tand over by the iron cook stove. This grand stove is from near by Albion Iron Works, a company Mr. O'Reilly has an interest in. It took ten men to put it inside. But the effort has earned Mrs. O'Reilly's dinners quite a reputation in Victoria.
She keeps a book of written recipes. One of your duties will be to "black" the stove before lighting it in the morning. It burns coal which you bring up from the basement.
Mrs. likes to use a lot of curry and spices. The maid says it's from the time she lived with her sister in India. Either way you'll learn to help out in the kitchen.
Just to the right of the stove, on the shelf, are irons for you to press the linen. And in the corner, that's the copper hot water boiler. It makes water here for cleaning and the bath. No boiling pans of water at Point Ellice House.
On the table to the right - that's a white ceramic water filter. Well water may be okay for servants, but the O'Reillys drink only filtered water. And you'll see some of the other rooms have water filters too.
Behind us is a counter with some dishes above. Walk over and take a look. On the right is the kitchen scale - you'll need to follow the recipes. Next to it is a white jelly mould. I don't care for the taste, but puddings and jellies are popular desserts.
Above we store some serving dishes.
A little way to the right - hanging on the wall - are silver food covers. Look at the one in the centre. It's used in the summer time to keep flies off the food. And the other only used in winter to keep food warm.
And hanging in between the food covers are fine-cloth jelly strainers called "hamis", used to squeeze the flavour out of berries. Here they have some strange ways of doing things.
Below is the sewing machine -- at times you may be asked to assist with this, but usually the seamstress does any necessary darning and alterations.
In front is a new machine called the Cresent-floor-sweeper. I prefer a short bristle broom, but pushing this takes less time than beating the carpets outside.
The small door back there is the larder for storing food and ingredients.
On the table to the right is a complete set of pots and saucepans. You need learn exactly the right size of these to use when preparing Mrs. O'Reilly's recipes. View room artifacts.