Never put liquid into the garbage pail with solid refuse. Strain out whatever liquid may be left in coffee or tea, and pour it into the sink drain. If there is a greasy liquid to throw away, add to it a teaspoonful or more of washing powder, and let it stand a time. If you have used enough of the powder, you will find that you have a soapy liquid to pour down the sink.
Coffee, tea, cocoa, or lemonade left in cups should be diluted and poured down the sink and never into the garbage pail.
Empty garbage at evening when possible, to prevent the long standing through the night. Keep the pail closely covered both day and night, to keep out flies, and water bugs, if they are about. Allow the pail to stand outside the kitchen unless the fire escape is the only accessible out-of-doors. Remember that the fire escape is not a back porch, and that you would be fined for using it as such if the inspectors were efficient.
There are two classes of waste: uncooked refuse, like potato skins, egg shells, pea pods, meat trimmings and bones; and table scraps from plates.
Pieces of fat may be “tried out,” but do not accumulate more than you use. A few egg shells may be kept for settling coffee, but again do not keep too many.
The country dweller has a simple problem. What the farm animals do not eat will serve as fertilizer for plant life. After the bones have been picked, keep them together, in some receptacle, and finally bury or burn them. Have a compost heap properly covered where the uneaten fragments will decompose and make fertilizer, or bury them at once if preferred.
The city dweller who uses a coal stove is able to burn some refuse. Strain out whatever liquid is present, dry the refuse under the grate, and put it into a hot fire. Do not crowd damp refuse into the fire box when the fire is low, for it will smoulder, and this heavy smoke will eventually clog the flues. The odor of this smoke, too, is disagreeable in the neighborhood. A garbage drier, set into the stove pipe, has been devised, but the simpler plan of drying the refuse under the grate is quite as satisfactory.
Where gas or kerosene is the fuel, or where electricity is used, the garbage pail is the only resort, unless one lives in a building equipped with a special stove or “garbage burner” for the disposal of waste.
EXERCISES
1. What is a principle in cooking?