Food is one of the necessities but also one of the greatest pleasures. Knowing how to cook a good meal is therefore extremely important for all of us. Maybe you can find some inspiration for tonight's dinner in this cook book by Juliet Corson.
By : Juliet Corson (1841 - 1897)
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This book is intended for the use of those housekeepers and cooks who wish to know how to make the most wholesome and palatable dishes at the least possible cost. In cookery this fact should be remembered above all others; a good cook never wastes. It is her pride to make the most of everything in the shape of food entrusted to her care; and her pleasure to serve it in the most appetizing form. In no other way can she prove her excellence; for poor cooks are always wasteful and extravagant.
Housekeepers can safely make this book a guide for those of their cooks who are willing to learn new and good methods of cooking familiar foods. Lest it should be said that undue preference is given to foreign ways of cooking, the author begs her readers to remember how much of the success of any dish depends upon its taste; if it is well-flavored, and palatably seasoned, the eaters of it do not closely criticise its component parts. It is just there that benefit is derived from European culinary skill; the judicious use of a few inexpensive sweet herbs, and savory sauces, will raise a side dish, made from the cheapest cut of meat, in gustatory excellence far above a badly cooked porterhouse steak, or a large but poorly flavored roast. Because the art of utilizing every part of food is eminently French, the New York Cooking School plan has been to adapt foreign thrift to home kitchen use. To provide enough at each meal; to cook and serve it so as to invite appetite; to make a handsome and agreeable dish out of the materials which the average cook would give away at the door, or throw among the garbage; all are accomplishments that our American wives and daughters will be glad to learn from their European sisters.
The day has passed for regarding cooking as a menial and vulgar labor; and those who give some thought to their daily food usually gain in vigor and cheerfulness. It is a truism that food is concentrated force. The manipulation of a motive power capable of invigorating both body and mind, is an occupation worthy to employ intelligence and skill. In countries where the people depend upon meagre supplies this art is brought to perfection. The pot-au-feu of France and Switzerland, the olla podrida of Spain, the borsch of Poland, the tschi of Russia, the macaroni of Italy, the crowdie of Scotland, all are practical examples of this fact. In no country in the world is there such an abundance of food as in America; all the needful ingredients for making these national dishes, or their equivalents, can be found in the markets of our cities, and most of them are the products of this country. This being true, there is no reason why American cookery should be so comparatively limited—why the question of "what shall we have for dinner to-day?" should be the despair of the inexperienced housekeeper. If in no other land is there such profusion of food, certainly in none is so much wasted from sheer ignorance, and spoiled by bad cooking. In Europe provinces would live upon what towns waste here. The very herbs of the field in the hands of a skilful cook can be transformed into palatable and nutritious viands. The plainest and cheapest materials can be prepared for the table in an appetizing and satisfactory form. Let our readers test this fact by cooking according to the receipt any dish named in the chapter upon "Cheap Dishes without Meat," and the author will stake her culinary reputation that the food so prepared will be both palatable and nourishing.
Many persons regard the practice of serving several dishes at a meal as troublesome and expensive. The first objection may hold good; but the best results in any direction are never gained without trouble. The second is wholly untenable; soup, fish, vegetables, and bread, are all less costly than heavy joints of meat; if hunger can be partly satisfied on them, and it is true that a thick slice of bread and a bowl of soup will content the hungriest stomach, less meat will be required, and consequently less expense incurred. This is an excellent reason why the housewife should not spend the bulk of her market money on a large roast of beef, or a leg of mutton, but should rather divide the amount among the different dishes of soup, fish, a ragout, or stew of some cheap cut of meat, and a few vegetables; and now and then indulge in a plain pudding, or a little fruit for dessert. With judicious marketing and proper cooking, the food of our well-to-do classes might be made far better than two-thirds of that now served on the tables of the wealthy; and the poor might learn that their scrag-end of mutton would furnish them with at least three dishes. To forward in some measure this result, the present collection of Cooking School receipts is offered to the public, with the assurance that every one given has been tested by the author, and is complete in every detail, as economical as care and use can make it, and plain enough for ordinary households. The quantities mentioned in the various receipts are calculated to serve for a family of eight persons, when two or more dishes constitute a dinner, with the addition of soup; of course when only one dish is to form the meal, with bread and vegetables, a larger quantity must be allowed.
Communications from all parts of the country state that the principles of kitchen economy as taught in the New York Cooking School and widely disseminated by the press, have been put into practice in many families, to the great improvement of health and temper; for an illy fed man can neither be strong nor cheerful; the hours spent at table should be full of harmony and content, or the meal will fail to meet the requirements of the body. The question of the hour is "How well can we live, if we are moderately poor?" The author of The Cooking School Manual is doing her best to answer it satisfactorily. She has worked earnestly in a comparatively new field of labor, and she prays that strong hands may unite in the effort to show how excellent a thing it is to make the best and most of the bountiful supply our country's teeming bosom bears at every harvest tide.
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