I am a great advocate for the French fireproof china, as so many appetising dishes can be cooked and sent up to table in them : for instance, macaroni-cheese and sole an gratin are never so good as when cooked in one of these, and for souffles, the round, white, fluted dishes are excellent. A marble slab for making pastry is a necessity, and can be obtained very inexpensively from a stonemason, as they often have pieces left, which they are glad to sell cheaply. Every cook should be provided with a set of special knives, wide at the base of the blade and ending in a point ; the larger ones for cutting, and the smaller for quick peeling and picking. There is a very useful knife with a notched blade which is very handy, not only for peeling, but for cutting up potatoes, turnips, apples, etc. The French filtering spoons are useful for carrying ofi" the grease from gravy, etc. A palette knife is also necessary for making dishes with chaudfroid sauces, and for icing cakes, etc. In foreign kitchens the cooks always use the cercle a plat (dish hoop), which is used when dishing up, to keep the edges of the dishes free from splashes. The zest knife is another useful article, which one seldom finds in an English kitchen ; it has a screw blade by means of which the zest can be removed without a particle of pith. The cuillere degrais- sense is another article always used abroad. All gravies are put in the sauce-tureen through it, and it is made to retain the fat, whilst the pure gravy goes into the tureen. KITCHEN FIEES So many people think that by constantly heaping coals on a kitchen fire, they keep the place warm, and never think of the unnecessary extravagance consequently entailed. If cooks would only make up a good fire, and then insist that all the servants going in and out of the kitchen should shut the doors after them, it would be found that the temperature would be much more even than it would be by keeping a blazing fire, and allowing all the heat to escape through the open doors. The coal dust should always be burnt, 8 THE housewife's EEFEKEE mixed with lumps, and if mistresses would insist on this there would not be found so much wasted coal in the cellar. The dust is most useful in backing up fires by damping it and placing it on the back of the fire. Whenever the flames roar in passing through the back flue of the range, it is very certain that coal is being wasted. Poking the fire is a great mistake, and a kitchen fire hardly ever re- quires it ; it is a most wasteful habit, not only burning out the poker, but turning the coals into cinders, and no fire lasts so long when it is constantly being stirred. A cook can prevent the accumulation of soot in the chimney by making a brine of a few pennyworths of com- mon salt and pouring it over soft coal, and the under parts of the stove in which it is used will be kept clean.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

I am a great advocate for the French fireproof china, as so many appetising dishes can be cooked and sent up to table in them : for instance, macaroni-cheese and sole au gratin are never so good as when cooked in one of these, and for souffles, the round, white, fluted dishes are excellent. A marble slab for making pastry is a necessity, and can be obtained very inexpensively from a stonemason, as they often have pieces left, which they are glad to sell cheaply. Every cook should be provided with a set of special knives, wide at the base of the blade and ending in a point ; the larger ones for cutting, and the smaller for quick peeling and picking. There is a very useful knife with a notched blade which is very handy, not only for peeling, but for cutting up potatoes, turnips, apples, etc. The French filtering spoons are useful for carrying off the grease from gravy, etc. A palette knife is also necessary for making dishes with chaudfroid sauces, and for icing cakes, etc. In foreign kitchens the cooks always use the cercle a plat (dish hoop), which is used when dishing up, to keep the edges of the dishes free from splashes. The zest knife is another useful article, which one seldom finds in an English kitchen ; it has a screw blade by means of which the zest can be removed without a particle of pith. The cuillere degraissense is another article always used abroad. All gravies are put in the sauce-tureen through it, and it is made to retain the fat, whilst the pure gravy goes into the tureen. KITCHEN FIEES So many people think that by constantly heaping coals on a kitchen fire, they keep the place warm, and never think of the unnecessary extravagance consequently entailed. If cooks would only make up a good fire, and then insist that all the servants going in and out of the kitchen should shut the doors after them, it would be found that the temperature would be much more even than it would be by keeping a blazing fire, and allowing all the heat to escape through the open doors. The coal dust should always be burnt, THE housewife's REFEREE mixed with lumps, and if mistresses would insist on this there would not be found so much wasted coal in the cellar. The dust is most useful in backing up fires by damping it and placing it on the back of the fire. Whenever the flames roar in passing through the back flue of the range, it is very certain that coal is being wasted. Poking the fire is a great mistake, and a kitchen fire hardly ever requires it ; it is a most wasteful habit, not only burning out the poker, but turning the coals into cinders, and no fire lasts so long when it is constantly being stirred. A cook can prevent the accumulation of soot in the chimney by making a brine of a few pennyworths of common salt and pouring it over soft coal, and the under parts of the stove in which it is used will be kept clean.

The housewife's referee