The Delaware ledger. (Newark, Del.) 1879-19??, 1884-09-06

is all that is reserved for the preparation
of food. There are In each house as
many kitchens as there are departments.
The only inyidious distinction of which
they are the object is that they are
usually placed at one end of the apart
ment, not from any want of proper
respect for them, but solely to keep the
smell of cooking as far off as possible.
In all the good houses separate stair
case leads directly up, through each
successive floor, to door which opens
thereon from each kitchen, so that the
water carrier, the charcoal dealer, the
butcher boy and other bearers of dirty
ing goods or wearers of unclean boots,
may reach it without passing through
the apartments or up the polished steps
of the grand escalier. But in the
smaller and cheaper apartments, which
everywhere necessarily constitute the
vast majority of the whole lat least
470, 900 of the $780, 200 lodgings which
Paris now contains are under 5000 a
year remit there is no escdlier de service
at all, the kitchen is only accessible
through the rooms.
A faT average Paris kitchen is about
nine feet long and five feet wide; it
never has more than one window, which
generally looks into an obscure court
yard, some three yards square, so that
at least half the objects 1t contains are
often invisible in the daytime, from
sheer want of illumination. The great
immediate fact which strikes the mind
of an American who enters a French
kitchen for the first time THAT is sup
posing he can see across It'll is, there is
no fireplace in it, 1t is true that moth
ing is to be discovered which in any way
corresponds with American ideas Of a
proper, respectable, legitimate range;
but there is something which replaces it.
Along the wall runs an iron edged table,
four or five feet long, and Is inches or
two feet wide; it is paved with blue and
white chequered earthenware tiles
and that is the fire place. In this table
are cut from four to six square holes,
each some eight inches across; in each
of the holes, three inches below the
surface of the table, is fixed little
iron grating, eighteen inches below the
surface; underneath runs a shelf or
bottom Of stones or iron, of Just the
same size as the table itself. The space
between tins bottom and the table above
1t is closed in front by iron doors. The
whole forms block against the wall
and bears the general name of fourneau,
which Is also applied, with a more
limited Specification, to each separate
lire hole. With the single exception of
roasting, it is on this formless, insigni-
hcant block that all the thousand
dishes whose CONNECTION is described in
the "Cuisiniere Franchise" .are Great
ed.
When the cook wants fire she puts
piece of lighted paper into one of the
square holes (she generally has a peculia
preference for one of them, and infame
it habitually with steadlness OF pre-
ference which must be wounding to the
others, she throws upon this paper a
small handful Of braise, or broken
charred wood from the bakeries, and
on tie braise she lays five or six little
pieces of charcoal, each two or three
inches long and about one inch thick,
She blows up the whole with the bel
lows; IN one minute the braise is red,
and in five minutes the charcoal follows
its example. The draught is regulated
by the door below, and, as the air can
only reach the fire by the bottom, the
sides of the hole shutting 1t off literally,
the combustion is equally and vigor-
ously stimulated. On this little fire.
which will burn ON indefinitely, with
successive additions Of charcoal, for a
cost OF about two cents an hour, the
cook boilS, fries, stews and grills, She
lights as many Of the holes as she has
dishes TO put on at once and, IN case Of
pressure, SHE sometimes puts two sauce.
pans together in amicable partnership
on the same hole. A fiat funnel
mouthed chimney runs over the whole,
at considerable height above the
fourneau, aud carries away the vapoI
Of the charcoal. The fire is rarely
more than two inches thick; when,
therefore, 1t is remembered that it is
only four inches square, its total cube
will appear lmpossibly small to peopl,
accustomed to employ the blazing
masses of coal which constitute az
American kitchen fire; but it is ampl,
sufficient for all ordinary purposes.
The quantity Of fuel Is reduced t,
the lowest possible point in proportion
to the heat required, but the econom,
of the system does not end there, it h
not limited to the feeble amount O
combustible employed, the moment tn,
cooking is over the unconsumed char
coal is taken out of the hole and pu
into closed iron bucket called stout
foir, where it is at once extinguished b,
the want Of air; it serves again th,
next day. 1t is difficult to realize th,
economy of fuel which is rendered DOS
slble by the use Of these fourneaux; II
ordinary cases tile expense stands abou
sixteen cents day for the kitchen fire
The cock generally contrives to linn
her average to ten cents, or in small
families TO six cents, including In bot
cases small mixture of broken paten
fuel (charbon de Paris, which is almos
as heating AS charcoal and much chea
per. The fourneau, however, from it
horizontal form, cannot roast, and ave
It's toasting is far from perfect. At tn
end Of the fOurneau is another lowe
shelf, in stone, about two feet square
above which is another chimney; it
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