Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-07-24

cakes, but the days of chivslry introduced
many advanced ideas into European house,
holds, and from that period kitchens un-
derwent a change. The art Of stewing
was introduced and cooks rose in import
ance. Charles V. of France bestowed a
livery upon all the officers of his kitchen
out of gratitude for the preparation of a
delicate dish. In France kitchens have al.
ways been matter of Importance. In the
fourteenth century vast braziera were
placed over the ovens, and gridirons on
foIr wheels were introduced.
There is extant curious little book pub.
llshed in France in the fourteenth century
called the "Menagier, in which husband
Is supposed to give counsel to a young wife
upon the management Of her household.
He bids her before engaging her servants
find out whence they come, and what
houses they have lived in whether they
have acquaintance in town, and if they
are greedy or drink. Especially" he adds,
"superintend the work" Then, Just as
modern cook. book would, he gives her
recipes for all kinds of dishes, especially
soups" under which generic title he in
| CiuuS5 bbcWSJ uhIlCOto, auu many UlSut5
familiar to ourselves. He alludes to the
cooking utensils, glittering army of cal
drons. saucepans, kettles, and vessels made
of red and yellow copper, urging that they
be kept bright and clean,
The head cook of Charles VII left to
his descendants valuable receipt for gold
en- soup, which may interest the housewife
Of to. day. "Toast," he says, slices of
! hro,J tba,, fbro.r, %ba,,, into iall,, Ja
of sugar, yolk of egg, white wine and rose
water. When they are well soaked fry
them, and then throw them again into rose
water and sprinkle with sugar and saffron"
IN THE DAYS OF FRANCIS 1.
The saucepan was placed on the table just
as it left the fire, and only one other dish
was required, which contained beef, NUT
ton, veal and bacon, garnished with cooked
herbs, which mixture was called porridge,
and considered real restorer and elixir OF
life. From this custom came the adage,
"The soup in the pot, and the dainties in
the hotch.potch."
In an old cook. book of the sixteenth
century there is wood.cut representing
an Italian kitchen interior. A four.legged
brazier stands in the center of the apart
ment, and near it bend two men cooks,
while on the floor squats a man blowing
the bellows, and two lads, one on either
side the fire, sit on chairs, turning with
long rods the iron bars on which birds are
roasting. Above the stove is "a strong
beam, from which depend punches of vege.
tables, birds of various kinds, herbs, etc.
A frying-pan is ready to hand, and upon a
gridiron two fish are laid for cooking
The highest aim of the cook in the Mid
die Ages was so to disguise the flavor of
the food that it was almost impossible to
guess of what it was composed. Cooks in
the fourteenth century were called "porte
ohapes, because in cooking they covered
their pots with tin cover. In the age of
chivalry the officers of the kitchen often
dressed in complete armor, and carried the
dishes into the dining-hall in q procession.
THE MODERN KITCHEN.
II we come down to q consideration of
kitchens in our own day, we do not find
very much upon which to congratulate our
selves. Ii we have gained some knowledge
of refinement in cooking land that is an
open question:, we have gained nothing in
the situation or appointments of our kitch-
ems. In country homes we have the old.
| fashioned chimney, the wide hearth, the
annoyance OF dirt and SCOT, to counterbal.
ance the fresh air and sunshine which gain
an entrance, while In cities we have the
advantages of improved stoves, of sell. act
ing boilers, of pantries and closets, of steam
heat, and pneumatic tubes. with the de-
cided disadvantage of darkness and foul
air.
The kitchen, which ought to be the
"lungs" OF the house, is too often real
plague spot, into which the mistress cares
not to inquire too closely. How terrible
the lonely underground kitchen often is
We think of those dark, moist, vapory
London kitchens into which the daylight
vainly struggles to gain an entry. We re-
member the Marchioness in the "Old Curl
osity Shop" and her companions, the black
beetles, and we wonder sometimes how
even the high life below stairs which goes
on IN fashionable quarters can ever recon-
cile so important a person as Mrs. Cook to
her underground kitchen.
WHERE SHOULD THE KITCHEN BE.
OF course there are exceptional cases
where the kitchen is as pleasant a room as
any in the house, but in great cities these
exceptions are rare indeed in the case of
those wise heads of large establishments
who have had the sense to run counter to
public opinion and have the kitchen at the
top instead of the bottom of the house !
In the land Of elevators how easily this
might be done and how much it would
conduce to the health OF the household.
Der barbarous ancestors who roasted
with spit and kept ill.smelling rushes on
the floors, were before us in the hygienio
consideration Of the food supply. They,
as we have seen, consecrated well-venti-
lated apartment to kitchen purposes, they
would have been convulsed with horror
had they seen the ordinary London iarder,
its sole ventilation dependent upon wire
covered aperture, called by courtesy win
dow, too far below the level of the ground
to catch even a solitary sunbeam.
To the ordinary English.speaking people
trip to Germany or Switzerland is a rev.
elation, if they have eyes to see. What
model Swiss kitchen is. What a con-
trast to the usual hearth in Britain, with its
dusty, coal fire, and pots covered with
SCOT, for kitcheners, in spite of all recon.
mendations, make poor headway.
After all, there is something to be said
for the old. fashioned kitchen range and its
facilities for roasting the joints 80 deir to
the British heart. No baked meat, be it
baked never SO cunningly, ever has the fa-
vor of the joint roasted and baked before
the fire. The roaster, with its mechanical
rotary movement, sparing the cook all
| need of constant devotion TO the spit.
| Then, too, the kitchen dresser in English
homes is justly the pride Of the cook, with
its shelf scrubbed to the whiteness of snow,
its plates and dishes, its cups and sauce
bowls, all in grand array, not to speak of
the dish-covers on the walls so resplendent
with constant cleansing that a looking glass
would be superfiuous.
THE GERMAN KITCHEN.
But, after all, how do these glories com.
pare with the German kitchen, or with the
tiny domain of the Swiss haus mutter, or
with those Dutch kitchens Whose very
name is Synonymous with order and clean
illness! No one who has not lived in these
coun tries can imagine the effect OF the
closed stove with its FURNISHED pots, its
enamel frying-pans, its earthenware sauce.
pans, with their blue designs upon that
marvellous gray ground which no other pot
| terry in the world can initiate. Where arc
such pitchers to be SEEM Where such un.
wieldly cups and plates in sharp contrast
with them, and such rows OF delicate
cooking utensils? Nothing ever came up
to the ideal Swiss or German kitchen but
the toy ones, made expressly sitter the
pattern. No underground kitchen for the
German hausefrau ! And this is the one
unquestionable advantage OF the system Of
living in flats-fats, be it understood, in
which dark rooms are unknown. Here the
kitchen is always in view, and the heart Of
the mistress swells with pride in the bright
burnish of her brass pots aud kettles.
The radical difference in the cooking OF
different countries has, Of course, its in
fuence upon the kitchens. In England