THE DINNER LIFT.
(S.) The back staircase for servants.
(T.) Principal Kitchen. The size of this kitchen is twenty-eight feet long and twenty-four wide; in the middle is an elm table, made on a plan entirely original, having twelve irregular sides, and giving the utmost facility for the various works of the kitchen, without any one interfering with another. The principal length is twelve feet by seven wide, and three inches thick. Under the edge of the table, in front, are two sliding boards, two feet long and two inches and a half thick, which are used for straining sauces, purées, &c.; as these sliding boards are lower than the table they are particularly useful, and save an additional width; below are two drawers, and at each end, in front, are two little moveable copper buckets with water, handy for sponging off any blood or mess left upon the board or table after the cutting of poultry, game, or fish. In the same direction there are two columns supporting the ceiling and passing through the table, round which, at a convenient height, are copper cases lined with tin, in ten compartments, each of which contains every ingredient and chopped herbs of the seasons for flavouring dishes, such as salt, pepper, spices, sweet herbs, crumbs and rasping of bread, eggs, chopped onions, &c.; the other contains various sauces for fish dressed in the English style. These cases turn round at will on castors fixed under it to the column, so that, without moving from your place, you can get every ingredient you may require; the diameters of the columns are one foot, and the cases for ingredients project over three inches and a half; as columns are not always wanted to support the ceiling of a kitchen, the cases might easily be introduced on the table supported by a stand, turning in the same way as, and similar in shape to a lamp.
In the middle of the table is a cast-iron steam closet, four feet one inch long, two feet eleven inches wide, and two feet nine inches high, with two sliding doors on each side, and a shelf inside for keeping delicate entrées perfectly good for several hours, by means of two different degrees of heat; above, five inches distant from the top, is a grated iron shelf, all round upon which are placed middle-sized and small stewpans, supported at each corner by little balusters, as it projects beyond the closet it forms a cornice and gives it an elegant appearance. The whole contrivance of this table is much more convenient than might be imagined, by the number of useful objects a common table is deprived of; I certainly could have had a table of large dimensions[20] upon which great dinners might be laid out, as is commonly done, but that was precisely what I wished to avoid, finding it much more to the purpose, as soon as entrée dishes are ready, to put them quickly into a warm place until wanted to be taken up, which is done with regularity; every dish being numbered is placed upon the table without confusion, and to all appearance as if the whole had just been dressed, an advantage seldom if ever at the disposal of any chef de cuisine, who generally finds it very difficult to dispose of dishes in a fitting place to keep them in such a proper degree of heat as I obtain with the steam closet. Many culinary artists who have seen it for the first time question whether it is possible to dress a dinner of sixteen entrées or more upon a table which is to all appearance inadequate to the exigencies required; the only answer I can give is, that since I have made use of it in very difficult circumstances, and with well known artists, neither of them or those regularly employed in the kitchen of the Reform Club have found anything contrary to good order, celerity, and comfort in preparing everything wanted for a large dinner; therefore I do not hesitate to recommend the above improvement in whatever kitchen it may be, according to its several localities.