot
dish ; and pour all the dripping out of the baking dish and pour
a little boiling water, and stir it round to make gravy, which
pour round, not over the meat. Apple sauce is eaten with roast
pork.
Poor Man's Goose. Wash a pig's fry and dry it well in a cloth,
cut the liver and heart into slices ; flour it and lay it in a baking
dish, season it with pepper, salt, and a teaspoonful of chopped
sage leaves, and one onion chopped fine, pour in a gill of water,
cover it with the caul, and bake three-quarters of an hour in a
moderate oven.
Toad in the Hole. Six ounces of flour, one egg, one pint of
milk, a pinch of salt. Break the egg into the flour, stir in the
milk by degrees, so as not to get it lumpy. Lay your meat or
ox kidney cut in slices in a greased tin or pie-dish, pour the
baiter over and bake one hour to one and a quarter^ Batter is
better for standing before it is cooked.
Meat Pie. Make a crust of three quarters of a pound of
flour, three quarters of a teaspoonful of baking powder, and
quarter of a pound of dripping, with a pinch of salt. Rub the
dripping into the flour, mix in the baking powder and salt ;
make into a paste with one gill and a half of water, or enough
to make a stiff paste (this depends on the quality of the flour). .
Flour your board, rolling-pin, and hands ; roll your paste a
little larger than your pie-dish ; cut your meat in slices, lay it
in season with pepper and salt, fill two-thirds with water ; cut
a strip off your crust to lay on the edge of the dish, wet the
edges, lay your crust on, trim it neatly round, decorate with the
remains of the pastry, and bake one and a half hours. Two
pounds of meat will fill a quart dish.
Cornish Pasties. The crust the same as the last, or made
with suet in the same manner, rolled very thin, divided into
pieces about eight inches square. On each piece put one ounce
of meat and one ounce of potato seasoned, fold and pinch the
edges together, and bake on greased tins one hour.
Baked Apple-dumplings. Same crust as above ; peel six
apples and core them without dividing them, divide the crust
into six pieces, lay an apple on each, and work the crust over it
till the apple is covered without any cracks. Bake half an hour.
Materials required for Lesson : Pork, I Ib. of pig's fry, 3
Ibs. of meat, 4 Ib. of potatoes, I pt. of milk, I egg, I qtn. of
flour, 6 apples, I Ib. of suet or dripping.
APPENDIX.
SEVENTH LESSON.
FRYING.
Frying is simply boiling in fat. It is not economical, but as
it is very expeditious, owing to the fat attaining a greater heat
than water, and so cooking anything put into it, in a very short
time, it is very useful, though it is very seldom properly
The great art in frying is to have the fat hot enough, ai
have the article fried immersed in the fat, if not the fried food is
always sodden and greasy. It is not wasteful to use a large
quantity of fat in frying, as the same fat will do over and over
again by occasionally melting it, and pouring it into cold water,
when the impurities sink to the bottom. When anything fried
is taken out of the fat it should be laid on whitey-brown paper
to drain for a few minutes.
Sausages. Sausages, should be pricked in two or three
places before they are put in the frying-pan, to prevent their
bursting. They are fried dry, as it is called, i.e. without being
plunged in boiling fat. Put an ounce of dripping into the
frying-pan, when it boils put in the sausages. Move them to
get brown all round. Seven minutes on a good fire will do
them. Serve on a piece of fried bread, or mashed potatoes.
Liver and Bacon. Wash your liver, but do not soak it.
Wipe it dry, cut it in thin slices, and flour each piece. Cut the
rind off the bacon, and cut it into thin rashers. Fry the bacon
first ; and put it on a hot dish before the fire while you fry the
liver in the fat, which came from the bacon. When the liver is
done lay it on the bacon ; mix a dessertspoonful of flour smooth
with a cup -full of water, add a pinch of pepper and salt, pour it
into the frying-pan, stir over the fire till it boils, and strain over
the liver and bacon.
Tripe. Tripe is cut into pieces about three inches square, and
dipped into a batter made of six ounces of flour, one table-
spoonful of oil, or one ounce of butter, half a pint of tepid
water. Mix the oil with the flour, add the water by degrees ;
whip the whites of two eggs to a stiff froth, stir into the batter,
dip the tripe in, throw it into a saucepan of boiling fat, let it fry
three or four minutes, take it out and drain.
Fritters. Are slices of meat, or fruit, or cake dipped in
batter and fried the same way.
Fried Potatoes. Cold potatoes cut in slices, or raw potatoes
cut in slices or ribbons, are fried by throwing them into boiling fat,
APPENDIX. 113
Pancakes. Pancakes are made with four ounces of flour,
half a pint of milk, and one egg mixed smoothly. A piece of
lard or dripping the size of a nut is put into the pan for each
pancake. This quantity makes six.
Omelets. Omelets are made by beating up two eggs with a
dessertspoonful of sugar for sweet omelets, or for savoury with
chopped herbs, parsley, onion, or bacon ; put half an ounce of
butter into the pan, pour in the omelet, stir till set, and fold in
half. Omelet soufflee is made by beating the whites of the
eggs to a froth and mixing with the other ingredients.
Materials required for Lesson : I Ib. of sausages, I lb. of
liver, I oz. of butter, \ lb. of bacon, \ lb. of tripe, I lb. of
fat, 2 apples, I potato, f lb. of flour, 8 eggs, J a pint of milk,
parsley.
EIGHTH LESSON.
BROILING.
Broiling is one of the most difficult ways of cooking meat. It
requires a clear fire, no smoky coals ; no fork should go into
the meat to let the juices out. Well broiled meats are very
easy of digestion. The bars of the gridiron should always be
rubbed with suet or fat, to prevent the meat sticking. When
the fire is not clear, broiling is often done in front of the fire, but
the flavour of meat broiled over the fire is superior. Broiling
is adapted for small slices of meat or fish ; when chickens are
broiled they are split in half. Fish is often broiled wrapped in
buttered paper.
Steak. A steak or a fillet from the leg of mutton should be
peppered on both sides, and broiled for five minutes on each
side. A warm plate should be ready for it, on which has been
mixed half an ounce of butter, one teaspoon ful of chopped
parsley, a little salt. This is called maitre d'hdtel butter.
