CHAPTER VIII 



JUST HOW 

 There is a best way of doing everything if it be to boil an egg. — Emerson 



This is the title of a little cookbook which was published 

 in the early seventies. It was the first of many primers of 

 cooking designed for the young housekeeper who was para- 

 lyzed by the elaborate recipes that weighed down the pon- 

 derous volumes of that day. To the inexperienced young 

 cook who did not aspire to such creations as, for instance, 

 the Duke of Portland plum cake, this book proved a real 

 godsend. It condescended to explain how to beat an egg, 

 (there is, it appears, a best way to beat an egg, as well as 

 to boil one) and how to make dip toast. By the time she had 

 " passed her preliminaries " by the aid of this modest volume, 

 the young housekeeper had acquired enough skill and confi- 

 dence to advance by sure and easy steps to higher triumphs 

 in the culinary art. 



This chapter undertakes much the same mission in its own 

 small field, which is to explain in minute detail certain well- 

 tried recipes for raising a few common vegetables. It is true 

 that library shelves are filled to overflowing with manuals on 

 gardening, and every packet of seeds is covered with direc- 

 tions ; but these directions, while plain enough for the experi- 

 enced, have often been the despair of the beginner. For is 

 there a beginner who does not occasionally long to have an old 

 gardener standing at his elbow, reminding him by a friendly 

 word not only what to do, but, — far more to the purpose, — 



