The cook's oracle : containing receipts for plain cookery on the most economical plan for private families; containing also a complete system of cooking for catholic families / being the result of actual experiments instituted in the kitchen of William Kitchiner.

  • William Kitchiner
Date:
1837
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The cook's oracle : containing receipts for plain cookery on the most economical plan for private families; containing also a complete system of cooking for catholic families / being the result of actual experiments instituted in the kitchen of William Kitchiner. 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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    any uncontemplated improvement—is confined to the very few on whom Nature has bestowed a sufficient degree of perfection of the Sense which is to measure it;—the candour to make a fair report of it is still more uncommon,—and the kindness to encourage it cannot often be expected from those whose most vital interest it is to prevent the development of that by which their own importance —perhaps their only means of Existence, may be for ever eclipsed —so, as Pope says, how many are “Condemn'd in Business or in Arts to drudge. Without a rival or without a Judge : All fear,—None aid you,—and Few understand.” Improvements in Agriculture and the Breed of Cattle have been encouraged by Premiums—(see Note under 21, and under 59). Those who have obtained them, have been hailed as Benefactors to Society !—but the Art of making use of these means of amelio- rating Life, and supporting a healthful Existence—Cookery—has been neglected ! ! While the cultivators of the Raw Materials are distinguished and rewarded, the attempt to improve the processes, without which neither Vegetable or Animal substances are fit for the food of Man (astonishing to say), has been ridiculed, as unworthy the attention of a rational Being !! The most useful* Art,—which the Author has chosen to endea- vour to illustrate, because nobody else has—and because he knew not how he could employ some leisure hours more beneficially for Mankind, than to teach them to combine the “ utile” with the “ dulcef and to increase their Pleasures, without impairing their Health, or impoverishing their Fortune,—has been for many years his favourite employment; and “ The Art op Invigorat- ing and Prolonging Life by Food,-]* &c. &c.” and this Work, have insensibly become repositories for whatever Observations he has made which he thought would make us—Live happy, and Live long !! I” The Editor has considered the Art of Cookery, not merely as a mechanical operation, fit only for working Cooks, but as the Analeptic part of the Art of Physic. “ How be9t the fickle fabric to support Of mortal man,—in healthful body how, A healthful mind the longest to maintain.” (Armstrong.) * “ The only test of the utility of Knowledge, is its promoting the Happiness of mankind.”—Dr. Stark on Diet, p. 90. t Published by Whittaker, Treacner, and Co. Ave Maria Lane ; and Cadell and Co., Edinburgh.
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