While beds and bedrooms are airing, breakfast is to be
made read^^, the table set, and kitchen and dining-room
put in order. The kitchen-fire must first be built. If a
gas or oil stove can be used, the operations are all sim-
pler. If not, it is always best to have dumped the grate
the night before if coal is used, and to have laid the fire
ready for lighting. In the morning brush off all ashes,
and wipe or blacken the stove. Strong, thick gloves, and
a neat box for brushes, blacking, &c., will make this a
much less disagreeable operation than it sounds. Rinse
out the tea-kettle, fill it with fresh water, and put over to
boil. Then remove the ashes, and, if coal is used, sift
them, as cinders can be burned a large part of the time
where only a moderate fire is desired.
The table can be set, and the dining or sitting room
swept, or merely brushed up and dusted, in the intervals
of getting breakfast. To have every thing clean, hot,
and not only well prepared but ready on time, is the first
law, not only for breakfast, but for every other meal.
After breakfast comes the dish-washing, dreaded by all
beginners, but needlessly so. With a full supply of all
conveniences, — plenty of soap and sapolio, which is far
better and cleaner to use than either sand or ashes ;
with clean, soft towels for glass and silver ; a mop, the
use of which not only saves the hands but enables you to
have hotter water ; and a full suppl}^ of coarser towels for
the heavier dishes, — the work can go on swiftly. Let the
dish-pan be half full of hot soap and water. Wash glass
first, paying no attention to the old sajdng that " hot
water rots glass." Be careful never to put glass into
THE DAY'S WOBK. 39
hot water, oottom first, as the sudden expansion may
crack it. Shp it in edgeways, and the finest and most
deUcate cut-glass will be safe. Wash silver next. Hot
suds, and instant wiping on dry soft cloths, will retain the
brightness of silver, which treated in this way requires
much less polishing, and therefore lasts longer. If any
pieces require rubbing, use a little whiting made into a
paste, and put on wet. Let it dry, and then polish with a
chamois-skin. Once a month will be sufficient for rub-
bing silver, if it is properly washed. China comes next
— all plates having been carefully scraped, and all cups
rinsed out. To fill the pan with unscraped and unrinsed
dishes, and pour half-warm water over the whole, is a
method too often adopted ; and the results are found in
sticky dishes and lustreless silver. Put all china, silver,
and glass in their places as soon as washed. Then take
any tin or iron pans, wash, wipe with a dr}^ towel, and put
near the fire to dry thoroughly. A knitting-needle or
skewer may be kept to dig out corners unreachable by
dishcloth or towel, and if perfectly dried the}' will remain
free from rust.
Page 18
Presented as published in 1881. 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
While beds and bedrooms are airing, breakfast is to be made ready, the table set, and kitchen and dining-room put in order. The kitchen-fire must first be built. If a gas or oil stove can be used, the operations are all simpler. If not, it is always best to have dumped the grate the night before if coal is used, and to have laid the fire ready for lighting. In the morning brush off all ashes, and wipe or blacken the stove. Strong, thick gloves, and a neat box for brushes, blacking, &c., will make this a much less disagreeable operation than it sounds. Rinse out the tea-kettle, fill it with fresh water, and put over to boil. Then remove the ashes, and, if coal is used, sift them, as cinders can be burned a large part of the time where only a moderate fire is desired.
The table can be set, and the dining or sitting room swept, or merely brushed up and dusted, in the intervals of getting breakfast. To have every thing clean, hot, and not only well prepared but ready on time, is the first law, not only for breakfast, but for every other meal.
After breakfast comes the dish-washing, dreaded by all beginners, but needlessly so. With a full supply of all conveniences, — plenty of soap and sapolio, which is far better and cleaner to use than either sand or ashes ; with clean, soft towels for glass and silver ; a mop, the use of which not only saves the hands but enables you to have hotter water ; and a full suppl}^ of coarser towels for the heavier dishes, — the work can go on swiftly. Let the dish-pan be half full of hot soap and water. Wash glass first, paying no attention to the old saying that " hot water rots glass." Be careful never to put glass into
THE DAY'S WOBK. 39
hot water, bottom first, as the sudden expansion may crack it. Shp it in edgeways, and the finest and most delicate cut-glass will be safe. Wash silver next. Hot suds, and instant wiping on dry soft cloths, will retain the brightness of silver, which treated in this way requires much less polishing, and therefore lasts longer. If any pieces require rubbing, use a little whiting made into a paste, and put on wet. Let it dry, and then polish with a chamois-skin. Once a month will be sufficient for rubbing silver, if it is properly washed. China comes next — all plates having been carefully scraped, and all cups rinsed out. To fill the pan with unscraped and unrinsed dishes, and pour half-warm water over the whole, is a method too often adopted ; and the results are found in sticky dishes and lustreless silver. Put all china, silver, and glass in their places as soon as washed. Then take any tin or iron pans, wash, wipe with a dry towel, and put near the fire to dry thoroughly. A knitting-needle or skewer may be kept to dig out corners unreachable by dishcloth or towel, and if perfectly dried the}' will remain free from rust.