Letters to Persons Who Are Engaged in Domestic Service

by Catharine Esther Beecher

used in cooking, and all grease that can be used for soap. She should preserve all good bits of bread, which can, when dry, be boiled in water or milk, to eat with butter and sugar—a favourite dish for children. Dry bread is also good for rusk puddings, and for stuffings.

Always use the dry bread before it becomes mouldy.

A cook also should practise economy in the use of fuel. Domestics are very apt to burn out far more fuel than is needful to keep themselves comfortable, or to do the cooking properly. This is very wrong, for we have no right to waste even our own things, far less to waste what belongs to another.

Remember that when our Saviour had power, by one word, to supply five thousand with bread, still he commanded his disciples, “Gather up the fragments, that nothing be lost.” This was done for the instruction of all who have the charge of food, or any of the bounties of his providence. Remember then, that in taking care of fragments of food you are following the example of him who thinks nothing is too small for his care and attention.

In hot weather be careful always to cover meat from the flies. In preserving fresh meat, cut out all kernels, and fill the holes with salt, then rub salt all over. Always keep cheese covered closely. Cake, bread and cheese are best kept in tin boxes with tight covers.

The grand maxim for kitchen work, as well as all other work is, “A place for every thing, and every thing in its place.” Much is gained by forming a habit of putting up things and cleaning things as fast as they are used. You will see some domestics get a kitchen in fine order, and in a couple of hours every thing will be in disorder again. This is because, when they make a slop they do not wipe it, when they dirty the hearth they do not sweep it, when they use articles they never put them in their places. Instead of this a neat and orderly person not only puts things in order, but keeps them so.

I have heard some housekeepers express the opinion that it was out of the question to get a domestic that was neat and orderly, and yet good tempered. It seems to be taken for

granted that neat habits and a sharp temper go together.

Now this is owing to the fact, that when persons are neat and orderly, it troubles them far more than it does untidy persons, to have any matters of theirs disarranged, and so they gradually acquire a habit of fretting, or scolding.

This ought to be carefully avoided, and I hope all who read this will try and see if there cannot be at least a few, who can be neat, orderly, and yet good tempered domestics, so that it will not be said of them, as I have often heard of others, “Yes, she is very neat and orderly, but her temper is as sharp as a steel-trap.”