Ontario Teachers Manuals: Household Science in Rural Schools | Page 6

other places where
food is stored should be kept free from dirt and scraps of food. Ants,
cockroaches, mice, and other pests infest dirty places where food is
kept, and render a house unfit for human habitation. It requires constant
care and watchfulness on the part of the housewife to keep the
cupboards clean. She must look over the shelves daily, wiping them off
whenever they need it, and giving them a thorough cleaning at least
once a week.
The housekeeper should know how to care for the various utensils used
and understand the simplest and best methods of keeping them clean.
Utensils should never be put in the cupboards until perfectly clean and
dry. Particular attention should be paid to the care of milk vessels. Pans,
pails, pitchers, or bottles in which milk has been kept, should be rinsed
in cold water, washed in strong, clean soap-suds, rinsed in clean,
boiling water, and dried in the sun. If utensils have become discoloured
or badly coated, they should be specially scoured. If something has
been burned in a kettle, the kettle should be cleaned by filling with cold
water, adding washing-soda, and boiling briskly for half an hour; after
that a slight scraping ought to remove the burned portion. If the kettle is
not yet clean, the process should be repeated. If a kettle has been used
directly over a wood fire and becomes blackened with soot, it should be
rubbed off with a newspaper and then with an old cloth. Kettles should
be dried well before being put away. With proper care they seldom
become rusty. If an iron kettle has rusted, it should be rubbed with
kerosene and ashes, then washed in strong, hot, soda-water, rinsed in
clear hot water, and dried on the stove. If a kettle is very rusty, it should
be covered thoroughly with some sort of grease, sprinkled with lime,
and left overnight. In the morning it should be washed out with hot
soda-water and rinsed in clear, hot water. A new kettle is generally
rusty, and should be greased thoroughly inside and out and allowed to
stand for two days; then washed in hot soda-water.
Bath-brick should be used for scouring iron utensils and steel knives
and forks. If iron pots and frying-pans are scrubbed with a piece of
bath-brick each time they are used and then washed in hot soap-suds,
they can be kept in good condition. Tinware and steel knives and forks

may be cleaned by scouring with ashes, but only fine ashes should be
used on tinware. The brown stains on granite utensils should be scoured
off; and this ware should be carefully handled, in order to avoid
chipping. Coffee-pots and tea-pots should be cleaned daily, the grounds
removed, and the interior of the pots washed out thoroughly. The
tea-kettle should be washed and dried overnight and left uncovered to
air.
PRELIMINARY PLAN
If school lunches are served or cooking lessons are given at the school,
it will be well to use this lesson to get the cupboards in readiness. If it
is impossible to do this at school, arrange to have such a lesson in one
of the homes outside of school hours. Be sure that the housekeeper is in
sympathy with the work and is willing to co-operate.
METHOD OF WORK
Assign each pupil a task in the cleaning, the scouring of the dishes, and
the arrangement of the cupboard. Set a definite amount to be done and
carry out the plans, leaving a clean and neatly arranged cupboard at the
end of the lesson.

LESSON III: CARE OF FOODS
SUBJECT-MATTER
Several important points must be borne in mind if foods are to be kept
in a good condition. Most foods change easily. Vegetables and fruits
lose water, wilt, and become unfit to eat. Flour and corn-meal become
mouldy. Potatoes decay and sprout. Some foods, such as milk, turn
sour. Eggs become tainted, and fat grows rancid. With proper care in
handling, storing, and keeping, this spoiling can be prevented.
The spoiling of foods is due to the presence of micro-organisms; and if
foods are fresh and sound and kept cool and clean in every way, they
will not spoil readily, because such conditions are unfavourable to the

development of the micro-organisms. On the other hand, if foods are
roughly handled and bruised, decomposition will take place readily, for
micro-organisms develop in the bruised portions. Care must, therefore,
be taken to select foods wisely, handle them carefully, wash them if
they are not already clean, put them in clean receptacles, and keep them
in a clean, cool place. All pots, pans, and dishes in which foods are kept
or cooked should be thoroughly cleansed and rinsed well, so that no
fragments stick to them which may decay and cause