All native cooks dearly love the spice box, and they all reverence " Worcester Sauce," JX^ow, I consider the latter too powerful an element by far for indiscriminate use in the kitchen, especially so in India where our cooks are inclined to over-flavour everything. If in the house at all, the proper place for this sauce is the cruet-stand where it can be seized in an emergency to drown mistakes, and assist us in swallowing food that we might otherwise decline. But it should be preserved from Ramasamy with the same studious care as a bottle of chloroform from a lady suffering from acute neuralgia. Spice, if necessary, should be doled out in atoms, the cook ought never to have it under his control. Does every housekeeper appreciate sufficiently the invaluable trimmings of meat, skin, and bone, which remain, say, after a number of tasty choplets have been prepared for the grid-iron from a neck of mutton ? Do all know that Ramasamy 's domestic curry often gains, whilst we lose, the nice savouiy sauce which should have accom- panied our entree ; but then, if " missus din't give arder for using bits all," can Ramasamy, a child of this woi-ld, be blamed ? In the various receipts which I hope to give, you will always find a few lines reserved for the treatment of the scraps, and as each bad habit of the cook-room occurs to me, I will endeavour to expose and explain it to the best of my power. — ♦ — Certain Kitchen Requisites. LL OWING- then, that our native cooks are, by na- ture, adapted to their calling, and that by judi- cious treatment we can develop the talent which they possess, one of the next things for consideration is our kitchen equipment, and the kind of utensils which will be found best suited for Ramasamy's use, bearing in mind the sort of dishes we shall hereafter call upon him to prepare. In introducing novelties of European construction to the Indian cook-room it is, a sine quel non to proceed with cau- tion. Ramasamy is intensely conservative, and a sworn foe to innovations. Perchance there are amongst my readers some who can look back with a sigh to sundry patented culinary nicknacks brought out from England, in happy anticipation of grand cook-room reforms, to India, which, misunderstood from the first, were either soon cast aside as worthless from barbarous treatment, or diverted to uses which would drive the inventors crazy to think of. I call to mind having observed an instance of this kind when staying once with a friend on the Hills. The water for my bath was brought, I noticed, in the outer vessel of a " Warren's patent cooking pot." " Yes," said my host sorrowfully when I mentioned the occurrence, " I could never prevail upon my fellows to use the thing in 18 CULINARY JOTTINGS FOR MADRAS. tlie Mtclien, so they do vrliat tliey like with it : the inner vessel makes a capital tom-tom for heating a sJiolah."

AI-modernized reading of the original text

All native cooks dearly love the spice box, and they all reverence " Worcester Sauce," Now, I consider the latter too powerful an element by far for indiscriminate use in the kitchen, especially so in India where our cooks are inclined to over-flavour everything. If in the house at all, the proper place for this sauce is the cruet-stand where it can be seized in an emergency to drown mistakes, and assist us in swallowing food that we might otherwise decline. But it should be preserved from Ramasamy with the same studious care as a bottle of chloroform from a lady suffering from acute neuralgia. Spice, if necessary, should be doled out in atoms, the cook ought never to have it under his control. Does every housekeeper appreciate sufficiently the invaluable trimmings of meat, skin, and bone, which remain, say, after a number of tasty choplets have been prepared for the grid-iron from a neck of mutton ? Do all know that Ramasamy 's domestic curry often gains, whilst we lose, the nice savouiy sauce which should have accompanied our entree ; but then, if " missus din't give arder for using bits all," can Ramasamy, a child of this world, be blamed ? In the various receipts which I hope to give, you will always find a few lines reserved for the treatment of the scraps, and as each bad habit of the cook-room occurs to me, I will endeavour to expose and explain it to the best of my power. — ♦ — Certain Kitchen Requisites. LL OWING- then, that our native cooks are, by nature, adapted to their calling, and that by judicious treatment we can develop the talent which they possess, one of the next things for consideration is our kitchen equipment, and the kind of utensils which will be found best suited for Ramasamy's use, bearing in mind the sort of dishes we shall hereafter call upon him to prepare. In introducing novelties of European construction to the Indian cook-room it is, a sine quel non to proceed with caution. Ramasamy is intensely conservative, and a sworn foe to innovations. Perchance there are amongst my readers some who can look back with a sigh to sundry patented culinary nicknacks brought out from England, in happy anticipation of grand cook-room reforms, to India, which, misunderstood from the first, were either soon cast aside as worthless from barbarous treatment, or diverted to uses which would drive the inventors crazy to think of. I call to mind having observed an instance of this kind when staying once with a friend on the Hills. The water for my bath was brought, I noticed, in the outer vessel of a " Warren's patent cooking pot." " Yes," said my host sorrowfully when I mentioned the occurrence, " I could never prevail upon my fellows to use the thing in the kitchen, so they do what they like with it : the inner vessel makes a capital tom-tom for heating a sholah."

Culinary jottings