Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1850-08-09


sins in these matters! But her good plain
cook-when damsel is promoted TO wedock,
and owns one--passes unreproached for the
most hcinous offences. Badly seasoned and
i'll issimilated soup; fish, without any fault of
The fshmonger, soft and fabby; meat rapidly
roasted before fierce fres-burnt outside and
raw within poultry rendered by the same pro-
cess tempting to the eye, TIL dissection reveals
red and uncooked Joints These crimes from
their frequency and the ignorance Of the lady
of the house, remain unpunished. Whcrenpon,
b usbands, tired of rh5ir Barmecide feasts-which
dsappoint the taste more because they lave Of
ten promising look 10 the eye-prefer better
fare at their clubs; and escape the Scylla Of
bad digestion, TO be wrecked on the Charybdis
of domestic discord. All this is owing to the
w'e's culinary Ignorance, and TO your Good
Plain Cooks
We do not say that the daughters of the veal
thy and wel.to.do should be submitted TO reg
ular kitchen apprcnticeshps, and taught the de
tails OF cookery, any more than that they should
learn 10 make shoes or TO fit and sew dresses.
But it is desirable that they should acquire prin-
cipleS-such principles as would enable them
to apply prompt correction to the errors of their
hired cooks. 1t is no very bold assertion that
were such knowing and judicious supervision
generally exercised, the stomach diseases under
which half our nation is said 10 groan, would be
materially abated.
Let us take step or two lower in the ladder
of English life, where crcum stances obige the
Good Plain Cook and the wife to be one and
the same person. Many a respectable clerk
and many small farmer, is doomed from one
years end to another TO a wearying dsporton
of cold, dry, uncomfortable dinners. because his
wife's knowledge Of cookery takes no wider
range than that which pertains TO tie roast
ed, boiled, and fried. Thousands OF artisans
and laborers are deprived of half the actual nu-
triment of food, and of all the legitimate pleas
ures Of the table, because their better halves
though good plain cocks in the ordinary accep
tation Of the tern-are in utter darkness as tu
eccnomising, and rendering palatable the daily
sustenarce of their families. IF We could see,
slys writer before qnoltd, Shy the help Of an
Asmodeus what is going on at the dinner-hour
of the humber OF the middle class, what spec
tacle Of discomfort, waste, ill-.emper, and con.
scquent ill.conduct, 1t would be The man
quarrels with his wife because there is nothing
he can eat, and he generally makes up in drink
for the Deficiencies Of the artceoi food. Gin
is the consolation to the spirits and the source
to the banked appetite. There is thus not on
ly the direct waste of food and detrmcnt to
health, but the farther consequent waste of the
health. On the other hand, people who cat
we'll drink moderately the satisfaction Of appe-
tite will relish disI ensing with recourse to
siimnlantS. GooI-humor, too, and good health
follow a good meal, and by good meal we
mean anything, however simple, well dressed
E its way. A rich man may live very eXpen.
siveIy and very ill., and a poor one very irngally
but very well, il it be his good fortune to have
a good cook in his wife Or his servant and
muisteius angel good cook is either in the
one capacity or tie other, not only to those in
humble circumstances, but to many above them
OF the classed served by what are self-proiessed
cooks, which is too frequently an affair of pro-
tessuna purely, aud who are to be distinguish
ed from plain cooks only in this, that they re-
quire larger wages for spelling food, and spoil
much more in quantity, and many other articles
to boot
Great would be the advantage TO the commu-
nifty, if cookery were made branch of female
education. To the poor the gain would be it,
cacuabe.-' Amongst the prizes which the
BountItuls of both sexes are fond of bestowing
in the country we again quote the Examiner,
we should like to see some offered for the best
boiled potato, the best-grled muton-chop, and
the be Cst-seasoncd hocL- -Ioch soup or broth. In
writing of wel-boilyd potato, we are aware
that we shall incur the contempt of many for
attaching importance to thing they suppose
10 be so common but the fact is, that their
contempt arises, az is often the origin of con-
tempt, from their ignorance, there not being
one person in ten Thousand who has ever seen
or tasted that great rarity-a well-boiled pota-
to-
This is scarcely an cXaggeraton. The i'm
portance attached to the point by the highest
gastronomic authorities, is shown by what took
place, some years since, at the meeting of a
Pail Mali Club Committee specially called fol
the selection of cook. The candidates were
an Englishman, from the Albion Tavern, anc
a Frenchman recommended by Ude. The em
nent divine who presided in right of dislin
guished connoisseurship put the first question
TO the candidates. 1t was this - Can yol
boil potato I?
Let us hope that these hints will fructiiy ant
be improved upon. and that the first principles
of cooking will become, in some way, part o
female education. In schools, however, th
will be difficult 1t can only be branch o
household education and until it does 20 be
come, we shall continue to be afflicted will
Good Plain Cooks. Household Words.