The complete Indian housekeeper & cook : giving the duties of mistress and servants, the general management of the house and practical recipes for cooking in all its branches / by F.A. Steel & G. Gardiner.

  • Flora Annie Steel
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The complete Indian housekeeper & cook : giving the duties of mistress and servants, the general management of the house and practical recipes for cooking in all its branches / by F.A. Steel & G. Gardiner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ments, this power has not been exercised in regard to the most important thing of all ; that is^ to the procuring of kitchens, Avhere the refuse and otlal of ages cannot percolate through the mud floors, and where the drain water does not most effectually apply sewage to a large surrounding area. With existing arrangements many and many an attack of ty])hoid might be traced to children playing near the kitchen and pantry drain, and as in large stations the comjiounds narrow from lessening room, the evil will become greater. In regard to actual housekeeping, the authors emphati- cally deny the common assertion that it must necessarily run on different lines to what it does in England. Econom}', prudence, efficiency are the same all over the world, and because butcher meat is cheap, that is no excuse for its being wasted. Some modification, of course, there must be, hut as Utile as possible. It is, for instance, most desii’able that the mistress should keep a regular storeroom, containing not merely an assortment of tinned foods, as is usually the case, but rice, sugar, flour, potatoes, &c.; everything, in short, which, under the common custom, comes into the khansamuh’s daily account, and helps more than larger items to swell the monthly bills. For it is absolutely impossible for him to give a trre account of consumption of these things daily, and so the item must in every case be a nominal charge far above actual expenditure. With regard to the best plan for keeping this storeroom, the next chapter must be con- sulted. A good mistress in India will try to set a good example to her servants in routine, method, and tidiness. Half-an- hour after breakfast should be sufficient for the whole arrangements for the day; but that half-hour should be given as punctually as possible. An untidy mistress invari- ably has untidy, a weak one, idle servants. It should never be forgotten that—though it is true in both hemispheres that if you want a thing done you should do it yourself—still, having to do it is a distinct confession of failure in your original intention. Anxious housewives are too apt to accept defeat in this way ; the result being that the lives of educated women are wasted in doing the Avork of lazy servants. The authors’ advice is therefore— “ Never do work which an ordinarily good servant ought to be