PREFACE.
It cannot be denied that an improved system of practical domestic cookery, and a better knowledge of its first principles, are still much needed in this country; where, from ignorance, or from mismanagement in their preparation, the daily waste of excellent provisions almost exceeds belief. This waste is in itself a very serious evil where so large a portion of the community often procure—as they do in England—with painful difficulty, and with the heaviest labour, even sufficient bread to sustain existence; but the amount of positive disease which is caused amongst us by improper food, or by food rendered unwholesome by a bad mode of cooking it, seems a greater evil still. The influence of diet upon health is indeed a subject of far deeper importance than it would usually appear to be considered, if we may judge by the profound indifference with which it is commonly treated. It has occupied, it is true, the earnest attention of many eminent men of science, several of whom have recently investigated it with the most patient and laborious research, the results of which they have made known to the world in their writings, accompanied, in some instances, by information of the highest value as to the most profitable and nutritious modes of preparing various kinds of viands. In arranging the present enlarged edition of this volume for publication, I have gladly taken advantage of such of their instructions (those of Baron Liebig especially) as have seemed to me adapted to its character, and likely to increase its real utility. These, I feel assured, if carefully followed out, will much assist our progress in culinary art, and diminish the unnecessary degree of expenditure which has hitherto attended its operations; for it may safely be averred that good cookery is the best and truest economy, turning to full account every wholesome article of food, and converting into palatable meals, what the ignorant either render uneatable, or throw away in disdain. It is a popular error to imagine that what is called good cookery is adapted only to the establishments of the wealthy, and that it is beyond the reach of those who are not affluent. On the contrary, it matters comparatively little whether some few dishes, amidst an abundant variety, be prepared in their perfection or not; but it is of the utmost consequence that the food which is served at the more simply supplied tables of the middle classes should all be well and skilfully prepared, particularly as it is from these classes that the men principally emanate to whose indefatigable industry, high intelligence, and active genius, we are mainly indebted for our advancement in science, in art, in literature, and in general civilisation.
When both the mind and body are exhausted by the toils of the day, heavy or unsuitable food, so far from recruiting their enfeebled powers, prostrates their energies more completely, and acts in every way injuriously upon the system; and it is no exaggeration to add, that many a valuable life has been shortened by disregard of this fact, or by the impossibility of obtaining such diet as nature imperatively required. It may be urged, that I speak of rare and extreme cases; but indeed it is not so; and the impression produced on me by the discomfort and the suffering which have fallen under my own observation, has rendered me extremely anxious to aid in discovering an efficient remedy for them. With this object always in view, I have zealously endeavoured to ascertain, and to place clearly before my readers, the most rational and healthful methods of preparing those simple and essential kinds of nourishment which form the staple of our common daily fare; and have occupied myself but little with the elegant superfluities or luxurious novelties with which I might perhaps more attractively, though not more usefully, have filled my pages. Should some persons feel disappointed at the plan I have pursued, and regret the omissions which they may discover, I would remind them, that the fashionable dishes of the day may at all times be procured from an able confectioner; and that part of the space which I might have allotted to them is, I hope and believe, better occupied by the subjects, homely as they are, to which I have devoted it—that is to say, to ample directions for dressing vegetables, and for making what cannot be purchased in this country—unadulterated bread of the most undeniably wholesome quality; and those refreshing and finely-flavoured varieties of preserved fruit which are so conducive to health when judiciously taken, and for which in illness there is often such a vain and feverish craving when no household stores of them can be commanded.[[1]]
[1]. Many of those made up for sale are absolutely dangerous eating; those which are not adulterated are generally so oversweetened as to be distasteful to invalids.
