TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Footnote anchors are denoted by [number], and the footnotes have beenplaced at the end of the book. There are only 3 in this book.
Quantities are separated from the unit by a space, for example ‘3 ft.’or ‘12½ lb.’ Some quantities had a linking - such as ‘12½-lb.’ Forconsistency this - has been removed in the etext.
The cover image was created by the transcriberand is placed in the public domain.
Numerous minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book.
SPONS’
HOUSEHOLD MANUAL:
A TREASURY OF
DOMESTIC RECEIPTS
And Guide for
HOME MANAGEMENT.
London:
E. & F. N. SPON, 125 STRAND.
New York:
SPON & CHAMBERLAIN, 12 CORTLANDT STREET.
1894
PREFACE.
Time was when the foremost aim and ambition of the English housewifewas to gain a full knowledge of her own duties and of the duties of herservants. In those days, bread was home-baked, butter home-made, beerhome-brewed, gowns home-sewn, to a far greater extent than now.
With the advance of education, there is much reason to fear that theessentially domestic part of the training of our daughters is being moreand more neglected. Yet what can be more important for the comfort andwelfare of the household than an appreciation of their needs and an abilityto furnish them. Accomplishments, all very good in their way, must,to the true housewife, be secondary to all that concerns the health, thefeeding, the clothing, the housing of those under her care.
And what a range of knowledge this implies,—from sanitary engineeringto patching a garment, from bandaging a wound to keeping the frost out ofwater pipes. It may safely be said that the mistress of a family is calledupon to exercise an amount of skill and learning in her daily routine suchas is demanded of few men, and this too without the benefit of any specialeducation or preparation; for where is the school or college which includesamong its “subjects” the study of such every-day matters as bad drains, orthe gapes in chickens, or the removal of stains from clothes, or thebandaging of wounds, or the management of a kitchen range? Indeed,it is worthy of consideration whether our schools of cookery might notwith very great advantage be supplemented by schools of general householdinstruction.
Till this suggestion is carried out, the housewife can only refer to booksand papers for information and advice. The editors of the present volumehave been guided by a determination to make it a book of referencesuch as no housewife can afford to be without. Much of the matter is, ofcourse, not altogether new, but it has been arranged with great care in a[iv]systematic manner, and while the use of obscure scientific terms has beenavoided, the teachings of modern science have been made the basis o