It
contains some novel features, calculated, we hope, not only to
facilitate the labours of the kitchen, but to be of service
likewise to those by whom they are directed. The principal
of these is the summary appended to the receipts, of the
different ingredients which they contain, with the exact
proportion of each, and the precise time required to dress the
whole. This shows at a glance what articles have to be
prepared beforehand, and the hour at which they must be
ready; while it affords great facility as well, for an estimate of
the expense attending them. The additional space occupied
by this closeness of detail has necessarily prevented the
admission of so great a variety of receipts as the book
might otherwise have comprised ; but a limited number, thus
Preface. vii
completely explained, may perhaps he more acceptable to the
reader than a larger mass of materials vaguely given.
“ Our directions for boning poultry, game, &c., are also, we
venture to say, entirely new, no author that is known to us
having hitherto afforded the slightest information on the sub-
ject ; hut while we have done our utmost to simplify and to
render intelligible this, and several other processes not
generally well understood by ordinary cooks, our first and
best attention has been bestowed on those articles of food of
which the consumption is the most general, and which are
therefore of the greatest consequence ; and on what are usually
termed plain English dishes. With these we have inter-
mingled many others which we know to be excellent of their
kind, and which now so far belong to our national cookery,
as to be met with commonly at all refined modern tables.”
Since this extract was written, a rather formidable array of
works on the same subject has issued from the press, part of
them from the pens of celebrated professional gastronomers ;
others are constantly appearing; yet we make, nevertheless,
but slight perceptible progress in this branch of our domestic
economy. Still, in our cottages, as well as in homes of a better
order, goes on the “ waste ” of which I have already spoken.
It is not, in fact, cookery-books that we need half so much
as cooks really trained to a knowledge of their duties, and
suited, by their acquirements, to families of different grades.
At present, those who thoroughly understand their business
are so few in number, that they can always command wages
which place their services beyond the reach of persons of
moderate fortune. Why should not all classes participate in
the benefit to be derived from nourishment calculated to
sustain healthfully the powers of life? And why should the
English, as a people, remain more ignorant than their conti-
nental neighbours of so simple a matter as that of preparing
it for themselves? Without adopting blindly foreign modes
in anything merely because they are foreign, surely we should
be wise to learn from other nations, who excel us in aught
good or useful, all that we can which may tend to remedy
PREFACE*.
Vlll
Page 1
Presented as published in 1884. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
It contains some novel features, calculated, we hope, not only to facilitate the labours of the kitchen, but to be of service likewise to those by whom they are directed. The principal of these is the summary appended to the receipts, of the different ingredients which they contain, with the exact proportion of each, and the precise time required to dress the whole. This shows at a glance what articles have to be prepared beforehand, and the hour at which they must be ready; while it affords great facility as well, for an estimate of the expense attending them. The additional space occupied by this closeness of detail has necessarily prevented the admission of so great a variety of receipts as the book might otherwise have comprised ; but a limited number, thus
Preface. vii
completely explained, may perhaps he more acceptable to the reader than a larger mass of materials vaguely given.
“ Our directions for boning poultry, game, &c., are also, we venture to say, entirely new, no author that is known to us having hitherto afforded the slightest information on the subject ; hut while we have done our utmost to simplify and to render intelligible this, and several other processes not generally well understood by ordinary cooks, our first and best attention has been bestowed on those articles of food of which the consumption is the most general, and which are therefore of the greatest consequence ; and on what are usually termed plain English dishes. With these we have intermingled many others which we know to be excellent of their kind, and which now so far belong to our national cookery, as to be met with commonly at all refined modern tables.”
Since this extract was written, a rather formidable array of works on the same subject has issued from the press, part of them from the pens of celebrated professional gastronomers ; others are constantly appearing; yet we make, nevertheless, but slight perceptible progress in this branch of our domestic economy. Still, in our cottages, as well as in homes of a better order, goes on the “ waste ” of which I have already spoken. It is not, in fact, cookery-books that we need half so much as cooks really trained to a knowledge of their duties, and suited, by their acquirements, to families of different grades. At present, those who thoroughly understand their business are so few in number, that they can always command wages which place their services beyond the reach of persons of moderate fortune. Why should not all classes participate in the benefit to be derived from nourishment calculated to sustain healthfully the powers of life? And why should the English, as a people, remain more ignorant than their continental neighbours of so simple a matter as that of preparing it for themselves? Without adopting blindly foreign modes in anything merely because they are foreign, surely we should be wise to learn from other nations, who excel us in aught good or useful, all that we can which may tend to remedy
PREFACE*.