1002 
D 
What Dishwashing Is. 
iISHWASHING is a process which 
normally takes place in the house¬ 
hold three times a day and yet how lit¬ 
tle the housewife realizes that the whole 
scheme of procedure is based on scientific 
principles. The aim of the housewife is 
to remove dirt. Now this dirt is of two 
kinds, biological and chemical. The 
biological dirt is invisible, and is in the 
form of minute bacteria, or as they are 
popularly called “germs.” The danger 
from this kind of dirt can only be done 
away with through “boiling” (or scien¬ 
tifically speaking “sterilization”). In 
the average family, except in cases of 
sickness, this form of cleaning is suffi¬ 
ciently taken care of by rinsing the dishes 
with boiling hot water. But in insti¬ 
tutions, hotels, boarding houses and the 
like, where large numbers of people are 
banded together, longer and more thor¬ 
ough sterilization is absolutely necessary. 
In large dishwashing machines it is gen¬ 
erally done by running live steam through 
the water in which the dishes are being 
washed. 
The chemical cleaning process is the 
one used in the home. Chemical dirt can 
be seen. It is the residue from our food 
and needs no further explanation. The 
first thing the housewife does is to re- 
move all such material possible by scrap¬ 
ing. This is easy, and should be thor¬ 
oughly done, as it greatly facilitates the 
rest of the process. 
Next stage is the hot soapy-water bath. 
Soap is used primarily to “cut” the 
grease. As almost all animal food contains 
grease iu varying proportions, and by 
the hardening of this grease adheres 
to the dishes, this is a very essential part 
of the dishwashing process. Soap is made 
from grease and an alkali which are 
boiled together until they chemically 
combine, with soap as the product. This 
product when put into water chemically 
reacts with the water and liberates some 
of the alkali. The liberated alkali then 
combines with the grease on the dishes 
and forms a “soapy-like” product which 
is soluble in water and “dissolves” off 
the dishes, leaving them clean when i*e- 
moved from the soapy bath. If too many 
greasy dishes are washed in the same 
soap bath there is not enough liberated 
alkali to react with all *of the grease, 
and consequently the grease is not all 
removed from the dishes and the water 
becomes greasy. 
The stickiness of most vegetable foods 
is due to cooked starch. This is soluble 
in water and could be soaked off without 
the use of soap. Such foods dry out very 
quickly if the dishes are allowed to stand 
without soaking and are then very diffi¬ 
cult to remove. Hot water is best for 
three reasons; first because the heat par¬ 
tially melts the grease on the dishes, sec¬ 
ond because the chemical action of soap 
is greater in hot than in cold water, and 
third because the starch is more soluble 
in hot water. 
Soap is not a pleasant flavor when 
mixed with food, therefore it is necessary 
that the dishes be carefully rinsed to re¬ 
move all traces of it. The ideal way of 
doing this is to arrange them in a wire 
dish drainer. (These can be bought and 
are very inexpensive.) Stand the drain¬ 
er full of dishes on a drain-board, in the 
sink, or if no sink is available, in a large 
pan, and pour boiling hot water over 
them. Then allow the dishes to air dry 
in the drainer. If thoroughly rinsed, dishes 
thus dried are fully as clean and 
“polished” as those laboriously dried by 
hand and the whole process is very much 
shortened. Besides the necessity of wash¬ 
ing out dish towels is eliminated. 
If the housekeeper does her own work 
and prefers to spend her whole evening 
with her husband, rather than to take 
time after the evening meal for dishwash¬ 
ing, it is perfectly easy to carefully scrape 
the dishes, pile them in a large pan and 
cover with water to which has been added 
a little washing soda. In the morning it 
takes but a few minutes longer to wash 
them with those from breakfast, and 
thus accomplish the day’s dishwashing in 
two rather than in three lots. 
"THE IN URAL NEW-VOR K E IN 
• • 
Simple Kitchen Chemistry :: 
The Science of Common Things 
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either kitchen or pantry. You will be sur¬ 
prised how many times you will refer 
to it. 
Bacon, 00-35 thin slices in one pound. 
Baking powder, 2% cups in one pound. 
Beans—(Navy, kidney or lima) 2*4 
cups in one pound. 
Butter, 2 cups in one pound. 
Cocoa, 3i/o cups in one pound. 
Coffee, (ground) 5 cups in one pound. 
Cornmeal. 22/3 cups in one pound. 
Dates, 45-4S small or 30 large in one 
pound. 
Kggs, 8-9 medium size in one pound. 
Flour, 4 cups in one pound. 
Lemon, juice of one generally measures 
three tablespoons. 
Meat, (finely chopped) 2 cups in one 
pound. 
