PREFACE.

AFTER reading several books on French Cookery, it struck me that none of them were appropriate to the class which most wanted them-I mean the class rich enough to have good dinners, and still which cannot afford to keep a chef.

Even Monsieur Soyer's famous works are not fit for the class I speak of: his cheap book is very well for working people, and his "Gastronomic Regenerator' may be useful to professional cooks, but it is altogether impracticable in a modest household. Without mentioning his "Celestial and Terrestrial Cream of Great Britain," in which he recommends you to deposit a smile of the Duchess of Sutherland, a lesson from the Duchess of Northumberland, etc. with the Beams of the Aurora Borealis and an

eruption of Mount Vesuvius, it is still costly enough to use sixteen pounds of meat and no end of vegetables to make a few pints of broth. The natural effect of such works as the "Gastronomic Regenerator" is to make everybody believe that French cookery is so extravagant that only the wealthiest people can ever afford to employ it. It is not so; there exists in France, as well as anywhere else, a middle class, and I assure the reader that they want food and that they like it to be good. I shall therefore endeavour to give, in this volume, the recipes used in the kitchens of people who live well and have only one cook.

My intention is to write for ladies who wish either to be able to point out to their cooks the defects they find in their ways of cooking, and to give them the means of improving, or for ladies who would undertake occasionally to prepare some dishes requiring either more care or more intelligence than a common cook could give.

This book is practical, and therefore avoids giving recipes requiring stores of ready sauces: if you open Monsieur Soyer's book you constantly see, "have

Put two

ready Aspic sauce, Béchamelle sauce, etc. spoonfuls of velouté, six of consommé, three of Espagnole;" then again, "essence of shrimps, of mushrooms, of truffles, etc."

The reader will find some explanations about the culinary apparatus used in France, and I hope there will be no difficulty in understanding their utility.

The demand for French wines has become so general in England that I have devoted a few pages to those of Burgundy. Having lived many years in the centre of the richest Burgundy wine district, I am better qualified to speak about Burgundy than Bordeaux. My general directions for the care of wines will, however, be found applicable to all the wines of France. I shall also point out the time when each wine ought to be served at a well-regulated dinner.

Ladies don't like to cook, thinking that it might spoil the beauty of their hands, but this may be easily avoided; if they would take the precaution not to touch peeled vegetables nor the handle of a pan without gloves, there would not be any difference between their hands and those of the idlest ladies of

their acquaintance. The gloves used in the kitchen. should be thick, so as to prevent the heat of the handle from browning and thickening the skin of the fingers; if by accident this should happen, the use of pumice-stone and lemon would leave the skin as delicate and white and the nails as transparent and rosy as ever.

It is, moreover, the duty of a lady to look sharply after the cook, to prevent the use of dangerous seasoning; she alone knows what suits her children's, her husband's constitution, and upon her knowledge of cookery the health of many is dependent.

FRENCH COOKERY

FOR ENGLISH HOUSEHOLDS.

CHAPTER I.

COOKING APPARATUS, PANS, ETC.

IN England the use of coals is general, and the cooking apparatus is not unlike design No. 1; it is smaller or larger, but the principle on which it is made is always the same. It is much better for cooking than an open fire, from which the ashes rise into the pans and very often spoil a white sauce. An open fire is also extremely disagreeable for another reason, its heat burns the face and hands, and it is impossible for a lady to show herself after standing for five minutes before such a fire; besides, the grate, being black, dirties everything it touches. I infinitely prefer our French charcoal apparatus, No. 2. It is built of glazed tiles, and may be cleaned in a minute with a wet sponge or a wet towel; there are as many separate fires as holes, and by means of doors that shut or open at will, you may moderate or increase each fire. It is possible to cook at once as many dishes as there are holes, and a lady may stand in front and stir

B