A hygienic outfit for the hygienic kitchen is of course essential, but sometimes more difficult to secure than is the sanitary room. Dressers and drawers for the accommodation of the kitchen utensils must be provided, and in these things crevices and angles and dark corners and all sorts of complications of this character seem unavoidable. If these cabinets could be of metal, all angles and corners done away with by the finishing with curves, the shelves loose fitting and easily removable, it would be a decided advance in kitchen arrangements. The drawers could be made in the same way, the emphasis being on the point “easily removable.” Thus constructed, the person in charge would find it easier to remove them than to undertake to clean them while in position.
Architects say, that in hospitals where steam boilers and engines for supplying power for elevators, electric lights, laundries, etc., are in use, arrangements should be made to utilize for cooking the large amount of exhaust steam, that ordinarily goes to waste. When this is done, ashes, smoke and their attendant ills can be avoided. The hospital may then be not only “a thing of beauty,” but “a joy forever,” and the drudgery of that department greatly reduced.
Through the courtesy of Mr. W. J. Palmer, architect, of Washington, D. C., we are able to present drawings for a hospital kitchen embodying most of the features above mentioned. The drawings were designed for a kitchen located on the ground floor in a separate building, but with a few changes could be easily adapted to a kitchen located on the top floor. The range is located in the center of the room, with steam tables on each side to keep the cooked food hot. A gas range is provided and a chopping block, tables and dressers are arranged conveniently for work. On one side is a small pantry, which leads to the vegetable cellar beneath, and adjoining it is the main diet kitchen. At one end is the serving room, where the food is divided and dispatched to the wards. Leading from the serving room is a hall, off which on one side are the cooling rooms, and on the other side storerooms for staple supplies. If the kitchen be on the top floor, a cooling room on that floor, sufficient at least to care for one day’s provisions, will be necessary, having the main cooling rooms located on the main floor or in the basement.
Cold Storage
A good cooling room, in which can be stored large quantities of the perishable supplies, has now come to be regarded as essential to economical housekeeping. The size of the cooling room will depend on the size of the hospital, but there are special features which should always be kept in view, and which can be had in cooling rooms of any size. One important point is to have it so constructed that the ice can be put in from the outside, if it is not manufactured on the premises. Every cooling room needs to have three departments—one large section, well arranged with meat hooks and shelving for meats, one with plenty of shelf space for vegetables and fresh fruits, and one for milk, butter and eggs. The separation of these articles is highly important. Vegetables and fruit will taint milk and also meat, and meat alone will injure milk. The best goods that can be purchased will quickly deteriorate unless properly cared for, and in a hospital, where the most capricious appetites have to be catered to, the keeping of the edibles sweet and fresh is of the utmost importance.
The Storeroom
The storerooms should be light, well ventilated, cool and dry. The shelving, if arranged in sections in the central part of the room, similar to the arrangement in libraries, will be much easier of access and more easily kept clean. Labeled receptacles, with covers for all the varied commodities used in the domestic department, should be provided, thus rendering it unnecessary to store supplies of any kind in paper sacks. A special closet for canned fruit will also be needed. Provision should be in the kitchen for the care of such supplies as are needed for each day.
Dishwashing