Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1886-03-03
Waste In the Larder.


Waste In the Larder.
There is q useful article on this sub
iect i'm the Exchange and Mart, from
the pen OF Miss j. Ascham.
! A housewives duty is to prevent
| waste. She must therefore know what
is likely to go to waste and why, Or
perhaps she will do, just what is want
ed to spoil things which would have
kept little longer if they had been
left alone. Most things in the larder
are perishable but not all alike.
Meat will keep three weeks in dry,
| frosty weather, and more than q week
in cold, dry weather, but not one week
in damp, and hardly s, day in very
hot weather. II it has been frozen, it
must lie in a rather warm place three
or four hours before it is cooked.
| Meat should be taken down from the
hooks every day, well looked over and
wiped dry, and the hooks scalded and
dried before the meat is put up again.
Do not -four it. In very hot weather
| it is sometimes necessary to rub salt
over the outside of a joint which is not
to be cooked that day; but putting in
| W ~ Dtbl vi UICC1CiO 10 OCOUCI1
only it requires care, SO asnot to leave
! bits of fat, ETC., in the pan when you
take out the meat, and plenty of cold
water to wash off what sticks to the
| Joint when it comes out. 1t must,
however, be carefully looked over when
it comes from the butcher, and any
doubtful bits pared off and burnt. If
meat shows signs of turning" it must
at once be put into q very hot oven
for hall an hour, SO as to be partly
cooked If it has really spoilt, nothing
will save It, because the inside OF the
joint is then bad; but If it is bro owned,
not just scorched, in time the inside
will be found perfectly nice. OF course,
in doubtful case, it may all be sliced
up and fried; but then, as joint, it is
spoilt.
The dripping from a half-spoilt
Joint is useless for food, and the bone
will certainly spoil soup. Some cooks
will plunge the meat into boiling wa
ter to saveit, but this additional wet
ting is much more likely to hasten the
catastrophe. In hot weather every
bone must be baked, whether it is to
make stock that day or not. Soup is
ust as good from baked bones as
rom raw ones. Every bone that has
cen boiled must be placed in d sharp
eat and quite dried, and Scraps
which would help to make stock must
be burnt if the cook has no time or
room TO make it. For one little bone
is enough to spoil all the milk and
cream, and will cause all perishable
things in the larder to be just ready
to decay.
The microscope helps us to under
stand the amazing rapidity with which
germs multiply and diffuse themselves,
but no one is yet able to say where
their venom stops; probably they do
harm to the entire house at the least.
If bones are thoroughly dried, they
will do no harm. All fat and suet
should be cooked as soon as possible
after it comes into the house; it should
be wiped, sliced thin, and boiled for
two or three hours, then strained, and
the skin, which seems like leather,
burnt in the middle of hot fire. AS
soon as the fat is hard, it should be
removed from the gravy, soup or
stock, wiped dry, and folded in thin
paper. In very hot weather, some
times it will not cake. Then q plate
must be spared for it. The superfu-
Gus fat from joint reduced to mince
should be treated in the same way.
Fish must be cooked as soon as pos
sible after it is caught. If, however,
| there is more than can be eaten in one
day, the superfous part should be
| boiled fer five minutes, even if it in to
be fried afterward-it can be dried;
but nearly all fish is very nice stewed
| like cells, with the same sauce, and par
boiled fish is as good this way as If it
were quite fresh.
1t is said that Condy's fluid will per-
! fectly cleanse meat or fish just begin
ming to faint on the outside. I think
this is true; but prevention is much
| better than cure. Never allow any
meat or fish to lie if you can hang it
up.
Game and poultry should be drawn,
but not plucked or skinned, dried in
side and hung head upward.
Milk is the most troublesome article
in the larder, and really wants g. little
safe to itself. 1t ttakes up the slight
est suspicion of faint, and becomes
| most Objectionable without turning
sour. City people, at any rate, should
| boil the milk as soon as it comes in,
from April to December. Then it
should be strained into a clean, fat
pan, which must be scalded and rinsed
with, first, a little soda and then clean
water, every time it. is used. 1t is a
| help to mistress and maid to have
two pans-one brown, one white-to
| use on alternate days, so as to insure
time for publication. Country milk a
little sour may be used for pudding
or to make some scenes [one-half pint