Catharine Esther Beecher - The New Housekeepers Manual

OTHER BOOKS IN
THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY
COOKBOOK COLLECTION

1776-1876: The Centennial Cook Book and General Guide, by Mrs. Ella E. Myers

American Cookery, by Amelia Simmons

The American Family Keepsake, by The Good Samaritan

Apician Morsels, by Dick Humelbergius Secundus

The Art of Dining, and the Art of Attaining High Health, by Thomas Walker

California Recipe Book, by Ladies of California

The Canadian Housewifes Manual of Cookery

Canoe and Camp Cookery, by Seneca

The Compleat Housewife, by Eliza Smith

Confederate Receipt Book

The Cook Not Mad

The Cook's Own Book, and Housekeeper's Register, by Mrs. N.K.M. Lee

Cottage Economy, by William Cobbett

Dainty Dishes, by Lady Harriet E. St. Clair

Dairying Exemplified, by Josiah Twamley

De Witt's Connecticut Cook Book, and Housekeeper's Assistant, by Mrs. N. Orr

Every Lady's Cook Book, Mrs. T.J. Crowen

Fifteen Cent Dinners for Families of Six, by Juliet Corson

The Frugal Housewife, by Susannah Carter

The Hand-Book of Carving

The Health Reformer's Cookbook, by Lucretia E. Jackson

The Housekeeper's Manual

How to Mix Drinks, by Jerry Thomas

Jewish Cookery Book, by Esther Levy

Miss Leslies New Cookery Book, by Eliza Leslie

Modern Domestic Cookery, and Useful Receipt Book by W.A. Henderson

Mrs. Hale's New Cook Book, by Sarah J. Hale

Mrs. Owens Illinois Cook Book, by Mrs. T.J.V. Owens

Mrs. Porters New Southern Cookery Book, by Mrs. M.E. Porter

The New England Cook Book

The Practical Distiller, by John Wyeth

The Physiology of Taste, by Jean A. Brillat-Savarin

Seventy-Five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats, by Eliza Leslie

The Times Recipes, by The New York Times

A Treatise on Bread, by Sylvester Graham

Vegetable Diet, by William Alcott

The Virginia Housewife, by Mary Randolph

What to Do with the Cold Mutton

The Young Housekeeper, by William Alcott

This edition of The New Housekeeper's Manual by Catharine E. Beecher and Harriet B. Stowe was reproduced by permission from the volume in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society (AAS), Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1812 by Isaiah Thomas, a Revolutionary War patriot and successful printer and publisher, the Society is a research library documenting the life of Americans from the colonial era through 1876. AAS aims to collect, preserve, and make available as complete a record as possible of the printed materials from the early American experience. The cookbook collection includes approximately 1,100 volumes.

The New Housekeeper's Manual copyright 2013 by American Antiquarian Society. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of reprints in the context of reviews.

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TO

THE WOMEN OF AMERICA,

IN WHOSE HANDS REST THE REAL DESTINIES OF THE REPUBLIC, AS

MOULDED BY THE EARLY TRAINING AND PRESERVED

AMID THE MATURER INFLUENCES OF HOME,

THIS VOLUME IS

AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.

T HE H OUSEKEEPERS M ANUAL .

PART I.

I.

THE DUTIES OF WOMANS PROFESSION.

T HE authors of this volume, while they sympathize with every honest effort to relieve the disabilities and sufferings of their sex, are confident that the chief cause of these evils is the fact that the honor and duties of the family state are not duly appreciated, that women are not trained for these duties as men are trained for their trades and professions, and that, as the consequence, family labor is poorly done, poorly paid, and regarded as menial and disgraceful.

To be the nurse of young children, a cook, or a housemaid, is regarded as the lowest and last resort of poverty, and one which no woman of culture and position can assume without loss of caste and respectability.

It is the aim of this volume to elevate both the honor and the remuneration of all the employments that sustain the many difficult and sacred duties of the family state, and thus to render each department of womans true profession as much desired and respected as are the most honored professions of men.

The following will show, though very imperfectly, how many branches of science and training are included in womans profession, and thus what needs to be attempted:

First, the department of a housekeeper demands some knowledge of all the arts and sciences connected with the proper construction of a family dwelling. A widow, or a woman whose husband has not time or ability to direct, and in communities destitute of intelligent artisans, on building a house would need the guidance of the leading principles of architecture, pneumatics, hydrostatics, calorification, and several other connected sciences, in order to secure architectural beauty, healthful heating and ventilation, and the economical and convenient arrangements for labor and comfort. A housekeeper properly instructed in these principles would know how to secure chimneys that will not smoke, the most economical furnaces and stoves, and those that will be sure to draw. She would know how dampers and air-boxes should be placed and regulated, how to prevent or remedy gas escapes, leaking water-pipes, poisonous recession of sewers, slamming shutters, bells that will not ring, blinds that will not fasten, and doors that will not lock or catch. She will understand about ball-cocks, and high and low pressure on water-pipes and boilers, and many other mysteries which make a woman the helpless victim of plumbers and other jobbers often as blundering and ignorant as herself. She would know what kind of wood-work saves labor, how to prevent its shrinkage, when to use paint, and what kind is best, and many other details of knowledge needed in circumstances to which any daughter of wealth is liable: knowledge which could be gained with less time and labor than is now given in public schools to geometry and algebra.