Los Angeles herald., 1910-12-04
EVERYDAY ECONOMIES

Where is the most waste in your
household? If you are even a fairly
competent housekeeper you will prob
ably reply with some indignation that
there is no waste anywhere, so far as
you know. All carelessness in saving
may not take fragrant form. but If
you seek for the wastes you are pretty
sure to find them sooner or later, writes
Christine Terhune Herrick. A while
ago I saw a pile of stale crusts and
slices of bread taken from the bread
box and thrown into the garbage pail.
"TTere is nothing to do with them,"
said the housekeeper, who did the act.
In my minds eye was a vision of
the milk or cream or cheese toast which
might have been made from those cut
slices before they had dried so much;
of the Swiss pates WHICH could have
been devised from those heels of loaVes;
of the fried bread to garnish with; of
the crisp croutons for soup; of the
toothsome bread puddings, combined
with jam or apple sauce or marmalade;
of the good crumbs for breading chops
and outlets and croquettes, which We're
being flung away there.
For years 1 strove to impress upon
my own children that matches We're
cheaper than gas, with such success
assures me that when he is visiting in
a house where there is carelessness
about turning down the gas when it is
not needed he is made extremely un-
comfortable, and with difficulty re-
presses an inclination to turn it down
himself.
Now that gas is burned so generally
in kitchen stoves. there is fertile
source of waste. 1t is almost neces-
sary for the woman who employs a
maid in her kitchen to make an oc-
casional inspection to be sure the burn
ers in the oven have not been left
lighted. A dish that has been baking
is taken out hastily and the cook neg
lects to turn out the flame. I have
known of cases where 1T was left burn
ing all night-which was bad for the
stove as well as for the purse.
At the other extreme is the waste of
Ice. Was there ever a cook who could
without force be induced to take the
ice from the refrigerator before she
broke 1t for the table? How many
housekeepers do it instead of following
the easier course of cracking the ice in
the refrigerator and wasting the little
pieces that slip down between the bars
of the grating in the ice box?
Does the woman who cooks with
coal save the cinders to help keep the
fire in?
Look for a moment at things culin-
ary. Is it the habit among cooks to
save the water in which rice is boiled
and add it to the contents of the stock
pot? If you will let that water become
perfectly cold and it jellies, you will
have some idea of the nourishment you
have been wasting by throwing 1t
away. How about the water in which
corn-beef has been boiled? Is it always
saved as a foundation for bean soup?
When there is a little fresh fruit left
from a meal and it will not keep until
it can be used. is it always put over
the fire with a little sugar and cooked
into a simple jam for the children to
eat on their bread? Are the hard bits,
of cheese saved to be put through the
meat grinder to use when grated cheese
is needed? Are the odd little dabs of
vegetables or meat kept to add to
stew or to be used in a salad or
sauce? Do you wash and put away
orange and lemon peels, leaving them
in cold water until you have enough
of them to candy for future service?
These are only a few of the econo-
mics. There are many more, in the
kitchen and out-the saving of yolks
or whites of eggs, of trimmings from
chops and steaks, of parings from ap-
pies and peaches, to make into con-
serve; Of the remnants of cereals, to
be added to the fresh supply and
cooked over: of the ends of cakes of
SOAP to be melted together into soap
Jelly; of the fat from mutton and lamb
either to be melted and mixed with
other fat for frying. or to be tried out
and refined to have as mutton talloW'