CHAPTER
8
The Arts of Dining and Cleaning
Cookbooks have been a wealth of domestic information for generations. In addition to recipes, early cookbooks often included detailed instructions for cleaning (especially the kitchen) and household hints such as stain removal. They also included entertaining advice. Presentation is a major part of any dining experience. Cookbooks were informing and advising women how to appoint their tables in proper and pleasing manners long before Martha Stewart started her domestic empire. This chapter contains excerpts on domestic topics covered in period cookbooks. Your ancestors may have followed these rules, or they may have aspired to them.
CLEANLINESS IS NEXT TO GODLINESS
The following excerpt on kitchen cleaning is from the Cooking School Text Book and Housekeepers’ Guide to Cookery and Kitchen Management by Juliet Corson, first published in 1877.
General Kitchen Cleanliness.—Never cease to exercise the greatest care in keeping the kitchen clean; it is the best place in the house to recall to mind the proverb that “Cleanliness is next to Godliness.” (2.) After attention has been given to all the directions enumerated in this chapter, remember to watch the sinks and drains; flush them several times a day with boiling water. (3.) Take care that no scraps of meat or parings of vegetables accumulate in them to attract vermin, or choke the traps. (4.) Never throw soapsuds into the sink without afterwards flushing it with clean hot water. (5.) Run hot water containing a little chloride of lime into the drains at least once a day in summer, and once in every two or three days in winter, to counteract all unpleasant and unhealthy odors. Remember that the best cook always has the cleanest kitchen.
How to Clean the Kitchen.—Dust down the ceiling and side walls with a feather duster, or a clean cloth tied over a broom. (2.) Sweep the floor, setting the broom evenly upon the floor, and moving it with long, regular strokes, being careful not to fling the refuse about the room, or to raise much dust. (3.) Wash the paint with a piece of clean flannel dipped in hot water, in which borax has been dissolved in the proportion of one tablespoonful to a gallon of water; if the spots are not easily rubbed off, use a little soap, rinsing it off thoroughly, and wiping the paint with the flannel wrung out of clean water. (4.) Wash the window-glass with a soft cloth which does not shed lint, dipped in clean water and wrung out; polish the glass with a clean, dry cloth, or with newspaper. (5.) Scrub the tables with hot water, in which a little washing soda and soap have been dissolved, using a stiff brush; then rinse them with a cloth wrung out of clean, hot water, and wipe them as dry as possible. (6.) Scrub the floor in the same manner, and wipe it quite dry. (7.) Wash all the scrubbing brushes and cloths in hot water containing a little soda and soap. (8.) Wash all the dish cloths and kitchen towels in hot water, with soap and soda, or borax, every time they are used, and keep a clean, dry stock of them on hand.
These detailed instructions of properly sweeping and dusting a room are from Student’s Manual in Household Arts: Food and Cookery by Martha L. Metcalf, published in 1915.
SWEEPING AND DUSTING
1. Before beginning to sweep, see that no food is left uncovered in the room.
2. Open the windows and close the doors.
3. Dust and remove chairs, etc. Cover such articles as cannot be taken from the room.
4. Wet the broom in a solution of borax and water. Do not use tea leaves or corn meal. Tea leaves may leave a stain and corn meal is apt to attract water bugs. Small pieces of newspaper well dampened and sprinkled on the floor may be used.
5. Sweep from the edges of the room towards the center.
6. Sweep with short strokes, keeping the broom close to the floor. This keeps the dust from flying. If the broom is properly held it will be impossible to lift it at the end of each stroke and set the dust flying.
7. When the dust has been gathered at one spot, take it up with a short broom and dustpan.
8. Always sweep a floor before washing or scrubbing it.
9. After sweeping a room, dust the woodwork and furniture, bring in the articles that were taken out, set the room in order and partly close the windows.
10. Always use a damp duster, which will collect and hold the dust, instead of merely moving it from place to place as a dry duster or feather duster will do. When the work is completed, wash the duster and so get rid of the dust.
11. New brooms may be soaked in strong, hot salt water before using, to toughen the bristles and make the brooms last longer.
These helpful household hints are from the 1894 book How We Cook in Los Angeles. A practical cook-book, containing six hundred or more recipes by the Ladies’ Social Circle, Simpson M.E. Church, Los Angeles, California.
