The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1874-08-21
Economy in the Kitchen.

Order is said to be heavens first law,
ard nowhere amongst the doings of
mortals is it more important than the
multiplied operations of the good house
wife in the heat and steam of that eager
Iy sought labratory, the kitchen. She,
the queen of this workshop, has toll
some and monotonous time of it, to say
the least, and everything that can be
done to tighten this toll, lessen her steps,
and compassionately lift the burden
from her back, should be done.
Conveniences to do with, and these
arranged in such order as will shorten
labor and rest the weary feet, are the
primary steps to cheer and tighten toll
Her own good sense will suggest that,
of the thousand little things in use, she
must, to economic time, lave them so
located that she can put her hands up
on them IN the dark. Things thus ar
ranged in convenient order, and always
in their places when not in use, will save
very many tiresome steps and much
time, and will greatly facilitate progress
in work.
There is no position connected with
farming that requires to be so instant in
thought, in season and out of season. as
that of the housewife. When cooking
she must have her thoughts revolving at
the rate of three hundred revolutions in
the minute, or some of the numerous
irons are sure to burn. Those cakes,
that roasting coffee, and numerous 9th
er things, must be attended to at the
right moment, or we sit down to burned
cake, coaled coffee, or a dish of pork
and beans burned nearly to cinder.
'How's this!n Well, she has so much
to do, so many irons in the fire, and,
withdl, has been a little careless. How
could it be otherwise? Just little care
lessness on her part is sure to bring her
to grief and her husband to burned or
spoiled yictuals, and to drink black
swill and call it coffee.
A good housewife must have her wits
about her all the time, or the leakage
from the kitchen will materially dimin-
ish the profits of the farm. Bits of
meat, bread, cake and pie, which could
Just as well be saved, are carelessly
thrown away. In the course of year,
could they be placed in a pile, they
would greatly astonish the cook and ac-
count for the hundred dollars deficit in
the farmers calculations. 4 stream of
little things daily pouring from the
kitchen in years time would swell into
a small brook which would prattle of
carelessness and waste, and kindly teach
a valuable lesson to all who would deign
to listen.
The swill-barrel is the key that opens
the secrets of the housewives dominion
of cookery If, in the heterogeneous
mass, are floating in liberal quantities
bread and cake, pudding and pie, pota-
toes and meat, it is ominous of careless
and unthinking waste. What is thrown
into the hopper by the prOvident hand
of the farmer goes over the tail-board
of the kitchen into that Omnium gather
nm the swiIl-barrel; and the dollars that
should go TO clothe her and her children
are swallowed up in the greasy waters
of this open-mouthed catch-all.
Want of order and care rob us of
mint of money, without our seeming to
notice the leakage, without our taking
heed to the lesson which is before us
from one years end to another. Waste
fulness is the brother of poverty. At
first they appear to be distant from each
other and without family look; but as
age creeps on they grow to look alike,
and at last, when side by side in the poor
house, the resemblance is perfect, and
we wonder that we had never noticed it
before
Ihe true economy in the kichen is to :
have everything that is useful. A little
saved to-day, and day by day as the
months glide by, will insensibiy grow in
to notice. and at last be properaly appre-
ciated. Extravaganza is the other ex.
treme, and, like wastefulness, swallows
UP the dollars without any equivalent
indeed, they are in their results synony-
nous, both showing the disappointed
improvident crawling out at the little
end of the cornucopia.
The man who has good housewife,
in whom order and economy hold
prominent place, may consider himself
as blessed among men, and, if he can
not appreciate her, he deserves the exc
Grafton of all women, and to be pelted
with rotten eggs by some unfortunate
men.