COMMON SENSE
IN THE HOUSEHOLD
A MANUAL OF
PRACTICAL HOUSEWIFERY
Common Sense in the Household
BY
“We go upon the practical mode of teaching, Nickleby. When a boyknows this out of book, he goes and does it. This is our system. Whatdo you think of it?”—Nicholas Nickleby.
NEW YORK:
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
1883.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by
CHARLES SCRIBNER & CO.,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.
——————
Copyright, 1880, by
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS.
GRANT, FAIRES & RODGERS,
Electrotypers and Printers,
Philadelphia.
TO MY
FELLOW-HOUSEKEEPERS,
NORTH, EAST, SOUTH AND WEST, THIS VOLUME,
THE GLEANINGS OF MANY YEARS,
IS CORDIALLY
DEDICATED.
INTRODUCTORY OF REVISED EDITION.
It is not yet quite ten years since the publication of “CommonSense in the Household. General Receipts.” Inoffering the work to the publishers, under whose able managementit has prospered so wonderfully, I said: “I have writtenthis because I felt that such a Manual of Practical Housewiferyis needed.” That I judged aright, taking my own experienceas a housekeeper as the criterion of the wants and perplexitiesof others, is abundantly proved by the circumstance which callsfor this new and revised edition of the book. Through muchand constant use—nearly 100,000 copies having been printedfrom them—the stereotype plates have become so worn thatthe impressions are faint and sometimes illegible. I gladlyavail myself of the opportunity thus offered to re-read and sofar to alter the original volume as may, in the light of laterimprovements in the culinary art and in my understanding ofit, make the collection of family receipts more intelligible andavailable. Nor have I been able to resist the temptation tointerpolate a few excellent receipts that have come into myhands at a later period than that of the publication of the last,and in my estimation, perhaps the most valuable of the “CommonSense Series,” viz.: “The Dinner Year-Book.”
I am grateful, also, to the courtesy of my publishers for theprivilege of thanking those to whom this book was, and isdedicated, “My fellow-housekeepers—North, East, South andWest”—for their substantial endorsement of the work I havedone in their behalf. A collection of the private letters I havereceived from those who have used the “General Receipts”would make a volume very nearly as large as this. If I have,as the writers of these testimonials assure me—“done th
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