How I managed my house on two hundred pounds a year / by Mrs. Warren.

  • Eliza Warren
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: How I managed my house on two hundred pounds a year / by Mrs. Warren. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    crust, and are apt to disfigure the loaf to obtain it, there is no reason for abstaining; for if the remainder, being all crumb, be pulled into small pieces, and placed on a dish, not a tin, in a quick oven, in ten minutes you will get as much crust as you like. As to stale bread beyond a day old, it is no economy to compel your servants or children to have it, under the idea that less will be consumed, stale bread not being so appetising as new. In nine cases out of ten the servant will burn it or cover it in the dust, or thrust it into the flue of the copper, this being a famous place for burning up all that is disagreeable, and that, too, without the knowledge of the mistress, who never dreams of opening the door of the copper. To give away unseen the stale bread to beggars is the least evil; and the mistress dreads to speak of the consumption, fearing she may be taxed with starving her ser- vants. One day’s stale bread is the right time to eat it. Home- made bread is not so dry as baker’s bread, hence may be kept longer. 64 Dripping is another source of dispute. You will remember these rules are for an expenditure of twenty-seven shillings a week; and I can see you, dear Milly, turn up that little nose of yours at the idea of taking care of the dripping; but fish, chops, and cutlets can be fried as well in dripping as in lard, which is expensive. A free use of it, and that made boiling, is all that is needed. It is using dripping sparingly which makes it burn ; a plentiful supply will not even become discoloured. It answers for puddings too, but, if you do not like it for that purpose so well as suet, the latter need not be roasted into dripping when it is sent with the beef. Be careful to see that every superfluous piece be cut off for future use previously to roasting the joint. 44 Besides dripping, where bacon is used there remains the fat which drips from it; this is one of the most useful products from cooking. In France, most of the meat and all poultry and game are larded; this means drawing with a large needle, into the flesh of fowls or game, strips of bacon which serve to keep the meat moist and impart an agreeable flavour, but of course consumes a great quantity of bacon, which is a certain loss. Butter cannot give the flavour of bacon fat, though it is too often lavishly used in the shape of melted butter as a sauce, and to cover the dryness of the meat. The right way of using it, after it has dripped from the bacon, is to carefully put it away in a preserve pot; it will keep sweet for months; when it is required, spread it with a knife over the poultry, then flour the latter well, and continue to drip it as needed. It is excellent for larding veal, also for every
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