receipt
is the faithful narrative of actual and repeated experiments, and has
received the most deliberate consideration before it was here presented
to them. It is given in the most circumstantial manner, and not in the
technical and mysterious language former writers on these subjects seem
to have preferred; by which their directions are useless and
unintelligible to all who have not regularly served an apprenticeship at
the stove.

Thus, instead of accurately enumerating the quantities, and explaining
the process of each composition, they order a ladleful of _stock_, a
pint of _consomme_, and a spoonful of _cullis_; as if a private-family
cook had always at hand a soup-kettle full of _stock_, a store of
_consomme_, and the larder of _Albion house_, and the _spoons_ and
_pennyworths_ were the same in all ages.

It will be to very little purpose that I have taken so much pains to
teach how to manage roasts and boils, if a cook cannot or will not make
the several sauces that are usually sent up with them.

The most homely fare may be made relishing, and the most excellent and
independent improved by a well-made sauce;[102-*] as the most perfect
picture may, by being well varnished.

We have, therefore, endeavoured to give the plainest directions how to
produce, with the least trouble and expense[102-+] possible, all the
various compositions the English kitchen affords; and hope to present
such a wholesome and palatable variety as will suit all tastes and all
pockets, so that a cook may give satisfaction in all families. The more
combinations of this sort she is acquainted with, the better she will
comprehend the management of every one of them.

We have rejected some _outlandish farragoes_, from a conviction that
they were by no means adapted to an English palate. If they have been
received into some English books, for the sake of swelling the volume,
we believe they will never be received by an Englishman's stomach,
unless for the reason they were admitted into the cookery book, _i. e._
because he has nothing else to put into it.

However "_les pompeuses bagatelles de la Cuisine Masquee_" may tickle
the fancy of _demi-connoisseurs_, who, leaving the substance to pursue
the shadow, prefer wonderful and whimsical metamorphoses, and things
extravagantly expensive to those which are intrinsically excellent; in
whose mouth mutton can hardly hope for a welcome, unless accompanied by
venison sauce; or a rabbit, any ch