Mutton Chop. A chop takes the same time ; this generally
has a teaspoonful of ketchup, and a piece of butter the size of a
nut, with a pinch of pepper and salt put on it when it is taken
from the gridiron. A chump chop is the most economical.
Kidney. Kidneys are split and skewered open, they require
thorough cooking ; bullock's kidney quarter of an hour ; a piece
of butter is laid on them when taken from the gridiron.
1 14 APPENDIX.
Sprats. These should be washed and rubbed dry in a cloth,
a skewer should be run through the eyes of six or eight to
prevent their falling into the fire, and to enable you to turn them
all at once. Dried herrings are split down and opened flat, the
inside is broiled first, then the outside.
Veal Cutlet. Veal cutlet for broiling is cut into nice-shaped
pieces, a little butter is melted on a plate, pepper and salt is
ackled, each piece is dipped in, and then in bread crumbs (to
which some people add a little chopped parsley and herbs or
lemon rind). They require ten minutes over a good fire. When
they are dished, a squeeze of lemon over them is a great im-
provement.
Bacon. Bacon is best 'broiled or rather toasted in front of the
fire, the rashers should be thin, and the rind cut off. The fat
which drops from bacon should never be wasted. All broiled
meats should be eaten as soon as they are done ; off the grid-
iron on to the plate is the way to get them in perfection.
Mushrooms. The only vegetable broiled is the mushroom.
You must be very careful to get a wholesome one ; peel it care-
fully, grease the bars of the gridiron ; lay your mushroom on
with the stalk uppermost, do not turn it ; in seven minutes it
will be full of delicious ketchup, which you must be careful
not to spill in taking off.
Materials required for Lesson: I Ib. of steak, I chop, I
kidney, sprats or herring, I Ib. of veal cutlet, \ Ib. of bacon,
1 4 oz. of butter, I lemon, bread, parsley.
NINTH LESSON.
USING UP COLD MEAT.
It is an expensive meal to have a dinner of cold meat and
pickles. It is not so satisfying as a hot one ; in other words, our
bodies don't get the same amount of nourishment out of it. In
warming up cold meat, it should not be overheated as it does
not require to be cooked any more.
Hash. Hash is too often tough meat served up in greasy
gravy. Cut your meat all off the bones ; put them on with a
Eint of water for an hour or two, with an onion, half a cariot,
alf a turnip, and a bunch of herbs to make gravy. Roll your
slices of meat in flour, strain your gravy on to them, and let
them just come to the boil. Add a tablespoonful of ketchup,
or one or two pickled walnuts chopped up.
APPENDIX. 115
Shepherd's Pie. Cut up any scraps of cold meat, season to
taste, sprinkle over a few fine herbs, put them in a pie-dish, pour
over a little water. Mash some potatoes with halt a gill of hot
milk, in which half an ounce of butter is melted. Cover your
pie with them, and bake half an hour.
Rissoles of Cold Meat. Two tablespoonsful of cold meat
chopped fine, one of suet, two of bread crumbs, half a tab^e-
spoonful of chopped parsley, and half of dried herbs, pepper
and salt to taste, half an egg. Mix all together, roll into balls,
egg and bread crumb, and fry a light brown.
Meat Patties. Three quarters of a pound of flour, a quarter
of a pound of dripping, one teaspoonful of baking powder.
Mix into a stiff paste. Roll out a quarter of an inch thick.
Grease your patty-pans, line with paste ; put in cold meat cut
up neatly, seasoned with pepper and salt, and herbs, cover with
crust, trim the edges neatly round, and bake half an hour.
Goblet Pie. Scraps of cold meat two ounces, apples chopped
two ounces, suet two ounces, raisins two ounces, currants two
ounces, sugar two ounces. Mix, put into a pie dish, and cover
with a crust made as above.
Curry. Fry an onion, cut in slices, and an apple finely
chopped, in two ounces of dripping, mix a dessertspoonful of
curry powder and one of flour in half a pint of water ; stir it
over the fire with the onions, etc. , till it boils. Strain it. Put back
in the saucepan with some slices of cold meat and a little salt
till the meat is thoroughly warm.
Materials required for Lesson : Cold meat, carrot, onions,
turnip, herbs, parsley, I Ib. of potatoes, \ Ib. of dripping, j Ib.
of suet, bread, 3 apples, I Jib. of flour, curry powder, I oz. of
butter, i egg, 2 oz. of raisins, 2 oz. of currants, 2 oz. of moist
sugar, and ^ oz. of curry powder.
TENTH LESSON.
AUSTRALIAN MEAT.
Australian meat being already overcooked in the process of pre-
serving, great care must be taken to cook it as little as possible.
Meat Pie. Make a crust of three-quarters of a pound of flour,
and one quarter of a pound of dripping, and three-quarters of a
teaspoonful of baking powder. For a quart dish, take two
pounds of Australian meat, or a pound and a half of meat and
half a pound of kidneys. Season to taste, pour in a little water,
n6 APPENDIX.
cover, and bake half an hour. This can be made into a pudding
in a quart basin.
Brown Stew. Fry a little chopped onion in one ounce of
dripping, stir in half an ounce of flour, and mix smoothly with
half a pint of water. Lay in one pound of Australian meat cut
in slices, and a teaspoonful of chopped herbs. Let it warm
through, and serve.
Mince Meat with Mashed Potato. Take one and a half pound
of potatoes boiled and mashed with half a gill of milk, with half an
ounce of butter melted in. Build a wall round the dish. Mince
half a pound of Australian meat very fine, warm it up in a
saucepan with a tablespoonful of ketchup or gravy, and a piece
of butter the size of a nut, season to taste, and put it in the
middle.
Irish Stew.- Boil one pound of potatoes and four good-sized
onions half an hour, drain off the water, and mash them. Lay
in slices of Australian meat seasoned to taste, and let it simmer
fifteen minutes. Mind it does not burn.
Rissoles of Australian Meat. Make a crust of half a pound
of flour, half a teaspoonful of baking powder, and a quarter of
a pound of dripping, with sufficient water to make a stiff paste.
Roll it thin, cut it into rounds the size of a breakfast cup, lay a
little minced meat well seasoned on each, fold the edges together,
pinch them to make them stick, egg and bread crumb, and fry
in hot fat.
