Pork should never be bought except from a butcher whose honesty you are sure of, and who knows where the pork was fattened. It is not a very healthful meat at the best, and none should be used unless corn-fed. There is much bad or diseased pork sold, and it is very dangerous food. If the flesh feels flabby or clammy to the touch, it is not good, and should not on any account be used. If there are kernels in the fat, let it alone. The fat should be hard, the lean white and fine in the grain, and the rind thin and smooth.
As soon as your meat of any kind is brought home from the butcher’s, wipe it with a clean dry cloth. If in summer you find any “fly-blows,” which is very common, cut them out at once, and no harm will be done. In the loins a long pipe runs by the bone; that should be taken out immediately, or in a few hours it will taint and spoil the whole joint. If the meat is not to be used at once, dredge it with pepper. Powdered charcoal dusted over meat will help to keep it sweet, or will remove any taint already begun. It is wise to keep charcoal on hand during warm weather; it is wonderfully efficacious in preserving meat, and, if dusted over it while hanging, it can all be washed off when you are ready to cook it. Most meat is more tender and easily digested if kept hanging some time, and charcoal is a great and reliable aid in preserving it. Lamb and veal cannot be kept as safely as beef and mutton.
In choosing Fowls, bear in mind that the male bird, if young, will have a smooth leg and a short spur, eyes bright and full, feet supple. The hen may be judged by the same signs, and if these are not found, be sure the birds are stale and old.
Ducks, geese, and pigeons should have pliable feet; if stiff, they are old. In all the vent should be firm; if discolored or flabby, they are stale. This last sign should be remembered in judging of all poultry or game.
The eyes of Fish should be bright, the gills clear red, body stiff, and smell not unpleasant,—or rather, not stale, for we imagine that fish can never be of a pleasant smell, however palatable it may be to the taste.
As far as possible, buy all stores by the quantity; if nothing else, you save the weight of paper, no small item in the course of a year; but there is always some reduction when an article is purchased at wholesale. You save the retail commission, if nothing more.
In warm weather, meats, of course, cannot be bought in large quantities, unless for a large family who are in possession of a good ice-house. Rice, tapioca, raisins, etc., are an exception to this rule, for they should never be bought in large quantities, except for boarding-houses or hotels, as they are very easily filled with insects.
A store-room should be very dry, and supplied with a good number of shelves and drawers for stores of all kinds. A thick slab should be placed across from one end to the other, so high that nothing suspended from it will hit the head in passing through it. In this it is well to have some strong hooks to hang hams, dried beef, tongues, baskets, etc. A neat step-ladder should be kept in one corner, by which you can easily reach whatever is needed. These hooks are a great convenience, not only to put away your marketing, but so many things keep better for being suspended where there can be free circulation of air; and a store-room must be well ventilated. Eggs keep well hung up in a basket, or in nets made for that purpose. Buy your lemons in June and July, when freshest, cheapest, and most plentiful, by the box, and suspend them on these hooks in nets, and they will keep all summer.
XXV.
TRUST YOUR CHILDREN.
THERE is no lesson that so well repays the teacher as that by which children are taught to feel that they are trusted; that father and mother commit matters of importance to their care, with confidence that they will not disappoint them. Begin this teaching while the child is yet young. Of course you must gauge the importance of the trust by the age of the child, taking care that you do not tax the little one beyond its capacity, but being just as careful to have it understand that you are in earnest. It is a great event in a child’s life when it first feels that you look to it with loving confidence for the performance of certain duties that you have trusted to its honor. The feeling of responsibility which comes with this knowledge awakens self-respect, and the care and faithfulness which the youngest sees must be necessary to the satisfactory execution of the work will be good seed sown, which in after years will bear fruit, amply repaying all the trouble it cost to prepare the soil for its reception. That such teaching is not the easiest duty one can accept, every mother knows full well, and would much prefer to do the work herself, if conscience permitted, than be subjected to the tediousness and annoyance of drilling a child to do it. But this is a mother’s mission, which it is not wise to delegate to another.