The Book of Household Management Part 4

68. The braziers, ladles, stewpans, saucepans, gridirons, and colanders of antiquity might generally pa.s.s for those of the English manufacture of the present day, in so far as shape is concerned. In proof of this we have placed together the following similar articles of ancient and modern pattern, in order that the reader may, at a single view, see wherein any difference that is between them, consists.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig_. 9. Modern.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig_. 10. Ancient.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig_. 11. Modern.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig_. 12. Ancient.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig_. 13. Modern.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig_. 14. Ancient.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig_. 15. Modern.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig_. 16. Modern.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig_. 17. Ancient.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig_. 18. Ancient.]

_Figs_. 9 and 10 are flat sauce or _saute_ pans, the ancient one being fluted in the handle, and having at the end a ram's head.

Figs. 11 and 12 are colanders, the handle of the ancient one being adorned, in the original, with carved representations of a cornucopia, a satyr, a goat, pigs, and other animals. Any display of taste in the adornment of such utensils, might seem to be useless; but when we remember how much more natural it is for us all to be careful of the beautiful and costly, than of the plain and cheap, it may even become a question in the economy of a kitchen, whether it would not, in the long run, be cheaper to have articles which displayed some tasteful ingenuity in their manufacture, than such as are so perfectly plain as to have no attractions whatever beyond their mere suitableness to the purposes for which they are made. Figs. 13 and 14 are saucepans, the ancient one being of bronze, originally copied from the cabinet of M. l'Abbe Charlet, and engraved in the Antiquities of Montfaucon. Figs. 15 and 17 are gridirons, and 16 and 18 dripping-pans. In all these utensils the resemblance between such as were in use 2,000 years ago, and those in use at the present day, is strikingly manifest.

69. SOME OF THE ANCIENT UTENSILS represented in the above cuts, are copied from those found amid the ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii. These Roman cities were, in the first century, buried beneath the lava of an eruption of Vesuvius, and continued to be lost to the world till the beginning of the last century, when a peasant, in digging for a well, gradually discovered a small temple with some statues. Little notice, however, was taken of this circ.u.mstance till 1736, when the king of Naples, desiring to erect a palace at Portici, caused extensive excavations to be made, when the city of Herculaneum was slowly unfolded to view. Pompeii was discovered about 1750, and being easier cleared from the lava in which it had so long been entombed, disclosed itself as it existed immediately before the catastrophe which overwhelmed it, nearly two thousand years ago. It presented, to the modern world, the perfect picture of the form and structure of an ancient Roman city. The interior of its habitations, shops, baths, theatres, and temples, were all disclosed, with many of the implements used by the workmen in their various trades, and the materials on which they were employed, when the doomed city was covered with the lavian stream.

70. AMONGST THE MOST ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS of the kitchen are scales or weighing-machines for family use. These are found to have existed among the ancients, and must, at a very early age, have been both publicly and privately employed for the regulation of quant.i.ties. The modern English weights were adjusted by the 27th chapter of Magna Charta, or the great charter forced, by the barons, from King John at Runnymede, in Surrey.

Therein it is declared that the weights, all over England, shall be the same, although for different commodities there were two different kinds, Troy and Avoirdupois. The origin of both is taken from a grain of wheat gathered in the middle of an ear. The standard of measures was originally kept at Winchester, and by a law of King Edgar was ordained to be observed throughout the kingdom.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig_. 19.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig_. 20.]

Fig. 19 is an ancient pair of common scales, with two basins and a movable weight, which is made in the form of a head, covered with the pileus, because Mercury had the weights and measures under his superintendence. It is engraved on a stone in the gallery of Florence. Fig. 20 represents a modern weighing-machine, of great convenience, and generally in use in those establishments where a great deal of cooking is carried on.

71. ACCOMPANYING THE SCALES, or weighing-machines, there should be spice-boxes, and sugar and biscuit-canisters of either white or j.a.panned tin. The covers of these should fit tightly, in order to exclude the air, and if necessary, be lettered in front, to distinguish them. The white metal of which they are usually composed, loses its colour when exposed to the air, but undergoes no further change. It enters largely into the composition of culinary utensils, many of them being entirely composed of tinned sheet-iron; the inside of copper and iron vessels also, being usually what is called _tinned_. This art consists of covering any metal with a thin coating of tin; and it requires the metal to be covered, to be perfectly clean and free from rust, and also that the tin, itself, be purely metallic, and entirely cleared from all ashes or refuse. Copper boilers, saucepans, and other kitchen utensils, are tinned after they are manufactured, by being first made hot and the tin rubbed on with resin. In this process, nothing ought to be used but pure grain-tin. Lead, however, is sometimes mixed with that metal, not only to make it lie more easily, but to adulterate it--a pernicious practice, which in every article connected with the cooking and preparation of food, cannot be too severely reprobated.--The following list, supplied by Messrs. Richard & John Slack, 336, Strand, will show the articles required for the kitchen of a family in the middle cla.s.s of life, although it does not contain all the things that may be deemed necessary for some families, and may contain more than are required for others. As Messrs. Slack themselves, however, publish a useful ill.u.s.trated catalogue, which may be had at their establishment _gratis_, and which it will be found advantageous to consult by those about to furnish, it supersedes the necessity of our enlarging that which we give:--

s. d.

