[Modern cookery, in all its branches / By Eliza Acton].

  • Eliza Acton
Date:
[1884?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: [Modern cookery, in all its branches / By Eliza Acton]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    of my toil. The subjoined passage from the preface of my first edition will explain in what this toil—so completely at variance with all the previous habits of my life, and, therefore, so injurious in its effects—consisted; and prevent the ne- cessity of recapitulating here, in another form, what I have already stated in it. “ Amongst the large number of works on cookery which we have carefully perused, we have never yet met with one which appeared to us either quite intended for, or entirely suited to the need of the totally inexperienced ! none, in fact, which contained the first rudiments of the art, with directions so practical, clear, and simple, as to be at once understood, and easily followed, by those who had no previous knowledge of the subject. This deficiency, we have en- deavoured in the present volume to supply, by such thoroughly explicit and minute instructions as may, we trust, be readily comprehended and carried out by any class of learners; our receipts, moreover, with a few trifling exceptions which are scrupulously specified, are confined to such as may be perfectly depended on, from having been proved beneath our own roof and under our own personal inspection. We have trusted nothing to others; but having desired sincerely to render the work one of general usefulness, we have spared neither cost nor labour to make it so, as the very plan on which it has been written must of itself, we think, evidently prove. It contains some novel features, calculated, we hope, not only to facilitate the labours of the kitchen, but to be of service likewise to those by whom they are directed. The principal of these is the summary appended to the receipts, of the different ingredients which they contain, with the exact proportion of each, and the precise time required to dress the whole. This shows at a glance what articles have to be prepared beforehand, and the hour at which they must be ready; while it affords great facility as well, for an estimate of the expense attending them. The additional space occupied by this closeness of detail has necessarily prevented the admission of so great a variety of receipts as the book might otherwise have comprised; but a limited number, thus
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