Marion Harland's Complete Cook Book: A Practical and Exhaustive Manual of Cookery and Housekeeping

loop by which it may be suspended. And always in its own place, so that you could find each in the dark. Cover the shelves of the crockery closet with strips of scalloped oilcloth that come for the purpose, and the shelves on which you keep metal pie-plates and pans with stout paper, pinked at the edges. If you use tin milk-pans, have them seamless, scald daily with boiling water into which you have stirred a little baking soda, rinse with pure water and stand in the sun. Wooden ware should be scrubbed with a clean, stiff brush and soda-and-water, rinsed well, wiped and dried near the fire or in the open window. Buy three qualities of dish-towels—the finest for glass, silver and china; the second best for crockery used in kitchen work; the third for heavy kettles, griddles, etc., and have them washed every day. Even when no grease adheres to them they have a musty odor if used several times without washing. Rub gridirons and griddles with dry salt before each using, wiping it off with a clean towel. Never undertake to polish your stove until it is quite cold, and do not rekindle the fire too soon when the polishing is done. Next to the range, or stove, the sink is the most important feature of the kitchen. “Let me see a woman’s sink, and I will tell you what sort of a manager she is!” was the saying of a shrewd housemother who had seen much of life and of cooks. The waste-pipe should be flushed every day when the water in the boiler is hottest. During the flushing two tablespoonfuls of strong ammonia should be poured down the grating over the waste. Once a week in summer add a handful of crushed washing-soda. And _keep the sink, itself, clean all the time_! Grease should never accumulate upon the sides and in the corners; tea leaves and other débris never be clotted over the vent. A stout whisk-brush must hang above the sink and be used freely in scrubbing it. When the whisk becomes stained and