Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1850-07-05
Good plain Cook,

compromisingly tight hand over their milliners and
ladies' maids They can tell to thread when a
founce is too narrow tuck too deep. They are
taught to shade what colors suit their respective
complexions and to hair how their couture ought
to be arranged. Woe unto the seamstress or hand
maiden who sins in these matters! But her good
plain cook when damsel is promoted to wedlock,
and owns one-passes unreproached for the most
helnous offences Badly seasoned and i'll assimlated
soup; fish, without any fault of the ishmonger soft
and habby; meat rapidly roasted before fierce fires
burnt outside and raw within; poultry rend~ved by
the same process tempting to the eye, till di lection
reveals red and uncooked joints These crimes, from
their frequency and the ignorance of " the lady of
the house." remain UNPUBLISHED. Whereupon, hus-
bands, tired of their Barmecide feasts-whch disap-
point the taste because they have often pro-
missing look to the eye-prefer better fare at their
clubs and escape the Scyla of bad digestion to be
wrecked on the Charybdis of domestic discord. All
this is owing to the wifes culinary ignorance and to
your Good Plain Cooks
We do not say that the daughters of the wealthy
and weltodo should be submitted to regular kitch-
apprenticeshps and taught the details of cooke
ry, any more than that they should learn to make
shoes to fit and sew dresses But it is desirable
that they should acquire princpleS-such princp
as would enable them to apply prompt correction to
the errors of their hired cooks 1t is very bold
sertion that were such knowing and udicious SUI
pervsion generally exercised the stomach diseases,
under which half nation is said to groan, would
be materially abated.
Let us take a step or two lower in the ladder of
English life where circumstances oblige the Good
Plain Cook and the wife to be and the same per-
son. Many respectable clerk, and many small
farmer, is doomed from years end to another to
wearying dsproportion of cold, dry, uncomfortable
dinners, because his wife's knowledge of cookery
takes wider range than that which pertains to the
roasted boiled, and fried. Thousands of artisans
and laborers deprived of half the actual nutri-
ment of food and of all the legitimate pleasures of
the table, because their better halves-though good
plain cooks in the ordinary acceptation of the term
are in utter darkness as to economising and rem
derng palatable the daily sustenance of their ami-
lies. If we could see," says writer before quoted
:by the help of an Asmodeus what is going on at the
dinner hour of the humber of the middle class what
spectacle Of discomfort waste, ill-temper and con-
sequent ill-conduct it would be! The man quarrels
with his wife because there is nothing he can eat
and he generally makes up in drink for the defcen-
cies in the article of food Gin is the consolation to
the spirits and the to the banked appetite
There is thus not only the direct waste of food and
detrment to health but the farther consequent waste
of the of spirits with its injury to the habits and
the health. On the other hand people who eat we'll,
drink moderately; the satisfaction of appetite with
relish dispensing with to stimulants Good
humor, too, and good health follow good meal and
by good meal we mean anything, however simple,
we'll dressed in it's way. A rich man may live very
expensiyely and very ILL., and poor man very fru-
gally but very WE'LL if be his good fortune to have
good cook in his wife his servant and minis
the one CttDac1-
ty or the other not only to those in humble circum-
Stances but to many above them of the class served
by what seftermed protested cooks which is too
frequently an affair of profession purely and who
are to be distinguished from plain cooks only in this
that they require larger wages for spelling food and
spoil much more in quantity, and many other arti-
cles to boot.
Great would be the advantage to the community
if cookery made branch of female education.
To the poor, the gain would be incalculable GA
+bo1 fhoR of ho4h
are fond of besowing in the country we quote the
Examiner, 1--WE should like to see some offered for
the best boiled potato the best grlled mutton chop
and the best seasoned hotch-potch soup broth In
writing of Well-boiled potato aware that
we shall incur the contempt of many for attaching
Importance to thing they suppose to be so common
but the fact is that their contempt arises is often
the origin of contempt from their ignorance, there
not being one person in ten thousand who has ever
seen and tasted that great rarity-a welboiled po-
tato.n
This is scarcely an exaggeration. The Importance
attached to the point by the highest gastronomic au-
thorities, is shown by what took place, years
since, at the meeting of Pail Mall Club Committee
specially called for the selection ola cook. The
didates were an Englishman, from the Albion Tav-
ern, and Frenchman recommended by Ude. The
eminent divine who presided in right of distinguish
ed connoisseurshp put the first question to the cand
dates 1t was this &c Can you boil potato ~
Let us hope that these hints will fructify and be
ing will become, in way, part of female edu-
cation. In schools, however, this will be difficult.
1t only be branch of household education and
until it does become, shall continue to be Attic
ted with Good Plain oks.-Household Words.
A Bait.
Sammy Higgins was wont to visit the widow Mug
gins at sundry times and oft-albeit he slow at
making point. The widow right glad to re-
ceive the Sammy, but nevertheless was sorely
displeased at his hardness in making known his de-
sres. Now the man Sammy wot not of the widow S
anxietes, nor had he set his whole heart upon the
woman, but he loved right we'll to sit and smoke his
pipe beside the widow. One evening" after a long
absence, Sammy hed himself to the widows wherea-
bouts but he crossed the threshold of her domcl
he was amazed beyond measure, for 10 and behold
the odor of burnt tobacco the Virginia plant,
saluted his nostrils whereupon, the man Sammy did
the weed which did fill her apartment. Then did
the cunning woman open her mouth and thus make
speech 81 was weary, my love- in waiting for thy
sweet company, with which whilom thou vert wont
to bless me withal so anon, in order to remind me
of myself didst procure the fragrant weed, and,
laying it straghtway upon the GOALS it did forthwith
send out its sweet smelling to gladden. my heart
wtha teaching me to think of thee!" AS as
the widow had spoken these words Sammy Higgins
did fly into the widow Muggins's open and willing
arms: he did forthwith make avowal which was
most graciously received, and, ere the month was
wasted, the twain, by the aid of Parson Hummins:
were made one flesh CYMoN.
| RAvEI AND THE DANDY.-M. Antoine Ravel, the
successor of Gabriel and his close rival in panto-
mine is the hero of capital story in the Boston
Post. He was in the gymnasium one day. it seems
when one of the Boston bloods entered and took him