Page:Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management.djvu/64

40 ADVICE TO COOKS AND KITCHEN-MAIDS

Importance of Cooking.—A good cook has every reason to magnify the office she holds, for her work influences not only the comfort but also the health of the whole household, and mindful of this responsibility she will take care to study both the needs and tastes of those whose food she prepares. With invalids and people in delicate health this care is of the utmost importance.

Try and realize for yourself the importance of your post. Whether your employers are working hard in professions or business, or leading a comparatively leisured existence, whether they have poor appetites or large ones, good cooking of their food is absolutely necessary to their health.

Make a rule to send everything up to table really well cooked. Do not regard this as an impossibility, for it can be done.

If you are told to prepare anything you are not certain about, have the courage to say so and ask your mistress's advice. How many dishes and dinners have been spoilt because cooks have been too proud to confess ignorance!

Accidents, of course, will happen (though but rarely with proper precautions); fires will not always burn, nor ovens bake as they should; but if the joint, or whatever it may be, cannot be done to time, do not send it up raw, but ask for a little grace. If anything is really spoilt (as even with care it sometimes is) confess the fact, and do not send up a dish calculated to take away people's appetites.

Cleanliness.—A dirty kitchen is a disgrace to all concerned. Good cookery cannot exist without absolute cleanliness. It takes no longer to keep a kitchen clean and orderly than untidy and dirty, for the time that is spent in keeping it in good order is saved when culinary operations are going on and everything is clean and in its place. Personal cleanliness is most necessary, particularly with regard to the hands.

Dress.—When at your work, dress suitably; wear short dresses, well-fitting boots, and large aprons with bibs, of which every cook and kitchen-maid should have a good supply, and you will be comfortable as you never can be with long dresses, small aprons, and slipshod shoes, the latter being most trying in a warm kitchen, which may very likely have a stone floor. A maid-servant's working dress, with its neat and becoming cap, is far from ugly, and nothing is more suitable for them whilst at their work.

Neatness should be studied by all engaged in domestic work. It will repay those who practise it a thousand fold by constantly saving them needless work.

Clear as you go; do not allow a host of basins, spoons, plates, etc., to accumulate on the dresser or tables while you are preparing the dinner. By a little management and forethought much confusion may be saved in this way. It is as easy to put a thing in its place when it is done with as to continually remove it to find room for fresh