Nothing is more unsatisfactory than to sit down day after day to
the same bill of fare. There are houses where the mistress seems to
have no inventive faculty, acquired or innate. Breakfast consists
from Monday till Saturday of the same fried pork and potatoes, or
.sausages and cakes. Remnants of things come on again and again,
growing small by degrees, till one grows very tired of seeing them.
All this can be remedied by a little planning. Manage for your own
family as if you had guests, and vary the arrangement of your table
and articles of your diet. Health will be preserved thus, and the
dyspepsia averted.
A Good Dinner is perfect food perfectly dressed ; not a great
array of dishes. The art of cooking is the first of the fine arts. The
first woman in America is not she who bears most children — a brutal
Napoleonism — but she who prepares the best dish ; because, by this
one act, this superior accomplishment, she contributes to the health
of her children and the fidelity of her husband.
Hurried Dinners. — It is a mistake to eat quickly. Mastication
performed in haste must be imperfect even with the best of teeth,
and due admixture of the salivary secretion with the food cannot
take place. When a crude mass of inadequately crushed muscular
fibre, or undivided solid material of any description, is thrown into
COOKERY RECIPES. 549
the stomach, it acts as a mechanical irritant, and sets up a condi-
tion in the mucous membrane hning that organ which greatly im-
pedes, if it does not altogether prevent, the process of digestion.
When the practice of eating quickly and filling the stomach with
unprepared food is habitual, the digestive organ is rendered incap-
able of performing its proper functions. Either a much larger quan-
tity of food than .would be necessary under natural conditions is
required, or the system suffers from lack of nourishment. Those
animals which were intended to feed hurriedly were either gifted with
the power of rumination or provided with gizzards. Man is not
so furnished, and it is fair to assume that he was intended to eat
slowly.
MISCELLANEOUS HOUSEHOLD RECIPES.
How TO Clean Soapsuds. — Housekeepers who are limited in their
supply of good washing water can make it do double duty by dis-
solving alum in hot water and throwing it into the tub of soapsuds. In
a moment the soap will curdle, and, accompanied by muddy particles,
will sink to the bottom, leaving the water perfectly clear and devoid
of the smell of soap. This water can be used for washing a second
time, if poured off the sediment. Where water is scarce, this fact is
invaluable.
To Clean a Carpet. — Shake and beat it well, tack it firmly upon
the floor, and then with clean flannel wash it over with a quart of
bullock's gall mixed with three quarts of soft cold water, and rub it
off with a clean flannel or house-cloth.
To Clean Knives with Expedition and Ease. — Make a strong
solution of the common washing-soda and water; after wiping them,
dip the blades of the knives into the solution ; then polish on a knife-
board; the same would, of course, be effectual for forks. Never put
ivory-handled knives into warm water; it discolors and then cracks
them. If knives are wrapped up in chamois leather they will never
rust unless put away damp.
Page 356
Presented as published in 1883. 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
Nothing is more unsatisfactory than to sit down day after day to the same bill of fare. There are houses where the mistress seems to have no inventive faculty, acquired or innate. Breakfast consists from Monday till Saturday of the same fried pork and potatoes, or .sausages and cakes. Remnants of things come on again and again, growing small by degrees, till one grows very tired of seeing them. All this can be remedied by a little planning. Manage for your own family as if you had guests, and vary the arrangement of your table and articles of your diet. Health will be preserved thus, and the dyspepsia averted.
A Good Dinner is perfect food perfectly dressed ; not a great array of dishes. The art of cooking is the first of the fine arts. The first woman in America is not she who bears most children — a brutal Napoleonism — but she who prepares the best dish ; because, by this one act, this superior accomplishment, she contributes to the health of her children and the fidelity of her husband.
Hurried Dinners. — It is a mistake to eat quickly. Mastication performed in haste must be imperfect even with the best of teeth, and due admixture of the salivary secretion with the food cannot take place. When a crude mass of inadequately crushed muscular fibre, or undivided solid material of any description, is thrown into
the stomach, it acts as a mechanical irritant, and sets up a condition in the mucous membrane hning that organ which greatly impedes, if it does not altogether prevent, the process of digestion. When the practice of eating quickly and filling the stomach with unprepared food is habitual, the digestive organ is rendered incapable of performing its proper functions. Either a much larger quantity of food than .would be necessary under natural conditions is required, or the system suffers from lack of nourishment. Those animals which were intended to feed hurriedly were either gifted with the power of rumination or provided with gizzards. Man is not so furnished, and it is fair to assume that he was intended to eat slowly.
How TO Clean Soapsuds. — Housekeepers who are limited in their supply of good washing water can make it do double duty by dissolving alum in hot water and throwing it into the tub of soapsuds. In a moment the soap will curdle, and, accompanied by muddy particles, will sink to the bottom, leaving the water perfectly clear and devoid of the smell of soap. This water can be used for washing a second time, if poured off the sediment. Where water is scarce, this fact is invaluable.
To Clean a Carpet. — Shake and beat it well, tack it firmly upon the floor, and then with clean flannel wash it over with a quart of bullock's gall mixed with three quarts of soft cold water, and rub it off with a clean flannel or house-cloth.
To Clean Knives with Expedition and Ease. — Make a strong solution of the common washing-soda and water; after wiping them, dip the blades of the knives into the solution ; then polish on a knifeboard; the same would, of course, be effectual for forks. Never put ivory-handled knives into warm water; it discolors and then cracks them. If knives are wrapped up in chamois leather they will never rust unless put away damp.