The girl's own cookery book

Even where working women can be persuaded to learn cookery, it is not much use to tell them about foods to which they are not accustomed. Lentils, haricot beans, and macaroni are nourishing and cheap foods, but they are very little used by the working classes. Even oatmeal is not valued as it deserves to be. There has been a great deal said of late years about the value of lentils, and they are much more used than they once were, but it is not the very poor who use them. It is the middle class who are, as a rule, willing to receive new ideas, and who are anxious to learn all they can about domestic management. If we go into the poor districts, and notice the food which is offered for sale (for that is the food which is eaten), we \26 The Girl's Own Cookery Book. see black puddings, small savoury pies, pigs’ and sheep’s heads, liver, lights, hearts, pigs’ feet, cows’ heels, tripe, including “reed” tripe, chitterlings, cheap fish, including mussels, whelks, cockles, etc., also we see plenty of treacle and bread, but we hardly ever see lentils, haricot beans, or maize ; yet district visitors and charitable people have tried their best to make lentils popular — and, so far, without success. I will confess that if I were to speak my real mind, I should say that the taste for lentils was an acquired one, and that though lentils constitute a most valuable article of diet, unlimited lentils may become monotonous. Yet even I should prefer lentils to lights. However, these are the facts of the case ; and it seems to me that if cookery teachers are to do any good, they must first teach people how to cook well food which they have a prejudice for, and so by gradually giving them an idea of what properlyprepared food is, they may be led to try foods which are new to them. Enlightened ideas about cookery, like enlightened ideas about all other branches of knowledge, lead people to avoid grooves. The unfortunate part of the business is, that at present the prejudices of the very poor are in favour of foods many of which are almost worthless from a nourishing point of view. If only it could be that our poor friends would lay out their money more judiciously, and pay more attention to the cooking of the food, they might, for the same amount as they spend now, have food which would build up their bodies and give them strength for the hard battle which life is to so many of them. As, therefore, it is likely that this paper will be read not so much by the very poor as by those who wish to benefit the very poor, I will give a few recipes for properly cooking the better sorts of food which the poor are in the habit of using, and also for cooking food which it would be well if they would use. Ox-Cheek Stew. — Ox-cheek and cow-heel are favourite articles of food, and deservedly so. A stew made from the following recipe will be wholesome, delicious, and will cost very little. The cow-heel may probably be bought for fourpence, and the cheek for threepence or fourpence Cookery for the Poor.