LITERARY NOTICES. 



627 



difficulties, of hundreds of learners of all 

 capacities, doing the work over and over 

 again under the critical direction of intelli- 

 gent, practical teachers, who were bent upon 

 finding out the best method of doing each 

 thing, and the best method of teaching 

 others how to do it. Not a single item ne- 

 cessary to perfect the required process is 

 omitted. The steps are separated, and given 

 in numerical order, so as to enforce atten- 

 tion to one thing at a time, and the right 

 thing at the right time, while the precautions 

 against mistakes are so careful that even 

 the dullest can hardly go wrong. Each re- 

 ceipt in the volume is not only the formula 

 for a dish, but it is also a lesson in a prac- 

 tical process, so that in the preparation of 

 every article of food something is gained 

 toward greater proficiency in the art of 

 cooking well. 



"A few words in regard to the origin 

 of the school in which it was produced will 

 still further illustrate the character of this 

 work. A vigorous movement has been 

 made in England to elevate this branch of 

 domestic economy by establishing schools 

 for training pupils in the art of cookery. 

 These schools have grown immediately out of 

 the need of greater general economy among 

 the working-classes, as it was seen that the 

 high prices of provisions were seriously ag- 

 gravated by not knowing how to make the 

 most of them in their kitchen preparation. 

 The attention of the managers of the South 

 Kensington Museum of Arts in West Lon- 

 don was several years ago drawn to the 

 subject ; and, feeling that something required 

 to be done, they established public lectures 

 on the preparation of food, with platform 

 demonstrations of various culinary opera- 

 tions. But it was quickly found that mere 

 exposition and illustration, though not with- 

 out use, were wholly inadequate to the ob- 

 ject in view ; because a cooking school, to 

 be thorough, must provide for practice. 

 Lecturing, and explaining to pupils, and 

 barely showing them how things are done, 

 are sure to fail, because cookery, like music, 

 can only be learned by actually doing it. 

 As well undertake to teach the piano by 

 talking and exhibiting its capabilities as to 

 teach a person how to make a dish properly 

 by only listening and looking on. Provision 

 had therefore to be made for forming 



classes to do themselves what they at first 

 only saw others dq. 



" But this task- was by no means an easy 

 one. There were no preexisting plans to 

 follow ; qualified teachers and suitable text- 

 books were wanting ; it was an expensive 

 form of education ; the public thought it a 

 doubtful innovation ; and educational au- 

 thorities discouraged it. But the parties 

 interested decided that the time had come 

 for a systematic and persistent effort. They 

 felt their way cautiously, and iu 1874 organ- 

 ized classes for graded courses of practice. 

 The object was to give women the best 

 possible instruction in practical cookery 

 and for this purpose the school was open 

 to all. But, to make its work most largely 

 useful, it was constituted as a normal 

 school for training teachers to go out and 

 establish other cooking-schools in different 

 parts of the country. This has been since 

 done with the most encouraging success, so 

 that there are already a large number of 

 cooking-schools in England connected with 

 the national or common school system. 



"As no cook-book to be found was 

 worth anything to aid the practical instruc- 

 tion proposed, the teachers had to take 

 this matter in hand at the outset. They 

 began by drawing up a careful set of di- 

 rections to be followed by the learners in 

 doing their work. For each lesson in all 

 the grades each pupil was furnished with a 

 printed sheet of these directions, stating 

 the ingredients of each dish to be prepared, 

 the quantities and separate cost of these 

 ingredients, what was to be done first, what 

 next, and so on through the whole series of 

 operations, nothing being assumed as known, 

 and all the minute steps being indicated in 

 the order that was found best. These guides 

 were necessarily imperfect at first, and were 

 subject to constant revision and extension 

 as experience suggested corrections ; in 

 fact, they embodied the progress of the 

 school in the successful attainment of its 

 object. At each new printing the improve- 

 ments that had been made were incorpo- 

 rated, and only after years of trial were these 

 guides to practice at length combined and 

 issued in a book-form. The lessons or re- 

 ceipts of this volume were all slowly elabo- 

 rated in this painstaking manner, and the 

 mode of working proved perfectly success- 