Mulligatawny Soup. Pour over two pounds of Australian
meat two quarts of warm water. Fry a carrot, a turnip, two
onions and two apples in a little fat, pour over them half a pint
of the liquor from the meat, boil till reduced to one gill. Make
a paste of one tablespoonful of, curry powder, two of flour, and
a little water, stir in, add a spoonful of salt and half of sugar,
the meat, and the liquor. Let it simmer two hours, strain, and
put into it a two-pound tin of calf s head. In opening a tin of
Australian meat, only remove the fat from the part you are
going to use. The, fat put into boiling water to clarify it is very
good for pie-crusts.
Materials required for Lesson : 6 Ib. tin of Australian meat,
2j Ib. of potatoes, 6 onions, \ Ib. of dripping, baking powder,
I oz. of butter, \ gill of milk, \\ Ib. of flour, carrot, turnip,
apples, curry powder, calf's head, I Ib. of fat for frying.
APPENDIX. 117
ELEVENTH LESSON.
FISH.
Boiling fish is by no means so savoury or so satisfying as any
other way of cooking it ; but it is generally adopted for cod,
brill, and salmon. Very oily fish, such as salmon, mackerel,
eels, are also frequently boiled. Salt cod is always boiled ; but
as the goodness is nearly all taken out in the salting and the
soaking, salt cod is by no means a cheap food, even if it costs
very little money. Fish should be put into boiling water suf-
ficient to cover it, the saucepan should then be moved to the side
of the fire and kept just below boiling point until the fish is
done, which is shown by its leaving the bone, and the fins or
tail pulling out easily.
To Bake a Haddock. Clean it carefully, scrape the scales
off, and stuff it with half a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, one
quarter of herbs, and one tablespoonful of bread crumbs worked
together with a bit of butter, and seasoned to taste. Sew up the
fish. Rub it over with a little melted butter or dripping, roll it
in bread crumbs, lay on a greased tin, and bake from half to
three quarters of an hour. Any fish can be done the same way,
proportioning the quantity of stuffing and the time of cooking
to the size of the fish.
Fried Fish. Large fish when fried are cut in fillets, small
fish are fried whole. Fish is either egged and rolled in bread
crumbs, or dipped in batter made of flour and water, before it is
fried.
Grilled Fish. Mackerel, herring, pilchards, and dried salmon
are generally grilled. The gridiron bars must be greased, and
the fish peppered before it is put on. When it is done, a
little salt and, if liked, a small piece of butter is put on. Fish
is very delicate wrapped in greased writing paper to broil.
Potted Fish. Cut fresh herrings or mackerel in thick pieces,
pack them in a stone jar with plenty of peppercorns, a blade of
mace, a shallot, a pinch of salt, a bay leaf, a gill of vinegar.
Tie the lid down, and let them cook several hours in a very slow
oven. They are well cooked if left in a baker's oven all night.
Materials required for Lesson : Mackerel, haddock, plaice,
herrings, cod, id. of bread, herbs and bay leaf, parsley, 4 oz - of
butter, 2 oz, of dripping, I gill of vinegar, spices, I Ib. of fat for
frying.
Ii8 APPENDIX.
TWELFTH LESSON.
VEGETABLES.
Potatoes. How to cook a potato. Potatoes vary very
greatly in quality. Some potatoes are best boiled, and some
steamed ; some do best cooked in their skins, and some require
peeling first ; some cook in twenty minutes, some in thirty ;
some will only bake. As a general rule, it is more economical
to boil potatoes in their skins ; but they must be boiled gently,
and the water strained off directly they are done, for if they
break in the water there is great waste. The skins must be care-
fully scrubbed quite clean before they are boiled. When potatoes
are very old they acquire an unpleasant taste if boiled in their
skins. Potatoes must never boil hard. Potatoes are best put into
cold water with plenty of salt in. New potatoes are put into
boiling water ; they take longer to boil than old potatoes.
Potatoes take longer to steam than to boil. They take about
an hour to bake. To see if they are done run a fork in.
Greens, Savoys, and Cabbages must be boiled in plenty of
water, with a tablespoonful of salt to every half-gallon. They
must be kept well stirred down, and if boiled with the lid off
will want no soda to keep them green, unless the water is very
hard. The time required to cook them depends upon their age.
The stalk should be split up, so that it gets done as soon as the
green part.
Peas want plenty of water with salt in ; soda makes their
outer skin crack. They take from fifteen to thirty minutes.
French Beans are split or sliced, and, if old, strung before
boiling. Boil with the lid off.
Carrots, Turnips, Parsnips and Spanish Onions. Carrots
are scraped, turnips peeled thickly to get below the woody fibre,
parsnips peeled thin or scraped. These roots are generally
boiled with meat. If boiled alone, put two ounces of salt to
a gallon of water. When put into boiling water, parsnips,
onions, and carrots take over an hour, turnips half an hour.
Turnips are generally mashed.
Spinach wants well washing, and then it is packed closely into
a saucepan and boiled in its own juices. When tender, it is
squeezed dry, chopped fine, returned to the saucepan, and
warmed up with a little piece of butter.
Cauliflower must be soaked in salt and water to get out cater-
pillars, &c. Put it into boiling water, and boil from twenty to
thirty minutes. Melted butter is generally eaten witk it.
APPENDIX. 119
Materials required for Lesson : Cauliflower, 2 Ibs. of pota-
toes, greens or cabbage, peas, beans, 2 oz. of butter, I Ib.
of spinach, 2 carrots, 2 turnips, 2 parsnips, 2 Spanish onions,
\ Ib. of salt.
THIRTEENTH LESSON.-
PIES AND BAKED PUDDINGS.
Fruit Pie. Pie-crust is made either short or flaky according
to the way the fat, whether it be butter, lard, suet, or dripping,
is put into the flour. For short crust, it is rubbed into the flour
before the flour is wetted ; for flaky, it is rolled in afterwards.
Short crust is the easiest for beginners. Take half a pound
of flour, mix with it half a teaspoonful of baking powder, and
rub lightly into it a quarter of a pound of butter, or dripping,
or lard. (Suet crust is better for boiling ; but is not good to eat
cold. ) Wet it with sufficient cold water to make a stiff paste ;
the quantity required depends on the quality of the flour. Roll
it out two inches larger than the pie-dish it is to cover, fill the
dish with fruit, put four tablespoonfuls of moist sugar to a quart
of fruit. For dry fruit, as apples, and plums, and green goose-
berries, put in half a gill of water ; juicy fruit requires none.
