Soft Summer Drinks

July 5, 2014February 10, 2020 KailaLeave a comment

Ho boy! The weather outside is currently hot and humid after we’ve had some overcast and summer storms. I though the “soft” drinks written about below might be fun to try out while attempting to cool off. This article was found in a July 1908 issue of a Montana newspaper.

Raspberry lemonade is one of my favourite drinks but it would be nice to mix it up once in a while and I’m especially excited to try my hand at the orange sherbet.

School for Housewives – Soft Summer Drinks

In the old times, the thirsty soul – or body – solaced itself with plain water or with lemonade. The chief variation upon his was iced tea and, once in a while, iced coffee. These were the only beverages open to the drinker of temperate habits.

We have improved upon that sort of thing and have introduced “soft” punches, in which our old friend, lemonade, while still serving as a foundation, would not recognize itself. Tea, too, is metamorphosed, although hardly improved, and other mixtures of which we did not dream earlier days are taken as a matter of course.

We may call ourselves old-fashioned and make fun of these innovations – but we cannot help acknowledging that some of them are very good. Especially are they a delight to the palates of our thirty girls and boys who come in after a tramp across the golf links, or a bout at tennis, or a game of baseball. Even the seniors of the party may be beguiled into taking a second glass. The house where the pleasantest welcome and the best and most refreshing thirst-quenchers are offered is likely to be the one which the young people will flock, and we need not fear that our boys and girls will wander off to undesirable associations while they know that good things, both spiritual and physical, await them at home.

None of the drinks I have given below contains liquor of any sort. Those who have tried it, know that alcohol not only fails the relieve thirst, but also raises the temperature of the body in warm weather as in cold. Be our principles what they may, common sense urges us that when we wish to be cool we should take cooling drinks, and I do not hesitate to recommend those I have given as means to the end of lowered temperature, without and within.

Ice Tea

Just as there is a popular fallacy that everyone can make a cup of good hot tea, so there is an impression that any one can make good cold tea. The one idea is as mistaken as the other. You cannot make good iced tea of the dregs of the teapot, after the water has stood on the leaves all through the meal by the simple expedient of filling up the teapot with boiling water.

There are two right ways of preparing tea for iced tea. One is the Russian fashion of making the tea hot with freshly boiling water and pouring it still hot upon cracked ice in tumblers. When this is done, the tea must be pretty strong in the first place, as the melting ice weakens it. The other way is by making the tea fresh some hours before it is to be used, and then pouring it off the leaves and setting it aside to cool. In one country house, where I am always a happy guest, iced tea is served as a beverage at luncheon, and in place of the regular 5 o’clock function of afternoon tea, all during the hot weather. The hostess makes the breakfast tea from the boiling kettle that swings on the crane at her elbow, and, when she has poured out her own morning cup, fills the teapot from the still bubbling kettle and strains the tea into a big pitcher, to be set aside until it is needed. Then it is poured into the ice-filled glasses and is a drink to cast nectar into the shade.

Such is iced tea at its best, and there is no reason why it should ever fall below perfection. Let me parody Bishop Butler: “Doubtless a better drink could have been made, but doubtless it never was.”

Iced Tea Punch

Make iced tea and turn it into a punch bowl, on a big lump of ice. Add to a quart of the strong tea a tablespoonful of lemon juice, a bottle of Apollinaris water and sugar to taste. Cut thin splices of lemon, and let them float on the surface of the punch. When they are in season, a few strawberries or cherries or a bit of pineapple may be added. Ladle out and drink in tumblers.

Ginger Ale Punch

Squeeze the juice of six lemon upon a cupful of granulated sugar and leave on the ice for an hour. When it is to be served, put two cupfuls of cracked ice in a punch bowl with the lemon and sugar, a quart of water and the contents of two bottles of ginger ale. Have ready long sprays of fresh mint, bruise their stems between the fingers, then thrust them into the punch.

Mint Punch

Make a lemonade foundation of lemon and sugar, as directed in the preceding recipe, by putting together lemon juice and sugar, and add to this a double handful of mint sprays, which have been bruised, with a couple of tablespoonfuls of white sugar. Let these stand in a cool place for an hour; put into a punch bowl with a block of ice and pour upon them two bottles of “charged” water, or the contents of two siphons of seltzer. This is very refreshing.

