'^HERE is no class of the community which needs to be instructed in cookery so much as the very poor. If some of the well-to-do folks who grumble when their rump steak is not so tender as it should be, or when game is not sufficiently high, were compelled to live for a week on food which thousands of their fellow country- men eat with relish, they would be, to say the least of it, astonished. Not only is it true that one half of the world has no idea how the other half lives, but a small portion of the population has no conception how thousands and tens of thousands of those who reside within a stone’s throw of their homes live. A good many intellectual, highly cultured people have a sort of mild scorn for cookery, although I have noticed that they rarely object to partake of the results thereof. Let cooks, however, be comforted, for their work is honour- able and useful. Cookery is a larger question than these clever gentlemen imagine, for it has to do with morality. There is an old proverb which says, “ Those who drink beer think beer.” Whether this be so or not I cannot say, but I am quite sure that those who have been made bilious and dyspeptic by eating coarse, indigestible food, which has been badly cooked, are much more likely to commit all sorts of horrible crimes and to seek comfort in strong drink, than are those who have good wholesome food cooked in such a way that it is made not only palat- able, but digestible. A large number of those who “ take to drinking,” as it is called, begin to go wrong by taking beer as a substitute for food. They feel exhausted, there is no food “ handy,” and so they take a draught of beer, and this quickly revives them. The experience is repeated, they gradually acquire the habit of relying on beer, and go from bad to 124 The Girl's Own Cookery Book. worse. If it could have been that, when this “sinking at the pit of the stomach,” as they call it, was felt, some true friend had given them a cupful of good beef tea, or a cupful of coffee to drink instead of the beer, they would have felt better almost as quickly, and no harm would have been done. Unfortunately, however, beer is always to be had, and beef-tea is a rarity, and so the mischief is done. I am not going to advocate teetotalism here. It is not my place to do so, for cookery is my subject now, not the drinking habits of the community. Perhaps, however, I may be allowed to say one thing — it is that people should never take stimulants without food, or immediately before taking food. Let them relieve the feeling of exhaustion by eaiuig, not by drinking, and afterwards take the beer or wine, if they must have it. If everybody would follow this simple rule, drunkenness would very soon be almost unknown among us.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

'^HERE is no class of the community which needs to be instructed in cookery so much as the very poor. If some of the well-to-do folks who grumble when their rump steak is not so tender as it should be, or when game is not sufficiently high, were compelled to live for a week on food which thousands of their fellow countrymen eat with relish, they would be, to say the least of it, astonished. Not only is it true that one half of the world has no idea how the other half lives, but a small portion of the population has no conception how thousands and tens of thousands of those who reside within a stone’s throw of their homes live. A good many intellectual, highly cultured people have a sort of mild scorn for cookery, although I have noticed that they rarely object to partake of the results thereof. Let cooks, however, be comforted, for their work is honourable and useful. Cookery is a larger question than these clever gentlemen imagine, for it has to do with morality. There is an old proverb which says, “ Those who drink beer think beer.” Whether this be so or not I cannot say, but I am quite sure that those who have been made bilious and dyspeptic by eating coarse, indigestible food, which has been badly cooked, are much more likely to commit all sorts of horrible crimes and to seek comfort in strong drink, than are those who have good wholesome food cooked in such a way that it is made not only palatable, but digestible. A large number of those who “ take to drinking,” as it is called, begin to go wrong by taking beer as a substitute for food. They feel exhausted, there is no food “ handy,” and so they take a draught of beer, and this quickly revives them. The experience is repeated, they gradually acquire the habit of relying on beer, and go from bad to The Girl's Own Cookery Book. worse. If it could have been that, when this “sinking at the pit of the stomach,” as they call it, was felt, some true friend had given them a cupful of good beef tea, or a cupful of coffee to drink instead of the beer, they would have felt better almost as quickly, and no harm would have been done. Unfortunately, however, beer is always to be had, and beef-tea is a rarity, and so the mischief is done. I am not going to advocate teetotalism here. It is not my place to do so, for cookery is my subject now, not the drinking habits of the community. Perhaps, however, I may be allowed to say one thing — it is that people should never take stimulants without food, or immediately before taking food. Let them relieve the feeling of exhaustion by eaiuig, not by drinking, and afterwards take the beer or wine, if they must have it. If everybody would follow this simple rule, drunkenness would very soon be almost unknown among us.

The girl's own cookery book