Cut a strip all round your paste to lay on the edge of your pie-
dish, moisten it slightly, lay on your cover, press the edges
together, trim them neatly, sprinkle a little water over the top,
grate a little sugar over, and bake haH an hour in a moderate
oven. This crust would be made richer by mixing the yolk of
an egg with the water, and commoner by using only one third
as much lard or dripping as flour, instead of half.
Patties. Put half a pound of flour into a basin, mix in half
a teaspoonful of baking powder, mix it into a stiff paste with
cold water (half the yolk of an egg with it makes it richer), flour
your board and pin, roll it out very thin, spread a quarter of a
pound of butter, lard, or dripping on, as if spreading bread and
butter, sprinkle a little flour on it, cut it in eight, lay the pieces
on the top of each other, flour the edges, roll it out again, fold
it, roll it out one-third of an inch thick, grease your patty pans,
cut rounds of paste a little larger, lay them in, fill them with
meat cut in dice and seasoned to taste, sprinkle a little water on,
cover, press the edges together, trim neatly, and if you have an
egg broken, brush them over with it. This flaky crust can be
made with one-third or even one-fourth of fat or shortening.
Baked Plum Pudding. Chop fine a quarter of a pound of
suet, put it into three-quarters of a pound of flour with a tea-
spoonful of baking powder in, pick a quarter of a pound of
120 APPENDIX.
plums and chop them, wash, dry, and pick a quarter of a pound
of currants, two ounces of peel and two ounces of moist sugar
and a pinch of mixed spice, mix into a stiff paste with one egg
beaten up in a gill or more of milk. It should be so stiff a
spoon will stand up in it. Bake in a greased tin one hour.
Baked Custard. To the yolks of four eggs beaten lightly with
a little sugar pour one pint of boiling milk, flavour to taste, line
a dish with a little piece of pie-crust, pour in the custard, and
bake three-quarters of an hour. A common one can be made
of two whole eggs.
Bread Pudding. Soak half a pound of pieces of bread in
cold water, any crusts however stale will do, if you cut off the
burnt, provided they are not mouldy. Squeeze them dry, and
pour on them one quart of boiling milk. Cover, and let them
swell. Beat up two eggs with two ounces of sugar, stir into
the pudding, put in a quarter of a pound of plums or currants.
Bake in a greased dish half an hour. This pudding can be
boiled in a buttered basin. Time required two hours.
Sago, Tapioca, or Rice Pudding. Soak two tablespoonfuls
in a pint of milk, put it on to boil, stirring it to prevent its
sticking ; mix in (off the fire) one egg and one tablespoonful of
sugar. Bake in a greased dish.
Materials required for Lesson : qth. flour, \ Ib. of butter,
\ Ib. of meat, 2 qts. of milk, J Ib. of suet, f Ib. of plums,
\ Ib. of currants, | Ib. of moist sugar, 8 eggs, 2d. of bread, 2
oz. of peel, 5 oz. of spice, I oz. of sago.
FOURTEENTH LESSON.
BOILED PUDDINGS.
Boiled puddings are generally shortened or made light with
suet. Where people cannot eat suet, butter may be used in its
place. Boiled puddings are lighter if boiled in a cloth, but
easier to keep in shape if boiled in a basin ; but they require
a longer time to boil. It is most essential to keep a pudding
cloth" clean ; it should be washed in two or three hot waters
without soap immediately it is done with, wrung dry, and dried
off quickly, or it will get a musty taste. Always put the sauce-
pan of water on to boil before you begin to make a pudding.
Meat Pudding. A quart basin holds two pounds of meat ;
a pound and a half of steak or beef skirts and half a pound of
kidney makes a good pudding. Make a crust of half a pound
of suet chopped fine, a pound of flour, a pinch of salt, a tea*
spoonful of baking powder mixed together, and sufficient cold
APPENDIX.
water to make a stiff paste. Cut off one-third for the cover.
Roll the rest to a round twice the size of the top of the basin,
grease the basin, and lay it neatly in. Fill it with the meat cut
in slices, and seasoned with pepper and salt, pour in a little
water, wet the edges of the paste, roll out the cover the proper
size, lay it on, press the edges together, trim neatly. - Dip the
cloth in boiling water, flour it, tie it on, tie up the edges, and put
it in boiling water. Let the pudding boil two hours and a
half. It can be made commoner with one- third suet, or even
a quarter instead of half.
Batter and Black Cap Puddings. Eight ounces of flour, half
a teaspoonful of baking powder, two eggs, a pint of milk. Mix
the flour with the baking powder and a pinch of salt-. Break
the eggs into a cup, beat them lightly with a little of the milk,
mix them by degrees quite smoothly into the flour so that there
are no lumps, add the rest of the milk, grease a basin, pour the
pudding in through a strainer, flour the cloth thickly after dip-
ping it in boiling water, tie it securely, and boil gently for an
hour and a half. Black cap pudding is made by throwing in a
quarter of a pound of currants after the batter is in the basin.
Fruit and Roly-poly Puddings. The crust for these should
be the same as for meat puddings. Allow a quarter of a pound
of sugar to a quart of /ruit. For roly-poly, roll the crust out
thin, cover it with jam, treacle, or currants, apple, and sugar ;
roll it up, tie in a cloth securely at each end, and boil an Hour
and a half.
Plum Pudding. A quarter of a pound of suet chopped fine,
a quarter of a pound of currants, a quarter of a pound of plums,
a quarter of a pound of sugar, six ounces of flour, six ounces of
bread crumbs, two ounces of peel, a gill of milk, two eggs, half
a teaspoonful of baking powder. Mix thoroughly the dry things,
beat the eggs lightly with the milk, add to them, dip a cloth in
boiling water, flour it, tie in the pudding securely, leaving it room
to swell, and boil two hours and a half.
Treacle Pudding. One pound of flour, a teaspoonful of
baking powder, a quarter of a pound of suet chopped fine, a
quarter of a pound of treacle, an egg, a gill and a half of milk.
Mix the dry ingredients, stir the egg and milk into the treacle
and mix with them, pour into a greased basin, tie a well-floured
cloth over, and boil two hours.
Materials required for Lesson : 2 Ibs. of meat, I qtn. of flour,
1 4 Ib. of suet, six eggs, 2\ pts. of milk, \ Ib. of plums, 5 Ib. of
currants, 2 oz. of peel, ^ Ib. of sugar, 6 apples or jam, 3 Ib. of
treacle, I pkt. of baking powder, I oz. of dripping or butter.
