Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-07-29
MisreIlamenns.
Waste in the Larder.
AND How Much OF IT MAY BE PRE-
VENTED.

A housewives duty is to prevent waste.
She must therefore know what is likely
to 90 to waste and why, or perhaps she
will do just what is wanted to spoil things
which would have kept little longer il
they had been left alone. Most things in
the larder are perishable, but not all alike.
Meat will keep three weeks in dry. fros.
ty weather, and more than week in cold
dry weather, but not one week in damp,
and hardly day in very hot weather.
| Ii it has been frozen, it must lie in rath-
er 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 scald-
ed and dried before the meat 10 put up
again. Do not -four it. In very hot
weather it is sometimes necessary to rub
salt over the outside of joint which is
not to be cooked that day; but putting in
to pan of treacle is much letter, only
it requires care, so as not 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 1t
comes out. 1t must. however. be careful
ly looked over when it comes from the
butcher. and any doubtful bits pared off
and burnt. If meat shows signs OF turn
ing" it must at once be put into very
hot oven for half 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 Drowned,
not Just scorched, in time, the inside will
be found perfectly nice. Of course, in
doubtful case, 1t NAV all be sliced up
and fried but then, as joint, it is spoilt.
The dripping from half spoilt joint is
useless for food, and the bone will GER
tainly spoil soup. Some cooks will
plunge the meat into boiling water to save
it, but this additional wetting 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 just as good from baked
bones as from raw ones. Every bone that
has been boiled must be placed in a sharp
heat 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 understand
the amazing rapidty with which germs
multiply and diffuse themselves, but no
one is yet able to say where the venom
stops probably they do harm to the entire
house at the least. Ii bones are thorough
ly dried they will do no harm. All fat
and suet should be cooked as soon as pos
sble 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 wealth
er. sometimes it will not cake Then
plate must be spared for it. The super
tluous fat from joint reduced to mince
should be treated in the same way.
Fish must be cooked as soon as possible
after it is caught If. however, there is
more than be eaten in one day, the super
fuous part should be boiled for five min
utes even if it is to be fried aflerward-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.
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 inside and
hung head upward.
Milk is the most troublesome article in
the larder, and really wants a safe to it.
self. 1t takes up" the slightest suspi-
cion of faint, and becomes most objection
able without turning sour. City people,
at any rate, should boil the milk as soon
AS it comes in from April to December
Then 1t should be strained into clean
flat pan. which must be scalded and rinsed
with, first, a little soda, and then clean
water every time it is used. 1t is help to
mistress and maid to have two pans
one brown, one white-to use on al
ternate days, so as to insure time for pur-
itication. Country milk little sour may
be used for a pudding. or to make scenes
(one-half pint to one pound OF oatmeal or
brown meal, into which you have mixed
one-tourth ounce carbonate of soda) but
the milk which has been ratified about
from A. NJ. to 8 or 9 generally seems
good for nothing when stale. In case of
serious illness in hot weather, or whether
young child's nourishment is in question,
ice is necessary. In default OF ''protes-
sional' apparatus, tie up as much ice as
a half a yard of flannel will hold, pass a
stout lathe through ithe string, and lay it
across metal tub; oval is more conven-
lent than round. The ice will hang down
and drip in the middle OF the tub. and Jugs
OF milk, bottles of soda water, or anything
else will stand at the ends. Cover the
tub, stick and all, with thick board, and
that with u damp. almost wet cloth
The milk may be boiled first. but must be
cold before it is put with the ice A damp
cloth. without ice. keeps things much
cooler than they are when uncovered
Cheese, when uncut, only needs to be
kept dry. After it is cut, it should be
wrapped in a buttered paper scraped al.
most dry. Butter may be rendered less
troublesome in summer by be covered with
huge flower pot large enough to enclose
the plate and rest in a tray in which there
is some cold water. Leaving butter in
water spoils it. Bread should be covered
closely from the air. The pans want wip-
ing once or twice a week, and then heating
very hot; the bread must not be put in
again until the pan is cold, nor warm
bread ever covered up.
All vegetables. when cut, may be kept
by putting the stalks into water. Ser
wants generally insist on immersing them.
which favors decomposition. Parsley in