1 Tea-kettle 6 6 1 Toasting-fork 1 0 1 Bread-grater 1 0 1 Pair of Bra.s.s Candlesticks 3 6 1 Teapot and Tray 6 6 1 Bottle-jack 9 6 6 Spoons 1 6 2 Candlesticks 2 6 1 Candle-box 1 4 6 Knives and Forks 5 3 2 Sets of Skewers 1 0 1 Meat-chopper 1 9 1 Cinder-sifter 1 3 1 Coffee-pot 2 3 1 Colander 1 6 3 Block-tin Saucepans 5 9 5 Iron Saucepans 12 0 1 Ditto and Steamer 6 6 1 Large Boiling-pot 10 0 4 Iron Stewpans 8 9 1 Dripping-pan and Stand 6 6 1 Dustpan 1 0 1 Fish and Egg-slice 1 9 2 Fish-kettles 10 0 1 Flour-box 1 0 3 Flat-irons 3 6 2 Frying-pans 4 0 1 Gridiron 2 0 1 Mustard-pot 1 0 1 Salt-cellar 0 8 1 Pepper-box 0 6 1 Pair of Bellows 2 0 3 Jelly-moulds 8 0 1 Plate-basket 5 6 1 Cheese-toaster 1 10 1 Coal-shovel 2 6 1 Wood Meat-screen 30 0

The Set 8 11 1

72. AS NOT ONLY HEALTH BUT LIFE may be said to depend on the cleanliness of culinary utensils, great attention must be paid to their condition generally, but more especially to that of the saucepans, stewpans, and boilers. Inside they should be kept perfectly clean, and where an open fire is used, the outside as clean as possible. With a Leamington range, saucepans, stewpans, &c., can be kept entirely free from smoke and soot on the outside, which is an immense saving of labour to the cook or scullery-maid. Care should be taken that the lids fit tight and close, so that soups or gravies may not be suffered to waste by evaporation.

They should be made to keep the steam in and the smoke out, and should always be bright on the upper rim, where they do not immediately come in contact with the fire. Soup-pots and kettles should be washed immediately After being used, and dried before the fire, and they should be kept in a dry place, in order that they may escape the deteriorating influence of rust, and, thereby, be destroyed. Copper utensils should never be used in the kitchen unless tinned, and the utmost care should be taken, not to let the tin be rubbed off. If by chance this should occur, have it replaced before the vessel is again brought into use.

Neither soup nor gravy should, at any time, be suffered to remain in them longer than is absolutely necessary, as any fat or acid that is in them, may affect the metal, so as to impregnate with poison what is intended to be eaten. Stone and earthenware vessels should be provided for soups and gravies not intended for immediate use, and, also, plenty of common dishes for the larder, that the table-set may not be used for such purposes. It is the nature of vegetables soon to turn sour, when they are apt to corrode glazed red-ware, and even metals, and frequently, thereby, to become impregnated with poisonous particles. The vinegar also in pickles, by its acidity, does the same. Consideration, therefore, should be given to these facts, and great care also taken that all _sieves, jelly-bags,_ and tapes for collared articles, be well scalded and kept dry, or they will impart an unpleasant flavour when next used. To all these directions the cook should pay great attention, nor should they, by any means, be neglected by the _mistress of the household_, who ought to remember that cleanliness in the kitchen gives health and happiness to home, whilst economy will immeasurably a.s.sist in preserving them.

73. WITHOUT FUEL, A KITCHEN might be p.r.o.nounced to be of little use; therefore, to discover and invent materials for supplying us with the means of domestic heat and comfort, has exercised the ingenuity of man.

Those now known have been divided into five cla.s.ses; the first comprehending the fluid inflammable bodies; the second, peat or turf; the third, charcoal of wood; the fourth, pit-coal charred; and the fifth, wood or pit-coal in a crude state, with the capacity of yielding a copious and bright flame. The first may be said seldom to be employed for the purposes of cookery; but _peat_, especially amongst rural populations, has, in all ages, been regarded as an excellent fuel. It is one of the most important productions of an alluvial soil, and belongs to the vegetable rather than the mineral kingdom. It may be described as composed of wet, spongy black earth, held together by decayed vegetables. Formerly it covered extensive tracts in England, but has greatly disappeared before the genius of agricultural improvement.

