The ladies' assistant for regulating and supplying her table : being a complete system of cookery, containing one hundred and fifty select bills of fare, properly disposed for family dinners ... with bills of fare for suppers ... and several desserts: including the fullest and choicest receipts of various kinds ... / originally published from the manuscript collection of Mrs. Charlotte Mason.

  • Mason, Charlotte.
Date:
1786
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The ladies' assistant for regulating and supplying her table : being a complete system of cookery, containing one hundred and fifty select bills of fare, properly disposed for family dinners ... with bills of fare for suppers ... and several desserts: including the fullest and choicest receipts of various kinds ... / originally published from the manuscript collection of Mrs. Charlotte Mason. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    INTRODUCTION To die First Edition. gfll ERE having been a great Number of Publications concern - ^ ing the Art of Cookery, it may perhaps be thought unneceffary to produce another book on the fubjeCi—yet, 1 trujl that, upon exami- nation, this ivork will appear of more real utility than may be at frjl imagined. There are many books of receipts, but I have never met with one that contained any infiruCiions for Regulating a Table.—The great inconvenience, I experienced, on commencing mifirefs of a family, from the vaant of fuch affiance, has find prompted me to attempt a fet of bills of fare, ivhich, I flatter my- felf, will be of great ufe to ladies in general, but particularly to the younger part of my fex, who, on their entering into life, may not have thofe advantages which arife from infiruCtion or from prac- tice, and who are fometimes at a lofs how to conduct their table with that decency and propriety, ivhich are much to be defined, not only in making dinners for company, but in a family way likewife. It is certain, that a woman never appears to greater advantage than at the head of a Well-Regulated Table; whichJhould be ahvays fo fupplied\ that the unexpected viflt of a friend, or even of a fir anger, Jhould occafion no inconvenience or confufion. If a dinner be fmalL and fimple, the manner of ferving it will make it appear to great advantage ; and, I think, 1 may vefiture to fay, that with the af- fifiance of the bills of fare herein inferted, and with the variety that every perfon of moderate tafie will be able to introduce, a table may be fo conducted as to be of credit to the tafie and management of the mifirefs. In regard to the Receipts—They are feleCted with great care from the manufcripts of an experienced houfekeeper-, they are not expenfive, yet, I may with certainty affirm, they will prove excellent in their kind, if followed with exaCtnefs and attention ; and I have given neceffary inflrudions for a fervant in a plain way, that, by applica- tion, if Jhe has a common genius and a go od palate, Jhe may be made capable of any cook's place. I Jhall only add, to recommend this publication, my hope that the pains taken will be found to anfwer the end propofed. a 3 adver.