The Care of Rooms : Part 3

American Woman's Home
by Catharine Beecher, Harriet Beecher Stowe

(Page 33 of 43)

3. Pour in more hot water, wash the greasy dishes with the dish-cloth made for them, rinse them and set them to drain. Wipe them and set them away. Wash the knives and forks, being careful that the handles are never put in water; wipe them and then lay them in a knife-dish, to be scoured.

4. Take a fresh supply of clean suds, in which wash the milk-pans, buckets and tins. Then rinse and hang up this dish-cloth and take the other, with which, wash the roaster, gridiron, pots and kettles. Then wash and rinse the dish-cloth and hang it up. Empty the slop-bucket and scald it. Dry metal teapots and tins before the fire. Then put the fire-place in order and sweep and dust the kitchen.

Some persons keep a deep and narrow vessel, in which to wash knives with a swab, so that a careless servant can not lay them in the water while washing them. This article can be carried into the eating-room, to receive the knives and forks when they are taken from the table.

Kitchen Furniture

Crockery. - Brown earthen pans are said to be best for milk and for cooking. Tin pans are lighter and more convenient, but are too cold for many purposes. Tall earthen jars, with covers, are good to hold butter, salt, lard, etc. Acids should never be put into the red earthen ware, as there is a poisonous ingredient in the glazing which the acid takes off. Stone ware is better and stronger and safer every way than any other kind.

Iron Ware. - Many kitchens are very imperfectly supplied with the requisite conveniences for cooking. When a person has sufficient means, the following articles are all desirable: A nest of iron pots, of different sizes, (they should be slowly heated when new,) a long iron fork, to take out articles from boiling water; an iron hook, with a handle, to lift pots from the crane; a large and small gridiron, with grooved bars and a trench to catch the grease; a Dutch oven, called also a bake-pan; two skillets, of different sizes and a spider, or flat skillet, for frying; a griddle, a waffle-iron, tin and iron bake and bread pans; two ladles, of different sizes; a skimmer; iron skewers; a toasting-iron; two teakettles, one small and one large one; two brass kettles, of different sizes, for soap-boiling, etc. Iron kettles, lined with porcelain, are better for preserves. The German are the best. Too hot a fire will crack them, but with care in this respect, they will last for many years.

Portable charcoal furnaces, of iron or clay, are very useful in summer, in washing, ironing and stewing, or making preserves. If used in the house, a strong draught must be made, to prevent the deleterious effects of the charcoal. A box and mill, for spice, pepper and coffee, are needful to those who use these articles. Strong knives and forks, a sharp carving-knife, an iron cleaver and board, a fine saw, steelyards, chopping-tray and knife, an apple-parer, steel for sharpening knives, sugar-nippers, a dozen iron spoons, also a large iron one with a long handle, six or eight flat-irons, one of them very small, two iron-stands, a ruffle-iron, a crimping-iron, are also desirable.

Tin Ware. - Bread-pans; large and small patty-pans; cake-pans, with a center tube to insure their baking well; pie-dishes, (of block-tin;) a covered butter-kettle; covered kettles to hold berries; two sauce-pans; a large oil-can; (with a cock;) a lamp-filler; a lantern; broad bottomed candlesticks for the kitchen; a candle-box; a funnel; a reflector for baking warm cakes; an oven or tin-kitchen; an apple-corer; an apple-roaster; an egg-boiler; two sugar-scoops and flour and meal-scoop; a set of mugs; three dippers; a pint, quart and gallon measure; a set of scales and weights; three or four pails, painted on the outside; a slop-bucket with a tight cover, painted on the outside; a milk-strainer; a gravy-strainer; a colander; a dredging-box; a pepper-box; a large and small grater; a cheese-box; also a large box for cake and a still larger one for bread, with tight covers. Bread, cake and cheese, shut up in this way, will not grow dry as in the open air.

Wooden Ware. - A nest of tubs; a set of pails and bowls; a large and small sieve; a beetle for mashing potatoes; a spade or stick for stirring butter and sugar; a bread-board, for molding bread and making pie-crust; a coffee-stick; a clothes-stick; a mush-stick; a meat-beetle, to pound tough meat; an egg-beater; a ladle, for working butter; a bread-trough, (for a large family;) flour-buckets, with lids, to hold sifted flour and Indian meal; salt-boxes; sugar-boxes; starch and indigo-boxes; spice-boxes; a bosom-board; a skirt-board; a large ironing-board; two or three clothes-frames; and six dozen clothes-pins.

Basket Ware. - Baskets of all sizes, for eggs, fruit, marketing, clothes, etc.; also chip-baskets. When often used, they should be washed in hot suds.

Other Articles. - Every kitchen needs a box containing balls of brown thread and twine, a large and small darning needle, rolls of waste paper and old linen and cotton and a supply of common holders. There should also be another box, containing a hammer, carpet-tacks and nails of all sizes, a carpet-claw, screws and a screw-driver, pincers, gimlets of several sizes, a bed-screw, a small saw, two chisels, (one to use for button-holes in broadcloth,) two awls and two files.

In a drawer or cupboard should be placed cotton table-cloths for kitchen use; nice crash towels for tumblers, marked T T; coarser towels for dishes marked T; six large roller-towels; a dozen hand-towels, marked H T; and a dozen hemmed dish-cloths with loops. Also two thick linen pudding or dumpling-cloths, a jelly-bag made of white flannel, to strain jelly, a starch-strainer and a bag for boiling clothes.

About the Author

Catharine Esther Beecher (1800 - 1878) was a noted educator, renowned for her forthright opinions on women's education as well as her vehement support of the many benefits of the incorporation of a kindergarten into children's education.

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811 - 1896) was a white American abolitionist and novelist, whose Uncle Tom's Cabin attacked the cruelty of slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential, even in Britain.