Waar Sut We Eat?—By Edith Fulcher. Thornton Butterworth. Lov on, 1925.
In the present writer's infancy, 'a bit of doggerel used to be quoted to him—it must have come down from the days of Maria Edgworth at least—of which unfortunately only two lines have remained in memory. But "He told me his dreams.
Faikea ud risking still convey, as they were meant to do, an impression of the acme of bad manners and _boresomeness. Certainly a person: who tells you hie "dreams ought to-be strangled. But the world is more honest about leating and drinking nowadays; there is no subject on which everybody can talk so easily and with sach animation; and a cookery book simply irresistible.
The philosophy of food less alluring than, its artistic side. Miss Edith Fulcher, however, concerned strictly with practical aspects of the art, as the following will show from her preface:—
Owing to the acuteness of the serv: problem, the. mistress of the house [obliged to-do more towards the pre-aration of the food, and consequently more of done at home than for imerly, for she has discovered how misch tore wholesome and. delicious cakes ud sweets are when made Kltehen? The housewife same. meals day for something new and different. should then study' the cookery fhations, from which she great benefit, from the'
economy and tw nequl Sew Fe fines. The French and American cooks have' gained the reputation for being the most sconomiealy having the hoppo faculty of using up every" partile of food.
The last maxim, however, leads one into dangerous and. detestable practices; as, for instance, under the heading" "Veal Croquettes™ we read aye of talus up letrarera A. white croquette one of the best
Sauce ts wvusily" used lar Comblastion with the meat.
No doubt an a sort of graveyard cerements, We have nothing to say ayainst croquettes in theory; but in practice they are the" most Toathiome members of the tribe resurrection pie ever invented, except Kromeskies and Hamburg! steak, which they closely resemble, n the Far the habit of sing up leftovers" ix anything} Inet economical: it usually costs a doctor's, and possibly a hospital, Lill as well, The book ix not addressed vegetarians and therefore the lowing may be accepted as an Meat is the chief item of food. Tt cooked ways, such as roast: ing, boiling, frying stewing, sulling, ete. The inferior cute of meat are Usually boiled or stewes Apropos of these inferior cuts, During the war, when necessity imposed one meatless day a week and others when you could only obtain "offal", the writer Just quoted, and about as! edible as Charlie" Chaplin's boot. And yet one is assured that it can made quite pleasant. So one looks through Miss Fulcher's book see what she recommends, but unhappily she does not seem to have heard of it. There are so many American recipes that—one rather suspects the source of—her inspiration, and of course America is far too rich to deign to notice "skirt." This impression as to where Miss Fulcher learnt _her cooking is deepened by directions to making "drip coffee." What on earth is it? Apparently from the directions it is just coffee; and fear no amount of explanation will teach the average cook to take that, unless there is genius among the ingredients.
Entrees are rather a problem in the Far East and one turns eagerly to Miss Fulcher's chapter on this subject, but it is disappointing: the dishes described are far too heavy and greasy. The chapter on puddings contains some useful hints but is open to criticism in one eet: tells you all - about "Aoating islands" except.the one necessary and that' is, throw them out of the window. Like croquettes and Hamburg steaks, they are the stock-in-trade of cheap boarding-houses and self-respecting wife should admit that she had ever heard of them. Alko, the recipe for rice pudding cdntzins -the heresy of raisins, cutmég and eggs. No doubt very] nice, but not rice pudding, which just rice and" milk; with more milk and still more milk: and. even then a little more milk, all stewing for a long time gently; finally eaten' with jam, preferably apricot.
Tu compensation, Miss Fulcher us a splendid chapter on Dut some" of them are attainable. For instance, this from the direction for making Frozen Cheese Salad:—"Cut grapes in tait and remove seeds." Short of having unlimited slave labour to work with, the thing is impossible. In the main Miss Fulcher has supplied a most practical book, and many a housekeeper should, have cause to thank her. The opinion of the master of the hou is less certain.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.