Merely to please the eye by such fanciful and elaborate decorations as distinguish many modern dinners, or to flatter the palate by the production of new and enticing dainties, ought not to be the principal aim, at least, of any work on cookery. “Eat,—to live” should be the motto, by the spirit of which all writers upon it should be guided. I must here obtrude a few words of personal interest to myself. At the risk of appearing extremely egotistic, I have appended “Author’s Receipt” and “Author’s Original Receipt” to many of the contents of the following pages; but I have done it solely in self-defence, in consequence of the unscrupulous manner in which large portions of my volume have been appropriated by contemporary authors, without the slightest acknowledgment of the source from which they have been derived. I have allowed this unfairness, and much beside, to pass entirely unnoticed until now; but I am suffering at present too severe a penalty for the over-exertion entailed on me by the plan which I adopted for the work, longer to see with perfect composure strangers coolly taking the credit and the profits of my toil. The subjoined passage from the preface of my first edition will explain in what this toil—so completely at variance with all the previous habits of my life, and, therefore, so injurious in its effects—consisted; and prevent the necessity of recapitulating here, in another form, what I have already stated in it. “Amongst the large number of works on cookery which we have carefully perused, we have never yet met with one which appeared to us either quite intended for, or entirely suited to the need of the totally inexperienced! none, in fact, which contained the first rudiments of the art, with directions so practical, clear, and simple, as to be at once understood, and easily followed, by those who had no previous knowledge of the subject. This deficiency, we have endeavoured in the present volume to supply, by such thoroughly explicit and minute instructions as may, we trust, be readily comprehended and carried out by any class of learners; our receipts, moreover, with a few trifling exceptions which are scrupulously specified, are confined to such as may be perfectly depended on, from having been proved beneath our own roof and under our own personal inspection. We have trusted nothing to others; but having desired sincerely to render the work one of general usefulness, we have spared neither cost nor labour to make it so, as the very plan on which it has been written must of itself, we think, evidently prove. It contains some novel features, calculated, we hope, not only to facilitate the labours of the kitchen, but to be of service likewise to those by whom they are directed. The principal of these is the summary appended to the receipts, of the different ingredients which they contain, with the exact proportion of each, and the precise time required to dress the whole. This shows at a glance what articles have to be prepared beforehand, and the hour at which they must be ready; while it affords great facility as well, for an estimate of the expense attending them. The additional space occupied by this closeness of detail has necessarily prevented the admission of so great a variety of receipts as the book might otherwise have comprised; but a limited number, thus completely explained, may perhaps be more acceptable to the reader than a larger mass of materials vaguely given.
“Our directions for boning poultry, game, &c., are also, we venture to say, entirely new, no author that is known to us having hitherto afforded the slightest information on the subject; but while we have done our utmost to simplify and to render intelligible this, and several other processes not generally well understood by ordinary cooks, our first and best attention has been bestowed on those articles of food of which the consumption is the most general, and which are therefore of the greatest consequence; and on what are usually termed plain English dishes. With these we have intermingled many others which we know to be excellent of their kind, and which now so far belong to our national cookery, as to be met with commonly at all refined modern tables.”
Since this extract was written, a rather formidable array of works on the same subject has issued from the press, part of them from the pens of celebrated professional gastronomers; others are constantly appearing; yet we make, nevertheless, but slight perceptible progress in this branch of our domestic economy. Still, in our cottages, as well as in homes of a better order, goes on the “waste” of which I have already spoken. It is not, in fact, cookery-books that we need half so much as cooks really trained to a knowledge of their duties, and suited, by their acquirements, to families of different grades. At present, those who thoroughly understand their business are so few in number, that they can always command wages which place their services beyond the reach of persons of moderate fortune. Why should not all classes participate in the benefit to be derived from nourishment calculated to sustain healthfully the powers of life? And why should the English, as a people, remain more ignorant than their continental neighbours of so simple a matter as that of preparing it for themselves? Without adopting blindly foreign modes in anything merely because they are foreign, surely we should be wise to learn from other nations, who excel us in aught good or useful, all that we can which may tend to remedy our own defects; and the great frugality, combined with almost universal culinary skill, or culinary knowledge, at the least—which prevails amongst many of them—is well worthy of our imitation. Suggestions of this nature are not, however, sufficient for our purpose. Something definite, practical, and easy of application, must open the way to our general improvement. Efforts in the right direction are already being made, I am told, by the establishment of well-conducted schools for the early and efficient training of our female domestic servants. These will materially assist our progress; and if experienced cooks will put aside the jealous spirit of exclusiveness by which they are too often actuated, and will impart freely the knowledge they have acquired, they also may be infinitely helpful to us, and have a claim upon our gratitude which ought to afford them purer satisfaction than the sole possession of any secrets—genuine or imaginary—connected with their craft.
The limits of a slight preface do not permit me to pursue this or any other topic at much length, and I must in consequence leave my deficiencies to be supplied by some of the thoughtful, and, in every way, more competent writers, who, happily for us, abound at the present day; and make here my adieu to the reader.
ELIZA ACTON
London, May, 1855.