Wilhelmina's diary, fourth session, Magic In Any Language

When one reads modern books about managing ones home a great omission soon becomes apparent. Those tomes talk about keeping one's records in good order, or to serve that and such for dinner when your mother in law is coming to visit. They do not go into proper details about how to do these things. It is my fervent wish to correct that oversight with this monograph.

On record keeping. The first thing one must do is purchase a quality ledger book. For 5d at Grimbles fine stationary London you may pick up one that should last all year at . The next thing you must do is enter the name of the transaction. Let us start at the first of the month when you receive your pin money, In the first column write in a clear neat hand Pin Money. Next one must decide is this money I am receiving or money that I am spending. In this case it would be income so it goes over in the third coloumn, again in a clear neat hand write the amount of your pin money. All that one has left is the second coloumn. To use the second coloumn one must have a bill, into the first coloumn we will write the name of the bill in a clear neat hand. Then over in the second coloumn we will write the amount we owe if you have a pot of good red ink on hand use it here. The separation of the coloumns into distinct colors will allow one to to avoid mistakes further along. We will now continue to enter all the bills and incomes for this account in the same manner. When one reaches the end of a page in the ledger stop and add up all the numbers in each of the coloumns, then take the sums of both coloumns and in a clear firm hand bring the totals forward to the first line on the next page. At the end of the month one will add both coloumns again then take a look at the entry in colloumn two, if it is less than the entry in coloumn three then the difference is the amount you have saved. If on the other hand the entry in coloumn two is the larger one, then one owes money and must look for some way to economize or petition for a increase in her allowance. One will soon master this double entry book keeping system and will soon be able to tell at a glance how much one has spent on anything in the last month.

On keeping a tidy house. One reads how the housewife should manage and direct the servants in her care like a general directing solders in a battle. That is most well and good if one is in charge of an army's worth of servants When all one has is but one or two servants a good wife must act more like a Lieutenant with her troops. How to select one's servants is a topic that could fill this paper to bursting and not be fully recognized, so I will keep my advice simple. Look for a mild temper and avoid any servant that drinks overmuch. Once the proper servants have been selected one must let then know what their duties are and what duties you will be claiming as your right as mistress of the household.

A regime against dirt and vermin should be ongoing starting first in the kitchen where proper sanitation will cause meals to come out sustaining and on time. If you kitchen has a stove one must first make sure it is properly cleaned each morning and blackened at least once a week. Work tables and chopping blocks should be cleaned at the end of the day with hot water and a good lye soap mixture, then rinsed with a kettle of boiling water. The slates should be swept and then cleaned with a good lye soap and boiling water. If your cook has her bedding placed in the kitchen, as many do, this will have to be cleaned no less than once every other week. Any soiled pans should be taken to the scullery and fill with water to be scrubbed out later. Chimneys should be swept once a month, a cold meal should be planed for that day.

The Scullery all dishes should be washed and rinsed in as hot water as is prudent, a pair of wooden tongs can be used to safely place and remove dishes from near boiling water if needs be. After the dishes pots pans and utensils are properly put away the scullery itself should be cleaned. If the rinse water is still hot it should be adequate to use to clean out the basins. Then one must sweep the floors keeping a keen eye out for scraps of food that could attract vermin or rot and produce odors. Finally one must clean the floor any excess water must removed with a mop before it begins to stagnate and smell and fresh water and good lye soap applied to remove the days dirt.
The Pantry should be keep clean and orderly, any food that has a strong odor should be stored in sealed glass containers lest they influence other milder foods with their flavor. Food that is found to be uneatable should be removed immediately and place in the rag-bone man's bin. Poisons and other means of dealing with vermin should be stored as far away from the pantry as possible, to prevent accidents.

The Bedrooms and The Nursery. once the household is about on their day then will be the best time to clean the bedrooms and the nursery. First make the bed checking the bedding to make sure that it has no vermin and is not in need of cleaning. Then one must dust everything start at the top of the room and work your way down this will cause the dust to settle on the floor where it can be swept up. If the room has carpets place old cloths beneath where you are working to prevent the dust from accumulating in the carpet. Then on to the floors If there are carpets the application of rinsed tea leaves should be applied before it is swept.

