The cook and housewife's manual : a practical system of modern domestic cookery and family management.

  • Johnstone, C. I. (Christian Isobel), 1781-1857.
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The cook and housewife's manual : a practical system of modern domestic cookery and family management. 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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    ORIGINAL PREFACE. It would be unnecessary to introduce this Volume, written on a subject of universal interest and acknowledged utility, with any prefatory remarks whatever, were it not conceived, that the novel attempt of endeavouring to conciliate the lovers of what is called light reading,” and to gain their attention to what they may consider a vulgar and unimportant art, might alarm those graver and more prudent persons, who think, perhaps justly, the subject discussed of that earnest nature which accords ill with any thing fanciful or discursive; and who may thence con- clude the petty details and display of internal machinery in the Work, idle, if not impertinent and out of place. These weighty objections can only be met by the assurance, that the main busi- ness of this Manual has, in no respect whatever, suffered from an attempt to separate the culinary art from its fopperies and technicalities; and to render that branch of economy, in which the comfort and respectability of domestic life is so much in- volved, more attractive to the young housekeeper. It has accordingly been the object to make this Volume com- prehend every thing to which the mistress of any family, in the numerous gradations of middle life, needs to refer, either for information, or to refresh her recollections. The useful receipts are therefore as numerous as in any work of the kind. Many of them have never yet appeared in print, though known in good practice, being the result of observation in various quarters; and, with few exceptions, they have all stood the test of experiment among skilful cooks and intelligent mistresses of families, and been approved for the judicious combination of what is elegant mu healthful, economical, and agreeable to tbe palate. e best private sources of culinary knowledge have been ap- ^ T? 1 ^ esteemed modern works on Cookery, French and English, diligently compared and consulted, and every hint las been adopted which promised either to increase the mass of information or the practical utility of the volume—whether economical or cuhnary. “*»ct proportion as the principles of the science of /mod Imng are better understood, the practice of Cookery is becoming more rational; and, as it is the design of this receinti the diffusion of useful knowledge, in our receipts health and genuine economy have in no instance been