‘ Dictionary further, the great ‘ Dictionary ’j published by Alexandre Dumas in 1873. This work contains much excellent matter, and owing to the technical supervision extended to it by D. F. Vuillemot, a pupil of Careme’s, is in the main reliable ; but it also contains much irrelevant matter in the shape of inventions of the nominal author, flat anecdotes, and shallow observations. Much of this shortcoming is no doubt due to the alleged circumstance of Dumas having availed himself of the assistance of subor- dinate contributors, whose performance, consisting mainly in abstracting older authors, he did not take the trouble to control. This circumstance also led to many repetitions ; but leaving these out of sight, the work is an admirable compilation, and in many parts an enthusiastic picture of French cookery at the beginning of the last quarter of the century now drawing to its close. An interesting and in some respects important English publication, intended specially for the use of the English in India, entitled, ‘ Culinary Jottings for Madras, ’J saw the * Courchamps, M. de, ‘ Dictionnaire de la cuisine frangaise.l f Dumas, Alexandre, ‘Grand dictionnaire de la cuisine’; Paris, 1873, imp. 8vo., pp. 1155. With two etchings by Rajon : (1) frontispiece, re- pre.senting A. Dumas ; (2) D. P. Vuillemot, Chef Restaurateur. + ‘Wyvern’ (pseudonym), ‘Culinary Jottings for Madras: a Treatise in Thirty Chapters on Reformed Cookery for Anglo Indian Exiles, based 46 THE SPIRIT OF COOKERY light in 1878, and quickly passed through several editions. Its author was, and is now, a distinguished officer in the army. The work possesses a great vivacity of style, and manifests a close practical acquaintance with some forms of cookery, and a thorough knowledge of the usages and wants of the English kitchen in Hindostan. It also ex- hibits a comprehensive knowledge of the latest French culinary literature, and not a little of the conventional worship of Brillat-Savariu. The first, or general, part of the work is written in a chatty, familiar style, and fills 334 pages, while the actual recipes are distributed over a second part, consisting of the details of thirty menus, covering about 160 pages more. By this arrangement the second part becomes aphoristic, and can be consulted by the general European student only with the aid of the alphabetical index ; but it is probable that the arrangement was of par- ticular value to the circle for the use of which it was designed. The author in many places attributes to bones the usually alleged, but either entirely erroneous or greatly exaggerated value in the preparation of soups and sauces, though this misapprehension is particularly costly in kitchens which, like those of India, have to keep up their fires with small wood and charcoal. That he entitled his treatise as one on ‘ Eeformed Cookery for Anglo-Indian Exiles ’ rather reflects upon the state of Indian cookery before his appearance on the scene. Curries are relegated to homely use, and not one occurs in the thirty menus for dinners ; on the other hand, there are many of the over- complicated and over-cooked entries and entremets of the transcendental magirism. The bills of fare are given in French, with a goodly number of the usual unintelligible denominations.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

‘ Dictionary further, the great ‘ Dictionary ’j published by Alexandre Dumas in 1873. This work contains much excellent matter, and owing to the technical supervision extended to it by D. F. Vuillemot, a pupil of Careme’s, is in the main reliable ; but it also contains much irrelevant matter in the shape of inventions of the nominal author, flat anecdotes, and shallow observations. Much of this shortcoming is no doubt due to the alleged circumstance of Dumas having availed himself of the assistance of subordinate contributors, whose performance, consisting mainly in abstracting older authors, he did not take the trouble to control. This circumstance also led to many repetitions ; but leaving these out of sight, the work is an admirable compilation, and in many parts an enthusiastic picture of French cookery at the beginning of the last quarter of the century now drawing to its close. An interesting and in some respects important English publication, intended specially for the use of the English in India, entitled, ‘ Culinary Jottings for Madras, ’J saw the * Courchamps, M. de, ‘ Dictionnaire de la cuisine frangaise.l f Dumas, Alexandre, ‘Grand dictionnaire de la cuisine’; Paris, 1873, imp. 8vo., pp. 1155. With two etchings by Rajon : (1) frontispiece, representing A. Dumas ; (2) D. P. Vuillemot, Chef Restaurateur. + ‘Wyvern’ (pseudonym), ‘Culinary Jottings for Madras: a Treatise in Thirty Chapters on Reformed Cookery for Anglo Indian Exiles, based light in 1878, and quickly passed through several editions. Its author was, and is now, a distinguished officer in the army. The work possesses a great vivacity of style, and manifests a close practical acquaintance with some forms of cookery, and a thorough knowledge of the usages and wants of the English kitchen in Hindostan. It also exhibits a comprehensive knowledge of the latest French culinary literature, and not a little of the conventional worship of Brillat-Savariu. The first, or general, part of the work is written in a chatty, familiar style, and fills 334 pages, while the actual recipes are distributed over a second part, consisting of the details of thirty menus, covering about 160 pages more. By this arrangement the second part becomes aphoristic, and can be consulted by the general European student only with the aid of the alphabetical index ; but it is probable that the arrangement was of particular value to the circle for the use of which it was designed. The author in many places attributes to bones the usually alleged, but either entirely erroneous or greatly exaggerated value in the preparation of soups and sauces, though this misapprehension is particularly costly in kitchens which, like those of India, have to keep up their fires with small wood and charcoal. That he entitled his treatise as one on ‘ Eeformed Cookery for Anglo-Indian Exiles ’ rather reflects upon the state of Indian cookery before his appearance on the scene. Curries are relegated to homely use, and not one occurs in the thirty menus for dinners ; on the other hand, there are many of the overcomplicated and over-cooked entries and entremets of the transcendental magirism. The bills of fare are given in French, with a goodly number of the usual unintelligible denominations.

The spirit of cookery