Here is a list of the cost prices at which the above-named articles, as well as a few others equally necessary, may be obtained of all ironmongers:—
| £ | s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| A cooking-stove, 2 ft. 6 in. wide, with oven only | 1 | 10 | 0 |
| Ditto, with oven and boiler | 1 | 18 | 0 |
| A three-gallon oval boiling pot | 0 | 4 | 6 |
| A one-gallon tin saucepan, and lid | 0 | 2 | 6 |
| A two-quart ditto | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| A potato steamer | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| An oval frying-pan, from | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| A gridiron, from | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| A copper for washing or brewing, twelve gallons | 1 | 10 | 0 |
| A mash-tub, from | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| Two cooling-tubs (or an old wine or beer cask cut in halves, would be cheaper, and answer the same purpose), each 6s.; | 0 | 12 | 0 |
| £ 6 | 12 | 4 | |
To those of my readers who, from sickness or other hindrance, have not money in store, I would say, strive to lay by a little of your weekly wages to purchase these things, that your families may be well fed, and your homes made comfortable.
And now a few words on baking your own bread. I assure you if you would adopt this excellent practice, you would not only effect a great saving in your expenditure, but you would also insure a more substantial and wholesome kind of food; it would be free from potato, rice, bean or pea flour, and alum, all of which substances are objectionable in the composition of bread. The only utensil required for bread-making would be a tub, or trough, capable of working a bushel or two of flour. This tub would be useful in brewing, for which you will find in this book plain and easy directions.
I have pointed out the necessity of procuring these articles for cooking purposes, and with the injunction to use great care in keeping them thoroughly clean, I will at once proceed to show you their value in a course of practical and economical cookery, the soundness and plainness of which I sincerely hope you will all be enabled to test in your own homes.
COOKERY BOOK.
[No. 1. Boiled Beef.]
This is an economical dinner, especially where there are many mouths to feed. Buy a few pounds of either salt brisket, thick or thin flank, or buttock of beef; these pieces are always to be had at a low rate. Let us suppose you have bought a piece of salt beef for a Sunday's dinner, weighing about five pounds, at 6 1/2d. per pound, that would come to 2s. 8 1/2d.; two pounds of common flour, 4d., to be made into suet pudding or dumplings, and say 8 1/2d. for cabbages, parsnips, and potatoes; altogether 3s. 9d. This would produce a substantial dinner for ten persons in family, and would, moreover, as children do not require much meat when they have pudding, admit of there being enough left to help out the next day's dinner, with potatoes.
[No. 2. How to Boil Beef.]
Put the beef into your three or four gallon pot, three parts filled with cold water, and set it on the fire to boil; remove all the scum that rises to the surface, and then let it boil gently on the hob; when the meat has boiled an hour and is about half done, add the parsnips in a net, and at the end of another half hour put in the cabbages, also in a net. A piece of beef weighing five or six pounds will require about two hours' gentle boiling to cook it thoroughly. The dumplings may, of course, be boiled with the beef, etc. I may here observe that the dumplings and vegetables, with a small quantity of the meat, would be all-sufficient for the children's meal.