Orange Sherbet

Peel and squeeze eight large oranges and two lemons. Put the juice of the lemons and the pulp and juice of the oranges into a bowl with a small cup of granulated sugar. After it has stood ten minutes and the sugar is well melted, add a tablespoonful of minced pineapple, and after standing a few minutes longer pour upon a block of ice in a punch bowl. Just before serving turn in a quart of Apollinaris.

Fruit Punch

Make a foundation of a good lemonade, allowing five lemons to a quart of water and sweetening to taste. To each quart of the lemonade allow half an orange, sliced; a tablespoonful of pineapple, cut into dice; a small banana, sliced; and a handful of cherries or strawberries or raspberries. Let all stand half an hour before serving, and turn into a punch bowl or large pitcher with plenty of ice. Stir up well from the bottom before pouring out.

Iced Coffee

Make your coffee clear and strong, and add to it plenty of cream and no milk. The best plan is to have the clear coffee in a pitcher and add cream and sugar as it is needed. To those who have never tried it, let me say that there are many worse drinks on a hot day than good, clear coffee, served with plenty of ice and without cream or sugar. But the coffee must be of the best and freshly made – not the leftovers of the breakfast beverage.

Pineapple Lemonade

Boil two cups of sugar and a pint of water ten minutes and then set it aside to cool. When it is cold add to it a juice of three good-sized lemons and a grated pineapple. Let this stand on the ice for two hours. When ready to serve add a quart of water, either plain or “charged” and pour on a piece of ice in a punch bowl or in a large pitcher.

Currant Punch

Make a syrup of sugar and water as in the preceding recipe and set aside to cool. Crush together four cups of red or white currants and a cup of red raspberries. Put them through a press and put with them the syrup and three pints of cold water. Add the juice of a lemon and let all stand for a couple of hours before serving. Throw a handful of stemmed currants and of raspberries into the bowl or pitcher from which the punch is served.

Strawberry Punch

Make as the currant punch is compounded, substituting a pint of strawberry juice for that of the other fruits, and add the juice of three lemons instead of one. Put a handful of the hulled berries into the punch when made. While this punch is especially good when made with the fresh fruit, it may be made from the fresh strawberry syrup when the berries themselves are out of season. The addition of a half cupful of red raspberries to this punch is an improvement.

Raspberry Shrub

For a foundation for this beverage one must have the old preparation of raspberry vinegar or raspberry royal. To five teaspoonfuls of this a quart of cold water must be allowed, and the mixture must be served with plenty of ice. If red raspberries to float on the surface of the punch cannot be procured, in their place may be used a cupful of shredded pineapple or a banana cut into dice.

Marion Harland

Glove Cleaning: A New Occupation for Women

June 19, 2014 KailaLeave a comment

This is the second article in June of the School for Housewives 1904 series published on June 19, 1904, and is a brief article on the new profession of glove cleaning.

Transcribed from the Sunday edition of the The Buffalo Sunday Morning News.

Glove Cleaning: A New Occupation for Women

AMONG the many new avocations undertaken by the clever modern woman, when suddenly thrown upon her own resources, is that of professional glove cleaner.

It is work that any girl of average intelligence can do, and for which there is always good demand.

A trade is usually obtained by cleaning gloves for one’s wealthy friends, gradually widening the circle among mutual acquaintances and the outside world.

The glove cleaner calls once a week or once a fortnight, according to arrangement, at the house of the customer.

She goes armed with a small work case, which contains all the furnishings necessary for repairing torn kid, and with a bottle of some good liquid cleaner.

An expect worker gives the following rules for the work:

The fluid is poured into a large bowl, and two pairs are cleaned at a time, using enough to cover the gloves well.

Wash the cleaner pair first, treating them just as if washing with water.

Rub one glove with the other, with special attention to the seams.

Have a little cloth for scrubbing spots.

Clean the fingers by dipping them into the fluid, then rubbing hard on a clean towel.

