ay of flavouring, and the process is complete. To
put it bluntly, it requires at least as much mental application to
roast a fowl as to cut a bodice; but it does not strike the average
Englishwoman in this way, for she will spend hours in thinking and
talking about dressmaking (which is generally as ill done as her
cooking), while she will be reluctant to give ten minutes to the
consideration as to how a luncheon or supper dish shall be prepared. The
English middle classes are most culpably negligent about the food
they eat, and as a consequence they get exactly the sort of cooks they
deserve to get. I do not blame the cooks; if they can get paid for
cooking ill, why should they trouble to learn to cook well?"

"I agree entirely," said Mrs. Wilding. "That saying, 'What I like is
good plain roast and boiled, and none of your foreign kickshaws,' is, as
every one knows, the stock utterance of John Bull on the stage or in
the novel; and, though John Bull is not in the least like his fictitious
presentment, this form of words is largely responsible for the waste and
want of variety in the English kitchen. The plain roast and boiled means
a joint every day, and this arrangement the good plain cook finds an
admirable one for several reasons: it means little trouble, and it means
also lots of scraps and bones and waste pieces. The good plain cook
brings all the forces of obstruction to bear whenever the mistress
suggests made dishes; and, should this suggestion ever be carried out,
she takes care that the achievement shall be of a character not likely
to invite repetition. Not long ago a friend of mine was questioning a
cook as to soups, whereupon the cook answered that she had never been
required to make such things where she had lived; all soups were bought
in tins or bottles, and had simply to be warmed up. Cakes, too,
were outside her repertoire, having always been 'had in' from the
confectioner's, while 'entrys' were in her opinion, and in the opinion
of her various mistresses, 'un'ealthy' and not worth making."

"My experience is that, if a mistress takes an interest in cooking, she
will generally have a fairly efficient cook," said Mrs. Fothergill. "I
agree with Mrs. Sinclair that our English cooks are spoilt by neglect;
and I think it is hard upon them, as a class, that so many inefficient
women should be able to pose as cooks while they are unable to boil a
potato properly."

"And the so-called schools of cookery are