» Cold tea is excellent for cleaning grained wood.
» The ashes of wheat straw make an excellent silver polish. Apply with soft leather or chamois.
» Little bags of unground pepper pinned to hangings and among clothes in wardrobes will keep away moths. Ground black pepper sprinkled plentifully into fur will preserve effectually from moths.
» Sprinkle fine meal on grease spots in your carpet. Let it remain several hours and it will have absorbed the grease.
» Tar on cotton goods can be removed by spreading clean lard on the part stained, allowing it to remain for some little time.
» Rub ink stains on linen with clean tallow before washing and boiling.
» To remove grease from silk goods, wash with ether.
Mrs. W. B. A.
» To set the color in any cotton or linen goods, dissolve one tablespoon of sugar of lead in a pail of very hot water. This will be sufficient for 10 to 12 yards of goods. Dip thoroughly, seeing that every part is evenly wet. Keep in the water from 20 to 30 minutes. This will not injure the most delicate color, but fix it indellibly [sic]. If you feel at all doubtful, try a small piece of your goods—dry, then wash in the ordinary way.
» Lemon juice and salt will usually remove rust.
» To take stains from silk, use 1 part essence of lemon and 5 parts spirits of turpentine. Apply with a linen cloth.
These household hints are from The Third Presbyterian Cook Book and Household Directory published in the interest of the Manse Fund by the Mite Society of the Third Presbyterian Church of Chester, Pa. (1917).
KITCHEN HINTS
A teaspoonful of butter put into hot water in which vegetables are boiled will prevent boiling over.
Try putting the pumpkin through the meat chopper before cooking. It is easily done and it needs little water to cook, and in a short time is tender. If juice runs through chopper, collect it and pour over pumpkin. If put in the oven to stew, it need not be watched as carefully as if cooked on top the stove, or it may be cooked in double boiler.
A teaspoonful of lemon juice to a quart of water will make rice very white, and keep the grains separate when boiled.
Too rapid boiling ruins the flavor of any sauce. It must boil once, and never do more than simmer afterwards.
Puddings put into a half-heated oven or cooked in water that has been allowed to go off the boil, are invariably spoiled.
When frying bacon, or sausage, sprinkle a little salt at the bottom of the frying-pan before starting, which will prevent the fat splashing about.
When making soup, if there is no time to let it cool, strain it and heat it again before serving; pass it through a clean white cloth, wrung out of cold water. The coldness of the cloth will coagulate the fat and prevent the pure grease from getting through.
Food authorities say to scald all meat before it is cooked. Soda should also be sprinkled over the meat. There is no nutrition lost by this process, and scientists advocate its use in addition to that of scalding water.
THINGS WORTH KNOWING
Carpets and rugs may be brightened by wiping with a cloth wrung out of ammonia water. Two tablespoons of ammonia to a six quart pail of water.
When putting away white clothing to remain for any length of time, wrap up carefully in blue paper or even a dark blue cloth, and it will come out looking as white as ever it was, no matter how long it lies.
An old book-case set on the kitchen table, back to the wall, makes a very respectable imitation of a kitchen cabinet and saves many steps.
To remove iron rust or fresh ink stains moisten with lemon juice, sprinkle with salt and lay in the sun; for ink, the process may require repetition.
Sprinkle borax, with a little sugar, under pantry shelf papers, and also about water pipes to drive away water bugs and roaches.
To drive away ants from the pantry, lay pieces of camphor on the shelves. The ants will disappear.
Boiled starch is improved by the addition of a little sperm or kerosene oil.
When a glass stopper will not come out of a bottle, allow one or two drops of glycerine to soak in, and it can be removed quite easily.
To remove the taste of fish, onions, or any strong scented vegetables from knives that have been used in cutting, dig the blades once or twice in garden mold, and it will disappear.
Kitchen floors painted with boiled linseed oil are very easily cleaned.
A pair of scissors is infinitely better for trimming off the rind from ham or bacon than a knife.
Salt combined with vinegar and heated to boiling point, will restore the polish to brass and copper.
NECESSARY KITCHEN EQUIPMENT
If you spend any time cooking, you probably have a favorite kitchen gadget. Your ancestors likely had their favorites as well. How were their kitchens equipped? The following excerpt from Cookery and Housekeeping: A Manual of Domestic Economy for Large and Small Families by Mrs. Henry Reeve (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1882) gives us some clues:
The lists here given are on a very moderate scale, suitable to small families; more fish-kettles and stockpots, sauté pans and saucepans can easily be added.