Wooden glove hands in the different sizes are invaluable for this work.

The gloves should be dried by squeezing, not wringing.

Before hanging out to dry inflate with a bellows. Dry in the wind.

Be careful, if your cleaning fluid contains any explosive, not to use it near a light.

Marion Harland

OTHER ARTICLES ALSO PUBLISHED…

Around the Council Table with Marion Harland
The Bread Luncheon – A Menu with a Moral
Delicious Turtle Soup in One Lesson – By an Experienced Chef
Good and Tired Recipes for Our Council Members

The Maid of All Work

August 26, 2013February 10, 2020 KailaLeave a comment

From time to time I will post interesting articles from early issues of the Dauphin Herald to examine what pioneers of Canada’s western province, Manitoba, read and found interesting themselves. Specifically I will look at articles that target women of the age. The first article I will post is from a quaint series entitled, “School for Housewives” by Marion Hartland who published a number of books for women as well as a number of syndicated articles such as this one published across Canada and the USA. The Maid of All Work was published in the Dauphin Herald on 22 Oct 1908.

I stumbled across this series of articles last year as I browsed copies of the Dauphin Herald for weekly information from the town of Fork River. I became interested in what Marion Harland (Mary Virginia Terhune) had to say on how housewives should run their home in the early 1900s. I wonder how many women of Dauphin and beyond followed Marion’s advise and I am curious on how many house servants were employed in Dauphin.

School for Housewives – The Maid of All Work

Some one has aptly called the general housework servant a “Pooh-Bah in petticoats.” All branches of household toll are included in her province.

This does not mean, however, that she discharges them all. When she is engaged she doubtless agrees to do cooking, chamberwork, waiting on table and very likely washing and ironing as well. Sometimes she does all these things, but it is usually when she is very competent and the family is very small. Gone are the old days when one maid was considered sufficient for a good-sized family. This is a period of specialization, and we must have a maid for nearly every variety of work. The higher wages these specialists command make it an object with the general housework servant to seek promotion from her solitary state as soon as possible.

Whether it be the result of this same specialization or an outcome of more elaborate methods of living, there is no doubt that a good maid-of-all-work is hard to find and to keep it goes without saying that her wages have gone up, like everything else. The fact that she does not pay rent or food or fuel bills does not militate against her demanding more pay for the same work that as done ten years ago at a smaller wage.

None the less, since a competent maid is a rarity, it behooves the possessor of one to consider her so far as she can. The average mistress accepts it as a matter of course that she should lend a hand in the cookery on Monday and Tuesday, besides washing the dishes and making the beds. On other days she probably does the dusting and assumes small duties about the house. Yet, while she is ready to take a share of the work she should have it clearly understood with the maid that certain duties fall upon the servant’s shoulders and that when the mistress performs them she does it not of merit on the maid’s part, but of free grace on that of the employer.

Because the woman who have remained general housework servants until middle age are generally either not competent for higher work or are so “set in their ways” as to be difficult to manage, it is sometimes well for the mistress who has the time and the strength to take a young and comparatively inexperience girl and train her to her hand. I know there is a strong probability that so soon as she is of a real value in the household she will seek another home where she will get higher wages; but she would be likely to do that anyhow. And there is always a chance that she may have either the common sense or the loyalty to stand by her first employer.

The maid engaged with the understanding, always to be borne in mind in such conditions, that she is “to turn her hand to anything,” the mistress should set about training her in the way she means to have her follow steadily. When the new servant has become accustomed to her work and to the ways of the house, she may introduce variation, but for the time it is better that she should adhere to a fixed schedule.

A regular hour of rising should be one of the first rules laid down by the mistress, and it should be early. In a house where breakfast is at 7:30 or 8, 6 is none too early an hour for the maid to rise. This gives her time to take half an hour for dressing and brings her downstairs by 6:30. In a house where a coal or wood range is used, her first duty will be to start the fire, fill the kettle, put it on to boil and place the cereal over the fire. These two duties may be done if gas is used as fuel, and gives the maid more time for her other work. In winter she may have to go down to the furnace, open the draughts and put on fresh coal.

