Domestic Cookery, Useful Receipts, and Hints to Young Housekeepers

All female servants should have time to attend to their clothing; many have to work so hard through the day that their only leisure is at night, and then they hurry over their things in a careless manner. Where your circumstances permit, a good man-servant is a valuable acquisition; and they are sometimes more easily governed than females. If mistresses were better informed, they would not complain so much of the ignorance and awkwardness of their domestics. Always give them their orders in time. If a new dish is to be cooked, superintend its preparation yourself. If you are capable of directing, a cook will soon learn to do without your constant attention. If they are slow in their movements, insist on their beginning early to prepare a meal, so that there will be time sufficient for every thing to be done properly. If you expect company, have every thing prepared, that can be done with safety, the day previous. In summer there are but few things that can be done without risk of spoiling: a ham or tongue may he washed ready to boil; castors and salt-stands put in order, and pastry or dessert prepared, that will not spoil by being kept a day. In winter, many things can be kept for days in a state of preparation for cooking; and it greatly assists the work of the family, to have every thing done beforehand. Do with as few domestics as possible; assist with the work yourself, rather than keep one too many. Those that take orphan children to bring up, are often rewarded for their trouble; as sometimes a girl of fifteen will be more useful than one much older: and where a family is small it does very well, but in large families, a little girl is so often called from her work, that it has a tendency to unsettle and make her careless. Never allow your children to call on or interrupt servants when at their work or meals, to do any thing which a child could do for itself; children that treat domestics with respect,