Part 3

The sideboard is long enough and broad enough to hold all that need be placed upon it. It stands at the side of the room between the china closet and the pantry door. The side-table has two large drop leaves, one or both of which may be used as occasion requires. It stands at the side of the room between the mantel and a corner. The dinner wagon is made of the same wood as the other furniture in the dining-room. It is made of shelves of the same size, each with a little guard rim of wood or brass, and each large enough to hold easily a large dinner plate. It stands on the polished floor between the window and the corner next to the pantry door. There is no sill under this door, and the wagon is on rubber rollers, so that it can be moved noiselessly and rolled into the space in the pantry which is provided for it. The screen has two broad leaves and is placed so as to hide the pantry 46 door.

The rug in the dining-room should be brushed up every morning, or swept with a carpet sweeper, and the polished border should be wiped with a dry cloth. Once every week the room should be thoroughly swept.

Roll up the rug ready to be taken out for shaking. Lay on the dining-table either paper or a sheet which is kept for the purpose, to prevent scratches. On this place ornaments, dishes from the sideboard, etc., and cover to keep from the dust. See that all doors and drawers are tightly closed. Open the windows.

If the rug cannot be taken out each time, draw it one side, and move the table into a corner before putting anything on it. Sweep the rug well, being sure to sweep _with_ the nap and not _against_ it. Roll it up as closely as possible. Sweep the floor with a hair brush having a long handle, and use a broom for the rug only, so as to permit as little dust as possible to rise to pictures and curtains. Take up 47 the dust and carry it away. Shake out the curtains so deftly that you neither tear nor wrinkle them. Take a feather duster with a long handle to brush off the tops of the curtain poles, tops of pictures, and mouldings which are too high to reach with a cloth.

Bring a pail of water and wipe up the floor with a wet cloth. Learn to rub with the grain of the wood, and do not leave lines or streaks. When dry, rub the polished border with crude petroleum, which should be applied with cotton waste, such as is used to clean engines, and polish with clean cotton waste. A _very_ small amount of crude petroleum should be used, and a weekly use of it keeps the polish fresh.

Wash your hands; relay the rug; dust the room. In dusting use a small feather duster where necessary, but depend chiefly upon soft cloths. _Dust should be taken up and shaken out of doors_, not whisked again around a room.

Replace china and ornaments. Notice carefully whether any spot or stain 48 needs to be removed. Polish glass doors and glass of pictures. Wash windows.

To keep the polish of the dining-table perfect, rub every three days with a mixture made of equal parts of olive oil and turpentine. Apply with flannel cloth and polish with clean flannel cloth. Dull spots on other furniture may be treated in the same way.

Every morning before breakfast the dining-room must be well aired and thoroughly dusted.

After each meal crumbs must be taken up carefully from the rug.

Care of Pantry 49

Neatness and order in your pantry will depend in great measure upon the way you clear your table. If you look upon your butler’s pantry as a dumping-ground, then dirt and disorder will be inevitable. But, on the contrary, if you consider it a workshop, to be kept shipshape, you will avoid these dangers. Shipshape means a place for everything and everything in its right place.

Make up your mind in the beginning where you want to lay your knives, where you want your silver, which is the best place for your heavier china and the safest for your delicate pieces. When these places are well chosen, then stick to them.

You must be sure to have a bowl or pan large enough to hold all the broken bits and bones from any meal. A large yellow bowl or agate pan 50 is suitable for this. Do not use a tin pail; it is not cleanly. A piece of lemon or a spoonful of tomato will rust it and it will soon become disagreeable.

Do not begin your work until the food is put away. Next empty every glass, cup, bowl, and pitcher. Rinse with cold water those which have been used for milk or cream. Scrape your plates and dishes carefully, and put those of one sort together. This saves time; it does not waste it. A crust of bread from the broken bits will easily wipe out a fine china bowl or silver ladle without scratching it as a knife or spoon might do.

Keep a pan and brush at hand, and if food is dropped on your pantry floor take it up at once. Then you will have one greasy spot instead of long streaks to scour out.

When you have finished washing dishes, always leave your pan or sink perfectly clean. Your sapolio is provided for the purpose of cleaning 51 them thoroughly and in an expeditious manner. Once a week you must wash down the pipes with a strong solution of sal soda and water that is actually boiling, not simply hot.

Never leave soiled towels lying in your pantry. After each meal wash out those you have used and hang them to dry. You may add a little dilute ammonia to the water in which you wash them. Once a week, all towels that have been used should be thoroughly washed, scalded, and ironed. You need fresh ones each time for glass and fine china. Do not let your pile of fresh ones get exhausted before you have other fresh ones to take their place.

