The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-05-17 00:00:00

POPULAR COOKERY.
(From Monday'. Times.)

The chief attraction to the School of Cookery at the
International Exhibition during the last two weeks has
lain outside its spacious kitchen. On the left of the
aisle of stoves hading to that inner fane, with Be
savoury smell and daintily clean cooking vessels, may
be seen an enclosure in which a email tent hie recently
been pitched. So insignificant does this canvass shelter
appear to the British howerholder that be is pretty
sure to compassionate the two German soldiers who are
standing about to be stared at on its being all they, the
soldiers, have lit ween them and the weather during a
campaign. Great is the dismay of the inquirer on
being politely told, in good English, that, on the con-
trary, it is the tent provided by his own Government
for a Coloael in the English Army. This information
is eupplemented by the informa'ion that the German
troops carry no tents at all, but shelter themselves am
best they can under huts made of branches of trees or
in a trench. As it hi not, however, a question of
shelter, but of food, the visitor is obliged to turn his
attention to the [savoury etew simmerivg in a primitive
kind of camp-kettle over a couple of sticks blazing
within the shelter of an oblong trench. Over this hole
• rude frame of branches is supported by cross sticks,
so that the dinners of half • dozen men can be cooked at
the same time. Althongh eseala eoldi-r in the German
Army carries one of these tins—which, by the way, is
very like the "billy" familiar to Australian colonists—
it is usual for two men to cook their rations together in
one vessel. The quantity issued to each soldier appears
but small for a fighting stomach, yet the men them-
selves, who have both been through the whole of
the late war, declare it to be ample. This eatieti.ci
feeling is probably owing to the extreme care with
which the rations are selected, and the nutritive quality
of the handful of pea and oatmeal, rice &a., which
supplement the half-pound of meat. When things are
at the worst in the German commissariat, and the
troopsare most pressed for time, then the pea sausage
is issued—one to every two men. Of this unpromising
looking condiment an excellent soup can be quickly
made, and several times last week the visitors had an
opportunity of tasting the result. But the capacities
of the cocking tin are not confined to soup making. A
neat little handle Ills into a socket in the deep lid, and
when a stick is thrust into this handle, • frying-pan
can be extemporized in a moment. A second fiat divi.
sion in the tin forms a plate, or • small baking dish,
and, in fact, hungry and ingenious man need be at no
loss for utensils with which to cook his dinner when
once he has, following Mrs. Glasse.' advice, "caught
his hare.'

It is only natural that this reflection on what to put,
on A pinch, ilieide these capital tins ehould lead us
within the walla of the kitchen in the Eastern An.
nexe, where Mr. Buckmaster twice a day delivers his
lectures to a densely crowded audience. Indeed, if a
strarger were required to declare what was the most
fashionable pursuit at this moment in London, he
would probably answer " cooking " if he had visited
the International and seen the numbers who were
daily turned away from the doors of the School of
Cookery. In spite of the excellent arrangements of
the Secretary, Mr. E. J. Craigie, it is found impossible
to accommodate all the anxious learners, and the Com-
mittee contemj late opening a School of Practical In.
struction in another part of the building, where on pay.
meat of a smallfee, weld i.be-cooks can be admitted and
permitted to make or mar certain dishes. This is still in
the future, although the preliminary arrangements have
been set on foot. At present we must content our-
selves with learning how pa.atable Australian meat
can be made with judicious under-cooking. The
lecturer frankly confevses that the savoury contents of
these 41b. tins of Antipodean beef and mutton are
best eaten cold, but as there may be cases and circum-
stances In which cold meat is uninviting, he proceeds
to illustrate four or five different modes in which it
can be warmed up. For soup it is perhaps unrivalled
as stock meat, thus triumphantly refuting the careless,
ignorant assertion that the goodness has already been
cooked out of it. A savoury stew and some really ex.
cellent croquets are prepared every morning, and prove
that so long as it be very little cooked the second time,
few hungry people would etay to question whether
their dinner came from Yorkshire or Melbourne.