APPENDIX.
FIFTEENTH LESSON.
BREAD AND CAKES.
Home-made bread is at once more wholesome, and more
satisfying than baker's bread ; it keeps fresh a longer time, it is
eatable at the end of a week, when baker's bread is very dry.
To make a Quartern of Flour into Bread. Take three pounds
of flour, and put it into a dry pan. Mix one ounce of German
yeast into a smooth paste with a little tepid water, and add by
degrees more tepid water till you have a pint and three-quarters.
Put a pinch of salt into a well in the middle of the flour, and
strain it in gradually mixing it all smoothly into dough. Be
careful not to leave dry lumps of flour. Sprinkle a little flour
over, cover and set in a warm place for at least two hours to
rise. Then turn it out on a well-floured board, and work in
more flour. Make it into three loaves, bake on a well-floured
tin, or in flat bread-tins. Half a pound of flour is required in
making it up. In making large quantities of bread, only a
small portion of the water is put in at first, and a small portion
of the flour wetted, this is called setting or laying the sponge ;
this rises for some hours, large batches are laid over-night ;
when it has risen, more water is added, and the whole mixed
up into dough ; potatoes are frequently added.
Unfermented Bread. Unfermented, or unleavened bread is
not much used. It has the advantage of being very quickly
made. Take one pound of flour ; mix thoroughly with it one
teaspoonful of baking powder, and half a teaspoonful of salt.
Mix it with cold water, sufficient to make it into a light firm
dough. Make it into two small loaves and bake immediately.
Flour thus prepared is sold as self-raising flour.
Milk Rolls. Rub two ounces of butter into one pound of
self-raising flour, mix with milk into a light firm dough and
bake immediately.
Plum Cake. Eight ounces of flour, half a teaspoonful of
baking powder, quarter of a pound of fruit, either currants,
plums, or sultanas, or mixed, two ounces of sugar, two ounces
of dripping rubbed into the flour ; mix in the other ingredients ;
beat up one egg with a little milk, mix with the other in-
gredients ; cake should be so stiff a spoon would stand up in it.
The quantity of milk required depends on the flour ; the egg
and milk should be about a gill. Pour into a well greased tin
and bake immediately.
IUNIVERSITT'
Seed Cake. Ten ounces of flour, two ounces of dripping, two
ounces of sugar, one egg ; milk half a gill (or more), a tea-
spoonful of carraway seeds, a tea spoonful of baking powder.
Mix the dry things together, beat the egg up with the milk,
make it into a stiff paste and bake at once in a greased tin.
Rock Cakes. Half a pound of flour, quarter of a pound of
dripping, quarter of a pound of currants, quarter of a pound of
sugar, two ounces of peel, a little grated nutmeg, one egg, three
quarters of a gill of milk, two teaspoonfuls of baking powder.
Rub the dripping into the flour, mix all the dry things together,
beat up the egg lightly in a cup with the milk, mix all together,
lay in little heaps on a greased tin, and bake in a quick oven.
Rice Buns. Quarter of a pound of ground rice, quarter of a
pound of sugar, two ounces of butter, two eggs, half a tea-
spoonful of baking powder. Beat all well together, and bake
in greased patty pans.
Materials required for Lesson : 2 qtns. of flour, I oz. of
yeast, Ib, of ground rice, I Ib. of self-raising flour, | Ib. of
dripping, |d. of carraways, J Ib. of butter, 2^d. of milk, f Ib.
of sugar, 5 eggs, l z Ib. of fruit, 2 oz. of peel.
SIXTEENTH LESSON.
INVALID COOKERY.
Invalid cookery is one of the most important and most neglected
branches of the art. Good food is as essential to the sick as
good physic ; many a valuable life has been lost for want of
proper food during recovery from sickness. When necessary
articles of diet for the sick room are to be given rests with the
doctor ; in the earlier stages of illness, particularly fevers, little
food is required, the patient loathes it, and to press beef-tea,
&c., on a sick stomach, is positively injurious ; refreshing
drinks are chiefly what the patient requires. Perfect cleanliness
and freshness are most essential to invalid cookery. Don't
make beef- tea, lemonade, &c., enough for two or three days,
to save yourself trouble, and don't let the patient see you taste
with a spoon, and put it into the food again.
Beef Tea (Liebig's). Chop a pound of lean beef as fine as
sausage meat ; pour on it a pint of cold water, let it soak ; put
it over a slow fire, when it has boiled five minutes pour it off.
Beef Tea. Cut up one pound of lean beef ; (beef skirts or
gravy beef are best for beef- tea) ; put it in a stone jar with one
124 APPENDIX.
pint of cold water and a shank bone of mutton if you have one;
cover it closely and set in a saucepan of boiling water, or in a
slow oven three hours.
Raw Beef Tea (for Typhoid Fever). Two ounces of lean
gravy beef, two tablespoonful of cold water. Chop the meat
very fine ; let it stand quarter of an hour in the water, then pour
off the liquid. Make no more than this at one time, as it will
not keep.
Mutton Broth. Two pounds of scrag of mutton put into a
saucepan with three pints of water and a little salt. Let it
simmer gently two hours. Strain through a sieve ; when cold
remove every particle of fat ; it can be thickened with arrowroot
or ground rice. The mutton is good to eat with parsley and
butter.
Toast and Water.- Toast a crust of bread till it is of a light
brown on all sides ; plunge it into a pint of cold water, and let
it stand covered half an hour.
Irish or Iceland Moss. Wash Irish moss, and let it soak all
night ; dry it and boil it, one ounce in a quart of water till
reduced to one half. Strain through a sieve. Take the jelly
with milk, or wine, flavoured to taste. The moss can be boiled
in milk and put in a shape.
Barley Water.- -Boil one ounce of pearl barley in one quart
of water twenty minutes, sweeten to taste. A second quart of
water boiled with the same barley is better than the first. A bit
of lemon rind improves it.
Bran Tea. IP our one quart of boiling water on three table-
spoonfuls of middling sized bran, let it stand a quarter of an
hour ; sweeten with sugar or honey.
Lemonade. Peel a lemon very thinly, remove all the white
pith, part the rind into a jug with the lemon cut in slices ; pour
over it half a pint of boiling water. Cover till cool. Sweeten
to taste.
