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.

    50/400
    The prices of furniture are roughly— Es. a. E.S. a. Dining table, 3 leaves . 30 0 Small tfibles . . 1 to 4 0 Dinner waggon . 9 0 Beds complete Avith mat- Dinner chairs 2 to 2 8 tresses and nets 10 to 25 0 Long arm-cliair . . 7 0 Wardrobe Avith shelves . 15 0 Camp tiibles . . . . 4 0 Hanging „ . 30 0 Sideboard .... . 40 0 Commodes for bath- •rooms 6 0 Couch . 25- 0 Dressing-tables . . . 5 0 AV'^batuot .... 6 0 Washstcind . . . . 5 0 Arm-cbair .... . 10 0 Chest drawers. . 14 to 20 0 Cane chairs . 3 0 Chairs .... . . 2 8 The Madras Presidency is distinctly a cheap place to live in. Houses in up-country stations may be had from Rs. 25 to Rs. 70. These are very generally double-storeyed, and contain in the centre a drawing-room, and dining-room separated by a big arch ; on either side, bedrooms and dressing-rooms with bath-rooms (not filled bath-rooms) ; upstairs, either one or two bedrooms for hotter Aveather, with bath-rooms. Tlie fewest number of servants comj)atible with comfort are cook, Rs. 10 ; boy, Rs. 10 ; matey, Rs. 6 ; tunny ketch, or cook’s help (a Avoman), Rs. 4; Avaterman, Rs. 5 ; SAveeper, Rs. 5 ; AA'asher- man, Rs. 6 to Rs. 8 ; tAvo punkah coolies, at Rs. 4 each. These are full Avages. A number of the Madras servantsare Christians. The bazaar account should never be more in economical houses than Rs. 1 each per diem, but this can be reduced. The authors are decidedly of this opinion, as tlie prices given from reliable sources are, if anything, cheaper than the Punjab. Beef is 3 seers per rupee, or 6 annas a seer; mutton, slightly cheaper; milk, 10 quarts per rupee in the country, 8 quarts in Madras; eggs, 3 or 4 annas a dozen; chickens, 4 annas ; Avood or charcoal is used in the cook- room, and is contracted for at prices varying from Rs. 6 to Rs. 10 a month; butter, 10 annas a pound. The keep of horses is distinctly cheap. They get a grain called koollrie, and as a rule the syce’s Avife acts as grass- cutter, just as the cook’s Avife acts as luuny ketch or kitchen slave. Cooking in Madras is largely done in earthen ]iots or chatties, and the general life is more Oriental in its Avays tlian in the rest of India. Wages are Ioav, and it is necessary to