American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1881-01-15

If such articles as are indispensable
in cooking the simplest meals are not
kept neatly. it will not be long before
the food prepared in them will tell the
story. But those housekeepers who are
content if they order the meals, and
feel no obligations to lend helping
hand in the preparation, and make no
examination of the condition of their
kitchen closets after the work of the
day is finished, will not understand
where the evil originates. How indig-
nant they would be should one suggest
the possibility that the vessels in which
their food was prepared might be in a
very untidy state. or were needing some
little oversight and attention from the
mistress of the house!
How often one hears "What can be
the reason that the bottom crust of my
bread tastes like rancid butter?" tx
anime for yourself, and you will see
that the bread pans are buttered every
time they are used, but never washed
after use; can you wonder that the ac-
cumulation of greasy particles, added
day after day, never removed or cleaned
off, will, in time, grow rancid. Why
SHOULD not the bottom crust taste of itp
1t is well if the taste does not pervade
the loaf all through.
Just so with pie-plates. If the stone
china is used, the glazing seldom cracks,
and if they are carefully washed and
aired each time they are used, and once
a week boiled in little lye-water, they
can be kept sweet till destroyed by ac-
cident or carelessness. But if set aside
without careful washing and drying,
nothing can be more disagreeable.
How often, think you, is the molding-
board hung up unwashed after molding
bread or rolling pastry, and the dough
that adheres to 1t left to dry, or sour
and mold on it, and then the next batch
is kneaded on this same unwashed
board?
"Impossible! l saw it hanging up in
the store closet over the flour barrel as
l passed by, only this morning, and it
sOas clean"
Please turn it over, madam. aInder-
side up, before you speak With too much
certainty. And how about the bread
bowl, the rolling-pin, the flour sieveP
See if the last is not thrown into the
flour barrel with bits of dough, from
cook S hands, sticking to it. If so,
when the barrel of flour is about half
used you may find that the remainder
of the flour has become suddenly sour.
n ttttSt tCuCeH tCHUeHS Tue tOtotG tNHtV.
remember.
Then look at your saucepans, vegeta-
BILE boilers. gridirons, mcatpans, etc.
What ails this steak? 1t tastes as
if the meat was tainted" Look to the
gridiron or frying pan. The butter and
fat that accumulate, day after day. week
after week, without being thoroughly
cleaned off, will soon injure the flavor
of anything cooked on or in them. See
the bars OF the gridiron and the sides
of the frying-pans and sauce pans, all
scaled. incrusted, and rough with the
accommodations, never thoroughly clean
ed off, until the bars and sides are
nearly double the original thickness.
All ironware needs thorough cleaning
every time it is used, and none more
than q grtiiron. The bars should be
kept perfectly clean and smooth, and
buttered every time they are used,
if one desires steak cooked to perfec-
ton.
These are but 4 few utensils belong
ing to the kitchen over which the mis-
tress should never relax her watch. But
enough! We now close this confidential
talk. VIII it do any good. and con-
vince our young friends that they must
watch over their kitchen utensils, and
thus teach their servants that it will not
be an easy thing to deceive or hide
cdreiessneSS?- Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher,
IN Domestic Monthly.