Your pantry shelves should be kept well dusted, every drawer clean and in order, the knife cleaner in proper place, the silver-cleaning materials in their place. See that the clean hand towels are not mixed with the dish towels. Keep salad cloths by themselves. Be sure that the brooms and long dusters are hung, not standing on the floor, and 52 choose a good place for keeping dusting cloths and small feather dusters.

Always remember that shipshape means a place for everything and everything in its right place.

Washing Dishes 53

To wash dishes, silver, and knives, you need: A clean sink, plenty of hot water, soap without much soda in it, a dish drainer, dish cloths and mops, a soap shaker, a cake of sapolio, a bottle of dilute ammonia, a knife cleaner, plenty of clean, dry towels.

Make a suds not too strong. Too much soap quickly takes color and gilding off from china.

_Never leave soap lying in the water._

Begin with the glass, and see that every glass is emptied before you begin to wash. Cold water in one, some milk in another, claret in another, will soon make your pan unfit to wash anything in.

The rule for glass holds good for cups. See that every cup is emptied before you begin to wash.

When a pitcher has been used for milk or cream, rinse it first with 54 cold water, and you will have no trouble to cleanse it. The same rule applies to tumblers.

After the glass, take the delicate china cups and saucers, dessert plates, etc. Put your mind on your work. Inspect each piece when it leaves your hand to see if it is perfectly clean and dry.

By the time the glass and fine china are washed the water will be chilled. Let it run out, and make a fresh hot suds for the silver.

_Never leave soap lying in the water._

When silver is washed clean and laid on the drainer, fill a pitcher with hot water and pour over it.

Now use your judgment and see whether the water is clean enough and hot enough for dishes. If it is, take a pile of plates, or your vegetable dishes, or whatever you think you can cleanse without needing hot water.

Change the water whenever it is necessary.

Never on any account leave dishes lying in the water while you go to 55 attend to something elsewhere. To do so injures gilding and color. Remember if you are quick you can do a good deal before one water cools, and you will have to change only when it is soiled.

Never put many dishes to wash at one time. The size of your sink or pan will regulate the number. Put dishes of one kind in at one time, and dishes of another kind in the next time. Then you can work rapidly.

If you put in a pile of dinner plates, some bread-and-butter plates, a little pitcher, and a sauce boat, and you find when you are through that the pitcher is cracked, a handle off of the sauce boat, and a chip out of one of the large plates, do not report that you could not prevent these accidents. Such things do not come under the head of accidents; they come under the head of carelessness.

You may rinse plates and dishes in the same way that you do silver, with this difference: you must see that the water poured upon delicate china is not too hot, or it will crack it.

Before you begin to wash at all, ask yourself where you are going to 56 stand your dishes when they are dried. Arrange so that you have room enough without letting clean dishes touch soiled ones, or without being obliged to put dry dishes on a wet spot.

When your silver is dried put it away. Do not let it lie where it will be spattered from the washing of the next things.

There are two good reasons for spreading out a clean towel on which to lay your silver as you dry it. One is that the silver does not get scratched, and the other is that it enables you to handle it in a noiseless manner.

There is a good reason for washing dishes of one kind together, aside from the question of cracking and chipping. When they are washed and dried they are ready to put away without further sorting.

Silver trays used at each meal should be washed after each meal, just as regularly as a bread plate or a crumb tray. Sometimes crumbs fall on a tray, sometimes a drop from a sauce boat. These you can see; but, 57 unless you think about it, you will not realize that you cannot serve a meal without leaving finger marks and dull spots on the edge of a tray.

Watch the inside of your pitchers. Sediment from boiling water or stains from chocolate may be easily removed the first day; after that twice the time, at least, will be needed to efface them. If clear water or hot soapsuds will not do it, use a little sapolio.

When your dishes and silver all are finished, cleanse your steel knives. Never let the handles touch the water. Hold in your left hand and wash the blades with your right. After they are washed scour the blades with bath brick or on an emery board. Let the blade rest flat upon your board; this prevents bending and loosening the handle.

There is a knife cleaner which many ladies would like to have used for their knives, if they knew that it would be properly used. It is a disk with emery pads on a wheel, and has spaces for both small knives 58 and carvers. If the knives are put in as they should be, a few turns of the wheel will polish and sharpen them at the same time. If carelessly put in, both knives and machine can be spoiled in one using. But this machine is costly, and you will need to prove yourself an expert before adding it to the pantry furnishings.

Care of Silver, Etc. 59

Once every week your silver should be thoroughly polished.

First clean with electro-silicon, or any perfectly smooth powder, mixed with a little alcohol and water. Rub with soft cloths or chamois, and use a soft brush where necessary. Sometimes it is impossible to get all the powder out of tracery and filigree work. In that case hold under boiling water and dry quickly.

If you have a Vienna coffee-pot, Benares brass trays, or similar articles to clean, rub first with electro-silicon and a mixture of one-half lemon juice and one-half water, then polish with hard silver rouge.

