1914. 
RAPID FIRE KITCHEN WORK. 
Ham and! 
Draw one in the dark! 
Brown the wheats! 
Sunny side up! 
Put on two! 
Two sinkers! 
Every business will in time develop its 
own peculiar language. If you were in 
the habit of eating your dinner in one 
of the quick service restaurants in lower 
New York you would need no translation. 
Here is a crowded place where 1,000 peo¬ 
ple must be fed in an hour. They do 
not put their head in the door and ask 
if dinner is ready. They crowd right in 
and must be served at once or they go 
elsewhere. Walled into one little corner 
stands the cook. He can stand in his hot 
box and with scarcely moving reach a 
hot charcoal fire, an iron slab heated by 
gas. a great boiled ham, a clxurik of boiled 
beef, and a great pan of hot baked beans. 
Now let us see what follows as a result 
of this clipped and condensed language. 
“Ham and!” If you were in your 
kitchen at home you would say, “Mother, 
let me have some of those hot beans with 
a thick slice of boiled ham with plenty of 
the fat!” The cook makes a quick slash 
with his knife and off drops a slice of 
ham. The bone has been taken out. An¬ 
other quick motion and he scrapes out a 
spoonful of beans and smears it on the 
plate. Almost before you could walk 
across your big kitchen to the stove and 
back the “ham and” has been eaten and 
paid for. 
“Draw one in the dark!” Easy! That 
of course means a cup of coffee without 
any milk in it. There is a tank full of 
hot coffee always ready. A turn of the 
faucet and the cup is filled. 
“Brown the wheats!” There is a 
pitcher of batter on a shelf. With a 
sweep the cook rubs a brush full of fat 
over the hot slab with the gas burning 
under it. Then he pours three 'round 
patches of batter on the slab. He knows 
just how much to pour. It is a wonder 
how quickly those patches brown on the 
under side and show bubbles on top. 
With a quick jerk of the broad knife 
they are flopped over and the wheat 
cakes are browned. 
‘‘Sunny side up!” The cook dives his 
hand into a dish of eggs. Another smear 
of fat on the hot slab and with a single 
quick smash each egg is broken and 
spread out to fry. Had he been ordered 
to “flop ’em” he would have turned them 
over for cooking, but “sunny side up” 
means that only one side is cooked. Ho 
he turns them out—little white rafts 
with the yolk red and natural on top. 
“Put on two!” At the top of his shelf 
are a dozen or two wide-moutlied tin cans. 
Each holds perhaps a dozen small oysters, 
a quantity of milk, a lump of butter and 
salt and pepper. At his right are several 
metal dishes connected with steam pipes. 
Almost before you know it he has poured 
the contents of two cans into two of 
these dishes, turned a valve to let in 
the steam and two good oyster stews are 
nearly ready to serve piping hot. 
“Two sinkers!” A sliding shelf comes 
out and there are 100 or more round 
pieces of flour dough slowly “rising.” 
They are much like flour biscuit, only a 
quantity of yeast has been used with the 
baking powder. These when put on the 
hot slab grow thick and brown—more 
porous than biscuit—more like quick 
baked bread. 
One who has never seen it done can 
hardly believe that good food can be 
turned out so rapidly. It is good, well 
cooked and clean and it is possible to do 
it because this cook has everything at 
his band. The meats are cooked ahead in 
steam cookers, the “sinkers” and beans 
are prepared while trade is slack, and 
there is always a hot and constant fire. 
The pies are bought from a great whole¬ 
sale pie baker. 
Off in another obscure corner, close to 
the kitchen, stands a woman and boy 
washing dishes. What a job this is for 
a family of five. Think of washing for 
2,500 people and not making such a dis¬ 
agreeable job of it either. The dishes are 
brought out in wooden trays. A boy 
rapidly scrapes off the “leavings” into a 
bucket. Then the dishes are put into a 
rack which fits down into a tank. A 
spray of kerosene or a dust of powder 
goes over them. A turn of the baud sets 
hot water and steam pouring upon them, 
THE RURAL 
and an electric motor sets the rack to 
churning up and down. Then the rack is 
lifted into another vat where clean water 
and steam are sprayed upon the dishes 
until they are more than sterilized. Then 
they go into a dry heat, a brief towel 
polish and they are ready for more “ham 
and” and “dark.” 
New York could not be fed at noon 
without this quick and efficient service 
which has developed this strange and 
picturesque language. No one wants the 
farm housewife to use this language and 
throw the food at father and the hired 
man, but she may well copy some of the 
time-savers which makes this cook effi¬ 
cient. The thing is to study out kitchen 
conveniences which are within reach and 
put them to use. Save kitchen time. 