COOKING STOVE
Moulds of varied form and shape in tin and copper are to be seen in every ironmonger’s shop, and cooks are too apt to ask for new shapes, and to think more of the form in which a jelly or a cream is served than of the clearness of the jelly and the flavour of the cream. But there should be moulds to hold different quantities, quarts and pints, and of course when double dishes are served there must be double sets of moulds. The best grate or hot-plate for cooking purposes has yet to be devised. The old-fashioned open range roasts admirably, but it does everything else very badly. A hot-plate, or gas rings, or charcoal fires in a hot-plate must exist in every kitchen where there is to be varied cookery. There must be a boiler for hot water and a baking oven. In France a combination of hot-plate, oven, boiler and open fire is to be seen in the kitchen of all the hotels, presided over in general by the ‘Host,’ who is both landlord and cook, and therefore a judge of the amount of fuel it consumes as well as of the ordinary advantages it offers. This hot-plate is never imbedded in masonry, and is always so placed that the light falls on it, a very important point in frying.
LIST OF KITCHEN UTENSILS. NO. I.
Pestle and mortar; 2 baking sheets; 6 dish covers; freezing machine; 2 dessert ice moulds; 1 ice pudding mould; 1 spice box; turbot kettle; 2 fish kettles; dripping pan and ladle; 2 preserving pans; 4 gravy strainers; 2 egg whisks; 2 frying baskets; 1 salamander, bain-marie pan, jelly bag and stand, seasoning box, omelette pan, cutlet pan; 3 cook’s knives; 1 pallet knife; 1 large kitchen fork; 6 copper stew pans; stock-pot; 12 enamelled saucepans; 1 boiler; 1 braizing-pan; 3 frying-pans; 1 colander; 6 yorkshire pudding tins; 6 copper moulds; 6 tin moulds; 4 border moulds; 3 larding needles; 2 trussing needles; 2 sets of skewers; 1 saw; 1 chopper; 1 cutlet bat, pasteboard, rolling-pin, flour tub, weights and scales, mincing knife; 2 wire sieves; 2 hair sieves; 2 tamis bats; 2 tamis cloths; 12 wooden spoons; 6 iron spoons; 1 box of French cutters; 1 box of paste cutters; 2 paste brushes; 1 biscuit pricker; 12 patty pans; 2 tea kettles, toasting fork, gridiron; 2 washing-up tubs; 2 wooden pails; 1 zinc pail.
LIST OF KITCHEN UTENSILS. NO. II.
1 boiler; 1 4-gallon iron saucepan; 1 2-gallon iron saucepan; 1 tin egg saucepan; 1 small stewpan (iron); 1 three-gallon saucepan (iron); 1 quart enamelled saucepan; 1 pint enamelled saucepan; 1 3-quart iron kettle; 1 pint tin kettle; 1 large tin colander; 1 iron dripping pan; 1 tin yorkshire pudding pan; 1 2-quart milk can with cover; 4 iron spoons; 12 wooden spoons; 1 tin flour dredger; 1 tin pepper dredger; 1 frying-pan; 1 nutmeg grater; 1 spice box; 2 trivets to hang in front of fire; 1 chopping board; 1 chopper; 1 hatchet (for breaking bones); 1 thick oak board about 12 inches square for cutting up meat; 1 wooden flour box; 1 wooden salt box; 1 egg basket; 1 wire salad basket; 1 hair sieve; 4 pudding basins, various sizes; 2 pie dishes; 1 china pastry basin; 2 moulds; 1 vegetable pan; 1 earthenware bread pan with cover; 1 bain-marie pan; 6 copper stewpans, in sizes pints to 5 quarts; 3 iron stewpans, in sizes; 1 iron digester pot, 3 gallons; 1 copper saute pan; 1 copper sugar boiler; 1 copper preserving pan; 2 block-tin jelly moulds; 1 block-tin cake mould; 1 block-tin raised pie mould; 1 wrought-iron omelette pan; 1 best tin dripping pan; 1 cradle spit; 1 iron stand for dripping-pan; 1 basting ladle; 1 oval iron boiling pot; 1 wooden meat screen lined with tin; 1 best brass bottle jack; 1 cutlet bat; 1 meat saw; 1 meat chopper; 1 set poultry skewers; 1 set steel meat skewers; 2 cook’s knives, in sizes; 1 root knife; 1 dishing-up fork; 1 set larding needles; 1 toasting fork; 1 fluted bar gridiron; 1 hanging gridiron; 1 frying-pan; 6 iron saucepans, in sizes; 1 large iron saucepan with steamer; 2 enamelled saucepans with lips; 1 box vegetable cutter; 1 fish slice; 1 egg slice; 1 iron tea kettle; 1 wire frying basket; 1 tin colander; 2 best tin