The galley guide

Cooking is chemistry, a science demanding exact¬ ness for success. It can be good fun if attempted the right way and the most discouraging problem in the world if tackled in a haphazard fashion. Like most procedures which involve ingredients and ap¬ paratus the greatest secret of success is system. To prepare appetizing, healthful food, cleanliness is a first principle, requiring clean hands, clean cooking water, clean pots and pans and a clean icebox. To keep an icebox or food locker clean on a small boat the contents should be removed every few days and the inside scoured with hot water in which is am¬ monia and cleaning powder. The top of the stove should be cleaned in the same manner, particularly a coal stove. Elbow grease is much better than stove blacking. The recipes contained in the Galley Guide can be prepared on any of the cook stoves on the market which have ovens built in or any on which a portable oven can be set over one of the burners. In stoves which regularly burn coal or wood it is suggested that charcoal be used as a warm weather substitute when a permanent fire is not required. It comes in bags, kindles quickly and gives a hot fire which leaves little ash. Most small cruisers are equipped with two-burner or three-burner stoves using gaso¬ line, kerosene or alcohol as fuel. The success with which these stoves are used depends on the regularity with which the burners are cleaned with the tool provided by the manufacturers for the purpose. Cleaning the stove should be as regular a perform¬ ance as washing dishes. The Galley Guide is divided into four parts. Part I, “Menus,” contains lists of breakfasts, lunches and dinners, together with dishes from which other com¬ binations may be arranged. Part II, “Recipes,” consists of instructions for preparing dishes con¬ sidered suitable for cooking aboard small cruisers. Part III, “Supplies,” suggests methods of storing food aboard and gives a list of supplies to serve as a reminder in provisioning for a cruise. Part IV is an appendix containing general information. Every effort has been made to word the recipes in such simple language that the beginner cannot go wrong if he follows directions faithfully. Terms familiar to professional chefs, like “dredge with flour,” “fold in the butter,” “baste,” “place on a trivet,” and other technicalities of expression in which domestic cook books abound, have been care¬ fully translated into plain English. Probably a great many suitable dishes have been omitted from the menus appearing in Part I. This is a guide rather than a cook book. Its purpose is to make easier the cook’s job by suggesting methods for systematizing the department, storing provisions and serving a wholesome, varied diet. When a man learns to cook with confidence in his results he in¬ variably likes to cook. In the interest of better cruising it is hoped that the Galley Guide will stimu¬ late, particularly in the younger generation, a new point of view toward cookery on the part of the man who has in the past considered himself a galley slave. ’TWAS EVER THUS Sing me a song of the M. L. cook, May the Lord have mercy upon us ! With a petrol stove in a greasy nook, May the Lord have mercy upon us ! Our meals a lukewarm, lingering death ;