You will have better food and more time 
for yourself. 
FEWER KITCHEN MILES. 
The average farm kitchen, in arrange¬ 
ment and in the number of conveniences 
for doing the work with the least effort, 
does not compare favorably with the aver¬ 
age kitchen in town or city. Our conten¬ 
tion is that there is no very good reason 
why this should be true. On the aver¬ 
age farm of the present day there is pro¬ 
vided some way of watering the live stock 
without having to do the pumping by 
hand; but in the average farm kitchen, 
all water used has to be carried in by the 
pailful and all waste water carried out 
in the same manner. This does not seem 
to us a fair arrangement; and when we 
see a kitchen of this kind we cannot help 
wondering if a change would not soon be 
made if the farmer and his wile were 
to “change work” for a week or two. 
From observation in a number of farm 
homes I am inclined to the belief that 
many kitchens are larger than they need 
be for the greatest comfort and conven¬ 
ience of the housewife. There is often 
too long a journey to be made between 
stove and work table or sink; and too 
many steps have to be taken between 
the sink where the dishes are washed and 
the cupboard where they are kept. Most 
housewives could learn a valuable lesson 
from the kitchen in a dining-car. In the 
old-fashioned kitchen which is used also 
a* a dining-room a part of the year, there 
is some excuse for its being a large 
room; but the room which is to be used 
for a kitchen only, should be small enough 
so that the mistress may stand in the 
middle of it and reach range or sink or 
cupboard or floux-bin without taking more 
than a step or two. Of course this means 
that there must be windows on at least 
two sides so that good ventilation may 
be provided in warm weather. This ar¬ 
rangement also means that there must be 
some place provided aside fi'om the 
kitchen for the men to wash in and to 
keep their extra working clothes. This 
problem was nicely solved in one farm 
kitchen which the writer recently saw. 
The kitchen as originally built occupied 
the whole of a wing of the house, and 
was about 20 feet long by IS feet wide. 
When it was decided to make a change, a 
partition was put through the whole 
length of the room so as to leave the 
JX i£ W- VO R ICE R 
kitchen a little less than 12 feet wide, 
and the other part was divided into two 
rooms, a washroom for the men and a 
bathi-oom. The washi-oom contains three 
porcelain-lined iron wash bowls and the 
bathroom the usual fixtures, tub, wash¬ 
bowl and seat. All these fixtures are con¬ 
nected with a sewer pipe which was laid 
below the fimst line, and extends to the 
bank of a little stream nearly a quarter 
of a mile away. The supply of water 
for the washroom and bathroom is in a 
small tank in the attic over the kitchen. 
The water is pumped from the cistern to 
this tank by a little gasoline engine. I 
may add hei'e that this same little engine 
also pumps all the water needed by the 
live stock on the place, runs the washing 
machine, wringer, ice cream freezer, fan¬ 
ning mill, feed grinder, wood saw and ce¬ 
ment mixei\ It is mounted on a little 
wagon, and a stout man can move it 
about easily. Every Monday morning 
it is taken to the house, where it is used 
to run the washing machine and wringer 
and to pump enough rain water from the 
cistern to the tank over the kitchen to 
last a week. The remainder of the week 
it is kept in the feed room, where it may 
be connected with the deep well pump 
or with feed mill or any of the other ma¬ 
chinery. 
In most farm homes an arrangement 
something like the one mentioned above 
could be provided, and nearly all of the 
work of installing such a system could be 
done by the farmer and his sons, pro¬ 
vided they had some mechanical ability. 
Running water in the kitchen and a drain 
to carry off the waste water fi-orn the 
kitchen sink should at least be provided, 
and then the boiler for hot water, the 
bathtub and other fixtures could be added 
later. In many cases it may be difficult 
if not almost impossible to make a satis¬ 
factory rearrangement in an old house, 
as described above, but in the planning 
of a new farm home it seems to me that 
it would be a good plan to decide that the 
kitchen be used simply as a kitchen, and 
that the washroom, and if it can be af¬ 
forded, the laundry, be entirely separ¬ 
ate. j. M. DREW. 
MAPLE SUGAR A DESIRABLE 
SWEET. 
To keep the body well adjusted and effi¬ 
cient, one needs to eat a certain amount 
of sugar, and there is no other manu¬ 
factured that fills this want so complete¬ 
ly, when taken with moderation and at 
the proper time, as maple sugar. Es¬ 
pecially is this the case with growing 
children, when some sweet is absolutely 
necessary to keep the daily menus well 
balanced. The housekeeper, too, who 
must cater to the appetites of her house¬ 
hold with the grocery store three or four 
miles away, or depend on the uncertain 
visits of the supply-man who calls at her 
door, is never at a loss for a substitute 
when her sugar runs low, if she has a 
goodly supply of maple sugar on hand; 
like her resourceful forebeai's she can 
turn, with equal satisfaction, to this pure 
wholesome home product for her sweet¬ 
ening. In fact, she finds the flavor of 
87 
many of her desserts, as well as other 
dishes, greatly impx-oved by its use. 