Oats, (rolled) 5 cups in one pound. 
Onions, S medium size in one pound. 
Orange, juice of one generally meas¬ 
ures V ‘2 tO % Clip. 
Peanuts, 1 pound will give one cup of 
shelled nuts. 
Prunes, 40 large or GO small in one 
pound. 
Potatoes, 4 medium size in one pound. 
Bice, 2 cups in one pound; 1 cup of 
raw rice will make 4 cups cooked. 
Sal tines, from 100 to 120 in a pound, 
depending upon shape. 
Soda, 2 cups in a pound. 
Spices, (ground) one cup weighs 4 
ounces. 
Sugar, granulated, 2 cups in one 
pound; powdered 2 2-3; brown 2 2-3; 
loaf. 75 pieces; domino, 56. 
English walnuts, 70; one pound will 
yield one cup of meat. 
Any housewife can see how such a 
list could be added to indefinitelv. 
Housewives’ Handy Table. 
The following list of weight and meas¬ 
ures equivalents will be found very handy. 
It is especially valuable when ordering 
supplies for the family or for special oc¬ 
casions. Mount it on card board and 
fasten it up in some convenient spot in 
Sugar in Canned Fruit. 
The fruit, pulp and juice, is generally 
“put up” in two ways by the average 
housekeeper. It is either canned with 
a small amount of sugar, just sufficient 
to give a pleasant sweetness, or it is 
preserved with a large amount of sugar. 
In the latter method enough sugar is 
used to preserve the fruit without as 
thorough sterilization of fruits and recepta¬ 
cle as must be done when canning with 
a small amount of sugar. Sugar is a 
preservative when used in large quanti¬ 
ties. In preserving, the fruit is boiled 
for considerable time, then sugar added 
and boiling continued until the proper 
concentration of thick fruity syrup has 
been reached. During this boiling the 
fruit loses its shape and the mixture 
becomes jam-like. Fruit loses its shape 
and becomes dark in color when cooked 
in a syrup. 
In canning, if the aim of the housewife 
is to preserve the fruit in as near its 
original form as possible, the sugar must 
not be added until the fruit has been, at 
least partially cooked in water or by 
steaming. Then the water in which it 
was cooked may be boiled down, sugar 
added and the resulting syrup poured 
over the fruit which has been previously 
placed in sterilized jars. Or the raw 
fruit may be packed in the jars, sugar 
and water added and the whole sterilized 
in a steam bath, oven or fireless cooker. 
This method does not produce as rich a 
product as the first, and neither of these 
methods produces as rich a product as 
can be obtained when a sugar and water 
syrup is made at first and the fruit cooked 
in the syrup until tender. Care must be 
taken that the syrup is not too “strong” 
or concentrated. If too concentrated the 
fruit juices will, by a process of osmosis, 
pass through the containing cell walls of 
the pulp into the syrup, (popularly speak¬ 
ing “be drawn out”) and leave the fruit 
shriveled and toughened. 
Acid fruits so canned will need a 
larger amount of sugar than will slightly 
acid fruits to produce the same degree 
of sweetness in the finished product. The 
reason for this is that when granulated 
sugar is boiled with an acid a chemical 
change takes place and the sugar is hy- 
drolized or changed into a “simpler” 
sugar which is very much less sweet to 
the tast'*. 
.Sugar added after the fruit has been 
cooked insures a natural shaped fruit of 
nearly natural color surrounded by a 
clear fluid, and is liable to taste insipid, 
unless the syrup has been sufficiently con¬ 
centrated by boiling. On the other hand 
if the sugar is at once made into a syrup 
and the fruit cooked therein the fruit is 
liable to bo darker in color and less per¬ 
fect in shape, but more rich as to flavor. 
The keeping quality is the same in all 
methods. In either case the jars and all 
utensils used must be thoroughly ster¬ 
ilized. 
Why Are 
D E ( 
“New" Potatoes Best? 
ALE IIS 
►’ertising 
are new 
make a great point in ad- 
early potatoes, that they 
potatoes. The question is, 
why do they make a point of this? Have 
early potatoes a better flavor? Do they 
contain something of food value not in 
<dd potatoes? In short is there anything 
about new potatoes that should give them 
an increased value or make them more 
in demand? f. i. c. 
New potatoes are i~ demand because at 
this time of year the old potatoes have 
deteriorated as to cooking value as well 
as in flavor. The early potatoes, al¬ 
though not as good as those which will 
come later in the season, are still su¬ 
perior to partly sprouted and wilted old 
potatoes. There is a chemical reason. 
