Foods and household management

Enamel. — A vitrified material upon iron or steel. The English enamel ware upon iron is durable, excellent for preserving, heavy. The German and American enamels are lighter. Avoid the attractive blue, and blue and white except for pitchers, cups, bowls, and plates. They crackle and chip off more easily with heat than the gray enamels. One German make, of a dark mottled gray, is less brittle in the finish than most American makes. All the enamels are easy to keep clean. Used for kettles, saucepans, roasting, and baking. Less durable than steel and iron. Iron. — Endures intense heat. Durable. Heavy to handle. Becomes smooth with long use, and then is not difficult to clean. Affects the color of acid fruits. Not expensive. Used for frying kettles and pans and kettles for boiling. Russia iron is a sheet iron of good quality for roasting and bread pans. Expensive. Steel. — Endures intense heat. Durable. Medium weight. Fairly easy to clean. Affects acid fruits. Medium cost. Same uses as iron, also for roasting and baking pans, and smaller kettles. Tin. — Tin, a " useful metal," is plated on thin sheet iron for utensils. 80 called block tin is the best quality. Will not endure intense heat. The tin wears and scratches off with use. Not easy to clean. Discolors easily, and colors acid fruit. Poor tin -ware is not worth buying. Good quality is not cheap. May be used for measures, and for small saucepans, but is less desirable than other wares. Wooden ware, — Used for molding boards, meat boards, and spoons. The patterns of utensils, — Select, those made without seams, or flutings, where food particles collect. Bowls, saucepans, and kettles should have a lip on the side, for the pouring out of liquids. A pitcher should be of such shape that it can be easily washed, and it should have a lip that will pour well. A pot for boiling coffee should have a lip and not a spout. Select utensils with non-conducting handles. Study carefully the selection of knives, and do not try to economize in their purchase. Knives must be sharp, and poor quality steel will never take a good edge. A worn table knife of Sheffield steel, when ground down, makes the best of kitchen knives. Buy a good sharpener and use it frequently. Labor-saving devices. — A good machine saves the wear and tear of human muscle, and also much time. If you have studied the principles of the lever and other mechanical devices, you will understand why this is. Learn to pay for, use, and clean good machines. A " Dover " egg beater is built on the principle of the " wheel and axle." The large wheel has five times as many * Teacheb's Note. — The machines operating with a crank are examples of the "wheel and axle," or the windlass, or both. The mechanical advantage can be worked out mathematically, — a good problem for the physics or mathematics class. See "Household Physics," C. J. Lynde. cogs as the small, one revolution of the large wheel giving five of the small, and one turn of the handle five revolutions of the blades. It saves your wrist, and saves time to use the " Dover " in place of a fork. It is more trouble to wash the [illustration: Fig. 12. — An inexpensive bread mixer.] cover on and off,