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, — 