To keep the polish of your tables in order, have a mixture of one-half turpentine and one-half olive oil. Wash the wood with clear water, or 60 water in which a little borax has been dissolved. Never rub soap on polished wood. Rub a little of the oil and turpentine on with a flannel cloth. Polish with a clean flannel.

Lamps 61

Dining-room lamps are either a source of great pleasure or of perpetual torment.

Any one who washes dishes according to the directions given will not have to be told to have always a spotless chimney and no oil on the outside of jars.

To prevent oil from oozing over the top of the burner, turn the wick down after the light is out.

_Rub_ the wicks, do not _cut_ them. A new wick must be started right. Loose threads should be clipped off to start with, but when once in shape the necessity for clipping will be very rare. A wick ought to be put in several hours before using, so that it may be thoroughly saturated with oil. When a lamp has been burned, if one part is a little higher than the other parts it will char first, and, when well 62 charred, can be rubbed off to the level of the rest. A bit of soft paper, a nailbrush, or, best of all, the unbroken finger of a glove, will do this successfully.

Be sure that no bit of charred wick or burned fly or moth is left in the lower part of the burner. There is danger of these igniting and setting fire to the oil in the reservoir. A clean, unbroken lamp is not dangerous.

If a lamp has been left standing with a little oil in, it should not be lighted until filled and the burner carefully wiped. It is possible that gas may have formed, making the lamp, as it stands, unsafe to light before refilling.

To start the circular wick of a large lamp, like the Rochester, put a new wick in the burner, and saturate thoroughly with oil that part of the wick that is above the burner, which is best done by holding wick and edge of burner upside down in a shallow cup of oil. Put the burner in the lamp, but have _no oil_ in the lamp. Light the wick and put the chimney on. Let the oil burn out of the wick. This method chars the 63 wick so that it can be rubbed down to a smooth, even surface. Started rightly, a wick can be kept even. The objection to this is the odor from the burning wick; but the time necessary to do it is short, and an open window can be arranged without having enough draught to break the chimney.

When a lamp is first lighted, leave the flame low until the metal of the burner is heated, then turn as high as possible without smoking. This secures a clear, steady flame.

To clean burners, boil in water in which sal soda has been dissolved. Put one teaspoonful to each quart of water.

To prevent chimneys from cracking, put them before using into a large pan and cover them with cold water. Bring the water slowly to a boil. Take the pan off of the fire and let the chimneys cool slowly in the water.

If the brass catches of a burner are too tight, the chimney will break as it expands with the heat. These catches are easily loosened without 64 injuring the lamp.

Alcohol lamps for kettles and chafing-dishes must be kept perfectly clean. The wicks must sometimes be renewed before they are burned out. The question, What is the matter with the lamp? may often be solved by putting a fresh wick in the place of one that has become clogged.

This is very often true of oil lamps. There is more or less paraffine in oil, which fills the wick and prevents combustion.

Carving 65

The chair placed for a carver must be high enough to allow the work to be done comfortably without the carver being obliged to stand. The platter must be large enough to hold the entire joint or bird when carved, without any piece falling over the edge of the platter. A waitress should make sure before placing a dish in front of the carver that the platter is really hot; if it is not the dish gravy will become chilled, and consequently unfit for use, before it can be served.

See that no string or skewer is left to annoy the carver. The silver skewers sent to table intentionally are, of course, excepted. The platter must be placed near enough to the carver to prevent awkwardness or the necessity of moving the dish. In serving large birds, as goose or turkey, place the head always to the left. If 66 smaller birds, as partridge or grouse, which are placed across the platter, let the heads be on the farther side. A saddle of mutton should be placed with the tail end to the left of the carver. A haunch of venison or mutton, with the loin or backbone nearest the carver. A leg of mutton or lamb, or a knuckle of veal, with the thickest part towards the back of the platter. A shoulder of mutton or veal, with the thickest part up. A rib roast or a sirloin roast should be placed with the backbone at the right end of the platter. A rump roast, with the backbone at the farther side of the platter. A round of beef, with the flesh side up. A sirloin beefsteak, with the tenderloin next to the carver. A fillet of beef, with the thickest end at the right end of the platter. A calf’s head, with face to the right. A roast pig, with head to the left. A roast ham, with the thickest part on the farther side of the platter.

A waitress should know how to carve. The first steps may be learned 67 by cutting bread and slicing pressed meats. To do these two things perfectly, one must acquire a steady hand and a straight eye. Slices must be of uniform thickness, thin enough to be delicate, not thin enough to break. There must be no ragged edges. From the slicing of cold meats to the slicing of a rolled roast or other meats from which the bones have been taken is not a great step if the knife be in perfect condition. Enough confidence will have been gained to grasp the slicer firmly and slice quickly and firmly across the roast.

Further than this it will not be well to go without some object lessons, for the meats are not the only things to be considered; the knives must be kept from injury.

