We may live without conscience, and live without heart,
We may live without friends; we may live without books;
But civilized man can not live without cooks.”
No young woman should contemplate marriage until she has first acquired a practical knowledge of simple cookery, for this is essential, whether she expects to do the cooking herself, or supervise the maid. Although bread is the staff of life, it is a sad fact that a large proportion of the daughters of the present generation do not know how to make a good loaf of bread. They have not been instructed in the useful art of cookery, so that when they have families of their own they can provide for their tables a well-cooked dinner, prepared with nicety, so that they would not blush to place it before their most esteemed friends.
There has never been an age so noted for dyspeptics as the present, and there was perhaps never before a time when there was a greater scarcity of good cooks.
“Though we boast of modern progress as aloft we proudly soar
Above untutored cannibals whose habits we deplore,
Yet in our daily papers any day you chance to look
You may find this advertisement: ‘Wanted—A Girl to Cook.’”
Good cooking does not consist in the preparation of highly seasoned foods to pamper a perverted appetite, but in cooking with simplicity, variety, and skill natural foods in a palatable and wholesome manner. To assist in this direction is the object of this little work.