The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1875-07-16
AUNT enjoys DINNER.

wish IcOuld take you into this kitchen.
You, perhaps, have been used to Il city
kitchen, whose woodwork is grained or
painted white as one of my friends insists
on having hers, that dirt may stand con-
fcssed beyond all p~cradventure. Your
kitchen floor is carpeted or painted, or,
better still, kept secured white as new
pine. The stove shines, the tins are like
silver. There are hydrantS and drains.
pantricS, closets. c~upboardS. drawcrS-a
place for every thing and every thing in
its place. q let me tell YOU about Mrs.
Burgiss'S culinary department, or rather
Aunt Cindy'S, for Mrs. B. fought shy of
die kitchen. In the first place, it was an
clubhouse, sixty feet ut least from the fam
iiy reSidcnce-'t the house." as it is called
par ercelicuce-SO that the meal had to
pass under the skies, rain or shine, to
reach the table. In the second place. this
kitchen was no house at all, hut a simple
rude Shed-a roof supported by four posts
sunk in the ground. On the dirt floor
stood the biScuit-table, where the biscuits
were made deliciously light without the
aid of chemical prOCeSsc beaten light
and where. in a wooden dug-Out tray, the
various COrn-brCads were mixed as only
the Aunt CindieS and Aunt Dinahs of the
South can mix them. Why is it that
the most Skiiiful cook in a northern kitch-
en-, using unSparingly all those good
things" that are conceded to insure a de-
liciOus result, is unable to produce corn
bread at all approaching in sweetness and
delicacy that found in almost any South
crn q cabin? The Southern dinner
bread found at the table OF rich and poor
is made by stirring, with the naked hand.
water and a pinch Of salt into a cOarsely-
ground cOrn-meal, and yet Aunt Dinah's
"cOrn-dOdger" is more tOOthsOme than
any preparation of Indian meal of which
DeImOnicO's is capable.
But to return to Aunt Cindy. Her
kitchen vas entirely open on three sides,
the fourth being partially occupied by a
clay-and-stick chimney. In the fireplace
the logs rested, in lieu of andirons, on
two chunks, and here depended the iron
StdilC VII "iIICu Wy DISdIIS vi pOtIlOoho
were hung the kettles for boiling. The
baking was accomplished in deep Dutch
ovens or in shallow skillets with lids. the
glowing Goals plying their heat above as
well as below. The hoe-cakes were cook
ed on a fiat disk of iron supported on legs
over Goals. The broiling was done-and
capitally done, too-on a gridiron laid on
the Goals: sometimes the meat was placed
Immediately on the Goals, from which the
ashes had been blown. Then there was a
trivet-a rim of iron OF three legs q few
inches high-which was the coffee pots
stool. Besides these, there was a meat
block, which also served Aunt Cindy as a
seat. Standing almost under the caves
was a bench which she used for elevating
her pOrtly figure when she was searching
the hewed log sleeper under the rafters
for spoons or forks, or papers Of spice,
each with the inevitable leak. Indeed,
these sleepers and the yellow clay jambs
of the c~himney-place answered the pur-
poses of shelves, closets, drawers and all
those other things belonging to the class
called Kitchen cOnveniences." Those
jambs especially Aunt Cindv pronounced
"mighty handy They were the recep-
tacles OF the shovel and tOngs, the kitchen