Nature uses the potato tuber as a store¬ 
house for the food elaborated by the po¬ 
tato plant. This stoi’ed food is designed 
as nourishment for the new potato plant 
which will be forthcoming as its succes¬ 
sor. The food used by the plant is sugar, 
but it is stored in the form of starch. 
The potato when harvested is rich in 
starch, it lies dormant all Winter, its 
starch content remaining nearly constant, 
but when Spring comes a chemical change 
takes place. The potato begins to sprout, 
and its starch content begins to be con¬ 
verted into sugar as food for the grow¬ 
ing sprouts. Gradually the starch dis¬ 
appears as sugar into the new growth, 
and the potato tuber becomes shriveled. 
This chemical change begins before the 
sprouts grow, and therefore in the Spring 
a potato which appears perfect iu every 
outward respect will still have a much 
smaller starch content than it had in the 
preceding Fall. A mealy potato is one 
of high starch content. The standard of 
good cooking potatoes, in this country, is 
that of mealiness. A soggy potato is of 
little value here except for certain va¬ 
rieties of fried potatoes. In France and 
Germany potatoes are more extensively 
served fried or in salads, therefore the 
soggy potato is preferred. Personally I 
1 .refer an old potato of good variety, one 
in which the starch content was originally 
high, and which has been carefully kept 
so as to prevent sprouting, to a new 
one of poor variety and low original 
starch content. b. b. 
w\: 
When Children Crave Meat. 
often see the statement that meat 
bad for children, but lack of 
meat is the cause of weakness and ill- 
health when the meat elements are not 
supplied by an abundance of milk, eggs 
and fresh fish. Parents often refuse 
meat to their children who seem to crave 
it, but being unable to afford a pint of 
milk and an egg every day for each child, 
the children are given too great a propor¬ 
tion of starchy food and sweets. They 
often lack the vitality to digest the 
cereals, are listless and tired, and liable 
to contract many diseases whose cause is 
poor digestion and under-nourishment. 
The craving for meat is a right one, and 
can be satisfied if the meat is served with 
some simple non-nourishing vegetable of 
a salad nature. Tell Johnny he may 
have a piece of fresh meat if he will eat 
a dozen lettuce leaves or a few stalks of 
celery or a large helping of cooked spin¬ 
ach or other greens, or the same quan¬ 
tity of raw cucumber, each served with¬ 
out fancy dressing. 
My two little boys, aged five and three, 
August 29, 
will eat lettuce by the plateful without 
anything on it, and I find I can give them 
meat, even fresh lean pork, with good 
results if combined in this way. I never 
use vinegar for them, preferring that 
they should learn the natural flavor of 
each vegetable. Tomatoes and fresh 
fruits are also valuable, but many moth¬ 
ers do not appreciate the value or un¬ 
derstand the office of the salad vegetable 
in carrying away waste and purifying 
the system. If a mother will furnish 
these combinations she need not fear the 
bad effect of a generous meat allowance, 
and a delicate child will soon show the 
eftects of new blood in the bright eyes, 
rosy cheeks and strong nerves which only 
meat can supply. mbs. l. v. cook. 
My Kitchen Apron. 
W HEN I set about designing a kitch¬ 
en apron I had three things in mind. 
I wanted an apron that would protect 
the front of my waist as v r ell as my 
skirt, that would be easy to make, and 
that could be laundered in the shortest 
possible time. The pattern here describ¬ 
ed I have used for three years, and like 
it. because it fulfills all these conditions. 
The apron is made as wide as the per¬ 
cale, thus giving a selvage at each edge 
and saving hemming. The length I need 
is 44 inches from the top of the bib to 
the bottom of the hem. The length of the 
selvage edges is 33 inches, the width of 
the bib at the top is 12 inches. The sim¬ 
plicity of laundering this apron is a 
great recommendation, for it has no gath¬ 
ers or seams to dry. 
It took some time to perfect the straps. 
I started with tie strings at the corners 
and a neck strap attached to the bib. 
This, however, I soon discarded because 
Adjustment 
Back. 
it pressed uncomfortably on the back of 
my neck. I now cut two straight strips 
of percale, 27 inches long and 1 y 2 inches 
wide, which I fold and stitch together, 
making two double straps. One end of 
each strap I stitch to the upper corners 
of the bib. Eleven inches from these cor¬ 
ners I make a turn, and 12 inches far¬ 
ther down I make another turn. This 
leaves a short end of a strap which can 
be stitched to the corners of the apron 
at proper adjustment to fit the hips of 
the person to wear the apron. One strap 
has two buttons on the second section, 
one near each turn, and the other has 
buttonholes to correspond. When worn, 
the second sections of the two straps lie 
together straight down the back. 
ANNIE E. HARRIS. 
