Common Sense in the Household: A Manual of Practical Housewifery

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italic text is surrounded by _underscores_.]




COMMON SENSE

IN THE HOUSEHOLD

A MANUAL OF

PRACTICAL HOUSEWIFERY

    BY
    MARION HARLAND.

    “We go upon the practical mode of teaching, Nickleby. When a
    boy knows this out of book, he _goes and does it_. This is
    our system. What do you think of it?”—_Nicholas Nickleby._

    NEW YORK:
    CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
    1883.




    Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by
    CHARLES SCRIBNER & CO.,
    In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.


    COPYRIGHT, 1880, BY
    CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS.


    GRANT, FAIRES & RODGERS,
    ELECTROTYPERS AND PRINTERS,
    PHILADELPHIA.




    TO MY

    FELLOW-HOUSEKEEPERS,

    NORTH, EAST, SOUTH AND WEST, THIS VOLUME,

    THE GLEANINGS OF MANY YEARS,

    IS CORDIALLY

    DEDICATED.




INTRODUCTORY OF REVISED EDITION.


It is not yet quite ten years since the publication of “COMMON
SENSE IN THE HOUSEHOLD. GENERAL RECEIPTS.” In offering the work to
the publishers, under whose able management it has prospered so
wonderfully, I said: “I have written this because I felt that such
a Manual of Practical Housewifery is needed.” That I judged aright,
taking my own experience as a housekeeper as the criterion of the wants
and perplexities of others, is abundantly proved by the circumstance
which calls for this new and revised edition of the book. Through
much and constant use—nearly 100,000 copies having been printed from
them—the stereotype plates have become so worn that the impressions
are faint and sometimes illegible. I gladly avail myself of the
opportunity thus offered to re-read and so far to alter the original
volume as may, in the light of later improvements in the culinary art
and in my understanding of it, make the collection of family receipts
more intelligible and available. Nor have I been able to resist the
temptation to interpolate a few excellent receipts that have come into
my hands at a later period than that of the publication of the last,
and in my estimation, perhaps the most valuable of the “Common Sense
Series,” viz.: “THE DINNER YEAR-BOOK.”

I am grateful, also, to the courtesy of my publishers for the privilege
of thanking those to whom this book was, and is dedicated, “My
fellow-housekeepers—North, East, South and West”—for their substantial
endorsement of the work I have done in their behalf. A collection
of the private letters I have received from those who have used the
“General Receipts” would make a volume very nearly as large as this.
If I have, as the writers of these testimonials assure me—“done them
good,”—they have done me more in letting me know that I have not spent
my strength for naught. I acknowledge with pleasure sundry pertinent
suggestions and inquiries which have led me, in this revision, to
examine warily the phraseology of some receipts and to modify these,
I believe, for the better. But, by far, the best “good” done me
through this work has been the conscious sisterhood into which I have
come with the great body of American housewives. This is a benefit
not to be rated by dollars and cents, or measured by time. I hope my
fellow-workers will find their old kitchen-companion, in fresh dress,
yet more serviceable than before, and that their daughters may, at
the close of a second decade, demand new stereotype plates for still
another, and, like this, a progressive edition.

    MARION HARLAND.

_October 1, 1880._




INDEX OF GENERAL SUBJECTS.


                                                          PAGE.
  Blanc-mange                                              414
  Bread                                                    256
  Brandied fruits                                          463
  Butter                                                   251
  Cakes                                                    299
  Candy                                                    468
  Canned fruits                                            463
  —— vegetables                                            463
  Catsups                                                  179
  Clean, to, etc.                                          511
  Company                                                  140
  Corn bread                                               283
  Creams                                                   432
  Custards                                                 432
  Drinks                                                   480
  Eggs                                                     239
  Familiar talk                                              1
  Fish                                                      38
  Fritters                                                 403
  Fruit, ripe, for dessert