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IX. — On Cottage Economy and Cookery. Compiled bj French 

 Burke, Esq., from Essajs submitted to the Rojal English 



Agricultural Society. 



On directing their attention to improvement in the condition of 

 our peasantry, it occurred to many Members of the Royal Agri- 

 cultural Society of England, that few objects would tend more to 

 add to the comforts of the labouring population than to furnish 

 them with plain instructions for some better modes of preparing 

 their food, without any increase of expense. To use without 

 waste the food which Providence supplies for the w^ants of man 

 is indeed of the greatest importance to those who have but little to 

 spend ; and nothing so completely disarms the stings of poverty 

 as the means of rendering a scanty pittance capable of producing 

 a comfortable meal. If, therefore, by teaching them a little of 

 simple cookery, it can be occasionally so changed as to make it 

 somewhat more savoury at the same cost, there can be little doubt 

 that it would materially add to their comforts, and thus attach 

 them still more to their homes. For although they consume far 

 more animal food than the foreign peasantry of Europe, they yet 

 do not fare so well ; and that solely by their different mode of 

 preparing their victuals. 



The Society therefore offered a premium, in the course of last 

 year, " for the best directions to enable labourers to prepare 

 wholesome, nutritive, and palatable food, in the most economical 

 and easy manner:" not with any intention to lessen its quantity, 

 but to point out some simple means of rendering it occasionally 

 more pleasant to the palate, and withal more digestible and 

 healthful. Numerous essays were accordingly presented to the 

 Council, and, after careful examination, that written by a female — 

 who describes herself '' as having, during a long life, passed it in 

 a village some miles distant from London, where she has brought 

 up a large family, with due attention to economy, and with con- 

 stant opportunities of witnessing the modes of life of her poorer 

 neighbours" — was deemed entitled to the prize. Some of the 

 other essays, however, containing hints which were thought worthy 

 of attention, portions of them have been made use of in the fol- 

 lowing account, with the consent of the authors. It will be grati- 

 fying to find that these and similar instructions have the effect 

 intended ; but their success must depend in a great measure 

 on the habits of the poor themselves : contentment will give a 

 flavour to the poorest fare, and plenty goes hand-in-hand with 

 frugality. 



It should be observed that the prices herein stated are those of 

 the metropolis. Large deductions must, therefore, in some in- 

 stances be made from them^ so as to meet those current in markets 



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