nd when once a notion of
this sort shall have found a lodgment in an Englishman's brain, the task
of removing it will be a hard one. Not for a moment is it suggested
that Englishmen or any one else should cease to recognise the sovereign
merits of French cookery; all that is entreated is toleration, and
perchance approval, of cookery of other schools. But the favourable
consideration of any plea of this sort is hindered by the fact that the
vast majority of Englishmen when they go abroad find no other school
of cookery by the testing of which they may form a comparison. This
universal prevalence of French cookery may be held to be a proof of
its supreme excellence--that it is first, and the rest nowhere; but the
victory is not so complete as it seems, and the facts would bring grief
and humiliation rather than patriotic pride to the heart of a Frenchman
like Brillat-Savarin. For the cookery we meet in the hotels of the great
European cities, though it may be based on French traditions, is not the
genuine thing, but a bastard, cosmopolitan growth, the same everywhere,
and generally vapid and uninteresting. French cookery of the grand
school suffers by being associated with such commonplace achievements.
It is noted in the following pages how rarely English people on their
travels penetrate where true Italian cookery may be tasted, wherefore it
has seemed worth while to place within the reach of English housewives
some Italian recipes which are especially fitted for the presentation of
English fare to English palates under a different and not unappetising
guise. Most of them will be found simple and inexpensive, and special
care has been taken to include those recipes which enable the less
esteemed portions of meat and the cheaper vegetables and fish to be
treated more elaborately than they have hitherto been treated by English
cooks.

The author wishes to tender her acknowledgments to her husband for
certain suggestions and emendations made in the revision of the
introduction, and for his courage in dining, "greatly daring," off many
of the dishes. He still lives and thrives. Also to Mrs. Mitchell, her
cook, for the interest and enthusiasm she has shown in the work, for her
valuable advice, and for the care taken in testing the recipes.

Contents

Prologue

Part I

The First Day
The Second Day.
The Third Day.
The Fourth Day
The Fifth Day.
The Sixth Day.
The