fish-kettles, in sizes; 2 best tin baking sheets; 1 pair paste nippers; 1 box plain round cutters; 1 box fluted cutters; 1 bread grater; 1 paste jagger; a salamander; 6 iron spoons; 2 gravy spoons; 2 vegetable scoops; a girdle; 1 tin funnel; 2 block-tin gravy strainers; 1 dozen tartlette pans; 1 dozen mince-pie pans; 6 dariole moulds; 1 egg whisk; 1 marble mortar; 1 hardwood pestle; 3 hair sieves; 1 weighing machine and set of weights to weigh 14 lbs.; 6 tinned meat hooks; 2 tamis cloths; 2 corkscrews; 1 jelly bag and stand; 1 washhand bowl; 2 cinder shovels; 1 box coffee mill; a mincing machine; paste board and rolling pin.
A refrigerator is a great help during the summer months in preserving many of the necessary articles of food; and without ice it is difficult to make puff paste, and to turn out moulds of jelly, &c. in very hot weather. The cost of a refrigerator ranges from 3£. to 15£. and upwards. It is a miscalculation to purchase one which is not large enough to hold a suitable quantity of ice and the various articles of food which have to be ‘kept.’
Care must always be taken to prevent the odour of one edible from being imparted to another, when placed in the refrigerator.
THE ART OF DINING
Presentation is a major part of the dining experience, and cookbooks from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century often included instruction on proper etiquette for setting the table. The following passages on table setting and serving are from Student’s Manual in Household Arts: Food and Cookery by Martha L. Metcalf, published in 1915.
TABLE SETTING AND SERVING.
Neatness, order, cleanliness and consideration for others are the principles that should underlie all rules for table service. Even the humblest room with the cheapest of table furnishings will seem attractive if everything is neat and clean and the orderly placing of the utensils and furniture shows that thought and care have been given to their arrangement. It is not necessary to know the latest fad in table etiquette. When at a loss as to the correct thing to do, do that which will be the most convenient and pleasing to your guests. For example—the knives and spoons are placed at the right of the plate because they are used in the right hand—the soup plate is placed on a service plate so that it may be more easily handled—the water glass is filled only three-fourths full so that the water will not spill if the table is accidentally jarred, etc.
Laying the Table.
1. The table should first be covered with a silence cloth made of table felt or a heavy, white cotton blanket or a quilted pad made of two thicknesses of unbleached muslin between which is a layer of sheet wadding. This cloth, as its name implies, is to lessen the noise made in placing the dishes on the table, also, to make the tablecloth lie more smoothly and to keep the hot dishes from marring the table. The cloth should be turned under the edge of the table at the corners and securely fastened with safety pins to keep it from slipping when the tablecloth is put on.
2. The tablecloth should be placed over the silence cloth and should be absolutely smooth, straight and even, with the center fold of the cloth exactly in the middle of the table.
3. A few cut flowers or a small fern or a dish of fruit in the center of the table will add to its attractiveness. Only fresh flowers should be used and care should be taken not to have the bouquet or fern so large as to obstruct the view across the table. If flowers are used, select those that will harmonize with the main color in the luncheon. For example, purple asters would not look as well on the table when the meal included tomatoes, beets and possibly cherries as would a vase of red or white asters or a small fern. A little thought in matters of this kind helps to make housework interesting and keeps it from becoming drudgery.
4. A doily or centerpiece should be placed under the center decoration unless the tablecloth is a pattern cloth and has a figure woven in the center, in which case the doily will not be necessary.
