Foods and home making

We can store flour, sugar, salt, etc. in the kitchen. These foods are not like eggs, milk, and butter ; they do not spoil readily. We call such foods staple food materials. When we cook, we need these staple materials constantly. We often use them together. When we use these materials for baking and cooking we need spoons and cups in which to measure them and bowls in which to mix them. We need pans in which to cook or bake them. Would it not be well then to place the staple materials and measuring, mixing, and baking utensils near together in the kitchen? When the staple materials and utensils as well as the work table are close together, we save many steps. The stove should be placed as near these other articles of kitchen furniture as is practicable. The principal articles of kitchen furniture needed in preparing food are : Refrigerator Work table Cupboard for staple foods and utensils Stove We say that these articles make the food preparation center of the kitchen. What equipment is needed to wash and store dishes ? After a meal is cooked and eaten the dishes must be washed and put away. The principal articles of kitchen furniture for this work are (1) the sink and (2) the cupboards for dishes. Dishes which are to be washed are placed on the right side of the sink. When we wash them, we hold the dish cloth in our right hand and the dish we are washing in the left. The dishes should then be placed to drain on the drain board at the left of the sink. This is more efficient than to place the washed dishes on the drain board at the right. In case there is only one drain board, it should by all means be placed on the left side. If there is a cupboard for storing the dishes near the left side of the sink, few steps need to be taken in putting the dishes away after wash- H4 Modern Housewifery ing them. The sink and dish cupboards are the dishwashing and dish storage center of the kitchen. How should kitchen equipment be arranged? The modern kitchen is used principally for (i) preparing foods and (2) wash- ing and storing dishes. The equipment in every kitchen should be arranged so that these two main kinds of work can be done easily and in the shortest possible time. In almost every process of cooking or baking, we need water either to wash the food or to mix with it. The sink is, of course, very necessary for dishwashing and must form a part of the dish- washing center. It is well, however, to have the sink near the cupboards and work table. This means that although we con- sider a well-arranged kitchen as containing two work centers, the centers should he quite close together. Because of the heat from the stove, the refrigerator and stove should not be placed together. It may be an advantage to have the refrigerator in a storage room outside of the kitchen. Then, if the refrigerator is cooled with ice, the footprints of the ice man will not soil the kitchen floor. However, if a refrigerator is so constructed that it may be iced from the outside, it is con- venient to have it in the kitchen. If a refrigerator is placed in the kitchen, it should be put near the outside door, for conven- ience in icing.