The dinning room For sanitary reasons one must remove leftover food from the dinning room as quickly as possible. This is doubly important in the warmer summer months. Once the leftovers are safe in the pantry the soiled dishes should be moved to the Scullery. Then the soiled table linens should be removed. The table and chairs washed and treated with a good oil soap. Lavender oil soap is to be preferred as the sent will help mask lingering odors of bygone meals. Fresh table linen placed on the table and the rest of the room dusted. And finally the floor swept using rinsed tea leaves to help remove dropped crumbs from the carpet.

The Parlor, the Sitting Room, and The Drawing room. Each of these rooms will need a dusting and a sweeping every day. Lamps that have been used will also have to be cleaned and dried with their wicks trimmed.
There is but one place left in the house that has not been address in this paper, that is the quarters of the servants. The Mistress of the house should not be cleaning her servants quarters, but she should allow them a reasonable amount of time each day to tidy that small bit of room they occupy. The bedding should be inspected once a month and if vermin are found proper steps should be taken.

On Cookery. This one must admit she is but a disaster in the kitchen, but I have faithfully collected a selection of recipes that my cook assures me will please any palate.

Beef Bouillon

Put into a pot three four pounds beef shins, and three quarts of water, and simmer gently. As soon as the froth begins to rise, skim carefully until it quite ceases to appear. Then add salt, two carrots, two onions, turnips, and a little celery. Simmer gently four hours, strain, and serve in bouillon cups.

Chicken soup

Clean and dress one chicken place into pot with 3 quarts water, simmer. carefully skim and remove any scum that forms. After two hours strain through cheese cloth into clean pot. Then add two potatoes, a carrot, a little celery, a turnip, two onions, salt and pepper. Remove chicken from cheese cloth and carefully separate bones from meat. return meat to soup simmer for one hour before serving.

Oysters

Serve raw over bed of ice with lemon and olives as garnish.

Salmon provender

One good sized salmon cleaned, brush with butter and egg. Then dredge through bread crumbs mixed with fresh mint and Rosemary salt. Place in well buttered pan and bake in quick oven for 2 hours.

Beef Roll

one pound uncooked beef steak, one egg, one quarter pound boiled ham, two ounces bread crumbs well dried. salt, pepper, mace, nutmeg. Mix well together and form into a roly-poly. Tie in a cloth, and boil three hours, cover with raspings or glaze.

Turkey stuffed with oyster

One large turkey cleaned and dressed, 2 dozen oysters cleaned and shelled. In large roaster place turkey brush with butter, salt, and pepper. Bake over clear flame basting with cider for one hour. Remove from oven and stuff with oysters and 2 onions. return to oven and bake for 3 hours. Basting every half hour.

Broiled Pheasants

Split them in half. Do not wash, but wipe their insides with a cloth. Dip them into liquid butter, then roll them in bread crumbs. Repeat this process, lay them inside downwards upon a well heated gridiron. Turn them but once, and when done serve them with a piquante sauce. Cold roasted birds eat well if nicely broiled, and sent to the table with a highly seasoned sauce.

Bubble and Squeek

Take two or three slices well boiled beef, two carrots which have been boiled with the joint, as well as some boiled greens. Mince all together, add pepper and salt, and fry them with the meat in a pan with a quarter pound of sweet butter. When fully done, add two ounces fresh catsup.

Pound Cake

Beat one pound of butter to a cream, and mix with it the whites and yolks of eight eggs beaten apart. Have ready, warm by the fire, one pound of flour, and the same of sifted sugar; mix them and a few cloves, a little nutmeg and cinnamon, in fine powder together; then by degrees work the dry ingredients into butter and eggs. When well beaten, add a glass of wine and some caraways. It must be beaten a full hour. Butter a pan, and bake it an hour in a quick oven. The above proportions, leaving out four ounces of the butter, and the same of sugar, make a less luscious cake, and to most tastes a more pleasant one.

What every bride should know.

by A young lady