The Lancaster ledger. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1852-1905, 1854-06-06
We clip the following very sensible re-
marks from one of our English contcmpora-
ries the Mark Lane Express:
Why don't Ladies learn to Cook.

res the Mark Lane Express
Why don't Ladies learn to Cook.
Among the common things to the teaching
ofwhich public attention is strongly direct
ed, it is to be hoped that the art of cookery,
one of the commonest, and yet, apparently,
one of the most difficult and neglected of
all, will not be forgotten. The instruction
of the fcmalu peasantry in this useful ar,
would be as advantageous to them when set.
tied on their heath, as to the middle class
es, in which, before marriage, they Officilte
rs domestic servants. Emigration and Il
bundante of employment have given 20 the
servants at home the upper hand rs COM
pletely rs if they were in Australia. On all
sides we hear the complaints of the difficult
ty in finding, and retaining when found,
cook who can roast n leg of mutton, and
make batter pudding or pea soup. In point
of fact, we have heard of ladies' who have it
in serious contemplation to dispense with
servants altogether rs the least troublesome
alternative.
Without wishing matters carried quite so
far, we are convinced that many of our fair
friends would lose nothing, either in point of
responsibility or happiness, while they
could add at least one third to the effective
incomes of their husbands, if they were to
spend more time in their kitchens, supcrin-
tending the preparation of the family dinner,
instead of contentirg themselves with order
ing it-if, indeed, they condesccnd to do
even that. Some forty ears back, ladies
were driven to shoemaking us fashionable
way of killing time. Why not try a little
cooking! Thanks to the modern stoves,
with their nicely arranged skillets and stew
pans, which science and mechanical skill
have substituted for tho blazing kitchen
hearth of other days; young ladies of the
nineteenth century just passing its prime,
may cook without soiling their fingers or
injuring their compilations. Were it not so
We would not recommend them to cook
We would rather live on bread and cheese
all the days of our lives.
1t will be sid, perhaps, that our notions
with regard to female education and en-
ployment are too antiquatcd-that in these
matters, as in everything else, new era
has dawncd, and the solid course of in
struction now given in colleges for la
dies will be triumphantly appealed. La
dies, however, who posses these solid nc.
,,uirements who, like Lady Jane Grey,
prefer Plato to picnic, will b. least
likely to neglect the economy Of the kitch-
en-. They will thoroughly understand the
dignity of the employment, and call to mind
all the poetry of cooking. To say nothing
of the dinner which Milton describes Eve
as preparing when ION hospitabe thoughts
intent" there are the Homeric banquets, at
which kings literally "kiled their own meat
and at which queens and prnccsScs turned
the spits for the roasting, or drew the water
and chopped the wood for boiling. Cook
ing is classical, and no lady will disdain to
take part in it no has read of these fcasts in
it is the middle and working classes on
whom we urge the importance of the duty.
An ear's daughter can afford to be ignorant
of common things as not to be able to re-
cognize chickens in poultry-yHrd, because
they do not run about with liver urdcr
one wing and \ gizzard under the other,
though our modern poultry shows, it must
be confessed, tend much to dissipate this e.
ror. A knowledge, however, of the art of
cooking is Of moro importance to the wives
Of the Iaboring population than to those OF
the middes classes, because it is the art,
when properly cultivated, Of making little
go greatway. A French army can subs st
in country where an English ono would
starve, and chiefly for the reason that the
French soldiers can cook.