SEPTEMBER 41 



handed way never look at it again. All this is where the 

 eye and the head of the mistress coine in. Without 

 showing it, she must know the peculiarities of her own 

 particular cook, and by gentle flattery lead her back into 

 the right way. As my excuse for a certain vagueness in 

 some of the receipts, I give them as they were given to 

 me, for I did not by any means invent them all. Even 

 when they are mine, I instruct the cook, but do not 

 myself cook. 



Some of my nieces scolded me for not putting the 

 receipt for my bread sauce in my last book, saying they 

 so seldom found it really good elsewhere. It is made in 

 every English kitchen, small and big ; and yet how very 

 rarely is it excellent, as it ought to be, and with what 

 horror is it viewed by foreigners ! 



Bread Sauce. It is very important that the bread 

 should be grated from a tin loaf, and allowed to dry in 

 a paper bag for some time before using it. It is abso- 

 lutely impossible to make good bread sauce with new 

 bread. Cut up an onion in rather large pieces, boil it in 

 milk, pass it through a sieve, or remove the onion. Pour 

 the milk boiling over the crumbs, and add a few pepper- 

 corns. Boil the whole in a china saucepan for about 

 twenty minutes. As the milk is absorbed, add a little 

 more until it is an even mass, neither too moist nor too 

 dry. Remove the pepper-corns before serving, and stir 

 in a large piece of fresh butter. Many people add 

 cream, which spoils it. Cream makes the sauce tasteless 

 and fade. 



The following is a much simpler receipt and suggests 

 a poultice rather more than I quite like; but it is excellent 

 to eat, and useful to know, as it can be carried out in a 

 sick-room or a lodging-house kitchen. Take a break- 

 fastcupful of fresh breadcrumbs, rubbed, not grated ; a 

 breakfastcupful of milk. Cut up into it an onion, and 



