Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 150.djvu/185
time. Then he brought in the soup, which was excellent, especially the bouilli, but we could not eat soup all night when the mutton was waiting. ‘Now then, Banks, bring in the leg of mutton.’ ‘The wawt, zur?’ ‘The leg of mutton; and look sharp, do you hear! I hope you have not spoiled that too.’ ‘Woy, zur, thee’s been ‘atin oo’'t!’ The miserable being had actually boiled down the mutton in the soup, having cut it, large slices off it, to make it fit the pot.”[1]
Of late years there has undoubtedly been an improvement in our middle-class kitchens. The National School of Cookery at South Kensington and Mrs Marshall’s practical lectures on the subject have done much to educate the rising generation of cooks; and while the number of cookery-books published of late years would stock a small library, some of them (and these are by no means the worst) are written by ladies, who have gone far to disprove Dr. Johnson’s opinion of their incapacity in such a matter. “Women,” he assured Boswell, “can spin very well, but they cannot write a good book of cookery. I could write a better book of cookery than has ever yet been written. It should be a book on philosophical principles.” Merely as a matter of curiosity, it is a pity that the great Doctor never found time to carry out his theories, for his tastes in gastronomy were scarcely those of a Brillat Savarin. His favourite delicacy was an over-boiled leg of pork, or a veal-pie stuffed with Plums and sugar; and he was accustomed to give additional flavour to the plum-pudding on his plate by pouring a tureen of lobster sauce over it.
One of the numerous cookery-books, which have recently appeared, deserves a word of praise for the writer’s excellent idea of arranging a series of bills of fare, written in French and English, for every month of the year.[2] They must be a perfect boon to an uninventive housekeeper. The recipes, which follow the menus, are both varied and suggestive, especially in the important matters of fish entrées and quenelles. Every one who has hunted with the Pytchley knows the genial Major L——, and his practical knowledge of all things connected with the art of dining; and it is an open secret, we believe, that he has been assisted by the suggestions and advice of M. Béguinot of St James's Street, formerly Lord Spencer’s chef at Althorp.
But though cookery-books have multiplied and our English cooks have improved, they still have much to learn in the way of economising their materials and varying their bills of fare; and in his admirable little book on ‘Food and Feeding,’ Sir Henry Thompson has shown us how many French dishes are within the capacity of an ordinary cook, who will take the time and trouble to prepare them from a proper recipe. There are those excellent vegetable soups, for instance, croûte au pot and paysanne, so rarely seen on our English tables; then there are the manifold ways in which cold meat may be braised or stewed: a greater use of vegetables, especially of haricots and tomatoes, is strongly recommended, as well as of fish of the second class, such as the dory, sea-bream, basse, and halibut, to