Among the recipes given here are some 
new preparations that are well worth 
testing. 
Vermont maple waffles ai’e delicious 
when served nicely buttered and piping 
hot. To make them, soften one cupful 
of finely shaved maple sugar in three 
cups of milk. Sift one quart of flour 
with three teaspoonfuls of baking-powder 
and one saltspoonful of salt, then rub 
in one tablespoonful of softened butter. 
Beat the yolks of four eggs until light, 
then add the milk and sugar, and stir 
gradually into the flour; beat thoroughly, 
fold in the whites of eggs beaten stiff 
and dxy, and beat again. Bake in well- 
greased and heated waffle-irons. 
Maple nut biscuits are especially nice 
served with fresh fruit, or for the chil¬ 
dren’s school lunches. Chop one-half 
cupful of walnut meats, and mix with one 
cupful of finely shaved maple sugar; this 
will be more satisfactoi"y if put through 
the meat chopper. Sift one quart of 
flour with four teaspoonfuls of baking- 
powder and a little salt three times, then 
add two tablespoonfnls of softened but¬ 
ter or lard, and sufficient sweet milk to 
make a soft dough. Turn out half the 
dough on a floured board; knead lightly 
and quickly; roll out in a thin sheet and 
cut with a small biscuit-cutter; brush 
over the top of each with a little milk 
or white of egg, and spi-ead with a layer 
of the maple mixture. Roll out the re- 
maiuing dough and cut out in the same 
manner; place one on each of the first, 
and stand the biscuit in a baking-pan, 
far enough apart that they do not touch 
during the baking. Brush the tops with 
white of egg, and bake twenty minutes in 
a quick oven. A small lump of maple 
sugar, or a perfect half of a nut meat 
may be added to the top of each if one 
likes. 
Maple sugar rolls are tempting, par¬ 
ticularly when served for breakfast with 
coffee. Make a biscuit dough in the same 
way as given above, and just before roll¬ 
ing out stir in one cupful of finely 
chopped maple sugar; roll out in a sheet 
about half an inch thick; cut out with 
the biscuit cutter and brush each with 
white of egg; make a crease through the 
center with the back of a knife, and 
fold one-half over the other. Brush the 
tops with the remaining white of egg, and 
bake in a quick oven. Sei've warm or 
cold. 
Baked apples are delicious served with 
currant jelly and maple sauce. Wipe 
and remove the cores from medium-sized 
tart apples, and fill the cavities with a 
spoonful of currant jelly. Put into a 
porcelain baking-dish, with one cupful of 
boiling water and bake in a quick oven, 
basting every few minutes. When per¬ 
fectly tender remove from the oven, peel 
carefully and place on a serving dish. 
In the meantime, put one cupful of maple 
syrup and one-half cup of boiling water 
in a double boiler, and heat until boiling 
hot. Rub one tablespoonful of corn¬ 
starch with two of softened butter, and 
add to the syrup. Cook five minutes, cool, 
and pour over and around the apples. 
Maple junket is a dainty wholesome 
dessert. Slightly sweeten and warm one 
quart of milk, using either maple sugar 
or syrup. Dissolve one junket tablet in 
one tablespoonful of cold water, then add 
to the warm milk. Pour into glass serv¬ 
ing-dishes, and when firm, set in the ice¬ 
box and chill. Chop one-half cup of 
maple sugar and one-half cup of nut 
meats together, and when ready to serve 
the junket, spread a layer on top of each 
dish. 
Most childx’en love maple sandwiches, 
particularly if they are made in this way. 
Put one cupful of shaved maple sugar 
through the meat-chopper with one cup¬ 
ful of peanuts, then mix to a paste with 
thick sweet cream, and spread on slices 
of graham or brown bread. 
Did you ever make a chocolate cake 
with maple sugar? If not, try this re¬ 
cipe: Put one-fourth cake of chocolate, 
the beaten yolk of one egg, one-half cup¬ 
ful of maple sugar, and one-lialf cup 
of milk into the double boilex% and cook 
until smooth, then cool. Cream one cup 
of crushed and sifted maple sugar with 
one-half cup of butter, then add two 
well beaten eggs, one-lialf cup of milk, 
with one teaspoonful of soda dissolved 
in it. one teaspoonful of vanilla, two cup- 
(Continued on page 89.) 
ALL THE COMFORTS OF HOME. 
