The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1893-01-04
KITCHEN TOOLS.
Many Housekeepers Do Not
Supply Their Homes
With Useful and Ne
CessarY Ones.
WHY CLOTHS VANISH FAST.
Times When a Mother Is Wise In
Being Selfish-Tact and Execu-
tive Power.

a carpenter would not tllEk OF try
ing to work without a good supply of
tools, and why should a honsekeeper?
By this | do not mean that she should
have five or six different kinds of
lemon squeezers and then squeeze her
lemons with her fingers, or three or
four potato Washers and then serve
the potatoes whole. Neither do l
want her to have her pantry filled
with steamers, cookers, broilers and
kettles that are never used-but to
have plenty of useful tools.
1 have found that l can live without
a soap shaker. I have tried it. 1 use
instead a little washing powder in my
dishwater. Trial will show how much
to use, also what kind is best. 1t
makes the water so much softer and
seems cleaner than soap, and glass
and silver looks so bright that you
will like to look at them. The bits of
soap that would go into the soap
shaker can be used in the boiler on
washday. And the powder will not
hurt your hands. for OF course you
use a handle dishmop, at least, while
the water is hot. The dishcloth
without the handle, the one that is
made of an old dishtowel, is always
wearing out and getting dirty. Any
way, mine is, or was, for l have found
a remedy. l buy a yard OF crash
toweling-it is quite thick and strong
and cut it into halves; l then hem
both pieces, and there are two dish
cloths that will last three or four
months apiece.
A USEFUL KNIFE.
One tool ! find useful in the kitchen
is an artists palette knife. 1t is very
Timber and is not suitable for rough
york, but in certain places it has no
equal. How discouraging it is to try
to scrape a bread bowl or a soiled
plate with a knife that is so stiff that
1t is utterly impossible to bend it and
get at the corner and curves. A
palette knife is so pliable that you
can scrape the bottom as we'll as the
sides and you do not feel as though
you were scratching the dish all to
pieces. The price is not very high:
twenty cents will buy one. How can
a woman pare potatoes and other veg
etables with an old, dull knife that
has hicks all along the edge, and not
complain? 1t is a very simple thing
TO use an emery stick, and it is really
a pleasure to pare a potato with a
sharp knife.
NECESSARY ARTICLES.
A young housekeeper is often puZ-
zled by the frequent necessity for new
busters, glass cloths, etc. If she were
to inquire closely into this, she would
probably find that the busters or
cloths were aften thrown away as rags
long before they had reached that
condition, having been used for pur-
poses for which they were unsuited.
Experienced housekeepers have
learned to keep each household cloth
solely for the use for which it was in
tended, but careless servants will take
the one that comes first to hand in
any emergency, anda the duster is
sometimes used Unfortunately to
wipe knives, tiatirons, etc. or to sup
ply the place of a securing flannel or
even as a kettle or iron holder. Kit
chen cloths are maltreated in the same
way, being frequently scorched or
burned into holes by being used in
lifting a hot baking tin from the oven.
Glass and china cloths last much
longer If they are spread out to dry
after being used, than when they are
carelessly thrown while damp into a
heap, as is often done when they are
put aside to be washed, or thrown
hastily over the back of q chair.
The mistress of a household will
save herself much trouble and not a
little worry if she keeps a small store
OF the articles me needed in a house
hold ready for use when wanted,
such as an extra securing flannel,
dishcloth, wash leather, scrubbing
brush. When these are lacking, as
the work has to be done, some other
article will be taken as a substitute,
although it is certain that the thing
thus taken will be rendered unfit for
further use.
Every housekeeper has gone
through the experience Of the unex-
pecred guest who drops in to lunch
con or dinner, On a day when the
quantity provided for the meal is only
Just sufficient for the family. The
visitor may be a dear friend, but it is
difficult to give a really cordial well
come; the hostess feels the shortcom-
ings of her table too keenly. In view
of such an accident, a tin of soup
(oxtail or mock turtle is the best). a
box of sardines, a tin of apricots or
other fruit, one of condensed milk,
are useful things to have in reserves;
with their aid additions a be quick
Nv made to the meal.