Читать книгу A Friend in the Kitchen; Or, What to Cook and How to Cook It онлайн

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Some may say they have no natural ability to cook; but any one having ordinary intelligence, with a little effort, care, and proper directions, can learn to cook well. And surely the health of the family ought to be of sufficient importance to inspire every mother with ambition to learn how to cook.

Mothers should also teach their daughters the mysteries of good cooking. They should show them that this is an essential part of their education,—more essential than the study of music, fancy work, the dead languages, or the sciences. The knowledge of these latter without the knowledge of how to care for the body and provide it with suitable nourishment, is of little worth. Meredith hit upon a great truth when he said:—

“We may live without music, poetry, and art;

We may live without conscience, and live without heart,

We may live without friends; we may live without books;

But civilized man can not live without cooks.”

No young woman should contemplate marriage until she has first acquired a practical knowledge of simple cookery, for this is essential, whether she expects to do the cooking herself, or supervise the maid. Although bread is the staff of life, it is a sad fact that a large proportion of the daughters of the present generation do not know how to make a good loaf of bread. They have not been instructed in the useful art of cookery, so that when they have families of their own they can provide for their tables a well-cooked dinner, prepared with nicety, so that they would not blush to place it before their most esteemed friends.