5. Usually all of the silver to be used during the meal is placed on the table before the guests sit down. For an elaborate luncheon where a great many pieces of silver would be needed, only the utensils needed for the first course are on the table, the rest are placed as needed.
6. The plate should be placed right side up, one inch from the edge of the table at each place. The knife (or knives if more than one is used), should be placed at right of plate with sharp edge towards the plate; the forks, tines up, at left of plate. The spoons should be at the right of the knife in the order in which they are to be used, the one to be used first, farthest from the plate. The silver should be the same distance apart and the ends of the handles in line with the lower edge of the plate, one inch from the edge of the table.
7. The glass of water is placed at the tip of the knife and the bread and butter plate at the tip of the fork.
8. The napkin should be folded square and placed at the left of the fork with the open corner towards the handle of the fork.
Note.—The plate, knives, forks, spoons, glass, bread and butter plate and napkin, properly arranged for one person is called a “cover.”
9. A salt and pepper shaker should be placed between each two guests in line with the upper edge of the bread and butter plates.
10. The gentleman of the house is called the host and usually sits at the head of the table. The lady of the house is the hostess and sits opposite the host facing the pantry door.
11. If all the serving is to be done at the table, the cups and saucers, the sugar bowl and cream pitcher should be placed in front of the hostess and a stand for the coffee on the table at her right. A carving knife and as many spoons as will be needed in serving the vegetables should be placed at the right of the host. The carving fork should be placed at his left.
12. A plate of butter with butter knife (or butter fork if the butter is served in balls) should be on one side of the table and the bread plate on the other.
Serving.
There are three ways, in which a meal may be served, known as (1) the English style of service in which the food is all served on the table, (2) the Russian style, where all of the courses are served from the kitchen or sideboard, and (3) the compromise style which is a combination of the first two.
The English style is the pleasantest way of serving where there are few guests and not many servants. It adds to the pleasure of the meal to see a genial host skillfully carving the roast and the simplest dessert gains in flavor when dished by the hands of a smiling hostess.
The Russian form of service is to be preferred if there is a large company to be served, provided there are well-trained servants to attend to the wants of the guests. This form of service lifts considerable responsibility from the host and hostess at the time of serving.
The compromise style is usually used at informal luncheons and frequently in homes where there are no servants. It will be convenient to have possibly the salad course or the dessert served in the kitchen and the rest of the meal served at the table.
Suggestions to Be Followed Whatever the Style of Service.
The waitress should see that the dining room is free from dust, well aired, of right temperature (about 70° F) and pleasantly lighted. She must see that everything is in readiness before the meal is announced.
The waitress should stand at the left of the guest who is being served whenever she is passing food from which he is to help himself. At all other times she serves from the right of the guest.
Cups of coffee should be set down at the right, beside the spoons.
Water glasses should be filled without moving them if possible. If it is necessary to bring them closer to the edge of the table, be careful not to touch them near the top.
A folded napkin or a tray covered with a doily should be used to protect the hand in passing dishes. Hold dish low enough to be easily reached by the guests. In passing jellies, vegetables, etc., have spoon so placed in dish that guests may readily help themselves. In passing cream and sugar have handle of cream pitcher turned towards the guest.
Fill water glasses and place butter on bread and butter plates just before the meal is announced.
Have dishes for hot courses hot and for cold food cold. Dishes may be warmed in the warming oven or in hot water. Chill in the ice box for frozen desserts.
All of the dishes belonging to one course are removed before the next course is brought in. Remove the largest dishes first then the plates, etc. Never pile dishes, take one in each hand.
The bread and butter plates should be removed and the table crumbed just before the dessert course.
The glasses of water remain on the table throughout the meal and should be refilled as often as necessary.
Hosting dinner parties, luncheons, and even breakfasts has always been a fashionable activity. Published in 1894, How We Cook in Los Angeles. A practical cook-book, containing six hundred or more recipes by the Ladies’ Social Circle, Simpson M.E. Church, Los Angeles, offers elaborate menu and decorating ideas for hosting a meal in the home. Whether your ancestors dined in this style or enjoyed humbler repasts, this cookbook offers an interesting peek into high society at the end of the nineteenth century.
