FoodNetArchive

The housewife's referee

1898

Page 26

Presented as published in 1898. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
door, a shelf for lamps, and a table, with drawer for brushes, on which all cloth clothes should be brushed. If possible, there should be a safe for the plate, and if not, a cupboard, the shelves of which should be lined with baize. This cupboard should have a Chubb's lock. Another necessary adjunct to the pantry is the china and glass closet; if there is not room in it for a cupboard one should be erected as near to it as possible, as it is most important that such tender things as glass and china should be well housed and cared for. I consider a requisite in every pantry one of those knife - washing boxes, which are so made that the handles do not touch the water, as it ruins the handles, besides dis- colouring them and eradicating the black from the crests or monograms. Where persons have an immense variety of china and glass, and room can be found for it, it is a good plan, if there be not space in the pantry itself for it, to have closets put up in a passage close hj, and enclosed with doors, making a kind of separate room ; but, if large enough, it is best to have it kept in the pantry itself. In that case, shelves with glass doors should be arranged on one side of the pantry, the shelves should be lined with baize, and the different services arranged together, so that there would be no difficulty in finding them. Certain com- partments must be reserved for glass and others for china. In one large house where I visit, the glass and china room is quite a show place, visitors being taken to the pantry to see the different specimens; and very beautiful and costly they are. A very important thing is to season glass and china, so that they will remain sound after exposure to heat and cold ; this can be done by placing the articles in cold water and gradually bringing it to boiling point, and then allowing it to cool very slowly, leaving the articles in till the water is quite cold. This is most essential with lamp- chimneys. China which has any gilding on it, should never be rubbed with a cloth, but just rinsed first in warm water and then in cold, and left to drain till dry. Occasionally, but only once in a way, it may be rubbed with a soft wash- leather and a little fine dry whiting. When plates, etc., are put away in the china closet, pieces of paper should be 38 THE housewife's REFEREE placed between each, to prevent scratches on the glaze or painting. The china closet should always be in a dry situ- ation, as a damp closet will soon tarnish the gilding of the best crockery.