Refrigerator and Kitchen Hygiene

The kitchen, refrigerator and pantry are three of the most important places in the home.

Kitchen hygiene should be a most conspicu­ous part of every woman's education. She may not cook or scrub refrigerators, but unless she knows how these places should be kept she will not be qualified to direct the care they need.

The refrigerator should be thoroughly cleaned three times a week and scalded twice a week.

Milk, butter and cream should be kept covered. Meat should be kept entirely separate from all other foods. Stale or decaying vegetables should be removed daily. No food should be allowed to reach the point of decay. The refrigerator is an air tight compartment in which the flavor from every article of food it contains is more or less absorbed by all. A few lessons in the chemistry of harmonious com­binations of food would give the housewife some valuable hints in regard to refrigerator hygiene and prob­ably cause a revolution in its contents.

The kitchen is the most difficult, at the same time most important, place in the home to keep clean and for the very reason that it requires constant care is the reason why it is so often neglected.

If any part of the home must be neglected, let it be the parlor, which is used once a week, or the bed-rooms which are used only at night, but the kitchen, where the material that builds and sustains the human body is prepared, should be kept immaculate. It should be thoroughly ventilated and should be, if possible, the lightest and sunniest room in the home.

The pantry is an important auxiliary to the kitchen and should be looked after with the same diligence and care that is bestowed upon the kitchen and refrigerator.

Every article of food in the pantry should be placed under dust-proof coverings. The shelves should be thoroughly cleansed once a week. Cooking vessels should never be placed in the pantry until they are thoroughly cleaned and dried.

The importance of kitchen hygiene may be estimated when we remember that food, its selection and prep­aration, is the controlling factor of that most coveted of all things in life, our health.

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