Wine Whey or Treacle Posset. Into half a pint of boiling
milk pour half a gill of wine or treacle ; let it stand five
minutes ; pour off the whey.
Materials required for Lesson. f lb. of gravy beef, 2 Ibs.
of mutton, id. of bread, I oz. of Irish moss, I oz. of barley,
\ lb. of bran, I lemon, \ pint of milk, \ gill of treacle,
APPENDIX. 125
SEVENTEENTH LESSON.
FARINACEOUS FOODS.
Maccaroni with Cheese. Wash a quarter of a pound of
maccaroni broken into short pieces. Put it into a large saucepan
of cold water, with a teaspoonful of salt. Boil it for about
three quarters of an hour, or until it is soft. Then strain off the
water. Melt one ounce and a half of butter in a small sauce-
pan, stir in one ounce of flour, then add by degrees half pint of
milk, pepper and salt, and stir it over the fire till it boils and
thickens, then add one ounce of strongly flavoured grated cheese,
stir in the maccaroni, then spread it out on a flat dish and
sprinkle over it another ounce of cheese, and brown the top in
a quick oven or before the fire.
Maccaroni Pudding or Sweet Maccaroni. Quarter of a pound
of maccaroni, two eggs, one pint and a half of milk, two ounces
of sugar. Wash the maccaroni, let it boil gently in plenty of
water with a little salt in half an hour ; strain it off, put in the
milk and let it boil half an hour, with a little piece of cinnamon
or bayleaf in. Beat up the eggs lightly with the sugar, pour the
milk off the maccaroni to them, grease a pie-dish, lay in the
maccaroni, pour the custard over and bake in a quick oven half
an hour.
Maccaroni Stewed in Stock. Boil quarter of a pound of mac-
caroni as before in salt and water half an hour, with an onion
cut in slices, strain off the water, pour in one pint of stock or
broth, pepper and salt to taste, let it simmer one hour, lay it in a
dish, sprinkle bread crumbs over, and brown in front of the fire.
Semolina. Semolina is coarsely ground wheat, and is very
nutritious. Boil one tablespoonful in half a pint of milk, ten
minutes, stirring all the time, sweeten with one dessertspoonful
of powdered white sugar ; it can be eaten hot, or put in a shape
to turn out when cold. To make it into a pudding, add one egg
lightly beaten and bake fifteen minutes. While many other farina-
ceous puddings are chiefly starch, and valuable principally for the
eggs and milk in them, semolina is of itself highly nutritious.
Hominy. Wash it in two or three waters, pour boiling water
on it, and let it stand all night. Take it out and put it in
? saucepan, one quart of hominy to two of water, and boil
four or five hours till quite soft. Drain it, put it into a deep
dish, and stir in some butter. If any is left cold, cut it in slices
and fry it.
Maize Flour Porridge or Polenta. Drop two tablespoonfuls of
maize flour into a pint of boiling water and salt, stirring all the
time until it is of the consistency of pea-soup.
126 APPENDIX.
Corn Flour Pudding. Corn flour is the starch of Indian corn.
To make a pudding of it, mix four tablespoonfuls of corn flour
and three of sugar with a very little milk. Put on one quart of
milk to boil, when it boils pour in the mixture and add three
eggs well beaten. Bake in a greased pie-dish.
Blancmange. Mix four tablespoonfuls of corn flour with a
little milk ; put one quart of milk with three tablespoonfuls of
sugar in it, on to boil, when it boils pour in the corn flour, let it
boil two minutes, wet a mould with cold water, pour in the
mixture.
Materials required for Lesson : f lb. of maccaroni, 2 oz. oi
cheese, 6 eggs, 7 pts. of milk, \ lb. of sugar, 2 oz. of semo-
lina, I pt. of stock, I qt. of hominy, 2 oz. of maize flour, 4 lb.
of corn flour, 2 oz. of butter.
EIGHTEENTH LESSON.
CHEAP SAUCES.
Melted Butter. Put one ounce of butter in a stewpan, when
it is melted put in half an ounce of flour, stir it quite smooth
over the fire, and pour in by degrees half a pint of water. Stir
till it thickens, then move it to the side of the fire. This recipe
will never fail to produce good melted butter free from lumps.
If you cannot afford so much butter use less ; but never put
more flour than butter. Melted butter too often resembles paste.
Parsley and Butter is made by stirring a teaspoonful of
chopped parsley into the above just before serving.
Egg Sauce is melted butter made with milk instead of water,
and an egg boiled ten minutes and allowed to get cool chopped
up and put into it.
Bread Sauce is made by soaking an ounce and a half of bread
crumbs in half a pint of milk a quarter of an hour; putting it on
to boil fifteen minutes, with an onion, six peppercorns, and a
pinch of salt in. Before serving, pick out the onion and the
peppercorns.
Mint Sauce. Wash clean and chop fine a handful of mint
without the stalks, dissolve half an ounce of sugar in half a gill of
water, add to it one gill of vinegar and the chopped mint, mix
well together.
Onion Sauce. Parboil the onions in water, strain them off,
cover them with milk, and let them boil gently half an hour,
strain the milk off, chop the onions fine, put half an ounce of
APPENDIX. 127
batter into the saucepan, when melted stir smooth] j in half an
ounce of floor, add by degrees the milk, stir it till it thickens,
then add the onions, and let it boil up.
Apple Sauce. Pare four apples, quarter and core them, pot
them into a yamrpflfi with a very little water, and sugar to t***f
Boil gently till reduced to a smooth palp, stirring occasionally.
Sweet Sauce, for Paddings, Ac. Pat on half a pint of water
to boQ, mix one dessertspoonful of arrowroot or corn-floor and
one of sugar with a little cold water, flavour with a tahlespoon-
ful of jam or mniijlad^ or a few drops of ranILa or a glass
of wine, poor it into the boiling water and strain over the
podding. It r=n be coloured with r***h"rel
Cow-heel Jetty. Take a cow-heel ready dressed (i.e. from
the tripe shop), and boil it in three pints of water six hoars.
When cold, remore all the fat, put the jelly in a stewpan with
the joke of two lemons and the rind of one, two ounces of sugar
and the white and shell of one egg slightly beaten, and a little
spice if die invalid likes it. A little saffron, fire or six threads,
gives it a nice colour. Let it boil up, stirring all the time, place
it on one side twenty minutes, then strain it through a doth till
clear. The foot itself is good either hot with onion save, or
cold.
