Mrs. Roundell's Practical cookery book

A plentiful supply of scrubbing-brushes, house-flannel, soap, washing-soda, house-sand, and silver-sand is required. CONTENTS OF THE KITCHEN Tlie range, hot-plate, and gas-stove and oven must be first attended to. Clear out all the cinders and ashes from the range with a cinder-shovel, and set them aside in a coal-scuttle. Then with a brush sweep the flue as far as you can conveniently reach. Blacklead the range — that is, brush it over with liquid blacklead — and when it is dry polish it Avith the proper brushes. Rub and clean the fender, fire-irons, and any steel about the range, with emery paper. Use Putz’s Brass Pomade for any brass, and polish it well with a leather. Fill up the boiler. Now lay and light the kitchen fire. Lay with your hand at the bottom of the grate a few small pieces of fresh coal, but do not put them so close together as to prevent the air from passing between them. Lay a small quantity of torn newspaper or shavings on the coals, and upon that a few dry sticks or splintei’s of wood, taking care that the wood does not project beyond the bars of the grate. Now lay upon the wood some of the best of the cinders which you took out with the ashes, and put a few pieces of fresh coal on the top. Do all this before you light the fire, and be careful to lay cinders and coals with your hand, and not to toss them into the grate anyhow with a shovel. Cinders cannot be used to mend the kitchen fire during cooking, but they should be kept to bank it up when the fire has only to be kept burning slowly and is not required for actual use. Now light the fire, drawing out the regulators a little, so that the fire may burn up gradually and steadily. Wash off with a cloth wrung out in hot water any grease which may have been spilt on the hot-plate or gas-stove. Dry them thoroughly, and then blacklead them. Do not mix blacklead with turpentine, but add a teacupful of cold water to one block of Nixey’s black lead. Brush all dust out of the oven, and wipe the inside round with a cloth wrung out of hot water. Dust and rub the outside of the screen and the bars of the shelves. The screen should be washed once a week, and the tin lining polished with a little sand. Dust the dresser thoroughly every morning, and wash it once a week Avith soap and water. Wash the dripping-pan and ladle with hot water and crushed soda, and then polish them with sand and wipe them quite dry. Coppers. — Copper vessels must be kept perfectly clean, and should be thoroughly attended to on a fixed day once a week. Fill the pan with cold water, put in a bit of soda as big as a walnut, and let the water boil up. This will get rid of any dirt or grease. Then thoroughly scrub the inside of the pan with silver-sand and soap. Rub the outside with the squeezed half of a lemon dipped in sand. The used halves of lemon should always be kept for this purpose. If you have no lemon, use a rag just moistened with vinegar and dipped in silversand and salt. Too much liquid destroys the efficacy of the sand. Be most careful to notice any sign of green colour on the copper. This is verdigris, and a deadly poison. Watch for signs of the coppers needing to be re-tinned. Copper moulds should be thoroughly scrubbed with hot water and soda, and the outsides polished in the same way as the larger coppers.