The next step is to go into the living rooms and open them to air; after that the front hall may be brushed off and a touch given to the front steps and the sidewalk, unless there is an outside man engaged to do this. The dining room and drawing room may also be brushed up, if they need it, and the furniture straightened – dusting done, too, if this is one of the maid’s duties. In any case, the dining room should be put in spotless order for the morning meal.

When the maid is brisk about her duties, all this can be done before it is time for her to put the kettle over. Should the cereal be one needing long cooking, it should have been se over a low flame when the maid first came downstairs.

The amount of work a maid can do before breakfast depends, as a matter of course, upon the kind of breakfast to be prepared. In households where thee is a simple meal of fruit, cereal, bacon and eggs, toast and coffee, her work is comparatively light, but in a home where hot bread must be made, potatoes and meat cooked, she can hardly be expected to get through with much before the morning meal.

In households where only one maid is employed she is not expected to do any waiting at breakfast beyond removing the plates as they are used. By the time the family reach the last stage of the breakfast she should either eat her own breakfast or go to the upstairs work. If the beds have been stripped to air by their occupants on rising, the task of getting the rooms in order is taken in hand. Beds may be made, the furniture put in order, the floor gone over with a carpet sweeper, soiled water emptied, the utensils cleaned. This too, is the time to put the bathroom in order.

In a good-sized family this care of the bedrooms generally devolves upon the women of the household. In this case the maid can set to work putting her kitchen to rights, washing the dishes used in preparing the breakfast, looking over the pantry to see what supplies are needed and the like. By the time the family has finished eating the maid is ready to come in and clear the table, take the dishes to the kitchen, arrange and darken the dining room and after this to wash the dishes. When this is done, if she has not had time to finish her upstairs work properly, she should go back to it. Before she leaves the kitchen she should rinse out her dish towels and put them over to boil.

By this time, or earlier, the mistress should have come in to see what there is in the larder and to decide about the meals for the day. This is the time when she sees that the refrigerator is clean and if there are left-overs which should be used at once.

The general work of the house should be divided up on the different days, so that there will not be a hard pull one day and a lazy time another. Monday and Tuesday are taken for granted for washing and ironing, if the ironing hangs over into Wednesday, it may be necessary to crowd most of the sweeping and cleaning into the last of the week; but when the laundry work is out of the way by Tuesday night, part of the sweeping may be done on Wednesday – the dining room or parlor, rather than the upstairs rooms, since there is usually some baking to be done on Wednesday, and it is well for the maid to have work which will not take her too far from her kitchen.

Thursday’s work may be silver cleaning, brass polishing and window washing. The maid’s weekly or fortnightly “afternoon out” usually falls on Thursday unless special arrangements are made otherwise. Friday is the day to do the upstairs sweeping and cleaning, and Saturday brings in baking, odds and ends and general preparation for Sunday.

The week’s work having been outlined, let us look again at the daily vocations. The midday luncheon, at which the table is spread as at breakfast, is one which requires little waiting. The mistress should endeavor so to plan the work that there will be no heavy or dirty work to be done in the afternoon. If the maid and mistress agree in judicious discharge of the daily duties, there is no reason why the afternoon should not be comparatively free, or filled only with light tasks, until the time comes to make the dinner ready.

At dinner time the maid is expected to do more waiting than at either of the preceding meals. She is not to stay in the room after the dishes are passed, but she should be ready to come at sound of the bell. Her work after dinner is practically the same as that after the other meals. If she is forehanded about her work and washes the dishes of one course while the subsequent course is eaten she can get through her work early, and after she has turned down the beds, the evening will be her own. I wish I could say she would be likely to do this, but having managed to induce but one maid to follow this course in all my housekeeping career, I cannot speak encouragingly on the matter.

There are as many different kinds of maids as there are mistresses, and one can never tell how either will turn out until after trial has been made. When a maid-of-all-work is competent and willing, I really believe that it is easier living than with two maids or more. But as I have said, a maid of that sort is far off and hard to find. When she is once secured, it is worth her employer’s while to pay a good price and make some concessions to keep her.

Marion Harland