Materials required for Lesson : J lb. of batter, parsley, Jib.
of floor, id. of bread, 3 onions, 3 apples, | lb. of sogar, 2 eggs,
I or. of arrorrroDt, mint, | gfll of vinegar, cow-heel, 2 *
saffron, jam.
NINETEENTH LESSON.
CHEAPEST DISHES WITHOUT MEAT.
Crowdie. The liqnor in which a kg of mutton has been
boiled, half a pint of natm***^ pepper and salt, two onions cot:
very fine. Hake the oatmeal into a paste with a little of me
liqnor over the fixe, stir in die remainder, and let it boil gentry
twenty minutes.
Savoury Rice. Put half a pound of rice into two pints and a
half of cold water, bofl it gently two hoars, then add one pint
of skim milk and two ranees of strong cheese grated, a Httfe
pepper and salt, and bofl nery gently another hour.
Rice Padding. Tie half a pound of rice in
so loose as to be able to hold five times as mi
gently till it fills the bag. Tom it oat and poor two <
treacle over it.
128 APPENDIX.
German Pea Soup. Take Haifa German pea-soup sausage, six
pints of boiling water, grate the sausage, mix into a smooth paste
with a little cold water. When the water boils, pour it in and
stir smooth. It requires no more cooking.
Dr. Kitchener's Broth. Four ounces of Scotch barley, four
ounces of sliced onions, two ounces of dripping, four ounces of
bacon, four ounces of oatmeal, pepper and salt. Put the barley,
previously soaked, and the onions into five quarts of liquor. Let
it boil gently one 'hour. Put into a saucepan the bacon and
dripping, and fry brown. Stir in by degrees the oatmeal till it
is a paste, then stir in the broth, and season to taste. Let it
simmer half an hour.
Milk Soup. Four large potatoes, two leeks, two ounces of
butter, three tablespoonfuls of crushed tapioca, one pint of milk.
Put the potatoes and leeks, cut in four, in a saucepan, with two
quarts of boiling water and two ounces of butter, a teaspoonful
of salt, and pepper to taste. Boil an hour, rub through a
colander, and return it to the saucepan, add the milk, sprinkle
in the tapioca, and let it boil fifteen minutes.
Haricots. The seeds of the French bean are very nutritious.
Soak them all night. Put them on in plenty of water, let them
boil till tender three or four hours, strain, and eat with parsley
and butter.
Potato Cake. A pound of cold potatoes, a quarter of a
pound of flour or oatmeal, half a gill of warm milk (with a
quarter of an ounce of yeast dissolved in it, if you have it), a
little salt and butter. Mash the potatoes, add the other things,
roll out the paste an inch and a half or two inches thick, lay it
in a greased tin and bake it.
Materials required for Lesson : I Ib. of rice, f pt. of oatmeal,
6 onions, 2 oz. of cheese, milk, 2 oz. of treacle, \ German pea
soup stick, 4 oz. of barley, 4 oz, of bacon, 2 leeks, I \ Ib.
of potatoes, \ Ib. tapioca, 3 oz. of butter, I pt. haricots, \ Ib. of
dripping.
TWENTIETH LESSON.
CHEAPEST DISHES WITH MEAT.
Sheep's Head and Pluck. Thoroughly clean the head, put
it into a saucepan with three pints of cold water, a cupful of rice,
four onions sliced, and a little salt. Set it on a slow fire to cook
very gently, skim it when it boils, and put in two carrots and
APPENDIX. 129
two turnips cut in quarters. Let it simmer two hours. A
quarter of an hour before serving, carefully skim off all the fat,
and season to taste with a little pepper and salt. The liver may
be fried, and the heart stuffed and baked, or both may be stewed
together in one pint of water (after being browned in the sauce-
pan with an ounce of dripping) for one hour, the gravy to be
thickened with half an ounce of flour.
Irish Stew. This is a way of economizing meat by cooking
it with a large quantity of potatoes. It is best made of fat meat
the ends of the neck of mutton and the scrag do very
well. Lay in a saucepan layers of mutton and potatoes and
onions cut in slices, seasoned to taste, pour over a very little
water, and let it stew two or three hours. Many people, con-
sidering the water in which potatoes are boiled unwholesome,
boil the potatoes partially, throw away the water, cut them up or
mash them, and then lay them in layers with the meat as above.
Pot-au-feu. The French national dish, and a most econo-
mical one. Take four pounds of the sticking piece, round, or
ox-cheek, tie it tightly round with string, put it into a pot with
eight pints of cold water. Let it come slowly to a boil, then
Eut into it any vegetables in season (except green ones), say two
;eks, two onions, two carrots, two turnips, two parsnips, a piece
of celery, a bunch of herbs, twenty peppercorns, a teaspoonful
of salt. Let it simmer four hours. The vegetables are best put
in a net or tied in bundles. If you put in any cabbage it must
be a white one tied tightly together, or it will boil to pieces.
For serving, the meat is put on a dish with the vegetables round
it ; and the soup is thickened with sago, corn-flour, or tapioca,
boiled in it a few minutes.
German Potatoes. Choose large potatoes, scrub them clean,
cut a slice off the top, scoop out a hole in the middle, fill it with
half a sausage, put the top on again, and bake in a moderate
oven.
Materials required for Lesson : Sheep's head and pluck, 4 Ibs.
of ox-cheek, neck of mutton, \ Ib. sausages, peppercorns, 4 Ibs.
of potatoes, 6 onions, 2 leeks, 2 carrots, I parsnip, | celery,
herbs, parsley.
INDEX.
The Recipes in the Appendix are Printed in Italics.
