A dish of charcoal placed in the refrigerator or pantry helps to keep the atmosphere dry and sweet.
Milk and butter should be kept in a cool place, and away from all strong odors.
Bread and cake must be thoroughly cooled before being put in boxes or jars; if not, the steam will cause them to mould quickly. The bread box should be washed, scalded, and thoroughly aired in the sun, twice a week. The crusts and stale pieces of white raised bread, for which there is no other use, should be put in a pan, be dried slowly in a warm oven, and then be pounded, sifted, and put in glass jars for future use.
All the trimmings of fat should be rendered while they are sweet; then strained into jars or pails kept for that purpose. Put beef, pork, and chicken fat together; this will answer for deep frying. Ham, bacon, and sausage fat answers for frying potatoes, hominy, mush, etc. All the strong-flavored fats, such as mutton, duck, turkey, and the skimmings from boiled ham, are to be kept by themselves for making soap.
It should be remembered that pure fat will keep sweet many months, but if water or any foreign substance be left in it, it will spoil quickly. When rendering or clarifying fat, cook it slowly until there are no bubbles. As long as bubbles form, you may be sure that there is water in the fat. If put away in that condition it will become rancid.
To clarify fat that has been used for frying, put it into a frying kettle, being careful not to let the sediment go in, and place the kettle on the fire. When the fat becomes hot, add three raw potatoes cut into slices, and stir well. The impurities gather on the potatoes. Three potatoes will be enough for four pounds of fat. Whenever there are any trimmings of fat from any kind of meat cut them in bits and place in a frying-pan on the back part of the stove, where they will cook slowly until all the liquid fat has been extracted. Strain this into a pot kept for this purpose.
As soon as the fat is skimmed from soups, gravies, and the water in which meat has been boiled, it should be clarified, as the water and other objectionable particles contained in it will cause it to become rancid if it stands a long time. Put it on the stove, in a frying-pan, and heat it slowly. When it becomes melted, set it where it will simply bubble, and keep it there (being careful not to let it burn) until there is no motion, and all the sediment has fallen to the bottom of the pan. When this stage is reached the fat is clarified.