Malherbe loved to watch his cook at work. I think it
was he who said, ^^ A coarse-minded man could never be
a cook," and Charles Baudelaire, the Poe of France, takes
a poet's view of our daily wants, when he says, '^ that an
ideal cook must have a great deal of the poet's nature,
combining something of the voluptuary with the man
of science learned in the chemical principles of matter;"
although he goes further than we care to follow when
he says, that the question of sauces and seasoning re-
quires ^^ a chapter as grave as Si femUeto7i de science.'^
It has been said by foreigners that Americans care
nothing for the refinements of the table, but I think
they do care. I have known many a woman in com-
fortable circumstances long to have a good table, many
a man aspire to better things, and if he could only get
them at home would pay any money. But the getting
them at home is the difficulty ; on a table covered with
exquisite linen, glass, and silver, whose presiding queen
is more likely than not a type of the American lady —
graceful, refined, and witty — on such a table, with such
surroundings, will come the plentiful, coarse, common-
place dinner.
The chief reason for this is lack of knowledge on the
1*
lO Culture and Cooking,
part of onr ladies: know how to do a thing yourself, and
yon will get it well done by others. But how are many
of them to know ? The daughters of the wealthy in
this country often marry struggling men, and they know
less about domestic economy than ladies of the higher
ranks abroad; not because English or French ladies take
more part in housekeeping, but because they are at home
all their liyes. Ladies of the highest rank never go to a
boarding or any other school, and these are the women
who, with some few exceptions, know best how things
should be done. They are at home listening to criti-
cisms from papa, who is an epicure perhaps, on the
shortcomings of his own table, or his neighbors'; from
mamma, as to what the soup lacks, why cook is not a
^'cordon Ueu,^^ etc., while our girls are at school, far
away from domestic comments, deep in the agonies of
algebra perhaps ; and directly they leave school, in many
cases they marry. As a preparation for the state of
matrimony most of them learn how to make cake and
preserves, and the very excellence of their attainments
in that way proves how easy it would be for them, with
their dainty fingers and good taste, to far excel their Eu-
ropean cousins in that art which a French writer says is
based on ^^ reason, health, common sense, and sound taste."
Here let me say, I do not by any means advocate a
woman, who can afford to pay a first-rate cook, avoiding
the expense by cooking herself ; on the contrary, I think
no woman is justified in doing work herself that she has
the means given her to get done by employing others.
I have no praise for the economical woman, who, from
a desire to save, does her own work loithout necessity for
economy. It is not her work; the moment she can afford
to employ others it is the work of some less fortunate per-
A Few Preliminary Remarks. II
Page 7
Presented as published in 1885. 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
Malherbe loved to watch his cook at work. I think it was he who said, "A coarse-minded man could never be a cook," and Charles Baudelaire, the Poe of France, takes a poet's view of our daily wants, when he says, '^ "that an ideal cook must have a great deal of the poet's nature, combining something of the voluptuary with the man of science learned in the chemical principles of matter;" although he goes further than we care to follow when he says, that the question of sauces and seasoning requires "a chapter as grave as si l'élévation de science."
It has been said by foreigners that Americans care nothing for the refinements of the table, but I think they do care. I have known many a woman in comfortable circumstances long to have a good table, many a man aspire to better things, and if he could only get them at home would pay any money. But the getting them at home is the difficulty ; on a table covered with exquisite linen, glass, and silver, whose presiding queen is more likely than not a type of the American lady — graceful, refined, and witty — on such a table, with such surroundings, will come the plentiful, coarse, commonplace dinner.
The chief reason for this is lack of knowledge on the 1*
lO Culture and Cooking,
part of onr ladies: know how to do a thing yourself, and yon will get it well done by others. But how are many of them to know ? The daughters of the wealthy in this country often marry struggling men, and they know less about domestic economy than ladies of the higher ranks abroad; not because English or French ladies take more part in housekeeping, but because they are at home all their liyes. Ladies of the highest rank never go to a boarding or any other school, and these are the women who, with some few exceptions, know best how things should be done. They are at home listening to criticisms from papa, who is an epicure perhaps, on the shortcomings of his own table, or his neighbors'; from mamma, as to what the soup lacks, why cook is not a ^'cordon Ueu,^^ etc., while our girls are at school, far away from domestic comments, deep in the agonies of algebra perhaps ; and directly they leave school, in many cases they marry. As a preparation for the state of matrimony most of them learn how to make cake and preserves, and the very excellence of their attainments in that way proves how easy it would be for them, with their dainty fingers and good taste, to far excel their European cousins in that art which a French writer says is based on ^^ reason, health, common sense, and sound taste." Here let me say, I do not by any means advocate a woman, who can afford to pay a first-rate cook, avoiding the expense by cooking herself ; on the contrary, I think no woman is justified in doing work herself that she has the means given her to get done by employing others. I have no praise for the economical woman, who, from a desire to save, does her own work loithout necessity for economy. It is not her work; the moment she can afford to employ others it is the work of some less fortunate per-
A Few Preliminary Remarks. II