AIR, 76
Albumen, 16, 37
Albumenoid foods, 13
Apple sauce, 127
Arrowroot, 48
Australian meat, 115
Bacon, to broil, 114
Baking, no
Baking meat, 22 ; powder, 53
Barley, 55
Barley water, 124
Beans, French, to boil, 118
Beef a la mode, 109
Beef-tea, 33
Beef -tea, 123
Beer, 65
Benzoline lamps, 89
Blancmange, 126
Boiling, 24
Borax, 95
Bran, 50
Bran tea, 124
Bread, 50 ; making, 51 ; pulled, 53
Bread, 122; unfermented,ib.', sauce,
126
Broiling, 23
Broiling, 113
Broth, Dr. Kitcheners, 128
jBuns, rice, 123
Butter, 44
Cabbages, 58
Cake, plum, 122 ; seed, 123 ; rock,
113 ; potato, 128
Candles, 86
Carrots, 59
Carrots, turnips, 118
Caitliflower, 118
Chloride of lime, 96
Cleaning, 91
Clogs, 101
Clothing, 99
Cocoa, 64
Coffee, 63
Coffee, to make, 104
Cornflour, 49
Cornish pasties, in
Cotton clothes, 100
Cow-heel, to boil, 107 ; jelly, 127
Cream, 41 ; clotted, 42
Croivdie, 127
Curd, 43
Curry, cold meat, 115
Custard, 39
D^^mplings, Norfolk, 106; baked apple,.
in
Earth-closets, 67
Eggs, 37 ; poached, 38 ; preserving, 40
Eggs, to boil, 104 ; to poach, ib. ; for
invalids, ib. ; sauce, 126
Farinaceous foods, 125
Fat, value as food, 18
Fibrin, 15
Fire to light, 103
Firing, 80
Fish, 117 ; fried, ib. ; grilled, ib. ;
, .
Fish, 34; salt, 35; baked, ib.\ fried*
36 ; soups, ib.
Flour, 47
Food, nature and use of, n
Fritters, 112
Fruits, 59
Fruit pie, 119
Frying, 112
Fuel, fo
Furniture, 68
Gas lighting, 89 ; stoves, 84
Gelatin, 17
Giblets, no
Gluten, 47
Goblet pie, 115
Gravy, to make, 21
INDEX.
Gravy for roast meat, 105
Greens, Savoys, and Cabbages, 118
PIaddock,to bake, 117
Hare, jugged, 28 f
Haricots, 57
Haricot mutton, 27
Haricots, 128
Haricot puree, 109; w/to, no
Hash, 114
Hominy, 125
Houses, unhealthy, 67
Infants' food, 104
Invalid cookery, 123
/r/V* and Ice land moss, 124
Irish stew, 27
Juice of the flesh, 17
Kidney, to broil, 113
Lemonade, 124
Lentils, 57
Lighting, 85
Lime-washing, 93
Liver and bacon, 112
Maccaroni, with cheese, 125 ; pudding,
ib.; stewed in stock, ib.
Maize, 55
Maizena, 49
Meat, its composition, 15 ; effect of
salt on, 31; preserved, 32; extract
of, ib.
Meat pie, in; to boil, 106; cold, to
-use up, 114 ; patties, 115 ; pie, Aus-
tralian, 115
Melted butter, 126
Milk, 41 ; an example of perfect food,
ii ; skimmed, 43 ; testers, 45 ; pre-
served. 46
Milk, thick, 104
Milk porridge, 104 ', rolls, 122
Mincemeat, 116
Mini sauce, 126
Mushrooms, 114
Mustard, 62
Mutton broth, 124
Mutton chop, 113
Nitrogen in air, 76
Oatmeal, 54
Oleaginous foods, 13
Omelettes, 39
Omelettes, 113
Onions, 59
Onions, Spanish, 118 ; sauce, 126
Oxygen in air, 76
Pancakes, 113
Paraffin lamps, 87
Parsley and butter, 126
Parsnips, 59
Parsnips, 118
Pastry, 53
Patties, 119
Peas, 56
/Vrtj, to &?zY, IJ 8
Pea-soup, 30
Pepper, 62
Pickled pork, 107
Polenta, 125
/Wr Mans Goose, in
/><?r, &**, no ; pickled, 107
Potatoes, 57
Potato starch, 48
Potatoes, fried, 112 ; * to wfc,
118 ; German, 129
Potato cake, 128
Pot-au-feu, 29
Pot-ait-feu, 129
Puddings, batter, 104, 121 ; bread,
120; cornflour, 126 ; fruit, 121;
c^tstard, 120; meat, 120; plum
baked, 119 ; plum boiled, 121 ; rzVtf,
120; roly-poly, 121 ; sago, 120; sz^,
106; tapioca, 120; teacup, 104;
treacle, 121; Yorkshire, 106
Rabbits, stewed, 28
Rabbit^ 107 ; ragout of, no
Ranges for cooking, 82
Rice, 55
J?zV* wzzY/6, 105 ; pudding, 120, 127 ;
^;w, 123; savoury, 127
Rissoles of cold meat, 115; Austra-
lian meat, 116
Roasting, 20
Roast joint, 105 ; heart, 106
Rooms, size of, 68
Sago, 48
Salt, 60
Salting meat, 31
Sauces, 126
Sausages, 112
Scotch broth, 31
Scrubbing, 94
Semolina, 125
Sheep's head and pluck, 128
Shepherd's pie, 115
Shoes, 100
132
INDEX.
Soap, 95
Soda, 95
Soups, 30 ; fish, 36
Soup, bone, 108 ; Carrot, Onion, and
Potato, 108 ; German pea, 128 ;
leg of beef, 108 - milk, 128 ; mulli-
gatawny, 1 16 ; ox-tail, 108
Spinach, 118
Sponge lamps, 89
Sprats, to broil, 114
Starch, 47, 48
Steak, stewed, 26
Steak, to broil, 113
Stewing, 25
Stewing pipkin, 29
Stews, 109
Stew, Brazilian, 109; brown, 116;
Irish, 1 1 6, 129
Stoves for cooking, 82
Spiffing, 105
Sugar, 51
Sweet sauce i 127
Tallymen, evils of buying from, 71
Tea, 63
7V to make, 104
Treacle posset, 124
Toad-in-the-holc, in
Toast-an d-water, 1 24
Tripe, 107 ; fried in batter, 112
Turnips, 59
Km/ cutlets, 114
Vegetables, fresh, 57
l^:getables, 118
Ventilation, 79
Vinegar, 61
Washing, 95, 96
Water supply, 72
Waterproofing for shoes, 102
Whitewashing, 93
Wine whey, 124
Woollen clothes, 100
x x x |Jig.ESE L!BR4^>s.
f OF THE \
(UNIVERSITY)
\v 9f S
^*^*^ -"-^**^
THE END.
RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BUNGAY.
YA 02177
