In many country houses breakfast
is so late that preliminary breakfasts are asked for
in every bedroom ; and five o'clock tea is on so
tempting a scale that ladies have no appetite at the
dinner table and have a very troublesome appetite
at midnight. Those who can afford to devote the
necessary money to establishments in which this
46 WAGES AXD PERQUISITES.
amount of luxury prevails, without trenching on
other claims, have only to ascertain that there are
servants enough for the work to be done ; that neither
their health suffers by over-work nor their morals by
over-leisure during the intervals when absence from
home of the masters or other cause prevents 'company.'
Wages and Perquisites.
A cook's earnings are made up of w^ages and per-
quisites. A good cook, or even a plain cook if good
of her kind, is entitled to wages much larger than those
given to other female servants, and it is for the interest
of the employer to give ample wages. The question
of perquisites is a different one : perquisites may be
divided into two categories — a percentage on trades-
men's bills, and the sale of broken meats.
From a consideration of the first of these, it will be
seen that it becomes the interest of the cook as well
as of the tradesman to make those bills as high as
possible. It would be an advantage to the employer
and quite fair on the cook to arrange to pay her a
sum calculated on the average outlay, in lieu of the
percentage, and to give notice of this arrangement to
the tradesman, who then can afford to charge ' stores '
prices for his goods.
The second perquisite is the sale of broken meatS;
dripping, &c.
By this arrangement it is the cook's interest to
treat as broken meat, and to convert into dripping,
much sound and available provision. In the matter
of selling, the real profit is obtained by the dripping
COST OF FOOD. 47
dealer, the real loss is sustained by the cook's em-
ployer : the cook gets a sum small indeed in com-
parison with the first cost and with the final sale of
the article ; the purchasers of broken meats are not
scrupulous, the cook's conscience becomes less delicate,
and half a leg of mutton is treated as ' broken meat'
Those who can afford to give as wages to a cook
40/. and upwards per annum would do well to com-
mute such perquisites into a money payment, and to
give to the poor, through the various charitable
agencies (whose collector would alwa}'s call), the broken
meats.
Where the system of board wages prevails, the
same objection as regards broken meats does not
exist, for all that is eatable is utilised to reduce the
cost of living to the servants and to enable them to
save out of their board wages — an unobjectionable,
even praiseworthy habit.
The Cost of Eating.
No rule as to the cost of food per head can be laid
down. Households differ in numbers, ages, and
habits. In a grown-up household the average per
head is higher than when there are many children and
some infants. Fifteen shillings a week per head all
round, servants and infants included, is considered in
a cathedral town what the housekeeping weekly ex-
penses should come to. This includes servants' beer
and the washing of the whole family.
The following are examples of households where
the 15?. a week scale holds good.
48 COST OF A HOUSEHOLD.
Page 21
Presented as published in 1882. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
In many country houses breakfast is so late that preliminary breakfasts are asked for in every bedroom ; and five o'clock tea is on so tempting a scale that ladies have no appetite at the dinner table and have a very troublesome appetite at midnight. Those who can afford to devote the necessary money to establishments in which this
46 WAGES AND PERQUISITES.
amount of luxury prevails, without trenching on other claims, have only to ascertain that there are servants enough for the work to be done ; that neither their health suffers by over-work nor their morals by over-leisure during the intervals when absence from home of the masters or other cause prevents 'company.'
Wages and Perquisites.
A cook's earnings are made up of w^ages and perquisites. A good cook, or even a plain cook if good of her kind, is entitled to wages much larger than those given to other female servants, and it is for the interest of the employer to give ample wages. The question of perquisites is a different one : perquisites may be divided into two categories — a percentage on tradesmen's bills, and the sale of broken meats.
From a consideration of the first of these, it will be seen that it becomes the interest of the cook as well as of the tradesman to make those bills as high as possible. It would be an advantage to the employer and quite fair on the cook to arrange to pay her a sum calculated on the average outlay, in lieu of the percentage, and to give notice of this arrangement to the tradesman, who then can afford to charge ' stores ' prices for his goods.
The second perquisite is the sale of broken meatS; dripping, &c.
By this arrangement it is the cook's interest to treat as broken meat, and to convert into dripping, much sound and available provision. In the matter of selling, the real profit is obtained by the dripping
COST OF FOOD. 47
dealer, the real loss is sustained by the cook's employer : the cook gets a sum small indeed in comparison with the first cost and with the final sale of the article ; the purchasers of broken meats are not scrupulous, the cook's conscience becomes less delicate, and half a leg of mutton is treated as ' broken meat'
Those who can afford to give as wages to a cook 40/. and upwards per annum would do well to commute such perquisites into a money payment, and to give to the poor, through the various charitable agencies (whose collector would alwa}'s call), the broken meats.
Where the system of board wages prevails, the same objection as regards broken meats does not exist, for all that is eatable is utilised to reduce the cost of living to the servants and to enable them to save out of their board wages — an unobjectionable, even praiseworthy habit.
The Cost of Eating.
No rule as to the cost of food per head can be laid down. Households differ in numbers, ages, and habits. In a grown-up household the average per head is higher than when there are many children and some infants. Fifteen shillings a week per head all round, servants and infants included, is considered in a cathedral town what the housekeeping weekly expenses should come to. This includes servants' beer and the washing of the whole family.
The following are examples of households where the 15?. a week scale holds good.
48 COST OF A HOUSEHOLD.