An Ideal Kitchen: Miss Parloa's Kitchen Companion / A Guide for All Who Would Be Good Housekeepers

by Maria Parloa

The most important piece of furniture is the range. Many housekeepers find it difficult to decide which is better, a set or a portable range. Each has merits. Less room is required for set ranges; broiling and roasting can be done before the fire, and a constant supply of hot water is insured. But set ranges are rather slow to respond to draughts and checks; they consume a great deal of coal; the hearth becomes hot, and uncomfortable to stand on; and there is but one side of the range to approach, which necessitates the frequent lifting and moving of heavy utensils.

Now, a portable range can be so placed as to permit of one’s walking almost around it; it can be used as advantageously as a set range, with about half the same quantity of coal; there is a prompt response to the opening or closing of a draught; one’s feet do not get heated by standing near it; there are no dark corners; the need of moving utensils is to a large extent avoided, and it can be so managed that there shall be a hot oven at any time of the day. But roasting must be done in the oven, and broiling over the coals, and the supply of hot water is limited.

With a set range there must be a broad hearth of tiles, slate, or best face-brick. If a portable range be used, only a large piece of zinc will be required under it.

THE PANTRY.

And now the pantry. It should be about 12 × 8 feet. The window should have a wire screen, and inside folding blinds will be found a great convenience,—indeed, they are a necessity. A large, strong table, containing two drawers, should be placed at this window. There should be hooks at the ends of the table, from which to suspend the pastry-board, the board on which cold meats are cut, and that on which bread and cake are cut. In one drawer the rolling-pin, knives, pastry and cake cutters, and a few other utensils may be kept; and in the other drawer, spices, flavoring extracts, etc.

At one end of the room the wall should be covered with hooks on which to hang saucepans. At the same end, about a foot from the floor, there should be a broad shelf on which to keep heavy pots and kettles, turned upside down to keep out dust. Two feet above this shelf there should be a narrow one for the covers of the utensils just mentioned. By following this plan one can keep all these articles together and always in sight, and no time need be lost in searching for any of them.

There will be space in this end of the room for small shelves for the glass jars in which to keep materials used frequently, such as tapioca, barley, rice, baking-powder, soda, cream-of-tartar, ginger, split peas, etc. Here, also, may be kept small pasteboard boxes containing herbs.

In the window-frame put brass hooks, on which to hang the egg-beater, spoons, graded measuring-cups, a whisk, etc.

At the lower end of the pantry have a strong rack, a few inches from the floor, on which to place flour-barrels. This plan insures the circulation of air under the barrels, keeping their contents sweet. About a foot above the barrels have a wall closet, with shelves about twenty inches wide. This should be supplied with a lock, as it is designed for keeping cooked food and such groceries as raisins, currants, and citron, in glass jars, besides fresh fruit. The door or doors should be made partly of wire.