Men, as a rule, make better cooks than
women — I am writing of professional cooks
— because no man goes in for cooking as a
career unless he is really interested in the art,
and has a taste for it, whereas thousands of
women take it up because there is more money
to be earned by calling oneself a good plain
cook, than there is by going into domestic
service as a scrubber of floors, a duster of
furniture, or a hander-round of dishes.
By the ordinary home method of cookery all
the “ disagreeables ” attending the process are
increased, and it is a method which has
proved so unsatisfactory that the saying “ God
sent the meat and the devil sent the cooks ”
is sure of a cordial reception in the average
household.
Paper-Bag Cookery will lighten the labor
of the ordinary woman cook enormously. As
her own kitchen-maid, she will be relieved of
many sorrows of the sink, and the cleansing
and polishing of pots and pans will no longer
occupy so large a portion of her time. Alike
SOYER’S PAPER-BAG COOKERY 1x5
to the paid cook and to the humble housewife,
who has to prepare all the family meals her-
self, the saving of time in the Soyer system
will come as a boon and a blessing.
This is the broad general view that will be
taken of cookery in the Paper-Bag. But we
must come back to the first great principle in
arriving at the value of cooked articles of
food, and that is the eating.
And it is in this connection that we have to
consider the preservation of what I have called
“ the shades of flavor.”
It must have occurred to most men who
think occasionally, as dogs always do, with
their noses, that the more or less powerful
fumes and perfumes which are given off by
various foods in the process of cooking must
affect to some extent the other foods which
are in the sphere of their influence.
This is exactly what happens. Plow often
in the old-fashioned eating-houses when the
various joints and the poultry were served
with their juices and sauces and seasonings
from the same “ hot plate ” has the customer
found the mixed flavors of half a dozen
items on the bill of fare in the one dish he has
selected, and that the meat or poultry he is
n6 SOYER’S PAPER-BAG COOKERY
eating has in the process of acquiring all the
other flavors lost its own.
In Paper-Bag Cookery not only is the nat-
ural flavor of every article of food preserved,
but all alien, or shall we say undesirable, fla-
vours are kept at bay.
Paper-Bag Cookery, provided that the
proper and suitable paper be used, will mean
in many homes not only a revolution, but a
revelation. Thousands of men and women
who have never known what really good cook-
ing means to the palate and the appetite will
be in the position of the young American girl
who arrived for the first time in England on a
lovely May morning.
Looking out of the window of the train that
was tearing through the green pasture lands
of rural England towards the great city, she
suddenly turned to her mother and exclaimed,
“ Oh, mother, now I know what green is ! ”
When in the homes of modest resource the
contents of the Paper-Bag that has passed
through the culinary process are placed upon
the table, and the savory smell has been suc-
ceeded by the delicious flavor, husband and
children will join in the cry of homage to the
new method of the menagere, and exclaim :
SOYER’S PAPER-BAG COOKERY 117
Page 36
Presented as published in 1911. 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
Men, as a rule, make better cooks than women — I am writing of professional cooks — because no man goes in for cooking as a career unless he is really interested in the art, and has a taste for it, whereas thousands of women take it up because there is more money to be earned by calling oneself a good plain cook, than there is by going into domestic service as a scrubber of floors, a duster of furniture, or a hander-round of dishes.
By the ordinary home method of cookery all the “ disagreeables ” attending the process are increased, and it is a method which has proved so unsatisfactory that the saying “ God sent the meat and the devil sent the cooks ” is sure of a cordial reception in the average household.
Paper-Bag Cookery will lighten the labor of the ordinary woman cook enormously. As her own kitchen-maid, she will be relieved of many sorrows of the sink, and the cleansing and polishing of pots and pans will no longer occupy so large a portion of her time. Alike
to the paid cook and to the humble housewife, who has to prepare all the family meals herself, the saving of time in the Soyer system will come as a boon and a blessing.
This is the broad general view that will be taken of cookery in the Paper-Bag. But we must come back to the first great principle in arriving at the value of cooked articles of food, and that is the eating.
And it is in this connection that we have to consider the preservation of what I have called “ the shades of flavor.”
It must have occurred to most men who think occasionally, as dogs always do, with their noses, that the more or less powerful fumes and perfumes which are given off by various foods in the process of cooking must affect to some extent the other foods which are in the sphere of their influence.
This is exactly what happens. How often in the old-fashioned eating-houses when the various joints and the poultry were served with their juices and sauces and seasonings from the same “ hot plate ” has the customer found the mixed flavors of half a dozen items on the bill of fare in the one dish he has selected, and that the meat or poultry he is
eating has in the process of acquiring all the other flavors lost its own.
In Paper-Bag Cookery not only is the natural flavor of every article of food preserved, but all alien, or shall we say undesirable, flavours are kept at bay.
Paper-Bag Cookery, provided that the proper and suitable paper be used, will mean in many homes not only a revolution, but a revelation. Thousands of men and women who have never known what really good cooking means to the palate and the appetite will be in the position of the young American girl who arrived for the first time in England on a lovely May morning.
Looking out of the window of the train that was tearing through the green pasture lands of rural England towards the great city, she suddenly turned to her mother and exclaimed, “ Oh, mother, now I know what green is ! ”
When in the homes of modest resource the contents of the Paper-Bag that has passed through the culinary process are placed upon the table, and the savory smell has been succeeded by the delicious flavor, husband and children will join in the cry of homage to the new method of the menagere, and exclaim :