A ROSE BREAKFAST—(MRS. EZRA STIMSON)
Decoration
Cloth white; service, dainty as possible; center piece, candelabra with pink shades; careless arrangement of pink roses at either end of the table. At each cover, a half open bud of same rose; the name card, a single satin rose petal. On side table, banquet lamp with pink shade; and scattered about the room, baskets or bowls of roses. The strawberry ice served in real roses, the centers removed and filled. The fragrance and beauty of a “rose screen” is its own reward. Cover a screen with coarse green or pink net; and by use of florists’ wire, cover it with roses; unfold and place across one corner of the room.
Menu
| Strawberries | |
| Timbale of Shrimps | Cream Sauce |
| Rolls | |
| Fried Spring Chicken | Peas |
| Potato Balls | Parsley |
| Tomatoes |
(stuffed with chopped cucumbers, served on cress and capped with Mayonnaise)
| Cheese straws | |
| Strawberry Ice | Lady-fingers |
| Coffee |
MAY DAY LUNCHEON—(MRS. M. M. BOVARD)
Table Decorations
From chandelier over table was suspended a large basket of grasses and brilliant May flowers. Dinner cards of dainty little May baskets with salted almonds.
Menu
| Amber Soup | Olives |
| Turbot a la Creme | |
| Lamb Chops | Green Peas |
| Spring Chicken—Maryland Style | |
| New Potatoes | |
| Luncheon Muffins | Green Apple Fritters |
| Lettuce and Tomatoes | Mayonaise [sic] Dressing |
| Strawberry Short Cake | Strawberry Sauce |
| Candied Rose Leaves | May Baskets |
| Iced Tea |
A MAGENTA LUNCHEON—(MRS. G. WILEY WELLS)
Decorations
This may not be aesthetic, but it is “fin de siecle.” As many flowers take on this glowing shade called “nature’s red,” it will not be difficult to decorate the table with brilliant magenta which is most effective with cut glass, and the satin damask of the cloth.
At each plate, place quite a broad bow of magenta ribbon with a spray of pretty white flowers tied in it. On one loop, painted in silver, the name of the guest and date of luncheon. Have white candles with little magenta shades. Fill bonbon dishes with magenta and white candies. Place around the edge of the cut glass olive dish a circle of magenta pickled beets. Decorate pickle dishes in the same fashion. Another dish with small magenta radishes will add another touch of color.
Menu
Raspberries or Strawberries
Boullion
Deviled Crabs in Shells
(in serving, surround with Magenta petals)
Turkey Mashed Potatoes
(Use the white meat only—garnish with pickled beets)
Sweetbread Patties Green Peas
Raspberry Ice
Celery Salad Cheese Cakes
(Garnish the salad with slices of egg—the whites dyed magenta with beet vinegar)
Charlotte Russe
(Served in small white paper cases tied with narrow magenta ribbon the top decorated with a few candied cherries)
Ices
A brick of Vanilla and Raspberry Ice
Fruit Bonbons
Coffee
A SPRING DINNER IN GREEN AND WHITE—(MRS. CHARLES FORMAN)
Decorations
Lay the table with pure white napery; placing in the center a large low bowl of Paris daisies with their own foliage. For the ladies, have corsage bouquets of long-stemmed daisies tied with No. 4 green satin ribbon in loops and flowing ends; across one of which write the name in gold to match the daisy’s center. For the men’s places, write the name on a plain white card, through one end of which pass the green stem of a white carnation with a bit of feather green, for a boutonaire [sic].
Menu
Oysters in a block of Ice encircled with Smilax
Salt Pepper Lemon Crackers
Green Asparagus Soup
Baked Barracuda New Potatoes with Cream Sauce
Sliced Cucumbers
Artichokes with Melted Butter
Roast Lamb Mint Sauce Green Peas
Lettuce with French Dressing Cheese Straws
Snow Pudding
Pistache Ice Cream Lady Cake
Black Coffee
DINNER FOR OCTOBER OR NOVEMBER—(MRS. J. H. F. PECK)
Decorations
In the center of the table, place a large cut glass dish filled with purple and white grapes. Tie a bow of lavender ribbon (of generous width) and place on the grapes; drawing the ends of ribbon to the corners of the table, or up over the chandelier. Take small bunches of grapes, crystallized with sugar; tie with ribbons and place at each plate.
Menu
Oysters (raw)
Amber Soup
Creamed Sweetbreads browned in Shells
Olives Salted Almonds
Orange Sherbet