THE GElfESEE FARMER. 



191 



WHY DON'T THE LADIES LEARN TO 

 COOK ? 



Among the coraraou things to the teaching of 

 which public atteiitiou is now so strongly directed, it 

 is to be hoped that the art of cookery — one of the 

 commonest, and yet, apparently, one of the most dif- 

 ficult and neglected of all — will not be forgotten. 

 The instruction of the female peasantry in this useful 

 art would be as advantageous to themselves when set- 

 tled on their own hearths as to the middle classes, in 

 which before marriage they ofBciate as domestic ser- 

 vants. Emigration and abundance of employment 

 have given to the servants at home the upper hand, 

 as completely as if they were in Australia. On all 

 sides we hear complaints of the difficulty of finding, 

 and of retaining when found, a cook who can roast a 

 leg of mutton, and make batter-pudding or pea-soup. 

 In point of fact, we have heard of ladies who have it 

 in serious contemplation to dispense with servants al- 

 together, as the least troublesome alternative. With- 

 out wishing matters carried quite so far, we are con- 

 vinced that many of our fair friends would lose noth- 

 ing, either in point of respectability or happiness, 

 while they could add at least one-third to the effect- 

 ive incomes of their husbands, if they were to spend 

 a little more time in their kitchens, superintending the 

 prejjaratiou of the family dinner, instead of content- 

 ing themselves with ordering it — if, indeed, they con- 

 descend to do even that. Some forty years back la- 

 dies were driven to shoemaking as a fashionable way 

 of killing time. Why not try a little cooking? 

 Thanks to the modern stoves, with their nicely ar- 

 ranged skillets and stewpans, which science and me- 

 chanical skill have substituted for the blazing kitchen 

 hearth of other days, young ladies of the 19th centu- 

 ry, just passing its prime, may cook without soiling 

 their fingers or injuring their complexions. Were 

 it not so, we would not recommend them to cook. 

 We would rather iive on bread and cheese all the 

 days of our lives. 



It will be said, perhaps, that om* notior.s with re- 

 gard to female education and employment are too an- 

 tiquated — that in these matters, as in everything 

 else, a new era has dawned, and the solid course of 

 instruction now given in colleges for ladies will be tri- 

 umphantly appealed to. Ladies, however, who pos- 

 sess these solid acquirements — who, like Lady Jaxe 

 Grf-y, prefer Plato to a pic-nic — will be least likely 

 to neglect the economy of the kitchen. They will 

 throughly understand the dignity of the employment 

 and call to mind all the poetry of cooking. To say 

 nothing of the dinner which Milton describes Eve 

 as preparing when " on hospitable thoughts intent," 

 there are the Homeric banquets, at which kings lit- 

 erally " killed their o\vn meat," and at which queens 

 and princesses turned the spit for the roasting, or drew 

 tlie water and chopped wood for the boiling. Cook- 

 ing is classical, and no lady will disdain to take part 

 in it who has read of these feasts in the original 

 Greek. Let it be observed that it is the middle and 

 working classes on whom we wish to urge the impor- 

 tance of the study. An earl's daughter can afford to 



be so ignorant of common things as not to be able to 

 recognize chickens in a poultry yard, because they do 

 not run about with a liver under one wing and a giz- 

 zard under the other, though our modern poultry 

 shows, it must be confessed, will tend much to dissi- 

 pate this error. A knowledge, however, of the art of 

 cooking is of more importance to the wives of the 

 laboring population than to those of the middle class- 

 es, because it is the art, when properly cultivated, of 

 making a little go a great ways. A French army 

 can subsist in a country where an English one would 

 starve, and chiefly for this reason — that the French 

 soldier can cook. — Mark-lane Express. 



USEFUL HINTS. 



Metal Kettles and other Vessels. — The crust 

 on boilers and kettles arises from the hardness of the 

 water boiled in them. Its formation may be prevent- 

 ed by keeping in the vessel a marble, or a potato tied 

 in a piece of linen. 



Tin-plate vessels are cleanly and convenient; but, 

 unless carefully dried after washing, they will soon rust 

 in holes. 



Iron coal-scoops are liable to rust from the damp 

 of the coals. 



If cold water be thrown on cast-iron when hot (as 

 the back of a grate), it will crack. Cast-iron articles 

 are lirittle, and cannot be repaired, 



The tinning of copper-saucepans should be kept 

 perfect, clean, and dry ; in which case they may be 

 used with safety. 



Co]3per pans, if put away damp, will become 

 coated with poisonous crust, or verdigris, as will also 

 a boiling-copper, if left wet. When used for cook- 

 ing, and not properly cleaned, copper vessels have oc- 

 casioned death to persons partaking of soup which 

 had beed warmed in a pan infected with verdigris. 



Untinned copper or brass vessels are at all times 

 dangerous; it is absurd to suppose that if the copper 

 or brass pan be scoured bright and clean there is lit- 

 tle or no danger, for this makes but a trifling differ- 

 ence; such vessels for culinary purposes ought to be 

 banished forever from the kitchen. 



A polished silver or brass tea-urn will keep the 

 water hotter than one of a dull brown color, such as 

 is most commonly used. The more of the surface of 

 a kettle that is polished, the sooner will water boil in 

 it, as the part coated with soot gives off rather than 

 retains heat. 



A polished metal tea-pot is preferable to one of 

 earthen-ware; because the earthen pot retains the 

 heat only one-eigth of the time that a silver or pol- 

 ished metal pot will: consequently the latter will best 

 draw the tea. 



A German saucepan is best adapted for boiling 

 milk; this is a saucepan glazed with white earthen- 

 ware, instead of being tinned in the usual manner; 

 the glaze prevents the tendency to burn which it is 

 well known milk possesses. 



A stewpan made as the German saucepan, is pref- 

 erable to a metal preserving pan; simply washing 

 keeps it sweet and clean, and neither color nor flavor 

 can by any chance be communicated to the article 

 boiled ip it 