_Charcoal_ is a kind of artificial coal, used princ.i.p.ally where a strong and clear fire is desired. It is a black, brittle, insoluble, inodorous, tasteless substance, and, when newly-made, possesses the remarkable property of absorbing certain quant.i.ties of the different gases. Its dust, when used as a polis.h.i.+ng powder, gives great brilliancy to metals.

It consists of wood half-burned, and is manufactured by cutting pieces of timber into nearly the same size, then disposing them in heaps, and covering them with earth, so as to prevent communication with the air, except when necessary to make them burn. When they have been sufficiently charred, the fire is extinguished by stopping the vents through which the air is admitted. Of _coal_ there are various species; as, pit, culm, slate, cannel, Kilkenny, sulphurous, bovey, jet, &c.

These have all their specific differences, and are employed for various purposes; but are all, more or less, used as fuel.

The use of coal for burning purposes was not known to the Romans. In Britain it was discovered about fifty years before the birth of Christ, in Lancas.h.i.+re, not tar from where Manchester now stands; but for ages after its discovery, so long as forests abounded, wood continued to be the fuel used for firing. The first public notice of coal is in the reign of Henry III., who, in 1272, granted a charter to the town of Newcastle, permitting the inhabitants to dig for coal. It took some centuries more, however, to bring it into common use, as this did not take place till about the first quarter of the seventeenth century, in the time of Charles I. A few years after the Restoration, we find that about 200,000 chaldrons were consumed in London. Although several countries possess mines of coal, the quality of their mineral is, in general, greatly inferior to that of Great Britain, where it is found mostly in undulating districts abounding with valleys, and interspersed with plains of considerable extent. It lies usually between the _strata_ of other substances, and rarely in an horizontal position, but with a _dip_ or inclination to one side. Our cut, Fig. 21, represents a section of coal as it is found in the stratum.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig_. 21.]

74. TO BE ACQUAINTED WITH THE PERIODS when things are in season, is one of the most essential pieces of knowledge which enter into the "Art of Cookery." We have, therefore, compiled the following list, which will serve to show for every month in the year the

TIMES WHEN THINGS ARE IN SEASON.

JANUARY.

FISH.--Barbel, brill, carp, cod, crabs, crayfish, dace, eels, flounders, haddocks, herrings, lampreys, lobsters, mussels, oysters, perch, pike, plaice, prawns, shrimps, skate, smelts, soles, sprats, sturgeon, tench, thornback, turbot, whitings.

MEAT.--Beef, house lamb, mutton, pork, veal, venison.

POULTRY.--Capons, fowls, tame pigeons, pullets, rabbits, turkeys.

GAME.--Grouse, hares, partridges, pheasants, snipe, wild-fowl, woodc.o.c.k.

VEGETABLES.--Beetroot, broccoli, cabbages, carrots, celery, chervil, cresses, cuc.u.mbers (forced), endive, lettuces, parsnips, potatoes, savoys, spinach, turnips,--various herbs.

FRUIT.--Apples, grapes, medlars, nuts, oranges, pears, walnuts, crystallized preserves (foreign), dried fruits, such as almonds and raisins; French and Spanish plums; prunes, figs, dates.

FEBRUARY.

FISH.--Barbel, brill, carp, cod may be bought, but is not so good as in January, crabs, crayfish, dace, eels, flounders, haddocks, herrings, lampreys, lobsters, mussels, oysters, perch, pike, plaice, prawns, shrimps, skate, smelts, soles, sprats, sturgeon, tench, thornback, turbot, whiting.

MEAT.--Beef, house lamb, mutton, pork, veal.

POULTRY.--Capons, chickens, ducklings, tame and wild pigeons, pullets with eggs, turkeys, wild-fowl, though now not in full season.

GAME.--Grouse, hares, partridges, pheasants, snipes, woodc.o.c.k.

VEGETABLES.--Beetroot, broccoli (purple and white), Brussels sprouts, cabbages, carrots, celery, chervil, cresses, cuc.u.mbers (forced), endive, kidney-beans, lettuces, parsnips, potatoes, savoys, spinach, turnips,--various herbs.

FRUIT.--Apples (golden and Dutch pippins), grapes, medlars, nuts, oranges, pears (Bon Chretien), walnuts, dried fruits (foreign), such as almonds and raisins; French and Spanish plums; prunes, figs, dates, crystallized preserves.

MARCH.

FISH.--Barbel, brill, carp, crabs, crayfish, dace, eels, flounders, haddocks, herrings, lampreys, lobsters, mussels, oysters, perch, pike, plaice, prawns, shrimps, skate, smelts, soles, sprats, sturgeon, tench, thornback, turbot, whiting.