Above all things, a cook should avoid all cruelty, and no custom or usage should be an excuse for any practices, by which living and sensitive creatures are to be put to wanton and unnecessary torture.
N.B. In the previous article it has not been attempted to give a detailed system of cookery, which alone would have filled a volume; but the object has been so to condense as to give the substance of the art in a few general rules, applicable to all cases, and therefore more useful than detailed instructions, for, applied with good sense, they cannot fail to make a complete cook.
THE KITCHEN-MAID, or UNDER COOK.
Cleanliness must be considered as the first and leading principle of the kitchen-maid, as well as of the head cook and all other persons in any way employed in the business of the kitchen.
This servant has, in many families, the hardest place in the house. It is her business, under the superintendance of the cook, to take nearly the whole management of roasting, boiling, and otherwise dressing all plain joints and dishes, and all the fish and vegetables.—She is also, if there be no scullion, to keep the kitchen, larder, scullery, all the kitchen utensils, and every thing belonging to it perfectly clean,—in the best possible condition, and always fit for use. On the due performance of this important part of her business mainly depends the credit and character, not of herself only, but of the cook also; it therefore behoves the cook to see it properly done.
The kitchen-maid must always rise betimes, light the kitchen fire, and set on water to be heated for all the purposes of the family, the first thing she does.—She next scours the dressers and shelves, and the kitchen tables, with soap and sand, and hot water; and cleans up the kitchen: she then clears out and cleans the housekeeper’s room, the hall and passages, the front door, and area steps, the larder, and the butler’s pantry; in doing which, the scullion (if there be one kept) takes the dirtiest and most laborious part. She then prepares the breakfasts in the housekeeper’s room, and the servants’-hall. These things, if she be active, she will have accomplished before the cook begins to require her attention and attendance in the larder, in the furtherance of the culinary preparations; to which, however, she must have an eye, even from her earliest rising, particularly to the soups and other things, that require a long time to prepare.
After breakfast, if not before, the cook will require her assistance in the larder, and afterwards for the remainder of the day she will be occupied in the kitchen, under the direction of the cook; first, in preparing for the servants’ dinner, the dinner in the nursery, or elsewhere, and the lunch in the parlour; next in helping to get ready the family dinner; then in washing up and clearing away every thing, and cleaning up the kitchen; and lastly, in setting out and preparing the supper, either hot or cold, for the servants.
As the kitchen-maid generally fills her situation with the view of becoming a cook, at a future day, it behoves her to read with attention the foregoing Directions to the Cook, which contain the rudiments of the art, and which, if she attentively study, and practically apply, will enable her to attain such a proficiency in her business, as will render her a valuable acquisition to her future employers. [Wages from 12 to 14 guineas per year.]
Having given a full and adequate sketch of the theory and leading principles of the culinary art, and exemplified them in the practical duties of the cook and kitchen-maid, we shall conclude the subject with a brief outline of the duties of their humble and laborious assistant,