When you have placed a rib roast properly, watch the carver. Study the different positions of the knife and fork, as he puts the fork in the middle and cuts down to the ribs close to the backbone. The thick gristle near the backbone will be next cut off. Then from the side 68 nearest the carver will be cut thin, even slices parallel with the ribs, and the knife run under them, separating them from the bone. The sirloin roast will be sliced in the same way, a cut being made at the flank end as well as near the backbone to separate the slices.

You will notice that a good carver is careful to serve neatly the crisp fat with the rare slices. This adds richness to their flavor.

To carve a beefsteak, the eye must be trained to know at once the best parts, and all of the best should not be served to one or two persons. First cut out the tenderloin close to the bone and cut it into long, narrow pieces, then cut the other part from the bone and cut into strips. Serve a part of each, and serve the fat to those who prefer it.

To carve a leg of mutton or lamb, or knuckle of veal, put the fork in the top, turn it towards you and cut slices through to the bone, slip the knife under and cut them away from the bone. The under side may be sliced in the same manner.

A saddle of mutton must be carved with the grain of the meat, in long, 69 thin slices from each side of the back. It must be partly turned over to reach the tenderloin and kidney fat.

The leg and saddle of venison are carved in the same way as the leg and saddle of mutton. When the leg and loin are served together, the loin should be carved before the leg. First cut off the flank and cut it in pieces, then separate the ribs and afterwards carve the leg.

It will be better not to attempt to carve a forequarter of mutton, lamb, or veal until this part has been studied uncooked and the joints learned. The same advice applies to birds, large and small.

To carve a forequarter, put the carving-fork in firmly near the knuckle. Cut all around the leg and up on the shoulder. Lift the leg from the shoulder and cut till you reach the joint. Cut through this joint, then from left to right, separating the lower from the upper part of the breast. Take out the blade, if it has not already been 70 removed, divide the ribs, and then slice the leg if it be required.

Roast ham should be cut from the thickest part down to the bone, in thin slices, the fat and crust being served with each slice.

In carving tongue, the tip or thinnest part should be cut lengthwise. The centre is the finest part.

Before trying to carve poultry, study the joints of the uncooked birds. When you find a joint and cut the cord and gristle, a leg or a wing is free. To find a side bone or a collar bone is not easy at first, but can be learned by a little practice.

Watch the rapid manipulations of a good carver. Remember that to carve a roast chicken or turkey, you remove first the leg, then the wing, from one side, then the leg and wing from the other side, separating the joints. Then carve the breast on each side; next take off the wishbone, separate the collar bones and shoulder blades, separate the breastbone from the back, then the back from the body, and then the 71 side bones. In large birds the second joints and legs should be carved in at least two pieces.

The breast of a roast goose and of a roast duck should be cut parallel to the breastbone.

Small birds, when not served whole, may be cut from the neck to the end of the breast and down through the backbone.

To carve a large partridge, cut off the leg and wing from one side, then from the other; leg and wing should be served together. Remove the breast from the back and cut it through the middle. When the birds are smaller, serve one half of a bird to each person.

In carving fish, learn to serve neatly and leave the backbone on the platter. Carve to the bone, and serve. Remove the bone to one side and carve the lower half.

A carver should try not only to serve each person acceptably, but to leave the meat on the platter in appetizing form for a second helping.

Care of Carvers 72

Fine carvers should be treated with the same respect as fine razors. They should be laid always by themselves. On no account should the edge of one carver touch that of another carver, nor should it touch any other hard substance.

A carver must always be sharpened on its steel before it is offered for use, unless a contrary direction is given, and when necessary should be taken without delay to the shop of a careful workman to have the edge renewed.

It is safest to replace carvers in their own cases. When they are laid in a drawer, it is well to keep each one in its own simple case of heavy gray flannel.

General Rules 73

The air of a dining-room must be fresh, and not too warm. Furniture must be free from dust. Table-cloths must be laid straight and smooth. Side-tables must be draped. Napkins must be folded simply, and not in fanciful shapes, as fans, etc. The edge of a knife must be turned towards the plate; bowls of spoons and tines of forks turned up. Knives and spoons must be placed at the right of a plate; forks at the left. Place knives and forks in the order in which they are to be used; the first one used, on the outside.

All glasses must be placed at the right.

Napkins and bread-and-butter plates must be placed at the left.

Carvers, fish-slice and fork, etc., should be laid on a side-table until needed, then placed quietly and quickly, the knife at the right 74 of the platter, and the fork at the left.

Extra plates, glasses, knives, forks, and spoons should be in readiness on the side-board.

Such things as mustard, vinegar, etc., which may be wanted, should be in readiness on the side-table or in the pantry.

Filtered water, ice, and extra bread or rolls should always be at hand in the pantry during a meal.

Bread must be freshly cut.