FoodNetArchive

The housewife's referee

1898

Page 31 · 1 recipe record on this page

Presented as published in 1898. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
on them, and for what they are to be used. For instance, on the glass cloths : Initial or Name. 1864. No. 12. Pantry. Glass. I think for the best sheets, towels, pillow slips, table cloths, and table napkins an embroidered monogram is nicest. Pasted on to the middle of each shelf I have the name of the sorts written on a piece of foolscap paper, such as on the towel shelf, " Towels " ; on that for the servants, " Servants' towels," and so on. The very top shelf I keep for old linen for mending and patching, or for rags, as the case may be. Little bags of muslin filled with lavender make a linen cupboard smell sweet and they give the linen a pleasant perfume. I will just add to this little article the number of linen re- quisite in an ordinary-sized house : — Linen sheets for double beds, linen sheets for single beds, fine twilled longcloth sheets for double beds, fine twilled longcloth sheets for small beds (there are many people who object to linen sheets, and it is well to have both and ask visitors which they prefer), calico sheets for servants, fine linen pillow-slips, longcloth pillow-slips for servants, linen shams for pillows and sheets with frills or lace, and embroidered with monogram, damask table- cloths of all sizes, kitchen table-cloths, table-napkins, breakfast napkins (smaller), round towels for kitchen and pantry, fancy diaper towels, huckaback towels, servants' towels, bath towels, servants' toilet covers,* fine dusters for bric-a-brac, common dusters, glass cloths, tea cloths, kitchen, pantry and plate cloths, lamp cloths, basin cloths, slop cloths, house cloths, kitchen rubbers, knife cloths, dish cloths. * Toilet covers for the best rooms are seldom used now. Art muslins with fringes to match are mostly used where there is no marble top to the toilet tables. HIOTS FOE HOUSEMAIDS 47 It is a good plan to have all the dusters of different patterns ; that is to say, the housemaids two different kinds, the kitchen different, the pantry again different. Servants are so fond of using these articles indiscriminately. Close to the linen closet it is well to have a large box or chest, in which the eider-down quilts can be put away in the summer with plenty of moth powder in between ; there should also be a receptacle for muslin window-curtains, unless one shelf in the linen closet is appropriated to them. HINTS FOR CARE OF LINEN Sheets, pillow-cases, table-cloths should not be hemmed until they have first been shrunken ; but before shrinking each one must be made into its proper length, so that they may fold evenly when ironed, which otherwise would not be. Sheets and pillow-cases should be torn by a thread ; table- cloths and napkins cut by the thread. To take Scorch from Linen. — Put into a pan five ounces of fullers' earth, one ounce of soap, the juice of three large onions, and three-quarters of a pint of vinegarScorch Remover for Linen, and boil all these together till the mixture becomes thick as paste ; then lay this paste on thickly to the scorched linen, and the stains will disappear after it has been allowed to dry on and the damaged places washed once or twice. HINTS FOR HOUSEMAIDS The housemaid or housemaids should be well supplied with brushes, brooms, good dusters, cloths and pails. The following list may perhaps be some guide, but, of course, mistresses must judge for themselves according to what their establishments consist of : —