This remark applies quite as strongly to the making of curry. Too much curry powder is a very grave error. The curry, when it comes to table, should be heightened in flavour by more or less powerful chutney, according to the tastes of the guests. Remember that I am speaking as an expert in this respect, since I went through, some years ago, a regular course of curry making in Ceylon and at Calcutta ; and when I came home my curry luncheons earned the approbation of numerous distinguished Anglo- Indian authorities, including the late Sir Richard Burton. I beg you to read over and over again the directions for making curry given in the body of this book,* especially as regards the boiling of the rice ; and I ask you to do this not only in order that you may give pleasure to your em- ployers, but for a reason which I hope will at once come * Pp. 28, 322-24. svi THE THOEOUGH GOOD COOK. home to you. A good ciirry-cook can always command liiglier Avages than one who does not know how to dress curry, or dresses it chunsily. Agam, my good friend, I do most earnestly entreat you to study well that which I have written al)Out omelettes,* a delicious dainty which not one English cook out of fifty knows how to prej^are properly. Always bear this golden rule in mind — that Jiour should never be used in making an omelette ; and that milk should he as rigorously excluded. Eggs are cheap enough. Practise making omelettes whenever you have the oppor- timity, and induce your em23lo3x^rs to have savoury omelettes for breakfast and sweet omelettes at dinner. Kindly read over and over again also that which I have said in my second preface about cooking vegetables. Don't turn them over to the kitchenmaid. Take them in hand yourself; for a well-prepared dish of cauliflower or spinach or arti- chokes should earn you as much praise as a lobster salad, or a vol-au-vent, or an ice pudding. And now, always abstaining from "jawing," let me in the friendliest manner ask you to bear a few concluding rules in mind. Serve hot — Serve hot, Mrs. Cook ! A dish sent up scalding hot will soon get cool ; but there is no hope and no cure for a dish that is lukewarm. And mind that you see that the kitchenmaid sends up thoroughly hot plates for hot dishes. Bo clean, be clean, be clean every- where— in your kitchen, your larder, and your scullery. Keep the very strictest watch over the hog-tub — to use the vulgar name — or wash-bucket. Keep an equally sharp e3'e over the dustbin, and do not allow to accunuilate there fever-breeding heaps of bones, cabbage stumps, lobster shells, etc. Many kinds of refuse can be got rid of by burning them in the modern ranges at the end of each day; but if you cannot get rid of them by this means, worry the dustmen incessantly to do their duty ; and if they are See the Index to Recipes, under " Omelettes." TO MRS. COOK. xvii remiss, ask your employer to write to the vestry clerk and complain of their neglect.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

This remark applies quite as strongly to the making of curry. Too much curry powder is a very grave error. The curry, when it comes to table, should be heightened in flavour by more or less powerful chutney, according to the tastes of the guests. Remember that I am speaking as an expert in this respect, since I went through, some years ago, a regular course of curry making in Ceylon and at Calcutta ; and when I came home my curry luncheons earned the approbation of numerous distinguished Anglo-Indian authorities, including the late Sir Richard Burton. I beg you to read over and over again the directions for making curry given in the body of this book,* especially as regards the boiling of the rice ; and I ask you to do this not only in order that you may give pleasure to your employers, but for a reason which I hope will at once come * Pp. 28, 322-24. home to you. A good curry-cook can always command higher wages than one who does not know how to dress curry, or dresses it clumsily. Again, my good friend, I do most earnestly entreat you to study well that which I have written about omelettes,*a delicious dainty which not one English cook out of fifty knows how to prej^are properly. Always bear this golden rule in mind — that flour should never be used in making an omelette ; and that milk should be as rigorously excluded. Eggs are cheap enough. Practise making omelettes whenever you have the opportunity, and induce your employers to have savoury omelettes for breakfast and sweet omelettes at dinner. Kindly read over and over again also that which I have said in my second preface about cooking vegetables. Don't turn them over to the kitchenmaid. Take them in hand yourself; for a well-prepared dish of cauliflower or spinach or artichokes should earn you as much praise as a lobster salad, or a vol-au-vent, or an ice pudding. And now, always abstaining from "jawing," let me in the friendliest manner ask you to bear a few concluding rules in mind. Serve hot — Serve hot, Mrs. Cook ! A dish sent up scalding hot will soon get cool ; but there is no hope and no cure for a dish that is lukewarm. And mind that you see that the kitchenmaid sends up thoroughly hot plates for hot dishes. Be clean, be clean, be clean everywhere— in your kitchen, your larder, and your scullery. Keep the very strictest watch over the hog-tub — to use the vulgar name — or wash-bucket. Keep an equally sharp eye over the dustbin, and do not allow to accumulate there fever-breeding heaps of bones, cabbage stumps, lobster shells, etc. Many kinds of refuse can be got rid of by burning them in the modern ranges at the end of each day; but if you cannot get rid of them by this means, worry the dustmen incessantly to do their duty ; and if they are See the Index to Recipes, under " Omelettes." TO MRS. COOK. xvii remiss, ask your employer to write to the vestry clerk and complain of their neglect.

The thorough good cook