THE BUGBEAR OF AMERICAN COOKERY—MONOTONY It is as strange as it is true that with the supplies that have lately proved sufficient to feed a world to draw upon the chief trouble with American cookery is its monotony. The American cook has a wider variety of foods at his command than any other in the world, yet in the average home how rarely is it that the palate is surprised with a flavor that didn't have its turn on the corresponding day... more...

INTRODUCTION The word "fat" is one of the most interesting in food chemistry. It is the great energy producer. John C. Olsen, A.M., Ph.D., in his book, "Pure Food," states that fats furnish half the total energy obtained by human beings from their food. The three primary, solid cooking fats today are:   There are numbers of substitutes for these, such as butterine, oleomargarine and "lard compounds." The following pages contain a story... more...

Preface. I send this little book out into the world, first, to aid those who, having decided to adopt a bloodless diet, are still asking how they can be nourished without flesh; second, in the hope of gaining something further to protect “the speechless ones” who, having come down through the centuries under “the dominion of man,” have in their eyes the mute, appealing look of the helpless and oppressed. Their eloquent... more...

SALADS AND SANDWICHES SALADS IN THE DIET 1. So much variety exists among salads that it is somewhat difficult to give a comprehensive definition of this class of foods. In general, however, salads may be considered as a dish of green herbs or vegetables, sometimes cooked, and usually chopped or sliced, sometimes mixed with fruit or with cooked and chopped cold meat, fish, etc., and generally served with a dressing. For the most part, salads... more...

I.—UNFERMENTED BREAD. 1. COLD WATER BREAD. 1-1/4 lb. fine wholemeal flour to 3/4 pint water. Put the meal into a basin, add the water gradually, and mix with a clean, cool hand. (Bread, pastry, etc., mixed with a spoon, especially of metal, will not be so light as that mixed with a light cool hand.) Knead lightly for 20 minutes. (A little more flour may be required while kneading, as some brands of meal do not absorb so much water as... more...

PREFACE The following Receipts and Directions are not collected from books, nor interspersed with old women's nostrums; but they are, in very truth, the result of my own LONG EXPERIENCE in trade, founded on chemical principles, which are principles of never-erring nature. Perhaps I had never thought of this Method of communicating my little knowledge, had it not been for many gentlemen in the counties of Gloucester, Hereford, Worcester, &c.... more...

SOUPS. Bouillon Soup. 4 pounds of round of beef cut into dice pieces. Trim off all fatty skin. 4 quarts water; 1 teaspoonful celery seed; 4 large onions; 6 large carrots; bunch of parsley; 6 blades of mace; 16 whole cloves, salt and pepper to taste. Pour on the water, and let it simmer six hours, skimming carefully, for if any grease is allowed to go back into the soup it is impossible to make it clear. Scrape the carrots, stick 4 whole cloves... more...

FOREWORD The manufacture of home devices to be used by women in household work is of comparatively recent development, the growth of the industry has been so rapid that many manufacturers are still groping to establish standards that will meet the new and uncertain conditions under which their product must be used. Dealers in household equipment as well as manufacturers are still uncertain as to what constitutes the selling value of an article,... more...

THE COMPLEAT COOK: Expertly prescribing the most ready wayes, whether Italian, Spanish, or French, for dressing of Flesh and Fish, &c. To make a Posset, the Earle of Arundels Way.. Take a quart of Creame, and a quarter of a Nutmeg in it, then put it on the fire, and let it boyl a little while, and as it is boyling take a Pot or Bason, that you meane to make your Posset in, and put in three spoonfuls of Sack, and some eight of Ale, and... more...

There is positive need of more widespread knowledge of the principles of cookery. Few women know how to cook an egg or boil a potato properly, and the making of the perfect loaf of bread has long been assigned a place among the "lost arts." By many women cooking is considered, at best, a homely art,—a necessary kind of drudgery; and the composition, if not the consumption, of salads and chafing-dish productions has been restricted,... more...