Housekeeper

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 367, 21 May 1903, Page 7

Housekeeper

;|T»HERE is little doubt that cookery 'bXrk comes mucn easier to some than to others, but I do not believe -•;> there is any woman who cannot become a fairly good cook, if she tries \iard enough. '•■.•■:' The principal difficulty, is tf-e stove; a novice often finds it almost impossible ' at first to regulate the amount of fuel required and either makes too fierce a host or not sufficientlto cook the food properly. Tn this matter I fear I cannot do very much to help. Large stoves -require different management to small ones, and, nearly every one- has its own peculiar requirements. I would say to every young wife, learn your stove by heart, never rest till yotf knowthe exact amount of firing required for heating the oven, or for merely boiling on the top. Supposing it is a gas stove, it wants learning just tbq same. But how to do this ? By experience, the only teacher worth very much. There will probably be a few failures, but no matter, so long as these become less and less frequent. In.most stoves there is a. damper to be pulled out when it is desired to heat the oven, and experiments should be made as to the very smallest amount of coal r< - quired for this purpose. t A gas oven has this advantage over a kitchener that it can be heated in five minutes, but for many purposes it is not nearly so good. ~ When a -kitchener is used, sufficient time must" be given to allow the oven to heat j it may be half aa hour or longer, according to its size and efficiency. I am not able to gi?e any definite time. SJo cook should begin to prepare dinner, ouf indeed, any single dish, in a dirty, untidy kitchen. I know that in many cases it is to clearp up the kitchen' for' thes day after the principal meal, but but this does hot affect what I have said in the least. What I mean is that it is impossible to cook in an. orderly manner with dirty, plates dishes, left, .•perhaps, from breakfast, standing about, or with any other kind of litter or mess. Clear up as you go along is a good raott? for the kitchen, more especially if it is a small one, like many seen in town town houses or flats.

There is not time, perhaps,' to blacklead and polish the grate every .morning, but it should always gets its periodical cleaning, and if anything happens to Iw spilt on the top, it * be scraped off at once. Some stoves r quire their fluea "".wept out twice or three times a week, others kss frequent!/, oace a week, or fortnight. I mention t'.is because it iB a point the young wife might forget. No o?en will heat properly with its flues choked up with soot, because soot is a nonconductor of heat.

I shall speak of roasting and boiling joints of meat later on. At present it may be well to confine myself to one or two taßty little dinners, with very plain instructions if or the cooking of them from beginning to end. The first iihave thought of is liver and bacon,, potatoes, and boiled apple pudding ia a basin with euet crust.

. The necessary ingredients for this dinner will be half a pound of sheep's or calf's liver, quarter of a pouad of bacon, one pound of potatoes, an onion or two, and for the pudding one pound of cooking apples, five or six. ounces i of flour, two < uncos of suet, sugar, and spice of some sort.

It is to be hoped all these articles will "he in the house,' except the live* and apples, for it is always wise to have a good stock, or at least a fair stock, of differeht things:in the larder. Bacon is best purchased in quantities of not less j than a pound, and every housekeeper will do well to learn to cut it in thin even rashets.